Grace High School student to hold golf tournament for senior project, raise funds for team

Even growing up around a golf family, Karlie Christensen disliked golf and thought it was boring.

Fast-forward to now and the incoming senior at Grace High School is putting on the school's first annual golf tournament on Aug. 3.

She has been on the golf team ever since her freshman year.

"Growing up, I didn't like golf. It wasn't until I was a freshman that my dad told me that I should try it at least one tournament," Christensen said. "I did and ended up falling in love with it. I've been playing ever since."

The golf tournament will also serve as Christensen's senior project and a fundraiser for the Grace High School golf team.

The first annual Grace High School Golf Tournament will be held at the Caribou Highlands Golf Course on Aug. 3 starting at 9 a.m. It will be a four-person scramble; each person can play 18 holes of golf for $50 or $200 for each four-person team.

The fundraiser/tournament will also include a raffle for prizes, hole in one prizes and good healthy competition on the golf course.

Christensen explained her decision to host this tournament as her senior project.

"I wanted to do something where I could help my golf team," she said. "Also, I feel like our community needs a lot more activity and a golf tournament would be perfect. I know many people in Grace who like golf, so I just thought it would be a good idea."

A tournament and fundraiser like this takes weeks of calling, planning, organizing and a lot of little but important steps. After weeks of hard work, Christensen and the Grace community will see the tournament come to fruition on Aug. 3.

"It's a lot of planning," Christensen said. "You have to figure out what type of tournament because there are so many. I thought a four-person scramble would be different. You also want people to know about it. So I had to make posters online to let people know. There's a lot of little details that go into each little thing to prepare for this tournament."

Christensen is looking forward to fulfilling her senior project requirement with the tournament as well as raising as much money as possible for the Grace High School golf team.

"I'm trying to raise as much (money) as I can because anything helps at this point," she said. "I don't have real expectations for it, but I'm trying to figure it out and excited how it will turn out."