Golf Classic Tournament will support Winter Park Public Library

Ready to play some golf while supporting the local library?

The Winter Park Public Library will be hosting its inaugural Golf Classic Tournament Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Winter Park Country Club, giving local golfers a chance to have fun while supporting lifelong learning.

Funds from the tournament will benefit a variety of programs and educational resources at the library.

“This is our first year, it’s our inaugural event — we’re really excited to be partnering with the city,” said Kristin LaFleur, director of development at the Winter Park Public Library. “We’re looking for new ways to connect with members of the community and with folks who wanted to learn more about the library and to really showcase what we do. We thought a golf tournament was something totally different that we hadn’t done before and a great way to just reach out to a whole new population of folks.”

Golfers will be able to enjoy a golf course that was recently renovated in 2016. The golf course designers behind the  newly reconfigured course — Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns — will be at the tournament to interact with golfers and talk about the course.

Author Anthony Pioppi, who wrote “The Finest Nines: The Best Nine-Hole Golf Courses in North America,” will also be on hand to sign copies of his new book, which comes out on Tuesday, Feb. 6, and features the Winter Park Country Club golf course.

After the tournament, there will be a biergarten from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. with live music.

Players are asked to be there at the course at 11:30 a.m. so everyone has time to register and get to the right place, LaFleur said.

Because the library is a private/public partnership of the city, fundraising is critical. It receives less than 50% of its funding from the city, LaFleur said.

“We have a substantial goal that we have to meet for our operating expenses and to keep providing our core services, but (also) all our educational programing, early literacy programming and we have a lot of STEM programs for kids,” LaFleur said. “We’re hoping this event will help us make a significant dent in that goal for ourselves.”

Golfers hopefully will walk away having learned about everything the library has to offer, from teaching children how to read to helping seniors with technology, LaFleur said.

“It’s a place in our community that you can use throughout your entire lifetime,” LaFleur said. “We all are focused on what’s on our screen and we have a very curated view of our world sometimes and I think libraries can really fill this void of a place where people can come together and discuss ideas and get an appreciation for what other people think.”

She said she hopes to see the event held ever year moving forward.

“It’s a fun event,” LaFleur said. “It’s going to be a nice day on the course.”