Eighteen of the world’s best golf pros made some amazing shots and helped raise money for education at this year’s Chevron World Challenge. The PGA-co-sponsored golf tournament, held December 2 - 5 in Thousand Oaks, Calif., showcased world-class golf and raised funds for several new nonprofit partners that provide innovative education solutions for California students in underserved communities.
Graeme McDowell won the tournament in a highly publicized sudden death playoff with Tiger Woods. He wasn’t the only winner -- benefits from the tournament will be divided among Chevron’s five nonprofit partners to fund education programs. Since 1998, the tournament has raised more than $20 million to support education, impacting the lives of tens of thousands of students.
Chevron has been proud of the tournament's ongoing support of the Tiger Woods Foundation, and this year took its support to the next level. Because Chevron believes that there is no single solution to California’s education challenges, and new approaches are needed to expand learning in the key subjects of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), the field of tournament nonprofit partners was expanded this year with the addition of a new “foursome” of top nonprofits, each tackling a different education-related issue.
“Every student deserves the opportunity to develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills they are going to need to be successful in today’s high-tech, high-skill global economy. We are proud to partner with Chevron and the Chevron World Challenge in creating the next generation of innovators.”
— John Lock, CEO of Project Lead the Way
To further integrate the nonprofit partner benefits into the tournament itself, Chevron also this year introduced "Eagles for Education," a new program which made an additional donation to the nonprofit partners for every eagle scored during tournament play. The donation amount increased each day, starting on Thursday at $15,000, jumping to $25,000 on Friday, doubling to $50,000 on Saturday, and doubling again to $100,000 for the final day of the tournament on Sunday. A total of 13 eagles and one double eagle were scored, resulting in an additional $530,000 for the nonprofit partners.
“We recognize that California will never maintain its leadership without a world-class education system. Our company, too, cannot maintain its leadership without a world-class, well-educated work force,” said Russ Yarrow, general manager of California corporate affairs for Chevron. “We’re proud to support these innovative educational organizations through the Chevron World Challenge.”