It was a perfect day for golf and even better day for raising school funds at the 21st annual Packer Classic Golf Tournament at the Austin Country Club Monday.

The tournament, which is held by the Austin Public Education Foundation, gave golfers a chance to get out on the greens and raise funds for requested grants from Austin Public Schools. Austin High School superintendent David Krenz was among the golfers in the field and he said the event is a big one for schools.

“It’s really good when the community comes together and to have an organization that specifically is there to support and to benefit all of the work that our teachers do,” Krenz said. “Every dollar that they raise goes into scholarships for students, or for supplies and opportunities for our students. That really is critical. It really helps.”

The Packer Classic usually raises around $25,000 to $35,000 per year, according to Foundation treasurer Tom Kalpperich. In 2017, the Classic had one of its best years as it brought in approximately $43,000. That money went to 32 different grants requested from Austin Public Schools, ranging from books to workshop costs.

“The foundation gives out grants to teachers for different things that they can’t get funded through the district,” Klapperich said. “They write the grants and we fill them out. We have a lot of business members and we kind of rely on our sponsors to make this happen.”

While there were challenges and scores were kept, most of the golfers were on hand to have fun.

“I used to golf a lot,” Krenz said. “This was my first time out this year. It’s a nice opportunity to get out, enjoy the nice weather and meet and talk to people.”