Wisconsin golf club apologizes for 9/11-themed discount

A Wisconsin golf course's promotion, meant to "commemorate" 9/11, drew a strong backlash. (Flickr/Josh Orton)

A golf club in Wisconsin issued an apology Monday night after it ran an advertisement for a 9/11 themed discount promotion earlier in the day in the Wisconsin State Journal. The ad offered nine holes of golf for $9.11 as a way to "commemorate" Wednesday's 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Tumbledown Trails Golf Course in Verona, Wisc., took to Facebook Monday night to apologize to anyone offended by the advertisement and pledged to donate a portion of any money made from the promotion to the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.

"We would first like to apologize to everyone that we have upset or feels we have disrespected in anyway. By no means did we mean to do this."

The discount reportedly is not new this year. According to a report Tuesday from Golf.com, the club's part-owner, Mark Watts, said the 9/11 themed discount began three years ago but that it was only this year that the club received a backlash. The response has even included death threats to the club's employees. Club officials said they are considering keeping the course closed on Wednesday out of concern for people's safety, adding that the sheriff's department is on site at the clubhouse.

Watts said the club was simply trying to find a "unique way to keep this horrible tragedy in the public eye."

"This wasn't a moneymaking thing. We weren't trying to profit. We just wanted to find a unique way to keep this horrible tragedy in the public eye ... Now we're getting death threats over it ... The sheriff's department is sitting in the clubhouse right now."

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