ForeBatten Foundation auction offers incredible private club access opportunities for a great cause

(UPDATED: February, 2025.)

Batten disease is a rare genetic condition that affects around 1 in 12,500 children. Symptoms including vision deterioration and seizures begin to present in children from 2 to 10 years old. From there, things go downhill fast: mental impairment, loss of speech and motor skills and more seizures are the common elements of this horrible disease's progression.

David Kahn is a golf course architect, and one half of a partnership with fellow former Tom Fazio associate Tim Jackson. Together, they have built a solid resume of varied, high-profile projects. They redesigned the Dunes Course at prestigious Monterey Peninsula Country Club a stone's throw from Pebble Beach. They designed PXG founder Bob Parsons' second course and Bad Little Nine at Scottsdale National Golf Club in Arizona. They even designed the putting courses at the first PopStroke location in Florida. Their star is rising in golf course design.

Kahn and wife Karen have twin daughters: Amelia and Makenzie. Amelia was diagnosed with Batten disease just before her seventh birthday. The same diagnosis fell on Makenzie shortly thereafter.

Thanks in part to a 2018 GOLF Magazine profile Alan Shipnuck, the golf world has rallied around the Kahn family, drumming up both awareness of the disease and valuable funding to investigate it, seek more effective treatment and, someday, a cure. Currently, children diagnosed with Batten disease do not generally live past their early 20s.

The Kahns started the ForeBatten Foundation, which has rallied support and funding for research related to the disease. Open donations are welcome, and the foundation also hosts periodic events to boost awareness and fundraising.

Also running now is a huge auction full of donated rounds of golf, memorabilia and more, all meant to help battle the disease. It is running until Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

Golf and lunch for 3 at Oakmont Country Club
Note: The host of the 2025 U.S. Open is one of the most feared and favored golf courses in America. One lucky trio will get to enjoy it with a member host after the best golfers in the world do.
Current bid as of press time: $7,050

Golf and lunch for 3 at Chicago Golf Club
Note: This USGA founding club has a small, private membership and one of the best-preserved examples of the architecture of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor found anywhere.
Current bid as of press time: $9,000

Golf for 3 at The Maidstone Club
Note: Maidstone flies under the radar in the Hamptons with the likes of Shinnecock and National Golf Links nearby, but that's just the way this very private club prefers to be.
Current bid as of press time: $7,050

Golf and lunch for 4 at Tara Iti
Note: Tom Doak's New Zealand masterpiece is one of the world's most beautiful courses and most private clubs, making this a tough ticket for avid traveling golfers.
Current bid as of press time: $15,200

2 days of golf and a night of lodging at Sand Hills
Note: The consensus greatest modern golf club is Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw's early masterwork of minimalism and sensitivity to the land. Winners of this item will enjoy two days of golf there and be joined for dinner and a private tour of the course by Coore himself.
Current bid as of press time: $25,050

Golf for 3 at Crystal Downs
Note: This summer club with a world-class course by Alister MacKenzie and, later, Perry Maxwell is regarded as one of the best in the Midwest.
Current bid as of press time: $5,600

Golf and lunch for 3 at Milwaukee Country Club
Note: I can personally vouch for this incredible parkland gem by Charles Alison, which I was fortunate to play in 2024. The stretch of holes down by the Milwaukee River are not to be missed, and neither is one of America's greatest locker rooms.
Current bid as of press time: $2,000

Golf and lunch for 3 at GROVE XXIII
Note: Michael Jordan's private golf playground is enjoyed by celebrities and pro golfers, but few others have the opportunity to access it. Rumor has it anyone who shows up wearing Adidas golf shoes is given a pair of Nikes to borrow for the round.
Current bid as of press time: $15,100

Golf for 4 at Old Sandwich Golf Club
Note: The Coore & Crenshaw designed Old Sandwich is as close as America has to golf in the heathlands south of London, and the quiet club is high on most avid golfers lists' of places to play, if they can gain access.
Current bid as of press time: $4,100

Golf for 3 at Lake Merced Golf Club
Note: Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and their Cavemen golf construction team restored this Alister Mackenzie design where Tiger made his USGA championship debut in the 1990 U.S. Junior Amateur
Current bid as of press time: $1,100

The list of big-time private club access opportunities goes on and on, from Shoreacres to Calusa Pines to Oakland Hills to Baltusrol and beyond. There are also some more middle-tier opportunities that won't break the bank but will still help the cause. Click here for the full list.

Breakfast or lunch with Jack Nicklaus, plus golf for 4, at The Bear's Club
Current bid as of press time: $28,000

Golf for 2 with architect Gil Hanse
Current bid as of press time: $20,200

One-year membership to the Dormie Network of destination national golf clubs
Current bid as of press time: $10,000

Golf for 3 with Rush bandleader Alex Lifeson in Ontario or Scottsdale
Current bid as of press time: $18,200

Commissioned golf oil painting by artist Josh Bills
Current bid as of press time: $700