Austin's 100-Hole Hike to Benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital a Huge Success

WARREN, Pa. – Austin Stoddard has combined his love of golf and giving back for a truly incredible event.

On Monday, Stoddard, along with his wife, Kristie, took part in ‘Austin’s 100 Hole Hike’ to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at Conewango Valley Country Club. It’s the second time (the first was in 2019) that Stoddard had done it, golfing 100 holes in a single day. He started at 5:50 a.m. and ended 8:50 p.m.

“We actually started about 10 minutes late,” Stoddard said. “We wanted to start around 5:30 a.m., but we finished 10 minutes early at 8:50 p.m. The weather and the chance of a storm blowing through and halting things kept me going as well. I was really dedicated to getting these 100 holes in.”

One-hundred holes, coupled with 90-plus degree temperatures certainly made things interesting, but Stoddard leaned on his experience from the first time, as well as Kristie, to make it through all 100 once again.

“It was toasty out there,” he said. “From doing this in the past, we had a direction in terms of preparation and making sure we had all the right items to keep my feet in good shape. That was a big priority. You wanted to stay hydrated. My Fitbit numbers had over 10,000 calories burned.

“Everything went well. We dodged the thunderstorms and the bad weather. My wife, Kristie, kept reminding me to eat and drink. She really stayed on top of me all day, making sure I was drinking my Pedialyte and snacking.”

Stoddard’s day included four outfits and two showers.

“The third and fourth rounds were really in the heat of the day,” he said. “But oddly enough, that fourth round was one of my better rounds. It was definitely a challenge.

Austin Stoddard’s Fitbit numbers after his 100 holes were complete.

“Another cool thing that helped was, so the first year doing this, I’m pretty sure I could get 100 holes in. This year was awesome. I thought ‘I’ve done this, I know what it takes. I know where I need to pace myself.’ It was also great to reference my scorecard from two years ago where I had all my starting and finishing times.

Stoddard, a Youngsville High graduate who went on to golf at California University of Pennsylvania, always has two goals in mind, and first and foremost, it’s always about the kids at St. Jude.

His donation page, which can be found here, will be open for the rest of the week. He set an initial goal of $10,000. As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, he had raised $14,640.

(How your donation helps: Thanks to donors like you, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude won’t stop until no child dies from cancer. All individual donors, corporate sponsors, & CVCC make a meaningful impact on this event’s success. )

“Kudos to the community of Warren and surrounding areas for their generosity in supporting this event,” he said. “Donations continue to come in. I really extend my appreciation to the community and all my friends and family that help make this possible. At the end of the day, the No. 1 goal is raising as many funds as possible for the patients and their families at St. Jude. The No. 2 goal is to get 100 holes in.”

Mission accomplished on both fronts.

“I had 10 brides, which was a couple less than last time,” he said. “The greens were faster and the pins were in some tough spots. I appreciate everyone supporting me, whether they dropped a donation or supported me in the effort to get all 100 holes in at a good pace.”