One Wisconsin golf course is facing harsh backlash after a 9/11 promotion teed off a lot of people.
Tumbledown Trails, a course located west of Madison, ran an advertisement in the Wisconsin State Journal offering nine holes of golf plus cart for $9.11 or 18 holes plus cart for $19.11 on Wednesday, to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Twitter user @joshorton tweeted a picture of the ad, which went viral. People quickly began posting negative messages on the Tumbledown Trails Facebook page, which has since been disabled.
This 9/11-themed golf course ad is a real thing that ran in today’s Wisconsin State Journal. pic.twitter.com/rn6VIYH4mF
— Josh Orton (@joshorton) September 10, 2013
General manager Marc Watts told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal that the course had run a similar promotion the previous year, but it received no negative press. He said that the promotion was meant to remind golfers of the significance of the day and promised the course would run another promotion next year.
“We’ll do something next year,” he told the Journal-Sentinal. “I guarantee you it won’t be this, but we will not give up and will not stop trying to remind people of 9/11.”
Tumbledown Trails apologized for the ad on its Facebook on Monday, according to the Journal-Sentinal. It also said it would discontinue the promotion, offer rounds of golf at the normal rate and donate the difference in price to a 9/11 memorial fund. Tee times booked at the promotion price would still be honored, however.
Watts told The Blaze that he considered closing the course on Wednesday, due to threats of violence and property damage, but he decided against it because it would have shown “weakness,” he said.
When reached by phone, the golf course declined to comment to Red Alert Politics on the promotion and the negative press it received.
Phone service provider AT&T also caught backlash on Wednesday after tweeting a photo of one of its phones taking a picture of the 9/11 memorial in New York City. The tweet, which also read “Never Forget,” was quickly deleted, as The Daily Caller reported. The company then tweeted an apology.
We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy.
— AT&T (@ATT) September 11, 2013
A Marriott hotel in San Diego also tried to commemorate the day by giving away free mini muffins for a half hour on Wednesday morning, as Twitter user @electrica posted.
What pic.twitter.com/L35ytAtCWP
— Drink and Fight (@eclectrica) September 11, 2013
On Wednesday afternoon, Marriott emailed the following statement to The Huffington Post:
“We are aware of the picture that was tweeted. It shows an offer that was made independently by the hotel and not the Marriott Hotels brand. As far as we know, it was limited to one property. While the hotel was making a sympathetic gesture to its guests in remembrance of 9/11, we apologize and understand why some people may have misunderstood the intent of the offer. We are reminding our hotels to use discretion and be sensitive when remembering major events such as 9/11.”
