After the on-campus shooting at Michigan State last Monday, co-owner of X-Golf Joe White has taken it upon himself to help the Spartan community.

White and X-Golf Lansing will run the inaugural Spartan Strong Scramble. The event will be a three-person scramble at X-Golf on Marsh Road in Okemos, Michigan. The entry fee is $270 per team and teams will have the option to round up their entry fee by $30. Those $30 will be donated to the Spartan Strong Fund along with an additional $30 donated by X-Golf Lansing ($60 total per team).

“It just made a lot of sense to me and Nate (Riegler) to focus on the community,” White said via phone call with Spartans Illustrated. “We are inviting everyone who participates to round up their entry fee for charity and we’ll match that.”

Riegler is a Spartan graduate and fellow co-owner of X-Golf Lansing along with White.

The event began on Feb. 21 and will end on March 10. Teams must book a tee time within the event window. It is not like a normal golf scramble event where all players must meet on an outdoor course at the same date and same time. However, X-Golf has six simulators, so multiple teams can play at the same time.

“We wanted a huge wave of community support for it,” White said. “Not everybody can do it on Saturday from 10 (a.m.) to 2 (p.m.) or whatever.”

White mentioned that they wanted to “become more of a community-based business” and involving the MSU golf team is one of the ways that White wanted to do that.

“We wanted to create an event that involved the Michigan State golf team,” White said. “We had a long time to game plan events. One of the ideas I had (was) to involve MSU.”

This event was in the works long before the tragedy struck East Lansing. The original name of the event was going to be “Beat the MSU Golf Team.” While the rules of the event are similar, it was obvious to White that they needed to help out their community.

Three MSU captains were signed to a NIL deal so they could participate in the event: graduate Parker Jamieson, senior Bradley Smithson and senior Troy Taylor II. The aim of the event is to beat the MSU captains. The captains set the bar at 16-under par when they played the scramble last Monday.

Last Monday’s events were concerning for White as he has many employees that are current students at MSU.

“Last Monday was scary for us as business owners because we have kids on campus,” White said.

White has lived in the Lansing area for a while. He grew up as a Michigan fan, but will root for Michigan State unless the teams play each other.

“It doesn’t affect it at all,” White said when asked if being a Michigan fan was a factor in the decision to have the event. “You become very used to it and tolerant of it. We are very pro-MSU here.”

There will be many prizes for some of the top-performing teams and winners of the contest holes including gift cards and signed MSU golf towels.

To book a tee time, call 517-763-2200 or book online at xgolflansing.com/book-now.