Constellation Furyk & Friend announces five area charities will split $500K
5 min read
The Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament announced the recipients of $500,000 in charity money from the first year of the PGA Tour Champions event at the Timuquana Country Club Oct. 4-10.
And every dime is staying on the First Coast.
The donation, which is part of a five-year, $2.6 million commitment from Constellation, will be shared among:
• St. Johns Riverkeeper: Dedicated to a clean and healthy St. Johns River.
• First Tee-North Florida: The World Golf Foundation initiative that impacts area youth through golf, educational programs and Life Skills.
• Blessings in a Backpack: Provides more than 75,000 meals every year on Fridays for Duval and St. Johns elementary school children to take home for the weekend.
• MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation: Provides tennis instruction, educational assistance and life skills to area youth.
• Habitat for Humanity: Has constructed affordable housing and provides other housing services to more than 2,300 area families.
The tournament, which marks a return of PGA Tour Champions golf to the First Coast for the first time since 2003, is hosted by 17-time PGA Tour winner Jim Furyk and his wife Tabitha.
“Giving back to our communities in a significant way is a core value shared by both Constellation and the Furyks, and that’s a big reason why our relationships has grown to what it is today,” said Mark Huston, president of Constellation’s national retail energy business, in a statement.
The Furyk & Friends tournament will have a purse of $2 million, with pro-ams on Oct. 4, 6 and 7 and the championship Oct. 8-10. All three rounds will be aired on Golf Channel. Tickets and information on the Oct. 5 concert at Daily’s Place that will feature Darius Rucker and Scotty McCreery, are available at ConstellationFurykAndFriends.com.
Horschel to host APGA event
Six-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel of Ponte Vedra Beach already hosts an American Junior Golf tournament in the fall.
He’s now hosting a professional event at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course.
The Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour will play the inaugural Billy Horschel Invitational July 29-31 at the Stadium Course, with 18 players competing in 36 holes, after a pro-am. Cisco is a presenting sponsor.
The tournament week also will include a roundtable, seminars and other development opportunities for the players with golf industry leaders. The APGA was established in 2008 to bring more diversity to professional golf through a series of tournaments for minority players. The PGA Tour began assisting the APGA last year and it currently offers 13 tournaments this year for more than $350,000 in purses.
The field will include nine players from the APGA Player Development Program, led by Kamaiu Johnson and Willie Mack III, who have played in multiple PGA Tour events this season, plus Jarred Garcia of Jacksonville, Ryan Alford, Marcus Byrd, Michael Herrera, Joey Stills, Davin White and Rovonta Young.
Mack has won 65 pro events, including six on the APGA, and won 11 college tournaments at Bethune-Cookman.
Also playing will be the five graduates of the APGA Collegiate Rankings, including Prince Cunningham of Jacksonville. There will be three sponsor invitations and the next-highest ranked APGA Collegiate player.
Oosthuizen moves to Ocala
Louis Oosthuizen said he’s just “a farm boy at heart.”
That’s why the South African and 2010 Open Champion is moving to Ocala, where he bought an 86-acre ranch.
Oosthuizen grew up on a farm in South Africa and owns a 150-acre ranch there. It’s pretty modest by the standard his brother has set — he’s got a 1,500-acre tract.
Oosthuizen told the Associated Press that he will raise horses and cattle but he’s not quite ready to retire.
“Honestly, I thought this time in my career I’d probably be more wanting to farm,” he said. “But I sort of got that second push in the game. I really feel like I can still win a major. It’s keeping me up there and focused to work a little more. I’m getting closer. When it’s time and I feel I can’t compete, I’ll hang it up and enjoy life.”
USGA awards 13 Open exemptions
In addition to the four-dozen or so players who qualified for the U.S. Open at sectional tournaments on Monday, the USGA announced that 13 other players qualified on the basis of their world golf ranking and the three-event European Tour qualifying series.
Exemptions were awarded to three players who moved into the top-60 in the world as of Monday, who were not otherwise eligible, Bernd Wiesberger of Austria, Ian Poulter in England and Charley Hoffman.
The top-10 players on the European series who qualified for Torrey Pines, not otherwise eligible, are Richard Bland, Marcus Armitage, Jordan Smith, Dave Coupland and Matthew Southgate of England; Guido Migliozzi and Edoardo Molinari of Italy; Mikko Korhonen of Finland; Adrian Meronk of Poland; and Thomas Detry of Belgium.
PGA Tour
Event: Palmetto Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Congaree Golf Club, Ridgeland, S.C.
At stake: $7.3 million purse ($1,314,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: First-time event.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m.); CBS (Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.).
Area players entered: Chris Baker, Ryan Blaum, Jonas Blixt, Jonathan Byrd, Sebastian Cappelen, Tyler Duncan, Harris English, Matt Every, Patton Kizzire, Russell Knox, David Lingmerth, Tyler McCumber, Keith Mitchell, J.T. Poston, Sam Ryder, Adam Schenk, Hudson Swafford. Davis Thompson.
Notable: The tournament replaced the Canadian Open on the Tour schedule. … Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood and Ian Poulter lead the field. … South Carolina has a PGA Tour event for the third time in nine weeks and the fourth in 11 months. The RBC Classic was played at Harbour Town in June of 2020 and last April and the PGA was at Kiawah Island last month.
LPGA Tour
Event: Mediheal Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Lake Merced Golf Club, Daly City, Calif.
At stake: $1.5 million purse ($225,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Sei Young Kim.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 6-9 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 7-10 p.m.).
Area players entered: None.
Notable: Kim defeated Bronte Law and Jeongeun Lee6 in sudden death in 2019. The tournament was canceled last year.
PGA Tour Champions
Event: American Insurance Championship, Friday-Sunday, University Ridge Golf Club, Madison, Wis.
At stake: $2.4 million purse ($360,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Jerry Kelly.
TV: Golf Channel (Saturday, 3-5 p.m.; Sunday, 3-5:30 p.m.).
Area players entered: Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh.
Notable: Also playing are Ernie Els, Fred Couples, John Daly, Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer. … Kelly beat Retief Goosen with a birdie on the third playoff hole.
Korn Ferry Tour
Event: BMW Charity Pro-Am, Thornblade Club, Greer, S.C.
At stake: $700,000 purse ($126,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Rhein Gibson.
TV: Thursday, 12-2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 5-7 p.m.
Area players entered: Blayne Barber, Chandler Blanchet, Luke Guthrie, Rick Lamb, Trey Mullinax, Jared Wolfe.
Notable: Gibson defeated Michael Miller by three shots in 2019. The tournament was canceled last year.
