The APGA Tour visits Northeast Florida for its second full-field event and third overall event of the 2023 season, the APGA Tour stops in Florida, March 20-21, at St. John’s Golf & Country Club in St. Augustine. The format is set for 45 players, two-day, 36-hole stroke-play competition, no cut.
Willie Mack III won last year’s APGA Tour event on Florida’s First Coast in a playoff at Queens Harbour Yacht & Country Club in Jacksonville. It was the first of three APGA Tour wins for Mack in a season that culminated with him earning 2023 Korn Ferry Tour status thanks to a T12 finish at Qualifying School.
Marcus Byrd won the season-opening 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines, which earned him an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Honda Classic. Byrd, who also won the 2022 Farmers Insurance Fall Series, was named as the recipient of the 2023 Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption, resulting in the opportunity to compete at The Genesis Invitational hosted by Tiger Woods at Riviera Country Club.
One of the APGA Tour’s most successful veteran players, 40-year-old Kevin Hall emerged victorious in a playoff with Devaughn Robinson at the APGA Black History Month Classic last month, earning his fifth career win on the APGA Tour. Hall was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at age 2 after surviving H-flu meningitis. He learned to play golf at 9 and later became the first Black golfer to play at Ohio State University where he was the winner of the 2004 Big Ten championship. The win was especially poignant for Hall as Donald Barnes, who Hall credits as getting him started by taking him to a golf course at age 8 and teaching him the game, passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s during tournament week.
Ryan Alford teed it up at the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA TOUR and stuck around to caddie for Byrd, his good friend, in the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational that same year. A two-time APGA Tour winner in 2021, Alford struggled through health-related COVID-19 complications in 2022 and looks to rebound in 2023. He got his APGA Tour season off to a great start with a T7 finish at the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at the same Torrey Pines venue where he competed against PGA TOUR professionals a year earlier.
After a strong 2022 APGA Tour season that included a win and a pair of runner-up finishes, Michael Herrera earned an exemption into the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open and acquitted himself well while competing against the world’s best players, missing the cut by just two strokes. Herrera, who grew up in Moreno Valley, California, attended the Farmers Insurance Open as a fan and fulfilled a lifelong dream of teeing it up at the event for his first-ever PGA TOUR start. He opened his 2023 APGA Tour season with a T5 finish at the APGA Black History Month Classic.
Daniel Augustus finished 6th in the 2022 Lexus Cup standings thanks to 8 top-10 finishes and two runner-up finishes. He opened his 2023 APGA Tour season with a T9 at the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational and T20 at the APGA Black History Month Classic. Earlier this year, Augustus conducted an interview with Golf Digest and the Fire Pit Collective revealing a childhood of tragedy and abuse.
Quinn Riley came to the APGA Tour mid-season in 2022 after finishing No. 1 in the 2021-22 APGA Collegiate Ranking. After a strong rookie campaign that included three top-10 finishes in just eight starts, he got his 2023 APGA Tour season started off on the right foot with a T9 result at the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational and a T5 at the APGA Black History Month Classic.
Wyatt Worthington II qualified for the 2022 PGA Championship as a PGA professional and won the 2022 John Shippen Invitational, which granted him an exemption to play in the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic last year. He followed up an 11th place finish at the Farmers Insurance Invitational to start his 2023 APGA Tour season with a solo 19th at the APGA Black History Month Classic.
THE VENUE
St. Johns Golf and Country Club serves as the fourth club in the greater Jacksonville/Saint Augustine area to host an APGA Tour event in the last three years joining TPC Sawgrass which twice hosted the APGA Tour Billy Horschel Invitational presented by Cisco, Queens Harbor Yacht and Country Club and the King and The Bear Golf Course.
St. Johns Golf & Country Club is located in St. Augustine in the heart of the St. Johns Community. The 18-hole Clyde Johnston-designed course is the community’s centerpiece with just the right amount of challenge for novice and avid golfers alike. St. Johns is known for its consistent quality of service and conditions, being nationally ranked for customer satisfaction and loyalty by the National Golf Foundation.
ABOUT THE APGA TOUR
The APGA Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The APGA Tour Board of Directors works to accomplish this by hosting and operating professional golf tournaments, player development programs, mentoring programs and by introducing the game to inner city young people. In addition to conducting an expected 18 tournaments awarding close to $1 million in prize and bonus money in 2023, the APGA has organized a Player Development Program to aid young minority golfers as they work to chase their goals in professional golf.
The Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour is focused on ensuring players have access to the tools and support they need, allowing them to better focus on their career path and development in the game.
