Adult Clinic Aug. 24 at the John Prince Learning Center in Palm Beach County sponsored by the PGA Tour Superstore.

Jim Beatty, founder and organizer of the African American Golf EXPO and Forum announced that Sherri Pla will lead the EXPO clinic on Saturday August 24. The clinic is free and open to youth and adults. The clinic will be held at the John Prince Learning Center, located at 4754 South Congress Avenue in the Lake Worth area of Palm Beach County is one of the top golf practice facilities in the country. The John Prince Golf Learning Center is a state-of-the-art facility that features more than 50 grass and mat hitting stations on its lighted driving range, which has multiple target greens. The facility is  one of the premiere stand-alone driving ranges in the nation, the Learning Center also features more than 16,000 square feet of practice putting and chipping greens and has three regulation practice holes.

The Youth Clinic will be held from 9:00AM – 10:AM and the adult clinic will be held from 10:45AM – 12:00PM. Registration will start at 8:30. Water, refreshments will be provided at no cost.

There will also be multiple drawings for free prizes.

Persons wishing to attend must register at www.aagolfexpo.com

Sherri Pla is a Rivera Beach native. She  graduated from Suncoast High School where she was a multi-sport athlete and an excellent basketball player. She attended Florida Atlantic University (FAU) on a basketball scholarship. Her scoring stats were impressive, at more than 1,000 points, while becoming the school’s career leader in assists and steals. The feat earned her a position in the FAU Athletics Hall of Fame (2009). While at FAU she also participated on the school’s Division I Softball, Golf, and Cross-Country teams.

After college, Pla spent eight years in the public-school system teaching and coaching multiple sports, before pursuing her dream of becoming a PGA Professional. She earned the prestigious title of PGA Class A professional by demonstrating her skill and knowledge in the game of golf, while also excelling in the playing component of the game. Pla played on the LPGA Symetra Tour in 2011 and passed the PAT (Player Ability Test) on her first attempt. Coach Sherri enjoys sharing her knowledge, expertise, and passion for golf thru coaching many local golf programs for youth and adults in the Palm Beaches. She is the head of golf for Berean Christian School, while also instructing students of all ages and skill levels at her private golf academy. Player development at Pla Golf Academy is elite and sets the standard in the golf capitol of the world. Her achievements and  

Southern Florida Professional Golfers Association (SFPGA) awards include:

• SFPGA Professional Development Award 2021
• SFPGA Player Development Award 2016
• SFPGA Youth Golf Development Award 2015
• U.S Kids top 50 coach 2015
• African American Golf Hall of Fame member 2015
• FAU Athletics Hall of Fame member 2010
• Earned LPGA Professional Symetra Tour card 2009

Sherri’s  certifications include:

• Elected to PGA Class “ A” Membership September 20, 2013
• LPGA Member 2015
• Nationally Recognized PGA Professional in CBS Documentary

“Turning Passion into Profession”

CBS Special Video: https://vimeo.com/album/4687316

ABOUT THE EXPO

The mission of this event is to make African Americans aware of the jobs, careers, and  business opportunities in the $102 Billion Golf  industry.

 African Americans represent less than 3% of the industry.

History: The EXPO started in 2021 and has been held in Atlanta, GA, Charlotte, NC and Louisville, KY. Over 1500 people have attended with an economic impact approaching  $2M. The EXPO Founder and Organizer is Jim Beatty Golf Ventures.

The EXPO 2024 dates are Friday , August 23 -Tuesday, August 27, in Palm Beach, Fl at the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott, 4000 RCA Blvd. Palm Beach Gardens, FL

There is a special inaugural EXPO  Community Service Project  being held  at 9:00 AM on Aug. 23 at the Riviera Beach Community Gardens located at 1010 West 10th Street
Riviera Beach, Florida in which the community is invited to attend and  volunteer

Website:  www.aagolfexpo.com/register-here Information is updated daily

The cost is  $99 to attend  all exhibits, nightly networking sessions and the Tuesday awards luncheon.  The EXPO is free for adults 18 and over for  those wanting to go to the exhibits only. 

Everyone must register. Non golfers and new  golfers of all ages  are welcome.

 There will be over 50 exhibitors.

Sponsors include  Golf  Digest, American Junior Golf Association, PGA of America, The African American Golfer’s Digest, The PGA Tour Superstore, Sweet Home Alabama, The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Golf Pride ,Reed Exhibitions, The American Golf Industry Coalition, Palm Beach County Sports Commission, Palm Beach County Business Development Board, Invited Clubs ,NCS International, Golf My Future My Game, National Golf Player Development Foundation, Lion’s Gate Security Solutions, Dunlop Sports Americas, Design Apparel, This is Good Water, Fore Golf Collections, Inner City Youth Golfers Inc. and  the African American Golfers Museum.

I have been asked several times about The Neck Bone Golf Tour. Who started it? Why in Miami? When did it start, etc.?

Golfing every Saturday out of town we met Leon Ponder and The Sharon Travelers Golf club and began hooking up with them every Saturday to golf.

The Neck Bone Golf Tour actually began 1974 when Pete Ball met Tom Robinson and they became golf buddies. Robinson in Erie, Pa and Pete Ball from Ashtabula. Ohio. So now its Pete Ball, Tom Robinson and Leon Ponder golf buddies.

Robinson would go home to Nashville, Tennessee for the summer and to golf with Toms brother-in-law Sam Jordan, George Warfield and wife liz. So, Pete would come to Nashville in July to golf with us. Now the crew is Pete, Tom, Leon, Sam and George. And Pete talked us into going to Florida in February to golf.

In February 1978 we went to Orlando, hooked up with The Cleveland golfers. Robinson and Pete Ball were roommates, Sam Jordan & George Warfield the Nashville guys were roommates and Leon Ponder had his Sharon guys were together. Leon said, “It’s too cold in Orlando, lets go to The Bahama Is next year!!”

Pete was our leader and knew a place to stay in Miami and guaranteed summer type weather, so in 1979, we began going to Miami and through word-of-mouth we had picked us some more friends….from Nashville, Tennessee, Sharon, Pennsylvania, and ole friends of Leon Ponder….that became the Neck Bone staff.  Pete Ball, Tom Robinson, Leon Ponder, Phil Williams and Walt Mangham. We had meetings at Robinsons home in Erie, Pennsylvaia.

Our leader Pete had picked a week that we could play in Miami Saturday to Friday then drive, or fly, to Orlando to play The Central Florida golf tournament. Pete was our leader.  We didn’t have tee times and would tip the starter to get us out.

In Miami we met a group of golfers from Pittsburgh and a foursome from Cleveland which hooked up with us in 1981, now with 60 guys.  Pete set up our own tournament three flights of 20 golfers each flight! We sort of copied off the Pittsburgh guys with our tournament, We bought some grills and grilled steaks and had our awards poolside at The Air Ways Motel.

The following years the number of golfers kept increasing, one year we had 164 for our tournament!! People came from everywhere: Canada, Puerto Rico, Bermuda —and we didn’t advertise!!

We lost Leon Ponder in 1989 and lost Pete Ball in 1992. In 1993, Robinson took over running the Neck Bone and also the year we began having groups of women. And we made them welcome. We tried to make sure that a lot of people would win a little money instead of the good players winning it all. Jungle rules, you still have to make par or better !
So, I named the Group Neck Bone. Being a coach, I would set up the groups.

Everything went well with no registration or fees, Pete and I used our own money to make contacts, mailed out the fliers, etc…..remember back then all the phone calls to Miami were considered long distance and it took postage stamps to mail out the fliers and getting them printed up!!

After Miami now we had the Spring Neck Bone that ended Father’s Day at Pete’s Duffers Tournament in Ashtabula, Ohio, and it was big.  Pro Athletes from Cleveland and golfers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Canada, New York….no trophies, all prizes CASH MONEY…. Mid-April to Father’s Day, Neck Bone, then Mid-July in 90 degree weather we had a Middle Tennessee, then Neck Bone in Nashville that was a blast, a cook out at someone’s house.  The Nashville guys would bring 50 guys to Miami and one of the first women was Pat Gregory.

The mid-winter getaway to The Sun & Fun Capitol had a cross section of golfers from Chief Justices to wannabee gangsters. But at The Neck Bone, check your credential at the door, no one cared. My roommate Sherman Cottingham was with the Negro Baseball League function and no one knew he even played baseball! We had ex-Pro athletes, Hall Of Fame members! There were fun times, like when a guy fell into a lake, and serious times, I.e, golf courses sold and I didn’t know it, our course no longer has food service for our awards dinner. But my saying is “There’s No Substitute for Brains,” we worked it out.

One year we had our dinner and awards at LPGA player Paula Tucker’s house yard, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the club house at one site, so we got a big tent for the dinner and our last year down the course didn’t have food service any more. We had the room but no food. My guys got on the phone, got food catered and everything went very well!

All in all, it was a great 42 years ……people asked me how did I keep all those people in line? Ran it just like my gym classes or athletic teams, organized and, like I said, give a lot of people a little money. I forgot, we even had a NFL Official from Chicago. Cazzie Russell College Hall Of Fame Basketball, Lawrence Taylor, Football Hall Of Fame, and my room mate Sherman Cottingham, the winning pitcher of the last Negro baseball League All Star game, he was called “Little Satch” Paige!! YOU WERE INVITED!! I gave all my ladies a rose on Valentines Day! ——My way to steal a kiss! Even the years my wife came down! I guess that covers it: Pete Ball was the God Father

First staff: Pete Ball, Leon Ponder, Phil Williams, Walt Mangham, Tom Robinson

Why Miami: Weather

When: 2nd week of February

Hole in One: Funds To Meharry Medical Hospital for Sickle Cell research!

Final Staffers: Sam Jordan, who never miss a year, 42 straight, Sam II, Don Crenshaw, Jeb Bowen, John Alberstadt.

My Co-honcho, whom I could have never done it without, The Minister of Finance Roger Ball, son of The GodFather!

My sincere thanks to them it was one hell of a ride!! The God Father Pete Ball and The Golf Father Tom Robinson

This was the real Neck Bone character

We originals. Sometimes a guy’s money may be short and we would tell him, just get here we’ll take care of the rest….that meant, room, golf, food and a few bucks to gamble with. We’d take up some money from our original friends to take care of each other. Just get to Miami, at times a guy may have to sleep on the box springs (rough it!).

So this was the greatest thing that ever happened; First, a guy came down like that and won enough money in the skins to take care of himself. Ok, this took the cake. While we were at dinner, after dinner riding back to hotel, I noticed my case was missing with all the money for the finals of the tournament….gone, stolen! Next day at the banquet I told the gang the money had been stolen and they began donating money to cover the loss, like an auction, I believe it was the Chicago guys first that yelled out, “The Chicago guys will donate $300.” Then, the Nashville guys yelled out; then the Virginia guys; then Indiana….I had to stop them!! They made it up PLUS and I never forgot that! That was my Neck Bone friends for ever. So, after that we opened a bank account in Miami!!

From then on, I began carrying extra money because someone will always be in need !! Just get there!! One year we had a white boy that didn’t have enough money to get back home…he drove the 17th hole, made eagle skin and enough money to get back home. He wasn’t one of the guys but we would have given him money to get home….thats the way the Neck Bone was!!

The Preserve Shady Rest Committee has received $75,000 in funding from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

This funding will support efforts to bring together preservation experts and community members to create a master plan for restoration and programming. Shady Rest is one of 30 sites to receive a total of $3 million in grant funding to advance ongoing preservation activities for historic sites, buildings, and landscapes that represent African American cultural heritage. With more than $140 million raised, the Action Fund is the largest U.S. resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places.

The mission of the Preserve Shady Rest Committee is to educate and present the rich history of Shady Rest and John Shippen, Jr.; preserve and restore the Shady Rest Clubhouse; and create a multi-purpose center and museum that is open to the public and displays memorabilia, photographs, artifacts, and oral stories of Shady Rest. 

To learn more about this program and this year’s grant recipients nationwide, visit savingplaces.org/actionfund.The support and presence of the community have made it possible to reach this point. Thank you!

If you would like to take part in the community history gathering effort, please share your recollections, clippings, photos, and videos. No moment is too old or too small to celebrate.

Your responses will help document why Shady Rest matters and assist in planning for its future care and use as funds are raised for this precious national landmark.

“THE LEGACY CONTINUES” for West Point Cadet says Ira K. Murray Sr., the chairperson of the 38^th annual R. E. J. Memorial Golf Tournament held on June 16^th, 2024, at Baytree National Golf links in Melbourne Florida. This year event had 120 golfers along with volunteers and sponsors. 

The scholarship is in honor of Reginald E. Johnson who was born in Landstuhl, Germany to Eugene C. and Iona A Johnson(deceased).  Along with his parents and his little sister Regina, he grew up in Europe, Hawaii, Washington, DC, and Florida.  Reggie started school at Holland Elementary School, attended Delaura Jr. High school, and graduated from Satellite High School in Satellite, Florida.  He excelled in academics and was an outstanding athlete named 3 years consecutive to the Cape Coast Conference for football and track.  His senior year he was senior class senator and vice president of the key club which entailed his traveling and speaking at different functions around Central Florida.  All these accomplishments were responsible for his receiving nominations to the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Military Academy at West Point which he accepted. 

While a cadet at West Point for four years he continued to stride for excellence, singing in the gospel choir, making the varsity football team as a running back his “plebe” (freshman) year plus running varsity track.  His most notable achievement was breaking West Point long jump record of 32 years and setting his own. 

Reginald died by drowning during the land navigation phase of the competition on April 11^th, 1980, at West Point, New York just 21 days before graduation and having obtained a Special Forces assignment to Ft Benning Ga.  In Reggie’s honor, West Point has established a memorial presentation, which is given each year at graduation, commencing in 1981.  A marble bench has been placed along the bank of Hudson River, a mural painted on the wall has a portion dedicated to Reggie in the library at Grant Hall, Reggie’s name inscribed. 

The R.E.J. Memorial Scholarship Foundation, Inc. was established by the Pride of Melbourne Masonic Lodge #318 in 1980 under the leadership of Brother Carl Finerson, Worshipful Master, with the consent of the Johnson family, The committee became incorporated in the State of Florida in December 1983 and the name changed to the Reginald E. Johnson Memorial Scholarship Foundation, Inc. In 1984.  The golf tournament is one of the 3 major fund-raising events throughout the year by the foundation.  The other 2 are the Taste of Brevard and the Annual Scholarship Banquet. 

Reggie is gone but shall never be forgotten because he firmly planted his footprints into the sands of time, thus causing his memory to withstand eternity.   The Legacy Continues as his sister Regina continues to play in the tournament each year and his father Eugene C. Johnson, better known as “Lightning Gene Johnson”, gives the opening remarks.  The current president Marva A Murray is pleased that the foundation helps 20 plus students per year and stands by the foundation that “Helping deserving students is a gratifying experience”. Be forever thankful, be always and abundantly blessed.  To date the foundation has awarded over 1000 scholarships and $4.5 million in total funds have been awarded.

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Ahead of The Open Championship at Royal Troon, Tiger Woods has candidly discussed the most challenging defeat of his illustrious professional career. Speaking before the 152nd Open Championship, the 15-time Major champion opened up about the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National, where South Korea’s Y.E. Yang overcame a two-shot deficit to clinch the title, beating Woods by three strokes.

Reflecting on the pivotal match, Woods admitted, “The hardest loss to get over was the Y.E. Yang loss because I had the lead. I had never lost a major championship while leading. That was the first.” This revelation highlights the psychological and emotional impact the defeat had on Woods, who had been dominant in such situations throughout his career.

Woods further elaborated on the specifics of that final round, expressing regret over the mistakes made. “That took a little bit of time to get over because I had made some pretty stupid mistakes in the middle part of the round. I made a huge rally at the end, but it was too late. I made too many mistakes in the middle. You can’t afford to make the mistakes that I made and expect to win tournaments. I know better than that,” he explained. Despite leading by two shots through 54 holes at Hazeltine, Woods struggled on the front nine of the final round. Although he regained the lead through 11 holes on Sunday, Yang’s eagle on the 14th shifted the momentum, and Woods could not recover, eventually bogeying the last two holes to finish three strokes behind the South Korean.

Woods’ reflection on this loss came in the context of Rory McIlroy’s recent narrow miss at the US Open at Pinehurst. Woods shared that he had reached out to McIlroy to offer support after the event. “I just sent him a nice text. That was it. I waited a week before I sent it. I wanted to let it calm down,” Woods said. He added, “Just basically, as you know, I’m your friend. I know this is a difficult moment. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there, and it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time.”

This conversation sheds light on the camaraderie and mutual respect among elite golfers, even as they compete fiercely against each other. Woods’ words to McIlroy underscore the shared experiences of triumph and defeat that bond them.

Additionally, Woods spoke about the inherent pressures and discomforts he has faced throughout his career, even at the peak of his powers. “Lots of times. There’s a lot of times I felt discomfort. Yes, absolutely. Nervous, shaky, uncomfortable, yeah, all of it. That’s part of it. That’s why you love it. That’s why we practice,” he said. This admission reveals the human side of the champion, emphasizing that even the greatest athletes experience moments of doubt and anxiety. “I work hard at it, and I’ve done it my entire life. I’ve worked hard to put myself there,” he added, highlighting the relentless dedication required to stay at the top.

As Woods prepares to tee off at Royal Troon, he is set to compete alongside World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and fellow American Patrick Cantlay, beginning their round at 2:37 PM on Thursday. The trio’s grouping is expected to draw significant attention, with fans eager to see how Woods performs in this prestigious tournament.

Woods’ reflections provide a poignant reminder of the highs and lows that define a career in professional sports. His openness about the 2009 PGA Championship defeat and his supportive gesture towards McIlroy illustrate the depth of his character and the complexities of competing at the highest level. As he steps onto the course at Royal Troon, the golfing world watches with bated breath, anticipating another chapter in the storied career of Tiger Woods.