The 13^th annual pioneer golf tournament was held June 26-28, 2015 at the historic Cleearview Golf Course in East Canton, Ohio, where legendary Renee Powell (PGA/LPGA) is owner and Head Golf Professional.   Due to heavy rain on Saturday the tournament was cancelled, but despite that, guests enjoyed a terrific time socializing and getting to know each other better at the Hampton Inn, the host hotel, where the staff provided us with excellent service and comfort.

 
Above, l-r: Gloria and Ellis Mack enjoy lunch at Clearview with Renee Powell center and Ike Smith

Above, l-r: John Stevens with his sister-n-law Valerie Stephens and his brother Charles Stevens with Tournament Director Jessie Brooks (standing).

I heard a comment from a person that played Clearview for the first time; he thought it would be an easy course.  The yardage is 6140 yds from the white tees with a 66.2/104 slope/rating.  The course plays longer than the scorecard says, especially on the back side, because of the hills.  The best part about Clearview is its greens.  They can be fast and hard to read.  Walking on the greens at Clearview is like walking on carpet.  Larry Powell, course superintendent (and Renee’s brother) does a magnificent job of maintaining the course, especially the greens.  Ohio winters can be harsh but Larry always finds a solution to keep the course in pristine shape.  Kodos to you Larry!

A delicious Pioneer Celebration Cake was made by the Foltz Center

Sunday morning was misty and things outdoors improved as time passed.  We enjoyed the one day of golfing.  Lowest scores went to Dana Shoulders for the men and to Cheryl  James for the ladies.  We had players from CA to NC, FL to NY and states in between.  92 players registered from 13 different states.  NY and MI had the most players; OH was not far behind this year.

Thanks go out to everyone who attended and to those who sent money to support the tournament. thank you again for helping spread the word about the Historic Clearview Golf Course.  There’s still several great golfing weeks left up here in Ohio, so come on out and play and support this great course. www.clearview-gc.com.  –Much Love, Jessie Brooks, Tournament Director.

Left: Gail Brooks and Gloria Reynolds

By Bill Vilona

One important element of local golf history began in such a serendipitous way.

Raymond Griff was in his car one day in 1968, just thinking about golf when an idea entered his mind.

Hey, why not form our own club, he thought? One where black golfers, the guys he played with back then at the old par-3 course at Saufley Field, could get together and bring some unity and fellowship.

“Some of the guys were already playing when I came out of the (U.S. military) service,” said Giff, 70, who founded the club. “So I just decided to send out letters and arrange a meeting.”

And just like that, after a meeting of nine men at a friend’s home, The Par Four Golf Club was formed.

“Everybody just started throwing out names and Par Four stuck,” Griff said.

And also?

“Well, because we couldn’t make many birdies so we couldn’t call in the Under-Par Club,” said Charlton Charles, 70, laughing, who is another one of the original members.

From the first Par Four Club tournament in 1975 at Perdido Bay Golf Club, all these years later, a celebration awaits.

This week, the 40th anniversary Par Four Charities Tournament will be at Osceola Municipal Golf Course with a field that includes Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward. The tournament is now one of the few amateur, open-to-public, two-day stroke play golf tournaments remaining in the entire region.

“It’s special, because I have seen the good things we have done in this community,” said Walter Wallace, 68, president of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Escambia and Santa Rosa County, located on North Devillers Street, who has been involved in the tournament since its inception.

“I have seen the kids we have affected,” Wallace said. “I have seen the growth in us. And the main thing is being a good example to other folks. To know that you can thrive and you can survive. You can move things forward and be here for 40 years.”

To think how it all began. At a time when black golfers had few options to play tournament golf. Not just in Pensacola, but many places throughout the country.

Now, the Par Four Tournament is one of the few options for weekend, amateur golfers seeking fun competition.

“That is what is so awesome about it,” said Debert Coletta Cook, publisher of the African American Golfer’s Digest, located in New York City. She is also coming to Pensacola to play in next weekend’s Par Four Charities Tournament.

“All these men have been through generations of change and changes in golf throughout the country. They’ve gone through times when there were two (separate) clubhouses and no place to play, and now to see Augusta National (Golf Club) has African American members. It is very special.”

Among those who can relate is Adrian Stills, general manager of Osceola Golf Course and former professional tour player. He won the second Par Four Tournament in 1976 at Perdido. After winning his second one in 1979 he turned pro the next week.

Read more at PNJ.COM

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. (AP) — He won the first one the way players like to take majors, leading from the start at the Masters on a romp to the green jacket.

The second for Jordan Spieth came Sunday night with a bit more difficulty. Had Dustin Johnson been a little more steady with the putter on the final green Sunday, they might still be playing for the U.S. Open trophy.

Johnson wasn’t, much to the astonishment of the 6,000 or so who crowded the grandstands at maligned Chambers Bay for an Open finish like no other. He had to settle for holding his infant son off the 18th green on Father’s Day, instead of the U.S. Open trophy.

That belonged to Spieth, the phenom from Texas who impressed so many by not only winning the Masters but the grace and composure he showed while doing it. He spoke after that win about bringing a present home to his special needs sister, and it was clear that meant almost as much to him as winning his first green jacket.

He’s now halfway to history, yet still barely old enough to drink. The last player who did things like Spieth was named Tiger Woods, which seems so long ago.

Now he’s the youngest since Bobby Jones nearly a century ago to win back-to-back major championships. Spieth has a chance to do what even Woods couldn’t and win all four of golf’s major tournaments in one year.

Watching him Sunday on the crunchy greens at Chambers Bay, it was hard not to get the sense that he’s only just begun.

“He’s gritty, he’s fiery, he doesn’t give up on any shot,” caddie Michael Greller said. “If anything, this week just validated who I know he is, which is just a world-class player with an unbelievable mind.”

The story line at this Open unfolded easily, like it was written by a golf historian of the future. Woods came here to try and salvage his game, while Spieth came to cement his mark as a generational champion in the making.

Woods didn’t even make it to the weekend in yet another display of how humbling golf can be. The greatest player of his time seems forever stuck on 14 majors, and it remains to be seen how long he will keep embarrassing himself like he did here when he couldn’t even come close to beating a 15-year-old amateur before getting out of town on his private jet before the weekend began.

It was Spieth who salvaged this Open, making it one to remember for all the right reasons instead of the wrong. His 3-wood to the 18th green on Sunday was the kind of shot that will live in Open lore, even if Spieth didn’t make the eagle putt and even if he had to rely on Johnson 3-putting from 12 feet to seal the deal.

“This was just an odd deal, very odd,” Spieth said. “I very much feel for Dustin. He deserves to be holding the trophy just as much as I do, I think, this week. It just came down to him being the last one to finish and I was able to have one hole to rebound from my mistakes, and he wasn’t able to get that hole afterward.”

That Spieth did it without his best game should give his fellow competitors pause. His ball striking was just a bit off, he said, his putting not always up to his standards.

It was the kind of thing Woods used to say, then go out and beat everyone anyway. It didn’t seem possible another player of that caliber would come along in his time, but here Spieth is at the age of 21 brimming with confidence as the British Open at St. Andrews approaches and the possibility of a Grand Slam looms.

“I’m just focused on the Claret Jug now,” he said of the British Open trophy. “I think that the Grand Slam is something that I never could really fathom somebody doing, considering I watched Tiger win when he was winning whatever percentage of the majors he played in and he won the Tiger Slam, but he never won the four in one year. I figured if anybody was going to do it, it would be him.”

Read more at AOL NEWS

As the best players on the PGA TOUR look toward qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs over the next two months, tournament officials with The Barclays are reminding fans that there are still opportunities to get a unique, behind-the-scenes experience as a volunteer for the event when it returns to Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J., August 26-30.

The 1,800 men, women and children (volunteers must be at least 12 years of age to participate) who volunteer their time at The Barclays each year are an integral part of the event’s success, both during tournament week and in its ongoing support of local charities. The PGA TOUR, its players and tournaments support more than 3,000 charities nationwide. These local and national organizations benefit a variety of causes, positively impacting the lives of millions in the communities where PGA TOUR tournaments are held. In 2013, The Barclays donated $1.4 million to local charities. Charity totals from the 2014 event will be announced later this summer.

The Barclays volunteers are divided into 27 committees and work a combined 33,300 hours both leading up to and during tournament week. The volunteers support every element of the tournament, from tracking statistics, greeting guests and feeding fans, to keeping the grounds beautiful throughout the event. Without their hard work, The Barclays would not be possible.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to be close to some of the game’s top players, all while working as an integral part of a world-class tournament. For a $75 fee, volunteers receive a week-long pass for themselves and a guest to The Barclays (good for admission even on days he or she is not working), an official cap and shirt, lunch vouchers and an invitation to the Volunteer Appreciation Party.

“Effective and experienced volunteers are vital to the success of an event with the stature of The Barclays,” said Executive Director Peter Mele. “Volunteers will have the opportunity to meet new people, network and make great friends, all while contributing to the success of an event that makes a tremendous difference in the community and is one of the most elite on the PGA TOUR.”

Those interested in volunteering should visit thebarclaysgolf.com and follow the link for “Volunteer” under the “Information” tab.

About Barclays (www.barclays.com)
Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays’ purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way.

With 325 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 130,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com

About The Barclays (www.thebarclaysgolf.com)
The Barclays has been a part of the PGA TOUR schedule since 1967 when Jack Nicklaus won the inaugural event at Westchester Country Club. Since that time, some of the greatest players in the game have earned the title including World Golf Hall of Famers Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Raymond Floyd, Seve Ballesteros, Hale Irwin and Curtis Strange. Many of the world’s current top players have won the event as well, including two-time champions Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia; four-time champion Vijay Singh; and 2014 champion Hunter Mahan. As the first of four playoff events, The Barclays plays a leading role in the FedExCup, the season-long competition that is the centerpiece of the PGA TOUR season.

On Tiger Woods…

Frank Nobilo – “The coup de gras really happened at 18 [with a] groundball. In baseball, he would have gotten on base, but really the story of his day was off-base.”

David Duval – “I think that there is a big disconnect between the driving range and the golf course… He believes 100% in his technique… It is a very long road at this point, and you’re really not seeing a lot of positive signs anywhere as soon as he steps on the golf course in a competitive round.”

Frank Nobilo ­– “In golf you always compare a player to whoever played the best that day. And sadly for Tiger Woods we don’t even use that comparison. We compare him to the best today, which were the 65s, and to [the player he used to be]. And that’s really unfair.”

Brandel Chamblee – “At his best he showed us what a human being was capable of… The apocalypse of imaginative power happens when you turn your game over to someone else and start to look outside of yourself for answers. I’m thoroughly convinced that the way to get out of this is to do it on your own… If he got away to a [driving] range he’d figure it out on his own… That’s how you learn this game, by imitation, and then creation with imagination… We know he has the ability, but he’s got so many thoughts in his head.”

Notah Begay – “Confidence is such an allusive thing for any athlete. You have to get positive reinforcement for any game you play. He’s not getting that. He has to go on faith. He has to go on a belief that what he is doing and the choices that he’s made are the right things for his game… He wants to stick this thing out, and I think we are going to see him stay on this course through the summer, through the next few events and find out if he can turn any of this around in any way, shape or form.”