“I started Inner-City Youth Golfers, Inc. in the year 2000, says Malachi Knowles, Founder. “I figured, “Hey, look. Let me just give back to the community through a sport that I really love that was in my blood. Golf is the only sport that one playing the game calls a penalty on his or herself. And so the bottom line for me was: you start dealing with courageousness, honesty, perseverance, timeliness and all those characters relate to the game of golf.”

Knowles has Has worked with more than 15,000 kids since it started in 2000.

“Our signature program became, ‘Say no to drugs; say yes to education, culture and golf.’ Children of today need to understand that they must dress well, have their manners in check, be courageous; but they must also have perspective. We hope through the game of golf that we can keep them out of trouble. Our kids don’t need to be in jail. Our kids need to be playing golf.”

“Our kids need to play a sport, be healthy. Our kids need to be happy. I believe our contributions through golf have saved many lives, and I know that today, we have kept a lot of kids off of drugs.”

Malachi Knowles
Founder
Inner City Youth Golfers’, Inc.
Palm Beach, FL
“We show these kids that there are GOOD THINGS TO DO in life like PLAYING GOLF.”

Champions for change African Americans creating a healthier world through sports is presented by Aetna.
View the full 2015 Champions for Change Calendar HERE

Will Lowery is on a 5-year track which he hopes will successfully lead to his ultimate goal of playing on the PGA Tour.  In an opportunity of a lifetime, Lowery was selected as a cast member on Big Break Indian Wells that aired on the Golf Channel during 2011.

Season 15 derived its name from it being taped (in January 2011) at Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, Calif.  Competitors began the series with $5,000.  The objective was to knock everyone else out and take their money.  The prize: A minimum of $55,000 (it’s winner-take-all), plus an exemption into a 2012 PGA Tour Zurich Classic of New Orleans.  Lowery played strong and hard–put his heart into his game, but was eliminated in Episode 9.  In the final outcome: Winner David Byrne defeated Kent Eger in the championship match.

The series was a professional highlight of Lowery’s golfing career and likely to remain a part of his legacy.  However, Lowery’s journey to play golf professionally was not the straight and narrow course that many competitors experience.  Growing up in an urban Charlotte, N.C., community, he admits to starting out with the “wrong crowd,” and “initially going down the wrong path.”  At the age of five, his father put a golf club in his hand as a way to teach him life lessons.  Will had no idea of its value at the time.

As he grew older, he knew he had to do something positive in his life, and he focused on sports as a positive outlet.

“Growing up in the inner city, it was all about survival and looking out for one another,” said Will, age 26.  “I saw the road that a lot of my friends were going down, and I chose to take a different path.  I wanted to make something of myself.  Make my family proud.  Tennis, and later golf, were the outlets that allowed me to do that,” says the Christian, Liberal, who sports beautiful dreads he has been growing for years.

Will excelled in competitive tennis during his teenage years.  Golf was merely in the background until his senior year, when he started playing regularly and consistently beat more advanced players, all the while playing with a unique reverse grip swing style that has become his signature.

“My father taught me how to swing the golf club and I chose to keep the cross-handed grip because it felt natural, said Will. “It was a result of all of my years playing tennis.  I guess you can say that I’m playing golf by hitting backhand shots.”

After high school, Lowery focused full-time on golf.  He also discovered a new passion, the desire to give back to others.  Under the tutelage of chapter director, Vince King, he volunteers at The First Tee of Charlotte – teaching life lessons and core values on and off the golf course to youth of similar backgrounds and frequents his home course, Northstone Country Club.

“The First Tee has been such a rewarding experience for me,” said Will.  “When I hear these kids say they want to be successful in life, it drives me to be the example they seek.

Will, a mortgage specialist by trade, believes that as a professional golfer he has what it takes to compete on the PGA TOUR.  The opportunities, he says, just have not presented themselves.

At age 32, professional golfer Montrele Wells is banking on his golfing skills for a long, satisfying sports career.  “Golf is my life,” he says, after returning from  the PGA Tour’s Latin America Q-School. The PGA Tour Latinoamérica is a third level professional golf tour formed in 2012 and operated by the PGA Tour.

For 2015, three Q-Schools were held, in three different countries, allowing Wells– as well as more players– an opportunity to join in PGA TOUR Latinoamérica’s success.  Players had their chance to lock up one of the exempt cards up for grabs at each site:  Sun ‘N Lake Golf and Country Club in Sebring, Florida played host in the U.S. for the third year in a row (January 20-23).  Following were two concurrent sites played, allowing for some players to compete closer to home (January 27-30): The La Planicie Country Club, in Lima, Peru and Hurlingham Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At all three sites the top finisher received fully exempt status for the entire 2015 season. The remaining spots are determined based on each field’s composition and be subject to areshuffle. Conditional status was awarded to those who finished within the top 30 and ties.

Wells made the tight January 5th deadline for players to apply and began making his travel arrangements.

Why did he decide to enter and attend Q-School there?
“I’d never been before and, wanted to test my game— in hopes of taking advantage of another avenue that the PGA Tour has created—for golfers to develop and make it to the Tour,” says Wells.  “Unfortunately, I had some wrist issues from prior surgery and fought through the week just to finish.”   And he did not give up.  The fields consist of a maximum 144 players, with the top fifty plus ties making the cut.

Wells paid for Q-School himself, using funds from his 2014 mini-tour winnings.  He also ran a grass roots campaign by simply asking people he knew for $25 in person, by phone, by email, and on Facebook. “I was able to come up with the money through the support of my wife, great family and church members, and friends who want to to see me succeed,” says Wells who used the much-needed money to cover travel, equipment and meal expenses.  Players who make the cut will be part of the Tour’s 2015 schedule that includes 18 official events and one unofficial event spanning 13 countries.  Purse levels are rising to $175,000 per event with the Tour Championship featuring a $200,000 purse.  The Tour opens its fourth season March 16th with the Colombian Open in Bogota, Colombia followed by the Mazatlan Open at Estrella del Mar in Mazatlan, Mexico on March 23rd.

In the end, he selected the Tour’s Q-School located in Peru, “because the Florida site filled up within just the first few hours and Peru was cheaper than Argentina,” says an ambitious Wells whose total cost to attend and participate ended up at $3,850.00 (entry fee $1,850 + other expenses $2,000).

Photo:  A few of the Q-School contestants (l-r)  Montrele Wells, Galen Aldrich, Chuck Wyatt (Cuban), Will Lowery (former Big Break player on The Golf Channel), Nick Wade, Wesley Yates. None of them made the cut. Results:  “-14 won it, +1 received conditional status on the PGA Latino America Tour which was the top 31 and ties. I shot 77,78,81,82.”

Wells was indeed disappointed with his results, but says, “It only made me MORE hungry,” and that the experience was “amazing and taught me so much.”

Determined to succeed, The talented player plans to be much more prepared next year, and ‘prayerfully’, injury free. An upbeat athlete with a passion for following his dream, Wells plans to play at least 20 events on the mini tours during 2015, and, go full-time professional.   He usualy plays only in six events annually–while working 40+ hours as the Logistics Supervisor for Delta Cargo– but now plans to slide some Monday qualifiers into his schedule.  Sine he also volunteers as an instructor/coach at the First Tee Jacksonville (Fla.) it’s going to be quite a balancing act and require a tremendous amount of discipline but, Wells is confident that he can do it.

“I really hope that some of the wealthier people in the world will see the passion, desire, and determination of myself, and others who are trying to make it in golf.  I hope some of these people get behind us financially so, we can diversify this great game. The game that Mr. Sifford, may he RIP, fought so hard to make available for us to compete in, at the highest level.” Montrele Wells can be reached on Facebook.