Category: News

Manny had a great week at The Honda Classic with his dad. Somehow, he gets all the great pics with the pros and celebrities wherever he goes.

Here is one with Honda Classic Co-Chair Barbara Nicklaus. Manny, what is your secret and when are you running for office?

Enroll your children in our First Tee programs as golf is the sport of business and the sport of a lifetime! 
 
Our program locations include: 

• Keiser University Golf Coaching Center 
• Commons Park Golf Learning Center 
• John Prince Golf Learning Center 
• The Golf Club of Jupiter 
• Madison Green Country Club 
• Michael B. Finnegan Learning Center – Dyer Park 
• North Palm Beach Country Club 
• Okeeheelee Golf Course 
• Park Ridge Golf Course 
• PGA TOUR Superstore – Palm Beach Gardens 
• Southwinds Golf Course 
• Wellington National Golf Club 
 
For more information and to register, please visit our website.

Our Chapter enjoys a very long and continually growing partnership with the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course. Each year, the Par 3 Foundation funds three weeks of summer camps for our students at the course. These funds are raised each year at the Raymond Floyd Open.

Our Chapter sends a team each year to compete in the Raymond Floyd Open. This year’s team was comprised PGA TOUR winner and Chapter Coach Trevor Dodds, chapter students Billy Reid, Olivia Marano, and Mateo Muniz and Chapter Executive Director Carl Mistretta.

The team got hot and finished with 10 birdies in a row to card a 13 under par round. We finished tied for 1st but lost on a match of cards to the team lead by Dennis Walters and Gussie.

“We really wanted to win,” said Mateo. “This tournament was so much fun, and I rolled in a lot of putts. We did beat Trustee Bob Simses’ team, which was very important to Mr. Carl for some reason. I think Mr. Bob is his uncle.”
Special SHOUT OUT to Tony Chateavert, PGA and Angie Young of the Palm Beach G.C. for conducting such an awesome event!

Monday afternoon after tournament week, our Chapter conducted our annual Monday after The Honda Invitational. Our donors, supporters and students play the Sunday pins from the PGA TOUR event. A few crazy people even played the pro tees!

“The course was so much fun, and the greens were lightning fast. Even the fairways were fast!” said Chapter student Zoe Shamy. “This tournament allows us to see what it is really like to play on the PGA TOUR. We are so grateful to The Honda Classic for offering us such a memorable experience.”

Everyone met for dinner after the tournament and the highlight for the day was Chapter student Jacie Goodman telling the players all about her experiences with First Tee including attending national academies and caddying at Old Marsh. She was accompanied by chapter students and alumni (pictured above right).

Monday after the Honda tournament results were as follows:

LOW GROSS
1st – Peter Helie and Bobby Collins (68) (pictured above left)
2nd – John Hahn and Anthony Webb (68)
3rd – David Ladd and James Wittek (69)

LOW NET
1st – Steve Politziner and Eric Glasband (58) (pictured above middle)
2nd – Mike Miller and Mike Townsend (60)
3rd – Mark Reid and Alex Gilmurray (60)

Closest to the Hole #5 – Scott Pagano 1′-3″
Closest to the Hole #7 – Bobby Collins 7′-4″
Closest to the Hole #15 – Eric Glasband 12′-6″
Closest to the Hole #17 – Rod Ryan 5′-2″

Saturday morning of tournament week Chapter participants and students from Inner City Youth Golfers were invited to a special behind the scenes tour of The Honda Classic. The tour included the media center, inside the ropes access to the driving range and putting green, the ShotLink truck and a meet and greet and lunch with John Cowles, CEO of Trugreen at the TruGreen Backyard tent.

Pictured above: Manny the mayor with (left to right): Honda Classic Executive Director Ken Kennerly, John Cowles, Manny and Chapter Executive Director Carl Mistretta.

During Friday of tournament week, Chapter students Willie “Coyote” Inman and Jayda Dookie were selected as this year’s inside the ropes PGA TOUR Junior Course Reporters. They were given special media credentials, toured the Tim Rosaforte Media Center and learned about camera work and reporting from ESPN’s and WPTV’s sports anchor Theo Dorsey. The students were invited to video interview Chase Koepka!

“Theo was awesome!” said Wylie. “He spent the whole day with us and showed us what it takes to cover the most important sporting event in Palm Beach County.”
At the end of the day, Wylie accompanied his father Bill, a veteran, to the Patriots Outpost and met Governor Ron DeSantis!

For the ninth consecutive year, Pratt & Whitney has funded a generous grant benefitting our veterans’ programs through The Honda Classic. Thursday afternoon of tournament week a check was presented in the amount of $35,000 to our veterans in the Patriots Outpost (the tournament’s military appreciation tent sponsored by Pratt & Whitney). Hundreds of other veterans were also in attendance.

Thank you to our veterans that attended including Bob Massimini, Douglas Turner, Christina Olivarez and Homer Watts among others for their service.

“Pratt & Whitney’s inspirational generosity has allowed our veterans golf programs to grow in both number and frequency,” said Bobby Hendel, Chapter President. “We now conduct veterans’ programs each weekday and this grant also provides for our nation’s heroes to play local golf courses.”

In honor of the men and women who have and are currently serving our great nation, The Honda Classic in partnership with Pratt & Whitney offers complimentary tickets for Active Duty, Reservists, Retirees, their registered Dependents and Non-Retired Veterans Thursday through Sunday of tournament week.

On Tuesday afternoon of tournament week Dennis Walters, Chase Koepka and Erik Compton hosted our annual Junior Clinic. The event began with Dennis and Gussie putting on their inspirational show with golf trick shots. Pictured above left: Gussie can hit a driver!

Erik and Chase then talked to the kids and teens about challenges in their lives and how they practice and manage their games to play professional golf. They answered questions from the audience and hit some shots for the crowd. Pictured above right: Chase hitting shots while Erik and the crowd look on.

Hot dogs and snacks were served for all that attended. Over 100 juniors joined us for the clinic.

Thank you TruGreen for sponsoring this fun and special event.

On Tuesday morning of Honda week, 18 adult students from the Els Center of Excellence attended a special golf clinic. The students were divided into three groups and rotated among three stations of putting, chipping and full-swings. The clinic concluded with Dennis Walters and his dog Gussie hitting some incredible trick shots.

Special SHOUT OUT to our Els coaches Joel Zanville, Sam Velazquez, Sasha Lobel, Corey Sturgis, Aimee Ackell, Emily Valentine, Dave McNulty, Steven Andrade and Anthony Coletta for conducting a fun morning!