Several Successes

Last year, Beaver Golf was able to provide golfers for the Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast in the PLAY4JA Golf Tourney in response to a last minute request for players.  This year, we were proactive in partnering by sponsoring a tee sign, a foursome and providing golfers to complete the foursomes.  Yesterday's event was successful for Beaver Golf in several ways.

The organization is all about junior achievement and I saw this event as an opportunity to showcase the talent of a few of my homeschool students who have the ability to play competitive golf.  One of those golfers is Shay Atkins but when we asked him to participate, he said No.  While this was disappointing, I will never force a golfer to do something they are not ready to do.  Fortunately, after taking some time to really think about the opportunity he chose to participate.  In the following weeks, he would play practice rounds and yesterday he won one of the closest to the pin prizes!!

After receiving his award, Shay went over to shake the hands of his Wawa playing partners and thanked them for the opportunity explaining that he had to leave because he had a football game to get to and he was the quarterback.   Their response: "Shay!! You get to play golf in the morning and go be the quarterback in the afternoon?  You are living our dream!!!"

Three other homeschool golfers were invited to play.  Sofia Mayer, Ike Tobin and Vivian Sterijevski.  Vivian was the only homeschool golfer to play last year and this year she had the honor of sinking a birdie putt for her team.  

It is my hope that this kind of friendly tournament play will instill confidence in these players to the level that they will believe that they have what it takes to play good golf at a competitive level.  The more they play the more confident they will become. ​

Coach Danni Rocco suggested we sponsor a foursome this year because she had two students who are aspiring to make their high school golf team, Lily Bieber and Sophia Nores, and another, Yuvani Bhandary, who wants to become a leader on the Palm Beach Central team.   This tournament provided an opportunity for Coach Danni to offer an on-course lesson to all three at the same time.  Additionally, they were able to meet each other and build new friendships.

"The Play4JA Golf Tournament was a great experience. My students had a fun time meeting new people and playing as a team. It was very nice seeing them take what they've learned on the range and apply it on the golf course. While all three contributed to team birdies, the most memorable moment of the round was when Lily made her first solo birdie ever." -Coach Danni Rocco

Several of my tournament players rounded out the fantastic 12 that represented Beaver Golf.  Annika Collado, Sydney Rogers and Danny Tadeo returned for a second year.  They were joined by graduating senior, Jayda Dookie who took home two of the remaining three closest to the pin prizes.  

It is an honor to develop players that are willing to give up their Saturday mornings to help out a great cause.  The event raised $27,000 for Junior Achievement programming.