The 18-player field is set for the Billy Horschel APGA Tour Invitational May 4-6 at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Leading the field will be defending champion and six-time APGA winner Willie Mack III. Mack, who won an APGA event at Queen’s Harbour last month, is one of 12 players in the field from the APGA player development program. The others are Ryan Alford, Aaron Beverly, Marcus Byrd, Mulbe Dillard IV, Michael Herrera, Kamaiu Johnson, Mahindra Lutchman, Trey Valentine, Davin White, Rovonta Young and Andrew Walker.
Johnson, Mack and Alford took a trip this week to the Masters to take in Friday’s second round at Augusta National along with Kenyatta Ramsey, the PGA Tour VP of Player Development.
First time at the Masters and we did it right. #themasters pic.twitter.com/aCyWLPkuXB
— Kamaiu "My My" Johnson (@KamaiuJohnson) April 8, 2022
The other six players in the Horschel event are exempt players Olajuwon Ajanaku, Kevin Hall, Joey Stills, Wyatt Worthington and Gregory Odom Jr. and amateur Troy Taylor II.
The tournament is sponsored by Horschel, a Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, resident and six-time PGA Tour winner, and Cisco. The field will compete for an APGA record purse of $125,000 and the winner will receive an exemption into the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am in June.
The pro-am will be May 4 and the competitive rounds May 5-6. The pro-am day also includes seminars, development opportunities with industry leaders and a trip to the PGA Tour Superstore to help players with equipment fitting.
“Our Tour prides itself in providing a pathway for professional golfers to achieve their dreams and reach the PGA Tour, and we’re honored to work alongside Billy Horschel and the APGA Tour in an effort to provide meaningful playing opportunities to help diversify the golf landscape,” Korn Ferry president Alex Baldwin said in a statement.
Six of the players in the field, Mack, Johnson, Alford, Byrd, Hall and Beverly, have played in PGA Tour events over the past 18 months and Mack made back-to-back cuts last year.
The APGA Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The APGA Tour board works to accomplish this by hosting and operating professional golf tournaments, player development programs, mentoring programs and by introducing the game to inner city young people.
In addition to conducting up to 17 tournaments awarding more than $500,000 in prize money and nearly $100,000 in bonus money in 2022, the APGA has organized a Player Development Program to aid young minority golfers as they work to chase their goals in professional golf.
