By Barbara Palmgren
Summer is here and golfers are teeing up their shots and hoping for a hole-in-one, a low round, a 50-ft. putt and/or all the bragging rights that can be shared on the 19th hole. If you are a low handicap golfer and dreaming of making it to the Korn Ferry Tour and ultimately to the PGA tour, you begin with winning on tours such as the Emerald Coast Golf Tour.
For most of these tournaments, the three-day event begins with a Pro-Am tournament on the first day followed by tournament play for the next two days. June 4-6, 2025, found golf hopefuls at Shalimar Pointe Golf Course. On July 15-17, they will enter another tournament at Kelly Plantation followed by competition in August at Aroostook Golf Course in Montgomery, Ala., and Quail Hollow Golf Club in McComb, Miss.
The Emerald Coast Golf Tour is owned and directed by Geno Celano from Destin who organized these tournaments over 30 years ago. A professional golfer, Geno knew that competition like this needs to be offered in the Panhandle area and nearby states.
The winning team during the first day of the Pro-Am competition was the team of Jacob hill, Chris Iron, John Sykes and Joe Frye. They posted a -6 score to leave with bragging rights. In this event with a four-person team, where the top two scores for each team were entered for scoring.
The next two days, the game got even more serious at this challenging golf course. Players from as far as Canada and Tennessee were focused on winning first place and a large pay-out. At the end of a very warm two-day grind, the top three players emerged victorious:
1st Place: Mitchell Bowen from Tennessee with a score of 229 (+4)
2nd Place: Gary Glassman from Alabama with a score of 221 (+5)
3rd Place: Marco Trstenjak from Winnipeg Canada with a score of 225 (+9)
Congratulations, gentlemen! Hunting ow scores is a lure that continues to draw players to competition with other golfers and the golf course itself.
