November is not usually the time of year to be thinking about the Wyndham Championship, which is played in August.
However, there are exceptions.
Wyndham Championship Tournament Director Mark Brazil won the American Junior Golf Association Digger Smith Award. In addition to the award, an ACE grant endowment in Brazil’s name was presented by his friends.
The Digger Smith Award is given to a supporter devoted to the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) mission and purpose of developing young men and women through competitive junior golf.
The ACE grant provides talented junior golfers with the financial means to compete nationally without the barriers of travel, entry fees and membership.
Brazil has been the tournament director in Greensboro for more than 18 years. Prior to coming to the PGA tournament here, Brazil worked for the AJGA from 1993 to 2001 in tournament administration and development.
In 2005, Brazil became a member of the board of directors of AJGA and now works on the AJGA’s charitable foundation, which oversees financial aid and leadership programming for junior golfers.
Brazil said, “I worked at the AJGA for eight years and fell in love with the purpose and mission. When I saw what the AJGA started doing by providing and creating more opportunities for kids outside of the organization as well as by ramping up the ACE grant, I knew this was going to be a charity I wanted to support for life.”
Brazil has helped young men and women who aspire to earn a college scholarship by aligning corporate support of his title sponsor with AJGA events.
The Wyndham Cup is an annual East-versus-West Ryder Cup-style match play event that features the top 20 young men and women from East of the Mississippi against their counterparts in the West. Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are just some of the alumni of that event.
The Wyndham Invitational is hosted at Sedgefield Country Club and features the top 72 boys in the Rolex AJGA rankings. Bruce Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed are a few of the names who played in the Wyndham Invitational.
The First Tee of the Triad President Mike Barber said, “One thing reflective of successful people is loyalty. The moment Mark left AJGA, he didn’t leave it in his heart. As you see in the Wyndham Cup and the Wyndham Invitational and all the things he’s done over the past 20 years since he became the tournament director, he’s had the AJGA in his frontal lobe.”
