Several golf professionals from the AT&T Championship, PGA Champions Tour, joined Warriors in Transition from Fort Sam Houston to play in a hole-in-one putting tournament Oct. 23 at the Fort Sam Houston Golf Course.
Golf pros, their guests and AT&T Championship Charity staff were taken on a tour of the Warrior Family Support Center and the new facility, a 12,500 square-foot building under construction and scheduled to replace the smaller Warrior and Family Support Center located in the Powless Guest House in December.
“I was glad they (AT&T) asked,” said Phil Blackmar, professional golfer on tour with the PGA Champions Tour. “My father flew E-2s in the Navy for 22 years, I’m a Navy Brat. I’ve been around the military all my life, I was happy when I found out about it.”
The Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Huffman Developments hosted the putting tournament, which was a preamble to a $60,000 presentation from the AT&T Championship Charity to the WFSC and the Returning Heroes Home project.
The AT&T Champions Charity gives to several San Antonio-based charities and schools through the PGA Champions Tour that is played annually in October at the Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio.
A check in the amount of $30,000 was presented to Judith Markelz, program manager, Warrior and Family Support Center. The WFSC supports wounded warriors and their Family members, who have left their jobs and homes to come to Fort Sam Houston to help with the rehabilitation of their loved ones.
“One of the great things about the tour events, but this one in particular, is that the money raised goes to local charities. It also gets the community involved in supporting the tournament, they come out to the tournament, and we have lots of volunteers. We have 600 volunteers who help support the tournament, and the proceeds are then given back to the local community,” said Lora, Watts, senior vice president of global events and president of the Champions Charity, AT&T.
A $30,000 check was presented to Steve Huffman, president and CEO of Huffman Developments, a San Antonio construction firm which has been instrumental in donating and raising funds for the Returning Heroes Home project, which broke ground in September 2007.
This is not the first time the Fort Sam Houston golf course has hosted PGA golf professionals. The La Loma course one of two courses at the Fort Sam Houston golf course, developed in 1932, is the only military golf course that has hosted a PGA event and two Texas Open tournaments.
The Fort Sam Houston Golf Course is open to the public, offers private lessons, specialty clinics and a junior golfers program.
