CAMPS HBCU GOLF CHARITY

HBCU COLLEGE GOLF ACADEMY

GATEWAY TO THE PGA TOUR

MANY OF THE TOP 100 COLLGES HAVE GOLF ACADEMIES AND GOLF FACILITIES ON THEIR CAMPUSES, WHY NOT HBCU’S?

OUR GOAL

OUR GOAL AND INTENTION IS TO SEND HBCU STUDENTS TO THE PGA TOUR. BY BUILDING A PRACTICE FACILITY ON THE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, WE CAN CREATE AN ADEQUATE ENVIRONMENT TO ENHANCE THE SKILLS NECCESSARY TO COMPETE ON THE GOLF’S HIGHEST LEVEL.

WE ALSO WOULD LIKE TO STIMULATE YOUNG LADIES AND FEMALE STAFFERS TO PARTICIPATE IN GOLF AND POSSIBLY BEGIN A TREND TO SEE MORE FEMALE GOLF TEAMS AT HBCU’S. I AM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY.

BY ATTENDING TWO HBCU COLLEGES, I PLAYED ON THE TEAM, WHERE WE HAD MAJOR DISADVANATGES. WE HAD NO GOLF FACILITES CLOSE TO CAMPUSES. AT PRAIRIE VIEW, WE TRAVELED 20 MILES TO HEMPSTEAD TO AN UNKEPT GOLF COURSE, OR WE PRACTICED IN A FIELD NEAR OUR DORM. ONE HUGE ADVANTAGE BEING ON A COLLEGE GOLF TEAM IN TEXAS WAS THAT WE CAN PLAY MOST COURSES AND COUNTRY CLUBS FOR FREE. AT MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE, THE GOLF COURSE WAS 45 MILES AWAY IN GREENVILE MISSISSIPPI. SO YOU SEE THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING A PRACTICE FACILITY ON CAMPUS.

Our purpose:

We’re here to create a Golf community for our HBCU students to enhance the skills necessary to compete on the highest level. We are passionate about elevating the golf ability of HBCU golfers and sending some to the PGA Tour and possibly getting more HBCU females involved in golf

Make it stand out.

WHO AM I?

My name is Jon Camp Jr. I attended two HBCU colleges which are Prairie View A&M University in 1978-1979 and Mississippi Valley State in 1981-1982. I have been a golfer since I was 9 years old. I played in numerous golf tournaments and won many. At the age of 10 I lost to a kid name Tim Miller Houser. I finally beat him at 16 years old and he cried. When I made the final put I gave a Tiger Woods fist pump. I qualified for a famous junior golf tournament called the IYC (Insurance Youth Classic. ) They take the top 6 kids from each state. The first time I went which was 1977, we played a course in Napa Valley California called Silverado Country Club. My experience was both good and bad. There were 200 kids there and millionaires that lived around the golf course property. I didn’t realize that they couldn’t find a place for me as a 16 year old black junior golfer. When they finally found one, he was a maintenance worker at the course and I stayed in his two bedroom apartment with his two screaming kids because I was sleeping in their bunk beds. I didn’t recognize the discrimination I was experiencing. I had two great experiences at Silverado Country Club. The first great experience I had was playing 9 holes with a U.S, open champion name Rod Funseth. My second great experience was playing beautiful golf in the tournament. I finished 11th place in the IYC tournament. I was fortunate to win one of the biggest tournaments in the SWACK history which was the Mississippi intercollegiate golf championship in 1981. I played the golf mini tour in Orlando Florida in 1986 where I wasn’t very successful. However I was hitting balls one morning where I noticed a space shuttle going up and watched it explode. I had an experience with Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill C.C. I was on the first tee when he walked out the clubhouse and noticed me on the tee box. He looked my way and never spoke.

I have two golf inventions stay tuned for the results. Hopefully the golf practice facility at the HBCU’s will inspire female golfers and female golf teams. I qualified a second year at the IYC golf tournament and had the pleasure to play with another U.S. open champion whose name is Larry Nelson. The golf channel had major amateur championships. I won two of them. The first one I won was at Green Brier C/C where I had my first hole in one.

My mother you see on the golf cart, made NIP magazines as one of the prolific golfers in Cincinnati. She played in many golf tournaments and won several.

I caddied for her once in the local metropolitan golf tournament, where she won her flight. I remembered the white ladies that she beat were very annoyed by her ability to play golf. We were truly a golf family. In her later years, she played in a golf group with mostly men players. She would say how much joy she had beating those men and how upset they felt being beat by her. She truly loved the game.

My mother passed away in 2003. I miss her dearly. She would be one of my greatest supporters of my golf charity.

My beautiful mother loved to play golf. She played and won many tournaments. She was the love of my life.

There are a couple of ingredients that are necessary to play great golf.

You must learn to strike the ball solid
You must learn to put your drive in a fairway
The wiz game from 100 yards and in, needs to be masterful'
Chipping, putting and your sand game needs to be a strong part of your game
Your ability to think your way around the course is critical to sustain great golf.
My philosophy: “Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent ”
So watch what you practice, if its negative you may not be able to stop. I’ve always said “do great things.”
Therefore a trained eye on your game is also critical in the effort to compete at the highest level.
Having a great imagination and creativity is very important
We must build iron will, confidence, and belief that you can be the greatest
Lastly, don’t forget practice, practice, practice.

The picture of me and my dad on a golf cart is priceless. He and I played in several team tournaments. Father and Son tournament and others. I am so proud to say that we won every single one. He was a great golfer and loved the game passionately. He got me started in the game at 9 years old.

There’s a story that I must tell. In 1969, a friend pulled him out of bed to play golf for the first time, Four guys played reeves golf course at Lunken airport. They played for whoever had the highest score paid for the foursomes, hot dogs and cokes. My dad lost and had to buy hot dogs and cokes for the guys. The next week the same guy comes to the house to play again. He reluctantly went and played. My dad lost again. My dad remembers tearing the backyard grass up, chipping and practicing, to the point he was so hooked, and fell deeply in love with the sport, and a son who watched everything his dad, I also fell in love with golf.