Slavic Invitational Golf Tournament Tees Off

Coast golf courses are filled with golf enthusiasts and title hopefuls as day one of the three day Slavic Invitational Golf Tournament got underway Friday. News 25 hit the green Friday with some of the players and spoke with south Mississippians who have had a strong link to the tournament since the very beginning.

Pat Smolcich has been keeping score cards and handing them out to the golfers at the Slavic Invitational Golf Tournament for 40 years, since it began in 1974. Smolcich says, "I did it by myself for years because there weren’t that many, but in the past ten years, I’ve had to have help, so there’s two of us who do it."

Golfers at the tournament are swinging for a good cause. Wade Hamilton, Manager of Sunkist Country Club Golf Course, says, "The scholarships, I think that gets lost sometimes. They raise a lot of money with this event. It’s a lot of hard work. Nobody makes a dime off of it. They take all that money and cover the expenses of course, but then they award scholarships to dependents of members of the lodge and they’ve given out quite a few over the years."

This tournament continues rolling in the green for education. The Slavic Invitational is rooted at Sunkist Country Club Golf Course, but has grown from a few dozen players in its first year to more than 1,000 players. Hamilton also says, "Each golf course, five golf courses, and each one of them gets about 216 golfers a day. Sunday, they add a sixth golf course, Fallen Oak for some of the better flights."

Players don’t just get to try out the golf courses, they get a taste of south Mississippi Slovenian culture, thanks to the Women’s Auxiliary. Like the Point, where many Slovenians once lived, this tournament is a melting pot of sorts, a reunion for some, and an opportunity for others to experience south Mississippi and make new friends on and off the green.

Myles Sharp, a tournament participant, says, "Every year, I get paired up with some out of state folks, and you build some lasting friendships and they’ll email you and contact you on social media to see where you’re playing in hopes of running back into you each year."

Perhaps most importantly, this tournament creates lasting memories for years to come, even if the scorecards don’t reflect the high hopes of golfers who didn’t quite make par. This year’s tournament is host to 1,060 golfers and is expected to sink about $2.5 million into the local economy.