Michigan’s Willie Mack III Wins Butterfield Bermuda APGA

Willie Mack III Wins Butterfield Bermuda APGA In Playoff

Korn Ferry Q-School Is Next On The Agenda

Flint, Michigan Native Willie Mack III won the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda APGA Championship in a three-man playoff Oct. 12.

Joseph Hooks, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, also was in the playoff.

The APGA (Advocates Pro Golf Association), which was founded in 2010, runs tournaments, player development programs, and mentoring programs while introducing the game to inner-city young people. The tour has grown from seven events with $200,000 in prize money in 2020 and 14 events with over $400,000 in prize money in 2021, to 18 events with over $900,000 in prize and bonus money in 2022.

The Butterfield Bermuda APGA Championship was held on the Port Royal Golf Course. It was the first international competition for the APGA.

Mack, a standout Michigan high school player, won the Michigan Amateur in 2011. He was the first African American to do so. Mack has played on the PGA TOUR on sponsors exemptions in the Rocket Mortgage Classic and Genesis Invitational, Farmers Insurance Open and John Deere Classic. He also has competed on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica.

Mack made the cut at the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic and John Deere Classic.

Overall, Mack has more than 70 wins on the APGA Tour and mini-tours.

Mack will play in the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School next week at Plantation Preserve Golf Club in Plantation, Florida. He advanced out of the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School last month at Championsgate Golf Club in Championsgate, Florida.

At the Bermuda Butterfield, Mack, Hooks and Marcus Byrd of Washington, D.C. all tied with a four under 138. On the replay of 18, Mack parred, while Byrd and Hooks missed.

The first-place check of $15,000 from the purse of $60,000 represents the fourth largest in the history of the APGA Tour.

“I tried not to make mistakes today,” stated Mack, who battled injuries earlier in the year and is now feeling confident with next week’s challenge on deck.  “My putting was there today when I needed it.  Hopefully I can bring what I accomplished this week into next week.  It was good to play a PGA TOUR-level course these last two days.”

The invitational tournament was hosted and sponsored by the Bermuda Tourism Authority, Butterfield, The Hamilton Princess and Beach Club and Life & Annuity Services (LAS).

The APGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Fall Series resumes later this month with the APGA Tour Charlie Sifford Centennial at Kingswood Forest Golf Club, October 25-26, in Houston, Texas.  Byrd, winner of APGA Tour Valley Forge, and Brad Adamonis, winner of the Ascension Classic/APGA Tour St. Louis, are tied atop the Fall Series Point Standings with 600 points.  The season culminates Nov. 8-10 with the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Fall Series Finale at Tustin Ranch Golf Club in Tustin Ranch, California.

On an editorial note, kudos to the Bermuda Tourism Authority, Butterfield, Farmers Insurance, Lexus, Cisco , World Wide Technology and the PGA TOUR for their support of APGA in their efforts to grow the game, particularly among minority communities. If a certain oil money league wants to truly “grow the game,” they should drop a half a billion on the APGA. Elevating this tour would do far more to grow the game than all of the collective posturing they have done to date.