John Hayt was recently recognized as the 2017 recipient of the Deane Beman Award at the fifth annual Celebration of Golf banquet at Timuquana Country Club.
The Deane Beman Award is presented to an individual who has had a significant and long-term impact on the game of golf in the Greater Jacksonville area. The award is presented annually by the Jacksonville Area Golf Association (JAGA), in association with the Northern Chapter of the North Florida PGA. It is named in honor of former PGA TOUR Commissioner (1974-94) Deane Beman, with the first two recipients of the award being Beman himself in 2015 and Herb Peyton in 2016.
Hayt was honored for his many efforts in benefiting amateur golf at the University of North Florida. He and his wife Gerri have generously supported UNF’s golf learning center, which is named the UNF Golf Complex at the Hayt Learning Center. His backing of the UNF golf team also prompted the university to rename its annual golf tournament at Sawgrass Country Club the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, considered one of the premier college tournaments in the country.
Hayt is the retired chairman and CEO of EquiCredit Corporation, a Jacksonville-based, publicly held company that was a pioneer of the home equity lending industry. He retired in 1997 after the company was acquired by Barnett Banks of Florida.
In 2005, the Hayts established a $100,000 endowed scholarship for UNF student athletes. They also established a scholarship program in honor of UNF’s first golf coach John Brooks. In recognition of his support of UNF athletics, Hayt was inducted into the UNF Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
