Former U.S. Amateur champion and LPGA star/teaching pro Laura Baugh will be the main speaker at the fifth annual Celebration of Golf dinner at Timuquana Country Club Feb. 8.
The evening will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., with the program and dinner following from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $65 each, or $520 for a table of eight. They may be purchased through the JAGA website at www.jaxareagolf.org.
The banquet, which sold out for the first time in 2016, is co-sponsored by the Jacksonville Area Golf Association (JAGA) and the Northern Chapter of the North Florida PGA.
Area golf awards will be presented, with benefactor John Hayt receiving the Deane Beman Award for contributions to area golf. Hayt donated the golf center at the University of North Florida and also sponsors the annual major college tournament at Sawgrass Country Club in February.
Banquet co-chairs are JAGA’s Bob Streightiff of Queen’s Harbour Yacht & Country Club and the PGA’s Bruce Mohler of Ponte Vedra Inn and Club.
Born in Gainesville, Baugh grew up in Long Beach, California. At 16, she became the youngest winner ever when she won the 1971 U.S. Amateur at Atlanta Country Club – a distinction she held until 2006, when Kimberly Kim won at age 14. Named Golf Digest’s Most Beautiful Golfer in 1972, she had a lengthy LPGA career in which she earned Rookie of the Year honors in 1973 and logged 71 top 10 finishes. The six-time LPGA runner-up authored a book titled “Out of the Rough.” She is now a teaching professional at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach after moving to Northeast Florida in 2015.
