Jacksonville Area Golf Association releases 2024 schedule with 11 events at nine sites
The Jacksonville Area Golf Association released its 2024 schedule of events it sponsors, co-sanctions or supports, with 10 tournaments in Duval, St. Johns, Clay and Nassau Counties, at nine courses.
The First Coast Amateur kicks off the year Jan. 13-15 at Amelia National.
The tournaments operated by JAGA are the Spring Four-Ball (March 25 at Marsh Landing), the Senior Amateur (April 7-9 at Deerwood), the St. Johns County Four-Ball (May 4-5 at the St. Johns Golf Club), the Jacksonville Amateur (July 18-20 at the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club), the Fall Four-Ball (Oct. 28 at the Plantation at Ponte Vedra) and the Family Championship (Dec. 21 at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club.
Other events:
33rd Underwood Cup, Feb. 5-6, Timuquana Country Club (conducted by the Northern Chapter PGA, with JAGA support).
Greater Jacksonville Junior Championship, July 16-17, Eagle Harbor (conducted by the North Florida Junior Foundation, with JAGA support).
First Coast Women's Amateur, July 22-24, Plantation at Ponte Vedra (conducted by First Coast Women's Amateur committee, with JAGA support).
Two tournaments have not been scheduled yet, the JAGA/Northern Chapter Team Championship and the JAGA Scholarship Trust Classic. Both will be in November at sites and dates to be announced later.
The First Coast Celebration of Golf Banquet will be Feb. 21 at the Timuquana Country Club.
First Coast Amateur comes full circle
The First Coast Amateur debuted in 2017 at Amelia National. Times-Union high school player of the year Brandon Mancheno won going away and went on to play at Auburn and the University of North Florida.
Eight years later, the tournament returns to Amelia National, the Tom Fazio-designed course.
The tournament is conducted by JAGA and is sponsored by the City of Jacksonville's Sports and Entertainment division.
The field of 96 players is represented by more than 40 colleges and universities, 22 states and 13 countries. Three dozen of the players are on the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Brock Healy, who plays at the University of South Florida, is the defending champion.
Farewell to 'the Commissioner'
Roger Nichols was as avid a golfer as they came.
Nichols, who passed away on Dec. 14 at the age of 86, won seven club championships, broke his age more than 200 times and had memberships at four First Coast clubs.
He also was known as "The Commissioner" of the Munchkins a group of TPC Sawgrass members (about half of whom are former staff members of the PGA Tour) who played several times per week. Nichols was a charter member of the TPC Sawgrass and also had memberships at Deerwood, the Plantation at Ponte Vedra and the Sawgrass Country Club.
Nichols won the Sawgrass club championship four times and at the TPC Sawgrass three times. He also volunteered and played in numerous area charity tournaments.
Nichols, a native of Illinois, moved to Jacksonville in 1972. He was an executive with Westinghouse. He and his wife Louise, who had three children, were married for 65 years.
Chloe Schiavone post solo second
Bolles graduate and University of Notre Dame junior Chloe Schiavone shot 69 in the final round at the Sun 'n Lake Golf and Country Club in Sebring and finished solo second to Sofia Cherrif Essakali in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational.
Essakali finished at 6-under 282 in the tournament formerly known as the Harder Hall Invitational. Schiavone's final round was her best score of the 72-hole tournament.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Timuquana, Deerwood, Plantation among sites for First Coast golf events
