The 96th Sherman Invitational set for this week at Panama Country Club

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The annual Sherman Invitational golf tournament is set for Panama Country Club this week, with the three rounds set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This event has survived so much in recent years, a cat-5 hurricane in 2018, and yet they played on. A worldwide pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and yet they played on. So now it’s believed to be not just one of the longest consecutive running amateur events in the southeast, but this event, which began in 1927, may be one of the longest consecutive amateur tourneys anywhere!

”It’s going to be one of our best ones as far as the competitors that we have going.” says one of the tournament coordinators, Charlie Commander. “And also it’s going to be our biggest field in the last five or six years. We’ve got around 192 golfers playing. That will make it a full field for us which is really great. It’s designed for any amateur golfer that’s interested in playing a true play your own ball golf tournament. We’ve got a championship division, an open division, a senior division and a super senior division. So there’s really something for all levels of golf, people that are looking for that extra challenge.”

Commander adds competitors come from not only Bay and surrounding counties, but also from Alabama and Georgia as well. For many in the current field, their fathers and even grandfathers played in the Sherman. So it’s a legacy event. As for it being one of the longest consecutive running amateur golf tournaments in the southeast, well that it is. But it may be well beyond that now, Charlie says.

“You know obviously we had to deal with Hurricane Michael, and we played that year in November. And then with COVID we were able to host the tournament through COVID also. And we were already known as the oldest consecutive running amateur golf tournament in the southeast. And so since we were able to continue through COVIE, now we believe we are going to be one of the longest running, consecutive run in golf tournaments possibly, around, in the country!”

Competitors will get lunch each day and a dinner banquet Saturday night in the Panama Country Club’s newly renovated clubhouse as well.

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