EVENT: The 2023 APGA Farmers Insurance® Cincinnati will take place September 3-5 at Sharon Woods Golf Course near Cincinnati, Ohio. The Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The event will include a truly diverse field of 51 golfers playing for a $25,000 purse and allows players to establish position in the Farmers Insurance Fall Series bonus pool.
The APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series is a three-event series designed to further the APGA Tour’s mission of bringing greater diversity to the game of golf and to provide additional playing and earning opportunities to APGA Tour players.
Media are invited to cover the clinic, practice rounds or competition rounds (details below). For story ideas, specific times or more information, contact Chris Reimer, CR PR Group, at reimer@crprgroup.com or locally, contact Peter Osbourne at peter.osborne@keypointpr.com.
On-site contact is Cole Smith, APGA Tour Tournament Director – 310.850.1529.
DATE: September 3-5, 2023
SITE: Sharon Woods Golf Course, Blue Ash, OH
PURSE: $25,000 purse, $7,500 to the winner
FORMAT: 51 players, two-day, 36-hole stroke-play competition, no cut
- Sept: 3: Youth Clinic with students from St. Rita School for the Deaf starting at 12:30 p.m.
- Sept. 3: Practice Round: starting at 12:30 p.m.
- Sept. 4: Round 1 of competition, starting at approximately 12:00 p.m., split tees
- Sept. 5: Round 2, final round of competition, starting at approximately 8:00 a.m.
Special APGA Youth Clinic featuring Ohio native Kevin Hall – One of the stars of the APGA Tour is Kevin Hall, who has won twice this year and six times on the APGA Tour in his career. Remarkably, Hall plays each round in silence. He was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at age two after surviving H-flu meningitis. He learned to play golf at nine and later became the first Black golfer to play at Ohio State University, where he won the 2004 Big Ten championship by 11 shots.
Hall returns to his hometown for the APGA Farmers Insurance @ Sharon Woods and will host a clinic with students from his former high school – St. Rita School for the Deaf on Saturday, September 3, at 11:30 a.m. The clinic will include golf instruction, career counseling, and an essay contest with two winners receiving $500 each and four runner-up winners receiving $250 each.
As Hall has said in the past, “If I have a dream and I want to accomplish something, I’m not going to let my deafness stop me. There is always a way to get it done and I had to learn that at a young age, and it’s helped me tremendously to get to where I am today and accomplish all the things I’ve accomplished.”
In regard to this event, Hall added, “It’s pretty special to have the APGA Tour come to Cincinnati, and it is just as special to be a part of a clinic for the students of St. Rita. It’s always fun to interact with the students having been in their shoes myself. It’s an honor to be able to give back and share the wonderful game of golf with the young kids. I’m looking forward to it.”
Tournaments in the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Fall Series:
- September 3-5 – APGA Farmers Insurance @ Sharon Woods Golf Course – $25,000 purse, $7,500 to the winner
- October 2-4 – APGA Farmers Insurance Austin – $25,000 purse, $7,500 to the winner
- November 7-9 – APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series Finale – $45,000 purse
- The top performing players from the three events will receive additional money from the Fall Series Bonus Pool
Jeff Dailey Award – In January 2023, the APGA Tour announced that the top player at the end of the season will receive the Jeff Dailey APGA Tour Player of the Year award. This honor will be given to the APGA Tour member who earns the most combined points in APGA Tour competition throughout the Lexus Cup season, the APGA Farmers Insurance Fall Series, and two Cisco Invitational events. The award, which is named after former Farmers Insurance CEO Jeff Dailey as recognition of his long-time support of the APGA Tour, will include a $25,000 bonus for the winner.
“We launched the APGA Tour in 2010 thanks to a $10,000 contribution that came from Farmers Insurance and through the support of Jeff Dailey,” said APGA Tour CEO Ken Bentley. “The APGA Tour has made incredible progress over the years and Jeff has been a catalyst of our momentum and success. As we look at the future, we want to make sure that his impact on our Tour isn’t forgotten. Having this award in his name is fitting and will serve as a reminder that with the sustained help of dedicated and passionate supporters, change can happen.”
Current Top 5 in the APGA Tour Jeff Dailey Award Standings
| Place | Name | Points |
| 1 | Marcus Byrd | 3,696 |
| 2 | Chase Johnson | 2,318 |
| 3 | Kevin Hall | 2,290 |
| 4 | Kamaiu Johnson | 1,750 |
| 5 | Varun Chopra | 1,552 |
PLAYER PROFILES
With an APGA Tour record four victories this season, Marcus Byrd finished at No. 1 in the season-long Lexus Cup Standings, earning the $20,000 Lexus Cup bonus. By winning the Lexus Cup, Byrd also takes home the 2023 APGA Mastercard Player Achievement Award, which includes status on the 2024 PGA TOUR Americas and an additional $50,000 bonus to cover travel costs for next season. Byrd started the season with a victory at the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines and hasn’t looked back since. Byrd now has a commanding lead in the Jeff Dailey Award standings as he looks to continue his record-setting campaign on the APGA Tour.
Byrd’s victories came at the following tournaments:
- APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines
- APGA Florida – Won by 11-strokes in a 36-hole event
- APGA at Deere Run
- APGA Valhalla
Dating back to 2022, Byrd has six victories, and five runner-up finishes in his last 15 starts on the APGA Tour. Byrd recorded scores in the 60s in all his Lexus Cup tournament rounds during the 2023 season.
Barberton, Ohio, native and Kent State University graduate Chase Johnson, who sits at second in the Jeff Dailey Award standings, recorded his first APGA Tour victory this year at the APGA Ascension Classic in St. Louis and followed it with a runner-up finish at the APGA Mastercard Tour Championship at TPC Sugarloaf. With the APGA Ascension Classic victory Johnson earned an exemption in the World Wide Technology Championship later this year on the PGA TOUR. It will be Johnson’s second PGA TOUR start of the calendar year after earning an exemption to the Rocket Mortgage Classic by winning the 2023 John Shippen Invitational. Johnson, who spent the 2021 season on the Korn Ferry Tour, made the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Wyatt Worthington II, from Columbus, Ohio, won the APGA Tour event in Las Vegas this year and also qualified and competed at the PGA Championship for his third career major championship. He has qualified for the 2016, 2022 and 2023 PGA Championships. In 2016, he was the first African American head professional to qualify for the PGA Championship in 25 years. In 2021, Worthington won the 76th Southern Ohio PGA Professional Championship by five strokes.
Troy Taylor II grew up in Westerville, Ohio, and now lives in Columbus. Taylor, who is the son of Ohio State Basketball player Troy Taylor, Sr. He recently graduated from Michigan State and finished No. 1 in the APGA Collegiate Rankings this summer before turning professional last month. Taylor has finished 11th or better in each of his three professional starts, with a seventh place finish at the APGA Valhalla event in July. Taylor was joined by Joel Basalaine of Livingstone College (#2), Gary Bullard of Army (#3), Troy Stribling Jr. of Florida A&M University (#4), and Jason Johnson Jr. of Alabama A&M University (#5) in this year’s top 5 of the APGA Collegiate Rankings.
Quinn Riley won his first APGA Tour victory of his career at the two-man team event at TPC Louisiana with partner Christian Heavens. Riley finished as the No. 1 player in the 2022 APGA Tour Collegiate Rankings as the top black college golfer in the country following his career at Duke University. Riley has nearly won multiple times on the APGA Tour since joining midseason 2022 but was able to break through in Louisiana and move to No. 3 in the Lexus Cup standings. In college, Riley was the individual medalist at the Stitch Intercollegiate in April 2022 at Lonnie Poole GC in Cary and led the Blue Devils with a top-20 finish at the ACC Championship in Panama City Beach. He started playing at a local First Tee program in Raleigh and attended the REX Hospital Open when he was 11 years old for a First Tee Clinic.
APGA TOUR 2023 SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Date Tournament Winner
Jan 28-29 APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational Marcus Byrd
Feb 26-28 APGA Black History Month Classic Kevin Hall
March 20-21 APGA Florida @ St. Johns Golf & Country Club Marcus Byrd
April 9-11 APGA Las Vegas @ TPC Las Vegas Wyatt Worthington II
May 1-2 APGA at PGA Golf Club Kevin Hall
May 7-9 APGA Scottsdale @ TPC Scottsdale Kamaiu Johnson
May 28-30 APGA Deer Run @ TPC Deere Run Marcus Byrd
July 23-25 APGA at Valhalla Marcus Byrd
July 30-Aug 1 APGA Two Man Classic @ TPC Louisiana Christian Heavens & Quinn Riley
August 8-10 APGA Ascension Classic Chase Johnson
August 13-15 APGA Mastercard Tour Champions Verun Chopra
ABOUT THE APGA TOUR
The APGA Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization with the mission to bring greater diversity to the game of golf. The APGA Tour Board of Directors works to accomplish this by hosting and operating professional golf tournaments, player development programs, mentoring programs and by introducing the game to inner city young people. In addition to conducting an expected 18 tournaments awarding close to $1 million in prize andbonus money in 2023, the APGA has organized a Player Development Program to aid young minority golfers as they work to chase their goals in professional golf.
