NEWS

Jerry Pate wins the Masters Par-Three Contest

Augusta, GA – April 6, 2005 – Jerry Pate became the first honorary invitee in the Masters Par-Three Contest history to win the annual event. Jerry Pate birdied the final hole by hitting a nine-iron to a few inches to shoot a five-under par twenty-two for the nine-hole event.

AP Photo

Jerry Pate Golf Center Opens At Ol’ Colony GC In Tuscaloosa
State-of-the-Art Facility Honors Pate, Serves As New Home
For University of Alabama Golf Teams

Pensacola, FL – November 19, 2004 – Jerry Pate Golf Design, Inc. announced today that the University of Alabama has dedicated the Jerry Pate Golf Center at Ol’ Colony Golf Club in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The facility provides indoor/outdoor practice bays, swing analysis studio, training center, team locker rooms, coaches’ offices and a private driving range, putting green and short-game area.

“I’m extremely honored to have my name associated with the golf programs at the University of Alabama,” Pate said. “The university has been so important to me and my family. I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to play golf at Alabama and, later, to return and complete my academic work along with my children. I take great pride in being an alumnus of the University of Alabama, and to be recognized this way is very special.”

The Jerry Pate Golf Center is a $1 million dollar project gifted by the Alabama Golf Charities, a non-profit 501(c3) organization headed by Mike Thompson. The 4,500-square-foot center, designed by Ward Scott Vernon Architects, completes the master plan for Ol' Colony created by Jerry Pate Golf Design. The golf course, designed by Pate and opened in 2001, has received numerous national and regional awards. Ron Whitten, golf course architecture editor at Golf Digest calls Ol’ Colony Golf Club “one of the best municipal courses in the country.”

“We’re thrilled about this project,” said Jay Seawell, head coach of the men’s golf team at the University of Alabama. “It upgrades the golf facilities of our program to be the best in the Southeastern Conference and among the best in the country. It’s a facility that the University and the Tuscaloosa community will take a lot of pride in.”

About Jerry Pate and Jerry Pate Golf Design
Jerry Pate burst into the golf world in 1974, winning the U.S. Amateur championship and competing on that year’s victorious Walker Cup team. In his rookie season of 1976 he struck one of the most famous shots in golf history, a 190-yard five-iron to within two feet of the flagstick on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. He went on to win seven other times on the PGA Tour, including the 1982 Player’s Championship at the TPC Sawgrass. He has won in Japan, Columbia, Scotland and Brazil, played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team and served as a broadcast analyst for ABC, CBS and the BBC.

In more than 25 years as a golf course designer, Pate has collaborated with such luminaries as Tom Fazio, Pete Dye, Bob Cupp, Jack Nicklaus, and Ron Garl. His design at Kiva Dunes GC in Fort Morgan, Alabama, hosted the 1997 and 1998 PGA Tour Qualifying tournaments and has been ranked among the state’s top five courses and America’s top 100 courses since its opening in 1995. Other award-winning designs include Ol’ Colony Golf Club in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Limestone Springs GC in Oneonta, Alabama; Canebrake GC in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Rancho La Quinta GC in La Quinta, California. The highly anticipated Shadow Isle Golf Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey and Flagstaff Ranch Golf Club in Flagstaff, Arizona will both open in summer of this year.