Art Shell UMES Celebrity Golf Classic: Congress-Shell-nal

UMES is one of 20 colleges in the nation with the PGA-sanctioned golf management major, and the only one at a historically black institution.

WESTOVER, MD -- A little more than 100 yards away from the pin on the 16th hole at Great Hope Golf Course, team Delmarva Auto Glass had a decision to make. The group of five golfers, competing in the Art Shell UMES Celebrity Golf Classic, had to decide which of their drives they were going to play during the scramble-format tournament.

"Do you want to play this one up here or the one in the fairway?" asked one member of the team as he stood over his shot, which had landed in the light rough on top of a small hill. "It doesn't matter to me," said Jim Dent, the celebrity of the group, who captured 12 Senior PGA Tour titles between 1989 and 1998. "I can hit it anywhere."

After conferring, the group decide to play the drive that found the fairway and would go on to land a shot 5 yards from the target before sinking a birdie putt on the par-4 hole.


Art Shell, a pro football Hall of Famer and University of Maryland Eastern Shore alumnus, again hosted the tournament, which features its traditional roster of former athletes who enjoy a round of fund-raising golf. The stars were: Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown, who like Shell, is a former Oakland Raider; gridiron greats Otis Sistrunk, Reggie Branch, Ed Simmons, UMES alumni Curtis Gentry, Earl Christy and Emerson Boozer; PGA golfer Jim Dent, James Black, who at age 21 became the first black golfer to card a first-round 67 in his PGA Tour debut in 1964 and Renee Powell, who joined the LPGA Tour in 1967 as the first female African-American golfer.

Similar conversations could be heard throughout the golf outing that benefits University of Maryland Eastern Shore student scholarships and the university's PGA golf management program. But most participants, such as Homer King of team Delmarva Auto Glass, cared less for the strategy and more for the company.

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.