Miles Russell has a golf game beyond his 15 years.
The Jacksonville Beach native also learned at an even earlier age how golf can be a platform for giving back.
Before Russell became the most famous golfer in America who didn’t yet have a driver’s license, he and two other junior players, Graden Lomax and Alexander Kaufman launched with the help of their parents the Florida Sunshine Cup, an annual team match-play event that has raised nearly $400,000 in five years.
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The proceeds are split 50-50 between the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and the American Junior Golf Association’s Liberty National Ace Grant Program, which provides financial assistance to families of junior golfers for travel expenses to play in AJGA and other national junior events.
This year’s Sunshine Cup will be Oct. 19-20 at The Park in West Palm Beach, the site of an exhibition in February between Rory McIlroy and Max Homa vs. Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang.
The participants in the Sunshine Cup and how the money is raised are directly tied. Junior golfers are asked to solicit donations from sources such as family, friends and members at their home golf courses. Donations of $1,000 or more are requested for entry to the tournament.
There were 12 players on each side for two days of match play in the first few years. Now, it’s up to 16.
The AJGA assists the players in setting up personalized websites that make it possible for donors to designate an amount and send it off to the AJGA in a matter of a few clicks.
How did the Florida Sunshine Cup start?
Most golfers wait until they turn professional and begin making some money before launching charities and foundations.
Russell said he and his friends didn’t see the need to wait.
“My goal is to keep doing this my whole life,” said Russell, who earlier this spring became the youngest player in history to make the cut in a Korn Ferry Tour event and the ninth-youngest to play in a PGA Tour event. “We’re just trying to have some fun with a bunch of buddies and raise money for people at the same time.”
Russell said the idea was originally hatched by Lomax’s father Benton, whose family lives in Concord, N.C.
Joe Russell, Miles’ father, remembers the day during the summer of 2019 when Benton Lomax approached him at a hotel swimming pool in Orlando after their sons played a round in a U.S. Kids junior golf tournament.
“Benton asked me if this was something Miles and I would want to help get started,” Joe Russell said. “He had the same conversation with Alexander [Kaufman] and his father. Kids that young? Yeah, I was a little surprised. But we realized that Miles, Graden and Alexander could have more of an impact on other kids than adults could.”
The idea took shape for a match-play tournament. The boys fanned out to their fellow competitors, who then solicited donations. With their father’s help, a course was secured at the Streamsong Resort, and the first Sunshine Cup was played on Nov. 23-24, 2019.
It raised more than $47,000.
“We were blown away,” said Joe Russell. “I never thought they could have done that in the first year.”
Just wait.
Sunshine Cup proceeds shoot past $100K
Despite the pandemic in 2020, which restricted the number of junior golf tournaments during the summer, the second Sunshine Cup was played on Nov. 5-6 at Banyan Cay in West Palm Beach. It raised more than $63,000. The 2021 tournament hit the $65,000 mark and then in 2022, the charity total shot up to $111,000.
Last year’s event raised around $110,000 to bring the to $396,000.
Russell said it’s now become one of the highlights of the junior golf schedule for the competitors.
Unlike the rest of their golf schedule, there are no trophies or junior and amateur ranking points at stake. It’s golf for the sheer enjoyment of it, with the bonus of helping the Nicklaus Foundation and fellow junior golfers whose families are hard-pressed to afford expenses for them to play high-level events.
“It’s just a blast,” Russell said. “You get to see your friends and play golf without any pressure. Then you get to help people in the process.”
AJGA helps with administrative details
Beth Docktor is the director of foundations for the American Junior Golf Association, the nation’s oldest and largest junior golf organization. She helps with facilitating the donations (which are made directly to the AJGA and then distributed to the charities) and works with Benton Lomax and Joe Russell on running the tournament on-site.
“Beth manages the whole thing,” Miles Russell said. “She’s been great.”
There is a deep culture within the AJGA that stresses sportsmanship, civility and playing by the rules. Docktor said players are given guidance for raising money for charity through their own websites and social media channels and get a weekly lesson in how AJGA events raise money for charity through the “Junior-Ams” in which they play with sponsors and adults within the community at the tournament sites.
