San Marcos' American GI Forum board — (Left to right): Bobby Rodriguez, Sgt. at Arms Frank Gandor, secretary Freddy Garza, treasurer/scholarship char Jesse Sanchez, chairwoman/scholarship chair Sylvia Garza, Janie Doria, vice chair Gloria Mendoza and Augustine Mendoza. Photo by Nick Castillo
San Marcos' American GI Forum set to host annual golf tournament
The San Marcos chapter of the American GI Forum is set to host the 18th annual Firecracker Golf Tournament Classic at Quail Creek Golf Club on Wednesday.
The annual 4th of July golf outing will begin at 8:45 a.m. and is open to the public.
The golf tournament will benefit veterans and scholarships. In 2018, the AGIF San Marcos chapter awarded 25 $500 scholarships to local area high school seniors. To ensure fundraising, the AGIF accepted contributions from San Marcos businesses and organizations to help it to continue awarding scholarships.
Jesse Sanchez, chairman of the annual golf tournament, said the event began 18 years ago because he wanted to bring golfers to San Marcos.
“We needed something that recognizes (the American GI forum),” Sanchez said. “That’s what prepared me to come up with the idea … We’ve been awarding
scholarships and giving them recognition and it’s given us some visibility in the community. That’s what we want to do (with the tournament). That’s what propelled me and picked up my idea to actually (start the event), and it began at a small scale. The first time we did it we had 14 golf teams consisting of four players, and now it’s 20 or so more teams and we have more sponsorship levels, and we have local community vendors and merchants support us.”
Sanchez said he expects 16 teams to compete in this year’s event, but he has room for 20.
Wednesday’s event is currently planned to be the final Firecracker golf tournament after Quail Creek announced its closing.
“I’m telling everybody from our side, the American GFI, from the state level to the national level, this may be the last opportunity for you to participate in the last annual event,” Sanchez said. “And I put a question mark on that because I don’t if Quail Creek is ever going to open up again … So, I talked to the members, and that’s something we’re going to decide (if the tournament continues) after this event.”
To participate in the tournament there is a $300 entry fee for teams of three. For more information, contact Commander Charles Doria at 512-787-9763 or Jesse Sanchez at 512-665-0881.
