The Sherman Invitational: 99 Years of A Local Tradition

Step onto the fairways of history as Haven 444 explores the story and legacy of the Sherman Invitational at Panama Country Club in Lynn Haven, Florida.

First played in 1927, the Sherman Invitational has grown into one of the Southeast’s oldest and most respected amateur golf tournaments, welcoming generations of players, families, and spectators for nearly a century. In this episode, we sit down with Commissioner Pat Perno, golfers, and members of the Panama Country Club community to reflect on the tradition, atmosphere, competition, and memories that continue to make the Sherman Invitational such a meaningful part of Lynn Haven’s story.

From tales of legendary players to the quiet beauty of tournament mornings along the course, this episode captures more than a golf tournament — it captures a living tradition passed down through generations.

This is Haven 444.. Our City • Our Story.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Welcome back to Haven 444, our community podcast. This week we step onto the fairways of a tradition that has become woven into the history of Lynhaven itself. The Sherman Invitational at Panama Country Club. First played in 1927, the Sherman Invitational has grown into one of the Southeast's oldest and most respected amateur golf tournaments, drawing generations of players, families, and spectators to the corner of our community for nearly a century. Over the years, champions have come and gone, future professionals have walked these greens, and friendships and memories have been built one tournament at a time. But beyond the competition, the Sherman Invitational is really a story about tradition, about community, and about the people who continue returning year after year to be a part of something larger than themselves. Today we'll hear from Commissioner Pat Purno, some longtime golfers, and members of the Panama Country Club family as we explore the legacy, atmosphere, and enduring spirit of the 99th Sherman Invitational.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Golf's more than a sport. It's honesty, it's integrity. You know, you call your own penalties. You expect the other fellow you're playing with to be honest and not move his ball and this or that. So it's more than it's more than a sport. It's a game of life.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

The course was under construction in 1926. And uh, matter of fact, I've got some pictures of mules pulling cultivators along the fairway, building it.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

For the city of Lynn Haven, I think it's a hidden jewel that a lot of people just don't know about.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

That's just a taste of what you have ahead of you in these stories of the Sherman imitational and tradition and what this means for the city of Lynn Haven, that this amazing generational event is occurring once again. We heard a few words from our commissioner Pat Kruneau, from Mr. Wayne Purdue, and from the general manager of the Panama Country Club, Mike Walker. Coming up, you'll also hear a few words about the Sherman invitational from golfer Mike Riley and Chris Marchon from Channel 13, WMB.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I've been playing in the Sherman coming up on 30 years. Because it's great, you've got a there's flights, there's the championship flight for the really good golfers. Um, and then uh you you know you compete with the best of the best from the blue tees, the championship tees, and then the open flight plays from tees up, and that's open really to anybody. So you can be, I believe, an eight handicap or above, and you can go up to whatever you want, and then there's the senior flight, the super senior, so it doesn't matter what your age, what your ability, because even if for the if you're in the open flight and there's 30 players, 40 players, after the second day, it's cut, so it's flighted. So you could be near the bottom, but when the cut happens for Sunday, you could end up being in the D flight because it's let's say it's cut into four flights, 10 players each. You could be up there in the top of your flight, and it pays all the same stuff, so you still get a pretty good prize, and you're still competing against people that are closer to your game, the Sherman. It's always in great shape, where they get it in tip-top shape, and the greens are fantastic, and it's in condition that we normally don't play in as just regular golfers, like the PGA tour guys play on the same conditions all the time. This is rare for us to have come out and play on very, very fast greens and in such good condition. So you'll see some good golfers because now there are some high school, good high school players, and now even some college players that are playing, that are playing on their college team. And we've got former pros. Uh Chase Seifert won it a couple of times. He's been on the PGA tour for three or four years. He played along Brooks Kepka at FSU. Matter of fact, he was ahead of Brooks Kepka at FSU, but he just got injured. So there's some really good golfers that play in here that you come out and watch some shots. It's fairly comparable to what you'll see on the PGA tour. This has been going on, this is the 99th year, I think, coming up on a hundred year, the century mark. So, yeah, this is something that I hope keeps going and going and going. Hope I'm around for a long time playing it.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

That was Chris Marchon sharing some thoughts and his experience with the Sherman invitational, and about the fact that yes, it is the 99th year and coming up on a hundred years. One thing that was really similar about the answers we received was that golf meant more and that it trained people to be resilient, persistent. And as soon as they made that bad shot, to forget it and look forward to the next one. We understand. Golf apparently does provide us with lessons for life.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

I just I love the challenge, I love the people, I love to compete. It's not a physical sport, meaning you it's not a contact sport, which is nice, and you can play it till your last breath. It's a passion, you can never perfect it, it's different every day. The elements play a part in it. You don't get beat up like you do in football or any other sport. You know, you can literally play every day if you wanted to. I think it has a little bit of an effect on the economy here with all the people coming into town. And I think in the South and in the panhandle, I think people like old things, so to speak. It's their tradition. You know, they've had it every year since 1927. And I think people around here like that. I know some guys are nervous and say, I'm not, I don't want to hit it in the water or in the houses or anywhere else, but I've played enough where you just gotta focus on the on the soul task. If you let your emotions go wild, that changes your body chemistry, it changes your rhythm, it changes everything. So, yes, you don't want to be emotional, you just want to use your brain. Everybody hits bad shots. You can watch the PJ Tour, everybody does it. The only thing you can worry about is your next shot. Forget the bad ones as quickly as you can. And that goes with your emotion too. You'll see guys throw clubs, have a fit, changes your body chemistry, and a lot of times you'll never, your brain will never recover from that until you're done playing. I live here, so, and I've played in it since I was in college. But once they play it once, they want to come back over and over again. Always. Think it's the course, the area, the way the tournament's run, the club, everything about it is fantastic. Well, there's a lot of work involved. And that's I mean, anybody that comes out and is just starting out and can't play, I always tell them I have a million ball heads start on you because that's probably how many balls I've hit before they've even hit one. So it's just it's, you know, your body's gotta be in decent shape, but and your mind's gotta be clear, but you just gotta work at it. In my college days, it was just like a full-time job. Okay. And on the PGA tour, it's even more than a full-time job because when they're not practicing, they're thinking about practicing. You get out of golf what you put into it. I mean, the aggressive guys, if they hit it good, they'll they'll do well, and the conservative guys, if they play their smart game, they'll do well too. So it fits all all styles of your way of attacking the golf course. Many styles can play well here. And you could look at all the past champions and you'll see guys that hit it long, guys that hit it short, guys that put it bad, guys that put it great. I know the most incredible moment. It was the first time that I set foot at Augusta National. Absolutely amazing. And just just being on the property was enough to make it the highlight of my golf life. Every time I see it on TV, it makes me want to go back even more.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

So I actually started here in 2021. Uh, we experienced phenomenal growth, and then they asked me to start as general manager. Our memberships are back up to what we haven't seen since the late 90s, probably. So it's an exciting time for the club, especially with all Lynn Haven went through in 2018. I mean, as painful as it was, look at it now. We've had to rebuild. Well, it I mean, so it's it takes a full year of planning. It starts the day after the Sherman ends the year before. We have a full Sherman committee. Charlie Commander's the chairman of that committee, and so it takes a team. And I mean, for all this to come together, you've got a golf course, you've got a restaurant, you've got, you know, so many moving parts that all contribute to what those players experience. So Mike talks about how great it is, and well, that's because we try to have all fronts, firing, you know, everyone on the same mission. Team knows it's all about just having people that haven't been here especially to just have a great experience. And like Mike said, once they come and they experience the Sherman, they always want to come back. We had about 40 people on the waiting list. We purposely cap it at 192 just so we can have a quality tournament. And you have to be a really good golfer to be selected. I personally would not be selected to play in the Sherman. This one's completely different, so everyone's very structured. Um, the morning is spent, of course, getting all the details of their tea time and how to log in and watch their scores live. So this one's very uh formal compared to most tournaments. Our tradition is to do a nice dinner Saturday night. That's typically what we do. So the tournament starts on Friday, and Friday and Saturday, the guys just kind of have to play where they're assigned based on their age and their skill level and stuff like that. There's five or six X pros that will be out here. I would say that, you know, kind of leaning back to what Mike Riley was talking about. It really is a game of life in a sense of you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days. Some days it rains, you gotta make the best of it. Um, of course, you're gonna hit bad shots, and that's very frustrating. However, it's just like the game of life when you get things that you don't like, you can either choose to be happy about it or and press through, or you can dwell on it and drag that weight with you the whole day. So um, we don't want to do that. So obviously, golf teaches you resiliency, I'd say. Just no matter what happens, you gotta keep moving forward. I've played sports my whole life. I've been pretty good at every sport I've ever tried. And then comes golf. And it doesn't matter how big you are, it doesn't matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter how old you are. These men out here will put a whooping on me every day of the week. It just makes you, you know, like Mike said, just more focused on what you can control and less on competing against this person and that person. Because uniquely, I tell them all the time, I love team sports. I hate playing with this guy. That guy would be me, you know. Um, I I just it's very challenging, especially when it's all on you, to make the mistakes you're gonna make and to not to not quit, to not give up. You know, I I said a second ago, golf is addiction. I think it's just a challenge that we all can't let go of. I have three kids, and we have to have the talk about how many sports are we gonna do. And the great thing about golf is we can all go do it together as a family. And how many sports can my five-year-old come join me, you know. So I I think one thing I really try to reiterate to everyone is it's a lifelong sport. Meaning, yes, it's much better if you'll start young, but even if you're 60 and you've never picked up a golf club, you could play it until your final days. It's just the way it works. And guess what? You can bring your wife or your grandchildren or whoever else. And and that really, you know, I think the bond you see is so strong with golfers because you do bond with the fellow golfers, you bond with the course, you can bring your family, and that gives them those memories of being able to hang out with grandpa on a beautiful sunny day, you know. And uh it's just it's an outside sport too. How about that? And it's in nature and it's beautiful, and it's five minutes from City Hall.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

That was Mike Riley sharing his thoughts on Gulf and the Sherman Invitational. Afterwards, we listened to Mike Walker, the general manager for the Panama Country Club, share his enthusiasm about the Sherman Invitational, what it means to the community, how it required resilience for the club to come back and continue to do the tournament, in spite of the fact that we had suffered through Hurricane Michael, and all of this happens. This richness, this tradition, these memories, this generational event, only minutes from City Hall. Yeah, it makes us pretty proud. And now we're all in for a real tree. As Mr. Wayne Purdue shares his memories of playing in the Shermian Invitational for so many years, and what he feels like that means to this community. Afterwards, Commissioner Pat Purno is going to take it home for us and remind us of all the reasons we really love our city.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I'm not sure the exact year, but it's 74 or 75. And I played consecutively since that time until two year I quit two years ago, just for age. I'm 80 and still able to play, so that's a good thing. Just not play quite as well. I was never really competitive to win. I could play close to the top, but I was never really good enough to to win. One time I don't remember the year, but it was before they changed the course. They changed the course in 82 or 83, and it was before that. I was tied for the lead on the last day on number 12, and the pros wife came out and come up to me, she said, You're tied for the lead. Double bogey the next hole, bogey the next hole. So now I'm three down, and I limped in. I did birdie. I did shoot even the last three holes, 16, 17, and 18. Uh, I think I finished third. That's the best I ever did. I take it as it comes, but what I did was 13 was a par three, and it sloped like this back to you. And if you got over the green, it was almost impossible because as you chip back onto the green, it rolled back off the green on the other side. So that's what I did. I flew the green, and uh then I just made double bogeys. So I always enjoyed playing competitive golf. And I didn't have to be at the top, I just enjoyed competing with it at whatever level I was competing at. And so I I guess the biggest enjoyment was just competing with other people and trying to do as well as you could. And I I had a good history of winning. Okay, so I played in championship flight for a good while, and then they had it championship A and B, and I would usually fall in the B flight, and I'd have I'd win or be in the top three most of the time, and then I got to playing in the first flight, and I'd do pretty well there. I was dropping down in ability, but I was still winning at my level. So I just enjoyed the competition. And then got all the way up to playing super senior and then legend. They had it split up by age groups, and so even then I I enjoyed it, and I was competitive in that group. Golf is different because you can play it all your life, and so you can always look for, you know, all those sports, 35, 40, you're done. And then most of them pick up golf. Golf is forever, and so you've got you're looking forward to playing, maybe not the level you were, but the competitive part of it is you can always compete, and just like today, I'm too old and I'm not competitive hardly, but I enjoy it because the group is competitive. You know, they're playing to score as good as they can is just as meaningful to these guys as the PGA tour. I mean, they they want to compete and they want to do well, and that's what drives golf. If if you're just and there are people that do this that just come out, call them weekend golfers or once-a-month golfers, they just come out as a social. But I've never I wouldn't go on that golf course to play by myself for nothing. If I don't if I don't have competition, I don't want to be there. I'd rather be on the driving range. And so, and I think most of the people in our group, 40 or 50 guys, are about the same way. I I don't understand it really how it held on, and you know, we almost skipped a year when the hurricane hit and we played it late to keep it continuous. It's the only three-day tournament that I know of anywhere, amateur tournament. The course was under construction in 1926, and uh matter of fact, I've got some pictures of of mules pulling cultivators along the fairway, building it. Oh let's see. Seems like I have it's in a book. It's got the old bridge, the wooden bridge. I got a picture of that, and the old motel that was down there on the bay. The most memorable in the Sherman, the most memorable shot was or situation was that it was the first time I was gonna shoot under par if I could par the last hole. And I remember it so vividly because I I've never really been affected by pressure that much, but everybody's affected by pressure when I say, but this was the point that I didn't think I could draw the club back. I mean, I I was wanting to par 18 so bad, and and I remember the I remember every shot, and I hit a uh not a good drive, but okay drive and an okay second shot, and I had to hit it on the green in three, so I had it, I was about 10 or 20 yards short of the green, so I had to chip it on. Uh, and then I left it about 18 to 20 feet short. And that's when I started feeling it. I didn't feel it on the drive or the second shot, but or the third shot, but I started feeling it on the fourth shot. And when I was standing over that ball, I didn't think I could hit it. I really didn't. And I hit it up there two feet short. And the weirdest, I had a weird, I didn't think I could draw it back. I literally did not think I could move my hands, and somehow it went in. Uh it might not have been as memorable if I'd have missed it, but it did go in, and so that that's the most memorable thing in the Sherman that I was going to be able to shoot under par, and I did it, but I loaded up, I was so bad choking, it was it was unreal. And everybody chokes at some point, but that was the ultimate. I mean, I literally didn't think I could draw it by. I'm sitting on saying, I can't hit this. I can't hit this. And you draw it by anyway. So anyway, that that was pretty exciting for the Sherman. Or that's probably my most memorable thing. I did have a weird thing on the golf course, uh, on number one, which is a long par four. And back then, this is 40 years ago, I was hitting a one iron. For what reason, I don't know, because I couldn't hit it any higher than that. But within three months, I had two twos. With a one iron, knocked it in from the fairway out there. That's that's just luck and craziness and and unbelievable to do something like that. But anyway, I did that. So those are probably the two most memorable things. So I went about 45 or 50 years straight of playing.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Well, I think it brings the golf course to the community. It brings people from outside of the community to participate in the longest running consecutive amateur golf tournament in the Southeast United States. I don't think we touted enough. And the guys who are the heart and soul behind it right here, we've participated many, many years in it. They're some of the best golfers in it too. I think golf's a little more. It's me, I'm a golf fanatic, but golf's more than a sport. It's honesty, it's integrity. You know, you call your own penalties, you know, you you you expect the other fellow you're playing with to be honest and not move his ball and this or that. So it's more than it's more than a sport. It's a game of life. I've always said you you quit playing football and basketball and baseball as a young man, but you never stop playing golf. So why not learn something you're gonna do the rest of your life? So that's that's how I feel about golf and having it right here in in Lynn Haven for as long as it's been. It means a lot, and you you develop friendships and connections around it. There's a lot of guys I wouldn't know, but I know them out here. That it kind of personifies the uh this course once a year for three or four days, and it's and the fact that it's been repetitive. That that's my feelings on it, and trust me, I've played and I don't like playing that many days in a row, and I'm not the best golfer in the world, and I'm not gonna be in the first flight, but I won't be out here. I'm gonna be out here every day and giving it the best. The group that played kept it going, and those people know who they are, and the people who put it on, and just the fact that they got the course through that time. It means a lot to see it flourish now and and keep going at 99 years, and next year being the hundredth year is gonna be quite a celebration. You know, everybody can look up my scores in the paper and say, oh, he's horrible. What's he doing that for? I'm proud to participate, you know, as a golfer, but I'm proud that it's right here in Lynnhaven. I'm proud that this course exists. And and you know, some people go their whole lives and haven't seen a fox squirrel, and they they they run around out here. They they're fat and happy because we feed them peanuts and we and they they're docile, they come right up to you, they'll get in your golf cart, and you know, if you've ever seen one, so that's the that's kind of the symbol of the course. I've got to play with a couple of guys out here that have gotten hole in ones, you know, and that's that's quite an experience. And I've been on the course when other people have gotten hole-in-ones, and I've seen a couple people who actually there's I'm looking out at a boy who played on the PGA tour and just getting around watching them, you know, it's quite the experience. Here, I think they get to see a beautiful day in Lynn Haven. They get to stand at our 18th green if you don't have a golf cart to ride or island and watch the guys come up. I've sat there many a day and watched the groups come in the pairings I've played with, and you know, it's a lot of fun. You can you can watch them tee off, you can watch them hit their second, watch them hit their shot to the green, it's a par five, and finish out. And you know, they'll give you an appreciation of the game. So, you know, that's only one hole out of 18 holes out here. There uh, if you look beyond that, there's a little par three off to the side that's a hole 11. You can watch them hit the shot to the green there. So just within you know, a a short walking distance of the clubhouse, you can get out and watch, um, watch two or three good holes, and you don't have to walk the whole golf course. So to be a spectator is something else. And to be here Sunday evening when it all wraps up and everybody gets their little awards or their squirrel dollars, whatever, whatever it is they play for, it's a fun time. And that's when the gratitude it hits as a participant. It's like, hey, I did something, I played, I did this for three days, and you know, it's done, but you know, hey, I'm happy for the guy that finished first, and we all did it together, you know. So it's one of those things. And that's a that's a good feeling of fellowship, you know, and it promotes the sport, it promotes people caring about other people, you know, it happens right here in our backyard.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

And maybe that's the real story of the Sherman Invitational. Not simply the trophies or the scorecards, or even the champions whose names have become a part of the tournament's history. It's the tradition itself. For nearly a century, generations of players, families, members, and spectators have gathered at the Panama Country Club, walking the same fairways, sharing the same stories, and returning year after year to be a part of something which has quietly become woven into the identity of Lynn Avon. Long after the final putt drops and the crowds drift on, the spirit of the Sherman Invitational remains, carried forward through memory, friendship, competition, and community. A special thank you to Mike Riley, Mike Walker, Chris Marchand, Pat Purneau, and Mr. Wayne Purdue for sharing their thoughts and memories and experiences with the Sherman Invitational. This is Haven four four four four four four four four four, our city, our story.