Page 160 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2018

SPORTS & OUTDOORS coast golf update
TEE-OFF
with Tommy
SLAVIC NEARING 50 YEARS OF GULF COAST HOSPITALITY story by Tommy Snell photo courtesy of The Slavic Benevolent Association
The Slavic Benevolent Association of Saint Nikolai will celebrate its 44th Slavic Invitational Tournament September 28, 29 and 30 on the Gulf Coast’s finest golf courses, and nobody does it better. Nobody! Since 1973 when Rock Sekul took home the first Slavic trophy, roast beef sandwiches have called over 20,000 golfers to the tee.
This year golfers will again
click “Where Y’at” on www. slavicinvitational.com to find out
tee times, flights and golf courses, understanding completely the
patois and its importance. A big deal indeed. Biloxi Mayor Andrew “Fo Fo” Gilich once quipped, “If there’s a bigger tournament than the Slavic, I don’t believe it’s on this planet.”
“The ‘Juga’ started after a bunch of guys gathered around ‘Red Square’ and talked about playing golf, and now we’ve been able to help several deserving kids each year,” remembered Gilich. The 2018 tournament will possibly host 1200 golfers and their guests. The tournament has expanded from
2017 Slavic Invitational Champions Josh Lampley and Colin Spiers holding the Jim Stanovich trophies.
17 golfers and one course in 1973 to 1200 smiling linksters and six courses: Diamondhead’s Pine and Cardinal, Fallen Oak, Grand Bear, Sunkist and Windance.
Co-chairs David Leckich, Gilich, Wayne Lyons, Damian Hughes
and Greg Breal never worry about serving the multitudes on and off the course. Stag Pitalo, Mike Kovacevich and Richard Frenz along with a
volunteer troop will feed the masses and make sure nobody leaves hungry or parched. The maestro of the Ladies Auxiliary Faye Misko conducts a Culinary Opus that’s music to every golfer.
From one course and a few individuals to six and beyond, the future looks as bright as a glowing Volvik against white sand. The tournament has served Slavic Scholarship Gravy every year since Sekul’s name was engraved on the Stanovich Trophy, missing only when Hurricane Katrina yanked the flagsticks from the fun in 2005. “The biggest change I’ve seen is the number of out-of-state golfers, possibly 50 percent,” said Leckich.
The Slavic healed those Katrina wounds in 2006, and the biggest tournament on the planet keeps growing every year. Pistolettes are rising, more ice chests are ordered, and the courses are manicured. Now on the tee, the 44th Slavic Invitational.
160 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2018 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net