Golf: Coming together for a good cause

By all accounts, the Harrisburg Junior Classic, held Tuesday at Shawnee Hills Country Club in Harrisburg went off without a hitch.

That's good considering how quickly it came together and even better because of the cause.

When Kevin Hefner, a former Harrisburg resident who now resides in Springfield, came up with the idea in May to have the Harrisburg Junior Classic, he did so with one person in mind: Miki Pavelonis.

Pavelonis and her husband Bob have long been revered in the community for their passion for golf and how they give back to the youth. Hefner remembers a time when he was that youth teeing it up at Shawnee Hills and owes a lot of us upbringing to Bob and Miki Pavelonis.

Miki lost a battle with cancer in late spring and the tournament in her honor Tuesday was a testament to what she and her husband meant to the game.

Almost 30 golfers were in attendance, ranging in ages from 18 to 12 years old, and participated in the sanctioned Southern Illinois Golf Association Event for points.

Bob Pavelonis knows if nothing else, his wife would have been proud of what transpired Tuesday.

"She started a tournament like this in 1972. I remember in that first year, we had 90 players and then after that, we had well over 100 every year. She would have been very, very proud. It's something that she wanted to do and it was her idea. I was just the gopher, but she was the organizer, sent out the flyers, made all the contacts. She would have been very proud."

Hefner, who is a sales rep for Callaway Golf out of Springfield, said he hopes to be able to move the tournament to June next summer and said plans are already being made now for next year felt Tuesday was a success.

"I thought it was phenomenal, to get this many kids on a warm day like this," Henfer said. "I hope we honored Miki's legacy well and we hope to build this into a larger on-going event."

For Bob, who stood most of his day above the No. 1 tee box had a good view of the action around him and at times let his mind slip back to those days some 40-plus years ago.

"You kind of tear up and forget it's been that long," Pavelonis said of the youth tournament he once had at Shawnee Hills. "With Mik passing away just recently, it brings back good memories."

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Register, Eldorado Journal & The Gallatin County Democrat. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.