SAS Championship partners with HBCUs for inaugural invitational

Multi-day event includes tournament play, Career Day and Champions Dinner with PGA Tour legends 

Sixteen golf teams from leading Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) will compete in the inaugural HBCU Invitational Oct. 14-16. The first-of-its-kind tournament will take place alongside the 22nd annual SAS Championship, one of the premier tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions.

The unique collegiate event, which is a collaborative effort between the SAS Championship, the PGA Tour, Octagon and the Black College Golf Coaches Association, will feature 80 students from 12 HBCUs across the country. Men and women from each school will break up into 16 teams in search of claiming their very own SAS Championship trophy.

In advance of the competition on the course, SAS will host a special Career Day event for the students at its Cary headquarters. The event will feature insightful panel conversations with former HBCU students who now work at the analytics leader. The student-athletes will also join PGA Tour legends for an exclusive dinner at the annual SAS Championship “Champions Cookout.”

“The SAS Career Day is an exciting addition to the tournament that aims to inspire curiosity about careers after collegiate athletics,” said Danielle Pavliv, Chief Diversity Officer at SAS. “This experience allows the extraordinary student-athletes from HBCUs to learn about the experiences of SAS employees and HBCU alumni, receive resources to help navigate career options and establish personal connections that extend beyond the tournament.”

The tournament will start on Saturday, Oct. 15, with competitors playing a pair of rounds on the Fairways Course at Prestonwood Country Club, which also hosts the SAS Championship. Competition will close on Sunday, Oct. 16, with a third round followed by the crowning of the men’s and women’s team champions as well as individual champions.

“The SAS Championship is one of the longstanding gems on the PGA Tour Champions, and Octagon is honored to work with our amazing clients at SAS, the PGA Tour, and new partners at the BCGCA, to bring this incredible event to life,” said Jeff Kleiber, Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Octagon. “We are delighted to help shine a spotlight on these incredibly strong collegiate golf programs, while simultaneously giving these student-athletes the opportunity to not only compete on a Tour-level facility, but also the chance to learn from golf legends and industry-leading business executives.”

The student-athletes participating in the inaugural HBCU Invitational represent 12 HBCU schools, including Chicago State, Howard, Johnson C Smith, Livingstone, Maryland Eastern Shore, Miles, North Carolina Central, Prairie View A&M, Savannah State, Virginia Union and Winston-Salem State.

Learn more about SAS diversity outreach and recruiting, including SAS HBCU STEM Connect, HBCU Fellows Program and HBCU Academic Excellence Program with North Carolina A&T State University. And find details about the SAS Championship event at SASChampionship.com.

About BCGCA

The BCGCA is a 501(c)3 that provides student athletes from around the world with unique opportunities to compete in college golf while developing academic and interpersonal skills to compete in the "real world" on a global scale. The core of our efforts is to bring our team's fresh ideas and passion to the range of activities we're involved in. Through all of our endeavors we hope to display the conviction behind our beliefs.

About Octagon

Octagon is the preeminent global creative, integrated marketing, and talent management agency in sport, entertainment, and culture. The agency creates distinctive marketing campaigns for some of the largest brands and Fortune 500 companies across the globe and represents more than 900 of the most prominent and influential athletes, talent, and properties in the world.

With more than 1,000 employees worldwide, based in 50 offices in 20 countries, Octagon has consistently pushed the boundaries of the industry with ground-breaking marketing campaigns, experiential and hospitality services; industry-leading data, insight, and strategy capabilities; media expertise; as well as an unmatched talent management portfolio of the most high-profile and successful athletes and personalities.