Gamez continues to give back to his community

Monday, Oct. 20, 1997 | 4:20 a.m.

Entering its sixth year, the Robert Gamez Charity Classic is one of the premier golf events in Southern Nevada.

Participants such as four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, former Masters and U.S. Open champion Fuzzy Zoeller and Hall of Famers Julius Erving and the late Don Drysdale have made this event one of the most prestigious of its kind anywhere in the United States.

The 1998 Robert Gamez Charity Classic will be held in February at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin.

The pro-am portion of the tournament consists of 18 holes of golf. Each group consists of one professional, one celebrity and a four-player amateur scramble team. Also included in past festivities have been the annual celebrity shoot-out and long-drive competition. The shoot-out is modeled after the Merrill Lynch Shoot-Outs on the PGA Tour. This year, the first day's events were capped off with the Robert Gamez Classic Dinner and Auction featuring live entertainment and a memorabilia auction.

Founded in 1993, the Robert Gamez Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to financially assisting Las Vegas area youth-related charities. Some of the organizations that have received the assistance of the Robert Gamez Foundation include the Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Southern Nevada Chapter of the Candlelighters for Childhood Cancer, St. Jude's Ranch for Children, the Southern Nevada Inner-City Youth Golf Association, the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada and others.

Gamez, a graduate of Clark High School, was the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1990. In his first start as a member of the tour, in January of 1990, he came away with a four-stroke victory at the Tucson Open. He would win again in March of that year by holing a 7-iron from 176 yards on the 72nd and final hole to capture a one-stroke victory at the Nestle Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla.

Considered one of the longer hitters on the PGA Tour, Gamez has compiled earnings of more than $2.3 million in official money. In addition to his two PGA Tour victories, he earned his first international win at the 1994 Casio World Open in Japan.

Gamez attended the University of Arizona, where he won the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus awards as the Collegiate Player of the Year in 1989.

If you would like more information about the Robert Gamez Charity Classic, or how you might become involved either as a sponsor, advertiser or volunteer, call the Robert Gamez Foundation at 256-5183.