Junior Invitational

In the 1990s, South Carolina real estate tycoon Weldon Wyatt pursued the idea of creating a golf club near Augusta National Golf Club. After five years of searching, he decided on a 9,500-acre forest in Graniteville, South Carolina, around 12 miles north of Augusta. Wyatt chose golf architect Tom Fazio to design the course, and in 2001 Sage Valley Golf Club was opened. Wyatt recalled in 2011, "I used to work right down here in Graniteville for $35 a week, delivering groceries." He stated that he later bought the buildings where he had previously worked, adding: "I think when we opened [at Sage Valley] someone interviewed me and I said all of us have dreams, I was just fortunate enough for my dream to come true." Regarding the course, Fazio stated: "I don't mind if people say it looks like Augusta National—both courses have dramatic rolling terrain, lots of pine trees, water, dogwoods, azaleas and all that good stuff. But I didn't want to copy Augusta National. That would have been easy, but it wouldn't have been fun. The real challenge was to produce something totally different that's only 15 minutes away." Augusta businessman Paul Simon approached Wyatt about the possibility of hosting a fundraiser at Sage Valley for the First Tee of Augusta. Wyatt initially declined, but he reconsidered after a high school golf tournament which he had organized for 13 years alongside his son Tom (an accomplished junior golfer who subsequently played collegiately at Furman University) began to wind down. Wyatt contacted Simon and in 2009 they announced the creation of a junior tournament to be held at Sage Valley, benefiting the First Tee. As with the high school tournament, all expenses including travel costs for the participants was covered, and players were to be lodged at Sage Valley. Wyatt stated that he was inspired by the William James quote: "The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." ==History==