Clemson’s Dabo Swinney does not get the opportunity to play golf very often, but when he does he tries to have fun with it.
The Tigers’ head football coach will have some of that fun on Tuesday as he will participate in the 11th annual Chick-fil-A Bowl Charity Golf Tournament in Atlanta. A 15-team field of NCAA head coaches and celebrity alumni will compete for a first-place prize of $100,000 in scholarship and charity. All participating teams will receive a portion of the $630,000 total purse.
Swinney will pair up with former Clemson All-American and two-time ACC Player of the Year Steve Fuller as the two Tigers will play with North Carolina’s Larry Fedora and Roy Williams.
This is the ninth year Swinney has played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl Charity Golf Tournament and through the years he has played with some legendary coaches like Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer and Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe. However, his favorite pairing is when he has had the opportunity to play with Hall of Fame head coach Steve Spurrier, who coached at Florida and rival South Carolina.
“I have played against a bunch of guys over the years, but I always have enjoyed playing with Coach Spurrier,” Swinney said in a video produced by the Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge. “He looks a lot better wearing that Gator shirt than that other one.
“He has always been kind of fun to play with. Really, it is how he and I have got to know each other better was playing some golf outside of our positions as football coaches in the same state. A lot of these guys … Beamer, Jim Grobe and so many guys have I played with over the years has always been a lot of fun.”
Of course Swinney and Spurrier battled seven times against each other on the football field. Spurrier won five of those seven battles, but Swinney won the last one, a 35-17 victory in Death Valley in 2014. Spurrier stepped down as South Carolina’s head coach midway through the 2015 season. The two also took jabs at each other off the field through the media, which made the rivalry even more fun and colorful than it already was.
Over the past 10 years, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge has provided a total of $6 million in scholarship and charity. Proceeds from the event benefit endowed scholarships at the participating universities and charitable foundations selected by the coaches, benefitting a wide range of organizations throughout the nation.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge is a significant contributor to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl’s overall charitable and scholarship donations, which total $21 million since 2002, making the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl college football’s most charitable bowl game.
Competing teams will play a two-man scramble format over 18 holes using confirmed handicap adjustments. Schools will be paired for a shotgun start on the first nine holes and then re-paired, based on scores, and the round will continue with consecutive tee times for the second nine holes.
Highlighted by six Dodd Trophy recipients, two Heisman Trophy winners, two representatives from the College Football Playoff selection committee and a total of 10 national championships won among the coaches.