LPGA Stars to Play Benefit for Juniors

The second LPGA Junior Golf Pro-Am, a charity event to benefit youth golf in the inner-city areas of Southern California, will be played today at the Woodland Hills Country Club.

The tournament will pair several LPGA standouts with a handful of Southland junior players under a scramble format. Longtime LPGA professional Kay Cockerill, the event hostess, is one of 29 tour players expected to participate.

A shotgun start is set for 10:15 a.m. and admission is free.

LPGA players scheduled to play include Amy Alcott, Helen Alfredsson, Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon, Sandra Palmer, Muffin Spencer-Devlin and Hollis Stacy. Also expected are former Olympian Rafer Johnson and actors Lyle Waggoner and Joanna Kearns.

The LPGA junior program based in Glendale has helped give Southern California inner-city youths between the ages of 7 and 17 an opportunity to play the game.

More than 1,200 inner-city children of diverse ethnic backgrounds have been exposed to the game since 1989, according to program director Andree Martin.

Keion Witherspoon and Leroy Bates, who played for the Granada Hills golf team, were introduced to the sport through the LPGA program. Witherspoon received a scholarship to Jackson State and Bates is a senior at Granada Hills. Both live in Los Angeles.

The program started with seed money from the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles.

Through AAF grants and corporate donations, the program is able to outfit youths with clubs, shirts and shoes. The program also conducts clinics to teach youths the basics of the sport and helps provide free access to public courses in Los Angeles and Orange counties.