|
 Fifteen
years of volunteering at Greensboro's professional golf tournament has
earned Marty Sheets more than his share of trinkets and treasures.
There's the driver Fuzzy Zoeller gave him a few years back. K.J. Choi's
check - the oversized cardboard version, not the real one - for winning
the 2005 tournament still hangs over Sheets' bedroom closet. There's even
a picnic basketb in his garage filled with golf balls and autographed
gloves.
But perhaps the most treasured prize of all came Tuesday, when the PGA
Tour honored Sheets on Tuesday.
Sheets, who volunteers at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro,
received the PGA TOUR's highest honor for individual benevolence, earning
the 2006 PGA TOUR Volunteer of the Year award.
PGA TOUR Chief of Operations Henry Hughes and TOUR player Scott Verplank
made the presentations during meetings with individual tournament organizers
at the site of the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play Championship.
Sheets and his father, David, were flown to Tucson, Ariz., to receive
the award.
"It's a great honor," Sheets said. "I was excited when
I first heard about it 10 days ago and I still am."
"This award is the highest honor the PGA TOUR can bestow upon a
volunteer, and we are extremely proud of Marty," Wyndham Championship
tournament director Mark Brazil said. "For 15 years, he's been the
perfect volunteer in every way. He always brings a smile to everyone's
face, and he's an excellent standard bearer. He is assigned the final
group in the final round each year because he does such a good job."
"All the players remember him from year to year, and they are truly
excited that the TOUR is giving him this incredible recognition. Marty
embodies what our tournament is all about…giving back. He gives back
through his volunteerism, and he represents every volunteer who has been
a part of this tournament since 1938. This award is a very special not
only for the Sheets family, but also for everyone associated with the
Wyndham Championship."
Sheets, 53, is a Special Olympics North Carolina athlete with Down syndrome.
He currently competes in golf and powerlifting but has also competed in
Alpine skiing, tennis and aquatics in the past. He represented North Carolina
in 1968 at the first International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field
in Chicago. Sheets has won more than 150 medals at local, state and international
Special Olympics competitions.
At the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Sheets was chosen to
sit in the Presidential Box with President Bill Clinton. Arthur Ashe and
Evander Holyfield are among the other celebrities and world figures that
Sheets has met.
Sheets plays golf with his father once a week when the weather permits,
and has no intention of calling it a career any time soon.
"It's too much fun," he said.
Nominate a person to be featured in "Spotlight On"
-Call 1-800-843-6276, ext. 110.
|
