A ten-acre lot on North St. Louis’s Carter Carburetor site spent decades as an EPA Superfund liability, too toxic for anything to be built on it. This year, Gateway PGA is turning it into a golf course. The $4 million Play Through Capital Campaign, fully funded under the leadership of PGA REACH Gateway Foundation President and MLB Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, will transform the remediated site into the North St. Louis Youth & Community Center, anchoring our partners Urban Golf of St. Louis (UGolf) and the Diversity Golf Marketing Foundation (DGMF), and extending PGA HOPE programming to Veterans at the neighboring John Cochran VA Hospital. Groundbreaking will be underway later this summer. Other sections build programs. Gateway PGA builds ground.

In 2023, the PGA REACH Gateway Board formalized PGA ABLE (Abilities Beyond Life’s Expectations), a program built to bring golf to individuals of all abilities across our region. Its first program launched at St. Luke’s Hospital’s Albert Pujols Wellness Center, serving adults with Down Syndrome. Kevin Corn, PGA, had already been bringing golf to hospitalized children at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital since 2011, one Professional and one bag of clubs at a time. That work was folded into PGA ABLE shortly after, and today the program spans six sites serving both pediatric and adult populations. Other PGA Sections have since begun adopting the model.

One family’s experience at Ranken Jordan captures what this work means in practice. After watching her son participate, a mother asked where she could buy the “special” clubs he was using, then wept upon learning they were standard, off-the-shelf equipment. Her son, she said, had never used anything normal in his life.

Companies partner with Gateway PGA to run Gateway Golf & Business for Women. This is not a subsidized outreach effort but a proven pathway for women to feel comfortable on the course where business gets done. Bayer Crop Science and Carrollton Bank have retained the program every year since 2024. Brown & Brown and Thrivent Financial joined the movement in 2026 on reputation alone. Participation climbed from 64 to 81 between 2024 and 2025.

PGA HOPE exists because Veterans in our region were struggling, and a golf course was one of the few places anyone thought to look for them. Brian Maine, PGA, was one of the program’s early adopters nationally, bringing it to the Gateway PGA in 2011. He personally wrote the first curriculum and launched the inaugural clinic with 12 Veterans. It has since grown into 14 organized programs encompassing 23 sessions in 2025, serving 340 Veterans through a network of more than 400 Gateway PGA Professionals. Jon DePriest, PGA, has credited Maine’s groundwork for his involvement in PGA HOPE. Building on that foundation, DePriest noticed that the program still lacked a demographic: female Veterans. He built women-only clinics to welcome them on the course. Thirty women have graduated since, and the model has expanded to a second site at Scott Air Force Base. DePriest has also built PGA HOPE’s fundraising backbone, raising over $800,000 through flagship events like 100 Holes for Heroes and the Five-Star Challenge. Graduates stay connected through the PGA HOPE Cup, founded by Maine, the “Pars and Stripes” equipment drive, and a physical therapy partnership with SSM Health, ensuring PGA HOPE provides a lasting community, not just a single clinic. In 2024, the PGA of America recognized DePriest’s work with the National Patriot Award. 

Michael Suhre, PGA, has spent his career proving that a third-generation family golf course can still be a national leader. Oak Brook Golf Club runs one of the top five PGA Jr. League programs in the country, and Suhre’s advocacy as lead Captain for UGolf and DGMF is the reason our urban youth programming carries national Opportunity League status today. The PGA of America named him its 2025 National Youth Player Development Award winner. 

Section-wide, Junior Tour membership has grown by 61 percent since 2020, from 569 to 917 members, and there are as many as 92 tournaments a year. Across the entire Gateway Section, 113 of 359 golf facilities, nearly one in three, now run PGA Jr. League or comparable player development programming, a number we are actively working to grow. For juniors not ready for competitive golf, our Junior Development Tour offers a separate, non-competitive path through three skill tiers, with over half of participants advancing at least a level or two a year. 

The Junior Tour Scholarship Program provides need-based assistance so juniors without financial means can keep participating and competing. Significant growth in the scholarship awarded has been made, with awards increasing from $1,625 in 2020 to $8,191 in 2025. The Clarence Voigt Memorial Scholarship, named in honor of a local half-century PGA Member, recognizes graduating seniors as they transition to college and has awarded over $51,000 to 34 students over the past 15 years.