SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee will make his first appearance at the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament, which is scheduled for April 26–28 at Reynolds Lake Oconee outside Atlanta, according to an April 16 announcement.
The tournament brings together top college football coaches and legends for a two-man scramble format with Stableford scoring. This year’s field features twelve teams, each pairing an active coach with a former coach or legend. One team will include two active head coaches: Lashlee and Jeff Monken from Army.
Notable participants in this year’s competition include Shane Beamer (South Carolina), Manny Diaz (Duke), Dave Doeren (NC State), P.J. Fleck (Minnesota), Brent Key (Georgia Tech), Dan Lanning (Oregon), Pat Narduzzi (Pitt), Mike Norvell (Florida State), Scott Satterfield (Cincinnati), Kirby Smart (Georgia), Dabo Swinney (Clemson) and Kyle Whittingham (Michigan). The lineup includes six former Dodd Trophy winners, nine Football Bowl Subdivision national championships among the group, sixty-four conference titles, and nearly three thousand career wins collectively. Twenty-four coaches have previously competed in the event while Lashlee and Ted Roof are making their debuts.
Proceeds from the tournament benefit charities chosen by participating coaches. Lashlee has selected the ED29Foundation as his beneficiary; this foundation was created by NFL Hall of Famer and SMU legend Eric Dickerson to support underserved youth through education, health resources, and personal development opportunities.
Since its inception in 2007, the Peach Bowl Challenge has raised $10 million for scholarships and charitable causes across seventy-eight different organizations. “We’ve now raised $10 million in charitable funds from this event and look forward to adding to that total thanks to this year’s impressive field of coaches,” Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO and President Gary Stokan said. “This annual tradition has grown to become the premier collegiate coach golf event and we’re thankful so many of college football’s biggest names have participated over the years in order to give back to various causes that have personal meaning to them.”
