At the old muni they called him My-My, the eighth-grade dropout who was raised by golf. The men at the course treated him like a son, offering guidance he'd never known, while the assistant pro gave him work in exchange for $1 rounds of golf. Gradually, he found a home. Gradually, he became a player. And now Kamaiu (Cam-My-You) Johnson, who never knew his father and never felt welcomed in school, stands on the precipice of his first PGA TOUR start at this week's Farmers Insurance Open. "It's kind of surreal," says Jan Auger, the assistant pro who has since become General Manager of Hilaman Golf Course in Tallahassee, Florida. "It's hard to put into words. Kamaiu is like my son." Says Johnson, 27, who has since gotten his GED, "I'll be a little nervous. I mean, once I get going, I think I'll calm down, but first couple holes will be a little nervy." It takes a men's league The story of perhaps the least likely contestant at the Farmers starts with community. It takes a village, yes, but it also takes a pro shop, a men's league, proactive corporate engagement, and the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour (APGA), which aims to promote diversity in golf and which the PGA TOUR has supported with its courses and facilities since 2012. All fueled Johnson's wild ride, but it's the adults who practically raised him at Hilaman and the nine-hole Jake Gaither G.C. who will be refreshing their live scoring feeds most obsessively. "Everybody from Tallahassee is going to be watching," says Hank Sykes, 66, an ex-swimming pool installer and one of the regulars at Hilaman. "Kamaiu is the next legend." How the legend expanded beyond Tallahassee goes back to the APGA's first-ever one-day tournament at Torrey Pines' North Course while the Farmers Insurance Open played out on the South last year. Farmers CEO Jeff Dailey, wowed by Johnson's story, made him and former Michigan Amateur winner Willie Mack III brand ambassadors, easing their financial burdens. It was just the start. While a summer of tragedies and racial unrest roiled America, Johnson posted five straight top-10s on the APGA Tour, culminating with a victory over Tim O'Neal and former TOUR pro Brad Adamonis at the APGA Tour Championship in September. His best-ever payday of $16,000 was sweet; he didn't know a spot in the Farmers was just around the corner. "We value diversity and are proud to help support the APGA Tour in its mission to level the playing field for many talented golfers," Farmers CEO Dailey said in announcing the invitation in October. "The APGA is doing incredible work to expand the game of golf, and we are thrilled to be able to provide Kamaiu the chance to play in his first-ever PGA TOUR tournament." Johnson was beyond thrilled. What happens when APGA Tour meets PGA TOUR? "We're about to find out," says Johnson, who lives in Orlando with roommate and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica player Keith Greene. "There are really good players on the APGA Tour that, if they got more opportunities, could play on the PGA TOUR. People don't understand how much it takes to get through Q-School and everything. It's a lot of money. "We have to put ourselves in position to take advantage of those opportunities," he continues. "Make it to the weekend and show we can play out there just like those guys." The key word there is opportunities. Last summer TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan pledged $100 million to help address disparities faced by African Americans and other under-represented groups. The TOUR's alliance with the APGA Tour, and Farmers, is part of that. Ken Bentley, CEO of the APGA Tour, says success stories like Johnson's show the APGA is living out its mission to place people of color not just on TOUR but also in pro shops and boardrooms. "I go back to a press conference Kamaiu did at the Farmers last year," Bentley says. "He said his goal was to get back to Torrey but on the South Course. Now he's got that opportunity. It's great for us. It puts another spotlight on our tour and shows how good our guys are, and that guys who do well on our tour will get other opportunities. Life has really changed for him." That's for sure. He's also been given a sponsor's exemption to compete in the Korn Ferry Tour's Emerald Coast Golf Classic at Sandestin in Destin, Florida, in early April. A bed under the table Johnson was lost before he found golf. Put in slow-learner classes in school, he got discouraged and dropped out. Living with his grandmother and six other family members in a two-bedroom apartment in Section 8 housing, he slept under the dining room table. Golf came into his life by chance on a day when he was skipping school and swinging a stick outside his grandmother's apartment complex, which bordered Hilaman. "I thought it was a golf club," Auger says. "When I saw that it was a stick it made me laugh. It wasn't like he was addressing the ball, but it had the fluidity of a golf swing." She invited him back to Hilaman, and they cobbled together some clubs. He showed promise even if he couldn't beat Johnnie Lee Brown, a Hilaman regular who once shot 59 at Gaither. Local businesses and others chipped in for equipment, lessons and tournament entry fees. When his mom temporarily relocated for work, Johnson lived with Ramon Alexander, who mentored young Black men and later became a member of the Florida House of Representatives. For two years, the arrangement provided Johnson much-needed stability. He kept playing golf. At 19, he finally beat Brown, and when he won the first of his four Tallahassee Opens, the first thing he did was bring Sykes to the pro shop to buy him a hat with his merchandise credit. For Auger, who was standing behind the counter, the gesture meant even more than the victory. "I thought wow, he's grown up to be such a good person," she says. "I'd call Hank sometimes if Kamaiu was giving me a hard time, and Hank would straighten him out." Adds Sykes, whose brother, Freddie, played wide receiver for the New England Patriots, "It's a good hat. Seminoles. I still got it. He was 12 or 13 when I first seen him and started talkin' to him, and we became real good friends. I didn't teach him a lot of golf, but I taught him how to act. Yes, sir. No, ma'am. It was a community thing to teach him how to play golf." ‘He's got big-show game' Johnson's career low is 62. He practices at Orlando's Lake Nona Golf & Country Club but has lately been picking the brain of former TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions pro Jim Thorpe at nearby Heathrow Golf Club. What's it like on TOUR? What should he do? What to avoid? "Just feeling like I belong there; that's kind of how I'm taking it," Johnson says. Greene, his roommate, will be his caddie. Andy Walker, one of his coaches, will also be at Torrey. "He's got big-show game," says Walker, who played the Korn Ferry Tour and is now the golf coach at Div. II Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. "He has a couple of intangibles, one of which is the length. For a thin guy he has plenty of clubhead speed and can move it. That's going to be one of his major assets. We're making sure he's committing to and hitting the right shots. "The maturation in his game, especially the last six or seven months, has been awesome," he continues. "His background - Kamaiu is a fighter. He's worked for what he's got. Nothing was handed to him, so I think he's used to being in a situation where you've got to go get it." Still, Walker adds, no one should jump to conclusions based on this week. "I don't expect him to be 100% comfortable in that environment because he's never been there before," he says. "I hope this turns into more opportunities for him because he's a great kid. There will be no failure no matter what he shoots in this tournament." Johnson isn't sure who he will play a practice round with, although he's pretty certain he'll meet fellow Farmers ambassador Rickie Fowler, who gave him and Mack a shout-on social media when their endorsements were announced. Johnson occasionally ran into FSU golfers Daniel Berger and Brooks Koepka when he was living in Tallahassee, but the local kid and the collegiate superstars were essentially living in different worlds. "There just hasn't been a lot of money in Black golf," says Johnson, who also represents Titleist and Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a software company in Massachusetts. Those companies plus Farmers, the APGA, the TOUR, and NBA star Stephen Curry's support for HBCU Howard Univerity's golf teams, not to mention other initiatives, are helping to change that. "I think we're definitely moving in the right direction," Johnson says. Back in Tallahassee recently, he visited Sykes, who says of his old, white FSU cap that he has to keep everything Johnson ever touched because the kid is going to be famous. He marveled at Johnson's staff bag with his name on it, a sure sign that Kamaiu had made it. My-My, indeed. Sykes regrets not being able to attend the Farmers because of the pandemic. Brown, who also taught Johnson so much on and off the course, died suddenly at 81 earlier this month. Employed by the city of Tallahassee, he worked at Gaither and passed shortly after shooting his age. The pool of pioneering minority golfers shrinks each year, and Gaither, one of the first courses to allow Blacks, will soon be entered into the historic registry. There is much work to be done; there are fewer Black players than in the 1980s, the heyday of Thorpe, Calvin Peete and others. The APGA Tour will play at Torrey North again this Saturday while Johnson plays the Farmers on the South, determined as ever to make the TOUR his home. There is, he says, no Plan B.
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