The Pepsi Little People's Golf Tournament is one of the largest international golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 tournaments in the world for ages 3 to 19 and occurs every year in the community of Quincy

Quincy, Illinois

Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, USA and several other communities in the region depending on the age divisions.

History

The event was founded by Nan Ryan in 1973 by a statement she'd heard while on a Quincy golf course, the statement was "It's a shame the Midwest doesn’t have a junior tournament like the International Pee Wee in Orlando, FL". However 33 years later the tournament in Quincy became ranked as the 3rd most widely attended junior golf event in the world. Pepsi became the primary sponsor of the golf tournament soon after.

The First Little People's and after

The first Little People's event drew 174 girls and boys and was hosted by the Cedar Crest Golf Country Club in Quincy, which the event in later years had to be split between all the golf course in town because of the larger crowds. The Westview Golf Course was added to the event in 1975, Spring Lake Country Club was later added in 1993, and finally the Knights of Columbus Golf Course in 1994 was added to accommodate the players ages 3 through 7.

After the success of Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...

, attendance of the Little People's event jumped to 672 kids in 1997, although Woods had never played in the Little People's his impact on the sport was felt, after which another course was added, the Norwoods Golf Club in nearby Hannibal, Missouri

Hannibal, Missouri

Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...

. In 2007, when the new 18 - 19 division was created, the Deer Run Golf Course in Hamilton, Illinois

Hamilton, Illinois

Hamilton is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,029 at the 2000 census. The city is located directly across the Mississippi River from Keokuk, Iowa. Hamilton is the largest city in Hancock County.-About Hamilton:...

was added to the line-up after attendance reached 922.

Now the internationally known tournament for boys and girls aged three through 17 is played at five golf courses in the Quincy, IL, area, with the collegiate division, for men and women 18 through 21, playing at the Harry Mussatto (Western Illinois University) Golf Course in Macomb, IL.

External links

• Pepsi Little People's Golf Championships Homepage