eGolf Professional Tour Announces Board of Advisors


eGolf Advisory Board for 2009

Charlotte, N.C. – January 29, 2009 – The eGolf Professional Tour announced today an impressive list of business leaders that will serve on the newly-formed Board of Advisors. Mr. Wes Jones, Chief Executive Officer of eGolf, heads up the panel of seven members that covers a spectrum of knowledge and experience in the golf industry. The Board of Advisors will serve as a guide to the tour’s staff in order to help position the tour going forward and create a platform from which to produce the best players in the industry. The members include Mr. Jones, Mr. John Harris, Mr. Kym Hougham, Mr. Jerry Haas and Mr. Kelly Miller.

K. Wesley M. Jones

Mr. Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of eGolf and the founder and Managing Partner of Five Oaks Capital Partners, a private investment firm in Charlotte, NC. Prior to forming Five Oaks Capital Partners and in turn eGolf, Mr. Jones was the Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Mortgage Finance for First Union Capital Markets. In that role, he oversaw all of the Fixed Income Trading activities and Capital Markets Conduit Programs for First Union. Mr. Jones serves as a founding board member and Board Chair of the Ethos consortium of Charlotte, a charitable organization which supports the musical arts while serving various community needs. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Paragon Commercial Bank.

John Harris

Mr. Harris is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln Harris, a Charlotte-based real estate services firm. Prior to forming Lincoln Harris in 1999, he was the President of The Bissell Companies, Inc., a major commercial real estate and investment management company. A lifetime resident of Charlotte, Mr. Harris was honored with the Charlotte News Man of the Year Award in 1984 and the Charlotte Region Commercial Board of Realtors Cornerstone Award in 1994. He is a past chairman of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, the Charlotte Sports Commission, the NCAA Final Four Charlotte Organizing Committee, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the Charlotte Regional Partnership. He is a former member of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, a past director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority and is a Mayoral Appointee of the Airport Advisory Committee. Mr. Harris is the President of Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club. He was instrumental in bringing the PGA Tour’s Quail Hollow Championship to Charlotte and serves on the Board of Directors of Champions For Education, the non-profit organization that manages and conducts the Quail Hollow Championship.

Kym Hougham

Mr. Hougham is the Executive Director of the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship, contested annually at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. He is a past President of the PGA TOUR Tournament Advisory Council (TAC) which is a Board of Directors that represents all 48 official events on the PGA TOUR. He is also past Chairman of the FedEx Cup task force, an ex-officio member of the PGA TOUR Policy Board, a member of the 2007 Presidents Cup Committee, the World Golf Hall of Fame Advisory Council and the Hall of Fame Selection Committee. Prior to joining the Wells Fargo Championship in May of 2002, he served as the Tournament Director for the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic in Moline, Illinois for a six-year period. A 1976 graduate of the University of Illinois, Mr. Hougham was the captain of the golf team his junior and senior years. Mr. Hougham and his family relocated to the Charlotte area in 2002, where he serves on the boards of various companies, including the eGolf Professional Tour.

Jerry Haas

Mr. Haas is the golf coach at Wake Forest University, a position he has held since September of 1997. During his tenure, Wake Forest has produced 16 All-ACC selections and 17 individual champions. Over the past five seasons, the Demon Deacons have won 13 tournaments and three of the last four NCAA Regionals. Under Mr. Haas' tutelage, his nephew Bill Haas earned "First Team" All-America honors three times, was ACC Player of the Year twice and was honored with the Ben Hogan Award in 2004 – given annually to the nation’s best college player. Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Mr. Haas spent nine years playing golf professionally on the PGA Tour, the European Tour and the Nike (now Nationwide) Tour. He competed in 115 PGA Tour events between 1990 and 1995 and won three times on the Nike Tour in 1994. Prior to turning professional, Mr. Haas was one of the top amateurs in the country during a standout career at Wake Forest. He was selected to three consecutive All-ACC teams from 1983-85 and earned All-America honors in each of his four years. He won the Illinois Amateur Championship in 1982 and 1984, advanced to the semifinals of the 1984 U.S. Amateur Championship and finished T31 at The Masters Tournament as an amateur in 1985. Mr. Haas was also a member of the victorious 1985 United States Walker Cup team.

Kelly Miller

Mr. Miller is the President of the Pine Needles and Mid Pines Resorts in Southern Pines, NC. Over the past 11 years, the two courses have hosted four USGA National Championships under his supervision, including three U.S. Women’s Opens at Pine Needles. In addition, the two resorts have played host to 14 Carolinas Golf Association championships. In 2004, Mr. Miller oversaw a complete restoration of the Donald Ross-designed Pine Needles course – a project that lengthened the course by over 300 yards and restored many of the shot values that Ross had intended. An avid golfer himself, Mr. Miller won the 1993 Carolinas Mid-Amateur Championship and the 1994 North Carolina Mid-Amateur Championship. He also recorded a runner-up finish at the 1992 North Carolina Amateur Championship.