PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Aaron Beverly’s first memory of Tiger Woods is of watching him win the 1997 Masters while on family vacation.
“I wasn’t quite in diapers, but I was definitely in overalls,” Beverly, 27, recalled. “The only reason I remember this is because my dad has told me the story a hundred times over. We were on vacation in Monterey and he had it on TV and we watched, and that was one of the first times I ever saw my dad cry because Tiger won. And the last time I ever got to watch with my dad was the 2019 Masters when Mr. Woods won.”
Beverly is set to make his PGA Tour debut this week as the recipient of the Charlie Sifford exemption into the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, the tournament hosted by Woods. Awarded annually since 2009, the Sifford exemption represents the advancement of diversity in the game of golf.
On Wednesday, Beverly, who will hit the opening tee shot on Thursday, sat next to Woods as they conducted a joint press conference on the eve of the tournament.
Tournament host Tiger Woods (R) and Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipient Aaron Beverly speak at a press conference prior to The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on February 16, 2022, in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
“To be sitting here next to Mr. Woods, and to be honest with everybody, he’s really cool. I had dreams of one day playing against him and competing against him and hopefully 72nd hole, I’m making the putt and I’m fist pumping,” Beverly said. “My dreams never got so far to be sitting and doing a press conference with him, but it’s definitely a moment in time I’ll never forget and very special.”
“Let’s work on that 72nd hole,” Woods said with a look and a matching voice that said not to so fast young fella.
Beverly is a fitting representative for the Sifford exemption, a Black golfer who splits his time as an assistant pro at Valley Hi CC in Elk Grove, California, and an assistant coach at his alma mater Sacramento State University while chasing the dream of climbing the rungs of professional golf. He was a standout player at Armijo High, the 2012 Northern California CIF golf champion, and played with a Clovis East High kid named Bryson DeChambeau in his group at the state championships.
“He showed up on the first tee and he had his I call it the LL Cool J hat on. I didn’t know who he was,” Beverly said. “I remember we both hit good drives on the first hole and I had him by 5-10 yards.”
“This is just the first opportunity of a lifetime”
Tomorrow Aaron Beverly will compete against the best players in the world in honor of Charlie Sifford, fulfilling a lifelong dream
Aaron Beverly pic.twitter.com/JGmJtldDmp
— The Genesis Invitational (@thegenesisinv) February 16, 2022
At Sacramento State, he was the two-time Big Sky Conference Player of the Year. In his last event in college, he played in the same group with another Cali kid named Collin Morikawa.
Much like Woods, Beverly’s love of golf stems from a close relationship with his father. Aaron’s childhood memories consist of playing nine holes with Dad on weekend mornings at now-defunct Joe Mortara GC in Vallejo and now-defunct Green Tree GC in Vacaville. Aaron would feast on cheese toast and chocolate milk before they headed to the course and then watch football all afternoon.
Ron Beverly was a four-sport athlete in junior college and a decorated high school football coach. Ron and Aaron and Aaron’s brother, Ron, Jr., who played college baseball and football, would argue about who was the best athlete in the family. Even before he excelled in golf, Aaron was an accomplished ballet dancer through high school.
“I was naturally good at ballet, and actually much better at it than I was at golf,” Aaron said.
But if he was forced to drink truth serum, Aaron concedes it might have been his Dad.
As he reached the age of 16, golf began to win out, and playing the PGA Tour became Aaron’s dream.
Beverly turned pro in 2018 and began the quest. He bounced around on the Canadian, Golden State, and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, making some cuts, missing others. He’s earned a grand total of $1,275 in official PGA Tour earnings.
No matter what he shot, he always phoned his Dad to break it down. Often, his dad followed him when he practiced and played. In 2019, Ron Beverly was diagnosed with cancer. He entered a treatment program at Stanford, and his prognosis appeared to be promising. But one day in September 2019, Aaron finished an event and got a call from his nephew right after the round that his father’s condition had taken a turn for the worse. Aaron rushed to Stanford. The next day, Ron Beverly died at 72 years old.
Aaron took the loss hard and his golf suffered. He began volunteer coaching at Sacramento State. The healing process was slow. In July of 2020, he won a Golden State event in La Quinta, California.
“I finally came to peace that I couldn’t call him after rounds,” Aaron told NCGA Golf Magazine. “No longer was I playing at that point to fulfill a memory. I finally was back to playing for myself. I had a great sense of calm.”
Two years after losing his Dad, Beverly notched another important victory at the APGA Tour’s Fall Series finale at Wilshire Country Club, a former host of L.A. Open (1928, ’31, ’33, ’44). He made a 12-footer at the first hole to save par and experienced a sense of calm he’d never felt on the golf course. “I’ve yet to figure out why,” he said. “I couldn’t have been calmer if I was sitting on a beach, listening to waves.”
After his triumph, he called his Mom, La Verne. “It’s nice to call with some good news,” he said.
Even better news arrived earlier this year when Mike Antolini, the tournament director of the Genesis Invitational, called and told him he’d been selected as this year’s Charlie Sifford Exemption. Beverly initial response? He asked him to repeat the news.
“Because I didn’t believe it at first,” he said. “My life changed at that moment.”
Sifford was a trailblazer for minority golfers, often called the Jackie Robinson of golf, and Beverly paid his respects to the first Black member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“Everything that Charlie meant to the game of golf to me embodied three things: Desire, perseverance and just a passion for the game of golf,” Beverly said. “He had a desire to always play on Tour, he had a passion for the game of golf and persevered through a lot of adversity. So trying to embody that spirit is a real honor to me.”
Beverly has his share of Tiger in his blood too. When asked what his goal for the week is, Beverly said, “The goal is to win. I think Tiger said that best. That’s the reason we compete. There’s no better way to make the most of it than to go out there and shock the world.”
He’s already achieved and overcome so much. As Cameron Champ, one of the few Blacks on the PGA Tour advised his longtime friend, “You know how to play at a high level, you’ve got all the shots so tune out all the noise as much as possible and treat every shot the way you would regularly.”
Tune out the noise and tune in all the wisdom that his father imparted on him. Aaron still has a handful of text messages that he’s listened to hundreds of times since his father passed away. His father may be gone, but he still knows what he would say after each round.
“My father was not only my coach, but my best friend, mentor and biggest supporter,” Beverly said. “I know there would be no one more excited and proud of me than him. He’ll be looking over me all week and smiling watching me play against the best players in the world.”