PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – One month ago, Kamaiu Johnson took the first step in achieving his lifelong dream when he made his PGA Tour debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. This week, he will tee it up in his third PGA Tour event in his home state of Florida at The Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens.
But his story goes back a lot farther than that chilly day in Pebble Beach.
It begins in the small town of Madison, about 50 miles east of Tallahassee, where “golf was an afterthought to a skinny, fatherless, black kid”.
Baseball was Johnson’s first love, starting as a catcher on a youth travel team that won the 2006 Dizzy Dean World Series. He had dreams of being drafted out of high school. But travel baseball is expensive and with his family struggling to keep the lights on and surviving on food stamps, Johnson’s dream didn’t seem as attainable anymore.
Johnson struggled to find sanctuary in the classroom, as well. Feeling left behind after being put in classes for slow learners, Johnson dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
“It made me feel some type of way,” Johnson said. “It actually tore me down as a kid. I was very depressed. I honestly was completely lost. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Not long after, Johnson and his mother, Angela, moved into a Section 8 apartment on the south side of Tallahassee with his grandmother and five other kids. This cramped, two-bedroom apartment was adjacent to a public golf course, Hilaman Park Golf Course.
This is where Jan Auger enters the story and Johnson’s life.
Auger, who was the course’s general manager, spotted a 13-year-old Johnson swinging a stick as a makeshift golf club outside of the apartment building. She was in the middle of her own round, when she crossed the fairway to approach Johnson.
“He looked like he was afraid I was going to yell at him,” Auger recalled in Golf Digest. “He seemed a little sad, to be honest with you, but I took an instant liking to him.”
Much to Johnson’s surprise, instead of reprimanding him, Auger told him to head up to the clubhouse where a 9-iron and a bucket of balls would be waiting for him.
This bucket of balls eventually turned into an opportunity for Johnson. Auger offered him a deal: if he helped out around the club, then she’d let him play there for a dollar a round. Johnson, who had only played one round of golf in his life, jumped at the chance and Hilaman quickly became his second home.
He spent his days at the course from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., picking up range balls, washing carts, painting the pro shop, all while working to learn and hone his game.
“At the time I knew this is probably going to be my way out of everything,” he said to Golf Channel. “I knew that golf was going to be my outlet.”
Auger wasn’t the only person that had an enormous impact on Johnson’s life. When his mother moved back to Madison for work, Johnson lived with Ramon Alexander, a former student body president at Florida A&M University and a current member of the Florida House of Representatives.
It was through Alexander’s non-profit organization, Distinguished Young Gentlemen of America, that Johnson eventually earn his GED.
“Ramon taught me how to be a man, how to take ownership,” Johnson said.
Around the same time that Johnson went to live with Alexander, he also began competing in events. He went on to qualify for the 2012 Florida Open Championship at the Ritz Carlton Members Club when he was 18, along with qualifying for the 2013 U.S. Amateur Championship and U.S. Public Links Championship.
He turned professional at 21, and from there it was a grind on the mini-tours, where he has won a dozen times, and the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour.
The APGA was created in 2010 to prepare African Americans and other minority golfers to compete and gain better access in the golf industry.
He captured the APGA Tour Championship in November, birdieing the final hole to secure the victory, and has won the Tallahassee Open a record-setting three times.
While he has had success, the life of an aspiring professional golfer is not always a glamorous one. Johnson found himself homeless at times and running out of money at the end of every year.
But despite these struggles, Johnson’s personality, strong work ethic and passion have remained steady and won people, like Auger and Alexander, over.
Someone else he won over – Farmers Insurance President and CEO Jeff Dailey.
Daily heard Johnson telling his story to a few reporters at Torrey Pines, where the APGA was playing an event on the North Course on the Saturday of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open in 2020.
"I walked out of that tent thinking that we had to do something for him,” Daily said in Golf Digest.
Not long after, Farmers offered Johnson an $50,000 two-year endorsement deal. Then came the call from Daily in November, where he told Johnson that he had been chosen for an exemption into the 2021 Farmers Open.
His first chance at the PGA Tour.
“This is where I want to be. So it’s a big point that I take advantage of these opportunities that I’m getting,” Johnson said in Golf.com.
Just like everything else in Johnson’s life, his first PGA Tour start didn’t come easy though. Just days before his debut, Johnson tested positive for Covid-19 and had to withdraw. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for more doors to open.
The Honda Classic quickly offered him a sponsor exemption. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was not far behind, along with a Korn Ferry Tour event, the Emerald Coast Classic at Sandestin.
These events are just the first step on his way to his ultimate goal. Being a full-time PGA Tour member.
"I can do it," Johnson said in the Associated Press. "For sure. I just have to keep grinding. I've come way too far to give up now. I'm in too deep. The biggest thing in life is to surround myself with good people."
For Johnson, his entry into the world of golf was merely by chance. He was not provided with the same opportunities as others. If he had not been outside that day near Hilaman, or if Auger had decided not to play golf that day, you wouldn’t be here reading this story right now.
But Johnson wants to help change this narrative. This is where the My My Foundation comes in. With Alexander’s guidance, Johnson started the foundation to provide opportunities to kids that he didn’t have.
The foundation will provide critical resources, training, and instruction via the game of golf to youth from single parent homes, residing in high crime neighborhoods, and living in challenged rural communities. Johnson hopes to stage junior golf tournaments and clinics once the Covid-19 pandemic has passed.
“Golf saved me,” Johnson said in Golf Digest. “It gave me a reason to live, gave me a purpose.”
