Lester Penn Invitational was a success

The Lester Penn Invitational was held this past weekend at Mossy Oak and Old Waverly golf clubs in West Point, benefitting the Randy Watkins Junior golf tournament. 

The tournament started in 1987 at Beau Chene Country Club by Lester Penn, who is the grandfather of the tournament’s current president, Les Penn. The elder Penn originally started the tournament in a partnership with Morgan Earnest, the developer of Beau Chene, as the two had become close friends from Earnest coming to duck hunt in Madison County.

After Penn’s passing in 1990, two of his children, Scott and Kent, kept the invitational going until 1999, before it was started back up in 2019 in memory of Lester Penn. 

“It is something very dear to me, especially being named after my grandfather,” Penn said. “It was definitely something I was interested in starting back.”

The tournament shifted towards a heavier focus on charity in 2022, when Les Penn was approached by his brother, Chad Penn, along with his friends Wally Cummins, Josh Snow, and Matt Maberry, where the LPI Charity, Inc. was born. 

The beneficiary of the Lester Penn Invitation, the Randy Watkins Junior Tournament, is one of the largest junior events in Mississippi and attracts hundreds of golfers from around the United States. 

“My grandfather loved golf and pretty much all of us that are involved were raised in the junior golf community,” Penn said. “Randy, his son Thomas, and his son-in-law are the most committed to junior golf of anyone in the area, so we got with them and asked what we could do to help junior golf in the area, which is where we came to benefit the Randy Watkins Junior Tournament.”

There are other matches played within the tournament as well, as there is a nine-hole scramble played in memory of Les Penn’s uncle, Scott Penn, where the winning team captain wins team entry into the Andi’s Army Golf Tournament in September.

Almost all of this year’s 49 participants in the tournament have connections to the Madison County area, with this year’s winning team consisting of Jim Owen, Chad Penn, Jeb Stewart, Wally Cummins, and Kellen Chambers.

For more information or to ask about being a sponsor for the Lester Penn Invitational, email lesterpenninvitational@gmail.com or mail LPI Charity, Inc. at 310 New Point Drive, Ridgeland, Mississippi, 39157.