PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – The 31st PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship, presented by CastleOak Securities L.P., begins Friday and will run through Sunday on the Ryder and Wanamaker Courses at PGA Golf Club.

Livingstone College’s golf team, coached by Andre Springs, will compete in the event. Livingstone won the Division II title in this tournament in 1987-89, the first three years of the event.

The championship features both team and individual competitions of both men and women golfers. The 54-hole, stroke-play tournament is contested in four-team divisions: NCAA Men’s Division I, Men’s Division II, Men’s NAIA, and an overall women’s division.

In 2016, Bethune-Cookman University captured both the Men’s Division I and the Women’s Division, while Cal State-Dominguez Hills won the Men’s Division II title. The University of Houston-Victoria took home the Men’s NAIA championship.

Livingstone finished third last year in the Division II level of the tournament, shooting a three-day score of 924. Cal State-Dominguez Hills won with a 901, followed by Texas A&M International at 918.

Another CIAA school, Fayetteville State, was fourth with a score of 939.

In the individual competition, Tiana Jones, of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, captured the 2016 women’s title, while Siyan Liu, of Palm Beach Atlantic University, won the men’s title. All 2016 team and individual champions will return to defend their titles, starting today.

The PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship originated at a meeting in November 1986, following the Jackson State University Golf Tournament. The gathering produced a group of founders: the late Dr. Herschel Cochrane; Dr. Joe D. Saunders of the National Negro Golf Association; Eddie Payton, Jackson State University Golf Coach; Rose Harper-Elder of the Sports Management Institute; and William (Bill) Dickey, founder of the Bill Dickey Scholarship Association and recipient of the 1999 PGA Distinguished Service Award.

The founders’ goal was to elevate the game of golf at minority colleges and universities by giving them an opportunity to compete in a championship in an era when they were excluded from playing in many NCAA Collegiate golf events.

The inaugural championship was conducted in the spring of 1987 at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland.

On July 5th, Golf Channel will air a one-hour recap program highlighting the championship and its participants, as well as the career expo and other events for the student-athletes.