Charlotte golf tournament for college preparation

ROBERT RUGGIERO | UNSPLASH

Proceeds from the Donald W. DeBouse Honorary Golf Tournament Aug. 8 will fund college scholarships via the BEAM Foundation.

Cultivating and developing the next generation is at the forefront of BEAM Foundation.

The foundation, established in 1997, will host its annual Donald W. DeBouse Honorary Golf Tournament on Aug. 8 at Rocky River Golf Club in Concord. Proceeds will go to the foundation to move its mission forward as well as honor DeBouse, a community leader and avid golfer who died in 2021. 

“He was a dynamic individual,” said Darryl Ince, the tournament’s co-chairman. “He went to Cornell University, came to Charlotte, did a lot of good in the community. But he was an avid golfer. He always wanted to try and get some of the some of the [Alpha Phi Alpha] fraternity brothers out to play some golf, and that’s why we decided we would name it after him. But his engagement in the community was deep and broad.”

Ince said the foundation’s mission is to help at-risk young men by providing tools and resources to help them go to college. In 2025, the foundation awarded more than $150,000 in scholarships. 

“We have a program called the Alpha Beautillion, which engages these kids with mentors, and we get about 15 to 20 kids a year,” Ince said. “We put them through opportunities to develop their oratory skills, opportunities to see college campuses to understand which colleges they’re going to and the majors you’re going to go to. Also, we have a variety of different programs which bring the kids into meaningful representation. They get a chance to engage with dedicated mentors and community partners.”

Ince added the foundation is in the process of trying to engage and have a larger impact which means having more community involvement and leadership. The foundation has 20 young men in its cohort, and the goal is to get more.

This is where the tournament comes in.

“What our attempt is, is to raise enough funds so we can reasonably engage and develop more inroads into communities where there's deeper risk,” Ince said. “And if we have enough funding for that, if we get enough corporate partners engaged in this, I think we will have a much more significant impact in the community. Instead of 20 kids, we’re looking at 40 or 50 kids, and that's where we really want to get to.”

Sustainability is the goal – not just for the tournament but the foundation itself. Ince is excited for the immediate and distant future.

“Over the last three years we’ve been trying to reinvigorate the way we do the tournament,” Ince said. “We set up a five-year plan, and we are in year three right now. Our goal is to have instead of it being a Charlotte region based event, we want to go up and down the East Coast with this. We want it to be a multi-day activity as well where people can engage with the community around them one day then play in the tournament the next.”

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