Football legend Herschel Walker and retired professional baseball pitcher Paul Maholm have committed to play in the Allen Exploration Pro-Am Oct. 26 at Country Club of Jackson before The Sanderson Farms Championship tees off the next day.

Walker, a Heisman trophy winner at Georgia, has become a businessman and author. In 1999, Walker was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Maholm, a Holly Springs native and Hattiesburg resident, is no stranger to the game of golf. As a teenager, he won the Holly Springs Country Club championship at 14. He was a three-year letterman at Mississippi State and a consensus All-American in 2003. He was a first round draft pick, eighth overall, by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2003 draft. Maholm later pitched in the majors for the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Walker owns and runs Savannah-based Renaissance Man International, and is most involved with the branch called Herschel’s Famous 34, which sells prepared chicken and appetizers to restaurants. Walker regularly gives motivational speeches at schools and events nationwide.

Maholm has given back to his various communities through charitable contributions and voluntarism.

The 49th Sanderson Farms Championship, Mississippi’s one stop on the PGA Tour, is scheduled to complete its 72-hole tournament on Sunday, Oct. 30.


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Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger. He was sports editor of Hattiesburg American, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers.
Rick has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year, and is recipient of multiple awards and honors for his reporting and writing.