Idyllwild native Brendan Steele will play this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, in the two-day Military Appreciation Pro-Am on the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

The tournament will benefit Birdies for the Brave, a military outreach initiative originally created by Steele’s friend and fellow PGA pro Phil Mickelson and his wife Amy.

Many do not realize that the game of golf raises an enormous amount of money each year for charitable causes. For example, the PGA Tour announced that its tournament events, the Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour raised more than $108 million for charities in 2009 alone, with the Valero Texas Open (which was later won by Steele) leading the way with $8 million.

And a recent study conducted by the National Golf Foundation found that in 2011 the charitable impact of some 12,000 professional and amateur golf facilities in the United States was an estimated $3.9 billion.

The following weekend, Steele will defend his championship with teammate Keegan Bradley in the Franklin Templeton Shark Shoot Out in Naples, Fla. from Dec. 7 through 9.