Ken Duke Wins PGA Tour Player of Month Vote

With almost 51 percent of the votes cast, Arkansas’ Ken Duke has won the PGA Tour Player of the Month for June.

Following his exciting win at the 2013 Travelers Championship, Ken Duke became a candidate for the PGA Tour Player of the Month presented by Avis.

Ken Duke was one of four nominees selected by a media panel based on his performance during the month of June. The other nominees were Matt Kuchar, Justin Rose and Bill Haas. When voting was closed on Sunday, July 7, Duke had 50.65 percent in fan voting. Rose ended with 33.01 percent; Haas had 9.95; and Kuchar ended with 6.38 percent.

Avis, who sponsors the monthly contest, will contribute a $50,000 donation to the winner’s charity of choice. The word is Duke’s charity is the UAMS Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute in Little Rock.

From Ken Duke’s official bio with the PGA:

As a seventh-grader, was diagnosed with scoliosis. The Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., determined he had a 26-percent curvature of the spine and advised him to wear a back brace 23 hours a day. Two years later, with the curvature reaching 51 percent, he underwent surgery. Without the procedure, the pressure on his lungs and heart might have become life-threatening. Surgeons attached a 16-inch metal road to his spine to faciliate straightening. Remarkably, just months later he returned to his high school golf team—and playing in a back brace—won medalist honors at a district tournament.

In 2009, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences established The Ken Duke Endowed Chair in Scoliosis. Funds from the chair treat spinal deformities, tumors and fractures.

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Ken Duke will be inducted into the Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame on Oct. 24, 2013, at Pleasant Valley CC in Little Rock.