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A charity golf tournament in August will honor a longtime Naples Daily News columnist and raise money for a good cause.
The annual Naples Browns Backers Hunt and Batten Memorial Golf Tournament begins at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, with a shotgun start at Arrowhead Golf Club, 2205 Heritage Greens Drive, Naples.
"I’m grateful to the Naples Browns Backers for honoring Brent by renaming their annual golf tournament in his memory," Michelle Batten said on social media. She and Brent were married for 26 years.
Brent Batten was 66 when he died April 8 at Avow Hospice after a long battle with cancer.
Batten said her husband played many rounds of golf, especially with longtime friend Dave Horton.
"Even more meaningful, proceeds from the tournament will be donated in Brent's honor to benefit children served by Avow Hospice in Naples," Michelle Batten said.
"If you are a golfer and would like to honor Brent's memory while supporting a worthy cause, please sign up to play. Zach (Batten's son) and Dave will be playing."
For more information, email [email protected] or call 239-325-7384.
Brent Batten longtime Naples Daily News columnist
Batten arrived in Naples in 1985 "to burnish my credentials as a journalist and escape the cold of the Ohio winter," he wrote in December 2020, his final column in the Naples Daily News.
He spent 23 of his nearly 35 years as a columnist. Before that, Batten covered the police and courts beats and served as the paper's Lee County bureau chief and its city editor.
Brent and Michelle met when both worked at the Daily News.
Besides playing golf, Brent Batten enjoyed rooting for the Cleveland Browns and his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes. He graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
"In the fall, Saturdays and Sundays were sacred," Horton wrote in tribute to Batten in April.
"Ohio State football on Saturdays and Cleveland Browns football on Sundays were not optional viewing, they were events. More often than not, those games were watched with fellow fans from local team groups, where Brent felt right at home."
Dave Osborn is the regional features editor of the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Instagram @lacrossewriter.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Golf tourney Aug. 30 honors former NDN columnist
