During the Ryder Cup last weekend, there aired a number of commercials for RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) that starred participants from The First Tee, a program founded by the World Golf Foundation to enable kids from every walk of life to participate in golf, a game that teaches values for life and can be played for a lifetime.
The mission of The First Tee is “to impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character-development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.”
Created in November 1997, an initial goal was to have 100 golf-learning facilities in some form of development by the end of the year 2000, but its founders realized that there was a larger opportunity than just teaching the game of golf. Primary objectives became more involved in providing young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to develop, through golf and character education, values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship. Thus, The First Tee Life Skills Experience was born.
The First Tee is unique in that it teaches these lessons for life as part of the basic instruction program. A child cannot opt out of the life skills portion of while participating in The First Tee because these lessons are integrated into the physical instruction. These lessons for life are taught through various golf-related activities designed with the primary goal of having fun. Participants learn valuable lessons about the importance of keeping a positive attitude, how to make decisions by thinking about the possible consequences of ones’ actions, and how to set goals from the golf course to everyday life.
The First Tee wants all who complete its program to have acquired basic golf skills and to be able to demonstrate certain fundamental life skill concepts — such as communication skills and the importance of rules and etiquette. They are given a number of golf and life skills lessons and play a certain number of rounds on their chapter’s course. Participants go through a certification process with five general requirements: core lesson exposure, life skills application, golf skills application, life skills knowledge, and golf knowledge. The levels of certification are Par, Birdie, Eagle, and Ace.
It is the World Golf Foundation’s belief that the lessons learned through the Life Skills Experience are lessons that will remain with young people throughout their lives, regardless of how long they play golf for recreation.
The nine core values that are taught are honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, perseverance, courtesy, judgment and responsibility.
The closest chapter of The First Tee to the Terre Haute area is in Indianapolis. The lessons learned through golf are not limited to that organization though. Locally, Mackenzie Mack and the rest of the Indiana State women’s golf team have been hosting clinics for kids at The Fore Seasons Golf Complex, calling their clinics “Tee It Up.”
The Boys and Girls Club of Terre Haute has been having summer golf clinics for children for many years at local courses.
Getting children started on the game of golf is admirable for many reasons, so the courses that encourage juniors to play should be given some of the credit too. One of the good reasons for courses to welcome juniors is in the hopes they will continue playing the game for the rest of their lives. Not only do the courses benefit, but society ultimately benefits too!
Everybody seems willing to help children, it’s a feel good thing, and the returns one gets are immeasurable. But how do we get more adults interested in golf, especially women? It may be a sign of the struggling economy, or maybe just a changing of the times, but it seems like fewer young adults are taking up the game. One person who is trying to present golf in a positive light is Charlotte Jones Anderson, vice president of the Dallas Cowboys. She has done a video that can be seen on the web at www.pga.com called “Join the Club: Better Golf for Women presented by Kohler.” It is a video celebration of the growth of the game for career-minded women.
Another potential place on the web to get started is the site for Play Golf America. There are links for new and returning golfers, casual and avid golfers, family golf and Golf for Women, corporate golf, and individuals with disabilities. Golf is such a great sport, and the life lessons that it teaches are not just for children. Anyone can benefit from learning to play the game!
Quote of the Day — “Golf is one of the last refuges of real sport. You’re your own policeman, and the behavior of its athletes is quite remarkable when you compare it to other sports.” — Jim McKay, announcer
On & Off the Course
On and Off the Course: Life’s lessons on the golf course
- On & Off the Course
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
• Gary R. Wright
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Donna Lynn Strahla Bown
Donna Lynn Strahla Bown passed away early Friday morning, Jan. 25, 2013, with her children by her side.
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‘The Match’ pitting amateurs vs. pros recalled 62 years later
Quote of the Day: “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.” — Ben Hogan.
Bubba Watson has had a busy fall. Not only did he play all the way to the final round of the FedEx Championships, and in the Ryder Cup, he also played in an event commemorating a very famous match played at Cypress Point in 1956, pitting two of the greatest golf pros at the time against two of the best amateurs.
Come to think of it, all four were some of the best golfers of all time. This year’s event was celebrating The First Tee’s exceeding $100 million in pledges to reach 10 million new young people. It wasn’t televised and kept very quiet; only 225 people were in the gallery.
One of the people in the gallery was Mark Frost, the author of a book titled “The Match,” which is about that match played 62 years ago that was re-enacted in modern terms last week. The pros in 1956 were Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and the amateurs were Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. It was supposed to have been a private affair, built around a wager by two millionaires, George Coleman and Eddie Lowery. -
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf from the wrong side of the brain
Imagine this scenario: a woman, small in stature (possibly freckled), walks into a hospital emergency room and says, “I have an emergency, I need a doctor quickly!” The admitting nurse, ever trying to be helpful, asks what the emergency is.
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Farmers looking at widely varying yields
Combines will roll through fields this weekend, bringing in the harvest from a summer with nearly no rain.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf debut in London would have been nice
As the Olympics get underway in London this weekend, I was thinking it’s too bad that the Olympic committee decided too late to add golf as one of the sports for this event; instead it will be added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Getting to Hoosier country’s best golfing venue part of the fun
If you are looking for Indiana’s premier golfing destination, then you should look no further than French Lick.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Indiana's Pete Dye courses worth the drive
You’ve probably heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf trail throughout Alabama, but you might not be aware that Indiana has its own “Pete Dye Golf Trail” comprised of seven courses.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fathers typically a big influence on golfing sons
Some events fall naturally into place around holidays. The Fourth of July always falls somewhere during Wimbledon, giving all of the Yanks in attendance something to be boisterous about, to the chagrin of their hosts; The Masters often, but not always, ends on Easter Sunday, which is fitting since golfers find it such a reverent occasion.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Memorial just one of many visions of Jack Nicklaus
When Jack Nicklaus was a young man, the golfer he most admired was Bob Jones.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
Golf is not a casual sport, even though it has a term called “casual water.”
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On and off the course: Sycamores seeded sixth heading into MVC golf tourney
It wasn’t too long ago that Indiana State University didn’t even have a women’s golf team.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: A hard ticket to come by
This is the weekend of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major tournaments.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Some things on golf course are worse than steep putts
It’s not often that anything gets more scary on a golf course than a steep downhill putt, but on some courses around the world, things a little more on the supernatural side might give you a bigger fright!
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The shot heard round the world
I don’t know if the Golf Channel will show a “Best Shots of 2011” highlight reel, much like ESPN does for baseball or football.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Red, White and Blue visits the Isle of Green
In 2006, the Ryder Cup was held in Ireland at The K Club in County Kildare.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fall may be coming but golf season is far from over
Once the major tournaments are over with, what’s there to look forward to in the world of golf?
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf… simplified!
Golf is not a simple game. A golf course is made up of 18 holes, all different. There are par-3s, par-4s and par-5s; they all vary in length and elevation, and each has its own challenges. There can be water hazards, trees, sand bunkers, tall grass, hills, valleys — and then, if that’s not enough, there’s probably wind too.
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On and Off the Course: Northern Ireland builds on golf history
Northern Ireland is only about 5,452 square miles in area and has a population about the same as West Virginia, which is about 1,880,344.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Fort Golf Course: A Walk in the Park…
Indiana has some pretty spectacular state parks, but one of them gives you the ability to “spoil a good walk” by chasing a little white ball.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Playing with lead a difficult task
As exciting as last week’s Masters was, with six players being tied for the lead at one point on Sunday, it was very difficult watching Rory McIlroy fall apart to shoot an 80.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Masters a rite of spring
This is Masters weekend, the grand kickoff to the golf season for a lot of golfers. Sure, there have been tournaments on TV, because the professionals have been playing in Hawaii, California, Texas, Dubai, and other areas not so affected by winter as we are here in the Midwest, but to me, watching The Masters is a rite of spring.
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ON THE OFF THE COURSE: Some history on the Ryder Cup
I fell asleep in way too many history classes to ever qualify as a history buff. However, since I have grown up a bit (not much), I enjoy learning about all kinds of history. I often have questions about how something began, or how something came to be.
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On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
About a month ago, Indiana was still heavily mired in heat and humidity, making outdoor activities such as golf less appealing than usual. At that time it felt like the repressive heat would never go away, it would never rain again, and all of the grass was just going to continue to wither and die. And the month prior to that we kept getting rained out of golf events!
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On and Off the Course: Successful golfers know ... focus is the key
I have a good friend who coached his daughter’s basketball team for a number of years, and told me that his theme with the girls was always “focus”, until it was ingrained in their brains. Now when they play high school ball, if they hear “focus” yelled from the stands, they know the source.
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On and Off the Course: Technology adds even more fun to the course
You’ve hit a drive into some brush in an area marked as a hazard, but you can’t find the ball to prove it is there. And no one actually witnessed it go in the hazard. You just think that’s where it probably is. What is the rule for this situation?
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On and Off the Course: Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic a worthwhile charity event
On Monday, I worked as a volunteer for the Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic, Golf Tournament and Auction at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies, just a few wispy clouds here and there and a high temperature of about 76 degrees.
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On and Off the Course: Trends show golf in decline
You don’t have to watch the news or read the paper to understand that America is struggling on the economic front. The evidence can be witnessed at the local golf course.
- More On & Off the Course Headlines
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
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Nidal Hasan paid $278K while awaiting trial
VIDEO: Teacher reunites mother and son after tornado levels elementary school in Oklahoma City
Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
Jennifer Lawrence Gets Naked and Painted Blue as X-Men's Mystique
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Obama to tornado survivors: The country stands beside you
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Sneak Peek: 'Modern Family' Says Good Bye
Trailer: 'The Last Stand' Available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download
IWitness Look at Moore, OK Tornado
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Robert Pattinson Moves Out
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