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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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.
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On and Off the Course: Remembering former South golfer Ian White
It’s usually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what my topic will be for this column. This week I could have written about Tiger’s withdrawal from the Players’ Championship due to a bulging disc in his neck, or by association, the health hazards a violent golf swing can have on the human body, or any number of other golf-related topics.
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On and Off the Course: Ochoa’s departure to impact LPGA
LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan already had a tough job, trying to promote the LPGA tour and keep the 25 events that they have on the schedule, but that job was made tougher last week when the tour’s No. 1 player announced her retirement from the game at the ripe old age of 28.
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On and Off the Course: Examining the square groove rule change
Even though the Masters is going to have its own little drama going on with the return of Tiger Woods, an interesting thing to note will be how well the players are able to hold the hard fast greens at Augusta. An underlying part of the bigger picture that everyone might not realize is a rule change that could dramatically affect most, if not all, of the players. That rule change took effect on Jan. 1.
- On and Off the Course: President's Cup should be entertaining Just when we thought golf season was over, and it was time to concentrate on football, we must awaken from our naps, because there’s going to be some exciting golf for us to watch next weekend. The President’s Cup will run from Oct. 6-11 at Harding Park in San Francisco.
- On and Off the Course: The obscure of golf's rulebook Golfers know that the rules that govern the game are abundant. The game originated in the 15th century on the links of Scotland, and somehow as time went on and people became more civilized, rules were adopted.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s City Match Play had tough competition I played in the Terre Haute Golf Association Women’s City Match Play Tournament a couple of weeks ago.
- On and Off the Course: One for the ages … well, almost! I wonder how long people will be referring to last week’s British Open, as “one for the ages.” They could also refer to it as “one for the aged!” Tom Watson’s near miss of a 9th Open Championship (as the Brits prefer to call it, and as it rightly should be by virtue of its longevity) was a rallying cry to all those golfers who have toiled for so many years at their game, but had given up hope as for ever getting it back to where they had it twenty years ago.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: In a bad economy, should LPGA raise its fees? For 31 years The LPGA’s Corning Classic was held at Corning Country Club in Corning, N.Y., with Corning Glassware as its title sponsor. This year, however, was the end of an era as LPGA players played their final rounds in its’ longest-running event. Due to many factors Corning chose to not renew their contract for 2010.
- ON AND OFF THE COURSE: ‘Average golfer’ ready to face challenges of Bethpage Black Golf Digest, in association with the USGA and NBC Sports, has asked the question, “Can the ‘average golfer’ break 100 at Bethpage Black under U.S. Open conditions?”
- On and Off the Course: Golf is for Mother’s, too I’d like to wish all of my readers who are mothers, whether they play golf or not, a Happy Mother’s Day — and if you do play golf — I hope you have a fine day today and that you find the time to get out on the course.
- The Haig changed golf off the course
- On and Off the Course: Fall a great time on the course If I could have fall weather year-round, I would take it. I love the crisp air, the blue skies, and the bright sunshine. Ever since my childhood I have associated a beautiful fall day with Turkey Run State Park, one of my favorite places to go, especially in the fall. This is Covered Bridge Festival week so many other people are seeing the beauty of the fall in the trees, rivers and bridges in Parke County too!
- On and Off the Course: Life’s lessons on the golf course 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.
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