After making history by restarting the SIAC Golf Championship, players from Benedict, Kentucky State, Morehouse and Paine joined forces with First Tee of Albany to teach local children the game of golf.

Fifty seven children ranging from the 3rd grade to the 6th received hands on training from the SIAC players and coaches. They taught them [children] the fundamentals on how to hold a golf club, stance, posture, how to putt, and how to do chip shots. Executive Director Burkett Carver, stated “We really enjoyed the SIAC coming and visiting us. It is a pleasure to work with the youth and to have schools in the SIAC come and help teach the game of golf is a pleasure.”

First Tee is a World Golf Foundation initiative dedicated to providing young people of all backgrounds an opportunity to develop, through golf and character education, life-enhancing values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship. The World Golf Foundation created The First Tee in November of 1997 as a way to bring golf to youngsters that otherwise would not be exposed to the game and its positive values. The program is overseen and has the active support of a committee comprised of members representing Augusta National Golf Club, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, and the United States Golf Association. In addition, former President George Bush serves as Honorary Chairman.

Along with establishing an initial goal of having 100 golf-learning facilities in some form of development by the end of the year 2000, The First Tee realized that there existed a larger opportunity than just teaching the game of golf. The primary objectives began to evolve around providing young people of all backgrounds an opportunity to develop, through golf and character education, life-enhancing values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship. This immediately led to the development of The First Tee Life Skills Experience. The First Tee Life Skills Experience was formulated with the help of academic, coaching and golf experts. Although there are many sports that teach valuable lessons, The First Tee is unique in that it proactively teaches these lessons for life as part of the basic instruction program. A child cannot participate in The First Tee and opt out of the life skills instruction and learning because these lessons are seamlessly integrated into the physical instruction.

For more information on First Tee and how to get involved please visit www.thefirsttee.org.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am and is filed under Community, Golf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.