After the lockdowns of the pandemic and a reported increase in depression and anxiety throughout Los Angeles County, the mental and physical benefits of spending time outside playing a sport have helped many people ease symptoms of emotional distress.
In an effort to break down barriers to the game of golf, the Greater Pasadena chapter of the international nonprofit First Tee has partnered with the Latina Golfers Association (LGA) to host clinics for LGA members and their daughters. It’s a partnership that has gained recognition from the United States Golf Association (USGA), which recently awarded First Tee Greater Pasadena with its $7,500 IDEA Grant.
“The IDEA Grant has been a huge help for us,” said Mark Fritz, director of programming and development with First Tee, Greater Pasadena. “One of the biggest challenges I would say we get is getting parents who’ve never had the opportunity to play the game of golf, getting them exposed as well…For the Latina Golfers Association, it’s a mother-daughter golf clinic, or an aunt and niece or a grandma and granddaughter type of clinic along the lines of, ‘Okay, let’s try to get either a parent or a guardian or a family member more exposed to the game of golf too.’”
The IDEA Grant program was founded in 2021 to address obstacles faced by underserved youth in their introduction to and participation in golf. The grant will provide First Tee with the extra resources they need to hire more coaches and provide more clinics for LGA members, who will learn to putt, chip and drive with clubs provided by First Tea.
“The support that we get through grants or sponsorships has really allowed us to take our programs and think outside the box,” Fritz explained. “That’s where our life skill curriculum comes in. And what we try to do during the clinics, and this is what helps us with the USGA, if there’s a parent who can’t afford to put their child in our program, we have that scholarship available for them. They can go onto our website and apply, and we can have the mothers or grandmothers put in the notes, ‘Latina Women’s Golf’ so that we know we need to designate the funds that we’ve gotten through the USGA to earmark those for those scholarships.”
Since beginning operations in 2006 at Brookside Gold Club, First Tee Greater Pasadena has expressed a commitment to blending golf clinics with educational opportunities.
In its first year, supported by its founding partners American Golf and the Rose Bowl Operating Company, the Greater Pasadena chapter had 81 participants in their initial programs. By the end of the next year, they had 144. Today, nearly 400 kids participate in the chapter’s seasonal sessions.
“Our mission is to impact the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character and instill core values through the game of golf,” Fritz said.
First Tee Greater Pasadena offers four eight-week season sessions each year, with different levels participants go through based on age and ability. The primary ethos of the sessions is centered around respect, particularly “respect for yourself, respect for others and respect for your surroundings.”
“In those life skill classes, not only are they learning the game of golf, but more importantly they’re learning life skills, interpersonal communication skills, core values,” Fritz explained. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a five-year-old in our program or an 18-year-old senior, this is the foundation of what our program is. How do you share respect for yourself? Give us examples…We present some information and life skills to the kids, but we want them to come up with their own answers…What we try to do is say, ‘Okay, this is a life skill. Tell us how you would use it in your daily life, or how you would use it on the golf course.’”
In addition to their LGA clinics, First Tee Greater Pasadena is also celebrating the end of “First Tee of Greater Pasadena Month,” which was officially declared by Pasadena’s City Council, with the Annual Invitational Golf Tournament at Brookside Golf Club on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
“We have a full field of 144 players, sponsorships, we have an online auction sale,” Fritz described. “A lot of that support that we get for our major fundraising event for our golf invitational continues to go back and it allows us to grow our programs and reach out…We’re always looking for good people to be coaches or volunteers, we’re going to keep applying for grants, and the more and more staff that we get, the more kids that we can impact.”
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