The World Golf Foundation (WGF) was established 1994 so that major golf organizations could work together on long-term, industry-wide initiatives to grow the game of golf. The First Tee has become a diamond in the rough.It is credited with turning the lives of many young people around in a positive way.
The First Tee's primary goals are to establish affordable and accessible golf opportunities for youth across the nation and, at the same time, to foster positive values and life skills associated with the game.Sports have always been traditional vehicles for teaching life lessons, but today, sport at its highest levels, is played in an atmosphere where we have a preponderance of athletes who deny they have responsibility to be role models, let alone idols of the young.
Golf has been an exception. Its participants and governing officials have stepped up to teach positive life lessons ... as does the game itself. Another reason is to guarantee the survival of the game for years into the future.Golf is a game in which there are no officials to call a breach of the rules. It is a game where only the individual participants know if the score he or she handed in is the score that was actually shot.
It is a game with a rich history and timeless traditions that invites respect for the old and wonderment of the new. Most of all, golf is fun. The game is never solved, perfection is never achieved; there is always the opportunity for improvement and success, and it is also a game where the raw beginner can play a competitive match with the most seasoned expert.
It is a game where youngsters can delight in playing with each other and it is a game suited to the young and old playing together.The First Tee has as its mission “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.”
The program’s goal is to provide golf learning facilities and the experience that will enable kids from every walk of life to partake of a game that teaches values for life and which can be played for a lifetime.Through research it was determined that the primary reason more children, and especially economically disadvantaged children, did not play golf was because of the lack of places that welcomed them, places they could physically get to, and places that they could afford.
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.Major golf organizations support and promote The First Tee. The program is overseen and has the active support of a committee comprised of members representing The Masters Tournament, 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.
The World Golf Foundation has not stopped with the First Tee program. In 2000 it began a new program, “Golf 20/20: A Vision for the Future.”The mission of Golf 20/20 is to expose the game to kids on a broader scale by reaching out to our education system. It will bring golf instruction into the physical education curricula in elementary schools. This new program is called “The First Tee National School Program.”These initiatives are a way for the game of golf to give back ... especially to our youth.
