Virginia Golfer Jan / Feb 2017 | Page 13

Member Clubs
CHRIS LANG; FRED VUICH, USGA
looked forward to doing,” says Woo, who was a P. J. Boatwright intern for the VSGA last summer.“ The First Tee has enabled me to become a better golfer, but a few aspects of the program that stand out to me are the life skills that are embedded in each First Tee activity and the network and relationships I created while going through the program. My entire life has been built on a First Tee foundation.”
The First Tee began in late 1997 with an announcement in New York’ s Central Park by former President George H. W. Bush, then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Earl Woods.
Fred Tattersall, a successful businessman in Richmond, saw a newspaper article about the announcement, called the PGA Tour and asked about how to get something established in Richmond. Tattersall
also asked the Tour to send someone to Richmond to talk about the program.
“[ The Tour ] sent two guys,” Tattersall, a First Tee icon, recalled in a recent interview. Tattersall got some friends together— Harry Easterly, Bill Goodwin, Robert Wrenn, Bobby and Jimmy Ukrop among them— to hear about the program.“ They had a lot of questions for these two gentlemen, and the [ Tour guys ] didn’ t have the answers.”
The national First Tee, a non-profit founded by a coalition of all the major organizations in golf, hired an executive director in January 1998 and set a target of 100 facilities across the country. The facilities would provide access and affordability for children and youth. Augusta National chairman Jack Stephens contributed $ 5 million in April that year as the program’ s first benefactor.
Richmond, supplying vision and ideas to the national level through Tattersall and others, became a pilot city for the program. Tattersall announced the formation of The Richmond First Tee in January 1998.
“ The common bonds are the love of kids and the love of golf. We’ re trying to blend the two to create a great program. We want to make this special and be a model for the rest of the United States. Juniors don’ t always get the same treatment as adults. We’ re excited about the possibilities of providing first-rate instruction and access,” Tattersall said during that announcement.
The Greater Richmond chapter currently operates two golf facilities designed by well-known architect Lester George, a First Tee supporter from the beginning. George has designed five other First Tee facilities.
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