The Pellucid Perspective - February 2012 - (Page 15)

PRO KIDS Pro Kids Golf Academy builds on distinguished legacy First Tee model program adding second facility By Jim Dunlap hen former San Diego Chargers lineman Ernie Wright ed for 65 wins last summer in the highly competitive San Diego founded Pro Kids Golf Academy in what could gener- Junior Golf series of tournaments. Tiffany Joh of the LPGA Tour ously be called an economically challenged San Diego is a Pro Kids alumna, and a number of others play collegiate golf. neighborhood in 1994, even he and the roster of community San Diego County is obviously well positioned as an environbackers he recruited probably would have had trouble envision- ment for a program such as the one at Pro Kids, with over 90 ing what their enterprise would become. Today, Pro Kids has an courses and the largest assembly of major golf equipment manenrollment of just under 1,700 kids aged 7-17, and is about to ufacturers in the world. The Callaway Foundation, for instance, break ground on a second campus in Oceanside, Calif., in north- kicked in $2 million for the new Oceanside facility, TaylorMadeern San Diego County. As one of the original model programs adidas Golf added $1 million, a donation from Cobra/Puma is for The First Tee of America, which Pro Kids aligned itself with pending, and Full Swing Golf has donated one of its state-ofin 1997, it continues to serve as not only a the-art simulators. Additionally, many of the model for First Tee programs everywhere, but swankiest private clubs in the area provide The Pro Kids one with an impressive legacy of quantifiable access to their facilities for Pro Kids students, accomplishments in both the citizenship and curriculum includes participating in home and home tournaments golf skills tenets central to The First Tee misequal doses of golf with other clubs, paired with Pro Kids students sion statement. who earn those free play privileges through a The Pro Kids facility, encompassing an 18- instruction, scholastic points program at Pro Kids combining acahole par-3 layout on 14 acres in the Colina demic achievements with participation in vareducation and Park neighborhood in Southeast San Diego, ious workshops and community service activicharacter building. ties as well as their golf achievements. Those has just expanded the original classroom and office facility which was built in 2001, addrelationships frequently extend past the daily ing additional administrative and educational participation in the Pro Kids curriculum, with programming space. Additional upgrades were made to the play- Pro Kids alumnae receiving access to some of those same private ing area, adding an 80-yard fully enclosed driving range which clubs on their trips home from college, in return for providing converts to a 65-yard playing field for non-golf recreation. The transportation to events for club member juniors who are not old program currently has around 1,700 students. It has had as many enough to drive. Smith said that only around 200 of Pro Kids’ as 2,600 at one point in its 17-year history, but Director of Golf 1,700 current enrollees ever have to pay anything to play at events Todd Smith said that the program has intentionally pared that throughout the county, and those only pay around $100 a year. total down to its current level. Smith said that Pro Kids is committed to all-around develop“We’ve consciously opted for quality over quantity,” Smith ment of its young charges, even to the extent of taking an anticisaid. “It’s just not feasible to conduct a workshop or a training pated hit to the facility’s operating revenues in favor of improvsession for 200 kids on a Saturday morning and have them get ing the fitness and nutrition of their students. Pro Kids recently the most out of it.” enlisted the help of area nutritionists to design a new menu at The Pro Kids curriculum includes equal doses of golf instruc- the facility’s snack bar, eliminating the wildly popular and sugar tion, scholastic education and character building. The program and fat-filled sodas and snacks in favor of healthier alternatives. has recently hired a fully accredited math teacher to assist with Smith said the snack bar generated $32,000 last year, but he said after-school study, and the facility has access to the computer- they are fully prepared to take in considerably less in the future in ized teaching and exam programs of three elementary and two order to make sure that what their students do purchase is better middle schools in the neighborhood. That emphasis on education for them. has paid off in the awarding of more than $1.4 million in college Although Pro Kids was not initially created as a First Tee fascholarships to Pro Kids students over the last 10 years, including cility, its community and corporate support, year-round golf enseveral Ivy League schools. vironment and dedicated staff have made it a standard bearer as The results on the golf side are equally impressive. According to both a community asset and a golf training ground that all First Pro Kids Director of Golf Todd Smith, Pro Kids golfers account- Tee facilities would consider themselves fortunate to emulate. n www.PellucidcorP.com W The Pellucid PersPecTive 15 http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - February 2012

The Pellucid Perspective - February 2012
Contents
PGA/GolfNow deal torpedoed by members’, owners’ reactions
More core golfers playing less = trouble
Point-Counterpoint: Alternative Golf
January weather impact: Golf benefits from an inconvenient truth
Pro Kids Golf Academy builds on distinguished legacy
The phantom golf ball market
Tampa, FL
Forest Preserve still seeking golf course developer
Golf ’s Clash of the Titans

The Pellucid Perspective - February 2012