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About 100 students from Richmond Public Schools had a chance to try out the improved Elson Redmond Memorial Driving Range on Wednesday. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Audrey Smothers gets a lesson from Mike Hill using one of the facility's new TrackMan4 simulators that allow virtual play. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Coach Corey Braxton of Bellevue Elementary talks to students about Wednesday morning's activities. Participants in the First Tee program had a look at the improved facility, including a more youth-focused clubhouse. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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VCU Athletics partnered with First Tee on improvements to the facility. Here, fifth-grader Israel Dixon gets some coaching from Daniel Stamper of the VCU golf team. (Photo by Jay Paul)
The Elson Redmond Memorial Driving Range recently got a $1.2 million facelift and on Wednesday, 100 students from Richmond Public Schools got to be the first to try out the new and improved golf course.
“It started because VCU was looking to partner and they came to us with resources, so obviously, the nicer the facility is, the better the experience we can give to our kids,” says Brent Schneider, First Tee of Greater Richmond’s president and CEO. “Before, it had the feel of a kind of golf pro shop, and the original plan of the city was to run events and programs, but more targeted towards adults. We’re a youth development organization — we use golf with everything we do, but it’s about the kids for us.”
Private donations funded the upgrades to the six-hole, par-three course, driving range and practice area through a partnership between VCU Athletics, which will use the range for the university’s men’s golf team, and the nonprofit First Tee of Greater Richmond, which operates the facility. The work included converting the greens on the course to Champion Bermuda grass and improving the sand traps with premium sand, as well as resodding practice tees and reshaping the driving range. First Tee funded renovations to the clubhouse to make it more youth-focused with a community room, after-school hangout space, a small shop and TrackMan 4 simulators that allow virtual play.
Brent Schneider, First Tee of Greater Richmond’s president and CEO (Photo by Jay Paul)
The First Tee of Greater Richmond partners with schools in Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico counties and the city of Richmond. “We are in 127 area elementary schools as part of their curriculum,” says Schneider. At each school, every physical education teacher has been provided with on-site training, lesson plans and equipment. In turn, each school has signed a contract promising that every child, kindergarten through fifth grade, is getting at least four units of First Tee per year.
“In the beginning of the year, I set a new year’s resolution to break par from the First Tee of Greater Richmond and I actually shot three under, recently,” says 12-year-old Ivan Chan, a three-year member with First Tee who came to the range on Wednesday. “I’m really happy about how I accomplished [it] and how much work I put into it.”
A large part of the organization’s goal is youth development and making sure kids have the opportunity to learn life skills. Ivan says his favorite core value that First Tee has taught him is sportsmanship. “Even though you maybe have lost a game or didn’t win, you always congratulate your opponent for how they did.”
This is just one example of the traits First Tee tries to impress on its members.
Paul Sargent, First Tee's director of golf, helps Southampton Elementary School student Mary Lord with her swing. (Photo by Jay Paul)
“Not all our kids come from at-risk homes, some of them do, but it’s a place where kids can come and learn from each other, learn from our coaches, learn the game of golf, learn how to be collaborative, learn how to be a good citizen, and in a safe environment which is, to me, important,” says Schneider.
Audrey Smothers, a fifth-grader at Fox Elementary School, says her favorite core value she has learned at First Tee is responsibility. In general, “it’s just really fun and it helps me,” says Smothers who is hoping to use the skills she learns there to make it onto her school’s golf team.
Ed McLaughlin, VCU’s director of athletics, says, “I think the biggest thing for us is always how can we find ways to partner with the community. It makes the experience better for our student athletes, but I’m a big believer that Richmond needs more sports facilities for VCU and for kids in this community, so this was sort of a natural for us. It clearly helps our golf team, but the impact on the community that it will make is ten-fold to how it will help our golf program.”
After a morning of competition and games, the students sat out to watch the First Drive ceremony, which First Tee held in place of a ribbon cutting. “We don’t cut ribbons here. We hit golf balls,” says Mike Walton, chairman of the board of directors.
The renovated course opens to the public on Saturday. On Sunday it will host an RVA Community Day from 2 to 5 p.m., offering a free bucket of balls to each youth-adult pair and a chance to win a free junior membership. To learn more, visit playgolfrva.org.
Besides teaching how to play golf, First Tee offers kids lessons on sportsmanship and collaboration. (Photo by Jay Paul)
