Last year Golf Canada and the RBC Community Junior Golf program announced the start of the First Tee – Canada and Youth on Course Programs at municipal or publicly accessible golf courses, with the goal to engage 15 facilities in 2022. The courses were selected based on accessibility to local public transit as well as proximity to community centres, with an intentional focus on regional and diverse representation.
“First Tee – Canada and RBC want to enhance the opportunities for Canadian youth and especially those in underrepresented groups access to affordable and meaningful character education programs through golf,” says Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum.
“Golf Canada and the PGA of Canada have developed a strong foundation for junior golf programming over the past twenty plus years through Future Links. We are excited going forward to partner with the globally recognized First Tee brand and work collaboratively with the Golf Canada Foundation to strengthen our youth development activities.
“The enthusiasm from RBC to advance the sport and provide funding to introduce the game to a diverse range of young golfers at municipal and especially publicly accessible facilities, has been extraordinary,” says Kevin Blue, chief sport officer, Golf Canada.
After one year Blue says “the program is going very well and ahead of pace thanks to the many donors who have contributed.
“First Tee has a long-term growth plan and right now they are prioritizing clubs and communities that will have a good impact and at places where it might be harder for kids to access programs. Right now, we are focusing on municipal courses.”
After one year First Tee has exceeded all expectations and operated the program at 27 golf courses, seven schools and 25 community centres.
“We are still in the early stages of development and for programs like First Tee it takes time to develop and figure out all the logistics,” says Blue. “This year we had 23,000 kids and by the end of 2023 we should be over six figures”.
That is quite an accomplishment when your goal was to engage more than 10,000 young people by 2023.
One of the problems they encountered was with their ambassador Harold Varner III, who at the time played on the PGA Tour. When Varner announced, he was moving to the LIV Tour, RBC discontinued his involvement. A search for a new ambassador who has the right fit is now underway.
PGA of Canada is involved and all instructors at courses, schools and community centres must go through a rigorous learning session to teach the kids. Blue says, “at golf facilities there is a 6:1 teaching ratio while at community centres the ratio is higher as they are involved with classes.”
Pro Shop magazine reached out to the National Golf Course Owners Association inquiring as to why their association is currently not promoting or involved with the First Tee program. On their website they show two junior programs: Get Golf Ready and Take a Kid to the Course.
Unfortunately, we were unable to receive a response from this association to see if they will get involved with the First Tee program.
