Nonprofit First Tee launches youth campus for accessible golf at Canal Shores

(Editor’s Note: This story was reported by Benjamin Cummings for the Evanston Roundtable, a neighboring independent newsroom. It was shared with The Record as part of an ongoing collaborative effort.)

On a breezy Sunday afternoon along the north canal shores, competition was fierce.

Adrian was only a few shots above par to qualify for a prize. He would get school supplies if he could hit the plastic golf ball into the mouth of the inflatable “Golfopotamus,” nicknamed “Derf.”

“I had never picked up a golf club seriously until this little guy,” said Lorenzo Garcia-Garth, Adrian’s father who came from Hyde Park with his family for the First Tee Greater Chicago event. “I never even thought about going to a golf course until Adrian.”

First Tee, a youth golf development and outreach organization, hosted its inaugural Back to School Hang-Out on Sunday with golf games, activities, snacks and prizes for children ranging from toddlers to teens. By 4 p.m., a dozen families filled out the site, with entry-level challenges from a mini driving range with inflatables to a smooth putting green with hoops and plastic animals and a hilly “Himalayan green.” 

“Golf historically had this reputation that it was an elitist sport, but First Tee started in the mid-’90s with the goal of making golf accessible to everyone.” said Lea Jesse, the nonprofit’s CEO. “Kids in those programs may be picking up a golf club for the first time and never would have gotten into golf if it weren’t for First Tee.”

The open-house-style event was held to announce the new First Tee Youth Campus located at The Evans at Canal Shores, the newly renamed public course in Evanston and Wilmette that recently completed a $6 million renovation.

The course is a 3,600-yard, par-60 (the number of strokes expected to play), which cut its ribbon on Aug. 1, as covered by the RoundTable. About two-thirds of the holes are open, with the remaining ones waiting for new grass to fully develop.

The course, with environmental and fiscal expenses, makes the case for its ecological contributions with a certificate for environmental planning as part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf, according to its website.

First Tee, a partner in the course renovation, contributed $500,000, with the youth development campus expected to fully open in the spring of 2025.

“The way our programming works is we weave in life skills and character development through the game of golf,” said Jesse, who said she’s interested in expanding community partnerships in Evanston. “We’ll have after-school lessons, we’ll have weekends and we’ll have a summer camp.”

In Chicago, First Tee has worked with its community outreach partners for events, including the Chicago Police Department’s Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy. 

Evanston connections

Taylor Lambertsen, the director of instruction at First Tee’s Waveland Youth Facility in Chicago, reached out to Kuumba Evanston and the Fellowship of Afro-American Men, two local organizations, to market Sunday’s event and with an interest in youth program partnerships.

Kuumba is an Evanston nonprofit with a mission to serve families of color and combat systemic racism by providing equity and empowerment through academic support, opportunities and real-world experiences for students in third through eighth grade, according to its website. Most recently, it partnered with Evanston Township High School to organize the Kuumba Olympics in June.

FAAM is another Evanston nonprofit, and it provides basketball and cheerleading programs for middle school students, with a mission “to provide a nurturing environment and positive role models for all of our young participants during a critical time in their development.”

“We want to provide them with an opportunity starting at 4 years old all the way to 18, growing life skills within it,” said Lambertsen, who instructed children in attendance Sunday. “Giving them the opportunities to play in different events and to be a junior coach – leading into coaching even when they are in college – so there are a lot of opportunities.”

Lambertsen hopes children will learn green-reading (the skill of assessing breaks and grass patterns near the hole) and play on a six-hole loop course for youth that’s part of the last nine holes of the regular course. The loop includes holes of shorter distances more accessible to young golfers.

“We do charge for our classes, but if you can’t afford it we can take care of it,” said Lambertsen. “Removing all the barriers and getting them here with us – providing the golf clubs, providing the opportunity to play – all of that is what we’re here for.” 

First Tee offers financial aid for its classes through an application process; although events like the one on Sunday are free of charge.

Getting the word out

Chris Okechukwu, who technically lives in Skokie but identifies as from “Skevanston,” heard about the event from a FAAM email listing and came with his sons Isaac, 12, and Erik, 5.

“Hopefully they send out more emails like this to promote this type of event. It’s wonderful, just to get the kids out of the house. It’s just something to keep the kids engaged, sociable,” said Okechukwu, as his kids played “hit the ducky.” “I’m just trying to keep these kids active right now, because something like this can build up their self-esteem.”

He said he appreciated the free nature of the event, which was “open to all,” as a chance for the kids to try out the sport in a low-stakes environment.

“Something like this, where you introduce them [kids] and then you pay later if they want to continue,” said Okechukwu, “I’m sure it’s not breaking the budget. It’s more of a social benefit, if anything, just to bring everybody together.”

Garcia-Garth said he’s been attending First Tee programs for about a year with Aidan and Mia, his daughter. Before that, he never knew about golf access in Chicago, especially through public, city-owned courses. “I’ve driven past them a thousand times, and I never knew how accessible they were. It costs $20 to golf in the city,” he said, as he walked Aidan through his swing.

The Chicago Park District owns eight golf courses and advertises basic programs at $20 per person before additional fees, like green fees (to enter the course) and cart and club rentals. Additionally, one child can play free with a paying adult as long as the group walks rather than rents a cart, according to Chicago’s Junior Golf Program. 

“I think that we can always do a better job of letting folks know that it’s available. I didn’t know that First Tee even existed,” said Garcia-Garth. “I wish that the marketing would be a little bit better, but I probably would have signed up for golf earlier in life if I had known we had that.”

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