This summer, at Mosholu Golf Course, South Bronx kids ages 6 to 18 are learning the finer points of golf and life lessons in patience, perseverance, and risk-taking.
During the Bronx Times visit on July 21, a group of 10 kids in second through fifth grade came with their WHEDco summer program for their first-ever putting lesson with First Tee, a nonprofit serving the tri-state area.
The summer weather was perfect for any outdoor activity, especially one surrounded by trees and wide open green space. Students had already practiced longer-range hitting for several weeks and were eager to try putting on the smooth green, which they were surprised to learn costs up to $100,000 each season to maintain.
The group of students from P.S./I.S. 218 Rafael Hernández Dual Language School in the South Bronx was not there by chance. According to Matt Rawitzer, executive director of First Tee’s New York chapter, First Tee intentionally seeks partnerships with communities that lack outdoor green space and whose residents may have little access to the expensive and sometimes exclusive sport of golf.
For the putting lesson, the First Tee coach and teen mentors, who are paid for their roles, helped the young students practice their putter grip and stance. Then, they launched into a game of tic-tac-toe, where kids paired up and took turns putting into hoops placed on the ground. It was a lesson in persistence as they discovered that putting is much more difficult than it looks.
Fortunately, Mosholu Golf Course has a dedicated youth practice area where kids can come and practice on their own time.
Rawitzer said the First Tee program brings a diverse range of people together under “good values, honesty and respect.”
“We use golf to help create opportunity in the world,” he said.
As a sport, golf can be a great equalizer. No matter who you are, “You’re going to be bad at first,” he said.
Learning golf teaches kids that “not only can they fail, but they should fail,” taking them “a little out of their comfort zone,” said Rawitzer.
Katie Aylwin, who has worked with WHEDCo for 20 years, said she grew up in a golf-loving family in Florida and jumped at the chance to instill a love of the sport in South Bronx kids.
“It was great to get to create that opportunity for them to try something new,” she said.
Last year, the program was open to just five students but expanded to 16 this year, said Aylwin. Now, at least one student has moved up golf to his second-favorite sport, next to soccer, she said.
After a tic-tac-toe game, Coach Lizzie encouraged students to keep trying, noting that it was their first time ever using a putter. In golf and in life, immediate success was not as important as “having fun, being safe and trying your best,” she told them.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
