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Etherington Attends Scholars Forum

Richmond’s Esther Etherington recently attended the National First Tee Scholars retreat in Jacksonville, Florida. Hear from Esther in her own words what the impact of the retreat has had on her First Tee experiences:

The First Tee Scholars Retreat was once again an unbelievable experience. I was surrounded by some of the most driven and talented people from all around the country. My understanding of my leadership style and personal values increased from this weekend and I am excited to continue learning alongside them in the future. 

  • I came home from the First Tee Scholars Retreat with a greater understanding of my leadership style, the morals that I value as a person, and how I process information to convey to others.
  • We focused on team building, mental health, time management, and reflection about first semester. This included setting goals for the upcoming year and implementing steps to get there.
  • Our third point focused on professional development. There were speaking from companies who sponsor First Tee like TruGreen and Pure Insurance, speaking about internship opportunities, resume building, and advice. Financial literacy and opportunities with the golf industry and First Tee were also present.  

At the end of the forum, financial literacy and opportunities with the golf industry and First Tee were also present. Also, employees from First Tee HQ engaged with us to look at the future of the organization and the future of the scholars program.

To top the week off, Etherington was able to connect with First Tee-Indiana alum Rebecca Jones, a First Tee National Scholar from our Northwest location. Jones attends Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and received her scholarship award in 2021. Etherington is in her freshman year at Franklin College where she is studying elementary education and playing on the women’s golf team.

Coach Beam Named as National Trainer

Our very own Ali Beam, Northern Regional Director, was selected to become a National Trainer (Level 5) for the First Tee.

Ali and 14 other trainers from across the U.S. attended a national trainer session in Jacksonville, Florida. She will now represent Indiana as a Level 5 coach trainer at locations throughout the First Tee national network. She will co-lead Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 coaching sessions on how to develop intentional learning environments and create high impact relationships with First Tee participants. 

“Being a national trainer is a great opportunity to grow and inspire coaches in the First Tee Network especially in our Indiana Chapter,” said Coach Ali.

Jose Perez Makes an Impact at First Tee – Monterey County

Jose Perez grew up in Salinas, California where his family loved watching different professional sports, but primarily soccer because of their Hispanic heritage. It wasn’t until Jose was 8 years old when he was first introduced to the sport of golf – and instantly he fell in love. “In other sports, you have to rely on other people. With golf, you only have to rely on yourself and that’s why I love the game,” said Jose.

Jose became a participant at First Tee – Monterey County after being introduced to the game, loving the programs he took part in. So much so, after graduating from the program, he became a First Tee coach in 2013. “Monterey County had a summer program which I applied to that summer. I took my first class and loved it. First Tee – Monterey County has helped me a lot in my career. The coaches I had gave their best at everything and gave me values and skills I could use in my life. The least I could do is give back,” said Jose.

While coaching at First Tee – Monterey County, Jose is also studying to get his degree in accounting. Once he completes his bachelor’s degree, he will apply to get his master’s degree and become a CPA. One day, Jose hopes to do accounting for businesses all over California and take over his dad’s pallet business.

“If there’s anything I could teach my participants, it’s to be patient, be positive and always be willing to ask for help.”

Game Changing Alumni

For over 25 years, we’ve used golf to teach lessons about life. We’ve spun the unexpected challenges on the fairway to coach kids about adversity in the everyday. It’s not just a game, its game-changing.

Our alumni are a reflection of that commitment we made to building game changers. Below are just a few of our exceptional alumni who are making a difference in the world because of the lessons learned at First Tee.

Marcus Freeman Pays it Forward

First Tee is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month, and over the years, it’s helped produce no shortage of game changers. 

One example is Marcus Freeman from First Tee – Greater Charlotte. He says the organization has helped him grow as a golfer and person. 

“Being a part of this community has helped me get through hard times. First Tee – Greater Charlotte was a safe place for me in 2020. During this time my grandfather was going through end stage pancreatic cancer and my family, like the world, was navigating COVID-19 and social distancing,” he says. 

The support he received from First Tee inspired Freeman to pay it forward. 

He completed more than 300 hours of volunteer work for First Tee in 2021. He collected more than 500 books for a First Tee book drive, and he’s a member of the chapter’s participant advisory council. Freeman has also volunteered for his swim team and tutored students in Japanese.

“An aspect of volunteer work that I enjoy is seeing the impact that giving to others can have,” he says. 

Freeman is one of 28 First Tee participants from across the country who’ll attend Innovators Forum this November in Dallas. The workshop empowers First Tee teens to develop a meaningful service project in their community focused on education, health or sustainability. Eight participants will be awarded scholarships totaling $32,000 after the event.

A junior at Palisades High School, Freeman is an accomplished violinist, and he won a medal for performing Japanese poems in 2019. Freeman aspires to study sports science in college. “I enjoy learning more about physical fitness and how the body works,” he says. Freeman spends his free time researching training tips and injury recovery. 

As he progresses as an athlete and student, Freeman says he’ll continue to use the lessons and qualities he’s learned at First Tee, including confidence. 

“When I first joined the program, I was a little shy when meeting new coaches, parents and other players. I spent time observing the instructors and how they interacted with all the different people coming and going. I saw them shake hands, make eye contact, smile and speak confidently,” he says.  

“I knew I wanted those skills as well. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and I started to apply what I observed to my own social skills. I practiced a strong handshake. I introduced myself to people I didn’t know, and I have met many interesting people, like professional golfer Davis Love III, all because I have improved in sharing my personality.” 

Learn more about Innovators Forum. 

Alumna Hannah Rens Reaches for the Stars

Lots of kids aspire to become astronauts but few go on to build careers in space exploration. That hasn’t stopped Hannah Rens from chasing her dreams into orbit. 

The 24-year-old is a systems engineer for Boeing Space and Launch, working on Boeing’s Starliner, a commercial crew and cargo vehicle that will be transporting NASA astronauts to the international space station.  

“My ultimate career goal is to be chief engineer of a permanent human habitat on the moon,” says Rens, a former participant at First Tee – Siouxland and First Tee volunteer. “To achieve that goal, I need to develop advanced business skills, gain industry experience and further my engineering technical education.” 

That’s why she’s attending the First Tee Alumni Summit presented by Gallagher this November in Dallas. The event provides an opportunity for selected alumni to advance their career by building new skills while reconnecting with fellow alumni and chapter leaders. 

“I’m looking to learn more about working in a rapidly evolving industry, startups and founding your own business, and how to develop an effective personal brand,” she says. 

Rens says her nine years in First Tee helped shape her future. “It provided me with a structured path to improving my golf game, peer and trusted mentors, and interpersonal and professional skills that have been essential in achieving my goals,” she says. 

While in First Tee, she was selected to attend the Leaders and Entrepreneurs Forum at Disney World. “Getting to meet other students from across the U.S. while listening and working with successful business owners and entrepreneurs was unlike any other experience I had in high school,” she says. “The business principles and goals I learned have stayed with me.” 

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Rens began her career with internships focused on aircraft maintenance and repair. As Starliner prepares to expand its service to additional sites in Earth’s orbit, Rens works on vehicle life span and sustainment. Ultimately, Starliner will become one of the first spacecraft with turnaround times closer to traditional air traffic. Talk about a Game Changer. 

Rens now serves as a mentor for high school and college students who want careers in the space industry, and she’s enrolled in an astronautical engineering master’s program at the University of Southern California focusing on human spaceflight. 

Rens still golfs, and she’s a certified open water and dry suit SCUBA diver. Learn more about the accomplishments of First Tee alumni. 

Zoe Brock Reaches Ace Distinction

Indiana’s second Ace Level distinguished participant is Zoe Brock of Richmond. Brock recently finished the highest level of certification from First Tee and was celebrated at a ceremony with some of her First Tee peers, including Indiana’s other Ace, Sam Roberts. Brock is one of more than 170 participants since 2006 to achieve Ace certification.

“I loved coming to First Tee in the summers,” said Brock. “Throughout the Ace journey specifically, I just learned so much about myself as a person because you talk a lot about what you want to do with our life and college. The Ace project is when I answered those questions.” She will be attending Ball State University next year and will receive a $2,500 scholarship from the Indiana Golf Foundation for her First Tee achievements.

To become Ace-certified, participants must complete four major projects centered on Community Service, Career, Educational Opportunities and Golf – which are then submitted and reviewed by a national committee.

Brock has been a participant at First Tee — Indiana in Richmond since she was 8 years old thanks to the influences of her grandfather and parents. She also was recently crowned Miss Wayne County and credits First Tee’s Nine Core Values as the reason why she was able to compete for that title.

Ace certification is the final step and the pinnacle of the First Tee program. Participants can work toward Ace certification after completing PLAYer, Par, Birdie and Eagle level certifications. The certification process requires a higher level of personal planning through First Tee’s programs that includes interpersonal communication, self-management, goal-setting, self-coaching, and resiliency skills – building an important foundation for success in higher education and career planning.

Congratulations Zoe from all of your First Tee-Indiana staff and community!

With Richmond Chairman Sam Witherby and Southern Regional Coach Roger Lundy
The Brock Family
With Fellow First Tee friend Sam Reising
With Indiana’s other ACE, Sam Roberts

First Tee-Indiana Awarded USGA celebrating First Tee’s 25th Anniversary

First Tee – Indiana was among the 25 Chapters across America that received an IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility) grant honoring a quarter-century partnership between the USGA and First Tee. The USGA’s IDEA Grant Program provided 25 chapters with grants ranging from $5,000 – $25,000, celebrating 25 years of growing the game through youth based initiatives. This program is committed to breaking down the barriers to participate in golf and First Tee programs, as well as ensuring that recreational golf continues to thrive. 


The specific community partnerships that the grant will aid include the Douglass Golf Course Program, Madison County Minority Health Coalition; Spring Break Advancement Academy, the Tippy Stars Sports Team in Lafayette, and the Carver Community Center in Kokomo. We felt that these partnerships would benefit the most from receiving funding.

Douglass Golf Course Program

The Douglass Golf Course remains as one of the most accessible golf courses in the city and in 2021, we experienced that accessibility in full circle when First Tee introduced programming there. We were able to impact over a 100 kids and teens through various partnerships with other youth serving organizations in the area. Of those 100 kids and teens the majority of them were not only brand new to golf but had never stepped foot on a golf course before. Douglass is our only free site for participants, meaning that any kid or teen who wants to participate can do so at no cost to them. This grant funded us for continued golf course access and coach payment support, as well as additional class equipment.

“We are grateful for grants like this that helped us impact a record number of kids and teens that otherwise wouldn’t have the chance at Douglass” says Taylor Haudek, Site Director of Indianapolis First Tee – Indiana. 

Carver Community Center 

A new opportunity that is arising for First Tee -Indiana participants is programming at the Carver Community Center in Kokomo, Indiana. We have a new First Tee Coach and PGA Professional who will be implementing the First Tee Community Program both at the Carver Center and the Kokomo American Legion Golf Course. With this being a newly formed program, we are in high need for developmental funding. This grant has provided our Chapter with start-up money for program equipment, class materials/golf course access, and scholarship offerings. 

Madison County Minority Health Coalition,  Advancement Academy

In 2022, we took part in a two-week Spring break camp and a one-week Fall break for kids in the Anderson Community School Corporation through the Madison County Minority Health Coalition. The camps introduced golf to its students for the first time with First Tee Community Program equipment and the help of our First Tee staff and a local First Tee Coach. We provided information to the students about our programming at local golf courses. For the next camp, we will be purchasing K-5 equipment and providing scholarship funds for First Tee class sessions. This grant dispersed money for equipment and scholarship offerings. 

“Last year during Spring Break we had approximately 300 students.  This year for Fall Break we have a little over 800 students! The program is growing by leaps and bounds!” says Betsy Pearson from the Madison County Minority Health Coalition. 

Tippy Stars Sports Team/First Tee Night, Lafayette, Indiana 

For the last three years, our Lafayette First Tee location has partnered for an evening with the Tippy Stars special needs team for a golf skills challenge night. First Tee participants partner with a Tippy Stars player and guide them through a putting, chipping and hitting challenge course. With the USGA grant funds, we purchased golf clubs and balls for each Tippy Stars player to take home and safely use to practice indoors or outdoors.

“It’s a special night to be able to work with the Tippy Stars kids alongside our First Tee participants. It’s great to see how we can use golf to get us playing together. At the end of our night this year, all of the Tippy Stars received a golf club, ball and target to practice on their own. Hopefully their interest in golf has grown over the past three years that we have done this event, and they will want to join us in a full class soon” said Dan Ross, PGA Pro and First Tee Coach. 

First Tee – Indiana  is thrilled to use this USGA grant to continue supporting communities through community partnerships, financial assistance, free access, scholarships, and Youth on Course. 

Donate to First Tee – Indiana here. 

The Key to Setting Reachable Goals

Have you ever thought about your achievements in life? What were the dreams and ambitions that you wanted to work towards? How did you get there? At First Tee, these are the type of questions we propose to kids and teens to help them understand the process of attaining goals; but to reach their goal, they must first understand how goals are formulated.  

A goal is something that you want to do, be or have, but it’s not something that you can do, be or have right at this moment. It’s something you must work to get in the future, and you can apply that to any challenge in life. For example, if your child wants to achieve Honor Roll and receive all As and Bs in school this year, what would that require them to do? They would need to do well on tests and assignments. How would they accomplish that? Encourage them to take good notes, turn in their work on time, and study for their tests. 

For kids, having guidelines or tools can effectively help them identify their goals and make them feel comfortable about reaching them. At First Tee, we utilize four guidelines to do this. Talk to your child about the dreams they currently have and try these out for yourself. 

Four Guidelines for Setting a Reachable Goal: 

  • The goal is Positive: 
    • I want to achieve a passing score of 80% or higher vs. I don’t want to fail this test 
  • The goal is Important to You: 
    • The goal needs to be important to you, not to someone else. You should be able to explain why you want to achieve it and why it will make a difference for you. 
  • The goal is Specific: 
    • You want to know exactly what you’re working toward. 
  • The goal is Under your Control: 
    • Your efforts will allow you to achieve this goal vs. Something that is out of your control like becoming famous or winning the lottery. 

Goal setting is a strategy kids and teens will apply for the rest of their life. When we set our goals, we want to be very clear about them so that we have the best chance to achieve them. The key to remember is that goals come in all shapes and sizes. Just because it doesn’t work for someone else doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve it. Your kids will learn from both their achievements and setbacks, but as they begin to set personal goals, they will learn and grow in ways that you did not think possible. 

Want to get involved with what we are building at First Tee? Click here to find out more. 

2022 First Tee Indiana Golf Championship

Final Results 

High School Girls

Alivia Carlisle – Indy 78

Demi Bolin – Indy 82

Jenna Noort – Northwest 86

Zoe Cline – Richmond 91

Faith Lee – Northwest 92

Baylee Wissler – Richmond 92

Lauren Lacey – Richmond 101

Celia Florkowski – Michiana 109

High School Boys 

*round shortened to 14 holes

Maddox Geyer – SouthCentral 62

Kellen Eder – Indy 62

Zach Geleott- Northwest 66

Charlie Tamasasky – Michiana 66

Tatsu Granvender – Michiana 72

Jaden Wong – Indy 74

Theo Thurmond – Indy 74

Micah Daniels – Richmond 78

Garrett Kretsinger – Foxcliff 96

Eric Harrison – Indy 96

Gabe Kruzendoerfer- SouthCentral 98

Sam Reising – Richmond NC

Nick Wills-Northwest NC

Boys 11 & Under

*round shortened to 8 holes

Sully Mammolenti – Michiana 39

Zach Brewer – Michiana 43

Logan Wang – Lafayette 46

Cash Gillaspy-Seymour 48

Girls 12-13

*round shortened to 6 holes

Camley Whitfield – Orange County 33

Josselyn Moran-Indy 34

Dionna Bohlinger – Lafayette 38

Olivia Patton – Indy 40

Ashlynn Sessler – Michiana 45

Leah Gradeless – Michiana 51

Boys 12-13

* round shortened to 8 holes

Carson Scheiben – Richmond 32

Blayze Chapman – Indy 36

Edison Armbrester – Indy 37

Noah Kruzendoerfer – SouthCentral 38

Kellen Laird – Richmond 42

Dallas Byerley – SouthCentral 42

Levi Gustine – Michiana 43

Brody Haaff – Orange Co. 47

Reggie Osborn – Richmond 53

Ethan Reynolds – Columbus 54

Grant Kretsinger – Foxcliff 62

Connor Jarrett – Indy 63

Liam Lawyer – Indy 73

Devin Lathan – Foxcliff NC

Elijah Wagner – Indy NC

Overall Team Results  

Locations with 4 or more players were divided into teams of 4.  If a location had enough players for more than 1 team, teams were selected either by their coach or by random draw.  The format is best score on a hole for 9 holes. 

Indy Team #1 Score

Alivia Carlisle, Kellen Eder, Olivia Patton, Theo Thurmond  32

Richmond Team #1

Carson Scheiben, Micah Daniels, Reggie Osborn, Zoe Cline 33

Richmond Team #2

Baylee Wissler, Sam Reising, Lauren Lacey, Kellen Laird 34

Indy Team #3

Demi Bolin, Blayze Chapman, Edison Armbrester, Liam Lawyer 35

Northwest

Faith Lee, Jenna Noort, Nick Wills, Zach Geleott 36

South Central

Maddox Geyer, Dallas Byerley, Gabe Kurzendoerfer, Noah Kurzendoerfer 38

Michiana Team # 2

Celia Florkowski, Charlie Tamasasky, Leah Gradeless, Ashlynn Sessler 39

Lutzke and Stacy Attend Game Changers Academy Honoring Joe Louis Burrow, Jr.

Lutzke and Stacy attended this five-day learning and empowerment academy and participated in important conversations around issues of identity, racism, diversity, equity and inclusion. The Academy builds throughout the week into a final outreach project in collaboration with DE&I leadership in the local host community. 

Lutzke’s favorite part of the trip was going to downtown Philadelphia for the scavenger hunt. “It was fun to go around the city and see how big it is. This trip has allowed me to see a beautiful city with so much history behind it.” He also reflected, “My biggest takeaway from the Game Changers Academy would have to be that my perspective of diversity has changed and hearing everyone’s stories about their personal experiences with discrimination has made me want to stand up and say that discrimination is wrong and it needs to be stopped.”

Stacy reflected a similar sentiment, “I learned the differences between equity and equality, I learned about privilege and how we should use it to help those less fortunate, and I learned a lot about foreign countries and America thanks to the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to play golf with the former US Ambassador of Morocco.” He also had a favorite fun part in “…the water balloon fight. It was a big surprise and everyone was really into it!”

Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., First Tee’s CEO who retired in 2017 after 17 years of leadership, has always been an advocate for social justice and believes that First Tee has and always will be more than a game to young people. First Tee Game Changers Academy is the ultimate tribute to Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., a fearless champion of change. 

This Academy is one of several national opportunities provided by First Tee headquarters designed to inspire and encourage high school students on a deeper level as they progress through the program and toward higher education opportunities.