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Golf program gives Youngstown kids valuable lessons
Kids Golfing
Gallery
8.12.2008 Kids golfing to win a free set of clubs and a scholarship for free lessons from First Tee Foundation.
Golf program gives youths valuable lessons
The free program gives kids access to an activity they may not otherwise be able to afford.
CAMPBELL — Several young Campbell residents gained life-enhancing skills this summer, such as respect for rules, one another and the environment, while having fun learning to play golf.
The youths were participants in a nine-week program, sponsored by First Tee Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and Campbell Neighborhood Ministries, which concluded Tuesday with a free round of golf at Bedford Trails Public Golf Club in Lowellville.
Eight kids started the program and six finished, with three 12-year-olds playing nine holes of golf Tuesday with Gerald Hamilton, program director of the Campbell Neighborhood Ministries, and Keith Langford, a junior journalism student at Youngstown State University, who are golfing buddies.
The three youths, Tyler Smith, Corey Hamilton and Amos Dothard Jr., agreed they had learned a lot about the game, such as the rules, the names for the parts of the golf course, how to grip the club and how to drive and hit chip shots and putts.
And, they said they had fun.
Tyler, the son of Michael and Rebecca Smith, said he “definitely” wants to go golfing with his father and plans to keep on golfing and to play for his high school team some day.
“I’m glad I got the opportunity. It was fun,” said Corey, the son of Gerald and Dina Hamilton. He said he felt he was getting better each week and plans to continue playing golf.
“It was relaxing and fun,” said Amos, son of Nichole Green and stepson of Norvell Young. He said he learned a lot, such as to yell “fore” if his ball is going to hit someone, and would consider playing for his high school team “if it isn’t at the same time as football.” Amos plays for Campbell Middle School football team.
Gerald Hamilton graduated from Campbell Memorial High School in 1993 and was a forward on its state championship basketball team as well as a member of its track and cross country teams. He took up golf during his four-year stint in the Navy, and continued playing when he returned to civilian life and found he was “hooked on the game.”
Langford, a 2002 graduate of Campbell Memorial, was a member of the school’s golf and basketball teams, and had been involved in Neighborhood Ministries programs when he was a youth. He is an instructor for the Neighborhood Ministries satellite First Tee program.
“The First Tee program is a good opportunity for kids because it is free, and because it broadens their horizons by introducing them to a sport besides football and basketball,” Langford said.
The whole premise is that the program is free, which gives kids access to an activity they might not otherwise be able to afford, Hamilton said.
All of the equipment used by the kids, such as golf clubs and bags, was donated by the Trumbull Baptist Association or other supporters of Neighborhood Ministries. Creekside Golf Dome in Girard provided a venue for the lessons, and will award one of the youths in the program a starter set of golf clubs and a scholarship consisting of a year-long program of free lessons through the First Tee program at Creekside.
Creekside has been involved in the First Tee program for three years and has seen 175 kids go through the program, said David Penturf, assistant coach of the First Tee program at Creekside and a member of First Baptist Church of Alliance. Neighborhood Ministries is one of the church’s missions.
James St. George, general manager of Creekside and executive director of the First Tee Foundation Mahoning Valley Chapter, said the program is growing; he organizes two tournaments a year under the auspices of the First Tee Program.
From a personal perspective, Gerald Hamilton said it is good to see the kids begin to learn a game he loves to play.
alcorn@vindy.com