The Official Website of the Tennessee Golf Association, Tennessee Section of the PGA of America and the Tennessee Golf Foundation

 

 


Tennessee Golf Foundation Mission




Tennessee Golf Foundation Background

The Tennessee Golf Foundation operates a variety of junior golf programs across the state and also provides grants to other organizations that conduct junior golf programs. Over 25,000 children participated in our supported programs in 2011 and they learn the positive values and fun that the game provides. Golf House Tennessee also serves as the home for the state’s golf associations; a nine-hole, par three course and the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame. Over 50 varieties of grasses found on The Little Course at Conner Lane provide a state-of the-art real world laboratory for turfgrass researchers from the University of Tennessee. Programs overseen or operated by the Tennessee Golf Foundation include the Toyota TGA Junior Tour, The Tennessee PGA Junior Golf Academy, The First Tee (Nashville, Tri-Cities, Jackson, Clarksville and programs at Ft. Campbell), Tennessee Middle School Golf Association, Screaming Eagle Scholarships and the programs and events held at The Little Course at Conner Lane. Regional directors are in place in Memphis and Tri-Cities to help localize the Foundation’s programs in their areas.


Tennessee Golf Foundation Five Key Mission Components & Impact


Core Values  
  • 766 participants have been impacted by The First Tee curriculum including various levels of its Life Skills Experience in the six programming sites overseen by The First Tee of Nashville (Tri-Cities, Clarksville, Fort Campbell, Jackson, Franklin and Nashville).  
  • Over 20,000 elementary school students in 47 schools throughout Nashville, Clarksville and Fort Campbell have been taught golf’s life-enhancing core values as a part of the TGF funded The First Tee National School Program.  
  • The TGA Junior Tour emphasizes core values through the “Spirit of Golf Award” given to the participant in each of the tour’s three divisions (Masters, Tour & Mirco) that best exemplifies sportsmanship during the season. Each junior tour competitor receives exposure the game’s core values on printed materials and their annual achievement plaques.  

Instruction  
  • 838 young people, ages 4-17 took part in golf learning programs and special events at The Little Course at Conner Lane through day camps, clinics, tournaments and home school programs, an increase of over 100. Another 1,730 students received golf instruction through our Golf House Tennessee Learning Center in-school program.  
  • 390 young people attended the Tennessee PGA Junior Golf Academy (operated by the TGF) from Tennessee, 10 different states and two continents. 40% of this year’s campers received some sort of financial aid, including reduced tuition for all female participants.  
  • Golf instruction programs for 15 hospitalized veterans taught in conjunction with the Veteran’s Administration were conducted in both Murfreesboro and Nashville.  

Junior Competitions  
  • The 2011 season on the statewide TGA Junior Tour had 1,459 members, just two short of last year’s record number. There were 7,064 rounds played in just 42 days, surpassing last year’s record by 34 rounds. 
  • The TGF conducted 131 competitions for junior golfers across the state in 2011 using both full-time staff and a network of 20 interns.  
  • In the TGF’s second year of control of the Tennessee Middle School Golf Association (TMSGA), 930 players participated from 85 schools across the Volunteer State, spanning from Memphis to Bristol. TMSGA is the only statewide operated middle school competitive program in the U.S.  

Golf’s Traditions  
  • The Gordon T. Huddleston Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame Gallery was completed in September featuring new displays of the hall’s 37 current members and new lighting.  
  • The TGF taught 17 two-hour rules clinics across Tennessee, emphasizing the rules and etiquette of the game to over 500 TGA Junior Tour players, parents and middle school coaches. In 2012, the TGF plans to make available web-based rules clinics to all junior competitors and parents, increasing the impact of this important component of the game.  
  • The Rules of Golf are also a curriculum component at the TPGA Junior Golf Academy, The First Tee and Little Course at Conner Lane programs and events.

Regional Support & Statewide Activities

  • On the map below, the statewide impact of the Tennessee Golf Foundation' is measured in the darkness of the area - the darker, the more impact. 8,500 zip codes from several TGF databases were used to create the map. Pushpins indicate key program sites across the state. Click on map for a bigger view.
  • To visit web sites for each specific supported TGF region, click on the location: Memphis/West Tennessee, Knoxville, Tri-Cities and Chattanooga is coming soon.