First Tee Takes Golf to Unlikely Players
What’s wrong with these pictures? A golf outing in Des Moines in December? Temps were above normal and projected to climb even higher over the weekend, but still.
Actually, it wasn’t exactly an outing since it happened inside the smallest gym in the district at Howe Elementary on Friday afternoon. But it was golf, thanks to a SNAG (Starting New at Golf) grant snagged by Howe PE teacher Erik Heard and the helping hands lent by The First Tee of Greater Des Moines.
“This is the second year DMPS has partnered with First Tee,” said Carley Satterwhite, the PE Curriculum Coordinator for the district. The First Tee is a national youth development organization that teaches life skills and healthy habits through the game of golf. “We have implemented the First Tee’s National Schools Program (NSP) in four of our elementary schools; Stowe, Studebaker, Cowles, and now Howe,” she added.
Each of the schools is located close to a Des Moines municipal golf course where First Tee runs affordable summer programs aimed at growing interest in the lifelong sport. The local branch of the organization is headquartered at Grandview on the eastside.
First Tee board members Jim Ballard, Joel Drake and Luke Garnaas were on hand to distribute the equipment; kid-sized plastic clubs with oversized club faces and Velcro golf/tennis balls designed to stick on archery-style targets. Heard and Satterwhite set up stations and divvied the 5th grade PE sections into foursomes to take some whacks, the first ones ever at the game for many of the kids at Howe.
Heard, on the other hand, is a veteran.
“Golf is about my favorite thing to do,” he said. “I love playing with my dad. He’s the one who taught me the game.”
Last summer Heard also worked at Wakonda Country Club, an association that will continue and expand through First Tee and next summer’s Principal Charity Classic, a PGA Champions Tour event that’s played there.
“DMPS students will be participating in the event’s Media Day next May 4,” said Satterwhite. “That will be a fieldtrip for 5th graders to promote healthy choices through the game of golf which can be a lifetime activity. Students will actually get to play a three-hole exhibition and eat lunch with touring pros.”
But first things first: practice, practice, practice!
At least one of the students taking a turn Friday afternoon had some frame of reference.
Dikcha Adhikari moved to Des Moines from San Diego at the start of the school year. She started playing golf three years ago so that’s a familiar experience for her. She expected to be getting better acquainted with snow by now, not showing off her golfing skills in gym class. But she still recommended the game with enthusiasm to her new friends. “Yes, golf is a lot of fun,” she said, “but it’s better to play outdoors.”
Besides being a lifelong pursuit, golf is a game that’s known for its emphasis on sportsmanship and etiquette. Those aspects in combination with the primal object of taking a club and banging at something with it make it a multi-faceted teaching tool for young kids.
It seemed to naturally appeal to the squealing players on Friday’s cramped course. The new SNAG equipment is going to get plenty of use, especially once Heard can start teaching lessons with it in Howe’s ample backyard. Until then, nobody’s going to mind if the gallery in the balcony that rings the gym floor at Howe gets noisy during their backswings. The finer points can wait.
NOTE: All DMPS employees who participate in the biometric screenings throughout the year will be offered one free ticket to the Principal Charity Classic. Because PE, like golf, is a lifetime thing.
