The Jerry Stahl Junior Golf Academy
The RDGA's Newest Effort to Grow the Game in Rochester...and Beyond!
For this month’s TV Time feature, I have the privilege of sharing with you details of the RDGA’s newest effort to grow the game of golf here in Rochester – and hopefully throughout Western New York, and for generations to come!
The program is called the Jerry Stahl Junior Golf Academy and actually, this is the second year of this program.
The Jerry Stahl Junior Golf Academy strives to bring the game – along with the many life benefits it affords – to a new audience of potential golfers: under-served juniors in Rochester and it’s suburbs, many of whom have never been exposed to the game before.
The program was the brainchild of long-time RDGA supporter and Rules Official, Jerry Stahl, along with the support of the Oak Hill Foundation and the First Tee Western New York. Now in Year 2, the program has been expanded, and, with the help of new supporter, educational consultant EnCompass, the goal is to expand the program to a greater number of potential life-long golfers. In addition to that, Tom Watson Links has also provided hats, bag tags, and other funding towards helping this program.
This is all great news, of course – but this is where we can use your help to get this program off the ground. It involves a 3-step process to give under-served kids an opportunity to try golf.
- In the first step of this program, potential junior candidates are identified by local youth organizations, including YMCA of Rochester, the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester and the Monroe County Youth Bureau, and those kids receive free First Tee lessons at Genesee Valley GC once per week for 6 straight weeks. We are currently in week 3 of that first part.
- In the second part, we are inviting 20-30 of those kids to a 3-day Golf Camp at Genesee Valley GC at which they receive extensive golf lessons, free equipment and apparel (shirts) they can keep – part of he Tom Watson Links sponsorship.
- In the third part of the program we will have these kids out to play the course at Genesee Valley with playing mentors.
Thank you, in advance, for your support of this important program!
Best regards,
Tim Vangellow
Executive Director, RDGA