Four youth organizations from Greater Pittsburgh have pooled a strong relationship with the Tri-State PGA Section to succeed in various success stories that offer opportunities to youths who might otherwise never find the means to play the game of golf.

A clinic was sponsored by the PGA Foundation and supported by Dick’s Sporting Goods of Pittsburgh. Youths assembled through The First Tee of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Youth Golf Foundation, The First Tee of Beaver Falls, Pa., and the West Penn Minority Junior Golf Association.

“We also have kids who are graduates and not in the golf industry, but have taken the life values from the game and applied them to their lives and careers,” said Rock Robinson, director of the West Penn Minority Junior Golf Association.

Robinson, a mechanical engineer and a golf instructor, has teamed with PGA Director of Golf Ned Weaver of Southpointe Golf Club in Canonsburg, Pa., to coordinate the golf curriculum. For the past decade, this program – with an average of 50 youngsters participating annually -- has produced PGA Professional Golf Management (PGA/PGM) students at Penn State University and Queens College, and one graduate nearing completion of the training necessary to become a PGA Professional.

Robinson said the organization has set up 19 internships for its program’s participants, at such clubs as: Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club; Westmoreland Country Club of Export Pa.; Allegheny Country Club of Sewickley, Pa.; Southpointe Golf Club; and Pittsburgh’s Alcoma Golf Club.

“The kids are learning the business of golf,” said Robinson. “I have a daughter who came through our program and is now in hospitality management at Churchill Valley Country Club [in Pittsburgh]. There are opportunities out there, and we have been working hard to get our kids to be at the forefront in making the most of those opportunities.”

Renee Abrams is director of The Pittsburgh Youth Golf Foundation, which began in 1991 and has used both PGA and LPGA Professionals on a 50-member teaching roster.

“We are still soaring,” said Abrams, who owns her own event-planning business. “It is tremendous the support we have received from PGA Professionals in the Tri-State Section and from LPGA Professionals. The public school program has been elevated.” Abrams said her son, Ben, introduced her to junior golf programs. Ben is a graduate of the New Mexico State University PGA/PGM Program and now has a position at a club in Aruba.

“My son got me involved, and I became hooked on what golf can do for young people,” said Abrams. “I initiated the link between the Foundation, Tri-State PGA Professionals and the school board. And, it has taken off from there.”

PGA Professional Sean Parees, PGA Director of Golf at Quicksilver Golf Club in Midway, Pa., is one of the Tri-State PGA Professionals serving the Pittsburgh Youth Golf Foundation.

“It is great to see what has happened to this program and to the overall community,” said Abrams. “I believe that the experience has improved our own guys in their golf instruction.” Other successes include The First Tee of Pittsburgh, which served as the coordinating organization for the clinic at Green Oaks Country Club, in Verona, Pa.

“You are always feeling good inside, when you hear of successes of young people that you have had the opportunity to work with – even for a short time,” said Bruce Stephen, director of The First Tee of Pittsburgh. “There are many success stories in this area.”

The fourth participating group at the PGA Community Relations Youth Golf Clinic was The First Tee of Beaver Falls. The program has averaged between 400 to 450 participants annually and has featured a unique presentation of incorporating life skills through golf lessons.

The groups brought some 150 youngsters to the clinic, and all were given tickets to attend the 66th Senior PGA Championship, which is being conducted May 23-29, at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pa.

The PGA of America, founded in 1916, is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the game of golf, while continuing to enhance the standards of the profession. The Association is comprised of more than 28,000 men and women PGA Professionals who are dedicated to growing participation in the game of golf.