The First Tee of the Coastal Carolinas golf and youth development organization was once lauded and recognized as a model chapter by the First Tee national office for its organization, facilities, programs and reach.
While still impacting tens of thousands of youth this year in several counties including Horry, Georgetown and Brunswick on the greater Grand Strand, financial difficulties have forced the chapter to suspend operations indefinitely as of this past Friday.
The 10-person board of directors remains at least largely intact and intends to reorganize and reestablish programming as soon as possible following a sale of its headquarters in Shallotte, N.C., that will potentially provide funds and alleviate some of its financial responsibilities.
“Coming out of the pandemic, our resources were outstripped by our commitments,” said First Tee of CC board member Jim Belvin, who has been involved with the local First Tee for 15 years. The organization first entered the Strand in 2005.
“Our plan is to sell the property and take the resources from that and reorganize and begin the process of reopening,” Belvin said. “We view this as a pause rather than end to The First Tee in our area. We’re true believers in The First Tee and what it does for the young people in this extended area.”
Belvin said most of the board took part in a Zoom call last week that established the suspension of operations, and everyone on the call vowed to remain on the board through the period of inactivity. He said he assumes those who weren’t on the short-notice call will remain on the board, as well.
The First Tee chapter is attempting to sell its home facility, The Golf Club at Cinghiale Creek in Shallotte, N.C., which Belvin said is 37 acres.
The property includes a Tom Watson-designed Par 3 Learning Course, driving range, three-hole loop course, clubhouse, and the Carolinas Life Skills and Leadership Academy, which hosts summer camps.
The academy building is 11,000 square feet and contains dormitories for 50 youth and 16 counselors, a commercial kitchen, a dining and meeting room, and a covered outdoor area to accommodate large groups.
It has hosted multiple summer camps for community children.
Belvin said a potential buyer was close to a purchase before backing out of the sale, and though the buyer may revisit the sale after the new year, the board determined operating expenses, including a mortgage on the property, and fundraising challenges were too much to withstand.
“Our resources would just not let us get through to January or February or whatever period of time selling a property would have involved,” said Belvin, who runs The First Tee of CC’s need-based scholarship program for former members enrolling in higher education. “I think there’s only one other First Tee chapter in the country that owns property, and we’ve got a big piece of property.”
Plans to reorganize and renew programs
Once it sells its headquarters, the First Tee of CC intends to operate as most First Tee chapters do, out of an office while relying on cooperation from several willing golf courses in the area to host all of its programming.
“We look forward to being a model program again,” Belvin said.
The First Tee program focuses on teaching golf skills as well as instilling character and life skills through the stressing of nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.
It also gives youth an activity and place to go after school and in the summer.
“We believe in the mission,“ Belvin said. “It sort of serves as a springboard into life. We’re not giving up on this easily.”
The First Tee of Brunswick County was founded in 2006 by the Navy veteran husband and wife team of Rusty and Carol Petrea, who purchased the land to build Cinghiale Creek for their chapter and established the Carol S. Petrea Youth Golf Foundation as an overseer.
The Petreas, who are now less involved in The First Tee, built Cinghiale Creek and largely granted it to The First Tee chapter as a deeded gift, though Belvin said there is still a mortgage on the property, as well as utility expenses and other bills.
The First Tee was introduced to Myrtle Beach in 2005 as an independent chapter but it struggled to survive and was taken in by Petrea Foundation in 2012, changing its name from The First Tee of Myrtle Beach to The First Tee of the Grand Strand.
In early 2018, the Petrea Foundation combined the Grand Strand and Brunswick County chapters with the Eastern North Carolina chapter, which includes Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties to the north of Wilmington.
They have all been operating as the First Tee of the Coastal Carolinas chapter since then, though the two counties that once comprised the former Grand Strand chapter have had their own program director in Eddie Hopeck for the past several years.
An impactful community program
In Horry and Georgetown counties alone The First Tee impacts well over 10,000 children, Hopeck said.
He said an in-school program in the physical education curriculums at all 11 elementary schools in Georgetown County and others in Horry County reaches more than 10,000 kids, and all fourth-graders in Georgetown County are bused during the school day to either Tradition Club in Pawleys Island, Wedgefield Plantation Country Club in Georgetown or Cherry Hill Country Club in Andrews a few times a semester for First Tee instruction.
Hopeck said more than 400 kids take part in after-school and summer programs on the Grand Strand at seven courses from Georgetown to Little River and Longs, and more than 150 are impacted through 10 community programs in cooperation with other youth organizations.
The local First Tee expanded its reach further with the opening early this year of the Arthur M. Blank Teen Center at the PGA Tour Superstore in North Myrtle Beach.
The two-level teen center has wifi; a TV; fun zone with Nintendo Switch video games, Oculus virtual reality games and a billiards table; and a meeting and study room. Teens also have had access to PGA Tour Superstore’s hitting bays with golf simulators and putting green.
The First Tee welcomed and had created programs and event days at the PGA Tour Superstore center for teens at community assistance organizations such as Sea Haven for Youth, Father’s Place, and the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), while also welcoming area boy scout troops, and high school golf teams and students.
The First Tee of CC says it has been reaching more than 25,000 youth through its programs now over nine counties. Belvin said the shutdown has resulted in the release of seven employees in Brunswick County, the
Grand Strand, and Eastern North Carolina.
The First Tee operates largely through volunteers – the local chapter says it has 140 trained volunteer coaches – and raises money multiple ways.
It holds fundraising golf tournaments including the annual Future Generations tournaments in both Georgetown/Horry counties and Brunswick County.
It annually sells a Players Card for discounted rounds at dozens of golf courses, including just about all of the public courses in Brunswick County that are considered part of the Myrtle Beach golf market.
It has online raffles and auctions and corporate partners, and accepts donations, including from organizations such as the Gene’s Dream Foundation, which recently held a David Feherty comedy show fundraiser in North Myrtle Beach.
But The First Tee’s fundraising hasn’t been able to keep up with its debt responsibilities, said Belvin, who added donations diminished during the coronavirus pandemic and haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’re looking for First Tee fundraising opportunities everywhere we can find them,” said Belvin, a resident of Southport, N.C. “There have been so many supportive partners . . . and we look forward to working with those partners again soon, we hope. We’re very proud of what we’ve done with the First Tee program and view this as a bump in the road.”
