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<\/a>Brandon Evans and a crew of First Swing participants. (Joseph Fouts photo)<\/p><\/div>\n
At an improvised driving range on field behind the local YMCA, Evans unsuccessfully tried to make contact for nearly an hour, thoroughly annoying the younger Smith.\u00a0 But when the boy managed to strike his one and only solid shot, he was as hooked as Hemingway\u2019s marlin.\u00a0 Back home the kid immediately started begging his parents for $8 to play golf the next day, money for a Golf Magazine<\/em> subscription, a set of clubs and eventually a membership at a local club, where he worked part time throughout high school.\u00a0 Today 36, Evans is a PGA teaching professional and General Manager of the Village Greens of Woodbridge<\/a>, a public daily fee course that\u2019s considered one of the best values in Chicago-area golf.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also ground zero for a remarkable and imaginative program that in just one summer has introduced more than a thousand children to the game of golf – – an echo of a youth\u2019s impertinent foray into a neighbor\u2019s garage.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole thing started when the Woodridge Park District applied for and received a grant from the Illinois Park and Recreation Association, for 10 sets of U.S. Kids Golf<\/a> clubs,\u201d explains Evans.\u00a0 \u201cIt was contingent on the clubs being available for kids to use for free while participating in something<\/em> on our premises.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 What exactly that might be would be up to the general manager and his staff.<\/p>\n While Evans admires the First Tee<\/a> program and the way it teaches life skills and core values, the structured program has a certain formality and requires a significant deal of administration.\u00a0 Village Greens hosts 23 weekly leagues and is an intensely busy place, and Evans\u2019s personality thrives on informality.\u00a0 Subsequently, he and his wonderfully named assistant pro, Prince Winbush, thrashed around ideas for an ad hoc way to make use of the U.S. Kids clubs, with setting goals an initial priority.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hoped that we could reach a thousand kids during this past summer and I think it was Prince who coined the term, 1000 1st<\/sup> Swings,\u201d says Evans.\u00a0 \u201cWe decided to open it to kids between the ages of 4 and 17, and \u2018soft-launched\u2019 the program on our website in late last January and in a March e-mail to the 8,000 addresses in our database.\u201d<\/p>\n Removing Barriers<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n From the course owner\/operator perspective, Village Greens management didn\u2019t foresee any immediate financial benefit from the program.\u00a0 It was simply an opportunity to introduce kids to golf by removing several traditional barriers, including the costs of clubs, range balls and the intimidation that\u2019s so common when people think about trying golf.\u00a0 In fact, the Woodbridge Park District agreed to supply a free bucket of range balls to any child who came while in the company of an adult, be it a parent, grandparent or a family friend.\u00a0 To sweeten the deal, Evans tossed in free bucket of balls for the accompanying adult.\u00a0 For kids who showed any interest in continuing with golf, three additional<\/em> free buckets are provided.<\/p>\n While Evans and Winbush gave some instruction and teaching guidance 1000 1st<\/sup> Swings was purposely designed to make use of parents and other volunteers, and take advantage of the administration and organization of existing youth groups.\u00a0 Indeed, while nearly 500 children registered directly through the Village Greens website, more than 160 children committed to attend through Park District camp programs.\u00a0 A boy\u2019s Little League Baseball time signed up, as did several Boy Scout groups and a number of Girl Scout troops totaling 80 young ladies. What\u2019s more, about 40 participants came from a girls\u2019 leadership camp in Chicago.<\/p>\n Teaching kids golf doesn\u2019t require PGA certification, says Evans.\u00a0 In fact, any adult who knows the sport\u2019s basics can work with children, if only because kids are the greatest students.\u00a0 \u201cEverything that we adults take for granted,\u201d he adds, \u201ckids think is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n With younger children, Evans suggests starting by showing them the five things a golfer should have in their pocket when getting ready to play, and what it\u2019s used for.\u00a0 Kids, he\u2019s found, are fascinated to learn how to put a tee in the ground and balance a ball on top.\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re intrigued to learn why golf balls have different numbers on them, and get a kick out of personalizing a ball with a mark that readily identifies its owner.\u00a0 Scorecards are invariable considered cool.<\/p>\n \u201cTake them to the putting green an have them keep track of strokes,\u201d says Evans, \u201cwhile explaining the difference between par 3\u2019s, par 4\u2019s and par 5\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 The fourth item in the pocket is the pencil for writing down their scores.\u00a0 And finally there\u2019s the coin for marking a ball.\u00a0 On the putting green, he adds, kids get quickly obsessed with marking balls while taking turns putting.<\/p>\n On the way to the driving range, explain about the different parts of the course and describe what people are doing, such as why they’re yelling \u00a0\u201cFore!\u201d\u00a0 Evans recommends teaching a swing without putting down a ball, having the kids repeat a basic back-swing, through swing and balanced follow though.\u00a0 Then, put a tee in the ground and have them try to knock it out of the ground with the club, which will encourage a strong and downward swing.\u00a0 Explain what a divot is, and that it\u2019s OK to make them.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce a kid can knock a tee out of the ground five time a row, put a ball on the tee and watch what happens next,\u201d says Evans.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n Director of Fun and Entertainment<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I found really interesting, and something that you just don\u2019t see in that many other golf programs, was the ratio of girls to boys,\u201d reflects Evans.\u00a0 \u201cAt least 40 percent of the participants were girls and we may even be close to a 50-50 split.\u00a0 My best guess for a reason is that many of the girls came in groups, which eliminated the intimidation that a lone girl might feel at a male-dominated driving range.\u201d<\/p>\n As 1000 1st<\/sup> Swings participation grew over the summer, Evans managed to get additional sets of clubs from U.S. Kids Golf.\u00a0 Used clubs were also donated, and more than a few grandparents dropped off $600 worth of checks to help fund the program.\u00a0 News of it began to spread through radio interviews, newspaper stories and mentions on blog sites.\u00a0 \u201cAn older gentleman I didn\u2019t recognize, and who wasn\u2019t in our database, came up to thank me and say how excited he was to bring in his granddaughter,\u201d recalls Evans.\u00a0 \u201cShe was six years old and a lefty, and he didn\u2019t have equipment for her.\u00a0 He wanted to show her the course and \u2018this golf thing grandpa always talks about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Folks in the golf industry who know Brandon Evans aren\u2019t surprised by the success of 1000 1st Swings. \u201cHe is very passionate about golf and also fully understands the business side of the game,\u201d says John Sheehan, a sales and marketing manager with TapIn Solutions<\/a>, a firm that helps golf courses design and manage websites and other online operations.\u00a0 \u201cHe has a very strong vision of where he\u2019s taking Village Greens.\u00a0 For example, many courses rely on photos in their websites.\u00a0 But Village Greens isn\u2019t scenic like a Pebble Beach or Arizona desert course.\u00a0 So, their website emphasizes leagues, outings, instruction, events and special deals – – creativity that\u2019s very much Brandon.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, while he\u2019s formally the general manager, the title on Evans\u2019 e-mails is Director of Fun and Entertainment.<\/p>\n Although more than 1,100 kids have now taken their first swing at Village Greens, Evan\u2019s is not yet sure how many have actually come back to play the course.\u00a0 A good many have taken up the offer of three free buckets.\u00a0 \u201cBut we tend to recommend that beginners go to nearby Zigfield Troy,\u201d explains Evans, \u201ca great par 3 course that\u2019s much easier to play.\u201d<\/p>\n There are psychological rewards in starting a youth-oriented program that\u2019s as successful as 1000 1st<\/sup> Swings, including some that are unusually personal.\u00a0 For Evans the latter came when Eddie Smith, the son of the neighbor back in Plano – – and who lives an hour-and-a-half drive from Woodbridge – – heard about the program and signed up his two young children.\u00a0 \u201cI was introduced to golf by a well-meaning neighbor and his son,\u201d says Evans with a laugh.\u00a0 \u201cOur program is now allowing him to introduce his<\/em> kids to golf.\u00a0 So in a sense it\u2019s come full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a loop that will continue, when Village Greens at Woodbridge starts hosting its next program at the beginning of this summer, called 1000 More First Swings.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the transition,\u201d says Evans, \u201cbefore we go for 10,000 First Swings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"