Walmart First Tee Open: ‘A Perfect Blend’ (Part #1)

August 30, 2008

It’s not often junior athletes get to experience what it’s like to be a professional athlete. But in the Walmart First Tee Open that’s exactly what happens.

It’s not quite playing in the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League or National Football League.

But for the fifth straight year, 78 junior players from around the country are competing with 78 Champion Tour players who are vying for the $315,000 winner’s share of the $2.1 million purse.

While the pros compete individually, they’re also paired with a junior golfer (age 14-18) in a simultaneously held pro-junior competition. It’s believed to be the only major sport in which juniors and pros compete together.

The tournament has co-title sponsorship from Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. The First Tee National School Program, launched in 2004, introduces children to golf and to core value programs.

Junior contestants are selected based on life skills knowledge and golf proficiency, with emphasis on life skills. But the tournament also has a surprising irony. While the junior players collectively describe their experiences with varied superlatives, the pros are often more excited competing the juniors.

John Cook, who first began playing at Pebble Beach as a young amateur in the 1970s, is playing the Walmart event for the first time.

“When my son Jason was growing up, we played a lot of golf, so I got to know a lot of about junior golf programs,” said Cook. “But it wasn’t around when I was a junior. So it’s going to be a fine experience to play with them and see how they progress on what arguably is the finest golf course around. I know it would have been for me. I would have to have had the opportunity to do this when I was a kid.”

Posted in Golf Tournaments