New Year, New Programs.

First Tee is moving to Age-Based programming. What does this mean and how will it affect your child?

• The strong recommendation to move to this structure results from research done by experts in youth development and sports psychology, as well as feedback from coaches, parents, and kids.
• Participants strongly prefer being with their own age group and the chance to be in classes with their friends, and to make friends within their own age group.
• Kids will learn more from programs designed appropriately based on their cognitive development.
• We will no longer use levels (PLAYer, PAR, Birdie, Eagle) to determine placement.
• Students will register and be placed in a program based on their age. Tri-Cities age groupings will be 7-9, 10-12, and 13+

More info on age-based programming

Introducing Little ~ Big League: our new Adult-Junior League that works on your schedule. Play any course, any time and upload your score on our site.

The league regular season will run from April 1st to July 31st, with the playoffs and championship in August through October. Keep an eye out for registration, opening March 1st!

First Tee Fundamentals: Length of Motion

If you ask most people how they control their distance, they will usually say "hit it harder or softer." This is partially true, but we need to change the way golfers think about this aspect of the game.

For example, if your club head travels a total of 24 inches, and you use the same tempo, the ball will travel about the same distance whether you use a driver or a putter. Keep in mind that a driver has a longer shaft than a putter, but we are talking about the distance the head of each club travels. 

In the end, we are really talking about club head speed. The farther the club head travels, the more speed it can build up. So, the primary factor for distance control is swing length. 

A good method for visualizing this is the clock system, where your hands represent the hands of a clock. Practice the clock system with a variety of clubs in order to improve your distance control.

The Science of Golf: Agronomy