GolfGuide

Backstories Abound at the Nature Valley First Tee Open in Monterey 

By Andrew Hidas 

Golf tournaments come and go, and then come around again, if they’re lucky. If luckier still, they develop a “brand identity,” in today’s marketing parlance, that distinguishes them in some unique way and ensures their ongoing popularity not only among golfing aficionados, but the general sporting public, too.

Well, the Nature Valley First Tee Open has branding identity to burn, a story to tell about hope and perseverance and investment in youth and the goodwill of a gaggle of accomplished golf pros who put this singular event on their calendar each year for reasons far beyond the lures of fame and another good payday. Where else do 81 Champions Tour players get matched up with 81 junior golfers aged 15-18 in a 54-hole Gross Best Ball format, in which the juniors are drawn from areas and circumstances where golf and its many character-building qualities are generally underexposed?

The answer to that question: Nowhere else. Which is why the place to be come July 3-8 for scintillating golf with a backstory the length of a Russian novel will be the Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Del Monte Golf Course. That’s when these famed Monterey Peninsula courses will share hosting duties as the Nature Valley people (granola bar makers extraordinaire) kick off their second-year sponsorship of this now 9th annual event.

The First Tee is a Florida-founded (1997) organization that has now grown to 750 locations and has served to introduce and foster the character-andskill- building game of golf to some 6.5 million youth across all 50 states and six international venues. The program is unabashedly idealistic in promoting time-honored “Core Values” that lead off with “Honesty” and “Integrity,” and which thus set the tone for all First Tee events. Luckily for golf fans, this event includes the coming together yet again of just 81 of those 6.5 million youth with their PGA pro partners. (Another 162 hand-picked amateurs round out the field.)

Make no mistake: this is great golf, and for the pros who have their own head-to-head tourney within the pairing up with juniors, it’s a prestigious affair. Hale Irwin, Gil Morgan, Ben Crenshaw and Craig Stadler are among the past winners; Mark O’Meara, Tom Lehman and Fuzzy Zoeller are back for another try. Add in the celebrity star power of First Tee boosters and tourney chair/co-chair Clint Eastwood and Arnold Palmer, and you’ve got the makings of some dazzling summer days in one of the earth’s true garden spots.

Enhancing the allure is the fact that the Nature Valley First Tee Open goes far beyond—or perhaps just deeper inside—the game itself. Its explicit mission is to foster intangibles of character and to give deserving kids a boost up the sometimes long twisting ladder of life. This lends it that invaluable tone of “perspective,” of something more going on than great golf in a pretty locale.

A search through tournament archives reveals all: one junior player whose Tutsi tribal family had barely escaped genocide in the Congo, another who had survived a serious case of leukemia. Obstacles of varying heights have faced virtually every other junior player who has proven his or her mettle in overcoming sometimes arduous life circumstances—not to mention qualifying tournaments that got them to Pebble Beach.

That’s just part of the backstory that can warm hearts with all the blaze of a Palm Springs summer afternoon. As for the details: $35 scores you entrance to the entire tournament, with free parking at Pebble and free shuttle to Del Monte. Practice rounds begin Tuesday, the Coca-Cola Champions Challenge goes off at 2:30 Thursday. All players rotate through both courses Friday and Saturday, then fields are split with top qualifiers finishing at Pebble on Sunday, the remainder at Del Monte.

And you know all about the splendor of the Monterey Peninsula. If you don’t, it’s high past time you experience it first-hand. Information: 800-541-9091 or www.thefirstteeopen.com.