Six brand new sets of golf clubs and push carts sat in front of the Northwest girls golf team like presents on Christmas morning. The girls took photos with the clubs, just waiting to remove the headcovers and take some practice swings.
Once they did, the smiles and enjoyment continued.
“To see them walk up with the clubs and have the oohs and ahhs and the girls just see brand new clubs and see what they look like and what they feel like and that we were chosen,” Northwest girls golf coach Diane Rouzee said.
The Northwest girls golf team was a recipient of six sets of new Callaway golf clubs, six brand new Sun Mountain push carts and will also receive PGA Professional instruction courtesy of PGA REACH Nebraska’s Clubs FORE Youth Program.
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The program started in 2018, and in 2021 they started giving clubs to different schools across the state. This year the recipients also include Blair, Doniphan-Trumbull, Papillion LaVista South, Ravenna and Stanton.
The Northwest girls golf team poses with their new clubs and push carts courtesy of the PGA REACH Nebraska’s Clubs FORE Youth Program on Wednesday, May 29.
“This whole program started in 2018 with the idea of ‘how do we get more girls to play the game of golf?’ We said that one of the biggest barriers is clubs. You look at these clubs and they’re $1,000 each. Parents don’t want to pay $1,000 for kids to try golf,” said Seth Scollard, assistant executive director of the Nebraska PGA. “Schools don’t have the clubs in the schools for the kids to try and so that’s where we’re trying to step in.”
In the backdrop of the gifting of the clubs was Northwest hosting a youth golf camp at Jackrabbit Run Golf Course. Future Northwest golfers, with many in elementary school, went out on the course with current members of the boys and girls golf teams at Northwest, where they learned some of the ins and outs of the game and also course management.
It was a sunny scene with the common Nebraska wind mostly absent.
“Kudos to coach and the girls for not only investing in their program, but you see them out here with these kids and that’s what it’s all about,” Scollard said. “Golf is a lifelong sport, it starts when they’re little itty bitty’s and they can play until 80s, 90s, however long they can play. It’s just great to see them involved in their community because you don’t see that everywhere.”
Rouzee said she was made aware of the program by her husband.
“My husband works at Coca-Cola Chesterman company in Kearney and they have a partnership with the PGA Foundation and I got to go out and witness them having the HOPE program where they had a guy with an amputee and some veterans out there and they were doing that,” Rouzee said. “Dave said have you heard of this program and I said ‘no.’ So we applied and I think you have to apply and apply and apply. When I got the email that we were blessed with the equipment I just screamed in my office.”
PGA Nebraska is based out of Lincoln and a committee goes through the applications. Scollard said that many schools share the same need, being the clubs and equipment, but the selection process also looks at how each coach is growing their program.
Northwest looked to be a great fit with the youth camp and with how many girls participate at Northwest. Rouzee said that there are 22 girls that are trying out and will be on the team in the fall.
Amber Bogle is the PGA WORKS Fellow and was at the presentation. Bogel is 40-years-old, a veteran and Pacific Islander and said she picked up golf a year ago and is happy to see that more people are able to play and access the game through this program.
“We’re trying to expose more people to golf and make them realize that anyone can play,” Bogle said.
The clubs and push carts are not the only things that Northwest will receive. The team will also receive PGA professional instruction in July at Riverside Golf Club with Ravenna and Doniphan-Trumbull.
“They’re going to provide three days where they’re going to do instruction and just have the girls come out and help them with their game, but then also take them out on the course and help them manage club selection, making good decisions and things like that,” Rouzee said.
The program may still be in its early stages, but Scollard said he’s already seeing the impact of it.
“If you go in the fall and you start going to these girls golf meets you’re starting to see all the same clubs and push carts which is really cool to see,” Scollard said. “It’s making a difference, it’s helping their golf game, they’re becoming better, it makes golf more fun when you’re better.”
