SHELBY, N.C. — On an overcast Thursday afternoon, well after everyone else has left Turning Point Academy for the day, Jermetris Jackson, putter in hand, lines up a shot from the far end of a practice green. After taking a moment to line up his shot, he swings and watches as his ball just skims past the hole.
Behind him, Erik Smith a therapist at Turning Point Academy, which sits on the western edge of the Charlotte metropolis region, announces “That’s a G,” before stepping up to take a putt of his own.
Thursday’s game of GOLF — similar to the popular HORSE played on basketball courts — was the activity of the day at Turning Point’s new golf instruction program.
On days with better weather, Jackson, Smith and the other five teens in the program would be across the street, hitting golf balls on an unused baseball field.
“We just started in March. We had been talking for a while about something like this that we can do,” said Smith. “Basically we wanted just to provide an outlet for them to be involved with something. A lot of times when they come here they are not able to participate in team sports. We wanted to come up with something they could participate in. A lot of these kids have probably never played golf before, or held a club before.”
The theory behind the club is pretty simple. There are a lot of valuable life skills one can learn from the game of golf including patience, perseverance and discipline. Through teaching the game, Smith, along with Dwayne Friday, a support staff member at Turning Point and coach for the club, hope to impart those skills to students.
“We will go out and hit a bucket of balls and have fun. Then we have to go pick up all of the balls and that is the time you get to have some of those conversations and talk about goals on the course. And through the golf instruction, those other conversations happen about how this relates back to everything else,” said Smith. “So it is less of a sit-down and let’s talk about this, and then you get to go play.”
While their idea was supported by school administrators, Smith and Friday would need some help to get the club off the ground.
That is where Ryan French and his 96,000 followers came in.
French, who operates the Monday Q Twitter profile (@acaseofthegolf1) has made a living from covering professional golf. He also co-manages the Fire Pit Foundation, a nonprofit organization looking to support youth golfers and grow the game by supporting…
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