Groshart, Meng capture 2023 First Tee National Championship titles

Megan Meng and Cooper Groshart of San Luis Obispo, California, won the girls and boys divisions of the third annual First Tee National Championship at Stanford Golf Course.

The event brought together First Tee’s elite golfers for an opportunity to showcase how the program has helped build the strength of character needed to play at the next level.

Meng, a 16-year-old senior from Pennington, New Jersey, has been involved with First Tee for more than 10 years. She finished the 54-hole tournament 5-under to win by five strokes. In the final round, Meng shot a tournament-low 66 – including a front nine 30 – to secure her victory.

In 2022, Meng won another marquee First Tee event, the PURE Insurance Championship pro-junior title, a PGA Tour Champions event held at Pebble Beach, shooting a 64 on Sunday. Meng is committed to play golf at Northwestern.

“Practice makes better, and practice definitely gets you where you want to go, so it’s all about how much time you’re willing to put in practicing on the course, but also make sure to have fun with it. Golf is a game for fun and spending time with your friends,” Meng said.

Groshart, 18, finished in the top 10 at the 2021 and 2022 First Tee National Championships before winning in this, his third and final attempt. He finished the tournament 4 over after shooting a final-round 71. Groshart recently graduated from San Luis Obispo High School and will play golf this fall at California State University, East Bay.

Like Meng, Groshart played at the 2022 PURE Insurance Championship, where he hit a hole-in-one on the iconic seventh hole during a practice round.

“This week I’ve just made a ton of friends and seen old friends I don’t get to see that often,” Groshart said. “This tournament feels like everyone is friends. Everyone is out here for a good time. We want to play some good golf too, but it’s a bunch of friends hanging out on the golf course.”

Both winners were awarded the Tattersall Cup in honor of event chairman Fred Tattersall. Two players from the First Tee National Championship field were also awarded a one-time exemption into the PURE Insurance Championship Impacting the First Tee, held at Pebble Beach Golf Links Sept. 16-24, 2023.

With this year’s national championship winners having already played in the tournament, the exemptions were passed to Alaythia Hinds of First Tee – Greater Sacramento, who finished second among the girls, and Sean Kwok of First Tee – Tri Valley,…