No pressure: First Tee kids deliver splash-free opening shots
Putting a couple of high school kids on the first tee, surrounding them with hundreds of fans and dozens of cameras, then asking them to hit a golf ball sounds like a recipe for disaster.
But it didn’t faze Aiko Benford nor Samuel West, participants chosen from the First Tee of Metro Atlanta. They earned the right to hit the ceremonial first shot, the HOPE Tee Shot, to begin the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
And as they stared down the 510-yard par-4 hole with the pond in front of the green, they shared the same thought.
“I just didn’t want to hit it in the water,” said Benford, a junior at Druid Hills High School.
“At least it doesn’t have to go straight,” said West, a senior at the Drew Charter School. “It just has to clear the water.”
Both cleared the water without a problem, saving honorary caddie Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, the indignity of reaching in the bag for a ball retriever.
The students earned the right to hit the opening shot by surviving an intense selection process that included an essay, interviews with tournament leaders and a golf competition. Both also received a $10,000 scholarship from Accenture, twice the amount promised.
Benford has been a First Tee participant for eight years. She has finished among the top four of the DeKalb County high school championships for the past two years, including a second-place finish as a freshman.
West has been involved in the First Tee since he was 7 — after his father saw him roll in a long putt on the practice green one morning — and has played competitively since the eighth grade.
“See what I get to work with?” said Jenae Jenkins, the executive director of First Tee - Metro Atlanta.
Tom Cousins remembered
The opening ceremony also included a video tribute to Tom Cousins, who bought East Lake Golf Club and redeveloped the surrounding area, creating a model known as “Golf with a Purpose” that is being duplicated around the country in area with similar circumstances.
Larry Gellerstedt, who introduced the video, spoke warmly of Cousins, who died July 19 at age 94. Gellerstedt is chairman of East Lake Golf Club and former chairman and CEO of Cousins Properties.
“When haven’t I known Mr. Cousins?” Gellerstedt said. “And it was always ‘Mr. Cousins,’ even though he tried to make me call him Tom. What a great man.”
Cousins was instrumental in helping bring the Tour Championship at Atlanta. East Lake has been the permanent home of the tournament since 2008.
‘Preferred lies’ for first round
The heavy late afternoon thunderstorms from Tuesday and Wednesday caused the PGA Tour to play the first round under “preferred lies,” more commonly known as lift, clean and place.
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
