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 The Starting New At Golf (SNAG) program introduced to physical education classes at McKinley in 2002-03 has become the First Tee National Program and includes 130 elementary schools nationwide. “The whole concept is to get golf into the elementary schools,” said Mike Miller, who started the program with Phil Mickelson Sr. “The goal is to eventually transition these kids into a junior golf program, with the hard ball, the metal clubs, the whole works.” When Miller, a longtime physical education instructor, first saw a presentation for the program at a workshop, he knew the easy-to-use equipment, oversized plastic clubs and soft balls would be perfect for introducing golf classes to McKinley students. One problem: Miller didn’t golf. Fortunately, Mickelson knows a thing or two about the game, and Miller asked the father of PGA Tour star Phil Mickelson for his advice on whether the program could work at his school. Mickelson, who first met Miller while they were students at Chico State University, endorsed the system and helped adapt it to the school’s needs. Mickelson also gave Miller a cram course on the basics of playing and teaching golf. “There’s all sorts of [point-scoring] targets that make it fun and exciting and interesting for the kids,” said Miller, the 2004 Elementary School Teacher of the Year for the San Diego City Schools District who received $2,000 from the McKinley PTA to launch the program. “I’d tell the students, ‘Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods started playing golf at your age.’ The kids liked the program, the parents thought it was great, the PTA thought it was great.” Miller and Mickelson, who were the best men at each other’s weddings, support the idea of using physical education classes to plant the golf seed for future generations. “Golf can bring them excitement, fun, camaraderie, business relationships — all of those things are built around golf,” said Mickelson, who also runs The Mickelson Group, a business that makes the Sportscope. The McKinley students use two types of golf clubs: one for putting and the other for chipping, pitching and the full swing. Students score points by shooting at cone targets — called a “flagsticky” — made of Velcro-like material. When the ball hits the target, the cone “snags” it — and the student scores. “You see their arms go up in the air and they jump up and down,” Mickelson said. McKinley PTA member Deanne Cervantes said her 10-year-old daughter Rachel has been thrilled with the golf classes. “She has gotten a lot out of them,” Cervantes said. “She tells me, ‘I know how to hold my golf club, I know the grip to use and how to swing the golf club.’ She loves to go to the driving range with her dad now.” Students at McKinley come from varying economic backgrounds, and Cervantes said that many of the students in her daughter’s class would never “get a chance to hold a golf club if it wasn’t for this program.” Miller is retiring at the end of this school year after 40 years in the field, the last 13 at McKinley. But he won’t be slowing down. Miller will be at McKinley’s fourth annual PTA golf fund-raiser at Cottonwood at Rancho San Diego on January 23, and also this month will be hosting the First Tee National Program training workshop for the 19 selected schools and their physical education specialists in the San Diego City Schools District. “I can’t think of a finer teacher and a finer group to give it a go,” Cervantes said. For more information on the golf fund-raiser, call (619) 204-9022 or visit www.mckinleypta.org. To learn more about the First Tee program, call (904) 940-4300 or visit www.thefirstteensp.org. PHOTOS BY EDDIE MEEKS |
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