How the Colorado Open Championships Pay it Forward

The national First Tee programming uses golf lessons to impart life skills and help students, and three students who grew up in the GVR First Tee program say the experience was worthwhile.

Adelyn Westfall, 17, a rising senior at Lakewood High School, said she has been participating in First Tee activities at Green Valley Ranch for eight years.

“It is much more of a sense of community and I like how they focused on every student and take what you learn on the course and apply it to the rest of my life,” she said.

The program’s lessons are built around nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment. Looked at from a golf perspective, any player can relate to who those traits apply to the game. But broadened, the First Tee encourages students to extrapolate them and apply them to their lives.

She plays on the varsity girls’ golf team and teaches golf at Applewood Golf Course. She tries to bring to her students the connections that she was taught between the skills required to succeed in golf and those that help in life. “I still try and have it so the kids can enjoy the sport in more ways than one,” she said. She is the daughter of Penny and Lance Westfall.

Jack Clark, 17, who plays on the Northfield High School golf team, stayed with First Tee for 12 years.

“I really enjoy the game of golf and also that the First Tee teaches more than golf which is an appealing part of it,” he said. “(The lessons) stuck with me and applied to my life and waaaay beyond golf. It uses its platform as a golf program to connect aspects of golf with aspects of real life.” He is the son of Michelle and Greg Clark.

Emma Stavely, 17, has worked with GVR’s First Tee program for 11 years and said while her game is not as good as she wishes it could be her enjoyment of the game is.

“I learned more about myself and pressure,” she said. “Golf is fun to be playing regardless of what level I’m at.”

She’s preparing to go to college after high school and study civil engineering and architectural design. She is the daughter of Lynae and Craig Stavely.

All three were selected to take part in national First Tee leadership training this summer. Stavely and Westfall are going to the First Tee Game Changers Academy in Minneapolis for a five-day learning and empowerment academy.

Stavely and Clark are also going to the First Tee Leadership Summit at Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s West Creek Ranch in Montana.