A Vacant Lot Transformed into a Gateway for the Game Reprinted from Golf Journal October 01, 2001 By United States Golf Association   Drive west out of downtown Milwaukee on State Street, and the office buildings and trendy restaurants are quickly replaced by the gritty facade of the inner city. The demographics of the near north-side neighborhood are sadly predictable: 93 percent minority, 73 percent single-parent families and more than 70 percent children. The average annual income is about $11,000. Golf is not among the activities one would expect to find in the neighborhood, but there it is, an oasis of green surrounding a handsome brick clubhouse at the intersection of 16th and State. It’s not a mirage. Wedged onto a one-acre tract of land that was once a trash-strewn vacant lot, the Bridging The Gap Golf Learning Center stands as a testament to the power of community and the spirit of cooperation. The learning center, located next to a gas station and just south of a public housing project, is the first of its kind in the nation: A neighborhood place for children to be exposed to golf smack-dab in the heart of the city. There are other urban facilities, but they are in or near parks, somewhere in their cities; they do not stand within the areas they hope to touch. “When we built this, we weren’t quite sure how it was going to work,” says Steve Quale, executive director of the Golf Foundation of Wisconsin (GFW). “We weren’t sure if it was going to be effective from a teaching standpoint or if it was going to be the kind of facility that would allow kids to have fun. It has been an absolute success.” Bridging The Gap has outdoor chipping and putting greens, a netting-encased full-swing area with 12 stations to hit from and a roomy clubhouse with computers and classroom space. Since the center opened April 19, more than 800 neighborhood children, most of whom had never held a golf club, have attended various programs overseen by Evan Hewes, a PGA of America professional and the facility’s director of golf. “I watched them when they built it,” says Patricia Brown, who lives a block from the center. “It’s good they put it up there. In this neighborhood, it gives the kids something other than the playground. Two of my kids tried it and they liked it.” All the programs are free to kids -- adults are not allowed unless accompanied by a child -- and 75 percent of the participants during the summer first visited the center with local groups, such as the boys and girls clubs, scouts or Special Olympics. In basic three-day programs, kids learned about the game’s history and etiquette. They also learned grip, stance and swing fundamentals. If they like the experience, they come back and learn more. Some of the center’s students became proficient enough to compete in par-3 tournaments. “It’s amazing,” Hewes says. “Kids have no fear once they want to do something. It’s really impressive. Especially when they hit a ball for the first time. It’s an amazing reaction.” The center serves as a gateway to the game. Free transportation is provided to area par-3 courses and events such as the youth clinic at the Greater Milwaukee Open. At the center or through other GFW programs, children can buy clubs and play local courses for $1 each and receive free balls. Nearly 100 youngsters signed up for Bridging The Gap’s intensive caddie-training program; by the end of the summer, about 20 were working at private clubs in Milwaukee. “Most importantly, I think all of the kids that were here enjoyed themselves,” says Quale. “They learned some great life skills and they developed something they never had the opportunity to do before. That’s what it’s all about.” The center was built largely because of two men: Quale, a skilled fund-raiser; and Robert Byrd, the founder and president of the Bridging The Gap School, a choice school for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Byrd became hooked on golf at Marquette University. A Chicago native, he played on Marquette’s 1977 NCAA championship basketball team, and founded the school with teammate Ulice Payne, now a prominent attorney in Milwaukee. “I’d been watching that corner for 10 years,” Byrd recollects of the vacant-lot-turned-golf-center across the street from his school. “I always thought there was a possibility that golf could go over there. Everyone said, “Robert’s a nice guy, but ...’ I was thinking outside the square. I thought it was an opportunity to get kids involved in a sport they normally wouldn’t have access to, and provide an opportunity for Bridging The Gap School. “I thought it was a good fit. I talked to Ulice about it, and he put me in touch with Steve. I remember telling Steve, “We need to bring the game to the kids." Soon, Quale and Byrd had drawings for a proposed learning center that would include netted hitting stations and artificial greens. They showed the drawings to Herbert V. Kohler Jr., president and CEO of the Kohler Co., who built Blackwolf Run, the site of the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, and Whistling Straits, named as host to the 2004 PGA Championship. “I pulled out this picture and said, “Now this is the corner of 16th and State,’ “ Quale said. “Mr. Kohler gave me this look, like, “I know where that is.’ I went in thinking it was going to take an hour, because I really needed money for this thing to fly. After about 45 seconds, he said, “It will happen.’" The lot was provided by the city under a lease agreement at the cost of $1 a year for 20 years. Kohler Co. donated about $200,000 toward construction of the $450,000 facility. The Forest County Potawatomi Foundation donated $100,000 to underwrite program costs. Other major contributors were the Variety Club Children’s Charities ($120,000), Greater Milwaukee Open ($115,000) and the USGA Foundation ($50,000). It was the USGA’s fourth grant to a GFW program since 1996, when it provided $10,000 for equipment and to expand participation. In total, the USGA has provided five grants worth more than $112,000, including nearly $20,000 at the start of 2001 for caddie training. “From my perspective, it’s really nice to see some of the grants that we give benefit programs locally,” says James Reinhart, a first-year member of the USGA Executive Committee from Mequon, Wis., who now sits on the USGA Foundation Grants Committee. The Golf Foundation of Wisconsin was one of the earliest existing groups to affiliate with The First Tee Program, the umbrella organization developed by the USGA and four other leading organizations in the game to bring golf to minority and economically disadvantaged children. Bridging The Gap and four other GFW facilities were designated as First Tee sites. “It’s a glorious day for Milwaukee,” Joe Louis Barrow Jr., The First Tee’s national director, said at the center’s opening ceremony. “To be able to take this model and replicate it all over the country will help us accomplish the true mission of The First Tee, and that is to take golf to the communities, where the kids are.” Quale admits that Bridging The Gap would not have been possible had Tiger Woods not come along. “When I first started at the Golf Foundation, I know the programs we did for inner city kids met with limited enthusiasm,” he says. “It was like, yeah, we’ll show up, but don’t tell anyone we’re playing golf. Tiger has made it acceptable, especially for minority kids. Golf has always been deemed a sport for stodgy white guys. And all of a sudden, golf is cool. Today, you see kids from a neighborhood like this walk in with a sparkle in their eye, saying, “I want to be like Tiger.’" One of those kids, 14-year-old Alciro Deacon, epitomizes the center emphasis. Deacon knew next to nothing about the game before enrolling in the caddie program. In his first season, he was promoted to A-level caddie and attended a leadership camp in Green Bay. “He’s already won a couple of college scholarships and is in the running for an Evans scholarship [given by the Western Golf Association to prospective college students],” says Quale. “That’s an incredible opprtunity for a kid who probably never could have even thought about going to college." Deacon has fallen in love with the game. “I had an excellent experience this summer,” he says. “At first, I didn’t know about golf and appreciate it, but now I do because I understand it. It’s challenging and it’s fun.” Quale says the center hit its programming targets for the first year. The goal is to expand in 2002, but without losing sight of its purpose. “We can put probably 1,500 kids [a year] through this facility, if we want to treat it like that,” Quale says. “But this is not a numbers game. This is about impacting the lives of kids in some way. Having kids come here for three hours and whack balls and then shoving them out the door and counting them up on a tally sheet is not accomplishing what we want to accomplish. What we really want to do is give kids the opportunity to become golfers. That’s a process. This is the start of that process.” Quale points to the fact that the facility has not experienced a single act of vandalism -- not even a broken window -- with pride. “To be honest, that’s really something,” he says. “I think a big part is Robert. He’s respected in the neighborhood. People know that if Robert is involved, the program is here for the right reasons,” Quale adds. “This isn’t something that was put here to make a bunch of rich, white guys feel better about themselves. We didn’t build this to have a bunch of guys in business suits come and hit balls on their lunch hour. We built this for the kids, and we’ve been true to our word.” The biggest challenge will be to secure future funding. By design the center will never be self-sufficient. Annual operating costs currently run about $80,000, Quale says. “Every year, we’re going back to square one and figuring out how we’re going to pay for the upcoming year,” he says. “The ideal situation would be that we could create an endowment that would provide for operating expenses. We haven’t found one yet, but we’re still searching.”