By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | For The Birmingham Times
Chip Thomas, coach of Fore Alabama Kids, the Birmingham affiliate of the First Tee program, walks across a hardwood floor inside a gymnasium at Hemphill Elementary in Birmingham’s Arlington-West End Neighborhood.
After Thomas opens the session with exercise and balance drills, youngsters from kindergarten to fifth grade take turns using plastic clubs to knock tennis balls off a tee. The aim is to open the students’ eyes to the possibility of playing golf. Thomas knows the importance of making that happen.
“Being a Black man, I understand that where you grow up, it is football, basketball, and track. Those are the three,” he said. “Baseball is really not part of the equation anymore. And you get that misnomer, ‘Hey, golf’s not a sport.’”
And, some will say, golf is not a sport for minorities and people who are not wealthy. Thomas combats that errant perspective with hands-on sessions where youth try their hand at the sport.
“The big thing with kids is to make it [golf] engaging,” he said. “They do not want to listen to me talk about how to hold it and how you should swing for 10 minutes. We move around a bit to get them engaged, then let them figure it out once they get their hands on the club and once they understand safety.
“Let them explore a little bit. It is exploratory learning,” he added. “It is discovery-based learning, not directive. When you do that, the kids can find enjoyment rather than being bored. It is more activity-based.”
Many students at Hemphill and other Birmingham-area schools are introduced to golf through the Fore Alabama Kids Foundation.
First Tee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the goal of improving children’s life skills through golf lessons. Based in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, the organization is said to teach more than 3.6 million youth annually through programs across the country and internationally.
Fore Alabama Kids received approval as a First Tee chapter in 2023 during the Regions Tradition, a senior major championship on the PGA Tour. The program launched with four children at Topgolf in downtown Birmingham. Since then, Fore Alabama Golf has had events at Highland Park, Roebuck, Bessemer’s Woodward, and Oak Mountain golf courses.
“We saw 175 on the course through the school program, which is Birmingham City Schools, some Jefferson County Schools, and Hoover,” said Carlos Carter, interim executive director and board chair of First Tee Birmingham, adding that the program has expanded to YMCAs and the Worship Center’s Freedom School, among other locales. “All combined, we’ve served over 10,000 kids annually.”
GROWING THE GAME
While Thomas serves as director of golf for Fore Alabama Kids, he also operates his own golf instruction business – Evolution Golf Initiative.
“Outreach is a big part of what I do,” the 35-year-old said. “I communicate with different schools, different principals, superintendents, whatever it may be. I also converse with (officials at) golf courses. I talk with the head professionals (and) the directors of golf in attempts to get more access to the kids to play the game and also grow it.”
Growing golf should go beyond country club communities, Thomas said. In those communities, fathers and mothers likely play, and their children will likely follow suit.
“What about the kid who has never even seen a golf course? Never even touched a golf club, never even watched it?” he asked. “We say we are growing the game, but why aren’t we in those areas? The reality is that is what First Tee brings — the opportunity to bring (golf) to those (unexposed) areas, get these kids engaged in the game and continue to grow it with life skills through the game of golf.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
You might think a golf coach named Chip Thomas got that name because he is good at performing or teaching a chip, the short, low trajectory shot from just off the green.
If you thought that, you would be wrong.
Born Michael Thomas II, he was nicknamed by his father, Michael Thomas I, almost from birth.
“I’ve been Chip since I left the hospital,” said Thomas. “In the hospital, he sat there and said, ‘I don’t really like it.’ In the hospital, he started calling me Chip, and then it stuck.
“I never touched a golf club. I never played golf until I was 10,” he said. “But Chip was always what I was (known by) before I even played golf or anything.”
At age 8 or 9, Thomas remembers watching the Tiger Woods Show, the era of televised PGA Tour events during which regularly scheduled programming was preempted by Woods making another charge to the top of the leaderboard, usually while wearing his signature red golf shirt. That whet Thomas’ appetite for the sport.
“Just watching Tiger on TV, I wanted to try it,” said Thomas. “I begged (my dad) to take me to a driving range. My dad did not even have clubs. Me neither. We got rentals, and I started hitting shots and just got into it.”
Summers in Shreveport, La., with his grandparents yielded rounds he played with his grandfather. He got involved in a local program in Syracuse, N.Y., and then a First Tee operation.
“Once I started doing these programs and I played golf all summer, I got (my father) to start playing golf,” Thomas said. “My dad was obviously never better than me. That is kind of the fun part. Maybe right at that early stage, he might have beaten me, but I actually cannot recall, to be honest with you.”
But despite being a Tiger Woods fan and developing a deep love of golf, he never considered playing on the Tour.
“I never saw myself as a professional golfer,” he said. “I played in college, and I played high school golf. I love the game. I loved playing, I love practicing, but I love the people more.”
After two years at Grambling State University and then the University of Central Oklahoma, Thomas enrolled in the professional golfers’ management program. That is how he became a PGA member.
“I’ve been a PGA member now for almost 11 years,” he said. “It is a distinction given to those who show player ability. Their mission is to really keep the game growing and thriving. Those are people who become head professionals of golf courses, general managers of golf courses, and, in my case, coach the game in different facets. It simply reflects your professional standards. It is almost like your doctorate in golf.”
For more on First Tee Birmingham, visit www.firsteebirmingham.org or Contact@forealabamakids.org.
