Some Well-Deserved Recognition

[00sportsman]

A HUGE shout-out to First Tee of Naples, Florida and Lipman Family Farms, a local produce company.

The following pictures are of a golf practice area that was built at Immokalee High School in Immokalee, Florida.  The project was funded by First Tee of Naples with a major donation from Lipman Family Farms.   Immokalee is a rural farming community with a large migrant farm worker population and golf isn't really part of the culture in the community.  There aren't any golf courses nearby and our golf team members often have to travel a pretty fair distance just to practice.   This will give our teams the opportunity to practice without the travel and provide an opportunity for some of our other kids to get some exposure to the game.   While it's not the same as playing on a course, it certainly provides much greater access to the game for our kids.

This is a relatively wide-angle of the entire practice area.

Three hitting bays.

Elevated putting green.

 

I understand from the Athletic Director that there is also a donation of embroidered golf bags with new sets of clubs on their way for our golf teams.  If you saw the cobbled-together sets that our teams play with, you'd understand what an incredible improvement this will be. 

There hasn't been much press or fanfare surrounding this as yet (mostly due to COVID issues), but I knew if anyone would appreciate what was happening in Immokalee, it would be the folks here at MGS.  

Now for a launch monitor or two for the staff kids to practice with,

[PMookie]

This is so awesome! Someone should share this with the USGA, PGA of America, and even with Tour players to see if they’d provide some additional funding. 

[sirchunksalot]

That is awesome! It's wonderful to see Lipman Farms and the First Tee doing this for the kids in your community and it is a great way to introduce kids to this game. 

[jddaigneault]

This is awesome. First Tee is a fantastic program. I never turn away donations of clubs to the high school I coach at because, even though it’s a big time commitment (and often involves many conversations with widows about their late husbands which taking the time to do means the absolute world to them), I know that the First Tee will cut down the clubs and put them in the hands of some kids. Absolutely love that program. 

[revkev]

This is so cool - it looks even nicer than when you were describing it for us on the course the other - of course I haven't hit a series of terrible shots prior to looking at these as I had prior to your telling us about it so everything looks better to me today.

 

I hope and pray that your community enjoys this facility and is thankful to its donor for years to come!  It's a remarkable gift.

[Shapotomous]

FANTASTIC!!!!!  

One thing i'd suggest from experience helping coach our local HS team.....put some padding on those 4x4's in the 3 bay hitting cage to soften the ricochet's!!      It was amazing to me how they could miss a 3' target in the middle of the net but could hit a 3.5" post and send a zinger back at them!     

[Jedaigeki]

That is super amazing. 

 

Hopefully the community will appreciate it and I'm sure they will make great use of it. 

[tony@CIC]

A HUGE shout-out to First Tee of Naples, Florida and Lipman Family Farms, a local produce company.
The following pictures are of a golf practice area that was built at Immokalee High School in Immokalee, Florida.  The project was funded by First Tee of Naples with a major donation from Lipman Family Farms.   Immokalee is a rural farming community with a large migrant farm worker population and golf isn't really part of the culture in the community.  There aren't any golf courses nearby and our golf team members often have to travel a pretty fair distance just to practice.   This will give our teams the opportunity to practice without the travel and provide an opportunity for some of our other kids to get some exposure to the game.   While it's not the same as playing on a course, it certainly provides much greater access to the game for our kids.

This is a relatively wide-angle of the entire practice area.

Three hitting bays.

Elevated putting green.
 
I understand from the Athletic Director that there is also a donation of embroidered golf bags with new sets of clubs on their way for our golf teams.  If you saw the cobbled-together sets that our teams play with, you'd understand what an incredible improvement this will be. 
There hasn't been much press or fanfare surrounding this as yet (mostly due to COVID issues), but I knew if anyone would appreciate what was happening in Immokalee, it would be the folks here at MGS.  
Now for a launch monitor or two for the staff kids to practice with,

What a generous gift from the family. These are the kind of 'good news' stories that don't get much press. Hopefully the tv stations picked up on it.

Thanks for sharing.


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[00sportsman]

FANTASTIC!!!!!  
One thing i'd suggest from experience helping coach our local HS team.....put some padding on those 4x4's in the 3 bay hitting cage to soften the ricochet's!!      It was amazing to me how they could miss a 3' target in the middle of the net but could hit a 3.5" post and send a zinger back at them!     

I got a chance to share this with the AD today and he was in full agreement that it was something to pay attention to. Apparently no one thought of it in the development or construction stage. He can definitely see one coming back at a kid. Thanks for bringing it up.


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[Shapotomous]

10 hours ago, 00sportsman said:

I got a chance to share this with the AD today and he was in full agreement that it was something to pay attention to. Apparently no one thought of it in the development or construction stage. He can definitely see one coming back at a kid. Thanks for bringing it up.


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

It was the same here, while building them nobody thought about the bad shots until we saw one come back out of the cage!   I think they ended up using a few pool noodles slit longways and tacked to the posts.  They did the vertical posts at the net end and the one along the ground as there were quite a few worm burners being hit.