Pebble Beach Is Hosting Another Coveted Pro-Am This Week, With an Eye on Future Stars

Juniors from First Tee programs play with PGA Tour Champions players at the Pure Insurance Championship, learning life lessons along with on-course tips.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — For 20 years, the annual Pure Insurance Championship’s unique format has teamed up PGA Tour Champions players and amateurs from the business world with First Tee youth participants, playing the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course.

The 80 juniors who get the invitation range in age from 14 to 18 and are among the most elite in the nationwide First Tee network. With that comes the opportunity to play alongside the likes of World Golf Hall of Fame members Ernie Els, Mark O’Meara and Vijay Singh, as well as three-time Pure Insurance Championship winner Kirk Triplett.

The competition among the pros is as intense as any other week on Tour, but here they also get the chance to act as mentors and ambassadors.

PGA Tour Champions pro Mark O'Meara watches play alongside First Tee juniors during a Wednesday practice round :: Janice Ferguson/Sports Illustrated

“The First Tee kids are great kids with bright futures, and I think they understand a little bit more about life and what it takes to succeed," said Steve Flesch, last year's winner. "If we can help them understand that you’ve got to work hard, stay in school and just be persistent, I think that’s one of the greatest lessons we can give these juniors. They all have great heads on their shoulders and they’re so much farther ahead of when I was their age.”

The teens compete for the pro-junior males and female titles. A total of 44 First Tee chapters are represented with players from as far away as Morocco, with 45% girls and 47% ethnically diverse. A cut will be made before Sunday's final round to the low 24 juniors.

The week kicked off on Tuesday evening with a pairings party, then Wednesday the juniors attended an event featuring Peter Jacobsen, LPGA pro Cristie Kerr, PGA Tour winner and short game instructor Parker McLachlin, and PGA Tour Champions president Miller Brady.

Thursday, six lucky juniors participated in a putting clinic at the Pebble Beach Academy led by Mark O’Meara. Also, Pure Insurance surprised participant Aditi Balakrishma from First Tee-Tri-Valley in Pleasanton, Calif., with the news she’ll be invited to the First Tee Scholarship Program, which provides a dedicated mentor, professional development opportunities and up to $20,000 in financial support over four years.

A sea of junior golf bags prior to the Tuesday night pairings party :: Janice Ferguson/Sports Illustrated

The tournament tests the First Tee players' level of play as well as the life and leadership skills they’ve learned from the program’s core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgement.

While meeting Mark O’Meara for a special outing on holes 17 and 18 at Pebble, a group of boys all took off their hats before shaking his hand.

“We learn etiquette both for on and off the golf course,” said Sebastian Velasquez, 16, from the First Tee chapter in El Paso, Texas. “Mr. O’Meara is a golf legend, so, yeah, you take your hat off and show him the respect he’s earned.”

Desmond Brannigan is the proud father of 17-year-old Sarah from the First Tee of metropolitan New York, who has been passionate about golf since she was 6. “Golf is Sarah’s haven,” he said. “We drop her off at the golf course and that’s her happy place. She’s even writing to colleges about her golf story. She gets good grades, volunteers, is well-spoken and she’s a role model now to other kids coming into the program.”

Sarah would like to play golf after high school, but also study computer science and then attend law school with the intention of practicing intellectual property law.

Mark O'Meara, a five-time winner at Pebble Beach in his PGA Tour days, perhaps best summed up the week: “When you look at the First Tee program and how these young individuals are our future leaders, whether they become professional golfers or not, the experiences they’re having this week here at the Pure Insurance Championship Pebble Beach are going to last a lifetime.”