John Deere Golf Comes to The Rescue of The First Tee of The Palm Beaches

Early one recent Tuesday Morning, First Tee of The Palm Beaches course superintendent Budgie Clark noticed the electronic irrigation unit looked different….like in pieces. “That’s what lightning does to electronics” was the comment from local John Deere Golf distributor SHOWTURF’s irrigation specialist Tim Lovin.

The ten month old Palm Beach County Chapter of the International Youth Development program called The First Tee® was hardly capable of making the huge investment in replacing the damaged unit to run the irrigation over their 15 acre golf course and practice area. “Every nickel we raise goes to maintaining our facility and programming which impacts the lives of children positively while learning how to play golf, the game of a lifetime” says Executive Director and PGA Professional Craig Watson. “Our budget just wouldn’t be able to handle such bad luck”.

Ironically, Watson had been networking with some local Palm Beach County Golf Course Superintendents and preparing some future construction budgets that the facility was hoping to finance through grants provided by The Wadsworth Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps fund construction for “kid sized” golf courses.

John Gallagher at The Polo Club of Boca Raton, David Tandy at Delray Dunes and Harold Davis from Winston Trails took quick control of the situation and contacted the Boynton Beach offices of John Deere Golf: SHOWTURF. As a result of the generosity of Brian Bowles and Richard Stein, both top executives at Showturf, we had a new unit DONATED, installed and running our sprinklers in less than 48 hours.

Watson goes on to say, “The economic conditions we’re in today are making it more difficult for the ordinary non-profit organization to make ends meet. Unexpected expenses have an extra tough impact on the services we can provide. And we’re a new Chapter in a huge growth spurt trying to increase our outreach three fold in the next six months. This incredible sign of appreciation for what we are accomplishing for this community by SHOWTURF and John Deere Golf makes all our efforts worthwhile.”

The First Tee of The Palm Beaches is located in West Palm Beach’s Dyer Park at The Michael B Finnegan Learning Center. The mission of the Chapter is to impact the lives of young people, including those with special needs, by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life enhancing values through the game of golf. As a Chapter of The First Tee®, a division of The World Golf Foundation, Inc. they promote The First Tee’s Nine Core Values™: Honesty, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Respect, Confidence, Responsibility, Persevenance, Courtesy and Judgment. Visit the website at www.TheFirstTeePalmBeaches.org

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