$
5
If he found one or two, he’d be able to play the next day. He would discover a Top-Flight here, a Title- ist there. Some were scuffed, others were stained, but a ball was a ball. It was there that he learned to play, and gained an appreciation and a passion for the game that would last his entire life. That passion was passed on to his sons Paul and Brian, and when their father passed away in 2001, they wanted a way to remember him and pass on his love of golf. Nearly three years later, key NCGA
T 68 /
NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2016
AND A DREAM
BY ADAM HEIECK
om Morton used to look for golf balls as a kid at San Mateo Muni (now known as Poplar Creek) late in the afternoon.
Foundation leaders Bruce Baker and Michael Hexner approached Paul about a way to provide youth with access to affordable golf. The concept was simple, kids across Northern California could play golf for $5, pe- riod. No more junior rates of $20. No more teaching kids how to play only to have them disappointed when they couldn’t afford the course down the street because it was too expensive. The NCGA Foundation would raise money from private donors, founda- tions and corporations to cover the difference between the junior rate and a $5 (or less) rate for kids. The low cost would increase the frequency of play, which would lead to increased
feelings of accomplishment and a love of the game. The program would be called Youth on Course, but more affectionately known as Tom’s Kids, in honor of the Morton family patri- arch, Tom. And so it began. At first as a pilot
program with one golf course, then six, then 25. One hundred par- ticipants turned into 1,000, and then four times that. The first full year of operation was 2006, and we invested $15,000 subsidizing rounds of golf for a few thousand participants who were also given NCGA membership. To put it simply, the Morton fam-
ily, in partnership with the NCGA, provided the seed money to start what
Youth on Course began with the NCGA 10 years ago. Today it is making a national impact.
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