About Us

We enable kids to build the strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges. By seamlessly integrating the game of golf with life skills curriculum, we create learning experiences that build inner strength, self-confidence, and resilience that kids carry to everything they do.

First Tee – Upstate South Carolina Mission Statement

First Tee – Upstate South Carolina is a nonprofit organization dedicated to impacting the lives of young people in Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Oconee and Spartanburg counties by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices through the game of golf.

Our organization offers programs specifically designed for young people ages 5 to 18 and the organization impacts the lives of over 60,000 Upstate area youth each year.

Employment Opportunities

Employment

Staff, Coaches & Board

Staff, Coaches & Board

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2020 Form 990

2020 Form 990

Why We Do What We Do

Today’s children are growing up in a challenging time:

  • 42,000 young people in the Upstate are unsupervised or are in programs offering minimal enrichment during the critical hours of 3-6 p.m.
  • Over 78,000 young people in the Upstate – one in three – will reach the age of 19 without having had a mentor of any kind.
  • With one in almost five high school students dropping out, academic underachievement or failure is a real possibility for many of today’s young people. Those who do not graduate high school are more likely to be unemployed, to engage in criminal behavior and to require social services.

We address these challenges by:

  • Providing safe places with trained caring adults to deliver programs that seamlessly weave golf and character-building activities into each lesson.
  • Offering lessons that transcend the game of golf, giving young people critical life skills to help them build successful, productive lives and to achieve their dreams.