New Florida golf facility through First Tee aims to help young players

IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Bryan Delgado and Dezirray Nunez didn’t get their education on how to hit a driver on a golf course. It was literally in the driver’s education room at Immokalee High School.

The town does not have a golf course, so members of the boys and girls golf teams practiced in classrooms, with practice balls crashing off ceilings, walls and windows.

Tuesday, a new window of opportunity opened.

Through a partnership with The First Tee of Naples/Collier, Arthrex, Inc., and Lipman Family Farms, a practice facility was christened near an open field near Gary Bates Stadium. It features three hitting bays with nets and an elevated putting green made with synthetic turf.

“They had to travel great, great distances to get to golfing facilities, so to bring the golfing facilities right to them, you can’t ask for anything better,” Collier Schools superintendent Kamela Patton said.

“This is a project that provides the opportunity while at the same time eliminating barriers for our Immokalee High School golfing team and students,” Immokalee High School principal Clara Calderon said. “How wonderful that our team will now be able to practice their swing and their putting at home.”

“It’s a fantastic motivator for all of us to get this done,” said Collier Schools executive director Marc Rouleau, who headed up getting the project completed.

For First Tee of Naples/Collier executive director Cindy Darland, it was a project six years in the making.

The First Tee is a national organization that introduces life skills through golf and goes much deeper than learning how to hit a golf ball. The First Tee also educates youngsters on all areas of the golf industry.

When the chapter started coming to Immokalee in 2008 and saw the response, Darland knew something had to be done. Over the years, the chapter raised $100,000 for the facility, with Collier County Public Schools, Arthrex and Lipman sponsoring the project. Each of the three has its logo on top of one of the hitting bays, with The First Tee being on all three.

“If the kids are going to make the commitment, then First Tee needs to make the commitment, and that’s what we did,” she said. “We wanted to bring the facility to them.”

Showing what the possibilities are

Gerardo Lugo arrived Tuesday and smiled as he looked at everything. Lugo epitomizes what can be done through The First Tee, and what having a facility in Immokalee means.

“He’s a good motivator,” Darland said. “He still is to this day.”

Lugo was there when the chapter came in 2008 as one of its first students. He played on the high school golf team and knew he wanted to be in the golf industry, so he went through Florida Gulf Coast University’s Professional Golf Management program to become a club professional.

After internships, he became an assistant professional at Panther Run in Ave Maria. Now he is head professional.

“I think having this practice facility is a great improvement from what it’s been in the past,” Lugo said. “It definitely gives them somewhere to come together and practice and kind of build that camaraderie with each other.

“Having the middle school be able to use it is a great transition over to the high school for the golf team and kind of getting them into it. There are different career paths that you can take with golf, and having this practice facility here and introducing the kids to the game will definitely open their eyes a little more.”

Darland hopes that the facility will help expand not just participation in golf at Immokalee High School and Immokalee Middle School but in the program itself. Immokalee has between 50 or 60 kids, from elementary school through high school, in the chapter.

“Our main goal to bring this facility to Immokalee was to give kids access to golf, access to The First Tee core values and life skills, and access to golf from the careers they can pursue through the golf industry,” Darland said.

Expanding opportunities in the future

The challenges that Immokalee High School prospective golfers faced has played a role in not being able to field a full team in recent years.

The travel time to go to another facility and practice or to play a practice round and then come back was too much.

“For the past six years that I’ve been here, we were always in the classroom, and the ball would just be bouncing everywhere, hitting windows and breaking lights,” said Nunez, a senior. “Out here we don’t have to worry about breaking anything. It gives us more practice time. That was a big issue that was happening — a lot of girls couldn’t travel.

“Now we are here and they can practice, practice, and practice, and they can get better and used to it.”

Delgado, another senior who held up his ball after sinking perhaps the first made putt on the putting green, summed it up best.

“We’ve come a long way from driving in our driver’s education room to driving out here,” he said.