Club Golf Team by Mason

Club Golf Team by Mason - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

About two years ago, I was unable to obtain a spot on my universities golf team. I was devastated, not only because I really could have really used the scholarship money, but because golf was my entire life. Southwest Florida is one of the biggest golfing areas in the entire world, filled with the snowbird who migrate down in the winters to their country club homes, where they can continue to golf until the snow thaws in their home states. This being said, golf has become extremely expensive in the southwest Florida area where my university presides. Unable to make the college golf team, and unable to pay for the expensive golf rounds on my tired college budget, I did not know where to turn.

After countless hours of research, I found the club page hidden in our universities webpage. As I continued to read I found a club paintball team, rugby, and even quidditch, but not signs of golf. I meet with the club team’s director and spoke with him about setting up a club golf team, and he was very ecstatic to help. I started by making social media pages for the team, posting ads all around campus to find a startup team to compete. I also researched and emailed all the other club golf teams in the state of Florida. By the spring of 2014, I had created a competitive university club golf team.

As the founder and President, I was under a lot of pressure to be able to find us a golf course where we could practice for free. University club team rules states you have to create and compete the club team for two years on student funding to receive university funding. How was I supposed to find a golf club that would allow eight college student practice at their facilities for free? After plenty of meeting with local clubs, and a lot of laughing in my ace by country club professionals, I thought of a great idea that could possibly get our club golf team a place to practice, and host events at.

My idea was simple, the only reason that other country clubs would not allow us to practice on their course, is because we would cause to much wear and tear on the grounds, and not be paying any fees. My thought was to create a deal where our club golf team would walk the course grounds with divot tools, sand, and trash bags and repair the golf course a couple times a month, in exchange for playing privileges on the course. This did not go so smoothly on the first country clubs I pitched it to, but it worked on one, and that is all we needed.

A few weeks later, we were practicing three times a week in the afternoon with our fully functioning club golf team. We kept to our words and hand the whole team walk all 18 holes three times a month and repair any damages created by members, or our team. Within a few months, the results were amazing. The members, and the club employees could see the course becoming more beautiful the more we did our repairs. One club member was even so impressed, he donated money to our club golf team, enough for us to get uniforms!

Today, we are still with the same country club where we practice and repairs their facilities three times per month. We received funding from countless organizations and club members to allow us to compete all over the country. We also were able to start up a volunteer program, where students who are not involved with the club golf team can join us in repairing the golf course, and receive service learning hours to go towards the 80 required university volunteer hours to graduate.

All in all, starting the club golf team was one of the hardest, and most rewarding things I have ever done. I am graduating this semester with a major in Legal Studies, and hope to attend the best law school that I can be accepted to. I have passed on the torch to another great student, who I am sure, will do even greater deeds with our club golf team.