First Tee Breaks Ground For Permanent Facility In Lakewood

Ocean County’s initial permanent First Tee site will be unveiled in a ground-breaking ceremony on Tuesday, October 1st at Ocean County Park in Lakewood.

The First Tee Learning Center at Lakewood will comprise of a three-hole par-3 style course that will serve as the main site fo r First Tee in Ocean County.

Lakewood’s First Tee site will be the sixth under the auspices of First Tee of Monmouth and Ocean counties, which has a permanent site at Colonial Terrace Golf Course in Ocean Township in Monmouth County.

Other affiliated First Tee sites in the two counties are at Suneagles Golf Course in Tinton Falls and Battleground Country Club in Tennent in Monmouth County, and at Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Lakewood and Toms River Country Club in Ocean County.

“This will be a seven days-a-week operation,” said Bob Hodnett, executive director of First Tee of Monmouth and Ocean. “We have been looking for a place in Ocean County where we can attract kids who don’t normally have access to golf.’

The breakthrough came when Wadsworth Golf Charities Foundation, based in Ohio, came through with a grant to fund half of the project. Wadsworth stands behind its Links Across America program that is dedicated to improving communities through the embodiment of the moral, ethical and cultural codes of the game of golf.

The new site is built next to a driving range and shag area at Ocean County Park.

“There was unused space there. We have a pro bono designer, Brian Ault from Maryland. He did an outstanding job fitting three holes on the site,” Hodnett said.

“The hope is to bring hundreds of kids there during the school year and on weekends,” he said. “Mike Attara, the head pro at Eagle Ridge, has really been instrumental in getting this project off the ground.”

Pavelec Brothers of Nutley, who have built the courses at Sea Oak and Eagle Ridge, are the builders of the project.