Scottsdale, Arizona, United States: Former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem led the launch of First Tee in 1997 and has been honoured with the youth development organisation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, its highest recognition.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and First Tee CEO Greg McLaughlin presented Finchem with the award at a First Tee event in Scottsdale.

“Tim worked alongside other leaders in our sport, both with golf organisations and the greats of the game, to help facilitate the establishment of First Tee, which now reaches 3.4 million young people,” Monahan said.

Finchem led the creation of First Tee, which was originally founded to make golf accessible and affordable to all families. The organisation has evolved to teach life skills and strengthen values in young people at 150 chapters, 11,450 schools and 2,000 youth centres across the globe.

“Tim’s leadership in what this organisation has become is immeasurable,” McLaughlin said. “The contributions that he has made to the millions of young people and their families around the country and around the world, as well as to the game of golf, will be felt for decades to come.”

Finchem received messages of congratulations from Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, USGA CEO Mike Whan and LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, as well as prominent First Tee supporters like Arthur Blank, Charles Schwab and Casey Wasserman.

President Bush served as Honorary Chair of First Tee from 2011 to 2024, succeeding his father, President George HW Bush, who was the organisation’s Honorary Chair from 1997 to 2011, and was present on the day the organisation was announced in New York’s Central Park, alongside Finchem.

First Tee will honour Finchem’s legacy through a US$5 million campaign to support an additional 100 First Tee Scholars.

First Tee alumni who are selected for the First Tee College Scholarship Programme receive financial support, access to professional development opportunities and a dedicated adult mentor throughout up to four years of college. To date the programme has served nearly 100 students.

First Tee is an international youth development organisation that uses golf to teach life skills and build values that they carry to all aspects of their lives.