Herbert Lowe USGTF Member Bronx, NY

Growing up in Jamaica, I realized the advantage of a good education and was fortunate to complete my graduate work in psychology at Columbia University. I moved to New York's South Bronx neighborhood ten years ago and have witnessed its growth from a burned out haven for drug dealers to a prosperous diverse neighborhood with market places and a palpable sense of dignity.

One of the things I am very proud of was becoming involved with the Boys & Girls club in this community. I created a golf program for underprivileged kids. I started taking groups of kids to Mosholu Golf Course, an oasis of green within the harsh concrete of the city. In fact I went a little further and became involved with their every day lives. I learned which schools they went to, what they did with their free time, who the troublemakers were and who went home to no parents. I became a counselor, a father figure and a friend to all of them. I believe my lessons in golf and in life have had a profound everlasting impact.

I also incorporated a summer camp component to the program, where kids were able to leave the city and travel to rural western Massachusetts to receive golf instruction from other USGTF Teaching Professionals. These trips not only help develop their golf games but gives them an opportunity to see that their lives don't have to be confined to New York City.

Many of these youngsters are starting to improve in school, are holding regular jobs and striving toward prosperous lives outside their immediate surroundings. I feel that golf has taught them that their lives hold unlimited possibilities and that they all have the potential to overcome any societal obstacles that they may invariably face. I am very proud of them. Thank you USGTF for giving me this opportunity.

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