Youth Golf Academy to Open in July

Inspired by Tiger Woods, city parks officials announced Wednesday they will open a golf academy for city youth next month in Griffith Park.

The Tregnan Golf Academy at Coolidge is set to open July 10, providing city children with the chance to take lessons on three practice holes and a driving range.

The facility, on the site of the old Coolidge pitch-and-putt course, also includes a clubhouse with classrooms. Instruction will include golf merchandising, club repair and greens maintenance.

Parks Commission President Steve Soboroff said the idea for the $2-million academy came partly out of a conversation he had with Woods more than a year ago on how to give inner-city kids more access to the game.

“It is using golf as a [way] to introduce these kids to a better kind of life,” said Soboroff, a candidate for mayor. “It is significant because we have this huge void in our after-school programs.”

About 100 high school, middle school and elementary students can visit the academy daily, officials said. Instruction will be provided by the Los Angeles Junior Chamber’s LPGA-Urban Youth Golf Program.

“Especially following all of the PR involving Tiger Woods, young people in the inner city, in poor neighborhoods, are interested in golf,” said Leroy Chase, a parks commissioner who heads the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley.

“To see the sport on television and read about it but not be able to do it, it’s almost like a punishment,” Chase said.

The project was privately financed by donors, including the United States Golf Assn. and a foundation set up by David Price, chairman of American Golf Corp.

The academy will provide a boost to the city’s sometimes dismal five-year effort to introduce more underprivileged children to golf.

The Times reported in 1998 that the city’s Junior Golf Program was mired in problems, with only a few dozen children participating at just one-tenth of the city’s eligible recreation centers. Many of the $75,000 worth of golf clubs and balls the city purchased were kept in a warehouse.

The new academy, named after the late golf-booster Marty Tregnan, will allow 500 to 1,000 children annually to participate by providing a dedicated facility for young people to learn the game away from the intimidating regular courses, officials said.

Boys and girls over the age of 6 can sign up for the academy at their local recreation center. The $25 annual fee provides classes one day a week for 15 weeks. Arrangements can be made for children who cannot afford the fee, said Ellen Oppenheim, general manager of the city Department of Recreation and Parks.

The city will provide transportation to the academy from the recreation centers, plus equipment and organization of team play, she said.

The academy features three practice holes, a 15-stall, 175-yard driving range, practice bunkers and putting and chipping greens. Direct enrollment in the academy for Saturday classes is available for $50 per year.

The pent-up demand for youth golf programs was created in large part by the phenomenal success of Woods, Chase said.

Chase said he plans to make good use of the new facility for the 2,000 young people involved with his Boys & Girls Club in Pacoima and expects youth from South, Central and East Los Angeles to also put the facility to good use.

“A lot of these young people can’t get on a golf course now,” Chase said. “Sometimes it’s because there are no golf courses in their communities. Sometimes it’s because of their age. This is an exciting opportunity for young people to partake in what they have been seeing.”

The deadline for the summer classes is June 23. Information can be obtained by calling the city at (213) 485-4853.