Golf Academy for Children to Open at Griffith Park

Inspired by Tiger Woods, city parks officials announced Wednesday that they will open a golf academy for city youths 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.

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

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 about 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 school 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 and head of the Boys and 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.”

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.

It will boost 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 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.

Boys and girls over the age of 6 can sign up at their local recreation center for a $25 annual fee that 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, 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 and Girls Club in Pacoima and expects children from South, Central and East Los Angeles will use the facility too.

The deadline for the summer classes is June 23. Information is available at (213) 485-4853.