Terrell Andrews and Hurman Mathus are your every day dads. When their children take up a new hobby or show interest in a new activity, they’re eager to get involved with whatever it is. However, when their kids began to show an interest in learning the game of golf, they noticed their options were limited.
“It took a lot of searching and calling just to find a program to get them started,” Mathus said. “I didn’t think that it should be that hard to get kids involved and keep them involved in the sport. I figured that if I had trouble, there had to be many others that were in the same situation. That inspired me and Terrell to look into ways of getting this to any child that wanted to learn.”
Mathus was right, there were plenty of children in the Chicago (Ill.) area who were interested in learning the game of golf but had simply never been offered the opportunity. After successfully organizing a golf team at his son’s school, Mathus and Andrews began exploring ways to offer golf programs to more youth in the Chicago area.
“Since my children wanted to learn I decided it would be important for me to learn so that I could help them in any way I could and to support their interest,” said Andrews, who is also a local law enforcement officer. “We discovered there was no open source of beginner’s knowledge at the time that was clearly accessible to the inner city youth.”
Andrews and Mathus first learned about Hook A Kid On Golf (HAKOG) at a local golf course and immediately realized the potential for the program in their community. HAKOG is an instructional youth golf program offered by the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) that emphasizes rules and etiquette along with swing fundamentals.
The easily adaptable format and modified equipment that HAKOG offers provided exactly what they were looking for.
“Our thought was that many of the children are babysat by other programs and weren’t being taught to be course ready by the end of their programs, which left them frustrated,” Andrews said. “This caused children to lose interest and we, as a community, to lose potentially great golfers in the Chicago area.”
To help provide this innovative program to the youth in their community, Mathus and Andrews teamed up to create the South Shore Junior Golf Association – a non-profit organization that strives to offer HAKOG clinics and instruction to inner-city Chicago youth.
So far the South Shore Junior Golf Association has held two HAKOG clinics with approximately 20 participants for each. Two more clinics are already slated on the calendar for this summer, along with a fundraising tournament which they hope will help them to gain community support.
“If we include the two clinics that we’ve already run and the fundraising tournament that we will run, we are hoping to pique the interest of at least 80 children in Chicago and Hammond,” Mathus said.
Although both fathers initially got involved because of their children’s interest, their mission eventually evolved into offering golf to inner city children who would otherwise never have the opportunity to play this great game.
Hook A Kid On Golf is providing these inner city Chicago youth with a way to stay active and engaged all summer, while removing them from situations and influences that could compromise their future.
Along with providing a healthy summer activity for these children, both Mathus and Andrews are passionate believers in the positive life skills that the game of golf can teach youngsters.
“Children learn life skills such as honesty, integrity, respect for others and themselves and confidence,” Andrews said. “They learn critical thinking and how to deal with adversity. It also gives them a sport they can play and enjoy for a lifetime. It doesn’t matter how old you get or how slow you get. Even if you can’t tackle anyone anymore and you can’t run to a base or catch a ball, you can still enjoy a round of golf.”
Even after just two clinics, the buzz around town about the program is really beginning to grow.
“The progress of our kids was simply phenomenal,” Mathus said. “One girl had progressed so well that we put her on our 2009 Chicago Public Schools Skills Challenge team. With her help, we won the Skills Challenge Championships. All of the children want to get better and can’t wait for the summer programs to begin. Parents have come to us for information and want to know how to get their kids to the next level.”
With the early success of HAKOG in their community thus far, Mathus and Andrews intend to keep offering clinics and tournaments that are helping to spread the love of this wonderful game.
“We’re very proud of Mr. Mathus and Mr. Andrews and the initiative they’ve shown in offering Hook A Kid On Golf to local children,” said Katie Gholson, director of HAKOG. “Their story demonstrates how through golf some ordinary dads can do some extraordinary things in their community.”
