The First Tee Certification

The First Tee wants everyone who completes The First Tee program to have acquired basic golf skills and to be able to demonstrate certain fundamental life skill concepts – such as interpersonal communication and the importance of rules and etiquette. At each level of the program – PLAYer, Par, Birdie and Eagle – participants will work through a Certification Process and an evaluation of participants’ understanding of and ability to apply the golf and life skills relative to the level of the program. The primary objective of the Certification Process is to ensure participants have been exposed to core lesson material and have a basic grasp of the concepts and skills. Participants will complete a given number of golf and life skills lessons, and play a certain number of rounds on a Chapter course. They also will demonstrate and/or discuss core life skills and basic golf skills for instructors, who evaluate their performance. Certification assessment is an opportunity to reinforce those concepts. The process is designed to provide additional assistance to those who need help in certain areas while advancing other students to the next level to acquire more life skills. If someone is having difficulty with an aspect of the assessment process, instructors will help review the material and let him or her try again. Each of the assessment and evaluation forms state the specific score required to pass the golf and life skills sections at the PLAYer, Par, Birdie, Eagle and Ace levels. The assessment and evaluation for life and golf skills is done at the same time so participants understand that their life skills are as important, if not more so, than their golf skills.