First Tee – Silicon Valley’s Adult/Junior Tournament – Mentoring, Fun, and Pizza!

On Saturday, 8/20, 36 participants across all FTSV levels combined with an adult mentor and took part in a fun 9-hole Adult/Junior tournament. Many of our participants paired up with their parent/guardian, and the remaining were paired with a FTSV coach or board member. Thank you to the participants/parents/guardians/coaches/board members for playing. A golf tournament is a perfect opportunity for mentoring to occur because it includes challenging situations, opportunities for growth, self-reflection, and collaboration.  Playing a 2-person alternate shot tournament encourages teamwork, communication, and strategy. We were proud to see all teams bonding and assisting one another.

While much of our FTSV programs are highly structured, mentoring also occurs in the “informal space” of classes and other activities like a golf tournament. Such “informal space” could be when transitioning from one hole to another, down time, and during other non-structured activities. In this case, we had a post tournament pizza award ceremony where everyone hung out together and ate pizza under the sun. It is in this environment where bonds are formed that mentoring is especially reinforced. We enjoyed having everyone together and hope everyone else did too!

Each division (Par, Birdie, & Eagle/Ace) was quite competitive as seen in the scores below. All of our young golfers truly have bright futures ahead of them.

Results

Par Division:

  1. Justin & Taddy Guo: 38
  2. Edwin Sanchez & Tanner Arrizabalaga: 40
  3. Wyatt & Wayne Doiguchi: 42

Birdie Division:

  1. Ben & Brent Hughes: 35
  2. Jesse & Joey Jang: 35
  3. Sebastian Hernandez & Steven Pan: 37

Eagle/Ace Division:

  1. Tristan Hipolito & Lorna Llamas: 38
  2. Salma Rivera & Chris Moreno-Hunt: 39
  3. Leonardo Villegas Luiz & Frank Wilde: 41

Long Drive Winners:

  1. Victor Kotlyar (Par)
  2. Erik Chavez (Birdie)
  3. Tristan Hipolito (Eagle/Ace).

Closest to the Pin Winners:

  1. Benjamin Hughes (Birdie) had a contest best 7 ft 4 in away from the hole!
  2. Tristan Hipolito (Eagle/Ace) won his division as well, meaning he triple medaled in the all of the competitive course contests!

In summary, it was a special day at Rancho del Pueblo Golf Course. Thank you to all the families and mentors that were able to hangout before and after the awards ceremony, helping to further build our sense of community and family in First Tee – Silicon Valley.

If you missed this tournament, please be on the lookout for our next pre-season tournament on November 12th. We will be organizing a golf tournament where the participants are paired with the Stanford and Santa Clara Golf team members. We host (4) pre-season tournaments throughout the year, which offers participants competitive opportunities in a fun environment. Please click here to learn more.