Michael Wheeler, PGA, has created “Alleys to Fairways,” a program that seeks to help juvenile offenders turn their lives around through golf.
Like any other sport, discipline is an integral aspect of golf, requiring players to get back on their feet quickly after taking a mulligan in order to stay in the game.
Michael Wheeler, PGA, Director of Instruction at Bellewood Golf & Country Club in Pottstown, Pa., took this central disciplinary tenet and applied it to the creation of “Alleys to Fairways,” a program that seeks to help juvenile offenders turn their lives around. The hope is to potentially reduce the juvenile recidivism rate by instilling honesty, integrity and friendship through exposure to the game.
“I hope we can help kids get back on their feet after making a poor choice,” says Wheeler, a Maryland state trooper from 2009-2010. “I want them to understand that one choice does not have to define their entire life, just as one shot does not define an entire round of golf.”
The program’s first clinic was held in 2007, under a different name. The event brought about 20 juvenile offenders to a Baltimore church to learn the fundamentals of golf. According to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wheeler learned two years later that half of the participants continued to play golf regularly, while 90% of them did not re-enter the judicial system.
When Wheeler got back into the golf business, he decided to devote more time to the non-profit effort, by organizing clinics, enlisting the expertise of PGA professionals, and seeking out public golf courses that will host the events.
“A few courses have not been interested, for whatever reasons, but most have been very welcoming of the program,” says Wheeler, who adds that he has a few Pennsylvania properties lined up to host the clinics next spring.
Wheeler reaches out to probation officers to get kids involved in the program, and is planning to invite local judges and district attorneys to the events so they can see the program first-hand. After the initial clinic, probation officers arrange practice times for the kids at participating golf courses on an ongoing basis.
“My desire is to help the community, [as well as] the criminal offenders who need another chance,” Wheeler says.
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