Jack Jaffe, a high-school senior in Palo Alto, Calif., has launched a charity to collect donated and unwanted clubs and provide them to young players who can’t afford equipment. He has collected over 1,000 clubs and given away 40 sets, with more to be provided through an upcoming flea market.
Jack Jaffe, a 17-year-old who will be a senior this coming school year at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., was recently featured in the San Jose Mercury News for his efforts to recycle and redistribute unwanted golf equipment.
About a year and a half ago, the Mercury News reported, Jaffe began a charity, “Recycled Golf Gear by Jack,” to collect clubs, irons and putters that would otherwise be thrown away, so they could be redistributed to those who can’t afford the equipment.
“I was thinking about how Brazil was going to have the Olympics in 2016 and golf was going to be in the Olympics for the first time in 100 years or something like that,” Jaffe told the Mercury News. “And I was thinking about trying to collect clubs to donate to Brazil.”
In exploring that idea further, however, Jack and his father, Bruce, discovered that Rio de Janeiro doesn’t provide easy access to the sport for the underprivileged, with only one public, nine-hole golf course. So Jack turned his attention locally, the Mercury News reported, using his connections with The First Tee of Silicon Valley to spread the word in search of golf gear to give away to boys and girls.
“First Tee is basically a program of learning life skills through golf,” Jaffe told the Mercury News, pointing to the charity’s focus on nine core values that include honesty, courtesy and sportsmanship. “I think it’s a great way for kids to get involved in golf, but the main focus isn’t really about golf. You kind of learn a lot of skill that you need in life through The First Tee and golf.”
Jaffe also contacted Bob Hoover, an East Palo Alto, Calif. resident who in 1991 established the East Palo Alto Junior Golf Program, in his search for other outlets that could make use of the clubs he has started to collect.
“Most of the kids in our program would not be playing if not for donated golf clubs, because their families can’t afford them and we can’t raise enough money to buy them,” Hoover told the Mercury News. “So we depend on people like Jack to keep us in business.”
With the help of a former student, Hoover can only handle about 60 kids at a time when they come out to Palo Alto (Calif.) Municipal Golf Course, the Mercury News reported. The youngsters begin as early as 6 years of age, and Hoover keeps them until they graduate high school.
The fact that a teenager is helping by donating golf gear came as a pleasant surprise to Hoover, the Mercury News reported. “When he told me he came up with this idea on his own, I thought, ‘Wow, what a very perceptive young man,'” Hoover said. “He plays golf himself and recognized that we were throwing a lot of stuff in the landfill that could be used to make a lot of kids happy. For him to recognize that on his own was phenomenal at his age.”
There’s a limited selection of gear for lefties, kids and women in what Jaffe collects, the Mercury News reported, but he has been able to make the most with what is donated through his ability to judge what clubs will fit correctly at what length before picking out a set for individual children.
“I couldn’t do it. He really knows golf clubs,” his father, Bruce, told the Mercury News. “He can take a donation and he can really sort through it. He knows shafts, so he sees a kid and he tries to match the club to the ability.”
Jack Jaffe keeps the collection of clubs, irons and putters inside a shed that used to be his playhouse. “It’s definitely more than 1,000 clubs right now, and I’ve given away around 40 sets, soon to be more,” he told the Mercury News.
On Saturday, September 13, he explained, he plans to set up a booth for a golf club giveaway at the Palo Alto Flea Market at Palo Alto High School.
“I’ve learned that you kind of have to make some goals for yourself and do some things to keep the project going,” he said, noting that he’s set up a Facebook page under his charity’s name. “I’m always writing thank-yous to the people that donate clubs and sometimes they’ll tell their friends, ‘If you have some extra golf clubs you don’t want, just give them to Jack.’ So I guess making them know that their donation is appreciated is pretty important.”
Jack Jaffe also volunteers Sundays as a greeter at the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford University, and is a member of the leadership council for the Northern California Golf Association’s Youth on Course program, the Mercury News reported.
“It’s pretty new,” Jaffe said of that program. “We’re working on spreading Youth on Course and making it more known to kids around the area. Youth on Course helps make golf more affordable for everyone. There are a bunch of courses in Northern California we can play for $5 after a certain time, and it’s pretty awesome.”
While his first love was soccer, Jaffe began playing golf at 8 years old and entered tournaments when he was 11, the Mercury News reported. His game is accomplished enough now that he will be able to play in The First Tee Open at Pebble Beach this September—a Champions Tour event in which 81 juniors from across the country are selected to play in foursomes with legends of the game, plus two amateurs.
“I’m excited to play Pebble Beach with the pros and meet all the kids from The First Tee from around the country,” said Jaffe, who will be playing at Pebble Beach for the first time.
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