First Tee to continue Hood River program this fall

HOOD RIVER — First Tee, a nonprofit youth development program, is bringing life skills through golf to Hood River. The program, led by Gorge residents Craig Ortega, Desi Zeller and other golf coaches in the area, started this July at Indian Creek Golf Course and will continue this September for kids ages 7-11.

“The purpose of First Tee is personal growth, leadership, and learning life skills through junior golf,” said Ortega. “The feeling is that if we can get golf in front of the kids when they’re young, then hopefully they’ll carry it on to adulthood. But it’s about the life skills; that’s a lot of the focus.”

First Tee in Hood River came to fruition after Ortega and Zeller spent some time at a Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour event in Portland last summer, where they met a coach involved with First Tee. Ortega and Zeller said that they began talking with the coach about the logistics of bringing First Tee to Hood River and soon realized it was possible. Then, the two helped bring it to life.

“We started meeting last year with Indian Creek,” said Ortega. “Desi talked to some golf coaches, and then we also talked to Dr. Kyle House, son of Jerry House. The Jerry House Youth Golf Association was established in Jerry’s memory, and his belief was that everybody should have the opportunity to play golf. So, Kyle has helped fund this through his dad’s association.”

After securing the location, funding and coaches, the program launched its first event at Indian Creek this July. The program held two classes over six weeks, with a maximum of 12 kids per class and will continue that in the fall. Ortega and Zeller said the class sizes are kept small to ensure one-on-one instruction and mentorship with coaches. Coaches include: Zeller, Tamara Rogers, Keri Meyer, Mary Ortega, Chuck Thomsen, Kristen Talamantez and Alex Yangos.

“This is the first year we started our first spring program here,” said Ortega. “It took about six months for us to get completely organized with the program directors and secure funding and all the business for 2026. We now have to support the program ourselves in 2027 via fundraising and kids signing up for the class.”

Another thing about First Tees is that it isn’t cost-prohibitive. While there is a price to attend the event, if a kid can’t afford it, they won’t be turned away. Also, the money raised by the program is used to pay for scholarships for the kids, equipment, and to help sustain itself.

“This program is a 501c3, and it is set up so if you go online and you register, and you don’t have the means to pay for the class, there is a scholarship form you fill out,” said Zeller. “If you can pay $30, that’s fine. If you can’t pay the $139 for the class, it gets waved via filling out that scholarship form.”

First Tee has two six-week events coming up, with one starting on Sept. 17 and the other on Sept. 20. Zeller said that they will be doing spring, summer and fall sessions, so be on the lookout for other future events. Classes can fill up quickly, so if parents or kids are interested, they should sign up as soon as they can.

For more information or to sign up, visit the First Tee website and the First Tee registration window.