March 4, 2025 | Program Update
Ruth Sword has been a Physical Educator with Charleston County School District for 17 years. She got her start at Malcolm C. Hursey Montessori School in North Charleston and has supported many elementary schools in the area, including Montessori Community in West Ashley, where she’s been teaching for 14 years.
Getting Started with Golf
Coach Ruth doesn’t consider herself a golfer or at least didn’t have any experience playing the sport until 2014. “My oldest son wanted to play, and we enrolled him in a First Tee program. It was a great experience, so I called Bucky about getting involved [in the In-School Program]. I remember him coming here and sitting down in my office. I didn’t know anything about golf… I remember him explaining the difference between birdie, bogey, and par in his excited Bucky way. He set up the whole lesson and stayed the whole day to help me teach it.”
Ruth Sword, Physical Educator & First Tee In-School Program Partner
Ruth has been teaching a golf unit every year since then. She also trains and chaperones a Montessori Community School team for Champions Cup, our annual Golf & Life Skills tournament for elementary students. Her team even won the tournament in 2016. Ruth keeps their Champions Cup plaque in her office and still recalls the students by name who played that year, most of whom are in college now.
Montessori Community School is all smiles after winning Champions Cup in 2016
Non-golfer to golf parent to golf coach and, more recently, a repeat RBC Heritage volunteer—it’s hard to imagine Ruth Sword ever being intimidated by a sport that now occupies so much of her time, but she suspects the overwhelming nature of golf is what keeps most kids (and PE teachers) from giving it a try. She appreciates that First Tee keeps things simple (In-School Program curriculum focuses on using two clubs), and she believes the confidence found in demystifying an unfamiliar game will serve her students well in life, even if they never set foot on a golf course.
First Tee lesson at Montessori Community School introduces fundamentals with two clubs.
And confidence is just one of the Core Values being taught in Ruth’s First Tee lesson plans… “We go over those [Core Values] all the time, even when we aren’t in our golf unit. When students are struggling, I’ll ask ‘how can we use good judgment’ or ‘how can we show perseverance?’ The kids know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Coach Ruth’s students solve a Core Value Challenge at Champions Cup.
A Pathway to Pathfinders
Coach Ruth only sees her students for about 3 hours per week, but that isn’t stopping her from making waves beyond the classroom. Last year, she helped a child tap into life-changing support, information, and opportunities (something we call social capital).
As a First Tee parent and In-School Program partner, Ruth receives (and thankfully for us, also faithfully reads) our monthly newsletters. She’s been following our Pathfinder Immersion Program (PIP), a needs-based golf and STEM enrichment initiative for middle and high school students, since its inception in 2021. When a call for PIP applicants went out, Sword was committed to finding an ideal candidate, but she needed some help… “I only get to work with my classes for 45 minutes at a time so I don’t always know what their home life is like. When I got the email about Pathfinders, I forwarded it to our upper elementary teachers.”
Pathfinders visit local businesses to learn more about career opportunities.
The teachers at Montessori Community develop a unique understanding of their students, both academically and socially. Most students enroll early, around the age of 5. Lower and upper elementary teachers maintain the same students for at least three consecutive years (lower elementary teachers maintain the same students for grades K-3 and upper elementary for grades 4-6). When a new student transferred in at the age of 10 last year, Ruth recalls everyone taking notice. “[This new student] came in quiet… We have a lot of affluent families at Montessori Community, and those kids are busy with summer and weekend activities. [This student] was making friends, but the upper elementary teachers noticed [they] were having trouble with basic conversations about vacations, sports, and interests outside of school.”
The upper elementary teachers suspected some financial challenges at home, but didn’t fully know the extent until they teamed up with Coach Ruth to help the student apply for PIP. “There were a lot of challenges… like transportation. We didn’t want to get [this student’s] hopes up if we couldn’t make it work, so I emailed Coach Johnson. He assured me First Tee could provide a solution… We all cried when [they were] accepted. We were so excited.”
After a packed 6-week summer schedule (Monday – Friday) and a school year’s worth of Saturday enrichment activities, including chess lessons, etiquette classes, a robotics competition, fieldtrips, and playdays at some of Charleston’s most esteemed golf courses, Coach Sword and her colleagues can hardly believe the transformation… “[This student] now has something special in [their] life… something to talk about and look forward to—opportunities they wouldn’t have if First Tee didn’t offer this kind of program.”
Pathfinders visit Charleston Area courses, like Cassique, to work with pros & mentors.
The positive changes witnessed at school are consistent with social emotional surveys administered to Pathfinder Immersion Program participants, in which 71% of students demonstrate achievement or growth in social skills and 79% demonstrate a high level of academic self-efficacy (a perceived mastery over their own learning and academic potential) after program enrollment.
And this is only the beginning… Ruth’s student will continue with year-round golf and STEM enrichment at no cost—meals, activities, equipment, and transportation included—through high school graduation with an extended family of First Tee coaches and mentors to cheer them on thanks to generous community support and teacher advocates like the team at Montessori Community School.
Want to help Ruth’s student and other Pathfinders build life-changing social capital? We will add eight rising 6th graders to the program this summer, and the application window for 2025 is open now through April 14. Make your impact by sharing our application, volunteering as a mentor, or making a financial gift.
By Sara Wright, PGA TOUR
Henry Mentzel was just seven years old when he was first introduced to First Tee. His parents had been searching for some basic golf lessons for their son and stumbled across First Tee — Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Little did they know, this program would end up providing so much more. First Tee would be one of the most influential programs in young Henry’s life and would prove a catalyst for his personal growth throughout the years.
“I have been active in multiple sports throughout my childhood,” Henry explained. “I played soccer, basketball, baseball, just trying to figure out which I enjoyed the most. First Tee introduced golf in a way that allowed me to learn how to play the game, but also taught me life skills that I was able to apply across many areas of my young life. In the end, golf is the sport I enjoy the most.”
Henry is currently at the Eagle level, but it was during his time in the PAR level that he learned a valuable lesson on perseverance and how to succeed in golf by continuing through bad breaks and his own mistakes. This lesson also helped him in other aspects of his life.
“I applied the perseverance lesson in school, specifically, in Latin,” he said. “I struggled to understand the different parts of Latin grammar and the new vocabulary. My school required Latin, so I had to figure out how to persevere through three years of an unspoken language that did not make sense to me. I made a lot of vocabulary lists, agreed to get a tutor, and started staying after school for help nights. After applying myself, despite some not so great grades on assignments, I started making progress and now, in my third year, I have an A in the class.”
Not only do these lessons shape Henry’s life, but they have had a big part in shaping others’ lives, as well. Coached from early on by Tom and Melissa Briner, they not only helped him discover his love for the game of golf, but also gave Henry the opportunity to coach other young golfers at First Tee.
“Being able to introduce my friend Will Abel to the game of golf was very meaningful to me,” Henry reflected. “First Tee has given Will the opportunity to begin to learn the game of golf and me the opportunity to teach and play with him. I enjoy that we now both have another common interest that we enjoy doing together.”
This friendship between Will and Henry was one of the reasons he was recently awarded with the 2020 Heart of First Tee Award. This award given by First Tee — Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky recognizes individuals who embody the “Heart” of the First Tee through giving of time, talent or treasure; by demonstrating and living one of First Tee values; or by going above and beyond to promote or further their missions.
“We are all living in extraordinary and trying times that have tested all of us in ways we couldn’t even imagine nine months ago,” Rosie Abel wrote in her nomination of Henry. “Despite these challenges, Henry – acting upon the values of the First Tee – found a way to make a difference in our son’s life. My son, Will, who has Down Syndrome, is not unlike most sixteen-year-olds — very outgoing, social, and full of energy. But the pandemic has proven to be particularly frustrating for him especially when Ohio shut down in March. His sense of isolation grew as the effects of the pandemic spread.”
“When First Tee classes resumed in the summer, Henry continued to be that go-to person for Will,” Rosie continued. “He supports Will at the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati’s Buddy Walk and even invited Will to play a round of golf with him, knowing that Will was not as experienced as himself. Will is not the only recipient of Henry’s friendship. Many coaches and staff have witnessed his kindness and refreshing take on life, feeling joy in other’s successes. We suspect there are many other people who have been touched by Henry and consider him to be on their “go-to team.”
Henry currently caddies, is a member of HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) and Books For Kids (a club where students write and illustrate a book imagined patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital) he also regularly volunteers with his family at a soup kitchen. During the summer, Henry volunteers in First Tee classes where he is a positive role model for the younger kids in the program.
“The core values the First Tee teaches are very important for kids and teens today,” Henry continued. “I really believe these core values build kids to be better, stronger, and smarter on and off the golf course each day. First Tee also teaches kids social and mental skills on how to interact and bring out the best in themselves and their teammates. First Tee teaches how to set specific goals and, more importantly, what it takes to achieve them. These essential skills help prepare kids for their future and provide tools for success.”
As Henry prepares for his future, one of his immediate goals is to place in the top 10 in one of the golf tournaments he plans to compete in this summer. He is also striving to achieve the A honor role during his freshman year at Walnut Hills High School. His long terms goals are to play college golf and get into medical school.
“First Tee has taught me that to achieve these goals I will need to be confident, honest, and persevere through challenges,” Henry added. “Through this program and the coaches who mentor me, I always feel that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. It has helped me understand that a bad day on the course (or in school or in life, in general) is just that – one bad day. Tomorrow is a fresh start.”