CINCINNATI — Golf is often known as a lifelong sport.
For one recent high school graduate, he started playing the game in elementary school. Now, he’s using his time with a local organization to help get him through college.
What You Need To Know
- First Tee is a national program that focuses on teaching kids the game of golf and valuable life lessons
- Henry Mentzel grew up learning the game of golf through First Tee
- Now, as a recent high school graduate, Mentzel is one just 24 kids nationally to receive a scholarship
- Mentzel is also spending his summer before college giving back to the program that gave him so much
Henry Mentzel has spent a lot of time in his young life on the golf course. While he’s got his shot down now, it took some time, and lessons, to get there.
Mentzel is spending the summer giving back to the program that taught him the game he loves.
“There’s a lot of stuff that I’ve learned through the First Tee and other golf coaches and I felt that the knowledge that I had would be better expressed to some of these kids here," Mentzel said.
First Tee is a national program that teaches kids the game of golf but also life skills.
“Our kids get an opportunity to learn a great game, learn it for a lifetime, be competitive if they wish, and stick around, make friends and apply what they learned on the golf course to their life and goal setting skills," Patty Lusheck Ragio the CEO for the First Tee Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky chapter said.
Mentzel has grown up through the program and this summer received one of the biggest honors the program distributes each year, a scholarship.
“They're kind of describing it, and my heart was racing so fast just because I was super excited," Mentzel said. "But I was nervous because I really wanted it, and I was really hoping I got it.”
Mentzel is one of just 24 kids across the nation to receive the award- and the first ever at the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky First Tee chapter.
“I did not know that," Mentzel said. "So that was a little bit of a surprise as well.”
While Mentzel is not playing the game collegiately, he does plan to try out for the club golf team at the University of Kentucky. But until move-in day, will keep giving back to the kids at First Tee where he hopes to continue to be an example for these kids.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Hard work, persistence, perseverance is all it’s going to take to be great.”
His local First Tee chapter is very proud of him.
“He really has just been what I would call sort of our model participant," Lusheck Ragio said. "So not only has Henry been able to achieve on the golf course, he's been very intentional about his golf career, but he has always given back to our chapter in many, many ways.”
He said the program is what’s made him into the person he is today.
“I always say it's my second family, you know?" Mentzel said. "You know, your parents are always the ones you know, teaching you, building the life lessons, even if you get in trouble. But, similar to that, that's what First Tee has done for me. They've set the bar, set, set challenges for me and then have also taught me how to overcome that.”
The scholarship offers up to $5000 per year for four years of college, provides professional development workshops, and pairs scholars with a mentor.
The 14 young women and 10 young men who comprise the 2024 Scholar class were selected from a pool of 150 applicants. They boast an average GPA of 4.0 and SAT score of 1350.