Greg Hansen: First Tee's Landyn Lewis playing out his 'mission' in Tucson

You know you’ve made an impact at The First Tee of Tucson when one of your golfers, 16-year-old Hailey Tellez, will play in Wednesday’s Pro-Am of the PGA Tour’s Quicken Loans National in the Washington, D.C., area.

You know you’ve made remarkable progress when your high school golf prep program offers 12 hours of instruction this week from 2001 U.S. Senior Open champion Don Pooley and by Susie Meyers, chosen as one of America’s Top 100 golf teachers by Golf Magazine.

Progress? It’s when more than 450 Tucsonans register to your program at El Rio Golf Course, which doesn’t count those who participate in First Tee of Tucson programs at Sewailo Golf Club, Forty Niner Country Club, the Rolling Hills Golf Club, Crooked Tree Golf Course and at the Country Club of Green Valley.

“Our goal is to make Tucson an empire for junior golf in the United States,” says Landyn Lewis, the program and life skills director of the First Tee of Tucson. “I have imagined this. I can see it continuing to grow. It’s kinda all over town.”

The growth and success of the First Tee of Tucson was about as predictable as Landyn Lewis becoming its dynamic leader.

I mean, isn’t golf a dying sport? Isn’t it too slow for millennials? Too expensive for most, especially kids?

The son of 1981 Sahuaro High all-state basketball player Gary Lewis, later the varsity basketball coach at Tucson and Catalina Foothills high schools, Landyn grew up in basketball.

“I wasn’t very good in golf; I didn’t start until I was 15,” he says. “I got my first job as a cart boy at Tucson National and worked my way up to the golf shop as a merchandiser.”

Once he dedicated himself to golf, it wasn’t long before Lewis shot 64 and was awarded a scholarship to play at Pima College. “I literally practiced eight hours a day,” he says.

It’s the same kind of commitment that turned The First Tee of Tucson — founded in 2007 — into one of the most significant sports opportunities for boys and girls aged 6 to 17 in Southern Arizona.

“Landyn really believes this is his mission,” says Judy McDermott, executive director of the Conquistadores, who operate the nonprofit First Tee of Tucson. “He doesn’t say no to anything. Everything is ‘yes.’ He really wants to grow the game and believes, like I do, that golf is a game of a lifetime, available to everyone.”

On a hot day in May, Lewis and McDermott, among others, played 100 holes of golf at El Rio, raising about $60,000 for the First Tee of Tucson. It’s an ambitious organization that has created an umbrella under which now operates the historic Ricki Rarick junior golf program, as well as the Southern Arizona Junior Golf Association.

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It’s not a competition-based firm in which you are defined by your score or your golf success.

The First Tee’s 4,000-square- foot clubhouse at El Rio Golf Course, funded by the PGA Tour and the Conquistadores, is more like an academy for lifetime success. For six days a week, you can spend as much time on a computer as on the driving range.

It’s amazing that a bustling and growing organization like the First Tee of Tucson has just two full-time employees: Lewis and Vicky Gonzalez, who is director of participation and volunteer services.

“We found Landyn at Tucson National and arranged to have him volunteer for us at the Crooked Tree Golf Course,” says McDermott. “He did not yet have his PGA accreditation, but we were so impressed that we sent him to Phoenix for training, and he took it from there. He was the one we were looking for.”

Lewis first distinguished himself in Tucson by raising about $45,000 for a Cherry Field memorial for his childhood friend, Chris Moon, a former Tucson High and UA baseball player who died from wounds sustained after he stepped on a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2010. In addition to his First Tee duties, Lewis plans to award college scholarships — Moondog Scholarships — worth about $8,000.

He pours himself into the First Tee program with no less enthusiasm.

“My top priority is making sure everyone knows about the opportunities available to them at the First Tee,” he says. “Not every kid in our program wants to be on the PGA Tour someday. We’re not trying to build the next Annika Sorenstam or Tiger Woods. Our No. 1 goal is to provide a life skills curriculum for kids. This is a learning center, an awesome place for young people to be active and make new friends.”

Golf can be an intimidating game for anybody, especially for those just learning to swing a club. That’s part of the reason the game has been diminished by a lack of play the last 20 years, especially among those in the First Tee’s age range.

Lewis is fighting that; he has been exceptional at making the game more friendly.

“I relate it to when I played basketball at Tucson High,” he says. “I was nowhere near one of the best players on the floor, but I had an attitude that the more I learned about the game, the more I could help the team and the more fun I could have. I’ve translated that to golf, and it’s my passion to teach the kids that golf can be a bridge to life.

“It doesn’t have to be frightening or confusing. It can be fun.”