First Tee of Austin participants in the 2018 Onion Creek Hickory Classic, all outfitted by Kings Cross Knickers. That’s tournament host Pete League in the center.
By Pete League
The Onion Creek Hickory Classic in Austin, Texas, has annually increased its participation with the First Chapters in the area. This past March, the inaugural Texas First Tee Hickory Championship was held at the club. The team from The First Tee of Dallas took home The Texas Cup, an antique bronze-with-silver-inlay trophy. Play was in two-person scrambles played from the forward tees with hickory-shaft golf clubs, with the cumulative gross score of a chapter’s two two-person teams being the chapter’s tournament score. Each First Tee chapter was asked to send two girls and two boys if possible, but in any case, to send their best players. The FIRST TEE -GREATER DALLAS chapter’s score of even-par 140 put the Texas Cup in their hands for the next year.
In addition to the Texas Cup, awards included gold, silver and bronze medals (all with presentation ribbons), a hickory-shaft golf club, and a signed-by-the-author golf book to all members of the first three teams. All players received a golf book. Former PGA Tour and Champions Tour player Rives McBee facilitated the awards presentation.
This tournament is believed to be the first hickory tournament, anywhere, exclusively for youth, and it was a total success. The energy and excitement displayed by the players, the coaches, and the parents was outstanding! And the support from the players in the concurrent Onion Creek Hickory Classic tournament was way beyond what anyone could have imagined. The 2022 First Tee tournament will again be held at Onion Creek Club on Friday, March 25, 2022. See the Onion Creek Hickory Classic website for more information and registration.
Special thanks to authors Ben Crenshaw, Barbara Puett, Kevin Robbins and Curt Sampson. Each donated signed copies of their books. Gary Proctor, Max Hill, Rob Ahlschwede, and the Society of Hickory Golfers donated hickory clubs. Bill Reed of Des Moines, Iowa, generously provided 20 sets of hickories for the kids’ use.
We’re looking for that kind of generosity again for 2022. Will you contribute one or more golf books so that every kid competing in the 2022 Texas First Tee Hickory Championship may have something of value to take home? For the non-authors among us, well, we all have duplicate copies of good golf books on our shelves.
Will you contribute a hickory shaft club (putters preferred) to be used as an award? John Drake, an Onion Creek member and hickory player, will clean, refurbish, and make playable your former old, tired club and make it a suitable award. Members of the first three teams receive a hickory-shaft club.
Please send books and clubs to me. I will log them in, get them into the right hands, and send an acknowledgement on behalf of the Hickory Golf Association of Texas.
Thanks for your kindness and support.
Pete League
2602 Foxglen Drive
Austin, TX 78704
512-694-9904