Chalk Mine 9 Dedication and Grand Opening

Aiken, SC (09/14/2022) — After over 6 years of hard work and planning, The University of South Carolina Aiken (USC Aiken) and the First Tee of Aiken dedicated their new golf facility on Wednesday, Sept. 7.

USC Aiken and the First Tee partnered together to develop a facility that will provide the USC Aiken men's golf team with a practice course while also serving the First Tee of Aiken in their efforts to teach students life skills through the game of golf. The course sits on 40 acres of beautiful landscape located on Gregg Highway and features a driving range, short game and putting area.

The USC Aiken men's golf team was previously practicing at the Palmetto Golf Club. This new course will allow players to further develop and perfect their skills on their own schedule.

The men's golf team holds several national championship titles and consistently outperforms division one teams. With the development of this course, the university hopes to create a women's golf team as well as increase recruitment efforts for their current men's team.

"It's great to be really close to campus and be able to fit practice into our own personal schedules," Gage Weeks, member of the USC Aiken men's golf team said. "Having this facility has made it easy to recruit new players for us and to sharpen our skills as a team."

The ceremony included dedications to Sarah Patterson and Ray Jewell both of whom were passionate about the game of golf and donors to the initiative.

"He'd be ecstatic because he was so passionate about the game," said Liz Stewart, a donor to the program and wife of Jewell. "It was more than a game, he always said that. It's nice to see how it aligned so well with First Tee."

In addition to providing the men's golf team with a practice course, the First Tee of Aiken now has a place to call their own. This new facility gives the students enrolled in the First Tee's program their own practice area and par three course.

"We have a place we can call our own, which is phenomenal," Kristy Wright, program director for the First Tee of Aiken said.

Wright has been with the program for two years and is delighted with the results of everyone's hard work.

"The kids absolutely love the course," said Wright. "It gives them so many opportunities to work on many different aspects of the game."

The First Tee of Aiken works to teach children important life skills and healthy habits through the game of golf. Students enrolled in First Tee's program receive free use of golf equipment and supervised practice privileges in addition to the teaching of important life skills. With this new course, the First Tee will continue to reach generation after generation of children through the game of golf.

"This is for the decades," said Bill Taylor, representative of the Aiken Legislation Delegation. "Kids who aren't even born yet are going to use this and they're going to grow in not only their golf skills, but their character traits."

The USC Aiken men's golf team opened their season on Sept. 12 at the Bearcat Fall Invitational in Augusta, GA and the First Tee of Aiken began their fall sessions on Sept. 13.

For more information about USC Aiken athletics, please visit www.pacersports.com.

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