Desert golfer Teal Thron is new CEO of First Tee of the Coachella Valley

When Kyle Winn left the First Tee of the Coachella Valley as its executive director earlier this year to return to the Bay Area to help that First Tee chapter, there was an obvious candidate to take over the position in the desert.

“If Kyle would have stayed and done what he was doing, I would have stayed and done what I was doing, because I knew the chapter was in good hands.” said Teal Thron, who twice before had worked with the desert’s First Tee chapter, once as program director and once as executive director. “When that door swung open, it was like, I’m supposed to come home. That’s where I’m supposed to be.”

Thron, who played her high school golf at Palm Springs High School, is back for a third time at the desert’s First Tee program, this time as the CEO of the chapter, a different title with both new and old responsibilities.

“As a network, First Tee has kind of advised executive directors of larger chapters to move to that title (CEO), because it is a more strategic role,” Thron said. “I’m still out helping at the grass roots In the classes, helping get everything set up. But just to have the time to step away and see what the future is for the chapter. Because there is so much we can do.”

Thron oversees a chapter with about 1,000 kids under the age of 18 involved in activities designed to do more than just teach fundamentals of golf. The program aims to instill life values into the students, values that are passed along through the game, including the nine core fundamentals of honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.

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“We’re thrilled to welcome Teal back to the First Tee Coachella Valley team,” said Lindsay Woods, interim general manager of Desert Recreation District. “Her deep roots in the valley and strong leadership background make her an ideal fit to guide this important program. Teal brings passion, vision and a sincere commitment to kids and families, and that’s exactly what this role requires.”

Thron returns to the First Tee  of the Coachella Valley after two years as part of the national First Tee, serving as director of chapter relations for the west coast chapters. But all long, she felt the pull of the desert and the local chapter.

“I was able to see fairly quickly the gaps and the holes and ways to assist. But as I was learning all of these things, I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh, it would be great is we could just take that home,’” she said. “It would be so great if we could just start something like that in the desert. It just really made me homesick for what we are doing here.”

As Thron comes back to the local chapter, she sees many of the same issues that the chapter faced in her first two terms with the chapter. Even in a golf-centric area like the Coachella Valley, many golfers don’t know the First Tee exists at its home of The Golf Center off Cook Street in Palm Desert, a Desert Recreation District facility.

“You would think in the desert everyone would know who the First Tee is and those golfers at local clubs which are right down the street would know that we are here. And hey don’t know we are here,” Thron said. “So it is a constant battle for the organization as a whole to let everyone know we are here and what we do, that we are working to change young people’s life, to give them a hope and a future and give them the skills to overcome the challenges they are going to face in the future.”

While exposure is one challenge, another is expansion for the chapter. Starting in 2008 with programing just at the Palm Desert facility, First Tee of the Coachella Valley now offers programs at Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort in Palm Desert and The Lights at Indio Golf Course as well as in-school programming. The expansion now requires the chapter to have two program directors, one to oversee the Palm Desert and Palm Springs programs and another to oversee the east valley.

That includes what will be a new permanent home at The Lights starting in November, when the chapter will take over the temporary buildings The Lights are using while a new clubhouse is built. But Thron says even greater expansion in the east valley remains a focus. That could include a permanent First Tee facility in the Coachella or Thermal area, where there have been discussions with people but no firm plans yet.

“There is just a ton of area and space and Indio could feel like a world away from the kids who are living out in Thermal and Coachella. So we need to do better. We need to keep expanding and more,” she said. “To me, it’s keep doing everything we can to be able to serve the young people of the Coachella Valley and until we really are represented in all of the areas where we can help young people, we really haven’t met our goals.”

Thron says the local chapter faces other issues, like a need for more volunteers and golf professionals to help with the expanding programs and establishing more fundraising tournaments and other ways for the chapter fund its programs. For now, though, Thron is happy to be back at her home chapter, once again helps kids interested in golf, just like she was as a player at Palm Springs High School.

“It feels like home,” Thron said. “That’s the nice part. I was able to just jump back in and pick up where we left off and continue the work forward.”