Whenever I get the chance to raise money for First Tee, I get pretty excited. When that opportunity requires me to spend a week at Pebble Beach, I get even more excited. So when I was asked to be the social media host for the Pure Insurance Championship Impacting First Tee, I was approaching record high levels of enthusiasm. I ran some quick math on the exhilaration ratios and came up with a number of 124.5 on a 50 point scale. As far as made up math goes, even Bryson DeChambeau would agree that these are wildly impressive numbers.
The Pure Insurance Championship is not your normal stop on the Champions Tour. The event selects 81 juniors ages 15-19 from First Tee to play alongside the tour professionals at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. Potential participants are nominated by their local First Tee chapters and the official decisions were announced on July 6th 2021. It’s pretty much like winning the lottery for these youngsters. When I was 15 years old, I was excited just to play a course that had raked bunkers. I am not sure I would have survived a round of golf at Pebble Beach. I was thrilled to watch these kids get the opportunity of a lifetime at such a young age.
The iconic 7th hole at Pebble Beach
In addition to being the social media host for the event, Pure Insurance offered me an opportunity to raise some money for First Tee. The idea was to get folks involved by encouraging engagement on social media using the #PUREpebble hashtag. The plan was simple. Each action on social media had a corresponding donation that Pure Insurance would make to First Tee upon completion of the event. Our goal was $10k
Comment - $1
Retweet - $5
Scrolling mindlessly on your phone - $0
We warmed up the event by posting some teasers to get our numbers rolling. It was gonna take some work to get up to $10,000. Early excitement was palpable. The Instagram gang was off and running!
The best part about visiting Pebble Beach for a golf tournament is that you are going to need practice rounds. Every First Tee participant got a practice round on Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. The smiles were ear to ear as the youngsters got their first glimpses of golf paradise.
Before the official tournament began it was time to start a new tradition with the inaugural playing of The Match. In an ode to the ongoing Ryder Cup, Pure Insurance created two teams and hosted a competition on the newly unveiled short course at Pebble Beach, The Hay. It was Team Peter Jacobsen Vs Team Jeff Sluman. Vegas gave the edge to Jacobsen, but only by .0001 percentage of one tenth of one percentage point. It was undoubtedly going to be a nail biter
Peter’s reaction to learning the Vegas odds for The Match.
Team Jacobsen was up early, then Sluman was up big, then more Sluman, then Jacobsen. The Match was so up and down that I got a pretty good case of motion sickness just from photographing the event. It almost made perfect sense that the match resulted a dead locked tie at the end of regulation.
The final winner was going to be decided by a sudden death closest to the pin playoff on the 57 yard first hole. Each team put forth their captain to hit the shot. Tensions were high and sweat began to form on Sluman’s brow as he stepped up to his golf ball. The pressure had its effect on Jeff and he barely found the back of the green, leaving the door wide open for Jacobsen.
Peter was a train wreck of emotions as he stepped up to hit the game winning shot. For a seasoned professional like Peter Jacobsen, a shot like this was the equivalent of hitting the broad side of the barn with a softball from 20 feet away. However, the Match does weird things to people and he missed the green completely. Sluman and his teammates celebrated with enthusiasm as Jacobsen shook his head in disbelief.
While The Match was good fun and games for everyone involved, it was time to make a special surprise announcement that would change the life of one junior golfer. In a surprise ceremony, Jacob was awarded the PURE Insurance Scholars scholarship from the folks at Pure Insurance. In addition to a world class experience, Jacob will now have the resources to change the trajectory of his life.
Jacob had no idea that he was receiving this scholarship but he welcomed the surprise with class. Peter Jacobsen, Jeff Sluman, and PURE Insurance CEO, Ross Buchmueller presented the gift to the youngster.
The magic exists in abundant doses at Pebble Beach.
"We need more access to the game, we need to make sure that whoever wants to play the game can get a set of sticks." @macklemore is the man.@PUREFirstTee @ChampionsTour pic.twitter.com/NhcWry4TEq
— Patrick Koenig (@PatrickjKoenig) September 23, 2021
To kick off the official tournament, Grammy award winning rapper, Macklemore, made sure that the junior golfers headed to the first tee with with a head full of some seriously hot raps.
He made good on his pledge to support junior golf and First Tee, by putting on a free concert for the kids on the evening of the first championship round.
The raps came fast and furious as the junior golfers ate it up. The chaperones looked on quietly while nodding their heads and sipping their wines. I joined the kids and rap danced it up.
The next morning, the sun rose over Pebble Beach and it was finally time to tee it up for the Pure Insurance Championship. 54 holes of competitive golf would be played over three days at Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach Golf Links. Even though this was an official PGA Tour Champions event, it feels like much more. Many of the professionals involved stated that this is the very best event that they play all year long. With junior golfers and the First Tee present it feels like you are actually making a difference in the future of the game.
Without a doubt, this week will impact the lives of each of the the 81 kids involved like nothing else. This experience is something that these kids will remember and cherish for a lifetime. The best part is that you don’t even need to hear it from the kids themselves, the huge smiles on their faces tell you everything that you need to know.
Almost all of the professionals involved in the Pure Insurance Championship go out of their way to help the kids from the First Tee. From helping with a read on a putt, or providing a line of play into the green, every little bit goes a long way with these kids.
The short 4th is where the action really gets going at Pebble Beach
As a treat for those that like to get up early, The Pure Insurance folks and I put together a very special #PUREpebble series called Mornings With Mark. With 5 victories at Pebble Beach, Mark O’Meara is often referred to as The Prince of Pebble and he’ll probably even turn his head if someone mentions the Duke of Del Monte Forest. One thing is for certain, Mark is a pleasure to chat with.
In accordance with the Mornings with Mark bylaws, all content was filmed and published prior to noon PST.
One of the best parts about the game of golf are the friends that you make along the way. I ran into a lot of friends during the week of the Pure Insurance Championship, but nobody quite like Jordan Thomas. I met Jordan in Nashville and had the opportunity to play golf with him. Afterwards, I was so inspired by his story, that I wrote a little piece on him for my site.
Jordan Thomas chips on the 17th green at Pebble Beach
Retief Goosen surveys First Tee play with approval.
With only three days of competition, the golf tournament comes to a close before you even know it. In this instance, KJ Choi was storming down the stretch with a substantial lead. Like a true champion, he made par after par as the #PUREpebble pressure mounted. Nobody stood a chance to catch KJ. After tapping in for a par 5 on the 18th hole, the tournament was his.
With juniors and amateurs also participating in the event, there was more than one piece of hardware to hand out. KJ’s was by far the heaviest, but the smiles were just as big on the amateur side.
PURE’s Head of Member Experience Matt Schreibeis & his partner, Sr. Managing Director at Risk Strategies Company Steve Pincus take home the PRO-AM win
Rocco Mediate poses with his new friend and First Tee Boys Champion, Colin Vineberg.
Matt Ginella interview the First Tee Girls champion, Sydney Craven.
I know what you are thinking... “That’s a fantastic ending and all, Patrick, but what about the $10k for all of those comments?” Well, we came up a bit short. The final answer lies on Pebble’s putting green and in the Instagram clip below.
In addition to all of the funds raised by the tournament, PURE was able to donate another $200,000 to First Tee. While the sun may have set on the 2021 Pure Insurance Championship, I will look forward to another sunrise in 2022 with 81 more fresh faced and wide eyed junior golfers.
