Jack McKenna Youth Clinic Invests In Golf’s Future Development

Andres and Angela Garcia spent their Saturday morning hoping to cultivate their golf skills at the Jack McKenna Junior Golf Day clinic, having only recently picked up the sport.

It seemed like a natural fit for the siblings. After all, Spain has already produced one golfing prodigy with the last name of Garcia, a fellow named Sergio who won the 2017 Masters Tournament along with 11 other victories on the PGA Tour.

But it was a fortuitous encounter in the airport in Bilboa, Spain that made the Garcia’s introduction to golf even possible.

Manuel Garcia and his wife, Isabel, moved their family to Chattanooga last fall when he accepted a position with Volkswagen that would locate them here for a three-year stint. After spending Christmas in their hometown of Pamplona, they crossed paths with a young man whose apparel caught their eye.

Sam Espinosa, a senior on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golf team who grew up in Pedrena, was also waiting to fly back to Chattanooga after the holidays. Adorned in blue-and-gold UTC garb, suddenly someone walked up to him and said, “Go Mocs”.

“I was surprised to hear that while I was waiting in Bilboa,” Espinosa said. “But we had a great conversation and they explained they were in Chattanooga for his job at Volkswagen. It was great to connect with them.”

Through the chance encounter, Espinosa was able to share about opportunities for the Garcia children – and parents – to take up golf while living in Chattanooga.

“We do a lot of skiing in Spain as a family,” Manuel Garcia said. “Here there aren’t those opportunities, so Sam told us about golf. This is something we want to do as a family while we are here.”

Andres, 13, and Angela, 12, began attending classes through the First Tee Chattanooga program, and the family is pursuing membership at a local club where they can learn the finer points of golf together and their children can participate in summer clinics.

“I think this is a good plan also to meet people and connect,” said Manuel Garcia, who has been with Volkswagen for 23 years. “There is the social part of the sport that is very important for our family to build connections.”

The Garcias were among the 106 attendees at the free clinic held at the UTC Player Development Center. The event began in 2012, honoring its namesake who had passed away the previous year. McKenna devoted more than five decades to instructing junior golfers, both at Valleybrook Golf and Country Club and as owner of The Academy of Golf of Chattanooga he operated in Hixson.

The men’s and women’s golf teams at UTC along with the coaching staffs conducted a series of instructional stations over the course of the morning, teaching the aspiring golfers some basic skills in hopes of stoking an interest in the game.

The workshop is supported by other local PGA professionals along with the First Tee program and the Tennessee Golf Foundation.

“This is an opportunity for these players who are competing at a high level at the university to come out and give back, remembering when they were back in the same spot first learning the game,” said local TGF director Lamar Mills. “Someone did this for them that got that passion going, so we want to give them the opportunity to give back to the next generation of golfers.”

The clinic offered different stations for chipping, putting, and working on their full swings on the driving range. There was also a long-drive demonstration from a few of the UTC golfers and an awards ceremony, followed by lunch and a free goodie bag.

“When you think about the impact that Jack McKenna had in this community, and you listen to all the folks that are out playing now that talk about how he got them started in the game, we wanted to continue his legacy,” Mills said. “We had kids that showed up here today that didn't have golf clubs, so we put clubs in their hands for the first time and they had fun. That’s the impact we hope this day had on them.”

Perhaps the next Spanish golfing phenom, joining the ranks of Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, John Rahm and the aforementioned Sergio, will trace the roots of his or her success back to their time in Chattanooga.

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Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com