By Alan Bastable, GOLF Magazine, June 2010

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By Rick Tetzeli, TIME

One of the great things about the current drive for rebirth in Detroit is that hope and initiative emerge from the least likely places. Golf is not the kind of thing you expect to thrive in any metro center—and as for the Detroit area, well, you know, golf is reserved for those tony folks outside of town in their country clubs, right?

Not at Marygrove College.

There, a program called called Midnight Golf has proved extraordinarily successful over the last few years. Now, working with the SI Golf Group, nationally-renowned course architect Tom Doak is designing a state-of-the-art practice facility right in downtown Detroit. You can read all about the extraordinary project here.

This kind of stuff surprises me and doesn’t surprise me on an ongoing basis. The national stereotype of Detroit is so ingrained that even after you’ve been covering the place for a while, it still has some force. That’s why I find myself surprised.

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By Alan Bastable, GOLF Magazine

Asking celebrated golf course architect Tom Doak if he’d take time out of his globetrotting schedule to design a practice facility for a grassroots golf program would be a little like asking Frank Gehry to build a tree house for a troop of boy scouts.

We asked anyway.

Three months ago the SI Golf Group approached Doak to tell him about Midnight Golf, a wildly successful youth golf initiative based in a wildly depressed city: Detroit. The program, which operates two nights a week at a local college, employs a lively mix of life-skills workshops, classroom discussions and golf lessons to keep its participants—mostly high school seniors from city schools—out of trouble and on the path to college.

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London, England — Golf has always had the ability to inspire players and fans alike, but now the sport’s motivational qualities are being used to attract and help those on the fringes of the game.

The mean streets of Detroit may not be the first place you would imagine to find budding students of the sport, but from this Michigan base, single mum Renee Fulker hopes to transform the fortunes of deprived, inner-city children across America with the power of golf.

In 2001, with the help of volunteer professionals from the PGA and the world of business, Fulkner launched “Midnight Golf” — a project that provides free “night classes” at two courses in Detroit for children between the ages of 13 to 18.

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South Florida is now the second U.S. location to adopt the Midnight Golf Program, a venture designed to empower underserved youth through the game of golf that began in Detroit in 2001.

More than two dozen midnight golf participants and volunteers will celebrate the formal kick off to the Midnight Golf Program Monday, Nov. 16 at Palmetto Golf Course in Palmetto, Fla. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

Since the program was formed, it has helped hundreds of participants develop the skills necessary to gain admission to colleges and universities and become gainfully employed. In all, 351 past participants now attend 60 different colleges and universities across the United States.

“This program will have an enormous impact on the young people of South Florida,” said Executive Director of Midnight Golf South Florida, Marqus Fisher. “Our mentors, guests speakers and golf professionals will give our teens the tools they need to be more successful in college and in the world of business.”

The goal of Midnight Golf is to provide mentoring and life skills to those who join the program. It helps young people who may not have the necessary support systems to attain educational and life goals.

Life skills are developed by covering a range of topics including: financial literacy, college preparation, college applications, interview techniques, resume writing, public speaking, career exploration, etiquette, networking, investing, spiritual health and giving back to the community.

Golf is used as the vehicle to achieve this social change because it’s a sport that is not accessible to many young people for a variety of reasons, even if they have an interest in doing so. The Midnight Golf Program endeavors to allow interested parties to discover the enjoyment playing golf can create, experience the rewards of hard work and learn the importance of following rules, dressing appropriately and showing courtesy and respect to others.

Click here to learn more about the South Florida Midnight Golf Program.

MIAMI — South Florida is the new home for the Midnight Golf Program, an acclaimed initiative that gained national attention for its unique blend of serving young adults’ personal development, educational preparedness and appreciation for the game of golf. The South Florida Chapter is led by Executive Director Marqus Fisher, with the support of local volunteers, South Florida PGA Section and the Detroit Midnight Golf Executive Committee.

The PGA of America, a sponsor since the inception of Midnight Golf, made a donation of $10,000 to support the program’s instructional curriculum. The donation was announced as part of the formal launch of the South Florida Chapter, Nov. 16, at Palmetto (Fla.) Golf Course, and was attended by participants, PGA officials and volunteers.

Founded in 2001 by Renee Fluker in Detroit, the Midnight Golf Program (MGP) has a goal to provide inner-city youth an alternative to a life on the streets. Through the MGP, participants quickly discover that playing golf is fun, rewards hard work and teaches the importance of following rules, sportsmanship and respect for self and others.

Since its founding, 615 students have participated in the Midnight Golf curriculum, with 425 completing training and 351 students currently attending 60 different colleges and universities around the country.

“The PGA of America has been instrumental in helping to initiate and develop The Midnight Golf Program. The PGA instructors not only teach golf but let the young people know that they are worth the very best,” said Fluker. “We are grateful for the partnership that is helping transform the lives of our young people.”

The South Florida Chapter is the first program under the Midnight Golf Program to open outside of Detroit, and currently has 31 participants. Over the next 20 weeks, the program will teach the students a variety of valuable skills including financial literacy, college preparation and community activism, as well as how to play golf.

Experts from the community in everything from etiquette to banking will also donate their time as guest speakers each week to share their valuable life skills with the students while PGA Professionals provide expert instruction in the game of golf.

“The PGA of America is very pleased that South Florida will mark the next chapter in the success story of the Midnight Golf Program,” said PGA Chief Executive Officer Joe Steranka. “Golf’s inherent life values complement how one treats another off the course and form a major part of the Midnight Golf experience. We anticipate that South Florida PGA Professionals will carry on the great tradition of serving young people in this program.”

… Single mom started Midnight Golf program in Detroit in 2001 to give kids an alternative to street life. Patterned after the city’s successful Midnight Basketball, the golf counterpart starts its program at 5:30 pm with a three-course, sit-down dinner.

Kids learn good manners, golf skills and personal development. A highlight of the schedule is the annual college tour. The trip includes visits to a variety of schools and allows Midnight golfers to experience campus life.

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Click below to listen to the interview with Rene…

BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich. — Many golf fans will come to the 90th PGA Championship this week at Oakland Hills, but few will enjoy the thrill of it more than a selected 60 or so young people Wednesday.

That’s when Detroit’s Midnight Golf participants will be guests of the Charter One Foundation and the PGA Foundation as part of a mentor-for-a-day program.

Some of the kids from past sessions of the seven-year old, inner-city program will walk around Oakland Hills Country Club, take in the practice rounds and perhaps buy a souvenir.

“This will be their chance to see what a real golf course is about,” Reneé Fluker, founder and director of Midnight Golf, said Monday afternoon. “They have never been to a country club like this. Never.”

That’s why Wednesday will be so special. Johnathan McElrath of the 2007-08 class was excited when he found out about the trip on Sunday.

“I had my clothes laid out for the big day on Monday,” said McElrath, who will be a freshman at Western Michigan. “I can’t wait. I want to check out the environment.”

Making a difference

Fluker’s vision of this groundbreaking program was more than just golf. The program is also about college preparation, financial literacy and community activism. To date, it has enhanced the lives of more than 470 young people.

Midnight Golf receives financial support from the PGA of America, five-time PGA champion Jack Nicklaus, RBS/Charter One Foundation, the USGA, Pepsi Bottling Co., State Farm Insurance, and more than 64 colleges and universities.

“This is really the PGA’s opportunity to see Detroit with something positive,” program director
David Gamlin said.

There’s a myth out there that African-American kids don’t like golf. Not true, Gamlin said.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “They love it.”

Foot in the door

The program is not built on some pie-in-the-sky notion of developing the next Tiger Woods. It would be nice if golf had other talented African-Americans competing.

This, however, is about learning golf so it can become a professional asset.

“The stuff we teach helps make these kids be more well-rounded, more professional, a more marketable individual,” Gamlin said.

The program started in 2001 with 12 young people. To date, 304 have completed the 30-week program, which meets twice a week. Fluker said more than 257 kids that have taken part in the program are now spread out among 57 colleges.

“That’s the main thing — getting these young people in school,” Fluker said.

On Wednesday, however, school will take a momentary backseat to golf at its highest level. It will be a day to relax, soak in the atmosphere and record a memory that will, no doubt, last forever.

A unique golf program located in one of America’s roughest neighborhoods is helping change the lives of young adults. Modeled after the Midnight Basketball League, Midnight Golf was founded by Reneé Fluker, a single mother in Detroit who founded the program at the suggestion of her son, Jason Malone, just before he left to attend Loyola University of Chicago.

Malone had played high school golf and junior events, so Fluker was responsive to her son’s suggestion. Fluker, 47, began Midnight Golf in February 2001, and has served as its director ever since. The program seeks to engage inner-city young adults in learning life and career skills through developmental classes, mentoring and golf lessons. Fluker is assisted by three golf pros from the Michigan Section of the PGA – Randy Tylo, Frank McAuliffe and Brian Cairns. McAuliffe makes a 50-minute commute from Ann Arbor, where he’s the head pro at Ann Arbor Country Club, to help oversee the program, now held at the Franklin-Wright Settlement community center in Detroit’s east side.

The program has received support from the PGA of America since its inception; the organization has contributed about $100,000 to Midnight Golf since 2001. In an article in the December 26, 2002, USA Today, Tylo recalls driving to his first Midnight Golf class from Ypsilanti, where’s he’s the pro for Kendall Academy at Miles of Golf. “I wondered what I was getting into,” he told reporter Harry Blauvelt.

“I’m a white kid from the suburbs,” continued Tylo. “But once you get inside and meet the kids and you see they want you to be there, it propels you to want to be there. Some are pretty good golfers.” Tylo believes that most first-timers genuinely want to improve their lot in life, but then they grow to love the game. “Now they’re all excited to be there,” he says. “I get a lot out of it, too.”

Some of the participants have endured urban horrors most of us will never experience. One student, Zarnell Dicus, 19 and a high school dropout, was more concerned about survival than golf while growing up on Motor City’s east side. In 1991 he escaped unscathed when a gunman opened fire in broad daylight while Dicus and his family were sitting on their front porch. The shooting left his brother, Virgil, dead, and his mother, Brenda, wounded.

Of his neighborhood, Dicus told Blauvelt, “There’s dope, violence, shooting, robbing, alcohol, prostitutes. That’s where I’ve been all my life. Midnight Golf has opened up a lot of positive things in my life. There’s no telling where I’d be without it. I’m thankful.”

The 2003 program is comprised of 30 African-Americans, including 14 women. Players can participate for more than a year as long as they meet the age requirements (17-22). One of the current participants is April Batchelor, 21, a single mother and now a full-time student at Wayne State University in Detroit. She had never held a golf club before enrolling in Midnight Golf.

“I thought golf was only for distinguished white gentlemen,” she said. “I knew about Tiger, but I didn’t think there were other African-Americans playing anywhere.” Batchelor was introduced to the program by her brother. “I’d just gotten kicked out of the house,” she said. “I was moving from friend to friend for a place to live. I had (her 3-year-old son) Jordan with me and no money.”

Batchelor credits Midnight Golf for getting her life turned around. “We’re like a big family at Midnight Golf,” she told USA Today. “It’s my second home. It makes you feel good to know there are people who care. None are getting paid. They come out to be there for us.” Like most new participants, Batchelor was skeptical at first, but the program grew on her and her golfing skills are improving. “I’m pretty good,” she said. “But I need to work on my putting.”

Every year Midnight Golfers travel to the PGA of America’s Learning Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The trip includes instruction, travel bags, clothes, a nice hotel and meals in local restaurants. One young man told Fluker, “I feel so good because I never before slept on a pillow that had a pillowcase.”

Earnie Ellison, the PGA of America’s director of business and community relations, told reporter Blauvelt, “Many of the kids have never seen this much green grass or wild animals like alligators, foxes and birds running around. This program has given them an opportunity they would not otherwise have had.”

One of the highlights of the 2002 program was a dinner at the swank Detroit Club. Midnight Golfers dined there as the final step in an etiquette class. One member of Midnight Golf’s board, Marcus Williams, made it a special evening for Darius Seal, 18, who didn’t have appropriate attire for the semiformal dinner. Williams bought Seal a suit and dropped it off at his house.

“He was very proud, and so was I,” said Williams, chief engineer at Detroit’s WDIV-TV. “We’re going after a very tough demographic. But rewards are huge when you see turnarounds.”

Dicus now has a full-time job as a custodian at Franklin-Wright. He lives with a friend, but he’s on a waiting list for his own apartment. He talks about resuming his education. “I used to keep my clothes in a car and stay at a friend’s house,” Dicus said. “It was tough, but I never had that much anyway. Now Midnight Golf keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.”