North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Golfer Ellington Uses First Tee Lessons
9/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
RALEIGH, N.C. – Caroline Ellington has lived a whirlwind life since February, a testament to what a little confidence can do.
From being selected for the prestigious Park Scholarship at NC State, qualifying to play in the sixth-annual Walmart First Tee Open with Champions Tour professional Bruce Fleischer and securing a spot as a walk-on with the NC State women's golf team, the freshman from New Bern really doesn't know where to start counting her blessings.
All she knows is that this weekend, at the SAS Championship at Cary's Prestonwood Country Club, she gets to have a reunion with some of the friends she made in California earlier this month while participating in the event at one of the world's greatest golf courses. That list includes Fleischer, Ben Crenshaw, Scott Hoch, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, just to mention a few.
Ellington made an impression on those golfers at the First Tee-sponsored "Legends and Leaders" banquet, for which she was selected to give a speech on confidence, one of the First Tee's nine core values. Speaking just before her was golf star Jay Haas on courtesy, and immediately after her was comedian Bill Murray on honesty.
The evening ended with Nancy Lopez talking about sportsmanship, right after she accused Murray of stealing her name badge.
Ellington was one of 22 junior girls and 56 junior boys who participated in the unique tournament, which pairs a junior golfer with a member of the PGA's Champions Tour and two amateurs for four days of competition.
She got to play a practice rounds at Pebble Beach and Del Monte, and by making the cut played two competition rounds at Pebble. She made the most of her glamorous life on the Monterrey peninsula, staying at a house in Clint Eastwood's neighborhood.
She and Fleischer finished 17th in the event with a three-round total of 206. And, Ellington hopes, forged a life-long friendship.
"Bruce is amazing," Ellington said. "He made it such an awesome experience. I could not have asked for a better pro.
"The whole event was amazing. I really can't describe it."
But perhaps the most amazing part was having several of the pros - including eventual winner Jeff Sluman - come up after her banquet speech to say how much they appreciated what she had to say. She was a little nervous about speaking in front of celebrities and World Golf Hall of Fame members, but she used her First Tee lessons to overcome it.
Ellington talked about confidence, based on her experiences of nominating herself for the Park Scholarship, NC State's most prestigious merit-based award. Ellington was not selected as her school's representative for the Park, so she nominated herself.
She advanced through the process, while her school's selected representative did not, and was eventually selected as one of the 35 in-state (and 50 total) recipients for the award.
"I had the confidence to think that I was just as eligible as anyone else," Ellington said.
She told that story in July in Rye, N.H., as she competed with 60 or so other qualified junior girls for a spot in the Walmart First Tee Championship. The process included two rounds of golf, personal interviews, their life skills curriculum knowledge, an essay about their First Tee experiences and a summary of their community involvement and extracurricular activities.
Ellington began playing golf later than most juniors, but became proficient through her involvement with the First Tee of the Triangle. She and her mother had hoped to start a chapter of the program, an initiative of the World Golf Foundation that teaches life skills and lessons to young golfers, in her hometown, but doesn't have enough participants just yet.
So she had to drive the two-and-a-half hours every week or so to participate in the Triangle chapter.
Ellington was recruited to play golf at Wofford, but opted to take the full academic scholarship to NC State instead. She called up Wolfpack women's coach Page Marsh to see if she could somehow be involved with the program, and Marsh invited her to walk on to the team.
Ellington has begun practicing with the team, but doesn't have a schedule this fall that is conducive to spending much time with the team. She hopes that will change next semester, now that she knows she will be on the team.
But, her experiences at the First Tee Championship and her regular play at NC State's new Lonnie Poole Golf Course, has improved her game. She's looking forward to contributing to Marsh's team in the future.
"I think it is so cool to be a part of it," Ellington said. "When I got the Park, I was really debating whether I wanted to play golf or not, because of the time commitment. And I guess I was having some confidence issues.
"But I think being part of the team will help me with my academics and help my game."
In the end, that confidence will pull her through.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
