The PGA Tour First Tee Foundation’s Greater Philadelphia chapter has been named No. 1 in the nation — again. This is the third time in four years the program topped the list.
First Tee Greater Philadelphia uses golf to teach life skills to kids. It runs snag golf and life-skills classes and offers paths to caddie academies, PGA Junior, and greenskeeper training. Bill Hyndman (CEO) and Michael Brown (Board Chair) lead the chapter, which has grown fast and tried new ideas quickly.
Fundraising and expansion fueled the rise. Annual donations jumped from about $1.3 million in 2019 to over $4 million in 2025. The program now reaches Atlantic, Cumberland, and Cape May counties in New Jersey. It helped revive John F. Byrne and Walnut Lane courses, pushing Byrne’s yearly rounds from 8,000 to 44,000 and Walnut Lane’s from 12,500 to 41,000.
Big partnerships helped, including with Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation. One standout gift: $1.1 million raised at a 60th-birthday roast tied to Brown’s fundraising work. Scholarships climbed too — from roughly $16,000 in 2022 to $370,000 for 56 students in 2026. Weekly youth golf participation rose from 1,537 in 2019 to 3,309, and retention went from 25% to 50%.
Brown and Hyndman point to real impact. They tell stories of a police officer’s son from Northeast Philly who got a golf scholarship and a teen who started a small business cleaning clubs. “When you meet these kids, you want to work harder,” Brown says.
It’s a win for youth development — and for a chapter that turned golf into a stage for change.
