First Tee is not Michelle Wie's golf program. It is not even your father's golf program, starting in 1997 as an initiative of the World Golf Foundation.

Its founding partners are Augusta National Golf Club, the USGA, LPGA and PGA Tours and PGA of America. Its national sponsors include Wal-Mart and Shell. Its mission is "to impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf."

The sport surrounds First Tee, but the conversation it inspires has little to do with golf and almost everything — 70 percent is the estimate of First Tee Hawai'i executive director Ken Zitz — to do with "life skills."

That broad definition allows guys like Edmundo Gordon, retired Army and former soccer player on Panama's national team, to coach at clinics that thrive on alliteration.

PATIENT, POSITIVE

"They can be patient, they can be positive," Gordon said while watching his First Tee group at Hawai'i Country Club send pitch shots toward the former pineapple fields. "And when they get upset, they can learn the four Rs — Don't get angry, just relax, get ready, replay and redo."

Gordon is an astonishingly easy-going former drill sergeant who claims, with a grin, that he no longer barks orders, "but sometimes the kids bark at me." First Tee Hawai'i volunteer president Jim Cosper, who is retired Navy and has a master in Education Administration, also recalls his military years when he watches First Tee sessions.

"When these kids get in their 20s and 30s, they'll be back looking for a First Tee program for their kids ..." Cosper said. "A lot of these kids have qualities I wish my sailors had."

First Tee has about 300 "golf-learning" facilities in 48 states and five international locations. One of the most active is run by the daughter of Champions Tour player Allen Doyle, who often calls on her dad to mow the lawn. Kansas senior Emily Powers became the inaugural First Tee participant to qualify for a major championship when she played in last week's U.S. Women's Open.

The program claims to have "introduced the game of golf and its values to over 675,000 participants" between the ages of 7 and 18. There is also a First Tee National School Program now that has reached out to more than 300,000 students.

ISLE CHAPTERS

Zitz started the Hawai'i chapter in 2004 as the North Shore Junior Golf Association. In 2005 there were 20 participants. In 2006, First Tee of O'ahu became an official chapter. There were 112 members that year and 365 on three islands last year. The name has changed to First Tee of Hawai'i, with programs on O'ahu, Moloka'i and Maui and plans to start on the Big Island and Kaua'i.

The home facility is The Salvation Army Camp in Waialua, where six practice holes were built. Programs are also being conducted at Kunia, Ala Wai Driving Range, Ford Island, Ironwood Hills and Waiehu. The Ford Island site started last year, allowing 36 kids from the Palama Settlement athletic program to learn golf, and life skills, thanks to the Harry Doo scholarship from BAE Systems.

Other grants have come from the USGA, Friends of Hawai'i Charities, the First Tee national program and several local companies. The cost for kids is $10 a year, though many are "on scholarship." Equipment is provided. Volunteers — usually parents — are crucial.

"Now we have a $100,000 operation," Cosper said. "Our goal is to get up to $400,000 or $500,000."

NINE CORE VALUES

Sessions run from one hour to three. At Kunia, Gordon works on technique and temperament an hour, then sets the kids free for a few holes. The program revolves around its "nine core values" — honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment. Ultimately, organizers hope to have an indoor learning center.

"If you want your child to get good competition and win the U.S. Open, you should probably take them to a golf pro. If you want them to learn about life and discipline, this is the program," said Cosper, who defines a successful graduate of the program as someone who graduates from high school, gets a scholarship to college — "not necessarily a golf scholarship" — and plays a leadership role in the community.

"A lot of these kids might never be a champion on the golf course," Cosper adds, "but almost every one of these kids are going to be champions in life."

That sentiment is so common, even the kids have their version:

"I just like playing golf. It's a good program. it teaches you a lot of different things," said Tripp Blazer, 11, who is about to enter Waialua Intermediate. "I'll probably become a better person in life. First Tee not only teaches golf, it teaches life skills through the game of golf and that's almost more important."

When Blazer turns 15 he wants to qualify for the Wal-Mart First Tee Open, where he would play with a member of the Champions Tour. Gavin Sasaki, a Mid-Pacific graduate headed to Cal Poly Pomona, has volunteered to help First Tee the past two years and is going to the First Tee Open qualifier this month.

Gordon, who turned to golf after injuring his knee in 1990, is about to go to the Mainland for the second phase of First Tee's three-year teaching program. He calls the program "a good vision," and good fun for the summer and all-year round.

"We're not here to teach only golf," coach "Mundo" said. "The kids are here to have fun."