Rookie Langely joins Fowler, Hoffman in hosting "Tee It Up! for Kids" clinic at Farmers Insurance Open

January 23, 2013

By Doug Milne, PGA TOUR staff

SAN DIEGO-- Scott Langley took a long look around Tuesday afternoon, before pulling in a deep breath. The PGA TOUR rookie wasn’t staring down the immaculate, plush green fairways of famed Torrey Pines, nor was he gazing out over the cliffs of La Jolla at the glassy Pacific Ocean. He wasn’t looking ahead two days to when his name will be called on the No. 1 tee for the first time at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Langley was looking back. What he saw were kids in old t-shirts with homework waiting, clutching used clubs. He immediately felt at home.

As the first ever graduate of the First Tee program to make it to the big leagues of the PGA TOUR, Langley joined San Diego natives Charley Hoffman and Rickie Fowler Tuesday afternoon at the Mission Bay Golf Course for the "Tee It Up! for Kids" clinic. Hundreds of kids and their families turned out for the event.

Farmers Insurance, sponsor of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, in conjunction with the Century Club of San Diego and the City of San Diego treated members of the First Tee of San Diego and San Diego Junior Golf Association to tips, advice and a lot of laughs.

The best tip of the afternoon was a joint one among the three pros; “If we can do it, so can you.”

“This event is special for me because I come from a First Tee background. At one point, I was these kids in the stands,” said Langley. “It’s so fun, an honor, to be able to come back and do stuff like this with the kids. I learned so much through the First Tee and junior golf. My hope is that we can impart some of what we learned onto these kids today.”

“This is a lot of fun for me, being from the San Diego area,” Fowler said. “It wasn’t long ago when I was every one of these kids out here, playing with old, cut down clubs to fit my size. The difference was, we had no First Tee program, no organized junior golf. So, I hope they’re getting as much from this as I am.”

“I remember competing as a junior on this course at 12 years old,” said Hoffman of Mission Bay. “I got the juices flowing walking off this very tee box. It means so much to me to come back here and have so many of the kids show up.”

For nearly an hour, the three PGA TOUR professionals had a chance to step back in time Tuesday afternoon.  As they did, hundreds of area youth got to step into their shoes and catch a glimpse of life as a TOUR pro. And clearly, they liked what they saw.