Who We Are and What We Do
The Bridge Golf Foundation (BGF) operates an intensive, year-round, multi-year golf and education program for young men of color. Our mission is to help our young men close gaps in achievement, learning and opportunity; to improve their college readiness; and to help them graduate from college and move into the workforce.
Golf is the cornerstone of our rigorous academic and character education program. Our goal is to get our young men through college, not simply into college. We are making a long-term deep dive into the lives of our young men.
The Bridge Golf Learning Center in Harlem serves as the home base for our after school program and, when not occupied by our young men, offers fee-based services for golfers of all ages and skill levels. All profits from the Learning Center help fund our Foundation.
School Year
During the school year, students from 9th through 12th grade attend three-hour sessions after every school day at our Learning Center, which contains state-of-the-art golf equipment and technology, classrooms, and one-on-one tutoring spaces. In addition to a dedicated tutoring and character education staff that works in small groups and one-on-one as necessary, our Foundation provides intensive standardized test prep in partnership with a proven outside tutoring organization.
BGF will also advise our students and families on college and post-secondary selection, help organize the application process, and assist in preparing the complex financial component of college applications, college essays, and other elements of the common application. Our staff consists of five academic tutors and four golf professionals, resulting in extraordinary individualized attention. We collaborate with our young men’s teachers to maximize the effectiveness of our tutoring.
Summer
Our intensive six-week summer program consists of all-day excursions to area golf courses, where practice is supplemented by daily academic tutoring. Additionally, juniors and select sophomores will spend two weeks at The Bridge in Eastern Long Island for a paid internship/residency that involves hands-on training in the golf industry and exposure to the area’s rich cultural opportunities. The Bridge is one of the nation’s premier private golf clubs, built and operated for the last 20 years by the founders and co-executive directors of BGF.
Mentoring
Every young man in our program is also assigned a mentor. Our volunteer mentors work in a variety of fields. They share a love of golf and a strong desire to help our young men succeed. These mentor-mentee relationships complement the work of our tutors and golf instructors. After our young men enter college, we continue to mentor and support them.
Golf Team
BGF founded and operates the Percy Sutton High School golf team, Harlem’s only boys golf team, which competes in the Public School Athletic League and has made the playoffs the past two seasons. Our young men practice regularly at area golf courses during the warmer months and receive indoor instruction every day they are in our Learning Center. Under the tutelage of our PGA-accredited golf staff, our young men are given the opportunity to become skilled golfers by the time they are college bound. Golf is the platform on which we build readiness for college, the workplace, and life.