Button Hole Golf https://buttonhole.org Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:51:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://buttonhole.org/wp-content/uploads/cropped-logo_flag-1-1-32x32.png Button Hole Golf https://buttonhole.org 32 32 Making Golf Accessible to All https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-making-golf-accessible-to-all/ Fri, 04 Aug 2023 01:36:11 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=13366 Read More... from Making Golf Accessible to All

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        Established more than 20 years ago, Button Hole (www.buttonhole.org) is a non-profit public golf facility located in Providence, Rhode Island. Its mission is to provide an inclusive and affordable golf experience for everyone, regardless of age, ability, race, or socioeconomic status. Button Hole was an abandoned gravel pit in the inner city (Providence, RI) that was converted into a 9-hole course AND golf learning center.

                        

        Situated just steps away from underserved communities in Providence, Button Hole aims to break down barriers and make golf accessible to all. Each year, more than 1,250 youth participate in Button Hole’s programs, with 1,000 of them receiving scholarships to participate at no cost.

                                         

        Button Hole has also formed partnerships with neighborhood schools in Providence, offering free after-school golf programs and lessons to students, primarily consisting of youth of color. To further engage students during the cold New England winters, Button Hole installed golf simulators in four urban core schools, allowing students to try golf right at their school.

                             

                  As summer approaches, Button Hole is gearing up for its annual free summer camp called “A Lesson in Golf…A Lesson in Life.” Over 150 youth from Providence’s urban core will take part in a six-week summer golf camp at Button Hole. The camp introduces fundamentals, etiquette, and basic rules of golf, while also incorporating mentorship and financial literacy programming to support youth of color. Participants receive a healthy snack and transportation, ensuring that access to the camp is barrier-free.

                                         

                   Button Hole enriches the lives of young individuals by providing facilities and programs that develop strong character, teach life values, and promote success through the game of golf. Its focus is on underserved youth, aiming to make golf accessible and affordable for all. Some of the programs and events organized by Button Hole include the Women’s Golf League, weekly BH Kids Tournament, Andrade-Faxon Charities for Children Summer Golf Clinics, Special Olympics RI summer golf program, Veterans Golf Clinics, and Disabled Vets golf clinic in partnership with the Providence Veterans Administration.

                       

                      Located in a former abandoned gravel pit and common dumping site, the 26-acre property surrounding Button Hole is now transformed into a lush green golf facility. The site is conveniently connected to the Woonasquatucket River Bikeway, providing a scenic backdrop for golfers. Leading the mission of Button Hole Golf is Don Wright, the Executive Director, along with Tom Stone as the President of the Board and Ed Mauro as the Founder

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                   For those interested in experiencing th e inclusive and transformative power of golf, Button Hole Golf welcomes you at One Button Hole Drive, Providence, RI 02909.

Excerpt From: https://africanamericangolfersdigest.com/button-hole-making-golf-accessible-to-all/

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Button Hole Seeking Golf Ball Donations for Kids’ Programs https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-seeking-golf-ball-donations-for-kids-programs-2/ Sun, 04 Jun 2023 15:15:00 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=12380 Read More... from Button Hole Seeking Golf Ball Donations for Kids’ Programs

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Button Hole Golf in Providence is seeking help from the public — it needs golf balls.

The mission of the nonprofit is to “enrich the lives of young people by providing facilities and programs that develop strong character, teach life values, and champion success through the game of golf.”

“Our inventory of driving range balls has diminished over the summer and we are asking for your help in donating any amount of surplus golf balls that you have in your basement, shed, or garage,” Button Hole announced this week.

“We are very appreciative of your donations as they are vital in keeping our kids’ programs running in the spring, summer, and fall,” they continued.

Button Hole said that donations can be dropped off at their pro shop — located at the course at 1 Buttonhole Drive — daily between 8:00 AM and 7:30 PM.

They added that they “gladly accept donations” of golf bags and clubs as well.

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Local golf club offers free lessons for youth https://buttonhole.org/local-golf-club-offers-free-lessons-for-youth/ Sat, 22 Aug 2020 17:51:35 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=4411 Read More... from Local golf club offers free lessons for youth

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PROVIDENCE (WPRI) – We still don’t know the long term affects that isolation during the pandemic will have on children. But this summer, Button Hole Golf Course in Providence is offering free lessons for local kids who belong to Boys and Girls clubs.

“Button hole is great for allow the kids this opportunity,” said Lea Berard, an employee at the Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club. “To be able to be outside in the fresh air and enjoy a different atmosphere is absolutely awesome.”

For four weeks this summer, Donald Wright and his staff will teach the kids the fundamentals of the game.

 

Exerpt from: https://www.wpri.com/sports/local-golf-club-offers-free-lessons-for-youth/

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Button Hole GC Expands Mission With Free Lessons for Kids https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-gc-expands-mission-with-free-lessons-for-kids/ Sat, 22 Aug 2020 17:49:18 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=4406 Read More... from Button Hole GC Expands Mission With Free Lessons for Kids

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The Providence, R.I. non-profit, public facility has always been dedicated to providing a short course and teaching center focused on youth golf for children of all backgrounds and abilities. This year it is offering free lessons for local kids who belong to Boys and Girls Clubs, which is seen as an especially welcome program for encouraging outdoor activity during the confinement of the pandemic.

Exerpt from: https://clubandresortbusiness.com/button-hole-gc-expands-mission-with-free-lessons-for-kids/

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Button Hole and Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club Team Up To Teach Golf to Kids https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-and-pawtucket-boys-and-girls-club-team-up-to-teach-golf-to-kids/ Sat, 22 Aug 2020 17:48:15 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=4404 Read More... from Button Hole and Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club Team Up To Teach Golf to Kids

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Kids from the Boys and Girls club in Pawtucket are learining the game of golf and learning life lessons. The Club has partnered with Button Hole golf course in Providence for a summer camp for kids of all ages.

The kids hit the links once a week and are starting to see improvement in their game.

Golf is bringing these kids closer together, as sports tend to do, during a pandemic that’s kept them so far apart for so long.

Exerpt from: https://www.abc6.com/button-hole-and-pawtucket-boys-and-girls-club-team-up-to-teach-kids-golf/

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Kevin McNamara: Button Hole is no ordinary golf course https://buttonhole.org/kevin-mcnamara-button-hole-is-no-ordinary-golf-course/ Wed, 14 Nov 2018 16:18:47 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=741 Read More... from Kevin McNamara: Button Hole is no ordinary golf course

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PROVIDENCE — It’s pretty easy to fall for what occurs almost every day at Button Hole, the short golf course that’s been open to all comers for the last 16 seasons now.

Take last Thursday, for example. If you stood on the practice range in the late afternoon, you would see a fairly typical mix of clientele. To the right a dad hit one ball after another, and not very well. He wore a white muscle shirt, blue gym shorts and basketball high tops. His young son, no more than 5 years old, sat quietly on a bench behind him.

To the left was a girl who was about 10 years old, a regular customer called a Button Hole Kid. She owned a sweet swing, one that produced one soft, arcing shot after another.

A few minutes later, Ray Coppa walked down to the range and his granddaughter, Annaliese, started taking her cuts. Coppa said swinging by Button Hole is one of his favorite pastimes, both now and when he would take his students from Times2 Academy there for field trips.

“I taught in Coventry for 30 years but ended my career at Times2. It was so rewarding,” Coppa said. “I taught Physics. We’d come over here and it really would help the kids learn angles, circular motion, inertia and so many other things. Plus, it’s beautiful here.”

Up on the first tee, Ashmyr Mondestin and Haeden Watson-Scott prepared to play a few holes. They were driven over to the course by Pete Smith, their teacher at Times2′s Summer Institute. Button Hole caters to inner-city youth in the Providence area, going into schools to offer clinics and offering free or reduced cost play at the course.

Arys Batista, a Button Hole volunteer coach, watched the two teenager’s developing swings.

“For me the satisfaction comes in seeing someone who doesn’t know how to hold a club progress to a silhouette of a swing,” Batista said. “Golf is a hard game. It brings you out as a person. I’m here to guide them.”

Mondestin, 17, is wearing brown sweatpants and a gray Brown University T-shirt. He says the first hole he ever played — No. 1 at Button Hole — he made a par.

“I have respect for the gentlemen’s sports — golf, rugby, soccer,” Mondestin says. “I like the etiquette in the game. Golf can build up a man or a woman with confidence and respect.

Back up in the parking lot, a few old friends greet one another. A few times a month, Button Hole rolls out the red carpet for military veterans to come and hit balls, play a few holes and share some old stories. Executive director Don Wright calls the gatherings “some of the best times of the summer.”

“It’s all about our mission, which is making golf affordable and accessible,” Wright said. “We have inner-city kids, we have the military, we have high school and college teams come over and use our first-rate practice facility and play some really good golf holes. We have programs for everybody.”

Few programs are as poignant as Fairways for Warriors, a group that helps wounded veterans find an outlet in their lives through a few hours on a golf course. That’s just what Tina Lavallee is doing.

Lavallee, 50, lives in Foster and is confined to a wheelchair. She served 12 years in the Army, including a stint in the Gulf War. In June 1999 she was in Rhode Island recruiting and trying to shuttle pounds of equipment to her car. Instead of taking three trips, she says she tried to carry all the gear at once and fell down a flight of stairs. The fall left her with a fractured skull and injured vertebrae in her middle and lower back.

Her physician at the Providence VA Hospital suggested some activity in the VA’s Summer Sports Clinic. The first stop on the tour? Button Hole. The former three-sport athlete at Shea figured she had little to lose.

“I had never tried golf. I thought it was boring,” Lavallee said. “Then Don introduced me to golf and he said if I was going to start coming, he’d get one of these Paragolfers. As soon as I started hitting the ball I became totally addicted.”

A Paragolfer is an all-terrain wheelchair with an adjustable seat that can raise the user into a standing position and allows a full golf swing. To see Lavallee or her friend, Roland Filion, rise from their seats and lace a well-struck shot is nothing short of a miracle.

Button Hole’s supporters will tell you that its vision of putting golf clubs into the hands of youngsters who wouldn’t know a wedge from a hybrid is paying off. If moms and dads and little kids can whack crooked shots next to military veterans only makes that vision sweeter. That this is all taking place at an old gravel pit that sits a Jordan Spieth-drive away from the Hartford Park housing development is indeed nothing short of a miracle.

On this day, anyway, it’s tough to argue.

Referenced from the article: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20170805/kevin-mcnamara-button-hole-is-no-ordinary-golf-course

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Button Hole Breaks Ground on Accessibility Project https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-breaks-ground-on-accessibility-project/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:28:05 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=577 Read More... from Button Hole Breaks Ground on Accessibility Project

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Beginning September 5, 2013 Button Hole’s nine holes and driving range underwent an extensive renovation project that resulted in making Button Hole one of the few completely accessible courses for the disabled. Funded through a grant from the Wadsworth Charities Foundation of Chicago, IL, grants from Roy T. Morgan Foundation and Andrade-Faxon Charities for Children and generous gifts from individual donors, Button Hole will construct a facility that will allow for the expansion of a long history of commitment to programs for everyone, including disabled children and their families.

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Button Hole Kids at the CVS/Caremark Charity Classic https://buttonhole.org/button-hole-kids-at-the-cvs-caremark-charity-classic/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:27:13 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=572 Read More... from Button Hole Kids at the CVS/Caremark Charity Classic

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As CVS kicked off its 15th Annual Charity Classic on Sunday, June 23, with the Pro-Am portion of the tournament, 18 Button Hole Kids had the chance to serve as standard Bearers for the afternoon round.  Over 300 amateur and professional golfers competed in the Pro-Am, giving Button Hole Kids a front row seat for watching some of the best players in the world.  Outfitted inmatching tee-shirts, Button Hole Kids proudly displayed their perseverance and tenacity as they marched around the course in near record degree temperatures.

At Monday’s All Kids Can Challenge, two Button Hole brothers, Nathan and Ethan Tho, played the 16th, 17th and 18th holes with John Howell from the Barrington High School Golf Team.  Nathan and Ethan were two of just 16 young golfers who got to play in the challenge.  Clad from head to toe in the Ricky Fowler Line of Puma gear, Nathan, Ethan and the other young golfers received hats, shoes, shirts and new golf bags—and Ricky’s autograph too!  Click here to watch what they had to say when interviewed!

WPRI Channel 12 also featured Button Hole as one of the benefitting charities for the CVS Caremark Charity Classic and had the chance to talk to and film a few of our new Button Hole kids.  Click here to watch the clip!

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SIMULIA Gives Back to Button Hole https://buttonhole.org/simulia-gives-back-to-button-hole/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:22:23 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=566 Read More... from SIMULIA Gives Back to Button Hole

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On June 14, for the second year in a row, employees from the local 3DS company SIMULIA came to Button Hole as volunteers for the day.  Company employees, assisted by Button Hole staff, built a new target for the north side driving range, removed four damaged signs from the driving range, installed and painted eight new signs and posts, mounted new directional signs throughout the course, replaced two driving range dividers, and assisted with general ground maintenance.  During the year, Button Hole benefits from the efforts of many volunteer groups that provide valuable project support.

 

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Alumni Update https://buttonhole.org/alumni-update/ Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:18:50 +0000 https://buttonhole.org/?p=563 Read More... from Alumni Update

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Although Button Hole’s primary mission is not about creating “champions,” several of our alumni who have or are playing Division I golf are highlighted. In addition, Button Hole kids have had a great season on the Rhode Island golf scene.

Three Button Hole kids participated in the Rhode Island Open, Jamison Randall won the 29th Stroke Play Championship at Alpine Country Club, and earlier this August, Will Dickson became the youngest player to win the 91st Junior Amateur Championship. Will made seven birdies and one conceded birdie in 11 holes to win. Will also tied for 3rd in the New England Junior Amateur at Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, MA. Ashley Roggero who attended Button Hole clinics won the First Division of the Rhode Island Women’s Amateur earlier this season, and Samantha Morrell competed in the Royal Cup Women’s Amateur in Canada this past summer and placed 16th.

Below are some Button Hole Alumni who were featured in our 2012 Point Judith Tournament Fundraising program.

Amanda Parker

Sacred Heart University, Class of 2011, Burke Scholar

Amanda began her career in the golf world as a Button Hole Kid when she was just 7. During her high school career at Bay View Academy, she was First Team All-State and golf team captain for three years. She was also a Burke Scholar (2011), RIWGA Scholarship recipient and OSWGA Scholarship recipient. Amanda earned her undergraduate degree at Sacred Heart University and graduated in May 2011 with a business degree in Sport Management from John F. Welch College of Business. Currently a full-time student at Johnson & Wales University, working on her MBA, Amanda is also the Operations Coordinator for the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund, located in Norton, MA, which annually awards over $1 million in scholarships to those who have provided two years of service to golf as caddies, helpers in the pro shops or with course superintendents. The Ouimet Fund, named in honor of Francis Ouimet’s 1913 US Open victory, is preparing to celebrate it 100th anniversary. Arnold Palmer has agreed to serve as Honorary Chair.

Seamus Fennelly

URI Atlantic 10 Conference

“Seamus shows glimpses of his destiny as a great college golfer. But what truely impresses me is his dedication in the classroom where he achieved a 3.5 GPA as a freshman. All those lessons of discipline and achievement learned at Button Hole have serve him well.”

Greg Burke, URI Golf Coach

Samantha Morrell

Old Dominion University, Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)

As a freshman, Sam was named Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Rookie of the Year. She posted six top 20 finishes of her nine events, including three top-3 finishes in her first year as a Lady Monarch. In addition, Sam was chosen as the CAA Player of the Week two times, and she also received 2nd All Conference Honors. As a sophomore, Sam was awarded the CAA Golfer of the Week honors three times and was also chosen as second team All-CAA. This year, as a junior, Sam finally experienced her first college win at the Lady Pirate Intercollegiate finishing 4 under par for the tournament. On the second round of the first day, Sam made an albatross on the 436 yard, par five.

Juliet Vongphoumy

Maryland University Freshman, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Greensboro, NC April 30, 2011

Juliet Vongphoumy has been named to the All Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Golf Team. Vongphoumy is the eighth Terrapin freshman to be voted to the team. A native of Providence, RI, Vongphoumy is ranked fifth in the conference in scoring average (73.72) which leads all freshmen, and placed in the top 20 in 9 of 10 tournaments this year including five top-10 finishes.

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