MILLTOWN, N.J. – Rutgers men's golf took some time out of their pre-season preparations to visit Parkview Elementary School for a fun day of golf with young student-athletes.

Through an opportunity with Scarlet Knights for Life™, the golf team partnered with a local chapter of First Tee out of Raritan Valley. First Tee is a non-profit youth-development organization centered around teaching life skills and core values through the game of golf. Executive Director of First Tee Raritan Valley Mark McCabe joined the team giving tips and supervising different stations that each taught different aspects of the game.

"We're really excited to have the student-athletes from Rutgers to be out here to help grow the game," McCabe said. "That's what our program does here at First Tee is try to get kids excited and into the game of golf. It's a game they can play for a lifetime."

First Tee is an international organization with over 150 locations worldwide. Raritan Valley encompasses six counties and thirteen courses/clubs they host events at. They have over 700 kids in their main core programming and about 100 schools they partner with to host these days of play.

Principal Eric Siegel, a Rutgers alum and avid golf fan has brought Rutgers and First Tee to Parkview twice.

"It's a great opportunity for our Parkview students to learn life skills through First Tee and golf skills through Rutgers men's golf," Siegel said. "It's very important, especially being so close to Rutgers University many student athletes that go through our school system attend Rutgers and it's a great way for them to see what you can do after school and going to college."

Head coach Rob Shutte knew the program would be mutually beneficial pairing First Tee with the Scarlet Knights.

"It's great to see our guy's high fiving," Shutte said. "It's a two-way street. You see the kids get the benefit of connecting with the student-athletes. The flip side of that is there's a real benefit for our student-athletes who are growing in many ways right now as leaders in the community and connecting with young kids."

This message was not lost on the Rutgers golfers.

"This is awesome," said captain Xavier Marcoux. "These kids have an infectious attitude. There's no negativity. It's nice for us to kind of get some perspective that golf is not the end of the world. These kids are just enjoying themselves. Sometimes it's nice for us to get out of our own egos and out own heads and just kind of come out and help the community like this."

 "It's super fun doing the First Tee events," added captain Luke Wells. "This is my second time doing it here at Parkview. It's just really cool to teach golf to these kids. I was one of these kids at one point so it's cool. Teach the game of golf and keep the game growing."

"Letting them smile and have fun, it's how they get into the game," said junior Weston Jones. "It's how I got into the game and it's just awesome to see."

"It's just a lot of fun," said freshman Andrew Reyes. "The children seem really excited to play. I've had a lot of kids make shots and the pure joy that's on their faces is great to see."

Scarlet Knights for Life™ is a Rutgers organization focused on leadership development and community engagement for current student-athletes along with alumni. Through events and workshops, they create opportunities for all Rutgers student-athletes to succeed in future endeavors.