When David Polk attended The First Tee national meeting last year in Nashville, Tenn., the discussion eventually turned to the board, governing and leadership.
The meeting’s facilitator asked the Executive Directors in attendance how often they talked with their Board Chairman. All hands were raised at “every couple of months” and “once a month,” most were lowered at “every two weeks” and only one, Polk’s, remained in the air at “once a week.”
Polk, now in his fourth year as President and Executive Director of The First Tee of Connecticut, then stunned the moderator when he revealed his relationship with his Chairman, Ted May.
“I virtually talk to or communicate with him about The First Tee of Connecticut (TFTCT) just about every day,” Polk said. “If I’m not getting an email or text, then we’re talking on the phone. That’s how committed he is, and it’s at 10 o’clock at night, it’s first thing in the morning, it’s on the drive to work. Of course we’re friends – I’ve known him for 40 years – but his dedication to The First Tee and making golf available to every kid, he’s a giant.”
After being a driving force for more than four decades behind the Insurance City Open/Greater Hartford Open/Buick Championship/Travelers Championship co-founded by his father in 1952, May found “a new baby” when he spearheaded the birth of The First Tee of Connecticut. What started with 50 youngsters in the “Mayor Mike’s Golf Club for Kids” program at Goodwin and Keney Golf Clubs in Hartford in 1999 has grown into one of Connecticut’s all-time success stories with more than 67,000 kids learning about golf and the Nine Core Values at 14 outdoor facilities and 147 schools statewide each year.
So few people deserve a place in the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame more than May, who joins his father, Ed, as only the second father-son tandem to earn induction. Ironically, the other duo, Bobby and Jimmy Grant, is also from Wethersfield Country Club.
“My dad had passed away when he was selected (in 2002), so I gave his acceptance speech and that was a very proud moment for our family,” May said. “To be a father-son combination is tremendous.”
Polk said May’s induction “is long overdue.”
“Ted May has done more for junior golf, and golf in general, than anyone else I can think of in the state,” Polk said. “He has been involved in so many different aspects of the game and is an amazing guy to work with. And knowing how dedicated he is to the game and how much he has done to grow the game in this state, I can’t think of anyone more deserving and couldn’t be more pleased for the guy.”
May, 67, began volunteering at what was then the Sammy Davis Jr.-GHO in the mid-1970s and was tournament chairman of “The Last Blast at Wethersfield” in 1983. May then helped oversee a move to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, a bridge plan and solicitation of Buick and Travelers as title sponsors to keep the tournament alive after Canon pulled out in 2003.
May was born in Hartford and grew up in Wethersfield alongside the second hole at Wethersfield CC, where he played and caddied. He also played at Goodwin and attended Williams College, where he was co-captain his senior year and helped the Ephmen win the New England Championship to qualify for the NCAA Championship.
After graduating from Williams, May entered a sales management training program with Phoenix Mutual Insurance Co. In 1985, he formed May, Bonee & Walsh, an independent insurance and financial services company now in Glastonbury. May and his wife, Debbie, live in Wethersfield and have three children who have been tournament volunteers.
May was Chairman of numerous tournament committees and has been a member of the management committee since 1982. After being Tournament Chairman, he was the liaison between the PGA Tour and tournament for 25 years, his major duties being player recruitment and serving on the long-range planning committee.
May’s major project these days is TFTCT, which he started with Kent Scully in Hartford in 1996. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem thought so much of what May, Scully and others were doing that they suggested Hartford become part of The First Tee, a creation of the World Golf Foundation that included every major golf organization in the world. The First Tee not only teaches golf, it teaches life skills, including Nine Core Values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.
The First Tee of Hartford merged with the Connecticut Golf Foundation to become The First Tee of Connecticut and expanded into New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport and later Fairfield County in conjunction with the Metropolitan New York First Tee. Northeast Utilities leased 104 acres north of the TPC River Highlands to TFTCT through the Greater Hartford Community Foundation that were ultimately used for parking, a state-of-the-art practice range, the four-hole Karl Krapek Family Learning Links and the David and Geri Epstein Learning Center.
“I don’t think anyone really realizes the magnitude of the project until they come and see everything,” May said. “This is about kids and their lives, how they become better students, are more responsible, understand honesty and sportsmanship, earn college scholarships and are going to national academies in the summer. This is way beyond golf, and we want to give the kids a golf experience with planned activities such as summer camps and mentoring programs with colleges and universities.”
Trying to choose from among hundreds of memories with the PGA Tour’s annual stop in Connecticut and The First Tee program was plenty difficult for May. But he has special feelings about the 50th anniversary celebration in 2001 that included the return of most of the tournament’s past champions, including PGA Hall of Famers Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino and Billy Casper. He also takes pride in the Jaycees putting together a $4 million bridge plan in 2003 that kept the tournament alive and led to Buick and Travelers becoming the title sponsor and expanding the event to unprecedented heights.
“We were at risk (of losing the tournament),” May said of those gut-wrenching days 11 years ago. “Now the tournament is so important to the region. It puts Connecticut on the air in 200 countries around the world.”
Dan Kleinman, the 1976 GHO chairman and the tournament’s longtime legal counsel, has known May for 40 years and said Connecticut is fortunate to have someone like him.
“Ted has understood the value of golf to business and to kids and has always done stuff to make a difference in peoples’ lives,” Kleinman said. “As successful as he has been in business, he has been more successful in the tournament and The First Tee. There was a fire inside to make sure the tournament stayed alive, and that’s connected to his father and the honor and legacy that he wanted to keep alive.”
