3M Open Festivities Include College Scholarship for West Metro Golfer
As tens of thousands of golf fans arrive at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine for this weekend’s 3M Open, they may not realize that part of the money they’ve spent on tickets and other costs helps local nonprofits. One of those nonprofits that benefits from the 3M Open Fund is First Tee Minnesota.
“The donation and the financial support of the 3M Open and is having a huge impact on our ability to reach more kids,” said Jim Triggs, CEO of First Tee Minnesota.
First Tee helps introduce kids to golf with clinics, tournaments and, eventually, leadership training and opportunities for mentorship.
The 3M Open Fund–the charitable arm of this weekend’s PGA Tour event in Blaine–helps fund several local nonprofits, including First Tee Minnesota.
“Multiple kids from Minnesota are getting into all sorts of things not necessarily related to golf,” said Triggs.
Triggs said Tuesday’s Golf Fore All event at the 3M Open helped hundreds of kids from across the Twin Cities either pick up a golf club for the very first time or get instruction on how to improve their games.
One of the kids who was introduced to golf through First Tee is recent Minnetonka High School graduate Saloni Somia. She started playing when she was 12 and played for the school team.
Saloni Somia, a recent Minnetonka High School graduate, received a national First Tee scholarship. It’s funded, in part, by the 3M Open in Blaine.
“One thing I really like about golf is the precision of the sport,” said Somia. “You can change little things in your swings and it will affect the flight path or even with putting, there’s so many very delicate, intricate little pieces that go into that go into getting the ball into the hole and just having a good game of golf.”
Somia participated in a leadership program in Montana through First Tee and the PGA Tour Superstore, and through that experience qualified for–and received—a $5,000 college scholarship from First Tee.
“College is such an expensive process and it’s really incredible to have First Tee there not only to support me financially but also with the support that they offer with mentorship,” she said.
Somia will enter a pre-med program at Brown University in the fall. She will take her golf clubs with her to New England, she said, but she will not play competitively.
Beyond the scholarship and the leadership opportunities, Somia said her experience with First Tee and with the game of golf have helped with her approach to her studies and whatever she chooses to pursue in her career in medicine.
“I do like pretty detail-oriented things. I do think, though, in the overall scheme of things, I’m a big picture-type of person. I like to step back and look at the whole image and look at all the different perspectives and pieces that go into it,” she said. “Something that’s really special about golf to me is that I can get more detail-oriented and look at those little specifics and just focus on what I’m doing in that moment.”
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