Youth Golf Program Ends

Jane and Ed Metcalf, at left, celebrate the final distribution of donations from the Southwestern Oregon Youth Golf program. With them, from left, are Scott Millhouser of Bandon Dunes; Andre Liloc of Coos Golf Club; Bridgett Wheeler, the Coquille Indian Tribe’s culture and education director; and committee members Miling Layguui, Terry Springer and Larry Simpson.

Couple aided young players for 20 years

May 14, 2021

A Coquille Tribal couple’s 20-year mission to inspire young golfers has come to an end.

Since 2001, Ed and Jane Metcalf have poured their passion into the Southwestern Oregon Youth Golf Program, with help from the Coquille Indian Tribe, a volunteer committee and generous local golfers. Over the years the Metcalfs have collected and distributed about $200,000 for college scholarships, golf camps and clinics, and high school golf teams.

“Way back when, Ed and I golfed a lot, and we wanted to see the youth of Coos County have access to golf activities,” Jane Metcalf said. “We just had a passion for golf for the youth.”

But even passion can’t hold back time. Jane Metcalf is 73, her husband 75.

“We’re getting to the age where it’s getting really hard,” Ed Metcalf said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed another obstacle. The program’s main fundraising event, a popular annual tournament for adult golfers, has had to be scrubbed the past two years.

So the Metcalfs have closed down the program and closed out the books. At a farewell ceremony on Friday, May 14, they distributed checks for the program’s remaining bank balance – $22,262. The money will go to a scholarship fund, two youth golf programs, and a fitness program for kids on the Coquille Tribe’s Charleston-area reservation.

The Metcalfs’ project has been closely associated with the Coquille Tribe since the beginning. Ed Metcalf is the tribe’s retired chairman, and his wife formerly directed the tribe’s community center. The youth golf program evolved from tournaments previously sponsored by The Mill Casino-Hotel & RV Park, and the tribe has been a consistent sponsor.

The program’s annual fundraising tournament paid for golf clinics that welcomed as many as 125 kids each year. Multiple $1,000 college scholarships were awarded each year to tribal students and other southwestern Oregon youth. The program also sent promising young players to golf camps at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, the former Coos Country Club (now Coos Golf Club), and throughout Oregon.

Though the program has ended, the Metcalfs and their team leave a community legacy, in the form of a generation of young golfers who benefited from their efforts.

“Our community and tribe has benefitted so much from the dedication, passion and hard work of both Ed and Jane,” said Tribal Chairman Brenda Meade. “The work they have done over these many years has supported so many people throughout our community. It is my hope that they know how important their work has been in the lives of so many of us, and for that I thank them!”

The Metcalfs want to hand out some thanks of their own. They’re grateful to:

  • Sponsors including the Coquille Indian Tribe, The Mill Casino-Hotel & RV Park, Nike, Aristocrat Technologies, IGT, AGS LLC, Bain Insurance, Bay Appliance, Bandon Dunes and the Y Marina
  • Twenty years of “fabulous volunteers,” including the program’s final crop of committee members: Miling Laygui, Terry Springer, Terri Porcaro, Mark Hubbard, Lonnie Simpson, Larry Simpson, Gregory Duerfeldt and Trudy Groth   
  • Bandon Dunes, Coos Golf Club and Kentuck Golf Course for hosting events
  • Bandon Dunes golf pro Scott Millhouser, who helped plan and organize clinics and camps at the resort

See media coverage of this story here: 

Coos Bay World Newspaper

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