While organizations such as The First Tee, PGA Junior League Golf and Drive, Chip & Putt work "within golf's more traditional confines," the TGA Premier Junior Golf Foundation "challenges the conventional wisdom regarding how junior golf should be funded (by donations) and run (by teaching professionals)," according to Jaime Diaz of GOLF WORLD. As golf "needs to improve its root system so it can grow," the game "has been applying its collective thinking cap toward sparking the youth movement." TGA Premier Junior Golf, founded in '03 by CEO Joshua Jacobs, is "primarily an after-school 'enrichment' program for children in kindergarten through eighth grade, run in conjunction with local school districts." It is "golf without the golf course." Most of the TGA (Teach, Grow, Achieve) classes are held indoors, using "regular clubs to hit low-impact restricted-flight balls." For the cost of about $100 for six one-hour lessons one day a week, kids "go through a five-level station-based curriculum in which there are hardly any lines or waiting." The business model "is franchise based, with 55 chapters currently operating in 21 states." Around 2,400 schools and 325,000 children nationwide "have gone through the after-school and before-school programs" since '06. Jacobs said that the advantage of his program is that franchise owners are "economically motivated to deliver a good product to customers, and children and their parents are more committed to learning in order to get their money's worth." He said that the key for ultimate growth is to "put golf on the same footing as other sports and after-school activities when it comes to competing for kids' already overscheduled time" (GOLF WORLD, 4/25 issue).
