Former First Tee participant Charles Porter overcame tough times to play Barracuda Championship

After Charles Porter shot 63 on Monday to qualify for this week’s Barracuda Championship, he returned to his car and began to cry.

Earning a spot in a PGA TOUR event was just one reason the tears flowed. But he cried, as well, because his father, the man he most wanted to tell, wouldn’t be able share in the excitement.

Greg Porter taught his son about self-sacrifice, humility, courage and perseverance. It was those qualities, and those lessons, that got Porter and his family through painfully adverse times.

Charles, 24, is the youngest of seven children born to Greg and Elizabeth Porter. In San Francisco, the cost of living alone is considered a financial challenge to many. The task of supporting a family of nine in the Bay Area proved all but impossible, leaving the family in a continual uphill climb.

Greg worked a number of jobs to provide for his family, from being a San Francisco State professor’s assistant to waiting tables in restaurants.

“I was very young for the toughest times, including being homeless for a few weeks and actually living on the street for several days,” Charles Porter recalled. “I was probably only 5 or 6, so I don’t have a clear recollection of that particular time.”

The two children spared from the displacement were Porter’s oldest sibling, who was away in college, and a sister living with cerebral palsy.

“We were evicted, there’s no two ways about it,” Porter said. “But, I do know my parents sacrificed a ton for us to live in San Francisco. I think the struggles and challenges parents face and go through can impact kids. If they are struggling, the kids are probably struggling, too. But, it seemed almost normal to us. We just had to learn how to roll with it.”

After the eviction and ensuing homelessness, the Porters briefly relocated to Charles’ aunt’s home in Los Angeles. Through government-subsidized housing back in San Francisco, the family lived in the Sunset District.

When Charles was 7, it was his father who introduced him to the game of golf.

“I remember my dad taking me to the range and having that special time with him,” he said. “None of my siblings played, but I fell in love with it and it. Thankfully, with my parents’ help, I was able to get into First Tee-San Francisco and the Northern California Golf Association’s Youth on Course programs. I was given a chance to play … and now here I am.”

While many aspiring pros have the luxury to focus entirely on their craft, Porter was not one of them. A lot remained uncertain and, frankly, quite scary for Charles as he continued to try and focus on golf.

As a young and impressionable kid, Charles was forced to watch and try to understand the early onset of Alzheimer’s which had taken a grip on his father.

“You don’t know what’s going on when you’re a kid and that’s how your dad acts,” Porter admitted. “I was only about 8 years old when he started acting differently. He wasn’t officially diagnosed until I was 19 or 20. When that happened, we had to place him in assisted living. He’s been there now for about three years.”

While golf did not come naturally to Porter, it was those rare occasions on which he would connect with the sweet spot that hooked him.

“I found striking the ball well to be the most satisfying thing ever,” Porter said. “I became addicted to it, and I hounded my dad 24-7 to go to the range.”

By his own admission, playing golf became all Charles thought about.

A few odd jobs for a little cash and reduced greens fees through his participation with First Tee and Youth on Course provided Charles the outlet he craved.

“The help of First Tee-San Francisco and Youth on Course helped me so much with my perspective,” Porter said. “Not only is everything they teach based on how to be a good human being, but the First Tee and Youth on Course programs helped so much with access for me to continue playing golf. Those two things are huge.”

Porter attended Gateway High School from 2016-18, but dropped out after being diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He took the high school diploma equivalency test and went briefly to City College of San Francisco. Playing golf, though, consumed every fiber of Charles’ being.

Porter transferred to Napa Valley College to continuing pursuing his golf dream.

“We were about to start our season, then COVID hit so we never actually had a season,” he said. “I thought I’d be able to transfer to a four-year university pretty easily, but because we never had a season, and COVID, a lot of the college players got their eligibility back, leaving me unable to transfer.”

Above and beyond the world-crippling effects of COVID, the stretch of time around 2020 proved to be the hardest of his mother’s life. Not only had the pandemic hit as the Porter family was dealing with the reality that the family’s patriarch needed assisted living, but it was also then when Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer. The prognosis for Charles’ mother today looks good.

“I’m very close to my mom to this day,” Porter said. “I was close to my dad, but he’s now in an assisted living facility, incoherent because of Alzheimer’s. I try to call him, but he doesn’t know what’s going on. That’s especially hard because it was him who always inspired me. It will always be him. He introduced me to the game. He believed in me.”

The introduction has served Greg Porter’s son well. In 2020, Charles won the prestigious San Francisco City Championship, whose past champions include World Golf Hall of Famer Ken Venturi and TOUR players Justin Suh, Martin Trainer and Brandon Hagy, and the Contra Costa Amateur.

In 2022, Porter decided to turn pro and take a crack at Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. After advancing to Final Stage, Porter finished T95 and earned conditional Korn Ferry Tour status for this season.

In one Korn Ferry Tour start this season, Porter missed the cut at the Astara Chile Classic. In February, competing on a sponsor invitation, Porter made his PGA TOUR debut, fittingly, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (missed cut).

“Getting into Pebble was incredible, and I’m super-grateful for that, but I feel like this week at the Barracuda Championship is different because I feel like I earned it by shooting a 63 and qualifying,” he said. “It didn’t really hit until last night when I was talking to a good friend and he said ‘Dude, after everything you’ve been through, you are now going to play on the PGA TOUR. That’s so awesome.’“I just thought about my parents and all the sacrifices they made for us, … their kids. More than anything, I just wish I could thank my dad. He always believed that I would be able to do this on my own. So, I just really wish he could share in this with me. I know how much he would love to see it.”

Porter’s mother, Elizabeth, remains a staunch supporter and is incredibly excited for her youngest son. While she is unable to make it to Truckee, California, this week to watch him compete, one of his brothers came to watch his little brother tee it up in the first round at Old Greenwood.

“Our communication with my dad trickled off over time. It happened slowly,” said Porter. “I was 22 when he was placed in an assisted-living facility. I try to go visit him when I can, but it’s super challenging to do that, to see him in the state he’s in. I feel like it’s better when an illness can take someone quickly.”

About Porter, Moe Melhart, the Youth on Course Director of Alumni Relations once described Porter as “the kind of guy that makes no excuses. He just continues to find a way.”

Greg Chalmers, who won the 2016 Barracuda, was impressed after playing a practice round with Porter.

“When I watched him play and hit the ball, it was amazing,” Chalmers said. “He has got a lot of talent, is very powerful and hits it very straight. I just think he has got a lot of game.”

Porter, who stands 6-foot-7, knows that standing tall against PGA TOUR competition could inspire others who have overcome adversity to play this game.

“My biggest goal is to prove to myself that I belong out here,” Porter said. “It would be very cool to show kids in Youth on Course and First Tee that someone like me with a tough background, like many of them have, can play on the PGA TOUR and compete, I think that’s super cool.”

The last, and most important, thing Porter learned from his father and greatest source of inspiration consisted of six simple words; Don’t be too hard on yourself.

“I think that’s really good advice,” Porter said. “I just wish things for my dad weren’t so difficult that he lived as hard on himself as he did. I will forever remember him saying that to me on so many occasions. I carry those words of his with me everywhere I go. Through it all, it was him and my mom that made it possible for me to be here right now.”