First Tee participants from indigenous communities shine as flag bearers at Presidents Cup Opening Ceremony

Rahontsá:waks Albany’s father had already planned to take his son to watch Thursday’s opening matches of the Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club.

Little did he know, the 12-year-old would end up being part of the day’s festivities, one of four First Tee participants selected to carry the flags of the United States, Canada, Quebec and the International Team at the event’s Opening Ceremonies.

“It was just like, what are the odds of having this opportunity?” Rahontsá:waks’ mother, Lacey Paul, says.

Rahontsá:waks, Nashtyn Mayo and Aronhiakèn:ra Martin were chosen from the Kahnawá:ke Mohawk Territory First Nations reserve and First Tee – Quebec’s partner, Club 24 Athletics. Club 24 seeks to build future leaders in the indigenous community through educational support and sports participation.

The fourth flag bearer, Jarred Pompey, is from nearby Montreal and a member of First Tee – Quebec, too. Earlier this year, he caddied at a charity shootout in conjunction with the Presidents Cup media day where First Tee – Canada received a $250,000 donation from the biennial match-play competition.

The other charitable beneficiaries of the Presidents Cup are McGill University Health Centre Foundation, One Drop Foundation and Montreal Children’s Hospital.

On a recent Zoom call, it was hard to tell who was more excited – Rahontsá:waks, whose name in Kanien’kéha, which is the Mohawk language, means “He shakes the Earth” – or his mother.

Paul, who works for the Kahnawá:ke Tourism office, was about to go into a strategic planning meeting when she was notified that her son had been chosen. She remembers bursting with pride and telling anyone who would listen.

“To see our little guy represent Kahnawá:ke on the international stage, it truly is an honor, to have and see indigenous representation at the Presidents Cup,” Paul says.

Kahnawá:ke, which comes from the Mohawk word meaning “place of the rapids,” is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, about an hour from Royal Montreal.

Paul is fiercely proud of her son and other indigenous athletes like Notah Begay III, a Native American and five-time winner on the PGA TOUR. Performers like Lily Gladstone, an actress raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana who was nominated for an Academy Award last year, have also raised awareness of the indigenous community.

“We have so many children who excel in sports that we're going places,” Paul says. “The world is opening up, and seeing all the indigenous – the actors, the soccer players, the lacrosse players, the hockey players, even Brandon Montour who played for Florida Panthers. He's from Six Nations.

“So, I think right there, it's opening up a world like this international stage.”

Rahontsá:waks expects to be nervous on Thursday at Royal Montreal. But he is hoping for a chance to see his favorite player, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, and pick up any pointers he can during his visit to the prestigious competition that began in 1994. He’s been a member of the Club 24 program since it started three years ago and recently started competing in nine-hole events.

“It’s really nerve-wracking,” says Rahontsá:waks, flashing an engaging smile. “I never really played competitive golf, but I liked it. I made new friendships with other kids, and I want to go back to playing them next year, too, or even the 18-hole tournaments.”

Rahontsá:waks, who also plays lacrosse and hockey, started going to the golf course with his older brother, Tehorahkwaneken, during the COVID-19 lockdown. Tehorahkwaneken, who was recently invited to play in an amateur tournament in Dubai, attended the Hernan Rey Golf Academy in Orlando for the last two years.

Paul has seen her younger son grow beyond simply mastering the rules and fundamentals of the game. At 12, he’s become more self-confident and mature than he once was.

“But you're still a kid,” she says. “(He’s learned) to play the game of golf and to have patience. … And that also golf is a mental game. And just for the love of golf to keep pursuing the game.”

According to Martin Barnard, CEO of the Golf Canada Foundation, the return of the Presidents Cup to Royal Montreal was the catalyst for the launch of First Tee – Canada. In a partnership announced in 2020, the PGA TOUR committed $250,000 to the effort, and the first chapters were created in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic a year later. There are now six chapters serving all 10 Canadian provinces.

“It is really a three-way partnership between Golf Canada, PGA TOUR and the Golf Canada Foundation, and that announcement really spurred all of this tremendous growth that's happened since 2020,” Barnard said. “When we launched, we had to sort of set about saying, ‘Okay, we need the support of the philanthropic community. We needed the support of some of the corporate partners that we had as well.’ …

“And last year we were thrilled to announce that we've reached more than 100,000 kids through the program in Canada and more than 19 million raised since that time.”

Barnard says First Tee, which uses the game of golf to develop character and life skills, works with its local chapters to make sure they bring kids from a variety of backgrounds into the program to “better represent the fabric of Canada.” The partnership with the Presidents Cup will only add to that legacy.

“It’ll be hundreds of thousands of kids, to be honest, that's affected by this announcement and by this tournament coming to Canada,” he says. “As you know, International Team Captain Mike Weir is an advocate for this. He's been amazing. He's given a ton of his time and energy into promoting First Tee. And so really at the end of the day, because the TOUR and the Presidents Cup got behind us, we were able to raise a lot of money.”

And many more kids like Rahontsá:waks will benefit.