MIDLOTHIAN — The Virginia State Golf Association has announced the creation of a Military Scholarship, which will debut in spring 2024 in conjunction with VSGA-VIP Scholarship Foundation awards for the 2024 academic year.
Initial funding for the Military Scholarship will come from the VSGA, but the Scholarship Foundation is seeking individual and corporate donors to help fund the scholarship for future years.
To be eligible for the Military Scholarship, students must be dependents of active-duty or retired members of the military. In addition, as for all Foundation scholarships, Military Scholarship applicants must be high school seniors who live in Virginia, have an interest in or connection to golf, and plan to enroll in an undergraduate program.
“The VSGA is delighted to offer this new scholarship for military dependents,” VSGA President Anne Greever said. “Virginia is home to thousands of active duty and retired military members and their families, and this scholarship is just one of many ways we hope to enhance the VSGA’s services to the golfers among them. We believe this new scholarship will open the door to greatly improved and mutually beneficial connections between the VSGA and military golfers and their families.”
The following factors will be used to determine scholarship recipients from the pool of eligible candidates:
- All-around resume, including:
- Academics
- Extracurricular activities
- Golf involvement
- Need for/impact of scholarship
- Impact that golf has had on their life as a military child
The Military Scholarship is a result of a focus area from the current VSGA Strategic Plan—to collaborate with the military golf community to create mutual value. The VSGA formed a Military Engagement Group in late 2022 and the group has been focused on identifying ways that the VSGA can better serve military golf courses and military golfers and their dependents across Virginia. In addition, retired military member Tyler Schaff has served as a Military Outreach Coordinator for the VSGA and has spent the year visiting military golf courses and golfers to identify opportunities to collaborate.
Besides the Military Scholarship, the VSGA is piloting several other military-focused programs. Included are the Youth on Course Stars & Stripes club (complimentary memberships for military dependents), the recent Military Appreciation Package (hat and bag tag), and the upcoming Military Appreciation Day (golf outing on October 19th at Eaglewood Golf Course at Langley AFB).
Members of the Military Engagement Group include Greever and VSGA board members Jim Gallagher and Duncan Hardcastle. Both Gallagher and Hardcastle are retired military and provided unique insight to the group.
“There is a rich golf tradition and great camaraderie among military golfers in Virginia,” Gallagher said. “I couldn’t be more pleased to extend this opportunity to promote golf among military dependents, especially with the broad support of the VSGA.”
Added Hardcastle: “I’m proud, thankful, and lucky to have been introduced to golf by some soldiers I worked with at Fort Carson, Colo., in 1986. … Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the game would become a significant part of my life through the friendships and acquaintances that developed over the years.”
Please contact the VSGA with eligibility questions or to find out how to support the scholarship. In addition, tax-deductible donations can be made online at vsga.org/engage/donate.
The recipient of the first Military Scholarship will be honored with other VSGA-VIP Scholarship recipients at VSGA Scholarship Day in May 2024. Applications for all scholarships will open in Fall 2023.
Since 1984, the VSGA-VIP Scholarship Foundation has awarded over $2.8 million to more than 1,100 students with an interest in golf. In 2023, the Foundation presented awards to 33 high-school students and four graduate students in the Virginia Tech Turfgrass program.