Youth on Course member Allison Chan was featured in the 2024 PGA TOUR Community Impact Report. Read the article below.
At first, golf was a chance for Allison Chan to spend time with her dad Derek. She was 4 or 5 when she started going with him to the driving range at Bing Maloney, an 18-hole public course with an executive nine near her home in Sacramento, California.
Within a couple of years, she started competing. The 14-year-old has her sights set on earning a college scholarship and, from there, a potential professional career.
Helping Allison realize her dreams is Youth on Course, which not only ensures its members can play rounds for $5 or less, but also offers mentorship, internships and leadership development. The non-profit is supported by the Barracuda Championship, the PGA TOUR event played about 90 minutes from her home. As of 2024, the Reno-Tahoe Open Foundation – the non-profit organization that oversees the annual TOUR event – has donated over $5.2 million to charities since inception.
Allison has been a member of Youth on Course since she was 7 years old. And the teenager will attend the Stevenson School on the Monterey Peninsula in the fall where her Youth on Course options include legendary Spyglass Hill, the Links at Spanish Bay and Del Monte Golf Course.
But Allison does more than just play golf. She helps other youngsters learn to love the game through the DRIVE Club at Youth on Course.
“I give them tips out there, but I think the whole goal is just to introduce them and show them that the game of golf is a really great sport and that it can take you places, too,” she said.
Allison also got to caddie at the Barracuda Championship this year thanks to Youth on Course. She was in the same group with PGA TOUR player and Sacramento’s Joseph Bramlett, with whom she shares a coach, and treated the day as a learning experience as much as to have fun.
“My coach showed him my swing and he said it looked really good,” said a delighted Allison, who also helped raise money for Youth on Course by playing in its Hundred Hole Hike.