Week 5: Translating Through the Data

Hello, and welcome back to the blog! If you remember from last week, I started my interview process on Saturdays at the golf course, beginning the experiment with my immediate network of coaches and volunteers. Especially after getting a lot of rejections in the last week, I figured that I had to try something different to find an interview group. So, with the help of my internship advisor, I approached Lena, First Tee’s head of Latino outreach, to bypass some of the ‘Costco employee’ rejections I’d been facing. While I did conduct an interview with her, I was also able to get her help in identifying my next batch of interviewees, who could provide a different perspective from the somewhat redundant experiences that I heard from teenage coaches.

I was immediately able to reap the benefits of this strategy shift, as I completed multiple interviews across the course of the day with Lena’s help. The major difference, this time, was that I had to interview in Spanish. Now, while I can ask my questions with an adequate pronunciation and understand the majority of the Spanish answers, I know that I probably shouldn’t rely on my high school Spanish proficiency. Thus, Lena was nice enough to act as my translator after doing her interview, and she introduced me to the Hispanic regulars who volunteered with the program on Saturdays.

The first big thing that I noticed while conducting these interviews is that, contrary to my assumptions, the majority of them passionately wanted to speak to me. While I could feel like the conversation was naturally dying with some earlier participants around the 7-minute mark, these parents continued on for fifteen or even twenty minutes, talking about their children and how they’ve found a new home within golf and the First Tee. In fact, Lena told me that when she recently did two outreach sessions in Alum Rock (one in English and one in Spanish), she couldn’t finish the Spanish presentations because parents would constantly start discussions about their children midway through the segment. That passion, even if it was hidden behind a Spanish barrier, is exactly the type of interviewee I’ve been searching for, and I’m excited to work with her in the coming weeks to hear as many of these stories as possible.

Especially with the parent perspective, I’m learning that attraction to the First Tee and golf in general is much more decentralized than I initially thought. In my first blog post, I talked a lot about the Tiger effect, but these interviews have demonstrated that the current influx can’t be attributed to one person or event. The ‘role models’ and influences aren’t the guys we see on tour — it’s the next-door neighbor, community leader, or even their own kids who make these parents give golf a try. Many of the parents who I spoke to talked about their community’s introduction to the game being gradual, with one person spreading First Tee to the next person, and so on. If anything, this idea of a single moment getting people on the golf course is something I can confidently debunk. While the reasoning isn’t so concrete, I can determine that the influx we’re seeing today is just a result of years of slow interest bubbling to the surface.

As I continue my interviews, both in Spanish and English, and get access to the demographic data, I hope that all of these ideas that I have will only have more evidence to back them up. Thanks so much, and tune in next week!