Whether it was during the 45 years he spent standing over a dentist's chair or the four decades he has been actively promoting golf to his patients, Charles Spragg has always considered himself to be a man of action. When other dentists in Findlay, Ohio were too busy to take walk-in patients suffering from acute pain, Spragg made time for them. In the meantime he built a lucrative practice because people knew they could depend on him. Likewise, as an avid golfer, he recognized years ago that there was a need to promote the game to area kids as he watched interest in other youth sports soar. So he started a series of clinics and tournaments that got kids off the couch and onto the golf course.
Although he retired and sold his practice four years ago, Spragg still is the defacto Godfather of youth golf in northwestern Ohio. The Findlay Area Golf Association he started for local kids is celebrating its 40th year, and at age 74, Spragg is in his inaugural season as boys golf coach at Findlay High School.
Despite his efforts to promote the game, Spragg has watched golfer participation slip consistently, not only among adults but also in the youth league he founded 40 years ago. Participation at the high school level also is down, and there is a dearth of talent in the junior high ranks. In a refocused effort to generate interest in golf, Spragg, in mid-September, started an after-school program that offers clinics and lessons and a chance to play nine holes on a donation-only basis. No experience is needed, nor are one's own clubs. All Spragg wants in return is for kids to give the game a fair chance and to have fun while they are there. He solicited his junior varsity coach as well as the girls high school coach to help him teach kids how to hold the clubs properly, how to putt and chip and how to strike the ball.
"We just want campers. No experience, no clubs," Spragg said.
"We don't even want the money. We want the players. At any skill level."
The clinics are held at Shady Grove, a par-3 facility with a large practice area as well as a putt-putt course. Shady Grove owner Scott Malloy, who was a state qualifier on Findlay High's golf teams in the mid 1970s, provides kids with various clubs and more than 4,000 balls to hit from various putting, chipping and hitting stations around the practice area.
"Dr. Spragg and I have been talking for a while about trying to do something to get kids interested," Malloy said. "He told me when he took over the golf team that it wasn't doing well, and there aren't a lot of good players in the pipeline.
"We have to do something to get the kids interested, and this is the perfect course to do it at."
Only six players showed up for the first rain-plagued event, and they were unceremoniously sent home. The next day, Spragg's high school team was en route to a match when he discussed fading interest in the game among children with the driver of the team's van. The driver, who also is a sixth grade math teacher at a Findlay junior high school, drafted a flier and had it distributed to students in three middle schools throughout the city. Since then, the program attracted 61 kids in two weeks. Some are accomplished players, and some never have held a club before.
"You can tell a lot of the kids have never played before, and that's OK. That's who we want," Malloy said. "We've seen some coming back on other days, either on the driving range or even playing golf, and of course, that's what we're really looking for."
As the founder of the Findlay Area Golf Association, which has been providing local children of all ages and skill levels with clinics and instruction, nine holes of tournament play and even a hot dog lunch for less than 15 bucks ($18 for 18 holes), Spragg has had a hand in promoting the game to hundreds of kids with varying levels of interest. The program even provides scholarship assistance for graduating high school seniors who have played in the system for at least three years. And the list of players who have gone through the program includes former PGA Tour player and current University of Cincinnati men's golf coach Doug Martin, former University of Michigan women's coach Cheryl Stacy and dozens of others who have gone on to compete at the high school and even college levels. Despite his efforts, Spragg has watched golfer participation slip consistently, not only among adults but also in his own youth league, prompting him to team with the owner of a local golf course in an attempt to rejuvenate kids' interest in the game.Why does a retiree, who divides his calendar between northwestern Ohio and Bradenton, Florida and has the time and resources to play as much golf as he wants to, spend his time motivating and teaching other people's children?
Part of it is self-fulfillment. He also figures if he doesn't do something to help revive the game, who will?
"You ask why. I answer why not?" Spragg said. "I'm not knocking those that run, own, teach, or in any way are connected to golf. But, I've been talking to these people all over the country for a number of years. They all want The First Tee or someone else to do the work. If a golf course loses rounds of play as they have; do you just talk about it? If a teaching pro just looses clients/students; do you just talk about it?
"When I was in practice as a dentist, I constantly did things to attract new patients. I took toothache patients when my office was full and found a way to take care of their problem. I had a really good practice and sold it to a young dentist who thinks the same way I did."
His spirit of giving back is something that his parents instilled in him years ago when Spragg was growing up on the family dairy farm in Bridgeport, Ohio.
"I believe that when you get up in the morning you need something that makes you feel needed in this world," Spragg said. "I have never been one to join clubs, hang out with the guys. I was trained early in life to be a doer; to help others; and to make the place you live a better place than when you arrived."