June 19, 2020 —Keep pressing ahead; keep getting better; keep advancing; keep moving the ball down the fairway. Those are the lessons that Mackenzie Mack, the Associate Executive Director for the First Tee of Tennessee in Memphis and Co-Site Director for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, imparts on her students.
She is only marginally talking about golf.
Mack, an LPGA Professionals member who was honored as the LPGA National Junior Golf Leader of the Year in 2018, is almost always cheerful, upbeat and positive, exactly the kind of role model the youth who come through The First Tee need. She changes golf swings, to be sure. But she also changes lives.
The fact that she is an African American woman is secondary, even at a time when race and gender seem to be at the forefront of every discussion. Mackenzie Mack is an inspiration, a leader, the kind of coach who will live in the minds and actions of her students long after she is gone.
She is the kind of person the world needs in this time.
“I started playing when I was about 7 years old,” Mack said. “Mom put my sister and me in just about every sport she could think of. We were busy all the time. So, she put us in gymnastics and as we were in class, Mom sat next to the local head pro’s wife who suggested that we try golf. My gymnastics skills weren’t all that that great, so Mom took us down to the Las Vegas Golf Club and we started taking lessons as a family.”
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Like most seven-year-olds, Mack was ambivalent about golf. It was just another activity, one of many she tried as a kid. Then she played in her first tournament – the first time she ever made it onto the course – and she was hooked.
“From there, I played all throughout high school and played college golf at Indiana State,” she said.
Mack received her degree and earned an MBA with the Sycamores. Then she tried playing professionally a spell, which led her to relocate to Tampa, before taking a job with The First Tee. As straightforward as that career sounds, it was anything but simple for a black woman.
Read more at LPGA.com
Mackenzie Mack, AAGD Cover (Spring/Summer 2016)
