Stephany Barbosa: A First Tee Story

Seventeen-year-old Stephany Barbosa, whose father left Mexico with a third-grade education to raise his family in the United States where he is now a naturalized citizen, is at Pebble Beach this week as one of the First Tee participants teeing it up in the PGA Tour Champions Pure Insurance Championship.

Four years ago, Barbosa’s brother Mariano – the first family member to graduate high school and now a junior college golfer in west Texas – played in the same event, spending the better part of a week playing alongside the Champions stars on the Monterey Peninsula.

Stephany Barbosa

Now, it’s his sister’s turn.

“I’m kind of nervous because it’s on TV but I’m really excited to play,” Barbosa said by phone recently.

It was a brilliant idea years ago to pair youngsters from First Tee programs around the country with Champions tour players. Putting them together at Pebble Beach, well, that’s a bucket list item for golfers of any age.

It wasn’t that long ago that Harold Varner III was one of the First Tee kids who earned a ...