D’yan Robinson
practices at The
First Tee’s facility
in downtown
Richmond.
Growing
Golf Opportunities
for Girls
THE VSGA’S FLEMING FUND AND FIRST TEE CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE HELP
JUNIOR GIRLS JUMP START THEIR GOLF CAREERS
D
’YAN ROBINSON MADE THE DECISION that golf
would be her No. 1 sport when she was an 11-year-old
sixth grader.
She had been playing tennis since she was 5 years old and golf
since she was 6.
The choice to focus on golf was a good one, even though she still
plays tennis, pole vaults and high jumps for her middle school’s
indoor track team, in addition to playing the violin and piano.
“I realized how much better I was getting at it,” D’yan, now 14,
said of her golf game.
As a reward for her hard work on the golf course and devotion
to the nine core values of The First Tee program, The First Tee
of Greater Richmond nominated the eighth grader at Collegiate
School in Richmond for the VSGA Fleming Fund scholarship to
attend the Jan Mann Tar Heel Golf Camp in Chapel Hill, N.C., this
past summer. She received it, and went to the camp, which is for
junior girls serious about the game and looking to play in college.
It is a residential camp, and for D’yan, it was the first time she had
been away from home overnight.
“I was a little nervous and skeptical about sending her, but when
she said she had the opportunity, I said, well, you’re a little older
now. Let’s go and do it,” her mother Denise Robinson said.
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Mom and daughter had done research on the Fleming Fund
an d saw how it targeted junior girls, and mom knew about the Tar
Heel camp.
“My first thought was my daughter does so many amazing things,
and now all of a sudden, it’s all coming together. … The scholarship
exposed her to more things that we don’t normally get a chance to
get to on a regular day, and she was able to do it,” said Denise Rob-
inson, who does all the driving for D’yan’s activities.
The Fleming Fund provided 18 camp tuition scholarships for
junior girls (ages 10–17) this past summer. D’yan was one of four
recipients who attended the Tar Heel camp. Thirteen girls attended
the VSGA Fleming Fund Girls Golf Camp at Wintergreen Resort.
One girl received a scholarship that helped defray expenses to a
camp in Florida during spring break.
“The Jan Mann camp really opened me up to different things in
golf,” said D’yan, a sponge for anything and everything to do with
golf. “As long as it’s meaningful.”
She worked on every aspect of her game under the tutelage of
college coaches, and when her camp stay concluded, she was the
recipient of the “Coach’s Award.”
D’yan plays at the Chesterfield and Richmond First Tee facili-
ties, something Emily Weinstein, vice president of programming
vsga.org
by ARTHUR UTLEY