Golf Behind Bars: Inside America’s Most Unlikely Golf Club

Golf Behind Bars: Inside America’s Most Unlikely Golf Club

He tried to put less power on it. Who’s next? Is this for you, Nick? Yeah. Oh my god. No, he’s just looking for reception. It’s okay. Hit that gun. What the It sounded like the ball. Don’t worry about round your club. Don’t plug your club up. Why in your opinion should inmates get a chance to play golf in prison? It’s not like any other sport I ever play because yeah, you’re with people, but it’s it’s you working on yourself and finding a way to beat the odds regardless of what’s happening. I still get a chance to come back and I get to improve on myself. This is the most unlikely golf club in America because to join this golf club, members must be paying off their debt to society. Cedar Creek Correction Center sits in the Washington Woods and is home to approximately 450 men who have less than 6 years left on their sentences. Some of their offenses are severe. Some of their time locked up has been long. Every Wednesday night inside Cedar Creek Correction Center, a dozen men trade prison life for tea boxes. I tell you, I tell you, we do golf from the real rough. The man running the place, Tim Thrasher, is a tattooed goatee Harley-Davidson driving former Army brat and a golfer. Oh, that’s what I’m talking about. Thrasher. That’s what I’m talking about. Mr. Thrasher, that’s on the money. Put a a flyer out in the units saying all the reasons you should golf and it’s golf is healthy. It allows you to challenge yourself. It’s relaxing. I I I put that out in the units. Um, and some of the responses were like, “I would really like to do this, but I I think you’re playing a joke on us.” What was the golf like on day one? It was a hot mess. It was I was scared cuz I I hadn’t gotten the foam balls yet, and so we were hitting real balls. Okay. In a confined space with some people that had never swung a club. I was like, “Oh, what? There’s no actual course here. Just a softball field, a carpet for a green, a wooden pallet for shots. It’s still short. And it will wait for you to grab the land on the gear mostly powered. Let’s go, Mike. They play for bragging rights and toiletries and a little bit of freedom. Charcoal toothpaste. Oh, that’s good stuff. Let’s do a trade. Got charcoal in it. Back up. There you go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Nico’s never played golf before. When I say the word golf, what do you think of? Think of Tiger Woods. I mean, like prior prior to to having this experience, all I knew was Tiger Woods. I didn’t know nothing else about the sport cuz you know where I come from, golf is not really a thing. And like even in the neighborhood I grew up in there’s a golf course like literally in the neighborhood but it’s like you just drive past that thing. You don’t even we don’t even I don’t even know I still to this day don’t even know how to get in there. Like where’s the door? Where’s the All we see is the gate and you know people will be on the carts and you just see it. But it’s just it’s just not a part of our culture. When you leave here, would you think of plan? Yeah, I definitely plan on hitting the greens when I when I touch them. Would you play that course you used to drive by? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I’m going there, too. Hey, uh, sit. Check me out. Toan, everyone calls him Zeus, is covered in tattoos, and says golf gives him integrity. Only way I can say it is I guess it it helps with my self image, personal uh thoughts, how I’m actually perceived by the world around me. You know, like I say, I forget I look like this and they cross out their own people. I’ve been in certain situations where people don’t want to talk to me. First impression is everything, right? So like if you never get a chance to talk to me or interact with me and you look at me, I look like something in the zoo, you know? I get that. So golf is actually giving me a chance to be around people that I probably wouldn’t. And it’s also given me a chance to uh I guess take an introspective look on the inside and realize that like yeah I look like this but it’s all about how I project myself on people you know because I can’t say when I was younger I was different you know that’s the best way to say it. I was different and now I’m completely different you know. Oh god. God, it sounded good. And Rodren, the mouth of the south. You’ve used all your words up. No. Best player here. And happy to tell you. So, how good are you compared to the other guys here? Absolute best. All right. I’m not being arrogant. They don’t. They just beginning. So, okay. Um, I’m about maybe right now about a 13, but I play till a seven or eight, but I’ve been locked up for almost three years. Like I said, the best game in the world. I mean, and to watch these guys do it, you know what I’m saying? To watch these guys learn to play golf is good, too, cuz when they get out and everybody say, “Hey, you know, Neil, can we go play golf? You teach me this and that.” It’s fun because they look at us differently. We’re locked up. We paid our debt to society and some people don’t even approve of us doing this, which is a great thing. If you want to get us back into the the community and acclimate us back, you have to do stuff like like Thrash is doing golf at Cedar Creek breaks down prison politics. It teaches patience. There you go. Uhoh. Come on. Come on. A little bit more. And it gives these men something to look forward to. You stay up here. That’d be awesome. Order. Golf is the secondary byproduct of this. It’s about golf, but it’s not. It’s about idleness reduction. Um being active, um learning a new hobby. Um the one of the biggest parts is bringing people together that normally wouldn’t be associating with each other just by the nature of prison. And you you know our group’s a very diverse group. It it doesn’t get any more diverse than that. Part of my job is to ensure we’re operating a safe and um secure facility, but it is also to make sure that we’re running a facility that is has hope and is full of humanity. But they stare at a grim statistic. Last year, twothirds of released inmates in the US returned to prison. Cedar Creek’s golf club so far, zero. It’s early, but promising. That’s one of the main things that keeps me coming back. The the toughness of the game, how hard it is to actually play. It’s It’s difficult. All of it’s difficult, but I feel like what we practice on the most is what we get better at. And then thinking that we might be good at everything, it doesn’t really work out that way. You got to really practice everything. In July, five players left prison to play a real course. First ever real outing. Four holes. Officers followed inmates. First T-ball. It’s definitely going to go somewhere in the fairway up or on the a little bit left on the roof, but it’s not going to be in the rough. We can guarantee you that. Take a take this and take a good We’re going to cut two right now. Your first T- shot, so it better be good on the course. Rodren strip the first fairway out of these two. Over the sand trap. Over the sand trap or straight to the green one. Doug, which one would you want to play? Doug, I’d want to play mine on the rough. I had it popped up. I have to go with the decision. He’s the boss. Good shot. Good shot. We’re going up here. No. Yeah. Mine is better than that, right? No, his is a little bit further. If we all would have hit from my spot, we wouldn’t have this problem. Huh? Is that right? For a few hours, they weren’t inmates. They were golfers. I I thought I was free. Yeah. I was out here with Mitch. I was you guys. I’m like, man, this we should do this more often. We could have played nine holes. You know, it would have it would have been nice, but nine holes be forever with these guys. be 12 hours. But it was just beautiful, man. It’s a beautiful day. You guys came and see us. And did you ever think you’d be here talking to a prisoner about golf? Today was DLC taking a chance on a bunch of guys with a with felonies to come out here and do the right thing and have some fun and and and didn’t do the Washington way, which uh which is good. Um Mr. Thrasher is all for the Washington way. Unfortunately, some people in DLC don’t believe in the washing away. The captain, the rasher, everybody out here believes in the washing away. Us getting to know them, them getting to know us, and just blonding like that instead of it’s always them against us, us against them. On the van ride over, Thrasher asked when they’d all be released. He was already planning another golf trip for everyone on the outside. And for a moment, it felt like they already were. Thrasher, I can’t wait to get out to kick his butt. Can’t wait. Him and Doug Doug’s my boss at maintenance. Okay. Like it does give me some a form of therapy to come up here and be like, “Okay, I can I’m about to go golf.” You know, like I never thought I’d be golfing like let alone again in prison. So, so it definitely it definitely it definitely puts my mind out there and out there in a better environment, you know, like this is something you see don’t see people where I come from doing. So, it’s is it definitely puts me back on the streets but in a better situation. A lot of people don’t understand what happens in prison and a lot of people don’t care and I and I get that. Um, but it’s our reality and we these guys live here and we work here and uh we we um were really good at correcting behavior, but um I think we can be really good and great at celebrating people’s successes, too. You can make money with that train four times. I’m quitting. Okay, there you go. Okay, you made contact. All right, I’m up. Okay, easy to follow up next.

At Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Washington, golf has become more than a game, it’s a second chance.

Inside this minimum-security prison, superintendent Tim Thrasher started the Cedar Creek Golf Club: a program that teaches inmates patience, discipline, and respect through golf.

Every Wednesday night, 12 men pick up borrowed clubs, hit foam balls across a makeshift range, and talk about the same things golfers talk about anywhere — good shots, bad shots, and what’s next.

In this GOLF Magazine Original, meet Nico, Tejuan, and Rodron, three inmates whose time in the program has changed how they see themselves and the world outside. And follow their first-ever trip beyond the prison walls to play a real round at The Home Course.

Full Written Story by Nick Piastowski here: https://www.golf.com/news/i-golfing-prison-second-chance/
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