First Tee juniors get chance to play Pebble Beach at PURE Insurance Championship

Sometimes, it’s worth following in your brother’s footsteps.

Such is the case for 16-year-old Morgan Riley, who will be one of 80 members of the First Tee program nationally who will play with the pros of PGA TOUR Champions at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach this weekend.

Morgan’s older brother, Quinn, played in the same event in 2015. Both brothers were selected to participate out of the First Tee - Triangle program in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Quinn, 23, was shepherded into the program at an early age, and his success on and off the course led Morgan to join the First Tee by the time he was 5.

Their mother, Denise, gets emotional talking about the impact the program has had on both of her sons.

“The First Tee creates lifelong mentors and friendships,” she said. “As a white person raising two black boys, they needed someone else’s voice. The program has a motto, ‘Building Game Changers’ … both of my boys want to change the narrative around black people golfing.

“And this event … what they leave with is not another round of golf, it’s a feeling that whey will keep for the rest of their life and carry with confidence and conviction in how they go about golf. It’s transformative because of the attention and acknowledgment they receive in their passion for the sport from all of the sponsors and the pros.”

Quinn, who earned a full scholarship to play golf at Duke and finished there last year, went to Pebble when he was 15.

“It was a pretty special experience because coming from North Carolina, you’re not used to seeing the West Coast and the golf courses, let alone Pebble Beach,” Quinn said. “Seeing a golf course you grew up playing on video games and never thought you’d play a professional event out there, it was amazing. Also just being around the legends on PGA TOUR Champions that week kind of was like the first week I knew I wanted to be a professional golfer.”

Quinn, who has status on PGA TOUR Canada and also has been playing APGA events, played with Corey Pavin when he played at the PGA TOUR Champions Pebble event in 2015. Denise said Quinn outdrove Pavin a couple of times and received nothing but encouragement from the pro.

Now, it’s Morgan’s turn, and he’ll be paired with Tim O’Neal, who has become a friend and mentor to Quinn as a man of color who is in his first season on PGA TOUR Champions. Morgan might not want to plan on outdriving O’Neal, who ranks second on the Champions Tour in driving distance (306.5 yards).

“I’ve known Quinn for about a year now, and I’m excited to play with Morgan,” O’Neal said. “I think we’re going to have an awesome time.”

“It means a lot to me, to get the opportunity to play with Champions Tour pros,” said Morgan, a junior at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh. “This experience will be a week I’ll never forget. I got to watch my brother do it and now I’m doing it eight years later. It’s a full-circle event for my family.”

Quinn played an event in California last week and was at Pebble when Morgan and Denise arrived for the PURE Insurance Championship. The brothers were able to practice some together, and Quinn said he helped Morgan with what to hit off the tees at Spyglass Hill.

Neither of the brothers seems to believe Morgan will be nervous this weekend. They say he has been in enough big events that he should be prepared.

“Maybe they’ll be some nerves on the first tee,” Morgan said. “But I plan on just taking my brother’s advice and having fun, take it all in and enjoy it. Listen to the advice from the pros, and enjoy the views.”