1 video you should watch today: Golf Behind Bars

Your time is valuable, but I’m confident you have a spare 15 minutes today, and conveniently for you I know exactly how you should spend it:

Watching this GOLF.com Features video, expertly crafted by writer Nick Piastowski and producer Darren Riehl.

Why, you ask? I’ll explain in brief.

Because like any good feature, this one takes you somewhere you’ve never been. In fact, it takes you somewhere you’ll very likely never go: inside the walls of a prison where golf is part of the rehabilitation process. 

On Wednesday nights, the softball diamond inside the barbed-wire fences of the minimum-security prison — which happens to be tucked into the tall evergreen hills of western Washington — turns into a golf course, with one green, a turf mat and used clubs. 

What it lacks in aesthetic doesn’t matter. What it means is far greater than anything else. Just ask one inmate, named Tejuan, who knew there would be some sort of sporting option in prison. He just figured it would look a lot different.

“It’s never something that could actually advance you in life, like golf could actually advance you in life,” Tejuan says. “Just the principles that you apply when you play golf. Then when you apply that to your life — and also just the socialization that you actually get when you go to golf courses.

“There’s a different element at golf courses. There’s a different lifestyle that comes with playing golf. It’s an expensive sport, so you have to actually have a job. You have to pay for everything. So it keeps you working. It’s not like anything else, and it also, I’ll say, gives you a leg up.” 

Piastowski and Riehl have been working on this story for months. My favorite part was hearing from an inmate who will be released soon, talking about his golf plans on the outside. 

Check it out below.

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