GEN NEXT
A Youth Mental Fitness Program: Connecting Golf to Life.
“The main idea in golf as in life, I suppose is to learn to accept what cannot be altered and to keep on doing one’s own reasoned and resolute best whether the prospect be bleak or rosy.”
— Bobby Jones
How does Generation Next Project make an impact?
Generation Next Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening youth mental health through the game of golf. Founded by Robert Jones Black, great-grandson of legendary golfer and Augusta National founder Bobby Jones, the organization blends golf’s lessons of discipline, resilience, and focus with evidence-based mental wellness practices to prepare young people for challenges on and off the course.
The centerpiece of the initiative is Change Your Course, an experiential program that mirrors real-life pressures through golf scenarios such as first tee jitters, pressure putts, and risk versus reward decisions. These on-course challenges are paired with lessons in intentional thinking, emotional regulation, and self-assessment—skills that improve both performance and overall well-being.
Delivered through one-day programs, immersive retreats, and licensed partnerships with golf clubs, schools, and junior organizations, Change Your Course provides participants with hands-on training, guided group discussions, and individualized support. Tools such as the Green Book workbook, the 9-Hole Challenge, and one-on-one sessions with clinical psychologist Dr. Karla Steingraber extend the program’s impact. A digital community platform further connects participants, families, and coaches, ensuring ongoing access to resources and peer support.
Generation Next’s vision is not to elevate golf itself, but to use golf as a powerful vehicle for teaching mental strategies and life skills. Through partnerships with corporations, schools, community groups, and families, the organization expands access to experiential programs that build confidence, resilience, and emotional awareness in young people. Support from these partners enables scholarships, retreats, and curriculum development, ensuring that lessons once learned on the course extend into everyday life.
At its heart, Generation Next Project lives by its guiding belief: teach the mental game, through the game of golf, for the game of life. Golf is the classroom, the lesson is resilience, and the outcome is a generation of young people better equipped to perform under pressure, manage emotions, and thrive both on the course and in life.
Impact Through Legacy:
Robert Jones Black has spent years in the sports industry acknowledging his lineage and assisting with the legacy growth of Bobby Jones. In many circumstances of generational transfer, the 3rd generation is often the generation that faces the task of reevaluating where the family business is and where it will go. In this case, Bobby Jones provided the world not only an incredible golf career, but also numerous examples of emotional intelligence, sacrifice, and dealing with adversity. But the amazing thing is that his examples are still celebrated today in the game of golf. Our goal is to bridge those lessons and his story to today’s youth so that 100 years from now, Robert Jones Black’s great grandson is formulating the new legacy impact.
Impact Through Donations:
Driven by the ethics and character of Bobby Jones, the foundation understands that true change cannot come from robust operational spending. Our strategic partners help reduces the operational burden from Generation Next so that a minimum of 75% of the funding can go directly to measurable output. Our mission and role in this generational impact plan relies strongly on the relationship of our donors. We take pride in each and every person or entity that supports the cause and will provide performance reports to ensure that every dollar spent is supporting our mission statement. We are taking an additional step to utilize a DAF to further stretch the donated dollars, adding up to 10% of the value of a donation.
Impact Through Golf:
The foundation will leverage the sport of golf at the amateur, professional, brand, and property levels. We certainly understand that the sport itself can always use programs that provide access to the game. But golf is symbolic to our core issue: social and emotional development. Bobby Jones once said, “The main idea in golf as in life, I suppose, is to learn to accept what cannot be altered and to keep on doing one’s own reasoned and resolute best whether the prospect be bleak or rosy.” It is a beautiful link between our mission and his writings. Because golf is a sport played by an individual, there is the necessary ability to understand and control emotion. It’s this exact relationship between golf and life we are leveraging to help parents and kids.
The Generation Next Project
Generation Next Project is on a mission to make a positive and direct impact on youth mental health, giving teens, parents and coaches the necessary tools and communication skills to thrive in today’s world, through the game of golf.