And some of the inmates are part of a radical social experiment: that golf can serve as rehabilitation for those whom society would rather forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they would prefer for you to call it Cedar Creek Golf Club.<\/p>\n
The prison superintendent is Tim Thrasher, a tattooed, goateed, Harley Davidson-driving former Army brat. But he is also a golfer, a golf romantic, really, the type who believes in the game\u2019s rules and etiquette and that sort of thing, which led him to think that there would be no better activity for Cedar Creek. After all, the goal is for tenants to leave its walls equipped to be your next-door neighbors again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then again, Thrasher is placing woods and irons in the hands of inmates. Weapons. Isn\u2019t that naive? Foolhardy?\u00a0<\/p>\n
And isn\u2019t prison designed to punish?\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what this country wants, one expert says. A \u201ctough on crime\u201d stance means no games, and certainly not golf, stereotyped to be the pastime of the elite.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not effective, says Professor Kimora, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York<\/a> who has studied and worked at prisons throughout the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThose guys are a small minority of people that are actually probably going to do extremely well when they get out,\u201d she said. \u201cNot just survive, they\u2019re going to thrive because of what they\u2019re doing. That\u2019s how valuable what\u2019s going on here is.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s so rare.\u201d<\/p>\n Thrasher started CCGC about three years ago. And about a year and a half ago, Nico got curious. His old neighborhood has a golf course, though he said he had questions. Do you just pull up and play? What does it cost? Where do you start? So he would only drive past.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking from my own personal experiences, this is new,\u201d Nico said. \u201cI\u2019m 30 years old and this is completely new. And it\u2019s always something you see as prestige for me. So it\u2019s like, OK, I\u2019m in this situation and it does give me a form of therapy to come up here and be like, OK, I\u2019m about to go golf.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be golfing, let alone in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Now if only Nico could hit that driver. He tried a fourth time.\u00a0<\/p>\n After he shoved away his hair again, his inked forearms muscled the club toward the ball \u2014 and it took flight. His fellow golfers, all dressed in the prison\u2019s garb of white T-shirts and tan pants, cheered.\u00a0So did Thrasher. He was leaning up against a 15-foot fence rimmed with barbed wire a few feet away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Darren Riehl <\/p>\n TEJUAN\u2019S BALL WENT OVER THE FENCE. Everyone calls him Zeus, and of course a dude called Zeus can clear that fence. His swing is whippy but governed. Besides playing golf, he lifts, and he prays. Inmates remind him of his shorter height, but he plays along \u2014 he also asks Thrasher when the kiddie clubs are coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what you see first is the ink. It\u2019s all over Tejuan. On his shaved head. His face. His arms. He has operated tattoo parlors all over the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n He says the silent part out loud: \u201cI definitely don\u2019t look like your average golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n Then again, who does here?\u00a0<\/p>\n The routine is dull at Cedar Creek. Inmates rise around 5:30 a.m., from either a one- or two-bedroom unit without bars. They go to work on construction, maintenance and outdoors jobs, among others. Classes are available. Therapy, too. Drugs are a constant worry. Downtime is spent in various ways, though pickleball is king.\u00a0<\/p>\n And golf is played.\u00a0<\/p>\n By Tejuan.<\/p>\n He still seems awed by the idea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNever in a million years,\u201d he said. \u201cNever. Never.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n He had heard prison stories. He knew the prison stereotypes. He expected four-letter words, just not \u201cg-o-l-f.\u201d He thought he might play football, like in \u201cThe Longest Yard.\u201d Never golf.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never something that could actually advance you in life, like golf could actually advance you in life,\u201d Tejuan said. \u201cJust the principles that you apply when you play golf. Then when you apply that to your life, you know, and also just the socialization that you actually get when you go to golf courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a different element at golf courses. There\u2019s a different lifestyle that comes with playing golf. It\u2019s an expensive sport, so you have to actually have a job. You have to pay for everything. So it keeps you working. It\u2019s not like anything else, and it also, I\u2019ll say, gives you a leg up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n To be clear, there is golf inside Cedar Creek, but there is no golf course. The participants gather on a softball field during the summer and in a gym the rest of the year. Play is from 6:30 to 8:30 every Wednesday night; a confirmation is sent over email, and a few minutes before things start, an announcement crackles the yard speakers: \u201cLast call for golfers.\u201d They hit pitch shots first, with foam balls, to a carpeted green guarded by a small bunker on its back-right side. Then 75-yard shots, atop a wooden pallet fitted with a green mat. Finally, they hit drives toward the left-field fence and towering Washington pines. (Balls that carry the obstacle are eventually picked up by prison guards \u2014 and dropped outside of Thrasher\u2019s office.) Everything is a competition, and experience varies. The winners earn toiletries, a prized possession in prison. Smack is given to all. Even to Thrasher, who also plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n To Tejuan, golf is new. His grandfather once tried to teach him, but that was short-lived after Tejuan mostly kicked the golf balls. Recently, he reconnected with his son after a seven-year separation, and they talked golf. His son watched a local news report on Cedar Creek\u2019s program, and there was his dad, playing golf, on TV. He felt proud. Dad, too. No matter that he was playing golf inside a prison.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n No matter his appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Golf, he said, has given him the chance \u201cto be around people that I probably wouldn\u2019t.\u201d The reverse could be true there, too \u2014 those people probably wouldn\u2019t have been around him, either. That\u2019s changed him. He had once built up hostility. But with golf and its interactions, that feels lessened now. That\u2019s freeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way I can say it is I guess it helps with my self-image, my personal thoughts on how I\u2019m actually perceived by the world around me,\u201d Tejuan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLike I say, I forget I look like this. I\u2019ve been in certain situations where people don\u2019t want to talk to me. \u2026 First impression is everything. 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 a zoo. You know, I get that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Darren Riehl <\/p>\n SHOULD INMATES BE ALLOWED TO PLAY GOLF? Thrasher has heard that one regularly. But maybe that question can be answered with another question:<\/p>\n Should former inmates be allowed to play golf with their prison superintendent?\u00a0<\/p>\n Brandon has. He played in CCGC while incarcerated, and on a recent Sunday afternoon, he played nine holes on a real course with Thrasher. He was nervous; it was his first actual round in years, and, as he put it, \u201cwhen you\u2019re part of the criminal underworld, you don\u2019t exactly have time for golf.\u201d Brandon dressed like a Tour pro \u2014 red Titleist hat, a white polo shirt, blue pants \u2014 though Thrasher wondered if the patriotic-looking ensemble was a nod to the late Hulk Hogan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Thrasher, who\u2019s a single-digit handicap, also told Brandon on the sixth tee that if he could beat him on just one hole on the way in, he would give him one of the T-shirts he recently had made for CCGC. Thrasher\u2019s first shot found water; Brandon laid up. Game on. But Brandon\u2019s second shot also found water after he topped it. Then he chunked one. Thrasher grabbed his phone and hit the play button. David Bowie and Freddie Mercury began to sing<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pressure Yeah, yeah, Brandon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every inmate, present or past, wants to beat Thrasher, and he loves it more than he loves making birdies. He has been around the game his whole life. Mom worked at a course. Dad taught him how to play. His dad also once worked with the father of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. But if you\u2019re talking \u201990\u2019s Seattle music, Thrasher is an Alice in Chains guy. And a Vegas guy; last month, he went to see a fight. But golf is his thing, and when he was hired as Cedar Creek\u2019s superintendent in 2022, he wondered about bringing the game with him. He watched the inmates. He talked with the staff. Thrasher hung flyers, about 75 inmates responded, and 15 were chosen. Opening day came in October 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA hot mess,\u201d Thrasher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n They made tweaks \u2014 the wisest among them: using foam balls for indoor play \u2014 but most of the equipment remains his, and the time he invests in the program is also his own. CCGC also has pick \u2019em pools for all of the majors, and, over popcorn and Gatorade, they watch Netflix\u2019s \u201cFull Swing,\u201d<\/a> then review it. Naturally, they are enthralled by the story of pro Ryan Peake<\/a>, who spent five years in prison before winning an Asian Tour event earlier this year and qualifying for the Open Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the inmates, one of the most surreal parts of CCGC is that they\u2019re doing all of this with the super, of all people.\u00a0<\/p>\n The man holding the key.\u00a0<\/p>\n The enemy.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s an appeal here, though. Not only can you beat him, but you also don\u2019t have to worry about him beating you down.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodron called Thrasher genuine.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nico said he was present.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brandon said their round felt almost as if he were playing with a friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy old cellie was like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m going to go to Cedar Creek; they have golf and all this other stuff,\u2019\u201d Brandon said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to say prison was fun \u2014 it\u2019s something I don\u2019t want to do again \u2014 but it made it livable because you can\u2019t be locked up 24 hours a day. They\u2019re going to come out and just not be normal people in society, so I think they made it, as much as possible, as normal as they could.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying I had a great time there, but compared to what people are doing on the streets now with the fentanyl and everything else, I take it as a blessing that I had a reset in life, that I\u2019m not just a statistic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Should inmates be allowed to play golf?<\/p>\n To Thrasher, golf is just the medium.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the inmates can play golf with him \u2014 the prison superintendent, their antagonist \u2014 think of how they will interact with everyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be second nature to them that they\u2019re going to be nice to people, that they\u2019re going to not break rules anymore,\u201d Professor Kimora said. \u201cThe fact that they were invited to do this stuff means that those folks trusted them. There\u2019s no relationship if there\u2019s no trust.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kinds of relationships do people have in prison? They\u2019re suspicious of everybody, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Darren Riehl <\/p>\n BUT SHOULD INMATES GET TO LEAVE THE PRISON WALLS TO PLAY GOLF ON AN ACTUAL COURSE? When Rodron heard that was a possibility, he was in. And when he reached the course on a Tuesday afternoon in July, you could hear Rodron. On the tee box. In the fairway. On the green. He\u2019s a talker. Here\u2019s how he described four CCGC members \u2014 along with Thrasher and one of the prison\u2019s officers:<\/p>\n \u201cMike, he\u2019s too quiet. He\u2019s trash.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTejuan, tattooed. When I first met him, I was scared of him. But that\u2019s my guy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDevin, we butt heads all the time. He\u2019s a piece of crap, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cG\u2019s the guy. He\u2019s the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n And Thrasher? Rodron has golf thoughts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get out and kick his butt. Can\u2019t wait. Him and Doug. Doug\u2019s my boss at maintenance. The biggest shit-talker in the world. Can I say that? The biggest trash-talker.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Thrasher calls Rodron, a Mississippi native, \u201cthe Mouth of the South.\u201d But he can back up the smack. Rodron is CCGC\u2019s best player. He says he has played on courses you\u2019ve heard of, and with a few golfers you know. He says his father was an Alabama judge, and his uncle, a probation officer, taught him golf. Rodron then showed his daughter and son how to play. They\u2019re everything to him. And they should have seen their dad at The Home Course, about 20 minutes from Olympia. At CCGC\u2019s first real outing, on a course that has hosted USGA events, Rodron hit the first shot and found the first fairway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thrasher had coordinated the day through the course, the Pacific Northwest Golf Association and the prison, after thinking of ways to further develop the program. Five inmates attended, each paired with an officer, and they played a four-hole scramble; they also listened to a job presentation by the course\u2019s maintenance staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the van ride over, Thrasher handed out the T-shirts he had made \u2014 red with a logo over the heart displaying \u201cCCGC,\u201d a skull and two crossbones in the shape of golf clubs. As a state patrol car drove past, someone shouted to watch the speed limit, to which Rodron responded: \u201cWhat are they going to do, arrest us?\u201d At another point, Thrasher deadpanned: \u201cWhat if this were fake news and we were taking you all to max security?\u201d<\/p>\n Then they played golf. Shots were hit. Shots were mishit. Potshots were fired. On the par-5 third hole, Thrasher dropped an iron to 3 feet. All seven players missed the putt. That was a lowlight, for golf purposes, but a highlight for the trash talk. On the last hole, a par-3, everyone teed off together.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In six years or less, everyone now at Cedar Creek will be able to play The Home Course or anywhere else seven days a week, should they choose. Rodron says he\u2019ll be back. On Day 1 on the outside, he\u2019ll play with his kids. But prisons such as Cedar Creek stare at a grim statistic: According to the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a>, about two-thirds of released inmates will eventually be reincarcerated, or about 425,000 individuals a year. CCGC\u2019s number? So far, it\u2019s zero, but the program is in its nascent stages.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s encouraging, and CCGC\u2019s best golfer has an idea of why the program may be working.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get sentenced by the judge, that\u2019s it,\u201d Rodron said. \u201cYou go, you do time. But if you want me to come back into society a better person, then give me all the tools to do that. So what Thrasher is doing is a great thing. A lot of people in the community might not see it that way. But it\u2019s bettering these men. You can see it. The camaraderie, the diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of us wouldn\u2019t even talk to each other in prison, because of prison politics, they call it. But in golf, we do.\u201d<\/p>\n Something deeper may also be at work. Social psychologists who have worked in prisons will tell you that what inmates need most is a sense of humanity. Rodron says that at one point at The Home Course, he shut his eyes and thought the excursion was a real round.\u00a0<\/p>\n What is the byproduct of that?\u00a0<\/p>\n Hopefully, inmates feel rehabilitated.\u00a0<\/p>\n And what\u2019s the derivative of that?\u00a0<\/p>\n They don\u2019t return.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about humans interacting with other humans,\u201d Professor Kimora said. \u201cIf people could get away from this attitude that those people who are incarcerated are meaningless \u2026 that could change the whole correctional system in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Late on that Tuesday afternoon, Cedar Creek\u2019s van pulled away from The Home Course. Back to prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Wednesdays, they will play at CCGC again. Tejuan will smack one, and Rodron will talk his smack. Maybe Nico will connect with the driver. Whether the program will actually work, though, is anyone\u2019s guess, no matter its intent.<\/p>\n But a tee time has already been made.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the ride to The Home Course, Thrasher had asked the five golfers when they were being released. Soon, some said. A couple of years, another chimed in. Good enough, Thrasher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n There would have to be a reunion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all playing together in 2027 then.\u201d<\/p>\n Five ex-prisoners and a prison superintendent. Six golfers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe one or two drivers under the tee.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Cedar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CedarCreekGolfTajuan.jpg\")
\n Tejuan of the Cedar Creek Golf Club.<\/p>\n![\"Cedar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CedarCreekGolf3.jpg\")
\n Members of the Cedar Creek Golf Club.<\/p>\n
Pushing down on me
Pressing down on you
No man ask for
Under pressure<\/p>\n![\"Cedar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CedarCreekGolf4.jpg\")
\n Rodron of Cedar Creek Golf Club.<\/p>\n