JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A young Paul Fireman became entrenched in the game of golf at the age of 10, when he decided to take up caddying at Thorney Lea Golf Club in Brockton, Massachusetts, his hometown.
He learned how to play while carrying the bags of men more than five times his age. But more importantly, he discovered integrity, respect, and appropriateness, the tenets of this game that make it so great. He says this experience helped bring him to each new phase of his life and has attributed golf to everything he does. From starting his career in the family business to acquiring Reebok, later selling it to Adidas, and then helping develop Liberty National on the shores of New York Harbor, Fireman has lived life to the fullest, becoming one of the most successful businessmen in the United States. But all of it is directly tied back to golf, and his latest venture is too.
On Tuesday evening, Sept. 10, Fireman, together with his son Dan, launched the Liberty National Foundation, a new 501 (c)(3) that will help numerous golf charities support America’s youth, veterans, and first responders. They unveiled this new endeavor at the Shine The Light Gala—its name taking after the flame Lady Liberty holds high over New York Harbor, serving as a beacon of hope and opportunity for every American. The Gala was held at the Liberty National Clubhouse.
This Foundation also includes numerous Liberty National members. The Firemans, together with members who willingly stepped up, have pledged $22.5 million to Heart 9/11, the Veteran Golfers Association, the First Tee, the American Junior Golf Association, and the Evans Scholars Foundation. The membership group who have joined the Firemans in their endeavor are aptly named the “Torch Lighters Club,” taking after the Liberty motif as they will change the lives of many for the greater good—just as the Statue of Liberty, an apt metaphor for a new life for countless individuals in its own right, has done so for over 100 years.
The Foundation is also forward-thinking. It will pledge $100 million over the next decade to these charities and other organizations the members believe in. But everyone is united on the same mission: helping American adolescents, veterans, and first responders.
“I’m doing a small thing. I don’t do anything. It’s the people doing it,” Paul Fireman said to Playing Through.
“People need to be recognized and supported where we can; we’re getting our members to support this program; they’re going to contribute more and more, and they love what we stand for. I don’t want to be a golf course where just the fancy guys come, the wealthy come, or the pros come. I want it to mean something. Have value.”
Liberty National has an impressive resume related to golf itself. Since opening in 2006, the course has hosted four PGA Tour events and two Mizuho Americas Opens on the LPGA. The Americans also defeated the Internationals at the Presidents Cup here in 2017. The New Jersey course will also welcome the LPGA again in 2025 and the PGA Tour in 2027 and 2033 for the BMW Championship, the penultimate event in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
But the Firemans strive to make this place, which arguably has the best skyline view in sports, much more than a golf course. They want to create a powerful, uniting force, one that will help society as a whole. The launch of this Foundation has accomplished just that.
“It’s such an extraordinary thing that they are doing here. I just can’t imagine that anybody can know about it and not want to help,” said Jimmy Roberts, the 15-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster who served as the emcee for the Gala.
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“For the kids, it’s not about how well they play; it’s about the people they have become. Helping the Veterans Golfer’s Association, I come from a military family. My dad served in the Second World War, and he was decorated and wounded. I had family that was in the towers on 9/11 and got out. It’s a part of our lives. What they’re doing here, it just makes me feel good.”
Almost twenty-three years before the Shine The Light Gala, disaster struck Lower Manhattan and the United States. The land that is now Liberty National had a front-row seat to the atrocities committed on that disturbing Tuesday morning, which is why the club is so committed to helping first responders and veterans.
Heart 9/11, an acronym that stands for Healing Emergency Aid Response Team, is a non-profit disaster response organization comprised of police officers, firefighters, construction workers, and 9/11 families to honor the sacrifices of those lost. Their mission is to lean on their collective experience to provide humanitarian aid to communities and individuals in need, and Heart 9/11 has done just that around the globe. The organization’s founder, Bill Keegan, spent months after the attacks digging through the rubble and finding the bodies. It was the worst job imaginable, but he turned that peril into perseverance through Heart 9/11. His organization can now further its cause thanks to the Liberty National Foundation.
Of course, in the years after that harrowing morning in September 2001, the United States launched a two-decade war on terror, sending hundreds of thousands of troops to the Middle East in retaliation. Countless individuals lost their lives, while many, many more continue to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental illnesses from their hellish experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a veteran himself, Paul Fireman feels great empathy for these individuals who make the ultimate sacrifice, putting their lives on the line for America’s freedom. Hence, Liberty National proudly supports the Veteran Golfers Association, founded in 2014 by a group of wounded soldiers who met at Walter Reed Hospital while recovering from injuries sustained in combat.
The organization, based in Pinehurst, North Carolina, provides veterans, active-duty soldiers, and their families with the opportunity to experience the “healing power of golf” through tournaments, competition, and socialization. The Veteran Golfers Association now hosts 1,500 tournaments annually and has over 27,000 members. Former Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who grew up in a military family like Roberts, sits on the organization’s advisory board. At the Gala, Meyer talked about how, after meeting with members of the Marines, three different individuals said to him that, if not for the Veteran Golfers Association, they would have committed suicide.
Twenty-two American veterans take their own lives every day.
But since the organization’s founding, only one member from the Veteran Golfers Association has died by suicide—a testament to the power that this organization has for America’s bravest men and women. Hopefully, that number will remain the same forever.
The Liberty National Foundation will also continue to support the First Tee, the American Junior Golf Association, and the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation, all of which help young Americans achieve their dreams.
“The world does not get made by older people. It gets made by younger people,” Paul Fireman said to Playing Through.
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“And if you give them the right base, teach them the right things, they’ll become incredible. They may not all become presidents or giant businessmen, but they will learn to become great citizens of this country.”
These three organizations have helped pave the way for millions of individuals, including Natalie McKenzie, Ryleigh Knaub, and Paddy Toole, all of whom spoke at the Gala. All three would not have been awarded the opportunity to attend college without the scholarships granted through these organizations.
McKenzie is from Greater Seattle and participated in First Tee events growing up. She then received a scholarship through the organization to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane but has since transferred to Columbia in Manhattan to pursue a degree in Computer Science.
Knaub, who once shot a 63, will attend Louisiana State University next year to play on the women’s golf team. A native of Orlando, Knaub became emotional when talking about how, if not for the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) and Liberty National, she would not have had the chance to pursue a college degree. Knaub was a recipient of the Liberty National Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant program, which provides financial assistance to young golfers in need.
The AJGA and Liberty National also welcome the top junior players, like Knaub, to compete alongside LPGA professionals in the Mizuho Americas Open.
Toole, meanwhile, is a senior at Michigan State University. A Mechanical Engineering major with a 3.8 GPA, Toole plans to pursue a career in nuclear energy. But this dream would not have been possible without the Evans Scholars Foundation, founded in 1930 to provide full tuition and scholarships to caddies with limited financial resources. Toole caddied at Hinsdale Golf Club in the Chicago area and now serves as chapter president of his Scholarship House. All of the Evans Scholars live together in houses at 24 universities nationwide. Liberty National and the Western Golf Association, which facilitates and founded the Evans Scholars Foundation, plan to build an additional Evans Scholarship House at nearby Rutgers University.
“I couldn’t have envisioned this. But we have a very eclectic and special membership, and we have never asked them other than to be a good member and have fun,” Dan Fireman told Playing Through.
“Inviting them to participate with us and what we are doing, we are not only making them feel prouder of what they are doing here, but also helping us to build an iconic place. And do something really special.”
What Liberty National and its newly established Foundation have done is already incredible. But they are not stopping here. The club has and will continue to improve thousands of lives, paving the way for a better future, just as the Statue of Liberty—which sits only a mile from the golf course—has done metaphorically since 1886.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
