The Dirt
Why is Golf Different?
I was out late last night watching my son play in his first football game. It was such a family event. My wife, myself, and my 2 daughters all involved in watching him play. It got me thinking about something I have often wondered. Why is golf for juniors so different? My kids have played some local junior events and my 9 year old daughter played on a couple of junior tours. I think one of golf’s chief issues in growth is that it doesn’t involve the family in the junior experience as much. Let me make my case.
1. Parental Coaching & Team Golf – Most sports have organizations at the top, but include some sort of parent/coach’s in charge of teams. I realize that golf can’t be taught by everyone and that it is mostly an individual sport. However I think that coaching doesn’t always mean swing coaching and that we could get the parents more involved and utilize the type of team formatting you see in high school and college golf. It would make parents feel more involved, get them recruiting other kids, and help the kids have more fun. If you read the history of Little League you will find one of their chief principles was local parent involvement. Golf needs this badly.
2. Practice and Games – Getting your kids to play softball or baseball is easy. Just sign them up and the league will take care of almost everything else. They will tell you when to practice. When the games are. Providing the parents a time when they can really see what their kids have been learning. Compare that to golf and you will get a very different experience. You can certainly seek out a professional to teach your kids every week. However there are very few golf experiences that have the same elements. Why? Mostly because golf is run by professionals that make a living teaching golf. This isn’t a knock on them. Most are trying very hard but aren’t working as a unit in most cases. Leagues themselves are more volunteer driven and aren’t big money makers. Unfortunately this system seems to be broken.
Wow. I can hear the comments coming in already. People are going to think that I am saying that “golf professionals don’t care about kids and that all junior golf programs are bad”. Let me make myself clear. There are a lot of exceptional golf professionals that run incredible junior programs. I applaud those people that are making a difference. However there isn’t a national organization like Little League bringing this to the masses. Yet.