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East Kilbride,Scotland.
Joined: 8/21/2007
Posts: 29
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Posted: Mar/15/2008 11:25 AM PST
Hi Folks,
In Scotland we have started an initiative to give every child boy or girl a golf lesson by the age of 9. As you can imagine teaching that many kids using PGA professional coaches would be impossible (cost,time and logistics).
This is where the Clubgolf scheme comes in(see link below). It is run by PGA qualified volunteers. At my own club we have 15 coach's running 20 classes for 20 weeks starting in April. The kids range in ages from 9 to 16.The classes are aimed at complete beginners but as the kids get better we teach more advanced stuff.
The kids will join at Stage 1 Year 1 and move on to Stage 1 Year 2 the following year if proficient. They will then move on to Stage 2 year 1 and so on. at Stage 3 we bring in PGA Professionals to deliver the more technical elements.
We also teach them the rules and etiquette of golf as part of the course.
They are ready to play on the big course after 2 years coaching. We are fortunate to have a 9 hole short course that the kids have access from day 1.We hold a medal competition round every Saturday from May to September. It is a shotgun start,all the kids start and finish at the same time and the winners are announced before they leave.
Our Junior membership was falling every year until 3 years ago when we got involved in the Clubgolf Scheme. It has went from 50 juniors in 2005 to 146 in 2008. Setting the scheme up is very pro active and time consuming, but very rewarding. We have changed from 1 junior convener to a junior board with 7 members.
The bottom line is the coach's love it, the parents love it, our existing adult members love it,but most importantly the kids love it.
Cheers Ian.
http://www.clubgolfscotland-youth.co.uk/
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Joined: 8/16/2007
Posts: 143
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Posted: Mar/31/2008 9:46 AM PST
I played at an inner city golf course the other day and there were 4 black children walking around the entire course trying to sell golf balls to the players; the problems was the kids could have been easily been hit by a ball. They were walking up to people putting and asking if they needed any golf balls. I took the group aside and told them they could get hurt by an errant ball. Since they had so many balss to sell, there had to be a lot of errant shots. I told them to park themselves on the tee- stay in one spot and they would have better prospects for success. I have to admire their desire to make a few bucks. The bottom line is that what attracts young people to golf is patience on the part of us adults, patience that we may not always have when working long hours, getting $hit from the boss, pressure to make ends meet etc.
And a little of our most valuable commodity, time.
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Joined: 12/05/2007
Posts: 589
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Posted: Mar/31/2008 9:57 AM PST
reminds me of riding the subways here in NYC "Excuse me ladies and gentleman and my name is marcus banks and i'm sellin candy, not for no basketball team, but for me; to make a little money, stay out of trouble, and buy more candy. The candy I have today is M&M peanut.
The candy is always M&M PEANUT never regular m&M's or anything else which leads me to belive that in the past 5 years a MAJOR shipment of peanut M&M's was hijacked in harlem. It's also illegal to sell anything on the subways so the exucse that they are doing it to stay out of trouble is funny!
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Joined: 4/04/2008
Posts: 1
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Posted: Apr/06/2008 8:19 PM PST
in my town i think one of the reasons is because golf is in the fall and many of the people that play golf my age also are good in football and they interfer. this makes them pick between one another and they may think that they are better at football and get better scholarships in football than golf so they go to football instead of golf but also i see a incline around my area in the last year or so of people under 18!
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Joined: 8/16/2007
Posts: 143
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Posted: Apr/07/2008 9:46 AM PST
welcome tiger to the board-the number of young extremely talented athletes able to make a living from pro sports is few and far between. Better odds in pursuing a golf career where one can work their way towards either being a club pro or a touring pro. For the latter one must have exceptional talent and the willingness to hit bucket after bucket etc of balls like Vijay Singh.
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Joined: 8/16/2007
Posts: 143
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Posted: Apr/11/2008 5:05 PM PST
on the masters website there is a topic/suggestion board on how to grow the game, particularly with younger golfers.
On a day with little wind, good scoring condiions, it took well over 5 hrs for groups to play. I noticed one group leaving #13 and the next group leaving 27 minutes later.
High school kids are now taking over 5 hrs in tournaments. And who have they learned from? Guess who.
So we need to teach our kids that if you take up the game and happen to be a fast player, be patient because the fast player has to adjust to the slow player, not vice versa.
Considering that the Masters is an invitational, one way to control slow play is simply not to invite those a$$%^&@$! Augusta National could amke a statement. That would be a great way to show young kids that playing too slow does have it's consequences. In virtually all other sports delay of game involves some negative connotation or penalty. To say to a name golfer, we are not inviting you back next year because you are too damn slow, is a powerful statement.
Well one good thing about the slow play today was extended coverage by espn.
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Cicero, new york
Joined: 9/27/2007
Posts: 20
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Posted: Jun/10/2008 7:49 PM PST
i am 17 and the two reasons i believe most young people don't golfbecause of two things.
1. it is pretty expensive most kids dont have 30 bucks to spend every weekend. so its hard to get into golf when you can realisticly only golf ever so often
2. i hate playing with "old guys". me and my friends (4some) play 9 holes in an hour and a half. we hit and putt when ready, first on the tee box hits. ect. when i play with my dad and his friends it takes forever and its boring. they stretch for 2 minutes every shot. and take 5 practice swings/putts every time. and they seem to hate having fun. when i shank a shot i espect to to get ragged on but with old guys it's like they are trying so hard not to hurt anyones feelings they never crack any jokes.
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Joined: 8/16/2007
Posts: 4
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Posted: Jun/12/2008 4:15 PM PST
I think mphil has hit it right on the head. Yes, cost is certainly a major issue, especially with less and less courses allowing one to walk, or even to play nine holes for that matter.
I grew up with a club pro for an uncle, and a grandfather who walked 18 holes 6 days a week. (He is now 88 and only walks 18 3 days a week now...) I learned the fundamentals as a kid, but I HATED the game. Fun to go to the driving range, but whenever I went out on the course it was stand around and wait...and be quiet...and... rules and rules and rules. At what point did the fun start?
I picked up the game "seriously" three years ago. My wife and I play in a very casual couples group on Friday nights and we take our 3 year old daughter along as well. There is still a lot of waiting and being quiet, but I bought her a good set of little clubs and she hits from the tee, once in the fairway and then putts on the green. Hopefully she will become interested enough to continue.
Golf will never be a "fun" sport like baseball or football -- just too many rules. All we can try to do is present it in its best light and hope for the best.
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Joined: 12/05/2007
Posts: 589
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Posted: Jun/23/2008 10:55 AM PST
haha, come play with my friends and you will have fun. We play serious, we play for money, and if you shank a ball you bet your #@!$ you will get ragged on hard!!!!! But i agree, some old people can be real bores to play with . Thats the american way, let the country be run by old, boring people who screw it all up!
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Joined: 5/01/2008
Posts: 57
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Posted: Jul/05/2008 9:53 PM PST
The best way to attract more young people, and I like the question because it implies a benevolent idea that we should all work to help preserve and grow our sport, is to get it into the classrooms of highschools and junior colleges.
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How to attract young people to golf