The Junior Golf Parent - The Journey Part I

Parenting for junior golfers is a rite of passage. Every parent begins the journey in a certain way depending on the age your kid gets the golf bug, their temperament, your temperament, their level of success, their expectations, your expectations, and some other miscellaneous factors that escape me at the moment. Depending on all these factors over time, and time itself, parents change or become solidified or emboldened in the manner in which they support, follow, and push their junior golfer through their developmental years, and beyond. And no matter what I write here, they'll all probably do it they way they were meant to do it, regardless. But if you are listening, heed some advice. Let your junior golfer have fun, above all else. Let the pressure they put on themselves, be the only pressure they feel. Don't let your life become invested in theirs. Savor their successes for them, and support them through their failures as the great life lessons they can be. If you are a cheerleader, display decorum. There are other kids out there not always making the shot. Don't gasp, scream at the ball, jump crazily up and down. And of course, don't get in their face or any junior golfer's face. Stay out of it. Golf is unique in not requiring umpires or referrees to monitor every second of play. So it doesn't need an invested, stressed out parent getting into the act. It's a great game and a great rite of passage for your kid. You're mature, make sure your passage is quicker than theirs.

AJGA and Beyond

I was talking to a junior golf dad at a tournament a few weeks ago, and he explained to me how a junior golfer needs to build a golf resume' from the age of 14 on up, if they have any hopes of landing a golf scholarship to a Division 1 or 2 school. The days of being some kind of unknown, secret, super talent and introducing yourself to the golf coach at Georgia Tech or Wake Forest at the age of 17 are gone, he said. He went on to say that they won't even be able to get in an AJGA (perhaps the most prominent golf scholarship fast track tour) tournament in their junior and senior year unless they've built a resume' of tournament participation and achievement earlier on. Anybody have any thoughts on this one?

Summer Golf

There's a lot of time to fill when school lets out and if your kid is like mine, they'll want to spend most of it on the golf course. Unfortunately, good junior golfers under the age of 14 or 15 don't have a lot of friends that can play at their level. They can hook up with older kids for a round of golf here and there, or play with regular members, smoking cigars and talking about women (I'm kidding... mostly), but it's not the optimum atmosphere you're probably looking for for your kid. So what to do? There are a lot of golf camps out there, day and sleepover, and they run the gammit from reasonable to pretty pricey. On the reasonable side, our county offers the Pioneer Tour, which is a great way for kids of all golfing ability to learn and compete against their peers in a relatively low pressure golf environment. On the pricey side, there's a camp like the Mitchell Spearman Junior Golf. This summer we're looking at the Nike Junior Golf Camp at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, a four day sleep away golf camp experience, which includes a lot of golf and golf instruction on a great course, and even some regular camp activities. We'll see how that goes. Of course there are a lot of different choices in different areas of the country, most of them in the south and southwest, but you can find some good ones up north as well. Check them out and make sure they suit your kid's level of play, their temperment, and your wallet.