Yes – a very good post Tom.
I accept that I have lost my son to IT but am hoping that my daughter will commit fully to golf – at 10 she enjoys the game but recently asked that I not mention ‘golf’ around her friends - because it just ‘isn’t cool’. Is this a problem for development of the game or just a temporary attitude? - I’m not sure.
Like Scott I learnt the game as a junior and have gained a great deal from the experience. One of the problems I see today though is that young kids have many commitments and golf can be very time consuming. On top of this, juniors are unable to join our club until they are 12 which I feel is not ideal - at this point many have already moved to other sports after giving golf a go. Perhaps if we saw more par 3 courses similar to Neil Crafter’s Barwon Heads we would have a more manageable platform to draw the young ones into the game.
In any case I am hoping that my Mackenzie catches the bug before those early teen years take hold and move her in a different direction - and that we can then work through points 1 – 3.
Oh yes – I would like to walk TOC with Melvyn and I’m not hung up about rules in casual games – I figure juniors need to learn but why not give seniors a break.
Cheers -- Lyne