[Bart Bradley]

My 14 year old son is now a golf addict and architecture/course junkie  !

Matthew started rolling golf balls as an infant and got plastic clubs at 18 months..he got his own real putter at 2 to go play putt-putt.

I started him on the course with chipping and putting at age 3 and he immediately loved it.

On a trip to Monterey, my buddies and I were on the putting green and Matthew, age 3, hit a few putts with us..it was our tee time and my wife picked up my son and said "say bye to Daddy"...Matthew says, "But I want to PLAY Spyglass"..."I WANNA PLAY SPYGLASS" and started crying and shouting "I WANNA PLAY SPYGLASS" over and over as she took him back to the car..It was the only temper tantrum that I remember (and certainly the only one of which I am proud).

Over the years, I have gradually introduced Matthew to better and better golf courses and have had some of the greatest days of my life playing golf with my son...Lahinch, Banff, Jasper, Mauna Kea, Ballybunion...Every Christmas, I give him the gift of a trip to a new top 100 course...

I taught Matthew the spirit of the game and etiquette from the beginning...he was an easy child and wanted immediately to understand how to play the game with reverence and joy.

At first, he chipped and putted.  Then I teed him up in the fairway 50-100 yds from the green...sometimes it took ingenuity to find a proper teeing area that allowed him to enjoy the hole and yet, not hold up play.  Gradually he has moved back and 3 years ago moved to the most forward tees at our club.

His game is blossoming..he made the JV golf team this year as a Freshman and has been a contributing member of the team.  He broke 90 at Grandfather for the first time yesterday from the members' tees!  Had to par 18 to do it, and KNEW IT.

He has met and idolizes Ran (don't we all .. ).  He has a ranking list of his favorite 50 courses...Ballybunion is currently at the top!

I am very proud of him and I can only hope he gets as much enjoyment from the game as I have,

Bart

Matthew age 10 on the Dell, Lahinch!

[Bill_McBride]

Question for the clubhouse:

Which path would you take? Teach your son/daughter to hit as long as they can and not worry about straightening it out later. OR should you teach them to hit straight and add the distance later.

I am going with the former approach. I tell my daughter to swing as hard as she can and encourage her to hit it as far as she can. I don't worry about the direction or shape too much. I figure I can always tone it down later.

At a recent golf camp, they were teaching her the exact opposite. They wanted her to shorten her swing and tried to get her to swing straighter.

What do you think?

Arnold Palmer's dad taught him to hit it as far as he could, the accuracy would come.  I think that's the best. 

Good news, you have the long part down pat!

[Kirk Gill]

My daughter may be the most athletic of my four children, but she has a hard time with the golf swing. She reverse-pivots, and can't seem to "get it."

The boys all like to play. We brave the dirty looks from other players at the driving range. My oldest gets  bored and experiments. He makes up games to play with himself. My youngest craves dad's affirmation of the quality of every shot. My middle son is a machine. He hits his little 3 wood about 150, in a grouping about the size of my living room. Nice.

We play the par 3 as a group, early in the morning, and I only have two instructions for them - play fast and keep your eye on the other players and know where they are so you can be considerate of them. The first time we went out, I told them to play "ready golf," and they loved that. They would approach their ball and yell "READY GOLF!" a bit too loud, and then hit. My youngest took the play fast thing too far, and would just walk by the ball, swinging his club like he was a hockey player.

Ok, it took some fine tuning, but it's gotten better.

On The Big Course I take them out one at a time. With four kids, "alone-time" is highly valued, at least for now. We'll see as they get older.......

I love playing with them. They love playing with me. I wish it happened more often. Time and money being the primary roadblocks.

And I teach them to hit it straight first. They WANT to  hit it farther without me telling them. Of course, I need someone to teach ME to hit it straight, and long, so they're basically screwed.

[Jason Topp]

Last weekend my son and I played a match against a friend and his father who is 82 and spent most of the summer with pneumonia. Our guess at handicaps was 7, 12, 26, 32 and we wound up having a terrific low ball/high ball match straight up.

It is a rare sport that allows four people of such varying abilities and at such different stations in life  to have fun and compete with intensity in a beautiful setting.

Contrary to expectations, the 14 and 82 year olds had several battles for low ball.  My son and I would have won if he was not pulling such a heavy sled.

The four of us may never have a competitive match again.  If not, we did have one day of magic.

[Mark Pearce]

Richard,

I don't teach my kids (as a 12 handicap I'm not nearly a good enough golfer to teach anyone) but the pro who does is certainly keen to have them hit the ball as far as they can, though he's keen to stress that distance is a product of technique.

[ed_getka]

Question for the clubhouse:

Which path would you take? Teach your son/daughter to hit as long as they can and not worry about straightening it out later. OR should you teach them to hit straight and add the distance later.

I am going with the former approach. I tell my daughter to swing as hard as she can and encourage her to hit it as far as she can. I don't worry about the direction or shape too much. I figure I can always tone it down later.

At a recent golf camp, they were teaching her the exact opposite. They wanted her to shorten her swing and tried to get her to swing straighter.

What do you think?

Richard,
    I think length first as control can come later. The one thing I stress with my son is to SWING to a full follow through, and not to HIT the ball. The ball simply gets in the way of a good full swing.

[Lou_Duran]

I didn't know Deacon taught young Arnold to hit the ball hard.  It was the approach followed by Charlie Nicklaus and Jack Grout, and the one I adopted myself when I took up the game in my late teens.  Using the big muscles in proper sequence is the key to playing good golf.  Also, find a good instructor- not just the cheapest assistant at the club- to get your kids started properly.  Bill Choung, a highly regarded Dallas teacher and clubfitter, told me yesterday that he's been playing golf some 27 years, the last 26 spent trying to correct the bad habits he learned in his first year.

As to the topic, my son and daughter were both introduced to golf at a very early age.  My son became a good golfer, probably good enough to have made the UoTX a@ Austin team if the coach there had any interest in having walk-ons develop in the system.  His main interest was in playing golf competitively (and for a couple of dollars), though he never enjoyed practicing (a means to an end thing).  He has played little golf since college, and currently has much higher priorities and interests than the game.  Though he doesn't have great appreciation for gca, he has played some of the best courses in the world.  Magog and Shinny are probably his favorites, though he really liked North Berwick and Carnoustie (quite a bit more than TOC).

My daughter is probably as good an athlete as my son if not better, but has no desire to practice, not even putting.  She has a good natural swing, hits the crap out of the ball when she makes good contact, and seems to enjoy playing 9 holes from time to time.  Recently she suggested that she wants a set of golf clubs and apparently her employer has a program that subsidizes green fees.

[Lyne Morrison]

We now have a good program for juniors but my frustration is that the kids can’t join until they are 12. While I understand all the old school reasoning behind this my feeling is that some of the decision makers don’t fully understand the many opportunities and distractions on offer for young kids these days and that we can loose their interest quickly. I saw this happen with my son who at 14 decided the game took too long when he had other pressing interests.

I have been working my way around this conundrum for a while now with my daughter. When my son was still attending junior clinics I would take Mackenzie along and encourage her to have a chip and putt on the ‘sidelines’ – she would soak up the group instruction by hovering at a close distance. She is very keen and I have seriously considered joining her up at a different club but in reality this introduces more complications. I have begun to take her to the practice range when things are quite – she is 10 now and the members don’t seem to mind her being there. I also take her to the local oval fairly regularly for a hit.

I recently took her along to see some rising teenagers play in a key event – I wanted her to see that there are young girls out there who are committed to the game and playing it well - and I would like her to gain a sense that there are many variations to a golf course (she didn’t say much about the course, but showed interest in the girls and lingered over the famous milkshake back at the clubhouse).

I think if the kids have a few friends to play with they will stick with the learning process longer, from my observations they quickly become bored with overly complicated and lengthy instruction but love a quick comp and the prospect of winning just about anything. Our pros favour technique over accuracy with length coming as strength develops.

Cheers - Lyne

[Peter Pallotta]

I remember reading Johnny Miller's advice about introducing children to the game. He said, basically, that he just wanted to make the golf course a fun place to be for them; he wanted them to associate golf with good times. That meant taking them out to hit a few balls, but as soon as they seemed even a little bored, he'd have them ride around with him in a cart, and then head over to a pond and maybe do a little fishing out there, or even drop a few balls down and have the kids hit them in the water just to see the splash.  I found that very interesting, especially since it sounds so different from the way Johnny himself was introduced (and practiced) the game, in the basement hitting balls into a net for hours on end.

My son is still too young -- he just turned three -- but we like spending our time together so he comes out to the driving range with me and hits a few. (I do this very rarely, but sometimes, when I say 'That was a nice shot, Beniamino' even when it wasn't, he'll get a bit upset and turn to me and say, "That was NOT a good shot".  Which I guess just goes to show that children understand a lot more than I give them credit for, even if they rarely care to articulate it.  Mostly, Ben likes 'having a race' on the putting green -- we each have a ball and we race to see who gets it in the hole the fastest -- not, mind you, in the fewest strokes, but the most quickly.)  

Thanks for this thread.

Peter

[Lyne Morrison]

Peter I would say Johnny Miller was spot on in that regard.

One of Mackenzie’s favourite movies is The Greatest Game Ever Played and she loves to recount the wisdom of the young Eddie Lowery -
' read it, roll it, hole it '

That said, on occasion I show her architectural images and ask her opinion – she tells me courses like Castle Stewart and those of the Bandon group are ‘ Eddie and Francis courses – too old fashioned ! ’

Cheers

[Bill_McBride]

I didn't know Deacon taught young Arnold to hit the ball hard.  It was the approach followed by Charlie Nicklaus and Jack Grout, and the one I adopted myself when I took up the game in my late teens. 

Lou, from what I've read, Arnold hit it hard and far from the beginning.  As a real youngster, he hung out at the tee of a hole where the tee shot had to carry a creek and was paid by the ladies to hit their tee shot over the creek.

If that's not a true story, it certainly ought to be!

[Matt Harrison]

Both of my boys play golf, albeit in spurts.  They are 9 and 12, and they both have stretches where they can't wait to go to the course with dad, and other stretches where it is like pulling teeth to get them to play.   A few interesting things I have observed amd learned

-Keep it as fun as possible
-With my oldest, who loved golf at 5 and hated it at 7, I was able to have a discussion with him about learning the game at a young age.  He has a pretty good head on his shoulders, and when I told them that in the long run, he would benefit from learning the game at young age, he thought for a few minutes, then basically agreed with my logic.  He doesn't love golf, but he likes and enjoys being around the course.
-A turning point for both my boys was when they were able to play a few holes on their own or with a friend.  The golf course is a great and safe place for kids to experience some independence.
-A good pushcart allowed for my boys to caddie for me at an earlier age that if they had to carry the bag.



Still learning about parenting and golf, that is for sure...

[Chris Flamion]

Both of my kids girl 9 and boy 7 have been out and played a bit with me.  That said, for the most part one of them will go to the range with me any time I head out and they are home.  I have found that the best way to make them focus on each shot is to only give them a ball at a time.  If they take the time to do everything right(grip, stance, swinging not stabbing) I will toss them another ball right away.  If they set the ball down and immediately throw the clubhead at the ball they will wait a bit while I hit 1 or 2.

I have taken them both out late in the evening and played a few holes with them, both of which were interesting experiences.  In order to foster them a little more I was planning on enrolling them in a Youth Golf Class at a youth course.  If they pass they can go out with there friends and play by themselves without me, which they would both think of the coolest thing ever.  It doesn't hurt that the youth course is also one of the nicer par three courses I have ever played.

[Will MacEwen]

My daughter just turned seven and is pretty handy and reasonably keen.  I have no expectations about a great golf career for her, but I would certainly love it if golf was something she enjoyed.  We are able to go out at my club quite often and she plays in from 150 or 100.

What I have found:

I can give some tips, but anything that sounds like instruction from dad is a huge buzzkill for her.  Golf camps/classes are much better for teaching.

Having a little game going on the course ups her enjoyment and focus.

Some days she isn't into it, but the very next day she may be.

As most have said, keep it fun.  We usually have a quasi-picnic dinner on the course on our Friday night rounds, and we keep count of deer, rabbits, eagles, etc.

[Matt Dupre]

My two boys are now 14 and 16, and both play.  Sam (the elder) had a beautiful lefty swing at the age of two (even though he's right handed) and impressed many a little old lady on the range.  Alex looked like he was chopping wood until he was around 9, but was (is) so stubborn that he just kept swinging until he hit a few well.

We would always play a couple of holes with a cart, and they each got to steer after a good shot.  And we always had putting contests for a candy bar or soda.  Them having fun and enjoying their time at the club was really the only goal at that point.

Sam decided he wanted to caddie, while at the same time his interest in playing waned.  Alex decided that he would like to spend every waking moment during the summer at the club, practicing and then playing after 3:00 (and hanging out with a couple of other young boys who had the bug).  Rather than take it on myself to teach him the fundamentals, I asked our pro to give him a few basic lessons (this was at age 11).  He saw potential and asked for the opportunity to continue to work with him, and Alex has really taken to the relationship.  He made the varsity golf team as an 8th grader, and is now moaning (tongue in cheek) about how soccer season is cutting into his playing time.  Sam just made his high school team, and seems to be more interested, though I wouldn't say he's consumed by the sport.

At the end of the day, I think their exposure to golf both as players and caddies has been a part of their becoming young men I'm extremely proud of.  And there's nothing more fun than to just go play with them and listen to the banter - priceless commentary on each other, their friends, schools, girls, etc.  There is nothing wrong in the world during those hours.

[Steve Pozaric]

My girls are 9 and 6.  We got them US Kids Clubs last year and this year they graduated to the 3 hole group on Friday Mornings at the Club (it was group lessons last year).  A few times this summer, I left work a little early Friday or we went out Saturday afternoon, played 7-9 holes  (with them teeing off from about 100 or maybe 150) and had dinner at the half way house.  Tried to keep it fun, teach them proper behavior and minimize my teaching attempts.  They also like to wack the ball at the range but aren't overly keen on the putting green.  

This summer we went to Lake Lure in NC for vacation and the girls were excited to take their clubs.  The resort would allow kids after 2 pm, but then told us that kids under 9 needed to ride in a cart between 2 adults.  Doing the math, I realized this was the resort's way of saying they don't want kids on the course.  Luckily, there as the Lake Lure Muni down the road - a Donald Ross design that had seen much better days.  They only charged the kids senior cart fees which was about $6.  We all had fun and the appreciated the course we play on day in and day out.

[Richard Hetzel]

My almost 7 year old has been playing for 2 years now, but is not "addicted". He is pretty good, has taken a handful of lessons. My 4 year old will hit the links when he is 5 and has taken a few lessons as well.

The ones that I am really worried about are the 18 month old boy/girl twins, they see my golf bag and immediately say, "Golf, golf, golf.....". They even watch golf on tv.

If I go anywhere near my putter stable in the basement they are like magnets and want to putt right away. Which they do.

My almost 7 year old was turned away from a public, county owned golf course this summer (for no good reason I might add) and I think it soured him on golf a bit. If you have time, read about it here:

http://www.golfwrx.com/BagChatter/2009/08/20/bergen-county-new-jersey-not-a-true-steward-of-the-game/

Ryan, almost 7, winding up for his drive at Rip Van Winkle CC in NY.

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