The game needs more of this

[MCirba]

With all of the recent hoopla regarding Donald Trump and his comments that golf should be a game of privilege, for only the highly-successful few, as a child of lower middle-class parents who worked in factories and warehouses to provide for three boys, I thought I might post something reflecting a more inclusive approach to the game.

This is the first course I've ever played of 995 to date.   I can't tell you how good it does my heart to see how vested they are in teaching and developing kids in the game of golf.   I honestly have no idea what path(s) I would have taken if I hadn't found this place a week before my 13th birthday back in 1971 but it's very likely they wouldn't have been as educational, self-constructive, or valuable throughout my life.   It's funny to look back and recall that a year's membership, unlimited play, cost all of $35! Great to see today's owners continuing that legacy.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Greens-Golf-Club/112106962229338

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:


There is actually more of that going on than we hear about; there are all kinds of small courses with programs along the same lines.  [I had the same experience growing up in Stamford, Connecticut in the 1970's on a municipal course ... I don't know how many munis today have good junior programs.]


Where it is NOT happening is at many of the courses discussed in the magazines, or on this forum.  Or, most likely, on any of Donald Trump's projects ... although maybe he has a caddie day and counts that.

[Bill Seitz]

In my personal experience, Tom is probably correct.  In and shortly after college  I worked at a 9 hole facility in the Pasadena area.  We had a junior program every summer and it was extremely successful.  I can't recall the exact mechanics, but I think it was a series of one week sessions, probably running six to eight weeks.  You could sign your kid up for one or more of the sessions.  I can't say it wasn't entirely profit motivated, but it was primarily lesson income for our pros (who, quite frankly at that time, didn't exactly have a full lesson schedule every day).  As a county course, I don' t think we were allowed to set up our own season-pass sort of program, since the county controlled the greens fees.   I'm pretty sure a couple of those kids ended up working at the golf course by the time they were old enough, and became pretty good players. 

[MCirba]

Tom,

Yes, agreed, although I was at Westchester CC last week and it was terrific to see the focus on junior and family golf.   In fact, the South course is basically called the Family Course, although it was probably a bit friendlier for that goal at the previous 6,000 yards prior to Ken Dye's expansion/renovation in the late 1990s.   

Of course, these were kids of members so not exactly the future Lee Trevino's and Calvin Peete's (or even the future Jodie Mudd's and Mike Souchak's) but overall a very positive thing to see.

[Dave McCollum]

Funny, just today I was finalizing plans to build a Junior Golf facility on our range.  Nothing fancy:  a couple of hitting bays for all weather instruction, a simulator, and double duty as a Junior clubhouse.  We have about 200 kids in our Jr. program and are hoping to grow that number.  We are contributing land and resources to this facility, however, the bulk of the funding was through charitable contributions, not from the relative health of our golf operations.  More of leap of faith and belief in growing the game than any kind of business strategy.  We’ll see how it works out in the future.  We’re hopeful, of course, or we wouldn’t be doing it. 

Another member of Treehouse visited here a couple of weeks ago and I’m sure he will attest that we are far from a country club type of facility.  More of a hardscrabble affordable retro course such as you describe.  In fact, the day he visited our place, it was crawling with kids of all ages for a junior event.  We got out in front of them on the front nine and had to skip a couple of holes on the back nine to keep clear of the pack.  We aren’t so busy that we can’t accommodate golf for kids.  Bad for business (in the short term); good for the game.

[Jamey Bryan]

I'd agree that it happens more than we realize, but I think there are a FEW of the courses we discuss here that do their part.

Two or three years ago Camden's pro (who sortof specializes in working with promising juniors) and seven members arranged to play Palmetto Golf Club one summer morning.  On arrival, we were surprised to find the parking lot completely packed and were concerned that we'd had miscommunication with the club.  Packing our clubs and rounding the corner to the pro shop we saw what had to be close to 100 kids of all sizes, races and both genders on the putting green or racing around hitting chips, etc.  They all were dressed similarly and most had similar bags and clubs.  Turned out that Palmetto was hosting the First Tee of Aiken/Augusta that morning!  They had a clinic then played a few holes and had a little competition on the lines of Drive, Chip, and Putt.

It was fun to watch and a great start to our day at a special place.

Jamey

[BCowan]

Mike,

   There are many facilities like the ones your describing.  One that was a mile from the house i grew up in.  http://www.quarryridgegc.com/index.htm

   I have always advocated on here for private clubs to allow cart boys to play in the late afternoons. They will become future members.  I had the opportunity to practice anytime i wasn't working and play after 3pm at a top 100 club when I was in high school.  The Asst. pro would give lessons to co workers that were new to the game.  It starts from the bottom up, not top down. 

[Joe Bausch]

Strange how no one has similar sentiments growing up playing the Absterpiece, aka Karakung!

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - this past weekend I was at a modest camping ground on Lake Huron I'd never been to before. A few kilometres away was the equally unpretentious Sunset Golf Club. I enjoyed its 5700 yard Par 70 layout along with some locals and sunburnt cottagers, and afterwards read about its family owned history and highlights. A few years ago a 14 year old from nearby (and similarly small and humble) Listowel Ontario won their annual junior tournament with a 66. His name is Corey Conner. This year Corey was the low amateur at The Masters, in Augusta Georgia.

Golf is alive and well and providing countless numbers with countless hours of enjoyment at countless courses like Sunset all across North America -- people like your parents and mine, and  young Coreys everywhere, all at prices/'memberships' that compare favourably to going out for a dinner and a movie with the family once a month. There is very little prestige at places like Sunset, and very little ego or envy or ambition or money -- just the great game of golf. Interestingly, what ARE dying, if we are to believe all the press (by interested and implicated bystanders), are the courses that have or have tried to tout prestige and ego and envy and ambition and money, with golf as merely the vehicle and symbol of a 'lifestyle' and not of a 'life'.

Sad to say, though I've said it before: gca.com is a wonderful place populated by good people discussing the great and admirable architecture past and present; but its very existence is a testament not to the simple and garden variety pleasures of a golfing pastime, but to the precious and preening lifestyle of an elitist and exclusive pursuit.

[Tim Gavrich]

Mike,

   There are many facilities like the ones your describing.  One that was a mile from the house i grew up in.  http://www.quarryridgegc.com/index.htm

   I have always advocated on here for private clubs to allow cart boys to play in the late afternoons. They will become future members.  I had the opportunity to practice anytime i wasn't working and play after 3pm at a top 100 club when I was in high school.  The Asst. pro would give lessons to co workers that were new to the game.  It starts from the bottom up, not top down.

How is the club giving cart boys the opportunity to play the course each day not a "top-down" gesture?


At any rate, Mr. Pallotta is right, as always. In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. That anecdote about Palmetto GC is awesome; more clubs should follow its lead, even if it means some members moaning about the "great unwashed" being allowed on their premises for the day.


Even though I was fortunate to have been able to play a private course growing up, perhaps my most formative early golf experiences came at Westwoods Golf Course in Farmington, CT, an executive-length course that held a summer-long junior golf camp run by then-head pro Jim Tennant. There were dozens of us who would get dropped off in the morning, learn and play little putting or chipping games until lunchtime, be fed lunch, then some more games and a short talk by a guest (I remember LPGA players Emilee Klein and Carin Koch, as well as ESPN's Karl Ravech and a couple Hartford Whalers players made appearances) until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, when we'd get picked up again. The counselors did a great job herding us from the putting station to the range and back to the chipping station each day. Maximizing opportunities like that will give kids the background in the game that will at least help them pick the game back up later in life after they've played other sports and done other activities up through their college years.

[MCirba]

I'm not sure I agree with all of this article and think it's overstated to a point and makes some questionable causal conclusions, but to Tim (and others) points, I think the diminishing of the PGA pro at many clubs has had a deleterious effect on the game.   More to the point, I think clubs where pros have greater opportunity to involve themselves with creative teaching programs will thrive much more so  than those where they are essentially bean counters running the shop and selling Mrs. Wilcox a logo'd sweater.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/brandel-chamblee/growing-game-how-golf-gets-wrong/

[BCowan]

Mike,

   There are many facilities like the ones your describing.  One that was a mile from the house i grew up in.  http://www.quarryridgegc.com/index.htm

   I have always advocated on here for private clubs to allow cart boys to play in the late afternoons. They will become future members.  I had the opportunity to practice anytime i wasn't working and play after 3pm at a top 100 club when I was in high school.  The Asst. pro would give lessons to co workers that were new to the game.  It starts from the bottom up, not top down.

How is the club giving cart boys the opportunity to play the course each day not a "top-down" gesture?


At any rate, Mr. Pallotta is right, as always. In the places where golf cuts through pretension and elitism, it thrives and will continue to thrive because the simple virtues of the game and its attendant culture are allowed to be most apparent. That anecdote about Palmetto GC is awesome; more clubs should follow its lead, even if it means some members moaning about the "great unwashed" being allowed on their premises for the day.


Even though I was fortunate to have been able to play a private course growing up, perhaps my most formative early golf experiences came at Westwoods Golf Course in Farmington, CT, an executive-length course that held a summer-long junior golf camp run by then-head pro Jim Tennant. There were dozens of us who would get dropped off in the morning, learn and play little putting or chipping games until lunchtime, be fed lunch, then some more games and a short talk by a guest (I remember LPGA players Emilee Klein and Carin Koch, as well as ESPN's Karl Ravech and a couple Hartford Whalers players made appearances) until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, when we'd get picked up again. The counselors did a great job herding us from the putting station to the range and back to the chipping station each day. Maximizing opportunities like that will give kids the background in the game that will at least help them pick the game back up later in life after they've played other sports and done other activities up through their college years.

Tim,

There is a big difference from a private club voluntarily giving playing privileges and lessons to staff (bottom up), vs a national add campaign with golf channel and commercials and so forth. That is top down.  Unsung heros do this day in and day out without  selling their contributions to the game in a post opp.

[Andrew Buck]

In my personal experience, Tom is probably correct.  In and shortly after college  I worked at a 9 hole facility in the Pasadena area.  We had a junior program every summer and it was extremely successful.  I can't recall the exact mechanics, but I think it was a series of one week sessions, probably running six to eight weeks.  You could sign your kid up for one or more of the sessions.  I can't say it wasn't entirely profit motivated, but it was primarily lesson income for our pros (who, quite frankly at that time, didn't exactly have a full lesson schedule every day).  As a county course, I don' t think we were allowed to set up our own season-pass sort of program, since the county controlled the greens fees.   I'm pretty sure a couple of those kids ended up working at the golf course by the time they were old enough, and became pretty good players.

Saw the head pro with 25 - 30 kids at the local semi-private this morning as I was heading off the golf course at 7:30. 

Based on the number of dads like me I see spend long days sitting at events like swim meets for 7 hours a Saturday in the winter, it's clear parents will do and spend time where their kids want to be.  Free, or $100 golf memberships for kids, based upon availability, is a no lose proposition for most courses.  Almost certain to get some green fees from parents, or parents spending money in pro-shop/clubhouse.