Youth Golf: Establish a Team for Your School

Member of the 2 time City Championship Team

Three years ago, my wife and another mom helped start the first ever golf team for my son's parochial middle school (6th - 8th grade). That other mom happened to be the mother of one of the top junior golfers in the city, actually the world (finished 7th in the Junior World Championships in 2011). As if that were not lucky enough, one of the parishioners of the church happens to be a PGA teaching pro. These two founding moms convinced this PGA pro to be the coach. Most of the teams have a dad coach, so this was key.

The summer before the first year, the coach established clinics for any interested players. About 30 kids, both boys and girls, participated in the clinics. In mid August, the new coach set up a two day tryout tournament to determine the top 9 kids that would represent the school team. The kids who did not make the cut competed against each other weekly.

My son and the other founding mom's son made that inaugural team as 6th graders. In fact, an incredible 6 of the 9 players that made the cut that first year were 6th graders. The young team did very well in the first year and gained valuable experience. They came in second in the City.

Following year in 2010, they won the Cincinnati City Championship by an amazing 33 strokes. In 2011, they won all 23 matches by at least 11 strokes and repeated as Cincinnati City Champions.



The Main Point

Does your school have a golf team? If not, be proactive and go to the administration of the school and start a team yourself. A local pro from a city course may be very happy to help you start a program. The PGA pro who helped established our program had 50 kids participate in the program this year - that is immediate revenue and lots of future golfers.