Featured Article
What
a future junior golf has in Australia
by
Nigel Gibson (Head PGA Professional Kingston Heath, VIC),
first published by the Financial Review 18th April, 2002
I arrived at work
on Monday morning earlier than usual knowing that the players in our open
junior tournament would be keen to do some practice prior to the 8.00am
shotgun start.
At 6.10 am the first
of those players began to come through the gates with either mum or dad
acting as the taxi service for the day. Many of the kids had traveled
for a number of hours to play what is recognised as the number 2 course
in Australia.
One of the most impressive sights of the day was that nearly all of the
kids warmed up correctly by going through a few light stretches prior
to working their way through the bag with wedges then mid irons etc.
I am so used to seeing
the adults make their way immediately to the woods tee to see if they
can crank up a few long drives before they get to the first tee. It was
obvious to me that these kids had been watching their idols. The likes
of Norman, Woods and now Baddeleys routines had been keenly observed
and now put into practice. To become good you have to emulate what the
great players do.
Like all good players
these up and coming young champions were straight out onto the practice
fairway to work on their games once again. In listening I heard plenty
of hard luck stories of missed opportunities and what could or should
have been. However this did not dampen the enthusiasm the players had
for the game. Through out Australia we will see many of the junior members
winning competitions. With school holidays being taken the golf courses
and pro shops are filed with the younger players. I can still remember
when I had school holidays as a kid I would get Mum or Dad to drop me
off in the morning at the club and then pick me up on the way home from
work. During the day a bunch of us would play and practice. At times we
played up to 45 holes in a day.
It is a wonderful
sport to get your children involved in, they learn to interact with adults
and other children from all different walks of life. You could end up
playing golf on a Saturday with the CEO of a multi national company, who
by the way could loose his cool a bit when missing that little two-foot
putt.
So if you happen to
have children and they show an interest in the game you might give some
thought to taking them down to the course late one afternoon for a hit
and a bit of fun. It really is a sport for all ages.
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