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 By regularly covering junior golfers, and running stories designed to enlighten them and their parents about junior golf-related topics, we feel that we're contributing in some fashion to helping grow the game. The more we can keep kids interested in the game, and the more we can inform them and their parents about how to enjoy and excel at the game, the more we feel we're playing a role in making sure the game that has brought so much to our lives has a bright future. In this month's issue, our junior golf features include how to obtain a golf scholarship, how to prepare for competition and how to find the right teacher. These are things that junior golfers all need to know. But they're also things that the parents and guardians of junior golfers need to know. Behind just about every successful golfer who learned the game as a junior, there is a parent, or older sibling, or uncle or grandparent, or just a family friend, who encouraged them. Maybe it was as simple as giving rides to the driving range after school. Maybe it was as intensive as helping decide what universities to pursue scholarships at. Whatever the case, the importance of adults in helping to shape a junior golfer's future can't be underestimated. Just ask Tiger Woods, who never misses an opportunity to share how important his father, Earl, was in helping expose him to the game and in learning how to play. Tigers' relationship with his father is well-documented, and we're guessing that most top professionals can relate. Did you catch Trevor Immelman's comments after the South African native won this year's Masters? He talked about the sacrifices his parents made while he was growing up in order to make sure that he played in all the right tournaments, where he honed his golf skills on the field of competitive battle. Clearly, this man appreciated the role his parents played; at the moment of his greatest professional triumph, he credited them with helping to make it all happen. No, not every junior golfer will one day wear a Green Jacket. And not all of them will continue playing the game past high school or college. But learning to play golf as a junior is about far more than making it a lucrative career or achieving glory. Junior golfers are reared with an appreciation for the game, its rules and its etiquette. They learn how to socialize with other junior golfers, and they learn the kind of intangibles that all too often aren't learned in school: things like integrity, honesty and sportsmanship. These are elements that factor into something far more important than winning a junior golf tournament or excelling among one's peers. They help to build character and prepare a child for the far more complicated and confusing grown-up world that awaits them when their junior days are gone. Rob Lyon and Eric Marson are the founders of Southland Golf. They can be reached at rlyon@churmmedia.com and emarson@churmmedia.com. |
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