USKids Local Cancellation

Anyone had anything like this happen? A little context. We live outside Birmingham which despite being Alabama's largest metro area does not have a local USKids tour due to some really poor management back several years ago. This has left my 9 year old son and I in the unenviable position of having to constantly travel to two other metro areas to compete, meaning 2 hour car rides there and back. This spring it was announced that we would finally be regaining a local tour for the summer. The tour was scheduled to start this Monday (June 24), which is a very late start for a summer tour in the South, but this morning we received an email that the entire tour was cancelled due to low participation. Now I will agree that overall the entries were very low; however, it seems to be some major poor planning by the director who scheduled every tournament on the same day as our local independent junior tour which is highly competitive and gets to play on some really great tracks. Sadly, since we were expecting this tour to happen we did not enter any of the other local tours within driving distance which are now half over leaving him completely out in the cold for a tour this summer. As well, the local junior tour mentioned above is already midway done. Personally, I find it to be highly unprofessional of USKids to pull the rug out from under participants at the last minute and leave them with no opportunity to try to gain status in the area. It was an especially ugly blow for my junior who was looking forward to competing in the area and specifically on his home course. Also, he has been playing his best golf recently and really had high confidence for Monday. Anyone else had an issue like this where you lost a tour last minute?

Welcome to US kids. The quality varies so much from tour to tour. Even if you are in a competitive and vibrant local tour your going to shake your head at how things are done or run.

You are better off doing regionals if you have to travel since the quality is always going to be better . I would also look at doing local junior PGA section if you have a chance there usually better bang for buck.

If a kid is under 10 you really don’t need a tournament every week 4 or 5 times a year is lots. I would focus on playing and lowering the score plus you can do tournaments year round so a summer break is not that bad. My youngest is 8 and since it gets hot in Florida we are skipping tournaments in the summer instead just focusing on making golf fun. Young kids have a hard time in the heat.

@tiger1873

Get what you are saying but he is not really built like that in his mind. He loves the competition and camaraderie aspect of tournament golf so this was a big blow to him to lose this one this summer. He still has his PGA Jr. League squad but not the same for him sadly. Que sera sera, will just be doing our pilgrimages in the Fall again. USKids is really disappointing me more and more. I hoped he could do Worlds once just to get to experience it but I am thinking more and more we will focus on (as you mentioned) PGA regional and our state association once he hits 10.

I am lucky we live in a area on any given weekend. I could find a junior tournament to do. I would be mad too at US Kids. We will only travel for the older one because she is starting to do FJT stuff now.

Are there any local kids around maybe you could get few kids together and do a low key tournament with a few kids locally. Just reserve a tee time and play type of thing. I bet you actually would have better competition since US kids has a lot kids who just picked up a club a week ago playing.

> @BloctonGolf11 said:

> @tiger1873

> Get what you are saying but he is not really built like that in his mind. He loves the competition and camaraderie aspect of tournament golf so this was a big blow to him to lose this one this summer. He still has his PGA Jr. League squad but not the same for him sadly. Que sera sera, will just be doing our pilgrimages in the Fall again. USKids is really disappointing me more and more. I hoped he could do Worlds once just to get to experience it but I am thinking more and more we will focus on (as you mentioned) PGA regional and our state association once he hits 10.

@tiger1873 His practice partner is one of the top 11 year old girls in the state and they have very solid competitive practice rounds. However, he is just really down on the fact that he can't try to qualify for the bigger tourneys when he felt (and rightfully so) that this was his best chance by far and if we had known we could have gone to one of the other tours. Either way he just needs to keep loving golf and getting better and all will be well, I just think it was a really classless move by USKids.

Their scheduling was interesting to me. All weekdays even though the other tours in the state barely draw enough players for weekend tourneys.

I would call up US Kids and complain that you are not able to play tournaments to get the status to move up to higher levels.

Also if he played and scored decent back it up with scores on other tours and see if they will grant him status. At the very least they should do this so you can make travel worthwhile.

> @BloctonGolf11 said:

> @tiger1873 His practice partner is one of the top 11 year old girls in the state and they have very solid competitive practice rounds. However, he is just really down on the fact that he can't try to qualify for the bigger tourneys when he felt (and rightfully so) that this was his best chance by far and if we had known we could have gone to one of the other tours. Either way he just needs to keep loving golf and getting better and all will be well, I just think it was a really classless move by USKids.

> @AUSweeper said:

> Their scheduling was interesting to me. All weekdays even though the other tours in the state barely draw enough players for weekend tourneys.

And literally scheduled every tournament on the same day as a MAJOR BGA or AJGO tourney. Lunacy.

Charleston, SC. Same situation where we lost local tour two years ago. Schedule for this Summer tour is posted on website (July 8 first one-late), but not even open to sign up yet. Wouldn’t be surprised to get the same email. Hopeful it will go through- want to play to support it. I recall a few years ago they cancelled the one in Myrtle Beach Area for low registration. As mentioned, local tour operations vary greatly. Our next closest options are Savannah and Columbia (both average 2 hours away)- and both are run extremely well and have good participation. The success really depends on the tour director being able to get the word out.

I am also afraid at this point that lots of kids have already committed to camps , VBS, vacation, PGA Junior League, parents working during week, etc. Summer schedules need to be posted Early as they are competing with lots of other activities. For the success of the tour, they may want to wait until fall.

USKids is a business and operates as such.