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First Junior Tournament


nix

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You have guys like Huebner and Dunham there which are household names in big time tournaments. Hell Dunham is probably bigger than me and he's only 10. That's just unfair. lol

 

He's 5'3 135lbs

 

And my point was how good the bottom of the leaderboard is, not the top

 

That leaderboard has 13 players. THATS the point. There are over 1000 10u baseball players competing locally. THAT provides a true bell curve of talent. If you took the top 13 baseball players and took a well above avg kid he'd look like he was absolutely terrible at the game which is not true. The kids competing are generally the top of the top and there is no actual bell curve BECAUSE THERE ARENT ENOUGH PLAYERS and those that dip their toes lose by 30 strokes, suddenly feel like they're terrible and go do something else.

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I agree with iTeach. If you are shooting 50-60 you aren’t very good no matter how you spin it. Goal is to work and get better.

 

nix, iteach won't say it but he's a very well regarded instructor with a lot of junior golf talent under his wing. I tend to listen a bit more when he's giving you his two cents here on GolfWRX.

THATS the issue. His view of junior golfers is skewed as he ONLY sees top elite 1% talent day in and day out. Give me 1,000 local 10 year old golfers and the avg for 9 holes would be somewhere in the 80s. Give me the top 5 and it's a different story. I don't know why I keep trying to explain this. Whatever.
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This is a strange thread

 

First of all, I think it’s great that your son loves golf and you should definitely encourage him to pursue his passions and interests

 

However, re the part of the discussion concerning “average abilities”, I think you need to more clearly define who exactly qualifies as a junior golfer, just as you would a youth baseball player

 

Yes fewer kids play golf than baseball at almost every age level - but that is irrelevant when looking at average (or even median) abilities

 

To be on a team and practice/play organized youth league baseball is quite a commitment, and the equivalent to the world of junior golf is not simply any kid who has ever picked up a club or putted a ball

 

I think if you wanted to narrow down the requirement of what constitutes a participant in “junior golf”, equivalent to a participant in organized youth baseball, you should only include kids who play at least x times a year out on the course and practices y times a month (x and y are subjective and would vary depending on who you ask)

 

If you were to only include those participants in the universe of junior golf participants, I think you would find that the average for 9 holes would definitely NOT “be somewhere in the 80s”, but probably closer to low to mid 50s at worst

 

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I agree with iTeach. If you are shooting 50-60 you aren⤙t very good no matter how you spin it. Goal is to work and get better.

 

nix, iteach won't say it but he's a very well regarded instructor with a lot of junior golf talent under his wing. I tend to listen a bit more when he's giving you his two cents here on GolfWRX.

THATS the issue. His view of junior golfers is skewed as he ONLY sees top elite 1% talent day in and day out. Give me 1,000 local 10 year old golfers and the avg for 9 holes would be somewhere in the 80s. Give me the top 5 and it's a different story. I don't know why I keep trying to explain this. Whatever.

 

No I see plenty of beginners. I have two kids that never touched a club before 3 years ago who now shoot under par and will play college golf on scholarship. We had junior camps all summer where most of the kids had never played before.

 

Your issue is you think you’re only seeing the elite in these events, you’re not. There aren’t 1000 ten year old golfers in your city. That’s the point. So throwing a kid in there who doesn’t actually play golf would obviously skew the numbers higher. But that’s not a bell shaped curve of kids who actually golf, it’s a curve of random 10 year olds. If you expand your sample size and looked at every US Kids tour in the US you see score of 68 and 58 would be near the bottom percentage wise.

 

You can lie to yourself and keep thinking and telling yourself how good your kid is or you can be realistic and work on him becoming very good. But if he thinks is scores and skill level are “very good” then he won’t feel the need to get better.

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Nix - your son is doing just fine. Golf more than maybe any other sport is a race to 10,000 hours. The only natural gift you need in golf is the ability to generate swing speed in excess of 110 mph and to be mentally strong. You can’t take a raw athelete and turn him into an elite athlete with half the hours like you can other sports. All of these kids being labeled elite just has a multiple number of hours compared to your son. I’ve seen too many golfers at the high school and AJGA level score and do well with flawed techniques just because they’ve put in the requisite hours to hone their impact and distance control. Now if your son can’t poke it 300 consistently by the time he is 15-16, I would say he would be at a disadvantage going to a top D1 school. Keep him playing tourneys to learn the game/rules and different situations rather than worry about medals.

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I honestly don't understand what the OP is trying to justify. I looked up the US Kids golf Summer Local in the KC area and none of those scores in the 9 year old division is elite. I would call them average scores. I think the OP doesn't have a grasp on what elite, good, or average is. http://www.uskidsgolf.com/tournaments/local/find-local-tour/284882/kansas-city

 

I don't agree with anything Nix has posted. I think he is delusional in his understanding of Junior golf and trying to come up with a scenario to justify the greatness of his kid.

 

Nix... when my daughter started golf she was terrible. First tournament she played in at 13 she shot 108 and 109. The girl's she played with went on to play at Vanderbilt (shot low 80) and UGA (shot low 80). She knew she was bad but loved the game. She worked at it and put up her first round in the high 70's within 6 months. There is nothing wrong with your kid being bad at something. You shouldn't sugarcoat what it is.

I am GenX.  If you really think I care about what you have to say, I don't.

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"There aren’t 1000 ten year old golfers in your city. That’s the point"

 

We agree. /end

 

So out of all the experience and knowledge iteach posted, you take this one sentence and quote it as proof that you are right?

 

Again, I'm not sure really what you are looking for in this thread, other than someone to concur that your son, who entered his very first tournament, is indeed a very good golfer. Several other regular posters in this forum with much more experience have provided compelling evidence and arguments to suggest the score posted is, in fact, average. If you aren't willing to consider the advice of people here, then why are you here? You could have just stopped after the original post.

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OP, perspective from others will only help you on your journey with your son's golf.

 

I started my daughter at 10 YOA in our local county run 9 hole tourney. There were 3 events over the course of the summer with about 10 girls in the 9-12 division and it was not a very good representation of skill level that you see as soon as you jump up to larger events like US Kids Regionals (the locals tend to be weak fields and vary greatly from locale to locale.)

 

When she was 11 we dove in a bit more and realized once she got to Regionals that she had some serious catching-up to do. We both wish she started sooner.

 

She improved quickly though and by 14,15,16 was qualifying for national events like the Big I, US Girl's Junior, and US Women's Am. Fast forward to now and shes playing mid-level D1 on full scholarship. (Boy's golf is many times harder to play collegiately for a multitude of reasons)

 

Knowledge is your best friend here as navigating junior golf isn't easy. Being realistic in terms of understanding the quality of the competition is important if you expect your son to succeed. He's young enough to improve quickly and dramatically, but you'll both have to have the drive, determination, commitment, time, and resources.

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I agree with iTeach. If you are shooting 50-60 you aren’t very good no matter how you spin it. Goal is to work and get better.

 

nix, iteach won't say it but he's a very well regarded instructor with a lot of junior golf talent under his wing. I tend to listen a bit more when he's giving you his two cents here on GolfWRX.

THATS the issue. His view of junior golfers is skewed as he ONLY sees top elite 1% talent day in and day out. Give me 1,000 local 10 year old golfers and the avg for 9 holes would be somewhere in the 80s. Give me the top 5 and it's a different story. I don't know why I keep trying to explain this. Whatever.

 

Averages in the 80s not even close. My 6 daughter had been to the range about 6 times and took one intro lesson before i put her in a tournament for fun, she shot a 64. There was a 4 year old in our tour this spring and summer she averaged 70-80. I think your averages are a little off base. She now just turned 8 and I would just call her a little above average as she shoots high 30s to very low 40s.

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Geeze, just give the OP a break. He and his son are just getting into US kids and Junior golf. Does it make a difference at all to any of us if he thinks his son is good? Nope. As he gains more experience and plays more, he will eventually see where he stands and can decide to quit or work hard to get better.

 

I'm lost on the whole bell curve thing though.

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Geeze, just give the OP a break. He and his son are just getting into US kids and Junior golf. Does it make a difference at all to any of us if he thinks his son is good? Nope. As he gains more experience and plays more, he will eventually see where he stands and can decide to quit or work hard to get better.

 

I'm lost on the whole bell curve thing though.

 

I think it is the point of him trying to argue with iTeach. A lot of amateur hackers do not understand how good these junior golfers are. The OP is a 20 capper so he very rarely has broken 90 if ever. He probably has never been around good golfers. An average 12 year old is going to beat him like a pulp. It is all about perspective and the OP trying to justify that his kid is good.

 

Remember, he made the post and brought it up.

I am GenX.  If you really think I care about what you have to say, I don't.

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US Kids locals vary a lot with the quality of players. In some places your going to need to be below par to even place in the top 5. I would think most kids will not have a problem scoring 50-70 the first time you go out a lot kids will score in the 40's very easy. The biggest problem I see with US kids events is there too easy for kids to par the event.

 

The distances are not that far and all a kid has to do is basically roll it down the fairway and up on the green. If they have a little direction and can putt there going to score very low.

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The distances are not that far and all a kid has to do is basically roll it down the fairway and up on the green. If they have a little direction and can putt there going to score very low.

 

Man, if it was only that easy.

 

i know a kid who plays who can drive the ball 150yds or so. But when it goes off-line it can end up in trouble or OOB. That extra distance is a disadvantage if not straight compared to the worm-burner shorter distance kids who keep it in play. I won't say who this kid is, but rest assured, he's terrible at golf.

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The distances are not that far and all a kid has to do is basically roll it down the fairway and up on the green. If they have a little direction and can putt there going to score very low.

 

Man, if it was only that easy.

 

i know a kid who plays who can drive the ball 150yds or so. But when it goes off-line it can end up in trouble or OOB. That extra distance is a disadvantage if not straight compared to the worm-burner shorter distance kids who keep it in play. I won't say who this kid is, but rest assured, he's terrible at golf.

 

150 yards at 9/10 years old isn't very far.

 

Keeping it in play is part of the game. If you are a golfer trying to hit the ball straight, I suggest trying to curve it. Even the best players in the world have a difficult time hitting it straight, but it is easy to curve it.

I am GenX.  If you really think I care about what you have to say, I don't.

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The distances are not that far and all a kid has to do is basically roll it down the fairway and up on the green. If they have a little direction and can putt there going to score very low.

 

Man, if it was only that easy.

 

i know a kid who plays who can drive the ball 150yds or so. But when it goes off-line it can end up in trouble or OOB. That extra distance is a disadvantage if not straight compared to the worm-burner shorter distance kids who keep it in play. I won't say who this kid is, but rest assured, he's terrible at golf.

 

Regardless, I would still take the distance since it can be hard to come by for some kids. I think 150 is average for an 8 yr old. 175 is avg. for a 9 year old and by 10 they should be sniffing it out there past 200.

 

OP, I used to talk about how good my kid was until he got his a** handed to him by this kid from Europe. Now I just let his scores talk.

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The distances are not that far and all a kid has to do is basically roll it down the fairway and up on the green. If they have a little direction and can putt there going to score very low.

 

Man, if it was only that easy.

 

i know a kid who plays who can drive the ball 150yds or so. But when it goes off-line it can end up in trouble or OOB. That extra distance is a disadvantage if not straight compared to the worm-burner shorter distance kids who keep it in play. I won't say who this kid is, but rest assured, he's terrible at golf.

 

150 yards at 9/10 years old isn't very far.

 

Keeping it in play is part of the game. If you are a golfer trying to hit the ball straight, I suggest trying to curve it. Even the best players in the world have a difficult time hitting it straight, but it is easy to curve it.

 

When I say roll it down the fairway it doesn't mean it's easy to par but at the same time it's the reason you don't see many high scores out there. if there too short though and easy it takes away some advantage that kids who can really hit the ball have. I haven't seen too many kids who can consitantly sink every putt and chip within 3 feet on every hole.I however have seen plenty though that hit the green on 1 or 2 shots. Like heavy It's about keeping the ball in play. The winners at this age get in on the green and make keep the putts down to a minimum.

 

The reason the holes are short is to give all kids a chance to play.If you feel they are too short you have to play harder tournaments. Under 12 is the most frustrating part of being a parent of a junior golfer. The best advice I got was let the kid develop and learn to love golf and play tournaments to gauge their progress and don't let any wins go to your head.

 

A kid who is 9 and hits the ball a mile but doesn't hit the fairway might actually be the better kid in a few years but needs to learn how keep the ball in play. Score isn't everything when there young. If they learn learn how to get out trouble not much will stop them.

 

Heavy is right you don't hit the ball strait. I have found some instructors don't know this and are real problem. If you find one get rid of them as fast as you can there idiots. Learning to curve the ball is dangerous as not everyone can control it but is a game changer.

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I think you’ve completely missed the point.

 

You SHOULD be proud of your son and there’s nothing wrong with the scores he shot. But he SHOULD also feel that those scores aren’t good enough and use that experience as motivation to get better. He’s being negative over where he finished is a good thing and simply part of being competitive. You only get better by failing, failing is a good thing as long as you recognize that you failed. If he is told he’s very good when he isn’t, he doesn’t stand much of a chance at actually becoming really good. You can be positive about some things while also being realistic and critical of others. Accurate feedback is one of the most important things in skill development.

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