How much golf do your Juniors play?

mbh922 · August 3, 2019

I'll start. I have an 8 year old who would play every day if he could. My only objectives in golf for him are to have fun (Most important), make some friends, learn the game and life lessons associated with the game. I limit his playing / practicing to 4 days a week (At most). On average probably 3.5 days a week. On the high end it would be 18 holes two days a week and 9 holes one day a week. Then he goes to the range 1 x a week. It use to be all 9 holes until just recently, but he has been begging me to keep playing when we are done with 9. We also live in the Midwest so can only really play 5-6 months (Probably a good thing): So I guess back to my questions:

1) How much are your kids playing and are you concerned its too much?

2) When they started tournaments did it take the fun out of the game? Although I think my son would do fine, I've been reluctant to enter him in any tournaments this year as I don't want it to get too serious too fast. He plays another sport where there are so many out of control parents even at a young ages.

Belmont148 · August 3, 2019

Enjoy it at that age while you can. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get my son to practice at 12. It changed when he went through puberty and started noticing girls. He will play or practice putting any day of the week. But getting him to work on ball striking and chipping is tough. We play 3-4x a week during the summer and practice 30-60 everyday doing something.

BloctonGolf11 · August 3, 2019

9 year old in his third year of golf.

1) He plays USKids in the Spring, PGA Jr League in the Summer, and USKids in the Fall. As well, he has started sprinkling in some "bigger tournaments" such as our state association tournaments. All in all he will play something like 12 USKids tourneys this year, 7 PGA Jr. League matches, and 3 "big tourneys". He shuts down golf completely from November - January except for some range days to keep things stable.

2) No but his closest friends outside of school are all fellow golfers including his best friend/practice partner and he counts the kids he plays constantly on USKids as friends. He is competitive but it is a very friendly competition. There are obviously not fun days when it comes to competition no matter how bad you try to keep it fun and light no one likes to lose. We have never and will never make him sign up to compete so it is up to him if he is competing or not. In fact, he is considering taking the fall off from USKids, even though your final season of 9 year old golf in USKids is one of the best times to go really low and gain high status just due to the distance change that comes at 10. If the programs around you are run well both USKids and PGA Jr. League are great options to let him start competing in a light environment.

mbh922 · August 3, 2019

Thanks for the comments above. Very helpful

JuniorGolfParent · August 4, 2019

My son actually prefers competing in tournaments over playing casual rounds, but he is competitive by nature. He also prefers practice over just playing recreationally.

The season is short where we live, so even though he plays or practices almost everyday during the summer I don't think it's too much.

hangontight · August 5, 2019

8 year old boy - 3 x / week (any combination of playing & practicing) during "golf season"....Which for us is late spring through Summer, even though we can golf year round here. Plays other sports in Fall, Winter, & Spring so getting to the course is sporadic....sometimes 1x/week, sometimes 1x/month....all pretty casual. Heck last year after Worlds in August he played ONE time through the end of December.

TripleBogeysrbetter · August 6, 2019

I have an older kid. Luckily now he can drive to the course. This year he has actually played more tournament rounds. He likes to practice on the range for certain shots a few days before a tournament. The range for a few days after a tournament to fix something.

Starting later in life he has never met any real golf friends. His membership is at a semi-private and most of the kids go out with their parents.

He plays nine holes at a time for practice. Says if he sucks after 9 he doesn't need 18 to confirm it. If we play together we play 18 and he has to beat me by 20.