We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Golfing with Kids - [How] Does Your Course Encourage It?

Reframmellator

Reframmellator

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
11,426
Reaction score
8,751
Location
Ballston Lake, NY
Handicap
24
In the last few days, I've read and responded to threads about slow golfers, and dads and golf, among others. A few thoughts coalesced:

  • times parents and kids spend on the golf course are among the most special
  • many of us dislike a slow pace of play
  • the golfing population is dwindling; the average age of the golfing population is increasing

Hence my title.

A local course, the Van Patten Golf Course in Clifton Park, NY, ran - and still may - a deal in the summers. Starting at 6 pm, parents and kids got all the holes they could play for a reduced rate. In mid-June, that could be 11-12 holes if you were lucky. In late August, it could be a scramble to finish nine.

The course made it clear that this was the one time kids got priority. You could go out as an adult, but understand it was probably going to be slow.
The kids could finish holes while learning the game without the discouragement of having to pick up and go to the next hole.

I don't recall hearing complaints over slow play, or foul language, but rather lots of laughter and smiles. Even during his high school years, when my son shifted my IQ one decimal point to the left in his head, we always found time for a fun couple of hours on the course. To this day, we are still each other's favorite golfing partner.

It also had the consequence, perhaps intentional, of speeding up the pace of play during the day. Parents who wanted to get their kids out on a course realized, by and large, that the best time to do that was going to be Saturday after 6 pm.

What does your local course do to get kids into golf?
 
This is the third season we have a Family Day Special. After 2PM on Sundays, an adult with their minor child gets 18 holes for $18, tax included. The child under 18 plays for free. (Regular rack rate is $30 at 2PM, and $25 after 4PM.)
 
I didn't pay complete attention to this since it doesn't apply to me, but I think our course had some family golf times on Saturday afternoons later in the summer last year. There are some week-long summer camps and a new program started last year for complete beginners for putting and hitting around the practice green. That was always awesome to see when I drove up or walked out of the clubhouse. We also had a US Junior Am sectional qualifier last year...that kinda counts too, right?
 
My course hasn't done enough to encourage it, with only a few events or setups, but they don't discourage it which is nice, I'm never out of line bringing my wife or kids, which goes a long way in growing the game.
 
They don't give me dirty looks when I take my kid.....that's about it.

Sadly not enough courses around here do enough, all of the national junior programs are stuck in their offices off of courses and the courses put no effort to encourage those programs. All they do is give them range balls and blocks of tee times. I'm sure they give them discounts on balls and greens fees, but it's very frustrating to try to talk to someone about the junior programs and the universal response is "our pro offers junior lessons" I'd love to see some times blocked out for juniors, or even juniors and beginners. 9 holes only, expected pace of play 3 hours+ that would be great.
 
The par 3 course here does kids play free on Saturday mornings if accompanied by a parent. Other than that, there unfortunately not a lot of things to encourage growing the game with kids.
 
My daughter will turn 4 this summer, so I haven't had a lot of opportunity to really test this yet.

That said, one of the courses I play league at does something pretty cool on Sunday afternoons: http://www.royalstpatricks.com/family-golf.html

"I would close the Practice Range on Sunday Afternoons at 2:00. I would design and maintain a 7 Hole Family Fun Golf Course right on the Practice Range, complete with Tee boxes, Fairways, Bunkers, Greens and even a water hazard. It would be just like the real thing, but on a compressed level.
...
When it's all done, (and you can play as much as you want), every family has a Pizza and Sodas waiting inside Crosswind Sports Pub & Grille. You can sit inside in the air conditioning, you can enjoy the evening on the veranda deck, but the experience is not complete until you relax, have a meal, and talk about the great afternoon on the Family Course. "

I'm really looking forward to trying this a couple of times this summer.
 
My club really encourages kids golf. Has free clinics and hosts a lot of kids tourneys. They encourage all to bring the kids along. I bring my daughter all the time.
 
The course near my house growing up had a 9 hole kids league on tuesday mornings from 6-8am for $6 (in the 1990's). We never had a problem getting out of bed at 530am to golf as a 12yr old and neither did other kids. There was always a huge line at the first tee by 630. I wish more courses did that sort of thing.

My current club has family tee for the kids so they can play whenever. Longest hole is maybe 150yds. Always a few of them out on the course.
 
blakehall said:
We're going to have a THP outing @ RSP this year. There's at least three of us that can play there relatively easily.

cc/ GirardCorp
Click to expand...
There's another Chili Dipper III is in a league out there. BambooBender lives in De Pere now. Nixon is also close. There are enough of us to have a good time.
 
My home course has 54 holes, 9 of which are short par 3s and a couple of par 4s with no real hazards and slightly bigger holes. This is pushed as a practice or introduction course for kids but I also use it as a short game practice
 
At my home course (that's now unfortunately closed) the head pro was also the person who gave the kids group lessons in the summer. He and a number of other guys working the pro shop allowed kids to play for free on weekend afternoons, we just had to pay the cart fee. They always made a point to talk to the kids, ask how their games were, ask what they were working on, etc.

We mostly play a par 3 that's about 20 minutes away that usually has kids playing at all hours. They offer a junior rate ($8 walking IIRC) and encourage families to come out in their advertising and Facebook posts.
 
Course by me has parent/child membership program. $180 for a year. From Oct-Apr it's $10 each to ride for 18 holes after 12pm any day. From May-Sept after 6pm on weekdays and after 2pm on weekends for the same price.

The course encourages junior golfers...unfortunately other golfers do not. On more than one occasion I've had people we've been paired voice displeasure about being paired with "a kid". My son is 9, he's been going to the course with me since he was 4. He's now to the point where he tees up at the 150 yd marker and plays in from there. He's quicker than about 80% of the golfers out there. Last summer we just started playing every Friday night at 6pm to avoid issues. Part of me is annoyed that we have to alter our playing time to accommodate closed minded people on weekends, but it actually works out better. The course is virtually empty at that time and in the heart of summer we can get about 14 holes in.
 
lemmiwinks said:
Course by me has parent/child membership program. $180 for a year. From Oct-Apr it's $10 each to ride for 18 holes after 12pm any day. From May-Sept after 6pm on weekdays and after 2pm on weekends for the same price.

The course encourages junior golfers...unfortunately other golfers do not. On more than one occasion I've had people we've been paired voice displeasure about being paired with "a kid". My son is 9, he's been going to the course with me since he was 4. He's now to the point where he tees up at the 150 yd marker and plays in from there. He's quicker than about 80% of the golfers out there. Last summer we just started playing every Friday night at 6pm to avoid issues. Part of me is annoyed that we have to alter our playing time to accommodate closed minded people on weekends, but it actually works out better. The course is virtually empty at that time and in the heart of summer we can get about 14 holes in.
Click to expand...

To be fair there are twoi sides to this. Firstly let me say that if anyone complains about a kid I think they should have their brain checked. Kids are the best thing ever in the whole world. Unless of course the parents don't care that they don't behave well but even that is usually the parents fault. Now with that said, if they aren't complaining about the kids per say but only really about the pace then I can see where they may have legitimate concerns. Lets face it, no one wants looooong golf rounds and it is a dominant issue in many places. I posed a question some time back about when one gets old and cant move along fast enough and the answers I got were basically this - They general response was - "I know it sounds cruel but its too bad and unfortunately that person cant delay everyone else". So I would ask....why for one who has paid his dues in life and deserves respect can be told "its too bad you still cant hold up the course" yet its not ok to say this because its a kid? I'm not implying thats my feelings at all because i would sacrifice for kids and also the elderly but the ugly nature is that 5 and 6 hour rounds cant happen. I don't hink its fair to rush kids or penalize them due to pace issues but not fair to rush or penalize the elderly either. But what can ya do? When people get to a course and find out pace is running terribly slow there are going to be too many unhappy campers.
 
Last edited:
My course has special rates & memberships for juniors, a junior night (mondays) during the summer with lessons. and a tee box way up on the fairways for them. I've gone out and played a practice round with some because they don't want them out there in the evenings without some sort of 'guardian' that some parents appreciate and most of us stay with them until they get picked up.
 
Smallville said:
This is the third season we have a Family Day Special. After 2PM on Sundays, an adult with their minor child gets 18 holes for $18, tax included. The child under 18 plays for free. (Regular rack rate is $30 at 2PM, and $25 after 4PM.)
Click to expand...
That is awesome.
 
absolutely nothing
 
Our club absolutely encourages kids to come out. The only thing they ask is it to be done after 2pm. By that time the traffic on the course becomes a lot less. But the membership is well aware of this so you never see anyone complaining about kids being on there.
 
My local regular course runs after school youth programs (not really lessons) 5 nights a week with Friday afternoon tournaments / games for the kids. They also run a superb summer long golf camp and spring break camp, both of which result in kids being on the course midday during the week. Greens fees are steeply reduced for youth.

Two executive courses are about 3 minutes from my house. One is indifferent to kids, they don't do a single thing to encourage/accommodate kids but don't hassle me about bringing my son there either. The other one strikes me as being borderline anti-kids. They were very unhappy that I brought my non-playing (no clubs) daughter to ride in the cart with me then had a ranger follow us around the entire course after finally relenting.

We are fortunate to have a 9 hole par 3 course in the area which is affiliated to the First Tee program and designated as specifically being for kids and families. The course is nothing to write home about but the concept is superb.
 
Last edited:
I should also add in here that the course where I go for my lessons is very big on getting kids into the game. The teaching pro has group sessions with various schools and there are various leagues for the kids to participate in and it all goes on Facebook and Instagram for them to see

Check out Ross Jackson Golf on both of the above for the things he does for them
 
Back when I worked at a few courses, they tried to grow the game. I was involved in the Kids Golf Clinics for a few Summers. Once I got the job as the Assistant Pro, I was partly in charge of the Clinic with the Head Pro, of course. Also, during that time, I spent three days a week for about 5 weeks, going around to three different Middle Schools in the area to teach an after school golf program. That was very rewarding as two of the schools where on Fort Riley and one was just off the base but almost all of the kids had a parent that worked on base. During the summer at that time, we had a few Kids Tournaments where they would tee off from the 200, 150, or 100 yard markers, depending on age.

If we want this game to continue to grow, it's going to be on us and what we teach our kids moving forward. With kids more and more online and into Social Media the way they/we are, that's the best way to connect to them, but now we have to get them to the game, and to put down the phones once they are at the courses. That's going to be the key.
 
My course doesn't encourage or discourage Junior Golfers. They do let my 10 year old son play whenever he wants. He is on Spring Break right now and out walking 9 holes with a buddy this morning. Those two walking are as fast as most twosomes riding.

The local Public has two courses with family tees. Any kid during the summer can go and walking 18 for $1.00 after 1:00. Range ball junior rate are always $1.00.

Courses that aren't encouraging Junior Golfers are missing the boat. Junior golfers are what is going to keep this game going. I read something the other day that said in all major sports, golf is seeing the largest growth among juniors. Private Clubs are stuck with a growing number of older members. They need to promote Junior Golfers to keep their club going.
 
Last edited:
I haven't looked at any of my local courses' policies about this yet, but will be this year. My wife is taking up golf this year and we'll be taking our 4 year old out too. So we need to find a course that has some sort of kid or beginner policy, or find a way to enjoy it without holding anyone up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top