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Golfing with a child. How do you?

Bullfrog

Bullfrog

Team Hackers 4EVA!!!
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Yesterday my girlfriend and I took her daughter (currently 9 years old) golfing. I bought her a set of clubs. We took two carts so the "ladies" could ride together. We went to a course that was wide open, as in no many people where there and they have 27 holes. We would get to a tee box. I would tee off. Then we would move up to the forward tees to let the "ladies" tee off. Terra would hit first then we would let her daughter, Elizabeth, try. We where having a hard time trying to get her to keep her feet still. She wanted to "step into" the swing. We would let her hit 3-5 balls per tee. This didn't help me play well at all, I couldn't get in a groove, but it was more about her than me yesterday. Anyways...


For those of you that have young golfers in the household, What is your normal routine when taking them with you to play. Do you just let them swing away or do you try to help them out. It was a little rough for me. I can barely swing a club let a lone teach someone to do it. Thanks for the responses in advance.
 
I played with my daughter who is only 6 at a 9 hole course (goat track). Course was mostly empty.

We both teed off and then we would pick up her ball and she would hit from where mine was each time and she putted out.
I gave her a few tips here and there that she could understand.

She had a blast...she liked steering the cart more than anything though :act-up:
 
If on the course I do it like you. Later in the day and not a lot of traffic on the course.

my girls are new at playing and still trying to make consistent contact. So usually I'll let them hit around 100yds in or so and just let them get the feel for being on the course. I also let them putt when i am putting.

I don't worry about fundamentals because if or when they are ready we will get that knocked out on the range without "pressure" of the course.
 
My son is 7 and when I take him golfing, I cannot expect to play well. He's still too young to follow/understand the rules and the fundamentals of the swing so I make it all about him.

Also, my son will not take direction from me - he's the expert :). However, he does very well with other coaches and instructors in every sport. When he finally gets ready to take golf serious, I'll have my instructor work with him. Apparently I was the same way as a child.
 
I plan to bring my 5 year old daughter out this year. I like the idea of essentially playing best ball with her. It would speed things up and lessen her frustration. I've had her at the range and the practice green, she seems to enjoy it. Looking forward to playing many rounds with my new partner. I'm glad to see more like minded folks around here!
 
I hope my son is interested in a few years, he's only 3 now but loves the putting green. I take him with me every time i do some short game practice. I have a putter sized for him, and a 8 iron, this weekend for my birthday we get to Topgolf first thing in the morning, and 90% of that choice is for him.
 
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good timing, as i did this with my 7yo and 4yo yesterday.

i have come to embrace that when i play with them, i never play well. but that's ok. it gives me an opportunity to show them it's ok to be frustrated by bad shots, but to still have a positive attitude and look forward to the opportunity to be better.

i am very distracted because i'm concerned for their safety as well as maintaining etiquette, all while trying to keep it fun and engaging. that's a really difficult balance.

this is all assuming there is no one waiting on us. my routine is to let them hit a tee shot, then i hit. we go pick up their shots, and they can tee up another driver from wherever my shot ended up or hit an iron. then they come up to the green and get two putts then pick up.

yesterday we played in about 3.5 hours. we were paired up with a guy, and starting on about hole 7 we waited on a single in front who was waiting on foursome in front of him. my point is that it doesn't have to slow the round to a grinding halt.
 
When I starred bringing my son out, I didn’t tell him anything aside from proper etiquette. I let him hit however he wanted, so long as he wasn’t going to damage anything (or himself). He teed off on all par 3s, on longer holes he teed off from the 150 marker. I also let him tee up his iron shots too but after a few rounds of that he wanted to do it the “real way”.

Stuff like this will come naturally to kids since they don’t overthink it like we do. Even now that he takes lessons and plays PGA Jr I rarely give him tips, and when I do it’s one thing only. I just want him to have fun and enjoy the game.


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My youngest is 13 and makes decent enough contact so the round doesn't come to a grinding halt. Similar to others I have him tee off on same box as me, we grab his ball on the way by and he drops and hits from my ball. We work our way to the green and he putts out his own ball. I try to pick times where course traffic is light or if get bogged down let other play through. There's a local par 3 muni that he plays out everything from tee to green. If we're just farting around I'll just carry a pw and work on short game stuff as he's making his way up the fairway. At 13 I realize there's no way I can get into a grove and play an actual round so I don't even try. I just cherish the time spent together.
 
Good on you for taking the ladies out and having some fun on the course. What I did with my daughters early on was just let them tee off and if they wanted to hit in other spots on the course let them, it was more about trying to have fun than it was about trying to teach them when it was their first few times on the course. If she had fun and wants to keep going then bonus to both of you, there will be plenty of time to help teach her how to get better if she does in fact enjoy it and has that desire to do so. It can be touchy at first, I know for me I so badly wanted my girls to enjoy golf as much as I did so I was always ready to teach them how to be good and get them in camps etc. But they just didn't get bit by the golf bug like me....so now they rarely touch a club.
 
That's pretty much how I started it with my daughter, though I let her tee off when we were within about 100 yards of the green, and we have moved back bit-by-bit as she has gotten older, and improved some.
 
I'll take my 8 and 6 yr old to play golf on the course about once a month. 8yr old has great hand-eye coordination and remembers what he learned from the kids clinics years ago. I'll tee him up around 150 yds on par 4s and 200 yds on par 5s. He gets a stroke a hole to keep it competitive. I don't have to say much to him, but I make sure we hit the range first so he can shake the rust.

My 6yr old starts playing the first hole from 75 yds and she realizes she can't hit it like her brother, changes her mind and plays scorekeeper. I'll let her "drive" the cart from tee to green.

It's important to keep it light and fun. This is probably the most difficult sport for any kid so gotta find ways to entertain them. If they behave, I'll treat them to frozen yogurt after the round.

And 9 holes is good enough... it gets a bit crazy after that and zero attention span lol.
 
I started off all wrong. Too worried about her golf manners, how long it took. Etc. Finally I looked over on one hole after a shot and she was making snow angels in a bunker. I laughed like crazy and got it.. Its about driving the cart, a snack at the turn. Listening to birds and picking a flower. There is plenty of time to teach the game if they want to learn. Start with making it fun and then they want to come back. My daughter just wrapped up a great career as a student athlete and not as a golfer. She still talks about golf and plans to play when she graduates in May.
 
(100% agree with the lessons suggestion if she's interesred)

Similar to Rambler, I didn't have my son tee off at all at the tee box. He tee'd off at about 80 yards out for par 3's, 130 or so for par 4's and 175 or more for par 5's. Only went that far because he could poke it out there at times.

The game is all about getting the ball on the green and into the hole, I learned quickly with him that the closer he started, the more focused and target-centric he became.
 
I'll be experiencing this myself this year. My 7 year old daughter wants to play more this year and I'm going to do my best to be laid back about it and not expect to play well myself when I'm with her. The biggest thing will be to just have fun and hope that hooks her on the sport.
 
KEV said:
I'll be experiencing this myself this year. My 7 year old daughter wants to play more this year and I'm going to do my best to be laid back about it and not expect to play well myself when I'm with her. The biggest thing will be to just have fun and hope that hooks her on the sport.
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I'm right there with you. I'm not sure either of my kids actually want to play more this year, but I need to make an effort to take them more even if it means I get to play a little less myself.
 
Rambler said:
That's pretty much how I started it with my daughter, though I let her tee off when we were within about 100 yards of the green, and we have moved back bit-by-bit as she has gotten older, and improved some.
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I do the same when teaching golfers of any age. My 2 year old plays from 50 yards in.


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Lots of solid advice here and fall pretty much in line with everyone else. It’s about having fun with her, and letting her dictate how she’s going to play. Some days she plays a lot of holes, and some days she caddies for me. Either way, we’re hanging out and having fun.

I try to give her little advice if any, if she starts getting frustrated then I’ll give her one tip at a time and that’s it.
 
My daughter is only 5, at this point she really only likes to get out and putt. But she loves riding in the cart and wants to go all the time. I love it because I get to spend quality time with her out on the course.
 
OhioGolfer said:
My daughter is only 5, at this point she really only likes to get out and putt. But she loves riding in the cart and wants to go all the time. I love it because I get to spend quality time with her out on the course.
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This sounds like my daughter. She has a little 8 iron and putter. Last year she drained a putt from around six feet and the look of excitement on her face was priceless. She asks to go a lot when it’s warm, and I have no issues with it as she’s very patient and able to play 18 with me. She may not get out of the cart at every green, but she doesn’t complain about not wanting to play either. I believe I took her for the first time at 3.5 years old.
 
I'm going to try to get Elizabeth (gf's 9 year old) to hit balls in our yard after taking her on Sunday. Hopefully she will have as much fun just trying to learn to hit balls. Fingers crossed :fingers-crossed:
 
a lot of good advice here so far so not much more to add except a couple of things from my experience with my now 8 yr old. he's fairly competitive, so the 3 times we've played 18 together we did match play and I would give him a score to keep him invested in playing regardless of how well he was doing. if he hit it ok and putted a few times then great that's a birdie or par and he takes the hole or we tied.

i gave little to no swing advice bc he thinks he knows everything, but did focus on etiquette around the green and such. keep it fun and bribe with an ice cream stop after the round!
 
Started my son when he was 12 (a bit late, but that’s okay). He’s pretty athletic, but obviously new to the game.

My goals were to keep it light and fun, let him win a few holes, and take all the mulligans he could handle. Small tips on etiquette as appropriate sprinkled in here and there. We would also make every hole 2 more than par...so a real par 3 was a par 5 for him, etc.

He’s not very motivated on putting, and just whacks away. 3 or 4 puts are common and he could care less. I incentivized him with time on his beloved PS4 for every legit 2 putt. NOW he lines up every putt like a pro and tries SOOO hard in putting. :victory::victory:
 
Great post and responses! I've actually been thinking about taking my 6 year old out to play a round. Lots of great advice here to follow!
 
The normal routine is for us to have some fun for a few holes. Then one or both of them gets frustrated for not playing well. If I help they get mad at me for helping. If I don't help they get mad at me for abandoning them. Sometimes there's tears. Then a hug and a talk. Maybe they take a hole or two off, regroup and get back to having fun. We always remove our caps, shake hands on the last hole and say "it was nice playing with you". Then we go get an ice cream together.
 
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