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High School Golf Thread

ntanygd760 said:
You did, more and more teams are using push carts. Pretty stupid not to between better for the back and why willingly use more energy than needed. Might not seem like a lot but silly to carry.
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I don't see how carrying is stupid, but that's me.

You also have to remember, while carts are great and I have one. No way can my program afford to buy 10 of them (girls and boys) not do we have the kids who can just run out and have parent buy them. Nothing wrong with carrying at their age.
 
I volunteer for a junior golf program in the summer and we encourage the kids to carry especially when they are new to the game. For us it is a great way to teach them where to leave their bags and move intelligently around the course.
 
Jman said:
I don't see how carrying is stupid, but that's me.

You also have to remember, while carts are great and I have one. No way can my program afford to buy 10 of them (girls and boys) not do we have the kids who can just run out and have parent buy them. Nothing wrong with carrying at their age.
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I totally understand where you are coming from. I just come at it from the position that you are playing competitive golf so why would you do something that puts you at a disadvantage. Even if it only helps a little, maybe 0.10 strokes a round it still helps combined with future health.

The cost thing is tricky sadly and I can see that being an issue. Unless the kids are high ranking AJGA then companies just won't give them free ones.
 
TheCrest4 said:
I volunteer for a junior golf program in the summer and we encourage the kids to carry especially when they are new to the game. For us it is a great way to teach them where to leave their bags and move intelligently around the course.
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Jman said:
I don't see how carrying is stupid, but that's me.

You also have to remember, while carts are great and I have one. No way can my program afford to buy 10 of them (girls and boys) not do we have the kids who can just run out and have parent buy them. Nothing wrong with carrying at their age.
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Agree with both thoughts. I was also surprised at how little golf etiquette my JV guys knew coming in. And especially regarding pace of play and ready golf. Totally clueless. Hell, even in the simulator last week I had to tell them to pick up the pace.

Now there are a couple of freshmen that are tiny - I think they might benefit from a cart, but they actually would use less energy if they think about where to put the bag during each hole & play ready golf. All too often I watched them drag their bags all over the place instead of parking it closest to the next tee & grabbing 2-3 clubs needed around the green. The difference between the varsity & JV guys on this is night & day.
 
So, I haven't updated in a while, but its been busy.

We are still fundraising our asses off, "Siberian Classic" is this weekend where kids get sponsors for the # of holes they play, typically it earns the name but it'll be 71 this Sunday hahahaha.

For the boys its also serving as out ranking matches bc its the only time we can get a full 18 in and out first tourney is next Friday. I'm almost 100% on how the top 3 will shake out (JR-will qualify for state, FR-will qualify for state, SR- has potential) but beyond that its between a JR and 3 SO to round out our initial 5. Issue has been motivation for those last guys and getting them to WANT to improve, got to the point that I had a come to Jesus meeting with them all this week and eliminated JV tournaments, you either make the top 5 and travel, or you SHOW ME you are committed and I will pay to take the 6 and 7 to most of our tourneys as extras. To the rest, I have a LOT of beginners and others who WANT to improve and listen more than anyone, but they are simply not tourney ready this year...luckily they're FR and SO. So the time is here to focus in on the guys who will travel and those who want to be there eventually, the rest who are there for social aspects will still be welcome but will be much more hands off. Its the nature of the beast. I truly believe my boys can sneak into state as a team this year, but its going to take a lot of focus and doing the little things right and intelligently on the course.
 
How good is your typical hs golfer? I grew up in San Diego so I imagine what I had at my school isn't typical. I had zero chance to make the team pretty sure the entire varsity team averaged under 76 or 77
 
ntanygd760 said:
How good is your typical hs golfer? I grew up in San Diego so I imagine what I had at my school isn't typical. I had zero chance to make the team pretty sure the entire varsity team averaged under 76 or 77
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Private schools and BIG schools (OKC, Tulsa) here are that way, public, no way. Remember, the central and midwest is MUCH more rural and the opportunities (and enticement) to play golf is very low. Plus, as a public school, I will not cut anyone.

My 1 will be LOW 70's, 2 will be mid to upper 70's, the rest mid 80's to upper 90's. Just the way it is.
 
That is good then, not cutting if you can help it especially in non big 3 sports is the way to go.
 
ntanygd760 said:
That is good then, not cutting if you can help it especially in non big 3 sports is the way to go.
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This town used to have a HELL of a program, and Country Club in town that facilitated that. I think the tally boys and girls is something like 15 state titles as teams and a lot of all-staters as well. Sadly though, when the course fell apart, so did the ambition of kids in town (lets be honest, mostly midle-upper class kids) to play. It'll be a tough row to hoe, but I'm dug in on righting the ship now and the girls coach (former state champion and all-stater here) is the same way. Some immediate success to SHOW them would be nice, but its going to be tough in our classification (4A has a LOT of private schools).
 
Best of luck though, has to be a grind trying to find ways too keep the better kids heads in it while making it fun for the ones who might struggle.
 
High School Golf Thread

Had a great day of practice today. HS went out and played 9 and we worked with the middle schoolers. Set up some putting drills and worked on distance control. It's hard to keep their focus, but we had fun. Went to the range and had them tee it up to help them see the ball get in the air and build from there.

After practice, one of the dad's asked if I would help with his daughter who's in 6th grade. So we played a couple of holes. She was nervous, but she smoked her drive straight down the middle. I'm serious when I say she could probably be our 5th or 6th the high school team. I'm looking forward to watching her progress.

We're a small school and after watching them I think we only have one or two guys that will shoot under 50, but talking with some of the other coaches that will be in our sectional, we will be competitive. First match is next week, weather permitting.
 
Miller Time said:
Had a great day of practice today. HS went out and played 9 and we worked with the middle schoolers. Set up some putting drills and worked on distance control. It's hard to keep their focus, but we had fun. Went to the range and had them tee it up to help them see the ball get in the air and build from there.

After practice, one of the dad's asked if I would help with his daughter who's in 6th grade. So we played a couple of holes. She was nervous, but she smoked her drive straight down the middle. I'm serious when I say she could probably be our 5th or 6th the high school team. I'm looking forward to watching her progress.

We're a small school and after watching them I think we only have one or two guys that will shoot under 50, but talking with some of the other coaches that will be in our sectional, we will be competitive. First match is next week, weather permitting.
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Good luck! Hopefully the kids will be focused mainly on improving & won't get discouraged if they're playing against a superior opponent. My JV kids (all FR & SO) had to play several matches against another school's "JV" team - but it was actually their second varsity team (They had an A & a B team). The one senior my freshman went up against looked like he was 35. The kids told me "He looks like my uncle!" It got into his head at first, but he settled down & played his game & did well.
 
Jman said:
So, I haven't updated in a while, but its been busy.

We are still fundraising our asses off, "Siberian Classic" is this weekend where kids get sponsors for the # of holes they play, typically it earns the name but it'll be 71 this Sunday hahahaha.

For the boys its also serving as out ranking matches bc its the only time we can get a full 18 in and out first tourney is next Friday. I'm almost 100% on how the top 3 will shake out (JR-will qualify for state, FR-will qualify for state, SR- has potential) but beyond that its between a JR and 3 SO to round out our initial 5. Issue has been motivation for those last guys and getting them to WANT to improve, got to the point that I had a come to Jesus meeting with them all this week and eliminated JV tournaments, you either make the top 5 and travel, or you SHOW ME you are committed and I will pay to take the 6 and 7 to most of our tourneys as extras. To the rest, I have a LOT of beginners and others who WANT to improve and listen more than anyone, but they are simply not tourney ready this year...luckily they're FR and SO. So the time is here to focus in on the guys who will travel and those who want to be there eventually, the rest who are there for social aspects will still be welcome but will be much more hands off. Its the nature of the beast. I truly believe my boys can sneak into state as a team this year, but its going to take a lot of focus and doing the little things right and intelligently on the course.
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Jman do you have a JV coach? How many kids fit the "social aspect" group?
 
Grins said:
Jman do you have a JV coach? How many kids fit the "social aspect" group?
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We inherited a program with no money and one that had in recent years been a stipend add on for other coaches. So no, there is no jv coach, will never happen either, no matter how many kids we have.

About 4 or 5. Im honestly ok with it, they're good kids, and they want to golf, they just don't want to compete.
 
Jman said:
We inherited a program with no money and one that had in recent years been a stipend add on for other coaches. So no, there is no jv coach, will never happen either, no matter how many kids we have.

About 4 or 5. Im honestly ok with it, they're good kids, and they want to golf, they just don't want to compete.
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That could change buddy, once they see the good that comes from successful competition they may jump in. Problem is that younger kids don't want to put themselves out there, and don't want to face the rejection that comes from not "winning". Years of participation trophies (for another thread obviously) has done no favors.
 
Jman said:
We inherited a program with no money and one that had in recent years been a stipend add on for other coaches. So no, there is no jv coach, will never happen either, no matter how many kids we have.

About 4 or 5. Im honestly ok with it, they're good kids, and they want to golf, they just don't want to compete.
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So they will basically practice but not compete in tournaments? I wonder if that will change over time. Maybe some will get the desire for more competitive golf.
 
T2GRN18 said:
That could change buddy, once they see the good that comes from successful competition they may jump in. Problem is that younger kids don't want to put themselves out there, and don't want to face the rejection that comes from not "winning". Years of participation trophies (for another thread obviously) has done no favors.
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Nah, even with the history of the program, golf isn't a sport that makes money, as such they amount they will spend on stipends is set (and low, even for me).
Grins said:
So they will basically practice but not compete in tournaments? I wonder if that will change over time. Maybe some will get the desire for more competitive golf.
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Yep. Its a win imo. They are learning the game and learning to love playing the game, if they don't want to compete, I'm aok with that as long as they abide by my rules and expectations. Imo my job is also to grow the game (hence why I've taken on 4 who have never played before), not just go to tournaments.
 
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Jman said:
Nah, even with the history of the program, golf isn't a sport that makes money, as such they amount they will spend on stipends is set (and low, even for me).

Yep. Its a win imo. They are learning the game and learning to love playing the game, if they don't want to compete, I'm aok with that as long as they abide by my rules and expectations. Imo my job is also to grow the game (hence why I've taken on 4 who have never played before), not just go to tournaments.
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You're a good on Buddy! Feed the passion through your passion for golf and coaching.
 
So we have our first match today. It's going to be interesting. I'm expecting high scores, but we will have a base line to compare to at the end of the year.

Side note: got to the course yesterday to find the putting green covered with kids from another school. It's going to make practices that much harder to organize.
 
High school golf...man those days were fun.

Good luck to those starting matches.
 
Jman said:
Yep. Its a win imo. They are learning the game and learning to love playing the game, if they don't want to compete, I'm aok with that as long as they abide by my rules and expectations. Imo my job is also to grow the game (hence why I've taken on 4 who have never played before), not just go to tournaments.
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TOTALLY agree with you on this! If the kids on your team enjoy the time spent golfing, it would definitely grow the game.

In my case I just wish the parents would've understood this. We had 14 JV players & the last few were quite a bit worse than everyone else, but 1 dad couldn't understand why his 9th grade son wasn't playing in matches more. It took a lot not to give a snarky answer
 
We had our first match yesterday at our home course. Great weather, but the wind started gusting not long after we teed off, so the conditions were pretty tough. Scores of 44 and 47 from our top two guys helped us win the match 193-235 against a larger school, but their kids struggled. Saw some really good shots from both teams, though. I was so impressed with all of our kids. They looked much better in competition than they ever did in practice. My favorite part? After the round, they were all talking about what they needed to work on to improve and asking for help. That's the stuff I haven't seen from them prior to this first match.

We have an away match today at a pretty tough course against a tough team from a much bigger school, so it will be interesting to see what happens. We're making a couple of changes in our 3 and 4 spots to give different guys a chance, but I'm super proud right now. I had a blast just riding around checking on the guys and walking a couple of holes with them. Most of our parents showed up for the match, too, which was cool to see.
 
If any remeber, last year I asked if any wanted to donate to our rural team as far as equipment. Again thanks...all has been put to good use.
Our golf team was started as a non school funded activity and now has grown in popularity. I am a weight room - football minded guy who loves playing and getting better at golf, also who has a 10 yr old daughter who is actually purty darn good. Our 15 yr old loves the weight room and football lol.
We coop HS sports with an adjoining district. But we don't coop golf, it's the only HS sport our HS has left. The adjoining school will not let anyone there come over to play golf. Purty sad, to deny any kid the opportunity to play golf, or any sport, really.
So, I was at a board meeting and said any coach head or assistant should not go unpaid...period. I was told that they need to come to the board if they want money. Ok, I get that BUT why should they?!
No real support for our golf team from our board is disheartening imo. It's all about basketball and football in there eyes but they turn away their eyes in golf which is obvious. They quote "no kid should be denied the opportunity to play" so, the reminding quote will be repeated when they decide to over look golf. It's sad to me.
Around here, if you play HS golf, you had no plans to play football so it wouldn't benefit football if there wasn't golf, he wouldn't play anyway.
This past season, I help our team at practices. Grace and I was in a cart and she says that we are being called to #1 by one if the new palyers, who hadn't played a sport for like 8 yes and decided to try golf. We went over there to find him all excited that his 2nd shot was on the green (par 4). I told him we will follow him out on this hole. I have never seen him this excited....EVER. He did get his 1st par.
The truth of the matter is, he could have been at home playing electronics, but instead he was outside on the course. If our school board decided to overlook golf, then they are throwing kids under the bus. His excitement, is what it's all about..PERIOD.
I am partial to the golf team, cuz I have an up and coming 5th grader that has a talent that can do well in the sport.
I could go on and on......
 
Miller Time said:
We had our first match yesterday at our home course. Great weather, but the wind started gusting not long after we teed off, so the conditions were pretty tough. Scores of 44 and 47 from our top two guys helped us win the match 193-235 against a larger school, but their kids struggled. Saw some really good shots from both teams, though. I was so impressed with all of our kids. They looked much better in competition than they ever did in practice. My favorite part? After the round, they were all talking about what they needed to work on to improve and asking for help. That's the stuff I haven't seen from them prior to this first match.

We have an away match today at a pretty tough course against a tough team from a much bigger school, so it will be interesting to see what happens. We're making a couple of changes in our 3 and 4 spots to give different guys a chance, but I'm super proud right now. I had a blast just riding around checking on the guys and walking a couple of holes with them. Most of our parents showed up for the match, too, which was cool to see.
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Nice dude! Good luck today.

I wish we did matches here, but its not common at all in OK, everything is strictly tournament based outside of the large schools. Speaking of, we have our first this Friday, opening day of the season. Its WAY early, and it WILL be ugly, but its good for them to get in a mindset to know what we need to hone in on within the next 2.5 weeks before our next tourney. My 1 bag is going to be pretty salty by the end of the year, and the 2 (FR) really legitimately should qualify for state, outside of that, its getting them to believe in themselves and just play golf, not play steer the golf ball.
 
Tough day today. New course, great, but fast conditions and tucked pins. We didn't win and we shot 201 as a team with our #1 and #2 both breaking 50, which I thought was good. We made the right call switching the 3 and 4 out for 2 guys that I thought could help on the back end and they did just that today. Shot better scores than the guys they replaced. Now that we've got the lineup figured out for now, we can bust out butts on the range and short game areas and get better.
 
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