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Drive Chip and Putt - Lack of Diversity

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Golfmasta69

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Was watching the GC throughout the day, and while I admit I didn't watch the drive chip and putt event in its entirety, I watched quite a bit of it, and didn't see any minority kids or parents. Not being familiar with how qualifications etc work, i'm not sure how the lack of representation came to be, but just found it visually odd, to see multiple age groups of kids boys and girls all from what seems to be the same ethnicity.

I know the charter of the First Tee program is to assist in attracting minorities to the game, but just seeing such a relatively high profile kids program like the drive chip and putt without much if any diversity just stood out to me.

If there was and I just missed it, then I stand corrected.. but just I watched for quite a while and didn't see any...
 
i have not watched this year, but i didn't get that impression last year. iirc there was more diversity in the girls than the boys, but i could be misremembering.
 
Golfmasta69 said:
Was watching the GC throughout the day, and while I admit I didn't watch the drive chip and putt event in its entirety, I watched quite a bit of it, and didn't see any minority kids or parents. Not being familiar with how qualifications etc work, i'm not sure how the lack of representation came to be, but just found it visually odd, to see multiple age groups of kids boys and girls all from what seems to be the same ethnicity.

I know the charter of the First Tee program is to assist in attracting minorities to the game, but just seeing such a relatively high profile kids program like the drive chip and putt without much if any diversity just stood out to me.

If there was and I just missed it, then I stand corrected.. but just I watched for quite a while and didn't see any...
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Depends on your definition of "minority," but all you have to do is look at the name of some of the winners to see examples (I think 10-11 year girls). I know in years past, I've seen kids almost all races represented. Might be a weird year or just the part of viewing you saw.
 
Didn't notice that at all, myself.

Qualifications are four stages, I believe.
 
tpluff said:
Depends on your definition of "minority," but all you have to do is look at the name of some of the winners to see examples (I think 10-11 year girls). I know in years past, I've seen kids almost all races represented. Might be a weird year or just the part of viewing you saw.
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You're probably right.. and I agree the names might have held the clue..
 
I saw Russia, India, China, and Canada represented just to name a few.
 
I would like to know how many kids DON'T belong to a country club and have a coach/teacher.
 
The thing I noticed was lack of very many older drivers and the fact half the kids had Scotty's. MBN
 
mski said:
I would like to know how many kids DON'T belong to a country club and have a coach/teacher.
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Most of the ones to didn't seemed to have a 150 yard driving range in their backyard.
 
mski said:
I would like to know how many kids DON'T belong to a country club and have a coach/teacher.
Click to expand...

As I was watching it this past Sunday morning I just couldn't help but think how closed off the Drive/Chip/Putt made golf look. Obviously there were a handful of exceptions but it was a steady stream of wealthy Country Club families coming across my TV screen. 10 year old with a full time coach? That's just not reality for 99.9% of the golfing youth.
 
mski said:
I would like to know how many kids DON'T belong to a country club and have a coach/teacher.
Click to expand...

Yeah.. I did notice the abundance of coaches/teacher references in the comments.. It's just such a tough nut to crack here in the US as far as attracting and retaining kids in the game whose experiences are not that of country clubs and swing coaches. I just think accessibility and cost are still big hurdles before we ever really see any meaningful diversity amongst US men and women players
 
ArmyGolf said:
As I was watching it this past Sunday morning I just couldn't help but think how closed off the Drive/Chip/Putt made golf look. Obviously there were a handful of exceptions but it was a steady stream of wealthy Country Club families coming across my TV screen. 10 year old with a full time coach? That's just not reality for 99.9% of the golfing youth.
Click to expand...

That's a good way to say it...closed off and that's why I guess I was wondering how does qualifying works..as it didn't seem to represent the diversity of our society
 
The second I turned it on they had a 11 year old Asian girl on the range. Coolest part was that she was from the town I live in. Had no idea my town had a kid competing!


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fupresti said:
I saw Russia, India, China, and Canada represented just to name a few.
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Canada's a minority?

ArmyGolf said:
As I was watching it this past Sunday morning I just couldn't help but think how closed off the Drive/Chip/Putt made golf look. Obviously there were a handful of exceptions but it was a steady stream of wealthy Country Club families coming across my TV screen. 10 year old with a full time coach? That's just not reality for 99.9% of the golfing youth.
Click to expand...

You mean not all kids have a Scotty Futura?

I wasnt looking for it but I know I saw a good amount of diversity.
 
On the profiles of the finalists alone there were first and second generation immigrants from Korea, Russia, India, China, and a representative from Canada. Not profiled, but based only physical appearance there also appeared to be some participants from Central or South America.
 
Maybe we were watching different coverage but I saw lots of diversity. Including a family from the US that adopted girls from 2 different countries. And one of them was in the finals last year and one this year.
 
Unfortunately golf is still very much a rich man's sport, even more so outside of the U.S.
 
Haha....Canada.

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Plenty of diversity. Remember they don't show every shot from every participant. Here is the leaderboard from Sunday. Sometime it's hard to tell by some names but there was more than enough diversity IMO

http://www.drivechipandputt.com/finals/leaderboard
 
Re CC's and personal coaches...this is effectively no different than any other youth sport these days. Many of the better players come from families with money who can afford personal coaches, clinics and the expenses associated with traveling AAU/ASA, etc. Of course, there are plenty of kids from rich families who can't play a lick too. But youth sports is a different beast from when we were kids. Extra specialized coaching and playing year round is almost mandatory these days.
 
mski said:
I would like to know how many kids DON'T belong to a country club and have a coach/teacher.
Click to expand...

The St Louis girl did not belong to a country club and plays at the local public course, which is by no means spectacular. She does take lessons with the local driving range pro - in other words you don't need to be a country club kid with major $$$$$$ to succeed in golf.


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I'm sure the qualifying procedure is in here somewhere, https://www.drivechipandputt.com/rules

I watched it off & on and thought it was cool never really thought about the diversity of it or how much money the family had. It seems every sport has specialized coaches, trainers, etc.. for those with the means to pay for it. I don't think that makes the sport closed off but it fits golf better because it's always been seen as a rich white guys sports. If Tiger Woods couldn't make it be seen any different, it's not going to. Maybe the diversity might not have seemed as apparent if they'd had it anywhere except Augusta.
 
Scrap Iron said:
Canada's a minority?



You mean not all kids have a Scotty Futura?

I wasnt looking for it but I know I saw a good amount of diversity.
Click to expand...

The op said diversity, not minority.
 
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