Introducing your child to the game

[Deleted member 21258]

I started taking my son to golf at about the same age.

At one of the local courses, Garons, they had a flat Par 3 course(longest one about 150 and shortest 70 IIRC), he had a little set of Dunlop clubs with a 3 wood. We used to go when it was quiet, either afternoon or evening, so we had time etc. I did find that when Adam was very young, if other people were playing he would completely lose focus and watch others or feel slightly time pressured and play very bad, which he didn't enjoy.

He used to love it, just me and him and sometimes Granddad walking with us, when he hit the ball well with his wood he would go running off after his ball. Was great fun, if he mis hit it, he used to hit another one and so on. Just tried to make it fun, we used to have little comps as well. Like 50p if you hit it over the water on the 9th(I think it was, ten years ago now!) or if you score lower than me 25p and so on.

Swing wise I mostly let him find his own way, sometimes I point out the setup errors or if his tempo is off, but to be honest that has been more since he was 10 plus, but really just tried to get him enjoying it. He has a much nicer swing than mine, which he keeps telling me !!

Over and above that you should look at local courses, as they do group sessions especially during the holidays which are very cheap. So for instance I remember him going to Hanover Golf club range(since changed names) during the holidays for the group sessions, which he loved hitting balls with similar aged children.

In addition junior membership is very very cheap at most clubs and most run a junior game every week, and/or practise with a pro around, depending on how good you are etc. Adam loves these. For instance at the club we are members at, the juniors last year turned up at 1pm at the range, pro was around, free range balls, then at 2pm they go out and play golf comps or social with the others.

 

[vkurup]

This thread motivated me to get nipper out to the range last evening. It is the first time this year that he has picked up his clubs.
So off we went at around 6. I did take my clubs as i thought i will watch him. So he got a bucket of 50 balls and ran thru them in less than an hour. It was more enthusiasm rather than skill, but you could see that he was trying some of the things that the pro had taught him a few months ago. His only goal was to get the ball near the 100y mark - which he did not succeed, but he did hit a few absolute peaches.

At the end, we had a massive tantrum because he wanted to go the course rather than go home. So we sneaked into our short P-3 course. i was expecting him to play about 9 holes, but he ended up playing all 18. The beauty of being a kid is that he would hit a ball and run to it and think of a club and run back to me to get that club and then run again to hit a shot (where do kids get their energy during holidays!!). A couple of 4 balls let us play thru and a few folks clapped when he managed to hit a ball - which just fed his ego. He did not do too well on the front 9, but something happened on the back 9 where he went bogie-blob-par-bogie-double-double-blob-blob-par. When he sank a 15 footer for a par on the 18th, the celebration was as if he won a Major or more appropriately the Premier League. As we walked back to the car, he said 'You are a good Caddy, and I think I should enter more competitions. Its ok if I dont win everything, as long as I learn from the losses.'. I must say i fell down laughing. Ahh the folly of youth.

Several hightlights in our 3 hour trip including some great tee shots, the pars, the 15 foot putt. The best was he was so tired at the end of all the running around, that he passed out on the sofa half way thru dinner. Job done.