How can my child learn to play golf?
PGA Professional Andy Little on the best way forward to get more youngsters into the game.
The first thing that you need to do is to give the child a positive first experience. Whether that is crazy golf that you’ve made at home on a wet Sunday afternoon and the kid has been very creative in going round the house then that’s great. It will involve some putting and some golf knowledge and it will be positive. Or it might be a case of going to a crazy golf course, which is all very fun and themed – that’s not ‘golf’ to many but to a child that is golf.
With golfing grown-ups and parents, their vision is very different and we need to understand that just whacking a ball anywhere could be golf to children entirely. They have no ambition about getting a handicap or being a member, a child’s expectation of golf will be a lot lower than a parent’s.
If, and this is an if, their first experience is on a golf course then that has be very age and distance appropriate. If you take them to your home course and the 1st hole is 400 yards, and you then play off the ladies’ tee which is 350 yards because that’s what you do, and it takes them 25 shots to get to the green that experience is not going to be good for the child. This is not what golf is about. Even if the child started five yards off the green and managed it in three or four shots that is a far better experience.
What about equipment?
This can be quite difficult with all the costs involved and that’s before you know whether they will enjoy it. For crazy golf you don’t need to buy any equipment and a driving range will hopefully have some clubs. If you were to go down the road of buying some clubs then you don’t need to buy a half set, you could get a driver as that is the most fun and it’s the lightest club that they’re going to hold and the easiest to swing and will give a more positive experience. And then maybe a putter which you can do wherever.
Some retailers will offer junior clubs and they are likely to be heavy and the wrong size and that can be demoralising. If the parent buys the wrong club then that child’s experience could be affected so keep it simple and ask a PGA pro on what is appropriate.
I tell a lot of parents who ask about buying some clubs that, if they’re not doing golf outside that one-hour lesson, then there is no point. Sometimes parents to rush to get all the equipment and there isn’t any need. Just borrow what’s there, 95 per cent of the kids that I see on a weekly basis are not golfers, they like playing and doing the game-based stuff but that is it. We barely have a child who has a handicap or are members of a club, to most of them golf is one hour a week.
And lessons?
I would say that a group lesson is a better experience than an individual – the atmosphere, the connection with kids of similar ages, the competitive element wins hands down over one pro and one kid. I personally don’t think that kids should do individual lessons until they are serious about golf or have the mental capacity to want to change their technique. If I have got a 5-year-old and they want to hold the club left below right then he or she will do that as they’re more comfortable with that. My job is to make sure that the child is safe and has a positive experience so that they come back and that they might be a long-term golfer which might be when they’re in their twenties when they come back to the sport.
And the group experience needs to be game based. Gone are the days where they have a bucket of balls and you line them up along the driving range and you spend a bit of individual time with each child. You need that game-based environment, you need to pair them up so they’re not hitting balls for the whole hour and the session itself needs to be broken down into as many mini games as possible so the child of whatever age is not getting bored. The best bit of advice that I was given was that a child’s attention span is one minute so my activities are 7-8 minutes max and they can play a game for that time before they start to get bored.
You can then start another activity it resets their attention and they’re more focused. There is coaching but it’s done in task-based way of giving them a challenge and pushing them very gently in the right direction.
And it has to be child led...
The child must want to go to the range or do some putting or hitting at home rather than forcing the child into the game. You see it and then, two months down the line, they don’t want to do it again. You might have paid for nine holes and you want to get your value for money but your child might not want to be out there for that long.
About Andy Little
Andy is the first English PGA Professional to be awarded the status of being a Master Kids Coach by the world’s leading organisation in developing young golfers, US Kids Golf. He holds his outdoor lessons at Hampton Court Palace Golf Club and is a Golf Monthly Top 50 coach.
Featured Content
How do I get a child started in golf?
Find out more
Why group coaching works best for kids
Find out more
The ultimate beginner's guide to golf
Find out more
