First, I’d like to apologize to Bobby Jones, Alister MacKenzie and Fred Ridley, be assured I typically wear a crisp golf shirt, proper shorts and a stylish belt. I did not plan on growing the game today, but the timing is right, and I’m striking at the chance despite my gym shorts.
It’s Saturday afternoon around 1 p.m. and not much is happening at my brother’s house. He and his wife have three young boys, ages: 12, 10 and six. For a while, I’ve wanted to introduce them to the game and now’s the time. I find a Play it Again Sports about five miles away and off I go. I pick up clubs for the two older boys and a smaller set for the youngest. Back to the house with new clubs in the trunk we announce, “We’re going to the range!”
Unfortunately, the middle son has a piano recital and can’t make it. Not sure how golf loses to a piano, but I digress.
On the driving range for the very first time, we all have work to do
Different from Sean Foley’s approach, my teaching philosophy is a baseball grip, tee everything up, whack as many balls as possible and escape without someone taking a seven iron to the face. In my prime, I was a scratch player and have a good understanding of the golf swing, but I quickly realized that teaching young kids is challenging. In fact, it’s damn difficult.
As my brother eloquently states, “This is a labor of love.”
I hit a few balls and say, “Do what I did.”
I tell them to swing easy and relaxed. “Let the clubhead do the work,” I add.
We put some clubs on the ground to help their alignment. It helps. I beg them to keep their feet still, but they’re moving like a baseball player in the batter’s box. However, there is progress and things will get better with more trips to the range. Their swings will improve and so will my instruction.
It’s not easy to teach the golf swing to a kid on the range for the first time. There’s a special place in heaven for the PGA Professionals that introduce six-year-old kids to golf. Interesting enough, my brother is a terrible golfer, but a great dad. His patience makes him a better swing coach than me. I concede, for now.
We whiff, shank, slice and top about 250 balls, but persevere and get through the large basket. On occasion, there is solid contact and I ask, “Did that feel good?” Their smiles say yes.
The ongoing narrative in golf is about, “growing the game.”
Today we grew the game by two, I hope so.
PS: If you work in the golf industry, please watch this video on growing the game.
https://youtu.be/xYpGtR4dpio
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