A recent National Golf Foundation report showing a precipitous drop in junior golf participation (24 percent in three years from 2005 to 2008, representing a loss of 900,000 kids) has set off alarm bells for some industry observers. However, most realistic course operators understand the challenges associated with attracting and retaining junior golfers. In addition to massive competition from everything from baseball and ballet to Wii and PlayStation, golf has inherent disadvantages. It’s hard to learn. It requires a huge time commitment. And even those courses that claim to be “junior friendly” still put restrictions and limitations on when, where and how kids can play.
Fortunately, there are some champions who are tackling these problems and others. One of those is the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation, an organization that operates golf tournaments around the world for children ages 14 and under. In addition to providing competitive outlets and social networks for young players, the foundation is working at every level to make golf easier and more fun for kids.
“Even the terminology in the industry is wrong,” says Chris Carme, manager of junior golf programs for U.S. Kids Golf, the club manufacturer that created the foundation. “The golf world has always used the term ‘player development’ when talking about beginners or juniors. That’s a very intimidating term, especially to kids. It makes the beginner feel like he [or she] is being put in a program that he’s not ready for.”
In addition to changing the language, U.S. Kids Golf is leading the charge to change the course landscape for juniors by making them more kid-friendly. “The Family Course is our biggest initiative,” Carme says. “Putting discs in the ground at way-forward locations so kids play a course that isn’t too long and tough—that’s a program that’s going very well.”
As simple an addition as the Family Course plates seem, the results for the operators who have installed them are astonishing. A recent survey by Play Golf America showed that courses using the Family Course plates increased revenues by $6,400. Realizing that the Family Course tees tend to attract players during slower times—early evening during the week or late afternoon on weekends—that type of topline impact should prove appealing to most any owner.
Much like U.S. Kids’ Family Tees, programs such as The First Tee are starting points for the industry’s efforts, not a finish line. “The objective of The First Tee is to introduce players to golf, not retain them,” says Tony Martinez, manager of Keeton Park Golf Club in Dallas, Texas, and one of the region’s best junior golf program operators. “In terms of introducing kids to the game, The First Tee has been successful. But there is no mechanism to retain them.”
According to Martinez, there isn’t a “plug-and-play program” that will keep juniors in the game. That’s something the industry has known for some time, yet it’s a concept that continues to escape many operators.
“You have to do a lot of things and be ready to adapt, change and respond to the kids in your area,” Martinez notes. “Anything to get them (juniors) on the golf course and keep them there is what we should be doing.”
Chuck Scoggins, director of junior golf at Hamilton Mill Golf Club in Dacula, Georgia, has found that the key to retention is on his course—literally. “We have 186 kids in our [junior] program year-round, and those numbers continue to increase for one simple reason: We get kids on the golf course three or four times a week, and we have them competing in tournaments after one week.”
The way Scoggins sees it, the traditional method of introducing the game to youngsters—taking them to the range to hit balls and learn mechanics until they’re “skilled” enough to move to the course—creates a disconnect that’s stopping many in their tracks.
“Golf is the only sport where we make kids practice somewhere other than the field where they play,” he notes. “You practice baseball on the same field where you play the games. Football, soccer, tennis—you practice where you play. That’s wrong. We have to start treating golf like other sports.”
Scoggins, who finishes every junior clinic at Hamilton Mill by taking the participants to play the first and second holes on the course, doesn’t worry that his methods might ruffle the feathers of a few traditionalists. Nor does he hesitate to put new golfers in competition soon after being introduced to the game.
“They’re competing in football after three weeks of practice and competing in baseball after two weeks of practice,” Scoggins says. “We’ve got to get them on the golf course. We put stroke limits on them and get the parents involved, but we get them competing.”
On Saturday afternoons, for instance, Scoggins conducts nine-hole tournaments for advanced juniors, six-hole tournaments for the intermediate players and three-hole competitions for the young kids. “We do that 12 Saturdays throughout the summer,” he says. “And we’ve turned Saturday afternoons into family activity time on the golf course, a key to the success of the club and the game.”
For those owners or operators who might scoff at the notion of tying up their course with kids just learning the game, consider this: Totaling all incremental revenue—food and beverage, golf shop and range—Scoggins’ junior programs accounted for $144,000 in additional revenue for Hamilton Mill last year. And those numbers are only projected to increase going forward.
In an era when the industry is struggling with attrition and efforts to generate new business are floundering, this is the type of “growth” that all operators should be striving to foster.
—James Stephens