School of Golf - Hilton Head Island

The first episode of The Golf Channel's new reality show was on right after Highway 18 last night. Only 30 minutes long, but pretty interesting.

It gave me chills when they showed the 8th grade Chinese girl, Amy, at the driving range. I had already seen the preview where they showed that exact scene, and I got chills then, so I didn't expect it to happen again. But her swing is so perfect. I hope the focus on her a lot.

It cracked me up when the home-schooled girl "Whitney" met her roommate (Laura?). They were both wearing "wedding" rings - one because she was "married to God", and Whitney because it symbolizes that she is "married to golf."

And then when Whitney missed the bus. Priceless.

Did anyone else think Whitney has an odd personality?

Hank Haney riding his bike to "work" with his clubs on his back was awesome.

I was wondering if anyone else would notice that. During that scene, they focused an awful lot of the bus pulling away. They kinda telegraphed what coming.

It seemed to be a bit of a set-up (unless the crews asked her if she had time and she said "no, there's another bus" or something to that effect.)

I was thinking the same thing. That, or he was accepted to college before the shows started airing.

I think they are all 1/2 hours, which I don't understand at all. Except, it did seem like maybe there weren't as many commercials as usual.

I found the show kind of interesting too, watching 'Amy', the 13 yr old Chinese girl, swing, and wowing Hank Haney like that was impressive. He made the comment that she was could play college golf, when she's basically just an 8th grader. Unbelievable.

Whitney seems interesting, Laura seems really aloof though. That Doug kid seems to be a wuss though, it came off to me that he was looking for any excuse to quit that he could find when things started to go bad for him.

As far as the episode lengths, I just looked up next week's episode on zap2it, and its also a 30 minute episode, so I'm guessing that they are all 30 minute episodes.

They mentioned she was homeschooled, and isn't used to the environment she's in, that's probably a lot of it. I give her a lot of credit, though, for having confidence and not just being a mouse.

LOL, I was thinking that while I was watching!

It was too short, I don't know why they didn't show two episodes to start us off, like a lot of networks do. How did everyone like the sore shoulder kid, what was his name, Doug?

julie_m wrote: They mentioned she was homeschooled, and isn't used to the environment she's in, that's probably a lot of it. I give her a lot of credit, though, for having confidence and not just being a mouse.

Now you know why home schooling is wrong for a lot of kids.
That Chinese girl has a beautiful swing.
Prediction: The ones who talk most about being on the PGA tour and winning majors will never make it.

Julie-

I intentionally left that comment out of my other post because I wanted to see if anyone else picked up on that. I also think that has a lot to do with it. Every homeschooled kid I've known or seen (which admittedly is not a lot) was very lacking in social skills. And while I definitely don't want to turn this thread into a commentary on the U.S. education system (we can do that in the Grill Room), I think those social skills are critical for kids. Having said that, I don't think Whitney is messed up or anything, just a little socially odd. And she is certainly polite and respectful, which goes along way with me no matter how awkward a kid may be in other areas. Hopefully, the interaction she gets at golf school will help her with her social interactions. Doug, on the other hand, needs some discipline. (As I was typing this, I was wishing that TGC had a "Big Break" style bio of the students, because I'm not sure of the kids' names yet. It turns out they do: http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.aspx?page=23952 . That page also answered my question about whether "Amy" was really Amy Wang's real name.)

yeah that chinese girl had a heck of a swing.

The one kid who quit because of the "spasm" in his neck .. what a crock. He just didn't want to post a score .. then Hank told him he's gonna be his project kid .. will be kind of cool.

I like the layout though .. to know if the kid is gonna be a good golfer .. tournaments .. tournaments .. tournaments .. got to put the pressure on and make them hole out every shot .. that's the only way you can tell. It sure taught me when I was a kid how to play, I miss all the tournament action I used to be in.

I just read on the bio page that Doug (neck spasm kid):

. . . has only been playing golf for "a couple of years", so I'm willing to cut him a tiny bit of slack as long as he doesn't keep up the dumb stuff. And now I'm going to go bang my head against a concrete wall because Doug "has only been playing a couple of years" and his "tournament scores improved by 20 strokes (95 in first tournament, 75 in last tournament)"

I was thinking it, I wasn't going to say it first.

My neighbor and a girl I tried hard to befriend when I was young was homeschooled. Note I say, "I tried hard." She went to public high school, then quit after a year. They definitely have a harder going, that's non-debatable.

I think the show is pretty interesting. I already saved the series to record every week on my DVR.

I'm pretty excited about watching this show as this past winter I found this school online, and next year and the year after I might be attending this school. I like that my mom and I can see what it is like going to school there.

This is kind of a tough show for me to watch since I think it has golf going in the wrong direction. Because these kids have parents who have money, they are put at a considerable advantage when it comes to playing college golf. I squeeked onto my team because I knew somebody who knew my college coach, but when I got on the team it was loaded with considerably lesser players from wealthier families who could get into programs like this or junior tournaments. These kids have pretty high competitive low scores, yet they are talking about going to established programs like SMU.

The girls actually seem to have some talent, like Whitney and Amy. It's good to see them go to the school because they do have the talent and just need the opportunity and the instruction to get them pointed in the right direction. But I get a little leery of kids whose only goal is to become a professional golfer and the parents thinking it's the greatest thing in the world. Because outside of playing on the PGA tour, most of what's in store for professional golfers is hardly glamorous or something you would want to do for an extended period of time.





3JACK

I think they put too mcuh pressure on themselves, and any one who shoots a 95, regardless of conditions, cannot play college golf.

I'm not extremely fond of the show. It's decent, but I prefer Big Break and Highway 18 over it no doubt.

Whippet-

I've personally seen college golfers shoot in the 90s on a hard course in an important tournament. It happens sometimes. Everybody blows up occasionally. There can also be other factors. I know a guy who got food poisoning the night before the NCAA Regionals. He was kneeling before every shot until it was his turn to play because he couldn't stand, and he was retching on the side of the greens. Afterwards, he had to go to the hospital (again) and be hooked up to another IV fluids bag. (Somehow, he still managed to shoot an 85 that day.) Also consider that a player may have come from a different area of the country and may not be familiar with conditions, the course, or the types of greens. (I've watched Easterners come out west and absolutely flail on Poanna.) Point being, it's probably a little extreme to say that anyone who shoots 95, regardless of why, can't play college golf. Especially when it's a high schooler who still has time to improve.

I haven't seen any college golf in person, BUT a few years ago three buds & I were on a golf vacation in Williamsburg. We were playing at one of the Ford's Colony courses and a women's college tournament was taking place on one or more of the other Ford's Colony courses. We went up and looked at the leader board - there were some good scores (although I don't recall how low) but there were a surprisingly high number of scores in the 90s. We were all shocked that more than one or two college level golfers would

ever shoot in the 90s in a single tournament.