Does your area have a good junior golf program?

[PEZGolf]

In our area, we have had the Mohawk Valley Junior Tour since 1987. The young boys and girls get to compete on eight or nine of the best courses in our area, and half of them are private. The owners of the public courses and the members of the private courses have been very cooperative in giving up their course for a day (during the week, of course) so these young golfers can play at their courses.

We have the tournament that I run, the Steve Pezdek Memorial Open, which has been held for 28 years. We have a huge permanent trophy, give out a $50 gift certificate for closest to the pin, and trophies and balls to the top 2 in the boys and girls divisions in the three age groups.

From our area, we have seen Moira Dunn go to the LPGA Tour, where she is presently playing. A number of our "graduates" have played college golf, made All-America, and gone on to good jobs as Head Golf Pros at good courses.

Almost every course, public and private has a junior golf league and a summer golf camp. We are proud of what we have and the Head Golf Pros have been very supportive. Does your area have a good program to get kids started the right way?

[Franco!]

Philly PGA.
I've seen some of the best players I've played with there.
And they're 15, 16, or 17.
One kid shot a 63 yesterday.

[JustMe]

With regards to the summer golf camps...yes we have quite a few of them. Though my son hasn't participated in any in this state, I have heard from other parents that it was a good experience for their kid/kids who are just starting out in the game.

With the junior tours, we have a ton of them. My son plays with two large ones in our state, Alabama, and two other tours based out of Florida. Most of the tournaments my kid is playing are two to four day, but we do have one smaller tour that my kid likes that is just a one day tourneys. From a Moms perspective I'd have to say that all of the junior tourneys we've done for the past 3 years have been well ran, wonderful people, and they are always looking out for the kids. Though we decided to quit playing with one tour not because of the staff that were running it, we decide the parents with this tour were nuts.

Parking lot fights at a nice CC's between two Fathers because of slow play pretty much was the last straw for us. ~shudder~ One Father threatening another while screaming I'm going to my truck to get my gun was it. Hubby, kid and I were out of there.

Over all we've had a great time and my kid has learned a ton about tournament golf.

[PEZGolf]

Philly PGA.

NICE. They are some great courses in your area. Do these juniors get to play on them?

[ks8829]

We have the First Tee program and both my kids are going through the program.

www.thefirsttee.org

[Southpaw]

We have the Junior Met PGA tour which is for kids 12-18. All summer long at some really good public and private courses on Long Island and Westchester.

[PEZGolf]

With regards to the summer golf camps...yes we have quite a few of them. Though my son hasn't participated in any in this state, I have heard from other parents that it was a good experience for their kid/kids who are just starting out in the game.

Thanks for the post. I am always interested in seeing how other areas of the country do their junior programs. As we all know, our juniors are truly the "future of golf".

[907golfer12]

In Alaska, just about every course has camps going all summer long, my home course is probably the best as they bring up 2 guys from Arizona to teach the 4 day a week camp. They also teach weekly classes. We have one tour, the Alaska Junior Tour, which is a summer long thing that has 10 or so tournaments including a State Am, and the Junior Masters. At the end of the year, there is a 2 person scramble that is one kid and a parent/adult. Although the tour is run by one family (who cheats from time to time to help their daughter win) it is still great to have here, and has been around for about 10 years.

[PEZGolf]

We have the First Tee program and both my kids are going through the program.

We do not yet have the First Tee program but Syracuse does. They are just "up the roadway" on the New York State Thruway from us, so we need to "get on board" and get one started.

[PEZGolf]

In Alaska, just about every course has camps going all summer long, my home course is probably the best as they bring up 2 guys from Arizona to teach the 4 day a week camp. They also teach weekly classes. We have one tour, the Alaska Junior Tour, which is a summer long thing that has 10 or so tournaments including a State Am, and the Junior Masters. At the end of the year, there is a 2 person scramble that is one kid and a parent/adult. Although the tour is run by one family (who cheats from time to time to help their daughter win) it is still great to have here, and has been around for about 10 years.

Congratulations---you have a very good program. Have any of your juniors gone on to play college golf?

[907golfer12]

Congratulations---you have a very good program. Have any of your juniors gone on to play college golf?

We have 2 females that have gone onto Division I golf, one Margo (forgot her last name) plays for Sacramento State and won the division and went to nationals (didn't do so well there). The other (my coaches daughter) Brittany Bomar played for Northern Iowa and did well there, but is playing in Arizona for a year to improve her game and hopefully get into a bigger program.

[Fraser]

I was rather active in the junior section of my local club back in West Berkshire, UK along with my brother. I was about 14 when I joined and getting in was fairly tough. We were on a waiting list after having provided references from two current non-junior members of the club and then had a couple of interviews!

In my area we had a junior league between about a dozen other clubs and their respective teams. I wasn't good enough to get involved in that but my younger brother was on occasion, always got mentioned in the local paper too.

In the small town where the club was (around 60,000 people) there were about half a dozen other clubs with active junior sections and they regularly hosted junior opens and the like during the summer. The league encompassed some more rural clubs as well as those in other towns.