Junior Golf Camp

[TN94z]

I am thinking of getting my step-son in a junior golf camp in 2 weeks. It is for 5-8 year olds. Have any of you with kids ever done this? How did it go? Did anything stick with them?

[James_Black]

I was in one.

They're good fun, but you don't learn much about golf.
There's lots of competitions and you get sweets if you do well.

You learn the basics, I guess it's his first time playing golf?

[Forest]

I've been in loads of camps from the First Tee weekly camps, to the 800$-per-4 days-college-teaching-camps. Assuming that he's new to golf, I'm going to say that he will probably learn at least something, but most of the time, it is just moms and dads using the camp for babysitting. However, if the group is small, then you might get your son to actually learn some stuff that would stick.

[jdotConnor]

My Dad and my sister both attended the US air force academy and they have a huge 6 day sports camp in the summer for probably 20+ sports. I attended the soccer camp which was way below my level and as a 14 year old they had to move me up to the 16 years old cause I was always a good soccer player. At 15 I went to the golf camp which was substantially more expensive but at the eisenhower club (2 courses) at the academy which are both some of my favorite courses. the skill level varied alot from 16 year olds that barely broke 100 to a 15 year old I played with one day that shot 2 under par. I learned more from the other players then from the coaches. I still wish I had gone more.

[TN94z]

He is 8 now and I have taught him a few of the basics like grip, stance, smooth swing, etc...I didn't want to get into much more than that. I figured that I could teach him that and just let him swing away and have fun for the time being. He actually does pretty good. I didn't know if this would teach him any more or not. It's only 50 bucks but I would have to take off work for the week to be able to take him to the camp....they say camp but it's only 2 hours a day for 4 days that week. So it's only 8 hours total. But it's only 50.00 too....not bad for 8 hours worth of lessons.

You guys think it would be worth it or should I just forget it and keep my vacation time?

[James_Black]

I'd say keep your vacation time and go golfing with him instead.

He'll learn a little bit, but it's hard to teach a group of 30 kids golf

[TN94z]

I'd say keep your vacation time and go golfing with him instead.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Thanks

[TN94z]

I called out there today and so far they only have 1 5-8 year old signed up. I went ahead and put his name on the list. If it stays like that, I don't mind him going because that will be pretty much one on one with the teacher. I think it will be a good experience for him. It will only cost me 4 days of vacation of which I have 3 weeks left, so I don't mind it.

[shades9323]

I called out there today and so far they only have 1 5-8 year old signed up. I went ahead and put his name on the list. If it stays like that, I don't mind him going because that will be pretty much one on one with the teacher. I think it will be a good experience for him. It will only cost me 4 days of vacation of which I have 3 weeks left, so I don't mind it.

Does your son want to go to it?

[TN94z]

Yeah, he wants to go...but he wants to go to anything you ask him to...you know what I mean? I signed him up, so he will go. I think he will have a good time.

[holeinon3]

Yeah, he wants to go...but he wants to go to anything you ask him to...you know what I mean? I signed him up, so he will go. I think he will have a good time.

I'm sure he will. My brother and I did summer golf camps when we were around that age and even if it didn't make us great golfers we understood the rules and etiquette of the game. Plus, it was fun!

[TourSpoon]

I ran a summer program for 3 years back in the day...we would teach the kids grip, posture, alignment, basic swing, putting and chipping. The best thing we stressed was to have fun. Hopefully that part stuck.

[TN94z]

I ran a summer program for 3 years back in the day...we would teach the kids grip, posture, alignment, basic swing, putting and chipping. The best thing we stressed was to have fun. Hopefully that part stuck.

Well, we had our first day yesterday and he loved it. The weather here was not good yesterday so they stayed inside and watched videos about ettiquete and rules and then they worked on putting. It was pretty obvious that I had been working with him in the past. His setup and grip was pretty good. The other kids were pretty new to golf with the exception of 1 or 2....there ended up being 9 in the class. Today was canceled because of rain but the teacher said he would give us a private lesson since this one was cancelled.

The camp is better than I thought. It is a legit structured U.S. kid's golf program. They got little books about the rules and it has each day's lesson in it. The good thing is that in this book, it tells me what USGA junior yardages that he should be playing from....so now I won't have to guess when we go play. They have certain criteria they have to pass before going to the next lesson. For instance in putting, they have to make like 3 out of 5 two footers. And they must 2 putt 3 out of 5 times from 10 feet to pass the putting section. They have to chip 3 out of 5 within the length of the flagstick from 20 feet and within 2 flagstick lengths from 40 feet. They have to hit their 6,7,or 8 off the ground flying it at least 25 yards in the air 3 out of 5 times and hit their driver 25 in the air 3 out of 5 times. Then the final test is to shoot 72 on 9 holes. After all of this, he can move to Level 2 of the course. I thought all of this was pretty cool. I am fairly certain that he can do all of this right now. The only problem he really has is chipping around the green....he hits them too hard. Overall, we are very happy with this so far. On a side note, I recorded his swing with my new Iphone and an editing app and man his swing is close!! I think he can really be good if he decides to stick with it. His biggest flaw is that he goes WAYYYY further than parallel....but most kids I have seen do this. Anyway, I just wanted to update. I am more excited about his swing than mine right now.

[James_Black]

sounds a lot like the YMG courses I did when I was younger.

The main thing is that he has fun.

[TN94z]

Yeah, the teacher is really good about making sure that they realize it's all about having fun. He is a good teacher. I am glad that we decided to do this now.

[jallen100]

Our city has a 3 day camp for free. I sent all 4 of my kids to it 2 weeks ago, ages 7,8, 12 and 15, and they had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Everything from etiquette to ball mark repair on the greens as well as all the basics on swing, stance ect.