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US Kids Local Golf Tours

This past summer my son was afforded a wonderful opportunity thanks to US Kids Golf and Chris Hunt who is the Assistant Executive Director of the New Jersey PGA.  Chris and his staff worked with US Kids and ran the local golf tour for kids ages 6-12.  The courses the kids competed on were located around the state and ranged from upscale private courses to high end daily fee courses.

Chris and the rest of his gang did an unbelievable job running each event.  Often dealing with well over 200 participants, each player was treated like a Tour player.  Some of the events, thanks to the generosity of the host course Head Golf Professional (Dan Pasternack and Brent Studer), there was a delicious lunch free for all participants.  After the completion of play at each event, there was a short awards ceremony.

US Kids "encourages" and "allows" parents to caddy for their children.  My wife who is more of a tennis player if you get my drift did it for one tournament and she had a ball!  Although the folks at US Kids are well intended, they might want to rethink that parent-caddy thing or at least tweak it a little.  Don't get me wrong, many parents thoroughly enjoyed watching their son or daughter compete, learn and make new friends.  However, many parents were way over the top, yelling at their children, admonishing them for a poor shot and teaching them to play slower than a tour player.  I witnessed several youngsters who wouldn't take the club back until they got the approval from their dad.

So youth golf (different from junior golf) is going to thrive thanks to people like Chris Hunt and US Kids.  My prediction is youth golf will go the way of Little League Baseball unfortunately (it may already have) because golf dads will want to live vicariously through their more talented and more exposed children.  In any event, my son made friends from across the state that he wouldn't otherwise have met.  I thank Chris and US Kids for that.  I look forward to next year as does my son. 

John Daly...Good for Golf?

After the 1st day of this year's last major golf championship otherwise known as the PGA Championship, an unlikely candidate to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy is lurking.  It is known that at least half of this blog's authoriship is a big fan of John Daly.  I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't like JD (setting aside his multiple ex-wives).  Sure you'd find people who thinks he wasted some serious talent and some who find him to be a pathetic figure...but you gotta like him and pull for him. 

I don't know John personally.  Like most people, I only know what the media reports.  So here is what I know of JD: he likes to gamble (often excessively), he likes Hooters (the restaurant silly!!), he chain smokes, he drinks Diet Coke like it's water, he's never seen a donut with or without a hole in it he doesn't like, he's walked off golf courses in the middle of the round, he hits the you-know-what out of the ball, he has incredible touch around the greens, he's over weight (duhhhh), he travels in an RV and parks it somewhere near the tournament site to be with the fans and hawk his gaudy "stuff", oh yeah...and he's won the Wanamaker Trophy already and he won the oldest golf championship on the oldest golf course in the world...the British Open.

What does all that mean?  I think it means he isn't the greatest role model but if you take away the excessive gambling, the chain smoking and if he lost a few pounds...he might not be too far away.  Okay, if he didn't have all those ex-wives too.  Also, I'd ground my 10 year old son for months if he walked off a golf course in the middle of a round.  But, I think JD is what he is.  He does what he wants and says what he says and basically lives his life.  I think he has regrets, but he doesn't look back.  I like that and it's not easy to live your life that way.  Too often people look back or are busy comparing themselves to someone else and they stall.  Not JD.  He plods forward no matter what. 

John Daly is good for golf.  Whether you agree or not, he is like more people in America than he is not.  He works hard to make a living and not necessarily on his golf game.  I'd even go so far as to say golf has become more of a hobby for John.  He's got faults.  So he's fat.  So he smokes.  So he loses it emotionally every once in a while.  Hey, I think he gave up drinking booze...that's good. 

JD, I'm rooting for you.  Whether you shoot 81 or 67, I'm rooting for you.  You're real.  You're good for golf.