‘I learned to love it.’ Kentucky kids picking up golf through PGA-sponsored league.
If you look at the Sunday leaderboard during a PGA tournament a decade or so from now and see a Kentuckian or two in the mix, there’s a chance those contenders will have gotten their golf careers started through a youth program that’s gaining steam in the Bluegrass state.
The PGA Junior League is a nationwide program administered by local golf courses in conjunction with the PGA, with the goal of bringing families and communities together through and growing the game of golf.
The Winchester Country Club has hosted a PGA Junior League for kids age 13 and under for the last four years, and participation has increased steadily each summer. In the league’s first season, 27 kids signed up. Last year, more than 40 joined. This summer, 60 kids are participating; and the club for the first time had to turn away several others who were interested.
Winchester Country Club PGA professional Robbie Baldwin, who runs the golf course operations along with his dad, Bobby Baldwin, said the league is helping ensure that the game of golf has a sustainable future.
“There’s been more and more interest every year. Before this summer I thought we’d definitely get up to 50. Then the (coronavirus) pandemic hit and I told my dad, ‘we’re gonna get to 60 and we’re gonna have to turn some kids away,’” Robbie Baldwin told the Herald-Leader. “Growing the game of golf is probably the most important part of having the Junior League.”
Bobby Baldwin, who’s been a PGA pro at Winchester Country Club since the 1970s, echoed that sentiment.
“Without the youth, golf is going to go by the boards,” Bobby Baldwin said. “The big thing we’re trying to do is develop the game so that the game can sustain itself. ... Golf is not cheap, but junior league is an affordable way for kids to get involved. If there are kids that want to learn the game we want to help them. We want to get kids out on the golf course because if they don’t play when they’re kids, chances are they won’t play when they’re older.”
Last Saturday, the club hosted its most recent PGA Junior League competition. Kids were paired up in two-person teams, each competing with one other team in a scramble-style, best-ball format. Wearing PGA uniforms, the kids hit the links and navigated nine holes of the 18-hole course with parents and other volunteers in tow as supervisors.
“Any opportunity to get outside and play a sport, we’re going to take,” Elizabeth Morton said after watching her 10-year-old son, Mason, strike a nice approach shot from the middle of the fairway. “It’s been great for our little family to come out here on Saturdays and be together. Playing golf is just the catalyst for these kids and their families to learn good behavior and discipline and sportsmanship.”
As if to underscore his mother’s statement, Mason proceeded to help the young girl with whom he was paired as she lined up her own shot. Parents are not permitted to coach during play, so it falls on the kids to help one another.
“Learning how to support other players and their teammates, whether they do well or do poorly, is a big part of this,” Morton said. “They encourage each other, they teach each other and they learn from each other.”
Important lessons
For their $165 entry fee, members of the Winchester Country Club PGA Junior League receive an hour of practice instruction each week, a guaranteed spot in league matches each Saturday, plus caps, shirts and other equipment from the PGA.
Winchester native Mike Rogers — whose 10-year-old son, Benton, is in the middle of his third summer with the league — said the entry fee is a bargain, considering the myriad intangible benefits participation provides.
“I just knew this would be a good opportunity for our son to get out, make some friends, get a little bit of exercise and learn some sportsmanship and learn a little bit about the game,” Rogers said. “And the game was about fourth on my list of the things that were important to me about this. Helping him learn to cooperate and get along with other people, those are important lessons and that’s pretty much what drew us to the league. Plus, it was so affordable.”
Benton Rogers said the league offers a welcome outlet to engage in fun competition with friends and neighbors.
“Today I’m going up against a kid that lives across the street from me and I get to play with another person I’m friends with,” Benton said. “It’s just fun to get out here and play with people, even ones I don’t really know that well.”
‘It was a great experience’
A veteran of the Winchester Country Club PGA Junior League is a testament to the training it provides. As a member of the league’s inaugural class four years ago, Jace Patrick was a relative newcomer to golf. But last year he was a member of the golf team at Robert Campbell Middle School, which won the Kentucky state middle school championship, and also played for George Rogers Clark High School as an eighth-grader.
On the cusp of beginning his freshman season with GRC, Patrick is no longer participating in the PGA Junior League. But he was there at Winchester Country Club on Saturday to cheer on the younger kids, and he praised the league for helping him become a varsity golfer.
“I pretty much learned how to play the game through Junior League and I learned to love it. I got to play with all of my friends. Sometimes I had to play with my sister, but that wasn’t too bad,” Patrick said. “If I hadn’t played Junior League I definitely wouldn’t be as good as I am now. It was a great experience.”
