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5 ways to offer junior golfers and beginners a better experience

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Kids have it tough these days, and their quandary is a legitimate one. With so much entertainment within arms reach, it’s easy for kids to hole up on the couch and forget the real world in favor of a virtual one. The leap from their iPad to the first tee is not only about distance; it’s a function of access and incentive.

In general, the game of golf continues to face two very real obstacles: time and money. These aren’t unique to adults, because they apply to kids as well. In fact, I’d assert kids and beginning golfers face additional hurdles where courses, interested primarily in maximizing profit, have tee times every 7-8 minutes in an effort to get as many people on the course as possible. The result is a cluster of golfers of varying levels of ability and patience all wading through the same holes with the same snail-like pace. It’s generally somewhere in the middle of the first hole, after my daughter’s fifth shot, where I think to myself, “There has to be a better way.”

There’s a reason ski resorts have bunny hills where beginners are free to fall and take as long as they need to get down the hill. The runs are wider, less sloped and no one cares if you ski one run or 10 throughout the day. 

There are those golf curmudgeons who could give a rip whether or not kids are picking up the game, but it seems that the overwhelming majority of golf course owners are struck trying to balance profit with improving the experience of their customers — with profit usually winning out. For the future of the game, there has to be something better to give kids and new players a fun and engaging way in which to experience the game — and grow to love it.

As a high school golf coach and father of young, aspiring golfers, there are few activities I enjoy more than working with someone who is learning how to play the game. One of my kids likes to remind me, “Dad, the struggle is real.” She’s talking about the Wi-Fi strength in her bedroom, of course, but I’m talking about meaningful ways to introduce beginning players to this game we love. 

Never one to identify a problem without providing some helpful ideas, here’s a list of 5 ways to get your junior or beginner golfer on-course experience with minimal frustration and maximum fun!

3-hole and 6-hole rates

This is a no-brainer. There’s no reason a beginner needs to be subjected to 2+ hours, 70 swings and the inevitable embittered end of 9 holes of golf. In fact, enjoying 3 holes of play is far more motivating than feeling discouraged and beaten up after 7 or 8. 

Reduced fees for juniors and adults when they play together

One of our local courses cuts both green and cart fees by 50 percent when the junior plays with their parent/guardian. Juniors who can’t drive aren’t going to show up at the course alone, and what a great incentive to get parents and kids to spend more time together. If you want to get more parents involved, make it more affordable for both of them.

Special times for juniors/beginners

I’m not suggesting the Seinfeld “Muffin Stump” deal. People know when they’re not welcome, and allotting an hour in the middle of an afternoon sends the message that “we’d like you here, but only when it costs us as little as possible.” Why not get several courses together and offer juniors a block of weekend morning tee times on a rotating basis? Juniors would get to play at different courses the financial impact would be would be shared.

Create a credit system

One where juniors can earn points toward certain playing privileges or pro shop merchandise. Juniors could earn points by passing rules tests, taking etiquette exams and learning seminars with course staff/professionals. They could also get points by attending lessons/clinics, etc.

Promote non-traditional golf games on the course

Rather than keeping score and recording every stroke, how about:

  • Tee it up the 150-yard marker on every hole and see how many drives get to the green.
  • Play a modified Stableford scoring system. Depending on the level of player, award different points for the score in relationship to par.
  • If you’re a better player than your junior, play alternate shot. This keeps up pace of play and allows the parent to lead by example.

Especially now, it’s more important for the golf industry to engage in a meaningful conversation of how it can continue to provide access and opportunity to anyone who would love to learn how to play. What this requires, more than anything, a shared perspective that sees junior and beginning players as vital opportunities to grow the game.

My list is just a starting point. What are your thoughts? I encourage you to post them below.

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I didn't grow up playing golf. I wasn't that lucky. But somehow the game found me and I've been smitten ever since. Like many of you, I'm a bit enthusiastic for all things golf and have a spouse which finds this "enthusiasm" borderline ridiculous. I've been told golf requires someone who strives for perfection, but realizes the futility of this approach. You have to love the journey more than the result and relish in frustration and imperfection. As a teacher and coach, I spend my days working with amazing middle school and high school student athletes teaching them to think, dream and hope. And just when they start to feel really good about themselves, I hand them a golf club!

18 Comments

18 Comments

  1. Roo

    Sep 14, 2015 at 9:47 am

    I think these ideas are excellent, and the game is needing to help the way we introduce juniors/beginners to the game. Coming from a golf club just outside St. Andrews, i was shocked that we have 0 junior members! And the municipal course next door has 1 member under 21! Now as a 22 year old who has grown up playing with large groups of juniors, this is very worrying! How are any clubs going to continue if there is not a next generation coming through. These ideas i have put to our club and will work hard to try and get them executed in a way which drives the numbers of junior golfers up in my area! We are 10 minutes away from the “Home of Golf” and no juniors are interested! Something needs to be done! any more ideas/suggestions on how to increase junior participation/membership would be greatly appreciated!

  2. Jordan

    Sep 14, 2015 at 9:02 am

    I think one of the most important points was made early in the article… that profits drive how beginners (adults and kids) are welcomed at courses. Why isn’t the USGA involved in managing short courses around the country or incentivizing private operators to offer beginner programs and tee times? There ought to be a beginner-friendly place within a 20-30 minute drive from home for everyone (obviously some exceptions in particularly rural areas), as close as you would find places to play football, baseball or basketball. Golf won’t get much traction in the general public without some convenience. Face it, short courses are not going to be very profitable and will need public and private donation to stay afloat.

    • Mat

      Sep 14, 2015 at 11:40 am

      I think we need to start making more executive courses with a 0.3/Bermuda ball in mind. It’s kind of crazy if you consider that most Par-4 and Par-5 golf holes essentially expect the first 200 yards to just be “flown over”. That’s a lot of wasted land.

  3. Jang Hyung-sun

    Sep 13, 2015 at 8:12 pm

    Great ideas to help grow the game in the us, as I hear and read the kids just not in to golf so much in us. #3 would not be great as that interferes with businessmen weekend morning rounds. Weekend afternoons would be better for that as most businessmen/professionals would agree.

  4. NZ Pete

    Sep 13, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Very simple, Bigger Cup. Increase the hole size and all beginners whether they are juniors or adults will shot better scores, enjoy the game more, play faster and can keep up with any experienced golfer. I have seen lots of juniors hit plenty of good full shots tee to green, but have trouble holing out. This leads to frustration and unnecessary higher scores, kind of undoes all that good golf, (we all know that feeling). He,y even long time golfers golfers would have that chance of shooting that par round that they have been dreaming about, now that sounds like fun.

    • Mat

      Sep 14, 2015 at 1:23 am

      For those kids, and hell, many adults… you get two putts. Miss the second, and you pick up. Max 3 putts every time. Most adults don’t have to worry about this, so why make kids?

      • Cliff

        Sep 15, 2015 at 9:07 am

        Our weekend group rolls the ball everywhere and we pickup after double. Too many people take this game way to serious when they aren’t playing for anything. Some go as far as hitting out of divots in the fairway. Crazy!!!

  5. Chris Nickel

    Sep 13, 2015 at 12:56 pm

    Great ideas!~

    Keep them coming!

  6. cdb

    Sep 13, 2015 at 3:12 am

    Get rid of carts from golf altogether. Then you won’t have to worry about them or the money or getting fat and lazy from playing golf driving cart and drinking beer. Yeah kids love to see adults getting belligerent while drinking beer driving carts and trying to play golf being total d1cks not fix divots not rake bunkers not fix ballmarks

  7. Mat

    Sep 13, 2015 at 1:39 am

    You know, I think the easiest modification for everyone is just simply putting the kids on a clock. Don’t worry so much about the score; just give them limited time. Or give them “par shots” to get on the green from 100-150. If you give them 3 shots from 100-150, and whether they get on or not, have them walk the ball onto the green and putt from 15 feet. They get two putts. Here’s the thing — the “score” isn’t total strokes. The score is out of 36 possible, how many “checkmarks” did they get.

    If only we could get adults on Stableford, the game would get better for everyone.

  8. Steve

    Sep 12, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    When I starting taking the kids out, they liked to keep score. But this presented a problem as there were a lot of double digit numbers on the card. I solved this by switching tee shots with my kids.
    They got to play into the green usually from 150 yards and dad got to work on scrambling to make par.

  9. golferjack

    Sep 12, 2015 at 2:34 am

    I have found that my Kids enjoy playing 9 holes on the main course but with every hole made to a par 3 for them, i.e. we Play from a distance they can hit the green from. This is also good with par 4 or just playing a challenge near to the green and giving Points for up and down etc. Obviously Walking a full 9 is a bit hefty for younger childern but it can be surprising how the Motivation rises when they get to ride in a golf car…..
    You can Play so many different games, we sometimes Play 1,2 or 3 Club challenge on the short course or Play 9 hole pitch/chip and putt where you can’t Change the first Club you use, so if you Play your first chip wih an 8 iron, you are stuck with it for the rest of the game. Play two balls and let the child Play the best chip to the finish. If you are a good Player Play against them with the same System but you Play the worst of your two…..sharpens you up believe me.

  10. Am

    Sep 11, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Young Juniors and beginners is a segment of golfers that are often overlooked. I’ve played the game since I was young but over the past 5-7 years I’ve helped more than a handful of friends go from 4-5 rounds a year to real players who play 40 plus rounds a year. The number one part of the game that beginners need to improve is their short games. Once they improve from 50 yards in the whole game becomes easier to score and they almost always get hooked on playing. When I grew up playing I was lucky in that we had a beautiful 9-hole par 3 course with hole ranging from 40 yards to 105 yards. It was a true pitch and putt but unlike many similar courses I’ve seen and played, it was in really decent condition. The golf community as a whole needs more pitch and putt/chipping courses where young kids and beginners can develop their games. Let’s face it, if you can learn how to properly hit a pitch shot/chip shot you will develop your long game much quicker as the fundamentals of the downward strike are basically the same.

  11. NotTiger

    Sep 11, 2015 at 5:27 pm

    The most fun I’ve had playing golf recently was with my 9 year old son during his first 9 holes ever. I was so amazed at his good attitude to playing. Every hole was a reset…a chance to do better. After the round he said he had fun and wanted to play again. What more could I ask?

  12. NotTiger

    Sep 11, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    The most fun I’ve had golfing since my hole-in-one round last year was with my son playing his first 9 holes last weekend. It was a nine hole course near me and I was so amazed at my sons good attitude to the game. Every hole was a reset. A chance to play better than the last. After the round he said he had fun and wanted to play again. What more could I ask?

  13. Beezly

    Sep 11, 2015 at 2:05 pm

    I like it! 1,2,& 3 are great ideas. especially like the idea of rotating courses that block off a weekend afternoon for juniors and parents! Kids get a chance to see different courses in their area!

  14. vjswing

    Sep 11, 2015 at 1:43 pm

    There’s a city-run facility in my area where the First Tee program is based. This place is as close to perfect as one might desire for beginners and junior golfers. A 3-hole layout, with the longest hole being right around 100 yards. A large practice green for pitching and chipping (up to around 70 yards), along with a greenside bunker. Full-size driving range with both mats and grass tees, and plenty of target greens, and finally, a nice nine-hole layout featuring short and medium length par-3 and 4 holes. Oh, and the practice green is actually nicer than the one at TPC Deere Run, where the John Deere Classic is played.

  15. Big Al

    Sep 11, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    Great article and I think this is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed by the golf community. Not only with Juniors, but also beginner adults. My wife really wants to golf more but she isn’t ready for 9 or 18 holes yet, and is always so worried about upsetting the group behind us with her pace of play.

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

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My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply.  Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean.  Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

More from the Wedge Guy

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open betting preview

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As the Florida swing comes to an end, the PGA Tour makes its way to Houston to play the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course.

This will be the fourth year that Memorial Park Golf Course will serve as the tournament host. The event did not take place in 2023, but the course hosted the event in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Memorial Park is a par-70 layout measuring 7,432 yards and features Bermudagrass greens. Historically, the main defense for the course has been thick rough along the fairways and tightly mown runoff areas around the greens. Memorial Park has a unique setup that features three Par 5’s and five Par 3’s.

The field will consist of 132 players, with the top 65 and ties making the cut. There are some big names making the trip to Houston, including Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Tony Finau, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala.

Past Winners at Memorial Park

  • 2022: Tony Finau (-16)
  • 2021: Jason Kokrak (-10)
  • 2020: Carlos Ortiz (-13)

In this article and going forward, I’ll be using the Rabbit Hole by Betsperts Golf data engine to develop my custom model. If you want to build your own model or check out all of the detailed stats, you can sign up using promo code: MATTVIN for 25% off any subscription package (yearly is best value). 

Key Stats For Memorial Park

Let’s take a look at several metrics for Memorial Park to determine which golfers boast top marks in each category over their last 24 rounds:

Strokes Gained: Approach

Memorial Park is a pretty tough golf course. Golfers are penalized for missing greens and face some difficult up and downs to save par. Approach will be key.

Total Strokes Gained: Approach per round in past 24 rounds:

  1. Tom Hoge (+1.30)
  2. Scottie Scheffler (+1.26)
  3. Keith Mitchell (+0.97) 
  4. Tony Finau (+0.92)
  5. Jake Knapp (+0.84)

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

Memorial Park is a long golf course with rough that can be penal. Therefore, a combination of distance and accuracy is the best metric.

Total Strokes Gained: Off the Tee per round in past 24 rounds:

  1. Scottie Scheffler (+0.94)
  2. Kevin Dougherty (+0.93)
  3. Cameron Champ (+0.86)
  4. Rafael Campos (+0.84)
  5. Si Woo Kim (+0.70)

Strokes Gained Putting: Bermudagrass + Fast

The Bermudagrass greens played fairly fast the past few years in Houston. Jason Kokrak gained 8.7 strokes putting on his way to victory in 2021 and Tony Finau gained in 7.8 in 2022.

Total Strokes Gained Putting (Bermudagrass) per round past 24 rounds (min. 8 rounds):

  1. Adam Svensson (+1.27)
  2. Harry Hall (+1.01)
  3. Martin Trainer (+0.94)
  4. Taylor Montgomery (+0.88)
  5. S.H. Kim (+0.86)

Strokes Gained: Around the Green

With firm and undulating putting surfaces, holding the green on approach shots may prove to be a challenge. Memorial Park has many tightly mowed runoff areas, so golfers will have challenging up-and-down’s around the greens. Carlos Ortiz gained 5.7 strokes around the green on the way to victory in 2020.

Total Strokes Gained: Around the Green per round in past 24 rounds:

  1. Mackenzie Hughes (+0.76)
  2. S.H. Kim (+0.68)
  3. Scottie Scheffler (+0.64)
  4. Jorge Campillo (+0.62)
  5. Jason Day (+0.60)

Strokes Gained: Long and Difficult

Memorial Park is a long and difficult golf course. This statistic will incorporate players who’ve had success on these types of tracks in the past. 

Total Strokes Gained: Long and Difficult in past 24 rounds:

  1. Scottie Scheffler (+2.45)
  2. Ben Griffin (+1.75)
  3. Will Zalatoris (+1.73)
  4. Ben Taylor (+1.53)
  5. Tony Finau (+1.42)

Course History

Here are the players who have performed the most consistently at Memorial Park. 

Strokes Gained Total at Memorial Park past 12 rounds:

  1. Tyson Alexander (+3.65)
  2. Ben Taylor (+3.40)
  3. Tony Finau (+2.37)
  4. Joel Dahmen (+2.25)
  5. Patton Kizzire (+2.16)

Statistical Model

Below, I’ve reported overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed.

These rankings are comprised of SG: App (24%) SG: OTT (24%); SG: Putting Bermudagrass/Fast (13%); SG: Long and Difficult (13%); SG: ARG (13%) and Course History (13%)

  1. Scottie Scheffler
  2. Wyndham Clark
  3. Tony Finau
  4. Joel Dahmen
  5. Stephan Jaeger 
  6. Aaron Rai
  7. Sahith Theegala
  8. Keith Mitchell 
  9. Jhonnatan Vegas
  10. Jason Day
  11. Kurt Kitayama
  12. Alex Noren
  13. Will Zalatoris
  14. Si Woo Kim
  15. Adam Long

2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open Picks

Will Zalatoris +2000 (Caesars)

Scottie Scheffler will undoubtedly be difficult to beat this week, so I’m starting my card with someone who I believe has the talent to beat him if he doesn’t have his best stuff.

Will Zalatoris missed the cut at the PLAYERS, but still managed to gain strokes on approach while doing so. In an unpredictable event with extreme variance, I don’t believe it would be wise to discount Zalatoris based on that performance. Prior to The PLAYERS, the 27-year-old finished T13, T2 and T4 in his previous three starts.

Zalatoris plays his best golf on long and difficult golf courses. In his past 24 rounds, he ranks 3rd in the category, but the eye test also tells a similar story. He’s contended at major championships and elevated events in the best of fields with tough scoring conditions.  The Texas resident should be a perfect fit at Memorial Park Golf Club.

Alex Noren +4500 (FanDuel)

Alex Noren has been quietly playing some of his best golf of the last half decade this season. The 41-year-old is coming off back-to-back top-20 finishes in Florida including a T9 at The PLAYERS in his most recent start.

In his past 24 rounds, Noren ranks 21st in the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, 30th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green, 25th in Strokes Gained: Total on long and difficult courses and 21st in Strokes Gained: Putting on fast Bermudagrass greens.

In addition to his strong recent play, the Swede also has played well at Memorial Park. In 2022, Noren finished T4 at the event, gaining 2.2 strokes off the tee and 7.0 strokes on approach for the week. In his two starts at the course, he’s gained an average of .6 strokes per round on the field, indicating he is comfortable on these greens.

Noren has been due for a win for what feels like an eternity, but Memorial Park may be the course that suits him well enough for him to finally get his elusive first PGA Tour victory.

Mackenzie Hughes +8000 (FanDuel)

Mackenzie Hughes found himself deep into contention at last week’s Valspar Championship before faltering late and finishing in a tie for 3rd place. While he would have loved to win the event, it’s hard to see the performance as anything other than an overwhelming positive sign for the Canadian.

Hughes has played great golf at Memorial Park in the past. He finished T7 in 2020, T29 in 2021 and T16 in 2022. The course fit seems to be quite strong for Hughes. He’s added distance off the tee in the past year or and ranks 8th in the field for apex height, which will be a key factor when hitting into Memorial Park’s elevated greens with steep run-off areas.

In his past 24 rounds, Hughes is the best player in the field in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens. The ability to scramble at this course will be extremely important. I believe Hughes can build off of his strong finish last week and contend once again to cement himself as a President’s Cup consideration.

Akshay Bhatia +8000 (FanDuel)

Akshay Bhatia played well last week at the Valspar and seemed to be in total control of his golf ball. He finished in a tie for 17th and shot an impressive -3 on a difficult Sunday. After struggling Thursday, Akshay shot 68-70-68 in his next three rounds.

Thus far, Bhatia has played better at easier courses, but his success at Copperhead may be due to his game maturing. The 22-year-old has enormous potential and the raw talent to be one of the best players in the world when he figures it all out.

Bhatia is a high upside play with superstar qualities and may just take the leap forward to the next stage of his career in the coming months.

Cameron Champ +12000 (FanDuel)

Cameron Champ is a player I often target in the outright betting market due to his “boom-or-bust” nature. It’s hard to think of a player in recent history with three PGA Tour wins who’s been as inconsistent as Champ has over the course of his career.

Despite the erratic play, Cam Champ simply knows how to win. He’s won in 2018, 2019 and 2021, so I feel he’s due for a win at some point this season. The former Texas A&M product should be comfortable in Texas and last week he showed us that his game is in a pretty decent spot.

Over his past 24 rounds, Champ ranks 3rd in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 30th in Strokes Gained: Total on long and difficult courses. Given his ability to spike at any given time, Memorial Park is a good golf course to target Champ on at triple digit odds.

Robert MacIntyre +12000 (FanDuel)

The challenge this week is finding players who can possibly beat Scottie Scheffler while also not dumping an enormous amount of money into an event that has a player at the top that looks extremely dangerous. Enter McIntyre, who’s another boom-or-bust type player who has the ceiling to compete with anyone when his game is clicking on all cylinders.

In his past 24 rounds, MacIntyre ranks 16th in the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, 17th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 10th in Strokes Gained: Total on long and difficult courses.

MacIntyre’s PGA Tour season has gotten off to a slow start, but he finished T6 in Mexico, which is a course where players will hit driver on the majority of their tee shots, which is what we will see at Memorial Park. Texas can also get quite windy, which should suit MacIntyre. Last July, the Scot went toe to toe with Rory McIlroy at the Scottish Open before a narrow defeat. It would take a similar heroic effort to compete with Scheffler this year in Houston.

Ryan Moore +15000 (FanDuel)

Ryan Moore’s iron play has been absolutely unconscious over his past few starts. At The PLAYERS Championship in a loaded field, he gained 6.1 strokes on approach and last week at Copperhead, he gained 9.0 strokes on approach.

It’s been a rough handful of years on Tour for the 41-year-old, but he is still a five-time winner on the PGA Tour who’s young enough for a career resurgence. Moore has chronic deterioration in a costovertebral joint that connects the rib to the spine, but has been getting more consistent of late, which is hopefully a sign that he is getting healthy.

Veterans have been contending in 2024 and I believe taking a flier on a proven Tour play who’s shown signs of life is a wise move at Memorial Park.

 

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Opinion & Analysis

Ryan: Why the race to get better at golf might be doing more harm than good

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B.F. Skinner was one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, developing the foundation of the development of reinforcement, and in doing so, creating the concept of behaviorism. In simple terms, this means that we are conditioned by our habits. In practical terms, it explains the divide between the few and far between elite instructors and college coaches.

To understand the application, let’s quickly review one of B.F. Skinner’s most important experiments; superstitions in the formation of behavior by pigeons. In this experiment, food was dispensed to pigeons at random intervals. Soon, according to Skinner, the pigeons began to associate whatever action they were doing at the time of the food being dispensed. According to Skinner, this conditioned that response and soon, they simply haphazardly repeated the action, failing to distinguish between cause and correlation (and in the meantime, looking really funny!).

Now, this is simply the best way to describe the actions of most every women’s college golf coach and too many instructors in America. They see something work, get positive feedback and then become conditioned to give the feedback, more and more, regardless of if it works (this is also why tips from your buddies never work!).

Go to a college event, particularly a women’s one, and you will see coaches running all over the place. Like the pigeons in the experiment, they have been conditioned into a codependent relationship with their players in which they believe their words and actions, can transform a round of golf. It is simply hilarious while being equally perturbing

In junior golf, it’s everywhere. Junior golf academies make a living selling parents that a hysterical coach and over-coaching are essential ingredients in your child’s success.

Let’s be clear, no one of any intellect has any real interest in golf — because it’s not that interesting. The people left, including most coaches and instructors, carve out a small fiefdom, usually on the corner of the range, where they use the illusion of competency to pray on people. In simple terms, they baffle people with the bullshit of pseudo-science that they can make you better, after just one more lesson.

The reality is that life is an impromptu game. The world of golf, business, and school have a message that the goal is being right. This, of course, is bad advice, being right in your own mind is easy, trying to push your ideas on others is hard. As a result, it is not surprising that the divorce rate among golf professionals and their instructors is 100 percent. The transfer rate among college players continues to soar, and too many courses have a guy peddling nefarious science to good people. In fact, we do at my course!

The question is, what impact does all this have on college-age and younger kids? At this point, we honestly don’t know. However, I am going to go out on a limb and say it isn’t good.

Soren Kierkegaard once quipped “I saw it for what it is, and I laughed.” The actions of most coaches and instructors in America are laughable. The problem is that I am not laughing because they are doing damage to kids, as well as driving good people away from this game.

The fact is that golfers don’t need more tips, secrets, or lessons. They need to be presented with a better understanding of the key elements of golf. With this understanding, they can then start to frame which information makes sense and what doesn’t. This will emancipate them and allow them to take charge of their own development.

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