Horseshoes, Golf Balls and Putting

A critical factor for success in raising your young golfer is playing games.  The games don’t have to be structured or have any basic rules, the key is just to go have some fun and let your creative juices flow.  Through games kids will learn…what parents need to recognize is that giving them instruction or having them do boring drills will create an environment where candidly… the game is not that fun for a youngster.

Growing up, Mr. Penick always told me to spend 70-80% of my time putting and chipping.  Additionally, Mr. Penick would tell parents of new golfers to start at the hole and work backwards… close putts to chipping.  With that being said, Ally and I spend the majority of our golfing time hanging around the putting green and playing different games.

This past week, we made up a new game called “Golf Horseshoes.”  It is a very simple game… with the goal of the game to focus on getting the ball close to the hole (working on speed/distance control).  The game goes like this:

Golf Horseshoes

1. Ally got 2 balls, I got 1.
2. Just like horseshoes, closest to the hole gets points.
3. If Ally got both her balls closer than mine, she would earn 2 point.
4. If I got my ball closer than hers, I would earn 1 point
5. If you made the putt, you got 5 points
6. Play to a number… a good number is 21.

The first time we played, we putted for a good 45 min straight… and it was actually a fun game. Yes, Ally won and this is also important because so much of putting is around confidence… so make sure you reinforce that confidence with giving them the “W.”

A little bragging on Ally…

To prove the power of playing games, the insights of Mr. Penick and that putting is the most important part of the game… this past week, Ally won the US Kids golf tmt by 6 shots (3^rd in a row)… what I am most proud of is that Ally only had 2 three putts on some really tough greens and she shot her lowest competitive score.  Hopefully this provides you something new for sharing the game with your youngster.

Happy Putting!

JB

Another blog on putting and starting close to the hole – http://mylittlegolfers.com/best-practices/starting-them-on-the-putting-green/