Binkies and Briefcases

Have you been wondering what sport would be a good fit for your child? Is golf good for kids?

When people first find out that our young kids play golf they tend to have one of the following reactions: 

That’s weird. 

You must be rich. 

Or just…Why? Isn’t that, like, really boring? 

To tell you the truth, I am not the biggest golf lover myself. If I had to choose between spending a Saturday watching The Open or, well, pretty much anything else, I know which one I would pick. Watching other people play golf is pretty boring. To me. But my husband and my kids are into it and it’s something they like to do together, so more power to them. The kids know who Bubba Watson is, and I know that, as an adoptive mom, I really appreciate that he is open about his family’s adoptions. I like that golf is something that my kids, their dad, their uncle, their grandparents, and even their great-grandfather can all do. 

And there are ten other reasons I think golf is a great for kids, as well. 

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. 

1. Math

As anyone who has ever played miniature golf at the beach knows, there is a lot of basic addition involved in golf and responsibility in keeping track of your own score. More so than many other sports played by young children. 

2. It Stays With You

Golf and tennis are two of the few sports that people continue to play into retirement. My grandfather is eighty years old and he still plays golf. It is a life skill that stays with you. But of the few options for lifelong sports, golf is the one around which most business deals are conducted, and I hope to raise children who eventually grow into adults. It is an advantage in the business world to know how to play golf, and preferably well. Learning while you are young gives you an advantage later. 

3. It’s Not a Contact Sport

If you are a mom who is too worried about potential injuries to sign your child up for football or if you have a child that has special needs that make him/her a little bit slower on the field than some of his/her peers and make it hard to participate in team sports or even individual sports that are timed, then golf is a great sport to consider! You can go at your own pace, be active for hours at a time, and it’s a multi-generational activity. 

4. Room for the Ladies

I also really like that because of the way that the game is designed, if you are part of a group of men playing in a tournament– say for a business outing– it is to your advantage to have a woman on your team, if she is good at the sport.  As my husband explained to me, he has played in several tournaments where the women’s tee box might be 80 to 100 yards closer to the hole than the men’s, but the woman on his team only hit the ball 40 or 60 yards shorter than he did, on average. Because in a tournament you often use the best shot from your team, collectively, that often gives the team with the woman a distinct advantage, as long as she has experience and is a good golfer. Eddie is not shy about admitting the fact that his ideal golf team would include a woman, and I know many men who feel the same way. How many other male-dominated sports can you say that about? (If you are not sure if golf should be considered a sport, try playing a round–without a golf cart– and see how your muscles feel the next day.)

5. You Play Against You

Other than those group tournaments, for the most part golf is an individual sport, just like swimming or running. If you are going to win or if you are going to lose, it is going to be because of you, because of a victory or a mistake you made on your own, not because your teammate struck out in the bottom of the ninth or someone else threw the winning touchdown. You get to own all of the highs as well as the responsibility of all of the lows. 

6. Gross Motor Development 

Our son has special needs and golf has been great for his gross motor skills. The big motions required for a drive and the smaller range of motion required for putting help him learn how to control certain muscle groups. He is willing to spend hours in the back yard practicing his golf swing, whereas he would not necessarily want to do hours of occupational therapy working on those muscles. It’s also great for strengthening his grip. 

7. Public Access

Golf gets a bad rap for being an elitist sport. Some of that is well-deserved because it is true that, unfortunately, there are places that exist that still have that attitude. But there are also plenty of public courses and driving ranges where you don’t have to be a member at all. Although not many people do bring kids, there is nothing stopping you. Our family just went to the driving range this weekend. You can just show up with your children and it costs just a few dollars to get a small bucket of golf balls. You can usually find gently used golf clubs in children’s sizes at yard sales or on Craig’s List. I checked this week and someone local to us had a set listed for $5. Once you have your clubs, the driving range is an affordable family outing. Or once you are ready for the course, most clubs offer steeply discounted twilight hours if you are willing to go out later in the day when there aren’t as many people on the course. Twilight hours are in the evenings, which are after school hours anyway and a great time to take out kids who are just starting to learn!

8. College

Did you know that in 2009 the NCAA said that there were a few hundred golf scholarships for women that went unused? That is not to say that getting any kind of athletic scholarship is easy, but there is certainly a big push to get more girls into golf right now. 

9. Access to Pros

Golf is one of the few sports where it is pretty easy to guarantee that your child can be taught by a professional. My uncle was a golf pro at a fancy New England golf club and, let me tell you, the process for becoming a head golf pro is a lot more involved than you might think. They do have to pass tests in terms of their own playing ability, and he also went to college for it. There are only a few schools in the country that now offer the PGA Golf Management program, and they have 100% job placement upon completion. The golf pros at country clubs are probably not playing at the same level as the professionals on tour (or else they would be on tour themselves) but they are still good enough to be professionals. They have dedicated their entire lives to that game. If you sign up for golf lessons, chances are those lessons will be with someone who really knows what they are talking about.  Experience is never a bad thing in a teacher. As fun as other sports are, a coach who is a professional is something I have just never been able to guarantee when I signed my son up for tee ball or pee wee football camp. 

10. It’s Easier (And More Affordable) to Learn as a Kid

It’s easier to learn just about anything as a child, before you start to form bad habits and are set in your ways, making them harder to correct. But it is also more affordable, as a general rule, to learn to golf as a child because there are clinics and camps pretty readily available. Nicholas is starting a golf clinic this week that is six weeks long and only cost $6 more than the price of one weekend round at the same course for an adult. Because most of our other extra curricular activities don’t cost a lot of money right now, and golf is something Nick has expressed a genuine interest in (he even went to the Women’s U.S. Open with Eddie this summer to watch!) we are willing to make the investment. And seeing her big brother do it has really started to get Abby interested as well! She is now following Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old girl who was just granted full LPGA Membership. At dinner last night Abby was counting on her fingers how many years she has to go until she is 17, like Brooke, and can wear pink pants and play golf on t.v. 

This post contains an Amazon Affiliate link to child-sized golf clubs for your convenience. 

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