Junior Golf: Starburst-More Than Candy

In this Friday Flop Shot we’ll look at a great junior golf tournament that you may have never heard of.

The point is Dad and Mom, that today there are so many junior golf tournaments that you can’t possibly know about all of them. But there are some that you really need to be familiar with and among those is Starburst.

The Starburst Junior Golf Tournament is held in mid-June annually in Waco, Texas, 200 miles north of San Antonio and 100 miles south of Dallas on I-35. There are divisions ranging from age 7 up to Championship for boys and girls. There were around 400 entries in 2018 and in some years the number of players approaches 1,000.

College coaches like Starburst because it’s a major junior golf event. The sheer number of quality entries, that fact that there are kiddo’s from many countries and the fact that every division plays 3 different courses over 3 days make it a great test of golf!

This is something you want to check out. Make a note for mid-February 2019 to go to starburstgolf.com or the Starburst Golf FB page for next year’s details. You should go at least once, it’s fun!

Now a shout out to 2 of our favorite guys: Director of Instruction for the Alamo City Golf Trail and the Golf Channel Academy at San Pedro, PGA Tour winner, David Ogrin, who had some of his proteges play in Starburst and to our good friend and Director of Instruction at Laredo Country Club and at RG Golf Academy, coach Rudy Gonzalez.

Photocredit: kwtx.com

Rudy’s feeling pretty chipper these days since one of his students, Marcelo Garza of Nuevo Laredo, won the Boy’s Championship Division. Congratulations to Marcelo and coach Rudy on a job well done!

Parents, South Texas has a ton of great golf courses and we have some of the best instructors in the nation. Do something different. Plan a trip around getting some new input for your junior golfer, playing some wonderful golf courses and enjoying all the friendly sights that exemplify our area! Come see us!

See you on #1 tee Starburst ready… Sam

Junior Golf: Use Demo Days To Lower Your Scores

In this Friday Flop Shot we’ll look at the benefits of Demo Days and how you and your junior golfer can use them to shoot lower scores.

Demo Days are regularly scheduled at nearly every golf course and at some golf academies and learning centers. All the major manufacturers have representatives who put on Demo Days. Please check with the golf facilities in your area for dates of upcoming Demo Days and plan to attend.

Don’t be concerned if you’re not familiar with a certain club manufacturer. Go anyway. It’s great fun! There’s always something to be learned. It will pay off. It’s a free education!

Before you go, you and your kiddo briefly discuss any specific clubs you may want to evaluate. Whether it’s the driver, irons or wedges, have some thoughts ready ahead of time.

Put his/her full set of clubs in the car with you and then take the club you are most interested in with you when you walk up to the rep. If it’s irons, take the 7-iron.

Most reps today have numerous different weight/length/flex shafts that they can immediately screw on to any head. They do it right there and it only takes a few seconds. Let the Demo Day rep look at the current 7-iron and ask for suggestions of what shaft/head combo he has that might improve distance and accuracy.

Recently I was with Wilson Staff master fitter, Jeff Pittillo, at River Falls Plantation in South Carolina. I showed him my current 7-iron and mentioned I wasn’t happy with it because the ball didn’t go anywhere. I’ve lost a bunch of distance. His analysis: the shaft is too heavy. It’s stiff flex and I need regular. And the heads are almost blades and I need a more forgiving cavity-back style club. Wow!

Here’s what we did. We tried a couple of different weight shafts, all regular flex and ultimately Jeff recommended the KBS 90 gram regular flex shaft for more speed. We put it on the new Wilson Staff C300 Forged heads and the C300 Cast heads. The C300 Cast went further, felt better and had a beautiful ball flight. And the Cast is cheaper than the Forged. They’re great!

You can duplicate this scenario with your youngster at every Demo Day. Attend as many DD’s as possible so your son/daughter can get opinions from several club fitters and get a feel for different makes of clubs. At some point, you will hear, “Dad, those xxxxxx’s really felt good and they increased my distance!”

Now it’s up to the golf budget guru to see what can be done. Remember, the PGA publishes golf club trade-in values so you may get some bucks from the current clubs. A few times each year most facilities offer extra value on your trade-ins. Ask and they should be able to tell you when the next extra value trade-in period is and plan accordingly.

In order for your junior to be competitive, it is critical that Dad and Mom plan and commit to provide golf clubs that are correct for your child’s size, strength, athletic ability and skill level. This is a great way to get quality input from multiple sources!

See you on #1 tee with the right clubs… Sam

Junior Golf: 3 PreSummer Checks For Irons That Fit

In today’s Monday Mulligan we’ll look at 3 aspects of your junior golfer’s irons so you can be sure he/she has the correct equipment for maximum summer golf benefits.

Your youngster is growing, needing bigger shoes, new pants, shirts, tops and bottoms. Remember Mom and Dad, that getting taller, faster and stronger likely means different golf clubs.

Irons and all golf clubs that are mismatched to any golfer are a handicap. Your kiddo’s chance of success is poor if he/she is using improper equipment.

Start by asking for the name of the best club-fitter in your area. It’s best to ask the really good adult golfers, the ones who seriously compete and win in amateur events in your area. They know! Not being judgemental, but if you ask your swing coach, he/she will say they can do it. Now, this may be true or not. Perhaps they are the best swing coach around and are capable of doing a club fitting, but are they the best club-fitter, I don’t know. If you ask a junior or their parents, they may say they use their swing coach.

The swing coach will recommend that your child needs this, that and the other in the next set of irons, which should be soon. The club-fitter makes that happen with their own unique set of skills. And the best club fitter is a very talented and well-respected person!

Here’s what should be evaluated and acted upon now, with the current set of irons, to make the best use of your summer golf investment:

1. Iron shafts: are they the correct length, weight and flex? For example: “x” inches long, 100 grams and regular flex.

2. Iron heads: are they matched to the skill level. For example: lighter or heavier weight, cast or forged construction and best for beginner, intermediate or advanced skill level junior golfers.

3. Iron grips: are they correct for your young golfer’s hand size and “feel” preference? For example: too small/skinny, too big/fat, just right/perfect and do they “feel” hard/slick, rough/coarse or pleasant, meaning slightly tacky/grabby.

There will be more than one club fitter in your town. The reality is that most are ok, but one or two are genuinely talented. Those are the folks you want to find.

A simple equation is that as your child’s skill level advances, they require more highly-skilled professionals, including swing coaches and club-fitters. Find out who the best are so you can go to them when you need them. You will need them!

See you on #1 tee with a proper set of irons… Sam

Junior Golf: 4 Thoughts On Skin Protection

In this Wednesday Waggle we’ll look at some new ways to help protect your family’s skin.

Sunscreen is not on today’s agenda. It will get plenty of discussion in another post. It’s complicated.

Proper sun exposure is essential for good health but for golfers, the issue is perhaps too much sun rather than too little. More very interesting information on sun exposure will be presented in its own future post.

So your skin is your largest organ, let’s look at some ways to protect it.

1. Healthy skin starts with a healthy intestinal tract. A simple way to help your skin from the inside out is to make sure your whole family is getting enough quality omega 3’s. Lean, grass-fed beef, fatty fish such as mackerel or sardines, krill oil, flax seed, coconut oil and cod liver oil are good sources. For convenience, krill oil, coconut oil and cod liver oil are perfect. All are available in capsules most children should be able to swallow and no taste or smell. Fish oil caps are not usually your best choice.

2. Hydrate. Drink extra water starting 3 days before a tournament.

3. Cover up. Adidas, among others makes long-sleeve polo shirts for women and men. The new wicking/cooling technology makes these shirts very comfortable in hot weather. There are also the “sleeve” add-ons you see some LPGA ladies wearing. Collared shirts protect the back of the neck. Long hair and floppy hats can cover the ears, neck and forehead. When in doubt, cover.

4. Make a habit of conditioning your skin regularly, not just the day before a tournament. Mom, you’re likely way more informed than Dad on skin care products, but I’ll help cut through the maze of confusing options and offer some inexpensive, very low risk choices. We use Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion. Costco carries 2-packs. It is extremely clean and we love it. Another very beneficial skin care item is organic unrefined coconut oil. This has so many benefits I can’t begin to list them here. Coconut oil is widely available. Make sure it’s organic and unrefined. For a slightly pricier, but amazing 3rd option try Dr Mercola’s Organic Moisturizing Body Butter. It’s top-quality at a reasonable price. Try any or all of these and choose one for your daily moisturizer. Most experts recommend applying it after a warm shower. You’ll figure it out.

See you on #1 tee protecting your skin… Sam

6 Reasons To Make College Golf The Goal

In this Monday Mulligan we’ll look at college golf and why parents of junior golfers should seriously consider it as the long-term goal.

S3 started playing golf at age 5 and once we understood that he enjoyed golf and was developing a passion for it, we had a family meeting to make some short-term and long-term goals with the ultimate goal being a college golf scholarship. Everything we did was in harmony with all of S3’s goals.

If you have not considered college golf, here’s why you should:

1. Make college golf a goal, a dream. Life is about goals and dreams. Without them why are you doing anything?

2. This gives your youngster and the whole family a sense of purpose. It’s the major reason the smaller goals exist.

3. Not every kiddo needs to go to college to be successful. We have $70,000 tech jobs here in San Antonio that can’t be filled, but if your son/daughter is competitive in high school golf, they have a chance to attend college on a golf scholarship. It’s a blessing, accept it and pursue it.

4. A golf scholarship helps pay part of the cost of going to college. Men’s scholarships are partial, commonly paying perhaps 20-30% of the costs. Women have more scholarships available than the guys so they can usually get a higher percentage of their costs covered.

5. S3’s college golf experience was amazing, something no amount of money could buy! He saw parts of the country he’d never seen, played on fabulous golf courses and made lifelong friends from Australia, Zimbabwe, Spain and Mexico. Our family believes the absolute best way to attend college is as a college golfer. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience!

6. Now to the real world. Most college golfers will not play golf professionally. Here’s the big bonus of college golf: when your graduate’s resume hits the HR desk at a prospective employer, the first thing they’ll notice is that your child was a scholarship athlete who got a degree on time. The resume should go way up the list because a sharp HR person will understand that doing both of those things well requires excellent time-management skills. A great bonus!

Mom and Dad, please consider putting college golf on your kiddo’s radar. It is an achievable goal for both young men and young women.

See you on #1 tee wearing those college colors… Sam

Junior Golf: 3 Easy Ways To Find More Money For Golf

In this Wednesday Waggle we’re tackling the sticky subject of money, golf funds specifically, and how to find more of it.

Money is one of the realities of life, isn’t it? You must have a certain amount of it just to exist and at times we don’t have as much as we’d like. So without taking on a second or third job, how can the family find more money to put into golf, not just your junior golfer’s endeavors but the whole family’s.

If your kiddo is the only golfer in your house, then allocate some of this money to everyone else’s causes, perhaps the family vacation.

Let’s get started:

1. Go through your last 12 months of bills, bank statements, checkbook and credit card statements in painstaking detail, examining every line item. Parents, do this together because Dad may not know what some of Mom’s line items are for and vice versa. This is where Linda and I found about a half-dozen recurring monthly charges for items we forgot or weren’t using. After we cancelled all of them, we had a very nice increase in available monthly cash!

2. Get on the free email lists of the online golf sites. They have sales every day. Be prepared and be patient and you can save money. Tgw.com and Golfballs.com are a good start.

3. Approach your golfer’s teachers including swing coach and/or trainer and ask them if they would give you a package price. They get a commitment from you for multiple lessons and you get a reduced price per each lesson. Expect them to say “yes” as this is widely accepted in the golf industry. Here’s Mike Romatowski’s current price structure. Note monthly unlimited is a great rate (package rate). And couples only add $10 instead of an additional $25. Linda and I, well, S3 and I also attend class for $35 for the two of us rather than $50 ($25 x 2), excellent marketing by Mike!

#1 above is where we ended up with considerable “found” monthly money. With both parents present this should only take an hour or so and the benefits can be huge. Please do this. You may be shocked at some of the things you’re being charged for each month!

See you on #1 tee with more money in your pocket… Sam

Junior Golf: 3 Major Benefits of Speed Training

In this Monday Mulligan we are continuing our foray into golf swing speed training.

Parents, perhaps you’re wondering where we’re going with this. Well here you go. In all our years of being a golfing family, we have heard swing speed and the importance of it mentioned countless times. However, we never pursued the topic because we didn’t know where to go for proper instruction on how to increase it.

Let’s turn this party around for you, enter Michael Romatowski. What’s different about his methods? He focuses on exercises and training to increase speed, pure and simple and it works. In the classes I’ve attended I have seen women, men, young, old, novice golfer, pro golfer all increase their swing speeds.

Most folks can expect a 5-10% increase and some gain even more speed. The time required to achieve gains is unique to the individual. My swing speed is up 2.5% after 4 sessions as I pursue that 10% goal!

The benefits for your junior golfer are: 1. It works. For every 1mph increase in driver speed, add 2.5 yards. The pros get excited about getting an extra 3 yards from a new driver. Every yard is important!

2. Your child will have a more efficient swing. After 1 class, a top local golfer said he felt like he was using more of his core and he had better balance.

3. It improves confidence. As your kiddo sees that he/she can increase swing speed and actually get more yards out of their driver, they know they are increasing their level of competitiveness. They like it!

What’s the next step? Contact Michael at MichaelRomatowski.com and ask him the best way to follow up. Ideally a family golf trip to San Antonio that would include going to a couple of Mike’s classes would be great fun! If that’s not doable I’m sure he’ll have some ideas for you.

See you on #1 tee hitting that driver a bit farther.., Sam

Junior Golf: Hello Girls-Speed Wins!

In this Friday Flop Shot we’re looking at speed. There are some places where speed gets a bad rap, but in golf, including junior golf, speed is a big deal and more speed is better.

If, Dad and Mom, you watch enough golf events: junior golf, high school golf, elite junior golf and college golf, you’ll see some truths emerge.

Example for high school upperclassmen and college boys/men, if their drives average about 280-285 yards, they are able to be competitive in a tournament.

Guess what young women, it’s different for you. The girls who hit their drivers the farthest have the best chance to win an event. Too many young ladies/girls just can’t get the ball far enough down the fairway to seriously compete.

This makes sense. If Judy consistently hits her drives 25 yards farther than most of her competition, she’s pretty much hitting 3 clubs less. She can hit a 9-iron and the rest are hitting a 6 or 7-iron. Who, over the 18 holes, has the better chance of getting the ball closer to the pin? Certainly, it’s Judy.

How does your girl increase her swing speed? Let’s skip the obvious multi-faceted reasons and go to speed training and only speed training. Parents, the math is: if the ball is hit in the sweet spot of the club, every 1mph increase in speed results in an additional 2.5 yards. So an increase of 10mph yields 25 more yards, yes indeed!

Our good friend, Michael Romatowski’s speed training is taking off like wildfire, speed fire! Linda, S3 and I are attending his classes and increasing our swing speeds and it’s a blast! Our collegiate golfer below has reached her goal of 100mph.  She has gained 11mph of clubhead speed. The point is folks most everybody can gain 5-10%. The math for an 80mph swing is: 5% of 80 is 4mph increase x 2.5 yards per mph=10 yards farther! 10% of 80 is 8mph x 2.5 yards=20 more yards!

How do Mom and Dad followup? Stay tuned to this post because I’ll have much more about Michael’s innovative speed training in the near future. Follow Michael Romatowski on Facebook. Plan a vacation to San Antonio and attend some of his classes. Ask your PGA swing coach to get in touch with Michael.

Some of his regular attendees are a PGA Tour winner, a current PGA Latin American Tour player, a former World Long Drive Champion, a current World Long Drive Competitor and countless local golfers who want to improve their golf game.

Like so much we post, this stuff is real, it works! Please consider taking some action.

See you on #1 tee with a faster swing speed… Sam

This Could Happen To You

In today’s Friday Flop Shot I’m going to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience that S3 and I had 2 days ago. It was unexpected and the kind of thing that money, at least for most of us, can’t buy.

Here’s our story:

S3 and I volunteered to caddy in the Valero Texas Open Pro-Am held Wednesday, April 18, 2018. The mindset is “hope we have some decent amateurs and a pro whose name we have at least heard of.” You never know what you’re getting. That was for sure the case today but on the other side of the coin.

So we found our group’s bags and were reading the tags to see who we each had. My guy was Martin Parrish, ok. Then S3 starts reading the rest of the tags and says, “Dad, come here.” He points to the spot that says Professional. And we do the classic Looney Tunes doubletake because it says Adam Scott, on all 4 bags, so it must be true!

It was five and a half hours of incredible memories. Oh, as I found out after the round, my player, Martin Parrish, is a top Valero officer and Chairman of this year’s VTO, the biggest dude at the tournament other than the players. He’s a great guy and brought 3 good amateurs with him. They were all fun to be around!

Now to Adam Scott and his caddy David Clark. I can’t imagine that there are any nicer, more helpful and genuinely patient and good guy professionals to be around than these two. Refreshing to say the least! It was just like talking to regular folks, no pretenses, amazing men, looked you in the eye and engaged when we talked to them. Wow, we are bigger Adam Scott fans than before, if that’s even possible!

As some of you may recall, our family has been active in golf in this city since 1925. The Executive staff at Golf San Antonio, a little birdie told me, wanted to put someone in the Chairman’s group they could trust to support and fit in with this marquee 4-some. They hand-picked us because they know us and were comfortable that we were the right guys for the job.

I told S3 this is a classic example of who you know and who knows you and what they think of you. I emphasized that this is a testament to our family’s golf heritage over all these years, but more recently to his, mine and Linda’s involvement over the last 20 years. Great life lesson!

Our group actually was third to pick a pro. Valero CEO played with Greg Norman who designed the course and manages the whole event. 2nd took Sergio and Martin chose Adam. Not bad.

I don’t have the words to convey how great this day was and getting to spend it with my son was so special. Incredible memories.

Next year we’ll reset to our original premise. Just hope we’ve heard our pro’s name beforehand.

Parents, let this be encouragement for you and your junior golfer to volunteer in big events. Something like this can surely happen to you, particularly when you least expect it.

Man, what a day! See you on #1 tee standing next to your favorite pro… Sam

Dreaming of College Golf, Catch It Here

In today’s Monday Mulligan we will specifically address how to use me and Linda to give your child the chance to catch their dream of playing college golf.

High school golfers are the focus of this post, but all parents might want to note that the sooner you and your junior golfer decide if college golf is a goal, the sooner you can start planning. We started S3’s college golf plans when he was 5 years old. It was always the long-term goal. Time flies by quickly, it’s never too early to start.

Parents of high school golfers, please hear me: even if your child is finishing their junior year, there’s still a great opportunity to successfully pursue college golf. Time is short and we need to take advantage of what time is available. Be optimistic! Contact us immediately and we can get the process moving.

This is special college golf pricing and it’s different from other coaching packages listed on our site.

A. College Golf Bundle:

6 sessions over 90 days

$395

B. College Golf Hourly

1-hour sessions as needed

$75 per hour

What’s included:

The path to college golf is confusing and we’ll provide a structure and plan for you to properly proceed. This includes timing for when certain things need to be implemented. The who, what, when, where, how to contact/communicate with the people, places and entities involved.

You’ll end up with a clear path from right now continuing into the future when you and your kiddo are having serious talks with college golf coaches.

Parents of high school juniors, if you are going to do this, the time is now.

Scholarships for boys are widely available but you must know and implement the process to be successful.

The scholarships for girls are easier to get because there aren’t enough girls playing golf to fill them. However, parents, you must pursue the scholarship process properly.

For those parents of 5-year olds and up to high schoolers, we have considerable important input for the best way to help your junior golfer use the years remaining in his/her junior golf career.

Some of your most amazing parenting memories will be on the golf course with your youngster. Make those times more meaningful with a long-term goal of playing college golf.

See you on #1 tee wearing your college logo… Sam