Junior Golf: Check Out Great Local Opportunities For Your Girl

In this Friday Flop Shot we will continue our focus on girls’ golf which is certainly getting a tremendous amount of positive attention during the Women’s U.S. Open week.

Photocredit:Dubai Golf

 

Girl’s golf is booming! If you are not the parent of a junior golfer, you may not be aware that the fastest growing segment in golf in the United States is girls under the age of 18. A quick look at leaderboards or at the attendees during golf camps should provide a quick glimpse into what’s going on.

A lot of the credit goes to the LPGA/USGA Girls Golf program. With more than 400 chapters nationwide, there is likely a group convenient to you and your girl. It’s easy to search for Local Girls Golf and see what comes up. This is a multi-faceted regimen that keeps girls interested, having fun and making new friends. Fun is a big factor and the youngsters are staying on board while enjoying improving their golf skills.

Some good examples are all the younger players on the LPGA and Symetra Tours. Many of these ladies are former participants in this excellent girl’s golf program.

Photocredit:Chris Keane/USGA

This boom in girl’s golf is exciting and is having an extremely positive effect on women’s athletics all over the country. Please take a minute and read the linked article. I think it may certainly be helpful for your girl’s junior golf career and rev up her level of interest! For some details and very interesting reading go here.

More golf today includes the Scottish Open coverage on The Golf Channel. The weather is brutal. Chilly, windy and rainy, the weather fans love and players hate. Oh, unless you grew up in it like the guys from the British Isles! But Rickie Fowler is leading right now. This makes for great tv! Look closely and see if you can discern any players exhibiting Tom Watson’s bad weather behavior. It has been said that the 5-time British Open-now The Open Championship winner always looked liked it was 75-degrees and sunny, no matter what the actual conditions were. He was enjoying playing golf! That’s surely one mark of a great champion!

See you on #1 tee with 75-degrees and sunny weather, I hope… Sam

Junior Golf: Be Sure To Watch The Ladies This Week

In this Wednesday Waggle we will focus on women’s golf. This is a perfect time for you and your daughter and yes, your son as well, to watch the top women’s golfers compete for a major title.

Photocredit:golf digest

It’s time for the U.S. Women’s Open Championship, July 13-16, 2017 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. This event is the U.S. National Championship for women. Anyone capable of qualifying can enter, including amateurs and various champions/qualifiers from around the world. The field is talented and varied, all vying to be called the 2017 U.S. National Champion.

The reasons for your girls to watch are obvious but for the boys it’s more subtle. Here’s something fun for guys and girls alike. The LPGA’s Paula Reto averages about 250 yards for her drives and she is 100th in driving distance. Joanna Klatten is #1 averaging about 279 yards and the longest American driver is Lexi Thompson at basically 276 yards.

Our good friend and Director of Instruction for Alamo City Golf Trail, David Ogrin says his #1 thing for girls is “getting the driver out there.” Girls need to get competitive distance out of their driver and 250 yards or better will put your girl right up there along with the top 100 on the LPGA Tour.

Boys need driver distance too. To be competitive in college a young man must hit his drives an average of 285-295 yards, period. Working at increasing driving distance, here are some new, fun and measurable goals to look forward to. Now men and boys please make this fun. For most 10-year olds to have PGA/LPGA Pro distance is not happening so let’s stairstep some goals. 1st, let’s break into the ladies’ top 100 and work at getting to a 250-yard average. As your son/daughter gets stronger and longer you can work toward that upper 270-yard range which is the high end of the LPGA and the low end of the PGA Tour players. Make it fun!

Photocredit:Conservative Daily News

Ok, time to set the TiVo. TV coverage starts this Thursday, July 13, from 1:00pm-6:00pm, central time on FS1, DirectV channel 219. Same time and channel for Friday, July 14. For Saturday, July 15, same time but change to channel 29, regular Fox on DirectV. Same time and channel for Sunday’s final round. FYI we always record 2 hours past the end of regular Sunday coverage. The women’s playoff format is a 3-hole aggregate score. Enjoy!

See you on #1 tee ready to show me what you learned from the ladies… Sam

 

Junior Golf: Midsummer Check List-5 Things To Do Now

In this Friday Flop Shot we will offer some things that should be done right now to prepare for upcoming fall events.

Photocredit:Dubai Golf

Your kids are growing, his/her golf skills are improving and the career of a junior golfer is a marathon, not a sprint. Parents must be the ones to not just keep,up, but stay ahead of what’s going on.

Here are 5 things to get after right now:
Have your child fitted for the driver or longest club in their golf bag. Drivers that are too short, too long, wrong loft or too heavy put your kiddo at a disadvantage. Any PGA pro can do this.
Check the fit of his/her golf shoes. Kids notoriously wear shoes that are too small. Have them put on a pair of golf socks and the shoes and you feel where the longest toe is. If there is any doubt about fit, buy a larger size. Your youngster will grow into them at some point.
Do the golf shirts, shorts or skorts fit properly? Clothes that don’t fit can hinder the golf swing, be uncomfortable and even lead to chafing and irritation during a round. There’s enough stress during competition without having to deal with ill-fitting clothes.

Photocredit:Green Valley Country Club

What is the weakest part of their golf game? If you don’t know, go to the range or play a round with your kiddo. Then you’ll know. Look online or at The Golf Channel Academy for some drills that will improve this.
Does your state have a tax-free weekend or sale period? Currently about 16 states have sales tax holidays which include clothing. Check out this link. Here in Texas that saves basically 8%. Look up states with sales tax holidays to see if your state is included. Most dates are in July and August and shoes, perhaps even golf shoes are included. This is a great way to save some money!

Ok, that’s it for today. Watch the LPGA KPMG PGA Championship this weekend and get ready to celebrate the 4th!

See you on #1 tee looking prepared… Sam

Junior Golf: Pay Attention Or Pay The Price

In this Monday Mulligan we will take a look at something that happened last weekend at the LPGA tournament. It is a hard lesson about paying attention when your daughter/son is in competition or there might be a steep price to pay.

Paying attention to her game and being aware of what’s going on in her group is an essential and required part of competition. It begins with a reasonable knowledge of the rules and etiquette and, of course, as her skill level improves, it would also include her strategy/game plan for her round.

Competition is different than playing with family or friends. Things happen, sometimes strange things happen, things you have never seen before and might never see again. Pressure is everywhere. Everybody reacts differently to pressure and pressure can increase or decrease during a round. Pressure has its own life!

So in last week’s LPGA ANA Championship, Lexi Thompson was assessed 4 penalty strokes in the middle of Sunday’s final round for actions that took place in the previous day’s round. A viewer sent in a video of Lexi marking her ball and putting it back in a different spot from where she picked it up. She moved the ball perhaps a quarter to half an inch and it was pretty obvious on the video. So she was penalized 2 strokes for violation of Rule 20-7C (playing from the wrong place). She signed her scorecard for 67 but it should have been 69, so she was next assessed a 2-stroke penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard and the 67 that became a 69 now became a 71. Wow!

photocredit Jeff Gross

Her 2-stroke lead went away and she was suddenly 2 strokes behind the leader. To her credit, Lexi played very well after being informed of the penalty strokes and ended up in a playoff where she lost on the 1st hole. Lexi’s own words regarding the situation, “I didn’t realize I did that,” she said through tears. “I did not intentionally do that. But you know what, I fought hard coming in and I didn’t give up. But so many players played great, so congrats.”

What is the takeaway for junior golfers and their parents? While your kiddo should always be in the moment during a tournament, there are times to really focus and pay attention. Properly marking and replacing a golf ball is a simple task and yes, it’s relatively easy, but it should never be taken for granted. Watch how the pros do it. Their actions are deliberate and their hands move a little slower rather than faster. This is a situation that must be executed perfectly.

I asked S3 that in all his rounds of junior golf and college golf, did he ever see any violations such as this one. His response, “Maybe 3 or 4.” Then I said, “Did you call any penalties?” S3, “Sure did.”

So your girl may see this once in a blue moon, but she will see it. Please encourage her that when she is preparing to mark and then replace her golf ball that she should take a deep breath and focus on the proper technique. No problemo!

See you on #1 tee ready to properly mark and replace your ball… Sam

Junior Golf: 2nd Must Have Piece Of Inexpensive Rain Gear

In this Friday Flop Shot we will continue our recommendations of inexpensive rain gear that is absolutely critical to your son’s/daughter’s ability to play, hopefully reasonably well, in wet weather. (image offcoursegolf.com)

The most important item was previously covered and that item is the wetter is better style of golf gloves made by several quality brands and pretty much available everywhere. As we mentioned, these gloves allow your youngster to have a good grip on the club in the rain. If a player is unable to hold onto the club, there is no way to play golf. The other rain gear you have, no matter the quality, is irrelevant if your son can’t hold onto the club.

The 2nd must have item is likely already in inventory and that would be an effective way to keep the rain out of your child’s eyes. We’re not talking about glasses here. In addition to the obvious need for clear vision/sight, your junior golfer, no golfer for that matter needs the challenge of trying to hit a shot, chip or putt while rain is hitting them squarely in the eyes.

So, the item is: a cap or hat that covers the head and has enough bill or rim to protect the eyes. Our family loves visors but in rain that is heavier than fog or mist, they allow too much moisture onto the hair and head and end up being more of a pain than an advantage. If your budget allows, you can get a waterproof and breatheable cap or hat. These can be comfortably worn in any weather, but really are helpful on a rainy day. The water sheds off them and since they’re not absorbing water, they don’t get soggy and heavy. They are genuinely a wonderful piece of equipment!
Expect to pay in the $25-$50 range for a waterproof cap or hat, sometimes called bucket hat.

While the breatheable/waterproof hats and caps are not as widely found as regular caps, many stores carry them, but you might have to ask for help finding them. Online sellers are numerous, so there’s not much effort involved in getting your hands on one. Please be certain to confirm your kiddo’s hat/cap size. Keep in mind that most caps have adjustable bands, but most hats are of a fixed size. Does your child wear a youth cap size? This is important to know if you are searching online.

Hats and caps are important items and should be worn pretty much all the time at the range and on the golf course. Just take a look at the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Web.Com Tour or European Tour. Count how many players are bare-headed. Did you need more than 1 hand? There are many very good reasons they are wearing hats, caps and visors.

See you on #1 tee with a good-looking cap on… Sam

Junior Golf: Great New Gift Ideas

In this Wednesday Waggle we will introduce you to some wonderful new items that your junior golfer will likely be totally surprised by and will totally enjoy!

Sometimes it’s tough to find a new, different and useful gift for our young golfers. Gag gifts were not our thing as we wanted our golf budget to be spent on something of value that could benefit S3’s golf game. (photo golfdigest.com)

Here are a few very cool goodies. Let’s start with a high-ticket item. The Arccos 360 Performance Tracking System: Low-profile sensors attach to clubs and record every shot, generating swing analytics and providing live shot-tracking among an assortment of features. www.arccosgolf.com / $250. Yes, this is pricey, but if you are not close to a major golf facility that has this or similar equipment, this could be a bargain for the feedback it will provide.

There are a couple of things that can immediately shut down your son’s good round of golf and turn it into a nightmare. Cold hands are 1 of these things. The chemical hot packs have been around for years, are legal in events and work pretty well for keeping hands warm. Our guys always preferred the larger size for more and longer heat. And they’re inexpensive. The giant mitts are good too but the idea is to keep the hands warm, not let them get cold and have to warm them up again. We always carried both the chemical packs and mitts.

However, there’s a new wind blowing in the hand warmer world. It’s the G-Tech Apparel hand warmer used by both Patrick Reed, in this year’s Ryder Cup, and by LPGA star Lydia Ko. This is state-of-the-art technology and seems to be beyond everything else in its ability to keep hands warm in a comfortable and convenient fashion. While it’s not cheap at $99.00, you should get years of use for your money and it’s not player specific so it can be used by anyone and everyone in your house. Check it out at www.gtechapparel.com. (image: the warming store)

Now this item may be my favorite of all of these. It’s the JBL Clip 2 Speaker with 8 hours of battery life. Clip it onto the bag and let the music fly. Not usable in most tournaments, of course, but S3 and his buddies always had music playing during practice rounds and non-sanctioned events. This Bluetooth speaker is perfect for walking, push carts or riding carts. Music relaxes all of us and our kids in particular. This is $60.00. Go to www.jbl.com. Love it!

Parents, your junior golfer will be totally surprised and amazed by finding any of these items with his name on it. Have at it!

See you on #1 tee looking hi-tech… Sam

Junior Golf: Better Sleep/Better Golf

In this Monday Mulligan we will look at how lack of enough quality sleep negatively impacts your son. Sleep deprivation and poor quality of sleep are widespread health issues among all ages all over the world. The facts are that better sleep equals better golf, better student and better overall health.

In today’s fast-paced and exciting world it’s common to run across someone who wants to get by with 3 or 4 hours of sleep. They love life and have so many things they want to enjoy! Well, the studies show that only a very small percentage of the population can perform well on minimal sleep, usually meaning averaging less than 8 hours per night and I’ll tell you right now, it’s highly unlikely anyone in your family is included in this minuscule group. (photo jennleforge.com)

While the hours of sleep necessary can vary from infants to
pre-teens to teens to adults, a solid starting point is basically 8 to 9 hours of good sleep per night. Certainly right now some of you are saying, “No way! I don’t see that happening in our house.” (photo Trovati Faceplant Dreams)

May I offer some data? Sleep deprivation may be associated with poor athletic performance, poor grades, decreased ability to learn and create, slowed reaction time, increased risk of depression, increased susceptibility to any number of health issues including diabetes, weight gain and blood pressure issues, a reduced ability to control emotions and responses and many many more. Folks this is real! (photo Phoenix, Tucson, Arizona golf images)

Where do Mom and Dad start? Modifying your own sleep habits sets a good example. Your junior golfer will more likely do what you do and your proper example sets the standard for the whole family. Schedule a brief family meeting to review the new sleep times and how all will benefit. Be excited about it! Enough beneficial sleep is every bit as important as clean water, healthy food and exercise. It’s a big deal!

Back out the necessary times. When does everyone need to get up? If it’s 7:00am, have the kids in bed by 10:00pm for 9 hours of sleep. Grade schoolers were in bed by 8:30pm in our house and we worked our way up to 10:00pm for high school. Younger kids need more sleep. Parents, you’ll benefit too.

See you on #1 tee wide awake and rested… Sam

Junior Golf: Leave A Healthy Legacy

In today’s Wednesday Waggle we will look at how our actions are influencing our junior golfers and everyone around us. Dad and Mom, you are leaving a legacy so let’s leave a healthy legacy. (photo golfdigest.com)

My Mom was an amazing person. She passed away in 2012 at the age of 102 years and was extremely active for 100 of those years. She was, like all of us, a creature of habits and hers contributed to her excellent mental and physical health.

Mom loved to walk and growing up she always went at least 8 blocks every day, usually with a big dog on a leash. These were big blocks, long and straight. She walked fast. Most folks couldn’t keep up so she never really invited anyone to join her. And she loved her yard work. She mowed, trimmed, swept, did it all unless I was around to help. Dad was usually at work and frankly Mom loved the exercise. It wasn’t a chore for her.

She had an absolute aversion to being overweight. Her line was, “If I gain 3 pounds, I’m going on a diet!” And she did. Mom drank water with her meals and had some tea or a Coke made with sugar once in a while. She had a few guidelines as to what she ate. Her family was way ahead of the curve, using common sense for eating advice. “It’s the sugary things like desserts, breads, cookies and white potatoes that make you fat. Stay away from them.” And she did. Mom are whatever she wanted but controlled her portions. She quit eating when she started feeling full and pretty much never had second helpings. Ahead of the curve, way to go, Mom! (photo dailymail.co.uk)

She was also not a fan of putting anything in her body that was not absolutely essential. So she stayed away from prescription drugs and all she took for those many years was one baby aspirin daily and a calcium supplement for occasional leg cramps.

I had to always check her inventory of her crossword puzzles and WordSearch and WordSeek books. She loved doing these and sometimes it was hard to find enough books to help her supplied. Her mind was always razor sharp! (photo net-thrift.com)

Once I came to realize that Mom’s fabulous health was a product of a lifetime of healthy habits, I decided to emulate these habits. So I began changing my nutrition and exercise routine in college. Linda came along side me in these endeavors and we have made a concerted effort to be examples of healthy habits, mental and physical, for our kids and grandkids.

What can you do today to initiate or increase healthy habits in your home. Better habits, better golf, better everything!

See you on #1 tee with healthy habits… Sam

Junior Golf: Better Health Better Golf

Wow! After all the intense golf news of the past few weeks, in today’s Friday Flop Shot we will get back to focusing on helping junior golfers and their families. Let’s see how to begin the process of Better Health=Better Golf in your family.

Parents, I am usually hesitant to tell you that you must take some action. Today however, Linda and I believe taking control of your family’s health is so important, so readily available and so critical for all your family members and of course, your athletes, that we encourage you in the strongest terms to have the conversation we reference below. (photo offcoursegolf.com)

The 1st step is: Dad and Mom must have a discussion to decide if you want to address the taking control of your health issue. If the answer is no, then the status quo remains. If the answer is yes, congratulations, and the next step is to have another meeting and include your kids and inform them of your decision. Tell them that the family will be making changes in the areas of food, drink and exercise. Be positive, be excited. Your family is embarking on a life-changing journey! Mom and Dad must be united in this decision. Single parents, you may wish to discuss this with close friends and mentors, just be staunch in your decision.

If your answer is No, nothing changes. We sincerely hope you will reconsider your decision. Why did you choose No?

If you said Yes, here’s your next step after informing the rest of your family. Put together an action plan. Start simple because this can be a bit overwhelming. Frankly we could spend years on this topic and never cover everything so we are going to give you input to make this process as seamless as possible.

Linda and I have been serious amateur students of health, fitness, nutrition and supplementation for a long time. In fact Linda once held 2 certifications from The Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, 1 as a Certified Fitness Specialist (precursor to Personal Trainer Certification) and 1 in wellness. Individually we had already taken control of our own health even before we met and have emphasized and maintained this philosophy continuously in our family. And it works. Our rare visits to the doctor ar almost always from sports/activity-based injuries. Taking control of your family’s health works! (photo pbase.com)

Action Plan Step 1: Take a look at what your family is eating. Write it down. It may shock you when you see it on a piece of paper. Awareness is the 1st step in this process. People are always asking us for 1 sentence on health and nutrition. Over these many years what we have come up with is, “Take a look at what you are going to put in your mouth and ask yourself, “How close is this to the way God put it on this planet?” In other words, start cutting back on processed foods. Fresh fruits and veggies and quality meats are where we should be spending our food dollars. Get your awareness factor up! You may be surprised or even shocked by what your family is eating! We’ll stay on this for a few posts, so more great tips Monday.

See you on #1 tee looking healthy… Sam

Junior Golf: US Wins IC

In this Monday Mulligan we will enjoy looking at the great come from behind win the US LPGA stars pulled off this past weekend! (photo jennleforge.com)

The International Crown event was created in order to give the excellent Asian women’s golfers an international team event where they could play and represent their country. This is an 8-team event where eligibility is determined by the combined Rolex World Rankings of the 4 top players from each country. The 8 countries with the lowest totals get to play.

Countries are then seeded and placed into 2 4-team brackets and play 3 days of 4-ball, which is usually called best ball or better ball in the US. For example: 2 players from 2 teams play in a 4-some. Each player plays her own ball through the hole and the lowest score of the team’s 2 players is used. The 2 teams with the most points after 3 days of best ball, from each bracket, advance along with a 5th-place, wildcard team, to Sunday’s singles matches.

Sunday, yesterday, was singles matches where for instance, the 4 US ladies played 1×1 vs South Korea, England, Taiwan and wildcard entry, Japan. 2 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss.

To put things in perspective, the US played poorly on day 1, Thursday and got no points. Yes, that’s zero, nada, the big 0, whatever you choose to call it. So our girls were in a not so good spot, but still had a chance to win with strong play and that’s what happened.

Friday we got 3 points with a halve and a win and Saturday was a 4-point day for our ladies with 2 victories. So entering Sunday’s singles matches we were in 2nd place with 7 points, 1 point out of 1st place. Not bad, still having a chance to win.

Singles matches meant money-time for the US as our players went on a tear! Stacy Lewis beat Japan’s Mika Miyazato 3 and 2. Gerina Gillar smoked Taiwan’s former World #1 Yani Tseng, 4 and 3. And Christie Kerr dominated England’s tough Mel Reid, 3 and 2. Lexi Thompson and her putter had an inconsistent day and she lost 2 and 1 to South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu. But, the US got 6 points for a total of 13 points and none of the other teams had a chance to catch up. US ladies win, congratulations! (photo gabrielroux.com.mx)

What this means to parents of junior golfers is that you should be encouraging your daughters to have the confidence that they can hit good shots and can get low scores. Everybody has some bad shots, bad holes and a bad round. It’s coming back from those poor situations and hitting good shots is what it’s all about. It’s what life is all about. It’s what enabled our ladies to win the IC! Be an encourager!

See you on #1 tee looking encouraged… Sam