Many people view golf as the perfect refuge from family life — and let’s face it, that’s something all of us need from time to time. However, you may be enthusiastic enough about golf to teach it to your kids as well. If you’re up for some family golfing, we’ve got a couple of tips that will help you ease your children into this activity!
First and foremost, though — if you want to get your kids into gold, you should realize that this isn’t your usual Sunday morning game of golf. That is – if you intend to go to a golf course that’s simultaneously used by other people as well. You should try to limit your family golf sessions to a schedule that doesn’t interfere with others who aren’t bringing kids to the golf course. Evening hours are preferable if you want to be considerate to other golfers — but that’s important for your own wellbeing as well.
Believe us – you won’t have much fun seeing a child of yours go straight for the bunker, not when someone else is nervously waiting in the nearby fairway. Sure, if you’re bringing kids to the golf course, they should learn to respect the average pace of the game regardless of their age. Still, not accounting for inevitable delays due to their play is a mistake.
Excite Them
If you want the young ones to get excited about golf, it has to be about more than the pure gameplay itself. Yeah, we all want our children to avoid becoming fixated with solely material stuff. On the other hand, you need to realize that the children’s fun with golf is everything that’s a part of playing it. Get them a ball sleeve from time to time, tees, ball markers — all of this will make them more excited for the game.
Golf Cart Fun
We arrive at another compromise that you’re bound to make when you decide to organize family golfing with children. Many devout golfers feel that walking across the course is an innate part of the game. Plus, it’s one of the rare things that require a certain degree of physical activity in golf — it’s definitely a welcome form of exercise.
However, once you start playing with your kids, one thing is sure to happen — they’ll fall in love with the golf cart. For the kids, these carts are basically small cars that they can have fun with — something like a ride in an amusement park. Even if you like trekking all over the course, you should lean into the kids’ desire to ride around in the cart. At the end of the day, you’ll find that walking around with your kids the whole time makes you a lot more fatigued than when you’re on your own. Try to contain your inner snob when it comes to this particular kind of playing golf.
Consider The Yardage
We should have probably started with this, but it’s obvious enough that many of you will have probably thought of it already. Naturally, we’re talking about the yardage that you’ll play when you’re with your kids. Sure, you can keep the yards that you usually play — but we have to warn you that this is bound to bore the young ones. You want the course to be kid-friendly and for the game to be manageable. Plus, they’re more likely to actually hit the green from closer markers, providing them with much-needed positive reinforcement. And let’s be honest — they’re going to need it, considering how frustrating golf can be.
Course Etiquette
Anyone who plays golf knows that, while this game is becoming more and more accessible to all kinds of people — there is still a certain etiquette that has to be respected, and all newbies should familiarize themselves with it.
If you want to play the game with your kids, this is another thing they must learn, at least to a certain degree. Though, this brings us back to our original premise — you want to play with your family when your golf course is practically empty. If you do that, there’s less chance that your family will come into conflict with someone else’s game.
Still, teach the children some of the basics — for instance, they need to wait for the proper turn to hit, and they mustn’t goof around in the golf bunkers. On the other hand, you don’t want them to view the game as a set of boring rules; they’ll quickly grow bored of the proceedings. All you need to do is to teach them some basic respect. We hope this guide was useful to you and that you’ve learned something new. Stay safe and have a good one, guys!
