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Golf is many things. It’s fun. It’s frustrating. It’s a lifetime sport. It builds character. And suddenly, golf is sexy, too, thanks to golf stars like Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie.
All of these factors can generate youth interest in golf. And this interest is why golf range owners stand to profit from running junior golf camps at their facilities. Owners who run camps can attest to the benefits. Industry leaders and statisticians say the trends are promising, and the value for golf ranges that offer junior golf camps is growing.
The Numbers
Despite some flat statistics for the golf business in general during recent years, both market analysts and industry leaders indicate the number of golfers under 15 is still on the increase. JuniorLinks.com lists more than 2,800 U.S. junior golf programs in its online database. Created in 2001 by GOLF 20/20, the database compiles market information about junior golf for junior golf program administrators, junior golfers and their parents.
Other organizations seem to support GOLF 20/20’s figures. Peg Smith, CEO of the American Camp Association (ACA), says her records show 463 ACA-accredited camps offer golf programs in the United States. “This is a 67 percent increase since 1998,” says Smith, who joined the ACA that year. Smith also notes that 22 ACA-accredited camps specialize exclusively in golf programs—a 16 percent increase since 1998.
“I definitely have seen an increase in youth golf camp participation at my range, between 15 and 20 percent each year,” says Mike Goldstein, who teaches junior golf camps at Olney Golf Park in Olney, Md. Goldstein offers junior golf camps at his USGA-approved range in the spring, summer and fall.
Gretchen Scheuermann holds similar camps at her family’s Ruckersville, Va., range. Scheuermann joined the family business at Highlands Golf Park in 1999. “Since then, overall, I’ve seen an increase in the camp participation,” she says. “It varies depending on the age group.” In 2006, Scheuermann taught golf to 20 toddlers, 30 5- to 7-year-olds and 20 youths aged 8 and up. “We had to add another [toddler] session because the camp was so popular.”
Both Goldstein and Scheuermann say the camps are good for the overall business of their ranges. “Junior golf camps are a huge part of the golf range business,” Goldstein says. “They’re absolutely good for business.” Adds Scheuermann, “We have people returning to our camps every year. Having camps is profitable, and good for business for ranges.”
Getting Started
Frank Martin founded San Antonio-based Kids Sports Network (KSN) in 1991. In summers, the nonprofit organization runs golf camps for youth aged 7 to 14. “What you need to have to do a junior golf camp are four elements: a driving range, access to a putting area, a place to chip and a place for kids to play golf,” he says.
Martin believes golf ranges actually have an advantage over golf courses in promoting junior golf, because adults often prevent younger golfers from accessing these four elements at golf courses. Martin runs his camps from a par-3 golf course in a municipal park in San Antonio. “This course has the four elements, and the park allows the kids to come back and play, which emphasizes the sport-for-life goal.” Martin explains, “Kids can play all their life, if they learn the game, both the etiquette and the rules.”
Teaching etiquette and the rules are priorities for Doug Temple, founder and program director of The Bullseye Golf Foundation in Midland, Mich. Bullseye’s golf camps are geared toward low-income youth and young adults between 7 and 22 in Michigan’s Saginaw Valley and surrounding region. “This program improves the quality of life for these kids,” Temple says. “There’s no place else for them to get this exposure to golf. And knowing about golf is important, because golf is cliquey.”
A PGA professional, Temple established Bullseye in 2003, after the City of Saginaw cut funding for its youth development programs. “When this happened, I saw two needs to respond to,” he recalls. “One, there were no parks and recreation programs in the city. And two, there was no big, overarching youth program.”
During the summer of 2006, 500 youth and young adults attended Bullseye’s camps, a 100 percent increase from the year before. “Since we opened in 2003,” Temple notes, “our program attendance has grown by 100 percent every year.”
Because Bullseye’s camps are nonprofit, Temple provides core values training on honesty, respect and responsibility to his juniors, in addition to golf instruction. “During each camp,” he says, “I arrange for a police officer, school superintendent, businessman or other community leader to speak to the camp participants. I want to get across to the kids how aspects of the game of golf—honesty, respect and responsibility—relate to life.”
Martin agrees with this approach. “A lot of honesty is involved in golf,” he says. “Kids need to keep track of their score, on their own. A lot of fine etiquette is involved in golf. It’s not a running sport. It’s a gentleman and lady sport; it’s an honest sport.”
Scheuermann reviews etiquette with both her younger and older juniors. “I like to get the younger kids started with some of the etiquette, like how to mark your ball and a lot of the ‘around the green’ stuff,” she says. “If the kids learn the rules when they’re young, they’ll know how to behave when they’re older and out golfing with people.”
Another issue to consider is whether or not to have a coed camp. Rich Danch, director of the Fighting Scots Golf Camp at The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, says his camp has always been coed. “The advantage is you can serve a larger population without exclusion,” he says. “The girls’ side hasn’t fully caught up with the boys’—so in a non-urban area it would be tough to feasibly have a girls’ camp. Besides, the reality is that the boys like having the girls there, and the girls like having the boys there. The social factor simply can’t be overlooked.”
Scheuermann recently developed a “golf for girls” program at her range and has seen some early success with it. “I had 11 girls this past year,” she reports.
“As far as skills go,” Danch says, “all the boys and the girls have [skill] needs, and I try to group them in such a way as to ably meet those needs.”
Although no right formula exists for running a junior golf camp from a driving range, several tips can help make the venture thrive.
Insights and Advice
First, Goldstein declares, “you need to have patience. And you’ve got to want to do it.”
Once these essentials are in place, range owners must decide who will teach their camps. Temple hires four PGA professionals every summer, while Martin trains volunteer coaches before each season begins. Goldstein, Scheuermann and Danch handle the instruction themselves.
Scheuermann likes to focus the instruction for each of her different age groups. “With my toddlers, I do an introduction to golf and teach them to have fun with golf. I also teach them how to hold the club and stand. With the 5- to 7-year-olds, half the time we do short game (putting, chipping and pitching), and the other half we do full swing. I review golf etiquette most with the older kids.”
Temple gives his juniors daily assignments on what they learned that day. “The parents need to sign off on the handouts, so the parents get involved in the learning process too,” Temple says.
Getting the parents involved can be key for a range’s business. Martin remarks, “Some ranges will teach the kids how to golf and then give the kids free passes for their parents to play golf at the range.” If a range teaches a youth how to golf, that youth most likely will return to the range to practice, long after the camp has ended and possibly even well into his or her adult years. By offering junior golf camps, ranges can attract lifelong customers to their businesses’ lifetime sport.
“Summer camps, especially, are like day care,” Martin reveals. “These camps are very profitable because parents are willing to pay. They put their kids in sport camps in the morning and then daycare for the afternoon.”
Experience has taught Scheuermann not to market her camps as day care. “When we started the camp, we started with a fee that was really low, and that’s where we found it was more of a babysitting business,” Scheuermann shares. “We’ve raised the fee over the years, which has increased the quality of the kids who come. You want to keep your camp affordable, but not a babysitting business. We try to maintain a quality camp—no craziness.”
Martin says his camp targets the middle class. “Our kids’ parents are teachers, construction workers—they’re able to pay the registration fees.”
After deciding to run a camp, organizing the instruction layout and pinpointing the price to charge, one more thing is left to do: marketing.
“To keep the kids coming back year after year, we send out a lot of e-mails,” Goldstein says. “You also can post flyers and banners around your golf range.”
Temple and Scheuermann like to take their information to the community. “Twice a year,” Temple says, “I go to every elementary and middle school in the area and distribute 40,000 flyers. It takes one week to do.”
Scheuermann shares her marketing tips: “We deliver brochures to local golf shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods. We also mail brochures to nearby parks and recreation departments, which don’t offer golf programs. And we have a web site.”
At his camp, Goldstein likes to give out prizes to the juniors. “I have awards for who learned sportsmanship best or who tried the hardest,” he says. After marketing brings the kids to the camp, incentives like these encourage them to return the next year.
History and Trends
“Many parents remember their own childhood camp experiences, but few are aware of how much camps have changed over the years,” the ACA’s Smith says. “Camps still help children develop social skills, build communities, share traditions, appreciate nature and stay physically active. However, today’s camps are finding more engaging programs for an increasing number of campers.”
“When I started junior golf at KSN ten years ago,” Martin remembers, “kids’ only choice was to connect themselves to a country club, where they learned golf in a ‘lessons format.’”
Junior golf camps, taught in a ‘camp format’ enable children to learn “sportsmanship, life skills and fairness,” Scheuermann says. “Parents think it’s a nice activity for kids. Some kids are even brought out here by their grandparents. Golf is multigenerational. It’s very different from other sports.”
“For kids,” Martin adds, “golf has developed from Saturday-morning clinics at country clubs to camps. Five years ago, junior golf camps were not as popular as today. There are more options for kids now, more golf camps. They’re becoming much more popular.”
Martin believes the popularity of Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie has contributed to the popularity of junior golf camps. “More and more kids are playing golf, and at a younger age, due to young golfers like these, who have good images,” Martin says.
On a recent trip to the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Mich., Temple’s juniors had the opportunity to meet Tiger Woods and shake his hand. “They still talk about that,” Temple says.
Danch concurs. “I believe the popularity of golf has simply amplified the number of kids interested in the game,” he says. “Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam have certainly allowed for the game to be seen as ‘cool’ and therefore an attractive option.”
Over the years, many colleges and universities have begun to run junior golf camps out of their facilities during the summer, when their students are on break. Danch explains how this kind of summer camp differs from one run out of a driving range: “My college happens to own a nine-hole course on the campus, which makes it all work.” He adds, “I think colleges have the benefit of having dormitories and student dining facilities, which make the off-course activities so much easier. In our case, the college golf course is 200 yards from the dorm the campers are housed in, and the dining hall is another 200 yards away, making transitional periods a snap.”
In addition to the social and emotional benefits, participating in camps offers a variety of other benefits to youth, Smith says. “Children are at less risk at camp, where they have a sense of community, develop intergenerational relationships and learn through first-hand experiences,” she reports. “Trained, caring adult role models help children feel loved, capable and included.” Smith adds that a camp with a target focus, such as golf, allows children to gain skills and experience within a specialty.
Temple agrees. “The goal of our program is player development,” he says. Temple focuses on teaching individual achievement, rather than competition. “I notice a change in my kids from when they start the program to when they end.” Not only do they know about golf, but they also have developed a greater sense of self-confidence and self-worth.
Smith has found this to be true in her professional experience. “In participating in a sport outside of their usual routine, youths have the opportunity to gain confidence, and to discover their own strengths and build upon them,” she says.
Because they are outside of the youths’ usual routine, camps differ from school-sponsored sports in a few significant ways. Martin explains, “When kids are going through middle school, through high school, they try out for the team, and if they’re good enough, they make it. But parents make the sport their own thing and don’t always think about what’s best for the kids. Parents who work with kids in school sports may not be trained in how to manage children’s sports programs. In out-of-school sports, on the other hand, kids learn better about teamwork, cooperation and how to win and lose.”
Martin also emphasizes the physical benefits of junior golf camps. “Children playing sports is critical,” he declares. “The number one reason is because playing sports becomes a lifestyle. And exercise is necessary” to combat the obesity problem currently facing Americans.
Martin adds, “It used to be that kids could come home from school and run to the playground to play pickup sports games. Now, it’s not safe to do that, and since parents aren’t home when kids get home, kids are confined to the house. So now, you need to have adult-supervised programs. That’s basically why we encourage kids to play sports.”
Smith agrees: “Camp helps children grow by providing a supervised, positive environment that has safety as a primary commitment.”
On the Range
“I would think,” Scheuermann says, “ranges would want to offer camps. Camps do require a lot of organization though, and you have to find other instructors if you need them. Logistically, it can be difficult, because you’re using much of the range for the camp. You have to be aware of daily customers.”
Scheuermann suggests scheduling camps for morning (8:30 to 11 a.m.) and evening (4:30 to 7 p.m.) sessions, to accommodate parents who work. She also advises range owners to develop relationships and partnerships with nearby golf courses. “I take my advanced-camp kids to the local golf course,” she says. “I just call them ahead of time, and they give us a junior rate for nine holes. They’re very cooperative.” She imagines other courses would cooperate with ranges as well.
“Golf isn’t a team sport,” Martin says, “but it was a target of opportunity for KSN. I saw a need for kids to learn golf at a younger age. No other organization stepped in to serve that need, so KSN did.”
Smith shares some final statistics about youths’ growing need for golf camps: “Camps with a sport-target focus have increased 5 percent over the past two years. In comparison, camps that offer golf have increased over 9 percent over the past two years. Also, camps that specialize in golf have increased over 10 percent in the past two years.”
Now may be the ideal time for range owners to consider enriching their operations with junior golf camps. Interest in the sport is on the rise, camps are good for business and good for the kids too, and teaching kids how to golf at a young age may translate into a lifetime commitment to the sport—and to your range.”
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