When I was playing Junior golf at Eastlakes in Sydney I was treated very poorly by both the committee and the members. Not all of them but by a LOT of them.

Jealousy would be the word I would use, almost hate in some cases, and with contempt by the committee at times.

This was admittedly a long time ago, but I was wondering how much times have changed? When they changed, and how they changed if they have changed at all.

Tell me of your Junior experiences, enlighten me!

I was treated like I was a lepor. I was a junior at Mountain View Golf Club in Tom Price….disgusting treatment actually and it was all because my dad was a worker at the mine and not in management…I won many competitions and played well in tournaments around the area but when it came to presentations or recognition I got nothing…there were a couple of people who made my life bearable there and for that I thank them but the rest of them it was terrible…

....I even got cheered by a section of arseholes when I missed a putt to lose an Open there….seriously, I was like 15 or 16

It all escalated until the guy running the junior program there (who was a manager) gave his son a week long training camp at the Graham Marsh Golf Facility (was supposed to go to the best junior).....he was off 23 and had been hacking for years…and was a spoilt little twat, I was off about 7 or 9 at the time and had been playing la very short time.

This was late 80’s early 90’s

I gave up golf for over 10 years and my aspirations of being involved in this game for a living were shot.

When you say junior golf, you mean like you were a younger person, say, 14-18, right?

When you say junior golf, you mean like you were a younger person, say, 14-18, right?

“A star that shines twice as bright burns twice as fast.” – In memory of Greg Moore

Racinfarmer will be signing autographs at the mall from 3 to 5.

Yep, when I was a junior you weren’t allowed to play under 12, this is still the case at a lot of clubs around the country…

Live4golf.
Thats a terrible way to treat young people doesn’t matter what sport you are in. And esp if your dream was to play for a living.
Many many years ago when i was a about 12 years old, i wanted to be an all black just like any other kid in NZ. I was a very good player. Anyway we had to supply a team for a curtain raiser to a division 1 game. They had to pick the best 15 players from 2 teams in our club, So my Dad encouraged me to i rang him to see if i was in and he said “yes, with 5 others from your team”
Me and my Dad fronted to the game, no other “5 players”, and i never got on the field. His 3 namby pamby sons played tho.
My old man gave him a huge spray. Tosser.
Any wonder some clubs are struggling for members.

When you say junior golf, you mean like you were a younger person, say, 14-18, right?

“A star that shines twice as bright burns twice as fast.” – In memory of Greg Moore

Racinfarmer will be signing autographs at the mall from 3 to 5.

Yep, when I was a junior you weren’t allowed to play under 12, this is still the case at a lot of clubs around the country…

Cliff Manley
Southport
3 bad shots and 1 good shot is still a 4….
Golf is played in a very small area, the 6 inches between your ears…

I still get treated like crap by many club members and I’m 22.

this is a very interesting topic, because in the hunter area (nsw) most golf clubs are struggling financially. my son and i were members at waratah g.c in newcastle they have a very strong junior program. they work on the mcdonalds theory. get the kids interested the parents pay (support their kid/s)
can’t understand why members or board would treat their juniors badly. they are the future of the club.

cheers smooth

I don’t care what it is, kids should never be treated like crap. Still recall seeing an incredibly placid and quiet father of one of my teammates snotting a guy on a sideline of a junior soccer game (under 8s) for yelling and swearing at his kid. I always make an effort to be nice to the kids at our course, and in return they are nothing but polite and friendly

I remember as a junior, not being able to play in the “adult comp” because of my age. We would have to tee off in the early morning and be on our way and have a small corner of the clubhouse to get our 2 balls if you won the comp. It used to piss me off as the juniors at the club I was at, well 3 or 4 of us were the lowest markers in the club? We could beat the pants off the adults but could not play in say a monthly medal? My mates and me included made a stand one year when we were 15/16 and pennants came around. We said, f### you to the adult pennant team (um. committee) and played in the junior team. Suffice to say, we won the junior pennant that year and the senior team was made up of believers. Going ahead 15 years to this day, this club is still in a low division and has no juniors. One would think they would wake up but some places just do not have an alarm button.

Can’t comment from a golf perspective because I’ve only just taken up the game but I played Rugby League for 12 years and the senior guys were always supportive and helping out at training.

At Toukley (NSW) they have a junior clinic at 2pm every Sunday which is terrific. The kids get out there with an older member and have a hit, learn some pointers and have a great time. Should be more of it I think.

Cheers,

Mick

Can’t comment from a golf perspective because I’ve only just taken up the game but I played Rugby League for 12 years and the senior guys were always supportive and helping out at training.

At Toukley (NSW) they have a junior clinic at 2pm every Sunday which is terrific. The kids get out there with an older member and have a hit, learn some pointers and have a great time. Should be more of it I think.

Cheers,

Mick

Bah!

Hmm Toukley, I remember playing there a year or so after it was opened. What a wonderful memory for me as a junior, the smell of salt air, the thick tree lined fairways, it was so exciting, a brand new course and I was a brand new golfer on holidays with my mum and dad. I played there every chance I got.

At many private clubs it seems juniors are ‘taking up slots’ that a full paying member could be playing in. How the heck you are supposed to grow grass roots with that attitude is beyond me.

The club I am now a member of actively encourages the youngsters to come and out and play with the full members. My kids really enjoy their comp days. They do not set the world on fire score wise yet but they are learning all sorts of life skills from those who are happy to have them in their 4some.

If kids do not have fun at a club, then pity the club when the old farts fall off their perches.

mate im a junior in the Blue mountains and hate it, im about to leave my current club because of ignorant members and a hapless committee, eg/ a few months ago my mate who is also a junior got assaulted by another member because of a misunderstanding, the committee did nothing at all. but the worst part is when you win a comp and dont wanto stay for the presentation because the members hate juniors winning comps. but the good members you find you should keep playing with, and try and find other juniors because you can get pretty lonely playing with members that try to ignore you.

I was lucky that through encouragement and a good system in place I learnt to play golf and golf etiquete. The club I belong to was in a smallish country town and juniors played early saturday morning before the members. It was the job of the older juniors to show the younger ones around the course. At about 15 or 16 we then played seniors and the same thing happened. The members were there to assist us and we rarely got paired with miserable old farts. As a “senior” junior I remember having a very young Steve Elkington and his brother Rob (?) in my group.

This town did produced alot of competent golfers who have had a lifetime of enjoying this great game. To restrict or not encourage juniors is short sighted and is paid for when they struggle financially.

I think this is an inerrant problem in “PRIVATE” clubs, but it doesn’t just affect juniors, I joined a so called private club and was treated with contempt by the old farts because my friend who joined with me was a little overweight and his shirt kept coming out of his trousers. We only lasted a year and went back to a public club were I help out with juniors every week having 1 or 2 in my group to teach them the rules and etiquette requirements and truly enjoy their company. By the way I’m in my 50s

was a junior member at Joondalup and loved every minute. Played heaps, caddied a fair bit and found a few balls as well.

You tend to find if you do the right thing most senior members are pretty good with juniors

As a club member of 12 years & a match committee member for 6 of those I find the suggestion that juniors should not play in senior competitions ridiculous. WE had the situation where juniors bwere taking the lions share of the prizes. Purely because they are the ones just learning the gamewhere most members have been playing for many years . It has always been our clubs policy to encourage the younger members of the club. It is in every clubs intrest to bring on thier junior golfers. Having said this, Unfortunately there are a very small number of young golfers who wish to play the game but not obey the rules or standards set by the clubs. This is also to my mind Unacceptable

My son (age 12, off 22, playing 15moths) joined one of the most exclusive private golf clubs in Sydney, & he plays with different people each week (there is a 5 year waiting list for adults, so I’m not a member there). He has never come home & told me the people he played with were jerks. In fact, he tells me they all enjoy the company of a younger player, even when he is not scoring well or playing like a pro. I have met many of the members at the club & all seem very excited about the prospect of another young junior coming through their club.

I was a junior at my club about ten years ago before giving the game up for the following 9 years.

Juniors were treated very well – weekend clinics, junior competitions between local clubs on weekends, school holiday clinics, and so on. We didn’t have a problem getting out on the course, and when we did the people we played with were almost always encouraging and friendly. I’m not sure what the current situation is with regards to competitions and so on, but I know a couple of juniors play in the A grade competitions and seem to do fairly well.

I’ve been playing again for another couple of years and I get more grief on the course – usually from management/board members – as a 23 year old than I ever did as a younger kid.

During school holidays, kids are everywhere and it’s encouraging. A lot of them are scared or intimidated by the older guys out there, but my friends and I go out of our way to be friendly and make them feel welcome, regardless of ability. In fact, I played the other day with a fourteen year old and a couple of ten year olds. It was an interesting experience… sometimes I wonder where I’d be now if I didn’t stop playing for so long!

Some of the younger members have some pretty terrible stories of treatment at and by other clubs. I guess that’s why they’re where they are now.

This is an interesting topic. One club I was a member of as a junior found themselves in a bad financial state. They had a look at the demographics of the golf club and found that the junior numbers had gradually dwindled away to almost nothing. At the same time they found that they had less than 10 members in the 22 to 30 year old age group. It was too late but they woke up and realised that having not invested and encouraged the juniors in the past they were left with an aging and gradually decreasing membership. Needless to say that juniors are now welcomed with open arms.

I always felt that juniors are treated like 2nd class citizens. All the examples in previous posts bring back memories to me. Restricted playing times, not playing in adult comps etc. These rules always seemed odd to me because when you actually played with the adults the majority were happy to have a game and encourage you. I think most of these rules go back to when golf was a bit more of an upper class sport and they just never got updated.

I played Juniors at Gunnedah Golf Club (NSW) in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They treated the juniors very well. We often had either the Club Pres or Capt there on a Sunday for the post match presentations and the Pro was always there.

As we got older, usually 14 or 15, and if your handicap was around 20 or lower, you would get an official invite from the club commitee to participate in the Saturday members comp, and the only thing you couldn’t win was the “Guzzlers Cup”, which entitled the winner with the best overall Nett score cheaper beer all week. But there were no restrictions on any other prizes we could win.

I can still remember one year when juniors took out all 3 grades at the club championships. But it created a greater family environment as Father/son teams often also took out the majority of 4 ball matches etc

This topic is interesting, to say the least.

It puts me in mind of that old wives tale, “G. O. L. F” Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.

So far there seems to be a thread, that is, there are some clubs that still can’t see the advantage of encouraging Juniors, and most likely, Women members too.

But having said that, there are a lot of clubs (probably the majority) that do encourage Juniors, they can see the long haul, and without juniors their isn’t one.

As a club member of 12 years & a match committee member for 6 of those I find the suggestion that juniors should not play in senior competitions ridiculous. WE had the situation where juniors bwere taking the lions share of the prizes. Purely because they are the ones just learning the gamewhere most members have been playing for many years . It has always been our clubs policy to encourage the younger members of the club. It is in every clubs intrest to bring on thier junior golfers. Having said this, Unfortunately there are a very small number of young golfers who wish to play the game but not obey the rules or standards set by the clubs. This is also to my mind Unacceptable

A bad day on the golf course is better than no golf at all. :(

No one who ever had a lesson would have a swing like mine

Lee Trevino

I really think it’s sad that members believe Juniors win because they are learning, and the members aren’t. Personally I think it’s because they love the game more. They have passion that the older members no longer play with. I know from my perspective if I am playing I am always trying to improve my handicap, there isn’t a time where I don’t want to win, and whether I am beaten by a junior or a senior it bites just as badly.

All I am saying is we can all improve no matter how long we have been playing this silly game.

Here’s my story:

I joined a private club in Sydney as a junior back in the late 70s (as my dad was a member) and juniors were treated like dirt.

Juniors weren’t allowed to book on Saturdays (that meant we had to turn up at 7am and wait for a spot, if a member rang in they had first go so sometimes we never got a game), we also weren’t allowed to play together in a group for fear we would cheat.

Our junior pennant and eric apperley shield teams were bagged constantly if we lost a match. One year we fielded our strongest ever eric apperley shield team so a particular loud mouthed old pr1ck (who hated juniors) thought he would be a smart ass by betting us a case of champagne that we wouldn’t make it past the preliminary rounds, as we progressed through the division, quarter and semi finals he kept resetting the bet, when we won the final he refused to pay up so we called him a welcher and complained to the committee who did nothing.

Around 10 years after that win, the pennant we received from the NSWGA was stolen and the committee refused to have it replaced as it was “too expensive”.

Fast forward to today and the club is now reaping the benefits of this attitude with hardly any juniors or members in the 20-30 yo age bracket.

PT

Here’s my story:

I joined a private club in Sydney as a junior back in the late 70s (as my dad was a member) and juniors were treated like dirt.

Juniors weren’t allowed to book on Saturdays (that meant we had to turn up at 7am and wait for a spot, if a member rang in they had first go so sometimes we never got a game), we also weren’t allowed to play together in a group for fear we would cheat.

Our junior pennant and eric apperley shield teams were bagged constantly if we lost a match. One year we fielded our strongest ever eric apperley shield team so a particular loud mouthed old pr1ck (who hated juniors) thought he would be a smart ass by betting us a case of champagne that we wouldn’t make it past the preliminary rounds, as we progressed through the division, quarter and semi finals he kept resetting the bet, when we won the final he refused to pay up so we called him a welcher and complained to the committee who did nothing.

Around 10 years after that win, the pennant we received from the NSWGA was stolen and the committee refused to have it replaced as it was “too expensive”.

Fast forward to today and the club is now reaping the benefits of this attitude with hardly any juniors or members in the 20-30 yo age bracket.

PT

The club will be bought by a football club, or similar, I have seen it over and over again, it’s so sad these stupid old pr$cks can’t see past hundreds of years of biggotry.

This does nothing for golf as a sport and I believe the sooner we get rid of these morons from our community the better off we will be.

The family I call my golfing friends doesn’t need this sort of rubbish to become the force in the world of sport it should be. After all we have everything going for us, history, class, diversity, beauty, Poise, difficulty, skill, achievement, MONEY, we are even GREEN…. people that don’t even play the game want to live on our golf courses, experience the life we, many of us since we were children, have lived on a day to day basis.

NO ONE should be left out of this wonderful environment on the basis of age, colour, religion, sex, it should be shared equally and with GUSTO….

I go to sleep thinking about golf, I wake up thinking about golf, my corridor has a putting mat that never gets walked past without being used.

My kids have swung a golf club since they could stand…