Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
Before I became infatuated with the cruel siren that is golf I was obsessed with pitch & putt. What started as just putting out one of two balls my older brother would tee off with because I couldn’t get anywhere near the green when I was eight, morphed into playing it religiously three times a day, every day during the summer holidays when I was fourteen and eventually full-on playing with my local club when I was fifteen/sixteen.
Basically, you couldn’t keep me away from it.
To look back on that time now, however, I realise what a massive impact it ended up having on my life, for, the only reason I got into golf at all is due to pitch and putt. Because I didn’t come from a “golfing family”. Neither of my parents played golf nor watched it. But pitch and putt? That course within barely a five minute walk from my parents’ house? That was my gateway in – and it’s that core idea which brings me to the ultimate point of this article.
I read an article back in the summer on irishgolfer.ie where the topic of falling participation numbers in junior golf in this country was discussed and how a new, R&A approved “Activators Programme” developed by the PGA and the Confederation of Golf in Ireland hopes to combat that fact by allowing amateur golfers “… to be paid to support a PGA professional to deliver grassroots activities”.
And, of course, whilst it’s great to see the relevant authorities being proactive in trying to get more kids playing golf, I think we’re all missing a gimme here in not utilising the number of outstanding pitch and putt clubs we have in Ireland to help bring about that exact same outcome.
I mean, everything about the game of pitch and putt makes it the ideal way to introduce kids to the idea of playing golf: courses, generally, are localised within villages/towns or, at most, just outside them, meaning they’re incredibly accessible; there’s no dress code (usually, anyway) so kids can just rock up wearing whatever it is they’d be wearing normally; equipment-wise, it can be ridiculously cheap to actually get out playing; and, finally, due to its condensed format and layout, it not only means you can play a full eighteen holes in just over an hour, but in terms of navigating a golf ball around a course of eighteen holes, pitch and putt makes for a much less intimidating and more manageable challenge for total beginners when compared to golf.
So, if we take it that pitch and putt has all those attributes going for it, how then, exactly, would I see golf entering the equation? Simple.
In something of a twist on the way Barcelona and Barcelona ‘B’ operate, I would like to see a programme put in place where a golf club would take on the role of ‘parent club’ to a number of ‘feeder’ pitch and putt clubs in its locality, who would help develop young players with an aim to them eventually joining the golf club at a certain age.
What the structure of this partnership would then look like week-to-week is that the members of the respective pitch and putt clubs would teach kids in their area the fundamentals of pitch and putt – plus the etiquette and rules of the game – via monitored rounds with small groups and competitions. Then, perhaps once a month, the kids would visit the PGA professional at their parent golf club and, as well as taking part in a clinic where they would learn ‘golf specific skills’ – like how to hit a driver, for example – they would also get to actually go out on the course and play pitch and putt from specially designated spots so that they could experience, and get used to, the difference in golf course conditions to what they’d see on a pitch and putt course (something which absolutely blew my mind the first time I stepped foot on a golf course when I was like fifteen).
And while that’s the basic structure of this idea, it also has the capacity to grow and expand depending on success levels – something which all ideas in this vain need to have. For instance, in an ideal world, kids would become members of a ‘Pitch & Putt Academy’ at the age of eight, let’s say, and if they stayed with the academy over the course of the next eight years – a timespan in which they would play both golf and pitch and putt – then, at the age of sixteen, they would automatically qualify to join their parent golf club (without needing a reference and perhaps at a discounted rate that would also extend to when they’d be seeking adult membership) and they could then dive more into progressing in golf from there. However, if they didn’t want to join the golf club, as they found they just preferred pitch and putt, then, of course, they would just stay playing pitch and putt – it would be completely up to them.
Now, ultimately, is this idea a bit “pie in the sky”? Perhaps. I mean, like all ideas like this, it would require money and an awful lot of dedication from both golf clubs and pitch and putt clubs to actually get off the ground and work – and, as we all know, those are both tough commodities to come by.
But, in the end, what makes me think this idea has the capability to work is that everyone who would be involved in this programme would stand to benefit from it: pitch and putt clubs would get more members; golf clubs would get more members; and with it being the kind of programme that would attract outside sponsorship, there’s the potential for the sharing out of resources that could be used to improve facilities at both participating golf clubs and pitch and putt clubs. It’s win-win … win.
In reality, though, whether it be something like the above idea or that new ‘Activators Programme’, all that really matters is that we give more kids the opportunity to get out on the bevy of fantastic golf courses we have at our disposal in this country and see if they like it.
Because to fall in love with golf is something truly special; I mean, to experience that moment when you stripe one for the first time or sink a monster of a putt? It’s unforgettable – and I, for one, will back anything that, at least, gives kids the chance to experience it … because I know fourteen year old me would.