Welcome to our first-ever blog post! We are so excited to start this new page and provide some insight about our experiences with golf. We both developed a passion for golf at an early age, and we want to share our journeys with you. Hopefully our stories encourage more young girls and women to try out the sport. We plan to cover a variety of golf topics including junior golf, college golf, favorite golf courses, golfing as women, tournament golf, great snacks for the course, clothing recommendations, swing tips, and more! Golf is hard, and it took a long time to get where we are at now, so today we are going to discuss how we got introduced to the game!
Cailyn’s Story:
I was introduced to golf at the very young age of 3 years old. Now you might be thinking…how on earth did
you start playing golf when you’ve only been walking for a couple of years?! Well…my dad would always take my brother to the golf course (he was 7 years old), and I would never get the invite. I kept asking my dad to take me, but he thought I was too young. I was jealous that my brother kept getting to go golfing, so my mom bought me the cutest pink golf outfit to sucker my dad into taking me. My mom dressed me in an all pink outfit and stood with me at the end of our driveway waiting for my dad and brother to get back from the course. When they pulled in, I looked at my dad with big eyes and said “Daddy, will you please take me golfing?”
As a dad, he melted and said, “of course.” The next day, he took me to the golf course and bought me my first set of clubs…Snoopy Golf Clubs (I still have this set).
Because I was only 3 years old, my dad had me start on the putting green. He always kept things fun for me. We would have putting competitions and play for my favorite candy bar (at the time, it was a Snickers). Once I was seeing success on the putting green, my dad would take me out to the course and place my ball on the fringe. From the fringe, I would have to keep real score and see how I did. Keeping your real score is important because you can see your progress overtime. Not only was I learning a great game, but I was spending great quality time with my dad.
*Side note*
If your son or daughter gets into golf at an early age, I would HIGHLY recommend starting them out on the short game area. You want to build their confidence by doing small shots they can consistently hit. This will make golf more fun for your little ones. Like I said, you want to build their confidence, not destroy it. Sometimes if you send your kid straight to the driving range, they will get frustrated by not hitting the ball and will end up not liking golf.
*Back to the story*
…My dad quickly discovered how much I loved being out there. Even from a young age, all I wanted to do was learn as much as I could about golf. I started receiving lessons at age 7, and that is when I began playing in junior golf tournaments. I am an extremely competitive person, so I knew I wanted to play in tournaments and compete for trophies. Little did I know this was just the beginning…
Margaret’s Story:
I started playing golf when I was 7 years old. My brother was attending a golf kiddie camp, and I wanted to join him and see what the sport was about. The camp was a 4-5 day program during the summer time, and it was filled with lots of golf lessons and fun games for young beginner golfers. I was immediately drawn to the game because the coaches bribed us with Snickers bars, M&M’S, slushies, and cart rides down the steep hills of the course. They bribed us with these treats everyday at this camp, so I was up for whatever challenge they proposed. I was also one of the only girls at this kiddie camp. I enjoyed being one of the only girls because I was very competitive at the time and liked beating the boys, including my brother and some boys from school. I wanted to beat them in all of the competitions and take home the candy, so that is exactly what I did.
Most of the competitions took place in the short game area. I started out with lots of chipping and putting to gain confidence in my game before moving on to range practice. My family lives down the road from a par-3 course, which is perfect for beginners. My dad took me to this course a couple of times a week, and I first started playing from the beginning of the fairway on each hole. As my game progressed, my dad slowly moved me back overtime to adjust to longer distances. Once I was comfortable with the forward tees, I played in kiddie tournaments on that par-3 course which helped me learn more about the rules, playing with other people, and getting comfortable with keeping score. I started receiving lessons at 8, and then I entered into county tournaments at 9 years old.
*Side Note*
If your son or daughter is entering a tournament level, I highly recommend starting out with local tournaments. They will make friends with other golfers in the area and eventually grow up playing golf with them in middle school, highschool, and sometimes even college tournaments. It’s also good to practice and sign up for tournaments with friends. Playing with familiar faces in tournaments eases the nerves and makes the competition more fun.
The Bridgewater Club deserves a special shout-out. If it weren’t for Bridgewater’s tremendous practice facility and junior golf events, I don’t know where we would be. It is a second home for many junior Indiana golfers, and it is also where we were introduced to the game :-) Part of our mission is to grow the game, and we want to provide more clothing options and better opportunities for younger girl golfers. In the future, we plan to partner with different golf clubs and grant practice facility access to encourage more girls to improve their skills and enjoy learning the sport, like we did.
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