Three-time DP World Tour winner and former SA Open champion provides more thought-provoking insight as our playing editor.
Now, I know this is not the best headline for a column but it’s one that I think needs to be addressed.
During the first few weeks of 2023, I saw something that shook me. While I was practising in my little zone, I heard shouting coming from the putting green behind me. I ignored it at first. I thought that maybe it was just another pro losing his mind during a putting drill. I wish it had been. Instead, it was a dad shouting at what was presumably his son, who couldn’t have even been 10 years old.
Admittedly, I could not make out exactly what he was saying, but the tone alone let me know that it wasn’t motivational. The next thing I knew the dad slapped the boy over the head, echoing over the entire practice facility. I was shocked, stuck in my tracks, rooted to the spot. I couldn’t believe what a saw.
Before I could put my club down and walk over there to give him a piece of my mind, a few of the guys told me that was quite a common occurrence, playing it down as ‘strictness and discipline’. Which shouldn’t be anywhere near acceptable, by anyone’s standards.
But is this where golf is headed today? Are there more families forcing their children into golf, and if so, why?
Well the most obvious answer, as always, is money. Everyone sees what the top-earning professional golfers are making, and immediately thinks ‘I want some of that’. But using their children as a way to get it… at what cost?
I’ve addressed the role of parents in golf before, being that of support and encouragement, but also stepping back and allowing their children’s coach to help guide them down their golfing journey. The lines between family and profession should never blur because no good can come from it.
I’ve often believed that there is nothing more dangerous than a family that has invested their entire lives into one child’s perceived professional sports career. Whether that be them screaming on the side of a rugby field or slapping their child on the putting green, who benefits from this? No one.
Your child is going to resent the sport; after all the only correlation the kid will have is of his parents embarrassing or hurting them.
Let kids be kids. Let them have fun. Let them chip and putt against their friends. And yes, maybe one day they’re one of the fortunate few to make a living out of this great game. But let it happen organically. Don’t push your dream onto your children, it might not be their dream at all. And that’s OK.
– This column first appeared in the February 2023 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine.
