Friday Thoughts: Golf Runs in the Family

This past Monday, I found myself enjoying an amazing holiday that my home province of Ontario is fortunate enough to celebrate.

It is a holiday without Hallmark cards, huge feasts, mountains of presents and an even bigger mountain of frenzy and stress.

It was Family Day and although the icy winds were threatening to topple me over and snow stretched as far as the eye could see, my mind turned to golf.

Golf has always meant family time to me, even as a young child. 

From that first time my dad took my two brothers and I to club wiffle balls at the high school football field to taking golf lessons with my sister and going, as a family, to watch the Canadian Open some years, golf has always had a strong connection to family.

And focusing on families is helping to grow the game to new levels.

Parents have often been the ones tasked with introducing their child to the game, but they are now being helped out by a growing number of programs.

Programs like CN Future Links and She Swings, She Scores! aim to teach youth how to play golf and more importantly, how to have fun playing the game.

If drawing families in is a key component of growing the game in Canada, then making courses family-friendly is also crucial. 

However, building and maintaining a course that is short enough and an appropriate skill level for youth, but challenging enough for adults is no easy task.

But there are models out there. An article in the Globe and Mail last year recommended P.E.I as an ideal locale for family golf where there are courses with a wide variety of lengths and skill levels. The province also boasts the Canadian Golf Academy, which runs out of Fox Meadow Golf Course, a course maintained by CGSA member Paul McCormack.

  

Ted Logan, manager of youth development for Golf Canada, pointed to five of the most family friendly courses in Canada in a recent CAA Magazine article. The list features The Meadows at East St. Paul Golf Course in Winnipeg, where CGSA member Vic Peters is superintendent. 

Appealing to families may be the next step in growing the game of golf in Canada and there are models and programs in place to achieve it. There are other ways in which courses around Canada are working to draw all members of the family in and that is a big step to keep the industry thriving and growing.