New league helps youngsters learn to golf

While much of the summer youth sports attention is focused on baseball and softball, a group of youngsters is learning skills that will last the young athletes far longer than the skills they acquire in the bat-and-ball sports. They are learning a club-and-ball sport and enjoying the added benefit of team competition.

Youngsters in the junior program at the Petaluma Golf and Country Club are part of a five-team PGA Junior Golf League.

The PG&CC team becomes Petaluma’s second Junior League team, following the example set by Adobe Creek. Other teams in the league are Marin Country Club, Peacock Gap and Bennett Valley.

The PG&CC has 11 young players on its team between 7 and 13 years of age, and, according to team coach Mike Morgan, they are learning more than just the skills of the game.

“It is about learning to respect the game, its traditions and your opponents,” he said. “They are learning the etiquette of the game - how to be gentlemen and gentleladies on the golf course.”

Morgan and other club members, along with the club pros and assistant pros, work with the young people twice a week, and then put them on the course to play against other teams in the league once a week.

Each team needs a minimum of eight players, playing in a scramble format, but is designed to allow each player a chance to play.

Young players need not be sons or daughters of club members to play.

“We’ve reached out not only to club members, but to friends of members and to others who want to play the game,” says Morgan. “We recruited kids who have a passion for the game and not necessarily for their skills.”

The idea is to get young players participating in a game they can play for the rest of their lives.

“We all recognize we need more young players,” Morgan says. “We haven’t done a real good job of getting younger families out to play. Our goal is to get more young players out on the golf course.”

Members of the PG&CC team are Julia Baruikin, Jackson Garner, Bennett Adams, John Candau, Matthew Candau, Henry Forsman, Scott Regan-Tucker, Charlie Adams, Aiden Smith, Wally Starns and Jason Rigney.