Everyone can use a little golf help

Have you ever watched golf with a group of people who haven’t really watched or played golf before? Or even a single person? This past week I sat down with some of my buddies and watched the RBC Canadian Open. I have never laughed so hard in my life at some of the comments they were making about the shots the players were hitting. They were impressed and couldn’t even handle the fact Jim Furyk was going to lose the tournament.

This is part 4 of a series of articles written by the GOLF 20/20 Ambassadors highlighting ways for the golf industry to engage with 18 to 34-year-olds and promote the game to millennial golfers. Read the rest of the series.

Summer 2006. El Gouna, Egypt. I would have never suspected that a free lesson at a local golf course would change my life forever. It was the first time I had ever been to a golf course and learned rules as well as the basics of the game. Honestly, it wasn't love at first sight – I struggled a lot with my shots, but I kept going with the encouragement of the pro who said I would be the only one from my family to play. After the holidays I returned to my hometown where I started taking lessons with a local group of juniors.

There is something about the game of golf that no one will ever understand until they actually step out onto the course and hit that little ball into a tiny hole. It seems silly, but there is nothing like it. I grew up swinging the golf club out in the front yard with clubs that were taller than me at the time. I never really showed interest into golf until my Grandfather and eighth grade history teacher Mr. Theis told me I should play. I am an athlete that has played sports since the young age of three, and nothing has ever fascinated me, angered me and taught me so much about myself and life like the game of golf has.

Golf was the first sport I picked up at the age of five, when I hit plastic clubs in my grandparent’s front yard. Golf was the summer clinic where I learned how to drive, chip and putt better than the boys with cooties. Golf was the junior tournaments I competed in and sometimes won at my local country club. Golf was the moments where I lost and learned that I needed to practice and work harder to win.

This is part 3 of a series of articles written by the GOLF 20/20 Ambassadors highlighting ways for the golf industry to engage with 18 to 34-year-olds and promote the game to millennial golfers. Read the rest of the series.

This is part 2 of a series of articles written by the GOLF 20/20 Ambassadors highlighting ways for the golf industry to engage with 18 to 34-year-olds and promote the game to millennial golfers. Read the rest of the series.

To help spur a dialogue around Millennial Golf, I recently published "Not Making the College Golf Cut" on Golf WRX. The feedback was mixed--some saying I'm another whiney Millennial with others fully supporting the challenges we face to play golf--but all indicative of the issues we face and how they are perceived. Among the most thoughtful replies was that of Neil Missling, a 28-year old architect residing in Minnesota whose story I wanted to share with you all.

Golf is hard in every way possible. If you don’t believe me, I have a simple test for you: put your ball about 20 yards from the green and pick one clear shot to hit. 60 degree wedge flop shot, 7 iron bump-and-run, putt it with your 3 wood or roll it with your putter. There is no one perfect shot, because they can all have the same end result.

This is part 1 of a series of articles written by the GOLF 20/20 Ambassadors highlighting ways for the golf industry to engage with 18 to 34-year-olds and promote the game to millennial golfers. Read the rest of the series.

It’s 5:00 a.m. PST as I sleeplessly wait to board my plane back home. Where I come from, back in the mountains of southwest Virginia, it’s eight o’clock. Matt Harman—the Radford former college golfer I caddied for in this week’s eGolf Tour ArrowCreek Open—and I have spent the last five days in the “Biggest Little City in the World,” Reno, Nevada. We couldn’t be any more excited to get the heck out of this god-forbidden place.

A select few young professional golfers in Boston experienced golf in a new way this week at Boston Golf Club (BGC), one of the finest modern private clubs that is ranked in America's top 100 golf courses. So why were Boston young professionals taking off work and how were they playing an elite private course? Because Nextgengolf is redefining the Millennial golf experience through the Boston City Tour. 

This is part 6 of a series of articles highlighting the reasons why playing the game is a challenge for 18 to 34-year-olds. Read the rest of the series.

Golf is more than just a game. I didn’t have the most normal introduction to the game of golf, as I grew up playing pretty much every sport besides golf. Then, when I was 12, I was diagnosed with leukemia. The leukemia made my body very weak and I was unable to play any of the sports that I had played my entire life. My father and brother played golf, and it seemed like something I would be able to do.

This is part 5 of a series of articles highlighting the reasons why playing the game is a challenge for 18 to 34-year-olds. Read the rest of the series.