It might begin with plastic clubs and a nerf ball, or maybe somebody saw an outrageous golf video on TV or YouTube. A friend might be involved in the game, or a parent or sibling.
The Aloha Section PGA and Hawaii State Junior Golf Association don’t really care why kids start playing, they just want them to give that first golf shot a shot.
On Saturday March 19, kids all over the state can take their first shot for free at the fifth annual Junior Golf Day. It starts with registration at 8:30 a.m. at 12 sites, on four islands. A clinic from PGA and LPGA professionals, for any beginner between the ages of 5 and 18, follows from 9-11 a.m.
More than 2,200 Hawaii kids have participated in the first four Junior Golf Days. They began in 2012 with the Aloha Section’s original proposal revolving around six goals:
“Grow the game and promote junior golf; provide a road map for interested parents to get their child involved; plant a seed for a lifetime of golf; promote all programs involved with junior golf; promote goodwill for those involved in junior golf, and; keep it fun, simple to run and informative.”
Lana Calibuso-Kwee started at Wailea’s Junior Golf Day when she was 7. She has been working with Renee Lee — recently honored as the 2015 Aloha Section’s Junior Golf Leader — since and captured the girls championship earlier this month at the HSJGA’s 14-under series on Maui.
Calibuso-Kwee has graduated from flailing away with plastic clubs to competing on the mainland. The local PGA section, which has 200-plus members, and HSJGA hope they can find many more like her Saturday.
“This event has not only supported the PGA’s initiative of growing the game, but it has given many local kids the ability to participate in an athletic activity when they did not previously have the inspiration or means to do so,” says Eddie Lee, Renee’s husband and colleague at Wailea’s David Leadbetter Academy. “So the hook is easy, we are exploring ways to keep them playing in the long term.”
The Lees and a bunch of other PGA pros and HSJGA volunteers will be working at putting, chipping and swing stations Saturday. There are also PGA Sports Academy-designed stations featuring all of the basic athletic skills, which are worked into the initial swing. All 12 sites will have equipment from US Kids and SNAG to fit any size/age child.
“I am a fan of plastic clubs and nerf balls,” Renee Lee says. “Let youngsters start their journey in golf with swing speed and no marks on the walls or cars. Make golf fun — a game within a game — playing with friends and accentuate the positive.
“Everyone loves what they do well.”
Kids go home with, at the very least, a certificate of completion, tee prize and a few aggressions released. Parents get access to Hawaii’s Roadmap to Junior Golf, an online resource with information on programs for juniors to “learn, play and compete in the game.”
Pros get yet another lesson in how to teach a diverse and rapidly changing market of prospective players. Renee Lee’s major focus has become “know your audience.”
Video lessons have been popular for years, but now, with kids constantly watching so much on TV and their devices, that aspect has become a priority. She says most kids understand immediately if she can “communicate effectively with pictures.”
She and Eddie should know. Their 6-year-old son Lakota has lots of hobbies, including “chipping, putting and hitting the ball a long way.” Renee says the sport will be an option for him, and the family, forever.
She played golf competitively as a kid, then switched to field hockey at Penn State. She found golf again when she moved to Maui after college and has been a PGA Class “A” member since 2001.
Her husband has taught at Wailea nearly 20 years and helped open the Leadbetter Academy there in 2006. He has been named Hawaii’s top teacher more than once and students include Maria Shriver, Damon Wayans, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Notah Begay.
Renee believes their goals and teaching styles are similar, but … “What is VERY different is how a woman communicates,” she says, “and how a man communicates.”
Visit hsjga.org to sign up for Junior Golf Day at Puakea and Princeville Makai on Kauai, Hawaii Prince, Ko‘olau, Olomana and Turtle Bay on Oahu, Ka‘anapali, Waiehu and Wailea on Maui or Hilo Muni and Kona Country Club on the Island of Hawaii. Ko Olina reached its limit of 125 in early registration.
