Junior Golf Clubs

Sharing your passion for the game of golf with your son or daughter can bring hours of fun for parent and child, as well as teaching the child a respect and understanding of the intricacies of the game of golf. To help start that transition, many golf club manufacturers have developed junior golf clubs.

Before running out and investing in a set of junior golf clubs, understand that the same first step taken for an adult needs to be taken for a child—sizing. Manufacturers generally design the club length for junior players based on the total height of the child, a different standard than fitting an adult.

Begin by measuring your child from head to toe while they are wearing a pair of running shoes or sneakers that they would typically wear to play golf. Once you have the child’s size, write it down, and bring it with you to purchase the junior golf clubs.

Most manufacturers offer different sets based on the height range of the player you are fitting. Nike, for example, offers three sets of junior golf clubs. Their Par Red series is a complete set of clubs and irons designed for golfers under fifty inches tall. Nike’s Birdie Blue clubs share similar qualities as the Par Red and are for players between fifty-one and fifty-eight inches tall. The final brand in their series is the Eagle Silver set. Also designed like her sister sets, the Eagle Silver series is for juniors over fifty-eight inches tall, but still too short for standard adult clubs.

While it is understandable that a parent might not want to spend a years worth of green fees on their child’s first set of junior golf clubs, it is important to consider a few things.

Children tend to get discouraged easily. Most manufacturers have gone to great lengths to design junior golf clubs for junior players that ensure the ball be put into play as easily and with as much success as possible.

Due to designs of junior clubs with more forgiving lightweight heads, shafts with added flex and grips that are made for a firm feel in a child’s hand, early success will help develop long term players.

From a marketing stand point, long-term players become long-term consumers, and an enjoyable experience can often equal brand loyalty, which will equal more profits for the manufacturer of adult and junior clubs.

For a young person, early success builds self-confidence, and self-confidence can encourage a young player to improve. Self-confidence also carries over to other aspects of a child’s life.

Because they are still developing their hand-eye co-ordination, junior players will tend to be rougher than adults on the equipment. Unlike learning to hit a baseball, where a missed effort results in a strike, a missed effort with a golf swing usually results in slamming the junior golf club head into the ground.

This may be a good opportunity for a parent to teach his or her child golf green landscaping 101.