DAVID Kids
Junior golf coaching: keep it short, keep it kind, keep them wanting hole two
Adults pay me to be corrected. Children pay with their Saturday. If the hour feels like school, they will choose football. My junior sessions are games with a golf club hiding inside them.
What the first month looks like
We start on the putting green because nobody gets hurt and success arrives quickly. Roll it into a circle of tees. Then chips to a towel. Then a hybrid off a tee, not a driver they cannot hold up. Safety is the first language: clubs down when people walk by, no one stands in the “circle of doom” around a swinger.
I match clubs to height. An adult 7-iron in a nine-year-old’s hands is a joke they did not ask for. Light, short, forgiving. We can talk fitting later when they have a pattern.
Parents, this part is for you
Stand where I can see you and they cannot perform for you. Do not give a second lesson from behind the bag. “Keep your head down” from two coaches is how we get a child who stares at dirt and tops it. After the session I will tell you one thing to praise at dinner. Not five.
The goal is a kid who asks “when are we going back?” not a kid who can recite swing planes.
When we go on the course
Nine holes with a pick-up rule. They learn to rake, to wait, to say good shot without being told. Etiquette sticks better here than on a poster. If they melt down, we putt for ice cream points and walk in. Dignity stays intact.
I coach juniors in Nairobi and I can travel with families on golf trips. Ask about a junior hour — include age, any clubs you already own, and whether they have been on a course.