Hundreds of junior golfers are gathered this week at Pinehurst to participate in the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship, which started Wednesday and runs until Saturday. The world's largest junior event for kids under age 12, the championship is played on six courses and expected to expand to eight next year as the event continues to grow.
Staging the 7-year-old event, which attracted more than 780 junior
golfers from ages 4 to 12 last year to Williamsburg, Va., gives U.S.
Kids Golf founder Dan Van Horn a lot of pleasure and furthers his
aim of getting more kids playing golf.
"The sport itself is playing the game," Van Horn said. "We just started at the top instead of one game, locally done. We want to build the competition down and have more things for kids to get involved in, in the future.
"Playing and keeping score helps ignite the need to learn."
U.S. Kids Golf was started 10 years ago to produce equipment that fit junior golfers and, by extension, make them more interested in pursuing golf. The idea started from Van Horn's own kids, David, Ben and Abigail. When he could not find equipment to fit them, he started to explore the idea of making equipment himself. Paired with his background in founding and running a company that sold women's accessories, he took his background in entrepreneurship and retail sales and applied that to the fledgling junior golf club market.
"We shipped our first products in March 1997," he said. "It was good timing because Tiger [Woods] had just started (his pro career). The story new then was that this young kid had started playing at 2 or 3, and it sent the message that kids could start early. We can make a lifetime investment regardless of the quality of player."
Cut-down clubs, Van Horn observed, were next to impossible for children to hit correctly because they were too heavy and had too stiff of a shaft. And what little equipment was available for youths, he said, looked like women's clubs that had not sold and were subsequently cut down and repackaged.
To combat that, U.S. Kids Golf offered three color-coded systems that made it easy for parents to fit their children with the right clubs. Plus, the company started selling individual clubs at retail instead of just sets.
Today, the company offers eight systems for beginner-to-intermediate players. Four are designed for boys and bear primary colors (red, blue, green and yellow), and the four for girls have pastel colors (pink, lavender, lime and mango). Red/pink fits players from 3-feet to 3-feet-8; blue/lavender fits 3-feet-8 to 4-feet-4; green/lime fits 4-feet-4 to 5-feet; and yellow/mango fits 5-feet to 5-feet-6. Colors specifically for girls were added to make them more interested in starting the game.
Sets for advanced golfers come in silver for players from 4-feet-9 to 5-feet; gold for 5 to 5-feet-3; and Tour Series for 5-feet-3 to 5-feet-6.
Van Horn wants the products to be affordable, so parents can buy the right equipment to start their children out and get new equipment as they grow.
"Parents say, 'Well, should I start to get my kid interested in golf?'" Van Horn explained. "They can buy just one club and dip their toe in the water. Our clubs cost about $25 at retail and that hasn't changed in 10 years."
In Van Horn's eyes, affordable equipment equals parents more willing to get their children the right tools to succeed at golf. That's proven out in the sales of clubs as well as other equipment the company offers -- bags, balls, gloves and other accessories all designed to fit youth players right.
"(Results) are so much smoother, more immediate. But there's still a knowledge gap," Van Horn said. "Many kids play with too long drivers, too long clubs.
"I'm looking at a parent right now with a putter that's 3 to 4 inches below his beltline, but his kid has a putter that extends above his belly button and he has to grip down."
Professionals, he says, are the biggest help in educating parents about the right fit for junior equipment. They see the importance of equipment that fits and the results from giving the right sticks to a developing junior golfer.
Everything U.S. Kids Golf does -- from selling clubs to running tournaments -- gets back to Van Horn's goals of getting more people playing golf and giving families an opportunity to play golf and spend time together. He encourages parent-child interactions wherever possible, including on the course. The U.S. Kids Golf World Championship, for example, allows parents to serve as caddies for their children, something no other competitive junior tournament permits.
"It's our mission to help kids have fun," Van Horn said. "I have no concern whatsoever about what clubs kids play. We've put out the best product we can and that's provided in both our clubs and tournaments. We want to tie together one mission under one umbrella: That kids have fun learning golf."
For information on U.S. Kids Golf equipment and tournaments, go to www.uskidsgolf.com.
