Golf Instruction and Training Overseas is paying off here in the States
Watching golf on the weekend has become a bit monotonous. One familiar quality you will experience week in and week out is the invasion of a stable of foreign golfers that either win or compete exceptionally well for the first place prize money. Greg Norman is the catalyst. If you have ever been lucky enough to have played in Australia, you would experience firsthand the impact that Norman has had on the youth of the Country. Here in the Sates when he played on the PGA Tour which was dominated by U.S. players. Guys like Norman and (Germany's) Bernard Langer were the exceptions.
Now ask any Aussie player here who inspired them when they were 7- and 8-year-olds, and they will say Norman. They had 10 players here in the field for the 2010 Masters, coming in from a country of just 20 million. That number by U.S. standards is incredible.
Golf has swept other nations such as Sweden and South Africa. The Fans at the Masters will have to carry a pocket world atlas to acquaint names with places. There will be such "unknowns" as Toru Taniguchi of Japan, Bradley Dredge of Wales and Soren Hansen and Anders Hansen of Denmark (no relation). It doesn't help the U.S. cause that its team was soundly thrashed in the last Ryder Cup. Of course, officials of the Masters love the diversity. No golf xenophobia here. That the U.S. is outnumbered is reality.
We welcome (all) to our house, as well we should. They are just doing a better job at producing great players. Golf is a global game. Having the best players in the world fulfills the objective of a PGA Tour Event. How it got global is the question.
Is our U.S. farm system, the colleges, the best thing anymore? Other nations like Australia and Sweden have youth institutes, camps and academies that groom kids mentally and physically. Players eventually go to the Nationwide Tour and come to the PGA seasoned. The LPGA Tour is being dominated by Koreans simply because golf training starts very young and there is thorough coaching and development. Here in the U.S. there are a lot of distractions for kids - other sports, other activities, text messaging.
From the stand point of the PGA Club Pro, the notion has been that Tiger Woods' influence among young players is going to catch fire in due time. But what is going to happen to the younger players in Jr. Golf now? Will golf survive in the U.S. with the impetus for the future obviously on the shoulders of our youth?
If the game remains accessible and affordable, it still has a broad base of young folks out there who have the same bug a lot of us adults have for hitting a ball and smelling the grass on a beautiful summer day. Examples are the national First Tee program, of which many communities all over the U.S. are members, and the new YMCA Golf Program on Cape Cod, Ma.
Many will argue that the college base here is still strong and believe that foreign players still take advantage of the system. Colleges and Universities around the country have had a pipeline to overseas talent, and this year is no different. Many of the top Golf Schools have freshman players from Australia and our countries on the roster. There is no question that the U.S. is still the best place in the world to hone skills, the point is why are we not as good for what we have here? The U.S has set the pace. The best athletes are still here. Or are they?
Perhaps it comes down to how much you want it and are you willing to work at it. Golf’s greatest players came from humble beginnings. They often grew up with an education in how to work. For the U.S. to realize its future potential, younger players are going to have adopt A Tiger Woods' work ethic as Australian kids adopted Norman's, work their tails off. Greg Norman . . . burst onto the scene and the kids who idolized him when he was No. 1 in the world are now in their 20s, Greg Norman has fifteen years on Tiger and his followers
