Andy Miller, the 2013 Philadelphia PGA Junior Golf Leader winner, is the PGA director of instruction at LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.

Andy Miller on the importance of starting players as young as possible:
Here at LedgeRock, we look to begin our junior golfers as young as possible.  This year we created a program for youth golfers ages 3-5 years old, which included a SNAG setting and an educational learning environment.  In addition to golf skills, games and a fun focus, we incorporated our maintenance team into the program.  We showed the youngsters how a cup is changed, how to fix ball marks, repair divots, the changing of tee markers daily and the maintenance of the grass and bunkers. This concept was incorporated to teach our youth time, preparation and the much-needed respect for the golf course.  The youth were blown away, as they returned each of the seven weeks ecstatic not only to play golf, but learn more about the game, course and sport.

Andy Miller on the business impact of starting players as young as possible:
We began to become a bit restless from families saying: “We couldn’t make golf today because Matt had soccer.” By starting the kids as young as possible our goal is for parents to say: “We can’t make soccer today because Matt has golf.”  We want to show our youth how fun and cool golf is to play just like every other sport.  We offered the program on Thursday mornings from 10-10:45 for seven weeks during June-August.  We captured 13 youth, golfers of which 8 were boys and 5 were girls. We charged each participant $150, which helped drive roughly $2,000 in revenue.  By starting golfers as young as possible, the likelihood of long-term play will stretch a long way!

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email andymiller@ledgerockgolf.com