[Richie3Jack]

I am an assistant coach for a high school team (this is my first year there, head coach's second year) that traditionally had cut their numbers every season down to 18.
My foward thinking head coach decided this year to keep everybody who came out for golf even if they were beginners. He said if we cut them while they are 15-18 years old they may never play again. If we get a bunch of beginners we hope to spark a lifetime interest.
44 guys come out nearly every day after school and have one heck of a good time.

When I was in HS, we simply didn't refuse anybody. We also had one of the best HS teams in the state year in and year out and where I'm from isn't exactly a golfing mecca or a place that is in good economic condition. In fact many of the kids would get their first time ever being outside our county when they would get to play a HS tournament.

We would probably get about 20-30 golfers a year. The only thing everybody had to do was the first 2 days we would all get together and help 'clean' the course, piling up and removing old tree branches, garbage, etc. Didn't make a difference if you were the #1 man with a golf membership or if you were the worst player who had never even touched a club before.

Thing is, most of these kids wound up getting memberships and spending some money on equipment and developing into good, functional members of society because golf has a way of developing those types of people.

And, you get a kick out of watching some poor kid with hand me down clubs and a rag tag bag beat the crap out of some rich, country club golfer who has the latest greatest equipment and the personal instructor, etc.





3JACK