By Alex Myers

How do we grow the game of golf? It's a question many around the sport -- from organizations like the USGA and PGA of America, to magazines like Golf Digest -- ask often.

But it turns out there are a lot more people playing golf than thought. It's just that their rounds aren't being documented. The reason? The participants are playing from their couches.

A recent study by the National Golf Foundation has estimated that 45.5 million Americans who don't play golf do play golf video games.

Photo by Getty Images

Another stat of note in the study is that the percentage of females playing golf video games (44 percent) is more than double the percentage of females who actually play golf (19 percent). In other words, this virtual participation indicates that there is potential for a lot more people, especially women, to start playing golf, especially once they learn that the real thing can be more rewarding than what they're experiencing on a screen. And they might even keep it up, provided they don't get too discouraged by the scores they'd shoot when the leave the comfy confines of their homes.

Related: Our beginner's guide to playing golf

Not surprisingly, a large percentage of the roughly 25 million Americans who play golf (about 40 percent) also engage in golf video games. But they make up less than 20 percent of the total number of people playing those games.

So why aren't all these people playing Tiger Woods Golf on Playstation showing up at actual courses? Well, the fact that nearly one third of them are younger (ages 6-17) shows that the game could be in the process of growing after all. We may just have to wait for some of these kids to outgrow their controllers.

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Andy Hyeon Bo Shim holds the trophy after winning the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. Photo: Jim Cole/AP Photo

Like the British Open, both the boys' and girls' U.S. Junior Amateur tournaments ended in dramatic comeback fashion as Andy Hyeon Bo Shim and Minjee Lee took home their respective titles over the weekend.

Shim, 17, of Duluth, Ga., rebounded from a 5-hole deficit -- the largest comeback in championship-match history -- to defeat Jim Liu, 16, of Smithtown, N.Y., 4 and 3, and claim the 2012 U.S. Junior Amateur title at the 7,125-yard, par-72 Golf Club of New England.

"This is a dream come true," said Shim. "I couldn't believe myself. He [Liu] is in the top 5 (juniors) in the country... I was 5 down, but if I just keep making my birdies on the front nine, it happens... I just kept thinking about one shot ahead."

Liu, who became the youngest-ever champion of the Junior Amateur when he won at the age of 14 in 2010, was 5 up after the morning 18 of the 36-hole match, but Shim won eight of the first 10 holes in the afternoon on the strength of three birdies, one eagle and six pars to turn the match around.

Shim becomes the third Korean player to win the Junior Amateur. Terry Noe of Korea won in 1994 and Sihwan Kim won in 2004.

On the girl's side, held at the 6,291-yard, par-72 Lake Merced Golf Club, Australia's Minjee Lee, 16, became the country's first ever U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur champion, winning four of the final six holes for a 1-up victory over Alison Lee, 17, of Valencia, Calif., in Saturday's 36-hole finale. If you recall, Alison Lee was one three amateurs to make the cut at the U.S. Women's Open two weeks ago.

"I'm so relieved that it's over," said Minjee Lee, currently ranked No. 8 in the Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking. "I was so tense coming into the last couple of holes."

Minjee Lee became the eighth USGA champion to hail from Australia, and the first since Geoff Ogilvy won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club. She is only the third Aussie female to capture a USGA championship, joining Jan Stephenson (1983 Women's Open) and Hall of Famer Karrie Webb (2000-01 Women's Open).

For a full recap, head over to the USGA website.

-- Derek Evers
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SAN FRANCISCO--The thing about teenagers is they tend to have selective memories. Chances are, then, Beau Hossler will begin today's third round of the U.S. Open recalling how at one time yesterday afternoon he held the outright lead at Olympic Club as opposed to harping on the bumpy finish that left him four off the lead by day's end.

Through 11 holes Friday, the 17-year-old from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., sat at two under for the championship, gaining a new legion of fans as the high school junior claimed a one-stroke lead over Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods and looked more at ease than anyone wearing braces has any right to be when playing a major championship. Still, he had most of the front nine to play, where bogeys marinate among the tall cypress trees and sloping fairways.

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Wayward drives on the second, fourth and fifth holes led to two bogeys and a double bogey. By the time his round concluded, Hossler had posted a three-over 73, playing the last seven holes in five over.

Hossler insists the pressure of being in the lead wasn't what led to his trouble, but rather just the difficulty of the course. "That's going to happen," he said. "You're going to have stretches, especially on those holes where you're struggling. Obviously, I think I got out of my rhythm a little bit on those tee shots, and those really killed me. But I don't think at all it was based on the stage, I think it was just based on making some bad swings and unfortunately at the wrong time."

Related: Friday's winners and losers at Olympic Club

Even as he struggled to get in the house Friday, eventually finishing T-9 through 36 holes, four back of Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and David Toms, Hossler never showed any outward signs of losing his composure. It's a trait that has marked his game throughout his junior career. "He's always been very calm, very mature," said his mother, Amy Balsz. "That's just Beau."

No doubt part of Hossler's comfort this year stems from the fact that this isn't his first major championship appearance. In 2011 he qualified to play at Congressional CC, allowing him to get all the first-time jitters out of the way so that when he became the first high schooler to earn a spot in back-to-back Opens since Mason Rudolph in 1950-51 he would be able to concentrate on his game rather than the spectacle of the championship.

"Last year I felt a little bit uncomfortable, just couldn't really get in a rhythm because it was so different than anything I had experienced," he said. " But now I feel a little bit more familiar with it."

Related: Golf's all-time biggest phenoms

There's also the fact that physically Hossler is a more mature player than he was a year ago. He now stands nearly 6-feet, a few inches taller than at Congressional, and his body has filled out.

As great as his physical assets might be, it's his mental stamina that might serve he the best. With a 4.0 GPA, Hossler is a model student who is hoping to accelerate his senior year of high school so that he can graduate in December and enroll early at Texas in 2013.

Hossler's smarts allow him to make a clear assessment of what he needs to do to continue to have success this weekend at Olympic Club.

"There's some things I really got to tighten up for the next couple days because I know the course is going to get harder," he said. "I feel like I'm in a good spot for me to reach my goal of low amateur."

-- Ryan Herrington
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When a spiffy, artificial turf short-game area and first-class netted driving range was installed in 2009 for a new First Tee program at Visitacion Valley Middle School in southeastern San Francisco, less than 10 miles, but a world away from U.S. Open site Olympic Club, skeptics had their doubts.

The school is situated in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods, including the notorious Sunnydale housing project. Seventy-eight percent of Visitacion Valley's students -- sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders -- live below the poverty level. The parents of only 2 percent of the students graduated from college. Several years ago, 70 of the school's 400 students had both parents who were incarcerated. Few have been unscathed by the area's violence.

"There was a spree five years ago when we had 41 murders," says the school's outgoing principal James Dierke. "I had kids coming in all wearing pictures of somebody who died. They were related to the person who died or related to the person who did the shooting or they witnessed the shooting."

Three years since the golf facility was put in at Visitacion Valley, on the same land where, as Dierke says, "neighborhood kids would come with the cars they stole and light them on fire," there is no graffiti, no damage. "No one has destroyed or vandalized anything in three years," Dierke says.

It looks like new. So, in fact, do many of the students.

A midmorning fire at the last caddie camp in the United States on Tuesday caused extensive damage to a mess hall and kitchen, and injured the driver of a propane tanker truck.

The fire at the Sankaty Head Caddie Camp on Nantucket Island broke out shortly before 10 a.m. The accident occurred when a propane truck decoupling from the camp's tank beside the mess hall sparked, causing the propane to ignite, according to a person connected with the camp.

The compound where the accident occurred is located between the 11th and 13th fairways at Sankaty Head GC, whose membership of 450 includes former GE chairman Jack Welch and former IBM chairman John Akers.

Founded in 1930, Sankaty Head's caddie camp, once one of 30 or so in the U.S., is the last of its kind. New supplies and equipment are being flown in and the camp is expected to go on as scheduled.

-- Jeff Silverman

Photography by Jensen Larson

What's better than tying a course record as an 18-year-old while on your way winning a prestigious junior event? Being able to watch it on TV.

Nicholas Reach will have that pleasure when CBS airs a special on May 22 at 2 p.m. highlighting the inaugural Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club. The Florida resident shot an opening 62 during the three-round tournament and ended up winning by a eight shots against a field of 54 of the top young amateurs in the world.

Reach also had the special honor of being congratulated in person by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. With the win, he earned a spot in a

The tournament was created by Weldon Wyatt, a real estate developer who built Sage Valley, designed by Tom Fazio, in 2001. The Graniteville, S.C. course is ranked No. 81 in Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Courses.

Anthony Paolucci, the 2010 American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year, finished 14th, a testament to the strength of a field containing golfers representing 19 states and 19 countries.

A preview of the special is available to watch. For more information on the tournament, visit its official website.

-- Golf Digest Digital Staff

Just two weeks after 99 of the world's best professional golfers descended upon Augusta National for the Masters, 54 of the best junior golfers on the planet will be in the same area.

Sage Valley Golf Club, in nearby Graniteville will host the inaugural Junior Invitational beginning Wednesday, April 20. The three-day tournament will benefit the First Tee Program, according to the Augusta Chronicle.