The Tiger Effect

By Bill Fields
Photos by Darren Carroll August 11, 2009

Categorizing the 10th U.S. Kids Golf World Championship isn't easy. Think "The Greatest Game Ever Played" meets "Little Miss Sunshine," for it is a tapestry of sublime talent by the very young—sound swings and fearless putting strokes that most adults would salivate over—with a dose of stage parenting that seemed most acute when a father/caddie grabbed the fancy laser rangefinder clipped to his belt, which seemed as common an accessory as a towel, and "shot" his 6-year-old son's 30-yard approach.

Or consider the scene on a putting green during the first round of the event, hosted by Pinehurst Resort and held on nine courses in the North Carolina Sandhills area. As two boys perhaps fresh from the game room imitated hockey players, slapping the ball back and forth to one another, a third 7-year-old, using a cross-handed grip on a cut-down Scotty Cameron putter, meticulously marked each ball and aligned the side stamp toward the cup before every putt. There was the 9-year-old girl taking 17 practice strokes on a three-footer as her father hovered behind her, but also the half-dozen kids playing tag and going to look at the carp in a nearby pond, seemingly oblivious they had come there to play golf, tournament golf at that.

"Play well, children," starter Robbie Roberson urged each group in the Boys 7 division at Mid Pines GC. Many of the 1,275 children from age 5 to 12 from around the world did just that. The "Tiger Effect" might not be best seen through tournament purses or television ratings but in the wave of children born during his professional career who are taking to golf (or being taken there, by their parents).

"People are bringing their child out because they know how well Tiger played at an early age. That's all good," said Rudy Duran, who coached Woods between ages 4 and 10 and was at the championship as a consultant. "Bad thing, I think they misinterpreted what the Woods family provided for Tiger. The family provided an ideal support network. It wasn't their agenda. It was what Tiger chose to do in his free time—after homework and chores—and they supported that. It was not over the top. All the parents want to do good for the child, but maybe some are a little too gung ho."

Woods was in his first full year on the PGA Tour when Dan Van Horn founded U.S. Kids Golf in 1997. Frustrated by the equipment options available for his two young sons, Van Horn set out to develop a line of children's clubs that were appropriate in length and weight so kids wouldn't develop inferior swings using ill-fitted clubs. (Interestingly, several lilliputian clubs pro/architect Donald Ross built for his 4-year-old daughter in 1913 are on display in the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst; nothing in golf is ever truly new.)

After he started selling clubs, Van Horn began promoting the use of "family tees," markers that allow courses to play much shorter, in line with how far kids can hit their shots. (The Boys 6 and under group, for example, played nine-hole Midland CC at 1,314 yards and par 36; the shortest par 3 was 69 yards, the longest par 5 was 220 yards.)

Van Horn believed his clubs and tees would encourage golf as a family sport. "I saw golf as something to bring families together, instead of being a separator," he said in Pinehurst. "I started with a mission statement, which is to help kids have fun and encourage parent interaction. In general, we think parents are the answer, not the problem." This year was the first championship played with a new conduct policy affiliated with the Positive Coaching Alliance. One "yellow card" warning was given during the three-day tournament, to a father/caddie who flew into a verbal rage after being penalized for arriving late to the first tee. "We think there are some overzealous parents, and we want to help them," Van Horn said. "But for 95 to 98 percent of the parents, it's a beautiful thing."