PGA Junior League starting locally
Published 5:00 am Monday, May 6, 2013
Playing a scramble golf tournament can be a freeing experience.
With a partner to lean on, the format eases the pressure with each shot.
The scramble format is part of what attracted Tim Fraley, the head professional of Awbrey Glen Golf Club in Bend, to a relatively new concept from the PGA of America: the PGA Junior League.
The idea of the program is to introduce boys and girls, ages 13 and younger, to golf in a team setting in which each player represents a club for a weekly match under the direction of PGA and LPGA professionals.
Fraley thought that the league would be a good fit for Central Oregon.
“It mirrors what is neat about Little League (baseball and softball),” Fraley says. “It’s a team sport. It’s not so much an individual game, having to grind for nine holes and shoot 72 for nine holes, and as a youngster being stressed out and frustrated or feeling the pressures of golf.
“This format eliminates that.”
In PGA Junior League, each team represents a home golf club and is made up of eight to 12 players — beginners included — and matches are divided into smaller, two-person match-play scrambles. Partners accumulate points for their entire team.
But what makes Junior League different from conventional golf is that players wear team uniforms with numbered jerseys, and coaches can substitute players every three holes. And like in Little League, all-star teams can advance to state, regional and national competitions.
“It gets that junior golfer who is not playing five days a week with his buddies,” says Fraley, a longtime board member with the Central Oregon Junior Golf Association, a summer series of competitive stroke-play tournaments. “You’re kind of opening a new segment of junior golfers.”
Building a new generation of golfers is a tall order.
The program is only 3 years old. Some 700 teams across 33 states representing about 8,000 junior golfers — a 500 percent increase from 2012 — are scheduled to participate this season, according to the PGA. That’s up from 1,800 golfers last year.
Unlike Little League, the PGA Junior League has to have a host facility for each team, which makes it imperative for local Junior League organizations to get as many clubs involved as possible.
Locally, four Central Oregon clubs — Awbrey Glen, Bend Golf and Country Club, Broken Top Club and Tetherow Golf Club — are slated to field teams this season, which begins May 18 and runs each Saturday through June 29.
“We are obviously hoping to build on that,” says Louis Bennett, head pro at Broken Top, “The more the merrier.”
Of those four participating courses, only Tetherow is a public-access club.
Public facilities Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond and Widgi Creek Golf Club in Bend are hoping to drum up enough support next season to join the league, golf professionals at both clubs say. But neither club was able to muster enough support for this season.
Andrew Sirk, who is responsible for the Junior League’s sales, marketing and operations for the West, says the league is new to the Pacific Northwest this year and that it takes a season for momentum to build.
“In markets where we existed previously, we typically see two to three times growth from year one to year two,” says Sirk. “And it happens at public, private and municipal clubs, kind of all of the above.
“It just kind of mushrooms.”
That will happen here in Central Oregon, too, Bennett predicts.
“There will be other places that catch on,” Bennett says. “It’s just about the professional being on it and selling it … and really being the cheerleader. Because we basically are coaches.”
The PGA of America says the Junior League program will eventually help develop golf enthusiasts — which is why it is determined to get as many youth teams on as many golf courses, public or private, as possible.
Caleb Anderson, head professional at Tetherow, thinks that Fraley’s efforts will help make that happen.
“I’m really impressed and appreciative that Tim (Fraley) brought it to our attention,” Anderson says. “I think it really is a cool, different way to engage juniors.”
Bennett agrees. And it will take programs like the PGA Junior League to remind youngsters that golf is fun, too.
“Even the little, tiniest things like that help attract players to the game, that’s how over the course of time and a lot of energy from PGA professionals that we’re going to capture more players,” Bennett says.
“That’s how, hopefully, the golf industry will start to swing back to thriving, where we used to be.”
PGA Junior League Golf
Where: Awbrey Glen Golf Club, Bend Golf and Country Club, Broken Top Club, Tetherow Golf Club.
Format: Team golf. Minimum of eight players per team. Matches are head-to-head, two-person, match-play scrambles.
When: League begins May 18
For more information: www.pgajrleaguegolf.com