Golf looks harmless. But tournament golf? That’s not harmless. Here’s why.
There are dads everywhere this time of year coaching their eighth-grade sons and daughters with visions of country club range time, a hot dog, and the distant belief in an NCAA scholarship at a major university. My experience suggests they don’t understand what they’re signing up for.
Courtesy Golf.com
They don’t understand what it means when the score goes next to your name. Not “good effort.” Not “coach liked the attitude.” A number. Cold. Public. Final. Like a viral post you can’t delete.
And nobody’s really ready for that. Not at eight. Not at sixteen. Honestly, most adults aren’t either—they lie better about it.
It’s just your kid. Walking. Thinking. Swinging. Repeating. Nine holes of consequences, played in real time with no pause button.
Now, parents, I know what you’ve been told. Practice more. Get better coaching. Play more rounds. Fine. But that’s not a plan. That’s just activity with optimism attached.
And here’s the thing: there are two kinds of regret in golf tryouts. The first is simple. You hit it sideways. You chunk a chip. You four-putt. Immediate pain. Clean. Honest. Nobody survives it; everybody understands it. The second kind is worse. That’s expectation. That’s the kid who shows up thinking they’re supposed to be good because dad is good, or because the club is nice, or because last summer “went well.”
And when reality shows up on hole three—wind, fast greens, a bunker that feels like punishment—they don’t adapt. They edit. Not at first. Just a stroke here. A lost ball there. A “I think that was a six.” Then it gets called out. Then it becomes a reputation. Because golf doesn’t care what you meant. Golf cares what you wrote down.
Courtesy Just19 Golf
Look, plus handicaps shoot 81 all the time. Not because they’re frauds. Because golf is hard in a way that ignores your résumé, your lessons, and your optimism, so when you bring your kid to tryouts, understand what you’re actually watching. Not a tryout. An audit of focus, honesty, and emotional control—played out in public, one swing at a time until it’s over.
Make sure your kid is ready for that because golf always is.
