THE majority of parents get their children to play sports especially golf in the hope of them turning professional and be able to make money out of the sport like Nick Price and Brendon De Jongé.
Unfortunately the number of golfers who can earn a living from the game is very limited .
For example last year more than a thousand golfers from across the world entered the USPGA tour qualifiers trying to earn the thirty spots on offer .
That alone shows how difficult it is to make money from the sport.
But there are still a lot of other benefits for children to be involved in golf.
The following are the major social and character building benefits obtained from playing golf as a child.
Judgment: Using good judgment is very important in golf. It comes into play when deciding on strategy, club selection, when to play safe and when to take a chance, the type of shot players consider executing.
These characteristic usually then helps young golfers to avoid risky behaviour in their private lives.
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Honesty and Integrity: golf is unique from other sports in that players report their own scores and there is not a referee available to constantly monitor the players.
This usually gets ingrained in the young golfers character and they learn that there are no short cuts in life.
Responsibility: Players are responsible for their actions on the golf course It is up to them to keep their score and their playing partners score.
After a bad round there is nobody else to blame except the individual player .
Junior tournaments are usually played on weekends and during school holidays and can take the whole day .This helps keep the children occupied and prevents them from getting involved in other non-desirable activities.
A lot of influential persons in society also play golf and having an opportunity to brush shoulders with such individuals can only be a positive in any young person’s life.
In the four hours it takes to finish a game a lot of useful ideas and experiences will have been exchanged.
Many individuals have started successful careers from opportunities they got while on the golf course.
Evidence of the good character building function of golf can be found from the view that unlike other professional sports it is extremely rare to hear of top golfers getting caught up in alcohol and women scandals that the other sports persons are usually wrapped up in.
In short getting children to play golf has both health and social benefits and going forward it appears it will be a necessary business tool.
