A new partnership between St. Davids Public School and the nearby Eagle Valley Golf Club has proven more popular than principal Carl Glauser could have imagined.
With the 18-hole facility’s expert instructors Travis Glass and Corey Bristowe just down the road, Glauser, an avid golfer himself, saw an opportunity to help grow the game by involving the next generation of golfers.
“This totally falls in line with their mission as a club as well,” Glauser told The Local on the Eagle Valley driving range Monday, where he was joined by St. Davids teachers Sean Hall and Tara Black. “It was really a win-win for all of us.”
Once the details of a six-session spring program were ironed out, Glauser announced it via the school’s p.a. system and followed up with a note home to parents. The 35 available spots filled up quickly with boys and girls from Grades 4 to 8.
As might be expected, many of the students involved had never picked up a golf club before the first session two Mondays ago. Others such as Eli Perng and Kaige Zhu, already avid golfers, jumped at the chance to spend more time at the course.
Glauser was surprised to see how many of his students came to the first session with their own sets of clubs. Eagle Valley supplied clubs to those who didn’t have their own. Some students didn’t know whether they swung right or left until they tried both types of clubs.
The Local visited Eagle Valley for the program’s second session. The grade 4 and 5 students started the two-hour session on the range with Glass while the older group worked on their chipping around the practice green. Halfway through the session, they switched places.
On the range, Glauser enthusiastically approached a few of the younger students, gently offering some tips on stance, grip and swing, while Glass kept watch and offered words of encouragement when some of the novices made solid ball contact.
Over on the practice green, Bristowe tutored the older students on keeping their hands quiet when chipping and maintaining a ‘v’ with their arms through the swing.
Glass, a U.S. Kids Top 50 coach and head coach of the Brock University varsity golf team, is no stranger to working with young golfers. A.N. Myer Secondary School’s physical education teachers visit the course regularly with students, and his Eagle Valley Golf Academy trains kids starting as young as three years old. But he usually doesn’t work with a group as large as the St. Davids program.
“Our summer camps we try to do a six-to-one ratio,” Glass said. “This is more of an introduction, where we’re trying to give these kids an opportunity to be on the course to make some swings. Some of the boys and girls that have a little more experience, we use them to our advantage, where they’re helping their friends.”
For Glass, the six after-school sessions are about letting the kids have fun while learning some skills along the way.
“These young men and women are going to end up being the members and the people who play golf later in life,” he added. “I would say most members at golf courses now played some junior golf. It’s best to develop good habits at a young age. People who start playing younger play more golf when they get older.”
The focus is on skills for the first five weeks. Glass and Bristowe keep it as simple as possible during that time, relying on the natural athleticism of the young golfers.
“You don’t want to get too in-depth for this age,” Glass, a St. Davids graduate himself, explained. “They can only hold so much clutter inside their brain. You have to allow them to make mistakes and learn from them. We like to implement the raw fundamentals but let them use their instinct to work things out themselves.”
The final week will allow the students to get onto the course to learn golf etiquette and how the game is played.
And with St. Davids being a feeder school for A.N. Meyer Secondary, the future of that high school’s golf program looks very bright.