When Nicklaus North general manager Rod Cochrane, a man with an unusually strong passion for the promotion of junior golf, began the Sea-to-Sky junior golf tour four seasons ago, he enlisted your agent to serve as tour statistician, tournament marshall, official scorekeeper and, of course, director of media relations (directing myself) saying "I think the whole key to success or failure for this tour is publicity. If we get lots, the kids will come out. If we get little or none, they might not find out about it." We agreed and promo’d the first event, at Chateau Whistler, for several weeks leading up to tee off.

Like Cochrane, we had no idea what to expect when Tour Launch Day arrived and the local teenagers, 27 total, showed up at Chateau for the inaugural event. Suffice to say it was like no golf tournament we have covered before or since. If memory serves, we reported the following week it was like a combination of Easter egg hunt and NASCAR qualifying as most of the "athletes" seemed more excited about finding golf balls and getting to drive golf carts than playing tournament golf.

Just about every player showed up with one or two parents in tow who expected to spectate, chauffeur or caddy for their little darlings, some of whom had never swung a golf club in their young lives, most of whom didn’t have a clue what a golf tournament was all about, none of whom knew the course - "What are the flags for?" one asked - and a few of whom posted scores on the leaderboard which surpassed 170, including one cute little girl who had a 29 on one hole and was rewarded for her tenacity, honesty and dexterity with numbers.

Of the 27 kids entered, approximately 26 and a half had their shirt-tails out, most had their hats on backwards all day, one was wearing red coveralls and some of the younger boys were seen practicing their hockey stick-handling skills on the greens as they would hit their second putts before the first ones stopped rolling. Stepping on the opposition’s putting line appeared to be mandatory, golf course etiquette was a subject not yet covered and we had many great laughs after the round discussing what we had just witnessed and how much work lay ahead teaching these young and innocent semi-savages how to play tournament golf. We agreed it would take years. Your agent recalls rolling his eyes heavenward and wondering what he had gotten himself into this time. But we all persevered throughout that tough first season and had full fields (48 players) by the end of the summer, some of whom could actually play the game such as first-year, pioneer champion Sarah Moodie who later went on to win a golf scholarship to UBC.

The second and third seasons the tour solidified and began attracting better players from further afield as some Lower Mainland juniors came up and some surprisingly strong players such as Matt Pinton emerged out of the pro shop staff at Furry Creek. In just three seasons, the tour progressed from a Cochrane brainwave to the reality it was intended to be: An entry-level tour designed to introduce Sea-to-Sky juniors to both competition golf and the etiquette required to compete at higher levels.

Since then, junior golf has exploded in the corridor, province, country and we’ve even gone international with the inaugural running of the 2001 AJGA Future Links Classic coming August 20-23 to Whistler GC. Junior golf has so proliferated, some say from the Tiger Effect, we can now recognize stepping stones of western Canadian development, as in hockey and baseball. Such as:

Step One: The Sea-to-Sky Junior Tour, local
Two: Western Canada Junior Golf Tour, regional
Three: The Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA), national
Four: The American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), international
Five: American Golf University
Six: PGA and LPGA Tours

This is not to say we feel a local junior golfer is going to work his or her way up to the pro tours and reward all of us for our time and efforts over the years. We don’t expect that kind of success and have learned not to dream. However, it is to say, most definitely, in only four years it is at least possible now for such a wonderful eventuality to happen. The form or structure is now in place and it’s up to the young golfers to take advantage of it.

In golf, it’s not the size of the kid that matters, it’s the size of the heart inside the kid.

The CJGA is hosting two events locally this season, at Furry Creek and their Tour Finals at Chateau Whistler, and has a new western swing of their national tour with one event in Saskatchewan, seven in Alberta and 11 in BC. However, the AJGA is the Big Kahuna of junior golf in North America. University golf coaches pay $350 a year to receive steady updates, results and rankings of junior golfers performing on this tour. It is a direct pipeline to golf scholarships at major American universities.

In fact, they are so big (65 events in 2001) they have a Code of Conduct for Athletes. Check it out:

AJGA Code of Conduct

Violations of the Code of Conduct on the golf course
Unsportsmanlike conduct.
Use of drugs or alcohol, smoking or chewing tobacco products.
Not adhering to the dress code.
Dress Code
Hats/visors must be worn with brim forward, males must remove hat/visor while indoors at host facility. Collared shirts must be worn and tucked in at all times.
Women's fashion shirts without a collar are acceptable but must have sleeves.
Women's shorts must be no more than 5" above the knees.
Prohibited Dress:
Tank tops, T-shirts.
Denim shorts, short-shorts, cut-off shorts, gym shorts, jeans.
Earrings (males)
Penalties
One-stroke penalty for each act of unsportsmanlike conduct on the golf course.
A serious act of unsportsmanlike behavior may result in the player being immediately disqualified.

You have no idea how vindicated one former junior tournament marshall felt when he saw a one-stroke penalty assessed by the marshall’s discretion at time of offense for players caught with their shirt-tails out or their baseball hats on like catchers in the rye or rap singers instead of golfers. The kids used to call me "the shirt-tail and cap cop" and they were always tucking their shirts in and adjusting their hats when they saw me coming but I always knew they pulled them right back out and spun the bills when I drove away. One even "shot the sheriff" at Big Sky (#10) with a shanked driver but that was survived and reported years ago.

What I would have given to say to any of them in those days: "What did you get on that hole, son?"
"Golly gee, sir, a par!"
No, you didn’t. Your shirt-tail is out. Mark down a bogey, boy, and learn how to dress like a man.
Junior golf has come a long way in our neck of the coastal woods in the last four years but we still have many miles to go before we sleep.

Credit Cochrane. It was his idea.

Original Publication - The Voice 5-18-01 -