Fewer people overall are playing golf and it's a trend that's concerning some industry leaders. One demographic of players is on the rise though.
Evan Uhls is 13 years old and has been playing golf for well over half his life under the watchful eye of his grandfather.
Uhls plays on the Professional Golf Association Junior League. PGA launched the program four years ago – starting with 10 pilot programs around the country, with Indiana quickly jumping on board the following year.
Indiana started with 59 junior teams. The second year it was up to nearly 100 and now has about 120 PGA teams. That translates to about 1,300 players in state and around 36,000 nationally around.
"To think that none of those kids were possibly involved in golf three or four years ago, it's pretty impressive what we've done so far," says Executive Director of the Indiana Golf Office Mike David.
According to the National Golf Foundation, golf participation as a whole across the country has slightly declined, but junior golf, that's players age six to 17, is going up.
Since 2010 it's increased by 20 percent and now has roughly three million kids involved in the sport.
Why the increase?
The attraction might be in the way the PGA junior league is organized. To compete with other youth sports like little league and soccer, the PGA changed the game.
"I think the team aspect is a huge part of it because it takes a little pressure off the kids."
In its junior league program, kids between ages nine and 13 partner with a teammate and play in a scramble format.
There are five or six pairs on a team. If someone on the duo has a bad shot, the partner is there to pick him or her up.
"I think the team aspect is a huge part of it because it takes a little pressure off the kids, but at the same time it adds a different element of pressure...because, 'Hey, I could be letting my teammate down,'" David says.
Gameplay
The regular PGA Junior season is about eight weeks from the beginning of June through the end of July.
Uhls' team was one of the 23 All-star teams created in the state after the regular season finished. The team did well in the post-season, fighting hard and losing in what would be like the final four in the state. A team from Carmel, Indiana ended up moving on to play in the regional tournament.
Stacey Rice, director of player development and handicapping for PGA's Indiana section, says the post season is slightly more competitive, culminating with the winning team in the state heading to regional play to take on teams from outside Indiana.
"The chemistry, the sportsmanship they like feed off of each other and it's so much fun," Rice says. "It's great to see actually a program, it's actually growing the game which is what we need to do to keep the golf industry going."
Rice also noted that in some cases the young players in the junior league are even introducing their parents and families to the sport.
Going Forward
Uhls says he'll remain a life-long golf-advocate. In fact, that's another reason for his love of the game. He says he not only will be a life-long advocate, but a life-long player.
"Most sports, you can't play for the rest of your life, but this is the main sport you can play every day as much as you want," he says.
