Chris Haarlow, the 2011 Carolinas PGA Section Junior Golf Leader and a U.S. Kids Golf Master Top 50 Instructor, is the PGA Head Instructor at Precision Golf School in Greensboro, N.C.
Scheduling dynamic situations on the course provides instructors a great opportunity to watch their students in action. Over the past several years, I have utilized “learning days” to offer junior golfers a full-day experience both on the course and on the lesson tee. I utilize course time to cover three instructional topics depending on the group, skill level and what I want to observe from the kids.
The first learning day instructional topic is the mental game; juniors keep a scorecard, which tracks their performance on pre-shot routines. The second instructional topic is situational shots through the round; this includes short game, uneven lies, fairway bunker shots, specialty shots and additional trouble shots. Finally, the third instructional topic on the course is to set up challenge games, which includes keeping score and statistics through the round. Setting up a competition is a sure way to find out what the juniors do under the pressure of competition. Each learning day topic provides me the opportunity to watch and analyze different strokes on the course.
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