Athletic Development

Our philosophy is simple: Turn a child into an amazing athlete. Then turn the child into an amazing golfer.

That philosophy drives the activities at the Junior Performance Center. But it extends farther than the notion of a philosophy. There exists a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting the philosophy.

Many of the professionals on the PGA and LPGA Tours were good and great athletes before becoming great golfers. But do not twist this message. This doesn’t mean that all great athletes will become great golfers. That is far from the truth. Michael Jordan, possibly the best basketball player ever, might not make it through Q-School. Former 16-year Major League Baseball Pitcher, Rich Rhoden, dominated the Celebrity Players Tour. Then Rhoden took his game to the Champions Tour and had a few Top 10 finishes, competing with former PGA pros. But Rhoden has neither been as dominating as he was against other non-golf athletes on the Celebrity Players Tour nor as good as he was while playing in the big leagues.

For most sports and for most things in life, it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master something and become an expert.

Golf is a bit different.

Golf is a 20-year sport. Most “experts”—players who have won on the PGA Tour—took almost 21 years from the time they started training to win their first PGA Tour event.

Tiger Woods beat the curve. Still, it took him more than 17 years!

In 2007, Former tennis great Boris Becker told Golf Digest Magazine: “Not all golfers are athletes, but there are a lot more today than there used to be. It’s why Tiger is so much better than everyone: He’s the best athlete.”

That is what we are working on at the Junior Performance Center. We want to create the best athletes possible. We know that will give them a chance to be the best golfers possible.

Our Long-Term Athletic Development model systematically takes each child through each level of development. Those levels are all based on biological age, not chronological age. We do not make children do what their bodies are not ready to do. Children need to know they are progressing. We can tell them until we’re purple in the face that they are doing great. But that does little compared to the children actually seeing and feeling that they are progressing.

Our athletes constantly see progress, and we are loving that as much as them!