Welcome to the Sidney Country Club Junior Golf Program! Our staff is looking forward to a successful year. Our junior program will be more than just letting our juniors play the golf course. Our program will offer instruction, practice and play activities, and many other opportunities to involve your junior in our golf facility. All of these will give your juniors the necessary knowledge and experience to become golfers and remain golfers past their junior years.
Our Junior Program will Incorporate the Following Goals:
- It will be fun and enjoyable. Golf is a game and games are meant to be fun. We will strive to make all activities fun and enjoyable for each junior.
- We will help all juniors to play the game to the best of their ability. We will teach them skills, rules, etiquette, basic strategy, and the understanding that practice and play will increase each player's ability.
- We will contribute to the personal development of each junior. Our juniors will learn social skills, emotional control, and other positive character values that the game of golf helps instill in each junior.
The Sidney Junior Golf Program will be taught to beginners, intermediate players, and the more advanced players divided by both ability and age groups.
Junior Golf Program Objectives:
- To teach the fundamentals of golf through professional lessons and golf course play.
- To expand each golfer's knowledge of the game's rules and etiquette.
- To provide hands-on experience through course play.
- To motivate and encourage all interested junior golfers.
- To recognize that players develop golf skills at an individualized pace.
- To provide fun and friendship in a healthy environment.
- To create opportunities for those who choose to take their game to a higher level.
- To always remember that the individual we are working with is more important than the golf swing or the game.
Sidney Country Club Parent – Junior Evaluation:
Most children are ready to participate in an organized program at about the age of six. However, readiness varies widely from one child to the next. It is the belief of the professional staff that parents need to spend a good deal of time introducing their children to the game of golf outside of professional lessons. This will motivate them to play, practice, and will likely increase the odds that their children will want to take junior golf lessons and succeed.
The guidelines below will help each parent measure their child's readiness to begin in our junior golf program. Again remember, it is our goal to not only teach all children who wish to play golf, but also to create a lifetime, dedicated golfer who fully understands the rules and can play the game of golf.
- Is your child showing a genuine interest in golf? Does your child wish to come to the practice facilities with you, and are you willing to set your time aside to play golf and fully attend to your juniors needs?
- Has your child been informed of the seriousness of the safety issues with the game of golf?
- Is your child patient enough to wait his or her turn to hit in a group lesson format?
- Will your child's attention span be long enough to listen to brief instruction and lessons with the professional staff?
- Does your child possess enough strength to swing a golf club and carry his or her own equipment?
- Have you spent time golfing with your child, and taken him or her to hit practice balls and to practice putting? Again it is important for younger children to practice, but only if fully supervised.
- Is your child independent enough that if the "walker" they are assigned to is not their parent or grandparent, they will not be upset?
The previous considerations are important for a parent when making the decision as to whether or not a child is ready for safe and organized golf. We feel that each parent should be a child's first instructor by supplying the child with equipment and by letting the child begin to play. This will greatly increase our chance to create a new golfer. Our expertise lies in helping players with their golf games, and getting them excited about golf, not becoming only a daycare facility for children.
Parents or grandparents with children who have been issued yellow bag tags must plan to be a "walker" several times during the junior golf lesson program. Parents or grandparents with children who have green bag tags must plan to be a "walker" at least once during the program. It is not okay to drop children off and not plan to participate yourself when your children want to play the course. Junior golf programs require many volunteers to guarantee safety for all involved. We intend to keep our junior student ratio at 6:1 or less and we would appreciate as many volunteers as possible to help with all age groups.
Sidney Country Club Junior Golf Rules & Regulations:
The professional staff of the Sidney Country Club will always have time for junior golfers. We know that juniors are the future of this wonderful sport, and we will always encourage juniors to participate whenever possible. We realize that many members have joined our club with their children in mind, and we hope to make their time with their juniors at the club as rewarding as possible. With this in mind, there are times that parents and juniors should avoid being together. These times include Tuesday afternoons (Senior's League), Tuesday evenings (Ladies League), Wednesday mornings (Ladies Fun Play), Thursday evenings (Men's League), and Friday evenings (Couple's Golf). Weekend mornings can also be very intimidating for juniors of lesser abilities. The busiest time of the week at the club is Saturday and Sunday mornings until noon. After noon the golf course opens up and is very junior friendly. As we instruct all members that have problems with speed of play, parents with beginning juniors should try and play when the course is less active and busy. To find out of all the best times please contact the pro shop.
In order to operate any of the club's motorized fleet golf cart, any individual must be (18) years old and have a driver's license and to operate a private golf cart, any individual must have a driver's license with the approval of the golf cart owner at the country club that are driven on Sidney Country Club property. Only juniors with the expressed purpose of playing golf are allowed on the golf course, practice tee or putting green. Children and juniors not playing golf are discouraged from being on or near the practice areas and course for safety concerns.
The Following is a List of the Club's Junior Policies:
- No one under the age of (4) four will be allowed on the golf course at any time.
- Children aged four or five are allowed on the course before noon on weekdays and after 4:00 P.M. on weekends and holidays. They must be accompanied by an adult, and they must remain in the golf cart during the play of every hole except on the tee box and green. Children in this age category are allowed to use the practice areas with full parental supervision.
- Children between the ages of 6-14 will not be allowed to play on weekends and holidays until after 4:00 P.M. or during league nights UNLESS they are accompanied by an adult.
The golf shop will control all play during the course of the year. Juniors and parents must always check into the golf shop before play. Any decisions regarding play will be handled by the Head Golf Professional or the Assistant Golf Professional.
For juniors or students who are under the age of 18 and wish to play the Sidney Country Club, we offer junior memberships at a rate of $220 annually. For college students aged 18-26, we offer a student membership at a rate of $270 annually. Please check in the membership section of the website for applications for these memberships!