A house league for junior golf in Canada? It’s about time

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This article was published 25/04/2022 (1573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Darren D’Aguilar is about three decades late for my liking.

That’s what we joked about while discussing an initiative he launched in the Kitchener-Waterloo area last year. One he hopes will eventually take flight across Canada.

A house league for junior golf is what he created. Like house league hockey or soccer or baseball. With team shirts, coaches, parent volunteers and weekly schedules. With kids nine to 17 representing several Golf North-owned courses in the area, including Rebel Creek, where his is a member. With home games and away games. With pregame putting contests awarding the victor chicken fingers and fries, making the Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner moniker literal. Where fun is the top priority.

I started playing golf young. I was a good junior, but not great. What I really lacked was a good attitude. Zero patience for bad shots. Little desire to practise. Golf was only fun when I played well. And because none of my hockey or fastball friends were into it, I abandoned the game for most of high school.

But if I’d played on a team? Had the chance to represent my course against others? Was able to high-five or hug a teammate for a holed putt as I did for a goal scored? That would have been the best. And it makes me wonder why something like this hasn’t existed for decades. I guess because golf is so singular, despite it being the most social of sports.

The PGA Junior League launched as a pilot program in four U.S. cities in 2011 and has become popular. It had a fleeting existence in Canada as part of the old Future Links programming and fizzled out probably because it was over-administered. Sometimes the most effective grassroots programs are those that are truly grassroots.

The impetus for D’Aguilar to launch House League Golf For Kids was seeing the seriousness of the competitive events in which his 13-year-old son plays. A lot of grave faces — on the golfers and their parents — with expensive tournaments featuring similar fields played under the same format.

“It seemed to me that the way junior golf was set up would be like a hockey system where there is only Triple-A hockey and nothing else,” D’Aguilar said.

With two younger daughters, he sought an alternative. He did some research and developed a presentation for Golf North. Halfway through it, the company’s executives didn’t need to see anymore; they were in. And so in February 2021, with golf coming off a participation high the previous summer because of COVID, D’Aguilar circulated a document among parents he knew and posted it at rinks and Golf Town stores.

“In my original meeting with Golf North I was kind of bluffing when I told them we’d have over 100 kids doing this,” D’Aguilar, a former minor hockey coach, laughed.

“We got to 20, we got to 40, and then there was a time within two weeks we got over 100 kids to sign up and we had a little party. I couldn’t believe it.”

Participants had little or no golf experience. Everyone got five hours of group instruction in May before the 10-night, six-team league began in June. Sunday afternoon tee times, two-person scrambles, 155 kids in all. First tee introductions, social media videos, tee blocks pushed forward for the youngest golfers.

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“It was so cool because probably 80 to 90 per cent of the kids had never really golfed before. They’d played hockey or soccer or whatever it is and they just decided to take a chance on this league,” D’Aguilar explained. “It blossomed into this amazing league where kids were getting out there and having fun.”

In addition to growing the numbers in his city, especially among girls, D’Aguilar would love to see junior golf house leagues spring up elsewhere. He’s built a playbook to share widely. To cities with multiple municipal tracks. To companies like Golf North that own a cluster of courses. To pros and individual course owners who understand the importance of introducing the next generation to golf. He was a panellist at the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada’s 2021 virtual conference, where his concept garnered interest.

“I hope this does take off,” D’Aguilar reiterated. “I’m just a volunteer. I’m not making money off this … I just want to see this grow. With the right person organizing it, it can.”

I wish it would have happened 30 years ago.

Jason Logan is the editor of SCOREGolf Magazine and is based in Toronto. He is a contributor to the Star’s Sports section. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonSCOREGolf