If you haven’t attended one of the Joplin Golf Foundation’s sessions for junior golf, you’ve missed something.

Watching those enthusiastic, energetic boys and girls learn how to grip a golf club, take the correct stance and swing is one of those priceless moments.

Most of them are like sponges, absorbing the information and then trying — and frequently failing — to put it into practice.

But, as I said, they are enthusiastic.

I had the opportunity last year to serve as an instructor for the last four or five sessions. It was a hoot. Some kids took to the game like they had played it before. Others never really seemed to get the hang of it.

But the main thing is that they were exposed to golf. They learned some of the basics. They also found out that once baseball, softball, football and other team sports were over, golf can serve them as a sport for a lifetime.

And that is what this great program is all about — introducing kids to a game that they can play into their 70s and 80s. Over the years, perhaps more than a thousand youngsters have been given instruction, clubs, golf bags and the chance to hit golf balls and even to play.

Danny Tourtelot, who brought the program back from the edge of extinction a couple of decades ago, told me that one of his highest moments was when one of the youngsters brought back the golf clubs that he had been given. He had become so involved in golf that his father had bought him a full set.

If that scenario is repeated only a few times every year, it makes the program successful.

But the truth is that the biggest dividends of the foundation’s junior golf efforts may not be seen for years. The seeds of golf are being planted. But some of these youngsters have other priorities: Little League baseball or softball, Pee-Wee or high school football, track, jobs.

Details of what they have learned in the foundation’s program may not stay with them, but they will remember how much fun they had swinging a club and hitting a golf ball. It may lead them to the game later in life.

This year’s program opened last Monday at Rangeline Golf Center with instruction on the full swing. The second session tomorrow will cover short irons.

More than 200 boys and girls have been signed up to participate. I suspect there is plenty of room for more. Parents or guardians need to show up about 15 minutes early to get their youngsters registered.

The program offers professional instruction — with the assistance of coaches and amateurs — in swing fundamentals, chipping, putting and on-course etiquette. Youth-size golf clubs are available to all registered participants who don’t have their own clubs.

There is no cost for the junior program, other than time and effort. I consider it one of the best bargains around.