Springfield is a hotbed of junior golf.
A good part of the reason is the passion and vitality of Rick Grayson, teaching professional at Rivercut Municipal Golf Course’s Connie Morris Golf Learning Center and a long-time advocate of making golf more accessible to children.
Consider that the learning center offers a short four-hole course that fits the strength and ability of youngsters ages 4 through about 7. Moms and dads or uncles and aunts supervise the kids and help them select which clubs to hit and make the outings a fun learning experience.
But there is more to junior golf than just the diminutive layout, which I guess measures about 60 to 80 yards per hole and has greens and flags.
Another factor is SNAG, which Grayson and a number of Springfield men and women saw as an innovative way to introduce schoolchildren into the game at an early age. Today, thanks to an anonymous donor, SNAG (Starting New At Golf) is part of the curriculum in all of the system’s 37 elementary schools.
SNAG is pretty simple. There are only two clubs: a Roller or putter and a Launcher, which fills in for woods and irons. The golf balls are slightly smaller than a tennis ball, said Grayson.
The balls are made of a material that snags (hence the name of the game) on Velcro-like material attached to flagsticks appropriately called Flagstickys and on targets that youngsters can hit at.
SNAG is used six weeks a year by the schools, three in the spring and three in the autumn. A SNAG kit can accommodate 20 to 25 youngsters at a time.
Elementary teachers were given instruction or advice by professional golfers in the area on how kids should swing the clubs.
Grayson, who has been on Golf magazine’s Top 100 Teachers list for the last 15 years, heads the Heart of the Ozarks Junior Golf Foundation and was instrumental in the development of the Betty Allison/Oscar Blom par three course adjacent to the Bill and Payne Stewart Municipal Golf Course. In the last three years, 3,000 or so juniors have played free at the short course under the auspices of the foundation.
The Joplin Golf Foundation is active in junior golf, presenting a summer-long group of lessons for boys and girls with instruction by professionals and top amateurs. Over the years, more than 1,000 youngsters have received lessons. Perhaps the next step will be the addition of something like SNAG. Such an approach would seem a logical adjunct to a program trying to introduce kids to the game of a lifetime.
Improvements
A fairway bunker that has been causing drainage problems on No. 6 will be filled in this winter under an improvement program at the Neosho Municipal Golf Course, according to Justin Beck, head pro.
Other projects planned are the addition of native grass areas, enlargement of the back tees on No. 9 and 18 and a new, shorter ladies tee on No. 6.
Address correspondence to Clair Goodwin at sports@joplinglobe.com.
