Two Garland County golf coaches recently took time to talk to The Sentinel-Record about their teams and the struggles that high school golf coaches deal with for the newspaper's new sports podcast, Garland County Locker Room.
Hot Springs golf coach Josh Smith and Lake Hamilton golf coach Brandi Higginbotham both admitted that finding a place nearby to play is one of the most challenging issues.
Don’t see the podcast above? Click here https://www.hotsr.com/0819-podcast/
"Just not having that that local course in the city that they can go out and play -- so that makes it hard," Smith said, noting that hurts the numbers for his team. "We do most of our practicing at Diamondhead (Country Club). They're very, very good to us out there. We go out, and they take care of us. The course is in great shape out there. It's a hard golf course for kids that don't play a lot of golf. Their eyes pretty wide when they're having a play out there quite a bit. If they learn to play out there, they can go play just about anywhere else."
Higginbotham agreed, pointing out that getting her players to their "home" course at Glenwood is one of the most difficult things for the team.
"Well, at our school, it's getting them to the course with no course near," she said. "I wish we had a course at Pearcy. I mean, it would be nice to be right there outside of the school, you know, area. But, you know, we could choose to travel to Glenwood or choose to possibly go the country club. It's about 20 minutes either way, different kinds of drives, but, you know, with especially with those younger kids just trying to get them there because I have to bus every time."
With practices generally starting in July, there is very little time for the coaches to work with the athletes prior to their first match, usually held the first week of August.
"We'll start late July -- just kind of see where they are," Smith said. "Like Cade Miller is one of my players this year, and he played a junior tour all summer, so I know he was playing. The tour the traveled around; he was playing in the Junior League in the Village as well, so I know he was getting his practice in. ... Once we get closer that first match, we'll start getting together a week before and just kind of see where we're at with the new guys, and 'Hey, this is what we're gonna do with y'all.' And for me, sometimes I'll set it up as a different -- each kid is different. I might let this one go play in some matches; this one might not be ready to play in that match."
Smith said that he would love to see athletes start playing the game at a young age, like in many other sports.
"We've got to get them introduced, and I think, waving a magic wand, is to have some type of facility or something set up at a fourth grade age, and maybe even younger than that, that you're introducing the game of golf to them," he said. "And then having something they can actually go experience it at the full level soon after. I mean, magic wand, would be 'Hey, drop me five golfers in ninth grade and let me have them for the next four years. We're free to have a lot of fun, and we'll go all over state and play. Yeah, that'd be great, but I think to build it where it continuously happens, it would need to be some form or fashion of facility that you can teach the game, or there's driving range, putting area, whatever combination is that they can go do."
Higginbotham said that even when there are players who are interested, their abilities range from experienced to novice, especially with a large influx of players last year. Several players came out because other sports were limited to little or no activity during the summer.
"Most of them had not played a lot, but maybe their parents played a little bit and they thought it would be a good idea," she said. "I had one girl that she just was a good athlete and played volleyball. She was worried they weren't gonna have volleyball season, so she kind of came out as a backup and then once volleyball kicked in, we kind of lost her back to that, which I totally understand. You know, if that was her primary sport with our sports seasons being the same at that time. But yeah, it was mostly kids who hadn't played a lot, and they probably had thought about it and there wasn't much option to give do anything else."
Higginbotham said that with players who are not as experienced often struggle with the mental aspect of the game.
"Try to go out on the course with them and kind of talk strategy -- you know, after they try to get some mechanics to get the ball down the course," she said. That's kind of where the sophomores are that were new last year, just trying to talk about yardage is and what clubs to use, you know, instead of just to go hit it and try to make it go straight this year. You know, we play a lot of double par to try to make our matches move along a little quicker, and when they don't have to circle a number on their card and go 'Well, I got an eight on a par four, and I had to pick it up.' You know, try to actually finish the hole and just try to play through that."