Course Gives Kids Drive to Play Golf

Anjelica Lopez is a 10-year-old standout at the Tregnan Golf Academy for Kids. Asked why she wants to learn golf, she’s the only one of her classmates who mentions her future--50 years from now.

“Golf will be good to know,” the fourth-grader explains, “because I can still do it when I’m old.”

Such accidental comedy is routine on the three-hole golf course at Griffith Park--a golf course strictly for kids.

“Adults,” a clubhouse sign warns, “must be accompanied at all times by a child.”

About 2,750 youths from throughout L.A. have attended the 10-week group lessons at the park north of downtown since Tregnan opened in July 2000.

Tregnan’s executive director, Randy Kelly, said classes fill up fast. This winter’s sessions are sold out. Spring registration begins in March.

The class offers 15 hours of instruction for $25. The going rate for children’s lessons at the park’s other three courses is 12 hours for $99. Prices are much higher at municipal courses, and higher still at privately owned courses. Private lessons for a child run about $80 an hour.

On this blustery Wednesday, the 90-minute class begins at 4 p.m. The wind is so cold on this slope above the pony rides that the students will spend only 40 minutes outside.

Carrying their clubs out of the clubhouse, most of the 39 kids head for the driving range. It is the third week of class, so the children need to concentrate first on their swings, and whacking a bucket of balls is a lot more fun at this stage than putting and missing.

“It’s hard to play in these conditions, Rick!” student William Lee shouts over the wind, bracing himself to swing his driver into the gusts.

“Good,” the teacher hollers back. “You’ll just have to play that much better.”

The classes are open to children ages 7 to 17. Most of the students are 9 and 10 years old.

One boy, Joseph Park, is the rare 7-year-old whose ball soars at least as straight and far as those of the teenagers in the class.

“He’s very good. For his age and his size? Oh yeah, it’s rare,” says his instructor Nolan Wilson. He thinks Joseph’s swing still needs work.

“I want it to look good, too,” he says with a smile.

Up to 40% of the students are girls, an excellent showing considering that only 10% of golfers in the U.S. are women, according to Kelly.

One of the dedicated is Dana Szyka, 15, wearing her school uniform--a skirt and sweater--from the all-girls Notre Dame Academy in L.A.

Despite her parents’ urging her to skip golf because of the cold, she insisted on coming and merrily swings at ball after ball.

Less devoted today is a little girl named Claire Choo, who is wearing a quilted coat that resembles a sleeping bag with sleeves. She hardly swings a club, preferring to chat with the instructor. “What’s your favorite color? I like black, white, lavender and purple,” she says, narrowing things down.

Nearby, 10-year-old Kevin Kim offers advice to his cousin.

“Hey Andrew, try to hit it here,” he says, holding up the flattened side of his driver, “cause it’s the sweet spot,” he adds earnestly. “No, really, it is.”

Andrew Kim, 9, has a go at it, but his cousin is shaking his head. “You didn’t hit it with the sweet spot. That’s the whole problem.”

Besides the mechanics of the game, students learn golf etiquette. Instructors say that the lessons in personal conduct apply off the links as well.

“If you can teach a child golf, you can teach a child anything,” said instructor Rick Jitchaku, 40, as he observed the swings of his six students at the driving range.

“Golf is a game of honesty and integrity, so you have to have a respect for rules. Those are good life skills.”

It is a sport without officials who enforce rules and penalties, Jitchaku points out. Individuals are expected to call their own infractions, which can add strokes to their final score.

Do kids struggle with wanting to win more than wanting to play fair?

“At first, yeah,” he says with a grin. “Nobody else really asks them to do that. The kids will say, ‘well, if nobody saw it, it doesn’t count.’ But they learn that they don’t want somebody else to cheat. They have a sense of accountability.”

At the Tregnan Academy, 75% of openings are reserved for students from low-income families who otherwise couldn’t afford lessons, clubs and greens fees. Those families can’t transport the children across town to the park.

City vans pick up and return the children to 18 city recreation centers, 15 of them in “inner-city neighborhoods,” Kelly said.

Operation costs of Tregnan are covered by several sources. The nonprofit Urban Youth Golf Program provides instructors such as Jitchaku. Federal Community Development Block Grants cover the fees for kids who can’t afford them.

The rest of the program budget comes from the Griffith Park Trust and the U.S. Golf Assn., the nonprofit governing body for competitive golf.

The city’s Recreation and Parks Department, which runs the Academy, will eventually need to find its own funding, Kelly said.

At 4:40 p.m., the students retreat into the clubhouse for a video lesson in golf manners called “The Spirit of the Game.” The children remain attentive, thanks to frequent pauses by Paula Olsen, Tregnan’s director of instruction.

“So what have you learned so far?” she asks the group. Hands fly up. Be honest. Treat the course well. Be prepared to play. Don’t be late. Stay quiet so as not to distract other players trying to concentrate. Oh, and be mindful of the dress code.

Once students achieve a certain level of skill, they are given their first three clubs--a putter and two irons--and as their skill increases, so do their free clubs. Once they can show they know the rules and demonstrate some proficiency, the students can be certified to play on any city golf course.

Tregnan’s course offers open play six days a week for youths; Sundays are reserved for parent-child golf lessons.