Home›Junior Journey›Stage 2: Finding the Game
Stage 2 is where the game takes hold. Your child has survived the initial dropout period — typically 12 to 18 months in — and made an internal decision that golf is theirs. They think about it between sessions. They practise in the garden. They ask questions about professional golfers. This intrinsic motivation is one of the most valuable things in junior development — and it is surprisingly fragile.
Technically, Stage 2 is the most important developmental window in a junior golfer's career. The movement patterns embedded between the ages of seven and eleven will form the foundation of a player's swing for life. A coach who gets Stage 2 right gives their pupil a foundation that makes everything easier at every subsequent stage. A coach who builds compensations into the swing at this stage creates problems that can take years to undo.
The child who learns to love chipping and putting at age eight will outscore the long hitter at age twelve every time. The short game is where junior golf is actually played — and where confidence is built or lost.
Keep your child playing other sports. Research on young athletes links specialising in one sport before 12 with more overuse injuries and earlier drop-out. For golf, other sports also build the speed, balance and coordination that later become distance.
At Stage 2, genuine technical development begins. Your child will develop a more consistent ball-striking pattern, better coordination between body rotation and arm swing, and a growing understanding of how different clubs produce different results. Their short game becomes increasingly important — a Stage 2 child who has a reliable putting stroke and a basic chip shot has a tool that lets them score on a real golf course.
Mentally, Stage 2 introduces managing frustration. At Stage 1, most children are so new that a bad shot is simply part of the experience. At Stage 2, expectations develop — and with expectations come frustration. Learning to absorb a bad shot, reset, and play the next one with full focus is one of the most important skills in golf, and it begins to be teachable here.
Most practice time should go on the short game and on the course, not the range. That's where scores come from, and where children learn to play rather than just swing.
| How often | 2–3 sessions a week, including one lesson |
| How long | 45–60 minutes |
| Rough split | About half short game (putting, chipping, bunkers), a quarter full swing, a quarter playing holes |
| On the course | 3–9 holes at least every other week, from forward tees |
Mix it up. Hitting 30 balls with the same club at the same target feels productive but doesn't transfer well to the course. Once a basic movement is in place, change the club or target every few shots. It feels harder, and that's why it works.
Two games that build real skills:
Three ideas are enough at this stage:
Stage 2 is where "managing frustration" stops being a nice idea and becomes a skill you can actually coach. Your child now has enough experience of golf to expect things — a straight shot, a made putt — and enough awareness to feel it when those expectations aren't met. That gap between expectation and result is where frustration lives, and it is entirely normal. The job isn't to stop your child feeling it. It's to give them a quick, repeatable way to let it go and play the next shot with a clear head.
This is also the age where children start narrating themselves — "I'm rubbish at this," "I always mess up the short ones." Left unchecked, this self-talk becomes a habit that follows them into every future stage. Caught early, it's one of the easiest habits in golf to reshape, because at this age children still copy language very readily from the adults around them.
Children who succeed early are often labelled "naturally talented" rather than hard-working. That label feels nice in the moment, but it's fragile — it teaches a child their identity depends on always looking gifted, which makes the next bad round feel like a threat rather than just golf.
First competitions are 9 holes, relaxed and occasional.
| Competitive rounds a year | 6–12 |
| Typical events | Club junior competitions, 9-hole junior events, beginner tour events |
| In season | No more than two events a month |
| Time off | At least three months a year without competition, spread across the year |
If your child starts asking for more events, that's a good sign. If you're the one asking, it's worth pausing.
The drive home from golf is sacred. Research on junior sport development consistently identifies the car journey home as the place where a child's enjoyment is most frequently undermined. Keep it positive. Ask what they enjoyed. Don't discuss what went wrong unless they bring it up.
Don't offer technical advice. Your child's coach has a plan. Well-intentioned swing tips from a parent — however accurate — contradict that plan and create confusion. If you have concerns about technical development, raise them with the coach directly. Not in the car.
Play with them. If you play golf, getting on the course with your child at Stage 2 is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. Keep it casual, fun, and let them set the pace. If you don't play, consider learning — not to become a competitor, but to share an experience that connects you for decades.
A properly fitted set — typically seven to nine clubs. Shaft length based on height, shaft flex almost always graphite. Lighter is better for a developing swing speed.
US Kids Golf dominate this category for good reason. Their height-based fitting system is genuinely reliable. A set at the right specification will serve your child significantly better than an adult set cut down — which produces poor strike patterns and builds bad habits.
A short checklist to judge a coach against.
The non-negotiables
Signs of a good junior coach
Warning signs
What's right at each stage
| 1 | Group sessions, games, lots of laughing. Technique almost invisible |
| 2 | Groups plus the occasional individual lesson. Fundamentals hidden inside games |
| 3 | A regular coach who comes to watch the occasional round and knows the competition calendar |
| 4 | A coach who works with a strength and conditioning coach and plans the season with you |
| 5 | A coach who treats the player as the decision-maker and helps with pathway choices |
Only 11% of junior golf club members in England are girls. The first girls-only groups make a real difference at this age — look for a Girls Golf Rocks taster or a group with several other girls in it. Read our full guide to junior golf for girls →
Out of bounds, penalty areas and lost balls. Playing the ball as it lies. Ready golf and keeping up with the group in front. Counting every shot honestly. Learn more from the JuniorCaddie rules card.
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