The 19th Hole.

Stage One: First Swings

Before handicaps, before opens, before any of it, Stage One is simply about falling in love with the game. Get this bit right and everything else gets easier.

Why this stage matters more than any other

It's tempting to think of Stage One as the "easy bit" before the real development starts. In practice, it's the stage that decides whether there's a Stage Two at all. Juniors who fall in love with golf here — through games, freedom, and small wins — tend to stick with it through the harder stages later. Juniors who get pushed too hard, too early, often don't.

There's no fixed age for this. Some juniors arrive at Stage One at five, others at eleven. What matters isn't when they start — it's how it feels while they're there.

Coaches often describe this as the "sampling" phase — trying the game out, at low intensity, with no expectation attached. Golf has a longer sampling phase than most sports, because unlike football or swimming, a junior doesn't need a team, a fixture list, or even a lesson to start. A pitching wedge, a bucket of balls, and twenty free minutes is genuinely enough.

What Stage One actually looks like

• Fun comes first, always. Short sessions — twenty minutes is plenty at this age. Games on the range beat drills every time: closest to the flag, longest drive, target chipping.
• No scorecards yet. Counting shots too early turns exploration into judgement. There's plenty of time for medal cards later — right now it's about contact, not counting.
• Chipping and putting first. The short game is where juniors get the fastest feedback and the quickest wins — full swing can wait.
• Other sports stay in the mix. Juniors who play multiple sports at this age tend to develop better all-round coordination — and are less likely to burn out on any single one, golf included.
• Parents set the tone. A relaxed, low-stakes start at this stage tends to carry through every stage that follows — the habits (and the pressure, or lack of it) set here are sticky.

A quick word on kit

Stage One doesn't need much — a half-set sized to their height is plenty, and it's genuinely one of the areas where second-hand makes the most sense, since they'll outgrow it fast. Sizing should always be by height, never by age — a well-fitted set makes contact easier and more rewarding, which matters far more at this stage than club quality.

Our marketplace is the easiest way to pick up a well-priced starter set, and our independent equipment reviews compare the main junior ranges honestly — we've no commercial relationship with any manufacturer, so the recommendations are ours, not theirs.

Stage Two: Building the Game

Once a junior has fallen for the game, Stage Two is where it starts to take shape: first proper lessons, first fitted clubs, first junior section.

Why this stage is where habits get built

If Stage One is about falling in love with golf, Stage Two is about learning to actually play it. This is where fundamentals get built — grip, stance, the basics of a repeatable swing — and where a junior moves from hitting balls on a range to genuinely playing the game.

It's also where golf usually becomes social. Joining a junior section means training alongside other kids, not just a parent — coaches report this is often the single biggest driver of whether a junior sticks with the game long-term. Golf stops being a thing they do with you and starts being a thing they do for themselves.

There's a temptation at this stage to measure progress — handicaps, scores, comparisons with other juniors in the section. A little structure is healthy. Too much, too soon, and Stage Two starts to feel like Stage Three arrived early, which rarely goes well.

What Stage Two actually looks like

• First proper lessons. Regular sessions with a PGA pro, working on grip, stance and the basics of a repeatable swing — the fundamentals that everything later gets built on.
• Joining a junior section. Group coaching, other kids at a similar stage, and the first sense of golf as something social rather than solitary.
• A properly fitted set. The half-set from Stage One usually gets upgraded here — still height-fitted, but built for someone playing regularly rather than just having a go.
• First real holes. Playing on the course itself, not just the range — usually a few holes at a time, with a parent or coach, learning etiquette and pace of play in context.
• Scoring enters gently. Not competition yet — just an awareness that shots are being counted, usually introduced through the club's junior section rather than anything formal.

A quick word on kit

This is usually when the first real upgrade happens — from a starter half-set to something built for regular play. Still always fitted by height, not age, but now it's worth thinking about a fuller set as lessons progress and more clubs come into use.

Our marketplace is worth checking before buying new — juniors at this stage still grow through kit quickly — and our independent equipment reviews cover the main junior ranges at this level honestly, with no manufacturer relationships behind the recommendations.

Stage Three: Getting Competitive

This is the stage where golf starts keeping score for real: first handicap, first opens, first proper nerves on the first tee.

Why this stage changes the relationship with the game

Stages One and Two were about falling for golf and learning to play it. Stage Three is where it starts to matter in a different way — a handicap gets registered, an entry form gets filled in, and for the first time there's a number attached to how the round went. That shift is bigger than it looks.

Done well, this is where junior golf gets genuinely exciting — the first-tee nerves, the first good finish, the first "I can't wait for the next one." Done badly, it's where golf can start to feel like a test rather than a game, and that's usually where juniors quietly drift away.

The difference between the two rarely comes down to talent. It usually comes down to pacing — how many competitions, how much scrutiny, and how much room is left for it to still be fun.

What Stage Three actually looks like

• A first official handicap. Usually registered through the club or county union once enough qualifying rounds are in. It's a number, not a verdict — worth saying that to a junior more than once.
• First real competitions. Club junior opens, county events, maybe a regional tour stop — entered deliberately now, not just played as extra holes on the way home.
• Learning the entry system. BRS, HowDidiDo, intelligentgolf, county portals — every organiser seems to use something different. It's confusing at first for every parent, not just yours.
• Scoring formats start to matter. Stableford, strokeplay, medal — understanding the format before teeing off changes how a junior plays the round, not just how it's scored afterwards.
• Balancing golf with everything else. School, other sports, friends, downtime. The juniors who last are rarely the ones playing the most golf — they're the ones with the most balanced week.

A word on WHS and general play cards

Once that first handicap is in, it's tempting to keep submitting general play cards from every relaxed weekend round to try to bring the number down quickly. It's worth resisting that urge. General play scores, posted outside the pressure of an actual competition, don't always reflect how a junior performs when it counts — and a handicap that drops faster than the game underneath it can leave them under-clubbed against the field.

The better path is usually to let the handicap come down through competition rounds themselves, once that first number is established. It moves a little slower, but it keeps the handicap honest — and an honest handicap is what keeps a junior genuinely competitive in Stableford events, rather than finding the points just don't add up the way they expect on the day.

On good days and bad days

This is the stage where the highs and lows really start — a brilliant back nine one week, a card that falls apart the next. Our Competition Day Guide covers how to handle both, so a tough round doesn't shape whether they want to play another one.

A quick word on kit

Most of the kit decisions are already made by Stage Three — a fitted full set, decent shoes, a glove that actually fits. What's worth checking now is whether the set still fits: growth spurts are common at this age, and clubs that were right last year can quietly become wrong this year without anyone noticing until scores start to suffer for no obvious reason.

Our marketplace is still the easiest place to move on a set that's been outgrown and pick up the next size — and our independent equipment reviews cover the ranges built for this stage specifically.

Stages Four and Five — County & Beyond, and Transition & College — are still being written. Check back for those.

21 August 2026

Good morning, and what a week to be picking up a scorecard. Final-hole birdies, a playoff that went right down to the wire, and a fresh crop of county champions heading for Woodhall Spa in September — junior golf delivered on every front that week.

Headline — Gog Magog, Cambridge

Brooks holes the winning birdie as Jimenez survives a playoff thriller. It doesn't get much more dramatic than this. At the English Girls' Under-14 & Under-16 Open Amateur Championships, England's Maybel Brooks produced the shot of the week — a birdie on the very last hole — to snatch the Under-14 title in style. One group and one age category up, the Under-16 crown needed extra holes to settle: Spain's Paula Jimenez came through a tense playoff against Germany's Lorena Guth to take the title.

It could easily have gone England's way at the top too — home hope Selina Bartaya led the Under-16 field after round one, only to be reeled in by Germany's Jinlei Zhong as the tournament wore on. In the Under-14s, Italy's Elena Sartori pushed hard and finished third, keeping Brooks honest right to the closing stretch.

County Round-Up

Two counties wrapped up their junior championships that week, both sending fresh names through to the England Golf Champion of Champions at Woodhall Spa — one of the 410+ hand-verified competitions on the JuniorCaddie competition finder.

One to Watch

Down in the South West, early word from the West of England Under-18 Open at Burnham & Berrow pointed to strong performances from England internationals including Arianna Virik — final scores weren't confirmed at the time of writing.

That's your lot for that week — congratulations to every champion above, and to everyone who teed it up.

Dan & Jacob, JuniorCaddie