[mrllxp]

When my oldest grandson was 9 he wanted learn the game. We purchased a US Kid's putter for him, with the promis that when proficient with it, we would purchase a wedge, and eventually work our way up to a 3W/driver for him. In other words he learned the game backwards, from green to tee. It took him about 3 months, and he was breaking his "putting par" for 2/3 of the holes we played together. His putting par was 3 putts. At 6 months into our venture he was hitting half of his 100 yard shots into the greens. The other half were not that far off. Long story short, he is now 15, and is a 9hdcp per his highschool coach's records. There was never any pressure put on him to learn the game. I just made myself available when ever he wanted to play, and learn. It is my good fortune to have a grand son who likes to "hang" with his grand pa. I taught him enough so that he never embarassed himself, which helped to keep himself interested in the game. He only threw two clubs in anger. The first time we just had a heart to heart talk. The second time I threw his clubs, bag and all into a water hazard. The problem now is he is 6'-3+" tall, and weighs close to 235 lbs. He loves playing football, and golf is just something else to do untill football practice starts. Can't do much about his choice of sports as he is now big enough to throw me into a water hazard.

His par break down to get the ball into the hole went something like this. Putts-3, chips-4 including putts, pitch shots -5 including putts and every shot with mid irons, and metal woods from predetermined distances was 6, including putts. Example when we started chipping, he had a total of 4 strokes to get the ball into the hole. Once he he could hole out in 4 or less chips/putts, 2/3 of the time, we would move him move farther away from the green.