Photo: Contributed
Golf, for many people, is a game reserved mostly for the grey-haired businessmen of the world.
It’s a game of lazy afternoons and strolls through the green grass—as much a pleasant pastime as anything else.
But Clay Stothers, an instructor at Kelowna’s Aberdeen Hall Golf Academy, thinks differently.
For Stothers, golf is a game of self-discipline and personal growth. It’s a game that requires a mental toughness and strength of character that’s difficult to find anywhere else.
And it’s because of this, because of what golf can teach a person, that Stothers says young people can benefit tremendously from pursuing it.
“Golf is, in my opinion, the greatest sport for a child to play in order to learn how to act on and off the course, and in life,” he says.
Stothers knows this first-hand, because the 2014 BC PGA teacher of the year works with young people all the time at the Aberdeen Hall Golf Academy, which has just opened a Junior Academy that accepts students from Grades 5-7.
Students in the academy can take both high performance and development options. They spend five hours a week doing on-course training, with the added privilege of an extra hour of one-on-one coaching with Stothers.
Their year-round personal instruction includes industry-leading technologies like a FlightScope simulator, as well as extensive courses about nutrition and fitness.
But aside from the first-class technical training his students receive, Stothers also works hard to teach his students nine core characteristics he says are vital to the game: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, courtesy, judgment and perseverance.
“I believe that golf is a game that shapes young people’s character and prepares them for life. Our slogan is to create great golfers and even better people,” he says.
Speak to almost any young person playing the game at an advanced level, and you’ll quickly get a sense of the poise and self-confidence the game teaches.
At its core, Stothers says, golf is a game founded on the principles of integrity, self-discipline and sportsmanship.
“You’re your own referee. There’s a lot of personal perseverance. It’s a game where it’s not instant gratification. It’s a long game,” Stothers says.
Golf is a game played primarily against oneself, and in order to succeed on the course, young people have to develop the mental toughness to keep their composure and the self-assuredness that comes from not having teammates to blame or lean upon.
Few sports rely as heavily on players’ honesty, or make it as easy to cheat, as golf. Learning to resist that temptation at a young age can imbue young people with a certain kind of honesty and integrity they carry for the rest of their lives.
“It’s an honesty-based game, and if you’re out there cheating on the course, you’re really only cheating yourself,” Stothers says.
“With all the students that I have right now, with all my kids, I see it. If you want to know what kind of human being someone is, take them golfing,” he adds.
This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Okanagan Edge.
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