A Team Effort

Jon Rizzi

In 2011, when the PGA of America recognized the Colorado PGA Section with the Herb Graffis Award for pioneering growth-of-the-game initiatives, then-Section President Tim Lollar said, “We like to think that there is no longer a box to think outside of.”

That philosophy last winter led the Section to promote two of its rising stars, Erin Diegel and Keith Soriano, to director positions. Diegel, who founded the successful Girl Power Golf program, will serve as Junior Golf Director; Soriano, formerly Director of Golf at City Park Denver and a three-time winner of the Section’s President’s Plaque, is Player Development Director.

In addition to refining and expanding Golf In Schools, which is currently at 65 facilities and has involved 23,000 students across the state, Diegel and Soriano are heading up a pilot program at the four Colorado Springs military courses called Team Golf, which aims to engage kids between the ages of seven and 14 and allow golf facilities to build successful junior programs.

“There has to be a clear next step after Golf In Schools,” says Diegel. “Team golf will feed junior leagues and develop players at an influential part of their lives, between fourth and sixth grade, when they’re deciding which sport to do.”

A team can consist of two to six kids of any skill level from a facility. The team competes against other teams on 9-hole courses between 1,600 and 2,200 yards long. Plans call for 8-inch diameter holes, roughly twice the size of a regulation one. They play a two-person best-ball or scramble, accumulating points for the team.

“The idea with team golf is it’s completely relaxed,” explains Diegel. “One shot out of a bunker, and a nine-shot limit per hole. It’s not serious and competitive. It’s fun.” She envisions it turning into a family affair, with parents caddying or following kids as if it were a soccer or volleyball game.

If Team Golf is successful, the PGA plans to roll it out next summer at 27 different facilities with four tournaments in Colorado Springs and Denver.

Diegel’s other ideas include a mentoring program with women executives and young female golfers, since so many women’s golf scholarships go unclaimed.

Although Soriano focuses primarily on adult player development through national PGA Play Golf America programs such as the PGA Sports Academy and Get Golf Ready, he sees his job as tearing down the game’s barriers to entry across all ages. “We’ve done so much but we have such a long way to go,” he says. “It seems like everything we do makes us realize how much more we can do.”

For more information please visit coloradopga.com

 

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