Starting from square one
Published 9:26 pm Thursday, July 23, 2015
Attempting to properly and accurately hit a golf ball with little to no experience would ordinarily be a daunting task, but six young golfers this week went to the perfect place to do it — the Suffolk Youth Golf Clinic at Nansemond River Golf Club.
The club’s PGA professional Mark Lambert and Suffolk Christian Academy golf coach Mike Bigony served as instructors for the six participants, four girls and two boys. The group, which featured a range of 4- to 14-year-olds, was smaller than the one Lambert and Bigony taught last year.
“It’s more like private lessons,” Lambert said of this year’s clinic. “I think it’s good for the ones who came, I’ll tell you that. They’ve all improved a lot.”
The weather became more bearable at the end of the three-day clinic that met from 10 to 11 a.m. each day.
“Monday and Tuesday was crazy hot, it was miserable,” Lambert said on Wednesday. “It’s a lot better now.”
Lambert and Bigony each focused on different facets of the game in their instruction.
“Mike’s worked on the full swing with them, and I’ve done chipping and putting,” Lambert said. “I showed them bunkers. We didn’t actually hit in the bunker; I don’t think they’re quite ready for that.”
Suffolk’s Zachary Cain, 14, was taking part in golf for the first time.
“It’s been real fun,” he said of the clinic. “I’ve actually learned some stuff and how to enjoy the game.”
He said he learned “how to take your time and also how to take different shots from different lengths.”
His mother, Katherine Cain, followed his progress over the three days and said, “He’s gotten better at hitting the long distance balls, and he’s been explaining to his father how to improve his game.”
Zachary is more into baseball, but he said he may play more golf in the future just for fun.
“The instructors were really great,” Katherine Cain said. “They were very patient with the kids and really helped them out a lot.”
Bigony was excited to have the opportunity to instruct the young participants.
“I wish we had them for three weeks straight,” he said. “Then, they would get into it if we had four days, then a couple days off, four days, couple days off, four days. Then we’d be ready to go out on the golf course. It just takes a while.”
Alyce Bass of Ivor and Anna McLeod of Suffolk noticed that the exposure their young daughters had gotten to golf through the brief clinic had been enough to grab their interest.
“Our girls started with zero experience,” McLeod said.
Bass added, “The fact that they want to come back every morning says a lot.”
Twelve-year-old Emily McLeod and 11-year-old Chloe Bass were shy about sharing their perspective on the clinic, but 14-year-old Danielle Ummels of Suffolk noted she learned how to properly grip the club and hit the ball.
As for her favorite between chipping, putting and driving, Ummels said, “I liked the driving range.”
Landon Haskell, who turned 5 on July 23, said his favorite thing about the clinic was “hitting the bean bag thing.”
The “hitting bag,” as Lambert calls it, is a tool to train young golfers how to swing properly as they try to hit it in the proper place and in the proper way.
Landon said the instructor wanted him to hit it “because then I would be more better at golfing.”
“He kills that impact bag,” Bigony said.
Bigony noted a long-term benefit of the clinic for the six participants this year.
“If none of them ever touch another golf club until they’re 30, they’re going to have the feeling of it in their brain,” he said. “They’ll have the motion, and that’s the big thing.”