GOLF

The Europeans led by Sergio Garcia easily defeated the Americans in the 2018 Ryder Cup.

This is no surprise and there is an easy explanation. Team golf is embedded in the European golf culture where as individuality is engrained in our culture. With all due respect, there are layers of details in golf team culture strategy that no one in America knows about.

The only way I knew this was taking a trip to Europe in 1997. There is where I discovered this fact. Kids in Europe dream and pretend to participate in Ryder Cup matches where kids in this country dream about winning professional major championships or PGA Tour events.

Our American kids dream of individual golf whereas Europeans dream of team golf. At the club level, the captain of the club yields the most respect. This individual is typically a proven veteran of team golf formats. He or she is a golf legend in the community for golf team leadership skills.

Conversely, our golf club presidents are those who have the time to invest, business community earned community respect or leadership skills.

My point is this, American golf club foundational values and priorities do not include or even list team golf, while most traditional European golf clubs do. It starts with a team.

Team golf in our country is not very popular or high on the priority list. Part of the reason it’s carried the label of a “non-revenue” sport at the high school and college levels. It’s not an integral part of the recreation system.

The PGA of America has started a Junior League, and this is a step.

The Midlands “winter” answer to our Ryder Cup problem is the Irmo-Chapin Recreation Commission Winter Youth Golf Tour. This program started in 1993 with a “family team” construct of the parents caddying for the players to form the team.

Player plus caddy equals team.

Over the years, the program has evolved and there are numerous divisions and the younger ages all play team formats. The older and more skilled players will take part in both team and individual formats.

Part of the original purpose in the older and more skilled divisions was to prepare the players for high school golf spring season. The new format is a Grow Golf Now “Palmetto Youth Modified” and will be introduced this year. There has never been such a recreational format introduced and is in keeping with the program’s design purpose, recreational fun.

The Krapfel Family, Dick and his three sons, was one of the original motivational influences. The Lusk’s, George and Becky along with their kids, and the Healy’s, with their girls Allison and Meredith, at Columbia Country Club, Wildwood, and Coldstream Country Club.

For more info information please contact the ICRC at

(803) 772-3336 or (803) 345-6181.