MyGolf: Australia's National Junior Golf Program Explained

What MyGolf is, who runs it, who it is for, and what to ask before signing a child up for Australia's national junior introductory program.

If you have started looking into golf for a young child in Australia, MyGolf is the name you will meet first. It is the national introductory program, and for a large share of Australian junior golfers it is where they hit their first ball in an organised setting.

Here is what it is, how it fits with everything else, and the questions worth asking your local venue before signing up.

What MyGolf is

MyGolf is Australia's national junior program, and Golf Australia's own published description of it sets out the essentials: it is aimed at girls and boys aged 5 to 12; it is administered by Golf Australia together with the PGA of Australia; it is delivered by accredited coaches; and participants can receive an enrolment pack containing a club, cap, string bag and ball.

The stated goal is to increase participation and engagement in golf among children, with the sessions built around skills development and the social, fun side of the game rather than technical instruction.

One honest caveat before you read further. Program details - session length, the number of weeks, price, and exactly what is included - are set at the delivering venue and change between seasons, and Golf Australia's own site is the place to confirm the current arrangements. Nothing on this page should be treated as the current price or schedule at your club.

Why an introductory program beats starting alone

• The equipment problem is solved for you - a first club and a ball come with it, so nothing is bought before you know whether the interest lasts
• It is delivered by accredited coaches, so early habits are formed with someone who works with children
• It is a group, which is what most children actually want. Golf can be a lonely sport to start on your own
• It creates a connection to a venue, which is what makes the next step possible
• Etiquette and safety are taught from the first session rather than learned by embarrassment later

Who it suits, and who it does not

The 5 to 12 age range is broad, and a five-year-old and a twelve-year-old are not in the same session. Most venues run age or ability groupings, and it is worth asking how yours splits them.

If your child is older than twelve, or is already playing regularly and looking for structured improvement, an introductory program is not the right entry point - a junior coaching group, an academy program or club junior membership will suit better.

How to weigh those options is set out in how to choose between junior golf programs.

Questions worth asking your local venue

• What ages are in the group my child would join, and how many children per coach?
• How long is each session, how many sessions, and what happens if we miss one?
• What is included, and is there anything we need to bring or buy?
• Is the coach a PGA professional or an accredited deliverer, and have they worked with this age group?
• What happens at the end - is there a next program, a junior membership, or a playing group to join?
• Can parents watch, and would you rather we did or did not?

That last question saves a lot of awkwardness. Some coaches want parents at a distance so children engage with them directly; others are happy for you to be involved.

What usually comes next

The most common failure point in junior golf is not the first program - it is the gap afterwards. A child finishes a set of introductory sessions, nothing is booked, and three months later the clubs are in the garage.

Ask about the next step before the program finishes, not after. In most cases it is one of four things: a follow-on coaching group, a junior club membership, a regular junior playing day, or a holiday clinic to bridge a school break.

Our directory lists junior holiday clinics and camps that fill exactly that gap.

And for the longer view of where junior golf leads, see state junior golf pathways.

How to find a program near you

Programs are delivered at clubs, public courses and driving ranges, so the venue nearest you may not be the club you have driven past for years. Golf Australia's official site carries the current program finder, and that is the authoritative place to search.

Alongside that, our course directory records which venues have junior programs on file, and our coach directory lists coaches who work with juniors, which is useful when a venue's own page is out of date.

If there is no program nearby

Plenty of regional and outer-suburban families are not within reach of a delivering venue. That is not the end of the road.

• Ask the nearest club directly - many run their own junior sessions without them being nationally badged
• Ask about a junior membership, which at many clubs costs very little and includes access to practice facilities
• Look at holiday clinics, which draw from a wider area and can be worth a longer drive a few times a year
• Start at home. Putting and chipping in a backyard is real golf practice, and it costs nothing

There is more on making it work from a distance in golf on a budget for regional and rural families.

What it costs to go further

An introductory program is deliberately cheap; the questions come after it. What junior golf actually costs, line by line, is set out in the cost of junior golf.

What a session usually looks like

Parents arriving at a first session are often surprised by how little it resembles adult golf, and that is deliberate. Introductory sessions for this age group are built around games with a golf skill hidden inside them - targets to hit, relays, points for landing in a zone - rather than a line of children hitting balls off mats.

• Groups rather than individual instruction, usually split by age or ability
• Short activities rotated regularly, because attention spans are the real constraint
• Modified equipment and shortened distances so children make contact and see success
• Putting and chipping early, because they produce results immediately
• Etiquette and safety woven in rather than lectured

If you watch a session and see children laughing and moving rather than being corrected, that is the program working as designed, not a lack of rigour.

What to bring on the first day

• A hat and sunscreen - non-negotiable at almost any Australian venue
• A water bottle, and more of it than you think in summer
• Closed shoes with a flat sole; golf shoes are not needed to start
• Comfortable clothes they can swing in - check whether the venue has a dress code for children
• Clubs if you have them, though a program that provides a club will say so

Sun protection deserves a plan of its own on an Australian summer morning - see sun safety for junior golfers.

If your child is nervous about the first session

Very common, and usually fixed by information rather than encouragement. Drive past the venue beforehand, tell them exactly what will happen and for how long, and let them know that everyone there is starting too. Arriving five minutes early to look around beats arriving on time to a group that has already formed.

If nerves are a recurring theme rather than a one-off, building confidence in a shy junior golfer goes further.

The one thing that matters most

The one thing that matters most

Whether a child continues has far more to do with whether they had fun and made a friend than with anything technical. An introductory program is built around that, which is exactly why it works - and it is the standard to hold any alternative to as well.