Juniors

Juniors: how young golfers start.

Junior golf is growing. The R&A says junior growth helped drive its latest rise in global participation, and several long-running programmes exist to bring children into the game.

How many juniors play

The R&A's 2025 Global Participation Report, announced in an R&A article of 4 June 2026, counted 47.1 million junior golfers outside the United States and Mexico, up 3.2 million (about 6 percent) on the year before. Europe had the most, at 19.9 million. In the United States, the National Golf Foundation reported just under 4 million juniors playing on a course in 2025, 35 percent of them girls.

First Tee

First Tee was launched on 13 November 1997 with an announcement in Central Park, New York, by Augusta National, the LPGA, the PGA of America, the PGA TOUR and the USGA. Its February 2022 release, marking 25 years, reported:

nearly 150 chapters;
programmes at about 1,400 golf courses, 10,000 schools and 1,700 youth centres, in all 50 US states and some international locations including Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Morocco;
more than 2.2 million young people reached in 2021.

The same release says First Tee's board of governors is chaired by the PGA TOUR Commissioner. According to Wikipedia, First Tee serves children aged 5 to 18 and in 2019 became a nonprofit corporation, the PGA Tour First Tee Foundation, based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The sources disagree on its reach: Wikipedia claims more than 3.6 million young people a year, a figure it marks as needing a citation, while First Tee's own release gives 2.2 million for 2021.

LPGA*USGA Girls Golf

Girls Golf says it was founded in 1989 in Phoenix, Arizona, by LPGA teaching professional Sandy LaBauve, starting with 10 programmes. It now runs in more than 500 US communities, reaches about 80,000 girls a year and has reached more than 500,000 since it began. Its approach is games-based, putting a social element before instruction.

Drive, Chip and Putt

Drive, Chip and Putt is a junior competition that, according to the Golf Range Association, was formed in 2013 by the Masters Tournament, the USGA and the PGA of America for boys and girls aged 7 to 15. Local, sub-regional and regional qualifying rounds lead to national finals at Augusta National on the eve of the Masters, which bring 80 finalists, 40 boys and 40 girls, to the course.

MyGolf (Australia)

MyGolf is Golf Australia's programme for children aged 5 to 12. Golf Australia said in February 2025 that it began in 2014, runs at more than 400 clubs and facilities a year, and had a record 36,636 participants in 2023/24, with 222,201 children over ten years. Almost 80 percent of MyGolf programmes are delivered by PGA Professionals. Another report gives 36,643 registrations for 2023/24, but that figure comes from a search summary and could not be confirmed.

Golf in schools (Great Britain and Ireland)

In Great Britain and Ireland, the Golf Foundation runs HSBC Golf Roots, which links schools with golf clubs and uses Tri-Golf, an easy introductory version of the game. Golf Business News reported that in 2013 more than 9,000 schools offered golf linked to the programme.

Girls and young women

The R&A's Women in Golf Charter aims to increase the participation of women and girls in golf and the work opportunities for women in the sport. Its signatories include the European Tour, The PGA and, from August 2020, the Faldo Series. In the US, girls made up 35 percent of on-course junior golfers in 2025, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The same Rules, the same handicap system

Juniors play under the same 2023 Rules of Golf, in effect from 1 January 2023, as everyone else, with the same expectations under Rule 1.2a: act with integrity, show consideration to others (including looking out for their safety and shouting a warning such as "fore" if a shot might hit someone), and take care of the course. Handicapping works the same way too. The R&A (2020) sets the maximum Handicap Index at 54.0 regardless of gender, and the Emirates Golf Federation's version of the rules (Rule 5.3) adds that this applies regardless of age. The 2024 revisions to the World Handicap System allowed tees as short as 1,500 yards for 18 holes, or 750 yards for 9, to be rated, which the R&A says brings thousands of shorter and par-3 courses into handicapping.

Where to go next

The getting started page covers the general route into the game, and juniors and seniors in the technique section sets out what coaches and researchers say about teaching young players. Neither replaces lessons from a qualified golf professional.

Sources