Reed On The Greens, by Jeffrey Reed
July 20, 2018

According to the latest study from Golf Canada, while recent growth of the game has remained stagnant in our country, junior girls represent the largest growth group.

But there’s a big difference between grassroots growth and participation in tournament golf. Just ask the City of London’s golf director, Steve Bennett, who since 2016 has been convenor of the Junior Tyson Tour, celebrating its 50th anniversary season.

2017 Les Thomas girls division competitors (L-R) MacKenzie Mercer, Jordan Jarrett and winner Jillian Friyia of Highland Country Club. Photo: LondonOntarioGolf.com.

In fact, Bennett, who was Mike Weir’s coach at Huron Oaks Golf Club in Bright’s Grove, said it’s an even bigger task to keep girls involved in the game once they reach their later teenage years.

In 2017, in order to combat spiralling enrollment of junior girls, Bennett introduced a single – and hopefully stronger – division for all Tyson Tour female competitors. While 10 girls are registered this season, participation at the first four events has been dismal, with five or less girls competing in each of the events. The annual two-day Les Thomas Memorial Tournament at Thames Valley Golf Club July 23 and Fanshawe Golf Club July 24 will have a field of four girls, including last year’s girls champion Jillian Friyia of Highland Country Club.

Steve Bennett with Mike Weir at Huron Oaks, shortly after Weir’s first PGA Tour win in 1999. Photo: Jeffrey Reed.

In 2016, Bennett also introduced the Tyson Tour’s Pee Wee division, a three-stop tour played at Thames Valley’s Hickory 9 course where youngsters can get a taste of tournament golf.

“Even the Pee Wee golf attracts only a handful of girls,” Bennett said. “We have summer golf camps at Thames Valley, which draw about 45 kids, including 12 girls. So we are introducing them to the game. But for most of them, that’s as far as they want to go with golf. They’ll play with their friends if they also play golf, or with family, but that’s it.”

Friyia is among a small group of local elite junior girls competing at the provincial, national and international level. Strathroy’s Taylor Kehoe, a former member of the now-defunct Golf Ontario junior development program, followed her WOSSAA and OFSAA high school championships by capturing the Future Links Ontario Championship and finishing runner-up at the Ontario Junior Girls Championship.

But they are the exception, as was Tyson Tour grad Mackenzie Butzer of Chatham. Butzer, 23, led NCAA Division I Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida to four straight women’s team titles, and captured two straight individual titles at the PGA Minority Collegiate Championship. She was recently hired as a graduate assistant coach.

Mackenzie Butzer. Photo: PGA of America.

Mackenzie Butzer with 2013 Tyson Tour girls’ championship trophy. Photo: LondonOntarioGolf.com.

As an 18-year-old playing out of her home Maple City Country Club, Butzer won all seven of her 2013 Tyson Tour events and captured her third girls’ title (2010, 2012-13). Only London’s Ann Marie Kovacs captured that title three times, in 1991-93.

“I was actually recruited on the Tyson Tour,” said Butzer. “My former assistant coach (at Bethune-Cookman), Nick Wheeler, used to play on the Tyson Tour. He knew the courses we played, and he saw my scores. The Tyson Tour really helped me compete in other events, and made me the golfer I am today.”

Both Butzer and Bennett said the very fact that there are more junior boys golfing than there are junior girls makes it difficult to draw girls to tournament golf.

“I’m from a small town, and it could have been hard to find people to play with,” Butzer said, “but I played with the guys. I wasn’t intimidated, but most girls would be. They may be shy, or feel ashamed that they aren’t as good as the boys. Golf can be an expensive game, too. And there are so many other things for kids to do today. But my sister (11-year-old Hannah) competes on the Tyson Tour and is out golfing and practicing every day.”

According to Bennett, gone are the days when hundreds of kids are dropped off at the golf course each day to practice, have fun and compete against their peers – especially when it comes to junior girls.

This year, there are a total of 24 junior boys, 44 juvenile boys, 37 bantam boys and just 10 girls competing on the Tyson Tour.

“Keeping junior girls in the game has always been a problem since I’ve been involved with golf,” Bennett said, “and it will continue to be a problem. But we have to keep trying to attract them to the sport.”

It’s not an easy task, especially when promoting tournament golf. But with the many life lessons golf offers, it’s an important task for all industry stakeholders.

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Reed on the Greens is a three-time writing award winner, presented by the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. LondonOntarioGolf.com publisher and editor Jeffrey Reed is a long-time member of the London sports media, and a TaylorMade Golf Canada ambassador. His third book, History of the Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association, is now available for purchase. Reach Jeffrey at jeff@londonontariogolf.com.