USGA Boys and Girls Junior cancelled

[Noles]

Not surprised but a bummer nonetheless.

[leezer99]

When the USGA cares more about junior golfers than US Kids you know there's a problem.

[farmer]

No testing, no therapy, no vaccine, a good choice.

[chrissdc]

US kids is money maker. USGA Junior boys and girls are money losers. Every non USGA non pro event is a money loser.

Easy call for USGA,

[NRB1917]

Surely the USGA have absolutely no say in the running of US Kids Golf which is a private organisation responsible for making their own decisions?

[leezer99]

Yes, it was a comment on the priorities of each organization. USGA isn't running junior ams for the money so it was an easy decision to cancel. US Kids on the other hand will have a difficult time maintaining their current business model without a revenue stream so their priority is making $.

The question is, what does junior golf look like moving forward? Do we all start over playing sectional PGA events? I know in our area of SoCal you can play at any D1 with little to no AJGA, US Kids or FCG by getting to the Toyota Tour Cup (highest level of our local SoCal PGA) and solid scores in USGA qualifiers.

[tiger1873]

USGA will have no problem existing in 2021 and beyond and most events had to be moved or cancelled already.

Now when it come to US kids and really any junior golf tour that is not affiliated with larger golf organization they are in doubt in a very hard place.

I have gotten emails from some tours on how they need to raise money to stay in existence. We need to have junior golf tournaments soon or we run the real risk of losing a lot good opportunities. I really hope that US Kids can pull it off this year a lot us need that break this year.

 

[Kcct82]

I think USKG will be fine, they make bank selling clubs.

[tiger1873]

Going forward I wonder if that will be the case. If things don’t get better soon not many people will have $100 for a set never mind $500 plus for a kid under 10.

We are about to enter a serious economic crises and while none of us really knows how it is going to play out for all of us. The reality is junior golf is going to effected for a while. USGA will return but other big tournaments will never be the same.

[tiger1873]

Leezer I don’t think anyone can safely say what is going to happen going forward.

it does look like junior golf is going suffer a serious decline. Do kids return in a year or two. Who really knows at this point

from what I can see tournaments are going to see a huge decline with kids 14 and under. The result is we will have to travel more not less to get the numbers and competition you would see locally before everything. This is especially true for girls more then boys.

As for these so called golf phonons we will almost certainly see less of them and few of them drop out. Pretty hard for parents to push when money is tight and kids have other interests. The better ones will turn pro earlier because of finances.

 

just my opinion and I certainly don’t know but looking around and talking to different people it’s kind of where I see things are.

[leezer99]

Meanwhile US Kids just sent an email out offering 10% off their clubs through May 3rd. If that doesn't sound a bell I'm not sure what does but they'll survive in a different form. Far fewer local tours in my estimation.

[darter79]

It's hard to see USKG not having financial issues if they don't have worlds, its the reason that they haven't canceled it yet. They claim its 1500 kids times $300+. Easy math tell you that is where they make most of their money. They sell a lot of clubs but I wouldn't shock me people will not buy at the next size up right now. They may push it a bit. Junior golf will be in an interesting spot which is the reason I think USKG will do everything they can to NOT cancel worlds. I think it happens but its becomes smaller, and might loose its luster and maybe have the feel or a state event. There is a reason USKG hasn't canceled anything locals are still running ours is scheduling an event mid May that I'm told 100% is happening. Even the regionals all they did was move them to avoid refunds and such. The entire landscape will change a lot.

[JuniorGolfParent]

Some interesting comments on the IG post of USGA announcement of cancellation

Sounds like a lot of unhappy folks out there

[heavy_hitter]

Not really. There is not much of a profit center in selling Sporting Equipment Hard Goods.

[heavy_hitter]

My opinion is they did it for two reasons.

1) Travel

2) The kids in the northeast who won't be able to get to a qualifier.

 

I personally don't like the decision. It is the individual's decision if they want to play or not.