Junior golf practice plans by age.

Start from the development stage

The American Development Model for golf, published by USA Golf, sets out stages by age, with girls moving through most stages a year or so earlier than boys. The early stages put movement and fun ahead of technique: FUNdamentals, for girls 6 to 8 and boys 6 to 9, emphasizes general movement skills before golf-specific work. Learn to Play, for girls 8 to 11 and boys 9 to 12, is where golf skills come into focus. The table below lists every stage.

The stage tells you how to weight a session. A seven-year-old needs games, movement, and lots of short, successful attempts. A thirteen-year-old in Play to Improve can handle a structured drill block and a skills test. Plan by stage first and by the day's skill second.

Clinic structure

A junior clinic of 60 to 90 minutes follows five parts. A dynamic warm-up and movement game gets everyone moving. A station rotation covers putting, around the green, and full swing, with 12 to 15 minutes at each. A skill challenge gives every kid a score they can record. Short on-course play, or a mock hole on the range, lets the skills meet a real target. And a recap for parents says what the group worked on, the score, and what to practice at home.

Stations keep kids hitting instead of waiting. A clinic where each child hits a hundred balls teaches more than one where each child hits thirty and watches the rest, so design for repetitions per child first.

A 90-minute clinic plan, block by block

Written for eight juniors aged 9 to 12 and one coach, or sixteen juniors with two coaches.

0:00 to 0:10, warm-up. A movement game: tag with a putter-free zone, or a relay that ends with a putt. Energy up, bodies warm.

0:10 to 0:25, station one, putting. The gate drill for start line, then the clock drill: twelve balls around the hole at 3 feet, hole all twelve before moving on.

0:25 to 0:40, station two, around the green. Chipping to a towel landing zone, then chips to three holes from three lies.

0:40 to 0:55, station three, full swing. Half swings to a large target, alignment sticks for aim, a point for each ball finishing inside a marked zone.

0:55 to 1:10, skill challenge. The ladder drill or Par 18, one score per child, written down.

1:10 to 1:25, play. Two or three short holes from forward tees, or a mock hole on the range: tee shot to a zone, chip to a green, putt out.

1:25 to 1:30, recap. What we worked on, each child's score, and one thing to practice at home. Send the same recap to parents.

For a 60-minute version, keep the warm-up and challenge, cut stations to 10 minutes each, and move play to every other week.

Coach ratios

Chambers Bay Academy publishes its junior ratios: 8:1 for intermediate juniors, 6:1 for advanced, and 4:1 for its top group. Those are useful reference points. Younger beginners can work at 8:1 when the plan is games-heavy; players doing technical work need smaller groups so each one gets real feedback. If a clinic regularly runs above its ratio, the stations are where it shows first, with kids waiting and hitting less.

Games kids can score

Scored games give juniors a number they can beat, which keeps practice engaging and gives you something to record. The clock drill: twelve balls in a circle at 3 feet, hole them all; score the number holed in a row. The ladder drill: putts at about 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 feet, holed is a birdie, stopping between the hole and a club behind it is par, anything short or reaching the club is bogey; the goal is one under for five balls. Par 18: nine spots around a practice green, chip and putt out from each, par 2 per hole, target 18.

Run each the same way every time, with the same distances and the same scoring, so a score in March compares with a score in June.

Level-based progress

Two widely used junior programs are built around visible levels. The U.S. Kids Golf Player Pathway has ten levels, each covering putting, around the green, full swing, knowledge, and scoring, with skills checkpoints and a pin at each level, a Gold Star at Level 5, and Platinum Player at Level 10. Operation 36 has juniors play nine holes from forward level tees, starting 25 yards from the hole, then 50, 100, 150, and 200 yards, then the full tee box; shooting 36 or better for nine holes moves a player up a level. Operation 36 reports more than 825 clubs using its program.

Both work for the same reason: a child can see exactly where they are and what the next step is. A coach running their own curriculum can get the same effect with a small set of scored games repeated monthly and kept on a record the family can see.

On-course play from forward tees

Kids should play holes early, from tees short enough that they can reach greens and make pars. Operation 36's first level starts at 25 yards per hole. A clinic can do the same with two or three short holes after the stations, or a mock hole on the range if the course is busy. Keep score. A junior who shoots 36 from 25 yards has a concrete goal for the next level, and a parent has something to watch that is not a full round.

Home practice for parents

A parent can run a useful 15-minute session at home or on a practice green without knowing any technique. Five minutes of the gate drill on a carpet or practice green, counting putts through the gate out of ten. Five minutes of the clock drill at 3 feet. Five minutes of a game: the ladder drill, or putting to a coin. Write each score down. For young kids, 15 to 30 minutes is plenty; for teenagers working toward events, the coach should set the plan and the time.

The season plan

Outdoor golf is seasonal across much of the U.S. NGF research ties simulator use to shorter seasons, with the highest simulator adoption in the Midwest and North. A junior season plan can use that: outdoor months for on-course play and full swing, indoor months for putting, wedge distance control on a mat, and simulator sessions where available. Run the same skills test at the start and end of each block so families see the winter work pay off in spring.

Leagues and events

PGA Jr. League runs team golf in 9u, 13u, and 17u divisions, captained by PGA coaches, in a two-person scramble format that keeps pressure low and play fast. At Penn State the cost is a $120 annual player fee to the PGA plus a $325 local program fee. For juniors ready for stroke play, local and state junior tours offer individual events; many require a Handicap Index, so check each event's rules.

Showing parents progress

Parents pay for junior golf but rarely watch it. The programs that keep families build the progress picture into the product: Operation 36 pushes level-ups to families, and U.S. Kids Golf hands out pins. An independent coach can do the same with a short recap after each clinic and a monthly skills test kept on a record. On Upswing, each junior has a record with their benchmark scores charted over time, attendance, your notes, and a practice assignment for the week. The family portal shows the parent their own child's record and nothing about anyone else's. Golf starter benchmarks and clinic plans are included, so the first test day does not start from a blank page.

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