Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas –
Children at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph learned how to
play golf or bettered their golf skills at the Randolph Oaks Golf Course Junior
Golf Camp held June 15-19.
Forty children, ages 6 to 13, took lessons from volunteer
instructors and played a few holes on the course on the last day of the camp.
Clay Kauha, Randolph Oaks Golf Course pro shop manager, said
the number of students in the camp increased from 2014, when 25 youngsters
participated. The golf course members have hosted the junior golf camp for 20
years.
During the week-long camp, Kauha said the young golfers
learned a variety of basic golf skills, including the proper mechanics for
holding and swinging a club and iron, chipping and putting, golf safety and
etiquette and sportsmanship.
He said the camp is geared towards children who are both
beginning and experienced golfers and to help them maintain their interest in
golf.
“We do this every year,” Kauha said. “It’s a lot of fun.
This is to help promote the game. Hopefully, they will get involved and get
their parents involved.”
In addition to teaching the students golf skills, Kauha said
instructors made the camp fun for the children by holding putting contests on
the putting green in which the golfer whose ball was closest to the hole
received a prize, including a sleeve of golf balls or a golf towel.
Kauha said instructors allowed the young golfers to play a
few holes on the last day of the camp so that they could experience what it was
like to play on a real course.
Justin Sandmann, 13 years old, Vittoria Castagnetto, 11
years old, both participated in the camp.
Sandmann said the skills he learned from the camp will help
improve his golf game when he plays with his father, Capt. Chad Sandmann, who
works at San Antonio Military Medical Center at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston.
“I’ve learned more about putting and chipping than I knew
before,” he said.
Sandmann said he plays golf because he finds the sport both
relaxing and fun.
Castagnetto said she is looking forward to playing with her
father and brother once she completed the camp. Her favorite part of the camp,
she said, was when she got to hit golf balls on the long range to work on her
concentration.
“I learned how to grip and how to hit properly,” Castagnetto
said.
Castagnetto said the camp’s instructors were always willing
work with her to improve her golf skills.
Billy Houston, a volunteer camp instructor, said he attended
junior golf camp when he was 10 and 11 years old. By participating in the camp,
Houston said it sparked his interest in golf, which led him to play on the golf
team at Clemens High School in
Schertz and currently on the golf team at the
University of Texas at Dallas, where he will be a sophomore in the fall.
This is Houston’s first year volunteering as an instructor
at the junior golf camp.
“I like it because I see a lot of myself in these kids,” he
said. “I want them to have the same realization I had that you can play golf
the rest of your life. I made some friends and established some bonds. I
wouldn’t be the same person if I hadn’t started playing golf seriously.”