Rewarding a Junior Golfer’s Commitment and Attitude with Opportunities to Develop

manageable for us, and enjoyable for junior players of all ages.

The beginning of our Year 3 in existence changed EVERYTHING for us! It was the year that we became The Claret Junior Tour and the year that, my wife Fiona and I, made our own personal resolutions to operate our tour entirely by ourselves and in a manner that would ultimately make us feel better about the roles we play when introducing kids to tournament golf.

We made some big changes to how we operate and it started with a confirmation to all of our existing players and parents that we would ALWAYS work hard to offer them what we call “FamilyAffordable” and nationally ranked tournaments at great venues throughout Central Florida.

Golf is NOT an inexpensive sport to play and if your junior feels they are ready to compete against others the financial commitment required by that youngster’s family can be huge. Equipment, coaching and travel are significant costs and then on top of that tournament entry fees can run well into several hundred dollars for just one weekend of play at a popular venue!

This is a key area that we looked at closely. We already mentioned our commitment to always be “Family-Affordable” to all and this undoubtedly helps with costs to families and therefore helps all young players to play more regularly. In our view though we believed that, in some individual cases, we could go even further and help even more.

In January 2022, and with the financial help of some amazing local business sponsors, who all wanted to help juniors in golf to succeed, we announced our first draft of Claret Junior Tour Annual Player Scholarship awards.

When we award a junior player a Scholarship we are giving them the opportunity to compete for a year at no cost to their family. Regardless of where we play and the cost our Scholarship juniors costs are covered by us, or in some cases by a secondary business or personal sponsor. In real $$ savings if a player chooses to play in every tournament we host a saving of up to $1500 can be achieved by his/her family.

As well as a cost saving we also provide each with branded Claret Junior Tour apparel. When they compete they are representing The Claret Tour and as such they should do so while wearing our badge on their shirt.

Our Scholarship recipients are VERY carefully chosen. It may surprise some to know that while playing ability is important it is NOT a guarantee of a Scholarship Award. Our own personal preference is always based initially on a junior golfer’s behaviors, attitude and commitment to their sport. In this case character is more important than ability.

Each of them shares the same values. They are ALL great ambassadors for junior golf and our tour. They are all humble, honest

“Being sponsored has allowed me to become a better golfer by pushing me to be better on and off the course. Having a sponsor has challenged me because I want to make my sponsor proud. I work hard on improving my score but also working on my sportsmanship to honor this great sport” and talented young players who are highly committed to the game and they all have a desire to improve and develop. Their standards are high, and their behavior is impeccable. These are values handed down to us in golf and we firmly believe that if our kids can learn to practice them they will in turn become better young people, and ultimately better young adults in future.

One year on from the date of our first award and we now have 8 junior golfers of all ages, boys and girls, currently receiving scholarship support. They are our most regular attending players despite the fact that we do not insist on them playing in all of our tournaments. Our preference is of course that they play regularly even if that means on other junior tours, we do also actively encourage them to participate in our state golf association junior events (FSGA/FJT) as we believe these events give juniors the very best opportunities to test themselves

Aiden’s Sponsor is David Ring, Golf Cutlery Gifts (golfcutlerygifts.com), custom engraving accessories for use in Tournaments, Corporate, and Award Gifting.

“We are proud, honored and grateful that our son is a sponsored player with the Claret Junior Tour. This opportunity allows Aiden to continuously play in tournaments while relieving the financial burden of entry fees. As parents, this allows us to use those funds towards lessons golf equipment, etc. For Aiden, having a sponsor pushes him to work even harder in all aspects of the game, knowing someone other than Mom and Dad believe in his abilities. We are beyond grateful for the opportunity provided by the tour and his sponsor!” in large field events and against the very best in the state.

This program has been a huge success so far and we hope to be able to continue making these awards for many years to come. We would like our current group of 8 players to become 10 or 12 or even more, we certainly have no shortage of worthy youngsters to offer these to as last year we welcomed over 1000 player entries to our tournaments however we cannot do so without help from local business and personal supporters of the process.

Currently 5 of our 8 juniors have either a business or a personal sponsor involved who subsidize the cost of us providing a Scholarship. They choose to help because they share our thoughts on the effect golf can have on kids. If YOU want to help us recognize even more of our juniors by providing YOUR support please get in touch. We would be delighted to talk with you about the possibilities.