Local youth program helps kids get into swing of golf

PALMER — Golfers across the Valley are teeing up for the same goal — to beat their parents.

Just ask Kiley Fish.

Fish has improved her golf game, driving the ball higher and farther than most girls her age, or boys for that matter. Fish is a multiple-sport athlete whose talent on the links comes as natural as a transition from hockey. Originally introduced to the sport by her father, her goal is a common one.

“I do it so I can beat my dad. I haven’t beat him, at least not yet,” Fish said.

She is one of 12 golfers ages 6-16 who are part of Joe and Allegra Butler’s youth golf program at Palmer Golf Course. The program has been running for 12 years, but youth golf has been taught at PGC for decades, Allegra Butler said.

The Butlers tutor kids on the basics of a golf swing, and said they feel that just being active in the sport teaches unique life lessons.

“Have you ever hit a golf ball and it was just perfect? You remember that feeling? It’s no different for them. They hit that one shot and they’re hooked forever,” Joe Butler said.

Joe Butler said a golf swing is very simple. That successful feeling of accomplishing a good golf shot is what drives youths to focus and work hard at improving their swings. When the kids persevere through failure, they learn valuable lessons Butler said he feels are unique to the game of golf.

“Golf is one of the only games you’ll ever play where you’ll call penalties on yourself,” Butler said. “It teaches you integrity, discipline and character. It is about building them as people. But we still have to make it fun, too.”

The program is not performance-based, but Butler said many of his golfers could go on to further their education while playing golf.

“There is the misconception that the golf swing is complicated, but it’s not,” Butler said. “Grip, alignment, stance, posture is the acronym we teach. You don’t have to play scratch golf to get a scholarship. I tell a lot of these kids and their parents to stick with it, it’s a great way to further their education doing something they love to do.”

Butler has taught youth golf for nine years in multiple settings. He hopes to gain local support for a national program called Hook A Kid On Golf. The program introduces kids to golf for the first time and provides them with a starter set of clubs, as well as teaches drug awareness and community involvement. More than 50,000 golfers across the country have completed the program. Butler said it helps kids become more likely to continue playing golf past its completion.

A pair of local youth golf phenoms, Madison and Rynae Baca, made headlines recently by qualifying for the upcoming U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links tournament in New Jersey. Beating their father, Roger Baca, is among the many accolades the Baca sisters have earned on the links.

Fish is not there yet, but is not too far off, either.

Junior golf lessons are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Palmer Golf Course. For more information or to sign up for the next session, contact Joe Butler at 745-4653.

Contact Tim Rockey at 352-2252 or tim.rockey@frontiersman.com. Follow @trockeynews on Twitter.