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Four Tips From Charlie Woods & Other Junior PGA Championship Rising Stars
By Brendon Elliott, PGA
Published on
The 50th Junior PGA Championships bring 312 of the best young players in the game to Fields Ranch East and West at PGA Frisco this week.
Charlie Woods returns after tying for ninth last year. Jaden Soong enters as the highest-ranked boy in the field. Iris Lee arrives after becoming the youngest champion in the 99-year history of the Women’s Western Junior. Brevin Bennett, a Class of 2030 player from Norwich, New York, is one of the youngest boys competing.
These players are being asked to handle the same problems everyday golfers face: distractions, imperfect greens, late-round fatigue and unfamiliar putting surfaces. Better players usually have a clear response ready before the problem appears.
That is where the lesson begins.
Charlie Woods: Know When to Step Away
Understandably, being Charlie Woods and the son of Tiger comes with many advantages. As the golf world has seen, however, there are disadvantages too that come with carrying the Woods’ name. Charlie has handled that aspect of being in the spotlight very well.
Golfers cannot control every sound or movement around them, but they can control what happens before the club starts back.
I see players recognize a distraction, stay over the ball anyway and almost dare themselves to hit. Once your attention leaves the shot, reset.
If the distraction happens before the takeaway, step away. Starting over is not weakness. It is discipline.
Jaden Soong: Practice the Green You Actually Get
After winning the Southern California Junior Amateur, Soong described putting well despite bumpy greens. His focus was on making good strokes and rolling the ball properly instead of expecting a perfect surface.
That is a mature approach many adults never develop.
Most golfers practice six-footers from the smoothest section of the green they can find. I would rather have you spend part of the session on a rougher, less predictable area.
- Find a slightly worn or imperfect six-foot putt.
- Place a tee 18 inches beyond the hole.
- Hit 10 putts with enough pace to finish between the cup and the tee if the ball misses.
- Your goal is seven of 10 that either go in or finish inside that window, with none stopping short.
Set your grip pressure at about 4 on a 1-to-10 scale and let the putter reach a natural finish. Judge the stroke by start direction and pace. A late bounce belongs to the green, not your technique.
Iris Lee: Protect Your Motion When Fatigue Arrives
Lee won the Women’s Western Junior at 13 years and 6 months after four match-play victories. Following the final, she acknowledged that her legs were exhausted. She still finished with a controlled two-putt on the 18th green.
Fatigue makes golfers swing harder because they feel the ball will not travel far enough. In my experience, that usually produces poorer contact, less balance and more effort.
The on-course rule is simple: When heat, walking or a long day changes your motion, take one more club and reduce effort. If you cannot hold the finish, shorten the swing before adding speed.
Brevin Bennett: Measure Grain Instead of Guessing
Brevin spends most of his golf in upstate New York, where he rarely sees grainy bermudagrass. At Fields Ranch, he is dealing with a different putting puzzle, and it has been one of our talking points leading into the championship.
Bermudagrass can show grain, but slope still has the greatest influence. Golfers get into trouble when grain folklore overrules what the ground is showing them.
The fastest way to learn an unfamiliar surface is to get the actual roll down.
I have stressed this with Brevin because guessing that grain always follows the sun or nearby water is unreliable. Read slope first. Then fine-tune speed and the final few feet of break, so you have the whole picture on an unfamiliar surface.
The point is not to copy these junior golfers' swing. It is to notice how good players prepare for specific demands.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on R.org and his stories on Athlon Sports. To stay updated on his latest work, sign up for his newsletter and visit OneMoreRollGolf.com.
