For 10 lucky pairs of grandchildren ages 13-16, each with a grandparent in tow, Camp Villages provided a one-hour interactive putting clinic with PGA teaching professional, Wade Martin, at The Villages Golf Academy, located at the Arnold Palmer Legends Country Club on Tuesday.
More than half of the young people had played golf before, and several Villagers described their grandkids as being fairly good at golf. But for about one third of Tuesday’s participants, the Camp Villages session was their first time picking up a golf club.
Wade Martin kept the pace relaxed — no stress, no competition — as he demonstrated proper handle grips for both lefties and righties — proper stance — and gentle putting motions. Recreation Department coordinator, Scott Grimes, who organized the session, used humor to introduce his friend, Martin, as being “funny sometimes, sometimes not!”
After watching Martin for a short while, each teen and grandparent picked up four golf balls and got to work. Following Martin’s recommendation to practice some long and short putts before trying to score, the youngsters did pretty well — with some quiet cheers heard as each put a golf ball into the cup.
“If you’re pretty far away from the hole, use your first putt to get closer to the hole rather than to going directly for the cup,” Martin recommended, “and remember to move only your arms and shoulders — not your hands.” Martin showed the group how he putted the ball way too far when he moved his hands and bent his arms at the wrists. “See — when I moved my hands, I overshot the hole a lot,” he said.
Martin asked one grandmother to toss three golf balls to him, using an underhand throw. As she did that, Martin quickly backed farther and farther away, prompting the lady to move her arms back further and further to reach him with each longer throw.
“You need to do the same thing with putting,” Martin said. “The longer the distance you need to putt to the hole, the more you have to back up your arms and shoulders for the putt. It’s kind of intuitive — you’ll probably just do it naturally — without thinking.”
Some of the Camp Villagers made frequent trips to the Rec Department’s cooler for cold drinks of water. The temperature was already above 85 humid degrees before the 10 a.m. start time. “Maybe next year we should start earlier,” Scott Grimes said, “and also, please let us know if you have any ideas for new and different things we can do next year during Camp Villages. We’re already thinking about adding a zip line — maybe up in Ocala.”
Jim O’Connell, who lives in Haciendas of Mission Hills, said his granddaughter, Lauren Ifkovits, 14, who hails from Danbury, Conn., has been golfing pretty well. “We came in tenth in last year’s [Camp Villages grandparent / grandchild] teen scramble, out of about thirty pairs, when Lauren was only 13,” he said. “I hope we do even better in next week’s tournament.”
Villager Mike Ingraham, who moved here from Trenton, Michigan, brought his grandson, Nicky Yohn, from Lady Lake, to putt for the first time. “Trenton is about half an hour from Detroit and half an hour from Toledo, Ohio,” Ingraham said. “But we love living in The Villages — we’d never move back up north,” he confided with a smile. “Everything’s so great here.”
Sabal Chase Villager, Maryann Goniea, brought her daughter, Michelle Hnasko, son-in-law, Randy, and teen grandkids Casey and Kayla, to improve their putting. Goniea’s family is visiting from Raritan, New Jersey.
“Raritan is about in the middle of the state,” Randy Hnasko said, “near Bridgewater.” The Hnaskos left two younger children, Riley, 11, and Brady, 9, at home. “Riley wants us to look at houses here,” Maryann said. “She’s serious. She loves central Florida and wants to move down.” “She isn’t getting much opposition from the other kids,” her daughter Michelle added. “We’re all having a great time at Grandma’s.”
Tuesday’s Putting Clinic was the second Just for Teens Camp Villages golf instruction offering, following the ‘Full Swing Clinic’ held on June 10. That interactive hour-long interactive clinic taught the fundamentals of grip, stance and posture for driving a golf ball; and the mechanics of the full golf swing.
During the month of June, other Camp Villages Just for Teens activities included the E-Flyers Extravaganza, which puts the kids hands-on with radio-controlled model aircraft; several interactive Cooking Demos with top City Fire chefs; Colored Pencil Painting sessions; a Billiards Clinic; Platform Tennis instruction, Dragon Boating and Kayaking at Silver Springs in Ocala.
Check the Camp Villages catalog for upcoming Just for Teens activities in July and early August, including repeats of some of the June events. A second ‘Full Swing Clinic’ is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15, and the second ‘Putting Clinic’ will happen on Tuesday, Aug.4.
On July 7 at The Villages Heron executive golf course, a Grandchild/Grandparent Golf Scramble is on tap, with the first tee times at 2:05 p.m., for up to 34 pairs of grandkids, ages 13-16, and a grandparent. This will be Scott Grimes’ sixth year running that scramble. “We have a few slots still open,” he announced, “so there’s still time to sign up.”
In case of rain, the Scramble will be held the following day, July 8, same time and place. The awards luncheon is planned for July 9 at Churchill Street Recreation Center from noon until 2 p.m. “The prizes are really neat,” Grimes added.
