Would a middle school golf program make Monroe County schools more competitive?

When high school girls’ golf season arrives each August, Brian Muehlhaus and Garry Lee begin to feel like they are coaching with persimmon golf clubs in a graphite and titanium world.

Every season is guaranteed to bring a spate of players who are almost totally new to the game.

This year, several members of Muehlhaus’ Bloomington North team had never played a round of competitive golf. Lee has his fair share as well on his Edgewood roster and even South’s Jim Southern and Dustin Carver, who have an unofficial junior program they started a couple years ago, still see raw golfers as well.

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Few other high school coaches in Monroe County have to deal with so much of each team starting from scratch.

“We don’t have middle school golf,” Muehlhaus said. “The kids don’t get exposed to golf early on, so you really struggle with that.

“I sat down a few years ago and I figured that, when I was still coaching the boys, 85% of all the boys and girls I’ve coached were beginners, essentially, as freshmen. The fact is, it’s hard to compete when you’re a beginning golfer. Everybody around here has got middle school golf but Monroe County and that’s sad to me.”

Competitive golfers need self-determination

With no feeder system in place, the fortunes of the golf teams at North, South and Edgewood wax and wane in numbers and talent.

Golf is an expensive sport, with the price of clubs, balls, other equipment, greens fees and club memberships adding up. And exposing younger players to competitive situations isn’t cheap either.

So in the Bloomington area, it comes down to a certain amount of self-determination to begin preparing for a high school golfing career with no formal development programs. The number of players who do that is hit and miss each year.

“I give way more lessons than a high school golf coach ought to give,” Lee said. “Most of the girls who play for us, you look at Candice Rosemeier, she plays basketball and softball, they are busy every season.

“But many of them have never done much more than go out with (their) dad once or twice. I feel like I’m teaching the golf swing more than I ever would.”

Even a lesson or two before the season would be a huge help, Muehlhaus said, and send a message that they are taking the sport seriously and wanting to improve and fight for a varsity spot.

But as individuals, each of them has different motivations for being on the team and thus wildly different levels of commitment to the sport.

For some, staying after practice, or spending part of a weekend on the range or playing a round, isn’t something they’re motivated to do. Others have to be chased from the course.

Beginners can make themselves into varsity golfers. Lee’s best example is from just a few years ago. Parker Harrington, a basketball standout now at Oakland City, wanted to pick up a spring sport and brought his competitive spirit to the game.

“He was absolutely atrocious his first two weeks,” Lee said. “We changed his grip and stance and he was playing our No. 5 within the first month. But we had to run him off the driving range.”

Hands on or hands off coaching?

So both coaches, no matter how competitive they are as individuals, have to step back and push each player at a different level. For some, the social aspect of the team is an important part of why they are there.

The different skill levels end up pulling the coaches in several directions. On one hand, they have their group of mostly experienced varsity players. In North’s case, senior Darian Lafferty is well ahead of her teammates at the moment. And with Edgewood, its top five varsity players are well ahead of the remaining eight.

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Without assistants or volunteer helpers, it leaves a wide gap in the kind and amount of teaching required.

For brand new players, there’s often too much ground to cover, over a season that lasts fewer than 50 days, to get them ready to play a varsity round. If they don’t put in extra work before or during the season, it’s almost a given.

“I have to focus on my varsity,” Muehlhaus said. “I know that’s frustrating, but if a freshman wants to come out who has never played golf, you’re welcome to but you’re probably not going to play in a match.”

A team much over a dozen makes it tough to get enough attention where needed. Edgewood, for instance, plays a nine-hole dual heavy schedule, so practice days are extremely limited anyway.

“Once we start playing, I tell them, ‘I don’t have time to take all of you to the driving range and figure out what’s wrong,” Lee said.

The season comes hard and fast. One year ago, Lee remembered taking his team to the Western Indiana Conference Tournament. For three of them, it would be the first 18-hole tourney of their lives.

Once they get on the course, the lack of player experience manifests.

Issues such as pace of play, proper etiquette around the green, marking balls and repairing divots keep coaches scrambling early in the year. Constant rules reminders, especially to repeat offenders, is a pet peeve for a regular tournament player such as Muehlhaus.

“I love the rules,” he said. “But there’s so little time and so many need so much attention.”

Parents also have a learning curve, from speaking or cheering too loudly at inappropriate times or "stalking" players by walking behind them down the fairway, something that particularly bothers Southern.

Even worse are the parents who know better, coaching their children during rounds, which is against the rules. They must stay 30 yards away at all times but for some, it’s just too tempting.

Junior Panthers tee off

South is hoping its new Junior Panthers golf program will improve the student golfer experience.

Pre-COVID, George Finley had an informal program working with young golfers and introducing them to the fundamentals of the game. When that ended, Southern was coaxed into starting a new program in 2021 that was still independent of the MCCSC or RBB school districts.

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“The sad thing in Monroe County is that the three middle schools don’t have a sponsored middle school golf team,” Southern said. “I have a job in construction and didn’t take up golf until I was 24 and I wish I had at 3. I love the game so much.

“I got hooked on it and exposed my daughters to it. They’ve both had a club in their hands since they were 3.”

It’s a co-ed program, with nearly two dozen players, more boys than girls, but it is there. They practice at Bloomington Country Club and on occasion, Southern and the players' parents pack up their cars and play matches against area schools, with Stone Crest as their home course.

“We go to these matches and see the other teams show up in school buses and uniforms,” Southern said. “We have no bus or uniforms. Paoli has its own middle school golf team and we don’t. It’s laughable.”

The six-week program, open to any junior high student in the area, makes a difference. And yes, he addresses the parents and the rules regarding their behavior as well.

“First day of practice, we set the tone,” Southern said. “Proper grip, the fundamentals. We set the baseline and coach each individual. We try to simplify it as much as possible.”

Still, Southern has a number of players who get to the high school level and are walking an 18-hole round for the first time.

He’d love to see a combined county-wide team with the support of both school districts. But it continues to be like playing a round of golf with only six of the allowable 14 clubs.

“We’ve tried to do things, but every step of the way makes it more difficult to do,” Muehlhaus said.

“It would take maybe $500 to have someone come out and work with the junior high kids two or three times a week,” Lee said. “Maybe play kids from the other schools around here.”

But he’s been told the money is not there, meaning it would take a volunteer effort to fill the void.

Reach Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Monroe County golf programs lack middle school preparation