yet another heart 2 heart with my Son

[M.D. Holloway]

A few months back he told that after a few years of playing football he has decided that he will not play in HS and instead try out for the golf team. His rationale was a) it was a sport that he had total ownership in his success or failure b) it was something he could do with me c) it was something that he could do all his life.

I endorsed it. He is now in now going to his 3rd Jr PGA tournament tomorrow - his game improves at a constant rate. I think he may have a shot at the team - the are one of the best in the state. Entering freshman have to shoot under 105 for three consecutive games during the first week of August - try outs.

2nd heart 2 heart - Dad, I don't think I wanna go into engineering or science. I really love to fish and hunt and camp and I'm really good at it. I want to figure out what I can do to make a decent life doing what I love.

Hmmmm. The boy makes some sense for a 14yr old.

[Eric Hahl]

Teacher asks a child what they want to be they grow up. Child responds..."happy".

[MRM]

Wildlife biology and game management are perfectly good careers. A neighbor when I was growing up worked for the Wisconsin DNR and was responsible for repopulating the upper Midwest with turkeys. He had an incredible second career as an executive with Ducks Unlimited. He spent his career in boats and woods and fields. Undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin. Not a bad life.

[cstreit]

Wow. Be proud my man.

[gatotom]

We raised 3 children with the first one mostly pointing the direction he should follow because parents know best

By the second one, we started taking the back seat on direction and just supported her decisions

The third one did everything he thought was right for himself and his future

After the first one crashed and totaled out 2 of my cars and crashing countless cars of his own, finally getting a degree at 28 and getting married, he is not working in his field of study and lives in the apt. above my garage

The second one goes thru americore program, gets a teaching degree, gets married and now has our first grandson, owns their home and just bought their first new car, is a total joy to be around

Third one went to Naval Academy and is making a life near Baltimore soon to be married, bummer about not being close to us but it is what it is

So, to conclude my thoughts, your son is smarter than you think, its his life, let him live it the way he thinks fit and marvel at your offspring, you done good, dad.

[G50]

Golf is a great sport for kids. My son started golf for the exact reasons your son gives.

My son is a national level golfer. He's 14 and has been playing competitively since he was 9. He has too many tournament wins to count, has shot under par in many, many tournaments (as recently as yesterday), won a World Championship when he was 12, was named All Conference First Team as a freshman in one of the most competitive high school leagues in California, etc.

Through this, I've had to become an expert on Jr. Golf.

I'm not sure what you mean by shoot "under 105 for 3 consecutive games." Do you mean score 105 or less for 18 holes? If that's the case, I can tell you by any measure of competitive junior golf, that's a very, very low standard.

So let me know if you have any questions. I don't know what your goals for him are, but I can tell you that 14 is pretty late for a kid to start golf these days, if he expects to play in college D1 or D2, or to get any kind of a college scholarship.

If he just wants to play in high school, that's pretty easy and low stress. Colleges pay pretty much zero attention to high school golf, they look at results in outside nationally ranked tournaments. So that takes all the pressure off high school, which tends to be pretty casual.

[GH85Carrera]

I met Ray Scott many years ago.

When he was a kid he would sit in class and just daydream of going fishing. His teacher kept telling him he was going to be a worthless bum.

He started BASS. He proved his teacher wrong big time.

Encyclopedia of Alabama: Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society (B.A.S.S.)

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by MRM

Wildlife biology and game management are perfectly good careers. A neighbor when I was growing up worked for the Wisconsin DNR and was responsible for repopulating the upper Midwest with turkeys. He had an incredible second career as an executive with Ducks Unlimited. He spent his career in boats and woods and fields. Undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin. Not a bad life.

So is working in the sporting goods industry which will always be a good business. Especially now that the Boomers are retiring.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

2nd heart 2 heart - Dad, I don't think I wanna go into engineering or science. I really love to fish and hunt and camp and I'm really good at it. I want to figure out what I can do to make a decent life doing what I love.

Hmmmm. The boy makes some sense for a 14yr old.

He needs to study business.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by G50

Golf is a great sport for kids. My son started golf for the exact reasons your son gives.

My son is a national level golfer. He's 14 and has been playing competitively since he was 9. He has too many tournament wins to count, has shot under par in many, many tournaments (as recently as yesterday), won a World Championship when he was 12, was named All Conference First Team as a freshman in one of the most competitive high school leagues in California, etc.

Through this, I've had to become an expert on Jr. Golf.

I'm not sure what you mean by shoot "under 105 for 3 consecutive games." Do you mean score 105 or less for 18 holes? If that's the case, I can tell you by any measure of competitive junior golf, that's a very, very low standard.

So let me know if you have any questions. I don't know what your goals for him are, but I can tell you that 14 is pretty late for a kid to start golf these days, if he expects to play in college D1 or D2, or to get any kind of a college scholarship.

If he just wants to play in high school, that's pretty easy and low stress. Colleges pay pretty much zero attention to high school golf, they look at results in outside nationally ranked tournaments. So that takes all the pressure off high school, which tends to be pretty casual.

yup, 105 or under for 3 consecutive games. It may be low. No idea. And no he is not interested in getting a scholorship for it - he jsut wants to do something and choose that.

[RWebb]

Wildlife biology and game management are great fun, but require a lot of science and math. They do not pay well.

A joke among the graduate students at Univ. Wyoming was that a student had to get a MS to dig ditches on a US FWS Refuge. There is some truth to that, less education will be required for a job with a state Game & Fish agency than with the feds, but still a lot o f science and math.

Another option is teaching at a nature center type place (one of my own former grad. students teaches at a really nice one in a National Park, but he has a PhD). There can also be some jobs in state park dept.s or in larger city parks depts. Or high school biology. Or an env'l group (if he really wants a low paying but rewarding job).

The rewards are there, but non-monetary. As with most fields the education requirements go up and up over time, so what was required for a recent hire will be a lot more than for a guy hired decades ago.

Good luck!

[G50]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

yup, 105 or under for 3 consecutive games. It may be low. No idea. And no he is not interested in getting a scholorship for it - he jsut wants to do something and choose that.

He'll have fun with it, then.

From your previous posts, he sounds like a great athlete. Even with just some basic hand eye coordination (and common sense!), 105 should be easy to break with a little bit of practice.

My only tip would be this: Most people have golf scoring strategy all wrong. They think the driver is most important, and it's the opposite. For scoring, the most important is putting, and the order of importance of the clubs moves backwards from there.

So, most impt is putting, next is chipping, next is approach irons, etc. The driver is actually least important, on most courses as long as you get the ball even 120-150 yards out there on the drive, it's going to be playable and par will be possible.

Most kids when they start spend way too much time practicing the driver. If he can get decent at putting and chipping, breaking 100 is no sweat.

Oh, I guess my other tip is this: If he really wants to try to improve, IMO you have to get him lessons. The problem is, practicing without lessons just makes your bad habits (and he'll have lots as a beginner) more ingrained and harder to correct. It's a paradoxical situation where the more hours your spend practicing, the worse you are making your game in the long term. Kids learn fast, and with a good coachable athlete like your son, even a 1/2 hour lesson once a week will make a HUGE difference to him over even a 2 or 3 month period. It will make it more fun for him.

[fintstone]

I see a lot here that I agree with (and you have a lot to be proud of)...but on the other hand, he sounds a lot like me and some of my friends at that age. I always wished I could go back in time and smack some sense into myself...or that someone had sat down with me and explained how unrealistic (opportunity-wise) my goals were... And how that would affect my lifestyle and that of my future family for the rest of my life.

I had similar talks with my kids. The older, a boy, was the brightest and most talented. I had high expectations and he failed at all of them. No drive, ambition, or self discipline whatsoever. I have not heard from him in almost 15 years. I am not sure if it was rebellion or...

My less talented daughter was a star at everything she did and is now an Air Force Capt and a medical doctor. She makes as much her first year as I did after working 25 years. She calls every night and we have a room set up for he in our house and she has one for us in her house...so we can visit as much as possible.

Give them as much info as you can...but ultimately, they make their own choices. Like I told my daughter...you can have a PhD or MD and still flip burgers if you find that interesting...but don't think you can decide to be an MD if you didn't take school seriously since you were 12 and dropped out at 16.

[RWebb]

read Big Rock Candy Mountain, Wallace Stegner

[RWebb]

you actually CAN be an MD if you didn't take school seriously since you were 12 and dropped out at 16.

I know a guy (PCP) who was sitting around in the Hawthorne district of PDX smoking pot, and making pottery until one day he said "Ah - think I'll go to med. school. He did. He is also one of the best explainers of medical concepts I know of. I told him he should teach medical students, but he looked at me like I was crazy (which was true).

Most cannot pull that off tho.

[mattdavis11]

That's awesome, Mike. I too played on the NTPGA Jr tour in the DFW area over several summers, then in high school. Could have played in college, but didn't.

Smart kid.

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by G50

He'll have fun with it, then.

From your previous posts, he sounds like a great athlete. Even with just some basic hand eye coordination (and common sense!), 105 should be easy to break with a little bit of practice.

My only tip would be this: Most people have golf scoring strategy all wrong. They think the driver is most important, and it's the opposite. For scoring, the most important is putting, and the order of importance of the clubs moves backwards from there.

So, most impt is putting, next is chipping, next is approach irons, etc. The driver is actually least important, on most courses as long as you get the ball even 120-150 yards out there on the drive, it's going to be playable and par will be possible.

Most kids when they start spend way too much time practicing the driver. If he can get decent at putting and chipping, breaking 100 is no sweat.

Oh, I guess my other tip is this: If he really wants to try to improve, IMO you have to get him lessons. The problem is, practicing without lessons just makes your bad habits (and he'll have lots as a beginner) more ingrained and harder to correct. It's a paradoxical situation where the more hours your spend practicing, the worse you are making your game in the long term. Kids learn fast, and with a good coachable athlete like your son, even a 1/2 hour lesson once a week will make a HUGE difference to him over even a 2 or 3 month period. It will make it more fun for him.

Thats what I told him! I don't know much but I said 'lets look at it this way - you drive 18 times a game, fairway irons then chips are most of the game. If you chip really well then maybe you can 1 putt it out. His short game is tight. He has develped a bad habit of opening up his swing. I have showed him some tech to keep the back of his hand facing the hole upong impact. he has a really smooth swing. He putts well and chips very well.

[M.D. Holloway]

And yes he has done lessons and has another camp in 3 weeks.

[Bill Douglas]

Good on him for not playing football. Less chance of getting badly hurt.

Do engineering and move sideways to work with fish and game (much) later. Stick with the money - money is fun.

[rcecale]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

2nd heart 2 heart - Dad, I don't think I wanna go into engineering or science. I really love to fish and hunt and camp and I'm really good at it. I want to figure out what I can do to make a decent life doing what I love.

Hmmmm. The boy makes some sense for a 14yr old.

Mike,

Some folks I went to high school with moved to Colorado several years ago and set up shop doing exactly what Max is wanting to do. Tim is now partner and a fishing/outdoors guide along the South Platte River.

Check them out here



Randy