Why This Teen Golf Trend Is So Disturbing

One of the many reasons I embrace my son’s love of golf is that it’s a screen-free zone for both of us. He had just turned 13, and our time on the court felt like his only respite since he wasn’t glued to my iPad or begging for his phone. I also enjoy those times without technology.

That’s why I’m frustrated by a recent trend in youth golf: tournaments requiring players as young as 12 to record scores in real time on their smartphones.

Seriously?

Our country faces a teen mental health crisis, and some studies convincingly attribute it to the rise of smartphones and social media. At last count, 31 states have banned or restricted cell phone use in schools, and a national campaign called “Wait Until 8th Grade” advocates keeping kids off smartphones until at least the end of eighth grade.

But inexplicably, golf is moving in the opposite direction. Now, many junior players are expected to have their phones ready to enter hole-by-hole scores during tournaments.

We’ve all experienced the overwhelming distractions that come with smartphones—how annoying it is when that guy or girl in our quartet responds to a text message, then becomes obsessed with their news alerts and Instagram feeds and confirms their next dental appointment. (Many of us have been that guy or girl.)

If adults can’t resist the gravitational pull of these devices in their pockets, how can we expect kids to be able to?

Tournament directors say smartphones enable real-time scoring, which is what players and families want. The live leaderboard “makes it feel more like a professional event and the event they watch on TV,” said Greg Hubbard, vice president of coaching and tournament development at US Kids Golf, the world’s largest junior golf organization.

Real-time scoring also has benefits for tournament managers. Spencer Sorensen, director of championships and events for the Oregon Golf Association, said real-time scoring allows him to monitor the pace of play and nudge slower players before they fall too far behind. He recently hosted a tournament where the two players in the penultimate group were tied. He saw that no one in the final group was in contention, so the play-offs could begin immediately. Damp, tattered, lost or illegible scorecards will also be a thing of the past.

But for players, the use of mobile phones is a mixed bag. Even 18-year-old Mason Howell, who won the U.S. Amateur earlier this year, was intrigued. “This has already happened,” he told me. “I’ll look at my phone and then I’ll look at social media. I’ll get distracted and then my mind isn’t where it should be.”

Alexa Phung, 14, a two-time driving, chipping and putting champion, also believes cell phone use can be a “distraction.” She told friends and family not to text her while competing, but she caught her competing partners texting during the competition. How does she know they didn’t enter the score? “Their thumbs,” she said, wagging her thumb in the universal texting symbol. “It’s very obvious.”

Sorensen said some players want to know where they stand on the leaderboard, saying it can motivate them and inform their decision-making. “They can say, ‘Well, I’m two shots behind now, maybe I’ll try to birdie here,’ or whatever.”

But Sebastian Martinez, director of golf school Skout Golf in Beaverton, Ore., says watching the leaderboard is “the exact opposite of a performance mentality.” He said you’re more likely to get a double by playing more aggressively in pursuit of birdies than you would otherwise. Then the player you’re chasing might have a big score, so you just have to shoot par — or worse, you discover that his or her score was entered incorrectly. Martinez urged his players not to change their decisions based on what others are doing.

Katie Burgoyne, PGA professional at Black Canyon Golf Club in Montrose, Colo., and the mother of 10-year-old twin golfers, agrees. “Golf is not a game where you can make yourself better to beat other people,” she said. She advised her juniors to avoid rating apps. “I want you to put your head down and think about your next shot instead of thinking about where you’re scoring and who you’re beating,” she said. “Because no matter what, you should be trying your best every time, not trying your best to beat John.”

Burgoyne also wanted to know about the possibility of cheating: Is anyone policing the scoring app if it’s in tournament mode with the slope feature disabled? Alexa Phung said her father exchanged numbers with another father at the start of her round. Later that day, he received an unexpected text message from his new contact, addressed to his daughter. In the message, the father told the location of a hole. Legal? perhaps. Suspicious? really.

When my son and I arrived at the U.S. Kids World Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina, in August, we learned that competitors in the 12-year-old division needed to manage their own live scores. American kids encourage parent caddies, who often take on scorekeeper duties, so, in this case, the kids are off the hook. But to my dismay, instead of watching my son’s team putt and thinking about what to say to him as we walked to the next hole, I was fiddling with my phone, opening an app and entering scores.

Hubbard of US Kids told me that his organization began mobile scoring of all games in 2020 during the pandemic. But starting in 2021, they started receiving feedback from parents that phones were “causing distractions” and diverted from a key part of US Kids’ mission: encouraging family interaction. “When we feel like it takes away from our mission and the experience of these families, we reassess,” Hubbard said.

At US Kids’ 15 to 20 most elite events (out of 2,500 events held annually), real-time scoring is down for all age groups except 12-year-olds. Hubbard said Kids of America maintains the policy for that age group because his organization wants to “get them ready for the next level,” which means they will almost certainly be asked to enter scores on their phones at youth events.

There are other options besides phone ratings. Some tournaments assign a spectator or volunteer to post the team’s score. Other events require rules officials to enter scores. Others offer custom scoring equipment, although expecting players to use unfamiliar gadgets has its drawbacks. However, in all these cases, paper scorecards are also retained as backup.

The game of golf prides itself on respecting tradition and resisting modern temptations. I still have a folder with old scorecards from rounds I played decades ago, and so does my 83-year-old father.

But this isn’t just an appeal to nostalgia. Requiring kids to have smartphones in the first place goes against the spirit of accessibility that many junior golf organizations strive to promote. Additionally, asking kids to fiddle with their phones during a round goes against the focus and presence that golf is great at cultivating.

I started this conversation in a junior golf Facebook group with 30,000 members. With only social media motivating people, some commenters said cell phones are not the problem if junior golfers are distracted by them. I appreciate the sentiment: If I can’t stop eating Oreos, it’s me and my willpower, not the Oreos. Still, I try not to carry Oreos in my pocket all day.

The rest of the world is waking up to the shortcomings and distractions of smartphones; the golf world should keep pace. In a sport where green blazers and burgundy hip flasks still reign supreme, paper scorecards can certainly remain supreme – especially for our youngest competitors.

Christine Bader is a writer based in Oregon.