Mixed in with my visits to the exhibits were a series of conferences and interviews. Here are highlights of what I learned.

Conference and Interview Highlights

Junior Golf is In Again

A challenge for the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program is that they are not the only industry initiative focused on juniors. The PGA of America announced at the Show that it is launching the PGA Sports Academy to promote the game for juniors. The details are a little thin at this point, but they are on the junior band wagon.

So, there's The First Tee (a very successful junior program with about one-third females) along with its cousin, the National School golf Program, the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, now the PGA Sports Academy, plus a new plethora of organized, private after-school golf programs.

The growth in junior golf has crept up on the industry. There was a junior golf bubble about five years ago...and then not much has happened. But,in the National Golf Foundations 2009 report, the number of junior golfers is holding strong with girls playing just about as many rounds as boys.

Do the girls need a special program? That's the question. I decided to ask my favorite expert on junior golf, Kathy Grant Nyman, an LPGA Class A Professional who has been working with junior golfers for many years in the Jacksonville, Florida area. She is the Assistant Golf Professional at Deercreek Country Club in Jacksonville. We spent an hour talking about how she teaches juniors - especially girls.

According to Kathy, in a mixed group of both girls and boys ages 9-10, the girls do better than the boys. But then, the boys catch up and the girls will not do as well when they begin to feel intimidated. (What a surprise!! Teen age girls act a lot like regular women.)

So the LPGA has to decide where to put its efforts on girls golf. To overlap and duplicate The First Tee and the PGA's programs, or to develop a unique more successful approach to teaching juniors and/or to specialize in all-girls groups where the research shows it leads to better results? When I listen to Kathy describe how she teaches - how she makes it fun - how she focuses on skills, I know the LPGA has a head start on teaching girls.

The six million female golfers have to be the champions of girls golf. Many future female golf stars cannot afford the clubs, the coaching, the traveling that is required to make it through the junior golf circuit. For every Lexi Thompson, there may be tens or hundreds of young girls in this country that yearn for the opportunity to develop their skill.

One thing that the LPGA and only the LPGA can do is focus on these young women.

And women golfers - recreational golfers like myself, who love this game - should feel like they are part of this effort. We have to leave the game better than we found it also.

For Berkley's complete review, Also See:

2011 PGA Merchandise Show - A Woman's View - Part I
Part II - More Women Playing Golf -- Finally
Part IV - Apparel and New Products