Golf: A Junior's Perspective

     Every now and then, Mark Croft goes out on a limb and allows me to co-host or be on his  radio show The Desert Southwest Golf Show broadcast on KBLU Radio out of Yuma Arizona.  I enjoy coming on the show and talking golf with Mark and his listeners. A couple of weeks ago he had me co-host the show and he had two outstanding guests.  One guest, Kodi Phizer, is a championship junior golfer from the Yuma area.  The second guest was Patty Bondi, who is ninety-one years young and still plays golf and competes in her club tournaments. Mark and I were both excited about chatting with these two exceptional golfers and were not disappointed.
     Today I would like to focus in on Kodi. For the purpose of this article I won't go into his golf achievements around the State of Arizona but I will say that they are many.  These come from not only the accomplishments on his high school golf team, but in junior tournament play around Arizona. He is a champion and I was impressed with his answers and how he conducted himself during the interview on the show.  I wish I could meet this fine young man in person.
     We touched on many important topics during the interview.  He told us important his parents and grandparents were in bringing him to the game of golf.  This was very important to him. His parents play a very important role in his career and act as cheerleaders, not as critics. That is very important in that they would ask him what he would do to do better next time and more importantly stress what he did right during the tournament. Seeing where improvements need to be made is important to any golfer that plays competitively, but celebrating what was positive and what was done right during a round is even more important I think, especially to a junior golfer.
      The first question I asked Kodi was, "What has golf given you?"
      There were a couple of things that Kodi briefly talked about. He mentioned how much he travels to go to tournaments. Meeting new friends in and around the game was very important to him and he thought that this was something that he looked forward to as his game grows and he goes further with the game into adulthood. I had to chuckle when he mentioned smashing a little white golf ball a long way.  Waves of envy came over me, because my days of hitting a golf ball into the next county have long passed for me. Isn't it sad that they waste enthusiasm on the young?
      What really impressed me the most was when he talked about how the most important thing to him that golf has given him, and I'm sure that his parents did have a thing or two to do with it, is a strong conscience.  With this strong conscience he has seen how important integrity and honest are, not only in golf but in life itself.  When you show integrity and honesty, you gain a sense of respect for others and yourself. Those are important traits that are missing in many of our youth today.  Golf is a great teacher of those qualities. It is the only game where you call a penalty on yourself, and most golfers do.
      Kodi mentioned what he called "his fighting spirit" and said that the game has really honed that spirit. But, he didn't mean it in the way you would think as far as just beating up on opponents. To him, it goes deeper than that. What he meant was not only to keep improving and be your best, but more importantly when adversity comes to use that adversity as a positive and see ways to make your game better.
      I guess you could call much of this lesson learning perseverance and patience. He told me that getting upset hitting a bad shot can only ruin your game. if you hit a bad shot, let it go and go on from there. It is very important to keep in mind that there is always the next shot and that the game is played one shot at a time. This is a lesson we could all learn.  How old is this young man?
      I would love to meet this young man some day.  He is a shining example of what junior golf is today. Our game is in good hands. I am proud to have met you Kodi Phizer.

The path only goes up from here.