When asked, Randy Chang can’t think of a childhood memory involving golf. That might seem odd for a guy viewed as one of the Southland’s best junior instructors, but baseball, basketball and surfing were his loves while growing up in Honolulu.
“Golf back then was for people who couldn’t do those sports,” Chang said. “It wasn’t cool.”
What a difference a few decades make. It’s now Chang’s mission to make golf so cool that young players won’t want to stop. He does this by taking on a segment of society that some in the industry avoid – the very young and pre-teens. The Tiny Tees program he started in Hawaii in 2000 has nine sites in the Southland, with the classes at Journey at Pechanga in Temecula and Talega Golf Club in San Clemente under his purview.
“It’s a niche that nobody else wanted to do,” he said of Tiny Tees, which is for children 3 to 6 years of age. “But it’s been a real popular program.”
And Chang has become a real popular teacher, with several regional awards the past 15 years including Southern California PGA Youth Development Instructor of the Year for 2015.
“I’m honored to be recognized for my efforts in moving the game of golf forward,” he said. “Golf dates back to the 1500s, but kids today have more sensory input and are involved with more activities. My goal is to make golf accessible to them. My instruction teaches children the importance of precision, calmness, awareness of surroundings and much more. We develop a love of the game for a lifetime.”
Chang hopes to use his SCPGA platform to talk about the importance of keeping golf fun for youths, in addition to teaching swings that are simple, fluid and don’t lead to injuries down the road. Much like some baseball officials lament pitchers at a young age being urged to throw harder, Chang says young golfers can get into bad habits and potentially harm themselves by swinging too violently or putting their bodies in awkward positions in an attempt to hit the ball farther.
“It’s not that difficult; it’s not rocket science,” Chang said of youth instruction. “But it’s starting to become rocket science, and that’s where I think we’re starting to have a problem in our industry.”
Chang, who also operates schools and clinics for older children in addition to working with adults and elite juniors, took time after a Tiny Tees class in Temecula to answer questions about his goals.
Q: What are your philosophies for teaching younger children?
When we start them as young as we are, we have a responsibility to make sure we’re not hurting them. Many of the kids are told to stay down through the swing and they finish with a reverse C. … They’re limber enough to do that, and it’s not hurting them now, but we also have seen what can happen with golf injuries to popular players cropping up more and more.
Q: So, what’s a good message or theory for starters?
Let’s stop saying stay down through the swing. Yes, you do stay down, but in our attempt to try to get them to stay down, it’s hurt more swings than it’s helped.
Q: How does equipment come into play?
Equipment is huge, because in the past we just cut down adult clubs, but that would keep, or prevent, them from swinging all the way through. That’s why companies like U.S. Kids have done a great job of making sure that the clubs are light enough but well put together enough to let them hit the golf ball good.
Q: Do you implement stretching or basic exercises with the younger kids?
Absolutely. We also like to play games where they’re moving or keeping their balance or doing coordination drills in a fun way. The golf swing is not conducive to your body; it’s not natural; and it all comes to us as instructors. We need to keep it fun, fluid and simple and not allow these kids, at 5, 6, 7 years of age, to take these big ol’ swings with the club.
Q: Would you like to see more uniform instruction with youths?
Not uniform, but let’s all get on the same page. I don’t want to influence what they’re teaching, but let’s at least get away from certain words that we use and stop trying to make these kids do something that might eventually hurt their bodies. You can hit it far and develop power in these kids by using body parts, such as the legs, core and proper hinging and unhinging of the wrists. Timing is everything, too. You don’t have to swing hard to hit it far. A lot of the long hitters on Tour these days aren’t big, but the one thing they all have in common is everything is in sync.
Q: What does the SCPGA junior honor mean to you?
It means a lot because I base a lot of my teaching around the juniors. It’s getting new people into the game. We’re doing a good job of introducing people to the game, but they’re not staying, and I think, again, that it comes down to teaching them how to keep it simple and less complicated. Even though data is great for instructors, for your typical person getting into the game we have to make it seem not as hard as many people think.
Q: What’s a good age to start a kid who shows an interest in golf?
We start them at 3, but I’d say the best age, where they actually understand things, is 5. That’s a good age for the basic, fundamental stuff.
Q: Are you more a fan of group instruction or working one on one?
Groups at first, then more of an individual thing if the student shows a lot of skill and can handle more detailed stuff. But that’s maybe 5 percent of the kids; we need to focus more on the others to keep them in game and enjoying it.
Q: Do you give advice to parents about the proper amount of involvement?
With Tiny Tees, we want total involvement. At the elite level, we want minimal involvement [chuckling] because that’s where things can get tricky and cause problems. But at the early age we want the family to play together.
Q: You mentioned that people and children are coming to golf but not staying. Any ideas?
Making it fun. We’ll always have the traditional game of golf, but in this day and age of millennials and another new generation coming in, keeping them interested is the key. It’s too hard and it takes too long are two of the big barriers, whether real or perceived. So we try to make it easy and emphasize playing fast, or at least to play this many holes in this amount of time.
Q: I see that your instruction acronym is SURF. That’s perfect for a guy from Hawaii, right?
That’s right. Surfing remains my hobby, and SURF stands for simplicity, understanding, retention and fun. That’s our teaching philosophy in a nutshell.
