Getting kids onto the golf course (and making it fun) can be a challenge, so Grand Elk Golf Club in Granby, Colo., brought Golfzilla onto its grounds.
Finding a reptile on a golf course can be cause for alarm, but in the case of “Golfzilla,” the colorful, inflatable dinosaur with a gaping mouth is an attraction.
Getting kids onto the golf course (and making it fun) can be a challenge, so Grand Elk Golf Club in Granby, Colo., brought Golfzilla onto its grounds on loan from the Colorado PGA for four days of golf instruction from May 5-8.
Rather than aiming for hard-to-see holes once on the 18-hole course, the kids have a larger target—the mouth of Golfzilla. “It’s like at a carnival,” says Michael Rus, PGA, General Manager and Head Professional at Grand Elk.
When Touchstone Golf took over operations of the club in 2011, it made a concerted effort to bring the property back to its original luster by focusing on golf rather than ancillary skiing and water-based amenities (though those options still remain). A slew of new golf programming has been implemented in just the past few months to bring in local players, including women, youth, and those unfamiliar with the game.
Part of the renewed community focus is Golf In Schools, a program that brought about 40 seventh graders to the nearby Granby Indoor Soccer Dome to practice chipping and putting for three days before traveling to Grand Elk for the final day.
Sponsored by the Colorado PGA, the program comes at no cost to schools. In addition to getting kids on the course, Rus says the program has carried over to create more interest in the club’s summer junior camps and clinics. And when kids are involved, Rus notes, they bring their families.
“The kids are already talking about Golfzilla, so we have to bring it back,” Rus says. “It’s those little hooks that stimulate interest in the game.”
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