Junior Break Break!!

Special Report from Junior Convener

Nick Iordanis

For those of you who have not watched the "Big Break" on the Golf Channel before, it is a golf reality show where golfers compete in competitions to stay on the show. The last golfer standing wins the ultimate prize of cash, an equipment deal and some sponsors exemptions on some Nationwide Tour events. We thought it would be a good way to engage the Juniors in competition while at the same time working on their skills. Unfortunately Captain Couch did not offer us any Cash, equipment deals or sponsors exemptions, but we are working on it.

We started by borrowing a friends Mitre Saw and Weimereiner.

The dog was more for supervision and to chase down any fingers we cut off with the Saw. Luckily, the dog ended up just supervising.

We planned on building three pieces, one of which will be used twice, so we are planning four events. The most famous event on the tv show is the "Pain in the Glass" where contestants have to hit a punch shot and knock out a pain of glass in a window frame downrange. Using 2"x2" I managed to create a window frame which is about two square feet with a four foot tall stand. At first I was worried about the size of the window being too big or too small but it turned out to be quite nice.

One issue was going to be transport. In order to make the frames easy to put up and take down, bolts were used instead of permanently screwing them together.

The second piece made was a bit more cumbersome. The flop wall, which will be altered into the Limbo, is essentially an 8 foot tall 8 foot wide wall. The idea is for players to flop a ball over the wall onto a green and finish out. For the Limbo, the bottom half of the wall would be removed to create a gap in which players would have to punch a shot under towards a target.

We also have started building an "Obstacle" which is a giant wedge placed in front of a specific tee spot forcing players to shape shots with draws and slices around the wedge. (Pictured is one half of the obstacle).

While some of these Big Break pieces seem to be a bit serious for the Juniors, the point of them is to make the shots fun and challenging. If a junior does not know how to shape shots, or hit knock downs, this is an engaging opportunity for them to learn in a fun way.

The Junior Whitevale Big Break will take place prior to the Junior Opening on Saturday May 28th at 2pm, tee times for the 9 hole Junior Opening start at 3:45pm, followed by dinner.