Golf can be a lifetime sport that is started at a young age. And for several youth and teenage golfers, the Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine Junior & PeeWee Golf Tours do just that.
The summer-long program teaches the game of golf through a series of tournaments that helps kids to safely stay active and competitive.
“It gives the kids a chance to play in a competitive competition, but not real cutthroat competition,” Dave Scudder, the director of both the junior and peewee tours, tells ParkviewSportsMedicine.com.
Scudder, who has also been golf coach at Bishop Dwenger High School for more than 30 years, says the tour is a glimpse of up-and-coming young golfers in the area.
The Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine Junior Tour is for boys and girls ages 13 to 18. The tour features 10 different tournaments in June and July at several golf courses around Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine PeeWee Tour has five Fort Wayne stops for boys and girls golfers age 3 to 12. The tournaments are for medal play, and both tours conclude with a Tour Championship.
Fort Wayne Parks Department has implemented additional safety protocols this summer that include social distancing, not touching pins, extended tee times and playing in groups of three.
For Abby Sheehan, the Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine Junior Golf Tour has helped keep her golf career on the fairway. Since Sheehan joined the tour four years ago, she held the Heritage 9-hole round record (38), helped Heritage to four-straight regular Allen County Athletic Conference championships and three-straight ACAC Tournament titles, and signed with the women’s golf program at Huntington University.
“It gives me a great opportunity to come out here and compete,” Sheehan says. “When it’s your first year, you’re really nervous and jittery. By the end of your year, it’s really nice because you’ve been doing these, and it’s calmer. I feel like that’s really going to help for college.”
The Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine Junior Golf Tour has added importantce for the high school boys this summer after their spring golf season was canceled.
“It finally feels good to play competitive golf. You get the rust off a little bit these first few tournaments,” Major Spiegel, a senior-to-be at Bellmont High School, says. “Playing against better competition really moves your game up to the next level; and I think that’s the biggest part of this tour.”
Golfers may pre-register for any of the Fort Wayne Parks/Parkview Sports Medicine Junior or PeeWee Golf Tour events through the Fort Wayne Parks website.