Blackmon offers aspiring golfers opportunity

Contributed Auburn Villager Will Blackmon working with Sami Battye

For the last 10 years, Will Blackmon has been teaching young golfers in the Auburn and Opelika area the fundamentals of the sport. Most local golfers who have gone on to play at the college level in that time have crossed paths with the golf instructor.

Blackmon, an Opelika High graduate, played golf at Vanderbilt before transferring to Auburn where he finished up his collegiate academic and athletic career capped off with the Ben Hogan Award in 1994. He spent four years playing professional golf on the Mini-Tour before joining Marshall Phillips at Saugahatchee Country Club teaching lessons.

Since then, Blackmon has moved over to Moore's Mill Golf Club where he is the director of golf instruction. His students are of all ages, ranging from 3-year-olds to adults.

Over the summer, Blackmon, along with his assistant instructor and former student Sam Rodgers, created the Banner Junior Golf Tour for girls and boys ages 9 to 16. It consisted of four events held at four local courses including Moore's Mill, Grand National, Indian Pines and Auburn Links.

Blackmon said the idea behind the tour was to allow kids in that age group to gain competition experience while still learning the basics along the way.

"We'd been looking at this for the last few years," Blackmon said. "We have a whole crew of junior golfers that I like to call the ‘middle slice' that are hungry to play golf, but don't have the opportunities to compete locally. There are the younger kids' tournaments that have heavy parent involvement and are a lot of fun, but don't offer that competitive edge. Then you have the elite tours for the older kids that are great, but they're much more serious. Those are guys and girls who are ready to play college golf. But these middle slice kids were left out and it wasn't being addressed."

The tour divided participants by age groups of 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16. Each event saw about 20 kids compete, which is about what Blackmon and Rodgers were hoping for.

With the variety of age groups, the younger players were able to take their time and continue to work on fundamentals, while the older kids gained competition experience, or as Blackmon likes to call it, "seasoning."

"In our younger division, for a lot of these kids it was their first time playing in a tournament," Blackmon said. "They've played golf, taken lessons, but they've never teed up with their name on the scoreboard with everyone seeing what they shot. And the kids ages 13 to 16, they have the skills to be very competitive, but don't have the experience to know how to put it together in an environment where there's pressure. And that's crucial at this age because all of these kids have the potential to be great players down the road."

Overall, Blackmon said he was pleased with how the tour turned out in its inaugural year because he fulfilled his goal: Creating an opportunity that allows kids to gain confidence in competitions while also learning and, most importantly, having fun while doing it.

"One of the most important things about golf is that kids associate the course with fun," Blackmon said. "Otherwise, it's likely that we'll never see them again."

The key to making the sport fun, Blackmon said, creating a social pull.

"When I was about 11 and I had a friend invite me to a junior golf event," Blackmon said. "I had played a little with my dad, but really didn't know much about golf at the time. I can remember walking down the stairs at the course and seeing about six or seven people that I knew. I didn't even know that they played golf. But from then on, you couldn't keep me away from the course because that's where all my friends were. And that's the same idea that we're trying to apply here."

Blackmon added that he and the staff will take note who is making friends with whom and try to group those kids together.

"When a child starts playing golf, it's often a situation where someone in the family plays," Blackmon said. "But a kid will really want to keep coming back if the course is where all their buddies are. And if they keep coming back, we're going to make them better golfers."

With golf having the reputation of being one of the more frustrating sports, the desire to practice regularly and continue to compete is important when it comes to improving. After the Banner Junior Golf Tour wrapped up, Blackmon said he was thrilled to see a number of participants return with that desire.

"Some kids were raw golfers -- it was a whole new world to them," Blackmon said. "Their first event might not have been so pretty, but they were the first ones to say, ‘I'm coming back to the golf course tomorrow to practice and get better.' Golf can be traumatic, it's a game of mistakes. And to have kids that have little experience wanting to come back week after week is wonderful."

Between himself, Rodgers and coordinator Elizabeth Rodgers, Blackmon said he wants Moore's Mill to be a place where aspiring golfers feel comfortable about their skill level.

"We're going to love our golfers through this experience," Blackmon said. "We want them all to know that it's OK to be new and it's OK to make mistakes because we are going to do everything we can to help them improve."

For the kids who are interested in playing golf, Blackmon has a number of opportunities available. In the next few weeks, the calendar for the school-year programs will be set and Blackmon hopes to squeeze in another Banner Junior Golf event before school starts. But unlike other sports that may have strict registration deadlines, Blackmon's programs allow golfers to join whenever they like.

"We'll have a parent who will call and say, ‘My kid is a beginner,' and we'll say, ‘Great! So is half the class,'" Blackmon said. "If he or she doesn't have clubs, we've got clubs here. If a child can just get here, we'll have an activity for them to do. There's really no hurdle besides making the phone call and us finding a group for them."

With different programs being offered year-round, Blackmon added that "golf season" can be tailored to each golfer.

"We have kids who play football in the fall, but will show up in January when their season is over," Blackmon said. "Or we'll have baseball players or girls who play soccer who are here all fall, but disappear in the spring. Because we're blessed with great weather here in Auburn, golf really can be played anytime of the year and kids can play whenever their schedule allows it."

As Auburn High's girls' team and the Lee-Scott boys' team are coming off state championships, the area is getting to be known as one where the state's toughest golf is played. A number of those athletes have been through Blackmon's programs.

"Ten years ago, I don't think this area had a state title in golf," Blackmon said. "Now, if you want to compete for a championship, chances are you're going to have to go through Auburn High or Lee-Scott to get there. And that's a testament to the great coaching at both schools as well as the facilities here and the dedication of the players. And there's a whole crop of kids coming up that I believe will continue that trend."

For more information about Blackmon's programs or private lessons, contact Elizabeth J. Rodgers at the Golf House at the Moore's Mill Club at (334) 821-6533 or visit Will Blackmon Golf Instruction on Facebook.