{"id":102389,"date":"2018-05-09T06:52:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T11:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=102389"},"modified":"2018-05-09T06:53:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T11:53:05","slug":"willow-bend-cc-earns-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/05\/09\/willow-bend-cc-earns-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Willow Bend CC earns award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

After making the decision to start a junior golf program at Willow Bend Country Club in Van Wert, it didn\u2019t take long for Randy Agler to find what he was looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went online to look at some current programs for us to use as a model,\u201d said Agler, the club\u2019s pro shop manager. \u201cAfter reviewing several options, we decided on the Hook A Kid On Golf program. We liked the detail of the format as well as the availability of supplies, among other strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Receiving the New Site of the Year award are (left to right): Randy Agler, WBCC Pro Shop Manager, Kim Doidge, Brad Doidge, and Craig Bracken, WBCC Operations Manager.<\/strong> photo submitted<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Turns out, the kids in the community loved the format, too.<\/p>\n

The program was first made accessible to kids through local schools, and after receiving an overwhelming response, Willow Bend Country Club\u2019s first program was offered to 65 kids ranging in age from 8 to 18 years old.<\/p>\n

The large turnout, coupled with the enormous success of the program, earned it Hook A Kid On Golf\u2019s New Site of the Year award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feedback we received was outstanding,\u201d Agler said. \u201cThe parents would make a point to stop by and tell us how much their kid loved the program. One thing we did was give each junior golfer a play card that entitled their parent to come out to our private club and play with their junior golfer a total of six times free of charge. Our program was over on July 10th and it was nice to see how many of the families took advantage of this free play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agler hopes Hook A Kid On Golf can kickstart interest in the sport so youngsters will continue to tee it up into their high school years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received a lot of good feedback and we are hoping this increases the interest in golf in the long term,\u201d Agler said. \u201cOur local high school golf teams have a difficult time fielding a complete team and we hope that will not be an issue in the future as we hook more kids on golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s success was aided by outstanding help within the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program was championed by a husband and wife team, Brad and Kim Doidge, who happen to be golf coaches at separate schools in the community,\u201d Agler said. \u201cHowever, with that many kids we did need more help and the response from our membership to volunteers on golf days was outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hook A Kid On Golf provides communities with three levels of curriculum and all the tools necessary to accomplish an organized youth golf program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning we had about 50 percent of the golfers who had no previous golf experience, so it was good to see how they first liked the game and secondly, wanted to improve,\u201d Agler said. \u201cI was also impressed with how they helped each other within their groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Willow Bend\u2019s Hook A Kid On Golf program was completed, participants were treated to a special luncheon in honor of all of their hard work throughout the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe closed the course on the morning of July 10th and had a golf outing and luncheon for the golfers and their parents,\u201d Agler said. \u201cThe parent participation was more than we expected since most had to take off work to attend. We also felt this validated the success of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future is bright for Willow Bend and golf, with the club looking to expand the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a life-time resident of this community, it was satisfying to see the smiles on so many young peoples\u2019 faces,\u201d Agler said. \u201cMost of those kids would never experience the game of golf if not for programs like these.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted information After making the decision to start a junior golf program at Willow Bend Country Club in Van Wert, it didn\u2019t take long for Randy Agler to find what he was looking for. \u201cI went online to look at some current programs for us to use as a model,\u201d said Agler, the club\u2019s pro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 04:11:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}