Why Talented Junior Golfers Walk Away, and How Access Changes That
Most talented junior golfers don't quit for lack of skill. They run out of access. The numbers behind it, Bart's story, and how #DriveForJuniors helps.
It usually happens quietly. A high school junior who used to be the first one on the range stops showing up. The clubs stay in the garage. Nobody makes an announcement. When someone finally asks, the answer is some version of the same sentence: it got too expensive.
That is a common story behind talented junior golfers who walk away. Many do not run out of skill. They run out of access, meaning the entry fees, travel, equipment and coaching their families cannot keep paying for. Fixing that is the whole point of #DriveForJuniors.
When Cost Decides Who Keeps Playing
Cost is not a side issue in youth sports. It is one of the main reasons kids leave, and kids from low-income homes quit sports because of cost at six times the rate of kids from high-income homes. The divide shows up early, too. Only 24% of kids ages 6 to 12 from homes earning $25,000 or less play sports regularly, compared with 40% of kids from homes earning $100,000 or more.
Meanwhile, the bill keeps growing. The average family spent $1,016 on a child's primary sport in 2024, up 46% since 2019. Competitive golf sits well above that average once a junior starts entering real tournaments, where a single national event can cost $95 to $295 just to enter.
Put those together and the result is predictable. The kids who keep competing are not always the most talented. Often they are simply the ones whose families can keep paying.
Bart's Story
Future Golfers of America's founder, Bart, knows this story from the inside. He grew up on the South Side of San Antonio. As a teenager, his family moved to a small farming town in Oregon for a fresh start, and at thirteen he picked up a golf club for the first time.
When his high school started a golf team his sophomore year, he signed up immediately. By junior year, he and his best friend Ian were the top players on the team, competing against schools with bigger budgets, full coaching staffs and brand-new equipment. Their own clubs came from Goodwill. Their home course was a hundred-year-old, nine-hole track with sand greens, no driving range and no clubhouse, and it cost five dollars to play. When they did not have five dollars, they left an IOU.
Talent was not enough. When tournament spots were limited, the better-funded programs were often chosen first. Then, right before Bart's senior year, the district eliminated the golf program entirely. No coach. No tournaments. No pathway forward. Bart and Ian kept playing, but without exposure, guidance or money for travel, lessons and equipment, their dreams had a ceiling.
Years later, Bart realized there are thousands of young golfers living that same story right now. Future Golfers of America was created for them.
They had the talent. They had the work ethic. What they did not have was access.
More Kids Want In Than Ever
What makes the drop-off so frustrating is that it is happening while junior golf is booming. Just under 4 million juniors played golf on a course in 2025, more than in any year since 2004 and 58% more than in 2019. The players look different now, too. Girls make up 35% of junior golfers, up from 15% in 2000, and 26% of juniors are people of color.
High school golf is growing just as fast. In the 2025-26 school year, 175,757 boys played, an 8.3% jump that was the largest increase of any boys' sport, while 90,176 girls played, up 6.3%.
Golf has done the hard work of bringing kids in. The leak is further down the pipe, at the point where playing turns into competing and the costs start to climb.
Where Talent Leaks Out
The leak happens in middle school and high school. Those are the years when a junior needs tournament experience, real coaching and equipment that fits, and they are also the years when the bills get serious. Reporting on top junior golf puts lessons at $150 to $800 each, an average tournament trip near $3,000 and an aggressive national schedule near $20,000 a year.
The college door is narrow as well. About 5.4% of high school boys and 6.9% of girls who play golf go on to compete in the NCAA. Those spots are earned through results, and results come from competing, so a junior who cannot afford to compete is hard to see at all, no matter how good they are.
Plenty of systems are built to look fair on paper. Very few are built to notice the kid who skipped the tournament because of the entry fee.
What Quitting Really Costs a Kid
When a talented junior walks away, the loss is bigger than golf. Physical activity improves students' grades and test scores and helps them focus in class. Golf adds its own lessons: patience, honesty, and how to recover from a bad hole without letting it ruin the round. Those carry well past the course.
Parents know it. Some 92% say playing sports helps children build character, 90% say it teaches important life skills, and 88% are making room in the budget for extracurricular activities. The will is clearly there. For many families, the money simply runs out first.
What Access Actually Looks Like
Access is not a slogan. For a competitive junior, it is practical and specific.
When entry fees are paid, a junior can build a real tournament schedule, earn results and be seen. Fitted equipment replaces borrowed, outgrown or worn-out clubs, so a player can trust their distances. Coaching turns raw talent into consistent scores, which is what every tournament rewards, and covered travel puts a junior in the events that matter for development and recruiting.
Then there is the mentor, who stands in the gap when a family cannot, the way an older gentleman on a tractor once smiled and waved two kids with an IOU onto a sand-greens course in Oregon. Sometimes access is a program. Sometimes it is one adult deciding a kid is worth it.
How You Can Change the Ending
Every gift to #DriveForJuniors goes toward exactly these costs, and 100% of donations support junior golfers directly. You can give any amount from $1 to $10,000, once, monthly or yearly. Future Golfers of America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 39-3445115), so your gift may be tax-deductible. Check with your tax advisor.
Businesses can make a larger impact through partnerships, and anyone can pass along gently used clubs through equipment donation. If you are in the San Antonio area and know a junior who is being priced out, you can nominate them for FGA's Founding Athlete Class through November 30, 2026.
Read Bart's full story on the About page. Then help write a different ending for the next kid.
Common Questions
Why do junior golfers quit?
Cost is one of the biggest reasons. Tournament fees, travel, equipment and coaching add up quickly, and kids from low-income homes quit sports because of cost at six times the rate of kids from high-income homes.
How much does it cost to keep a junior golfer competing?
National entry fees run $95 to $295 per event, and an aggressive national schedule can approach $20,000 a year. See the full breakdown in what competitive junior golf really costs a family.
How does #DriveForJuniors help?
It funds tournament fees, equipment, coaching, travel and mentorship for competitive junior golfers selected by Future Golfers of America.
Is FGA only for San Antonio?
FGA's immediate focus is its first athletes in San Antonio and the surrounding area. As funding and partnerships grow, the goal is to bring the same support to junior golfers in communities across the country.
Can I nominate a junior golfer who is being priced out?
If the athlete is a competitive junior in San Antonio or the surrounding area, yes. Parents, coaches, mentors and other advocates can use the nomination form through November 30, 2026.
Sources
- Aspen Institute Project Play, low-income kids and the cost of sports (2020)
- Aspen Institute Project Play, Youth Sports Facts: Challenges
- Aspen Institute Project Play, family spending on youth sports survey (2025)
- American Junior Golf Association, Tournament Fees and Benefits
- National Golf Foundation, Golf Industry Facts (2025 data)
- NFHS, High School Sports Participation Survey (2025-26)
- GOLF.com, "How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Top Junior Golfer?" (2022)
- NCAA, Probability of Competing Beyond High School (2024-25)
- CDC, Physical Activity and Schools
- First Tee and The Harris Poll, parents and youth sports study (2025)
- Future Golfers of America, About (Bart's Story)
- Future Golfers of America, #DriveForJuniors National Fund
