Heather Daly-Donofrio, the managing director for player relations and development at the USGA, is in the right job at the right time. A graduate of Yale and a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, the 55-year-old is working on a five-year national development strategy for American juniors. The program started in February of 2023 and is now well underway, with a recent addition being a podcast for parents which will supplement the “Be My Champion” video resource.
Amazingly, America is one of the last countries to get on board with a national development plan. Indeed, when Lilia Vu, who is ranked second in the world, heard mention of the arrangements at this year’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, she muttered a relieved, “It’s about time.”
Why is it about time? Because the statistics tell their own story. Scroll down the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and, though there are a few truly great Americans at or near the top, there are no more than 16 in the top 100.
During this year’s Curtis Cup at Sunningdale (England) Golf Club, Daly-Donofrio explained how American children previously had been left to work things out on their own and with their families. In Europe, in contrast, the various national federations had for years been making headway with junior programs which include international matches at under-16 and under-18 age levels. The idea in Europe is that the youngsters can learn what it is to play in a team situation instead of spending all their time being shepherded around to individual tournaments by family members, as tends to happen in the States.
Daly-Donofrio is convinced that the European kids are the more grown up as a consequence and, when it came to the ’24 Curtis Cup, the U.S. players were brought over by the USGA as a team with no parents in tow.
All along, Daly-Donofrio has been hugely appreciative of the advice she has been getting from Nigel Edwards, England Golf’s performance director. Edwards is a firm believer in teaching his youngsters a set of five sound and simple pillars – short game, putting, wedge play, course management and ball control – which will work to good effect for the rest of their golfing careers.
The USGA’s National Development Program is not solely for the country-club set. Based on financial needs, juniors can apply for grants. In 2024, 225 youngsters applied, with the applicants submitting videos of their swings. Besides being assessed by Daly-Donofrio, the clips were shown to college coaches nationwide.
Seventy-one players were selected for grants and are now tuning in to video teaching sessions, which make sense in a land where no one can be expected to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to gather for group squad sessions.
Daly-Donofrio expects to have 500-odd applications next year, along with a corresponding improvement in the number of grants on offer.
Meanwhile, the “Be My Champion” addition to the USGA program will be of interest to parents everywhere.
“It’s about helping them and their offspring,” Daly-Donofrio said at Sunningdale. “Parents can be their child’s biggest supporters if they do things the right way …”
And it goes without saying that the opposite can apply if they take the wrong route.
An overly keen dad, for instance, is not doing his son or daughter any favors if he throws back his head in horror upon a missed putt. From start to finish, the parent needs to look positive.
For an example of supportive behavior, she cited how a good parent would not just take his or her child out to dinner after a win, but do precisely the same after he or she hasn’t played well. Again, she spoke of the importance of good body language by parents when they watch in person.
An overly keen dad, for instance, is not doing his son or daughter any favors if he throws back his head in horror upon a missed putt. From start to finish, the parent needs to look positive.
“We want juniors to love golf rather than be put off by it,” Daly-Donofrio said.
There has been plenty of media coverage over the years regarding talented players being put off the game for years, if not for life.
South Korea’s Seri Pak was one who had a hard time from a father who was alleged to have left her in a graveyard overnight by way of toughening her up. Pak won five major titles in a World Golf Hall of Fame career and launched her homeland’s obsession with the game, but she would tell of how the cumulative pressure during her career had been such that she was at one point hospitalized with exhaustion.
Her golf subsequently fell apart, though she came back after a gap of four years to win her fifth major in 2006. In an interview with GGP not so long ago, she said that things were getting better, what with today’s young players being smart enough to control their parents and do their own thing.
“Parents,” she said, “are learning at the same time as the players are learning.”
Daly-Donofrio would like that to apply all over the world.