AURORA —Chris Kennedy and Amy Chitkoksoong play golf or practice it every single day. Both of them have been playing their whole lives, and they both have big dreams for their future in the sport.
“I started playing when I was 4 years old, but I was stuck on the range for two years,” said Chris, who is 14. “When I was 6 years old, I started to play on the golf courses, and I haven’t stopped.”
On a recent day at Murphy Creek Golf Club in northeast Aurora, Chris and Amy, who met while playing in the Colorado Professional Golf Association’s junior league, were hanging out and practicing chipping on the course’s award-winning practice greens.
“I’m aiming for the No. 1 spot on varsity when I start school next month,” said Amy, who is also 14. “So I’m out here basically every day.”
It’s easy for young, goal-oriented golfers and beginners under 17 to hang out at Aurora’s six golf courses every day because Aurora offers a “Kids Golf Free” program where they can come after 2 p.m. with a paying adult and work on their game for no cost, all season long.
“We wanted to do something to get more kids involved in the sport, and what we were finding was that families felt like it was too expensive to do with the whole family,” said Aurora Golf spokeswoman Karin Rivale. “So we came up with a way to make it more appealing for families. We have a lot of camps where we introduce kids to the fundamentals of the game … but we wanted to take the next step, which is getting them out on the golf course.”
Rivale said that a new junior program camp or round offer has been introduced practically every golf season for the last several years. This year, a new six-week, one-on-one camp was introduced to follow the city’s popular junior golf camp.
Murphy Creek at 1700 S. Old Tom Morris Road is one of the most popular for young golfers because it has unique youth options, like a $300 junior pass that allows unlimited play all year and a huge practice facility.
“We average about 22 juniors per week that use the kids-play-free option, and about 30 who buy the pass,” said Leslie Core-Drevecky, the PGA resident golf pro at Murphy Creek. “That draws youth here, and we also have one of the best, biggest practice facilities in the region, which makes it really good for building the game of golf for juniors.”
Aurora resident Angela Anderson and her daughter, Sophia, 13, try to get to an Aurora golf course a couple of times a week for free junior golf.
“It is a wonderful way for us to practice her game under very low pressure,” Anderson said. “When kids are learning to golf, it’s really helpful to not have to pay for rounds if they want to skip holes or move around at a slower pace. We take advantage of this at all the city’s courses.”
The attention on youth golf in Aurora is also a way to ensure steady revenue streams in the future, said Doug McNeil, Aurora’s golf manager. Aurora Golf operates on an independent budget from the city with a annual pot of about $8.3 million, and the golf division just about breaks even every year, he said.
Overall revenue from the city’s six courses has been relatively steady, though rounds are down a little this year. The golf division has a multi-million dollar wish list for equipment replacement, so attention to junior golf, as well as rate increases, are keeping the division financially level enough to address those needs in increments.
“The future of the sport is with the kids, so we aim to cultivate more interest in the game a younger level,” McNeil said. “We try and offer ample opportunities for kids to play for free, just trying to do what we do to build interest in game for it to be successful, and in turn for us to be successful in the future.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or
Kids golf free:
Aurora Hills: Weekends after 2 p.m.
Fitzsimons: Mondays all day
Meadow Hills: Tuesday through Thursday after 2 p.m.
Murphy Creek: Every day after 2 p.m.
Saddle Rock: Mondays and Tuesdays after 2 p.m.
Spinghill: Every day after 2 p.m.
