By Susan Thompson | Lake Panorama Times
Twenty-two young golfers participated in the June session of the 2024 Lake Panorama National Junior Golf School. Another 30 participated in July. Young people ages 5 to 17 are eligible to attend the annual school, held on three Wednesdays each session.
Rob Riggins, LPN head golf professional, and Michael Kleinwolterink, LPN pro shop manager, led the golf school. The juniors learn full swing, pitching, chipping and putting fundamentals along with golf etiquette and rules of golf. Participants are divided into age groups and rotate between the putting green, chipping area and driving range.
New this year was a fourth station, where the junior golfers played with large plastic golf clubs and whiffle balls they hit into large buckets.
“This is a way for the kids to have a better chance of hitting the ball, and it teaches them to follow through with their swing,” Riggins says. “It’s another way we try to keep things interesting and keep the kids engaged in learning.”
At the end of the first two days, the juniors head to Spikes to choose a free drink. The third week of each session is held at Panorama West, with the juniors playing a few holes before a pizza party and receiving a gift bag.
Two sponsors have supported the school for many years — Lake Panorama Association and Guthrie County State Bank. Sponsor funds make it possible to give the junior golfers a gift bag on the final day of each session. This year, each student received two sleeves of golf balls, two packages of golf tees and two ball markers. Sponsor funds also were used to purchase the bucket golf wiffle ball game, plus candy bars and chips as prizes for kids who won contests at each station.
Assisting Kleinwolterink and Riggins with the 2024 LPN junior golf schools were Austin Block, Tyme Boettcher, Joel Cooper, Maddox Hammerstrom, Zander Hammerstrom, Melissa Hochstetler, Miranda Laabs, Ethan Olsen and Kaden Thompson.
Golfers who participated in the July LPN Junior Golf School are shown with their instructors after a final golf tournament and pizza party at Panorama West.
On the final day of the June LPN Junior Golf School, the junior golfers and their instructors posed for this group photo at the Panorama West clubhouse.
Rob Riggins, LPN head pro, helps a junior golfer learn the proper way to swing a pitching wedge.
On the final day of their junior golf school session, students gathered at the Panorama West golf course and played a best-ball tournament. Here girls in the July session take turns chipping to the green on the second hole.