Fun for all
Watch Mollie Thola work with youngsters.
For someone not too much bigger than the kids she teaches, Thola has a way of reaching kids that borders on magical, whether she’s teaching them to ice skate or how to swing a golf club.
“I love it,” the golf pro at Trailhead at Liberty Lake said. “It’s because they have no fear and no expectations. Everything they do is a bonus, and it’s just awesome. They grasp things so eagerly, and it’s without all the whys and wherefores.
“They don’t care how you tell them how to get there, they just want to get there. That makes teaching them so easy.”
An accomplished figure skater before becoming a golf professional, Thola started working with young figure skaters as a teenager. Her passion for working with 4-year-olds and up only grew from there.
Today she runs an extended youth program at the Liberty Lake golf course, where she will have taught almost 200 youngsters the rudiments of the game by summer’s end.
And in the process, Thola will have a great deal of fun, herself.
“The kids just have a blast,” she said. “The key to working with kids is this: If you don’t make it fun, they won’t want to play. And if you make it fun for them, it will be fun for you.”
The game of golf took a decided shift in core demographics with the arrival of Tiger Woods and the story of how his father started him in the game as a toddler.
The arrival of Michelle Wie and a fleet of accomplished amateurs – including Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lang, who tied for second at the 60th U.S. Women’s Open Tournament at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado earlier this month – also have increased interest.
Thola said she sees the results of that youth movement in the numbers of youngsters she sees wanting to learn the game.
“I have kids who are anywhere from age 4 to 16 in my beginner program this year,” she said. “The kids today are here because they want to play golf, not because their mom or dad went through the YMCA catalog to see what sports they could sign their kids up for. Even the little guys.”
Thola starts with the basics. The first thing she has players learn is to swing the club, hit the ground and finish on their right toe. Simple as that.
The foundation set, the fun begins.
“It’s never too late to learn,” Thola said. “It’s all in the delivery system. It’s all about how you present the information to the kids that makes the difference. It’s the same with teaching adults the game. The difference is, adults want to know why they’re doing something. The kids just care about getting the ball to go in the right direction.”
The way kids come to the game of golf is evolving, she said. It’s not the children of parents who play the game that come seeking to learn.
“I’ve got parents learning to play because their kids are getting involved,” she explained. “I have parents taking lessons now because their kids love playing so much, and now they want to play together as a family.”
Once they learn the game, Thola said, they can decide how seriously to take it.
“The opportunities are endless,” she explained. “Once they learn, they can decide if they want to go on and keep playing.”
The Liberty Lake golf community has embraced the program.
“I have a lot of people calling up and wanting to donate their clubs to junior golf,” she said. “And really, the little guys have better equipment these days than the big guys. I took a look at what we have for the kids, and I realized they have better clubs than I do!”
Thola makes a point of providing quality equipment for her youngsters. No one should be kept from the game of golf because of a lack of equipment.
“I always have kids whose parents really can’t afford to buy clubs for the kids,” she said. “Those are the ones that I really try to make sure have a good set of clubs so they can find out if they enjoy the game and want to pursue it before their family has to make an investment in clubs.”