Special Guest at
American International School
A special guest from China Mr. Jenson Tang visited our elementary extra-curricular Golf Club on 8 May. Mr. Tang is one of the top ten golf instructors in China in 2007. He said he has seen a lot of talents in our little golfers and shared his experience through showing some demonstrations. Mr. Tang was a Chinese National Team delegate in the Asia Games of 1998 and winner of the 1997 Macau Amateur Open. Now he oversees a team of fifteen PGA coaches in China as well as coaches for Junior National players.
One of his golf pedagogy teachers Mr. Wally Armstrong is the inventor of the Starting New At Golf (SNAG) program, a children adapted golf learning kit that our students are currently using at the Golf Club. SNAG has been used in Korea, Taiwan, China and United States. It uses modified equipment appropriate for children aged 5 to12, and through a variety of games, helps developing golf playing skills. Multiple stations are set-up in each lesson to keep kids stay interested and engaged.
Later, we had an interview with Mr. Tang and Mr. Rick Chu who is the organizer of our school’s golf program. Both individuals share the same drive to promote golf to the Chinese demographic. They shared with us the difficulty of promoting golf in Hong Kong and mainland China and how they use SNAG to assist them.
“Safety is always a priority and it is important to make golf training safe for kids. In addition, young children may find the sport a bit boring at the beginning, making it hard for them get dive deeper into it. SNAG is a method that aims to provide that safe and fun learning environment for kids.”
“Another issue is the difficulty to find quality Chinese speaking coaches to work in China.”
Besides offering children’s golf lessons at international schools, Mr. Chu has also helped to promote golf to the wider community by partnering with venue sponsors and making the sports more accessible to the local children.
We would like to thank Mr. Jenson Tang and Mr. Rick Chu for taking the time to share their passion and expertise with us in golf education.