The 32nd season of the Winter Tour is underway and before highlighting this family golf recreational program, a fun quick note about this upcoming week. 

The 2024 PGA Merchandising Show is once again in Orlando Fla. and several Solina Golf Club team members will be there to preview cutting-edge golf technology and fashion. 

Solina Golf Club is a brand new course, open for “preview play.” Clubhouse facilities are under construction and 11 of the 18 holes are open. 

Scott Olligis, Taylor Wright,  myself, along with proprietor Greg Middleton will visit the largest golf show on earth. Tuesday is the outdoor segment, called demo day, and this event is hosted by Orange County National. 

This is where the technology will be featured, and as Jimmy Koosa says, “Try it before you buy it!” Without a doubt, this is the highlight of the week!  

Wednesday through Friday the show is under cover at the Orlando Convention Center. In years past, the event served as a meeting place for the greatest golf minds, stars, and personalities, so it will be interesting to see who shows up this year. Tune in for the update in a couple of weeks!

The 2024 Winter Tour has close to 100 families participating. This program’s founding principles focus on families spending time together on the golf course with the developmental theme being “learn through play.”  

This development theme is achieved primarily through the parents, grandparents and guardians serving as caddies, course guides, and fans. From the first year of this program back in 1992,  golf teaching and coaching experts including players, and professional educators have contributed. 

Sports and developmental psychologists have also provided education. Every year the curriculum has been updated and 2024 is producing early season fruit. 

The fruit is golf fun. Over three decades of play-inspired learning has produced a hybrid curriculum that squeezes a unique brand of golf joy. 

“It’s a real interesting experience. You would think with five 7-year-olds new in the game, it would be complete chaos. But somehow this group of kids formed a unit, and they figured it out. They are not pros or have not played much, but they have gelled quickly and this is Day No. 1 for us. I can only imagine what’s going to happen by season’s end,” Winter Tour dad Andrew Troup said.

What the Winter Tour format amplifies is community learning on the actual playing field. In 1992, I heard Dr. Bob Rotella ask a question that I will never forget: “How may other sports learn and train on a field or court that is not the actual field of play?”

Rotella emphasized the value of practicing and training on the real golf course. This is not to insinuate that converting the golf course into a driving range is what he suggested. He was advocating, playing lots of golf, with one ball, on the course!

Give a child a club and a ball, in the right kind of environment, and they figure the game out very fast! The best part about them figuring it out themselves is most have fun just trying to figure the game out!

The Bryan Bros will usher in brand new formats for learning soon. There will be several locations that will feature these formats. 

George IV and Wesley, my two sons, got their start in golf on the Winter Tour. Solina Golf Club will be their golf academy’s first brick-and-mortar headquarters along with a central location. There will be satellite locations locally to preview programming.