For many years, golf was reserved for the elite, for country clubbers, for those with financial means.
In 2006, however, a nonprofit in Monterey, California began partnering with golf courses nationwide to keep prices down for the next generation.
With Youth on Course, children ages 6-18 can get out and play for $5 or less. And, more than likely, they bring a parent along so the partnering course truly gets the best of both worlds: providing opportunity for youth and earning extra foot traffic with a paying adult.
West Valley native Abigale Morris was one of the hundreds of thousands that Youth on Course has positively influenced.
Morris said her mother, Aiesha, introduced her to the program and it was a way for her to practice the game she then took to the collegiate level at NCAA Division II Biola University. Morris and her friends primarily utilized the three 18-hole courses at The Wigwam in Litchfield Park due to how close it is to her family’s home.
As a junior at Waddell’s Canyon View High School, she was one of 20 across the nation to be selected to the program’s GenZ Council in 2021. Inclusion with that group sparked Morris’ curiosity. That summer and the next, Morris said she interned in marketing and communications, handling tasks such as contacting golf courses about Youth on Course partnership.
“It really just opened my mind to the idea of working in golf, which I thought was really cool, and I was really young when I did it too,” said Morris, who learned of the internship via former Youth on Course VP of Communications and Marketing Ashleigh Guerra.
Founded by CEO Adam Heieck, Youth on Course has been active in Arizona since 2015, but its impact has never been greater.
On April 10, Youth on Course and Bank of America announced a three-year partnership that extends free one-year memberships through the Golf with Us initiative. Prospective members had until June 15 – lengthened from an originally set May 24 – to take advantage of the promotion and 80,000 did with just over a week left.
“We’re targeting 95,000 new (Youth on Course) members,” said Steven Martin, chief marketing officer for Youth on Course. “So, you think of the effect. … A round of golf can change somebody’s life. So, if you have 95,000 members and the average member’s playing five or six rounds a year, you know, that’s a lot, that’s a lot of rounds, a lot of effect.”
Junior Golf Association of Arizona Executive Director Scott McNevin said more than 2,000 of those newest members are based in Arizona.
Over the past 10 years, the state of Arizona has seen membership growth from about 1,000 to 6,665 as of June 5, according to Martin. Golf club participation has also increased greatly from what McNevin estimated to be 10 to 43 in 2025.
McNevin said Youth on Course membership, which carries a $30 annual value in Arizona, is included with JGAA’s $120 competition membership. Once activated via a mobile app, a junior golfer can not only play at a significantly discounted rate on local courses but can use the perk at any of 2,000-plus participating courses in the country.
“Say, ‘OK, I’m going on a road trip to Oregon, Washington (and) Colorado for two weeks in July. I want to check out these courses,’” McNevin said. “I’ve heard stories about building a vacation around it.”
Youth on Course also has partner courses in Canada, Mexico and Australia.
Morris’ career trajectory has stayed within the golf industry in large part due to her pre-college internship.
Now a rising senior at Biola, Morris has interned with the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Ping and recently began interning for First Tee – Phoenix in June.
“I want to stay in marketing and communication or like brand development,” Morris said. “I would love to work social media for like the LPGA or PGA Tour. That’d be fun to be in that like tournament atmosphere.”
Children, in addition to play, gain free access to virtual golf instruction through GolfPass (normally a $49 value), an official handicap number and several career opportunities such as applying for a six-week paid internship with Pebble Beach Company.
“A really cool program is if you go on GolfNow and you book your tee time, you can round up to the next dollar and that money comes to us,” said Martin, who has been with Youth on Course since June 2023.
And that funding is vital as Youth on Course subsidizes up to $15 for every member round to uphold their $5 promise with the national junior rate at about $20, according to Martin.
Martin said Youth on Course chipped in an average of $6 for more than 20,000 rounds last year in Arizona. Local golf associations, like the JGAA, also play a role in keeping the costs down.
In 2024, one Arizona course dominated rounds played not just in the state but in the entire nation.
Scottsdale’s Starfire Golf Club logged 6,928 rounds, according to McNevin.
The club benefits from a central location and The Mulligan 9, a short nine-hole course separate from its regulation 18-hole course, The King.
The real secret sauce is that Youth on Course members can play the course any day of the year and seven days a week, according to Starfire’s website.
All partner courses have control over their accessibility, the typical restrictions in Arizona found during winter months. For example, Encanto Golf Course in Phoenix offers tee times for Youth on Course members after 1 p.m. from October to May and anytime on weekdays from June to September.
“Really (Youth on Course) exploded since COVID just with the golf boom but before that the concept was, ‘OK, we’re trying to get more youth to play and use unused tee times maybe in the afternoon when people aren’t using them,’” McNevin said.
Martin said of the existing municipal golf courses in the U.S., about 40% are in league with Youth on Course. This percentage of buy-in is something the nonprofit is hoping to increase with its new strategic partnership.
“We’re partnering with Bank of America to open that up by basically providing more money for those municipalities to partner with Youth on Course and kids that are members of ours,” Martin said. “So that’s key when you look at golf in general is having places for kids who are not financially able to be involved in a country club with their parents.”
The multiyear deal could not have come at a more opportune time in Martin’s mind, as Bank of America was one of only four champion partners of the Masters Tournament in April. The hometown bank company already had relationships with major tournaments in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, since 2019, and the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, since 2022.
Corporate partnerships aside, Martin said social media influencers Roger Steele and Tisha Alyn, who boast about 730,000 combined Instagram followers, have been invaluable ambassadors for what they are trying to accomplish.
“What we’re trying to do is kind of feed that niche of just lifestyle golf,” Martin said. “We’re attracted to those folks that do that because they’re just playing for the masses. … Most folks are just kind of fed up with how much money’s in golf and they just want to play, enjoy it and love it.”
With those advocates – former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is also an ambassador for the organization – Martin said Youth on Course is currently executing a five-year growth plan. They want to reach 500,000 members — currently at about 350,000 — and 5,000 partnered courses — currently at about 2,500 — by 2029.
“I think it’s really exciting that (Youth on Course) is investing in the future of golf because I feel like in the last 10 years or so, the landscape of the game has changed,” Morris said. “(The Bank of America partnership) is kind of making it a sport for everyone…and just seeing how it’s going compared to when I was a junior, which wasn’t even that long ago, ‘till like now, it’s just insane how many more kids are playing golf.”
