KinderGolf – Giving Children An Early Start To Golf Through Franchising

What do Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have in common? They both had an early start in learning the game by hitting the courts at ages 4 and 2 respectively. Other prominent sports stars have this opportunity too – Tiger Woods is one good example who started to tee-off when he was barely two.

Aware of the link between early learning and excellence was the inspiration behind Donna Lee, founder and CEO of KinderGolf. Being a professional golfer in the early nineties herself, Donna Lee knows what it takes to give an early start to children by taking the world of golf to them and their eagerly enthusiastic parents.

“In any sport, when you start young, you have a huge advantage. When you start at two, ten years down the road playing the sport, you would only be twelve years old. The future potential of that person is huge, and they can be in a professional tournament at a very young age, like Michelle Wie,” she said referring to the top US woman golfer.

To her surprise she found that there is no golf school that caters to children at a very young age, not even in the US, Europe and Australia where golf is popular.

That drove her to start KinderGolf in 2000 with a concept to specialise in golf lessons for children within the 2 – 8 years age group. Besides grooming them to become professional golfers, the academy also develops character building and motor skills, while imparting intrinsic values.

Driven By Passion & Focus
With a small sum of capital of only S$10,000 she opened her first KinderGolf franchise outlet in 2004, aptly on 1st October which is Children’s Day. Many other franchise outlets soon follow suit. In 2007, she won the Spirit of Enterprise award and Promising Franchisor Award reflecting her entrepreneurial journey thus far.

KinderGolf franchise business can be found as far as Orange County, in the US state of California and other parts of the world including USA, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and most recently Vietnam. There are nine outlets in Singapore alone. Recently the company saw its recent earnings touching the S$5 million mark due to its ability to be ‘nimble and sensitive’ during crises.

You can read the full story here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/eyeonbusiness/features/kindergolf.htm