By Spiro Zavos
October 9th 2008 @ 1:03am
Tiger Woods’ successor is just 11 years-old
The Wall Street Journal has called Josh Martin, an eleven year-old with a “butter-smooth swing” that he can repeat exactly every stroke, “the best golfer in the world at his age.”
This summer young Martiin, a fair-haired, skinny kid, is averaging 69.9 strokes every round he plays at the tough Pinehurst course, which is 5,614 yards long.
Professional courses are 7000/7500 long.
His lowest round is 62. And in the past four years, Martin has won nearly every major junior golf tournament he has entered.
This statistic reveals the real story behind the Josh Martin story.
His father, Bowie Martin, is determined to ensure that his sons (older brother Zach 13 is also an excellent golfer) have the chance to become golf greats. So both boys have been subjected to an intense coaching, tutoring and playing regime that is intended to make them champion players.
Josh has responded better than Zach to the seemingly brutal golf regime regime imposed by their father. Zach has already dropped out twice. But he is apparently back on the golf treadmill.
I’ve seen clips of Tiger Woods on the Bob Hope show beating the star at a putting competition. Tiger was about four years old at the time the TV show was filmed. He is a case of a prodigy, coached and mentored relentlessly by his father, who has achieved greatness.
There are few other cases in golf where this sort of success has followed a single-minded determination by a parent to force a child into sporting stardom.
And when the occasional force-fed athlete actually makes it into the big-time, they often have very short careers. The example of a number of young female tennis stars come to mind.
In about ten years time we’ll know if Josh Martin is going to fulfill his father’s ambitions.
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Brett McKay said | October 9th 2008 @ 8:52am | Report comment
Interesting Spiro that the once-common temptation to force Zach to play right-handed rather than left has been ignored. Refreshing even, given the context of child prodigies and their (parents) pursuit of excellence.
Still want to knee-cap the little so-and-so’s though!! I’d be happy to hit 69 ONCE, let alone average it, at whatever age..
Greg Russell said | October 9th 2008 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
Spiro writes “There are few other cases in golf where this sort of success has followed a single-minded determination by a parent to force a child into sporting stardom.”
The phenomenon under discussion here - that of relentless training as a child - is not a golf-specific issue but a sporting one in general. I am not sure that Spiro is correct.
Personally I find the stories about the the Martin boys and the young Tiger remarkably similar to those of Bradman the boy, spending hour after hour hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump against a tank. The only difference here would seem to be that Bradman was self-motivated even as a boy. I don’t know when it started, but one of Tiger’s distinguishing features as an adult is his incredible level of self-motivation and focus (again, both recall Bradman to an uncanny extent). It is not unreasonable to liken the record of Tiger to that of Bradman.
Apparently there are videos of Andre Agassi playing tennis rallies as a three-year old, something that can only have been the result of relentless parental training as well as massive natural talent (as the father of a 4 year old who has just started tennis lessons, I can say this with great confidence about the young Agassi).
And I think most of us are aware that Maradona could juggle a football for hours on end as a boy.
Or we have read about the number of hours of training that gymnasts and divers did to get to the pinnacle of their sport.
Phil Coorey said | October 9th 2008 @ 7:34pm | Report comment
Dad sounds like a real great guy - those boys are blessed