MITCHELL — A busy summer for Lakeview Golf Course has seen the golf course look for additional ways to provide opportunities for junior golfers in the surrounding area.
With that in mind, there’s a litany of junior events lined up on the calendar.
Following the South Dakota Golf Association’s Junior Tour stop on June 17, Lakeview is set to host a Sanford International Series event for the first time on Monday, July 7 — an event geared toward high schoolers looking for competitive rounds in South Dakota. Later in July, the SDGA Adult-Junior Championship on Sunday, July 20 and the three-day SDGA Junior Championship follows at Lakeview beginning on Monday, July 21.
Additionally, Lakeview will compete its annual youth summer camp with the adult-junior “fun” scramble on Friday, June 27, before an additional youth summer camp commences in July in partnership with First Tee South Dakota, giving junior golfers more time to learn the intricacies of the game.
Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic
“We wanted to bring in another thing the whole month of July before school starts to give kids another opportunity,” Lakeview clubhouse manager and golf pro Eric Hieb said. “There’s so many activities throughout the course of the summer and June doesn’t work for some of these kids.”
Out of the kids who participated in the June summer camp, which consisted of 57 kids aged 7-10 and 32 aged 11-14, Hieb said the majority of the participants are signed up for the July camp, along with those who’ve exclusively signed up for the July golf camp.
Much of the focus in the younger age group is to create a fun atmosphere for them to start learning the basics of the game, which include playing station games from around the main practice green. The older group starts to learn concepts from course etiquette to beginning to develop a repertoire of shots for each situation out on the course.
With assistance from the clubhouse staff and volunteers when putting on the camps, Hieb reminds each of them an important piece of advice from when he first started helping at the course as a teenager along with learning the game himself.
Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic
“I tell the kids that work for me or volunteer for the kids camps that the kids really look up to them as role models,” Hieb said. “It’s about understanding the golf course in general and getting comfortable around the different practice areas so they feel comfortable when they get a little older and want to start practicing.”
Ultimately, the goal of getting kids out to the course with their parents fits the family friendly atmosphere Lakeview looks to create each year, with their eagerness to get back and work on the game in their own time standing out for those who help make the camps possible.
“It’s rewarding seeing them progress from a day-to-day basis when we teach them something and then they’re doing it the next day,” Hieb said. “It’s to grow the game and keep the game at the level where it’s at and bring the next generation into the world of golf.”
Hieb also feels rewarded when seeing the former junior golf camp participants now come back to use Lakeview’s facilities as competitors at the Junior Tour level and in high school, with the course serving schools in the immediate area such as Parkston, Hanson, Mount Vernon/Plankinton and Ethan in addition to Mitchell’s programs.
Blake Durham / Mitchell Republic
“You always hear giving back to the game and helping the junior golfers,” Hieb said. “We’re a very family oriented place that wants to get kids out here so they feel welcome and that this is a place where they can come and enjoy their family time or if they’re really interested in golf.”
Blake Durham is a Sports Reporter for the Mitchell Republic, having joined in October of 2023. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in December of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. Durham can be found covering a variety of prep and collegiate sports in the area.
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