Helping every child fall in love with the game of golf.
Kid Friendly Golf Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping every child fall in love with the game of golf — by educating parents, training coaches, and recognizing the courses that welcome families best.
Kids don't quit golf because it's hard. They quit because it's not fun.
So the Foundation gives every family two free tools that keep score of the things that actually keep a child in the game: the milestones they'll remember forever, and the everyday practice that gets them there.
Both are free at any course in America. Approved courses and coaches make the days in between even better — but nothing here waits on them.
A kid needs three things to stay in the game.
Fun. Friends. Family. Take away any one of them and a child walks away from golf — usually before they're twelve. Everything the Foundation builds exists to protect all three, for free, at any course in America.
Golf has to feel like a game.
Kids don't quit because golf is hard. They quit because nothing happens when they get better. The free Passport and The Adventure turn every round, every range bucket, and every rainy Tuesday in the hallway into stamps, XP, and a rank they're chasing.
- Glowing stamps for real milestones
- 12 worlds to unlock
- 8 ranks to climb
No kid sticks with a sport alone.
The number one reason juniors stay in the game is somebody their age waiting for them. We connect you with other golf families nearby and with the programs, clinics, and junior leagues where your child will actually meet those kids.
- Find families with kids the same age
- Local programs and junior leagues
- Events near your ZIP code
Golf is a game you get to play together.
Most sports put parents on the sideline. Golf puts you in the group. We make it easy to show up — where to go, what it costs, what to say on the first tee — so the round stays something your family looks forward to.
- Works at any course, anywhere
- Approved courses and coaches nearby
- Free guides for golf parents
Play anywhere. Get connected. Watch them grow. That's the loop.
The Passport works at every course in America — municipal, private, or your local par-3. Every milestone becomes a memory.
When you're ready for more, we connect you with approved courses, coaches, junior camps, and other families with kids the same age.
XP, ranks, and treasure turn every round and practice session into momentum, so the next visit is their idea.
Two activities. One kid who never wants to stop playing.
Kids quit golf when nothing feels like progress. So we built two things that both keep score of the right stuff — and both are free with your account.
Big milestones and memorable experiences.
The moments your kid will still talk about in twenty years — first par, first birdie, first eagle, their first full 18, the day they broke 90, a hole in one. Rare on purpose. Earned on a real course, anywhere in America.
Everyday practice, turned into a game.
Everyday golf adventures, even a rainy Tuesday with a plastic club in the hallway counts. Every challenge your kid completes moves them another space across a hand-drawn world, toward the next treasure chest.
The Kids Golf Passport
Every stamp is dated, tied to the course they played, and saved with a photo. But stamps aren't all created equal — each one has a rarity and an XP value, and every stamp pushes your kid up the passport ranks.
XP adds up across every stamp your kid earns, and the passport levels up with them — from their very first swing to a career they'll be proud of.
- 1Rookie
Every legend starts here.
0 XP
- 2Caddie
You know your way around the bag.
100 XP
- 3Range Regular
You show up. That's the whole secret.
300 XP
- 4Fairway Finder
The short grass is your home.
700 XP
- 5Green Machine
Pars are starting to feel normal.
1,400 XP
- 6Course Crusher
Full rounds, real scores.
2,500 XP
- 7Club Champion
You've done things most kids never do.
4,000 XP
- 8Legend of the Links
A lifetime of memories, stamped.
6,500 XP
Common practice stamps keep momentum. A legendary hole in one is worth 250 XP — and your kid knows it.
Fifteen stamps to unlock, with the ones your kid hasn't earned yet showing greyed out as a target.
Every milestone can be printed as a certificate or shared as a card — the fridge, the wall, grandma's inbox.
The Adventure — a whole world to cross.
Open Kid View and the passport turns into a floating world with a winding path of 30 spaces. Complete a challenge, move a space. Every 5 spaces a treasure chest pops open. Finish the world and a brand-new one appears.
Twelve worlds queued up — about a year of play — and it never dead-ends. Kids can preview every world ahead, so they always know what's coming next.
41 challenges — and the easiest one is "I swung a club today."
That's the point. It's February, it's dark at five, and there's a plastic club and a foam ball in the living room. That still counts. So does a putt on the carpet, a stretch before a swing, or thanking the coach after a lesson.
Challenges are grouped into 7 categories, each with its own progress bar, so kids can chase whatever they're in the mood for.
- I swung a club today
- I made a putt today
- Three-Foot Hero
- Chip It Close
- Sand Wizard
- Big Stick King
- Rain or Shine
- Coach a Friend
Passport stamps move the map forward too — so a great day on the course counts twice.
Chests hold collectible rewards that are the same every time for that kid — so they can chase a specific one.
Progress lives in the cloud, not on one phone. Switch devices and the adventure is right where they left it.
Practice today, milestone tomorrow. The map builds the habit; the passport records the payoff.
The Circle of Impact
Kids fall in love with the game. Parents know how to nurture it. Coaches are celebrated for the way they inspire juniors. Courses are recognized for welcoming them. When all four move together, golf stops being intimidating — and starts being a game every kid can't wait to play again.
Engage Kids
We turn golf into a fun game — passport stamps, XP, ranks and Adventure worlds — so kids want to play again tomorrow, at any course, range or backyard.
Connect Parents
We connect parents with the right programs, facilities, coaches and other golf families in their area — so nobody has to guess where their kid belongs.
Promote Coaches
KFG Foundation gives coaches the tools to promote their education, experience and passion for coaching juniors — showing parents who their kids will be in the best hands with.
Recognize Courses
Kid Friendly Approved status that rewards the facilities treating kids like valued guests rather than unwanted ones — showing parents exactly where to go.
Joseph DiChiara
Father · PGA Professional · Founder
Beyond Birdies: How to Help Your Child Win at Golf and Life
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Dear Families,
For more than 22 years, golf has been my life's work.
I have been fortunate enough to influence junior golf around the world and to spend my career helping young players discover everything this game has to offer. Along the way, I had the privilege of founding and directing the International Preparatory Golf Academy in Bangkok, Thailand, serving as a PGA professional for the past 20 years, coaching thousands of junior golfers, helping more than 50 young players earn Division I scholarships, even coaching 2-time US Women's Open Champion Yuka Saso in her high school years, and writing Beyond Birdies: How to Help Your Child Win at Golf and Life.
But after all these years, I have come to believe something very simple.
The future of golf will not be determined by how many children learn to swing a golf club. It will be determined by how many children fall in love with the game.
As coaches, parents, and golf facilities, we often spend so much time focusing on instruction, competition, rankings, equipment, and scores that we forget something much more important: children remember how they felt, not what they were told.
They remember making their first par. They remember collecting their first stamp. They remember the coach who encouraged them, the golf professional who welcomed them, and the moments they shared with their parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends.
Most of all, they remember whether they felt that they belonged.
As the father of Jaxson and Rowan, I understand this more deeply today than ever before. More than anything, I want my children to experience the joy of being outdoors, learning valuable lessons, overcoming challenges, and creating memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
That is why we created the Kid Friendly Golf Foundation.
- We believe every child deserves to be welcomed.
- Every child deserves to be encouraged.
- Every child deserves to be recognized.
- Every family deserves to be included.
- And every positive experience should become a lifetime memory.
Together, we can create golf courses where children are excited to return, where families feel that they belong, and where the game becomes more than a sport. It becomes a tradition that is passed from one generation to the next.
Because every child remembers how they were welcomed.
Warm regards,
Joe DiChiara, PGAFounder, Kid Friendly Golf Foundation
Four campaigns. One mission.
Each of our national campaigns puts the mission into practice on the ground — at real courses, with real families.
Kids Golf Passport™
FlagshipGrowth
Give every junior a lifelong record of their journey — courses visited, states played, milestones earned. The Passport turns golf into a shared family adventure.
Tag Along Tee Times™
Family
Every child deserves a round with a parent or grandparent. Tag Along Tee Times reserve a limited number of tee times each month during slower hours so families can enjoy the game together — no pressure, just family time.
The Firsts Program™
Recognition
Kids stay in what they're recognized for. The Firsts Program celebrates every meaningful milestone — I Practiced, Start My Journey, Made Par, Made Birdie, Made Eagle, Broke 100, Broke 90, Broke 80, Hole in One, and Tournament rounds — with a certificate and moment that says: you belong here.
Kid's Golf Grants™
Community
Community grants that remove cost barriers and help local programs serve more kids, more often.
Help us build the national standard.
Sponsors, donors, foundations, and forward-thinking facilities. This is how golf grows.