You do not need clubs. You do not need golf shoes. You do not need to know anything about golf yourself.
Most of what stops a family starting golf is not cost or talent. It is not knowing what happens when you turn up — what your child wears, what you are supposed to do while they play, and whether everyone else already knows the rules.
This page answers that. It is general to junior golf, not about any one course. Every claim below names the page it came from, so you can check it yourself, and where we do not know something we say so rather than guessing.
Clubs are the barrier most families assume is fixed. It usually is not.
First Tee – Central Florida runs more junior programs than anyone else in this directory. Their parent information says that if your child needs clubs, you email them your child's name, height, and whether they are left- or right-handed, and pick up a set from their office. There is no purchase involved.
Read from firstteecfl.org — Current Season / Parent Info, Aug 27, 2026.What we don't know: whether the other providers in this directory lend or rent clubs. We have not asked them yet, so we are not going to tell you "most programs provide clubs" — that would be us guessing on their behalf. Ask when you call. It is a normal question and they will have heard it many times.
Golf shoes are not a requirement to start. First Tee – Central Florida asks participants to wear closed-toe sneakers, a climate-appropriate shirt, and appropriate-length shorts or slacks. That is it — sneakers your child already owns, and clothes they would wear to school.
Read from firstteecfl.org — Current Season / Parent Info, Aug 27, 2026.Some private clubs have their own dress codes, and a course that runs a program on its own property can apply them. If you are booking at a country club rather than a public course, that is worth one question on the phone.
This one surprises people, and the two largest programs in this directory expect opposite things of you. Neither expects you to know golf.
First Tee – Central Florida asks parents to drop off and collect their child each week in person, and then to remain at least 40 feet away during class. They say this is deliberate — the point is to build the child's independence and confidence.
Read from firstteecfl.org — Current Season / Parent Info, Aug 27, 2026.PGA Jr. League says families are encouraged to take an active role as spectators and volunteers within their local league, and to talk to the coach about it when they register.
Read from pgajrleague.com — How It Works, Aug 27, 2026.So the honest answer to "what am I supposed to do?" is: ask which kind this is. Both are normal. Neither requires you to have played.
The fear is that a child who has never swung a club will be exposed in front of children who have. In team formats they are not.
PGA Jr. League — which four courses in this directory run — plays what is called a two-person scramble. Their own description: both players in a pair hit a drive, the better of the two shots is chosen, and both players then play their next shot from that spot, repeating until the ball is in the hole. They say the format exists so that everyone gets to hit shots and contribute to the team.
In plain terms: your child's bad shot is picked up and forgotten. It never stands on its own, and it never costs the team anything.
The same page states that no prior golf experience is required and that all skill levels are welcome.
Read from pgajrleague.com — How It Works, Aug 27, 2026.Not universal: that is one national program's format, not a rule of junior golf. A weekly clinic or an academy session is usually instruction rather than a match. If team play is what would settle your child's nerves, ask whether the program has it.
First Tee – Central Florida asks for a filled water bottle and your child's clubs. Everything else below is ordinary Florida sense rather than a published requirement, and we have marked it as such.
Water bottle and clubs read from firstteecfl.org — Current Season / Parent Info, Aug 27, 2026.Here is the most useful thing we can tell you about price, and it is not a number.
100 of the 142 programs in this directory publish no price at all. That is not us withholding it — it is not on their pages either. Expect calling to be part of finding out, and expect the answer to be a real one when you do.
Weekly club and community programs — 32 of 113 publish a price, ranging $0 to $450. That is the kind of program most families start with.
Overnight and destination camps — 5 publish a price, $1,184 to $3,150. These are a different thing entirely: a week away rather than an hour after school. Do not let these numbers put you off the first kind.
PGA Jr. League publishes a national figure: an annual $120 membership per player, which covers a uniform and entry to their local league for as many seasons as they want that year. On top of that, the coach at each facility sets their own program fee, which varies by location and is listed with each program.
Read from pgajrleague.com — How It Works, Aug 27, 2026.First Tee – Central Florida publishes no fee on their program pages, but they do run a financial aid page and a scholarship, so ask if cost is the thing standing in your way.
Financial aid and scholarship links seen on firstteecfl.org — Programs, Aug 27, 2026.What we deliberately have not done: compared this to what soccer or hockey costs. We could not find a published, current figure for youth sports spending by sport that we were willing to stand behind, and a made-up comparison would be worth less than no comparison. If you want the real number for golf near you, the answer is on the phone.
We would like this page to describe a first session minute by minute — what happens when you arrive, how long the warm-up runs, how the groups are split. We are not going to, because nobody has told us.
What we do know: First Tee classes meet once a week. PGA Jr. League matches are nine holes, played as three sets of three, which takes considerably longer than a class does — worth knowing before you commit to a season, because a nine-hole round is most of a morning, every week.
Class frequency from firstteecfl.org; match structure from pgajrleague.com. Both Aug 27, 2026.We are calling courses to fill the rest of this in. Until we have, this page stays shorter than we would like rather than longer than we can support.
Every program in the directory links straight to the provider's own page or phone number. We do not take bookings, and we do not screen these programs — we find them, check the source, and tell you what we found.
Growing the game — one family at a time.
Jr Tee Time is a directory. We are not affiliated with First Tee, the PGA of America, or PGA Jr. League, and neither organization has endorsed or reviewed this page. We quote their published parent information because it is the clearest public answer to the questions on this page, and we link to it so you can read it yourself. If anything here has gone out of date, tell us at thejrteetime@yahoo.com and we will fix or remove it.