Designing and Marketing Toddler/Youth Golf Equipment is Balance of Fun, Aspiration and Accessibility

Michael LoRé | mlore@bigswingmedia.news

Brands like Lil’ Legends and Jain Golf embrace youthfulness, while others like U.S. Kids Golf and Little Sundays preach practicality and craftsmanship.

Grant Horvat is on a mission. Alongside Performance Golf CEO Brixton Albert, the popular YouTube golfer is “trying to create the greatest movement ever to get kids into golf,” the latter proudly proclaimed in an Instagram post when announcing their undertaking in late August.

Driving their goal of getting one million kids to fall in love with the game, Horvat and Performance Golf released the Lil’ Legends starter set. Designed by Performance Golf Chief Producer Officer Chris McGinley, who previously spent more than two decades at Titleist, the set featuring three clubs, practice mat, foam balls and tees is billed as a “Simple Golf Learning System for ages 3-6. Shapes, colors, and a molded grip help your child learn golf fundamentals as you play together.”

While the cause is certainly commendable, the set’s initial $199 price point was met with criticism and consternation from consumers and media.

MyGolfSpy Editorial Director Brittany Olizarowicz, a scratch golfer, former teaching pro and mother of two, wrote a review of Lil’ Legends entitled: “The Next Generation Of Golfers Deserves Better Than This $199 Set.”

“His junior golf set is what it is. It’s too expensive for what it is, right?” Olizarowicz told Big Swing Media. “I think it misses a few of the pieces that really matter to kids as well.”

If Lil’ Legends missed the mark in appealing to the youthful masses and their parents, what factors should be considered when designing and marketing toddler and youth golf clubs and equipment?

First, there can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. While standard, ready-to-play adult sets available off the rack at retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and PGA Tour Superstore cover a breadth of golfers’ body types and swing speeds, young golfers, especially toddlers, are still growing. Not only are they swiftly switching sizes with clothes and shoes, golf clubs can become equally as outdated after just a few months or years.

Appropriately “fitting” kids for clubs can be a complex and costly undertaking for both manufacturers and parents; the former needing to invest in multiple SKUs or appropriate sizing technology with the former repeatedly paying for either or both as their junior golfer grows up. While they won’t go to a simulator or range to have a similar fitting experience as juniors or adults, toddlers and youth golfers are typically “fit” for sets based on their age and/or height.

Brands like PING, U.S. Kids Golf and Stix offer more robust “fittings” determined by these metrics. PING takes fitting for its PRODi G junior set even further with its WebFit Junior app that takes into consideration driving distance, putter preference and other measurements. Companies like Vice more broadly categorize their junior club sets between ages 4-8, 7-10 and 9-12.

Which brings us to the second factor: price. For many, it’s hard to justify $150+ on a starter set for a child that can grow out of it in a few years. Albert, who has been very transparent about Lil’ Legends, shared a video on Instagram breaking down production and shipping costs to justify the $199 pricepoint: $65.75 (clubs, bag, mat and accessories), $16.11 (tariffs), $3.50 (ocean freight), $18.50 (shipping to customer), $3 (pick and pack), $6.97 (credit card fees), $3.38 (royalties) and $29.85 (365-day returns).

While the set’s cost has been marked down to $149 on Performance Golf’s website at the time of writing, Olizarowicz and others remain critical of the “glorified plastic clubs.” Albert again took to social media to clarify the clubs’ quality, ensuring they are made with durable fiber-reinforced nylon — “the same material used in aerospace by downhill mountain bikers” — and not plastic.

Going hand-in-hand with price is branding and marketing. Lil’ Legends’ price point is being scrutinized because the clubs look like an overpriced Fisher Price set. Horvat and Albert, who remain steadfast in defense of the youthful design as well as the high quality of the set, even offer a 365-day “Your Kid Has Fun or It’s Free” money-back guarantee.

Like marketers at OEMs trying to persuade consumers to purchase their $649.99 driver over a competitor’s, toddler/youth-focused golf brands each take their unique POV to carve out a slice of this growing segment.

Little Sundays sought to develop a toddler set to complement its high-quality kids and junior bags ($99.95) made from water-resistant canvas and premium leather. The brand’s three-piece club set ($185) for ages 2-5 features a persimmon-style driver, 8-iron and putter.

Founder Jake Kuper launched Little Sundays in 2003 after purchasing a sewing machine on Amazon with a desire to create more modern, high-quality golf bags for youth and junior golfers. With the help of his wife and children, Kuper’s collection is defined by more mature, sleek designs with nods to youthful playfulness, including scalloped detailing and customizable bag tags.

“My dad would take me with him to the golf course so when my wife and I started having kids, I wanted to do the same with them,” Kuper said. “At that time, everything for kids wasn’t what I wanted for my kids so it gave me the idea to start Little Sundays.

“... It’s about making gear for kids that actually gets them into the game and fits their personalities, which keeps them coming back.”

At Jain Golf, personality is everything.

Founded by former Apple and Universal music exec Chris Hovsepian in 2022, the brand is built around its main character: Jain, a cartoon golf ball in a bucket hat that loves golf, sings Katy Perry songs, and isn’t afraid to talk about things like stress and anxiety while getting kids—and adults—to fall in love with the game through a familial-like community.

“Jain came from creating a character that was larger than life, was tapped into pop culture, and had this ability to be sort of ageless, but still able to connect with a parent and a child,” Hovsepian said. “At the center of all of this is that connection and how do we build and create things, whether it’s matching polos for a child and parent or animated content with Jane that is around golf that can make them both laugh together, or Camp Jain where you get to be around golf but also toss water balloons and face paint and everyone can feel like that kid again and tap back into that sort of version of themselves.”

Relying on Jain the character to grow the game, Hovsepian isn’t as reliant on products as other toddler/youth-focused golf brands. That doesn’t mean Jain hasn’t come out with apparel and accessories, including collabs with Beams Golf, Sugarloaf and St. Andrews Links. Jain’s biggest product success has been the Club Caddy, a colorful small carry bag for par-3s or range and simulator sessions.

With juniors growing in on-course proportion to currently represent 15% of participants in 2026 and the sport more popular than ever, these and other toddler-and youth-focused golf brands will have even more opportunities to engage a historically large consumer base.

The number of on-course junior golfers between the ages of 6-17 has nearly doubled from 2.3 million in 1990 to 4.5 million in 2026, according to the National Golf Foundation’s 2027 State of the Golf Business. Overall, golf participation has seen a 55% increase (+17.5 million) combined on- and off-course participants over the past 10 years, peaking at a record 49.5 million in 2026.

Increasing demand will unsurprisingly lead to increases in supply as competing products and companies will enter the market segment, similarly to what we reported in a previous Golf Business Intelligence Brief on the recent rise of healthy golf snack brands.

Iron sharpens iron. Or in this case, durable fiber-reinforced nylon sharpens durable fiber-reinforced nylon, set to benefit the game’s budding generations, and ultimately, the golf industry and sport as a whole.  

“This isn’t just a quick run right now with juniors in golf,” Olizarowicz said. “I think it’s actually hitting the peak where we need to be like, ‘OK, this is a good game. We can get kids into it.’ And if we do it the right way, hopefully we can get a lot of kids into it.”