They open the parcel, they say thank you, and you already know whether you got it right. Either they want to head straight to the range with it, or they put it back on the table and reach for the next one.
The right present is the one they can use the very next day: something that fits in a pocket, or a garment in the size they are now. What misses is what you buy for next year.
Three families hold up: the small objects that live in the bag, the garment, and the consumable when you know nothing about them. The rest ends up in a cupboard. Clubs we leave aside: a half set is chosen with the pro who has watched them hit.
What a child takes out of the bag, and what never goes back in
Open their bag after three rounds. There is what they grab without thinking, and the rest, which migrates to the bottom and never comes back up.
At the top it is always the same: the opened packet of tees, the ball marker, the cap rolled into a ball. It is small, it is theirs, and it is used on every hole. At the bottom there is what needs one movement more, what is two sizes too big, and what was given to look serious.
If you take one thing from this article, take this one: a successful golf present is not the one that impresses when it is opened, it is the one they take with them on their own the following Saturday.
The present that looks serious sometimes pleases the person giving it most of all. And it only pleases once.
The small things that please straight away
This is the safest category.
A ball marker is a good small present for a child. It fits in a pocket, it has a precise place on the green, and it gives them something to do while the adults read their putts. Two can be useful: the second replaces the one that gets lost.
A cap is a tool before it is an accessory: it is there to follow a ball and read a putt, not to look like a golfer. The one reservation is size. We do not make a children’s version, and on a small head everything depends on the adjuster: check how far the model tightens before you give it.
And tees, in quantity. A child breaks them, leaves them on the tee, pushes three in a row into the ground out of curiosity. Nobody has ever had too many tees.
Clothing: the only real difficulty is the size
That is where it is decided, and the mistake is always the same: one size up, so it lasts.
A jacket or a sweater will take a little extra room. On a polo, too much fabric around a body that turns can get in the way of the movement at the very moment they are trying to learn it. They will not necessarily tell you. Watch at the range whether they have to put the garment back in place between two balls.
The most reliable method is the same as for an adult polo. Take a garment that already fits them well, lay it flat, measure it, compare with the model’s measurement table. Here, children’s sizes run from 6 to 14, and up to 16 on the Links Edition quarter zip; each product page gives the measurements in centimetres. That is more reliable than the age printed on the label.
For a girl, the question does not change by a word. A polo in her cut, or a skort, which settles the bottom half without a discussion on the morning of the tee time. And if she already has one and puts it on every week, stop looking: that is the answer.
For the colour, follow their taste: the one they would have chosen themselves has every chance of pleasing them.
What to give a young golfer you barely know
It happens often, and at Christmas more than ever: you are buying for a ten-year-old golfer you see twice a year, you know neither their size nor what is in their bag, and you are doing it the week before.
Two honest answers. The first, the consumable: when you know nothing about them, the object that gets replaced beats the object that has to fit. Tees, a ball marker.
The second, a garment anyway. A message to the parents settles the size in three lines, and that has never spoiled a surprise. Failing that, the size they are now rather than the one after: a garment never worn is a present lost.
And order early: it is the only thing you genuinely control.
The Dogleg children’s line
At Dogleg the children’s line is part of the house. We started from golf played as a family: the youngest have their place in the collection.
Seven pieces today: the Tour Polos for boys and girls, a Tailored polo and a Links Edition quarter zip, a pair of shorts, a skort and a Clubhouse hoodie. The polos, the shorts and the skort are in our technical fabric, polyester with a share of elastane: machine at 30 degrees, never fabric softener. The hoodie stands apart, in natural fibres, cotton, silk and cashmere, to be washed on a delicate cycle and dried flat.