Snag is a system developed by PGA professionals to enable anyone to pick up the game - even Michelle Obama has had a go. There's also a game involving someone (often a teacher) dressing in a velcro suit and the kids using him or her as their target - I don't think Michelle did that, but it is a popular game in schools.
Despite its elitist reputation, golf can be an affordable sport for junior members, with some clubs offering free memberships to their younger players as well as free lessons. They know the sport is doomed without the young players coming through.
Golfing holidays for families are big business overseas, with special family tee-off times, kids-play-free options and junior coaching clinics and camps on site at golf resorts. Thanks to the popularity of our famous teen golfer Lydia Ko, more like this will surely be developed for our Kiwi kids.
We follow Mike and Cam out to the course and practise amid the oak trees in beautiful surroundings. It's restorative and the huge plastic clubs have targets on them so the kids can get to grips with golf easily. Mike teaches my son to swing his club "like a pendulum on a clock". He misses some, slices up the grass on others and then makes some really great shots. He looks proud of himself to pick it up so easily - it's hard not to love a sport you're good at and Snag sets everyone up to succeed.
Cam brings out the Snagazoos, a type of club which helps teach kids how to do a full swing. It makes a distinctive noise if used properly but no noise if used incorrectly. With the kids swinging these short poles around, it suddenly looks like a Star Wars fight scene rather than a golf lesson.
"If nothing else, Snagazoos will put off all the other golfers," jokes Mike, who started playing golf around age 6. He admits he never took any lessons until just before he became a pro golfer, crediting his father for getting him into the game.
I notice quite a few families with primary school-aged children on the nine-hole course, as well as some very old players enjoying the course. Mike says you don't have to be good at golf to enjoy it - as long as you can stand upright, you can have a go. He says golf is a sport you can commit to for life, and in pretty much any weather.
By the time we move on from Snag golf to the first proper hole, complete with traditional clubs and hard golf balls, my children know what to do - although they still find time to find mushrooms and bunny holes in tree roots, and purposely aim for every bunker "sandpit" as well as creating patterns with their shoes on the dewy grass at each green.
Every time we say it's the last hole, I'm surprised that the kids protest and ask for "one more".
We finally manage to drag them away from their new favourite sport and head to the resort cafe, where the kids can run around the trees out on the grass while we're waiting for the food to arrive.
Abandoned by my kids, I listen to two elderly ladies on the next table. They are alternating sips of white wine with cups of coffee and bites of shortbread. They giggle like schoolgirls about the retirement home staff doing everything for them while they live "the life of Riley". I call my kids in for lunch as I hear the dears say: "The thing is, I feel just the same on the inside, it just takes me twice as long to do anything."
It makes me glad to be going at full speed during the holidays (while I still can), so I ask my son if he wants to go to the Huka Prawn Park later that afternoon.
"Right after we've had a swim in the hot pools and played squash, and maybe some tennis," he replies. "And met the kids at the playground and tried out the gym."
The resort offers all the activities we've been meaning to try out all term, but without us having to sign up for after-school classes. It's very family-friendly and we chat to the other families we meet who are also roaming around in bathers and towels, going from pool to pool as darkness falls.
Soaking our tired muscles in the thermally heated swimming pool, we watch as the sky darkens and the stars peek through the just-night sky. Another dad passes us a pool "noodle" to use, while older kids splash us with their dive-bombing. It's the perfect end to a sporty school holiday weekend.
Holiday to a tee
• The school holiday programme for kids 7 to 16 includes a lesson and nine holes of golf on the beautiful Wairakei Resort golf course. The $485 package for a family of four includes two nights accommodation, breakfasts, one morning tea and dinner. Available April 17, 18 and 19. Ph 0800 737 678.
• Drive five minutes into Taupo for the cheapest icecream cones in town at "the coolest McDonald's on the planet" as voted by The Daily Meal website, topping 35,000 McDonald's restaurants around the globe. Go early though, the decommissioned DC3 plane that is part of the restaurant closes at 5pm.
• Practise your golf skills some more at the Huka Prawn Park with the hole-in-one challenge, then sit still for a while as the kids attempt to catch a sneaky prawn - so hard to snag.
Danielle and family were guests of the Bayview Wairakei Resort.
