It’s not about how talented you are, it’s about how hard you work to develop talent.
This may sound crazy but one of the biggest detriments to a young player’s development is being told how talented they are. Check out this short video about motivation and hard work. I was one of those players who had a natural talent for golf from a very early age. I didn’t have to be taught a lot of mechanics, I could just naturally figure out how to swing the club and hit short game shots with ease. Now that I work with young players, it has made me look back on my career to the things that kept me from being more successful out on tour. I truly believe that continually being told that I was lucky to have a lot of natural talent, kept me from working as hard as I could in order to be the best that I could be. As I progressed through the stages of golf I started to see that some of the more talented players weren’t necessarily the most successful.
There comes a point where hard work outweighs talent. So as a junior golfer (or any young athlete, musician, artist, etc) always remember that just because something may come easy for someone else doesn’t mean you can’t work hard and be as good as they are, if not better. Don’t get discouraged. The most important thing is that you find something that you love and you work hard to develop your own talent.