Pushy parents  driven by the prospect of developing the next Lydia Ko could be damaging their children’s chances to succeed in sport when they are older.

The success of Ko at a young age is believed to be a factor in the increase in overzealous and pushy parents in children’s golf.

New Zealand Olympic team sports psychologist Gary Hermansson warned that parents putting too much pressure on their children could lead to “serious problems” for athletes when they get older.

“It creates the potential for some serious trouble down the line because the kids are going to end up doing it for the wrong reason.

“They get trained into a psychological space which is not good for them in performance anyway. They get driven by a focus on the result rather than a focus on the effort they have to put in.”

Manawatu-Wanganui Golf development manager Rhys Watkins said their recent age-grade championships featured a couple of incidents of pushy parents including some getting into shouting matches.

“Most of the parents are very good, but it is something that is creeping in a little bit,” he said.

The problematic parents were not restricted to the competitive grades and involved children as young as 7 in nine-hole participation events.

“We are talking about kids who are just starting,” he said. “We just want them out there having fun.”

At more competitive levels, Watkins said there has been an uptake in parents questioning the scoring of other children on the course.

While the success of New Zealand golfers on the international stage has been important to the sport, Watkins also believed it was a factor behind the parents’ actions.

Hermansson said it was important to put the emphasis on the effort and enjoyment the child has in a sport. But there was a fine line parents have to walk when it comes to encouraging their children to reach an elite level.

“Caring, but also taking the opportunity to help kids learn to be disciplined is important,” he said. “To do that too early and/or to put that pressure on them for the needs of the parents is where it begins to be an issue and it gets to a point where … it becomes quite a distressing upbringing and it is not a healthy thing to do.”