A Whimsical Look at Why an 8,000-Yard Course Will Soon be a Standard
Many years back, in a little town by the sea, a game called gowf was played by a few of the local nobility. It was a simple enough game, requiring a sturdy four-and-a-half foot tree branch, with six inches bent at about a 45 degree angle on one end. The branch, when swung in a downward motion from shoulder height, would propel a round stone along the ground to a target in the distance. The person reaching the target in the fewest...
More Questions From Regular Clients
How do I avoid the dreaded skulled sand shot? Well, we could say “hit the sand first,” but that might be a slight bit condescending! Seriously, this usually occurs when the angle of approach is too shallow. The twin brother of skulled sand shots is the extremely fat sand shot, because when the angle of approach is too shallow, the margin of error is greatly decreased from a geometric point of view. Make sure the weight starts and...
Identifying A Student’s Learning Style
Connecting with each student is the most important thing you can do. If you can develop an individual relationship with each student, you will be more efficient in your teaching. And, students will learn more, better enjoy the experience, and come back to you. Students I talk to say they like to feel like an individual. Even though they may have the same issues as dozens of other golfers, they like to be treated as if their problems...
A Launch Monitor’s Influence on Teaching: How You Can Improve a Player’s Number
High tech has certainly arrived when it comes to instruction and fitting. Just about every golfer – and instructor – on the planet has heard of swing analyzers and launch monitors. While today’s launch monitors, with Trackman being the most well known, are primarily designed as fitting tools, there is much that can be learned from them that can be applied to teaching as well. By combining what a launch monitor can tell us about ball...
If you were a golf course manager, how would you respond to the following scenarios?
During a busy day early in the season, several groups legitimately complain about the slow pace of play on the course. Do you… a. Apologize for the slow play but explain that your Players Assistants were doing the best they could to keep play moving? b. Explain to the golfers that it was a busy day and slow play is to be expected particularly early in the season? c. Tell them that you understand that play was unusually slow today and...
The Four Stages of Learning
You’ve probably had the occasional student protest after a few lessons with a statement like, “I seem to hit the ball a lot better when I don’t think about the things you are teaching me!” I’ve had this happen many times, and at that point I usually take a few minutes to explain about the process of learning a new technique. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is a sport, a new job function, or virtually any new activity. Change or...
The Modern Swing is the Least Modern
Just about every week on a national broadcast of the PGA Tour, one of the standby golf gurus expounds on the modern swing, using slow-motion video, technobabble, and analysis of why the shot we just witnessed finished stiff or in someone’s back yard. But, here is a question – what is the modern golf swing and when exactly did it originate? Is it the swing described in Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf by Ben Hogan in 1957?...
African-Americans and Discrimination in Golf
Tiger Woods is, of course, the most famous minority golfer in history. Both black and Asian, Woods serves as a source of inspiration for many people of all colors throughout the world. Although he faced a few challenges because of his race while growing up, for the most part Woods had smooth sailing in that regard, as well as in his quest to become the greatest golfer of all time. He could always find a place that would allow him to...
Honored Master
An amazing thing happened on the way to becoming a Master Golf Teaching Professional. The first thing I found out is that we are more than just golf instructors; we influence in so many ways. I received a letter from a retiree, and every sentence started with, “If it wasn’t for you, I would not have played golf,” “If it wasn’t for you, I would not have had the courage to tee it up with the ladies group,” “If it wasn’t for you, I would...
The Worst Shot in Golf
Skull, slice, yip, yank, top, pop, tug, chunk, whiff, shank, clank, hook, smother, flub, duff. Indeed, as teachers, our student’s mess-ups come in all shapes and sizes. If only we could smite them from the earth (and, along with them, the gimmicky pop schlock recordings of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Jessica Simpson). Chances are, when Flanders is breathing down your neck in your tension-filled grudge match, one of these...
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