Two of America’s top golf resorts — one in Florida, one in Pennsylvania — recently made news regarding their resident teaching professionals.
MISSION INN
Gary Gilchrist
There’s no place like home for the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy. One of golf’s top coaches has extended his contract with the Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, near Orlando, adding three more years to a relationship that started in 2008.
“We’re thrilled to keep Gary and his staff as part of the Mission Inn family,” said Bud Beucher, Vice President and General Manager. “It’s only fitting that one of the game’s most accomplished teachers is based at one of the game’s most enjoyable resorts.”
In a career that spans more than 25 years, Gilchrist has been responsible for recruiting, training, and developing more professional, amateur, and junior golfers than any coach in the world. He has been recognized by Golf Digest as a Top 50 Teacher in America 2011-2018 and by Golf Magazine as a Top 100 Teacher 2012-2018.
Gilchrist has taught many of the game’s best professionals. His players have won a combined 8 majors since 2010 under Gilchrist’s guidance and four have achieved World No. 1 rankings. Gilchrist’s pro students have won over 61 times on the PGA, LPGA, LET, and European Tours.
The facilities at Mission Inn Resort create the perfect holistic training environment for golfers at all levels, allowing Gilchrist and his team to provide technical, mental, fitness, and on-course training. Students also have access to El Campeón Golf Course, an original member of the Florida Historic Golf Trail, and Las Colinas, known for wide fairways rolling over gentle rises that are ideal for showcasing a wide range of skills.
Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa, located in South Pennsylvania’s scenic Cumberland Valley, recently appointed Jim Woods as the new head golf professional. In his role, Woods will lead the golf department by providing a championship golf experience for guests and members on the Old Course, one of the country’s first golf courses, with breathtaking views and challenges for all levels.
Woods, a Class A PGA Professional, joins the Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa with over twenty years of experience, and he was most recently the PGA Head Golf Professional at the Putnam County Golf Course in New York. Prior to his role at the Putnam County Golf Course, Woods owned and operated the Woods Golf School where he utilized indoor golf technology, fitness training and an outdoor learning center to teach hundreds of students.
“Jim’s depth of experience on the course, dedication to sharing his extensive knowledge with players of all levels and overall love for the sport is invaluable to our golf team and guests,” said Bill Liedholm, general manager, Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa. “We strive to provide our guests with the top service, instruction and atmosphere. We have no doubt that Jim will not only ensure that experience but will add to it with his bright personality, skill and expertise.”
With a lifetime dedicated to golf both professionally and personally, Woods was previously a top golf player and competitor. He grew up in Endicott, New York near the famed En-Joie Golf Course. He earned six career holes in ones and one double eagle, was the SUNY Broome Community College player of the year, was a US Open medalist in a local qualifier and twice a contestant in the PGA Tour Event “The BC Open.” Woods also spends ample time giving back to the golf community as an instructor for the PGA Hope program for disabled Veterans, and outreach programs specializing is special needs adults and children. He has also assisted many local and national organizations raising thousands of dollars for charity.
Barry Goldstein and Tom Patri have a lot in common. They are both golf instructors, with more than 60 years of experience between them. They both reside in South Florida for much of the year — Goldstein on the Atlantic side, where he teaches at Inverrary Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Patri on the Gulf side, where he teaches at the Esplanade in Naples (he moves north to teach on Long Island during summer). They share Northeast Roots. They love the game as much now as when they first picked up a club. They’re both Golf Tips Top 30 Instructors who believe in golf coaching, in building a deep relationship with their students.
Of course, they’re different in many ways, too. For one thing, Goldstein has never been a PGA Member, whereas Patri has been one for decades, racking up accolades along the way including Met PGA Teacher of the Year and South Florida Teacher of the Year. Long before that he was the 1981 NCAA Division II lndividual National Champion, while much of Goldstein’s collegiate glory came through his daughter, a standout player at LSU.
These two long-timers agree on many things, but one shared fear, based in fact, is this: that the very business of golf coaching — is in jeopardy thanks to the flood of technology that has overrun practice tees over the past 15 years. Raw, cold numbers spewing from TrackMan and other swing measurement gadgets have replaced feel and sensory savvy on the front lines of the battle for Old Man par. That’s not entirely a bad thing, particularly on the PGA and LPGA Tour fronts (though so many swings look suspiciously similar these days), but as far as they’re concerned, if today’s techie teachers don’t temper their digital addiction with flesh-and-blood real-world relational teaching, the student may not stick around long — and perhaps give up the game altogether. Numbers matter, but the human touch matters more.
I sat down with Goldstein and Patri to discuss the stage of golf instruction, how they built their own teaching philosophies and why, in the end, having fun is the ultimate goal for all golfers.
OVER-TAUGHT, UNDER-COACHED
You guys have been around the horn a few times. You’ve seen technology take over, or threaten to take over, the teaching game. So many guys are obsessed with getting up to 115 miles per hour swing speed, and that makes sense at the highest level, but what about with the students you see?
Patri: I always say this with the guys I hang around: I think golf in 2018 is really over-taught and under-coached. I think the numbers are relevant important, but when they become an obsession and you forget how to play the game and hit shots and score, you get into very dangerous waters. Most good junior players are fabulous talents, athletic, but they can’t hit partial shots, knockdown shots, they can’t shape the ball very well, they can’t play in the wind very well. I think we’re going in the wrong direction by having them stare at a video screen all the time.
Goldstein: I love the comment “overtaught and undercoached.” What I see a lot of people teaching golf swings on mats, with computers, never out on the golf course, never on grass, never teaching people how to play the game.
At the highest level, the TrackMan helped Dustin Johnson dial in his wedge distance. But 99 percent of people being taught that way won’t even continue to play golf because they’re not learning how to enjoy the game, play it out on the course.
A couple years ago I was at Dallas Athletic Club to watch my daughter play for LSU against SMU. There were 18 teams there. She played very well, finished second. Right after the event finished a guy came up to me and asked if I would take a look at his teaching area. I said I’d be right over after the awards ceremony. He was a young kid, nice kid, 30 years old. He had everything at his beautiful teaching facility — TrackMan, everything. But it’s a hitting bay, though the driving range out in front of him is grass. I asked him if he was busy. He said not at all. “If I give five or six lessons a week …”
‘Golf In 2018 Is Overtaught and Undercoached. The Numbers Are Important, But When You Forget How To Play The Game And Score, You Get Into Dangerous Waters.’ — Tom Patri
“Do you ever go out and play with people?” No.
“Do you ever just hang around the pro shop and asked people how they scored, what they shot, and hand them your card?”
He said, “I never do that. I basically hang out here, put all my stuff out, the TrackMan, so people can see it, and I wait for them to come over and take a lesson.”
I was just dead honest with him. I said, “I like to eat steak, not McDonalds. You’re going to be waiting a long time. Go out and play golf with these people. Can you break 80? Go out and show them how to be a player. You’re going about it the wrong way.”
Patri: The problem with most of those kids is that they can’t break 80. They have no credibility. I’m not saying all of them, but a lot of them hide behind that video screen. They hide behind the TrackMan, or V1 video, or K-Vest. They can’t go out and demonstrate how to hit a bunker shot, or how to hit a cut or a high draw, how to create a score, how to recover from a problem area.
We learned how to play golf as kids on the golf course. We learned how to, when we hit one in the trees, hit a knockdown under a branch and still make par. These kids are standing on the range and looking at their numbers. They hit it beautifully, make beautiful swings and hit beautiful shots, but they can’t shoot a score, a number. That’s great — you know what you should do? Go join a driving range and hang out! Who cares if you can hit it 320. You can’t play. Who cares!
Goldstein: Tom was a national champion in college. Our generations were always players first and then we realized, hey, we can’t play this game at the highest level, but I want to be around it — I’m gonna teach. I think there’s a lot of young guys, age 21, who decide they want to teach golf. That’s what they’re going to do for a living. They want to be a Top 100 teacher. There’s no way that was the case when Tom and I were younger. Guys in their fifties, we all played golf. Brady Riggs, a peer of ours, played golf. Never in a million years did I think I’d teach golf for a living. It hadn’t dawned on me. But these kids, that’s what they grow up wanting to do. They have no experience playing in tournaments, that’s fine, except for the fact that they’re not teaching people how to play golf, how to shoot, say, 83 for a recreational golfer. They get stuck shooting 100 or 97, and they don’t enjoy it that much.
As far as Tour players go, a lot of them work with coaches who may not be PGA of America members. You guys have worked with some of them, too — who are on the periphery of the system.
Goldstein: Yeah, like Butch Harmon or Jimmy Ballard. Wonderful, special teachers. That says a lot. I don’t think Dave Pelz is a member, either [Golf Tips research could find no clue that he is, though he does work with the organization on various teaching schools]. Some of the greatest have not been members, and there are guys like Tom who are.
OLD SCHOOL STANDBYS
Let’s shift gears. Tom has written about this: things he’s learned through the years from “old school” teachers and Tour players like Seve Ballesteros. Can you name some of the old school stuff you guys still incorporate into your teaching?
Patri: People ask me what are my theories or methods. I say I don’t have a method or a theory, I believe in sound fundamentals. Everything that happens in golf is either a cancer or a cure of the set-up. If your lines are good, your ball position us good, you’re gripping the club reasonably, you can orient your body and have good posture, you have a helluva fighting chance. If a person grips the club poorly, or they aim too far to the right, have the ball too far back in the stance, or they’re standing too far from the golf ball, I think they have a really poor chance. If you gave Adam Scott the set-up of 90 percent of the people that Barry and I teach, he’d be bankrupt. If you gave those same 90 percent Adam Scott’s set-up, they’d be 10 shots better tomorrow.
‘I See A Lot Of Guys Who Are 28 Years Old Who Have Been Teaching A Couple Years And I Worry About Them. I Don’t Know How They’re Gonna Make A Living.’ — Barry Goldstein
I start there, and then I look at somebody face-on: How they’re distributing their weight, how they’re turning their body, how they’re balancing themselves. Then I look at them down the line: What the club is doing, where is it going, what’s its orientation, where is the club face. So once I get those two views and see if they can walk and chew gum, I can start the lesson.
Goldstein: Like Tom I’m a huge fundamentalist. I think the reason I’m always busy is that I’m able to make people better. You’re not just giving lessons, where you never see the person again. I get a lot of repeat business because I’m very into, you know, grip, aim, stance, posture, ball position, swing plane. But you ask what I do that’s old school — I don’t even know if it is old school.
Just today I had a lesson. I could do the same thing on a TrackMan, but I knew this young man, a talented player, was hitting the ball off the toe of the club, simply by the sound and where the ball was going. So rather than hook him up on a FlightScope or TrackMan, I simply grabbed one of the stickers TaylorMade sends me every year, put it on his club face, had him hit five shots, and every one of them was on the toe. So I moved him a half-inch closer to the ball. Everything was on the sweet spot after that. I guess that’s old school. A 25-year-old kid would have used TrackMan to do that.
Patri: What a miraculous lesson! Isn’t that unbelievable.
Goldstein [laughter]: He started flushing everything after that. He loved me. And it was someone I’d taught before. Stuff like that, I guess is considered old school. But this is horrible, and Tom will agree with me: I’ve actually heard young guys say that grip is not a fundamental. Every lesson I give, I look at the grip immediately. It just tells me so much about the golfer and where the ball is gonna go. But I’ve heard so many young guys stay grip is not a fundamental because there are so many different styles.
Patri: One of the things I say to people all the time is, if you’re a student of mine and we’ve been together for a long time, and in some part of our journey together — if you come to me and some part of our lesson is not about the set-up, you should fire me right away.
Goldstein: Amen. You know, the first day I worked for Jimmy Ballard, he told me, “If you want to be busy, work 90 percent set-up, 10 percent golf swing.” I’ve done that to this day. Always set-up.
Patri: It’s funny you say that, because Jim Flick, who was a big influence of mine, said, “Tom, if you teach strictly set-up for the rest of your career, you’ll be doing the game a helluva service.”
Goldstein: So true. Those two guys are two of the greatest teachers in the history of the game. Legendary. You don’t see that kind of guy anymore, but yeah, if you want to make someone a good player, you’ve got to work on their set-up all the time.
Even on Tour, you always see guys them checking their set-up, their alignment. And when they get out of whack and start putting a big fade on it, or not hitting it solid, you know it’s their set-up. The swing looks the same.
Goldstein: It’s huge. I was at this clinic and I heard a bunch of guys in their 20s and 30s arguing about whether grip was a fundamental. I didn’t get involved. I just chuckled. I just laughed to myself, because if they don’t think grip is important to teach, they won’t have a long lesson book. They won’t be very busy.
Another that would be considered old school, perhaps sadly, is giving playing lessons. I’m very lucky, I’m at a facility that has 36 holes, so we’ll warm up on the range for 10 minutes, then go play. I can teach them things I could never teach on the driving range. How to be a good player. How to score. I don’t see that being done a lot.
WHERE TECH IS BEST
How much do you guys incorporate this new technology, and how much do you steer students away from it?
Patri: I use some video. I’m a longtime V1 customer. I use it very carefully and sparingly, because I think when you play video in front of people, they go, “What about, what about, what about,” when I’m trying to get them to focus on one thing. So I might cue up a video and bring them to a particular frame in their golf swing, then say, “I’d like something different to be happening at this juncture.”
I’m not a TrackMan guy. I have a little portable device that I use that gives me ball speed, clubhead speed and angle of attack. I don’t use it a lot. I just think you’ve got to be so careful with technology. I think it’s powerful and useful in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. It’s dangerous in someone’s hands to doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing and doesn’t have the faintest understanding that Barry has, and fundamentalists have, before they had the technology and had to use their eyes and their instincts.
Goldstein: I definitely use technology when someone wants help with a club fitting. I’ll always put them on FlightScope or TrackMan, because it helps me narrow down what shafts and club heads are best for them. As far as teaching goes, I used to use video for every golf lesson. And one day, there’s this girl that I taught who played in the U.S. Amateur, and we didn’t use video — she improved so much she went out and won her next tournament. I made the decision not to use anything for the next six months. My students started winning so many more tournaments, because I’d be out on the golf course with them more instead of on the range.
I just thought, wow. It was a huge eye-opener for me. I had all that stuff and always used video, but now I rarely use it. I never start a lesson with video or TrackMan. Sometimes I’ll just use my phone out on the golf course if I see someone make the same mistake repeatedly. I’ll record him and say, “Just look at this. You see the way you’re taking the club way inside?” “Yes.” “Let’s work on getting it back and up and little more.” Boom, it helps them. But I was probably guilty of using video a lot. Ballard was a huge video guy. But then I realized how much more benefit there is to taking them out on the golf course. Knock down shots into the wind — everything that goes into being a good player, you can’t do with that equipment.
Patri: Not only can they not hit those type of shots that Barry just mentioned, they don’t even know when to hit them. So that’s a double-edge sword. They can’t hit them, and even if they could, they don’t know when to make the right decision because nobody takes them on the golf course and puts them in situations.
Goldstein: Here’s a classic story. There was teacher on the range the day before the Florida state high school championship, which my daughter ended up winning. It was ridiculously windy — it was when Hurricane Sandy came through in 2012. They could have cancelled the tournament, but didn’t. And I saw a guy teaching a girl, 15 feet from Carly and me, the day before the tournament. He’s got her on all kinds of machines, working on her swing changing things 24 hours before she tees off in what is probably her biggest tournament as a high school kid. I’m watching and thinking, wow — that poor girl has no chance to compete tomorrow. She might work her golf swing, but there’s no way she’s gonna compete. I don’t know where she finished, but I remember thinking, are you kidding? She had earned her way there, and I see him making all kinds of changes, overworking her swing and underworking what she should have been thinking about — “how do I shoot par or better tomorrow?”
I knew that people who could control their ball, like my daughter, who’s a great wind player, would separate who would play well. She was the only one to break par that day. She would hit a low 6-iron into a green and make a 20-footer for birdie. That’s how she played. She shot one under, which is like four under on a normal day. But I felt bad for that girl. It wasn’t my place to interfere. And I wasn’t teaching my daughter at that point, I was a cheerleader. We’d worked hard that week, played two practice rounds, worked on her swing and her short game, but the last thing you want to do the day before competition is start changing your golf swing. It makes no sense.
Another thing that might be considered old school is that, with all my good college players, we always work on short game more than full swing. It’s not done very often now. I see people in love with hitting balls on TrackMan, trying to get their swing as fast as they can, which usually means hitting it farther into the woods, because they can’t control it at normal speed. It’s kind of concerning. Golf is losing golfers. You don’t want to chase people away from the game.
Patri: You know, when you’re standing on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead, and you can’t breathe, you can’t call TrackMan.
Goldstein: With the top one-tenth of one percent, guys like Dustin Johnson, I understand how it works to his benefit, dialing in the distance with his wedges. I get that. But for so many players, I think it cripples them from being an artist on the golf course.
Patri: Let’s go back to Dustin Johnson for a second. I get what you can do with TrackMan, but 20, 25 years ago, when we’d stand on a range at a mini-tour event somewhere, and wanted to become a better wedge player, we’d pace off 50 yards, put a stick in the ground and hit 50-yard shots. Then we’d pace off 75 yards, put a stick in the ground, and hit shots 75 yards. We didn’t need a TrackMan to do that, did we? I mean, I understand Dustin wanting to use TrackMan, but dude, couldn’t you figure that out on your own?
Goldstein: My daughter and I would just go out on the course late in the day, nobody there, and drop ten balls at 40 yards, ten balls at 60, ten at 80, ten at 100, and and work over and over on getting the ball into 12-foot circle. The next day we’d do 50, 70, 90 and 110 yards. We’d do that all the time. I never used TrackMan with her. Maybe somebody stuck on a driving range with no opportunity to get out on the course, it might work for them, I don’t know.
FUN AND FRATERNITY
Dustin finally won a major when he figured out how to putt, chip and hit wedge shots. And now even he’ll say he works on his wedges 70 percent of the time. When Tiger was at his best, he had his wedges dialed in. Nicklaus was never the greatest wedge player, he was a great putter so he could work around it, but when he had the short game working he was unbeatable. I’ve never seen it any other way. Obviously Mickelson relies on his wedge, he’s a genius, and Seve was the same way. He’d hit it 50 yards sideways off the tee and it didn’t matter.
Goldstein: Tom mentioned earlier that the game has become so over-taught and under-coached. I also feel like the golf swing is over-coached and the short game is under-coached. Eight out of 10 teachers just love to teach golf swing on a mat, in a perfect environment, with a computer. I’ve seen that a lot.
The one thing I do respect about a lot of these young kids is that they love golf; they just don’t realize that how they teach often chases golfers away. They get so involved in computers and hitting numbers, but after a few lessons a student’s numbers might get a little better, but they don’t score any better. They still shoot 94. That gets frustrating, and they quit. They don’t play anymore. That hurts my feelings.
When you guys teach, you teach folks to have fun with it. Creating shots on the golf course and actually playing golf is fun; going to the range, beating balls and trying to hit it as hard as you can’t isn’t fun.
Goldstein: Let’s say with the average guy, guys I work with you shoot in the 90s and they’re all slicers — if I start to make their grip a little stronger and they start to hit pull-hooks, their whole game changes. They pick up 30 yards. That’s a big part of teaching that you can’t get on TrackMan or FlightScope.
Patri: Any time you can do something that’s relatively simple, that causes a different contact, different compression, a different ball flight or trajectory for somebody, the wow factor is huge. The enjoyment goes right through the ceiling. Once you do that with a student, they belong to you. They’re yours forever. And it’s not hard to do that; if you understand ball flight and the fundamentals, you can have someone hit a different shot inside of an hour.
Goldstein: Sometimes inside of two minutes! A guy who’s an open clubface player, you strengthen his grip and he thinks you’re a hero. Suddenly he can find his golf ball, it’s not in the right trees all day long. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. This is the most over-taught game in the world.
Patri: You know what’s really amazing about this to me? We’ve dedicated our whole lives to trying to figure out the mystery of golf. We’ve done that by being around other great teachers, by passing along information. It’s a huge fraternity. We learn from other people, from much better players than we are, who have more experience, who have dug it out of the dirt. Then you stand on the range, and you look down the tee line, and Mr. Smith, who’s a lawyer or doctor or accountant, is teaching his wife to play golf. And he’s a 23 handicap.
Barry and I are both big baseball fans. Could we imagine walking up to Derek Jeter and trying to give him advice on his batting stance? Not in a million years. You’d be the biggest idiot on the planet. But anybody who’s ever hit a golf shot in their life thinks they can teach the person next to them. It makes me nuts every time I see it.
Goldstein: The scary part is, I see professional golf instructors like that. I see a lot of guys who are 28 years old who have been teaching a couple years, and I worry about them. I don’t know how they’re gonna pay their bills. They don’t get a lot of return business, they don’t see customers over and over. And if you don’t do that, you’re not going to be in this business a long time. That guy I mentioned from the Dallas Athletic Club? He’s doing something else now, and that’s good, because I couldn’t imagine him making a halfway decent living doing what he was doing.
TEACHING TO THE PLACE
Both of you go up north in the summer. What differences do you come across teaching people up there? Does setting matter? Does season matter? Is the strata of golfers different from what you work with in Florida during winter?
Patri: Barry’s on the east coast of Florida, I’m on the west coast. When I first came to Naples, I had no clue about the difference between an east coast person and a west coast person. They’re very different animals. I have 18 years in Naples now, but my New York clientele is close to the city, very fast-paced, high-energy, instant gratification. Maybe the toughest client on the planet to teach is the metropolitan New York student. The Midwesterner is a much more patient animal, much more process oriented, just a different attitude. A different kind of aggression that requires a much stronger teacher to deal with. In Naples you can be in a low vibe mode and make it work. In New York, you’d better have your boxing gloves on when you get out of the car.
Goldstein: The east coast of Florida, Fort Lauderdale, is a little more New York City-ish. I’m in my hometown of Binghamton, New York, in the summer. The only different I see is, perhaps because the season is so short in the Northeast, the passion level is huge. Down here in Florida, we get 12 months a year, and the urgency in a student here isn’t as big. Up north they’re so hungry to play for those five, six, seven months, that their passion level is off the charts. Which I love.
I don’t use much technology up north, and I’m packed. I use impact bags, grip training aids, and I don’t miss the stuff we have down here. I talked to Butch Harmon once in Las Vegas about that, and he said he shies away from the technology too. His son uses a lot more of it, but he doesn’t want to be tied down to it.
All the golf clinic guys who use the technology, I love those guys and have fun with them, but I heard one of them say that any time he has a student with a flying right elbow [in the backswing], he puts a credit card under it. I thought, well there would go Jack Nicklaus and Fred Couples! If you took someone like Nicklaus and pinned his right arm down, we would have never heard of him. Who’s to say what’s exactly right and exactly wrong. Couples is a great player and Tom’s personal friend.
GOLF COACHING MENTORS
Patri: I spent a lot of time with Bill Strasbaugh, who’s passed now. He was a very dear friend and a big influence in my life. I observed him give 100 lessons probably. A person would 10 or 12 balls and look back, and Bill hadn’t said anything. He’d hit 10 or 12 more and he still didn’t say anything. I said, “Coach, why won’t you say anything?” He said, “There’s no need to rush it, Tom. I want to be sure what I’m going to say. I want to see a pattern, and it takes 10 or 15 balls to see what the pattern really is. I don’t want them to fool me.”
Goldstein: The greatest teachers I’ve ever been around, and some great players, are never in a hurry. They might work on two or three things in a lesson, but not 10. There’s a lot of that out there, too — “let’s work on your angle of approach on TrackMan.” “You’re attacking too much from the inside.” Whatever. It’s awful hard to work on five things and try to help somebody.
I met Tom back in 2001, and I had admired him. We talked and he introduced me to an LPGA player of his. I’m from the next generation down, but a lot of the guys just behind me, the recognized teachers, very few of them have “raised” a champion. They get somebody who’s already a PGA Tour player, and just tweak and work on this or that. That’s cake compared to raising a player, like Tom has done, from scratch to a collegiate or tour player. That’s hard teaching. So I knew when I started teaching, that’s what I wanted to do. The best part of teaching is taking a person from 8 years old to 22 years old, and they’ve got a full ride to college. Maybe they’ll turn professional. But I notice that a lot of teachers who are getting accolades now, they’ve never raised a champion.
Patri: As a teacher I have a huge responsibility. Every time somebody writes you a check, you have a responsibility to give them information that will make the game more enjoyable, that will make them come back again and again and bring their friends to learn the game. If you overload them, hurt their psyche and make it a tough road for them, you’re not doing the game justice. We owe the game so much more than that.
Barry Goldstein teaches at Inverrary Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, during the winter and in Binghamton, New York, during the summer. Reach him at drforgolf@aol.com
Tom Patri teaches at Esplanade in Naples, Florida in winter and Mill Pond Golf Course on Long Island during the summer. Reach him at tpatri@mindspring.com and visit his website, www.tompatri.com
Reno, Nevada-based Sierra Sage Golf Course’s PGA Head Professional and General Manager Mike Mazzaferri will again attempt to play 100 golf holes for charity in one day as he participates in this year’s Northern California PGA 100 Holes Challenge on Oct. 2, 2017. The Challenge was established by PGA professionals to raise money for local community programs and charities through the Northern California PGA Foundation.
“We raised nearly $6,000 last year and this time we are shooting for more than $7,500,” Mazzaferri said. “I’m calling on golfers and golf fans this year to pledge their support as we strive to reach a goal of $100,000 for the Northern California PGA Foundation and their charities.
The primary beneficiary of this program is PGA HOPE, a national program launched by the PGA of America with the U.S. Department of Veteran affairs. PGA HOPE conducts free golf clinics to all veterans, disabled or able-bodied, in order to enhance their mental, social, physical and emotional well-being
The local charity chosen by Mazzaferri’s all-day golf-a-thon is the Sierra Sage Men’s Golf Club Charity Fund, which provides support to collegiate, high school and junior golf programs. In the past five years, Mazzaferri has raised more than $27,000 through the 100-holes program. He is one of Nevada’s best-known and most-honored teaching professionals who has long supported many causes. He was also instrumental in kicking off Northern Nevada’ First Tee chapter.
Donors can sponsor Mazzaferri with either a flat fee or a certain amount per hole. This pledge is 100% tax deductible through the NCPGA Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization
A simple web page to make your donation can be found by clicking to a link on the home page of www.sierrasagegolf.org or the PGA Golf Day site. Donations can also be made at the Sierra Sage Golf Course Pro Shop.
Jack Grout (left) watches a young Jack Nicklaus hit shots at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio
Editor’s Note: Following is the first of several planned excerpts from A Wonderful Run at Life: The Stories of Pandel Savic, published in 2016 by Orange Frazar Press and available on Amazon and at selected bookstores nationwide. An immigrant from Macedonia and star quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes who led them to their first Rose Bowl victory in 1949, Pandel is the 30-year chairman of The Memorial Tournament and is well known throughout PGA and USGA circles. The Savic and Jack Nicklaus families lives have been intertwined for decades. According to Nicklaus, Pandel has taken more lessons of any human being in the history of the game, perhaps over 10,000. Many of those lessons came from the greatest teachers and players of the game … Hogan, Nelson, Grout, Leadbetter, Flick, and of course Jack himself.
I’d heard about Jack Grout. In fact, everyone in the Columbus golfing world was aware of the credit given to Grout in building the fundamentals of Jack’s golf swing. Jack Grout wasn’t a world famous teacher when I stepped towards him on the practice tee at Scioto with Jack Nicklaus at my side, but he would soon become one of the most famous instructors in all of golf. I knew Mr. Grout was a talented young player who turned professional in 1931, competing admirably against Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan in tournaments around the Texas area and beyond in the decade before the war. That Sunday afternoon it was a windless day under blue skies. Leaves were scattered across the range. No one else was hitting balls. Mr. Grout was a man about six feet tall, handsome with a strong chin. He wore sunglasses and smiled as we shook hands. He said he knew about my career as a quarterback at Ohio State. Jack walked a few paces away and began his practice regimen. “Let me see your grip, Pandel.” I showed him and he shook his head.
“The grip is where we start. Your right hand is too weak and your left hand too strong. This is the first fundamental. If your grip is good, the rest of your body reacts to it. The clubface naturally comes back to where you addressed it. Try holding it like this.” I hit a few balls for him. The grip felt odd but I could understand what he was saying and I hit some pretty well, higher and straighter than I had been hitting balls recently. I hit a couple of them poorly. “Now let’s talk about your set-up.”
He helped me set my hips square to the target and made me broaden my stance slightly. He used his hands to push my knees into position and show me why. He leveled my shoulders with a firm hand. I hit a few wedges not so well but then struck the ball squarely for a while. I hit about thirty shots trying to do what he said. Then I sprayed one to the right and hooked one to the left.
“Your head is moving,” he said.
“How do I keep from doing that?”
“Like I’ve told your friend over there…watch the ball leave the clubface and don’t bob down with your head or lift it up. Don’t move your head back and forth either. See yourself hit the ball. To teach this to our friend over there, I’d hold his hair while he hit balls. It helped him though it’s raw talent that makes him a great player.” I promised myself to pick up where I left off with Mr. Grout in the spring if I could get permission to take lessons at Scioto. I vowed to find a way to join the club as soon as I could afford it.
Next: The Most Important Lesson
Donald Holmes Lewis is an author and son-in-law of Pandel Savic. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers Workshop
(Story updated June 2017) No one likes to slice the golf ball, but it’s what most amateur golfers struggle with. So, let’s dig into some proven slice killers so you can move on with your game … and your life.
SLICE KILLERS 1: ADD TOPSPIN!
Ever wonder what causes a slice to curve? Either your hands don’t rotate enough and you hit the ball with an open face, or you have an out-to-inside swing path. When either of those things happen, the clubhead then applies a mixture of backspin and sidespin to the ball, resulting in a big curve to the right.
For this slice killer, try to put the opposite type of spin on the ball, which is forwardspin with a mixture of sidespin to the left. I like to think of a tennis player attempting to hit a hard, baseline shot with a lot of topspin so the ball just barely clears the net and curves back down toward the ground.
Using a tennis player as a mental cue will not only help you clear your hands and rotate them through the shot, but also prevent you from shifting your weight too soon to the forward leg, which also can cause a slice.
SLICE KILLERS 2: THE SPLIT-GRIP DRILL
A quick way to eliminate the slice is to do what I call the split-grip drill. First, take your normal grip, then slide your ungloved hand down the shaft toward the clubhead and stop once there’s about an inch or two of separation between the hands. At this point, even before you swing, you should already feel a sense of the hands being very active, and it should feel as though it’s very simple to swing and roll the hands through the impact zone.
Take a few three-quarter practice swings and try to simulate the finish position that I show in the photo above. Notice how my left hand has completely rotated, and my right arm is extended through the swing.
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After a few tries, go back to your normal grip and repeat the process. You should get a better sense of rotating the clubhead through the hitting area and squaring the clubface at impact.
SLICE KILLERS 3: THE 3-TEE DRILL
Another slice killer is to train your body to swing the club more from inside the target line to outside the target line. Reason being, if you swing inside to outside, the clubhead will likely produce draw spin on the ball, helping to not only reduce slice spin, but also add some power to your golf shots.
INSIDE TO OUTSIDE
To practice, tee up your golf ball as you normally would, then set two additional tees on the ground. Put one about two inches behind and to the inside of the target line, and another about two inches in front and to the right of the target line.
As you swing, try to either clip all the tees through the shot or, at the very least, pass over all the tees. If you opt to perform this drill without using a ball, try to clip all three tees and see if you can pop all three of them out of the ground in one single pass.
Use this drill to practice swinging inside to outside the target line. You’ll see that slice quickly disappear.
SLICE KILLERS 4: DROP THE ARMS
One of the fastest ways to stop slicing is to allow the arms to drop down at the onset of the downswing. Here I am at the top of my swing. I’ve made a good coil, my weight has shifted to my right leg, and I’m ready to unwind. This is the moment many slicers get mixed up. Instead of trying to immediately shift my weight and start rotating toward my forward side, I consciously make a move downward with my arms. In other words, I let them drop down just as I begin to unwind my coil and start rotating through the shot. If I don’t do this, and instead leave my arms up as I rotate, it’s likely I’ll be too late into the downswing to release the arms, and I’m likely to come over the top of the ball and either smother-hook it or hit a big fat, left-to-right slice.
Go ahead and give this slice killer tip a try, and if you can find a full-length mirror, check to see if you can mimic the middle and lower photos you see on this page. In the middle one, my arms have clearly dropped before I’ve made my complete turn. In the lower photo, as my body turns, because my arms were in a dropped position, not only will I avoid coming over the top, but I’ll also be more prone to swing from inside the target line to outside the target line. Again, this is a great way to kill that slice!
SLICE KILLERS 5: STAY BEHIND THE GOLF BALL
Finally, to deliver a knockout punch to a slice, try to stay behind the golf ball as you make a golf swing. Now, before you read further, it’s important you know exactly what that means. Staying behind the ball doesn’t mean limiting your rotation or your weight shift toward your forward side. Rather, staying behind the ball means keeping your spine tilted away from the ball at impact and bracing against a strong left side.
Notice the constants in all four of the sequence photos above (by the way, the photos on the opposite page are part of the same sequence, in case you were wondering). The first constant is the spine tilt away from the ball, as shown by the tilt in my shoulders. This tilt will help me swing from the inside of the target line, as well as help me drive my hands through with a full extension of the arms and rotate the clubhead so it’s square at impact.
The second constant is my head. It stays behind the ball through the hit and keeps me from sliding or swaying. Finally, the third constant is in my left leg. Notice that although my weight has shifted, my left leg hardly budges. This enables me to pivot my body more effectively and rotate through the shot. It also adds some whip to my arms and hands, again helping me to square the clubface at impact.
Practice these three constants and work on staying behind the ball, even as you rotate and shift your weight through the shot. If you can master these fundamentals, your slice will be a thing of the past.
Derek Nannen, PGA, is the head teaching professional at the Eagle Mountain Golf Academy at Eagle Mountain Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Visit www.eaglemtn.com for more info.
Golf is a sport that brings every physical and spatial sense into play, but it’s also one of mankind’s most inclusive athletic pursuits — you don’t have to be in prime physical condition or even have full use of every sense to excel at it. Take vision impaired people, for instance: They can learn to play and enjoy the game, too.
Teachers across the nation dedicate their work to improving every golfer’s game, and employ special methods to introduce these folks to the game. They also connect with organizations like Wichita, Kan.-based Envision, which is dedicated to inspiring and improving the quality of life of individuals who are blind and visually impaired.
During the month of June, Envision will once again host its annual golf clinic to give blind and visually impaired women, men, girls and boys ages 8 and up the opportunity to learn and play golf. The program is held at the MacDonald Golf Course, a city course in Wichita, and runs every Monday in June from 5:30 to 9 p.m., culminating in a tournament on the final Monday, June 26. There is no entry fee for participants and equipment is provided. Theirs is an inspiring and inclusive model for all to follow.
Last summer, the clinic welcomed 31 players, each of whom was matched with a typically sighted mentor with enough prior golf experience to be able to explain the game and serve as the eyes of their blind and visually impaired partners. Each participant receives equipment to use during the clinic sessions and can keep it for as long as they continue to play golf. After the program, which concludes with a tournament on June many participants maintain contact and play golf with their mentors throughout the year.
The program is made possible through Envision, which raises funds for such activities through its manufacturing business, year-round donations from charitable individuals and organizations, and fundraising events including an annual gala in October and the annual “Golf Fore Vision” golf tournament in May. This year’s golf tournament took place on May 11 at Reflection Ridge Golf Club and featured special guest Ed “Too Tall” Jones. The program was launched in part by Len Hudson, a professional golfer, who continues to lead the clinic. Other organizers include Bonnie Cochran, who heads up programs at Envision; Envision’s CEO Michael Monteferrante; and Troy Hendricks, PGA, head of recreation for the MacDonald Golf Course.
Editor’s Note: Following is the fourth of six in-depth instruction pieces in digest form from Top 30 instructor Tom Patri’s 2005 book, The Six-Spoke Approach to Golf. Tom is one of the most respected teachers and coaches in the game, and we’re honored to add his deep passion and knowledge to the pages of Golf Tips.
It’s not how much time you spend, it’s how you spend your time! This portion of the Six-Spoke Approach To Golf will deal with just that: Time.
Only after we have Spoke No. 3 understood (Analysis with Perspective ) and in place and providing real feedback are we ready to sit down and organize our time to maximize our game improvement. The detailed organization of your time in advance is critical to maximizing your opportunities each time you drive through the front gates of your local golf club.
Those of us who have true passion for this great game and really want to take our game to the next level have to use every available second in the most effective and efficient manner possible. After all, time is the most valuable commodity on the planet. We all have time-consuming jobs, family and social obligations. On top of all that emergencies pop up, and of course we are naturally limited by daylight.
As I was constructing the outline for my Six Spoke Approach, it became clear to me that the vast majority of my students not only did not use what time that had available wisely, but never really thought through the possibly of sitting down and actually mapping out a game plan — a practice schedule that makes sense in advance. I like my students who are serious about taking their games to the next level to put pencil to paper at the start of the season to create a blueprint for success. I said pencil specifically because if Spoke No. 3 shows statistical changes during a period, then our practice plan may in fact change.
Ponder these thoughts:
Based on what the statistical analysis (Spoke No. 3 ) describes, the player should allocate time to the weakest links receiving the most time .
The player needs to map out a weekly schedule in detail. Understand that adjustments to specific time usage may change based on statistical changes during any time period.
The three areas you can help yourself in the most are:
A) Range and short game time at your club with assigned skill drills
B) At-home indoor drills that you can do on those days you can’t get to the club. There is huge value here. Let no day go by without reminding both you mind and your body of the motor skill functions you are trying to groove . Maybe this is each a.m. before you head of to work or p.m. just before bed. Don’t discount the benefit that a mere 15-20 minutes of a particular skill drill can provide over the course of an entire season.
C) Design two or three drills that travel easily. In other words, drills that you could perform anywhere on the planet. At work, in a train, airline aisle, hotel room, etc. Have you grasped the message that I don’t want a wasted second of any day , any week, any month.?
It really comes down to three simple questions when you finally sit down to design any time management program.
Where do you want to go (targets, goals)?
How are you going to get there (Developing a detailed game plan)? Be time management specific.
HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT (improvement)!
Managing your time and following an exact game plan takes a tremendous amount of discipline. Nothing good comes easy. That said, I’ll 1000% assure you that if you in fact sit down and, based on solid statistical data (Spoke No. 3), design a detailed and well-thought-out practice schedule and stick with it, YOU WILL IMPROVE and improve big time.
A few key points when putting your proposed practice schedule on paper.
Be realistic. Set your goals and design your practice schedule in a manner that will allow you the stick to the plan and feel good about yourself.
Design a drill program that touches every major weakness in your game .
As time passes and you improve, be prepared to alter both the drills as well as time usage as it statistically plays out. You will have to, on a regular basis, re-work (weekly, bimonthly) your practice plan as you make improvements to one area while another area may falter.
Here is the bottom line: PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT, PERFECT PRACTICE DOES!
If I can ever be of any help to any of you out there in Golf Tips cyberland please feel free to email me at tpatri@mindspring.com. I would be help to help your design your on personal practice schedule.
View Tom’s teaching and coaching bio at www.tompatri.com and reach him directly at (239) 404-7790
One of the great things about the game of golf is that, on occasion, all of us, even the highest handicapper, will hit a shot like a pro. It might be a well-struck drive, hitting a par-5 in two or holing out a bunker shot. Whatever the case, once in a while, the stars align, and for a brief moment, we pull off a Tour-quality shot.
Having been around Tour pros for many years, I can tell you that one thing is certain, however: There are things they consistently do on the golf course that you and I can’t. That’s why they’re the game’s greatest.
And yet, of course, you’re an expert in your respective field. Whether you’re a doctor, a chef or a real estate agent, in your work, you’re a Tour pro. There are things you know that most of us don’t.
Like you, Tour pros are good at their jobs, and there are shots they hit that we can’t always pull off when we play. That’s reality. But let’s look at what they do well and try to learn from them so we can improve our games.
…hit it 300 yards on a rope consistently
To crush it, you must use all your power sources (correct wrist action, a controlled arm swing and a full body pivot) effectively.
Start your downswing by uncoiling your lower body first so your club swings around your body on plane. This will help you hit it in the center of the clubface and help you square the club at impact.
…control your distance with all clubs
Tour pros know not only how far they hit each of their clubs, but also the distance gaps between them. The key, though, is how they fill the gaps between each club: by adjusting the length and speed of their swings. This ability to dial in shots helps Tour players make tons of birdies.
To shrink your distance gaps, work on making half and three-quarter swings. You’ll find that the distances the ball travels and the trajectory you have with different-length swings will help you control your distances much better.
…spin the ball on command
When you see the pros hit the ball past the flag and then zip it back to the pin, it doesn’t happen because they got lucky.
Tour pros are great at making perfect contact with a descending blow into the ball, plus they use the right equipment. To spin your shots like a pro, use a soft-covered ball, keep your grooves sharp and make solid contact. Hitting into perfect turf on great greens doesn’t hurt either.
…curve the ball on command
If you want to move the ball from right to left, I suggest you strengthen your grip slightly at setup (see photograph at right). Turn both hands to the right a few degrees. The Vs created by your thumbs and forefingers should now be pointing toward your right shoulder. This stronger grip will encourage you to rotate your hands and wrists over through impact (see photograph at left), which will place a draw or hook spin on the ball and make it curve from right to left (for a right-handed player). If you’re a lefty, do the opposite.
To hit the ball from left to right, weaken your grip slightly. Turn both hands a few degrees to the left so that the Vs are pointing more toward your chin (see photo at left). This helps your hands and wrists hold off the club and keep the face open at impact (see photo at right). As a result, the ball will move from left to right. Make sure both hands match! For a slice, they both should rotate to your left; for a draw, they both should rotate to the right. This will help your hands and wrists work together.
…get out of trouble like Houdini
In the photo at left, you can see I’m stymied. Should I start the ball way left and slice it? Should I hit it over the tree? Can I fit it through the gap between the branches?
SLICE
Here’s how to hit all three: To slice it, take a less lofted club (this will help you curve it), weaken your grip slightly and aim safely to the left to get the ball started away from the trouble. Try to actually swing down from outside to inside the target line and make sure to hold the clubface open at impact. Here, the ball started left of the tree, and I curved it 30 yards.
To hit the high shot, play the ball a bit forward in your stance and keep your head well back of the ball at impact. Make sure you hit the turf and don’t flip your wrists at impact. In both photos, notice how low my right shoulder is. I’m definitely behind the ball, and that produces a high ballflight.
HIGH LAUNCH
PUNCH THROUGH
To punch the ball (here, through the gap between the rocks and the large branch), lean your weight slightly forward and commit to making a swing down into the turf to promote a low ballflight. Here I hit an 8-iron, played the ball slightly back in my stance and made sure the hands stayed in front of the clubhead as I struck the turf.
…lag it close from anywhere
Learning to lag putts close is a great way to save shots during your round. There’s a stat on Tour called 3 Putt Avoidance, and trust me, nobody wants to be near the bottom of it.
If you’re going to be a good distance putter, I believe you need to do two things very well. First, you need to be a good green reader. As you approach the green and survey your putt, look for high and low points in the green complex. Imagine where water would flow if it were dumped on the green. Remember, all greens are built for drainage, so look for those spots, and they’ll tell you where your ball is going.
The second (and most crucial element), however, is distance control. It doesn’t matter how well you read your putt if you leave it 15 feet short. In the photo at left, I’m faced with an uphill putt over a small tier. It also appears as if the ball is going to move a little from left to right. To make sure I get the ball to the hole on this uphill putt, I visualize a pin 10 feet past the hole so I can make sure I hit my putt with enough pace.
…make it all day from 3 to 6 feet
The key to making tons of short putts is to develop a consistent putting stroke. In my opinion, the simplest type of stroke should give you the best chance to make those so-called 3-6 foot knee knockers.
Here you can see I’m working with a training aid made by Momentus called the Inside Down the Line Putting Track to help me groove a stroke. You can use either this type of aid or any other tracks that help you get the feeling of what a good putting stroke should feel like.
One thing to remember while practicing either with or without a training aid: Tour pros work incredibly hard on these putts, and while it’s not as much fun as hitting drivers on the practice range, the time you put in on the green will pay big dividends on the course.
…chip it off the tightest lies
For many players, tight lies are the kiss of death. When the grass is really closely mown, you need to trust that your technique will give you perfect contact (remember you always want to hit the ball first, then the turf), or all sorts of things can happen: fat contact, skulled shots across the green or, worse yet, the chip yips. When we watch Tour pros play these shots, they don’t seem like that big a deal, but they are.
Don’t tell your greenskeeper (or mine), but a great way to gain confidence when playing off tight grass is to hit a couple chips off the practice green. To begin, first lay a club down a couple feet in front of your ball. The goal is to hit the ball over the club. If you aren’t confident with this shot, you’ll probably try to lift the ball, your wrists will flip, and the ball will skid into the club (see below right).
YES
NO
If your technique is good (see below left), however, you can make a confident stroke, pick the ball right off the green and control its trajectory, distance and spin. To do this, make a small swing with your weight leaned slightly forward before and throughout the swing. Wrist action is the enemy in this shot, so keep the left wrist flat at impact, and good contact will occur.
…Perform at the highest level in front of spectators
Part of a Tour pro’s job is to play in front of large crowds while television cameras and thousands (at times millions) are trained on his or her every move.
Although professionals do get nervous during tournaments, the consistency they have in their games (and the confidence that breeds) allows them to focus on the shot at hand and continue to pull off great shots. They’re no different than elite athletes in any other sport.
Great athletes are so mentally tough and focused that they can (most of the time) put all the outside elements aside and focus on their jobs.
Keep in mind, if you feel nervous while playing, that’s a good thing. It means you’re playing well, and the more often you play well, the easier it’ll get to play under pressure. Embrace your nervousness and let it help you play your best.
…average under 70 for a year on the world’s most difficult courses
Tour pros’ games are rarely satisfied with the state of their games. That’s one of the reasons why they work so hard at improving. The time they put into their games pays off too: They hit long, straight drives and controlled approach shots and have accurate short games. It’s easy to see why the world’s best players average under 70.
While you may not play as well as Tour players, take a close look at your game to identify areas that need the most work. Then set some goals as to how best to improve your game. With quality practice, you’re sure to get better.
Steve Dahlby, PGA, is the director of instruction at The Golf Club Scottsdale and Forest Highlands Golf Club. He has taught numerous Tour players.
Paul Hahn A native Californian raised in Paso Robles, attended San Jose State University on a golf scholarship, turned professional in 1977 becoming a PGA professional while working in the public sector. He became part of the team at The Newport Beach CC in 1989 and was named Head Professional in 1995. He’s played in numerous Champion Tour events including the 2005 PGA Senior Championship at Laurel Valley, PA. He has produced many good players at the club and in and around the local area.
Derek Nannen Derek Nannen, PGA is the director of instruction at the Eagle Mountain Golf Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information, visit eaglemtn.com.
Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa, located in South Pennsylvania’s scenic Cumberland Valley, recently appointed Jim Woods as the new head golf professional. In his role, Woods will lead the golf department by providing a championship golf experience for guests and members on the Old Course, one of the country’s first golf courses, with breathtaking views and challenges for all levels.
Golf is a sport that brings every physical and spatial sense into play, but it’s also one of mankind’s most inclusive athletic pursuits — you don’t have to be in prime physical condition or even have full use of every sense to excel at it. Take vision impaired people, for instance: They can learn to play and enjoy the game, too.
Last summer, the clinic welcomed 31 players, each of whom was matched with a typically sighted mentor with enough prior golf experience to be able to explain the game and serve as the eyes of their blind and visually impaired partners. Each participant receives equipment to use during the clinic sessions and can keep it for as long as they continue to play golf. After the program, which concludes with a tournament on June many participants maintain contact and play golf with their mentors throughout the year.
