Golf and the PGA tour are alive and well!
Helpful tips for students… continued
Trouble Shots
Stand tall when the ball is above your feet: Stand taller than normal when the ball is above your feet and expect the ball to draw. Because the ball is above your feet, you have to adjust your stance accordingly. Standing tall helps you sweep the ball. It also helps to imagine hitting a baseball off of a tee.
Sit down when the ball is below your feet: Feel as if you are sitting down more when the ball is below your feet and expect the ball to fade. Try to lower yourself until you imagine you have a level stance. If the ball is three inches below your feet, then sit down three inches lower by flexing your knees more.
On downhill lies, swing with the slope: Follow the slope on downhill lies with your set-up and swing. Use more a more-lofted club than normal and swing down and through the ball. You should put slightly more weight towards the target foot in the set-up. The more lofted club helps the ball get into the air. Remember to make the club swing down and through the ball to insure a slightly steeper angle of attack.
On uphill lies, swing with the slope and resist the urge to fall back: On uphill lies, follow the slope and use a less-lofted club than normal. Try to make a good balanced finish and resist falling back.
Use a hybrid or fairway wood for awkward bump and run shots: When faced with an uneven lie around the green, simply set up similar to as you would for a chip shot. As you address the ball, find your grip position by letting the shaft slide up or down the same amount that you adjust your stance for the awkward lie.
Be more aggressive when you don’t find the fairway: Try using a high-lofted fairway wood or hybrid the next time you are faced with a long shot off of a brushy lie. Be aggressive and don’t be afraid to remove some material with your swing!
A high-lofted fairway wood or hybrid clubhead passes through the rough easier than an iron. It gives you the opportunity to gain some distance and do more than just chip out. As long as you keep the clubhead moving, the mass and center of gravity of the club will do the work.
In Middle Tennessee
Transition is a desirable state for many in the workforce. Many individuals are unhappy in their current state. They would like a higher paying job or just a more gratifying job. Some are fortunate enough to make that leap, while others have too many obligations to even think about making a change, despite being miserable at work.
Joe Moglia was one of the fortunate ones. He began his career as an assistant college football coach. He loved his job. But, he was only making $33,000 at the time and needed to feed his growing family, and that salary was not enough. He left the coaching business to join the financial advising business. With his skills and great charisma, he rose to the top of his game. Eventually, he became CEO of TD Ameritrade and a very wealthy man. Wealth did not motivate Joe. Football did.
Because he was then financially secure, he transitioned his way back into coaching. A few years ago, he started as a volunteer assistant coach for Nebraska. Currently, he is head football coach at Coastal Carolina University. Joe now does what he always wanted to do for a living – coach football.
However, most stories are not as happy as Joe’s. Perhaps you and want to make a leap into being a full-time golf instructor, but are fearful to make the transition. You don’t think you can swing it financially. You have a mortgage and children who need college tuition. You feel stuck. Transition to a happier place does not seem fiscally possible.
Career transition coach Kevin McNulty (and a friend of mine) has a plan for you. He recommends having a split personality in your dream job pursuits. In actuality, Kevin says that you must put food on the table, so one personality needs to act responsibly and hold down the current job.
But, the alter ego needs to actively pursue the dream job – in your case, being a full time golf instructor. Kevin recommends devising a plan to move in your dream job’s direction. Perhaps you need to get a mentor, or join a mastermind group who can give you some great business advice.
The first step is to create a plan with clear strategies that will allow you to make that career leap into being a full-time golf instructor. Kevin advises making a six-month fiscal plan. You need to put enough money away so that when you decide to make a leap, you need not work for almost six months. This is your safety net in case your new direction does not pan out on a full-time basis. It will also reduce your fear of making that jump into the unknown.
As with nature, our life is composed of seasons. With advanced planning, you can make your transition a season of joy and not a season of discontent.
Whatever happened to “for the love of the game”?
Big-name players don’t necessarily want to play in the middle of nowhere, even if it is an historic course. Golf is big business. Gone are the days when players barnstormed the country in efforts to expose people to the game or raise money for worthy causes like the war effort. Money is what it is all about now. It is the world we live in.
In a way it is a shame, but the tour has no one to blame but itself. Like anything in life, once you give something, it is hard to take it away. Players are treated pretty well on the tour. They get free cars at every stop, free food and drink each day, and huge purses to play for. You would think that would be enough. To think that an individual making millions of dollars would need more just to show up is sad actually. That it is condoned is sadder.
The question, is how do you stop it? Does anyone even want to?
Helpful Tips for Students…continued
Around the Greens
Distance Control on Pitch Shots: Control the distance of your wedges by swing speed, shortening the club and length of swing.
The best wedge players rely on their tempo or swing speed when hitting wedge shots under pressure. Copy the great wedge players such as: Bobby Jones, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Seve Ballesteros.
Soft Lob Shots: Feel as if there is a quarter on the face of the club through impact. Don’t let the quarter fall off. The secret to high soft lob shots is to never let the face turn over through impact.
Sand Shots: Practice with the club grounded about one inch behind the ball. Too often I see golfer hover the club to high over the ball in the sand trap. This is probably due to the fear of being penalized for touching the sand before the shot. When practicing, don’t worry about touching the sand and get accustomed to where the club should contact the sand. As you progress then just slightly hover the club over your intended contact point.
Putting
Putting should be broken down to two simple elements:
Mechanics: When working on mechanics, putt a straight putt one meter from the hole. Work on grip, alignment, set-up, and path.
Speed control: When working on speed control, putt to very long holes first then to medium length holes. Think about feel and distance control and less about mechanics. Vary the types of “breaking” putts.
Short Putts: Practice as many 2-foot putts as possible. I was once asked why I practice so many short putts. My response: Unless I chip in or hole a long putt, I expect to have to make at least 15 putts under 3-feet every round.
Long Putts: When you arrive at the practice green, try to putt the longest holes possible. This will give you an immediate feedback on green speed. You will quickly adapt to each golf course’s green speed.
USGTF or PGA? The truth may surprise you.
Does perception meet fact? Well, let’s look at the facts and see what they are.
The PGA has been around since 1916, with no competition whatsoever and the USGTF’s position has always been that the PGA is a fine organization. Their members do a great job running the nation’s pro shops and serving the public. They also promote themselves as teachers of the game. But, it might surprise you to know that, prior to 1994, PGA professionals had NO REQUIREMENTS to learn anything about teaching, or even give a lesson, to become a Class A member. That changed in 1994 when the PGA introduced the Golf Professional Training Program (GPTP), in direct response to what the USGTF was doing. Isn’t competition great! For the first time, PGA apprentices were required to learn something about teaching the game before acquiring Class A status.
The problem back then, and remaining to this day, is that the process the PGA goes through in “training” its teachers is woefully lacking. They give “apprentices” who pay a small fortune just to try and enter the golf business, a book written in the 1970s, give them a written test on it, and require them to present one lesson given on video for critique…and that’s it. I’ve read the book. While it does give adequate information, it is presented in such a scattershot way that it woefully lacks a coherent curriculum for learning how to teach. Only experienced teachers can hope to glean any benefit from this book.
Another thing the PGA doesn’t make well-known is that apprentices are sent out to the lesson tee under the title “PGA apprentice” without, in many cases, having learned one thing about teaching golf! And, when was the last time you saw a PGA professional on the lesson tee with his or her apprentice charge, observing the lesson? Personally, I’ve seen it only once, and I’ve been around courses and driving ranges for a very long time.
PGA professionals will tell you that you can’t learn to teach golf in a week, that you have to have at least a couple of years of experience on the lesson tee before you can be considered “good.” With their inadequate teacher training program being their only point of reference, it’s understandable that they would say that. Combine that with the fact that almost no PGA apprentices are full-time teachers but give only a few lessons a week at the most, it’s no wonder that it takes most PGA pros several years before they can be considered competent to give a good lesson.
The fact of the matter is that no other sport besides golf (and more specifically, no other organization besides the PGA) requires its teachers to spend years doing other things besides teaching (such as running a pro shop) in order to gain full membership if all you want to do is teach. Look at sports such as skiing, tennis, and swimming and diving, for example. All of those sports certify teachers in one-week seminars, and no one is saying that’s inadequate. Candidates are expected to bring a certain knowledge base and competency before they attend the certification seminars – much like the USGTF requires.
As founder and president of the USGTF, I have direct knowledge on this subject. I was previously a ski teaching professional, certified through the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance, as well as the Professional Ski Instructors Association of America and they produce some of the best ski teachers on the planet. As owner of The Florida Golf School back in the 1980s (which evolved into America’s Favorite Golf Schools) and looking to hire qualified, personable instructors, I experienced first-hand how many PGA professionals were simply not good teachers. In fact, about half the teachers I hired were not from the PGA, because at the time the PGA wasn’t producing enough competent members who were qualified to be full-time instructors. I figured there had to be a better way.
I realized that if you learned to teach under the old system, it was possible to become a good teacher, but only after years of doing it. This explains the perception from PGA pros that this is the only way to become competent. But, after you do become competent, you realize it shouldn’t have to take nearly that long. You see teaching concepts that repeat themselves over and over, and these concepts can be taught in a short time frame, as long as there is a structured learning environment. We provide that. Unfortunately, according to many of my PGA professional friends, the PGA to this day still doesn’t.
Fully-certified USGTF professionals have to go through 22 hours of academic training, 8 hours of playing tests, and 3 hours of academic testing in order to earn their status. Our PGA detractors make it sound like you can just show up and we’ll give you certification, but that’s far from the case.
Our PGA detractors will also tell you that the USGTF credential is not credible in the field. That would be news to the thousands of USGTF professionals who not only are working as head professionals at golf courses and driving ranges all across the country, but also in various other venues. And, these same detractors may be surprised to find that not only are many PGA professionals sending their assistants to us every year to learn about teaching but Class A PGA professionals also attend our classes every year, too! Of course, some of our members later enter the PGA program, but many of them retain their USGTF membership, giving us a fair amount of those with duel USGTF-PGA memberships. I’m sure that surprises the detractors. And, when you ask these detractors exactly what they know about the USGTF’s program in detail, they admit they don’t know anything about it specifically. They just feel threatened.
We at the USGTF are not so blind as we don’t see the many PGA professionals who are fine teachers in their own right. We just happen to believe that our way of training those who simply want to teach the game to be a better, more efficient and more thorough way of doing it.
If the detractors were even only half-right, we wouldn’t still be here, but the fact that we are thriving shows they are wrong. In 2013 we will celebrate 24 years of existence, and we show no signs of slowing down. That’s a credit, not only to those who work for the USGTF, but those who make the USGTF the fine organization that it is: our members.
Learning And Teaching Golf
We hear all the time on Golf Channel about the large muscles of the chest controlling the turn and the hips producing power. While this might be the case for a few tour professionals, it certainly isn’t the whole story, and, in most cases, isn’t that much of the story. We hear a lot less about case (2) because it is no longer very fashionable. However, if an amateur golfer only uses the large muscles in (1), there will be little resembling a golf swing and not much in the way of clubhead speed. There has to be an arm swing as well, working in the correct sequence with the body turn. In effect, this means that (1) and (2) above need to be merged and coordinated in the correct sequence to power AND control the golf swing.
Most amateurs I see initiate the downswing by turning the shoulders as fast as possible, often coupled with a fast hip turn. This achieves a couple of things: (a) The club path AND plane are instantly changed to ensure an out-to-in path and steep swing plane; (b) it becomes impossible to create the correct swing sequencing; (c) maintaining the head position is very difficult, and (d) an extremely high left-to-right ball flight.
I am a firm believer that in order for someone to understand a change in their swing, they must be able to feel the difference between before and after an adjustment. This is not the same as describing someone as a “feel” player; rather, it is educating a student about what it feels like to use certain muscles. If someone can feel the difference, they can repeat the different motion. If used with certain key phrases, we can overcome the student’s difficulty in learning new body motions by verbal description alone.
For the player that uses their upper body as described above, I like to use a simple drill in order for them to feel an arm swing. With the feet and knees together, I have them hit balls by using just the arms. The swing has to be free and easy, with no tension in the upper body, and a light grip. Once they have attained some measure of balance and can swing the arms more freely, I have them increase the speed of their arms until they cannot go faster and remain balanced. It’s important to note I mean an arm swing, not a wristy or handsy swing. Once the student has a good feel for this drill, I introduce the concept of left forearm rotation during the golf swing. This will be the subject of my next editorial.
Teachers should be the best learners
Over the years, golf instruction has been based on the equipment of the day. Much of the “old school” teaching was based on feel. The player had to harmonize with his equipment, and there were no guarantees of consistency from club to club. The way we swing the club today is a direct reflection of the equipment, which has been frequency-matched against much tighter controls.
Next, think about TECHNOLOGY. The use of video, launch monitors, TrackMan, and other advances have given us more information than ever before. At some point, though, a student will still need to know what causes their problems and what path they must take to find continued improvement. This is when the professional shows his or her true expertise.
Have PEOPLE changed? Certainly! We have always known that there are different types of learners (visual, verbal, tactile, etc.), but people ride the ebb and flow of our society. Students have been conditioned for instant gratification and the use of the shortcut. Kids, especially, have so many distractions that it is increasingly hard for them to dedicate to golf in the manner that creates golfers of the highest level.
I feel fortunate to be old enough to have used “wood” clubs, and have watched some of the all-time greats play. On the other hand, I am young enough to absorb information and make use of the many tools available to us as teachers. I try to learn about MYSELF, also. I don’t ever want to grow complacent. I realize we all change. I hope to always have the ability and willingness to look within and give an honest assessment.
We must be open to continued education. The instructor who can speak knowledgeably about the past, present, and future of the game of golf will always be valued.
There is no better way to promote this game than through instruction. We make the game healthy by introducing new golfers to the game and keeping golfers of all ages playing well and interested in the future. We have a great opportunity, as members of the USGTF, to be leaders in the field of instruction. It should be more than a slogan. It should be a firm commitment.
Finally, I’m looking forward to going to the US Golf Teachers Cup in Nevada. The competition is great and the people are even better. I hope to see you there.
Golf in the olympics
Several factors contributed to the acceptance of golf back into the Games, the most important being golf’s increasing international appeal and popularity. There is no question that this is also another after-effect of Tiger Woods’ dominance, popularity, and international appeal. The recent push for golf back into the Games started during the height of Woods’ perch as the king of golf.
There is no question that golf is also more accepted as a sport. Golf has also been embraced by minorities more than ever. The players look and appear to the public to be more athletic, mostly again thanks to Woods, who looks and trains like an NFL wide receiver. One could argue that golf is much more of an athletic test than table tennis, for example. For many decades, golf was not considered a sport. It was considered by the public and the sports world as a game for overweight smokers who drank too much. Many tour players during the post-World War II era did nothing but enhance this image. Who can forget the videos of Hogan, Nicklaus, and Palmer smoking on TV while playing?
The Olympics’ huge success as a TV event and its immense popularity among the general public should do nothing but help the game. A lot of the impact will be decided by two things: How much coverage NBC devotes to golf and who participates. Of courses the anticipated ratings compared to other traditional Olympics events will be tough for NBC to judge. It would a big gamble to put golf on in prime time. More than likely it will have a devoted channel like basketball had for the London Games. As evidenced by the poor ratings for the Nationwide and LPGA Tours would suggest, unless the best male players in the world participate, the number of viewers might be small.
Judging by the competition to be the architect of the yet-to-be-built golf course, one would think that there will be great interest among golf’s elite to participate. Gil Hanse beat out a who’s who list of modern-day architects, including Jack Nicklaus. Hanse is an American architect from Pennsylvania.
The exact format to pick the players has also not been determined. The Olympics have been moving to professionals in all sports for many years, so it is a good bet that we will see the usual faces. If the recent comments of the game’s top players are any indication, there will be strong competition among the top 100 players worldwide to represent their country.
Some purists are calling for the International Olympic Committee to require countries to send pure amateurs. While the idea is admirable, it would greatly lessen the interest and the ratings success. The excitement generated, the TV ratings, and the smoothness of the operation will determine if golf will be extended into future Games. From strictly a big-splash standpoint, I think golf would be wise to include the world’s best players for at least the Rio Games. We need to hear the media and the public in general talking about golf when the Games are happening. The competition for attention is overwhelming. Gymnastics, swimming, track, and beach volleyball rule the modern Olympics. For golf to get some attention, we need the best players participating.
Hopefully, we will get more details for the format and the plan to pick players in 2013. While the format and players are up in the air, and the golf course not having been built yet being a big question mark, personally I think the importance of having golf return to the Olympics is not debatable. It can do nothing but help propel the game to even greater heights from an international standpoint.
An Olympic golf hero winning a medal may create new interest among his country’s youth. It should also continue to further the perception of golf as a real athletic sport. If international minority players do well, it can also create more interest for golf in third-world countries and further erode golf’s image as a rich white man’s game. All of that can be nothing but good for the game.