Bjorn Beekman, director of WGTF-Netherlands recently announced they will be hosting a friendly 12-man competition between Netherlands and WGTF-Great Britain in June 2022.
Peter Hudson, WGTF-Great Britain said, “Our federations enjoy long-lasting and deep ties and this will be a great opportunity to discuss and learn how we can help others to play much better golf.”
The 25th annual United States Golf Teachers Cup is in the books! Congratulations go to winners Alejandro Duque, Open division; Pam Montgomery, Ladies division; Chris Richards, Senior division, and Anthony Benny, Super Senior division. Pro-am winners were USGTF professional Seonlin Kim and his amateur partner, Nicolas Kim. Revere Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada, provided a fine test of golf for all participants!
More in-depth reporting and results can be found at www.USGolfTeachersCup.com.
Dues notices for 2022 have been sent out. Look for them in your mailbox soon!
USGTF membership offers many benefits, including industry discounts and recognition, group liability insurance, marketing opportunities, tournament participation, ongoing education, and most importantly, the right to continue to call yourself a USGTF member in good standing. Also this year, we have an updated WGTF website; online member validation search on both WGTF.com and USGTF.com, and job opportunities on USGTF.com. USGTF dues remain modest and are payable online at https://www.usgtf.com/annual-membership-renewal, or through regular mail at USGTF National Office, 200 S. Indian River Drive, Suite 206, Fort Pierce, FL 34950.
By Mark Harman, USGTF Course Director
Growing up in the Midwest, I played golf exclusively on bentgrass greens that may have had poa annua mixed in. These greens are fairly straightforward with no grain to read.
When I moved to Florida in 1989, it was the first time I had played extensively on Bermudagrass greens. There was this concept of “grain” that I had to learn. Today’s Bermudagrass greens don’t have as much grain effect as in 1989, but there can still be some.
The easiest way to read the grain is to look at the color of the grass. Lighter green means the green is growing away from you while darker green means it’s growing towards you. While putts on bentgrass are slower uphill and faster downhill, the grain on Bermudagrass magnifies this. And when the ball slows down by the hole, the roll of the ball can be especially susceptible to the grain. Another consideration is that on the hole itself, you can see if there appears to be a worn or brown area. That means the grain is growing towards that area. On faster greens, putts will break more than they will on slower greens. That is because the ball is rolling slower on faster greens. In my observation, this is an adjustment that many golfers fail to make.
Different greens make for different teaching approaches. Know your grasses and green speeds and your students will benefit.
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By Tony McMully, USGTF Professional
Lucas Leamer is a golf success story. And his story continues to be written. Lucas, a senior this year, attends Cincinnati Hills Christian High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been an accomplished member of the swim team there since he was a freshman. He has been a district qualifier every year and is a leader on his team. He loves swimming competitively, but came to golf after an injury in the summer before his junior year made him begin to question whether swimming was the right sport for him. Enter the golf success story.
Lucas came to me in August of 2019, looking to learn how to play golf in hopes of maybe making his team as a junior the next year. I have to admit that, once he told me he had never actually played golf, I was skeptical of how this would turn out. Turns out, I had no idea who I was about to teach!
The first thing I did was to inform Lucas that this would take work – a lot of work! He responded with almost no emotion, the way he still does when I ask him to do something, “Okay, Coach,” and we went to work. Long story made short, he came in every week, prepared for his lesson, homework from the week before completed, and ready to work. It didn’t take very long for me to see that this kid had talent, a ridiculously good work ethic, and a drive to succeed! He started to play in summer tournaments, but had little success, if any, at first. I explained to him that golf is a difficult sport to play well in under pressure at first. He simply nodded yes that he understood, and then worked harder at the fundamentals of ball striking, short game, and putting. Then came tryouts for his high school golf team. I got a text after the third day of tryouts and to my surprise, it simply said, “Made the team. Thanks Coach!” When I saw him for his lesson later that week, he said, “I made the team. Now I want to work harder than everyone else to be the number one golfer on my team.” He has become the hardest working and most focused junior golfer that I’ve ever taught in 20+ years as a professional instructor.
Lucas has climbed the ladder to the position he chased so hard. He is the number one varsity golfer at Cincinnati Hills Christian. His highlights include shooting a 35 (-1) in a nine-hole match and shooting a personal best 75 at the Hadley Invitational for a 9th-place finish. And he continues to write history for a kid who got out of the pool to play golf!
(Editor’s note: Dr. Sharon Barley earned her USGTF certification in 2015 and has an impressive resume and backstory. In addition to being an accomplished golf instructor, she is a minister with a doctorate in minister theology and arts. She is a golf teaching professional at Manor Golf Course in Reading, Pennsylvania, and works for Setup 4 Impact Golf. She is also a U.S. Kids Golf certified teacher and works with The First Tee. Her experience in the ministry also allows her insight into a golfer’s mind that is unique to the golf teaching profession. Here is her story.)
Over the last ten years, I was on a quest to learn diverse swing mechanics by studying some top professional golfers and coaches. Among so many variables, I found one key area that made the difference between a golfer who continued to improve and those who never improved. That difference is the “impact position.” Golfers who continued to improve their scores were more consistent at impact. Coaching the impact position capitalizes on your natural swing, tailored to your body type, flexibility, balance and physical abilities.
I earned a black belt in Kung Fu at 22, then picked up archery in college. After making four U.S. Olympic Festival teams, I won the gold medal in archery at age 27. I played golf in high school and continued casually while serving in clergy ministry. As an athlete and minister, I set my life goal on inspiring others to be their best self. But after years of playing golf, coaching and training hard, I couldn’t achieve my own best self in golf and continued to be inconsistent and stagnant in my scores. Then I discovered a training methodology, taught by Kirk Junge, uniquely focused on a one-plane swing into the impact position, while using the best in sports psychology and the body/brain connection. As I practiced his drills over months, through our Pennsylvania winters and afterward, I discovered that my accuracy, distance and consistency improved dramatically within just a four-month time period. I knew I wanted to teach his methods.
Now, not only am I the NE/Eastern Regional Instructor for Setup4Impact Golf Schools, but also will be the golf teaching pro for a new business launch combining indoor golf with golf fitness, “InJoy Golf,” in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My long-time career in clergy has given me tremendous insight into the mental game and spiritual nature of golf (the inner game) that often drives performance and outcomes.
Dr. Sharon Barley, USGTF Certified Teaching Professional, Denver, PA
Aug 29, 2021; Owings Mills, Maryland, USA; Patrick Cantlay lines up a putt on the third playoff hole during the final round of the BMW Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports/Sipa USA
After a short hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions, USGTF member Tendy Tsai has confirmed a new certification course will be held this November in Singapore at the Keppel Country Club.
The International PGA is now accepting membership dues for 2022. The IPGA is an international body of golf professionals worldwide who hold membership in any recognized PGA or WGTF association. The IPGA is a commercial association representing golf professionals throughout the world, whose purpose is in accordance with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. Please visit http://www.InternationalPGA.org for more information.
