3 Oct 2016

His Body Wasn’t Strong Enough To Carry His Heart Any Longer

Words similar to these were once written about Ben Hogan’s legs after his near-fatal crash in Texas. Arnold Palmer was a hero to everyone in the golf world. There have been tons of tributes, all richly deserved. Like many young lads, he is the man who got me interested in golf. I remember watching the Masters with my dad when Arnold rolled in a putt on 17 that propelled him to a win in 1958 or 1960. I can’t remember which, but does it really matter? I instantly became one of his army. I regaled in his victories and agonized in his defeats. I never actually met him in person, but there are two times that he touched my life. The first was when I was in college at the University of Miami in the late ’60s. I was fortunate to go and watch him play at Doral. Can’t remember how he played that day, but getting up close enough to watch him strike the ball was quite a feat. The army was always four or five deep. I went ahead two holes so I could get a spot directly facing where he would tee it up. As he waited for the group in front to clear, he looked me directly in the eye and winked. I gave him a nod like he was my best friend and I was there to cheer him on. Then like a flash he was gone. I’ve never forgotten the moment. My next encounter was when I started the United States Professional Hickory Golf Championship in 2010. I had the audacity to send Mr. Palmer an invitation to play in the event since it was a tribute to the history of our game, knowing his fondness for its heritage. I figured, what the heck, never expecting anything. A few days later an envelope arrived from his office. Inside was a personal letter from Arnold thanking me for the invitation but telling me that he would be in California and would be unable to play. He did offer to send some memorabilia to help raise funds for the charity the tournament was supporting. This is the man he was and why he was so beloved. If more high-profile people were like him, the world would be a better place.
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Long Live The King
27 Sep 2016

Long Live The King

By: Dave Hill WGCA contributing writer Arnold Palmer came from humble beginnings. As a boy, he was not permitted in the clubhouse at Latrobe Country Club, where his father oversaw the duties as head professional and greenskeeper. However, this did not stop him from becoming the legend everyone could not help but love. We could give Arnie every admirable adjective under the sun to describe his character, and he’s deserving of them all. Arnold Palmer truly brought the game to the masses. He took nothing for granted, which is likely a tribute to his roots and upbringing in the small working-class town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. On the day following his passing, I’m thinking about the state of the game when he entered the scene compared to now. It makes me think we’ve perhaps forgotten about the roots of the game, a game Arnold not only loved, but wanted everyone to play by sharing his passion in a such a modest and humane fashion, which was his gift to us all. Is it fair to state one person can change the tide of an industry or culture? If anyone did, it was certainly Arnold Palmer. In the history of the game, there has been no one like him. Yes, we had Walter Hagen’s bravado, which broke down doors for professionals, and John Daly’s appeal to the working-class guy. However, the persona of Arnie was all-encompassing, not only in North America, but worldwide. In Japan alone, the Arnold Palmer brand is iconic, as it is fashionable and expands well beyond the world of golf. Perhaps the best way to describe Arnold is in the form of an oxymoron – “a humble jetsetter” – and in literal terms, he was. So the question or questions now are, is it possible to ask a player, any player, to take on such a role? Is there a player out there who can, wants to, or has the persona to do so? Perhaps not, but what we are witnessing is a younger, newer breed of professionals who seem to be getting it right. The first name that comes to mind is Rickie Fowler. His brand seems to have crossed over to different demographics. He is the consummate gentleman, has a swashbuckling appeal both on and off the course, and his game shows signs of brilliance at times. He is no doubt a fan favorite, but the torch in today’s game is too big to carry alone. It is important for the growth of the game that today’s and tomorrow’s biggest names take a page out of Arnie’s legacy and continue to carry the bright torch he carried throughout his life.
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22 Sep 2016

TIME FOR A CHANGE

We see it happen on the PGA Tour all the time: a player leaves a golf teaching professional for another teacher.  There can be a number of reasons, such as the player is not improving, there is a difference on what direction the player should go, or the player feels that it is time for a fresh start.  As a golf teaching professional, how do you handle this decision?  When is it time to make a change? Some teachers take it very personal to the point where they hope the student doesn’t have the same caliber of success.  On the other hand, there are a number of teachers who will do everything they can to make the transition a positive one.  I once heard of a top teacher who would send his former student’s old swing videos to the new teacher in efforts to set that student up for success. Sometimes change is a good thing, even if it hurts our feelings.  We need to wish our students well and let them know we will be there if they ever want to talk or work together again.  As a professional, it is not in anyone’s best interest to “put down” the other instructor or their methods.  Many eyes are on you during these times; you can easily lose students if your attitude is poor. Rory McIlory recently left Dave Stockton, his long time putting coach, for Phil Kenyon.  This was not blown up in the media like some of the other major teaching changes because all parties were professional.  Rory needed a change, plain and simple.  I am sure that Stockton was very happy when Rory won the Deutsche Bank Championship a few weeks ago. There are times when change is needed; it’s part of life.  Do what’s right for you and your students.  It should all work out in the end.
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The Four Stages of Learning and What They Mean to Teachers
19 Sep 2016

The Four Stages of Learning and What They Mean to Teachers

Noel Burch worked for Gordon International Training in the 1970s, a company founded by Dr. Thomas Gordon to help train people in various disciplines such as leadership, conflict resolution, personal development, and teaching. Burch came up with a learning model titled “Four Stages of Learning Any New Skill,”and he and Gordon co-authored a book in 1974 titled T.E.T., Teacher Effectiveness Training. The aim of the book was to help teachers to bring out the best in their students and for parents to aid in their child’s learning development. It has been said that great teachers are also great thieves, as they “steal” the proven ideas of others in order to be the best that they can be. Burch’s model works well with teachers in all fields, and golf is no exception – so we’ll “steal” it for our purposes. The model consists of four parts: 1) unconsciously incompetent; 2) consciously incompetent; 3) consciously competent; 4) unconsciously competent. UNCONSCIOUSLY INCOMPETENT Golfers in this stage are doing exactly what this description indicates: They are doing something wrong, but they have no idea what it is, or even if they are indeed doing anything wrong. (Studies have shown that incompetent employees have less stress than competent employees, because since they are basically clueless, they don’t have enough knowledge to know if they’re doing a good job or not – but that’s another topic entirely.) When students first come to us, this is the stage that they find themselves in. We as teachers are tasked with identifying the problems, making the student aware of them, and coming up with the solutions. Students in this stage need a teacher who will be a strong guiding force. This is not to say that student input on the direction they want to go should be ignored, but in the end, the teacher should lay out a game plan and do it authoritatively. This helps instill confidence in the student regarding the teacher’s ability, but more importantly, it gives the student a firm path from which not to deviate, helping to eliminate doubt. CONSCIOUSLY INCOMPETENT The student now is aware of what the problems are and what remedies are needed. It’s okay for them to make some repetitions in this phase with the goal of becoming aware of what their flaws are. Teachers should take great care to still be a strong guiding force in controlling the direction of the lesson. Student feedback is sought, but only for the teacher to modify the direction he or she has laid out. It is detrimental to allow the student to guide the direction of the lesson in this stage, or for the teacher to reduce his or her control. CONSCIOUSLY COMPETENT This is the “turn the corner” stage, where the student has made the change. The student has to consciously think about what he or she is doing, and must be constantly aware of the feel of the change. This is also a “turn the corner” stage for the teacher, who at this point should back away and let the student engage in self-discovery. It is tempting for the teacher to keep reinforcing the instruction given, but it is more important for the student to simply engage in the learning process. This means the teacher should reduce the feedback dramatically, offering instruction only if the student is reverting back to bad habits or is struggling excessively with the new ones. In one sense, control of the lesson has now been handed over to the student. Another option is for the teacher to offer feedback only if the student requests it. Granted, that’s a pretty unconventional approach and isn’t often used, but one that studies have found to be quite effective. A mistake some teachers make in this stage is to assume that the student has successfully made the change, so it’s time to introduce another one. Wrong!  The great Byron Nelson said he only worked on one change at a time, because it was all he could handle. It’s great advice for golf teachers to heed, too. However, this needs to be explained further. Some students may need to make two changes at a time, perhaps one on the backswing and one on the forward. This is fine for most golfers. The admonishment to avoid multiple changes is when you’re working on one change and then decide to add another one to the mix. UNCONSCIOUSLY COMPETENT This is the ultimate stage, where the student is now executing the changes without conscious thought. Think about driving a car: If a car suddenly pulls out in front of you, you automatically and reflexively put on the brake. The same thing applies to golf. The student will now be able to swing without consciously focusing on the new habit. After this occurs, any new changes can now be introduced.
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13 Sep 2016

I WOULD VOTE OUT BUBBA

On a popular website I was browsing, there was a voting question on the captain’s Ryder Cup picks. The choice was which person to leave off among Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, J.B. Holmes, Matt Kuchar, or Jim Furyk. When you place your vote the results are posted, and although close, the man out was Furyk. He would seem to be the logical choice, not having won a tournament for some time in spite of recently shooting the lowest score ever recorded at a PGA Tour event. In world rankings, he is lower than the others, also. If I were the captain, however, he is the guy I would want on my team. So the logical question – why discard Bubba? He certainly would get the gallery hopped up. My main reason is the course. Hazeltine National is an Open course, narrow fairways, heavy rough and mature trees. I don’t think it favors Bubba off the tee. Yes, he played well at the Olympics, but that was a wide-open course. At the Ryder Cup, we will need balls in the fairway, and Furyk can certainly do that. We will especially need accuracy off the tee in foursome play, an area where the U.S. team is woeful. I have nothing against Bubba; I just think this course is not suited to his game, and Furyk seems to play well on these types of courses. So he got my vote and Bubba didn’t. In any event, whoever the choice, I anticipate an exciting match, another up-and-down to the wire finish.
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Slumpbust Like Rory Mcilroy
12 Sep 2016

Slumpbust Like Rory Mcilroy

By: Gregg Steinberg, WGCA contributing writer Not long ago, Rory Mcilroy was the number one player in the world. With four majors, amazing power and youth on his side, it seemed like Rory would dominate golf for years to come. Then he fell into an amazing putting slump. Rory recently mentioned that he lost his confident so bad that he only believed that he could make 3-footers. Anything longer than that would be a struggle—and it was! Then Rory did something very smart to break out of his putting slump. He changed everything. He changed his putting instructor, his grip and his putter. It worked. He went from one of the worst putters on the PGA tour for the past two years to having one the best putting performances at The Deutsche Bank Championships. He won this event with his laser like irons along with his amazing putting! Rory McIlroy was following a psychological process to break out of a slump: Change can help eradicate a slump. Newness of a grip or club gives you a different mindset and with this renewed mindset comes renewed confidence. Next time you are in a slump, or you have a student in a slump, you may want to try a simple strategy: Change. This small step can result in a huge leap in performance for the better. The IGPA is endorsed by the USGTF and the International PGA. Please check out both organizations. The IGPA is running a 1/2 price special on all products. Please contact mentalrules24@msn.com if interested. The IGPA is also running a Sept and Oct promo for the mental game/golf psychology certification course. Type “iggy199” in the promo code to get half off the course. About the author: Dr. Gregg Steinberg is ranked by Golf Digest as one of the world’s greatest sports psychologist. He is the head sports psychologist for the IGPA and USGTF. He has worked with PGA winners such as Brandt Snedeker and Brian Gay as well as NCAA championships  golf teams such as UF and University of Alabama.
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6 Sep 2016

TAKING IT TO THE COURSE

Many times, my students talk to me about their inability to score well on the course.  They feel like they strike the ball on the range at a level that would suggest low scores. I take this opportunity to point out the differences between tour pros and everyone else. Tour pros are willing to assess a situation and make the correct decision, based on all of the given circumstances. For instance, in terms of the short game, the pros, the most talented players on the planet, select a club and shot that seems easy to them. They don’t want to use their considerable talent playing hard shots. Instead, they try to play a shot that they are likely to execute 98% of the time. When chipping up a hill, the most accomplished short game players will select a club that allows them to use a small swing and promotes a consistent roll up the slope. Younger players will grab a lofted club that is designed to spin and stop quickly, a club that fights their intent. I put my students through a progression drill. We stand about 10 yards off of the green and pitch to a flag that is 15 yards on the green and up a hill slightly (25 total yards). We begin with a 9-iron. I explain to them that their used to be a “starter” set of clubs that had 3-,5-,7-,and 9-irons only in them; no wedges of any kind. You had to figure out ways to make the 9-iron work. I ask them to open the face slightly with the 9-iron and pitch the ball to the flag. It is important to keep the hands soft and your swing smooth. They soon see that the 9-iron is easy to play the shot with. It flies and bites consistently and rolls to the flag in a dependable manner. Next comes the pitching wedge. They are surprised that the swing that made the 9-iron soft now makes the wedge much softer than normal. The same continues to happen as we progress through the wedges to the most-lofted clubs. This drill takes the violence and unnecessary speed out of our wedge action. My players also see that more loft does NOT necessarily make the shot easier. I explain to them that, as talented players, one of the worst things they can do to themselves is to be one-dimensional. I want my players to look at a shot and know they have four or five clubs in their bag that they could get close to the hole. Advanced understanding of trajectory and spin makes picking landing spots much easier. I need their eyes, and mind, to be wide open. I know of at least one major college golf program that charts proximity to the hole on a short shot like this. I ask my students to picture a person standing by the hole with a clipboard. They are charting the proximity to the hole of every shot and are going to give you an average distance, away from the hole, for each club. Now, logic should tell you to take the club that gives you the best average result. That is the smartest shot. Does the normal student take heed? NO. I know of an instance where a college golf coach took a player out of the starting lineup because he wouldn’t choose the club that was in his best interest. He continued to select shots that were too hard when a simpler option was available. I put a young student through this exercise and was careful to point out the results. From 25 yards, as I described, he was best with the 9-iron. The pitching wedge and gap wedge were progressively worse. The sand wedge was nearly as good as the 9-iron. The lob wedge was not even used. He said to me, “See, the sand wedge IS the best club.” I replied, “Wait a minute. You hit that sand wedge on EVERY shot under 100 yards. It gets all of your focus. Day after day it is in your hands. You hit the 9-iron for 10 minutes and it performs as well, if not better. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Good shotmaking, where balls end up next to the hole, is many times the result of good decision making. Maturity as a player looks like this: You are willing to work on many shots. You become adept at seeing the best shot to play in each situation. Then, you are willing to play the shot with the best club available. You want to use your considerable talent to play a shot that seems easy to you and which you will hardly ever mis-hit. When we understand that our “go-to club” is any club in the bag that simplifies the shot, we have come a long way on our journey to lower scoring. The best players SEE the right shot, PLAY the right shot and USE THE RIGHT CLUB. That is the formula for “taking it to the course.”
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