Teach Playing The Game
11 Oct 2016

Teach Playing The Game

By: Thomas T Wartelle WGCA contributing writer When I was younger, I was fortunate to spend some time with Lionel Hebert, winner of the 1957 PGA Championship. That year was the last time this major championship was played as match play. His brother, Jay Hebert, later won the 1960 PGA Championship when it was stroke play. Both played on the Ryder Cup team and were close friends of Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Jack Burke, and the other greats of that era. I was eager to listen to his stories and readily absorbed Mr. Lionel’s wisdom of golf. He was not a traditional-type teacher, as he was first and foremost a player. He often spoke in parables about the game and had a unique way of conveying his homespun messages. I will never forget one afternoon when Mr. Lionel and I were walking together near the driving range the day before a tournament. He looked me directly in the eyes with the most serious look and said, “You see all those fools working on their swing the day before a competition? You know, if you ain’t brought it with you, you are not going to find it out there!”  Truer words were never spoken. You see, Mr. Lionel knew that playing the game, especially tournament golf, is about getting the ball into the hole. When we think about tough major championships like the Open or U.S. Open, we think about perseverance and the ability get the ball in the hole under the most extreme pressure. Mr. Lionel knew this; Mr. Hogan knew this; champions know this and find a way to win. Good golfers find a way to get the ball into the hole. As golf instructors, we can learn from this lesson. Instructors would do well to teach less on the driving range and more on the golf course. Teach the game.  I have seen so many cases over the years where a golfer spends hours and hours on the driving range pounding balls. They are not even working on their short game, yet endlessly picking apart their swing. Several times when I was working overseas, I saw golfers, including kids, who had never been on the golf course because of their instructors insisting that they learn to swing it a certain way. What a terrible way to learn the game of golf.  I actually prefer to do the opposite with my students. I like to get them on the golf course as soon as possible and have fun while learning to golf your ball on the course. Golf is meant to be played on the golf course. When golf course play is not an option, simulate playing the game as closely as possible on the practice area. Get your students playing and watch your students’ skill level and enjoyment soar. It will make for more return customers!
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10 Oct 2016

GROWING THE GAME

There has been a lot of recent discussion about the game of golf losing golfers.  There have been many theories about why this seems to be happening.  In my opinion, this is a natural ebb and flow that has been exaggerated and misunderstood.  Let’s explore some of these issues. The National Golf Foundation (NGF) numbers are showing a net loss of golfers in America compared to a decade ago.  However, what is hidden in this statistic is that the NGF numbers were greatly inflated by counting “very” occasional golfers who play only a few outings a year.  In the past, these golfers were lumped into the avid golfer category.  This grossly inflates the numbers.  For example, if you ask random people if they have played golf, many will say yes, albeit this could be a driving range experience or hacking it around once with college buddies. Another often-heard argument is that the game needs Tour players to make it popular.  The game is bigger than any one golfer.  Great and dominant professional golfers come along every so often, and golfing lore has had many of them:  Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris,  Harry Vardon, The Great Triumphant, Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and on and on.  There are too many to list.  Some created more interest than others, but none were bigger than the game.  The game of golf has and will continue to march on regardless of who is at the top of the PGA Tour leaderboard.  To build the Tour or a golf industry around one great player is folly.  All glory is fleeting.  The sun rises and a new day comes, or in this case, a new golfer takes his place. There were too many high-end golf courses built when the inflated golfer numbers where at their prime a few years ago.  Anyone who is in the golf industry knows that golf courses are very expensive to operate.  When the economy was truly roaring, many investors thought that a new high-end golf course development was a sure shot at a good return.  What they didn’t calculate were the heavy expenses of construction and maintaining a golf facility.  The days of mediocre, small-town “goat ranches” are a thing of the past.  With the construction of the newer courses, the agronomic course conditions rapidly improved.  The public got a penchant for good, fast greens and grass in the fairways.  High expectations for top course conditions became the norm.  This comes at a cost: higher dues and green fees, and higher input costs to maintain the new expectations.  Older courses with mediocre agronomic conditions fell by the wayside as they couldn’t keep up with “the new TPC course” down the road.  However, the newer-constructed courses have also struggled to balance high maintenance expectations and profitability. The transformation of our society has also played a role in the golf industry.   Today, everyone is on the go.  We live in a much more instantaneous society than a few decades back.  In the old days, a typical golfing dad would spend all day on Saturday at the local country club playing golf and cards with the his colleagues.  In most golf clubs today, those days are gone.  Dad is more likely spending the day at soccer games and other family engagements.  Many golf facilities failed to keep up with changing family patterns.  Instead of making their facility more family friendly, many clubs fell by the wayside of nostalgia.  They failed to be innovative in their marketing.  Many facilities neglected to promote golf to ladies and kids.  In my opinion, golf should also be marketed as a fun, athletic and healthy family activity.  The health industry is one of the fastest, most consistently growing industry in the USA.  Why not tap into this resource? The cost of participation and material is quite expensive compared to other sports and activities.  Some of this blame can be placed on the industry’s greed such as the never-ending quest to put out new golf equipment.   Greens fees are often too high for beginners or people with less disposable income.  We need more user-friendly golf facilities for entry-level players.  The game has to be more accessible and family friendly.  I like the idea of 6- and 9-hole golf courses that are inviting to all golfers. All in all, I think the game is still strong and in a good place.  Can it be stronger or better?  Of course, but the key is not to place the future of the game in world-class Tour players or high-tech equipment advances.  This only results in superficial and inflated numbers of players, not avid lifetime golfers.  The real key in growing the game is to make golf more accessible and family friendly.  This can be achieved by simple instruction and creative ideas incorporating the wants and needs of today’s families.  Golf instructors, share your passion, for you are the true gatekeepers of the future of the game!
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America’s Ryder Cup Win Shows Why Team Chemistry and Spirit are So Important – Tiger, Take a Lesson
3 Oct 2016

America’s Ryder Cup Win Shows Why Team Chemistry and Spirit are So Important – Tiger, Take a Lesson

By: Arlen Bento, WGCA contributing writer What a performance by the USA Ryder Cup team this past October. Not only were the crowds in Minnesota large and in charge, but the players finally showed what it looks like to play for something more than just yourself. In this day and age of golf with private jets, millions of dollars in endorsements and players with one major win or a few tour wins that can set themselves financially for life, it was great to watch our USA’s best just lay it out on the line for the Ryder Cup and their teammates. For those of you that follow me, you know that I feel the number one thing that separates a good golf team from a great team is team chemistry. You just can’t put a bunch of great players that only play for themselves together and expect them to win all the time against similar talent that really, truly plays for more than themselves. The USA Ryder Cup coaches did a really nice job trying to figure out who the best players would be for this team, not just by world ranking or money earned.  I think the selection process was much better, and in the end because we won, the process was validated. Patrick Reed, in my opinion, was the star.  He was so fired up with emotion and his win over Rory was amazing.  He is exactly what the USA needed.  Just one guy, playing his heart out for his team and country is a very powerful thing. The USA just wanted to win so badly compared to Europe, it made for great golf! In the past, when I watched the Ryder Cup when Tiger was on top of his game, it was always a problem to figure out who is going to play with Tiger.  That always bugged me about the team.  Tiger is so good or so dominant that no one can play with him.  I put that blame on Tiger. There was not that kind of thing this year.  Captain Davis Love did a great job of pairing players that actually looked liked they liked each other.  It was very obvious in the singles matches that the players that were put out first were chosen for a good reason: to lead the team! Hats off to the USA and the Ryder Cup win.  I think Europe played well and I am sure they are going to be ready to play in two years in Paris. 033Master Teaching Professional Arlen Bento Jr. is an award-winning golf coach, business owner, product developer and content writer living in Jensen Beach, Florida.  He is the former head golf professional at the PGA Country Club in PGA Village, Florida, and the director of golf at Eagle Marsh Golf Club in Jensen Beach.  Arlen is a “Top 100” golf instructor recognized by the World Golf Teaching Federation, with over 30,000 members in 40 countries.  
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Time To Change The Message – (Part 1)
3 Oct 2016

Time To Change The Message – (Part 1)

By: Dave Hill, WGCA contributing writer During a recent lesson with a gentleman who’s been playing for over 55 years, I was able to reaffirm my belief about how golf swing instruction took a wrong turn a few decades ago.  Soon to follow is the movement toward specialized fitness for golf. I’m fully aware of the controversy of such statements, but it is imperative as golf instructors and coaches that we have a solid grasp as to why so many continue to struggle with the game. This will be a multiple-part series, and for many readers, very little may be groundbreaking information. After all, the golf swing has never truly changed throughout the years. However, our knowledge of how it can/should be performed is always improving due to research into kinesiology and technology. Interpretation, or maybe more in the case of teaching professionals, “observation” of golf swing technique, determines the approach to instruction adopted by both individuals and as a collective group. I’d like to preface the series with the notion that restricting hip rotation and weight transfer during the backswing are two instructional elements to which I don’t subscribe.  The restriction of hip rotation in order to achieve more “torque” between the upper body (shoulders if you will) and lower body (hips) in order to maximize distance need go the way of the dodo bird. It should never have been part of the instructional equation to begin with. Yet, to this day it remains pervasive throughout the golf teaching industry, so my apologies if I have insulted any readers who continue with this practice, but I implore you to cease and desist immediately or stop reading now. Returning to my lesson, the gentleman who was somewhere in the vicinity of 65 years of age plays to about a 6 handicap but was once a scratch. Naturally complaining about distance, he was under the “torque” spell, as I prefer to call it, yet he admitted he had difficulty turning. I asked him a leading question along the lines of, “There must have been a time when it was easy to turn?”  He then referred to when he was a teenager caddying at a nearby club that had hosted the Canadian Open during his tenure. The head pro was a fine player who competed during the week alongside Palmer, Player, a young Jack Nicklaus, and other greats of that generation. When the tournament was over, he asked his head pro how he could hit the ball further based on the prodigious distances all the pros could hit the ball. The answer was short and sweet: “ Keep your weight on your left foot (front foot) on the backswing.” Fast forward a couple of decades and the tune changed. We had to load on the rear foot, followed by pushing from the rear foot in order to transfer back to the front foot. Easy stuff! My goodness, whatever happened to Sam Snead’s “turn inside the barrel” advice? In returning to the lesson, it was summed up with the fact there is a difference between weight transfer and distribution of pressure on the feet. There is no need to move the COM (center of mass) laterally during the backswing in order to feel weight on the rear foot. By virtue of moving the arms, club and body rotation away from the target, pressure, rather than weight, into the rear foot can occur. In this instance, one key was implemented where the new movement quieted a former movement. Rather than stabilizing hip rotation, we increased it. How? By straightening the rear leg during the backswing. This is commonplace within most, if not all good golf swings to some degree. If I may digress, our observations, or buying into the observations, of some created a culture of misconception amongst golf instructors over decades. Next article (Part 2) – The rear leg, weight distribution, how the spine turns
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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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