BELIEVE AND YOU WILL ACHIEVE
18 Sep 2015

BELIEVE AND YOU WILL ACHIEVE

By: Dave Hill, WGCA contributing writer As the end of the 2015 campaign on the main professional tours is coming to an end, I got to thinking. Here I am as a Master Golf Teaching Professional in the USGTF and a 25-year PGA member with over 27 000 hours of lessons and coaching behind me, and my, how the game keeps confounding us. As Jack Nicklaus once stated, we never stop learning in golf. Harry Vardon, and in particular Bobby Jones, were by no means short hitters. Neither were Sam Snead or Ben Hogan. Of course, there was Arnold Palmer, only to be surpassed by Nicklaus’ prodigious length. Then came Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, and now Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Jason Day, who led and are leading the way during their times of glory.  In the women’s game, we had Babe Zaharias, Mickey Wright, Laura Davies, Annika Sorenstam, Michele Wie, Yani Tseng, and finally Lexi Thompson. One could easily surmise the longest hitters in the game have most often dominated, or have they? Based on the aforementioned list of players, this is what one would believe. This is what we are training our young athletes to believe. Tiger painted the picture for us all that golf is a sport, hence training for it is paramount. In time, Tiger took on the look of a linebacker or tight end and dominated the game for a period like no other. We must train in order to create power and speed if we are to compete at the highest level. This is the message being transmitted to our young up and coming talented junior golfers. Hmmm? Don’t get me wrong. Hitting the ball a long way is important, and length off the tee (when in play) leads the way in the “strokes gained” statistic on tour. However, upon further research and reflection into this obsession with power, is this what really makes great golfers so great? Perhaps for some, yes, as statistics don’t lie. However, in the world of coaching competitive players, we witness some attributes among champions that in many cases cannot be measured, and of course some that can. Why were certain players throughout history able to compete with and often beat the giants of the game? Francis Ouimet, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Nancy Lopez, Nick Faldo, and now Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Jordan Spieth, and even Zach Johnson have had great success. Are they outliers? Perhaps in specific areas of the game, yes. However, they are talented and developed a steadfast belief in themselves and their athletic prowess despite the fact none were/are long bombers. This is the first lesson in coaching and the commitment it takes to the process of developing a high level competitive player. It starts with recognizing talent and passion. One can never judge too early who will make it out there or not based on how long they can hit the ball.  There is a golden age to develop fundamental speed, which at a later age can be enhanced with a specific training regimen. This, however, is but a small piece of the pie. Ultimately, it is the one intrinsic element that it is difficult to measure, but as a coach, it is an imperative responsibility to convey in a manner that relieves any of our young athletes of pressure. It is never too young to start, but more importantly, the message must be perpetuated…the message of belief. Happy coaching!
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JOURNEY THROUGH A ROUND OF GOLF
18 Sep 2015

JOURNEY THROUGH A ROUND OF GOLF

As my players start to enter tournaments, I try to get them ready for the mental ups and downs I know will surely happen. No amount of talking and teaching will sufficiently prepare them for the internal struggle. Everyone is different in that way, and an integral part of success is finding the frame of mind that allows us to compete and still maintain our composure. I many times tell them of the “four-hour journey.” During that four hours (a round of golf), there will likely be one hour of good golf, one hour of bad golf, and two hours of average golf. You must deal with each period of time in the most productive way. When you are in the good stretch of golf, it is important to take note of how you feel, not only with your swing, but with your relaxation levels, breathing patterns, and clarity with regards to decision making. This helps us build a zone, that force field that keeps negativity away from us. During the turmoil part of your round, you will be tested in every way:  “I’ve practiced hard and now I can’t remember any of my swing keys. My mind is spinning and everything bothers me. The ball doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I can’t breathe. I can only think about when this round will be over. I am overrun with negativity and thoughts that have nothing to do with my round of golf.” You will then settle into a period of golf that doesn’t particularly present anything more than just smooth sailing, e.g., relatively straight shots and two-putt pars that advance the round along. Patience is important, because pressing for great results many times produce the opposite. Once you have played in enough tournaments, where everything that could happen to a golfer has happened and nothing surprises you, then you are ready to draw from that experience. Seve Ballesteros was famous for his lack of accuracy and ability to post good scores despite bad ball striking. When asked for his secret, he calmly replied, “I just suffer better than other people.” Tour pros are more likely to respect a player for their mental ability than their ball striking abilities. They know, statistically, that a round of golf means 4.5 birdies and 2.1 bogeys (for instance). They know this math will work out. It doesn’t matter to them when the bogeys or birdies come. If the bogeys come on the first two holes, they are likely done for the day with bogeys, and only good things are to come. They play in a weekly 72-hole round of golf. A mental ebb and flow is costly, literally, with big money on the line. Going back to the scenario of two bogeys to start the round, think of how many times you see a player turn the entire round into a meltdown because of the opening turmoil. It is a great moment for a young golfer (our tournament age, not chronological age) when we start a round poorly and finish strong.  I am always impressed when a tour pro (or anyone) can begin a tournament with a bad stretch of holes and then rebound to challenge for the victory. Pressure presents itself in many ways. It could be a tournament or something on a local level. Maybe it is just a round with your boss or clients. You would really like to gain their respect through great ball striking. The round begins and you are nervous. You play poorly until the back nine, when you finally say, “Who cares,” and then you play pretty well the remainder of the round. I tell my students that they will not be defined as a person by what their score adds up to, but it is still hard. When it comes to playing shots, the tour pro talk of divorcing yourself from the result. This is most commonly applied to putting. Expectation of the result clouds our vision and brings tension that affects the physical act. Saying it is better to “not care” is a concept that is hard for some, but thinking past the swinging of the club to the result of the swing is the wrong sequence. Honest self-assessment is a valuable tool in the building process. It begins with noticing that you are a little irritable that morning before the round. Then, your mind is racing during your warm-up session. You are impatient while putting, wanting to get the round started, so that you can get it over with. Immediately you are faced with a testing up-and-down or slick putt. How will you handle this? Maybe you don’t miss a shot but fly it over the green. You are technically striking the ball well, but that doesn’t always produce great results. There are many ways to fail. Tour pros are sure to tell themselves that they are playing well, and it is just a matter of time until the results will show up. You cannot guarantee you will play well today, because there are too many outside factors involved. In sports, you are a different athlete every day. For that reason, you will feel and see things differently each day. One day nothing bothers you and the next day everything is annoying. You can guarantee that you conduct yourself in a respectful manner. You will absorb whatever presents itself in your path and respond to it in a manner that allows you to play better later in the round. You can make sure that you are never a hindrance to a playing partner. You don’t want to be that person who goes silent and selfish, and then shows back up when things get better. Experience shows us that a round of golf is a four-hour journey with three periods of different levels of golf. As a student of the game, we must learn to make the best use of each portion of our round, if we want to produce the best, consistent result.
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Golf Is Great No Matter What Your Age
11 Sep 2015

Golf Is Great No Matter What Your Age

By: Arlen Bento, WGCA contributing writer Golf is a great game, no matter what your age!  No other game or sport in the world is as age-friendly as golf on the highest level of competition. Davis Love III, an icon in professional golf, proved that even after injuries and surgery,  a great golfer can find a way to win on the PGA Tour.  Love put together a stellar final-round 64 at Sedgefield Country Club on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship to claim his first PGA Tour win since 2013.  Love is the third-oldest player to win on the Tour. If you had a chance to watch this great event, you could see why Davis was able to have such success.  He drove the ball well, hit a lot of greens, and hit a lot of his approach shots into close birdie range. For many of you that follow my posts, you know I have devoted a large part of my golf instructional life to coaching competitive players.  Over the years, I have developed a complete strategy for helping better players lower their scores, especially teaching them how to get under par.  In the last few months, one of my professional players had his best two-day professional event, posting rounds of 68-64.  This player has been working on his game and his metal processing to help get his second shots closer to the hole on a regular basis, giving his putter a much better chance to make a putt for birdie. Here is my 10-10-30 breakdown for shooting lower scores.  I am sure that if we break down the round that Davis Love just shot on Sunday, his stats would be commensurate with my theory.  First, if you want to lower your score, you have to achieve these statistics with these three parts of your game: 1.  You have to drive the ball in play.  Your goal is to hit a minimum of 10 fairways per round.  If you don’t have the distance to give yourself a mid-iron into the green on your second shot on a par-4, then you are playing tees that are too long.  You have to be able to get the ball into your mid-iron scoring range off the tee to have a chance to shoot par or better. 2.  You have to be able to hit your regulation iron shots into the middle of the green a minimum of 10 times in your round.  That means you have to be able to hit a par-3 in one shot, a par-4 in two shots, and a par-5 in three shots.  You don’t have to aim at the flag; just hit the middle of the green.  When you can hit 10 or more greens in regulation, you can start to work on hitting at targets closer to the hole. 3.  You have to be able to two-putt every hole and be able to control your first-putt speeds so that you are always with in 12 inches of the hole on every first putt, short or long. The reason you have to control speed is that if you master the pace of your ball rolling on the green, you have a much better chance of making a lot more putts. When you roll the ball at the proper pace, you can be less accurate on your lines, because at the right pace, the ball will go into the cup from more angles if the speed of the putt is right.  If you putt too fast, you shrink the size of the hole. Now, there is much more to cover to take your game under par, like learning to hit your irons to sections of the greens, working on the short game so that you improve your up-and-down scoring when you do miss a green, and learning how to trust your pre-shot routine and the shape of your ball flight, but if you can achieve 10 fairways, 10 greens in regulation, and keep your putts near 30, you will have some of your best scores.   Master Teaching Professional Arlen Bento Jr. is a golf coach, golf sales business owner, golf product developer and golf writer living in Jensen Beach, Florida.   He is a former professional tournament player and is a national award-winning head golf professional at the PGA Country Club at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, FL.  He can be reached via Facebook at www.facebook.com/arlenbentojr or on his blog http://arlenbentojr.blogspot.com or on his business website www.abjgolfsales.com.
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11 Sep 2015

Surveys To Improve Services

By Marc Gelbke One of the single best tools a manager can use to improve his or her club’s services is to introduce customer surveys to its members or public players.  Businesses like airlines, restaurants, and hotels live and die by customer surveys, and the reason they are so successful is because they are so in-tune with their customers’ desires and dislikes. To run a successful golf operation, you, too, must find out your clientele’s likes and dislikes. Conduct a golf course survey of your own, and with the Internet being so popular, why not introduce surveys through your website, Facebook, and e-mail blasts?  Some simple guidelines for successful survey writing you may want to consider are:
  • Write a short questionnaire.  Only the most essential things you need to know should be included.
  • Use simple words.  Remember your clientele’s variety of backgrounds, so keep it short with simple language.
  • Don’t write leading questions, as they demand a specific responds.
  • Avoid double negatives when writing a question, as it may confuse the respondent.
  • Put your questions in a logical order.  Remember, the issue raised in one question may influence how people think or respond to a subsequent question or issue.
It is a good idea to begin a survey with general questions and then ask more specific ones later on.  Complement your survey with a good cover memo or introduction. You may still need to motivate your participants to complete the survey, so the cover memo or introduction is the perfect opportunity to do so by including things like purpose of the survey; why is it important to hear from your players; what impact could the results have for the club and/or players. Include a due date and a person of contact about the survey. You may also consider including a giveaway or raffle for all participants as another form of motivation, such as a dollar amount of your next round of golf, free range balls on the next visit, or raffle off a new set of clubs or gift card for the shop.  Stay in-tune with you players and eliminate the reason why some parts of your club’s business aren’t as successful as they could be.
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