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18 Jul 2014 Steve Williams, USGTF Level IV Member

Coaching A Mini-Tour Player Player To The Next Level

By: Steve Williams, WGCA contributing writer My experiences of working with many touring pros over the years have convinced me of some rather sad facts that I would like to share with you! I use the word “sad,” because these facts keep many passionate, talented players from making it to the PGA Tour. Typically, they play mini-tours for several years with dreams of making it to the big time, but other than qualifying in a few four-spotters over the years, never do they make it to the Tour. I see the frustration on their faces after they place decently high in a mini-tour event one week, only to miss the cut the next week. Then, I see them work harder on the range to hone their swing planes or maybe synchronizing arm and torso motion…while they’re thinking that their inconsistent ball striking under pressure is the result of their overactive hip rotation. Great! I like it when players work harder on the range! They certainly need to build a repeating swing. However, for many of them, their biggest impediment to not making it to the PGA Tour is not as much swing issues as it is a lack of focus, due to a lack of discipline. So, I have listed 12 traits of the typical mini-tour player and the typical touring professional. While we must understand that there are exceptions to every rule, the traits of each of these talented golfers listed below are not at all uncommon. There are many other things that can be listed, but these 12 should create enough contrast for you to get the point that I would like to make. Typical professional golfer who never makes it further than mini-tours: 1. Plenty of physical talent to play on the PGA Tour. 2. Practices enough to play on the PGA Tour. 3. Has enough tournament experience to play on the PGA Tour. 4. Likes to party with his buddies. 5. Doesn’t set short- and long-term goals. 6. Has too many distractions to be able to focus intently. 7. Blames too many of his high scores on bad luck or…being hungover or…bad playing partners. 8. Possesses enough knowledge to have excellent course management, but lacks the confidence and patience necessary to form a game plan and stick to it. 9. Enjoys impressing people with the fact that he is a professional golfer. 10. In his quest to justify prolonged years of playing mini-tours, constantly says things to others about how great of a golfer he is, which add more pressure to his mindset. 11. Constantly faces the same issues over and over because he refuses to accept that he needs to grow up and be careful to learn from past failures. 12. Has a good short game. Typical professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour: 1. Relatively equal to or slightly better physical talent than the mini-tour player. 2. Practices close to or slightly more than the mini-tour player. 3. Doesn’t possess a whole lot more tournament experience than the mini-tour player. 4. Realizes that the more discipline he has, the less he’ll want to party. 5. Has created the habit of setting and reaching short- and long-term goals. 6. Makes a habit of keeping distractions to a minimum. 7. Knows that blaming his high scores on bad luck or…being hungover…or others, keeps him from dealing with the issues that keep him from making it to the next level. 8. Knows his strengths and weaknesses, and forms his course management decisions upon that knowledge, and then remains committed to his plan. 9. Doesn’t see the need to broadcast to everybody what he does for a living, but just lets his clubs do the talking. 10. Has learned the fine art of habitually saying things to others in a way that constantly takes pressure off of himself. 11. Has experienced enough failures that he finally came to the conclusion that if he was ever going to make it, he had to make sure that he didn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again. 12. Has a very, very good short game. So what is the point that I was trying to make? Making it to the PGA Tour is more in a player’s control than he would like to admit! It’s not easy for me to mention to a fellow who works hard on his game on the range that he lacks discipline…or is stubborn when it comes to admitting and accepting responsibility for his weaknesses…or that he doesn’t learn very well from past mistakes…or maybe that he simply needs to grow up. It’s part of my job, though! If I have to make a player mad at me by telling him the truth, I can live with that. Understand this. though: There are few things that give me more fulfillment in my work than helping someone to get past weaknesses that have plagued them for their entire life, and seeing them accept that if they want to accomplish their dreams, they have to change their way of thinking because nobody is going to do it for them…and then seeing them do it! Good golfing!

Bad Shots

Bad shots are part of the game of golf; we all hit them. After hitting a bad shot, there are different options on what happens next: We can lose our temper while trying to hit a hero shot, or we can stay composed and hit a good shot to get us out of trouble. I have found that one of the things separating great players from the rest of the field is they never follow a bad shot with another bad shot. Many times, watching the PGA Tour on TV, you will hear the announcer talk about a “comeback birdie.” This is in reference to the player scoring a birdie after having a bogey or worse on the hole before. Competitive golf is a lot about momentum. Executing a good shot after a bad shot helps you keep a positive attitude. As teaching professionals, we need to teach our students how to keep the wheels from falling off once they hit a bad shot or have a bad hole. Some of this is about teaching how to hit proper recovery shots, and the other is about maintaining a positive attitude when things go south. One great way to teach these skills is to go on the course with your students for playing lessons. It allows you to see how they handle bad situations and what recovery shots they need to learn. In addition, it provides you with an opportunity to get out on the course and play a little golf yourself!

Helping your business by helping your student

One of the things that fascinates me the most about the golf business, and there is a lot, is that even golf teachers and golf professionals don’t understand the avenues available through the big name original equipment manufacturers to acquire the correct equipment without buying thousands of dollars of poorly matched equipment. It is an established fact that, through years of research by many different research firms, that the average golf consumer has a ”golf budget”: greens fees, lessons, and equipment. Golf teaching professionals that do not help their students get the right equipment are unwittingly hurting their own business. How? Very simple. When the average golfer buys a mass-produced golf club that doesn’t work with their swing and ball flight, they are wasting a good chunk of their golf budget. Once again, through research, we know that these “off-the-rack golfers” don’t take that many lessons. So, the answer is very simple, and most long-term teachers know this. If they don’t buy the right equipment, they buy more clubs. Hooray for the massive corporations; bad news for the teaching professional. That fourth driver in the last year that Joe Golfer bought could have been spent on instruction. Now, not everyone would spend that on lessons, but a surprising majority would. Personally, I can tell you honestly there were hundreds of times over the years students would pay for a series a lessons after a club fitting session with me, relieved at finding the correct equipment and the specs that worked with their swing and ball flight. They spent that extra golf money with ME! Not for the third set of irons in six months at the mammoth golf retail store. It’s the same as you may have heard about the large casinos in Vegas. How do you think they got so big? The most pressing problem is that even golf professionals don’t know that every OEM has a custom department in their assembly facility. Two companies, Ping and Mizuno, generate 80% of their sales through their custom department. Basically, iron sets, drivers, wedges, hybrids, and even putters are assembled two ways, not counting the tour department that takes care of the obvious. One of the components, and the most profitable one, for all companies is the component of the company that produces one type of shaft, one lie angle, one length, one static weight, one swing weight, one loft, one grip size and one set makeup – the dreaded “off-the-rack” set: mass-produced, boxed up and sent to the large big box stores to sell off the shelf to the uneducated golfer by the uneducated retail clerk. Or, even worse, by the uninformed golf professional. One of the worst things about these clubs is the inexpensive and poorly designed “stock” shafts used. Of course, among other things, they just have one-size-fits-all specifications. Let me ask you something. Have you ever seen two identical golf swings? Same path and face angle? Same angle of attack, same tempo? Same club head speed? Same toe deflection? Take all of those variables and mix them up. Are you serious? Do you really think there are two golfers that have all of those variables exactly the same? The other component of the OEMs’ manufacturing occurs in the custom department. To the average golfer, this sounds expensive, right? Wrong. Most OEMs offer no-charge shaft upgrades on many shafts. For example, one of the largest companies in the history of the golf equipment industry offers five different aftermarket shafts on all of their iron sets for FREE. You could fit you your students to a different lie, different loft, upgraded aftermarket shafts that fits them better (and better quality, by the way), different size grip, and the cost would be…FREE! Yes, that’s right, for those that don’t know. All the OEMs offer no-extra-charge custom-made clubs, woods, irons, putters, and hybrids through their CUSTOM department. Some OEMs charge a minimal amount for some shafts, $3 to $10 per club. All other specs, including grip size, are FREE. Do they make the same profit on the custom department sets? Of course not. That’s why they don’t advertise it. Even the sales reps push off-the-rack clubs at demo days. Educate yourself. Educated your golfer. Sell more series, and at the same time, make your golfer better by helping them get better-fit equipment. They will be grateful, and you will be a better teaching professional. The massive-size conglomerates will make a little less profit. So, the star tour player gets 8 mil this year instead of 9 mil. Do you really care? I know your student won’t.

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