GETTING THE GIRLS TO PLAY
12 Mar 2014

GETTING THE GIRLS TO PLAY

Here’s an unbelievable fact concerning women and golf: Hundreds of Division I and Division II women’s golf scholarships go unused every year. With the continual rise in the cost of a college education, it is disappointing that we cannot get more young girls to play golf. Another amazing fact to go along with the waste of unused scholarships: Any girl who can break 90 consistently in high school meets can easily get a Division I scholarship. Let that sink in for a minute…simply playing bogey golf. Currently, about 26,000 girls play high school golf. That would seem like a lot until you consider there were over 7 million girls enrolled in high school in the U.S. That works out to be less than .4%! I regularly get inquiries from college golf coaches looking for girls to fill spots on their team. Another opportunity is for the girls to play on a local junior college team and hone their skills in order to get a scholarship for a larger four-year school. This just requires some interest, not even a minimum score or experience. I have seen many junior colleges not even able to field a team, requiring them to forfeit all of their matches. Title IX became the law of the land in 1972, and it revolutionized women’s sports. Basically, any publicly-funded or publicly-assisted school had to offer equal education and sports programs for men and women. Softball, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, and many other sports immediately opened up educational opportunities for thousands of female athletes. So, what is the systemic reason that we can’t get more girls to take advantage of this opportunity? There is not just one easy answer, but it all starts with the golf teachers and golf professionals not getting enough girls to discover and fall in love with the game. Poor training of teachers on how to teach juniors is a big factor, as well. Another basic reason is a lack of female golf professionals that young girls can use as inspiration. According to my middle school-aged daughter, golf is just not cool. When I was a young golfer, Nancy Lopez burst onto the scene and captured the imagination of a whole nation. Not quite to the extent of Tiger, but she was a phenom and a household name. In addition, she was also a great role model and very easy for girls to relate to. Annika Sorenstam was a popular figure but did not generate the widespread excitement that crossed boundaries and into the conscious and hearts of non-golfers. Betting on another Nancy Lopez coming along is not a good solution. Golf teaching professionals need to get more young girls involved in junior golf. Set up programs that make it fun and cool to discover golf and do a better job of introducing the game to them properly. I know there many talented teachers that aren’t being utilized to promote and teach the game to the junior girls. I see teachers using poorly-suited equipment that makes the game more difficult to learn. I see teachers not putting in the effort to make it exciting for them when they are first introduced to the game. We need to get them on the course right away, think outside the box to discover ways to make it easier, and make sure they are using clubs they have a chance with. I recently observed three very young girls in a junior class at a course where I was serving as a tournament official. The instructor mostly ignored the girls and just let them stand on the range hitting bad shot after bad shot for 30 minutes. At the end of class, you could see the body language of the girls so clearly indicate they did not have fun. They were frustrated, and one girl even asked her mom if she had to come back the following week. To make it worse, their clubs were too long and unwieldy. They had no chance to get the ball up in the air. With women playing in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, we can only hope that a female golfer emerges as an Olympic hero who can inspire young girls to take up the game. In the meantime, we have to do a better job of showing the grade school and middle school girls how much fun golf can be. A chance at a life changing education is waiting for them.
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THE FUTURE OF GOLF
6 Mar 2014

THE FUTURE OF GOLF

There is much truth to the saying, “If it’s not, broke don’t fix it.” Every year, I go to the PGA Show, and there is talk of how to fix golf. This year, I heard more about bifurcating the rules, a topic that has been brewing for a couple of years. There was also the new sport of Hack Golf played with non-conforming clubs to a 15-inch hole. So, I had to ask myself, “Is there anything broken regarding golf?” The answer I came up with is that there are too many people trying to fix something that does not need fixing. Golf has survived for going on 600 years. There have been ups and downs in the cycle, just as there are ups and downs in all businesses. The basic game is fine and it appeals to a certain percentage of the population. Not everyone gets or likes golf, but those who do will play until they can’t anymore. Where golf got off-track was unrealistic predictions about growth that was supposed to occur over the past 20 years. Remember when it was forecast that there would be 60 million golfers by now? That led to expansion on the anticipation of all these new golfers. There was a period when a new golf course was opening about every week. Many of these were poorly designed, with huge maintenance costs and overblown greens fees. To make matters worse, in an age where people began wanting things easier and faster, golf was doing the opposite – longer rounds and more difficult layouts. So, when the anticipated growth did not happen, the industry panicked and began coming up with all kinds of grow-the-game initiatives. Maybe it would be better to just step back a bit. Leave the game as it has always been, and let people who get it, get it; and those that don’t, so be it. As a great man once, said not all seeds fall in fertile ground.  
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Let go of what you used to be or did in golf and get better!
5 Mar 2014

Let go of what you used to be or did in golf and get better!

By: Arlen Bento, WGCA contributing writer Over the years, I have given many golf lessons to many different kinds of people. With the success of my junior golf teams, a lot of my instruction and coaching has been focused on younger players. Now that I have reopened my indoor learning center, I am working with all levels of players or a regular basis. I have a student that has become a familiar case in my years of coaching and teaching golf. This student is a mid-60s male who used to have a pretty good golf game 20-30 years ago. The problem is that his 14 handicap from 20 years ago was developed with a very bad over the top move that makes it almost impossible to strike the golf ball solid at this player’s age and stage in life. He is a 35-handicap and thinking about quitting golf. This is a very common problem with players, usually men who played golf with strength and eye-hand coordination. They learned golf by playing, never really took coaching or lessons; they just went out and played golf. For many, aiming left with the driver, closing down the club face with the irons, and learning how to putt and chip made the game playable. Now, with age creeping up and the loss of physical strength that comes with aging, the golf swing just won’t work. So, with lessons – especially indoors – this player is able to make swing adjustments that provide an acceptable delivery of the club into impact and decent shots with a smooth pace. As soon as this player tries to add speed, the movement breaks down and the over-the-top take over. I have been spending some quality lesson time in the studio with this student, and we had scheduled an outdoor playing lesson. Surprisingly, we never made it to the tee box, because on the range, all the things that we were doing in the studio had disappeared. All the divots were going left. The only club that could make face contact were the 8-iron and 7-wood, and at best the shots were not going more than 100 yards. As I inquired about what happened, the student told me that he had hit balls for hours the previous day and that he thought he had figured out the problem. “Ah” – figured out the problem. The student continued to explain how he warmed up, taking some of the instruction – a straight-back, one-piece takeaway – and it all started to click. However, when he tried to take it to the course, the swing broke down. He could not understand why on the range it worked, and on the course it did not. I went through the whole process on what we had been working on in the studio, and this is where I got the “I don’t understand why I used to be able to play this game.”  And, this is where the problem is for most players that are going through this type of struggle. Players who have played with poor technique have to let go of what they used to do and focus on what they have to do to get better. It takes some work and some time, but it mostly takes a mindset of change. Players with this over-the-top issue have to focus at changing swing path so divots are square; they have to work at the feeling of moving their hips after making a shoulder turn in the backswing to deliver the club into impact correctly. I was using a drill where we were trying to take the power of the right hand (right-handed player) out of the swing, focusing on the left side pulling the club using the hips. I call this a “right-hand release drill,” and it really creates a great-looking golf swing. The funny part is that with this player, when he looked at the ball and tried to hit it, he went back to the old swing over the top. The only way I could get him to make the good swing is to do the swing with his eyes closed. The best shot of the day was an eyes-closed driver that he hit with no effort that went right down the range; no effort, great sound, great speed and great finish. The student was amazed at the shot, and it really made him realize that he could make the swing change if he would just let go of what he used to do and focus at what he needs to do at this stage in his golf game to get better. (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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FAIRWAY METAL, THE SHORT GAME SECRET
5 Mar 2014

FAIRWAY METAL, THE SHORT GAME SECRET

We have all been there, giving some great insight to a student’s swing fault, knowing they will not practice enough for the changes to become permanent.  It is not our place to yell at them and tell them they have to practice to become better.  But, it is our place to show them how to score better, even though their golf swing might not improve. We see it almost every week on the PGA Tour: A player uses their fairway wood to chip with around the green.  Why would the best players in the world use this method?  Because, it is easier than chipping off of poor lies.  The outcome of these bad shots is better than the outcome of bad shots when chipping. When speaking with students, we talk about a good miss versus a bad miss.  A shot bladed over the green into a bunker is a bad miss compared to a shot that rolls 20 feet from the hole.  By using a fairway wood around the greens, the higher-handicap player can get the ball down in fewer strokes, thus lowering their score and having more fun. The way I teach this shot is to use a fairway wood with loft between 15-25 degrees.  Some of the strong-lofted fairway woods that players carry today make it difficult to get the ball out of poor lies.  I have the student choke down about 1 1/2” on the grip, have a slight forward press, and play the ball just in front of the center of their stance.  From here it is like a long putting stroke. It amazes me each time I show someone this shot how quickly they pick it up and how easy they think it is.  Some players might think it is not a “real” shot, but once they see the results, it changes their mind. If you have students who need some help with their short-game shots, or you know a student isn’t going to put some time into practicing his full swing, teach them this shot.  They won’t be disappointed.
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3 Mar 2014

HOW TO DETERMINE A GOLF CART FLEET SIZE

By Marc Gelbke In an effort to continue from my last editorial where I wrote about “The Importance of a Golf Cart Fleet,” I would like to continue with this all-too-important topic on another theme, one that is sometimes an underestimated or even overlooked category by golf managers. Being able to determine what size fleet your facility requires or needs is important from many points of view, such as financials, facility space, and staff. How many carts should you buy or lease? On one hand, you want to accommodate all of your customers and have carts available when golfers request them.  However, having more carts than you really need is a poor investment and can cost the facility (owner) precious revenue. Therefore, having the right amount of carts results in more revenue for the club. Of course, there is no magic formula you can use, as it all depends on the circumstances at your particular facility. There are some basic statistics that are readily available with averages that can be applied to an extent.  For instance, the average 18-hole course has a fleet size of 60 carts in the United States for daily fee facilities and private clubs, whereas municipal courses average 55 carts. South Florida has the highest average size with 77 carts.  Lastly, the national average is 57 carts per facility. The best advice I can give, in my opinion, is to study your facility and situation in order to come up with the right number of carts. There are additional guidelines that can be applied to help determine your number, such as one cart for every 500-800 rounds played annually, or one cart for every eight playing members.  You can also use as a rule of thumb the guideline of 72 carts (two on each tee and two on each green). Other important factors to keep in mind is that you need carts for staff such as course marshals and others.  You need to clean carts in between rounds, and location and usage of your practice facility is another factor. Other considerations are tournaments played at your facility and if you allow private carts to be used, as it may reduce the number of carts you need and the size of your cart barn or cart storage facility. Figure on about 75% of your fleet being rented on a normal daily basis and 25% available for peak demand periods.  As a final note, rent or buy fewer carts than you think you’ll need, as it is relatively easy to add carts to your fleet if needed, and you won’t end up with more carts than you can rent out.
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3 Mar 2014

BE A PIG, DON’T BE HOG

By Pat Montana, Ph.D Golf managers should educate their staff on the need to be more sensitive to the needs and expectations of potential members and customers. I was invited recently to play golf at the course where I live but am not a member.  My new neighbor, who was anxious to familiarize himself with the course, asked me to join him and a friend who were invited by a member to complete a foursome.  The member advised us that he would be joining us later in the round, and we were totally put off when the head golf professional charged us double the guest fee because the member was not present at our starting time.  The head golf professional was nonresponsive to our frustration in questioning the charge.  He simply refused to listen and charged us an unaccompanied guest fee. Being more sensitive to customer expectations may well have resulted in my neighbor, his friend, and myself joining the club at a later time.  By being limited by management policy in this case, the head golf professional lost us forever.  The guest fee during high season is pricey, but understandable.  Having to pay double this fee brought to mind the old expression, “Be a pig, don’t be a hog.”  You might get more members.
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VIDEO ANALYSIS
3 Mar 2014

VIDEO ANALYSIS

The correct video camera is an excellent teaching aid and an essential tool for the teaching professional.  It provides the ability to freeze the action, slow the swing down, and give added information when diagnosing faults.  But, caution must be taken with our analysis.  We do not want the student to become confused and lose confidence. Positioning of the camera is essential.  The ideal position is at right angles to certain points.  One important point is the hands.  Therefore, the camera should be at right angles and at the level of the hands.   Other camera angles are possible but often require more specialized equipment. The two most used camera positions are facing the student (Teaching Position 1) and behind the student between the intended target line and body (Teaching Position 3). The camera you invest in should be simple to use and compatible with your software for playback and video replication.  It should have features that are designed specifically for high-speed video resolution such as a golf swing. The next step is to review the video by using a software program to analyze a student’s action.  A good software programs offer some of the following features: • Slow Motion Playback, Reverse Motion Playback. • Drawing Tools, Angle Measurement Tool, Grid Tool. • Side by Side Comparison. • Overlay Two Videos. • Still Shot Export/Printing. • Save Videos with Markings. • Ability to Create Video Lessons. • Lessons are created in a format where the student can play video on any computer or DVD player. • Pricing Point that is Ideal for a Golf Teaching Professional There are many fine programs available at different pricing points.  The best piece of advice is to research and be well-informed before investing in any of these products.  Make sure to understand your system’s compatibilities and what your teaching needs are.  Often, the best systems are simple to use and offer less frills than some of the other systems.
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