25 Jun 2010

Fixing a Students Golf Hook

Most of the time, we find ourselves teaching beginners and novices, or intermediates who have typical problems such as over-the-top, slicing, etc. From a technical viewpoint, teaching beginners and novices isn’t that difficult, because we mainly focus on the basics of setup and a good rudimentary swing motion. Teaching intermediates with typical problems is still not overly strenuous from a technical viewpoint. Their problems tend to stem from the setup, and/or a lack of doing something correctly in their motions. For example, slicers tend not to release the club, so getting them to release properly is getting them to do something they are not already doing. By contrast, fixing a hook is a tremendous challenge for many teachers. The problem for the golfer who hooks is often that they are already doing something properly (releasing, for example), but they are overdoing it. Getting a golfer to reduce a motion is a more difficult proposition. A hook occurs, of course, when the clubface is closed in relation to the clubhead path through impact. There are both setup and swing considerations to take into account when evaluating exactly what the student is doing when he or she is hooking the ball. For purposes of this article, we will assume the player is right-handed.
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25 Jun 2010

Teaching Amputee Golfers

By John Savage USGTF Level IV Master Teaching Professional and Course Examiner Langhorne, Pennsylvania One of the most important things to an amputee is to fi nd some sort of physical activity. It lifts their spirits and gives them the feeling that they can accomplish more than just being able to walk. They must fi nd a place where they can have fun. Some have found golf. There are many associations they can join, should they seek a competitive outlet. There are numerous clinics conducted across the United States that are sponsored by the Amputee Associations. These clinics are geared towards hospital and rehab organizations. The clinic basically introduces and demonstrates the devices that have been invented to accommodate various amputee situations, such as arms, hands, and legs. Golf pros are invited to donate their time for one morning and give brief lessons to handicapped attendees. When it’s over, the pros go home, and rarely (if ever) get in touch with the rehab people again. Because of the present wars, the amputee population is unfortunately growing. When working with a handicapped person, there are many more considerations involved when making swing corrections than with a nonhandicapped golfer. After a swing correction is offered and tried by the player, you must ask how the movement affects balance. When you get that answer, you have two options: 1) continue along the lines of the correction, or 2) take another approach because of the effects on balance. You can see this man has golf shoes on, but they do not contain his feet. That little square box to which the red lines are pointing on each leg, acts as his foot in the prosthetic device. It’s like trying to play golf on stilts. Wearing prosthetics is similar to walking across a very slippery surface. When you walk on a surface like that, you use your muscles in a different way in order to keep from falling. Some muscles are tightened up, some are relaxed, and you walk with great caution. Eventually, the body adapts to the movement, and muscles get realigned to work with the prosthetic. Your visional perception also changes. Try turning your head while you are walking on that slippery surface – it gets scary. So, when a double amputee moves, his head goes with him. When I first started working with this individual, his left leg was air-actuated. When he swung you could actually see and hear it pull up into the body when he shifted his weight onto his leg. His right leg is computer-actuated and does a thousand commands a second. The only drawback is that the computer doesn’t know when he has stopped climbing a hill or riding a bike. So, he has to stop and let the computer re-boot or the leg will react as if it is still on the bike or climbing. His left leg has since been changed to be vacuum-actuated. The vacuum-actuated leg makes it easier for him to get his weight onto his left leg during the downswing. Without rotors on his legs, an amputee is very limited in making any type of golf swing with a rotary motion. Usually they compensate with lateral movement and an overuse of their arms, which is where we began our lessons. After two lessons, I asked him to see if he could get rotors. In his circumstance, the VA paid for his legs, so money was not a problem. A rotor is a device that allows some pivot motion in one direction or another. The limited movement of the rotor is for balance. Rotors are about the size of a silver dollar, and about an inch thick. They are set equally at 15 degrees to the left and right on his left leg. The prosthetics can adjust for more or less rotation. They are activated by twisting or turning the body. For golf, he pushes his upper body down and activates his hips to turn the rotors. When a rotor is added, the height of the foot on the prosthetic device must be narrowed. The left leg rotates in two directions. The right leg rotates five degrees for the backswing, allowing him to open his right hip slightly on the backswing. There is no rotor for the forward swing. A double amputee must keep his prosthetic feet flat during the entire swing. Those little square boxes around ankle height cannot tilt. Because if they do, he will fall. There is no such thing as coming up on the rear toe to complete the forward swing. As we progress with downswing movement and better hip rotation, we might be able to add a rotor on the right leg for forward movement in the swing. If that rotor is added, we will again address the balance issues that the rotor creates. Finally, keep in mind that the more questions you ask a physically handicapped golfer, the better the golf lesson will be.
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17 Jun 2010

Balance is The Key To Great Ballstriking

By Todd Graves with Tim O’Connor Edmond, Oklahoma and Ontario, Canada Before driving ranges, most pros shagged their own balls. They would hit balls from one end of a field, walk to the other end, and hit them back. Pros needed endurance and accuracy. An unintended benefit was that they’d focus on most of their shots so they didn’t have to go all over hell’s half-acre picking up balls. From the ages of 14 to 19, Moe Norman shagged more than one million golf balls, most of them in a 225- yard field at Rockway Golf Club in Kitchener, Ontario. The field at Rockway helped forged one of the most powerful and accurate golf swings in the history of the game. Forty years later, Moe didn’t talk about working hard at Rockway. He talked about effortlessness, ease, and simplicity; about learning to move his body in perfect sequence – in perfect balance. “My swing balances me,” he would say. All great ballstrikers swing in balance. Whether we look at a figure skater, quarterback, skateboarder or golfer, all high-performance athletes make complex movements look easy because they move in perfect balance. Golfers who cannot swing in balance significantly reduce their chances to hit the ball solidly, accurately and consistently. The overwhelming majority of golfers swing the club from outside to inside the target line, while better players tend to swing excessively from the inside. In both scenarios, the club is out of position and the body moves to counteract the forces at work in the swing, making it difficult to stay in balance. This verifies Moe’s explanation that his swing balanced him. Moe talked about making the body stable. With stability, the student has a much better chance of moving in balance. Drills that encourage stabilizing the body and proper spine movement will promote proper club movement. Ball Position Anything that affects the movement of the spine affects the balance of the body. This includes distance from ball and the position of the ball relative to the lead shoulder, which is a function of stance width. To create an optimum position of the body for balance, the ball must be positioned correctly in order to simplify the body’s ability to balance during the strike. Since balance is related to how the feet work and balance the body throughout the swing, the best drills for working on balance help you learn connection to the ground. Great ballstrikers synchronize their upper and lower bodies in a way that allows the hips to turn into the backswing as the shoulders turn. Then, during the transition, the lower body starts the downswing move as the club “drops” on plane. The lower upper body/lower body relationship establishes the stability of the lower body as the upper body produces speed. Feet on the Ground Drill Striking golf balls with both feet on the ground from the backswing through release helps train students to stabilize their lower bodies. Ensure that students turn their hips while keeping their feet on the ground, and that the right hip turns inward in the downswing as the lead knee remains flexed. This drill keeps the spine in position throughout the golf swing. Leverage Bag Drills A leverage bag is a great training aid to help students move into impact with the upper and lower body moving correctly in sequence. The leverage bag helps teach stability throughout the swing. Note: at impact, the hips are open and feet are flat on the ground. Todd Graves is the founder of the Graves Golf Academy, with teaching locations in Orlando, Florida, and Edmond, Oklahoma. Visit www.moenormangolf.com for more information. Tim O’Connor is president of O’Connor Golf Communications in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, visit www.oconnorgolf.ca
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17 Jun 2010

How I Teach Golf

By Thomas T. Wartelle USGTF Level IV Member, Washington, Louisiana At my golf academy, our teaching philosophy and methods are innovative. We use a combination of “old-style feel” with the latest in technology. We specialize in golfers who are serious about moving to the next level. Training includes all aspects of the game with a focus on:
  • Swing Mechanics
  • Short Game
  • Tournament Preparation Techniques
  • Mental Focus for Tournament Golf
  • Fitness Training
The goal of my academy is to create a positive learning environment. We divide practice sessions into different segments: mechanics, feel, and playing the game. Students see results. They enjoy the learning process and see positive results with each session.

The Learning Process: Mechanics, Feel, & Playing the Game

A typical session involves a segment where mechanical issues are addressed. From a technical standpoint, we believe that there is an optimal swing model for each individual. This model is determined by a person’s athletic ability, anatomy, physical handicaps, thought process, and level they wish to play the game. The goal is to move closer to each individual’s ideal swing model. Ultimately, this will lead to the most important part of the golf swing, impact position. First, we determine a student’s model by an evaluation of the student in terms of physical ability and goals. Next, we extensively use the SwingModel video analysis system. SwingModel was developed by Dr. Ralph Mann, an Olympic medalist in track and field. Dr. Mann has been analyzing sports performance for over 30 years in many different sports. Briefly, SwingModel is science-based. It uses decades of research on elite athletes performing the optimal movement in certain sports. In this case, the performance is the golf swing. All elements of the body motion are followed, and the athlete’s performance is digitized by a computer. Using computer analysis, a model is developed for the maximum biomechanical effort to perform the action. The model can then be fit into each person’s anatomy and ability to perform at a certain speed. Therefore, the SwingModel is custom-fit for each individual person. It is then overlaid on a video analysis of a student’s swing. From this point, I can begin to provide the student the information he needs to progress. The real art in teaching is to be able to communicate the information to the student for his/her learning type and thought process. A valued teacher finds a way to deliver this information. It is important to understand each student’s learning process. The teacher must communicate the skill through different forms of learning. This includes visual, feel, and verbal communication. We use “input amplifiers” to transmit the information. These are the visual, feel, and verbal cues that pass the information from the teacher to the student. We prefer to use minimal verbal cues. We find kinesthetic and visual cues are much more effective at transmitting information. Often this can be a simple kinesthetic training aid such as the SwingRite or the visual aid ProAlign1000. Through research and experience, I have found that many swing flaws are created in the set-up position. When the setup is flawed, the swing becomes a series of compensations. For instance, ball position has a major impact on how a golf club is swung back and through to impact. A ball position too far back or forward greatly impacts how the body will shift and rotate throughout the swing. A ball position that is too close or too far away from the body affects rotation of the torso as well as path of the swing on the backswing and downswing. For instance, research has shown that the ball moves back in the stance in relation to the lead foot less than four inches from the driver to the wedge. The average distance from the ball (toe line to center of the ball) with a 9-iron is 20 inches, and with a driver, 32 inches. Anatomy has an effect on these measurements. SwingModel tells us exactly these measurements for each individual. This is where a training aid such the ProAlign1000 is useful in reinforcing a proper setup position. We use SwingModel to tell us exactly where the set-up position should be, then we set the ProAlign1000 in this perfect position. Now the student is obliged to set-up in the desired position. Only through perfect repetition can the proper learning process take place. The same process is repeated through all aspects of the golf swing where the student should be close to his SwingModel.

Feel and Playing the Game

The mechanics of a golf shot are just a part of the game of golf. At any level, the game involves execution of shots. Therefore, I am a firm believer in playing golf on the golf course. Regardless of skill level, the best way to learn to play golf is on the golf course. At our academy, we also simulate game experience with certain drills and techniques designed to teach a golfer how to perform on the golf course. By doing this, we instill game-time performance and repetitive positive habits.

Fitness and Athletic Ability

Fitness training is one of the largest sports industries. People are now starting to realize that top golfers are athletes, and better performance can be achieved with better fitness. We focus on getting strength, flexibility, and endurance. The golf swing is an athletic movement. One of the fastest ways to get better in golf is to treat the golf swing as a sport and train like other sports. Too often, golfers want to get better but fail to exercise the required amount to perform to their expectations. Also, exercise increases quality of life. Golf fitness can increase performance, but can also be a fitness choice for people looking for alternatives to the regular gym. For more information on any of these products or teaching techniques, please visit the following website: www.swingmodel.com
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17 Jun 2010

The Evolution of The Golf Swing as Dictated by Equipment

From wooden golf balls to modern urethanecovered rockets, from tree branches to graphite- shafted aerodynamic titanium clubheads, the golf swing has evolved along with changes in the equipment used throughout the years. Here is a primer of how the golf swing has changed in response to the equipment being used at the time. Feathery golf balls The feathery was made by stuffing wet goose feathers into a leather pouch, sewing the pouch up, and the drying feathers expanded to make a fairly hard, useable golf ball. Since the feathery didn’t have the aerodynamics we are familiar with today, it was best to keep the ball low to the ground. To achieve this, the top players would swing in a relatively flat, roundhouse manner known as the “St. Andrews swing.” This swing produced a draw. Hickory-shafted golf clubs For centuries, golf clubs were made with wooden shafts, often hickory. The shafts had a lot of torque, or twist, in them. This necessitated strong hand action and rotation in order to square the clubface at impact. To achieve this strong rotation, players would rotate through the ball with minimal lateral action, hitting against a firm left side. Gutta-percha balls The gutta-percha ball replaced the feathery in 1848. Dr. Robert Adams Paterson invented it at the time, being too poor to afford featheries (according to his New York Times obituary in 1904). Being far superior to the feathery, it soon became the ball of choice. Golfers then noticed that the ‘gutty’ flew farther when it got nicked up, and soon golfers began to put their own carvings into their new golf balls. Manufacturers then started making their molds, first with outward-facing pips, and then with lines and the dimples we have come to know today. In Jersey, England, the players found that if they swung more upright, they could get the gutty up in the air, which worked because of the aerodynamic properties of the gutty. Harry Vardon became the first notable golfer to swing in this manner. Steel-shafted clubs With the coming of steel shafts in the 1920s, the game was about to undergo a major change in swing motion. Since steel shafts had far less torque than hickory shafts, the old swing of aggressive rotation with the hands produced a hook with the steel shafts. To offset this, players soon found that they had to use their lower bodies much more actively than with hickory shafts, in order to prevent the clubface from being shut at impact. Byron Nelson is known as the father of the modern golf swing for being the first prominent golfer to use this new action. Titanium drivers and solid-core balls Not much changed for decades when it came to the swing since Nelson’s day, because the equipment remained virtually the same from the 1930s to the late 1980s – wound balls and persimmon drivers. There were differences in swing styles which were player-influenced, but equipment per se did not influence the differences. But, with the advent of metal drivers and solid-core balls, the swing changed again, although in more subtle ways. While some golfers, such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, were always encouraged to hit the ball as far as they could and worry about accuracy later, most were taught to have a controlled swing. Since the metal drivers offered more forgiveness than persimmon drivers, young golfers were encouraged to seek distance first, accuracy second. Solid-core premium balls, which became popular around 2000, spun less than the old wound balls, which meant that sidespin was also decreased, further limiting crooked tee shots. The result is a generation of free-swingers never before seen, perhaps most notably Bubba Watson. The future With so many recent constraints put on the driver from the R&A and the USGA, along with the premium golf ball nearing the maximum distance standard, it seems difficult to believe that swing changes in response to equipment changes will be forthcoming. However, the game has always evolved to some degree. So perhaps anything’s possible.
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Byron Nelson on Teaching Golf
17 Jun 2010

Byron Nelson on Teaching Golf

This article first appeared in the Spring 1996 edition of Golf Teaching Pro, and is another in a series of looking back through the magazine archives. This interview with Byron Nelson was compiled by USGTF contributing writer Russ Pate and has never appeared in any other publication except for Golf Teaching Pro. The article is Nelson’s fistperson account on his thoughts on teaching golf. By the time I got my first pro job in Texarkana, I had learned how to play really well, but I hadn’t done any teaching at all except for myself. After I was hired, I began to think, “Oh boy, if someone comes out and wants a lesson, I’ll have to give it.” I was a little nervous about the prospect, but I just studied what I learned myself and the procedures I had gone through in learning to play well. I decided it was working pretty well for me, so I figured I could teach it. I’ve never felt I had much imagination, but what I did have came out when I played golf, and I felt I could use that in my teaching. Sure enough, my first pupil, Mrs. Josh Morris, came along shortly after I started at Texarkana. Having studied how I had learned, and realizing I was only able to learn one thing at a time, I realized I had to do the same thing with Mrs. Morris – try to teach one thing at a time. This was necessary, because in golf, whenever you make a change, it doesn’t feel natural at first because your subconscious only knows what it’s been doing – it takes a while for any outside changes to sink in. So, you work on one thing first and get to where it feels normal and natural to do, and then you don’t have to think about it at all. The only trouble with that when teaching yourself, you need to be very good at understanding what your biggest problem is. Then you work that problem and after you correct it, you go on to the next area. But, this isn’t easy for someone who doesn’t understand what their problems are, or how to rank them. That’s why teachers are necessary for most people trying to learn to play golf. I was never a believer in taking a lot of lessons at once. It works best to take two or three lessons until you get an idea on what the teacher is saying, then go out and practice and play a little on your own for a couple of weeks. Then, take another lesson, practice and play a little, and so on. Learning golf efficiently is really a slow process, a little like recovering from an operation. You don’t all of a sudden begin walking or running, you have to take one step at a time. It’s the same way in golf. Using these two main thoughts – teaching one thing at a time and not giving too many lessons at once – I basically had good results with the people I taught. And, most important, I didn’t confuse them. One interesting thing I discovered about teaching was that sometimes when you’re on the practice range, people are so intent on hitting the ball itself that they’re not paying enough attention to what you’re saying about the mechanics of the swing. For example, there was Zoe Tasker at Inverness. Her husband Eddie and I played together quite a lot, and Zoe was a pretty good player herself. She scored in the 90’s most of the time and that was good, because at that time ladies didn’t get much break off the tees at Inverness. The trouble was, Zoe had a very good swing and should have scored much better, but she was pitiful out of a bunker. She got in them a lot and didn’t get out the first time hardly ever. I worked with her in the practice bunker at least three times and had not made the progress I wanted to, and she wasn’t happy with it, either. I got to thinking about it, and one day, after she had finished playing Ladies’ Day, I said, “How did you do, Mrs. Tasker?” She said, “I played pretty well, Byron, but if I could have gotten out of the bunkers, I could really have had a good score.” I replied, “Well, I’ve got an idea about that. When you get through having lunch with the ladies, I want to meet you in the mixed grill and talk to you about it.” She agreed, sent a message over when she was ready, and I went and had a Coke with her. “I want to give you a lesson sitting right here,” I said, and that’s exactly what I did. She listened while I told her everything I’d told her when we’d practiced in the bunker. She asked a lot of questions and we spent about an hour on that “lesson.” The next time she played, she shot an 88 and she never had any more trouble getting out of bunkers. Some of the best lessons I ever gave were like that, teaching someone without a ball in front of them or a club in their hands. Very often, especially on a cold or rainy day, I’d use the mirror in my pro shop. I feel it worked better even than the videotapes they use so much today, because the student is thinking about what they’re doing, rather than about hitting a ball. Then, there was Izzy Danforth, who used to be married to Ted Danforth, the son of my wonderful friend Bill Danforth, one of the founding members of Augusta National. Bill lived in Hyannisport, and his children went to school with the Kennedys. One time in the late 1950s, I was up visiting Bill and we went out to play golf at Oyster Harbour with Ted and Izzy. Izzy had a pretty good golf swing, but like Zoe Tasker, she was also poor out of the sand. I watched her whole round – I’d seen her play before but had never played with her. Like Zoe, she, too, should have been in the 80s but she wasn’t because of her sand play. Now, the whole time we’d played, the weather was getting gloomier and gloomier, and by the time we finished the 18th hole, it looked like it was going to pour. But, I had eight balls in my bag, and I said, “Izzy, come over here and get in this bunker. You’ve got a good swing, but you need to learn how to play out of the sand.” I could tell she didn’t want to do it, and then just as we got down in there, it started raining. Now, Izzy really wanted to quit, but I told her, “I don’t care how wet you get, you’re going to learn to play out of this bunker or drown!” That got her attention, so she really listened to me. We stayed in that bunker about a half-hour, got soaking wet, and the next year she won the club championship. That kind of teaching, where a student learns how to do one simple thing well enough so that they can really enjoy the game, is very satisfying to me. One more example is my good friend Ed Haggar, who loves to play, but has often had trouble with his short chips, 10 to 20 feet off the green, which is where a lot of the scoring is done in golf. He’d flub it or top it quite often, and the reason was he didn’t move his feet at all. He used only his wrists and hands and just chopped at the ball. I worked with him every time I’d play with him, and after awhile, he began to chip rather well. Some time afterwards, I saw him playing at Dallas Country Club, and he hollered across the course to me, “Hey, Byron, I just chipped one in!” It always makes you feel good when you can help a friend that way. The teaching pros who stand out in my mind all have different personalities and somewhat different teaching methods, but they also have one thing in common – they like to help people. To me, that’s very necessary if you want to be a good teacher. You must be patient also, because if you’re not, your students will feel it and that will be harmful both to their game and your ability to teach. And again, you must not try to teach too many things at once. Concentrate on one problem at a time, and let the student work with that for awhile before you move on to something else. I’m sure most good teachers understand the fundamentals of the game pretty much the same way, but the way they teach may sound different. That’s why golfers sometimes have to go to two or three different pros to fi nd one they can understand and relate to. Even the touring pros today sometimes go to several teachers to fi nd one who can really help them. Many of the pros in my time were reluctant to teach a lot, because they were afraid the bad habits of their pupils might affect their own golf swing. That didn’t affect me much, fortunately, and I think it was because I didn’t try to teach anyone to swing the way I did – because golf is such an individual game. I simply taught what the right fundamentals were, and those are the same for everyone. That really is a basic part of my teaching philosophy, that the golf swing is as different as your own personality. If you try to change someone’s natural rhythm, you won’t be very successful. You have to try and see what potential a person has in his or her swing. For instance, after I’d worked with Tom Watson, some people would tell me I needed to get him to slow down his swing. Well, Tom moves quickly, thinks quickly, does everything with a certain amount of quick energy. To try and change his swing speed would mean trying to change something very fundamental about his whole personality, and that just doesn’t work. As for changing an amateur’s swing, it’s really kind of the same idea. You have to work with their own natural rhythm, their own build, and so on. Unless someone has a lot of time and money and is willing to work really hard, totally rebuilding the swing is just not very productive. People sometimes ask me – and I sometimes wonder myself – why today’s touring pros can’t seem to correct their own swing faults. In my mind, it’s because so few of them have learned how to swing on their own. They’ve been taught by others from the time they were junior golfers, with rare exceptions. When you teach yourself something, you understand it better and remember it better than if someone else teaches you. Even when I was on the tour, though, there wasn’t much teaching done between the pros themselves as there is today. Unless you were to ask someone for help, they really pretty much let you alone. That might have been because there was so little money out there and the competition for it was pretty fierce at times, but I think it was mostly that the boys were more self-taught, more independent. I’ve seen a lot of the gimmicks and gadgets on the market now, and I have to say I don’t really believe in them much. If you understand the basics of the swing thoroughly, you won’t have much trouble with your swing, ever. But, one thing I would have liked to have had when I was teaching is the video camera they have now. It really can be so helpful to see your own swing on film, so you can really be aware of what you need to change exactly. Sometimes it’s such a small thing that needs to change, but until you see it yourself on fi lm or in a photo, you aren’t convinced that’s even what you’re doing. Some people rely too much on what someone tells them to improve their swing or their ability to score. You do need some help sometimes to expedite the process, but rather than running to a teacher every time you have a bad game, you need to analyze the situation yourself first. Decide where the problem is – your driver, long irons, fairways woods, chipping, putting – and work to correct it with what you already know. It’s really best to go to a pro when you decide you really want to improve your overall game and you’re ready to commit the resources it will take to do that. Now, if you all of a sudden start slicing everything, that’s one thing, but your pro has already given you the keys to correcting that, and you just have to go back to the fundamentals. When you make the decision to take your game to the next level, be sure you’re ready to listen. I’ve had more than my share of pupils who would take lessons, but would just keep doing things their own way. That’s a waste of everyone’s time. Sometimes, you may have to search for a pro who speaks your own language, but when you find one, you’ll be pleased with the results. I guess my final thought on teaching golf is that professionals need to impart a solid, basic understanding of the swing – the first, middle, and last. When they do that, and do it well, their students will improve steadily, be able to correct temporary problems on their own, be enthused about learning more, and, most important, they’ll enjoy the game as it’s meant to be enjoyed. You can’t ask for more than that.
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20 May 2010

How Golf Came To Europe, America, And Beyond

It has always been accepted that golf was invented in Scotland, but more recent research has thrown that belief into question among some quarters.  In 2006, a Chinese professor named Ling Hongling said that the Dongxuan Records, written in the years 960-1297, describe a game called chiuwan, where players would use 10 clubs to hit a ball, with the purpose of getting the ball into holes that were dug into the ground.  The Dutch also played a game that apparently started in the 13th century called “colf,” which resembled golf, and the French played jeu de mail.             Given the similarity of the words “colf” and “golf,” and given that there were close trading ties between Holland and Scotland, it seems reasonable that the Dutch indeed had a major influence in the game’s origins.  While the Chinese claim is not to be discounted, undoubtedly humans have been knocking rocks into holes for amusement for centuries in all parts of the globe.  The game as we know it today definitely originated in Scotland.             There, records from the 15th century show that King James II of Scotland banned both soccer and golf in 1457, because they interfered with archery practice – which was, of course, vital in helping to defend the country from outside invaders.  The ban was lifted in 1502 with the Treaty of Glasgow, which declared peace between Scotland and England.             Contrary to popular belief, the oldest continuously played course in the world is Musselburgh Links, although golf was played at St. Andrews in the 1400’s.  Musselburgh has been in continual existence since 1672.             In continental Europe, most golf clubs were established around the turn of the 20th century.  For example, the first club established in Sweden was in 1902; Germany in 1895; Belgium in 1888; Austria in 1901; and Italy in 1902.  France’s first club came a bit earlier, in 1856.             In America, there is record of a shipment of 432 golf balls and 96 clubs to David Deas in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1743.  Likely, the shipment wasn’t for Deas alone, as the size of the order suggested it was for a group of golfers.             There is also record of the establishment of the South Carolina Golf Club in 1786, which would make it the first golf club established outside of the United Kingdom.  The Savannah Golf Club was formed in 1794, and the club’s website claims that date as its date of origin, although the modern-day club was incorporated in 1899.             The first permanent golf club established in North America was the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada.  In the United States, the first permanent club was formed by John Reid and a group of friends known at The Apple Tree Gang.  They established the St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York, in 1888.             Australia has had a long and storied golf history.  The first course was established in Bothwell, Tasmania, in either 1822 or 1842 (records are inconclusive), known as the Ratho Links, and is still in existence today.  The first golf club formed in Australia was the Australian Golf Club in Sydney in 1882, and the oldest golf club in continuous use is the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, founded in 1891.             In Asia, the game chiuwan died out in China by the Middle Ages.  The first golf club established in Asia was the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in 1829, followed by Royal Bombay Golf Club in 1842, the Bangalore Golf Club in 1876, and the Shillong Golf Club in 1886.  The All-India Amateur Golf Championship was inaugurated in 1892 by the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, and the tournament has the distinction of being the second-oldest tournament in the world, after The Open Championship.             Japan is somewhat of a golf-crazed nation, with past heroes like Isao Aoki, Jumbo Ozaki, and Tommy Nakajima on the men’s side, and Chako Higuchi and Ayako Okamoto on the women’s side.  The game first appeared around 1910, and at the outbreak of World War II, the country had 65 golf courses.  Since the game was considered a Western import, the game was banned and fell out of favor until the 1960’s, when interest rekindled.  There are now more than 3,000 courses in Japan.             Today, golf is played in virtually every corner of the world, and in places you might not expect – North Korea, Cuba, and Haiti (before the earthquake) are but a few places that come to mind.  The allure and challenges of the game are truly global.
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20 May 2010

Golf Course Design: What makes a Good Test?

By Mark Harman, USGTF Level IV course examiner At the risk of having any future invitations to Augusta National revoked, I wanted to point out what I consider a flaw in the current design from the championship tees: there are too many holes that are too similar in length. Take the yardage of four of the par-4’s on the first nine: 455, 455, 450, 460. Not much variety there, wouldn’t you say? The two par-5’s measure 570 and 575 – again, not much variety. The second nine at the National, the most famed nine holes of golf in the world, does have a little more variety in the yardages, and that’s part of what makes it perhaps the best nine in the world. Still, there are two par 4’s that measure 440, and two more par 4’s that are just 10 yards apart in length. So, this begs the question: just what does make for a good test of golf? The answers are probably as varied as the number of golfers who play the game. Golf Digest, for example, in ranking courses, lists shot values (rewarding good shots and punishing bad shots in proper proportion), resistance to scoring, design variety, memorability, aesthetics, conditioning, and ambience as the criteria for judging a great course. For this article, I will focus on one aspect that I believe is highly underrated – design variety. Too many courses are like Augusta National in the sense that there are too many similar yardages. How often do you play a course and the par-3’s are all between 150 and 170? It’s very common. The four par-5’s might “range” from 510 to 520. Of the 10 par-4’s, half or more are likely to be in the 360-380 category from the white tees. Another similarity you are likely to notice is that most of the greens are virtually the same size. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a short par-4 or a long one, both greens are likely to be nearly identical in size. What is the problem with having too many holes similar in length? The most obvious is that one phase of the game gets tested disproportionately. Is it really a well-designed course when players hit ten 6-irons into the greens? Hardly. Yet, you would be surprised at the number of “top” courses you would do exactly that. And what about courses that have all greens virtually the same size? I’ve played courses where you see the same size green, whether it’s a 450-yard par-4 or a 320-yarder. This doesn’t make sense; yet, I would wager most courses are like this. Another aspect of lack of design variety is in the difficulty of the course. To me, it’s no fun to play 18 torture tests – just as it’s not very interesting to play 18 cupcakes. To me, a good course would have the following aspects of design variety:
  • Size of greens. Greens should be smaller for short-iron approaches and larger for long-iron approaches. You would think this would be common sense, but very few courses that I’ve played are designed this way.
  • Length of holes. In addition to having too many holes of similar length, how many times do we see the longest par-3 (from the white tees) being 170 yards and the shortest par-4 at perhaps 320 yards? All the time. From the back tees, you might see the longest par-3 at 210 and the shortest par-4 at 360. In both cases, we have a 150-yard gap. Why are so few holes designed in this yardage range? I really don’t know, except that most architects probably consider this range to be awkward. However, think about it – wouldn’t it be interesting to play a course that had holes of 240 (long par-3), 260 (short par-4), 280, 300, and 320 yards? A trend now is to have a “driveable” par-4, but usually it’s only one hole and usually it’s not driveable for us mere mortals. Finally, a course that has a wide variety of hole lengths will test all phases of the game equally – short irons, medium irons, and long irons/hybrids. When one aspect is disproportionately tested, it’s not only monotonous, but competitively, it provides too much bias in favor of and against certain players.
  • Difficulty of holes. How about six easy holes, six medium holes, and six hard holes? Again, you rarely see this. Most courses veer towards the vast majority of their holes being in only one category, and usually it’s either easy or hard. A course that has mainly difficult holes is dispiriting, even for good players. A course that has mainly easy holes leaves many players feeling empty, as if they weren’t really challenged. A good balance of holes in terms of difficulty leaves the golfer feeling both challenged and a sense of accomplishment.
Ironically, I find that older courses tend to meet these criteria much more so than newer courses. It seems the modern architect is so bent on the concept of getting each hole to “fit” with the others that the concept of design variety gets lost in the shuffle. Given all this, perhaps Golfweek’s architecture editor Bradley S. Klein summed it up best a few years ago. He said that, despite whatever criteria that magazines use to create rankings, the best test is one question: “Did you enjoy playing the course?” Hopefully, the answer will be “yes” for your next round of golf.
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8 Apr 2010

Financial Planning For Golf Managers

By Ron D. Platz, MBA, PhD. USGTF Level IV Member

Introduction

As golf managers, we spend much of our time at our golf course facility ensuring things run smoothly. There is the other side of our lives where we deal with the issues of everyday life, including financial matters. This is the first of several articles I intend to develop pertaining to financial planning issues you may be dealing with now or in the future. Since US Golf Managers Association  membership covers a broad spectrum of ages and occupational arrangements, I will endeavor to keep the articles general but informative. For more specific information, I will always suggest you contact your advisor, in whatever discipline the question involves (i.e. investments, insurance, taxes, etc.). However, due to the significance of 2010 and the Roth IRA Conversion opportunity, I thought this is a timely topic to cover first.

Roth Basics

The Roth IRA differs from a traditional IRA in the fact that contributions are made with after-tax dollars (not deductible), the account grows tax-free, and distributions (within the IRA rules) are tax-free. Maximum contributions to the Roth IRA in 2010 are $5,000 (or 100% of earned income), plus an additional $1,000 catch-up provision for anyone 50 years of age or older. Contributions to the Roth can be made at any age, provided they have earned income equal to or greater than the contribution amount. These are the very basic principles of the Roth, but then we have the conversion opportunity.

Traditional IRA Basics

 The Traditional IRA gets its funding from contributions made with pre-tax dollars (or tax-deductible), or from rollovers of pre-tax retirement accounts such as 401K, 403b, Thrift Savings, etc. Because these accounts have never been taxed, and will grow tax-deferred until distributions commence, every dollar distributed will be taxed in the future. The amount of tax won’t be known until we reach that point in time, and many believe we will see higher taxes in the future.

Roth Conversion

One way to eliminate the unknown of future taxes is to utilize the Roth IRA conversion privilege. In 2010, that opportunity is now extended to anyone with tax-qualified holdings in IRA accounts. Retirement accounts with previous employers can be rolled into IRAs and converted to Roth IRAs, as well. Under prior law, taxpayers with incomes (adjusted gross) above $100,000 were not eligible to convert Traditional IRA to Roth IRA. Additionally, if a conversion was available, the full conversion amount had to be claimed in the tax year the conversion took place. Depending on the size of the conversion, it could substantially affect the overall tax liability for that year. The 2005 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act (TIPRA) repealed the income limitation for Roth conversion starting January 1, 2010. The act also allows conversions for taxpayers who are married but file separately. And, it also gives the taxpayer the option to report the conversion amount in 2010 (as previously), or at the taxpayer option, to report half the conversion amount in tax year 2011 and the remaining half in 2012. Effectively, the conversion takes place in 2010, but the tax consequences can be delayed To the 2011 and 2012 tax years.

Considerations

Roth IRA conversions can be a good opportunity for many, but not everyone. Here are a few points to consider: 1. Because you pay taxes on the conversion, doing so is most effective if your tax bracket is lower now than it will be in the future. While tax increases are a political “hot potato,” given the size of the federal deficit and accumulated cost of economic stimulus, it is difficult to believe we won’t have income tax rate increases sometime in the not too distant future. 2. You need a reasonable amount of time for accumulated earnings to offset and justify the conversion. What is a reasonable time frame? A minimum of five years, but the longer the better. The Roth conversion is especially attractive if the money is planned to pass on to heirs. 3. Paying the taxes on the Roth conversion. Ideally, you need to be in a position to pay the taxes with money not currently in the Traditional IRA. Using Traditional IRA dollars to pay for the Roth conversion creates additional tax liability for the amount withdrawn from the Traditional IRA. In addition, if you are younger than 59 ½, the withdrawal would be treated as an early distribution subject to a 10% penalty.

Final Comment

Converting to a Roth IRA is not for everyone, but many should consider it. To find out whether a Roth conversion makes sense for you and to take advantage of these changes in 2010, talk to your tax or financial advisor. If you want to do more research on your own, go to your favorite search engine, type in “Roth IRA Conversion,” and you’ll get a plethora of information and tools.
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10 Feb 2010

Golf Management Education

By: Ken Kramp, Warren, Ohio USGTF Level III member As a golf course manager you are always expected to look for ways to increase your bottom line and explore opportunities to promote your facility. My question to you is this, “Have you looked at all types of golfers to reach this goal?” I would like to introduce to you a larger growing group of golfers that has visited your facility at least once a week for years. This foursome is made up from one family and includes a grandfather, father, son and daughter. Over time you may have noticed the foursome went to three, then two, and then one. One day you asked the daughter what happen to your grandfather, father and brother. The daughter informed you that her grandfather had a stroke and could not walk that well.  Her father had been in an accident and hurt his knee. As for her brother, while on active duty serving our country, he lost his leg. Like most people your heart would ache for this family. The daughter asked if there was anything you could do to bring them back together on the golf course. Here is my challenge. Look at your facility and see what services you have to offer to provide a golfer with a disability the opportunity to enjoy a day of golf. Talk to your customers that may need some assistance to see what they would like to have available. Then figure out how your facility could improve, from the parking lot to the eighteenth hole. Most of the things that an individual with a disability would need you already provide based on zoning laws and the ADA (American with Disability Act). Some suggestions may have an expense that you will have to budget for, but most will have little or no cost to you. In all cases the rewards will be priceless. In the scenario that I described, all of these individuals have a walking and standing disability. I truly believe that everyone would love to help this family return to the game and by doing so your facility would increase its revenue. The best thing you could do is to create a relationship with your disabled golfers and see what they need. Encourage them to just visit the club house. With some time they may start using the practice facility. One day they may transition to the course.  As golf club managers you have the ability to make the difference. You may let them use the golf cart around the practice areas for little or no charge. When it comes to the course you may offer a flag on the cart to designate the golfer so they would be allowed to leave the path. In most cases this is all that is needed to provide access and keep pace of play. Allowing the disabled golfer to get closer to the tee box or greens will not hurt the grass. Educate the golfer about ways to access the course and conditions. In most cases they will take care of course better then your regular users. Here are a few suggestions that you can offer at your facility: Have your instructors offer golf clinics for disabled and/or senior golfers. Team up with therapists from local rehabilitation centers or local disabled organizations. This type of networking provides great resources, as well as great marketing opportunities. There are also great organizations that can offer you assistance in finding information about a related disability. Just go online, type in the disability and the word golf and you will find some great information. You can also contact us at the United States Golf Managers Association office and we will get you in contact with individuals that can help.
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