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By Pat Church, USGTF Master, Eugene, Oregon
Many of us have students that stand out and have done wonderful things in this game of golf. I have one who is very “Special.”
Meet Chuck Colfer, a 72-year-old Special Olympics athlete who competes in bowling, powerlifting and golf. His haul of medals and ribbons are way too numerous to count.
I met Chuck when I started coaching golf for our local Special Olympics program in 2004. He then competed in the Skills grouping: putting, chipping, pitching, drive and irons. He was consistent and always finished “in the money” within his age grouping.
As the years went by, Chuck always alerted his family when it was time to go golf with Coach Pat. He never missed a practice and was always ready to do his best. His form is not a pretty sight, but his commitment is! In 2012 his mother died, and his family found him a personal care worker – enter Roy. With Roy’s help, Chuck blossomed: more talkative, but not a conversationalist; more outgoing and even more engaged in his golf. Chuck and Roy became a Unified team that played alternate shot for nine holes. They struggled at first, but grew into a strong team, usually still finishing in the medal rounds.
Every year come September, he begins his countdown to his birthday…in November. I am always invited to his birthday dinner at his favorite diner – such a grand night. Chuck and other Special Olympic athletes have made me a better, more patient teacher. His friendship has enriched my life and now in my semi-retirement, Chuck, Roy and I play as often as we can.
Scott Lehman of Nashville, Tennessee, first picked up a club in 1969 at the age of 8 in his hometown of Ripon, Wisconsin. Continuing to play during his youth, Lehman played on the Ripon High School team for four years.
He went to the University of Wisconsin-LaCross and graduated with a degree in Marketing in 1984. As he was interested in surfing and the beach, he bought a one-way ticket to San Diego and, along with a high school friend who had graduated from the University of San Diego, started selling surfboards, skateboards, tee shirts, etc. He developed a very successful sales career, and years later relocated to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was there that his company was bought out and he lost his job.
Following a period of uncertainty, he and his wife Leslie became committed Christians, and their faith has played a huge role in their lives ever since. He became a USGTF member in 1998, and eventually he and Leslie moved to Nashville. In, 2007, Lehman started In His Grip golf ministries, named after the book that led him on his faith journey. Since then, he has shared his life story at the Masters Prayer Breakfast in Augusta, Georgia; co-authored the book The Master’s Grip, and authored More Than a Game, among other achievements. Lehman’s latest project is that he is the associate producer of the new Payne Stewart movie set to come out in 2024.
By Peter Hudson
Golf Teaching Pro, the annual official member publication of the USGTF and WGTF, will be mailed to all members in good standing this month, along with membership cards. The magazine is one of the most valuable resources available to USGTF members and includes information pertinent to every golf teaching professional, such as instruction, features and international news and happenings. Look for it soon.
By: Mark Harman, Director of Education
“I’m not good enough to get fitted for equipment” is the mantra of too many golfers who wish to save money in purchasing golf clubs. The fact is (and I confess to hearing this elsewhere), better players can often find a way to make ill-fitting equipment work while the average player can’t. In other words, the average player can’t afford not to have fitted clubs.
For me personally, I am very picky about my equipment as I can feel the minutest of differences. This comes from too many hours, days and years of trying to become a professional golfer back in the day, and my sense of feel was highly refined by this. Of course, properly fitted equipment can only take us so far. We and our students have to have a reliable-enough swing in order to make improvement and enjoy the game.
Basic things we can do as teaching professionals is to examine our student’s shaft flexes to see if they are a good fit. Although generally the slower the swing the more flexible the shaft should be, there are exceptions to this rule. The club must both feel good to the student and give him or her a reasonable belief they can develop a measure of consistency with it. This might lead to strange situations where someone with tour-like clubhead speed playing regular shafts and slow-swinging senior golfers playing stiff shafts. Such scenarios are rare but they do happen, so keep an open mind.
We can also check if the lie angles on the irons are correct by examining the divot patterns. Many golfers’ divots will be toe-deep, indicating a lie angle that is too flat and thereby promoting an open clubface at impact. If you teach indoors, a lie angle hitting board and some lie angle tape will do the trick. In closing, while properly fitted equipment is important, it is also only one part of the improvement and enjoyment equation.
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By Ken Kim, USGTF Master, Davenport, Florida
My golf academy (Team J.K., Inc.) has trained 47 established tour players currently all over the world since 2004. Jun Choi (Beomjun Choi) is a playing professional originally from South Korea. His main goal is to play professional golf on the PGA Tour.
Choi now travels all over the States in playing on the APT, FPG and GPro tours. Chio went to the Korn Ferry Q-School for the first time in 2022. He successfully passed the pre-qualifier in fourth place, shooting -12 for three rounds. He is currently based in Orlando, Florida.
He is coached by myself (PGA Professional and USGTF Master Golf Teaching Professional) and June Lee (LPGA Class A Professional). The main focus is on his swing, short game, putting and mental prep for tournaments.
Choi has increased his clubhead speed from 114 mph to 125 mph in three months, consistently hitting over 176 mph in ball speed. However, he also has great touch in his short game. He practiced relentlessly for hours in order to improve his skills and his understanding of fundamentals. His self-motivation and tenacity are what allowed him to get better every month, and not because of a set platform of training. It was his heart desiring more and his self-discipline to work for it. Often, we discuss biomechanics and how is it different from the kinesiology, or the advantages and disadvantages of a quantitative biomechanical analysis. Jun truly has an understanding of how things are working.
This kind of character is rare in today’s tour player, and I am confident it will benefit him on any professional tour, that includes the PGA, KPGA, or Korn Ferry tours. Choi will not become apathetic, but will unceasingly search to improve himself and keep moving forward to become a PGA Tour player.
