GOLF SCHOOLS
WORDS BY TODD PITTOCK
Students bunker down for another round of finals at the nation’s best golf schools.
On a Saturday morning in late spring, two golf pros at the Jim McLean Golf School at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami give a demonstration to a class of three players eager to improve their game. One of the pros, Kevin, intentionally misses his shots, slicing balls onto the driving range. The other pro, Glen, stands a few feet in front of him. “What happened?” Glen asks.
“The clubface was open,” one of the students declares.
“Right,” confirms Glen.
Now Kevin hooks a shot. “What happened?” Glen asks the class.
“The clubface was closed,” the trio answers in unison.
Now Glen steps devilishly close to the tee as Kevin pulls back his club, a stunt that is a little distracting, since instead of watching the mechanics of the swing, a student might be left wondering how much damage the clubface could do to an ankle or a shin. Then, with an effortless purr of a swing and the soft click of a ball hitting the sweet spot, it flies out.
“Load up another one,” Glen says. Kevin loads and fires, loads and fires, each time sending out a shot with impossible distance.
“Was that straight?” Glen asks.
“Yes,” the class answers.
“It was? It was straight?”
The class detects a trick question and beats a retreat.
“Sort of.”
“Exactly! Sort of. It went out to one o’clock, then turned into noon. By the time you leave here, your shot is going to have a draw like that.”
This was why they’d come. To shoot from one back to noon, to turn the clock back on their game, as it were, in order to get it moving forward again. In the next two days, the students have about 20 hours of instruction to learn how.
There’s something about golf that compels people to give advice. Even weekend duffers who rarely break a score of 100 will offer up insights on your game. Magazines offer lots of expert advice, but if your problem is not one of the ones they’re talking about, it doesn’t help. Or sometimes the fix just isn’t as straightforward as all that. Private instruction can be great, if you can find a good teacher.
For a lot of people, another option is immersion in golf school—intensive, small-group instruction that can cover a range of the game’s aspects, including driving, the short game, course management and what is commonly called—with unintended humor—the mental game.
The Pinehurst ResortGolf schools are mini-versions of the high-intensity, full- time academies where high-school players with professional aspirations are taught the geometry of putting and the art of golf-course design. The schools aimed at more casual players draw some accomplished players who hope to shave a few digits off their handicap, but most students are beginners, weekend or occasional players, and players with scores stuck in the 100s, 90s or 80s who want to get their score down.
The schools vary in approach, from run-of-the-mill resort academies that are there in case guests ask for them, to highly specialized centers of higher golf learning. The Dave Pelz Scoring Game School, which has six locations across the United States, deals only with the short game—that element that separates the good players from the wretches. At the Mission Inn Resort’s golf school in Howie-in-the-Hills, Florida, about 40 minutes north of Orlando, a four-to-one player-instructor ratio allows classes to move from the driving range onto the course.
“We want them to feel more comfortable on the golf course and not just on a practice tee,” says Mission Inn Resort’s assistant pro, Randall Noonan. “It’s one thing to get a rhythm on the driving range, but the game happens out on the course where there are sand traps, uphill and downhill lies and other situations we can work on. We want to make them complete players who are comfortable anywhere.”
It’s one thing to get a rhythm on the driving range, but the game happens out on the course where there are sand traps, uphill and downhill lies and other situations we can work on. We want to make them complete players who are comfortable anywhere
In addition to schools geared toward consumers are those geared toward corporate clients. Golf Digest Schools, which have their headquarters at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, tailor programs according to the schedule, budget and goals of corporate groups. In addition to golf instruction, the agenda could include team-building or motivation, or a session about the psychological dimensions of a game, including insights into how a colleague’s or customer’s behavior on the course could indicate business proclivities.
The class back at the Jim McLean School is starting at the driving range, where students warm up and are videotaped. Then they go to a video room with banks of cameras and monitors, and enough buttons and wires to suggest an intensive care unit, which, in a kind of a way, it is—but for your swing.
“You have a lot of good stuff going on here,” Kevin says to J.T., a broad- shouldered guy in his mid-thirties. Then he rolls the tape, and the student hits a slice similar to the one they watched at Kevin’s demonstration. “We can fix that,” Kevin reassures him.
The Red Sky Golf ClubHe diagrams J.T.’s swing, drawing a box around his head and a “V” to follow the path of his club. The backswing looks fine, but at the top of the motion, he points out how J.T.’s head starts sideways out of the box, but on the swing itself, dips below it.
Finding the problem, though, is not the same as providing the solution. Anyone can tell you to keep your chin up. The trouble is, the student isn’t dipping his chin on purpose; there is something else that’s causing the unwanted movement.
“I have to keep my head still,” J.T. says.
“No,” Kevin says. “That’s a myth. Your head is going to move. It just has to move in a way that facilitates the swing.”
It’s one thing to get a rhythm on the driving range, but the game happens out on the course where there are sand traps, uphill and downhill lies and other situations we can work on. We want to make them complete players who are comfortable anywhere
They roll the tape, which reveals a subtle turn of the wrist at the top of the swing. The motion pulls the head sideways, causing J.T. to cut down and across to get the clubhead back to the ball on contact. Ergo, the slice.
After the early corrections, the results aren’t always instant or consistent. There’s a lot of information to absorb, and the mental checklist you go through as you address the ball can leave you paralyzed. The longer you’ve played, the more drilling it takes to reprogram what golfers call “muscle- memory”. The drilling can be dull but, like bad-tasting medicine, it’s what you have to do to get better. Fortunately, the curriculum is organized to mix things up and keep you from getting bored.
The Lowcountry Golf School
Each morning session ends with lunch, followed by a round on one of Doral’s four courses. By the third day, the students are getting better results. One reports having stuck a 150-yard eight-iron five feet from the pin.
“That’s good,” Kevin says. “Did you make the putt?”
“Did you have to ask?” he replies.
“Come back next year,” Kevin tells a new graduate. “After you have your swing, it’s time to work on your game range, but the game happens out on the course where there are sand traps, uphill and downhill lies and other situations we can work on. We want to make them complete players who are comfortable anywhere.”
In addition to schools geared toward consumers are those geared toward corporate clients. Golf Digest Schools, which have their headquarters at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, tailor programs according to the schedule, budget and goals of corporate groups. In addition to golf instruction, the agenda could include team-building or motivation, or a session about the psychological dimensions of a game, including insights into how a colleague’s or customer’s behavior on the course could indicate business proclivities.
The class back at the Jim McLean School is starting at the driving range, where students warm up and are videotaped. Then they go to a video room with banks of cameras and monitors, and enough buttons and wires to suggest an intensive care unit, which, in a kind of a way, it is—but for your swing.
“You have a lot of good stuff going on here,” Kevin says to J.T., a broad- shouldered guy in his mid-thirties. Then he rolls the tape, and the student hits a slice similar to the one they watched at Kevin’s demonstration. “We can fix that,” Kevin reassures him.
He diagrams J.T.’s swing, drawing a box around his head and a “V” to follow the path of his club. The backswing looks fine, but at the top of the motion, he points out how J.T.’s head starts sideways out of the box, but on the swing itself, dips below it.
Finding the problem, though, is not the same as providing the solution. Anyone can tell you to keep your chin up. The trouble is, the student isn’t dipping his chin on purpose; there is something else that’s causing the unwanted movement.
“I have to keep my head still,” J.T. says.
“No,” Kevin says. “That’s a myth. Your head is going to move. It just has to move in a way that facilitates the swing.”
They roll the tape, which reveals a subtle turn of the wrist at the top of the swing. The motion pulls the head sideways, causing J.T. to cut down and across to get the clubhead back to the ball on contact. Ergo, the slice.
After the early corrections, the results aren’t always instant or consistent. There’s a lot of information to absorb, and the mental checklist you go through as you address the ball can leave you paralyzed. The longer you’ve played, the more drilling it takes to reprogram what golfers call “muscle- memory”. The drilling can be dull but, like bad-tasting medicine, it’s what you have to do to get better. Fortunately, the curriculum is organized to mix things up and keep you from getting bored.
Each morning session ends with lunch, followed by a round on one of Doral’s four courses. By the third day, the students are getting better results. One reports having stuck a 150-yard eight-iron five feet from the pin.
“That’s good,” Kevin says. “Did you make the putt?”
“Did you have to ask?” he replies.
“Come back next year,” Kevin tells a new graduate. “After you have your swing, it’s time to work on your game.”