My PGA Golf Coach

Teaching kids how to play golf is one of the most satisfying things I get to do in my job as a PGA Teaching Professional. When you  introduce your child or grandchild  to the game of golf keep it simple and fun. Work on the basics of grip, stance , posture and alignment and start them off with water balloons not golf balls. Water balloons are much bigger and easy to hit, they have fun you have fun and everybody gets wet. Like I said, you have to make their experience with golf fun, let them play.

For more help on getting your children started, click on the word video

I ran across this quote from one of Harvey Penick’s lectures and had to share it with my followers. If you are trying to improve your game think about this statement. “In golf your strengths and weaknesses will always be there. If you could improve your weaknesses , you would improve your game. The irony is that people prefer to practice their strengths.”

For more thoughts on this click the word link.

I was reviewing my notes from the last three golf seasons and I came across a very interesting trend. When I look back on all the golf lessons in the three previous years,  only 3 % were on the putting green and of the 3 % ,90% were single digit handicappers.  So it seems to me that ” good players” are the only ones looking for help with their putting, hey maybe that’s why they have single digit handicaps.  I know practicing  putting isn’t near as much fun as ripping the driver to most players but getting down to a single digit handicap will be.

For more information on my secrets to making three to five footers check out my video.

Changing your grip is one of the hardest things to do in golf, so get it right the first time. There are three basic variations, interlocking , overlapping and ten finger grip.
The interlocking grip is normally used by people with shorter fingers, the overlapping grip is the most widely used grip in golf and I normally only see the ten finger grip in Women or Juniors who lack strength. One of the problems in changing someones grip is they normally will get worse before they get better. As a teacher you need to know your student before you fiddle with their grip even if it’s bad. If you take a once a week player with a bad grip, change it and they don’t have time to practice, they may take up boating before you know it. A grip change is a major makeover and takes a long period of time for the student to get comfortable. There are a few things I want to see no matter which grip you choose, the hands need to work together as one unit and I want the club held in the fingers not up in the palm of your hands.

Now that you know your grip, do you know which club to use?

I was watching a video the other night of a young man’s golf swing on You Tube. In the background, I could hear his father telling his son that he has to keep his left arm straight during the backswing if he wants to be any good at golf.  Nothing could be further from the truth . The left arm does not have to be perfectly straight during the backswing to be a great player – but it does need to be straight at impact.  Remember, there are many different ways to get things done in a golf swing and very few are set in stone.   So chill out, Dad!  I know you only want the best for your son! His left arm doesn’t need to be perfectly straight during the backswing to play great golf.