John Steinbreder - 18 Ways to Play a Better 18 Holes: Tips and Techniques from Americas Best Club Professionals

Ways to Play a Better 18 Holes

John Steinbreder

Ways to Play a Better 18 Holes

Tips and Techniques from Americas Best Club Professionals

TAYLOR TRADE PUBLISHING

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Published by Taylor Trade Publishing

An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom

Distributed by National Book Network

Copyright 2014 by John Steinbreder

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Steinbreder, John.

18 ways to play a better 18 holes : tips and techniques from Americas best club professionals / John Steinbreder.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-58979-774-1 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-58979-775-8 (electronic) 1. GolfTraining. I. Title. II. Title: Eighteen ways to play a better eighteen holes.

GV979.T68S79 2014

796.352'3dc23

2013030862

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Introduction

No one knows or understands the game of golf quite as well as a PGA of America club professional. In most cases, he or she is introduced to the game as a youngster, usually by caddying or teeing it up with relatives who like to play. Once he determines he wants to make a living in golf, he goes on to study the sport in college, learning its managerial and instructional nuances at any of the two dozen or so prestigious universities in the United States that offer PGM (for PGA Professional Golf Management) programs. And he hones those skills he acquires in class in the real golf world when his schooling is done, toiling at clubs and resorts and learning about everything from organizing tournaments and selling merchandise to running clinics and interacting with members. Even when he completes his formal education, his studying is not done, and he goes through a wide range of courses and clinics offered by the PGA as he progresses as a club pro in an effort to further even more his knowledge of the game as he expands his skill sets.

Throughout this time, the club professional also works hard to become a first-rate player, competing in regional and national tournaments and spending hours trying to improve his own game when he is not helping others do the same with theirs. He thinks constantly about the ways he can make golf more enjoyable and entertaining for players, and he comes to devote his entire professional life to promoting and advancing the sport he knows and loves.

The PGA professional works with the very best players as well as with rank beginners. He scrutinizes swing videos and reads books and magazine articles that break down different ideas and theories in order to broaden his intellectual horizons. He spends hours on practice ranges, watching golfers hit balls and taking note of the ways each ball reacts when it flies off the clubface. He talks incessantly with fellow professionals about the things theyve all learned about golf instruction over the yearsand the things they want to know and discover. He tries to sort out the intricate mental aspects of the sport and relate the different ways golfers can improve in that area, too. In essence, he and his colleagues are professors of the highest order, with golfing PhDs and not only the remarkable ability to dissect and discern golf swings and provide psychological counsel but also the skill to impart that knowledge to their students in clear and concise ways.

There is nothing quite like a PGA club professional. And that is why I have turned to 18 of the best ones in the United States to relate 18 ways to play a better 18 holes. Its as if I have gone to the faculties of Stanford, Yale, and Princeton and selected the finest teachers from those institutions, a sort of instructional dream team. Its like my taking readers to the best and most exclusive clubs and giving them insight and information available heretofore only to members who pay thousands of dollars a year to belong to those ultraprivate retreatsbut for the mere price of a hardcover book or a digital download.

One of the members of that team is Bob Ford of the Oakmont Country Club and the Seminole Golf Club, perhaps the most revered and respected club professional in the game, for both his teaching and playing prowess. And in this book, he publicly shares his secrets on bunker play for the first time. His protg Jack Druga, the head professional at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, is here, too, outlining the all-important but all too poorly understood imperatives of effective practice. The Deepdale Golf Clubs Darrell Kestner is regarded as not only one of the great golf instructors in the United States but also one of the best club professional players in the over-50 realm. And here he is, offering his thoughts on how to better compete, whether you are an elite amateur looking to win a national stroke play tournament or a weekend hacker simply trying to make a few bucks off his golfing buddies when they play their Saturday morning Nassaus. Brendan Walsh of The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, is a contributor as well, discussing in his chapter the virtues of club fitting and how to have that properly done. Suzy Whaley of TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, is here, too, offering pointers on how to take effective lessons. Then there is Eden Foster, of the Maidstone Club on Long Island, detailing the best ways to hit pure irons and hybrids.

The information is this book is as wide ranging as it is astute. Consider, for example, Bob Rittberger of the Garden City Golf Club outside New York City, who imparts his knowledge on the critical matter of course management. Bill Stines of Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, the place where Jack Nicklaus learned to play the game, has essential advice on fitness and conditioning, while Paul Marchand, the longtime coach of Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie, brings readers right onto the professional tours with his revelations on how the pros operate so successfully and what we, as mere golfing mortals, can learn from them.

To be sure, this is a unique publishing approach. I am not relying on the teachings and philosophies of an individual professional or espousing one teaching theory. Nor am I concentrating on a single aspect of the game. Rather, I am covering a vast area of golf instruction, ranging from swing mechanics to mental discipline, and doing so with an all-star roster of teaching pros.

Consider what we are offering in chapter 7, with Scott Nye, head professional at the historic Merion Golf Club, site of the 2013 US Open. He has developed an approach he calls finding five, in which he works with his members in very unconventional sessions before and after their rounds to find ways throughout the golf season to reduce their scores by five strokes. Its about making better swings, of course, but also course management and creating realistic expectations, setting goals, and analyzing results to see what could be done differently and better next time around. The idea is to see a progression, and to work on lowering their scores each time they are out on the golf course as they also increase the amount of fun they are having there, Nye says. Its not about pounding balls on the range and trying to hit the perfect shot. The game is about getting the golf ball in the hole, and finding five is about helping my students do that better. Its about making a plan for a round beforehand and then assessing afterwards how they followed that, why they hit certain shots, and what the results were.