Guru's Golf Blog

Sometimes A Simple Change In Putting Can Make A Big Difference

jasonsutton — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 05:10:23 +0000

Thompson Claims Third Career eGolf Tour Title with Flawless Final-Round 65 at Ballantyne

Chris Thompson

By Stewart Moore

Charlotte, NC – Chris Thompson of Lawrence, KS entered the final-round of the weather-shortened Championship at Ballantyne Country Club on Thursday knowing he needed some magic in order to pick up his third career eGolf Tour title. The former Web.com Tour member and Kansas Jayhawk star more than delivered, posting seven birdies en route to a bogey-free 65 and a 36-hole total of 11-under 133, good for a two-shot victory and the event’s $17,000 first-place prize.

The Championship at Ballantyne Country Club was the fourth of 24 scheduled events on the 2013 eGolf Tour schedule, and was contested this week at Ballantyne Country Club in Charlotte, NC.

The week began with a seven-hour delay preceding Tuesday’s opening round, as heavy overnight and morning rain left the golf course unplayable until 3 PM in the afternoon. The extended delay pushed the completion of the first round into Wednesday afternoon, which in turn forced officials to reduce the event to 36 holes.

With only a handful of groups able to complete two rounds by late Wednesday night, second-round play resumed at 10 AM (after a one-hour frost delay) on Thursday morning, with players in the early wave returning to their holes from the night before, and players in the late wave teeing off accordingly thereafter.

Thompson entered Thursday’s final round trailing overnight leader Chris Epperson of Hilton Head Island, SC by five shots after posting a first-round 68 – 16 holes of which were played on Tuesday, with the other two being wrapped up on Wednesday morning.

Epperson, arguably the best player on the eGolf Tour without a victory, finished his 36 holes just before darkness set in on Wednesday night, notching rounds of 69-66—135 to set the overnight pace at 9-under par.

“I knew entering the day that I had to at least get to 9-under to have a chance, but a lot of it depended on what Brent (Witcher) was doing,” said Thompson of the tournament’s 18-hole leader. “I felt like, if I could get off to a solid start, there would be some birdie holes once I made the turn.”

Thompson began his final round on the back nine of the Rees Jones-designed course, posting pars on his first four holes to remain at 4-under for the week. A late surge of birdies on Nos. 14, 16 and 18 vaulted him to 7-under par, at the time just two back of Epperson’s lead.

“It was big for me to get that birdie at 18 because that set me up for the front nine,” said the 36-year-old Thompson.

Chris EppersonThe front nine is where the former Jayhawk “All American” went to work, as birdies at the par-4 first and the par-4 second took him to 9-under par, finally tied with Epperson and at his minimum target score with seven holes still to play.

At the par-5 fifth, Thompson took his first lead of the tournament, posting his sixth birdie of the day to reach 10-under par for the week.

Just two holes later, at the watery dogleg-right par-5 seventh, he sealed his name on the winner’s check, posting one more birdie to reach 7-under for his round and 11-under overall. Pars on Nos. 8 and 9 gave the native Midwesterner a final-round 65 and an 11-under 133 tally in the clubhouse – all done without a single view of a leaderboard.

“I usually like to know where I’m at on the course, but with the rain-shortened event it was hard to tell,” said Thompson, alluding to the fact that players simply remained in their first-round pairings over two rounds. “I’ve played in enough Monday qualifiers where you don’t know how you stand, so I just kept trying to make birdies.”

Thompson, forced to wait roughly two hours to see if he would win, watched as literally zero players threatened his 11-under total. When the final group came to the table at 4:45 PM, Thompson had locked up his third eGolf Tour title, posting a two-shot win over Epperson.

“I really enjoy coming to the South and playing this tour,” said Thompson, who annually competes in four to six eGolf Tour events. “The courses are very good, and the fields are deep to the point where, if you win out here, you’ve played extremely well.”

Thompson’s win may not have come to fruition had it not been for a visit to noted golf instructor Jason Sutton at nearby Carmel Country Club on Wednesday afternoon.

With nothing but time on his hands, knowing he wouldn’t begin round two until Thursday, Thompson and a friend went to Carmel to have Sutton take a look at his putting stroke, using the SAM Putting Lab in order to analyze his setup and path.

“I had been putting poorly all year long – honestly, last week (Irish Creek) was probably the worst I’ve ever putted,” said Thompson. “Jason made a few changes and suggestions, and I putted incredibly today. I felt like I couldn’t miss.”

The win was Thompson’s third since the 2010 season. In 2010, he claimed his first eGolf Tour title at the HGM Hotels Classic at Rock Barn, while win No. 2 came at the Columbia Open in May of 2011. He is now third on the eGolf Tour money list with $19,216 in earnings.

David ErdyEpperson earned $10,000 for his runner-up finish, ascending to No. 1 on the eGolf Tour’s 2013 money list with $25,430 in earnings.

The runner-up finish marked the best of Epperson’s eGolf Tour career, which dates back to the start of the 2006 season. The former Armstrong Atlantic State golfer has now posted four top-4 finishes in four starts thus far in 2013, and owns a staggering nine top-4 finishes in his last 18 starts on tour – dating back to a solo-third-place effort at the 2012 Irish Creek Classic.

David Erdy of Evansville, IN finished in solo-third-place with rounds of 67-69—136. The former Indiana University golfer earned $7,280 for his efforts – the first made check of his eGolf Tour career.

Erdy nearly missed the tournament entirely when he showed up at 2:30 PM on Tuesday afternoon, thinking it was the day of the practice round (most eGolf Tour events start on Wednesdays). Erdy’s original tee time was 9:10 AM, which in most circumstances would have left him with a “Did Not Show” designation on the tournament scoreboard; however, given the seven-hour weather delay, he had arrived roughly an hour-and-a-half shy of his new 4:10 PM tee time.

Stefan Wiedergruen of Germany, Fielding Brewbaker of Salem, VA, Chip Lynn of Lillington, NC, Marty Jeppesen of Saline, MI and Bruce Woodall of Yanceyville, NC tied for fourth at 6-under 138. Each player earned $3,900.

• The tour would like to thank Ballantyne head golf professional Matt Saggio and his staff for their help in coordinating this inaugural event. A special thanks goes to Ballantyne head golf course superintendent Scott Cochran and his crew for presenting a wonderful venue for the week, and for putting in extra work to prepare the course around numerous delays. Finally, a special thank you goes to the members of Ballantyne Country Club for allowing the tour to utilize their club for the week, and for their tireless efforts in volunteering. Without their support, the event would not be possible.

• The eGolf Tour will take next week off before returning to action for the fourth annual Championship at St. James Plantation, to be contested at The Reserve Club at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC on March 27-30.

Guru

Filed under: Tour Players, Uncategorized Tagged: egolf tour, jason sutton, putting lessons, Sam putt lab

My Masters Week and Picks From A Proud Father’s Prospective

jasonsutton — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:34:22 +0000

I am pretty sure that all fathers want to give their kids a life that they didn’t have as a child. In my case I am so fortunate to have two wonderful kids, Brittanie (13) and Nicklaus (11). At one time they both played golf but in the last couple of years, Nicklaus Palmer has really gotten the bug for this great sport. As a teaching professional are kids are often looked at as that they are supposed to be golfers and they are supposed to be good at it just because their dad could play or teach. This isn’t always the case as we know and as we slip the parent hat on and take the coach hat off at times we have to make a decision, how much should we push our kids into golf? In this unusual place we run the risk of having the child hate the game forever and often times maybe resent what dad does for a living as we are often away from the house more than normal dads are. In my case with Nick and Britt, I never pushed golf on them. I made a conscious effort to give them the opportunity but to never make it mandatory for them to learn. They both gravitated out of curiosity to the pee-wee clinics and junior clinics at the Dana Rader Golf School which at least game them a glimpse of what it was all about. They both started about 3-4 years old. As Brittanie got older and decided to not play golf any longer and Nick took a liking to football I didn’t think either one of them would grow to love golf as I did as a kid which was fine with me as long as they were happy and active I didn’t care.

THE TURNING POINT FOR NICK

Being in the same town as a PGA tour event is very cool and I would always take the family out the Wells Fargo Championship for the day to see the best in the world play. The kids enjoyed it and it soon lit a fire under Nicklaus as he would start to beg me to bring him to work so he could practice and play like (Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson). These guys really do have an influence on young people and I feel great that Nick has some outstanding role models including the members at Carmel Country Club that are so nice as he comes out to practice and play every chance he gets. We just finished up his spring break and he didn’t miss a day of practice at the club. The cool thing is I don’t have to ask him to practice, he just loves it. It has been so neat to see how much he has improved in the last year and a half as he plays his junior tournaments and drags me out onto the golf course whenever I can to give me a run. His first official US Kids tournament about 2 years ago he shot 116. Yesterday after attending the Masters Monday, he shot 35 for 9 holes from the white tees. Hard work paying off for sure as I have never seen a kid practice harder and try to gather information more for an 11-year-old. I keep giving him info and I can’t fill him up which is fun. So back to giving him more than I had……………………….I never had a country club to practice as the only country club that I had been the one I was working at and that has not changed and I never got to go to the Masters until I moved to the Carolinas in 1997 and I havent missed a year. So here is my latest Masters memory through the eyes of an 11-year-old for those who havent heard it yet (if you don’t follow me on twitter)

MY MONDAY AT AUGUSTA

It was a typical day that started at 4 a.m. as we traveled to Augusta. We were the first ones through the gate as we made our way to the perfect practice area and range to watch Nicks favorite player, Webb Simpson, warm up and head to the first tee. We walked around with Webb for his 9 holes and then proceeded to have a few pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches along the way as we watched the other players on the course practice and play. Nick was extra interested in the young 14-year-old from China as he was only 2 years older than him as he dreamed of playing Augusta at that age. The kid handled himself with maturity beyond his years. As the day started to wind down, we heard that Tiger was on the practice range so we headed that way. We watched Tiger hit some bunker shots and some putts as he headed out to play a late nine. Thinking our only chance of getting to see him for the last time we must go several holes out so we camped out behind #16 tee with some friends that I ran into. The crowd was getting enormous as they had the same idea of seeing number 1 in the world hit a couple of shots into the green. In the meantime, Peter Hanson from Sweden came up by himself to the tee. I struck up a conversation about the yardage and how I thought my son could hit that green if he had the chance. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy and not thinking it would ever happen, after he hit his shot to the green, he asked me what club would the boy need to hit a shot. Yes, he called Nick out onto the tee to hit a tee shot on #16 at Augusta. As he walked out I couldn’t help think of how nervous I would have been and how incredibly calm he seemed to be as he handed him his 6 iron and went through his pre shot routine like we have worked on a thousand times. Hit the pretty good shot under the circumstances with a crowd cheering like crazy. I couldn’t have been prouder and I can’t thank Mr. Hanson enough for creating such a lasting memory for a young passionate golfer. He obviously gets it! He also is now one of mine and Nicks favorite players for sure. As this was all going on, I completely choked with the video camera and only managed a picture. Luckily a great guy sitting beside me videoed the whole thing and put it on you tube. Enjoy the video and thank you for letting me rant as a proud father of both my kids. I love them so much. The only way it could have been better is if my wife, father and mother in law and my parents could have been there to witness it. Creating memories for sure!

My picks for this years Masters:

1. Justin Rose

2. Webb Simpson

3. Peter Hanson

4. Rory Mcilroy

5. Bo Van Pelt

Have a great week and enjoy the Masters

Guru

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: augusta, golf, guru, jason sutton, masters, NIck shot on 16 at the Masters, Nicklaus Sutton

Putting – “The Art and The Science”

jasonsutton — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:32:26 +0000

Is Putting an “Art or is it Science?” I think it is a little of both. I have always considered myself a pretty decent putting coach as I have spent time with some of the best trying to learn how I can help my students more with such a huge part of the game. As a teacher we have to inspire our students to practice and to be willing to make changes that will show up in their score. Two years ago I had taken my putting instruction as far as it could go until I was introduced to two pieces of technology…..AimPoint Green Reading and The S.A.M. Putt Lab. One for green reading and one for stroke mechanics and feel. I was now armed with a deadly combination that has taken my putting instruction to an entirely new level. I recently hosted and spoke at a PGA teaching seminar with my good friend, John Graham in which we focused on putting. John introduced AimPoint and I revealed some of the studies and findings of our S.A.M. Lab data that we have compiled over the last year. Thanks to my new assistant, Alex van der Linden (aka Poindexter the Golf Geek) for his expertise and helping me crunch the numbers we found some interesting trends and some valuable information that I think has helped us with our teaching. I won’t reveal all of our findings but want to focus on what I think is one of the most important part of being a great putter……TOUCH and FEEL. We know that distance control is important but how do you teach. Just giving your student a series of drills is not the entire answer or it isn’t the one that satisfied me or John Graham.

Speed vs. Acceleration and A Myth Dispelled

One of the most frequent ideas that I hear the average golfer say that they are trying to do with their putting stroke is to ACCELERATE through the ball and follow through. They do this because they have the misconception that they always decelerate which couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the golfers that we tested overaccelerated which means that their peak velocity happened after impact and peak acceleration happened just prior to impact. This makes it very difficult to control your speed. (see graph below)

What Good Putters Do

We found the opposite when testing PGA tour, LPGA tour, Mini Tour Players and top amateurs. they had constant speed control which included zero acceleration through impact. Good putters had a very flat top to their acceleration graph like the one below. Also I have posted a short video of a recent putting lesson that includes this common misconception as well as a few more helpful nuggets.

RESEARCH TO PROVE MY WAY OF FIXING THE PROBLEM

I believe that I have a way to change this pattern as I have had much success with my students. This way is easy to understand and is teachable through using the SAM Putt Lab to create the proper feel for the stroke. currently, Alex and I are doing a research project to test my theory to see if there is a distinct correlation between the profiles that we have seen and consistent distance control. Before I reveal my idea I would like to gather more data.

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv

Here is the #makingeverthing

Guru

Filed under: Aimpoint, putting, Uncategorized Tagged: alex van der linden, golf instruction, guru golf, guru tv, jason sutton, john graham, putting lessons, the biggest putting misconception

2013 Mastermind Crew Roundtable Discussion

jasonsutton — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:06:49 +0000

The PGA show is many things to different people. For me it’s about opportunities to learn, catch up with old friends and meeting new ones. You have all heard of my mastermind crew (Rob McGill, Dennis Sales, Jason Helman, Kirk Oguri) which is comprised of some of the best coaches and club fitters in the golf business and we all met a few years ago on twitter. This is the second year that we have got together to discuss different topics in the golf world. We havent managed to get everyone together yet as we were missing John Graham, Sara Dickson, Mike Fay and Andrew Marr but we still had a great time with the roundtable. A big thanks to Ricky Lee Potts for moderating it and coming up with the questions and to my Junior Golf leader Adam Ohsberg for doing the filming and editing for the project. I am so fortunate to be involved with this group of great professionals and I hope that you enjoy the videos. I have also linked there twitter accounts to the names above so you can follow them as they are all very active on twitter and are very interested in helping golfers and other coaches improve.

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv

Guru

Filed under: social media Tagged: ask the pro, dennis sales golf, golf guru, guru tv, jason helman golf, jason sutton golf, John Graham golf, kirk oguri, mastermind crew, Mike Fay golf, rob mcgill, sara dickson golf

Guru’s Teaching Workshop with Special Guest John Graham

jasonsutton — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 02:07:32 +0000

In the eve of my departure to the National Teaching and Coaching Summit and the PGA Merchandise Show, I wanted to announce that I would be hosting my second annual teaching seminar at Carmel Country Club on Monday, March 18th. I am also very excited to have John Graham as my guest speaker. John is from Rochester, NY and is the Director of Instruction at Webster Golf Club. He is also a Senior Aimpoint Green Reading Instructor and an expert in the world of social media. For those of you who don’t know Mr. Graham need to take this opportunity to meet one of the greatest minds in golf instruction today and a very good friend of mine. At this seminar I will discuss my teaching philosophy for the full swing and John and I will share lots of putting information. John and I have been doing some research using the SAM Putt Lab and have compiled plenty of data in the last year that we will share and discuss with the group. We will also be doing live lessons using the SAM Putt Lab and John will give you and overview of AimPoint technologies with some additional drills that you can share with your students. The cost is $100.00 and will run from 9:00 to 5:00. You will earn 5 msr points for your participation. I have an exciting day of learning and sharing quality golf information for you so I hope you can join John and I for this great event. Here is and overview of my program and how to sign up. I hope to see everyone in Orlando.

The 5 Mastermind Skills that every teacher should know – The CGA Framework
The art of moving and manipulation the student to create pattern changes
How to use technology to speed up the learning process
Teaching Putting at the Next Level – Learn the 5 Most Important Aspects of Putting and how to teach them
S.A.M. Putt Lab Data and research will be revealed that will dispel the most common myth in putting
Live Putting Lessons using the S.A.M. Putt Lab that will teach you how to move the numbers and help your students improve faster
How to use the 4 corners of social media to drive business, create brand awareness and improve your teaching skills
An Introduction to AimPoint Green Reading with drills to share with your students

Date: Monday, March 18th

Place: Carmel Country Club, 4735 Carmel Road, Charlotte, North Carolina

Cost: 100.00/person

Email Jason Sutton @jsutton@carmelcountryclub.org to reserve your spot

If you have any questions feel free to say hello at the PGA Show. I would love to meet you all.

Guru

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: aimpoint golf, golf guru, golf instruction, golfgurutv, guru, guru's teaching workshop, jason sutton, John Graham golf

2012 in review- Thank You For Supporting golfgurutv.com

jasonsutton — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:18:06 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 25,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Guru’s Top 50 Teacher Twitter List (The Ultimate #FF)

jasonsutton — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:04:56 +0000

For those of you who follow me on twitter know that I have issues. My twitter addiction is just the beginning. Ever since I gave my first golf lesson I tried to take my father’s advice. I can still hear him saying to me when I made the decision to be a golf professional,”I don’t care what you do but I think you owe it to yourself to try to be the best at it!” So that’s what I did. So I set my goals very high. I have never been the smartest guy in the world but I have always had this “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder for Learning (OCDL).” So I learned very early in my career that if I didn’t know the answer to a question I had 2 choices 1) find a book about it or 2)go ask someone smarter than me that knows the answer. I’ve always approached life this way, it didn’t matter if I was learning to flyfish or running marathons, there is information that is available if you just look for it. The bible says,”If you seek you will find.” When I started teaching golf it was a few years before the internet was invented (makes me feel old) so all there was were books and people. No Youtube.com or Twitter.com or Facebook or blogs. So we had to travel a lot to get the info and to watch other top teachers teach. As I don’t think anything can replace the “Live Lesson” observation and face to face interaction, you can now watch other teachers teach and here them describe their philosophy through video (YouTube) which is great or read about their ideas on their blogs or forums. As I started to grow as a coach and a golf professional I always knew that continuous growth was dependant on individuals and the relationships that you build with others in your field of expertise. As the economy started to decline in 2009, the phone wasn’t ringing as much and my book wasn’t as full as I was used to seeing. I think I was once booked out for 3 months at one time……I found myself getting lazy in following up with my students and needed a new way to connect to my players and make sure that they didn’t forget me. So I found social media. Not to make this a social media tutorial but I started using what I called the 4 corners of SM. Blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. What I found was that I not only connected with my students through videos, blog articles and content, but I saw that other teaching professionals started to reach out with their information and content which allowed us to share and also build a relationship. I learned that even though it was not face to face, you could still get a very good idea of what kind of person you were communicating with through twitter and Facebook if you paid attention. So in the past few years I have made some great friends through twitter and Facebook and we actually have met in person and they still call me a friend which is the best kind (know all about you and still call you friend, lol). I have been fortunate to do some golf schools and teach with some of them and they are always only a phone call or Skype discussion away. The first 7 on the list is what I call my Mastermind Crew and are all great friends (all met through twitter). For those of you who feel that twitter is a waste of time, I suggest you reach out to these folks with high tweet counts on the list and ask them how they use it. I can guarantee that most of their tweets are them engaging in conversation, sharing information and trying to learn from other professionals. Hardly a waste of time. All I can tell you is that twitter has changed my career in a positive way because I learned how to make it work. We all like recognition in our field and I always have aspired to be on the few top teacher lists that are out there but I have found that the most important thing and what I measure greatness in my field is twofold. 1) The passion to help other golfers improve and enjoy this great game 2)The passion to help and share with other teaching professionals so they can get better and help their students. I try to do both every day and I hope that it comes through that I don’t do it because of what I can get but because of what I can become through sharing what has been passed down to me.

So here is my list of teachers and coaches that use twitter to help other golfers and coaches like myself get better. Criteria: You had to have a minimum of 1000 tweets to qualify for the list. I am sure I will leave someone out so don’t get mad just tweet more (next year it may be 2000 tweet minimum) and tweet me as to why you should be on the list for next year. I am sure the list will get bigger. All of these individuals have had a big effect on my career and are a must follow if you are not already doing so. I made easy so you can click on their twitter handle and follow them immediately. Not in any particular order but all are great at what they do:

GURU’S 2012 TOP TEACHER TWITTER LIST #of tweets/followers

John Graham @johngrahamgolf 46,002 / 4355
Sara Dickson @sara_pga 22,144 / 2867
Jason Helman @jasonhelmangolf.com 4417 / 3463
Rob McGill @golfprorob 7545 / 1194
Kirk Oguri @kirkoguri 13,995 / 10321
Andrew Marr @andrewmarrgolf 10,336 / 1424
Dennis Sales @dennissalesgolf 6609 / 1499
Andrew Rice @andrewricegolf 2198 / 1523
Mike Fay @mikefaygolf 6898 / 1752
James Ridyard @jamesridyard 9462 / 1667
Vikki Vanderpool @vvanderpool 1665 / 613
Mark Sweeney @aimpointgolf 3921 / 5073
Brad Redding @bradreddinggolf 3991 / 1323
Ed Bowe @bowegolf 2954 / 4719
Mark Durland @durlandgolf 1278 / 235
Andy Griffith @andygriffiths1 2604 / 873
Ryan Chaney @oraclerio 1857 / 55
Rick Grayson @rickgraysongolf 4242 / 550
Ryan Crysler @ryancrysler 13,479 / 1352
Josh Boggs @boggspga 1770 / 987
Hugh Marr @hughmarr 3395 / 2040
Erik Barzeski @iacas 7061 / 745
James Hong @jameshonggolf 1158 / 221
Mitch Walz @walzygolf 5723 / 769
Robert Campbell @rcampbellgolf 1157 / 324
Petri Parviainen @piiter77 5322 / 771
Ian Peek @ianpeekgolf 5431 / 1369
Jamie Donalson @golfdonaldson 6214 / 2867
Keith Stewart @kjpga 1067 / 234
Matt Diederichs @mattdgolf 13,633 / 2666
Blake Graham @blakegrahampga 12058 / 1031
Denise Hastings @hastingsgolf 1541 / 474
Brett Packee @brettpackeegolf 2496 / 456
Joe Mayo @trackmanmaestro 3093 / 2865
Travis Lloyd @tlloydpga 1010 / 359
George Connor @connorgolf 1757 / 660
Denis Pugh @Dpugh54 7561 / 12331
Derek Hooper @derekhoopergolf 1120 / 513
TJ Yeaton @tjyeatongolf 1690 / 547
Chris Gibson @chrisgibsongolf 2551 / 308
Jesse Struebing @jstruebs 4636 / 1456
Kate Tempesta @KTUrbangolf 2250 / 960
Aaron Olson @aaronaosongolf 1023 / 902
Andy Gordon @andygordongolf 3852 / 1221
Martin Park @parkythepro 10,289 / 945
Kevin Flynn @kflypga 4851 / 717
James Martin @James_W_martin 1735 / 301
Meindert Jan Boekel @BKLGolf 5147 / 535
Donal Scott @donalscott 2825 / 735
Michael Balderstone @balderstonegolf 1983 / 319

Up and Coming Twitter Pro Stars

Megan Padua @megangolfpro
Tom Stickney @tomstickneygolf
Chris Foley @chrisfoleygolf
Justin Blazer @blazer_justin
Scott Chisholm @schizgolf
Adam Ohsberg @golfsenseipga
Bill DeVore @BillDeVoregolf
Corey Lundberg @curiouscoaches
Andrew Kiger @drewkigergolf
Brandon Roby @brobygolf
Nancy Harvey @thegolfnancy
Molly Tullar @mollytullarlpga

Must Follows (avid golfers with great content)

Ricky Lee Potts @rickyleepotts
Nick Chertock @golfprogess
Tim Ryan @seamuspicmcgee

Thank you to all that made the list and congratulations. Please share this list on twitter and with the other buttons at the bottom and lets see if we can get these outstanding professionals and people some new followers. Leave your comments below of your thoughts about this post and don’t forget to attend #tweetup3.0. Contact Sara Dickson or Ricky Lee Potts for more details. I hope to see you all at the PGA Show in January.

Guru @golfgurutv

Filed under: social media, Top Teacher Twitter List Tagged: golf instruction, golfguru, golfgurutv.com, guru's top teacher twitter list, social media for golf pros

The Top 10 Course Management Mistakes That Golfers Make

jasonsutton — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 01:08:10 +0000

I recently had a question on twitter. Thank you @mstaley for your question because I think it is an important one. “What are the biggest mistakes that the average golfer makes in their course management?” As I prepare for my mental game seminars this winter, I thought I would come up with a top 10 list and see if we can help your games without changing your swing mechanics or putting stroke. So here we go!

1. Not hitting enough club on approach shots - I think this stems firstly from not knowing how far each club carries to begin with. I encourage you to find someone who has a launch monitor and do a gapping session. Most golfers rely on their absolute best shot distance instead of their average which doesnt leave room for a slight miss hit. Make a card with your distances on it and put it in your bag for reference. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your golf score.

2. Aiming at every flag no matter what – I use the stop light color code system whencoaching students around the course. There are three types of flags. 1)red – a flag that is tucked behind a bunker or a water hazard or that is very close to the edge of one side. yellow – this is an exposed pin that is closer to the front or the back of the green. It will bait you into trying to get it close but you have to make sure to take the correct club. Green – This is a flag that is in the middle of the green or is very accessible for the ball to land and stop. These are “Go Zone” opportunities. There are typically about 6 of these per round so take advantage of these. For the average golfer 15-25 handicap, you will be well served to play to the largest part of the green and take your chances. You will be amazed at how your scores will decrease.

3. Hitting Driver On Every Hole - There is no rule that you have to hit driver on every par 4 or 5. It is important to know your strengths and weaknesses and driving can be a key weakness if you don’t play smart. We all have our holes that we struggle with at our home course. My advice is to change your strategy. Hit a fairway wood or a hybrid off the tee and see if your scores don’t improve. You must have room to miss your tee ball and still keep it in play. If the hole is super tight, play a shot that you know that you can get in play 80% of the time even if you give up a little distance. Dont let your playing partners dictate your game plane. Stick to it!

4. Trying To Play the Hero Shot - One of my “NEVER’S” in course management is never hit two bad shots in a row if you can help it. This usually refers to trouble shots. You have pushed your tee shots into the trees and have to decide on what to do. 1) hit a 80 yard slice with a hybrid through a 6 foot gap just to hit the green or 2) punch out into the fairway in the large gap that you could drive your truck through. Most players choose #1 just because they saw Bubba Waston do it in the Masters. No. take your medicine and eliminate the big number. Wedge it on and try to make par the hard way but take double or worse out of the equation.

5. Putting To the Apex of the Putt - As an Aimpoint Green reading instructor, this is a huge pet peeve. I am not going to go into this as it could become an entire article but I hear this constantly from golfers when asked to read a putt. The apex is the top of the curve on a breaking putt. If you “Aim” at the apex, your ball will begin to break early in the putt and always miss low and will never make it to the “Apex.” The apex is an area that ball will roll through if the ball is started on the correct line. My advice is twofold 1) Take an AimPoint Class and 2)Play 20% more break than you think and you will come out ahead in the long run. We always want the ball breaking toward the hole. If you under read your putts, you must hit the ball too hard or miss on the low side and have no chance.

6. Not taking advantage of the teeing ground - After you have picked your target off the tee, I would suggest you tee off on the side that you don’t want to miss it. For example – You have a par 4 with water down left side. Tee of on the left side of box which will open up your target area

7. Using Too Much Loft Around the Green - There are times when you must play your toss shots up in the air over obstacles. But there are many more times when you have lots of green between your and hole and you still hit it up in the air and come up short. Don’t be one-dimensional. Learn to use your gap wedge to hit toss shots and learn to use less lofted clubs and hybrids to hit the higher percentage shots. Play the lowest shot allowable is my philosophy.

8. Know your strengths and weaknesses - For you higher handicaps, I suggest that you find your favorite club that you can hit into the air just about every time. Fairway woods are difficult to hit off of the ground for most players. It is OK to hit your tee shot, hit 2 seven irons up to the green and finish the hole. Work on your weaknesses on the practice range and have fun shooting lower scores. I once had a twice a year golfer shoot 43 during a playing lesson by hitting his 7 wood off the tee, 7 iron until we reached the green and pitched it on and made many pars and bogeys. There is no blueprint.

9. Letting A Bad Shot Ruin Your Round - It’s easier said than done but we must have an effective post shot routine. We all get upset over bad shots but when they carry over for several holes then we have a problem. I allow my students 10 seconds to be angry and once that club goes back into the bag we focus on the next shot. This takes practice but it will pay off in the long run.

10. Carrying Too Many Negative Thoughts or Swing Thoughts into the Play Box (address position) - We have all heard how important a pre-shot routine is in helping you stay focused on the shot at hand. Here is what I recommend. As you are standing behind the ball and preparing to play, ask yourself 2 questions…1)Where is my target? and 2)How do I want my ball to get there? This will help you block out distractions and help you focus on the whats important. Once you get into the play box, check your target, visualize the shot and “Don’t Forget To Breathe”

I hope you enjoyed this post. Many things in golf are common sense but we often need to be reminded of the basics. Play smart and enjoy shooting lower scores.

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Filed under: mental side Tagged: course management, golf guru, golf instruction, guru tv, jason sutton golf, mental side of golf, top 10 course management mistakes in golf

The Guru On Maginnes On Tap SiriusXM PGA Tour

jasonsutton — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:11:06 +0000

I wanted to share an interview that I did with John Maginnes on his XM Radio Show “Maginnes On Tap”. John was so nice to have me on his “Teacher Tuesdays” segment where we talk about AimPoint, D-Plane and take a few calls to help some of the listeners with their game. It was fun to do and I hope to be a guest on the show again soon.

https://www.box.com/s/6zfgct9d7rbab1q8ltdx

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Filed under: Aimpoint, Interviews Tagged: aimpoint green reading, aimpointgolf, golf, gurutv, gurutv.com, jason sutton, john maginnes, maginnes on tap, siriusxmpgatour

Stop Talking! I’m Trying To Learn

jasonsutton — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:47:55 +0000

One of my favorite things to do in this business is to help young teachers perfect their craft. At the Carmel Golf Academy part of my training regimen is to observe my teachers and to video tape their lessons and watch them back with them. This is not an exercise to put them down or make them feel bad but to give them constructive criticism to help them improve. One of the biggest things that I had to learn as a new teacher was not to try to tell the student everything that I knew, which at the time wasn’t much! This is something that I preach to my staff constantly is knowing what to say, the language you use to say it and making sure you are 100% engaging the student and allowing them give you feedback. Most teachers talk to much in order to boost their ego and show the student that they know stuff which is not productive and definitely not a great way to gain the trust of the student. To gain the trust of the student you must LISTEN to them, carefully describe what you want them to learn and be open to positive or negative feedback in order to tailor the learning to the student. Results have to be a mutual decision or you may believe that they got better but if they don’t believe it then you’ve lost them. Check you EGO at the door coaches. So this article has nothing about the who has the best philosophy, or the certifications that you have acquired or who can read the trackman numbers the fastest…..This is about how do you deliver the most understandable message with the least amount of babble to get the quickest results from the lesson. That to me is what the great teachers do for the students I am sure you will agree from your lesson experience.

I was teaching a beginning women’s clinic the other day and invited one of my teachers to assist me. After the clinic was over, I asked him to evaluate me. He said,”I am always amazed about how little you give them but always make them improve and excited.” He said that before he thought he was cheating the student if he didn’t tell them or work on more stuff. I can see his point but the goal of the lesson is to improve and not to overload them with information. They will ask enough questions to keep you busy and even then you have to keep from self overload.

I googled “Teachers talking too much” and this is what I found: a part of the article –

It gets better–research has shown that students taught by active learning, on average, score a grade and a half higher than those who learn in traditional (boring) ways.

But, most teachers do not do use active learning. Why? I wish I knew.

Perhaps it is as Geoff Petty said so eloquently in his short explanation on active learning(doc file):

We tend to teach the way we were taught ourselves, rather than in the way that works best.
We know too much, and rather enjoy explaining.

Interesting… as this pertains to the classroom teachers but how can we apply this to teaching golf.

So we start with understanding how people learn the fastest. 1)Doing – feel 2)seeing – visual 3)hearing – auditory

So if the this is the priority of how people learn, why do we do #3 the most? hmmm. Because it is easy to tell someone but maybe more difficult to give them the other two which are more important. So here are some ideas on how to “Talk Less and Guide Learning Faster” and students pay attention because your coach needs you to give great feedback as well.

1. Interview well - Ask open-ended questions and be observant. I have a big list of questions that I ask a student in the interview but the big 3 are as follows 1)What is your main goal and what does it look like (specific) What is your big ball flight miss (shot that they can’t survive) and 3) What are you trying to do” (their model) close 4th is physical limitations of course. As they answer your questions (don’t interrupt or try to help them) observe where their eyes go and how they stand. kinesthetic players look down and visual players look up. Auditory players may go all over the place. Are they favoring one side and what are they wearing? (more on that later) This observation continues throughout the lesson as you explain, model or manipulate….notice where they are looking and continue to ask questions. Do they close their eyes or keep them open as you move them?

2) Watch Your Language – Every lesson is a presentation. After I video tape their motion and we are going through the swing, CHOOSE your language carefully and MEET them where they are. By now you should know the students background, who they have had lessons from (which is why you should study all methods), occupation and sports history so this should help you in explaining what exactly what you want them to see. (key) Don’t point out every fault or strange movement in their motion but only the things that you want them to see and that you want to focus on in that lesson. Especially people who this is their first time that they have seen their swing, it can be overwhelming so be careful. Depending on their lesson experience and background you will know the words you can use or can’t use. The average golfer isn’t going to know what the 3rd accumulator, p4 or spin loft means so you are constantly checking for understanding. “Do you understand what this plane line is for?” Use language that they can relate to without the ums, uhs and kind of’s so it is clear and concise. I highly recommend that you listen to your video analysis emails that you send to your students for evaluation to help you improve your presentation. So meet them where they are.

3) Learn To Model and Manipulate Properly - Once I have explained what we are going to work on, I either Model (visual) or Manipulate (kinesthetic). Neither of these exercises require a ton of verbage which is nice. In my opinion, manipulating or moving a student into the correct positions is a lost art. If you are standing behind the trackman or the video and telling the player to move a certain way and getting in there and moving the student around then you are doing them a disservice. I teach this to my staff. Where to stand and proper hand placement. When to exaggerate and when to be perfect. It is hard to explain without video or actually doing it but there is what I call shaft control and body control and they must be done correctly or the student will get poor feedback. Doing this in a mirror helps as well. I also recommend (PNF) which is moving the student in opposite direction of the error and having them to resist. This gives them the feedback that they need to move in a positive direction which ingrains the change much quicker. Moving them allows for the student to give you feedback on how it feels to them and that is invaluable. I don’t care what they say or how they explain it, that is the language that I use in the lesson because that it how they relate to it which is most important. (Less Talking More Listening)….starting to make sense. Modeling is simply demonstrating by hitting a shot or doing it slowly (my recommendation). Can be helpful for the student to see it in action.

I know this is more for the coaches but it is important for students to give great feedback and let your coach know what you want, how you learn the best and when you don’t understand something. A great teacher can use all that information by explaining it a different way so that you can understand it. Because you, the student are the most important part of this equation and if you feel you are getting left out you need to speak up.

Coaches: make it a point to tape yourself giving some lessons this off-season and make it a learning tool because I will be doing the same in order to improve. If we don’t get better, the game doesn’t grow.

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To improve your word usage, sign up for twitter and try to explain something in 140 characters or less. ….. Choose your words wisely

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Filed under: For Teachers Only, Uncategorized Tagged: dont talk so much, golf guru, golf instruction, golf tips, guru, jason sutton, language for golf, stop talking im trying to learn, teaching golf

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Stop Talking! I’m Trying To Learn