I spent the weekend at the NZ PGA Championship at the Hastings Golf Club. The course was superb, the golf was brilliant and the tournament was magnificently run. Highlighted by a Kiwi win too – Tyler Hodge, the wee lefty from Levin holding off a hard chasing pack.
For us mortals, and more so, us ageing mortals it was hugely impressive to see the distance and accuracy that these guys hit it with. I suppose having knees that work is a major help.
I stayed up last for some time thinking about the tournament and coaching and PGA pros in general. Wouldn’t it be great to have a few Tour Pros on your lesson book? A sort of free marketing campaign.
I would be fun I suppose, but enormously fickle and you’re only catering to 1% of the golf audience. Not that I don’t like to coach pros and elite amateurs – I do – it’s a great challenge and the results can be rewarding. But, just as rewarding is teaching guys and gals to play having just started. I do wonder if teaching the great players has an adverse effect on teaching those new to it. I am in awe of those who can do it too.
I think it boils down to teaching the person. Not golf. Golf is just the subject matter. If you can teach the person in front of you, I think you’ll be a great coach no matter what. Golfers come in all shapes and sizes with differing mindsets and beliefs. Cracking the code for each of them is the number one skill in coaching. You can have methods and systems – mine is called The System” because I was singularly uncreative the day I named it – but how you get that info across is the important bit.
See you on the course.
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