Opinion & Analysis

3 emerging golf architects discuss the future of course design

Published

9 years ago

May 5, 2015

The next leaders in golf course architecture, unfiltered. Sounding off on their work, the game, the state of the industry, the future of restoration and new constructions, what needs to change, and what inspires them.

Michael McCartin worked for Tom Doak’s Renaissance Design, assisting in the construction of Old Macdonald, Ballyneal, and Streamsong. He recently completed a unique nine-hole golf course in Sperryville, Virginia: Schoolhouse Nine.

I grew up playing on a public course…it was dead flat. If you don’t have a good eye for it, it seems devoid of architectural features. After playing there as my reference point and going out to other courses, it piqued my interest to see the differences once you start introducing different elements.

By 12 or 14, I’d read every book out there. I was obsessed with course design. I think I got [Tom Doak’s] Confidential Guide when I was 14 or so, and that really took it to another level.

I studied abroad in St. Andrews, which was the best decision ever. At the time I was there, the links card was 150 pounds for the year to play unlimited golf on all the town’s courses, including the Old Course.

When I was there, I started a correspondence with Tom Doak. I knew he had lived there, and he was nice enough to give me some recommendations. After I graduated, I applied for an internship with Tom. So, for the past 10 years or so, I’ve been working with Renaissance Golf Design.

Streamsong, a project McCarty worked on.

Streamsong, a project McCartin worked on.

When you look at Schoolhouse Nine, what we’re doing, it hits the buttons. Affordability: the course is going to cost $10. Juniors can get a pass for the summer at a reasonable rate. Pace of play: It’s 9 holes. And maintenance and affordability go hand in hand. We’re only irrigating the greens, so everything else changes according to the season.

There are opportunities where making the course more interesting is going to help on the revenue side. If you’re going to rebuild a bunker, it’s not that much more to build in cool architectural features. There’s no cost in building a new green 20 yards to the right versus rebuilding the same green.

Clients can offer a lot of design ideas as far as what they’re inspired by and you can use that as a starting off point. “How can I incorporate something like that into the design?” You end up with something you might not have come up with on your own. But because you had a nugget of a starting idea, it evolved into something, and you can then point back to the owner and say that it came from his idea.

You get a better product when you have someone who is involved with the design actually doing the building. Coore, Crenshaw, Tom, Gil Hanse, they all spend time on machines or have in the past, and they have a crew of people they work with all the time. I think you get the best results that way.

You’re still going to get owners who want to build Augusta National and some people who are more realistic about it. The projects that aren’t as high profile yield just as much opportunity for great golf architecture, where the course makes the best of the property.

Just because there’s one trend doesn’t mean people aren’t going to be building, like, Bluejack National down in Texas—high-end, charge a bunch of money. But I hope that the portion of the pie that’s allocated to more affordable stuff grows. There are a lot of opportunities to get away from the super exclusionary, super high-end place.

———

Tad King (L) and Rob Collins at Sweetens Cove.

Rob Collins (along with partner Tad King) is the man behind Sweetens Cove, the rebuild of Sequatchie Valley Golf & Country Club that Golf Digest named the best nine-hole course in Tennessee and course architecture fans are raving about.

Sweetens Cove: Hole 1

Right now, I’m looking at two Donald Ross restoration projects. Our phone is definitely starting to ring and we’re seeing a pick-up, but it would be unrealistic to think that in the next 10 to 15 years get back to where we were in the 90s.

We wanted to be able to design and build golf [courses]…in contrast to the typical model that’s used where you have the architect on one side and the contractor on the other. There’s going to be a bigger premium placed on efficiency, cost saving, the construction methods.

The traditional approach…leads to a lot of competition. It can lead to a lower level of quality. It can lead to higher costs. We looked at the guys who we thought were doing the best work in the world…Hanse, Doak, Coore and Crenshaw. They have a design-build mentality where they have control, and that’s how we do it, we design and build.

We like building strategic golf courses that make you think: Wide corridors…contour that creates interest in and around the green complex. We really stress recovery shots around the greens and the ground game.

We’re always trying to enhance the experience a little bit with things you may not notice the first 10 times you play, but you’ll notice it the 20th time. I want the golf course to always be revealing something new.

Sweetens Cove: Hole 3

As an architect, dealing with the contractor, there are little things you’re going to give in on. One or two or three little details aren’t going to make that big of a difference, but if you add up all the details you gave in on the course, if you start chipping away at details, eventually the project is going to be flat. That’s what so many golf courses suffer from: They’re just kind of monochromatic.

We started in 2011…had it [Sweetens Cove] grassed out in the summer of 2012. The family that owns it decided that golf is not part of their core business, so I partnered with Ari Techner of Scratch Golf to take over last May. It opened up last October.

It’s a really special place. As far as golf goes, there’s nothing at all like this anywhere. I said, I really want to do something different here. Nobody’s going to drive to rural Tennessee to play a golf course that looks like Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. We had to do something unique.

We did that with really wide fairways…fairways cut everywhere. Greens are very large…very undulating. We use a lot of contour to create interest and to create playability dilemmas and challenges. It’s very heavily influenced by Pinehurst No. 2…with Maxwell-Mackenzie-Raynor-type greens.

I don’t like 9-hole courses that masquerade as 18-hole courses. Let’s just be content with building nine great holes. Let’s build enough flexibility…that you can leave it up to the golfer. They can play the front tees one time or the back tees or do whatever they want. It’s a more democratic approach.

———

Kyle Franz (C) with Joe Buck (L), Greg Norman (RC)

Kyle Franz restored Donald Ross-designed Mid Pines to much acclaim. Golf magazine named it the best resort renovation of 2013. He also worked with Tom Doak at Pacific Dunes and the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration with Coore & Crenshaw.

I randomly met [Mid Pines’] owner at a cocktail party one night. Not knowing who he was, I was very candid on what I though the potential was for the golf course, if they ever chose to do the kind of things they were doing on No. 2. I did a bunch of Photoshops of what the golf course would look like. The same things needed to happen that happened at No. 2: Restoring the sandy areas. Restoring the areas around the bunkers to what they were originally like.

All the underbrush had been slowly eradicated over the decades. It was a bit of a mindtrip to put back together that feeling and concept. I added hazards to get the same kind of strategic feel—the blood-pumping shots—it was a very fun restoration: part archeology and part improvisation to get the holes to feel like they originally did.

A lot of things are in play over the next 10 or 15 years. The financial crisis turned even the biggest architects into restoration architects. That is really the direction the business needs to go. Obviously there are a few new courses beginning to be built these days.

There’s so many really good golf courses…classic golf courses…newer courses on really good pieces of ground. It takes a huge chunk out of the equation to deal with a place where you already own the property and turn it into a really good golf course. There’s a lot of those out there. I think that’s going to be big over the next 20 years or so: Taking the golf courses we have and making them a heck of a lot better.

I do think there’s maybe one more golf boom left in the United States. But we’re going to get to the point where we’ve kind of saturated our own market. A new golf course gets built here and there in the UK, but they eventually did that. Nothing new got built for a long, long time.

People like Tom Doak, myself, we’re very, very heavy proponents of walkable golf courses. 6,000- to 6,500-yard gof courses. Places that are comfortable to walk. Every one of those drivers that you buy that’s designed to send your balls 30 yards farther…that comes back to their checkbook…the amount of land required…irrigation…turf…maintenance…construction. Every contractor builds budgets on square footage. That comes back to the golfers at the other end of the line. It’s made it too expensive…and it’s hard to get young guys excited about golf because it takes too long to play.

With Pacific Dunes we all kind of hoped that’d be a line in the sand. One of the highest-rated courses built in the past 10 years, but it’s only 6,600 yards. Tom built the perfect course into that piece of land.

9-hole courses play into this. For some reason it’s a little bit harder to get people excited about them, but the opportunities are out there to kind of push the ball forward. What would be really cool is to find a section somewhere in the country where’s there’s like four different parcels for nine-hole golf courses within a 20 mile radius.

The holes that really do something for me are the ones that have proven absolutely timeless. Like No. 15 at Pinehurst No. 2. The green is so small and the area over the green is so severe that it’s foolish to attempt any aerial shot. So the percentage is to play short and hope you can trundle it up there. And the Road Hole…that hole will work for ground shots for as long as the game is played.

The philosophy Bill and Ben had 20 years ago was to make the ground game interesting…throw it out to the players and give them options. I look at it in terms of making it a sucker play to put it in the air. Example: No. 5 at Augusta. The aerial game is only…40 percent of the game.

Ever since I’ve known Tom Doak, he’s wanted to do reversible routing; Tom’s finally getting to do that at Forest Dunes. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do…two for the price of one! Maybe this will be Tom Doak’s Sgt. Pepper’s moment…something completely different than what he’s done that has a huge impact on what everybody else is doing. It’s always been in the back of my mind…but it takes somebody as smart as Tom Doak…to make it work.

That winter I spent at St. Andrews, I joked that I probably walked it backwards as many times as I did forwards, because I was aware that the course had been reversible before. Some of the best holes in the world are on the Old Course going the other direction.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Wells Fargo Championship betting preview: Tommy Fleetwood ready to finally land maiden PGA Tour title

Published

1 day ago

May 6, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA Tour season ramps back up this week for another “signature event,” as golf fans look forward to the year’s second major championship next week.

After two weaker-field events in the Zurich Classic and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, most of the best players in the world will head to historic Quail Hollow for one of the best non-major tournaments of the year.

Last season, Wyndham Clark won the event by four shots.

Quail Hollow is a par-71 measuring 7,521 yards that features Bermudagrass greens. The tree-lined, parkland style course can play quite difficult and features one of the most difficult three-hole stretches in golf known as “The Green Mile,” which makes up holes 16-18: two mammoth par 4s and a 221-yard par 3. All three holes have an average score over par, and water is in play in each of the last five holes on the course.

The field is excellent this week with 68 golfers teeing it up without a cut. All of the golfers who’ve qualified are set to tee it up, with the exception of Scottie Scheffler, who is expecting the birth of his first child.

Past Winners at Quail Hollow

2023: Wyndham Clark (-19)
2022: Max Homa (-8)
2021: Rory McIlroy (-10)
2019: Max Homa (-15)
2018: Jason Day (-12)
2017: Justin Thomas (-8) (PGA Championship)
2016: James Hahn (-9)
2015: Rory McIlroy (-21)

Key Stats For Quail Hollow

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes gained: Approach will be extremely important this week as second shots at Quail Hollow can be very difficult.

Total SG: Approach Over Past 24 Rounds

Akshay Bhatia (+1.16)
Tom Hoge (+1.12)
Corey Conners (+1.01)
Shane Lowry (+0.93)
Austin Eckroat (+0.82)

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

Quail Hollow is a long course on which it is important to play from the fairway. Both distance and accuracy are important, as shorter tee shots will result in approach shots from 200 or more yards. With most of the holes heavily tree lined, errant drives will create some real trouble for the players.

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee Past 24 Rounds:

Ludvig Aberg (+0.73)
Rory McIlroy (+0.69)
Xander Schauffele (+0.62)
Viktor Hovland (+0.58)
Chris Kirk (+0.52)

Proximity: 175-200

The 175-200 range is key at Quail Hollow. Players who can hit their long irons well will rise to the top of the leaderboard.

Proximity: 175-200+ over past 24 rounds:

Cameron Young (28’2″)
Akshay Bhatia (29’6″)
Ludvig Aberg (+30’6″)
Sam Burns (+30’6″)
Collin Morikawa (+30’9″)

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs

Players who thrive on Tom Fazio designs get a bump for me at Quail Hollow this week.

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs over past 36 rounds:

Patrick Cantlay (+2.10)
Rory McIlroy (+1.95)
Tommy Fleetwood (+1.68)
Austin Eckroat (+1.60)
Will Zalatoris (+1.57)

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)

Strokes Gained: Putting has historically graded out as the most important statistic at Quail Hollow. While it isn’t always predictable, I do want to have it in the model to bump up golfers who prefer to putt on Bermudagrass.

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) Over Past 24 Rounds:

Taylor Moore (+0.82)
Nick Dunlap (+.76)
Wyndham Clark (+.69)
Emiliano Grillo (+.64)
Cam Davis (+.61)

Course History

This stat will incorporate players that have played well in the past at Quail Hollow.

Course History over past 36 rounds (per round):

Rory McIlroy (+2.50)
Justin Thomas (+1.96)
Jason Day (+1.92)
Rickie Fowler (+1.83)
Viktor Hovland (+1.78)

Wells Fargo Championship Model Rankings

Below, I’ve compiled overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed — SG: Approach (27%), SG: Off the Tee (23%), SG: Total on Fazio designs (12%), Proximity: 175-200 (12%), SG: Putting Bermuda grass (12%), and Course History (14%).

Wyndham Clark
Rory McIlroy
Xander Schauffele
Shane Lowry
Hideki Matsuyama
Viktor Hovland
Cameron Young
Austin Eckroat
Byeong Hun An
Justin Thomas

2024 Wells Fargo Championship Picks

Tommy Fleetwood +2500 (DraftKings)

I know many out there have Tommy fatigue when it comes to betting, which is completely understandable given his lack of ability to win on the PGA Tour thus far in his career. However, history has shown us that players with Fleetwood’s talent eventually break though, and I believe for Tommy, it’s just a matter of time.

Fleetwood has been excellent on Tom Fazio designs. Over his past 36 rounds, he ranks 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on Fazio tracks. He’s also been incredibly reliable off the tee this season. He’s gained strokes in the category in eight of his past nine starts, including at The Masters, the PLAYERS and the three “signature events” of the season. Tommy is a golfer built for tougher courses and can grind it out in difficult conditions.

Last year, Fleetwood was the first-round leader at this event, firing a Thursday 65. He finished the event in a tie for 5th place.

For those worried about Fleetwood’s disappointing start his last time out at Harbour Town, he’s bounced back nicely after plenty of poor outings this season. His T7 at the Valero Texas Open was after a MC and T35 in his prior two starts and his win at the Dubai Invitational came after a T47 at the Sentry.

I expect Tommy to bounce back this week and contend at Quail Hollow.

Justin Thomas +3000 (DraftKings)

It’s been a rough couple of years for Justin Thomas, but I don’t believe things are quite as bad as they seem for JT. He got caught in the bad side of the draw at Augusta for last month’s Masters and has gained strokes on approach in seven of his nine starts in 2024.

Thomas may have found something in his most recent start at the RBC Heritage. He finished T5 at a course that he isn’t the best fit for on paper. He also finally got the putter working and ranked 15th in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week.

The two-time PGA champion captured the first of his two major championships at Quail Hollow back in 2017, and some good vibes from the course may be enough to get JT out of his slump.

Thomas hasn’t won an event in just about two years. However, I still believe that will change soon as he’s been one of the most prolific winners throughout his PGA Tour career. Since 2015, he has 15 PGA Tour wins.

Course history is pretty sticky at Quail Hollow, with players who like the course playing well there on a regular basis. In addition to JT’s PGA Championship win in 2017, he went 4-1 at the 2022 Presidents Cup and finished T14 at the event last year despite being in poor form. Thomas can return as one of the top players on the PGA Tour with a win at a “signature event” this week.

Cameron Young +3500 (DraftKings)

For many golf bettors, it’s been frustrating backing Cam Young this season. His talent is undeniable, and one of the best and most consistent performers on the PGA Tour. He just hasn’t broken through with a victory yet. Quail Hollow has been a great place for elite players to get their first victory. Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark all notched their first PGA Tour win at Quail.

Throughout Cam Young’s career, he has thrived at tougher courses with strong fields. This season, he finished T16 at Riviera and T9 at Augusta National, demonstrating his preference of a tough test. His ability to hit the ball long and straight off the tee make him an ideal fit for Quail Hollow, despite playing pretty poorly his first time out in 2023 (T59). Young should be comfortable playing in the region as he played his college golf at Wake Forest, which is about an hour’s drive from Quail Hollow.

The 26-year-old has played well at Tom Fazio designs in the past and ranks 8th in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on those courses in his last 36 rounds. Perhaps most importantly, this season, Young is the best player on the PGA Tour in terms of proximity from 175-200 in the fairway, which is where a plurality and many crucial shots will come from this week.

Young is an elite talent and Quail Hollow has been kind to players of his ilk who’ve yet to win on Tour.

Byeong Hun An +5000 (FanDuel)

Byeong Hun An missed some opportunities last weekend at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He finished T4 and played some outstanding golf, but a couple of missed short putts prevented him from getting to the winning score of -23. Despite not getting the win, it’s hard to view An’s performance as anything other than an overwhelming success. It was An’s fourth top-ten finish of the season.

Last week, An gained 6.5 strokes ball striking, which was 7th in the field. He also ranked 12th for Strokes Gained: Approach and 13th for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. The South Korean has been hitting the ball so well from tee to green all season long and he now heads to a golf course that should reward his precision.

An’s driver and long irons are absolute weapons. At Quail Hollow, players will see plenty of approach shots from the 175-200 range as well as some from 200+. In his past 24 rounds, Ben ranks 3rd in the field in proximity from 175-200 and 12th in proximity from 200+. Playing in an event that will not end up being a “birdie” fest should help An, who can separate from the field with his strong tee to green play. The putter may not always cooperate but getting to -15 is much easier than getting to -23 for elite ball strikers who tend to struggle on the greens.

Winning a “signature event” feels like a tall task for An this week with so many elite players in the field. However, he’s finished T16 at the Genesis Invitational, T16 at The Masters and T8 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The 32-year-old’s game has improved drastically this season and I believe he’s ready to get the biggest win of his career.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s LIV Golf Singapore betting preview: Course specialist ready to thrive once again

Published

1 week ago

Apr 30, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After another strong showing in Australia, LIV Golf will head to Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore looking to build off of what was undoubtedly their best event to date.

Sentosa Golf Club sits on the southern tip of Singapore and is one of the most beautiful courses in the world. The course is more than just incredible scenically; it was also rated 55th in Golf Digest’s top-100 courses in 2022-2023 and has been consistently regarded as one of the best courses in Asia. Prior to being part of the LIV rotation, the course hosted the Singapore Open every year since 2005.

Sentosa Golf Club is a par 71 measuring 7,406 yards. The course will require precise ball striking and some length off the tee. It’s possible to go low due to the pristine conditions, but there are also plenty of hazards and difficult spots on the course that can bring double bogey into play in a hurry. The Bermudagrass greens are perfectly manicured, and the course has spent millions on the sub-air system to keep the greens rolling fast. I spoke to Asian Tour player, Travis Smyth, who described the greens as “the best [he’s] ever played.”

Davis Love III, who competed in a Singapore Open in 2019, also gushed over the condition of the golf course.

“I love the greens. They are fabulous,” the 21-time PGA Tour winner said.

Love III also spoke about other aspects of the golf course.

“The greens are great; the fairways are perfect. It is a wonderful course, and it’s tricky off the tee.”

“It’s a long golf course, and you get some long iron shots. It takes somebody hitting it great to hit every green even though they are big.”

As Love III said, the course can be difficult off the tee due to the length of the course and the trouble looming around every corner. It will take a terrific ball striking week to win at Sentosa Golf Club.

In his pre-tournament press conference last season, Phil Mickelson echoed many of the same sentiments.

“To play Sentosa effectively, you’re going to have a lot of shots from 160 to 210, a lot of full 6-, 7-, 8-iron shots, and you need to hit those really well and you need to drive the ball well.”

Golfers who excel from tee to green and can dial in their longer irons will have a massive advantage this week.

Stat Leaders at LIV Golf Adelaide:

Fairways Hit

1.) Louis Oosthuizen

2.) Anirban Lahiri

3.) Jon Rahm

4.) Brendan Steele

5.) Cameron Tringale

Greens in Regulation

1.) Brooks Koepka

2.) Brendan Steele

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Cameron Tringale

5.) Anirban Lahiri

Birdies Made

1.) Brendan Steele

2.) Dean Burmester

3.) Thomas Pieters

4.) Patrick Reed

5.) Carlos Ortiz

LIV Golf Individual Standings:

1.) Joaquin Niemann

2.) Jon Rahm

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Louis Oosthuizen

5.) Abraham Ancer

LIV Golf Team Standings:

1.) Crushers

2.) Legion XIII

3.) Torque

4.) Stinger GC

5.) Ripper GC

LIV Golf Singapore Picks

Sergio Garcia +3000 (DraftKings)

Sergio Garcia is no stranger to Sentosa Golf Club. The Spaniard won the Singapore Open in 2018 by five strokes and lost in a playoff at LIV Singapore last year to scorching hot Talor Gooch. Looking at the course setup, it’s no surprise that a player like Sergio has played incredible golf here. He’s long off the tee and is one of the better long iron players in the world when he’s in form. Garcia is also statistically a much better putter on Bermudagrass than he is on other putting surfaces. He’s putt extremely well on Sentosa’s incredibly pure green complexes.

This season, Garcia has two runner-up finishes, both of them being playoff losses. Both El Camaleon and Doral are courses he’s had success at in his career. The Spaniard is a player who plays well at his tracks, and Sentosa is one of them. I believe Sergio will get himself in the mix this week. Hopefully the third time is a charm in Singapore.

Paul Casey +3300 (FanDuel)

Paul Casey is in the midst of one of his best seasons in the five years or so. The results recently have been up and down, but he’s shown that when he’s on a golf course that suits his game, he’s amongst the contenders.

This season, Casey has finishes of T5 (LIV Las Vegas), T2 (LIV Hong Kong), and a 6th at the Singapore Classic on the DP World Tour. At his best, the Englishman is one of the best long iron players in the world, which makes him a strong fit for Sentosa. Despite being in poor form last season, he was able to fire a Sunday 63, which shows he can low here at the course.

It’s been three years since Casey has won a tournament (Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2021), but he’s been one of the top players on LIV this season and I think he can get it done at some point this season.

Mito Pereira +5000 (Bet365)

Since Mito Pereira’s unfortunate demise at the 2022 PGA Championship, he’s been extremely inconsistent. However, over the past few months, the Chilean has played well on the International Series as well as his most recent LIV start. Mito finished 8th at LIV Adelaide, which was his best LIV finish this season.

Last year, Pereira finished 5th at LIV Singapore, shooting fantastic rounds of 67-66-66. It makes sense why Mito would like Sentosa, as preeminent ball strikers tend to rise to the challenge of the golf course. He’s a great long iron player who is long and straight off the tee.

Mito has some experience playing in Asia and is one of the most talented players on LIV who’s yet to get in the winner’s circle. I have questions about whether or not he can come through once in contention, but if he gets there, I’m happy to roll the dice.

Andy Ogletree +15000 (DraftKings)

Andy Ogletree is a player I expected to have a strong 2024 but struggled early in his first full season on LIV. After failing to crack the top-25 in any LIV event this year, the former U.S. Amateur champion finally figured things out, finished in a tie for 3rd at LIV Adelaide.

Ogletree should be incredible comfortable playing in Singapore. He won the International Series Qatar last year and finished T3 at the International Series Singapore. The 26-year-old was arguably the best player on the Asian Tour in 2023 and has been fantastic in the continent over the past 18 months.

If Ogletree has indeed found form, he looks to be an amazing value at triple-digit odds.

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Opinion & Analysis

Ryan: Lessons from the worst golf instructor in America

Published

1 week ago

Apr 30, 2024

Brendan Ryan

In Tampa, there is a golf course that boasts carts that do not work, a water range, and a group of players none of which have any chance to break 80. The course is overseen by a staff of crusty men who have succeeded at nothing in life but ending up at the worst-run course in America. However, this place is no failure. With several other local courses going out of business — and boasting outstanding greens — the place is booked full.

While I came for the great greens, I stayed to watch our resident instructor; a poor-tempered, method teacher who caters to the hopeless. At first, it was simply hilarious. However, after months of listening and watching, something clicked. I realized I had a front-row seat to the worst golf instructor in America.

Here are some of my key takeaways.

Method Teacher

It is widely accepted that there are three types of golf instructors: system teachers, non-system teachers, and method teachers. Method teachers prescribe the same antidote for each student based on a preamble which teachers can learn in a couple day certification.

Method teaching allows anyone to be certified. This process caters to the lowest caliber instructor, creating the illusion of competency. This empowers these underqualified instructors with the moniker of “certified” to prey on the innocent and uninformed.

The Cult of Stack and Jilt

The Stack and Tilt website proudly boasts, “A golfer swings his hands inward in the backswing as opposed to straight back to 1) create power, similar to a field goal kicker moving his leg in an arc and 2) to promote a swing that is in-to-out, which produces a draw (and eliminates a slice).”

Now, let me tell you something, there is this law of the universe which says “energy can either be created or destroyed,” so either these guys are defying physics or they have no idea what they are taking about. Further, the idea that the first move of the backswing determines impact is conjecture with a splash of utter fantasy.

These are the pontifications of a method — a set of prescriptions applied to everyone with the hope of some success through the placebo effect. It is one thing for a naive student to believe, for a golf instructor to drink and then dispel this Kool-Aid is malpractice.

Fooled by Randomness

In flipping a coin, or even a March Madness bet, there is a 50-50 chance of success. In golf, especially for new players, results are asymmetric. Simply put: Anything can happen. The problem is that when bad instructors work with high handicappers, each and every shot gets its own diagnosis and prescription. Soon the student is overwhelmed.

Now here’s the sinister thing: The overwhelming information is by design. In this case, the coach is not trying to make you better, they are trying to make you reliant on them for information. A quasi Stockholm syndrome of codependency.

Practice

One of the most important scientists of the 20th century was Ivan Pavlov. As you might recall, he found that animals, including humans, could be conditioned into biological responses. In golf, the idea of practice has made millions of hackers salivate that they are one lesson or practice session from “the secret.”

Sunk Cost

The idea for the worst golf instructor is to create control and dependency so that clients ignore the sunk cost of not getting better. Instead, they are held hostage by the idea that they are one lesson or tip away from unlocking their potential.

Cliches

Cliches have the effect of terminating thoughts. However, they are the weapon of choice for this instructor. Add some hyperbole and students actually get no information. As a result, these players couldn’t play golf. When they did, they had no real scheme. With no idea what they are doing, they would descend into a spiral of no idea what to do, bad results, lower confidence, and running back to the lesson tee from more cliches.

The fact is that poor instruction is about conditioning players to become reliant members of your cult. To take away autonomy. To use practice as a form of control. To sell more golf lessons not by making people better but through the guise that without the teacher, the student can never reach their full potential. All under the umbrella of being “certified” (in a 2-day course!) and a melee of cliches.

This of course is not just happening at my muni but is a systemic problem around the country and around the world, the consequences of which are giving people a great reason to stop playing golf. But hey, at least it’s selling a lot of golf balls…

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