My experience teaching a potential Champions Tour player

About 2 weeks ago I get an email from a guy who played on tour in '85 wanting more information on Stack and Tilt and seeing if he could get a lesson.  He also told me he'll be trying to qualify for the Champions Tour in 3 weeks.  I don't teach professionally but I am associated with Golf Evolution and enjoy helping people out .  So I was a little nervous and excited about potentially helping someone get to the Champions tour.  Got some advice from Dave Wezik and I was on my way.

I am not going to mention the player by his real name since his instructor is one of his best friends and we basically practiced in secret.  He's not a member of the site and to my knowledge neither is anyone he know's, but I'll still call him "Joe" for this story.

"Joe" is obviously a good player but struggles with losing the flying wedge, bend of the right wrist, flipping it at impact.  His biggest fear was hitting it left and his contact was very inconsistent.  The reason he approached me for instruction was because a current Champions tour player who has the same instructor as "Joe", received a lesson from Andy Patnou at the TPC Scottsdale. Andy is a great instructor, supporter of the S&T; information and really helped out this Champions tour player Enough so that he called "Joe" and said he had to get a S&T; lesson.

We practiced 4 times the last two weeks and I feel he has made some great progress.  The goal was to simplify things with the swing, make sure he understood the ball flight laws and understood why these changes were better for him.  The thing that was difficult for me was Joe's apprehension to doing drills, making practice swings, analyzing his shots.  So I was very limited with how exaggerated I could make him feel.  And he needed to exaggerate some positions.  Like I mentioned, he chucked out the flying wedge at impact causing his face to be pointing left of his start line.  With the longer clubs, driver, he would tip the head back and could hit some nasty hooks.  My first priority was to get rid of the left shots and since I know my geometry it was all about making sure the pivot was centered and that his exit on the followthrough was better.  Compression really got better and dispersion was much tighter.

All I know is that he says the information makes sense and hasn't had any back pain since we've worked together.  I told him about Dana Dahlquist if he wants a "professional" instructor.   I think we all have parts of our swing we want to change or that always bother us.  For him it's P7 (impact) position.  I can obviously help him get it much better but it's going to take A LOT of repetitions doing the opposite motion.  Something I'm not sure he's willing to do.  Yesterday he was hitting it good and wanted me to see if he could really change the P7 picture.  Showed him a drill and we got 3 balls in until he said, "I don't want to do this anymore, makes me feel stupid."  I don't think I've ever NOT done a drill that made me feel weird or "stupid", the point is to change the picture and get a feel for the exaggeration.  But we are also practicing to play golf, not making the picture perfect.

I guess part of what I have to get through to him is to change the picture it's ok to feel stupid.  That's what I've seen demonstrated at many schools I've attended.  And you've got to feel stupid for 2,000 shots. Having said that, Joe is a legitimate +2 or +3, how much better would 5-7* of shaft lean help?  Just depends on what his goals are and how much work he wants to put in.

Thanks!  Yes the changes occurred due to staying more centered, the left shoulder working downward more.  The club got across the line due to the left shoulder moving back too much, all the alignments are shifted too much to the right.

Just want to give everyone an update.  After 3 rounds "Joe" is t-23rd after shooting 74-73-73, I think the top 12 make it to the next stage.   The first day he said was ridiculously windy, the second day he was -3 after 5 and but ended up shooting +2 and yesterday made a double from 110 out.  His caddy actually called me yesterday saying that he's trying to make good swings rather than hit golf shots.  They both told me that on the range before and after the rounds Joe is hitting it great, mostly just working on the head centered.  But on the course just a lot of average shots and thin misses.  Good news is not shots left, which was his big fear.  Like any player it can be tough to bring the comfort of the range to the course, we always regress a little, especially trying to make changes after he's been doing the same thing for 20-30 years.  It's just a trust and comfort issue, especially since these feels are only 3 weeks old.  I just told him that he knows he can do it, as evident on the range, he knows the piece, head centered and when you're on the course trick yourself into pretending your hitting shots on the range.  Like Erik pointed out with the Mental Game in two words: Enjoy pressure, I was trying to get him into a mind set of "enjoying" rather than being uncomfortable.

So hopefully he can shot something in the 60's today and enjoy the pressure