April 2002

Wow! Where has the season gone? Many people have asked that question lately. I usually can associate this with the fact that I have had a great time at what I have been doing or that I slept through the trip! Well for me personally I have had a great time.

As the golf season in the desert winds down, it is just taking on a new location for many of you. As you leave the desert and begin to make your way to your summer homes I want to leave you with a few ideas about how to make your golf transition smoother.

In this issue:
A Masterful Experience
Taking Your Game on the Road
Success Stories

A Masterful Experience
I don't watch many golf tournaments on television anymore, but there is no way I am going to miss the Masters. It is by far my favorite tournament to watch. From all the flowers blooming to the huge galleries. Every time I watch the Masters I am able to take away things that help me as an instructor help my students.

This year was no exception. The message that we began to hearseveral months ago was how the course had been changed in an attempt to "Tiger Proof" it. I think the course changes were done almost seamlessly, but obviuosly it did not do what all the media claimed they were trying to do when the changes were instituted. All Tiger did was kick his game up another notch and play the golf course the way it was designed. Here in lies the golden nugget!

On Saturday evening, there were numerous interviews. The most often asked question was what will you have to do to beat Tiger? And the response was anywhere from, " I have to have my "A" game to beat him or I am going to play aggressive, take some chances". I don't recall anyone talking about a specific game plan, but more directed at how am I going to beat Tiger?

When it was all said and done Tiger was interviewed and asked about his day. His response was " I wanted to shoot under par on both nines, I knew this would eliminate the people at 5 or 6 under par."

He played his game based on a plan and not on trying to catch or beat anyone. He didn't hit any heroic shots. He didn't make any real errors. Ernie Els, VJ Signh, and Retief Goosen began the day trying to beat Tiger. Their loss did not come from Tiger, but the decisions they made. They all tried to hit shots that the golf course wouldn't allow. All of them have the ability to hit incredible golf shots, when the golf course permits it. This is true for most of us. We have the ability to hit certain shots and certain shots we should not try. I think the Golden Nugget I took away is play the shots you are capable of hitting and base the way you play the course(s) or this abilty.

Make decisions based on this honest assesment. I think if you will do this, you may not win the Green Jacket, but you might win a few greenbacks!


Taking Your Game on the Road
This is an exciting time for many of the Members of Mission Hills because it means your about to get out of the heat and back home for the summer. While things heat up out here in the desert, I want to give you a few tips on how to heat up your games when you arrive back home.

The first thing we need to do when we arrive is to begin to acclimate to our new environment. Many times we will associate the cooler temps with being easier to get used to, when in fact it can fool us because we now have higher humidity. This not only affects our bodies, but also our golf shots.

This higher humidity and cooler air will make our shots travel shorter. I think back a few years when we had high humidity ( around 30% ) in the summer, and how it made me react slower, and have a feeling of being tired. Our golf shots will act the same. Less zip! So you should go to the range and hit balls with all your clubs and get the new distances. This will help when you get out there and have a shot of 100 yards lets say and are used to hitting a wedge here in the desert, and now instead of being short in the bunker, you make the adjustment and hit the 9 iron right in the middle of the green!

Once your on the green you are going to be on a different type of grass than you have been used to at MHCC. You will more than likely be on Bent grass versus the Bermuda greens that were overseeded with Rye. I suspect they will be faster than what we typically have here at Mission Hills. So spend some time working not only getting used to the speed with your putter, but how far is the ball rolling after you chip it and pitch onto the greens. I hope you will find these couple of tips helpful as you make your way back home for the summer. Have a great time and we look forward to seeing you in the fall.


Student Success Stories
This year has been very exciting as Golf Instructors at The Golf Learning Center. We have seen over 200 new students come through the center this season. Many have entered into a game improvement program, while other have just need a quick fix! During the season, for those that take advantage of the Golf Improvement Program, we set goals prior to starting the program and then customize the work needed to achieve those goals.

We are now, as the end of the season is near, seeing these people reach their goals. These goals range anywhere from lowering their handicap to learning the game well enough to play with family and friends to playing competitively for a living.

I want give all the students from the learning center a BIG HAND! They have worked smart to get to their stated goals. Several students come to mind that are close to or have already graduated, Tom Spay, Yoshie Cooper and Pat Richter.

Let me begin with Pat. She is a very talented lady that is strong physically and hits the driver far for the average woman. When Pat first came aboard she had some issues with her swing. We went to work on them and in a very short time( about 4 weeks) saw significant improvement. I remember one specific round when she was not aware of her score, but the rest of us were, if she pared the final hole on the Palmer she would shoot an 89. Now this may not seem like a big deal, except Pat was sporting a 25 handicap. This was the best round she had ever had. She has never looked back. Way to go Pat!!

Tom Spay is a fairly new student, maybe 6 weeks into the program, but we meet twice a week. Tom came to me with a severe problem he had been trying to fix... for 4 years! He was hitting the ball and scoring poorly for his ability. In about 4 weeks he began to see his scores come down to the low 80's where he is much happier. His swing problems are not yet completely gone, but now he can recover from them and salvage his rounds... Great Job Tom!

And Finally, Yoshie Cooper. What a tiger! She works hard and now much smarter. We have seen her handicap drop all the way down to 10.2! We're not done yet... single digits look out! Way to go! As you can tell I am quite proud of the people that come to our program. We have a lot of fun and along the way we get better.


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