Here now is Tom Patri in his own words on a variety of subjects.

The Roots of Becoming a Teacher

“When I stopped playing full-time in 1988, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I faced the prospect of just leaving golf and doing something different. I had some nice offers, but realized I would miss golf too much. I wound up contacting John Kennedy, the Head PGA Professional at Cold Spring Harbor, who surprised me and offered me a teaching position. I said “I really haven’t taught anyone anything,” but John encouraged me to take the job and I was well received. Even so, I felt I had so much to learn … I reached out to one of the PGA’s National Teachers of the Year, Bill Strausbaugh, who took me under his wing, and led me in turn to other top teachers including Jim Flick, David Leadbetter, Craig Shankland, Bob Toski, John Elliott, Davis Love Jr, and others. But it was John Kennedy and Bill Strausbaugh who had the biggest influence on my teaching career. Bill and John were both like fathers to me.

“So, as it turned out, my teaching philosophy is really a combination of what I learned from many people – most notably, Bill Strausbaugh, who was more of a ‘body’ teacher, and Jim Flick, who is an ‘arm swing’ teacher. The two contrasting methods enabled me to apply a multi-faceted approach in dealing with any student.”

The Birth of “The Six Spoke

Approach to Better Golf Learning” “It was back in the early 90s that a sense of frustration was setting in. I worked hard at my craft, and my students worked hard … but I had a sense that something was missing. I started to review how I gave lessons, and how people receive information, and that’s where this journey began. I packed a bunch of videotapes of lessons I had given in a suitcase and visited with an array of experts who were biomechanically-linked, or physically-linked, starting with some great minds at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Armed with those videos, I would ask orthopedic surgeons and physical therapy specialists about the movements of the body and what they see. We focused on the dysfunction of the body. My journey only started at HSS many others were kind enough to allow me to visit and learn. I began to incorporate this education into the way I taught. “When it comes to the golf swing, unless the physiology changes, a short time later the problem will return. I then added a sports psychology component to this, and that became the ‘mind spoke.’ Equipment- fitting was always on my list, along with statistical analysis and time management. All of this took shape and led to the ‘six spokes.’ It’s not a methodology … it’s more a philosophy that encompasses everything on and off the course needed to improve.”