PART I

CWGM:  What  was it like to come to Westchester Country Club?

TP:  After spending  two years at Bellport Country Club, I realized I did not want to be a head  professional.  My real love was teaching and playing. I really did not like being indoors. When John Kennedy became Director of Golf at Westchester Country Club he offered me the job as Director of Instruction. He hired me to develop a more upscale teaching program. We had some immediate concerns about the existing program. Two key issues were that many of the members were leaving the facility to take lessons elsewhere and the junior Program was not as strong as it should be for this type of facility.

Since then, we have put together a pretty impressive staff and have created an equally impressive instruction program. Our staff includes John Kennedy; 1997 Metropolitan PGA Section Professional of the Year, Bruce Zabriski; four time National Player of the Year, Deb Austin; the 1977 LPGA Player of the Year and myself.  I do not know of any clubs that have the National PGA Player of the Year, an LPGA Player of the Year, the Metropolitan PGA Section Professional of the Year, and Metropolitan PGA Section Teaching Professional of the Year all on the same staff. We have gone from a Junior program that had about 30 players in it to a program in excess of 200 Juniors.  Our lesson activities have increased dramatically. Now, our members can get everything they need at Westchester Country Club.

CWGM:  Westchester Country Club Is the home of the Buick Classic. What are your fondest memories of that event?

TP:  When you win the NCAA Championship your dream is to play on the PGA TOUR. That dream ended for me in 1988. When I see guys who I competed against in college like Fred Couples, Paul Azinger, Mark Calcavecchia and Jeff Sluman it’s a lot of fun to rekindle old friendships and catch up with them. At the same time, it’s hard to watch them do things you wish you were doing. It’s a double-edged sword. It is definitely a dream for me to qualify for the Buick Classic one-year and play in front of my own club.

CWGM:  What does your job entail as Director of Instruction?

TP: John Kennedy says I am second in command. When he is not here, I am the man responsible for the golf operation. However, when he is here, I help manage all the people outside the bag room and pro shop. My principle job is the instruction program. The instruction staff gives approximately 4,000 hours of individual golf lessons a year not to mention the short game schools and corporate outing activities. I teach about 12 hours a day, which keeps me fairly busy in our short season.

CWGM: As the 1998 Metropolitan PGA Section Teacher of the Year, what is your teaching philosophy?

TP:  I am a fundamentalist.  I have been only teaching since 1988. In that short period of time, I have been exposed to a lot of really talented people. People like Jim McLean, Mike Hebron, Bob Toski, John Elliot from Golf Digest, Hank Haney, Peter Kostis, Mac O’Grady, David Leadbetter and Bill Strausbaugh have gone out of their way to share their ideas with me. This has allowed me to think about teaching golf and develop my own thoughts. I am probably more old school by today’s standards. I think golf is severely over-taught and under-coached. I do not think we have to reinvent the wheel every time we get to the golf course. If I had to classify myself, it would be as a fundamentalist.