PART III

Continued from blog entry – “Interview Archive . . . PART II”

CWGM:  Should more golfers become students? And what is your opinion about buying expensive golf clubs?

TP:  Turn on the television and watch any of the golf tournaments. Take a look at players like Fred Couples working with Paul Marchand, Tiger Woods with Butch Harmon and Davis Love III with Jack Lumken, each talking with the other and constantly tutoring areas where these professionals need help. What makes any  golfer who plays once or twice a week, who does not know enough about their golf game or what happens in a golf swing not need help? A very small percentage of the golfing population takes golf instruction, which includes any kind of coaching. In my opinion, it’s an absolute joke to expect to improve your golf game without qualified eyes watching you. Most people do not have a game plan. It is mostly chaos. That is pretty common, but that is what we see.

This section of the country is so rich with good instruction. On Long Island you have instructors like Mike Hebron and Jeff Warne. Throughout  the entire area golfers have a pretty deep group of PGA instructors to call upon for help with their game. If you are going about your business on the golf course, without qualified help, I think you are crazy.

As far as purchasing golf clubs, when you are in a store to buy a suit, you are measured for that suit. When you are buying a pair of shoes, you are measured for size and you try them on to see if they fit properly. Yet people still buy golf clubs right off the rack. In a day and age when people have been educated about club fitting and 100% of the PGATOUR players have fitted clubs because they know how important it is for their clubs to be properly fitted, it is absolutely incredible to me that the golfing population still buys golf clubs off the rack when they can easily be properly fitted. Fitting should be done at a greengrass facility and outdoors. It does not happen in five minutes. It takes about an hour to be properly fitted. Most of the people I see still come to the tee with clubs not right for them.