By Tom Patri, TPGOLF Schools ~ NAPLES, Fl.

One of the reasons I think my style of game improvement is a bit different than other teachers is that during every lesson I try very hard to wear two entirely different hats. I spend part of every lesson teaching (the X’s and O’s ~ the mechanics) and part of the lesson coaching. Coaching includes making certain each student leaves my lesson tee with a clear cut game plan between lessons as to what would be required (physically, mentally, time management wise, and mechanically) to be successful.

No matter to me your goal, breaking 100 for the first time, winning the club championship, or the state amateur. I ask every student to sit with me and at the bare minimum discuss how they see their “game plan”. I want to make certain their goals and their plan line up and make sense. Read this intense piece below written by 6X Major Champion Sir Nick Faldo. I have always tried to make sure no matter if I was teaching the club member or a tour player that their expectation and their game were on par with one another. I have always said that ultimately whatever your goal is it will always come down to one basic thing … How bad do you do you actually want it? Make sure whatever your goal, your plan makes sense, and will allow you to be successful.

NICK FALDO ON HIS SWING CHANGE….

When I decided to totally rework my swing in 1985 with my Coach, I would begin hitting balls early in the morning, and I’d hit five of those very large baskets of balls—the kind they use to fill the little baskets—until, by about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I couldn’t close my hands anymore. Five of those baskets amounts to 1,500 balls, and my hands would just turn into claws. I would go off and have a swim, and then, when the sun was going down and it would cool off, I would go back and hit some more.

The reworking took two years. I’ve kept much of that experience to myself. It was dark, intense and sometimes negative, wondering when the changes were going to take—and if they would take. It is amazing really, with the stress I put my body through, that I didn’t ruin my back, tear a rotator cuff, develop tendinitis, or any number of things. Using new muscles in my hips and other places, I would get so sore I felt crippled. Later I was bothered by tendinitis, as early as when I won the British Open in 1990. The worst area: The “snuffbox” on my left hand, that little pocket at the base of the thumb and forefinger. At the ’90 Open, my snuffbox was so sore I hit all my iron shots in practice using a tee. Everyone thought it was some new kind of practice technique, when in fact I couldn’t take a divot.  ~Sir Nick Faldo

No one expects anyone to do what Nick did. That said, any good coach should hold you accountable to construct a plan and stay with the plan that will allow you to succeed.

Hawthorns Member let’s get together soon and start your journey to the greatest golf of your life.