April Edition

PRESIDENT ’ S NOTE

March Madness and the impending trip down Magnolia Lane mean that golfers will be chomping at the bit to hit the links or check out the newest equipment. While these next few months will fly by, it is important to try and make an impact at your facility and especially to track it. Golf Professionals are really good at growing the game, club fitting and up-selling merchandise. We are not the greatest at tracking these results so we can implement quantitative statistics into our resumes or simply show our employer the value we have.

The reason I mention this now is that if you take the time to determine an easy tracking method such as an excel spreadsheet, google doc or an empty page in your lesson book, and start from the beginning you’ll be more likely to keep accurate records. It is really hard to wait until we can catch a breath and try and compile these numbers in a meaningful way. I’ll be the first to admit I have to improve in this area. We are making it a staff contest and tracking fittings that result in sales as a leader board at Springfield. By putting a fun spin on it, hopefully it’ll keep us all invested in keeping score! Each season you should try and bring something new to your club or facility. Here are some suggestions:

• Take on a new program like PGA Golf Day or PGA Junior League Golf and run with it.

• Take the time to attend an educational event in our Section or one put on by a club manufacturer.

• It could simply be setting a goal to play more golf or to play with a variety of members that you haven’t done before.

• Be creative and run a fun format event at your facility like a Par 3 tourney, Tee It Forward Scramble or maybe start a league.

Middle Atlantic PGA Professional of the YearJosh Tremblay, PGASpringfield Golf & CCjosh@sgccva.org

SOCIAL CORNER - - PETER LABOURDETTE, PGAThe social committee is happy to announce it’s second event. We have arranged for a fun night of bowling, food and drinks at Kenwood Golf & Country Club on Thursday, March 27th. The event will start at 6:00 pm and run until about 8:30 pm. The price will be $20 per person, which

includes, shoe rental, 3 games of bowling as well as appetizers, and pizza. A cash bar will be available so make sure you bring some spending money. We are encouraging members of the Central Chapter to bring their significant

others to partake in this fun evening. For those who have never bowled at Kenwood there are no ten pin lanes, only duckpin. If you are accustomed to regular bowling then you are in for a whole new experience. The best part about duckpin is you get three tries instead of only two!

President’s Note by Josh Tremblay

I was very encouraged by the strong showing by the Central Chapter at Belmont Country Club on March 31st. Thanks to Bob Pfeffer and his staff for hosting the event and also a special thanks to Mike Aldrich, Michael Leemhuis, Mike Pius, Matt Gallagher, Jay Dufty, Jim Fitzgerald and John Lyberger for the great breakout sessions. I received a lot of positive feedback on the meeting experience and feel

that we, the board, achieved our goal of making the meeting more valuable to the Professionals of the Central Chapter. Let’s keep the participation momentum going all season at events like the Central Chapter Championship (May 27th at Piedmont), the Central Chapter Pro-Am (June 2nd at Stoneleigh), the Central Chapter Pro-Junior (June 30th at CC of Fairfax) and the Central Chapter Fall Meeting & Pro-Assistant (September 8th at Army-Navy CC – Arlington).

I’d like to share a Best Practice idea with you to help make you more valuable to your members, clients and students. Something that many of you are probably doing already is to organize golf trips for your members and be their “host professional” on the trip. I have tried to plan one trip per year to a golf destination. While at Springfield, I have taken members to Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass, Bedford Springs Resort (twice), Bandon Dunes Resort (twice) and Kohler, WI to play Whistling Straights and Blackwolf Run. I’ve taken it a step further and given each member a detailed itinerary, planned meals, organized pairings and competitions. In addition to some of the common sense stuff like making yourself available for lessons on the trip, making sure you play with everyone at least once, I have also tried to commemorate the trip. At each destination, I purchase a flag and get everyone on the trip to sign it. I then utilize a local framer to craft a shadowbox featuring the flag, a group photo and a couple pictures of the golf course. These shadow boxes are hung outside the golf shop and the members enjoy looking at them and showing them to guests. Even members who haven’t gone on the trips take pride in the fact that our club and their golf pro does this.

Many of you are probably saying I wish I had the time to do this or could afford it. A lot of these trips can be done during our slow season or possibly during aerification at your facility. I build the cost of my airfare into the price I advertise to the members and the resorts or travel companies I work with will usually take care of your accommodations and golf if you bring at least 7 golfers. Premier Golf is a company I have worked with on multiple trips and in addition to covering my costs they also contribute to Golf Retirement Plus. There are MAPGA Section Sponsors like the new Streamsong Resort in Florida that would love to work with you. The next member trip at Springfield will most likely be to Streamsong in January/February 2015. You cannot find a better way to really bond with your members than by playing golf with them and it only resonates more when you do it over several days at a great destination.

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What you can learn from Lexi Thompson?

by Adam Harrell

I was fortunate to spend a couple years with Lexi was when she was just 11 years old. During this tenure I witnessed an amazing talent who was fiercely competitive. You could sense at even this young age she was

destined for greatness. Later that year she became the youngest qualifier to play in the U.S. Women's Open, supplanting Morgan Pressel.

I am often asked what I did to help this young lady. My answer may surprise you. Pitching. Lexi and her dad had complained that her pitch shots lacked enough spin to check up and frequently released past the hole. After watching her hit a half dozen 50 yard pitch shots and seeing the dew marks starting a full 4-6 inches behind the ball with no divot I quickly set out to make a change. We worked on getting her to strike down on the turf after the ball much the same way any of you would go about teaching Mrs. Haverkamp at your Sunday short game clinic. We moved the ball position from forward to middle, had her place a bit more weight on her left foot, and practiced trying to strike the turf in front of the white line I painted on the ground. As you might expect she was able to make these changes quickly and the ball immediately started to exhibit much more spin.

As I watched her put on a ball-striking clinic, especially with her wedges I could not help but reflect on our time together. She now takes sizeable divots to be politically correct. Many times she seemed to get the club stuck into the ground only to hit the shot inside of 10 feet. Her technique has been "questioned" on social media by many

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teachers. However, Lexi is doing it her way with a wing type release on most of her shots. She now works with my mentor Jim McLean, who has not tried to change this move. McLean always stated that the greats of the game all do something that is unique: Nicklaus, Lopez, Palmer, Trevino, etc...

So what can you learn from Lexi? Your students, talented or not, simply need to find their own way to swing the club and play the game. Not your way. Not some method. Just an organized approach to hitting the ball better and playing better. My question for you to ponder: As a teacher/coach do you accept the challenge of helping your clients find THEIR way?

For Lexi the sky is the limit even though for her it started with the ground.

The second Central Chapter social event was a lot of fun and a big

success! Twenty of us convened at Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda,

MD for a fun night of duckpin bowling, food and some drinks. We

were pleased to see a lot of new faces at the event, many being significant others of Central

Chapter members. We hope to build on the success of these first two events and encourage all of you to attend the next.

Our ongoing goal is to bring chapter members, friends and families together in a laid back environment that is conducive to

socializing and getting more acquainted with one

another.

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The Spring Pro-Pro brought 102 MAPGA Central Chapter Professionals to Belmont

Country Club located in Ashburn, VA. We first want to acknowledge the staff at

Belmont, especially the grounds crew led by Superintendent, Aaron Wells. It’s not an easy

task prepping a golf course when it had recently been bombarded with rain in the

days leading up to the tournament.

With 102 players eager to play golf (some of us it was the first time since last fall) we took

to the course in an 18 hole, Best Ball of partners format. After getting beat up with a

5 hour round due to plugged (mostly lost) golf balls, we came in to enjoy the

camaraderie of what playing in these tournaments brings us as golf professionals.

Many of us stuck around well after the tournament networking and exchanging

ideas.

Our winners were finally announced once the final group came in and to no surprise the cream rose to the top. Joint winners with

Belmont Country Club

Place First Last POY Points

T-1 Yong Joo 159.69

T-1 Daniel Kinn 159.69

T-1 Brendan McGrath 159.69

T-1 David Newsom 159.69

T-3 Billy Hoffman 92.20

T-3 Kevin Kremer 92.20

T-3 Jay Lindell 92.20

T-3 Dustin Moser 92.20

T-5 Steve Danielson 71.41

T-5 Mike Fischer 71.41

T-5 Jim Fitzgerald 71.41

T-5 Marty Johnson 71.41

T-5 Bud Lintelman 71.41

T-5 Chad Moseley 71.41

T-5 Chris Nathlich 71.41

T-5 John O'Leary 71.41

Brendan McGrath and David Newsom

Yong Joo and Daniel Kinn

Central Chapter Spring Pro-Pro Tournament

Hosted by Belmont Country Club By Geoff Montross

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67’s Yong Joo/Daniel Kinn and David Newsom/Brendan McGrath.

This was the second time McGrath and Newsom teamed up this event. The first being

last year’s fall (rescheduled) Pro-Pro. Says McGrath, “I went to Florida a bunch this winter so I was ready to play. That doesn’t

mean I am any good, just that I am ready to scrape it around.”

Daniel Kinn adds that, “With the wet and windy conditions I didn't think the typical

score of around -8 was out there. After Yong birdied 12 and I birdied 13 to get to -5 (we

started on 15) I knew we had a realistic shot at winning.”

Thanks again to all those who participated and to our sponsors: Callaway, United Rentals

and Great Shot Golf. I know I’d like to scrape it around and win golf tournaments.

If you have any questions about tournament golf in the Mid Atlantic or are looking for a partner for an event please feel free to give me a call and I’ll try to help out

the best that I can.

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There was a meeting too…. Central Chapter PGA Members at attention as our President Josh Tremblay gives the Chapter updates on current business

Mary Leahy Speaking to the group about new 2014 Callaway

product

Trish Gates speaking to her peers and accepted the award of MAPGA

Assistant of the Year

Mike Aldrich lead one of four small group breakoff sessions that spoke on different topics. Mike spoke on “Connecting with

Her”

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SOCIAL MEDIA FOR GOOD

By Steve WenPetren, PGA

Hey boys and girls, the MAPGA Central Chapter has its own Facebook Group, simply registered as MAPGA Central Chapter. We currently have over 100 Members in the group and looking to grow. This is a private group open to all Members and Apprentices that work in the Central Chapter. If you are a current member of this group and know people that are affiliated with the

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MAPGA Central Chapter please invite them to join us. The goal of the group is to grow as an organization with a sense of community.

The Social Impact of Facebook as stated by Wikipedia, Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and

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other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages.

We want you to use this site in any way you see fit to help you grow as a PGA Member. In the spirit of good conversations, let’s keep this in mind, everyone is entitled

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to state their own opinion on the free internet, so there’s no need to put anyone down just because you disagree. Members have used this to find partners for tournaments; we have had some fun this past off season with some very good debates amongst group members, but the real purpose of this group is to keep our Central Chapter colleagues informed.

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CCF Cup Challenge by Linda Gaudi

The CCF Cup Challenge is a takeoff from the Fed-Ex Cup on the PGA Tour. This point system is intertwined within our regular weekly Junior Golf Program. We are excited to begin our third year of promoting this unique system.

How we do it During our regular weekly program we award points to each junior that achieves a particular skill challenge, displays good habits or good etiquette actions on the course. The number of points awarded and the skill or action to be done is determined by each professional depending on what they are assigned to teach that day. Points can be given at random as well as points can be taken away for improper behavior!

When the golfer goes thru each station and sees each professional during our regular junior golf day the child may accumulate a total for the day, anywhere between 1 – 12 points. What makes this program so cool is that all of the juniors are actually competing against each other, from 7 to 18 year olds. Each week the points are tallied together and then added to the previous week’s total until the final week of the program. A leader board of the top 20 is posted so that the kids can see where they stand in the rankings. The junior with the most points at the end of the season wins the CCF Cup Challenge Trophy! Prize for the winner is a $100.00 gift card. I also award a couple of runner up prizes of $75.00 each.

How the prize is funded The first year I started the program, I put an email out to the members to see if anyone would

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donate to the prize money and several of the parents offered to donate. So we did not have to take any funds away from our other costs for running the regular junior program.

Impact on the kids The result of incorporating this point system into our regular program has been overwhelmingly positive. All the kids want to do is earn points. They are much more attentive to the instruction and the challenges, especially when the threat of taking points away is looming.

It is amazing to see how it has improved their behavior throughout the day and the summer!

They don’t want to go home as they want to keep on earning points. Parents have come up to me to say that their children don’t want to miss junior golf and even has resulted in adjusting family vacations so that the child doesn’t miss junior golf day. We still give out weekly prizes for various accomplishments, but it eliminates the need to give something physical to hang on to and risk losing to keep track of their accomplishments.

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Club Fitting by Roger Hatcher, PGA

I would like to use this article to help educate my fellow Professional on a few of the most important aspects of club fitting. I have been a PGA class A professional since 1996 and have been fitting and teaching my whole career. I have fit many of the local club pros in the area as well as numerous college and professional players.

In this article I am going to cover two areas.

1. Length of shafts. Long is wrong. 2. Lofts of heads. Loft is your friend.

It is a growing trend for the companies to increase the length of the Driver shafts to as much as 46”. That length is longer then what most of the PGA touring pros will play. According to one of the companies I work with their pros play with 44 ½” driver shafts far more often than over 45”, another said that most of their pros are between 44 ¼ and 44 ¾. I understand that it is easy to market the concept that longer shafts will hit the ball farther. I do not understand how we can believe that the average golfer has any chance to control a longer shaft then what a highly skilled professional can. You will have a much better chance helping your golfers gain both distance and control by helping them hit the ball in the center of the clubface.

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There are companies and club fitters that also recommend longer iron shafts. I too have made that mistake in the past. I utilize one of the club fitting rulers that are available, but I find that they tell us that almost everyone needs a longer than standard length club. You will not see a good iron player go up through the hitting zone. Some of the best of all time, from Nelson to Hogan to Woods, all have gone down through the hitting zone. I now believe that I would rather have a club ½” too short then even a ¼” too long.

Many years ago a leading company fit me in clubs 2” over modern standard 6 iron (37 .5”). I am 6’ 5” and I did not think too much of it at the time. Only after video became the standard for teaching, I saw

time after time that I was not maintaining my posture through the hitting zone. Believing that length of shaft was my issue, I went to a different fitter and we cut more than 1” off.

So I state this, make sure that you are giving your

customer a length that they can control. Put face tape on the driver head and find the length that they get the ball in the middle of the clubface. Only increase the length if they are hitting it on the toe with an on plane swing. The extreme over the top swing, or the dreaded chicken wing, will put marks on the toe. I would never fit a club to either of those swings, but would rather tell them to fix the swing flaw before getting fit. If they are not inclined to try to improve then you must try and fit them to whatever swing flaws they might have.

…for every yard of distance we gain through the increased length of a shaft, the golfer would

have three extra yards of shot dispersion

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Once a golfer is making better contact I have often seen them increase their club head speed, even if the shaft is shorter then what they were playing before. They gain confidence that they are going to hit the ball solidly and usually have better control over their direction.

One of the companies found that for every yard of distance we gain through the increased length of a shaft, the golfer would have three extra yards of shot dispersion. If the longer shaft gains five yard of distance we also experience fifteen extra yards of shot dispersion.

When giving a Driver fitting we are looking for the best distance we can get while keeping the ball in play.

Most of us know that the loft on the club heads have increased on drivers and decreased on irons. That makes no sense at all. Having used Trackman for fittings, I fully understand how important it is to launch the ball higher to increase distance. Not long ago 6 irons had 32 or more degrees of loft. Now some are down to 27. Most of the very low lofted irons are the game improvement series heads. These also are the most likely played irons by the players with low club head speed. This is the very golfer that needs the most help in getting the ball airborne as well as getting the ball to stop on the green. At tour speeds with a 6 iron, 92 mph club head, 180 plus carry distance they are creating enough spin (6200) to stop the ball. I do agree that lower lofted irons will increase ball speed and sometimes even overall distance but what good does it do to have a 140 yard carry distance with 30 yards of roll.

When fitting for irons, I am looking for the tightest shot dispersion. No need to hit it twice. As many of us hear, customers want distance but really are looking to be more consistent.

With everyone’s golf season now underway

there are no social events planned but keep a lookout for upcoming events in emails or the

Central Chapter newsletter. If you have

an idea for a future social event please feel free to contact me, we

are always open to new ideas!

Petelabourdette@yahoo.com

Sign up through MAPGA.com Jay, C’mon

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No…why should I?

It’s a great way of receiving deadline dates, as well as staying

connected without having to log on to MAPGA.com every time.

How do I sign up??