Todd Anderson, Grand Rapids, Mich. native and the Director of Instruction at Sea Island GC in Georgia, is the 2010 PGA of America’s Teacher of the Year. Receiving that prestigious honor later this month in Orlando, Anderson will also be the headliner at the 23rd annual West Michigan Golf Show (www.westmichigangolfshow.com) on Feb. 11-13 at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids. Recently, he spoke by phone with Show publicist and golf writer Terry Moore with whom he discussed his golf background and teaching insights. Here’s Part One of their two-part conversation.
When and where did you give your first golf lesson? It was May 1984 at Green Ridge Country Club in Grand Rapids. Working as an assistant pro for Lynn Janson, I still remember Bill Somerville coming into the pro shop and setting up a lesson with me. A good player, Bill had a tendency to have a lot of lateral motion on his forward swing so we worked on him moving his lower body more through the shot.
How did you first know you were interested in becoming a golf instructor? Well, I was fortunate during my college golf days at Alabama and before Green Ridge, to work as a range assistant at the Golf Digest Schools at North River Yacht Club in Tuscaloosa. I was around such outstanding teachers as Davis Love Jr., Bob Toski, Jim Flick and Peter Kostis. It was an incredible apprenticeship-type experience to listen and soak up what they had to say. They all had their individual styles and I listened and learned each of their methods. My primary job was to tee up shots for the teachers’ students so I was literally only a few feet away from these eye-opening lessons. The people on that staff were so talented.
Incidentally, how did you end up attending the University of Alabama? I wanted to go to a southern school so I could play year round. Golf coach Conrad Rehling recruited me and said I could earn a scholarship if I made the team. I’m proud to say I made the team all four years and I was co-captain my senior year.
As a teacher, what three fundamentals do you stress to your students? Pre-swing fundamentals are the foundation of the golf swing. I’m big on the correct grip, the correct posture, the correct alignment and the correct ball position. With these fundamentals the next objectives are to hit the ball solidly, to have the right shape to your golf swing, the right alignment of the clubface leaving impact, to have the club shaft leaning forward at impact, and finally to have the right sequence in your swing. But if I was simplifying all of this I might say it’s the three S’s: set-up, shape and sequence.
What’s the most misunderstood aspect of the golf swing? I think it’s the thought that in order to hit the ball straight you have to have the clubface square at impact and continue straight down the line through the shot. Well, actually to hit it straight, you must come somewhat from the inside toward the ball and with the clubface slightly open nearing impact and with the body continuing to rotate around the ball. The swing is moving on an arc and not on a straight path back and through the target line. So actually you want to square the clubface to the ball at separation not at impact. It’s an important difference.
Golfers usually don’t spend enough time practicing, so what do you recommend as a regimen?
Breaking down someone’s practice time, I would recommend one-third time spent with the long game, one-third with pitching and chipping and one-third with putting. And within each one of these areas, I would urge one-third time working on mechanics, one-third time with drills, and one-third with tests simulating game or pressure-type situations.
Explain the final piece, the tests simulating game or pressure situations? It’s a matter of transferring practice drills to performance in a game-like situation. For example, after you practice putting you should end up testing yourself with just one ball to various cup locations and gauge how well you lag to that target from different lengths. You need to test yourself making putts so as to get a sense of an actual competitive situation.
You’ve worked with a number of Tour players. What aspect of their games should average golfers notice and emulate? Tour players are methodical in their pre-shot routines. First, they size up the shot and gather basic information such as yardage. Then they’ll size up how they’re playing that day and what they’ll need to do to execute that shot. For example, are they hitting it well enough to pull off a shot to the back left portion of the green? So based upon that quick self-assessment, they’ll decide to attack or to play conservatively to that pin. Tour players are adept at processing that information before every shot.
Contact:
Terry Moore
All About Golf
616-490-0433
terry50moore@gmail.com
