Coaching Specialties

Short Game

 

I’ve been working with professionals and competitive amateurs on short game and putting for more than 20 years. My students have won nine PGA Tour events while working with me, and I’ve helped more than a dozen players on every major professional tour.

Junior Golf

I’ve helped more than 50 players earn Division I college golf scholarships since 2000. Three of my students have won the Illinois High School State Championship, and five have become AJGA Champions. In 2011, I initiated a school that completely focused on playing the game. I brought one of my longtime students, four-time PGA Tour winner Michael Bradley and his caddy, Noah Zelnick, to Cog Hill for two days of pure on-course instruction. This program was designed for high-level high school, college and club players to learn how professionals practice and their approach to playing. Each attendee played with Michael for 18 holes over the two days, and he spent time going over the concepts that were covered in the morning sessions.

Much of my junior teaching takes place in what I call a Skill Building Session. I offer two types of Skill Building Sessions—one for high school, college and adult players, and one for a younger players age 7-13. Skill Building Sessions are small groups of four to six students over two hours. They’ve been instrumental in creating actual golfers, not just lesson-takers. I also run advanced player workshops all summer for groups of juniors who want to practice together and get attention they otherwise would have trouble scheduling individually. More than 100 junior players also play in Cog Hill’s award-winning PGA Junior League program—which has qualified for Nationals each of the last four years.

Research

 

In 1999, I started conducting putting research in a studio retrofitted into Cog Hill’s venerable teaching barn, and I have steadily built the studio into one of the nation’s most advanced. It started with my patented Dynamic Impact Indicator, which uses a laser to pin point the orientation of the putter face at impact showing both loft and direction. In 2006 I added a SAM Puttlab and in 2008 a SAM Balance Lab—a force plate that shows where a student’s weight is through the stroke. After getting a Quintic Ball Roll in 2010, I could measure the putter, the ball, and the player’s weight distribution. In 2015 when I bought a GEARS 3-D motion capture system, which I use to measure what each segment of the body is doing during a putting stroke. One of the most important fixtures in my putting lab is the Putting Robot. The robot has been instrumental in numerous research projects, like the one I discussed in the keynote presentation at the 2017 PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit on the relationship of path and face to the starting direction of a putt.

Game Improvement

 

Teaching golf certainly involves improving a player’s swing, and I do plenty of that. But I pride myself on working to improve a player’s entire game, from swing to short game to decision-making to scoring. I’m proud of the record my students have accumulated. They take what we work on to the course and shoot their best scores when it matters—whether that’s at a PGA Tour event, a high school tournament, the second flight of the club championship or a regular Saturday match with some friends.

Consulting

 

Coaching is all about communicating and mentoring. I’ve been fortunate to learn from some of the best in the game over the last 30 years, and it’s my goal to share as much of that as I can. I’m available to consult with parents of competitive junior players to offer an outside perspective on potential for college competition. I have also worked with many fellow instructors to help plan and build indoor teaching facilities. I understand how to match technology and use for the student with a budget, and I enjoy being a resource that can help another coach avoid some of the common pitfalls that come when integrating new technology into a teaching program.