#RinkersGolfTips SiriusXM March 23 Guests Laurie Rinker, Nathaniel Crosby, and Peter Jacobsen

RinkersgolfTips SiriusXM March 23rd Guests were Laurie Rinker, Nathaniel Crosby, and Peter Jacobsen. My sister Laurie was on first and gave a great tip about how, "weight supports motion" and how important it is to hit off of your front foot when swinging a golf club.

Nathaniel came on in the second segment and talked about becoming the tournament host at 16, at the Bing Crosby National Pro-am at Pebble Beach after his father passed away in 1977. Not only was he in charge of the amateur invitations, but he was in charge of the pairings, which was extremely political.  He also had 25 exemptions to give out to the pros and his father had all these pros that he had met in his travels, that he invited that were not tour pros. A lot to handle for a 16 year old. Nathaniel and I met at the International Four Ball in Florida in the 1970's and we have been friends ever since.

Lastly Peter Jacobsen, ala Jake Trout, came on the show and he talked about how he got started playing golf with his family in Oregon. He said that one of the best golf tips he ever received was from Ken Venturi, and Ken told him to move the ball more forward in his stance. Peter said that it activated his body and motion to be able to get up to the ball move forward in his stance. We talked about the record that Peter set at Pebble Beach when he won hitting 69 out of 72 greens which is still a record. He said his swing coach, Jim Hardy, gave him a tip to aim at the middle of the greens at Pebble Beach, because the greens were tiny. I asked Peter how he got started doing impersonations of players, and he said it was from watching Arnold Palmer on TV and going out and trying to recreate his swing and mannerisms. 

Lastly we talked about our good friend Payne Stewart and all the fun we had in Jake Trout and the Flounders. Peter said Payne had a lot of highs and lows in his life and loved his family and friends. Payne's wife, Tracey, will receive the Bob Jones award later this year.

#RinkersGolfTips SiriusXM March 16th Guest Top 100 Teacher Brian Manzella

#RinkersGolfTips SiriusXM March 16th Guest Top 100 Teacher Brian Manzella

Brian Manzella grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and got started playing golf with his dad (like a lot of us) when he was around 10 years old. His dad was a weekend golfer who had a five handicap. Brian played a little bit of college golf and at the age of 20, took an assistant pro job at City Park in New Orleans. The pro there was 71 year old Henry Thomas and he was king. Brian talked about the good old days, when the tour would play an event in a city, and the head pro would be invited to play in the field with the Hogans and Sneads. Henry Thomas knew all the players and was quite a teacher and stick himself. Mr. Thomas was doing a convention at the club one day and needed someone who could work a camera. Brian became part of the show, and showed Mr. Thomas that he could interact with the guests and help them with their games. Before this, Brian was working with the juniors as kind of a talent scout for Mr. Thomas. Brian said, "There is nothing better to teach than little kids. You can't tell them too much, there attention span is minimal, and the lesson can go bad really quickly." Brain recalled a junior program where he had a lesson with Tour player Johnny Pott, and how that impacted him in a positive way. 

I asked Brian about how he got started with the book, "The Golfing Machine" by Homer Kelly that was published in 1969. He said he remembered an article in Golf Digest in the early 1980's called, "Players and their Bibles." Dave Stockton had "Psycho cybernetics," Larry Nelson had "Hogan's Five Fundamentals" and Bobby Clampett had "The Golfing Machine." Brian played in a college event in Jackson, MS and finally found the book, which wasn't easy in those days. In 1987 Brian flew out to California to see Bobby Clampett's instructor, Ben Doyle. Ben taught him that you can never underestimate a student. While they may not be able to hit the ball as far as a pro, they could hit it as pure as a pro, just not quite as often. Ben and Brian became fixtures at the PGA Coaching and Teaching Summits after this.

I asked Brian about the lower body in the golf swing and how ground force is used. He said the center of pressure moves to the back foot by the first parallel or when the shaft gets parallel to the ground on the back swing. If it's not then, it's just after that first parallel. On the forward swing, when the lead arm gets parallel to the ground which isn't that far forward, the weight has already moved as far forward toward the target as it is going to. He simply stated the swing is, "Right foot hands to the right ear, Left foot hands to the left ear" for a right handed golfer.

Brian ended with a tip for a caller about how to stop coming over the top. He talked about how Hogan, at the start of his down swing, turned his hips even more away from the target, and he backed into the ball with his left hip. His left hip moved forward and his hips finished their rotation on the back swing. He said that has helped a lot of people. Brian Manzella can be reached at BrianManzella.com.

#RinkersGolfTips recap Show March 9th w Tom Stickney

#RinkersGolfTips SiriusXM March 9th Guest Top 100 Teacher Tom Stickney

Tom grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and lived on the 15th hole at Colonial Country Club where we used to play the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic. The first one that I played in was in 1981 where Jerry Pate won and then did a swan dive into the lake on number 18. Around 12-13 Tom started to get more serious with his golf game. When it came time for college he wanted to stay close to home, and went to the University of Memphis to play golf. He recounted how much he enjoyed helping his teammates on the range, and when he graduated, he didn't have the passion to follow in his father's footsteps as a banker. His father told him to find out what he was passionate about and the money would come. 

Tom played the mini-tours for awhile and one day he played with a guy that shot 64 when he shot 74. As fate would have it, the owner of the Houston-Levee course in Memphis, who was a pro golfer and wanted to play instead of teach, asked Tom if he wanted to come work with him and teach at his club. It was a great opportunity at a 45 hole facility with 1000 members. There was another pro there named Charlie Long, and he introduced Tom to the Golfing Machine, a book by Homer Kelley published in 1969. Charlie had worked with Ben Doyle, an authorized instructor of the Golfing Machine who worked with Bobby Clampett. Later Tom would meet and work with another disciple of the Golfing Machine, Mac O'Grady, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour.

Tom is currently the Director of Instruction at the Big Horn Golf Club in Palm Desert, California and in the summertime at the Promontory Golf Club in Park City, Utah. He uses a Trackman launch monitor, but still relies on his eyes and video to help students feel the difference between what he has taught them, and what they used to do. He said, "If the student can't feel the difference, I haven't taught them." He always asks his students what their goals are with the whole point of lowering their scores. Visit www.TomStickneyGolf.com for more information.

#RinkersGolfTips Show recap March 2nd with Mike Bender

Sunday, March 2, 2014 #RinkersGolfTips @SiriusXMPGATour Guest Mike Bender

Top Teacher Mike Bender was my guest this week. We discussed how he got started in golf at age 12 in California with his mother and then in the summertime with his dad in Iowa. There was a great amateur circuit in Iowa and a great place for Mike to learn the game. He was first introduced to golf instruction by Ben Doyle, who was a Golf Machine disciple. Then it was David Leadbetter and Mike Adams who he met playing the mini-tours in Florida. Once Mike qualified for the Tour for the 1987 season, he met Mac O'Grady who was a two-time PGA Tour winner, and another Golf Machine disciple. 

Mike's first teaching job was in the summertime in Waterloo, Iowa. The head pro called him and asked if he wanted to come teach, which he did. Mike would continue to pursue a playing career and win the Iowa Open before qualifying for the Tour in the fall of 1986. After three years on the Tour, Mike would again return to teaching in Iowa in the summertime and at the old min-tour hangout in Orlando, Cypress Creek in 1990. The rest is history. Mike was named National PGA Teacher of the year in 2009 and in 2011 ranked as one of the games five best teachers by Golf Digest. He has worked with many Tour players including former Masters Champ, Zach Johnson. He has a new 5000 sf learning center at Magnolia Plantation in Lake Mary, Florida with fitness, video bays, and a putting studio. Outside Mike has built a distance wedge range with zones for skill tests. Many of you may remember the wedge shot that Zach Johnson holed out on 18 to beat Tiger in his tournament last fall. Mike said the best wedge players have low trajectory with the ball back in their stance, with a shallow angle of attack. I couldn't agree more!