INTERVIEW: GOLF GURUS

By Scott Gummer

Instructors David Leadbetter and Dave Pelz separate the best from the rest.

David Leadbetter and Dave Pelz are the Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer of golf teachers. Two respected masters whose work ethic is outdone only by their passion for that work, they have between them combined to save more shots than most golfers will take in a lifetime.

Some of those shots not taken have led to victories in major championships. Leadbetter’s roster of students includes Ernie Els, Nick Price, Greg Norman, and Tom Watson, while Pelz counts Vijay Singh, Lee Janzen, Tom Kite, and the late Payne Stewart among his short-game school alums. But whether the stakes are a $5 million purse and a 10-year exemption or a $2 Nassau and bragging rights, for both men the end game is the same: If you play better, you’ll enjoy the game more.

A good (or at least improving) golfer is a happy golfer. That simple truth was the impetus behind the creation of the Pinehurst Golf Institute. Scheduled to open in the spring of 2002 at the fabled North Carolina resort’s new No. 9 course, the 30-acre facility will be a one-stop shop for everything you ever wanted to learn about golf. In addition to the acclaimed Pinehurst Golf Advantage School, which is primarily for new and high-handicappers, the new Golf Institute will feature a David Leadbetter Golf Academy and provide a venue for sessions of the Dave Pelz Scoring Game School. The vision for the Institute is that it will be the equivalent of an Ivy League grad school for golf.

Like Arnie and Jack, Pelz and Leadbetter  are not rivals, rather mutual admirers. Prior to the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, they sat for this joint interview to discuss a range of timely topics from why most golfers don’t get better to the mental game to what separates the best from the rest.

Can you describe your teaching philosophy?

Dave Pelz: Ours is simple. We only work inside of 100 yards. We measure the players’ weaknesses at the start of our school, and we pick out the weakest three areas of their scoring game. It could be three-putting, it could be wedge, it could be sand, anything within 100 yards or on the green. And then we work for three days on teaching them how to improve it. We don’t try to make them great putters or great wedge players by the time they leave the school. We want to teach them how to become great wedge players or great putters after they leave the school.

David Leadbetter: Most people come to improve their technique. One has to realize that people do have limitations, whether it be talent level or physical limitations or time to practice and play. What we try to do is design a technique for each individual realizing that, as Dave just said, you can’t make a person do something. All you can do is give them the tools because, ultimately, you are trying to teach people to be their own best teacher. Everybody is different; that is the thing with technique. You can’t cookie cutter it. Sometimes, you can’t get a person to swing like Ernie Els — as much as they’d love to — because there is such a thing as genetics involved. We simply try to tailor instruction to the individual in order to allow them to play to their potential.

What is the biggest obstacle for a mid-handicapper trying to get to a low handicap?

Pelz: I think the biggest problem is they don’t learn the game better. They don’t go to Leadbetter for lessons. They don’t work on their short game. They practice, but either the wrong things or the wrong way. I think it is not that difficult a game that people can’t learn it. Some of the best athletes I’ve ever worked with are not the best players. Some of the poorer athletes turn out to be some of the better players. It’s all about learning and practicing and improving and getting confidence, then getting something that will stand up when you really need it.

Leadbetter: A lot of golfers don’t work enough on their weaknesses. There are a lot of different aspects to this game — long game, short game, mental side, and so on. And the fact is that if you are going to get down to a low handicap, you’ve got to have all the bases covered. A lot of times people really do not understand where their weaknesses are. That’s why it’s important to understand your own game, to find out what your weaknesses are, and to work on them.

What about getting from a low handicap down to scratch?

Leadbetter: When you get down to a very low handicap, you’re talking in very small increments. A lot of people don’t realize what it takes to get there. If somebody is intelligent and works at it the right way, then you can do it. But a lot of people are unrealistic about the fact that this game is difficult. People who are great in other sports, whom I have worked with, always say that golf is the toughest game they’ve ever played because it’s not just athleticism that enables them to become great. Golf is far more than that. There are all sorts of different things you’ve got to contend with. These great players nowadays, they’re really working at all the different aspects of the game in order to become complete players.

Pelz: What David just said is exactly why Tiger Woods is doing so well. I have seen him leave the golf course after witnessing a shot around the greens that he doesn’t know, and he’ll go to the practice range and start working on that shot. And every time you see him, he is working on that shot. That’s what’s happened to his flop shot. He’s taken his weakness and worked on it. Most golfers enjoy working on their strengths because they get strokes from the audiences, their instructors, and their friends. The great 2-iron players love to strike those 2-irons out there. And that’s not what makes you better. It’s your weaknesses in golf that determine your score. It is a complex game, and thank heaven for that, because if it were simple both David and I would be out of a job.

How much of the game of golf would you say is mental versus physical?

Leadbetter: Most other sports are reflex sports where you don’t have time to consider the consequences, you just react. You’ve got to try to get this game into a reflex situation, so if you are habitual in the way you carry out things you’ve got much more chance of being successful. When you get to the level of these players at the PGA Championship, you work on their technique in order to help the mental side of the game so they can just go out and play. They have hit it enough times where they can stand up there and visualize a shot and actually carry it out. When you are teaching, the whole time you are trying to build confidence and get to the point where players really believe in themselves and trust their ability no matter at what level they are playing.

Pelz: I believe much the same in the sense that when you start the game it is mostly physical. You must learn how to swing the club. You must learn how to make contact with the ball. There is no strategy. Then as you get better and better, you work on the mental attitudes and the mental strategies. And when you get to the ultimate point to play your very best, as David just said, you have to have subconscious control of your golf swing mechanics. I don’t believe the mind can hit a golf shot for anybody. I’ve never seen a player will a ball into the hole. On the other hand, your mind can stop you in a heartbeat. It can take the best swing in the world and reduce it to total ineffectiveness. So I think it varies — for every player, for every skill level, and probably for every situation. It is never zero, and it is never 100 percent, because you’ve got to hit the golf ball.

What are the benefits for golfers spending the time and money to go to a school or academy versus taking a few lessons from their local pro and doing time on the range?

Leadbetter: I think they both have their merits. When [golfers] go to see Dave, or they come to see us, you’ve got people in a set environment where they have come and are willing to learn. The problem with most golf instruction traditionally is that a golfer will go to see their pro and take a half-hour lesson and expect the pro to sort of fix them. To some extent, a pro is limited as far as how he can teach because you can only teach so much in half an hour. We have the ability, in a set period of time, to give them a blueprint for what they need to work on. And once that’s taken place, then go see your golf pro.

Pelz: I would like to start by saying that some of my best friends are club professionals. And I don’t think they have a chance in the world of being the best teachers they can be. We don’t ever sell gloves or shoes. We don’t worry about the carts being charged. That’s not on our radar screen. We are simply trying to understand the game well enough to teach it and make it simple enough that golfers can learn it and improve their score and, therefore, enjoy the game more. My whole life is focused toward studying this game, understanding it, and teaching it. Listen, I don’t care how smart you are, experience matters. David Leadbetter is not David Leadbetter because he screwed up a whole bunch of people’s games. He has helped a lot of players, and he’s found out along the way, as I have, what doesn’t work. And it is just as important to know what doesn’t work as what does.

What do you think people should look for in a golf teacher?

Pelz: I think it’s reputation. It’s word of mouth. You don’t want to believe all the ads you read. In teaching, it’s just like manufacturers; the ads are made to suck people in. Success breeds success. People who study it enough, devote themselves to it enough, and work hard enough, really know the true answers and the better ways. You want to get with them and get those applied to your own game so you don’t waste your time practicing the wrong thing.

Leadbetter: Obviously reputation. You have to go by reputation. And somebody who really has an interest and a passion in teaching. Somebody you find easy to communicate with. That’s a big part of it. There needs to be a certain chemistry between student and teacher. And it needs to be somebody who really cares about you as an individual and wants to help your golf game. It doesn’t take long to figure out if somebody really has your interest at heart or is just doing it to make money. Because, for the most part, golf professionals are truly dedicated to the game and are there to help people enjoy it more.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

Leadbetter: It’s the challenge. Trying to get inside people’s minds and helping each and every individual you work with to play a little bit better. That is very rewarding no matter what their level of play. I never went into it initially with the idea of making a lot of money out of the game. It was just, “Hey, I enjoy helping people.” It is getting a smile on people’s faces. I just have a passion for teaching. I love teaching and communicating the same information to different people.

Pelz: I love studying the game and research. That is my first love. My background was in physics. I did space research for NASA for 14 years and then I turned to golf. If left alone, [research] is what I would go do. Now, just as with David, the thrill in most of my days is seeing people succeed, improve, and get better. Probably my biggest thrill is an 83-year-old who left our school and won a 72-hole tournament by shooting his lifetime low round in the third round, and then beating it in his fourth round. I love that, but I also love the diversity. See, Leadbetter set the standard. Years ago, nobody made much money teaching. David set the standard by having a big enough name and by doing a good enough job that people really considered it valuable. For the rest of us in the teaching game, he has made it possible for us to make a good living, while doing the very things that we love to do most.

What is the best nugget of advice you could give that would benefit every golfer?

Leadbetter: I think what golfers need to do is play more relaxed, free from tension, with a lot less thought. Obviously, technique is important. But, when you get down to it, a golf swing is a golf swing. In this advanced, high-tech world, where we analyze everything to the nth degree with computers and video, it still boils down to the fact that you’ve got to get the clubhead swinging. From my standpoint, if I can get a player relaxed, get them set up to the ball in a proper manner… I have improved more golfers than I can think of, not changing a thing with their swing, but just getting them to set up in a way to give them a chance at swinging the golf club correctly. Most people, because of their setup being so poor — be it grip, posture, or alignment — have absolutely no chance of making a good swing. A great athlete might be able to compensate for that, but the average person, if you can get them to set up to the ball where they look like they know what they are doing, has a chance of completing the task.

Pelz: I’d have a choice of two. My first would be to say, “Go see Leadbetter.” I think that would benefit almost every golfer I can think of. And the second thing I would say is, “Practice smart.” Practice is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Smart practice is what golfers need to do to improve.

Writer Scott Gummer hopes the time he spent with golf’s greatest teachers will help his game, if only by osmosis. As a father of three with another on the way and a regular contributor to many magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Gummer has precious little time to practice.

THE PELZ FILE
Home: Austin, Texas.
Web site: www.pelzgolf.com.
All-Star student foursome: Steve Elkington, Lee Janzen, Colin Montgomerie, Vijay Singh.
Average number of rounds played per year: Five.
As a player: In four years at Indiana University, compiled a 0-22 record against Ohio State rival Jack Nicklaus.
Latest book: Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible (written with James A. Frank).

THE LEADBETTER FILE
Home: Lake Nona (Orlando), Florida.
Web site: www.davidleadbetter.com.
All-Star student foursome: Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Tom Watson.
Average number of rounds played per year: 12.
As a player: Grew up in Zimbabwe with Nick Price. Started teaching to help subsidize a brief stint on the European Tour.
Latest book: The Fundamentals of Hogan (written with Lorne Rubenstein).