Good afternoon, all.

This morning, I got up at 5:30AM, played nine holes, practice my short game for thirty minutes and took a golf lesson – all before 11AM. What can I say – I am a golf nut.

I want to tell you about my golf instructor, Rob. I started working with Rob about five years ago and have taken lessons from him off and on ever since then.

Now, understand, I played golf and developed my own game for almost thirty-five years before I took a single lesson. In fact, my first lesson ever was on the Carnival Paradise – somewhere, I still have a VHS tape of that lesson.

Anyway, when we moved to western Chester County, PA, I began playing at Wyncote, a Scottish Heathlands style course that I have grown to love. At the time, Rob was the Head Professional at the course. His friendly manner and my inability to get rid of certain flaws in my game finally led me to decide to take lessons. I approached Rob and we started in.

From the beginning, Rob has been willing to work with me, rather than trying to shape me into something I am not. I know that I will never be a professional golfer, but I love the game. The challenge of playing against the course and knowing that I can improve keeps me coming back.

Thankfully, my self taught swing was not too bad – Rob made a few tweaks, primarily to stance and my balance, and improvement came immediately. Over time, we have worked on putting, short game and, today, the longer clubs.

Now, Rob has fitted me twice for new clubs. The first time was at Wyncote – I bought a set of Callaway X-18s from Rob, 1/2 inch over standard length and two degrees upright. The fitting took over an hour and we tweaked until we got things right. The new clubs were a significant improvement over my old clubs, which I had bought at 2nd Swing, a used golf club store that is now out of business.

Rob and Wyncote mutually parted ways last season – a fact that I was not particularly happy with, but realize that these things happen. I was glad to discover that Rob had landed at the local Golf Galaxy store as the store’s PGA professional. My happiness was not just because I could reconnect with Rob. It also had to do with the fact that the situation was great for Rob – he has two young children and being a course professional is not conducive to a home life. Course professionals work ungodly hours, giving lessons, running the pro shop, etc – all without really getting paid what they probably are worth.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I started taking lessons with Rob again this season – so far we have tweaked my swing again, fit me for new, custom built clubs designed to lessen the stress of the golf swing on my low back, worked on my short game, and today we dealt with longer clubs.

What I like most about Rob is that he listens to me and respects what I have to say. He does not dismiss what input I give him, as some golf teachers do – rather, he accepts that I am an intelligent individual who loves the game of golf and actually thinks about swing mechanics. He understands what I am relating to him and he can usually come up with a means of fixing the problem.

So, if you are a golfer, I hope that you have a golf teacher as good as Rob. He is a Godsend and a friend – thank you, God, for giving me a friend and teacher like Rob.

BTW – I brought the issue about Tom’s unsolicited opinion up to Rob today – he told me that I was not the first person that had complained about Tom’s behavior to customers, but, since Tom was only going to be there another week, it was not worth doing anything about it. I won’t miss Tom.

Anyway, another day with golf in my life – a good day. I have a 6:30AM tee time tomorrow morning and there is a good chance that I am going to play 36 holes again.

As golfers say – fairways and greens, my friends, fairways and greens.

Be good all – until next time

JustJon