Self-Sufficiency

Self-sufficiency...The two words that are my alignment, my goal, and the intended result of every encounter I have with a student. Without these words to guide my communication, I am just another teacher trying to impress a student with how much I think I know about golf. How boring is that?

My philosophy owes its personality and character to the manner in which I learned the game, and the environment that I grew up in…which, for the record, is a breeding ground for self-INsufficiency. It is an effort to explain that golf is great because there is nobody else to blame failure or success on but yourself.

In an affluent area, the constant clamor of silver spoons tends to drown out the importance and need for self-sufficiency. The little devil on my shoulder loves the fact that the sport is almost a big, huge “F You!” to every parent who blames me because their kid didn’t make the high school golf team; or every parent who wants to take their kid (who, of course, has more talent in their eyes than Tiger Woods) to another instructor because I’m not doing my job.

Although this philosophy is designed around juniors, it can be applied to golfers of all ages. It emphasizes my role as an instructor and something that is frequently overlooked in a student/teacher relationship: the role of the student. Go figure, huh? You mean to tell me that you can’t just spend $10,000 on golf lessons and training aids and expect to lower your handicap?

For a kid who has been given everything in their life…an allowance, a car, a college education, trendy summer vacations off the coast of a trendier European destination, an eternal “get-out-of-jail-free” card…golf is the classic mind-fuck. It goes against everything that they have grown accustomed to. The best get it, the spoiled usually don’t.

190 yards over water into the wind doesn’t accept a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. A 3-foot, downhill slider doesn’t care how many zeros there are in daddy’s bank account. Those who don’t know anything about self-sufficiency or how to figure out a difficult situation on their own are completely exposed and vulnerable to the virtues of an individual sport.

The best golfers know how to manage themselves, their swing, their mind and their game on their own. After all, there’s no one else to blame.