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Bill
Strausbaugh, many years the pro at Columbia Country
Club in Maryland, was my first mentor in the business
of teaching golf. Some of you may have heard of him,
as he was named Teacher of the Year for the PGA in the
early 90's.
Bill
used to say that his job is not to teach people how to
play golf, his job was to teach people how to learn to
play golf. I'll admit, it took me many years before I
fully understood what he was saying.
The
same advice was given during biblical times "Give a
man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish
and he eats forever".
I have
heard both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods say that they
learn something every time they go out. It might be
how to play a particular hole, or how a chip reacts
out of different kinds of grass.
Two
time US Open winner Curtis Strange had similar advice
from his father: "He told me to learn something every
time I stepped on the golf course", says Strange, "And
that's something I've never forgotten. I try to learn
something every time. And it could be about anything".
The
point is, when you stop learning, you have stopped
improving. I suggest you keep your eyes and ears open
when you play, and try to cultivate the learning
mindset. That can be said in another way, "don't make
the same mistake twice!" |
