BY MATTHEW RUDY
Dave Stockton Sr., PGAPGA of America Golf Professional,Stockton Golf,Redlands, California
There’s no shortage of old-school players and coaches who will quickly tell you how much better things used to be. Two-time PGA Champion Dave Stockton has plenty of fond stories of the old days, but don’t count the 84-year-old player-turned-coach as one of those stuck in the past.
Stockton has always been open to trying things other players weren’t sure about. He was among the first tour professionals to put metal woods in play, and he knew by feel and his own tinkering that a grooved face on a putter produced a cleaner roll years before data could prove it.
Ping Founder Karsten Solheim once sat down next to him on a plane and asked why he was using a putter with five degrees of loft — double what most players played. Stockton had no answer other than he tinkered with his putter until he could see the face the way he liked and it rolled the ball the way he wanted.
That willingness to learn – and to let evidence change his mind – is still very much intact more than seven decades into the game. Stockton’s son, Ron, is part of a team developing a ball that has built-in sensors that produce analytics that evaluate the quality of a player’s stroke and roll on the putting green. The senior Stockton immediately understood how the data could help players improve faster, even if he wasn’t exactly sure how to download the app onto his iPhone.
“I can sure teach a hell of a lot better, a lot quicker,” says Stockton, who has coached Rory McIlroy, Annika Sorenstam and Phil Mickelson among dozens of major winners. “All I’ve ever done is look for answers and figure out ways to help people get those answers for themselves. I’m all for anything that helps that happen.”
Stockon measured his own stroke using a variety of putters from different eras – the Ray Cook he used to win his two PGA Championships (in 1970 and 1976), the Otey Crisman mallet he played in college at USC, and the Odyssey he won with as a senior – and could immediately see the differences in face composition and how they affected roll.
“The ball talks to me now,” Stockton says. “Where it used to be we had to guess about how things might change, now we have the ability to know. That’s going to be a tremendous help for teachers and players. I’m having a conversation with a student that’s backed up by something real, and we can both see it.”
The teaching philosophy underneath it hasn’t changed. Stockton has always believed in simplicity, feel, rhythm and trust. But there’s a great lesson in being flexible about using new tools to help players, even if you’re considered one of the best putters and putting coaches of all time.
The ball is scheduled to come to market this summer, but this new piece of technology – no matter how advanced – isn’t the biggest takeaway for coaches looking to develop their skills. For Stockton, it’s paying attention to details, changes and connections that others might not be noticing. That’s something that builds way more than golf swings.
“This has always been a people business for me,” says Stockton, who is known for his ability to relate with and make comfortable anyone from U.S. Presidents and C-suite execs to everyday golfers.
“When you keep learning, people want to be around you, and they want to hear what you have to say. That might mean anything from taking a speech class to just being willing and determined to ask more questions than you answer.”
