Robert Scott, PGA,PGA of America Golf Instructor,Royal Oaks Country Club,Houston, Texas
Robert Scott knows first-hand the potential for golf to be intimidating for new players. The PGA of America Golf Instructor at Royal Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, didn’t pick the game up himself until he was 14, which can be a potentially awkward time for an easily- embarrassed teenager.
That’s why Scott incorporates familiar sports movements as a standard part of his coaching protocol, and uses physical training that complements the golf moves he asks students to undertake as a way to make progress more comfortable.
“I believe the golf swing is a throw or a fling, and that’s something pretty much everybody knows how to do,” says Scott, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher in America and Best in State honoree who has spent years refining how he introduces new golfers to the game. “So, I’m trying to teach them, if they don’t know any better, how to throw something.”
That might mean a weighted ball. It might mean a club used like a javelin. Whatever it takes to get the body moving naturally without the ball sitting there, demanding attention, collapsing the whole idea of a golf swing into a single anxious moment of contact.
As Scott says, the moment a student tries to “make a golf swing,” the ball becomes the target. And then the real target – the flag, the fairway, the direction – disappears.
“All of a sudden the ball becomes the really important thing,” he says. “I’m trying to get people to respond more athletically and stop worrying so much about the ball and be into where they want it to go.”
This often takes the form of “homework” away from the lesson tee. Scott sends students to the gym with a simple assignment: Throw light weighted balls against a wall. Not to build strength, although that’s a nice side benefit, but to make the motion more familiar away from the pressure of performance.
“They’re making the movement without consciously trying to make the movement,” Scott points out. “Because once they start trying to make what they perceive as a golf swing, things get a little blurred.”
Working with young players in Royal Oaks’ thriving junior program reinforced the soundness of his approach.
“Every kid is different, and they’re also different from month to month,” says Scott. “I grew eight inches one summer, so I know what it’s like to have your coordination trail behind where your body is. My job is to help a student move better in ways that not only help a golf swing, but everyday life, too.”
One interesting and common wrinkle Scott sees? Parents sometimes raise an eyebrow when their child’s first lesson doesn’t look much like a golf lesson.
“I tell them, I know this doesn’t look traditional, but we’re trying to build motor patterns and habits that are going to help them down the road for a long time,” says Scott. “We’re working on increasing skills, not checking things off a checklist. If you can move more dynamically, golf is just one of the things you’re going to be able to do better.”
Those lessons translate easily to Scott’s adult students, who quickly see gains in how they do everything from hit a fairway wood to go up and down stairs.
“There’s no question that the better you feel day in and day out, the more interest and energy you’re going to have to not just play golf but practice,” says Scott. “All of those things work together to make it a lot easier to enjoy the game. And that’s ultimately what it’s about.
“Yes, I’m as proud as anyone else about seeing a student shoot a great score. But seeing a player who originally came in not moving so great make some speed, play without pain and feel good enough to play the next day is just as big a win.”
