Rodney Cole, PGA,PGA of America Golf Course Architect,Rodney Cole Golf,Columbia, Tennessee
Most golfers start reading a green when they reach it. Rodney Cole starts before he’s out of the car.
The PGA of America Quarter Century Club Member and former Teaching Assistant to 2017 PGA of America Teacher & Coach of the Year David Leadbetter brings more than just an instructor’s curiosity about what shots to play and how they will break. Cole carries a second trade that gives him a different kind of insight into strategy. Cole is an accomplished golf course architect who has worked with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw as a shaper and site manager and on his own designs and renovations in Virginia, Texas, Minnesota and Kansas.
Working to develop that “divided eye” across design and technique is the main advice he gives to coaches or players looking for better strategies around and on the green.
“A green complex is a puzzle the designer has already solved, and reading it is a matter of reverse-engineering the puzzle,” says Cole, whose Rodney Cole Golf is based outside Nashville. “As I drive to a facility, I’m already asking myself questions. ‘Is it flat as a pancake? Is there water? Are there mountain ranges?’"
Cole is cataloging the region’s topography before he ever sees the course because gravity doesn’t stop at the property line. At the clubhouse he studies the routing on the scorecard. Water hazards imply routes for rain to run, and where rain runs, the ground – and the ball – tends to follow, especially on older courses.
“If you go back to the Golden Age of golf course architecture 100 years ago, those courses were almost always built with the idea that surface water is the easiest way to drain a golf course," says Cole. “Those designers wanted to work with gravity, not against it.”
Modern courses might try to trick a player by using underground drainage. That requires a few more steps to the process of understanding intent. First, the location of drains indicates a prevailing direction for water to flow. Next, those drains themselves often present challenges when it comes to conditioning and the shots a player is required to hit.
“One of those catch basins in a course in Florida will often catch a lot of water after a downpour, and the lies nearby will be mushy and pocked with divots,” Cole says. “If you’re playing courses like that, you have to be able to identify those conditions and understand which kind of shot reduces the risk of chunking it.”
For example, if your basic short game shot is a shallow one that skids the club along the ground before it gets to the ball, that’s a recipe for trouble in softer, muddier lies. Those shots require a steeper approach angle – as much as 10 to 12 degrees downward.
“Your goal there is to keep the buttons of your shirt slightly ahead of the ball and make sure you’re hitting the ball first to put the spin on you need,” Cole says.
The goal of design is to present players with choices and challenges. The goal of teaching is to give players the tools to choose and execute successfully.
“Learning to play golf is a lot like learning a martial art,” says Cole, who has also worked with longtime PGA of America Golf Coach Stan Utley. “You learn the building blocks and basics, and build from there. When I’m working with somebody, I always start by teaching them that default short game shot they use when they feel pressure, but also encourage them to play lots of different courses and turf conditions to build a library for what they see. You might get into a situation where bumping the ball onto the green with a putter is the wise choice. Getting that wisdom comes from experience and instruction.”
And from knowing how the lay of the land impacts how it plays.
