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WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA | They’re out every week. You can spot them a mile away. Not a single LPGA Tour pro-am goes by that at least one man with a single-digit handicap doesn’t show up on the range believing with the faith of the Jesuits that he is at least as good, if not better, than the pro with whom he’s about to play. Maybe the short game needs a little practice but give him a week and he’s convinced he can hang. At the very least, he knows with all his heart and soul that, tee to green, he’s longer, stronger and can hit it closer than the women. These are the guys who still carry 2-irons they are more likely to use to kill snakes than hit good golf shots; guys who once flew a 7-iron 190 yards downwind in Denver and now tell everyone that’s their carry distance; guys with dry-cleaned golf shirts who look like they just stepped out of a PGA Tour Superstore ad.
These are the guys who also are surprised, not always pleasantly, by just how good their LPGA Tour pros end up being. For some it’s a revelation, scales falling from the eyes of the misguided. They walk away from the experience as steel-forged fans, more likely to tune into an LPGA Tour event on television than anything else on the networks. For others, the realization that the women of the LPGA Tour are better than all but a handful of elite amateur men is a 3-inch nail through the skin of an inflated ego. They might not pick up a club for a month.
There was a time when the NHL and NASCAR had the most fan-friendly athletes. That crown has rested on the heads of LPGA Tour players for the better part of a decade now.
I played with Anne van Dam last week at Kingsmill Resort. And while I long ago gave up any pretense of being competitive, at age 58 I’m still proud of the fact that I played some college golf and was decent for a spell. I’m certainly not the “I’m better than you” guy. I don’t even own a visor. My goal in this and every LPGA Tour pro-am I play is not to embarrass myself in front of the players that I cover and have come to know through the years.
Van Dam’s beaming Dutch smile met me on the first tee, an old friend who couldn’t wait to get out with a group of guys she’d never seen take a swing. All the players are unfailingly polite and engaging. There was a time when the NHL and NASCAR had the most fan-friendly athletes. That crown has rested on the heads of LPGA Tour players for the better part of a decade now. So, van Dam’s engagement was no surprise.
What did surprise me was her vice grip. Her handshake feels like a blood pressure cuff. And from the look in her eyes, you know that there’s enough squeeze left to break a few bones if the situation warrants.
I’d seen her hit balls live since she came out on tour as a rookie in 2019 and watched her swing since she became a social-media sensation, pounding tee shots with a swing the Twitterati called the best in golf. But nothing prepares you for the reality of hitting the best drive your body and modern equipment can produce and being outdriven by 50 to 70 yards. Not once or twice, but all day.
“I don’t look at golf swings out here,” said Kendall Dye, an experienced LPGA Tour player who also is an outstanding teacher. “But I watch that one. A lot.”
What you see from van Dam is not a swing like those you saw at Kiawah. There’s no violent thrashing; no bulked-up overpowering; no whiplash recoil that makes you wonder how the shaft doesn’t snap. Instead, you see what we always thought golf swings were supposed to be: perfect mechanics, positions you would print out and put on a wall, and timing as smooth and powerful as the lapping waters of the James River.
“You just look at her and say, ‘That’s an athlete,’ ” LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King said of van Dam. “Golfer probably isn’t the first thing you think when you see her, maybe a volleyball player, track and field, or a swimmer. Tall, strong, you get the feeling that she’d be good at any sport.”
And, unlike some players who have no idea why they are so good, van Dam is a student of the game, a thoughtful analyst who can articulate the nuances of her swing, and yours.
“Because I’m a tall player, it’s important that I keep the club on plane and keep the (club) face square, so it looks more upright and rounded than some of the swings you saw in past generations where the club dropped inside and released,” she told me.
When I followed up by mentioning my generation’s obsession with Ben Hogan, she said, “That’s what I mean. With modern equipment, I get the club more up than around than players from that generation. And I try to keep it in front of my chest the entire time so that all the speed comes from gaining width and rotating as fast as I can.”
Just like that, I had a golf lesson that I will use for the rest of the year, if not longer.
A lot of amateur men should do likewise. Leave the ego in the trunk of your car. Watch, listen, and learn from LPGA Tour players like Anne van Dam.
Top: Steve Eubanks with Anne van Dam at Kingsmill Resort
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