How many golf teachers/coaches for PGA pros were great golfers themselves?

[Naptime]

Just curious, I don't recall the current crop having had great playing careers at the highest levels.  I get that great playing ability doesn't necessarily translate into great teaching ability.

[miamistomp]

Players now make so much money from their game and endorsements that they don't need to teach

People also don't read anymore so why write a book ?

Big thing now seems design a course

[third-times-a-charm]

They have to WANT to teach. Any player with success will have made enough money to not need to work.

[ezpz]

What's the definition of a great golfer? Obviously tour players make so much money that they probably won't bother. Some coaches have had pretty good amateur carreers/ lower tier tour experience, others claim they shoot 67 all the time on instagram ;). 

[pinhigh27]

Who cares? 

 

How do you define great? Michael Jordan isn't the best basketball coach or GM. 

 

I think instructors should be good or have been good at some point, like scratch or better but there's no reason they need to be an elite pro. Usually if you are interested enough to become a good coach then you can also do it yourself and if you hit the ball well you're probably scratch or better. 

 

It's probably detrimental to some degree in terms of playing ability to know about the swing. I think if you're trying to be as good of a player as you can be, it's better to be woefully naive and just do what your coach says. Knowing too much can be dangerous for trying to play your best. There's a reason people talking about playing golf vs playing golf swing. 

 

Other sports would probably do well to adopt coaches who don't have elite playing ability, you see it in NBA where you have more coaches who didn't play in NBA themselves. It's foolish thinking that you need to have been a great player to be a great coach. Most prior great players would be horrible coaches. 

[gvogel]

Jack Grout, who taught jack Nicklaus, played on the Tour and was a friend of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

 

Butch Harmon played, or tried to play the Tour for awhile.  His father, a fine teacher, won the Masters.

 

Grant Waite, who has coached Patty Tavatanakit, played on the Tour.  Pete Cowan played on the European Tour.

[cgasucks]

As far as I know, the only well known teacher that was a pretty good player was Claude Harmon since he was a Masters Champion.  His son Butch is an ok golfer himself but had waaay more success teaching other pros.

 

In general, most well known teachers were mediocre players. 

 

You know the saying, those that can't do...teach.

Edited April 9, 2021 by cgasucks

[3whacker]

Hal Sutton

 

Jack Burke

Edited April 9, 2021 by 3whacker

[jmcf1949]

11 hours ago, gvogel said:

Jack Grout, who taught jack Nicklaus, played on the Tour and was a friend of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.

 

Butch Harmon played, or tried to play the Tour for awhile.  His father, a fine teacher, won the Masters.

 

Grant Waite, who has coached Patty Tavatanakit, played on the Tour.  Pete Cowan played on the European Tour.

I think Butch won a tour event.

[naval2006]

Jacky Burke is the only major winner turned into a teaching legend I’m afraid. If you have an outstanding playing career you won’t care about teaching at all. 

 

Top notch instructors have never had a long go at playing. I can only remember Bob Toski now. 

[Soloman1]

Sigh.

 

 

Miami Dolphins Assistant coach and NFL Hall of Fame nominee... who never kicked a ball in his life.

[rangersgoalie]

Bob Toski

leading money winner one year

won tournaments 

[Bigarch]

Depends on how you define "great" I guess... Dave Stockton, Grant Waite, Stan Utley, Jim Estes are just a few who were top level players and won tour events.  There are others out there who teach at the private club level.

[TheDeanAbides]

Bradley Hughes could play a bit. 

[jgonz69]

Brad Faxon, Brain Henniger, Stan Utley

[MUNIGRIT]

Elkington isn't really a swing coach but helps his guys.

[Foreeeee]

Robert Rock is the most recent one that comes to mind 2 eurotour wins. And still plays a pretty full schedule while having a decent sized roster of euro players that he coaches 

[phizzy30]

On 4/9/2021 at 6:09 AM, pinhigh27 said:

Who cares? 

 

How do you define great? Michael Jordan isn't the best basketball coach or GM. 

 

I think instructors should be good or have been good at some point, like scratch or better but there's no reason they need to be an elite pro. Usually if you are interested enough to become a good coach then you can also do it yourself and if you hit the ball well you're probably scratch or better. 

 

It's probably detrimental to some degree in terms of playing ability to know about the swing. I think if you're trying to be as good of a player as you can be, it's better to be woefully naive and just do what your coach says. Knowing too much can be dangerous for trying to play your best. There's a reason people talking about playing golf vs playing golf swing. 

 

Other sports would probably do well to adopt coaches who don't have elite playing ability, you see it in NBA where you have more coaches who didn't play in NBA themselves. It's foolish thinking that you need to have been a great player to be a great coach. Most prior great players would be horrible coaches. 

Plenty of good to great teaching pros that aren't even close to scratch nor were they in their younger years.  Well, around here anyway.  Being scratch or better for them would be a bonus, but unnecessary as long as they have a good understanding of the golf swing and can fix their students' swing flaws.  This is purely my opinion though.   

[Quasimoto]

The UK John Jacobs was a great player and teacher.

[Christosterone]

Byron Nelson....

 

-chris

[MikekiM]

Chris Riley is a golf coach at USD.  Played in a Ryder cup, so had some success on tour.  Not a swing coach, but I'm sure there's a little of that still going on for him.

[Christosterone]

[3whacker]

17 minutes ago, MikekiM said:

Chris Riley is a golf coach at USD.  Played in a Ryder cup, so had some success on tour.  Not a swing coach, but I'm sure there's a little of that still going on for him.

plus Chris is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet, his wife also played the LPGA Futures circuit after she graduated from college, she is also a phenomenal person...Chris was inducted into the Southern NV Sports HOF, after having a stellar college All American career at UNLV

[NJBigFish22]

I think great athletes in any sport generally aren’t good coaches, they just have an elite ability that is hard for them to teach to others.  

[farmer]

Henry Picard.  20+ wins, two majors, helped Hogan, did a lot of teaching.  As noted above, truly gifted people have trouble relating to the less talented.   What they can do unconsciously is not teachable.

[miamistomp]

 

Paul Runyan

29 PGA wins and a major

 

 

[rangersgoalie]

1 hour ago, miamistomp said:

 

Paul Runyan

29 PGA wins and a major

 

 

Good call this one!

[iBanesto]

Robert Rock is now a coach for some ET players.

 

Decent resume.

 

[aarontl]

Didn’t David leadbetter play on tour?