Rinker’s Golf Tips May 4th Top 100 Teacher Brian Mogg. Brian Mogg’s father purchased five lessons from the local pro in Tacoma, Washington for his 13th birthday. That got him hooked on the game and fairly soon his was playing some pretty good golf. Brian played at the Ohio State University and when he was a freshman, they were the defending national champions. 12 guys that were on the team while Brian was there, went on to play the PGA Tour including John Cook, Joey Sindelar, and Chris Perry. After missing the Tour school Brian went to play in Asia as many Americans did. He said it was a very rich experience and most of the guys that played well in Asia, ended up getting their cards the next fall. Brian qualified for the Tour in his third try and was a rookie in 1986 where he missed 18 cuts by one or two strokes. There were not a lot of positives to take away, but the learning opportunities would end up helping his students later. He said that so many things that he helped his students with, go way beyond their golf games, and he was always hard on himself. Brian told a story about playing in the International where he had a birdie putt on 17 to get to the cut number. His recollection was that he hit a good putt, and it lipped out on the high side. He went home to Washington after that and his dad had taped the tournament and Brian watched how he executed that putt on 17. He saw himself swivel his head nine times looking at the hole before he took the putter back and also noticed that he had tensed up. Remember, he thought he hit just a normal putt, so those are some of the mistakes he made, that he is now helping his students with. During his three years on the Tour he moved to Orlando to work with David Leadbetter. At some point David asked him if he wanted to come work with him and he did. That started his teaching career and what a great opportunity to work with the number one coach in the game at the time.
We had some calls and here are some of the highlights. “Better to have too much wind up on the back swing vs too much resistance.” If the lower body is outracing the upper body on the downswing, turn in the left foot for a right handed golfer, and brace into a firmer left side. Have to get arms down first with resistance in the lower body…Where your nose is will determine the bottom of your arc. Too far back and you will hit behind it… Want to be free and confident with the driver. Commit with the driver and make a confident swing. You have approximately a 50 yard wide area to hit to where you are not penalized… As far as scoring better don’t want to have a lesson and get knee deep in swing mechanics. Better to go beyond the technical part of the game and have a playing lesson.
We had a caller ask about tempo and Brian told a story about the 2009 Honda Classic. Y’E. Yang was in the last group and called Brian 15 minutes before his tee time and said that he hit it terrible on the range. Y.E. asked him what he could do to get his tempo better. Brian said walk the same, talk the same, and swing the same. Y.E. birdied three of the first four holes and went on to win his first PGA Tour event. Brian said you don’t just look at the golf tempo. Do everything the same, slow and smooth. Brian Mogg can be reached at moggacademy.com. His students have won 26 Tour events.