Rinker’s Golf Tips Laird Small Top 100 Teacher, PGA Teacher of the year 2003, and the Director of the Pebble Beach Golf Academy. Last Friday Laird gave me a tour of the new Pebble Beach Golf Academy, which opened January 2014, and was 20 years in the making. Situated on 15 acres, the Academy has a 350 yard range, putting greens, bunker areas, and a 3000 sf building with an “amazing necklace of technologies.” One area is dedicated to putting with a Sam’s Putting lab and a Quintic launch monitor. Want a higher launch on slower greens and a lower launch on faster greens to get the ball on top of the grass and rolling. Other things that can affect how far the ball rolls include insert or not, grooves in the face or not, and how soft or hard the ball is. Two other hitting bays have robots, where the robot can build a swing for any type swing motion or philosophy, simulators, V1 Video, and flightscope launch monitors.
Laird grew up on the Monterey Peninsula, worked at the Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club, and there he became friends with Golf Machine Instructor, Ben Doyle. Ben taught him how to swing the club efficiently and helped him to understand the mechanics of the swing. Ben talked about “unemotional execution” of the shot where a tight tee shot becomes more challenging, and how to not interfere with yourself. Later Laird would work with Jim Flick who would have a different philosophy and talk about the swing from a feel stand point. This layering of information, along with others, formed a great foundation.
I asked Laird, “How do people get better?” and he said we have to help people identify. “Players get stuck in misunderstanding concepts because they don’t understand the words behind what things mean. They think they have the information, then ask the coach for more information, when they really didn’t have it to start with, or somebody well meaning, gives them something higher up on the spectrum and they don’t have the concepts behind it.” Players have to stay with methods because they are bundled, so they have to stay the course to fruition. If they don’t understand it then they can’t apply it. A coach has to go back to where they are stuck. The whole goal is to get people where they can “fix themselves on the golf course,” because it is going to happen. Coaches have to help people to do this vs being lost out on the golf course.
Laird’s philosophy is, “People are doing what they think they should be doing, otherwise they would do something different.” He believes people can change instantly or on the next ball. It may take four or five balls to change and ownership of that skill takes time. We practice in a multi-ball environment and then go to a single ball environment on the course. Playing lessons clarify purposeful practice. Laird Small can be reached at the Pebble Beach Golf Academy.