Rinker’s Golf Tips Bill Davis Top 100 Teacher, remembering Payne Stewart who passed away 15 years ago October 25th. Bill Davis transferred from Florida State to Florida after his freshman year and found a team in Gainesville that was loaded with good players; Andy North, Andy Bean, Gary Koch, and Phil Hancock to name a few. After college, Bill turned pro and played for about five years. During that time he was mentored by Ken Venturi who taught him the art of shots within six yards of the green. Bill became known for that so he wrote his thesis on the “Art of Chipping” and became a Master PGA Professional while at Shaker Heights in Ohio. Bill said you can always argue with chipping whether you use your lower body or not, and he agrees on the side that the lower body is not used on chipping, and it’s just an arm and hand motion, just like long putting. So, if you had a 50 foot putt you wouldn’t use your lower body, so to some degree Bill defines chipping as a long putt. When you get 7-8 yards off the green, you can pitch the ball and start to use your lower body up to 30 yards, coordinating the feet with the arms and hands with more weight on the front foot.
Bill has mentored many teaching pros and I asked him who his mentors were. He said Craig Shankland, who he worked with for five years, Jim McLean who helped him to organize his thoughts, Dick Harmon, Ken Venturi, and George Fazio. “In the old days they used to call them nuggets,” Bill said. Bob Toski told him he used to play nine hole practice rounds with Jimmy Demaret and every time Jimmy would give Bob two nuggets. So, after 30 practice rounds Bob had 60 nuggets! Bill Davis is also known as a playing lesson coach and he said if you did nothing else other than change the clubs that people were using for different shots, he could help a 90 shooter shoot 85 by just changing the club selection for 18 holes. “There’s a lot to be learned especially for high school and college players by holding their hand and taking them out on the golf course. A lot of nuggets we can give them.”
I asked Bill, “Why don’t people improve?” Bill said they don’t stick to something long enough for it to make a change. A lot like a diet and exercise program. Some people don’t want to do that. The ones that do improve. It takes a long time for someone to learn a song on an instrument. Everything is about learning skills. Bill and I have both worked extensively with Bob Toski who he quoted, “Where is there more touch, in your shoulders or your hands?” People say they used their hands too much and Toski would say, “You didn’t use your hands correctly.” The better player knows how to use his hands to create the desired shot.
Lastly we were remembering Payne Stewart, and Bill talked about our friend, Chuck Cook, who was Payne’s teacher. “Chuck had to be very creative when it came to Payne because of Payne’s short attention span, so he came up with the idea, every five balls he changed what he was doing.” Many people practice too much block practice, or the same thing over and over again. Block practice is great in the beginning, when you are learning a skill, but later you want to practice more randomly to continue your development. I mentioned E. Harvey Ward, who Payne worked with before Chuck, and Harvey was a “picture” coach in that he would have you hit a particular shot shape instead of telling you what to do mechanically. Harvey would create a picture like a high draw and a good player’s brain and body can figure out how to do that which was perfect for Payne. Bill Davis can be reached at 561-346-6721 or billdavis1214@comcast.net