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Article Excerpt
Texas golf is already off to a big start for the 2003 season. New courses, new equipment, new opportunities to awe, educate, and even embarrass yourself and your golfing abilities lie ahead. The annual Texas PGA Tour swing is imminent; golf's great players will roam the Lone Star State, showing their considerable talents and playing for multimillion-dollar purses. Texas has always been rich with top professional and amateur players, and certainly more champions will follow this year, perhaps including PGA pros Justin Leonard or Harrison Frazar, maybe Matt Weibring among the younger set, or even Lee Trevino or a rejuvenated Bill Rogers on the senior circuit. To get you ready for another golf season, we offer this 2003 golf primer, a simple checklist for golf readiness.
First you'll find out about Texas' top teachers of PGA Tour players, then a look at what to expect on the ever-changing equipment scene, places to see professional golfs best up close and personal, plus some Lone Star links. Then, for a change of scene, we make a few extra stops in Colorado and Arkansas on the way to a highlight journey through the Pacific golf paradise of Hawaii.
So here's to another great golf season. Fairways and greens for everyone, and may all your putts be short ones. See you on the first tee.
Texas Tour Teachers
Lone Star golf fans easily recognize the names of Fred Couples, Rich Beem, Colin Montgomerie, Justin Leonard, and Harrison Frazar, but ask about Paul Marchand, Cameron Doan, or Randy Smith, and you're likely to get some blank looks. If it hadn't been for Marchand, Doan, and Smith, though, you might not have ever heard about those heralded golfers. That's because those golfers, most of whom have won major championships, turned to their Texas-based instructors to find their best game. The number of top tour-caliber teachers in Texas has a lot to do with the state's reputation for producing some of the best professionals anywhere.
Marchand started working with Couples as the longtime pro at Houston Country Club, then moved over to Shadow Hawk, where he has worked with Montgomerie. "I feel very fortunate to work with gifted players like Fred and Colin," Marchand said. "The main difference in working with them over weekend golfers is they know they can play well, and I know they can as well, and I try to bring it out of them."
Doan started at El Paso Country Club about the same time Beem arrived on the scene as a new assistant pro. After deciding the club pro life wasn't for him, Beem joined the PGA Tour and has won three times, including last fall's PGA Championship, all the while being coached by Doan, now the head pro at Preston Trail in Dallas. Doan took over Beem's instruction from his dad and his longtime teacher at El Paso Country Club. He has enjoyed the experience greatly. "Rich has so much talent, I try not to load him with too much information," Doan said. "He would be considered a classic feel player, so confidence is really important to players on the Tour."
Smith, the longtime head pro at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, guided Leonard to the 1997 British Open title and has Frazar on the cusp of PGA Tour stardom. Smith said the success he had with Leonard and now Frazar keeps inspiring him to work harder at his club, especially with the junior program. "You never know when the next Justin Leonard or Harrison Frazar is out there. I just love to teach and work with players of all abilities."
Other Texas-based teachers include Frisco's Hank Haney, who has guided Mark O'Meara's career for decades; Austin's Chuck Cook, who has worked with dozens of top players, including the late Payne Stewart; San Antonio pro Bryan Gathright, who works with Notah Begay; and short-game wizard Dave Peltz of Austin, who has founded an industry unto himself on his putting and chipping principles.
Although Texas tour teachers work with the game's best players, they don't mind starting with struggling beginners either. "The relative measure of success is so much greater with beginning players," Marchand said. "On the PGA Tour there isn't that much difference between the top 10 and 110, maybe just a stroke a week or something you can barely see."
Equipment Update
When Texas golfers head to the stores to check out the latest and greatest equipment of 2003, they will likely keep hearing two phrases: "Bigger truly is better" and "Size does matter." For the second year in a row, club companies and golf stores of all shapes and sizes are preaching the mantra of bigness to help the weekly golfer.
"This year you're really going to see companies pushing the envelope on the size of their clubs," said Fred Quandt, vice-president and general merchandising manager for Austin-based Golfsmith. "You've already got companies offering drivers of 450cc and 460cc, which is bumping up right against the legal limit."
Clubs and hitting surfaces are getting bigger to make it easier for the golfer to attack the ever-growing Lone Star links. "The clubs are bigger than ever because they are easier to hit and more forgiving with bad shots. That's what the regular golfer wants to see," Quandt said.
Among the Texas companies leading the charge with larger clubs is Plano-based Adams Golf, which has seen huge success already with the new Redline driver and Idea irons. "Not only does the Redline driver reach the limits, but the 460cc head provides maximum forgiveness," said Adams president and founder Barney Adams. "Adams Golf is the first premium equipment company to introduce a 460cc driver with the precise mass properties that deliver this kind of distance, forgiveness, and...
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