September 11, 2024 • 43 mins
Mastering the Game: Insights from Top Instructor Dave Bove
In this episode of the Accelerate Golf podcast, I sit down with Dave Bove, Director of Instruction at Tashua Knolls Golf Course and one of Golf Digest’s best young teachers in America. Dave shares his unique approach to golf instruction, combining classic techniques with modern technology to help golfers at every level improve their game.
We dive into his teaching philosophy, rooted in The Golfing Machine methodology, and how he tailors lessons for juniors, adults, beginners, and elite players alike. Whether you’re looking to lower your handicap, become a PGA professional, or simply sharpen your skills, Dave offers actionable advice you won’t want to miss.
If you’re serious about improving your game or breaking into the golf industry, this episode is packed with expert insights to help you get there. Tune in for a masterclass in golf instruction and player development!
Get in touch with Dave: https://davebovegolf.com
Presented by: QSchool Sports https://qschoolsports.com
Music: Intro and outro by Infraction Music – “Silent Night.”
Previous Episodes: https://accelerategolf.com/podcast/
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Hashtags: #pgatour #pgaprofessional #golf #ncaa #junior #college #sponsorship #liv #professionalgolf
Tags: @Straight Shot to College Golf, @College Golf Alumni, @College Bound Golf, @CollegeReviews
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Do you remember that first time Golf Digest reached out to you?
Yeah, I do. And it was, I want to say, 2017.
And it was just a great feeling. It was quite the surprise.
It really validated a lot of things about my career and where it was headed.
And it was quite the honor.
(00:20):
Music.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Accelerate Golf Podcast,
where we explore player improvement and the business of golf through conversations.
(00:44):
I'm your host, Bikram Kapoor, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with
Dave Bovey, the Director of Instruction at the Toshua Knowles Golf Course in Connecticut.
Now, Dave is a very accomplished instructor who has earned numerous accolades over the years.
He's been named one of America's best young teachers by Golf Digest several years in a row.
(01:08):
He earned the 2017 Connecticut PGA Teacher of the Year, and he was named one
of the best instructors in the Northeast in 2021.
So welcome, Dave. Thanks, Vikram. It's a pleasure to be here.
Thank you for making the time, Dave.
So Dave, I'm curious, does Golf Tag just tell you that you're going to be named
(01:31):
on the list before the issue is published?
How do you get to know about these awards?
Words we actually usually only find out about it maybe like a day or two before it goes.
Live whether it's in print form or online
so it's not normally like we learn several
(01:51):
weeks before the general public does it's usually
something that just comes out like a couple days beforehand so everybody's in
suspense till pretty much the last minute that's awesome and do you remember
Do you remember when you were first named to the best young teachers list or
one of the best teachers in America? I mean, it's a great honor.
(02:13):
Do you remember that first time Golf Digest reached out to you?
Yeah, I do. And it was, I want to say 2017. And it was, it was just a great
feeling. It was quite the surprise.
It really validated a lot of things about my career and where it was headed.
And it was quite the honor. And did they tell you what the mechanism of actually
(02:40):
evaluating your work was when they reached out?
Like, do people send in a nomination? Is there an email address your students
can send stuff to? Yeah, the best teachers by state list is all peer reviewed.
And I believe the best young teachers in America, you have to be nominated for that.
(03:04):
And then there's a panel and a whole review process.
Wow. And, you know, to be nominated by your peers and gain their respect is,
you know, one of the most sought after things in any profession.
So congratulations on that, Dave. Yeah, thank you very much.
So let's turn to your current setup. So you're at Toshua Knowles Golf Club,
(03:28):
which is a golf course, which is one of the premier golf facilities in the state of Connecticut.
Can you talk more about what is a director of instruction?
What does he do and where do you fit in in the overall scheme of things at the
golf course? course. Sure.
(03:49):
Yeah. Really my role as director of instruction is to oversee all the adult
programming for the most part.
I get involved in some of the junior golf programming as well,
but my boss, Bobby Brown, the director of golf is a junior golf guru for a number of years.
So junior golf has always been his passion. He's honestly one of the best in
(04:12):
the world at it. And he really, with our assistants, Jay and Bart,
he really oversees that aspect.
I get into a lot of the adult programming and of setting up golf schools and
clinics and just the overall scheme of the instruction at Tashua.
(04:32):
It's really just a dream job for me. It's the course I grew up playing.
I've been at Tashua, you know, 17 or 18 years now as the director of instruction
and been playing at Tashua for over 30 years now.
Wow. And you are a member of the PGA of America.
Can you explain to the listeners what is that organization and what does it do?
(04:57):
Yep. I'm a member of the PGA of America, Professional Golfers Association of
America, which last I saw, there was upwards of 29,000 members.
There's several routes to go through to become a PGA member.
I ended up attending a PGA Golf Management University, Campbell University in
(05:18):
North Carolina, and went the college route where you're simultaneously getting a degree.
My degree was in a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in PGA golf management.
And you get your four-year degree at the same time that you're also pursuing PGA membership.
So you do all the book work, the playing ability test for the PGA simultaneously
(05:43):
with all the credentials that you need from the actual university.
And what made you decide to go down this path? When did you start playing golf?
When did you become interested in becoming an instructor?
Can you just take us through your golf journey? Sure.
I believe I started playing golf somewhere around seven, eight years old,
(06:08):
but I was exposed to it much earlier than that.
Probably started hitting golf balls, I want to say around three or four years old.
I was introduced to the game by my dad, who actually used to have a regular
group. I would play at Tashua, and my interest was there.
He had gotten me some little cut-down clubs. We'd hit balls together.
(06:28):
I started going out on Sunday mornings with him and his group,
kind of walking along or riding along, and that really piqued my interest.
And then about seven or eight years old, I became very serious about the game,
wanting to play and get better.
I played all the way up through high school. And then I think it was freshman
(06:49):
year of high school where I really knew what it was that I wanted to pursue in college.
I know there's a lot of high school and even college kids that are currently
in college right now still struggling.
Trying to figure out what it is they want to do. But for some reason, golf always spoke to me.
And as a freshman in high school, I knew that the PGA golf management program
(07:10):
was something that I really wanted to pursue.
So I was set on that from about 14 years old and never wavered from that.
It's always been my passion.
So when you were learning how to play golf yourself, was it your dad who was
teaching you or did you actually seek a PGA professional?
(07:31):
Yeah, I started out getting introduced to the game by my dad and not that I
took a ton of lessons as I was a junior golfer and growing up,
I did take some from PGA member,
Rich Lanigan, who I didn't find out until many, many years later that he had
also been at one point a golfing machine authorized instructor.
(07:54):
And I didn't know it at the time when I was taking lessons from him.
I found out about it many, many years later after I was already an authorized
instructor of the golfing machine.
So I always found that pretty interesting how thinking back about some of the
things that he said to me during lessons, I could see the influence from the golfing machine.
(08:15):
But at the time, you know, as a 12 or 13 year old, you know,
it was just another part of the lesson at that point.
But looking back on it now, it's pretty interesting how some of the concepts
that we spoke about paralleled a lot of the golfing machine stuff that I went
through when I was going through my,
(08:35):
you know, the authorized instructor process.
Were you a scratch golfer in high school?
Probably sophomore or junior year. year, I would say I was down into the low
single digits, you know, pretty close to a scratch golfer at that point.
And did you take a look at playing college golf as a, as a player instead of
(08:57):
going into the golf management program?
I did. And I was actually recruited to play golf,
and at Campbell university, the problem was they didn't want you to do the PGA
golf management program and play on the golf team simultaneously.
So it was, you really had to choose one or the other.
(09:19):
The coach at the time, I believe also did the men and women's programs at Campbell
and they didn't want you to really pursue doing both at the same time.
So I was looked at by some colleges, but I knew that with the tournament program
that the PGA golf management had had with weekend tournaments for the PGA golf
(09:43):
management program, plus some.
Some inner club type things between other pga golf
management programs things like the jones cup and the
carolina cup there was a lot of competitive atmosphere with
regards to playing in the program so i just decided to go down the pga golf
management route i knew that's something that i was going to make a career out
(10:06):
of i wasn't going to you know pursue trying to go pga tour and qualifying for
web.com tour at the time.
I knew that really teaching was my passion and that's the route I wanted to go.
And which year was this when you were in the PGA Golf Management Program?
(10:27):
I was in the PGA Golf Management Program from 2004 to about 2009, beginning of 2009.
It's about a four and a half year degree. I started out at Florida State University
and then transferred to Campbell.
Originally, Florida State was my number one choice and Campbell was number two.
(10:49):
After experiencing a year at Florida State, it wasn't the program that I had
thought it was going to be.
The golf course was like seven miles from campus. I was a student at the University of Florida.
The director of the program at the time was more from the corporate side.
I think he had worked for Club Corps.
He wasn't necessarily like a hands-on green grass golf professional that had
(11:14):
run golf courses at the ground level and done a lot of teaching.
And I know from when I had visited Campbell, the directors of the program there
had all had lots of experience at golf courses.
And they had David Orr, who was working his way into becoming a Golf Digest
top 50 in a golf magazine, top 100.
(11:38):
Everybody knew how brilliant he was. And it was just a matter of time until
he really got his big break.
And transferring was probably the best thing, best decision I ever made because
I was able to study under David for four plus years and just turned out to be a great experience.
So he was so david was obviously a very good instructor and was that the influence
(12:03):
which told you or you know which made you feel that you would be best as an instructor.
During the years at campbell yeah i would say so
and just the you know it's interesting how
at the time he was when i was at
campbell for at least the first two or three
years big into full swing instruction
(12:24):
and then after a while from him
for him as a competitive player at
one point he always felt like putting is what held him
back so he ended up really transitioning into becoming
a full-time putting coach worked with justin rose
and some other big players on the pga tour and european tour and lpga tour and
(12:45):
he was the one that really sent me down the path of the golfing machine and
Mac O'Grady and attended a bunch of Morad schools with Mac O'Grady and introduced me to really...
Teaching with 3D motion capture technology. And the time that I was at Campbell
(13:05):
was really an interesting time for PGA Golf Management Program students because
you really had a lot of the old school mixed with the new school.
Trackman and Flightscope and a lot of these other big technology companies were
really on the rise, but you still had a lot of the older school components.
So my generation really has the, you know, a good combination of the art and
(13:31):
the science, the old school and the new school.
That's kind of an interesting observation because by straddling the old school
way of actually just eyeballing someone's swing, along with the technology and
all the inputs from the technology side,
you can actually fit in any atmosphere.
Even if there is no technology available, you still have the wherewithal to
(13:54):
help a golfer, correct? Correct. Correct. Correct.
And it, I think it also, I'm huge, a huge proponent of technology and I use
it every day, but there's so many people, I would say a lot of golfers and newer,
younger golf professionals coming up the ranks that are so reliant on the technology
(14:17):
that they also don't necessarily have the diagnostic older school type.
How we would use video analysis at one point to our advantage and not just launch monitor.
And I think a lot of instructors have become totally reliant on it where they've
(14:40):
lost some of the art side of teaching.
That's quite interesting. And tell the listeners about the golfing machine.
Obviously, Bryson DeChambeau is a famous disciple who's tasted a lot of success
as a professional golfer.
But as an instructor, did that really help you?
(15:02):
Can you just tell us what the philosophy is from the golfing machine? Sure.
Yeah, Homer Kelly, the author of
the golfing machine, really started his investigation of the golf swing.
I believe back in the early 20s, early to mid 20s, and it took about 40 years
of his own journey and research before he published the first edition.
(15:26):
The first edition was published in 1969, and there's been seven other editions published since then.
He published up to edition six, and then number seven was published by Joe Daniels
and the golfing machine.
After Homer's passing, he bought the rights to the golfing machine from Homer's wife.
(15:49):
And then I think there's also a newer one that came out recently.
I don't know if it's edition 7.1 or it's called edition eight.
So Joe Daniels and the golfing machine have done two editions.
Homer Kelly did the first six, but he was working at Boeing as an engineer,
and he had been introduced to golf, had a lot of questions from the very analytical
(16:13):
mindset, and went to a lot of golf professionals,
golf teachers in the area, and he didn't feel satisfied with the types of answers
he was getting to the questions that he had.
So it really set him off on a 40-year investigation of the golf swing.
And he put together the golfing machine, which you could think of as almost
an engineering text-based approach
(16:34):
to golf, where it's not laying out one specific way to swing a club.
It's laying out all of the potential options
the 24 components of the golf swing the 3
to 11 variations that each of those golf swings can
have where essentially you could put
together a golf swing and lay
(16:57):
out all of the pieces in the golf swing just by
for instance if we took a look at your swing we could label the
24 components and the variation each one of those components has And it comes
up with just a way of essentially building a golf swing and how there's multiple
variations that you could have that are all very effective. It's not a one-way approach.
(17:22):
There's millions and millions of ways to swing a golf club that could be very effective.
In your career, you know, in the 17, 18 years of you teaching,
do you use the golfing machine, you know, conceptually in your day-to-day instruction?
I would say it's laid a framework, groundwork for my approach to thinking about
(17:49):
the golf swing and the way that I look at it and I'd help to diagnose a golf swing.
I wouldn't say that I pull out the book every single day.
It's more of just something that's become a part of me, coupled with the Morad
investigation and Mack O'Grady,
who he was a disciple of the golfing machine, and then really took it even a
(18:13):
couple steps further where he started really getting into the biomechanics of the motion.
And if homer kelly
laid out the alphabet to the golf swing
mac is really the one that started making words and then sentences and then
paragraphs with it so they are a heavy influence on me as a teacher and just
(18:36):
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(18:57):
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So just transitioning to when you graduated from Campbell University,
how did you end up at Toshua Knowles?
Could you take us on that journey as a fresh graduate and also help other fresh
graduates understand the process of actually finding a good landing spot for them? Sure. Yeah.
(19:25):
When you're in the PGA golf management program, the PGA sets out internship
credits where let's say you get a one credit for every month that you are employed at a,
like a green golf, a green grass golf facility or something in,
you know, that has a PGA member that is on staff.
(19:47):
When you do the PGA golf management program, you're required to do,
I believe it's 16 months of internship, or at least it was when I was in school.
If somebody decided to go right out of high school and become a PGA associate, they could.
They could try to pass the playing ability test and then enroll in golf.
(20:08):
The PGA of America's associate program and go through the levels.
And I believe they would have to do either 30 or 36 months of internship.
So when you're doing the PGA golf management program, as you're getting your
40 year degree, you're only required to do 16 months of internships.
You can become a PGA member much faster.
That being said, you do usually a three month internship after your freshman
(20:32):
year, you do a six month internship during your sophomore year.
And I believe a seven-month internship during your junior or senior year where
you actually take a semester off for those six- and seven-month internships
where you're just working.
And that's why it becomes a four-and-a-half-year degree. So I did my first internship
(20:55):
at Weeburn Country Club in Darien, and I did my six- and seven-month internship
at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich.
Which experienced a lot of the private club, high-end private club in lower Fairfield County.
And I loved it. I loved Tamarack. My boss, Bobby Farrell, had a long lineage of golf professionals.
(21:18):
His dad, Billy, was the head pro at Sandwich Club for 40 years.
His grandfather, Johnny, was the head pro at Baltus Raw for 40 years and also
won, I believe, the 1928 or 29 U.S.
Open in a playoff against Bobby Jones.
So I enjoyed working at the private club.
(21:39):
However, I didn't love the commute to Greenwich while living in Trumbull with all the traffic.
And there happened to be an opening that I saw at Tashua.
I had already known Bobby Brown for a couple of years and John Janik for even
longer. and really liked both of them and applied for the job and just happened to get it.
(22:03):
And so glad that I did because even though John's now at Longshore,
we worked together for 10 plus years and we're still great friends.
And Bobby, I would say, is one of my best friends.
And it's nice being able to work with somebody that you work for,
somebody that you get along with so well. So we spend time outside of the golf
(22:24):
course and just a great working relationship and personal relationship.
How did you evolve into becoming the director of instruction?
Actually, when I was first hired at Tashua, I was hired as the first assistant golf professional.
And I was involved in all aspects of the operation. Started out with a combination
(22:48):
of some junior golf stuff, a lot of private lessons.
The adult programming side of things was not heavily developed when I came to Tashua.
Bobby has always been known for his love for junior golf, and they would do some clinics,
(23:08):
but that's where I really saw an opportunity is expanding the adult side of
things to get that as large as the junior golf program at Tashua.
And so I started adding clinics and golf schools, things like a couples golf
school, a full swing workshop,
(23:28):
a half day short game school, added a get golf ready program,
which a lot of, a lot of courses and pros do.
But I also saw with the get golf ready program.
There were a lot of people, a lot of coaches that were doing that program.
And then after that, like, okay, now you're ready to kind of go off on your
(23:49):
own and, you know, maybe start playing with your friends or just practicing
kind of eventually you'll get on the golf course.
And I saw that as an area that needed to be expanded upon.
I think it's very difficult to get a brand new golfer to go through a get golf ready program.
And then after four or five weeks. It's like, okay, now you're ready to go off
(24:11):
on your own with no on-course experience.
So I added a get course ready class where we'd take the foundation that we laid
out and get golf ready, take them out on the golf course once a week for about
90 minutes in a group setting.
We'd play a scramble format from tee to green where we're going over course management,
(24:34):
engagement shot selection club selection implementing all
the skills you used learned and get golf ready and
bringing that out onto the golf course then i also added a get league ready
program where after get course ready now you're getting used to playing nine
holes once a week with others of of similar ability and really developing that
(24:59):
comfort for getting out onto to the golf course,
there's definitely a barrier to entry.
When somebody goes through GetGolfReady, it's a scary thing for a lot of people
to now trust that they can go tee it up with anybody.
And by the time they're done with these GetGolfReady, GetCourseReady,
and GetLeagueReady programs, now I think they're truly ready and confident and
(25:21):
comfortable to go tee it up with just about anybody.
That's great. And one of the aspects of golf is that as an instructor,
you work with absolute beginners.
And then on the other end, you work with really, really competitive golfers,
whether they're competitive juniors or people on the level of the pro tours.
(25:45):
How do you tailor your instructional approach depending on the level of the student?
It's a great question. And that's something that I like to think that I'm fairly
good at, but it's not something that you don't have to work at.
I would say there are, you're going to get, like you said, an absolute beginner,
(26:05):
or I could have a brand new golfer at let's say 10 o'clock, an intermediate golfer at 11.
And then I'd have maybe a tour player coming to visit me at 12 for two or three hours.
You have to get good at...
The overall diagnostics, the newer, let's say the greener that a golfer is,
(26:29):
the more glaringly obvious a lot of the movement changes,
these gross mechanical movement changes and biomechanical changes are.
And you're working on bigger scale things in the beginning. And then as you
get into elite level players, you're looking at some very fine little movements
(26:52):
that will end up making a big difference.
You also have to be very careful because somebody's career is on the line when you're making a change.
And you don't want to implement something that could potentially harm this person or harm their career.
So you have to get really good at the diagnostics, but then also knowing how
(27:14):
to explain, let's say, the same thing.
Not saying that everybody has to learn the same exact concepts,
but you may be explaining something similar to, let's say, a 12-year-old,
a 25-year-old beginner, and let's say a 35-year-old seasoned vet.
And you have to be able to explain it in a bunch of different ways,
(27:35):
in a bunch of different languages,
we'll say, from the most simplest form to say it's a very analytical person
who wants to know the nuts and bolts of what they're doing, where you have to
get deep into the detail and deep into the biomechanical movements and the physics of it as well.
Which part of the game is the biggest difference in a wannabe pro versus a five
(28:02):
handicapper? That's a good question.
Going from a 40 handicap to a five compared to a five handicap to a tour player.
The five handicap to a tour player is light years, light years different. Yeah.
These tour players, it's unbelievable how good they are.
(28:23):
I would say just all aspects of the game are that much more refined,
going from a 5 to a tour player, which could be a plus 8 handicap.
They're better at ball striking. They're better at low point control.
They're better at predicting curvature and start lines, eliminating big scale
(28:47):
misses, This is better with the short game, better with the putter.
They are just elite, elite ball strikers.
And you look at, let's say, a PGA Tour event on any given Thursday.
Everybody in that field is good enough to win.
(29:08):
Everybody in that field is good enough ball striker to win.
Just how is it going to play out that week? week who's going to end up making
the most birdies and avoiding the most bogeys whose putter gets hot,
but it's amazing how good they are.
So what I was trying to say is going from a five handicap to a tour player is
(29:30):
10 times harder than going from a 40 handicap to a five.
As an instructor, if I come to you and I say, I want to be a tour player,
what is your starting point for someone like me?
If I had a five handicap that was coming to me that was seriously trying to
go down a road where they can play professionally,
(29:53):
that person would probably have to have a decent amount of money saved up because
the first thing they're going to have to do is quit their job and they're going to have to work.
Like golf is their full-time job, 40, 50 hours a week.
They need to be at that golf course. They need to be getting good quality instruction.
(30:16):
They need to be having really, really dedicated practice sessions where they're
using training stations.
They're using objective feedback, filming things, being able to separate feel
from real, playing and practicing to the nth degree.
(30:36):
It would not be feasible for the average five handicap to become a tour player
because they likely would not be able to dedicate the time to trying to do so while also working.
Right, right. Right. Perhaps that's the reason everybody, you know,
(30:56):
says start young because then you can use mom and dad's money to to become really
good when you're a teenager, when you're not really expected to be working.
So that makes sense, Dave. Yeah, I just honestly think the average golfer does
not truly appreciate just how good these guys and ladies are on these professional tours,
(31:22):
especially PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.
But even looking at the Korn Ferry Tour and the Symmetra Tour,
Futures Tour, the quality of these players is unbelievable.
Unbelievable they don't appreciate just how good
they are and how hard it is to do what they do
on a weekly basis that's right that's right
(31:45):
and you know in speaking with josh again you know he shot 62 with a bogey that
day so i guess tiger in his prime if he played tashua knolls probably be somewhere
in the 50s i think so that's the level of play is i guess what we are getting at so just
turning to your day-to-day as the Director of Instruction.
(32:10):
What would you say, how many lessons do you teach during peak season?
In a day? In a day. Somewhere usually between 10 and 13 hours of instruction.
Not that every single one of those will be private one-on-one lessons.
Some of those may be a clinic or a semi-private lesson with two, three, or four people.
(32:34):
But yeah, I would say usually 10 to 13 hours dedicated to instruction per day during peak season.
You know, a lot of people who come to you, possibly due to the pandemic,
introducing a lot of people to golf.
What is the path, the easiest path for them to take to get to a five handicap?
(32:58):
Something like my 10 weeks to better golf program.
I've had a lot of success with that. It's not just taking one lesson,
let's say in April, then going out and working on it for three months and then
checking back towards the end of the summer.
I think you really have to stay immersed in the process, especially if you want
(33:21):
to get to something like a five handicap,
which very, very small percentage of people could actually be or are actually five handicaps.
There's a lot of people that might say they are, but there's an actual five
that's going to go out there and shoot in the mid to high 70s.
It's definitely a time commitment, trusting the process.
(33:45):
Staying immersed in the game, and making sure that you're seeking somebody that's
going to give you good quality information and that's truly going to have your
best interests at heart.
There's a lot of good golf instruction
out there there's a lot of bad golf instruction out there
(34:07):
i think making sure that that person
also is asking a lot of good questions to
their golf professional or their teaching professional if there's something
that question that you have as a student that you ask to your instructor that
you feel like let's say you know or you've heard before and they give you an
(34:30):
answer that is a little bit wonky,
that's a red flag to me.
You want somebody that's going to be well-versed in the biomechanics,
that's going to be well-versed in the actual science and the physics of the
motion and not somebody that's going to.
Kind of throwing darts at a board, just trying to find the right cue or the
(34:54):
right feel for that person, or just trying to make bandaid fixes.
You want somebody that's going to really help you to make a lifestyle change,
somebody that goes on a weight loss journey.
They're trying to make a lifestyle change, something that they could do that's
going to end up, they're going to do it it that way for the rest of their lives
(35:16):
versus, you know, let's say that a weight loss surgery,
which that person may not be changing their actual habits, but it's going to
end up helping them in the short term.
But you've also seen a lot of people who've had that surgery that go right back
to how they were because it wasn't their overall habits that they ended up changing.
So I think you want somebody that's going to be devoted to you and devoted to
(35:39):
the process and help you to make an actual lifestyle change versus a quick fix
that may not look be long lasting.
So to your point, it sounds like having a relationship with the,
with the coach where you can go, you know, again and again and again,
and kind of over time chart out a path,
(36:00):
which leads you to a five handicap.
The problem, you know, from the student's perspective, perspective sometimes
is actually many times, you know, instruction is expensive, right?
So an hourly lesson, you know, is X amount of dollars out of pocket.
So in your mind, like what's the minimum amount of time a lesson should be?
(36:24):
I mean, is a 15 minute lesson where I can come to you maybe once every two weeks
as good as, or better than, you know, taking a one-off lesson,
you know, once every three months?
It's a good question. I really think that if done properly, a 15 to 20 minute
lesson could be highly effective.
(36:46):
Maybe not as the approach to every lesson with that person, but say it's somebody
you've got in a program and you're doing little check-ins.
Maybe you do like a one hour lesson on week one, then a 15 minute lesson on
week two, than a one hour on week three.
It could be an effective little check-in. I generally like to spend about an hour with a student.
(37:10):
To me, I feel like that's a good time to be able to.
Share some things, come up with some ideas and some things for them to work
on, some practice stations, and also kind of planning out what the next couple
weeks are going to look like.
(37:31):
But as far as the cost of instruction, yes, private instruction can be costly,
but there's some other options too, like supervised practice in between lessons,
group clinics, group programs, where if the expense of golf instruction is an
issue, there's still going to be some ways to work around that and still help
(37:55):
to accomplish your goals.
So based on this conversation and elsewhere, because of your reputation,
if someone wants to take a lesson with you, what is the best way for that person
to reach out to you? Do you have I do.
I have my own website. It's just www.davebovigolf.com.
(38:20):
And on there, all of my contact information is there.
There's a book now button, which takes me to the online scheduler,
which is Accelerate Golf.
Golf and I've got, you could book a private lesson or a semi-private lesson
on there, as well as a golf school clinic or a program as well.
(38:44):
And, you know, for the listeners, we'll provide all these links in the description
of the podcast. So you don't have to type anything.
You can just look at the description and click on that link to reach Dave Bovey.
And Dave, Dave, as we wind down our conversation, what advice would you give
someone who's interested in becoming an instructor or becoming part of the PGA of America?
(39:09):
I had just had this conversation with a guy the other day, somebody that I had
just finished a 10 weeks to better golf with program, 10 weeks to better golf program with.
And he's currently he's young. He's in his early 20s.
He's a personal trainer.
He has a passion for golf. he's looking
to potentially get to a point where
(39:32):
he could become maybe a pga associate and get
involved in get his foot in the door from
an assistant or an instructional perspective even
if it's with junior golf and i was just telling him
shadowing other instructors if there's instructors
that allow you to shadow them i would you
know call up some of the best instructors in your area
(39:53):
and ask if it's okay if you come and shadow them
a lot of them will say yes i'll never say no i always have to check with the
students that i've got to make sure they feel comfortable with somebody shadowing
but most of them have no problem with it just learning as much as you can about
biomechanics with regards to golf even if there's a you know a book that you think
(40:16):
the methodology of that book you may disagree with read it anyway try to seek
out as many as many resources as you can whether it's something you think you may or may not agree with.
Just try to go down the the path of of learning for yourself all of these other
(40:38):
methodologies out there so that you could be the one that says well i do or
don't agree with this and And I think that could be a very beneficial process as well,
because there's a lot of people that may not pursue something because somebody
else told them it's not good.
But you want to make those determinations for yourself.
(40:59):
If somebody's going to college or they're wanting to pursue golf in the future
and they're young, maybe consider trying to get into a PGA golf management program.
If it's somebody who's already completed college, you can look to go down the
PGA Associate Program route.
(41:20):
But there's a lot of teaching resources outside of the PGA as well,
whether it's another instructor that's got some sort of a certification program,
learning to teach with technology.
I think there's a lot that any instructor could learn from purchasing a piece
of teaching technology and working with it, some sort of a launch monitor,
(41:43):
some sort of a 3D motion capture system.
There is a lot that you can learn on your own from buying a piece of technology and teaching with it.
Like, for instance, Gears 3D motion capture system.
Not that it's the first piece of 3D technology that I've used.
I've taught with 3D motion capture for many, many years.
(42:05):
But that is single-handedly the best piece of teaching technology that we own.
I will spend hours and hours on gears, just looking at certain things on swings,
diving deeper into the biomechanics, trying to figure out new things that haven't
(42:26):
maybe been talked about yet.
It's unbelievable the rabbit hole that you could go down when it comes to 3D
motion capture and how much you could learn with a piece of technology by just diving in deep.
That's great, Dave. Thank you so much for your time.
It was great speaking with you and having you share your knowledge of the golf
(42:47):
swing, the instruction business, and golf in general with our listeners.
Thank you. My pleasure, Bikram. Thank you for having me on. Hopefully we can do it again.
Most definitely we will. And that, folks, is a wrap for today.
Thank you for listening.
Music.
(43:17):
I love you.
I love you.
(43:38):
You.
Do you remember that first time Golf Digest reached out to you?
Yeah, I do. And it was, I want to say, 2017.
And it was just a great feeling. It was quite the surprise.
It really validated a lot of things about my career and where it was headed.
And it was quite the honor.
(00:20):
Music.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Accelerate Golf Podcast,
where we explore player improvement and the business of golf through conversations.
(00:44):
I'm your host, Bikram Kapoor, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with
Dave Bovey, the Director of Instruction at the Toshua Knowles Golf Course in Connecticut.
Now, Dave is a very accomplished instructor who has earned numerous accolades over the years.
He's been named one of America's best young teachers by Golf Digest several years in a row.
(01:08):
He earned the 2017 Connecticut PGA Teacher of the Year, and he was named one
of the best instructors in the Northeast in 2021.
So welcome, Dave. Thanks, Vikram. It's a pleasure to be here.
Thank you for making the time, Dave.
So Dave, I'm curious, does Golf Tag just tell you that you're going to be named
(01:31):
on the list before the issue is published?
How do you get to know about these awards?
Words we actually usually only find out about it maybe like a day or two before it goes.
Live whether it's in print form or online
so it's not normally like we learn several
(01:51):
weeks before the general public does it's usually
something that just comes out like a couple days beforehand so everybody's in
suspense till pretty much the last minute that's awesome and do you remember
Do you remember when you were first named to the best young teachers list or
one of the best teachers in America? I mean, it's a great honor.
(02:13):
Do you remember that first time Golf Digest reached out to you?
Yeah, I do. And it was, I want to say 2017. And it was, it was just a great
feeling. It was quite the surprise.
It really validated a lot of things about my career and where it was headed.
And it was quite the honor. And did they tell you what the mechanism of actually
(02:40):
evaluating your work was when they reached out?
Like, do people send in a nomination? Is there an email address your students
can send stuff to? Yeah, the best teachers by state list is all peer reviewed.
And I believe the best young teachers in America, you have to be nominated for that.
(03:04):
And then there's a panel and a whole review process.
Wow. And, you know, to be nominated by your peers and gain their respect is,
you know, one of the most sought after things in any profession.
So congratulations on that, Dave. Yeah, thank you very much.
So let's turn to your current setup. So you're at Toshua Knowles Golf Club,
(03:28):
which is a golf course, which is one of the premier golf facilities in the state of Connecticut.
Can you talk more about what is a director of instruction?
What does he do and where do you fit in in the overall scheme of things at the
golf course? course. Sure.
(03:49):
Yeah. Really my role as director of instruction is to oversee all the adult
programming for the most part.
I get involved in some of the junior golf programming as well,
but my boss, Bobby Brown, the director of golf is a junior golf guru for a number of years.
So junior golf has always been his passion. He's honestly one of the best in
(04:12):
the world at it. And he really, with our assistants, Jay and Bart,
he really oversees that aspect.
I get into a lot of the adult programming and of setting up golf schools and
clinics and just the overall scheme of the instruction at Tashua.
(04:32):
It's really just a dream job for me. It's the course I grew up playing.
I've been at Tashua, you know, 17 or 18 years now as the director of instruction
and been playing at Tashua for over 30 years now.
Wow. And you are a member of the PGA of America.
Can you explain to the listeners what is that organization and what does it do?
(04:57):
Yep. I'm a member of the PGA of America, Professional Golfers Association of
America, which last I saw, there was upwards of 29,000 members.
There's several routes to go through to become a PGA member.
I ended up attending a PGA Golf Management University, Campbell University in
(05:18):
North Carolina, and went the college route where you're simultaneously getting a degree.
My degree was in a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in PGA golf management.
And you get your four-year degree at the same time that you're also pursuing PGA membership.
So you do all the book work, the playing ability test for the PGA simultaneously
(05:43):
with all the credentials that you need from the actual university.
And what made you decide to go down this path? When did you start playing golf?
When did you become interested in becoming an instructor?
Can you just take us through your golf journey? Sure.
I believe I started playing golf somewhere around seven, eight years old,
(06:08):
but I was exposed to it much earlier than that.
Probably started hitting golf balls, I want to say around three or four years old.
I was introduced to the game by my dad, who actually used to have a regular
group. I would play at Tashua, and my interest was there.
He had gotten me some little cut-down clubs. We'd hit balls together.
(06:28):
I started going out on Sunday mornings with him and his group,
kind of walking along or riding along, and that really piqued my interest.
And then about seven or eight years old, I became very serious about the game,
wanting to play and get better.
I played all the way up through high school. And then I think it was freshman
(06:49):
year of high school where I really knew what it was that I wanted to pursue in college.
I know there's a lot of high school and even college kids that are currently
in college right now still struggling.
Trying to figure out what it is they want to do. But for some reason, golf always spoke to me.
And as a freshman in high school, I knew that the PGA golf management program
(07:10):
was something that I really wanted to pursue.
So I was set on that from about 14 years old and never wavered from that.
It's always been my passion.
So when you were learning how to play golf yourself, was it your dad who was
teaching you or did you actually seek a PGA professional?
(07:31):
Yeah, I started out getting introduced to the game by my dad and not that I
took a ton of lessons as I was a junior golfer and growing up,
I did take some from PGA member,
Rich Lanigan, who I didn't find out until many, many years later that he had
also been at one point a golfing machine authorized instructor.
(07:54):
And I didn't know it at the time when I was taking lessons from him.
I found out about it many, many years later after I was already an authorized
instructor of the golfing machine.
So I always found that pretty interesting how thinking back about some of the
things that he said to me during lessons, I could see the influence from the golfing machine.
(08:15):
But at the time, you know, as a 12 or 13 year old, you know,
it was just another part of the lesson at that point.
But looking back on it now, it's pretty interesting how some of the concepts
that we spoke about paralleled a lot of the golfing machine stuff that I went
through when I was going through my,
(08:35):
you know, the authorized instructor process.
Were you a scratch golfer in high school?
Probably sophomore or junior year. year, I would say I was down into the low
single digits, you know, pretty close to a scratch golfer at that point.
And did you take a look at playing college golf as a, as a player instead of
(08:57):
going into the golf management program?
I did. And I was actually recruited to play golf,
and at Campbell university, the problem was they didn't want you to do the PGA
golf management program and play on the golf team simultaneously.
So it was, you really had to choose one or the other.
(09:19):
The coach at the time, I believe also did the men and women's programs at Campbell
and they didn't want you to really pursue doing both at the same time.
So I was looked at by some colleges, but I knew that with the tournament program
that the PGA golf management had had with weekend tournaments for the PGA golf
(09:43):
management program, plus some.
Some inner club type things between other pga golf
management programs things like the jones cup and the
carolina cup there was a lot of competitive atmosphere with
regards to playing in the program so i just decided to go down the pga golf
management route i knew that's something that i was going to make a career out
(10:06):
of i wasn't going to you know pursue trying to go pga tour and qualifying for
web.com tour at the time.
I knew that really teaching was my passion and that's the route I wanted to go.
And which year was this when you were in the PGA Golf Management Program?
(10:27):
I was in the PGA Golf Management Program from 2004 to about 2009, beginning of 2009.
It's about a four and a half year degree. I started out at Florida State University
and then transferred to Campbell.
Originally, Florida State was my number one choice and Campbell was number two.
(10:49):
After experiencing a year at Florida State, it wasn't the program that I had
thought it was going to be.
The golf course was like seven miles from campus. I was a student at the University of Florida.
The director of the program at the time was more from the corporate side.
I think he had worked for Club Corps.
He wasn't necessarily like a hands-on green grass golf professional that had
(11:14):
run golf courses at the ground level and done a lot of teaching.
And I know from when I had visited Campbell, the directors of the program there
had all had lots of experience at golf courses.
And they had David Orr, who was working his way into becoming a Golf Digest
top 50 in a golf magazine, top 100.
(11:38):
Everybody knew how brilliant he was. And it was just a matter of time until
he really got his big break.
And transferring was probably the best thing, best decision I ever made because
I was able to study under David for four plus years and just turned out to be a great experience.
So he was so david was obviously a very good instructor and was that the influence
(12:03):
which told you or you know which made you feel that you would be best as an instructor.
During the years at campbell yeah i would say so
and just the you know it's interesting how
at the time he was when i was at
campbell for at least the first two or three
years big into full swing instruction
(12:24):
and then after a while from him
for him as a competitive player at
one point he always felt like putting is what held him
back so he ended up really transitioning into becoming
a full-time putting coach worked with justin rose
and some other big players on the pga tour and european tour and lpga tour and
(12:45):
he was the one that really sent me down the path of the golfing machine and
Mac O'Grady and attended a bunch of Morad schools with Mac O'Grady and introduced me to really...
Teaching with 3D motion capture technology. And the time that I was at Campbell
(13:05):
was really an interesting time for PGA Golf Management Program students because
you really had a lot of the old school mixed with the new school.
Trackman and Flightscope and a lot of these other big technology companies were
really on the rise, but you still had a lot of the older school components.
So my generation really has the, you know, a good combination of the art and
(13:31):
the science, the old school and the new school.
That's kind of an interesting observation because by straddling the old school
way of actually just eyeballing someone's swing, along with the technology and
all the inputs from the technology side,
you can actually fit in any atmosphere.
Even if there is no technology available, you still have the wherewithal to
(13:54):
help a golfer, correct? Correct. Correct. Correct.
And it, I think it also, I'm huge, a huge proponent of technology and I use
it every day, but there's so many people, I would say a lot of golfers and newer,
younger golf professionals coming up the ranks that are so reliant on the technology
(14:17):
that they also don't necessarily have the diagnostic older school type.
How we would use video analysis at one point to our advantage and not just launch monitor.
And I think a lot of instructors have become totally reliant on it where they've
(14:40):
lost some of the art side of teaching.
That's quite interesting. And tell the listeners about the golfing machine.
Obviously, Bryson DeChambeau is a famous disciple who's tasted a lot of success
as a professional golfer.
But as an instructor, did that really help you?
(15:02):
Can you just tell us what the philosophy is from the golfing machine? Sure.
Yeah, Homer Kelly, the author of
the golfing machine, really started his investigation of the golf swing.
I believe back in the early 20s, early to mid 20s, and it took about 40 years
of his own journey and research before he published the first edition.
(15:26):
The first edition was published in 1969, and there's been seven other editions published since then.
He published up to edition six, and then number seven was published by Joe Daniels
and the golfing machine.
After Homer's passing, he bought the rights to the golfing machine from Homer's wife.
(15:49):
And then I think there's also a newer one that came out recently.
I don't know if it's edition 7.1 or it's called edition eight.
So Joe Daniels and the golfing machine have done two editions.
Homer Kelly did the first six, but he was working at Boeing as an engineer,
and he had been introduced to golf, had a lot of questions from the very analytical
(16:13):
mindset, and went to a lot of golf professionals,
golf teachers in the area, and he didn't feel satisfied with the types of answers
he was getting to the questions that he had.
So it really set him off on a 40-year investigation of the golf swing.
And he put together the golfing machine, which you could think of as almost
an engineering text-based approach
(16:34):
to golf, where it's not laying out one specific way to swing a club.
It's laying out all of the potential options
the 24 components of the golf swing the 3
to 11 variations that each of those golf swings can
have where essentially you could put
together a golf swing and lay
(16:57):
out all of the pieces in the golf swing just by
for instance if we took a look at your swing we could label the
24 components and the variation each one of those components has And it comes
up with just a way of essentially building a golf swing and how there's multiple
variations that you could have that are all very effective. It's not a one-way approach.
(17:22):
There's millions and millions of ways to swing a golf club that could be very effective.
In your career, you know, in the 17, 18 years of you teaching,
do you use the golfing machine, you know, conceptually in your day-to-day instruction?
I would say it's laid a framework, groundwork for my approach to thinking about
(17:49):
the golf swing and the way that I look at it and I'd help to diagnose a golf swing.
I wouldn't say that I pull out the book every single day.
It's more of just something that's become a part of me, coupled with the Morad
investigation and Mack O'Grady,
who he was a disciple of the golfing machine, and then really took it even a
(18:13):
couple steps further where he started really getting into the biomechanics of the motion.
And if homer kelly
laid out the alphabet to the golf swing
mac is really the one that started making words and then sentences and then
paragraphs with it so they are a heavy influence on me as a teacher and just
(18:36):
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So just transitioning to when you graduated from Campbell University,
how did you end up at Toshua Knowles?
Could you take us on that journey as a fresh graduate and also help other fresh
graduates understand the process of actually finding a good landing spot for them? Sure. Yeah.
(19:25):
When you're in the PGA golf management program, the PGA sets out internship
credits where let's say you get a one credit for every month that you are employed at a,
like a green golf, a green grass golf facility or something in,
you know, that has a PGA member that is on staff.
(19:47):
When you do the PGA golf management program, you're required to do,
I believe it's 16 months of internship, or at least it was when I was in school.
If somebody decided to go right out of high school and become a PGA associate, they could.
They could try to pass the playing ability test and then enroll in golf.
(20:08):
The PGA of America's associate program and go through the levels.
And I believe they would have to do either 30 or 36 months of internship.
So when you're doing the PGA golf management program, as you're getting your
40 year degree, you're only required to do 16 months of internships.
You can become a PGA member much faster.
That being said, you do usually a three month internship after your freshman
(20:32):
year, you do a six month internship during your sophomore year.
And I believe a seven-month internship during your junior or senior year where
you actually take a semester off for those six- and seven-month internships
where you're just working.
And that's why it becomes a four-and-a-half-year degree. So I did my first internship
(20:55):
at Weeburn Country Club in Darien, and I did my six- and seven-month internship
at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich.
Which experienced a lot of the private club, high-end private club in lower Fairfield County.
And I loved it. I loved Tamarack. My boss, Bobby Farrell, had a long lineage of golf professionals.
(21:18):
His dad, Billy, was the head pro at Sandwich Club for 40 years.
His grandfather, Johnny, was the head pro at Baltus Raw for 40 years and also
won, I believe, the 1928 or 29 U.S.
Open in a playoff against Bobby Jones.
So I enjoyed working at the private club.
(21:39):
However, I didn't love the commute to Greenwich while living in Trumbull with all the traffic.
And there happened to be an opening that I saw at Tashua.
I had already known Bobby Brown for a couple of years and John Janik for even
longer. and really liked both of them and applied for the job and just happened to get it.
(22:03):
And so glad that I did because even though John's now at Longshore,
we worked together for 10 plus years and we're still great friends.
And Bobby, I would say, is one of my best friends.
And it's nice being able to work with somebody that you work for,
somebody that you get along with so well. So we spend time outside of the golf
(22:24):
course and just a great working relationship and personal relationship.
How did you evolve into becoming the director of instruction?
Actually, when I was first hired at Tashua, I was hired as the first assistant golf professional.
And I was involved in all aspects of the operation. Started out with a combination
(22:48):
of some junior golf stuff, a lot of private lessons.
The adult programming side of things was not heavily developed when I came to Tashua.
Bobby has always been known for his love for junior golf, and they would do some clinics,
(23:08):
but that's where I really saw an opportunity is expanding the adult side of
things to get that as large as the junior golf program at Tashua.
And so I started adding clinics and golf schools, things like a couples golf
school, a full swing workshop,
(23:28):
a half day short game school, added a get golf ready program,
which a lot of, a lot of courses and pros do.
But I also saw with the get golf ready program.
There were a lot of people, a lot of coaches that were doing that program.
And then after that, like, okay, now you're ready to kind of go off on your
(23:49):
own and, you know, maybe start playing with your friends or just practicing
kind of eventually you'll get on the golf course.
And I saw that as an area that needed to be expanded upon.
I think it's very difficult to get a brand new golfer to go through a get golf ready program.
And then after four or five weeks. It's like, okay, now you're ready to go off
(24:11):
on your own with no on-course experience.
So I added a get course ready class where we'd take the foundation that we laid
out and get golf ready, take them out on the golf course once a week for about
90 minutes in a group setting.
We'd play a scramble format from tee to green where we're going over course management,
(24:34):
engagement shot selection club selection implementing all
the skills you used learned and get golf ready and
bringing that out onto the golf course then i also added a get league ready
program where after get course ready now you're getting used to playing nine
holes once a week with others of of similar ability and really developing that
(24:59):
comfort for getting out onto to the golf course,
there's definitely a barrier to entry.
When somebody goes through GetGolfReady, it's a scary thing for a lot of people
to now trust that they can go tee it up with anybody.
And by the time they're done with these GetGolfReady, GetCourseReady,
and GetLeagueReady programs, now I think they're truly ready and confident and
(25:21):
comfortable to go tee it up with just about anybody.
That's great. And one of the aspects of golf is that as an instructor,
you work with absolute beginners.
And then on the other end, you work with really, really competitive golfers,
whether they're competitive juniors or people on the level of the pro tours.
(25:45):
How do you tailor your instructional approach depending on the level of the student?
It's a great question. And that's something that I like to think that I'm fairly
good at, but it's not something that you don't have to work at.
I would say there are, you're going to get, like you said, an absolute beginner,
(26:05):
or I could have a brand new golfer at let's say 10 o'clock, an intermediate golfer at 11.
And then I'd have maybe a tour player coming to visit me at 12 for two or three hours.
You have to get good at...
The overall diagnostics, the newer, let's say the greener that a golfer is,
(26:29):
the more glaringly obvious a lot of the movement changes,
these gross mechanical movement changes and biomechanical changes are.
And you're working on bigger scale things in the beginning. And then as you
get into elite level players, you're looking at some very fine little movements
(26:52):
that will end up making a big difference.
You also have to be very careful because somebody's career is on the line when you're making a change.
And you don't want to implement something that could potentially harm this person or harm their career.
So you have to get really good at the diagnostics, but then also knowing how
(27:14):
to explain, let's say, the same thing.
Not saying that everybody has to learn the same exact concepts,
but you may be explaining something similar to, let's say, a 12-year-old,
a 25-year-old beginner, and let's say a 35-year-old seasoned vet.
And you have to be able to explain it in a bunch of different ways,
(27:35):
in a bunch of different languages,
we'll say, from the most simplest form to say it's a very analytical person
who wants to know the nuts and bolts of what they're doing, where you have to
get deep into the detail and deep into the biomechanical movements and the physics of it as well.
Which part of the game is the biggest difference in a wannabe pro versus a five
(28:02):
handicapper? That's a good question.
Going from a 40 handicap to a five compared to a five handicap to a tour player.
The five handicap to a tour player is light years, light years different. Yeah.
These tour players, it's unbelievable how good they are.
(28:23):
I would say just all aspects of the game are that much more refined,
going from a 5 to a tour player, which could be a plus 8 handicap.
They're better at ball striking. They're better at low point control.
They're better at predicting curvature and start lines, eliminating big scale
(28:47):
misses, This is better with the short game, better with the putter.
They are just elite, elite ball strikers.
And you look at, let's say, a PGA Tour event on any given Thursday.
Everybody in that field is good enough to win.
(29:08):
Everybody in that field is good enough ball striker to win.
Just how is it going to play out that week? week who's going to end up making
the most birdies and avoiding the most bogeys whose putter gets hot,
but it's amazing how good they are.
So what I was trying to say is going from a five handicap to a tour player is
(29:30):
10 times harder than going from a 40 handicap to a five.
As an instructor, if I come to you and I say, I want to be a tour player,
what is your starting point for someone like me?
If I had a five handicap that was coming to me that was seriously trying to
go down a road where they can play professionally,
(29:53):
that person would probably have to have a decent amount of money saved up because
the first thing they're going to have to do is quit their job and they're going to have to work.
Like golf is their full-time job, 40, 50 hours a week.
They need to be at that golf course. They need to be getting good quality instruction.
(30:16):
They need to be having really, really dedicated practice sessions where they're
using training stations.
They're using objective feedback, filming things, being able to separate feel
from real, playing and practicing to the nth degree.
(30:36):
It would not be feasible for the average five handicap to become a tour player
because they likely would not be able to dedicate the time to trying to do so while also working.
Right, right. Right. Perhaps that's the reason everybody, you know,
(30:56):
says start young because then you can use mom and dad's money to to become really
good when you're a teenager, when you're not really expected to be working.
So that makes sense, Dave. Yeah, I just honestly think the average golfer does
not truly appreciate just how good these guys and ladies are on these professional tours,
(31:22):
especially PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.
But even looking at the Korn Ferry Tour and the Symmetra Tour,
Futures Tour, the quality of these players is unbelievable.
Unbelievable they don't appreciate just how good
they are and how hard it is to do what they do
on a weekly basis that's right that's right
(31:45):
and you know in speaking with josh again you know he shot 62 with a bogey that
day so i guess tiger in his prime if he played tashua knolls probably be somewhere
in the 50s i think so that's the level of play is i guess what we are getting at so just
turning to your day-to-day as the Director of Instruction.
(32:10):
What would you say, how many lessons do you teach during peak season?
In a day? In a day. Somewhere usually between 10 and 13 hours of instruction.
Not that every single one of those will be private one-on-one lessons.
Some of those may be a clinic or a semi-private lesson with two, three, or four people.
(32:34):
But yeah, I would say usually 10 to 13 hours dedicated to instruction per day during peak season.
You know, a lot of people who come to you, possibly due to the pandemic,
introducing a lot of people to golf.
What is the path, the easiest path for them to take to get to a five handicap?
(32:58):
Something like my 10 weeks to better golf program.
I've had a lot of success with that. It's not just taking one lesson,
let's say in April, then going out and working on it for three months and then
checking back towards the end of the summer.
I think you really have to stay immersed in the process, especially if you want
(33:21):
to get to something like a five handicap,
which very, very small percentage of people could actually be or are actually five handicaps.
There's a lot of people that might say they are, but there's an actual five
that's going to go out there and shoot in the mid to high 70s.
It's definitely a time commitment, trusting the process.
(33:45):
Staying immersed in the game, and making sure that you're seeking somebody that's
going to give you good quality information and that's truly going to have your
best interests at heart.
There's a lot of good golf instruction
out there there's a lot of bad golf instruction out there
(34:07):
i think making sure that that person
also is asking a lot of good questions to
their golf professional or their teaching professional if there's something
that question that you have as a student that you ask to your instructor that
you feel like let's say you know or you've heard before and they give you an
(34:30):
answer that is a little bit wonky,
that's a red flag to me.
You want somebody that's going to be well-versed in the biomechanics,
that's going to be well-versed in the actual science and the physics of the
motion and not somebody that's going to.
Kind of throwing darts at a board, just trying to find the right cue or the
(34:54):
right feel for that person, or just trying to make bandaid fixes.
You want somebody that's going to really help you to make a lifestyle change,
somebody that goes on a weight loss journey.
They're trying to make a lifestyle change, something that they could do that's
going to end up, they're going to do it it that way for the rest of their lives
(35:16):
versus, you know, let's say that a weight loss surgery,
which that person may not be changing their actual habits, but it's going to
end up helping them in the short term.
But you've also seen a lot of people who've had that surgery that go right back
to how they were because it wasn't their overall habits that they ended up changing.
So I think you want somebody that's going to be devoted to you and devoted to
(35:39):
the process and help you to make an actual lifestyle change versus a quick fix
that may not look be long lasting.
So to your point, it sounds like having a relationship with the,
with the coach where you can go, you know, again and again and again,
and kind of over time chart out a path,
(36:00):
which leads you to a five handicap.
The problem, you know, from the student's perspective, perspective sometimes
is actually many times, you know, instruction is expensive, right?
So an hourly lesson, you know, is X amount of dollars out of pocket.
So in your mind, like what's the minimum amount of time a lesson should be?
(36:24):
I mean, is a 15 minute lesson where I can come to you maybe once every two weeks
as good as, or better than, you know, taking a one-off lesson,
you know, once every three months?
It's a good question. I really think that if done properly, a 15 to 20 minute
lesson could be highly effective.
(36:46):
Maybe not as the approach to every lesson with that person, but say it's somebody
you've got in a program and you're doing little check-ins.
Maybe you do like a one hour lesson on week one, then a 15 minute lesson on
week two, than a one hour on week three.
It could be an effective little check-in. I generally like to spend about an hour with a student.
(37:10):
To me, I feel like that's a good time to be able to.
Share some things, come up with some ideas and some things for them to work
on, some practice stations, and also kind of planning out what the next couple
weeks are going to look like.
(37:31):
But as far as the cost of instruction, yes, private instruction can be costly,
but there's some other options too, like supervised practice in between lessons,
group clinics, group programs, where if the expense of golf instruction is an
issue, there's still going to be some ways to work around that and still help
(37:55):
to accomplish your goals.
So based on this conversation and elsewhere, because of your reputation,
if someone wants to take a lesson with you, what is the best way for that person
to reach out to you? Do you have I do.
I have my own website. It's just www.davebovigolf.com.
(38:20):
And on there, all of my contact information is there.
There's a book now button, which takes me to the online scheduler,
which is Accelerate Golf.
Golf and I've got, you could book a private lesson or a semi-private lesson
on there, as well as a golf school clinic or a program as well.
(38:44):
And, you know, for the listeners, we'll provide all these links in the description
of the podcast. So you don't have to type anything.
You can just look at the description and click on that link to reach Dave Bovey.
And Dave, Dave, as we wind down our conversation, what advice would you give
someone who's interested in becoming an instructor or becoming part of the PGA of America?
(39:09):
I had just had this conversation with a guy the other day, somebody that I had
just finished a 10 weeks to better golf with program, 10 weeks to better golf program with.
And he's currently he's young. He's in his early 20s.
He's a personal trainer.
He has a passion for golf. he's looking
to potentially get to a point where
(39:32):
he could become maybe a pga associate and get
involved in get his foot in the door from
an assistant or an instructional perspective even
if it's with junior golf and i was just telling him
shadowing other instructors if there's instructors
that allow you to shadow them i would you
know call up some of the best instructors in your area
(39:53):
and ask if it's okay if you come and shadow them
a lot of them will say yes i'll never say no i always have to check with the
students that i've got to make sure they feel comfortable with somebody shadowing
but most of them have no problem with it just learning as much as you can about
biomechanics with regards to golf even if there's a you know a book that you think
(40:16):
the methodology of that book you may disagree with read it anyway try to seek
out as many as many resources as you can whether it's something you think you may or may not agree with.
Just try to go down the the path of of learning for yourself all of these other
(40:38):
methodologies out there so that you could be the one that says well i do or
don't agree with this and And I think that could be a very beneficial process as well,
because there's a lot of people that may not pursue something because somebody
else told them it's not good.
But you want to make those determinations for yourself.
(40:59):
If somebody's going to college or they're wanting to pursue golf in the future
and they're young, maybe consider trying to get into a PGA golf management program.
If it's somebody who's already completed college, you can look to go down the
PGA Associate Program route.
(41:20):
But there's a lot of teaching resources outside of the PGA as well,
whether it's another instructor that's got some sort of a certification program,
learning to teach with technology.
I think there's a lot that any instructor could learn from purchasing a piece
of teaching technology and working with it, some sort of a launch monitor,
(41:43):
some sort of a 3D motion capture system.
There is a lot that you can learn on your own from buying a piece of technology and teaching with it.
Like, for instance, Gears 3D motion capture system.
Not that it's the first piece of 3D technology that I've used.
I've taught with 3D motion capture for many, many years.
(42:05):
But that is single-handedly the best piece of teaching technology that we own.
I will spend hours and hours on gears, just looking at certain things on swings,
diving deeper into the biomechanics, trying to figure out new things that haven't
(42:26):
maybe been talked about yet.
It's unbelievable the rabbit hole that you could go down when it comes to 3D
motion capture and how much you could learn with a piece of technology by just diving in deep.
That's great, Dave. Thank you so much for your time.
It was great speaking with you and having you share your knowledge of the golf
(42:47):
swing, the instruction business, and golf in general with our listeners.
Thank you. My pleasure, Bikram. Thank you for having me on. Hopefully we can do it again.
Most definitely we will. And that, folks, is a wrap for today.
Thank you for listening.
Music.
(43:17):
I love you.
I love you.
(43:38):
You.
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