{"id":2174,"date":"2011-02-10T17:33:29","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T00:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2013-07-21T12:29:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T19:29:02","slug":"golf-courses-of-study-great-resorts-that-will-teach-you-a-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/2174\/golf-courses-of-study-great-resorts-that-will-teach-you-a-lesson","title":{"rendered":"Golf Courses of Study: Great Resorts That Will Teach You a Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Island Green at the Villas of Grand Cypress, in Orlando. No Mickey Mouse golf instruction here.<\/p><\/div>\n

One thing I never expected to learn at golf school was how to really wind up and throw<\/em> my golf clubs.\u00a0 But at Fred Shoemaker\u2019s School for Extraordinary Golf we not only practiced flinging seven irons, but Fred also videotaped our efforts, and played the videos back to us right after playing videos of our group of students hitting actual golf shots with the same clubs.\u00a0 Our room full of intermediate and advanced students was amazed to see that while the tapes of our golf shots revealed a huge variety of swing flaws\u2014from reverse pivots to over-the-top-moves\u2014 the films of our club throwing displayed fluid, natural swings that we barely recognized even when they were our own.<\/p>\n

When it comes to education, some students excel at math while others respond positively to philosophy class.\u00a0 And when it comes to golf education, there are golfers who\u2019d prefer to learn by pounding balls at the range until their hands grow raw, others who prefer to studiously consult visual images of their swings, and still others who can perfect their games more easily through metaphor.<\/p>\n

The good news is that various golf schools have been developed to help you no matter how you learn.\u00a0 The even better news is that most of them are located at or associated with great resorts that not only offer terrific golf courses to test out your new-found knowledge, but the room and board options are way better than you\u2019d find at even the top institutions of higher learning.\u00a0 Following are eight courses of golf study that also include opportunities to study great courses, and to end the day with fine dining and cozy accommodations.<\/p>\n

Fred Shoemaker\u2019s School for Extraordinary Golf<\/a><\/strong> is a traveling road show of unexpected instructional techniques intended to teach students to coach themselves through development of awareness.\u00a0 The club-throwing exercise is just a single example of how Shoemaker\u2019s methods reveal that we each possess a fluid, natural golf swing; we just need to learn to eliminate the interference that comes between us and that swing. Shoemaker himself is a Zen master of teaching better golf without necessarily focusing primarily on golf.\u00a0 The school\u2019s home base is the Carmel Valley Ranch Resort<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> but it travels to Palm Springs, the East Coast, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere.\u00a0 Three-day sessions include instruction in the short game, full-swing, curving the ball, contact, pre-shot routine, and even the time between shots.\u00a0 Lessons are highly personalized, taking into account how each student learns best.<\/p>\n

The newly refurbished Carmel Valley Ranch Resort luxuriates across a 500-acre countryside estate in the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains in Carmel, close to wineries, 17-Mile Drive, and a few other golf courses you may have heard of (such as Pebble Beach).\u00a0 The resort\u2019s par-70 Pete Dye golf course, which rolls through woods and mountains, recently underwent a major renovation that included reseeding of the entire layout with Bentgrass and enlargement of all the greens.\u00a0 Accommodations are in spacious, renovated suites.<\/p>\n

The curriculum at the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf<\/a><\/strong>, in Orlando, FL is nearly as wide-ranging as the rides at nearby theme parks.\u00a0 This GOLF Magazine<\/em> Top 25 school spreads across 21 acres of grassy golf laboratories.\u00a0 The most intensive course of study is in the Fred Griffin Players School, a three-day program with only six students and two instructors including GOLF Magazine<\/em> Top 100 instructor Fred Griffin himself.\u00a0 The school employs use of a ModelGolf swing analysis overlay, club recommendations based on the latest swing analysis and launch monitor data, two nine-hole playing lessons, and a one-year membership in the Academy\u2019s on-line Personal Improvement Program.\u00a0 Grand Cypress also offers a variety of other schools ranging from the Mental Impact program\u2014 Dr. Ryan Caserta\u2019s curriculum that teaches the mental game through sport-specific eye training\u2014 to women\u2019s\u2019 and junior programs.<\/p>\n

After school, and while staying at the luxe Villas at Grand Cypress or the nearby affiliated Hyatt Hotel, enjoy play on 45 holes of Jack Nicklaus crafted golf.\u00a0 While your graduate degree might not have you playing quite like the Golden Bear himself, you\u2019ll be able to practice shots to the ledged fairways, shaggy mounds, and plateau greens of the North and South Courses; take on the more wooded, less-bunkered East Course; or don your kilts for the St. Andrews-inspired New Course, with double greens, flowing burns, pot bunkers, and stone walls and bridges.<\/p>\n

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Plantation Course at Kapalua. You’ll need a lesson to take this one on.<\/p><\/div>\n

Designed by Hale Irwin across 23 acres of gorgeous, wind-blown Hawaiian topography, the Kapalua Golf Academy<\/a><\/strong> features highly personalized instruction under the watchful eye of GOLF Magazine<\/em> Top 100 Instructor Jerry King.\u00a0 Facilities include 85,000 sq ft of grass teeing areas (down to 84,000 due to the divots chunked out during my visit), indoor bays, an 18-hole putting course, 2,500-sq ft learning center, and more.\u00a0 Instructional programs range from a half-day tune-up to \u201cplayers schools\u201d for golfers with handicaps of 12 or lower.\u00a0 The academy also offers corporate clinics and will even make house calls.\u00a0 Consider the Insights to Hawaii Golf program\u2014which teaches how to play off uneven lies, in wind, and on Bermuda grass, all of which you\u2019ll need to take on the resort\u2019s daunting Plantation Course.<\/p>\n

Plantation is an 18-headed monster that plays host to the SBS Championship (formerly the Mercedes-Benz Championship), where the previous year\u2019s winners on the PGA Tour battle wind,\u00a0 length, forced carries, and each other over the evil love-child of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t win on tour last year, or have a limited supply of golf balls, consider Kapalua\u2019s Bay Course, gently designed by Arnold Palmer, as a sensible alternative.\u00a0 Guests at Kapalua can choose from a variety of accommodations including The Kapalua Villas and a Ritz Carlton hotel that\u2019s as elegant as the Plantation Course is challenging.<\/p>\n

If your kids aren\u2019t quite ready for college yet but you still want to further their education, the best possible family golf school destination may be Central Oregon\u2019s legendary Sunriver Resort<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Now featuring Golf Magazine<\/em> Top 100 Instructor Shawn Humphries\u2019 Golf Performance School, the Sunriver programs analyze students\u2019 ball flight tendencies, swing paths, and putting planes to get at the root causes of their personal challenges (a nice way of describing swing flaws).\u00a0 Shawn and the other teachers will develop an eight-principled program for you to take home with you to ensure on-going improvement.<\/p>\n

At Sunriver you\u2019ll also learn what makes for one of the best golf resorts on the planet, namely terrific and terrifically varied golf.\u00a0 Choose from the family-friendly nine-hole Caldera Links; the Woodlands, a classically-styled Robert Trent Jones II course laid out among condos and Ponderosa pines; Bob Cupp\u2019s world-class Crosswater, boasting length, forced carries, risk-reward conundrums, and views of the snow-covered Cascade Mountains; and the kinder, gentler Meadows Course, which plays out in open flats behind the resort\u2019s main lodge.\u00a0 Lodging choices\u00a0 include guestrooms, condos, cabins, and river lodges that make great bases for such activities as hiking, biking, fishing, rafting, and other \u201cING\u201d sports.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let the rustic old-west appearance of the Golf Academy at Old Greenwood<\/a><\/strong>, in Truckee, CA fool you.\u00a0 Inside the weathered wooden headquarters building lies a secret hideaway of high tech analytics and the highest-caliber instructional brainpower.\u00a0 The 1,500 sq ft center contains flat screen TVs, lockers, Internet access, and a full reception staff in addition to various launch monitors, club-fitting systems, and much more.\u00a0 The Academy takes a shot-by-shot, performance-based approach to instruction, helping beginners to steer clear of forming bad habits, intermediates capture more fluid and powerful swings, and advanced players shave enough strokes off their games to reach the next level.\u00a0 Instructors consider your game, body, and equipment to develop a total picture and then devise a personal plan to help you improve.\u00a0 Club fitting and fitness assessments are also part of this individualistic course of instruction.<\/p>\n

The luckiest students will choose to live on campus here\u2014 steps from the practice tees\u2014 in the Villas at Old Greenwood, upscale three-bedroom\/three-bath cabins with hot tubs, decks, fireplaces, and luxurious appointments.\u00a0 Villa guests will also be close by to a Jack Nicklaus golf course playing through pines and blue sage.\u00a0 The 7518-yard track was the first course in California to receive Audubon International\u2019s Gold Signature Sanctuary status.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re the type who appreciates \u201cold school,\u201d then Len Harvey, an instructor at the Predator Ridge Golf Performance Centre<\/a><\/strong>, outside Kelowna, BC, may be the right teacher for you.\u00a0 The gruffly charming Harvey has been teaching golf for more than 50 years\u2014longer than most current PGA TOUR pros have been alive.\u00a0 The winner of several Manitoba Opens, and a representative of Canada at the World Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Harvey brings a true competitor\u2019s edge and perspective to the resort\u2019s instruction.\u00a0 The Centre offers all modern instructional programs and technologies, but with a more experienced view.<\/p>\n

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Lodgings at Predator Ridge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Golf at Predator Ridge is good enough to have hosted two Skins Games, and the 36 holes all bear the stamp of Canadian architect Doug Carrick, who recently renovated some holes and built a number of new ones.\u00a0 The Predator Course features elevated green complexes, linksy bunkering, and fescue-covered dunes.\u00a0 The Ridge Course boasts long fairways, granite outcroppings, and views of Lake Okanagan.\u00a0 On-site lodging options in the Craftsman-style dreamland around the resort include suites and cottages.<\/p>\n

Between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen on Mexico\u2019s Riviera Maya, renowned instructor Jim McClean has set up his only golf school in Mexico, the Jim McClean Golf School Mayakoba<\/a><\/strong>, at the resort of the same name.\u00a0 One- and two-day schools may encompass biodynamic training, whereby the highest tech equipment creates biomechanical reports on the golfer\u2019s body motions during the swing.\u00a0 These communicate information on the real time position and orientation of the head, shoulders, arms, hips, and clubs, rendered in three dimensions.\u00a0 These images can be viewed from any angle and even superimposed upon images of other swings, to either compare a student\u2019s swing to those of more successful golfers (which is to say actual TOUR pros), or to his own swing to measure progress.\u00a0 The program also offers biofeedback training so that students can see whether they have achieved their desired swing changes.\u00a0 It is considered by many to be the top golf teaching facility in Mexico.<\/p>\n

After school programs include golf on the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleon Golf Course, which has hosted the only PGA TOUR event held outside the US\u2014the Mayakoba Golf Classic.\u00a0 The course plays through three distinct topographies: tropical jungle, dense mangroves, and oceanside dunes.\u00a0 Some holes parallel long limestone canals, which add to the hazards presented by lagoons, ample white-sand bunkering, and cenotes\u2014natural underground lakes.\u00a0 The gorgeous modern clubhouse is home to an Argentine steakhouse.\u00a0 Students staying on property can choose between five-star Rosewood, Fairmont, and Banyan Tree hotels.<\/p>\n

While Idaho\u2019s Coeur d\u2019 Alene Resort<\/strong><\/a> is most famous for its moveable, floating island green, CDA\u2019s renowned golf instruction program will teach you how to approach the other seventeen greens, as well.\u00a0 The resort now offers Randy Henry\u2019s Dynamic Golf School<\/a><\/strong>, taught by the renowned teacher who developed one of the very first (and best) club fitting protocols, at Henry-Griffitts Golf.\u00a0 The school operates on the theory that if you\u2019ve tried emulating the swings of Palmer, Nicklaus, and Woods, it might be time to focus on your own natural swing, based on your own actual abilities.\u00a0 The school employs state-of-the-art technology to analyze and improve your technique, physical and mental abilities, and equipment.\u00a0 Sessions include indoor lessons on the aboutGolf PGA Tour Simulator, and at putting and club evaluation stations, followed by one-to-one outdoor instruction.<\/p>\n

Following classes, play one of the best-conditioned courses in the known world\u2014Scott Miller\u2019s 6,803-yard par 71 perfect carpet of Bentgrass punctuated by more than 60,000 flowers. \u00a0Elevation changes and mountain and lake views add to the enjoyment.\u00a0 On the famous floating green hole\u2014the putting surface of which you approach in a wooden boat\u2014hit a shot of between 95-200 yards, depending upon where it\u2019s been moved to that day.\u00a0 Accommodations in the resort\u2019s lakeside tower include mountain or river view rooms with fireplaces, all a short distance from a $2 million wine cellar in Beverly\u2019s restaurant.<\/p>\n

Former rocket scientist Dave Pelz gave up his high tech career to work on something truly difficult\u2014improving your golf score.\u00a0 Pelz\u2019s research shows that golfers lose almost 80% of their shots to par inside of 100 yards, and hit 60-65% of all shots from that distance.\u00a0 The Dave Pelz Scoring Game School<\/a><\/strong>addresses distance wedges, pitches, chips, sand shots, and putting in a concentrated effort to improve your ability to hit the shots you hit most.\u00a0 The school\u2019s practical, scientific approach has been honed through extensive research.<\/p>\n

Although Pelz schools are located at six resorts around the country, consider enrolling at the Cimarron Golf Resort<\/strong><\/a> in Palm Springs, CA.\u00a0 Practice said short game on the par-58 executive Pebble Course\u2014also great for a Skins Game with your buddies (or spouse).\u00a0 Or hit big and little shots on Boulder, a par-71 championship layout designed by John Fought.\u00a0 The course features sod walled bunkers filled with crushed marble, curvy, rolling fairways punctuated by waste bunkers and framed by prairie grasses, and some of the best greens in the Coachella Valley.\u00a0 Guests wishing to stay close to the action can bed down at Cimarron\u2019s Raintree Vacation Club condos.<\/p>\n

If one of these terrific golf instructional programs isn\u2019t right for you, consider taking up tennis.<\/p>\n

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Driving range, mountain range, at Cimarron.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing I never expected to learn at golf school was how to really wind up and throw my golf… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3603,4907,4908,5048,17],"tags":[5131,5194,5195,5196,852,5190,2355,5191,5197,944176,1194,5192,5193],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf-the-high-sierra","category-oregon-golf-assoc","category-grand-cypress","category-alternative-golf-assoc","category-courses-and-travel","tag-sunriver-resort","tag-old-greenwood","tag-predator-ridge","tag-jim-mcclean-golf-school","tag-mayakoba","tag-golf-schools","tag-coeur-d-alene","tag-extraordinary-golf","tag-cimarron-resort","tag-grand-cypress","tag-dave-pelz","tag-carmel-valley-ranch","tag-kapalua-golf-academy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/02\/6534F6DC-1143-3174-FD26049E7D29851D.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}