{"id":592,"date":"2009-10-29T16:54:34","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T23:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=592"},"modified":"2012-04-25T09:52:23","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:52:23","slug":"raining-champion-a-qa-with-bandon-dunes-grant-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/golf\/instruction\/592\/raining-champion-a-qa-with-bandon-dunes-grant-rogers","title":{"rendered":"Raining Champion: A Q&A with Bandon Dunes’ Grant Rogers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GrantStudent1_9x6\"

The master engaging his adversary. Photo by Wood Sabold.<\/p><\/div>\n

A cold, hard sideways rain \u00a0rattles the windows at Bandon Dunes \u00a0as Grant Rogers, the resort\u2019s director of instruction, looks outside. He \u00a0doesn\u2019t appear all that happy about playing in this weather\u2014it isn\u2019t nearly bad enough to suit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like when you have to bring your North Face gear to play,\u201d Rogers\u00a0observes, scanning the windswept links. \u201cThere are other extreme sports. Why can\u2019t there be extreme golf? There\u2019s no bad weather for golf; there\u2019s just weather. People should experiment with it because some people who think they won\u2019t like it will like it a lot. Anything can happen, and that\u2019s the fun of it.\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

In his several decades\u00a0of teaching golf along the Oregon Coast\u2014first at Salishan Spa & Golf Resort just outside Lincoln City, Ore., and now at Bandon a couple hours to the south\u2014Rogers has earned a reputation for three things: 1) his love of playing in forbidding conditions; 2) his wild, adventurous stories; and 3) his singular instructional style. Do not expect a traditional lesson from Rogers\u2014unless you\u2019ve been educated in an Eastern tradition. The recipient of both the 2006 PGA Pacific Northwest Teacher of the Year Award and the 2005 PGA Oregon Teacher of the Year Award, Rogers is often referred to as a guru. In my own experience, he is the only person who\u2019s ever given me a golf lesson that I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d gotten until several days later.<\/p>\n

I first crossed paths with Rogers nearly 15 years ago when I was writing a book on alternative golf instructors and was referred to him by one of his students, who called him the \u201cZen master.\u201d I contacted Rogers asking to set up a Zen golf lesson so I could profile him in the book. He responded evasively and said I should just come down and see him.<\/p>\n

Having just moved to the Northwest from Manhattan, I was blunt with the ponderous Oregon golf pro; I told him I didn\u2019t have the time to visit if he couldn\u2019t provide the kind of material I needed. It took a couple years for me to understand what Rogers had been trying to tell me in his soft-spoken way: If you call something a Zen lesson\u2014whatever that could possibly mean\u2014 and establish certain expectations, you\u2019ve essentially ruined the very possibility of getting such a lesson.<\/p>\n

At Bandon, despite the rain\u2014or perhaps because of it\u2014Rogers and I head out to see what kind of adventures might befall us. Between shots, huddled in our Gore-Tex, he starts telling stories.<\/p>\n

Such as the one about playing at St Andrews. At night. With only a putter. And being one over par after 11 holes. And the one about playing through a thunderstorm at England\u2019s Royal St Georges, where the lightning was hitting the ground so close he could smell it. He tells me about the time he fell asleep on a surfboard in Hawaii and only awoke when he caught a huge wave by accident. Another story begins, \u201cOne time my wife was going to the Amazon jungle with our daughter, who was 2 . . .\u201d Rogers offers up stories about barking dogs and blind golfers, bunkers so deep you couldn\u2019t throw a ball out of them, and a pro who disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness after hitting a ball washer on his drive during a major tournament.<\/p>\n

As we walk the most sublime links golf course in North America, Rogers also touches on his golf philosophy, if aphoristically. We stand on a green overlooking the ocean, and I notice there is standing water\u2014in my golf bag.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody in every foursome is going to have the most fun,\u201d he muses. \u201cIt might as well be you. I tell students, \u2018Don\u2019t wait until you\u2019re good to have fun.\u2019\u201d Rogers explains that he really likes skiing because when someone tells you they had a good time skiing, that\u2019s the end of the conversation. They never go on to tell you about every turn they made on every run. \u201cIt\u2019s like putting,\u201d Rogers adds. \u201cA putt either goes in or it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s no big deal. There\u2019s really nothing to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, as I motored back to Portland along I-5 in more pounding rain, I thought further about our round together. I\u2019d played well, but Rogers had seemed to struggle, especially for one of only 200 or so PGA master professionals in the entire United States. In particular, I was surprised that Rogers\u2019s drives had never seemed to land very far past mine, even when I caught one thin or pulled it into the fescue.<\/p>\n

When I mentioned this later to a friend, he recalled a story Rogers had once told him about giving some guy a playing lesson and hitting the ball wherever his student did, because that way they could walk together, which made it easier to talk.<\/p>\n

Here are a few excerpts from my conversation with Grant . . .<\/p>\n

\"GRogersIMG_4561_8x5_72dpi\"

Crouching Tiger . . . Photo by Wood Sabold.<\/p><\/div>\n

Favorite Course?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I play Pacific Dunes I can\u2019t believe how amazing it really is.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is part Links and part magic.\u00a0 The magic is the walk and everything you discover between your shots.\u00a0 Anytime is the best time to play Pacific Dunes, but when you can play it in the wind and rain it is extraordinary\u00a0and a match for any other great course in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strangest shot you\u2019ve seen on a golf course?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing we’re talking today because two days ago I wouldn\u2019t have had a story. Yesterday I was playing a match and my partner hit his drive way right into the gorse.\u00a0 He actually found it and hit it right again, off the golf course.\u00a0 The rest of us walked up to the hole.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t see my partner but he fired an iron from out of nowhere and launched a line drive that hit me right in the jaw\u00a0 I almost dropped, but I didn\u2019t want to give our opponents the satisfaction.\u00a0 The ball bounced off my jaw to about 45 feet and he made the par.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been hit before, too.\u00a0 Several times people hit shots right at my head and I caught them.\u00a0 I asked a guy I was giving a lesson to if he knew where his ball went and I said I caught it, and then I showed it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anything unexpected in your golf bag?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes carry two putters.\u00a0 I like to putt from long distances, from 150 yards in, and don\u2019t want to wreck my Scotty Cameron putter so I carry another putter that\u2019s sturdier.\u00a0 Sometimes I tee off with it.\u00a0 People identify certain clubs with certain shots.\u00a0 I like to destroy that mental image.\u00a0 You can use any club from any place on the golf course and still play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone you follow on tour?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLorena Ochoa.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing that she weighs 118 pounds and is one of the longest drivers on Tour.\u00a0 She\u2019s a good model.\u00a0 Not the type of person who can rip a phone book in half but she\u2019s got a good two-speed swing and really accelerates through the ball.\u00a0 She\u2019s not afraid to take it back really easy and then\u2014 BOOM\u2014let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why are so many golf professionals such robots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey think they have to be to play well.\u00a0 I disagree.\u00a0 I had a student tell me the other day that he can\u2019t focus for four-and-a-half hours.\u00a0 Why would you?\u00a0 A lot of these guys focus for that long whether they need to or not.\u00a0 I love guys like Trevino who goofed around a lot and then was deadly serious for the 2-3 seconds when he was ready to hit the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardest shot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the one you think is the hardest. It\u2019s all about the mental game\u2014you have to think there\u2019s a way to hit the shot.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the shot that\u2019s hard, its how we view it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prediction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future, backswings will vanish like the dinosaurs did.\u00a0 The golf swing will start from the top and travel to the finish position.\u00a0 All it\u2019ll take is one tour pro to be successful with this.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simpler way to swing.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching philosophy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI tell students about a big-wave surfing competition I saw in Hawaii.\u00a0 This Australian guy won and after they gave him the check someone asked him who the best surfer in the world was, and he said \u2018The one who\u2019s having the most fun.\u2019\u00a0 Somebody in every foursome is going to have the most fun.\u00a0 It might as well be you.\u00a0 I tell students not to wait until they\u2019re good to have fun.\u00a0 Celebrate every good shot.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know when you might hit another.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBe serious about improving but don\u2019t take it too seriously.\u00a0 Enjoy the journey.\u00a0 It\u2019s like in martial arts when students are in a big rush to change colors, to earn a darker belt.\u00a0 You should enjoy being a white belt.\u00a0 The inventor of Aikido, who earned ten black belts, asked to be buried in his white belt.\u00a0 If you keep playing golf your color will change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best advice you\u2019ve received?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first person who ever hired me as a teaching pro told me one thing: just don\u2019t make anyone worse.\u00a0 That\u2019s a constant mantra for me\u2014help people get better and don\u2019t overwhelm them with things they can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your ultimate goal<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be 150 years old, a shadowy figure walking the links, who people point to and say: \u2018Don\u2019t play that guy for money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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