WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2018

Many Links Players in the north are still facing impossible outdoor golf weather, but even in sunny Southern California, PGA professional George Henry has found an eager clientele for his OC Indoor Golf facility in Irvine (where a local Links Fellowship also gathers). We asked George to tell us about some of the advantages of learning and playing indoors.
 
Some people might look at an indoor golf facility and say, “That’s not real golf.” What are some ways that indoor golf is maybe better than real golf?
“If you see it from just the playing perspective, then of course outside golf is better than inside. But I teach inside and one of the reasons I do is because it allows me to use all of the equipment that I have. If I was on the driving range like I used to be, you’d have to set up all that and tear it down every day. Then it would be a problem with the sunshine and the weather. So that’s why I’m inside, so I can use all this equipment and leave it and turn the lights off at night and go home. That’s one advantage.
 
“Then a lot of people, believe it or not, even though I’m in Southern California, they don’t want to be out in the sun. They like to be in the air-conditioned atmosphere. And if it’s raining, my phone rings off the hook because they can’t go out on the course, so they want to come indoors.”
 
What is some of the equipment people would find at a facility like yours?
“It’s going to be the launch monitor, which is very popular now. A lot of guys use them on the driving range, too. The launch monitor gives you the ball flight data. Then the high-speed video system from two angles. And I have the weight pad. That’s a newer technology they’re using in the golf world nowadays. It shows you where the weight is at setup and throughout your golf swing. It shows you if you’re shifting your weight or hanging back on your back foot, so that’s helpful. I think one of the biggest things is the floor monitor, a 50-inch TV on the ground. It’s in live mode, so I’m able to draw the shaft plane, and if the person looks in the monitor, they can just follow the line up to the top and correct as they go along. I think it speeds up the learning process.”
 
It certainly adds a visual dimension to the learning process.
“Yeah, and a lot of people say they are visual learners, so when they see the lines and the playback of where they were on their practice swing and how far off they are, then that helps them.”
 
You also have a simulator where people can play courses on the screen.
“I used to teach in the studio and then go on the course and give playing lessons, but as pro it was hard to get off. You always have people wanting to play through. It’s a problem on the course and I find that if I can let them play a course in here and video them at the same time, I can help them more in a private setting.”
 
So here’s the bottom line question: Do you have customers coming back saying, “I enjoy golf a lot more outdoors because of what I did in here”?
“ Yes, yes, definitely. They like the technology. We live in that world now, so that’s what brings them here. It really is. They look at the website and read the reviews and they say, “The reason I’m here is because of all the technology.” They don’t get that with a lesson on the driving range. So the technology definitely attracts them, especially the younger generation.”

 
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THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018

 
Tales from the Tour, organized by Links Players Arizona region director Lewis Greer, features interviews with Tour players during the week of the Phoenix Waste Management Open This year’s event included Martin and Gerina Piller and Tom Purtzer. A portion with Gerina Piller shows below. All the videos from this year’s event are here.
 

 

 
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Ernie Johnson is TNT’s anchor voice for the PGA Championship, but his life is far broader than that, including growing up with an Atlanta sports legend, a fight with lymphoma, adopting four international children, including one with special needs, and his recent book. Here we offer Johnson’s extended answers to two questions we asked him for our full article in the Links Player Magazine. You’ll find that article here.
 
In broadcasting, there are stat guys and there are story guys. Vin Scully is probably the ultimate story guy. Where would you say you fall in that? Are you more a stats-interested guys or a story guy?
“I’m more of a story guy. I do a lot of stats and that kind of thing, and I think you have to have that in your saddle bag going in, especially these days in baseball and that kind of thing where the value of stats has changed and there are so many different kinds of stats and you can pick and choose which ones that you feel comfortable dealing with. But to me it’s always been the stories.
“To me it’s been, What makes an athlete vulnerable? What makes you want to root for this guy? What makes it a compelling story when you’re doing a baseball game? I think there being a storyteller plays more into it with the time the game takes, the time between pitches, where you want to fill in the blanks and let somebody who’s watching a game say, ‘I never knew that about that guy. What a cool story!’ It’s much like when you’re watching a movie. The character development of the characters in a film, that makes you want this guy to get out of this tough situation, or makes him want to get the girl at the end. Those are the things that if they’re just nameless faces out there playing, and you’re just saying, ‘He hit a ground ball, or he went two for three’—if you can add something to that, I think that’s where fans enjoy hearing that kind of a thing.
“I have files on hundreds of baseball players that we’re going to see during the year and you can maybe when you’re looking at a media guide know what’s happened with a player this year or eight years ago he suffered an injury. But to go deeper than that, if you’re at the game the day before and you see this player, you say, ‘Tell me about this situation when…’”
 
Did your love for stories make it easier for you when you sat down to write your story?
“In a way. Number one, you have to have that in you if you’re going to write the book. You can’t just say, “OK, let’s write a book. I don’t really want to tell any stories, but I want to write a book.” The two just don’t go together. So there has to be that desire to do that.
Then there has to be the time to do it. I did a lot of late night writing, when everybody was in bed and I was just in my office at my house. I found myself going into depth about stories I hadn’t thought about in a long time. In a way it was cathartic, in a way it was emotional. But that’s in your wheelhouse if you are at heart a storyteller and want to share that. It was a really cool process.
“I didn’t know what to expect in terms of how it went, and when you had something written, what do you do with it? How do you know if it’s what the publisher wants or that kind of thing? Then the give-and-take between my literary agent and my publisher at Baker Books. You’d send them a chapter and say, ‘Tell me what you think.’ So you’re electronically doing this. You’re emailing them and they’re sending it back with notes in the margin: “We need to know more about how you felt when this actually happened. What were your emotions when that part happened?” And then you’re kind of going deeper. It was a very cool process and ultimately one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”
 

 
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