Rinker’ s Golf Tips Top 100 Teacher John Elliott was my guest. John is a 35 year member of the PGA of America, a Golf Digest instructor, and works with all skill levels from beginners to tour players. We talked about John’s playing career and winning the 1964 Florida state high school tournament. He turned pro at the age of 19, and while in college was drafted into the Army. He was awarded the Bronze Star during his service in Viet Nam.
John shared how he practiced where he had to hit 50 balls in a row on the green from 25 yards. Then he went to 50 yards and worked on the same thing. He went all the way back to a six iron where he had to hit 35 out of 50 balls on the green. He said it really focused him in on the target and he went from a scratch to a plus four!
Other highlights: “Learning to swing on the range is easier than learning how to play.” Golf swing vs golf shots. Variable is where your head or thinking is. We tend to experiment more on the range than on the golf course. He talked about the Prospect girls high school team that he works with in Chicago where he came up with five levels of learning. 1) Whiffing and topping, 2) Topping less and whiffing less, 3) air born most of the time, 4) hit down, and 5) play golf. John said that anything that helps hand eye coordination is good for golf. Let kids pick the sports, not the parents.
We talked about Bob Toski and John shared one of Bob’s quotes, “If you’re good enough, you’re big enough.” Bob weighed less than 125 pounds when he played the PGA Tour and was the leading money winner in 1954. Bob pioneered and led the Golf Digest Schools in the mid 1970’s and he has been my mentor since 1976. A lot of what I teach and how I teach, I learned from Bob. John Elliott did many schools with Bob and Jim Flick, Peter Kostis, Davis Love Jr, Jack Lumpkin, Bob Rotella, and Chuck Cook through the years in the Golf Digest Schools.