Rinker’s Golf Tips July 27th Guest Rod Cook. Rod Cook has won 20 professional events in his career which includes five trips to the PGA Tour School. A minor car accident, where he had neck and lower back injuries, limited his practice time and his chances of playing the PGA Tour. When he was a kid, he learned how to hit a pitching wedge, 9-iron, 8-iron, 7-iron, and 6-iron to 100 yards, a great way to learn how to hit different shots and control the distance. Rod is currently the Director of instruction at the new Four Seasons at Walt Disney World which is located next to the old Tom Fazio Osprey Ridge golf course. Fazio has come in and reworked the tees with new irrigation, new bunkers, and new turf for the newly named Tranquilo Golf Club.
Rod was the Director of Instruction at the Four Seasons Las Colinas where the Byron Nelson PGA Tour event is played outside of Dallas, Texas. During that tenure he got to spend a lot of time with Byron Nelson. Mr. Nelson said that most players practice what they are strong at, not what they are weak in, so he started marking down daily what he did poorly in a little black book in 1944. With a more well rounded game, Byron Nelson won 18 tournaments and 11 in a row in 1945, two records that will never be broken. Before Las Colinas, Rod was the Director of instruction at the Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Florida where another Hall of Famer lived, Tommy “Thunder” Bolt. They played numerous nine holes together and Bolt said the best lesson he ever received was from Ben Hogan, where he got his left hand more on top of the club or a more neutral grip. With a good grip, the hands control the club face and golf ball better. Bolt said that the press room could be pretty uneventful after shooting a 66 so, he said I’m going to give them a story by throwing clubs or something else, and it was really just a part of his new act. He had a lot of fun with it!
Rod is a TPI Certified Instructor and he basically understands what people can and can’t do through physical assessment tests. Simple ones like can you bend over and touch your toes or not. This would help posture for instance if you have flexibility there. Someone called in about lower back issues and Rod talked about how our joints are either mobile or stable, and the lower back is stable and the hips are mobile. If the hips are not flexible that would lead to lower back issues.
Rod is also a certified club fitter and we discussed the importance of being fit properly with the length and lie angle of your clubs. Have to have the correct lie angle for peak performance. Lastly I asked Rod what he would have done differently, if he knew 20 years ago, what he knows now . He said he would practice a lot more from 100 yards and in, especially putting. He would also practice differently by constantly trying to shape shots. Rod Cook can be reached at rod.cook@fourseasons.com.