Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Leadbetter Golf Academy gets back to basics

New golf training facility for pros, as well as slicers, hookers, hackers, and duffers Lined up beside PGA tour great Ernie Els on the computer monitor, our swings start out looking remarkably similar - we both have our heads down, our hips back, and
leadbetter1032

New golf training facility for pros, as well as slicers, hookers, hackers, and duffers

Lined up beside PGA tour great Ernie Els on the computer monitor, our swings start out looking remarkably similar - we both have our heads down, our hips back, and our clubs cocked way back at the same angle.

Play both swings in slow motion, however, and you can see why Els is a PGA tour professional, and why I'm generally happy with a double bogey.

Els form is picture-perfect, from top to bottom, and back up again on the follow-through - a textbook example of what a good golf swing should look like.

My swing starts to deteriorate by the time the club passes my hip.

While Ells keeps his wrists cocked until the instant he strikes the ball. My wrists are already straightened out and losing power by the time I get to my knee.

When he hits the ball, he brings his head and torso around, using every muscle available to generate power.

I keep my head down the whole time, like I was told to by fellow hackers.

Between my early release of the swing and my refusal to follow through on the natural swinging motion, I'm lucky I didn't hurt myself. On the computer monitor I can see that I come pretty close to hitting myself in the back of the head with the club on my follow-through.

The first piece of advice that Jeff Saager gives me is to relax.

"Uncocking the wrists too early, keeping the head own, these things are very common," he said. Other common mistakes include palming the club too much, not knowing how to align the club face to the ball, and thinking too much.

As the head instructor for the new David Leadbetter Golf Academy at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Golf Course, he ought to know. In his 12 years with the Academy, and almost two decades of teaching golf, Saager has worked with thousands of golfers, from young kids, to tour professionals, to weekend hackers.

Since the David Leadbetter Golf Academy opened at the Fairmont course on July 11, he has already worked with more than 50 golfers, including a number of Whistler locals. Programs vary from morning clinics to intensive four-day courses.

Every lesson starts the same; you hit a few balls, while Saager takes video from two angles and make notes. Good golf begins and ends with a good swing, and a good swing is a combination of literally dozens of things.

When working with a golfer, Saager starts with the biggest, most obvious flaws, and for students the difference can be dramatic. The finer points can be worked out over time, once they have the basics.

I asked Jeff what it really takes to become a good golfer.

"Well it's hard to become a good golfer if you're a total perfectionist. Nobody hits perfect shots all of the time," he said.

"Getting the basics down just gives you some control over bad shots. You're going to get a few good ones, and should work on your swing to make sure that the bad shots are at least still in play. Whatever club you use, the swing should be the same.

"A good golfer," he continued, "is someone who has fun, who enjoys the game and enjoys being out among people, and has the ability to keep the ball in play. It's someone who understands that it's better to hit it straight than hard all the time.

"What you really want to develop is a consistent, repeatable motion, and go from there."

Part of making a swing truly repeatable means following the same basic routine leading up to every shot, and not taking too long - the average PGA player only takes eight to 12 seconds to hit a ball. A good routine makes for a solid mental game, because players think less, don't get hung up on bad shots, and don't second-guess themselves.

"We call it paralysis by analysis," said Saager.

Years of coaching golfers has made Saager a master at imitating bad shots. .I stood by and watched him demonstrate slices, hooks, shanks, topped balls, stubbed balls, and more, predicting exactly where they would end up.

He knows what's wrong just by watching a person, and could explain the problem in a number of different ways, but the use of mirrors and video is more effective because golfers need to see exactly how everything went wrong.

The David Leadbetter Golf Academy (DLGA) uses a digital camera and a unique piece of software the academy helped to develop to show golfers what's wrong, and allow them to compare their own swings to dozens of pro golfers. Tools allow him to draw circles and straight lines over the video so you can compare the alignment of your body, the ball and your club at ever stage of a swing.

"If people can see themselves, it's easier for them to make changes, and follow their progression," said Saager.

All students of the Academy are kept on record, and can be accessed by any one of 27 David Leadbetter Golf Academies around the world. In addition, every student comes away with something - a DVD, a video tape, or even an e-mail record of their lesson that they can review as they continue to work on their swing.

The Academy was built on regular customers, with students returning to brush up on their skills or fine-tune their games. That's why the partnership with the Fairmont Chateau Whistler - which is part of the Fairmont hotel chains - is such a good fit, said Saager. Regular hotel customers can become regular students at the Academy, and vice versa. Some of the Academy's multi-day golf schools include accommodation at the hotel.

Saager moved to British Columbia from the DLGA facility in Naples, Florida to open the Whistler Academy. He has also helped to open other David Leadbetter Academies in places like Tokyo, Austria, and Korea, as well as Florida, Illinois and New York.

He started playing golf at a young age, and spent his youth golfing competitively and working at courses. Saager joined the PGA of America and turned professional for a period, before he started to instruct back in 1986.

He's enjoying being in Whistler, and plans to spend his summers here in the future with the Academy. From Michigan originally, Leadbetter likes to ski, and he recently bought a mountain bike to try some of the local trails.

David Leadbetter is himself somewhat of a legend in the game, having worked with a number of top PGA professionals over the years, including Nick Price, Ernie Els, Charles Howell III, and Annika Sorenstam. He has also published six golf instruction books, produced eight self-instruction videotapes, and hosts a half-hour television program on The Golf Channel. In addition, he has developed various teaching aids for students.

Leadbetter was in Whistler to open the Academy, which includes a large driving range, a putting and chipping green, and a teaching facility with large garage doors you can hit out of even during a rainstorm.

For more information on the David Leadbetter Golf Academy and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler's new practice and learning centre, visit www.davidleadbetter.com/whistler/ or call 1-877-938-2092, extension 6041.