Day 1–Golf at Medinah #1–Course was recently aerified but fun. Fall golf was a little dicey but oh well.

Day 2–I’ll just run right through the agenda and give my input.

First was a discussion by a data research company about what golfer’s think of instruction. The basic gist was that 90% of all golfers do not take lessons and their main reason is cost and available time. A high percentage of people believe instruction will help and this percentage increases as the player’s handicap lowers.

Interesting topic. No real surprises. Got me to thinking how can I appeal to that 90% in a way that’s beneficial for both.

Next, was a talk from Charlie King about his believe on what modern golf instruction should be like. I had already read his e-book and I agree completely with what he is saying. He was a good speaker and I enjoyed it very much.

Then there was one of many sponsor presentations by trackman. I’d seen it before. Knew all the answers on ball flight and face contact and how they relate. Pretty much Brian and I speaking the answers.

Panel on combining fitting and teaching. This had good stuff in as well. Especially, info about how poorly the manufacturers match specs for custom clubs for ams and tour player’s as well. Very interested to have Fusion Golf come by and do some professional fittings.

Sponsor talk from coutour golf. Not great.

Next a talk about the science behind drills and the most effective way they are learned and retained. Interesting topic. Confirmed research that I have done on how to best learn and retain a motor skill.

Lunch

Panel on Junior golf. Some real good stuff here for very young golfers given by Don Kotnik. Very simple and easy to implement.

Roundtable discussion. Not a big fan.

Sponsor presentation by Fusion Golf. Very good.

Sposor presentation on 40 years of the Golfing Machine. Brian should have done this presentation. The speaker did not make the Golfing Machine look like anything but a cult.

Sponsore presentation on Shot by Shot. A comprehensive stat company that is changing how stats are collected and what stats should be collected. I’ve had my eye on this for awhile. I’d like to include into a comprehensive advanced junior program in the future.

End of Day 1–As you can see, there was a bunch of sponsor talk and almost no talk on the golf swing, teaching the golf swing or analysis of golf swings.

Day 2

A discussion on how to create value for your facility. Waste of time. Most of the people in the room own their own businesses.

Next was a marketing exec talking about inexpensive marketing options. She confirmed that golf pro’s should not use typical advertising. It doesn’t help and is too expensive. She didn’t believe facebook, twitter and the such will be around much longer. Talk a little about how your website should work so I got some good nuggets from this.

Sponsor presentation-Seen it before at last year summit.

Roundtable-I left to go visit the golf shop at Medinah and pick up a shirt or something. Didn’t find anything I liked.

Talk by Dr. Rick Jensen. This was on the business of being successful. Good talk. Best of the two days.

Sponsor talk about SAM Putt Lab- Couldn’t hear the guy but I’ve researched this product many times. It’s on the list.

At the end there were supposed to be “Live Lessons” but the weather was so bad they were done inside. Only got to see Mike Adams then we had to go to the airport. Strange. He had some system where he would tape measure people to find out how wide their stance should be and how they should swing. It went by very fast and wasn’t that great either.

All in all I was very disappointed with the summit. They should rename it the business of teaching summit. There is no debate and no discussion about swings in public. All those talks happen in private as to not upset anyone.

The highlight of the weekend was meeting and talking to Brian Manzella. Very smart guy with a ton of info and stories. I look forward to his GTE seminar.

Basically, golf balls are divided into two categories. They are control in the air vs. control on the ground. Control in the air balls will be harder and less expensive. Control on the ground balls are softer and more expensive.

If you choose control in the air, you will have a harder time checking or spinning your small little chips and pitches. The ball will tend to bounce and roll when landing on the green. They do this because they don’t spin very much. It will help control your slice/hook to a small degree but big misses will still be big misses.

If you choose control on the ground, you will have to have greater path and face control to keep the ball from curving very much. It will go a little shorter but will tend to stay when you hit it on the green with a decent shot.

Typically, the higher your score, the more air control you need. As your score lowers, you will want more ground control.