While it was a fun and exciting time in the golf industry, I soon became aware of something that surprised me. While my customers were now playing with far better equipment, they weren’t scoring any better. Even I wasn’t scoring any better!

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Actually, no golfers anywhere were scoring any better. Despite all the technological advances in golf clubs and the new wide spread use of video cameras in swing instruction, the average handicap never dropped.  Year after year, it stayed the same.

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Around 2005, I made a startling observation.

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In 1970 the average amateur golfer was playing with small wood headed drivers and fairway woods, heavy steel shafts, small iron heads, and a vastly inferior golf ball. Yet, he scored just as well as the modern amateur golfer, playing with oversized titanium driver heads, ultra-light graphite shafts, very forgiving iron heads, hybrids, a range finder, and a vastly superior golf ball!

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How was this possible? 

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It became obvious to me that, with regards to improvement, the golf industry was leading the average golfer down the wrong path.  While there was a lot of money to be made selling “high-tech” golf clubs, golf was not about technology.  That realization led me to publishing my first book on golf in 2007, The Mad Science of Golf: on moving past golf industry hype and learning to play better golf.

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Wanting to be honest and help golfers better understand the game, I gave a free copy to all of my customers and every avid golfer I met.

  

As my book sold through Amazon, I started to be contacted by golfers around the world. Golfers who had grown tired of continually buying instructional videos and golf clubs that never lived up to the hype. I completely understood and felt their frustration.

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While everyone enjoyed my book, it really only served to stop them from traveling further down the wrong path. They still wanted to know how to lower their average score. What was the true path to improvement?

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Searching for an answer led me to understanding the game differently. Simply put, golf is a “game” that is “played”. There is only one way to improve, you have to become a better “player”. 

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It was now obvious that “high tech” golf clubs did not make the golfer a better player. And neither did changing their golf swing. So how would a golfer become a better player?

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With that question in mind, I studied the greatest players of all time. Players like Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Annika Sorenstam. I wanted to understand how their approach to the game was different. What made them so much better than everyone else?

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I also studied instructors who achieved great success working with average golfers. Legendary instructors like Ernest Jones, Manuel de la Torre, and Harvey Penick.   As well as the coaches I believed to be the most respected at that time.  Coaches like Lynn Marriott & Pia Nielson, Fred Shoemaker, and Michael Hebron.  Why were they so successful? How was their approach to teaching different?

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I discovered that significant long-term improvement requires more than external transformation (changing your clubs and swing). It also requires internal transformation (changing your mindset, belief system, and understanding of how the game is best played) as well.

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In an effort to share my findings, in 2012 I published my second book on golf, Understanding Golf: learn to significantly lower your average score without hitting the ball farther, changing your swing, or buying expensive golf clubs.

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That year I also opened Phil’s Custom Golf Shop at the beautiful Goose Creek Golf Course in Mira Loma, California. I still wanted to help average golfers grow their game, but this time I took a more holistic approach.

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While still helping my students develop their ball-striking skills, I stayed equally focused on developing their inner skills.  I made it a priority that each of my students acquired a far better understanding of both golf as a game and themselves as a golfer. Today, I strongly feel that deepening these two understandings serves as the foundation for long-term improvement.

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I still build custom fit golf clubs, but I’ve moved past the hype. I no longer work with brand-name companies the sell mass-produced golf clubs. For years I've worked exclusively with a small golf club company named KZG. I believe in the quality of their products and I've developed a great relationship with the owner, Jennifer King, and her highly dedicated employees.

 

I just want my students to play with golf clubs that are easy for them to use.  With that single goal in mind, I help them discover the set composition and club specifications that best compliment their game and natural swing motion. Very often all I do is make slight adjustments (if needed) to the set they already use.

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To provide golfers with a better understanding of golf club design and fitting, in 2019, I wrote my third book on golf, Rethinking Golf Clubs: an inside perspective on the confusing and very misunderstood world of golf clubs.  I give a free copy to everyone who visits my shop.

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While I’m always learning and striving to become a better coach, I feel confident in my ability to help the average golfer significantly lower his or her average score.  I’ve worked with thousands of golfers at Goose Creek and many, I’m proud to say, tell me they are now playing the best golf of their life.

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