GOLF:

One of the great deals in golf is taking place this month at a couple courses in the area and I urge any golfer to take advantage of it.

The PGA of America is sponsoring the program called Free 10-Minute Lesson during the month of May, part of the Play Golf America program.

The premise is simple. Teaching professionals will offer their expertise for 10 minutes to any golfer who calls and signs up during the month of May. Last year an approximate 6,340 PGA and LPGA teaching professionals nationwide gave more than 106,600 of the free 10-minute lessons.

There are three golf professionals in the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa area that are participating in the program: John Leonard of Newport Beach Golf Course, Nick Kumpis at Pelican Hill Golf Club and Mary Beth Arnold at Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club.

The teaching professionals are setting aside time for the lessons by appointment. To reach Leonard, call (949) 852-8689, Kumpis is at (714) 469-9631 and Arnold at (714) 540-7500, ext. 158.

Though 10 minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, there are plenty of areas to work on in that time span.

The PGA of America has 10 suggestions for golfers on things they can work on with professionals. They are:

 How to get your backswing in sync.

 How to improve your tempo to add distance.

 How to know if your swing is one plane or two plane.

 How to use distance control to avoid three putts.

 How to read breaking putts for grain or slope.

 How to align your ball to be a more accurate putter.

 How to switch your focus from line to speed before you putt.

 How to bounce your wedge through the sand.

 How to hit high soft sand shots to tight pins.

 How to hit the tricky long bunker shot.

The lessons are a great idea because they can help any level golfer. For the beginning golfer it is a great introduction to the game. For the casual golfer it is perfect to get a few tips to improve your swing. The avid golfer benefits because they can fine tune a specific area.

Arnold has done a version of this concept at the Long Beach Golf Show and said it is a great way to quickly fix a problem.

“A lot of time the 10-minute lesson is great,” Arnold said. “It’s a very simple, immediate way to identify a problem. You can pretty much see what they are doing as they hit a couple of balls and then give them a remedy to fix it.”

Some of the golfers come to Arnold with what they think the problem is but a lot of the time that is only a symptom of a more underlying glitch.

“They will say, ‘I’m doing this, but that is only because of something else,” Arnold said. “You would be surprised how quickly you can find what is really causing the problem.”

It all comes back to the three fundamentals of the golf swing.

“You see and prescribe,” Arnold said. “It is often grip, posture or alignment. I see a lot of posture problems that aren’t allowing someone to hit the ball correctly.”

Often golfers can get fixed in the 10 minutes, but Arnold has many that will come back for a regular lesson to help with other parts of their game.

“If it works, you are a hero,” Arnold said. “If not they come back, because they want to play better.”

JOHN REGER’S golf column appears Thursdays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by regular mail at P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 907040.