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Pure talent is a remarkable thing. Most times you find that someone like Bubba is actually a hard worker, just not in a conventional golf sense where you would think to find him grinding on the range. My guess is that he regularly played 36 holes a day or more when he was a kid, and competed every chance he had. We’re talking thousands of hours of golf, and in his case it was obviously the right thing to do. Some people are not built for lessons or any kind of technique approach. The problem is that if the career doesn’t pan out, where do you go for help? No lessons and thinking of nothing does not leave much room for failure. In other words, how do you think of less than nothing? Most people struggle mightily with golf, and all who do need help. Brandel would say that “empirical” teaching, or observational teaching (no video, no launch monitor, no technology) is the way to go. I think that view is ridiculous. He is not a teacher, and he doesn’t know what he is talking about. If I tried to teach that way I would be far less of a teacher. It is not possible to see the swing unfold with the naked eye and know without guessing what is really going on. It simply happens too fast. Video increases my vision. The lines help me define movement in time. You can’t do either without technology. Chamblee’s affection for Harvey Penick and Manuel De La Torre (among others who use no technology) is touching, but misguided. I have to believe that his hatred of teaching pros stems from personal experience, and he wears his bitterness on his sleeve. It is hard to believe that he is employed by The Golf Channel, which may as well be titled “The Golf Instruction Channel”. He sits next to Nick Faldo, who initiated the paradigm shift in pro/instructor relationships when he selected David Leadbetter to help him overhaul his swing in the mid 1980’s after Faldo had already won 4 European Tour events. Faldo couldn’t break an egg for a year and a half (notice any parallels to someone more recent?) then won 6 majors with Lead hovering constantly. Yet Chamblee disparages Tiger for his “incessant desire to evolve”, and states that Tiger has “robbed the fans and patrons of his greatness”. He states that “if Tiger had stuck with what he had in 2001-2002 he would have already broken Jack’s record”. When I heard this I couldn’t believe it. Chamblee has gone off the deep end, ripping the guy who pretty much single handedly made The Golf Channel’s existence possible, and at the same time taking every opportunity to insinuate that instruction is a useless waste of time and that teachers such as Sean Foley are charlatans and con men who have nothing of substance to offer anyone. Again, someone please tell me why he works at The Golf Channel and is on the air all the time while his opinions run exactly counter to everything the station is about. He is arrogant and condescending and should be relieved of his position. Oh, and here’s another thing: Chamblee won a Tour event in 1998 and led the Masters after the first round in 1999. By 2003 he was off the Tour, quitting to take an announcing position and spend more time with his family. Does anyone believe that he would have quit if he were a successful player? No way, nobody quits when they’re playing well (except Byron Nelson). So the question is, if it is so easy to “stick with what you have” why didn’t he keep winning Tour events? Obviously his game went away and it was too much of a struggle to keep trying. No one is blaming him for that, but then he blames Tiger for trying to evolve and improve. Tiger had knee surgery in 2002 and was looking for a different way to swing the club so that he could prolong his career. There is a great article written in 2004 by Jaime Diaz on the subject of “Why Tiger Really Left Butch”, but Chamblee seemingly has never read it, although he is the font of golf trivia (note the clipboard and pen he is constantly sporting). I am personally sick of listening to his tirades on Tigers failures and obvious total disdain for all teaching professionals, PGA or otherwise. He is the enemy of every golf instructor and when I hear PGA guys back him up it makes me ill. I’m just wondering if anyone feels the same way I do.
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