Articles | Wayne DeFrancesco

How to Change Your Swing

By Wayne | Articles: The Golf Swing, Short Game and Putting

I am often asked whether I enjoy teaching, and to the surprise of those who cannot fathom spending 8 hours a day instructing the needy, I always reply with a positive. While I love to play, I don’t depend on my playing to pay my bills. I tried that, and found it an incredibly difficult task. The game is hard enough with its precipitous ups and downs without adding the pressure of earning a living. I certainly feel pressure when I play in tournaments, but not the kind of pressure that accrues when your finish means everything. My events mean…

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Golf Dreams

By Wayne | Articles: In Golf as in Life

O.K., admit it. You’re in the midst of your morning shower, another day of work ahead of you, and there you are, eyes closed, conjuring up the sensation of that one sweet swing that flights the golf ball in the absolute optimum trajectory, arcing in toward the flag with an almost arrogant assurance, digging into the firm surface of the green with enough spin to send it recoiling back to the cup for a tap-in birdie. For you it might be the last hole of the club championship; for another, the tee shot on the water guarded par 3 where…

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The Art and Science of Learning Golf

By Wayne | Articles: Technology, Equipment and Teaching

As you probably know I have been deeply involved in music over the last 7 or 8 years, trying to learn to play the blues harmonica. I have found the learning process to be remarkably similar to that of learning to play golf, and since I teach golf for a living, being involved again in the attempt to master a skill that involves both technique and feel has helped me to assess and improve my own teaching skills. When I was a kid I didn’t really ever have formal instruction in golf. My Dad showed me a few basics…

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The Mood of The Warrior

By Wayne | Articles: The Mental Game

“One needs the mood of a warrior for every single act”… “There is no power in a life that lacks this mood. Look at yourself. Everything offends and upsets you. You are a leaf at the mercy of the wind. A warrior, on the other hand, is a hunter. He calculates everything. That’s control. But once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That’s abandon. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and survives in the best of all possible…

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Welcome to the Guru Invitational

By Wayne | Articles: Technology, Equipment and Teaching

I have a great idea for a golf tournament. Let’s invite all the so-called teaching gurus to a 72 hole stroke play event and call it “The Guru Invitational”. Like the Masters, we’ll have to make it fairly difficult to qualify for the field. After all, we only want those recognized as true golfing geniuses, the men and women who have figured out a technique and a mental attitude for every possible situation, and have earned a nice living dispensing such knowledge to the masses. So who qualifies to hold the title of “guru”, and thus earns an entry…

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The Mental Game: On Playing Bad

By Wayne | Articles: The Mental Game

“Things just go from bad to worse, Starts like a kiss, and ends like a curse.” Jim Carroll There is no way around it: no matter how good, bad or indifferent you are as a golfer it is inevitable that you will play bad. And what do I mean by bad? Well, if we check the Thesaurus we will find a number of other words to describe it- awful, terrible, dreadful, appalling, shocking, ghastly, horrific, dire, and unpleasant. One or more of these synonyms may appeal to you, but the truth of the matter is that the feelings engendered…

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Truth in Teaching Golf

By Wayne | Articles: Technology, Equipment and Teaching

I wanted to share a conversation that I had the other day with one of my students, a 50 year old fellow named John who I’ve been teaching for a couple of years, although not consistently as he stays in Florida half the year and takes lessons sporadically when he is in Maryland. He has become a good friend, inviting my wife and I to stay at his condo in Park City, Utah the last two years (we accepted and had a great time), and I was pleased to be able to return the favor by having him play on…

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Stan Gets the “Feel”

By Wayne | Articles: Lessons with Stan

It’s been quite a while since my on and off student Stan has made his way over to Woodmont for a lesson, so I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed his name in my book for a couple hours last week. If you have read any of my articles recounting my various forays with Stan (Click here) you know that he is endlessly entertaining as he searches for any and every way to get better without having to do the work and practice that I always insist he needs. Stan really wants to believe that the game is “90% mental”,…

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Things I Have Learned

By Wayne | Articles: General Golf

I started playing tournament golf when I was 12 years old. That would be in 1969, some 44 years ago. I got my first teaching job in 1984 (it was a summer camp for juniors), and my first job at a country club in 1986. That’s 27 years ago. There have been a lot of tournaments and a lot of lessons in that time, and as you can imagine I have picked up a few tidbits of wisdom along the way. Now, you might consider some of these ideas wise, and some of them foolish, but they are representative of…

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Wayne D. Meets The Sport Psychologist

By Wayne | Articles: The Mental Game

I would love to make hundreds of dollars an hour just talking to people about golf. I think my problem would be, and my wife could back me up on this, that I couldn’t fill up an hour with talk about how one is supposed to deal with the difficulties of the game, or, if I could last an hour, by the time the next confused soul regaled me with the same laments I would be pretty much fed up. She used to think it was a total lack of compassion, but now she just refers to it as “being…

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