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Darrell Kestner is the long-time head golf professional at the Deepdale Golf Club in Long Island New York, and while you may not have heard of him if you’re not from around there he has compiled perhaps the greatest playing record of any club professional in history (this means not former tour pros or college golf coaches, but guys who do the daily work at green grass golf courses). Darrell has played in 8 U.S. Opens (everyone knows how hard it is to qualify for those), 11 PGA Championships (meaning 11 top 20 or 25 finishes in the National Club Pro Championship), 12 PGA Senior Championships (top 35 in the National Senior Club Pro gets you in), 3 U.S. Senior Opens, and 2 British Senior Opens, while winning the National Club Pro, 3 New York State Opens, 2 Metropolitan Opens, and 5 Met Section Championships. Yikes. At 66 Darrell is still competitive to say the least (he missed qualifying for his 13th Senior PGA by 1 shot this year) and has shot his age in tournament play at 64, 65 and 66. Seeing a guy with this pedigree still looking to improve and willing to make changes to do so is inspiring to say the least. I take it as a point of pride that Darrell would ask me for advice, but we have been friends for a long time (I still grip my putter the way Darrell showed me in 1995 at my first National Club Pro) and we speak the same language when it comes to the game. At the end of the lessons Darrell was happy with the difference he felt at impact with the ball coming off more solidly and with better flight, and as a bonus played 36 holes after our first (lengthier) session without missing a fairway. For a player with as many swings under his belt as Darrell he understands that the only way to effect even small changes is with exaggeration and repetition.
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