At first glance, the practice range at
the golf club at Carmel Valley's Quail lodge Resort looks like a
typical display of manicured greenness. Perfect pyramids of golf
balls line the practice tees, and the occasional white crane loiters
among the yardage flags.
Then a golf cart, packed to the roof with every imaginable
instructional doodad, trundles by. The canopy is boldly emblazoned
with the words "Sustain the lag," and it becomes obvious that his
golf experience is anything but typical.
Enter Ben Doyle, one of golf's foremost instructors, a man who has
spent 53 years as a teaching pro (34 at Quail), and has mastered the
science of separating golf fact from illusion.
As Mancil Davis, the golf ace with 50 holes-in-one, once told Doyle,
"I learned more about golf in the last 30 minutes with you than I've
learned all my life."
Everything about Doyle is unexpected, understated, and scientific.
His permanent tan and dapper attire are about the only typical
golf-pro features about him.
You don't just shake hands with Doyle, you learn to "lag" as he
bends your wrist back into the proper position.
Those aren't just dead bamboo sticks that sprout from one of his
many golf bags, they are tools that teach you tempo when swung so as
to get the right sound.
A lesson from this native British-Columbian, who started by caddying
in 1941 at the age of nine, can be mystifying and inspiring, and is
always entertaining. He is constantly in motion as he surrounds his
clients with the soft-spoken, steady stream of wisdom from his
geometric golf system. The 24-component system is Homer Kelley's
"The Golfing Machine," for which Doyle was the first authorized
instructor. It's all captured succinctly on his "Facts and
Illusions" teaching mat.
Just as you aret starting to absorb new vocabulary about "the three
accumulators" and "annoying the subconscious," he is suddenly
drawing diagrams on your hands. Soon you are squeezing a plastic
water jug between your legs and being whipped by a towel - all in
the name of the science of golf.
And it works.
Doyle's list of students is impressive, with the likes of PGA Tour
pros Steve Elkington, Paul Azinger, Tom Kite, and Johnny Miller.
Yet, he may be one of the humblest, down-to-earth men ever to hold
sway over how to swing a club.
"Here's a picture of my three favorite golfers," he says, holding a photograph of his three daughters.
Players and other instructors hailing from places as far flung as Japan and Sweden come to find a cure for their particular golf ailment.
"I'm in the healing business," says Doyle. "But I never think of changing people. I help them get more precise. I see the perfect golfer."
- Kent Wadsworth
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