As a celebrated instructor (national teacher of the year in
1991) and author, Michael Hebron knows just about everything there is to know about the golf swing. That includes knowing that the swing isn't the thing.
What matters most is getting people to love the game enough to keep playing it and trying to get better. The head pro at Smithtown Landing, a decorated member of the Professional Golfers Association, says "PGA" ought to stand for, "Pleasurable Game for All."
"Our whole industry is about the perfect ball, the perfect club, the perfect swing," he said, "as opposed to playing the game."
He knows what all club pros know, that golf has become a zero-growth industry, with as many people giving it up as taking it up every year. That is mostly because some people become convinced that it is just too darned hard.
"Because their score isn't coming down, they feel they're not learning the game," he said. "There should be some understanding about what's going on. If you play once a week, you should expect one thing. If you play once a month, you should expect another. It's the whole process of playing the game."
That is what he emphasizes to his students, including the 800 in the club's youth program. He spoke Friday during a break in the weekly summer clinics, and before his departure for Chile, where he is going to teach golf teachers about his new slant on learning.
And that involves encouraging golfers to see the game as fun, not drudgery. It also entails having golfers do a lot of discovery and improvisation. Hebron no longer believes in trying to "fix" swing flaws. He often, in fact, has students practice their bad habits so they can identify them and get rid of them.
Part of his new philosophy, built on intense study of how people learn, is to not belabor the step-by-step, turn-by-turn mechanics.
"When we learn to use a pencil, we don't learn to use our fingers. We learn how to move the pencil," he said. By the same token, he gets golfers to concentrate on getting the shaft and clubhead in the right spot to hit the ball, and teaches that there are several ways they can do that. "There's nothing more powerful than to give people options," he said.
The biggest, boldest option, in his view, is to present golf in an entirely different way. He tells of the mother of a golf prodigy who came to him, chagrined that her daughter wasn't practicing enough. Hebron told the mom it mattered more that the girl cared about her family than her golf. Ultimately, the teenager began working on her game because she liked the game, not because it was an assignment. She is flourishing in junior tournaments.
Despite having had many former students go on to play in college, Hebron does not promote the sport as a means to a scholarship or any other end.
"Golf is a great game to play with your friends and family," said the pro who will be doing a clinic for pros in Italy after his trip to Chile. "If other things happen to come along with that, fine."
He would rather see golfers play simply for the fun of it, rather than for a score. Of course, what happens is if they can do that, they usually shoot better scores.
