Sky Lee USGTF Level III Member Greenbrier, AR

Having spent nearly twenty-five years in the healthcare field, I decided it was time to take my sales and marketing experience to a different arena. I had always had the desire to become a small business owner and had participated in several joint business ventures. It was time for me to join my sales experience with my love and fascination for the game of golf.

Having played golf on and off for many years, I was always curious why people would spend hundreds of dollars for new equipment and then not be satisfied with their purchase. I reasoned, as did those who purchased this equipment that the fault must lie in the clubs and not the golfer. I wanted to better understand the construction and specifications for the golf equipment so I enrolled in Ralph Maltby's "Complete Golf Club Repair and Assembly" class in Newark, OH. It was a weeklong course in all aspects of repair, assembly and refinishing and made me realize how important it is to have proper golf equipment. While there, I was introduced to a relatively new concept in golf, "Clubfitting." I thought this was the answer to the mystery of how to play golf and it again showed me how important it is to have properly fitted and adjusted golf equipment.

Armed with all this knowledge I spent the next year honing my skills and fitting all my friends and family. When I felt comfortable enough to work on other people's equipment, I opened a full service golf store.

It was a small store with one hitting net, a swing analyzer and a complete repair and custom building shop. I built thousands of golf clubs and did hundreds of fittings and through these fittings; I realized that I needed to better educate myself on the aspects of the golf setup and swing. I read all the magazines and books that I could get my hands on including Snead, Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, Faldo, Ledbetter, Harmon. You name it I read it. I realized that all these great players and teachers owned different swings and different theories from very different eras, but there were many similarities in their swings. All of them stressed the importance of sound fundamentals, and this today remains my philosophy about teaching.

I began seriously teaching golfers about eight year ago and have had many rewarding experiences through these interactions. I consider myself an adequate instructor but I wanted to learn about modern methods and teaching. I had researched teaching associations and golf career schools and decided that the United States Golf Teachers Federation would provide me with the expertise I sought. I have just completed my Level III Certification held in Las Vegas and taught by David Vaught. David is an excellent instructor and the course exceeded my expectations.

In fact, I was re-energized to teach golf on a full time basis and I hope to achieve my "Master" designation in the future. I look forward to using my knowledge to make the game of golf more rewarding and more fun for all my future students.

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