Richard Byrd USGTF Certified Teaching Professional

I started out playing golf at the age of 15, not knowing what I was getting into and having no real expectations of what the game was about or if I would even enjoy it or not. My journey began the day my Uncle Wes came to me asked me if I would like to try, because he had a company sponsored golf tournament in a week and they were a man shy. I reluctantly said yes after explaining to him that I wa

s a football player and do not know how I could ever like such a passive game with very limited moving parts and no physical contact with anyone. I showed up to the course wearing a tee shirt and shorts when I was promptly told that only collared shirts were allowed on the course, luckily my Uncle had an extra in his trunk and I took the slightly dirty shirt out and slipped in over my tee shirt. He also brought me a set of old clubs he had laying around in the basement, when I say they were old clubs they were a set of 1930 Sam Snead Persimmon woods with matching irons. Nervously I take a few practice swings as other foursome start piling in after us. Finally the starter goes to my Uncle and says your up, Thought immediately raced through my mind “O no all of these guys sitting here waiting to tee off were going to see me hit my first golf shot ever”. I began to go into a slight panic and I ask my Uncle if it was quite necessary to hit a tee shot, he said “you might as well half the guys that will be hitting behind you won’t be able to do any better”, I believed him. So I watched the group in front of finish up hitting that tee shot and thought these guys are pretty good, they hit there ball pretty far and 3 of them were in the fairway. So now it was our turn, being new to this my Uncle did the honors of introducing me to the other 2 golfer we would be sharing this torture with. They all made their way up to the white tee area, that’s where I was told we would be teeing off from and where the men tee off from. We then went into a ritual of choosing the order we were going to suffer this humiliation in by throwing a tee in the air and whoever it pointed at was the first victim. Well it was my time to hit and by following what all of the golfer in front of me did, I managed to get my yellow colored ball onto the tee and was ready to hit. I stood over the ball with all of the pairing eyes behind me burning holes into my back, and did the best I could to muster a swing. Strike one, yes I missed the ball all together and if that humiliation was not enough, I heard whispers in the background, and knew what they were saying. I then took my second attempt with trembling hands and a racing heart, but to my surprise hit one fairly good a nice low shot that traveled all of about 175 yards but left me in the fairway on the right side. After hacking the course up the rest of the day and shooting probably a 65 on a 9 hole course, the last hole came. At the time it was a par 5 and doglegged left severely, there was an old warehouse that was backed up to this part of the course and the fence was along the entire length of this hole. My Uncle being the smart aleck he was said to me you can try cutting the corner and get there in 2, I though he was serious, so I grabbed the club in my bag that I thought I would be able to knock the cover off with which was my 5 Wood and gave it a rip. I landed just short of the green and the ball hopped forwarded and landed 6 feet from the hole. I was elated at the thought of my first time ever playing golf I now had an eagle attempt. Well I missed the putt but did tap in for a birdie and have been hooked ever since. Since this day so many years ago golf has been an addiction not so much me being a student of the game but just playing golf, not very well, but playing none the less. I quit a few times when money was tight and my 3 children were born more or less because golf is an expensive game, not just monetarily, but also in ones time. To become good it takes playing and practice something a brand new dad has little of, so golf took a back seat. Once my youngest who is now almost 18 was born, it seemed as if it was the perfect time to get back into the game recreationally, so I did. I played for about 3-4 years every other weekend usually at my normal course, a little 9 hole golf course that I grew up playing, but hell I was playing. About 8-9 years ago, I decided to make a true effort to study the game and become a student. I began reading everything I could books, magazines, watching the golf channel buying instructional DVD, there was something that felt not right about all of it. I was spending all of this money playing, practicing, and buying all of this and I was not getting better. I came across one instructor though after searching forever and realized “ I really like his approach to teaching”, anyone can do this and it is easy on the body. I will not mention his name or teaching method here because of copyrights and such but it seemed to be the easiest swing I have seen so I decided, I am going to learn this, so I purchased his dvd set, and boy am I glad I did. I watch all of them and decided I will start practicing it like he is teaching with drills and instruction and after about a month with it realized I was dropping my scores lower and lower the more I worked with it. Of course I adopted my own things along the way but for the most part the fundamentals were sound. So after using this method for about a year, my scores were now in the low 80’s every time out and I thought this is fun, this is how golf should be played. My son who , I guess thanks to me is now a golfer too, I got him hooked at the age of 9 and he has been going strong ever since. I had him enrolled in a junior program at the course I frequented growing up and was there one morning to drop him off, it just so happens that another dad was dropping off the same time I was and we got to talking, he was a neighbor of mine and played golf too. So after about an hour or so talking with this very nice gentleman he says we need to get together and take the boys out to play one day, I agreed and later that week we were on the course together. We went to the course with just intentions of playing a social round but I never realized what would transpire next. I am not one to give unwanted advise but after about 2-3 holes he asked me how are you hitting the ball so flush and hitting the greens. I briefly told him about what I had learned and he said to me, “ no offense but you are a big guy, golf is about flexibility “. I said yeah but with the method I have learned it takes the best part of your current swing and works around it keeping it but making it work for you. He seemed very interested and asked me if I could teach it to him, I agreed and not only was a friendship born that day but also it was the day I became a teacher. The time went by and I taught my new student and his son what I have learned and also what I have figured out about the swing and he ( Mr. William) went from a golfer shooting in the 100’s to that in the low 90’s without much work into the system at all and the into the 80’s. When he started both him and his son was a terrible slicer but since the method I teach keeps the swing together and does not have a lot of moving part the slice they both had almost went away and became manageable. After about a year or so with us playing round after round together and me working with him almost every time out he said to me “ Why don’t you become a golf instructor?”, I thought this over a bit and did not like the idea of trying to find work at a course and becoming an apprentice, just to enter the PGA program, so I shelved the idea. One day I was looking around on the web and googled Golf Teaching Instructor and came across the USGTF ( United States Golf Teaching Federation) and decided this could work. So I went to Florida after being laid off from my full time job thinking, I can look for work after I take the class and the rest is history, the story of how I became a Level 3 Certified Teaching pro.