[grapegoat]

This is the scenerio. I play for a local Community College here in mississippi. We have only 5 players at this time and 1 of which is out until late January due to his lung collapsing 3 times since september. So we are down to 4. Of the 4 there is myself and one other that really care about our game. The other 2 could be decent but have the wrong attitude about this. I guess they dont realize that they can transfer and either walkon or get a full ride from golf to their new school if they just get their game in shape.

We have a female coach that is stretched very thin. She is a teacher, mother of 2 and going through a divorce, so her time is limited to when she can be at practices. As soon as she leaves the others leave. This would not be a problem if they were actually practicing somewhere else or on other days other than the scheduled practices but they are not of coarse.

the main problem we have with these 2 players is on how they play the game. they think it is all about how far they can hit their driver. They will sometimes hit it 320ish in the middle and still make bogey on a par 5. This is completely useless to them because they do not want to really work on the shape and structure of their swing to not only gain more power but the consistency and accuracy they need to play decent golf. I consistantly beat them by 5 to 10 shots per round but they will not listen to me when i offer advise to them. There is one in partictular that i go round and around with.

There is a hole at our home course and from the back tee it is 210 to the center of the green. we played the hole one day and there was no wind and the temp was about 60degrees. He pulled a 5 iron out of the bag, pin is in the middle of the green, and proceded to miss the green 20 yards right and about 12 to 15 short of the flag. The very next day the temp dropped and it was about 40 degrees, 15 to 20mph wind gust and the pin was in the back so it was playing closer to 225 that day before the wind was figured which if i remember correctly it was into off the left. Before the shot our coach asked what i had hit and i hit a 2 iron with a slight fade to the center of the green safely, not to mention there is water on the left side of the hole all the way up to the middle of the green. She asked him what he was hitting and he said 5 iron. She was appauled at his stupid decision and we both said there is no way He proceeded to pull out the same 5 iron he was short with the previous day, and gave it a mighty lashing. the shot ended up about 5 yards short, and 10 yards right just off the green in the fringe. he did wind up hitting it very well but we cannot get it through his head that the game is not all about distance.

This is something i have had to learn for myself and it took alot of time but in this situation we really dont have much time. He could be a decent mid 70's player consistantly but he will not play smart and practice. Is there any advise that you could give on another way to approach this problem.
Chris