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 Chris Smeal owns Future Champions Golf Academy (Photo: Eddie Meeks) The PGA Class A teaching professional at Stadium Golf Center in San Diego also is the owner of the Future Champions Golf Academy. He has been in the business since 2002, when he started teaching group clinics at the San Diego facility. What inspired you to become a golf teacher? I started to realize that I was pretty good at helping people enjoy golf more. Then I did junior clinics and found that I could communicate my message to kids in a way they could understand. What’s the best golf tip you’ve ever received? Don’t think about your victory speech until the job is done. What’s the most common problem you see in your students, and how do you fix it? Reading greens incorrectly. They under-read the break and hit the putt with too much speed. There are drills we do to help students understand the break. One is the Penny Drill. Place a ball six feet from the hole and read the putt from all angles. Then, put a penny in front of the hole where you think the ball will enter, and place another penny on the highest point of the break during the putt. Your goal is to hit both pennies and make the putt. If the student can’t hit the first penny after three attempts, I place a tee where the first penny is and make the student hit the tee 10 times in a row to gain confidence. What’s the most challenging thing about being a golf teacher? Getting students to practice properly. Developing a new skill takes hours of training to get rid of the old habit. It’s great when a student understands that and has the time to work on it. What’s the most satisfying thing about being a golf teacher? Helping a student meet or exceed his or her goals. I really enjoy the phone calls when a student wins a big tournament or shoots a score lower than before. What’s your best round ever and where? A course-record 63 at Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club when I was 18. I had never shot below 67 until that day, when everything went in the hole. That round helped me play well in some big tournaments over the next few years — I knew that I might get hot at any moment. Whose swing on the PGA Tour do you most admire? Fred Couples for his great rhythm. I teach my students to create a smooth, repeatable rhythm to maintain during tournament play. How old were you when you started playing golf? I played a few times a year when I was 10 with my dad and grandparents. I started playing consistently at 15. What was the first thing that attracted you to the game? The feeling of a clean strike. When I started out, I hit so many shots that curved in all directions. But every once in a while there was a good one. I enjoy the process of that search to find that same feeling and repeat it over and over again. What’s your greatest achievement in golf? As a teacher, it’s helping thousands of kids enjoy the game and helping the dedicated kids become good tournament players. For my own game, I hope my greatest achievement is still to come, but playing at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill in the California Amateur in 1997 with all of my family watching was a big thrill. What’s your personal motto on the course? Stay in the moment and be confident in every situation. What is your most treasured golf possession? I have an album that my grandmother made me that has clippings of all of my newspaper scores, headlines, articles and achievements. What words or phrase do you most overuse on the course? “I can’t make anything.” I tell my students to tell themselves they are the best putter in the world. I should try and use my own advice more often. Including yourself, who would make up your ultimate foursome? My dad, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. |
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