The first major is here. And two major winners have announced instructor changes. Yesterday Ernie Els talked about the switch from David Leadbetter to Butch Harmon and Retief Goosen about his recent sessions with Gregor Jamieson.

Ernie:

You know, I just wanted to get some different--get a different feel, get different words coming towards me, and just find a bit more about how Butch is teaching. He's obviously had a lot of success with players, and I love the way he changes people's games. I've seen it before. I've seen it with Stewart Cink and I've seen it with Justin Leonard and a lot of other players. I like the way they swing....

My posture really got a little out of whack. I've had too much turn going back on the backswing. My hips were really turning too much and my shoulders, everything was kind of collapsing at the top.

I'm quite a flexible guy, but swinging that long, I get out of sync with my lower body and upper, so I needed to stabilize that and shorten my backswing a little bit, and really get the club in front of me.

You know, if you say he can press your button, he's a very direct guy, so in my little short stint with him so far, at least you know where you stand with him. I like that."

Goosen, who never really had a regular instructor, talked about why he went to Jamieson:

I felt getting somebody just to have a look and work on those things can only improve [my swing]. I don't think it could have got any worse. So that's why I decided to go to Gregor, somebody that I can see now and then that's not too involved with too many other players and can just sort of focus on my swing.

The end of the day, it doesn't really matter who you work with and how much the coach can help you, you still have to feel comfortable out on the course.

Goosen's reference to an instructor not involved with too many players, echoed a question to Adam Scott, who also works with Harmon, about his teacher's growing stable of players:

Q: Do you feel it's getting a bit crowded in the stable?

A: Not for me. I get plenty of time with Butch that I need. He makes me aware that I'm going to get my time, and as long as that hapens, I'm happy for him to look at anybody he wants to.

Here's an idea for this year's Masters pool: not Tiger versus the field, but Tiger versus Butch's field....

--Bob Carney

Josh Leyes of Waterloo, Ontario read our list of America's Fifty Greatest Teachers in the March issue, noticed a couple of absences and seized on it to make a point:

I was reading the most recent issue of GD when I noticed your rankings of America's top 50 instructors. I saw the usual top 10-15 teachers up there, with one glaring omission - Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer, the Stack and Tilt gurus, didn't even crack the top FIFTY! Maybe there is a logical explanation as to why they were left out, but could it be that the "hottest swing on tour" isn't really that hot?

I know you have had several letters praising the Stack and Tilt method for its merits. In my humble opinion, Bennett and Plummer are teaching a "feeling" of staying on top of the ball but that feeling isn't actually true. if you take any of their tour pros (Baddeley, Weir, etc.) and put them on a weight plate device through their full swing you would probably see most of the weight on their right heel at the top of the swing, evidence that they are indeed loaded into their right hip. I think you guys actually did an article on that "weight shift" move a in David Leadbetter's "Swing Chi" piece, which I really enjoyed.

Josh, without getting into the merits of your argument--I know that Plummer and Bennett strongly believe that stacking and tilting is more than a feeling--let me explain why they may have not made the list. The list was compiled early last year, prior to Stack & Tilt's popularity. Plummer and Bennett asked not to be on the "seeded" list of instructors nationally on which the other instructors vote. My sense is they will do very well on the next ballot if the opt to be included. They were included on state lists and Plummer finished high on the Pennsylvania list, Bennett high on the New Jersey list. On a recent poll we did of tour players, they also ranked high.

--Bob Carney

I'm glad Bill Hyeck of Evanston, Illinois, wrote this letter. I get similar comments from readers all the time and, in fact, could make the same one about one of our assistant professionals at Brooklawn CC in Connecticut, Sean Busca, a terrific teacher. We love to get your feedback on lists such as America's 50 Greatest Teachers:

I'm writing in reference to the list of America's 50 Greatest Teachers in the March 2008 issue. I'm sure all of these folks are fine teachers; certainly they are famous. But you are making a big mistake by omitting Jeff Mory, head pro at Conway Farms Golf Club, in Lake Forest, Illinois. Jeff is a brilliant diagnostician of what ails a golf swing, and as one who learned much from Dr. Jim Suttie, he tailors his teaching to the physical capacities of the individual. He has done wonders for golfers of all ages and skill levels in the northern Illinois area. I hope you will give him careful consideration for your list in the future.

Bill, as you know, the list is based on the voting of other teachers. But we'll put Jeff's name in the mix. To other readers who might have a nominee, please send it along or add it with a post to this blog.

--Bob Carney

Lee Giles of Sedona writes in response to our consistency package in March--with a tip of his own. Worth a read if you struggle with bunker play, as I do:

In reference to your March 2008 issue, and section on "How to play consistent golf":

I've only seen the Natalie Gulbis TV show once. As a part of that show, a commercial with Lee Trevino, Dan Jenkins, Alice Cooper, and others was being filmed. As they were setting up, in the background
you could see Trevino, holding a club, talking to Gulbis. I could hear him say "all the great bunker players I've seen played the ball back here (Lee puts the club well back in his stance) instead of up here (Lee moves the club forward in his stance).

I thought, "Wow! I have always been a fair bunker player, never afraid of the sand, but at times inconsistent. I tried Trevino's advice and noticeably improved my bunker play. With all due respect
to Todd Anderson (page 104, referenced article), I think I'll keep doing it the Trevino way. I've tried the Anderson way - too
inconsistent.

Thanks, Lee. If it's good enough for that other Lee, it's good enough for me.

--Bob Carney

Texas reader Dave Van Knapp has an issue with our consistency...or lack of it.

On page 24 of your January issue, there is a letter praising the virtues of setting the wrists to start the swing. The writer praises an article in the November issue which recommended "to start [the] swing, set [your] wrists first."

The letter writer was Joe Larosa of Newington, CT, who said, in response to the November article by teacher Jerome Andrews and Matt Rudy, "How to Start Your Swing.":

Now I know how to start my swing, by setting my wrists first....This afternoon I had one of my best ball-striking rounds in more than a decade.

Dave again:

A mere two pages later (not counting un-numbered ad pages), the swing sequence of Colt Knost clearly advocates just the opposite. Colt's swing is praised for taking "the club away with his shoulder and arm[s] rather than jerking it back with his hands."

The photo numbered 2 in the swing sequence shows Colt's arms at about the same position in his takeaway as the photo accompanying the letter on page 24. In the latter, the wrists have already hinged so much that the club shaft is at a right angle to the golfer's right forearm and about a 80-degree angle to his left forearm. Conversely, Colt's club shaft in photo #2 is about 120-130 degrees with his right forearm and nearly parallel with his left. In fact, his left wrist appears to be still cupped a little, not having begun to hinge at all.

So which is better? Cocking the wrists early in the backswing, or delaying the wrist hinge so that it is about the final thing done on the backswing rather than the first? Or doing it evenly throughout the backswing?

I would love to see an instructional article devoted to answering this question.

Great idea, Dave and I'll suggest it. My initial reaction, after listening to the best teachers in the world for 25 years is that there's more than one way to do everything in the swing, and most of the time they are moving us away from overdoing what started out as a good idea before we got ahold of it. (The one-piece takeaway being perhaps the most abused piece of advice in golf). Even something like Stack & Tilt has proved the point again, this time on the issue of weight distribution, that there is more than one way. But a discussion of "early set" versus "late set" would be eye-opening. Thanks.

--Bob Carney

(Photo: Stephen Szurlej)