The Buffalo News

"It's like women who will come up to you and give you advice on being pregnant, even those that don't know you," Cindy Miller, LPGA Class A teaching and club pro, said. "Golfers do that. I call it the 'Committee of They.

"They tell you you're doing this or doing that, but rarely do they have the cure."

Nobody perfects the game, she said, but nobody has to try to master the game alone. While six local teaching pros don't boast any definitive cures, they do offer credentials.

Cindy and Allen Miller, Marlene Davis, Patty Jordan, Gary Battistoni and Bob Gosch possess more than 100 years of combined teaching experience and decades of playing at the professional level. All six pros consider teaching a full-time job, where the hours are long and often immune to offseasons. The Millers, who are married, teach at least five lessons a week, regardless of the time of year.

"On Sundays we might be out there from 10 in the morning until 9 at night," Allen Miller said. "There's no set amount of hours, but we spend a lot of time doing it."

Patty Jordan's commute to work changes from day to day. Jordan teaches at Brookfield Country Club, Harvest Hill Golf Course and Springville Country Club.

Battistoni estimates he teaches nearly 2,500 lessons a year.

Gosch, who owns the Discover Golf and Fitness Center, also teaches at Brookfield and the Battistoni Golf Center in Clarence. As a result, Gosch gives lessons six days a week, 52 weeks a year.

"We're fortunate to have an incredible indoor facility," Gosch said. "Whether it's snowing or raining, a 100-degree day or humid, we can teach inside or out."

Even when the season to tee off ends, golfers flock to facilities. For many of the instructors, when teaching ends, golf, in some capacity, continues.

Davis, in addition to her teaching contract with Brighton's range and the Paddock Golf Dome in Tonawanda, designed and manages the course at Buffalo Tournament Club with her husband, Tim Davis.

Both Millers also travel to deliver speaking engagements around the nation, addressing college programs and corporate businesses.

All of the instructors' well-established reputations have made word of mouth the most powerful recruiting tool at hand. From ages 3 to 95, the instructors said they enjoy a steady flow of students.

"Just recently, I had a 92-year-old woman who came back for a golf lesson," Davis said. "She had taken one lesson seven years ago and came back for another. There are so many other people who come back on a year-to-year basis, and it's a real compliment."

Lessons typically last about an hour and run between $40 and $80 for the student.

Along with long hours, the pros share experience, knowledge and a love of the game. Their teaching philosophies include varying degrees of emphasis on physics, fitness and interpersonal relations.

"Not all good players are good teachers," Cindy Miller said. "But I do believe you need to have played to understand how to teach others to have the best chance."

Physics lesson

Physics is the study of matter and its motion through space and time, a discipline necessary to understand the studies of subatomic theory, quantum theory — and golf.

"My goal is to help students understand the cause and effect of bad shots," Miller said. "The ball goes where the face points, end of story. Nobody would argue. But why does the face point there and what causes it to point there? So many people don't understand it."

Differing schools of instruction subscribe to different theories of core, arm and hand involvement in the swing.

"We try to explain what the physical act is, and how it follows physics," Allen Miller said, "that our bodies are built to swing a golf club."

At the Paddock Golf Dome, Davis dissects patterns of errors in a student's ball flight.

"Based on ball flight laws, I tell them whether there is a hook or a push or a pull," she said. "When I see it, I correct their patterns of error. It's a very effective and result-oriented approach."

By the book

Homer Kelley, an aeronautical engineer and the author of "The Golfing Machine," wrote one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the golf swing based on physics.

For two years, Battistoni — who played professionally in Europe and South Africa — dedicated himself to reading the text cover to cover hundreds of times. He engrossed himself in directional force vectors, impact physics, the club head lag and the geometry of an object that moves on an arc.

"Through giving so many lessons and understanding the physics of motion, I've developed a swing model that is pretty universal," he said. "Body types, grips and other factors can certainly contribute to variations in the swing model, but it doesn't change the model itself."

Battistoni was named New York's PGA Teacher of the Year in 1999 and recognized in Golf Digest as one of the top instructors in the Northeast in 2005. Battistoni's golf center has emerged as one of the centers for producing gifted young golfers.

Drew Creighton, captain of the Canisius College golf team, is just one of 40 Division I athletes to emerge under Battistoni's tutelage.

"He is really knowledgeable, but he focuses on just keeping things simple," said Creighton, who took Battistoni to the U.S. Open sectional qualifier he competed in earlier this summer.

A body of work

Gosch can speak at length about his philosophy that the golf swing is a combination of a body and arm motion. For Gosch, the physiology of golfers is just as important as the physics of ball flight.

Gosch divides his time between Brookfield and the Discover Golf Performance Center, which is composed of a fitness center and an indoor golf center.

"There's a certain amount of physical ability that is needed to accelerate the learning process," Gosch said. "I honestly believe that the golf swing is hard to execute if you don't have certain physical abilities."

Gosch won several major bodybuilding titles and earned certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine and the Titleist Performance Institute, one of the leading sources of golf fitness.

Donna Parker arrived at the center already receiving private lessons at Orchard Park Country Club. She supplemented her lessons with workout sessions twice a week.

Gosch works with Parker to improve flexibility and strengthen her core muscles.

She takes advantage of the $150,000 worth of technology available at the center, which is comprised of everything from exercise machinery to golf simulators.

"I may look terrible in a bikini," Parker said. "But I can hit a golf ball 200, 230 yards. Honestly if I didn't do the fitness, I wouldn't have a golf swing.

Students first

After spending 14 years playing professional golf, Jordan has plenty of knowledge on the links. After 22 years of teaching, she has plenty of knowledge of students.

But the most influential element of Jordan's teaching philosophy was derived from her own experiences as a student.

"My experience had been that you go to a golf pro, and they'd tell you things," she said. "I wanted to be involved with the coaching element. Let me, as a person who is experienced in golf, help you have a new experience in golf."

Jordan, along with Cindy Miller, is a First Tee instructor, certified in the program that introduces youths to different aspects of golf and life skills. At Brookfield, Jordan spends a majority of her time instructing children.

If my students walk away from a lesson saying, 'Gosh she knows a lot,' I've failed," she said. "If my students walk away saying, 'I can do that,' then I've succeeded."

Colleen Joseph, who was widowed 26 years ago, never found time as a practicing lawyer and single mother to take up the game of golf.

Three years ago, at age 59, Joseph began taking lessons at Cherry Hill Country Club. She decided to supplement her lessons with sessions with Cindy Miller, who was featured in this month's Golf Digest as a top 10 teacher in New York State.

Joseph became another disciple.

"She tailors each lesson to how you are," Joseph said. "It's tremendously helpful."

Getting started

A first lesson begins with a series of questions — for the student. Do you play instruments? Are you a control freak? What is your profession? "I can help you get better," Cindy Miller said. "And I believe that's all student-centered and not teacher-focused. My job is to understand my student."

Miller attributes her own expertise from experience that landed her at five U.S. Opens and being married to a man who played in five Masters. An understanding of the student's psychology directs her methodology.

Both Allen and Cindy use a program to teach individuals about their own personality patterns and understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Regardless of creed or cure, all instructors agree that nobody perfects the game.

All this enlightened "Committee of They" can offer is the reassurance of experience and a dedication to excellence.

"We're basically the same as our students," Allen Miller said. "We know how frustrating it can get. We get frustrated at our level just like they do. That's why we want to help them get through that process. For me, it's the only way I know how to make a living."