What is my story?
My name is Colton, and I wasn’t always obsessed with the game. In fact my dad tried to get me to play from a very young age, but it’s frustrations were not for the little perfectionist.
I didn’t start to enjoy the game until my senior year in college. My friends wanted to go to a local par 3, and invited me along. I hadn’t played in a long time, and so I borrowed a set from my pops, and I surprised at how well I could still swing. We even did a few side bets, and I made some money.
From that point on I was absolutely hooked, and golf became not only a hobby, but a passion. It consumed my very being, and thankfully, I had golf because dark times were fast approaching.
A combination of Covid 19 lockdowns, financial struggles, and losing most of my extended family led me to seek out the range not for only for improvement, but for therapy. From the years of 2016-2020 I’d hit hundreds of golf balls a day, just to drown out the negative feelings of a world that seemed confusing, hard, and a mountain I didn’t know how to climb.
In 2021, After the lockdowns commenced I took a leave from my job with the help of a lucky bet on the stock market, and decided I wanted to play golf every single day. I joined Western Lakes Golf Club as a member. There I met Garrett Mack, PGA, and he told me that his humble course was hosting the PAT at the end of the year.
I did some research, played and practiced relentlessly, and signed up for the golf skill practical in September. I did well enough to enter the program, and Garrett extended an offer to me to start my PGA Journey, At the time it was a A SIGNIFICANT PAY cut, but it felt right, and so wrong at the same time.
Three years have gone by, and I will be finishing the program in early 2025 and will be awarded my PGA Class-A status.
It’s amazing how life twits and turns. I graduated College Summa Cum Laude, and will be in year four of a new career in a completely different field, but it sometimes the road provides a fork and we have to take it even if it leaves us a bit uncomfortable.
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I don’t believe a good golf teacher should be beholden to “one teaching style.” I think every golfer is unique in their own way, and adhering to a singular methodology is not beneficial to the student. I deeply believe that instructors should broaden their knowledge and collect teaching theories like cards.
With that being said I tend to teach with a lot of influence from Manuel De La Torre, and Club-Focused Instruction. I believe there are specific issues we need to address with the body, but I feel a lot of modern teaching hyper fixates on ideal body positions or motions that are unattainable for the mass of golfers. When we are looking frame-by-frame at the internal pelvic rotation we’ve lost the plot. The club hits the ball. focus on the tool, and many things will be fixed by extension.
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Golf essentially save my life, and kept me out of a really dark place. I want everyone to experience this game, and my goal is to host the worlds largest beginner clinic. I’m talking Auditorium full of people, and thousands on live streams. I think this is the greatest game to ever exist, and those to get to experience it are forever grateful.
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Absolutely not. I regularly teach 60+ year old’s learning the game for the first time! My goal is not necessarily to make you the next amazing golfer, but to get you playing the game as fast as possible if you are a beginner.
If you asked this question, go to the range, bring one iron, buy a large bucket, and miss the ball 100+ times for all I care. Failure is apart of learning.
