For those who don't know Ben Doyle or are new to this site, here is something I wrote for another site yesterday:
SInce I am not only "one of Ben's Boys," but probably the one who has spent the most time with him, I guess I better chime in on this thread.
Also, it should be noted here on Brian Manzella.com, how much time Mike Finney, Tom Bartlett, Chris Hamburger, Steve Kahtib, and Mike Jacobs have spent with Ben as well.
What does Ben teach?
Well, if you say "TGM" you are slightly misinformed. Although Ben would disagree with that.
The first golf pro Homer Kelley took the book to was Bentley J. Doyle, who was then the very successful Head Pro at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle. He became the 1st Authorized Instructor of The Golfing Machine. He was a really good player and fell in love with the Monterey California area when was was down playing in the Crosby.
He moved his whole family down to the area with only a place to teach and zero clients. He became so popular that he soon upgraded to a better facility and when Bobby Clampett took over amateur golf, Ben was booked three months ahead.
When I went to see him for the first time in June of 1987, he taught a pattern that was not "in the book." It was in the 3rd addition, but by 1987 the book was on the 6th edition. Ben was quite unhappy about that. Just as Ben probably influenced Homer to include a "maximum participation" pattern by edition 3, others probably influenced Mr. Kelley the other way by #6.
Ben never thought the book was perfect. He dislikes that axis tilt is explained as predominantly hip slide, when Ben does not like hip slide. Ben is right of course, "axis tilt" can be added by adding right side bend only.
Unlike a lot of folks who became teachers of note partially because of the book, Ben was an excellent teacher before he met Homer. Because of his ball-striking ability—which was great—and his practical teaching ability, the Ben Doyle "lesson program" was absolutely not "book literal."
This is what Ben teaches:
You are thinking about, feeling, and sensing the club's sweetspot where your right forefinger meets the grip. Your are looking at the inside back of the ball, and you power the shot from the ground up with your "pivot" with a little right arm added. This "pivot power" comes from a pressure shift, NOT a WEIGHT shift, to the right. He had us hit balls on milk crates, so any big shift was, ah, penalized—so to speak. This shift was followed by a "sit down" with your legs getting very wide—Snead like—on the downswing getting "very heavy" into the ground. From there, without hip slide, you use the ground to get your left shoulder as far away from the ball as you can, eventually having your left leg straighten when your right arm does, post impact.
He wants you to be able to "drive a tack" and then "drive a spike."
His "leading edge hits a tee that is in the ground on a slant slightly above ground drill" has humbled major champions.
This approach is continued into little short but strong chips, chip-pitches, pitches, punches, 2/3 swivel shots, and full shots.
He teaches a double-shift, pitch elbow, maximum power swing. He really doesn't think there is anyone who can't do it.
Here is what the (Stance and Alignment) "Mat" is all about simply:
When you look down at the club in an impact attitude, the club looks to have more forward lean than it does. Btw, Ben wanted basically none.
The red line is the basic arc of the swing on the ground, and there are lines that it seems like you make your shifts on. There is also a mirror image of Ben's swing you can copy with your shadow or a small mirror.
Over the years he added more and more Ben-isms, and the mat got larger.
His self-videoed "How to Build a G.O.L.F. Game" has sold thousands of copies, and is owned by (or possessed by) hundreds of teachers.
Ben and I roomed together at so many national teaching seminars, and PGA shows, that, well…I know the number, but you wouldn't believe it. Ben loved all of it. There were years we went to so many things in Florida, it seems like we lived there part of the time.
Ben is very competitive, super smart, and very curious. He owns every golf book you have ever heard of and them some. As well as audio and video instructionals so obscure, the collection is worth "X."
Everything that I eventually found to be not quite scientifically correct about "the book," Ben had pretty much found a solution to, all the while staying loyal to the book. I begged him to write a book about what HE and how HE taught, but he is too loyal to the book to do it.
He has had more influence over golf instruction than anyone. Period. The amount of teachers who have been on the top teacher lists, who have taking private FULL PRICE lesson from him, dwarfs any other teacher who ever lived.
He has not yet won the PGA National Teacher of the Year award, a travesty, in my, and many others, opinions.
He is one of kind, and without him, I'd be selling insurance somewhere.
I learned so much from him that had NOTHING to do with swing mechanics, it is immeasurable. Beyond anything else, Ben Doyle is a great man.
Ben and his absolutely wonderful wife Joanne now live in an assisted living facility in the San Francisco area, and I hope to see him when I go out to the US Open.
