Good Golf For Life.com     "Learn It, Play It, Love It"

ABOUT ME

My name is Lyle Slovick, and I have a passion for golf.  I am a Level I Affiliate Member of the U.S. Golf Teachers Federation, which was founded in 1989.  I am not a professional golfer but have played and studied the game of golf for over 30 years, and have been offering formal lessons sine 2005.  For me, I was hooked the first time I hit a golf ball, and although the game is frustrating, it never ceases to bring me back.  I remember sitting in my junior high school library shortly after I began playing, looking at a book on golf and seeing a photo of Old Tom Morris, a golfing icon from the 1800's.  He was posed, standing in a bunker, looking into the camera as he prepared to hit a shot.  I was amazed to think that people played the game so long ago, and that piqued my interest in the history of the game, which I have studied ever since.  This has also included an interest in the evolution of the techniques involved in swinging the golf club, and the great teachers who have given us insight into how to play the game better.  For more on my love of the game, click here

As a youngster I studied the mechanics of the golf swing, took lessons to improve my game, and played on my high school team and lettered my freshman year in college.  I know what it's like to break 80 and also know how hard it can be to break 100, so I have a wide range of experiences to draw upon in assisting you to play the game.  In the past year back surgery has limited my own game, but I find great enjoyment in teaching golfers who want to improve their games. If you have just come to the game or played it for longer than I have, we are all in the same boat - we all want to be the best golfers we can be.  And the better we play the more fun we have, right?

I offer club fitting and video swing analysis using V1Pro software, and teach players how to manage the course and play situation golf, stressing short game techniques pioneered by Paul Runyan (a more user friendly putting stroke grip for chipping and short pitches) and Dave Pelz (using a combination of wedges and 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30 o’clock swings to hit the ball consistent distances) to improve their games. I also do club repair and offer numerous articles on my website related to the physics of golf, golf-specific fitness exercises, among other thing, including the history of golf (and photos of past greats of the game). My website will explain my ideas of swing theory, and the importance of the mental side of the game – not only in playing the game (see Bob Rotella, Tim Gallwey and David Morley) but tracking your practice sessions and strokes wasted through poor course management and bad strategy. Smart thinking can save a lot of shots, and I believe in the old saying, there aren’t any pictures on the scorecard, so it isn’t “how,” just “how many” that counts. My students always improve after gaining a better understanding of the cause and effect of what they are doing.

This website is meant to introduce you to me and my life with golf.  You can read about my philosophies of the game, see the services I offer, find links to numerous web sites full of useful information on various aspects of the game, and view a photo gallery of my travels in the game to places like St. Andrews in Scotland, as well as photos of some of the games greats.  The game is built on the legacy of all that has come before us.

Golf is great because it is a game we can play all our lives, and it always offers us the hope for improvement.  I think of this every time I watch Arnold Palmer play (saw him last in Portland in 2011).  Here he is 82 years old and still loves the game, still enjoys it and keeps trying to shave strokes off his score.   Scores are relative; to me the most important thing in golf is to do the best we can, whether that means shooting 65 or 165.  I am not Tiger Woods, and I don't have to be.  I just want to reach my full potential as a golfer, and that's what I help my students do as well.  Golf is a challenge, and that makes it fun too, and for me it is a chance to share time with family and friends in a beautiful setting, the great outdoors.  We should all take the old champion Walter Hagen's advice, and  "stop to smell the flowers along the way."  Each day is different and brings new challenges. 

In 1881, a man named Robert Forgan wrote The Golfer's Handbook.  His son David wrote the following "Golfer's Creed" in 1899, which I think sums up the game very nicely:

Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you may exhaust yourself, but never your subject.  It is a contest, a duel, or a melee, calling for courage, skill, strategy and self-control.  It is a test of temper, a trial of honor, a revealer of character. It affords the chance to play the man and act the gentleman...It means going into God's out-of-doors, getting close to nature, fresh air, exercise, a sweeping away of mental cobwebs, genuine recreation of tired tissues.  It is a cure for care, an antidote to worry.  It includes companionship with friends, social intercourse, opportunities for courtesy, kindliness and generosity to an opponent.  It promotes not only physical health but moral force.

For my professional resume, click here

For my Blog on WordPress.com, click here

For some of my favorite things in golf, click here

For my philosophies on being a better golfer, click here

Go to my "Services Offered" link for more information

Check out my testimonials by clicking here!

For those interested in a purchasing a good book for beginning golfers that I contributed to, Click Here!  If you want to learn how to play golf but don't know where to start, Beginner's Guide to Golf  is a perfect match for you (along with affordable lessons from me, of course).  Golf professional Chris Otis and internet marketer Raynay Valles, assisted by other experts in the game, explain in very clear language the basics of golf.  The book covers all areas of the game: etiquette and rules, choosing the right golf equipment (and how to care for it), the fundamentals of the golf swing and short game, how to practice, and how to play the game and “manage” the golf course.  It also includes helpful tips, a glossary of golf terms, and photographs and diagrams which compliment the text very well. This book will help anyone wishing to learn the game and not shortchange them by leaving out pertinent information.  Try It Risk Free! You Have An 8 Week "Play Better or Don't Pay" Money Back Guarantee.  The price is right, so check it out now!