Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Look Into the Poll Question: David Leadbetter

Name: David Leadbetter
Location: Lake Nona, FL

Famous Students: Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Trevor Immelman, Michelle Wie
Notable Works: 'Faults and Fixes', 'The Fundamentals of Hogan', 'Lessons from Golf's Greats'
Notable Credentials: Golf Digest 'Top 50 Instructor', Golf Magazine 'Top 100 Instructor'
Training Aids: Swing Link
Web site: http://www.davidleadbetter.com/


David Leadbetter probably has drawn more scrutiny than any other instructor in the game. In fact, the nickname for him by many PGA Tour pros is 'Lead Poison.' He's certainly not the first big name instructor in the game of golf, but he marketed himself to a point of popularity than no other instructor before him came close to until Butch Harmon, Dave Pelz and Hank Haney came along. If there's one thing to possibly credit him for, it's that he is sort of like the 'Tiger Woods of instructors' by bringing forth a ton of popularity in golf instructors which helped others get more lessons and charge more for the lessons and generally make a lot more money.



His swing method in general terms is to set the wrists early in the takeaway, turn the shoulders 90 degrees and turn through. And while that has drawn a lot of scrutiny, so has his success with golfers. Many believe that his success was do to having more of an 'eye for talent' and some question whether or not his assistants had more to do with the success of Price, Els, Sergio and many others.

Either way, he's undeniably the biggest name teaching professional the game has ever seen and I doubt we will ever see anybody topple his name.



3JACK

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