Last weekend, Dave Watts won his third city golf championship. Watts shared some of his golfing advice with The Gazette this week.
Q Did you grow up playing golf, or how long have you been playing?
A I grew up wrestling and never played golf. I didn’t start until after college so really I have only been playing 13 or 14 years. I was living with Jeff Martin, and Billy Martin would take us out and I just started learning the game and got hooked. At that time we had Pyramid Pizza and after lunch the crowd would leave. It was dead so I would go practice and I would do that quite a bit.
Q That isn’t many years of playing golf to get to this level. Is it just natural ability?
A It was just a lot of practice and I was just driven to learn how to do it. When Billy was trying to teach me how to play I had no idea where the ball was going to go or why it flew where it did.
Believe it or not, there is science involved with golf, and if most people could learn why the ball flies like it does or what makes it fly differently, then it would help golfers a lot.
Q How much do you practice now and what do you consider the best part of your game?
A I would say my short game is the best part of my game. But I had a bad weekend putting last weekend. In the summer I will practice three hours a week on the range as well as putting or chipping. Plus I am playing a lot. I have no kids and a very understanding wife, so that helps.
Q Is your wife a golfer?
A She plays a little bit. She is extremely competitive and she gets upset that she can’t play very good.
Q What advice do you have for new golfers or golfers who want to improve?
A If I was starting all over again, I would go to someone who knows what they are doing for advice. I see golfers every day who are beating balls on the range mindlessly and they are just ingraining their bad habits, and then they wonder why it doesn’t change.
I think most people that are at the driving range should probably be at the putting green working on chipping and putting. That is where the scoring comes in.
- For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.