A golf demonstration at Whitehall Middle School last week hit a SNAG, and that was a good thing.
Veteran golf club teaching professional Bill Borgman from White Lake Golf Club used the Starting New At Golf (SNAG) system to introduce the game of golf to the sixth, seventh and eighth grade physical education students.
The golf demonstration is a part of teacher Jim Hams’s efforts to use partners from the community to teach specialized activities to students.
Earlier this school year, professional dancer Sean France taught dance to students.
Borgman said SNAG is a simplified system to teach golf to beginners, young or old. It can be set up indoors or outdoors, and uses just two clubs, a launcher and a roller. It uses loop material covered balls to shoot at targets to which they will stick. A launch pad and tee is color coded to ensure players are in the proper position to shoot the ball.
The system teaches the concept of each type of swing and the grasp by using color coding, “right on red and left on yellow.”
“It’s a quick way to learn golf,” Borgman explained.
The students rotated through learning stations set up in the school’s gymnasium to simulate putting, pitching, chipping and driving.
Borgman, who has been teaching golf at White Lake Golf Club for 17 of his 20 years as a pro, purchased the SNAG system this past year after seeing it demonstrated at a PGA golf show.
The pro demonstrated the SNAG system to five classes on Monday, and students got more experience on Wednesday. On Friday, students used real golf clubs and soft golf balls to get a more real-life experience.
In the Photo: Bill Borgman shows the proper golf grip to Mason Shirrell.