One of Golf Writer Andy Reistetter’s New Year’s resolutions is to improve his golf game. So why not start a new series with one of golf’s finest teaching professionals- Krista Dunton at Berkeley Hall in Bluffton, South Carolina. She is one of Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers in 2012, right up there with the likes of Butch Harmon Jr., David Leadbetter and her own mentor Jim Hardy. Join Reistetter and learn how he came to find Krista and the dramatic improvements made to his swing in just one lesson.   

Krista Dunton, a Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teacher, at Berkeley Hall in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Sometimes I do yardages on the LPGA tour for the Golf Channel which means I am out there on the fairway with the best women golfers in the world on Sunday afternoons. I pace off the yardages and pass them along to talented on course reporters like Jerry Foltz or Kay Cockerill. I also get the clubs the pros use from the caddies and then stand still off camera and watch them play the shot. What I have realized from this up-close and personal view is probably the same thing you realize at home if you are a middle age man like me. The game of the professional ladies more closely resembles mine in terms of club selection and the distance carried. Sorry but honestly I do not hit my 7-iron 190 yards like Bubba Watson nor drive it 300-plus yards on a good day even with firm and fast fairways.

In addition my experience in the corporate world (granted it is a bit dated these days) was that I liked working for women managers. They typically were more on task, focused on getting the job done and less political which translated into more fun, less stress and better results for me and my teams. So I put two and two together and set out to find a lady teaching pro for my first golf instruction article. When I was in Hilton Head for The Heritage I met Bob Ring and he invited me out to play Berkeley Hall and introduced me to Krista Dunton. She graciously accepted my offer to give me a lesson for this the very first Learn How to Golf the “Write” Way article.

“Doctor 59” Krista Dunton on the range with a variety of swing props.

You don’t get on Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers list without the credentials, the experience and the talent to teach the game. Krista has all three and she made a significant improvement in my game in only one lesson. To be honest I am probably not that good of a student. I might be a bit too analytical but I am a student with lots of opportunities for improvement. Krista is one of those people you meet with passion, drive and focus so that there is no question you and your golf swing will be impacted positively. For my lesson she came in on her day off with two kids under the age of three at home and one was sick. It’s not like you are reading this article in Golf Digest (yet). Now that is dedication and commitment. Maybe she heard about my Jim Furyk/John Daly type swing, didn’t believe it and wanted to see it for herself.

Krista grew up with three older brothers and a father that was the pitching coach at Stanford. She played many sports and once struck out 17 of 18 batters in a Little League baseball game (we have that in common). Gifted athlete box checked (hers not mine). At age 17 she went to college 2,400 miles to the east at Michigan on a volleyball scholarship and grew up fast and got through that “deer in the headlights” period real fast. Fiercely independent adult box checked as well.

The college athlete would come home during the summers and help Stanford’s woman golf coach Tim Baldwin run junior camps teaching the fundamentals of the golf swing. After Michigan she played the mini tours and hooked up with Ed Oldfield the hot instructor of the day who also instructed LPGA champions Betsy King and Jan Stephenson and brought the 2000 Women’s U.S. Open to the Merit Club in Chicago.

Krista’s World at the back of the range in a state-of-the-art practice facility.

Krista’s miss was a low hook. A back injury was the deciding factor to stop pursuing the professional dream and focus on the one that took root during those Stanford summer camp experiences- her desire to help others play the game of golf. A teaching opportunity came up with Billy Ziobro at Forsgate CC in Central New Jersey just off the Turnpike. Starting with nothing but desire she built up her book by walking the range and giving free tips. During the winters she would head down to PGA National in Florida to watch Mike Adams teach, take notes and not make a single dime.

After putting in her time learning and preparing she received a mouth-watering opportunity to build her own program as the Director of Instruction at Belfair in Hilton Head. After five years there she came over to Berkeley Hall, heard Jim Hardy speak and liked what she heard. As a dual PGA and LPGA certified teaching professional she connected with his Plane Truth (you are either a 1 or 2 plane swinger). The comprehensive plus-minus system corrects your swing by making your plane steeper or flatter to get you in the right position at impact which is all the matters. Instructor Dunton was the first in North America to obtain Hardy’s highest Level 3 certification.

Usually from what I hear teachers and students in golf connect with each other in how they communicate or how they swing the club (technique). In the first few minutes of my lesson I realized Krista and I would connect both ways mainly due to her listening skills and immense knowledge of the golf swing. With her the lesson is centered on the student.

Tom fazio proclaims the practice facility at Berkeley Hall where he designed both courses to be one of the world’s best. It is!

My biggest concern was that I know I have a strong grip (right thumb on right side of grip) and if I change it I will injure myself. Ten years ago I took a series of video lessons (my first and only lessons until Krista) and they changed my grip and I ended up impinging my rotator cuff. Had my first cortisone shot and a couple of months of physical therapy. Ouch, I can still feel the pain.

Try something for me to understand the issue I had with my grip. Extend your right hand out horizontally to your right side with your thumb up. Raise that hand straight up in a full arc (like a golf swing) above your head. No issue doing so- right. Now do the same thing with your thumb pointing down (my weakened grip). Can’t get it much over the shoulder but unfortunately I tried too hard and did and it resulted in shoulder bursitis back in late 2001.

Now Krista recommended the exact same grip change but added a rotation of the right forearm to compensate and voila no impingement plus a firmer grip and control of the club at the top of the back swing and most importantly at impact. Truly amazing to me was this combination that it did not feel drastically different or weird which is unusual for such a major grip change. No different than going to the right doctor who makes the right diagnosis the first time and gives you the medicine that you need.

Berkeley Hall is a special place with 36 Tom Fazio-designed holes.

Two other changes we are making is keeping my takeaway closer to my body and eliminating my premature flipping of the club and early release of my wrists which adds loft to my shots and leaks power and distance. Doctor 59, as I now think of her, came up with a simple swing thought for me- keep the butt of the club passing forward through impact… which delays the release, de-lofts the club head restoring my power and distance. I played the next two days with my older brother who knows my swing since I picked up a club. He said I have never hit the ball better and I won the match to prove it.

Doctor 59? Well the New Jersey Turnpike is really I-95 and it seems Krista hasn’t ventured too far from it in her teaching career only coming south 750 miles from Forsgate to Berkeley Hall. She educated me and “reversed” a lot of my thoughts about my swing in a demonstrative way so the 95 becomes a 59. A score of 59 is really good in golf plus I am GolfWriter59 and needed a swing doctor. No I don’t think I am going to shoot 59 anytime soon but if I was a young golfer with some talent and dreams of a professional career I think with Krista’s guidance they certainly will shoot 59 someday in competition. She is that good!

I was able to see my swing compared side-by-side to Ben Hogam, Peter Jacobsen and Matt Kuchar.

Before the lesson ended Krista voiced over my before and after videos and sent them to me along with my player profile on Hardy’s Plane Truth Golf website. Now I have video and selected practice drills on my cell phone that I can take to the range with me. I am all set to practice my new swing and reinforce the changes made. I have never been more excited about my game!

CLICK here for video details of my lesson.

Warning: could be brutal to watch, no disrespect to Jim Furyk or John Daly!

My only fear now is not of injury but my friends finding out (before we play a match) and wanting more strokes. Sorry Rich, Sean, Merri not going to happen!  Thanks Krista!

With Arnie Burdick at the 2012 RBC Heritage.

I had the distinct privilege, honor and pleasure to meet and interview Mr. Burdick during the 2012 RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. If you know the golf business, most folks love the week after The Masters as much as The Masters. Hilton Head is laid back, relaxed and fun after a week of intensity. It is like interacting with the world for one week and then going to Hilton Head to relax and recover from interacting with the world for one week. If you like the place you usually like the people you meet there but that isn’t the reason why I liked and looked forward to seeing Arnie. He was from Central New York like me and if there was one thing we had in common was that we were survivors of the winters up north (sorry to my friends and relatives still thawing out up there).

While I was from Binghamton, Arnie was from Syracuse and he was all Syracuse. Born and raised there as well as being a graduate of Syracuse University. He worked there for ten years after serving his country in WWII and then moved over to the Syracuse Herald Journal where he was Sports Editor for 30 years. After he retired and moved south to Hilton Head with his wife Mimi he nearly matched his career longevity as the Media Relations Director for the Heritage.

Mr. Hickory Golf with Sir Willie William, the mascot of the RBC Heritage.

What I remember from our conversation was that Arnie wasn’t really a golfer but did a lot of things for the game of golf. How unselfish is that to contribute to activities that are not your personal passion? Though he played a little bit early on he self-characterized his game as “just hacking.” In Syracuse he started the Herald Amateur in 1957 and it still is played today. Another phrase that has stuck with me from our conversation about junior golf is that it is “up to the individual to realize how far he can go, what his level will be” in the game as a professional. He liked telling the story of how Greg Norman won the Heritage in 1988 for a young boy with cancer who idolized the Great White Shark.

Mr. Burdick passed on a few months after we spoke at nearly 93 years of age. I will miss saying hello to him as much as I will revel in relaxing under the oak tree near the clubhouse at Augusta National (others can interact with the world). But I will think of him, The Old Scout, and enjoy the warm sunshine of Hilton Head.

I wonder now why Kaye Kessler was not pictured in the “Meet the Irish” promotional material?

I went to one of those Masters after hours party in 2012. This one was “Meet the Irish.” I was thinking Padraig Harrington, Graham McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke. You know, those Irishman who have been hogging all the majors. Padraig started it all winning three of eight majors and then the young and the old followed suit giving obsolescence to the term “luck of the Irish.” Well, I did not meet those Irishman that night but I did get to meet another one (at least I think he is Irish), the veteran sportswriter Kaye Kessler. I wasn’t too adept at the art of interviewing back in those days (neither am I now for the record) but came around to cornering Kaye and started asking him a lot of questions and scribbling down his responses in my notebook. Technically scribble is abstract line drawing and in the case of mine that means illegible. This was back before the Diary or even the Journey and I was ill-prepared without an audio recording device or thoughts of asking for a video interview.

With Kaye Kessler, a veteran sportswriter who’s work covers six decades!

Kaye was a delightful older gentleman who immediately took me back with him to Columbus, Ohio where he had covered all 28 seasons of Woody Hayes as the head football coach of The Ohio State University. His recollection of the five-time national champion coach was one of “perfection.” One day Kaye got a call from the head golf professional at Scioto CC who was starting a golf clinic. So he went over and wrote a story about a 10-year old kid who shot a score of 51 when he played his first nine holes. The name of the kid was Jack Nicklaus and Kaye has followed him his whole golfing career.

Incidentally, Jack’s father Charlie and Woody Hayes were born on the same day- Valentine’s Day in 1913. Though Mr. Kessler is known for his joke that “if you live long enough, all good things will fall into your lap,” it is obvious a lot of good things came to him via his talent, personality and work ethic. I am just happy I “fell into his lap” one evening in Augusta and scribbled down as many words as I could. Thanks Kaye Kessler!

This edition of Golf Writer Andy Reistetter’s exclusive series entitled “Meet Golfers the Write Way” features someone you don’t know as a golfer. You know her through her work when you see a collectable print of The Masters, a United States Open or the British Open. Reistetter first met and interviewed world-renowned golf-landscape artist Linda Hartough at the 2010 PGA Show which was her 22^nd. Since then their paths have crossed several times, most recently at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island where her artwork was exhibited at the Karis Art & Design Gallery. Join Andy for an intimate conversation with Linda and gain some insight as to how she creates her masterpieces and why her longevity is greater than Tiger when it comes to the USGA’s premier event- the United States Open.

Linda Hartough has been doing U.S. Open Championship paintings for a long time. She painted her first one in 1990 before Tiger Woods won his first USGA event in 1991- the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at age 15. Tiger went on to win the Junior Am three consecutive years and then added three consecutive U.S. Amateur championships. Linda went on to be commissioned by the USGA to create annual paintings and prints of U.S. Open venues for the last 23 years.

Even though her longevity exceeds that of Woods she is known as the “Rembrandt of the Back Nine” instead of the “Tiger of Artists.” More appropriately at The Masters she is known as the “Rembrandt of the Second Nine. Her first USGA painting was the par-3 13^th hole at Medinah Country Club. That was the year Hale Irwin was a special invitee, won his third US Open and did a victory lap around the 18^th green high-fiving everyone in the gallery.

Linda Hartough’s 8th hole at Olympic Club. Photograph used with the permission of Linda Hartough Golf Landscapes.

The massive Moorish clubhouse at Medinah did not make it into the 1990 artwork but sometimes clubhouses have in the intervening years. In the 1998 U.S. Open at Olympic Club Linda’s painting captured the par-4 18^th hole with the clubhouse in the background up on the hill. That was the year No. 18 created some controversy and debate when the second round hole location was on top of a mound. The late Payne Stewart’s six foot uphill putt went past the hole and then rolled past it again ending up 20 feet down the hill.

The hole selected at the Olympic Club for this year is the newly lengthened par-3 8^th hole. The majestic clubhouse designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. is prominently present in the latest Hartough golfing masterpiece.

The landscape of a golf hole, maybe a clubhouse yet no people or golfers. Why? “People change the focus of a painting,” Hartough said. “All of a sudden, it becomes a narrative. With an empty course, people like to imagine themselves in it. For them, it’s a perfect moment, a spiritual thing, like Nirvana.”

Author in Vecci Fashions knickers at 2012 Masters with linda Hartough. The azelas in her painting of the 13th were in bloom!

How did Linda come to paint golf-landscapes? Originally she painted landscapes of the Low Country near her home in South Carolina. Fortunately the game of golf came to her. Like a lot of betterments in golf she was discovered by Augusta National who liked her landscape paintings and asked if she would paint the 13^th hole for them. In reality painting golf landscapes is her “true love” and how many times does your true love come find you?

That first Masters gig was a long time ago. Only the year before at The Masters was the first time invited professional golfers were allowed to bring their own caddies. That year Ben Crenshaw stayed with his original Masters caddie Carl Jackson and won the first of his two Masters. The year was 1984. You can bet Crenshaw; a historian of the game of golf owns a few Hartough originals. Jack Nicklaus has seven.

Linda Hartough with her older brother Dale at the 2010 PGA Show.

Linda knew what she wanted to do at age 10. She painted her first portrait of her older brother Dale when she was 3 years old. “These are my children,” Hartough will tell you. “I am like a medium; I take in information and translate it.”

She is visually oriented and has an uncanny ability is to see things, distinguish important features and spatially manipulate a beach, golf course, mountains and sky to achieve a unique combination of tradition and natural beauty in golf. The right lighting is the key to creating memorable artwork and Linda will stay out there on the golf course longer than most golfers to get the right light for a picture

Hartough creates a new reality by leaving a lot out. Surf is typically dead calm, not alive. Seaweed is absent so as to not clutter her pictures. She sees how things work together in 3D space and starts with the parts that are furthest away. Typically they touch the sky and occupy the middle third of the painting. Depending on what is in the scene Hartough takes two to six months to produce a piece.

With Linda Hartough at the 2010 PGA Show.

The U.S. Open champion of painters recalls that no one ever told her what to do so her advice to budding artists is that “you have to find your own way, be open to opportunities, just work and produce”… as Linda has for the last 23 years for the USGA and longer for The Masters.

Woods last major triumph was legendary as he defeated Rocco Mediate in a playoff a ways down the California coast from Olympic Club at Torrey Pines. Sounds like Linda’s advice is relevant even for Tiger Woods as he attempts to win his first major in four years.

By Andy Reistetter, 1/9/12

Golf Writer Andy Reistetter lives in the Golf Capital of the World. Northeast Florida is normally known as the home of the PGA TOUR and THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the World Golf Hall of Fame. Now a World Junior Golf Series event staged on the Ocean Course at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club further validates that designation. Read along with Reistetter as he discovers the event and the Mom and Coach behind it that together are changing the face and heart of Junior Golf worldwide.

The Olympic Torch touched golf in the UK in 2012. Golf will be an Olympic Sport in 2016. Photo Credit: LOCOG/Getty Images

The World Junior Golf Series (WJGS) found a permanent home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida with the playing of the 2011 Gate American Junior, a three-round competition that ended two days before Christmas.

America’s “strongest junior event” came of age in its third rendition featuring 15 nations, 74 golfers and an organization with leaders determined to change the experience of junior golf.

It all started 10 years ago in Germany with a mother seeking to improve the junior golf experience of her son.

Then an American coach worked with her son and together they realized a unique way to drive junior golf to higher goals both on and off the golf course.

A mother and daughter from Germany in NE Florida for the 2012 WJGS event.

The Gate American Junior was the last of four WJGS events staged in 2011. The other three were in Germany, South Africa and Poland.

Overall the best juniors in the world from 27 countries have competed and there are plans to add six more events to the schedule.

Truly a world initiative only 12 of the 74 golfers were from the United States and the U.S. did not have the largest contingent of players. That distinction went to Germany with 17 golfers.

The PGA TOUR’s Ty Votaw gave the keynote speech at the Opening Ceremony.

Votaw is the person who led an international delegation that recently gained consensus to get golf back in the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janiero and then again in 2020.

The last time golf was in the world’s biggest athletic event was 112 years ago.

Great players like Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Greg Norman did not have an opportunity to play in the Olympics.

Ironically, as Votaw pointed out, 77 players competed back in 1904 in St. Louis, 74 from the U.S.A. and 3 from Canada and a Canadian George Lyon won.

Votaw is the person who led an international delegation that recently gained consensus to get golf back in the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janiero and then again in 2020. Photo Credit: Google Images

Votaw looked out over the sea of young faces and wondered aloud who in the room would aspire, prepare and participate in the Olympics perhaps in 2016 but more likely in 2020.

The former LPGA Commissioner spoke of the high standards and values in golf and the ability for competitors to shake hands and congratulate each other afterwards as he noted the mission of the WJGS.

“I have great respect for what the WJGS is doing not only in terms of providing top flight competition for junior players from around the world but doing it in such a way that it benefits you (the junior golfer) to the fullest so that you are reminded in everything you do of the inherent values that golf brings to your lives and you make our sport better by living those values every single day.”

The mother in this story is Dr. Susanna Rosswag from Germany, also affectionately known as “she that must be obeyed.”

The coach who came to the aid of the mother’s son was Ponte Vedra Beach’s own Tom Burnett whose namesake Golf Academy is located in Northeast Florida at the St. Johns Golf & Country Club.

WJGS founders America’s Tom Burnett and Germany’s Dr. Susanna Rosswag.

The link that happened over ten years ago between the Mom and the Coach was Warren Jacklin, son of World Golf Hall of Famer Tony Jacklin.

Warren and Tom met each other and played golf together at nearby Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ).

Susanna, born in Hungary honored the junior competitors at the Opening Ceremonies by noting that each one of them is a winner already.

She then impeccably pronounced each name to insure each person was warmly welcomed by the audience.

There were juniors with names like Thailand’s Kanan Saksricharoen, Hungary’s Csilla Lajtai Rozsa and Iceland’s Hjorleifur Bergsteinsson which showed the rich diversity of the Gate American field.

Dr. Rosswag went on to note “this is a competition which asks you to perform to your very best because you are competing among the best, but the real competition is from within yourself.”

She urged each participant that when they are walking the fairways together, to enjoy each other’s company and to make friends because “having friends in the world is the best insurance in life.”

Coach Burnett is as passionate as Mother Susanna when it comes to improving junior golf.

His focus is not only improving the students he teaches but on the tournaments in which they compete.

Life is a journey and sometimes golf is what takes us there… a mother and son from South Africa, visiting America for the first time to play in the 2011 WJGS event.

The WJGS ranks tournaments in addition to players.

All this happened with the input of Steve Mona, the CEO of the World Golf Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs the First Tee, Golf 20/20 and the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Tournaments are ranked for their demonstrated commitment to the WJGS player-centric, holistic and unifying philosophy and not the strength of their field.

Simply put the WJGS wants to develop junior golfers both as athletes and future leaders.

Key tournament criteria are inclusion of girls and boys (ages 12 to 19), high community involvement in terms of volunteer-to-player ratio and no charges to the competitor for golf fees, meals and accommodations.

In addition no more than 65% of the participants can come from the host country and at least nine countries must be represented.

The kids attend educational seminars on life skills, health, nutrition, mental and physical fitness and even college selection.

Burnett’s holistic approach includes the involvement of his family in running the tournament. His wife Jennifer was inside the media center while his father-in-law and 11-year old daughter were taking scores at the 18th green.

With a range full of juniors, the Burnett six-year-old kid takes the stage front and center!

Most delightful and entertaining was his youngest 6-year old son seeking balls on the range and hitting some great shots amidst the world’s best junior golfers.

As Burnett puts it “if you run the best tournaments then the best kids will come.”

By the way the best college coaches came from everywhere- California, Texas, the Midwest, to see these juniors play golf.

The 2012 Gate American Junior was personally hosted by Herb Peyton at his world class Ponte Vedra Inn & Club resort.

Peyton, a larger-than-life figure in the Jacksonville area and nearly 80 years old at the time briefly addressed the youngsters at the Opening Ceremonies.

Herb Peyton “whistled without moving his mouth” much to the delight and amusement of the youngsters. Photo Credit: Google Images

In his youthful manner, the founder of Gate Petroleum pointed out that the juniors’ golf game may be better that his but there was one talent he had that they did not possess.

He then demonstrated that talent by “whistling without moving his mouth” much to the delight and amusement of the youngsters.

Even Votaw noted that he never would have imagined witnessing such a thing when he woke up that morning.

Like the 2016 Olympics, the WJGS embrace female and male golfers playing on the same golf course. In Ponte Vedra Beach there were 27 girls and 47 boys competing in the Gate American Junior.

Austria’s Marina Stuetz shot a one-under 71 on the final day to hold off Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen and win the girls title.

The boys’ event featured an exciting finish with America’s Cody Proveaux winning over Poland’s Adrian Meronk with a birdie on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff.

As the Mother puts it, the WJGS is “running tournaments with love.”

The Coach puts it as “bringing the love back to the game.”

Likely in 4-1/2 years we might see one of their WJGS kids as an Olympic athlete in Rio de Janiero and not be surprised as she or he changes the world in their lifetime like their Mother and Coach have.

Hungary’s Daniel Kovari (white) chatting it up with eventual winner USA’s Cory Proveaux after the second round on the range.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer as well as a Spotter, Research and Broadcast Assistant for various golf netwroks. He spends time on all four major American golf tours- the PGA TOUR, Champions, Nationwide and LPGA Tours.

Reistetter resides within two miles of the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

A lifetime golfer, Andy enjoys volunteering at the World Golf Hall of Fame and THE PLAYERS while pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached by e-mailing him at AndyReistetter@gmail.com