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Golf's mental-skills specialist marks 10 years of service to the game's instruction and coaching community

BOERNE, Texas - GolfPsych, golf's leading mental-game services firm, has released the 2005 schedule for its GolfPsych Instructor Training Schools, where PGA professionals, swing teachers and coaches learn the skills and receive the training they need to provide others with proven mental-game instruction.

The 2005 schedule includes five introductory sessions conducted by GolfPsych CEO and Co-Founder Jon Stabler at the Tapatio Springs Resort in San Antonio, Texas: Jan. 10-13, March 7-10, April 18-21, June 13-16 and July 25-28.

Two more introductory schools are slated for Cantigny Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill. (April 4-7, and Oct. 17-20) and two more at The Doral Tesoro Resort in Forth Worth, Texas, Feb. 21-24 and May 16-19.

A pair of Advanced GolfPsych Instructor Schools have also been scheduled for Tapatio, Feb. 18-24 and May 13-19.

This winter GolfPsych marks 10 years of training golf professionals in its mental-game instruction methodology. Ted Sheftic, one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers, was a member of that inaugural 1995 training class; hundreds more have since undergone this professional development effort, which is fully accredited by the PGA of America's Continuing Education department.

"We're determined to attract and certify North America's outstanding teaching professionals and coaches in the GolfPsych system," says Stabler. "We believe golf's best teachers should be golf's elite mental-game coaches - students shouldn't have to seek out third parties and lie on a couch to receive mental-skills training. PGA professionals and established swing teachers already know their students better than anyone. With the proper training, these men and women can more comprehensively serve their students while at the same time increasing their overall earning power."

Co-founded by Stabler and Dr. Deborah Graham, one of golf's most respected mental-game coaches, GolfPsych has worked with more than 300 PGA, LPGA and Champions tour players since 1981. The GolfPsych methodology centers on personality recognition and assessment. Stabler and Dr. Graham are co-authors of "The 8 Traits of Champion Golfers" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), the seminal, in-depth study of the personality traits that separate major champions and frequent tour winners from the rest of us. The book's findings are based on scientific studies conducted by Dr. Graham in 1981 (LPGA) and 1989 (PGA and Senior PGA Tours). This research shows that golf's group of Champions, these Frequent Winners, have almost nothing common: As a group they share nothing in terms of equipment, upbringing, experience, swing thoughts, pre-shot routines, swing coaches or body types.

But they do share 8 key personality traits. All of them. Personality is the only unifying aspect of this group.

"Does this mean your students should give up if they don't have the Champion's 8 personality trait measures? No. It means, as teachers, you need to help your students understand how their personality compares to those of the Champions group - and identify where their challenges lie," Stabler explains. "It means you need to develop strategies and techniques that enable your students to overcome their challenges, to operate like Champions on the golf course."

Through its nationwide network of Certified Instructors, GolfPsych (www.golfpsych.com) reaches out to the full range of golfers - touring professionals, aspiring pros, serious amateur competitors and Sunday golfers alike - by offering its Tour-proven mental-game instruction, products and services to players seeking to maximize their golfing potential.

The first step toward attaining Certified-Instructor status is attending an Introductory GolfPsych Instructor School. Certified GolfPsych Instructors have earned the right to teach others in the GolfPsych method - charging their students for mental-game sessions just as they would lesson-tee sessions. Certified Instructors also received commissions on the sale (direct or via referral) of GolfPsych products, including GolfPsych Reports, the industry's leading personality assessment tool, and the popular Mind Meter, the only fully portable system that effectively monitors a person's physiology and provides real-time biofeedback on how relaxed the student is, how clear his/her mind is.

According to Jon Sinclair, a Master GolfPsych Instructor who teaches out of the Cleburne (Texas) Golf Center, the Mind Meter's teaching applications go well beyond the GolfPsych method.

"I personally feel it's the best tool I've ever seen for teaching golf," Sinclair says. "The Mind Meter allows me to see when a student gets overloaded, when the mind gets too busy. People can't learn when their minds are cluttered. At that point, when we both see their numbers are up, the student can step back, lower their numbers through breathing and relaxation techniques, and start over."

Advanced GolfPsych Instructors have earned the right to market and conduct their own GolfPsych Tournament Player Schools, the only golf academies dedicated solely to enhancing mental-game skills. Achieving Master Instructor status means one is qualified to teach and certify other golf professionals in the GolfPsych system.

"It's a serious commitment, but my GolfPsych certification has paid me back a thousand-fold," says Master GolfPsych Instructor Lou Solarte, director of golf instruction and PGA professional at Cantigny Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill., and director of instruction at The Hideaway in La Quinta, Calif. "I incorporate the GolfPsych philosophy into everything I do: teaching, coaching and my own play. It's a vital part of my business model."

Solarte's business model is wide-ranging [www.lousolarte.com]. He's a collegiate coach; he coordinates a program called "Junior Sticks", a year-round periodization golf development program for competitive juniors; he runs a profitable custom-clubfitting business; and he administers his own series of GolfPsych Tournament Players Schools, seven of which are scheduled at Cantigny for 2005 (tuition is $599 for Level I attendees).

Canadian Henry Brunton, another Master GolfPsych Instructor [www.henrybrunton.com], runs his own Tournament Players Schools out of his home course, Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario. Brunton serves as national coach for the Royal Canadian Golf Association; he's one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers (the first Canadian so honored) and, like Solarte, runs a custom-clubfitting operation.

"If my students need swing help or custom clubfitting, of course I give it to them. I'm a golf professional," says Brunton. "But if they need mental game coaching - and so many people do - why shouldn't I undertake the training to provide those services, too? No one knows their swings and their personalities better than I do.

"GolfPsych is a wonderful teaching tool, but it's also entrepreneurial. It's my view that GolfPsych Certified Instructors set themselves apart from others in the golf marketplace. Clients enjoy and benefit from my coaching, education and tools. The fact that a GolfPsych instructor can earn ancillary money from product and service sales is an added bonus."

Adds Stabler, "We are so proud of the PGA professionals who have chosen to partner with us. We're attracting top talent because our system works. We've proven this on Tour, with Dr. Graham's clients, and in the real world with golfers of all abilities. But GolfPsych instruction also provides golf professionals something unique: the chance to build their businesses in ways that don't depend on country club affiliation or apparel sales."

To learn more about GolfPsych Instructor Training, to apply or sign up for a session, call 888-280-GOLF, or visit www.golfpsych.com.