Tee Thursday: Learn from the best in Jamaica

When you’re a super influential golf writer, you get to do cool things. That’s how I found myself on a driving range with David Leadbetter, the internationally acclaimed golf coach who has guided students to 26 major titles and an additional 100 tourneys worldwide.

No need for eye-rolls: I jest. Not that I wasn’t there with Leadbetter’s total focus on my swing and my game; that really happened. Rather, this wasn’t only for the connected. I was there the same way you can be there – by visiting Jamaica’s Half Moon Resort (www.halfmoon.com/) and taking part in their Golf Guest Instructor Series. No need for fancy titles or golf column status; Half Moon’s golf program is for us all.

The resort, located on Half Moon Bay near Montego Bay, is home to its own Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout that’s worth the visit itself. Lush and green – lined and dotted with natural flora that does indeed attract fauna – it’s challenging (26 intensely bunkered greens; you’ll push yourself on your tee shots to find narrow fairways), and yet it plays well for even a higher handicap player (like me).

There’s a top-notch driving range where I met Leadbetter for my fun, fascinating and somewhat intense private lesson. He studied my swing with multiple clubs, and then began the journey he set me on: a goal of mastering what he calls – and what pros at the top of this game have embraced as brilliant – the “A swing.”

This is Leadbetter’s focus – a strong, efficient and confident swing – something he believes (and those championships have proven) is the base of golf success.

It’s one thing to study videos about it. It’s quite another to have the maestro of A Swing himself guiding you toward it.

By lunch I had mastered it.

I jest again. What Leadbetter did for me was lay a solid foundation to start from. Looking at what needed to be tweaked (tweaked may be a bit of an understatement), connecting it to things I understand and do well (skiing, for me), and pointing out the habits, set-ups, grips and swings of pros we who follow golf know well, he helped me begin the process of earning – and some day owning – the A swing.

He worked me through the geometry and physics of it, and since it was the deep dark cold of winter back home, sent me away not just with a range practice plan, but with simple exercises I could do at home any time to help build my muscle memory.

He’s a fun guy too. Affable and chatty with some great stories he’s generous with, you walk away not just with great tips and new goals, but feeling like you gained a friend.

Leadbetter is just one of the pros who take part in the series. From September through late February, you can find other top pros. Guests can book an individual lesson or other options like swing analysis with club-fitting guidance.

The resort club itself has top pros and caddies. Led by Kevyn Cunningham, the team offers individual and group lessons. And playing the course with a caddy who knows it well? It’s like moving yourself ahead to your third time playing the course instead of first.

Every Friday morning, the club offers a free clinic (including clubs should you need). Guests can sign up and get great tips from top pros for no charge.

The resort can also help you secure tee times at nearby Cinnamon Hill and White Witch for variety. But for ease of access and beauty of play, Half Moon pays off. Winding through land that was a retired sugar cane estate, it hugs the hills that overlook Half Moon Bay.

It’s also home to a cute clubhouse as well as the must-experience Sugar Hill Restaurant.

And back at the resort, you can apres golf on the two miles of beaches, take on some tennis, pickleball, or water sports, dine at all kinds of great spots and sooth your muscles at the Salamander Spa.

With its own top-rated course and two more to visit, Half Moon Resort is a golf destination worth the visit. And just like me, should you opt for the Golf Guest Instructor Series, you’ll feel like a VIP. It’s not everyone who shares a pro with Nick Faldo.

I left with the greatest souvenir: those tips along with an encouraging pep talk from Leadbetter.

“You’ve definitely got a future,” he told me. “You know; you’ve got to work at it, I think a lot of people expect miracles. Do the work. That’s the key.” I am, coach Leadbetter; I am.