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Posted 17 April 2009 - 07:38 PM
How to stop slicing and eliminate that shank. Fl is your new house pro on the Game of Golf. He feels pool chat should become a sports chat place. Adding Golf to the topics is the first step. He plans to begin selling both pool and golf supplies in the near future. A lot of real golfers play a little pool. Most of the better country clubs have a pool table in the men’s grill, bar or locker room. Few real pool players play golf. It’s a shame because many of the advanced teaching in golf can be used and applied to your golf game. There are real parallels between the two games. Especially in the break, or how to roll a ball like you putt. No pro golfer has ever became a pro pool player. One pro golfer, has became a pool pro. He had no success.
Willie Mosconi and Earl Stricklin played 18 every morning and then pool at night. Johnny Archer plays in the high 70’s. Golf is much better exercise than pool; it requires much more strength and athletic ability. Tennis, because of the running and hand eye, requires more ability than Golf. Playing golf will only improve your pool game.
FL’s knowledge of the game of Golf is vast and he wishes to share with you what he knows.
He began in a real caddy shack at KCMO’s top country club, Blue Hills. When they had the pro event come in every year he carried for the pros. He carried for Arnold Palmer in his first event as a pro when he was the US amateur champion and later for Ben Hogan, Duke Gibson, Bryon Nelson, Jug McSpadden, Sam Sneed and Jack Nicklaus. FL says the best striker of the ball, the best iron player he ever saw was Byron, the most consistent, Hogan, the most smooth, Sneed, the strongest Fat Jack, the man he loved to follow, who could produce the loudest gallery roar, when he was on a charge, AP, the most fun to follow, Trevino, and the most complete game he has ever seen, Tiger.
He’s been out there on tour, helping to club them and read the greens for these legends of the game. If they asked him questions on what to do, so can you. He’s seen the greatest ball strikers of all time, up close on the other side of the ropes. He’s played golf with all of the above and with Johnny Miller who he defeated once.
When he became a International sales manager he traveled the entire country and since the tour always was in his territory, he saw and attended every US Open, and PGA every year. He attended 25 pro PGA events every year, taking a customer out to see the event every Thursday to entertain him. Where ever the tour was that week, he showed up in town on Thursday. He had an unlimited expenses account and could travel when ever, where ever and nobody questioned him why or where he went to. He has attended hundreds of pro tourneys. He has attended the Masters in Augusta 37 years in a row. He has literally been there, and seen it all. He attends the super show every year in Vegas where everyone in golf is in attendance.
He became a scratch golfer in the early 70’s and has played at plus one to never higher than a 2. His low round is 65. He was never a great putter, but a good ball striker. He has had 17 holes in one, 20 eagles out of the fairway, which are like holes in one. He has driven the greens of par 4’s and twice driven the greens on par 5’s and putted for an albatross. He has had one double eagle, with a 3 wood into a par 5. Shooting into the 60’s at least once a week for decades, means FL knows how to play the game at a pro level. He never got any better than that because he was working a full time sales job, which allowed him to play golf with clients and paid for his country club membership, all his green fees and travel expenses. He was always a semi pro golfer disguised as a sales executive. FL's territory was the Western Hemisphere, which meant he could fly to any city on any day in North or South America.
A greens fee or cart, never once, came out of his pocket. To FL, it was a selling expense, like buying a drink in a bar, which he charged off $500,000 of booze on his account as well over the decades. He spent well over a million dollars on golf courses and at resorts and in country clubs. FL has been on the road since the 60's and he is still going strong today. Last year, he was in 42 of our 48 states.
In the late 60’s up to the early 70’s he was trained on how to use Golf as a selling tool. The billion dollar company he worked for had 20 planes, and bought the brand new 737 that just came out in 1968. It had extra fuel tanks added to it so it could fly over the Atlantic. The same company that did the custome job of Hef’s Big bunny DC9 at the time, did theirs. Hef’s was famous, nobody knew about the Essex Jet. It could only hold 26 people, there were no airplane seats, just sofas, captain’s chairs, a large standup bar in the middle where most hung out at during most of the flight. It was a flying palace, at the time, the top plane in the world. Back then nobody did that, but today, that is no biggie, all the Billionaires have one. FL joined the mile high club on that plane.
The company knew that at least 2 afternoons FL could have a top client out playing golf, either at his CC, but most would rather invite FL to be a guest and play at theirs. What a job? Drinking and playing Golf and getting paid big bucks for it. But it came with a price, FL had to produce to pay for this lavish life style and he did by closing million dollar sales. Fl closed and sold over $100,000,000 and most of the deals were closed on the golf course or in the country club bar. That was his world, and he was the master of it.
He established his million dollar club. To get on the Jet, for the once a year trip, you had to buy a million dollars from him that year. You could not bring a ho, you had to bring your wife. East coast clients we took to Pebble Beach and spyglass. Sometimes when the weather was right we would do the Kissing Camels in Colorado springs. http://www.pbase.com/irishmason/camels
You wanted to take them to a place, that really impressed them, that was beyond first class, that they would kill to return to, and their wife would drive them nuts, to buy a million from me, so she could return, and be treated like the queen of Sheba by me, for a long weekend.
http://gardenofthegodsclub.com/
They don’t call this joint, the Garden of the Gods, for nuttin?
West Coast clients we took to the old US Open courses in the NE or Bermuda. The top dogs, we flew over to play St Andrews in Scotland and we were fond of courses in Sotogrande in the South East coast of Spain.
We had an old 4 engine Connie, what a great plane it was. Very stable, very safe, and slow. Everyone loved it. The idea was to have them in the air for 3 or 4 hours, get them dead drunk and have them have the time of their life. But when the 737 came on line, it became a problem. The Connie would fly at 280 mph, at about 30,000 feet, and had a great range of 4,300 miles. With the 737 we were higher, and at 500 mph. They were getting there twice as fast and showing up half drunk instead of our usual dead drunk have to carry them off the plane. In that era, drinking heavy with customers was a way of life. They were having half the fun. To solve the problem, we had to find places to go, that were twice as far away, and that meant going to Europe.
The customers would drive right up to the plane early Friday morning, which was parked out in the private jet area, and I had all kinds of jobs. Greet them, help them up the steps, then put their luggage into the hole, take the blocks from the wheels, the plugs out of the engines, shut the door and head to the cockpit. We would hire a crew to fly the bird, 2 pilots; this was the first 2 man pilot crew Boeing produced, which sold a lot of planes. We would hire a good airlines stew. Because we only had 26 on board, the 2 of us could handle it with ease, and we had a couple of VP's on board from the company who did not do she-yit, but could Bull she-yit the customers and keep them off my ass while I worked my arse off.
Sometimes I would talk them into letting me take the Sob off, I could fly a jet like nobody’s business, don’t let that BS about me crashing 3 of them bother you if we ever go up. Dude, she-yit happens and it was not my fault. Twice both engines failed on private prop planes, once the landing gear would not go down in a Lear, mechanical failure, none of it was pilot failure. The only jet I ever crashed was an F-16 in a military trainer on the ground in a simulator in Tampa. That was my fault. I took it up to 80,000, then went into a dive at mach 2 and tried to pull out. Damn that ground came up fast. Spam in a can, BBR’ed, a NASA term, burned beyond recognition. My co pilot was laughing his ass off. When you crash, loud noises go boob, simulated fire flashes around you, and the cabin fills up with smoke, then the doors pop open and every one out side, yells, your dead.
After the seatbelt sign was off, my job became the bartender, parked behind the stand up bar. I knew what all these guys liked, and I made them all doubles and soon I had them all stiff. Most of the men drank very dry Martini’s or scotch, I had a Dom and nice wine from the Baron for the ladies. No plastic cups, real fine glasses. I always had a drink in my hand, but it was Tea on the rocks, as I had to stay straight as so much depended on me.
After I got the plane dead drunk and they were all sitting around the stew would be making lunch in the galley, The Vp would take over the bar for me, and I would help her bring it out to feed the drunks. We bought the best food the catteries sold, none of that airline she-yit, it went on real china, real silver ware, no plastic trays and forks for us. The guys all wanted the steak. We put Singapore airways lunch to shame.
I would then go in the cockpit, to relieve the crew, one at a time, so they could eat, hit the head, join the mile high club, whatever. I would fly the plane for a while. Flying is easy, landing is only tough part, or when something fooks up, or weather closes in.
Blue skys, a monkey can fly a 737.
A few good jokes, kiss their asses and we were heading in. I would clean up the cabin, pick up the drinks which most would not turn loose of. Back to the cockpit jump seat, hit the ground, and I would get the luggage and golf clubs off the plane for the truck that came to pick it up from the hotel, the customers all went on limos and I had them all pre checked into their 5 star resort. I got them all their keys, into their rooms, and then we had a meal to remember in the resort restaurant for dinner.
Cognacs and cigars for the guys and soon Friday were over. Sat and Sun, we played golf at a top resort. I would run the golf tourney. I would shoot 72, write down a 90, nobody there could break 80. I would make side bets and lose them all on purpose. It was all classic customer golf. In all those years, I only won one match, and that was a fluke. I always made bets, gave up so many strokes, there was no way I could win.
There would usually be a pool table and I would never run more than 3 balls, even though I could run racks. I never let any one get wind of my past, or what I could do there. Not even my kids, I had a pool table in my basement, they never saw me play on it.
I would send the ladies off on sightseeing trips that did not play. Two more top dinners, fly out Monday morning early. It was mostly bloody Mary’s going home. They were all pooped. The plane, was like a tomb. Everyone was dead, literally. That was their reward, for being my top customers. They got a trip of a life time. Worth a lot of money. But, they all knew, if they did buy another mil, there was not another invitation and it became a prestige thing, to be on that plane. Nobody wanted to drop off the list, once they were on there.
When I left that company and moved out of the Midwest and went to Florida, I was working for Continental Oil, another billion dollar company with money to burn, and I used that same technique down there. They would not buy me a 737, so I just went out and rented planes but going into small airports and landing strips in the Carribbean I usually flew 2 engine props. They were slower, but safer and out of Miami I never had far to go to. It was cheaper because I only had to hire a pilot and I usually did all the flying as the co pilot and used them just as a safety net. When a big deal would come up, a million dollar sale, I would charter a plane to the Bahamas, or to Charlotte Amile and do the same gig. Golf one day, fishing for Marlin the next. Maybe some scuba diving. I did not lose many of those orders. Their every wish, was my command. Women, was usually on that wish list. On these trips, no wifes were invited. These were total R&R, I&I trips.
I lived this life, a James Bond existence for 2 decades, until I moved to Atlanta, and became the CEO of my own corporation and slowed down some. There have been a couple of punks, 2 low rent chinks, who have called me a liar about doing all of this. These 2 little worms live dull lives working on their computers all day long and never go any where or do anything. They can't believe a pro pool player has. Sure, no pool player has, or could, they live their lives in a smelly smoked filled pool hall in some dump, in some out of the way place. They are always broke. Always low rent bums. Few play golf, because they can’t raise the green fees. How in the fook are they going to show up at Pebble beach is $325 footjoys tour shoes, the $200 slacks, the $400 sweater, the $350 greens fees. I did all the time, because my company paid for it all. I did it all before I became a pool pro.
Everything I did out on the road, I wrote off, no matter what it was, ho's, booze, golf, it all found it's way on that expense account. It was all there, catch it if you can, knock it off, it goes back on next week was my motto. Executives with unlimited expenses accounts, with American Express platium cards, were never questioned, unless you did something stupid and beyond lavish.
I did not do this as a pool player, I did it as a sales executive, working for fortune 10 companies, and their executives, do live this life, which I did. It put me on the top golf courses in the world, and every time I played golf, it went on my expense account. The top amateurs all end up in jobs like this, selling like I did, working for an insurance company, and being able to work in the morning, and play golf with a customer every afternoon.
My Dad drove a truck, I was smarter than my Dad. He worked hard for nothing; I hardly worked and was paid a lot for doing nothing but having a good time and smiling a lot. Welcome to America.
I got sick once with the flu, very sick, and was in bed for 4 days, and instead, sold and closed deals from my bed, on the phone and make 36K that week. More than my dad did in an entire year. You get nowhere working hard, you get somewhere, working smart.
Being a 2nd degree black belt in Karate, fl always could hit things very hard. FL was driving the ball over 300 back in the 60’s with his 945 McGregor wood clubs. In the early 80’s, with the old ball that was not the hot one today, with the first very small metal head driver that came out, FL would hit 4 drives a day over 300, usually a 310, 320, now and then a 330. He was Tiger long, before Tiger. Mizunno was working with him then, watching him play at their factory and matching up special shafts to give him the power. He was using a 7 degree driver of theirs.
This power did not come by accident. Fl worked out in a gym, swam 50 laps a day, played Tennis, ran 5 miles every other day, fought in a dojo, and was in incredible shape. He swung a 5 lb club, then a 10 lb iron bar, then a sledge ax, all left handed, dozens of times a day. He said, you play the game on your weak UN natural side, so you have to make it stronger, which is UN natural. The swing is all with the left side, with the right hand and arm just riding along, not doing anything until the very last second, then it expoldes. Holding it off is what most players cannot do.
At one point, only 2,000 people on earth, had a lower handidcap than FL did. He said, in the late 60's and 70's, the big bucks had not hit golf yet. I was making more selling than Trevino was making being number one. By the time the big money arrived, I was then too old, and when I did try and go pro at 40, trained hard for a year and got to plus 2, I was struck down by the broken back and my dream of being a golf pro died right there.
Instead I became a pool pro, the bending and twisting of the golf swing caused me serious pain, so hitting hundreds of balls a day was out and being a top player was no longer possible. But the bending over on a pool table caused no pain and I pursued what I could do then.
His length and strength are now taken from him in Golf, because of an almost fatal plane crash, which broke his back, almost killed him and had him in bed crippled for over a year, and another year to rehab back. Age has also taken its toll on his strength and flexibility and arthritis has finished him off. He still plays, just for fun, and will not keep score. What has not left, is his knowledge of how to produce that power, and those low scores.
He began working full time with Jug Mcspadden in the late 60’s when he became a charter member of his country club in Piper, Kansas. Jug became like a 2nd father to FL. Bryon Nelson would work with him several times a year also. In the early 70’s FL moved to Florida, then to Alabama where he became a disciple of the then unknown Jimmy Ballard, who went on to become the premier teacher in the game. JB took FL’s game into a pro level game.
http://www.jimmyball...f.com/id57.html
All pool players believe there is some inside secret the pros never tell you. Yes, there was one in golf. The secret was discovered by Shoeless Shoe Jackson, who passed it on to a rookie called Sam Parks. When Babe Ruth came up to the Yankees he was 19 and they put the then old man, on the way out, to room with the Babe, hoping Sam could calm him down and control the wild kid. Sam passed the power secret to the Babe and the rest was history. When Sam retired he ended up on a small public golf course on the far outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama.
When the tour came to Bhm, Sam saw a skinny kid hooking the ball badly. He could practice until his hands bleed. Sam saw, all he was eating was oranges. When Sam went over to talk to him, he found out he was dead broke, on fumes, and if he did not cash a check that week, he was gone, off the tour and would have to get a day job. Sam fed him, built up his strength, taught him the great secret, that took his hook away and he was astonished to see his game turn him into a robot. All he did was hit fairways and greens and won, then won 3 in a row and the rest was history.
His name was Ben Hogan, and his book, 5 fundamentals goes into several of the great secrets of the game and swing. How to keep the lats connected to the sides of your body and not let them unplug. FL's right lat, is twice the size of his left lat, which is where a lot of his power comes from.
Along came a new young teaching pro named Jimmy Ballard. He started working for Sam and called this power, connection, the ability to connect and hold all the large muscles in place, and then allow them to fire in sequence, one after the other one, with the fingers firing last, and the legs driving through hard into a hard firm left side. The bigger ones fire down to smaller ones without thinking about it, a forum of Zen Golf way ahead of its time.
JB attacked the way Golf had been taught, saying if you did the top 7 things they taught, you would never play well. He was smeared and attacked horribly, but in time, he was seen to be right and he changed the way the game was taught. JB taught FL the great secret and he took this connection concept and not only played in the 60’s using it, but he broke all the power records in the pool world as well.
When FL was in Florida he was taught by David Ledbetter. Having the top teachers in Golf gave FL a total understanding of how the swing worked, and how to teach it to others. FL once tied the course record at his home country club of Horseshoe Bend in Roswell, Ga, which has a pro event every year and was a severe test. FL has belonged to top country clubs since the 60’s and has played all the top courses in every state. He has played 90 of the top rated 100 courses in the country, including Cypress Point and Augusta National.
There is your new Golf teacher. Ask him, any question and he will take your pool or golf game, to a new level.
click the pic of fl's current driver
