Marc featured in Hour Detroit magazine
From March 2007 Edition article "Three to the Fore"

	THREE TO THE FORE So your golf game isn't what it should be? Hey, join the club. But you can do something to improve your score without breaking the bank. Instead of simply sinking more green into equipment, invest in a few lessons; they'll pay off in the long run. A trio of pros offers some free tips to get you going. //By Lynn Henning
Marc White Supervisor of Instruction, Oakhurst Golf and Country Club, Owner/Operator of Golf Training Studio, Great Lakes Athletic Club

As most amateurs and golf professionals know, the secret to golf success is good instruction.

Rather than spending $500 on a new driver that may or may not change anything substantive about your game, it makes more sense to invest $300 on four or five lessons and then watch the scorecards take a turn for the better. You need a good grip, a proper setup, a simple and repeating backswing, and a proper path through the golf ball if you want to play better and, more important, enjoy the game fully. Just a few lessons with a golf professional will transform almost anyone's game in lasting ways. Good equipment is helpful. For better players, it's also essential. And though it's important to have clubs that are fitted to your specifications — especially shafts, proper loft-and-lie adjustments, and appropriate grip — nothing will benefit your game as much as a handful of lessons. Sign up for them at a practice range or at a public or private (if you're a member) facility. But one way or another, pledge to yourself in 2007 that you will spend the best $300 of your golf life.

Marc White has been supervisor of instruction at Oakhurst Golf and Country Club for the past five years. In 2006, he became one of the first golf professionals certified as a Titleist Performance Institute golf-fitness instructor. A native of Bad Axe and a 1980 graduate of Central Michigan University, he has been a PGA professional since 1987. He was previously head professional at Petoskey Bay View Country Club and then direc­tor of instruction at the Mulligan's golf-dome range in Auburn Hills.

MUSCLE REDUCES MULLIGANS: One of the newest trends in golf has sprung from a new consciousness: Getting into shape trims strokes from a typical golfer's round and leads to greater energy and success on the course.
"You have more flexibility and strength," White says. "What we've found is that over the last 20 to 25 years, the average handicap for the average golfer has not dropped; it's basically stayed the same. Yet, golf instruction has greatly improved, and golf equipment and golf-course conditions have become much better. The missing link is physical fitness. "If a person can't get into correct physical position for their swing, they're not going to play better." White has begun a series of 12-week, twice-weekly sessions of physical training for golfers. The program provides new paths toward flexibility and strength. Swings that enjoy a wider range of motion and more fluidity tend to significantly change a golfer's ability to hit a golf ball — and to hit it well.

TAKE TARGET PRACTICE: Most golfers worry so much about mechanics that they forget to concentrate on hitting the ball. "I want people to focus on a target," White says, repeating the word "target" a handful of times for emphasis. "You've got to line up properly, yes, but then I want you to trust the swing you've been working on and become more target oriented. "Everyone worries too much about mechanics. I want golfers to stand behind the ball and to get properly aligned. And then I want them to set up and swing to a target."

FOCUS: White tells of two excellent young golfers, one in high school, and one playing on a college team, who came to him last year with a shared frustration. Each thought he needed a chipping lesson that would help him get his greenside shots closer to the hole. White watched each golfer. Their mechanics were sound. They did everything right — except think. They were focused on the flagstick, not on a landing spot sufficiently in front of the hole. It was no wonder they were consistently running the golf ball 10 feet or more past the pin. "You've got to get into the mental aspect of golf," White says, "You need to focus on positions. Golf shots aren't cookie-cutter exercises."