In the swing of things at golf school in Georgia

Author: By Roger Toll, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, April 19, 1998

Page: M13

Section: Travel

The best, my research found, were the training centers sponsored by Golf Digest. About 450 of these affairs are offered at some of the best courses around the country throughout the year, but my own selection was limited by the time of year I chose to go: October. In fact, it came down to a choice between Arizona and Sea Island, Ga. After consulting my wife, Kathryn, we decided that the warmth of Dixie's Atlantic coast would be just the ticket, and that a ``mini-school'' -- that is, three days of leassons only in the mornings instead of all day -- at the famed Cloister Resort would give us time to kayak, ride horses on the beach, sail Hobie Cats, and swim in the sea each afternoon.

However, when we arrived on Thursday at noon, the weather was overcast, a damp 60 degrees, with a 12-knot wind out of the southwest. Pleased locals said it was the first cold day after a long, hot summer, and they were not complaining about the forecast for more of the same over the weekend. Kathryn was, however. ``So, what are we going to do this afternoon if it's too cold for the water?'' she said over lunch at the Cloister's attractive Beach Club, soon after pulling in after an hour's drive from the airport in Jacksonville, Fla. I, of course, cheered the turn in the weather, for I saw it as the perfect opportunity to play 18 holes after the morning sessions on the resort's four courses at the Sea Island Golf Club. In fact, seeing no reason we should dither any longer, I suggested a quick, late-afternoon nine holes on the finest fairways I'd seen in my brief golfing experience. Kathryn, resigned to sticking by her golf-inflamed paramour, came along gamely.

Friday dawned overcast and windy, as promised. Jim Goergen, an affable, a 30-year-old Georgian and two-time Florida State Junior Champion who has been with the Golf Digest Schools since 1991, got us hitting shots with our 7-irons, checked out our swings and gave us a pep talk. ``Over the next three days, we'll chip, pitch, work through the irons, and try to master the full swing,'' he said. ``And we might not even touch a driver.'' He went on to the fundamentals of the chip, explaining that it is the basis of all other swings in golf. ``What goes on below the belt during a perfect chip swing is what should go on below the belt during the full swing.'' And with that, we spent the rest of the morning practicing the chip shot until the movement began to ingrain itself in our muscle memory.

Chilled by the wind and a soft drizzle, we took a break in the learning center's building, chock full of video and electronic systems, to record in ultra-slow speed and from every angle the minutiae of our swings. For comparison, Jim pointed out the right way to do the movements he was teaching us through brief videos of Sam Snead, Nick Price, and Davis Love III (who lives on the fifth hole of the Retreat Course at Sea Island Golf Club). As I played nine holes by myself that afternoon -- Kathryn, sore from all the swinging, chose a massage instead -- I wasn't sure if the morning's efforts had helped or hindered me.

``What is this, boot camp?'' Kathryn muttered at 6 a.m. when the wakeup call rang. It was still dark outside, and we could hear the wind and rain. So my excitement to get dressed and take some practice swings before class started at 8 did nothing to motivate her. ``It's Saturday morning, we're on a holiday, we're at a luxury resort, and we're up before dawn,'' she said. ``Something doesn't compute.''

The Cloister is a genteel caravansary that is to this small corner of Georgia what Disney World is to Orlando. There is an old-fashioned feel to the resort, right down to the dance lessons at 5 p.m., the occasional bingo night, the required tie and jacket in the main dining room in the evening, or the suggested black tie on Saturday nights. In fact, the resort is so deliberate in its comfortably conservative approach that it still refuses to accept credit cards. ``Guests are warned that checks or cash only will be accepted in payment,'' the literature harrumphs with a rather patrician air. The Cloister reminded me vaguely of large, old-style hotels I'd come across in British Columbia or the Lake District in England. I rather expected high tea to be offered as I came in from golf.

As Kathryn struggled to reconcile herself with the morning, I went downstairs to the Cloister's main dining room, a cavernous affair redolent of another epoch. Terrie, a large woman with a generous demeanor, brought me a cup of coffee and guided me to the massive buffet tables. She has worked at the Cloisters 23 years, she said, which is not untypical of the resort's staff; the resort is clearly the plum employer in the area. I had asked Randy in the bar the evening before the same question. ``I've been here 27 years,'' he said. He told me about a friend of his who had retired the year before after 49 years of service. I suppose this can only be expected from a hotel that has been operated by the same family for 70 years. The resort has 262 rooms, but 1,200 employees, which works out to a generous 4.6 employees per room. People are hospitable and friendly in a no-nonsense way. They are there to serve you, and they do it well and with warmth.

The Cloister brought back memories of occasional trips to resorts with my parents as a young child in the '50s. To me, the choices they had to make between a ``full'' American Plan, a ``modified plan, or the European Plan seemed very momentous, the stuff adults did. (I was always pushing for the more exotic-sounding European Plan myself, with no idea, in fact, of what it was.) At The Cloister, there was no such choice; it was the full American Plan, or nothing. What this means -- at least if you're a typical American with a well-honed sense of wanting your money's worth -- is that you end up eating a lot more food than you need, or even want.

The innumerable sports and recreational activities the resort offers will help shed the pounds put on at the interminable sequence of hearty, multicourse meals. But it's golf that's at center stage. In fact, it always has been since Bill Jones helped found the hotel in 1928 to attract the North's wealthy industrialists. The Sea Island Golf Club was built on the site of the old Retreat Plantation, where sea island cotton was grown in pre-bellum days. When the original course was laid out, golf great Bobby Jones called it ``one of the world's finest.'' Golf is still the greatest attraction under the founder's great grandson, Bill Jones III, the family's third generation to run the Cloister. Today, the Sea Island course boasts 36 holes meandering along the waterfront, through gnarled oak forests, and beside beautiful lakes, ponds, and estuaries. And among its gems is the Golf Learning Center, perhaps the most state-of-the-art instruction facility in the golf world.

As Jim worked individually with each of us during the three days of our course, he perfected our grips, our posture, our presentation to the ball, the plane of our swings, the movement of our hips and shoulders, and the position of our hands in relation to the ball. He had us repeat again and again the right movement, driving it deeply into our muscle memory. ``Remember, always swing to the finish of the swing,'' he reminded me when I got lazy or tired. ``The key to the short game is hitting the ball clean every time. Never do more than eight or 10 full swings without going back to a few chip shots,'' he would say as he corralledme back to my short game. ``A good half of your practice time should be spent chipping and pitching.''

By the end of 13 hours of teaching, I felt a delightful sense of empowerment. My new grip kept most of my drives going straight. My posture gave me much added control and power. My hands were, miraculously, leading through the swing, not following after. My divots were in front of the ball. My pitch and chip shots were going pretty close to where I wanted them. When Kathryn and I played 18 holes after our last lesson, I knew the school worked when I broke 100 for the first time, and shattered my previous low score by 7 shots: a glorious 97. And the sun, finally, came out.

and is served by Atlantic Southeast Airlines. All prices are for full American plan (three meals a day), per person, based on two people per room. Regular rooms plus meals range from $137 per person in the winter to $167 in the high season of March 15 to May 31. Ocean front rooms range from $173 to $307. From July 5 to Sept. 7, benefit from the Cloister's Family Festival, when children under 18 can stay in your room or suite for free, including all meals.