Hello and welcome to a new-but-old series within the Enterprise-Journal’s sports department.
Back in the late 1900s, a past editor began taking golf lessons from local instructor Ted Tullos and chronicled his journey of learning and growth through the written word.
As a friend of Tullos and someone who recognizes that knowing how to properly swing a club will come in handy, I decided to rekindle that past series in the modern age.
So stay tuned for my documentation of Tullos’ teachings from Quail Hollow, as I’ll provide some insight on what it’s like to get started in the sport, why it is considered such a beautiful game and--ideally--how I was able to become a respectable player.
*Article will be continually updated with additional days as time wears on.*
Day 1 (February 12, 2026)
Before I delve into the initial day of instruction, I’ll provide some background on my prior experience with the sport.
My grandparents live in a golf community up in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and thus my annual pilgrimages did feature a fair amount of time on the links. My grandfather is an avid golfer despite being well past 80, and while neither of his sons play with much frequency, they both are at least serviceable on the course.
Those genes trickled down to me, but only barely. My drives go a fair distance, but a horrendous slice has caused me to have too many close calls with houses and cars. My fairway play is mediocre at best, my chipping surprisingly effective and my putting predictably pathetic.
So, now you all know where I’m starting from.
Tullos knew all of this prior and insisted that due to my background as an athlete, he could turn me into a respectable golfer with relative ease. I had initial doubts, as I was unsure how my basketball and soccer skills would translate to such a precise game that requires far more mental fortitude than any other sport.
Still, I knew that doing this would be beneficial for multiple reasons.
First and foremost, my grandfather would be proud I’d finally decided to take some lessons, and that’s worth its weight in gold.
Secondly, golf is a game that seemingly calls to every male at some point in their lives, whether it be for pleasure, business or a mix of both. Thus, I figured it could only help me down the line.
And lastly, this was also just a great chance to get out in nature. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more peaceful setting than a golf course on a pristine day, and as the weather began to warm, I wanted to find a way to get outdoors more.
But that’s enough prefacing.
Day One saw Tullos put me through the wringer, as we drilled the long game, chipping and putting to set a starting point with each.
Beginning on the driving range, I rotated through various clubs as Tullos instructed me on proper stance and how to alter my previous swing. At first the primary goal was to get the ball in the air consistently, then we’d begin to work on directional play once that was achieved.
During this period, I would say that two primary breakthroughs were made.
The first was that I realized I was–as Tullos put it–‘holding onto the club face too long.’ That meant that upon contact, I wasn’t flipping my right wrist, so the face was always opening up and causing my shots to sail to the right.
The second was that I had a bad habit of raising my torso right before hitting the ball, which prevented me from gaining much airtime and caused me to skim the top plenty of times. Holding my arms steady and shortening my backswing helped alleviate that issue, and I began to lift the ball in a fairly straight direction.
After we felt good about the progress made on the range, we began chipping. As previously stated, this was my strong suit coming into this, and outside of sharpening up my follow-through, not many fixes were made in this part of my game. Of course, the next step will be adding more distance, as we only started at a 10-20 foot range for the day.
And lastly, the ever-dreaded putting practice. I began without high hopes of making much progress in this regard on Day One, but I was sorely mistaken.
Tullos taught me the modern ‘left-hand low’ grip that many golfers are using nowadays, which evens the shoulders and takes hand movement largely out of the equation. Leaving everything up the shoulders and torso–combined with remembering to have my eyes over the ball–immediately improved my putting to a level where I could at least set myself up near the pin with consistency.
All in all, plenty of progress was made on Day One as I shook off rust and learned some of the fundamentals that had been holding me back. Thus, it’s safe to say that Tullos and I have put a strong foundation in place.
The Day’s Takeaway: “Keep things simple, fluid and in rhythm.”
Day 2 (February 19, 2026)
My second lesson with Tullos saw us attempt to build off of the foundation we set last week.
I had made sizable strides when it came to consistently getting the ball in the air, so this session was about tackling the second key part of golf: directional hitting.
Tullos employed a handful of strategies to work on my aim, advising me to focus on finishing with my follow-through to the left. After all, we were combating years of me slicing the ball to the right.
At first, results were varied as I attempted to combine what I learned from last week with the new teachings. I made steady progress with the follow-through, but other aspects of my swing (pulling up, lower-body balance, etc.) prevented me from really pushing the ball to the left or straight.
Then, Tullos decided to show me a technique for athletes that focuses on finishing in that direction. He advised me to swing the club with just my right hand, which allowed me to hone in on my arm/wrist in a way that resembled a movement from baseball or tennis.
That drill made a difference, as I began to realize that the left hand really just exists as a guiding presence during the swing. That epiphany prompted me to begin to think more about how much I was fighting the club in general, and I began to just trust that it would do what was intended when I swung.
Consider that the breakthrough of the day.
To nobody’s surprise, golf clubs are made to hit golf balls. So why was I attempting to aim and guide the club to the ball so much?
Once I began to simply put faith in the club doing what it was supposed to do, my swing became more natural, and subsequently, my shots found air while also flying in a generally straight direction.
Satisfied with that progress, we headed over to the greens to work on some putting and chipping. I primarily worked longer distances on this day, with the primary breakthrough coming with my putting direction.
Ironically, I had developed a habit of aiming slightly to the left on the greens for whatever reason, contrasting my right slice on the fairways. Thus, Tullos drilled me on properly lining myself up and visualizing my putt before I hit it, which allowed me to adjust for longer distances better.
All in all, more solid progress was made today.
I feel like I am on the brink of consistently combining airtime with the correct direction, and my swing feels more natural and smooth. None of my shots are sailing well past the 100-yard marker, and I’m not sinking 20-foot putts by any means, but improvements have certainly been made.
And all that caused Tullos to be hootin’ and hollerin’ by the time we were done for the day, so I must’ve done something right.
*Another key point to note: Last week I referenced that I had learned to ‘flip’ my wrist upon contact with the ball. The correct terminology would be to ‘release’ my wrist, and in turn the club face.*
The Day’s Takeaway: “Let the club do the work.”
