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John Rogers started at Lakeview Golf Club (Harrisonburg, Virginia) as an Assistant Pro in 1995. He began teaching in 1996, and became a full-time Teaching Pro in 2001, building a base of clients in the Shenandoah Valley. In 2004 he started writing the column Golf Things Considered, which has elicited responses from around the country. He launched this site in 2007 as a venue for golfers who can find out more about John's instruction, read the column, or just talk about the game we all love. Welcome to John's website. A Note From John Rogers It's hard to believe how fast the summer and the 2008 golf season has been flying by. It has been another great summer at Lakeview, where the course was starting to experience its annual August burn-out until a tropical depression brought a few days of much needed rain. Now the course is bouncing back into the great condition that Kurt Hellenga, Superintendent, generally keeps it. A little more rain and some cooler temperatures, and the course will be ready for a great fall season here in the Shenandoah Valley. From a teaching standpoint, it has been a busy and successful summer. I have been especially lucky to continue building a strong base of junior clients. Along those lines, I hosted the Lakeview Junior Golf Camp on June 24-26, with the help of Grady Ruckman, Greg Hooke, and the entire staff at Lakeview. We had 30 junior golfers (ages 9-17) participate, and we had a fun week of developing golf skills. See our picture gallery.
My junior group, The Tournament Players' Series, recently concluded the 2007-2008 season. Matthew Shifflett (at right) dropped more than 15 shots off his scores from the beginning of the year to shoot a Net 62 and win our season-ending championship on August 24. That moved him into second place in the annual points race, just edging out Shelby Estes who recently joined the Turner Ashby High School team as a freshman and almost immediately qualified for varsity matches. Congratulations to both of them. The 2007-2008 Champion in the TPS (won the most points during the season) is Robbie Failes (at left). Robbie, a tall 8th Grader, has had a tremendous season in junior golf. On various junior tours this year, he only had one round above 80, winning several tournaments. In the Virginia State Golf Association championship at Independence he shot 76-71 to finish 4th in his age bracket among state-wide competitors. His coach might have to take the winter off to practice if he wants to be able to hang with Robbie much longer. Congratulations on another great season for Robbie. Sara "Flea" Hulvey did not participate enough in the TPS to defend her title from the 2006-2007 season, but she continued to be a strong presence on the Turner Ashby team as a senior. She was recently featured in the Daily News Record article which talked about her being among the top scorers in the district despite her lack of size and power. Check out the article here. A highlight for me continues to be the progress of Grady Ruckman, a friend and client who turned pro after graduating from Bridgewater College last year. After pla ying a Winter Tour in Florida in 2007, Grady returned to Lakeview for the spring and began preparing for summer tournaments on the Carolina and Tarheel Tours. On May 19, he took a shot at a Monday Qualifier for a Hooters Tour event at Lake Chesdin, outside of Richmond. He made it, and was paired for the first two days of the tournament with a former PGA Tour player and a former Virginia State Open Champion. On May 22 and 23, Grady posted 74-73 at Lake Chesdin, a target-golf course with amazing greens. He fell two shots short of the cut, but finished ahead of the former Tour player and struck the ball better than the other player, who ended up finishing second in the tournament. It was a great experience for Grady, and it was a lot of fun for his coach/caddie to watch him become more comfortable and play better as the week passed. Grady is planning to head back to Florida in October to continue his development and to compete on the Hooters Winter Series.
Finally, it is a goal of mine this season to write more of my Golf Things Considered articles. I have not been writing them for a year now, but look for some new topics and instructional columns in the near future. In the meantime, please contact me if there is anything I can do for you. 540-421-4270. Hope to see you on the course! __________________________________________________________ John S. Rogers Teaching Professional Lakeview Golf Club 4101 Shen Lake Drive Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801 Mobile Phone: 540-421-4270 Clubhouse Phone: 540-434-8937 Email: John@RogersGolf.net Alternate Email: JSpencerRogers@msn.com |
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