36 - Sunday, August 26, 1990 - North Shore News TRAVEL Paim Springs breather good way to improve GASP Luxury package lets golfers swing PALM SPRINGS — John Jacobs was a big name in golf when he went skiing in Switzerland. The Walker Cup captain and Ryder Cup player was also well known as an inspired teacher, and he learned something on that trip. He noted that a week's concen- trated coaching was very effective, and working in a small group was a fun experience. The same theory, he realized, could work with golf. Not a great step for mankind, you might think, but Jacobs is from Britain, where the cult of the amateur is so strongly embedded that most golfers regard a lesson as a loss of face, and few clubs have decent practice facilities. At the celebrated Royal Troon, for example, where they do have a range, members bring, fire and retrieve their own marked balls rather than pay a pound or two to the club pro. Peter Green is also British, and as a disciple of John Jacobs spends January to June in Palm Springs spreading the golf gospel of GASP: grip, aim, stance and posture. Nothing too radical, just the basics to improve a player’s game. He doesn’t censure players for having a fast backswing, nor preach about keeping the head down. Rather it’s all about getting each individual’s clubhead square at the point of contact. This has been the key to the John Jacob’s Practical Golf Schools since 1971, and with 25 million golfers in North America OS A. * Eatons * Woolco Save-On-Foods > friday Watch for our Real > sunday Safeway * SuperValu * Zellers If you miss any ot these Distribution 986-1337 * deleted to selected areas only Wishart SHOP THE FLYERS ba > wednesday Estate Home Section Shoppers Drug Mart flyers call North Shore News David TRAVEL TIPS and two million new golfers com- ing along every year, business is booming. Green is head instructor at Marriott's Rancho Las Palmas Resort, which has 27 holes and two practice grounds, one of them reserved for the John Jacobs school. Marriott uses John Jacobs schools exclusively in eight of its golf resorts, including another in Palm Springs, the Deserts Springs Resort. Golfers come for a weck’s pampering, actually six nights of luxurious accommodation, six lunches and six breakfasts, five days’ golf instruction, daily green fees and carts, three cocktail par- ties and welcome and wind-up dinners. 11 costs U.S. $1,550. Two hours a day are spent working on swings, then there are clinics on chipping, pitching and bunker shots. Uneven lies get at- tention and putting is not overlooked. A club fitter comes by and advises on equipment. So does Mickey Hollis, a golf- ing concierge who takes lunch ¥ oS Bi * Sears * The Bay * Woodwards orders, makes restaurant: reserva- tions, books tee-off times for PGA West or Desert Dunes (a new course, cost $60, which is ex- cellent). Like Green he is a pro at what he does, and the whole show tuns like a good house party. The resort sprawls over 240 acres, but it is not uncomfortably big,so guests can walk everywhere. There are tennis courts, a hot spa, maid service twice a day and a fridge for keeping your own goodies. Rancho Mirage is outside the gate with the lively Red Onion nearby (all beers $1 on Tuesday Nights) and B.B. O'Brien's sports bar a $5 taxi ride away. Golf schoo! participants range from 14-year-old children to an 89-year-old swinger attending with his fourth wife, a woman of 24. I met a newly retired engineer and his wife who were given the course as a gift from their family. Green says 40 per cent are repeaters. One man deciared breathlessly he had never hit so many golf LOPS || If you can afford a vacation You car afford a cruise vacation For move detaiis call 985-7447 (SHIP) 1823 Capilano Rd. balls in his life. His wife bought gloves for both hands to stave off blisters, and other golfers ended the week with Band-Aids on sev- eral fingers. But it) was not in vain. Everyone said t.e experience was worthwhile, and on the last day's round the balls were generally fly- ing longer and straighter. One player said he hoped to knock five shots off his handicap. Would it last? He couldn’t answer that, but in the meantime the Brits don’t know what they’re missing. tal plan. cats and extensive summer grooming have enabled us to stretch the season up to a staggering 190 days of great skiing. So call Blackcomb Season's Pass hot line at 280-4400. Or drop by any of the Pa following Eaton Tickecmaster locations: MetroTown, Pacific Centre, Park Royal, 130+ Homby Street. Hurry. You'll look good in white. 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