The Ritter Experience

Take an inspirational golf coach, add plenty of air miles and a willing crowd and what have you got?

In the leafy suburbs of Prescot, Merseyside a group of likeminded chaps are yamming a spot of food at Blundells Hill Golf Club. The atmosphere is relaxed, the banter is flying and the lunchtime drinks are flowing a bit too smoothly. It’s the sort of social scene that’s recreated in clubhouses all over the world, another reason why we love this game. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not here just for the food and booze, these guys are here to get their golf on. But this isn’t your average day of fine-tuning your swing with the club pro. No, today GP’s sultan of swing, Jeff Ritter has left Phoenix, Arizona to fly half away around the world to teach the tuition-hungry throng the finer points of the ‘One Plane Swing’. But why leave Phoenix? It’s got salt river rafting, 300 days of sunshine a year and the Agave Spirits Festival? Anyone prepared to travel over 5,000 miles to forgo kayaking, sunblock and a bath full of tequila to dish out swing tips obviously loves to teach. But that doesn’t explain what the bloody hell Ritter’s doing in Prescot?

It turns out that we’re not the only people in Blighty interested in Jeff’s approach. The Blundell Hill mob, led by member Neil Murphy, have been tracking Ritter through the magazine, his youtube posts and [jeffrittergolf.com]. From there they got a dialogue started and Neil invited Jeff to do a golf school in the UK.

Once the wheels were in motion Neil canvassed Internet forums to see if there was any interest. The feedback was good, dates were proposed and two sessions were pre-booked in three months. All put together by GolfPunk readers with no prompting from us. That level of organisation suggests this guy is hotter than jalapeno mustard. So why Jeff?

He’s been teaching for 14 years - including stints with the Golf Digest Schools and the acclaimed Dave Pelz Short Game School - he’s a director of Nike Junior Golf Camps, he’s featured on ESPN, FOX Sports, FOX Sports Radio, The Golf Channel and he runs [jeffrittergolf.com] for starters.

You may know him from his contributions to GolfPunk magazine as the coach with the multicoloured swing thoughts in the ‘Drawing Board’ (see ["Water Hole"]). From day one Jeff totally understood the magazine. He got the attitude, the style and the philosophy that ultimately golf is a game to be enjoyed. You could tell he had that GolfPunk DNA.

A view echoed by Neil and his pals when we met at our Open clubhouse and they first proposed talking Jeff into coming over.