Rob Krajewski, the 2018 Western New York PGA Section Assistant Player of the Year, 2020 Section Patriot Award winner and four-time Section Player of the Year, is the PGA of America Director of Player Development at Glen Oak Golf Club in East Amherst, New York.
I have a diverse student base of beginners, juniors, seasoned golfers and elite players and professionals. With a large PGA Jr. League Program with upwards of 100 young golfers between our 13U and 17U divisions, I strive to extend the coaching and instruction provided beyond just the technical aspects of the golf swing into a more performance-based holistic player development model.
Once the golf season concludes, we install our golf simulators for the winter and plan a series of classroom seminars that cover a wide array of topics, such as Fixing Your Faults, Lowering Your Scores Quickly and How to Hit it Farther. These two-hour classes cover everything from the finesse of the short game to the power of the drive. We use our simulators to aid in the presentations — sometimes joined by guest coaches — so participants gain a better understanding of the material being covered. We’ll bring students up to help put our words into action, sometimes conducting TPI screens to demonstrate the process first hand.
I collaborate with local fitness professional, Chris Kendall, who will join our groups to better educate our golfers on the finer points of golf performance and health and wellness. In addition, I’ve welcomed T.J. Baker, a highly ranked long-drive competitor as well, to answer the call for what golfers want to hear — how to gain speed, power and distance on their drives.
From my experience on the lesson tee, golfers differ in what they want to cover in our player development coaching — some want all golf swing, others more fitness. I always emphasize the importance of health and wellness in one’s golf game and strive to find a balance between the finer points of the golf swing and the intricacies of the body’s impact on that swing. Through initial TPI screens and follow up evaluations throughout our weekly engagement and lessons, we are able to determine a golfer’s capabilities based on his or her body type, any injuries they’ve suffered or any deficiencies that are hindering their progress. We aim to create a golf swing based on the physical abilities of the golfer. After all, every athlete is limited to what his or her body can do. Ultimately, the decision is that of the paying customer, but being educated in golf performance helps me better coach my students holistically for maximum results. The body-swing relationship is vital to game improvement, as we all know as professionals, and we must be able to articulate the importance of such to our students. Beyond that, the golfers must take ownership over their progress.
I give them drills and exercises to work on between sessions after identifying their deficiencies and utilize the TPI app to prescribe these tasks. When they want even more guidance on the fitness or medical side of the game, I’ll refer them to Chris Kendall for further review. We will work together to best attend to our shared client’s needs so they not only swing better, but feel better and stronger throughout their round and afterward.
