12 May What’s the right amount for a teacher?

How much compensation does a teacher deserve if his student went on and won US$700,000 in his next three tournaments? Who’s to say that the player completely disregarded what the teacher had said or had a spell of fantastic putting or chipping.

I do know that this particular teacher received a used 5 wood from the cashed-up player for his time and effort, and was not exactly ecstatic with his reward for time and effort. Several top players pay their teacher around $40,000 a year that includes the flights and hotel expenses for when their players have problems though a swing video clip or call is sufficient.

One teacher agreed to top-25 and top-10 bonuses but his player didn’t pay up as the sum would have been astronomical and ended up saying: “How about a cheque for 40,000 and we call it square?”

The famous teachers are asking for $150,000 a year. However, there are rumblings of discontent from players who have agreed to pay this amount but find themselves waiting in line with four or five other players for their lesson. So how do you know if you’re paying your teacher adequately? It depends on how many other players he has, how much you are dependent on him, and your improvement.

Meanwhile, there’s been four golf writers that I’ve had the good fortune to study first hand and to be in the same ‘press centre’ as they were — Peter Thompson, Peter Alliss, Henry Longhurst and Dan Jenkins. To see these men at work (or in the 19th) was a wonderful experience for this novice. Dan, who passed away at 90 in March, covered 230 majors in all — 68 Masters, 56 PGA Championships, 63 US Opens and 43 British Opens. Dan was arguably the most influential writer in our game and always tried to inject some humour into his stories.

Out of Bounds: I don’t think anyone should write their autobiography until after they’re dead.