By PAUL GIORDANO
Courier-Post Staff
GALLOWAY
School is in. For golfers, too.
It's the season and there is a reason.
For most golfers, the 2000 season was despite the rain pretty good. For others, the chronic woes of missed shots here and there were more painful than not.
School is in. It is time to contact the professional of your choice to cure the summer ills and take better skills into the fall season with better knowledge for winter hibernation until it's time to tee it up in the spring.
At the Seaview Marriott Resort, school takes on a different look, complete with hotel, golf villas, two 18-hole courses, learning center, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa and the recently opened Faldo Golf Institute. The Seaview Marriott Resort is the only complete golf resort in the state.
The four-acre Faldo Golf Institute is a joint venture between PGA professional Nick Faldo and Marriott Golf.
Until Oct.‚15, the Faldo Golf Institute at the Seaview Marriott will offer a three-day (Monday-Wednesday) game improvement school, a weekend school, a short game school, full swing and short game sessions, private lessons, club fitting and group events.
When school's in session, there's a 5-to-1 instructor-to-student ratio. Private lessons are one-on-one. Part of the three-day school includes two rounds of golf, with an instructor playing along during the second round for on-course instruction. For the three-day, weekend and short game schools, breakfast and lunch are included.
After Oct.‚15, ``the three-day and weekend programs will be eliminated until February,'' Faldo lead instructor Michele Trimarche said. ``But we will still be here for private, full swing, short game sessions, and golf club fitting. We are still booking schools, though, at our Orlando facility. And we have another property opening in January in Palm Springs.
"For all our schools, including here, the person to contact is Hollis Moore at 1-888-463-2536. The only thing we book here is private.''
As part of the Faldo/Marriott attraction, ``Moore can work a package to include lodging, too,'' Trimarche said.
Although the proof of learning at any golf school is the student's ability to take said lessons and infuse them into his/her game, Trimarche maintains the Faldo Institute does it differently.
``We're not as long,'' Trimarche said.
``Most of the schools that you will see are five days. We try to max-out at three days. We're also basing everything on fundamentals. Just the ABC's of golf. We work a lot on setup: your grip, your stance, your posture, ball-position alignment .‚.‚. and then we work on your takeaway.
``Whether you're a new golfer or a low, low handicapper, it still comes back to the fundamentals. We're not here for a band-aid, a quick fix. And we make our students know this so, hopefully, they will change and work on it. Then, it's up to them to take it back and work on it, or go back to their old habits.''
And, a little more.
``We also evaluate equipment. We feel that's important,'' Trimarche said.
``For example, someone may have clubs that are too short. We are trying to give them good posture and sometimes that won't allow them to do it. So we educate through proper equipment.
``We're not trying to sell equipment, we're just trying to educate the students as far as the equipment goes.
``We're basic. We're to the point. We don't just beat balls. We stress a lot of technique, fundamentals. We're here to educate.''
School is in.
