Golf Facility At Sun City Center Is Old School
Published: Aug 30, 2007
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SUN CITY CENTER - Considering its 68-acre facility is tucked in the middle of Sun City Center, the well-known retirement community where personalized golf carts buzz the streets and early-bird specials are by popular demand, there probably is a joke somewhere to be made about Ben Sutton Golf School being the country's oldest golf teaching center.
Nonetheless, as the locals will gladly tell you, experience has its advantages.
Founded in 1968, the school has become one of golf's most well-known instructional destinations, offering three-, five- and seven-day programs that immerse students in all aspects of the game. Golfers from across the country and around the world fly in to spend upward of $4,500, including room and board, for the experience.
"We had two guys here a few weeks ago from the Netherlands - for the 10th time," instructor Rick Sopka said. "We have two couples who have come three straight years from Reykjavik, Iceland. It's kind of neat - so many people from all over."
The notoriety has been earned during many years and thousands of lessons. An added bonus of being the oldest golf school is its Web site address: golfschool.com.
But what particularly distinguishes Ben Sutton Golf School from almost all others is the sheer size in regard to space. Rather than being restricted to hitting balls on a practice range or in chipping areas, students have room to roam. Twenty-two greens and surrounding bunkers are scattered across the facility, with fairways snaking between them and creating conditions and situations that typically can be found only on the golf course.
"The average amateur golfer is like a Gatling gun when they go out to practice on the range," Sopka said. "Swing, rake another ball over, swing … When we get them into this situation, we give them a green and a flag, there's a bunker over there; now they are able to see what their shot pattern is and it slows them down."
Sopka is also willing to pass along some free advice.
"You go to Any Driving Range, USA, on a Saturday morning and you can count on one finger how many amateurs have an alignment aid on the ground," he said. "You go to a PGA Tour event and walk up and down the driving range and every one of those guys has an alignment tool on the ground. Don't hit practice shots without an alignment aide on the ground. Put something on the ground - a club, umbrella, a yardstick. Alignment is the hardest thing in golf."
Interestingly, the school is also working on its direction. Even the oldest golf school sometimes needs to learn new tricks.
So BSGS, always operated as a destination instruction site courting students with extended-stay packages, is adding local golfers to its targeted audience. Along with introducing one-, three- and six-hour packages for locals, BSGS is also offering custom driver fitting through the Callaway Optifit system.
The system allows instructors to assemble in seconds any of 24 driver heads with one of 29 different shafts to create more than 400 possible combinations.
"We can play with the club loft and shaft stiffness," Sopka said. "It's fun. You get to toy with it. We find out what combination the player best hits. You feel like a tour player."
It's part of the effort to attract local players.
"Local people do not want to come to a golf school and stay five nights when it's just down the street," Sopka said. "I think it will be easier to draw them knowing they can come here and do a one-, three- or six-hour class and not have to take their vacation.
"It's all one-on-one. A student would come in, I'll video them, go in and take a look at the video, and then start working."
For more information, call (813) 634-3331, Ext. 5.
Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.
