Butch Harmon might be the best golf instructor of the last 30 years.
His education on golf started with his father, Claude. Claude was a club professional throughout his life. During his prime golfing years, you couldn’t really make a profit on the PGA Tour. So Claude chose the club pro life. But that didn’t stop him from winning tournaments. He famously won the 1948 Masters. He also finished third in the PGA Championship three times and once in the US Open.
Butch played a little on tour in the 1970s. He struggled and eventually he figured he might use his knowledge and skill to teach players. In the late 1980s, Harmon started working with Greg Norman and together they had some wonderful success.
That success led Earl Woods, father of Tiger Woods, to ask Butch to work with his son in 1993. They would work together through Tiger’s early ascension to the best golfer in the world.
Lots of things stand out about Butch’s personality and career. His pedigree. His confidence. His bravado.
But one thing that always stood out to me is his willingness to change.
Butch is now an elder statesmen in the game of golf. But throughout his career he has always seemed to have a good balance between the seemingly traditional ways of playing golf and the things the younger players have learned and developed.
Butch told a story a few years ago about working with Rickie Fowler. He was watching Rickie hit some really neat looking pitch shots. Butch walked up and asked Rickie how he was hitting those shots. Here is a 70-year old instructor, arguably the most accomplished in the world, asking a 20-something kid for a chipping lesson.
And here is another article where Butch takes a lesson from an up-and-coming instructor.
Butch doesn’t lack confidence. Perhaps because of that he’s also able to keep his pride in check. He still wants to learn about the golf swing.
This isn’t common in humans.
It actually turns out that monkeys are better at accepting change than humans.
Humans seem to evolve to seek comfort. That makes sense. Comfort typically means longer living. But it doesn’t necessarily mean successful living. If the goal of our ancestor was to simply survive, they probably didn’t work too hard on thriving.
People like Butch Harmon seek success. They want to thrive in life. They’re more like monkeys. They put their egos aside in favor of education. Even from those with seemingly less experience.
It’s not that we have to change everything about what we do. It seems to be more about the willingness to learn about new things and determine, with as much objectivity as possible, the possibility that it might be worth the effort to change our ways.