Rod Lidenberg - Mark Polich - Betsy Larey - Brian Geraty

Rod Lidenberg, PGA Master Professional and "Top 100" Professional, offers top quality instruction to golfers of all ages and abilities. Regardless of whether you are a rank beginner, aspiring amateur or tour professional he can help you reach your full potential.

His teaching philosophy has not changed during the past 38 years of his teaching career. "In my opinion, method teaching just doesn't work. There are simply too many students who don't fit the mold. I prefer to view each golfer as a unique individual and then create the swing that is best for him or her based on their varying goals and abilities."

Rod was recognized by the Minnesota Section of the PGA for his excellence in teaching by the receiving the "Teacher of the Year" award for three consecutive years in (88', 89' and 90').

In 1989, Rod reached the top of his profession earning the title of Master Professional - a distinction held by only a select number of professionals in the country.

However, he is most proud of the fact that he was most recently named to GOLF Magazine's 2007-2008 "Top 100 Teachers in America." He joins an elite list of fellow instructors including David Leadbetter, Butch Harmon and Jim Flick to name just a few. In this capacity, he serves as a consultant and contributing writer for the magazine.

Rod also has been named by Golf Digest as one of the "Top 10 Teachers in the State" and was recently named as one of the Top 50 U.S. Kids Teachers in America.

During his teaching career Rod has had the pleasure of working with a variety of PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour professionals including Dave Hill, Mike Morley, Jim Ahern, Howard Twitty, Tommy Aaron, Jerilyn Britz and Hall-of-Fame legend Patty Berg.

An accomplished amateur, Rod competed in two USGA National Public Links Championships. In the 1971 championship, played at Papago G.C. in Phoenix Arizona. He recorded the low round of the second day and finished the four-day event in a tie for 37th place.

After turning professional in 1972, Rod continued to improve his own game playing in a series of exhibition matches with Doug Sanders, Lee Trevino, Laura Baugh and Jane Blalock. While he enjoyed competing at a top level, beginning in 1976, he made a conscious decision to focus his efforts on helping others improve.

He recently was quoted as saying, "It is no secret that I enjoy working with accomplished players. However, I'm equally delighted when one of my students breaks 100 for the first time."

You can visit Rod's teaching website here

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MARK "Coach" POLICH
Over the past 40 years, Mark Polich has enjoyed success as a player, coach, and instructor. He has brought the same level of passion and enthusiasm to each of these roles.

Over a 12 year period from 1986 to 1998 as a member of Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, he won 6 Club Championships and was runner-up another six times. In 1992, he was runner-up in the Minnesota Mid-Amateur, losing by 2 strokes to a player who went on to play and win on the Champions Tour.

In 1998 Mark and his family relocated to Tucson Arizona. He was first alternate in the US Amateur local qualifying in Phoenix in 1999. In 2000, he posted his career low round, a 65 in the Arizona Mid-Amateur on his way to a 4th place finish.

That same year, Mark Polich the competitive golfer became "Coach" Polich as he started the varsity women's golf program at Catalina Foothills high school in Tucson Arizona. It did not take long for Coach Polich's drive for excellence to make its mark on the high school golf scene. Within four years, he created the most dominant high school golf team ever in Southern Arizona.

Mark’s teams won the Arizona State Championship in 2004, 2006, and 2009 and finished as State Runner-Up in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008. Over this same period his team was the #1 team in Southern Arizona and finished with an overall regular season record of 169-22. His team has won 99 consecutive matches against schools in Southern Arizona over the past 7 years. In addition, Mark was named by the Arizona Daily Star the “Coach of the Year” a record seven times in his ten year coaching career.

This passion for coaching led Mark to create the Foothills Elite Golf Academy (FEGA) in Tucson Arizona in 2003 where he now teaches golf full time. Mark prides himself in the fact that FEGA doesn't so much attract top golfers but rather average golfers who want to become elite golfers. He decided to build on his coaching experience and focus his FEGA training programs on scoring. So in addition to full swing instruction, students receive significant training in short game and putting techniques, course management, and using statistical analysis of rounds to identify and improve weaknesses.

Mark’s students have achieved great success. Over the past seven years, in the junior ranks, he has 17 All State Players, nearly half of the Southern Arizona All Star First Team students, one State Champion, two State Runner-Ups, five Region Champions, and two Player of the Year Awards. Since 2004, half of the top 10 high school female golfers in Tucson have worked with Mark. Three of his students have gone on the earn golf scholarships at Division I schools. One of his high school players shot 68 in a summer tournament this year and another shot 66 in the opening match of the 2009 high school golf season. One of his youngest students, age 12, shot 69 during a competition this summer!

In addition to his success with junior players, Coach Polich has had similar success with adults. Adult FEGA students have won Club Championships at The Gallery Club in Tucson, site of the 2006 & 2007 Accenture Match Play Championship, qualified for the US Mid Amateur, qualified for the US Senior Amateur, and won the Ventena Canyon Shootout.

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Betsy Larey
Betsy Larey is an LPGA Class “A” Teaching Professional with 20 years of experience working with students of all ages and abilities. In addition, she has been the Head Women’s Golf Coach at Carleton College in Minnesota and Flagler College in St Augustine FL. She has also was an instructor at the PGA Tour Academy in St Augustine, Florida. In addition, Betsy is a certified golf fitness instructor through the Titleist Performance Institute and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Physiology from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington ILL.

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Brian Geraty
Geraty was named to the NCAA All-Independent 2nd Team while at Birmingham-Southern College from 2001-2003. After graduating from Wake Forest University in 2005, Geraty competed against the country’s finest professionals on the Hooters Tour and Tar Heel Tour from 2006-2007. During the summer of 2008, he was an apprentice for PGA Master Professional, Rod Lidenberg. Geraty now teaches full-time at the Golf Zone in Chaska, MN.