What were your first impressions of George Gankas?

Dylan Dethier: I’d actually met Gankas for breakfast last year near his course in Westlake Village, Calif. We met at his favorite diner; before long we were standing in the middle of the room while he animatedly demonstrated address posture and proper hip turn. In his world, that’s normal behavior, and it’s really fun to get swept up in that. Today was the same; we had a couple minutes to kill and he spent that time ripping as many drivers as he could while we waited for a shuttle ride. The guy loves the golf swing.

Sean Zak: He’s captivating. Between the instruction jargon, his Cali vibes or just how he looks you in the eyes, he grabs your attention. After he started hammering drivers, like you said, people kind of just … magnetically moved in his direction to watch.

How did your lesson start? What did Gankas identify in your swing that he wanted to tackle?

Zak: As the first guinea pig, I warmed up with five 7-irons in front of the best golf swing minds in the world. One of them was pure and the other four were weak cuts (my common miss), which ended up being perfect. The visual wipey fade set a standard. Gankas attacked my path, which I’ve long known was an issue, by standing me up straighter, moving me closer to the ball and trying to get me to hit snap hooks.

Dethier: I generally hit it pretty consistently but I’ve never been accused of being “pure,” per se. Gankas described this as being a little “tinky,” and got to work addressing that, with a goal of better contact.

Describe his teaching style. How’d you feel during the lesson?

Zak: I felt properly violated, in a good way. Hope that makes sense. He pinpointed all the adjustments I had been making in my swing that contributed to that weak cut — the slightly weak grip, cupping my wrist during an abbreviated backswing, not enough hip rotation to finish the swing, etc. All of that at once was a bit disorienting, but that’s now how a typical lesson with him would go, he said. Gankas said if he wasn’t in the middle of a presentation, he would work on standing me up straighter much longer, like holding my back against a slippery surface to keep me from bending over so much.

Dethier: That’s an important point — at home, Gankas knows exactly where all his stuff is, and here he was basically just flying blind and teaching by feel. So we didn’t get the full experience, but we certainly got the general idea. He’s honest, and he doesn’t blow any smoke, but he’s definitely reassuring. I never got any lessons growing up but now, being in the biz, I’ve spent some time around some very bright instructors. Sometimes I’ll feel self-conscious, like I’m being evaluated in a judgy sort of way. With Gankas there was none of that. He kept emphasizing that there was actually no possible downside to this lesson — neither of our lives would be measurably changed no matter what happened. That’s a funny thing to type, but it gave me permission to hit bad shots without fear of judgment, which helped a lot (“I don’t give a s—” is a common phrase). I bladed several irons in a row while working through one of his suggestions, and he complimented each one of them.

What, specifically, did he want you to do? Did it work?

Zak: He wanted me to get more vertical in my stance and rotate more in the backswing, lengthening the swing a bit. My swing wasn’t long enough to engage my lower body as much as I should, so my lower half would rush toward the ball, leaving my upper half to catch up to it. On good days, I hit it pretty well. On most days, there would be an element of that weak fade. On bad days, very inconsistent ball contact. Over the course of 20 minutes he constantly pulled me up straighter, made me turn my hips, fully extend my left hand from my body and hit half-shots, trying to hook them. It definitely worked, which was cool. Seeing my ball go left, with a sound strike, certainly made it feel like my path was changing.

Dethier: Gankas is a super hands-on instructor, literally. So he helped get me into some slightly different mid-swing feelings (“positions” doesn’t seem like quite the right word). First, he got me standing up slightly straighter and rounding my shoulders. This freed me up a little bit, relieved some tension in my back and helped get me into a deeper turn, rotating and loading back into my right hip — but minimizing any right-ward sway. He pulled my hands higher. He strengthened my grip (rotated my left hand a little further right). The backswing felt awesome, like I suddenly had more comfort, freedom and power. Then, to get me to match that same turn on the way through, he helped me clear out my left shoulder a bit more. That was the most difficult part for me, and there were some time constraints in place (I’d have loved to go for another hour) but by the end I could definitely feel crisper contact.

This is obviously a high-powered group of revered teachers in attendance. What were their reactions to the lesson? What were their questions?

Zak: They were impressed with me, for some reason! Many of them expected me to be nervous, but once Gankas starts zeroing in on you, it feels like you’re in a bubble with him. No result matters. No screw-up matters. Improvement on the things he’s pointing out is what matters, which is really freeing. The common question was something like, “Now, how are you going to take that and go and improve on your own,” to which I have no idea. Without a good driving range at my disposal in NYC, I’ll probably do a lot of thinking about it until spring next year. Got my 2020 swing visualized!

Dethier: It’s funny, the entire summit (like most industry summits, I suppose) is chock-full of clashes between different approaches to teaching. Gankas isn’t everybody’s speed. But it was a packed house, and nearly every teacher was fascinated with his approach and eager to watch him in action. There were a bunch of specific questions about why he was tackling things in the order that he was with Sean’s swing and my swing, plus there was some interest in Matthew Wolff’s swing. There were plenty more questions after the lessons were over, too, when teachers crowded ‘round to ask him more in-the-weeds stuff. This is golf swing nerd-dom, after all.

What makes Gankas different from your typical golf instructor?

Zak: I think what makes him different is probably that he has a swing in mind for you. After he sees what you’re capable of, he devises a route to get you to the swing he has in mind, which is one that is comfortable for you and delivers results. Though he speaks in a lot of jargon (which was probably influenced by his audience), it all seems to point you in the direction of a fruitful destination.

Dethier: There’s some surface-level stuff, like the way he dresses and his use of, uh, colorful language. But really what sets him apart is his passion and personality. That’s not a knock on his knowledge, which is very legitimate. But there are other guys who can match that. What’s harder to match is his rapport with players, his hands-on approach and the general way he seems fascinated to be working with you.

ARTICLE COURTESY OF: GOLF.COM

Matthew Wolff pocketed a cool $1.15 million by winning the 3M Open in just his fourth PGA TOUR start. Wolff’s victory might be equally lucrative for his coach.

George Gankas is one of the hottest coaches in the sport, building a huge social media following and a legion of acolytes with his unorthodox style, California-cool persona and, most importantly, some eye-popping swing stats from his students. Gankas has more than 156,000 followers on Instagram and over 50,000 on YouTube, but after this month you can probably expect fewer free online tips.

Gankas on July 30 is launching his new subscription-based website, GeorgeGankas.golf, which offers monthly instructional programs for $49 or an annual package for $499. Gankas has been promoting an early enrollment, but there might be no better validation than the performance by the 20-year-old Wolff, who shot rounds of 69, 67, 62 and 65 at the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota, and capped his one-shot win with an eagle on the final hole of the tournament.

Wolff’s victory (as a sponsor invite) came just a month and a half after he won the NCAA individual championship at Oklahoma State, putting him in very elite company. Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw are the only other golfers to claim PGA TOUR and NCAA titles in the same year.

Wolff is the first player to win his first PGA TOUR event prior to his 21st victory since Jordan Spieth won the 2013 John Deere Classic less than two weeks before he turned 20. Only four players in tour history logged a win in fewer starts than Wolff: Jim Benepe (1), Russell Henley (3), Seve Ballesteros (3) and Bob Gilder (3).

And Wolff is just one – albeit the most visible — in Gankas’s stable of young talent.

Gankas, fittingly, took to Instagram to celebrate Wolff’s win. The two have talked about disrupting the game of golf and Gankas is now looking to do that on a more widespread basis with his new online subscription site. A terrific GOLF.com feature story on Gankas last year said he charges $350 per hour and is regularly booked months in advance, so his new site just might be a good deal — relatively speaking.

Gankas says he’s sought to give out as much information as possible since he started teaching, with the goal of helping his students become their own coaches by understanding the fundamentals of their swing. The beauty of Gankas is that he’s often seen doing that on the mat of a Southern California driving range, wearing flip-flops and a flat-brimmed cap while espousing swing thoughts with an energetic and enjoyable patter.

“If you have the excuse that you don’t understand anything and all you need is a quick tip here or there, you’re going to get passed up by my players that do understand what they’re doing,” Gankas said in an Instagram video. “So, take responsibility for your game. I’m giving you so much knowledge in this program that you can actually be your own coach. There’s never been anything like this.”

Wolff and Gankas are both one-of-a-kind in their own right, and they're inextricably intertwined. Especially now that Wolff has made history on the PGA TOUR so quickly after turning pro, seemingly just scratching the surface of his potential.

And don't look now, but Gankas is about to take his game to the next level as well.

ARTICLE COURTESY OF: FORBES

Butch Harmon has given a gazillion golf lessons. This time, he took one.

Harmon had been watching from afar the way George Gankas operates: the impromptu videos on social, his star student Matthew Wolff’s loop-de-loop swing, the lessons in Gucci slides and a flat brim. Butch liked that Gankas was pushing golf’s traditions, and he saw in him the unapologetic self-belief for which Harmon is known. Butch wanted to meet the guy, and what better way than stand on his lesson tee?

“People said to me, ‘He’s wacky, why do you want to do that?’ ” says Harmon, who retains his ranking as the No. 1 teacher in America, as voted by his peers, for the 19th straight year. “I like people who are different. I’m 76 years old, but I always want to learn from whoever’s doing new things. Plus, George is really getting results, and that’s what makes a teacher great.”

Gankas, who is 48 but can hang with the skateboard crowd, could hardly believe his luck. “For Butch to come to my place and give it 110 percent as a student, that’s cool. I knew I could help him, not because he doesn’t know what he needs, but because hearing it and feeling it in a different way can click,” Gankas says. “I’m very hands-on in lessons. I grew up wrestling, so I physically move people into positions. That’s the quickest way, and quickest is best.”

It’s not only Harmon who sees something special here. A group of 1,500 leading golf instructors nationwide voted Gankas, who two years ago was unranked, No. 11 in Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America. It’s the highest debut in the program’s history. Gankas joins other newcomers Dana Dahlquist (27), David Orr (T-33), Nick Clearwater (T-33), Martin Chuck (36) , Grant Waite (41), Tony Ruggiero (43), James Leitz (T-45), Boyd Summerhays (T-45) and Trillium Rose (T-50).

So off we go to Westlake Golf Course outside Los Angeles and its mats-only range up against the 101 Freeway. It’s where locals go to beat balls, and where the top teacher in the land took his first lesson in 50 years.

1. TAKING CARE OF THE FACE

J.D. Cuban

HARMON

The miss that kills me is a low pull or hook, mostly with the irons. I’m a good driver, but my iron contact, and especially that left shot, can be an issue. I tend to “chase” the ball at impact with a little throw from my right hand, which is my way of squaring the clubface. Sometimes I close it too much and hit it left, or my contact is off.

GANKAS

The best iron players go through the ball with more passive hands and a lot of body rotation, assuming the clubface is ready to go. Butch’s hand positions were rotated toward the target. That was leading to an open face on the backswing and a downswing where the trail hand was throwing to square the face. Instead of changing his grip, we had him bow his left wrist. It keeps the face more closed, so you can turn through without worrying about squaring the clubface.

2. ADDING MORE BODY ROTATION.

J.D. Cuban

GANKAS

Once we got the face more closed, Butch’s normal throw made the ball go way left, so he naturally did it less. More body rotation was instinctual. People think I’m crazy when I say they hook it because their clubface is open, but if you slow down through impact to try to catch up the face, the swing path goes right and the face goes left. That’s a hook. We had to get Butch rotating more, which puts the path more left and the face more right for straighter shots.

HARMON

I knew I should turn harder when the face was more closed coming into the shot, but my body doesn’t rotate like it used to. We saw on video when we started that my hips and shoulders were basically square at impact [like they are at address]. But when he stood behind me and pulled my left shoulder around, it was a totally different feel. I went from square at impact to about 30 degrees open. That’s a huge change that led to straighter shots and more speed.

HARMON: LEARNING NEVER STOPS

I tell young teachers all the time: Go listen to the guy who teaches concepts you don’t believe in. If you’re open-minded, you’ll come away with a lot of new ideas and be better in the end. One of my standard lines is, “I don’t teach golf. teach people to play golf.” You never know when you’re going to come across a player who needs something different. The more you can expand your thinking, the better prepared you are for those situations. You have to keep learning.

3. FINDING THE RIGHT FEEL

J.D. Cuban

GANKAS

We knew we were on track when we starting seeing fewer left shots, and he was compressing the ball better because with more turn, the shaft was leaning forward at impact. We tried another rotational feel: the right shoulder and right hip pocket beating the clubhead to the ball. For a player who is active with the right side, this one usually helps. Turns out, Butch connected more with clearing the left side than ripping through with the right. The takeaway: There’s more than one way to teach. Everyone learns differently.

HARMON

It’s funny, I’m always telling my players to drive the right side, but for me, turning my left side out of the way felt more natural. As George says, it does the same thing. I started to feel a little strain in my left lower back, so I knew I was rotating through differently. I just kept trying to bow my left wrist going back, and then wheel my left side around as hard as I could. The strike was better, and it sounded better, too.

4. LETTING THE HEAD GO

J.D. Cuban

HARMON

I like that George was having me try different feels without ever changing the goal: Get the face set, turn through. Great teachers don’t waver much; they pick a move, and then hammer it to death. Another concept that clicked for me was releasing my head toward the target earlier, what George called, “sticking your neck out.” I use this one with my players, but I needed reminding to try it myself. Turning my head early was easier than trying to feel what my legs or hips were doing.

GANKAS

Getting the head to swivel forward is what Matt [Wolff] and work on. We want the chest to open for better contact and a more stable clubface, which leads to a predictable start line. It’s like throwing a pass: The eyes go to the target, which releases the neck and allows the chest to open. But this doesn’t happen from the top down. The hips lead the turning, and the shoulders catch up when the trail arm is parallel to the ground going through. If the upper body leads, you’re chopping wood.

GANKAS: THE CLUBFACE IS KING

The golf swing is a reaction to what the clubface is doing. If I set up 10 people with an open face, some of them would swing over the top, some would fall back and pull left, some would flip the right hand at the ball. They’d do different things, but all of them would be reacting to what they see the ball doing—and that comes from the face. If closed the face, you’d see them pushing the handle forward, turning through more, and so on. Golfers adjust to the face.

5. KEEPING WITH THE PLAN

J.D. Cuban

GANKAS

Let’s be honest here, I’m working with Butch Harmon. I’m not going to teach him things he doesn’t know. What I can do is offer it in a different way, and physically put him in positions so he can feel them. We didn’t work on the backswing, because his big issue was contact and getting rid of that left shot. We could unlock his backswing a little, get him more rotation, and he’d pick up 7, 8 miles per hour at impact. He’d be shooting in the 60s, beating his age every time.

HARMON

Can I get that in writing, please?

ARTICLE COURTESY OF: GOLFDIGEST.COM