A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Todd played collegiately at East Carolina and the University of Rochester before

becoming a full-time PGA member and teacher in 1995. He has been with the TOURAcademy since 2003,

teaching at the PGA TOUR Golf Academy World Golf Village for several years before joining TPC Sawgrass in

December 2006.

As Master Instructor, Todd has been instrumental in co-developing innovative instruction programs for the

TOURAcademy, helping to establish it as a leader in golf instruction.

While at the University of Rochester, Todd took lessons with legendary golf instructor Craig Harmon at Oak Hill

Country Club in Rochester. He also spent some time later in the golf operations side at John Jacobs Golf Schools. Todd has extensive experience working with players of

all levels, including former LPGA Tour player Sophie Gustafson, current Web.com Tour player Steve

Wheatcroft, and current Champions Tour players Blaine McCallister, Sandy Lyle and Anders Forsbrand.

Todd JonesMaster Instructor TOURAcademyTPC Sawgrass

9 QUESTIONS WITH TODD JONES

Q: Your collegiate career didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts, did it?A: I received a Division 1 offer to play golf at ECU, and during my first semester there I tore my left shoul-der and wrist up pretty bad in the middle of a long practice session. My shoulder subluxed, or left its joint, then went back in. I gave it a little bit of time to rest and then re-injured it, which is when I went back to Rochester.

Q: Did you have dreams of playing professionally?A: At the time I went to East Carolina, yes. But after the injury, no. I could not play and practice at the quantity that I needed to. The neat thing is I ended up at U of R, with Oak Hill Country Club as our home course. And I started to take lessons from Craig Harmon. That’s when I really started to think there was still a future in golf for me. I really enjoyed learning from him, and he was a true teacher. He didn’t just walk onto the lesson tee and say, “Move your grip to here.” There would always be a story behind it, and he’d relate it back to what his Dad [Claude Harmon, Sr., 1948 Masters champion] taught him. He was teaching me, and I really started to think that was something I might want to do.

Q: What’s the most valuable lesson you took from Craig, watching him teach?A: How to listen. He’d ask a few questions and they were very open-ended questions, and then he’d truly listen. And he would definitely take what you were telling him into consideration moving forward. If you had a particular goal for the day, above and beyond what figured to be the game plan, he would definite-ly make time for that in the lesson, not just say here’s what I want to do. Rather than that, he’d say let’s follow up on what we established, but then address what you want to do. That’s what it’s all about in teaching. You have to listen to the student and truly find out what they want to achieve, because it’s very easy as a teacher to impart your hopes and goals onto your students with that ideal in mind. Not everyone wants that.

Q: How many times would you guess you played Oak Hill?A: The East Course [site of the 2013 PGA Championship] I probably played in the neighborhood of 150 times. It’s a magnificent venue. Both courses [East and West].

Q: What would you say has been your most memorable moment as a teacher?A: From a pure excitement standpoint, probably my second visit to Augusta National and The Masters with Sandy Lyle in 2009, when he made five birdies in a row on the back nine in the second round. He was 2 over par for the tournament going into the par-5 13th, and then he birdied 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. He wound up finishing T20th. That was his highest finish in The Masters since he won in 1988. The excite-ment of the roars on the back nine at Augusta, that was cool.

Q: You had a big hand in turning Anders Forsbrand’s career around, too, no?A: Anders had a lot of success in Europe, won six times on the European Tour. But toward the end of his career he started to struggle, saw multiple teachers, and nothing improved. So he left competitive golf in 2003-‘04 and really didn’t play much at all. I was working with his son at the time, and this was when he was 49. He liked what I was doing with his son and one day he said to me, “Tomorrow, why don’t we have a look at my swing?” He still burned to play, and wanted to give the Champions Tour a run. The first Q School he went to he played well enough to get enough status to go to the back end of the range and practice. To make a long story short, he persevered and continued to work on things, and won last year in Europe [Senior Scottish Open]. That propelled him into playing well at Q School last year [finished 9th], so he got some status on the Champions Tour. Mid-year, we started to work on some things that really start-ed to click, and he had four top-10 finishes in his last six events to gain exempt status for next year.

Q: You said earlier that to be a good teacher you have to be a good listener. What’s the No. 1 request you get from your students, particularly the first-timers?A: They want to fix the curve on their driver. They want to fix their slice or straighten their driver out.

Q: How do you go about fixing this problem?A: Typically what I’ll do is capture them on video with a mid-iron and a driver. Ultimately, we can see what’s going on, and nine times out of 10 the driver is doing what it’s doing because their swing is out of sequence. Usually, it’s right in the very beginning. Their backswing really puts them out of position, and from there it’s very difficult to transition in a way to return the shaft and clubhead properly. One of the best tips for the initial takeaway is to feel like the elbows are connected to one another; keep them as close together as possible and in front of your body as the clubhead is swung away. That will allow you to make the initial move in a way that positions you to elevate the left arm properly--so it starts to rotate as you elevate the arms.

Q: What three others players, besides yourself, would make up your dream foursome?A: Lee Trevino, because he has one of the best ball-striking swings of all time; Blaine McCallister, be-cause he makes me laugh my butt off, and between him and Lee I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing; and probably Ben Hogan, because you need someone serious to counteract those two. It would be incredible to listen to the sound of the ball coming off Hogan’s clubface all day long.