By Matthew Rudy
Maintaining a PGA Tour entourage is a delicate thing—with its subject-matter experts, employees, spouses, friends and hangers-on all trying to help extract peak performance from the player week in and week out.

It doesn’t take much to throw relationships out of balance, as evidenced by Claude Harmon III’s split with Dustin Johnson over the weekend.

Johnson had worked with Harmon and his father, Butch, for the last five years while also maintaining a relationship with his college coach, Allen Terrell. Butch Harmon decided last season he was done travelling the tour, and passed most of his stable of players—Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker—over to Claude Harmon.

Johnson’s early 2019 returns under the new dynamic seemed to be promising. He won in Saudi Arabia and Mexico in February, and tied for second with Claude Harmon’s longtime student Brooks Koepka at the Masters. But at Bethpage for the PGA, Johnson used Terrell as his set of eyes on the way to a second-place finish—two shots behind Koepka.

The middle of major championship season isn’t a good time for mixed messages or misaligned expectations, so Harmon texted Johnson from Memorial—Johnson was in Florida working with Terrell—to say it was time to move on. Johnson said in a statement the split was mutual, and he’d continue with Terrell, who recruited him to Coastal Carolina in 2004, and also maintain his long-distance relationship with Butch Harmon. “DJ sends me swing videos every week, so it’s easy to keep in touch on how he’s doing,” said Butch Harmon. “Allen has been out there some, and it’s fine with me. He’s known D.J. since he was a junior golfer. The key is making sure everybody is on the same page. I never have a problem when a player wants another set of eyes. D.J. is the boss—however, he wants it to happen is the way it should happen.”

It’s not uncommon for players to have multiple coaches working as a team to collaborate on different parts of the game. Koepka has Harmon work on his full swing, while Pete Cowen handles his short game and Jeff Pierce helps him with his putting. But players using two different full swing coaches at the same time is relatively rare. Johnson started working with Butch Harmon when Terrell wanted to stop travelling the tour in 2010, and Claude Harmon was closely involved in helping Johnson week-to-week for the three seasons before this one. Throughout it all, Johnson still consulted with Terrell, especially when he was home in Jupiter on off weeks.

“I’ve never stopped working with DJ,” said Terrell, who has run Johnson’s branded golf academy in South Carolina since it opened in 2013, and regularly posts on Instagram about the work the two do together. “I felt better used by working with him in the four days leading up to events, so I would travel down to Jupiter for our training. Our schedules didn’t line up for prep for the PGA, so I accompanied him [to Bethpage]. Nothing much is changing now . . . I just might have to travel to a few more events.”

 

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Torques at work

A post shared by Allen Terrell (@allen.terrell) on Jun 1, 2019 at 2:31pm PDT

Tour teaching relationships run their course all the time—for good reasons, bad reasons and no reason. It’s not hard to see why Johnson would feel comfortable getting full-time attention from his college coach and continue to text back and forth with the greatest instructor of all time. It’s also not hard to understand why it probably was never going to work out long term having two of the tour’s alpha competitors working under the same coach—no matter how friendly they are off the course.

Next week at Pebble Beach, the focus will be squarely on the golf—Koepka is the two-time defending U.S. Open champion, and Johnson is a two-time winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. They’re both among the top three or four favourites. “There’s nothing else to say about it,” Claude Harmon said. “I’m proud of the work we did, and I’ll let it speak for itself.”

The post Dustin Johnson-Claude Harmon split at least makes things simpler—for player and coach appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
One of Middle East golf’s better kept secrets is finally out with the Butch Harmon School of Golf at The Els Club Dubai set for a significant rebrand. But fans of the world renowned Harmon method of instruction needn’t fret.

From January 1, the academy will be overseen by Butch’s son Claude Harmon III and be known as the Claude Harmon ③ Performance Golf Academy Dubai.

The shake-up follows the departure of U.S.-bound Justin Parsons after he initially helped Claude open the BHSG Dubai 10 years ago. Parsons has been replaced as Director of Instruction by his deputy Jamie McConnell while Claude Harmon will spend at least a week at The Els Club annually hosting member only events, VIP clinics, Q&A’s and tournaments as well as working with his team of instructors.

Claude and Butch Harmon with Justin Parsons at The Open.

It’s a coup in a region that already boasts the Peter Cowen academies at Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Golf sister property Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and the recently opened David Leadbetter academy at JA The Resort, more commonly known as Jebel Ali.

Claude Harmon, who was based in Dubai for several years before he made a move back to his native USA, has long since stepped out of the shadow of his famous pop with Dustin Johnson,  Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler among his stable of star players.

Jamie McConnell has succeeded Justin Parsons as Director of Instruction at the newly Claude Harmon academy.

McConnell has been mentored by Parsons during his near five years in Dubai and has already succeeded Parsons who starts a new role at prestigious Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island in Georgia in February.

Irishman McConnell is an AA PGA and TPI Level 2 professional and has helped the BHSG Dubai become a production line for top amateurs, along with a beacon for touring professionals. Toby Bishop, who just won the Faldo Series European Grand Final, was McConnell’s very first lesson when he joined the BHSC in 2013. 

An artists impression of the new leisure facilities at The Els Club Dubai.

Meanwhile, work on a new state-of-the-art leisure facility will begin at The Els Club Dubai, early next year. The Troon International managed facility is set to benefit from a gymnasium, large resort-style swimming pool, a swim-up pool bar, a children’s play area and an additional restaurant. It is hoped it will be operational by September 2019.

“We could not be more excited about this incredible development to our club and cannot wait for the changes to be made and for golfers to enjoy next year,” said Els Club general manager Karl Whitehead.

“This is a fantastic addition to the membership offering at The Els Club Dubai and we are confident of the success that it will bring to our property and the wider community.”

Mark Chapleski, the Dubai-based president of Troon International, applauded the developments at The Els Club Dubai.

“The Troon properties in the Middle East are of exceptional quality and we are delighted to be working alongside one of the region’s leading clubs on this expansion,” Chapleski said.

“It is a progressive move and one we wholeheartedly support. We are also delighted for Jamie, who has been exceptional over several years already. I’m confident he, and the new Claude Harmon ③ Performance Golf Academy Dubai, will thrive at The Els Club Dubai.”

The post From Butch to Claude III; The Els Club Dubai remains a Harmon haven for improvement hungry golfers appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.