The Inventor
Joe Holdridge grew up in Orange County, CA, and took up golf at the age of ten. In 1984, he moved north to Monterey and landed a job as an assistant professional at Pebble Beach Golf Links. After a year there, he was moved by the Pebble Beach Company to Del Monte where he spent two years before being assigned another plum position at Spyglass Hill (Joe acknowledges these are not bad places to work) where he spent four years. Then it was back to Del Monte to serve as Head Professional until 1994 when he upped sticks and headed north, to Bellingham, WA.
Why on Earth did Joe leave Monterey for the frequently cold and drizzly Pacific Northwest you ask. ‘Good question,’ he says. ‘Mostly I just wanted to raise my boys in a more wholesome and realistic environment. But we always vacationed here and fell in love with the area. I think I just needed a change.’
Joe began life in Bellingham as Head Professional at Shuksan GC, but moved on to Lake Padden GC in 1996 to take over as Director of Instruction. In 2001, he moved again, this time to Sudden Valley GC. In 2006, he went it alone, setting up Joe’s Professional Golf Lab and Indoor Golf Center where he offers custom club-fitting using FlightScope Pro and personalized instruction using state-of-the-art digital equipment and video analysis software.
Joe’s Teaching Philosophy
‘You have to work with what each student has,’ he says. ‘Don't try to overhaul the entire swing because most people don't have eight hours a day to devote to practice. I take a person's strengths and focus on those, utilizing ball flight laws to try to optimize each student’s swing path, club face angle and quality of strike.’
Inspiration for the Glove Connection
The history of the glove connection goes back quite a way, says Joe. ‘I had a student that was having a very difficult time being striking the ball consistently with a square clubface. In other words, sometimes the face would be closed to the target at impact, sometimes open and sometimes square. It was just very arbitrary. I noticed that at the top of his backswing his right hand would come off the club and on the downswing he would re-grip and the clubface would hit the ball with an inconsistent face angle. The first thing I did to try and remedy this was to put his hands on the club with a good, solid grip. Then I duck-taped his hands to the club so that he could not re-grip during his swing. This actually worked well, but cut off his circulation. So I needed to come up with a solution and thought of using Velcro to prevent him from taking his hand off the club. If his hands did separate, he’d hear the Velcro rip.
Since then, I’ve noticed about 90% of my students disconnect at the top of the backswing to some degree. I therefore believe the gloves would help most golfers maintain a square clubface all the way through impact, and thus hit purer more powerful shots more often.’