Southern Arizona has dozens of outstanding teaching professionals. When you sit down and talk to most of them, many were competitive golfers from the time they were in high school, and just wanted to parlay their love of the game into a lifelong career.
There are two local pro’s who came to the game late…but mastered their craft in a hurry, and now are both at the top of their field.
Bobby Saavedra grew up playing the guitar. In fact, he wanted to be a rock star. But somewhere along the way he took up golf, realized he was good at it…and thought, at 27, he’d take a stab at becoming a PGA Professional. He soon realized, that he maybe didn’t have to give up his love of music once he started out as a golf coach. He discovered that music might be a great teaching tool…and he soon was making instructional videos to music. His videos are all slickly produced and are up on You Tube. “Slice, Slice Baby” may be his most catchy title…but he also has the Driver Song, Set Up Song and Bunker Lesson. His fun and creative learning tools likely led to his being awarded “Teacher of the Year” for the SW PGA in 2019. He was recently profiled in “Golfweek”, one of the sports most respected publications.
And one of the most unlikely success story comes to us from The Haven Golf Club in Green Valley. It’s not uncommon to see Marvol Barnard giving a lesson to 20 enthusiastic new golfers at a time. But it wasn’t always like that. Marvol didn’t even become a teaching pro until she turned 40. But since she received her card, Marvol has been putting the pedal down and she is now one of the most respected teachers in the country. Marvol is National President of the LPGA Professionals, and a dual member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and the PGA of America. And here are just a few of the awards she’s received..2018 PGA National Player Development Award, LPGA Top 50 Best Teachers, Golf Digest Best Teachers in State, and LPGA National Teacher of the Year.
Both Bobby and Marvol have been recent guests on The Golf Arizona Show. The show, which is hosted by Mike Boyd and PGA Professional Rick Price, runs on ESPN/Tucson, 1490 am and 104.9 fm on Saturday mornings at 8 am. Also, you can tune into a live-streamed version of the show on Facebook, by typing in “The Golf Arizona Show”.
