Revolutionary Gravity Golf course offered next semester

Gravity Golf®, an innovative approach to teaching golf to beginners and helping experienced golfers make dramatic improvements to their game, will be taught at Virginia Tech next semester under the sponsorship of Continuing and Professional Education.

The semester-long course, which makes use of body mass rather than muscle, will be offered in four sessions from Jan. 24 to May 5: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3 to 4 p.m.; Mondays and Wednesdays, 4 to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3 to 4 p.m.; and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 5 p.m.

David Lee, who played on the Professional Golf Association Tour until a wrist injury sidelined him in 1977, developed Gravity Golf® after years of research into the physics and body mechanics of effectively and safely playing golf. The apparently effortless swings of such golf greats as Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino prompted him to examine and refine the techniques that ultimately became Gravity Golf®.

Lee's system trains beginners so rapidly that many become entry-level professionals in as little as a year. He has developed specially designed drills that help activate the brain hierarchy to use the same mechanisms that people employ while learning to walk or ride a bicycle. These exercises in perfect swing mechanics enable students to bypass the trial-and-error methods that have made the learning process slow and often painful for generations of would-be golfers.

"I believe the method Lee has developed could be applied with great benefit to all levels of golfers, and I am happy to give it my personal endorsement and support," Nicklaus said. "It certainly has revealed things to me about my own swing that I had not previously been aware of."

Closer to home, James F. Wolfe, president of the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, was a student in a pilot course here last spring. "I have found Lee's ingenious Gravity Golf® approach to teaching and learning the essence of golf swing mechanics to be both intellectually fascinating and physically effective," Wolfe said. "Because of the unique neurophysiological and biomechanical components of this methodology, it would seem that there are a number of possibilities for collaborative research projects in areas ranging from biomechanical investigations to sports medicine clinical studies."

Tuition is $995 for the course. Financial assistance is available through the Virginia Tech Financial Aid Office to qualified participants. Students will earn 2.4 Continuing Education Units upon successful completion of the course. They also earn a five-year discount that enables them to purchase golf equipment from major manufacturers at wholesale prices with potential savings on the purchase of a set of pro-line clubs that are greater than the Gravity Golf® tuition costs.

One of the leading golf instructors in the country, Lee has golf schools in Palm Springs, Calif.; Brookville, Fla.; and Hot Springs, Ark., the latter at his own 64-acre training complex.

For more information, visit the Gravity Golf® course website at http://www.conted.vt.edu/gravitygolf/ or contact Wanda McAlexander at (540) 231-5242 or wandamc@vt.edu.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.