Anne Cain, World Golf Village

Anne Cain began playing competitively at age 13,
and by age 15 was selected as a GOLF Magazine
Junior All-American. This selection ranked her in
the top 3 female juniors in the country. After high
school, she attended the University of Georgia on
a full golf scholarship. Anne earned All-American
honors and captured 3 individual titles her senior
year. She ranked #11 nationally and #1 in the
Eastern U.S. In addition, she qualified for the 1989
U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur at age 21.
Anne played professionally from 1991-1996 and
captured 2 professional titles before setting her
sights on a teaching career.
Anne Cain
Master Instructor
PGA TOUR Golf Academy
World Golf Village
After joining the LPGA Teaching & Club
Professional Division in 1995, Anne began a
mission to become a world-class instructor. She
has personally studied with many of the games’
leading experts and has guided over a dozen Tour
players and collegiate competitors including the
NCAA female player of the year and LPGA Major
Champion.
Anne is named by GOLF Magazine as one of the
Top 100 Teachers in America and is ranked by her
peers in the Golf Digest list of Best Teachers in
Your State (Florida). In addition, she was the first
LPGA instructor to become an authorized
instructor of The Golfing Machine.
9 QUESTIONS WITH ANNE CAIN
Q: You were one of the top-ranked junior players in the country at 15, and went on to earn
All-American honors at the University of Georgia. Does any particular moment stand out early on in your
career?
A: Maybe the SEC Championship my senior year. Early in my career, I put a lot of emphasis on my
ball-striking, even though my coach kept trying to explain to me the importance of the short game and
being better at wedge play and putting. I shifted my focus the last two years at Georgia, and birdied the
last four holes in the final round to shoot 4 under and win the SEC title. That was a real “aha” moment for
me, to know that I didn’t have my “A” game ball-striking wise and was still able to not only play well, but
shoot under par and win a tournament.
Q: Is the Florida-Georgia rivalry just as intense on the golf course as it is on the football field?
A: Oh yes, definitely. We had many incidents, especially at the SEC Championship. The Florida team TP’d
our van, put a fake snake in our toilet, etc. So, we always found a way to get revenge both on and off the
golf course. We put old banana peels and crab shells in their golf bags while they were on the practice
green. When they got to the first tee they freaked out when they reached in their bag!
Q: You made five trips to LPGA Qualifying School, and were never quite able to get over the
hump and get your LPGA Tour card. But you did qualify for the 1989 U.S. Open at Indianwood
Golf and Country Club north of Detroit. What was that experience like?
A: [Laughs] First, it was neat because I qualified as an amateur my junior year of college. But I think I may
have been the only player in history to lose their ball and their bag on the same hole. One of my tee shots
during the first round found some really high heather grass, and underneath it was thick rough as well.
One of the spotters ran to it and found it, and put their hand up over the ball, but as soon as we arrived
the spotter left. My caddie and I went to get a yardage, because we were going to have to lay up, and
when we turned around we couldn’t find the bag or the ball. I was playing with the leader [Donna Cusano-Wilkins] at the time, so we had media following us. I’m sweating bullets, because we look into this
wheat field and we don’t see a bag or anything, and the rules official is pointing to her watch telling me I
have 30 seconds. We eventually found the bag, but not the ball, so I had to go back to the tee and standing there is Tammie Green, Dottie Pepper and Nancy Lopez. And you can imagine the size of the gallery
that was following them!
Q: Oh my! Nancy was your idol, too. How nervous were you hitting that second ball off the tee?
A: I was the only one who walked back to the tee. I took my driver and a ball and told my caddie to go
stand in the right rough, because my next shot was not going left. I made sure to hit a big block into the
right rough so she could at least find the ball. It’s a funny story looking back, but at the time, being paired
with the leader and having some media on us, then going back to the tee and having that particular group
standing there, it was embarrassing. I just wanted to crawl into a hole.
Q: When did you decide you’d had enough with trying to qualify for the LPGA Tour, and that a
career in teaching might be possible?
A: I was a math major, with a minor in physics, so I wanted to start learning more about the swing and
what was causing my ball to do what it was doing. So I started seeking out many of the game’s top
instructors, and I developed a better understanding of the swing. I always loved that aspect of it, and I was
one of the few people on the Futures Tour who wasn’t afraid to use a training aid. I used to travel with
this long wedge-shaped pillow that I placed under the club shaft between the ball and my feet. It wouldn’t
allow me to yank the club inside, and if I got under plane coming down I’d hit the corner of the pillow. It
really taught me to swing on plane. So at one event, a fellow Futures player, Annette DeLuca, comes up
to me and says, “Wow, you’re swinging well. Does that thing keep you from swinging under plane?” And
I said, ‘Yeah.’ She says, “Ahh, that’s kind of what my problem is. Do you mind if I borrow it?” At first, I
was like, ‘No way, it’s mine, I’m the one who has to take it on the plane with me.’ But after some back
and forth I I’m like, ‘Alright, let me see you hit a few.’ And then she goes out and wins the tournament! In
some small way, it was slightly satisfying to have helped her, and given her an idea to help her improve her
swing.
Q: So was that the “aha moment” that led to you becoming a teacher?
A: No, the “aha moment” was when I developed the putting yips and finally realized I’m not going to be
able to make a living doing this. I always thought I was going to have a great 8- to 10-year career on the
LPGA Tour and then I’d get into teaching. It wasn’t in the forefront, but I knew I enjoyed helping Annette,
even though she beat me. After that, people would start coming up to me on the range and ask if I could
watch them hit balls. Word got around that I knew a little bit about the swing. Then I joined the LPGA
Teaching & Club Professional Division in 1995. I only played three tournaments all year and still made it
through to the final stage of Q School using a long putter. All I had to do was break 80 the last day and
I shot 81. And, at the same time, my teaching business was growing and I was already teaching several
LPGA Tour players. That was when I realized okay, I think it’s time to let go.
Q: You’ve become somewhat of an expert on the yips. People from around the country come to
see you. Can they be cured?
A: When I started missing short putts, I thought I had to get the mechanics perfect, so I started doing
more and more reps. Everything I know now is that this is the worst thing I could’ve done. It actually
increased the rate I started yipping. To handle the yips, No. 1, you have to quit trying to cure it. You have
to realize it’s not curable, so you have to do something different, establish a new motor pattern. That’s
why you’ll see yippers using the claw grip, left-hand low, belly putters, changing their putting styles and
stances. I’m a right-handed golfer and now I putt left-handed. You have to be adaptive and realize you can
manage it and play with it, but quit trying to make it go away.
Q: What has been your most memorable moment to date as a teacher?
A: Probably when Nanci Bowen—a teammate of mine at Georgia--won the Nabisco Dinah Shore in 1995.
It was my first year of teaching. I had caddied for her at Q School and her flop shots out of the rough were
terrible. So I worked with her a lot on these shots out of the thick rough. When she got out to the Dinah
she called and said, “You know, the rough here is THICK, like it is in Florida. What did you tell me to do
again?” So we went over this chunk-and-flop technique where the ball comes off real soft with some
spin. She shot a 69 in the first round and kept the lead throughout. It was just neat being a part of helping
her along the way.
Q: Tell us about this chunk and flop. I know a lot of golfers in Florida who could use some help
chipping or pitching out of the Bermuda grass rough.
A: The ball is under the grass, so you have to think about how deep your divot is going to be below the
surface. You have to go down that far to get your club to hit the bottom part of the ball. You can’t bump
and run it when your ball is buried, you have to hack it out somehow. You want to hinge the club up quickly and really drive the clubhead down and forward as hard as you can, holding the clubface open to the
sky with a short follow through. I would tell Nanci there’s a little lady sitting on the clubface with her legs
hanging off, and not to drop her. That’s the only way to get it to fly high and soft. But you can’t try and
“scoop” it out, you have to lead with your hands past impact.