SALT LAKE — Mike Malaska grew up in Salt Lake City, attending Granite High School before going to Weber State to play golf. He won the Utah Open as an amateur at age 20 and was a local professional before going on to become one of the most prominent golf teachers in America.
Malaska is currently the Worldwide Director of Instruction for Jack Nicklaus Academies and in 2011 was named the PGA Teacher of the Year. He also wrote a golf instruction book, “I Feel Your Pain,’’ and lives in Mesa, Ariz., with his wife, Charlene. Last week, during the Utah Open at the Oakridge Country Club in Farmington, he sat down with Mike Sorensen to talk about his golf career.
Q: So why does a busy guy like you, who travels all over the world for the Nicklaus Academies, come back to play in the Utah Open every year?
A: This is my roots and what started me out in golf. If it hadn’t been for the Utah Open, I probably wouldn’t be playing golf. Winning it in when I was a freshman in college and playing it in high school is kind of what spurred me on to play golf. This is where I’m from and I look forward to coming back and playing. I just play two or three tournaments a year and it gives me a reason to play here every year. It’s kind of a given to come back.
Q: How did you get involved in teaching golf?
A: I’ve always liked to teach, always been interested in the swing, right from when I started. I seemed to always have a knack to be able to see a swing, I could stand behind somebody and see what they were doing even without a video camera. When I got involved in the fitness side and started to understand how the body worked, I understood the misconceptions I had about my swing that caused me to really struggle. That was about 1984 when a light went on for me that I needed to get that out and let more people understand it and it was a big motivator for me.
Q: How did you get involved with Jack Nicklaus?
A: I got involved with Jack because he had a back problem and I was with a company in San Diego that did training with professional athletes and we wanted to get a high-profile client in golf. I was playing in the U.S. Open and got talking to him in the locker room and he saw me doing some stretches and asked me what I was doing. Two years later at the PGA Championship I lockered right next to him again and his back was killing him. Finally, we got him out of his back troubles and he was back playing again. After we helped him, he was going to start Nicklaus-Flick golf schools and Jack saw the importance of fitness and he wanted the fitness in his schools. I was the golf person of that company and Jack said, "If we’re going to do a golf school, then Mike Malaska is going to be involved because he knows the fitness part and that’s really important." That whole understanding of fitness is what separated me from a lot of people.
Q: What advice would you give the average golfer, without being able to take them out on the range?
A: I would say the biggest thing is to understand how the clubface hits the ball and get a feel with your hands how to control the clubface and hit shots with your hands and let your body support what you’re trying to do. The biggest problem people have now, is they’re trying to make their body make their hands and arms work. The average person, the more they can get a hold of the club and get control of the ball with their hands and arms then as they add more motion, they have a chance.
Q: What are the biggest highlights of your golf career?
A: Everything around golf has given me so much — playing in six major championships, making the cut at Shinnecock (U.S. Open, 1986), being the national teacher of the year, seeing my daughter take up the game and enjoy it and be successful with it. Also, getting involved with Nicklaus and spending so much time with him — sitting down with the greatest golfer who ever lived and be able to have him talk to you and learn a lot about him and how he thinks. I wished I had the opportunity to do that when I was 23. I for sure would have gone a lot further in golf.
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