MARY GALVANO
For over 60 years, the Galvano Teaching Methold, founded by Phil Galvano, has provided the best golf instruction in the world to thousands of clients from all walks of life; celebrities, golf professionals, aristocrats and many more. Originally from New York City where he was born, Phil grew up on Staten Island. The family lived near a golf course, so it was only natural that as a young boy, Phil became interested in the sport. "I was eight years old when I first started playing golf," he said.
Most people who met Phil Galvano wouldn't know that he was considered the foremost golf teacher in the country and also one of the highest paid professional golf instructors in the world. A soft-spoken, handsome and unassuming man, he was primarily interested in his family and home, and always took time to stop and spend a few moments with his friends. Phil came along way since his days on Staten Island...he became a class A member of the PGA of America, author of four best-sellers on golf, has had his own TV show in New York City on a major network, his own radio shows, and has given lessons to many of the top celebrities of the theatre, stage and business world.
He also held many golf course records, including a 59 at Westchester Country Club. All this, while giving countless TV, radio and theatre golf teaching seminars.
Phil discovered the Bradenton, FL area some years ago. "It was Bill Mote (the founder of the Mote Marine Laboratory) who brought me down here in the first place, " Phil said.
"After that I used to vacation in Bradenton every year. In 1969, I decided to make Bradenton my home, and I moved my family down, and built the Santa Rosa Country Club, which I now own and operate."
Some of the best-sellers Phil's written include "Secrets of The Perfect Golf Swing," "Secrets of Putting and Chipping" (the book that President Eisenhower considered one of the best he had ever read), and "A Complete Guide To Golf," the latter written in conjunction with Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Tommy Armour and Cary Middlecoff, and "A Strategic Guide To Golf," and had been published all over the world and were even best-sellers in Japan and England, as well as the United States. Phil also created his own putter design that was manufactured by Kennith Smith (a leader in golf equipment for that time) and a swing aid called the 'Whistle Pro' that became very popular.
One of the mementos which Phil treasured highly is the original cartoon done by Ken Platt, cartoonist for the New York Herald Tribune, which featured Phil. As everyone knows, you're considered to have "arrived" when you've hit the cartoon section in New York City.
Phil Galvano was a "natural born teacher. He never failed to help improve a golfer's game. His teaching methods were ahead of his time. They were so far ahead that many did not understand them, but now (years later) golf professionals are using them today.
Phil's students included people from all walks of life...from truckdrivers to royalty, Dukes and Duchesses, and other members from royal families.
To mention just a few of his better known pupils, they include Johnny Carson, Dennis James, Morey Amsterdam, Perry Como, Robert Merrill, Hal March and Ed Sullivan, a Japanese Ambassador, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Allistair Cooke, Willie Mosconi, Marvin Schenk, Milton Berle, George Abbott, Jack Philbin, Jackie Gleason, Carol Lawrence, Carol Burnett, Mia Farrow's mother, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Miletzok, Andy Tripp, Andrew Pollack, Lawrence Rockefeller, Astronaut Stuart Roosa, and many others.
Camilo Olivetti flew in from Italy for a lesson with Phil Galvano. He was the head of the famous typewriter and business machine firm.
Galvano was in the television studio with Hal March when March had just been handed his contaract to do the $64, 000 Question Show and Phil had just received his first check for his book.
"We celebrated together," Phil recalled. "It was a great day for both of us."
Walking into Phil Galvano's studio was like walking into a doctor's office. Full life-size charts of the skeletal structure and complete muscular system adorned the walls.
Then you learn that this study of the human structure and bones is a necessity for a great golf instructor. Galvano had a degree in Phys. Ed. as well as a doctorate in psychology, another important factor in teaching a good game of golf, Phil said.
Galvano delved deeply into the study of Yoga, Zen, Taoism, and Karate, and held a Green Belt in Karate. He was an excellent chess player, fencer, played most musical instruments by ear, and was a great pool player who had many high runs of over 100 balls. Willie Mosconi, the world's pool champion, often stayed at Phil's home. They would shoot pool together, then play golf.
Phil Galvano, believed there are "no impossible" students in golf. "If the pupil hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught." "When the teacher can't find a way, he must invent a way to teach."
"The biggest fault in teaching is when the professional tries to present to the pupil a complete order of muscular movements to be performed in hitting a golf ball. The less you think of the technical aspects of the act, once you've got the basics, the better the performance. The teacher should try to get the student to perform with a minimum of attention to the act involved."
"In performing the act of hitting the ball, whether it be putting or driving, the two major things that can destroy skill are fear and ego. Both of those contribute to over-control of the club head. Fear...you don't want to miss, so you over-control. Ego...you want to make sure it is correct...again a miss. A perfect swing is the result of releases...it is not something you do with intense concentration."
When Phil Galvano was living and teaching in New York City, he met Betty, his wife, who was a pre-med student working her way through school by modeling on the side, and also earning a scholarship in biology. She was living in the Rehearsal Club, a club for girls in entertainment, and her roomates were Donna Doulgas (who became TV's "Ellie May"), Barbara Bain, and Carol Burnett.
She had become so well known in the modeling field that she was introduced on the Ed Sullivan Show as "one of the top ten models in the United States", and has been on the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and many of the other high fashion magazines, while doing runway shows in Paris, fashions on News of the Day and the Today Show and modeling on the Arthur Godfrey Show. It was becoming difficult for her to keep up her pre-med study schedule since she was becoming more and more in demand as a model in Paris, London and other capitals' leading fashion studios.
Betty was doing many commercials when she was offered a movie contract to do the life of Babe Zaharias. Then she met Phil and it was love at first sight. The couple was married. Philip II is the oldest of their six children, four boys and two girls. All of them became golf professionals except for one who is a Lawyer and state politician.
Phil Galvano contributed to his family and friends not only with his gift of teaching golf but his gifts as a wonderful man. He gave his life to helping others.
