05/13/26 03:27:00
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05/13 14:54 CDT Braden Shattuck keep his day job teaching golf before playing
in the PGA Championship
Braden Shattuck keep his day job teaching golf before playing in the PGA
Championship
By DAN GELSTON
AP Sports Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (AP) --- Braden Shattuck grabbed a golf club and held it
horizontally just above his knees. He stretched the club out about even with
his toe line to help show an amateur how to keep her club on the correct swing
plane.
"I used to do that as a junior golfer because I had trouble with alignment,"
Shattuck explained to his pupil. "It's a trick that you're able to do under the
rules. You can't lay the club down and check it. But you can put it right over
your toe line, check where you're at."
Shattuck's teaching gig delayed his arrival later in the day at Aronimink Golf
Club, where he was set to play at least nine holes in preparation of this
weekend's PGA Championship in suburban Philadelphia.
Let Rory McIloy and Jordan Speith and most of the top-ranked players of the
world spend Wednesday working on their game at Aronimink or signing endless
amounts of autographs.
Shattuck had to clock in for his day job.
Shattuck, the PGA director of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, just 10
miles down the road from Aronimink, kept his appointment teaching a golf
clinic, where he led a group of 10 women --- from long-time students to the new
La Salle women's golf coach --- on tackling the more challenging parts of the
game.
Shattuck is set to strike the opening tee shot of the tournament at 6:45 a.m.
on Thursday --- well before he ever usually grabs his bag --- and is one of 20
golf professionals in the 156-man PGA Championship field. He finished eighth in
April at the PGA Professional Championship in Oregon to earn a spot in the
major.
He was raised in suburban Philadelphia and his local ties in Delaware County
--- Shattuck's been peppered with chants of "Do it for Delco!" --- have made
him an instant fan favorite. He laughed when he said the number of women were
more than the normal number for a clinic --- and certainly, there were more
cameras than usual.
"If it makes any of you nervous, sorry," Shattuck said with a chuckle.
His students didn't seem to mind their time in the spotlight, thanks to a PGA
of America film crew and a pair of reporters that tagged along.
When one student boomed a shot down the middle of a hole on a course lined by
gritty residential homes, she exclaimed, "Come on, Braden. Right in the middle,
baby!"'
The 31-year-old Shattuck, in his fifth year at Rolling Green, said his sense of
obligation kept him from ever considering canceling the clinic. There were
swings to fix. Bunker shots to solve.
His students needed the practice.
Nancy Barton, a long-time club member from Drexel Hill, practiced her approach
on the 11th hole shooting over a deep right greenside bunker.
"There's no confidence standing over your ball because this is so
intimidating," she said.
Shattuck counseled the golfer and told her more advice would come for the
entire group if he scheduled more clinics at least once a month. He polled the
golfers for ideal times, and they settled on a weeknight, preferably Tuesdays
or Wednesdays. There was one caveat to the practice times:
"I expect all of you to show up," Shattuck said.
Shattuck will show up and teach --- and arrive at Aronimink around 4:30 a.m.
Thursday --- even if the longest of long shots (he has 2000-1 odds) somehow
wins the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday.
He's successfully navigated one of the busiest weeks of his career ---
including convincing security at Aronimink to let him park his pick up truck
even though he didn't have the right tag, to landing 18-year-old high school
senior Beau Riviere to caddy for him --- as he prepared to play in his first
major since the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville,
Kentucky.
Gale Donoghue, who lives in the nearby borough of Media, played in the clinic
and has received 1-on-1 lessons from Shattuck for years. She's such a fan of
his, Donoghue insisted she would set the early alarm to watch Shattuck start
his round. Donoghue said she was among a sizeable contingent of Rolling Green
players that rooted him on when he played in the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The
Palm Beaches.
"I have three boys, so I can compare; he's very focused, very earnest,"
Donoghue said. "He's very astute. He has this quiet way of observing and
listening and then moving forward."
Shattuck is well-versed in moving forward.
He was forced to rebuild his swing from the ground up following a car accident
in 2019 that resulted in multiple herniated disks in his lower back, led to
years of mental health struggles and made even walking difficult.
"Having panic attacks almost daily, having chest pain daily, dealing with
anxiety was by far the hardest part of that, and I dealt with that for years,"
Shattuck said. "Had to go to work and put a smiling face on for everybody and
that was quite a challenge. I'm finally on the back end of that after six or
seven years of it, however long ago that accident was."
He's on the back nine of his recovery and was in good spirits at the course
that served as the site of the 1976 U.S. Women's Open and 2016 U.S. Women's
Amateur teaching his students the finer points of selecting the proper tee box
and greenside bunker shots.
There are perks to making the field that go well beyond rubbing shoulders with
the game's greats and not all the talk at Rolling Green was about pins and
putting.
One golfer needed to know what kind of courtesy car Shattuck had shuttling him
to Aronimink.
The answer: A Lexus.
"I'll take it," Shattuck said.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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