2-Time Women's Am Champ
Interview with Vicki Goetze-Ackerman - LIsten Up !!
If you’re like me, you love reading interviews with successful golfers. It’s inspiring to learn how they’ve achieved moments of greatness, dealt with adversity, or handled family life.
Well today, I’ve got a special interview to share with you. Recently, I did a Q&A with my sister, Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, and asked her to share her thoughts on many of the topics I frequently discuss with my junior golf clients. Things like building confidence, dealing with the pressure of competition and recruiting, being a better lesson taker, how to practice, selecting the right tournaments, helping parents and kids handle tough golf days, understanding the qualities of a great college coach, and more.
If you’ve never heard of my younger sis, well, let me give you a brief rundown of Vicki’s career in golf:
- AJGA Player of the Year (1988–90).
- Titleist/Golfweek Amateur Player of the Year (1989, 1991, 1992).
- US Women’s Amateur Champion (1989 and 1992).
- NCAA Division I Champion (1992).
- Curtis Cup Team (1990 and 1992).
- Collegiate National Player of the Year and All-American (1992 and 1993).
- University of Georgia Team Member (1991–1993).
- Played on LPGA Tour for 16 years.
- Current President of the LPGA Tour Players Association.
Pretty amazing right? Right!
Vicki and I talk about our upbringing and journeys in golf often, but it sure was great to dig deeper into her wealth of experience as a player, as an instructor, and even as a mom of a junior golfer. I believe you’ll find her perspective to be a “light to your path” as you navigate junior golf and pursue the college level. So, let’s begin.
Nicky: Why did winning seem to come so easily for you, and how did you build confidence at such a young age?
Vicki: Well, let's start with the fact I was a girl, and there were far fewer girls playing golf than boys. So, in my first tournament, I was five and the other girl was three. Three trophies and two people. I went home with a trophy. That kind of started the whole process. I began with confidence. I began with a win, and other tournaments panned out the same way early on. Meaning, there were more trophies than girls. Even if I didn't play well, I got a trophy. I thought I was good, whether I really was or not, and I just built on that confidence.
Pro Tip: Put your kids in position to succeed in tournaments early on and at any age. Include some tournaments where wins are within reach.
Nicky: What advice do you have for junior golfers as they deal with the pressure surrounding junior golf competition and the college golf recruiting process?
Vicki: To be honest with you, I really try to not let my son feel any pressure when he plays in a tournament, despite the fact that I know what it means. Because then it's not fun. When you and I played, it was because we liked playing. We didn't play because we were trying to get on the tour. In fact, I didn't even play to try to get a college scholarship, although I wanted to. I played because I liked it.
Also, I liked to travel, and I really liked meeting people. It was fun. Granted, it was probably more fun because I was winning, but I mean, it was fun. I looked forward to the dances on the AJGA or the cookout or whatever we did. I looked forward to it. These days, I know it's like “oh, you’ve got to play well, you’ve got to do this, and you’ve got to do that.” To me, that's not fun. What junior golfer needs to grow up that fast?
I would say to parents, make sure you know what your child wants. For me, I'm choosing not to push my son too much, not to emphasize too much the importance of certain events, not to necessarily chase different things right now. Because I have the sense that's what my son wants. Yes, he says he wants to play college golf, but he doesn't want to play tournaments every weekend. He wants other things in life, too.
Pro Tip: Enjoy the process. Don’t stress the outcome.
Nicky: Let’s dive into golf instruction for junior players. How much “lesson taking” is needed?
Vicki: I think it really varies from person to person. I mean, look at us, we were totally different. You were much more into taking lessons than I was. Any lessons I took were pretty short, especially when I was younger, because I didn't have the attention span or desire to take them. You could handle a lesson, process it, and actually apply it.
I truly do believe that our parents were right on. Sure, limitations with respect to money and travel distance kept us from getting frequent lessons. I think we probably averaged once every three to four months. We were given the lesson and came home with a few things to work on. I think that enabled us to be better at helping ourselves when things were going badly.
For my own son, I don’t say, “Hey, you're struggling, let's go get a lesson.” I'm like, “No, you're struggling. Look at your videos. What did your instructor say? Look at your notes. Are you doing your drills?” I prefer to be on a schedule of getting lessons versus an emergency of getting lessons. I mean, he's 15. When you're on tour, you need to make money. He's 15, and he needs to learn how to manage his own game and his swing and understand it. He doesn't need know the perfect golf swing. He just needs to know his.
These days, I do teach junior golfers, and I encourage my students not to come that often. But I have students who want to come every week, and if that’s their desire, then I’m open to it.
Pro Tip: Use lessons to grow and become more self-reliant.
Nicky: What suggestions do you have for juniors on how to get the most out of their practice sessions?
Vicki: Kids often miss the boat on practicing. With all aspects of the game, I feel a practice session should have a mechanical, a feel, and a scoring element to it. Also, most of the time, there's no organization to their practices. For example, if they go the putting green, there's not a chalk line, not a board, not any alignment sticks. What I mean is, I don't care what you use to work on your alignment and path. You have to have something. Next, you have to do feel drills. And finally, you have to do scoring drills by putting yourself in the positions of the putts that you need to make. If you're just putting around and you keep hitting 15-footers, well, you're not working on any of those things really. You’re just seeing yourself miss a lot of putts.
I haven't had one student come to me who actually practices all three areas, but if I'm lucky, they have one element in one area they've been consistently doing. So I would really encourage kids to ask their instructors for ideas about how they can better practice. Because it's not about the quantity; it's about the quality. Also, it’s about making practice fun.
And the last thing I would say is that junior golfers need to make a practice schedule and commit to it. I’ve put schedules together at times in the past, but there’s very little follow through. Recently, I told a student, “Listen, I've given you all the different things you can work on. I want you to come up with a schedule and put it down on paper.” I said, “You tell me what you want to do and I'll help you. I don't care how short your time commitment is. But whatever you pick, write it down and commit to it. After two weeks, we'll see how you did.” Guess what? He did it!
Pro Tip: You’re more likely to stick to goals that are written down and that you find enjoyable.
Nicky: With so many tournament options available these days, how should families go about choosing the right events and not overdoing it?
Vicki: Each family has to do what’s right for them. If getting a lot of AJGA stars and increasing the chances of getting into events are the goals, playing more tournaments might make sense. For us, at the present moment, that hasn't been the path we've taken. Maybe at some point, we will alter our path. But right now, that doesn't fit what my son is looking for, and it doesn't fit our life because of our work obligations. We’re not able to drop everything to go to every tournament that could fit. We’ve really tried to focus our attention on Florida events (because we have some great options with the Florida Junior Tour), and we don’t do much out of state. Saying that, you know, we go to a few special tournaments. We go to Future Masters because we have history there. You won there and Jim (my husband) played it, too. We liked going to Pinehurst for US Kids because it is a fun family event. Same for the Southeastern Junior Tour. Nice venues and we know many of the families. Perfect for us.
Pro Tip: Don’t try to conquer the world until you’ve conquered your region.
Nicky: Tough holes and bad rounds in tournament golf can create frustrations between parents and their kids. Any tips for positive communication when these things occur?
Vicki: I think it's important for parents to understand that what you feel is constructive criticism might not really be working. I mean, what if when you say something to your child, the timing is wrong, or the child doesn't even hear it as constructive criticism. It's more you telling your son or daughter everything that's wrong. It just backfires. Like, it just builds and builds and builds. So parents definitely need some awareness about when to talk with their kids about a bad tournament, a bad round, or a really bad shot. I know I never wanted to talk about these things right away.
Also, I would tell juniors that your parents want to help you. They actually know more than you think, so you might want to listen, right?
Pro Tip: Wait to commentate !
Nicky: Why was Beans Kelly (Head Coach at the University of Georgia 1985–2000) the right college coach for you?
Vicki: The thing I really liked about Beans (and I didn't know things were different anywhere else, but they were) is that she understood golf’s an individual sport, but she kept the team dynamic. What I mean by that is we didn't all go to the range and hit balls for an hour, or we didn't all have to do a putting drill at the same time. All we were supposed to do is let Beans know when we were going to be at the golf course and what we were going to work on. She was there, and she was there to help if you wanted her to. If no help was needed, she’d just be shagging balls. That was what she did.
She brought the team together by doing team retreats and team dinners. At tournaments, we all gathered around #18 green to watch our girls finish. We ate as a team when we went out together. And when we had our team meetings after tournament rounds, she’d ask us to come up with something positive that happened that day, even on our worst days. One time, all I could come up with is that Beans gave me a Diet Coke when I finished 18 because the round was so bad. I believe she was the perfect coach for me, especially because she created the team I desired to have. But also because she let me practice what I needed to become the best player I could be.
Pro Tip: You’ll see your college coach every day. Make sure their style aligns with yours.
Nicky: I often tell families that golf development and the recruiting process will be a unique journey. What are your thoughts?
Vicki: I firmly believe people develop at different times, and I don’t like people comparing themselves, especially junior golfers with other juniors. I think most kids want to go Division I, the best teams. If you're at that level, fantastic. If you're not, go where you can play. You want to go somewhere you can tee it up, or at least have a chance to tee it up.
When I look at players on tour (even the PGA) there are always some that develop later in life. They weren't necessarily unbelievable juniors. They were good, but they ended up making it later beyond college. This is evidence that if you're not at the top when you're 16, 17, or 18, you can still get there when you're 22, 23, 24.
Again, I don't like comparisons. Kids shouldn’t have deadlines on their development or think they need to be at a certain level by a certain time. I mean, a kid might not be big enough or strong enough physically yet, or just doesn’t have the amount of experience needed. Maybe a player’s mind and maturity aren’t quite there yet. Just figure out what you need to do to get better. But that doesn't mean you're behind everybody else. You just need to define your journey, and you climb on the hill. Someone might be higher on the hill right now. Who cares?
Pro Tip: Golf’s the long race. Stick to your plan. Don’t play a comparison game.
Nicky: If we played a head-to-head match today, who wins?
Vicki: Um, for sure, you. Unless I started playing mind games, but I know you could spin them.
Nicky: So, readers, full disclosure. Vicki had a wrist injury at the time of this writing. Is it wrong to take the win? Maybe, but I’m going to get an edge when I can!
I hope you found some helpful nuggets in this Q&A. During my nearly 3-hour conversation with Vicki, we covered a lot of valuable information I believe will bring confidence and peace of mind to your next steps in junior golf. Best wishes during your spring and summer golf season!