Throughout Rod Thompson’s over half a century as a PGA Member, teaching the game has always been the greatest love and challenge. Never one to settle on one method, or a fixed way to teach the game Rod has spent countless hours with the best teachers in the world learning and refining his teaching philosophy.  He is always striving to find new and better ways to communicate thoughts, feelings, and techniques in order to produce a desired result. In 1990 Rod attended the Second PGA International Teaching and Coaching Summit in Nashville and had an opportunity to listen to a presentation by a teacher from Texas named Jim Hardy who has made such a dramatic influence on his teaching skills and philosophy of what works and why.  Rod is very proud to be a “Plane Truth Certified Instructor” and to call Jim Hardy currently #7 on the list of All Time Best Teachers and the PGA 2007 National Teacher of the Year a friend and mentor who has helped so many golf professionals around the world to play and teach the game at the highest level.

He started out in the golf business working at Pine Lake Country Club in Orchard Lake Michigan, at a very young age watching the Head golf Professional give lesson after lesson to players of all levels including numerous LPGA Major Champions.  Rod turned Professional at age 18 and became the First Assistant at Pine Lake for ten years before becoming the youngest Head Golf Professional and General Manager in the Detroit Metropolitan Area at Burning Tree Country Club in Mt. Clemens, Michigan in 1975.  In the fall of 1977 Rod moved to Bethesda, Maryland to become the Head Golf Professional at Kenwood Golf and Country Club a large 1500 member private club in the Washington DC area.  In a career at Kenwood that lasted 34 years Rod and his PGA and LPGA assistants had the opportunity to shape the swings and games of a few generations of golfers. Because of his knowledge and experience, Rod’s keen senses can diagnose faulty impacts and swing faults and create a plan to fix the players swing in a matter of minutes. Often he can watch one swing and tell what the student is thinking, when an instructor has the ability to change a students thinking, he can change the impact and ball flight, distance and direction of the players golf game.

“The sole purpose of a golf swing is to produce a correct,repetitive impact. The method employed is of no significance as long as it is repetitive.” – John Jacobs

The purpose in swinging a golf club cannot be summed up more succinctly than by Sir John Jacobs. Our founder Jim Hardy considers John not only his mentor but one of the forefathers of modern golf instruction. This quote is the motto that The Plane Truth has adopted since its inception in 2005. Jim’s true genius was born out of that motto and is his contribution to the golf instruction community. It is the foundation upon which Jim built his groundbreaking Plane Truth +’s and –‘s Impact System. This system is used to improve a golfer’s impact and ball flight no matter the swing style or method they employ. When a swing is not producing a correct and repetitive impact, the impact is either too steep (+) or too shallow (-). A swing element from the opposite category is then introduced to help balance the scale and move the golfer to a neutral impact. The goal of every Plane Truth instructor is to improve a student’s impact and ball flight as quickly as possible. This is reflected in our motto, “Hit The Next Ball Better”. We do not buy into the adage that golfers should get worse before they get better. If you do not experience improvement immediately, one of three things is happening.

• You do not understand what you need to do
• You understand what you need to do, but aren’t doing it
• The information you are being given is incorrect