Golf lesson with Bob Krause and course review of Brentwood Country Club

I would like to start off today telling you to read Keith Dunlap’s excellent feature story on Birmingham Seaholm sophomore golfer Carlos Ruffino. This young man was a ‘dream team’ selection as a freshman last year and golfed in the US amateur last year and has bright future in the game. The story appears in the paper and you can find it online as well.

A miserable golfing weekend weather wise was tempered by playing a couple of very fun courses. I will chronicle my experiences playing Brentwood C.C. after letting you in on how golf lessons can tighten up your swing. This weekend started off with a golf lesson with Bob Krause from Bob Krause golf.

Krause is a well-renowned golf pro with an academy in Commerce Township. Krause has written for the Oakland Press and partners with local golf courses such as Fieldstone in Auburn Hills and media outlets including  MSNBC and Fox Sports Detroit. There is a driving range behind his swing analysis lab and  nearly twenty golfers working on their game and I look forward to doing the same  this summer. What impressed me about Bob Krause is he works quite a bit with junior golfers and I will feature some of them in future blogging columns and online stories. Specifically, Bob promised me he would only try to help me with one area of my game at a time and that is crucial in my mind to improving your game. Have you ever went to a golf lesson and the pro tried to give you 3-4 tips in each lesson and you were a complete mess for months afterward? Then you return he gives you 3-4 more golf tips and you decide you are too frustrated to play and just mutter to yourself on the driving range? Well I think we have all been there to varying degrees over time.

Bob did ask me for one favor.

He asked me to trust him to work with me and not see several people while he is working with me. I thought it to be a wise request. Krause did work with me on two things this past Friday. The first is my balance and secondly the swing itself. My balance is an easy fix. I was favoring my right side. I am now more balanced over the ball. I still have questions for Bob as many golf teachers teach you to tilt to your right and I am still trying to figure out how that works into the equation. The second is my swing plane. I actually had agolf pro tell me to cock my right wrist as soon as I took the club into my back swing and then go into a v-plane. Bob has me going into my backswing by taking it straight back then bringing my club back. I am sure it is more sophisticated then that but that is how I understood it. A practical help for me is taking a tee in the butt end of the club and making sure it is pointing at my belly button in the takeaway before bringing it into my full back swing. I was under his tutelage hitting it much more solid. He uses plenty of video analysis and we looked at my before and after and compared it to successful PGA touring pros which gives his teaching increased credibility.

Like most golfers, you end up getting worse before you get better and you are generally are very successful at your lesson then try repeating your lesson on the course which can be frustrating. Krause told me to take around 100 swings a day between lessons one and two and I am doing just that. Bob is excellent at what he does and I recommend that you get some swing analysis advice whether you just need a half a turn of the screwdriver or you need a game overhaul.

Call or contact Bob Krause at

Bob Krause
Director of InstructionTelephone:(941)773-1339
E-mail: Contact Bob Krause

Now for Brentwood C.C.

This 6400 yard course from the Green Tees is a beautiful yet hard to find course in Commerce Township. I will make it simple. Take M-59 west to Bogey Lake Road and make a left. Take Bogey Lake Road about two miles to Cedar Island Road and make a right (just before the sharp left at Lakeland High School). Cedar Island about a mile on a dirt road to Havenwood Rd. The signs take you to the clubhouse and you are there.  I have played this course several times over the years and really enjoy the layout. It is carved out in a golf course community and the four different tee boxes give golfers a varied look depending on which set of tees you use during your round.  I would like to thank Barry Krause (I am not sure if he is related to Bob) is the general manager and I would like to thank him and his staff for their hospitality.

I really enjoy this course. The neighbors are friendly when you hit a ball near their property and the homes are beautiful and life is good for those that can afford to live there.

There is one word of advice to most men. Play the green tees. They are only 6400 yards. Playing from the gold or senior tees is only 5124 yards. That is less than 300 yards per hole so like the commercial says, “man up.” Remember those swing changes I spoke about above? They came into play all day and it started on my first tee shot.

The first hole is a 404 yard par four with a pond to the right side. Trees line the left side and I think I hit most of them. The rain we had lately made the course seem like it was 7000 plus yards and I decided to use my hybrid from an impossibly tough lie behind a tree. I could have made the shot but chipping it out was the right play. I did not listen to my inner golfer and had tree trouble for three total shots and missed a chip. I ended up with an eight here and I turned a good par hole into a hot mess. Golfers, my advice is to play your surest club off the tee. The green is tricky but large enough for you to put on the green, one or two putt and move on.

I just love the fourth hole. This 532 yard par five is a real birdie opportunity if you put your drive in play. Most golfers will cut plenty of distance off this hole by shooting it over the bog that is inbounds and land it on the fairway. If you can bomb it off the tee, you could carry it over the fairway into the rough and could bring trouble into play. A well-placed second shot could put you on the green in two. Remember, you could cut 75 to 100 yards off the distance of the hole with a good drive. A poorly placed second shot will put you in a small pond guarding the green (about 70 yards out) and there are bunkers that will give you a day at the beach in front and to the sides of this green. The putt is tricky so make sure you do not turn a one putt into a three putt.

The fifth hole is a 319 yard par four. From the tee box it looks like you have a large bailout area to the left. Do not be tempted as it is staked as out-of-bounds and is part of the neighborhood. Why are you hitting it over there? You shouldn’t. The fairway is wide and hitting it gives you a real good look at the pin.

The seventh hole is another dandy. It is a mouth watering 310 yard par four with tree trouble to the left and a neighborhood that you can easily reach with an errant shot. Luckily, I hit a so-so tee shot down the middle and did not have to worry about either. When I get my game back after a five-year layoff and this swing change, hitting it in front of the green is very possible. The only thing is there is plenty of sand that is not noticeable from the tee. If you have any choice on where to play your second shot, hit it below the pin. The green slopes from the back to the front and what a shame to see a GIR turn into a three putt and a bogey when you played the hole well except for where you placed your wedge or short iron.

The eighth hole is a 479 dogleg par five. The hole is not long for a par five but it has a risk reward tee shot. You can have a nice drive and it can carry into the woods or hit a three wood and have a great look at the hole. The woods and a marsh guard the hole all the way down the left so should avoid it if at all possible. The green rolls true so a wedge or short iron should give you a good place to putt your third shot. If you go for it in two, a miss will make you good friends with a pair of bunkers that are guarding the hole.

The ninth hole is a dandy as you will have an audience from people getting ready to tee off on ten, checking out a cart or from those at a party or wedding reception. From the green tees it is only 130 yards and the green is not deep but horizontal.  Club selection is the optimum word here. One club too much and you go into a pond behind the hole and one shot short and you are in the water that guards it in front. The ladies have only 78 yards to make the green here. You can make a putt here and make a birdie and hopefully the wind will be dormant so you can do just that.

The back nine has some fun holes and good tests of golf. The 374 yard par four 10^th will force you to carry over a marsh. If you hit it in there it is out of bounds so do not go three off the tee. Once you get over the march (hopefully in one), the fairway is wide but if you hook it right, there are a cluster of trees that could make it a mess of a hole for an errant drive. The green rolls true so get it anywhere close and you should one or two putt with a solid effort.

The 569 yard par five 13^th is a golf hole that allows you to see how your long game is coming around. There is a wide fairway in front of you so any drive from left to center is all good and will leave you with a wide open second shot. The second shot once again has a wide fairway and if you do drive it in the rough you still have a great shot at the green. Some holes you play well and some you do not. I can assure you that I have been very good on this hole as it plays to my golf game and I am sure readers will tell you the same.

The par four 453 yard 14^th is a tough hole as evidence of its number one handicap rating. I usually do not look at scorecards until after I look at a hole but I can tell you that hitting the fairway is important. I went right and my tee shot (inconsistent after my long layoff and 30 mile-per-hour wind straight into my face. I snapped it onto the men’s tee box on the 15^th. What a mistake. A drop and a less than stellar second shot left me 50 yards short of the green. I ended up with a six after a chunked chip and a two put and I had a six here. This in my mind was set up by a poor tee shot.

I have always enjoyed playing the 16^th hole. It is a par five 506 yard hole with a pair of bunkers and a severe slop guarding the green. Hitting it in the slope will give you a blind pitch. While any hole can be easy as golf holes go by hitting it long and down the middle, you have room to play on the tee shot straight or down the left side. The second shot could put you on the green but remember, the bunkers and the dip are speed bumps for the golfers that go for the green in two.

The 17^th hole par three, is a 156 yard hole that seems like a relief due to the two par fives and 235 yard par three over the last four holes preceding the 17^th.  The green is large enough to hit and a low iron should do it. You should plan on paring this hole if you are playing for skins or a tournament at this club. Anything less and you will lose your friendly wager or a shot to the field.

I have always enjoyed playing this course. I played it before it officially opened in the late 1990’s when I was in the mortgage business and I have always considered it a fun course. The front nine in particular is challenging as you play in and around the neighborhood. The back nine is 3400 yards and you need to bring you’re A game. Your B game is good enough on some of the back nine but I suggest that you enjoy yourself and having yourself a ‘pop’ from the beverage girl.

The clubhouse is beautiful and has been recently remodeled and if you are looking at scheduling a party or wedding, talk to the Brentwood staff for rates and availability.  I DJ’d some weddings there before retiring from that business as well and it is a good place to take pictures, have an elegant affair and is a good place for golfers and party goers to have fun and not get into each other’s way.

The course is well marked as many sprinkler heads are marked and there are 150 yard markers to help you find your way. For tee times, call 248-684-2662.

My next blog will be on Sanctuary Lake in Rochester Hills, Michigan.