Glasson offers summer lesson plans at Lakeside

Bill Glasson is recovering from yet another surgery, this one to repair a torn labrum muscle in his hip. While missing a full season on the Champions Tour is bad news for the 55-year-old, it is good news for area golfers as Glasson has decided to devote the entire summer to teaching at Lakeside Golf Course in his hometown of Stillwater.

Glasson, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, has gone through more than 20 surgeries on golf-related soft-tissue issues and others from non-golf related accidents. He had his neck and back fused just before starting his Champions Tour career and still has managed 20 top-10 finishes since joining the tour in 2010.

"Relative to my limitations, I’ve done all right," Glasson said. "Not what I wanted to do, but then again sometimes I don’t take my limitations into account."

The hip became too painful to continue after two early season events and Glasson went to a specialist to make a determination between repairing or replacing his hip. He elected to try to squeeze a few more years of competition with a repaired hip and look at replacement later if necessary.

So while on crutches for a few more weeks, Glasson is all set up at Lakeside with video and any other tools necessary to impart lessons he’s learned throughout this career, which began as an All-American at Oral Roberts and includes 85 top-10 finishes combined PGA Tour and Champions Tour since 1984.

Glasson points out that he’s worked with or had numerous swing discussions with David Ledbetter, Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, Peter Kostis and other famous instructors as well as having a store of his own ideas. He enjoys teaching and is flexible on working with individuals, not trying to force one swing pattern on every player.

"One thing I have over a lot of the teachers I mentioned is that I have played and know what it takes to make it to the next level," he said. "One thing I know is that there are a lot of ways to swing, but in the impact zone people are in a similar position. How you get there, you have to use the God-given gifts that you have."

Lakeside is promoting a lesson plan that includes $75 for a single 45-minute lesson, $60 for advanced juniors 17-and-under, or three-lesson packages that are $210 for adults and $150 for advanced juniors. Other packages are available. Visit the Lakeside website at www.stillwatergolf.org, email Glasson at bglasson@aol.com or call the golf shop at 405-372-3399.