Respected Golf Teacher Ben Doyle Passes Away
February 16, 2015
by Alfie Lau
Ben Doyle was a charter member of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers list and also made Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Instructors list.
While golf aficionados shed a tear upon learning of his death, at age 82, on Dec. 15, 2014 in San Francisco, those same golf fans celebrated his unorthodox teaching methods, which included Doyle being the first teacher of Homer Kelley’s revolutionary golf instruction book, ‘The Golfing Machine’.
But what these golf fans may not know is that Ben Doyle has deep Lower Mainland roots, as he went to high school in New Westminster with his twin brother Bernie and first picked up the sport at the Vancouver Golf Club, where his mom worked.
He would go on to Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington before becoming Head Professional at Broadmoor Golf Club in suburban Seattle.
From there, he would continue south, ending up teaching at the Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club in Carmel Valley, Northern California. Doyle would teach there until his death, having lived on the Monterey Peninsula before moving to a senior’s residence in San Francisco in 2012 after his wife passed away.
Ben Doyle, the instructor, is fondly remembered by his nephew Bentley Doyle, who lives and works in Vancouver as a communications specialist. “Uncle Ben was always a mythical figure to me,” said Bentley. “He was a lot quieter than my dad, but I’ve had people tell me that the only times they heard Uncle Ben laugh so hard was when he was with my dad.
They were twins in so many ways and when my dad died in 2004, Uncle Ben took it so hard that he couldn’t even come up for my dad’s service.”
Bentley feels a special kinship with Ben Doyle because it was his uncle who actually gave him his name. “When I was born, I was born Michael Robert Doyle,” said Bentley.
“My Uncle Ben thought he had a better name for me, so he gave each of my three older brothers $5 to go to our parents and ask that my name be changed. So, for $15, I became Bentley Michael Robert Doyle. I still don’t know why he did that but I’m proud to share his name.”
Bentley said his uncle’s teaching methods were definitely unorthodox, especially since he took lessons from Ben, with little success. “My uncle was a great teacher, but I was a little kid who was, shall I say, ball-oriented,” said Bentley.
“But Uncle Ben, his teachings were based on what he called GOLF, geometrically oriented linear force, and sustaining the lag through the hitting zone. You would spend hours with him and you wouldn’t ever touch a ball.
He’d take me to the rough and have me swinging a club through the rough, but with no ball. I just couldn’t understand what he was trying to show me because I just wanted to hit a ball. But the more he taught me, the more I realized he was teaching me about The Golfing Machine. It was the basis of everything he taught.”
Bentley was also in awe of his uncle’s generosity. “I would go for lessons and my set of clubs was, I think, hand-me-downs… and a ladies set to boot,” said Bentley. “He took one look at them and then he said to come to his home in Monterey.
We started walking around the house and he had clubs everywhere and then he pointed at a full set of MacGregor Tourney clubs and that became my first set of clubs. . . I also did a road trip to California in the late-‘80s and he took me and my friend for my first sushi meal. He was a very warm man who loved teaching and giving of himself.”
Bentley admits that he could be frustrating to his uncle, “I was so awestruck by him that he would be teaching me and I would be looking at him and not listening,” said Bentley.
“He’d have me swing the mop or a club and since I wasn’t listening, well, the next thing I hear him say is, ‘You haven’t attempted to do one thing I’ve tried to teach you.’ That would snap me back to paying attention.”
As part of his teachings, Doyle became known for his oversized and overfilled golf cart, filled with teaching gadgets, most notably his Facts and Illusions mat, a 10 x 6 foot mat that explains and demonstrates the geometry of the golf swing.
“I’m not even sure there was a full set of clubs in there,” said Bentley. “I remember he had a mop in there and he’d wet it and have you swing with it to show you a little something about clubhead speed.”
Doyle would also be one of the first instructors to videotape each lesson and give a copy to the student at the end of the lesson.
Ben Doyle had his share of successful pupils, starting with Bobby Clampett, who came to Doyle as a 13-year-old intent on improving his game. Within two years, Clampett had become a scratch golfer en route to a successful PGA TOUR career.
Doyle would also work his magic with the likes of Steve Elkington, Mac O’Grady, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Bernhard Langer, Gary Player and Curtis Strange.
“One of my favourite memories of Uncle Ben is going to Sahalee (for the 1998 PGA Championship) and seeing him work with Elkington.
It was also there that Paul Azinger came up to him and asked for a quick lesson and I also learned that my uncle had flown on Greg Norman’s jet,” said Bentley. “That’s how highly regarded he was by the players. So many of them wanted to learn from him.”
That makes it somewhat surprising that Doyle was never recognized on the sectional or national level by the PGA of America and isn't in the teaching Hall of Fame. “I guess he wasn’t the greatest at playing politics,” said Bentley. “But he was all about his students and that’s what mattered to him.”
Bentley was surprised to hear of his uncle’s passing just before Christmas. “He wasn’t in bad health and what I was told was that he was in a great mood at one of the parties being held at his complex. He was a bit tired so he said he was going to lie down. And then he passed . . . It was a real shock to everybody.”
More than 100 family members and friends came from all parts of North America to Quail Lodge on Feb. 15 for a Celebration of Life for Ben Doyle.
Doyle's most accomplished student, Bobby Clampett, came in knickers and gave an impassioned speech highlighting his memories of his longtime coach. Clampett considered himself the son Doyle never had and said he misses him every day.
Doyle's grandchildren, Bentley and Kaitlin Mundle, also talked about their favourite memories of Ben, with Kaitlin joking that her golf lessons consisted almost entirely of time spend hitting out of a greenside bunker.
Bentley Mundle, who's gone on to become a PGA of America Professional, said he was proud to carry on Doyle's golf legacy and he would be hitting balls at the Quail Lodge range in memory of his grandfather, who occupied the space on the far right of the range for decades.