LOVELAND, Colo.—Few people can offer a corporate executive advice without receiving a scolding. Personal accountants and golf instructors come to mind, and Lauren Howe loves the idea of being able to stake a claim in that notion.
Howe, the newest staff addition at The Olde Course in Loveland, has worked to develop a Zen master-like reputation on the links.
As if 13 years on the LPGA Tour wasn’t enough, Howe spent much of the beginning of her retirement from the tour learning the mental aspect of the game.
She became certified in neuro-linguistic programming and neuro-associative conditioning—meaning she looks to help keep the game from getting under one’s skin.
It’s not only golf where she is ecstatic to help.
“You hear a lot of people say golf is a great metaphor for life. It’s a great backdoor to help people,” said Howe, a Colorado Springs native who retired from the tour in 1990 and has been instructing ever since. “It’s interesting … you might work with some CEO who nobody can tell him to do anything, but if they’re not a very good golfer, I can get a message to him through golf.
“Something that helps him be better with his employees or helps him have a better vision for his company, something like that.”
That example is a small part of what Howe is trying to accomplish in her instruction. Teaching people life lessons is a goal, and golf just happens to be the funnel.
Howe acknowledged a passion for working with youth, and with the help of Kim and Gale Stiner, she hopes to offer a different type of instruction beginning next summer.
In addition to private instruction, The Champions Club will be geared toward youths who really want to play competitive golf, those who are looking to attain college scholarships or perhaps more.
“If we can teach them some life skills through golf, that’d be great,” Howe said.
“(Lauren) and I have been talking about a million things that we want to do,” said Kim Stiner, the head golf pro at the course. “She’s got a wealth of knowledge … Until I met Lauren, I didn’t know how much more there was to learn, but she’s been out there, and she’s experienced it all.
“She’s going to give people a side of golf that they didn’t know existed.”
As much as Howe enjoys reaching out, she’s there to help with the game, too.
Her pro experience—which included a win in the Mayflower Classic (1983) and more than a dozen top-10 finishes—has given her the knowledge of balance between the mental and physical aspects that the best golfers in the world deal with on a weekly basis.
While most of the general golfing public deals with fear and anger—emotional highs can equally affect the game.
“On tour, if I made three or four birdies in a row, my caddie would have to help bring me back down because if you get the adrenaline flying, you’re hitting over greens and doing all kinds of crazy stuff,” Howe said. “You’ve got to manage it both ways.”
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