Welcome to Nipomo. Land of rolling hills, ocean vistas, towering oak and eucalyptus groves, pristine horse pastures and the golf courses that overlook them.

Along with being known as one of the Central Coast/s last rural sanctuaries, Nipomo is starting to develop a reputation for its first-class public golf courses.

In the middle of Nipomo Mesa, Blacklake Golf Course, 1490 Golf Course Lane, takes advantage of the area/s landscape, using the oaks and canyons to inspire the design of their 27 holes, becoming a local favorite not only with the residents of the planned community nearby, but other locals as well.

Closer to Arroyo Grande, Cypress Ridge Golf Course, 780 Cypress Ridge Way, offers its visitors the opportunity to tailor their golfing experience. Depending on which path you take your ball through the course, the game becomes more or less difficult 77 a signature Peter Jacobsen design earned the course 41/2 stars from Golf Digest magazine.

Last week there in the middle of that molded green, staff writer Kirsten Flagg (that/s me) decided to see what all the fuss was about with a visit to the course/s Golf Academy, where business is booming.

And likely to keep booming, to hear director of instruction Jim DeLaby talk about it.

Before arriving to head up the Golf Academy in 2000, DeLaby ran a golf school in Temecula. With the same observational skills he uses to type his students/ golf grips, DeLaby noticed that as Riverside County started to fill up with people, so did his list of clientele. He sees Nipomo going in the same direction, especially as the 1,320-home Woodlands development near Highway 1 prepares to open 18 holes of an eventual 45-hole golf course.

"It/s going to explode, because it/s going in exactly the same route," said DeLaby, a champion golfer back in his college days and a golf instructor for 15 years. "Everything is coming to the Central Coast. It/s just a matter of time. This place is going to explode."

Part of that growth is happening right in his own back yard. DeLaby estimates that for every new home built in the planned community of Cypress Ridge, he gets one new client. Other golf schools aren/t competition; they/re just another stop on the golf tourist/s Central Coast circuit, which grows in popularity because of the variety of courses, prices and locations.

Anyway, he/s confident that what he has to offer can/t be found anywhere else.

The bike analogy

The last time I golfed, I wore fluorescent Keds and a pre-adolescent patience for missing the ball over and over again. My parents liked to keep us busy in the summer, and golf camp was their latest version of getting and keeping us out of the house. Needless to say, I was more interested in the afternoons after class spent around the country club/s pool. I didn/t learn much.

But, according to DeLaby, I learned enough to learn it wrong.

A DeLaby lesson begins with a confidence builder. Before ever walking out onto the green, he has you convinced you/ll be shooting straight within the hour.

Golfing is like biking, the teacher explains 77 "You can/t lose a skill. Everything/s been stored in the computer," he says, pointing to his head, "You just don/t know where you put it."

But this is the catch 77 golfing isn/t like biking. Once learned, biking is like second nature, but golf has earned its reputation as one of the hardest, most frustrating sports for a reason, as DeLaby freely acknowledges.

Take, for instance, baseball, which demands strategy and teamwork from its players, but hands them a fairly simple background (the field) and tool (the bat) with which to accomplish these goals. With golf, the background is always changing, and instead of one instrument of delivery, the golfer can have up to 14, each with its own dimensions and personality.

According to the instructor, the solution to this vexing problem has five fingers … or is it six? And it/s completely individual to each player.

He calls it grip printing. Just as every person holds his or her pencil a little differently, every person should hold a golf club differently.

As opposed to forcing your hand into the appropriate golfer position, the thumb and pad of the hand (the sixth and most important finger) should be placed as they naturally fall on the club/s handle so the center of the club/s face hits the equator of the ball.

So apparently, I couldn/t hit the ball when I was 10 not because I wasn/t paying close enough attention, but because I wasn/t holding the club correctly.

My arm limp to my side, DeLaby instructs me look down and tell me what I see 77 three knuckles. Simple as that, I am grip printed and with fingers appropriately placed, ready to get back on that bike.

The car analogy

Of course, now I have to swing my arms without losing that perfect position. For this, we move outside to the "swing circle" 77 two Hula Hoop-size rings angled in the air with metal frames to create a passage similar to the arc of a golf swing.

The idea is to imprint your visual and physical memory simultaneously with the correct curve your golf club should follow.

After driving a car several times, people don/t need to look constantly to both sides in order to know the dimensions of their car and what it takes to keep it in the right lane. Similarly, a golfer should be able to step up to a championship level course, sandpits and ponds looming, wind blowing, and keep his or her swing perfectly in line.

But first, baby steps. Before I/m allowed to swing full throttle at a real live golf ball, I take quarter swings and half swings at a tennis ball.

It/s harder than it seems. Inevitably at the top of my swing I revert to my "wrongly learned" grip and have to readjust again. It eventually takes closed eyes and instructions to hum my favorite tunes to get me to accept my three-knuckle grip as my own. Once I do, the ball is off to its intended target.

To finish off my lesson and further emphasize the importance of "gripping," I/m asked to hit the ball in all kinds of awkward positions, at one point standing with my right leg in the air.

I feel more than awkward, but I hit the ball straight every time.

* Staff writer Kirsten Flagg can be reached at 739-2206 or kflagg@pulitzer.net.

Jan. 15, 2005