New golf pros at Grand Del Mar

SAN DIEGO — The Grand Golf Club at The Grand Del Mar has expanded its teaching staff, naming Derek Uyeda as lead instructor and Phil Rodgers as staff instructor.
According to Shawn G. Cox, director of golf at The Grand Golf Club, the pair will help accommodate a growing interest in golf instruction at the property, and help develop and spearhead innovative new programs at the resort’s 18-hole, 7,160-yard private course. “Both Phil and Derek are highly credentialed professionals, and we are honored to have them on our instructional team,” Cox said.
A Professional Golfers Association teaching professional who specializes in state-of-the-art computerized video instruction and swing analysis, Uyeda most recently taught at Stadium Golf Center in San Diego. He was also a golf instructor and partner at the San Diego Golf Institute at Riverwalk Golf Club, and a PGA teaching professional at Mission Bay Golf Course, as well as first assistant and instructor at Pro Kids Golf Academy in San Diego. Named the 2009 Southern California Section Professional Golfers’ Association Teacher of the Year and the 2008 Teacher of the Year for the San Diego Chapter of the PGA, he was also ranked among the top 35 golf instructors in California in Golf Digest’s “Best Teachers in Your State” edition for 2003-2004.
Native San Diegan Phil Rodgers is a veteran golfer who played for 22 years on the PGA Tour and six years on the Senior Tour, his career includes being named among Golf Digest’s Top 50 Instructors every year since the list’s inception, winning the NCAA Division I Championship while playing at the University of Houston and winning five times on the PGA Tour. Most recently, he was inducted into the 2009 Southland Golf Hall of Fame, which lauds him as “one of the most recognized and decorated golf teachers in the world.” Perhaps best known for competing against Bob Charles in a 36-hole playoff in the 1963 British Open, Rodgers has worked with more than 100 Tour players on their games, including Jack Nicklaus. For 20 years, he was a golf instructor at the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf in Orlando, Fla., where he helped contribute to the biomechanics book, “Swing Like A Pro.”