The PGA of America this week hired a production crew to film a series of “My Journey in Golf” television commercials intended to market and grow the game.
It didn’t send the crew to Scottsdale or Pebble Beach but to the unpretentious Haven Golf Course, just off Interstate 19 in Green Valley and adjacent to the thriving GVR Pickleball operation.
Once the film crew stops at the Over Par Lounge — a hot dog, chips and a beer are only $5 — it might check Google Maps to see if it got the wrong place.
But in American golf, 2019, the Haven is a little slice of heaven.
Haven Golf Course is the home of Marvol Barnard, who is simultaneously the national president of the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals as well as the current PGA Player Development of the Year honoree.
“She is marvelous,” says Haven golfer Sally Lepage. “She was named right, she really was.”
The PGA film crew will find that Barnard, a 61-year-old former basketball player at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, is the least likely golf professional in the business.
Before moving to Green Valley with her husband, Sam, Barnard lived on a boat for 20 years, operating a commercial fishing business in Alaska. She started golfing at age 38.
“I know what it’s like to walk onto a golf course and not know anything,” she says. “I know what it’s like to feel out of place. My goal has been to change that for as many people as I can.”
Now, when she walks into the trendy Dominick’s for lunch at the Country Club of Green Valley, people stop and stare.
“That’s the golf lady,” they say.
A few weeks ago, Barnard told those who are part of her Haven and Green Valley golf family that she would be spending the week of March 17-23 at the LPGA’s Bank of Hope Founders Cup at a resort and spa in Scottsdale.
“I asked if anyone was interested on making the trip with me,” she says. “Boom, we filled up two buses.”
Golf instructor Marvol Barnard teaches the AimPoint system to her student Ronda Lewis on the putting green at Haven Golf Course in Green Valley, AZ. on Thursday, April 13, 2017. Barnard has been named the LPGA’s National Teacher of the Year. Photo by Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star.
Boom has been the word for golf since Barnard became a certified teacher for both the LPGA and PGA, becoming one of fewer than 160 instructors in America with dual licenses.
“I started with eight women in my Golf 101 class,” she remembers. “Now my database has more than 550.”
Database?
“I’ve got a lot going on,” she says. “The LPGA presidency comes with a lot of responsibility and quite a bit of travel. I mean, I’ll be going to the Solheim Cup in Ireland and other places. But what I’m most happy about is that my little program has created growth in our community and all over.
“I wish my mom and dad were alive to see what I’m doing.”
Golf doesn’t have to be as difficult as it appears — it can be fun! — and that’s part of the reason Barnard has become a nationally prominent instructor/golf whisperer.
“My secret little plan is to hook a golfer right away, let them know it’ll be fun before they even get in the door,” she says. “I have programs that are called ‘Wine, Women and Wedges’ and ‘Is Your Driver Driving You To Drink?’ and ‘Wine and Nine.’
“In the old days, you’d see a notice that golf lessons were at 3 p.m. and to be on time. After 30 minutes or an hour, everyone had had enough. We’ve changed that. The whole point is not to be intimidated.”
When she was interviewed on stage at the 2018 PGA awards banquet in Indian Wells, California, Barnard said golf advertising doesn’t always match her approach. In the public mind, golf is a long, majestic hole surrounded by water and dotted with gaping sand hazards.
“You don’t need that to be your image of golf,” she says. “We have more than 80,000 girls in LPGA programs, and our goal in the three years of my presidency is to change the face of golf for them. It’s going to be a big win.”
Barnard’s golf instruction isn’t limited to women of a certain age in Green Valley, or junior golfers, or anyone. One of her pupils is Dick Pomo, a 70-something blind golfer who has been instrumental in operating the ISPI Handa U.S. Blind Open Championships, to be held April 4-8 at Haven.
“If the lesson isn’t fun,” says Pomo, “it sure as hell isn’t going to be fun on the course. Marvol has the ‘it’ factor and the passion.”
Barnard’s little Haven hideaway wasn’t a golf secret for long. A year ago, Brad Lardon, Director of Golf at The Club at Los Campanas, two Jack Nicklaus-created courses in Sante Fe — voted New Mexico’s No. 1 course by Golf Digest in 2016 — phoned and offered Barnard a chance to join the course’s teaching staff.
She said she wasn’t interested. Too busy.
But Lardon said the secret words — “we want to grow women’s golf.”
“Oh, that got me,” says Barnard, who now works June through mid-September in Santa Fe. “I’m all in.”
