It’s all about the grip, according to Jason Gobleck, and he ought to know. Jason won the Connecticut Senior PGA Professional Title this past August and qualified for a berth in the 33rd Senior PGA Professional Championship in October down in Port St. Lucie Florida. And if you don’t speak golf, that means Jason is a really, really good golfer.

Jason took up golf quite young and carved out a great career as a club pro and instructor. Jason spent close to two decades at a head pro in Westchester, New York, where he worked with a number of golfers, but Jason and his wife Mary Kate and family made a move to Madison several years ago, coincidentally right near the Madison Country Club course.

“We ended up finding this spot here in Madison, which we fell in love with and we’ve been here three years,” says Jason. “I had to kind of be leave my head pro job that I had in New York, which was tough to do, but something I was ready for at that point. It was the type of job that was a great job and a great position, but hard to have the quality of life and that family time. I have three children and so this move came about and was very lucky to get the job at Lyman Orchards.”

Jason currently is a teaching professional at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield and he also operates his own instructional studio in Madison, where students can get the full video tech instruction or just good old-fashioned tips. He previous head pro position came with more responsibilities for managing far more than just instruction.

“They have a big program up there [at Lyman]. It’s very rewarding up there,” said Jason. “There’s no pressure. It’s not like the pressures of the old job, but it still very rewarding and allowed me to manage my family time better and spend much more time with my kids. And also start playing a lot more golf—it’s been a win-win ever since we came to town.”

This past year, Jason did incredibly well on the Senior PGA Championship. Unlike most sports, golf has numerous leagues, tours and events, and in some categories, if you’re good enough you can make the cut in a tournament and be playing against the game’s top performers.

That’s what Jason did. His play in August crowned him as the Connecticut section’s best golfer and qualified him for a spot on the Senior PGA Tour.

Winning the qualifying tournament in Connecticut was important to Jason for several reasons: The win secured his entry onto the Senior PGA event; it was on his hometown course just steps from his house; and it also garnered him Player of the Year in Connecticut as well. Interestingly, Jason says it was actually a bad hole that helped him stay focused and win the tournament.

“I got off to a really fast start. I made six birdies in the first nine holes, and shot a 29, so I was on top and opened up a five-shot lead. The pressure was still on. Madison is a very, very difficult course that I’ve really struggled on before. It’s the type of course where you need a really good game plan to play it, and I had only played it maybe four or five times before, and I struggled on it every time,” says Jason.

“I just kind of stuck to my game plan, especially coming down to the last nine. I had a big lead. I was six under par—and I’m never six under par—so I was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I was just nose to the ground and playing it one shot at a time,” he continues. “I had a disastrous hole on the 14th. I made a double bogey, I hit it in the hazard, then I hooked it into the houses, but I made a good double-bogey. It could’ve been a lot worse.

“I made a 10-footer to make double bogey and I still had a lead and I was feeling a little nervy, but the next hole I hit a seven iron onto the green about three inches from the hole and at that moment I kind knew it was mine. That was the shot that sealed it for me,” he says. “It was a special day.”

The win provided the opportunity to play professionally for family and friends in Florida, where Jason grew up. Jason didn’t perform as well as he wanted to in that event, but he still speaks glowingly of the tournament and what he was able to learn.

“I played the National Senior Pro Club in October, and that did not go as well. I missed the cut,” says Jason. “But I learned a lot about my game and about the state of where I am. I was playing with the top players from their regions and sections, and I didn’t fare as well, but still had a tremendous learning experience. I’d love to do it again!”

When it comes to his favorite hole or round, Jason says his most memorable shot was the seven-iron shot on 15 to seal the Connecticut win. And even though he didn’t win in his recent Florida event, he made a shot in front of family and friends there that still brings a smile.

“I had family and friends there, my parents live down there, so I had a nice crew watching and even though I wasn’t playing well and wasn’t going to make the cut, my very last hole I was in a sand trap, and I blasted out of the sand trap and into the hole for my last shot. All my friends and family got to see it, so it was a great note to end on.”

Jason says, possibly more than any other sport, the mental game is the defining crucial skill needed to excel in golf. Keeping that elusive consistency and shrugging off bad shots are what separate good golfers from great ones.

“It’s not easy to play golf under pressure. Almost anything is a distraction. One second you think you’ve got it and the next second you don’t. It’s a fragile game; it’s a head game,” says Jason. “

Jason says the advice he finds himself providing to most students is that golf ultimately comes down to the grip.

“I really love teaching to the individual, and don’t like getting into teaching everybody the same thing. However, when I teach the set up, I do try to emphasize…that your grip, posture, your stance are all important,” says Jason. “But particularly the grip is something that messes up people more than anything. They never quite develop the right grip when they start out and then it becomes ingrained. That becomes comfortable for them and then they develop swing around that grip, and then they can go on to develop swing flaws that can be really difficult down the road to change. So the grip is the one are that I really try to emphasize to people to keep getting better with it. Work on it every day. Always be working on the grip.”

For more information on Lyman Orchards Golf, visit lymangolf.com. For more information on Golf Barn 318, visit www.golfbarn318.com or contact Jason via email at jason@golfbarn318.com.