“I like getting students to be as passionate about the game as I am,” says Sprister, who’s been teaching for 17 years and playing since he was 11. Sprister finds that most students come to him looking for more distance and consistency; he helps them achieve their goals by being patient and offering a lot of positive reinforcement. “I’m able to help them get results without getting into a lot of technical pieces of the swing,” adds Sprister.

While Sprister works with students of all ability levels, he believes the best advice for most players it to simply play a lot. “Hit a lot of balls,” advises Sprister. “The average player needs to understand and feel good contact. People usually figure this much out on their own.” After that, Sprister can enhance a player’s game by helping him or her to understand ball flight laws. Sprister offers many drills that golfers can use for the rest of their lives to hone and maintain their skills.

Assistant professionals who’ve worked for Sprister have benefited by his instruction. Sprister has helped several assistants pass their Player’s Ability Test for the PGA. “I helped them understand ball flight and how it relates to swing mechanics,” says Sprister. He probably gave them an edge in the attitude department, too, without even realizing it.

Sprister has vast tournament experience to share with his students. He placed first in the Fox Cities Amateur and played the Space Coast Mini Tour from 1986 to 1987 and the Central Florida Tour from 1989 to 1992. Sprister competes in PGA Section events and has teed it up in North Florida, Northern California, Southern California, New England and Wisconsin tournaments. According to Sprister, the best part if his game is his short game, and his favorite shots to play are pitch and runs.

Sprister spends about 60% of his practice time on his short game, starting with 3-foot putts and moving out to 10, 20 and 30-footers. Moving to the range for 39% of his practice, Sprister begins with half-swings, working the ball right to left. Sprister figures about 1% of his time is spent on specialty shots – coming out of deep rough, playing around and under trees. This routine has served him well in preparing him for competitive play.

Consider the Fox Cities Amateur in 1986, for instance. Sprister was in standing water in a bunker and dropped for relief, still in the bunker. The ball plugged into the wet sand. Un-phased, Sprister proceeded to hit the shot four feet from the pin. He was unaware of the professional photographer snapping his photo, but later that month, the picture of his sand save had been published in Sports Illustrated.

Whenever he runs into trouble out on the course, Sprister just tells himself to keep it slow and make sure his path is inside. One of his favorite players to watch is Fred Couples because he appears so relaxed; Sprister also enjoys following Lee Trevino. “I love his swing,” says Sprister, “and he just has so much fun.”