Road to the World Am, Episode 8: Reflections of the 2019 World Am Experience

In our final 2019 episode of “Road to the World Am,” participants Gene Chiarella, Jaime Costanzo and Jason Miller join instructors Allen Terrell of the Dustin Johnson Golf School and Michael Breed of Golf Channel and the Michael Breed Golf Academy, in remembering their student-teacher experiences as part of their preparation for this year’s PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com World Amateur.

Gene Chiarella:
I’m starting to see the progression from Allen (Terrell) starting to take place and starting to take hold under pressure. It’s been different when you’re just out there playing by yourself but under the tournament (conditions) every day was a little bit better. A little bit rough at Crow Creek. That rough was my undoing. I lost three balls in the rough but today was a great day. Tied for 13th. Yeah, last year I was at 16th or 17th so it’s a little bit better. That’s where we wanted it to be. We want it to be better than where we were last year and we wanted to finish higher than New York and New Jersey. And we did that. Allen, we did it babe! We did it Allen!

Jaime Costanzo:
So the first day was a little rough on me with letting expectations of others get in my head. A lot of people came up to me at the first round and said, “We see you taking lessons with Michael Breed. We’re following you, we’re catching you, we know you’re going to do good.” So the expectations were really high. It took me about five holes to get my head straight and then I started playing really well. The week went … had it highs and lows. I had an 88, an 87, an 83, and then today I took a nine on a par five and shot an 89. A little rough today but it was all in all. I mean I hit the ball really good. Just some unknown shots, some blind shots, some valleys, some uphill lies, downhill lies.

Michael Breed:
There you go. So I want to bring up, this is my new best friend Jamie Costanzo. Come on up, Jamie. Nobody loves golf more than this one right here, and I am telling you this is the fastest hour. I love teaching our hour, all of a sudden it’s an hour. I’m going, “What?” This is my girl. She has worked so hard on her game. I can’t wait to talk about it.

Jaime Costanzo:
He’s my new best friend. Michael Breed is truly … he is a genuinely nice guy. He is so appreciative to be able to teach amateurs and loves doing it.

Michael Breed:
Come on up, Jason. How are you, big boy? Let me tell you about Jason. So Jason comes over, he’s got this thing.

Allen Terrell:
He probably didn’t have that before he got a lesson from you. I’m just saying.

Michael Breed:
But Jason comes in, he’s got this stuff wrapped around his hand. I said, “What’s going on?” He said, “Well, I’ve got a problem with my thumb.” I said, “Well, how do you know?” He said, “Well, I saw a doctor.” I said, “What did the doctor say?” He said, “Well, I need to get this operated on.” I said, “Well, why didn’t you do it?” He said, “Because I’m not doing it until after the World Am. I’m going in hurt.”

Allen Terrell:
It’s only fitting that the last guy is Mr. Gene here, come on up Gene!

To me it’s actually more important or feels even better when someone who’s not doing it for a living reaches their goals. At the end of the day Michael and I teach because of these people, because of amateur golfers. That’s our passion. And I don’t care if it’s one shot, a half a shot, when we get little emails, little texts, that’s why we do it.

Gene Chiarella:
He’s awesome, awesome to work with. He’s so laid back. He just takes his time, explains to you, shows you, grab your hand, “do this,” so that you get the feel of what he’s doing. If you hit a bad shot, “don’t worry about it, it’s fine.” It’s not like he gets aggravated. It was just a pleasure. You just want to do so well for him after he started doing what he did. It was great.

Jaime Costanzo:
And the camaraderie is just unforeseen. I mean, you just, you don’t even know that it exists if you’ve never done it and when you get here you can’t stop doing it. It is truly the best tournament in the world for amateur golfers.