About Coach Mike Michael Thomas Arrigoni was born and raised in the town of Southgate, Michigan near Detroit. He learned to play golf from his Dad at age 10 and was competing in tournaments by age 15. Growing up as a baseball player and football QB, Mike captained the golf team at Southgate Anderson High School. It was there that he found his niche. His skills and interest excelled as he found true passion for the game. He went on to receive a golf scholarship at Detroit College of Business where he obtained a B.A. in Business. Coach Mike started his professional golf career as Director of Instruction at Waters Edge Golf and Yacht Club in Grosse Ile, Michigan in 1990. He then moved to Arizona in 1996 and has worked at many of Arizona’s most prestigious courses including Grayhawk GC, Wildfire GC, Camelback GC, Raven at South Mountain GC and Dobson Ranch GC. Coach Mike was the Director of Instruction at Western Skies GC from 2006-2012 and has been back in that role since 2015. As a certified PGA Professional with over 30 years of coaching experience he has become one of the top instructors in the Southwest PGA Section. Coach Mike creates a fun, relaxed atmosphere with a unique personal touch when teaching our Junior and Adult learners the techniques of the game. Mike still continues to seek new and better ways to teach and communicate with his students. His goal is to make learning easier and more enjoyable. Coach Mike has created the most prominent Junior Golf Program in the East Arizona Valley. He has a proven history of producing competitive junior golfers! Many have gone on to win High School State Championships, Junior World Championships and have been awarded College Golf Scholarships. “Coaching talented juniors and watching them develop in life and golf is my favorite part”, says Mike. MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY Golf swings are as individual as people. With this in mind, I realize that two golfers will never swing exactly the same and more importantly learn the same. I will teach you to achieve a consistent flight pattern with your golf ball. The flight of your golf ball will tell you on every shot, exactly what your club was doing at impact. I believe the most important part of any golf swing is making solid contact. Of course direction is important but without solid contact, direction means little. Two factors determine direction; your clubface angle at impact and the club path you swing on. It’s physics, you can’t argue with it. The ball doesn’t lie, it goes where you hit it. All that matters to the golf ball is what the club head is doing at impact. MY APPROACH I want you to play better golf now, not later! You will learn to teach yourself how to practice properly. I use swing video analysis so you will leave every lesson knowing exactly what to practice and how to do it….with checkpoints and drills. If you do your homework you will improve immediately. I don’t believe in the “It takes time theory”, I believe it takes effort. Give me a chance to make you better!