Coach still working with those who want to master the game of golf

By Mary Beth Roach

“Golf is not an easy game. It’s the first thing we tell people.“

This is how local pro instructor Chuck Jonick starts off another round of lessons at the Cicero Golf Shop on Brewerton Road.

And some of the parents of the children he’s teaching one Saturday afternoon in May knowingly chuckle at the comment.

Ask anyone acquainted with Jonick, and they would all agree that he knows golf. He’s dedicated about two-thirds of his life to the sport.

“He loves the game of golf, teaches it 24 hours a day every day that he can. Rain, snow it doesn’t matter, he’s going to be there,” said Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who has been coached himself by Jonick.

Jonick’s passion for the game goes back to his teens, when he began caddying at the Lake Shore Country Club in Cicero, hitchhiking to work there along South Bay Road. He became an assistant pro during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and he has been at the Cicero Golf Shop since the early 1980s.

He started giving lessons at about the age of 18, and today, the instructor, who says he’s a little over 65, has helped thousands of Central New Yorkers with their game.

He has worked with some of the more well-known personalities in town — like Coach Boeheim, and golfers such as Jack McCabe and Denise Broton — to little Liam Ryan, 6, from Cicero, who took his first lesson in early May. At the Golf Expo this past February at the OnCenter in downtown Syracuse, Jonick said they did 150 mini-lessons in just two and a half days. And in many cases, generations within the same family have benefited from Jonick’s golfing guidance.

“Everyone I’ve talked to has taken lessons there,” said Wayne Morris, commissioner of the Town of Clay Recreation. The town has offered golf instruction with Jonick for nearly 40 years; and the neighboring Town of Cicero also partners with him.

Jon Cooley, currently director of recreation and public programs for Onondaga County Parks, got to know Jonick in the late of 1970s-early 1980s, when the former served as the director of parks and recreation of Cicero.

“Chuck is extremely hard working, ultra-enthusiastic, reliable,” Cooley said.

Ultra-enthusiastic is a great adjective to describe Jonick.

“The goal — I’ve always had this goal — to be the best in the country. I don’t take second best to nobody,” Jonick said, adding “I’ve worked very hard to be the best.”

He is able to give core guidance to beginners, particularly as they attempt to build an understanding of this fun yet frustrating game, Cooley added.

Jonick admits that the game can be challenging; so what keeps golfers teeing up season after season?
It’s called perseverance, he said.

When one is about to give up, the good shot will sometimes bring them back. But they might not know how they made that shot, he said. He strives to make those good shots more consistent for his players, so they get a better game.

“Consistency is the name of the game,” he said.

And Jonick stays consistent with his method of teaching — keep it simple; no big back swings — and get out there and play.

“If you want to learn to play, we’ll show you, but you’ve got to get out there,” he stressed.

The system Jonick uses is called square to square.

“On the pro tour,” he went on to explain, “more pros are doing this with short swings, meaning less margin for error . . . and the distance is still there.”

Jonick will start the kids’ lessons with a group talk, and then line them up and work with them on an individual basis, reviewing their grips, stances and swings.

The proper way to hold the club is hard, he tells the young golfers, but he continues to offer up encouragement, telling them it’s not going to happen in one day and assuring them it will get better.

The lessons may be firm, he said, but “we want to see them succeed.”

Jessica Sharron, 9, and her brother, Lucas, 8, of North Syracuse, took group lessons last year and they’re back for another round this spring.

“He’s taught me a lot about how to swing and how to hold the club,” Jessica said.

And Lucas must have learned well, if a game he shot with his dad, Dean, last summer is any indication. They were playing at Arrowhead West, when Lucas, hitting from the yellows, drove a shot an estimated 120 to 125 yards.

Whether group or private lessons, everyone will get Jonick’s individual attention. It’s the quality of the instruction that is important to him.

“Chuck is always very willing to work with people,” according to Julie Raddell, recreation supervisor for the Cicero Youth Bureau, Parks & Recreation. “Chuck clearly enjoys working with the public.”

His love of people is also evidenced in his ability to remember people’s name, calling out greetings to everyone coming through the golf shop and driving range.

A lot of the game, too, is in the equipment, Jonick said, remarking on how the technology in recent years, and the briskness of the business in the golf shop is proof of that.

“My hunch is he has given more collective lessons, directly touched more individuals than anyone in town,” Cooley said.

“We still like to look back and say we did something for them,” Jonick said.