Golf in Antioch

Within his teaching domain at Fremont Park Golf Center, PGA professional Ren Chang smoothes rusty swing mechanics and hones mental strategy, with an emphasis on shoring up the fundamentals. Ren brings more than 20 years of golf experience—including more than 10 years as a teacher—when he teaches his personally tailored lessons. He employs video analysis to ascertain problem areas such as assuming a weak stance or mistaking a tire iron for a pitching wedge, and then both student and teacher collaborate to craft a swing that feels comfortable and leads to lower scores. Throughout instruction, Ren aims to make students as comfortable as possible, keeping an extra set of clubs on hand to loan to those who need them. He is also fluent in Chinese, ideal for native Chinese speakers and those seeking to curse at their clubs in more than one language.

Dan Sacks and his team of veteran instructors at Bay Area Custom Golf boost swing skills and course confidence with custom club-fitting services and personalized instruction in a state-of-the-art 1,100-square-foot facility. During private 45-minute lessons, instructors use video analysis to help identify any quirks that may affect swing. Once grip, alignment, posture, and proper plaid pairings have been tweaked, students can send dimpled spheres soaring into a practice net. The facility also offers services for custom club fitting, pairing players with clubs by boiling down elements of a golfer's stroke and current club dynamics.

After digging up divots as a player on the California Golf Tour and Golden State Tour, golf pro Leigh Ochinero decided to share his passion for the sport by mentoring aspiring golfers. He coached players on everything from improving their short game to developing sound course strategy, and even spent time presiding over golf-instruction company Golf on the Move. Now, he leads GolfSmarts, drawing upon nearly 24 years of teaching experience as he combines traditional hands-on instruction and the modern technology of video analysis. He also invites pupils to join him for playing lessons that test whether or not newly learned skills can stand up to the pressure of a real course’s hazards, design quirks, and ball-eating golf carts.

Washoe Creek Golf Course challenges golfers of all stripes with two distinct, scaled-down, nine-hole courses sculpted into the hillsides of southwest Cotati. Cleaved through brambly native grasses and cattail-lined waterways, the emerald links challenge clubbers with topsy-turvy fairways and smug flagsticks that were formerly Olympic javelins. Clubbers hoping to mold their short game or net their first hole-in-one can rip divots at the nine-hole, par 3 course, and those looking for a more multifaceted golf experience can loop the longer links of the executive course, which earned its name due to the naturally sprouting cubicles that line its fairways.

Mark S. Macy has been helping golfers improve their games for more than 25 years with a methodical, easygoing style and skills that have earned him top 10 finishes in Northern California Golf Association state-level amateur matches. His lessons comfortably conform to beginners' needs, as well as the demands of more advanced golfers. His grab bag of performance-enhancing tools includes video recording to capture and analyze swings, an indoor golf simulator, and a portable radar gun that tracks the speed of balls in flight and detects miniature subs lurking in water hazards.