Local Golf Pro Balances Teaching, Broadcast Career [Video]

Brian Crowell wears many hats.

His Twitter profile describes him as "PGA Golf Pro, Golf Broadcaster, Author, inventor, TV/web/radio Host. Music fan: Bass, sax player. Public speaker. Husband & father of 3."

Ask him how he does it all and he'll tell you he's blessed to be working at a phenomenal facility like and have support from the organization and his family to pursue a career that he loves.

He wasn't always a golf pro—though he's always loved the game and picked up his first clubs as a teenager in Walkill, NY. Crowell is a college art design major and former art director who followed his passion for golf, launched a teaching career over 20 years ago and professional broadcasting career that's blossomed over the last decade.

On his television and radio work, he said he was encouraged by a participant in a member-guest tournament at Leewood Country Club in Eastchester, where he started his golf career in 1991.

"As head professionals, we're always in front of people, giving rules of the day and prize presentations. There happened to be someone in the crowd who said 'you should be in broadcasting,' said Crowell.

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That led to his own radio show, called The Clubhouse, which airs on AM 1230 WFAS in New York. Since then, he's been a co-host of NBC-TV's Golf Digest Equipment Special, with Dottie Pepper, covered major golf tournaments like the U.S. Open and The Ryder Cup, and had a dream-job gig covering The Masters for DirectTV and CBSsports.com.

"When you're out there interviewing major champions under the big oak tree at Augusta—yeah, it felt pretty great," he said. "And the energy and excitement at Valhalla for the Ryder Cup—I could never have imagined that would happen."

His talents have been noticed outside the sports world, too—Crowell appeared in three national network television commercials for Smith and Wollensky restaurants.

It was meeting Michael Lehrer of Home Green Advantage, a firm that installs putting greens for residential and commercial use, that led to Crowell's latest professional venture.

Lehrer loved Crowell's radio work and offered to sponsor a series of golf instructional spots to air on WFAS. Crowell recently taped 12 instructional spots at the radio station's studio in Hartsdale that are running on 103.9 FM for the summer.

And how do you go about teaching golf on the radio?

"It's an art," said Crowell. "You have 60 seconds to make a strong impact and choose your words carefully and help listeners create images."

Among other topics, Crowell gives advice on shots to try around the putting green, how to add distance and "cure the slice."

Crowell said curing his own slice years ago led to his book, Slice Free Golf, published in 2011. Crowell also wrote Teach Yourself Visually, in 2007 and Visual Quick Tips, in 2008.

"I played this banana shot from when I was 13 at Osiris Country Club in Walden, to when I was in college," he said. "Then a friend of mine told me I had potential to be a great player and I learned how to handle it."

Among the roles he lists in his Twitter profile, being husband to Wendy, a teacher in the Hendrick Hudson school district, and father to Kevin, Casey and Christina, who all attend Fox Lane schools, is a role he said he relishes.

"But now that my son Kevin is a rising golfer, he's outdriving me," Crowell admitted.

You can get the tip weekly on the web at www.slicefreegolf.com ,on Facebook (Slice Free Golf), and on YouTube at briancrowellpga. Golf Tips begin on WFAS FM May 18 and continue each weekend into August. Tune in Friday afternoon on the drive home at 5:14 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday morning on the way to the Golf Course at  7:16 a.m. And check back with Patch for more golf tips and advice from Brian Crowell.