Kellogg gets top-notch help from graduate

Back when they were neighbors growing up in Kellogg, Simon Miller always looked at Travis Fulton as the younger brother he never had.

“Even though we were separated by about five years, he went with me everywhere,” Miller recalled. “He was on my doorstep continually. He was a sports nut, and he’d tag along with us older kids and play basketball, or whatever we were playing, all day.

“There was nothing abnormal about it to us high-schoolers, because Travis was so into it.”

Today, Miller considers Fulton more of a mentor than a younger brother.

What has changed?

Miller is now in his third year as the head golf coach at his old high school.

And Fulton currently serves as a Senior Master Instructor at the prestigious PGA Tour Golf Academy in St. Augustine, Fla.

“Travis is an exceptional communicator, and a lot of the stuff being taught at the PGA Tour Academy these days is cutting-edge stuff,” Miller said of the 27-year-old Fulton, who returned to his hometown last week to attend a friend’s wedding and conduct the local clinic and seminar he puts on each year to benefit the Kellogg High School golf teams.

“He has basically turned into my mentor of golf knowledge,”

Fulton, a Lewis-Clark State graduate, conducted his clinic and seminar last weekend at nearby Pinehurst Golf Course. But his contributions to Kellogg’s golf program extend well beyond the annual full-swing and short-game instruction he gives area residents.

Fulton is constantly updating Miller on the latest teaching techniques, and has even arranged for a couple of Miller’s golfers to set up complimentary on-line accounts that give them access to a strobe vision analysis – complete with audio commentary from Fulton – of their swings.

“Travis is teaching a little bit different style of golfing,” Miller explained. “And I’ve been implementing it since I took over the program here two years ago.”

The results have been remarkable.

During Miller’s first year as Kellogg’s head golf coach, the Wildcats’ girls team finished third in Idaho’s 3A State championship and the boys team finished fifth. Last year, the boys won the state title, with the girls again finishing third.

“Travis has just been a pillar to our program,” Miller admitted. “What he’s been able to teach me and our kids has played a huge role in what we’ve been able to accomplish.

“And now that he’s set up those on-line accounts, he’s actually giving my kids long-distance lessons.”

So far, only a couple of members of Miller’s teams have set up accounts through which they can submit pictures of their swings on line for Fulton’s analysis.

“We’re not doing it with all our players, yet,” Miller said. “But when we do, it will be like having Travis available 24-7.”

Fulton, who is in his third year at the PGA Tour Academy, where he focuses on instruction for junior golfers, seems only too happy to be able to give something back to his old high school and hometown.

“Simon and I have maintained our friendship from back in his high school days,” Fulton said. “So, when he first got the head coaching job, I called him and told him I wanted to be able to come back and share some of the things I’ve learned and experienced with his players.”

Fulton landed his first teaching job right out of college at the Gateway Golf Center in Clarkston and stayed there for about a year before hooking on with Resort Golf.com and running its golf schools in Arizona and California.

He was later transferred by the company to the Northeast, where he conducted golf schools in the cities of New York, Boston and Chicago before being hired away by the PGA Tour Academy.

At the Tour Academy, Fulton conducts golf schools and gives private instructions to between 60-65 aspiring junior golfers.

Teaching was something he had been considering since he was graduated from L-C State.

“I played in a few professional events here and there when I first got out,” he recalled. “But I had already made the decision to say in the golf business no matter what, and teaching was what I really wanted to do.

“I feel very fortunate about the way things have worked out. The Tour Academy is recognized as one of the top teaching facilities in the country, and to be at the level I’m at right now is very satisfying.”

So is the success of the Kellogg High golf program, Fulton added.

“That’s been great to see and fun to follow,” said Fulton, who, during his senior year in high school, played on a Wildcats team that finished third at state. “The golf program is really excellent right now – better, obviously, than when I in it. But you’re probably going to see it only get better.”

For that, Wildcats coach Simon Miller can thank the little brother he never had.