Tops in her class

Beverly native and former Middleton GC pro, Jane Frost
has become one of the foremost golf instructors in the country

By Gary Larrabee • Photo by Joan Seidel

Thirty years ago this summer Beverly’s Jane Frost burst onto the women’s tournament stage at her very first state amateur at Salem Country Club. She didn’t win that championship. She did, however, reach the quarterfinals. More important, the week’s experience unleashed a passion for the game that up until then Frost didn’t know she possessed – a passion that over the last 15 years has turned her into a nationally recognized LPGA teaching professional.

“Once Bart Brown, my mentor ever since I got playing the game, offered me my first professional teaching opportunity at Middleton Golf Course, I’ve followed my heart and good things have happened,” Frost recalls. “I pinch myself every day that I go to work on the golf course, helping people enjoy the game. I smile through every minute of every day, it’s so much fun to me; it’s amazing to me.”

For those who know of Frost’s love for the game and her dedication to her students, they are not amazed. They understand why she has been named by Golf Magazine one of the “Top 100 Teachers in America” (one of only 8 women) for the last 13 years in a row. They know why she was named by Golf Digest as one of the top 50 teachers in the country and the top teacher in Massachusetts from 2000 through 2002. They know why she has been rated among the top 50 teachers in the United States by Golf for Women magazine on seven occasions since 2000.

“The Top 100 Teachers in America” list includes such instructional heavyweights as Jim McLean, Peter Kostis, Hank Haney, Dave Pelz, Jim Flick, Phil Rodgers, Butch and Craig Harmon, Jim Flick, Rick Smith, Bob Toski, Stan Utley, David Leadbetter and Dr. Gary Wiren. Simply put, Frost has reached the summit of her profession.

Frost, 52, quickly made a name for herself while sharing teaching duties for 19 years at Middleton with the legendary Chris Costa. She then took over as chief instructor at Brown’s other executive course, Holly Ridge in Sandwich. She taught at the Cape Cod course for a decade before relocating across town at Sandwich Hollow, the former Round Hill golf course. Her Jane Frost Golf School has been based there for four years.

Frost, the first native New England woman to gain membership in the PGA of America, estimates she has worked with more than 20,000 golfers over the years, close to 1000 in 2008. They’re all attracted to Frost’s teaching philosophy. “When people come to me in hopes of improving their golf game, I look at each person as a unique individual,” she said. “I’m not highly scientific or technology-focused. It’s all about the simple, proper techniques that go into a successful swing, the basic mental side of the game (thinking positive), short game and putting skills, physical fitness and nutrition. It’s about blending those elements to fit the kind of person I’m working with.”

One of her top students is St. John’s Prep Nick McLaughlin, who is only the second freshman golfer to play No. 1 for the Eagles and is a scratch golfer.

“My dad heard about Jane when I first got interested in golf,” McLaughlin said. “We took a ride down to the Cape one day, spent a couple of hours with her, and I’ve been working with her ever since.”

It’s a good two-hour drive from his home in Newcastle, N.H., but McLaughlin says it’s worth the hike every time.

“She teaches you with the swing you have,” said McLaughlin who initially visited Frost for two-hour sessions twice in season. Now he sees her at least once a month and talks to her by phone regularly.

“Jane’s brought me a long way with my game. I didn’t have much swing form at first. I’m much better now. I owe her a great deal.”

Frost, the first woman to be named NEPGA Teacher of the Year, loves her setting at Sandwich Hollow, a 90-minute drive from the North Shore. “It’s a great facility,” she said. “I have a nice all-grass practice range, a modest office and storage shed, and I live ten minutes away in a great golf region, Cape Cod. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Frost recalls vividly a defining moment in her golf journey back at Salem Country Club in 1979. “I remember they put me out last in the qualifying round on Monday. No one knew if I could play or not,” she said. “Coming to 18, I thought I had a chance to qualify for match play that started the next morning if I made par. Well, I saw the crowd standing around the green before I hit my tee shot. I got a little nervous. I hit a lousy drive and a lousy second shot. I’m 120 yards from the pin for my third and I ask my late grampy Francis Enos – he was a Salem member when they moved the club to West Peabody in the 1920s – to help me out. He did. My nine iron shot hit the flagstick. I had a two-inch tap-in for par and I made it to match play.”

Frost was ousted in the quarterfinals by Thomson’s Anne Marie Tobin, but that experience lit a fire under Frost that has not abated three decades later. She actually competed with moderate success for three years – including a victory at the North Shore Women’s Amateur – but realized competition wasn’t her cup of tea.

“I wasn’t patient enough with myself,” she said. “I wasn’t making a real living in those days either. So I was about to look into a job at a local bank when Bart Brown gave me my first chance to work in golf, and here I am 30 years later.

Frost was not the only intriguing storyline at Salem. Three of the semifinalists used their showing that week as a springboard to greater competitive success. Thomson’s Anne Marie Tobin reached the semifinals for the first time in ’79. By 2000 she would win a record seven state titles. Noreen Friel Uihlein boosted her confidence enough that week that she won the next two titles in 1980 and ’81. In 2010 she returns to the North Shore as Noreen Mohler, captain of the United States team competing at Essex County Club in the Curtis Cup Match. Sally Quinlan won the championship that week and in 1983 joined the LPGA Tour. She won her lone tour title a year later.

“That was a strong field,” Frost recalled. “I felt fortunate to make the quarters. They all went on to play serious golf for a long time. I went the teaching route and haven’t got a single regret.” Nor have the countless students who have benefited from her guidance.