Peter Goral
One Man’s Journey From Shooting in the 100’s to Shooting in the 70’s
Golf is a difficult game to master. I recently read an article which stated that only 5% of all amateur golfers can actually break 80 on a regulation golf course. Which brings us to this month’s golf feature. I sat down with Peter Goral recently for an interview in order to gain first hand insight on how to transform oneself from a hacker into an elite golfer.
I first met Peter back in the Spring of 2013 at the Penn Masters, a showcase amateur golf trip. Peter posted rounds of 109-110-115 and finished near the bottom of the tournament leaderboard. He continued to struggle until he shot an amazing round of 82 at the Links at Hiawatha Landing just a couple of years later in 2015. Since then, his game has skyrocketed and now has the ability to threaten par whenever he sets sail out on the links. I wanted to have our readers learn more about this incredible transformation.
DB: When did you first start playing golf?
PG: I always played once or twice a month with my father for probably five years prior to my first Penn Masters, so I didn’t play a lot. 2013 was the first year I committed to playing golf.
DB: Tell us about your passion for the game and when did you first start seeing improvement?
PG: So after the Penn Masters in 2013, I really wanted to figure out the game; I really wanted to learn it. I enjoyed the game, hanging out with people, whether it be Mike Arena, Chuck O’Brien or Tony Ponto, you know, hanging out with the guys playing golf, and then honestly, I just wanted to beat them. So I thought what better way to beat everybody than to just start playing. So I joined the Links at Sunset Ridge and committed that I would play golf every day that I was able to. So that first year, that summer I figured out a way to play 120 rounds of golf. And the repetitive nature just made me a better player, and that is where the passion started.
DB: Tell us more about when you first felt that you were getting this game figured out and finding “it?”
PG: From 2013 through all of 2014, I was still shooting in the low 100’s with an occasional mid 90’s round. 2015 was a breakthrough year. I bought my first set of actual clubs. They were Nike Vapor Pro Combos, based on Tiger Woods. Just having clubs that I liked, having the look and the feel gave me the desire to use them more and more. That’s when I learned to start striking the ball. Starting shooting in the mid to high 80’s and that was really the focus of my game, getting my scores down.
DB: Take us through some of the things you’ve found along the way as far as technical expertise?
PG: It was in the last two years that I’ve found the technical piece that I was missing. I had the ability to score well on occasion while also having the ability to score high. I was playing golf with my CEO and he happened to film one of my swings. And as I went through and dissected the swing, I could see my left elbow was bent as I was coming through my back swing, which forced me to cast the club, which then sprayed the ball left or right for me…usually resulting in a shank. So consistently keeping the same swing pattern, the same swing plane really redefined my game.
DB: You’ve now won two 36-hole amateur events at Rome Country Club in two of the past four years. Take us through a memory of one of those victories?
PG: I remember I was ahead by three strokes after the opening round in 2021 and then immediately opened the second round with a quadruple bogey. Think I trailed by four strokes after the front nine. Then I just told myself to play my game. As the pressure built, I could see Eric Hayes (defending champ) swinging harder. My goal was not to hit it as far as Eric could hit it, but just to play my game, keep it in play. I birdied the 11th, caught him on the 15th hole and then just went back and forth down the stretch. I will tell you that watching that 15 footer for birdie on the last hole, watching it roll in was the coolest thing ever.
DB: I remember you shot a 74 from the championship 7,100 yard tees at Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club back in 2022, which you called the greatest round you ever played. What are your memories of that spectacular round?
PG: I started my round on a dog-leg right by rifling my ball straight into the woods, bogied the second hole and thought this is not the way to start off a round. Then I just went on a par train and parred five or six in a row, then I came back with two birdies. It was just fairways and greens. I had my lowest number of putts that I can remember. It was pretty intense.
DB: You’ve always been able to bomb it, but now it seems you’ve really increased your distance off the tee. Tell us where you generate the swing head speed and where you’ve found this new found distance?
PG: So I changed out some weights in my driver, upgraded my driver head and am really into swinging loose, trying not to swing too hard, which allows me to get to 112-115 mph club head speed and that accuracy gives me that extra distance. I’m hitting it off the center of the face and picking up another 10 yards.
DB: Peter, you’ve been on all sides of the golf spectrum, you’ve been a guy who’s struggled, a guy who has showed progress through a lot of play and a lot of passion. Please give our readers one or two pieces of advice on how to make improvement?
PG: Honestly, it’s muscle memory, it’s repetitive, it’s constantly doing it. If you play golf once a week, you’re never going to get better. But if you really want to up your level, you’ve really got to change the mind set on how you play and how you practice. I get up by 4:30am, get to the golf course by 5:00am and will play golf until 8:00am. I may never actually play a hole, I may just spend my entire time chipping and putting, because that’s where you score. You want to get lower, work on your chipping and putting.
DB: You obviously have athletic skills. Describe your ‘non-golf’ sports background?
PG: When I was a kid, I was a gymnast, which I absolutely loved. I screwed up my back so that I couldn’t do gymnastics anymore and then learned to play soccer. I got onto a travel team, played soccer 365 days a year and traveled all over New York. I really enjoyed that and then got into competitive volleyball and traveled with the team all across the country. I got into baseball and played baseball all of my high school years. So I’ve played a lot of sports.
DB: First of all, God Bless your wife, Beth, for letting you play so much golf. Married guy with two daughters, you have it pretty good. But tell us about that special time when the sun is rising, dew on the grass and you have this special ‘alone time.’ Tell us more about those early mornings?
PG: “There is nothing better than walking out, looking at the green, looking at the steam coming off the grass and the fresh dew in the morning, the sun coming up over the hills at Tanner Valley. Just watching it all, it’s incredible, it’s peaceful, there’s nobody there but me. Eventually the guys come out to cut the grass, but it’s just me and a walk. I get to walk 18 holes, listen to music and its just unbelievably relaxing. It’s the best way to start the day.
DB: So you recently joined Tanner Valley?
PG: Tanner ran a special, it was six years of golf with a cart; cost was five grand. I negotiated that my wife and daughters get to walk the course too whenever they want. So we have Tanner Valley and Orchard Vali that we get to play all the golf we want at. I’m good until 2028.
DB: Beyond the game of golf, you have a lot of other interests. I’m here at the Goral residence and I’m seeing your culinary magic at work. Tell me about some of your other passions?
PG: Cooking for me is a passion. I love to cook in the winter; I love to grill; I love to smoke stuff. Outside of that, I honestly love to watch my kids do gymnastics; they’re unbelievable, incredible to watch. The two of them they’re so different, they’re so incredibly powerful and graceful at the same time, it blows my mind. I have twin daughters, Mya and Kaylee; they’re 17 and seniors in high school. Kaylee has joined the Marines, she deploys on July 29th to Paris Island. Mya applied to a school for forensic science technology. She’d like to be an FBI field agent.
DB: 2025 is a new season, and now we’re only three months away. Do you have any specific goals that you want to achieve?
PG: Goals for 2025 are strictly chipping and putting. I want to limit my putting to the 29-31 putt range per round, eliminating chipping errors. That’s gonna take me down from the mid-70’s down to the low 70’s and perhaps even the high 60’s.
DB: We have assembled a deep pool of quality amateurs for this year’s Penn Masters. Namely, the defending champion, Spencer Baum, 2-time champion, Alex Town, and the Schoemaker brothers, Chris and Stephen. I know that you can be right there, so what are your thoughts about stealing the crown from the big boys?
PG: My thoughts are if I can play my game, I can kick anybody’s butt. (chuckles)
