626: Now that the Winter Olympics in South Korea are over, we say hello to Kathy Cho, from a large South Korean family who, after High School moved to Mexico, and then to Southern California to study English and discover golf. Being tenacious, she worked on her game and became a Class A Teaching Pro focused on families and children getting started in the game. In this conversation we also discuss how to successfully approach a course you’ve never played before. Along with writer Paul Cervantes (...
Feb 27, 2018•43 min
625: Most amateur golfers consider the time getting loose before a round as practice, but that's actually warming up and it may not be the best time to experiment or tinker with your swing. This week our guest is John Battaglia, a PGA Professional teaching at the PGA West Golf Academy in La Quinta, CA. His early training at Jim McLean’s academy has not only made him a better teacher, but a better golfer as well. In this week’s conversation, we explore the differences between warming up and pract...
Feb 20, 2018•42 min
624: There’s no greater authority on fitting, creating, and golf club technology than Tom Wishon. This week Tom provides his State of the Industry on golf clubs and goes into detail on why the Sterling Irons single length clubs can help middle to high handicap golfers, and how he improved on an old, bad idea. You’ll also find out why Tom now has single length irons in his bag. If you’re interested in more consistency and lowering your anxiety over every shot, check out Sterling Irons today. Plea...
Feb 13, 2018•46 min
623: Bryson DeChambeau is the only Tour pro who uses irons that are all one length (nearly identical to a 7-iron). Consider yourself using the same posture, and the same swing every time, which could lead to more consistent contact. This week our guest is Jaacob Bowden who has teamed up with legendary club maker (and frequent Golf Smarter guest) Tom Wishon to create a new generation of single length irons. If you’re interested in more consistency and lowering your anxiety over every shot, check ...
Feb 07, 2018•48 min
622: The Yips Whisperer. The Yoda of Yips. Jim Waldron returns for his 22nd appearance on Golf Smarter and still delivers fresh, insightful, and useful information to improve our game. Jim is a nationally acclaimed golf teaching professional and mental game coach best known for his pioneering research on the mind/body connection approach to learning and teaching golf. His holistic approach to golf improvement blends swing and short game mechanics, mental focus skills, physical fitness and emotio...
Jan 30, 2018•49 min
621: PGA Tour players Stewart Cink, James Hahn, and Tony Finau talk about their approach to the mental game through awareness. They also share how their own faith and life experiences are intertwined with their performance. Our guest Cary Valentine; Certified Relationships & Mental Game Coach living in Hawaii conducted these interviews at the 2018 Sony Open at the Waialae Golf Course. Cary got inside the ropes and inside their heads to open up on these personal matters. Hahn lost the Tournam...
Jan 23, 2018•1 hr
620: Dave Johnson, Director of Instruction at Rooster Run Golf Course in Petaluma, CA is an articulate golf instructor who knows why so many of us top or chunk the ball. We understand the importance of taking the divot in front of the ball, but not exactly sure how to do it regularly. In this episode we talk about finding the bottom of the arc of your golf swing and Dave explains that it’s a process, not a skill. Don't miss our bonus video with Dave explaining exactly how the left shoulder (righ...
Jan 17, 2018•46 min
619: Martin Chuck returns to showcase why he’s one of the most popular YouTube golf instructors today. His recent success with Revolution Golf exemplifies his understanding of how the golf swing works and what simple adjustments we can make to achieve better and more consistent success in our game. Have you ever seen the informercial for the Tour Striker club? That’s just one of Martin’s impressive list of inventions that have helped golfers of all skill levels. Martin has been a Golf Smarter gu...
Jan 09, 2018•47 min
618; Our resident comedian/radio personality/TV host Matty Blake returns for our (kinda) annual MattyB PGA Tour Awards. Both Fred and MattyB take playing golf seriously, but not so much the Tour, and once again we look back at last year’s season to skewer the best and worst moments of the PGA Tour for 2017. Irreverent, irresponsible, and a little off base, we also honor the great moments that may or may not go down in history….but we’re having fun, right? This episode is also the launch of our G...
Jan 02, 2018•1 hr 6 min
Only a handful of current Golf Smarter listeners have heard this Members Only conversation published Oct 26, 2010. Original show notes: “Tony Manzoni returns by popular demand to provide details on his "Single Pivot Swing" which he believes was Ben Hogan's secret that was never revealed. A PGA instructor since 1965, Tony has spent years studying Hogan's swing and breaks down the details in this interview." This episode is brought to you by Flaviar, the world’s largest online club for spirits ent...
Dec 26, 2017•1 hr
616: There’s a guideline in the PGA Teaching Handbook that says “Putt when you can. Chip if you can’t putt. And Pitch only when you have to”. Pretty powerful statement that we don’t hear often enough. This week Ken Doherty, PGA and Director of Golf for Marin Country Club, returns to discuss ways to stay fresh during the cold off-season, the value of a playing lesson vs just working with a teacher on the range, the importance (or lack thereof) to hit with a draw vs fade, and the current business ...
Dec 19, 2017•40 min
615: This conversation with Garry Hopkins, PGA completes the consecutive episodes with our 3 Amigos of Garry, Tony Manzoni and Davey Evans. Garry is another incredible teacher from the Palm Springs, CA area that has become a year round golf Mecca with hundreds of beautiful courses. We conduct our conversation at the finishing hole of Indian Springs Golf Course in La Quinta. This is the course that Garry, Tony, and Davey will be conducting their 90 minute clinics. This is an incredible opportunit...
Dec 12, 2017•44 min
613: Davey Evans knows more about golf instruction than most of us will ever learn because he’s been a successful and effective coach longer than many of us have been alive!! Davey is joining Tony Manzoni to provide 90 minute clinics at Indian Springs GC in La Quinta, CA for just $75! Only nine students per session so you’ll get personalized care from each coach for 30 minutes each. You read it right, only $75 for 90 minutes. Write to me at Fred@GolfSmarter.com to find out more or sign up. WIN A...
Dec 05, 2017•37 min
613: A Golf Smarter favorite, Tony Manzoni returns to announce the launch of his new golf school in La Quinta, CA. Tony’s teamed up with two other Palm Springs area legendary coaches, Garry Hopkins and Davey Evans to provide a 90 minute clinic for only $75! Only nine students per session so you’ll get personalized care from each coach for 30 minutes each. You read it right, only $75 for 90 minutes. And if you know Tony, it could easily go longer if necessary. We’ll have more details on how to si...
Nov 30, 2017•43 min
612: Don Peterson, swingfactory.com, has figured out how to communicate a great golf swing with easily relatable metaphors, like holding a punch bowl or swatting a bee with your tummy. His two books, “Miyagi Golf: Wax-On Wax-Off for Golf” helps you become a better self-trainer, and “The Baseball Golf Swing Method” will help you build your swing from scratch or re-build a faulty swing. Congratulations to our winners, Danny Valenzuela of AZ and Barry Watson of NC who were randomly selected by Dean...
Nov 21, 2017•46 min
611: Dean Reinmuth DeanOfGolf.com returns to analyze video of Fred’s swing with the Swing Coach. This is part 2 of our conversation started in our last episode. You will hear us referring to the video, but obviously it’s not on the audio portion of this podcast episode, but you can see the entire episode and watch what Dean’s referring to on GolfSmarter.com or our YouTube.com/golfsmartertv channel at https://youtu.be /PEfqIGfCvj4 WIN A Swing Coach Club!!! Thanks to Dean, four (4) lucky Golf Smar...
Nov 15, 2017•33 min
610: Dean Reinmuth has been a Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher for 20 years, Phil Mickleson’s coach for 13 years, one of the first instructors on the Golf Channel, and a regular contributor to Golf Digest. OK, impressive credentials complete. This week host Fred Greene has an hour long Skype video conversation with Dean about a wide variety of topics from his history, to improving our mechanics, to short game proficiency. Dean also introduces us to the Swing Coach Club, one of the only products he’s e...
Nov 09, 2017•1 hr 5 min
609: Donn Levine battled the yips at the worst possible time in his playing career, but was able to learn a variety of methods to pull himself out of the funk...until it returned! Luckily he had the skills to get back on track. If you're feeling his pain, then listen to Donn's story and learn how his book will have you playing better and enjoying it more when you become Yip Free! Check out our new Hey Fred voice message center! Have a question about your game or equipment? Call 415-761-1498 and ...
Oct 31, 2017•42 min
608 Josh Zander zandergolf.com> is back from last week’s episode, but this time he’s doing a live short game clinic at a charity tournament in San Francisco. This is the entire clinic that covers chipping, pitching, bunker shots and more. In addition to the short game video we shared last week, there’s another short video from the clinic where Josh talks about the most effective practice session you can have when you distinguish between block practice and situational practice. Do you just pou...
Oct 24, 2017•58 min
607: Josh Zander zandergolf.com> a Top 100 Teacher in America joins us to talk about short game, short game, and more short game. Beyond his tips and advice we learn about his adventure of playing in the US Open at Pebble Beach in 1992. We met Josh at a charity tournament. Just before the clinic began, Josh was providing some individual help on getting your pitch shots up in the air. The video of that tip can be found on our YouTube.com/GolfSmarterTV channel. This is one of more than a hundre...
Oct 18, 2017•45 min
606 “The Zone”…“Peak Performance”…there are different names for it, but you know how powerful it is when you’re there. A few episodes ago we heard Jamie Zimron talk about Scott Ford, an instructor who has helped her and scores of golfers understand how to achieve peak performance and get into a zone during a round of golf. Scott’s approach is both effective and practical. In this episode, host Fred Greene talks to Scott on how he discovered that he’d achieved his ‘zone’ and how we can get there ...
Oct 10, 2017•45 min
605: Executives who play golf earn 17% more than those who don’t. We’ve all heard that the golf course is a great place to do business. A sharp business person can learn more about a potential business relationship in four hours on the course than they can with years of meetings, emails, and phone calls. Our guests this week are Jonathan Taylor & Tim Davis authors of “Selling On The Green”, the bestselling book on golf & business that’s used in University level business schools across Am...
Oct 03, 2017•42 min
604: Jamie Zimron, the "Golf Sensei" returns for her tenth appearance on Golf Smarter to discuss why so many of us can't seem to hit the ball the same on the course as we do on the range. She provides insights and tips on how to get your body and mind to relax which provides greater power, more accuracy and lower scores! This episode is brought to you by Eightsleep.com. Save $100 at checkout with code "golfsmarter" when you purchase the smartest mattress on the planet, the Eight Smart Mattress, ...
Sep 26, 2017•42 min
603: We heard about Tim Yelverton in episode 599 with Brendon DeVore. Tim is Brendon’s favorite coach in his quest to be a better golfer, so it makes sense to hear what he has to say since we’re all on the same quest. Our focus on the conversation is short game and putting. Don’t miss any part of this conversation because Tim provides some great warm up drills and short game tips throughout. The full video interview is available on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/t4ADcjc7DGM Tim mentione...
Sep 06, 2017•45 min
Putting frustrates every golfer, no matter their skill level. If you’ve ever seen a Pro on the Tour miss a 2 foot putt, you know that everyone is susceptible and just as frustrated. PuttingZone.com founder Geoff Mangum is convinced that whatever method of reading putts your using won’t help because all you’re doing is guessing. But after decades of research into the science of dropping the ball in the cup, he has concluded that there are four elements to successful putting, and he’s trained teac...
Aug 22, 2017•43 min
Larry Salk played Tour Golf professionally in his 20's. It didn't work out the way he hoped and created a career in the tech industry. But he still loved to play a lot, and he played well. Well enough that at 55 he qualified as an Amateur to play in the 2017 US Senior Open Championship at Salem Country Club in MA. Even though he didn't make the cut, he had a great time and has great stories about the adventure. This is a story you won't find anywhere else. Here are two other podcasts from Smarte...
Aug 08, 2017•42 min
600: Jim Waldron of the Balance Point Golf Schools has witnessed a huge shift in golf performance and instruction since the overwhelming amount of information that has been offered by high speed internet. We call it instant gratification, Jim refers to it as Instant Contamination. There’s an intellectual exercise that should be incorporated into your practice and rounds, but because we have so much information to digest, it disappears in players who can’t understand why they’re not improving. As...
Jul 26, 2017•43 min
599: Brendon DeVore is a good golfer and started a YouTube channel that was similar to Golf Smarter in that he interviewed golf instructors on ways to be a Better Golfer. Brendon was brought to us by a suggestion from a listener who knew that we’d all appreciate his insight and story. It’s a fun conversation that I hope you’ll enjoy. If you're also a fan of baseball, especially baseball history and how it relates to today's game, please check out RADIO BASEBALL CARDS https://www.smarterpodcasts....
Jul 04, 2017•43 min
598: Are you a 15hcp playing from the Tips? Knock it off, and lose the ego, you’re not that good! Here's a solution to shoot lower scores and have more fun doing it...Play from a different, closer set of tees! Jim Cowan, Director of Course Rating & Handicap for the Northern California Golf Assoc (NCGA) joins us to discuss what Rating/Slope means, what total yardage means in relation to Rating/Slope, comparing courses and and how to combine that information with total course yardage, “women’s...
Jun 27, 2017•49 min
597: Dean Knuth, creator of the Rating/Slope system for handicapping golfers (he's known as the 'Pope of Slope'), and founder of Knuth Golf returns to talk about the 2017 US Women’s Amateur Championship which takes place at the San Diego Country Club August 7-13, 2017. Dean is Chairman of the organizing committee and knows that you’d be amazed and what’s involved in logistics and budgets to run a USGA sanctioned event. This conversation is accompanied by a complete PowerPoint slide set that can ...
Jun 20, 2017•34 min
