Golf Smarter number three hundred and sixty one published on December seven, twenty twelve, and in our score Zone short game Academy, Terry the wedge Guy Taylor gives us some great advice about chipping around the green.
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When you get nervous, it's for me, it's always the same. It's not like I'm really really nervous or nervous. It's just I'm nervous, you know, so over a first t shot of any round. I mean there's not much, but there's a little bit of nerves. It's not I'm nervous because I haven't prepared. It's just like I know what to do. It's just all right, let's go do what
we gotta do. But it's not like you're out of control nervous where I'm not prepared, because then I already know that I'm not going to play well, and I'll never feel off in a tournament feels like I don't prepare well.
You've got that first t jitters. That's understandable, But those first t jitters begin when you walk up to the first tee, or like when you're in prep for that tournament coming up and you're starting to think about it.
Well. I never sweat over a first hall shot. There may be a feature on the course I don't like, and I might think about it like during my round, but I might get in there with over a particular t shot more than the first key.
Playing with the big dogs PGA Tour pro Matt every This is Golf Smarter.
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Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf's Martyr Podcast.
Matt, thanks man, thanks for having me.
My pleasure. Thanks so much. I generally don't get a chance to talk to PGA touring professionals. This is very exciting for me. Frankly, I don't really want to. I'd much rather talk to their caddies because I think there's probably better stories there. Have you ever caddy for anybody?
That I caddied for my buddy's dad launch and a qualifier just as a favor, But I wouldn't exactly say I've had a full time gig.
Do you like having nick? I mean, you know, I got to imagine as you grew up and we're playing a lot that you you know, you golf, you're on your own.
So when you have a caddy adjustment?
Yeah, I mean, what do you want out? What do you want out of a caddy?
Just to not mess me out?
Man?
That's all I asked, you.
Know, Yeah, of course, I mean they they do play a very important role that most guys play their best and they stay out of their own way, and you just don't want somebody else to get anyway, and you know somebody else did.
It's just another obstacle.
And do you look for I mean, is the caddie you've been working with since you've been on the tour? Is that a friend? Is that someone's been assigned to you? Are you just picked up in the parking lot?
It's uh, it's it's a it's a friend. To be honest. You know, I meet him, I meet him out on the road just you know, accunting for somebody else. I develop friendships with him, and then uh, you know, when it's time to make a change or I make a change. And always I always trying to hire someone that I already have a pretty good relationship with. I'm sew a stranger and judge your character a little better.
Yeah, but you didn't have caddies when you were in college, right, No, so that's got to be a big adjustment.
I mean, well, the biggest the biggest thing for me when I got out of school was when I got a cadie. I always start second guessing myself. I always always, you know, if I had a six footer and I knew it was like right, let I would be like, hey man, what do you got? And then he'd come in and if you said something different, I'll just screwed, you know, And it's like, da, Matt, why do you
even do that? You know, even reading your own puts your whole life and you're a good potter, Like there's no need for another set of eyes, you know what I mean.
Oh, that's so interesting, And probably that happens a lot with ammers.
When they go to these nice courses, they get the club caddies, and you know, the club caddies some of them do a great job. But like the Vamber, you know you can read I mean, you can read greens. You know they're easy to read.
I'm not going to necessarily agree with you that all.
The time you should be able to read greens.
Okay, I'll give you that. I'll well, let's talk. That's really interesting And if you have you ever like after a round said, look, don't speak unless I a or do.
They generally know that.
It's always it's always my I mean, no, I'm not blaming anybody for any of my batch outs because I'm the one that hits him and it annoys me when people do do that.
But uh no, I'm always nobody specific my fault because I'm always.
You know, they won't say my guy, I won't say say anything if I don't ask him to. You know, it's always like they derect what you got here, you know, if not, he's not even looking at the pot.
Oh really, he's just talking to the other caddy, right. Interesting, But you've always kept your own book, You've always kept your own score you' you know I don't.
Well, well yeah I didn't call it. Yeah I did growing up. Yeah, but I don't anymore like I have him. I don't have a yardage book. I don't do anything.
And what about sport and what about when you're on the tour. I want to talk about your history, But this is so interesting to me. When you were when you were on the tour and you're playing in a tournament and even as you were growing up uh competitive, how closely did you watch your score throughout a round? Because like we talk about this all the time, it's like, don't worry about the score until you're done with your round.
Right, Yeah, it's easier said than done. I know what you're saying. It's kind of just you just kind of get over it. I mean, it just happens. I don't. I don't think about like I know where I'm at, but I'm not. I'm not judging myself on my score as harsh as I did when I was in high school or something like that, because I know if I just stay patient, everything evens out in the long run. And it's not about for me. It's it's a career. It's not a round.
Of golf.
So that's kind of how I look at it.
A marathon, not a sprint.
Right, Yeah, so it all evens out your score. One thing for me that helped me it was the course I grew up playing on was pretty easy. So you know, when I got pretty when I was getting pretty good in high school, I would go out there and you know, before under through six holes, and I learned to keep going and keep going because you know, eventually four under out there for me on a you know, when the weather was good was crap, you know, so I had
to keep going and keep going and keep going. So now when I do have a good round gooing like you're saying, and you're thinking about your score, I just keep going, you know.
M I that's really interesting because you not only your score, because golf is really about just doing your best. You're not going head to head against anybody. You're playing against yourself. Yeah, And so to look up at at a leader board and see, oh man, I'm one stroke behind this guy, it's got to get in your head. You could start pressing and just making bad shots.
Yeah, And it's hard. I mean, when you're playing well on Sunday, it's hard to not look at a leaderboard because they're they're in your face all day long. I mean you'd have to try not to look at one, like and you'd have to do really good. I mean they're almost everywhere you look out there.
Yeah, and you also get a sense of how you're doing just by the crowd that's following you. And the gallery continues.
To grow its not at all because yeah, because well think about it. I mean, if Pilm Mickelson or something, you know, a tiger or just a big name is out there, those guys, the people that are coming to that golf tournament are coming to watch them, regardless of how they play. You might get a few more crowd members. But you know, if it's a big tournament with big names, it doesn't matter. They're getting the crowds, which is totally fun with me.
You don't you don't want the gallery watching you?
Well, it's no, I don't mind. I mean you can't. You're gonna have galleries out there no matter what, because like I'm you know, fifteen through eighteen is like it's a party out there, and uh, people are just there. But oh mind the galleries. It's just I don't want it it's just something else to deal with, you know, it's not it's not a big deal, but it's there, you know.
And and when you first started on the tour, and I'm not like you hadn't been playing competitively your whole life for years on in college and other tours and stuff. But all of a sudden, now you're you are playing with an elite group of golfers. Did you feel your knees knocking at all? Or you were like, dude, I'm here, I belong here.
You know, when you get nervous, it's for me, it's always the same. It's not like I'm really really nervous or nervous. It's just I'm nervous, you know. So like over a first t shot of any round, there's not I mean there's not much, but there's a little bit of nerves. It's not like it's not I'm nervous because I haven't prepared. It's just like I know what to do. It's just all right, let's let's you know, let's go do what we gotta do. You know what I'm saying.
But it's not like a nerve out of control nervous where I'm not prepared, because then it's then I already know that I'm not gonna play well and I'll never pee off in the tournament feeling like I doesn't prepare well.
You've got that first t jitters. That's understandable. But those first t jitters begin when you walk up to the first t or like when you're in prep for that tournament coming up and you're starting to think about it.
No, no, it's not no never never, Like I would never, I never sweat over a first hall shot. There may be a shot on the court, shot on the course I don't like, and I might think about it like during my round. But you can't help that, man. I mean anybody who says I can block that outline, I just don't see it happening. And uh, it's just the way it is, you know, I mean, the thing your head, it's just the way it is. But you just to deal with it and make a committed swing on that whole.
But I might get nervous over a particular T shot more than the first T for sure.
It's all about the shot right now, and you can block it.
Like if it's the first team. There's there's not much and there's nothing to be nervous about it because I know how to do it, you know, I mean, just this swing where you know how to and the results will take care of itself.
So interesting. I'm just so, you know, so divorced from from that level of competition, you know, just being a recreational golfer and I don't even play competitively on that level.
I just.
This. It's just a different beast.
Yeah, one chip. I would say on those shots that you know you might think about, like if you played the course before, I'm like, thirteen is a you know, it's antagrag left of water on the left and the winds off and the winds off the left. You gotta start over the water or something. Just a shot and that's hard, you know, Yeah, and you're thinking about it when I when I get over them, I can live with myself if I make a committed swing and it's
a bad shot. But if I do something at the bottom of my swing, like you know, Dcell or just kind of guy or something like that, and I'm and it as a bad shot, That's when I really get upset it myself. But you can you can live I can live with it if it's committed. So the committed ones usually always turn out better. And you know what
I'm saying, it's just you feel better about yourself. You can go to sleep at night knowing you you committed instead of bailing out or you know, not giving it a good swing.
Define for me from your perspective, of course, what is a hard shot? Like you said, when you get on a hard shot and you think it's like, what is a hard shot for you?
Uh, it's it's also you know, it's very situational. It could be only on a Sunday and any anytime you have to work the ball, like if the pin is on the left side of the green and the wind is coming off the left, or you have to start it over the trouble to get it on the pin or turn it against the wind and you have to you know, alter your swinging a little bit for the
cork ballflight. Those are tough shots. But if there is no wins and it's a tuck pen, if you're swinging good at it, there's there's I mean, it's green light all day, you know, right.
Yeah, like the old Johnny Miller green right, green light, yellow light, red light on how you approach a shot.
Yeah, pretty much.
Yeah, interesting, and let's talk a little bit. This is so interesting to me a little bit about your history so we can give some people on understanding you. You've been in the tour. Now, twenty ten was your rookie season.
Right, yep?
Yeah, where you were named Rookie of the year. That's kind of awesome. Congratulations. But let's back up a little bit more.
I don't think I was of a rookie.
Of the year.
Well, you know, you better tell your publicists because the bio they said has you as a Rookie of the Year on the PGA Tour in twenty ten. Yeah, or did they just forget to tell you?
Yeah?
I forgot to tell me.
By the way, Matt, you're a rookie of the year a couple of years ago. It's great. Did you do you know that you in two thousand and nine that you won a nationwide tour event. Do you know that? I just want to make sure I'm talking to Matt every year. Well, let's go back a little bit and talk about your college ball, because I find this so interesting because college golf, in some ways, the competition just to be on a team is so tough.
Yeah, it is. I had you know, my senior year in high school, I had a few offers to go play some some pretty good schools and then but I wanted to go to Florida. They had a great team, and I knew, and they weren't giving me any money at the time, and I knew that if I could just get there and play against the best guy as in the country, you know, let alone. I didn't want to go somewhere and be the best guy on a team and have no compete with every day. So I went there and it worked out great.
Let's make sure that we clarify this so it's not taken out of context by any other media organization or reporter. When you said I didn't get money for that, you don't get money in college, but you we don't want to have any school disqualified and taken out of But you meant scholarship money. Yeah, okay, so you did get Did you get scholarship money? Talk to me about So you were recruited by a couple of schools, and but you had your your site set on University of Florida, right,
You're you're from Florida. Uh, and and then and then you chose to go there. But you didn't. You didn't get scholarship money to go there? Right? And and how did it work for you? That?
Did?
You? Were you invited to be on the team. How did that work for you? Tell me about how you got to be on the tab.
So I was being slightly recruited by Florida and U, but I wasn't the best guy coming out. So they had like three guys that they were trying to sign before me, and if one of them didn't sign, then they would have, you know, something for me on sid on the team. Well they all they all three signed, so I still wanted to go there though, So I was like, man, can I come? And He's like, yeah, I'll give you a shot. You know it should come. So it just worked out. And then you know, my whole
freshman year, five guys travel. There's probably like eleven or twelve on the team, and I was like the sixth guy all year and occasionally cracked the lineup. And right before postseason, the five guys on our team got in the shanks and coach put me in and it's kind of done good ever since then.
That's so impressive. So then you walked on the team. You you had one guy fall off the bench, fall off this game, and you got called up on the off the bench and and had success. Yeah. How how is the coaching on that college level? What did that do for your game that allowed you to become a four time All American, a three time All SEC Conference selection?
Did it?
Is it just hard work on your golf game or great coaching and hard work?
Well, if you're not working on the right things, then you're you're wasting your time. So coaching first and foremost probably uh is more important than hard work because you have to have proper coaching then you can put in the hard work. But yeah, I mean it was just going there competing every day. I mean we would you know, we a lot of the guys on the team. I mean it was very competitive because you know, it was
a big deal. You went to college for golf and you want to play man in the in the top five and I got you know, we were all friends, but on the course, we all wanted to whip each other. And then when I got pretty good, Uh, Camillo Virginicas was in school at me at the same time, and we would just duke it out. In my last two years and there for his last two years there. We would duke it out for uh the number one spot every week, and we wanted to beat each other's brains.
And I probably have to credit a lot, you know, going going against him to where I am now.
Well, it's interesting. So I ask about, you know, hard work and good coaching, but I didn't talk about level. I didn't ask about level of competition and what that does for your game.
Yeah. Oh yeah, man, I mean you see it. The football guys play down to the level of their competition all the time.
Oh.
I see it in golf, just in myself. I just you played the level of And again I'm not a I'm not a competing kind of guy. I don't play in tournaments and st off. But just your focome, your your buddy that you're out there with. You just want to, you know, beat them by a stroke.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Like if I go to play with my my friends at home, they're all pretty good, but ill we'll play as good as I should, you know, because I'm with them, and it's just not it's not the same.
Oh, and I'm sure they want to beat your brains.
In Yeah, I mean some some things that I play in I definitely have people that try to. But which is funny to me. But my friends don't care. You know, they've they've probably they've been before, and if they beat me, it's not like they're gonna it's not gonna make their weak you.
Know, I not. No, they don't bring it up on the phone. It's like, hey, I beat you.
Yeah.
Man, By the way, I know you weren't keeping school today, but I totally beat you.
Oh that's great.
Well.
Uh. The very impressive part of your senior year, I guess it was at Florida, was that you won the equivalent of the Golf Heisman Trophy Award, the Ben Hogan Award, in two thousand and six.
Yeah, that was, Uh, it was pretty cool to win.
What does that take? How do you how do you get to a position where you stand out among its nation of golfers.
It's given to the best amateur golfer of that year, and it usually go to college guys just because if you're a really good anmler, usually a college player, and so it's like the college player of the year, and it's just you know, they have a panel that flects it's my twelve people and it's former coaches, writers, former winners of the award and whoever gets some much volts wins and I won. Uh you know, it was two thousand and six, and might have been it was either
five or six. I had a good, good an year the year qualified for new helping and finished in the twenty somewhere and then that's a good year, a very good year.
Yeah.
But it now it's it's like every round of golf, it's history and you can't do anything about it.
Now.
I got to move forward.
Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. And it's been a long time since then too. I mean it feels like yesterday, but uh, you know, six or seven years, it's a long time.
Well, especially when you get married, have a kid. You're still pretty.
You're not even thirty, right, almost twenty nine in a couple of weeks.
Yeah, So I mean life is really going fast for you.
Oh yeah, I mean it's it's real fast. But I like, I like it.
But you you're able to slow it down for a round of golf. Is that is that difficult to separate?
It does? Man, it slows me down. I feel like the better I play it of the more you know, in the moment, I am like I'm swelling myself down because I swing fast, I walk fast, I might talk fast. I don't know, but it to me and golf kind of it knows me out a little bit.
Are Are there any things, any tips, any advice that you can provide us on how to do that?
Uh? Yeah, I mean as far as like overall rhythm in your golf. Like I think the number one thing in a golf swing is rhythm, and you can you
can swing fast and have good rhythm. Just you know, swing within yourself, take your time, be committed through the shot, just really focus on your rhythm, and uh, your swing will get better just from there because the parts where you have to speed up, if you focus on your rhythm, you're going to get in the right spots if you're if you're quick and snatchy at the top, that's when the trouble starts.
I find that when I'm screwing up, when things are falling apart, everything starts to speed up.
Yeah it probably does.
Yeah, thanks coach, Yeah it does. You suck go away, you know. Uh. The reason we got together is, uh there's this product that that is now out uh by on it Labs called Alpha Brain, and they sent me some samples, and they also said, you know what, if you don't believe us that this stuff is going to help your golf game, then you maybe you should talk to Matt every please help me out with this and explain to me what Alpha Brain is and what it does for your game.
Sure, well, they make other stuff too, but I mainly take Alpha Brain right now. I met up with the guys that on it in January. Well, I got some product from them in January. I met a mountain, San Antonio this year. They were out there for the tour events, so we got to meet up. But I always started
taking their product in January. And the mental I think I suffer a little bit from add as well, and like I get very very bored out there, and if it's not going my way by about fourteen, it's not like I quit, but I mean it's just, you know, I get a little disinterested, disinterested, And ever since I started taking this out of brain. I'm telling you, man, I'm in it the whole way. And it says to take four a day. I take like six every day, but I take two in the morning. I take them
with all my meals, or two in the morning. Two usually on the turn and then to a bed when I go to bed, and it's legit. And they got this new him protein out too, and I don't know if you've ever sided him protein, but it's usually pretty nasty and this one is very bearable and stable. So I'm pretty excited about that too.
That's awesome and I hope we can talk more about this now. This is not a drug no, because you cannot. You know, on the PGA tour you would not be allowed to take any performance enhands right right, like.
You know, say adderall that is on the list for Yeah, this is not. And I'm telling you I used to take adderall because I had Uh I did you know I was diagnosed for a d D And uh, it's it's not. You're not as wired, but you're definitely in there, like when you're taking adderall and it's awesome. And I've had guys come up to me on the range that had no clue that I was with on it and say, man,
you take that Hones stuff. That's that's pretty good. And they always take the same one I take, and uh, alphabe right Alpha brain and because they listened to Joe Rogan podcast and apparently he's been taking it too and loving it. So that's where they're all hearing it from too.
And it's interesting that you talk about being someone who is diagnosed with add and then make it to the PGA tour. I can imagine that your brain your rhythm, and you talk about the most important thing being rhythm. Your rhythm is probably very fast. Now I know. I know that, uh you know, I mean it just I know that type of person. I am that type of person. My child is that type of person.
So if we eat and it's a fifteen minute way, I'm not waiting.
You're out.
Yeah yeah every time.
Yeah No. My kid was like in restaurants growing up, It's like why do I have to wait? He loved this? What was it not the Sizzler one of those restaurants. It was just like a whole bar. You just is like a salad.
Bartager you're talking about.
Yeah, And it was like feed me. Now, why am I waiting at home? I don't have to wait. You call me in, I sit down.
We eat.
So just being able to create a rhythm for yourself. I know this is a a natural product, right, yeah, tell natural Keep keep talking about because I'm really fascinated by this stuff. And we're going to be talking about Alpha brain for for a number of episodes now. And and uh, I have tried it and I found it fascinating. I also had a buddy that I'm uh will get to meet in a couple of episodes who's tried it and has been blown away by it.
Yeah, they get got a lot of poker players to take it really, you know. Yeah, it's not a it's not a uh you know, it's not a narcotic, and it's it doesn't give you the same feel as like an adderall but it I'm telling you that it does. It does the same things like I feel, I feel great on it. I mean it's so it's so clear and so crisp, and uh, it's just there all the time. And and fee you know, your body feeling good and
your mind feeling good is huge, man. I mean, if you're not feeling good about yourself and your your brain isn't there, it's uh, it's not you know, some something else you have to deal with.
Incredible. But and and you're using it more than just for golf. You said you take it before you go to sleep.
I take it before I go to sleep. Just to get into my system. But my uh, you know, here's another story. I had a caddy uh, one of my buddies. He's actually a caddie out Alan tour. His brother is a construction worker in Jacksonville, which is where I live, and he saw the on it on my bag, and his brother went online to order some pillows. Uh, and you know said, hey see, you know Matt everie's an onnitor together and he's he's like wanting me to get
the bills now because he swears by it. I mean he said, he's a uh, he's an architect for a construction construction company here and he's all about the alpha brain. I mean all about it.
Mm hmm.
So interesting now it's it's some of the material that they gave me. It talks about how it's an anti stress herb to help you stay and focused, and that just to me screams out for a golfer, it does. Yeah. Another note that boost neurotransmitter is an optimal balance to keep you energized. But there's no stimulants in it, right and well yeah, I mean for someone with who has an attention issue, I would think that stimulants is not a good idea. Are you a coffee drinker?
Drink coffee?
Really? So?
Yeah, so then you know you don't need stimulants. I probably try to shy away from SODA's with lots of sugar and caffeine in them too. Yeah, well I know that that. I honestly have tried it once since I since I was asked to give it a shot for golf. And the thing that I.
Thought, you got to take it, you got to take it. I think you got to take it a couple of weeks to get the true effects.
Okay, good, because you know, like I had to received it and I had a scheduled around just the next day, so they said, you know, take take two before year round, about a half hour before you around, while you're warming up, and then take one at the turn. And the thing that I found so interesting about it was there the lack of noise in my head. And I don't mean noise, I mean just voices, and over every shot it was so much quieter.
I mean that totally makes sense too, because when I'm trying to go to bed at night and it's it's so easy. I mean it's just like I am blank and I'm and I can fall asleep right now, and it's not like, you know, it's once you lay down, you're so you're so at ease. It's like, let's go.
I have good dreams and some of the things they talk about in the literature, and I'll go over this as we continue to talk about the product. But uh, it for helping dream state. Have you experienced that as well?
I mean I definitely had some weird dreams. The dreams.
Awesome. Well, I just want to let everybody know. Actually, I have so many more questions. Do you mind if you stick around, we can do another episode for Golf Smarter for members only. No, oh, thank you. I think that would be awesome because I really want to talk more about the tour, how you got there, what it's like on the tour, and also I'd like to talk to you about specific clubs that you use, how you use them. You know, what would you do if you
had one more birdie per round? How would you know? Where would you put it? Things like that. Matt, thanks so much for hanging out.
But got it.
Well, we go from a PGA tour player to a guy who should be getting his clubs, his scoring clubs in the hands of this PGA Tour player Terry Taylor, the wedge Guy. Hey Terry, how are you?
I'm great for it?
How I'm doing fine? Thank you again for providing the score Zone Short Game Academy. And as a brief rundown for everybody if you've not heard this before, Terry is the CEO of score Golf and they make an amazing product and it is all about who almost said wedges about your scoring clubs. This is get rid of your nine to iron, get this wedge in your hand and then the set of five. And as a Golf Smarter listener,
you can get ten percent off. As a Golf Smarter remember you get fifteen percent off just click on the ads. But we also do with Terry the score Zone Short Game Academy and if you submit a question and Terry answers your question, you're going to get that first club for free. And so today our question comes from Chad Cook in Branford, Our Ontario, Canada, and he says, Terry,
help me. I lose three to eight shots around on bad chips and we're not talking about tortilla chips how And what's the best set up the stance and ball position for the short chip shot around the green. Also help me what drills can I do to improve better ball contact?
Wind chipping, well, chad chipping is an art farm and it really is the shortest stroke and it ought to be easier. But you're having trouble. So let's go go to the basics and start with what you said with set up and stance ball position. So let's start with when you set up over a chip shot, you've got a mid to lower loft golf club in your hand. You've got a nine iron and eight ron, maybe a seven up to a pitching wedge. If you're hitting chips, you want the ball to carry just enough to get
on the green, and you want it to roll. Think of your chip shot. It's kind of a long, flowing cutting stroke, so it's very relaxed. Your grip is light on the club. When you get set up, your ball position should be back toward the middle of your stan. Your weight should be leaned a little bit over to your left side, so you're about sixty five seventy percent of your weight on your left side the balance on your right, so you're leaned into the shot.
A little bit.
And the best way to really determine exact ball position is to step a back away from the ball, get in this comfortable posture, but you really want to be I'm going to go stay with posture minute here because you want to be in a mini golf swing posture. You want your back pretty straight. You want to be bending over from the hips, not from the waist, so
that your shoulders can rotate. And the chipping stroke is primarily like most golf swings, but particularly you're putting, it's nominated by your left side.
And just think about pushing the.
Club back with your left side and then pulling the club back through with your left side, and think of like a grandfather clock. Think of that kind of rhythm. It's just a very smooth rhythmic back and through, almost a lazy kind of action. Don't worry about this old accelerate through the ball and those kind of things you've heard.
But to get your ball position just right, what you want to do is you want to step away from your ball, make some practice strokes and see where your club is clipping the grass, and then right where it's starting to clip the grass, that's the position in your stance that you should.
Play the ball.
So you always make crisp contact ball first and not catching the grass before the ball. Some keys don't try to help the ball in the air. This is a shot that the club is going to loft it a little bit, and you want the ball to run on out.
Don't get quick with it.
Let yourself have a long enough backswing to have a flowing rhythm to a tempo. It is a little golf swing, and you can make that golf swing very slow, and you don't want to get jabby. And the way to do that is to relax your right hand on the grip. You old the club really back and through with your left side.
And one of the things that I thought was so interesting what you mentioned is is on the left hand of pulling the club through. I know you know, and I only can speak from experience of myself because I'm not an instructor. I don't try to give lessons, but I do watch other people. But there's a lot of pushing going on and trying to lift the ball, and I know that for me, I'll chunk the ball a lot in that situation, or I'll scull it and it'll just explode across the green.
I mean, that's a very common problem. We get a little nervous, we get a little yippy, as I call it, with chip shots, because we're thinking about I've got this club base, I've got to put it on that ball, and you're going to trust your eye hand coordination for right handed player with your lower hand. But what you want to do is develop a little swing and we go back to this pulling action. If you think of the golf swing on a chip shot, is a three link chain. So one link of the chain is the club.
It's fixed, it can't move correct, but then it hinges at your wrists. The next link of the chain is your forearm, because there is a hinge at the elbow, so that is a there's a hinging point at the elbow. There's another hinging point at the shoulder. So if you think about a chain, the only way to move a chain is.
To pull one.
You can't push a chain, particularly, you can't push a chain from the middle. So if you're trying to move this chain by pushing on the grip with your right hand, you're going to break that chain down inconsistently.
I mean, this is kind of a visual. I hope y'all are getting this.
But if you think about that at the top of the chain is your left shoulder, and all the links below will follow. Wherever your left shoulder goes, that chain is going to follow the same way every time. Just if you pull a chain, it's going to stretch out behind you every single time. So if you think about that left shoulder and that left upper arm, that being your lead and and the upper arm goes through and
that pulls everything else through. Another really good swing thought here is that the back of your left hand and the face of the golf club are going.
To do exactly the same thing.
So if you think about just making your left hand go back and through, then the club has to go back and through the same way because it's not going to flex, it's not going to move. So if you think about focusing your moving your focus of attention from the from the club face back up to the back of your left hand, say, I want to take the
back of my left hand. I want to get in a good comfortable posture, and I want the back of the left hand to go back, and I want the back of the left hand to go through without these risks hinging a lot. And if the back of the left hand goes to the same spot and then the clubhead has to go to the same spot.
Sorry, my microphone was off. I was talking and nobody was there. So it's so interesting because you know, you talk about the grip, you talk about, you know, your rhythm and stuff, and a little shameless plug here, but if you are a golf smarter member, go back and listen to tour Tempo conversation and he talked about, you know, the normal swing is a three to one ratio, but on your short shot, he talked about a one to one ratio and backswing to four, you know, to forward swing.
And I found that's really worked. It's also helped me relax my grip a lot. And I think that is a big part of it is the tension that because we're so concerned that we're going to screw this shot up, that there's so much tension in our hands and our wrists and our shoulders that that just leads to bad shots.
Well, tension is a killer in the golf, yea in golf at all, but the closer you get to the green, it's even a bigger killer. And I like what you're talking about. The tempo thing. One of the best illustrations I've ever seen. To give you a feel for your swing tempo is to take one of your clubs and hold it out in front of you with your right hand out over the ball with the grip, you know, just pinched between your thumb and forefinger, and get that club swinging back and forth like a pendulum of a
Grandfather clock. And just let it swing back and forth just by holding it up here at the top of the grip with your thumb and finger. And that rhythm of the club just naturally going back and through is pretty close to a perfect putting and chipping rhythm. It's very gradual. It's an accelerating rhythm, but it's not grossly accelerating, and it's not a hit. It's just this back and through.
And one of the best visuals I can give you is it's that pendulum on the bottom of a Grandfather clock and it just goes back and forth and back and forth. And what's really good for chipping is to is to mimic that back and forth tempo of the club just free swinging out there.
We only have a minute left, but let me ask you one more thing about this, and that is so many people talk about your stance in this situation where it's a normal and some people say, make an open stance, open up your left you know, open up your body to your target line. What's your feeling about that.
I don't think you want to open your body to the target line. I think you want to pull your left foot back from the target line. It just lets you clear your knees, because you want a little bit of knee movement in this You want a little flexing though everything is moving toward the whole. But I'm not big about opening your body because now you're going to strike the ball with a glancing blow.
So I think you want.
Your shoulder square and your hip square, but just pull that left foot back an inch or two, just so that you can clear it a little bit and swing through the ball a little better. I don't like glancing blows on golf shots until you become a highly skilled shot maker around the green. I think you want to hit it square, flush all the time.
Well, Chad Cook of Branford, Ontario, Canada, I hope that answers your question because it answered a couple more for me. Terry, thanks so much, and we'll talk to you in a couple episodes.
I look forward to it. Thank you Fred,