The Frustrated Golfer's Handbook with author and coach Darrin Gee

shrink the green as if it's just that quadrant. And what that does is it takes your focus from being a very wide area to a more specific area around the whole. And with practice, that area can get smaller and smaller, and so you're focusing on a very small part of the green. Eventually just the.

going to be on August. We're now just about hit August, August fourth, twenty fifteen. It's on a Tuesday. We can record it, we can record it before then, but we'll publish it as number five hundred. And I would love to celebrate with you because it's my birthday. But it would love to celebrate that with you. So start writing to me and see if we can get a couple of people interested in going to Hawaii together in next summer. Awesome,

great idea. Thank you Darren for the invitation. You know you committed to, don't you.

every golfer's golf bag and in their bathroom. But and I'll tell you why, because so like these, it's a lot of chapters. It's called the Frustrated Golfer's Handbook, which is perfect, and there's a lot of very short chapters and goes directly to the issue. And I I was playing last weekend, I was really struggling. I was upset with myself. And then I got your book that night off of Amazon, and I opened it up and I saw the chapters and wait, wait, that's my problem today.

And so I read that chapter in you know, thirty five seconds type thing, and then all of a sudden, the next two rounds, I was back to like, okay, all good again, Thank you, Darren. It was great. So yeah, I talk about the book.

but you don't do it every time. So that gap is where the frustration lies. And usually that gap is caused not by the equipment or your actual swing. It's usually a mental thing, a mental error, something that's causing you to tighten that something that's distracting you, something that's causing this turmoil within. And you know, golf is a funny game. It's the one game where there's really no opponent that's trying to do anything to you in terms

of guarding you or distracting you. It's really yourself. And so that's what was the impetus for writing this, And I thought, okay, I love books that explain a lot of detail, but I also like books that can give you the quick fix, you know, something that you can look at and glance and, like you said, in thirty five seconds or less, see what the analyze your issue, say yeah, that's that's what it is, and give you

a solution. And that's what this is all about. So it's really designed, like you said to you know, flip through the table of contents front through a book, you can actually just kind of flip through the pages and go to one of the fifty mental golf tricks and see how it impacts your game. And again it's for low handicappers, it's for pure beginners and everyone in between.

it so great is that. And that's the feedback we're getting from people who've picked up the book and people that have come to the Golf Academy and have used a lot of the mental golf trips, they say, you know that one really just applied to me at that given moment when I was playing the round. Another say, yet, and then another one was really helpful when I was in the club championship. So it really is about giving

you all the different tools. And that's something that I talk a lot about with folks that I work with on their golf game, is that you want to have a bag of tricks, you know, a tool bag of tricks that you can just pull out when you need it. It's just like your tool bag at home. You know, sometimes you'll need one tool to do certain thing, and another one, and it's nice to have them all accessible.

And that's what this is all about. And you mentioning that it's something you can throw in your in your golf bag, and that's that's why I called it a handbook. It's something that you you know, hopefully by the time you you grab the book, it's going to be all kind of tattered and warned because you've been using it constantly. And it's nice and light and you can throw it right into your in your bag.

I was like, okay, how to finish in balance. I was having trouble that day and I found myself, you know, falling away after my shots and just not being on my feet after I finished. So I went directly to that chapter. Okay, I read it, now I want to hear it from you.

emotion emotion to get there. So what I tell people, instead of starting, you know, setting up to the ball, start with your finish. How would you finish a perfect swing. You'd be in balance, you'd be looking straight down the fair way at where your ball ends up. And so if you start with that in mind and then you actually do it, what should What it does is it sets a trigger a series of events that helps you

create that. So if you start with that finish. Then you start your back swing and then finish and go all the way through to the finish again, you'll find your balance in much much better shape. And the way I look at it, if someone finishes their swing and balance, then they had the balance throughout the entire swing and they probably struck the ball pretty darn well.

a lot of tests. They've done it actually with a lot of Olympic athletes where they have them do their exercise and they hook them up to you know, all the they read their brain, their heart rate and so forth, blood pressure and when they're doing their their actual you know, activity or event. They measure all those those different areas and then they have them sit in a dark room,

close their eyes. They hook them up again, and then they have them visualized doing that same event, start to finish, and then when they match up the data, it's almost exactly the same. So there's power in just visualizing and reading it and doing it as as equal as powerful as doing it itself. So I say do both. And for a lot of folks, you know, you don't get to play golf year round. You know you're maybe in a winter area. Fortunately, here in Hawaii we don't have winter,

so that's quite nice. But so if you're if you do live in a place where there is winter, come join us out here and during your dark months. But you could just by by visualizing doing this. It's equally powerful because it triggers the same types of feelings and

muscle twinges, if you will, in your body. So that being said, if you are on the range or even at home, you know, take a club and get in that finished position like you said, and feel that balance as if you just struck a perfect shot down the fairway. And then from that finished position you can actually start

your golf swing. So normally you would set up to the ball and start your golf swing and your backswing from a finished position, you can start your back swing and then finish again and getting in that same balance position, it's equally powerful.

mishit the ball. And as we know, golf is about hitting that sweet spot. So even if you're off by a fraction of an inch here and there, that's probably causing you know, mishits and so forth. So we talk about being in balance and being centered throughout the golf swing. So number forty two talks about how do you do that. A lot of people are out there and there you see them kind of swaying and moving in all different directions.

One little trick that I like to do is there's the center of your body that right in the aftom and right below the belly button. And if you've ever done any martial arts, they talk a lot about that area of your body right below your belly button. That's where your powers emanates from. You talk to a boxer, that's where they actually punch from right there, and that is where you also can keep your center during the

golf swing. So what I tell people is imagine a bungee cord connected from your belt buckle down to the tee or the area right below the ball. Now, with a bungee cord, it stretches, but it also keeps. You know, there's a little spring to it, so as you turn, you're still connected to that sweet to that point where the ball is through the bungee cord. But with the with the whoa, hey, there's our friend. Okay, there's our mascot.

you you're not you'd lose the flexibility. But the nice thing about a bunch of cord you can use that imagery of it's being flexible for you to make your turn, but also keeps you connected at the same time. It's a great tool to maintain balance. And again the goal is strike that ball in the sweet spot. You know when I get there, and then it goes where you want it to go.

game all the time. I mean, isn't it really how you handle it, because you're going to have more I mean people at you know, players at my level and what you know, like like this that are amateurs and out for fun. I think it's more we have more shots that were frustrated over than that we're really happy about.

But thankfully there are four or five shots around that, especially in the eighteenth hole always it makes it go okay, I want to come back, but the rest but the rest of the day is being a frustrated golfer.

goes for the weekend golfer. You might hit two or three really great shots and the rest are not, as you know, not to your desire. So really it's all about how you handle that. I agree with you one hundred percent, Fred, It's about managing your your yourself around the golf course and recovering from each shot. And the way you do it is you just focus on one shot, that next shot. You can't dwell on the past too much. I tell people learn from what you've done, the good

and the bad and unfortunately sometimes the ugly. But when you get to the next shot, it's a new, brand, new beginning and that one could be the best. So I kind of tell people you got a blank the slate, blank the slate every time you step up to the next shot and start fresh from there and again then you move on to the next one. So it's a series of really handling those different ups and downs of around and the people that can do that actually end

up playing the best. It's funny. Sometimes you'll go out and you'll get matched up with someone you don't know, and and you know you played around the golf and the really really good players you don't really notice them.

You know, they hit a shot and then they if it's not a great shot, then they don't make a big fuss about it, and then they you know they they treat the next one and recover, but they're not always tee to green, hitting every fairway every green, but how they handle themselves and that is the major difference between you know, playing to your potential and being frustrated, is that you handle those different situations and the adversity

that you face similar to like life. I agree with you on that on too, Fred.

One is what you could do while you're playing, because that's when you need it in the heat of battle, if you will, And what you can do to improve your game when you're not playing and you're off the golf course, and that includes actually, you know, being on the drive having range, but also what do you do in preparation other than being on the driving range. So one of the exercises I talk about is is how can you play you know, a great round of golf

is before you even get up there. And I say, well, it's got to sleep, And people like, what a what are you talking about? Well, the night before, when before you play around the golf while you're going to sleep, just you know, close your eyes and visualize yourself playing

that round, that great round the next morning. And something that all great athletes do is they visualize themselves in that heat of battle, if you will, playing the great game, doing great you know, making great shots, great passes, everything clicking, and they see where they want to be. So going to sleep is one of the exercises that you can do off the golf course and visualize yourself hitting great shot after great shot, and it actually sets the tone

for the next morning. Number four get I divided it on the golf course and off the golf course.

the ball is now and into the hole. And so what I tell people is that even if you can't see, if you don't visualize a line, or if you're very good at usually but you're not sure, you can trick yourself into actually creating a line. And so what I tell people is, this is like if I was to give you, let's say, a thousand bucks, to come up with a path that you think the ball will follow from A to B, A being where your ball is

and B being the hole. I'll give you a thousand bucks and I just want you to, you know, take a take, take your putter and trace a line, you know, any line. What would you do? Okay, And just that little impetus of saying, you know, don't try to you know, don't overread it. You're not trying to read a green and get the ball, mall. Just draw a line. And literally people will go up there who have no idea what it's going to do, and they draw a path and they might draw a straight line or a curve line,

depending on what they think it's going to do. That in their mind says, oh, I get it. Now there's a connection between where I am and where I want to be. And so that's why I tell people, if you can't see a line, fake it. Draw a line in your mind. And I often like to talk about, you know, it's imagine if you had a marker, you could draw a line, or you had talk and you could drop a chalk line to from from the ball

to the hole. What would that look like? And just by doing that, that gives you the confidence to step up and hit that ball along that path. And even if you know you're great at reading greens and experience that it. You know, nothing is saying that what you read is going to be a science because the green's uneven. Uh, you know, the grass doesn't grow evenly. There's moisture, there's all these different things. There's you know, sand that specs

of dust on there. So even if you hit the ball along your path, no guarantee it's going to go in the hole. But what it does is it sets a direction. So it's sort of like when you get in a boat, you set your course. And when you're in the boat, you're on the ocean or on the lake, you know you don't follow it exactly. If you look at the minute details of how a boat goes, it

kind of zigzags. It's always making a little course correction along its path, but it has a goal to get from A to B. Otherwise they would kind of move about randomly. So that's what you're trying to do here is set a set a path from where you where you are with your shot and where you wanted to go, and then you you you see that you draw that line, it provides you with the path, and then that's half the battle right there, and you step up and knock the ball along your path and and you know it

doesn't go in every time. But if you can say with confidence that you had that goal in mind to get the ball in the hole, you saw that line, or you drew that line, and you went for it, then that's a good shot. And that's that's what that fe's all about, Okay, really about how to do something that you're not necessarily confident about, you're not sure about. It puts a confidence in your game right away.

reading the Putts was thinking about gravity. I mean, greens are designed to not be flat because the water's got to roll off of it.

the flow of the water. And that helps people again visualize and see the break and go with the flow.

a half seven mile walk. It's a really long walk, fair fairly flat, so I don't have a problem with that, But that long of a walk in ninety plus degree heat, I really wasn't in the mood for walking because we were entertaining that day. So so I, a friend and I were in a golf cart and the two other people that were with us one got matched with us,

and this guy was walking carrying his bag. And then the third guy was a newbie, someone who really knew to the point where he didn't know that you can't grind your club in a bunker, that you know that you don't walk up. I mean, there was a lot of the new stuff that iway was had to, you know, give him some instruction. I said, do you mind if I share something? No, no, please help me. All right. First of all, if you're going to talk to the guy,

you can't stand there and talk. You got to keep moving, pick up the pace, let's go. Huh. So by the end of the round, so these two guys, the walking guy and the newbie, were really slow and it was driving us crazy. And when we were done with the round, my playing partner was getting so frustrated he was like he practically he just gave up. He said, you know what this, I'm feeling rushed all the time because these people behind us are on our butts and we can't

get these guys to move faster. And he was so frustrated he just said, stop scoring for me. I don't care anymore. And when we were done with the round, it took us four hours and we were both so surprised because I've played that course in over five because of the long walk. So your chapter number nine, I want to give to him how to relax when being rushed? Please, we need to tip on that one.

and I think it's for everybody. I mean, whenever there's a group behind you, you feel like there's a tension. And so what I tell people is to be ready. Okay, when it's your turn to hit your shot, be ready, and you can rush, but rush in between your shots.

So what that means is when after you hit, you know, and you're moving as a group, you can rush all you want, Okay, you can sprint if you want to between your shots, but once it's time to hit your ball, that's your time, okay, so that's when you slow down. So it's really the chapter title is called how to Relax when being Rushed and the sub is subtitle is

be ready and then slow down. So when it's your turn, have your club that you want to hit, you know, select that club ahead of time while your brother playing partners are hitting, think through your shot, and then once it's your turn, that's when you slow down to your regular paces if you're playing by yourself with no one else around, because that's your time. And what that's gonna

do is one or one of two things. One is it's gonna get you back into playing mode, because in between shots, you're not in playing mode, you're in being on the golf course mode. When it's time to hit your shot, you slow down, you get into your pace and rhythm even though you're being rushed from behind, and you make a great shot, and that's going to save time more than anything else. A lot of times people they might have happened to your buddy, is you're rushing

to stay ahead of you know, the group behind. You're rushing, rushing, rushing, in between shots, and then you rush your shot and what happens you don't hit a great shot, and then you have to do it all over again, and so you add shots to year round, which then slows the game more than anything else. So I tell people be ready when it's your turn to hit, have your club selected, and then once it's your turn, that's your time. You

honor it. You slow down to your regular pace as if there's no one else on the golf course to make your best shot, and then you're playing great golf. And I think that's the advice that I would give to any golfer out there, whether they be a PGA pro playing in a tournament and if they're on the clock, rush in between your shots. But once it's time to be hit your shot, you go back into your regular pace.

you know, have a good time. Business golf usually means that you're taking out a client, maybe you're playing with your boss, you're playing with another colleague, and there's a purpose other than just playing golf. And for a lot of folks that is very hard for them to juggle between the two. They see it as as something that they can they stress out at. So either one of

two things happens for them. Either they play terrible golf because they're just so focused on, you know, trying to manage the business side of the of the event, or vice versa. They play great golf, but then they totally forget about, you know, the business side. So what I tell people is you need to be able to flip the switch when you're playing business golf. So flipping the switch means that there's two different things happening out there.

One is you're there for a purpose of you know, for business of some sort, and the other purpose is golf. So I switched. I tell people to create two different separate events. Event one is playing golf. Event two is the business interaction that you have. And when it's your turn to hit your shot, you think, okay, Event one,

I'm playing golf. You move into golf mode. You strike, you strike the ball, and after you strike the ball, then you switch back to event two business, which is, you know, talking about whatever you may be talking about with your your playing partners. And just by having that, you know, that switch, if you will, to turn it on and off, allows you to realize what mode you're in and it frees you up so that you can

separate the two while they're happening out there. And for a lot of folks that get kind of they get stuck in between it's this business is this golf as businesses is golf, and then that's what they get. They kind of get that mediocre reaction and mediocre results. So by switching it to on and off on for event one golf, on for event too, business and vice versa, that allows them the freedom to actually do one or

the other at the same time. And what they'll find is that they'll have great they'll play great golf, and the business will take care of itself.

Do they you know, do they cheat?

Focus on playing the best golf, hitting the best shot possible. Once you hit your shot, the SHOT's done, then you go back to event two, which is business. And then you can go back to just you know, talking with your client or with your boss about whatever may be the topic at hand. And that way it separates the two. You don't feel like you have to mess it, and you can separate actually playing some pretty good golf and having fun and separate that and still have a good business.

Event while you're on the golf course.

I get the funniest answers. A lot of people say, well, I just want to you know, hit it in the general in that direction, or they'll say I don't want a three putt, or I just want to get it within ten feet of the hole or five feet a hole or three feet of the hole. I go, why don't you just want to get the ball in the hole. That's the whole point of the game, right, isn't that a thrill? They go, and then they think about it, and I go, yeah, I want to get the ball

in the hole. So that's what we started with, is like, you can make any putt from any distance. And that's the big revelation that I want people to understand or experience, just that the possibility that you can make any putt from any distance. So this exercise starts with that premise, and this this mental golf trick, and it's how to sing putts from any distances. And it's what I call

the spiral exercise. So a lot of times when I see people warm up for around, you know, they hit maybe hit a few balls, or they'll just go to the putting green and sometimes they'll drop the ball and they'll be, you know, fifty feet from the hole and they'll start blackened putts. And I say, if you want to build the confidence that you want when you're on the golf course. Start small, okay, So start your first putt from about six inches okay, and step up and

knock that ball in the hole. Then with this exercise, you're going to spiral your way out, so you're going to move it out to a foot, but move it over to the side, okay. So you're going to be making sort of like a conk shell, making a nautilus shell, if you will, around the hole. So you'll hit one from a foot and then you'll move it out to a foot and a half moving around the hole, then

to two feet two and a half. And you'll find that by doing this exercise, by starting with a six inch putt and then working your way up gradually, before you'll know it, you'll be hitting putts from any distance. And this is an excellent, excellent exercise to number one, build your confidence, but realize that you can strike a putt from any distance and do well. This is also a great exercise for those people. And when I say

those people, I mean everybody. Every golfer. Is that everybody has what we call that, for lack of a better term, the burp zone, that zone of putts in which we have some type of mental hurdles. So for a lot of people, it's that four to six foot range. Anything inside four feet they can just go ahead and step up and they feel pretty confidence. Anything beyond that six foot range, you know, they hit And I think why they have this burp zone, if you will, is it

has to do with expectations. So for a lot of peop anything inside four feet they're like, yeah, that's close enough, I know I can make that. And then anything beyond six feet they say, well, I'm just going to go for it because there's really no it could go in. It could not. But then at four to six they start to get, you know, kind of hazy. They're like, I should make this, I should be making this, and

they get a little tense and a little nervous. So this spiral exercise, by just going in six engines increments around the hole will shatter that little bourb zone of yours. So try it out there. I know a lot of people will experience that on the golf course. Try this on the putting green and you'll see how how amazing it is for you to hit puts from again any distance. So when you see this thing puts from any distance,

I mean I don't mean just long distances. I mean also in that little burb zone as well, and that is really powerful for the you know, the low to mid handicapper that experiences that a few times every round the golf.

That's a really good round of putting for me. And I shot in eighty four. But the round before that, I shot in eighty eight and I had forty putts, and I was really upset with myself. There was too many three putts going on, and you know, no one putts,

no up and downs. So before this round that I had the thirty putts, I was on the putting green warming up before the round, and my playing partner came over and I said, and he took a couple and I said, all right, you know what, it's so hard to really focus on what it feels like to putt here on the putting green when you got four balls. So here's what I want to do. Putting on the putting green. There's always pressure to try to get it in. So let's have some pressure. So let's just pick a hole.

We each get three balls. You shot, shoot, I'll shoot, you shoot, but make a competition out of it. Put some pressure on it on the practice putting green. And boy did that translate to for me on the on the course.

tients start doing drills and working on different skills. Step back behind a ball on the driving range and imagine you're on the golf course. Put yourself, you know, in your frame of mind as if you're on the golf of course, and go through your pre shot ritual and strike that ball as if you're playing same thing on the putting green, saying, you know, the the biggest thing that you hear these little kids, you know, they say, you know, they talk themselves as if they're in a situation.

Here I am on the seventy second hole at the Augusta Nasenaal. You know, the whole Bill Murray thing, right, But there is a certain element of putting yourself in those situations. And and you know, I think if you ask every great athlete, the top athletes of all time, if you interview them in any sport, you say, you know, what did you do as a kid? Did you and they'll eat Everyone will probably have a story of I imagine myself I was the broadcaster explaining, you know, creating

the situation, and they put themselves in this situation. A five seconds left on the clock, down by two, going down, dribbling down in the corner, hid putting up to you know, the three pointer as the buzzer is going off swiss. You know, you put yourself in those situations and that's yeah exactly, the crowd goes off same being in golf.

So creating those situations on the putting green, whether you're when you're with a buddy, you can you know play, you know match just like you said, hit three balls, put a little pressure, you bet against yourself and that that kind of helps you experience what you would experience

on the golf course before getting out there. And then that's one of the things that I think a lot of people do, uh that that throws them off, is they don't get in those situations prior or in practice, and so they're experiencing it for the first time on the golf course. So what you talked about there with your buddy is perfect. It kind of sets you up to actually practice the way you want to play, and it gives you the tools to do it.

goal to keep it right. And that's what I tell people when they play golf is think about that best round you've ever played. Think about that best hole you've played, or that playing a real good hole, or hitting that great shot. You've already done it. You have that in your hip pockets. Okay, it's now just allowing it to happen again, because if you did it once, that to

me shows that you're capable of doing it again. So how to shoot your best round is realizing that you are you can already do it, and you've already done it. So that one is number forty nine. I believe it is. And it's like the go to sleep. And that's that's what I talked about earlier today, isn't that if you're playing around the next day, when you go to bed the night before, imagine that you've already shot that that great roalm that you're capable of shooting. So visualization is

all it is, is simply imagining yourself doing something. So imagine yourself on the first t if it's of course you've played, if it's your home course, or you're familiar with it, getting on that first tee teeing it up, seeing where you want that ball to end up, hitting that perfect drive and then going to know your where you're fall ends up grabbing that eight iron and hitting that perfect shot right to the to the to the

green and making the putt. So go through each and every shot one by one in your mind, and what it does is you realize that, yeah, I can do this, I can hit good shots, I can play great golf, and it's already there. I just need to go out and let myself do it. And that's what I mean by how to get you know, shoot your best score well.

in your game. That is what keeps you going until everything starts to sagnight. So a lot of times when you're playing golf, you might be kind of just puttering along, no pun intended there, and you're not striking the ball too well, you're not scoring great, but knowing knowing that you're capable of in any moment everything. Switching with one swing is a huge, huge confidence builder. So again, let's say you're playing on a Saturday and you're really excited

about your round. You've done all you know you want to do, you visualize, you do the practice, you're really pumped up, but you're just not scoring or you're not hitting the ball as well as you'd like. Have the confidence to realize that with just one shot and it could be the next shot, it could all change. Because eighteen holes over a four hour period, or you know, one shot is just one shot, You're going to have

a lot of opportunities. So be confident in that and trust your game that and be patient and it will come. And if you have that patience, and I think that's what a lot of the season players on tour, you know, they have that patience that if they're not striking the ball great and they're not scoring great, that if they stay with their game plan, it will all fall into place eventually. And that's the one Those are the ones that succeed. And the same thing goes for the weekend golfer.

If you can just know that with that one swing that it could be the next one, you could change everything. Just like that snap of a finger. That's enough to keep people coming back, I think, and staying on their game plan.

out there. I want to go out and play with friends and not embarrass myself. I want to be able to go out and play, you know, those tournaments at work and have a good time and not feel nervous and so forth. I tell those folks that you already own your game. And this is the big thing, is that you own your swing. And those swings are no

two swings in the world are like. So the key to you and enjoying this game for you know, and developing the confidence is to realize that is that this is your game, this is how you experience it, and that is aasketball. It sets the tone. So people oftentimes when they take a lesson and whatever, they often look to the coach instructor to tell them what to do. And our philosophy is different. We don't tell you what

to do. We are there to guide you. We see ourselves as coaches, and what great coaches do is they bring out the potential in their players or in their students. They don't tell them what to do per se. They just bring out their potential. And that's what our goal is.

And when I say potentially, it means what are you capable of achieving and finding the way that gets you from where you are now your level to that is all about giving you that motivation, the belief that you can achieve it, and to realize that this is your game, this is your experience when you're out there, so you get to create what you want to create. And so we don't get fundamental in terms of telling you exactly how to do things. It's all about creating what works

best for you. And I oftentimes bring up you know, certain individuals out there with swings that are unorthodox quote unquote. If you look at the you know, if you put hook people up to a computer and Jim Furick, you go back to Arnold Palmer. You know, a lot of these swings are not quote unquote technically sound, but they work for the individual. So I tell people, find your swing that fits you, own the game, and you're going to have fun with this for the rest of your life.

So that's one of the questions that I often get from the beginners, from the lower handicaps are more more established players that are you know, stuck at their kind of that barrier, that one ninety eighty seventy barrier. They asked me, I really want to get you know, what do you what do you want? And they say, well, I want to break through those those barriers. And a

lot of times those are our mental barriers. And so what I tell people is that don't think about it as I'm going to break through the seventy or the eighty or the ninety mark. Just focus on what your end goal is. And your end goal is to play spectacular golf, to have fun out there, to hit great shots,

and then the scorers will take care of themselves. I think when people get hung up, you know, they maybe have that great front front nine, they're you know, and they go, oh, I'm going to do it, and then they start to self sabotage. And how many times have people have we all done that? You know, I'm not just in golf, but in life. It's like we get in a momentum and we're going and then we say, oh, wait a minute, this is not supposed to be happening, right.

So I tell people just focus on you know, the goal in mind is there. It's always there to shoot that personal best score. But a lot of people shoot that best score when they're not thinking about the score. They're just gone, they're hitting great shots. And you know, Rory at the British Open talked about it inner peace right. He wasn't even thinking about the score. He's just going enjoying his time out there and everything was falling apart.

And a lot of the great golfers when they play those great rounds or great tournaments, talk about that rather than how they're striking the ball.

is a part of the game, no doubt. You know, you need to get it from you know A to B and often sometimes it's you know, for three, four or five hundred yards now six hundred yard long hold. So how to get more distance is by establishing this really strong foundation. And it relates to the balance that we talked about earlier today. But I tell people that a lot of times they think, oh, to get more, I have to swing harder, and sometimes when you swing harder,

you don't get the same connection with the ball. And so you can swing as hard as you want, you can get maximum clubhead speeds for you. But if you hit the toe of the club the ball, you know, with the toe of the club, it's not going to go where you want it to go and certainly not going to have the distance you want. So all I tell people is that instead of trying to swing a certain way or do anything other that you know that tightens you up ortenses you up. I just tell people

simple thing, batter up. And if you're familiar with baseball or softball, whenever you watch a batter go to the plate, you see them really establishing a really strong foundation. You see them kind of kicking their feet into the dirt, digging in, really getting a strong foundation, and that sets

the stage for them to make a good swing. So I tell people when they're setting up, imagine as you're setting up to the near shot, if you're right handed, you know, planting that right foot in the ground like you're like a batter in a batter's box and really getting that strong foundation, and vice versa for a lefty planning in that left foot, and just by doing that, you're establishing a really strong foundation, a very strong set.

If you will set point where you're really strong from the waist down, and that will generate a lot of power for you. Another example is why do we need that? People ask, well, if you didn't use your lower body and you just swung, you know, with your upper body, and try to sometimes where you just set your from your waist down, don't move your body and just swing with at your upper body, you'll realize, Wow, I don't really have a whole lot of moment them going here,

I don't really have a whole lot of power. If you will, if you're just using your arms, where most of your power emanates is from the lower part of your body, and so that foundation is everything. It goes back to, you know, the house is only as strong as it foundation. Same thing for the golf swing. So if you want to get more distanced, don't worry about swinging harder anything like that. Just establish that stronger foundation

by matching your batter in the batter's box. And it has a really powerful effect just by doing that.

Oh yeah, but I'm talking a hole in one from tea to the hole, not just is hitting the butt. Explain yourself, sir, what do you mean by chapter number five how to make a hole and how to shoot a hole in one?

I can do it. And you know, I bring up my uncle. He has I think thirteen holes in one. Oh my god, and yeah, he might be on fourteen by now. So if you're out there, let me know if you've hit number fourteen. He's probably playing golf right now. So you know, I asked him, was what do you do? He goes, well, you know, there's a lot of luck.

But I don't think that's true because what makes my uncle so so successful I think in life and in golf is that when he steps up to the ball and I've played with him, I've watched him, there's a certain level of focus that he believes that he could get the ball in the hole. I mean you could see it in him, in his body language and how he looked at the hole. I mean, he's not just stepping up there and swinging. A lot of times we step up and go I just want to hit, I

just want to get good contact. I just want to swing. He actually says. I believe he says to him when I look at him in the way his body language speaks, is this ball is going to go in the hole. So that's part of it right there. And then how do you actually do it? So it goes from the realm of yes, I could make a home one too, how is it going to happen? So what do you do? Is what I call shrinking the green. Okay, you look at a green. It's a big, big space that you

could land the ball in. And a lot of times people say, I just want to get out on the green. I tell him, let's get more specific. Okay, Shrinking that green means that they move the flag to different parts of a putting green, if you will, or of a green on a golf course. So wherever that pin is, wherever the hole is located, I want you to shrink the green so that it is a relative part of the game. So that means the area surrounding that hole. Okay, And if you were just let's I'll give you a

more simple exit. Let's say you're playing to a green that is basically you know, circle, and the flag is in the back left of the green. I would tell people to take if you were to take a ten, if you will, and draw a line, draw a little cross on that green to making four quadrants, if you will, and that ten happens to be in the upper left quadrant. When you're looking at the whole, I want you to shrink the green as if it's just that quadrant, okay.

And what that does is it takes your focus from being a very wide area to a more specific area, the area around the whole. And with practice, that area can get smaller and smaller until you're focusing on a

very small part of the green. Eventually, even if you're really good at this and we practice just the whole, and if you talk to you know, again, a lot of the pro players, a lot of the single digit haandic capains, that's what they're doing when they're out there, when they're talking to their caddies, they're not talking about hitting the green. They're talking about the specific areas that they want to land that ball, and they're creating quadrants

and some are actually making even smaller spots. So when I say how to shoot a whole one, what I'm talking about is shrinking your green from wide, a wide area of possibilities to a more focused area of where that ball could go. And what that does is it allows you to really start to emphasize in your mind as well as when you're hitting your shots. It's getting the ball where you ultimately want it to go, and

that's in the hole. And I want everyone who shoots the hole in one after listening to this to email me and let me know, because I'm trying to keep track of who's who's doing it and who's not.

three and two hundred and twenty four. Those are from twenty ten and the other one was two thousand and seven. But it is great to have you back on the.