The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want.
We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Hey, hey, everybody, Welcome back to the Ping Proven Grounds podcast. I'm Shane Bacon, joined as always by my man Marty Jerts and Marty. We talk a lot of equipment on this podcast. We talk a lot about ping gear on this podcast. Today we're gonna be selfish. We're gonna talk a little bit about ourselves on this podcast. I want to talk a little bit about tournament golf with you, scheduling, prepping,
what the season looks like for you. You and I live in very different parts of the world, so our golf seasons are differentiate massively. I'm really getting into mind right now. Where are you in terms of yours? Kind of midsummer.
Ours A PGA member, our Southwest section here, we actually play most of our tournaments in the summer, I mean all the the working pros, the club pros man. That's winner's busy season, the short on daylight. So we actually compress all of our tournaments kind of in the summer. Yes, it's hot, but that's what we do.
Marty. Our lives are a little bit different too.
Your kids are a little bit older, and I know your kiddos are playing tournament golf as well right now. Mine are a little bit younger, which obviously throws a bit of a wrinkle in terms of tournament golf. When you have a job and you've got all this stuff going on, sometimes it's not the easiest to lay out your schedule. What's a good number of tournaments for you a season? Are you playing in as many as you can, or are you kind of really picking and choosing what you're gonna play in.
I if everything else allows, schedule wise, family stuff, work stuff, I try to play in our main Southwest section PG events like all the big ones, and then occasionally little one or two day kind of tournament series deals, and then I try to have a couple carrots out there to help really get me motivated. Chain so it's like a couple PG Tour Monday qualifiers. That space has all changed now, so I got to rethink my strat gee. I was actually just working on this the other night.
Probably go up to there's still one gonna be one in Napa, There's gonna be one at the then in Utah. So I got those on the calendar. Always want to have one of those.
Para care prequell. Do you have to pre qualify or do you can? You you get right in pre qualify?
Yeah, but hey, all right, so it's gonna make it more fun when you get in one, you know, all right.
So so I always love asking good players this question because I get asked this question a lot in terms of qualifiers, because I'm playing a ton of qualifiers out here. You know the METS section, which I think is the best amateur section in the country. Yep, best golf courses. They do an amazing job of the tournaments. I have an idea of a number going into these qualifiers versus doing a USGA qualifier.
When you do.
Prequalls, do you have a number going in mind? Or does it just go out there and try to shoot just to play as good as you can play.
I think I'm oh Man Shane. We could probably talk about this one topic forever. It would I would love to interview all all the better players and ask them how they feel on this there's no consensus on this.
I always try.
I always have kind of a little bit of a number, right, But I this is actually probably an area for as decent of a player I am, that I'm not that good at figuring out what players are gonna shoot that day. I remember doing a US Open locals. It was at Southern Dunes, you know, a handful of years ago. I thought I was playing like real, I thought I was playing easy, and so I tried to make a birdie on that eighteenth hole, ended up like hitting it down
the water, taking a drop making it made a nice bogie. Shane, I'm like getting a playoff, and I'm like, I'm just not good. This is before the live scoring with all that stuff. Now now that actually really helps. But but regular pre qualifers, man, there's no live scoring. I think it's better to kind of have a number in mind. But but don't press. If you, if you, if you, if you know you think you need to be six and you're three going in the last four holes.
The press scene is something that I have always struggled with. To your point, the idea of I've got two holes left I had. It happened to me last year there's a great amateur event at Standwich out here that they've been putting together, and it's basically a stroke play qualifier for sixteen spots. And I've got one of my best friends out here caddying for me. It's stand which is
a tough golf course. I mean, I'm I'm two or three over on eighteen and these are like some of the best mid ams in the country and I'm sitting there thinking I gotta make three.
I hit it in the middle of the green.
Downhill, putt quick greens, thinking I gotta make it, run it four and a half feet by missed the comebacker, and now I'm in a seven for one playoff spot if I just too But you know, I'm on the sixteenth seed going to match play.
I do find that is and you nailed it.
Like that's a skill set that I feel like most pros are just or good players are bad at.
In general.
I have an idea of cut numbers, I feel like, and I got a good feel for those, But in terms of qualifiers, I just feel like it's something you always think is.
Going to be lower than it is, Like we always assume low.
I've been burned on both sides of the qualifiers. I'm at one time, Shane, so Shane. One time I got it in the Vegas event. We had a section qualifier to get in the Las Vegas PGA Tour event. I shot sixty five, and I played nearly flawless, like I was like, okay, normally come off the course. You're like I left a few out there. I was like, I was very clean, birdie. All the fives, made a few more no bogies. Sixty five, I've been sixty three. It was sixty five. No, No, I was like, sixty five,
This is good. Like if it's a regular PJ Tour qualifier, I might make it in. And this kid from Tucson, preston On, I still remember him, shot sixty one and he holed out twice in the round. You know, but there's only one spot. I'm like, ah, but here I got. I got payback though, because that got me into the PGA Tour Monday qualifier. So I acted as my pre qualifier. I shot sixty five again two weeks later, and I got in the PGA Tour qualifier.
So we both like a.
Loss than it. It was like a loss than a win.
Yeah, you're a guy that has played a ton of golf. You you've played incredibly well, kind of a cross Arizona and beyond. I know you've won a lot of tournaments. In terms of preparing for a golf tournament, do you set goals? Do you have a process that you kind of go through that's typical?
Are you?
Now it's it's a Wednesday morning round and you've got a three or four day tournament, and you know the golf courses and you show up, like, how do you prepare for let's call them big Arizona golf tournaments.
Yeah.
I kind of view golf preparation training in general it's like you have this foundation of core skills. So it's like you always kind of want to be working on those fundamental things. Man, maybe it's your block practice and your putting, basic chips, basic bunker shots, right, wedge distance control. Driving is pretty much always needs to be worked on. It's the most important to your score. It's you know, so people stand on the range hit drivers. I'm a
fan of that generally speaking. So that's I kind of kind of view that as the found Shane. And then if you have if I have like a specific tournament coming up, I will look at the golf course, the conditions, the weather, and then start refining what do I need to do from this foundation to make it specifically optimized and timing. You know, it's like it's all about you know, Tiger or Rory, all these guys trying to get ramped up for their majors. Maybe that tournament is my major.
Maybe it's Arizona Open. Right, I'm gonna be how can I get my game ramped up for that specific tournament? And I need to look at what is important for that event. Is it gonna be a more emphasis on driving, more emphasis on driving distance? Is it like, let's say we're playing Papago with Arizona Open in a few months here, Shane or six weeks or so, I'm gonna need to use my I'm gonna need my two thirty two fifty
clubs for those long part threes. I need to hit a plenty of shots with the IDI three iron, four iron because those long part threes might be the separator, right, all those long part threes they have out there. So it's like, but another tournament might not have that, Like that shot might not be important at all, So I don't need to be wasting my time or spending my effort on that. Because you and I are similar, you know so much time available. It's all about priorities, Like
what is the priorities you should be working on? So if you have one tournament on the calendar and you want to optimize for that, you want to start thinking about what areas your game or equipment adjustments do you need to make to optimize for that particular event.
When you say you do some prep in terms of conditions, weather, things like that, are you a Google Earth guy? Like, what are you doing maybe away from that golf course. If it's not a practice around, it's a golf course, you've played like a pop a goo? Yeah, what are you doing in terms of that prep? Is it online prep?
Like? What are you what are you using to kind of get that information?
This has gotten a lot easier because I was a Google Earth guy before. All these nice golf apps are out there that you can preview the golf course. So I either use Arcos or there's a great app out there called shot Pattern, have a preview the round mode. Absolutely love it. A lot of these are are conforming to use during the tournament. With it, it turns off you know, weather conditions and just like putting your rangefinder off of
slow mode, actually use those on the course. So that's a great way to preview the golf course, right, is to go on use one of these apps. I think even probably eighteen Birdies has some of these features and things of that nature. So that's got a lot more convenient to do instead of doing a physical practice round.
I recommend for tournament golfers out there always do that you know, virtual practice round first on one of these golf apps and then you kind of confirm things because there all it's always gonna be a little bit different in person.
Are you a practice wrong guy, because I'm I'm I kind of hate him, like, oh man, I really am not a big practice round guy. Same, I think it's just boring golf to me. Yes, unless you can get a little math with your buddies, and so the tournament needs to be really big for me to do a practice round. By the way, Marty, my favorite thing to do out here is a lot about the fifth hole, and I'll be like, does this one go left? Guys, if you're not playing it, I'm like, no, I never play them.
I'm sorry.
But the same as you is like time time, and again, I mean it's a difference in Yeah, if I'm twenty eight years old, you know, I'm obviously going to spend a lot more time doing this. But at my age and what I've got to do in my life and travel and things like that go in and if I've got to drive two hours to a golf course, so now it's four hours in the car, four hours on the golf course, it's the whole day. It's tough for me to do it. But as you said, like arcos,
I use Arcos. They're incredible in terms of credible for these golf courses.
Yes, yeah, so that's a fantastic So that's definitely something I think everyone should kind of kind of get in the routine of. And then shee. I kind of view it as like how how far out is the tournament? You know, It's like it's kind of like preparing for finals when you're in, you know, like there's a build up to it, you know, so it's kind of work on the fundamentals. If you need more speed, you need to work on your driving, you need to start. You
can't do that the week before. You got to give yourself six eight weeks if you, you know, lay out your calendar and try to optimize things for that, and then as it gets closer, you can do more specific skills in practice, more random practice, more gamified practice to help get you in that routine as it gets a
lot closer to the event. Yeah, I think you and I are probably similar shame where it's like you might go a long time without having a putt that matters, and so I think a really big deal as you get really close to those events is holding like holding a lot of four to twelve footers, like because you could totally go out there and just be lagging putts or doing your block practice three footers in your house on your mat or on a chalcol line real quick, and then you get on You get on that first
hole and you got like an eight footer and it's like, oh, I haven't hit it in four months. Here that matters, you know.
I mean I think the same way Marty with tap ins, Like I think the same thing with like putts inside of two feet. I remember during COVID, I was playing a ton of golf at Papago with certain PGA Tour players and I remember one of them going to an event once the tournament's returned, and getting a text on Thursdays, like my first hole, I have like a two footer to tap.
In and I had to hit one of those in a month and a half.
You know, So I think any of that stuff like, yeah, anything that's gonna make you nervous, work on that before you get to the tournament. And that brings me to my next question to you, as somebody that's a great player and tends to play very solid golf in tournaments, how do you bring your best when it matters the most. Because so many people can play great golf away from the tournament, they get to the tournament.
They're super nervous there. They freak themselves out.
They don't even allow themselves to go out and kind of reach their capabilities.
Yeah, and I I feel like I've I have done that a little bit shame where I can to elevate my game in tournaments. Maybe you might go play I might go play a casual round of golf. I'm and shoot five over par and look like a hacker, and then you know it's like, Okay, you getting a tough tournament. He shot shot three under on a very tough conditions. And in in ahead of the field a little bit. I think it's it's focusing on that process, like it's
being very process oriented and having a good strategy. So I you know, I'm I think a lot of good tournament golfers know. Now, not not all of them. I don't think every tournament golfer knows.
This.
You know is how to have a really good strategy, which is knowing when to be conservative, knowing when I say conservative, like avoid a bogie right, like your goal keep the ball in the fair way, Uh, get that ball in the middle of the green. A lot of touugh pins in tournament golf, even in our section stuff. I just won a tournament last week, there's a lot of these back pins. And even if you have wedge in.
I was looking back around me, looking around a lot of people like going for the pin, going over the green, you got a grainy chip uphill, short sighted, they're making bogie even though I got one thirty in. I'm leaving at thirty feet short of the pin, taking my chances, maybe sneaking in one of those birdies, but never short sighting it, never making a bogie when you shouldn't, even though might look a little boring might not be the
most exciting. It's knowing when to take those chances when you got the green light to try to make a birdie. And so there's a lot on core strategy there and then just decoupling from the result and being very process oriented,
like I got my game plan. Unless something goes crazy here with conditions or I need to make two birdies to make the cut or try to win, I'm gonna kind of stick to the game plan, be very very methodical on core strategy, and I think that's that's that's a big part of what allows you know, good players to kind of play their best in the in those tournament conditions.
You know, when I moved to the Northeast in twenty one, I had a couple of year stretch where I was playing the qualifiers great. I haven't played great as of late. My games just hadn't been that sharp, and honestly haven't spent a lot of time on it, which is a big problem. You got to spend time in the golf game to improve it. But I remember to your point about strategy in those qualifiers, I always felt like my strategy was going to be an a plus, Like I
was never gonna pull a club off of tea. I was uncomfortable with, even if it's a golf course, I don't know that well and I don't totally know what's up there, kind of playing short of whatever that might be, so then you can still make that committed golf swing. You know, you see so many players on the first t kind of ruin their chances out of the gate. And I always wonder sometimes where you committed to the swing to begin with, right where you committed to the
decision to begin with. And I just feel like when you see players that are successful in this game in terms of tournament golf, it's a lot of just positive decision making, even over execution.
Yep, yep. I could not agree more. Shame, but it is. It's easier said than done, because when you're out there, when you're out there and maybe you're maybe maybe I'm playing in a PGA Tour Monday qualifier and I'm playing with somebody that hits it further than me and birdies the first two holes, and you can't help but be like, Okay, I got to start putting the pedal to the metal, like like you know, unless you literally close your eyes you're like Adam Scott not watching Tiger Woods in his prime,
you know what I mean? Like, uh, you know, it's very easy to get influenced by either your expectation of what the results are, the score, the number needs to be who you're playing with. Maybe you're playing to partners, it's the opposite. Maybe they're playing terrible and you and then it makes you feel like you're playing really good, making a bunch of pars and you know somebody in the group behind you is is eight under right, So
it's like, how do you decouple? How do you be in your own little bubble?
You know?
And I think that's what the elite players are actually really skilled at doing, is kind of having their own bubble, having their own strategy, sticking to it kind of. And that's maybe, Shane, that's what I meant by being decoupled from the result. It's kind of having your own little independence out there of what your goals are. And maybe sometimes it's gonna shake out in the end. Sometimes it's not.
I when I get nervous and I want to ask about nerves on the golf course, I mean, something I've done well, it's probably a bit of a vision fifty four kind of philosophy to it. But you know, when I get nervous occasionally over a putt, like a tricky five footter, maybe it's an iron shot into a green. A lot of the times I'll tell myself it's it's just an eight iron or just hit a solid putt. You know, like trying to simplify all of that whole
process that goes in your brain. Are you aligned correctly? Did you read it right? All those things? Just getting back to make a good swing, make a good stroke. That's kind of all you can do once that, once the leaves the club face, the results kind of done on your end, and it's up to you know, the green and the bumps and the fit in the wind, and you know all of those things and those factors. How do you deal with nerves, Like when you get nervous on the first tea or in a tournament, or
when you've played a major championships? How do you deal with the level of nerves that come with either that first t shot or trying to close out around at a big golf tournament.
I I always still to this day, any tournament, it any tournament I plan, I get nervous on the first tea shot. I don't know, Shane. I'm like, I'm it's it's past the point of me trying to figure out how not to get nervous and more. Just I just embrace it. It's like, Okay, this is coming. Don't have the anxiety. You're gonna have these feelings. You're gonna have these nervousness feelings, and and and with that comes like the doubt, you know what I mean, Like there's gonna
be demons out there. So I mean, Shane, I breathing is super important. So there's a lot of different breathing techniques out there. I've experimented with a ton of them. I always kind of shake, try to shake, shake around a little bit like a boxer, you know what I mean. There's some things with the nervous system that could kind of calm me down. First, Yeah, get that energy out a little bit, get that little energy out. Waggling super important,
Breathing super important. And then, Shane, I mean a big, big one for me is I never hit have to hit a I never try to hit a three winner of long iron out that first team. If I'm in doubt, I'm hitting driver.
One hundred percent.
Man, there is nothing worse than when you get on the first tea of a tournament you haven't seen or don't know a lot about, and it's like two eighty run out and you go, oh goodness.
Whatever, Oh yeah, no, I do not want to.
On the first tea shout out Molinari a couple of years ago with Pebble. It's like, happens to the best of us.
Man, we all have done it.
But I mean, I also think it's that the embracing it is so important, and I think that's one of those things that comes with age, is you understand everybody here is a little nervous. Yeah, like nobody hears comfortable. It's the same thing I think about sometimes in match play.
When you're playing a guy in play, it's like you're kind of waiting for them potentially to make a mistake, and it's like they're not gonna hit every eight iron perfect, so just kind of kind of plod along and keep getting the ball on the green, keep putting the pressure on them, because if they hit every aight iron perfect, they'd be playing in a different space than this space I'm in right now.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I think talking about nerve Shane is like Tiger. I mean Tiger on the first tee, that guy, he got more. It was more nervous than I've probably ever been. First t shots were always terrible. I mean, what was up with that? And I think it's just that he cared so much. He was so pent up. And you know, I think the fact that you are nervous means you care. That's a good thing. Learn how to embrace it. I think when it comes to nerves
on putting, Shane. One thing that's helped me, and this is different for everybody, is I putt in my routine is all breathing based, So I like I I take the putter back after I do a huge X sale on my fourth in my putting routine. So it's like, if you can have consistency in that routine, that gives me something to rely on no matter what the putt is, whether it's a two footer tap in or I got an eight foot slippery slider to qualify for the PGA Championship,
I'm using that same routine. It's a no known and and then once you do that xal, you release the putt. Okay, I've done what I could kind of like you were saying, Shane, and let the results shake out.
I think consistency is also helpful in terms of prepping for tournaments. You know, consistency, whether it's like knowing what you have in the bag. I mean, I'm a very consistent like snack guy. I know what I'm gonna have in my bag when I'm playing tournaments. I've got a Laura bar, I've got almonds, I've got like LM and T stuff for the water. I've got to like, I'll do a sandwich if I know it kind of crosses over into lunch time. You got a early tea time,
even a late tea time. I'll make all that stuff and have all that stuff in my bag. What do you do in terms of prepping, not just for what's in your bag, but maybe like day day or two before. Do you change the way you work out? Do you change the way you prep stretching any of that stuff? Do you do anything different in that world as you get closer and closer to tournament days?
Yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely yeah. Yeah.
Take care of the body. I mean, that's another big part of it. If you're talking tournament prep. If you know, if we have a tournament, you're walking and and you know, me being a you know a lot of our listeners out there are you know, eight to five type folks. But if you got a tournament coming up where you're gonna be walking, put a little bit of time in on the fitness side, make sure you don't get worn out on that front. But yeah, definitely, I think it's uh,
there's a lot to scheduling. I would I would love Shane to kind of talk and maybe you have on your some of your other pods, just talk about the tour players and how they do their scheduling of every like every little minute leading up to whether it's morning tea time, late tea time. Sometimes you get done, you finish in the dark, but you gotta come back and
finish early. So many little logistics there on how much time you have for those warm ups, but yeah, a couple days before, make sure you take care of the body and make sure Actually a lot of people set their alarm for when they should wake up. So if I have those tournaments, I kinda on my notes app on my phone, have all the little details there when I'm gonna warm up, when I'm gonna get to the gym, when I'm gonna eat, when I'm gonna get my coffee
if I need to. But also put on there what time you should be going to sleep, set an alarm for what time you're going to sleep. That's a really big deal, especially if you're traveling East coast, West coast, international things of that nature.
Yeah, the rest thing is extremely enormous. Another thing I think that I've seen in tournament golf I've experienced in tournament golf a little bit is prepping for what's gonna happen out of the gate. And when I say that, I mean like you got to prep for the good and you've got to prep for the bad. I think a lot of the time people that don't do a lot of tournament golf are almost prepared for something bad to happen.
You know.
It's like, Okay, I'm nervous. You know, I might make bogie out of the gate, that's fine, whatever. I remember playing a qualifier a couple of years ago, and it was that, of course, just outside of Hartford. First hole is about three forty. Yeah, you don't really hit driver there.
But you can.
Yeah, And I remember I was playing with a kid and he just pummels his driver, like right at the front of the green.
I'm like, man, that was a good swing.
When we get up there and he's about forty feet away on the green and he makes the putt makes at the first hole, and he I look at him as he's walking off the green and he's got a look on his face that says, I was never prepared to be two under who on this round of golf.
And we were awalking off to tea and he said, he said, oh, man, mann't I didn't think I was gonna make two.
And it was almost like he didn't want to make the two yeah, even though obviously any scores better than one higher. And so I do think sometimes it's like like when you're on the first tee when when you're prepping for a tournament, understanding I have the capability of playing well, just like I have the capability of playing poorly.
You know.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's such a great point. Shane is like that.
The the this goes back to patients, stick it to your plan is I have a philosophy that your strategy should be a little bit transient. So what I mean by that is that whole you're talking about three forty maybe you can go for it, but maybe there's out of bounds up there. You you do not want to start your round with a t shot out of bounds.
Right.
It's like, so I always take a more conservative strategy strategy early in the round, you get a feel for the conditions, your sense how you're hitting it. And then if there is a variation where a decision in the round where you can be slightly more aggressive or not, maybe maybe you know, you know, maybe don't do that. Maybe don't do that as early in the round. Right, So you want to kind of have this kind of
little boring, methodical, maybe a little more conservative start. That's gonna be a little bit bit different for everybody, but it's something to think about with the tournament golf, right is like, how do you how do you transition your conservative to aggressive strategy transient through the course of a
round and then certainly through the course of a tournament. Right, So, if you're playing Monday qualifier and you're the last tea time out and you're refreshing out of your app and you see the scores and you need to burdy the last three holes, yes, play more aggressive aggressive, But if you're in a seventy two hole event. If I'm playing a seventy two hole event that's the PGA Professional National Championship, that qualifies me for the PGA. I'm gonna be way
more conservative. You're gonna have a regression to the mean on your finishers in that event and the skill level over seventy two holes, major cut, all that stuff. You want to be way more methodical. If you make a bogie, do not worry. You got a massive amount of holes. You make a bogie in a Monday qualifier where scores are gonna be low, yeah, you probably need to ramp it up and be a little bit more aggressive. So
strategy is transient. I think that's that's both forgetting your round started and relative to your success in the event.
Marty.
You know Matt Fitzpatrick's kind of been famous for he notes all of his shots. Yeah, I mean people have talked a lot about this. You're an extremely smart guy that pays a lot of attention to everything going on, not just in golf, but what you're doing with your golf. What do you do in terms of notations throughout tournament golf to maybe help you out the next day.
Yeah, So I use in the stack app. We actually have a way to categorize your putting, So we have a putting mode and then you can keep very detailed notes. It's with the same level of detail that actually Fitzpatrick does with his putting for your putting stats, and that's been supremely helpful for me, Shane. So I have a little notation I do on on the bottom of my scorecard, the little perforated part that I keep where I actually
now walk off every putt or I can. Once you kind of get this down, you can estimate it pretty well, like, okay, I got a thirty two foot downhill right to left, and then catries if you missed it, why you missed it? Was it a misread, was it a misread of the was it mystery of the line? Was it misread of the speed? Did you start it too far right or too far left of your intended start line? Or did you roll it too fast or too slow relative to
how you intended? And that has been super helpful for my own personal feedback and awareness of what are my trends and traits on putting. So I like, quite often if I'm not putting great, my speed will be too slow,
Like I'll come up short on very makeable putts. I have a strategy Shane influenced and informed a little bit by the work of Mark Brody, and I kind of asked him this, like, what are your thoughts on this, is that when I get to thirty feet or beyond, I kind of just go to lag mode, like just try to solve for the ball ending up perfectly whole high.
And the reason why is a PG two or average putter, their average strokes to hole out from thirty feet is like two, so you're equally as likely to make it as three put So I'm like, okay, thirty feet, I'm gonna lag it. Generally speaking, then if I'm twenty five feet are in, I could kind of try to have optimal capture speed to get myself good odds of making it.
And when I'm not putting good, I will come up short from you know, fifteen to twenty five feet, or my speed's just a little too conservative, a little too slow. But keeping those stats has helped kind of highlight that where I otherwise probably wouldn't have noticed it. And that's kind of the benefit of stats tracking that's been super helpful for me.
Yeah, I mean it's it's fascinating. I mean, I love the idea of like understanding what's available with a putt.
I mean I was thinking about it.
You remember a few weeks ago in Canada there was that playoff and he was, yeah, Fox and was it Fox and Sam Burns? I think that was in the playoff And if you remember, Fox flags it on like the fourth playoff hole and he has like eight or nine feet for eagle. And I was watching it with a buddy of mine who like a pro golfer buddy of mine, and I said, like, Burn's had the downhill putt,
you know, and he's probably thirty feet away. And I said, if I was Sam Burns caddy walking up, I would remind Sam, I know, you want to make this for eaglep but I would remind him of the percentage make for a guy from Fox's distance, just to remind him that that he could maybe more likely to miss this than make it. And then what happens is Burn runs it by ten feet missus the comebacker. Now all of a sudden, you've given the golf tournament away, and you
know it. Just I think that diving in percentages, like listen, it's nerdy and It probably takes a lot of time and it's cumbersome, but even just looking at that tour level stuff to remind you if you're playing a match, you're playing a tournament.
Some guy's got twelve feet.
It's like there's a twenty percent chance that tour guys make this putt right. Yeah, and it's just reminding you what's available even in your own game.
Yeah, No, it's it's like poker man, this is my We had Chris Coma on you remember, and he was talking all about poker and how he learned so much from playing that and how he's bringing it into his coaching. You got Victor talking about playing a lot of poker. You better believe those guys are running those you know, the the best, better players are running those advanced calculations for sure, Shane. Match plays a whole different story on how you want to optimize and core strategy and things
of that nature. But a playoff, that's what it is. So that's a that's a great point. I mean, yeah, there's a lot to it. Capture speed at the in the putting lab, we just installed a zen green stage and we've been doing some great uh putting with it and it's in practice and learning and how we're gonna
inform our putter fitting. But you know, it just reminded me of one of those other things great insights about putting that you're you're, you know, a downhill putt, if you don't make it the optimal capture speed, that putt might roll by like three feet, but on an uphillar optimal capture speed the putt might only go by six or twelve inches. So how far it goes back past the hole is going to be depending on whether uphill or downhill.
I mean, it's there's so much that goes into it, you know, And I mean, I just find it so fascinating to kind of think about, you know, tournament golf for people that either played a lot or don't play it that often because you know, the older you get your club, your local MUNI, like your buddy's club, Like even going on golf trips, you know, I mean, guys can kind of freak themselves out going out there and having to play for money or play consistent golf all
the time. And it's just trying to like find a way that it makes you the most comfortable and hitting golf shots that make you the most comfortable, you know, if you can kind of like, if you're aware of that, it's probably the easiest way to succeed in this space.
Yeah, definitely, Shane. Yeah.
One other thing that came to mind. You kind of asked me about, you know, how do you play maybe a little bit better in that tournament golf. Is I'm playing casual play. I'm kind of just trying to have some fun, maybe aim at some pin, you know, I aim in a lot of pins.
You know, I get quite frankly, it might be.
A little bit boring, get me hit the middle of the green if I'm out there just playing casual golf. But man, once that tournament comes around, and Shane, I learned this in the Gateway Tour because you remember your days on the Gateway, Man, they would put the flags. I mean, I have some old books where it's like, okay, every pin's three. Sometimes I saw it two on the.
Spots on the green.
Sometimes the practice rounds, like we would walk around a green and go one round, one round. You know, it was like the hardest pins on the on the golf on the green.
Yeah.
I still have some of the sheets. I think they have a two on there.
You know. So it's like that.
But but in hindsight, that's where I learned the skill to to to not even care where the flag is, you know what I mean. And so that's a really big deal. I think for your everyday golfer, start your ram man, just very conservative strategy in terms of trying to hit hit hit center of the greens, make sure you get your tupat try try a little bit harder to not make bogie than you do try to make birdie. But you do want to know when you can green
light it. You know, that's a very important thing. The best, the better players, man, they are playing aggressive, they know when to green light it. So and that's a very fine line Marty.
You've talked about this on other pods. You're a big like travel tournament guy. You're taking a lot of golf clubs. I mean you're traveling with fifteen sixteen clubs, right, Yeah, yeah, I mean the idea is obviously depending on conditions, depending on when, depending on whether I want to be prepared to be able to throw in a lofted wood versus a long iron, things like that.
Yeah, equipment's a big deal. I mean, the big ones for me Shane or generally like Idi or a five wood, you know, or sometimes the hybrid, so they'll have kind of three options in that space and then wedges for different grinds occasionally. So if I'm going to Florida or somewhere maybe the Northeast, some are very powdery bunkers. I remember I played the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. I mean, the the bunkers were so powdery and sandy.
I would play a lot wider sole wedge there. Sometimes you even get with some of those big events, man,
I would switch from four wedges to three. I did that at PGA Championship one year because I needed mine more clubs for those two fifty part three I mean Oakmont probably, you know, if I would have played at Oakmont, I probably would have gone to three wedges and had a couple more options for those long part threes and long second shots and approach shots everything they were having into the green.
So yeah, a couple couple.
You know, it's mostly on the kind of the two ends of the bag, the transition clubs. Maybe some wedge grinds, but you know, different trajectories depending on turf conditions and win so as.
We wrap, what's the next tourney for you? And what's like the what's the goal? Like, what's your twenty twenty five goal? I want to do X.
Do you have a goal?
Yeah?
So I think my goal is to win the Southwest Section Player of the Year. I came in second. I came in second on the pointsless last year. My next event Shane's next week Southwest Section match Play, and I am the defending champion. So I did win the match play last year in Moon Valley. It's a little different animal, gotta be patient. I played some bad golf and got lucky because my part, my opponents played worse than me, and then I just timed it out. I played great
golf against my tougher competitors. So yeah, hopefully make a little run there at the match play. It'd be fun to get two in a row. Got the Arizona Open later this year, got our sections championship Arizona Open. Yeah, and I had a good run last year. I think
that was my best finish. I finished fourth, and you know, had a good battle against some of our corn Corn Ferry Tour player on our staff and Nico Giletti from ASU plays on the Corn Ferry Tour this year was a DP World Tour player last year played with him. So hopefully I have another little run of Arizona Open and Section Championship couple Tour qualifiers later this year.
How about you.
I've got I've got some qualifiers coming up for some of the CSGA, like Connecticut Golf stuff coming up, like the mid Am you know, the bummer, the bummer for me, and I mean, it is what it is. It's my job in my life. But so much of the awesome stuff up here falls during our busy corn Ferry Tour run. Yeah, you know, I cover all the corn Fairy touff. We had Gilata in a window a couple of weeks ago by the oh yeah great, But a lot of that
stuff falls. So one thing I have been doing that has been great, and this is kind of the first year I've done it is Connecticut.
The CSGA, which they.
Do a great job in terms of like amateur you know, competitive golf. They have these one day series events and they do about twenty of them during the season. They're all on Mondays, and they're all at these really cool golf courses. But I mean it's a ton of people show up, you play foursomes, they give you carts. You kind of fly around, but you know, you kind of go out there and try to shoot two or three under and if you do that, you might win one.
But it's just, you know, like you talked about can headitive golf, tournament golf, and the way you were speaking about it, I feel very similar. I find myself probably lazy golf when I'm just out.
Playing with my buddies.
Yeah.
I love the feeling of every shot mattering, oh yeah. When I play tournament golf. It used to scare me a bit, I'll be honest with you, and now I've really embraced that sensation, and so I sign up for as much. Like I was online last night, dude, just looking at MGA WGA Long Island Golf Association's got stuff, I'm like, what else can I play in before the season ends?
Because I want to get in as much as I can.
I did the same thing.
I love scheduling, man, you gotta have some You gotta have some carrots out there, you know what I mean that to help keep you motivated. Absolutely love scheduling. Oh I'm gonna play in this. Oh I found this one. I can squeeze it in here and give me I've never.
Played this course before. I've always wanted to play this place. You know, It's like it's a good addition there. It's kind of like vacations, you know, with like in like your family. It's like having a vacation to look forward to. I feel like having tournament golf to look forward to is essential for players. Well this was fun, man. I love talking tournament golf obviously. I love picking the brain of a guy that has had a ton of success in and around it. What's the major count for you?
Marty?
Are you I'm I'm I'm at six, Shane, I'm at six five pgs.
Oh cool?
One US Open and uh yeah, hey, so I'll give you one more fun one for you. My eight year old he qualified for Junior Worlds a couple of weeks ago, and I caddied for him. So we got another little uh we got another little tournament. I'm trying to figure out with him. I'm coaching him on, Hey, how do you prep for Junior Worlds? You know, so it's.
Gonna be fun. Actually looked up.
Remember we when we had sawhith On, we asked him how many times he won Junior Worlds. So we're looking at the results and he won it when he was seven seven to eight year old. Sawhith won and so I had my kid, my kiddo looking at that and getting pretty motivated, try to try to get in there and see if he can he can keep up with Saw.
You know, how's this game? Like, what's what's his game?
Like? He he's sneaky good, like really high, really good hand eye coordination, so like manages the low point really well, like very rarely thins one or chunks one, which is the big thing you see a lot with the with the juniors. Uh, he needs to be able to hit the ball a little bit higher, so hits a kind of low, little steep, so he hits a little low that could hold him back if you know, on some courses, if you got bunkers in front, some of the other
kiddos kind of launched a little bit higher. But his putting skills are really good. His bunker plays Shane. He doesn't hit like a normal splash shot. He like picks it but his but he his like skill level is so good. He picks it out of there and puts a ton of spin on his bunker shots.
So I just got nervous just hearing that.
By the way, oh same, I'm always like I get the dad anxiety, but he always somehow pulls it off.
So yeah, I know it'll be fun.
News.
The good news about about about the help there is you might know somebody that can help him get the ball up in the air.
A little bit. Uh yeah, that quicker depending on some of the equipment. Man, that is wild.
I can only imagine what that sensation is like when you're caddying and how nervous you are. I remember caddying on the LPGA tour and telling my friends I'm way more nervous caddying than playing, no doubt about it. I mean way more nervous. So I can only imagine what it's like doing it for your son.
Yeah, it'll be fun. We're excited.
Junior World got on the calendar to watch out for the Jertson's. As always, this was fun man, appreciate the time, Marty. As always, this is the Ping proven Grounds podcast.