CH3 Summer Lessons: Playing vs Practicing

playing in as many different tournaments as he can. There's a tour down here in South Florida called the Minor League, which a lot of players play in one day two day events. But he is signed up for European Q School. And he Matt had said to me, Hey, listen, you know, could could he talk to to this guy Boggle? Could Boggle talk to you about Q School and about playing

in Q School and things like that? And so I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, yeah, I mean I could I could help him out and talk to him about it. But you know, you've got a five time major champion and a former world number one, and the current PGA champion standing right there. So I said, listen, why don't you talk to talk to Brooks ask him some questions. So the conversation that ensued, it's one of those things

that there's a running joke. I'm sure there's a joke on the PGA Tour, but there's a running joke with the players that I work with and a lot of the live guys, because that's the tour that I seem to be spending the most time on. But there'll be something that will happen. And we always say the same thing, where's Netflix? Right? This would be great content content for Full Swing, And today was just it was fascinating to be a part of. And so you've got a player

who played college golf who's trying to play professionally. He's trying to get status somewhere. He's playing in mini tours, he's playing as many different tournaments as he can, sometimes one day, sometimes two day events, and then obviously Q School, like a lot of players that are trying to play professionally, that's the route he's trying to go. So I think he was just looking for some guidance as to how to approach going to Q school. Obviously Brooks went to

Q School. He missed in the US, missed in Europe, had to go to the Challenge Tour, and then off the Challenge Tour, got to the European Tour, off the European Tour, got to the PGA Tour, and the rest is somewhat history. But I thought that having Brooks talk to him could be, you know, very very important and very eye opening, and I think it's always very interesting to me. I think most golfers, the way they go about trying to play the game of golf is the problem.

It's yeah, I mean, everybody's technique. It's something if you've listened to the podcast regularly, you hear me talk about this a lot. But it's something that I'm going to keep talking about everybody. Everyone, everybody playing on the men's, on the women's, on the Champs DP World, Asia, PGA Tour Live, doesn't matter what tour you're on. Everyone everyone is trying to get better. Everyone is trying to improve

their technique. Everyone's trying to have their swing get better. Technically, they're trying to improve the positions, they're trying to improve all of the things that all golfers are trying to improve if you're a tour player, if you're an aspiring tour player, college golfer, high school golfer, junior golfer, amateur golfer, regular golfer. And you've heard me say this before, regular golfers are the majority of people that play this sport.

Everyone's trying to improve their golf swing, everyone's trying to improve their technique, So that isn't necessarily going to be a as big a differentiators. I think people think, and I certainly think that a lot of players that don't have status that are trying to play competitively are trying to get to the next level, and to the level that is the holy grail, the PGA Tour, play in Europe, play in Asia, play on the LPGA. Historically, those were

the places that everybody wanted to play. Now that lives come around, that's different, but historically everyone that was trying to play that played college golf, the goal, if you were going to try and continue to play professionally would

be to get to the PGA Tour. And I just thought it was fascinating that a player that has no status was talking to someone that's five time major champion, someone that's been number one in the world for a pretty significant amount of time, been on Ryder Cups, been on President's Cups, won the Varden Trophy, won the Nicholas Ward. I think it was very eye opening for this player to hear Brooks's kind of take on competitive golf. And it's funny. He talked to him for about a half

an hour. Brooks was hitting balls, he was on the range, Boggle was hitting balls, and they were just kind of talking. And what Brooks was talking to him about on how to prepare for Q school, how to prepare for tournaments, I know, was not even close to what I would have envisioned this player thinking that Brooks was going to talk about the things that he talked about, But in reality, Brooks talked mainly about playing the game of golf, not practicing.

You know, Brooks and I both said to this player, listen, I think a lot of players that are trying to play competitively, that are trying to get to the next level, they're over practic, right. All they do is practice. All they do is hit balls, and they're hitting a ton of balls, and they're constantly working on their golf swing.

They're constantly working on their technique. And this young player said he just played a one day event yesterday and had a legit chance to win it, and said he had really a really good chance to win it, didn't win it, but had a legit chance to win it, and he went into yesterday's one day event on the minor league with not a ton of I guess historical what you would think would be preparation. I think he'd been doing some traveling. I think he'd has some other

stuff going on. He probably hadn't been putting in the hours that he normally has, and he said that he played so much better yesterday than he has when he's practicing more and grinding more and putting in all of these hours on the range and working on his technique. And I think what he got out of Brooks' responses to him were, well, yesterday you played good because you went out and you played golf as opposed to going

and playing golf swing. And I think a lot of golfers, both recreational golfers but also competitive golfers, are playing golf swing on the golf course. They're not playing golf. They're not playing the game of golf. I've said this many times. Golf is a game. That's why they give you a scorecard and they tell you what the object of the game is. And the object of the game is to play eighteen holes of golf in the lowest amount of shots possible. There's par fives, there's par four's, there are

par threes. So the way golf is designed is you know kind of the object of the game before you play. That's why you get a scorecard. There's a certain amount of par four's, there's a certain amount of par five's, there's a certain amount of par threes. There's the distance of the course you're playing. And then based off of how many par threes and how many par five on the course, there is a par seventy two, seventy one, seventy,

whatever that number is. So as golfers, when we go play golf, we know what the object of the game already is, right, we know that the object of the game is to have the least amount of strokes over the course of whether it's seventy two, seventy one or seventy And my father always has said this phrase, it's always one that's stuck with me. There's no place on the scorecard for style. There's no real place on the scorecard in the box where you put your score. You

can other places. You can write down how many fairways you hit, how many greens you hit, how many puts you had. You can write down other things. But if you think about the way a scorecard is designed, it's very very small and there are very very small boxes for which you can basically just put a number in. That's it. There's no place for you to write how you made the par, how you made the birdie, how you made the bogee, how you made a double bogie.

There's no place for description, right. The only place, the only space there really is on a score card is to put a score down, to put a number. And there are a million different ways to make a par, there are a million different ways to make a boge, so many different ways to make doubles and triples and quads and all of the things. But the object of the game is to have the lowest amount of strokes. And so I think what Brooks was trying to talk to this player about is was about playing golf. And

he used a great example. He said last week at Greenbrier, the first round, I think bookshot four under. He played terrible the first five holes, and Brooks was recounting the story to this young aspiring professional golfer, and he said, you know, the first five holes, I played terrible, and I realized and he said, hal, you know, I got through halfway through the front nine and I said to my caddie, ricky elled. He said, man, I'm just firing at every pin and it's just getting me in trouble.

And the look on this kid's face was one of kind of bewilderness, and he said, you know what I did for the rest of the round. So for the next thirteen holes is I didn't really shoot at a lot of flags. I played a little bit more conservatively and I ended up shooting four under. And I started

playing better when I started being less aggressive. I think there's a big difference between being reckless and there's a difference between being aggressive and what I always like to say, and I've said this before on the pod, conservatively aggressive, make committed swings to conservative targets, and be aggressive to conservative targets. There are going to be times where you can be really really aggressive to aggressive targets. Most of the time, as Brooks said, that's going to be with

short irons. And one of the things that I see a lot of players doing, regardless of their handicap level, is they're basically just firing at all the flags. And Brooks said, you know, definitely, probably more so in the majors. But if you think about the way that someone like Brooks plays the majors, he plays them in a very very conservative fashion. And what he's trying to do is play major championships and not make any double bogies, and

he doesn't want to trade bogies for birdies. And what he was saying today to this player is he said, listen, you know, rather than try and be really really aggressive and bring bogie into play, I'm happy to be maybe a little bit less aggressive. You know, on tour, if you play at the highest level, they're tucking pins four paces on from the front, four paces on from the back, and they're putting them four paces on from the left

to the right. So you'll see a lot of yardages that are four from the front and four from the left, you know, five from the front, five from the right, all the way back, and so they tuck the pins. They don't tuck them every single round, but they do talk you know, a lot of pins in the course of eighteen holes. And what Brooks was saying is he is far more conservative then I think that this player

could ever envision that he was. And Brooks talked a lot about staying away from the yardages that he's bad at with his irons, right. He was saying that, you know, rather than push it to a yardage that he doesn't like, that he's kind of in between clubs, he'd rather take one, maybe two if he gets out of position, or if it's part five, He's going to lay back to a yardage that he has a tremendous amount of confidence in.

And I could see this player's face just, you know, I think he was surprised at listening to one of the best players in the world, a current major champion in twenty twenty three, just listening to his approach. And Brooks was saying, you know, have you been to Q school before? And he and this player said yeah, you know, I never got out of you know, pre qualifying. And Brooks was like, well, why is that? You know, what,

what do you feel like is holding you back? And he's like, well, you know, I feel like sometimes you know, I press I try and be a little bit more aggressive than I need to. And Brooks was saying, listen, I think everybody thinks that they need to swing better, but it sounds like you just need to maybe lower

your expectations and manage your expectations. And one of the examples that Brooks gave, he said, listen, if you're in a major and you've got four rounds, get seventy two holes, there's no need to from the jump to just be super super aggressive. And I thought it was really cool that Brooks talked about kind of playing his way into the round, you know, maybe not being super super aggressive.

And he was saying at Greenbrier last week at the Live tournament, first five holes, Brooks said, he's just firing at every flag, and you know, I think he was over par and then got it back to four under, but he was saying, it was when I quit being super super aggressive that, you know, and took some more conservative targets and said, okay, listen, let me dump this twenty feet fifteen feet, Maybe not go at this flag if I push it or if I pull it, Maybe I get lucky and push one or pull one to

four or five feet because I wasn't aiming necessarily at the hole, and I think that is something that is really really important for everyone to kind of take to their own game. Play your way into the round. Right, look at where the par fives are, right. Par fives are an opportunity for all golfers to pick up strokes. Obviously, at the tour level, you're trying I think almost every year, I think I think this is a generalization, but I

think this is probably true. I think most players, I mean I looked at this couple of times in the past, the majority of the players. I think almost every player is under par on the par fives for the year. So tour players are looking to take advantage of par

fives and use that to get under par. I think for the rest of us, we should be looking at par fives where tour players, you know, regardless of which tour they're playing on, are looking at making birdie, they're looking at making maybe an eagle if they can get there into but they're definitely looking to pick up strokes

on the par fives. I think that for everyone else it's playing and for everyone that's listening, if we can just not lose shots on par fives, right, you know, par all the par fives, if you're a fifteen handicapper, if you're trying to break eighty for the first time, if you're trying to break ninety for the first time, if you're trying to break a hundred for the first time, if you could try and use the par fives as a as a part of your round to where you're

not losing strokes, because those are the opportunities to where you don't have to go for the green. So regardless of your handicap level, regardless of how far the par five is, you can try and say, Okay, I'm just going to three shot this. I'm going to try and dump this anywhere on this green and two putt and get out of here with parf right and having mat mantra next time you go out, rather than say Okay, I'm going to go out, I'm going to try and

birdy all the par fives. How about just going out and saying, Okay, I'm going to try and not lose strokes on the holes that give me the best opportunity to gain strokes. Because that's a very very different mindset in thinking right in thinking about how you should be approaching playing golf. So if you can think in terms, I'm going to use the par fives as an opportunity to not lose strokes because obviously par four's are more difficult,

par threes are more difficult. It's very difficult to play the par threes and under par. If you're in a four round tournament, if you're in a three round tournament, two round one day, or if you can play the par threes and even you're doing pretty good and you are making up an enormous amount against the field. I want to thank our partners at Rapsodo and share more about their exciting, award winning combine that is launching this month.

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measure spin. You also get a first year of premium membership or free again. That's CODECH three at rapsodo dot com for seventy dollars off, and don't forget about their award winning combines. By nature, I think most players always are looking at where the flag is and then they kind of get suckered into firing at all the pins. And Brooks was saying that there are enormous amount of pins that he doesn't even mess with, that he doesn't

even fire at. And I think that you know, he said to this player, I'm just not good enough to fire at all the pins. And this is a this is the reigning PGA champion. This is a player that has five major championships, a player that has been number one in the world. And I think that watching the interaction, I think most golfers vastly overestimate how good they are.

They vastly overestimate their talent level. And because they overestimate their talent level, because they overestimate how far they hit the golf ball, because they overestimate how straight they hit the golf ball, they just take an approach to playing golf that is very, very difficult to manage. It's very

difficult to recover from the bad shots. And Brooks was saying, listen, double bogies and majors are killers because you've got to find two other birdies to make up for that, and in major championships that's very, very difficult to do because

of how difficult the golf course is. But if you're listening and you're a fifteen a twenty handicapper, every time you go out relative to your talent level, relative to how difficult the golf course is, let's be honest, not everybody, the majority of golfers are not playing difficult golf courses all the time. They're not playing golf courses that are seventy four hundred yards with super narrow fairways and US Open tile roff greens running twelve to thirteen to fourteen.

The rough around the greens really really difficult, runoff areas deep deep bunkers, to where if you hit it offline at all, it's a penalty. The majority of people play golf courses that aren't tournament standard golf courses. So I think it's a generalization, but I think it's a it's

an accurate one. And what Brooks was trying to impress upon this player is, hey, listen, just be more conservative, don't necessarily fire at all the flags, try and take care of the par fives when you can, and if you get out of position, get back into position, try

and make a par. And bogies are fine. And I think Brooks comes from golf from a major championship mindset in that, hey, a lot of pars, a lot of bogies are okay, and most of us regular average golfers, and I'm a regular average golfer and that's just my talent level. You're just trying to make as many pars and as many bogies as you can if you go out and you make a bunch of pars and you make some bogies, you're you're doing a good job keeping

those double bogies. It's something that I will keep pounding away on the pod. I think it's a platform that you know, I'm lucky to have and pars bogies, Pars bogies, you're going to hit some get an opportunity to make your birdie if you make it good. But make more pars, make more bogies, and your scores will improve. I asked Brooks on because I figured this kid was gonna ask him.

I was like, you know, what are you thinking about when you're playing, like at the at beth Pay I mean at a o kill all right, So he won the PGA this year at o'khill. I said, you know, what are you thinking on Sunday? And Brooks said nothing, really, he said, I was just thinking about the shot that I was playing. So if you remember, Brooks had a lengthy pot for par on a par five, I think it was thirteen definitely ten feet maybe even twelve feet straight down the hill and he's got a par five

part four. The next hole is a drivable par four, which he drove, which is obviously a birdy opportunity, and then you're gonna play a part three and then three par fours and you're just gonna hang on. So this is the last of the par fives. He's right in the middle of the back nine on Sunday in a major championship and I said, you know, over that pot, what were you thinking? And he was like, I was thinking about all of the things that I needed to

do to make that pot. I said, you weren't thinking about anything else about the situation you were in the time of the round, what the score was, where the competition was, what the holes you had coming ahead, what you'd done in the past, And Book said, I wasn't thinking of any of that. I was just thinking about the shot that I was hitting. And I think that's a really, really good way to think about it. Here's

one of the best players in the world. I think it's interesting for me when you have players aspiring tour players, aspiring competitive golfers. They're always trying to figure out the mindset of of tour players. And I think tour players, I mean, I mean, there were a couple of times where Brooks said, listen, I'm not good enough to to hit you know, I'm not good enough to hit the golf ball one forty two and then hit it to one forty seven. I'm just not good enough to do that.

So he said, you know, I kind of have an idea of how far I'm going to hit each club, and I think you've got one of the best players in the world saying, listen, I'm not good enough all the time to hit it one forty one, forty one, one forty two. So a lot of I think what Brooks was saying to this young player was, you know, I'm playing for the miss. I am trying to miss it better, and you wouldn't think the best players in

the world are thinking that way. But Brooks was saying, listen, all the practice rounds, He's like, I don't really care how I'm hitting it. Necessarily in practice rounds, I fit it bad. In practice rounds, I'll go to the range afterwards and try and figure it out. But during the practice rounds, I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to hit it. I'm trying to look at where the trouble is. I'm trying to look at all of the things that I can do to try and minimize the damage.

And I think if you can approach playing golf like that, trying to say okay, let me work backwards. Brooks talks a lot about looking at holes and figuring out how to play holes by going and standing on the front of the green and then looking back to the tee. And if you've never done that, it's do it at your home course. Just you know. Next time you play, go play the first hole. Go stand on the front of the first hole, and go look back and see if the hole looks differently from the green than it

does from the tea box, because it will. You'll see things differently. You'll see the contours, you'll see the shape of the whole, You'll see it differently, and I think you'll see the trouble and maybe where to miss it better. Next time you walk up on a green, you know on your home course, think about, okay, where are they?

Where are the pins on this green? And the pins in the front left, if the pin's in the front right, if the pins in the middle, back, left, back right, for those five pin positions, where would be the ideal place? If so, if the pins front right, and if there's bunkers water rough whatever, think about, Okay, where would be the optimum place to get up and down from? And I've done that with students before, where I've said, Okay, you've got to miss this green, look at where the

flag is. You've got to miss the green. Where's the easiest place to get up and down from. I think what Brooks talked to this young player about today really was a game change of room, because Brooks talked a lot about being conservative, realizing that he's not gonna have it all the time, He's not gonna have his best stuff all the time. Brooks didn't really feel like he had his best stuff on Saturday and Sunday at Oakhill when he won the PGA, still got the job done.

And I think one of the things that Brooks was trying to say is listen, I didn't have my best stuff, but I managed the game well. I managed my game well. And Brooks talked a lot to this young player today about listen, a lot of times, it's about picking the right approach off the t right and he talked about when he won the PGA Championship at Belly even Saint Louis played the last round with Adam Scott Tiger was making a run the eighteenth hole dog leg from right

to left. Brooks hits fade and in the practice round, and Brooks told this young player of the story. Listen, he said, there were trees on the left, and Brooks said, Okay, I'm gonna hit driver. If I can hit Driver over these trees, that gets me down there on the flat. I'm gonna have a really really short club in my hand, or I can hit three wood, but three wood kind of brought the bunkers into play. And then he said, listen, I can hit my three iron, my driving iron and

lay it back of the bunkers. So I take the bunkers out of play. But then if I hit it offline, I'm hitting it into deep, deep rough and I'm a long way away from the green. So in Brooks's mind, okay, the best option for him was driver. He was driving it well that week. He had a tremendous amount of confidence in his driver. He even though the hole shaped from right to left, Brooks plays everything from left to right, but he felt like he could hit it over the trees.

He bombed one way down there, and we were there. I think we were there. On Monday Day or Tuesday way down on the flat had a flip wedge in. He did that on Sunday when he won that week, and then he drove it and he said, yeah, I can get over those trees pretty easily. Obviously, if the wind changes and it's more into the wind, that's going to change the thought process. But he said, if the wind is like this, and even if it's downwind, then

I'm definitely hitting driver. He hit a two iron, or hit his driving iron, which is like a three iron, and we got down there and I remember this, and he told this kid this today. He was like and he said to Ricky yellott Man, we're a long way back here, and if I miss this at all, if it gets into that bunker, or if I miss it to the right or the left, then I've got a long shot. I got to contend with all these trees. So the play for Brooks was just to hit driver. Now,

obviously that's Brooks taking advantage of his length. But I think what he was impressing upon this young player is listen, that's the thought process that goes in. Are you gonna lay short of all the trouble? Are you going to try and hit it over the truck. If you hit it over the trouble, it's a massive, massive reward then trying to lay short of it, and then if you don't hit it perfect. And I think Brooks was really really honest about how you're not going to have your

best stuff every day. You're not going to basically hit all the shots, You're not going to have total control over your shape, you're not going to have total command

over everything. And it's always interesting to me that aspiring tour players think that they should hit every shot perfect, that they should have all the shots in their back, that they should never have bad days where they don't have it, and when they had an opportunity, So this kid had an opportunity to talk to one of the best players in the world today, and Brooks was really honest and saying, listen, there's days where I don't have my best stuff, where I'm not hitting it great, and

there I just go into damage control, try and make as many pars as I can, maybe sneak out a couple of birdies on the par fives, get to the

range and fix it. And I thought it was a really really fascinate I wish I wish I'd been recording it, because I think if I was recording what Brooks was saying, I think everybody will would be blown away as to how simple Brooks is trying to make playing the game, and how difficult a young player who obviously isn't as talented as Brooks, maybe is as talented as Brooks, and if he just doesn't know how to manage his game.

But when you have an opportunity to talk to one of the best players in the world and he tells you that he's way more conservative than you are, and he's trying to make a lot of pars and take advantage of the par fives when he can, and he's not really aiming and firing at a lot of pins.

I think that was an eye opener for this young player, and hopefully he'll take some of this stuff to heart and realize that to try and get to the next level, regardless of what level you're trying to get to break one hundred, break ninety, break eighty, break par for the first time, whatever your golf goals are, I do believe that managing expectations and managing the game that you're trying

to play, but also managing your game. And I think that is the one thing that I got from today is Brooks was saying, listen, this is how I play, based off of how I play golf, based off of my skill set. Brooks was really honest with this kid and said, listen, I don't like that yardage. I'm terrible at that. I practice it all the time, but I'm not really great under competition. It's still a work in progress. But I'm really good at this yardage with my wedges.

He was talking a lot about his wedges with this player, and I think this kid was just surprised at how honest Brooks was, at how conservative he was, and that is something that I think is really important for everyone to hear. Committed swings, committed aggressive swings, not reckless swings, but committed, conservatively aggressive swings to conservative targets and dump in the middle of the green, get out of there with the two putt. You're going to get chances, regardless

of your handicap level. You're going to get some chances to make some pars. Hopefully you get some chances to make some birdies. But for this young player that Brooks talked to you today, that's playing Q school he said, listen. You know, obviously, if you're trying to play Q school, you're gonna have opportunities to make birdies. I mean, if you're not, then you need to get a new propression.

But this kid has played some college golf, he's had some success, and he's trying to forge his way through the Mini tour and professional ranks and hopefully he can do it. But it was a really cool experience today. And it's always fascinating when I listen to the best players in the world because the approach that they're taking is vastly different than the approach that I think the

majority of golfers are taking. So cool experience. Thought i'd share that, and definitely something that I think everybody can learn from. Committed swings to conservative targets, Committed swings to conservative targets. Give that a try. I think it can help you lower your scores and I think it can help you enjoy your golf a lot more. Uh So that's it for this week. FedEx Cup coming up. I'm really excited. It's always a fun time of year. Three

tournaments left. Live's got some tournaments. We just had the fifth Major on the Ladies Tour, kind of winding down, but so much good golf, and then the Ryder Cup coming up on the men's side, Solheim Cup coming up on the women's side, Lots and lots of really cool stuff.

Who is going to be crowned FedEx Cup Champion? Always a lot of movement, always a lot of volatility, and one of my favorite times of the year because there's a lot of stuff that can happen, and someone over the next three weeks is going to get hot, and to me, that's always something cool, someone who's not in East right now. Every year there's someone that plays their

way all the way. I hope we see that again this year, and I think we will see some volatility, but a lot still to play for and a cool time of the year. So I want to thank everybody for listening. I was looking at numbers for the podcast with my team and I continue to be blown away as to how many people listen to the pod. So for everyone listening, thank you all so much. It really means a lot to me. And we're gonna keep trying to put out content to help you improve your game.

Son of a Butch comes to you every Wednesday. We will see you next week.