Tournament Week: BTS with CH3

back playing. It's been a long layoff and it's certainly a long layoff. Certainly a long layoff for me, but I think for most of the Live guys it's probably the longest break a lot of them have had in their entire professional career. I mean, they've almost been off almost three months. Some of the guys played a couple weeks ago in Saudi Arabia. Of the guys went on

and played on the Asian Tour. But this is kind of the first real tournament of the year for for Live, and my job this week is is just to try and check up on all the guys and and kind of get an idea of what they're doing, how they're playing. I've been doing a lot of work at home with the guys, got to do some work in Saudi. But um, it's a little bit different tournament weeks versus home weeks.

So three players this week, and the biggest question I get asked a lot is how do you balance three players? And um, I guess the easy answer to that is it's a lot of juggling. You know, there's only there's three players that you've got to work with, but there's only one of you, there's one of me. So I'm trying to get the most out of my day and get the most out of my time as I can.

I'm lucky in that, you know, with the way that Live does things, DJ and Brooks are on different teams, but DJ and Pat are on the same team, so they tend to play a lot of their practice rounds together. And when I was on the PJA Tour, and I think most instructors that have multiple players, there's a bunch of them out there. I mean, Sean Foley's got a bunch of players. Justin Parsons has a lot of players.

I think everybody has. Pete Cowan's always had, you know, a ton of players, So I think it's all about balancing, and so what you end up trying to do is get the players that you work with to play practice rounds together. So I'm lucky in that DJ and Pat play the majority of their practice rounds together. When Brooks and DJ were on the PJA Tour and I was working with both of them, they would play a lot

of practice rounds together. Back in the day, when I was working with Ricky Fowler and Jimmy Walker, they were friends, they would play a lot of practice rounds together. So I'm lucky in that respect in that I'm able to have multiple plays in the same group when you go out on the golf course. Makes a little bit difficult when they're on the driving range, so you're kind of

bouncing around. You're trying to balance everybody's schedule, and that's one thing I think everybody should try and get an idea of individual golfers, individual athletes kind of practice when they want to. It's not a team, so it's not like a NFL team or an NBA team, where the team practices when the team practices, So everybody practices when the team practices. Patrick Mahomes practice schedule is based off of when the Kansas City Chiefs are going to practice.

He doesn't do his own thing, doesn't do his own practice. He practices with the team. But in individual sports, the players can kind of set their own schedules and kind of set their own practice schedules as well. So DJ tends to like to work out in the morning. So he got up this morning, worked out first thing this morning, and I think he was there right around ten o'clock.

I got to the golf course. I always tend to try and get to the golf course about an hour to two hours before I know the players are going to be there. That's just that's me. That's my OCD. I don't like to feel rushed and everything, and that gives me an opportunity to kind of sit down. The caddies normally get there before the players, so that gives you an opportunity to sit down with the caddies and kind of talk to them about what they've been seeing,

where they're at. But obviously, with it being a new year and a new start to the season, we don't have a lot of data points for that. So this morning, first guy that I got to on the range. Brooks was on the range. I got to spend some time with him in Saudi Arabia when he played the Asian Tour event. He played decent, you know, it was a little little kind of I wouldn't say rusty, but it's

the early part of the year. I think one of the things going into tournaments if players have had long layoffs is it's not necessarily the golf swing that's going to be the issue. I think it's a lot of the nuances around the greens. It's hitting shots. It's kind of the three quarter in between a seven in an eight and what kind of shot you're going to hit. That's the kind of stuff that you can't really simulate in practice. Right, we can try and do that as

much as we want on the driving range. We can try and do as much as we want at home, but ultimately there's a big, big, massive, massive difference between playing at home and then playing in a tournament. And there's a massive difference between practice rounds and range sessions at home. Then there are once you're at a tournament, because you know, regardless of what day it is, there is a test coming. The test is once the tournament starts. So in Live's case, they play fifty four holes. On

the PGA Tour, they play seventy two holes. So the test is coming, and the test is going to be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so you're trying to get them ready. You know, it's kind of on countdown. So we all flew in yesterday, so it's we gotta practice round Tuesday, got a practice round Wednesday, pro am Thursday, and then they'll tee it

up on Friday. So when the players get to tournaments, they know that they've got a condensed period of time, and they know they've got a finite period of time on how much they can get done for the week. So we've got Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to kind of get all the work that we need to do to do. In an ideal world, my job would be not saying too much, right, I mean, that would be an ideal situation.

I think a lot of people look at coaches and they see as standing on driving ranges behind the players. There are a lot of times that you know, we're not saying anything. I think the biggest thing that tour coaches do is they are a second pair of eyes for the player. So very similar to use, you know, to use an analogy with football, Patrick Mahomes after every series of downs, he comes over and sits down and they kind of show him what the schemes are. They

kind of go through what he's looking at. They show and pictures. They say, hey, listen, this is what the defense is doing, this is what the defense has been doing, and he kind of gets a good gauge on what that is right. And in a lot of ways, we're not necessarily doing that, but what we are trying to do is we're trying to look at what we've been working on in practice and you know, seeing you know, we every player has their own kind of individual DNA,

they have their own kind of individual swing. So in the case of the three guys that I'm working with, DJ Brooks and Pat, DJ and Brooks both fade the golf ball. Pat Perez likes to draw the golf ball. So how your work, how I'm working with these players is different, and each individual player is is a different person, and you know, everyone has kind of their own personalities

and their own kind of way of doing things. So when you have multiple players, you're dealing as much I think with their personalities as you are with their golf swings. Everybody kind of has their own kind of indio sec sees, and I think players want to be taught in a specific way that's specific to them, and you kind of learn that early. You kind of learn what players like, how much information. There are times where players want lots of information, there are times where players don't want to

let a lot of information. There are players that want a lot of information, and then there are players that don't want a lot of information. In the case of Brooks and DJ, there are two players that they don't want a lot of information. They don't play their best when they have a lot of thoughts in their head. So I think a lot of what my job with Brooks and DJ is to try and manage them as

much as people as you're managing them as golfers. And the way that they learn, the way that they take on information, the information they want is all kind of player dependent, and it's it's based a lot on their personalities, what kind of not so much learning, but how they process the information. So you know, just in going through it, j DJ doesn't want a lot of information, and I think a lot of players would be surprised the DJ

is really kind of a field player. You wouldn't think that because DJ's career has been defined by distance length. He's kind of known for the way he drives the golf ball. Driving the golf ball is kind of his calling card, right, It's part of his DNA. But to be honest with you, DJ doesn't want a lot of information. He uses a launch monitor, but he's really only using

it for some very very specific things. When DJ uses a launch monitor, he's normally got a carry distance, he's got a total distance, and then he'll look at spin and so based off of those numbers. I've never been around a player that has been able to kind of hit a shot, look at what that shot is doing, and then basically almost able to call out exactly or within a few hundred arpians of what the spin is doesn't matter, if it's wedge, doesn't matter, if it's a

nine seven five driver. I think probably more so with the wedges and the driver. It's almost like DJs a sixth sense. He's like he's clued in. He's very very specific in the way that he practices as well. DJ likes to his warmups on tournament days are probably the longest of anybody on tour. DJ's normally from the time he leaves the locker room and is going to do his practice or warm up and then go to the golf course, he's right around an hour and a half.

And just to give you the opposite of that, Brooks is right around thirty minutes. So DJ's warm up is an hour and a half, Brooks is thirty. DJ spends probably about forty five minutes to an hour of that warm up in practice hitting wedges. So all of his wedge instances are kind of under one hundred and fifty yards, and so he's really really tuned into kind of the swing that he needs to make. DJ has with his wedges.

DJ has three swings. He has a half a full or half, three quarter and full, and those are the lengths of the backswing. So he's making a half backswing and a half follow through, three quarter length back swing, three quarter length follow through, and then fall back and through and he has three different yards. So with all of his wedges, he's going to have a half, a three quarter, and a full and those are all going to go different distances, and that's really where he's kind

of dials. So the only thing he's looking at when he's hitting these wedge shots is does it go the right distance and does it have the right spin? And I honestly it happens four or five times a year. He'll be hitting a shot with let's say his sand wedge, and he'll hit two or three of them and he'll say to me, is that a good swing? And I'll say, yeah, that's that's that's a good swing, and he's right, yeah, that's not going the right distance. It's either going too far,

it's going too short. And he's looking at the spin and he's looking at what the club is doing. And he'll hit a couple more and he'll say to Aja's brother who caddies for him, and say, Aj, can you get the wedge checked, because with that swing, it should produce this distance in this number, and it's it's uncanny. AJ will take the wedge to the truck and they'll look at the loft or the lie and they'll say, yeah, it was out one degree this way, one degree that way.

Probably more so for the tour players wear and tear because of all the travel that they do. They're constantly putting their clubs on airplanes, clubs can get bent. So DJ's practice is very much wedge specific. So today, same thing, he's looking at wedges, he went over. He had a little bit of a back issue a couple of weeks ago, so he has not been hitting a lot of golf balls. But today it was actually really surprising. I was surprised it that how well he was hitting. It was such

a long layoff. I guess I shouldn't probably be surprised by that, because a long layoff for tour players, I mean they need that, they need that break. And I was really quite surprised and really quite excited about how well DJ was moving. But when I'm working with DJ, I'm looking at some specific things in his golf swing.

So because both Brooks and DJ want to fade the golf ball and they have a lot of speed, we're always looking at the takeaway and the down swing, and both Brooks and DJ both struggle when the takeaway gets a little bit too neutral. Going back sometimes with the wedges, DJ can get it a little bit inside and then as the club is coming down, the club gets a little bit inside going that way. And for both the guys at Brooks and DJ, because they both like to

fade the golf ball. They want to get the path left. They want to get that golf ball starting left of the target and then fading back to the target. So we're checking the backswing, we're checking the down swing, We're checking a lot With DJ and Brooks, I would say a lot of what happens to them when they get off is it's basics right, it's posture, it's distance from the golf ball too far, too close, golf ball too

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chance to check it out, go check it out. I think the biggest thing for me, in my opinion, that tour coaches do is we are a second pair of eyes because the player can't see themselves right. A player can only look at what the golf balls doing, but they can't visually see themselves in other sports. Again, I

used football as an example. When players come off of football fields, the offense goes with the offense, the defense goes with the defense, and then the offensive or defensive coordinator, the running back coach, whatever individual coach will come over and say, Okay, this is what you're doing, this is

what was going on. They'll show them some plays. So we don't have necessarily the availability to do that, but I use a tremendous amount of video because both Brooks and DJ, I would classify them as very much visual learners. They want to look at golf swings. DJ sometimes if he's struggling or trying to work, if we're trying to work on a backswing or work on a down swing,

I'll film one. I'll film it from the down the line angle, and then i'll film it from face on and I'll show it to him and he'll say, and I always film one at slow motion and then one at full speed. And so what DJ tends to do is he'll look at the full speed one and he'll just watch it over and over again. I'll watch it

like five times in a row. If it's if it's from down the line, he's looking whatever he's looking at his back swing is down swing, he'll say, hey, run that at full speed, and he'll look at my phone and we'll run it at full speed and he's like, okay, let me, let me look at that in slow motion. And then normally he'll kind of take my phone and he'll kind of you jog the frames on where he wants it. But he is a very very visual learner.

A lot of times, if we're working on things, I will I've got an app on my phone to where I can, you know, take still pictures and kind of show positions side by side, And I do that a lot of times. If we're working on trying to get the golf club a little bit more in front, I'll look at a swing where the golf club was a little bit neutral, a little bit too much inside, and I'll kind of put those two backswings side by side, and then I'll kind of put the two down swing

side by side. And and DJ has this really kind of uncanny way to kind of look at it and go because where where there are other players want to look at UM, they want to look at launch monitor numbers. There are coaches that want to see launch monitor numbers. UM Brooks and DJ are just not those type of players. UM doesn't make it right, it doesn't make it wrong. There are guys that want a lot of information. UM

you know. I guess the best example I could use would be, you know, Justin Rose and Sean Foley, and I think you know falls and and Rosie, they they're always looking at track men numbers. UM, Sean always looking at numbers, because I think the way that Sean thinks about the golf swing is, you know, you look at the numbers. UM, that's the way his brain works. UM. Some players aren't like that. My brain doesn't work like that. I mean, it just doesn't. I'm not a math guy.

I'm not a science guy. UM. If I'm looking at the numbers on a launch monitor, I'm looking at them for one hundred percent something specific. I don't want to see every shot on a launch monitor because the launch monitor is not really telling me what's happening. What's telling me what's happening with the player is what my eyes can see. And I think a lot of UM instructors think that, you know, launch monitors, that's that's going to

be kind of the end all be all. I always say, the computer and the monitor that you need is in your eyes. So I'm looking at what the ball flights doing. I'm and and specifically with Brooks and DJ I think those two. We're looking a lot at start lines, how they're starting the golf ball, where they're starting the golf ball, and then the other thing going back to that second

pair of eyes. Um, I think one of my main jobs is to kind of do kind of a hundred and eighty kind of three sixty view of what the player is doing. You know, walk around, look at the ball position, and a lot of times I'll just say to Brooks or DJ, hey just move the golf ball half a ball more forward, move the golf ball half a ball back. Hey, just your shoulders are a little shut.

I'm always looking at what I can see that the player is doing before they hit the golf ball, because to me, a lot of what happens with tour players and competitive golfers, a lot of I wouldn't say the mistakes, but a lot of where they get into trouble is

the way they're addressing the golf ball. And you know, with the speed of specifically with guys like Brooks and DJ, they've got so much speed that if the setup gets bad, the alignment gets bad, the ball position gets bad, they can start hitting the golf ball a long way offline because there's just a slight you know, fault in how

they're setting up. So I'm always, especially early in the year now that we're getting back to playing, now that we're ramping up back into tournaments, I'm hyper focused on, you know, the basics, all the stuff that isn't sexy in modern teaching right now, ball position, grip stance, posture alignment. That was kind of the mantra when my dad grew up and when my dad was playing. You know, my dad's you know, going to be eighty at the end

of this summer. You know, Grip stance, posture alignment. That's what he grew up on. He didn't grow up on launch monitors, he didn't grow up on three D. He didn't grow up on all of the technology and all of the things we know, and and so I'm always trying to say, Okay, what can I look at and what can I say? And I just will say to you know, in an ideal world, my job at a

tour event would be not to say too much. I mean, that would be a one hundred percent win for both me and the player, because that would mean they're in a pretty good position, right They're in a pretty good place to where we're not going to have to make a lot of changes, and in an ideal world, I won't be making we won't be making a lot of changes, right, We're not going to be making a lot of you know, backswing changes. We're just trying to make some small little

tweaks knowing that they're on countdown. Right, it's Tuesday, so that means whatever we were working on today, they've got Wednesday and Thursday to try and embed implement that, and then they've got to go play the game then the test starts, right. So you know, like I said, DJ hasn't been playing a lot of competitive golf. He really has. This is going to be the first competitive tournament DJ's played since Miami of last year, I think in October. So you know, we don't have a lot of data

points on what he's been doing. Yes, we've watched him, played hit balls in practice. Yes, I mean we played golf all weekend. But what they're doing at home has very little bearing on what they're going to do once the tournament starts. Because you can be hitting a grade at home and hit a terrible at a tournament. You cannot be playing grade at a tournament or at a

in your practice and play good right. So a lot of it is just basics, and the basics for DJ's golf swing are pretty much the basics for Brooks's golf swing. They like to fade it, keep the golf club in front of them going back, get it back out in front of them coming down. DJ's got that unique head position. One of the things that we were working on over the weekend because DJ had a little tweak in his back a couple of weeks ago, and I think he just was a little bit kind of reticent to just

kind of get through it. So he was hanging back a little so and as he was hanging back, his head actually wasn't kind of rotating out towards the target the way it normally does. But that was one of the things I was saying, Listen, just make sure you get through it, don't hang too much back on your right side, and just get your weight forward. Brooks a little bit of the same thing, a little slight alteration

to his ball position. The tendency with Brooks is to get the golf ball too far back in his stance, and again, as a fader of the golf ball, that's the death move from him because then on the downswing the path gets too neutral and he can't kind of round the corner, get the get the club working and exiting left. So this morning, a lot of what we were doing with Brooks is just I was checking the ball position and just saying, hey, make sure that ball

position to get too far back. Every now and again it would creep and he would either hit one to the left or he'd hit one to the right. But if that ball position stays nice and forward, He's normally in a good place because then he can feel like the chest opens up, he feels like he can turn through it, he feels like he can release the golf club, and then he can just basically hit the shots that he wants. Pat Perez is the one hundred and eighty degree opposite of that. Pat likes and wants to be

able to draw the golf ball. He wants to be able to start the golf ball to the right, he wants to be able to curve it back from right to left. So the things I'm working on with Brooks and DJ are the opposites of what I'm working on with Pat Perez. Pat's tendency, the takeaway gets a little bit quick, gets a little bit fast, he can kind

of have that little bit of outmove going back. The club then on the downswing gets really really quick in transition, and he just can't shift that path right enough to start the golf ball in the direction that he wants to. So, in the same way that with Brooks and DJ Faders were trying to have them get the golf club and keep the golf club very much in front of them, in Pat's case, we're trying to have the golf club work very much what he feels like is on the inside.

Have that downswing work on the inside. You know, I wouldn't say that's something that I teach on a regular basis. A lot of players that I work with, I think do that too much. The golf club gets two inside going back, then they get kind of two inside coming down, the body gets a little bit slow, and then their hands get a little bit active. And it was something that we kind of keyed in on at the end of last season at the Miami event. I know that that Pat he sees a draw right, he sees the

golf ball go right to left. We've had some success with Pat in having him hit fades, but I know that kind of the holy grail for him as a player. His shot that he sees and wants to hit is draw. So the only way that he can feel that is for that backswing to feel like it's almost too much inside.

And it's a fine line right now with me as his coach and as an instructor, because there are times where the golf club and my kind of the way I think and in my opinion, and I'm like, that's a little that's a little deep, and that's a little inside. But the way that Pat's bodywork, Pat doesn't have a lot of rotation. He had a hip injury from a car accident years ago on his left hip. So Pat has a lot of lateral move to his golf swing, almost a lot of lateral slide to his golf swing.

So again it's the complete one hundred and eighty degree opposite of guys like Brooks and DJ. They have speed, they can rotate. Pat doesn't have that. That's not part of his DNA. So my job as the coach is first and foremost I have to give the player confidence, right I feel like that is one of my main jobs is to instill confid in the player. And Pat's confidence comes from being able to see the draw, being able to see the golf ball curve from right to left.

So this morning we were working on really trying to have that golf club work what he feels like is inside, and then really trying to get him to feel like he starts that golf ball out to the right and when he does that, the first thing it does is he starts to see the shape that he wants to see, which is a draw. And my job as a coach is to listen to the player and I ask players, listen, what shapes do you want to hit? What shots do

you want to hit? And then I feel like it's my job to say, Okay, the player wants to do this one can they do that? Do they have the physical ability to put the club in these positions? In Pat's case, when he gets the backswinging a little bit on the inside, he's able to turn the golf ball over and draw it. So that was the stuff we did on the range, not too long, and then the guys went to the golf course, so I did a lot of bouncing around. Um DJ and Pat play their

practice rounds together. Brooks plays his practice rounds on Live with his team. So DJ and Brooks and they're different, right, They've got different teams. So Brooks plays with his team. Pat and DJ tend to play a lot of their practice rounds together. Um, Peter eu line has joined M Dustin's team this week or this year on the aces. So, um, Pete, your line was out with us today. So when we're

out of the golf course. UM yeah, I mean again, I'm just checking basics, right, because I don't want to be working too much swing mechanics while they're on the golf course. I'm talking with the caddies. I'm saying, hey, listen, you know what what are you seeing? What do you like here? What do you think about the strategy here? Where do you think the miss should be here? So it's something that it's hard to explain, but UM, I love it. I love that kind of collaboration between myself

and the player, between me and the caddy. UM. I really value the practice rounds because it's an opportunity for all of us to get there. We're talking about strategy, We're talking about how they're going to play, what clubs are going to hit off the tier. They're hitting three woods for the hitting drivers. Um, I think it's fascinating

to listen. I mean, I've been doing this, you know, pretty much the majority of my adult life, but it's always fascinating to listen to that interaction between the player and the caddy. I love listening to to AJ and DJ. I love listening to H and Pat. I think Ricky Elliott to me, is one of the best caddies in the world. The interaction between you know, him and Brooks and the way that they kind of go about it.

Um And I think those the caddies as well, know their player, they know what type of information, how much information they want. So I just I enjoy the practice round so much because once the tournament starts as a coach as as as a golf coach, you know, being a professional golfer and coaching professional golfers. Once Thursday or Friday starts, once they get inside the ropes, they basically go to the moon. I can't say anything. They're on

another planet. They're inside the ropes, and there's nothing that I can do as the instructors, as the coach to influence what they're doing. So if I see Brooks's ball positions start to creep too far back, if I see DJ's alignment get a little bit off, if I see Pats start to take the golf club a little bit too much on the outside once they're in a tournament, once from the time they tee off until the time

they finish, I can't do anything about it. And I'll be honest with you, it is unbelievably frustrating when I watch team sports, when I watch college football and watch the adjustments guys like Nick Saban are able to make Kirby smart at Georgia, The changes they're able to make at halftime, the personnel that they're able to bring in the play calls, that they're able to learn from what happened in the first half. I don't get to do that.

Once the player goes inside the ropes and they're playing a competitive round on tour, I'm not allowed to talk to them. I can't say anything to them. I can't do any hand gestures. I try and never really get anywhere close to where they are. I try and get ahead so I can see where the ball's finishing. But it's just a little thing that I've always done. I

just don't want them to see me. I want them to kind of be in their world focusing on the things that they need to focus on, but it is frustrating. So that's why I think the practice rounds for me are are so important because I'm able to get inside the ropes. I'm able to look at the golf course. I'm able to look at the strategy, so that after the tournament rounds finish, were then able to kind of look at what they're doing where they were hitting shots.

Because I've been out on the golf course, I kind of know where everything is. Take a moment to thank for Wellness for supporting the show. You guys hear me talk about them every week, and the reason I do that is because I drink their coffee every week. I know lots of people are focusing on health and wellness as we start the new year, but what I love most about their coffee is that there isn't anything artificial and no artificial ingredients sweeteners, creamers and all the junk

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most players now are adopting the nine whole practice rounds. Um, you'll see some players maybe play eighteen holes. But um, I think a lot of players, you know, both on Live and the PGA Tour, Um, they're playing nine they might play nine Tuesday. If they're in the pro am, they know they're probably going to play eighteen holes. So a lot of times players get to tournaments, um, they don't.

They get in Monday night, they play nine holes on Tuesday, they play eighteen holes on Wednesday, and then they kind of get out. So um, on Live, we got in Monday, we're Tuesday Wednesday, so we'll do nine holes again tomorrow, ProAm on Thursday, and then the tournament starts. But as I said earlier, in an ideal world, UM, I'm not saying a lot um I'm not having them work on

a lot of technical stuff. Now, there are weeks where the players aren't playing good and you have to get in there and and and work and and try and fix things. Um. But I always remembers years ago, probably

six seven, eight years ago. I think we're in Washington, DC at congressional for the for the Old at and T and I was talking to Sean about, you know, our job and stuff like that, and it was interesting that Full said, you know, I kind of feel like we're we're we're doctors, and you know, the PGA Tour is kind of the battlefield, right. Yes, I know it's not a real battle field, and I'm not trying to make the analogy that golfers are any more important than

they are, but it's the field of play. And he's like, listen, there's once the tournaments kind of start, and once we get here, it's a little bit like we're just doing triage because we can't really do a lot of open heart surgery while they're you know, in battle right, and and and it's it's it's important to realize that once we get to tournament weeks, because the weeks are what

they are. You know, when the tournament's going to start, you don't have the availability to take the car and pull it apart and rebuild the engine because the player has to play. And that's something that's taken me a lot long time to learn, and I've learned by you know, making a tremendous amount of mistakes, right, you know, you'd make mistakes where I think early in my career I was.

I was way more hands on, way more information, And now in an ideal world, I try and do as much of the hard work, the technical work, the drill work when we're home and when we're in off week, so that when we get to tournaments, we're not really doing a lot of technical mechanical work because I don't want the players in that headspace. I want them to be in the play headspace, you know. So I love the fact that I work with players that hit the

golf ball different directions. I don't believe that there's one way to swing the golf club. I don't believe that I don't have a system, right, I don't have every player I work with doing the same thing. I have things in the golf swing that I believe in. I have a philosophy in my own head of things that I think make players hit shots better. But I don't have a specific formula system. So in that respect, Um,

I like it that all the players are different to me. Um, you know, DJ is different from Brooks, Brooks is different from Pat m They're in different ages, they're different stages of their career. They've all got different skill sets. You know, DJ's a freak athlete and you know, unbelievably flexible, tremendous amount of flexibility. Brooks has had some pretty significant catastrophic injuries, and you know, we're constantly working around them. Pat is

in his mid to late forties. His body isn't what it once was, but Pat still has a lot of speed. But I'm working with all of these players as individuals and trying to take what they do and you learn your delivery, kind of like being a stand up comedian. It's a little bit like what the you know, what kind of crowd is it tonight? You're playing to your audience. And so I'm working with Pat differently than I'm working with Brooks, and I'm working with Brooks differently than I'm

working with DJ. And I think for me, that's one of the things that I really really like about what I do. So, yeah, we got to see the golf course. We're talking about strategy, we're talking about what you want, what shots you want to hit. You know, A lot of it is is a lot of me being you know, super super positive. M That's one of the things that that I try and do. You know, I learned from my dad that I try and be as much of

a cheerleader as I can. Even if the player hits a bad shot, I'll say, you know, listen, that wasn't that bad. We just need to get the golf club a little bit more here, because the last thing you want to be doing is putting a lot of doubt in in the players that you work with in their head. So we got good practice rounds in today, went back to the range afterwards, didn't do a ton of stuff. Brooks always likes to go to the range and really just kind of wind down. He does that in practice rounds,

and he does that in tournament rounds. He likes to go from the golf course, maybe get some lunch, but go back to the range. DJ doesn't really do a lot of practicing after tournament rounds right or after practice rounds. Every now and again, we'll go back to the range. But he's just like, yeah, I mean I felt go down the course today, I know what I need to do. We'll get back at it tomorrow. And so that's very different.

And you know, everybody kind of has their own way of practicing, and so a lot of my job people ask me, you know, describe what your job is. It's as much managing people as it is, you know, teaching golf. And let's be honest, right, I'm not actively teaching Dustin Johnson, Brooks Kepka and Pat Perez anything. Right, these goes were great players a long time before they met me. Right, I'm not teaching them anything. I think a lot of what I'm doing out here onto his coach. Right, we

know what they do when they play their best. They're the athlete. I'm the coach. I'm I'm not hitting any shots, soum. They're great players, and a lot of what I'm trying to do is listen. We know you perform your best when you do these things. We kind of have a recipe, a blueprint, and we've got a lot of data points. Right. That's the great thing about you know, working with competitive golfers is you know, I've been working with DJ since

about I guess around two twelve twenty thirteen. I worked with Brooks for eight years, took a little you know, took to your break and we got back together kind of, you know, summer of last year. I know what makes DJ his best, right. I know what DJ does when he's the number one player in the world, when he's winning majors, when he's winning tournaments. I know what Brooks

does when he plays his best. And in terms with Pat, I think a lot of my job is to try and may Pat as confident as a player as he can, because Pat can get negative, he can beat himself up. He can I think at times he can almost self sabotage himself by the mental attitude that he has. So I think I'm trying to do much more of a coaching role with patum probably than any of the players I work with, because you know, it's my job to keep him up. It's my job to keep him positive.

It's my job to think get him thinking that he's playing good and that good golf is around the corner. And then lastly, I think a huge part of my job is after after everybody finished today, I went in with Brooks Keepka's physio Mark Wall, who, in my opinion, he is the most valuable person on Brooks's team. When Brooks first turn pro and he got his PGA Tour cardum, I said to him, I said, you need to hire Mark Wall. Mark Wall was you know, he worked with

Jimmy Walker, worked with JB. Holmes, he worked with Steve Stricker. He's almost like a savant when it comes to biomechanics, what the body is doing, and probably someone who I trust as much as anybody. So during the offseason, Brooks came in and Mark came down and they basically did a total diagnostic of Brooks's body, his food intake, what he's allergic to, what foods are good from him, what foods aren't good for him. They did a complete three

D screen of what his golf swing was doing. And so I sat for almost two hours with Mark Wall today and Mark kind of ran me through everything that's going on with Brooks physically, where the limitations are, what the issues are. He's constantly Marcus and listen, what are you What are you seeing in his golf swing? What are you trying to do in his golf swing? And based off of that, I'm looking at what Mark, as the guy that's in charge of Brooks's body. Listen, what

is his body able to do? What is his body able not to do? And then based off of that, I'm trying to look at what I'm doing and hopefully we're on the same page. But I think it was really important in the offseason, given some of the injuries that Brooks has had in the last couple of years, to kind of get that big diagnostic look. It was a pretty lengthy report. I think Mark does a fantastic job and making things really really easy for me to understand.

But I don't think that that the fans realize what a collaborative effort all of this is. And yeah, there's there's the jackass instructor, the jackass reporters and journalists that say, you know, I'm tired of these players talking about their team. It's an individual sport. You know, enough with the team, go play and stuff. But the modern athlete has a team of people around them, and you know, I am a huge part of that team, but there are so

many other people that are part of that team. And what we're trying to do is get everybody on the same page. Brooks has a big team, DJ has a big team. Pat doesn't necessarily have a huge team. So I think in my role with Pat, he almost kind of looks at me like a head coach that I'm the head coach of his team, and he looks to me for a lot of things like that. Brooks and DJ maybe not so much. You know, Brooks has a putting instructor, he has a short game instructor, he has

a trainer, He has Mark Wall as his physio. So I mean, we've got five six guys on Brooks's team. DJ's got Joey Ds his trainer, He's got a physio, and then I'm in charge of the golf part of it.

And then he's got Ajs his cato, And that's a lot of people, and it's a collaborative effort, and a lot of my job is to sit and meet with all of these people on the team and try and get kind of as much of a three hundred, you know, kind of a thirty eight thousand foot overview of what everybody's doing, and then what I can do from a golf standpoint, and going back to you know, Brooks's physio,

Mark Wall. There are weeks where Mark will say, hey, listen, Brooks's body isn't moving great this week, So we got to limit how many balls we hit. Let's try and get quantity out of the window and let's get or let's get quality and not get a ton of reps. The reps that we're going to get. Let's get a lot out of these reps, because his body just isn't in a place right now to stand there and hit a ton of golf balls. So that's kind of what a normal day is like for me. Obviously, the bigger

the tournament, things change. I mean Majors, it's different. Players are very very different at majors than they are at regular tour events. I mean, you can just tell they understand what the stakes are, they understand the task at head, they understand the holy grail is winning majors, right, I mean, that's what every tour player wants to win. So when they're at major's they're very different. They're a little bit

on edge. I wouldn't say that they're panicking, but they're more on edge at at at majors than they aren't regular tour events. But yeah, that's kind of what I do. We'll do the same thing tomorrow and kind of go through that that kind of same kind of routine. We'll work a little bit on the range, we'll get out

on the golf course, maybe hit some balls after. But it's a lot of that's a lot of me just kind of looking at what they're doing and being that second pair of eyes, being that coach and say, listen, we know what you do when you play your best. If we can get the golf club and these positions, if your body can move it in this way, then you can go to the golf course and just play golf. And ultimately, that's my job is to send tour players as as a tour coach, it's my job to get

them ready to play tournaments. And I don't really think I'm doing anything different than you know, Cameron McCormick's doing. We might with Jordan Spieth. Kim works with Jordan Spieth, has worked with Daniel Bergery, just started work with Tom Kim. You know, I spend a lot of time with the other coaches. We talk about what the players are doing. I'm not someone that is afraid to talk to other coaches.

A lot of times I'll say to the coaches that whose opinions I trust and believe in, I'll say, hey, what do you think about this, What do you think about this move? What do you think about this problem? And try and take some information from the other players.

I'm so lucky in being able to work on tour, to have the availability to have access to what I believe are some of the best coaches in the world, to be able to pick their brains, to talk to them about what they're working on with players, to say, hey, what are you guys going to do on seven? What are you guys going to do on nine? What do you are you guys hitting driver on this while you guys hitting three wood? Where do you see the miss on this whole? So it's a constant I guess it's

a constant quest for information. For me, it's a constant quest for knowledge to try and figure out all of this stuff that that makes golfers this giant puzzle. We're trying to put these puzzle pieces in. Listen, I'm not digging ditches. I have an unbelievable job. I'm incredibly lucky. It's long hours, it's a lot of standing outside, and I've got a horrendous golf tan because I'm outside all

the time. But you know, I consider myself so unbelievably lucky that, you know, some of the best players in the world would entrust me to help them with their golf and I never never take that lightly. It means something to me, and I really feel like I'm incredibly lucky to get to do what I do and I'm excited for the year when you see these guys play well, trust me, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that.

There are a lot of people working behind the scenes, and you know, I'm I'm very, very thankful and very lucky to be a part of that. So that's kind of a day in the life of of what I do on the on tour, and you know, I love it. It's a huge part of my life and you know, I'm excited to continue to do it. So a lot of stuff happening in golf. Last week, finally John Ram

gets to number one in the world. It makes absolutely no sense to me if you look at the record that John Ram has had in the last three to four months, that it's taken this many wins for him to get to number one in the world. And I think John's talked about it. I think a lot of people are talking about it. I think there's gotta be a different way to start ranking players that are playing competitive golf because John rom has been the number one

ranked player in the world for a long time. And um, you know, we saw Tiger Woods come back last week. UM yeah, I mean it was good to see Tiger back. I mean Tiger, he's the goat. Um, he's the needle, and you know, it was good to see him back. Um, and we saw some good golf from Tiger. So I don't know if we'll be able to see Tiger a lot because I don't know, you know, how much his

body can hold up. I know some of the guys that work with Tiger behind the scenes on you know, his his goal and his body and it takes a village. And it was nice to hear Tiger say, you know last week, I want to thank my team for getting me ready. UM. I don't think anybody has any concept of all of the things that it takes for Tiger Woods play golf in twenty twenty three. M it's not band aids that he's able to put on the physical

issues that he's got. It takes an enormous amount of work from um, some incredibly talented and smart people that are helping him. And yeah, it was fun to see him. Um, it was good to see Max Homer. He's it's been fun to watch Max kind of become one, in my opinion, one of the best players in the world. He's such a likable character, loves golf swinging. I think the work in his instructor, Mark Blackburn have done has really started to pay off and has really turned him into one

of the best players in the world. But an iconic golf course, Riviera always great to see that golf course. I think it's one of the gems of of of golf courses in the United States. It's it's great design, it's in a great part of the world. And um yeah, I mean the golf season in full flow. I'm excited for Live to get back up and running. If you're not a Live fan, I'm okay with that. Um it's okay. I mean, if it's not for you, if you don't like the product for whatever reason, that's cool. Um I'm

not a country music fan. I don't listen to country music. Doesn't mean the country music is bad. It's just not my jam. It's not my thing. And if Live isn't your thing, that's okay too, but I'm excited. Um, I think we're going to see some good golf. And twenty twenty three is, you know, for me, is finally getting

up and running. Can't thank everybody enough for listening. If you're new, if if you're new to the podcasts, we've got a bunch of great episodes, We've got a bunch of great guests, and if you're a regular listener, thank you so much. Um. We're going to keep trying to get as much information as possible. I'm doing some of these solo pots because the feedback has been pretty good. People. You know, my job is a teach golf for a living, and I think everybody listening wants to improve their golf.

And if I can help and tell my story and give my experiences and the information that that I use, hopefully that's helping players. And that's been the feedback. We will I promise we'll get back to the guests soon. But everybody had to suffer with another H three podcast this week. Looking forward to seeing you next week. Son of a Bush comes to you every Wednesday. Thanks for listening.