It's the Son of a Butch podcast. I'm your host, Claude Harmon on the road this week in Mexico City. But I wanted to do a podcast about kind of the last two weeks for me. So was that the Masters had Dustin Johnson and Noah Kent, the amateur the book played at Augusta, so it was there for the entire week, and you know, tournament weeks, tour weeks, what we're doing with players, yeah, I mean, it's individual, it's
specific to what the player's doing. So it was at a major all week, and then following the week, came home and had, you know, a week's worth of lessons at home with just average, everyday regular golfers, and I just kind of wanted to talk about my experience in the difference between those two weeks, because listen, it's golf, right, We're working with players, we're trying to help players play the game of golf. But it's very different at the
elite tour level, specifically the week of a major. The things that you're working on with a player when you're working with them is very different than what you're working on at.
Home with just regular golfers.
So you know, the Masters, DJ one in twenty twenty, so he's got good history there. He's finished second there. He loves the golf course, seventy four to seventy three. And yeah, I mean I had an unfortunate finish on Friday, Bogie seventeen, Doull bug at eighteen. But actually, you know, the first round eighty six percent of the fairways, seventy percent of the greens, didn't really putt great. It's tough
to putt great around that place. Thirty three putts second day, didn't hit as many fairways, didn't hit him any greens seventy one percent of the fairways, sixty one percent of the greens, but twenty nine putts. So played a little better, easily could have made the cut. But listen, it's a hard golf course and you're going into that week. I think DJ was coming in with some good confidence. He'd played well in Singapore, played decent in Miami at Durraw,
which is again a really really hard golf course. But for DJ major weeks, we're always trying to think in terms of okay, let's work on the putting, work on the short game, ball striking. For DJ, I mean, he's been driving the golf really really well. So when you're working with a player at a tournament, you tend to not practice their strengths. Right, We're not going to stand there and hit if someone's driving it really good or someone's iron plays really good, We're not going to stand
there and hit a ton of those. We're going to work on the stuff that, you know, the golf course kind of demands and what.
The weaknesses are.
And I think for right now, you know, certainly DJ's weapons still even at this stage of his career, is the driver. I mean, he drove the golf ball as far as anybody at Augusta, so the distance is still there. He's been driving it really really well. The iron game has been pretty solid. I think the big thing for
DJ is just putting. And so the week of a major, you're trying to figure out, Okay, they're going to be playing a lot of practice rounds, right, And a lot of the practice rounds at Augusta are very They're kind of specific practice rounds in that you kind of know where the flags are.
Going to be.
It's a very unique golf course in that it's the same golf course, right, So when you're trying to prepare for a major, but specifically if you're trying and when you're trying to prepare for a GUS to National, you kind of know what.
To prepare for. The test is the test, right.
The golf course is the golf course. So we're not spending a ton of time kind of technique wise, unless we absolutely positively need to. A lot of it is just strategy. The range at Augusta, the tournament range that they really only use for maybe three four times a year. I think it's one of the best ranges, if not the best range in professional golf from an aesthetic standpoint, from a look standpoint, and it's got great target greens
and then it's got two very defined, specific fairways. A lot of driving ranges don't have anything on the driving range other than just flags, but at Augusta National they have trees, and so when we're hitting drivers, it's a great driving range to do that, right, because it gives you really really defined visuals. It also gives you really really defined visuals that look very similar to what the
golf course is going to look like. So you know, from a st how a g standpoint, A lot of what you're talking about at Augusta is what are you going to hit off the tees where you're hitting drivers, where you're hitting three woods, what's the layup going to be? And the driving range there gives us a really good opportunity to kind of simulate what we're doing. So we spent a lot of time with DJ trying to shape holes.
The tenth hole at Augusta National, for those of you that have been there, severely downhill, tremendous amount of downhill slope, but you need to basically almost hit a hook from where the tea box is. You almost want to have the feeling that you're trying to overdraw the golf ball. So for DJ, that's not his go to shape. He fades the golf ball, but there's no benefit and you just can't fade it on that hole. So spend a lot of time trying to draw the golf ball. What
clubs we were going to hit off there? Was it going to be a three wood, he carries a seven wood, he carries a nine wood, or trying to look at what the weather is going to be like Thursday and Friday, where the wind is going to be, and how the golf course is going to play relative to the wind direction, So a lot of what we're doing before the tournament starts is basically I'd say more so than any other course, maybe maybe the Open Championship because of the weather and
the kind of shots that you're going to have to hit. But I do think that from a prep standpoint, more goes into the prep at Augusta at the Masters than probably any tournament. I definitely think you can overprepare. I definitely think that it's a golf course that makes you think right. It makes you think on basically every shot, so you can't turn your brain off, you can't turn your focus off. So you know, certainly a lot of
work in just trying to talk about the strategy. Spend a lot of time in the short game area.
I think at.
Augusta they have one of the best, if not the best short game.
Area in the world.
They've had two really big greens, tons of undulation, lots of bunkers, and it simulates a lot of what you're going to see on the golf course. So spend a lot of time over there in short game and short game is pretty good, and spend a lot of time putting wise.
I mean, it's a tough.
Golf course to put wise, because the greens are incredibly fast, they have a tremendous amount of undulation, they have a tremendous amount of slope, and its toured.
You have to work a lot.
On defensive putting. But if you get too defensive, then you're never really giving yourself chances. So the day that DJ had thirty three putts, birdie conversion rate out of all the birdie chances he has was fifteen percent. The following day, twenty nine putts, the birdie conversion rate was thirty six. So I do think that there are a lot of mind games that the golf course plays with you. So in the prep work that we were doing, it was more golf course and strategy related with DJ than
it was necessarily swing related. And then I worked with Noah Kn't. Noah got to the finals of the USAM, lost on the thirty six holes of the USAM last summer at Hazeltine, and as a result of that, the Masters and the USGA gave the two finalists at the USAM they give them invites into the Masters. So for Noah, as a twenty year old sophomore at the University of Florida, he played in the Masters, and he was standing on the sixth hole, the par three in the first round
two under, and he was leading the Masters. So regardless of what happened the rest.
Of the week he didn't make the cut, he.
Got to play with Bernhard Longer in his final major. Bernhard Longer on Thursday at Augusta hit hybrid into nine of the par fours, the nine of the ten par fours in a major at Augusta National, Bernhard Langer hit hybrids into nine of the ten. Noah kent on the first hole, had seventy four yards to the front, and I think he was under one hundred to the flag. I've never seen anyone hit a drive where Noah hit it on the first hole. Bernhard Langer beat him on
the first day by five six. I mean, Noah's out driving him by fifty to seventy yards on every hole, and Bernhard Langer had a pot on the last hole to make the cut in his last major. So I think for Noah it was a massive, massive learning curve, the prep work that we were doing. From Noah's standpoint, he played the Terra Cotta Amateur the week before the week before that, he had played in the Houston Open on the PGA Tour event and missed the cut by a couple there, so that was a good opportunity to
kind of see where his game stacked up. He was going to take that following week off and just kind of go up to Augusta do some practice round work early in the week, but I thought it would be a good idea in talking to his coaches at Florida, J C. Deacon and Dudley Hart, I thought he needed some reps. So he entered the Terra Cotta Amateur the week before Augusta and finished fourth, So I thought that was good.
I thought that was really really good.
And then we had to get him a caddy for Augusta, and you know that was a process as well. We thought about taking a local caddy. Obviously one of the local Augusta caddies definitely knows the golf course well, knows the greens well, but given the distances that Noah hits it. He played a practice round with Rory McRoy on Tuesday. They played the back nine. Harry Diamond said he was really really impressed. I think no outdrove Rory on every hole.
So he has tremendous distance. He has tremendous power, and the task and the goal as a twenty year old now is just to try and get Noah to learn how to use that power, use his skills, use the tools that he has in his toolbox. So hit a new caddy that week, Jonathan Smart Smarty, who caddies for Cameron Stringgalion Live. But Smarty's been a good caddy for a very very long time and was on the bag
for Danny Willett when he won the Master. So I thought that that would be a good fit to have somebody that had won around augusta national before that was still in the modern game, that wasn't you know, out of caddying and had caddied before. So that was a trying to get those two acclimated. It was really the first time on the Monday that they'd even seen each other and met. We had a bunch of zoom calls. They'd conversed and talked, but as a caddy, until you
see a player up close. I mean I had talked to Smarty and send them videos and sent them videos from Houston and talked to him about what I saw and things like that, and I thought that first meeting was going to be really, really interesting, and I thought it was a good fit. I think Smarty was really really impressed with Noah's game and practice rounds. Tuesday he played with He and DJ played against Phil Mickelson and
Michael Kim. They played the front nine. I thought that was really huge for Noah to be able to get out with someone like DJ, who obviously former world number one, has won US Open, but it's won the Masters, and they have a similar type game, and they have a similar type skill set from a distance in power standpoint, So I thought that was going to be invaluable for him. And then I can't think of anybody other than maybe Tiger Woods, that you would want to play a practice
around with during tournament week than Phil Micholson. The knowledge, the skill set, the way he thinks about playing that golf course, the way he thinks about playing that tournament, and there's a reason why he has multiple green jackets, there's a reason why he's a multiple major champion. And then a player like Michael Kim, who obviously is having a really really good year, got into that top fifty category. If you follow him on social he's got a lot
of really good things to say. Works with Sean Foley. I think they've done a great job on his golf swing. He's become really really consistent. And so they played a match and I think zul square going to the last
hole DJ and Noah against Phil and Michael Kim. I think from the ninth fairway, Phil lipped it out, hit it to like two feet and said to Noah, well, you guys lose, and Noah hit it I think to fifteen twenty feet and then Noah buried it out him, you know, and walked it into little fistpon, which Phil was not happy about. So I thought that was really really cool to watch. Kind of the practice round set up.
He took a friend that had caddy for him in the summer in the USM and the Porter Cup took him to the par three, which again really cool experience for him. But from Noah's standpoint, I mean, he is very very raw, and that's what everybody said about him that played with him. Listen, tons of speed, tons of distance, tons of power, but he has a very raw talent.
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Your game and elevate your confidence. So a lot of it, again similar to what we were doing with DJ, did a little bit of technical work on his golf swing. Noah likes to fade the golf ball, so we did a lot of work the week at the of just saying, listen, let's make sure we get really really specific in our start lines where we want the ball to start, and then let's just try and get the golf ball specifically going one direction. So trying to get the golf ball.
If there was going to be a miss, the miss was going to be to the right and not to the left, because it's impossible to play any tournament, let alone a major, let alone Augusta with a two way miss. So did a lot of work with him, just trying to feel like he wasn't really using his hands a lot. I think the other thing that Noah, because he has a lot of speed, but he has a very short backswing. He's six foot five, so he has a tremendous amount
of speed and power. He's blessed with great genetics, long arms, long legs, so.
He can move it.
But I think at times his backswing gets a little bit short. So a lot of work in the practice rounds and a lot of work on the range and just saying, listen, let's make sure that you finish your back swing. So I was having him take a setup and standing and then just having him make a shoulder turn, and then I was putting my hand kind of in the middle of his back where kind of the low go on the shirt would be on the middle of a tour player's back, and I was like, listen, okay,
you've got to get to hear every single time. And one of the things that I wanted him to do in his practice swings, both on the range and on the golf course, was to make a practice swing where he went to the top of his backswing and he stopped, then he started down, so he got that feeling of okay, where do we want the body to be at the top, And then did some just kind of basic impact drills, had him hit some kind of three quarter shots to where he felt like he wasn't really using his hands,
really felt like the club face was coming into impact in a really really square position, and trying to feel like he was keeping his body moving his hips, his chest, his big muscles, because when Noah gets in trouble, he gets a little bit short at the top and then kind of gets way out in front of it early and then kind of has to back out of it and his body kind of can stall out and stop and the hands get active and that's where we can get that two way miss.
So really wanted him.
To try and feel like, you know, he was continuing to finish the turn. A phrase that my grandfather used to use, and I said this to Noah. My grandfather used to say, give yourself time to make a good backswing. And you know, that's something that I think a lot of golfers struggle with. Is in an effort to try and get more distance, in an effort to try and get more power, they're trying to hit the golf ball
kind of with their backswing. And if you think about the backswing, and what I said to Noah is, listen, the backswing is the creation phase.
Right.
You're trying to create power, You're trying to create movement. On the backswing. The downswing is where we're going to be storing that power, and then the follow through is where we're going to be unloading that power. And I think a lot of golfers that kind of creation phase gets kind of lost. They don't really make a turn, they don't really wind anything up, and then they struggle with the unwine. They struggle with getting through the golf ball.
So Noah just making sure that on the golf swing, the golf swing didn't get too quick, the golf swing didn't get too fast, and trying to get him to feel like with the longer stuff, he was making as big a turn as possible, but feeling like he wasn't going at it at full speed because obviously the speed is going to change when he gets to the golf course. Adrenaline, focus, you know, pressure, all of those things, so the golf swing is going to get faster on the golf course.
So I thought, you know, I thought our practice rounds were really good.
He wasn't.
He likes to fade the golf ball. He can draw the golf ball, but the tenth hole, he made some big numbers there. The tenth hole was the struggle for him. So we were trying in the practice rounds to figure out, Okay, what do we do. Do we smash just smash driver, because that's the club he has the most confidence in. Do we hit three wood? He carries a seven wood, which he can carry well over two fifty three wood
he can carry, you know, close to three hundred. But I thought ten was going to be a difficulty shot because it doesn't suit his eye. It's a nervous one, and it's one where there really isn't another option other than to stand up and hit a draw if you want to take advantage of the slope.
It is a brutal shot.
If you hang one out kind of to the right and it doesn't catch the slope and it doesn't go down the hill, then you're on a down slope ball can kind of either be a blow or above your feet and you're going in over two hundred yards to a green that is incredibly difficult to hit under normal circumstance. You missed the green to the left, you're you're pretty
much making bogie your double. You miss the green to the right and one of the bunkers to the right, depending on where the pin is, and you're in the bunker on the right, the green slopes dramatically away. It's a very hard bunker shot. If you hit it there, you're probably gonna make bogie it best.
And he didn't execute.
On the golf course in the tournament the shot that we had practiced. He was able to do it in practice, and you know, trying to get him, Okay, listen, you're gonna try and hit a little bit of a draw with either probably your three wood, go at it a little bit easier, because the harder you go at it, that's when you tend to not finish that backswing, and then you can get way out in front of it early and then you can bring in the big right man where you can bring in the quick left miss.
He brought in the quick left miss. He missed it left and gonna make bogear double if you do that. But really really proud of him. On Friday, which was his final round, he didn't make the cut. He had that kind of same shot that Roy McElroy had up on the pine straw on thirteen. Everybody saw Rory hit it to you know, probably six seven feet and make the putt for eagle. Noah had pretty much the same shot pretty much the same club. I think he hit a chip four iron kind of like Rory did. Hit
it to a foot eagle, got some crystal. If you make an eagle out Augusta, you get some crystal. And I think that was really one of the highlights. He said afterwards that he tried to enjoy it a little bit more. On Friday's practice round, he also said, and I think this was something that was important that we saw on Thursday. He and his caddy Smarty, they were
in between clubs. He chose a shot that I don't think he was one hundred percent committed to and ended up not making a birdie on a par five that he can easily easily reach. And he said he didn't let go of it right. He said, he just kept thinking about it, was pissed off about it, let it really really affect him, and he went on a really bad stretch nine, ten, and eleven, the double bogie on ten.
One think he was still thinking about the fact that he didn't make birdie on eight, didn't take advantage of the par five, and so I think that was a big learning curve for him to kind of learn about, you know, what it takes to play tournament golf at the highest level what it takes to play in a
major championship. But you get to play with will Zlaturus, one of the best young players in the game, and got to play with Bernhard Longer and his final masters, and Bernhard smoked him and doesn't have any of the tools that Noah has. But the tools that Bernhard has are the tools that help you win majors and help you win golf tournaments over a forty year career. And I thought that given the type of player, and given the modern type of player that Noah is six', five you,
know can get one ninety five ball. Speed the task is going to be to get him to learn how to just use all that power and use all that speed in a usable. Way it doesn't do you any good to be able to hit the golf ball the distance that some of these young players can hit. It if you can't hit your wedges the numbers that you need to hit, them if you can't control the, spin if you can't control the. Trajectory so, yeah everybody that plays With noah can't marvels at the, speed the, distance the,
potential the bright. Future but now he's got to go back To florida and now he's got to get his ass back to work and he's got to take what he's learned from playing in A Pga tour event In houston and playing in a, major playing in The, masters AND i was proud of. Him he doesn't know what
he doesn't, know big learning curve for. HIM i think he just got an invite into The Byron nelson on THE Pga, tour so that'll be the SECOND pga tournament he's played in a. Month so he's on a good run of getting his game tested against the best.
Players in the. World so really really cool to see.
That it's always shitty going Home friday Night saturday morning from a, major specifically From, augusta so had to do, that went back Watched rory. WIN i mean it was only a matter of, time, RIGHT i, mean the guy. Here isn't a golf course on the Planet earth that has been designed more for one player's game than the skill set That rory McElroy. Has sunday nervy, start WHICH
i thought was to be, expected but got it. Done it wasn't, pretty but he gets his fifth, major he gets The Grand, slam and exactly what a player of his caliber. Deserves he's been one of the, best if not the best player in the game for a number of. Years fun to, watch exciting to. Watch The, masters always
a great. Tournament so last WEEK i was home and again coming off a, major coming off working with some of the best players in the, WORLD i go home AND i give golf lessons to, normal regular people trying to. Improve so one of the gore some things with two or two junior girls actually probably you, know in that kind of twelve to fifteen, range you, know just starting to play tournament. Golf so in a lot of, ways
very much still kind of beginning. Golfers and obviously that's incredibly different than working With Dustin johnson at The, masters who's a two time major, champion former world number, one
and has got a green. Jacket, Right so when we're looking at the difference between tour players and regular, GOLFERS i, mean to, me And i've talked a lot about this on the, podcast WHEN i go home from working on tour and go back to teaching normal, golfers just, everyday regular non tournament, GOLFERS i Think i'm always focused coming back from those tournament weeks on contact on the quality of, strike because you stand on a range at The, masters
nobody's shanking, it nobody's topping, it nobody's hitting it. Fat they all hit it, really really. Solid the sound of a tournament major driving range is very different than the sound of our driving ranges at.
Home so worked with the.
Girls she's probably thirteen, fourteen and she just needed impact. Right the impact wasn't, Solid AND i think in a lot of, WAYS i see a lot of young juniors like. This she's made that jump FROM Us kids.
Clubs to regular.
CLUBS i think she's right on the borderline of that in, that, yes she's almost two young FOR Us kids, clubs but she's almost not big enough for the regular set that she's. Playing SO i think a lot of her, issues like a lot of junior, golfers, specifically in my, experience a lot of junior girls is moving the golf club takes coordination and strength and, speed and so this, girl she
was really struggling like a lot of. Players you, know four or five good, ones two or three bad, ones three more good, ones ten bad, ones eight good, ones two or three bad, ones and the bad shots almost exclusively are Not, yes they're directional, misses but they're directional
misses caused by poor. Contact and so in an effort to try and make that jump FROM us kids clubs to real golf clubs to getting maybe starting to play more, tournaments to, me she's just overswinging the golf club and she couldn't really control what was happening at the bottom at the moment of contact where she's striking the golf. Ball so a lot of impact drills got her own swing catalyst and was able to kind of show her
where her weight was, transferring how her weight was. Transferring like a lot of, girls in effort to try and get that golf ball in the, air she had more weight on her back. Foot she's a right handed, golfer so her trail, foot which is her right, foot had more weight on her right, leg her right side and impact so did a lot of waist high back waist high through swings just to get her kind of this concept of where her body needed to be at contact at the moment of.
Impact AND I i think.
That's a really important thing if you're struggling with, contact make the movement patterns. SMALLER i always try and make analogies When i'm giving golf, lessons and so to, me contact is just learning how to control the. Car when you're learning how to, drive, right we're not giving you A ferrari and telling you to get From, Jupiter florida To West Palm, beach which is about an hour and a half.
Tour we're not.
Giving you a car when you're just learning how to drive A ferrari and, saying all, right drive and get there as fast as you possibly, can because what's going to. Happen you're going to crash the. Car so a lot of WHAT i like to, do especially with, juniors is get impact, first BECAUSE i think a lot of people listening to the podcast still on a regular, basis struggle with.
Impact they struggle with quality of, strike AND i think that's something that a lot of golfers don't learn long, enough early.
Enough so WHAT i mean by that is they.
Don't stay in contact. Enough they want to start working on their backswing, plane the position at the top of the back. Swinging they're trying to hit the golf ball, further all of which is vitally, important, Right that's what the best players we don't have to work. On So i'm at a major WITH no AND. Dj we're not working on, contact, Right we're not working on making sure they hit the golf ball. Solid they do, that that's
why they're. There SO i think most golfers just never stay in contact drills long enough and don't revisit them on a regular, Basis and so what they think is the issue is directional. Misses how where the ball is, curving slices and. Fades but if you hit the golf ball more, solid you're going to catch it more in the center of the. Face the ball speed's going to. Jump and however you're curving the golf, ball you're going to curve it less because you're hitting it more in
the center of the. Face so with this young, junior just a lot of impact drills and getting her to see where her body is at. Impacts so a lot of video, work, right videoing the first couple of golf swings that comes in, with and then showing her kind of the difference between where her body is and where the club is and where the quality of strike is through. VIDEO i like to do. THAT i like to use launch monitor. TECHNOLOGY i like to use swing, catalysts.
Force plate stuff like. That BUT i like to marry that with.
Visuals, okay so look at where your body is in your full swing weight a lot on the right. Leg
you kind of get scoopy with that left. Wrist so we did a little kind of nine to three impact drill to where you're taking the golf club back kind of standing within the dial of a, clock kind of at that waist high nine o'clock on the backswing if you're right, handed and then following through to that waist high on the funnel, through which is kind of if you're standing in a clock kind of at that three, o'clock so that nine to, three and then using the
video to, say, okay your weight's. Different we can get swing catalysts to show you. That but now all of a sudden you've got a little bit of forward chafflein that. Impact the quality of the strike is more, consistent and you are controlling the golf club better as opposed to
the golf club controlling. You when you look at your golf clubs and you look at a bag of golf clubs that you, Have so when you go to the driving, range and you take your bag to the driving range and you pour all the golf balls out and you're going to start hitting golf. Balls always remember. This your golf clubs do not have a mind of their. Own they cannot move. Themselves so your golf clubs are a
little bit like your. Car, right your car will sit in the, driveway will sit in a parking lot until you get in the, car turn on the engine and drive the. Car and very much like driving a, car if you think about the speed at which you're trying to drive a, car you can drive a car too fast and lose. Control you can swing the golf club too fast and lose. Control and then the steering wheel the car is going to go in the direction you
point the steering. Wheel so the steering wheel of the car is kind of THE i always think of the steering wheel of the car kind of like what my hands are, doing what the grip is, doing what the club face is. Doing so wherever your hands are at impact is going to affect where the club face is at, impact and where the club faces at impact is going
to affect where the ball. Is so coming back from the tour where everybody hits the golf ball, solid and then working with a young junior girl that's struggling with contact spent pretty much out of the hour and a, HALF i spent with, her probably almost an hour of it just working on impact and contact, drills which is going to help her development and going to help her hit the golf ball more solid and help her distance, wise help her direction, wise and help her contact. Wise
and then had another junior. Girl it was about probably fourteen fifteen range and really interesting backswing move in that had a lot of reverse spine at the top of the back, swing AND i think at some point she was told to not move her, head to have her
head stay very very still and video to be. Honest on the, backswing her head in her nose was actually going forward on the back, swing so she was standing up out of her posture at the top of her back, swing going into that kind of extension to where she's bent forward at her dress as she's making her. Backswing her backswing gets a little bit too. Long she's trying not to move.
Off the golf.
BALL i don't know, why BUT i hear so many more golfers worried about swaying off the golf. Ball they're so worried about swaying off the golf ball that they basically just don't make any move off the golf. Ball their weight goes. Forward and as their weight goes forward and they kind of come out of their posture on the, backswing then on the downswing they have to get their body back in, position their weight has to go back
to the right. Side causes a lot of, problems and in this, case that's what this girl was.
Doing so trying to figure.
Out ways to get her in a better position and talk to her a lot About, okay don't be afraid to let your head. Move, okay especially on the, Backswing so let your head move off the golf ball to the. Right don't try and keep your head so. Still go ahead and feel like you're kind of getting into your right heel on the. Backswing don't be afraid to let that right hip get, high that right leg straight and
so that you've got some. Load and again using swing, catalysts we were able to show her the difference in kind of where her backswing was the position to where she was actually getting some weight into her right, side WHICH i talked about this, earlier the creation phase of the. Backswing she was able to create a little bit more. Power she was able to get her backswing into a position to where her downswing was going to be easier for her to do, consistently not come.
Over the top of.
It she comes over the top of it because she kind of gets to that top of the backswing position where she's leaning, forward she's almost tilting. Forward then when she goes to shift her body back to the, right the arms kind of fire get out to end comes over the top and contact, issues quality of strike. Issues But i'm also more worried about her getting injured because
she's kind of hanging on that left. Side she's got a lot of curvature at the top of her back swing from her hip up to her shoulder on her left, side so she's got a lot of force kind of going down on her. Spine and so just trying to get her in a better back swing position so that
the downswing is easier to. Manage and THEN i had a player of you, know probably ten, handicap probably in his you, know mid, thirties plays a lot of golf from The East, coast came down and, said, listen the number one thing THAT i need to improve is my wedge. Game AND i, said, okay what's the? Issue and he, said, WELL i don't hit it close. Enough but the main REASON i don't hit it close enough is because of the. Contact the contact is, bad the quality of the strike is.
Bad and SO i when watching this, player you, know really from that kind of fifty to one hundred and fifteen, Range, yeah a lot of, thin a lot of, heavy and he was very much working a lot of practice, swings a lot of drill. Swings says he hits a lot of golf. Balls he has A TrackMan simulator in his, basement so hits a lot of balls on a launch.
Monitor inside in a controlled.
Environment and SO i was trying to think WHAT i could do to help this, player and WHAT i didn't want to do was throw more technique at him because he was kind of in that technique rabbit, hole, right tons of practice, swings kind of never really looking at the, target kind of obsessed with staring at the golf, ball glancing at the.
Target stare at the.
Ball was taking a lot of time to hit a fifty yard web, shot and it wasn't. Solid SO i just, said, listen let's get on a launch monitor and let's just see if you can hit your. Numbers and he, said, LISTEN i do this a. Lot i'm really good at hitting my. Numbers so we did some fifty yard shots and it was just basically a carry, distance and we did some seventy five yard, shots and then we did some hundred yard. Shots and SO i said to, him, right let's go back to the. Fifty let's take your lob,
wedge AND i want you to hit five. Balls and we hit five, balls and the distances were, varied, right some of me hit kind of around that fifty fifty one to fifty two, mark but then he had one where he hit it like thirty five, yards and then he had one where he hit it like sixty five. Yards so three decent ones and two bad. Ones and so when we looked at, it obviously a, massive massive distance, loss you, know almost a thirty yard distance loss on a shot where he's trying to hit it fifty and
he hits it. Thirty and SO i said to, HIM i, said, listen rather than focus on the, distance why don't we focus on the clubhead.
Speed and so.
NOW i want you to have five, balls and you're trying to hit your lob wedge five. Balls WHAT i want IS i want you to try and swing the golf club the same speed for five, balls and so we hit five balls and the clubhead speeds were pretty close, together so we were looking at kind of a one to two mile per hour clubhead, speed different on every.
Club and so we just spent the next half hour not even talking really about the distant city was carrying the golf ball from fifty, yards we were doing five ball, challenges ten ball challenges from seventy five. Yards we were doing five ten ball, challenges and the challenge wasn't how far you're carrying the golf. Ball can you have your clubhead speed be, similar be the, same be very close.
Together and as soon as we started doing, that and he started thinking about how fast he was swinging the golf club and trying to swing the golf club the same speed for every single, shot what do you think happened to the? Contact the contact got. Better SO i spent an hour and a half with this, guy AND i never once talked about, contact quality of strike or. Technique the only thing we really worked on was kind
of clubhead. Speed and then we went out on a golf, course Our schurt game, area which is going to simulate what the golf course is, like we had a thirty yard, shot a fifty five yard, shot and a seventy five yard, shot and SO i, said, okay the thirty yard, shot talk to me what you were going to. Do so RATHER i had him talk me through what he was going to try and. Do, right what his intent. WAS i think, Intent i've talked about. IT i think intent
is really really. Important tell me what you're trying to. Do explain to me what you're trying to do with the. Shot, so from a thirty yard, shot he chose the club which was his lob. WEDGE i think he had a fifty eight degree lob. Wedge he told me the length of the backswing and the length of the follow through that he. Wanted he told me where he wanted the
golf ball to. Land and SO i, said, okay now make me two practice swings that feel the, same and if they don't feel the, same we start over from a speed, standpoint from a length of backswing, standpoint from a length of follow through. Standpoint and it took him a couple to get used to that. Feeling but once he got that concept of what is my? Intention what AM i going to try and? Do and THAT'S i think very different than talking about your, technique, RIGHT i, think what is your intent on this?
Shot, okay, yeah that's.
Going to involve some. Technique but tell me what you're trying to. Do and then, okay now make me too practice, swings trying to execute what you told me you were trying to, do and then hit the golf ball with your practice wing and just let the golf ball get in the way of your practice. Wing and it really was interesting how much better this player's wedge game. Got the contact issue wasn't even an issue, Anymore like we didn't even have to talk about. It we weren't even
focusing on anything to do with. Contact we were just working on having the speed of your golf. Swing and, listen it's hard to do that when you're ramping up and hitting full swings with your, drivers, right but from fifty yards you know, again it's driving the car a lot. Slower it's learning how to control the. Car it's learning how to steer the, car it's learning how to accelerate the.
Car it's learning how to break the. CAR i, mean if you think about when when we were all learning how to, drive the way that you would slam the brake on the way that you would slam the accelerator.
On you have to learn.
That AND i just thought that focusing on more feels and more kind of swing speed would help this, player and it, worked and he was no longer thinking about the. Contact his confidence went through the, roof which wasn't, surprising but his confidence went through the roof because it was hitting better. Shots SO i live in really two constantly specific, worlds And i'm kind of going in and out of
both of these. Worlds a world Where i'm working and lucky enough to work and be around the best players in the. World so the nuances and what we're trying to work on and the changes that we're trying to make and how we deal with those changes are incredibly different than having a hour golf lesson with a twenty
handicapper on A tuesday, Morning but there are. Similarities AND i take a lot of WHAT i see from the tour and try and apply it in my lessons with the average, golfer AND i also take things THAT i do in golf lessons with twenty handicappers in the way That i'm trying to make the delivery and the concepts and everything kind of simple and not difficult to understand and.
Repeatable so, YEAH i.
Was just WHEN i was flying home From, AUGUSTA i was, Thinking, Okay i've just come from, that and Then i've got a week ahead of golf, lessons and those two worlds are are very, different but at the end of the, day they're very much the same because you're just trying to help a player get. Better you're just trying to help a player understand his golf, swing his her golf swing. Better you're trying to make it as simple as possible
and really cool. WEEKS i enjoy the weeks That i'm on the road working with professional, golfers AND i enjoy the weeks i'm at home working with the average. GOLFER i don't THINK i ever want to get into a situation to WHERE i just work with tour, players because that's not the real. World that's not real. Golf And i'm lucky in THAT i get to do. That But i'm also incredibly lucky that people come and see me and allow me and seek me out to help them
with their. Game to break one, hundred break, ninety break. EIGHTY i enjoy that as much AS i enjoy the tour. Stuff so two weeks in the life of a golf, instructor one that's on tour and one that's at, home but some really good work last. Week i'm on the
road now for two. Weeks it was home last. Week BUT i look back on that week And i'm, Like, YEAH i did some really good work with some players and hopefully can help try and develop, them try and develop their, games and ultimately just try and help them enjoy their golf, more because that's basically what we're all trying to. Do The son of A which podcast comes to you almost every, Week rate, review subscribe wherever you get your. Podcast we'll see everybody next. Week