Ironically, I was at Zepp and I get this phone call and the messages,
Hey, Patty, how are you doing? This is Tony Manzoni.
What's going on? Listen? You got that Zepp product? Can you do
me a favor and fly down to the desert and teach my boys how to
use it? Because I think it's fantastic and I think you could help my
team. I'm literally like, who is this guy? Like he's casted from
the Sopranos, right. So I flew down and spent a couple of days
with his team. We walk into the shop, he's like, Patty,
how you doing with Tony? And so a very pretty lady comes walking and
she's probably I gotta say forty five or fifty, and she's asking him a
question and he's being super polite to her, and then he turns around.
He's like, Patty followed me to the office. He walked into this little
corridor and he stops dead in a diamond. He turns around, he goes,
you know, you'd think it's seventy seven you still wouldn't be attracted to
a woman. But I gotta tell you that never goes away. I much
respect for Tony Manzoni. I miss that guy from Berwin, Illinois, and
I play at Columbus Park Golf Course. If is Golf Smarter number eight ninety
three, a forty year teaching and product business veterans share stories from the inside
with Patrick Say. This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights
from great golf mines to help you lower your score and raise your golf IQ.
Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast,
Patty. Thank you, Fred. Great to be here, Great to have
you on. I like to get some old timers on every so often.
Whose old timers who've been around the block a couple of times. I know
him a lot older than you. I'm just kidding with the same as.
But you've been in the business a long time and you've seen a lot,
and that's why I'm really excited to talk to you today, because there's some
things that you've done that are not part of your normal resume that will flush
out here. But also there's some great products that have come and gone and
been around for a long time that you had your hand yet. That's correct,
Yeah, it's been. In fact, I'm just telling somebody I went
to my thirtieth PGA show this year. So you know, I woke up
and all of a sudden, I'm about to be fifty five in a month.
And yeah, I've I've I've served my time in this industry. That's
for sure, that's for sure. But you've also you were a PGA golf
professional and you've helped people on tour and did some things that are pretty outrageous.
Tell me about your time that you were working on the tour. Well,
I tried to play. Actually I played college golf, and I tried
to play, and I just as as ninety nine point nine point nine nine
percent of guys realized as they're just not good enough and so good. But
I tried to play until my late twenties and then invented a product in golf,
and I was I kind of was initially in tech and started to head
toward that direction product wise, and um I did that, which we can
get into later, for probably about eleven years, and then um I got
into the tech side of of the game and started managing a brand new product
called Zepp. It's a sensor that you wore on your glove and right.
Yeah, and so they had so much stuff that they were measuring. It
was based out of China, and uh so I came in and essentially helped
people understand it. I stripped it down to measuring maybe eight components instead of
one hundred and forty. But one of the cool things we did was measure
hand path and then I developed something called the swing signature, where you looked
at the the down the line shape of what the hand path and the club
path and what they did together. And that was fascinating. So I got
to go work with some of the best coaches and teachers. I got to
go out on tour and sort of I was like a fly on the wall.
It was phenomenal for somebody that loves the game to be walking, you
know, like on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at a tour event and
a major I got to work with guys like Brennan Steel. He was just
a fantastic human, Keegan Bradley, Michelle we Rock immediate, Rick Smith was
one of our main coaches. Chuck Cook you know, so and this is
what you were with, Zepp. Yeah. I did that for about six
years and that ended probably around the end of two thousand and seventeen, I
think. Okay, so tell me, give me, give me the first
crazy story about being out inside the ropes. I'll tell you a great story
that people don't really know is that I walked pretty much everywhere. And the
tour is gonna hate me for saying this, but I walked everywhere where.
They're not listening. I promise I walked. That's fine. Yeah, I
walked everywhere without credentials. I just they say the whole attitude and a clipboard.
I I dressed like a pro. I looked like a pro. It.
It probably helped that I was walking with pros and and coaches, and
but it blew me away because I got to a point where I got pretty
cocky and I only got stopped one time in like five and a half years.
And um, but you know, it's if you look like you belong.
Another great story I'll say is, um, I was it? Wait
did you tell me the first one yet? Well? I was just that
was just it, Like I just I had access to everywhere without really having
to have credentials. That's pretty cool to me. And when you when you
have an attitude, when you walk around with attitude like you owned the place,
no one's gonna stop you. Yeah, right, yeah, just um,
there are so many good stories. I U I ended up in some
restaurants on like Tuesday went Monday night. Is fun time to be out on
tour because you get guys that will cut loose and uh, um, you
know you have a few cocktails, you get to hear stories that you never
would normally hear. Um, so come on, man, your microphone off.
Most of it's caddy stories, but those are the best. Yeah,
and uh, those guys are actually Ironically, I moved here to to um
To Carmel two and a half years ago and all my best friends of the
caddies, they're actually surprised. Yeah, a lot of them are better than
the actual tour pros themselves. But one funny story I got for you is
it not so juicy? But I just love this guy hung out with a
little bit with Jerry Kelly, and um, we're at the John Deere and
we walked up to the lunch room right after we played, and I watched
him go over to the soft serve ice cream machine and get a bowl of
ice cream about this big and then just devour it. He might even had
a dip in at the time, But just a good guy. I don't
know. It's just it's a lot of those guys are great out there and
to be you know, listen, I wanted to play on tour. I
just was never good enough. So the next best thing is sort of being
there and hanging out with these guys. But also then on top of it,
I'm a lifetime student of the game, so to sit down and talk
to guys and ask them questions personally and they're so open that kind of blew
me away as well. Yeah, I love having caddies. I love talking
to caddies. We had went on number of weeks ago, who two weeks
later was working with kid Kittyama Kurt Dyama when he won that tour event.
Because caddies, you know, professional golfers, they've been burned, a lot
of them burned by the media, and so they're very guarded about what they
would say. And caddies are like, yeah, so what so they have
great stories to share, that's true. Yeah, I mean, are there
any magical caddies that you know of, like you know, like if you're
read Golf in the Kingdom, right and all these this guy who's hiding in
the corner and there's he's like, wait, who is that way? Do
you know if anybody like that or like a bag of vance? Yeah exactly,
Um, no, no, I don't. I it's funny though.
I do think there are caddies that are a whole lot better than others.
And to me, it's I think it's the ones that are able to help
guys mentally. That's where the difference is, to help them either relax,
feel normal or everything's the same, and then um to pull them out of
bad decisions or help them to make good ones. And we all know.
I mean it's like, why is he hitting driver van Develd. That's just
came up the other day. So, but yeah, I think it's a
team thing. The thing about golf to me is it's a lonely, lonely
sport. It's the loneliest thing game you could play. It's why a lot
of kids I think I've always said you have to be kind of an oddball
as a kid to play golf, which I was the reason why I played
is I was five foot two, one hundred and nine pounds my freshman year
and so I couldn't play any sports I would get my my butt kicked.
And the two sports I wanted to play. I was. I was many
sized and so I couldn't do it. But what are those sports? Football
and football? And basketball? Yeah? Basketball, yeah right, yeah,
really football was my love. But I would I was. I was worse
than Rudy I would. I would have just gotten killed. Yeah, my
son wanted to play football and we're like, no, you're not playing football,
and he's like, you know what, Probably a good idea because in
high school I'd be sitting on the bench the whole time. So he went
out for the wrestling team and thrived for four years. Yeah. Sometimes you
know, life pushes you. Yeah, you can be a little guy and
still do well on a wrestling team because it is a team sport for school.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah, yeah, I listen,
we're gonna take a time out. We'll be back right after this and
we'll drag some stories out of you. So you live in the Carmel Valley
Eric Carmel area down by Monterey, and there's some unbelievable golf down there that
you probably get a lot of chances to play best in the world arguably.
I'm sure people will make that argument. But yeah, I've played Carmel Valley.
I've played Poppy a couple of times, and I've played, um,
well, I don't know why. I'm just blanking on the name of the
most famous of all of them in Pebble Beach, thank you. I played
there once too, that was a long time ago. The Preserve by Glass
Yeah, nope, nope, nope, and nope. And Peninsula yeah,
actually nope. How Cypress Point doing these days? I saw some pictures there
after those hard rains and stuff, and I was like, oh my god,
how are they going to ever have golf tournaments there? Is it doing
all right? Great? Yeah? I mean the forest itself. I drove
through there, lost so many trees. I it's unbelievable. But part of
the reason is Carmel's kind of thing about trees, and they should probably cut
the back of the doubt. But the courses recovered great. I actually ironically
played, maybe right after all the trrential rains, and they Cypress always seems
to be open unless it's unsafe. But I played and it was maybe the
wettest conditions ever, but the best conditions. I've got a real good buddy
of mine by the name of Andy Dahlhammer, who is kind of a local
legend. He's a thirty eight year caddie there and he set me up with
At the time, I didn't even know who he was, but a pretty
famous caddie out there, or the name of Ray. And I don't know
if you've heard the story on this guy, but you make your way around
Cyprus and you get out to fifteen and he says, hey, Patty,
follow me, and so he kind of peels off the back, kind of
weaving in and out, and there's this side that says Ray lived here from
It's like, I can't remember now, it's it's eighty two to eighty three
or seventy nine to eighty And I'm like, you you lived here? He's
like, yeah, I lived in this bush. The caddies used to kind
of camp some here, but in order to get a loop, you had
to be the first of the course. So I just started sleeping here.
And it's a famous it's a real Spavius story. So Andy Dalhammer carved out
of wooden black that says that Ray lived here. But apparently there was a
homeless guy that lived there back I mean back in the late eighteen hundreds,
you weren't homeless. You just lived out outside and but the neat story is
I'm really butchering at the guys. He's been out there for his whole life
and he's the sweetest, funniest guy ever. But there's a bench that you
walk out to just from where he lived, and you sit on it where
he used to sit, and there is two bottles of petrone tequila and he
sits you on the bench and he pours you. He eats a shot of
tequila which you slug, and he won't drink because he wants his job and
so he doesn't drink on the job at all. But it's just I don't
know, man, It's one of the probably more magical moments in my golfing
life of you talk about homage not only too but still cool about the club
as they appreciate and really respect this man in the history. At the same
time they give him a place to share with members and guests, and place
really is magic. I mean, if if they say if you have the
chance to walk on those hallowed grounds, you know they say the same about
Augusta. But I guarantee you there's not a a caddy living out there with
two bottles tequila at any one point. Probably, Yeah, how often do
you use a caddy. I'm curious about this because you're a skilled golfer,
you've been playing most of your life. If I'm if I'm playing am,
if I'm playing a great golf course, I will use a caddy. And
in fact, I have a lot of people that will come in and visit
me from all over the world, especially like Ireland and the East Coast,
and if we set up golf at Pebble or Monit, especially if it's their
first time, I make them take a caddy. Um. I just think
caddies they take they take away the distractions of what a cart can can interfere
with. I think that the whole good walk spoiled things. I mean just
I don't know, to be able to be out there walking with somebody that's
carrying your bag and sort of take it all in. It's a whole lot
different experience than it is riding in a cart. Yeah, I'm going up
to Bandon in June and I'm really looking forward to just walking and having someone
carrying my bag. But you know, I've only had a caddy at Pebble
the one time and the one time and that I played at Bandon, and
both of those were well over a decade ago. Yeah, so I don't
you know, I play the same course as basically most of the time,
so I don't use caddies, and then the courses that I go to they
don't offer caddies a lot um. Yeah, but it's it is something you
do if for a course that you play on a regular basis. Now I
don't really need to well, I mean the other side the upside of having
a caddy, of course, is that they're going to tell you all about
the course and what to hit, and we're not to hit. And that's
you know, when you're playing one of the best courses and it's your first
or second time, third or fourth, it just I mean, especially with
helping reading grains. Those guys have been out there for ever. And a
putt that looks like it's going to go right five feet into of going left
three it's I think it's helpful. But now I live on a golf course.
I have a cart, so you know, for me, after we
talk here, I'm going to jump in my cart, grab a couple of
beers, and go play. I'll get in you know, maybe nine holes
and it's just quicker that way. But it's a good question. I think
obviously if you're playing a gust that you're taking caddies. But yeah, yeah,
actually, August, I just I just I just got a pull cart.
Uh so I'm starting to watch starting is it? Is it? Yeah?
What is it? Is it a pull? If it's two wheels,
it's pull it. If it's three wheels or four wheels, it's a push.
I haven't seen a two wheel cart. Well, you generally I see
the two wheelers when you're renting. You're not gonna you know, Now,
this is a Sun Mountain three wheeler. It's like a baby stroller's cart.
Yeah. I'm just trying to work the December fat off right now. Yeah,
well, listen, we've had a lot of rain here in northern California,
and it feels like we're taking the whole winter off. I gotta I
owe an apology to people who are from Portland and Seattle, which half my
family is my wife's report and my dad's from Seattle. But how how do
they do it? I mean, forget about that. What about the people
in in the you know, the Midwest, the Upper Midwest and the East
Coast where they can't play for five to seven months a year year because of
the odd weather. So yeah, I don't. Yeah, we can,
we can playing and they say tell us to shut up, Well we are,
We're stop whining. We're the worst though, we are. We're so
soft in California. You know that I'm a I'm a weather wind man.
If it's under fifty five degrees and damp, I'm out playing. Yeah,
me too. Yeah, UM, tell me about You've got some products that
you've put out, um popular. The one the Golo dice game was yeah,
yeah, that's kind of really um. When you have severe ADHD like
myself, your brain is just constantly on fire. You two yeah, and
uh yeah. And so I've always been coming up with ideas, but as
you know, for every thousand ideas, one is good. Um. But
I started playing. I was playing a lot of dice, believe it or
not, with um ex military guys at Monterey Peninsula. My dad and brother
were members. I've got a brother who's older in me and so but these
guys taught me a bunch of dice games. One I'm talking like fifty games,
and they all gambled. They played for what we're called chits. And
so one of the games was one four twenty four, I teach taught it
to my friends ship Captain CRUs another name for it, and I just said,
you know, there's got to be a way you can play golf with
dice. And that's how it started. And I probably within about a month,
buddy and I started working on the concept of this and the rest is
really history. I had, I had. It. Took me probably about
three months to take it from a six sided dice to a twelve for the
just because of the odds, but within two minutes you can basically shoot nine
holes of golf and it it. It became a huge drinking gambling game for
guys at the club, and then kids love it, and then I like
I had. There's so many neat stories about the game. And um,
I still own the game. I licensed it back in two thousand and eleven,
and uh, but yeah, that's kind of how I got my start.
And um, everybody started calling me Patti O'Shea and um, it's better
than patio furniture. Well, that's that's that's what. That's the Irish joke.
What's what's Irish? And stays out all summer long? What patio furniture?
Okay, fine, I had to let you take that one. No,
it's horrible since I already ruined the punch. I've already ruined the punch
joke. We can we can cut that, you know. No, you
know, let me say something about dad jokes. Okay, I love dad
jokes? Is it? It's word play, that's what we love. We
love the word play. It's not corny because I have a son who's now
got two kids, and he's ripping off dad jokes all the time. And
I'm like, wait a minute, you used to yell at me for that.
Yeah, yeah, it's all you know. He inherited him from you
from generation to generation. Absolutely, it really is, it really is.
We're going to take another time out and UM, I want to hear more
about some of your new products. Okay, after this all right, So
your company is upside Golf and Upside Golf at upside golf dot com, and
you have some pretty interesting products that I was looking at. Um, tell
me about the latest things you're working on here. Well, so back in
I was going to say, now that you've got a pushcart and you're making
all these products for golf carts, well, I am I am a golf
I am first and foremost a golfer, and I'm still working on my game,
still trying to be better. But the whole concept started with I wanted
to get back into golf, and I started getting buying products for my buddies
and getting them at a at a better price, and just I was constantly
being asked to find stuff. So but the first concept was in seventeen was
putting a magnet arrange finder, and I started building like Frankenstein versions of If
She Could See, like just different versions. This was like one of my
first molds I had made, and so that's really where it started. In
eighteen I introduced a range finder with a magnet, and then, of course
everybody has done it. But then obviously from there, I came up with
the first speaker with a magnet. And these are all Nidenium. It's hard
for me to say neodenium magnets, which are like the magnet you were showing
me earlier, is super strong. But we've just advanced. It's gotten better
and better. This is our latest and greatest range finder. What is unique
about your range finder? Well, simply it works. It's also got a
slope button, but that's the first and foremost rain shrinders got to work.
It's fast, it's reliable. And the whole thing is I'm essentially wholesaling product
to people because I don't sell in retail. I only sell direct consumer.
And that's the whole point of upside. When I did go loo, you
know, think about I was it was before the Internet. I was selling
into golf shops and I actually went up and down the coast with a white
panel van selling games. But it was hard to get golf shops to pay
me back and collect money. It was brutal. And so when I started
again, I wanted to, like I said, find products that were high
quality, unique in some way that we're also affordable. And then the other
part of it is I just I'm committed to creating raving fans with customers.
We want you back, and we take care of you, no questions,
ask you if any problems. We ship cables, we shipped replacements stuff,
any issues, So we're on top of that and that that's important to us
as well. But we've got a pretty cool um phone mount that's remote so
you can record yourself. I just started getting into some training aids. Um
let me back up for a second. I want to find out about the
training aids. But um, the uh the range finder is it? Do
you have to replace the batteries or are they rechargeable batteries? No chargeable?
In fact, that's kind of the neat thing is no more batteries. Yeah,
I just understand why people they're like, oh, you have to replace
the battery on that. No, I don't want to. Yeah, and
range finders across the board, they're temperamental. Everybody's gonna think that. But
yeah, and you can charge it in your cart and so that was kind
of the next upgrade that to get rid of that. Um so yeah,
but again they think just like having one that's accurate and that works as number
one, and then having a company supported, because every I don't care what
company it is. Range finders have issues. Even if it gets you think
those two scopes, you're sending a laser beam laser from here, it's bouncing
back and going into here. If this gets off a millimeter, if it
if you drop it. I mean, they're just not that durable no matter
how you make it right. If you ever used a rangefinder that also had
a GPS with the front mittal back, I have a screen seeing all of
those Yeah, and I listen, I got a buddy that has some people.
Some people like a lot of data. I don't, uh you know
an old Well, it's it's not so much that like like, for example,
I was in technology. I owned every track man, Foresight, flight
scope, I had, you know, with the zepp um, and even
my coaching and teaching. I still teach golf, and I think you just
do kind of have to strip it down in a way. Um, you
know, as long as I can get a number two like a tree,
a lake, the pin um, you know, and then usually all the
carts have front back in middle. Um, not if you're walking. Not
if you're walking. Okay, true, come on, man, see the
young kids that are in the carts like get out of the cart and raw.
Not true. It's I think what it is is the the guys that
like to have a good time and have a few a few beers are in
the carts because they have coolers. That would probably be if this were family
few the number one survey answer on the poor drinking or it's too tiring.
Yeah probably yeah right, um what other products? So, uh tell me
about the training aid? Oh? I so for one year, as I
said, earlier. I'm getting older, but um stop saying that it's It's
true, though, is it? Clinty Stwood says, don't let the old
man in. So I went on a year research mission on trying to gain
ten miles an hour, and so I bought and tried a whole lot of
products and just sort of simplified, um, a swing weighted trainer into one
one item that was affordable where you can unscrew the weights. But and then
I've put together a bunch of videos that go along with it. And I
mean, look, I've I've I've had some experience with training and understanding speed
and swing, especially with all the years I've coached and and all the videos
I've created. But the anything is it works and you get people to what's
ironic is in training with speed with this thing. What's come out of is
this sequencing has really been a big deal, and which I'm not sure that's
a word that's talked about a lot, but it's essentially the everything moving in
the right all the parts moving in the right way. So that training is
besides speed, is sequencing. And you know, in order to hit a
golf ball right, you do have to have speed. You know, you
can't hit a for iron if you're if you're not swinging fast enough. Same
with a driver. A golf club works better when it's swinging faster. So
most of the time I think what happens is we get olders, we get
tighter, we get less flexible, so we shorten our swing when we should
be constantly working on overswinging. I think, you know, which is crazy
to me. I keep hearing people like swing softer and within yourself, and
I think that's complete bs, I really do, And I think, yeah,
I do. I think you've got to get long and language. You
know, guys like Gary player Daily hasn't really shortened his move. You see,
Phil is constantly working on like VJ. Patty Harrington, who's now the
longest driver. He spent the last two years doing the exact same thing with
speed training. Look look at all these guys up what they're doing right now.
A lot's change in that side of the game. So I'm not really
clear exactly what your product is. It's called the concept of being able to
increase your swing speed. And we had a conversation recently with Jacob Owden.
All right, I'm looking to see if I have it in here. I
don't know. That's okay, it's an audio podcast. You can tell me
it's It's called the thunderstick. Thank you, Thank you, sir. It's
called the thunderstick, and it's it's weighted heavier than a driver. It's got
three weights on it that that you can unscrew to a lighter weight and graham
weight so you can swing it. You know, Let's say you swing a
golf club at ninety eight miles an hour. Um. You know, you
work from from heavy to light and um. By the time you get to
the lightweight, you can swing it like at one hundred and twenty miles an
hour. So it's it's just like car racing. A car you get used
to driving fast. You get used to swinging fast. You know. When
I was kid, I worked with some great instructors and the world with swing
as hard as you can as long as you're balanced. And that's a big
part of it too. So you you know, speed training, you are
actually getting used to swinging fast. That's it. And with that comes balance.
You know. You get to a point to One of my favorite things
with the product is that a lot of times, like I was talking about
this afternoon, I will race out to meet some of my buddies who are
already on the course, you know, like I'll be working later or whatever,
so I got to meet him. On twelve. I'll get to the
tea and I do like a one minute warm up where I am, I
stretch a bit, and then I work on my range of motion and then
I build up. I make probably about twenty swings, and on my last
five swings, I'm swinging a one hundred and twenty percent. And then usually
when you're on the ball, you're dialed back, but that's kind of how
you get there. I think it's I think it's brilliant actually, um versus
you know, having to warm up for three holes and feeling like the tin
Man from the Wizard of Ozz right because you've got no oil. Yeah,
well that's why you should definitely go warm up before you're round. You know,
it's true, it's true. But the truth of the matter, Fred,
and I'm sure you know this is most guys are either racing from work
or they just dropped their kids off, or they've got like a of one
hour and ten minute window where they're squeezing in, you know, and at
least all my buddies here that way and um so, practically speaking, it's
it is hard to warm up. But if you can do at least do
something in one to five minutes, it makes a huge difference. Fast.
Yeah, good, good, All right, one more break, we'll be
back and we'll find out more about your teaching. Now. There were a
couple of months into fresh up our mechanics for the new golf season with the
guidance from the late Tony Manzoni, we're facing a different problem doubt, second
guessing, self, sabotage, lack of trust. That's why we're bringing back
another hero of golf instruction who appeared on Golf Smarter six times, doctor Glenn
Allba. And we're doing it unfortunately because I'm sorry to announced that doctor Alba
passed away on February nine, twenty twenty three, at the age of ninety
one. Glenn was a pioneering sports psychologist and a giant in the world of
golf's mental game. An author of two books that we covered extensively on the
podcast. He was also a professor and the golf coach at the University of
Pacific for nearly three decades, and among his many accolades. Glenn was awarded
an honorary lifetime status in the PGA in twenty eleven and was inducted into the
Golf Writers Hall of Fame in twenty thirteen. Information about donations in memory of
doctor Alball will be listed in the show notes and will also include links to
an article about Glenn's life and his two books on Amazon. So Over the
next six episodes of Golf Smarter Mulligans will feature all the insights and wisdom he
shared with us, starting with episode forty one of Golf Smarter, published on
September six, two thousand and six, about his first book, Winning the
Battle Within. The perfect swing is the one you trust. Trusting you're totally
committed to the strategy, trusting the fact that you're aimed, and this trusting,
this swing. Pre shot lutine has been talked about over and over again
in many periodicals, but it's just really essential that we have a well defined
pre shot routine. Now, Physically it worked like this. Typically a person
stands behind the ball where they make the decision on their strategy. Then they
walk up into their address position and at that time their conscious mind is quiet
and they're seeing the shot, and then they aim, making sure that they
keep their imagination out to the target, in other words, feel a swing
that matches what they see, and then after the last look at the target,
to trust what they see and feel. So that's how the pre shower
tune works. Doesn't guarantee great shot, but it certainly gives you the best
chance to trust the swing as you have. That's Golf Smarter Mulligan's episode two
hundred and nine, the first of six episodes in our series featuring another great
friend who we recently lost, doctor Glenn Alba. Check the show notes to
learn more about Glenn and how to get either of his books, Winning the
Battle Within and The Clutch Golfer Formula. Please subscribe for free to both of
our golf podcasts, Golf Smarter, published every Tuesday since two thousand and five,
and our sister podcast that revisits the best of the Golf Smarter podcast called
Golf Smarter Mulligans, being released every Friday from wherever you're listening right now.
In your years as a PGA professional and a teaching professional, did you ever
happen to hear a guy named Tony Manzoni? Oh? Are you kidding me?
The legend. Yeah, really you know who he is? Oh,
I can't tell you how many people I'd bring them up. They're like,
no, no clue, no clue, And what a legend. I mean,
how do you know Tony he was? I met him on the podcast
he had the very first time he came on. He was with somebody else
who had a Shot Watch I think it was, and this was probably two
thousand seven or eight, and I just he's just such a great storyteller and
he's he was an amazing communicator. So we had him on the podcast a
lot, a lot, and when he passed away in twenty eighteen, I
was still getting emails every time he was on from listeners saying I want to
know more. I want to know more. And then when he passed away,
his book had gone out of print and the author and I worked with
his wife to get it back out available and available on a Kindle, which
it wasn't. And then he had a DVD that he had created that they
ran out of copies, so they just never printed anymore. And so I
now have access and share it with the audience. I you can just see
it online. So Tony was a hero of golf Smarter and the Golf Smarter
community for a long time, and he still is. Well, that's ironic
because you know, there's very few people that you meet in your life that
have an instant impact or like he's a kindred spirit right away and he you
know, he's thirty years older than me or whatever it is. But I
so ironically, I was at ZEP and I get this phone call, like
two phone calls, and the messages, Hey, Patty, how are you
doing? This is Tony Manzoni. What's going on? Listen? You got
that ZEP product? Can you do me a favor and fly down to the
desert and teach my boys how to use it? Because I think it's fantastic
and I think you could help my team just just like that. And I'm
like, I'm literally like, who who is this guy? Like he's he's
casted from the Sopranos, right And so I immediately I call him up and
he's this sweetheart of a guy. And I had a budget back then.
We were doing well, we were a newly funded company, and I said,
Hey, there's a guy down there and wants me to go work with
his team. And my CEO said, yeah, go for it. So
I flew down by myself and spent a couple of days with his team,
just working on when I was talking about that swing signature club in hand path
still College of the Desert, Yeah, and still some kids, I remember.
So I go down and he just was a funny man, like we're
in the so I didn't even have it, haven't had a word with him.
We walk into the shop, it's like, Patty, how you doing
with Tony? And and so a very pretty lady comes walking and she's probably
I gotta say forty five or fifty, and she's asking him a question and
he's being super polite to her, and and then he turns around. He's
like, Patty followed me to the office. And we walked down to this
little corridor and he stops dead in a diamond. He turns around, he
goes you know, you'd think it's seventy seven you still wouldn't be attracted to
a woman. But I gotta tell you that shit never goes away. I
just I didn't even know the guy. And God, but he wasn't being
he wasn't hitting on her at all. He was just saying, hey,
you know, he appreciates pretty women. By then we walk into his office
and I don't know if you'd been in his office ever, but it's a
shrine. I mean, he's got pictures of everyone, and I'm talking all
the celebrities, old school guys, Hope, Sinatra, Angie Dickinson, h
Crosby, the whole rat. And so, of course I actually had the
wherewithal when I was twenty one in college to buy eight tickets to go see
Sinatra on his seventy fifth birthday. And I went and saw him at the
Circle Star Theater. I took three of my buddies in their dates, and
uh saw. I had this love affair for he and I hit it off
immediately. And as you know, he was Sinatra's golf coach among other things,
among other things, and Sinatra was his daughter's godfather. Yes, yes,
I did know that. And but he could sing. That was the
whole hidden thing about Tony. He had a set of pipes and Sinatra would
occasionally make him sing um yes. And and he here's another great Snatra story.
They told me. He goes, he goes these Sinatra parties that he
would have in this is down in Palm Desert, and he'd say there was
an a table, and there was a B table and if you were like
an important guy that night you said, at Frank's a table and just like
little gyms like that. He told some stories too that I can't I can't
and will not repeat. But one night, so to make a story a
little longer, I came back to film the team because they ended up winning
the national championship, which I know they won a lot of but he was
I think they only won won national championship, but they won the regional championships
twenty eight years in a row. Yeah. Well, he had told me
they won the big one and asked me to come down, and I said,
well, can I film your testimonials because after we worked with them,
So that's what we did. I brought a film crew in and he said
to me, hey, Patty, can you do me a favor and teach
my friend Tony Trilatto. Now do you know who Tony Torlatto is? I
do not. Tony Torlatto makes Tony Manzoni not look as Italian as Tony Manzoni
as Torlatto was like the godfather of Sanjo Vsi. He he worked in Chicago
during the crime mob areas and he got sent here to work with Mandab so
he would get out of trouble of getting you know, whacked wow, And
so he ended up owning He owned Chimney Rock Rutherford. So I got to
do some work with him and his swing and he was a much older guy,
but just as sweetheart him. So both of them asked me to go
to dinner one night, and I said, you guys know, I'm irish.
They wanted to take me to an Italian restaurant. We get into this
place in the desert and there's there's four of us, and the whole place
came to the table. I just felt like I was with and what gentleman
man, I mean, these guys are just salt of the earthmen. And
Torlato was introducing new new beverages and wines and but those guys knew how to
live. I much respect for Tony Manzoni. I missed that guy. Oh
yeah, so do I, So do I, and so does the community.
They're getting emails regularly going who teaches like Tony? I want to know
more. He was nobody. You know, it's a great communicator. I
think some of the best coaches in the world that the secret ingredient is that
they're coachable, and that guy never stopped learning and that was his vibe.
He gave off a vibe that he didn't know everything and he was constantly I
mean, think about it. He brought me into coaches team. So wow,
yeah anymore. I mean I never got a chance to go out to
dinner with him. I met with him in person twice and there's video of
it on our on our website we have we have a whole page dedicated to
him at Gulfsmarter dot com and lowercase teeth Tony. Yeah. Yeah, he
was fantastic. Yeah, that's so awesome that you knew him. Yeah,
I feel privileged for sure. Yeah, absolutely, he was. Just I
want to hear some more stories from you about him at some point. Oh,
it sounds like you knew him. Sounds like you knew him better than
I did. Well, you know, we would have these hour long conversations
a couple of times a year, but it was you know, over the
phone, and you know, if I got a chance to meet him,
I would go down. If I was down in the Palm Desert area,
we used to own a time share down there, and so I would always
meet up with him and then yeah, if he had a new idea,
he would give me a call and going what do you think of this one?
You know? Yeah, but yeah he's missed. There's no question he's
one of the originals. Yeah, yes, yes, absolutely. Uh,
well, it's awesome to talk to you. I've really enjoyed this conversation.
Yeah, enlighten me on so many things. Good luck with the with the
the new products. Yeah, I think people people should definitely check out upside
goolf dot com. Um, the thunderstick is a great one. If you
need a good rangefinder that has magnets on it, and let me with magnets,
let me do I'll send you a code for your listeners then get that
would be awesome. We'll call it golf Smarter or something, but you can
you can post it in the video. Yeah, put it in golf Smarter
And um, what are you going to offer them? I don't know what
do you think I should offer him? Let's I'm not gonna tell you.
I'm gonna wow, that's incredibly generous. Absolutely, okay, all right,
twenty percent with a with a checkout code of golf Smarter UM at upside goolf
dot com. You you got really nice. Yeah, absolutely my pleasure.
Fred. So check out the products and training aids, especially the thunderstick,
and he has many helpful items. If you're a cartwriter at upside goolf dot
com and when you go there and you choo used to do some shopping,
use golf Smarter at checkout and you'll get twenty percent off your orders through the
end of twenty twenty three. Patty actually has a pretty fun YouTube channel two
called Upside Golf Company. May want to check that out. So I'm pretty
excited to be playing a little known Alister Mackenzie golf course tomorrow. It's a
nine whole course hidden among the Redwoods in Sonoma County called Northwood Golf Course now.
According to their website, quote, following construction in nineteen twenty eight,
Northwood had a succession of owners quote, but over the decades it had fallen
into disrepair because it had many different owners that kind of loved it, kind
of didn't. And also now according to the website, it says there are
three beautiful buildings of coordinated design by architect Edward A. Banelli housing, a
pro shop, a restaurant, a social service office, a post office,
and a barber's shop. End quote. Also, if you're familiar with the
videos by Scratch featuring Eric Lander's Lange and his Adventures in Golf YouTube series,
his video about Northwood, which lives on the Northwood homepage at Northwoodgolf dot com
is absolutely beautiful and is what sealed the deal for me on why I'm going
out there tomorrow and I'll give you an update next week. I want to
give it a shout out to Cully Johnston of Berwin, Illinois for opening today's
episode as our newest Golf Smarter Ambassador. Cully chose to receive Tony Manzoni's video
of the Lost Fundamental. Do you realize how easy it is to become a
Golf Smarter Ambassador. There are two ways to do it. One just tell
your playing partners about what you've heard on the podcast and if you want to
get something in return. The second way to join is by doing an episode
opening just like Collie did. And when you do, you'll have a choice
of gifts to choose from that you don't have to pay to become an ambassador.
We give back to you. You could choose what Kalie did. Tony
Manzoni's video. Or you can get a glove and glove storage compartment from Red
Rooster golf dot com, a unique glove subscription service that offers many styles of
gloves and twenty six sizes for both men and women. Or you can get
a box of X one balls with the golf Smarter logo from Odin Golf,
the golf brand that sponsors and pays everyday golfers. These two eur quality balls
are a fraction of the price of what you'll usually pay, and when you
use the code golf Smarter at checkout, you'll receive an additional twenty percent off
the order. Their link is in today's show notes. Actually, I just
ordered another box of X one balls with our logo to take with me to
Abandon Dunes, where we're playing ninety holes in three days this coming June.
Honestly, I don't plan to come home with any extra balls. How's that
for promotion? Even if I have balls left, I'm going to leave them
there just so people can find balls with the Oden logo and the golf Smarter
logo. Now you two are invited to join our exclusive global community of Golf
Smarter Ambassadors by introducing an upcoming episode Just send an email and I'll get back
to you with some instructions of what to do and what to say. Right
to Golf Smarter Podcast at gmail dot com, or click on the Hey Fred
button when you visit golfsmarter dot com