You want to make sure to keep your head down through the stroke, no
matter what kind of putting stroke you're doing, a lot of people have a
tendency to want to see where the ball is going, and they lift their
head out last second, which will either pull the putterface close or leave the
putterface open, and they're missing putts, and they're wondering why. If you
watch almost every single PGA pro, watch them after the ball leaves the putterface,
that heads and those eyes stayed down for an extra second while the ball
is maybe rolled already four or five feet, So that, in my opinion,
is like one of the most important things. All right. This is
still a singer from Bowling Green, Kentucky man I play at Indian Gills Country
Club. This is Golf Smarter number eight nine, the Emerging world of competitive
putting with World Putting League Sideline reporter brought Gillespie. This is Golf Smarter sharing
stories, hips 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. Brock. How you doing, Fred, Happy to
be here. Great to have you on because I think this is going to
be a topic that's gonna tantalize a lot of people around the world who are
fascinated by what's going on talking about competitive putting. It seems like it's a
whole new world that's starting up in competitive putting. There's been a huge surge
Fred and it's a very exciting time. I run the National Putting Tour.
I do putting competitions mainly in the Southwest, but I'm starting to branch out
into the East coast. And then there are a number of other entities that
are coming out that are really making a big push to popularize competitive puttings.
So it's a very exciting time for competitive putterings. And how did you get
involved in this? So, I don't know if you heard of the major
series of putting. This came out in twenty seventeen. They were funded by
a guy by the name of Gui la Libertai who owned CERC de selt.
A lot of people don't know this, but French Canadians love putting, and
yeah, it's pretty random. Yeah, yeah, they're In fact, about
maybe thirty thirty five years ago, there used to be a television show I
think they called it Putt Putt and it aired in French Canada, Quebec,
mainly Quebec, and it was all the rage for a little while, like
most TV shows that eventually went off the air. But yeah, the French
Canadians love putting. And this guy Gui la Liberte and a guy by the
name of Guillaume Belande who now heads up Pop Strokes Putting Tour, which is
owned by Tiger Woods. They started this thing called the Major Series of Putting
and they did these nationwide putting contests in many USA cities and a little bit
in Canada. They built a big, huge putting stadium behind Planet Hollywood and
to your viewers, they can go to Google and just search MSOP Putting stadium
and do an image search and see this phenomenal putting stadium that was built.
It was just magnificent and the putting stadium only lasted for one year. The
MSOP, the Major Series of Putting lasted three years and unfortunately they couldn't turn
a profit and they went out of business. But that's how I first got
into competitive putting, and I started doing these competitions. I live in San
Diego and I started doing these competitions and I finished in the top three in
San Diego two years in a row and made it to their finals and fell
in love with competitive putting, and so that's how I got started with the
major series of putting. Now, there were entities doing putting competitions well before
this. Some of your older viewers might remember the TV show that was on
in the late seventies and early eighties. I believe it was on ABC,
but it was on one of the major networks on Saturday morning, and they
would play what are called the put putt courses, which are miniature golf courses
that are flat, that have like these railings, these flat metal railings,
and you made like like bumper bowlings. You know, it's sort of like
that. Not all the holes require bounces off walls, but a lot of
them do. And so that was sort of the beginning of things. The
the the TV show that was on in the late seventies and early eighties,
that was sort of the beginning of this this competitive putting landscape. And then
there was nothing really you know, those those competitions still went on, but
nothing was televised. And tell the major series of putting in twenty seventeen,
Fox Sports picked it up and they did a TV show. Unfortunately, it
went out of business because it's very tough to make money throwing competitive putting turna
so it went for three years. But what it did is it spawned all
these other entities to kind of jump into the game. And so that's where
I initially started as a player, and then I did the major series of
putting and then that kind of spawned what I run now, which is the
National Putting Tour, as well as some of these other putting entities. Unbelievable.
Does having the long drive competition becoming so popular, does that help bring
along this putting Tour and all these various putting tours? A lot of people
have mentioned that, and yes, I do think that that that there's that
helped a little bit. I think it's just one of those things where and
this is just like my own personal opinion, but the American public is always
thirsting for something new. Now you have your major sports that have been around
forever, National Football League and you know, the NFL, Major League Baseball,
National Hockey League, et cetera. NBA of course we're going to playoffs,
yeah, but you know, the American public has a thirst for something
new and I think one of the things that kind of helped searge this thing
was COVID. Um all the major sports went that they shut down for a
while, right the ES, ESPN and some of these networks were starving for
content, so they were putting on a lot of people. I have seen
cornhole on television now, uh, And there's a numerous there's a there's a
lot of other small time sports that we're getting some run. And I think
that that the fact that the Americans are in search for something new, as
well as COVID kind of bringing some of these fringe sports to the forefront.
I think it's kind of allowed this thing to flourish. And then also keep
in mind, COVID made golf explode. And I remember before COVID my local
municipal that I used to go play. I could get on anytime. Now
I can't even get a tea time on a Tuesday at eleven am. So
golf is two weeks in advance. Yeah, two weeks in advance exactly.
Golf has experienced a boom and people are really interested in golf related things.
And then the msop doing their thing. From twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen kind
of made some of these other entities realize that, oh, you know,
there's something here with competitive putting, and so I think that that all of
those were factors. Yeah, unbelievable. Now we're not talking about miniature golf
courses. Here are these like normal type of greens. How does this work?
Well that's a great question because there is not a norm right now.
Okay, So the TV shows that I told you about years ago, we're
done on what are called put put courses. These are courses that are mostly
flat, that have railings that you bounce it off of or you just go
straight at the hole. Right then there don't forget and the clown's mouth and
the windmill and those kind of things. No, I'm getting to that.
So courses don't put put courses usually don't have those types of things on the
course. Okay, But then there's what's called mini golf courses okay or mini
put Okay. Mini golf is like what you see at the local Family Fund
center where you're hitting your ball through, you know, past the windmill.
Maybe there's a hole with like a volcano and you got to hit it into
the top of the volcano or the one that people always joke about is maybe
there's a hole with a clown's mouth at the end and you try to hit
it into the clown's mouth, or stuff that is really outside the box,
crazy wild kind of stuff, maybe even some of the stuff that you would
see on the TV show Holy Moly, you know where you've got all these
wild things going on. That's considered mini golf. And there is what's called
the US Pro Mini Golf Association, which is headed by a guy by the
name of Bob Dettwiler who is an absolute legend in the field, and they
still do putting competitions and mini golf. Then with the MSOP, it brought
to the forefront what I term is just putting courses. Okay, These are
not putt putt courses with where you're bouncing it off the walls. These are
not mini golf courses where you're hitting it in the clown's mouth. These are
just higher end putting courses that are built to represent more of putts that you
would see on the golf course, the holes mimic puts that you would see
on the golf course. And there are companies like the Nicholas Group, the
Nicholas putting entity. They build these putting courses, and they actually built the
putting course that was at the Putting Stadium in twenty seventeen. Nicholas has a
Jack Nicholas has an entity that does that. I'm sure a lot of you
of your viewers have seen commercials for companies like Back nine Greens, And there's
also a company called Puts Tech that's putting in these really cool putting courses that
resemble more of puts that you see on the regular golf course, and even
a step further. Put Tech is building these incredible putting courses that actually look
like golf courses. So if you were to see an aerial shot of this
course, you might think it's a regular golf course, but it's all turf.
And these courses have sand traps, they have water hazards, but there's
no real sand and no real water. They're putting courses that look like golf
courses. And one that has become incredibly popular that's owned by Tiger Woods and
a guy by the name of Greg Bartoli is called Pop Stroke, and Pop
Stroke has been doing some phenomenal things. Tailor Made just bought a ten percent
ownership Steak and pop Stroke and Popstroke does this thing called the pop Stroke Wor
Series that is ran by a guy by the name of Guilm Balonde who was
one of the guys that started the major series of putting and they're doing putting
tournaments. You can actually see their website which I designed at Popstroke Tour Series
dot com and they're doing these professional putting contests and the Popstroke stuff is absolutely
phenomenal. So there's a lot of different types of courses and different entities throwing
tournaments on these courses. Now, the National Putting Tour, which is what
I run, I am not pigeonholed into one type of putting course for my
tournaments. I like doing tournaments on all of these types of courses. So
the National Putting Tour kind of captures the essence of all of these putting courses.
And then some of these entities have kind of broken off, like Popstroke.
There's another entity that has opened up called Putting World and in Scottsdale,
Arizona. Right, Yeah, so Putting World is doing their things and they
build their course is more like the MSOP style. So anyway, there's a
lot of these different entities out there and National Putting tourd does tournaments on all
of these courses. Oh, I need to learn so much more, and
we're going to do that when we come back right after this. Now,
I didn't mean to interrupt you when you were starting to explain it, because
I do want to hear more about Putting World in Scottsdale, Arizona. Tell
me about this place. This seems to be a new business model. It
is, and so i'd mentioned earlier in the last segment about how the MSOP
has spawned these other entities. There's a guy by the name of Tim.
I forget his last name, but his name is Tim. He's the head
pro at Putting World. He got the idea to start Putting World from the
major series of put he had played in their event in twenty seventeen, fell
in love with the putting course, got with some high level investors as well
as Ping. Ping owns a piece of Putting World, and they started this
place in Scottsdale, Arizona called Putting World. Putting World is an indoor eighteen
hole putting course. It's all synthetic. It does look kind of like a
regular golf course, but there's no sand traps or water hazards and the holes
are are more standard and they're more like regular puts. Like Pop Stroke has
like a bunch of crazy stuff going on with hills and sand traps and water
hazards. Putting World is just are just standard puts of all different shapes and
sizes. It's indoor and they also have a bar, a restaurant, a
pro shop where you can purchase, you know, items t shirts, hats,
etc. Another thing that Putting World has done which a lot of your
listeners may be interested in. They have a full instructional facility inside Putting World,
so they have pros that are in there that can fit you, and
they do it's very reminiscent of like what the guys are doing now with track
Man, where they're tracking these different data points, and they have these really
high end booths where you can go in schedule a session where you're working with
a certified instructor. They run you through a number of these tests where they
have these interactive sort of games or exercises where they can read all these different
statistics. With cameras and high tech equipment, they can read what you're doing
with your putting and fit the perfect putter for your putting style as well as
give you some tips on what you can do to be a better putter.
So I know a lot of your listeners are interested in instruction. You can
go to putting world dot com, or if you're in Scottsdale, just drive
down to putting World. Or if you're in the Phoenix area, drive over
to Scottsdale, go down to putting World and get a super high end assessment
on what you're doing wrong with the putter and possibly purchase a new putter or
find some adjustments to your putter that will help your putting game. What kind
of footprint does um Putting World have? I mean, is it is it
like an old Costco? Is a giant warehouse? Is it a storefront on
a strip mall? What? What kind of space? You know? I
think you're sort of on the right track there. It's uh think of um,
like let's just say you were to go to like your local Ross down
at like in a shopping center, like you know, ye, not as
big as not as big as Costco, but the size of maybe like a
Ross or something like that. Staples, Like you know that they're using the
same building that like a Staples would use or an office depot, which and
anyway, right, yeah, yeah, some of those locations might become Putting
World locations in the future. But yeah, they're using office space of that
size and building these eighteen whole putting courses inside these office spaces. It's quite
big. It's quite big. I don't know the square footage, but it's
quite big. And then, like I said, they got a bar,
a restaurant. They do all kinds of competitions. They have just started an
entity called, here's another acronym for you, the World Putting Tour WPT,
and they just threw their first event. I actually just played in their first
event. I finished thirteenth out of fifty two guys, which wasn't so bad.
Congratulations, thank you. And they're giving away massive amounts of prize money
thirty thousand dollars. This last one was a purse of thirty thousand dollars.
It's three hundred dollars to enter with a two hundred dollars yearly membership fee,
so the price to enter isn't too bad. And the first place prize was
ten thousand dollars and it was won by a guy by the name of Kevin
Lucas. Who's a local mini tour, you know, Club Pro Hotshot,
and he won this ten thousand dollars purse. So what Putting World is doing
is very exciting. Now another little side note on Putting World, which is
which goes into a little bit of their vision. The Putting World entity are
going to be opening up locations nationwide. Now, the cool thing about this
is the course is going to stay exactly the same in every location. The
tea boxes are done with this laser technology where they can move the tea box
anywhere they want, which gives them an infinite amount of different courses that they
can do. And the cool thing is that the course is the same at
every location, which means that they can throw nationwide tournaments using the same tea
boxes, and instead of you having to fly to Houston, Miami, LA,
New York, you can just go to your local Putting World, which
they're talking about ten locations in the next few years, and you can play
in tournaments against everyone nationwide and you don't have to fly to these other venues
to do nationwide putting contests, which is really cool because one of the biggest
things that holds back competitive putting contest nationwide are travel costs. It's very expensive
to fly and get plane ticket or get to hotel fare at these different cities.
So you can just go to your local Putting World playing these huge nationwide
putting competitions for big money and you don't got to travel everywhere, which is
going to save the putters a lot of money. So that's one of the
exciting things about Putting World. Yeah, well, you know the first thing
when you're starting to say, oh, but every course is exactly the same,
it's like, well, that's very unlike golf, because the beauty of
golf is you can go anywhere and it's going to be unique unto itself.
But if now with having locations that are exactly the same all over the country,
starting the United States, you can compete remotely and you're competing apples to
apples. That's brilliant it is and I think you your comment they're competing remotely,
that was very well said. Thank That is one that is one of
That is one of their main concepts. And so they're they're taken off.
They had a really good turnout for their first event. They're trying to grow
their tour and the Putting World entity is is it's a very exciting thing.
Yeah, very exciting. Oh wow. Yeah, and congratulations on finishing thirteenth.
Yeah. Along with along with running the National Putting Tour, I also
compete in these events. I compete in my own events, and then I
also compete with for events on these other tours. That's one of the reasons
why I throw these tournaments is so that there are tournaments for me to play
in. That's that's where That's basically where it started because when when the major
series of putting went out of business, especially for West Coast putters, there
were no tournaments for anyone to play. The US Pro Minigolf Association, which
I talked about earlier, they do all their stuff on the East Coast,
mainly in South Carolina and some of these East coast states. There is another
entity called the PPA, the Professional Putters Association, and they do tournaments mainly
on like what I was talking about with the putt put courses, some mini
golf courses. There's also another entity called the AMA, the American Mini Golf
Alliance, but none of those entities do tournaments on the West Coast. So
I started the National Putting Tour so that there would be tournaments on the West
Coast for people to play in. So I know your listeners are probably their
heads probably about ready to explode with all these acronyms. There's a lot of
different entities out there throwing putting tournaments. But in this last year, you
know, Pop Stroke, Putting, World, National Putting Tour, we've all
kind of experienced an uptick and there's been a lot more excitement for competitive putting.
Well, I want everyone to make sure that they go to check the
show notes because we'll have links to all these places in today's blog post and
in the show notes for this episode. And we're going to take another time
out right now. So with all these various putting tours that are really starting
to take off, here are you competing against amateurs or these professional golfers,
of these PGA Tour pros, of these PGA teaching pros. Who are we
competing against? That's a great question. So it's different for every tour.
Okay, with my tour, which once again National Putting Tour, you can
check us out a National Putting Tour dot com. I try to include everyone.
I have a beginner division that's free at most of my events. It's
free there is a five dollar labor fee that we charge just to help pay
for materials and employees to help work the event, but the beginner division is
free. So with the National Putting Tour, I'm trying to cater towards everyone.
Okay, In my beginner division, we oftentimes will have women and kids
and maybe seniors that aren't the greatest putters in the world. They want to
come out have some fun. I'll give the beginner champion a twenty dollar prize
just to make make, you know, give it some excitement. So I
have a beginner division. I also have an amateur division that at most of
the events that I do, is just twenty dollars plus the five dollars fee.
The amateur division usually consists of players in the seven to twenty five handicap
range. Okay, Then in my on the National Putting Tour, I also
do a pro division, which is of mostly scratch golfers. Many tour players
club pro guys, instructors or people to just think they're good at putting right.
So that's how the National Putting Tour works. One of the bigger tours
in the nation, which is the Popstroke Tour series. Popstroke is catering more
towards the professional putter. I think it's because they have limited space, meaning
when they throw these events, they don't close the Popstroke location down, so
they don't have room for tournaments of hundreds and hundreds of people. They have
gone with more of a model of the professional putters. So Popstroke really caters
towards the professional putter, the high level putter, and they've kind of gone
that direction, and they don't have an amateur or a beginner flight putting world,
which us the entity. Well, yeah, do you think that they're
going in that direction to get TV exposure because you know, we're not going
to want to watch beginners and amateurs putt, but watching pros compete on a
putting competition would be pretty compelling TV. So, Fred, you're a very
insightful guy, and once again you've asked a great question. Not only are
they catering towards it, they've already done it. So last year they had
their Pop Stroke Tour Championship and it was in Sarasota, Florida, and I
played in it. It was a lot of fun they had. They did
a TV show that aired on the Ballet Sports Network nationwide as well as the
Golf Channel. It aired twice on the Golf Channel in late last year and
early this year, so they are already doing a TV show. And yes,
I think because of the TV show thing, they kind of went with
more of a pro putter type situation. Sure, and what was the reaction
or the numbers as far as the views for that, And I'm sure it
ended up on YouTube as well. Yes, you can look up on YouTube.
The TV show isn't on YouTube, but they did some recap videos that
you can check out on YouTube. I also do videos on YouTube, and
I did some videos for that Pop Stroke Tour series. So if you YouTube
search Popstroke Tour Championship, You're gonna see the videos that I've done. You're
gonna see the videos that Popstoke has done. They did have a TV show
that aired on the Valley Sports Network and the Golf Channel, So yeah,
so they're catering more towards that and they do have more television shows planned for
the future. How the ratings were or what the ratings were, I really
couldn't tell you. I'm not on the back end and I'm not privy to
that type of information, but I know that they do have plans to do
more television show stuff. So I'm assuming that it went okay, but I
don't know how how well it did. Yeah, well it must be doing
okay if all of a sudden there's a lot of interest. I mean,
if you yeah, you know, you've got these different entities showing up,
You've got businesses growing around it, and it's kind of obvious that there would
be this kind of attraction because yeah, you know, everybody is a good
golfer, but there could be some really good putters out there. Well,
one thing that they did to try to enhance the television experience, they had
what they called the Tailor made twenty five thousand dollars showdown. What that was
is the winner of the team event. It was won by two guys,
Jacob Stats and Chris Johnson, who are considered two of the best competitive putters
in the world, faced off against Ricky Fowler and Paula Kreamer in a twenty
five thousand dollar winner take all match in which Jacob Stats and Chris Johnson won.
Okay, oh yeah, Now it was a little bit unfair because they
threw Ricky and Paula out there with hardly any practice and these guys that Jacob
Stats and Chris Johnson that won, they got they had days to practice on
this course, So it was a little bit unfair along those lines, but
it did put things into perspective. A lot of people wonder, you know,
how good are these top competitive putters compared to the PGA pros, And
it kind of proved that, yes, these top competitive putters are as good,
if not better than the top PGA pros. Now, don't get me
wrong, if Jordan's Speed and Justin Thomas dedicated themselves to competitive putting, they
probably would be at the top of the leaderboard, right. But these competitive
putters competitive putting, it's a unique thing and you have to get used to
the format, the feeling of it, how the tournament works. There's been
a lot of mini tour guys and low level pros come in and try to
shark these events, thinking that, oh, well, I'm on the corn
Ferry Tour, I'm on the Hooters Tour, I'm on the Outlaw Tour.
I should be able to come in and just destroy these guys that frankly,
most of them are older gentlemen with pot bellies that don't look like they're in
shape. Because one thing interesting about competitive putting is that the guys that are
really good have been doing it for fifty plus years. Like, for instance,
there's a guy by the name of Gary Hester who just finished second in
the last pop Stroke event and who just won the world the first World Putting
League event, which we'll get into in a second. Gary Hester has been
doing competitive putting for fifty plus years. His teammate, Rainy Stadium, who
is an absolute legend who a lot of people know. Rainey State has been
doing competitive putting for fifty years. So these young sharks I call them,
that are good at many tour golf and professional golf, they come in and
they can't beat these guys. So it's kind of interesting. It's really interesting.
Now are the outdoor events, and I'm you know, I got the
sense that Putting World, that Scottsdale and the franchise it's growing. That's all
indoors. But everything else is outdoors. Yes, everything else is outdoors.
Besides Putting World, there are some the US Pro Mini Golf and the American
Minigolf Alliance and also O Street Minigolf up in New York. They do events
at mini golf courses that are indoors. But other than that, most of
the stuff is outdoors. And are the outdoor courses grass or they turf as
well, because maintenance wise, I would think that you want to have soul
place, they're almost they're almost all synthetic. However, there are some outdoor
putting courses that exist. There's a very popular outdoor putting course at the at
the at Indian Wells Country Club in Palm Springs, and I've never done a
tournament there, but they do their own tournaments and they do nighttime stuff with
laser light shows and stuff. Also at the j You Marry Out in Palm
Springs there's an outdoor putting course. So there are that's that's real grass.
So there are real grass outdoor putting courses. There's also a putting tournament called
the Georgia's State Putting Championship put on by the GSGA, the Georgia State Golf
Association, and they do. There's a putting course at a place called Bobby
Jones Golf Course in North Atlanta that's this big, huge, real super undulated
putting green that they do these these putting tournaments at so real golf putting courses
do exist that are outdoors, but most of the high level tour stuff are
done on synthetic putting courses. Amazing at one more break and this time we're
going to figure out what's going to be happening this week with golf S Murder
Mulligans. This week on golf S Murder Mulligans is number seven of nine in
our annual Tony Manzoni series to help you launch this new golf season now.
In this episode, we go in depth with Tony about his and actually others
fascination and passion for Ben Hogan's golf swing. One thing Venturi told me when
I work with him, and it was really true, is that you can
make that little lateral slide towards the target as far as you want. There
is a point where your body will turn automatically. It's just that when you
make the lateral slide and stop is when you hit that coil to the right.
But if you make that little bumble where you transfer your weight and just
keep going, you will just rotate like crazy. It's a wonderful feeling because
it's a powerful feeling. Where we get into trouble is when we have weight
on the right foot as we're hitting the golf ball, and then you can't
turn to the left. You just can't do it. And that's where you
get lower back problems when you don't get over to the left side before your
rotation. You have to get on that left side. That's why setting up
sixty forty, you're closer to the pivot point because we're pivoting around the left
leg. The left leg is access for the right handed player. That's golf
Smarto Mulligan's episode two hundred six, the seventh of nine featuring our friend and
mentor Tony man Sony. This is the only episode with Tony that was recorded
on video on one of the first experimental online video chat platforms available to record
that didn't survive, called Blab. You can watch it on the blog post
for this episode. Check the show notes to learn how to get Tony's book
The Lost Fundamental One Simple Move, Better Golf Forever and gain access to his
video of the same name. Please subscribe for free to both of our golf
podcasts, Golf Smarter is published every Tuesday since two thousand and five, and
our sister podcast that revisits the best of the Golf Smarter podcast called golf Smarter
Mulligan's being released every Friday from wherever you're listening right now. You mentioned that
this has gotten much more popular since covid as golf has gotten much more popular
since everyone was locked down and needed to get out. I gotta believe that
top the influence of top golf, is involved in the interest in putting opportunities
like this. I think so, and especially with pop Stroke. Now I
am not good friends with Greg Bartoli, who started pop Stroke. Tiger now
owns a significant piece of that. I don't know where he got the idea
from it for for pop stroke, but when you go to a pop stroke,
it's really hard not to notice that it does have a feeling of top
golf. I actually call pop stroke kind of, you know, a poor
man's version of top golf, and that it's just smaller. It's basically just
like top golf, but with a putting chorse instead of a driving range.
So I think that the emergence of top golf, the popularity of top golf,
I think it definitely made people realize, oh, like, there's a
market for this, and there it's more than just your avid golfer. For
instance, if you've been to any top golf. You're going to see you
know, guys, men and women on date nights. You'll see a family
of people there that you know, the whole family's getting involved. So Top
golf has brought a lot of different types of golfers into the fray. And
I think that that did play a role with the emergence of Pop Stroke and
maybe a little bit with Putting World, that they saw this model of top
golf working and they realize, hey, like, you know, people are
looking for something to do that's not you know, in front of a computer.
And and yes, I think top golf definitely had a major influence on
Pop Stroke and Putting World and some of these entities. Yeah, so when
you're thinking about television and you're thinking about competition, I've got to believe even
though some of these events are offering large money, large prizes, significant financial
prizes, that there's i ought to be a way for the average public to
get involved financially as well. As we're seeing in all sports they're like,
yeah, gambling's okay, let's bring it in. There's got to be some
gambling going on with these events as well, right are they promoting that?
Fred? Another great question from you and that's one of the things that's that's
in my opinion, very exciting. Gambling has entered the world of professional putting.
Okay, to keep in mind, you know, I'm not like some
avid gambler or anything, but if anyone's turned on the TV anytime recently,
sites like DraftKings, fan Duel are are, you know, just advertising heavily
for this, and gambling on professional sports has become more popular and more socially
accepted. Okay, it's just the world that we live in. People do
like to place wagers on professional sports. And there's an entity that has just
started now. I hope you're listeners aren't getting fed up with all these different
acronyms, because I know there's a lot of them. But I'm gonna give
you one more. The WPL, the World Putting League has just started now.
For right now, they've only done tournaments on mini golf courses. So
they did their first event I think it was about a month ago, and
you can look that up on YouTube as well. World Putting League. They
did an event at one of the most famous putting courses in the world.
It's called Hawaiian Rumble and it's in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and it's
owned by a guy by the name of Bob Dettwiler, who is the president
of the US Pro Mini Golf Association and he's sort of considered the godfather of
putting. And they did this tournament that was televised live on their website,
which you can check them out at the World Putting League dot com. And
they have an affiliation right now with a sports betting entity called bet Fred.
Were able to I have nothing to do with it, all right, yeah,
Betred, you don't got a piece of that, Humfred. But bet
Fred is the sports betting website, which is it's a fairly popular sports betting
website. They're also in talks with Draft Kings and you should see these events
on Draft Kings soon where you can bet on professional putters. And I guess
one of the rules, or one of the things that these governing bodies want
is a live TV broadcast so that there's legitimacy, so people know, oh,
this is happening right now, so when I make a bet on this
guy, it's not some sort of scam where they're tape delaying it and they're
making someone win that didn't win to make sure that they make money on the
on the sports bets. The The World Putting League televises these live events and
they're actually doing another event on April twentieth. This is the World Putting League
Event number two of twenty three, April twenty twenty three, and I have
just been hired to be their sideline reporter. Awesome, so check me out.
I'm going to be working with them and making their broadcast a lot better
and I'll be doing sideline reporting stuff for them, kind of like a David
Ferrety Bones Mackay kind of role where I'm kind of the insider and also the
lead announcer. Is a guy that many of you may know. His name
is Brian Catrick and he is the voice of the PGA Tour on their PGA
Tour live broadcast which streams and also serious XM radio and also streams on Peacock.
Brian Catrick is a very well known play by play guy in that space,
and he is there play by play guy and he just does a phenomenal
job with it. But they do these live television broadcasts where you can bet
on competitive putting, and that area is growing and I just see that growing
even more and the cool thing about it is then there's some revenue sharing going
on where some of the revenues from the sports book goes back to an entity
called the Pro League Network that owns the World Putting League, which will help
finance future tournaments. So one of the problems that's occurred in the competitive putting
world it's very hard for these entities to make money throwing putting contests, and
what oftentimes will happen, like what happened with the Major series of putting,
is that they can't make enough money on it, so they go for a
few years and then they go out of business because they can't profit right,
So the infusion of some gambling revenue will help make for a situation where these
entities can start throwing more contests and have bigger prize money. And so yeah,
gambling has entered the professional putting world, and it's very exciting for everyone
involved with competitive putting because it means that there's a better chance for more tournaments.
So that's been very very cool, very very cool. You know what
I want to talk about now that we've probably intrigued a lot of listeners and
who are want to know more and get involved, I have a feeling they're
going to want some advice as well. But I want to take one more
break and we'll come back. We'll do another segment because I want to dig
into your brain and your experience as a competitive putter on what we should be
thinking about, what we should be working on, and the mindset that it
takes to be a competitive putter. And we're going to do that right after
this. All right, So you you've already mentioned that you've had not only
sideline experience, but you've had inside the ropes. You've been competing in putting
competitions for a while and have had some success. This is not just putting
for a round of golf. This is a different kind of mindset. This
is a different kind of putting. Where do you advise we start, what
should we be working on? Start to finish her to become competitive putter successful
competitive putter. Well, if you're in the San Diego area, I'm also
a golf instructor. I have a website called find the Swing dot com and
you can book a putting lesson with me if you're interested. I'm only in
the San Diego area for the instruction stuff, but you can check that out
and find the swing dot com. I'd mentioned earlier that Putting World has their
instructional situation there, so if you're in the Phoenix area, head over to
putting World. They have some great instructors that will help you to become a
better putter. In regard to becoming a better putter, one of the things
that I've always found so fascinating, and the full golf swing is like this
a little bit, but one of the things that I've found so fascinating with
putting is there's a lot of different ways to skin the cat. Even if
you look at the tour players, especially with their full golf swings, they're
not all alike. And yes, there's there's components that you want to stay
solid with, but everybody has kind of a different way of doing it.
Okay, So putting is very similar. When I look at all the top
competitive putters, they all have kind of a different way of doing it.
Some people have like an open stance and some people have their toes pointing at
the target. Some people are using a mallet putter, some people use a
blade putter. Some people have like the two ball putters. You know,
So there's a lot of different ways that you can do it. Okay.
Some things that will help your listeners become better putters that I think are constant
for everyone. And I know this one tip probably sounds like real simple,
but it's very important. You want to make sure to keep your head down
through the stroke, Okay, no matter what kind of putting stroke you're doing,
a lot of people have a tendency to want to see where the ball
is going, and they lift their head last second, which will either pull
the putter face close or leave the putter face open, and they're missing putts
and they're wondering why. If you watch almost every single PGA pro, watch
them, after the ball leaves the putter face, that heads and those eyes
stayed down for an extra second while the ball is maybe rolled already four or
five feet, that head has stayed down. Okay, So that, in
my opinion, is like one of the most important things. Okay. Another
thing that I feel is very important, and I know this probably sounds like
just basic stuff, but a lot of people are really bad with it.
You want to make sure the ball hits on the center of the putter face.
Okay. A lot of people are towing the putter where the ball is
hitting on the outside of the face or the balls hitting on the inside of
the face, and they don't even realize it. And I remember Golf Magazine
did a study years ago and they studied the point at which the ball hits
on the putter face for different levels of golfer, and there was a direct
correlation between the center of the club putter face and the person score. So
if the person was a scratch golfer, all their dots were like right in
the center of the club face. If they were a twenty five handicap,
their dots were more of a they encompass more of a wider area on the
putter, And so a lot of people don't realize it, but they're not
even hitting the ball on the center of the putter face. So I think,
you know, just some basic tips. Those two I think are really
important. One last one that I'll give your listeners. You want to make
sure that the putter is either going straight back or straightforward or a little bit
to the inside when you take it back. Okay, a lot of putters
make the mistake and they don't even realize that they're doing it, but they're
taking the putter. Two, when they take the putter away when they hit
a putt, they're taking it away too steep, and the putter is going
outside the putting line as opposed to being right up the putting line on the
way back or a little bit to the inside. And so I think those
three things for your standard golfer, if you can focus on those three things,
undoubtedly you will become a better putter. I found that. And I
know this tip about keeping your head still and keeping it down and not lifting
it. I definitely know that, and I try to remind myself every time
I'm standing over the ball. But I also find that when I do that,
I tend to go long. I tend to be a little bit strong.
I need to learn how to hold bring that back a bit. Well.
You know, when you start keeping your head down, there definitely is
a recalibration that takes place because you're actually doing it right now, and when
you're doing something, and when you're doing something right, the ball will actually
go a little bit farther. Okay. A fourth tip for your listeners that
is in my opinion, maybe and most important, but it's not something I'll
tell people until maybe like the second or third. Lesson how far you take
the putter back, is how far the ball is going to go. The
way gravity works, and just the way the centric will go forest works.
If you take the putter back, let's say a few inches, the ball
can only go maybe a few feet. If you take the putter back a
foot, two feet, whatever it is, the ball will go far.
As far as how far you take the putter back or how far you take
the putter back, how affects how far the ball will go. So if
you're going too long, my guess is you're probably taking the putter too far
back on your takeaway. I notice a lot of beginners. They'll have a
three foot put and they take the putter back on their takeaway like a foot
and a half, and then they're always running it long, and they're wondering,
well, why am I running it long a three foot put? You
should be taking the putter back no more than maybe like four to seven inches.
Okay, So I think that tip right there will help you not to
run the ball too long. Go out on your practice putting green at your
local golf course and start experimenting, and take the putter back a certain distance
and try different distances and just see how far the ball will go and you'll
find a direct correlation. And that's something that really helps people to understand that
concept. And it works the same with the full swing. You know a
lot of the PGA pros are using what's called the clock system where they take
their left arm back a certain distance and then that affects how far the ball
is going to go. Like I saw an interview with Dustin Johnson, he
was saying that he has when he has a fifty five yard shot, he
just takes sand wedge and takes it back to about nine o'clock and takes it
down and brings it down and that button that goes fifty five yards. So
that clock system, which that's in Tiger's book as well. That clock system,
it works with putting. Two. How far you take the putter back
is how far the ball is going to go, and don't decelerate. You
want to make sure that the tempo is fairly the same. Now, most
putters will accelerate a little bit on their downswing with putter, but with putter,
you do want the tempo that you take the putter away and bring it
back to be relatively the same. If you're speeding it up some people will
refer to that as a pop stroke, and that is something that a lot
of people will do from the fringe and stuff. But if you're accelerating on
the way down, the ball is going to run long. And then definitely
if you're decelerating, the ball is going to come up short. So yes,
you want to make sure. You want to make sure not to decelerate
on the way down as well. Yeah, I've even had an instructor on
it talked about this, And I've seen people where they do a short takeaway
and then they really kind of accelerate with the longer and I watched that and
I think, how can you possibly get your distance right? And actually,
the one guy I played with a lot who did this, he had a
very short takeaway and then pushed hard on his forward swing. He always came
up short. He always came up short. I'm not also going to say
whether whether he's ten, ten, fifteen or sixty feet a web like,
he's going to just come up short. I can just see he can't get
his range right with that little kind of stroke. I don't know, that's
just I made a comment earlier. There's a lot of different ways of skin
the cat when I there you go. Yeah, And there are people that
have had success with doing a pop stroke, which is where you have a
minimal takeaway and then you accelerate. Many of you are probably familiar with Brandt
Snedecker. Sure, Brandt Snedecker is very famous for having more of a pop
stroke, a minimal takeaway, and then an acceleration through the ball. But
I can tell you this, it's it's not the norm. And most good
putters are not pop stroking. They're not accelerating. The they're they're tempo on
the way back is pretty so what it is on the way through. M
Well, this is fascinating stuff. I'm really glad that we were connected because
I knew nothing about this world and apparently not many do because it's the emerging
world of putting competition. But I also really appreciate the tips that you've provided.
This has been great, and again, to the listener right now,
make sure you go to the show notes because we're going to link all these
different websites and acronyms that Brock has been talking about. Thank you, Fred,
it's been an absolute pleasure to be on here. Well, this past
weekend was the twenty twenty three Masters, where PGA Tour and live golf players
competed head to head for the first time since the live tour began, and
it really did come down to the last few holes before Brooks Kepka finally succumbed
to the greatness that is John Rum. But that's the only comment I have
at the competition. I actually have two observations about Phil Mickelson's incredible final round
surge that shot him up the leaderboard to finish tied for second with fellow live
golfer Kepka. My first observation was that he must be making so much money
from live Did you notice that he didn't have any sponsor logos on his body?
Have you ever seen that the logo that filled displayed on his hat and
shirt where from his four person live golf team he heads up called the High
Flyers, bad name, terrible logo. The other thing I found fascinating was
that with nine holes left to play after Phil finished as the clubhouse leader,
was that the network or was it the Master's committee, chose not to interview
him live on TV? Do you ever remember seeing that before? I mean
they were even doing interviews with players during the round which was fantastic, but
not talking to someone as popular as Phil, who impacted the results, had
his best Masters finish in eight years and at fifty two, being the oldest
player ever to finish in the top five at that event. I was quite
a snub. I'd love to hear their reasoning. I want to give a
shout out to Phil Singer of Bowling Green, Kentucky for opening today's episode as
our newest golf Smarter Ambassador. Phil chose to try out the X one balls
with the golf Smarter logo from Odin Golf, the brand that sponsors and pays
everyday golfers. Now, these tour quality balls are a fraction of the price
that 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 and when you open our episode, you get your choice of
a great gift, and all you have to do is leave a voicemail on
our toll free Golf Smarter listener line to get that gift. In addition to
the Odin balls, you can choose to receive a private link to Tony Manzoni's
video The Lost Fundamental or a Glove and Glove storage Compartment from Red Rooster golf
dot com. So please send an email and all right back to you with
some instructions of what to do and what to say. Send it to golf
Smarter podcast at gmail dot com. I have been posting more short content video
content from the podcast on social media, so make sure you follow at golf
Smarter on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, or of
course follow Fred Green. That's g r e E n E at E at
the end is very important as a content creator from Nevado, California on LinkedIn.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for upcoming episodes,
please click on the Hey Fred button when you visit Golfsmarter dot com. M