If you don't know with confidence that you can make eight out of ten puts
from three feet around the whole, your decision making is going to be skewed
and probably poor. Frankly, I'm a big believer in soaring with your strengths,
but understand that the facts are the facts. If I have no idea
that, wow, I had thirty four puts in this nine hole round,
it's just a number. But now that we know where we stand, we
can work on creating the trend in the direction of your choosing, which is
typically a lower score. What gets measured gets improved. It's as simple as
that. Hi, this is Robbie Smith from Lake City, Minnesota, and
I play at the Jewel Golf Course. This is Golf smarterst Episode number nine
hundred and nine. What gets measured gets improved, It's as simple as that.
With business and golf coach doctor Greta Anderson, this is Golf Smarter,
sharing stories, tips and insights from great golf minds to help you lower your
score and raise your golf I kid, here's your host, Fred Green.
Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast. Pretta, Hello here, I'm glad to
have you here. I love having podcasters on because I know you can talk,
Yes, I can do that, but a podcaster with a show called
The Smart Golfer, it's like, I gotta find this one out. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Well, yes,
we're going it's gonna be fun looking forward to it. Thanks for having
me again, Yeah, of course. Let's let's start with your podcast,
why you started doing it, and how you came up with the name The
Smart Golfer, because we're kind of sympatico here, right, Well, I
realize that I can't talk, but one of the one of the things that
I really value is the depth of a good answer, right. You know,
we would need to talk as much as we need to talk, but
sometimes the answer might not be a two minute if it Sometimes it might require
a little bit more depth. And so I was looking for a place in
a space to do that because frankly, that's what a lot of people were
asking me for. They were saying, we would love to have a place
where we can hear those as as a lot of my clients will call those
doctor Gretai isms, right, and so it kind of began from their part
one. And then secondly, in terms of the name, I find that
in many of my clients when we'll probably talk about this as we go on
in our conversation here, but they come with such an amazing breadth of skills
and attributes as humans, right, but when it comes to golf, they
may feel a little bit intimidated or inadequate in some ways. And I just
always found that to be unfortunate but correctible, if you will. But one
of the things that I encourage people with is that you can always become a
smart golfer. You have the opportunity to do that. Even if you aren't
blessed with the greatest of athleticism and strange and distance on the off the tea
and all those things, you can be a smart golfer. Hence the name
a Smart Golfer podcasts. And it was the reasoning for me to come at
in this direction was because I always believe that if you were a smart golfer,
you can lower your scores a lot quicker than if you're just working on
your mechanics. I would agree, absolutely, and that is exactly what I'm
what I'm trying to convey to them when I say that, like, you
can be a smart golfer, smart golf is about playing golf, what strokes
and shots are best for you, not for her, not for him.
And a lot of golfers, as you well know, fall prey to this,
like you know, staggering. But getting them out of that habit before
it even becomes a habit, and empowering them to know that I'm a smart
golfer goes a long way, goes a long way. Isn't it amazing how
people will take the advice of their playing partners more frequently than they'll take the
advice of a golfing stucker. It's it's got to be frustrating for you.
Well, it's it's it's kind of like it's kind of like parenting in a
way. That's kind of the only the analogy that I can talk Abou'm not
a parent, I don't have, you know, but I was raised by
a good set of a great set of parents, and so I know sometimes
they would be going, like, what is this little girl doing. They're
gonna I need to kind of fall and scrape the knee, if you will,
to learn the lesson, And so sometimes it's like that, you know,
they kind of have to just figure out like, well, I was
out there and I don't know why I listened to her. Well, we've
kind of talked about this, and a lot of that awesome comes with understanding
being smart, right, being a smart golfer, understanding all that goes into
making the right decisions out there. Once they once they're equipped with that knowledge,
you're not worried about what club Susie's using, you know, to get
over the pond. You're gonna understand what you need to what you club you
need to use, or whatever the case may be. And but but that
the peer pressure is real out there on those on those fairways, as we
like to say, Yeah, absolutely absolutely, So tell me about your LPGA
journey. How you I mean, you're a PhD, you're you're an accomplished
LPGA instructor, but you're also an LPGA instructor for instructors. Correct correct,
correct, Yes, busy, very busy and yes, very important, Yes,
yes, very business. Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that.
Yeah, So, as you know my as as you observed, my background
is in education and research, and so I really though I've done many things
and continue to do many things in my life and my career, I've always
if you, if you asked me to define myself, I'll probably revert to
education. As my mom has said forever, even when I was kind of
in denial, of not denial, but I I really hadn't given any much
thought. She said. I would always say, Gretta, if you like
doing it, you're gonna end up teaching it. And I would go,
no, Mom, no, no, no, no, and then I
and then I think one day she started rattling off all these things over the
years, and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's really how it's it's the great expression of myself when I have the
skill and the and the passion to help people learn to do things really well.
And in terms of golf, what I began to see very clearly is
that and understand even as a golfer, that's as as we work hard to
grow the game and diversify and make it more welcoming, education is got to
be a key component of that. You know, golf isn't necessarily the easiest
thing to learn, but one of the one of the big barriers to it
is is that it challenges in learning right, and the educational process in golf
has been pretty traditional for a mighty long time that some barriers. So if
we can help too, if you will make that a bit more contemporary,
more reflective of society. When people see somebody like them, they can know
they can be somebody like them. And so my great hope has always been
that down the road, you know, golf will be the proverbial rainbow in
terms of players, instruction, all of that. But right now there are
a few issues inside the educational process that could use a little bit smoothing out.
So my choice and decision was to use my expertise as a researcher and
as an educator to help improve and innovate the landscape. And so the LPGA,
being you know, all about teaching and education and golf, it was
just kind of the perfect landing spot. Why golf, I mean, you
have I love golf, you know, coming coming through with this education that
you have and the encouragement that you have. Ye, why what is it
the drew to golf? Do I love? Well? First of all,
I love golf. It's it's super fun. And I just understood, like,
I'm a very resilient kind of person like and I'm and I can be
pretty stubborn in a good way, right, but particularly when it comes to
sport. I have pretty thick skin. So you could tell me you see
no talent in this and that, and I'll go like, okay, and
I'm gonna prove you wrong. I'm gonna be you know, I'm gonna prove
you wrong. And I found that to be the case, not for myself,
but for others in golf, like they weren't having really great experiences as
they sought instruction and you know, kind of trying to become a part of
the golf global community, if you will. And so for me, that
similar thing happened, which is kind of what kind of flipped the switch for
me and made a decision. I played tennis. I played competitive tennis from
the time I was a small girl all the way up into my early thirties.
But I had a very significant hand in his injury, which essentially kind
of ended that career. Which I'm a jock, but you know, I
love sports, and so I really had to kind of figure out what I
was going to do with this athletic energy. I mean, I'm gonna work
and do all those things, but I'm an athlete and I enjoy that kind
of thing. So I was already playing a lot of golf at that point,
and so I was kind of had a friend who was she was learning,
and so we would play and essentially I was basically giving playing lessons.
I just really hadn't thought of it that way. And she said, you
know, you're pretty good at this. You teach everything else, Greta,
why don't you like think about teaching. And I'm like, yeah, it
seems like a lot, you know, this so called thing. I'm just
you know, so long. On the short, I decided to go to
the PGA show, you know, kind of sniff around and everything. I
ended up, you know, I'll find my way, you know, to
to I'm a curious girl like that. I will find my way. And
I ended up in conversation with a few people at the time. I believe
she was might have been the national secretary Woman dev Vangelo Master Professional, and
in dialogue we began talking and she said, you know, you should kind
of think about joining the LPG. And I'm going like, oh, that
seems like a lot of work. I've kind of got the Oh. By
the way, I owned a manufacturing company at the time, and I'm like,
I kind of have this job, you know, over here being the
CEO of this company. We'll think about it. And so she's like,
I'm telling you you need to come on over here. Fast forward another year
I'm back. She's like, well, something brought you back, and I'm
like, yeah, I'm kind of thinking about it and everything like that.
So I think another year might have gone. But this was a long process
for me in that regard. The third year, she said, look,
we need you here for a variety of reasons. You you you fit right,
you fit and you have you can bring some unique value. And also
we're just growing, we're growing the game, so you need to come ahead
and do this. So long the short I jumped in began the process,
and I think it might have been probably eight or ten months later. I
show up at you show up for level one education and who's at the front
of the classroom? Depth, And so my journey began. And so once
I jumped in, I was all in and so here we are. You
know, that's I don't have to do have due too many things. And
once I got in, I just I loved it and it just kind of
you know the way life, the cycle of life and business works. I
was actually selling that business and manufacturing business and had a little time on my
hands, and I thought about what did I want my next entrepreneurial endeavor to
look like? And I wanted it to be of service, and so I
thought, well, I know how to build I how to build businesses,
and let's build one which will be very fun, will serve a lot of
people, and it could do a lot of good in growing something that I
was really growing to fall in love with, which was off. And here
we are, here we are just in time to take a commercial break.
We'll right back at what age did you start playing golf? When did you
get introduced? Is this a family thing or is you just the jock?
I am the jock, but my entire family plays golf. Ah okay,
they play way more golf than I do now at the time. So let
me tell your question, was golf instructor? Golf instructors don't play golf?
No, that's what if people are like you don't, when do you play
golf? I go like like never, Like I'm around it all the time,
right all the time. And you know most golf instructors, you know,
people will say like, well, you must be playing now, I'm
not playing rounds. I hit every shot in the in the in the book
every day. So my game stays, my shot making stays reasonably be sharp.
But we know that that's not necessarily the makings of and if you know
a low's going round, you know, so I get around very well.
I just don't play on a whole lot, right, yeah, right,
right, so yeah, but yeah, you mentioned the barriers that were there,
and I have to believe that being an African American woman in the golf
industry. The barriers are tall, the barriers are strong. How how does
that affect you and your community? You're you're exactly right, right, You're
exactly right. They are they are tall, and they can be wide,
and for many they seem insurmountable. And so I always viewed myself as an
opportunity to help, you know, kind of bring those down and shrink them
and and shorten them, right, And I know that that's that's gonna be
a lengthy process because they didn't pop up overnight, right, But we have
to you know, be consistent and chipping away at them and also helping to
create the systems that will facilitate bringing those down. And again, that's just
kind of being systematic and systemic in that regard, but creating awareness on a
lot of things that people may not understand, our hindrances to participation, involvement,
getting involved, whether that's playing or even seeing yourself with a career in
golf. Right, it's those small little things that because golf doesn't you know,
it's not a silo, right, It's part of society. So there
are things that factor into whether or not, you know, for examples,
pursuit can pursuit of your professional your professional credential. Well, it's not inexpensive,
it's not not time consuming. You know, you have to It's not
like some things where you can just get a certificate, you know, take
a test and certified. It's not like that. It's a very involved process.
So if you're coming from an economically disadvantaged background already, you probably don't
have a spare fifteen thousand dollars sitting on, you know, in the bank
with weeks. You know, it's a little bit different now as we've migrated
and brought some of the educational programming online. But like for example, when
I went through I mean you went away, I would fly fly out to
California or Arizona or whatever the case may be be there, which means you're
not working. So these types of things make it very difficult and challenging for
people who may be coming from, you know, a different life experience to
just say like, I want to do that, because even with the best
of intentions can't make it happen. And these are non negotiables to getting into
the teaching profession as a fully credential teacher. Yeah, and being in Atlanta
where the barriers are still great. Yeah, you have to be a fresh
face that has the ability to communicate with a community that wants this instruction.
You know it is searching it out and you make it so much easier.
You're exactly right, which is one of the great I view it as an
amazing opportunity. But I'm never it never ceases to amaze me the amazing people
who come onto my lesson tee and tell me like I've been looking for you,
Oh it right, it's it's it's you know, it's it's just amazing.
I love my job in that for so many reasons. But that's one
of the great great ones that people say like Okay, I'm I'm in now,
Like it's not that they it's not that they can't have an amazing experience
with someone who doesn't look like them. But golf is tough. Mean golf,
you know, I mean golf can be tough, you know, for
just the engagement involvement, the little things. Hey, showing up at a
parking lot, at the place you've never been. When you walk into the
clubhouse, someone may be looking like at you, like you might not belong
here, like, yeah, can I help you? Yeah? Yeah,
right, Like, Hey, I'm just walking in. I'm looking for the
bathroom. I'm not trying to you know, steal anything or you know,
it's just for something where you're gonna be paying. People go like, hey,
I don't need that hassle. And I want people to, you know,
to to know that, yeah, every every now and then, you're
gonna run into somebody who's just you know or whatever. We won't use bad
words here, but you know that might happen, but I want you to
know that you belong here. And so on my lesson team, most of
my students, you know, they may not some of'em remember it very
explicitly, but I always start, particularly for new golfers coming, I always
tell them I'm excited to have you here. Working with me today, but
I'm more excited to have you in golf. Welcome to golf. You belong
here, right, and we are glad to have you. Intentionality it matters,
yeah, yeah, even in your game matters. Yeah, And intentionally
it matters. But the choice that you know you could do do a million
things, and you've taken the step even though you're you're you're nervous. I
mean, these are you know, I teach a lot of women. I
teach predominantly women, though I teach gentlemen. But I'm always amazed, like
these are like C suite executives. You when when I ask them what they
do, you know, they may give me like, you know, oh,
I'm just an attorney. And then later I find I'm like, you're
like, not just an attorney or whatever the case may be. But they
come and they can literally be shaking in their poor little golf shoes, and
I'm colle it's just golf. They're like, I know, but it's golf,
and I want I want to free them of that. Yeah, well
thank you for doing that. Thank you my pleasure. Yeah, and do
you so you said you prefer you'll teach men and or women, But you
prefer having women and do you prefer women who are new to the game or
just starting or have or seasoned? What is you know? I love teaching
all golfers, you know, obviously teaching golfers at different stages of the journey.
Are you know you come with unique circumstances. I love you know,
I have you know, it's you know, several of my clients that are
you know, the low digit no no digit handicappers as I like to call
them. Yeah, they're gentlemen who've been playing, and I have a couple
of ladies, but you know, they skew toward toward the men. But
those lessons are always fun because they're so they're they're just different, right,
They're conversational, they're more strategic. There may be some technical things, but
oftentimes it's just a kind of a different They're in a different developmental stage.
So I enjoy those just as much. I will say that the ladies have
found me because when I began, I really didn't say clearly who I was
going to teach. I just kind of wanted to see who I would resonate
with. Now I've talked about my sports and that type of thing for many
I'm a researcher, and for many years when I was in the corporate world
and even after that, I worked in the luxury hospitality vertical. So I
viewed things like golf. Let's be real, nobody's going to die if they
don't play golf. I mean sort of kind of, but you know what
I mean. It's not like food or shelter, and so I always view
but golf, it will kill you, it definitely will. But I view
like my offering, my service, as as I was taught to view a
luxury experience. When you work in the hotel in hospitality environment and in the
you know, five star hotels and that type of thing, as even as
in the research arm you learned that this is about service because at the end
of the day, this you know, four hundred and fifty square foot room
at the Holiday End is the same as this four hundred fifty square foot room
at the Mandarin. It's just that we've chosen to put some you know,
some higher level mattresses and that type of thing. But it's it's more than
anything. It's the service. So everything for me is about the service.
And with that, women are just drawn to it. Right, it doesn't
have to be complicated, but it's simple. It's streamline. It's service,
and I'm here to serve you. It's hospitality. I'm instruction, but it's
hospitality. Yes it is, Yes, it is. Let's take another break.
We'll be right back. I want to talk to you about doing business
on the golf course. Back, Greta, you have a really unique perspective
in the sense that so many of the golf instructors I talked to, they're
like, you know, I loved playing as a kid and I thought,
gee, I want to do this for the rest of my life. And
golf is their life, and you know, from start to end, and
as we kind of laughed at about earlier, they're shocked to find out that
they don't have time to play golf. Once they become an instruct that's their
business. And they were never really chained trained in having a business. Sure,
but you were in the corporate world. You've had your own company.
How do you approach doing business on the golf course or do you instruct people
on doing business on the golf course. I'm passionate about instructing people and helping
them to understand what a valuable too the golf course is it's a business tool.
It's a business skill when it's a business tool. Yeah, So many
conversations are happening on the golf course, you know, as I would often
tell you know, people I'm speaking to, especially my clients, to go
like so on Wednesday afternoons, I teach pretty late. You know, I
started later, but I teach pretty late, and I will tell them on
Wednesdays, I have to get here earlier than I would because I can't find
a parking spot. And so all that to say, it's because everybody's at
the office, they're doing business. Now, if you aren't getting invited to
the golf course, you're probably missing out on some of the business because after
all, particularly if you're not just should say particularly. But in the corporate
world, we know that ninety percent of fortune five hundred leadership played golf.
We know that, and we know that that increases with every level fortune one
hundred, fortune fifty, so on and so forth. We also know that
leadership, you know, there's the head and its as the body moves,
so goes to tail, right, So it trickles down. The culture of
golf trickles down. So it's like a language. I have not develop my
multi lingual skills very well. But let's just say I had a series of
business associates and colleagues and they were fluent in let's say French, and they
were gonna go out and they were gonna have an amazing dinner at a great
French restaurant and be in full flight using their their French and their Franco skills
and all that type of thing. I don't get much pass probably vous France,
so they're probably not gonna invite Greta, right. Yeah, doesn't mean
they don't like me, doesn't mean they don't think I'm competent, doesn't mean
they don't respect me. But I don't have anything to bring to the table.
I won't even know that they went out for the French dinner. They
were like, well, we didn't tell you cause you don't speak French and
we know you aren't really crazy about French food. So it's the same thing
that's happening when when people know that you don't play golf, you got familiar
with golf, you' you don't know it. Why would I tell you we're
going to tee off and play a quick nine and talk about a few things
on Friday afternoon. If I know you don't know anything about golf, m
and thus you you're missing the meeting. Yeah, with a mess on it
meetings. Yeah, So uh, is it doing business on the golf course
a smart thing? Is that the place to do business or is it more
a place to learn if you want to do business with that person? I
think it's both. I think that it's important to It's a great place for
character, right, character revealing. It's it's the big one, right,
it's it's it will tell a lot about each of us, whether how we
handle ourselves throughout that round. So at that point I've now identified, Okay,
we could do a business. Right, it can work, and it
becomes a good place to continue doing business because we know that golf can foster
really relationships, right, It's it's a common ground. We can be very
you know, on opposite end of the spectrum on many things, but on
the golf course, for whatever reason, things can come together. Moreover,
most people who are in the positions of decision making value their time and only
have so much time. But golfers are going to make time for that golf,
right, So in many instances, where would I have an opportunity to
have an ongoing conversation with someone for two hours, three hours, four hours.
Not many places except the golf course. We can get a lot done
in a round. Yeah, and you can learn a lot about the person,
that's right, that's right. Right. I'm much more inclined to relax
and let you see my full self because it's got to happen as during the
round of golf, but it's accelerated on the golf course versus you know,
let's meet at the office or meet for a drink or whatever the case,
maybe it'll happen on the golf course. Right. So when you have these
new these beginner golfers, these new golfers and from all these different places in
the world they come from, is that part of your instruction about you know,
the etiquette, the sensitivity of what golf is. Because we can blow
that off and say, yeah, it's not that important, but when you're
out there and you're playing on a regular basis or you're playing with strangers,
that's the kind of thing that can really create a lot of talk behind your
back, absolutely, which is that you're exactly right. So let's just say
for my class golf one oh one I call it, let's let's swing right
in that. Yes, we're gonna learn how to swing. We're gonna get
that ball flying high, fast and farm right. We're gonna get work on
that. But all of those pieces that you just mentioned at at our little
graduation ceremony, you are we have not touched on that. You are going
to understand all of those things because those are the big barriers too. I
found and I learned that and kind of my trajectory of teaching that hold a
lot of people back, particularly the women to an extent. A lot of
ladies are wired a bit differently. I might know how to hit the ball,
but there's a bunch of other stuff I'm not sure about. So guess
what. Yeah, I'm not going to go out there until I'm pretty sure
I know how to handle myself. I know where to stay, and I
know when I should talk when not to talk. Otherwise, I'm like,
you're taking lessons and you've learned how to hit a ball, but you didn't
learn how to play golf. There's a difference. There's a big Defen's the
difference. Yeah, And that's something that I talk about a lot. It's
like I've played with a guy who told me I can change my swing anytime
I need, so if you see something, just let me know. I'm
like, what's your index? You know, I'm a twenty four. It's
like, yeah, I don't think you can. But the guy talked non
stopped and was like yeah, and he was talking non stopped the round and
it's like, dude, calm yeah, right. I kept thinking of Hamilton's
right the show. Hamilton's like talk less, smile right, right, exactly.
He didn't. I'm guessing I'm hoping if he just kept talking incessantly.
Unfortunately he didn't know, right, But you remember that, right, Remember
I'm trying to like this guy is. I looked at my buddy John,
who introduced us during the round. I turned back and he goes, I
mean I didn't say anything. He just saw my face and what Yeah,
I get it. And I was like this, let's not invite him back.
Yeah's inviting get this guy's phone number, But don't get his phone number.
Let's just bump into him again if we have to, exactly right,
And so those are the things that we don't want. So when we're again
intentional about help being and coaching on all of those pieces, they feel much
more equipped and so no, they might not hit the ball as crisply crisply
as they want to just yet, or those types of things, but they
can navigate the course successfully. And my goal is to always have the ladies
not feeling anyone I shouldn't say this, the ladies feeling comfortable and confident about
accepting the invitation to play. I want them to feel comfortable and confident enough
to initiate the invitation absolutely. All right, let's take another break. We'll
find out what's going on on Golf Smarter Mulligans this week, and we'll come
back with doctor Gretta Anderson. I'm just having too much fun here. We'll
be right back. We've all been told multiple times that the key to our
short game is turning three shots into two. Simply put, if you can
get close to the hole from inside of fifty or even a hundred yards with
your short game, you give your self a better chance to taking fewer puts
and hopefully have more gimmes. This week on Golf Smarter Mulligans, we have
the first of two conversations with instructor Chris Fry discussing which clubs to use and
how to get yourself in position to getting close to the hole. This week's
episode is called learning the perfect pitch shot leads to more gimmes. The sweet
spot on a sixty degree is a lot smaller because it's so open. The
degree of loft is so high that the sweet spot actually shrinks. So I
recommend sixty for my lower handicapper, better player, but I recommend the sand
wedge for those higher handicappers that need that bigger sweet spot. Then from there
the stance is a little open. And the reason I like the stance to
be open is I like to put weight on the front foot, which is
the lead foot. My case, I'm a right handigolfer, so I put
about seventy percent of my weight on my left foot and I keep it there.
Having my open stance and my weight on my left foot promotes a sharper
angle of attack into the golf ball. That sharper angle is what's going to
of us the height and the spin to pull off the shop. That's episode
two hundred and twenty five featuring Chris Fry in the first of two episodes on
our sister podcast, Golf Smarter Mulligans, being released this Friday morning. To
get you psyched up for your weekend round. So please follow both podcasts regularly
and never miss the next insight that could change your game. Golf's longest running
podcast, Golf Smarter and Golf Smarter Mulligans that revisits the best of the Golf
Smarter episodes, and they're both available from wherever you're listening right now. So
what happened with your hand that made golf challenging and made you change your whole
perspective on it? So I had a really severe like a combo like you
know Guyon's canal and carpal tunnel little to two you know tunnels essentially sheaves that
house the nerves and are that run our hands. Well, I had the
lethal dynamic duel decided to collapse boom both of them. So it really kind
of yeah, yeah, it was not cute, but and I had surgery
to success successfully repair it. But the problem was is that it created quite
a bit of scar tissue and I kind of have kind of bony wrists there,
so it's not a lot of space in there, and so the hinging
and everything really causing problems and it's painful frankly, And although I am naturally
left handed. I played golf right handed. Oh yeah, why so there
was because the first club I picked up, you know, and club whatever,
nineteen eighty whatever was my dad's club and he's a righty, well right
handed golfer, so it was. And when I picked it up. I'll
get back to the other part a minute. But when I picked up his
club, as I I don't know, ten nine whatever I was. Remember,
as I mentioned, I've played tennis since I was a very small girl.
Probably started tennis when I was seven. I mean, I was a
little girl, but I'm old enough from seething enough. However you want to
tournam it that when I began, I had a little wood racket and the
wood racket was about as big and heavy as I was, cause I was
a little string being. But I began two handed on both sides. Right.
So I was at the range hanging out with my dad one day randomly
He's hitting balls and I'm you know, you know how kids do, just
hang out and whatever, And I remember saying, like, well, Dad,
can I hit a ball? And you know, laid back as my
dad is, he was like sure, and he handed meat like it's one
of his wedges or something like that, you know, the shortest club in
the bag, and he just went back to hitting. And I remember I
was kind of standing there, like and I kind of figured out like,
okay, well the part that's supposed to hit the ball goes here, so
that means I I need to be standing here, you know, kind of
watching dad, and I just grabbed the club kind of like if this is
a two handed back end for a lefty, this is where I would be.
So I just kind of dropped the club. And so when I hit
the ball, though I do remember vividly my dad likes like he didn't see
me hit the shot, but like he froze watching the shot, and he
kind of turned and he's like, do that again, Do that again.
I figured it out, you know, and boom, and he's like,
you're pretty good at that, and I was like yeah and everything. So
I did. I took some lessons and because I remember him saying like,
Dad's not gonna screw you up. I'm not gonna coach you at all,
like okay, and I did. I was actually quite good at it.
But I will say this, it wasn't that I felt unwelcome in the environment
where I went to like the little junior camp. I just didn't feel super
welcome and so you know, there's only so much time in the day and
that type of thing and so many resources. But I remember my mom saying
like, well, where did you have more fun? And that was a
no brainer. It was over in Tennis. You know, I had a
great network there. It was it was diverse, it was supportive, and
that's where I landed. So though I have no I don't feel bad like
not having been like, you know, a junior accomplished junior golfer. I
really wasn't much of a junior golfer at all and play that much as a
junior. But I will say that my great hope is that, you know,
the the little Greta, you know, the next little girl who looks
like me, you know, not very far from now. May even if
she doesn't decide to play golf and me she goes like, golf not my
thing, That's okay. I just want her to not choose golf for other
reasons. She wants to do other things, but not for that reason.
Wait, was your dad a lefty playing with right handed clubs? Yeah,
my dad is pretty as pretty close to ambidextrious as you can get. But
yeah, he's and he still plays righting yep. Mmmm, but he's left
handed naturally. No, so he had the right handed clubs, because the
way you said that he had right handed clubs, it was like, wait,
but he's not. So you got it exactly from him. Explain the
difference between you know, you see range rats out there. You see people
who are like getting two large buckets. So I'm gonna be out here for
hours? Oh yeah, oh yeah? Really is that gonna improve your game?
What's that gonna do? Is that gonna that's gonna just solidify bad habits?
Probably? But the difference between what a range rat does of just striking
the ball over and over and scooping hit and scooping hit and scooping hit versus
playing golf, how do you explain that? How do you teach that?
Okay, So, first of all, I do believe that there's a place
in a space for range work, right, because sometimes we're learning we call
it block right, we're block learning right. We've gotta get this skill and
hone the skill, and there's sometimes you just need to hit a few.
But just as you said, grabbing the you know, double fisting on the
on the buckets and going at it's it's the definition of insanity, right,
doing the same thing over and over expecting something different, right, doesn't work
like that. So I tell people and I encourage I can't tell people everything,
but I encourage them to think of things this way. When you're out
on the course, that's really where you can identify where unique you know to
work on development, and it's the application of it. After all, we
play golf on the course. You know, sometimes people treat the golf as
this formal place, like I've got to have everything in order to then go
on to the course. And that's just never going to be the case.
Where all works in progress when it comes to our game. But the more
that's reinforced, it also instills kind of this fearing people like, well,
I'm not ready for the course, right, I'm not ready for the course.
I'm not ready to do this on the course. As long as you
understand how to maintain pace of play and good at it, could the course
is for you, right, which goes into why it's so important to help
you know, early stage golfers to understand good etiquette and pace of play because
you can be a golfer of any experience level and get out on the course
as long as you understand we can't quite hold things up and and and know
when to say when right. But I encourage new golfers to get on the
course to get more comfortable and develop confidence. And also you'll be able to
see how things work, how they are, how the dots connect, right,
because I can help you work on you know, there you're working with
your driver on the range. I can help you work with your irons and
your hybrids and all the things on the on the range. But it's on
the course when you're going to see how they come together. How you may
use and your seven iron here, but you may use you know, your
seven hybrid in this instance. I can only explain so much in this sterile
laboratory, right. It's the application into the real world that makes the difference.
One of the things on your website talked about how you like to identify
and address weaknesses, which I have found that a lot of golfers will not
look back at the scorecard or if they have a phone that they're using while
they're on the course that shows them with their shots and things that they don't
identify what's not working, you know, like this twenty four handicap was like,
I can hit anything I want, but boy, I'm terrible around the
greens. So why aren't you working on that? How do you help people
understand that? It? Don't just work on what's working if you want lower
scores, if that's your goal, you know, I mean, we all
have fun, but if your goal is to play better golf, you really
have to understand how to identify your weaknesses correct. What gets measured gets improved.
Right, It's as simple as that. Right. If I don't know,
if I have no idea that wow, like, oh wow, I
had thirty four puts in this nine whole round. H you got to know
the numbers, I mean, and I don't attach and I encourage people not
to attach a value to the number, right, a judgment to the number.
Right, The facts are the facts, right, as people would say,
and you know, get out of your feelings. Right, It's okay,
it's just a number. But now that we know where we stand,
we can work on creating the trend in the direction of your choosing right,
which is typically a lower score. Right, we can understand where we are
and build upon that. Right, if you don't know with confidence that you
can make, you know, eight out of ten putch from three feet around
the whole, you're gonna make your decision. I mean, and I'm just
working the way back. You're gonna your decision making is going to be skewed
and probably poor. Frankly, right, if I don't know what I don't
know, it's okay. Again, people get I think that people get hung
up on attaching a value to a number, where I encourage people to understand
your numbers so that you can build upon that. Because I'm a big believer
in staring with your strengths, but understand that your challenging areas, your weaknesses,
they will go one way or the other, right, so you can
put some time in them. Right, And that's okay as a golfer,
not a golf instructor, but as a golfer, it's the best advice you've
ever received. Mind your business. And that means like I don't when I'm
playing, like you know, if I'm seriously playing and I'm ready to score
and that type of thing, I'm aware of what's going on around me.
But I'm I'm not dialed into you, right, I'm dialed into me because
making great shots across eighteen holes that takes some concentration and focus right, and
the reality he is as a golf professional when you're playing, there are very
few instances where you get to just play right because while I may take off
my coaching had most of the time when you're playing with people that that it'll
slip in. Even with your best of friends, it'll slip in, like
I don't know why I'm slicing gretit. Did you see that? No?
I didn't, you know, And you know you kind of have to draw
that line because you do. It's it's my nature. If I'm if I'm
leaning, you know, and I'm waiting on my turn and I'm in the
fairway and I see you, I know exactly for the most part why that
happened. I have to learn to turn that off. So for me,
it's really about concentration and focus and minding my own business. That is phenomenal
advice, because oh, I mean, the worst thing you can possibly do,
especially with somebody you're related to, a spouse, a child, is
give on course advice, don't boy. Yeah, you know, like when
I when I it comes out that I do this podcast, and I'm like,
hey, I'm not an instructor or anything like, oh, but can
you give me an advice? No, I don't do that. Yeah,
but maybe during the round, I'll say, do you mind if I make
an observation? Right? Sure? Okay, I mean if you know,
and it won't be on mechanics either. Yeah, you can kind of escape
it. It's a trick. I mean, it is a tricky thing.
People like, are you like the cruel thing? I guess I won't say
cruel, but they like, they know you saw it, you know.
I mean I'm standing there and they're like, I know, you know it.
I did see the shot. Well what am I doing wrong? I
mean they and they know that I know the answer. I go like,
let's talk about it over, you know, let's talk about but we've got
seven whole to go. Gretta, Yeah, right, but we can't fix
it right now. Even if I told you what it was, you wouldn't
be able to fix it. It would only be in your head. It's
the rabbit hole, it's the drain, whatever you wanna call it. The
minute, I go like, look, so okay, we've got what forget.
I said that I've learned you know, it happens right now. So
that is the thing, Just minding my own business and staying in my lane
and just focusing on me, just even in a purely if I'm playing amongst
my peers my lane, I don't I could. I can put the blinders
on and that's it. So with that then I play my best. I'm
not worried about what you did, what I did. I'm gonna play the
course the way that it works best for me. Was shots of working for
me today, so on and so forth, and that's it. Where do
you give golf lessons? I teach. It's Steell Canyon golf Course and stands
and Sandy Springs wretches right just north of Atlanta, still full of county,
right next to the city Sandy Springs. And do you do remote lessons as
well? I do? I absolutely do. How can people get in touch
with you? You can find me. You can find me on all of
the socials, as they say at doctor Gretigolf d R g R E T
A g O LF. You can find me on my website, doctor Gretigolf
dot com and yeah, that covers it all. You'll find me there and
your podcast, The Smart golf. That that part two, Yes, that
part two. It was so much fun. I really hope we can do
this multiple times because that would be my grain a lot and really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much, so much, thank you, thank you.
Well. I'm happy to reward the Joanna and I are now fully recovered from
COVID this time, and I'm back to walking a full eighteen holes again.
It wasn't easy, but I've made it now. Since we were last together,
I've played twice. The first was at one of my all time favorite
golf courses, and that's TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. Now, strangely
it's been four years since I last played there, but I was still battling
fatigue of COVID during this round and only walked the front nine, had to
ride the back, but still played pretty well, shooting forty one forty one.
And the crazy thing my last twenty rounds, my highest score is eighty
six, my lowest score is seventy six, So I'm my consistency right now
is better than it's ever been and it really does have everything to do with
these interviews that I do on the podcast. But here's my favorite part about
the story of playing Harding Park. The TPC Harding Park, especially holes eleven
and twelve in San Francisco, are directly across from the dorm I lived in
when I attended San Francisco State University in the mid nineteen seventies. And two
of my playing partners last week have been friends since we worked on that college
radio station together. They were actually supposed to be three of us, but
one had to postpone and then my other round this weekend. What an outrageous
round I had. You gotta check this one out. Two triples, one
double, one bogey, one birdie, and those two were back to back
on numbers two and three and then thirteen pars which included a couple of nice
saves and thirty four total puts. And as we discussed with doctor Grat on
this episode, if you aren't paying attention to some of those basic stats,
not really sure what aspect of your game you need to improve. So fairways,
greens in regulation, total puts, length of your first puts, those
are all important things to be looking at. And I'm using our costs now
on my clubs, and I look back at the round and like, okay,
where did I screw up this week? How can I improve? It's
a good way to do it, So just keep track of those stats.
And I really look forward to getting doctor Gretta back on the show, as
her insights, even those beyond golf, are pretty compelling. Again, her
podcast is called Smart Golfer. Find out more at doctor Greta Goolf dot com,
Dr Grta Golf, Doctor Greta Goolf dot com. Remember our conversation with
Jerome Ruffin, the young man who created a video channel called from Scratch to
Scratch that documents his quest to become a scratch golfer. I hope that I
wasn't too condescending about his naivete about the game. But I continue to watch
his videos, not because of the train wreck that is his progress, but
mainly due to the people he's been working with to improve his game. The
last two videos I watched have featured doctor Rick Sesson House, who's been on
Golf Smarter episodes eight hundred six, eight hundred and sixty three and will be
back. And you may remember he was Colin Morricawa's coach from when Colin was
a little boy all the way through winning two majors. Well Rick's instruction is
really worth the price of admission alone because he's such a great teacher of more
than just the golf swing, and his patience is admirable. Shout out this
week to Golf Smarter Ambassador Robbie Smith from Lake City, Minnesota. Hey,
Robbie, thank you tell all your friends that you are now a Golf Smarter
Ambassador and that you're on the podcast now. In addition to Robbie doing the
intro for today's episode, he chose to receive a link to Tony Manzoni's The
Lost Fundamental video as his thank you gift. So, where in the world
do you play and listen to Golf Smarter, Send me an email and YouTube
can receive a free gift of your choice just for participating. Gifts include Tony's
video Loss Fundamental, or maybe a box of Odin X one balls with a
Golf Smarter logo, or a glove and glove storage compartment from Red Rooster golf
dot com. There are links in the show notes and today's blog post for
all three. So please write to me and I'll get back to you with
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