Chipping. The way that Donia teaches basically takes a lot of guests. Look,
so you talked about different carrying row proportions. Generally I like to teach
the pitching which the iron six irons, depending on the cost conditions without about
fifty percent carrying roll one third and then one quarter. So for example,
if I'm faced with a downhill chip that normally requires may eight irons, take
out the pitching which the key thing is, I put all of them around
the same type roll of fun is it? The seven iron is where you
grip right to the end of the shelf that approximates the putter height. It
gives you more or less the same feel as you put You want things to
see more or less consistent. And because you're using a chipping run, the
stroke is very very small, the smaller the strokes than left in goal.
Hi. This is ten sites from Fort Colums, Colorado, and I play
at Mountain Lifter Green. This if golf Smart number eight hundred and four analyzing
Tony Manzoni's Lost Fundamental Swing method based on Ben Hogan's secret with Justin Tang.
This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights from great golf Minds
to help you lower your score and raise your golf IQ. Here's your host,
Fred Green. Welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast. Justin thank you,
Fred, thanks for the invite again to talk about mister Tony Manzoni.
Well, you know, it's interesting because you and I have been since the
first time you were on the podcast, We've talked a lot about Tony and
actually what you've learned from him, because you're the type of instructor that likes
to absorb what all the other instructors are talking about and incorporated into the way
you teach golf. And I think that's really amazing and I truly appreciate thank
you for using Golf Smarter is one of your resources. Thanks for it.
I think a lot needs to be fit about golf instruction right There is no
one way. Jack Nickliff didn't write Golf the Way, but he wrote it
my way. He called it Golf my Way. Similarly, mister Benogan wrote
the Five Lessons. I like to think that he wrote the Five Lessons more
of as a reminder of what he did in his golf thing and not what
you should do. Certainly, it provided a framework, a roadmap if you
will, for budding golfers looking to improve their technique. But I'm sure a
lot of these top golfers flash instructors never meant it to be a prescriptive.
Now, as a golfer instructor, you see golfers of all shapes insides,
even if they were of the same physical they mentioned, everyone thinks differently,
and therefore, as an instructor, you need to accommodate for all these nuances
in physical build and and a cognition. Mental cognition and gold Smarter has helped
me a lot in the sense that it pulled together all these great instructors from
around the world. And as an instructor or, all I can do is
to learn the various delivery methods. I think most of us are saying more
or less the same thing, right, things like a flat less risk,
things like proper weak shift set up. But all the key thing is this,
all of us are seeing it in a different manner. Now, how
I describe a proper group and how you describe a proper group maybe entirely different.
My method may resonate with one player, yours would resonate with another.
Now, as an instructor, if you only have one way of doing things
and it doesn't sit well with a student, Then what happens. You can't
force the student to do it how to or do it more and somehow hope
that he gets it. Everyone learns differently. I just cannot emphasize that point
more well. Also the fact that Golf my way, not Golf the Way,
and also Ben Hogan's book were written a long time ago, and so
much has changed, not just an instruction, but the equipment has changed,
the balls have changed. The way courses are maintained is radically different. Then.
You know, if you look at old videos of even when Arnold Palmer
was playing, you'll see the greens are not as you know, pristine like
tile floors. Is they as they are today? Yeah? That's good.
So while agronomy has improved a lot while teaching, the tools we used to
teach, golf have changed dramatically. The club that we've used to play has
changed dramatically, especially the ball. I think a lot of instruction has relatively
stayed unchanged. Let me explain a lot of people say that this saying the
more things change, the more things stayed the same. Now on one non
negotiable from way back in time is this, If you land the club in
front of the ball, you will hit the ball and then take the divil.
That is non negotiable. There's never going to change in the next hundred
years. All the top players did that, and they did it in a
manner that was they achieved that while moving their body in a manner that was
comfortable to them, that was in line with how their bodies would were me
if that makes sense at all. So if you look at Benhogan, you
look at Jet Nicholas, you look at Arnold Palmer, all great ball strikers,
all great players, all multiple major min it All of them did it
differently. But the one thing that they did demintedly was they struck the ball
first ball and then just that doesn't change. Now Tony wrote a great book.
He passed away October twenty eighteen, almost five years now. He wrote
this book that was based on Benhogan's A Secret Letter. So apparently someone came
in through his door. One of his golfers on the golf course they were
teaching at came in through the door and said, hey, Tony, I've
got this letter from Ben Hoogan, and it what the letter from mister Wogan
explaining how he hit his driver and up till then no one really had that
sort of information mister Holden. Now, as Tony watched the video and read
the letter, he realized this thing that mister Holden shifts to his center of
gravity to the left prior to the completion of his backshing. He had to
rewatch that over and over again. So modern technology today has confirmed that,
hey, all the players, you need to have players, any amateurs,
all their all of them, get their center of pressure less as soon as
possible. A lot of indeed players actually say that once they get their shaft
parallel to the ground on the backshing, they feel like they're beginning to sprout
their dancing. And Terry Hashimoto, the founder of body Track, a pressure
play a pressure mat so two to see how to see where your center of
pressure shifts on the golfing. He's confirmed that also with the pressure trace this.
So that's the amazing thing. Although technology has penny evolved, what the
human body has done is doing hasn't really changed. Technology is just confronting them.
So I wouldn't oh the irony, the irony of Tony's video and bo
lost fundamental. Maybe it should be called I don't think we've left at home.
Well, well, you know, we're talking about Tony Manzoni. And
the reason we're talking about Tony Manzoni is because, as Justin said, he
passed away in twenty eighteen, and he was a regular on Golf Smarter for
for many, many years. And over the time that he was on twelve
or thirteen times, I would get letters every single time. I'd get emails
every single time of people saying, this guy is figured it out. I
don't know what it is, but he's singing to me. He's like,
you know, it's like being at one of those concerts and he was looking
directly at me. The way Tony was able to explain what he was doing
and how he was teaching really resonated with so many listeners in the Golf Smarter
community that since he passed, we've started running those episodes again. And when
I like to do it is to open each season. I guess, you
know, the golf seasons really kind of starts picking up in March in April,
so all during March in April, I take all of those episodes and
I run them one week after the other, and we run them on golf
smarter Mulligan's. And so when Justin had talked to me and told me how
much he appreciated what Tony was teaching, I thought, what a perfect thing
to do is let's kick off the next Tony Man's only season with some praise
on his instruction and maybe even a little bit of insights into what he was
saying. So with all of that explanation, I also want to say that,
like when we talked about Ben Hogan, he his stature, his size,
his body was very different than so many amateur golfers. And so even
though what he was doing it was about getting the club, hitting the ball,
then hitting the ground right, having the bottom of your swing in front
of the ball, which is a revelation for so many golfers. Indeed,
so instead of Tony, Tony should have caught his book that Pine left fundamental
instead of the Fundamental, because I don't think it was muff at all.
And a lot of comparisons have been made between Ben Hogan and for example,
Stack until a golfing machine morette I think that theme the csain differences the same
nesses are that a lot of all of them pivot around a single access which
is the left hip. But how they do it all of them have some
differences to their method. But the beauty of moving around a single pivot access
is this. It prevents you from making massive weak shifts, massive and movements
of the body and the head and allows you to allows your contact point.
The contact point is basically where the club land makes contact in relation to the
ball on the ground. It allows it to stay in front of the ball.
Now, this was very different in the times of mister Hogan, where
the predominant teaching method was to make a massive shift to the right and then
make a massive shift to the left. As you can imagine, as you
start trying to shift your weight right then left, and you don't do it
correctly, you're gonna move the base of your net off the ball and then
you're gonna try to move it back on the ball, all in a matter
of one plus second while swinging a heavy clip. I don't think you get
very consistent results as that. So Tony's Tony's loves fundamental if you will help
a lot of people. The sense it when when you set up with your
weight sixty fourty on the left and it progresses the seven thirty on the top
of the sing you suddenly take one one side of the body out of play.
You're just shifting around like a door around a fixed axis at the door
jam. Nothing else moves, so the less moving parts the lest can go
wrong. Now, when people start start hitting the ball first before hitting the
ground, it's gonna increase the enjoyment of the game. It's going to create
a sense of Hey, you know what, I'm actually quite talented. Let
me start practicing other areas of my game. Or let's try the love of
fundamental on this short game, which is Tony's big thing. Tony was always
let's get let's get you doing the shorter lower strings correct before you progressed.
Let's talk a little bit about Tony's approach to teaching, Pony. All Right,
we're gonna but we're gonna do Tony's approach to teaching. But you know
what I've got to do. We gotta take a time out. We'll be
right back. All right, justin and just to make sure that people understand
that you're in Singapore. If I am and a golf smarter listener and an
instructor there at at a country club in Singapore, correct, Yes, I'm
based out of the Tanamera Country Club tonight. I want to go back to
getting more deeply into the sixty forty concept. Can you explain it a little
bit more so that we really understand what it meant. Yeah, So,
Tony always wanted students to set up with small week on the left link or
the neat side for left handed golfers, and the whole idea was to rotate
around the left hip pocket. Now, if you did that correctly, you're
going to feel that your right side, the right side of your body is
very light. You're not going to put any pressure on your right foot,
You're the base of your neck is not going to shift older the right knee.
Now that there's absolutely a key to hitting has just been shot for most
golfers. Certainly a lot of golfers will take videos pictures of pop professionals.
They say, hey, look this guy shifted your hit way to the right.
Well, if you did, it's undeniable that fy V golfer actually shifted
their pressure to the right side. But you got to understand their background.
They've been doing this since they were five years old, and they've been doing
every day. So that level of coordination that they've trained in their body started
at a very young age for a very long time. You've picked up golf
in your late forties or thirties as the case, maybe it's not going to
happen the path. Your path is very different from the golfer. So there
are always exceptions. So there will be some golfers who say, hey,
I've tried Tony's method, didn't work for me. Again, there will be
exception. And Tony never said. Tony never said you do this, you're
gonna be a scratch golfer. But what I'll say is this, Tony had
a very exceptional track record as a college coach. I beneath. He taught
for twenty nine years at the College of the College of the Desert, and
he walked away with five state community championships and twenty eight other type of conference
type of I believe, Yeah, they won the conference championship twenty eight.
That's correct. So this this method I have should did they use method?
This system that Tony was teaching, as we will get into shortly produced results
over a long period of time. This wasn't a get rich quick scheme or
lose fifty pounds overnight type scheme. It stood. It stood the test of
time, and as we mentioned earlier in the episode, modern technology has confirmed
whatever Tony has if teaching from mister ben Holden's love letters. So a lot
needs to be fit about that. So while Tony thought this system, he
also wanted you to have your own signature about it. If you look at
Tony's teachings on the DVD as well as the book that's available on Amazon.
He was never prescriptive about most other things in the golf sing. He certainly
didn't prescribe a particular grip. He didn't prescribe a particular look about this thing.
It was all about principles. He was happy to let you use your
own grip, whatever let's felt, whatever felt comfortable to you. So if
you are a golfer that is predisposed to having a strong grip underhanded grip,
then just need to know that your back string is going to be flatter than
a guy who has a more on the top grip, and consequently there will
be slight differences in the look of your string and also in the pressure you
put in the ground as the result of But the principles stay is this team.
So the principle that this set up with your B sixty fourteen on your
left side. Now, the next thing you want to think about is this
if if for the listeners they are listening to this, let's just put our
hands around our body as though we were hugging ourselves and just made a turn
to your right while keeping your right side light. So as you turn to
your right side, you want to feel that you're wait increases in the proportion
of seventies to the left and thirty to the right. Now, if you
do that, you will feel that the base of the net leven really shift
this way. It doesn't shift to the right, so it doesn't shift the
right. You don't have to bring it back to the And you also notice
that your shoulder turn is not as big as you would think it necessary.
It's certainly not ninety three or one hundred degrees or one hundred and twenty degrees
that the case may be. Now we're going to take our hands off our
chat. Now we're just going to put our left arm across the chest.
Now, this is the key thing. This is the backswing that Tony that
Tony taught. Once you're in your setup, as you take your backswing while
keeping your right side light, you just want to pull your left arm across
your chest. That creates a connection between the left upper arm and the left
pectoral muscle. Now, as you do that, notice that you're left pump
is more or less pointing up that thous us that the faith they didn't fan
open and they didn't close on the back fin. So the club faith is
basically controlled by the inclination of the torso and the rotation of it. As
you Now, as you take a golf club and make you're saying, you'll
see that the blade should stay fairly square. That tells us is all you
continue, all of you. If all you do on the dancing and mean
and do not disrupt the inclination of the cup phase in relation to your torsore,
it's probably going to get a pretty square face at impact. So these
are again principles. Now, what was holgan pepret Everyone said that he had
a secret A couple of breasts. But this is the secret as interpreted by
Tony mister Hogan tailbone when to the left of the target just prior to the
completion of dispatching, that was the move. That is the move that's going
to move your center of your weight distribution fifty forty, etcnt the bad f
and at impact you want to have eighty percent of your week on the left
side, twenty percent on the right side. If you finish, it's gonna
be ninety ten. So wow. As listeners incorporate this, he could in
their game and did, They're saying, they will notice that the contact point
where the club makes contact with the ground ball more often than not be ahead
of the ball. You're gonna you're gonna create a one to call a hit
and run accident with the club face against the golf ball. You will shoot
the ball first and then they divid You will automatically have a flat left wrist.
At impact, you will automatically have sharpening. And this is highny.
This is critical. A lot of golfers take a an eight iron, they
add loss to it, They increase sharpening, so it decreased sharftly into the
right side. The eight iron becomes a pitching which if they woven took an
eight iron, it increased shaft lean towards the target. The eight iron became
a seven iron. Nothing about this. Right, when you start needing the
shaft forward the street spot, the sip of six nine of the club fix.
But to make contact with the ball, you lean the shaft that lets
you're going to make contact on the first and second groove of the golf club.
This is why mister Holden and tell pros any amateurs, the air ball
flight takes on a totally different trajectory from the average golfer. Just street spot
contest, just physics. So if you start doing the lost fundamental, you're
going to experience this more and more. Now, don't get excited and say,
hey, let's go out, get me a small bucket of balls,
take a six iron, start doing it. Doesn't work that way, So
how do we do it again? Tony was a big advocate of starting small.
He would first get you to do the lost fundamental while chipping, so
he advocated the chip and run putting. The lost style advocated using nine,
eight, seven and six iron from around the tween. Now againstead of in
the same manner sixty forty bias to the left, crept down on the call
an eight iron, nine iron, stand the shaft up as common in those
days. Again, coming back in Vote one Tour, if you stand the
shaft, you will find it. If the soul on the toe end of
the club, they make contact that they clown. You get a very tiny
footprint as opposed to putting the entire club underground. Let me just get a
club for your thing. M hm. No, this is this is one
of my secret weapons that I talk about a lot. Is how Tony taught
me to to to bring the shaft more upright. Yeah, and have the
toe down correct when you're chipping, just to get the ball onto the green
and rolling. Yeah. So look at this right, this is the entire
soul against the ground. Have you standing up the very tiny footprint. It's
very hot to stop the chip shots in there and when you when you do
that, you're gonna make contact with the pole stud of the club face.
You minimize black spin. It produces a very predictable roll of the ball.
That's the That's one of the main issues with the amateur spind they start chipping,
they get too much soft lean, create too much ball speet. So
your ball speet and your ball spin, when I say they do not match,
you get a very unpredictable outcome. So all right, listen another time
out and then and then I want to come back and talk a little bit
more about what most of us do as recreational amateur players, how we approached
chipping onto the green and how we're approaching it wrong. But we're going to
do that after this again, we're just reliving the lessons of Tony Manzoni with
Justin Tang, who was introduced to Tony Manzoni by Golf Smarter. I mean,
it's not like you ever had a chance to meet him. You only
got to hear him the show. But you read his book, You've you've
watched his video. You know this idea of chipping up onto the green with
a eight seven eight nine iron by bringing the shaft more upright instead of leaning
it back and being up on the toe of the club. The point of
this, and I think that a lot of people try to fly the ball
as close to the hole as they can and hope it stops, but they
don't know how to do that. And most instructors that I've spoken to about
chipping onto the green is you want to use as much as the putting surface
as you possibly can. You want to get the ball onto the green as
quickly as you can, but you may not necessarily want to put from off
the green because that rough. Whether it's the first or second cut that you're
putting over is pretty unpredictable. You may not know you know what you're going
to get. So you want to get the ball just slightly over that,
get onto the green as soon as possible, and let it roll as long
as you can. Now, the longer, I should say, the lower
the club numbers. So of a seven iron, it's going to roll a
lot longer than a nine or a pitching wedge because of the loft of the
club. Correct. Okay, so I've interpreted this properly. Yeah, games
really interesting. This is why I tell both of my players the information that's
in the short game is at least three times that of the man game.
Wow. And another thing that I have to my players is let's get it
high off the tea and low around the green. That's great, So low
around the greens we always start. Can I put it? If I can't,
Can I chip it around it? If I can't, I've got to
pitch it and your lob birds, your your flop shot. That really only
for emergency purposes. It's a shot of last result. Short game is where
you get to express yourself, your creativity. I use and use all sorts
of grips but there are three different heights to crip the club depending on the
required shot at hand. So chipping chipping the way that Tony teaches basically takes
a lot of guests foot. So you talked about different carrying row proportions.
Generally I like to teach it this way. I use the pitching with a
iron six iron, depending on the cost conditions without the ABU fifty percent carrying
roll one third and then one quarter. So for example, if um basically
downhill chip that normally requires may eight iron, probably take out the pitching.
Which the key thing is I prep all of them around the same type roll
of thumb. Is that the seven iron is where you grip right to the
end of the shop. That approximates the putter hype. It gives you more
or less the same feel as your butter. You want things to see more
or less conscious bent. And because you're using a chipping run, this stroke
is very very small, the smaller the stroke than left in golong. And
because it's so, is it more like a is it more like a putting
stroke? Yeah? Actual swing. That's great. The great Raymond Floyd called
it putting with loft. Yeah, I thought it set up with the shot
as though you're going to make it. But the only difference is this,
you want to lean this shop a little bit more forward and just make it
butping stroke, try to get contact on the tour of the clock. You'd
be surprised with how effective this shot can be. So when when you're making
a chip and run stroke in the manner that Tony taught, it's going to
be really slow. Now when it's slow, here's the magic. And it's
slow, you're able to feel the lost fundamental looking for you, theft the
thing ring. Everyone conceptually gets the idea of the lost fundamental. They think,
because I know it, I can execute it. That as far from
the truth as it gets. Now think about this. I'm right handed.
I certainly know how to write as it with tiny sixth elphebe, but that
does not mean I can immediately pick up a pin with my left hand and
right it at the same speed of my right hand. Just doesn't work that
way. There is a process where your brain and your body has to go
through. It's creating a habit essentially, before you can execute the various mortal
movement pattern at more or less the same speed as your dominant hand Now if
it took me, I'm forty three years. Year, it took me forty
three years to do a certain to reach a certain proficiency of a certain task,
It's not going to take me just six months of hard work on my
non dominance like to reach that same level of proficiency. Once you have felt
the lost fundamental and you can execute it at a fairly good speed with your
chipping stroke, then Tony would want you to move on to the pitch shop.
So again, nothing else changes. Sixty forty on the leartht The only
difference is you're gould use a fifty six or fifty four degree. Now you
are able to move your left arm so that it's parallel to the ground on
the tapshing. How As you do that, you're gonna incorporate a little bit
more of the weight shift that we've talked about and get your sensor of gravity.
Move it so that your weight distribution and siventy thirty on the left foot.
Again, the speed and the length of the pitch shot if considerably lower
than that of the full sin if you worked through it and feel the loft
fundamental, which again is simply shifting a center of vity the left pride of
the completion of your back sin. You have a better chun of adressing this
more when you try to make a full sin with Heaven nine and then perhaps
if the trisa or if three would Tony was I don't want to say obsessed
with, but he spent so much time studying and analyzing everything he could about
Ben Hogan and his swing because he just loved I think he even got to
see Ben Hogan play once, probably more than once, and he You know,
there's so many times that I've talked to instructors who said, you know,
I've figured out ben Hogan's secret, and everyone had a different interpretation.
Yeah, everyone seemed to be onto something. Yes, I would say Tony
is one of the few instructors that they saw mister Googan make that shoot the
left. But here's an interesting bit right we mentioned earlier about the other treat
While mister Hogan had a secret, my interpretation decides this the sensitive gravity moves
that he knew his string, he knew the various components, he matched them
up to make it his string. I think that was his genius. I
see too many good golfers these days. They go out own to copy this
guy. Adam Scott copy thy would sing, but hey, you're you're built
that Yan Musnum. While you trying to copy here this left type of sin,
it just doesn't make sense. So if you're six foot four, I
think you shouldn't copy the look of ben Hoogen swing. That's why I tell
a student, I can help you hit it like Ben Holden. I may
not be able to make you look like Ben Holden. There's a chromatic distinction
there. I can help you hit a power feel. Tell me what you
exactly that that difference. Go into detail on that when you talk about there's
a dramatic difference there. So, mister Hogan, how you hit the ball,
very strong trajectory, power feel right, hit the ball before you hit
the cliff. I can help you do those things. But if you if
you want your swing they look like ben Holden's, I may not be able
to do that for you. A good starting point if if you built like
a Davis Love and you try to swing like at Ben Hoogen, You're not
gonna look like Ben Hoogen at all. From the from the videos that I've
analyzed, it looks like mister Hogan's were his spring spent. If you were
to stand in a crucifix position and you measured him from finger tip to finger
tip, it looks like it's more or less the same as you's. Like.
Now, if you're a guy like me who got arms like an ad
very long arm, it's not going to look the same. At the top
of my back thing, my arms are going to be further behind me than
mister Hoogan. That means I've got to get them out in front again,
so I've got that extra move to make. Now, it's my instructor doesn't
teach me to make that extra move, or physically I'm unable to do it
or coordinate it. Mentally, I'm not going to be able to play decent
goal because I'm not swinging according to my DNA. Everyone has a particular DNA.
How you rotate on your back string, which side you feeither, whether
you head moves right or left or up and down. All these have predisposition.
How you grip the club, all these are predisposition. You do a
simple test like this, you can see me goes above the right shoulder.
I've got some students who are here that tells you where you're armed should be,
what kind of plain you should be using on your vac sine whether it's
high track above the right shoulder, medium trap at the right shoulder, or
lower trap, and your transition all are determined by your your anatomical proportion in
relation to one body part to another. You've got a longer tosso versus a
shorter tosso, how you look like when you addressed the ball hold selection is
all going to look different for me. For example, if if I'm not
mindful of my longer arms, and I go go to the golf shop and
just pick a set of clubs off the rent, off the shelf, I'm
not going to play good golf. I need shorter clups. So guys were
longer armed, That's sorry, guys were shorter. You need longer and slept
the life. The way I explain it, it sounds logical, but a
lot of people don't think like that, and they are things that All right,
we're gonna take we're gonna take another time out. Sorry to interrupt you.
I'm gonna take our last time out. We want to come back and
start talking about the full thing. Just picking up right where you left off.
Yeah, the full swing. We'll be right back. The main reason
I wanted to bring Justin on this week's episode is because this Friday is the
renewal of our two months of episodes featuring our conversations with Tony Manzoni, whom
we lost to cancer in twenty eighteen. As you've heard me say, and
as you can tell by Justin's praise, Tony's lessons and appearances on Golf Smarter
received more reaction from golfers around the world than any of the five hundred plus
teachers we featured, And because he was not very Internet or social media savvy,
there's really no place other than Golf Smarter and this podcast where you can
learn what made him so special. So this Friday on Golf Smarter Mulligans,
we kick off nine consecutive episodes dating back to twenty ten, but our first
one is actually from twenty fourteen, when Tony talked about a letter from Ben
Hogan that reveals his secret that became an obsession with Tony NFL walk in my
office and tell me would you like a copy of a letter that Ben Hogan
wrote by explaining how to hit the driver. He had some private film that
he had jaken and no one had actually seen him been Hogan swing. I
almost jumped to his lap. The first thing I noticed was that Hogan,
on the top of the back swim, his weight shifts to the instep of
his left foot, and when I read it, I thought, watching he
means the instep of his right foot. And then I watched the film and
it was very obvious that he was staying on his left side sixty forty through
all the back swing, and I think, when you really center your head
to the golf ball, you must be a little bit more on the left
side of the right side. I noticed that as right dipp was aligned on
the inside of his right foot, and I just noticed that when he swung,
he rotated his shoulders around the spine, and his shoulders really were more
level than his earlier swings. And the film that I had was after the
accident. That's really when he said, I'm going to start playing off the
left side. That's golf Smarter. Mulligan's episode two hundred, number one of
nine, featuring our friend and mentor Tony Manzoni. Stay tuned to the end
of this episode or 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 or a sister
podcast that revisits the best of the Golf Smarter podcast called Golf Smarter Mulligans,
being released every Friday from wherever you're listening right now. One of the things
that Tony really impressed upon me over and over again was keeping your arm attached
to your left for a right handed golfer, to your left pack or your
left hit. As he would say to um, keep it connected as you're
making your swing, as you're making your full swing. So when you make
the golfing thing about it, if and integrate the motion like all other spots.
You don't hear a separation of arm the thin, but you don't hear
the arm body debating other spot if not even a thing. It's only in
golf. Oh no, I you feel that the swinging of the arms,
but you know what you're stinging with your entire body. If you throw a
Jevlin, you're not gonna just you your arms and throw the income. And
if the Jelyn fun better go very far thinking about this as an integrated motion.
But the same time, instruction must be relative relative to what you feel.
So if if the student came to me and he presents a certain motion,
I might tell that the student, Hey, you know what, just
feel that you're using all armed or all body as the case me being based
on what I've seen hearing too in person. So we talk about being the
left arm acraft the chief that simply allows the body to look in an integrated
manner. A lot of the beginning of offers, they certainly just used arms
just to motivate the club hit. Now, golf swing is not about singing
the club hit. The golf swing is about swinging the entire club. If
you think of swinging just the club hit, unless risk is going to bend
like there's gonna den like this, you start adding loft. But if you
think of swinging the entire club, now the left the left arm stay is
connected to the chest. How important is this when you're um wrestling right,
If you're just using the the rotation of your upper arm, you show the
soccket you're going to lose a lot of unwrestling matches. But if you use
your so called body weight, you're going to win more than your fair share
of unwrestling matches. So the same excuse me is the same principle, but
of keeping the left arm across the chest, and it also maintains the square
clop. Say there is no independent articulation of the elbow joint, no excessive
le arm supernation or extension of the left wrist where you cut it, flip
the club, none of that. And when you do that, the whole
thing actually feels much slower then you think it should be. No, when
you have the less arm across the chest and you make one enough golf thing,
call it while your arm and your body, I'm making one revolution.
Because of the law of the level, You've got a very long level or
left arm straight in line with the club. Show the speed the mouth per
hour at the end of the head. It's higher than if you had bent
your lever. So while you feel slower, the speed is actually much higher
because of the unbroken lever. A lot of people go it doesn't doesn't feel
right, and say, hey, give this a show, And then when
they do it correctly, they go it, Hey, I'm actually hitting the
ball the same distance, if not further, with the same effort. They
say, hey, golf becomes much easier that way. Well, because because
you're using the club in the way that the manufacturer intended to be used.
If they're a place for flipping, yeah around they been flap shot, good
shot, but that these are the only places where you actually one it cut
left with impact or extended left with that impact. So there is the time
and place for everything. It's it picks a wisdom to know when do you
use eeting. Everything is permissible, but is it the time for it?
Right? Right? A lot of people will compare stack until to a Tony
did, what would you how do you compare the two? And what would
you say to people about that? So it's just like stack and tell the
way Tony did it. So again the thing that says of this right there,
they encourage a e golf thing that's based up one axis. That's that's
where the differences end. So Tony flash with the Hogan encourage a more old
election of the torso it's set up and the back sing back until it is
a little bit different. They encouraging more, they encourage more extension of the
upper tosso on the back swing. So when you look at these two,
when when you look at two golfers one doing a lot of fundamental undering stack
in two, you will see that from face on the stack and tilt golfer
will have shipped the less side of his body more in a straight line,
whereas the ben Hogan will have his spine tilted slightly more to the red side.
So that's the away from the away from the target, away from the
target. And again you can see this on the than the PD of that
you're going to spend the Yeah, but all of them. So again these
are these are the main differences. But depending on your your your build,
how you you you see and preceive certain things in the golf thing. If
stack and still looks so you and helps you get a flat left rist and
get your contact point in front of the ball, great. I think a
lot needs to be shipped about adapting various systems to shoot yourself. I certainly
don't want to demonize any methods or a single I say this is the only
way or this is not the way, because for every ten golfers that they
tastill doesn't work for me, I can show you another ten guys that work
or that that can still look for you. You show me five guys with
say I've got foot blinks stack, and I'll show you five did your third
pass. Who is it? This is the best thing for that decks any
mythshit, well enjail you if you don't do it correctly, well said,
I get. I frequently will get emails from people saying, so you've had,
you know, so many different people on what method do you use?
And it's like all of them, you know, it's like, I don't
incorporate. I take bits and pieces of everything and every that I learn and
everyone that I talk to, and some I incorporate more than others, and
some I'll try it and if it's not working, I just I'll not use
it anymore. Doesn't mean that it's not right, And that's that's part of
my position here on the show is that I'm not a PGA professional, so
I'm not here to judge whether what this person wants to teach is correct or
incorrect. What I want to do is put it out there, let the
audience absorb it and use it or not use it aside for themselves if it's
valid or not valid. And if you don't like it, come back next
week you're gonna probably hear something completely different. Yeah, that's just the thing
and the thing right, he has missed the right just not right now.
So a lot of a lot of concepts that you see discussed in golf media.
Yeah right, but are they right for you? Again, there's not
so much about about whether it's correct. It's it's relatives doesn't resonate with you.
That's the thing. I discussed this with some other instructors before I say,
there's only one non negotiable in the golf thing that every one of us
can agree upon. It's not how you set up, because you can look
at set up and you spectrum it. Some guys am we right, some
guys am we left. Some they have a very neat grip, some have
a very strong grip. Vex things again and other another area where that a
ton of spectruming can be done. You've got a met wolf vatching, and
then on the other end you've got a rieky fouler vatching. In fact,
another area where there's a lot of spectruming. You got guys up on their
toes, guys like Dustin Johnson, more more squatted, more rotated, then
right arm wakin emon metoperera, and then you've got on the other end you've
got guys who like Brian Gay fully extended Ben because there's food fully extended,
so lots of spectrumming at P seven impact. But one thing that all these
guys can agree upon it they're trying to do. But the club hit the
land flightly in front of the ball, so that we hit the ball and
then to that is non negotiable. So what I do with students there generally
the let's trying to make a sound in front of the ball using the club
hit. Now, how you do that? What you look right? When
you do that? It's going to be different from the guy in the next
third b. But the key thing is this all of you are should doing
the ball firth and then taking a difference and then from there, now we've
got a pretty decent cannabis to work around. Then we start optimizing certain things.
If your grips suitable for you, we put them through a battery of
test, if the ground forces that you use a compatible with your for example,
if you're anchoring all these things compatible, and then we start this journey
to what's optimizing your golf friend, But we never lose sight of the non
negotiable. Not fundamentals could be one of the systems that I use the Staton
to. It could also be one of the systems that use the right side.
That sin could also be one of the sisters that I use. But
I never lose that these are merely delivery methods of helping me get the student
be the non negotiable. Now when I am able to do this with students,
they are what I calls stinging according to the DNA. And when you
swing according to your DNA, it's very difficult to forget on the first team.
Now, if you're predisposed to making a little shift to the right hand,
found there and say you've got to go stack and tilt all or by
feversa on the first day, you're going to be confused. But if your
found according to your DNA and say, hey, ball to the target,
and then I need to get ball to the target. I need the clock
hit. You may have found in front of the ball. How difficult is
that? Just stick in the implement after this thread, Just take a stick
and make a sound against the topet. You will see that your body yourself
all the night and do whatever it's necessary to carry out the intention. Not
difficult this thing. I think of the golf club as a golf club,
because when you do that, you suddenly have this a lot of preconceived idea
about what you should do with the club, but instead just look at it
as a state, make a sound against it. If you're right, I'm
street then so if you get if you have to do it with more rotation
of the tosso so we but let's get that non negotiable going fast. And
then because optimizing the other component the golf thing excellent excellent advice. Well again,
um Justin has put together a really nice PDF that honors Tony Manzoni,
but it also goes deep into um what he's learned from Tony and also comparing
it to stack until that he's been teaching for quite a while. And I
am going to put this all on this PDF. I'll make this available on
the blog post at Golfsmarter dot com for this episode, and also we'll make
sure to remind everybody that Tony's book is available on Amazon. We've been able
to get it republished and it's available on kindle format as well. It's called
The Lost Fundamental, One Simple Move, Better Golf Forever. And if you're
interested in the DVD that he created that's no longer in print as well,
but here Golf Smarter is the only place you're going to be able to find
it. We have a link for it on a private YouTube channel that we
can get it out to you as well. So we really look forward to
having all of you reach out and start listening to Golf Smarter mulligans and you'll
hear Tony Manzona, you'll get if you have not heard him before, you're
going to understand what we're talking about. And if you have, you're going
to be glad you're listening to it again because we always find a new nugget
whenever you're listening to too. Justin thanks so much for your time, your
patients, and your energy and putting this together. Than do you mind if
I complain about a good thing. The bad weather that's gripping the US these
days has delivered more rain in northern California than we've had in years. The
great thing is that we really really need the water and the snow that has
been absent during this state's driest period on record. But it's really been tough
to get out and play, at least for a weather wimp like me.
I can hear so many of you in the northern states of the Continental us
rolling your eyes and yelling at me to shut up, because every year you
have to wait anywhere from four to eight months to get out and play in
short sleeves. So I apologize to you and want you to know that I
understand and feel your pain. But a couple of weeks ago we had a
break for a few days and I got to go out for a full round
it one of my favorite and most challenging courses, Foxtail North in Sonoma County.
Again, I've not played regularly since November and having practice in my yard
that much either. Well, the rounds started out pretty well, getting pars
on number one and number two. Number three is a par three that I
hit a low shot that actually rolled up and gave me a shot at birdie,
which I made. Number four a par five, great drive, laid
up for position, and then I overshot the green by about four yards on
my third shot, but actually chipped in for birdie. Okay, two under
after four holes. Yeah, I shot a thirty nine on the front,
but then it all went downhill, scoring a fifty one on the back.
There was something weird going on there because I couldn't get the yardage on my
club's right. So I went to my local club fitter last week, who's
also a playing partner, and asked him to check the lie angle of each
of my irons, especially my five, seven, and nine irons. First
thing he noticed was that the shaft on my seven was bent. Okay,
now we're getting somewhere. And while I was there, I mentioned that I
was considering taking the four hybrid out of my bag and replacing it with a
five wood. We started testing different fairway woods and he asked me when the
last time I was fitted. It was actually about nine years ago that we
put a four wood and a new driver in my bag. He then observed
that he'd played enough times with me to know that my swing and my game
has evolved since then, and it was time to replace the four wood with
a three wood and that hybrid with a five wood because I was hitting some
of the new clubs about twenty yards longer than the old ones. So I'm
hoping to get my new clubs and some new shafts later today, but we've
got rain predicted for the next two weeks, so I won't be able to
report in my prog us until things warm up, and they better warm up
soon. Because I've got a trip to Bandon Dune schedule for June and want
to make sure I'm playing to my potential. And yes, I'll be doing
at least one episode on Bandoned Dunes in the next few months. Stay tuned
for that. I want to thank Tim sites a Fort Collins, Colorado.
Tim is selected to receive a glove and glove storage compartment from our buddies at
Red Rooster golf dot com, the unique glove subscription service that offers many styles
of gloves in twenty six sizes. You two can win a golf Smarter gift
and have your choice of which you'd prefer. And here's all you have to
do. Send an email to Golf Smarter podcast at gmail dot com and request
our simple instructions to leave a voicemail at our toll free golf Smarter line,
and when you do, you can choose one of three gifts. You can
get a dozen balls with the golf Smarter logo from Oden Golf, the golf
brand that sponsors and pays three day golfers. These tour quality balls are a
fraction of the price of what you'll usually pay and when you use the code
Golf Smarter. At checkout, you'll receive an additional twenty percent off the order.
Their link is in today's show notes. You also have the option to
receive a private online link to Tony Manzoni's video of the Lost Fundamental and that
third choice is the Glove and Glove storage compartment from Red Rooster golf dot com.
So please send an email and I'll get back to you with some simple
instructions of what to do and what to say. Just right to golf Smarter
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