Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number three hundred and forty seven, published on
August twenty one, twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 3: When you're out there in the heat, the body's trying
to dissipate the heat, and that's why you sweat when
the humidity is up. And when you combine the heat
and the humidity, it forms the heat index. And I
mean you can have kind of serious days even when
the temperatures are in the upper eighties. If the humidity
is very high, that can raise the heat index to
levels that can be somewhat dangerous. And what happens is
the higher the heat index goes, the tougher it is
for that sweat to evaporate. And when the sweat evaporates,
that's when the body kind of cools itself. So because
that can't happen efficiently, the internal body temperature starts to
go up. And that's when you get into stuff like
I say, the heat cramps, and at some point you
may even stop sweating because the mechanism's shutting down and
you don't want to even get to that point. And
that's why it's important to make sure that you start
drinking early and drink often throughout the round.
Speaker 1: Increased focus through hydration and our Short Game Academy.
Speaker 4: This is Golf.
Speaker 2: Smarter sharing tips and insights from golfers and golf professionals
to help lower your score. It's worked for your host Fred.
Speaker 1: Green Hey, Before we get into our interview with Bob
Forman on how to increase your focus through better hydration,
I want to let you know that Golf Smarter is
taking a brief two week hiatus because I'm moving thing.
After living and working in this home for more than
twenty years, my wife and I are finally downsizing. So
when I return with a new episode scheduled for the
week of September tenth, we'll either hear more from Bob
Foreman or comedian Paul meyer Hogg talking about his traveling
comedy golf Troup The Hackers. I've also scheduled Jeff Mangum,
recognized as one of the world's foremost putting experts and
the longtime putting guru of golf Smarter to join us
for a couple of shows right after that. I appreciate
your patience and I hope you will continue to download
the show when we come back. Now, Welcome to the
Golf Smarter Podcast, Bob.
Speaker 3: Thanks Fred.
Speaker 1: How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well and love to talk about fitness. Golf
fitness seems to be one of those one of those
items in the golfer's bag that gets forgotten about on
a regular basis.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, And it's definitely a spoke on the golf
development wheel that a lot of people don't really think about,
don't realize, aren't aware, but it's a significant spoke to
help them better their games. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that analogy of that metaphor of using it
as a spoke, because you know, part of the wheel
is going to break down if you don't have everything
strong exactly.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, with the skill piece, you know,
the lessons that golfers take, the equipment piece, I mean,
those are all important. Those of all especially the equipment
has gotten better over the years. But you know, I
usually correlate that to somebody who goes out and buys
a used car and the car does run all that well,
and goes out and spends a lot of money to
put four new tires on it, thinking it's going to
make the car run better, But you're still stuck with
that mechanism that's driving a car, and that's the engine.
In this case, it's the golfer himself. And most golfers
don't realize that it's their own bodies that are holding
them back from better golf.
Speaker 1: So let's not assume that people are going to start
losing weight and go on diets just so they can
improve their golf. But you don't have to have the
Tiger Woods type of body, the Olympic style body specimen
to be an efficient golfer, do you.
Speaker 3: Oh, No, definitely not. And I think a lot of people,
you know, are kind of reluctant to get into golf
fitness programs because they feel that, you know, geezo, I
got to run a five K do I have to
lift my body weight? And it's really not about that,
and it's really yeah, I mean, it's really about kind
of identifying where the deficiencies are the anatomical deficiencies, the
muscle tightness, the muscle weakness, and the muscle imbalance. And
then once you identify those to target an exercise program
to correct those. And when you do that, you're going
to allow the golfer to move more efficiently and therefore
they're going to be able to swing the better golf club.
Speaker 1: So that was my next question is what will the
golfer notice once they start correcting those inefficiencies.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean within a relatively short period of time,
within six weeks, four to six weeks. Really, it really
depends on how consistent they are with the program. I mean, obviously,
if they're not going to do it, they're not going
to see results. I mean, you've got to put a
little effort into this. You know, in the society that
we're in where everybody wants it yesterday, you know, it
takes a little effort. But if they stay pretty consistent
with their programs, like I say, in a relatively short
period of time, they're going to feel more flexibility, they're
going to have more range of motion, they're going to
be making better ball contact distance and we all know
distance is still king in golf. They're going to be
able to get down the fairway another ten to fifteen
twenty yards. I mean, even some of the eighty year
olds that I'm working with in a relatively short period
of time, they come back all exciting the fact that
they're now, you know, starting to drive the ball past
their other golfing buddies. So I mean, you're going to
find these results fairly quickly, and it really all depends
on your compliance with the exercise.
Speaker 1: Program, right right. I don't want to correct anything you're saying.
But here at Golf Smarter, we're more focused. We're not
focused on distance. We're focused more on accuracy. Like we
like to say, I would much rather have ten feet
closer than ten yards farther any day, you know so,
But so it's beyond that. I didn't want to say, well,
I mean, everybody loves distance, but come on, folks, get
over it.
Speaker 3: But I mean, you know, the other thing is if
you have deficiencies, and if you combine those with poor
swing mechanics. In a lot of instances, the anatomical deficiencies
are causing those poor swing mechanics. In some cases it's
just bad habits. But when you combine those two, the
inconsistency of which you're swinging the golf club is not
going to afford you the accuracy that you talk about
and or the distance. So once you get into a
program in you start correcting those deficiencies, your ball contact
is going to improve tremendously.
Speaker 1: And I want to establish that you don't come to
this as a PGA certified instructor. You give us a
little of your history so we can establish your credibility
on why we're talking about fitness with you.
Speaker 3: Well, I have a master's degree in exercise physiology, which
means I studied the effects of exercise on the body.
And I've been in the fitness field for just over
thirty years, a lot with people with low back issues,
and I mean with golf gosh, I mean, that's number
one in terms of injury. So that's helped me work
with a lot of golfers to get them back out
on the golf course. And then back in two thousand
and six went down to the World Golf Fitness Summit
that was presented by the titleist performance folks Greig Rose
and Dave Phillips, and the three day workshop was phenomenal.
I mean, it was one of those wow moments. And
I think Golf Week magazine even said this now has
become golf's new obsession, and it basically changed the game overnight,
and you know, it introduced a whole new spoke of
the wheels we talked about. And so I came back
and I run a medical fitness center in North Carolina
and started a little golf fitness academy and putting some
of those the things that we learned to practice, and
I was seeing that these people that were coming through
the program were coming back with some real positive feedback.
So I went back and got certified with TPI, and
I've also have gotten certifications through Flexor, which is a
neuromuscular type program for golf brain body type connection. And
then I've also studied a lot of Gary Gray stuff,
who has now affiliated himself with Nike, and Gary does
movement science, sees up I believe in Michigan does a
lot with biomechanics and phenomenal stuff. So I mean, it's
real good stuff. I love it my passion and I
just love to see golfers improve. And my biggest thrill
is getting people back out on the golf course who
have been injured.
Speaker 1: You brought up lower back issues, and I've talked about that.
We've talked about TPI a lot. I've actually had many
TPI instructors from all over the United States on the
Golf Smarter podcast and just fascinated by what they bring
to the table. But when you talk about lower back issues,
I'm someone who has suffered from that and have tried
to do pilates and yoga, and I do yoga on
a regular basis. But what I've found personally is that
my biggest issues are sitting because I basically sit at
my desk doing computer work all day and sleeping, and
I have more pain in the morning when I wake
up before I do my stretching exercises than I do
it any other time. And also I've noticed that after
I finished a round of golf, I feel better. It's
to me, it's it's not golf that's wiping out my back.
You know, it's not the the left to right lateral
movement that that's hurting me. It's the you know, the
bad position in bed and on my chair. And I've
even spent a lot of money on chairs.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, Well, I mean, I mean there's two
things that general lead up to discomfort or injury, and
low back is very prevalent obviously across the board. I
mean with all types of golfers, amateurs, professionals alike, men
and women, And I mean physically, there are specific deficiencies
in the muscle groups. Like mostly in guys, it deals
with tight hamstrings. You know, can you touch your toes
and if you can't, it means your hamstrings are tight.
And that's one of the biggest factories that lead up
to bad backs because of the relationship that the hamstrings
have to the hip bone, and then how it pulls
the hip bone out of balance and that causes a
straightening of the lumbar spine and that puts more pressure
on the disks and so on and so on and
so on. And women we tend to see more tightness
in the hip flexors, which are muscles in the front
part of the hip, and that kind of does the reverse.
It pulls the hip forward and causes more arching of
the lower back. And you see a lot of s
posture type address positions in women when they're standing over
the ball. It's more prevalent in women. Those two can
physically cause problems with the lower back. Now, When you
combine that with swing faults like reverse spine, like early extension,
where the hips are moving towards the ball, like s posture,
as we talked about, that's a perfect storm for back issues.
And it's kind of interesting how you talked about sitting.
Excuse me, I wrote a whole article and I've got
this whole workshop about the anatomy of a sitter and
how sitting impacts your golf game because when you sit,
the body adapts to the positions that you place it
in most of the time. And we're seeing a lot
of sea posture these days, even in younger golfers. I mean,
it used to be kind of an old golfers disease.
You know, as you got older, you just tended to
kind of lose your posture and you got a little
more bode in the upper back, and so you would
kind of hunch over the ball. But we're seeing that
now a lot with younger golfers because of the computer
and being over the computer all day and when you
sit over a computer, and the same thing with dentists.
I mean, all my dentists have ce posture because they're
hunched over their patients. So what happens there is you
tighten the muscles in the front part of the body,
in the chest area. You elongate the muscles in the
upper back. And when you shorten muscles, you tighten, and
when you elongate, you weaken, So you start to get
that rounded shoulder posture and you take that out on
the golf course. In the lower body, when you sit,
you basically shorten your hamstrings and you shorten your hip flexers,
So there's the dynamic two. You also elongate your gluts,
which are your butt muscles, and that's really where you
get a lot of power from in the golf swing,
and you shorten the quad muscles in the front part
of your thigh. So the fact that you're tightening your
hip flexers and your and your hamstrings are going to
set you up anatomically for back issues. And then when
you go out there and start swinging the golf club,
you know, in many cases that can add too. In
your case, it's probably loosening you up. So you're feeling
a little bit better after the after the golf game,
but at some point that may come back to bite you.
Speaker 1: Oh it does, it's not. At some point. It's a
regular thing. I also have noticed that when I remember
to lower no, to quiet my lower body on my swing,
because I've I've had an issue with the sway left
and right sway on my swing. But when I remember
to quiet my lower body those rounds, I feel much
better as well than in my back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, talking about Gary Gray, he has
this thing. A lot of times. We find tightness in
the mid back and the thoracic spot and the same
thing again because a lot of people sit and they're
hunched over stuff or just from inactivity, and when you're
tight in the mid back, and again I see this
a lot. What happens is rotation in the upper body
is supposed to come mainly from the thoracic spine the
mid back, not the lower back. A lot of people
think that their rotation is going to come from their
lower back, and the lower back really is geared more
for flextion front to back, and it's more geared for stability,
not mobility. So when your mid back is tight and
you're bringing the club back, it's only going to go
back so far. In order for you to get the
club back further, you're going to have to recruit the
lower back and again, the lower back just doesn't like that.
So over time, that's just going to put stress to
the lower back and that's going to add to the
issues as well. So that's still a whole nother component
that you have to consider.
Speaker 1: Sure, very interesting. You tell me about you You said
articles you you have articles online that you've written about
these topics.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I've put together a kind of an educational golf
fitness website. So there's a bunch of articles on there,
again based on my experiences working in the fitness field,
and uh, you know, just the stuff that I've learned
through TPI and through Gary Gray and through the Flexor program.
And it's at can I mention the website?
Speaker 1: No, no, don't do that, all right now you can.
Speaker 3: It's the w w W.
Speaker 1: No, it's not. There's no doubt. You don't need that anymore.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Oh you know, yeah, you really don't.
Speaker 3: Golf golffit Carolina dot com. There's one F and one T,
so it's like golf it Carolina.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm glad you you clarified that. Golfit Carolina le
f I T Carolina dot com. Okay, golf it Carolina
dot com. And I will definitely put links in our
show notes as well, so that people just get into
golf Smarter dot com and they go right to it,
or go ahead, go to golf a Carolina dot com.
Just make sure you say golf it. So the article
that you wrote that I read that, I just like,
of course, why aren't we talking about this is about hydration,
is about making sure that when it's hot outside and
you're playing, that you take care of yourself. Let's let's
talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 3: M Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, with the summer here,
you know, one of the things that a lot of
people don't think about is the heat and the humidity
and being down south there. And actually just kind of
you know, with the PGA event that just took place
at Kiwa, you know, made me think about what the
golfers were going to face out there, especially being a
little further south and you know, in the environment, and
how much it can take a toll out of your
game if you're not really prepared to play in that environment.
So you know, that kind of led me to write
the article. But it's really key to get yourself to
acclimate to the weather conditions, whether it be the heat
and humanity or the cold so that your body can
function more efficiently, but especially I think in more of
the warmer environments where it really kind of takes a
toll and and your golf game can suffer if you
if you're not prepared to play in those conditions, or
if you don't kind of plan for you know, keeping
hydrated and stuff like that. And like I say, you'll suffer,
not fun.
Speaker 1: No describe suffer. I mean what are we talking about
here that you're not going to make it through your round?
Or when you say suffer, what are you thinking of?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean getting into things like you know, heat
cramps and heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Not fun stuff.
I mean hydration is key, and even small percentages of
dehydration can really have an impact on the way you function,
the muscle contractions, the brain, body nerve pathway and the
function you know, the way that functions. Uh So, I
mean hydration is vital when you're out there, especially when
you're trying to perform an activity, because that what happens
is it kind of takes the fluid out of the blood,
and your blood becomes very discussed and then that causes
your heart to work harder and that can lead to
some you know, more serious stuff that you don't want
to have to happen. So it's important to make sure
that you're drinking water. And really that's that's the best
thing that you can that you can drink while you're
outside in an activity is just plain old water. If
you tend to sweat a lot, you know, that's the
time to maybe start reaching for an electrolyte replacement drink
to help get some of the minerals the potassium and
the magnesium, the calcium and other essential minerals back into
your system that you're going to lose through your sweat.
But it can really make or break your game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think that for me when I've
I've had the situation where the wheels fall off the wagon.
You know, you get to the fifteen sixteenth hole and
all of a sudden, nothing is working and you're starting
to ache and everything is bad. I've found that when
I hydrate throughout my round that that happens a lot less.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, you know, when you're out there in
the heat, the body's trying to dissipate the heat, and
that's why you sweat. When the humidity is up, and
when you combine the heat and the humidity, it forms
the heat index. And I mean you can have kind
of serious days even when the temperatures are in the
upper eighties. If the humidity is very high, that can
raise the heat index to levels that can be somewhat dangerous.
And what happens is the higher the heat index goes,
the tougher it is for that sweat to evaporate. And
when the sweat evaporates, that's when the body kind of
cools itself. So because that can't happen efficiently, the internal
body temperature starts to go up, and that's when you
get into stuff like I say, the heat cramps. And
at some point, you know, you may even stop sweating
because the mechanism is shutting down, and you know you can.
You don't want to even get to that point, and
that's why it's important to make sure that you start
drinking early and drink often throughout the round. I mean.
The other thing that you can also do to prepare
yourself is nowadays, you know, with the sweat wicking materials
that are coming out, you know, polyester's making a comeback
through the sweat wicking apparel, and that helps draw that
moisture away from the body and helps to dissipate it
into the environment so that it can keep you cooler
while you're playing around the golf. So that's definitely an
advantage that we have nowadays that you know, is popular
and will probably continue to gain popularity as the science
gets better in that regards.
Speaker 1: So, even if you do sweat a lot, having the
sweat stay on your body is bad as opposed to
it dissipating through the wicking material.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the reason you sweat is that you want to
be able to have that sweat evaporate, and when it does,
it cools the body. Okay, So it does that through
various processes. You know, the wind. If there's a wind
that's whipping around, that helps draw heat away from the body.
The sweat that rating helps draw heat away from the body.
So if that heat index, especially when the humidity goes
up and the moisture in the air is higher than
the moisture on your skin, then the evaporation rate decreases,
so the sweat basically just stays on your skin instead
of getting evaporated, and that's when the cooling mechanism tends
to become compromised to the point where you can get
into those those heat disorders.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna throw out a couple words here and
I'll let you riff on them. Right, I'll just toss
these out and you give me assessment. Good bad, don't
do that, try that enhance that. Okay, So you talked
about water. Okay, yeah, room temperature or iceed.
Speaker 3: They say that the colder the better because it tends
to get absorbed faster into the gut.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Okay, the electrolyte drinks your favorite.
Speaker 3: I like the electrolyte replacement tablets. There's one out there
called Noon and Uun. The reason being is that you know,
the electrolyte drinks are getting better and cutting back on
the sugar and the calories, but you just don't know
which ones are. Which the electrolyte tablets are. You buy
them in a tube and basically they're like alcacelsor you
buy a sixteen ounce bottle of water and you kind
of PLoP the tablet into the bottle and it fizzes,
and they come in different flavors and it gives you
the electrolyte replacements that the other sports drinks offer, but
there's only six six or seven calories per tablet, so
per bottle and no sugar.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great tip, thank you. And you said they
are flavored. But if you get non flavored because just
prefer water, do they have them to just don't have
any impact on the taste.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll find that out. So we're going to google,
and you you n while you answer my next question.
And now I'm just throwing softballs at you because I
have a feeling I know where this one's gonna go. Beer.
Speaker 3: Well, beer is a diuretic, so I mean it's gonna
help to draw water out of your system. So I mean, again,
you want to avoid becoming dehydrated. So not a good
thing to have out in the golf course on a hot,
humid dig you know, or at least not in excess,
let's put it that way. But after around they go
for it.
Speaker 1: And if you are going to have a beer with
your buddies while you're playing, mix it up with water,
do you know one after the other or just try
to avoid it.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, like if they say everything
in moderation, uh, you know, some of these guys out
there that are pounding the beers, especially on the hot,
humid days. It's probably not a good idea.
Speaker 1: Okay. By the way, uh noon noon, n U U
N Optimal Hydration their websites down right now, but it
is at n U U N dot com if anybody
wants to look, and they have it available at Amazon
and drugstore dot com. It's all over the place, So
definitely look into that.
Speaker 3: H Cyclist started that stuff, or I should say it
started in the cyclists bike bikers now and then then
it got into runners, and now they're really pushing it
to golfers. And uh, i'd say, I sweat a lot,
and so you know, I've tried it, and you know,
I've felt it really helps, especially like you say, in
the back nine when when normally you start dragging. Uh,
it's really helped me stay, you know, in the game.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: Nice to come out now with one that also has
vitamins in it as well. Okay, vitamin waters and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, yeah, all right, I'm gonna throw another one. Coffee.
Speaker 3: Coffee also is diuretic, so again it's kind of kind
of draw water out of the system, so you gotta
be careful with that I would put that with the
beer category, you know, in moderation, don't go too crazy
with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And and caffeine, I mean, even if you're drinking
decaf or caffeine. But how about you know, like caffeinated
sodas coke?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I mean they're not you know, soda
is in general, I don't really provide much in terms
of minerals or vitamins or anything like that. And if
you enjoy the taste, go for it. You know, there's
not as much caffeine in those things, so you know,
if that's what you prefer that.
Speaker 1: And and what about caffeine in it during a round
of golf? I mean, is it gonna fire you up,
it's gonna get you going, or is like just no
impact at all?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Fred, that really depends upon the individual.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: You know some people can can down a gallon of
coffee and go to sleep, while some people, you know,
can have a cup of coffee and they'd be up
all night.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, if I have a cup of coffee
after ten am, I cannot. I can't go to sleep
at night. Yeah, I mean I'm a decatch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's gonna it's gonna get the system going.
I mean, it's gonna get the heart rate up a
little bit possibly again. And that affects people differently. I
get heart palpitations if I have too much caffeine, So
I mean, it does impact people differently. And you just
got to kind of gauge for yourself, you know, how
you react to stuff, like, you know, caffeine and beer
and all that.
Speaker 1: And since we're talking about sweating and oversweating and whatnot,
I have to throw this one out. I was watching
the PGA Championship this year online. I was listening to
their announcers. I wasn't doing it on television, and they
brought up a tip that I'd never heard and I
thought was absolutely wonderful and I wanted to make sure
that I share it. And that was towel maintenance during
your round of golf. Towel towel maintenance. And what they
were saying is make sure that you use one end
of the towel for cleaning the ball in your club
faces and the other end of the towel for wiping
off your face in your hands.
Speaker 3: That's probably a good idea.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, that's so simple. I've
never even thought about that, and I have many times
wiped my face with the muddy end of a towel.
Speaker 3: Well, if you're on national TV and you get money
on your face, that probably wouldn't be too good.
Speaker 1: Big disgrace played all over the place. We will rock
you mud on your I'm sorry, fascinating stuff. I appreciate
your time, Bob, and again tell everyone to I will
do this. Go to golfit Carolina dot com and if
someone wants to come and see you, where are you specifically?
Speaker 3: I am in Greensboro, North Carolina or high Point, North Carolina,
and I'm also down in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
And I enjoy offering golf fitness seminars to clubs and
organizations that don't charge anything for him.
Speaker 1: So, oh, it's nice of you.
Speaker 3: If anybody would like to offer.
Speaker 1: Then why am I paying so much to have you
on the show. I don't know, Just kidding, Bob. I've
really enjoyed speaking with you, and I've gotten a lot
of really valuable information. Hopefully someone else has as well.
Thanks so much for being on Golf Smarter.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate the opportunity anytime.
Speaker 1: Ooh hey, new music. That's right, because in just a
moment we will bring on Terry Taylor in our inaugural
score Zone Short Game Academy. But first and now, without
further ado, i'd like to bring back Terry Taylor, CEO
of score Golf and known on his blog as the
Wedge Guy. Welcome to the Short Game Academy, Terry. It
is great to have you back and to get this
program started.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 5: It's always fun you're actually addressing a real question from
a real reader or listener. I write my blog twice
a week, and sometime quite often I'm making up topics
just what I think is interesting today. But this is
fun when somebody has an issue that I can hopefully
help them through, and then everybody else can learn something too,
hopefully well.
Speaker 1: And I won't take that personally that my questions aren't
good enough in the podcast, but that's okay. I like
get other questions as well because it gives me a
completely different perspective and I like to hear what people
are saying. So, just to help set this up and
let everybody know, if you click on the score Short
Game Academy button at golfsmarter dot com. You'll be able
to submit your question to Terry, and then every question
that comes in I forward to Terry. Terry reviews every question.
He'll respond to your questions, and if he thinks it's
appropriate that it's a question that everybody will get something from,
he'll pick one or two and we'll do them here
on the Short Game Academy. And if Terry chooses your question,
and I really have nothing to do with what he's choosing,
I send them all. If he picks your question, you
will receive a free I don't want to call it
a wedge, a scoring club from a score forty one
to sixty one that'll be customized to your fit. And
also you'll get a divit tool from golf Smarter so
that when you more greens, you'll be able to fix
your marks and become a better golf citizen. So let's
get right to it and go to our first question
that you've selected. This one's from John Shields of Davis, California,
and he says, Terry, I'm a big fan of what
you're doing over at score and he also comment said
he's a longtime golf Smarter listener. Thank you, very much, John.
His question is about the fifty to sixty yard approach shot,
which is the bane of my existence as well. He says,
for some reason, this in between distance results in undue
trepidation for me. Any shorter and I can easily pitch
or bump up a shot, and longer is an easy
three quarter wedge, but cannot figure out what the most
reliable play is from fifty to sixty yards.
Speaker 5: Well, that's a shot that gives everybody a lot of trouble, John,
That half wedge, the dreaded half wedge, as we call it.
But there's a way to get around this, and it's
learning a good technique. You indicated the three quarter wedge
you're more comfortable with. Golfers should learn is how to
make a reliable half swing. When I say a half swing,
what I mean is where your backswing position puts your
hands roughly about opposite of your of your right armpit,
so your your left arm is about parallel with the ground.
It's not further back than that. And your hint, your
hands do not hinge a lot, just a little bit.
One of the things I think I mentioned in earlier
broadcast is really go watch Steve Stricker going on YouTube
and find videos as Steve Stricker and watch how simple
his swing is. But your your hands are halfway back
to halfway through, so your follow through is again your
hands end up about shoulder high, complete body turn. Take
your take your sand wedge or your lob wedge, your
gap wedge, and go out and just practice this half
swing uh until you get it really grooved. Hit a
lot of golf balls with this. You can go to
a ball field or a vacant lot and with your
own shag bag and do this, But you gotta hit
a lot of shots to get the feel for this
half swing where you can rep implicate this reliably. Then
go through the high loft clubs in your set and
see what happens with the sixty degree with this half swing,
what happens with the fifty six or fifty four, you know,
whatever high loft clubs you're carrying. See what happens and
how far the ball carries with each of these swings.
Then you can go out on the golf course. You
can find out how far it's going to roll out
with each of these swings, and with three or four
of your high loft golf clubs and this one swing,
you'll end up with five or six different shots you
can hit with reliability and repeatability because you've practiced it
and you know what that half swing feels like. You
can even dissect that further if you want, in these
half swings by gripping down on the club a little further,
which I talk about in my book The Score Method,
which is available on score golf dot com for a
free download of our book called The Score Method, and
it really dives into the details of using your hand
position on the grip to change how far the ball
all will fly. So with your full swing and these
different hand positions and four or five clubs, you've got
ten or twelve yardages. With your new half swing that
you're learning and four or five clubs a couple of
hand positions, you've got another eight or ten yards, and
you'll find that you can dissect everything inside full swing,
pitching wedge down to the grip down half sixty maybe
a forty yard shot, and you can really dissect the
golf course. So practice that half swing, learn it, learn it,
and just memorize it, and then use your different clubs
with that half swing to get the different yardages you're
after and.
Speaker 1: Always try to remember too to avoid that opportunity, right,
I mean, like for me the chess match in golf,
of playing from the pin backwards, I try to position
myself so I don't put myself in a fifty to
sixty yard shot. I really try to avoid that, which
means don't hit a driver. Fight need to if I
can get myself, especially with the confidence that I've I've
gotten using the score forty one sixty one wedges man,
you put that forty six degree in my hands from
one hundred and ten yards and I feel like I'm
going to hit the stick. So especially on a par five,
if I'm two hundred and fifty out, I know I
want to go one hundred and forty. I don't want
to hit it, you know, So I'm fifty yards out
from the green, I don't want to take a long club.
Speaker 5: That's a very smart strategy for all golfers. If you
find and I call it the go to shot, and
it may be that you just have great confidence in
your gap wedge, or you have great confidence in your
peak club, but you'll find a yardage that you just
know poat eighty nine or ninety four or one hundred
and two or one hundred and ten. This is the
yardage I feel really confident in. Don't always try to
hit the ball as close to the green as possible.
And I mean even a good lesson from the US
Amateur the other day, and the kid that won hit
a six iron off the tee on this par four
on the playoff hole. The other kid hit a driver
over the green. That was the whole Arnold Palmer drove
when he won his open there but at Cherry Heels.
But this kid hit a six iron off the tee
to like seventy eight yards and he knew that my
sixty degree wedge and my three quarter swing I'm going
to be somewhere around the hole, and he hit it
fifteen feet behind the whole nestles. He had a two
putt to win, nestled down. Turned out the ball went
in for birdie. But that's playing smart, that's playing two
a yard ad. You know, I always tell the story
about Zach Johnson. He did that at the Masters when
he won. He played the par fives better than anybody
and never went for one of them.
Speaker 4: In two.
Speaker 5: Know your game, have your go to shot, and learn
that halfwage you're going to have that sometime. But if
that three quarter wedge is a shot, you have a
lot of confidence in will hit one less club on
those par fives and leave it back at three quarter range.
Speaker 1: Absolutely interesting. I mentioned my playing with my nephew last
week a little bit earlier in the show, and he
is a big hitter. He's been playing all his life
and is a low double digit handicap and easily can
drive the ball close to three hundred yards. So we
had one. But on the way to the golf course,
he was telling me how how miserable he's become on
his short short game, the thirty forty yard shots. He
just he's he has no confidence in it, and so
he gets all freaked out and he just can't do it.
And any time he lost his cool that day was
on a short shot that he screwed up. It's the
only time he lost it. And at one point there
was a hole that was three hundred and three yards,
so he took out his driver. I took out my
three wood okay, and he put it within fifteen yards
of the green. He drove it really close. His second
shot went ten yards and he still wasn't on the
green because he just and I'm like, so, I said
to myself, So I don't get it. Why would you
put yourself in that position? He says, Wait, you gotta
go for it, don't you. I'm like, okay, never mind.
Speaker 5: I won't get on that soapbucks about the way the
kids play golf these days, but I see it all
the time.
Speaker 4: They hit it a mile and shoot eighty five.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, so this sixty year old man just grills
them by from forty yards behind him off the tee.
They don't know how to hit golf shots. But we
won't go there. We got a question, yeah, answer.
Speaker 1: Right, and we call that golf smarter. We call that
golf smarter. Okay, that's right, all right. Second question, another
one from California. Strangely enough that you did that. Did
you know that you picked two questions from California?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: I didn't until I was just going through all the
questions and trying to find two that I really thought
we could really help some the most people with. And
these two came out. And then I'm looking at him
and saw, oh, another one from California.
Speaker 1: So well, see how we are here in California.
Speaker 4: Yeah, anyway, we're all troubled, and so I'm trying to help.
Speaker 1: We're troubled here in California. That's what it is. You're
absolutely right. This one's from Paul Matsuda in Mill Valley,
and it says more times than I care to remember,
I've had a good round going and end up in
a sand trap in less than optimal conditions. Three or
four strokes later, I'm out of the trap and on
the green or not. My question is what is the
best way to play out of wet sand or in
the case of a course that I play occasionally sand
that is the consistency of fine gravel, or my worst nightmare,
a combination of the two. I've tried several techniques, but
obviously have not stumbled about the right combination. Maybe you
have his answer.
Speaker 5: Well, Paul, let's start with what we were just talking
with John. John's question about this half wedge. You've got
to learn a half wedged swing, and you've got to
know how to put that club halfway back and how
to rotate your body and bring it halfway through sand, traps, bunkers, whatever.
For most of us are much more troublesome. The tour
player never runs into what you're talking about because their
bunkers are all held to PGA Tour standards and that's
why they get to hit those fabulous shots out of
the bunkers. But the rest of us, you know, the
sand texture can change from hole to whole, course to course,
even from one place to another in the bunker, and
that's the golf that we all plays recreational players. So
to me, there's there's several keys. When you walk into
a bunker. The first thing you want to do as
you walk in with your feet, size up the firmness
the resistance of that sand. Is this sand gonna gonna
really kind of eat the golf club a little bit?
Or is this sand going to play like, you know,
almost like hardpan. Is it going to play you know,
much more firm. So the first thing you want to
do is feel that and get a feel for how
much resistance that that sand is going to give to
the golf club in a firm, wet sand situation. I
like to play that shot almost like it's a little
pitch out of the hard pan, just you know, don't
worry about hitting behind the ball a lot, Just hit
you a nice little soft pitch shot with your highest
lofted club, the ball is going to come out a
little hotter as it would off of a tight lie,
and and you know, just aim for a point a
little past the flag to allow that this sand, the
heavier sand, is going to slow your club down a
little bit. If you get into the fluff of your
sand or the or the gravel, the fine gravel. A
lot of times your feet will just really move into
that gravel and you'll find that there's not a lot
of resistance here to the golf club. So when that
club makes contact with the sand on the way down,
that sand is is not going to reject that club,
for example, as much as the as the firm sand will.
So there it's just a bunker shot. It's you know,
lay the club open, so you increase the bounce of
the golf club, pick a spot about two inches behind
the ball, make that half wedge swing, and just float
the ball out of the bunker. If you are not
a low single digit or if you are not a
self proclaimed sand expert, then understand that bunkers are hazards.
You know, you're not a tour player. The tour players
get up and down out of bunkers. But bear in mind,
they spend more time per day in the practice bunker,
the most recreational golfer spending a lifetime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't they also in many cases, don't the tour
players aim for bunkers to because they're more confident there
and and it's less trouble for them.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely, I mean you know that I don't know
what's going to happen around the bunker, and you know
they'll they'll pull the driver on the sharp poar forward
because they're up and down percentages or I think that
the last time I looked, if you were a fifty
percent up and down player out of the bunker, you
were like ranked one hundred and thirtieth on the PGA Tour.
So you know, but it's interesting if you go on
the Buy dot Com Tour. Now, you go to that
tour and fifty percent up and down percentage ranks you
about thirtieth. So I mean a real difference between the
Big Tour and the little tours. It's the quality of
short game performance. Guys all can hit the ball, but
you know, when you go into a bunker, Paul, size
it up and determine what your standards, what your goal
needs to be. If this is going to be a
tough bunker shot. Then anywhere on the green is a
good shot. Forget the flag, play to the safe side
of the hole, and you know, leave yourself a good
two put If if you're a good bunker player, you
got a nice clean line and sand that makes you
feel confident, then go ahead and take it a little
more aggressive line to the flag. But you understand, for
most of us as recreational golfers, I mean, you take
the average twelve handicap, and I don't ask what any
of y'all's handicaps are, but a twelve handicapper, if you
think about it, there are six par holes on the
golf course and twelve bogie holes, and you just beat
your handicap. So you know, you don't have to go
out and make a bunch of pars to shoot eighty
two or eighty five. Just have to make a handful
and then not have any blow ups and these three
or four stroke later things. So if you hit the
drive in the fairway, back to the program, is golf smarter.
If you hit the drive in the fairway and hit
a good approach on the green, this is now a
par hole, maybe even a birdie. But if you hit
the drive in the rough, this hole is starting to
be a Bogie's going to be a good score. If
you hit the second shot into the bunker, bogie's not
going to be a bad score at all. So you know,
adjust your standards as you move from the tee toward
the hole. Adjust your goals as to what this ought
to be. I mean, you may be on the shortest
par five on the golf course, but you know, if
you hit your drive behind a tree and have to
pitch out sideways, this complexion of the soul just changed
a lot. It's now a hard hole because you know
you've you've had to sacrifice a shot, So all the
holes are equally difficult. If you hit two really good shots,
they all play easy, and if you hit two really
bad shots, they all play hard. It really doesn't matter
what the handicap ranking on the card is.
Speaker 1: Wait, tell me that one more time. Twelve handicap, six
par six bogies.
Speaker 5: That's twelve handicaps, six bars and twelve bogies. You know
that gives you an eighty four and you're hit twelve handicaps,
going to start moving downward to nine or ten. You
shoot a bunch of eighty fours. So bear in mind that,
you know, I mean I talked to a lot of golfers.
I'd like, you know, I'm a ninety shooter, I'm a
ninety five shooter. Well, then there are no paroles on
the golf course for you. I mean, if you make
a part just like, wow, I stole one. It's kind
of like the scratch guy making a birdie. You stole
one there, and you know, but but be realistic about
your expectations. This is a very hard game. And what
is it like five percent of the golfers can break
ninety regularly. So you know, I hear people all the
times say why I'm not a very good golfer I
shoot in the eighties? Really, because shooting in the eighties
is a very good golfer.
Speaker 1: Well, it depends where you're looking from, right, haven't we
talked about this consistantly.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you used to be a scratch and
now you're shooting in the eighties, you need to go
see your golf or your doctor. But you know you
are your shrink. But you know, I wrote my blog
this morning about getting the yips and dealing with them,
so you know it appens to everybody. But I mean
it's a hard game. I mean, you know, you think
about it. I mean, Robin Williams gets one of my favorites.
But yeah, okay, So there's a FOURD a quarter inch
hole a quarter of a mile down there across the country,
and I've got this little round white ball and an
implement poorly suited for striking it, and I'm going to
put it in that.
Speaker 4: Hole and forward for wax. It's really absurd, but we
can do it.
Speaker 1: Well. We're not going to quote Robin on that one
unless you wanted me to bleep it out. I have
no problem.
Speaker 4: Rob Williams definition take off.
Speaker 1: See this is what the Short Game Academy is all about.
I love these answers. You know, we talked to PGA
professionals teaching professionals a lot, and to me, those are
guys that played golf really well as a kid and
they wanted to continue to play golf. But you come
from a different place. You are a club designer. You
are looking at how am I going to make other
people better from this design? And so you see things
like bunker shot and short shots very differently than just
a teaching pro. And I love your perspective on this,
and this is why I'm so excited about the Short
Game Academy.
Speaker 4: Well, and I like it too.
Speaker 5: I mean, I've been writing a blog under the moniker
the Wedge Guy for five years, anchors five hundred some
odd articles out there now, and I mean there's a
lot of a lot of things out there that you
that your listeners can go dive into. And I like
sharing my knowledge. Somebody asked me why I gave away
all this knowledge for free us and because that's the
way I got everything. I know, somebody was willing to
give it to me, so, you know, and I boiled
it around in my head and came out with my
own take. But we're very focused at score golf. On
the short game. We're very focused on scoring because very
you know, I mean, golf is difficult game, but good
scores are very gratifying, and very few people come off
the golf course really happy that I hit a lot
of good shots. I scored miserably, but I'm delighted. I mean,
we kind of boil it down to the numerical gratification at.
Speaker 4: The end of the day. Was that a number that
made me happy? You know?
Speaker 5: You see guys in the locker room all times that god,
I struggled all day to David Man, I can't get
together and shot in seventy eight or eighty eight or
ninety eight, whatever your number is. And you look at
the tour players and you know, you see some of
those guys that can just band aid it together. They're
not hitting it well, but they can salvage their round
because they're good with their scoring clubs. And you know,
we are very focused on that at score Golf, and
we know we can help any golfer, regardless of their
skill level, regardless of their physical strength attributes. We can
help any golfer become better inside nine iron range. And
if you can be really good inside nine iron range,
you can play anybody's golf course. You can score better
than you ever have because that's where the game is played.
Speaker 1: Bottom line.
Speaker 5: No, I mean it was like never a year ago.
He hits at three hundred and can't score. He's shooting
in the mid eighties. If you're hitting at three hundred,
you ought to be able to just you know, tear
the golf course apart not shooting the mid eighties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know we talk about being shooting in
the mid eighties is kind of like being in your sixties.
To bad golfers, you're really good. And to good golfers, yeah,
in your eighties you're big. Not that good, you know,
when you're in your sixties. To old people, you're young.
Speaker 4: Yep, exact people.
Speaker 5: Year old sixty is not years old as it used
to be, by the way, looking at it from this
side of sixty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right now that we're both in the back nine
here in our lives.
Speaker 4: You have But thirty six is the new eighteen. Don't
forget that.
Speaker 1: Oh right, you mean scoring wise or a whole amount
of holes you play in a day.
Speaker 5: Anyway, big blase is the new okay. So sixty is
the new forty and age okay, thirty six is the
new eighteen in golf, and fifty nine is the new
sixty and scoring clubs.
Speaker 1: There you go, We're all done. That works, hey, John
and Paul congratulating not of McCartney and Lennon, but congratulations
John Shields and Paul Matsuda, because you guys have both
earned the opportunity to get a free score. Not an opportunity,
you have gotten a score forty one sixty one wedge
of your choice, customized for you scoring club. I'm not
gonna call a wedge.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna learn it's a scoring bitches. Wedges go in
the bargain. Been with their Simmon woods.
Speaker 5: There are relics of a bygone era, and I will
tell y'all all about that if y'all want to read
about
Speaker 1: All right, wedgesdges