Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number three hundred and sixty one published on
December seven, twenty twelve, and in our score Zone short
game Academy, Terry the wedge Guy Taylor gives us some
great advice about chipping around the green.
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 get nervous, it's for me, it's always the same.
It's not like I'm really really nervous or nervous. It's
just I'm nervous, you know, so over a first t
shot of any round. I mean there's not much, but
there's a little bit of nerves. It's not I'm nervous
because I haven't prepared. It's just like I know what
to do. It's just all right, let's go do what
we gotta do. But it's not like you're out of
control nervous where I'm not prepared, because then I already
know that I'm not going to play well, and I'll
never feel off in a tournament feels like I don't
prepare well.
Speaker 1: You've got that first t jitters. That's understandable, But those
first t jitters begin when you walk up to the
first tee, or like when you're in prep for that
tournament coming up and you're starting to think about it.
Speaker 3: Well. I never sweat over a first hall shot. There
may be a feature on the course I don't like,
and I might think about it like during my round,
but I might get in there with over a particular
t shot more than the first key.
Speaker 1: Playing with the big dogs PGA Tour pro Matt every
This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 4: Each week we tap the best minds in golf to
help lower your scores with tips, drills, insights and advice
in conversation with course pros, architects, authors, players, teaching gurus
and coaches.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf's Martyr Podcast.
Speaker 3: Matt, thanks man, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: My pleasure. Thanks so much. I generally don't get a
chance to talk to PGA touring professionals. This is very
exciting for me. Frankly, I don't really want to. I'd
much rather talk to their caddies because I think there's
probably better stories there. Have you ever caddy for anybody?
Speaker 3: That I caddied for my buddy's dad launch and a
qualifier just as a favor, But I wouldn't exactly say
I've had a full time gig.
Speaker 1: Do you like having nick? I mean, you know, I
got to imagine as you grew up and we're playing
a lot that you you know, you golf, you're on
your own.
Speaker 5: So when you have a caddy adjustment?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what do you want out? What do
you want out of a caddy?
Speaker 3: Just to not mess me out?
Speaker 6: Man?
Speaker 3: That's all I asked, you.
Speaker 6: Know, Yeah, of course, I mean they they do play
a very important role that most guys play their best
and they stay out of their own way, and you
just don't want somebody else to get anyway, and you
know somebody else did.
Speaker 3: It's just another obstacle.
Speaker 1: And do you look for I mean, is the caddie
you've been working with since you've been on the tour?
Is that a friend? Is that someone's been assigned to you?
Are you just picked up in the parking lot?
Speaker 3: It's uh, it's it's a it's a friend. To be honest.
You know, I meet him, I meet him out on
the road just you know, accunting for somebody else. I
develop friendships with him, and then uh, you know, when
it's time to make a change or I make a change.
And always I always trying to hire someone that I
already have a pretty good relationship with. I'm sew a
stranger and judge your character a little better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you didn't have caddies when you were in college, right, No,
so that's got to be a big adjustment.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, the biggest the biggest thing for me
when I got out of school was when I got
a cadie. I always start second guessing myself. I always always,
you know, if I had a six footer and I
knew it was like right, let I would be like,
hey man, what do you got? And then he'd come
in and if you said something different, I'll just screwed,
you know, And it's like, da, Matt, why do you
even do that? You know, even reading your own puts
your whole life and you're a good potter, Like there's
no need for another set of eyes, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 6: Oh, that's so interesting, And probably that happens a lot
with ammers.
Speaker 3: When they go to these nice courses, they get the
club caddies, and you know, the club caddies some of
them do a great job. But like the Vamber, you
know you can read I mean, you can read greens.
You know they're easy to read.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to necessarily agree with you that all.
Speaker 3: The time you should be able to read greens.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll give you that. I'll well, let's talk. That's
really interesting And if you have you ever like after
a round said, look, don't speak unless I a or do.
Speaker 5: They generally know that.
Speaker 3: It's always it's always my I mean, no, I'm not
blaming anybody for any of my batch outs because I'm
the one that hits him and it annoys me when
people do do that.
Speaker 6: But uh no, I'm always nobody specific my fault because
I'm always.
Speaker 3: You know, they won't say my guy, I won't say
say anything if I don't ask him to. You know,
it's always like they derect what you got here, you know,
if not, he's not even looking at the pot.
Speaker 1: Oh really, he's just talking to the other caddy, right. Interesting,
But you've always kept your own book, You've always kept
your own score you' you know I don't.
Speaker 3: Well, well yeah I didn't call it. Yeah I did
growing up. Yeah, but I don't anymore like I have him.
I don't have a yardage book. I don't do anything.
Speaker 1: And what about sport and what about when you're on
the tour. I want to talk about your history, But
this is so interesting to me. When you were when
you were on the tour and you're playing in a
tournament and even as you were growing up uh competitive,
how closely did you watch your score throughout a round?
Because like we talk about this all the time, it's like,
don't worry about the score until you're done with your round.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, it's easier said than done. I know what
you're saying. It's kind of just you just kind of
get over it. I mean, it just happens. I don't.
I don't think about like I know where I'm at,
but I'm not. I'm not judging myself on my score
as harsh as I did when I was in high
school or something like that, because I know if I
just stay patient, everything evens out in the long run.
And it's not about for me. It's it's a career.
It's not a round.
Speaker 1: Of golf.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of how I look at it.
Speaker 1: A marathon, not a sprint.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, so it all evens out your score. One
thing for me that helped me it was the course
I grew up playing on was pretty easy. So you know,
when I got pretty when I was getting pretty good
in high school, I would go out there and you know,
before under through six holes, and I learned to keep
going and keep going because you know, eventually four under
out there for me on a you know, when the
weather was good was crap, you know, so I had
to keep going and keep going and keep going. So
now when I do have a good round gooing like
you're saying, and you're thinking about your score, I just
keep going, you know.
Speaker 1: M I that's really interesting because you not only your score,
because golf is really about just doing your best. You're
not going head to head against anybody. You're playing against yourself. Yeah,
And so to look up at at a leader board
and see, oh man, I'm one stroke behind this guy,
it's got to get in your head. You could start
pressing and just making bad shots.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's hard. I mean, when you're playing well
on Sunday, it's hard to not look at a leaderboard
because they're they're in your face all day long. I
mean you'd have to try not to look at one,
like and you'd have to do really good. I mean
they're almost everywhere you look out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you also get a sense of how you're
doing just by the crowd that's following you. And the
gallery continues.
Speaker 3: To grow its not at all because yeah, because well
think about it. I mean, if Pilm Mickelson or something,
you know, a tiger or just a big name is
out there, those guys, the people that are coming to
that golf tournament are coming to watch them, regardless of
how they play. You might get a few more crowd members.
But you know, if it's a big tournament with big names,
it doesn't matter. They're getting the crowds, which is totally
fun with me.
Speaker 1: You don't you don't want the gallery watching you?
Speaker 3: Well, it's no, I don't mind. I mean you can't.
You're gonna have galleries out there no matter what, because
like I'm you know, fifteen through eighteen is like it's
a party out there, and uh, people are just there.
But oh mind the galleries. It's just I don't want
it it's just something else to deal with, you know,
it's not it's not a big deal, but it's there,
you know.
Speaker 1: And and when you first started on the tour, and
I'm not like you hadn't been playing competitively your whole
life for years on in college and other tours and stuff.
But all of a sudden, now you're you are playing
with an elite group of golfers. Did you feel your
knees knocking at all? Or you were like, dude, I'm here,
I belong here.
Speaker 3: You know, when you get nervous, it's for me, it's
always the same. It's not like I'm really really nervous
or nervous. It's just I'm nervous, you know. So like
over a first t shot of any round, there's not
I mean there's not much, but there's a little bit
of nerves. It's not like it's not I'm nervous because
I haven't prepared. It's just like I know what to do.
It's just all right, let's let's you know, let's go
do what we gotta do. You know what I'm saying.
But it's not like a nerve out of control nervous
where I'm not prepared, because then it's then I already
know that I'm not gonna play well and I'll never
pee off in the tournament feeling like I doesn't prepare well.
Speaker 1: You've got that first t jitters. That's understandable. But those
first t jitters begin when you walk up to the
first t or like when you're in prep for that
tournament coming up and you're starting to think about it.
Speaker 3: No, no, it's not no never never, Like I would never,
I never sweat over a first hall shot. There may
be a shot on the court, shot on the course
I don't like, and I might think about it like
during my round. But you can't help that, man. I
mean anybody who says I can block that outline, I
just don't see it happening. And uh, it's just the
way it is, you know, I mean, the thing your head,
it's just the way it is. But you just to
deal with it and make a committed swing on that whole.
But I might get nervous over a particular T shot
more than the first T for sure.
Speaker 1: It's all about the shot right now, and you can
block it.
Speaker 3: Like if it's the first team. There's there's not much
and there's nothing to be nervous about it because I
know how to do it, you know, I mean, just
this swing where you know how to and the results
will take care of itself.
Speaker 1: So interesting. I'm just so, you know, so divorced from
from that level of competition, you know, just being a
recreational golfer and I don't even play competitively on that level.
Speaker 5: I just.
Speaker 1: This. It's just a different beast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one chip. I would say on those shots that
you know you might think about, like if you played
the course before, I'm like, thirteen is a you know,
it's antagrag left of water on the left and the
winds off and the winds off the left. You gotta
start over the water or something. Just a shot and
that's hard, you know, Yeah, and you're thinking about it
when I when I get over them, I can live
with myself if I make a committed swing and it's
a bad shot. But if I do something at the
bottom of my swing, like you know, Dcell or just
kind of guy or something like that, and I'm and
it as a bad shot, That's when I really get
upset it myself. But you can you can live I
can live with it if it's committed. So the committed
ones usually always turn out better. And you know what
I'm saying, it's just you feel better about yourself. You
can go to sleep at night knowing you you committed
instead of bailing out or you know, not giving it
a good swing.
Speaker 1: Define for me from your perspective, of course, what is
a hard shot? Like you said, when you get on
a hard shot and you think it's like, what is
a hard shot for you?
Speaker 3: Uh, it's it's also you know, it's very situational. It
could be only on a Sunday and any anytime you
have to work the ball, like if the pin is
on the left side of the green and the wind
is coming off the left, or you have to start
it over the trouble to get it on the pin
or turn it against the wind and you have to
you know, alter your swinging a little bit for the
cork ballflight. Those are tough shots. But if there is
no wins and it's a tuck pen, if you're swinging
good at it, there's there's I mean, it's green light
all day, you know, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the old Johnny Miller green right, green light,
yellow light, red light on how you approach a shot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting, and let's talk a little bit. This is
so interesting to me a little bit about your history
so we can give some people on understanding you. You've
been in the tour. Now, twenty ten was your rookie season.
Speaker 5: Right, yep?
Speaker 1: Yeah, where you were named Rookie of the year. That's
kind of awesome. Congratulations. But let's back up a little
bit more.
Speaker 3: I don't think I was of a rookie.
Speaker 5: Of the year.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, you better tell your publicists because the
bio they said has you as a Rookie of the
Year on the PGA Tour in twenty ten. Yeah, or
did they just forget to tell you?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I forgot to tell me.
Speaker 1: By the way, Matt, you're a rookie of the year
a couple of years ago. It's great. Did you do
you know that you in two thousand and nine that
you won a nationwide tour event. Do you know that?
I just want to make sure I'm talking to Matt
every year. Well, let's go back a little bit and
talk about your college ball, because I find this so
interesting because college golf, in some ways, the competition just
to be on a team is so tough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. I had you know, my senior year
in high school, I had a few offers to go
play some some pretty good schools and then but I
wanted to go to Florida. They had a great team,
and I knew, and they weren't giving me any money
at the time, and I knew that if I could
just get there and play against the best guy as
in the country, you know, let alone. I didn't want
to go somewhere and be the best guy on a
team and have no compete with every day. So I
went there and it worked out great.
Speaker 1: Let's make sure that we clarify this so it's not
taken out of context by any other media organization or reporter.
When you said I didn't get money for that, you
don't get money in college, but you we don't want
to have any school disqualified and taken out of But
you meant scholarship money. Yeah, okay, so you did get
Did you get scholarship money? Talk to me about So
you were recruited by a couple of schools, and but
you had your your site set on University of Florida, right,
You're you're from Florida. Uh, and and then and then
you chose to go there. But you didn't. You didn't
get scholarship money to go there? Right? And and how
did it work for you? That?
Speaker 5: Did?
Speaker 1: You? Were you invited to be on the team. How
did that work for you? Tell me about how you
got to be on the tab.
Speaker 3: So I was being slightly recruited by Florida and U,
but I wasn't the best guy coming out. So they
had like three guys that they were trying to sign
before me, and if one of them didn't sign, then
they would have, you know, something for me on sid
on the team. Well they all they all three signed,
so I still wanted to go there though, So I
was like, man, can I come? And He's like, yeah,
I'll give you a shot. You know it should come. So
it just worked out. And then you know, my whole
freshman year, five guys travel. There's probably like eleven or
twelve on the team, and I was like the sixth
guy all year and occasionally cracked the lineup. And right
before postseason, the five guys on our team got in
the shanks and coach put me in and it's kind
of done good ever since then.
Speaker 1: That's so impressive. So then you walked on the team.
You you had one guy fall off the bench, fall
off this game, and you got called up on the
off the bench and and had success. Yeah. How how
is the coaching on that college level? What did that
do for your game that allowed you to become a
four time All American, a three time All SEC Conference selection?
Speaker 5: Did it?
Speaker 1: Is it just hard work on your golf game or
great coaching and hard work?
Speaker 3: Well, if you're not working on the right things, then
you're you're wasting your time. So coaching first and foremost
probably uh is more important than hard work because you
have to have proper coaching then you can put in
the hard work. But yeah, I mean it was just
going there competing every day. I mean we would you know,
we a lot of the guys on the team. I
mean it was very competitive because you know, it was
a big deal. You went to college for golf and
you want to play man in the in the top
five and I got you know, we were all friends,
but on the course, we all wanted to whip each other.
And then when I got pretty good, Uh, Camillo Virginicas
was in school at me at the same time, and
we would just duke it out. In my last two
years and there for his last two years there. We
would duke it out for uh the number one spot
every week, and we wanted to beat each other's brains.
And I probably have to credit a lot, you know,
going going against him to where I am now.
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting. So I ask about, you know, hard
work and good coaching, but I didn't talk about level.
I didn't ask about level of competition and what that
does for your game.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh yeah, man, I mean you see it. The
football guys play down to the level of their competition
all the time.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 1: I see it in golf, just in myself. I just
you played the level of And again I'm not a
I'm not a competing kind of guy. I don't play
in tournaments and st off. But just your focome, your
your buddy that you're out there with. You just want to,
you know, beat them by a stroke.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh yeah. Like if I go to play with
my my friends at home, they're all pretty good, but
ill we'll play as good as I should, you know,
because I'm with them, and it's just not it's not
the same.
Speaker 1: Oh, and I'm sure they want to beat your brains.
Speaker 3: In Yeah, I mean some some things that I play
in I definitely have people that try to. But which
is funny to me. But my friends don't care. You know,
they've they've probably they've been before, and if they beat me,
it's not like they're gonna it's not gonna make their
weak you.
Speaker 1: Know, I not. No, they don't bring it up on
the phone. It's like, hey, I beat you.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Man, By the way, I know you weren't keeping school today,
but I totally beat you.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: Uh. The very impressive part of your senior year, I
guess it was at Florida, was that you won the
equivalent of the Golf Heisman Trophy Award, the Ben Hogan Award,
in two thousand and six.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was, Uh, it was pretty cool to win.
Speaker 1: What does that take? How do you how do you
get to a position where you stand out among its
nation of golfers.
Speaker 3: It's given to the best amateur golfer of that year,
and it usually go to college guys just because if
you're a really good anmler, usually a college player, and
so it's like the college player of the year, and
it's just you know, they have a panel that flects
it's my twelve people and it's former coaches, writers, former
winners of the award and whoever gets some much volts
wins and I won. Uh you know, it was two
thousand and six, and might have been it was either
five or six. I had a good, good an year
the year qualified for new helping and finished in the
twenty somewhere and then that's a good year, a very
good year.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But it now it's it's like every round of golf,
it's history and you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I got to move forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. And it's been a long time
since then too. I mean it feels like yesterday, but uh,
you know, six or seven years, it's a long time.
Speaker 1: Well, especially when you get married, have a kid. You're
still pretty.
Speaker 7: You're not even thirty, right, almost twenty nine in a
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean life is really going fast for you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean it's it's real fast. But I like,
I like it.
Speaker 1: But you you're able to slow it down for a
round of golf. Is that is that difficult to separate?
Speaker 3: It does? Man, it slows me down. I feel like
the better I play it of the more you know,
in the moment, I am like I'm swelling myself down
because I swing fast, I walk fast, I might talk fast.
I don't know, but it to me and golf kind
of it knows me out a little bit.
Speaker 1: Are Are there any things, any tips, any advice that
you can provide us on how to do that?
Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, I mean as far as like overall rhythm
in your golf. Like I think the number one thing
in a golf swing is rhythm, and you can you
can swing fast and have good rhythm. Just you know,
swing within yourself, take your time, be committed through the shot,
just really focus on your rhythm, and uh, your swing
will get better just from there because the parts where
you have to speed up, if you focus on your rhythm,
you're going to get in the right spots if you're
if you're quick and snatchy at the top, that's when
the trouble starts.
Speaker 1: I find that when I'm screwing up, when things are
falling apart, everything starts to speed up.
Speaker 3: Yeah it probably does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks coach, Yeah it does. You suck go away,
you know. Uh. The reason we got together is, uh
there's this product that that is now out uh by
on it Labs called Alpha Brain, and they sent me
some samples, and they also said, you know what, if
you don't believe us that this stuff is going to
help your golf game, then you maybe you should talk
to Matt every please help me out with this and
explain to me what Alpha Brain is and what it
does for your game.
Speaker 3: Sure, well, they make other stuff too, but I mainly
take Alpha Brain right now. I met up with the
guys that on it in January. Well, I got some
product from them in January. I met a mountain, San
Antonio this year. They were out there for the tour events,
so we got to meet up. But I always started
taking their product in January. And the mental I think
I suffer a little bit from add as well, and
like I get very very bored out there, and if
it's not going my way by about fourteen, it's not
like I quit, but I mean it's just, you know,
I get a little disinterested, disinterested, And ever since I
started taking this out of brain. I'm telling you, man,
I'm in it the whole way. And it says to
take four a day. I take like six every day,
but I take two in the morning. I take them
with all my meals, or two in the morning. Two
usually on the turn and then to a bed when
I go to bed, and it's legit. And they got
this new him protein out too, and I don't know
if you've ever sided him protein, but it's usually pretty
nasty and this one is very bearable and stable. So
I'm pretty excited about that too.
Speaker 1: That's awesome and I hope we can talk more about
this now. This is not a drug no, because you cannot.
You know, on the PGA tour you would not be
allowed to take any performance enhands right right, like.
Speaker 3: You know, say adderall that is on the list for Yeah,
this is not. And I'm telling you I used to
take adderall because I had Uh I did you know
I was diagnosed for a d D And uh, it's
it's not. You're not as wired, but you're definitely in there,
like when you're taking adderall and it's awesome. And I've
had guys come up to me on the range that
had no clue that I was with on it and say, man,
you take that Hones stuff. That's that's pretty good. And
they always take the same one I take, and uh,
alphabe right Alpha brain and because they listened to Joe
Rogan podcast and apparently he's been taking it too and
loving it. So that's where they're all hearing it from too.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting that you talk about being someone who
is diagnosed with add and then make it to the
PGA tour. I can imagine that your brain your rhythm,
and you talk about the most important thing being rhythm.
Your rhythm is probably very fast. Now I know. I
know that, uh you know, I mean it just I
know that type of person. I am that type of person.
My child is that type of person.
Speaker 3: So if we eat and it's a fifteen minute way,
I'm not waiting.
Speaker 1: You're out.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah No. My kid was like in restaurants growing up,
It's like why do I have to wait? He loved this?
What was it not the Sizzler one of those restaurants.
It was just like a whole bar. You just is
like a salad.
Speaker 5: Bartager you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was like feed me. Now, why am
I waiting at home? I don't have to wait. You
call me in, I sit down.
Speaker 5: We eat.
Speaker 1: So just being able to create a rhythm for yourself.
I know this is a a natural product, right, yeah,
tell natural Keep keep talking about because I'm really fascinated
by this stuff. And we're going to be talking about
Alpha brain for for a number of episodes now. And
and uh, I have tried it and I found it fascinating.
I also had a buddy that I'm uh will get
to meet in a couple of episodes who's tried it
and has been blown away by it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they get got a lot of poker players to
take it really, you know. Yeah, it's not a it's
not a uh you know, it's not a narcotic, and
it's it doesn't give you the same feel as like
an adderall but it I'm telling you that it does.
It does the same things like I feel, I feel
great on it. I mean it's so it's so clear
and so crisp, and uh, it's just there all the time.
And and fee you know, your body feeling good and
your mind feeling good is huge, man. I mean, if
you're not feeling good about yourself and your your brain
isn't there, it's uh, it's not you know, some something
else you have to deal with.
Speaker 1: Incredible. But and and you're using it more than just
for golf. You said you take it before you go
to sleep.
Speaker 3: I take it before I go to sleep. Just to
get into my system. But my uh, you know, here's
another story. I had a caddy uh, one of my buddies.
He's actually a caddie out Alan tour. His brother is
a construction worker in Jacksonville, which is where I live,
and he saw the on it on my bag, and
his brother went online to order some pillows. Uh, and
you know said, hey see, you know Matt everie's an
onnitor together and he's he's like wanting me to get
the bills now because he swears by it. I mean
he said, he's a uh, he's an architect for a
construction construction company here and he's all about the alpha brain.
I mean all about it.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: So interesting now it's it's some of the material that
they gave me. It talks about how it's an anti
stress herb to help you stay and focused, and that
just to me screams out for a golfer, it does. Yeah.
Another note that boost neurotransmitter is an optimal balance to
keep you energized. But there's no stimulants in it, right
and well yeah, I mean for someone with who has
an attention issue, I would think that stimulants is not
a good idea. Are you a coffee drinker?
Speaker 3: Drink coffee?
Speaker 5: Really? So?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so then you know you don't need stimulants. I
probably try to shy away from SODA's with lots of
sugar and caffeine in them too. Yeah, well I know
that that. I honestly have tried it once since I
since I was asked to give it a shot for golf.
And the thing that I.
Speaker 3: Thought, you got to take it, you got to take it.
I think you got to take it a couple of
weeks to get the true effects.
Speaker 1: Okay, good, because you know, like I had to received
it and I had a scheduled around just the next day,
so they said, you know, take take two before year round,
about a half hour before you around, while you're warming up,
and then take one at the turn. And the thing
that I found so interesting about it was there the
lack of noise in my head. And I don't mean noise,
I mean just voices, and over every shot it was
so much quieter.
Speaker 3: I mean that totally makes sense too, because when I'm
trying to go to bed at night and it's it's
so easy. I mean it's just like I am blank
and I'm and I can fall asleep right now, and
it's not like, you know, it's once you lay down,
you're so you're so at ease. It's like, let's go.
Speaker 1: I have good dreams and some of the things they
talk about in the literature, and I'll go over this
as we continue to talk about the product. But uh,
it for helping dream state. Have you experienced that as well?
Speaker 3: I mean I definitely had some weird dreams. The dreams.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, I just want to let everybody know. Actually,
I have so many more questions. Do you mind if
you stick around, we can do another episode for Golf
Smarter for members only. No, oh, thank you. I think
that would be awesome because I really want to talk
more about the tour, how you got there, what it's
like on the tour, and also I'd like to talk
to you about specific clubs that you use, how you
use them. You know, what would you do if you
had one more birdie per round? How would you know?
Where would you put it? Things like that. Matt, thanks
so much for hanging out.
Speaker 3: But got it.
Speaker 1: Well, we go from a PGA tour player to a
guy who should be getting his clubs, his scoring clubs
in the hands of this PGA Tour player Terry Taylor,
the wedge Guy. Hey Terry, how are you?
Speaker 5: I'm great for it?
Speaker 1: How I'm doing fine? Thank you again for providing the
score Zone Short Game Academy. And as a brief rundown
for everybody if you've not heard this before, Terry is
the CEO of score Golf and they make an amazing
product and it is all about who almost said wedges
about your scoring clubs. This is get rid of your
nine to iron, get this wedge in your hand and
then the set of five. And as a Golf Smarter listener,
you can get ten percent off. As a Golf Smarter
remember you get fifteen percent off just click on the ads.
But we also do with Terry the score Zone Short
Game Academy and if you submit a question and Terry
answers your question, you're going to get that first club
for free. And so today our question comes from Chad
Cook in Branford, Our Ontario, Canada, and he says, Terry,
help me. I lose three to eight shots around on
bad chips and we're not talking about tortilla chips how
And what's the best set up the stance and ball
position for the short chip shot around the green. Also
help me what drills can I do to improve better
ball contact?
Speaker 7: Wind chipping, well, chad chipping is an art farm and
it really is the shortest stroke and it ought to
be easier. But you're having trouble. So let's go go
to the basics and start with what you said with
set up and stance ball position. So let's start with
when you set up over a chip shot, you've got
a mid to lower loft golf club in your hand.
You've got a nine iron and eight ron, maybe a
seven up to a pitching wedge. If you're hitting chips,
you want the ball to carry just enough to get
on the green, and you want it to roll. Think
of your chip shot. It's kind of a long, flowing
cutting stroke, so it's very relaxed. Your grip is light
on the club. When you get set up, your ball
position should be back toward the middle of your stan.
Your weight should be leaned a little bit over to
your left side, so you're about sixty five seventy percent
of your weight on your left side the balance on
your right, so you're leaned into the shot.
Speaker 5: A little bit.
Speaker 7: And the best way to really determine exact ball position
is to step a back away from the ball, get
in this comfortable posture, but you really want to be
I'm going to go stay with posture minute here because
you want to be in a mini golf swing posture.
You want your back pretty straight. You want to be
bending over from the hips, not from the waist, so
that your shoulders can rotate. And the chipping stroke is
primarily like most golf swings, but particularly you're putting, it's
nominated by your left side.
Speaker 5: And just think about pushing the.
Speaker 7: Club back with your left side and then pulling the
club back through with your left side, and think of
like a grandfather clock. Think of that kind of rhythm.
It's just a very smooth rhythmic back and through, almost
a lazy kind of action. Don't worry about this old
accelerate through the ball and those kind of things you've heard.
But to get your ball position just right, what you
want to do is you want to step away from
your ball, make some practice strokes and see where your
club is clipping the grass, and then right where it's
starting to clip the grass, that's the position in your
stance that you should.
Speaker 5: Play the ball.
Speaker 7: So you always make crisp contact ball first and not
catching the grass before the ball. Some keys don't try
to help the ball in the air. This is a
shot that the club is going to loft it a
little bit, and you want the ball to run on out.
Speaker 5: Don't get quick with it.
Speaker 7: Let yourself have a long enough backswing to have a
flowing rhythm to a tempo. It is a little golf swing,
and you can make that golf swing very slow, and
you don't want to get jabby. And the way to
do that is to relax your right hand on the grip.
You old the club really back and through with your
left side.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I thought was so
interesting what you mentioned is is on the left hand
of pulling the club through. I know you know, and
I only can speak from experience of myself because I'm
not an instructor. I don't try to give lessons, but
I do watch other people. But there's a lot of
pushing going on and trying to lift the ball, and
I know that for me, I'll chunk the ball a
lot in that situation, or I'll scull it and it'll
just explode across the green.
Speaker 7: I mean, that's a very common problem. We get a
little nervous, we get a little yippy, as I call it,
with chip shots, because we're thinking about I've got this
club base, I've got to put it on that ball,
and you're going to trust your eye hand coordination for
right handed player with your lower hand. But what you
want to do is develop a little swing and we
go back to this pulling action. If you think of
the golf swing on a chip shot, is a three
link chain. So one link of the chain is the club.
It's fixed, it can't move correct, but then it hinges
at your wrists. The next link of the chain is
your forearm, because there is a hinge at the elbow,
so that is a there's a hinging point at the elbow.
There's another hinging point at the shoulder. So if you
think about a chain, the only way to move a
chain is.
Speaker 5: To pull one.
Speaker 7: You can't push a chain, particularly, you can't push a
chain from the middle. So if you're trying to move
this chain by pushing on the grip with your right hand,
you're going to break that chain down inconsistently.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is kind of a visual. I hope
y'all are getting this.
Speaker 7: But if you think about that at the top of
the chain is your left shoulder, and all the links
below will follow. Wherever your left shoulder goes, that chain
is going to follow the same way every time. Just
if you pull a chain, it's going to stretch out
behind you every single time. So if you think about
that left shoulder and that left upper arm, that being
your lead and and the upper arm goes through and
that pulls everything else through. Another really good swing thought
here is that the back of your left hand and
the face of the golf club are going.
Speaker 5: To do exactly the same thing.
Speaker 7: So if you think about just making your left hand
go back and through, then the club has to go
back and through the same way because it's not going
to flex, it's not going to move. So if you
think about focusing your moving your focus of attention from
the from the club face back up to the back
of your left hand, say, I want to take the
back of my left hand. I want to get in
a good comfortable posture, and I want the back of
the left hand to go back, and I want the
back of the left hand to go through without these
risks hinging a lot. And if the back of the
left hand goes to the same spot and then the
clubhead has to go to the same spot.
Speaker 1: Sorry, my microphone was off. I was talking and nobody
was there. So it's so interesting because you know, you
talk about the grip, you talk about, you know, your
rhythm and stuff, and a little shameless plug here, but
if you are a golf smarter member, go back and
listen to tour Tempo conversation and he talked about, you know,
the normal swing is a three to one ratio, but
on your short shot, he talked about a one to
one ratio and backswing to four, you know, to forward swing.
And I found that's really worked. It's also helped me
relax my grip a lot. And I think that is
a big part of it is the tension that because
we're so concerned that we're going to screw this shot up,
that there's so much tension in our hands and our
wrists and our shoulders that that just leads to bad shots.
Speaker 7: Well, tension is a killer in the golf, yea in
golf at all, but the closer you get to the green,
it's even a bigger killer. And I like what you're
talking about. The tempo thing. One of the best illustrations
I've ever seen. To give you a feel for your
swing tempo is to take one of your clubs and
hold it out in front of you with your right
hand out over the ball with the grip, you know,
just pinched between your thumb and forefinger, and get that
club swinging back and forth like a pendulum of a
Grandfather clock. And just let it swing back and forth
just by holding it up here at the top of
the grip with your thumb and finger. And that rhythm
of the club just naturally going back and through is
pretty close to a perfect putting and chipping rhythm. It's
very gradual. It's an accelerating rhythm, but it's not grossly accelerating,
and it's not a hit. It's just this back and through.
And one of the best visuals I can give you
is it's that pendulum on the bottom of a Grandfather
clock and it just goes back and forth and back
and forth. And what's really good for chipping is to
is to mimic that back and forth tempo of the
club just free swinging out there.
Speaker 1: We only have a minute left, but let me ask
you one more thing about this, and that is so
many people talk about your stance in this situation where
it's a normal and some people say, make an open stance,
open up your left you know, open up your body
to your target line. What's your feeling about that.
Speaker 7: I don't think you want to open your body to
the target line. I think you want to pull your
left foot back from the target line. It just lets
you clear your knees, because you want a little bit
of knee movement in this You want a little flexing
though everything is moving toward the whole. But I'm not
big about opening your body because now you're going to
strike the ball with a glancing blow.
Speaker 5: So I think you want.
Speaker 7: Your shoulder square and your hip square, but just pull
that left foot back an inch or two, just so
that you can clear it a little bit and swing
through the ball a little better. I don't like glancing
blows on golf shots until you become a highly skilled
shot maker around the green. I think you want to
hit it square, flush all the time.
Speaker 1: Well, Chad Cook of Branford, Ontario, Canada, I hope that
answers your question because it answered a couple more for me. Terry,
thanks so much, and we'll talk to you in a
couple episodes.
Speaker 5: I look forward to it. Thank you Fred,