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