Speaker 1: All right. This is Jess Zaker from Brownstowle, Michigan, and
I play at Westbourn Golf Course. This is golf Smarter
number nine ninety eight.
Speaker 2: All the beginning golfers have no idea where the actual
swing bottom is. And once you tell them then a
light switches on. Then as a teacher, I might look
at you and say, during your backswing development, here's your
root issue for expanding back to a ball. Is it
a risky situation? Is it a lateral thing? Are your
arms pinned too low? Or did the events start to unravel?
And as coach as we say, hey, listen, we'll paint
the picture of where a club has to swing and
we use a three D analysis thing and you can
see as plain as day. I can put your swing
up to a very functional pro and I can put
your golf ball right on top of their golf ball,
so I can show you your swing shape and circle
to their swing shape and circle, and I can show
you where their swing bottom is and where your swing
bottom is. And it's really not that hard to experiment
with a couple of feels to have the successful swing bottom.
Speaker 1: Understanding the bottom of your swing is the key to
Better Shots with mister tour striker Martin Chuck. This is
Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights from great golf
minds to help you lower your score and raise your
golf IQ. Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome back to
the Golf Smarter podcast.
Speaker 2: Martin Fred. It's been too long, my friend, great to
be back.
Speaker 1: Last time you were on was twenty eighteen, although we
did meet up at the PGA Merchandise Show in twenty
twenty three. But the class full episode with you was
was episode six hundred and sixty three. And you were
on a bunch of times between twenty twelve and twenty eighteen,
and then I just every time I tried to contact
you and bounce back, I didn't know what was better.
Speaker 2: No, no man net while you have my phone now,
so now no excuses, because that's no excuse me. I
love being on talking to use a blast.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you, thank you. Well. You're a big part
of how this show became a blast. Your insights and
your advice and your inventions and your conversation has always
been helpful to not just me, but to a lot
of golfers.
Speaker 2: I promise, Oh man, bless the silly game of golf.
It's just been a lifetime of fun and laughs and
I mean some tears Sunday. I think for those of
you I don't know when you're going to play this,
But that Masters, how about that? That was crazy Sunday.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that was probably some of the best
golf sports television I've ever watched on Sunday. Now, I
was there Wednesday and Thursday. We can go on for
an hour about that. But why. I was so glad
that I came home in time to watch it on Sunday,
and I watched it on the plane and the flight
back from Atlanta all the way back on Saturday, so I.
Speaker 2: Didn't man, I'll tell you what. How about this though?
It was a tigerless Masters and it was riveting, Yes,
from the first t shot so that I want to say,
last putt and then the playoff ball, Like, are you
kidding me? Or what? I think?
Speaker 1: I aged?
Speaker 2: I aged five years watching that Arn event? But I
had a blast watching them. Super proud Rory. I got
to meet him and he was lovely. Oh yeah, I
definitely want to riff on that story. So twenty eighteen,
me Andrew, Rice and I got to go do a
golf school at royal Port Rush in Northern Ireland and
it was a blast. It was for the Golf Channel,
so they sent Andrew and I. There was about twelve
students and it was this is story is crazy, okay,
so I'm to lay this on you. So we get
sent to Northern Ireland. So Andrew was like, hey, let's
make a couple of days of it. So we played
golf with these two awesome golf pros in Ireland. Play
we lose, like on the last hole of three day match,
Andrew and I. They're good and Andrew and I can
get our ball around just fine. So it was a fun,
fun three days of golf. And then we go to
royal Port Rush and it's a wind torn rock like
you can see Santa Claus if you go stand on
the beach and look to the north. I mean it's
like it's lovely though. I mean, I had I can't
wait to go back. Lots of stories involved. So we
get there and there's and they're getting ready for the
like the British opens the next summer, you know what
I mean, Like it's coming. And so they have some
open stuff there like signage and things and all of
a sudden, I hear it, like, what is I look up.
It's a helicopter and what's that? I say, what's that?
Oh it's Roy mcelroyce coming in. Excuse me, Roy's coming in.
Speaker 1: Oh cool.
Speaker 2: So this nice helicopter lands like on the driving range
tea deck, and it's it's a blustery, cool day. Not
a lot of that port Rush members are playing golf.
They're up having a coffee or a beer in the
men's lounge. And so there's Rory. I'm like, oh, this
is super cool. What's going on? While it was an
enter to win thing for that golf channel you can
enter to win, Taylor made enter to win a chance
player golf with Rory McElroy I thought those were make believe.
I didn't think those were real. I thought, oh, yeah,
whatever it is exactly. So anyway, there's Rory and there's
these four people that win. Okay, crazy, So it's worldwide people. Okay.
So this one lady's there and I say to her,
and I can hear speaking English, like you know the
way we speak it. And I say to the gual,
I go, where are you from? She goes Arizona. I said, no, way,
I live in Arizona. I go, I live and I
live in Phoenix. She goes, well, I live in Tandler
and I go, why, I actually live in Chandler. So
now we're from the same little town in Arizona. She
says to me, do you know downtown Steakhouse in downtown Chandler.
I go, yeah, I just took my wife there like
two weeks ago. She goes, that's my business, and that's
my husband points over to a dude that's like doing
something getting a drink. Anyway, she won this contest, and
so happens she lives like a mile from me. She
played golf with Rory that day. He couldn't have been
a better dude, Like he was like genuinely into meeting
everybody there, you know, super kind to me. It teased
him about the smart ball. He's like, oh, I struggle
with that at the top, and blah blah blah, like
everybody does. Don't worry about it. And then and then
they go to play golf. So and then we got
to coach these camp these students that are there. So
Andrew Rice has enough sense to say to me, hey,
let's go watch him play the last couple of holes.
So the campers are like absolutely, So we walk out.
We catch him on seventeen t which is a par
four that if you bomb a driver, like at about
three I'm going to say three hundred yards, there's a
slope down. It's probably four twenty or thirty in recollection. Anyway,
Rory bombs driver, goes into the green side bunker. Okay,
so that's not how I played the hole. I hit
it to the top of the hill, had hit nine
iron on the green Rory hits it, flies it way
down there, bounces down the hill, goes in the green
side trap. He's the most underrated bunker player of all time.
Hits a beautiful bunker shot makes Bertie whatever hohum. So
there's a twelve campers, there's Rory in the in the
walkers with the caddies, and then there's about a media
crew about five or six people. So it's a little
bit of a mob, but that's it. Nobody else out there.
It's a terrible day, not raining, just windy, and people
from Ireland are like, you know, I'll take today off,
go see a movie. So in eighteen tea now it's
into the teeth. It's a lovely part for it's long
dog leg right, a little bit of a dog leg
Obie left now instead of the tea ball. Rory hits
a bomb on seventeen high high bomb draw on eighteen
he hits a flighted roasted low missile that fades a
little bit perfect, And we're standing there on the tee
taking videos and you know, I feel like me to you,
like close obviously, and then we walked that, we walked
the Pharaoh, and he's kind of chumming it up with that.
He's given these guests like the full lovely asking them
about their family and the whole nine yards. I mean,
it was awesome. So then Andrew Riis and I are
back there and he's got his like he's kind of
as he's actually a hell of a photograph. He's got
his proper camera, and I've got my iPhone and I'm
taking like SlowMo video of Rory hitness punchy draw one
hundred and seventy five yard five iron that like starts
out to the right of the green, curls back into
the middle of the green perfectly, and he's got like
a twenty five footer for Birdie on this miserable into
the Wind part four, which you know I was. You know,
he obviously didn't have a good British open I want
to say as the cut, like shut eighty eighty seventy
two or something as the cup. But it was a
great experience. And then it meets some lady that lived
literally a mile from me. That's nuts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, on the other side of the planet.
Speaker 2: Yes, So if you haven't been, have you ever been
to like Northern Ireland, to those courses like Port Stewart,
Port Rush.
Speaker 1: I have never been to the UK. I'm still that's
still a bucket list item for me.
Speaker 2: They couldn't have been. There's a there's a bar there
called the Harbor Bar, and it's in Port Rush, Okay,
And that's where Darren Clark's from, by the way, and
so he wasn't there when we were there. He's a
friend of mine. So he go to the bar. There's
this amazing musician, like epic guitar play and singer Guy
I can sing anything like Sweet Home Alabama to a
YouTube you know whatever they keep he sings at all.
In this bar, you stuff in like maybe sixty people
in there to get a good guinness and it is
more damn fun in this little silly bar. So when
I went there, I said that, you know, Darren Clark
and I'm like, hey, I was at that bar, blah
blah blah, and he's like, what do you think? What
do you think? I'm like, it was best damn place ever.
Like it's a silly little bar on this little harbor
that is teeny weeny by the way, and they got
this epic place where you can have a pint and
then there's golf pictures everywhere. Naturally, Darren Clark's a big
part of that because he's from there. And then Roy
McElroy shot sixty one on that golf course when he
was like sixteen. I think I think he still has
the course record. Maybe wrong, but I can't sixty one.
Yeah maybe if you quit after the fourteenth hole, but
not eighteen homes. No, it's a proper golf course. Like
it is a proper like yeah, Royal Port Rush. There's
two courses there. I didn't play the other one, but
the main courses like significant. I'll leave it there, but
a hell of a time go to Ireland. Yes, it's it's.
Speaker 1: Real high on LS. I was trying to beg my
son to go. Come on, man, I'm turning seventy. Can
we can we just take a trip together and you
and a couple of your cousins that your age and
we're all golfers. And they're like, yeah, no, Dad, I'm busy.
Oh yeah, I know, I know, I know. We'll play
in your local neighborhood. That's fine too.
Speaker 2: But he got his Grand Slam. I'm happy.
Speaker 1: And I got to say the thing about it that
really was amazing for he was really vulnerable after winning that,
and just you know, because golfers can have a stuffy
image or a protected image with the press, right, and
he was just just so authentic. It made it that
much more easier, that much more, that much easier to
route for him.
Speaker 2: You know, I tell my students all the time, so
my campers every week, I'm so lucky, Like I teach
these awesome people. And I joke my campers are between
like forty and ninety okay, And so I say to them,
I am incapable of being embarrassed. Incapable. It's impossible to
embarrass me. You know why golf, Because I I played
in the Canadian Masters when we were playing at here
on something something here on Oaks here on something and
in southern Ontario. Where's he one of the Canadian masters there, Mike.
We're old good buddy, am I? And so I'm playing
with a I'm playing the South African guy who's really good,
a guy named Roger Wessel's and so you know I'm
a local kid, and so people are interested in me,
and I put my it's a it's like a layup
part four. I'm gonna say three wood wedge three wood
nine are anyway, there's as big a crowd as are
maybe could be around that tea box, I think, because
it's like, I'm teen up with this guy. Where's he's
behind me with like brant job Okay, So it's like
I'm like, why am I in this little package of
But it was pretty epic tee time for me. So
I'm nervous. I step up and I'm like ready to go,
like I'm feeling good about my game. And I topped it.
I topped a three would heal well, not like right
in front of me, but I like I healed it.
It got past the ladies, tea got hung up in
the wet rough and I might have hit it sixty
five yards okay, and I was up first, you know,
from Toronto, Ontario. Put your heads together for Martin Chuck. Ay,
go through my little tiny practice swing walk in a routine.
A couple of waggles. Take a look off the heel,
like through the boned it along the ground. There's dew
fly in. I'm like, and then my heart's like, it's
in my throat. Man Roger Wessel's, this really good player
from South Africa, sizzles of a three wood down there
and he's thinking, oh my gosh, so I and then
I go down and found my ball. It's fine. I
whack it down there by his and we both have like,
I don't know I hit it in there. Anyway, I
made par I schwacked threewood, topped it, hacked it down
by his ball. Hit a good iron shot, you know.
I didn't want to say I was fifteen feet or so.
He hit it about where I was. I can't remember
who went first. I'm he made part. I made par
That was it. That was the end of the story.
And I want to say shot seventy one or seventy
or something like that. Anyway, I played okay, I made
the cotton. But yeah, I'm incapable of being embarrassed, seriously incapable,
like I could go sing karaoke on a cruise ship. Yes,
give me, give me the mic. Yes, no, there's zero,
you know. Yeah, golf golf did that to me. So
when Rory was bawling, my wife's like, oh, I can't
believe he's crying like that. I'm like, honey, you have
no I yeah, none, zero. What he's even as blessed
as he is, and as you know, his bank account
or whatever, and his lovely parents and his wife and
his child, you have no idea what he thinks about
every single day that consumes his mind, you know. And
we saw it on Sunday. We saw him miss a
couple of pots, We saw him hit a couple of
bad that one wedgshot on thirteen about fall off the couch.
And yet I'll tell you what the most underrated shot
that of all the other tournament, in my opinion, underrated
shot of the tournament was the pitch he hit on
number three. So I don't know if you remember this,
if you saw that he smoked a driver way down there,
short of the hill up the green. Okay, the pins
in the front left, so they showed the camera angle.
It's like hitting it up to the top of Mount
Vesuvius with a pin sticking up there. Now, if you
hit that one little teeny we ney bit soft, guess
what you get to do? You get to hit it
again from the same spot. And what did Rory do?
Rory hit this little spinner up there. Check check eight footer. Oh,
those should be used to use it pro just to
hit it up very free, drove well. Then bryceon de Shamba,
of course, hits lays up, hits a twenty feet three
pots and then Rory happens to jiggle it in and
it goes in for Birdie. Then he hits the best
four iron humanly possible, like right behind Ludwig Oberg's, unbelievably,
like the Greek god Zeus couldn't have hit a better
four iron then Ludwig Oberg or Rory McElroy. The Greek
god Zeus would have hit a towering fore iron that
would have plugged in the bunker. But not not Rory
and not lud Big. They were the best stern fore
irons I've ever seen. Lud Big, missus Rory made it
crazy crazy.
Speaker 1: So what was crazy is on Thursday, when I was
there at the Masters, I was standing in that spot
and mckin nick what was his name, Patrick mc.
Speaker 2: McNeely, okay, Maverick, Patrick Ken.
Speaker 1: Yeah McNeely. He hit one and and I talked about
this in the Little Bonus episode I did. And all
of a sudden, the spotter's going your feet, your feet,
your feet right, and he's pointing down and a ball
rolls up hits the guy sitting next to me, hit
him in the foot and then bounce backwards. So I
backed up and I'm like, O great, Now I get
to watch and I got to see him make this
shot that you're talking about up over where. It's a
blind shot you can see the top of the flag only,
and nobody where I was knew what happened until we
reacted to the crowd who saw it land And yeah
he had a fifteen footer that he missed, but he
part of the hole. So yeah, I know that spot.
Speaker 2: I was there.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Okay. So here's here's something I got, like
the coolest souvenir ever that I think I could get
in trouble for. But while I was while I was there,
I had I just finished my water bottle. I filled
it with pine straw. So I came home with the
water bottle filled with pine straw. I put a couple
of zalias in there, and a pine cone that I
found all the floor. They were all on the floor.
Speaker 2: But that's so cool.
Speaker 1: How is it that, Okay, a kid from Toronto learning
playing golf and there's a lot of golf in Toronto.
I hear from a lot of listeners in Canada, But
you keep dropping these names, good buddy mine, good buddy
of mine. How is it that you have so many
good buddies that are high profile golfers.
Speaker 2: Well, I mentioned, you know, I think I was a
decent golfer in my own right till I packed it him,
Because I mean I was decent enough to play on
the Canadian Tour for a few years and nationwide tour.
But you know, but but then there's the next level.
Like I'd say, like Weirsy, I thought I could run
with Weirzy toe to toe, but I couldn't because he
was more tenacious than me. He had a better short
game than me. Then as far as knowing guys now,
I'd say that a lot of them use my training products.
And then I think a lot of them appreciate how
I coach. You know, a lot of guys will say, hey, man,
I like how you kind of simplify things, don't make
things too technical. And you know it's I always joke
about coaching. It's like you want to you want to
give somebody permission to do something that they want to do.
You don't want to just keep the shackles on people, Oh,
don't do that, don't do that, don't do that. You
want to say yes, do that, Yes, that's good. And
every once in a while you got to kind of
rain some of the end if they got this miserable
club face situation, bad grip path, whatever, But you want
them to find something they believe in. So I think
a lot of the good players they know that I've
had the cup of coffee in that situation where I
can respect what they go through. And I do think
when you talk to a good player, you know, you
can be a great coach and you don't have to
be a great player. But I do think that a
lot of great players do respect the fact that you've
stood there, you've you've felt that lump in your throat.
You know you played at a level that they can appreciate,
and I think that goes a long way. Isn't necessary, No,
but I think good players do appreciate that you've felt
a little bit of what they feel and really truly
respect how much you know, how much pressure that they're under,
and ways to kind of deal with that. And that's
how we teach the golf camp I mean not that
I don't don't mean wrong. My campers are not tour players.
My campers are just fun blokes, you know, l and men.
We've had ninety year olds and we've had you know,
studeley young people show up, but we teach you know,
it's fun first, Fred, that's the key man. Fun, fun, fun, fun,
life short, have fun. Music's on. I give people a rat.
Can I swear on this episode? Can I swear? No swearing? Okay,
I give them a hard time as opposed to s
H I T and good good fun.
Speaker 1: Though I always say you can't swear because I did
receive an email once when I thought, okay, we can
start swearing now, and I got an email immediately goes.
I listened to the show with my seven year old
in the back seat. Please don't do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's good radio.
Speaker 1: It's easy.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, for sure. So you know, we golf
is a game. You know, it's a game played right,
It's played on this up and down roly poly thing.
Training tends to be played on this flat, perfect thing.
And so you bridge the gap between you know, what
is training what is playing, so that in my camp,
like we do, we play with we play with the
golf schol people. We go in the afternoons, play with them,
and they like seeing good players hit balls and they're like, wow,
you know, I'm the old man now because I'm My
coaches are younger than me, faster than me, and I
hate to say better than me at golf, which I
still fighting the good fight, but you know, but they
get to see what good players, how they walk into
a golf ball, how they make a decision. Their routine, man,
their routine of a good golfer is huge. And I swear,
like I look at I would love if I ever
meet Rory again, and I probably will sometimes, and I mean,
here's a guy that's so talented. I would love to
sit down and go, hey, man, let me show you
something cool about what Tiger did years ago that he
may not even be aware of because Tiger's routine was
so spot on when he was like the most separated
elite player period, like the year two thousand, you and
zos of my fifteen Okay, it's not even a contest, right,
Ernie Elison mcgul and hell him and as we're second
by fifteen shots different fields. Crazy. So Tiger, you know,
and this is a Scott Fawcett. If you're a Scott
Fawcett on the show, you should.
Speaker 1: Have you had absolutely oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 2: So Scott sends me in this videos and goes, you're
gonna love this because he knows I'm my routine fanatic.
And he goes, watch this, and I'm watching. I'm watching
Tiger Woods looks super chill, take his little practice swings,
talking to Stevie Williams, and then he looks at him
and and then he kind of takes he takes a
little moment and then as soon as he takes his
first step, that first step to the ball, which is
a you know, a few step walk, walks in, grabs
a club, aims, the face, takes the looks that's his feet.
Blah blah blah. It was the same the whole year,
for a full shot Wow not and so where God
bless Rory. Okay, Rory might look once, he might look twice,
he might look six times. So it's you know not,
And who am I to talk about how good Rory
is because you know he's an epic talent. But I
do think there are ways to say. Okay, here's like
you had you had Peon. I was just listening to
your episode. Man love her, I love pian Lenda the best,
and sohole. You know you said thought box shot box right,
and there think box playbox and they made that like
they've coined that. And that's a beautiful way to play.
Because I always tell my students, I go, you're gonna
need to think about a ton of stuff. Sorry, it's
gonna feel weird. Boohoo, changes suck, embrace it. Here's where
you embrace the suck. Here behind the ball. And I
show them the videos of Tiger and I say, here's
where you get to take this practice swing behind the ball,
and then you get to kind of organize yourself before
you even get to the ball. Most of your check
marks are done, so when you set the face behind
the ball, you've built your funky new grip that my coaches,
and I have taught you how to put the club
on my hands in properly and instead of a you know,
awful grip. We've got your arms in a nice spot.
So when you get to the ball, you're in a
good you're you're ready to go.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: So once you look up and waggle, waggle, and nobody
knows how to waggle, I call myself. I'm the CEO
of waggling. Okay, I show you about to waggle. I
know you're shaking your head right now. For those listeners,
Phil Green's shaking his head. Not Phil Green, I'm sorry, Yeah,
but I got another body named Phil Green. Anyway. My
point is people don't know Fred how to waggle, man.
They don't know how to walk into a golf ball,
feel the way to the golf club. And then that
puts me in the tangent Fred, why is golf hard?
Tell me give me something because the ball's not moving.
Ball's not moving, okay, but give me something else.
Speaker 1: You're right, Why okay? Why is golf hard? Because you're
hitting a different club every time? Two? Perfect friend? Yes,
you're thinking too much?
Speaker 2: Perfect think?
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't you be a test there's a.
Speaker 2: Test you passed, and then let me step in. How
about this every five minutes, give or take, that's the
that's when you hit a shot. So if we see
off together, Fred, we tap at eight, say we both
hit nice ones down the middle. Hey friend, nice shot,
Hey Marty, way to go. We walked down there, and
then guess what. We don't hit our second shot till
eight oh five. Yeah, and that might be an iron
we didn't even warm up with, if we warmed up
at all. And then we go to the green, maybe
we chip, maybe we had a bunker show whatever. Then
we go to the second hole, Fred, and maybe it's
part three. We don't even hit a driver. We pull
out a oh gosh, I gotta hit this five iron thing. Okay,
So golf is hard because the whole physical, the whole
physical thing about the game is wrapped up in one minute,
because a golf swing is one second. You know, if
you're John Rahm, your point nine. If you're Rory Mcorr,
you're one point oh two. If you're Tiger, you're one
point oh six. If you're super slow, you're one point three.
And how many full swings are going to take it
around a golf forty. That's it, So add them up.
You're under a minute, man, And yet you get to
surround this one minute athletic events in the four hours
or four and a half or three twenty five or
whatever the golf course plays. And how do you do
all that? How do you go all the excess time?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: Right? And then you got a chip and Pott I
didn't at that time in but the athletic event of
golf is one minute, and now you've got to familiarize
yourself with this different club, make a decision, where's the wind?
How do I feel? Blah blah blah. Right, That's why
I love p and Lynn. They do it eloquently and scholastically,
and they present it in a lovely way, and I
just presented in my factual way of man. You got
to know some of these things, and you gotta be
able to make some, you know, serious decisions and live
with your decisions, because guess what you're gonna have. You're
gonna have one of three outcomes, a good batter and
good batter or indifferent shots nothing more. Nobody dies, So
you know, are you going to freak out after a
bad one? Because I don't I don't like it. But
sometimes a bad one might leave the premises, which sucks,
or a bad one might go into some bushes and
you might walk in and there's like the you know,
the angel glow is there because your ball is in
the middle of this oasis of opening and you can
fly a ball through like Rory did on Sunday a
couple of times, right, right, So you know, the whole
game of golf is this fascinating thing, and then teaching
it is hysterical, absolutely hysterical. It's the funniest thing ever
because students absolutely want to do what their natural comfort is,
no matter what you tell them, no matter what they don't.
They say they're going to work on what you want
them to do, they don't, and so guess they need
tenderizing in constant, constant coaching. And so we love it. Man.
That's what me and my guys do routine, en course
and technique and try to blend it all in there
so your mixture and recipe comes out a good one.
Speaker 1: I know this must be anecdotal, but I've always had
this thought that a students can't necessarily become good instructors
because it comes naturally to them and they don't understand
why somebody is struggling because it was always easy for them, right,
So great players may not or you know, great athletes
in some ways may not be good coaches because it
just comes naturally to them and they don't understand the struggle.
Like you know, when Pete Rose became the manager of
the team, it's like, does he really know how to
manage people? No, he knows how to play hard the
way he played right plate, And so what is it?
How does a good golfer become like you? How do
you become an excellent instructor when you're watching people struggle
and you never really had those kind of struggles.
Speaker 2: Oh, so I would take you back to nineteen eighty
four and take you to Button Fille Driving Range in
North Toronto, and we're looking at a guy named Roman. Okay.
Roman was a member of George Newtsoon's range, and it
was just a George broke away from the national because
he wanted to do his own thing. And so we
are in his oh what do you call it, like
a modular golf shop, Okay, And I'm watching Roman hit
ball after ball. To quote David Ferdy, his swing looked
like an octopus fawn out of a tree. And so
I send to George. I go, George, why does Roman
swing it like that? And George looked at me and
he just said, he goes, Marty, watch Roman walk. And
I'm like, what do you mean? And then I watched.
I watched them walk. His gait was like a it
was his gate was like a funny little wattle. And
so George said to me, he goes watch them. And
there was a moment there and I'm watching them, and
then I go, yeah, he goes, look at he goes
you grew up playing sports. You play hockey or your
fit little dude. You know. At the time, I was
sixteen years old working for George. That's my start to teaching,
by the way, at his little range. So I'm watching
this guy who loved to hit balls, who hit it
on the button. Roman was a good ball striker whose
swing was goofy as you can imagine. And yet he
was there being coached by George and being assisted by me.
So like, how much can you really teach Roman when
he's getting the face on it the way you want
him to get it on. But it didn't look like
how George did it. And it didn't look like how
I did it because his physicality, his back, his knees,
his shoulders, hips, et cetera. So when I when we
are coaching our people, I can walk up to you
right away, pal, for the most part, shake your hand,
and get a pretty good little scan of what I'm
dealing with. And it's it's not much to watch somebody
walk toward me, quickly evaluate their physique, shake their hand,
feel and you can shake somebody's hand and feel, okay,
do they have little piano fingers? Have they swung a
hammer their whole life? Where are they in that, you know,
in that kind of strength profile. And then when you
watch somebody walk, you can see how they carry themselves,
what's their posture, how their apps hold them, how their
lower back you know it is their lower back healthy
or not. So you see these things super sudden, and
then you ask them, hey, let me know. My clients,
I always say, hey, tell me if you have any
fake parts. That's what I say right away. And then
the ladies have said some silly things to me, but
most of the people will say, oh, you know, on
the shoulder or knees, the knees or whatever. Right, So
I'll get the answer. Yeah, I've got a fake hip,
a fake knee, whatever. But typically, if you've done this
long enough, you can look at somebody quick. Now. The boys,
the TPI Boys, Dave and Greg Rose, have done an
amazing job with their profiling of people like their physical
because that's most people need to kind of go dent
a list here, do a bit of a squad here,
do this little strates blah blah blah. But I tell
you what, when you when you've stood in front of
so many humans as I have something in a golf club,
you can see a lot of things right away just
by how their posture is, how they hold their hips,
how they shake your hand, how their shoulders are set. Everything.
It's unbelievable. And so that's what George's lesson to me was, like,
you know, respect their physicality.
Speaker 1: Wow. So, but when you're on the driving range, you're
teaching on a range like that, you're not doing a
playing lesson right people people on the range you don't
really see a lot of people do their pre shot
routine every ball. Yeah right, it's a lot of scoop
and scoop and hit scooping it right, So how do
you tell you know, as you were just talking about
the importance of a pre shot routine, right, how can
you tell what they're doing when they're playing golf with
their pre shot routine or do you just ask them
show me your pre shot routine.
Speaker 2: I pre shot routine is a massive part of the
golf school. I tell him it's the most important thing
they'll do, period. It's the most So, you know, do
you know who Adam Oates is? No, you heard that name? So.
Adam Motes is a Hall of Fame NHL hockey player
played for Saint Louis, the Rangers, Detroit, Treny coho else.
He's from Toronto. He's probably ten years older than me. Anyway,
calls my friend up and says, and this is Mike Wilson,
by the way, an excellent coach who was introduced to
Mike Queer years ago and they were a great coaching
player at Union for a long time. Mike calls me
up and says, you're going to love this. I go,
what are you talking about? He goes, I know how
much you love like the routine finishing for him. I go, well,
what do you got? Goes, well, you know Adamotes is right, I,
of course I know Adam Motes. I grew up in
a player. I'm a hockey nerd. This guy played junior
hockey at Wexford blah blah blah, so I totally know
who he is. Anyway, he goes, he called me and
asked me to teach him how to twirl the club.
And so my friend is like on the phone with him.
He had never met him. He doesn't, he just knows,
by the way, he's a friend of where Isy blah
blah blah. This guy wants to take a lesson. So
the guy goes, Adam Mose tells the coach that you
haven't even met yet. I want to learn how to
You know, when a pro hits a really good shot
and they finish and they come out of their follow
through and they spin the club and it's like, yeah,
that was a good one. Well, Adam goes, I want
to learn how to do that. And so the MIC's like,
you don't want to learn how to fix your hook,
your slice, your chip shots?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: No, No, he goes, Here's what I think. He goes,
I think if I have the mindset that I'm going
to hit a shot and come out of my fall
through and spin the club that's going to make me
hit it bat? How about that? So, Mike, I feel
about that amazing because it gave me goosebumps. One might
call me about it? How about this? Oh yeah, because
think about it. You've got an elite athlete, a Hall
of Famer in his sport. Okay, Now, if you're not
a hockey fan, you don't know who he is. But
then there's tons of people wouldn't know who a lot
of soccer Hall of famers are either, Right, so you
got to You got an exceptional player in their sport
asking you about a mental nuance. That is such a
fantastic place to be in. So imagine every shot you're
about to hit, you feel as though you're gonna have
this nice swish through the ball. The club is going
to exhaust itself around you. It's gonna come you know,
it's gonna rebound back in front of you, and then
you're gonna spin it like tiger woods and let it
holster it, meaning like let it slide down your hands
while it's spinning. Now, how about that mental thought versus Oh,
there's a lake over to the right. Oh heavens, there's
trees on the left. Oh, I better hit it over
this creek. Okay, so you see where that mental space is.
When I heard that, I'm like, wow, that's why the
guy was a Hall of Fame hockey player. Wow, because
you know you've run technique in mental fortitude and that's
that's what happens.
Speaker 1: That's a great story. That's a great story. Okay, I've
got a little hockey story for you from just recently since. Okay, No,
when Ov broke the record a couple of weeks ago,
right the scoring rues a time, the all time scoring
goal record. We had friends in from out of town,
and the friend that was here has been a Caps
season ticket holder for fifty plus years. He was one
of the first thirty two people or is he only
thirty two left that have been season ticket holders the
entire time they've been in Washington. And so he was
watching the he was watching the game on, you know,
in my house, and I was busy doing things. I
happened to just walk in the room look up at
the tv. He scored the goal. I'm like, oh, good,
I got to celebrate with you. George.
Speaker 2: This is perfect cool. That is so cool because you
know that there's there's memories like, oh, we took the pok.
You know, he's on the he's on the left side
of the ice, takes this great pass, rips a slat.
I'm sorry, rips a wrist shot on the islanders. The
only problem was it was in Long Island. It wasn't
in Wash.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that that you know well that my friend
wouldn't have been visiting. He timed his trip, timed his trip,
and he was texting with his daughter the whole time.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so cool. Yeah, I've got some crazy, crazy,
crazy Caps fans, and I'm super happy they got to
enjoy that.
Speaker 1: I've always been a fan of the pre shot routine.
I've learned over the years with many conversations, how import
and the pre shot routine is. And of course I
get accused of slow play sometimes because I'm so disciplined.
I feel it's a discipline here and about my pre
shot routine. But it's you know, stand behind the ball,
do what you got to do, lock in, step up
to the ball and hit it. So that's why I
don't waggle. I just step up to the ball and
do what I got to do. How do you feel
about the post shot routine, because mental coaches will talk
about the post shot routine. Yeah, what about swing coaches?
Speaker 2: You know, I think that, you know, I go back
to George Newtson, Like his funny, funny joke was wait
three seconds and then you can swear right by the
time you wait three seconds, you don't care. So you know,
you can imagine, like for the viewers that don't know
who he has imagined thinking about like Clint Eastwood, you know,
in a dirty, hairy movie teaching twelve year olds how
to play golf. You know, so that's kind of the
persona that was. And he was lovely, we all loved him,
but he would he just had mad respect for the
guy because he was so good. He's spending that kind
of time with the kids in every shot he was.
Basically is a good or as a bad or is
an indifferent Okay, nobody's gonna die what you learn?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Cool, but you know that's it. Move along, No time
to boo who Your next next shot is the most
important one. Let's go. So, you know, I always get
a kick. I tell people all the time on my
golf camp, I say, you know what, you're not good
enough to get mad. You don't deserve to get mad.
You have not put in any time to warrant the
right to get mad.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 2: I should if I, if I miss, I should get
mad because I've spent my life on this darn game.
You haven't and some but I don't get mad because why,
it just distracts from the next Hey, what's my next strategy? Yeah,
if I had a bad shop, sure I am, but
I mean it's like, move along, It's all good.
Speaker 1: A listener once told me that when he was playing
as a kid with his dad, he had a shot
got upset through his club. His dad said, you're not
good enough to throw your clubs yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, totally, totally. Yeah, So that's good stuff.
Speaker 1: So you've become a massive YouTube star. Not Paige Spinner
rock big, but you know, I mean like I met
her on Wednesday at the Masters, but you if Yeah,
she was very sweet. You have really almost every video
I watch you come on beforehand and I give it
the skip. But I've seen so many of your videos
and I get sucked in because you're really good at it.
You really good television man, really good.
Speaker 2: Thank you, and.
Speaker 1: It's led I'm sure to the success of your schools, yes,
and also your products, the tour striker products. So I
have a question for you, and I hope you'll answer, Yeah,
how do I find the bottom of my swing? I mean,
I have been I've been struggling, and I tell when
I'm playing with people, and that I can tell the
new golfers, I'll always ask them. I say, okay, here
my fist is the ball okay, and the back of
my left fist, that's the direction we're going. You tell me,
you know, if your swing is if you think of
your swing as a circle, then there's a bottom of
the circle. Where do you think the bottom of the
circle is? Show me, like, is it six inches behind?
Is it one inch behind? Is it one inch in front?
Is it six inches in front? Where do you think
that is? In? Ninety nine percent of the time, new
golfers will tell you about, you know, six inches behind
the ball. Sure, it's like, yeah, actually that's wrong. Actually
the bottom of your swing should be in front of
the ball. So I focus on that a lot and
I've lost it. I cannot find it, you know, help me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would say, when you think about golf,
think about it a couple of ways. I mean, there's
there's a linear way to think about it. Meaning if
you're standing over a golf shot and say you had
an aim stick that was between your toe line and
the golf ball pointed at your desired target. Okay, so
the left and right behavior of that would be linear.
Then there's a rotational piece. Now, what happens with golfers
that have a have swing bottom challenges typically is that
during their backswing rotation to develop some power, they will
also have too much lateral too much linear motion away
from the target. So they're compounding that the challenge of
getting back where they need to go. Now, remember early
in the episode we talked like a golf swing is
one point two seconds long. So the more chaos you
create developing a backswing, meaning if your rotational power development
phase of development a backswing also has lateral motion to
the right, you've got to undo all that in order
for the expansion of the developed power. Meaning i'd address
the club's kind of hanging from your hands during the backswing.
You know your arms elevate while your body rotates. Now
you add in complexity of lateral behavior to that. And
by the way, that one second event point seventy five
of that is the backswing. Point twenty five of that
is the expansion into a golf ball. So if you
create the chaos of having a poor developed backswing, meaning
something too lateral off the ball away from the target,
your ability to have energy and get that club to touch
the ball before the end of out. And my old coach,
Mark Evershid used to say the end of out, So
the end of out would be as though you took
a hula hoop and you had it in front of you.
Maybe you know, maybe it's waist high hula hoop or
thigh high hula hoop, and you took the bottom of
that hula hoop and you pushed it a little to
the left of a golf ball that was centered in
your stands, or maybe you know a little ford of
center for ironshot, and then that hula hoop has a
down and out portion. Well, the end of that down
and out portion, fred should be a little bit for
the golf ball. That's the end of out, and then
there's an up and end. So to your point, you're right.
All the beginning golfers have no idea where the end
of out is, where the actual swing bottom is. And
once you tell them, then a light switches on. Now
I know you. You kind of go okay, it makes
sense to you. Then as a teacher, I might look
at you as it taking a lesson and say, well,
during your backswing development, here's your little chaos, or what
we call now the root flaw. Here's your root issue
for expanding back to a ball. You know, is it
a risky situation? Is it a lateral thing? Is it
a are your arms pinned too low? I mean where
did where did the where did this that the events
start to unravel? Okay? And so we look at where
the root issue is and where the events unravel, and
as coach as we say, hey, listen, we'll paint the
pick sure of where a club has to swing. And
we use a three D analysis thing. It's called gears golf.
It's unbelievable and you can see as plain as day,
I can put your swing up to a very functional pro.
You can even pick the pro, doesn't matter who do
you like? Okay, I probably haven't saved my database, and
I can put your golf ball right on top of
their golf ball, so I can show you your swing
shape and circle to their swing shape and circle and
I can show you where their swing bottom is and
where your swing bottom is. And it's really not that
hard to experiment with a couple of feels to have
the successful swing bottom. It's not that hard. You seem
like it may not feel what you wanted to feel.
You may fight me a bit and like, oh, but
I feel like I don't care, Fred, You got to
get this club a little bit more this way. And
then here's a mechanism that is absolutely objective. Not me
telling you, it's a machine telling you. It's like you
know these great launch monitors. Nowadays, there's objective data that
you cannot argue with. That's why some of these young
kids on tour are so good so fast. They know
through data how much better they are than tour players,
even all they got to do is not throw up
on themselves. And now, through factual evidence, I can have
you play around with a few feels and go, oh, okay,
there's the swing bottom. It feels weird for me, that
feels excessive this way, or maybe more mile this way,
but here's the bottom. And then if you want to
dig it out of the sand, like Hogan, did you
know we do? We put you in a fairway bunker man,
and we put a little aimstick down perpendicular to turret line,
and we put a little groove in the sand and
we take the instick away and then we see if
you can touch in the right spot, and then we
look back to say if the face was in a
decent spot, because path and face have to have a
relationship for a golf ball to go to a desirable position.
So there's modern technology that can help, and there's old
school digga out of the dirt that can help. Both
are great and so that's why a coach, I call
it bear wrestling, Like when you come see me, you
better plan on. I'm putting my hands on you, moving
you where I need you, bear wrestling you into a
position you may like or dislike until you agree that
it is a functional place for you to deliver the
golf club from.
Speaker 1: Were you familiar with Tony Manzoni.
Speaker 2: I love Tony Manzoni. I've got a great Tony Manzoni
story right now.
Speaker 1: You know what's crazy is I've got it scheduled. We
haven't recorded yet. But Geene Parente, you probably know Gene. Okay,
I'm not Gene.
Speaker 2: I mean I know him, but I don't know him.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, Jean's dad and Tony Manzoni started telling.
Speaker 2: That's right, Hickory Sticks.
Speaker 1: And I have club. So I heard a listener wrote
to me and said, this guy mentioned Tony Manzoni in
his podcast. You want to look into this. So I
listened to the podcast and I wrote to him and
he's like, oh, I have plenty of Tony Manzoni stories
because I grew up with you know, and my dad
were they grew up together and then they started this business,
and so yeah, I got plenty of Tony Manzoni stories.
So please, you know, because we're the only source of
Tony Manzonia on the internet. I don't know if you're
aware of that. You know, there's thirteen times and every year, yeah,
every year since he passed. We play all of his
episodes right in a row to kick off the season,
and I get emails more than ever saying this guy
is awesome. I love his single pivot, his single pivot swing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tony Tony was. I got that book's
kicking around somewhere assigned copy and he was a member
of mine in Palm Desert. So my first club ro
job was at Indian Ridge Country Club. He I think
he was married a couple of times. I'm not sure,
but anyway, he moved into this home there. He was
an honorary member of the developer guy named Bill Bone.
He gave Bill Bone a couple lessons and really helped
build and play better. And Tony was obviously that he
was the coach of the College of the Desert that
had a ton of good players computer and they won
I don't know how many of those college championships in
a row, like crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the regional he won like twenty nine in a row.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like something nuts, Like you can't even make that.
They can't make that number up, Like that's how good
it was. And so Tony was a member when we
he knew George Knutson, so he had massive respect for
my former boss. So I was this was my first
club pro job. I'm twenty six, I just finished playing.
I was a good player. He's got respect for that.
He he was a very good player. We played a
little bit of golf together because he's a member there
and he was a PGA member obviously. I was a
PGM member two still am and he we played in
the senior Junior Championship for Southern cal Okay. So that's
a pretty cool event. So somebody's over fifty, somebody's under fifty.
Well I was the one under fifty. And we played
at Man Desert something and anyway, of course, in Palm Desert,
it was a hot summer day and Tony and I
there's some really good teams, like you know, tour player,
you know, fifty year old tour player guy playing with
some hot shot assistant pro guy. Whatever. Anyway, Tony and
I won the event, and he played really nice. I
played really nice. He made a double eagle that day.
He hit a driver in some kind of I don't know,
hybrid or three what or something up on a green.
It went in for a two, and he was He
played so nice. And you know when you have like
a little bit of trauma from golf, I mean every
golfer hasn't. He was playing so good, and I was
just kind of playing like supportive because it was a
better ball. So I was playing steady, Eddie. I wasn't
going off. I wasn't sinking three woods like Tony was.
But I think he could he knew that I was
pretty steady, and he could kind of rely on that
and then like the we we knew, like we're gonna
shoot sixty or something like something low, we were twelve
under or whatever, it's probably going to be close to winning.
And I was the one calming him down, like he
was so excited, like a little kid, you know, and
he's fifty something and I'm twenty six, and were we
get maybe a whole or two to go, And I'm like, tone,
it's good, We're fine, man, don't worry about it. Maybe
we get one more birdie, maybe we don't. Let's just
hit solid shots here, see what you know, see what happens,
and we wind up winning that thing. And I'll tell
you what, it was such a pleasurable thing because it
like to see the joy in his face, to have
another quote, win was awesome. Like winning is fun. Let's
be honest, indo. And like I just met the guy,
like and maybe I knew maybe a year because I
just got the job and I was just hanging out there.
I didn't realize he was like the legend of College
of the Desert, and I didn't really realize like he
was the originator of Callaway and all this stuff. And
then I got to know a little bit more after that,
but it was Yeah, Tony Manzoni, that's my Tony story
when in the senior junior in Southern cal Pretty pretty fun.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I love that. So were you familiar with
his single pivot swing? You know? So he he, he
was talking about, you know, staying on the left side
and keeping keeping your left arm attached to your your
pecks right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure on that becks.
Speaker 1: So I'd love your thoughts comments on.
Speaker 2: So I think you know, I mean, it's here's when
when you talk about like single pivot or or or
stock untilt or just here's where these these things work.
Because if you again, you create chaos in a backswing. Okay,
if you can't undo chaos, you can't play golf. So
if you can simplify certain elements, then you know, impact
would be more reliable. So when stack untilt came around,
like I got mad respect for Mike Bennett, Andy Plumber,
you know, they basically said, hey, listen, most people destroy
their golf swing right off the get go. They're way
there are way pressures, way too far to the right,
and they're right now, They're one hundred percent right now.
You know, Tony probably had some inspiration from that. I'm
not sure, but it's sort of evolved around the same time,
and I think you basically go to the campers. We
teach if somebody's pelvis, okay, at pelvis is an oval
of well at least you hope it should be an oval.
And if this oval of a pelvis moves too much
to the right while it's rotating, good luck to you
getting back far enough to where you can have the
end of out the bottom of your swing being in
the right place. So the simplification of saying, hey, listen,
having a little weight pressure on your left side, which
George Newton always professed, you know, is a good place
to start the pulse of a backswing, meaning you got
to put pressure into the ground to rotate. If you
push pressure equally with both feet into the ground, you jump,
or you put pressure one way, you push theto the
ground at your right foot a little bit. It makes
your right hip turn. So now, do you want that
pelvis to gly too much to the right. No, So,
you know, in Tony's case, it was just a way
for a golfer who struggles with a low point to
have a bit more efficient development of a Backswing. So
I read his book. I loved it. I called him
before he passed away about it. I thought it was great.
And you know, I mean that's a small legacy, a
part of his legacy because for example, like one of
my assistant coaches, you know, is Brian Geiberger, So he
was on that team, and his brother Brent as a
tour winner, he was on that team. You know, There's
been so many guys that Tony Manzoni has had a
has been an influence in their lives, you know, and
a ton and it's and he was a caring coach
and a passionate absolute golf nerd absolute like I I
he might even be nerdier than me. Like he loved
it that much. The kidding a solid shot was like
it was like a drug to him, you know, was
and if he could get more solid shots. And I
think he enjoyed his you know, he enjoyed his life.
He had some ups and downs, but different things. But man,
he was always smiling to people, and he cared about people.
And I'm better for knowing them. So I'll leave it
at that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we all are. And I get emails a regular
basis going I wish I had a chance to meet
that guy just from listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh he's a beauty, so special special.
Speaker 1: And did you know who the godfather of his daughter was?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I'm gonna I'm gonna say, like Frank Sinatra
or somebody, But who was? I made that up because
I knew he kind of ran with some of those
guys you gotta be kissing. I didn't know that I was.
I was gonna say Dean Martiner one of those guys
or something like that, because he could be crazy.
Speaker 1: Very good, very good friends with Sinatra And go back.
Speaker 2: Story got a good I got a really good story.
Speaker 1: Oh do it again? Go for it?
Speaker 2: Sorry, I love it. So he brings Oh my god,
So he brings Joe Pesci out to play golf. Okay,
so has he told this story? Maybe this is my version,
this is.
Speaker 1: The I love it.
Speaker 2: So he brings Tony Man brings Joe Pesci. We got
a lot of celebrities out in Palm Desert back in
the day. And so in watch Joe Pesci and I'm
and I see him, and I you know, I'm excited
to meet him and say hello. And Joe Pesci it
brings with him a absolute rocket of a female male
companion with him. Okay, that she is like some lovely
super model fit Asian rocket. And she's wearing a like
body stocking like before Lululemon was cool, Like he couldn't
wear that at the stuffy place I was at, Like
my place was like on the verge of stuff. You
had had the old school rules. You had to have
your shirt tucked in, you couldn't wear short socks, I mean,
silly stuff that since went away gratefully, and you'd be
more comfortablaying golf. But this lady comes in and she's
maybe she's probably twenty something. Okay, I'm twenty something. And
then there's Tony Manzoni and Joe Pesci there right, so hysterical,
and so I say, I say to mister Pesci, I said,
mister Pesci, I said, your your friend has dropped at Lovely,
I said, but she has to wear golf attire for
with the club, says you know, And he's looking at
me like, are you are you telling me? Are you
telling me? Like he's giving me the gears now right
Like I'm in this twenty six year old pro Joe
Peshi's given me the business he's are you telling me?
You telling me that? And he goes, I'm just messing
with you, kid. Then he goes, hey, I told you
could wear that damn outfit. That's what he says. Go
get yourself some of that, Tommy Bahama, that's what he says.
And it's like, oh my god that she's like looking
around like kind of half embarrassed, and she goes buy
his like, you know, pleated shorts and a big shirt,
which was awful because she was like a very physically fit,
lovely lady. But yeah, he gave me the business just
long enough to know that. I was like, oh my gosh,
I got Joe Pescion mad at me. And then he
hollered at his girl and made her go buy some
like common golf clothes.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm I'm I just couldn't let you go. I'm sorry.
I have so many more questions. That's how long it's
been since you've been on, and you tell such great stories.
I can't stop. But you know, I want to hear
more about your golf schools. I think everybody right now
wants to hear more about your golf schools and how
we can get involved.
Speaker 2: You know what I wish I could. I'm blessed that
camps have been sold out for many years now. I
mean it's been unbelievable. So, you know, if people go
to tourist Striker dot com, they can look at some
of the products that I've invented and sell, and they
go to tours and then there's a little menu there.
They can go to the Golf Academy and look at that.
You know, I'm available for lessons, and so are my
amazing assistant coaches. I've got a fantastic group of coaches
that have been with me for years. So typically I'm
booked out quite a ways, but my guys are a
little bit more available, and I would say that I
would take a lesson from any one of my guys.
So our home base is Phoenix, Arizona at the Raven
and then in the summertime we get around. I travel
about ten days a month. I do camps all over
the place. But yeah, everything that people would want to
learn about what I'm up to, go to Touristriker dot
com and then they can choose other you know, the
products that I have invented in sell, or they can
come to a golf camera take a lesson your inventions.
Speaker 1: You're prolific with your inventions and they're so helpful. Just
I mean, I've had this for fifteen years, my seven iron,
my touristriker seven iron. I brought it out the other day.
I brought it out. Was hitting balls the net with that.
Speaker 2: It's like dang, and I wanted to keep my hands somehow.
I wanted to get those like fade away, so we
had to get a second one. I should have made them.
Shouldn't have made them so resilient, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know you invented it before Apple came
in and started planning planned obsolescence.
Speaker 2: Right right, No, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's still working and it works well. But
you know the touristriker clubs on helping you keep your
hands in front of the ball and hitting down on
the ball. I hope I'm describing it properly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's The idea is just to modify somebody's intent, right,
because when you look at that thing, you're like, how
does this work? And then you pretty much figure out
pretty quick well to present loft, the shaft has to
lean a little bit, and so that's that changes how
a lot of people look at you know, how do
they get to the end of out and chaft Liane
is one of those ways. So that was one of
my first that's first product I got the market.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was a huge success.
Speaker 2: It was a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've mentioned other products here with Rory and
and Rosie were using the ball. Tell us about that
one smart.
Speaker 2: Smart ball was just you know what, it's one of
those things that's just a little bit better mouse trap.
And oddly enough, my patent attorney got a patented but
it's probably the most knocked off product ever. And congratulations,
I guess so, yeah, I guess imitation is flattery somehow.
But no, there's other We have other aids for risk conditions,
clickers and guides. And years ago I invented co codmits
at a club called the training called the plane Mate
with a former assistant of mind, and now I'm relaunching it.
It's called the swing Trainer of all things, imagine that,
and it's more of a it's something that is a
little bit bizarre, but it's what the beauty of it is.
Most people are uncomfortable using training aids on a driving range.
Not many people like using any kind of gizmo where
people can see them. So this whole thing is based
on you mean, you can use it on the range
if you're incapable of being embarrassed like me, or you
can develop your game at home with all the digital
content provided with all these training products, because I think
I want your viewers to realize they're not buying a
training aid, they're buying a training method. Like it's like,
and I say, meth I say that loosely, but it's
like it addresses so many things that if you just
kind of follow the content and my coaching style with
the products, I dairhia not to get better, like I
dare you. Okay, people will get better. So I've been
doing this a long time, blessed. In this silly game
Whack and a white Ball, Robin Williams said it best
they put a wea flag down there to give you hope. Well,
I think I give some people some hope and I
have fun doing it.
Speaker 1: So yes you do, Yes you do. And you know,
since we started talking years and years ago, that was
way before the data explosion and all the digital all
all the digital aids that give you the spin rate
and everything else. You know, your distance, How has that
impacted your inventions?
Speaker 2: It's great because I mean it basically says, hey, this
invention you Now you have objective data that proves my
stuff works, which I love. I love when somebody wants
to compare it to something. Hey, you know, does group
B get better when they use this or Group A?
Blah blah blah. And so I don't you know, I
don't put on my website that that are going to
hurt people. I put stuff out that is hey, just
you know, I hate to say a lot of dudes
don't like to follow the directions, So I make the
directions kind of fun videos. Just watch the video, follow
along a little bit. If you want to hit whiffleballs
at your house, do that and you will have an
elevated heightened awareness of how to better rhythmically move the
golf club and have more fun. That's all I'm trying
to do, help people have more fun.
Speaker 1: Got any new inventions coming up? You know?
Speaker 2: I I do that. Well. The swing trainer will be
out in a couple of months, and then the a
couple of other gizmos under wraps for now. So yeah,
always always tinker, and this is it, man, This is
my you're looking at me on this on this recording
we're making. But this is my tinker space and I've
got a little workbench in another area that I do stuff,
and I've I've had a great friend to George Goebels's name.
He's kind of like my industrial designer that he's helped
with a lot of stuff and that was purely by
accident because he was a maniacal inventor as well, and
he's done a lot of work for me over the years.
Is because I'm too busy coaching, I kind of throw
it in his lap and I enjoy seeing how he
kind of takes my ideas and brings him to life,
which is everybody needs one of those.
Speaker 1: Were you always a tinkerer like that with ideas and
inventions and things, or did they just with tours Striker
came like, oh wait, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Do tour Striker. Tour Striker was probably the third thing
that I wanted to invent, but it's the first one
I actually got to market. Now, you know, I owe
the Vegas that of gratitude to Mama Striker, my wife
Stacy Chuck Or she was the one like total belief
like go let's do it. Let's you know, max out
the credit card, get this done. You know where that's
most people aren't getting that kind of support. Where my
wife was like she believed to me one hundred percent
anytime I have something like wild hair like that, She's like, yeah,
let's go do it, you know, and it's it's been great.
Speaker 1: I have the same thing at home. And you know,
when people reach out to me saying I've got this invention,
I always ask them, you know, it's like because I'd
love to leave my insurance selling job, and it's like,
but but I've got this great new tea and I'm like, okay,
So before you go any farther, Yeah, how's your support
at home? Because if you hear the foot tapping or
the fingers, you know, fingers going on the tabletop there,
if you can hear that, don't don't even try it.
Unless you get full supported home, it's not going to work.
And I've had some pretty outrageous ideas myself over the years,
and if it wasn't for my wife's support, they never
would have flown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I hear you. It's such a the best
and most important decision I'll ever make is your mate period.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because of a lot of reasons. So so when
we're following you on YouTube, is that tour striker on
YouTube or is it market truck and all your social
media outlets, where do we find you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So Instagram's fun for me. I got to kick on Instagram.
I feel like I'm a fifty six year old child.
But Martin Chuck PGA is my Instagram. Tour Striker Golf
is the business facing side, and then you know, the
Martin Chuck PGA is me being silly and stupid. It's
got a lot of content. The Tour Striker Golf is
more golf specific videos and things. And then if you
type in you know, Martin Chuck on YouTube, you'll you'll
see my you know, I I think I don't know
how many videos up there, and I'll tell you what it's.
I think I got on YouTube in two thousand and six,
and I haven't been great at it, to be honest.
I'm I'm kind of getting more invested in it right now,
but I'd be remiss if I didn't. You know, shut up.
You know, I know we're going to close soon. But
you know, two people that were massive for me in
the golf business. Besides, my mentors are all past, but
I'd say Justin Tupper revolution golf days back in the day.
You know, he's the reason everybody knows me. And then
the performance golf guys, you know Bricks and Albert and
Donnie French, those guys, they're the you know, the they're
the bowl in the china shop of golf marketing. And
then they believe in me. And you know, I've done
a lot of video content together. That's why you skip
all those ads of me, because they're constantly at using
me as a you know, they've they've done a great
job and helping me stay relevant to golfers out there.
And what a blessing because I don't teach a primary
tour player anymore. I mean, I teach dudes that look
like you and me, and what you know, I like
to stay in my bed at night and I get to,
you know, spend time with my family. I don't have
to cheat. I'm not on a plane Sunday at home
on Thursday, which would suck. I'm sorry. Yeah, Master's Week
wouldn't suck. But you know, you know, some other many
many other tour events. I get to teach dudes, I
get to more. I get to go in and teach
fifteen new faces, some returning veterans, and have a blast.
And it's twenty minutes from my house. So to that,
I am massively grateful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I am massively grateful for your friendship and
your insights, because, as you know, there was not many
people that I reached out to bring in the last
five episodes leading up to one thousand. But I've always
wanted to get you back on. I've always enjoyed our conversations,
and I really appreciate you coming on and spending time
with us again. Phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. Let's do it sooner than four hundred episodes.