Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number three hundred and fifty seven published on
November thirteen, twenty twelve, featuring our score Zone short game Academy,
where the wedge Guy helps us improve those frustrating chip
shots just off the green.
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insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
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Speaker 3: Well speak alf Since time as a factor, there's really
no time to walk around the green and read the
pod small kinds of different angles.
Speaker 4: You just got to get up and hit it.
Speaker 3: It's amazing how often the instincts are correct.
Speaker 4: It's easy to overthink things. So the idea of just.
Speaker 3: Getting up, taking a quick instinctive look and then just
putting it and then going on, it's really amazing how
well you can put like that. You know, on the
first day I had four or five birdies, so that's
one of the benefits, I guess. And then since you
have to run with your clubs, most guys play with
four to seven clubs. I played with a driver, a
twenty degree hybrid, a five iron and eight iron, and
a fifty two eree wedge and then a putter. Really,
that's all the clubs that you need to be able
to play. It teaches you to play shots. There's very
rarely a time and speak golf where you'll have a
shot that's a perfect distance. And for that matter, you
don't have time to like calculate the distance.
Speaker 1: Shooting par in less than an hour with Jacob about
this is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 5: Each week we tap the best minds in golf to
help lower your scores with tips, drills, insights and advice
in conversation with course pros, architects, authors, players, teaching gurus
and coaches.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast, Jacob.
Speaker 4: Hello friend, it's nice to be back.
Speaker 1: It's good to have you back. Where are you today.
Speaker 4: Today? I'm in Zurich, Switzerland, and that is home. Yes,
home for right now, home.
Speaker 1: For right now. Ah here we are recording at the
beginning of November. It's getting to be the off season
for golf for you. Correct it is?
Speaker 4: It is? Oh?
Speaker 1: Sure, it is your season up there.
Speaker 4: In Switzerland.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of the courses are starting to close now,
and most of them will be closed within the next month,
kind of December, January, February. Most of them are closed,
with the exception of a couple like covered driving ranges
or a course here and there that you can.
Speaker 4: Go out on if there's no frost.
Speaker 3: So normally in the winter time like this, I'll find
my way to some warmer destination for a few weeks
to break up the winter.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, well I can't imagine that it's a golf destination.
Speaker 4: No, not really.
Speaker 1: For those who play golf there, it's like, get me
out of here.
Speaker 4: Hell, there's some good courses, but.
Speaker 1: Come on, are there bad courses anywhere? If you're on
a golf course, this is good.
Speaker 4: Right, right.
Speaker 3: If there's a golf course, then it's a good course
exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: So generally, you know, and the times that you've been
on the show, we've talked about your your website, Swingman
Golf and swing speed training, increasing your swing speed and
the instruction you give. But we're going to change gears
a little bit and talk about a different type of
speed because you recently participated in the Speed Golf Championships.
Speaker 4: Speed Golf World Championships.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sorry, the World Championship.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, So and that happened abandoned dunes on the West
coast of the United.
Speaker 4: States, that's correct.
Speaker 1: How did you get from swing speed to speed golf?
Speaker 3: I was perusing on Facebook one day and one of
my family members came across a video that was a
time lapsed video of a guy named Chris Smith playing
around to speed golf abandoned dunes, and I thought the
video was really a cool video. And sometimes shortly after that,
I saw promo for the World Championships, and so I
contacted the tournament organizer and I was able to get in.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting because I did a little research
before we did this, and I, you know, I typed
in Speed Golf Championships, spandon Dunes and I'm sorry, Speed
Golf World Championships didn't do and I found that Chris
Smith video. I will put it on the on Golfsmarter
dot com on the blog because it's really compelling. It's
you know, it's interesting because it's only like seven eight
minutes long, and you feel like you got the point
after the first two minutes. But it's hard to turn
it off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's really well to Yeah, they did
a fantastic job, and it's yeah, it's hard to not
continue watching it, even though you know what's going to happen.
But it's there's something really amazing about someone shooting under
par in under an hour on a course like Bandon Dune.
Speaker 1: All right, so, now that you've let the cat out
of the bag, explain what speed golf is so we
can we can then we can attack my list of
questions about it. But what is speed golf?
Speaker 3: Uh, it's basically like regular golf, except that you.
Speaker 4: Run in between shots.
Speaker 3: So the total score your your total score is your
running time or just the time that it takes you
to play, plus your regular golf score.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I didn't get that when I was looking
at the when I was looking at the at the
scorecards here, it seemed like the guy who won wasn't
the lowest scores, nor was he the fastest runner, but
he still won.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a two day competition, okay, and so yeah,
I forget his exact numbers, but he was a little
bit over a little bit over par, I think, on
both days. But then under an hour both days, and
just the total combination of his two times and his
two golf scores were enough to win.
Speaker 1: Let's absorb this for just a second. He played eighteen
holes in under an hour and shot under par.
Speaker 4: My two rounds were over par.
Speaker 3: My first round was seventy five, but I was The
first round was seventy five and sixty one minutes, and
then I think I had I didn't play as well
on the second day.
Speaker 4: I had seventy eight in fifty six minutes.
Speaker 3: So after the first day, I was sitting fifth, and
I knew I figured that I need to win. I
needed to come in five minutes faster and just clean
up mistakes a little bit it and I came in
five minutes faster, but unfortunately I just didn't play as
well the second day, so I ended up remaining in
fifth place, and my total score was about six six
back of the lead.
Speaker 4: So it was it was which is really close to
the lead?
Speaker 3: Actually, you know, you maybe make three or four shots
less and then you saved one or two minutes from
having to run around for those shots, and then it's
right there.
Speaker 4: So I was close.
Speaker 3: It was It was really uh an honor to be
in the mix with these guys, especially with it with
a guy like Chris Meth. He's a great guy and
he has a Guinness the Guinness Record for speak golf.
I forget exactly what it is, but I think it
was a sixty five five under and I don't know
exactly forty.
Speaker 4: Three minutes or something like that. We know, it's just
it was just really amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, and Bandon Dunes, I've yet to play there,
but I've not heard anybody come back from there saying, well,
that was a breeze, that was easy. Is a tough course?
Speaker 4: Yeah it is.
Speaker 3: And it's it's like true Links golf too. It's right
on the coast. It's absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've heard people say that it is
the closest thing to true Links Scottish golf that we
have in the United States.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 3: I've played a number of Links courses in the US,
and although they were quote unquote Links courses, you couldn't
really run the ball up to the green or you know,
pup from fifty yards away, but Bandon you can do that.
Speaker 4: They have five courses there. It plays.
Speaker 3: I don't know if any if you or anyone any
listeners have played Saint Andrews. But it's the only course
other course outside of the UK there the only one
in the US that I've played that really does play
like a true length course.
Speaker 4: I remember one of the par threes was I don't know.
Speaker 3: One hundred and somewhere between one hundred and thirty one
hundred and fifty yards or something. And normally, you know,
I could hit a wedge or a nine iron on
that on a hole like that, but I hit a
five iron and just carried it about halfway and then
just rolled it up to the pin.
Speaker 1: So you hitting it right into the wind, you just
headed right into the ocean? Is that why?
Speaker 3: On that particular shot, the way the whole funnel, I
was tired and out of breath. The idea, the idea
of taking a taking a little just kind of bunting
a fire just seemed like it would take a lot
less energy than taking a full swing.
Speaker 1: So oh, well, you know, and I want to talk
about the mental strategy of something like this, it's got
to be completely different, but I'm not there yet. So
it's I'm still having trouble because I don't even run.
I've never been a good runner. I just can't imagine.
I know that if I like I dropped my towel
and I realize that, you know, on the next hole,
or I left my club on the last hole or
something like that, and I run back to get it
and come back, it takes me three holes to catch
my breath.
Speaker 3: Right right, right, Yeah, there is there is a level
of endurance that's that's required. A normal golf course is
going to be four plus miles and then and that's
straight from tee to green, so no one's hitting it straight.
So you got to add in the zigzagging, plus the
distance between the greens and the tea boxes, and then
depending on how hilly it is, that can add in
a lot of time. It really ends up being maybe
five or six miles, you know, I get again, it
depends on the course.
Speaker 4: But then.
Speaker 3: And you're having to not only be running that with
all the stopping and starting, stopping and starting, but you're
car carrying your.
Speaker 4: Golf bag as well.
Speaker 3: So it's there is a level of definitely a level
of stamina and conditioning that's required to be able to
do it at a at a competitive level.
Speaker 1: I'm staring at at the numbers that you said, your
first round, you you shot a seventy five and sixty
one minutes. Your second round you shot a seventy eight
and fifty six minutes. And I'm trying to figure how
did you get three more strokes and five less minutes.
And I just realized, Oh, it's got to be on
the putting. I mean, how do you how do you
do it in less time and have more strokes? That
that's what baffles me.
Speaker 4: But right well, I I.
Speaker 3: You know that that's I don't know. The first day
I played, I played really well. I had four or
five birdies I think, and then uh, but I you know,
on these Bandon the old Mac course at Bandon has
huge greens and there's all kinds of undulations, so if
you get on the wrong part of it sometimes it's
you know, you're lucky to have You're lucky to get
up and up and into two putts. I must have had,
I forget exactly now. I think I had a three
three putts and a four putt.
Speaker 4: With a seventy five. So wow. So I actually played
pretty good that.
Speaker 1: Day, yeah, clearly.
Speaker 3: And this was this was my first real go with
in the competition with the speak al, So I didn't
really there's a little bit of learning as far as
there's a learning curve as far as how to pace yourself.
Speaker 4: So I felt like, you.
Speaker 3: Know, you don't want to leave any and even leave
anything out there, but you don't at the same time,
you don't want to wear yourself down so much that
you have trouble completing around or completing your shots. So
it's it's it's a little it's a little tricky to
kind of get the hang of it. So the second
day I figured like I could clean up my transitions
a little bit to to make them faster. That would
pick up a little bit of time, and then just
try to run a little just try and run a
little bit faster. So I was I was able to
do that. But then on the second day tee to Green,
I I just didn't hit the ball. You know, it's
just an off day, and I didn't play as well.
I don't I don't think I had any birdies the
second day.
Speaker 1: So amazing. So how do you train for this? Are
you a runner? Generally?
Speaker 4: No, I I have.
Speaker 3: I'm thirty six now, and when I was in my twenties,
right after college, I did some a number of five
k's and ten k's and triathlons, and I did a
marathon too, just for looking for ways to continue to
stay in shape. But then I got away from it,
and so when this came up, I was it was
kind of a way for me to I saw it
as a way to give me some extra motivation to
get back in shape.
Speaker 4: So I started.
Speaker 3: First, I started on a treadmill just to see if
I could I could do five miles, And at first
I did five miles in about a little over fifty
five minutes. Actually I did it on the track. And
then just to kind of ease my joints into it,
I started on a treadmill, and then I did a
little bit of track work, and then I did some
trail and city runs just running around the city as well.
Speaker 4: It just kind of built up to it.
Speaker 3: And then over the course of two months, in the
two months that I I found out about it and
got in and then the actual competition, I dropped down
my five mile time down from fifty five minutes to
a little over thirty six thirty six twelve I think.
Speaker 4: So I really improved my conditioning a lot.
Speaker 6: And if we did it only two months, yeah, yeah,
so I was pushing myself pretty hard and.
Speaker 3: That once. If you can do five miles in yeah,
you really need to be able to do it under
forty minutes. Probably the stronger runners could do it, and
maybe thirty minutes five miles the stronger speed golfers, And
I was thirty six my running there were some guys
that were faster than me, and there were some guys
that were slower than me. So conditioning wise, I was
kind of in the middle of the pack there by
the time the competition willed around. But all of us
are good golfers. They're yeah, you know, we're all all
all of us in we're in the pro division. We've
all shot under par and tournaments before. So it's you know,
the one of the guys Chris Mo, He's played in
a couple of British Opens, He's played some tour events,
so there were the quality.
Speaker 1: I did recognize that name when I was looking down
the leader list.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there are you know, it's not just you know,
average Joe golfers. We're all good golfers and we're all
you know, pretty decent runners.
Speaker 1: Well, that was one of the things that I noticed
when I was watching the Chris Smith, the Chris Smith
video that was a promotion for the World Championships, is
that guy can putt. I mean he was nailing birdies
from twenty five thirty feet and it's not like you
get the opportunity to line up your putt.
Speaker 3: Well, that's one of the you know, they're not everyone
is of course going to want to do speed golf.
But there are some things that you know that that
Chris does and that the other guys do, and that
that I've learned just from my experiences to speak golf,
that you can apply to your regular game, like with
speak golf, since there since time is a factor you
know putting for you mentioned, there's there's really no time
to walk around the green and and read the puff
from all kinds of different angles. You just got to
get up and hit it. And and it's amazing how
often the instincts are correct. So it makes golf rather
than the balls just sitting there then you react. You know,
you have time to think about it, and it's it's
easy to overthink things. So the idea of just getting up,
taking a quick instinctive look and then just putting it
and then going on it's it's really amazing how well
you can put. You can put like that. You know,
on the first day, I had four or five birdies
and we're playing, I mean, so that's that's one of
the benefits, I guess. And then we since you have
to run with your clubs. Most guys play with four
to seven clubs. I play with christ and I play
with six. So I played with a driver, a twenty
degree hybrid, a five iron and eight iron, and a
fifty two.
Speaker 4: Degree woods and then a putter.
Speaker 3: So you know, another thing is is when you play
with that, really that's all the clubs that you need
need to be able to play. It gets away from it.
It teaches you to play shots. So there's very rarely
a time and speak golf where you'll have a shot
that's a perfect distance. And for that matter, you don't
have time to like calculate the distance.
Speaker 1: How do you figure out It's like, okay, so I'm
now one hundred and sixty five yards here, usually one
hundred and sixty five yards, I'll pull out my what
You'll you probably pull out a seven iron or something,
and it's like, you know, and which bad club I'm
gonna you have to calculate that while you're running to
the ball, but you have to like, Okay, there's the ball,
there's the hole. N it's about I mean, how do
you know?
Speaker 3: Well, that's something that is kind of a lost art,
I guess, and with a lot of golfers in modern golf,
I don't know. Back fifty plus years ago, there weren't
laser range finders, the courses didn't have sprinklers.
Speaker 4: That were marked.
Speaker 3: It was more of just a look, you pick out
a club that you think will do, get to hit
it where you want to go, and then you just
you just go up and whack it. So golf speed speed,
that's another thing about what the speed golf is.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I got up to that par three there, for example,
and it was one hundred and thirty one hundred and
fifty yards, and I thought, well, I could hit an
eight iron there, but let's take my five iron and
just just.
Speaker 4: React to the target. It's just as you're running up
to the.
Speaker 3: Shot, you very quickly decide the shot you want to hit.
You pull out a club, you just look at the
target and then you instinctively swing. And it's it's a
little scary to play that way. At first, but you know, again,
it makes golf more instinctual. It takes out a lot
of the conscious thought and overthinking that kind of rex
people's games. And it's it's really amazing how how well
you can play like that. You know, try going out
for around and take all your odd irons out and
then just and and don't play with any of the distance.
Just look at the target, pick something instinctially and then
just let your swing. You let your swing be in
actual to just look at Like baseball, you know, if an.
Speaker 6: Outfielders the ball well, well, like for defense, if an
outfielder it gets a ball like he doesn't you know,
pull a range finder out of his pocket and then
check the yardage to third base or a second base
or whatever, and then calculate how.
Speaker 3: Far he has to swing his arm back and in
whatever he just looks and throws. And golf can definitely
be played like that and play like that really well too.
So you know, that's that's another one of the things
that you know, you may not want to play speed golf,
but that's one of the things that you can apply
to the regular golf game.
Speaker 4: That does speed up play.
Speaker 3: But then it teaches you to become a better player too,
because you learn to be a little bit more of
a shot maker and uh and and just play instinctually
and play by fuel and Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the core values of golf smarter is the
mental game. How important and in your general golf life,
not speed golf, but how important to you is the
mental aspect of golf.
Speaker 3: I think it's really really important, especially now as a
better player. Technically, I have a good enough technique that
I can do all the shots and I know how
to hit all the shots. So for me now, I
think most of my improvement here.
Speaker 4: Is just is just on a mental level.
Speaker 1: So then how do you apply that when you're running
to the ball and just trying to find the ball,
especially abandoned I've heard the stories of the fescue there.
It's not it's easy to lose balls there, but you know,
finding the ball and then looking up towards the flag. Uh,
And then you know you've got to get all that
in in the in the seconds that it takes for
you to get from one one shot to the next.
Where do you where does the metal game come in there?
Speaker 3: Well, I guess because the time is such a factor
and you just uh, you kind of almost are taking
a little bit of your your conscious brain out of
it and playing more on a subconscious level.
Speaker 4: You just.
Speaker 3: Uh, run up to a shot, pick a club, make
a swing, and then go and you don't have time
to you know, if you mess up a shot, you
don't have time to kind of fuss about it. You
got to move on real quick and make a decision
about the next shot. So in that sense, it's it's
been good as well for me mentally. Speak OFLF is
that you have to put the shots that you've played
previously behind you because the next one's coming up right away.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is. What what I'm like running down all
my different points that I want to go? What what's
the difference in the rules? You can't play the exact
same rules. Oh yes, we normally play when it takes
four and a half hours to five hours to play
around of golf.
Speaker 3: There there are slight, uh two slight modifications. One is
that you're allowed to leave the flag in in the
interest of saving time. Okay, it makes sense, so you just, yeah,
you don't have to worry about taking the flag down
or put it back in, and just go up and
put it and then the second rule is if you
hit out about if you lose a ball, then you're
allowed to drop kind of like a lateral hazard on
the line that you went in and distance. Yes, yes,
And they treat lost balls and out of bounds like
that because they thought it would be too much of
a penalty to have to run back to the tea
and then run back. It adds not only to you
get penalties, not only the stroke, but your time, but
your but your time. It's it's just too severe of
a penalty. So that's the other modification.
Speaker 1: How do you like that rule?
Speaker 3: I like it well, for one, I mean, it saves time.
If you ever visible, you don't have to go all
the way back. So slow play is, you know, as
the problem was with golf. So so that's you know,
I kind of want the idea of that.
Speaker 4: It's I've always up the game a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I we talk. Slow play is terrible.
How long it takes to play around golf is terrible.
I've always thought, just do stroke and distance, just keep
moving forward. Know, it gets too easy to just you know,
when you tee off and you know you've hit the
ball out, just drop another ball and hit another one,
you know, and it's like okay, I'm hitting three. Oh, okay,
I'm hitting five. Okay, I'm done with this whole. I
just think, yeah, let's it went out over here. And again,
it's probably the same thing as where the ball goes out.
You can't go any closer to the whole than that.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, you know, golf is a game of integrity,
so you just yeah, you know, you're trusted to play
play the shot.
Speaker 4: On your owner, you know. And that's one of the
cool things about golf, is it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's but if you had time to ever
stop and go oops, I just broke a rule because
like you're moving so fast, there's got to be something
else that you've done. It's like, oh that that's a
no note. Okay, call a penalty on myself.
Speaker 4: Really, I've never had a problem with that.
Speaker 3: There there was one incident, I think on the eighteenth grade,
after the first day, guy as he was going.
Speaker 4: Up to putt it. I think he putted it while
the ball is still moving or something, or.
Speaker 3: I forget exactly what the situation was, but he basically
just called a penalty on himself, added it to a score,
and then.
Speaker 4: You know, so it's I guess he just treat it
like you would with any or more on the golf.
Speaker 1: And that's while I was watching the video, I noticed that,
you know, how often do you put the ball. You've
got to you put the ball, and then you don't
stand there and wait and watch the ball like you're
following the ball. Especially on a long putt, you put
it and you following it all the way until it stops.
You got to make sure it stops. Then you've got
to tap it in hopefully if not it's a four
or five foot or you got to put it in.
And you know, like you said, you had a bunch
of three putts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as soon as.
Speaker 3: In the three putts, I don't think that that I
had weren't necessarily from bad putting. It's just the greens
are are really huge and undulating, and if you get
part of anyone would have a difficult time. So in
general I felt like I putted well, it's just I
was in some bad I put myself in some bad
a few bad places on that first day.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of different divisions that I saw on
the scorecard. There there's the Elite division, which you were
part of, how did you qualify for that?
Speaker 3: I based on my scores just as a professional and
regular golf plus plus the times that I had a
number of years ago demonstrated. I guess that one I
was a good golfer and the two I was capable
of running fast enough to be competitive. So they just
looked at some some prior running and golf results to
make that determination.
Speaker 1: And then there's an amateur divis as well, and that's
broken up by age.
Speaker 3: There was an amateur division, yes, but I don't to
be honest, I don't remember how it was broken up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, based on the scoring what I saw in my research.
It was based on you know, they have over fifty,
under twenty, you know, twenty to twenty nine, thirty thirty
and that kind of thing. So what I'm really fascinated
is where and how do you practice? I mean, how
can somebody say, yeah, I'm going to go to my
local golf course and I want to play speed golf.
Well you can't just tee off at noon.
Speaker 4: Right right. That is one of the trickier things about it.
Speaker 3: So one either you got to be the first group
off or the first person off, yeah, for the day.
So well, you know, which for some people that like
running and like golf, you know, you can go and
get the first tea time and go out and play
nine holes or eighteen holes and get your cardio done
and then be off to work. So so being the
first off is one one way to do it. Going
in the last hour of the day is also another
way to do it because most people, you know, there's
not going to be someone on the first first tee
in most cases.
Speaker 1: Oh that's true. You think you can do Yeah, if
you think you can do the round an hour, hour
and a half and the sun's going to set it now,
it's setting at five o'clock, you can see off at
three thirty because mostly by three thirty people are on.
The last group is generally on the twelfth to eleventh,
thirteenth t at that point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you can do nine holes maybe that way,
and then.
Speaker 3: Perhaps if there's if you're out by yourself and there's
there's several holes between you and the next group, or
you and the group behind you, you can lou back
and just play play the holes, play play them over again,
or adjacent holes, just run and do them twice. That's
another way. I was kind of lucky I got to
practice uh at a at a country club that that
was had very very little traffic. So I was just
able to go out virtually about any time of day
and and be able to do it and there'll only
be a few people on the course. That's that's a
kind of an unusual situation. But that's nice when you
can have that. Yeah, and then beyond that, you know,
I heard some guys would just play regular golf and
then they'd go out and and do their run separated.
Speaker 1: Two different games though, right right, really, how do you
I mean that's not training for a competition like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: A few times I went out and I ran I
did uh jogs with my bag, just regular city jogs.
Speaker 4: I live in the city, so I would just go out.
Speaker 3: And jog with my bag, jog you know, three hundred
yards stop with the bag down, Yes, for ten seconds.
Speaker 4: It looked kind of funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking about driving down the street and there's
you know, I see joggers all the time. There's jogger
with a golf bag. It's like it's a matter about
did you lose your ball?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I got some funny looks.
Speaker 1: That's right, all right, Well, let's wrap this up with
what the tips you know? I mean, you just got
into this, You trained for two months, and all of
a sudden you're in the World Championships. Obviously, I don't
want to this isn't a derogatory statement, but there can't
be a ton of competition if you can, you know,
just in that amount of time be part of the
World Championships. You did get a chance to practice on
that course ahead of time, didn't you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like a normal tournament we had.
Speaker 3: The tournament itself was two rounds on Saturday and Sunday,
so they let us have practice rounds on Thursday and Friday.
Speaker 1: What can you share with us? What tips would you like? Okay,
I didn't know this going in, but now that I
know it, let me tell you. Here's what you need
to know if you want to get into speed golf.
Speaker 3: Well, if you want to get in to speak golf
you and be competitive, you probably need to be able
to shoot shoot around par on a regular round of golf,
and you probably need to be able to run five
miles under forty minutes.
Speaker 4: So if you can do.
Speaker 3: That, then you have a chance at being fairly competitive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you had no aha moment, no epiphany about
the whole thing that you were doing. It's like, oh, shoot,
I wish I would have known that. I mean shoes,
you're wearing normal golf shoes.
Speaker 3: That's one thing that's different. Well, most of us will
wear running shoes because that's a little bit things are
to run in those. Yeah, but a lot of it
was was just learning on the fly. Some guys well
actually a lot of the guys were wearing rain gloves
because your hands start sweating.
Speaker 1: That's a good one.
Speaker 4: So even though you know it's.
Speaker 3: Not raining, your hands are getting soap, so you don't
want your hands to slip on the and you don't
have time to change gloves. So guys will just wear
rain gloves. That's that's one. Guys will wear running shoes.
The bags that we use are special carry bags. They're
they're kind of like a half bag that you can
grab in one hand and run with.
Speaker 4: Those. Those are useful.
Speaker 1: But you know, a bandon is not because it's on
the coast. It's on the Oregon coast and it's generally
foggy and windy and moist at the very least. Did
you have any issues with slipping in your swing because
you're wearing you're not wearing any cleats at all.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. Maybe other people did, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: But fascinating.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe you've heard about guys practicing in their
bare feet or I think playing in running shoes also,
at least for me, it helps me make a more
controlled imbalance swing, because if you're swinging all over the place,
you'll slip and lose your balance.
Speaker 4: So playing in the running shoes was actually not a problem.
Speaker 3: And I think actually for me it made me makes
me swing a little bit better because.
Speaker 4: I have to swing in control.
Speaker 1: You have to be in balance.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, hey man, thank you so much for letting me
know that you were involved in this. You were right.
This is a great topic for golf Smarter. And again,
if anybody is interested in seeing what Jacob's doing on
his website in his not only you know the speed golf,
but also his swing speed training, you should check out
swingmangolf dot com. Jacob, congratulations being the fifth best speed
golf person in the world for twenty twelve. Thanks, that's
pretty awesome if it's an honor with you, sir.
Speaker 3: If people want to watch this, the CBS was actually
there filming the event.
Speaker 1: Oh cool.
Speaker 3: And they're going to air a thirty minute documentary special
on the Speed Golf World Championships before the third round
of the upcoming Masters.
Speaker 1: So there's for the twenty thirteen Masters.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so if you'd like to watch it and
just kind of see who these crazy people are running
around the golf course and were.
Speaker 1: You Were you interviewed by these guys by CBS.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, since I was one of the guys in contention,
I was pulled away and interviewed and I didn't.
Speaker 4: In the last day.
Speaker 3: I even though I knew I wasn't quite playing my
best golf wise, I knew I was in contention because
the last three holes I had the cameras following me
on the cart so.
Speaker 1: Wow, because they couldn't run and keep up with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, cart right right.
Speaker 3: So you know, I don't know how it'll turn out,
but I'm really curious to see what I think it
should be.
Speaker 4: Really cool Bandon. It's a great place speak alf.
Speaker 3: A lot of fun that the people that get involved
with it are really great people.
Speaker 4: So I'm looking forward to everybody.
Speaker 1: Mark your calendars now for the Saturday of the Masters
before broadcast to watch the thirty minute documentary special on
the World Speed Golf the Speed Golf World Championships, and
check out Jacob Bowden in there. Jacob, thanks so much
for coming back on the show and congratulations again.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Thanks, it's always fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kat had to get into the show.
Speaker 4: Huh, sorry about that.
Speaker 1: Well, it's time once again for the score Zone Short
Game Academy with our wedge guy, Terry Taylor.
Speaker 7: Welcome back, Terry, Hi friend, it's really nice to be
back on with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming back on. Because here
on the score Zone Short Game Academy, what we do
is ask the audience to send in a question about
their short game and they go to Golfsmarter dot com,
click on the score Zone Short Game Academy button, submit
a question, and if you choose their question, you award
them with two things, actually three things. First, they get
a Golf Smarter divot tool, the world's greatest divot tool. Second,
they get a club of their choice customized for them,
a score forty one sixty one scoring club. And third
they get the answer to the question from the Wedge Guy.
So it's a great deal all around, and I think
it's a lot of fun. I've learned a lot and
we actually got a question in this time that I
am really glad somebody asked, because it's something that plagues
my game every single round, at least multiple times. And
this one comes from Joshua Smit and he's in Lake Crystal, Minnesota,
and he says, I'm a high handicap golfer in the
mid twenty range, and I've been trying to work on
my short game. One thing that has always hurt me
is when I'm around fifteen yards or less to the
green and I don't get under the ball and it
goes flying across the green. This has made me nervous
when I'm using my low lofted clubs, especially the lob wedge.
So he wants to get any advice he can, and again,
this is something that I've worked on so many times.
I've had video tips that I've worked on, I've done,
I've done full show episodes about this, and it's the
kind of thing that the only time I lose my
temper on the golf is when I do one of
these and scull it, you know, take a nice easy
shot and it skulls and just flies across the green
ends up in the bunker on the other side. So
please help me O be one.
Speaker 7: Joshua, you have what we call wedge elepsy, and it
really because you've hit some bad shots. Now you're very
anxious when you hit that shot. Now. I know you
won't see this, Joshua as an advantage, but the fact
that you live in Minnesota and you won't see grass
for five or six months, it's going to give you
an opportunity to fix your wedge ellipsy because it is
a curable disease. But what happens here is I think
the key and I'm a literal guy, and I'm reading
you reading your note here, and it says I don't
get under the ball. So what it appears to me, Joshua,
you're probably trying to do is help that ball in
the air. And you're hitting up on the ball with
the only way you can hit up on the ball,
because there is a planet Earth right under it. The
only way you can hit up on the ball is
to let that clubhead get ahead of your hands through
the impact area, and you catch that ball right in
the eyebrows or the forehead as we say, and it
goes flying across the green as you described. So I'm
going to give you a winter drill and all you
other guys that are lucky enough to live in the
in the South and you go out to the grass
and hit and do.
Speaker 1: This, and all those in Australia who are just getting
their season started.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I forgot you guys down under.
Speaker 4: You.
Speaker 7: I was just in Zeeland a few months ago, so
wonderful blake. But anyway, so when you're hitting your short
shots around the green, there's three keys you have to
zero in on. The first key is slow down everything.
Forget this accelerate through the ball thing. Forget all of
that and work in slow motion. This is like driving
in a parking lot. You're going to be very careful.
You're moving very slow and you're maneuvering your car into
a parking spot. And I talked about this in one
of our previous podcasts. Go slow when you're around the green.
That's the first key. The second key is the back
of your left hand has to pass the ball from
where you're looking at it before the clubhead gets to
the ball. So you're leading, you're leading your hands through
the impact zone before that clubhead gets there. Because what
causes you to hit that ball right in the forehead
or the eyebrows. As we talk about is stop your
hands and you scoop at it, and you take your
right hand and you try to help that ball into
the air. What you actually do is changing the arc
of the swing, and that clubhead is moving upward. Well,
you can't move upward if the ball is sitting on
the earth and still get under it. So you hit
that ball right in the forehead or right in the eyebrows,
as I said, and it scoots across the green as
you describe. So the first hip is keep your tempo
very slow. Practice hitting shots as slow as you can
possibly swing golf club That allows you to focus on
your technique of making sure your left side and your
left hand and your left arm, all of those things
are getting past the golf ball before the clubhead gets
to the golf ball. That's very key. And the third
thing is focus on the forward edge of the golf
ball and not the back of the ball, not a
spot behind the ball. Focus on the forward edge and
make sure you just take your little, soft, delicate swing
and slow motion and you go through the golf ball,
not at the golf ball, and have a stroke, have
a swing, not a hit, and don't let yourself get
so ball conscious. What happens is when we make a
bad contact, whether it's a skull or a chunk or whatever,
when we have a bad contact, we become very ball conscious,
and we start letting our focus flow away from the
swing or the stroke we're trying to make, and we
start focusing on the golf ball. When you do that,
you pinch your fingers of your right hand or going
to take over trying to guide that clubhead to proper contact.
Trust your left side, trust your lead, trust your swing,
and while you're indoors this winner, set you up a
sheet out in the garage or down in the basement
or in your den, and just chip golf ball after
golf ball after golf ball until you're so confident you
can make proper contact that when you get out on
the grass in April or May, this will be gone.
This little affliction you have will be gone and you'll
be in wedge elypsy remission.
Speaker 1: Weedg elepsy. But let's I want to dig deeper on
this only because I do have this affliction as well,
and I know that there's there's a confidence thing that
goes on with it that I'm like, oh God, I
don't want this shot. That's why for me, I'm not
one to hit the ball as far as I can,
because I would I'm much more comfortable being one hundred
yards or one hundred and twenty yards out that I
am being sixty yards out right. I don't want to
be in that range where I have to half swings
and things like that, because that's when it gets into
my head. So I definitely start walking up to it
and start getting nervous about it. Help me though, with
my body position, my balance and the stroke itself. You know.
Some have said it's just like a putting stroke that
we want to do. Others have said, make sure that
your weight is on the left, on your left foot
for a right handed golfer, so your weight is leaning forward.
Speaker 7: All right, let's outline some basics both for both of
you guys, because I got two wedge ellipsy sufferers here,
and there's probably a whole bunch of you other guys
out there that your closet edge ellipsy sufferers. I've been
there myself. Posture and setup is very important when you're
hitting a short shot. Your weight needs to be about
seventy percent on your left side. You're not doing a
lot of lower body movement in that short stroke. Your
backstroke is a shoulder turn and you want to feel
like and I think I advise this in a podcast
one or two times ago about what. Go find videos
on YouTube a steel stricker and you'll see very few
moving parts. The hands and the shoulders go back, your
hands and the shoulders go through. It all looks like
one moving part. Manage your golf swing with your body core,
not your wrists, and not your hands. This will help
you in making solid contact. And it is much more
like a putting stroke. It's like a grandfather clock, just
back and through, back and through, and it's a very
rhythmic tempo. It's not a hit at the ball. It's
a stroke, and you think of it as a long
putting stroke. And if you hit that pitch shot like
one hundred and twenty foot lag put if you're on
some big golf course with big giant greens, grip the
club lightly, particularly with the pincher fingers, the thumb and
the two fingers of your right hand, because that's where
we're going to engage our right hand coordination. In our
I hand coordination. Grip the club very lightly in those
pincher fingers, because grip tension is the killer on the shot.
If you're holding the club very lightly, Fred and Joshua,
you cannot swing quickly with a lighthold on the golf club.
It just doesn't. You can't do it. So lighten your grip,
slow down your pace, set your posture with your weight
on your left side, and think about pulling the club through.
I talked to him again. I'm going back to repeating myself,
but I talked to another podcast about you've got a
linkage here. You've got a golf club. You've got a
linkage at your wrists, at your elbow, and at your shoulder.
You've got three places this thing can hinge. So you
have an essential in essence, four links of a chain.
So what you want to do is pull a chain.
You can't push a chain right, So you pull the
club through the ball. And if you do that, the
club head is going to be the last thing to
the golf ball. The ball is positioned just back of center,
you have an narrow stance, you waits a little on
your left side. What you want to focus on is
a rhythmic, smooth, effortless stroke of the club rather than
a swing or a hit, particularly not a hit.
Speaker 1: Awesome, great, thanks Terry. Listen before we go, I have
this idea that I would like to do upcoming on
our next members only episode. I would like to invite
you to come back on and let's go through. You know,
we've been getting so many questions and obviously you can't
answer all of them, but maybe we can pick a couple.
And I'm sorry, it's going to be up to Terry
and his marketing crew whether these people get a free
web scoring club or not. But how about if we
pick two or three questions and we do a member's
only episode on the next episode. Could you come back
for that?
Speaker 7: No, that'd be great, love to do that. We'll do
a little deeper dive into some questions that take a
little more time and hopefully give your guys some real value.
SA