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