Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number four hundred and forty seven, originally published
Speaker 1: on July twenty ninth, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
Speaker 2: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets Old. Our
Speaker 2: interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
Speaker 2: like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 3: It goes from the realm of yes, I could make
Speaker 3: a home one too, how's it going to happen? What
Speaker 3: do you do? Is what I call shrinking the green. Well,
Speaker 3: let's say you're playing to a green that is circle
Speaker 3: and the flag is in the back left of the green.
Speaker 3: If you were to draw a little cross on that
Speaker 3: green to making four quadrants, and that pin happens to
Speaker 3: be in the upper left quadrant, I want you to
Speaker 3: shrink the green as if it's just that quadrant. And
Speaker 3: what that does is it takes your focus from being
Speaker 3: a very wide area to a more specific area around
Speaker 3: the whole. And with practice, that area can get smaller
Speaker 3: and smaller, and so you're focusing on a very small
Speaker 3: part of the green. Eventually just the.
Speaker 1: Whole the Frustrated Golfer's Handbook with Darren Gee.
Speaker 3: This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Golf Smarter, Darren.
Speaker 3: Aloha for Red. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm fine and happy to hear aloha again.
Speaker 3: I wish you were here in Hawaii with me. I
Speaker 3: could say it in person, but well, that's clear, you're
Speaker 3: only twenty five hundred miles away, so pop skipping a.
Speaker 1: Jump my fore would I think that would be just sufficient?
Speaker 1: Would be the forewood on that one?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, I yes, I would love to be there with you,
Speaker 1: and hopefully someday we will. I would always love to
Speaker 1: get a group of Golf Smarter listeners to meet me
Speaker 1: in Hawaii and do the academy with you, and then
Speaker 1: to go see you know, we have other golf instructors there,
Speaker 1: and it would just be so much fun to just
Speaker 1: kind of bounce around taking lessons and playing golf together.
Speaker 3: All right, let's let's plan on it.
Speaker 1: All right. Send you letters, click on the hey Fred
Speaker 1: button if you want to meet me in Hawaii, and
Speaker 1: we'll figure out a date. Sometimes in twenty fifteen, maybe
Speaker 1: we'll do episode number five hundred. Ooh, maybe we'll do
Speaker 1: episode number five hundred and two thousand right island on
Speaker 1: the Big Island. That would be a trip. Awesome. Oh wow, okay,
Speaker 1: that's a great idea. Anyway, yeah please, Okay, So folks
Speaker 1: start writing to me. Now. Episode number five hundred is
Speaker 1: going to be on August. We're now just about hit August,
Speaker 1: August fourth, twenty fifteen. It's on a Tuesday. We can
Speaker 1: record it, we can record it before then, but we'll
Speaker 1: publish it as number five hundred. And I would love
Speaker 1: to celebrate with you because it's my birthday. But it
Speaker 1: would love to celebrate that with you. So start writing
Speaker 1: to me and see if we can get a couple
Speaker 1: of people interested in going to Hawaii together in next summer. Awesome,
Speaker 1: great idea. Thank you Darren for the invitation. You know
Speaker 1: you committed to, don't you.
Speaker 3: I better put that on my calendar somewhere around.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and we'll get Jim Waldron out there too. So congratulations,
Speaker 1: you have a new book. We've we've featured the first
Speaker 1: two books on our in our golfers martt golf smarter
Speaker 1: dot com. The uh the seven Personalities, the various seven
Speaker 1: Personalities of golf right the first two, yep, and now
Speaker 1: you have a new one, which after buzzing through it,
Speaker 1: and that's the best part about it. You can buzz
Speaker 1: through this book. It belongs, it really does belong in
Speaker 1: every golfer's golf bag and in their bathroom. But and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why, because so like these, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of chapters. It's called the Frustrated Golfer's Handbook, which
Speaker 1: is perfect, and there's a lot of very short chapters
Speaker 1: and goes directly to the issue. And I I was
Speaker 1: playing last weekend, I was really struggling. I was upset
Speaker 1: with myself. And then I got your book that night
Speaker 1: off of Amazon, and I opened it up and I
Speaker 1: saw the chapters and wait, wait, that's my problem today.
Speaker 1: And so I read that chapter in you know, thirty
Speaker 1: five seconds type thing, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the next two rounds, I was back to like, okay,
Speaker 1: all good again, Thank you, Darren. It was great. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I talk about the book.
Speaker 3: Well, the title the kind of sums up the life
Speaker 3: of a golfer, The Frustrated Golfer's Handbook. And I think
Speaker 3: every golfer, whether you are the number one player in
Speaker 3: the world or you've just picked up a club for
Speaker 3: the very first time, experiences a bit of rush with
Speaker 3: this game.
Speaker 1: At some point, Oh, how generous of you to say a.
Speaker 3: I've been very kind there. At some point. It might
Speaker 3: be from the very first swing or so. But you know,
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, and you know, after working with
Speaker 3: thousands of golfers at the golf academy, at my golf
Speaker 3: academy here in Hois, I realize that there is a gap,
Speaker 3: a gap between what you know you're capable of doing
Speaker 3: and what you're actually doing. And so the key there
Speaker 3: is what you're capable of because you've done it before,
Speaker 3: you've hit that shot, you know your body can do it,
Speaker 3: but you don't do it every time. So that gap
Speaker 3: is where the frustration lies. And usually that gap is
Speaker 3: caused not by the equipment or your actual swing. It's
Speaker 3: usually a mental thing, a mental error, something that's causing
Speaker 3: you to tighten that something that's distracting you, something that's
Speaker 3: causing this turmoil within. And you know, golf is a
Speaker 3: funny game. It's the one game where there's really no
Speaker 3: opponent that's trying to do anything to you in terms
Speaker 3: of guarding you or distracting you. It's really yourself. And
Speaker 3: so that's what was the impetus for writing this, And
Speaker 3: I thought, okay, I love books that explain a lot
Speaker 3: of detail, but I also like books that can give
Speaker 3: you the quick fix, you know, something that you can
Speaker 3: look at and glance and, like you said, in thirty
Speaker 3: five seconds or less, see what the analyze your issue,
Speaker 3: say yeah, that's that's what it is, and give you
Speaker 3: a solution. And that's what this is all about. So
Speaker 3: it's really designed, like you said to you know, flip
Speaker 3: through the table of contents front through a book, you
Speaker 3: can actually just kind of flip through the pages and
Speaker 3: go to one of the fifty mental golf tricks and
Speaker 3: see how it impacts your game. And again it's for
Speaker 3: low handicappers, it's for pure beginners and everyone in between.
Speaker 1: And it's two sections, Part one, part two each are
Speaker 1: twenty five chapters, so it really there's fifty different issues
Speaker 1: that you really you just look at it and go, yep,
Speaker 1: that's what I had a problem with and and go
Speaker 1: right to it and read it. And it's calming, it's helpful,
Speaker 1: it's direct. It's so direct and to the point, and
Speaker 1: you just sit there and go oh.
Speaker 3: And yeah, and a lot of the things are. Some
Speaker 3: of them are. It will be like a big aha,
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I never really thought about that, but
Speaker 3: that's that applies to me. And for some it's just
Speaker 3: a really something you forget about, something that you take
Speaker 3: for granted, and you're like, oh, yeah, that makes a
Speaker 3: whole lot of sense. And I think that's what makes
Speaker 3: it so great is that. And that's the feedback we're
Speaker 3: getting from people who've picked up the book and people
Speaker 3: that have come to the Golf Academy and have used
Speaker 3: a lot of the mental golf trips, they say, you
Speaker 3: know that one really just applied to me at that
Speaker 3: given moment when I was playing the round. Another say, yet,
Speaker 3: and then another one was really helpful when I was
Speaker 3: in the club championship. So it really is about giving
Speaker 3: you all the different tools. And that's something that I
Speaker 3: talk a lot about with folks that I work with
Speaker 3: on their golf game, is that you want to have
Speaker 3: a bag of tricks, you know, a tool bag of
Speaker 3: tricks that you can just pull out when you need it.
Speaker 3: It's just like your tool bag at home. You know,
Speaker 3: sometimes you'll need one tool to do certain thing, and
Speaker 3: another one, and it's nice to have them all accessible.
Speaker 3: And that's what this is all about. And you mentioning
Speaker 3: that it's something you can throw in your in your
Speaker 3: golf bag, and that's that's why I called it a handbook.
Speaker 3: It's something that you you know, hopefully by the time
Speaker 3: you you grab the book, it's going to be all
Speaker 3: kind of tattered and warned because you've been using it constantly.
Speaker 3: And it's nice and light and you can throw it
Speaker 3: right into your in your bag.
Speaker 1: Well, it's even either. I wanted to mend after I
Speaker 1: said it and started listening to you, I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you don't need to put it in your golf bag.
Speaker 1: Just put it on your phone.
Speaker 3: That's right, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's downloadable, it's a there's an e book version
Speaker 1: of it. I have it on my phone and now
Speaker 1: because of the kindleap, I have it now on my iPad.
Speaker 1: I have it on my phone, and so like the
Speaker 1: other day, as I was flipping through it, I went
Speaker 1: directly to chapter forty three. Okay, I just I mean,
Speaker 1: I read the introduction, you know, find out more because
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to talk to you again. But
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, how to finish in balance. I
Speaker 1: was having trouble that day and I found myself, you know,
Speaker 1: falling away after my shots and just not being on
Speaker 1: my feet after I finished. So I went directly to
Speaker 1: that chapter. Okay, I read it, now I want to
Speaker 1: hear it from you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So basically chapter forty three is about how to
Speaker 3: finish a balance And it's a concept that I use
Speaker 3: that's helpful for a lot of things. And it's starting
Speaker 3: with the end in mind. And you've heard that before
Speaker 3: in a lot of different programs. Stephen Covey talked about
Speaker 3: it in the seventh Habits of Successful Peak. Well, is
Speaker 3: that if you start in your mind with how you
Speaker 3: want to finish, that helps you actually get through the
Speaker 3: emotion emotion to get there. So what I tell people,
Speaker 3: instead of starting, you know, setting up to the ball,
Speaker 3: start with your finish. How would you finish a perfect swing.
Speaker 3: You'd be in balance, you'd be looking straight down the
Speaker 3: fair way at where your ball ends up. And so
Speaker 3: if you start with that in mind and then you
Speaker 3: actually do it, what should What it does is it
Speaker 3: sets a trigger a series of events that helps you
Speaker 3: create that. So if you start with that finish. Then
Speaker 3: you start your back swing and then finish and go
Speaker 3: all the way through to the finish again, you'll find
Speaker 3: your balance in much much better shape. And the way
Speaker 3: I look at it, if someone finishes their swing and balance,
Speaker 3: then they had the balance throughout the entire swing and
Speaker 3: they probably struck the ball pretty darn well.
Speaker 1: So when you're saying start with your finish, are you
Speaker 1: saying mentally a mental picture in your head, or as
Speaker 1: you're taking your warm up swings, start out by being
Speaker 1: in a finished position and realize what you want to
Speaker 1: feel like there.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a little it's both actually, So a lot
Speaker 3: of these exercises are equally powerful sitting at home reading
Speaker 3: about as actually doing so I talk a lot about
Speaker 3: this with again with people, is the actual reading of
Speaker 3: the book and visualizing yourself doing it is almost as
Speaker 3: powerful as doing it itself. Okay, so this is a
Speaker 3: very strong concept to use, and you know, they've done
Speaker 3: a lot of tests. They've done it actually with a
Speaker 3: lot of Olympic athletes where they have them do their
Speaker 3: exercise and they hook them up to you know, all
Speaker 3: the they read their brain, their heart rate and so forth,
Speaker 3: blood pressure and when they're doing their their actual you know,
Speaker 3: activity or event. They measure all those those different areas
Speaker 3: and then they have them sit in a dark room,
Speaker 3: close their eyes. They hook them up again, and then
Speaker 3: they have them visualized doing that same event, start to finish,
Speaker 3: and then when they match up the data, it's almost
Speaker 3: exactly the same. So there's power in just visualizing and
Speaker 3: reading it and doing it as as equal as powerful
Speaker 3: as doing it itself. So I say do both. And
Speaker 3: for a lot of folks, you know, you don't get
Speaker 3: to play golf year round. You know you're maybe in
Speaker 3: a winter area. Fortunately, here in Hawaii we don't have winter,
Speaker 3: so that's quite nice. But so if you're if you
Speaker 3: do live in a place where there is winter, come
Speaker 3: join us out here and during your dark months. But
Speaker 3: you could just by by visualizing doing this. It's equally
Speaker 3: powerful because it triggers the same types of feelings and
Speaker 3: muscle twinges, if you will, in your body. So that
Speaker 3: being said, if you are on the range or even
Speaker 3: at home, you know, take a club and get in
Speaker 3: that finished position like you said, and feel that balance
Speaker 3: as if you just struck a perfect shot down the fairway.
Speaker 3: And then from that finished position you can actually start
Speaker 3: your golf swing. So normally you would set up to
Speaker 3: the ball and start your golf swing and your backswing
Speaker 3: from a finished position, you can start your back swing
Speaker 3: and then finish again and getting in that same balance position,
Speaker 3: it's equally powerful.
Speaker 1: The chapter before forty two is how to keep your balance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so a lot of people this whole full
Speaker 3: section here on balance, and you know, there's a little
Speaker 3: subsection within these fifty in which I talk about how
Speaker 3: important balance is. And I think that is something that
Speaker 3: people take for granted in the game of golf. So
Speaker 3: a lot of people may have, you know, a beautiful swing.
Speaker 3: They you know, they might have the right the right
Speaker 3: equipment that fits them and so forth. But if they're
Speaker 3: all centered, even by a hair, that causes them to
Speaker 3: mishit the ball. And as we know, golf is about
Speaker 3: hitting that sweet spot. So even if you're off by
Speaker 3: a fraction of an inch here and there, that's probably
Speaker 3: causing you know, mishits and so forth. So we talk
Speaker 3: about being in balance and being centered throughout the golf swing.
Speaker 3: So number forty two talks about how do you do that.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are out there and there you
Speaker 3: see them kind of swaying and moving in all different directions.
Speaker 3: One little trick that I like to do is there's
Speaker 3: the center of your body that right in the aftom
Speaker 3: and right below the belly button. And if you've ever
Speaker 3: done any martial arts, they talk a lot about that
Speaker 3: area of your body right below your belly button. That's
Speaker 3: where your powers emanates from. You talk to a boxer,
Speaker 3: that's where they actually punch from right there, and that
Speaker 3: is where you also can keep your center during the
Speaker 3: golf swing. So what I tell people is imagine a
Speaker 3: bungee cord connected from your belt buckle down to the
Speaker 3: tee or the area right below the ball. Now, with
Speaker 3: a bungee cord, it stretches, but it also keeps. You know,
Speaker 3: there's a little spring to it, so as you turn,
Speaker 3: you're still connected to that sweet to that point where
Speaker 3: the ball is through the bungee cord. But with the
Speaker 3: with the whoa, hey, there's our friend. Okay, there's our mascot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly, that's the dog. That's my dog. Tea
Speaker 1: green tree. I'm sorry to interrupt.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, yep, Well, I beg your dog liked this one.
Speaker 3: So that's it. That was the gallery of plotting. So yeah,
Speaker 3: so basically the budget, but the bungee cord does it.
Speaker 3: It keeps you centered, keeps you connected, keeps you balanced
Speaker 3: throughout the entire swing, even through your backswing and the
Speaker 3: follow through. So it's a very powerful tool because if
Speaker 3: a lot of people say, well how can I keep centered?
Speaker 3: And if you if you're too richid you you say, oh,
Speaker 3: it's just like you know, a pole holding you, then
Speaker 3: you you're not you'd lose the flexibility. But the nice
Speaker 3: thing about a bunch of cord you can use that
Speaker 3: imagery of it's being flexible for you to make your turn,
Speaker 3: but also keeps you connected at the same time. It's
Speaker 3: a great tool to maintain balance. And again the goal
Speaker 3: is strike that ball in the sweet spot. You know
Speaker 3: when I get there, and then it goes where you
Speaker 3: want it to go.
Speaker 1: I don't want to dispute you. You said golf is
Speaker 1: about hitting the sweet spot. I think golf is more
Speaker 1: about recovering from your mistakes in your errors. Well, it's
Speaker 1: funny because a series of disasters, like life, golf is
Speaker 1: just a series of disasters, and it's it's about how
Speaker 1: you handle it. I mean, you talk about the metal
Speaker 1: game all the time. I mean, isn't it really how
Speaker 1: you handle it, because you're going to have more I
Speaker 1: mean people at you know, players at my level and
Speaker 1: what you know, like like this that are amateurs and
Speaker 1: out for fun. I think it's more we have more
Speaker 1: shots that were frustrated over than that we're really happy about.
Speaker 1: But thankfully there are four or five shots around that,
Speaker 1: especially in the eighteenth hole always it makes it go okay,
Speaker 1: I want to come back, but the rest but the
Speaker 1: rest of the day is being a frustrated golfer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that sums it up for any level.
Speaker 3: I mean even you know, the top guys on tour
Speaker 3: when they go and they play around, even when they
Speaker 3: play a great, great round, it's not one hundred percent perfect.
Speaker 3: Oftentimes they'll say, you hear the interviews and from the
Speaker 3: guys and gals after it around, they'll say, you know,
Speaker 3: I struck the ball pretty well, but you know, there's
Speaker 3: this theory I can work on in that area that
Speaker 3: can work on and like you said, and the same
Speaker 3: goes for the weekend golfer. You might hit two or
Speaker 3: three really great shots and the rest are not, as
Speaker 3: you know, not to your desire. So really it's all
Speaker 3: about how you handle that. I agree with you one
Speaker 3: hundred percent, Fred, It's about managing your your yourself around
Speaker 3: the golf course and recovering from each shot. And the
Speaker 3: way you do it is you just focus on one shot,
Speaker 3: that next shot. You can't dwell on the past too much.
Speaker 3: I tell people learn from what you've done, the good
Speaker 3: and the bad and unfortunately sometimes the ugly. But when
Speaker 3: you get to the next shot, it's a new, brand,
Speaker 3: new beginning and that one could be the best. So
Speaker 3: I kind of tell people you got a blank the slate,
Speaker 3: blank the slate every time you step up to the
Speaker 3: next shot and start fresh from there and again then
Speaker 3: you move on to the next one. So it's a
Speaker 3: series of really handling those different ups and downs of
Speaker 3: around and the people that can do that actually end
Speaker 3: up playing the best. It's funny. Sometimes you'll go out
Speaker 3: and you'll get matched up with someone you don't know,
Speaker 3: and and you know you played around the golf and
Speaker 3: the really really good players you don't really notice them.
Speaker 3: You know, they hit a shot and then they if
Speaker 3: it's not a great shot, then they don't make a
Speaker 3: big fuss about it, and then they you know they
Speaker 3: they treat the next one and recover, but they're not
Speaker 3: always tee to green, hitting every fairway every green, but
Speaker 3: how they handle themselves and that is the major difference
Speaker 3: between you know, playing to your potential and being frustrated,
Speaker 3: is that you handle those different situations and the adversity
Speaker 3: that you face similar to like life. I agree with
Speaker 3: you on that on too, Fred.
Speaker 1: So do you mind if we I just pick random
Speaker 1: chapters throughout the book and we can get your take
Speaker 1: on each of these and why you choose to put
Speaker 1: that in the book.
Speaker 3: You bet, you bet awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then tell me first, what is it that
Speaker 1: separates part one from part two? What's the content difference
Speaker 1: that you decided you needed twenty five chapters on this
Speaker 1: in twenty five chapters on that?
Speaker 3: Well, I think golfers look for ways to improve their
Speaker 3: game in many different ways. And you think about it.
Speaker 3: We spend part of our golf seeing time on the
Speaker 3: golf course, but we spend a lot of it on
Speaker 3: the range as well. So I divided it into two sections.
Speaker 3: One is what you could do while you're playing, because
Speaker 3: that's when you need it in the heat of battle,
Speaker 3: if you will, And what you can do to improve
Speaker 3: your game when you're not playing and you're off the
Speaker 3: golf course, and that includes actually, you know, being on
Speaker 3: the drive having range, but also what do you do
Speaker 3: in preparation other than being on the driving range. So
Speaker 3: one of the exercises I talk about is is how
Speaker 3: can you play you know, a great round of golf
Speaker 3: is before you even get up there. And I say, well,
Speaker 3: it's got to sleep, And people like, what a what
Speaker 3: are you talking about? Well, the night before, when before
Speaker 3: you play around the golf while you're going to sleep,
Speaker 3: just you know, close your eyes and visualize yourself playing
Speaker 3: that round, that great round the next morning. And something
Speaker 3: that all great athletes do is they visualize themselves in
Speaker 3: that heat of battle, if you will, playing the great game,
Speaker 3: doing great you know, making great shots, great passes, everything clicking,
Speaker 3: and they see where they want to be. So going
Speaker 3: to sleep is one of the exercises that you can
Speaker 3: do off the golf course and visualize yourself hitting great
Speaker 3: shot after great shot, and it actually sets the tone
Speaker 3: for the next morning. Number four get I divided it
Speaker 3: on the golf course and off the golf course.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, no, that makes sense. But then I want
Speaker 1: to say, you know, you talk about the visualization Number
Speaker 1: fourteen is how to visualize what you can't see? What
Speaker 1: does that mean? And where are you driving at here? H?
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: Well, this is in reference to reading greens. So my
Speaker 3: golf academy, a lot of folks come up and say,
Speaker 3: you know, I really have a hard time reading greens.
Speaker 3: I can't see the breaks. In fact, I just worked
Speaker 3: with a woman a week ago Tuesday, and she says,
Speaker 3: you know, I really don't see all the subtleties that
Speaker 3: are out here. And so what I teach people is
Speaker 3: that it really is all just a guessing game. So
Speaker 3: the people that read the greens, they're guessing as to
Speaker 3: how the ball might get from A to B where
Speaker 3: the ball is now and into the hole. And so
Speaker 3: what I tell people is that even if you can't see,
Speaker 3: if you don't visualize a line, or if you're very
Speaker 3: good at usually but you're not sure, you can trick
Speaker 3: yourself into actually creating a line. And so what I
Speaker 3: tell people is, this is like if I was to
Speaker 3: give you, let's say, a thousand bucks, to come up
Speaker 3: with a path that you think the ball will follow
Speaker 3: from A to B, A being where your ball is
Speaker 3: and B being the hole. I'll give you a thousand
Speaker 3: bucks and I just want you to, you know, take
Speaker 3: a take, take your putter and trace a line, you know,
Speaker 3: any line. What would you do? Okay, And just that
Speaker 3: little impetus of saying, you know, don't try to you know,
Speaker 3: don't overread it. You're not trying to read a green
Speaker 3: and get the ball, mall. Just draw a line. And
Speaker 3: literally people will go up there who have no idea
Speaker 3: what it's going to do, and they draw a path
Speaker 3: and they might draw a straight line or a curve line,
Speaker 3: depending on what they think it's going to do. That
Speaker 3: in their mind says, oh, I get it. Now there's
Speaker 3: a connection between where I am and where I want
Speaker 3: to be. And so that's why I tell people, if
Speaker 3: you can't see a line, fake it. Draw a line
Speaker 3: in your mind. And I often like to talk about,
Speaker 3: you know, it's imagine if you had a marker, you
Speaker 3: could draw a line, or you had talk and you
Speaker 3: could drop a chalk line to from from the ball
Speaker 3: to the hole. What would that look like? And just
Speaker 3: by doing that, that gives you the confidence to step
Speaker 3: up and hit that ball along that path. And even
Speaker 3: if you know you're great at reading greens and experience
Speaker 3: that it. You know, nothing is saying that what you
Speaker 3: read is going to be a science because the green's uneven. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, the grass doesn't grow evenly. There's moisture, there's
Speaker 3: all these different things. There's you know, sand that specs
Speaker 3: of dust on there. So even if you hit the
Speaker 3: ball along your path, no guarantee it's going to go
Speaker 3: in the hole. But what it does is it sets
Speaker 3: a direction. So it's sort of like when you get
Speaker 3: in a boat, you set your course. And when you're
Speaker 3: in the boat, you're on the ocean or on the lake,
Speaker 3: you know you don't follow it exactly. If you look
Speaker 3: at the minute details of how a boat goes, it
Speaker 3: kind of zigzags. It's always making a little course correction
Speaker 3: along its path, but it has a goal to get
Speaker 3: from A to B. Otherwise they would kind of move
Speaker 3: about randomly. So that's what you're trying to do here
Speaker 3: is set a set a path from where you where
Speaker 3: you are with your shot and where you wanted to go,
Speaker 3: and then you you you see that you draw that line,
Speaker 3: it provides you with the path, and then that's half
Speaker 3: the battle right there, and you step up and knock
Speaker 3: the ball along your path and and you know it
Speaker 3: doesn't go in every time. But if you can say
Speaker 3: with confidence that you had that goal in mind to
Speaker 3: get the ball in the hole, you saw that line,
Speaker 3: or you drew that line, and you went for it,
Speaker 3: then that's a good shot. And that's that's what that
Speaker 3: fe's all about, Okay, really about how to do something
Speaker 3: that you're not necessarily confident about, you're not sure about.
Speaker 3: It puts a confidence in your game right away.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're familiar with the ame point putting system
Speaker 1: which we talked to Mark Sweeney about and trying to
Speaker 1: find the fall line, which has helped me like where
Speaker 1: is where is the line that is going to be
Speaker 1: a straight line to the hole if you walk around
Speaker 1: the hole and see where the ball is just going
Speaker 1: to go very straight to go into the hole, which
Speaker 1: is also complicated for a lot of people. So I
Speaker 1: guess what you want to remind people? And the thing
Speaker 1: that helped me the most in the very beginning with
Speaker 1: reading the Putts was thinking about gravity. I mean, greens
Speaker 1: are designed to not be flat because the water's got
Speaker 1: to roll off of it.
Speaker 3: Well, where that's right?
Speaker 1: What is the direction the water's going to go. Use
Speaker 1: gravity and try to make the line that.
Speaker 3: Way right, and then that's a perfect that's actually the
Speaker 3: twelfth chapter. It's called you know, going going with the flow.
Speaker 3: If you were to if the green was cement, if
Speaker 3: you will, and you poured a bucket of water, where
Speaker 3: would the water flow. The water flows with the hill
Speaker 3: or with gravity, and that's where the ball is going
Speaker 3: to go. So that's a very helpful tool, I think
Speaker 3: for a lot of folks that say, you know, I
Speaker 3: don't know how to read the green, and that kind
Speaker 3: of puts it in perspective for them.
Speaker 1: Obviously one I like that, But I got to say
Speaker 1: that obviously the editor got a hold of the book
Speaker 1: after you wrote it, because number twelve is actually called
Speaker 1: how to see the Break, not go with the flow.
Speaker 3: Well, it's how to see the break and go with
Speaker 3: the flow, and.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what you just did. Very nice recovery, sir,
Speaker 1: you bet what were you about to? I'm sorry for interrupting.
Speaker 1: What were you gonna say?
Speaker 3: No, it's another tool that we we like to use
Speaker 3: on how to read the greens, and it's mentioned in
Speaker 3: the book as well as as you know you imagine
Speaker 3: you're you're you're looking at you're on the bank of
Speaker 3: a river, and the water is flowing obviously in one direction.
Speaker 3: If you were to throw a leaf in there into
Speaker 3: the river, the river, the leaf would go with the
Speaker 3: flow of the water. So same type of thing. If
Speaker 3: you were to hit a putt, it would go with
Speaker 3: the flow of the water. And that helps people again
Speaker 3: visualize and see the break and go with the flow.
Speaker 1: Can go with the flow. Dude, you're from Hawaii. Got
Speaker 1: to give the sign. That's it. So all right, I'm
Speaker 1: bounce to another chapter. And this is actually relevant to around.
Speaker 1: I was playing yesterday friend and I and it was
Speaker 1: an incredibly hot day and I and I like this course.
Speaker 1: I like walking this course that I was playing Foxtail
Speaker 1: North Open Rohnert Park. But it's like a six and
Speaker 1: a half seven mile walk. It's a really long walk,
Speaker 1: fair fairly flat, so I don't have a problem with that,
Speaker 1: But that long of a walk in ninety plus degree heat,
Speaker 1: I really wasn't in the mood for walking because we
Speaker 1: were entertaining that day. So so I, a friend and
Speaker 1: I were in a golf cart and the two other
Speaker 1: people that were with us one got matched with us,
Speaker 1: and this guy was walking carrying his bag. And then
Speaker 1: the third guy was a newbie, someone who really knew
Speaker 1: to the point where he didn't know that you can't
Speaker 1: grind your club in a bunker, that you know that
Speaker 1: you don't walk up. I mean, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of the new stuff that iway was had to, you know,
Speaker 1: give him some instruction. I said, do you mind if
Speaker 1: I share something? No, no, please help me. All right.
Speaker 1: First of all, if you're going to talk to the guy,
Speaker 1: you can't stand there and talk. You got to keep moving,
Speaker 1: pick up the pace, let's go. Huh. So by the
Speaker 1: end of the round, so these two guys, the walking
Speaker 1: guy and the newbie, were really slow and it was
Speaker 1: driving us crazy. And when we were done with the round,
Speaker 1: my playing partner was getting so frustrated he was like
Speaker 1: he practically he just gave up. He said, you know
Speaker 1: what this, I'm feeling rushed all the time because these
Speaker 1: people behind us are on our butts and we can't
Speaker 1: get these guys to move faster. And he was so
Speaker 1: frustrated he just said, stop scoring for me. I don't
Speaker 1: care anymore. And when we were done with the round,
Speaker 1: it took us four hours and we were both so
Speaker 1: surprised because I've played that course in over five because
Speaker 1: of the long walk. So your chapter number nine, I
Speaker 1: want to give to him how to relax when being rushed? Please,
Speaker 1: we need to tip on that one.
Speaker 3: Well, it's I think that's one of the biggest frustrations
Speaker 3: for golfers is when you know, you look behind you
Speaker 3: and there's four people standing there, one of them with
Speaker 3: his his or hair, hands on the hips, you know,
Speaker 3: the other wave in the club, and they're just always
Speaker 3: on your tail. So they want to finish their round
Speaker 3: in two hours and you want to enjoy your round
Speaker 3: and sub four. So to me, that is is really frustrating,
Speaker 3: and I think it's for everybody. I mean, whenever there's
Speaker 3: a group behind you, you feel like there's a tension.
Speaker 3: And so what I tell people is to be ready. Okay,
Speaker 3: when it's your turn to hit your shot, be ready,
Speaker 3: and you can rush, but rush in between your shots.
Speaker 3: So what that means is when after you hit, you know,
Speaker 3: and you're moving as a group, you can rush all
Speaker 3: you want, Okay, you can sprint if you want to
Speaker 3: between your shots, but once it's time to hit your ball,
Speaker 3: that's your time, okay, so that's when you slow down.
Speaker 3: So it's really the chapter title is called how to
Speaker 3: Relax when being Rushed and the sub is subtitle is
Speaker 3: be ready and then slow down. So when it's your turn,
Speaker 3: have your club that you want to hit, you know,
Speaker 3: select that club ahead of time while your brother playing
Speaker 3: partners are hitting, think through your shot, and then once
Speaker 3: it's your turn, that's when you slow down to your
Speaker 3: regular paces if you're playing by yourself with no one
Speaker 3: else around, because that's your time. And what that's gonna
Speaker 3: do is one or one of two things. One is
Speaker 3: it's gonna get you back into playing mode, because in
Speaker 3: between shots, you're not in playing mode, you're in being
Speaker 3: on the golf course mode. When it's time to hit
Speaker 3: your shot, you slow down, you get into your pace
Speaker 3: and rhythm even though you're being rushed from behind, and
Speaker 3: you make a great shot, and that's going to save
Speaker 3: time more than anything else. A lot of times people
Speaker 3: they might have happened to your buddy, is you're rushing
Speaker 3: to stay ahead of you know, the group behind. You're rushing, rushing, rushing,
Speaker 3: in between shots, and then you rush your shot and
Speaker 3: what happens you don't hit a great shot, and then
Speaker 3: you have to do it all over again, and so
Speaker 3: you add shots to year round, which then slows the
Speaker 3: game more than anything else. So I tell people be
Speaker 3: ready when it's your turn to hit, have your club selected,
Speaker 3: and then once it's your turn, that's your time. You
Speaker 3: honor it. You slow down to your regular pace as
Speaker 3: if there's no one else on the golf course to
Speaker 3: make your best shot, and then you're playing great golf.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the advice that I would give
Speaker 3: to any golfer out there, whether they be a PGA
Speaker 3: pro playing in a tournament and if they're on the clock,
Speaker 3: rush in between your shots. But once it's time to
Speaker 3: be hit your shot, you go back into your regular pace.
Speaker 1: As one of the things I learned from one of
Speaker 1: the very first episodes of Golf Smarter, which is walk fast,
Speaker 1: swing slow. There you go, Okay, I want to go
Speaker 1: to number twenty three. This is all in part one
Speaker 1: still twenty three. How to play business golf? What do
Speaker 1: you mean?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you often hear that there's no better
Speaker 3: golf than business golf. But for a lot of people
Speaker 3: though that that's not the case, because business golf is
Speaker 3: when you're going out with a purpose other than just
Speaker 3: playing golf. If you're going out with your buddies on
Speaker 3: the weekend, it's it's to play out, play golf and have,
Speaker 3: you know, have a good time. Business golf usually means
Speaker 3: that you're taking out a client, maybe you're playing with
Speaker 3: your boss, you're playing with another colleague, and there's a
Speaker 3: purpose other than just playing golf. And for a lot
Speaker 3: of folks that is very hard for them to juggle
Speaker 3: between the two. They see it as as something that
Speaker 3: they can they stress out at. So either one of
Speaker 3: two things happens for them. Either they play terrible golf
Speaker 3: because they're just so focused on, you know, trying to
Speaker 3: manage the business side of the of the event, or
Speaker 3: vice versa. They play great golf, but then they totally
Speaker 3: forget about, you know, the business side. So what I
Speaker 3: tell people is you need to be able to flip
Speaker 3: the switch when you're playing business golf. So flipping the
Speaker 3: switch means that there's two different things happening out there.
Speaker 3: One is you're there for a purpose of you know,
Speaker 3: for business of some sort, and the other purpose is golf.
Speaker 3: So I switched. I tell people to create two different
Speaker 3: separate events. Event one is playing golf. Event two is
Speaker 3: the business interaction that you have. And when it's your
Speaker 3: turn to hit your shot, you think, okay, Event one,
Speaker 3: I'm playing golf. You move into golf mode. You strike,
Speaker 3: you strike the ball, and after you strike the ball,
Speaker 3: then you switch back to event two business, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, talking about whatever you may be talking about
Speaker 3: with your your playing partners. And just by having that,
Speaker 3: you know, that switch, if you will, to turn it
Speaker 3: on and off, allows you to realize what mode you're
Speaker 3: in and it frees you up so that you can
Speaker 3: separate the two while they're happening out there. And for
Speaker 3: a lot of folks that get kind of they get
Speaker 3: stuck in between it's this business is this golf as
Speaker 3: businesses is golf, and then that's what they get. They
Speaker 3: kind of get that mediocre reaction and mediocre results. So
Speaker 3: by switching it to on and off on for event
Speaker 3: one golf, on for event too, business and vice versa,
Speaker 3: that allows them the freedom to actually do one or
Speaker 3: the other at the same time. And what they'll find
Speaker 3: is that they'll have great they'll play great golf, and
Speaker 3: the business will take care of itself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but be careful you if you're going out with
Speaker 1: a potential client or potential boss, you don't necessarily want
Speaker 1: to play great golf, right, you want to play to
Speaker 1: their level of golf.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, it's funny because that's another one. I have
Speaker 3: to write a whole other book on that one, how
Speaker 3: to how to play well but not too well.
Speaker 1: Exactly how to hold back. As everybody is well aware,
Speaker 1: golf exposes character in so many ways that you don't
Speaker 1: see in normal life, how a person handles themselves in situations.
Speaker 1: And one of the best pieces of advice I've ever
Speaker 1: received about the business golf aspect is that you don't
Speaker 1: do business on the course. You learn if you want
Speaker 1: to do business with that person while on the course,
Speaker 1: and then you you know, you see, do they swear?
Speaker 1: Do they throw their club? Do they take things in stride?
Speaker 1: Do they you know, do they cheat?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: These are things you really need to know before you
Speaker 1: go into a business situation with somebody. So then if
Speaker 1: you've decided, Okay, this guy's all right, I think that
Speaker 1: we could work together, then you do the business in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth hole and sitting down and having whether you're
Speaker 1: having some iced tea or you're having a beer or
Speaker 1: you're having mixed drinks. Sitting down at a round of
Speaker 1: golf with people after the round is so interesting. How
Speaker 1: you get people to open up quickly.
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, and it's fun. This is for all the
Speaker 3: folks that have been reluctant to take up the game
Speaker 3: of golf and because they're fearful of embarrassment or so
Speaker 3: forth not being as good as their fellow colleagues. But
Speaker 3: what we teach people is that it doesn't have to
Speaker 3: be that way. You can separate it into two separate events.
Speaker 3: When you're playing quote unquote business golf, and I call
Speaker 3: it event one golf and event two business. So when
Speaker 3: it's time to hit your shot, that's the event one.
Speaker 3: Focus on playing the best golf, hitting the best shot possible.
Speaker 3: Once you hit your shot, the SHOT's done, then you
Speaker 3: go back to event two, which is business. And then
Speaker 3: you can go back to just you know, talking with
Speaker 3: your client or with your boss about whatever may be
Speaker 3: the topic at hand. And that way it separates the two.
Speaker 3: You don't feel like you have to mess it, and
Speaker 3: you can separate actually playing some pretty good golf and
Speaker 3: having fun and separate that and still have a good business.
Speaker 3: Event while you're on the golf course.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go part two. All right, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: let's move to part two. Now we're talking about your
Speaker 1: play on the course. And again this is all from
Speaker 1: the Frustrated Golfer's Handbook, which is available in the Golfers
Speaker 1: Mart number thirty. How to Sink Putts from any distance.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, Well it's funny because this is the one
Speaker 4: This is the the part of the game where I
Speaker 4: tell people.
Speaker 3: That technically you can make a shot from any distance.
Speaker 1: Technically, not if you're trying.
Speaker 3: That's the problem. That's the problem. You try too are
Speaker 3: that you kind of start putting walls up, So even
Speaker 3: if you have a hundred foot putt, technically the ball
Speaker 3: could go in the hole. So that around that possibility
Speaker 3: is what people need to keep, you know, that inkling
Speaker 3: of possibility is what people need to be open to.
Speaker 3: And one of the most important things that you know,
Speaker 3: and I work with people on this all the time,
Speaker 3: is so you know, I often ask them before they
Speaker 3: hit a putt, you know, what do you want? And
Speaker 3: I get the funniest answers. A lot of people say, well,
Speaker 3: I just want to you know, hit it in the
Speaker 3: general in that direction, or they'll say I don't want
Speaker 3: a three putt, or I just want to get it
Speaker 3: within ten feet of the hole or five feet a
Speaker 3: hole or three feet of the hole. I go, why
Speaker 3: don't you just want to get the ball in the hole.
Speaker 3: That's the whole point of the game, right, isn't that
Speaker 3: a thrill? They go, and then they think about it,
Speaker 3: and I go, yeah, I want to get the ball
Speaker 3: in the hole. So that's what we started with, is like,
Speaker 3: you can make any putt from any distance. And that's
Speaker 3: the big revelation that I want people to understand or experience,
Speaker 3: just that the possibility that you can make any putt
Speaker 3: from any distance. So this exercise starts with that premise,
Speaker 3: and this this mental golf trick, and it's how to
Speaker 3: sing putts from any distances. And it's what I call
Speaker 3: the spiral exercise. So a lot of times when I
Speaker 3: see people warm up for around, you know, they hit
Speaker 3: maybe hit a few balls, or they'll just go to
Speaker 3: the putting green and sometimes they'll drop the ball and
Speaker 3: they'll be, you know, fifty feet from the hole and
Speaker 3: they'll start blackened putts. And I say, if you want
Speaker 3: to build the confidence that you want when you're on
Speaker 3: the golf course. Start small, okay, So start your first
Speaker 3: putt from about six inches okay, and step up and
Speaker 3: knock that ball in the hole. Then with this exercise,
Speaker 3: you're going to spiral your way out, so you're going
Speaker 3: to move it out to a foot, but move it
Speaker 3: over to the side, okay. So you're going to be
Speaker 3: making sort of like a conk shell, making a nautilus shell,
Speaker 3: if you will, around the hole. So you'll hit one
Speaker 3: from a foot and then you'll move it out to
Speaker 3: a foot and a half moving around the hole, then
Speaker 3: to two feet two and a half. And you'll find
Speaker 3: that by doing this exercise, by starting with a six
Speaker 3: inch putt and then working your way up gradually, before
Speaker 3: you'll know it, you'll be hitting putts from any distance.
Speaker 3: And this is an excellent, excellent exercise to number one,
Speaker 3: build your confidence, but realize that you can strike a
Speaker 3: putt from any distance and do well. This is also
Speaker 3: a great exercise for those people. And when I say
Speaker 3: those people, I mean everybody. Every golfer. Is that everybody
Speaker 3: has what we call that, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 3: the burp zone, that zone of putts in which we
Speaker 3: have some type of mental hurdles. So for a lot
Speaker 3: of people, it's that four to six foot range. Anything
Speaker 3: inside four feet they can just go ahead and step
Speaker 3: up and they feel pretty confidence. Anything beyond that six
Speaker 3: foot range, you know, they hit And I think why
Speaker 3: they have this burp zone, if you will, is it
Speaker 3: has to do with expectations. So for a lot of
Speaker 3: peop anything inside four feet they're like, yeah, that's close enough,
Speaker 3: I know I can make that. And then anything beyond
Speaker 3: six feet they say, well, I'm just going to go
Speaker 3: for it because there's really no it could go in.
Speaker 3: It could not. But then at four to six they
Speaker 3: start to get, you know, kind of hazy. They're like,
Speaker 3: I should make this, I should be making this, and
Speaker 3: they get a little tense and a little nervous. So
Speaker 3: this spiral exercise, by just going in six engines increments
Speaker 3: around the hole will shatter that little bourb zone of yours.
Speaker 3: So try it out there. I know a lot of
Speaker 3: people will experience that on the golf course. Try this
Speaker 3: on the putting green and you'll see how how amazing
Speaker 3: it is for you to hit puts from again any distance.
Speaker 3: So when you see this thing puts from any distance,
Speaker 3: I mean I don't mean just long distances. I mean
Speaker 3: also in that little burb zone as well, and that
Speaker 3: is really powerful for the you know, the low to
Speaker 3: mid handicapper that experiences that a few times every round
Speaker 3: the golf.
Speaker 1: Okay, now I got it. I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: on to a chapter forty eight how to go from
Speaker 1: ranged course. We just did an episode, whole episode with
Speaker 1: Ken Doherty on that, but I you know, talking about
Speaker 1: going from the range to the course and on hitting
Speaker 1: every putt from any distance. I did something this weekend
Speaker 1: that I've never done before that worked, I thought worked
Speaker 1: very well for me. And the testimony of that is
Speaker 1: this round that I played the other day. I had
Speaker 1: thirty putts in a round and I was very happy.
Speaker 1: That's a really good round of putting for me. And
Speaker 1: I shot in eighty four. But the round before that,
Speaker 1: I shot in eighty eight and I had forty putts,
Speaker 1: and I was really upset with myself. There was too
Speaker 1: many three putts going on, and you know, no one putts,
Speaker 1: no up and downs. So before this round that I
Speaker 1: had the thirty putts, I was on the putting green
Speaker 1: warming up before the round, and my playing partner came
Speaker 1: over and I said, and he took a couple and
Speaker 1: I said, all right, you know what, it's so hard
Speaker 1: to really focus on what it feels like to putt
Speaker 1: here on the putting green when you got four balls.
Speaker 1: So here's what I want to do. Putting on the
Speaker 1: putting green. There's always pressure to try to get it in.
Speaker 1: So let's have some pressure. So let's just pick a hole.
Speaker 1: We each get three balls. You shot, shoot, I'll shoot,
Speaker 1: you shoot, but make a competition out of it. Put
Speaker 1: some pressure on it on the practice putting green. And
Speaker 1: boy did that translate to for me on the on
Speaker 1: the course.
Speaker 3: Well, it's one of those it's one of the exercise
Speaker 3: practice the way you want to play. Yeah, yeah, practice
Speaker 3: way you want to play. So a lot of times
Speaker 3: you'll see folks, you know, on the driving range. They'll grab,
Speaker 3: you know, that that big megabucket of one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty ball and they'll just start whacking away like a
Speaker 3: machine gun. And I'm like, you know, how often do
Speaker 3: you get to hit balls on the golf course like that? Right? Never? Right?
Speaker 3: So I say every now and then, you know, there's
Speaker 3: tients start doing drills and working on different skills. Step
Speaker 3: back behind a ball on the driving range and imagine
Speaker 3: you're on the golf course. Put yourself, you know, in
Speaker 3: your frame of mind as if you're on the golf
Speaker 3: of course, and go through your pre shot ritual and
Speaker 3: strike that ball as if you're playing same thing on
Speaker 3: the putting green, saying, you know, the the biggest thing
Speaker 3: that you hear these little kids, you know, they say,
Speaker 3: you know, they talk themselves as if they're in a situation.
Speaker 3: Here I am on the seventy second hole at the
Speaker 3: Augusta Nasenaal. You know, the whole Bill Murray thing, right,
Speaker 3: But there is a certain element of putting yourself in
Speaker 3: those situations. And and you know, I think if you
Speaker 3: ask every great athlete, the top athletes of all time,
Speaker 3: if you interview them in any sport, you say, you know,
Speaker 3: what did you do as a kid? Did you and
Speaker 3: they'll eat Everyone will probably have a story of I
Speaker 3: imagine myself I was the broadcaster explaining, you know, creating
Speaker 3: the situation, and they put themselves in this situation. A
Speaker 3: five seconds left on the clock, down by two, going down,
Speaker 3: dribbling down in the corner, hid putting up to you know,
Speaker 3: the three pointer as the buzzer is going off swiss.
Speaker 3: You know, you put yourself in those situations and that's
Speaker 3: yeah exactly, the crowd goes off same being in golf.
Speaker 3: So creating those situations on the putting green, whether you're
Speaker 3: when you're with a buddy, you can you know play,
Speaker 3: you know match just like you said, hit three balls,
Speaker 3: put a little pressure, you bet against yourself and that
Speaker 3: that kind of helps you experience what you would experience
Speaker 3: on the golf course before getting out there. And then
Speaker 3: that's one of the things that I think a lot
Speaker 3: of people do, uh that that throws them off, is
Speaker 3: they don't get in those situations prior or in practice,
Speaker 3: and so they're experiencing it for the first time on
Speaker 3: the golf course. So what you talked about there with
Speaker 3: your buddy is perfect. It kind of sets you up
Speaker 3: to actually practice the way you want to play, and
Speaker 3: it gives you the tools to do it.
Speaker 1: How can you actually get away with writing a chapter
Speaker 1: called how to shoot your best score? You know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: today was my best score. I didn't even realize it
Speaker 1: until I looked at my scorecard. Because if I look
Speaker 1: at my scorecard, I'll never hit my best score.
Speaker 3: Well, It's funny because you know, how to show your
Speaker 3: best score is all about being in the moment for
Speaker 3: each and every shot, and I think that's really powerful.
Speaker 3: And how you do it is a lot of times
Speaker 3: that best score is already there. You know. The old
Speaker 3: at is. I had a teacher once we all showed
Speaker 3: up the first day and and and she said, Okay,
Speaker 3: everybody here right now has an A. Everyone has a hundred, right,
Speaker 3: and everyone starts that way, and now it's your your
Speaker 3: goal to keep it right. And that's what I tell
Speaker 3: people when they play golf is think about that best
Speaker 3: round you've ever played. Think about that best hole you've played,
Speaker 3: or that playing a real good hole, or hitting that
Speaker 3: great shot. You've already done it. You have that in
Speaker 3: your hip pockets. Okay, it's now just allowing it to
Speaker 3: happen again, because if you did it once, that to
Speaker 3: me shows that you're capable of doing it again. So
Speaker 3: how to shoot your best round is realizing that you
Speaker 3: are you can already do it, and you've already done it.
Speaker 3: So that one is number forty nine. I believe it is.
Speaker 3: And it's like the go to sleep. And that's that's
Speaker 3: what I talked about earlier today, isn't that if you're
Speaker 3: playing around the next day, when you go to bed
Speaker 3: the night before, imagine that you've already shot that that
Speaker 3: great roalm that you're capable of shooting. So visualization is
Speaker 3: all it is, is simply imagining yourself doing something. So
Speaker 3: imagine yourself on the first t if it's of course
Speaker 3: you've played, if it's your home course, or you're familiar
Speaker 3: with it, getting on that first tee teeing it up,
Speaker 3: seeing where you want that ball to end up, hitting
Speaker 3: that perfect drive and then going to know your where
Speaker 3: you're fall ends up grabbing that eight iron and hitting
Speaker 3: that perfect shot right to the to the to the
Speaker 3: green and making the putt. So go through each and
Speaker 3: every shot one by one in your mind, and what
Speaker 3: it does is you realize that, yeah, I can do this,
Speaker 3: I can hit good shots, I can play great golf,
Speaker 3: and it's already there. I just need to go out
Speaker 3: and let myself do it. And that's what I mean
Speaker 3: by how to get you know, shoot your best score well.
Speaker 1: Playing with confidence. It's the It's the I found to
Speaker 1: be the greatest thing for any round of golf if
Speaker 1: you're playing with confidence. And what Jim Waldron calls positive indifference.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like if you put pressure on it.
Speaker 1: You know you're confident, but if you put pressure on it,
Speaker 1: it's not going to go in. It's those shots where
Speaker 1: you're just like, I don't care anymore, and of course
Speaker 1: it drops in. So the positive but the confidence is huge,
Speaker 1: and it is sport.
Speaker 3: And I think it's it's confidence in that because sometimes
Speaker 3: it's one of those things where you show up the
Speaker 3: golf course one day and first whatever reason, your muscles,
Speaker 3: your coordination, it's not firing on all cylinders. Okay, maybe
Speaker 3: it just didn't have a great night's sleep, maybe you're
Speaker 3: sore from you know, working out a couple of days ago,
Speaker 3: or maybe just you know, it's one of those days
Speaker 3: things just aren't in sync. But you can go out
Speaker 3: there with the right mental frame, Like you said, confidence
Speaker 3: in your game. That is what keeps you going until
Speaker 3: everything starts to sagnight. So a lot of times when
Speaker 3: you're playing golf, you might be kind of just puttering along,
Speaker 3: no pun intended there, and you're not striking the ball
Speaker 3: too well, you're not scoring great, but knowing knowing that
Speaker 3: you're capable of in any moment everything. Switching with one
Speaker 3: swing is a huge, huge confidence builder. So again, let's
Speaker 3: say you're playing on a Saturday and you're really excited
Speaker 3: about your round. You've done all you know you want
Speaker 3: to do, you visualize, you do the practice, you're really
Speaker 3: pumped up, but you're just not scoring or you're not
Speaker 3: hitting the ball as well as you'd like. Have the
Speaker 3: confidence to realize that with just one shot and it
Speaker 3: could be the next shot, it could all change. Because
Speaker 3: eighteen holes over a four hour period, or you know,
Speaker 3: one shot is just one shot, You're going to have
Speaker 3: a lot of opportunities. So be confident in that and
Speaker 3: trust your game that and be patient and it will come.
Speaker 3: And if you have that patience, and I think that's
Speaker 3: what a lot of the season players on tour, you know,
Speaker 3: they have that patience that if they're not striking the
Speaker 3: ball great and they're not scoring great, that if they
Speaker 3: stay with their game plan, it will all fall into
Speaker 3: place eventually. And that's the one Those are the ones
Speaker 3: that succeed. And the same thing goes for the weekend golfer.
Speaker 3: If you can just know that with that one swing
Speaker 3: that it could be the next one, you could change everything.
Speaker 3: Just like that snap of a finger. That's enough to
Speaker 3: keep people coming back, I think, and staying on their
Speaker 3: game plan.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that when you start with a new student,
Speaker 1: you ask them what they want to accomplish. What are
Speaker 1: the answers that you generally get?
Speaker 3: Oh, within the game or within a shot? No. No.
Speaker 1: For a new student, when you ask them, what is
Speaker 1: it that you want to accomplish by taking a lesson
Speaker 1: with me, Yeah, you'll probably hear the same answers over
Speaker 1: and over, I'm sure.
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of people, it depends on their level
Speaker 3: of play. If they're a beginner and they just started
Speaker 3: a lot of them just want to feel confidence. You know,
Speaker 3: you've talked about confidence. They want to feel that they
Speaker 3: can go up there and enjoy the game and feel
Speaker 3: comfortable in what they're doing. So for them, what we
Speaker 3: do for beginners we teach.
Speaker 1: Them Yeah, sorry, it ain't gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know, acknowledging what what you want
Speaker 3: is have to battle because a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: know what they want and they're just kind of floating about.
Speaker 3: And I'm not talking about just golf and just life
Speaker 3: in general. So if someone says, you know, they come
Speaker 3: to me, and I asked that question and they haven't
Speaker 3: answered that. I know they're halfway there because they have
Speaker 3: an idea of where they want to go. So if
Speaker 3: they say, you know, I just want to feel comfortable
Speaker 3: out there. I want to go out and play with
Speaker 3: friends and not embarrass myself. I want to be able
Speaker 3: to go out and play, you know, those tournaments at
Speaker 3: work and have a good time and not feel nervous
Speaker 3: and so forth. I tell those folks that you already
Speaker 3: own your game. And this is the big thing, is
Speaker 3: that you own your swing. And those swings are no
Speaker 3: two swings in the world are like. So the key
Speaker 3: to you and enjoying this game for you know, and
Speaker 3: developing the confidence is to realize that is that this
Speaker 3: is your game, this is how you experience it, and
Speaker 3: that is aasketball. It sets the tone. So people oftentimes
Speaker 3: when they take a lesson and whatever, they often look
Speaker 3: to the coach instructor to tell them what to do.
Speaker 3: And our philosophy is different. We don't tell you what
Speaker 3: to do. We are there to guide you. We see
Speaker 3: ourselves as coaches, and what great coaches do is they
Speaker 3: bring out the potential in their players or in their students.
Speaker 3: They don't tell them what to do per se. They
Speaker 3: just bring out their potential. And that's what our goal is.
Speaker 3: And when I say potentially, it means what are you
Speaker 3: capable of achieving and finding the way that gets you
Speaker 3: from where you are now your level to that is
Speaker 3: all about giving you that motivation, the belief that you
Speaker 3: can achieve it, and to realize that this is your game,
Speaker 3: this is your experience when you're out there, so you
Speaker 3: get to create what you want to create. And so
Speaker 3: we don't get fundamental in terms of telling you exactly
Speaker 3: how to do things. It's all about creating what works
Speaker 3: best for you. And I oftentimes bring up you know,
Speaker 3: certain individuals out there with swings that are unorthodox quote unquote.
Speaker 3: If you look at the you know, if you put
Speaker 3: hook people up to a computer and Jim Furick, you
Speaker 3: go back to Arnold Palmer. You know, a lot of
Speaker 3: these swings are not quote unquote technically sound, but they
Speaker 3: work for the individual. So I tell people, find your
Speaker 3: swing that fits you, own the game, and you're going
Speaker 3: to have fun with this for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3: So that's one of the questions that I often get
Speaker 3: from the beginners, from the lower handicaps are more more
Speaker 3: established players that are you know, stuck at their kind
Speaker 3: of that barrier, that one ninety eighty seventy barrier. They
Speaker 3: asked me, I really want to get you know, what
Speaker 3: do you what do you want? And they say, well,
Speaker 3: I want to break through those those barriers. And a
Speaker 3: lot of times those are our mental barriers. And so
Speaker 3: what I tell people is that don't think about it
Speaker 3: as I'm going to break through the seventy or the
Speaker 3: eighty or the ninety mark. Just focus on what your
Speaker 3: end goal is. And your end goal is to play
Speaker 3: spectacular golf, to have fun out there, to hit great shots,
Speaker 3: and then the scorers will take care of themselves. I
Speaker 3: think when people get hung up, you know, they maybe
Speaker 3: have that great front front nine, they're you know, and
Speaker 3: they go, oh, I'm going to do it, and then
Speaker 3: they start to self sabotage. And how many times have
Speaker 3: people have we all done that? You know, I'm not
Speaker 3: just in golf, but in life. It's like we get
Speaker 3: in a momentum and we're going and then we say, oh,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, this is not supposed to be happening, right.
Speaker 3: So I tell people just focus on you know, the
Speaker 3: goal in mind is there. It's always there to shoot
Speaker 3: that personal best score. But a lot of people shoot
Speaker 3: that best score when they're not thinking about the score.
Speaker 3: They're just gone, they're hitting great shots. And you know,
Speaker 3: Rory at the British Open talked about it inner peace right.
Speaker 3: He wasn't even thinking about the score. He's just going
Speaker 3: enjoying his time out there and everything was falling apart.
Speaker 3: And a lot of the great golfers when they play
Speaker 3: those great rounds or great tournaments, talk about that rather
Speaker 3: than how they're striking the ball.
Speaker 1: Well, no, everything was falling into place, not falling apart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the strike falling in play, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that most people, and it brought me
Speaker 1: to chapter twenty six, is that most people would come
Speaker 1: to you and say I want more distance, And.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's this is obsession with distance, and I think
Speaker 3: it's it's funny because whether you know you hit a
Speaker 3: shot two hundred and eighty yards or you hit a
Speaker 3: putt two inches, it still counts as one stroke. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter how you end up with the strokes on
Speaker 3: your score scorecard. You know, they're all the same. So
Speaker 3: I tell people that if you want distance, and distance
Speaker 3: is a part of the game, no doubt. You know,
Speaker 3: you need to get it from you know A to
Speaker 3: B and often sometimes it's you know, for three, four
Speaker 3: or five hundred yards now six hundred yard long hold.
Speaker 3: So how to get more distance is by establishing this
Speaker 3: really strong foundation. And it relates to the balance that
Speaker 3: we talked about earlier today. But I tell people that
Speaker 3: a lot of times they think, oh, to get more,
Speaker 3: I have to swing harder, and sometimes when you swing harder,
Speaker 3: you don't get the same connection with the ball. And
Speaker 3: so you can swing as hard as you want, you
Speaker 3: can get maximum clubhead speeds for you. But if you
Speaker 3: hit the toe of the club the ball, you know,
Speaker 3: with the toe of the club, it's not going to
Speaker 3: go where you want it to go and certainly not
Speaker 3: going to have the distance you want. So all I
Speaker 3: tell people is that instead of trying to swing a
Speaker 3: certain way or do anything other that you know that
Speaker 3: tightens you up ortenses you up. I just tell people
Speaker 3: simple thing, batter up. And if you're familiar with baseball
Speaker 3: or softball, whenever you watch a batter go to the plate,
Speaker 3: you see them really establishing a really strong foundation. You
Speaker 3: see them kind of kicking their feet into the dirt,
Speaker 3: digging in, really getting a strong foundation, and that sets
Speaker 3: the stage for them to make a good swing. So
Speaker 3: I tell people when they're setting up, imagine as you're
Speaker 3: setting up to the near shot, if you're right handed,
Speaker 3: you know, planting that right foot in the ground like
Speaker 3: you're like a batter in a batter's box and really
Speaker 3: getting that strong foundation, and vice versa for a lefty
Speaker 3: planning in that left foot, and just by doing that,
Speaker 3: you're establishing a really strong foundation, a very strong set.
Speaker 3: If you will set point where you're really strong from
Speaker 3: the waist down, and that will generate a lot of
Speaker 3: power for you. Another example is why do we need that?
Speaker 3: People ask, well, if you didn't use your lower body
Speaker 3: and you just swung, you know, with your upper body,
Speaker 3: and try to sometimes where you just set your from
Speaker 3: your waist down, don't move your body and just swing
Speaker 3: with at your upper body, you'll realize, Wow, I don't
Speaker 3: really have a whole lot of moment them going here,
Speaker 3: I don't really have a whole lot of power. If
Speaker 3: you will, if you're just using your arms, where most
Speaker 3: of your power emanates is from the lower part of
Speaker 3: your body, and so that foundation is everything. It goes
Speaker 3: back to, you know, the house is only as strong
Speaker 3: as it foundation. Same thing for the golf swing. So
Speaker 3: if you want to get more distanced, don't worry about
Speaker 3: swinging harder anything like that. Just establish that stronger foundation
Speaker 3: by matching your batter in the batter's box. And it
Speaker 3: has a really powerful effect just by doing that.
Speaker 1: We've gone through eleven chapters of the fifty chapter book,
Speaker 1: and again it's The Frustrated Golfer's Handbook by Darren g
Speaker 1: And I need to ask you to wrap up this one.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how big your golf balls are. To
Speaker 1: make a statement an invitation like this, chapter number five
Speaker 1: how to shoot a hole in one? Really, you're really
Speaker 1: going to ice on how to shoot a hole in one? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It is like so totally lucky. Yeah, it's so random.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but I'm talking a hole in one from
Speaker 1: tea to the hole, not just is hitting the butt.
Speaker 1: Explain yourself, sir, what do you mean by chapter number
Speaker 1: five how to make a hole and how to shoot
Speaker 1: a hole in one?
Speaker 3: Well, I think a lot of folks, it's it's really
Speaker 3: two things that we're looking at, is it goes back
Speaker 3: to the realm of what's possible and what you're capable
Speaker 3: of doing. And so number one is to realize that, yes,
Speaker 3: you can shoot a hole in one. Okay, a lot
Speaker 3: of people say, oh never, I can and I can't
Speaker 3: make that. But I can't make that shot. I go
Speaker 3: there is a possibility when you step up to the
Speaker 3: tee on a par three that you can shoot a
Speaker 3: hole one. So that's number one, is to realize that, yes,
Speaker 3: I can do it. And you know, I bring up
Speaker 3: my uncle. He has I think thirteen holes in one.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, and yeah, he might be on fourteen
Speaker 3: by now. So if you're out there, let me know
Speaker 3: if you've hit number fourteen. He's probably playing golf right now.
Speaker 3: So you know, I asked him, was what do you do?
Speaker 3: He goes, well, you know, there's a lot of luck.
Speaker 3: But I don't think that's true because what makes my
Speaker 3: uncle so so successful I think in life and in
Speaker 3: golf is that when he steps up to the ball
Speaker 3: and I've played with him, I've watched him, there's a
Speaker 3: certain level of focus that he believes that he could
Speaker 3: get the ball in the hole. I mean you could
Speaker 3: see it in him, in his body language and how
Speaker 3: he looked at the hole. I mean, he's not just
Speaker 3: stepping up there and swinging. A lot of times we
Speaker 3: step up and go I just want to hit, I
Speaker 3: just want to get good contact. I just want to swing.
Speaker 3: He actually says. I believe he says to him when
Speaker 3: I look at him in the way his body language speaks,
Speaker 3: is this ball is going to go in the hole.
Speaker 3: So that's part of it right there. And then how
Speaker 3: do you actually do it? So it goes from the
Speaker 3: realm of yes, I could make a home one too,
Speaker 3: how is it going to happen? So what do you do?
Speaker 3: Is what I call shrinking the green. Okay, you look
Speaker 3: at a green. It's a big, big space that you
Speaker 3: could land the ball in. And a lot of times
Speaker 3: people say, I just want to get out on the green.
Speaker 3: I tell him, let's get more specific. Okay, Shrinking that
Speaker 3: green means that they move the flag to different parts
Speaker 3: of a putting green, if you will, or of a
Speaker 3: green on a golf course. So wherever that pin is,
Speaker 3: wherever the hole is located, I want you to shrink
Speaker 3: the green so that it is a relative part of
Speaker 3: the game. So that means the area surrounding that hole. Okay,
Speaker 3: And if you were just let's I'll give you a
Speaker 3: more simple exit. Let's say you're playing to a green
Speaker 3: that is basically you know, circle, and the flag is
Speaker 3: in the back left of the green. I would tell
Speaker 3: people to take if you were to take a ten,
Speaker 3: if you will, and draw a line, draw a little
Speaker 3: cross on that green to making four quadrants, if you will,
Speaker 3: and that ten happens to be in the upper left quadrant.
Speaker 3: When you're looking at the whole, I want you to
Speaker 3: shrink the green as if it's just that quadrant, okay.
Speaker 3: And what that does is it takes your focus from
Speaker 3: being a very wide area to a more specific area,
Speaker 3: the area around the whole. And with practice, that area
Speaker 3: can get smaller and smaller until you're focusing on a
Speaker 3: very small part of the green. Eventually, even if you're
Speaker 3: really good at this and we practice just the whole,
Speaker 3: and if you talk to you know, again, a lot
Speaker 3: of the pro players, a lot of the single digit
Speaker 3: haandic capains, that's what they're doing when they're out there,
Speaker 3: when they're talking to their caddies, they're not talking about
Speaker 3: hitting the green. They're talking about the specific areas that
Speaker 3: they want to land that ball, and they're creating quadrants
Speaker 3: and some are actually making even smaller spots. So when
Speaker 3: I say how to shoot a whole one, what I'm
Speaker 3: talking about is shrinking your green from wide, a wide
Speaker 3: area of possibilities to a more focused area of where
Speaker 3: that ball could go. And what that does is it
Speaker 3: allows you to really start to emphasize in your mind
Speaker 3: as well as when you're hitting your shots. It's getting
Speaker 3: the ball where you ultimately want it to go, and
Speaker 3: that's in the hole. And I want everyone who shoots
Speaker 3: the hole in one after listening to this to email
Speaker 3: me and let me know, because I'm trying to keep
Speaker 3: track of who's who's doing it and who's not.
Speaker 1: Oh awesome, Yeah, I'm right to me. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear about your I mean, I have people writing for
Speaker 1: me all the time reporting on how their game's going.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you get a whole in one, Definitely want
Speaker 1: to hear about it. Definitely want to hear about it. Well, well, Darren,
Speaker 1: it's been great to have you back on the show again.
Speaker 1: If for Golf Smarter members who want to hear more
Speaker 1: about your writing and your teaching, Episode number eighty four
Speaker 1: and then a two parter episode number two hundred twenty
Speaker 1: three and two hundred and twenty four. Those are from
Speaker 1: twenty ten and the other one was two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: But it is great to have you back on the.
Speaker 3: Show, really so wonderful, Fret, and I look forward to
Speaker 3: seeing I look forward to seeing you and and all
Speaker 3: the listeners out here on the Big Island. August fourth,
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen, we'll meet at our two locations here on
Speaker 3: the Big Island, one at the Monicaya Resort, another at
Speaker 3: the Big Island Country Club, and that's where we'll do
Speaker 3: the fifth five hundred episode of Golf Smarter. Looking forward
Speaker 3: to it.