Speaker 1: For members only. Golf Smarter number three hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: published on February twelve, twenty thirteen.
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: Knowledge is confidence. And if you stand over a shot
Speaker 3: and don't have the knowledge of how to hit that shot, well,
Speaker 3: how much confidence are you going to have? And without confidence,
Speaker 3: good luck to you. So golf is all about confidence
Speaker 3: and rouston confidence.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can't tell you how much better I do
Speaker 1: when I walk up to a bunker blod Oh I
Speaker 1: love the shot. Yeah, when I walk in going yeah,
Speaker 1: I own this one. The outcome always seems.
Speaker 3: To look at the levels of fear on the range
Speaker 3: or at the bunker. At the range, probably not that bad,
Speaker 3: hitting balls down there, not that bad. Go play golf,
Speaker 3: different story, now, tournament yet another level. I think the
Speaker 3: tension rises and fear rises with every one of them,
Speaker 3: and those that can conquer that trust or knowledge or
Speaker 3: fear in those areas will do better. If you're scared
Speaker 3: to death when you go to the golf course, it
Speaker 3: makes it very difficult. Look at the tour, they're all
Speaker 3: really really good players. What separates somebody from number ninety
Speaker 3: to number ten? I think it's the mental part. They've
Speaker 3: all got the shots. They're all really good potters who
Speaker 3: can stand up there with their guts spilling out and
Speaker 3: still make that potter that shot that separates the top
Speaker 3: from the bottom. I think.
Speaker 1: More difficult shots we never practice. Part two with Ken Doherty.
Speaker 3: This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Golf Smarter for members only.
Speaker 3: Ken, thank you.
Speaker 1: Let's continue our conversation about the shots that we don't practice. Okay,
Speaker 1: you can be Santa Claus. You got a bag full
Speaker 1: of shots right now. Let's pull them out and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've never seen anybody practice this shot,
Speaker 1: and I see him blow it on the course every
Speaker 1: single time because they don't think about it. Came up
Speaker 1: across one the other day my ball, I snap hooked
Speaker 1: the left and now I'm over in a corner. There's
Speaker 1: a there's a bunker right in front of me, there's
Speaker 1: a tree, on the left of me, a bunker on
Speaker 1: the right, and I'm on a dog leg left and
Speaker 1: I've got to get the ball to just kind of
Speaker 1: go around the corner here.
Speaker 3: You need to hook it.
Speaker 1: I need to hook it now, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: have a draw in the way I hit the ball
Speaker 1: all right, and I am I have a slice. Oh,
Speaker 1: I have a slice. But so this playing lesson that
Speaker 1: I had, he gave me instruction. Here, point your feet
Speaker 1: out that way, but turn your club ahead in So
Speaker 1: let's let's do the kind of shot that you need
Speaker 1: to get around a corner that you've seen done. You know,
Speaker 1: how do they do that?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: I'd say it's hard enough for me just to get
Speaker 1: my club head square head impact, let alone, you know,
Speaker 1: change the position of the club.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk about well, first of all, to hook
Speaker 3: the ball, the club face needs to be in a
Speaker 3: closed position, okay, at impact cloths close, meaning the toe
Speaker 3: is turned or pushed towards the target. Okay, So the
Speaker 3: toe is leading the way to the ball as opposed
Speaker 3: to as supposed to square, which would be heel and
Speaker 3: toe are lined up and hitting the ball when they
Speaker 3: are lined up and the toe being back a little
Speaker 3: bit for a slice or an open face.
Speaker 1: Do most people lie the club face down at a
Speaker 1: closed angle without even knowing.
Speaker 3: It, Yes, because they pay too much attention, usually to
Speaker 3: the top edge of the club instead of the bottom edge.
Speaker 3: If you if you spend a lot of time looking
Speaker 3: at the top edge, you'll end up closing the club
Speaker 3: face a little bit, because if you're looking down at
Speaker 3: your club, the top edge actually flares out to the
Speaker 3: right a little bit and it looks like it's open.
Speaker 3: It's but the leading edge, which is the bottom edge,
Speaker 3: is what you need to be concerned with and need
Speaker 3: to look at, because that's the true aim of your club.
Speaker 3: So a lot of people that that tend to look
Speaker 3: down and see that open. And having the angle of
Speaker 3: the club too, the seven aren or whatever it is,
Speaker 3: also makes it look like it might be a little open,
Speaker 3: and because of that people tend to shut the face
Speaker 3: down close it put turn the toe in uh, and
Speaker 3: so the top line looks square or straight to where
Speaker 3: they want to go, but in reality it's aiming left.
Speaker 3: And if they looked at the bottom edge of that club,
Speaker 3: the leading edge, they would see that.
Speaker 1: And when the when it is closed like that, slightly
Speaker 1: closed like that is there is the ball flight going
Speaker 1: to be which directions the ball flight?
Speaker 3: Ball is going to go left and it's going to
Speaker 3: go lower because not only are you turning the club
Speaker 3: to aim left, but you're delofting the club as well.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, yes, oh okay, So you're turning that seven
Speaker 3: iron into an eight or and or excuse me, a
Speaker 3: six or a five iron right by closing it. And
Speaker 3: the opposite, if you're going to open the face, you're
Speaker 3: instead of that seven iron, it would become an eight
Speaker 3: iron or a nine iron.
Speaker 1: So how is it that you are there guides on
Speaker 1: your club, on your grip on what should you be
Speaker 1: lining up to know that you make sure that you
Speaker 1: have the leading edge square when you're setting up.
Speaker 3: It's a good question, and it's different for you know,
Speaker 3: there's a few different ways some people might use their
Speaker 3: grip and but you got to make sure your grips
Speaker 3: are on properly. I mean, if your grips are off
Speaker 3: or you know, off a little bit, well, then your
Speaker 3: face is always going to be off. So you know,
Speaker 3: if you can guarantee your grips are aligned properly, then sure,
Speaker 3: that's one way to line up the angles and the
Speaker 3: lines with your grip, and so.
Speaker 1: What are you looking for on your grip?
Speaker 3: Well, grips are differently, are different. You got some that
Speaker 3: have arrows or almost triangles. There's lines, I mean, there's
Speaker 3: the name on the grip itself. They can line up
Speaker 3: directly down the middle of the shaft. But again, I
Speaker 3: think that's a little shake your way. I think it's
Speaker 3: a shakier way to line up your club. I literally
Speaker 3: would look at the bottom edge, and I think most
Speaker 3: of us can look at that leading edge and tell
Speaker 3: with some degree of accuracy that the club is perpendicular
Speaker 3: to the target line. I think the biggest mistake is there.
Speaker 3: They do one of two things. They either look at
Speaker 3: the top edge and think that it's open, so they
Speaker 3: close it. I think the bigger problem is is that
Speaker 3: people the slicers do that so that they don't slice
Speaker 3: as much, so they're creating another error to fix the
Speaker 3: first err instead of actually making the proper swing mechanic changes.
Speaker 3: You'll see that you'll see that club face close a
Speaker 3: lot more for that reason, because, believe me, if that
Speaker 3: club face is closed all the time and you're hooking
Speaker 3: the ball or pulling it you're gonna you're gonna change,
Speaker 3: You're gonna change you that that club face or your
Speaker 3: stance or something. Most people don't change their their their
Speaker 3: swing or they're yeah, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because they're like, I'm just I'm I'm
Speaker 1: hooking the ball all day long, I don't know. And
Speaker 1: then they start playing with their swing and doing that
Speaker 1: in the middle of a round too right making correction,
Speaker 1: and most of the time.
Speaker 3: It is yeah, they they have a very strong grip
Speaker 3: where they're right in their left hand or one of
Speaker 3: the two are are turned too much to the right
Speaker 3: for a right handed golfer.
Speaker 1: And it could be as simple as you just are
Speaker 1: not lining the club up properly on a dress.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, But there's so many factors of going you know,
Speaker 3: going left or right. First, you're gonna look at the grip.
Speaker 3: Is the is the grip weak? If it's weak, you
Speaker 3: get you're you're likely to go to the right. If
Speaker 3: it's strong, you're likely to go to the left, not guaranteed.
Speaker 1: You have to de find that now a strong grip
Speaker 1: versus a week and listen, these are terms we hear
Speaker 1: a lot, but no one ever asked it to find them.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna play dumb here because I am.
Speaker 3: So let's just say a neutral grip is if you
Speaker 3: put your hands down in front of you and you applaud.
Speaker 3: They're facing each other and you applaud. Okay, that's a
Speaker 3: neutral grip. So if you took your grip your hands
Speaker 3: and put them on the grip and your palms are
Speaker 3: basically still facing each other, that's a pretty neutral grip. Now,
Speaker 3: the back of your hand is facing away from the
Speaker 3: target of your right hand excuse me for right hand golfer,
Speaker 3: and the back of your left hand for a right
Speaker 3: handed golfer follow me, is facing the target or or
Speaker 3: at least parallel to the target line. Okay. Now, if
Speaker 3: you turn those though, where your left hand starts to
Speaker 3: face right of the target, so you've turned it to
Speaker 3: the right, you've rotated your left hand to the right
Speaker 3: of the grip. Okay, okay, in a from where you're
Speaker 3: standing a clockwise position.
Speaker 1: Almost on the top of the griping.
Speaker 3: So now the back if you're rotating. Let's just say,
Speaker 3: if you went to a stream them ount with your
Speaker 3: left hand and turn it your the back of your
Speaker 3: hand would be facing the ball right okay, right, so
Speaker 3: we're back in right hand, the left hand, the.
Speaker 1: Back of the left hand, yes, okay, okay, now so
Speaker 1: it's underneath then, well.
Speaker 3: You're you're we're talking about your left hand now, okay.
Speaker 3: If a neutral grip is one where the back of
Speaker 3: your left hand is facing the target or target line.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm getting up here. You got We're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna go over here and grab a club while we're
Speaker 1: doing this, and I'll keep an eye on make sure
Speaker 1: we're recording, so you can stand here. So I'm grabbing
Speaker 1: her practice just the prectice club. So so okay, now
Speaker 1: we're here. We've got so.
Speaker 3: You've got you've got a basic basically a neutral rip
Speaker 3: in which his his palms are facing each other, the
Speaker 3: back of his hand is facing away from each other,
Speaker 3: perpendicular to the or exactly actually actually parallel to the
Speaker 3: target line. Okay, So if you had a video camera
Speaker 3: on the back of your left hand, it's facing the target,
Speaker 3: they can see the target. Okay, Now, if you want
Speaker 3: to if if you want to weaken your grip, let's
Speaker 3: let's we're going to start over from what we said earlier.
Speaker 3: If you want to weak in your grip. Okay, you
Speaker 3: want to take that that camera that's on the back
Speaker 3: of your left hand and aim it to the left
Speaker 3: of the target. So you're that's right, You're going to
Speaker 3: turn it to the left. Your hand on the grip
Speaker 3: is going to turn to the left. That's a weaker grip.
Speaker 3: And if you have a weaker grip, you're probably at
Speaker 3: least to start with, you're probably going to be more
Speaker 3: appt to slice the ball.
Speaker 1: Sure, okay, so with the weaker rip, the ball is
Speaker 1: going to go.
Speaker 3: It's going to go to the right for a right
Speaker 3: handed golf for a weak grip, because and let's go
Speaker 3: to the extreme. Let's take that that left hand and
Speaker 3: let's turn it. So now now the back of your
Speaker 3: hand is facing your body, I mean your your feet.
Speaker 3: Look at how much that's turned. Well, you think you're
Speaker 3: gonna be able to rotate that club very easily through impact? No, exactly,
Speaker 3: Your club is more apt, your hands are more apt
Speaker 3: to go back to a neutral position. And now look
Speaker 3: at the club face is wide open to the right
Speaker 3: and okay, aiming to the right. So there are tweaks
Speaker 3: you can do with a grip. Most of the time
Speaker 3: we strengthen them a little bit, meaning move it in
Speaker 3: the opposite of the direction we just talked about. But
Speaker 3: very often if we get back to where we were
Speaker 3: in hooking the ball. If if I've got a hooker,
Speaker 3: the first thing I'm looking at is the grip. And
Speaker 3: then more often than that, that person has their they
Speaker 3: have a very strong grip, which means both of their
Speaker 3: hands are rotated to the right. So if they rotate
Speaker 3: both of their hands to the right clockwise, that's correct,
Speaker 3: that's usually a that's usually somebody if if they're hooking
Speaker 3: the ball, that's probably what they've done at least with
Speaker 3: the right hand, and a lot of times with both hands. Okay, Now,
Speaker 3: when you change that grip back over and that's it's
Speaker 3: a hard thing for people to do because there's a
Speaker 3: strength in that strong grip for them, they feel like
Speaker 3: they're in control with that strong grip, and when you
Speaker 3: weaken it, it feels just as it sounds weak, and
Speaker 3: it will more often well it's either going to straighten
Speaker 3: their golf ball out and sometimes make them no, go
Speaker 3: to the right. But I think because they're going to
Speaker 3: the right because they're just not used to and it's
Speaker 3: hard to do on radio a little bit. You need
Speaker 3: to rotate your hands through the golf swing, so your
Speaker 3: hands on the backswing are rotating in a clockwise position
Speaker 3: and on the downswing through impact a counterclockwise position. Correct. Yep,
Speaker 3: that's for the right handed golfer, all right. If you've
Speaker 3: got a strong grip, you're not going to be able
Speaker 3: to rotate your hands counterclockwise through impact because you'll hit
Speaker 3: it through your feet. You'll hit it so far left
Speaker 3: because your grip is so strong, it's going to close
Speaker 3: that face too much. So when you change a grip,
Speaker 3: they're so used to hanging on as I call it,
Speaker 3: and not rotating their hands that then they push or
Speaker 3: slice it off to the right. So when you make
Speaker 3: that change in the grip, you have to make the
Speaker 3: change in the swing. The grip change is an easy thing,
Speaker 3: I know it is. The grip change is easy at least,
Speaker 3: you know, you just change it on the grip. I mean,
Speaker 3: the feeling isn't good, but it's an easy change. The
Speaker 3: change to now rotate your hands through impact is a
Speaker 3: little bit more difficult because most in most cases, they've
Speaker 3: never done it. They couldn't do it. That's how they
Speaker 3: hit the ball as straight as they could is because
Speaker 3: the grip's so strong that they hang on for dear
Speaker 3: life I call it. They don't rotate their hands because
Speaker 3: they have to somehow keep that cluffe square and not closed.
Speaker 1: So let's try to go back to that shot of
Speaker 1: needing to hook the ball, okay, and how to hook
Speaker 1: the ball and how to hook the ball, and you know,
Speaker 1: you're hitting under trees. You're hitting, you know, and you've
Speaker 1: just got to get out of trouble just to get
Speaker 1: yourself back onto the fairway. And that's what you're trying
Speaker 1: to do. You're not trying to get to the green.
Speaker 1: You're not trying to be a hero. You're trying to
Speaker 1: just get yourself back into play so that maybe you
Speaker 1: can be on in three as opposed to trying to
Speaker 1: be a hero and being on in four or five.
Speaker 3: Now you want to know how to hook the ball, though,
Speaker 3: not just get out of trouble, but to actually go
Speaker 3: around that tree.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, okay, let's do that.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, a couple of things need to happen. Number One,
Speaker 3: always face your club in the direction you want to
Speaker 3: end up. So let's just say that that you wanted
Speaker 3: to you want to start your ball ten yards right
Speaker 3: of the tree, have your club aim ten yards right
Speaker 3: of the tree. Okay, so that's your starting point. You
Speaker 3: wanted to hook though, So what you've got to do
Speaker 3: is turn your feet or turn your body rotate that
Speaker 3: so that you have a closed position in your feet,
Speaker 3: meaning your left foot's out in front of your right.
Speaker 3: So if I draw, it's kind of again it's tough
Speaker 3: to describe on radio a little bit. I'm not to
Speaker 3: use your word.
Speaker 1: I know I'm used to use your words.
Speaker 3: You're actually if I drew a line in the sand
Speaker 3: or on the turf, if I drew a line through
Speaker 3: your toes, they are now going to go right of
Speaker 3: where your club is aimed. So your club is aimed
Speaker 3: let's say at point A, and point B is actually
Speaker 3: right of point a, sou Point A is where your
Speaker 3: club face is facing. Point B is where your face
Speaker 3: your your feet would be lined up, which is right.
Speaker 3: So it's going to look like you have a club
Speaker 3: closed club face as you're standing. Okay, but remember to
Speaker 3: always have your club face face the target, okay, or
Speaker 3: the direction you want to go. What I don't want
Speaker 3: you to feel like is that Okay, I've got to
Speaker 3: snap my hands and close them or or hook have
Speaker 3: my wrist turn much more than they actually do during
Speaker 3: the swing. If you keep your club face closed to
Speaker 3: your stance, your ball is going to turn left if
Speaker 3: you swing on your stance line. Okay, so your stance
Speaker 3: is going to be to the right of your intended target. Okay,
Speaker 3: your swing is actually going to be on that line
Speaker 3: with the club face facing back where you want to go. Okay, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 3: What that's going to make that ball do is start
Speaker 3: out on the line that you're you're aiming, and then
Speaker 3: curve to the position that your club face is aiming.
Speaker 1: And we're taking a full swing here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, I mean, I guess how far you want
Speaker 3: to go? You can take a full swing.
Speaker 1: We say we have the distance, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: our distance is obviously going to be different than what
Speaker 1: we're accustomed to with that club because you're adding all that.
Speaker 3: Well, it's it's gonna go a little lower. I think,
Speaker 3: like I said earlier, it's gonna you're gonna deloff that
Speaker 3: club a little bit. So you're going to turn that
Speaker 3: seven iron into a six iron or a five iron.
Speaker 3: So your ball is going to go off a little lower,
Speaker 3: So you've got to be careful that. If there's any
Speaker 3: branches or anything, you've got any elevation you've got to
Speaker 3: worry about. You better pay attention to that because your
Speaker 3: ball will come out a little lower. Uh uh And
Speaker 3: where are we going with that?
Speaker 1: Well, just that we're both lost. They are we want
Speaker 1: the ball? Are we going to get the distance that
Speaker 1: we that we intended? Are you with me? Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, There's going to be subtle differences.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: The big thing is having it go where you want it. Distance,
Speaker 3: if it's ten yards off, I don't think in this
Speaker 3: situation's a big deal. I think it's a much more
Speaker 3: difficult task to actually make that ball turn to the left,
Speaker 3: you know, start start where you're aiming, which is going
Speaker 3: to be to the right, and have it curve around
Speaker 3: the corner where your club face is aiming. That's that's
Speaker 3: the more difficult thing to do, not so much distance,
Speaker 3: but the actually shape the ball in the in the
Speaker 3: direction you want to shape it. A lot of people
Speaker 3: will still hit it dead straight. They're aimed right in
Speaker 3: the club, you know, and just the opposite.
Speaker 1: And why why do they why are they with all that?
Speaker 1: Are they still hitting it dead straight?
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, are they set up properly? One? Okay?
Speaker 3: And I think it's for the average golfer. Anyways, they
Speaker 3: look down at that closed club, that closed club face,
Speaker 3: and can they really pull the trigger and trust that
Speaker 3: it's going to go over there? And we go back
Speaker 3: to the practice.
Speaker 1: Exactly what I was going to say, it's practice exactly.
Speaker 3: We go back to the practice. You know, I can
Speaker 3: explain this on paper all day long or somehow on
Speaker 3: on radio, but unless you get out there and actually
Speaker 3: practice it, because there's hand eye coordination and there's you know, again,
Speaker 3: what you feel a lot of times can be very
Speaker 3: different of what what you're thinking or reading. So you
Speaker 3: have to you have to experiment a little bit and
Speaker 3: be at least within the toleration of what we're talking
Speaker 3: about and having your feet aim to the right and
Speaker 3: cluff face close. See what it feels like to feel
Speaker 3: like you're purposely trying to swing out to the right
Speaker 3: of the target and right and the left of the target,
Speaker 3: and keep the face closed and watch where the ball goes,
Speaker 3: See where the ball's going on the range by experimenting
Speaker 3: a little bit. But if you if you, if you
Speaker 3: have some idea of how to produce a draw or
Speaker 3: a hook, you got a fighting chance, right.
Speaker 1: Uh. It reminds me of doctor Glenn Albaugh, who's been
Speaker 1: on the show a couple of times, wrote the book
Speaker 1: Winning the Battle Within Mental about the mental game, and
Speaker 1: he was good friends with Bill Walsh, and he likes
Speaker 1: to quote Bill Walsh as saying, if you're surprised at
Speaker 1: the outcome, then you weren't prepared and prepared. So it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's all about.
Speaker 3: Isn't that what we probably run into every day on
Speaker 3: the golf course. You know, they can't believe what just happened,
Speaker 3: and and and you have to wonder why they think
Speaker 3: that they haven't exactly practiced it or prepared for that.
Speaker 1: At all at all. And and but and then, which
Speaker 1: is always so amusing, is that they think they can
Speaker 1: pull the shot off. Yeah, all right, I'm not a
Speaker 1: big fan of link style courses. I tend to have
Speaker 1: a real difficult time with the ball below my feet,
Speaker 1: the ball above my feet, the ball below my feed,
Speaker 1: the ball above my feet, and you know, give me trees, please, yeah,
Speaker 1: give me some trees.
Speaker 3: Well, any I think any type golf course and any
Speaker 3: type grass takes practice. If you're going from the from
Speaker 3: the north or northeast where I came from, and you're
Speaker 3: playing bent all the time, and you go to to
Speaker 3: South Florida, which I did, and you start playing playing bermuda,
Speaker 3: it's an extremely different grass. I don't care if you're
Speaker 3: in the rough. The fairway, especially the greens are much
Speaker 3: more difficult to put in Bermuda with the grain and
Speaker 3: and the sponge nish of of that of that grass.
Speaker 3: I think the other is is when you go to Florida,
Speaker 3: you've got a golf course that in all likelihood that
Speaker 3: is surrounded with water and bunkers. And it's that type
Speaker 3: of golf course in Florida because that's what they have
Speaker 3: to offer down there, a lot of water, a lot
Speaker 3: of sand. You go up north and you're you maybe
Speaker 3: cut through woods, and it's a very different in the desert.
Speaker 3: You you've got uh desert on either side and if
Speaker 3: you're off the fairway. So I think it takes a
Speaker 3: little bit to get used to the different types of
Speaker 3: grass and golf course design. Like links as you said,
Speaker 3: and I think a lot of that is the mental part.
Speaker 3: It's the visual part. A shot is a shot, and
Speaker 3: if you can, I guess it's a little different when
Speaker 3: you're talking uphill and downhill. Yes, we can talk about
Speaker 3: how to hit those particular shots, but I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people are intimidated by the sight of things.
Speaker 3: And if they just took a two hundred yard shot
Speaker 3: as a two hundred yard shot, they're all the same.
Speaker 3: They may look different because you've got this daunting task
Speaker 3: in front of you, that the water going down the
Speaker 3: right side, and the bunkers here and all the trouble
Speaker 3: out there, but really a two hundred yard shot is
Speaker 3: two hundred yards. The visuals different, which is frightening sometimes.
Speaker 1: And that's where the architect comes in, and that's the
Speaker 1: way they love to create those distractions. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I've had an
Speaker 1: architect on I love talking to architects because they are
Speaker 1: average golfers who like to mess with average golfers, right,
Speaker 1: and they put these distractions. Why do you think there's
Speaker 1: so much water on part threes or there's bunkers surrounding
Speaker 1: the green on a part three? Because they put these
Speaker 1: distractions and it's to mess with your head.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you're saying it's well, let's just say if
Speaker 3: you had a let's go one hundred and fifty yards,
Speaker 3: it could be two hundred and you've got flat surface,
Speaker 3: no water, no bunkers around green out there. You think
Speaker 3: you're going to hit that shot easier than an island green,
Speaker 3: You bet your life you will. You're going to be
Speaker 3: a lot more relaxed as we talked about earlier. You're
Speaker 3: not gonna be as intimidated. You'll let it happen. There's
Speaker 3: not as much fear and all that adds up to
Speaker 3: the chances of you hitting a good or bat shot.
Speaker 1: So back to the uneven lies. Ball below your feet,
Speaker 1: ball above your feet. I know it's hard enough for
Speaker 1: me to swing a golf club. It's hard enough for
Speaker 1: me to hit a ball consistently. It's just sitting there
Speaker 1: and I still have trouble hitting it. But now I've
Speaker 1: got to choke up on it. Now it feels completely different. Well,
Speaker 1: you laughing at me can.
Speaker 3: Because we're going to go back to the practice, you know,
Speaker 3: And I mean that's part of it. It's it's uncommon,
Speaker 3: it's unfamiliar. It's it's very different. So you know, anything
Speaker 3: we walk into I mean, if you knowledge is confidence
Speaker 3: in life, and if you stand over a shot and
Speaker 3: you don't have the knowledge of how to hit that shot, well,
Speaker 3: how much confidence are you going to have? And without confidence,
Speaker 3: good luck to you?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: So golf is all about confidence and confidence.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how much better I do when
Speaker 1: I walk up to a bunker golf. Oh I love
Speaker 1: this shot right as like, oh God, I'm not in
Speaker 1: the mood for a bunker to day, right, but just
Speaker 1: when I walk in, going yeah, I own this one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The outcome always seems to.
Speaker 3: Look at the levels, Look at the levels of fear
Speaker 3: on the range or at the bunker. At the range,
Speaker 3: probably not that bad, hitting balls down there, not that bad.
Speaker 3: Go play golf. Different story, now, tournament yet another level.
Speaker 3: I think all of those the tension rises and fear
Speaker 3: rises with every one of them, and those that can
Speaker 3: conquer that trust or knowledge or fear in those areas
Speaker 3: will do better. If you're scared to death when you
Speaker 3: go to the golf course, it makes it very difficult
Speaker 3: and very often you look at the tour, I mean,
Speaker 3: you got guys that they're all really really good players.
Speaker 3: What separates somebody from, you know, from number ninety to
Speaker 3: number ten. I think it's the mental part, I really do.
Speaker 3: They've all got the shots. They're all really good potters
Speaker 3: who can stand up there with their guts spilling out
Speaker 3: and still make that potter, that shot that separates the
Speaker 3: top from the bottom. I think, Well, that's.
Speaker 1: What amazes me about all these young young guns coming
Speaker 1: up into the tour who you you know, it's like
Speaker 1: they don't have that kind of uh mature wherewithal to
Speaker 1: to you know, they have cockiness, they have confidence, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but when you talk about the mental game, that's a
Speaker 1: whole different Yeah.
Speaker 3: But cockiness and what's really happening within two very different things.
Speaker 3: I think cockiness sometimes is an outward you know, and
Speaker 3: I think that confidence is with it is inward. I
Speaker 3: think that's very of two very different things. And you're right,
Speaker 3: you've got a lot of cockiness. But what's happening behind
Speaker 3: the scenes, which means, you know, what's happening between the ears,
Speaker 3: it could be very different than what that person is
Speaker 3: outwardly showing.
Speaker 1: And we've seen that with some young players the last
Speaker 1: couple of years who just collapse on on well, anybody
Speaker 1: can collapse on Sunday because it's Sunday. You know that
Speaker 1: that's just what's gonna happen. But you see these young
Speaker 1: ones who just the pressure, the mental pressure sure changes everything.
Speaker 1: Uh and it just surprised.
Speaker 3: Hasn't gotten a I don't care. If you're out there
Speaker 3: in a two dollars bet with your buddies and you
Speaker 3: got a three foot putt, you're gonna feel pressure.
Speaker 1: You're n easy to start rocking.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't make any sense. You know, it's for
Speaker 3: for two dollars and it's not going to change our
Speaker 3: lives in the a bit. And sometimes it's for no money.
Speaker 3: It's just the want of making that putt. And it's
Speaker 3: crazy how we allow our minds to travel in places
Speaker 3: that you know they shouldn't be in a golf course.
Speaker 1: That's what I like to talk about, having a mental mulligan. Okay,
Speaker 1: where you know mulligans aren't legal. You're not allowed to
Speaker 1: like you know, I'll just drop another ball and hit
Speaker 1: it again. But you can step away from the.
Speaker 3: Ball, good luck, regroup. That's time to do.
Speaker 1: It is very hard to do, but you're allowed to
Speaker 1: do it. And it doesn't count in your scorecard. Right,
Speaker 1: Maybe you're gonna take a little extra time and your
Speaker 1: friends are going come on, and you're gonna feel And that's.
Speaker 3: Probably why a lot of people don't do it, is
Speaker 3: they feel like, okay, I gotta you know, slow play,
Speaker 3: I'm holding people up whatever. And and but certainly once
Speaker 3: you take that swing, you're gonna wish you had.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well or just like you. So you get yourself
Speaker 1: all set up, you step up to the ball and
Speaker 1: you feel a rock under your foot. Now thinking about
Speaker 1: is the rock? And so like, oh, this is going
Speaker 1: to change everything, and all this noise is going on
Speaker 1: in your head and it's it shows up in the shot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And you need to get to a place
Speaker 3: on the golf course that isn't isn't thinking about all
Speaker 3: the mechanics. And I said that earlier about being uh,
Speaker 3: I think you need to be analytical on the range
Speaker 3: and free spirited on the golf course. And think about this.
Speaker 3: We've all driven down the highway and you could drive
Speaker 3: for twenty minutes and your mind's going everywhere, and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden it comes to you, let oh, wow,
Speaker 3: how did I get here? How did I get here?
Speaker 3: I mean, I haven't thought about driving or staying in
Speaker 3: my lane for the last twenty minutes, and yet I've
Speaker 3: done it perfectly.
Speaker 1: Have you ever driven a stick shift?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How many times? Were getting third year? And do you
Speaker 1: even know how you did that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly. It's like, that's the place you need to
Speaker 3: go when you're playing golf. You have to be in
Speaker 3: And I've read some things about this, but the right
Speaker 3: side of your brain is really where you need to be.
Speaker 3: I certainly am not going to go into detail about
Speaker 3: that because I don't know enough about it. But you've
Speaker 3: got to be in that zone. You've heard the word
Speaker 3: people being in the zone. And and I played played
Speaker 3: basketball earlier in life. Is I when I was shooting, well, boy,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. That hoop looked so big. I
Speaker 3: never thought about it. That thing was so so easy.
Speaker 3: And when you're putting, well, it's the same thing. And
Speaker 3: that's where I was going. It's uh, you're not thinking
Speaker 3: about your backswing and I'm gonna miss it's a different place.
Speaker 3: It's uh. And and I think I kind of relate
Speaker 3: that driving down the highway to uh where you need
Speaker 3: to find yourself on the golf course. I find it best.
Speaker 3: I had this. I had this thing hooked up to
Speaker 3: my head and the whole thing I look like Frankenstein.
Speaker 3: But they were measuring my brain waves. Who was some
Speaker 3: some guy that had this device. He was working for
Speaker 3: some company and he wanted to measure my brain waves
Speaker 3: as I was hitting the golf ball, because most most
Speaker 3: good players hit front while they're in the right side
Speaker 3: of their brain. So I thought, okay, let me try it. Uh.
Speaker 3: And initially I was in the left side, which means
Speaker 3: I'm thinking too much, okay, And I was able to
Speaker 3: and there was noises coming from this computer, and then
Speaker 3: graphics that showed me, you know, that I was on
Speaker 3: the right side and so on. But it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: When I when I UH focused on a specific target
Speaker 3: as I talked about earlier, and I didn't even know
Speaker 3: if this was going to happen. Honestly, I got up
Speaker 3: there and said, okay, I'm just gonna do what I
Speaker 3: normally do. I got up there and I picked there
Speaker 3: was a window at the end of the range up
Speaker 3: at the up on this house, in the corner of
Speaker 3: this house, one little pain and I and I focused
Speaker 3: on that, and I thought about that and you know,
Speaker 3: I've heard it called my your third eye where you're
Speaker 3: you're you're you've got that vision in your head when
Speaker 3: you look down to the golf ball. You don't look,
Speaker 3: you don't see the golf ball. You're still seeing that
Speaker 3: target that you're trying to swing at. And then you
Speaker 3: swing at that vision in your head. Then thing was
Speaker 3: going nuts that I was in the right side of
Speaker 3: my brain. So it kind of confirmed at least for
Speaker 3: me that I I think I'm on the right track
Speaker 3: when I'm not playing golf that I'm not thinking about,
Speaker 3: you know, is my right hand going this on the
Speaker 3: backswing er up here? I'm actually target oriented and it's
Speaker 3: a better place mentally to be.
Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the four levels of conscious competence?
Speaker 3: No, you will enlighten me.
Speaker 1: I will try because it's always confusing to me, but
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to do it here. So you
Speaker 1: want to get to a level of unconscious competence.
Speaker 3: Okay, we're talking the same language.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and you're starting at a level of unconscious incompetence,
Speaker 1: so you don't know what you're doing and you don't
Speaker 1: know how you got there. Then you get to when
Speaker 1: you start golf as older like myself. You get to
Speaker 1: conscious incompetence, so I know how bad I am, and
Speaker 1: then wait, there's unconscious incompetence, conscious conscious incompetence, unconscious conscious incompetence,
Speaker 1: and then unconscious competence.
Speaker 3: I mean something like that, something like that.
Speaker 1: But you want to get to a point where you
Speaker 1: don't have to think about it. That's getting in that zone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, we're talking about the same thing a little differently,
Speaker 3: but yeah, that's if you can find a place or
Speaker 3: place there or try to get closer to that. There's
Speaker 3: too many people that are on that golf course thinking
Speaker 3: of everything.
Speaker 1: But that too much thinking going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's the there's the phrase, uh, paralysis by analysis. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, and I think that's that's true. I mean,
Speaker 3: shoot a basket. Are you thinking about how far your
Speaker 3: arm's going back or at the speed of which it's
Speaker 3: going Not at all. You're you're just looking at something
Speaker 3: and shooting at it. But you're see.
Speaker 1: No, here's an interesting I've always found that fascinating because
Speaker 1: with that, with throwing a baseball, shooting a basket, you're
Speaker 1: not looking at the ball. You're looking at your target, right,
Speaker 1: So the ball is not your target.
Speaker 3: No, but no, I've got something to say about that.
Speaker 3: But I've got something to say about that. Somebody asked
Speaker 3: me one time, you see the ball when you hit it?
Speaker 3: And I thought about it for a second. I said,
Speaker 3: do you know what? I'm looking at it? But I
Speaker 3: don't see it because I've got my target in my head.
Speaker 3: That's the visual I have. So yes, and no, I'm
Speaker 3: not literally looking at my target, but it's in my head.
Speaker 3: That's the visual I have in my head. So the
Speaker 3: ball is the same, but the ball is not the target. No,
Speaker 3: it shouldn't be. I haven't heard one instructor say hit
Speaker 3: at the ball. They say hit through the ball, hit
Speaker 3: at your target, swing at your target.
Speaker 1: And how many people that's to them? Even on their
Speaker 1: practice swings, you can see, oh that's the end of
Speaker 1: their swing.
Speaker 3: Oh god. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a bit well and
Speaker 3: in part because it's a fear. It's like the bomb's
Speaker 3: going to go off as soon as they hit the
Speaker 3: ball because they have no trust, they already anticipate missing.
Speaker 1: It unconscious in companies, Yeah, exactly. So I don't even
Speaker 1: know if we've we've done this, Where have we gone here? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to talk about the you know,
Speaker 1: ball below your feet, ball above your feet and different,
Speaker 1: and I have a feeling whatever I asked you didn't
Speaker 1: say practice.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean the ball ball below your feet.
Speaker 3: You're going to have to do some things like bend
Speaker 3: your knees a little bit more. I I some people
Speaker 3: I've heard say, well, I'm going to bend bend over
Speaker 3: from the waist a little bit more. I don't agree.
Speaker 3: I think you need to bend your knees a little
Speaker 3: bit more. Uh. The hardest thing with the ball below
Speaker 3: your feet is to stay in that spine angle through impact,
Speaker 3: we tend to come up.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, and you're going to scull the ball, top
Speaker 3: the ball, and you know you're going to miss it
Speaker 3: in some form of fashion. So you've got to really
Speaker 3: almost feel like you're you're going down lower than you
Speaker 3: want to or like the feel of. Because our tendency
Speaker 3: is to come up. The ball's likely for a right
Speaker 3: hander to go to the right. But I've also seen
Speaker 3: a lot of people pull it because from that pass position,
Speaker 3: they don't rotate very well through the ball. They don't
Speaker 3: rotate their hips very well, so they tend to pull
Speaker 3: the ball, so you've got to be a little bit careful.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to tell everybody, well, you're going to
Speaker 3: slice it, not necessarily. If you don't rotate from that
Speaker 3: bent knee position, you could pull.
Speaker 1: It too interesting, And then there's the whole element of oh,
Speaker 1: ball below your feet, the ball is going to go.
Speaker 3: To the right. Yes, that's all what I just said exactly.
Speaker 3: But I think ball above your feet going to left
Speaker 3: is more common the ball below your feet going to
Speaker 3: the right. I think you can pull that ball just
Speaker 3: as easily because it's much more difficult to rotate from
Speaker 3: that position. Being probably bent over a little bit too much,
Speaker 3: as some people do, and the knees bent too much,
Speaker 3: it's more difficult to get those hips rotated through the ball,
Speaker 3: so you could pull it. Also, I think when the
Speaker 3: ball's above your feet, you're almost definitely going to go
Speaker 3: to the left or draw left, and you need to
Speaker 3: aim to the right to accommodate that.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, listen, I can go over fairway bunkers, chipping
Speaker 1: around the green, chipping from tall grass from the short grass, uh,
Speaker 1: hitting out of a divot, hitting on hard pan. There's
Speaker 1: and plus I'm just fascinated to hear from you about you.
Speaker 1: You seem to have all your your history of your base,
Speaker 1: growing up everything in the East, and now you're playing
Speaker 1: West Coast golf. How different that is for you. And
Speaker 1: we're going to have to cover that more often. So
Speaker 1: now that we're neighbors, I'm going to have to just
Speaker 1: drag you in here a lot.
Speaker 3: I hope you look forward to. It was fun, good, good.
Speaker 1: And I again encourage anyone to look Ken up at
Speaker 1: Marine Country Club. It's Ken Doherty. He is the head
Speaker 1: head golf professional, golf professional, not a teaching pro. No,
Speaker 1: you're the goal professional. You're running the business exactly.
Speaker 3: Being a head golf professional at a at a country club,
Speaker 3: a private country club is a business. You're running merchandise
Speaker 3: and tournaments and instruction is a part of that puzzle.
Speaker 3: And it's not just an instructor. You've got to run.
Speaker 3: There's a lot going on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and somebody else is making sure you're probably overseeing,
Speaker 1: but they're making sure that the shop is being run,
Speaker 1: that's sold, and you got the right merchandise. Then you've
Speaker 1: got the tournaments, and then you've got the events, and
Speaker 1: then you got the people who were, and plus with
Speaker 1: country clubs, you've got people who are in your face
Speaker 1: a lot, winning changes and doing things. There's more than
Speaker 1: just teaching here, and you've got to do that as well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you've got If you've got four hundred members, you
Speaker 3: probably have four hundred bosses. It's awful. I've been very
Speaker 3: fortunate to be able to have a way about handling
Speaker 3: that I and I actually welcome if somebody I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't have all the answers. Yeah, you know, so
Speaker 3: somebody coming in and saying, hey, what about this. You know,
Speaker 3: if you go to go to a seminar, if you
Speaker 3: walk away with one or two things, you've done pretty good.
Speaker 3: And you know, somebody can throw fifty ideas at me.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean I'm going to use them. But it's
Speaker 3: great to hear that stuff and you can get some
Speaker 3: good ideas. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine one said, look, when we were
Speaker 1: looking at colleges for our kids, it doesn't matter where
Speaker 1: you send your good to college. If they get ten
Speaker 1: percent of what their teachers have to learn, they're going
Speaker 1: to get a great education. You just can't get it
Speaker 1: all in. You can't get it all well. Listen, buddy,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. This has been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun for me and again I'm hoping we get
Speaker 1: to do this a lot more and.
Speaker 3: One pleasure to thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and again, if you have any questions for Ken,
Speaker 1: I want to get in contact, please write to me.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and click on the Heyfred button at golf
Speaker 1: smarter dot com and Ken. We'll be happy to answer
Speaker 1: any questions you have. Ken, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Fred