Speaker 1: Hi. This is Matt McClory from Brentwood in New Hampshire
and I play.
Speaker 2: At Apple Hill Golf Club.
Speaker 1: This is Golf Smarter number.
Speaker 2: Four hundred and eighty five, published on April twenty one,
twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 1: I've got three or four five on my team that
I think are going to be playing professional golf at
some level PGA Tour. I'd love to see them there.
Do they have the talent ability? Definitely, this is a
very talented group. I was fortunate enough to win an
NCAA championship at Pepperdine in ninety seven, and I would
think that this junior college team here is better than
our team that won an NCAA championship. There's so many guys.
I mean, just to think that I met Jordan Speed
in the first time, I believe he was maybe eighteen
or nineteen he got an exemption into the Northern Trust
Open when he was at Texas, and I got an
exemption to play it as well. And the kid was polished.
He looked like a tour veteran at that age. He's
not your typical twenty one year old kid right now.
I mean the maturity that he has and his golf
awareness and knowledge is just beyond his years. And it's
pretty fun to see. So to think that he could
have been playing next month the NCAA Championships is scary.
Speaker 2: How you or your child can get into a college
golf program With Andy Walker, this is Golf Smarter Premium.
Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome back to the Golf
Smarter Podcast.
Speaker 1: Andy, thanks for having me, Fred, I appreciate it. Buddy.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's great to have you on. And for those
of you who have not joined us, we are actually
broadcasting this live on periscope so that we have some
people watching, hopefully hearing both of our sides of our
conversation and they can submit questions. We've already gotten one
question in. I'm going to actually go right to the question, okay,
and then we'll get I need to get an update
of what's going on with you. We haven't talked to
you in about a year, and I want to talk
to you. Did you get a chance to watch the Masters?
I know you've been really busy with your teams. Uh huh, yeah,
so I mean there was a guy who won the
Masters this year that could have been on your team. Incredible, huh,
It's amazing. But we'll get to that later. I want
to go right to the first question that we got
worthy winner, absolutely right to the question that we got
on periscope, which is how do I overcome nerves in golf?
Speaker 1: Great question? You know what, nerves are kind of a
self induced feeling, and so when we talk about nerves,
it means our mind is in a place other than
where it should be. So if we're thinking about nerves,
we're thinking about the outcome of a particular top Say
we're on the eighteenth hole of a tournament and we're
really nervous because the consequences of winning could be really big.
I'm sure Jordan had a lot of nerves coming down
and stretch this week. But what great players do is
they focus on something instead of letting the nerves and
the thoughts of what if and what could be overcome
us if we have a good focus on and what
I like to call process, you know, where we get
to thinking about where we want to hit the golf shot,
how we're going to do it, you know, what it's
going to feel like, and kind of seeing the result
and doing a lot of the mental imagery. Then we
forget about the what ifs. So our nerves is going
to be there always. But the thing is we can
use them to our advantage. They can either nerves can
either help us or hurt us. So one thing that
I heard is the last thought we have before we
hit a golf shot is either going to enhance or
hurt what we're trying to accomplish with that golf shot.
So having nerves is a good thing. Being able to
race them and get refocused on what we want to
have happen when we hit the golf shot or play
the whole or what we're trying to accomplish on the
golf course at that time. Is what's going to really
separate us from failing in that in that time or
being very successful at the same time.
Speaker 2: Our first first t jitters similar to eighteenth hole jitters,
they manifest themselves differently, or is it all about you
have to be in the moment and forget anything else.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're if they're much different. I
know the first t jitters are because the unknown. We
haven't hit any golf shots yet in competition for the day,
so we want to make sure that we're still that
guy that we were on the range, or we are
every day. I know when I was playing for a living,
the reason why I used to practice so hard was
because I was scared every day I was going to
wake up and not be as good as I was
the last day, And so that first shot of the
day was always like, Okay, I'm still I'm still me, right,
someone else didn't creep into into my body overnight and
turn into something else. And I hear a lot of
the same thing from a lot of tour players on
eighteen as well. Is you know, we start we start
thinking about the outcome of what could happen in the situation,
and so we lose some of the process. Rory McCrory
when he when the British said last year something very
good about two words that he worked on during the
whole week, and he said it before the tournament, So
in essence, he was kind of predicting that he was
going to win, and there's going to be two reasons why.
And he used the word process, and he used the
word spot. And I am huge on process, and process
goes into so deep, so many things of how we
prepare to hit a golf shot, how we manage our emotions,
what we're thinking about and why, and then going ahead
and hitting the golf shot and executing. And then spot
went into while he was putting, he was focusing on
a spot. So if I'm focused on something, you know,
we can't think about two or three different things at
one time. So if I'm, you know, focusing on my rhythm,
or if I'm focusing on a target in the background
or a specific swinky, I can't be thinking about the
nerves and the situation. And at the same time, we've.
Speaker 2: Talked so often about process and outcome.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: We even did a show once there was a teacher
who uses NATO golf, which is an ATO not attached
to outcome. Okay, and so many of the mental coaches
that we've talked to talk about process versus outcome. I
can see the sweaty palms on the first tee, you
know where your anticipation leading up to it for hours
and hours, if not days, weeks, months, versus your knees
knocking on the eighteenth hole on your eighteenth hole putt, right,
different kind of nerves. But again it's it's because you're
focused on what might happen versus staying in that moment exactly.
Speaker 1: And so even if we see with Jordan winning this
week was unbelievable performance that really started a month ago.
I mean the kids, you know, he goes win, second, second, win.
He's been in the leader group, so the kid's been
in total control of his process the whole time. But
we saw on the seventy second hold the Masters, you know,
he didn't hit a very good putt at all. He
was not in the moment at that time he was
given his acceptance speech. He was just like, let me,
let me cuddle this thing up to the hole and
get it in somehow.
Speaker 2: And only the announcers at that point knew that it
was a record breaking putt. I'm sure he wasn't aware
that if he makes the putt, he sets the record
for the lowest score ever.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, subconsciously he may have known it. He wasn't
thinking about that he was thinking about, you know what,
I'm about to win the Masters. Let me not do
something stupid like power lift this thing out and have
it spin down the hill to fifteen feet and I
leave myself a tough you know. So his thing is
let us let me get this over with. And you know,
I'm sure his mind was racing the thing is a
kid is just I mean, that was an amazing performance
this week, and so the control that he showed that
he learned from last year. You know self admitted he
had lost control and got a little hot last year
after he missed that put on eight. You know, this
year he missed some putts as well, but he didn't
let it, you know, overcome him. He got right back
into the process of what he was doing. And the
result speaks for himself.
Speaker 2: It was amazing. It was an amazing performance, and he's
got all parts of his game working. It was all
working all weekend long. Was it a fluke performance? Not
by him but in the world of golf, because you
don't you know, I mean, how many times has somebody
won by night, you know, by being minus eighteen right
on that golf course?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Was that a fluke? Are they going to have to
make changes of the course so they can make it.
You know, the winning score should be like in a
US Open, the winning should be a minus three, right,
not twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I wouldn't say it's a fluke. It
wasn't like he wasn't trying to shoot eighteen under. He
was trying to shoot even part shot eighteen. I would
say that it might be. I would say, more than anything,
I think the core setup was a little different. It
was a little softer. We saw that. I heard for
the first time that around the greens the grass was
cut towards the green instead of away from it, which
made chipping a lot easier. You weren't always against the grain.
I don't know if they did that to help out
a certain someone who had some short game issues earlier
this year, and but you know, at the same time,
I just think that conditions were conducive for low scoring
this year, and so you know, the guys took advantage
of it, and there was a lot of low scores
and eagles made and long irons hit really close in
three woods that were stopping close to the whole, and
you know, so you know, I don't think they really
have to change that golf course. I mean, it's they've
added so much laying to it. It's like seventy six
seventy seven hundred yards. There's a lot of things that
I think are really good with that golf course already
that they don't have to touch. I mean, maybe the
green's firming up a little bit more, you know, maybe
cutting the grain against the green, you know, going away
from the green around the greens is definitely going to
change the short game landscape of that golf courch, which
is where all the scoring is done is around the
green deck.
Speaker 2: Enough about Jordan Speed. Everybody's talking about Jordan Speed. Let's
talk about Andy Walker. What's going on with you?
Speaker 1: Wow? A lot, a lot's going on. It's been a
great year.
Speaker 2: Glad to hear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, still coaching South Mountain Community College. Number one junior
college team in the country, Is that right? Yeah, we're
number one team in the country.
Speaker 2: What's the age group of the kids that you have
playing there?
Speaker 1: Eighteen to twenty twenty one? Okay, so yep, college kids
and we're the number one junior college team of the country.
We thank you. We've won every tournament this spring semester,
which has been unbelievable. I don't know if that's ever
been done before, but we've I've got a great group
of guys that are that are playing. I also have
the women's team, which is number two in our conference
right now. So they've made great strides from not even
really having a full team last year to become the
number two team in our region on the women's side,
which is pretty fun. Started up a new company called
US Golf Combines.
Speaker 2: What is that tell me?
Speaker 1: Us Golf Combine, It's pretty fun. So it is the
most respected and kind of intricate combined rating system in golf.
So in essence, we're kind of coming up with a
rating system for the game of golf. Ours is going
to be targeted towards high school players that are wanting
to play in college. So we're going to be traveling
around the country. Are first ones in Dallas at Brookhaven
Country Club. So for people that are aware with Dallas,
brook Haven is Jordan Speace course that he grew up
playing with, and so the people that work with Jordan
Speed at Fitness. I know he was talking about the
guys when he gave his acceptance speech. Those guys are
going to be actually doing our fitness stuff, so it's
pretty neat. It was a big week for us with
US Golf Combines and Jordan Speed and his whole team,
because there's gonna a lot of stuff that we're going
to be doing in conjunction with each other. But we're
going to go around the country and we're gonna be
rting high school players, so they're going to be going
through the trap Man combine. We have short game algorithms
and putting algorithms that dictate proximity the whole and give
you a rating as well as makes they're going to
go out and play. We have a mental combine that
we're going to be doing AMP Fitness, which is Jordan
SPI's fitness crew and people that work on his body
and physique are going to be doing a physical combine
with us, and then we're going to put the kids
high school resumes together in appropriate format and from there
we're going to videotape them and their interview and have
a nice package for them to send out to college
coaches so they can play college.
Speaker 2: Golf on The combine idea is based on combines, like
for football, from college kids going into the pros and
you get all the scouts together. That's the concept behind
this exactly.
Speaker 1: College golf recruiting has been pretty tough. I've been fortunate
to get some really good players here where we're at,
but college golf recruit there's so many kids that are
out there playing high school golf, and only like the
Jordan's Speace and the select few that are playing the
bigger AJGA tournaments, USGA tournaments and Junior World and stuff
like that are get looked at by the top colleges. Well,
not everyone can play in those tournaments. It's just like
every event, there's only a limited amount of field, you
know that that can participate in the field. So how
does everyone else get seen and how do they get hurt?
And so from the coaching aspect of it, there are
certain things I like to see from a college player.
So if I see players that are combined correctly and
rated in certain areas, I can pick from these certain
areas that I like. I may not need a kid
who makes every put right now. I may not need
a kid who's shooting sixty five and sixes of tournaments.
But if you can move it pretty good off the
t if you have some nice distance and you're tracking
combine is pretty good. I can show you how to
score lower. On the other side, there's coaches and teams
that like guys that roll it really well or already
shooting really low, and maybe they'll work on the guys
on the technical part of hitting golf shots, and so
we can kind of match up player and coach very well. So,
just like you said, is it like the high school
or is it like the college the football combines and
baseball and basketball combines.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously we're rating and testing different things, but
it's all for the same reason to find out about
a player's strengths, what they're good at, and potential as well,
and then to find out some of those hidden gems
as well.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it sounds amazing. It's taking the moneyball concept and
giving the stats so that you can compare apples to apples.
I remember having a conversation with the coach at Michigan
State years ago, and he talked about how it's difficult
to recruit on the high school side, plus college teams
don't have that many spaces open, right, But it's difficult
to recruit on the on the college side because you
have apples to oranges. They don't all play really nice courses,
and they don't all you know, it's hard to compare them.
Speaker 1: Across the board hundred percent, You're you're right, And it
is hard to judge a player, you know, that's playing
maybe in the in the Northeast versus someone that's playing
over here in the Southwest, and their seasons are different.
And you know, the kids are just coming out on
the East coast right now, they're just coming out of
a pretty harsh winter, so their skills aren't going to
be the same as somebody that's playing in Arizona, California,
you know, in Nevada right now. And so our thing
is if we're rating them at the proper time, like
I wouldn't go and do a Northeast combine, you know,
in March, it's not going to do. Any of those
kids aren't going to be ready. But when we get
to their spot and their level at the right time,
obviously everyone's going to have their skills. So someone's short
game may show up better. Who's particularly not scoring their
best or something at the time. So and then you know,
like I said, it allows a good player to coach
matchup as well, and it gives everyone there their rating
at every different pillar that we choose to categorize.
Speaker 2: While we're on this topic, what kind of advice would
you give to parents who have kids who are in
high school that love to play the game, that want
to compete? What kind of advice would you give to
parents about prepping their kid to play college ball or
how they can get into playing college ball?
Speaker 1: Awesome? Awesome, Come to US College Golf Combines. So the
US Golf Combines dot com is actually going to go
live next week. At the end of the week, we're
going to go live.
Speaker 2: So give me a date on that, because this is
going to be broadcast. You know, once we publish, the
show may have been already live.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so approximately it will be April thirtieth. The
website's going to go live. We will get start out
on fifteen, twenty fifteen and from there. But you know what,
play as much competition as you can play. It doesn't
matter what the tournament is, what the name of it is,
who's the sponsor of it, where it's at the main
thing is to just like we talked about with nerves earlier,
the more you're in that situation, the less you're gonna
feel those nerves, and the more competition you can play,
the better. One thing I hear a lot. I work
with a lot of really good junior and high school
players as well, is I'm gonna wait till I'm playing
a little bit better. I'm gonna wait till I'm swinging better.
I'm'n wait till I'm putting better to get in that tournament. Well,
we don't know how we're gonna swing and how we're
gonna hit it, and how we're gonna tip it until
we get into the tournament. You may get there and
find out that you're a great tournament player, not a
good practicer. You know, I have a kid who on
my team right now, who's the number two player in
the country who does not qualify. Well, well, he's gotten
a couple sponsor picker coaches picks by me, and the
kid's gone out and played extremely well in tournaments. So
you know, there's just like we said, there's gamers, and
and so our thing is to make sure that the
gamers are found, and how you're going to be found
as a gamer is getting the game. You know that
I've never won a golf tournament on a practice team.
Speaker 2: Oh I had Sorry, many.
Speaker 1: Actually, I won a couple of US Opens and Masters
on a practice green, not on the rain.
Speaker 2: It made me think of something, Oh, the difference between
high school golf and junior golf programs right right? And
does that help recruiting a college recruiter if they're playing,
you know, junior golf versus playing high school golf.
Speaker 1: I would say college recruiters are looking more at the
at the junior golf tournaments because they're multiple day tournaments.
They're eighteen whole tournaments a day. A lot of high
school matches are nine hole matches, you know, and.
Speaker 2: They're not always on the best courses, right, and.
Speaker 1: They're not always on the best golf courses, and you
know it's but we do look at those as well.
I mean, obviously I go out to the state high
school tournament every year and do a lot of recruiting
there for my team. But and I think a lot
of college coaches do as well. But they're also looking
at some of the a j GA, the local junior
tours that are playing. Like here in Arizona, we have
the Junior gol Association in Arizona and they have the
Desert Junior Tour and the Rocky mounta Junior tro and
all these different junior tours that are going on. So,
you know, my thing is how much tournament golf are
you playing? First of all, and which tells me a
couple of things. You know that that's your commitment to
this game. And then you know, what are you shooting
in these tournaments? How you how are you placing? How
are you bouncing back from from poor rounds. I'm not
always looking at your best rounds. I'm looking back. How
are you bouncing back after round? Your progression from year
to year? And so, uh, the only way for me
to measure that unless you are getting combined by US
Golf combine or you're I'm there watching you practice every day.
Is the only measurement I have is your tournament scores,
So as much competition as you can play.
Speaker 2: You said your team is number one in the nation.
Is that on not on a D one D two
it's community college.
Speaker 1: National Junior college yet the NJC double A So n
JC double a number one team in the country. Yeah,
it's fun. We've had some success against some D one schools.
We yeah, we I think Arizona State right now is
number two D one team in the country, and we
clipped them earlier in the fall in a tournament, so
we got played. Oh it's awesome, it's awesome. I would
take my five junior college guys right now and play
any NCAD Division one tournament in the country and know
that we are not only going to compete, but would
have a chance to win. To say that we're going
to win every tournament at the D one level would
be silly. But I tell you what, these guys can
flat play and it is. It's fun. It's a pleasure
coaching them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh congratulations. How does team scoring work like that?
Speaker 1: So in our conference in junior college, we play six
players count the four low scorers. In our regional tournament
which is next Thursday through Sunday, it is five players
count four. And at the national championship in May and
Alabama's going to be five count four. So every day
you play five players in your low four scores or
is your team total?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm going to go back. We're talking about
twenty one year olds here. And my favorite line actually
of the day. At the very end when he won,
Jim Nantz was saying, well, you know, next month, if
he was back in Texas. He would be graduating next month,
but he doesn't have to because he got his masters.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: It was a great line. But do you see kids
that you go, Okay, this kid's going to be able
to compete on a professional level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. All the time. I've got, you know, goodness,
three or four or five on my team that I
think are going to be playing professional golf, you know,
at some level PGA Tour. I would love to see
them there. Do they have the talent ability? Definitely? I mean,
this is a very talented group. But you gotta think
we're a junior college team. I was fortunate enough to
win an NC DOUBLEA championship at Pepperdine in ninety seven,
and I would think that this team here is better
than our team that won an NC DOUBLEA championship. And so,
you know, there's so many guys. I mean, just to
think that Jordan Spieth. I met Jordan the first time.
I believe he was maybe eighteen, eighteen or nineteen. He
got an exemption into the Northern Trust Open when he
was at Texas, and I got an exemption to playing
as well. And the kid was polished. I mean, he
looked like a tour veteran at that age, and so
you know, he's not your typical twenty one year old
kid right now. I mean, this kid, the maturity that
he has and his golf awareness and knowledge is just
beyond his year, and it's it's it's pretty fun to see.
So to think that he could have been playing next
month n CUAA Championships is scary. I mean, I just
wouldn't want to run against him.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, he's not eligible to.
Speaker 1: No, he could have been. I mean state college, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he can that.
Speaker 2: He's not an amateur anymore. Yeah no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
far from being an amateur.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if he you know, like I said, he
could have been playing that wow, you know, come a month,
and that would have been Like I said, I wouldn't
want to run across him at that point.
Speaker 2: And wasn't when Tiger was that age. Wasn't he held back?
Didn't his dad hold him back from playing on an
upper level. It's like, just take one stage at a time.
That's not rush things he did.
Speaker 1: Yep. And I tell people I see high school kids
that want to jump right into the pro ranks right
off the bat and.
Speaker 2: We're not talking about basketball.
Speaker 1: Right, We're talking about golfer. And I'm like, guys, if
Tiger went to college for a couple of years, yeah,
you should probably go to college for now. Are there
exceptions to the rule? Yeah? Over in Europe, a lot
of the guys don't go to college, like the Rory
mcle and stuff like that. But at the same time,
a lot of them do you know, you got Adam Scott,
who did you know he went to UNLV for a
few years, so you know, there is there's kind of
a blueprint ish of how to get there and and
college golf gets you acclimated to play in bigger venues
with with the best players all the time. And uh And,
like I said, it was, you know, the guys that
are the most successful did it for a little while
at the college level and one NCAA championships Tiger won
as well, and Jordan one and and uh and they
moved up with the confidence and ability to be successful
at the next level.
Speaker 2: You you said a moment ago that they have the
talent and the ability. But my question is they have
talent and ability, but dot dot dot. You know, obviously
there's a whole lot of maturity that is required. There's
a whole lot of presence, there's a whole lot of
self knowledge that you have to have to succeed at
golf at that level. So tell ability, is that just enough?
Or what what separates the ones who can from the
can't on a competitive level?
Speaker 1: There's there's a couple of things this right here. Your
heart can't measure heart and and and and your mind
up here. And so what what Jordan speak is really
good at is is focusing and staying in the present
and not being afraid of big situations. And so the
awareness level that he has out there is is awesome.
Speaker 2: When you see an awareness, you're not talking about about
his the competition. You're talking about awareness of self, of self.
Speaker 1: On the awareness of self. He his self awareness, his
awareness of what he does at certain instances. I have
tons of people who tell me they draw the ball
and coming down the hardness of of of situations, the
ball goes right, and and and I said, your awareness
and and and our reality is a little differ front here. Right,
if we missed the ball right all the time coming
down to stretch and we're aiming right, we've got to disconnect.
And so you know, there's the little intangibles that that
separate the good from the greats. Okay, and the greats
exactly what is it? It's being able to perform at
your best and the most important time. Okay, So myself,
for an example, I was a very good high school player.
I was a collegiate All American. I went in c doublea's.
I played on the PGA Tour, I played on the
web dot Com Tour. I won twenty eight professional events.
But what was it that I didn't do at the
right time that a Jordan Speeth or a Tiger Woods does.
Do you know why were they winning major team? Do
they do those guys hit the ball better than I do? No?
Do they chip it and put it better than I do? No?
But there's a little intangibles that the greats, the Jack Necklaces,
the Arnold Palmer's, the Lee Trevino's, those guys that that
we see and are the greats of the game do
better than the thirty to one twenty five on the
money list guys, right, And it has nothing to do
with physical ability, has nothing to do with work ethic.
You can't tell me that the twenty four guy in
the money list works harder than the twenty five guind
of Money list or the five guid of money list,
works harder than the fifty guyd in of Mine list. No,
there are intangibles that are that are immeasurable that helps
you get to that level, and a lot of it,
like I said, is repetition. I think Jordan's very successful.
He's been playing a lot of high level golf for
a long time, a lot of tournament golf for a
long time, and putting yourself in that position as much
as you can helps you be successful. And so finding
out yourself, Hey, this is what I do when I'm
in this situation. Now I'm going to own up to that.
Once I found out what my miss really was coming
down the stretch, I got to plan and kind of
go into my process a little bit deeper and attack
those things so I could be successful in that and
cherish those moments instead of being afraid of them and
being like the first question, being nervous about it. Right,
I had more anticipation than fear, and so that's where
the nerves get. You know, they can help you or
hurt you at that same point. So you know those
that's a great question that you asked, Right, there is
you know, the dot dot dot. You know, what's going
to be the commitment to these kids when they come
out of college, you know, if they sign a big contract.
We see that, I think a lot of players right now,
and not to bring up a touchy subject, learned from
Tiger's mistake. Okay, they learned. They learned that, hey, we can't,
we can't lead this type of lifestyle that is available
to us. Right, because who was the great superstar before
Tiger out there? Oh wait, right there, there wasn't one,
but Tigers said a blueprint of like this is what
can't happen now? Yeah, exactly right. And there was no
social media, and there wasn't all these different you know, distractions.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that there was twenty four hours sports channels
and golf channels.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and there wasn't people tweeting when I saw you
with a certain I mean, I'm sure that Tiger is
not the first person to have transgressions ever that had
played golf, right, Probably not, Probably not, And that may
not be the most popular thing to say, but it's true.
Speaker 2: And professional athlete, there are people following.
Speaker 1: Exactly and so and so the kids I think or
Speed has really learned, Hey, this is the type of
lifestyle that I want to lead to be successful. And
he's doing it. And he's got a good camp around him,
and he's got a good family around him, and he
has people around him that are taking care of him
and not trying to use him. And so, you know,
I think he's got a lot of the he's got
a lot of the tools in place to be very
successful in this game for a long time.
Speaker 2: Is Tiger's legacy Rory and Jordan? I mean, is you
know what what did he bring to golf? Yeah, he
brought a moment of amazing excellence. But what did he
leave for the long term? Maybe it's the next generation
of golfers and what he's taught them. That's a really
interesting point that you have, because it seems like right now,
more than ever on the professional level, there's a lot
of young people playing and competing and succeeding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that that new breed's coming up? Right? I mean?
You know, I mean, I mean Rory made a comment
last year about Phil and Tiger being on their back nine.
You know, they're on the back nine of their careers.
I'm like, Wow, that's that's.
Speaker 2: The same age as me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm six months older than Tiger. It's like that
means I'm done. I've already made the turn. I'm on
the nineteenth all right now.
Speaker 2: Dude, I talk about being in the back nine of life,
so you still got some time.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's amazing that you know that these
young guys that are coming up are so good and
so strong, and you know, Patrick Reid what what what
he bringing to this game is awesome and obviously Jordan's speed,
and we see these guys that are just these young
guns that are out there every week, and guess what,
they're not afraid of Tiger. And I think the generation
before Tiger, the guys that are you know, forty three,
forty four that we played a little bit before Tiger
and the guys that came out with him had that
fear factor. We've been stung by Tiger for twenty years
and it hurts. It's like, goodness, gracious, and he's only
getting better. Well, the guys behind him never got stung
by Tiger before, right, and so they come out there
like Tiger who all we know Tiger's We saw you
on TV apologizing for getting caught you know, doing that
and now you're chili dipping it and you can't get
it on the green at tpc's Scottsdale, and you know,
it's like that fear. They don't have that fear factor.
They don't have those those those scar they don't have
the scar tissue of Tiger.
Speaker 2: Well, Tiger had this intimidation factor too when he was
at his prime that everyone was talking about from you know,
from columnists to mean, everybody, even if they weren't into golf,
they were talking about his intimidation factor. He walked on
the course and everybody was like, oh boy, this is
not to be fun.
Speaker 1: I sat in a room with a room full of
tour players, all tour winners, multiple winners, and we were
talking about Tiger. I think this was about twenty ten
or so, two thousand and nine, and everyone talked about
I said, what's the difference because we all grew up
playing against Tiger and we've beaten him, and he's beaten
us obviously more than we beat him. But he was gettable.
And they were like, Tiger is a different person now,
he's almost godlike on a golf course. They're like, you,
he floats around a golf course, you can be hitting
balls and you'll feel him fifty yards behind you hitting
balls and you'll feel him walking up. Just that presence.
Right now, Tiger does not have that same presence out there.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I was just going to ask you, you've
played against him, you've coached, can you watch him on
TV and know like, okay, this is this put's not
going in or he's not I mean, can you just
feel it from him? You get a sense from him
that it's not there.
Speaker 1: I saw him play at TVC's Got Still this year
and I almost cried. I mean, it was that sad
to see the best player who's ever picked up a
golf club not be able to chip a ball onto
the green from five yards off the green, right. I mean,
I'm not talking about not chipping it in what I'm
used to seeing him doing, or not chipping it to
a foot. He couldn't get a ball on the green right.
He's still taking foe arm and trying to roll it up.
And you know, he kind of bought into all this
mess about changing his wrist patterns or whatever that means,
and gluts being activated and deactivated and not firing, and
you know, it was sad. To see, because I was
there with a bunch of guys at that play on
tour and we're watching like we don't know what's going on.
And it was a sad day, I think for golf
more than anything, just because being a fan of the
game and being able to play against and be around
the best players ever. To see the best player ever
go through that type of struggle, it's like, wow, you
know what was hard, was like that could happen to
me at any time. And then it was beautiful to
watch him chipping and pitching the ball the way he
did at the Masters, and and see, you know, the
last day he stumbled a little bit, but I had
no idea. I said, you know, with Tiger, you're going
to get anything. He could have came out and gave
it Jordan's speed performance and won by you know, four
or five six shots, or he could have shot eighty
eight ninety two, right, you know, And so to see
him come out and get it out of the way,
and I just want him to miss number one green
and watch him chip it like chip it on the
green and then let's breathe, okay, yeah, And and then
you know, he played some some good rounds there in
the middle and got himself, you know, somewhat in contention.
Jordan kind of left the field, but he you know,
he got himself in contention, and you know, and I
think that's good for the game. Tell you the truth,
this game as great ass Jordan's speed's going to be
for the game, as great as as Rory McElroy is
going to be for this game. The game's in good
hands right now. But this game needs Tiger. Well.
Speaker 2: You know, I've recently received an email from a listener saying,
stop talking about Tiger already. Let's focus on what's going on,
because there is a youth movement that is happening. Jordan
and Rory are the future of the game at that level,
and Tiger is not it. And so maybe we put
too much emphasis on what was and hoping it's going
to come back, because it you know, the fact is
watching Tiger this past week, and I commented to a
couple of people, I don't remember Tiger having four good
rounds on a weekend. I mean, he has not put
four good rounds together in a long time, right, So,
you know, you can always talk about the nineteen fifties Yankees,
you know about dominating the sport. But they're not coming
back either, right, right, right, right, So we do have
to look at the future of the game. And you're
working directly with these young kids, you think and you
see firsthand that's where it's going.
Speaker 1: Definitely, definitely, I mean, you know that was I don't
think we could have had a better champion than than
than Jordan, obviously, other than if Tiger would have won,
the golf industry would have exploded. I mean, people don't
understand that Tiger feeds us all in the golf industry. Okay,
if Tiger had to bow out because you couldn't chip
a ball on the green, this two million dollar performance
in a rah hair right now would be struggling. I mean,
he gives because because he's going to bring people want
to watch Tiger either fail or succeed. But either way
you want to watch him. Yeah, and so either way
you're you're you're anticipating watching him play. Jordan was awesome
because he won by a lot on Saturday and Sunday, right,
and so people tuned in on Thursday to watch Tiger.
Jordan took that audience away from them, great, right, he
took he took the audience, and he was like, hey,
this is my audience and that was awesome. And and
Rory you know, didn't quite live up to what he was,
you know, touted to do. And but I mean, you know,
great player, unbelievable players, so right.
Speaker 2: And obviously that course, that course does not compliment his game, right,
So clearly he struggles there this concept of Tiger being
the messiah for golf. I it's like a bunch of
fifty I'm sorry, a bunch of sixty year old consultants
talking about when they had their big day in business
and they're waiting for it to come back. It's like, folks,
if you're not embracing the Internet and Twitter and periscope
and Facebook, if you're not embracing that in the way
you do business, now forget about it.
Speaker 1: It's like Bundy talking about his high school you know,
in high school, I threw for five touchdowns in the
state game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was your moment.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: Hopefully is Jordan. You know, we've always talked about is
Rory the next Tiger? Is Ry? You know, we keep
waiting for it to happen, and it kind of does.
And he you know, he was on the on the
verge of a career Grand Slam and that that is Jordan,
the next Tiger. I mean, because we had you know,
I mean we we it's big, you know, Arnie and
Jack and Tiger. You know, you had. There are certain
players for each generation that just carry the generation, and
Tiger had his. But he fell from grace so hard.
It's such a shame. But now we got to look
to the future again. And is Jordan I think, I
personally think because and this is gonna sound terrible because
he's an American, it may be much bigger because the
advertisers are gonna are gonna clamp onto that. Plus is
you know, a horribleness his movie star looks. He's just
you know, he's just like a clean looking kid. You know,
they could be an advertising boom.
Speaker 1: He is and and he's and he's a great kid.
And I think he's done everything the right way. And
you know, been getting to know a lot of people
around his camp lately. And the kid's a star and
he's been for a long time. And I think the
people around him know it, but they haven't kind of
filled his head with all the hooplah. But but at
the same time, I think that him that Jordan's speed
being American is huge. It is big for the game
because guess what, uh, To be honest, no one really
tunes into the golf channel to watch Rory McRoy that
much unless there's some Americans in the field that are
playing well and he's doing everything. Rory's got a lot
of swag, right, But Y didn't show up all the time.
Speaker 2: And I don't think he's I don't I think he's
got the kind of and is it the word charisma
what I'm looking for that Tiger had that there was
something about him that just drew you to the screen.
It just sucked you in. That Tiger, whether he was
on the course or not, right and that, you know,
is that what we're and we're always looking for the
next one, the next one, the next one.
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty unfair to put the next Tiger
on anybody, including absolutely Tiger has been the best in
the world since at his respective level, since we were
five years old. And when he was, you know, thirteen
years old, he was the best junior player in the world,
so that was everyone under eighteen, and when he was
in college he was the best player in the world.
I mean, I think Norman was ranked number one in
the world. But you know, Tiger went through a stretch
in college where he was shooting sixty threes and fours
and win an NCAA championship. Tiger shot eighty the last
round in NCAA's and one. Okay, that's how that's how
much he had blown us away. At the honors course,
I was right there and I was a recipient of
that whooping that he gave everybody as well. And uh,
you know, and I think I played with Robert Floyd
that week, Raymond's son, and Raymond followed us and said,
if this, if this was a tour event this week,
Tiger were won by about eight okay. And so you know,
to put that on anybody, I don't know, is it
is fair? Because they are looking for the next Tiger?
How about Jordan be the first Jordan Speed?
Speaker 2: You know, how do you sell that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And so totally, why do you sell that?
Speaker 1: You know, Tiger. I'll tell you what. Under armour, these
people at the top of these companies know what they're doing.
I mean, they signed Tiger for sixty million and he
turns into you know, the whole game, and and and
under armour, you know, does this big contract with with
Jordan and they did a great job. They did an
unbelievable job. Uh. And so you know, obviously they know
what they're picking and they know what they're looking for.
And these guys are just you know, Nike signs a
big contract with with Rory and he becomes a number
one player in the world. It's like, these guys, are
they know something we don't, right, I need to go
to I need to go over there, and you have
these guys do my lottery numbers or something like that.
But uh, I.
Speaker 2: Have one more question and then and then we're going
to take a break because you probably have a better
sense of this than I do. But are players wearing
spikes anymore?
Speaker 1: Well, so, so let me give you the let me
give you the good answer here. I have a really
great relationship with Soft Spikes and they do their R
and D out of our performance center. So no spikes.
Soft Spikes company by Pride Sports is the only way
to go. Would that being said, Yeah, there's some people
that still wear nails. Reasons why we probably don't need
to know. You don't need spikes anymore. I mean, yeah,
you have to have spikes to to hold your foot,
your balance, probably swing it too hard. Tip.
Speaker 2: That's that's an excellent point. I was blown away seeing
Kegan Bradley wearing high top Air Jordan's.
Speaker 1: Those are hideous. Those are awful. Those are were there, spike?
Speaker 2: Where were there the you know, there's some sort of grip?
Those were regular basketball shoes, were they?
Speaker 1: That's that? Now it's that Air Jordan golf shoes. And
he I guess he's going to release it or yeah,
and and and Kegan's wearing those are brutal.
Speaker 2: I was like blown him, like I kept rewinding going,
oh my god, they really are Air Jordan high tops.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's nuts. That's his buddy. So he's making a
shoe for him, you know. And yeah, yeah, yeah it
but uh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: You're going to provide us with a little tip perfect.
Speaker 1: This tip is called follow the handle. A lot's been
said about short game lately, with Tiger's troubles and making
good contact and hitting thin shots and heavy shots around
the green. It's all can be handled in set up
and knowing where you're center of grab is. If you
know that your center of gravity is underneath your chin,
your hands are going to fall back underneath your chin
at impact. What happens is people try and hit golf
shots low and they get their hands forward. We've all
seen that guy before. And then when you come back
and if you try to hit a golf shot and
keep your hands forward at impact, you would bottom out
back here and lift the ball. And a lot of
players do that. They chunk it or they get they
hit the ball thin, so they're trying to hit it low.
If they come back and their hands fall underneath their chin,
the ball goes high and they go walls trying to
hit that low. So I always say follow the handle.
If I want to hit a golf shot low and
hit three shots for us, I'm going to hit a
low chip shot, a medium chip shot, medium trajectory, and
a higher pitch shot. And all I'm going to do
is follow the handle. So when I say that is
I'm going to make sure that my hands in the
handle fall underneath my chin. If I want to have
this club de loof did, I'm going to follow the handle.
So now the handle's underneath my chin again, so I
make contact, the ball will go low, we'll hit it
nice and crit and we still make contact with our
hands being consistently under our handle, which is underneath our
chin or center of gravity. If I want to hit
it medium, I set up here again. The shaft is
still leaning, but not as much. The handles underneath our chin,
and we make a regular chip shot. We'll all go
just a little bit higher. If we want to hit
the ball a little higher, what we do is we
start to turn. So if I want to add some
more law to it, I lean the shaft back. I
turn so now the club is right underneath my center
of gravity. Again, I'm a little more open to my target.
Make the same swing, and we hit a nice high,
softer shot. So the main thing is making sure that
wherever golf shot we want to have. If we want
to hit it low, we're going to have the club
leaning toward our target, but we're going to follow the
handle here. If it's medium, we're going to be right here,
and if it's back, we're going to have the handle
onneath our center of gravity. It's going to help you
with contact