Speaker 1: The guys from paying They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
Speaker 1: hit any shot.
Speaker 2: I kind of want we're gonna be able to tell
Speaker 2: some fun stories about what goes on here to help
Speaker 2: golfers play better golf.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon,
Speaker 1: That's Marty Jerts, and that is Boyd Summer Hayes in
Speaker 1: the Tour truck. Boy this is a place that back
Speaker 1: in the day, maybe you came in and got your
Speaker 1: club's tinkered with, and now obviously you work with some
Speaker 1: of the best players in the world. I want to
Speaker 1: kind of go back through your journey, both as a
Speaker 1: player and now obviously a coach. But take us back
Speaker 1: to your playing days. What was it like, how many
Speaker 1: tours did you play on and when did you decide
Speaker 1: maybe to say, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna take another path.
Speaker 3: So golf's in my blood. My grandfather was a head
Speaker 3: golf coach at the University of Utah. My dad Lynn,
Speaker 3: my uncle Bruce Summer Hayes, who played the Champions Tour,
Speaker 3: lifetime peing player, and then my uncle Gary were all golfers.
Speaker 3: They were the captains at the University of Utah. So
Speaker 3: my dad love golf. I'm one of seven siblings. My
Speaker 3: dad had it figured out. Everybody plays golf. We got
Speaker 3: two fours on Saturday in the afternoons after school, and
Speaker 3: that's just what I knew growing up. It was just
Speaker 3: golf and family competition, and I kind of knew at
Speaker 3: a young age I was getting to the point where
Speaker 3: I wanted to do it for a living. By the
Speaker 3: time I was fourteen, I won my second Junior World.
Speaker 3: When I won at ten, I didn't I'm just just
Speaker 3: playing with my brothers and sisters and playing junior golf locally.
Speaker 3: And then once I won at fourteen, it really got
Speaker 3: me thinking, hey, I may be able to do this.
Speaker 3: And then once again at Tory Pines when I was sixteen,
Speaker 3: and by then I was looking at going to Oklahoma
Speaker 3: State with Charles how we were best buddies, and I
Speaker 3: ended up doing that, went on a two year more
Speaker 3: of a mission. That kind of set me back a
Speaker 3: little bit. But by the time I was twenty four,
Speaker 3: I had my tour card through Q School, and you know,
Speaker 3: things didn't go exactly how I had planned. Had an
Speaker 3: injury or two, made some rookie mistakes, changed all my equipment.
Speaker 3: I kind of had a mixed bag. I had some pings,
Speaker 3: I had a Cameron Putter, I had Cleveland Wedge Taylor
Speaker 3: made driver at the time, and it was like, huh,
Speaker 3: what do I do? And I signed, you know, a
Speaker 3: contract with Callaway and it got to be where I
Speaker 3: was a little bit unfamiliar with my equipment. I kind
Speaker 3: of a quite rookie mistakes and sophomore mistakes, not injuries
Speaker 3: of why I didn't succeed, But without even knowing it,
Speaker 3: I was becoming a really probable for a coach. I
Speaker 3: had had so many lessons from so many instructors trying
Speaker 3: to chase miss Oh my gosh, And it got to
Speaker 3: the point where, you know, my game kind of just
Speaker 3: slowly deteriorated. A lot of the athleticism and a lot
Speaker 3: of the natural skills I had. I just sit on
Speaker 3: a range all day and hit, hit, hit, hoping for
Speaker 3: the perfect swing or the perfect shots. And it got
Speaker 3: to the point where I, just a little bit at
Speaker 3: a time, went from the tour to the corn ferry,
Speaker 3: from the corn ferry to PJ tor Canada, and that
Speaker 3: was the last place I played, and I had a
Speaker 3: great time. Took the family up to PJ Tour Canada.
Speaker 3: Preston hung out with me. He was nine.
Speaker 1: He was nine.
Speaker 3: He hung out with me every second of every day
Speaker 3: on the PJ tor Canda, except Grace's birthday. Mom said, hey,
Speaker 3: you're staying home to celebrate Grace's birthday. And at that point,
Speaker 3: when I went back, they started school. I was starting
Speaker 3: to drive to the airport, Sky Harbor and Phoenix, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm not playing well enough to justify this,
Speaker 3: and my kids are getting so pressing, was getting so
Speaker 3: into the game. I just turned around Withdrew and stopped
Speaker 3: doing it full time. And I couldn't imagine at that
Speaker 3: time that I would be a golf coach, because when
Speaker 3: you grow up in the game and you're just a
Speaker 3: player and you've had success, you just see yourself as that.
Speaker 3: And I remember some of the I was really close to,
Speaker 3: kind of like a life coach. I was so mad
Speaker 3: when I was done playing. You just feel like you
Speaker 3: didn't meet expectations, and you're a little bit frustrating. The
Speaker 3: last place you think you want to be as on
Speaker 3: a golf course more. You just want to just kind
Speaker 3: of hide run away, and you know, you didn't apecations
Speaker 3: you had And my friend said, hey, I know you're
Speaker 3: pissed off right now, but you and your family have
Speaker 3: been in the game your whole life. I think that's
Speaker 3: your number one skill set. And I couldn't be more
Speaker 3: grateful that he pushed me that direction, because once I
Speaker 3: started to coach, it's never the same buzz as you
Speaker 3: doing it, but it's different, like it's very rewarding. And then,
Speaker 3: especially once my kids started to take after, you know,
Speaker 3: and fall in love with the game, I thought, Wow,
Speaker 3: all the ups and downs of playing, you know, going
Speaker 3: to all these instructors, reading all the books and chasing
Speaker 3: I'm like, wow, I really am made to be a coach.
Speaker 3: Coaching was in my family too, and I couldn't be
Speaker 3: more grateful that I'm here sitting in the truck. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't have expected it, but the place's coaching has taken me.
Speaker 3: There are places where I would have dreamed was going
Speaker 3: as a player. It was just different than how I
Speaker 3: thought it was going to be.
Speaker 1: You mentioned winning two junior Worlds. I think it's Boyd
Speaker 1: and Tiger.
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 1: Is that that that's the list.
Speaker 3: I believe he won five. I won three, Yeah, sixteen.
Speaker 1: Where'd you go on your mission? I went to Argentina, Argentina,
Speaker 1: And how was that experience? Because I mean, you were
Speaker 1: what have you read twenty years old?
Speaker 3: I went when I was nineteen, So played one year
Speaker 3: at Oklahoma State, went to Argentina for two years, and
Speaker 3: when I came back. Funny story is, we're doing qualifying
Speaker 3: at Oklahoma State literally a month after I got home
Speaker 3: on my mission. And if anyone's gone to Carston Creek,
Speaker 3: you have some space to hit the fairways, but if
Speaker 3: you don't, it's just jungle. It's just the oak trees,
Speaker 3: and you're not chipping out. It's just a penalty shot.
Speaker 3: And I remember doing a qualifying on the back nine
Speaker 3: and I shot fifty and Coach shoulder kind of disgusted.
Speaker 3: He's like, you're out of here. You're not going the
Speaker 3: next night. And so it was a cool experience getting
Speaker 3: my game back to where then I could go to
Speaker 3: Q school and get through. But yeah, I think I
Speaker 3: learned appreciation just for life on my mission. The northern
Speaker 3: parts of Argentina are incredibly poor, and the people are
Speaker 3: happy and sometimes over here we have so much and
Speaker 3: we're not happy. So that's probably the long lasting memory
Speaker 3: of those two years is just gratitude everywhere I go.
Speaker 3: You just when you're seeing that day after day, the
Speaker 3: struggle of just to get bread and they had mate.
Speaker 3: It was tea that kind of pressed their appetite and
Speaker 3: the most lovely people. So that will always, you know,
Speaker 3: leave an imprint of gratitude in my in my mind
Speaker 3: and heart. For those two years.
Speaker 1: Did you play any golf in Argentina in two years?
Speaker 3: So there was two nine hole courses and when you're
Speaker 3: thinking of golf courses, it's just pasture with some flags.
Speaker 3: And Argentinians are really short, and so that when I
Speaker 3: went to play nine holes, the clubs were so flat
Speaker 3: and so short. I'm good, I don't need to do this.
Speaker 3: The torch truck's dead, you know, no tor truck there
Speaker 3: right there to been the lost in lives for me, Boyd.
Speaker 2: I think a fun part of your journey is like
Speaker 2: you've felt the pain of being a professional, the joys
Speaker 2: and then the pain for sure, like like the struggle
Speaker 2: of it. You've taken a lot of lessons. I think
Speaker 2: one thing I see, at least from as far as
Speaker 2: that you're you're like a holistic coach to your to
Speaker 2: the players and your players play good. You're working on mechanics, technique, strategy,
Speaker 2: life coaching. I mean, how what is your approach to
Speaker 2: your different players that you take and how do you
Speaker 2: have to cater to each each of each of the
Speaker 2: different players you know, take Tony for example. Is it
Speaker 2: more the technical side? Are you working more on the
Speaker 2: field strategy side? What's your what's your approach there?
Speaker 3: I think exactly what you said and what I alluded
Speaker 3: to earlier. I'm you know, wise enough and humble enough
Speaker 3: to know that I didn't not have a successful career
Speaker 3: because of bad breaks and injuries. You look at Patrick Cantley,
Speaker 3: he came back from injury. Guys come back from injuries.
Speaker 3: There are so many mistakes I made that then I
Speaker 3: could help my students not make. For example, I talked
Speaker 3: about how I changed every club in the bag. Well,
Speaker 3: I was already going to go on tour and I
Speaker 3: need to get used to just being comfortable to golf courses,
Speaker 3: just fitting in with who to play practice rounds with, and.
Speaker 1: Why change a factor that you actually already work comfortable?
Speaker 3: There you go and so when I got and then
Speaker 3: I also from me trying to chase the perfect swing,
Speaker 3: I realized that's not the way to go. When you're
Speaker 3: working with you know, amateurs or all levels of golfers.
Speaker 3: You want to go very systematically, one thing at a time,
Speaker 3: you know, in swing thing, one thing at a time.
Speaker 3: Sure you can change setup and other things before, because
Speaker 3: that's not before you've taken the club back. But to me,
Speaker 3: when I started working with a player, I'd look and say, Okay,
Speaker 3: what have they always done in their swings that I'm
Speaker 3: not going to change, and then let's try to build
Speaker 3: pieces around it that make their swing work better. Same
Speaker 3: thing with the equipment. I had a player that Tony.
Speaker 3: He was one of the top players in the world,
Speaker 3: and he had some decisions to make as he kept
Speaker 3: up on the rise, there was an opportunity to play
Speaker 3: a different golf ball, and you know, I was the
Speaker 3: pain of me not making it. I go around to
Speaker 3: golf course all the time and think, hmmm, it's just
Speaker 3: a humbling thing, Like I just I know what I
Speaker 3: could have been and what I didn't achieve, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: we're not going there changing one piece, which is the
Speaker 3: golf ball. Is a big deal, bigger than what people think,
Speaker 3: and so I've been able to steer players away from
Speaker 3: mistakes that I personally made. Also, I think that players
Speaker 3: have come to see me because they do know that
Speaker 3: I have the background of playing whether because at some
Speaker 3: point I played some great golf and then I made
Speaker 3: a lot of mistakes. And so it's almost a two
Speaker 3: edged sword where I'm able to help players in good ways,
Speaker 3: push them the right direction that helped me and other
Speaker 3: players be successful, but also keep them away from things
Speaker 3: that are going to put them down the wrong path.
Speaker 3: And I think there's trust when a player works with
Speaker 3: someone that has been in the game, knows the torture
Speaker 3: of it, knows the ups and downs that you don't
Speaker 3: panic after two or three weeks. Well I did that
Speaker 3: as a player too on tour, get so hard on myself,
Speaker 3: so down and you're like, you just missed two or
Speaker 3: three cuts by a couple of shots. Don't make this
Speaker 3: bigger than it is. And I found myself in that
Speaker 3: rabbit hole where I just worked harder and harder and
Speaker 3: harder on my swing, when in reality it's like, you
Speaker 3: know what, you know, it's a shot. Here, go work
Speaker 3: on some web shots. You didn't get that up and down,
Speaker 3: not just look at one area, but all of them
Speaker 3: and don't panic. And I think that's helped me is
Speaker 3: just the player confiding or trusting that I'm not going
Speaker 3: to give them something crazy on a Tuesday or Wednesday
Speaker 3: work on because hey, I tried that and it looked
Speaker 3: good on film, and then you go play terrible. So
Speaker 3: I think just experience from being a player and recognizing
Speaker 3: the mistakes I made as a player has helped me coach,
Speaker 3: you know, high level players and actually average golfers alike.
Speaker 3: Don't give so much information at one time. Have a
Speaker 3: blueprint of where this thing's going, but do it one
Speaker 3: at a time, because when you fix one thing in
Speaker 3: the golf swing, it tends to clear up a couple others,
Speaker 3: and then that takes you to the next priority.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to ask about Preston because I've had
Speaker 1: the pleasure of calling and covering Preston play some amazing
Speaker 1: golf and he won the Junior Am. Some of those
Speaker 1: shots he hit, you know, late in that second eighteen
Speaker 1: were some of the best shots we saw for the
Speaker 1: entire year. You're you're very open on social media and
Speaker 1: it's very impressive. I mean you, some of my favorite
Speaker 1: things on social are when your kids and family have
Speaker 1: those matches and you kind of follow along. When it's
Speaker 1: like the boy dots on the Instagram story, I know
Speaker 1: it's going to be a pretty good day. But you know,
Speaker 1: Preston is a young your kid, young man coming up
Speaker 1: in the game, and all of a sudden, he's winning
Speaker 1: these enormous national chamschampionships. He's getting to play golf on
Speaker 1: a weekly basis with Tony Finow and John Rahm. How
Speaker 1: much have you pushed Preston into that world go play
Speaker 1: with these guys as you're coming up and going to college,
Speaker 1: and how much at times do you maybe pull them
Speaker 1: away from that and say, go play with your peers,
Speaker 1: go play with your buddies. Because I can imagine if
Speaker 1: you're playing with John Ram and Tony all the time
Speaker 1: and maybe you're not beating them, or maybe you get
Speaker 1: them every now and again, it could probably be slightly
Speaker 1: demoralizing for a guy like Preston, considering how talented he is.
Speaker 3: I look at it two ways. When you play with
Speaker 3: people that are better, two things are going to happen.
Speaker 3: Either you play with them and you see certain skill
Speaker 3: sets that wow, Okay, I'm right up to par, and
Speaker 3: then you also see areas that you're not. And so
Speaker 3: I always have encouraged my kids when you play with
Speaker 3: people that are better, you know, don't get deflated. Look
Speaker 3: for areas in your game, or learn for other players
Speaker 3: kind of the tricks of the trade that they're using.
Speaker 3: And the biggest advantage is just the comfort level if
Speaker 3: you put yourself in a situation like that. Preston was
Speaker 3: ten and eleven when he starts playing with these tour pros.
Speaker 3: You know, he was getting a bus from this, which
Speaker 3: is the exact same buzz you get on the first
Speaker 3: tee or coming down the stretch at the US Junior
Speaker 3: where you got to make some putts coming down and
Speaker 3: to really swing a match or stay ahead. And that
Speaker 3: constant competing is something I've tried to pass on to
Speaker 3: my kids. And I think one thing that helped me
Speaker 3: a lot too is my dad taught me and Daniel.
Speaker 3: My dad did some amazing things that did help us,
Speaker 3: and one of them was always competing. Every shot mattered.
Speaker 3: After school, we'd only have like an hour and fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes of daylight. We ran an oakreg country Club where
Speaker 3: they played the corn Ferry event one, two, three, and nine.
Speaker 3: We'd play two balls, it would be an eight whole tournament.
Speaker 3: We're always playing for something. Usually it was a Maverick
Speaker 3: ice cream cone, and my dad found a way, even
Speaker 3: if we were losing the bet, to create a new
Speaker 3: bet to play for it. So it was always something
Speaker 3: on the line. And I think when you're playing with
Speaker 3: people that are better than you, you naturally just want
Speaker 3: to play well, which is a good emotion and a
Speaker 3: good pressure and a good expectation. I think just that
Speaker 3: being uncomfortable all the time, it becomes normal and comfortable.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the advantage of playing for Preston,
Speaker 3: playing with Tony John Ram, he got to play with
Speaker 3: Brooks kept get age fourteen and all the tour players
Speaker 3: I taught, Wyndam Clark played you know, fifty rounds with
Speaker 3: and other players where it's like, Okay, I'm learning and
Speaker 3: grow and I see where I still got to go,
Speaker 3: but I see where I'm you know, in a good
Speaker 3: place compared to other players.
Speaker 1: What does Preston say to you about that, because now
Speaker 1: obviously he's in college and I mean, you know, you
Speaker 1: just got he just got announced to the Walker Cup team.
Speaker 1: He's had a great freshman year obviously at ASU. What
Speaker 1: does he say to you as a dad and also
Speaker 1: as a coach about the experience as a fourteen year
Speaker 1: old and as an eleven year old and as a
Speaker 1: sixteen year old to get him set up to these
Speaker 1: types of pressure pack situations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he understands that it's made a huge impact. He's
Speaker 3: grateful for the opportunities he's had because we say iron
Speaker 3: sharpens iron, and when you can get with those type
Speaker 3: of players, and they're different types of players, meaning the
Speaker 3: way Tony goes about it and his demeanor is very
Speaker 3: different than John. Raum, Grayce and Cam are very much
Speaker 3: more like John, where you know, they have that quick
Speaker 3: fire and then get over it. Preston's a little bit
Speaker 3: more laid back on and off the course, more like Tony,
Speaker 3: and so he can take pieces from every player and say, hey,
Speaker 3: I actually like how John gets kind of pissed, but
Speaker 3: then he's over it. Hey, I like the composure and
Speaker 3: the and the mentality of Tony, and you kind of take,
Speaker 3: you know, pieces from each tour pro You're not trying
Speaker 3: to copy and be like another player because you you
Speaker 3: being you is a huge part of self confidence and
Speaker 3: feeling like you're doing it the right way. But I
Speaker 3: think my kids have always been learners, just trying to
Speaker 3: always you know, see little things that they do, whether
Speaker 3: it's their drills or you know what, when they get
Speaker 3: aggressive to a flag, when they play away, just they're
Speaker 3: very observant and they realize the opportunity they've had the
Speaker 3: advantage over other kids, so they try not to squander it.
Speaker 2: Preston seems like I mean, one of the funnest things
Speaker 2: about watching him is like how many clutch putts he's
Speaker 2: already made, you know, even at eighteen at ASU to
Speaker 2: win that tournament. I mean, that was super fun to watch, boyd.
Speaker 2: Since you played the tour till now, how has the
Speaker 2: PGA tour changed? You know, athletes priority on distance. You've
Speaker 2: worked with Tony and you've kind of dialed you he
Speaker 2: already had ample distance and you work with him to
Speaker 2: put a priority on driving accuracy. Then you got, you know,
Speaker 2: your kids where you're trying to build up their speed. Right, So,
Speaker 2: in coming at it from the other angle, how's the
Speaker 2: tour changed? When what priorities are? How are you adapting
Speaker 2: to that? And implementing that with with you know, your
Speaker 2: array of students.
Speaker 3: So they talk a lot about power and distance in
Speaker 3: the game now like it wasn't before. But when you
Speaker 3: look at some of the best players. Nick Folllow was
Speaker 3: a huge guy that was an accuracy player. Greg Norman
Speaker 3: Baumbed an incredible driver of the golf ball, Jack Nicholas,
Speaker 3: I mean, look at those quads. He had a massive
Speaker 3: advantage with distance but also height into the game, and
Speaker 3: so distance has always been My uncle Bruce was a
Speaker 3: club pro. He'd played in some major championships and some
Speaker 3: tour events, but when my dad and him got together
Speaker 3: trying to get onto the champions Tour, that was the
Speaker 3: biggest priority because my uncle was a very accurate driver
Speaker 3: of the golf ball, but he was shorter. So my
Speaker 3: uncle played a forty eight degree or forty eight short
Speaker 3: on the tour. Now it's limited now, so in my
Speaker 3: family and my dad passing it on to us, distance
Speaker 3: was a big deal. But when you speak about what's
Speaker 3: different with the tour now than before, I remember being
Speaker 3: able to go to first stage a qu school and thinking,
Speaker 3: if I just don't mess up, I'm going to get through.
Speaker 3: I'm going to get through at second. I got to
Speaker 3: play good, but I don't have to play great nowadays.
Speaker 3: The level of competition, as far as it's just the numbers,
Speaker 3: there's just so many. The great players in every generation
Speaker 3: are just great. They could hang with each other, right
Speaker 3: just based on That's all you can do is just
Speaker 3: try to be the best of your generation. But when
Speaker 3: you think of how many kids play now days because
Speaker 3: of Tiger Woods, it became so cool for athletes to play. Now,
Speaker 3: look at what they're playing for money wise, all these
Speaker 3: things are attracting athletes that would have gone into a
Speaker 3: different sport now they come into golf. You look at
Speaker 3: the height of the players on the PGA Tour compared
Speaker 3: to before. You're looking two to three inches taller from
Speaker 3: just thirty years ago, twenty years ago. You know, Tony
Speaker 3: even when he came out on the tour, it was
Speaker 3: like he really stuck out. Now you've got patent, goodzire,
Speaker 3: you've got I mean, we could go down the list,
Speaker 3: we could name twenty five thirty guys that are over
Speaker 3: six three six ' two. It's just become kind of normal,
Speaker 3: and we're attracting just athletes. And then I would say,
Speaker 3: why are kids, or why is the tour so much
Speaker 3: better now? I remember when I played the US Junior
Speaker 3: and the US Amateurs North Dakota Country Club, Waverley Country
Speaker 3: Right nowadays they're playing these amateur events at major championship courses.
Speaker 3: Junior golfer playing tour courses. I don't try to be
Speaker 3: arrogant and think, Okay, the coaching and the technology is
Speaker 3: so much better that that's why our golfers are better.
Speaker 3: When you're playing ping junior golf at age twelve thirteen,
Speaker 3: and you're playing TPC Sawgrass and you're playing sedge Fill
Speaker 3: where they play the final event of the tour season,
Speaker 3: and over and over you're playing these courses, the courses
Speaker 3: are showing the kids, hey, I got to get a
Speaker 3: little bit better. They're putting the same whole locations as
Speaker 3: the tour event. Literally, you can just take the pin sheet,
Speaker 3: whole location sheet from the tour and when Preston and
Speaker 3: Grace have played at tour courses, those are the whole
Speaker 3: locations and they get used to seeing a pin three
Speaker 3: off the edge, three over a bunker. I remember when
Speaker 3: I got my corn Faery card or Monday qualified into
Speaker 3: corn ferry events before I got my PGA Tour card.
Speaker 3: That was a huge you know, justinent I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: is that pin on the green and maybe it looks
Speaker 3: so close to the edge and so close to these exactly,
Speaker 3: So I think that's a big part of it. And
Speaker 3: then even looking at the college schedule. I playedt Oklahoma State,
Speaker 3: we would have had one of the best schedules, and
Speaker 3: I remember Rio Saiko in Vegas being one of the
Speaker 3: best courses we played. They wouldn't even play a college
Speaker 3: event there. Now, I mean the ASU started their season
Speaker 3: at Olympia Fields and they went to Aleworth, Cyprus. You're
Speaker 3: going to get better. So these kids are not only
Speaker 3: just more athletic and they're playing for so much more
Speaker 3: that is making it sexy to come into the game
Speaker 3: of golf, but they're being trained and prepared on courses
Speaker 3: that are our world class and then they show up
Speaker 3: on tour. Man, look how many kids come out of
Speaker 3: college and are winning, you know, within a week or two.
Speaker 3: It's impressive.
Speaker 2: It's wild.
Speaker 1: I was gonna. I wanted to ask about Tony specifically
Speaker 1: because we talk about distance, We talk about chasing distance,
Speaker 1: and so many players talk about speed training and stack
Speaker 1: system and really trying to gain distance and speed. Tony
Speaker 1: will call me outlier went the other way. Tony was
Speaker 1: the guy we interviewed Tony. I said, could you lead
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour driving distance if you wanted to? He
Speaker 1: said absolutely. He's fifty second in driving distance this season
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour. This is a guy that came
Speaker 1: to you and went the other way. How was that
Speaker 1: conversation and how did you guys go about making more
Speaker 1: efficient and maybe not as powerful, but getting the ball
Speaker 1: back in the fairy more often.
Speaker 3: Well, you look at strokes gained. If you have a
Speaker 3: penalty shot, that's one full shot that's going to be
Speaker 3: coming off your strokes gained. And he figured out really quick.
Speaker 3: Even when Victor Hovlin came out on tour, he was
Speaker 3: at one to seventy five ball speed, but he hit
Speaker 3: so many fairways. He was basically leading strokes gained off
Speaker 3: the tee pretty much every event he played as a rookie.
Speaker 1: And you get to that.
Speaker 3: Point where golf course design it starts to pinch in
Speaker 3: at that higher than one eighty five ball speed, so
Speaker 3: it's you know, it becomes counterproductive. You got to be
Speaker 3: long enough. But the more and more fairways that Tony hit.
Speaker 3: He realized when he was hitting it a little bit
Speaker 3: more crooked. We hit so many three woods off the
Speaker 3: tee his rookie year and even his second year. But
Speaker 3: as he got better and better at driving, he hit
Speaker 3: some softer drives. But he has these driver almost everywhere
Speaker 3: he can, he hits it. And then just playing out
Speaker 3: of the fairway for him, as great of an iron
Speaker 3: player as he is, that made it so much easier
Speaker 3: for him to have the bowgial avoidance. You know, when
Speaker 3: you have that occasional foul ball and you know it's
Speaker 3: going to happen, that's that's a very stressful situation. And
Speaker 3: then the one advantage of Tony hitting a little bit
Speaker 3: more crooked as a kid is I've never seen somebody
Speaker 3: that's so good at recovery shots, escape shots. So he's yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's like a brilliant combo where he drives it
Speaker 3: so straight now and yet he has the scramble game
Speaker 3: when he does mishit it. And so even when he
Speaker 3: first started hitting the ping driver, he loved being out
Speaker 3: of the fairway so much that he wasn't at the
Speaker 3: optimum you know numbers. He was hitting a driver that
Speaker 3: was spinning at twenty nine, one hundred and three thousand,
Speaker 3: and he's kept on hitting the ferries Like boyd, I
Speaker 3: can get used to this, I can score from here.
Speaker 3: And now he's gotten down to the better spin numbers,
Speaker 3: better launch as he's just become a better driver of
Speaker 3: the ball. But yeah, there is that fine line that
Speaker 3: if you can't control your ball at the higher speeds,
Speaker 3: then it is counterproductive. But I think the stats are
Speaker 3: a little misleading. When you get these guys that are
Speaker 3: hitting it pretty far and they're showing that they're hitting
Speaker 3: fifty two to fifty five percent of the fairways, it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean they're missing them by twenty yards off the side.
Speaker 3: They're closer to the edges, And then we know strokes
Speaker 3: gained approach for every you know, twenty thirty yards you're closer,
Speaker 3: it's already negated by hitting it in the rough. You're
Speaker 3: still going to hit it just as close as you
Speaker 3: would have if you laid thirty yards back. But the
Speaker 3: days you get hot and you hit that ten to
Speaker 3: eleven twelve fairways, you know massive advantage.
Speaker 2: We're looking at Tony stats, he is the closest proximity
Speaker 2: of the whole. The number one is strokes gained out
Speaker 2: of the rough? Yeah, you know, and he plays our
Speaker 2: blueprint and irons right, which are small? Now, boyd, One
Speaker 2: question I want to ask you is that marriage. And
Speaker 2: a lot of our club fitters always ask us this
Speaker 2: like the marriage of fitting and teaching. Right, and Tony,
Speaker 2: you've met you. You guys made a lot of changes.
Speaker 2: For example, too, is iron lying goals over the past
Speaker 2: couple of years? Right? Is it? Is it you coming
Speaker 2: in say hey, we need to go flatter more upright?
Speaker 2: Do you change the clubs first, do you work on
Speaker 2: a swing first? Or both? Those things happen simultaneously.
Speaker 3: So when I coach, I go in this order equipment
Speaker 3: number one that could be your body, Okay, you might
Speaker 3: have a physical limitation. Our body and mind are our
Speaker 3: two biggest pieces of equipment. And then you go to
Speaker 3: your actual golf equipment. As you guys know, Man, you've
Speaker 3: got grip size, shaft, kick points, flexes, light, angles, all
Speaker 3: these different factors that come into play. And I think
Speaker 3: if players aren't, you know, checking those things often, it
Speaker 3: can get off. And I think when I was talking about, hey,
Speaker 3: players are playing harder courses and there's higher competition that
Speaker 3: make some better. Preston and Grace and Cam at age
Speaker 3: ten and eleven, they were already coming into peeing every
Speaker 3: quarter to make sure things are right. And it's even
Speaker 3: a little bit more frequent. It's pressting, and Grace and
Speaker 3: Cam have gotten better, and so I don't want to
Speaker 3: be on the range trying to fix something that actually
Speaker 3: we could go in that first step of equipment. Then
Speaker 3: I go to pre shot routine, then set up, then
Speaker 3: in swing, then drills, and so I understand the importance
Speaker 3: of equipment. Because Tony's not a complainer. My kids aren't
Speaker 3: a complainer, and sometimes that works a little bit in
Speaker 3: their disadvantage, because hey, get into ping and pressing. Just
Speaker 3: went yesterday, He's got he's going to Saint Andrews and
Speaker 3: he noticed the driver isn't you know, doing exactly what
Speaker 3: he wanted. He went in and he it came to
Speaker 3: his mind because he likes to go in that same order.
Speaker 3: So you a great player will adapt to their equipment,
Speaker 3: even if it's slightly not fit for them. They'll figure
Speaker 3: it out when there actually is a more optimal way.
Speaker 3: So with Tony, as his swing changed, we had to
Speaker 3: always constantly change little tweaks in his his equipment, else
Speaker 3: it wouldn't give him the maximum gain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to do that with myself. I'll schedule
Speaker 2: a time to go get fit so I can get
Speaker 2: that outside perspective because I might struggle to Oh, it's me,
Speaker 2: it's me, it's me, and then I could fix it
Speaker 2: with the club. Yeah, for sure, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: One of the fun things we've done with Tony two
Speaker 2: is work on his potting setup. Right, what have you
Speaker 2: guys done there? We developed some cool tools, like with
Speaker 2: our ipaying that live locked in live feature. What are
Speaker 2: some some things you've done on his putting setup that
Speaker 2: you guys work on.
Speaker 3: So he's won five times with the PLD and he
Speaker 3: hasn't switched it. And that's one thing is once you
Speaker 3: find something that you like in equipment. That's one of
Speaker 3: his goals each year the last two years is don't
Speaker 3: switch putters because then he can diagnose when he gets off.
Speaker 3: If that makes sense. When you're trying to change, you know,
Speaker 3: the equipment every week, there's a eventually it is the
Speaker 3: Indian not the ED. But you know, Tony has a
Speaker 3: little bit different set up. Even the commentaries will be like, man,
Speaker 3: his hands are so low and you're thinking he has
Speaker 3: won four times in a year, like it's working for him.
Speaker 3: Everyone sees a little bit different. It's kind of like
Speaker 3: that Sevy biosteris where he had the toe quite a
Speaker 3: bit up in the air. Wyndam Clark has the toe
Speaker 3: quite a bit up in the air, and he just
Speaker 3: feels he has such long arms that he has to
Speaker 3: let him hang else he would be he would be
Speaker 3: actually fit. So that's a cool thing with a fitting process.
Speaker 3: He's six four. People think that he plays longer clubs.
Speaker 3: He doesn't because his wrist to floor the way his
Speaker 3: arms he's super long. So he plays standard link clubs
Speaker 3: and he has, you know, a little longer putter, but
Speaker 3: that he grips down to the equivalent of what would
Speaker 3: probably be a thirty three inch putter. So that's a
Speaker 3: little bit of why he has the setup. How he
Speaker 3: does is he feels a lot of tension when he
Speaker 3: raises his hands to get a little higher, and so
Speaker 3: everybody's a little bit different for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, boy, we appreciate the time. I know you
Speaker 1: kind of go actually work with Tony on the golf course.
Speaker 1: By the way, I always know that you're in the
Speaker 1: All Black, even in Atlanta when it's gonna be on Degrease,
Speaker 1: still going all black. But we appreciate the time. I
Speaker 1: really do enjoy following you and the family and what
Speaker 1: you guys do. It's an easy group to root for,
Speaker 1: So continue the success and keep rocket and rolling.
Speaker 3: Thanks Shane, Thanks Marty, and I appreciate you guys a
Speaker 3: ton Like I said, my kids have been coming into
Speaker 3: Ping since they were very, very young. And one of
Speaker 3: the greatest things about Ping is, you know, my brother
Speaker 3: was with Ping, my uncle was with Ping, I played Ping.
Speaker 3: All the players of Oklahoma State played Ping. Ping is
Speaker 3: a very loyal company. It doesn't matter how you're playing.
Speaker 3: Once they try to, you know, once they choose to
Speaker 3: support you, they do and it's made a huge difference
Speaker 3: to my kids. That was actually a driving factor of
Speaker 3: why my kids stayed and played at Arizona State is
Speaker 3: because one of the things that helped them get there
Speaker 3: was the support they had from from Ping, and they
Speaker 3: always wanted that access to go down the road and
Speaker 3: double check things. So we appreciate all the support from Ping,
Speaker 3: from my family and obviously Tony and the clients.
Speaker 1: That yeah, easy to drive down the street and get you, yeah,
Speaker 1: you so much. This is the Ping podcast