Speaker 1: It's the Son of a which podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: claud de Marmon my guests. This week, Justin Parsons teaches
Speaker 1: out at Sea Island, Georgia. We have him on the
Speaker 1: pod before. I mean, I'm biased, but I think he's
Speaker 1: one of the best instructors in the game. And his student,
Speaker 1: Harris English, gets his fifth win at the Farmers JP.
Speaker 1: Always good when players get wins early on in the season.
Speaker 1: But when I was looking at and doing some research
Speaker 1: on this and I was watching on Sunday, I was
Speaker 1: watching at a friend's house and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: why is the Harris English win more? And I was like,
Speaker 1: he wins today, it's this fifth win. So I think
Speaker 1: when Harris does win and he gets in the hunt
Speaker 1: and we watch him on TV and we watch him
Speaker 1: firing on all cylinders JP. I mean, he's so much
Speaker 1: fun to watch and he's such a complete player, and
Speaker 1: when he does win, you watch his game and you're like, dude,
Speaker 1: discussion win a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, his ability to get locked down and focus
Speaker 3: is probably his greatest strength. His competitiveness, and you know,
Speaker 3: all the way through his career he's been a great
Speaker 3: competitor and extremely hard worker, which you know, I know
Speaker 3: you would appreciate he uh, you know, he beats me
Speaker 3: into the golf school and and uh in Sea Island
Speaker 3: an awful lot. He's there, he does, he's in the
Speaker 3: gym and he's doing his work.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I think as he's matured as a player, he's searched
Speaker 3: for the fields of comfort and confidence through preparation and structure.
Speaker 3: And that's almost got him away from some of the
Speaker 3: natural kind of flamboyance, that ability just to be to
Speaker 3: be a competitor and lock in and get focused. It
Speaker 3: almost takes his brain like a little bit more like
Speaker 3: left sided, Like let's get all of the analytical side done,
Speaker 3: let's swing the golf club really well, let's do all
Speaker 3: my drills, you know, so really from Palm Springs and
Speaker 3: moving forward. I was trying to remind him that I
Speaker 3: want to see harrising this the golfer. I'm not really
Speaker 3: as concerned with watching your golf swing. I want to see,
Speaker 3: you know, how you're behaving as a golfer, how you're walking,
Speaker 3: how you how your focus is, how your.
Speaker 2: Energy levels are.
Speaker 3: And you know, he responds, he's a great lad to coach.
Speaker 2: He responds, really really well.
Speaker 3: He really really listens, and as you and I know,
Speaker 3: that can be both a blessing and a curse because
Speaker 3: if they really really listened to better tell them the
Speaker 3: right stuff.
Speaker 1: You posted something on your Instagram and it was an
Speaker 1: interview that Harris did post round on Saturday where he
Speaker 1: talked about he was trying to not fall into the
Speaker 1: trap JP, and it's something that you and I talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, privately, it's something we talk about to our students,
Speaker 1: But it's very easy as a competitive professional golfer to
Speaker 1: get caught into the trap of what your technique looks like,
Speaker 1: what your golf swing looks like, what the numbers look like,
Speaker 1: what it looks like on video. But as I tell
Speaker 1: players all the time, and you know this as well,
Speaker 1: everybody in the game is trying to make their golf
Speaker 1: swing better. Nellie Corda and Lydia Co on the women's side,
Speaker 1: Scotti Scheffler, Rory mcaway on the men's slide. All four
Speaker 1: of those players, or the best in the game are
Speaker 1: trying to improve their technique, so that never changes. And
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that Harris City's trying to
Speaker 1: get back to maybe getting away from technique, technique, technique
Speaker 1: the way it looks the numbers and kind of get
Speaker 1: back into heating shots and playing the game. How do
Speaker 1: you feel like that balance happens for players and what
Speaker 1: do you feel like has helped Harris kind of get
Speaker 1: back into that play mode as opposed to technique because
Speaker 1: Jpe we talk a lot, you send me swings, We
Speaker 1: talk about our players that we work with, and Harris
Speaker 1: can go down the technique work rabbit hole, right. Harris
Speaker 1: is a worker. He believes that the secret is in
Speaker 1: the dirt, but sometimes you can try and make it
Speaker 1: so perfect. And that's what he said, We're all trying
Speaker 1: to make it perfect.
Speaker 2: Well, are you know? On our responsibility is as coaches.
Speaker 3: You know we've also you and I have also talked
Speaker 3: about the fact that you know you've got to You
Speaker 3: got some guys who are just swing coaches, and they're
Speaker 3: just there to do a job as a as a
Speaker 3: as a swing coach, which is basically like a Formula
Speaker 3: one technician in the pit lane, and they're not there
Speaker 3: to help the driver navigate the turns. They're just there
Speaker 3: to make sure the cars going as fast and as
Speaker 3: efficiently as possible. In our sort of role. You've got
Speaker 3: to be a little bit of both. And I think that,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of things on that. I think
Speaker 3: with young players that I work with now, I try
Speaker 3: and help educate them that they've got to be able
Speaker 3: to flick between the responsibility of swinging the golf club
Speaker 3: properly and swinging the golf club efficiently and managing their tendencies,
Speaker 3: and they've got to then flick back into I need
Speaker 3: to be a competitor. I need to be able to
Speaker 3: go and play. I need to be able to leave
Speaker 3: all of that behind. And I would say that the
Speaker 3: ability to flick between those two, you know, whether we
Speaker 3: think of those twos as left brain, right brain, or
Speaker 3: whether they.
Speaker 2: Think of those two as two different mentalities. The ability
Speaker 2: to do that quickly.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes to me separate some of the best
Speaker 3: players in the world from some of the excellent PGA
Speaker 3: Tour players. I mean, I've certainly had a lot of
Speaker 3: golfers that I've worked for who struggle.
Speaker 2: With that a little bit.
Speaker 3: And I remember listening to Tiger Woods talking about the
Speaker 3: fact that he can go from really breaking down his
Speaker 3: technique and thinking very technically to you know, hitting his
Speaker 3: windows and just being creative and being able to play.
Speaker 3: And I think what Harris is an example of someone
Speaker 3: who you know, is he's you know, he's a dad.
Speaker 3: Now he's in his you know, he's in the he's
Speaker 3: at the certainly the beginning of the second half of
Speaker 3: his career, he's beginning to recognize that I need to
Speaker 3: be somebody to win golf tournaments, and I also need
Speaker 3: to be somebody else to be able to be efficient
Speaker 3: enough to put myself in position that when I flick
Speaker 3: that switch, I can go and win golf tournaments. And that's, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, that's certainly a big responsibility of ours. And
Speaker 3: I know you and I we try and we try
Speaker 3: and break that puzzle all the time, and half the
Speaker 3: time we were left wondering why it was so difficult
Speaker 3: when they win, and how we're ever going to get them.
Speaker 2: Back to that place when they're they're not hitting it
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: Harris is the type of player JP that has won
Speaker 1: at every level of his golfing career. Like he's just
Speaker 1: one of those guys. He's played the Walker Cup, you know,
Speaker 1: he was a standout at Georgia. He was an accomplished
Speaker 1: and then he's you know, an accomplished career on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, turned pro in twenty twelve. It's made over
Speaker 1: thirty million dollars. He's been on a Ryder Cup team.
Speaker 1: Put that balance, JP, Why do you think that golfers
Speaker 1: in general, but also at the elite level, JP, why
Speaker 1: do you think sometimes players get out of the playing
Speaker 1: of the game part of it and just get into
Speaker 1: the technical part of it. You know, We've got a kid,
Speaker 1: Nico Daris, who works with us a lot on performance stuff,
Speaker 1: and Niko, he's been on the party, doesn't come from
Speaker 1: the golf background, and he said, I find it fascinating
Speaker 1: the way people practice golf. It says, if you're trying
Speaker 1: to play in the NBA and the only thing you
Speaker 1: do is practice free throws, that's it. And you play
Speaker 1: the game and you evaluate what you did in the game,
Speaker 1: and you look at the game, and then you just
Speaker 1: go straight back to the free throw line and just
Speaker 1: work on your shot and your technique. And there is
Speaker 1: so much more to come peeting and playing. But the
Speaker 1: trap of just technique, I mean, are we part of
Speaker 1: the problem is instructors? You know, because I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's fashionable to have people like us on your team
Speaker 1: and stuff. But the balance of the playing of the
Speaker 1: game and the technique of it. Why do you think
Speaker 1: you can go down the rabbit hole and think, Okay,
Speaker 1: the only way I can get better is just to
Speaker 1: make my golfing matter.
Speaker 2: I think it.
Speaker 3: From a from a perspective of just the common sense
Speaker 3: of it. I think it's probably laziness and lifestyle that
Speaker 3: takes them in the direction that they go in. You know,
Speaker 3: I always look at the college systems in the States,
Speaker 3: and when I talk to Harris and Brian about being
Speaker 3: in Georgia, they were they were either qualifying, or they
Speaker 3: were competing, or they were doing the gauntlet short.
Speaker 2: Game drills, or they we haven't putting competitions.
Speaker 3: And then when they move away from that, they get
Speaker 3: out on their own and all of a sudden, they're
Speaker 3: you know, on a range, they're beaten balls. They're not
Speaker 3: playing golf with their buddies as much. They're not as
Speaker 3: competitive because they're not surrounded by as many people. And
Speaker 3: as they reach kind of like adulthood, they start thinking, well,
Speaker 3: if I make this golf swing better, then I'm going
Speaker 3: to be better.
Speaker 2: And I try and remind them all the time.
Speaker 3: That you know, I need a blend of the way
Speaker 3: that you were behaving as kids and the way that
Speaker 3: you're behaving as adults, because undoubtedly, if if the if
Speaker 3: the movement is incorrect and the shot patterns are terrible,
Speaker 3: you can have the most competitive, wonderful mindset and you
Speaker 3: can still go out and shoot seventy five. So again,
Speaker 3: you know, our job is to ensure that they recognize
Speaker 3: that if they're in a training, if they're in a
Speaker 3: in a place where they're training their training, if they're
Speaker 3: in a place where they're preparing, they're preparing, and whenever
Speaker 3: they're they're able to perform, we should have we should
Speaker 3: have prepared them for that. I agree that you know,
Speaker 3: and I've tried to certainly try and make sure that
Speaker 3: I'm not the problem. But you know, to your point,
Speaker 3: sometimes when they're locked into that mentality of well, I
Speaker 3: need to swing it better, and my teachers here.
Speaker 2: Behind me, he needs to help me swing it better,
Speaker 2: we can feed that.
Speaker 3: We can feed that addiction, and some players are are
Speaker 3: locked into that addiction so much so that they find
Speaker 3: it very difficult to ever move into into that sort
Speaker 3: of more play mode. And you know, your father and
Speaker 3: you have told me great techniques to help move from
Speaker 3: from one of those modes to the other. And I
Speaker 3: think you know, any of the teachers you know watching
Speaker 3: these types of podcasts need to recognize that, you know,
Speaker 3: that's a big part of what we're doing all the time.
Speaker 1: I worked with a kid the other day that Jean
Speaker 1: Paul Abert, who's now the head coach at UNLV. He
Speaker 1: was a longtime assistant at the University of Texas for
Speaker 1: John Fields. He saw all their great players, his father
Speaker 1: won the PGA. But this player came in. JP's a junior.
Speaker 1: I mean, typical prototype college player that you see all
Speaker 1: the time now, six one to six, three tons of speed,
Speaker 1: hits at miles and really, like a lot of players
Speaker 1: we see, JP somewhat lost. And he said that when
Speaker 1: he played high school golf, he didn't think of anything right,
Speaker 1: He just played. He just played the game. Didn't really
Speaker 1: have a lot of tech thoughts, didn't really have a
Speaker 1: lot of golf swing thoughts. But he said when he
Speaker 1: got to college, everybody's got a launch monitor, everybody's working
Speaker 1: on their drills, everybody's working on their swing. And he
Speaker 1: said he went down this trap of thinking, Okay, I
Speaker 1: need to constantly get golf balls on launch monitors. I
Speaker 1: need to constantly work on that technique and the balance
Speaker 1: for everyone listening, specifically JP, for the competitive golfers listening,
Speaker 1: how do they navigate that execution technique? How much time
Speaker 1: do you think they should be devoting to technique and
Speaker 1: how much time should they be devoting to execution.
Speaker 3: I think it's definitely going to be different from player
Speaker 3: to player. I mean, again, if somebody's if somebody's not
Speaker 3: moving well and not putting the golf club on the ball, well,
Speaker 3: say they're a midam and they're they're not fine in
Speaker 3: the fair way and they're going to try go try
Speaker 3: and play in the US midimal, Well they've got to
Speaker 3: They've got to fix up. So again, it's like we
Speaker 3: always say, it's individual, it's individual to individual, and I'm
Speaker 3: certainly they're some people who respond just find it being
Speaker 3: on the range a lot. You know, we've seen Bja
Speaker 3: Sing over the years standing beating golf balls in the range.
Speaker 3: We've seen Sergio Garcia who never hardly hit a shot
Speaker 3: even in a warm up, and Colin Montgomery who hit
Speaker 3: I think he hit thirteen shots or something in his
Speaker 3: warm ups. So you know again, I think everyone has
Speaker 3: to be treated individually. I do believe though, if you're
Speaker 3: going down that rabbit hole of technique and you're starting
Speaker 3: to think about a lot of things in the golf course,
Speaker 3: then I think you've got to get back to, you know,
Speaker 3: hitting some shot shapes, doing some of your nine ball
Speaker 3: drills like you and I have talked about going I
Speaker 3: play golf with a half set, play from different tees,
Speaker 3: you know, get creative. I mean, I try and also
Speaker 3: remind people that as we go through life. I remember
Speaker 3: meeting this rather eccentric old South African psychologist when it
Speaker 3: was working on the European tour, and I think he'd
Speaker 3: written a book called the Nine Stages of Life, and
Speaker 3: it was like, every five years, how your mentality shifts
Speaker 3: a little bit. So undoubtedly, when you're fifteen to twenty,
Speaker 3: you know you haven't kind of reached full adulthood. Certainly
Speaker 3: the guys havn't reached full adulthood. We're still in that
Speaker 3: playful kind of creative stage. We don't remember the bad things,
Speaker 3: we remember all the good things. From twenty to twenty five,
Speaker 3: that shifts a little bit from twenty five to thirty,
Speaker 3: that definitely shifts and by the time you get to
Speaker 3: our stage you realize that, you know, there's an awful
Speaker 3: lot of water under the bridge. So I mean educating
Speaker 3: the players you know in that regard, And that's again
Speaker 3: one of the other reasons why you have to treat
Speaker 3: these people so so much as individuals. I mean, Harris
Speaker 3: English is an adult. He recognizes that if he sucks
Speaker 3: the golf club inside and closes the face on the
Speaker 3: way back and hits pools, he has to fix that.
Speaker 3: But at the same time he also now is really
Speaker 3: starting to recognize that, well, I can't have to fix
Speaker 3: that on a Monday.
Speaker 2: Because I certainly can't be thinking about that an awful
Speaker 2: lot on a Thursday.
Speaker 1: When you look at Harry's golf swing, JP, what is
Speaker 1: the DNA of what he does that makes him a
Speaker 1: great player, that makes him a great ball striker. Because listen,
Speaker 1: we used to go up when DJ was playing on
Speaker 1: the PJ Tour. We play a lot of practice rounds
Speaker 1: with him. I mean they were boys kind of in
Speaker 1: that kind of same kind of age demographic, Southern boys
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So we would play a lot
Speaker 1: of golf with Harrison. And when you watch him hit
Speaker 1: golf balls. I mean, I mean, like I said in
Speaker 1: the opening, it's impressive. So what is his DNA? What
Speaker 1: does he do when he plays well like last week
Speaker 1: and wins, and then what are the traps that he
Speaker 1: gets into that calls him to not play his best golf?
Speaker 2: You know, I think he was I think he was
Speaker 2: coached really well.
Speaker 3: And you know, Jan Reeves is one of the guys
Speaker 3: that works at Sea Island with me. Is Keith Mitchell's coach,
Speaker 3: and Chan's that I become a great friend of mine,
Speaker 3: like yourself, and we talk about the golf swing a lot.
Speaker 3: On Chan came up looking at Davis Love's golf swing,
Speaker 3: and Harris idolized Davis Love, who incident at least recovering
Speaker 3: really well from from a little surgery he's just had,
Speaker 3: so we all wish him well. I think that Harris's
Speaker 3: golf swing reverberates around width and balance and rhythm, and
Speaker 3: I think we probably lump you and your dad and
Speaker 3: stuff into that would all recognize those as wonderful traits
Speaker 3: with great players having great rhythm, having great balance, having
Speaker 3: great width. I think that potentially his overall education about
Speaker 3: staying wide was one of the things that we've certainly
Speaker 3: talked about a little bit. You know, he didn't quite
Speaker 3: understand when the arms would sort of fold and when
Speaker 3: the golf club would sort of fold and allow the
Speaker 3: golf club to stay in front of his body as
Speaker 3: opposed to him kind of sucking it a little bit
Speaker 3: too far behind him. And I think that that has
Speaker 3: found him out. I think that some of the physical
Speaker 3: limitations that he's had. We know that he had the
Speaker 3: Valentine's Day twenty twenty two, he had that fairly significant
Speaker 3: surgery on his right hip, and he's always had a
Speaker 3: very limited amount of internal rotation as right hip. I
Speaker 3: remember you talking to me about Graham McDowell, I think
Speaker 3: who you worked for for many years in European tour
Speaker 3: and a similar sort of thing. So I think within
Speaker 3: those physical limitations, especially on that trail side, we run
Speaker 3: into some some situations where the backswing can get a
Speaker 3: little bit less efficient, he can get into some reverse patterns,
Speaker 3: which is you know, I'm happy to say, is an
Speaker 3: awful lot better now. So, like you know, we talk
Speaker 3: about a lot, the DNA tends to come from the
Speaker 3: physicality of the player coupled with the influences the early
Speaker 3: coaching sort of styles, and that brings great strengths and
Speaker 3: some weaknesses that we have to keep tidy.
Speaker 2: And I mean, we look at DJ's.
Speaker 3: Golf swing that I kind of marvel at and we
Speaker 3: can see that there are some things that he does
Speaker 3: so so well and there's a couple of little things
Speaker 3: that he needs to clear up.
Speaker 2: And Harris is no different.
Speaker 1: When Harris plays his best like last week, JK, what
Speaker 1: shape is he trying to hit?
Speaker 2: He loves his stock shot to be a fade, a.
Speaker 1: Little bit of just kind of a bleeder to where
Speaker 1: And that's interesting, jar Man, I think, tell this story.
Speaker 1: You caddied for Harry earlier this year on the bag.
Speaker 1: I've always I've done that, you know, a couple of
Speaker 1: times and plast I'm years ago for the first ta
Speaker 1: A Scott Cup. I caddy for Trevor Immomant for eighteen holes.
Speaker 1: Is fascinating and carry the bag and be on the
Speaker 1: bag in a competitive environment to see the way these
Speaker 1: guys think, what was that like when you caddy form out.
Speaker 1: I was in Napa, right, it.
Speaker 2: Was in Napa.
Speaker 3: He was, yeah, he was in in We were just
Speaker 3: trying to figure a few things out. He'd been working
Speaker 3: so hard and preparing well and looking great in this
Speaker 3: preparation he we went out to NAPA. We I would
Speaker 3: say that from my side, it helped me understand just
Speaker 3: the sort of the energy that he brings to different shots,
Speaker 3: certainly the potential to potentially over complicate some shots that
Speaker 3: I think he needs to He needs to still kind
Speaker 3: of frame and keep simple. I think when when some
Speaker 3: people are put in uncomfortable positions, sometimes they get a
Speaker 3: little bit more complex about the solutions as opposed to
Speaker 3: just trying to keep it very simple. And we messed
Speaker 3: up up a couple of you know, kind of complicated shots.
Speaker 3: One shot off an uphill lie to a green that
Speaker 3: sits from back to front, and he's got one thirty
Speaker 3: eight and it's a you know, it's just a little
Speaker 3: cam pitching wedge and even if he pulls it into
Speaker 3: the middle of the green, it's not it's not one
Speaker 3: of those shots even with a wedge, you're not going
Speaker 3: to hit it very close. But he just, you know,
Speaker 3: he kind of got muddled up with it and he
Speaker 3: tried it a low cut off and upslope, and you know,
Speaker 3: we so we we've talked about that so it was
Speaker 3: a great way for me to see how he you know,
Speaker 3: how he navigates those difficult situations.
Speaker 2: Interesting player.
Speaker 3: You know, when when you give him a number and
Speaker 3: he needs to stretch an iron shot a little bit,
Speaker 3: he's so so good at that. You know, he'd give
Speaker 3: him a front left flag at you know, one one
Speaker 3: eighty two and he hits his you know, he say,
Speaker 3: he hits his eight iron one seventy one and it's
Speaker 3: three or four downhill, He'll stretch it a little bit
Speaker 3: and get a little bit more out of it, and
Speaker 3: it's it's interesting that and it also helped me to
Speaker 3: understand how naturally he doesn't kind of like taking distance off.
Speaker 3: He'd rather stretch a club three four yards than then
Speaker 3: start to sort of take four or five yards off
Speaker 3: a club. So you know, getting into like, well, exactly
Speaker 3: how should he prepare, Like if he's got an uncomfortable
Speaker 3: situation with a you know, with a with a wedge shot,
Speaker 3: for example, he's probably better off hitting a harder shot,
Speaker 3: even if it spins to the front edge. Then you know,
Speaker 3: then sometimes trying to do a little bit too much
Speaker 3: for it. So really understanding the DNA of the players,
Speaker 3: it helps us a great deal. It's something I'd be
Speaker 3: very open to. However, my record of miss cut silver
Speaker 3: mid cups on the PGA Tour anyway would possibly suggest
Speaker 3: they shouldn't hire me as a county.
Speaker 2: The eight felt anyway.
Speaker 1: I coundied for Steve Elkington the week in New Orleans
Speaker 1: and when I'm still in college, the week before he
Speaker 1: won the his first Players Championship, we got paired with
Speaker 1: Scott Hoak and chip Beck. Scott Hoak lifted out a
Speaker 1: fifty footer on the first hole and threw the putter
Speaker 1: and was complaining and complained for the entire eighteen holes.
Speaker 1: And on Friday chip Beck missed the four footer to
Speaker 1: make the cut and said to us, Caddy, you just
Speaker 1: got to love having a chance to make the cut
Speaker 1: out here. So that was the gauntlet of Scott hawk
Speaker 1: mentality and chip Beck mentality. JP. Let's talk about the buttter.
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes you'll pick up Harris English pudder and
Speaker 1: the grip. There are putters at top golf that have
Speaker 1: better grips than than the putter he's it's a putter
Speaker 1: he's had. Did I see that since twenty and twelve?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's been a few picked up on eBay.
Speaker 3: You know, he's got a he's find a way that
Speaker 3: he's find a way to grab a few more of them.
Speaker 3: But yet this he calls it, it's the ping ho hum.
Speaker 2: It's it's kind of there was a there was one
Speaker 2: one after.
Speaker 3: It looks like a kind of like a motorcyclist, you know,
Speaker 3: the back of it. And it's just something I think
Speaker 3: he's he's just got so used to. Yeah, he's not
Speaker 3: a player that likes to change in awful lot of things.
Speaker 3: He still plays with the titles PROB one, seventeen ball.
Speaker 2: He's you know, he's been a he's been a ping
Speaker 2: guy all his life.
Speaker 3: He he doesn't he doesn't like an awful lot of flux.
Speaker 3: You you almost need. You know, I took his three
Speaker 3: wood out of his bag a month or two ago,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking this thing
Speaker 3: is about I mean, this thing's old and it's about
Speaker 3: to go. And you know, he really, you know, he
Speaker 3: needs time to get into things. And uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I think that some somewhat of a great strength. You know,
Speaker 3: you and I have been great friends with Darren Clark
Speaker 3: over the years, and Clarky told me a story. At
Speaker 3: one time he won the English Open and during the
Speaker 3: tournament he played with three sets of irons.
Speaker 1: For Clarky and about nine thousand swing pots and oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and he drove four different cars to the tournament. JP,
Speaker 1: how much do you think Sea Island helps these guys?
Speaker 1: I mean, Brian Harmon, you you live and work at
Speaker 1: Sea Island. There is a crew of players there. A
Speaker 1: lot of these guys grew up together. A lot of
Speaker 1: these guys played college golf together. A lot of you
Speaker 1: guys went you know, cashmeer Key, you know, Harry, Brian
Speaker 1: Harmon all went to Georgia. That fraternity of players at
Speaker 1: Sea Island. What do you think helps them about that?
Speaker 3: I think there's a number of things. I think the
Speaker 3: island is still very it's still a very comfortable place.
Speaker 3: It's it's a place where those guys can go and
Speaker 3: they can, you know, they can spend some time out doors,
Speaker 3: they can spend some time on the water, they can
Speaker 3: go to the local restaurants. People are kind of just
Speaker 3: used to it all, so it's a very kind of
Speaker 3: chilled out atmosphere. I think when they get on the
Speaker 3: island they really feel like they can kind of decompress
Speaker 3: an awful lot. There's not an awful lot of golf
Speaker 3: feed type pressure on them. When you combine that with
Speaker 3: the the you know, the facilities and the golf courses
Speaker 3: that we have at Sea Island, with the Seaside Golf Course,
Speaker 3: which is tends to be windy, has a lawful lot
Speaker 3: of different little nuanced golf shots. The Plantation Course would
Speaker 3: really good for wedge play and work, the Retreat Court
Speaker 3: course across the street which is a really nice parkland
Speaker 3: course where it's a little bit less played. We go
Speaker 3: over there and spend a lot of time doing a
Speaker 3: lot of our prep work. Ocean Forest which is a
Speaker 3: fantastic golf courses hosted the Walker Cup recently been redone
Speaker 3: and it's just an unbelievable condition. And the Performance Center
Speaker 3: linking in with that, where we can you know, we
Speaker 3: can put them on gears, we can get them on
Speaker 3: swing cat we need to.
Speaker 2: We've got the studios.
Speaker 3: We've got an unbelievable putting studio there in a gym,
Speaker 3: you know, and they've got we've got a staff of
Speaker 3: people like me who who have different levels of experience
Speaker 3: and different levels of training to help these guys so
Speaker 3: from a golf perspective, it's like when they drive on
Speaker 3: the island, they can decompress and then when they decide that, yeah,
Speaker 3: I want to go and get a session with Rondy Myers,
Speaker 3: with Tom Hemmings and get my get my my fitness
Speaker 3: stuff back up and run and they drive a mile
Speaker 3: and a half and they can do that. And then
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a I'm around most of the time
Speaker 3: when i'm you know, when I'm home, and they can they.
Speaker 2: Can jump in a quick session with me. So it's
Speaker 2: a I think it's a it's.
Speaker 3: A relaxed performance atmosphere, maybe a little bit, probably quite
Speaker 3: unique in the United States, and I think a lot
Speaker 3: of those guys do benefit from it.
Speaker 1: Obviously, with the success you've had with the players you
Speaker 1: work with a major champion now and Brian Harmon, you're
Speaker 1: working and you're being sought after JP by a lot
Speaker 1: of young players. But these two just high speed South
Speaker 1: Africans that you're working with whose names you can probably
Speaker 1: pronounce better than I can.
Speaker 2: I'll do the best.
Speaker 1: I mean, these boys look like they can hit it.
Speaker 1: And your boy had a chance to win on Sunday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Aldrich Potchkiter, who is a you know, he's an
Speaker 3: unbelievable young man. I'll try and get this right. They
Speaker 3: moved down to Australia when he was a teenager. He
Speaker 3: was playing yeah, and he he did a little bit
Speaker 3: of wrestling and within like eight or twelve months he
Speaker 3: was on the Australian national wrestling team. He's an incredible
Speaker 3: strong fellow with a really strong bass and very very
Speaker 3: gifted player.
Speaker 2: You know, I'll be ben in your ear a few times.
Speaker 2: He reminds me a little bit of DJ. Very very
Speaker 2: strong grip, strong club face all the way through.
Speaker 3: He is that kind of that that pivot that you know,
Speaker 3: kind of beats the face all the time, likes to
Speaker 3: fade it hits it about three point fifty in the air.
Speaker 3: He's twenty years old and you know he recently a
Speaker 3: chance to win down in Sun City. He played really
Speaker 3: really good in Australia. I'm trying to help he and
Speaker 3: his family navigate the toil of this travel that you know,
Speaker 3: people are kind of think that they're getting used to.
Speaker 3: It's it's a brutal type of thing to try and
Speaker 3: be coming up and done from South Africa. Crystal Lamprecht again,
Speaker 3: a player with a great pedigree, both amateur champions who
Speaker 3: played in the Masters and played in that and and
Speaker 3: major championships, and.
Speaker 1: He went to Georgia Tech and very very unique golf swing.
Speaker 1: I got to watch him a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: warming up at the Open Championship and it was two
Speaker 1: years ago, and he played really really well on the
Speaker 1: first day, and then when the conditions got you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit dicey. I was just like, you know,
Speaker 1: when you watch the move that he's got JP, when
Speaker 1: you're looking at these guys, now, I mean these they're
Speaker 1: high speed guys, right, I mean there aren't There aren't
Speaker 1: ten people in the game that hit it the way
Speaker 1: these guys do speed wise. But as you know, speed
Speaker 1: is great, but speed can also really really it hurts you,
Speaker 1: and it's navigating with so much speed. How to actually
Speaker 1: harness that and play the game?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Aldric, you know, give you a couple
Speaker 3: of examples within that. You know, Aldric's ability to hit
Speaker 3: any sort of soft web shot with the amount of
Speaker 3: lean and the amount of the strong strength of his
Speaker 3: grip and things like that is challenging for him. So
Speaker 3: we've given him some ways to navigate that. And then
Speaker 3: whenever I speak to his caddy and nice Australian lad rants,
Speaker 3: you know he works in meters. I say, well, how
Speaker 3: far is he had an eight iron? He goes, oh,
Speaker 3: like one hundred and seventy meters, that's one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty seven yards. Well, how far is he had a
Speaker 3: seven iron? He it's like one one eighty nine meters
Speaker 3: like two's So I say, well, like, what do you
Speaker 3: guys do from like one ninety five? Like so all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, you've got a twenty yard gap between clubs.
Speaker 1: So it's crazy.
Speaker 2: So with the speed that.
Speaker 3: They have, they've also got to recognize that they have
Speaker 3: to hit their numbers, especially you know, at the level
Speaker 3: of golf that we're talking about now on the PGA
Speaker 3: Tour and major championships, et cetera. Like you you can't
Speaker 3: really be five and six yards off an awful lot,
Speaker 3: you know, Christo's movement, with the amount of vertical that
Speaker 3: he's that he's had, I see that as something that
Speaker 3: we've softened a lot through improving his posture. I wanted
Speaker 3: to look at that from a perspective of making his
Speaker 3: driving more consistent and taking some pressure off his lower
Speaker 3: back and particularly his left knee, and I think that
Speaker 3: although he hasn't he hasn't complained about those things, but
Speaker 3: I would imagine that were he to continue to swing
Speaker 3: it the way he did when you watched him in Liverpool,
Speaker 3: he probably would have would have struggled a little bit
Speaker 3: with with some things there. So I'm you know, I
Speaker 3: take that responsibility very seriously. It's a long path. We've
Speaker 3: got short, medium and long term things that we're trying
Speaker 3: to do. I'm delighted with Aldrich's progress. Christo had a
Speaker 3: chance to win down in the Bahamas, and you know
Speaker 3: those two guys, I have to keep reminding myself and
Speaker 3: you'll keep remind me too, that when they're as good
Speaker 3: as they are, they need to be winning golf tournaments
Speaker 3: and putting themselves in positions. So doing what they did
Speaker 3: the last couple of weeks should be what they're what
Speaker 3: they're about.
Speaker 1: Lastly, JP, I had him on the podcast right at
Speaker 1: the end of last year. Ray Han Thomas, our boy
Speaker 1: from Dubai making his way in professional golf now got
Speaker 1: off to a really good start, top tended in the Bahamas.
Speaker 1: To see JP, we do this, We get a lot
Speaker 1: of accolades for some of the superstars we get to
Speaker 1: work with, but you and I have a soft spot
Speaker 1: for Ray. He was starting in our junior program when
Speaker 1: he was nine years old. I mean, it's just so
Speaker 1: damn cool to see all the stuff. I mean, you
Speaker 1: and I don't work with him anymore. He's been doing
Speaker 1: great work with Dana Dlquiz, But Ray's part of the family.
Speaker 1: It's just so cool to watch him play.
Speaker 3: And now I think the lovely the lovely thing about
Speaker 3: Ray is I think he will always be part of
Speaker 3: the family. Every time, yeah, every time he makes a verdie,
Speaker 3: I get three or four texts from Dubai with people
Speaker 3: his dad and Nick, Tara and all those sorts of guys.
Speaker 3: And you know, I texted with him. Shooting sixty five
Speaker 3: in the last day there and the Bahamas to finish
Speaker 3: fourth was was fantastic. Dana and I have talked a lot. He's,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the best guys out here, and
Speaker 3: I'm just so I'm thrilled that Ray has found his feet,
Speaker 3: you know, after a really tough time really for two
Speaker 3: or three years, it could have gone a different direction
Speaker 3: for him. But as you and I saw with him.
Speaker 3: Load of the ground you used to call him. You know,
Speaker 3: he turned up and he just he kept playing, He
Speaker 3: kept working, and he kept working, and he would, you know,
Speaker 3: he would. He would always exhibit the greatest attitude and
Speaker 3: the greatest ability to be a wonderful human being when
Speaker 3: when things were going well and when things were going badly.
Speaker 3: And I think, I like you love the fact that
Speaker 3: he's part of the family, and I'm just delighted to
Speaker 3: see him playing good Because I got to.
Speaker 1: Be honest with you those first two years at Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: If you would have told me after the start that
Speaker 1: he had that OSU and the struggles that he had
Speaker 1: the driver of City got JP. If you told me
Speaker 1: he was finishing top five on a corn ferry event
Speaker 1: after graduating in twenty twenty five, I got to be
Speaker 1: honest with you. I would go, Wow, that's a big turnaround,
Speaker 1: because he was lost, Like he got to college and
Speaker 1: was a deer in the headlights and the way that
Speaker 1: he has and in talking to him, and when he
Speaker 1: was on the pod, he was doing all the right
Speaker 1: stuff that you were trying to do to get better.
Speaker 1: He was going, Okay, I'm going to practice more. I'm
Speaker 1: going to spend more time on the range. I'm going
Speaker 1: to spend more time on that technique. And he went
Speaker 1: down that rabbit hole JP of in an effort to
Speaker 1: try and get better. He got worse. And I think
Speaker 1: it is a testament to him as a person as
Speaker 1: much as it is to him as a player that
Speaker 1: he fought through that and he has found his own
Speaker 1: way to get to where he is today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and maybe that's one of the things that he
Speaker 3: had to do. He had to find his own way,
Speaker 3: and that's you know, that's part of the journey that
Speaker 3: they have and part of what he's done I think
Speaker 3: has been so impressive is that whilst he's he's looked
Speaker 3: in different cobby holes for different information. Everybody who's who's
Speaker 3: worked with him, from Danny Lucas to yourself to Dana,
Speaker 3: we all share an affinity for him, and we all,
Speaker 3: you know, we all believe in him, and we all
Speaker 3: know that this is the start of it and an
Speaker 3: interesting journey.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We've got to remember when he was sixteen years old
Speaker 3: at the Dubai Creek Tournament, he made ten verdies in
Speaker 3: a row. I think it was it, shot sixty two
Speaker 3: in a professional event. So the pedigree was always there
Speaker 3: with Ray and to be able to maintain that attitude
Speaker 3: and be able to maintain that positivity when things, frankly
Speaker 3: were going sideways, and for him to come out the
Speaker 3: other side, I think he's going to find a great
Speaker 3: deal of strength in that.
Speaker 2: There's there's a there's a strength in that that could
Speaker 2: lead him to great things in the future.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more Rider Cup for Harry. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's got to be the goal this year, right, keep
Speaker 1: playing good and get some get it, get in this
Speaker 1: contention in some of these majors, and and have a
Speaker 1: good chance to be on that writer. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that there are a lot of guys on the
Speaker 1: team that would like him on that team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think that'd be a great goal
Speaker 3: for him. You know, it was it was lovely to
Speaker 3: sit down yesterday though he came down with this stomach
Speaker 3: fluid that's been going around the West coast, so we
Speaker 3: didn't see him yesterday, but to sit down and go
Speaker 3: through his schedule and start to plan the way that
Speaker 3: that would look. You know, he's got the opportunity to
Speaker 3: go back to Tory Pines in two weeks and playing
Speaker 3: the Genesis, which is going to be pretty cool for him.
Speaker 3: As we've talked about, he loves difficult golf courses. With
Speaker 3: being in all of the majors, now I kind of automatically,
Speaker 3: so we'll, you know, we'll keep chipping away. I think
Speaker 3: it's it's a great way to start the season based
Speaker 3: on that ability for him to go all right, I
Speaker 3: did all this good training work through December and into January.
Speaker 2: I flicked the switch with my mentality and saw how
Speaker 2: that was.
Speaker 3: I was able to transition that into into winning a
Speaker 3: golf tournament. If he can continue that type of that
Speaker 3: blend of those two mentalities, then.
Speaker 2: Who knows what he could do.
Speaker 1: Well, you're doing a great job. Keep keep getting the better,
Speaker 1: and we will catch up soon. Thanks to Age Justin
Speaker 1: Parson on The Son of a Book's podcast rate Review.
Speaker 1: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We will see you
Speaker 1: next week.