Speaker 1: The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much dequiment matters. I just love that I can hit
Speaker 1: any shot I kind of want.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 2: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Ping proven Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
Speaker 1: That's Marty Jerts and Marty. Happy New Year. You know
Speaker 1: what we gotta start with, right? Do you got a resolution?
Speaker 1: You got you got something you're gonna You're gonna set
Speaker 1: your goals and eyes and mind and body ad at
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Oh, Shane, I used to be super big into the resolutions,
Speaker 2: you know, like and for me it was always removing
Speaker 2: something was like a good resolution. Like one year being
Speaker 2: from Arizona, Man, I love chips and guac. I had
Speaker 2: to give up chips. I was like, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: Did you do the whole year? Did you did you
Speaker 2: do the whole year and not do it? I did
Speaker 2: the entire year?
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: One year. I regret this, but I gave up coffee.
Speaker 2: I like switched to tea and then I had a
Speaker 2: I did it literally for the whole year, but I
Speaker 2: rebounded on that now, so I'm not doing that. But
Speaker 2: I think this year, you know, I think it's gonna
Speaker 2: be maybe because over forty is maybe maybe diet wise,
Speaker 2: get a little more protein in the diet. That's gonna
Speaker 2: be my big thing for for twenty four. How about you,
Speaker 2: what are you dot on your list?
Speaker 1: I'm adding an extra leg and lower body workout a week. So,
Speaker 1: as you know, Marty, it's super easy to do kind
Speaker 1: of beach body workout and go do arms and things
Speaker 1: like that. And I think at times I get a
Speaker 1: little lazy with going to the gym and focusing solely
Speaker 1: on lower body, like spend fifty minutes or an hour
Speaker 1: entirely on legs and glutes and things like that. So
Speaker 1: my goal, and I've been working with a trainer on
Speaker 1: kind of getting nice a plan for this is I'm
Speaker 1: just going to introduce a lot more leg workouts. Again,
Speaker 1: you said it, Marty, I just turned forty, you know,
Speaker 1: late last year, and these are the types of things
Speaker 1: we've got to be thinking about. And so, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: funny you and I are focused on the same stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like diet and gym or basically what you have
Speaker 1: to have to do when you when you when you
Speaker 1: flip the calendar over, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. But I think it's good. I mean, when
Speaker 2: we're talking about what we're going to talk about some
Speaker 2: golf things here is just those habits. I think that's
Speaker 2: a really big deal, is to at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the year, is there's a good time to kind of
Speaker 2: establish what your habits are going to be for the year,
Speaker 2: knowing that life's going to come your way, things are
Speaker 2: going to get in the way, But what are those
Speaker 2: habits you can go back to? And yeah, I think
Speaker 2: we've feeling good about both of ours, Shane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, Marty, it's interesting. I mean I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, doing like early Clubhouse podcast, you know ten,
Speaker 1: you know, seven, eight years ago, and I would always
Speaker 1: ask players about goals because if you remember, Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: made it famous where he would post that notes app
Speaker 1: at the end of the year on what his goals
Speaker 1: were in which one he's achieved. And I think this
Speaker 1: is actually something that's pretty important for even everyday golfers.
Speaker 1: I think it's easy to say I'm going to spend
Speaker 1: a little bit more time on the range this year.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna spend a little bit more time on my
Speaker 1: short game, but to actually write out goals for your
Speaker 1: golf game. As much as we're all obsessed with the
Speaker 1: game and obsessed with playing, what are you actually trying
Speaker 1: to achieve in twenty four?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: For me with my golf game, Marty, I'm going to
Speaker 1: just simply try to play more tournaments. Not necessarily, you know,
Speaker 1: try to do more whatever. I hope that comes with
Speaker 1: the territory. But I'm just going to try to spend
Speaker 1: a little bit more time in my calendar if it
Speaker 1: allows that. Obviously I've got two little kids and I've
Speaker 1: got jobs, but I'm going to try to just play
Speaker 1: if I can play in more golf tournaments, get more
Speaker 1: competitive in that space. Because I had a good twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three in terms of tournament golf. But as I
Speaker 1: look back on last year and kind of think about
Speaker 1: this year, I wish I would have played more tournaments.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of one of my big focuses for
Speaker 1: next year. For this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, Shan, I love that I did that. In
Speaker 2: twenty three. I recommitted because I had an off year
Speaker 2: in twenty two, didn't play many tournaments at all for
Speaker 2: me and I up. I played in all of pretty
Speaker 2: much all of our section events in twenty three and
Speaker 2: it worked. It forced me to kind of be a
Speaker 2: little more dissi planned in my practice, and then you
Speaker 2: get the feedback playing in the tournament golf. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can be playing good like you did this year,
Speaker 2: and then you play big tournament, then your next you
Speaker 2: low your calendar. Your next one is not for six weeks.
Speaker 2: You know, it's tough. It's tough to keep that momentum going.
Speaker 1: I think about that on tour lot with the pro golfers.
Speaker 1: You know, some of the guys that have great ends
Speaker 1: to the season. You think about the way Victor obviously
Speaker 1: played at the end of twenty three and into the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup and things like that, and everybody reacts the
Speaker 1: same way, Wow, Victor's gonna win a major championship. He's
Speaker 1: you know, he's obviously on the precipice of those types
Speaker 1: of things. And you said it, Marty, I mean, the
Speaker 1: gap from the end of that part of their season
Speaker 1: until when they ramp things back up again in January,
Speaker 1: and then you think about the big events early in
Speaker 1: the season, and then you think about that first major championship.
Speaker 1: I mean, what are you talking six seven months? For
Speaker 1: those players, it's remembering what I did well. And for
Speaker 1: Victor it was obviously everything. I mean, he hit the
Speaker 1: ball great and he putted great, but remembering what those
Speaker 1: fields were like and applying them in your practice and
Speaker 1: in your planning, and then of course you know when
Speaker 1: you get back to tournament golf in twenty four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and golf such a fragile game, Shane, You and
Speaker 2: I both know, man, you can you can lose those feelings.
Speaker 2: You know, you think they're just right there, but you
Speaker 2: know sometimes it's you know, they're fleeting. So that's what
Speaker 2: that's what makes this game so fun though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Marty is is listeners are thinking about a
Speaker 1: checklist for twenty twenty four, What are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you would push them to consider to think about,
Speaker 1: to focus on not just maybe with their playing in
Speaker 1: their golf game, but he also in their golf bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's just a good time to have, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I like to call it like a retrospective,
Speaker 2: you know, just take a nice, good hard look at
Speaker 2: your game and what your goals are, Right, Shane, I
Speaker 2: think that's a big deal. I think back to when
Speaker 2: we had Preston summer Hates on the podcast. Hey Preston,
Speaker 2: what do you need to do to get better? He
Speaker 2: was like, well, I thought about this for a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks and wrote a ten page detailed plan. I
Speaker 2: don't think the everyday golfer needs to go to Preston level.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to Preston level personally, but hey, what
Speaker 2: a great example for all of us to do a
Speaker 2: little look back on your game. Be like, hey, you know,
Speaker 2: just like you did, I want to play more tournaments.
Speaker 2: You know, what are your goals, what were your strengths,
Speaker 2: what were your weaknesses? If you use any type of
Speaker 2: stats tracking app, heck, even if you just look at
Speaker 2: your gen trends over the years, right, take a look
Speaker 2: at some of your stats and do a little assessment
Speaker 2: on your game. Get you and if you have somebody
Speaker 2: that can help you with it even better, whether that's
Speaker 2: a coach, caddy, friend, do you play a lot of
Speaker 2: golf with what have you? Uh? Take a look, take
Speaker 2: a look at your game and see where you think
Speaker 2: I think that the low hanging fruit is is it
Speaker 2: you're driving, is it your short game, is it your
Speaker 2: mid iron? Play and then you could start to start
Speaker 2: to try to curate an action plan, maybe some habits
Speaker 2: from a practice standpoint, and then an action plan to
Speaker 2: take a look at it from an equipment standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think something you mentioned off the top there
Speaker 1: is so smart. I mean, obviously there's so many apps
Speaker 1: out there in terms of tracking your golf. And you know,
Speaker 1: I battle with this, Marti at times playing golf is
Speaker 1: do I want to be on my.
Speaker 2: Phone when I'm playing?
Speaker 1: Or do I not want to be? And obviously, I
Speaker 1: mean for me, golf is a bit of a disconnect
Speaker 1: from the phone. It's so funny. I'll go on golf
Speaker 1: trip sometimes, Marty, and I'll get done. I'll be on
Speaker 1: the flight home and go, I want to post pictures
Speaker 1: on Instagram, and I go. I didn't take many pictures,
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. That means I had a
Speaker 1: great golf trip, right, I mean, if I didn't pull
Speaker 1: my phone out all the time, that typically means I
Speaker 1: was having a great time on the golf course. But
Speaker 1: I do think, considering where we're at in modern technology,
Speaker 1: leaning on those even if it's after the run, even
Speaker 1: if you're at you can track on scorecards and plug
Speaker 1: it in on the back end, fairways, hit greens potts,
Speaker 1: things like that. I think it's so important because Marty
Speaker 1: you mentioned low hanging fruit. I'm not sure everybody understands
Speaker 1: what they're good at and what they're bad at, right,
Speaker 1: And I think being able to track that in some
Speaker 1: capacity can help golfers understand where they should spend their
Speaker 1: time practicing, where they should spend their time. Maybe they've
Speaker 1: got a four year old driver, right, Maybe I haven't
Speaker 1: driven the ball. Well, maybe it's worth spending a little
Speaker 1: bit of time getting fit for something new in the
Speaker 1: bag that might be able to help improve that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shane, you know, we don't need to spend a
Speaker 2: ton of too much time on stats tracking apps. But
Speaker 2: what it does, you hit the nail on the head,
Speaker 2: is it helps you get back past your own personal
Speaker 2: bias of what you think is your strength or weakness
Speaker 2: in your game. I was just recently at a big
Speaker 2: conference talking to some of the top teachers and one
Speaker 2: of them said, hey, I bring my players on the
Speaker 2: course because you can identify the low hanging fruit to
Speaker 2: help them get better. Almost immediately, they might they might
Speaker 2: tell you, oh, my drivings, you know, not that good.
Speaker 2: Then you get on the course, they actually drive it okay,
Speaker 2: they miss their high handicap, or they missed a ton
Speaker 2: of greens. They really struggle with the chipping. But maybe
Speaker 2: they're blanking that out. You know, there's that bias in
Speaker 2: there to give you that true assessment. And that's really
Speaker 2: where the stats come in. You don't need a lot,
Speaker 2: rely one hundred percent on them, but use them as
Speaker 2: kind of a piece of the puzzle to help identify
Speaker 2: where you need help. And then it's at and then
Speaker 2: it's you know, Shane, it's maybe take a whole listic
Speaker 2: view of your golf game. Do you need to work
Speaker 2: on some fitness stuff, some speed stuff, some practice habits,
Speaker 2: and set some realistic goals for yourself for the year? Right?
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing is like, Hey, I think
Speaker 2: life's gonna come at me, family, kids, job, travel, what
Speaker 2: have you? What are some realistic things I can do?
Speaker 2: Can I get a little putting that in my house
Speaker 2: and and do some block practice for five or ten
Speaker 2: minutes while I'm watching watching the basketball in the winter? Right,
Speaker 2: these are those tiny things that add up a lot
Speaker 2: over time. And then what can we do from an
Speaker 2: equipment standpoint where am I where's the low hanging fruit
Speaker 2: From an equipment performance standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, can you hit the ball longer? I mean
Speaker 1: that's that's a simple fix. I mean I just was
Speaker 1: messing around with the Max ten K. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love the look of it. I know we're gonna
Speaker 1: chat more and more about the new driver in the
Speaker 1: coming weeks, but just simply adding a new driver in
Speaker 1: the bag can help you pick up those five or
Speaker 1: ten yards that maybe you've lost or that you'd love
Speaker 1: to improve in terms of what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are simple fixes for the golf bag
Speaker 1: to help somebody fill a slight hole. That's maybe there's
Speaker 1: something they've been thinking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Shane. I try to take a look at
Speaker 2: from an equipment standpoint to help golfers out there. Have
Speaker 2: a little checklist of what things to look at. Number One,
Speaker 2: you highlight it first the driver. Are you leaving distance
Speaker 2: on the table through the driver? Fitting and performance? So
Speaker 2: the fitting aspect is, let's make sure you have the
Speaker 2: optimal launch and spin. And if you have not been
Speaker 2: on a launch monitor, you haven't been through our copilot
Speaker 2: tool or understand our chart we have which is angle
Speaker 2: of attack, ball speed. What are the perfect launch conditions?
Speaker 2: So many golfers are misfit by not having the right
Speaker 2: launch and spin. So there's the fitting side of the driver.
Speaker 2: Then there's the performance side, which is making sure you
Speaker 2: have the latest technology in our four to thirty family,
Speaker 2: for example, to give you that forgiveness around the face,
Speaker 2: to give you that spinsistency, to give you that inertia,
Speaker 2: to give you all the ball speed that comes with everything,
Speaker 2: and marry those two things up together. The driver is
Speaker 2: the most important club. At least once a year, it's
Speaker 2: a perfect time of year before the season. Get in,
Speaker 2: get your launch numbers and make sure your driver is
Speaker 2: optimized for launch, and spend Marty.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the weather. You mentioned you know in a
Speaker 1: lot of the areas of the country it's cold, you're
Speaker 1: not playing a whole bunch of golf. And you mentioned
Speaker 1: Ping Copilot, And this is my reminder to everybody out there,
Speaker 1: spend a little bit of time with the apps that
Speaker 1: Ping and Marty have created because it's such an easy fix.
Speaker 1: You talk about driving, you talk about gapping. I know
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time in terms of gapping,
Speaker 1: but that gapping app if you don't understand where this Again,
Speaker 1: these are simple fixes, Marty. I mean, this isn't going
Speaker 1: out and having a change or swing or spend hours
Speaker 1: on the range working on path takeaway and things like that.
Speaker 1: This is simply am I filling the gaps the right
Speaker 1: way with the right clubs. Do I have a huge
Speaker 1: hole at one twenty that I don't? I don't realize, Marty.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how many buddies I'll talk to of mine that,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll be playing a scramble or we'll be
Speaker 1: out playing best Ball or something like that and they're like, ah,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to hit driver, you ride.
Speaker 1: I don't really have anything in the one twenty range,
Speaker 1: and my mind's blown, you know. I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: a scoring opportunity. You've got to at that dialed and
Speaker 1: I love. I mean, one of my favorite things at
Speaker 1: ping is that gapping app because it just helps it
Speaker 1: helps an issue that a lot of golfers have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shane, I totally agree so that that gapping app
Speaker 2: is a great tool to lean on. Are our tons
Speaker 2: of our fitters out there using it. If you want
Speaker 2: to find a fitter that's using it, you go to
Speaker 2: you go to our find a Fitter tool on ping
Speaker 2: dot com and you can filter buy an account that
Speaker 2: has and is using copiloting and go see them and
Speaker 2: ask to get on the Gaping app. Because even if
Speaker 2: you're not let's say you got a new set I
Speaker 2: two thirties or G four thirty irons in you know,
Speaker 2: the last year or two, there's still it's still worthwhile
Speaker 2: going through the Gaping app even if you're not going
Speaker 2: to replace you know you're not in the market for
Speaker 2: new irons. To look at the edges of your bag,
Speaker 2: like you were talking about Shane, the wedges. Do you
Speaker 2: have the right gapping in your wedges? Number one? And
Speaker 2: then maybe you're playing down to a four iron or
Speaker 2: a five iron, you're struggling with that club. What's the
Speaker 2: right replacement for that? Can you take a look at
Speaker 2: just you know, a hybrid or high lofted fairway would
Speaker 2: go on there, get on that Gaping app. I think
Speaker 2: that's the next from the driver drivers Number one, make
Speaker 2: sure you're optimized for launch and spin for your angle
Speaker 2: of attack. Number two would be looking at your second figuration.
Speaker 2: Are you are you comfortable with where what is the
Speaker 2: longest iron in your bag? Number one. And on the
Speaker 2: other end of the bag, like you were talking about, Shane,
Speaker 2: you got to make let's make sure those those wedges
Speaker 2: are scoring clubs and you have them gapped appropriately. That's
Speaker 2: such a big deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we've had plenty of guests on that
Speaker 1: have talked a little bit about this or around this
Speaker 1: idea of not just the wedges. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: love what you mentioned with the high loft at fairy Woods.
Speaker 1: You know, I've talked so much about my love for
Speaker 1: my seven wood and this becoming so popular. I also,
Speaker 1: you know, I always think about this through the eyes
Speaker 1: and the lenses of my buddies that play golf and
Speaker 1: that are kind of all over the board in terms
Speaker 1: of handicapping. But there's so many of my friends that
Speaker 1: have a club in their bag that either they rarely
Speaker 1: use if ever right and a lot of the time
Speaker 1: that'll be a three wood. And so if you have
Speaker 1: a club in your bag. And again, as we're talking
Speaker 1: about kind of that checklist for the new year, checklist
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four, what can I do when I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to find answers in the dirt? One
Speaker 1: of those things is is there a club in your bag,
Speaker 1: that's a cobweb club, right, you're not using it enough
Speaker 1: to you know, be one of fourteen because fourteen is
Speaker 1: in theory a pretty small number. It's just making sure
Speaker 1: how often are you pulling it out. I do this
Speaker 1: thing every year already, where my my golf shirts. I
Speaker 1: at the start of the year, I flip the hangars
Speaker 1: the way, and by the end of the year, if
Speaker 1: there's hangars that are still facing the wrong way, those
Speaker 1: shirts get donated. Obviously I'm not wearing those shirts. Right.
Speaker 1: The same thing can be done with your golf clubs.
Speaker 1: Are you using golf clubs enough to you know, mandate
Speaker 1: a spot on the bag and if not, really consider
Speaker 1: some other options.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point, Shane. That's again where it's
Speaker 2: hard to kind of know that from memory. Like if
Speaker 2: you have arcos, for example, you can look and see
Speaker 2: how how much you've hit the three wood. And one
Speaker 2: of the fun things we've talked about a little bit
Speaker 2: here before, Shane, is that how the three wood is
Speaker 2: used is very different for all players out there. For example,
Speaker 2: me and you, we hit our three wood probably eighty
Speaker 2: eight out of ten times off the tee right for
Speaker 2: the golfer out there that drives it two hundred yards,
Speaker 2: they're the opposite. They hit it eight out of ten
Speaker 2: times off the ground. So that's why you know, a
Speaker 2: three wood might not be the right club for that golfer.
Speaker 2: It might be a might be a five wood might
Speaker 2: be like kind of a you know, we make a
Speaker 2: fourwood out of a five wood. Put a five wood
Speaker 2: in the in the big minus or a five sft
Speaker 2: version five woods something that's very easy to hit off
Speaker 2: the ground. But if you're a better player with more speed,
Speaker 2: you want to be optimizing that three with off the t.
Speaker 2: So that's cobweb club, I think is a really good
Speaker 2: way to frame it and take a look at it.
Speaker 2: Can you replace it with something that's going to be
Speaker 2: more useful?
Speaker 1: Yeah, If this is just my PSA here, If you
Speaker 1: hate a club in your bag, flip it out of
Speaker 1: the bag. Like, there's no reason to have a long
Speaker 1: iron that you can't hit and you don't love that.
Speaker 1: You've got to strike perfectly to hit the number that
Speaker 1: you kind of have written down in your yardage book,
Speaker 1: if you will, for what that number carries. Think about
Speaker 1: a hybrid, think about a lofted Fairwe would like think
Speaker 1: about these other options. There's so many options across the
Speaker 1: board these days, with crossovers and with lofted fairwy woods
Speaker 1: becoming more popular. You don't have to have have the
Speaker 1: four iron in your bag if you don't feel comfortable
Speaker 1: hitting that. I love my four iron. There's so many
Speaker 1: people out there that don't. There's no reason to have
Speaker 1: clubs in your bag that aren't helping your game. If
Speaker 1: they're hurting your game, take them out and get a
Speaker 1: little bit more creative.
Speaker 2: With the bag. Yeah, Shane. I think one of the
Speaker 2: big things to make sure the bed the better players
Speaker 2: listen to this is that hybrids no longer go left right.
Speaker 2: We don't. We don't have that issue necessarily, and so
Speaker 2: don't be afraid of that. Give it you if you
Speaker 2: wiped them out forever. Five years ago you first tried
Speaker 2: hybrids they hooked, or ten years ago, we've solved that problem.
Speaker 2: We got Joaquin Nieman playing a five hybrid and stuffing
Speaker 2: it out there. So give yourself permission that we can
Speaker 2: always go flatter with them to get them to fly straight.
Speaker 2: So definitely take a look at cobweb clubs. Set composition
Speaker 2: between your driver and your longest iron. That's a really
Speaker 2: good area to focus. And then Shane, I would say
Speaker 2: after that, after those two pieces would be looking at
Speaker 2: your wedges and making sure if you're not spinning it
Speaker 2: around the greens, if you're hitting chip shots, pitch shots,
Speaker 2: ball sliding up the face, you don't have that capability
Speaker 2: when you have a really good lie to hit that
Speaker 2: low spinner. If that's something that you want to do
Speaker 2: in your technique, that'd be the next place to look.
Speaker 2: Make sure you're starting the year off with some fresh wedges.
Speaker 1: And the chippers obviously something to think about as well.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a big part of this whole You
Speaker 1: talked about composition of the golf bag.
Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, and I think that's where it comes to
Speaker 2: the honest assessment of your game chain is it. Are
Speaker 2: you going to spend the time to improve in a
Speaker 2: certain area, Like let's say you love hitting four iron, right,
Speaker 2: are you going to work on your speed, your technique,
Speaker 2: everything to be able to flush that fore iron get
Speaker 2: that ball up in the air. That's a tough challenge. Similarly,
Speaker 2: when it comes to chipping, if you're a golfer out
Speaker 2: there that struggled with chipping off of tight lies and
Speaker 2: making managing your low point and being able to have
Speaker 2: that delivery so you can nip it, get the ball
Speaker 2: in the air, manage the low point. If that's a
Speaker 2: struggle for you, take a look at the chipper, because
Speaker 2: that has been a savior for a lot of golfers
Speaker 2: out there. We have better players around the office. They
Speaker 2: use the chipper. I have played with them and it
Speaker 2: is very impressive what they can do around the green.
Speaker 2: So give that an honest assessment, an honest look.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm Marty. I just late last year. I wrapped
Speaker 1: up a golf trip on my last golf trips of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and my buddy Andrew, who is I
Speaker 1: think he's a two handicap, has the chipper in the bag.
Speaker 1: Now he's never he's love it. I'll tell you this, Marty.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that it's either full massive flop shot
Speaker 1: or chipper. Like there's no you know, the simple, flat face,
Speaker 1: fifty six degree pitch shot is not something he's comfortable hitting.
Speaker 1: And so what he's learned is he'd put a lot
Speaker 1: of those shots, but a lot of the time the
Speaker 1: putter is just not the right call. And you could
Speaker 1: go seven and if you feel comfortable with it. But
Speaker 1: what I love about the chipper technology is it's basically
Speaker 1: like using your putting stroke totally and getting a little
Speaker 1: bit of that loft and roll out. It takes that
Speaker 1: forcible speed out of the shot. You know, you stand
Speaker 1: over a putt, it's grainy, it's kind of down on
Speaker 1: a swell and you're up a hill. You just feel
Speaker 1: like you gotta mash that. And so many times I'm
Speaker 1: already I see guys putt it over the green right
Speaker 1: because they're thinking they got to hit it so hard.
Speaker 1: I love the chipper because it takes a little bit
Speaker 1: of that I've got to hit it hard out of
Speaker 1: their hands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, And I think you nailed What makes it
Speaker 2: really easy for golfers like him to adapt to the
Speaker 2: chipper is because we designed it so you can pretty
Speaker 2: much use a putting stroke. It's super heavy headway relative
Speaker 2: to chipping with their aight iron or what have you,
Speaker 2: pitching wedge, super heavy headway, shorter and length and very upright,
Speaker 2: so as all those characteristics of a putter. And Shane,
Speaker 2: what's funny about this is the engineer here that designed
Speaker 2: the chipper. You know, we talked a lot about solving
Speaker 2: problems for yourself. He is exactly the same. He is
Speaker 2: is like a scratch too handicap. He floats right in
Speaker 2: that range. He's awesome at flop shots flop shots, but
Speaker 2: he struggled with the basic chip and now he's either
Speaker 2: chipper or flop shot in absolutely magic around the greens.
Speaker 1: Are we talking? He's the same guys, my friend Andrew,
Speaker 1: I don't know what has he got like a shadow job.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to ask him about it. Marty, you
Speaker 1: mentioned putting. A buddy of mine, Mike, just went through
Speaker 1: iping and he was extremely complimentary about it. You know,
Speaker 1: you're talking about getting yourself set up for twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four and your golf game in the winner. Eyping is
Speaker 1: something you can obviously do in your basement at home
Speaker 1: anywhere like that, to make sure you're using the right
Speaker 1: putter for your game and again assessing maybe what's not
Speaker 1: working for you as you get set for the new
Speaker 1: golf here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when it comes to the putter stain, I always
Speaker 2: always again look at like the low hanging fruit, the
Speaker 2: lowest hanging freu. Is to make sure you're in a
Speaker 2: putter that has the right toe hang or balance right.
Speaker 2: We talked about this with Sasho McKenzie when he was
Speaker 2: on talking about the biomechanics of why that is super important.
Speaker 2: So that I would say, is the low hanging fruit.
Speaker 2: From a putter standpoint, do you have a miss tendency? Again,
Speaker 2: it might be hard to remember that if you're not
Speaker 2: tracking stats on it, but if you do have a
Speaker 2: miss tendency. We see a lot of golfer shane tons
Speaker 2: that are playing deep CG mallets heel shafted, missing tons
Speaker 2: of putts to the right, and the biomechanics of this
Speaker 2: absolutely makes sense. Right the very deep sea CG with
Speaker 2: very heel shafted, you'll you have to torque the putter
Speaker 2: a lot open on the backstroke and you can't catch
Speaker 2: up and the faces delivered open to the past. So
Speaker 2: going back to the low hanging fruit, get on ipin,
Speaker 2: get on blast, Go find a fitter that has a
Speaker 2: maybe a quintic system and understand how much you rotate
Speaker 2: the face and the ford stroke. And if you don't
Speaker 2: rotate it very much on iping, if you rotate a
Speaker 2: two and a half degrees or less, you'll probably be
Speaker 2: better in a more face balanced putter. If you have
Speaker 2: a lot of rotations seven and a half degrees or more,
Speaker 2: you'll probably better be better with a strong arc or
Speaker 2: a very toe down putter, or you might be kind
Speaker 2: of in the middle. So that I would say, is
Speaker 2: the checklist item on putting. Make sure you're in the
Speaker 2: right stroke type or toe hangu putter.
Speaker 1: Marty, can you let people know if they've never gone
Speaker 1: through iping, what to expect, like what to expect when
Speaker 1: the package arrives at home at their home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, So that for that PLD custom program,
Speaker 2: we have a mode of eping that guides you through
Speaker 2: hitting putts and you can do it right on your
Speaker 2: carpet in your house, a nice flat surface.
Speaker 1: I did it.
Speaker 2: You're gonna do putts that are about a ten footer,
Speaker 2: or it doesn't have to be perfectly ten feet, it
Speaker 2: could be eight to fifteen somewhere in that range. But
Speaker 2: you're we're gonna cue you to try to have an
Speaker 2: intention to repeat your stroke as if you need to
Speaker 2: make that ten foot straight putt on the golf course,
Speaker 2: and in doing so. The sensors in the phone or
Speaker 2: iPod itself are super duper accurate. They're built for playing
Speaker 2: video games, and we can measure five key characteristics about
Speaker 2: your putting stroke that you cannot see with the naked eye,
Speaker 2: and I think that is the most important part. You
Speaker 2: can't see tempo, time of backstroke, time a forward stroke.
Speaker 2: With the naked eye. You can't see face rotation. You
Speaker 2: can see path pretty good with the naked eye, but
Speaker 2: not face rotation, and that's what we're talking about. How
Speaker 2: much does the putter rotate on the backstroke rotate on
Speaker 2: the forward stroke. We get a face angle delivery, which
Speaker 2: is ultimately that's king. We talked about that with Sasho
Speaker 2: as well, Like face angle is the most important thing,
Speaker 2: and we can factor that into the fitting process as
Speaker 2: well as your setup a shaft lean. How much you
Speaker 2: lean the shaft will influence the loft your putter and
Speaker 2: the lying shane. So iping is it's a you know,
Speaker 2: we're using the cool sensors in the phone, but we're
Speaker 2: doing a lot of things on the back end algorithmically
Speaker 2: that can really help your your putting stroke. You can't
Speaker 2: see with the naked eye.
Speaker 1: I think the key to getting fit for a putter.
Speaker 1: The key point to hear here is they can ping
Speaker 1: can help you have a putter fit your stroke versus
Speaker 1: you having to change the stroke to make sense with
Speaker 1: the putter you're using. And I think that's so important
Speaker 1: because there are a million different putting strokes out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, you go to the putting green at a
Speaker 1: PGA Tour event or an LPGA Tour event, You're gonna
Speaker 1: see thirty different looking strokes, right, I mean, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be so many different you know, inside out and things
Speaker 1: like that. But those players have a putter fit to
Speaker 1: exactly their stroke. And that is what ipin can do
Speaker 1: for people listening, is it can fit a putter for
Speaker 1: you versus you having to kind of you know, I
Speaker 1: got to lean my hands a little bit more forward
Speaker 1: or let's not forward press, like take all of your
Speaker 1: guessing out of it and allow the technology to do
Speaker 1: that for you. I just think that's so important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shane, that was a really good, uh, really well
Speaker 2: put on. How the tour players, you know, another way
Speaker 2: to think about iping is it's the tour players have
Speaker 2: been able to have trial and air. They have all
Speaker 2: the putters out there in the putting green, they can
Speaker 2: try them, see what works out there.
Speaker 1: It's so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we fit them with iping, But you know
Speaker 2: the algorithms that are baked in there work, you know,
Speaker 2: in reverse to over the history of time. Right, you
Speaker 2: have you have players who rotate the putter a lot
Speaker 2: using tow down putters. You have players that don't rotate
Speaker 2: the putter a lot using face balance putters. What iping
Speaker 2: does It helps eliminate all that trial and air so
Speaker 2: that we can kind of apply the science and apply
Speaker 2: all that empirical observation. And again I think the key
Speaker 2: is things you can't see with the naked eye and
Speaker 2: make sure things are not fighting your stroke. I think
Speaker 2: you frame that very very well.
Speaker 1: All right, Marty, So we've hit driver, We've got people
Speaker 1: dialed on their gap and in their wedges. Putting is
Speaker 1: now they're gonna have everybody here's listening's gonna order iping
Speaker 1: and get fit and they're gonna make every put in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, What about the golf ball? What can
Speaker 1: people do in terms of thinking about the golf ball
Speaker 1: they're playing and making sure that's right for their golf game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I view the golf ball, Shane, is like the
Speaker 2: glue that puts it all together, all these components. The
Speaker 2: ball is the cherry on top. And it ties driver performance,
Speaker 2: iron performance, green side spin, feeling sound off the putter,
Speaker 2: how that ball is going to fly through the air.
Speaker 2: Do you need a ball that's better in the wind
Speaker 2: or not? That is the kind of the final piece
Speaker 2: of the puzzle, And I think around the first of
Speaker 2: the year is the perfect time to make sure you're
Speaker 2: in the right golf ball right because it's like which
Speaker 2: ball am I going to use for the season. Of
Speaker 2: course you can and should as new golf balls come
Speaker 2: out take a look at this. But I think going
Speaker 2: through Balnamic, which is golf ball finning solution and software
Speaker 2: which you can do with launch modern data or without.
Speaker 2: We'll talk a little bit about that about once a season,
Speaker 2: maybe twice a season, is the perfect cadence to make
Speaker 2: sure that your clubs and golf ball how you wanted
Speaker 2: to perform on the golf course is all marrying together
Speaker 2: and understanding golf balls is tough. There's so many on
Speaker 2: the market. They have such a diversity in how they perform.
Speaker 2: They can change one model can change a lot from
Speaker 2: year to year, so you can't you can't really just
Speaker 2: say I've always played this ball, played the newest version,
Speaker 2: because sometimes they can change quite a bit, and so
Speaker 2: we designed Balnamic to help solve these problems. And going
Speaker 2: through this, going through Ballnamic around the first year is
Speaker 2: the perfect time to do.
Speaker 1: It, do you, Marty? You know there's so many options
Speaker 1: available with a lot of this technology at paying Do
Speaker 1: you go through this stuff relatively consistent? I mean, are
Speaker 1: you checking on the ball for your own golf game?
Speaker 1: I mean, you're such a great player. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know we've talked about your accolades, but are these things
Speaker 1: you're kind of checking in on a couple times a year,
Speaker 1: once a year or so.
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, absolute, Shane, I do, and I follow our
Speaker 2: same process. You know you would if you were a
Speaker 2: Mini Tour player or something. I schedule a fitting in
Speaker 2: the off season, right, kind of like the Summery has
Speaker 2: talked about, like, hey, we schedule a fitting and come in,
Speaker 2: come in. And I kind of have to do that
Speaker 2: because I'm so close to everything I And when I
Speaker 2: schedule a fitting, I tell Brad Millard or one of
Speaker 2: our master fitters here, treat me as if I'm I'm
Speaker 2: just a tournament golfer, right and put me through all
Speaker 2: the tools, the protocols, X ray my equipment, my game,
Speaker 2: my launch condition. So absolutely, we're pulling up our launch
Speaker 2: efficiency tool, which is one of my favorite in the
Speaker 2: driver to make sure you're optimized from a launch and
Speaker 2: spin standpoint. We're looking at the latest crop of balls
Speaker 2: and is there a new option for me from Balnamic
Speaker 2: because I spin my driver a little bit more than
Speaker 2: are optimal, says, so I use golf ball to give
Speaker 2: me net three hundred less spin in terms of driver flight. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm always using the gaping app and that is awesome
Speaker 2: to see if there's another option there, especially in my
Speaker 2: long irons. And then iping. I go on iping at
Speaker 2: least a couple times a year to see if anything's
Speaker 2: changing my stroke because your stroke can evolve a little
Speaker 2: bit over time, and to make sure I'm not making
Speaker 2: any compensation, so one hundred percent, and I schedule that
Speaker 2: to make sure it's kind of like a blocked intentional
Speaker 2: thing on my calendar.
Speaker 1: What about stat tracking? How do you go about your
Speaker 1: stat tracking? Because I know you're someone that pays a
Speaker 1: lot of attention to those types of things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so use I'm kind of in the research modes.
Speaker 2: I use a bunch of different stat tracking apps. I
Speaker 2: use arcos quite a bit for stat tracking, but I
Speaker 2: experiment with a bunch of others. Golf Metrics really cool,
Speaker 2: has some nice strokes gained features in there. Stack putting
Speaker 2: is how I do my putting stats tracking now because
Speaker 2: it gives the most granular insights for missus and I'm
Speaker 2: pretty hardcore kind of aim pointer when I'm out there,
Speaker 2: kind of always kind of figuring out, figuring out if
Speaker 2: I'm at a one percent, two percent, three percent slope,
Speaker 2: so that gives me the most granular insights from a
Speaker 2: putting standpoint.
Speaker 1: Do you think people that are listening to this podcast
Speaker 1: are going to have their best golf in your ever?
Speaker 1: I just feel like the advice you've given my goodness.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you not have a grade twenty four?
Speaker 2: You know? Yeah, they are, Shane, I would say the
Speaker 2: big things are take take a look at driver, take
Speaker 2: a look at second figuration, make sure if your if
Speaker 2: your wedges are degrading a little bit and grooves face friction,
Speaker 2: spin generation, take a look at that. Make sure you're
Speaker 2: in the right stroke type of putter. Consider a stats
Speaker 2: tracking solution so you get those true, non biased insights
Speaker 2: to your game. Set up some good golf habits and
Speaker 2: have an awesome year.
Speaker 1: And I got one last thing we haven't mentioned, but
Speaker 1: I also see this a lot. You mentioned the groove faces,
Speaker 1: and I think that is something people leave on the
Speaker 1: cutting room floor way too often. They don't upgrade wedges.
Speaker 1: They should be upgrading wedges in twenty four, especially with ping.
Speaker 1: New wedges are meant, but grips. Pay attention to your grips.
Speaker 1: If the grips are worn, you've had them for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, and you play, you know, relatively consistent golf,
Speaker 1: you play a couple times a month, you leave the
Speaker 1: clubs in the trunk or whatever the case may be,
Speaker 1: a clean them. But be consider whatever it is a
Speaker 1: couple of hundred bucks to get your grips regripped. Because
Speaker 1: you you mentioned the golf ball being such a such
Speaker 1: an important part of the configuration, you know, of the
Speaker 1: of the golf club and the golfer. I mean the
Speaker 1: grips are the tires, right, I mean you don't want
Speaker 1: ball tires driving in the rain like you want good grips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fresh grips is a super big deal, especially if
Speaker 2: you if you got you're not gonna look at replacing
Speaker 2: your irons or maybe your driver's pretty dialed. Put fresh
Speaker 2: grips on. There is a big one, Shane. I think
Speaker 2: a couple other things for folks to check, especially if
Speaker 2: you swap shafts. Let's say you swap shafts with a
Speaker 2: buddy and your driver's shaft or something. Check your swing weights, okay,
Speaker 2: whether you have a swing weight scale at home, your
Speaker 2: local shop, your your golf course. Check your swing weights
Speaker 2: a lot of times is a very basic one. If
Speaker 2: you're struggling with one club going left or right or
Speaker 2: low point control, check your swing weights if you've if
Speaker 2: you've swapped anything out and on the metal wood standpoint.
Speaker 2: Another one's shame to throw in. There is a fresh bag.
Speaker 2: I think that provides a really good kind of uh
Speaker 2: kind of mental uh you know, freshness to the ear.
Speaker 2: Get your bag, get all your your your tea's, your train,
Speaker 2: make sure you got to spot for your little training aids,
Speaker 2: whatever you carry with you in your bag. That could
Speaker 2: be a big deal too, to get your ear started
Speaker 2: off fresh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just played golf a couple of weeks ago and
Speaker 1: Caddy walked with the first tea and he goes, man,
Speaker 1: I love when I see a hoof for and I go,
Speaker 1: I know, and he goes, it's just there, just the best.
Speaker 1: I said, I know, they're the best bag. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had them when I was a junior golfer, I've
Speaker 1: had them through college, and I've got one now and
Speaker 1: I love it. So yeah, I think the golf bag
Speaker 1: is a great call as well. You know what, Marty,
Speaker 1: I went the kind of single carry bag for a bit,
Speaker 1: but the stand is unbeatable. It just it might listen,
Speaker 1: it might be eight ounces heavier, whatever the case may be,
Speaker 1: than an on stand bag, but I will carry the
Speaker 1: ounces more so that my I don't love this laying
Speaker 1: it down and picking it up. I'm just I've become
Speaker 1: a stand guy, even when I'm carrying myself same.
Speaker 2: I like just getting the just a little bit easier
Speaker 2: to get the clubs out of the bag, the switch clubs.
Speaker 2: If you're between clubs, wind picks up. Man, It's so
Speaker 2: much easier to throw Bindo your eight arm back in there.
Speaker 2: Totally totally agree with you, Rob, You're seven well, Marty.
Speaker 1: Happy new year, Man, super pumped for twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: Excited for all the content on this platform and what
Speaker 1: we're going to be doing elsewhere. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: great year for us, gonna be a great year for
Speaker 1: the golf world hopefully, and gonna be a great year
Speaker 1: for the listeners because with all this advice and some
Speaker 1: of the guests we have upcoming, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be you know, I will say this all the feedback
Speaker 1: I've got, Marty, I know you feel the same way
Speaker 1: about the podcast. You know, we're eight nine months into
Speaker 1: doing this podcast. It's been super fun to do. But
Speaker 1: the feedback from you guys listening has been awesome. So
Speaker 1: we always appreciate the messages and the tweets and the
Speaker 1: and the you know, the things you guys send on Instagram.
Speaker 1: It's great to hear from you, and we appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys listening because it's been a lot of fun to
Speaker 1: do so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shane, I totally agree. I've got some awesome feedback. Hopefully.
Speaker 2: Golfers are just are. My goal with this, Shane, is
Speaker 2: to help golfers get better, play better golf, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So yeah, hopefully everyone got a little
Speaker 2: you know, take a couple of those things from our
Speaker 2: checklist or do them all would be awesome and get
Speaker 2: your game dial chain. One thing we did want to
Speaker 2: mention is for the ball fitting standpoint listeners, go to
Speaker 2: ballfitting dot com. We have a discount code fifty percent
Speaker 2: off for the listeners Proving Grounds. Enter the code proving
Speaker 2: Grounds Capital P, Capital G and get fifty percent off
Speaker 2: your ball fitting.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it, Marty, that hold on, that's half. I'm almost
Speaker 1: sure that's half off.
Speaker 2: Exactly unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Proving Grounds Capital P, Capital G. You guys have a
Speaker 1: great new year. Set those goals, write down the notes,
Speaker 1: focus on the golf bag and play golf great. We're
Speaker 1: excited to see if this is the paying Proven Grounds
Speaker 1: podcast