Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. This week, I had a really really
Speaker 1: interesting experience today. So I was up at the Floridian
Speaker 1: doing some work with Brooks Koepka. We're flying up to
Speaker 1: the live event in the morning and we're hitting balls,
Speaker 1: and one of the other instructors that I work alongside with,
Speaker 1: Matt Gallant, was working with a player who's like a
Speaker 1: lot of players, he doesn't have a tour to play on,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have status. He's trying to get status. He's
Speaker 1: playing in as many different tournaments as he can. There's
Speaker 1: a tour down here in South Florida called the Minor League,
Speaker 1: which a lot of players play in one day two
Speaker 1: day events. But he is signed up for European Q School.
Speaker 1: And he Matt had said to me, Hey, listen, you know,
Speaker 1: could could he talk to to this guy Boggle? Could
Speaker 1: Boggle talk to you about Q School and about playing
Speaker 1: in Q School and things like that? And so I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there and I'm thinking, yeah, I mean I could
Speaker 1: I could help him out and talk to him about it.
Speaker 1: But you know, you've got a five time major champion
Speaker 1: and a former world number one, and the current PGA
Speaker 1: champion standing right there. So I said, listen, why don't
Speaker 1: you talk to talk to Brooks ask him some questions.
Speaker 1: So the conversation that ensued, it's one of those things
Speaker 1: that there's a running joke. I'm sure there's a joke
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour, but there's a running joke with
Speaker 1: the players that I work with and a lot of
Speaker 1: the live guys, because that's the tour that I seem
Speaker 1: to be spending the most time on. But there'll be
Speaker 1: something that will happen. And we always say the same thing,
Speaker 1: where's Netflix? Right? This would be great content content for
Speaker 1: Full Swing, And today was just it was fascinating to
Speaker 1: be a part of. And so you've got a player
Speaker 1: who played college golf who's trying to play professionally. He's
Speaker 1: trying to get status somewhere. He's playing in mini tours,
Speaker 1: he's playing as many different tournaments as he can, sometimes
Speaker 1: one day, sometimes two day events, and then obviously Q School,
Speaker 1: like a lot of players that are trying to play professionally,
Speaker 1: that's the route he's trying to go. So I think
Speaker 1: he was just looking for some guidance as to how
Speaker 1: to approach going to Q school. Obviously Brooks went to
Speaker 1: Q School. He missed in the US, missed in Europe,
Speaker 1: had to go to the Challenge Tour, and then off
Speaker 1: the Challenge Tour, got to the European Tour, off the
Speaker 1: European Tour, got to the PGA Tour, and the rest
Speaker 1: is somewhat history. But I thought that having Brooks talk
Speaker 1: to him could be, you know, very very important and
Speaker 1: very eye opening, and I think it's always very interesting
Speaker 1: to me. I think most golfers, the way they go
Speaker 1: about trying to play the game of golf is the problem.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, I mean, everybody's technique. It's something if you've
Speaker 1: listened to the podcast regularly, you hear me talk about
Speaker 1: this a lot. But it's something that I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep talking about everybody. Everyone, everybody playing on the men's,
Speaker 1: on the women's, on the Champs DP World, Asia, PGA
Speaker 1: Tour Live, doesn't matter what tour you're on. Everyone everyone
Speaker 1: is trying to get better. Everyone is trying to improve
Speaker 1: their technique. Everyone's trying to have their swing get better. Technically,
Speaker 1: they're trying to improve the positions, they're trying to improve
Speaker 1: all of the things that all golfers are trying to
Speaker 1: improve if you're a tour player, if you're an aspiring
Speaker 1: tour player, college golfer, high school golfer, junior golfer, amateur golfer,
Speaker 1: regular golfer. And you've heard me say this before, regular
Speaker 1: golfers are the majority of people that play this sport.
Speaker 1: Everyone's trying to improve their golf swing, everyone's trying to
Speaker 1: improve their technique, So that isn't necessarily going to be
Speaker 1: a as big a differentiators. I think people think, and
Speaker 1: I certainly think that a lot of players that don't
Speaker 1: have status that are trying to play competitively are trying
Speaker 1: to get to the next level, and to the level
Speaker 1: that is the holy grail, the PGA Tour, play in Europe,
Speaker 1: play in Asia, play on the LPGA. Historically, those were
Speaker 1: the places that everybody wanted to play. Now that lives
Speaker 1: come around, that's different, but historically everyone that was trying
Speaker 1: to play that played college golf, the goal, if you
Speaker 1: were going to try and continue to play professionally would
Speaker 1: be to get to the PGA Tour. And I just
Speaker 1: thought it was fascinating that a player that has no
Speaker 1: status was talking to someone that's five time major champion,
Speaker 1: someone that's been number one in the world for a
Speaker 1: pretty significant amount of time, been on Ryder Cups, been
Speaker 1: on President's Cups, won the Varden Trophy, won the Nicholas Ward.
Speaker 1: I think it was very eye opening for this player
Speaker 1: to hear Brooks's kind of take on competitive golf. And
Speaker 1: it's funny. He talked to him for about a half
Speaker 1: an hour. Brooks was hitting balls, he was on the range,
Speaker 1: Boggle was hitting balls, and they were just kind of talking.
Speaker 1: And what Brooks was talking to him about on how
Speaker 1: to prepare for Q school, how to prepare for tournaments,
Speaker 1: I know, was not even close to what I would
Speaker 1: have envisioned this player thinking that Brooks was going to
Speaker 1: talk about the things that he talked about, But in reality,
Speaker 1: Brooks talked mainly about playing the game of golf, not practicing.
Speaker 1: You know, Brooks and I both said to this player, listen,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of players that are trying to
Speaker 1: play competitively, that are trying to get to the next level,
Speaker 1: they're over practic, right. All they do is practice. All
Speaker 1: they do is hit balls, and they're hitting a ton
Speaker 1: of balls, and they're constantly working on their golf swing.
Speaker 1: They're constantly working on their technique. And this young player
Speaker 1: said he just played a one day event yesterday and
Speaker 1: had a legit chance to win it, and said he
Speaker 1: had really a really good chance to win it, didn't
Speaker 1: win it, but had a legit chance to win it,
Speaker 1: and he went into yesterday's one day event on the
Speaker 1: minor league with not a ton of I guess historical
Speaker 1: what you would think would be preparation. I think he'd
Speaker 1: been doing some traveling. I think he'd has some other
Speaker 1: stuff going on. He probably hadn't been putting in the
Speaker 1: hours that he normally has, and he said that he
Speaker 1: played so much better yesterday than he has when he's
Speaker 1: practicing more and grinding more and putting in all of
Speaker 1: these hours on the range and working on his technique.
Speaker 1: And I think what he got out of Brooks' responses
Speaker 1: to him were, well, yesterday you played good because you
Speaker 1: went out and you played golf as opposed to going
Speaker 1: and playing golf swing. And I think a lot of golfers,
Speaker 1: both recreational golfers but also competitive golfers, are playing golf
Speaker 1: swing on the golf course. They're not playing golf. They're
Speaker 1: not playing the game of golf. I've said this many times.
Speaker 1: Golf is a game. That's why they give you a
Speaker 1: scorecard and they tell you what the object of the
Speaker 1: game is. And the object of the game is to
Speaker 1: play eighteen holes of golf in the lowest amount of
Speaker 1: shots possible. There's par fives, there's par four's, there are
Speaker 1: par threes. So the way golf is designed is you
Speaker 1: know kind of the object of the game before you play.
Speaker 1: That's why you get a scorecard. There's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of par four's, there's a certain amount of par five's,
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of par threes. There's the distance
Speaker 1: of the course you're playing. And then based off of
Speaker 1: how many par threes and how many par five on
Speaker 1: the course, there is a par seventy two, seventy one, seventy,
Speaker 1: whatever that number is. So as golfers, when we go
Speaker 1: play golf, we know what the object of the game
Speaker 1: already is, right, we know that the object of the
Speaker 1: game is to have the least amount of strokes over
Speaker 1: the course of whether it's seventy two, seventy one or
Speaker 1: seventy And my father always has said this phrase, it's
Speaker 1: always one that's stuck with me. There's no place on
Speaker 1: the scorecard for style. There's no real place on the
Speaker 1: scorecard in the box where you put your score. You
Speaker 1: can other places. You can write down how many fairways
Speaker 1: you hit, how many greens you hit, how many puts
Speaker 1: you had. You can write down other things. But if
Speaker 1: you think about the way a scorecard is designed, it's
Speaker 1: very very small and there are very very small boxes
Speaker 1: for which you can basically just put a number in.
Speaker 1: That's it. There's no place for you to write how
Speaker 1: you made the par, how you made the birdie, how
Speaker 1: you made the bogee, how you made a double bogie.
Speaker 1: There's no place for description, right. The only place, the
Speaker 1: only space there really is on a score card is
Speaker 1: to put a score down, to put a number. And
Speaker 1: there are a million different ways to make a par,
Speaker 1: there are a million different ways to make a boge,
Speaker 1: so many different ways to make doubles and triples and
Speaker 1: quads and all of the things. But the object of
Speaker 1: the game is to have the lowest amount of strokes.
Speaker 1: And so I think what Brooks was trying to talk
Speaker 1: to this player about is was about playing golf. And
Speaker 1: he used a great example. He said last week at Greenbrier,
Speaker 1: the first round, I think bookshot four under. He played
Speaker 1: terrible the first five holes, and Brooks was recounting the
Speaker 1: story to this young aspiring professional golfer, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, the first five holes, I played terrible, and
Speaker 1: I realized and he said, hal, you know, I got
Speaker 1: through halfway through the front nine and I said to
Speaker 1: my caddie, ricky elled. He said, man, I'm just firing
Speaker 1: at every pin and it's just getting me in trouble.
Speaker 1: And the look on this kid's face was one of
Speaker 1: kind of bewilderness, and he said, you know what I
Speaker 1: did for the rest of the round. So for the
Speaker 1: next thirteen holes is I didn't really shoot at a
Speaker 1: lot of flags. I played a little bit more conservatively
Speaker 1: and I ended up shooting four under. And I started
Speaker 1: playing better when I started being less aggressive. I think
Speaker 1: there's a big difference between being reckless and there's a
Speaker 1: difference between being aggressive and what I always like to say,
Speaker 1: and I've said this before on the pod, conservatively aggressive,
Speaker 1: make committed swings to conservative targets, and be aggressive to
Speaker 1: conservative targets. There are going to be times where you
Speaker 1: can be really really aggressive to aggressive targets. Most of
Speaker 1: the time, as Brooks said, that's going to be with
Speaker 1: short irons. And one of the things that I see
Speaker 1: a lot of players doing, regardless of their handicap level,
Speaker 1: is they're basically just firing at all the flags. And
Speaker 1: Brooks said, you know, definitely, probably more so in the majors.
Speaker 1: But if you think about the way that someone like
Speaker 1: Brooks plays the majors, he plays them in a very
Speaker 1: very conservative fashion. And what he's trying to do is
Speaker 1: play major championships and not make any double bogies, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to trade bogies for birdies. And what
Speaker 1: he was saying today to this player is he said, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, rather than try and be really really aggressive
Speaker 1: and bring bogie into play, I'm happy to be maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit less aggressive. You know, on tour, if
Speaker 1: you play at the highest level, they're tucking pins four
Speaker 1: paces on from the front, four paces on from the back,
Speaker 1: and they're putting them four paces on from the left
Speaker 1: to the right. So you'll see a lot of yardages
Speaker 1: that are four from the front and four from the left,
Speaker 1: you know, five from the front, five from the right,
Speaker 1: all the way back, and so they tuck the pins.
Speaker 1: They don't tuck them every single round, but they do
Speaker 1: talk you know, a lot of pins in the course
Speaker 1: of eighteen holes. And what Brooks was saying is he
Speaker 1: is far more conservative then I think that this player
Speaker 1: could ever envision that he was. And Brooks talked a
Speaker 1: lot about staying away from the yardages that he's bad
Speaker 1: at with his irons, right. He was saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: rather than push it to a yardage that he doesn't like,
Speaker 1: that he's kind of in between clubs, he'd rather take one,
Speaker 1: maybe two if he gets out of position, or if
Speaker 1: it's part five, He's going to lay back to a
Speaker 1: yardage that he has a tremendous amount of confidence in.
Speaker 1: And I could see this player's face just, you know,
Speaker 1: I think he was surprised at listening to one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world, a current major champion
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, just listening to his approach. And
Speaker 1: Brooks was saying, you know, have you been to Q
Speaker 1: school before? And he and this player said yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I never got out of you know, pre qualifying. And
Speaker 1: Brooks was like, well, why is that? You know, what,
Speaker 1: what do you feel like is holding you back? And
Speaker 1: he's like, well, you know, I feel like sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: I press I try and be a little bit more
Speaker 1: aggressive than I need to. And Brooks was saying, listen,
Speaker 1: I think everybody thinks that they need to swing better,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like you just need to maybe lower
Speaker 1: your expectations and manage your expectations. And one of the
Speaker 1: examples that Brooks gave, he said, listen, if you're in
Speaker 1: a major and you've got four rounds, get seventy two holes,
Speaker 1: there's no need to from the jump to just be
Speaker 1: super super aggressive. And I thought it was really cool
Speaker 1: that Brooks talked about kind of playing his way into
Speaker 1: the round, you know, maybe not being super super aggressive.
Speaker 1: And he was saying at Greenbrier last week at the
Speaker 1: Live tournament, first five holes, Brooks said, he's just firing
Speaker 1: at every flag, and you know, I think he was
Speaker 1: over par and then got it back to four under,
Speaker 1: but he was saying, it was when I quit being
Speaker 1: super super aggressive that, you know, and took some more
Speaker 1: conservative targets and said, okay, listen, let me dump this
Speaker 1: twenty feet fifteen feet, Maybe not go at this flag
Speaker 1: if I push it or if I pull it, Maybe
Speaker 1: I get lucky and push one or pull one to
Speaker 1: four or five feet because I wasn't aiming necessarily at
Speaker 1: the hole, and I think that is something that is
Speaker 1: really really important for everyone to kind of take to
Speaker 1: their own game. Play your way into the round. Right,
Speaker 1: look at where the par fives are, right. Par fives
Speaker 1: are an opportunity for all golfers to pick up strokes. Obviously,
Speaker 1: at the tour level, you're trying I think almost every year,
Speaker 1: I think I think this is a generalization, but I
Speaker 1: think this is probably true. I think most players, I
Speaker 1: mean I looked at this couple of times in the past,
Speaker 1: the majority of the players. I think almost every player
Speaker 1: is under par on the par fives for the year.
Speaker 1: So tour players are looking to take advantage of par
Speaker 1: fives and use that to get under par. I think
Speaker 1: for the rest of us, we should be looking at
Speaker 1: par fives where tour players, you know, regardless of which
Speaker 1: tour they're playing on, are looking at making birdie, they're
Speaker 1: looking at making maybe an eagle if they can get
Speaker 1: there into but they're definitely looking to pick up strokes
Speaker 1: on the par fives. I think that for everyone else
Speaker 1: it's playing and for everyone that's listening, if we can
Speaker 1: just not lose shots on par fives, right, you know,
Speaker 1: par all the par fives, if you're a fifteen handicapper,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to break eighty for the first time,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to break ninety for the first time,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to break a hundred for the first time,
Speaker 1: if you could try and use the par fives as
Speaker 1: a as a part of your round to where you're
Speaker 1: not losing strokes, because those are the opportunities to where
Speaker 1: you don't have to go for the green. So regardless
Speaker 1: of your handicap level, regardless of how far the par
Speaker 1: five is, you can try and say, Okay, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to three shot this. I'm going to try and
Speaker 1: dump this anywhere on this green and two putt and
Speaker 1: get out of here with parf right and having mat
Speaker 1: mantra next time you go out, rather than say Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go out, I'm going to try and
Speaker 1: birdy all the par fives. How about just going out
Speaker 1: and saying, Okay, I'm going to try and not lose
Speaker 1: strokes on the holes that give me the best opportunity
Speaker 1: to gain strokes. Because that's a very very different mindset
Speaker 1: in thinking right in thinking about how you should be
Speaker 1: approaching playing golf. So if you can think in terms,
Speaker 1: I'm going to use the par fives as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to not lose strokes because obviously par four's are more difficult,
Speaker 1: par threes are more difficult. It's very difficult to play
Speaker 1: the par threes and under par. If you're in a
Speaker 1: four round tournament, if you're in a three round tournament,
Speaker 1: two round one day, or if you can play the
Speaker 1: par threes and even you're doing pretty good and you
Speaker 1: are making up an enormous amount against the field. I
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Speaker 1: award winning combines. By nature, I think most players always
Speaker 1: are looking at where the flag is and then they
Speaker 1: kind of get suckered into firing at all the pins.
Speaker 1: And Brooks was saying that there are enormous amount of
Speaker 1: pins that he doesn't even mess with, that he doesn't
Speaker 1: even fire at. And I think that you know, he
Speaker 1: said to this player, I'm just not good enough to
Speaker 1: fire at all the pins. And this is a this
Speaker 1: is the reigning PGA champion. This is a player that
Speaker 1: has five major championships, a player that has been number
Speaker 1: one in the world. And I think that watching the interaction,
Speaker 1: I think most golfers vastly overestimate how good they are.
Speaker 1: They vastly overestimate their talent level. And because they overestimate
Speaker 1: their talent level, because they overestimate how far they hit
Speaker 1: the golf ball, because they overestimate how straight they hit
Speaker 1: the golf ball, they just take an approach to playing
Speaker 1: golf that is very, very difficult to manage. It's very
Speaker 1: difficult to recover from the bad shots. And Brooks was saying, listen,
Speaker 1: double bogies and majors are killers because you've got to
Speaker 1: find two other birdies to make up for that, and
Speaker 1: in major championships that's very, very difficult to do because
Speaker 1: of how difficult the golf course is. But if you're
Speaker 1: listening and you're a fifteen a twenty handicapper, every time
Speaker 1: you go out relative to your talent level, relative to
Speaker 1: how difficult the golf course is, let's be honest, not everybody,
Speaker 1: the majority of golfers are not playing difficult golf courses
Speaker 1: all the time. They're not playing golf courses that are
Speaker 1: seventy four hundred yards with super narrow fairways and US
Speaker 1: Open tile roff greens running twelve to thirteen to fourteen.
Speaker 1: The rough around the greens really really difficult, runoff areas
Speaker 1: deep deep bunkers, to where if you hit it offline
Speaker 1: at all, it's a penalty. The majority of people play
Speaker 1: golf courses that aren't tournament standard golf courses. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a generalization, but I think it's a it's
Speaker 1: an accurate one. And what Brooks was trying to impress
Speaker 1: upon this player is, hey, listen, just be more conservative,
Speaker 1: don't necessarily fire at all the flags, try and take
Speaker 1: care of the par fives when you can, and if
Speaker 1: you get out of position, get back into position, try
Speaker 1: and make a par. And bogies are fine. And I
Speaker 1: think Brooks comes from golf from a major championship mindset
Speaker 1: in that, hey, a lot of pars, a lot of
Speaker 1: bogies are okay, and most of us regular average golfers,
Speaker 1: and I'm a regular average golfer and that's just my
Speaker 1: talent level. You're just trying to make as many pars
Speaker 1: and as many bogies as you can if you go
Speaker 1: out and you make a bunch of pars and you
Speaker 1: make some bogies, you're you're doing a good job keeping
Speaker 1: those double bogies. It's something that I will keep pounding
Speaker 1: away on the pod. I think it's a platform that
Speaker 1: you know, I'm lucky to have and pars bogies, Pars bogies,
Speaker 1: you're going to hit some get an opportunity to make
Speaker 1: your birdie if you make it good. But make more pars,
Speaker 1: make more bogies, and your scores will improve. I asked
Speaker 1: Brooks on because I figured this kid was gonna ask him.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, what are you thinking about
Speaker 1: when you're playing, like at the at beth Pay I
Speaker 1: mean at a o kill all right, So he won
Speaker 1: the PGA this year at o'khill. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: what are you thinking on Sunday? And Brooks said nothing, really,
Speaker 1: he said, I was just thinking about the shot that
Speaker 1: I was playing. So if you remember, Brooks had a
Speaker 1: lengthy pot for par on a par five, I think
Speaker 1: it was thirteen definitely ten feet maybe even twelve feet
Speaker 1: straight down the hill and he's got a par five
Speaker 1: part four. The next hole is a drivable par four,
Speaker 1: which he drove, which is obviously a birdy opportunity, and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna play a part three and then three
Speaker 1: par fours and you're just gonna hang on. So this
Speaker 1: is the last of the par fives. He's right in
Speaker 1: the middle of the back nine on Sunday in a
Speaker 1: major championship and I said, you know, over that pot,
Speaker 1: what were you thinking? And he was like, I was
Speaker 1: thinking about all of the things that I needed to
Speaker 1: do to make that pot. I said, you weren't thinking
Speaker 1: about anything else about the situation you were in the
Speaker 1: time of the round, what the score was, where the
Speaker 1: competition was, what the holes you had coming ahead, what
Speaker 1: you'd done in the past, And Book said, I wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking of any of that. I was just thinking about
Speaker 1: the shot that I was hitting. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a really, really good way to think about it. Here's
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the world. I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting for me when you have players aspiring tour players,
Speaker 1: aspiring competitive golfers. They're always trying to figure out the
Speaker 1: mindset of of tour players. And I think tour players,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, there were a couple of times
Speaker 1: where Brooks said, listen, I'm not good enough to to
Speaker 1: hit you know, I'm not good enough to hit the
Speaker 1: golf ball one forty two and then hit it to
Speaker 1: one forty seven. I'm just not good enough to do that.
Speaker 1: So he said, you know, I kind of have an
Speaker 1: idea of how far I'm going to hit each club,
Speaker 1: and I think you've got one of the best players
Speaker 1: in the world saying, listen, I'm not good enough all
Speaker 1: the time to hit it one forty one, forty one,
Speaker 1: one forty two. So a lot of I think what
Speaker 1: Brooks was saying to this young player was, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm playing for the miss. I am trying to miss
Speaker 1: it better, and you wouldn't think the best players in
Speaker 1: the world are thinking that way. But Brooks was saying, listen,
Speaker 1: all the practice rounds, He's like, I don't really care
Speaker 1: how I'm hitting it. Necessarily in practice rounds, I fit
Speaker 1: it bad. In practice rounds, I'll go to the range
Speaker 1: afterwards and try and figure it out. But during the
Speaker 1: practice rounds, I'm trying to figure out where I'm going
Speaker 1: to hit it. I'm trying to look at where the
Speaker 1: trouble is. I'm trying to look at all of the
Speaker 1: things that I can do to try and minimize the damage.
Speaker 1: And I think if you can approach playing golf like that,
Speaker 1: trying to say okay, let me work backwards. Brooks talks
Speaker 1: a lot about looking at holes and figuring out how
Speaker 1: to play holes by going and standing on the front
Speaker 1: of the green and then looking back to the tee.
Speaker 1: And if you've never done that, it's do it at
Speaker 1: your home course. Just you know. Next time you play,
Speaker 1: go play the first hole. Go stand on the front
Speaker 1: of the first hole, and go look back and see
Speaker 1: if the hole looks differently from the green than it
Speaker 1: does from the tea box, because it will. You'll see
Speaker 1: things differently. You'll see the contours, you'll see the shape
Speaker 1: of the whole, You'll see it differently, and I think
Speaker 1: you'll see the trouble and maybe where to miss it better.
Speaker 1: Next time you walk up on a green, you know
Speaker 1: on your home course, think about, okay, where are they?
Speaker 1: Where are the pins on this green? And the pins
Speaker 1: in the front left, if the pin's in the front right,
Speaker 1: if the pins in the middle, back, left, back right,
Speaker 1: for those five pin positions, where would be the ideal place?
Speaker 1: If so, if the pins front right, and if there's
Speaker 1: bunkers water rough whatever, think about, Okay, where would be
Speaker 1: the optimum place to get up and down from? And
Speaker 1: I've done that with students before, where I've said, Okay,
Speaker 1: you've got to miss this green, look at where the
Speaker 1: flag is. You've got to miss the green. Where's the
Speaker 1: easiest place to get up and down from. I think
Speaker 1: what Brooks talked to this young player about today really
Speaker 1: was a game change of room, because Brooks talked a
Speaker 1: lot about being conservative, realizing that he's not gonna have
Speaker 1: it all the time, He's not gonna have his best
Speaker 1: stuff all the time. Brooks didn't really feel like he
Speaker 1: had his best stuff on Saturday and Sunday at Oakhill
Speaker 1: when he won the PGA, still got the job done.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that Brooks was
Speaker 1: trying to say is listen, I didn't have my best stuff,
Speaker 1: but I managed the game well. I managed my game well.
Speaker 1: And Brooks talked a lot to this young player today
Speaker 1: about listen, a lot of times, it's about picking the
Speaker 1: right approach off the t right and he talked about
Speaker 1: when he won the PGA Championship at Belly even Saint
Speaker 1: Louis played the last round with Adam Scott Tiger was
Speaker 1: making a run the eighteenth hole dog leg from right
Speaker 1: to left. Brooks hits fade and in the practice round,
Speaker 1: and Brooks told this young player of the story. Listen,
Speaker 1: he said, there were trees on the left, and Brooks said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hit driver. If I can hit Driver over
Speaker 1: these trees, that gets me down there on the flat.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a really really short club in my hand,
Speaker 1: or I can hit three wood, but three wood kind
Speaker 1: of brought the bunkers into play. And then he said, listen,
Speaker 1: I can hit my three iron, my driving iron and
Speaker 1: lay it back of the bunkers. So I take the
Speaker 1: bunkers out of play. But then if I hit it offline,
Speaker 1: I'm hitting it into deep, deep rough and I'm a
Speaker 1: long way away from the green. So in Brooks's mind, okay,
Speaker 1: the best option for him was driver. He was driving
Speaker 1: it well that week. He had a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: confidence in his driver. He even though the hole shaped
Speaker 1: from right to left, Brooks plays everything from left to right,
Speaker 1: but he felt like he could hit it over the trees.
Speaker 1: He bombed one way down there, and we were there.
Speaker 1: I think we were there. On Monday Day or Tuesday
Speaker 1: way down on the flat had a flip wedge in.
Speaker 1: He did that on Sunday when he won that week,
Speaker 1: and then he drove it and he said, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can get over those trees pretty easily. Obviously, if the
Speaker 1: wind changes and it's more into the wind, that's going
Speaker 1: to change the thought process. But he said, if the
Speaker 1: wind is like this, and even if it's downwind, then
Speaker 1: I'm definitely hitting driver. He hit a two iron, or
Speaker 1: hit his driving iron, which is like a three iron,
Speaker 1: and we got down there and I remember this, and
Speaker 1: he told this kid this today. He was like and
Speaker 1: he said to Ricky yellott Man, we're a long way
Speaker 1: back here, and if I miss this at all, if
Speaker 1: it gets into that bunker, or if I miss it
Speaker 1: to the right or the left, then I've got a
Speaker 1: long shot. I got to contend with all these trees.
Speaker 1: So the play for Brooks was just to hit driver. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously that's Brooks taking advantage of his length. But I
Speaker 1: think what he was impressing upon this young player is listen,
Speaker 1: that's the thought process that goes in. Are you gonna
Speaker 1: lay short of all the trouble? Are you going to
Speaker 1: try and hit it over the truck. If you hit
Speaker 1: it over the trouble, it's a massive, massive reward then
Speaker 1: trying to lay short of it, and then if you
Speaker 1: don't hit it perfect. And I think Brooks was really
Speaker 1: really honest about how you're not going to have your
Speaker 1: best stuff every day. You're not going to basically hit
Speaker 1: all the shots, You're not going to have total control
Speaker 1: over your shape, you're not going to have total command
Speaker 1: over everything. And it's always interesting to me that aspiring
Speaker 1: tour players think that they should hit every shot perfect,
Speaker 1: that they should have all the shots in their back,
Speaker 1: that they should never have bad days where they don't
Speaker 1: have it, and when they had an opportunity, So this
Speaker 1: kid had an opportunity to talk to one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world today, and Brooks was really
Speaker 1: honest and saying, listen, there's days where I don't have
Speaker 1: my best stuff, where I'm not hitting it great, and
Speaker 1: there I just go into damage control, try and make
Speaker 1: as many pars as I can, maybe sneak out a
Speaker 1: couple of birdies on the par fives, get to the
Speaker 1: range and fix it. And I thought it was a
Speaker 1: really really fascinate I wish I wish I'd been recording it,
Speaker 1: because I think if I was recording what Brooks was saying,
Speaker 1: I think everybody will would be blown away as to
Speaker 1: how simple Brooks is trying to make playing the game,
Speaker 1: and how difficult a young player who obviously isn't as
Speaker 1: talented as Brooks, maybe is as talented as Brooks, and
Speaker 1: if he just doesn't know how to manage his game.
Speaker 1: But when you have an opportunity to talk to one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the world and he tells
Speaker 1: you that he's way more conservative than you are, and
Speaker 1: he's trying to make a lot of pars and take
Speaker 1: advantage of the par fives when he can, and he's
Speaker 1: not really aiming and firing at a lot of pins.
Speaker 1: I think that was an eye opener for this young player,
Speaker 1: and hopefully he'll take some of this stuff to heart
Speaker 1: and realize that to try and get to the next level,
Speaker 1: regardless of what level you're trying to get to break
Speaker 1: one hundred, break ninety, break eighty, break par for the
Speaker 1: first time, whatever your golf goals are, I do believe
Speaker 1: that managing expectations and managing the game that you're trying
Speaker 1: to play, but also managing your game. And I think
Speaker 1: that is the one thing that I got from today
Speaker 1: is Brooks was saying, listen, this is how I play,
Speaker 1: based off of how I play golf, based off of
Speaker 1: my skill set. Brooks was really honest with this kid
Speaker 1: and said, listen, I don't like that yardage. I'm terrible
Speaker 1: at that. I practice it all the time, but I'm
Speaker 1: not really great under competition. It's still a work in progress.
Speaker 1: But I'm really good at this yardage with my wedges.
Speaker 1: He was talking a lot about his wedges with this player,
Speaker 1: and I think this kid was just surprised at how
Speaker 1: honest Brooks was, at how conservative he was, and that
Speaker 1: is something that I think is really important for everyone
Speaker 1: to hear. Committed swings, committed aggressive swings, not reckless swings,
Speaker 1: but committed, conservatively aggressive swings to conservative targets and dump
Speaker 1: in the middle of the green, get out of there
Speaker 1: with the two putt. You're going to get chances, regardless
Speaker 1: of your handicap level. You're going to get some chances
Speaker 1: to make some pars. Hopefully you get some chances to
Speaker 1: make some birdies. But for this young player that Brooks
Speaker 1: talked to you today, that's playing Q school he said, listen.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously, if you're trying to play Q school,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have opportunities to make birdies. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're not, then you need to get a new propression.
Speaker 1: But this kid has played some college golf, he's had
Speaker 1: some success, and he's trying to forge his way through
Speaker 1: the Mini tour and professional ranks and hopefully he can
Speaker 1: do it. But it was a really cool experience today.
Speaker 1: And it's always fascinating when I listen to the best
Speaker 1: players in the world because the approach that they're taking
Speaker 1: is vastly different than the approach that I think the
Speaker 1: majority of golfers are taking. So cool experience. Thought i'd
Speaker 1: share that, and definitely something that I think everybody can
Speaker 1: learn from. Committed swings to conservative targets, Committed swings to
Speaker 1: conservative targets. Give that a try. I think it can
Speaker 1: help you lower your scores and I think it can
Speaker 1: help you enjoy your golf a lot more. Uh So
Speaker 1: that's it for this week. FedEx Cup coming up. I'm
Speaker 1: really excited. It's always a fun time of year. Three
Speaker 1: tournaments left. Live's got some tournaments. We just had the
Speaker 1: fifth Major on the Ladies Tour, kind of winding down,
Speaker 1: but so much good golf, and then the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: coming up on the men's side, Solheim Cup coming up
Speaker 1: on the women's side, Lots and lots of really cool stuff.
Speaker 1: Who is going to be crowned FedEx Cup Champion? Always
Speaker 1: a lot of movement, always a lot of volatility, and
Speaker 1: one of my favorite times of the year because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that can happen, and someone over
Speaker 1: the next three weeks is going to get hot, and
Speaker 1: to me, that's always something cool, someone who's not in
Speaker 1: East right now. Every year there's someone that plays their
Speaker 1: way all the way. I hope we see that again
Speaker 1: this year, and I think we will see some volatility,
Speaker 1: but a lot still to play for and a cool
Speaker 1: time of the year. So I want to thank everybody
Speaker 1: for listening. I was looking at numbers for the podcast
Speaker 1: with my team and I continue to be blown away
Speaker 1: as to how many people listen to the pod. So
Speaker 1: for everyone listening, thank you all so much. It really
Speaker 1: means a lot to me. And we're gonna keep trying
Speaker 1: to put out content to help you improve your game.
Speaker 1: Son of a Butch comes to you every Wednesday. We
Speaker 1: will see you next week.