Speaker 1: It's the son of which podcast. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Claude Harmon solo episode of the pod this week. Put
Speaker 1: up a questions banner on my Instagram, So going to
Speaker 1: answer your questions and listen. Lots of really good questions
Speaker 1: and some good stuff I think we can talk about.
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Speaker 1: end up in your bag. So questions this week, and
Speaker 1: some really good questions Bryson d. Chambeau and Scottie Scheffler.
Speaker 1: I think right now we're on everyone's mind. A lot
Speaker 1: of people ask me what I think about this historic
Speaker 1: run that Scotty's on and Bryson the US Open, Scotti Scheffler.
Speaker 1: The guy is playing. Listen, the guy's playing. Unbelievable golf man.
Speaker 1: There's just no way around it. And lots of comparisons
Speaker 1: to Tiger Woods, lots of comparisons, I think, a lot
Speaker 1: of comparisons to the runs that Ernie L's and VJ.
Speaker 1: Singhs got back got on back in the early two thousands.
Speaker 1: But it just it just plays great golf. Seems like
Speaker 1: he shoots in the sixties pretty much every time he
Speaker 1: tease it up. Didn't play great in the US Open,
Speaker 1: but didn't I mean, and then in the PGA obviously craziness,
Speaker 1: but he's a two time Masters champion. He's number one
Speaker 1: in the world. If you still believe in the world rankings.
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge I think the world rankings at
Speaker 1: this point are massively compromised. But yeah, I mean there
Speaker 1: is he's the best player in the game right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you make arguments that you know, there are place players
Speaker 1: that are close to him. Bryson Is is playing great golf,
Speaker 1: you know, a second at the PGA and then wins
Speaker 1: the US Open in a duel with Rory McElroy. You
Speaker 1: make an argument that ry McElroy's one of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world. But if we're just looking on results,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at results on the PGA Tour, and
Speaker 1: that's the golf that Scotty has playing right now is
Speaker 1: second to none. Just had a baby. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: the Tom Hanks to me of our sport. He's someone
Speaker 1: that I don't know anybody that doesn't like Scotty Scheffler.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody that doesn't like his game, that
Speaker 1: doesn't like his personality, and I think the way he
Speaker 1: kind of approaches golf. I've talked about it. He's longtime
Speaker 1: old school swing mentor instructor in Randy Smith. His agent
Speaker 1: is Randy Smith's son, Blake Smith. I know Blake very
Speaker 1: well from he also manages Brooks Koepka, and Scotty's the
Speaker 1: whole package, University of Texas superstar, and he's just a great,
Speaker 1: great golfer. I think the comparisons to Tiger are I
Speaker 1: think they're valid, But I think the one thing that
Speaker 1: when you are going to make a comparison to Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods with any player is majors and can they do
Speaker 1: it for as long as Tiger did. I think Scotty
Speaker 1: has the game and the mentality. His superpower is him.
Speaker 1: It's not his game. He is the superpower. The way
Speaker 1: that he thinks, the way that he approaches golf, the
Speaker 1: way that he approaches his life, the way that he
Speaker 1: approaches his life off the golf course. I think that's
Speaker 1: his superpower. I think his game. Yeah, he hits great
Speaker 1: golf shots, he drives it great. He can struggle, maybe
Speaker 1: has struggled with the putter, but he can't win six
Speaker 1: times in a major and be struggling with the putter.
Speaker 1: So the work that he's done with Phil Kenyan, I
Speaker 1: think it's been fantastic. He's got a great team of
Speaker 1: people around him. His father, his coach, Randy Smith, putting,
Speaker 1: Phil Kenyan, Caddie, Ted, Scott Agent and Blake Smith. The
Speaker 1: team around Scotty. He's got a great, great wife, young family.
Speaker 1: He tends to not be on social media. He doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, you don't see him on vacations doing crazy
Speaker 1: stuff that you see a lot of athletes doing today.
Speaker 1: Is a little bit of a throwback. He lets his
Speaker 1: clubs do the talking. He's smart, he's curious, he's a
Speaker 1: great interview. I think he's very genuine. The Scotti Scheffler
Speaker 1: you see on the golf courses. The Scotti Scheffler that's
Speaker 1: off the golf course. And like I said, he is
Speaker 1: the superpower. His approach to the game is the superpower.
Speaker 1: We've got another major coming up in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: the Open Championship. Yes, Scotty hits the golf ball high,
Speaker 1: he hits high bombs, but he's the full package and
Speaker 1: he's the best player in the game right now. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of good golfers out there, but
Speaker 1: he's the best player in the game right now because
Speaker 1: he's winning and he's winning a lot, and he's shooting
Speaker 1: in the sixties a lot, and don't expect it to
Speaker 1: end any time soon. I think he's going to continue
Speaker 1: to crush it this year. I don't think. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if he doesn't win the FedEx
Speaker 1: and then twenty five, I mean, what's he going to
Speaker 1: do there? Because it doesn't look like he's slowing down
Speaker 1: to me. So I'm a fan. I love watching him play,
Speaker 1: and I'm a fan of him personally as well. A
Speaker 1: lot of questions about Bryson de Chambeau and you know
Speaker 1: kind of what he's been doing. Listen, I talked about it.
Speaker 1: Bryson's figured it out. Bryson is real. Now, this is
Speaker 1: not a joke. This is not a gimmick. The YouTube
Speaker 1: stuff that he's been doing, the engagement stuff he's been doing.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people that maybe might think
Speaker 1: that's kind of contrived and kind of I've heard fake.
Speaker 1: I see Bryson on a regular basis on Live right,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people that I've seen
Speaker 1: commenting on Bryson in the press, they're not I never
Speaker 1: see them in any live tournaments. So I know Bryson.
Speaker 1: I talked to Bryson. I've watched the maturation of Bryson.
Speaker 1: I've been with Cobra Puma for a long time now.
Speaker 1: Bryson was at Cobra Puma for a long time. We
Speaker 1: did photo shoots and shoots together for stuff. I got
Speaker 1: to talk to him. He's changed, he's matured. I think
Speaker 1: he's a perfectionist in a sport where that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: But I've said this before. His superpower is he doesn't
Speaker 1: care what you think about floating the balls, about the equipment,
Speaker 1: about the way that he goes about things. He does
Speaker 1: not care, And I think that's his superpower. His superpower
Speaker 1: is every golfer has a superpower, right. Rory McElroy's superpower
Speaker 1: is the driver, the speed, the length. A guy like
Speaker 1: Patrick Reid, Sevy Biasteros, their superpowers were short game, right,
Speaker 1: ball striking. Adam Scott's ball striking is his superpower. Guys
Speaker 1: like that Tiger everything was a superpower, right. Bryson's is
Speaker 1: he does things his own way. But I've talked to
Speaker 1: him about this before. He says, everything is weird as
Speaker 1: it looks to us, as strange as it looks to us.
Speaker 1: The one length irons the way that he's using irons
Speaker 1: now that have a little Bulgian roll to them, nobody's
Speaker 1: ever done that before, really, And the four degree crank
Speaker 1: driver that he's using, nobody's really ever done that before.
Speaker 1: He went on a big kick to change his body
Speaker 1: to try and be a long driver, and all of that.
Speaker 1: I think he's taken all of that something. Here's the
Speaker 1: other thing. Bryceon' is a smart kid. He's a thinker.
Speaker 1: He's not dumb, and he's just figured it out. And
Speaker 1: it's I don't think it's a gimmick. You know, Phil
Speaker 1: Mickelson in the Phil Tiger era, Tiger didn't give didn't
Speaker 1: give a lot of interviews, Tiger didn't really interact with,
Speaker 1: didn't give a lot of back to the to the fans.
Speaker 1: He he was in the Tiger world. He was stoic,
Speaker 1: he was driven, he was at times robotic, and Phil
Speaker 1: would stand there and sign autographs for an hour. Tiger wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Is that made up? Is that contrived? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it's smart and I think what Bryson is doing
Speaker 1: is smart. He is engaging with the fans. For all
Speaker 1: the people that think Bryson is it's contrived by his
Speaker 1: management team, by his handlers, all that bullshit. Listen, Bryson
Speaker 1: is taking advantage of the modern age of social media,
Speaker 1: and it's smart, and the fans are responding. I think
Speaker 1: right now Bryson moves the needle. Nobody's ever going to
Speaker 1: move the needle, in my opinion, the way Tiger Woods did.
Speaker 1: But I think the way that the golf community embraced
Speaker 1: his win at the US Open, the way he won,
Speaker 1: the way he handled the win, what he did after
Speaker 1: the win, taking the trophy around. Listen, I think Bryson
Speaker 1: gets a lot out of that. I think Bryson gets
Speaker 1: more out of that than the fans do. It's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to kind of show off who he is.
Speaker 1: And listen, I talked to him, I'm around him, I'm
Speaker 1: around his team. I buy it. It's to me, it's real.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I think it's real is because
Speaker 1: I see it up close in person. I'm not watching
Speaker 1: it on TV, not commentating on it, and not going
Speaker 1: to tournaments and seeing it. You know, it was a
Speaker 1: really cool moment that I got to watch on the
Speaker 1: range at the Live Nashville tournament Brooks, Brooks and Bryson.
Speaker 1: I mean they had real beef. I mean, they didn't
Speaker 1: like each other, and it's been cool to kind of see.
Speaker 1: One of the things that Live is done is it
Speaker 1: brought Bryson and Brooks together. It helped them form a
Speaker 1: mutual respect for each other. They have a friendship. It's
Speaker 1: maybe not the friendship that a lot of people, but
Speaker 1: they they have a mutual respect for each other. Now.
Speaker 1: I think Brooks definitely respects Bryson way more than he
Speaker 1: used to. And you thank Live for that. Live brought
Speaker 1: them together as team captains and it's it's real. I
Speaker 1: like it. I like Bryson. I'm a fan. I like
Speaker 1: what he's doing in the game. I like the crossovers
Speaker 1: with all the stuff that he's doing on YouTube. I
Speaker 1: think he's got smart ideas. I think he's got engaging ideas,
Speaker 1: and I think the fans are responding. Uh so, I'm
Speaker 1: here for that. Well. Asking about Brooks kind of going
Speaker 1: back and forth between kind of the blade and the mallet,
Speaker 1: he went back to the blade last week. He has
Speaker 1: been using a mallet. I think he's just struggling with
Speaker 1: a little bit of confidence right now. We see players
Speaker 1: go through that. See players, I mean Scotty Scheffler went
Speaker 1: through that. I mean, Scotty Scheffer always put it with
Speaker 1: a blade, kind of the tiger Scotty Cameron Newport too.
Speaker 1: Brooks kind of had that shape too, and Scotty went
Speaker 1: away from that to try and get some confidence and
Speaker 1: go to a blade it or go to a mallet.
Speaker 1: It took him a while to figure it out, to
Speaker 1: figure out it reacts. So I think Brooks is kind
Speaker 1: of caught right now, but in just some confidence. He's
Speaker 1: not seeing a lot of putts go in. He won
Speaker 1: in Singapore and putted great, and right now he's not
Speaker 1: seeing any puts go in. I think that happens to players,
Speaker 1: right It happens to lots of players. And that's another
Speaker 1: question that I got asked about one of the players
Speaker 1: I work with, DJ. What's going on with his game
Speaker 1: right now? Listen, right now, DJ's he's struggling. He's not
Speaker 1: able to take what he's doing in practice and put
Speaker 1: it into play. Yeah, he's missed some cuts in majors.
Speaker 1: But I think anytime I tried to, I could easily
Speaker 1: have because of all my players have gone to live,
Speaker 1: I could easily use this podcast to just constantly talk
Speaker 1: about that. I try not to. I try and inform
Speaker 1: people about Live because that's the tour that I work on.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people make a lot
Speaker 1: of assumptions on Live, and they will openly tell you
Speaker 1: they don't watch. They don't they don't watch tournaments, they
Speaker 1: don't go to the tournaments, and they think it's all
Speaker 1: a joke, so they don't watch it. So I try
Speaker 1: and give my experience on Live. What I think happens
Speaker 1: just my opinion, but I think it's when somebody on
Speaker 1: Live that's a superstar plays bad, a lot of people
Speaker 1: easily go to the narrative that they took the money
Speaker 1: and they just don't care anymore. Well, Nellie Corter got
Speaker 1: a ton of money from Nike a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: She's won a bunch of tournaments this year, shut eighty
Speaker 1: in the US Open. Is that because she doesn't care
Speaker 1: because she's got money in the bank and doesn't have
Speaker 1: to worry about majors. No, she played bad. Justin Thomas
Speaker 1: hasn't won a major since two When you win a major,
Speaker 1: you cash in. You cash in on the course, you
Speaker 1: cash in off the course. Is anybody writing articles? I
Speaker 1: don't see anybody writing articles about JT taking his foot
Speaker 1: off the gas because you want a major in at
Speaker 1: Southern Hills. That's not the case. Good players play bad.
Speaker 1: Good players don't play good all the time, right, it happens.
Speaker 1: Good players miscuts in majors. It happens. Doesn't have any
Speaker 1: other meaning other than the fact that that week they
Speaker 1: didn't play good. So good players can play bad, and
Speaker 1: good players can have go through tough times where they're
Speaker 1: not hitting the ball where they want to. I think
Speaker 1: the narrative that if you went to live and you
Speaker 1: play bad, you don't care anymore. I don't see that,
Speaker 1: But listen, you can make up your own minds on that.
Speaker 1: DJ is he just turned forward and the game gets
Speaker 1: harder the older you get. DJ used to be able
Speaker 1: to dominate golf through the driver. He could hit the
Speaker 1: driver in spots and distances nobody else in the world
Speaker 1: could now the game. Five years ago. That was the case.
Speaker 1: It's not the case anymore. He's getting older, like everybody,
Speaker 1: every player currently playing competitive golf is getting older every
Speaker 1: single year. And in your forties, you know, golf gets harder.
Speaker 1: I've seen it, I've watched it. He's I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna get back to playing good. And here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: DJ's won already this year, So can't be playing that
Speaker 1: bad that hasn't played the way he wants to in
Speaker 1: the majors. It's frustrating for him, it's frustrating for the
Speaker 1: guys on his team. So I'm one of those. So
Speaker 1: we're grinding. We're going to do our best to try
Speaker 1: and get him back to where he wants to be,
Speaker 1: where I think a lot of people want him to be. So,
Speaker 1: but I don't think has anything to do with Live
Speaker 1: and money. I really don't a lot of people asking
Speaker 1: about PGA Tour and Live are they going to get
Speaker 1: a merger? Listen, I don't know anybody on Live that
Speaker 1: knows what's happening, and I sure as they'll don't nobody
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour, you know, at all these majors.
Speaker 1: Everybody on the PGA Tour side players, Caddie's agents all
Speaker 1: say to us on the guys that are in the
Speaker 1: live ecosystem, all the PGA Tour ecosystem guys, every time
Speaker 1: we're at a major, all ask us the same question,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing? We ask them the same question,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing? I don't know anybody that's got
Speaker 1: any answers. I think they need to get a deal
Speaker 1: done quick because the longer the deal takes to be done,
Speaker 1: I just think the fans are missing out. I think
Speaker 1: I personally, and maybe this is good to be controversial.
Speaker 1: I think the game's good right now, meaning from the
Speaker 1: golf side, there is great golf being played all over
Speaker 1: the world on all the tours. And yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know if a deal is going to get done. But
Speaker 1: and then you know a lot of people asking questions
Speaker 1: about why isn't Bryson on the Olympic team. You got
Speaker 1: to ask the people that are involved in that. It
Speaker 1: goes off of the world rankings. I personally think in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four in June, the world rankings are compromised.
Speaker 1: It's just too many good players playing golf that aren't
Speaker 1: getting world ranked. Yeah. I know the talking points. I
Speaker 1: know it. You knew this going in. You knew this
Speaker 1: going in, you took the money all that. I understand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they didn't know that. But the game can change, in
Speaker 1: the game evolve. If they want a deal, I believe
Speaker 1: they can get one done. That's my opinion. I think
Speaker 1: up until this point the reason why a deal hasn't
Speaker 1: gotten done. It's just just my opinion. I think there
Speaker 1: are people that don't want to want it to happen,
Speaker 1: but I do believe that if they want a deal
Speaker 1: to get done, they can get it done. Would you
Speaker 1: take the best driver of the ball on tour or
Speaker 1: the best putter? And why? That is a very interesting question.
Speaker 1: You got a pot well to win? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think we just saw that and Roy McElroy. Roy can't
Speaker 1: really hit the golf ball any better, and he hit
Speaker 1: it at the US Open. He sure as hell can't
Speaker 1: really drive the golf ball anyway any better. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just driving the golf ball so good. I mean
Speaker 1: I'm staying on the driving range the US Open and
Speaker 1: when he pulls out driver, you just stand there and
Speaker 1: just it's so cool to watch up close. It's so
Speaker 1: cool in the practice rounds that I've been lucky enough
Speaker 1: over the years to be in with Rory to watch
Speaker 1: the way he drives the golf ball. He's such a
Speaker 1: good player, right, but you gotta make putts to win.
Speaker 1: And for as good as Rory hit it at the
Speaker 1: US Open, he missed putts when it counted. I will
Speaker 1: say this to be I believe and again just my opinion.
Speaker 1: I think to be a great competitive golfer at the
Speaker 1: elite elite tour level, to have a chance to be
Speaker 1: number one in the world, to have a chance to
Speaker 1: win major championships, you have to be able to drive
Speaker 1: the golf ball. Scotti Scheffler drives the shit out of
Speaker 1: the golf ball. John Rahm drives it great right justin
Speaker 1: Thomas when he plays well, drives it well. Jordan Speed
Speaker 1: can spray it. But when Jordan is dominating as he has,
Speaker 1: he drives it really good. His ball striking's a mazing
Speaker 1: and he's a great putter, So I think you need
Speaker 1: a combination of both. It's funny I asked Freddie Jacobson,
Speaker 1: one Swedish player played on the PGA Tour, played in Europe.
Speaker 1: One of the best putters on the planet and pure putter,
Speaker 1: hooped it from everywhere. He was a great putter. And
Speaker 1: I asked him once, if you could start your career
Speaker 1: over and be a great ball striker or be a
Speaker 1: great putter, which one would you choose? And I was
Speaker 1: really interested to see what his response would be because
Speaker 1: he's one of the best putters I've ever seen. He's
Speaker 1: one of the best putters anybody has ever seen. Right.
Speaker 1: He said, if he could do it all over again,
Speaker 1: he'd take great ball striking over great putting because he
Speaker 1: said in major championships, I can't put great ball strikers
Speaker 1: off the golf course. If they're great ball strikers, they're
Speaker 1: going to have more chances. Freddy was never a great
Speaker 1: driver of the golf ball. He was never really a
Speaker 1: great ball striker. Brad Faxon was an unbelievable putter, he
Speaker 1: was never a amazing driver of the golf ball. So
Speaker 1: I think you need a combination of both. But I
Speaker 1: do think that you can have a career if you
Speaker 1: are a pure, pure, every category great ball striking. Great
Speaker 1: Patrick Reid is a great example. Patrick Reid's superpower is
Speaker 1: short game. That's his superpower, right, it's not ball striking.
Speaker 1: He's got a green jacket. He's been one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world for a long time. Again,
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff off the golf course. I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about pure golf there. Adam Scott has been a
Speaker 1: great ball striker his entire career. He got to number
Speaker 1: four in the world in two, number three in the world.
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, three in the world two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: lost his putting and then he goes to the long
Speaker 1: putter and wins a major the Masters, goes to number
Speaker 1: one in the world, and what does everybody say? How
Speaker 1: goods is ball striking? I'm like, where the hell have
Speaker 1: you people been for the last twenty years. Guy's been
Speaker 1: an elite ball striker. Ernie Els was an elite ball striker,
Speaker 1: an elite elite when it came to hitting the golf ball.
Speaker 1: He was a great putter too, So I think you
Speaker 1: need a combination of both. But you can't compete at
Speaker 1: a high level if you can't get the ball in
Speaker 1: play off the tee. You just can't. You cannot be
Speaker 1: a consistent elite player, I believe unless you can drive
Speaker 1: it so and especially in the modern game. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody hits it far now, but in major championships, you
Speaker 1: gotta do a combination of both. Bryson didn't drive it
Speaker 1: that great on Sunday at the US Open, made putts
Speaker 1: when he needed to, short game bailed him out. I
Speaker 1: think it's a combo, but it's hard. I think it's
Speaker 1: hard for the average golfer listening for the rest of us,
Speaker 1: and to me, the average golfer is non competitive elite.
Speaker 1: Just for the average handicap golfer, driving the golf ball
Speaker 1: in play is paramount to lowering your scores. The more
Speaker 1: balls you can get in play off the tee, the
Speaker 1: better you play. Great example is someone I work with
Speaker 1: on Live Pat Perez, forty eight years old. As a
Speaker 1: forty eight year old body, doesn't hit it anywhere close
Speaker 1: to what the guys that he's playing with. He's one
Speaker 1: of the shortest guys out there. He shot sixty four
Speaker 1: on Sunday. I think he missed one fair way. He
Speaker 1: kept the golf ball in play in an effort to
Speaker 1: try and hit the golf ball further. At times, Pat
Speaker 1: tries to swing too hard and an effort to try
Speaker 1: and get more distance because he's not long and is
Speaker 1: shorter than some of the other guys. He doesn't hit
Speaker 1: it good. He hits it offline, he hits makes doubles
Speaker 1: because he hits the driver in the water, hits the
Speaker 1: driver out of bounds. I'm trying to get him to
Speaker 1: buy in. Okay, just get the golf ball in play
Speaker 1: off the tee. You get the golf ball in play
Speaker 1: off the tee, your confidence goes up a lot, and
Speaker 1: I mean a lot, a lot, and I think it's
Speaker 1: really really important to drive the golf ball well fix
Speaker 1: for the dreaded block shots out to the right. Most
Speaker 1: players that I see in the lessons that I give
Speaker 1: to regular golfers, the slide is a combination of what
Speaker 1: I see on a regular basis an extreme path one
Speaker 1: either over the top where you're out to in or
Speaker 1: an extre so you're an if you're a slicer of
Speaker 1: the golf ball. Most of the time I see an
Speaker 1: extreme path. The path kind of if you're on a
Speaker 1: launch monitor in that kind of seven, eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 1: and it's with a driver, which is the longest club
Speaker 1: in your bag. It's impossible to control the face from there.
Speaker 1: You just can't control the face from there. You're not
Speaker 1: going to control the face. You're just not. And then
Speaker 1: people that excessively hook the golf ball, that path gets
Speaker 1: excessively out into out and then you just struggle to
Speaker 1: manage the face. But the block shots to the right
Speaker 1: are a combination of the path and the face, and
Speaker 1: so the face is going to have where the face
Speaker 1: is pointing the club face of your driver where that
Speaker 1: is pointing at the moment of contact is going to
Speaker 1: have the largest effect. So when you look at your driver,
Speaker 1: look at the club face, and if you're hitting a
Speaker 1: lot of golf balls off the toe, if you're hitting
Speaker 1: a lot of golf balls and you've got the idiot
Speaker 1: mark on your skying the golf ball, and you've got
Speaker 1: a bunch of ball marks on the top of your driver,
Speaker 1: and then you look at the bottom of your driver
Speaker 1: and you see these kind of extreme te marks, that's
Speaker 1: the path, and then that's the face not being able
Speaker 1: to catch up, can't square it. So the block to
Speaker 1: the right, there's always whenever someone says their misses to
Speaker 1: the right, I'm going to ask them two questions. Does
Speaker 1: the ball start right and go right or does the
Speaker 1: ball start left and go right? Two different things. So
Speaker 1: if it's starting right and going right, that can be
Speaker 1: the path being too into out in the face being
Speaker 1: open and right of the path. If it's starting left
Speaker 1: and then going to the right, that's the path and
Speaker 1: then the face combo. So, but look at your golf
Speaker 1: club and then obviously a lot of block shots to
Speaker 1: the right, you get steep with the driver. If that
Speaker 1: path gets to the left. You're hitting down on the
Speaker 1: driver with the face open. That is a recipe for
Speaker 1: the ball going to the right. And if you understand that,
Speaker 1: then when you hit one, you can say okay, and
Speaker 1: with the driver, I think with all golf clubs, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say this with all golf clubs.
Speaker 1: When you're hitting golf balls on the driving range, put
Speaker 1: an alignment stick down on your feet, pick a target out,
Speaker 1: go back, look at where your target is, Look at
Speaker 1: where you want to set up. Go back, say okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me check this. Okay, that's where I want to
Speaker 1: set up. That's where I want to get my feet set.
Speaker 1: So when you hit a bad shot on the driving range,
Speaker 1: you can eliminate aim as the as the problem, as
Speaker 1: the reason. And if you're aimed in the right place
Speaker 1: and you're setting the club face up square right now,
Speaker 1: if you're aiming miles to the left and you're opening
Speaker 1: and the face is open at a dress and you've
Speaker 1: got a super extreame grip and that face is pointed
Speaker 1: the right. But if you're aiming square to if you're
Speaker 1: aiming squarely and the face at a dress with the
Speaker 1: driver is square, and you hit one offline. You can
Speaker 1: eliminate two things. One, it's not your aim, and it's
Speaker 1: not the way you set the club face up at
Speaker 1: a dress. It's what you're doing in your golf swing
Speaker 1: that's causing that. So then when you hit a good shot,
Speaker 1: you can go back and say, okay, yeah, that's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right where I'm aimed. Or you can hit a
Speaker 1: bad one and say, okay, that ball went forty yards
Speaker 1: right of where I'm aiming. What would cause That's got
Speaker 1: to be the face and the path. It's just so
Speaker 1: I think part of getting better at golf is having
Speaker 1: an understanding as to what is actually happening when you're
Speaker 1: hitting shots. When you're hitting the shots that you're hitting,
Speaker 1: but eliminate the aim as being a part of it.
Speaker 1: What do you recommend for someone that hits iron solid,
Speaker 1: but the driver goes everywhere and okay, iron swings, you're
Speaker 1: hitting down on your irons, right, you're trying to take
Speaker 1: a divot, trying to take a divot after the golf ball.
Speaker 1: So the angle of attack with your irons is you're
Speaker 1: going to be hitting down on it. That's the death
Speaker 1: move with the driver, unless you've got a boatload of speed,
Speaker 1: like Brooks and DJ. Brooks and DJ can hit down
Speaker 1: on the driver. They can have you know, Brooks kind
Speaker 1: of hangs out kind of one and a half degrees
Speaker 1: down on his driver, but he's over one eighty ball speed,
Speaker 1: so he can get away with that. So and there
Speaker 1: are two swings, in my opinion, in golf. There's a
Speaker 1: driver swing where the ball's on a tee. It's already
Speaker 1: in the air, so you've got to swing up on it,
Speaker 1: and then with the irons, you've got to hit down
Speaker 1: on it. The problem I think for most people is
Speaker 1: their iron swing is their driver's swing as well. They're
Speaker 1: hitting down on the driver. Their angle of attack it's
Speaker 1: too steep. That works with an iron, doesn't work with
Speaker 1: a driver. Always remember that the driver is already on
Speaker 1: a tee, so it's already in the air. When you
Speaker 1: have an iron in your hand, the ball is on
Speaker 1: the ground and you've got to get it into the air.
Speaker 1: The way you get it into the air is by
Speaker 1: hitting down on it, which makes it go up. That
Speaker 1: doesn't work with a driver, and most people struggle with
Speaker 1: the driver because they're hitting down it. Go to your
Speaker 1: club at your home course and go look at the
Speaker 1: par five tea boxes. Look at how many divots are
Speaker 1: on the par five t boxes. You think anybody' hitting
Speaker 1: irons off those tea boxes. You got a over five
Speaker 1: hundred yard five, You think anyone's hitting an iron off
Speaker 1: of that as a fifteen handicap. Hell no, they're trying
Speaker 1: to hit the golf ball as far as they can
Speaker 1: because they don't hit it very far. So go to
Speaker 1: a PGA Tour event, go to a major, go to
Speaker 1: a long par five. There have no divots on t boxes.
Speaker 1: Everybody's sitting a driver. Hitting down on the iron works.
Speaker 1: Hitting down on the driver does not work. So if
Speaker 1: you're someone that's a really really solid iron player, get
Speaker 1: on a launch monitor and look at your angle of
Speaker 1: an attack. See if you're hitting up on it or
Speaker 1: if you're hitting down on If you're hitting down on it,
Speaker 1: you're going to struggle with the driver. If you're hitting
Speaker 1: down on it, it's fact. It's just that's what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. That's an interesting one. Who's been the toughest
Speaker 1: tour level coach or tour pro to coach? Why and
Speaker 1: how did you adapt the two hardest players I've ever
Speaker 1: worked with, were two very different players. Trevver immlemun I
Speaker 1: worked with and currently right now Pat Perez. Trevor was
Speaker 1: tough to work with because Trevor was too smart, you
Speaker 1: know his brain. He thought too much, and we were
Speaker 1: always trying to get Trevor to One of the years
Speaker 1: I worked with Trevor in the early two thousands before
Speaker 1: he won the Masters, so I was trying to get
Speaker 1: Trevor to turn his brain off, to trust the work
Speaker 1: that he was doing. He was a tinkerer. He was always.
Speaker 1: I mean, we would back in the old days on
Speaker 1: the European Tour, would be the first people on the
Speaker 1: range in the morning. We'd hit balls for two three hours,
Speaker 1: grinding on the golf swing. We'd go play eighteen holes
Speaker 1: and would be the last ones on the range. And
Speaker 1: I think Trevor would admit this. He destroyed his body
Speaker 1: and he wore himself out by just practicing too much.
Speaker 1: He wanted perfection, he wanted more information, and I was
Speaker 1: always trying to make things as simple as possible. Trevor
Speaker 1: always didn't like the way his golf swing looked. I
Speaker 1: thought he had one of the greatest golf swings I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Adam Scott tiger Woods in the early two
Speaker 1: thousands used to tell me, Man, Trevor's golf swing's so good.
Speaker 1: Trevor hated his golf swing. So it was hard to
Speaker 1: work with Trevor because he was never satisfied with the
Speaker 1: way he was swinging it. And we joke about it now.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. I think I've said this story of
Speaker 1: the pod before, but I'll say it again. You know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, when Trevor was still trying
Speaker 1: to play on the European toury, he was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: do you have any golf swings from when you and
Speaker 1: I worked together back in the day. I was like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: so I sent him one from two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: the World Cup they'd won, he and Ry Sabatine. He
Speaker 1: had won the World Cup the year before at kiewhileand
Speaker 1: in O three we were in Seville somewhere Savilla and
Speaker 1: we were on the range and I sent him a
Speaker 1: picture of his golf swing with an iron on the
Speaker 1: range from Seville and he was like, man, I wish
Speaker 1: I could swing that way. I was like, that was
Speaker 1: the week I quit because you told me you had
Speaker 1: the worst golf swing on the planet. So Trevor was
Speaker 1: just really really hard on himself, and it was tough
Speaker 1: on Neil Wallace's he at the time, and it was
Speaker 1: tough on me because you know, it didn't really seem
Speaker 1: like we could. It was never perfect enough for Trevor,
Speaker 1: and he was so hard on himself. So he was
Speaker 1: tough to work with because he just was so hard
Speaker 1: on himself because he hated He always thought his golf
Speaker 1: swing was terrible, and he had one of the best
Speaker 1: golf swings on the planet. And then currently Pat Perez,
Speaker 1: who I'm working with right now. Pat's forty eight years old.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before, was in a car accident,
Speaker 1: broke his pelvis in three places. His body can do
Speaker 1: what his body can do, and there were a lot
Speaker 1: of things that his body can't do. So one of
Speaker 1: the difficulties in working with someone like Pat is he
Speaker 1: makes me a better coach because I have to find
Speaker 1: a way to work around the limitations he has from
Speaker 1: a body standpoint. I try and get him to do
Speaker 1: what Brooks and DJ does. He's gonna have them in
Speaker 1: the hospital with back issues, hip issues, knee issue. He
Speaker 1: can't do it. So it's hard at times because we're
Speaker 1: working around the limitations that he has. But I think
Speaker 1: it makes me a better coach. People with great golf swings,
Speaker 1: they're easy to work with. Adam Scott. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're working with Adam Scott, it's it's an embarrassment of
Speaker 1: riches of how good that golf swing is? Ry McElroy,
Speaker 1: I mean, how good's that golf swing? Yeah, Tommy Fleetwood,
Speaker 1: how good's that golf swing? But they don't win every week, right,
Speaker 1: And so I think I've been lucky enough in my career.
Speaker 1: I've worked with guys that have great, aesthetically looking golf swings.
Speaker 1: Darren Clark, Adam Scott, Trevor Emmlman. We worked to try
Speaker 1: and have the golf swings look good, function good, be
Speaker 1: in great positions. I'm very proud of that. I've also
Speaker 1: worked with guys like Graham McDowell. I've also worked with
Speaker 1: a like DJ and Brooks and Pat and other people
Speaker 1: that don't have aesthetically perfect golf swings. So I think
Speaker 1: working with players where you have to work around what
Speaker 1: they do, I think it forces me to be a
Speaker 1: better instructor. I think it's it's hard, it's but it
Speaker 1: makes me think, it makes me focus, it makes me
Speaker 1: curious into how can I solve this problem around what
Speaker 1: this player can do? So yeah, good question. I would
Speaker 1: love to hear your opinion advice on breaking into instruction Listen.
Speaker 1: I am lucky enough to work alongside at my dad's
Speaker 1: academy here at the Floridian. I've got a great team
Speaker 1: around me, Ryan Chrysler and Matt Gallant. I have two
Speaker 1: academies under my own brand, Claude Harmon Golf Performance, one
Speaker 1: in Dubai and one that I just opened up in Thailand.
Speaker 1: I've got a great team of people around me. I've
Speaker 1: got seven instructors in Thailand. We're gonna end up probably
Speaker 1: with three in Dubai. We're probably gonna end up with
Speaker 1: three or four in Thailand. And you know, I always
Speaker 1: say to the young instructors, learn learn as much as
Speaker 1: you can. I mean, we live in the information age.
Speaker 1: There are so much stuff online. There are so many
Speaker 1: seminars you can go to, there are so many books,
Speaker 1: podcasts like this that you can listen to. But getting
Speaker 1: into instruction, you just got to give lessons. There's a
Speaker 1: girl that I teach who lives in Canada. She tried
Speaker 1: to play, wanted to play professionally. She's made the decision
Speaker 1: to trying to get into instruction now, so I'm doing
Speaker 1: my best to try and help her as much as
Speaker 1: I can. She's working at an indoor facility in Toronto
Speaker 1: and she's just given basic golf lessons to basic golfers
Speaker 1: who are just trying to learn what I do and
Speaker 1: what I'm lucky enough to do to work with elite
Speaker 1: professional golfers. I've been doing this for I'm fifty five now.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this over twenty years. It wasn't always
Speaker 1: like this. I can remember going to Portugal. I worked
Speaker 1: in Portugal at Paneros Altos in the algar southern Portugal,
Speaker 1: and I gave lessons to German golfers who I remember
Speaker 1: giving a golf lesson to a woman in her fifties.
Speaker 1: Once she came in and she had booked me for
Speaker 1: two hours a day every day for a week, and
Speaker 1: she had fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars worth of clothes on,
Speaker 1: you know, all the best golf clothes, the best shoes,
Speaker 1: everything like that. She didn't have golf clubs and I
Speaker 1: will never forget this, she said. I said, where are
Speaker 1: your golf clubs? She says, I don't have any, but
Speaker 1: all my friends play golf and I want to learn
Speaker 1: how to play golf. I said, great, So I gave
Speaker 1: her a sand wedge. You know, she said, I wondered
Speaker 1: what one of these would look like. I said, what
Speaker 1: the sandwich would look like? She said, no, golf club.
Speaker 1: Never seen a golf club before. That's how I started
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. I gave golf lessons to people that
Speaker 1: never even seen a golf club before. So if you
Speaker 1: want to get into a golf instruction, you know, find
Speaker 1: a club get into. You could go through the PGA
Speaker 1: of America route and go through become a PGA pro
Speaker 1: and go work at a club and do that. You
Speaker 1: can take TPI, sept all, the Titleist Performance Institute, all
Speaker 1: their Level one stuff. You learn a lot through there.
Speaker 1: But becoming a golf instructor is basically like becoming a chef.
Speaker 1: How do you get to become a chef? You just
Speaker 1: don't one day walk into a restaurant and start cooking.
Speaker 1: You start at the bottom and you work your way up.
Speaker 1: So's you got to start at the bottom. You got
Speaker 1: to give golf lessons to people that don't know how
Speaker 1: to play golf, and that's where I think you learn
Speaker 1: your craft, your delivery, your philosophy. I think it's very
Speaker 1: important for anyone out there that's listening to this as
Speaker 1: a golf instructor. I'm sure I've said this before on
Speaker 1: previous pods, but find out what you believe in the
Speaker 1: golf swing that makes players better, not what I believe,
Speaker 1: Not what Pete Cowan believes, or Butch Harmon or Dana
Speaker 1: Dolquiz or mac Mark Blackburn or Sean Foley or any
Speaker 1: of the people that I've had on the podcast before.
Speaker 1: I've had some of the best golf instructors on the
Speaker 1: planet on the podcast. But I think if you're going
Speaker 1: to become an instructor, and golf instruction is going to
Speaker 1: become your life and your life's work and your profession,
Speaker 1: you've got to figure out what you believe makes golfers better,
Speaker 1: not what I believe. And that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that I challenge all of my instructors to do, is
Speaker 1: they present their philosophy to me. Every year when I
Speaker 1: go to my academy in Dubai, I always have my
Speaker 1: instructors put a presentation together as if they were going
Speaker 1: to give a teaching coaching summit seminar and they were
Speaker 1: the keynote speakers. And tell me what you believe in
Speaker 1: the golf swing, tell me what you believe makes a
Speaker 1: player better. And I think it's important to do that,
Speaker 1: But you just got to stand there and give golf lessons.
Speaker 1: Got to give golf lessons all day, every day. And
Speaker 1: that's when I'm not on tour. That's what I do.
Speaker 1: I teach eight hours a day to regular golfers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm lucky enough at this point in my career to
Speaker 1: work with a lot of elite players that are trying
Speaker 1: to play competitively. But I work at a private club,
Speaker 1: the Floridian here, and I work with members and their
Speaker 1: wives and sometimes girlfriends and sons and daughters. And these
Speaker 1: are not elite golfers. And you know, that's that's something
Speaker 1: that I hope that I never stopped doing. I enjoy it,
Speaker 1: I love it. And if you want to be an instructor,
Speaker 1: get in the kitchen, start figuring out how to cook,
Speaker 1: and start figuring out how to give golf lessons and
Speaker 1: figure out what you believe makes a good good player.
Speaker 1: I want to thank everyone for the questions. If you
Speaker 1: like this stuff, I'll try and do a couple of these,
Speaker 1: you know, at least once a month. I'm happy to
Speaker 1: do them. Answer your questions. It's kind of cool to
Speaker 1: hear what you guys want to hear a lot of
Speaker 1: questions on getting this player that player on the pod. Listen.
Speaker 1: I ask players all the time from all the tours
Speaker 1: to come on the pod. It's hard to work on
Speaker 1: their schedules and my schedules and stuff, but I've got some.
Speaker 1: I've got some big players that that have requested to
Speaker 1: be on the pod, so hopefully and get those recorded soon.
Speaker 1: We'll get Brooks and DJ on this thing one time.
Speaker 1: Be fascinating to get their opinion. Trying to pin those
Speaker 1: two guys down on time is uh yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: always fun. But can't thank everyone enough for listening. When
Speaker 1: I go to majors and even when I go to
Speaker 1: the live events, somebody always comes up and says they're
Speaker 1: they're a fan of the podcast. I continue been doing
Speaker 1: this now almost three years. We've got over two million downloads.
Speaker 1: I continue to be amazed at the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm currently sitting in my office recording a podcast, and
Speaker 1: we put it out there and people listen. It's it's
Speaker 1: amazing to me. I'm so thankful and and I'm honored
Speaker 1: that people take forty five minutes, half hour, an hour
Speaker 1: out of their day to listen to me talk about
Speaker 1: golf with other people. And it really does mean a
Speaker 1: lot to me. It's really special something I'm very very
Speaker 1: proud of. And I can't thank all of you, the
Speaker 1: people that listen on a weekly basis. It means a
Speaker 1: lot to me. So keep listening. I'll keep trying to
Speaker 1: come up with different topics, rate reviews, scribe wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast. Good podcast next week, it's one I'm
Speaker 1: really really proud of, a really really cool one. You're
Speaker 1: gonna want to tune in it. It's special to me.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's a good one. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Hmmm hmm