Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butch podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday solo edition of the pod. This week,
Speaker 1: I just got back from two weeks Adelaide in Australia,
Speaker 1: was down there for the live tournaments. I think it
Speaker 1: was a really really interesting week for Live at Adelaide.
Speaker 1: I don't care what side of this debate that you're on,
Speaker 1: and I'll keep saying this, I just don't know why
Speaker 1: there is this debate. We are seeing great golf. We
Speaker 1: see great golf on the PGA Tour, and if you're
Speaker 1: watching live, if you're trying to say that you're not
Speaker 1: seeing great golf, I don't know what you're looking at
Speaker 1: because I work with players on live and I see
Speaker 1: them doing the exact same thing that they did there
Speaker 1: that they did when they played the PGA Tour. I
Speaker 1: fundamentally don't understand why there seems to be this choice
Speaker 1: that you have to make between the PGA Tour and Live.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it's golf, and if
Speaker 1: you are a fan of golf, you can watch golf
Speaker 1: wherever you want to. You can see great golf on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. You can see great golf on the
Speaker 1: LPGA Tour. You can see great golf on the DP
Speaker 1: World Tour, and you can see great golf on Live.
Speaker 1: And I think if you look at the caliber of
Speaker 1: players that are playing on live, I think it's naive
Speaker 1: to say that they're not great players because that's where
Speaker 1: they chose to go to. I think the way that
Speaker 1: the live guys performed at the Masters went a long
Speaker 1: way to debunking this myth that everybody that went to
Speaker 1: live their careers were over, that they were washed up.
Speaker 1: I think after the Masters, the narrative that a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are anti live were trying to portray
Speaker 1: that the players were at war with each other and
Speaker 1: they didn't like each other. I think everybody saw that
Speaker 1: that was not the case, and I think you're seeing
Speaker 1: great golf. I think brooks Kepka, I'm currently working with
Speaker 1: Brooks Kepka. Brooks is playing some of the best golf
Speaker 1: I've seen him play. The way his golf swing is working,
Speaker 1: the way his body is working, the caliber of golf
Speaker 1: he is playing right now is very, very similar to
Speaker 1: the golf that he was playing in twenty nineteen when
Speaker 1: he was the number one player in the world and
Speaker 1: win in majors. At a pretty steady click. I think
Speaker 1: Phil Mickelson the resurgence of the way Phil Mickelson is
Speaker 1: playing after playing the way he played in the Masters
Speaker 1: at his age, the way he played over the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And my issue with the anti live
Speaker 1: people are I would say the majority of them have
Speaker 1: never come to an event. They don't watch any of
Speaker 1: the events, they don't come to any of the events,
Speaker 1: and everything they hear is rumor or hearsay. They are
Speaker 1: not part of the live ecosystem. They're not in the
Speaker 1: locker room, they're not talking to the players. They've chosen
Speaker 1: to make up their own mind. And there seems to
Speaker 1: me to be more of a push from the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour side to choose between the PGA Tour and Live
Speaker 1: than the live guys. And I just fundamentally don't understand
Speaker 1: why you have to make a choice. If you are
Speaker 1: a fan of golf, you can choose to watch your
Speaker 1: golf wherever you want to watch it, and you can
Speaker 1: choose to watch the players that you like wherever you
Speaker 1: want to watch them. So I just don't get what
Speaker 1: the beef is to me this this current state of
Speaker 1: Live versus the PGA tour and this choice that in
Speaker 1: my opinion, Jay Monahan and the Boys and Pana Vidral
Speaker 1: wants you to have to make is we don't see
Speaker 1: that in other sports. And you know the easy to me.
Speaker 1: There's NASCAR and there's Formula one, right, And if you
Speaker 1: haven't watched the Drive to Survive Netflix documentary on Formula One,
Speaker 1: check it out. I've been a huge fan of Formula
Speaker 1: one for a long time and I think it's growing
Speaker 1: and growing in popularity. But if you look at NASCAR
Speaker 1: and you look at F one, it's motor racing. The
Speaker 1: drivers that drive on NASCAR and the drivers that drive
Speaker 1: on Formula One basically all kind of started doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. They were started in kart racing and they
Speaker 1: did it at a young age and that's how they
Speaker 1: got into motor racing. And if you look at the product,
Speaker 1: one goes around in a circle. Yeah, there's a couple
Speaker 1: of NASCAR events that are road tracks, but the majority
Speaker 1: of the NASCAR events are in an oval track and
Speaker 1: they just go round in circles and there is a massive,
Speaker 1: massive following for that. And then you have F one
Speaker 1: that is kind of through street racing and different. So
Speaker 1: motor racing, different product, maybe different demographic, definitely different sponsors.
Speaker 1: NASCAR you've got for Chevrolet, Toyota, F one, you've got Ferrari,
Speaker 1: you've got Mercedes, You've got Asked and Martin. And maybe
Speaker 1: the fans are different, Maybe the fans are from a
Speaker 1: different socioeconomic background. I don't know. But what I do
Speaker 1: know is all of the best drivers in NASCAR and
Speaker 1: Formula One are all flying to every race on their
Speaker 1: own private jet. They all live in mansions, they're all making,
Speaker 1: you know, scary money, and nobody in those sports are
Speaker 1: asking you to make a choice between one or the other.
Speaker 1: So to me, all of this is just golf. And
Speaker 1: if you like golf, you can watch golf anywhere you
Speaker 1: choose to watch. You don't have to make a choice.
Speaker 1: If you're making a choice for your own personal reasons,
Speaker 1: that's I guess that's your choice. And but you don't
Speaker 1: have to And I think the products aren't really that
Speaker 1: difficult different, you know, Yeah, fifty four holes versus seventy
Speaker 1: two holes. There are people that some people that like that,
Speaker 1: and listen, I think we're seeing good golf everywhere. I
Speaker 1: think it's unbelievable to see the rise of Tony for
Speaker 1: Now on the PGA Tour. I think you know Tony
Speaker 1: for Now winning yet again. He won a bunch of times.
Speaker 1: At the end of last year. He hadn't figured out
Speaker 1: how to win. Before he's figured out how to win.
Speaker 1: That's an unbelievable story. That's a great, great story. That's
Speaker 1: good for golf. And one of the things that I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about Taylor Gooch, the golf that he
Speaker 1: is playing. He's won two tournaments back to back on
Speaker 1: Live and I'm telling you, this kid, the game that
Speaker 1: Taylor Gooch has, he's so so impressive. He's an old
Speaker 1: school shot maker. Whatever the hole kind of tells you
Speaker 1: it needs to, if it's a right to left or
Speaker 1: it's a left to right, he hits that shot. He
Speaker 1: can hit it high, he can hit it low. I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to spend a lot of time last
Speaker 1: year with Taylor Goodchi was on DJ's four Aces team,
Speaker 1: and the guy is just so so impressive, and I
Speaker 1: didn't realize how good of a player he was. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize all these different shots that he had. And
Speaker 1: in an era where a lot of the top players
Speaker 1: are kind of going to one shot and becoming one
Speaker 1: dimensional and having tremendous success doing it. Taylor's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a throwback, a throwback to a guy that
Speaker 1: if it's a dog leg from left to right, he's
Speaker 1: gonna hit that shot. If it's a dog leg from
Speaker 1: right to left, he's gonna hit that shot. If you
Speaker 1: have to hit it high to a backpin, he's gonna
Speaker 1: hit that one. If you're gonna have to hit it low,
Speaker 1: he can hit that one. So it has been unbelievably
Speaker 1: impressive to watch him play the two rounds. The Friday
Speaker 1: Saturday round he played down in Australia. I mean it
Speaker 1: was like he was playing a different golf course. The score,
Speaker 1: I mean, he was a million under. He took a
Speaker 1: ten shot lead into the final round, had a little
Speaker 1: bit of a wobble, a bunch of guys made a
Speaker 1: run at him and ends up winning. And it was
Speaker 1: a dominant, dominant performance. And then we went to Singapore
Speaker 1: last week Sunday he was in a duel with Sergio
Speaker 1: Garcia and Brooks Keepka down the stretch and was able
Speaker 1: to win in a playoff with against Sergio Garcia eight
Speaker 1: million dollars in six rounds. I'll go ahead and say
Speaker 1: that again. Eight million dollars in six rounds, and anybody
Speaker 1: that's listening that says, it's not about the money, it's
Speaker 1: not about the money. It's not about the money. If
Speaker 1: it's not about the money, right, and if golfers are
Speaker 1: just playing and it's not about the money, then why
Speaker 1: does everybody have an agent? Rory McElroy has an agent,
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas has an agent, Jordan Speith has an agent,
Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler has an agent. Everybody in professional golf has
Speaker 1: an agent. Why do we know who Mark Steinberg is.
Speaker 1: He's an agent, He's Tiger's agent. The reason all these
Speaker 1: players have agents is, to newsflash, to try and make money.
Speaker 1: They're trying to make as much money as possible as
Speaker 1: a professional athlete. That is what every professional athlete is
Speaker 1: trying to do. It will come across I guess to
Speaker 1: a lot of people listening that I am pro live.
Speaker 1: I'm not pro live. I want Live to succeed because
Speaker 1: I am pro athlete. I have never I'm not a
Speaker 1: part of an organization, right. I am a golf instructor,
Speaker 1: employed by professional golfers, employed by professional athletes, and I
Speaker 1: don't work for the USGA, the RNA, the PGA of America,
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. I don't work for those organizations. I
Speaker 1: work for athletes. I work for professional golfers, and I
Speaker 1: believe that professional golfers should be like everybody else. They
Speaker 1: should have the opportunity to make as much money as
Speaker 1: their talent allows them to make. I think Rory McElroy
Speaker 1: should be able to go anywhere in the world and
Speaker 1: play golf and be paid to show up. I think
Speaker 1: Scotti Scheffler should be able to go anywhere in the
Speaker 1: world and play golf, and if an organizer, if a
Speaker 1: sponsor of a tournament wants to pay him to show up,
Speaker 1: I think he's earned that right by the talent that
Speaker 1: he has. So it's about the money. The tour tried
Speaker 1: to put out this thing about legacy and trophies, and
Speaker 1: I think everybody kind of knows that that's not the case,
Speaker 1: given the choices that the PGA Tour has chosen to
Speaker 1: make with designated events, no cut events, upping the purse.
Speaker 1: If it's just about legacy and trophies, there would be
Speaker 1: no prize money. Everybody on the PGA Tour would play
Speaker 1: for free, so you don't have to choose. You can
Speaker 1: watch golf wherever you want it, but as someone that
Speaker 1: is part of the live ecosystem, and listen, that's not
Speaker 1: a choice that I'm make. All of my players just
Speaker 1: went to live and because I'm employed by them, that's
Speaker 1: where they go. I think, I don't know, And you know,
Speaker 1: I've talked to Brooks extensively about this, you know, at
Speaker 1: the PG or at the at the Masters. You know,
Speaker 1: Brooks was leading for three rounds and a lot of
Speaker 1: the media tried to portray that Brooks wasn't a live
Speaker 1: guy and that he was a guy that was looking
Speaker 1: to come back. Brooks is not looking to come back.
Speaker 1: Brooks just doesn't have any animosity towards the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have any animosity towards j Monahan. He invited
Speaker 1: J Monahan to his wedding. He doesn't have any animosity
Speaker 1: to the guys. He doesn't think that the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: is bad. He just has made a choice to go
Speaker 1: play somewhere else. And you know, players in other sports
Speaker 1: make choices to leave other teams for financial reasons, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's just that we've never seen that before in golf,
Speaker 1: but it's here. I think the caliber of play. I
Speaker 1: worked with PGA Tour players and I was on the
Speaker 1: European Tour. Started my career on the European Tour in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, and since two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: I've basically been coaching professional golfers on the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: except for the last year and a half. The golf
Speaker 1: that's being played on live is no different than the
Speaker 1: golf that was being played on the PGA Tour. Everybody
Speaker 1: still has coaches, everybody still has trainers, everybody still has physios.
Speaker 1: So if they just took the money and nobody cared,
Speaker 1: then nobody would have a coach, nobody would have a trainer,
Speaker 1: nobody would have a physio. They'd all just be showing
Speaker 1: up zero practice, not working on their body, not working
Speaker 1: on their golf swing, because they'd all got in the
Speaker 1: bag and they'd all been paid. So this narrative that
Speaker 1: you know you have to choose between the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: or live is crazy. I mean, it's gotten so crazy
Speaker 1: that Chase Keepka makes a hole in one at a
Speaker 1: live tournament in Australia, and I heard some clowns on
Speaker 1: a podcast trying to say that it was staged, that
Speaker 1: it was fake, that it was It was a coincidence
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden, a bunch of people had
Speaker 1: the footage and they all posted at the same time.
Speaker 1: When somebody makes a hole in one and you're at
Speaker 1: the tournament, you're going to post the video. My wife
Speaker 1: came down to Adelaide to Australia and was on the
Speaker 1: twelfth hole with her brother and my brother in law
Speaker 1: when Chase made the hole of one. She immediately sent
Speaker 1: the video. You've got these clowns doing podcasts going, look
Speaker 1: like it was stage. Maybe a drone flew in the ball,
Speaker 1: and because it wasn't live, and because it was tape delayed,
Speaker 1: and because it was in Australia, it wasn't live in America,
Speaker 1: these clowns are saying, yeah, it seems like it's stage.
Speaker 1: So if it doesn't happen live on American television, that
Speaker 1: means that it's not real and it didn't happen. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's where we're at. And if you need an example
Speaker 1: of how crazy this whole thing has become, that to
Speaker 1: me is a seminal moment. You've got people that think
Speaker 1: somebody making a hole in one on a whole kind
Speaker 1: of like the sixteenth pole at Waste Management, thinking that
Speaker 1: that was staged and rigged. If that's how far the
Speaker 1: rabbit down the rabbit hole you are with the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour and all of their paid media and all the
Speaker 1: people that are trying to discredit Live, then you know,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what to tell you. But what
Speaker 1: I can tell you is the golf being played on
Speaker 1: Live is the same golf that's being played on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. And Taylor Gooch is a legit in my opinion,
Speaker 1: He's a legit top twenty five, top fifteen player in
Speaker 1: the world. I think Taylor Gooch will have legit chances
Speaker 1: the rest of the year in the three remaining majors.
Speaker 1: I would not be surprised if he has a chance
Speaker 1: to and I wouldn't be surprised if he winned one.
Speaker 1: He has the type of game that suits every type
Speaker 1: of golf course. He has the type of game that
Speaker 1: suits regular tournaments. He has the type of game that
Speaker 1: suits major turnment. And the best part about Taylor is
Speaker 1: he believes so much in himself. He's one of those
Speaker 1: players that quietly has this inner confidence of he believes
Speaker 1: in his own ability. He believes in what he's doing.
Speaker 1: And don't be surprised if ce Taylor Gooch on the
Speaker 1: leader board in a major sometime this summer, because and
Speaker 1: he's going for three live tournaments in a row, three
Speaker 1: live tournaments in a row. If he were to win
Speaker 1: Tulsa next week, I mean, he's getting close to twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars this year in prize money. And again, anyone
Speaker 1: that tries to tell you that golf professional golf is
Speaker 1: just about legacy and just about trophies, you're drinking the
Speaker 1: kool aid, because everybody playing professional golf is playing professional
Speaker 1: golf for money. The guys on the Live Tour are
Speaker 1: doing that, guys on the PGA Tour are doing that.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna keep saying this. You don't have to choose.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of golf, you can watch your
Speaker 1: golf wherever you want to watch it. The tournament down
Speaker 1: in Adelaide was one of the coolest tournaments I've been to.
Speaker 1: You can tell that the Australian golf public is starved
Speaker 1: for professional golf. Yes they have tournaments, yes they used
Speaker 1: to have a tour, but they've never seen that many
Speaker 1: great players in one place at one time, and it
Speaker 1: was fun Fisher, the DJ. He flew in from Coachella
Speaker 1: for thirteen hours. He was in Australia for thirteen hours,
Speaker 1: played a DJ set. I think Saturday night after the round,
Speaker 1: almost twenty thousand people showed up to watch a DJ
Speaker 1: at a golf tournament. I met a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I asked people why they were there. They said, Hey,
Speaker 1: we never get an opportunity to see these great players.
Speaker 1: We want to come out and see the best players
Speaker 1: in the world. I had people say, Hey, any chance
Speaker 1: that we can see the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: we're going to take advantage of that. And I think
Speaker 1: the best players of the world are players playing professional golf,
Speaker 1: not which tour they're playing on the PGA Tour. They
Speaker 1: want you to think that all of the best players
Speaker 1: in the world play there, and that's just not the case.
Speaker 1: There are great players playing golf all over the world.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that's come out
Speaker 1: really since the Masters is, you know, Taylor Goots Shoots
Speaker 1: plays a great tournament in Adelaide. He goes down in
Speaker 1: the world rankings, beats a bunch of players that are
Speaker 1: higher ranked than him. In the world rankings, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's crazy to me that we still have this
Speaker 1: kind of debate. If you go to a live tournament
Speaker 1: and don't like it, that's okay. If you watch a
Speaker 1: live tournament and don't like what you see, that's okay too.
Speaker 1: But you can like both. I believe the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: and live can both be true at the same time.
Speaker 1: But I am seeing the same calid. I've been saying
Speaker 1: this for months now. I've never seen Brooks kept goa
Speaker 1: work harder than he's working right now. He didn't work
Speaker 1: this hard in twenty nineteen on his game because he
Speaker 1: didn't have to. He went through a bad couple of years.
Speaker 1: He's trying to get back to being the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. He's trying to get back to winning
Speaker 1: major championships. He had a legit chance to win the Masters.
Speaker 1: I think Brooks is going to have legit chances to
Speaker 1: win all three of the next majors. And I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised at all if Brooks kept Go won one
Speaker 1: of those. And yeah, I'm biased. You know the reason
Speaker 1: I'm biased is because I coach him, and I watch
Speaker 1: what he does, and I watch how he plays golf,
Speaker 1: and I look at the rest of the players playing
Speaker 1: professional golf and I don't see any difference. And all
Speaker 1: these people that thought he was washed up and just
Speaker 1: took the bag and went to live and was going
Speaker 1: to be insignificant, I promise you that's not going to
Speaker 1: be the case. And if you look at the golf
Speaker 1: that Phil Mickelson has been playing recently, it's it's pretty
Speaker 1: impressive if you look at the way Phil looked twelve
Speaker 1: months ago versus the way he looks now, the dedication
Speaker 1: and the work that he's put into getting himself in shape,
Speaker 1: and I think he is. He is flourishing on Live
Speaker 1: in the role that he's got. I think he loves
Speaker 1: having a team. And I'm here to tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: the team concept on Live is real. It really is.
Speaker 1: The guys like playing for the team. The teams that
Speaker 1: I work with, You Brooks's on his team, Team Smash
Speaker 1: DJ and Pat Perez who I work with, are on teammatess.
Speaker 1: Pretty much every single time we all get to the
Speaker 1: golf course at the same time. We breakfast together, we
Speaker 1: practice together, we play practice rounds together. The teams eat
Speaker 1: and play practice rounds together. It's very much a team concept.
Speaker 1: So anyone that thinks all of this team stuff isn't real,
Speaker 1: I promise you it is. And looking at the players
Speaker 1: and looking at how much they've embraced that, but also
Speaker 1: looking at the fans. I couldn't believe how many people
Speaker 1: were buying merchandise in Adelaide. And you know, we were
Speaker 1: staying in downtown Adelaide in Australia and on the weekend
Speaker 1: we're going out to dinner and you just see people
Speaker 1: in town walking around with live merch and live team
Speaker 1: merch and there are loads of people that are telling
Speaker 1: you they have no fan base, nobody cares, and nobody's interested.
Speaker 1: And I've been to every live event and that's just
Speaker 1: not the case. So you can watch golf and choose golf,
Speaker 1: and there are some great golf being played. Boyd Summer
Speaker 1: hates coaches, both Tony Finow and Taylor Gooch. He's been
Speaker 1: on the pod before. If you get a chance, go
Speaker 1: back and listen. I think Boyd's one of the best
Speaker 1: coaches out there, but two really really good young players,
Speaker 1: and I think the game is in a very very
Speaker 1: good place because I think the caliber of golf that's
Speaker 1: being played is just phenomenal. I mean, you've got John
Speaker 1: Rahm again with a chance to win. That's great for golf.
Speaker 1: Sergio Garcia playing great last week. Whether a Sergio fan
Speaker 1: or not, I don't care. Sergio is a great golfer
Speaker 1: and it was great to see Sergio win again or
Speaker 1: have a chance to win again. And Brooks right there
Speaker 1: in the mix, missed the playoffs by one shot. If
Speaker 1: you look at the caliber of golf he's playing, he
Speaker 1: won in Orlando the week before, the week before the Masters,
Speaker 1: finished second at the Masters, and just finished second again.
Speaker 1: So the litmus test for me for professional golf, I
Speaker 1: don't care where you play. If you're winning tournaments and
Speaker 1: have chances to win tournaments, you're playing good. So let's
Speaker 1: get to the questions. I put out questions yesterday on
Speaker 1: my Instagram and got a bunch of people, a lot
Speaker 1: of Brooks questions, obviously, you know, kind of asking kind
Speaker 1: of what we've been working on and what he's been
Speaker 1: working on. I think the big changes set and I've
Speaker 1: talked about this, but a lot of the stuff that
Speaker 1: we've done with Brooks's game is set up related. And
Speaker 1: last week it's funny Brooks had a chance to win
Speaker 1: the tournament last week and the range at Sintosa, the
Speaker 1: golf course in Singapore. The tea was at the top
Speaker 1: and then it was a very very steep dive down
Speaker 1: and then there was a bottom part of the range.
Speaker 1: And Tuesday, I've never seen Brooks hit it worse. Wednesday,
Speaker 1: I've never seen Brooks hit it worse. And finally he
Speaker 1: was just like, I hate downhill ranges because the ball
Speaker 1: comes out it looks like it's going too high. He
Speaker 1: was trying to flight the golf ball down. So from
Speaker 1: Thursday onward, Brooks did all of his warm ups at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the range so he could hit uphill.
Speaker 1: But a lot of what we've been working on with
Speaker 1: Brooks is set up related ball position, set up alignment.
Speaker 1: Every now and again, if you see Brooks on TV
Speaker 1: warming up, you'll see him kind of have his caddy,
Speaker 1: Ricky Elliott stand in to where he's set up, and
Speaker 1: Brooks wants to know where he's lining up. So I
Speaker 1: would say the majority of the work that we've done
Speaker 1: in the last six months has been all stuffed before
Speaker 1: Brooks hits the golf ball, making sure the golf ball
Speaker 1: doesn't get too far back in his stands and working
Speaker 1: on his a ligne. All of the setup things in
Speaker 1: Brooks's in the way he sets up to it kind
Speaker 1: of are the domino effect to where he how he
Speaker 1: swings the golf club. So when the golf ball gets
Speaker 1: too far back, if he gets aimed too far to
Speaker 1: the right, then the takeaway doesn't get outside going back,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get it in front of him coming down,
Speaker 1: and it's hard for him to manage what the path
Speaker 1: and the face are doing when the setup gets off.
Speaker 1: So if you are struggling with your own golf swing,
Speaker 1: make sure you're looking at the basics. They're not sexy.
Speaker 1: You don't see a lot of YouTube videos. You don't
Speaker 1: see a lot of YouTube videos. You don't see a
Speaker 1: lot of Instagram posts from all the golf influence frontsers
Speaker 1: talking about grip, stance, posture, and alignment. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you that in twenty twenty three, grip, pasture,
Speaker 1: ball position, alignment still have a massive, massive effect on
Speaker 1: how you hit the golf ball. So a lot of
Speaker 1: what we've done with brook is just set up related,
Speaker 1: and as a result of that, I think it's allowed
Speaker 1: him to know that, Okay, I'm set up in the
Speaker 1: right place. My ball position is in the right place,
Speaker 1: and I can then go ahead and swing the golf
Speaker 1: club the way I want to. The good thing right
Speaker 1: now for Brooks is all the misses are out of
Speaker 1: the center of the club face, not so much off
Speaker 1: the toe and not so much off the heel, which
Speaker 1: shows us that he's pretty much where he wants to be.
Speaker 1: And he keeps saying that, okay, okay, I missed that one,
Speaker 1: missed a little bit of where I was trying to go,
Speaker 1: but it's right out of the center of the face.
Speaker 1: He's found a driver that he really likes. He went
Speaker 1: up and loft at the tournament that he won in Orlando.
Speaker 1: He's he used a different driver than he used in
Speaker 1: Orlando that he used at the Masters. From the start
Speaker 1: of the year, he went from eight degrees of loft.
Speaker 1: He's up to ten and a half degrees of loft now.
Speaker 1: When he had the eight degrees of loft, he just
Speaker 1: didn't see enough on the face and it really got
Speaker 1: him to try and hit the golf ball up. That's
Speaker 1: the death move for Brooks. Brooks places best when he
Speaker 1: hits down on it, especially with the driver. Brooks kind
Speaker 1: of cruises. When he plays his best golf, he's probably
Speaker 1: one to one and a half degrees down on it
Speaker 1: because he likes to kind of be able to hit down,
Speaker 1: swing left and hit that kind of bullet cut. But
Speaker 1: I think we're going to continue to see Brooks play well.
Speaker 1: I think his short game is very, very underrated. The
Speaker 1: work that he's done with Pete Cowen. He has hit
Speaker 1: some unbelievable short game shots when it matters. And you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily put as good down the stretch in
Speaker 1: Singapore last week, but he feels like his speed was
Speaker 1: just a little off. And but Brooks is healthy, Brooks
Speaker 1: is confident, and I think we are going to see
Speaker 1: Brooks continue to have chances to win tournaments. Let's see
Speaker 1: I get asked best golf swing ever. I'm biased, but
Speaker 1: Tiger two thousand that was probably the best I've ever
Speaker 1: seen anyone swing the golf club since then. I mean,
Speaker 1: Adam Scott, Nelly Korda, I mean their golf swings are
Speaker 1: pretty good. I think Nelly Korda has one of the
Speaker 1: best golf swings in professional golf men, women, boys, girls.
Speaker 1: I don't care her golf swing is. I mean, I
Speaker 1: got to watch it up close at the Women's US
Speaker 1: Open last year, And I mean, if Nelly Korda's hitting
Speaker 1: golf balls on the driving range and I'm on a
Speaker 1: driving range, I'm going to stop and watch because that's
Speaker 1: how legit good her golf swing is. Now, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times people get confused with golf swings,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of a thing you've heard me talk
Speaker 1: about on the pod before, this kind of technique versus execution.
Speaker 1: If it was solely on technique, I think Adam Scott
Speaker 1: and Nelly Quorter would win every week. It'd be like
Speaker 1: figure skating. There would be judges, they'd be looking at
Speaker 1: the technique and they'd be going giving nine to five,
Speaker 1: ten nine, nine, nine to eight. But that's not what
Speaker 1: golf is. Golf is execution, it's not technique. So when everybody,
Speaker 1: when anytime anybody asks me about golf swings that I
Speaker 1: like and who I think has good golf swings, I
Speaker 1: always make the distinction between esthetics and function, and functional
Speaker 1: golf swings to me are way more important than aesthetically
Speaker 1: pleasing golf swings. Jim Furick, Steve Elkington have the exact
Speaker 1: same amount of major Championships, one each. They both won
Speaker 1: the Players Championships. They both have vastly, vastly different golf swings.
Speaker 1: Steve Elkington another guy that is a great, great golf swing.
Speaker 1: The way he swings the golf club beautiful, The positions
Speaker 1: he puts the golf clubs in beautiful. But golf isn't
Speaker 1: about golf swings. Golf is about hitting golf balls and
Speaker 1: hitting golf shots. I had a couple of people asked
Speaker 1: if I've been blacklisted from the PGA Tour for working
Speaker 1: with Live, and what do I miss about the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour and what's different about Live? The main thing I
Speaker 1: miss about the PGA Tour is all the players and
Speaker 1: the caddies. That's the thing I missed the most. It
Speaker 1: was so great at Augusta National to see a bunch
Speaker 1: of players and caddies that I hadn't seen, really, you know,
Speaker 1: in almost six seven months, and that was really really cool.
Speaker 1: What are the differences between the PGA Tour and Live?
Speaker 1: I guess the obvious choice from a coaching standpoint, and
Speaker 1: this is just from my own per personal experience. I
Speaker 1: get treated better on Live than I ever got treated
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour rarely was I ever. The PGA
Speaker 1: Tour for coaches is all about where you can't go, right,
Speaker 1: There's a lot I can't go. I can't have breakfast
Speaker 1: or lunch with a player because I'm not allowed in
Speaker 1: in player dining. For a long time, we weren't allowed
Speaker 1: in the locker room. It's it's very, very different. In
Speaker 1: my this is just my opinion. Coaches, trainers, physios, and
Speaker 1: caddies are seen as part of the tour, the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour and the way that the PGA Tour operates. You know,
Speaker 1: for a long time, caddies weren't allowed in the locker
Speaker 1: room at a PGA Tour event. I can eat with
Speaker 1: a player. I can eat with a caddie and a player.
Speaker 1: I don't have to pay for food at a PGA
Speaker 1: Tour event. I have no access for food. I have
Speaker 1: to pay my own food. Live, the hotels we stay
Speaker 1: in tend to be near or similar to the ones
Speaker 1: the players stay in. There's shuttles to and from the
Speaker 1: golf course, and and it just as a coach on Live,
Speaker 1: you you feel like you're a part of the tour.
Speaker 1: You feel like you're important, you feel like the tour
Speaker 1: feels like you're an important part of the player, and
Speaker 1: I never felt like that on the PGA Tour. I
Speaker 1: always felt like I was guessed. I really did. I
Speaker 1: felt like I was going to a PGA Tour event,
Speaker 1: I had a credential. But then you walk around. You
Speaker 1: look at all of these people that work for the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, and they've got the alphabet on their badges, right.
Speaker 1: That means they can basically go everywhere. They park in
Speaker 1: the same places that the players park in. They're eating
Speaker 1: meals in the clubhouse, and everybody else is just kind
Speaker 1: of on outside of that circle. They're in the inner circle.
Speaker 1: And I think that's been the interesting thing, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: a lot of the differences between Live and the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: It's been as much a business experiment as it's been
Speaker 1: a social experiment. Everybody that is part of Live feels
Speaker 1: like they're part of something, and that comes from the
Speaker 1: tour making you feel like you're part of what's going on,
Speaker 1: that you're an integral part of the event and the tour,
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. For however many years, I was on
Speaker 1: the PJ Tour and I was on the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: for a long time. I always felt like I was guessed.
Speaker 1: I always felt like and I was treated like a guest.
Speaker 1: And I think you would if you asked all the
Speaker 1: coaches that are currently coaching on the PGA Tour, they
Speaker 1: tell you the exact same thing. Now, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people that say, hey, Lives only forty eight
Speaker 1: players versus how many people play every week on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. Obviously it's easier to make those changes. But
Speaker 1: every year at the Tour Championship, there's thirty players in
Speaker 1: that never allowed in the clubhouse, not allowed to eat, parking,
Speaker 1: never get parking, all of that stuff. Now, obviously these
Speaker 1: are first world problems, right, I'm gonna hold by hand up.
Speaker 1: These are first world problems. I'm not digging ditches, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not Nicole Mine. I work with professional golfers. I'm
Speaker 1: not curing cancer. But when people ask me, what's the
Speaker 1: difference the tour, Live, in my opinion, treats everyone better
Speaker 1: than I ever saw on the PGA Tour. And one
Speaker 1: of the interesting things I find about all the people
Speaker 1: that are anti Live is they've never been a part
Speaker 1: of the PGA Tour. I've never been a part of
Speaker 1: the Live ecosystem. All of us that make these comments
Speaker 1: about the PGA Tour, from players, from caddies, from coaches,
Speaker 1: from everybody that has now gone to live. We were
Speaker 1: all part of the PGA tours ecosystem for years, right,
Speaker 1: so when we talk about it, we talk about it
Speaker 1: because that's we lived it. We saw it on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. Most of the people that are anti live
Speaker 1: won't even watch, they won't even go to a tournament.
Speaker 1: They act like it doesn't exist. So when I get
Speaker 1: asked what's the difference, I feel more welcome on Live
Speaker 1: than I ever felt on the PGA Tour. That's for sure.
Speaker 1: Great question. Tour player coaching relationship you learn the most
Speaker 1: from I guess if I had to think about that,
Speaker 1: I guess it would be Trevor Immerman. Trevor Immerman was
Speaker 1: the first real tour player that I ever worked with.
Speaker 1: I moved to Europe in the early two thousands, and
Speaker 1: up until that point, i'd worked in Vegas for my dad.
Speaker 1: I was around for the glory years of my dad
Speaker 1: working with Tiger, and I'll be honest with you, when
Speaker 1: I worked in Las Vegas from about nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 1: until two thousand and two, I just kind of spit
Speaker 1: out what I heard my dad telling people, and he
Speaker 1: was telling people the Wright stuff. So it worked. But
Speaker 1: I didn't really know anything. I just kind of knew
Speaker 1: what I heard from my dad and watching other people.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what I really believed in the
Speaker 1: golf swing, what I thought made players better. So when
Speaker 1: I moved to Europe and started working on the European
Speaker 1: Tour in two thousand and two, Trevor Immelman, who is
Speaker 1: a very very dear friend of mine, we're still close.
Speaker 1: I think he's doing an unbelievable job at CBS. But
Speaker 1: Trevor was playing in Europe and he was the first
Speaker 1: player that I ever really got to work with, and
Speaker 1: it was an opportunity for me to go, Okay, I've
Speaker 1: learned all of this stuff from my dad. I've taken
Speaker 1: in all of this knowledge, and how do I apply
Speaker 1: it now without a safety net? Because before I was
Speaker 1: working in a place where my dad was around. If
Speaker 1: I got in trouble, if I wasn't figuring something, and
Speaker 1: I could say, hey, Dad, take a look at this way,
Speaker 1: do you think and he'd bail me out. So when
Speaker 1: I went to work in Europe, I realized that I
Speaker 1: didn't really know anything, and I had to figure out
Speaker 1: what I believed in the golfer. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of knowledge, but I didn't know how to apply any
Speaker 1: of it. So Trevor was really the first player that
Speaker 1: I was able to kind of go, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: what he's coming to me with as a player, and
Speaker 1: these are kind of the ways that I'm going to
Speaker 1: go about trying to help him get better. And I
Speaker 1: made a conscious effort at that time to not kind
Speaker 1: of seek my dad's opinion or counsel because one of
Speaker 1: the things I think is really important is an intructors
Speaker 1: is you have to fail. You have to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: I think that's important in life in general, and you
Speaker 1: learn from the mistakes you make way more than the
Speaker 1: successes that you have. And so I worked with Trevor
Speaker 1: for a number of years and kind of helped, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say resurrect his career, but he was supposed to
Speaker 1: be a superstar at a young age and kind of
Speaker 1: not really developed the way that he had wanted to.
Speaker 1: And the work that we did together, he won, you know,
Speaker 1: some golf tournaments, the first real professional win I ever
Speaker 1: had with a player. Was when Trevor won in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, I think at the South African Open
Speaker 1: he won the South African which was a huge win
Speaker 1: from him, But that was a huge win for me
Speaker 1: and I learned a lot in the years that I
Speaker 1: worked with Trevor, and I still look back on those days,
Speaker 1: you know, incredibly fondly because they were hugely, hugely important
Speaker 1: in my development. So I can't thank Trevor enough for
Speaker 1: choosing to hire me in two thousand and two, because
Speaker 1: I don't think I would have gotten to where i'd
Speaker 1: gotten I have gotten today and been able to work
Speaker 1: with the players that I work with if it hadn't
Speaker 1: been for Trevor given me a break and taking a
Speaker 1: chance on me. And you know, I'll be indebted to
Speaker 1: Trevor for the rest of my life for doing that.
Speaker 1: Best way to continue learning about golf coaching books, podcasts.
Speaker 1: I think we're in a fantastic time if you're a
Speaker 1: golf instructor. That's the reason why I do this podcast
Speaker 1: is to try and you know, give as much information
Speaker 1: as I possibly can. There's so many outlets now, there's
Speaker 1: so many great things that you can you know, watch
Speaker 1: and learn from I think the great thing for me
Speaker 1: is I think in the last I'd say in the
Speaker 1: last fifteen years, I've been exposed to so many people
Speaker 1: that are not part of the inner circle of golf.
Speaker 1: They're from other sports, and they're from other backgrounds, And
Speaker 1: I have learned probably more in the last fifteen years
Speaker 1: from non golf people and try to apply that to
Speaker 1: golf than I have necessarily from from golf people. You know,
Speaker 1: I try and listen and learn from as many coach
Speaker 1: as I can. I try and ask as many questions
Speaker 1: as I possibly can. You know, when at Augusta National,
Speaker 1: because we're not allowed to go on the golf course
Speaker 1: in practice rounds. It's the only professional golf tournament that
Speaker 1: is coaches. The rules that Augusta National are no coaches
Speaker 1: inside the ropes. So what that means is a lot
Speaker 1: of coaches have a lot of time to sit around
Speaker 1: because they can't go out and watch their players. So
Speaker 1: I spend a lot of time with other coaches, and
Speaker 1: you know, anytime I can sit with Cameron McCormick, who
Speaker 1: I've had on the podcast before, anytime I can pick
Speaker 1: Cam's brain. I mean, I ask as many questions as
Speaker 1: I can I'll show him swings on juniors that I'm
Speaker 1: working with or players that I'm working with. What do
Speaker 1: you think about this? What do you think about that?
Speaker 1: Phil Kenyon, who I've had on the pod, who I
Speaker 1: think is the best putting instructor on the planet. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll sit and talk to Phil about what do you
Speaker 1: think about this guy's doing? What do you think about
Speaker 1: that guy's doing. I had some really cool conversations with
Speaker 1: Brandy Smith, who coaches Scotti Scheffler. Randy is the ultimate
Speaker 1: old school. He's in the vein of my dad to
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to pick his brain and listen and
Speaker 1: kind of hear what he has to say. And then
Speaker 1: I try and talk to as many players as I can.
Speaker 1: Patrick Reid, whether you like Patrick Reid, whether you don't
Speaker 1: like your Pat Patrick Reid, that's your choice. I don't
Speaker 1: care whether you like him or you don't like him.
Speaker 1: But as a golfer, the guy's a hell of a golfer.
Speaker 1: And I've been he plays a lot of practice rounds.
Speaker 1: Because he's on DJ's team now, he plays a lot
Speaker 1: of practice rounds. I mean, I'm videoing his short game
Speaker 1: because the guy is just a genius when it comes
Speaker 1: short game. I mean, I think Patrick reads short game
Speaker 1: is on a par with anyone, and that includes Sevi
Speaker 1: Biosteros as well. I know Billy Foster, who has caddied
Speaker 1: for Sevy before rates Patrick reads short game as being
Speaker 1: one of the best he's ever seen and just trying
Speaker 1: to pick his brain. So I think if you're going
Speaker 1: to be in instruction and you want to try and
Speaker 1: give lessons and stuff, you need to ask as many
Speaker 1: questions as you can and try and find as much
Speaker 1: knowledge as you can. My dad has always said that
Speaker 1: if you're a golf instructor, find the instructor or the
Speaker 1: coach whose thoughts and theories and opinions on the golf
Speaker 1: swing you disagree with the most, and then go listen
Speaker 1: to them give a seminar. You should be able to
Speaker 1: find something from listening to somebody that you definitely didn't
Speaker 1: agree with and go oh, I kind of like that part.
Speaker 1: So I try and pick the brains of as many
Speaker 1: people as I can and just try and get as
Speaker 1: much information as I possibly can which will help me
Speaker 1: become a better instructor. This is a good question. Do
Speaker 1: pro golfers have swing thoughts or is it solely focusing
Speaker 1: on landing points. I think every golfer is different, and
Speaker 1: I kind of look at golfers individually. They all kind
Speaker 1: of learn differently, They all kind of need different things.
Speaker 1: There are players that need a lot of information, there
Speaker 1: are players that don't need a lot of informations. There
Speaker 1: are players that want things complicated, and there are players
Speaker 1: that don't. I work with two players, three players really,
Speaker 1: but DJ and Brooks. They want things as simple as possible.
Speaker 1: They I don't try and impress them with my knowledge.
Speaker 1: I don't try and impress them with fancy terms. We
Speaker 1: work on very specific things. I try and stay on
Speaker 1: message with all of them and try and keep them
Speaker 1: working on the same things because I feel like I
Speaker 1: have a good idea as their coach as to what
Speaker 1: makes them great players and what makes them the best
Speaker 1: players in the world. But I do think that you
Speaker 1: have to try and figure out if you're working with
Speaker 1: someone and they're trying to compete as a player, you
Speaker 1: need to figure out what makes that player tick and
Speaker 1: what makes that player good, and how that player receives
Speaker 1: information and how that player absorbs information and what that
Speaker 1: player needs. A great example of that is at the
Speaker 1: Live event in Adelaide. Pat Perez said, listen. I know
Speaker 1: I've talked about this on the pod before the season
Speaker 1: finale for Live last year in Miami. Pat said, listen.
Speaker 1: We'd been working on hitting a fade, and he said, listen,
Speaker 1: I need to I want to go back to hitting
Speaker 1: a draw. And I feel like it's my job to
Speaker 1: listen to the player. And so we got Pat hitting draws.
Speaker 1: He played with it pretty good. We got to Adelaide
Speaker 1: and he said, listen, this course is really really tight.
Speaker 1: I feel if I could fade it, it would be
Speaker 1: much easier to me. And this was Wednesday afternoon of
Speaker 1: the tournament, and I said to Pat, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: we know what you need to do to fade it,
Speaker 1: but we've got to bust our ass. You're playing golf
Speaker 1: in a day and a half. So we hit a
Speaker 1: lot of balls Wednesday night. We had a lot of
Speaker 1: balls Thursday, did a lot of work during the practice round,
Speaker 1: and then we hit a lot of balls after the
Speaker 1: practice round, and then we hit a lot of balls
Speaker 1: before Friday to get him back to fading the golf ball.
Speaker 1: And had a legit chance to win and had a
Speaker 1: top five and you know it was a really, really
Speaker 1: good week for him. I think you have to listen
Speaker 1: to your players. You have to ask your players what
Speaker 1: shots they're trying to hit, what shots they want to hit.
Speaker 1: And again that goes back to me saying that you
Speaker 1: need to ask as many questions as possible. And last one,
Speaker 1: what body part initially starts the downswing? Single word answer.
Speaker 1: I'd love to be able to give you one word
Speaker 1: answers for that. Unfortunately there isn't a one word answer.
Speaker 1: I think it varies from player to player, and I
Speaker 1: think it definitely varies from what shot you're trying to hit.
Speaker 1: If you're trying to hit in my opinion, if you're
Speaker 1: trying to hit fades, the difference in how you start
Speaker 1: the downswing is very different than if you're trying to
Speaker 1: hit draws, and I think you've got to look at
Speaker 1: what your tendency is. As a generalization, I do think that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the downswing for the best players in
Speaker 1: the world starts from the ground up. But having said that,
Speaker 1: the two guys that I work with at fade it
Speaker 1: Brooks and DJ we're always trying to have them feel
Speaker 1: like the golf club gets more in front of them
Speaker 1: on the downswing, because when the golf club gets behind
Speaker 1: them on the downswing, they struggle. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: maybe it's a generalization, but if you're trying to fade
Speaker 1: the golf ball, the club needs to work more in
Speaker 1: front of your body than it needs to work more
Speaker 1: behind your body. But I think you've got to look
Speaker 1: at what a player does and then say, Okay, what
Speaker 1: are the keys to help them start the downswing. Some
Speaker 1: people feel it in their feet, some people feel it
Speaker 1: in their knees, some people feel it in their hips,
Speaker 1: some people feel it in their chests, some people feel
Speaker 1: it in the arms. And the golf swing. I just
Speaker 1: don't think there's a one word answer to that question.
Speaker 1: A great question, but I do think a lot of
Speaker 1: it is swing dependent and is dependent on the type
Speaker 1: of shot that you're trying to hit. So that was
Speaker 1: solo episode of the pod. Jumped around a little bit there,
Speaker 1: But like I said, I think with everything that's going
Speaker 1: on in professional golf, the most important thing for me
Speaker 1: is I think we are in an age to where
Speaker 1: we are seeing some of the best golfers and they
Speaker 1: are playing unbelievable golf, and I think golfers are playing
Speaker 1: golf all over the world on a myriad of different tours,
Speaker 1: and I think that if you are trying to pigeonhole
Speaker 1: golfers into only being great based off of the tour
Speaker 1: that they play on, I just don't get that argument,
Speaker 1: because I think we are seeing some unbelievable golfers. I
Speaker 1: think we are in a very very rich vein of
Speaker 1: form in professional golf. John Rahm, Scotti Scheffler, young guys
Speaker 1: like Tony Feenow. I think they're playing great golf on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. I think Taylor Gooch, I think Brooks Koepka.
Speaker 1: They're playing great golf on LIV. I think Nelly Corda
Speaker 1: is playing great golf on the LPGA Tour. I think
Speaker 1: there are great golfers and great golf swings in the
Speaker 1: game of golf, not on specific tours. The game of
Speaker 1: professional golf, I think right now is in a fantastic,
Speaker 1: fantastic place, and whatever side of this battle you're on
Speaker 1: that certain people want a battle to be happening, I
Speaker 1: just don't think you need to. If you like golf
Speaker 1: and you like golf swings, there is great golf being
Speaker 1: played all over the world on a lot of different tours,
Speaker 1: and I am really really excited about where because I
Speaker 1: think right now we have some tremendous players, we have
Speaker 1: some great champions, and I can't wait for the rest
Speaker 1: of this year for the major championships to see how
Speaker 1: this all plays out, because I think we are going
Speaker 1: to see some great battles. I think we are going
Speaker 1: to see some great players winning tournaments, and I think
Speaker 1: we're going to see some surprises, you know, pop up
Speaker 1: over the next three majors, And I can honestly tell
Speaker 1: you I am one hundred percent here for it and
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch it. Son of a Butcher
Speaker 1: comes to you every Wednesday. Can't thank everybody enough for listening,
Speaker 1: great review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We will
Speaker 1: see everyone next week.