Goated Podcast
The "𝐆 𝐎 𝐀 𝐓 𝐄 𝐃" podcast is a show dedicated to discussing and celebrating greatness in various aspects of life, such as sports, entertainment, business, technology, and more. Each episode features in-depth conversations, interviews with accomplished individuals, and explorations of what it means to achieve the tag 𝐆 𝐎 𝐀 𝐓 𝐄 𝐃!
Goated Podcast
Goated Podcast Episode 23 - Alec Streczywilk
In this episode of the Goated Podcast, Kevin sits down with Goated Golf's master club fitter and builder, and the lead of Goated Customs. Join us as we blend a raw recovery story with a tour through the Goated Customs Lab: how mindset speeds healing, why stability shafts matter, and where ball fitting outperforms swing tips. Clubs evolve, community grows, and the numbers back the feels.
• evolution from two molds to weighted heads and deeper milling
• Samson shaft stability test outcomes and feel retention
• counterbalance grips to tune swing weight and tempo
• golf ball fitting twice a year as the core upgrade
• grip size affecting face closure and shot shape
• driver leaders with GT3, Ping control, TaylorMade refinements
• T100 and Srixon V Sole for iron performance
• super builds, limited runs, and customization options
• accident, faith, and goaded mentality for rapid recovery
• goat club perks, private streams, fittings, and access
Join the Goat Club on the site or app. Like and subscribe!
Get in touch: Team@thegoatedpodcast.com
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If you have the right mindset and if you keep the right mindset, you can heal quickly. Like our bodies are created in a way where if you're gonna sit in your house and think about the flu and think about COVID and think about gaining weight, you could eat nothing. And I believe you'd probably gain some weight.
SPEAKER_00:Growing up in Pennsylvania, we have snow for half the year and it's cold. You know, sometimes we weren't the smartest kids, so we go to school without a hoodie. But if we had to walk home in a t-shirt, you told yourself, no, I'm not cool, I'm not cold. It's it's the same concept. And I did. Since the second I got hit by the car, you know, called good mentality. I told myself, nope, I'm fine. I'll get up and I'll walk and I'll be fine here soon. You can you can apply that to everyday life and and everything, and just set your goals, set your path, and take it on.
SPEAKER_03:All right, the goaded podcast is back. Thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for being here again. We have a very special guest today. We have the greatest club fitter, club mastermind of all time, our very own Sling East is in the building. And the first time ever, he's on the podcast as a goaded team family member. He was on the podcast, if you remember, when it was just audio. Shout out to the people that know those those pastimes. Um we've upgraded the podcast quality, we've upgraded, upgraded the podcast rooms, our business, and significantly have upgraded our clubs because of this guy. So pumped to have him on as a goaded family member. Last time he was on, he was not a part of the goaded family technically or or uh part of the team, and the last year and a half has been a game changer for us. So pumped to have him today.
SPEAKER_00:Still a year and a half. I think so. Year and a half, yeah. That was when I was with Cobra, was a club technician. Yeah, and came down to play golf with you and probably beat you. Definitely. At the time, for example. But it feels like it a year and a half uh flew by for sure. Uh it doesn't feel like it's been that long. Florida does that to people. Florida forget that and burns you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and there's no seasons. So honestly, you can't no snow. Yeah, you can't really frame of uh you have no reference because it's just all hot.
SPEAKER_00:It's just all it's all summer, it's all summer compared to Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no snow, nothing. The clubs, like I said, have been I mean, you've been a huge blessing to my family, to the business, uh all across the board. Your better half, Mrs. Slingy Stress, Ashton Stres, um my better half family. The blessing has been uh so so great for my family, and we're gonna talk about the clubs, but the business as well. So the business, when Slingy joined, we had two putter molds uh that I crafted up, Chris and I crafted up, and they were great, they were performing, but not even I had no idea what I was about to learn when I met when I met Slingy. And a lot of you listening have probably had the same experience. So he knows a ton about clubs. You'll have to in the comments for this video uh put questions that I'll ask him because we're gonna do updates like this once a once a month, probably, or once every two months. So we'll have Slingy on, we'll answer questions, we got live streams, you guys know where to find us, uh social media and everything. Um but I want to talk about the clubs first. So the clubs, the putters, right now, and I won't even speak because luckily uh been able to disconnect from it and let the experts like you do it. Um so what clubs, what what's changed since you started from the beginning?
SPEAKER_00:You had your two more, you know, your your two basic, the mallet, the blade, and the blade had a little bit much offset, was a little bigger. Um we've been through, I think, two different generations of it now. The mallet's a little you know close to the same, the blade less offset, and we changed the middling, and now we're getting into the uh heads with the weights in them. And the mallet I think is awesome. Yeah, we're now in the prototype stage of the blade, but I like it. We have small little changes for that, and then that'll be here. And now we're moving into the line go balance putter uh with the center shaft uh shaft in the center of gravity. That's huge. Uh, you've been rolling that a little bit. Marco loves that. Um, and then the wedges, we've come a long way in the wedges. Yes, since the first generation of wedges, we've made the hossle a lot longer to move the center of gravity forward and higher for uh better flights. So tons of stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, and we've got the the milling is a significant change. I didn't realize I knew that we weren't as deep as we could be, but I was also nervous to to go deeper without really knowing the science behind it uh with the milling and the design of the milling, everything on all molds. Um every puttern now, we've got no complaints through Tor, people we've talked to, and who we've which is amazing. And we didn't have many at the beginning, maybe because they were trying to be nice, right? Um, but man, the the the stuff you've added to our our hard goods has been amazing. And we have a mini driver coming.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah, the mini driver, uh, it'll be 13 degrees. That is still in the prototype stage as well, but I think that's gonna be awesome. Uh we see you know, we got our flashy colors that we always have. Uh we have the other wedges coming, 55 degree, um, like a burnt wedge, so that's gonna be nice. Uh just moving through the stages of all of it, getting better and looking better as well. The you know, a lot of the stuff is at address, a lot of its performance, and the Samson shafts are have been huge. Those are amazing. Uh, we've tested over and over again, and statistically, it's still the tightest tolerance and torque that I've seen on any shaft. Yeah, the Samson shaft. So that's a game changer. Not only does it make it look cool and flashy, but uh performance as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the Samson shafts. So the Samson shaft's strongest character in the Bible was awesome. We both kind of landed on that quickly. Um and then you designed, I mean, these were it's it's amazing because we I joke about and I've talked on other podcasts about like not sleeping, goats don't sleep. But um it's been a blessing to see I'll wake up, even when I go to sleep two or three in the morning, you're still going and creating stuff, and one of those nights you had the Samson chefs, and I had no idea. I always played whatever you told me as soon as you moved here, but the ability um for a Samson or for a strong shaft, zero torque shaft, to turn the whole club face into a sweet spot, really, or to control the line. Talk about that because I had no idea, and I bet people listening, why a stability shaft is important.
SPEAKER_00:With these with the regular steel shaft, you know, and this is the best way I can explain it, um, to create a picture. You know, uh I've seen this testing, I've done this testing, have a robot and you have two of the same exact putters. You have one with a regular steel shaft, one with, you know, like our Samson shaft. Ten feet away with the same exact putter head, one with steel, one with Samson, you go ten millimeters out of the toe. Just from ten feet away in that steel shaft, you can miss an inch to the right, you know, if you go ten millimeters out of the toe. That Samson shaft isn't going to miss right, it's gonna go straight down the center. So everybody thinks that they're going to strike their putter perfectly, just like they think they can strike their irons perfectly. And nobody out there except for the guys on tour are 100% of the time. And me. And both of us. So if you can protect that whole entire face, it turns these amateur golfers uh short game just tighter tolerances and uh more consistent putts, which is the key.
SPEAKER_03:Makes sense. I hadn't I had no idea on it. And the Samsung Shaft has kind of proven um proven that for us. We had a couple guys testing uh on the tour and tour bags and tour fitters, and we're fascinated by it, and then they tested the strength, and it's statistic statistically forgive my list, statistically the strongest torque, lowest torque.
SPEAKER_00:So we're under a de uh we're under a full degree of torque sitting at exactly 0.0 or 0.6, um, which is incredible, and it gives you that blend of feel, like I said, look and performance, which is what you want. You don't you you know you can get all the performance in the world, but if it doesn't feel great, um if you can't feel where you're missing still, because that's the key. Having the tight tolerance, the low torque, and still knowing where you're striking the ball. If you don't know where you're striking the ball, you're just gonna get worse and worse. With you know, luckily the shaft will protect you, but you you kind of need the blend of everything. Yeah. Look, feel, performance, and this the Samson shaft for sure does that. The feedback on it's been awesome. Everybody that we've built them for even builds them themselves.
SPEAKER_03:And we have like 20 colors or 30 colors, yeah, and more coming. It's awesome. Yeah, yeah, because the complaint I had when I found out about stability shafts or any shaft that was a zero torque was there's like two colors. There's a jet black or a white or whatever, or they have flowers all over it, or whatever it is that are hard to match. So we're changing the game there, and that's credit to you. Um, God leading us and God bringing us together has been uh the real the real goat. But I'm pumped that um you have those. And and I would imagine when we met and when we talked, a lot of people are gonna sprint to that other episode. If you don't sprint to that other episode after this and listen and see the the the change and like how much he benefited joining us as a staff, um the the customization has completely changed, but the performance and the um opportunities with our clubs and then being the strongest and the greatest, like we've talked about and you've really hammered down uh for us is you can't be called goaded unless you have the greatest clubs, the greatest milling, the greatest shaft, greatest grip. And you did the grips too, actually.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, the yes, the uh counterbalance grips. So you you know, the stock ones that we have on our putters have the magnetic ball marker. Um I figured we kind of needed something different, something for fittings and dialing in swing weights, things like that, because uh handing these putters to people, you get mixed reviews. Um, not in the sense of bad or good, but in the sense of, oh, this feels heavy, or this is perfect in weight, you know, different things like that. So the counterbalance allows us to adjust swing weight, total weight, and trick the player's mind a little bit into what they're feeling, which is a good thing because that allows them to either forward press when they need to or not, or be comfortable. Yeah, be comfortable and and feel good with what they're playing with. It's huge.
SPEAKER_03:That the weighted grips, I know you always rocked with us. Yeah. I loved them when I would try your putter gamer, and and from the beginning you were like, okay, we're almost there, and to complete what I really like and what you really like has proven thousands. We've had 80,000 customers that have probably come through with a build um of yours or asking you for advice, maybe not a build entirely, but um haven't had a single return or anyone, which is crazy, anyone in a year and a half go, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Yeah, and there's people saying that about every fitter, every person out there, like ah, he's not for me. So that's that's a huge credit to you.
SPEAKER_00:Unfortunately, that's part of the job because everybody also thinks that you come to somebody like me that's been a club technician or a fitter, and they just sprinkle some magic dust on your golf clubs and it happens. You know, sometimes, yes, it does it work like that, absolutely, but 99.9% of the time it's not. It's time, it's effort from the player, and the the best that I can do is put what I know is going to help you in your hands and make sure that you you practice with it, work with it, and do your job. So that there's always two two sides to fitting the fitter and the player, and both sides are equally important.
SPEAKER_03:That's huge. The last thing on fitting side, because I there was this blew my mind when we started to get to know you and started to let you cook, I call it, right? The ball fitting. So ball fitting you said is one of the most important things ever. I hear John Daly say the grip fitting is one of the most important things ever. And I learned a ton from you on both of those. The grip, I was playing the wrong grips, it's hard to turn the ball over. I didn't realize that a grip change could cause you uh to have your miss, right? It could be just a grip thing. So if you want to talk about those two things and maybe if your opinions change on what the most important fitting is, or still in my mind, it's a golf ball.
SPEAKER_00:It's the it's the only piece of equipment that you're going to use on every single shot. Um you know, like you hear people say with the putter, it's you use it the most, but the most used piece of equipment is the golf ball. It matters how it flies, how it rolls, everything. Um a lot of people skip over that. A golf ball fitting can dial in and locate your biggest errors and your most consistent points too. So whenever you're in account of launch, spin, ball speed, everything. And it's not something that you should just do once. Whenever you, you know, a ball fitting is something you should do a couple times a year. Yeah, every six months I would say, because uh, you know, as a golf player, you know this as a golfer, you your swing changes, yeah, your attitude changes, everything. You you might after six months have uh more downward attack angle or more spin if you changed irons.
SPEAKER_03:I get stronger like every couple days.
SPEAKER_00:So strength. Yeah, strength. Um but yeah, every every six months I re I recommend doing a golf ball fitting. It's it's the most looked over part of the game when it shouldn't be, because it's the most used uh piece of equipment in the bag and it's important. And then grips is another thing. Grips is it's not as imp I don't want to say not as important because it's important, but just like with you, I noticed a lot of times in fittings, everybody wanted these big grips because it felt good in their hand and they could control the club. But then there's times where you can't turn it over as much. Think about it. If you have a huge steering wheel, it takes you a lot longer to turn that steering wheel to start turning right, is if you have a smaller same thing with a grip. You have a jumbo size grip on there, you might not be able to turn that driver head over as fast or as close as you know, as fast to close a point of impact as you want to. So smaller grip sometimes can help people turn it over, and vice versa. So uh fitting isn't everything, but it's a lot of the game that people will skip over. Yeah. Uh being comfortable is just as important too.
SPEAKER_03:It's huge. No, that's uh all of that still. It actually during while you're saying that, I'm like, I need to get out of here and go get a ball fitting. I don't even play the right ball.
SPEAKER_00:I yeah, I need to do one for myself as well.
SPEAKER_03:The simulators we both are pumped for, but we'll have the goaded clubhouse open soon, a month or two, we're hoping, uh before the end of the year for sure. And gold members will get access to that, and then luckily we'll have the key to that. So we'll be able to do some virtual virtual fittings and stuff. Um so also I'll say too, if you haven't seen, I mean, we got hats. This Florida, this Florida hat is amazing. Slingy is responsible for those. So you'll see a lot of our team wearing mornings with Marco wearing these custom hats. He's also got, and he's the head of our goaded customs, so he's been doing some sick stuff. He's got a backpack, he's got bags, he's created for you for people. Yeah. So get in with Slingy. He's he's got a full phone, but follow him on Instagram, follow goaded customs, um, and stay near um wherever he goes and what he's doing with us because you can get some sick stuff. A lot a lot of you guys listening have better stuff than I do, and you deserve it because you're the customers. But um, so he's the thank for that. A lot of people comment like, where is where'd they get that hat? And I'm like, that's a one of one. That's a sling creation. I love it. I love the one of ones. It's huge. Um and then so in the goaded world, uh we talk about um goaded mentality a lot. So g Slingy, if you if you followed Slingy, which a lot of you have and um have seen him, he was a late night, he was the late the late night show when he was in Pennsylvania. Yep and still kind of is for goad, he still is for goaded, but he does all all the times. He's sleeping a lot, well a lot less, probably the same amount. Probably a lot less. He tried to go carnivore, he's tried to be a better person, which I'm so pumped for his choices he's made, and uh, and me too. We're all have we all have things we're working on. But I told him I was gonna ask him today, and he might be a little nervous about that. Just just like what it's been to try to be better as we grow up, and you were younger when um I feel like way younger when you met us, but you've made huge strides, and I'm blessed to to call you brother and to have someone I always want around me. And at the time, you're a person that everyone wants to be around. It's a it's a curse. It's a curse sometimes, but it's a blessing. It's what's God what God's given us. And you have a contagious laugh, contagious humor, and you've used it for good. So I want to say that on here. I didn't tell you I was gonna say that, but um, I'm grateful for you, and I love you on that. I wanted you to touch on maybe that journey that it's been.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's been a crazy journey. Um, and I love sharing this with people. A lot of people don't know that coming from Pennsylvania to here it helped me just as much as I, you know, and claim to help goaded. Yeah. Um moving my family down here, my son, my girlfriend, um, it's changed all of us. You know, you guys have helped us get back closer um with God and improving ourselves. Um just just the everyday grind puts in a schedule for me and gives me a reason to get better. But uh moving from Pennsylvania changed me a lot because like I said, the the first off the routine, um, it gave me a mission, and the most important part for me is it put me around people that cared and wanted to see me do better. And that's that's meant so much to me, my son, everybody. And uh it's been it's been great. And it's you know, there's only more work to do, but it's getting better. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:No, you took a big risk, and I know there's been times where like brothers, well, we never really actually my brothers and I fought way more. We don't really fight. We have a great time. But but just the the risk that you took and the the brave the courage that you and Ariel had um to do it, and I'm s I was praying constantly, we all prayed about it, obviously. And um and it was a trial run at first, and we were kind of just make sure it worked. Yep. Um, and I hope it lasts forever, of course, and we wouldn't be where we're at. And you've impacted all of us because seeing that, like you've like our followers and you've impacted our staff too, to go, man, he's making a change, and he's still the funny guy. He doesn't drink as much as he used to, he doesn't do this, and it motivated me to to stop doing those things, things that in my life were going, man, get some extra sleep. We got a mission, we got a we got the the goaded clubs coming in tomorrow, and and and beyond that, just the shipments are way more fun to receive because they're cool stuff. It's way cooler stuff that we got. I built my own putter the other day, and I went back towards your station and stood on the customer side, and I'm like, the options we have are insane. I'm picking the ferrule, the the paint fill.
SPEAKER_00:It's a playground. I mean uh there's been a couple guys recently coming in, you know, it's and it's awesome to have guys come into the shop and they're just going, What can I do? And me and your brother Kyle are standing back there, and we kind of looked at each other and we're like, actually, like anything. Yeah, you can do anything. Uh, which head do you have? And we helped them lay out some options, and just the amount of options we have to put a putter together is insane, which is what you want. The customization, like I said, you gotta look cool, it's gotta feel good, gotta perform. So the options is endless. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it's getting better too because we got more stuff coming. It's awesome. Um, so last time we talked, I can't remember. I know Tom Brady's the goat. We all know that. I shouldn't have taken that from you, but um goats in your life. Goat who's the greatest, who's the greatest of all time still? Is it still Tom Brady and who are some other ones? And then um you follow UFC more than most of our staff. We all lean on you for Saturday night picks and and who's gonna win.
SPEAKER_00:But I do like UFC. Tom Brady is my first, he's my number one goat, he's the man. And then I do acknowledge Michael Jordan is the basketball goat. Um UFC, for me, it's John Jones. But if you want to talk, current Alex Pereira's on a heater right now. Uh, so those are some of my goats. And then this is a really weird one. We went over this last time I was on the podcast, but my goat in golf is Dustin Johnson. Oh, yeah. The heater that he went on about three years ago, it was the most dominant golf I have ever watched. I I didn't watch golf through the Tiger era, and I know that he was crazy, but I didn't really see all that. So for me, watching it, Dustin Johnson is a dog.
SPEAKER_03:We lost half the listeners on golf listeners there. No, I think that's what you said last time. Did I say that? He's I've got to meet him, he's great. I think we both got to spend some time. We actually have the Aces, we got to spend time at the Aces booth with Paulina Gretzky. His dad is a goat. Yeah, his brother was great to us, and he's a good dude. He's on a little bit of a I mean, he's basically retired golfing.
SPEAKER_00:He's fishing and collecting bags at lift.
SPEAKER_03:So he was he had a dominant run. He's he's definitely a stud. His swing, um, they've always said one of the better swings in the back. Yeah. The golf game is insane. We didn't talk about this as much last time, but um, we're in a stage right now and it's it the golf season's kind of on a little break. A couple weeks they pick up some smaller events. But um we got to go to some live events.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Got to go to two. E Live Miami. Live Miami. And I think yeah, I think that was it.
SPEAKER_03:We'll go to some more this year. Um unfortunately, like uh the majors. Well, uh no, there was only one guy on the Ryder Cup, right? Bryson. Bryset and Liv. Yeah. Um so Liv seems to be right now a little bit falling off. Hopefully they they have some strategy. John Rahm was phenomenal. John Rahm was phenomenal. Not in the Ryder Cup, maybe as much, but um, but what do you think? Like, what do you do you like did you like to watch Live when we went to that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so at first, whenever they did this split and Live became a thing, I was more excited about it than most. And now I'm starting to see why everybody wasn't because it does just drag these guys away from each other. What we want at the professional level in any sport is the best playing the best. So with the Live and PGA splitting up, it does feel like we're missing a little bit of that. But then on the flip side, it makes these majors more important again because then they're all coming back together to play in these majors, and it's the first time in a while that we get to see them back together and competing. So I have mixed reviews on it, and I'm still kind of waiting. I know we had heard that there they might be merging together again or allowing uh world points and stuff like that from Live. So it'd be interesting. Yeah, I flip-flop on it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I hope they have some plan or merger, which we all do, I think, every golfer.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I at this point you you want to see them back together and the best competing with the best again.
SPEAKER_03:So we joke about like Slingy is one of the greater simulator players I've ever I've ever seen. I am one of the worst simulator players that can play golf. I don't know what it is. I can't visualize the simulator, I can't commit, I don't know, and inside that box. Um and I say that to say TGL, it's not a box, but it's simulator golf. Right, right. Um, we both tried to watch it. I didn't really get your take on it. They're starting another season.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, that's the only problem. I I can imagine being there is amazing. You see the clips and you know the social media highlights from the TGL, but watching at home, it's a little boring. But I personally do love playing simulator golf. I love being able to see the numbers while I play. And for me, all as I you know, I I shape a couple shots and I know exactly what I'm doing. I get to see my spin rate, how I'm releasing the club. So it helps me then translate it to the course and know, okay, if I do this, this is gonna happen. If I do this, this won't happen. Um, so I I I love simulator golf, and I played on the SGT tour for a while, and I love that. Uh but TGL, I think, I think just a couple tweaks and they can get it rolling. It's it's a good concept. Yeah, we'll go to one, it's right across the alley.
SPEAKER_03:I got invite we got invited a couple times, we were just busy last year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But it looks like a fun in terms of it like in person, it looks amazing. All the seating and stuff with the greens and the sand around the green that moves, it looks pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I heard somebody compare it to, I don't know if I told you this, so I heard someone say, Um, I think it was Bob Kepka, I think he said it's cool because there are complaints of when you ask your wife or girlfriend to um when men ask their wife or girlfriend to watch golf or a new friend to watch golf that's never watched golf, right? And you watch golf on TV, you watch Tony Final if you like Tony Finale, and you might not see him but every 40 minutes because it takes time in between every shot. Yep. Where if you really like Tony Final and he's on TGL, you get to watch him hit the first shot, five minutes later, the next shot, the next shot, the next shot, yeah, and you get to see him what he's doing in between shots, too. I never heard it like that. So that makes me a little bit more understanding of the simulator.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And especially if they can get some more of these guys playing in it say it's the same kind of thing we were talking about with Liv and PGA. I want the best of the best to play. Yeah. I want to see Bryson on, you know, crush a ball into the simulator screen. Yeah. I want to see John Rahm out of the bunker, you know, in a human-made green and sand and all of that. So I think, like I said, a little bit of tweaks, and and we get these golfers back together doing all of this, and the golf world's just gonna take off even more, in my opinion. That's so true.
SPEAKER_03:Golf um is in the break right now that I said we've got football and fall swing. Do you uh and hockey's back? So we got to go to the Stanley Cup, and I've converted slinging, probably most importantly, to a Panthers fan. Uh we got to go to both game sevens. Yep. Or both Stanley Cup championships, second one went to game six, and we both have become huge hockey fans, and we weren't before we met each other, really. Credit to Johnny and Chris, of course, the the DC boys that got us in into hockey. Um, but the rules seem to be so much better than most other professionals.
SPEAKER_00:Hockey is by far the most entertaining sport to watch. And I was not a huge hockey fan before. Um, I've been to some Penguin games, but there's nothing like a game seven in the Stanley Cup finals. I mean, that was probably the the coolest event I've ever been to. That's awesome. And yeah, just the rules and the you know, the relaxedness of the the the refs, letting them play, everything. Hockey's hockey's real man sport. Real man, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And those uh the drama, there's like no drama there. These guys go get stitches on their back in like five minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no twist ankles. Oh, I gotta I gotta go sit. No, they're out there and skating around and just being menaces. I love it. It's huge.
SPEAKER_03:Um, so talk about the um golf industry, because I don't even know. I mean, goaded's all always on our mind. We have irons coming out, but who's since we don't fully since we're not fully into drivers and irons right now, let's talk drivers and irons. Who's dominating the golf space with drivers and irons or who's performing?
SPEAKER_00:I love I love talking about this because for a long time we'll go drivers. For a long time, Taylor Maid was the master of the driver. It had the best, just the biggest uh low spin monster ball out of anybody. I say this to you all the time. Yeah the original sim to me was the best, just longest driver. I don't want to say best because that includes everything, but the longest driver was the original sim. It was amazing. This everybody loved the sim 2. The sim 2 was a great driver, the M2, you know, you see Rory still talk about his M2. Um Taylor Maid was the king of drivers, and most recently, in my opinion, since they switched to the Carbon Faces, which myself, I exploded, I'd say four of the original stealth heads and two of the stealth twos. After that, I took a break and I went to Titalist. So now I would say in the last couple years with the TSR and the GT, Titleist has the overall best driver I've ever seen. Still to this day, the sim is the longest. But as far as consistency and spin, um, ball speeds, and all around this the GT3 has just changed the game for me personally. And I just think it's one of the best drivers. Of course, you always have your ping, it's gonna be straight, not too long, straight. Callaway's kind of turning that way, in my opinion. Um, although the Elite's a great driver. And Taylor Maid's getting better with the carbon face. I don't know how long they'll keep that, but the QI35 seems to be better, um, a little more controllable, um, but title us right now is title. Yeah, and uh and irons or irons irons are. Always, I would say irons are almost a toss-up every year that we get in release season. Um, a couple years back, the Taylor-made P7 MCs, if you're a player towards that player's uh category, were amazing. And then Title List dropped T100s. When Titleist dropped T100s, they took over. Um, it's an amazing iron, you can't deny it. And nobody really was catching them, I would say, until these last two years. And nobody would guess this because it's not a huge um brand you talk about when you're talking about irons. No, but Srixon has been amazing. They're a little more low spin, but the V Sole on the Srixon is really what like separates them. So their V Soul is really good for guys with steep attack angles. And I would say I would say the iron is a little bit lower spin. And you know, most amateur golfers think, oh, lower spin, better, but not really. Irons, you want a little more spin. So that's the only bit of downfall and criticism I would put on Srixon, but they're the only ones that are right there with the T100s and in uh fighting for top position, in my opinion. It's good to know.
SPEAKER_03:I like, I mean, the first Srixan you put us in, we we signed with Srixan, yeah, was great. Uh love the irons. Um a nut job. Like, the ZX7s are awesome. Awesome. Yeah. The golf ball. Now, if you have the goaded golf ball, we had a hundred boxes, I think, or two hundred boxes. They went for 700 bucks. Uh one or a box of them. Someone bought um five in a box, so whatever. They they were they were going flying off the shelf. So we started to um slow down on those and kind of hoard some for testing. They're a great golf ball. But what's the greatest golf ball? It's not in production goaded yet.
SPEAKER_00:But the golf ball is my favorite piece of equipment to test. I've done countless, countless testings on golf balls. I've stayed up and you know, stayed nights in simulators till three in the morning to five in the morning, testing golf balls. I love it. I love taking the same club and hitting different balls and figuring out different trajectories, spin rates, ball speeds, all of it. So this is a little weird, but the and and not a lot of people will answer this way, but the best golf ball for me, and I've tested it time and time again, has always been the Vice Pro Plus. You see me play with them. I love them. Stop, cut, cut. They they have always performed the best for me. Do they last the longest? No. But if you're talking brand new golf ball, performance all around from T to green, for me it's a Vice Pro Plus. Of course, nobody's ever going to beat the consistency of title list with their Pro B1s, Pro B1 X. They're amazing. Um, and I always get the question: if there was one golf ball that you could fit into everybody in the world, what would it be? My answer is always the same Callaway Chrome Soft. So you can kind of take the you know, all of that and blend it together. There's being a fitter and you know, somebody likes to critique the numbers, there's not necessarily the best, but there's a yeah, there's a best for me, there's a best for somebody out there. But like I said, if I had to fit everybody in the world under one golf ball, it would probably be the Chrome Soft, Chrome Tour. Now they call it Chrome Tour. Love it. Good to know. Chrome Soft fits all, I mean, over the realm of them, more handicaps and it's yeah, it's a it's a soft ball, but it has um you know a firmer balls tendencies where you lower, more controlled flight, um, spin with the wedges and irons, long off the T. Uh it's it's all around Great Ball. Love it.
SPEAKER_03:I wanted to use um the studio time, honestly, transparently, to um tell our story about some resale stuff that we've had. And no better time to do it than with you because we joke about being the goat streamer of the building and um we stream. If you're not, it's not a chat. Um we've had some slingy builds, some cut goated customs that have gone for crazy numbers. Let's let's brag, so we'll let you know. I'm pretty good at that. I'm pretty good at bragging.
SPEAKER_00:No, I love it. No, no, uh, I like obviously I love testing everything, but we have we've gotten in shafts, this and that, and anytime that I can get a mix that I can see in my head, I like to build it and then we test it, play with it, and then we run it. Um that's the that's the fun that that's the fun part of what we do. You know, we we do get to see a lot and play with a lot of different things that a lot of people uh can't just go out and have access to. So that that's probably my favorite part of the job. It's huge. Yeah, it's yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So Slingy invented the phrase, and we've all stolen it, but other streamers, other people are streaming or are stealing it called a super build. And let the record show he was the first one to ever say it. I was. And or maybe me, whichever. Give one of us credit. No, it's good. Super build Saturdays was one of the things he thought of, and super builds. We had a super build go for what's the highest, what's the highest putter we've sold?
SPEAKER_00:The highest super build that I've had go for was 2250, and it was one of our more uh rare, I think, blades, and we had built it as a super build through a countercore grip on it, uh, did a couple custom paint lines, and yeah, I think 2250 is 225.
SPEAKER_03:2250 is the cap. So in a couple months, we'll be able to update. It'll be more than that because he always is trying to top it. We had a couple go for 1800 bucks, 1900 bucks. There are putters out there that I will pay personally a thousand dollars for that I started with that we tried to hunt down, literally lost an eBay battle to buy one of our putters back. Our goat club, we have people that have a$150,000,$200,000 collection that are goat club followers. Shout out to you guys. Um, and we're grateful for it. We're not stopping, we're gonna keep going. Absolutely. Uh the putter heads, uh, we're gonna start getting putter heads in because we have so many customization options. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But the one with the weights is amazing. It's amazing. The milling, we went deeper with the milling, we changed the milling pattern. Um, and we're going to have options on what weight you want to have in that head, which is huge because we're talking about swing weight, and it just adds to the endless amount of options we have to not only look better but actually play better.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. The putter heads uh with the weights in it, we only have mallet right now, but those have been going for 350 to 400 bucks. They will be probably more than that. There was only a hundred made. Slingy designed every inch of these things over the last couple months, and then the blades are coming in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the blades, the um I'm I'm a blade guy, so I'm super excited about the blades. I got, like I said, it's I call it prototype stage. I have uh a couple of small changes that we're just kind of working through, but I think that's just gonna be as as good or if not better.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then the two iron is almost here, so we'll be able to talk about that in a couple months. So a lot of people will pre-order that. That's on the website. Wedges are getting better. Um but I wanted to take the time again. I know we already talked about it to kind of talk about goaded and anything that obviously you can dream now as a customer, we can build. And I say we and we're saying we more, but we've got the club guy to do it. Um and beyond that, um we I I want to say thank you to you and to the people listening that obviously none of it's possible. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without the customer purchasing stuff, right? And the customer visiting and then coming back to us for super builds or upgrading their putter and repainting their putter and and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00:The go the goat club members, all of them. They're they're all like you said, they're the reason that we can do all this. I I love them. I do the streaming and I love doing the streaming. You know, that was something we even discussed. If I wanted to do more of the building and and do the club stuff, I you know, I could stop at the stream, but I love spending time with them and they're the reason we can do all of it. So I love it. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:And the private shows for the goat club members. Yep. We're talking a lot about the goat club, which I love. The goat club's a pivotal part of our business. Join the goat club, it's on the website, it's on the app. Um, but if you're a member of the goat club, you're gonna get access to private shows at the end of this month.
SPEAKER_00:You're also slingy. You know, you can get the ball fittings, yeah, which we talked about. Uh club fitting, yeah. There's so many perks. There's perks to it.
SPEAKER_03:And once a month you get a build for free, you get the labor. You get a lot of, and most importantly, it's not a joke, you get access to Slingy. So you get some better access to Slingy, which we all don't uh we all don't uh scoff at, basically, right? We're I'm grateful for it. So uh check out go to golf, check out the the app, follow goaded customs, follow Slingy stress. We're gonna be playing uh our YouTube. We have some great YouTube videos out there, we're gonna get better uh with those. These episodes are on YouTube as well. Um but if you want to see Slingy play, he's got some videos on YouTube with us at Goaded Golf Official. I unfortunately I only post I only post the ones where I beat him.
SPEAKER_00:Let's just skip over those. I think we have to take those off the camera.
SPEAKER_03:But he's got an amazing swing and a good game, and he's back on track because uh right before oh, that's the last thing I was gonna talk about, is right before he got hit, he got hit in an accident, which I want him to share about if he's okay with it. Um he shot five or six under at a course we play all yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I had three rounds in the 60s. I think I went 69, 67, and then 68. And two of them were courses I'd never played before. So I was getting right there leading up to the world in, and I I I told you I was working and I was gonna make sure I was at the top of my game. And then sure enough, you know, I I got hit by a car, and it took me back a little bit, but fought through it, and I've just been slowly getting there. I've I got to play golf a little pretty quickly after. Yeah, but um I'm just working back from that. I'm not quite a hundred percent yet, but I'm getting there. I've had a couple good rounds at the Ryder Cup, I had a couple decent rounds. Yeah. And the other day I went out, shot a decent round, but not quite a hundred percent yet, but I'm getting there.
SPEAKER_03:This uh he's he's being humble right now, which is not often. He uh work he was moving the golf ball, and I told guys on staff, I'm like, this guy, he's borderline before he got hit by a car, was borderline like we should sponsor him to get in some events, because you shoot in the 60s that many times. Um but he's always been good. He scrambles and and we're similar players, although he's got way more agility built for it and better knowledge on the golf camp. Um the accident he was in was uh a crazy day for all of us, obviously, him uh most importantly. Um but he rides uh an electric bike to work and he's had a he's got a history of motocross and he's ridden ridden bikes, raced, and so we we never really feared that, although I was always praying that he was safe because we'd leave the office at midnight together or one in the morning, and I I know he's hopping on the bike and I'm driving home. Um but God protected him for a long time um and still is protecting all of us, but he was hit by a car uh at the driver's fault. And when our guys got the call, I was on a stream, I was streaming, um, and I saw them sprint out and I didn't think anything of it.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, you you were yeah, you were on stream. That's wild.
SPEAKER_03:Um we were able to pray for you on stream because someone said it uh that happened. I'm like, no, no way. You were on the way to the office. But um the bike was literally in this guy's leg. The handlebars were in his leg, uh, missed you, missed his main artery by a fraction of an inch. Yeah. And he pulled it out like a Vin Diesel movie. Like he's Mission Impossible. Pulled the handlebars, and then we're talking like what, three weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, just a little over three weeks ago, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And he goffed, he's probably golfed 12 rounds since then. Yeah. Uh the doctor that um stapled him up. I was in the hospital with him and uh Ariel, and he was like, This you're you shouldn't be alive, number one.
SPEAKER_00:He said it was a record to the closest he's seen to somebody not dying. From he said it was literally a millimeter away from the main artery of my leg, and it was the record for the close. Yeah, most staples, everything. He was like, It's it's it's a miracle. But you guys say this, and your brother said this, this still sticks me to this day. Obviously, you know, God has a plan for me because there have been so many incidents and times that I've been, you know, what we call lucky, and uh so that that sticks with me, and I know that I gotta keep getting better, keep fighting and doing what I'm doing, and stay on the path I'm on because I'm meant to be doing it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no, it's that's an amazing word. That that uh is definitely true. We all know that, everyone listening that, and um I'm just oh that the staples, I still am getting flashbacks now, and the fact that like the world am was like five days away, you would have definitely won it. I played terrible in it. Um and you were telling the doctor, you're like, Oh, I got a tournament in five days. Literally couldn't make it, couldn't walk 32 inch 32 staples or 40 almost staples. And um, now just a champion. And he did say, like, I heal pretty quickly, so you'll be you'll be surprised, Doc. Like, I'll get these out quicker than that.
SPEAKER_00:Cause I asked him as he stapled me, I said, Do you think I'm gonna make the world am? And like he said, it was like a week or something, and he looks at me like I'm crazy. I'm like, well, like then we have the Ryder Cup, and I'm I'm gonna play in that. He's like, No, sure enough though.
SPEAKER_03:And he did. Yeah, I did. And shot on shot in the 60s at the Ryder Cup, and I don't want to talk about that. That was disgusting. Um but just uh a testament again to the goat, the goated mentality, and honestly, like we've talked about not not a ton, but we I I'm a firm believer that obviously God created us perfectly, wonderfully made. If you have the right mindset, and if you keep the right mindset, you can heal quickly. Like our bodies are created in a way where if you're gonna sit in your house and think about the flu and think about COVID and think about gaining weight, you could eat nothing. And I believe you'd probably gain some weight. So get a better mindset, get a positive mindset. And he said it from the beginning. While he's getting stapled up and under morphine and everything and almost dying, he's gone, oh I heal quickly. God's got me in his mind, and he knows we're praying for him. We prayed for him right away, my dad and I uh being there, and I know we know God has a plan. And if and if today's not if today's your last day, we also have that assurance now that God's got uh God's got us will be in his arms when our day is is uh our day comes. So take advantage of every day. He's motivated us through that uh accident, and a lot of you and a lot of you got to see uh clips of it on the Ryder Cup, YouTube, and um in person, some of you that he bounced back faster than everybody because his mentality was there. He's talking about it.
SPEAKER_00:The go-to mentality is real. You know, this was something we we did when we were kids growing up in Pennsylvania. We have snow for half the year and it's cold. You know, sometimes we we weren't the smartest kids, so we go to school without a hoodie. But if we had to walk home in a t-shirt, you told yourself, no, I'm not cool, I'm not cold. It's it's the same concept. And I did every since the second I got hit by the car, you know, called go to go to mentality. I told myself, nope, I'll I'll I'm fine. I'll I'll get up and I'll walk and I'll be fine here soon. You can you can apply that to everyday life and and everything, and just set your goals, set your path, and take it on.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, love it. Well, that's no better time to to call it on this episode. And and go to mentality, every package, every shipment gets the go to mentality booklet, which slingy's a part of, and and me writing writing that is family to me that we're part of that that booklet. So if you don't have the go to mentality and you don't have the positivity in your life right now, uh we want hopefully this to encourage you. God's got you, we got you, you can hit us up. We have an email called or email uh god is good at go to.gov, even if we don't know you and you're listening to this, send us an email, we'll be there for you. Pray for you, we'll call you, um, whatever's needed, because we got you. God's blessed us, we want to be a blessing to you all. Um if there's anything in your golf game, we got the best guys to do it too. Um so pick your head up. If you get knocked down, get back up. When you're down, know that that's not down, you're just getting ready to bounce back and uh don't let anything defeat you. God's not gonna let you go through anything you can't handle. God's not playing this puppet game of uh let me just put him through this, put him through this, and then crush. It's all to make us stronger. All of it's like going to the gym. You got to go through some things. You pray for patience, you're gonna get opportunities to be patient. You're not gonna get patience. God giving you patience is not gonna be um that's not the best answer. He'd rather give you stuff to make you resilient, to make you more patient, right? To prepare you to be the best you can be. So go to mentality was a big part of this. I appreciate that. Uh the club stuff, you'll see in a month. We'll have to get back together and you'll hear the updates in a month. Yeah. Go follow Goaded Customs, go download the GoToDGolf app. Like and subscribe and share these uh podcasts, please. We love you. We thank you. Thank you for being on the show, Slingy Stress. We'll see you next time.
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