My Golf Source
Attention Golf Enthusiasts! Level up your golf game with hosts Darren Penquite and Noah Horstman, PGA as they keep you up to date on the latest trends, equipment, training aids and more. Learn tips and tricks from PGA Professionals to lower your score and grow your love for the game of golf.
My Golf Source
From Garage to Golf Greatness: The MyGolfSource Evolution
Welcome to the MyGolfSource podcast. Oh my gosh, Noah, we're actually doing this thing. Can you believe it? No, I can't. We've been talking about it for what A year.
Speaker 2:I mean it's finally happening and it's finally happened.
Speaker 1:The my Golf Source podcast I love the sound of that Is coming at you from the golf garage, which is it used to be a garage and now it is one of the most state-of-the-art golf training facilities in the nation absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've got a few things to offer, don't you think yeah?
Speaker 1:got a foresight simulator, bays got tour putt, I mean we're what the? Putting green. What do you call this thing? It's the size of a football field.
Speaker 2:Largest in the state of Oregon, one of the largest in the country.
Speaker 1:So we got it all going on. We got the outdoor chipping and putting area outside with a real bunker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean when you look at that you got everything within 50 feet that you can practice and get your game sharp.
Speaker 1:So the only thing the golf garage was missing was a podcast to tell the world about it. I mean, and here we are, and here we are.
Speaker 2:We're doing it. It's go time, we're here.
Speaker 1:So you know very few people. I mean, everybody's heard of Topgolf, everybody's heard of all these. You know golf simulator things. People go to drink, eat, socialize, have a good time. But something that is so dedicated to taking people's golf game to the next level is something that I had never heard of before. And I'm just, you know, your average golf enthusiast who shoots in the nineties when I go out and play. But this is such a cool concept. Tell me about where it began, what the thought process was and your journey to get to where we're at today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I mean 15 years in the making, right? So you learn trial and error. You know, I've been all over the country at this point teaching golf and you go club to club and my, my mind is a little too entrepreneurial for a lot of unfortunately. So you know, finally I just had to do it myself and I think that's really where, where this stemmed from, was just saying hey, man, I want to grow the game at the highest level, I want to be able to do something for brand new golfers, but I also want to do something for a tour player and we want to have the best of everything. And 20,000 square feet later, but that's not where it started. So pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:So the golf garage name came from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so backstory goes, we were teaching out of my garage at my house With two simulator bays. Two simulator bays, 520 square feet. It was incredible. I mean it was one of those things where West Coast Golf Academy was formed a few years back and we've got five PGA coaches and the winter was coming and we just noticed a big drop off in lessons in the winter. Obviously in Southern Oregon is still good, but people do not want to go outside in that.
Speaker 1:No, I'm one of them.
Speaker 2:No, so, uh, you know we're, we're in the middle of this like 1950 home renovation, just cleaning it up. And next thing, you know, I'm like man, my garage is a storage unit. I got to get all this out, clean it all out. And then one of our coaches comes over, ryan, and we are hanging drywall, like literally like clean this out. Two weeks later we're hanging drywall, we're like finishing this thing out, got a simulator on the way created up and you know it turned into one of the coolest things we had. You know, we had this like backside access Right. So it's not like people are just coming in and out of my driveway. But man, but they were, they were Right. So we're, I mean, you know, I mean your son, your son was coming up you know, talking about invading on your personal space, but I mean, the neighbors were great.
Speaker 2:Luckily, they were all taking lessons too. But it was an incredible experience to say this is a concept that can be proven and a year in, we were growing so fast that we, like man, this could be a legit business and it's something that I've always wanted to do and be able to grow the game at the highest level. We're like we got to be bigger, right like so. So this was scary because we're going from something where it's just a home. You know there's a mortgage.
Speaker 1:Inviting people over to your personal house for oh man, oh man.
Speaker 2:Luckily, we knew most of them. But I mean at the same time, yeah, yeah, we'll just say that we were ready to have our house back by the end. Um, and on top of that, during that whole process, I'm also building my wife a Pilates studio from scratch your wife.
Speaker 1:it's like we're going to put ourselves millions of dollars in debt. What's in it for me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right, right. So so we build this building from scratch. Never done that before. And, uh, you know, my wife is an incredible Pilates instructor, first of all, and she stopped teaching when when our kids were born. So we're thinking, man, this would be really fun. She wants to do it. I'm like, all right, well, you got to get a clientele, you know, before we get into this new phase of golf garage and you know all that. So, long story short, you know I'm out, I'm looking for, you know, potentially like a brand to help us with golf garage and and I meet somebody and I just hear like, oh, I used to take Pilates.
Speaker 2:I'm like oh well, my wife's starting, yeah, I'm like my wife's starting a studio, oh really, we're out. I'm like, well, it's at our house and you know, you kind of, you're kind of like you know it's easy to hear.
Speaker 1:But no credibility there until you get to know him a little bit.
Speaker 2:So she comes over and you know she ends up bringing like three other friends the next week cause she loved it. So then those three friends start right and you know, kind of fast forwarding a little bit, and she now has a clientele of over 150 people and a lot of them are non-golfers and they're all excited to come into the golf garage every day because we, you know, have a studio here and you know, now we're growing the game through other other ways I never thought were even possible. So through pilates. Now we're going to be, you know, developing hopefully another 100 golfers just from that right, and've got a physical therapy office in house and oh man it's.
Speaker 2:It's an incredible opportunity to have um move our ex physical therapy with Pablo. I mean they helped my shoulder.
Speaker 2:I got rear ended about 15 years ago and is one of those weird ones where you go to everybody because you know I was trying to play professional golf and with an injury it's pretty difficult to do that, obviously. So, um, yeah, it's just, I don't know if it was the right time and he just did the right stuff, but two sessions with him and I was like I knew how to manage it and I was ready to go.
Speaker 1:So, before we get to your coaching staff and and the, the team you have developed to run this place, the team you have developed to run this place, take any random tour player. Take Rory McIlroy, for example. He comes down here. What's the first thing that he's going to do when he walks?
Speaker 2:in this facility. I mean, I think he's going to be like everyone else and just go wow, this is bigger than I thought. Sign me up.
Speaker 1:Yeah right?
Speaker 2:exactly, I hope so at least. I mean, I don't know, those guys have seen a lot of great stuff and you know, you know the, the new TGL and everything else going on we can get into later, but I really hope that they love it. I think the tour putts the thing that really sparks the most interest from a good player.
Speaker 1:Tell me about that.
Speaker 2:What?
Speaker 2:What is tour putt? Yeah, so. So Torput's a really cool dual projection, right? So you have two projectors, essentially um putting a picture down on a putting green, and it's on a plain slope, which just means it's a standard slope at a 3% grade. And what's unique about this software is it does have some AI built into it.
Speaker 2:And I got to know um manager Jonathan and he was at the PGA show and I was going with another company at the time and there was just something that didn't feel right, and so I went to the show to try it out and you know it didn't quite work as well as I had hoped it would. It was an awesome, awesome software. It was the only one I'd ever seen. And I was told by somebody they're like you need to go check out Tour Putt, and so I go over there and I had no idea what it was. And they put me on the software and they had this 36 putt test and I'm just like, all right, well, let's, let's try it out. So I'm putting, I'm putting pretty good, I'm doing all these other tests and I score like a. What do you say? It was like I think I scored the highest score you could actually have. And he's just like you're incredible.
Speaker 2:But here's some things you need differently. So he puts me through the putter fitting test. It was able to dissect that I needed 10 grams of weight. So if you've ever held 10 grams of weight, right, it's nothing. But at the end of the putter it felt entirely different. So I was. I was like okay, well, let's try it. So they get me the exact putter I need. I couldn't miss from 15 feet. I literally wanted to take it home from Florida. I'm like this is incredible. Then, of course, they didn't let me take it home. But you know, um, that sold me right then. And there I'm like, if there's something that can fit you for a putter and you don't have to put anything on the putter to change the weight, like I am in, so lo and behold, uh, you know.
Speaker 1:I ended up. Here we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would just say the best thing about it personal profile. Right, get your own personal profile on there and you know it will tell a coach. You know where you're at, what you're doing for you for a putter.
Speaker 1:Help you with your speed direction, and then it's still up to the coach to help you. So I love it, right? I mean, I I've been absolutely blown away with this facility and and and, going back before the golf garage when you were just West Coast Golf Academy, and then you, who was the first coach? You brought on Ryan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so West Coast Golf Academy is kind of interesting, right, it was, it was we started it up. So we were at another academy prior to that that I had started and we moved away from that, um, and I started West coast golf Academy. So Ryan, jessica and Matt all came over at the same time, all PGA professionals, all PGA professionals and, um, you know, in that time we've really built this together. Right, I mean, this is not a one person Academy. Um, you know, I've been very fortunate in in winning a few awards, but, like, those are team awards. In my opinion, they are just like awesome pros. They love building relationships, but they know their stuff too Right, and they're all good at something different.
Speaker 1:And they're all just good people.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:They're great at networking. They they can connect with people on a level that most professional teachers can't in the public school system and I see that from my own son who's 13 years old, who you coach on a regular basis. Passion for the youth golf in this, Because I see in the coming decade tour players coming out of West Coast Golf Academy and Golf Garage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, darren, it's so crazy to say something like that, right, You're like it's so fun to think that way, but why not, right I?
Speaker 1:guess that's what I would say is like. Why wouldn't you think that way? The resources, the tools, the facility, the year round operation, regardless of whether it's all here the tools are here and the passion for, for the youth golf is clearly here, and there's even a nonprofit that started Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean I would kind of chime in there and say like the 24-7 access, right. I mean that's the one thing I think we kind of missed a little bit. There was just like you can come in anytime you want with a key fob, right. And I mean you're a member here, you know, and it's not like you see it all the time, but it's really fun to see who is coming in at two at the board. You're like who's?
Speaker 2:got the bug. Like who's doing that, Right? Yeah, I mean from a nonprofit side of it. Um, I never thought of myself, as you know, getting into that. I always wanted to help, Right? So even at the youngest age I was in cub, I was a tiger cub, right?
Speaker 2:I mean like five years old whatever like cub scouts I didn't know what it even meant. And then I became an Eagle scout and I was like, wow, this is kind of a a bigger deal. I didn't even realize how big it was and how few people actually get it and I would just say, like those smaller things and what my parents gave me.
Speaker 2:There I was like I always felt like I was, you know, wanting to help Um, and I didn't quite know how. And so I moved away from Southern Oregon. Obviously, um, after college and um, I did help open a course here prior and then I went to Ohio and then I went to Arizona and, you know, traveled a little bit, taught golf all over the place and you know, the goal was always to get to family and with our kiddos getting a little bit older, you know we found out we were like man, we need to get close. So we came back home to Southern Oregon. You know my parents still live in the same house they have since 1982. So you know it's the house we grew up in, it's just a rarity. And so it turned into finding out that, like 70% of kids cannot afford any sport right, let alone golf. And there's also this rumor of golf being super expensive. Well, there's lots of ways around that. It's $5 for a green fee.
Speaker 1:My wife makes fun of me. We're a middle-class family and we have two kids with rich kids sports. She says our son golfs and our daughter rides horses.
Speaker 2:I love that, I love that. Well, and it's so funny too, right, I was in the same boat. None of my parents played. My parents didn't play, my brother didn't play, so I got in because a friend missed the high school.
Speaker 1:So pretty crazy so we've got this state-of-the-art massive. How many square feet? 20,000. 20,000 square foot golf training facility for people from beginners right on through tour players. It's here in the town of Medford, oregon, and we're blessed here with great golf courses within 30 minutes. And then you add another 45 minutes onto that and you've got running Y, you've got a couple hours, you've got the band in dunes courses. I mean, we're abundantly blessed here with great golf. However, being in the Pacific Northwest, it's not year-round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I don't know what it is. Growing up here, I always felt like we had the best weather in the world, and maybe it's because I was a kid. Running around I didn't care about snow, cold and I would play golf every single day, because you grew up here.
Speaker 2:Right, I was just used to it. So, like you know, 50 degrees was like hot, I guess you know, in December. So oddly enough, it's like we've got four good months of solid golf weather. So what happens on the other eight, you know? Like all right, that's. That's part of the reason I felt like this concept could work. And the interesting thing is is there's only about 300,000 people in our County, so we have people actually driving for lessons two, three hours away, wow, you know. So, so it is. It is really nice and I mean, and that's just definitely something I would say that's like a feather in my cap with my staff is just like you said earlier, it's the relationships they're building that make people want to come that far for a golf lesson. I never would have thought of doing that when I was growing up, for sure.
Speaker 1:Right, and since we can't go and just plop a golf garage down in every city in the U S, what do we want to do? Do we want to? You know, we we want to help people remotely, and how can we do that? There's so much technology, so many new apps out there. Um, you know, we're going to be providing a lot of resources through web and social media and YouTube. That is tied in with this podcast, where we're going to be giving reviews on the latest training aids, what works, what's garbage, who it's good for, who it's not good for, and, with your experience with Coach Ryan, with Matt, with Jessica, with the people who you're surrounded by here at West Coast Golf Academy, being able to bring a level of expertise that's going to help people remotely across around the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. You know what's interesting is like there is so much information at their fingertips. So I think I just, you know, want to be have like the highest level of integrity, right so being around um right Cut the fat right. Just just be transparent and just tell people it's like hey look, youtube's not bad if you know how to use it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's not bad, it's just. You know, people are trying to use their marketing tactics on a YouTube or on a podcast. You know, just like we are. We're like this is fun for me, I'm excited to share knowledge on it, but I'm not going to be like, hey, you need to follow me right now just because you know I'm a PGA pro and I do this, right.
Speaker 1:Right, and because I'm a golf, because I'm a golf fan and you know an amateur, a best on the course know an amateur a best on the course.
Speaker 2:I've seen you hit some good shots in our sim leagues, though hold on a second, you got close to the hole a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1:I'm that type of guy. I'm that type of guy like we've talked about, that will go out on the course right in front of a pro or somebody who's really, really good, and I'll be one under, going into hole seven and still shoot in 94 yeah, you know, I think we need to.
Speaker 2:I think that's going to be a segment on our podcast. We're going to figure out how to give lobotomies. I am that guy.
Speaker 1:And, frankly, I know that 90% of the people out there listening to this podcast are the same way. Sure, we can be shooting amazing and then, out of nowhere, we'll shoot a quadruple bogey.
Speaker 2:And I've dealt with that a lot. It's funny. I've dealt with that a lot. I mean it's funny. I've dealt with the in-swing yips and we've conquered that Yips are a real thing.
Speaker 2:It is a real thing and I think it would be really fun to kind of touch on something like that. Just like anything and everything, golf and I mean our viewers are going to tell us what they want too Absolutely, and so I think that's a unique part of it. You know, as we continue to move down this ladder and you know our social media platforms and what we have like, looking forward to that, you know, and then getting out on the course, I'm really excited to promote Southern Oregon, obviously, but just around the country, just golf in general is it's huge right now it is. You know, covid really made the non golfer play. It did Right, and I think on top of that, golf courses are starting to get built again which is it's so exciting, right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know there's, there's certain things that I've heard you know around our area, even in the Pacific Northwest, which is kind of like the last place you'd think golf courses would want to get built potentially but you know there could be a few more popping up here and there in the near future.
Speaker 1:That will be super exciting, that will be really exciting and, with your connections, we're going to have guests on the show from all the major manufacturers, absolutely Talking about the latest equipment coming out, absolutely talking about the latest uh equipment coming out, and we're gonna, you know, shoot you straight on it on whether it's, you know, gonna be a really good real, a really good buy of the technology.
Speaker 1:Advancements have really been that great. Um, I know my, my son, being 13 years old, he's a sucker when his favorite golf ball comes out with the new year and they say they've made all these changes and that it's so much better. But in reality, is it? We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out, you know, and that's what we're here to do. Um, so, be looking for social media, be looking for websites being, be looking for tips and tricks on YouTube. We're going to have the opportunity for one-on-one virtual coaching with either you or one of your coaching staff. Lots of exciting things coming, and we truly do want to cut the fat off of the thousands and thousands of YouTube videos out there, because I'm guilty of just vegging out on YouTube and watching one person say, hey, do this, move your stance this way, move your ball position that way. Go and do the next YouTube video and they're telling you something completely opposite.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting too, right?
Speaker 1:And then you go and play golf and you're like what the hell? Where is my head at? I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:It worked once, right, right, why didn't it work every time? Yeah, I mean, and we assess, you know, we're going to, we're going to teach people, even on this podcast, how they can assess themselves. I mean, it's so awesome what we're going to be able to do here and so I'm super excited to be part of this podcast with you and, just, you know, go through the motions of all the up and coming Right. And, like you said, going back to the products, we just got everything in. I am ecstatic about the new tailor-made stuff the QI 35. The QI 35 is incredible.
Speaker 2:I have had the opportunity to try a prototype. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I am and I will just say it is insane what they think of next. Why.
Speaker 1:What's insane about it?
Speaker 2:The mishits are manageable and the ball speeds are higher. So ball speed equals distance. Let's go.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm excited. Everybody else wants to learn the why behind it. We all hear ads. We all hear promotions as to. This is the latest. This is the best. It's going to lower your score. It's going to do this, it's going to do that, but we're going to cover why and how.
Speaker 2:It's a pleasure it is. I'm excited it's go time.
Speaker 1:Amazing guests, household names in the golf industry coming up on the show. You're going to want to stay tuned. Welcome to the MyGolfSource podcast. Until next time, peace out.
