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
Technology is changing how we learn golf, and the results might surprise you.
Simulator technology is transforming golf training by providing precise feedback and year-round practice opportunities that outdoor ranges simply cannot match. The team discusses how simulator data allows players to gain confidence in their distances and improve faster with immediate analytics.
• Simulators provide accurate distance measurements for every club in your bag
• Playing famous courses like TPC Sawgrass virtually helps players experience professional-level challenges
• The data from simulators is humbling but provides crucial feedback for improvement
• Proper club fitting combined with simulator data can dramatically improve performance
• Raw carry versus game carry measurements show exactly how course conditions affect distance
• Community building happens naturally in simulator facilities as golfers connect in a casual environment
• The Golf Garage offers 24/7 access to members, creating flexibility for practice
• Practice after a round is often the most productive time to work on your game
• Many golfers waste time watching YouTube tips when they should focus on center-face contact
• Next week's episode will feature Steve First from David's Chair discussing adaptive golf for people with mobility limitations
Welcome to the my golf source podcast. Welcome to the my golf source podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Darren and I'm Noah and we're back, baby, we are back. Sim league in the books Just got done playing one of the new sim league. Yeah, march, april's on the way.
Speaker 1:How did you play? We played um TPC sawgrass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were there too.
Speaker 1:That killed us.
Speaker 2:It's kind of nice to be able to play TPC sawgrass and not have to fly anywhere, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Isn't it In perfect conditions all the time?
Speaker 2:It is. You know we played good. We were 14 under par today. We had literally I would say that might have been one of the best scores we got a shot.
Speaker 1:Hole 17 is brutal.
Speaker 2:Do you knock it on?
Speaker 1:Not on my first try. Perfect distance Uh, not on my first try. So perfect, perfect distance. Slightly right. And no forgiveness with that front pin placement Cause it wasn't right in the water.
Speaker 2:You know what, though? It plays exactly like they do on tour. So if you play it past the pin, there's a backstop and it'll come back. Oh man. That's the local knowledge.
Speaker 1:Why you have. That's why the pros have caddies, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:It was nice that it wasn't windy, though I think, uh, the only difference is one of these days we're gonna have to put some wind in, so it's really like florida golf yeah make it a little bit more challenging from from pin placement on 17 was rough.
Speaker 1:Well, how about the guys? And I just played one extra club? Well, I probably would have been on I I was. My shot was three yards past the pin, but about six yards right, which put me right on the edge in the water yeah, I think we need to hire a caddy for you.
Speaker 2:It's all right, yeah, or you know what you could do. You could just come out and practice it tomorrow, because we could just put that hole on. You know practice mode and you could figure it out for the next time.
Speaker 1:There we go that's what I'll do.
Speaker 2:Did you watch a little golf on TV while you were playing? No, no.
Speaker 1:So my buddy, steve, who doesn't play a whole lot of golf, but he runs an amazing, amazing charity that we'll talk about next week. He joined our league. He he was on our team, so I was visiting and catching up with him and we were having a great time. It just yeah, focusing more on relationships and conversation and less on the golf game, I guess.
Speaker 2:So I've got a good story for you real quick on the last hole of sim league. So one of our guys, chris um, hits this ball way right on hole number 18, ricochets off the cart path in no more than like a half a second later we look up on the tv and there's a replay of a tour player hitting it in the exact same place and we're looking. We're like cool your shots on tv dude. No, no, his shot was on tv. It was a replay of his shot. It was the craziest that is cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was super crazy that it actually happened that way.
Speaker 1:So on my second shot from the drop, I hit it long and hit the green and rolled off the back and down onto the wooden bridge.
Speaker 2:Played as it lies right.
Speaker 1:So I played as it lies. I didn't go in the water, I'm laying on the bridge. So I'm thinking, hey, this bridge, the ball will roll quickly across this. I'm going to putt Bad choice. And so that bridge is very uneven and it was hitting the wood planks and bouncing straight up and actually came backwards and added another couple of yards to my putt. So, being a genius, I thought I'd putt it again and just hit it harder and did the same thing. And so I'm like, okay, it's time to take a wedge off the bridge.
Speaker 2:So what you're saying is it plays like a real golf course.
Speaker 1:It plays like you were putting on a rugged pier.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's crazy, that's exactly what it was. Well, it's kind of fun. You know, we had, you know, half the base full with Sim League and then we had a bunch of members playing still next to us. Yeah, full house tonight, yeah, rolling for sure. So it's good to see it staying busy, and you know it's really cool this time of the year too when you have TPC Sawgrass. You know it seems like it a chance to get out there and play it. That would be one.
Speaker 1:Those of us who, those of us who are just used to playing municipal golf courses around around towns and local country clubs and stuff, we don't ever get a taste of what it's really like and what the tour players experience and and and here on the sim league we actually get to do that. So it's, it's eyeopening to, to say the least.
Speaker 2:Think about this too from a professional perspective. A lot of people struggle hitting off of mats. Well, mats are the perfect place to practice. It's a perfect lie in the ball sitting up, and if you think of a tour caliber golf course, that's what you're hitting off of. You're hitting off of a tight, tight lie with the ball sitting up. So most courses are mowing their grass potentially at between a half an inch and three quarters of an inch fairway height, which the ball can sit down, or it can sit way up, and so, depending on the golfer, they don't know how to play off of a tight lie where you have to hit ball first. So being able to learn that is a huge trait teaching someone how to have a good low point and making solid contact.
Speaker 1:That's why you're my distance controls better than the, you know, the average amateur you know, playing, playing out on the real course since I've been playing a lot on the sim has improved my distance dramatically. How? So I mean, you just know your numbers. I mean, simply put, you know how far you hit your club.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like I have this big, this big thought right now, that golf garage is the best driving range in the world, right, undisputable. So, with a premium golf ball and a simulator like the four set units where it actually tells you how far you're going indoor, there's no better place. Because golf is a measurable sport, you need to know how far each club goes.
Speaker 1:Analytics are so important.
Speaker 2:And you need to know how to take something off of it too. We actually have a guest on our show and we're going to have to talk about after the round what we were actually practicing with drivers to an Island Green is pretty sweet, but you know, you know, I think, before we get there. I did want to share one more thing. You know we talked about that sickness going around the last week and I had that bug and a lot of people have that bug. So I didn't get a play or I didn't get to travel with the SOU team this last weekend and the men played a match play over at Bandon Crossings, right next to Bandon Dunes Awesome golf course Dan Hickson designed and it was six teams and they went. It was match play. They went undefeated in match play in round one and then they didn't lose a match in round two and they get to the finals and they're playing Lewis and Clark State, who's ranked lower than us, and we get through 18 holes of match play and we're tied and they had to go to a sudden death stroke play and it was one player from each team, so there's four guys out there going and we had an eight footer on the last hole to tie it and we missed the putt so we lost by one shot. But I mean just the momentum that it's going to drive our team.
Speaker 2:I can tell our players are more motivated right now. The fact that they had some assistant coaches out there, like you know, get away from the head coach for a little while. I think they're just super driven. It's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing at all, thing at all. Get another point of view. And at the end of the day, when they're playing in competition anyway, it's go time. They, you know, they're ready, and if they are ready and they're doing the right stuff, they don't need a lot of coaching during that time. Anyway, they're calling us in when they do need us, like a caddy would. So golf's one of those sports. So I'm super excited to see what's ahead for us. We've got three events left of the season and you know, on the ladies' side of it they're more motivated than ever and they're practicing all the time as well. So it'll be really, really cool to see if we can peak at the right time.
Speaker 1:So, as a coach, tell me, when you have a college player that's got an eight-foot putt, eight-foot putts suck because they're hard, they're scary, they're you know. You know inside of four feet, inside of five feet, you feel some confidence. You know, outside of that, like, oh, this is so close, I should make this putt, but the pressure is really on you at eight feet. What is your, what is your coaching style and mentally preparing somebody for that game winningwinning eight-foot putt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the shift is trusting your process, trust what got you there. You know the pre-shot routine is invaluable. If you're not comfortable over the putt, you're stepping away right and like. Those are all things that you learn, it's all things you train for, it's like the game-winning free throw. They have these routines that are so specific, they're so measurable in time and they're the same right Every single time. That's like the epitome of a routine. And so for us, we do practice that. We practice. We actually time the players and their routines. They have to be within one second. Um, that's how we know they're in it.
Speaker 2:The mentality of the routine has to be there. There's got to be visualization aspects to it. You have to know you're going to make that putt. So I think the biggest difference at a high level golfer isn't that they have the fear of missing, but they understand how to accept that fear and then know how to go back to business and let that thought go out and then go in and do their job. And the thing of it is, the odds aren't necessarily in your favor of making that putt anyway, right it. The odds aren't necessarily in your favor of making that putt anyway. Right, it's eight feet. So a tour player? Yeah, they might have a higher percentage than 50 of making that putt, but your average amateur is probably going to be a 10 chance of making that putt. So speed is more important than direction.
Speaker 2:For someone that's under you know, or someone, let's say, that's over an eight handicap, we're looking ensuring you have like 14 inches or less on that net, on that, yeah but I could take that statement back and say a 36 handicapper could be a scratch putter right, they might be a better putter, like that's the one thing in your control. My five-year-old can putt right, that's pretty cool. But he can't hit it 300 yards, right, well, I think. Uh, I think it's time to bring on our guest today and, uh, first time to the golf garage and my new teammate, uh, we've got garrett on the show with us today garrett, welcome.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you, appreciate, you guys so you're, you're a golfer, you know you've been playing golf for a while. Yep, tell me about your first time in the sim, because, oh man, there's a lot of people. It's, in fact, it's a huge controversy. People come into the sim and they love it or they hate it, and they say I'm so much better on the sim. This is amazing and other people are like, no, I'm better on the course no, I, I, I honestly, I think this is where you hone your craft.
Speaker 3:This is really the place that you elevate your game. You know, obviously, play the game. You know, play the course when you can, but when it comes to, you know, six to eight months out of the year, in inclement weather, depending on where you live, obviously this is the place to do it, of course, obviously, with all of the metrics, all of the, the, the data that's available to you in a place like this, this is exactly the place that you really elevate your game.
Speaker 1:The data is humbling.
Speaker 3:It very much is. But yeah, exactly, I mean this is you know you go to a range at, you know your local, you know, golf course, and you're guesstimating you know your clubs within 10, 20 yards.
Speaker 1:You're like okay, this is yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:They have their markers out in the driving range Exactly, but that does not, but they don't change the markers when they change their tee location 100%, and this is the place where you get within three yards, like you know you're getting dialed into your irons all the way up to your driver. So I mean, the experience here is this is where you get. Obviously you enjoy it. This is where you get uh, obviously you enjoy it. That there's the fun factor of being able to play tpc sawgrass.
Speaker 3:You know, of course that's a very, you know, a challenging we only ever get to watch on tv exactly, see where the pros are playing, but also be able to um, you know, take the um level of of, you know, being serious about your game as well.
Speaker 1:So got to say my favorite thing as far as data goes on the simulator is a raw carry versus game carry. The raw carry tells you what your actual carry is, based on how you made contact with the ball, which is dead accurate. The game carry takes into account the conditions of the course, right, whether you're hitting out of sand, whether you're hitting out of um deep rough, uh, whether you're hitting downhill or uphill, depending on what your lie is. And seeing that difference is um incredible. I you know there's there's a lot of instances where I'm hitting out of the rough. My raw carry on an 8-iron might be 168, but my game carry is 149.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting. On the Sims it's like every week there's something new that comes out. It was weird. I was walking by last week and I'm like, oh, that course looks different and I just realized it's less pixelated All of a sudden. The quality of the courses on GS pro are even better now. So you're looking at it and because of that it seems like the depth perception part is getting better. That's the.
Speaker 3:Thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's the thing I've noticed. More is that people are starting to putt because they can actually tell that it's a 40 foot putt. Oh, it looks like a 40 foot putt in the screen. That's where they were struggling before. So, as they hone that in, if they can get that dialed in, it's going to be insane because everybody's going to want to putt. They're going to realize that the launch monitor is accurate, right, and most of the time they're. They're blaming the launch monitor, but they're the ones hitting the putt. They can't tell what's 10 feet, feet uphill. I don't know what that is. Well, because they're so used to going to a green they don't measure 10 feet. They look and react.
Speaker 1:Well, if you actually looked at the sim the right way and you looked and reacted, you would putt really well if you treated it like a golf course, absolutely and and every time, every time that I hit a shot that's long or short of what I expected, when I look at my raw carry versus my game carry, and then the lie and the conditions that I was in going okay, well, that actually makes sense. You know, yeah, and and and with putting it's. You know the same thing if you've got a downhill 13 foot putt, yeah, it's going to go downhill, but if you're putting from the fringe or the edge of the rough, it's going to actually accurately take that into account and you have to trust it because if you don't, you'll end up. You know you'll end up short.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, so today go ahead. Gary, what were you gonna say?
Speaker 3:no, I was just gonna to say I think the biggest thing was mentally looking at the sim as intimidating. Where, you know, being a lifelong golfer just playing outdoors and on the course, coming to the simulator, it seemed mentally, uh, you know, intimidating, but it's so much more approachable than when you're actually in it, um, and actually seeing the course right there. It feels much more realistic and approachable than um than I think it builds up to be.
Speaker 1:It is a. It was intimidating for me. I, I'm, I'm, I'm a big guy, I'm over six foot three and when I'm swinging a fairway wood or a driver, for a while I it kind of felt like the walls were caving in on me and it was hard to overcome that kind of claustrophobic feeling. Um, that took me a little bit, to be completely honest, uh. But once I was able to overcome that and and having the trust and the confidence to swing freely, I found the simulator is every bit as accurate as as the real golf course. The only condition the only club that has that I've had trouble getting the simulator to accurately read is my brand new 69-degree wedge, because the loft on that club is insane.
Speaker 3:Going into the sun with that one.
Speaker 1:And it's just not. You know it's having a hard time unless I move the ball right to the very forward edge of where the launch monitor can pick it up. It's having a hard time registering that interesting.
Speaker 2:So, uh, after we got done with tpc sawgrass today, um, garrett's in there giving a golf lesson to one of our partners and it was awesome and I was like, oh, that's great, you know. So we go in there and we're talking for a minute and I was like, hold on a second, garrett. You got to see this. I'm going to set up a different hole. So I set up an island green for garrett on the driving range. We elevated the t and we bumped it back to an in-between yardage for the driver. So garrett's pumping it very first hole. He like pipes it down the middle like two 60. I'm like, oh, cool, who's this? 10 handicapper? Wait what? So we're like, you know? So I have Chris hit first right, one of our partners, and he bombs it over the back of the green. I'm like, oh, this is perfect, let's see what Garrett does, because full send, he's awesome and it was not as easy as it looked. So tell me a little bit about how that could maybe help you hone in and what you're thinking on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, giving you the ability to, you know, adjust your distances, adjust your shots, and just having having the flexibility to to really see what kind of you know what kind of shots you're going to see out there on the course, but with the ease and you know, accessibility, with just hitting, um, you know, multiple shots, uh it, like this island green setup it was, you know about 250 and that's whole 17, right, yeah, it was, yeah, it was kind of a whole 17 island green but 250 out there and it was certainly an awkward distance, uh, for me, you know, mentally I just want to send it when I've got my driver in hand.
Speaker 3:At that, at that distance, um, but being able to have the flexibility with um, you know, with this technology obviously you can, um, you can really create different shots and set up different scenarios for yourself.
Speaker 1:That creating an island green at 250 is just cruel pretty, pretty awesome. Yeah, it is because I mean those, those of us who, like me, when I pound my driver, my carry is in the 250s, maybe up to 270 if I crank out and really good if I really connect. But that translates out to a 290 drive by the time it rolls out on a fairway and then island green.
Speaker 2:You're screwed, yeah, but here's the nice thing about it. Okay, garrett, did you lose a single golf ball today? I did not no baby.
Speaker 3:We saved him money and he was still able to hit into the water if he wanted to.
Speaker 1:100 it was awesome 100, absolutely a 250, a golf ball, that? Yeah, it's painful when you're out on a course like that.
Speaker 2:The balls you're playing mine are probably more like $6 a golf ball $6.
Speaker 3:What are you hitting? Five or six, yeah.
Speaker 2:TaylorMade TP5. What else Gold-plated?
Speaker 3:100%.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I'm on staff so I don't. Sure, there's an allotment, I'll give you a ball.
Speaker 1:All right, I need a couple, a couple of them.
Speaker 3:I'm going to need more than a couple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:We're excited that the weather's going to be cooperating over the next couple of months to get out and have some nice outdoor golf weather too. But now is the time to just grind on the simulator and hone those skills. We'll get out there and prove that the simulators have made you a better golfer, because it's true.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm excited to get out on the golf course. Um, got some pro-ams coming up and I'm just looking forward to using the simulator for that too, because a couple of courses on the pro-ams are on our simulators. So play it a little bit, get some legs up on the competition. As far as carry numbers, I can cut corners where there's out of bounds to see how far it actually is.
Speaker 1:Like I'm super excited my son told me to remind you that you got a caddy for him. Oh man dude.
Speaker 2:I can't wait as long as he doesn't put any rocks in his bag no rocks, no rocks.
Speaker 1:I'll make sure that push cart maybe. Maybe there's a power cart or a course light in the back, the silver bullet in the back that would.
Speaker 3:That would be a great thing to do with a junior golfer right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably, probably, won't be doing that one. That was definitely frowned upon, but, uh, like rear heads up. Maybe barbecue after there we go again.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, no other other than that. I mean, I think a lot of things that people are needing to look at a little bit more is that short game work, you know so, the simulators are great. But using the putting green, using the chipping green, all that stuff, bunkers now ready to go, and we got real grass out there, you know. So just what I was getting at was like we're gonna start getting people on the course starting in april. So fridays we're gonna do play days, getting people out there. I think that's a huge benefit in trying to create this community that feels like home to everybody. Get the kids out, get the obviously you know we've got the men out here for this, but getting couples league started up that's a huge opportunity.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's enough people doing stuff for ladies golf right now, I think you know, kind of changing, changing that up a little bit. You know, um, I think there's an intimidation factor, um, it's always kind of been a gentleman's game, um, you know, and I think the the vendors are doing a better job of creating that environment to have ladies equipment and showing them that this is a sport for them too. But, man, there's a lot of working ladies out there that want to get better at golf. It helps with business, just like going out with their husbands and, let's face it, at some point we're all going to retire and we're going to be with our wives, like we need to be with them at the best places in the world.
Speaker 1:That was a golf course, oh dude.
Speaker 2:Imagine Dominican on the ocean 14 holes with water, Like that's better than a beach with a prime rib dinner waiting for you when you get all done, dude little little bottle of water.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, get your cardio in.
Speaker 2:You're good, absolutely it's like band and like you guys have been abandoned right, yep, I've been.
Speaker 1:I've never played we're gonna go, that's, that's my, that's my goal this this summer is to get out to go play bandit on gs pro first, and then we'll go play bandit okay well, one of my best experiences wasn't playing bandon, it was bringing my wife to bandon.
Speaker 2:It was the first time she'd ever been, because she always talked about how you go with the boys and I was like, yeah, we do. I didn't know you wanted to go and we. We went in, we got a refreshment, we came out and there was a fire going at two o'clock pm and there's glass up, so the wind wasn't hitting you and we stayed there until sunset, basically overlooking the ocean and the golf course it was like.
Speaker 3:It was like heaven on earth.
Speaker 1:You can't beat that yeah, it's an experience, you know we we a guy who I met here at the golf garage, um over the summer, who's a caddy in court lane, idaho, and also in um palm springs, uh met us in Santa Barbara, california, and played around with us over at Sandpiper Golf Club and just that kind of experience hanging out with people even if you don't know them well. The bond you create, the relationships you build during that type of experience, and just being able to sit down afterwards and have a couple of drinks enjoying the beautiful Southern California sunsets over the ocean is priceless, corey that's who it was Corey Marino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, corey's a peach Great guy, good player, just funny.
Speaker 1:Just a funny dude.
Speaker 2:You know, I was just thinking about when you said about how golf creates these experiences, and I always think about golf. You know, business is on the golf course and businesses done in the golf garage. I was like I think I figured out how to fix, you know, the employee problem. Every employee you have, you interview them on the golf course while they're playing.
Speaker 3:You'll know who they are.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, game on right. Three holes in. You're going to know if you're going to hire them or not, and you know what it's so much.
Speaker 1:it's so great to be down here at the Golf Garage and seeing the CEO of the local Chamber of Commerce, to see all these business owners out here doing business together and working together and networking, seeing high-ranking officials with your local police department and fire departments out here all networking together. It's this is a place to be, to get connected, to get to know people on a level that you'll never get to know them if you walk into their office, in their workplace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think that's you know, I mean Garrett first time in. I think that's really the culture we're trying to create, right? I I've been writing all these notes down and I'm like what is culture? I'm like it's family. Well, like what does family equal? Family equals the feeling of home, like like golf garage is home, right. So like that's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm like what is this business? We've been open for eight months. What are we going to be? How do we better?
Speaker 1:and then, I think you've achieved that with everybody who comes here on a regular basis yeah it's now getting the rest of the world to know about it yeah, and then eventually expanding, making golf garages all over yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean just to just to add to that. I think golf is very it's a very obviously social, but can be a very intimate experience where you you really do make really deep, uh you know friendships and it to your point. It does, um, you know, when you're looking at a potential employee, or you know, uh, it unveils characteristics of of someone, it unveils character, good or bad, you know. It really does, um, it takes the veil off of that.
Speaker 1:Golf has always had that reputation and that standard of being a game of integrity, right totally. And the golf garage not only it, it, it embraces that integrity, so much so to the point it gives members 24 7 access, unsupervised, to the facility it's like oh, you're a golfer, you must have integrity. We're going to give you a key to the building when we're not here to come in and play and having that there's a camera system in place.
Speaker 2:Well, there is that you know I may look at it a little bit when I see somebody coming at two in the morning I get a little there is that.
Speaker 1:But as a member, as somebody who's like, oh you know, I'm not going to come in here at two o'clock in the morning when nobody's here and play golf. I'm just not that. I'm not that guy. The fact that they're giving that amount of trust to the members um speaks a lot and shows that they truly stand behind the game of golf and everything that it means.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without question. I mean, I think you know the dream of any golfer is you know when you have the itch you need to be able to scratch it Right. So, like I've seen so many golfers at, I've worked at a couple of high end- that's why this is a man's sport.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly High end privates where so they get done with member guests, they get done with a tournament, or they're just before that and they're grinding and they're just so unhappy about one shot.
Speaker 2:They hit and it's dark or or the weather changed or storming or whatever, and they just they can't go do that. And we all know that after a round of golf is the best time to practice right. It's not before, before you're warming up to see what you got right. When you go play the, you know what you got and you're frustrated or you're happier, You're so, so right. And then after you have to decide what you're going to go work on. And if you have five minutes when you're done, that's the best practice you can ever have, because you're so hyper-focused on what you did on the course that you can actually create a change really quickly after you're done, Whereas the average golfer says I'm just going to go hit balls until I'm ready to go play golf whereas the average golfer says I'm just going to go hit balls until I'm ready to go play golf and then come back tomorrow and help facilitate that muscle memory yeah, yeah, without question.
Speaker 2:It's like that doesn't happen very often either, right they? They come in after the round and they do it once, and so most golfers don't know how to practice, which is why we offer practice programs within golf garage, because it's really not that hard of a game, but we make it a hard game based on what we've seen I disagree. It's the hardest game on earth well, it's the hardest game on earth. It's still not that hard it can be easier.
Speaker 3:Is what you're saying?
Speaker 1:yes, maybe it can be, it can be made a little bit easier I'm not I'm not buying the it's it's not that hard.
Speaker 3:Robotic golf balls, we got it.
Speaker 1:That's why you have a non-PGA professional hosting this podcast with you.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:I will tell you firsthand it is that hard.
Speaker 2:Well, but if you played, you know if you did what I did right. You start when you're 12 years old. You work at golf courses your whole life. You play in college. You get some coaching. You get some coaching. You get injured. You learn how to play again. You change your swing three times.
Speaker 1:You kind of learn mentally how to grind right I mean so again, at some level we can all hit a golf ball right like an 80 year old, where we wanted to go right and I think that's the difference.
Speaker 2:So now you're putting expectation, which is the mental game. So it's today. I had a fitting. So this was an awesome experience for me Um coming off being sick, not teaching for a couple of weeks and then coming in and I get um, a really good collegiate golfer from Cal Lutheran, coming up struggling with driver um, worked with her over the winter for like two weeks, got her dialed in irons are awesome Driver good.
Speaker 2:So I'm like you know we might want to look at a fitting, but let's try a few things. Um, within five minutes I got her hitting it 50 yards further. I've never, ever, had a lesson where I've gotten more. I've got 35 one time, but it was because I did a fitting. So it was like new technology mixed with a little swing help. This was straight swing. Only she carried it 35 yards further, 50 yards total, and we went back to back to back and she was averaging 35 to 40 yards longer than what she was doing pre and I'm like, wow, that that is such a cool feeling. And then she's smiling, she's pumped up she's ready.
Speaker 2:Now it's her number one club. And then right after that I had another driver lesson with a kid on our sou golf team who's got an amazing golf swing and he just got done playing. He's like, yeah, I just was struggling. I literally look at his hit location because foresight lets us do that and I mean he's missing it on the toe. I'm looking at a couple things. I'm like you know, I know we fit you for that driver a while back, but you really need to grip down like an inch. I'm like that's pretty much all I got for you and he does that.
Speaker 2:Kids flying at 308, 330, all of a sudden, dead straight lines. He can't miss the fairway. A couple of them were like 280 or whatever, but like he's, I got it on video. I'm like huh ball speed just jumped up to 175 clubhead speeds at 119. I'm like dude's, I got it on video. I'm like huh Ball speed just jumped up to 175 club head speeds at one 19. I'm like dude, you could be hitting it further than that. So it's incredible, like when you use the technology the right way and what I was going to get at was where people struggle in the practice side, that I was able to stop. Actually, both of them was was. It's not like they hit every shot, perfect, but when we made an adjustment and I said, okay, you saw that go right now.
Speaker 2:Forget about that, because the visual of that shot isn't exactly what's going to happen on the next one so you hit this big push fade, that's fine, but that was way different than the ball flight you were previously hitting. So now don't memorize what you've been doing, because then you're just going to adjust to what you saw, as opposed to trying to feel what you're trying to feel. And if we can get you to feel what you want to feel now, you can pipe it on number 18 at Augusta and it's no big deal. That's why we wonder why the tour players can do it. They've recreated the feel of their golf swing so many times. They don't really care what it looks like. They don't really care what it looks like. They don't care where the ball goes. If the coach tells them to do something, they're fine with hitting it high, right and you know what right okay.
Speaker 1:So I have a lot of friends. I have, I know, a lot of people who are completely petrified, scared, stiffless, of the whole um. Fitting experience tell me about why that's important and why people shouldn't be afraid to go to their local pro and say I want to get fitted for clubs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm in a top 50 group of coaches that we meet every year in the nation.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and in the country, through Golf Range Association, we meet in Pinehurst and we discuss this and one of the questions that's been on the docket for quite a while it wasn't this year, but it was like when do you fit and when do you teach, plain and simple. And so it's super odd. I mean, there's fitting times where I've literally stopped the fit and I'm like you need lessons, you know, and I'm like don't spend money on that right now, we can work with the clubs you have. And then there's times where my fitting experience is three days and they're not consecutive days either, because they don't know how to hit balls, they're tired.
Speaker 1:Or lessons won't help you until you have clubs that are fit for you. That was the next one right.
Speaker 2:The next one is I. A lot of times, especially if it's someone I'm going to see, the club becomes a training aid, right? So if somebody's mishit is left, right and they're super upright and the in the heels digging and it's closing down the club, right, I could fix that in two seconds by flattening it out or shortening the club. So there's, there's ways to do things, and so what happens that I love about our coaches and our fitters is that we're finding out what that student wants first. Right, it's an interview. It's like hey, what's the shot I can help you with today? What's the thing you don't want to see? Are you looking for distance? Like everyone, most people are never going to say no to distance, but I have had a few that are like I just don't want to see you go left, like, oh, okay, well, that's pretty easy or right, yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:And so there is a time and a place where, because our coaches are, are also fitters and vice versa. It may be, as long as they're not working with another coach, we find out what they're working on. We try to reiterate that, just so it's. It's a, it's a win for them and we don't want to confuse them. But it might be a small ball position change. It might be a small adjustment. It depends on the caliber of golfer and what they came in for. But we're always asking ahead of time if there's any modifications that need to be made and usually it's a yes. But man, in two seconds, with the technology now, I mean, cobra's got like 30 different options on their hosel now to make adjustments to lie angle and loft.
Speaker 2:We're having to educate ourselves constantly on what shafts are out there, what the shaft profile is. It doesn't mean that's what's going to change the ball flight, because shaft is player preference, it's how they feel. The club right, the things we have control over, is loft right, we can adjust loft and by adjusting loft that can actually add spin to the ball or decrease it. It doesn't mean it's going to make it launch higher. People get confused with launch and spin. They think, hey, if I adjust it to a 12 degree height, I'm going to launch it higher. Well, yeah, I mean you could, but if you deliver the club down and different, it's still going to launch low. Just you need that additional spin to keep the ball in the air to get you maximum distance. So there's tour players out there that play 12 degree drivers right and they hit them 300 yards right.
Speaker 2:Most of them play nine eight so what happens is, if you play a less lofted driver and you can find the center of the face right, you're going to hit the ball farther right because there's more power going to the golf ball in less spin right in the right direction versus up in the sky but the other thing is you have deflection on that club.
Speaker 2:So without with you have less loft, there's potential for it to deflect off the face differently. So the higher the swing speed, you know, you look at that old hallway that used to draw and it got narrower and narrower and narrower and you're looking down like the train track theory right, well, it's the opposite theory or the opposite spray. If you're looking down like the train track theory right, well, it's the opposite theory or the opposite spray. If you're the golfer, you're staring at the narrow, you're standing at the narrow side looking at a bigger spray. So if you have 120 mile an hour club head speed versus 100 mile an hour club head speed and you miss it one degree offline, dude that ball is in another dude.
Speaker 3:That ball could be in another fairway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you have a little bit of an open face with it. You're done. So. The technology behind the fitting is what allows the fitting to be successful. We can actually see at impact what the lie angle of the club is and it tells us right away. Oh cool, that person needs two degrees upright. It's like cheating.
Speaker 1:It's not hard. Let's bring this home to the average person listening to this podcast who is a weekend golfer on municipal or country club courses. When they go down to a local sporting goods store and buy a set of clubs off the rack, those clubs are designed for an average. Obviously they make them that way. What is that average?
Speaker 2:yeah, so there's no standard anymore. Um, I don't even carry clubs on the rack, um, because every golfer is different and and here's the here's the easiest way to think about it I'm five foot seven and a half. I'll give myself that half my length, based on standard, is one quarter inch short. I play a quarter inch short of standard and I play one degree flat, which is almost two degrees flat. That's, that's my line goal. That's how I deliver the club. I have a friend who's six foot seven. He is one foot taller than me. His clubs are a quarter inch longer than mine only in his standard, and his lie angle is standard, his putter is shorter than my putter and he's six foot seven, so arm hang based on that forward bend length of arms right.
Speaker 2:All of these things create the fitting experience, and then how you deliver the ball at impact matters. So one of the things that I actually can pride myself on is I can fit you in about 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:I actually normally can fit you in five. You fit me for my putter and now I hit. Honestly, I hit my putter better than I've ever hit, ever because this club was fit for me. I do, being 6'3" I still choke up on that putter a little bit sure, and some of the things because I want to get over the ball.
Speaker 1:I want to get my eyes over the top of the ball and in order to do that and have the putter lie where I'm comfortable and where my natural position would be, I have to choke up just a little bit and that works for me, even though I'm six foot three and I'm going. This is a standard length putter. It's got to be built for the average person. At what?
Speaker 2:5, 10 yeah, well, look at what, michelle, we used to do. She literally used to bend, touching her toes right, almost. I mean she was 90 degrees bent from her hip and her back was to the sky, and that's how she putted. So who's to say that's wrong if she's making everything she looks at? But her putter is not going to be 35 inches at that point.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I think player preference has a lot to do with it, and so we treat everyone different in the fitting experience. That's why you need to go to your professional and you need to ask questions too, and I've always said this this is really important. Any golfer out there listening around the country, you go into a store you don't necessarily know who's fitting you and you go in for an experience so like, let's say, you go, you know, to dick sporting goods. They have good fitters there. But if you don't get someone that's been fitting a long time, you need to ask questions like why am I getting fit into this club? If they can't answer that question, they shouldn't be fitting you.
Speaker 2:Like what's the difference between this head and this head. Even if they blow smoke, at least they're answering the question. Most people that don't have an answer are going to not lie to you and they're going to tell you. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:And don't swipe that card for $1,700 on something that they can't give you a direct answer yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:It is an investment and if you get fit incorrectly, it's going to cost you a lot more later, because most of the time we cannot fix a shaft. That's wrong we have to send it in. That's expensive and it takes time and you don't have your clubs for a couple of weeks because we're not going to reshaft it ourselves, we're going to send it to the vendor, because then it's guaranteed for you.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So go to someone that you know you can trust. We guarantee our fits at Golf Garage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just know, with my wedges, when I'm not doing the full swing and I've got a 20-yard chip, I have a heck of a time with shanking it to the right and I scratch my head going. I'm doing everything right, my weight distribution is forward, my hands are forward, the ball placement is perfect and I had one of my teammates go you're too far over the ball, you're hitting with your toe, but I'm like this is where I'm comfortable and the club is not fit correctly for me. So I have to back up my stance to get the club lie to be correct, to where I'm not hitting the ground with the toe and opening up the face and hitting the ball to the right. And as soon as I back up, it's like I'm hitting perfectly straight shots. But it's not in my comfort zone.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, yeah it tells me, I need to be fit for new wedges.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I think I, I think this might be the the. The next step for me is to get uh, to get probably new technology, um, and and maybe some, uh, some fittings, because, noah, to your point, it's, there's that dance between, like, uh, you know, do you have the right swing, versus do you have the right setup, and um, I think there's, there is that dance, there's that balance there. That can be tricky, but with all the technology, um, you know that's available, it's. It makes it much easier to identify what you know, what area really needs to be addressed, whether it is, you know, more of a swing, um or more of an equipment setup and um, you know that can make the world of difference, obviously.
Speaker 1:Like Noah, preached this a couple of weeks back and it was a tough pill for me to swallow, because I'm one of the YouTube junkies who watches golf videos all the time.
Speaker 1:And you see all these tips and tricks on YouTube and they make so much sense in your mind, you're like, oh, that's what I'm missing. And you go out to the course and try to apply that and it destroys you. And, like Noah keeps saying, if you're not able to hit the ball in the center of the club, face every time, nothing else matters. Until you can do that, every training aid, every tip, every trick you can see on YouTube doesn't matter. And that's why watching all these YouTube videos is not working for you and in many cases, making you worse, because it's overcomplicating things.
Speaker 2:So seek professional help right, that's what we're here for. It's there for you.
Speaker 1:And next week I know we're going to talk about a lot about um golf accessibility, even for um people who have mobility limitations, even paraplegic uh people talking about ways to get them on the on on the golf course. And I've seen I've seen paraplegics out on the golf course shooting in the seventies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's scratch. It's amazing to watch.
Speaker 1:Amazing. When you can give people the right tools and the right adaptive equipment to play the game of golf, it's, it's there. I mean nothing can stop you from being a successful golfer.
Speaker 2:Talk about getting fit properly, right, I mean the equipment.
Speaker 2:There is so much fun, um, pga hope program and the education that we've done there. Um, and just putting yourself in a position to try to hit out of you know, like a David's chair, for instance, or out of you know, like a David's chair, for instance, or out of um, they have like a crutch that you put your your leg in and you have to feel like you have one leg and it hikes your hip up and you're like what am I doing? And they're like well, that's what you have to feel, that's what they are dealing with.
Speaker 2:And you're like now I have to learn how to teach, so it's so cool to be able to understand that, but I'm I'm really looking forward to next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the founder and CEO uh of David's chair, uh, steve first, will be on the show with us.
Speaker 1:He is, um, he. He had a good friend of his who became uh, mobility uh restricted, and it was his passion to create a nonprofit organization that allowed people with mobility limitations to achieve anything and everything that everybody else can do, whether it be running on the beach, playing volleyball, playing golf on a golf course. From the chest down can get out on the golf course and shoot in the 70s, because these chairs allow them to maneuver around the golf course like a golf cart, but then stand them up into an upright prone position, grab a golf club and do a full golf swing. Yeah, as a paraplegic, it's, it's heartwarming and it's mind-boggling all at the same time. And unless you've seen this firsthand which I have is, um, it's something everybody needs to know about and I know it's. It's a really big deal to me and it's very important to me to you know, support, support, his organization and all the good that they do, not just in the golf industry but to everybody who has limitations when it comes to mobility.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, golf is one of those sports that you can play till you're, you know, a hundred years old, and now it's opening up all these additional doors and it gives hope to everybody.
Speaker 1:Corey Corey, the caddy who I golfed with in in Santa Barbara, california, was telling me that he has a client who he caddies for, who he hits every shot for, but then he putts oh nice.
Speaker 1:He competes in competitions, he's in his late 80s and he gets out on the golf course and plays 18 holes five days a week and it gives me goosebumps to think about the drive and the passion that so many people have for this sport and being able to give them the adaptations they need to be successful in doing so, and not only successful competitive. So we look forward to having Steve first on next week. Before we let you go, tell me about your, tell me a story about your greatest golf experience.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I mean you had mentioned Bandon Dunes. I think probably the test and the scenery and the just overall experience of what Bandon has to offer, of what Bandon has to offer, whether it's an average golfer to a savvy, experienced golfer, I would say we talked about it, noah, and I talked about it a little bit. Pacific Dunes is an absolute challenge over on the Oregon coast, with all of the weather, the distance, the different you know shot shapes that you have to have, you have to have a lot in the bag to be able to, to be successful there. But you know, I would, I would say anytime I get over to the Bandon you know area that to the Oregon coast, that's always, um, you know, just an amazing experience to to Scotland of.
Speaker 3:America, and it really is. Yeah, I mean, I haven't been fortunate enough to uh, to go to. You know St Andrew's old course, or?
Speaker 2:anything like that.
Speaker 3:But uh, but it really does bring that type of um. You know the old, you know original, you know style of the links to you know the West Coast. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. You and I are going to do that this summer.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a plan. I think we just need to put it on the calendar and we have to bring Garrett back with us?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, let's do it All right. Hey Garrett, thanks for being on with us as usual and talking up the golf garage man. We had a blast. Can't wait for next week. It was an absolute blast, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next week, guys, take care, thank you.
