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
What Happens When Work Ethic Meets The Right Tools
Welcome to the My Golf Source Podcast. Welcome to My Golf Source. I'm Darren. I'm Noah. How you doing? I'm well, man. We uh I didn't carry my weight in league last night, but we still won.
SPEAKER_01:I was looking at scores last night because you won last we won the whole last season. Right, and then I was like, how does Darren's team doing that again? And then I saw you were definitely a little more over par relative to your handicap, but you had a couple of uh shooters. Was it Derek shot like four under par?
SPEAKER_02:Well, the whole game, I mean, there's four people per team, and the way we scored it last night was won that. And so Derek, I uh Nate just tore it up.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think his handicap's gonna be the same next week. It shouldn't be.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we want it to be, but I don't think it's going to be. He must be a good ball striker and a poor putter because we don't have to putt. Well, he's a brand new golf garage member. Yeah. And in the last couple of weeks, he's come in, you know, on a regular basis and practiced. Imagine that practice pays off. Depends how you practice. Well, he was doing something right because his game just clicked last night.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's pretty cool. And I think last night it felt more electric. It felt more like everyone is ready to be here, right? It's that absolutely seasons changing. Even today it's you know midday and we had pretty much every bait full. So it's cool to see people coming indoors again, and then they're really gonna experience how their game's gonna be way better as they get into the summer months next year.
SPEAKER_02:And then this weekend is going, I I'm assuming it's gonna be packed because it's gonna be pouring rain all weekend long.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I'm going to the Ducks game. You got the invitation.
SPEAKER_02:I did. I did, but my wife has a honeydew list, and now my son knows the secret, and he's like, What the heck?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, he knows the secret to surviving marriage. You you stay home and you do the honeydew list. Yes. That's awesome. Yes. That's good. So do you have any travel plans this winter?
SPEAKER_02:Man, well, we'll probably head back down to Santa Barbara sometime around the Christmas, New Year time, but we're gonna be home through Thanksgiving and playing a lot of sim golf. I need to get down there with you to Santa Barbara. You do. We have some business talks to go through down there.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. The weather's so good down there. I might have to play a little golf too.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. It'll, you know, it'll be December, January, and 75 degrees. Just like golf garage every day.
SPEAKER_01:Indeed. Sunny and 75, right? Yes. It's like the song. Perfect. Well, hey, uh, we have a guest today, and our guest is on the Southern Oregon University women's golf team. She is a sophomore this year, and I would consider her most improved player from last year on the team. She's picked up a ton of distance. Her confidence is high. Please welcome Maya Oaks from Redmond, Oregon. Welcome.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Maya, we're so happy that you joined us today. And you've been preparing really hard for um the entire season, the offseason, and also just your work ethic is um one of the highest on the team for sure, if not the highest. So tell me a little bit about your freshman year and kind of confidence and swing. And you dealt with a lot of different things you were working on and into where you are now, and where it's like, man, we don't even feel like we have to touch much in the swing, and you're and you're just out there shooting in the 70s. So tell us a little bit about that transformation, how how it kind of came to fruition.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, so last year the transition to college golf was um very different from high school, you know, longer yardages, um, different team, new dynamic and stuff. But it was great to have a team where you know everyone wanted to practice. And um my swing wasn't great. And last fall I just kind of was dealing with it, and I was like, we'll just get through the season. Um, and then in the offseason, I was able to change my swing a bit and started getting a lot further distance and you know, compressing the ball a lot better. And so that's definitely helped with my scores this season.
SPEAKER_01:How much did your equipment or shafts have to do with you being able to compress the ball as you say?
SPEAKER_05:A lot, actually. I, you know, no edit a shaft fitting for me, and it I didn't realize that my shafts were way too heavy than they should have been, and so that's been a great improvement.
SPEAKER_01:They were pretty though.
SPEAKER_05:They were pretty, they were pink.
SPEAKER_02:We like those. Yeah. Um, what what brought you to SOU?
SPEAKER_05:Um, just a bunch of things. Um, it's like three and a half hours from home, so it's you know, kind of close, but you know, far enough. Um gained some independence and sanity already. For sure, for sure. Um, and you know, I came down for a visit and just clicked with the team and uh I like the area, it's beautiful down here, and then you know, having the golf garage, you know, having being able to have 24-hour access to that is just amazing.
SPEAKER_02:What do you think the biggest difference is transitioning from high school golf into college?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I think just like the seriousness, like it's a lot more serious, and you know, you want you have to want to practice to play in college. In high school, you can get away with just you know doing whatever, but in college fun social activity. Yeah, exactly. In college, it's a lot more serious.
SPEAKER_01:Good. Yeah, I think during your recruiting visit, I I remember it, and I just I remember how well spoken you were and how driven you were to want to play in college. Oddly enough, from what you say, that high school is a lot more fun and then you have to gain it. And like everything that you did, even in in your academics, seemed like it was top-notch. You know, you're always getting A's and everything. It seemed like you were like, I know what I want from this. And um, oddly enough enough, sometimes you come across as reserved, but when you get to know you, it's like, oh man, here's this girl that knows exactly what she wants, and she's not afraid to go work for it, which is exactly what our team needs. So she leads by example definitely in her practice. Um, and it's just inspiring to see how solid the ball is coming off the face right now and just explosive. You're not that tall, but you're super strong, but you were losing so much speed because your shafts were too heavy and you didn't know where the club was. And it's not that they're too heavy because you're strong, it's that you just couldn't feel where that club was. And now you got something that fits your swing type better, and all of a sudden you can use the explosiveness and you're not afraid of where the ball's gonna go because you know when you look up, it's gonna be somewhere in your vision and it's gonna build your confidence for sure.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02:What do you feel like was your biggest confidence booster for your freshman year?
SPEAKER_05:Um, definitely changing the swing and you know, finding my groove and you know, this new life of you know living away from home and then, you know, finally being able to hit the ball good, like that just helps so much more. And then, you know, with the mental aspect of it of knowing, like, okay, well, I can hit this shot good and I can hit this well, and then watching that happen, it really helps with my confidence.
SPEAKER_02:What do you think your big your biggest goals are over the next no, once you get through your sophomore year for your junior and senior?
SPEAKER_05:Uh, to just keep getting better.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, I love that. And we go over goals a lot. So for her to say keep getting better, she's probably got a list to find out on what it means to keep getting better and hopefully a timeline, right? We talk about that a lot of smart goals and ultimately um one percent at a time, right? So just continuing to get better every day. What are you studying?
SPEAKER_05:Uh communications.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I studied. Nice. And look at you now. Well, you know, jokingly, we call it the non-degree degree. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:How many languages can you speak with communications? Um sign language. One, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I I know a couple of sign language signs um that are not appropriate. Umpiring, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, strike one, strike two. But that's about it. That's about it, you know. I don't know. There, there's communications is uh is a tough one. You learn about all forms of of media. The one the program I was in was very heavily focused on um broadcast journalism.
SPEAKER_05:Nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_01:Uh so we have a tournament coming up in Arizona, and we just pulled Maya off the floor basically to interrupt your practice. So tell me a little bit about what you're practicing for. Um, you've played the golf course, right? Varato. You haven't played Varato yet, have you?
SPEAKER_05:Nope.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, what was I thinking? So, first time down, have you played desert golf?
SPEAKER_05:Uh a little bit. A little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so target golf. Um, what do you think your um your game needs to look like, or what do you think you're trying to accomplish this week in preparation for you? So you have that confidence.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I'm working a lot on hitting greens and especially hitting greens from like 150, 170-ish. That's what I was just working on in the sim, actually. Um, and then you know, making sure my putting's still good, because if I can hit greens, then I can putt.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, we've we've talked a lot about that the last week on the bus ride home from Idaho. We brought up some some greens regulation. Um, and yesterday, our nine holes was really about that exact thing. So, how many greens did you hit yesterday?
SPEAKER_05:Uh, I did not play well yesterday. I only had one.
SPEAKER_01:One. That's okay. That's okay. You know, I looked at the greens and reg, and the inside nine at the country club is demanding with small greens.
SPEAKER_05:It's hard, it's a hard course.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so I think ultimately it's not about um how many greens you hit, it's about can you scramble when you're not hitting it good, right? Or are you leaving it in the right spots? And so I think those are the big things that we try to take away. And so ultimately, if you're not hitting greens in regulation like you were yesterday, the fact that you're working on that exact thing today is huge in the maturity that you have and understanding of your golf game, not just because I'm saying that we need to go hit more greens in regulation. So the fact that you have different yardages that you want to, um, ultimately, um, you know, when we look at golf courses too, especially down in Arizona, if you haven't played it, you know, looking at the course map, um, getting on Google Earth, playing it in the sim if it if we have it, Varato, right? Don't have it, but that's okay. It's probably coming soon. Um, and then and then talking to your teammates who have played it because it is a course we played last year. Um, Kira won the tournament last year. She'd be a good resource for you. And and it is like all about feeling comfortable in a place you've never been. Yeah. So it's gonna be a really good time. You're gonna play great down there. The course sets up perfect for your fall-off cut. It's gonna be it's gonna be good. But like you said, the putting side of it is big. And I would just say that that was the one thing earlier in the season that you were still shooting the 70s with a bunch of putts, yeah, and you know, you can't putt and chip enough in this game. So just to keep that going. Yeah, what are you working on in putting right now?
SPEAKER_05:Um, just uh like distance control and you know, making my lag putts closer so it's easier to tap in.
SPEAKER_02:That's so hard because every course you go to, the grains are so different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think one of the things we we talked about in um our last practice. I don't think I had the ladies doing this, but at the end the men had to they were timed 60 seconds and they had to hit as many putts as they could in the hole. And I gave them basically if you don't hit 10, you gotta go do a one-minute plank or something. Just whatever. It was just kind of to make him play for something. And then um, sometimes we we do positive reward base too. Um, but at the end, I said, I switched it up with three seconds to go and said if you miss this putt, you have to do a one-minute plank. Nobody missed it, but only one person didn't succeed in the goal. So I went over and planked with them and just talked to him for a little bit. And then the other ones, you know, it's interesting because we talked a lot about the percentage of make rate on tour and and what we want you to focus on, which is why you're working on lagging it inside of six feet essentially, is because the make rate is higher. Um, but what we did at the end that I gave to the men was uh two to three foot putt, and you pick the most minute spot. It could be a grain of grass that you want the ball to roll over and you have to visualize the speed it goes in prior. You have to have that made up in your mind, the picture, and where on the hole does it go over and at what speed? It has to be perfect, right? So once you've made up your mind, you hit the putt. And if you miss that visual that you had in your head on how it enters the hole by just a little bit of speed or just even a fraction off, you reput that putt.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:So even if you make it, even if you make it, so you do it until you pull off the shot. Could take you 20 putts, but what happens is your focus is narrowed so much that you probably made all 10 or 15 of those putts until you got it. And so you're building confidence even though you don't know it, because you're preparing pre preparing the right way now. That is smart advice. So then after they pull the putt off, then they have to go to a different spot.
SPEAKER_02:It's not about just making the putting going, oh, I got lucky on that one. It's about doing it with intention.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. You made it the way you intended to make it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And that doesn't happen very often, but the more you practice with intent, right? Coach Matt talks about working out with intent a lot and just continuing to do things, and that's that 1% gain. All of a sudden now you're good. And that's how when we start with putting that way, then the next thing is chipping, and the next thing is full swing. And if you can have intent to that extreme, knowing and seeing the picture in your head of what you want to do, when you do pull it off, which is probably one out of 10 rounds of golf, right? You're like, whoa. Sounds a whole lot like op 36. It's a lot like op 36.
SPEAKER_02:It's just, you know, one of those things. So, do you what are what are your career goals after after college? Is it in the golf industry or do you have something else in mind?
SPEAKER_05:I have no idea. Okay, perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Says everybody who studies communications in college.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I have no idea what the fact is, she could just smile and she'll get a job. It's perfect, right? She's got a great smile, she's got a great personality, she'd be a hard worker for anybody. So, well, that's awesome. Uh, what would you share? Last little thing for you, what would you share with any junior girl golfer about maybe something that you would have done differently um and how you prepared to get better when you were growing up?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I would have played earlier and practiced a lot more um in the off season, I think, and just like just keep practicing, even if you started later, because I mean I didn't start till I was 13 and I was competing with the girls who'd been playing since they were, you know, six. Yeah. And eventually I caught up to them, but it took a lot of work, and so just keep working and keep practicing.
SPEAKER_02:So you're out on the road a lot traveling to golf tournaments and stuff. Where's your go-to place to eat?
SPEAKER_05:Ooh.
SPEAKER_02:That one came out of left field, but well, it depends.
SPEAKER_01:Are we coming back from uh Idaho? Because if we're doing that, we got pizza, and then your parents brought us pizza, and then and then we go to Chicka Chipotle, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we always go to Chipotle.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. That's a popular one. What about mob pizza?
SPEAKER_04:Mod pizza's good too.
SPEAKER_01:You guys always like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then we try to eat well. I mean, when we're on the road, we usually go to a sit-down place if we can.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I love the old spaghetti factory.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So that was good.
SPEAKER_01:We usually give a couple options. Hey, what style of food do you want? And we usually ask the girls because at least they'll tell us. Guys are like, we don't care. We'll eat off the side of the road. Whatever. The guys just want to eat wherever the girls are eating. That's I don't need to know any of that. Oh, come on, man. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's that's awesome advice. Um, and the only other thing that brought up for me was you know, you're in central Oregon. There's times where there's snow, there's times where it's negative degree outside, right? So, how would you have practiced in the winter time knowing what you know now?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I would have wished there was a golf garage.
SPEAKER_01:I'd love that. That was not a softball either. Did you hold that sign up, Toby, in the background? Yeah, golf garage. So, but isn't it cool? When we were in um Idaho, we got there before the sun came out. And we were one of the only teams where everyone was warming up inside the clubhouse stretching and dynamic movement, right? So you were actually ready to hit driver when you went out on the range before you had even warmed up. Yeah. So the fact that we're preparing differently than we did a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, right? This is the four fourth year in this program. That is the thing that makes me smile about this program is you guys are just developing so much faster than others. And it'll catch up, just like you said, when you were first starting and you wish you would have started earlier, all of a sudden you worked harder and then you caught up. Yeah. We're working harder and smarter. We're gonna catch up. And we're in the top 50, I think, in the country as of this week. I think so, yeah. That's awesome. So good for us. Congrats to you. And uh Kira, I don't know if you saw this, but she is, I think, 51st in the world amateur golf rankings. Oh, wow individually this week. Awesome. So, you know, we're doing great, a lot of big things to come, and just last year we weren't even there. So look at it.
SPEAKER_02:Excited. Good things happening at SOU. Thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02:All right, and since the next guest is my son, I'll let you do the introduction. That sounds good.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, your son, Toby Penquite. I don't know where to start with this kid. Um, started with us in some youth programs uh a few years back, and uh gotten the opportunity to work with Toby weekly, and we have started to develop a game plan, and there's a lot to talk about with his game and where it's been and where it's going. But I will say that not only is Toby um a golfer that loves the game, um, his work ethic at this point is second to none. And he's starting to understand how to become a better golfer faster. And one thing I said to him last week that I'll kind of start with is we're not working on the big things anymore. We're working on the little things because your golf swing's looking really good. So I think we're kind of at a point now with Toby to where you know it's a lot more fun to coach, and we're not trying to make these ups and downs in emotion anymore because of what we're gonna do. Absolutely not, and there's a lot to talk about, it's about speed and power. So, Toby, welcome to the show, buddy. Welcome, Toby.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thanks for having me here.
SPEAKER_01:So I think some of this that we want to talk about with you is um and with Darren is kind of parent, child, their roles. I want to talk about some roles today, but before we do, uh tell me about how you got started with golf and what you love most about golf.
SPEAKER_00:So actually, my grandpa from Santa Barbara actually got me into golf. And I just been playing this for for a few years, and I started to really like it. And when my dad got his first set, I was like, oh, I want to get a golf set soon. So I got my first set at six and I've been taking a little bit of some lessons just swinging around, just figuring out. And at the age of seven, I took some golf lessons with other juniors and playing like many scrambled tournaments. And at around seven, I did baseball for a few months. Then after I didn't like baseball much, and like all right, I just went back to golf and I've been playing golf since ever since.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. So, what's your favorite thing about golf in the game?
SPEAKER_00:Um just making new friends. It's like it could really work on relationships with others when you play with other kids. And also adults, and it's I just feel like it's great to make new friends and just talk trash to each other and just make fun.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say, in in relate in relationships you are making at golf garage, Toby, you you remind me a lot of myself. Um, I would play golf with anybody. I worked at Bear Creek Golf Course at a young age. Um, I was 12 when I started there. And I would literally just go up to the T and I would join anybody and play golf with anybody and didn't really care. And you would get to know them. And you know, here's Toby coming up, practicing in the morning, and then you see somebody comes in, and about two minutes later, you're walking over to them and just watching them hit and saying hi to them, and next thing you know, you're having a competition with them. So, and and not even that, you know the technology so well that you're literally like our liaison, you know, mascot's not the right.
SPEAKER_02:Escorting people to their bays and getting them all set up on the course they want to play and entering the names into the system, and yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, yeah. You know, and I think about this too, Toby. We've had quite a few golf lessons at this point, and I don't know if you remember, but a lot of our golf lessons are less and less about mechanics, more about fundamentals, right? This last lesson uh with putting, do you remember the one thing we worked on?
SPEAKER_00:Was it like posture with my shoulder blades going back?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so posture, right? And then with chipping, we worked on one to sway, not to sway, and we had to work on a little fundamental there.
SPEAKER_00:And then on the full swing, still the same thing, not to sway and not tilt back what I used to do. Yeah, not just fall back every time and I'm off balance.
SPEAKER_01:Listen to you, man. You could teach the game already. So the the tilting back was the reason that you were kind of hanging back and swaying because your body wasn't balanced. So you're doing all these great things, those are all setup ideas, and because they're set up, you don't have to think about them in the swing, which means you can still swing at the speed you want to, except when you fall over. And so we started working on balance, yeah, balance and dialing back the speed because when you were taking it back so fast, it would pull you over, wouldn't it? Yeah, that's awesome. So, what are you looking forward to this summer with golf tournaments?
SPEAKER_00:Um just to play some more competitive and just work on my game and just try to start shooting lower scores on the course and get outside more.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna tell you what he told me the other day. I asked him a similar question and he said, winning. Yeah, just winning.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? I had a really cool professor in college, marketing adjunct professor. All the adjunct professors were the best professors. So sitting in his office, I had missed some a class because of golf tournament, and I I had to do some makeup, so I needed to kind of find out what I needed to get done for him. And it was just a fun class, it was a marketing class, and and he's like, Hey, how'd you do this week? I said, You know, I did all right. I I was second, and he's like, you know, are you getting ready for this week? And I said, I am. And um, he's like, Um, you're gonna go win. I said, Well, we'll we'll see. And you know, the goal is, and he's like, Well, if you're gonna go win, yeah. Basically, he's like, No, that's not the attitude. He's like, You're gonna go win, right? And I kind of hesitated again. He's like, You don't ever go into a tournament trying to finish second. He said, You need to go in and win. 100%. And I was like, Why did I not learn this until college? Right? So, Toby, you've learned that. Let's see here. That was my senior year. You learned that about 10 years early, dude. 10 years, nine years at least. So ultimately, I know that we want to win, and you need to learn how to win, and then you need to learn how to win the right way. Because there are people that get so mad if they don't win that they're poor losers, and there are people that win that get arrogant and cocky in the wrong manner and treat everyone else bad.
SPEAKER_02:Learn how to stay humble after a big win.
SPEAKER_01:Big, big win, right? Why are you there? Scotty Scheffler's awesome, right?
SPEAKER_02:Scotty Scheffler doesn't care about the other even-keeled person on tour, not afraid to talk about his faith.
SPEAKER_01:I think all those things are important. So when we look at you and where you're at right now, you have the physical ability to win. You have the technical ability. Yeah, technical ability, physical ability. What you're going to um learn this year is as you play in more golf tournaments, you're going to feel more comfortable. And as you feel more comfortable, the win won't matter to you because you're just playing golf. Yeah. And then the score adds up to the win. So it's that shot by shot mentality, staying in the present. Those are the things that are big as we move forward. And, you know, I would just say that the more you can compete with anybody in golf garage and then take that out on the golf course. Anything you do as a competition at this point, even if no one's here and you're doing it against yourself, that's huge.
SPEAKER_02:There's been two big things to overcome on the golf course. What have those things been?
SPEAKER_00:A struggle, which is my mental game.
SPEAKER_02:The mental game? That's the biggest one. What's the second one?
SPEAKER_00:Does attitude count or is that the same?
SPEAKER_02:Well, no, that's the same thing. Combating fatigue.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Because there's a big difference between playing 18 holes in the simulator and getting out there and walking six miles on an 18-hole course.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, without question. So this is actually a cool thing to dive into because Toby just started a fitness program and going to the physical therapist. So you started with Coach Matt last week also, um, right after our last lesson. And Coach Matt obviously was on the show um last week, top, you know, top fitness golf specifically in the country, right? So, what are the things that you worked on with Coach Matt? Just a couple.
SPEAKER_00:There's one with hip hinge. Okay. Where I was always like grounding when I was not moving my hip back. And there's one called like dead bug.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. What's dead bug?
SPEAKER_00:Dead bug's like, you know, you're dead, a dead bug, you're on your back, and um alternate with like my legs at a 90 degree angle, my hands and arms just up, and I move my left leg and my heel touches the ground, and I move my right arm.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, alternating, alternating back and forth. Are those hard or easy?
SPEAKER_00:Pretty hard.
SPEAKER_01:And if you keep going, they're really hard. Yeah. Yeah. The the the SOE team is that's easier.
SPEAKER_00:As you keep going.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. So again, the the hip hinge is posture, right? And so one of the things that we did was I I let Coach Matt know what we were working on in the swing. So that way he put an emphasis on your performance program as well. And that's what separates us a lot is being able to communicate with amongst coaches and utilize all of our resources here. And then eventually, once you can move well, he'll throw the weight on.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. But we're not throwing weight on until you can move well. And I think that's one of the biggest keys um in working out is understanding what your capabilities are, where you're lacking, and where those opportunities are, and then how we can get you to start putting on some muscle after that.
SPEAKER_02:And it's it's just it's amazing from a parent's standpoint, watching how far he's come over the last three or four years, and he's hungry for it. There has been zero effort to push him by me or his or his mom. And he's just hungry for more and more and more and more. And seeing the progress that he's been made, how far he's hit in the club now as an eighth grader, and and and his eagerness to get better and playing at a competitive level now. I'm I'm super excited to see where he goes over the next four or five years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, that's what it takes. Very rarely do you find someone that has the work ethic of Toby without having to say you need to do this. If if you ask him to do something, he's gonna do it over and over again, right? And I think that's really important. And the fact that he already has the ability to explain why he's doing things. We've even done things where we've taken um the technology away and it's been feel-based only. And he's being he's able to tell us where he's hitting it on the club face. I think that's so important at a young age to already know where you're hitting it, how it feels to hit it. The miss hit's gonna go a certain distance, and he knows a lot of that already. Um, you know, not to it's kind of kind of weird to think this way, but I did kind of a similar drill with the college team last week where we were really worked on when you miss hit it, how far is it going, and getting them to understand and the fact that they don't know, and it's primarily because they didn't they don't have the tools that we have at golf garage. So let's go back home.
SPEAKER_02:Let's talk a little bit about the secrets of of competitive golf out on the course. Are high school and college kids allowed to use range finders? Yeah. They are. Yep. Okay. No slope in tournament play. Right, correct. So in the golf garage, you're very into know your numbers, know your numbers. Know how far you hit each club, know what the what it feels like to hit a 42-yard versus a 45-yard wedge shot. Um how does that come into play on the course when you watch these PGA tour players who are not using range finders? I mean, yes, I know they've walked the course, their caddies know that course like the back of their hand, but if they hit these hundred and fifty yard shots based off of feel and drop it within five feet of the pin, front or back. That that feel, where does that come from without knowing the actual detailed exact number?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's just repetition. The thing that you can't control is the environment around you, right? So you don't know when a gust of wind's gonna come up or any of that. But what happens is the the technology is is so advanced now that it has a built-in barometer inside of some of the technology as far as elevation goes, because if you play at different elevation, the ball flies different. Oh, I know. We deal with that on the sim. 100%. Yep. You're you're gonna deal with different grasses that's gonna, you know, interact your club to the turf differently, and it's gonna make the ball sit differently. And some players play really good on certain grasses and others don't. Um, and that's part of what I would say is the plan that we need, the game plan is someone like Tiger Woods, who's so good at golf and controlling his distances on his approaches, that's when in 2000 he was hitting it the distance every time pretty much. Um he has the luxury of choosing where and when he wants to play. So his schedule was very similar, which allowed him to win a lot more because he knew what kind of golf courses he was successful at. He could win on any golf course, but if you really looked at it, there were some things within those golf courses that made him um work a little harder. Well, gave him an advantage over other players because it was the type of course that um would be good for him. I mean, look at Augusta. He was the longest hitter out there at that time, um, or one of. And at Augusta early on, you could hit it wherever you wanted. So for him to have mid irons and short irons into par fives at times, and other players are still hitting a hybrid, he's going to take advantage of that. You know, and now they call it tiger-proofing, white, right? They kept making courses longer. And so um, I would just say, like going back to someone that's at Toby's age right now, um, it is more and more about repetition and creating feel. So the example I would I would give you is when you have 14 clubs in your bag, you need to be able to hit 10 with your pitching wedge at 100, 10 with your nine iron at 100, 10 with your eight iron at 100, 10 with right, there was that's like a legitimate thing. Why wouldn't you do that to see what the ball does and then do something else to the extent of windows, right? So if we have a bigger spot, yeah. Yeah, I think it's one of the best practice drills. So, Toby, can you tell me about the window drill I gave you maybe three weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you gave me this window drill where I have to hit straight um fades and draws. So I go like low draw, mid-draw, like your average high, and then a high draw. Same thing with straight, low, average, and high. The one that I struggle with the most is the fade because I don't hit that shot shape anymore because I'm playing my draw more consistently, and some days I'll hit a fade, but not consistently.
SPEAKER_01:I wish I knew how to do that. I know. Well, you can come on in, man, and you got you just gotta go start practicing.
SPEAKER_00:He just throws dimes with his cuts and fades onto the green. When we were doing bar running with his his nine irons pitching line, seven irons or just dimes onto the green.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, so real quick, the the drill that I gave you with the windows, uh, you did a great job explaining that. Um there was a piece to that though that I added, and I said, How many shots does it take you to hit a high draw, right? A mid draw, low draw, and then fade. So you actually said it's harder for me to hit the fade. So you knew that because you wrote down how many shots it took you, right? Do you remember kind of the hardest shot of the that nine piece grid?
SPEAKER_00:It was the fade for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Which one? Was it low, mid, or high?
SPEAKER_00:It was uh probably mid to high. Mid to high.
SPEAKER_01:Do you remember how many shots it took you to get it?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I have it on my app here.
SPEAKER_01:You have it on your app? All right, the Coach Now app. But one of the things as you're looking that up that I had said to you was it was the mid-drop, the mid-fade was the hardest. How many shots did it take?
SPEAKER_00:It took me six shots.
SPEAKER_01:Six. So it's still pretty good. So when you when you look at that, um what what's unique about it is you hit the nail on the head when you said, you know, I'm I'm really just gonna focus on my shot shape. So when you get out on tour, sometimes you don't have the luxury of of having a shot shape, but realistically, or you know, a choice to have to hit a fade or draw. But realistically, most of the time you do have a choice that I'm gonna play a little draw, right? And it's not like we're trying to get the ball to draw, you know, 10 yards. We're just trying to get it to fall left slightly because that's the way your body moves most efficiently, right? And maybe down the road we look at the other, but if you have too many um shots in your arsenal from left to right, right to left, all of a sudden it also gets you to start thinking about, oh, should I play this shot or should I play that shot? If you know that it's a baby draw every time and you're really confident with that shot shape, you're gonna play a lot better golf, not feeling like I have to pick from all nine of those.
SPEAKER_02:If you're a right-handed golfer and your fairway, your landing zone is gonna be sloping to the left, a fade, it's gonna be your favor because you don't want it to you don't want to hit a draw and have the ball going in the direction of the downhill slope and roll off of the fairway.
SPEAKER_01:So it just depends on you want to land more into the grain. You have to decide, right? Number one, there's always a place typically that's a landing area. There's not a lot of golf courses even built into hillsides that have an extreme slope unless you're not playing the course the way it was designed. Right. So you got to look back at where that level landing area is, and it might mean you got to lay back to 150 instead of wedge. What about hole 10 at Eagle Point? There's a lot of level there. It's back at one all the way from like where you tee off all the way up to about 130 is level.
SPEAKER_02:And then past 130 is a hard left-handed slope.
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, left-handed slope for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Where if you're hitting a driver on a par four and you're gonna pump it out there 230, 240, 250 yards, you want it to fade and land into the hill, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, realistically, I would just as a as a caddy or trying to get somebody to shoot the best score, I would tell them not to hit driver there. I would tell them to lay back to the level spot. That's where people get into trouble because that hole has so much trouble. So unless you're trying to drive the green. I have done that in tournament play there. And then be an eight iron in or something. I've I've hit five iron and seven iron off that T a bunch um in the wintertime just because it didn't make sense to do anything else. And it gave me a really good chance, and I probably never made more than par. Yet we still like to pull Big Dog out and try to get that risk reward. It's just fun, it's part of the game.
SPEAKER_02:So Toby is gonna be going into high school next year, and we're talking about I mean, him being a homeschooled student, we're talking about who's he gonna play golf for? What are some things? I mean, we have a few options around this area for high schools. What are some things we need to be looking at in making that selection?
SPEAKER_01:I would just say the school as a whole is gonna be the differentiator. Um, you've got to have um the balance, right? Because you're there most of the time going to school. Well, and a little bit of a school. Oh, nice. Okay. I think we did talk about that, but we were looking at some other options as well. So never mind that. I will still have that conversation, but that's one other time. That makes total sense. Yeah. So from a golf side of it, um, you can never say it's bad to be around other competitive golfers, right? So I think when you look at it right now, um, I know from a public school side of things, South Medford High School has a lot of really solid players coming in this next year. Um, North Medford's got a couple. Um, Crater always has a lot of kids. Um, then you get into the private side of it with St. Mary's and Cascade, and they're always gonna have some decent players. Um, but then you also have to look at the coaching side of it, right? Right. In high school golf, just like at SOU, I'm gonna say this one thing, and this is what people don't think of. Most we'll go to high school first. Most high school golf coaches are typically a teacher, right? And typically they love the game, so they're passionate about that side of it. But they're also looking more at getting you to and from the golf tournaments and making sure that you're at the golf course, when you have practice, it's on course a lot more, or if you're chipping and putting, that's fine. But are they able to really give you things that are gonna allow you to be more successful? And what I would say is uh most parents are more educated on what's out there all over the country as to a golf professional that's gonna help their player get better. So as of right now, Toby has a coach, right? So I'm working with him weekly on that side of the game. I'm bringing in other coaching staff at times to help you with certain things, right? And then if you have a high school coach, the goal more for you is probably the ability that you get to go play high school golf and there's tournaments over someone that's going to help you do something more than that. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Because we all know there's those coaches out there that are gonna say, I don't care what your other don't listen to your coach anymore. You're you're my student now, and and they kind of take over and want to change everything and mess mess everything up. So it's important that we find a coach that's going to be you know in line with you and with your coaching staff uh to keep that level of consistency honesty and integrity in the coaching.
SPEAKER_01:I've what I found with a lot of this is that it's just communication within that coach. So you get the parent and the coach engaged at the same time and have a quick meeting about it early um before the season or before you choose what school you want, and that's all it really takes.
SPEAKER_00:We we were talking to Ryan about this at Bar Run of which high school I should go to. Like that you guys also know some coaches that could just help also just be on the same page of what I'm working on and what I've already mastered.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, without question. Obviously, Coach Matt's a high school coach, Coach Ryan's a high school coach, Coach Jessica's a high school coach, right? So part of working here at Golf Garage is that I encourage them to coach and they love it. So it's a it's a win-win for us. But giving back to the community at some level is really, really important. But you're right, Toby. I mean, to have a coach that you are that already knows you and has a relationship with you is probably gonna let you do a little bit more free practice or the things you need to work on because your level of play um at that point might be higher, right? But what we're looking at, you know, is to prove that, right? So right now, this year, your goal is to shoot somewhere around even par, right? I think you can do it. And I think ultimately where we're at with it is we talked about it, move up to those forward T's and shoot under par and then move back one. I bet you shoot around under par again. Yeah. Because you just need to get it in your head that you can do it. And so once that happens, um, it's like a coach, why would a coach ever say no to you if you're already shooting under par, especially if you're probably out there able to beat them on a consistent basis? Um, and I will give this feedback for everyone that's listening. If a coach asks you to do something and it doesn't feel right, ask them why. And if they say because I said so, it's probably not a good reason. They need to be able to demonstrate it on their own first and explain exactly why they're telling you or asking you to do something in your game.
SPEAKER_02:And sometimes that's not the position of the high school kid to get up in the coach's face and debate them on that. That's something maybe bring a parent or another coach involved.
SPEAKER_01:And I would say it's not even about that, it's just kindly, right? You're just like, okay, coach, that sounds great. Can you tell me why this is happening? Yeah, exactly. I think it's it's not so much about butting heads, it's just that it didn't it doesn't make sense to you. And I don't necessarily, especially if you have a swing coach already and they're getting you to work on something else. The last thing you want to do is maybe they're trying to help and they give you something else, and now all of a sudden it takes you three months to get back to where you were because your confidence is down and you've been working on the wrong thing on the range for a while. Yep, for sure. All right. Yeah, that's good stuff, man. What are we gonna do next week? Uh well, Don did text me back. He is still on his cruise. Uh, he's so he texted me from the boat. So I'm hopeful that Don Law will be on the show. Caribbean? No, I think he's over Mediterranean, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, beautiful. And then Toby, uh we gotta ask you a couple of questions here, right? What are our guests there, Darren? What do they like? What's your favorite golf course you've ever played?
SPEAKER_00:Um Court Olaine in Idaho.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's court allane resorts. The island green. Yeah, that island green and having to take a little boat out to it is that's the only thing that's special about that.
SPEAKER_00:That's the only thing that made me like that course. But the second one of like talking Oregon, it's um running wide.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Yeah, he got to play running why way. I got to play running white at once. We've got to make that happen a few more times. Yeah. And where's your what's your favorite restaurant? Where's your favorite place to eat?
SPEAKER_00:Does a golf golf course count? Yeah, sure. Centennial for sure. Centennial grill, yeah. Centennial grill. It's I always sometimes when it's afternoon, we always eat there when our round's over.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Noah, it's been a pleasure. Toby, thank you for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, Toby, good job, bud. Big things to come.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Until next week, take care of the
