Rory, Scheffler, And The New Golf Era

Transcript

Welcome Back After The Masters

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to the My Golf Source Podcast. Well, welcome back. It's been a couple of minutes. Yes, it has. Excited to be back. First podcast since the Masters. Yeah. Let's get right into it. Rory McElroy, two years in a row.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Is he not your favorite golfer at this point? No, he's not. You don't like the guy that wins the masters?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I do like the guy who wins the masters. I do like Rory. My son, he's my son's favorite golfer. I just have to pick somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

So do you think that Rory is now in the shadow of Tiger Woods? Is he the closest? I would say Scheffler. He's coming up pretty strong, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

So Scheffler, I I backed my son into a corner the other day. What's the big one coming up? PGA championship, so for Scheffler, if he wins that, he's got the career grand slam, right? Amazing. How can you not root for Scheffler on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Oh no, you do. 100%. Right. And he's just a great guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I finally talked my son into going, okay, I'm gonna sacrifice Rory and go for Scheffler on this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I just like that Rory's my height. And he hits it, and he hits it 350 yards down. You got about 40 pounds on you, though. Oh, more than a box of but just 125. I bet he weighs 180. 180. Yeah. He's such a big box of but just he's muscle, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

He's like a compact Bryson de Chambeau.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah, except for Bryson looks like he's swinging way harder than Rory. He does.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Rory makes it look effortless. Bryson, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

He kills it. Yeah, he looks like he's gonna break his back every time he swings. What are you eating? You want a chicken nugget? Maybe. Chicken breast bites.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

It looks like he bought it at a health food store.

Rory, Tiger, And Tour Politics

SPEAKER_00 2:06

My wife bought it, so whatever. You know, I just needed a little protein for the show. Again, it looks like it was bought at a health food store. Hey, listen, this is a golf podcast. We gotta keep our protein up here. We're going into the back nine. I gotta keep my energy up. All right. There we go. So, any final thoughts on the Masters? I loved it. I I just think that Rory has been put in the spotlight so many times and and has been portrayed as the outspoken person for the PGA of America and the PGA Tour at some level. He's PGA Junior League, which is a program that we run at Golf Garage and I've ran since its inception back when I was in Ohio. And I think that the fact that you have this person that's willing to do that for the sport that he loves is just amazing, right? And even like a Tiger Woods, like he's in the limelight, but he wasn't going and doing those things that Rory is doing. Right. And I think that that is what golf really needs. And sometimes, based on what happened, it seems like he was betrayed a little bit. If you look at the storyline by these two tours, by Live and now by PGA, because you're letting people cross over that are quote unquote good media, right? Quite frankly. And so ratings. Yeah, ratings. Which is what it comes down to. It's just pissing these tour players off. And you know some of them. Well, yeah, they didn't cross over, right? So it is a hard one. They get paid these millions and millions of dollars. Whether they win or not. Yeah. And is it really in the best interest of the game to let them come back?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

I think it was in the best interest of the game to shake things up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

I agree a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

I'm glad it's coming back. You know, Live it's gonna be dissolving. The PGA tour is gonna be the big game in town again, the only game in town again. However, I like the competitive nature that it brought to the industry. I like the competitive nature it brought on behalf of the players and the sport itself, and I think it kind of was a smack in the face and a wake-up call to the PGA that they needed to think outside the box a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

They need to take care of their players better, yeah. Right? So I do agree with you, and I think that why is it that we were so inundated with Tiger Woods on a Sunday? Why were ratings up so much? It was the drama he created. You were waiting for people to fold. So Rory not only can talk a big game and call people out, but he's backing it up, right? Who who are the people that you think are gonna win? Rory McElroy and Scotty Sheffield. Scotty Scheffler right now. Justin Rose is right up there. He's Justin Rose is a great golfer. And again, if you look at it, he just can't hit the ball as far as those two. Yeah, and Augusta's a big course. So I think it's interesting to see where people play well. Look at Jordan Speeth. Jordan Speeth plays well in Texas, doesn't he? He does. It's crazy. It's like if you had him in any of the Texas tournaments, you'd probably think he's gonna be at the top of the leaderboard.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Jason Day has come back a lot and been in the limelight for the lot. I mean, not in the top what, top six to ten, but he he gave a good showing at the Masters. He gave a great showing at in the few tournaments before.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

That's because he didn't get in trouble for the big old shirt that he had on before. Do you remember the advertisement? Oh. Yeah, so he comes out, I don't remember how many years back this was. And I just like that dude. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

You love the accent, the personality.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah. So Jason had on some big logo on a shirt, and Augusta didn't like that very much. And they asked him not to wear that big of a logo for the next couple days. It was a new brand he was putting on. So yeah, they've got some pretty big restrictions there.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

You can wear tailor-made, you can wear titleists, you can wear your club manufacturers, but forget everything else.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Nothing bigger than a four-inch by four-inch or something. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, no, it's it's great for the game. It's good to see records being broken in any sport and by an athlete that we are rooting for anyway, is just really, really cool to see. It's also cool at the end from a family side of it, that his daughter was there and you see him, you know, bring her in and pick her up. That's always kind of a unique one because these guys work so hard for the majors. Right. If you win a major, you're in the hall of fame, basically, right? So for Rory to go back to back, which is like not happening ever in very many majors in general, right? Let alone Augusta. Um it's just incredible TV and it's incredible to see. And then you see the emotion happen, and you're like, wow, that guy has put a lot of time and energy into this sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Here's my rub with Rory. I don't think he lacks emotion. He certainly doesn't lack skill, but he's not as flamboyant as Tiger, and I don't say that in a in a degrading way. He doesn't have you don't see him as happy or as animated in interviews as you see Tiger. Look at the Ryder Cup.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Ryder Cup Rory puts on a show. Alright. Yeah. Wait till the Ryder Cup happens again. He he talks so much trash out there when guys start talking trash to him first, and he follows it up with big putts.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

So I don't know. I mean, as much as I want America to win, it's really fun to root for Rory.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, no, I I don't blame you one bit.

Who’s Next To Win Big

SPEAKER_00 7:41

It's awesome. Um, SOU. Yeah, we just wrapped up our fourth season, and well, you know, it's bittersweet. We had so much success this year, but we didn't send anybody to nationals again. And it was one of those goals personally that I had that within the first four years we were going to. And we had an opportunity to do it. Our senior Ricky Reasner had um, he was in contention going into the final round. And I uh he was the only senior playing in the event that was graduating this year. So I actually made it a point on day three and let the rest of the team know that I was gonna be with Ricky the whole round. And I said, you know what, senior year, he's in contention. I think the kid deserves to be with the coach a little bit more. And I I had such a great time just hanging with him, um, just remembering just watching him make birdies. He shot two under par, had a chance to shoot eight under par. Like it was just incredible. And had he done that, he would have um would have won the tournament and went to national. So the fact that you even put yourself there, Oliver Osland, another one, just got interviewed by the news for NAIA national player of the week a few weeks back. Went in back-to-back golf tournaments, a big regional um down in Vegas, followed by um shooting like 11 under par for a couple days down in a pretty demanding um private golf club in Riverview, which you and I are gonna go play or I don't know if you're playing, but your son and I are gonna go play tomorrow. Tomorrow. And yeah, just like there's so many things. And then the final event, a couple of the ladies that had just not shot the numbers this year. I think you know, Mia Bontrager in her final round shoots even par 72 and her previous best this year was like 77. Uh, you know, and then Maya shoots 73 in round two, and her previous best was like 78. So for them to do it, they didn't do it all three days, but them to do it at least you know, before the end of the season, they've got to be riding high, and now confidence has got to be higher, and then the work ethic, I hope, you know, follows suit that they start thinking about that they're good enough to shoot those scores come next year.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Absolutely. Yeah, and you're not losing, you're losing Ricky.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

I'm losing Ricky, I'm losing Preston. Um, Preston was kind of in that, you know, more of a six-spot role this last year. Um, and he was the first recruit I ever brought into SOU, which is special. And his parents actually graduated from SOU. His sister went to SOU. So really cool to have that storyline. You know, obviously sad to you know see him go as well, but you know, he's an SOU raider for life. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And it's so cool to see a golf program that didn't virtually exist a few years ago to something now that's garnering a lot of media attention.

SOU Golf Growth And Facilities

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, without question. It's you know, Southern Oregon has needed a golf team for so long, and the school itself is going through some financial struggles right now. And what's interesting about that is that a lot of schools are going through financial struggles. And we have an amazing president and Rick Bailey. We have an amazing athletics department with Matt Sayer and Bobby Haiken and all the coaches, and Beach Volleyball just won a national championship. Very cool, right? SOU's softball teams trying to get another national championship back-to-back years. Um, you know, they're all doing well. A lot of the teams and programs are going to the nationals, and it just shows like a small community with people that care can really make a difference. And I think that's what's so cool about this community of SOU, not just in the golf side of it, but the athletics department as a whole, 30% of our school is made up by athletes. It's so amazing to think of, right? They all love it, they all want to win, they are all competitive people, and it's like that's a pretty cool culture to think of because if you if you went to a University of Oregon or an Oregon State, a bigger school, you know, it's a lot smaller percentage, you know, probably under 5% are athletes at a place like that. And, you know, the other thing about it with our golf program is we have the best facilities anywhere, hands down, between golf garage that's 24-7, to Rogue Valley Country Club, letting us come out a couple days a week, to Stone Ridge Golf Club, letting us go out there whenever we want to. Shout out to those guys for stepping up and allowing this program to be what it is. Without those facilities, we couldn't do what we do. And we're working with a few other community partners. Stuart Meadows has been phenomenal and let the team come out a few times. Like it's just like when you ask, they don't say no. And I think that's a big help because you know, we're a golf team. We don't it's the future of the golf industry, future of the game, future of the industry. A lot of people don't think that way, and so they're like, oh man, there's these kids out on my course again. And it's like, no, slow down a second. These are the ones that are gonna keep your golf course green, happy, and allow you to keep playing for years to come. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

You're thinking I gotta hit my numbers today.

unknown 12:50

Right.

Golf Garage Break In Fallout

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Exactly, exactly. So I'm excited. What's new at the golf garage? Everything. So we got broken into.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

We have not talked on the podcast since then, have we?

SPEAKER_00 13:03

You know you're doing something right when you get broken into. What do you think about that? Yeah. Means that they want something you have, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

It means that there's really bad people out there who want to inflict harm on local small business.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

You know what's funny about this? I think I think uh it brought our community together.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

It really did. The turnout and support that you got that day and in the days following was was heartwarming to say the least. I mean, I woke up, my son was supposed to be down here at 7.30 that morning. I woke up to a text from you at 5 30 in the morning saying, with a picture of your front door, and I'm like, oh man. I mean, my heart just sank. You know. Um but you know, in business, that's what insurance is for. And that's what a community is for. And that came out and shined more than I would have ever imagined.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, so I always talk about again, maybe in business, starting up this endeavor. I have not, I I mean, I I love giving back to everybody. Like if there's a nonprofit that asks for something, there's an in-kind donation immediately of here's some bay time, use it, sell it, make some money for your nonprofit. I'll do that with anybody that asks that has that a need. Um, we've done a lot of events here at Golf Garage that have helped our community. Um, I try to be as engaged as I can with the chamber, um, with any nonprofit, you know, just in general, just our members, trying to give them the best experience possible. So, you know, when I walked in that morning, it was about 5 30 on a Saturday, and I get a call from Casey, the head pro at Stuart, and he was in the parking lot already, and he's like, Hey, are you here? And I said, Yeah, just walked in. And he's like, Um, your front door glass is broken. I think you've gotten broken into. And at that exact time, I'm walking by the tailor made display and look down, and I almost stripped all over these shafts that had just been pulled down. I said, Yeah, you're right. Looks like we got broken into. And it wasn't funny, but it was just like, hmm, that's interesting. So I walk up further and see the smashed glass, and I'm just like, all right, well, open the door, and you know, first thing I do is call 911 and I say, Hey, um, we've been robbed. You know, they come down, I'm looking at cameras, I'm taking pictures of everything, I'm not touching anything. And I mean, sure enough, I mean, they take all of the brand new driver heads and some fairway woods, and then we look at some other stuff and get it on camera and some shafts, and it's like, next thing you know, there's$15,000 in clubs that are gone.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

You know, and then you look at the display and you're like, oh, I didn't realize the display was that expensive. And then you look at the the glass, and and and I'll talk about that in a second, and then the door, and you're like, wow, that added up to$70,000 really quickly.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

And you're just in your employees' time to have to deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, I mean, my labor's expensive. I spent about 35 hours in the first four and a half days just talking to the police and the insurance and the people. And one of the coolest things that happened was in that first day, I was supposed to be done by 11 a.m. that day. It was one of the first days I was gonna actually go spend some time with my family. And we were leaving the next day with SOU. So all of a sudden I see the glass, and my biggest thing was like, man, how am I gonna secure the door? Do I need to put plywood on the door? What am I doing? So I sent out an Instagram post to the community and said, hey guys, we got broken into. If you find any tailor-made QI40 drivers, um, please let us know. Email the contact or call us. Um, you know, just throw the word out. And then the next person, after I talked to insurance and and the police, you know, my insurance guy comes down with donuts. Thought that was cool. The the company that actually installed all the glass when we built the building in 2000 um or two years ago, sorry, uh they immediately respond to this text of the picture that I sent you, and I said, Hey, just wanted to find out what I should do with this, just to find out if I need to put wood on. Calls me at like 6 30 in the morning. And it was done by 8 30 at the latest. Yeah. And they brought it like we got stock, we'll come down. I was thinking, okay, whenever that blew my mind. It was so cool. I mean, I had the glass picked up before people were coming in. They're like, wait, where did they break into? I'm like, isn't that cool? So everyone was stunned. And then we picked up the display that was kind of in disarray and tried to make it look okay. Um, but from a you know, a distance, it didn't look like anything had happened, which was really cool. And then I didn't look at anything on my social media till about one o'clock that afternoon, and all of a sudden I had some people kind of say, Hey, did did you see this? Hey, did you hear what's going on? I said, No, you need to look at your social media. And the next thing you know, all of a sudden, my views are like 25,000. Um, and the shares are off the charts. Yeah, the shares are going. There's comments everywhere. And Daniel Clogston from NIC Seracote gets on and does this video and says, Hey, I don't know if you guys have heard, but a community partner of ours and friend, um, you know, golf garage got broken into last night. I'm going to um auction off a Saracoted putter custom, however you want, put in an NFL, whatever you want, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:51

So cool.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

And then he shouts out to Tyler Lake, a juggernaut marketing, and says, Hey Tyler, what about you? And then next thing you know, yeah, Tyler gets on there and said, Hey, this happened and buys five bays, and anybody comes down. And so all of a sudden we turn this potential nightmare into a party. Yeah. And and it was so cool. And then about um a week later, People's Bank comes down and and they reserve Bays and they're like, Hey, we want to support you. And then Tawny Sushi, which is here, did a dinner for us, and the proceeds went to golf garage, and you're just like, this just does it, you just don't feel deserving. You're just like, wow, this is insane. Like, what what are you doing? So at first, I'm like, you guys don't have to do that. It's great, it's fine, it's fine, you know, and and and again, at the end of the day, there are expenses, right? The deductible is going to be ten thousand dollars. Um, there are some things that we're learning about the business that weren't necessarily set up properly with security. And we're learning and we're fixing those things.

Balancing Security With 24 7 Access

SPEAKER_01 19:53

So and your business is built so much on trust, like the game of golf should be, with members being able to have 24-7 access and stuff. So high-tech motion detention detection, you know, security alarms that notify the police and everything, it's kind of irrelevant here. So, what can you do to balance the security risk versus accommodating 24-7 membership?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah, oddly enough, um, somebody from my insurance company came down today that that's what they do. Had nothing to do with my claim. And I talked to him and I said, Hey, can you come down and just look at what our what we're planning on doing? And does it make sense? And and it seems like based on what our plans are in the future, that we're gonna be about as good as we can be. So I'm excited about some of the new relationships that have been built and formed because of what happened that a lot of people take as a negative. And and I keep looking at it every day. I'm like, I gotta work at the coolest place with the best people, and I get to be around the best members that love the game, that love this facility. And, you know, at the end of the day, no one was in the building, no one got hurt. Um, you know, we're we're on the trail of the people. We actually were able to find two drivers, the way that they tried to unload them, and they match serial numbers with what I had. So, hey, end of the day. Better those two people talking. Yeah, so there's yeah, there's some stuff there that that I'm trying not to get in the middle of, and that's what the police are are for. And I appreciate everything that the Phoenix of Oregon police have done. Medford police got involved, the state police got involved because of your connection. Like, that's the whole thing. It's it's just like people taking care of people. We all want the bad guy to go away and not do this to anyone else because the industry can't handle break ins all the time. That's not what it's for.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

No, it was a year or two ago, a golf course down the road. I I won't mention their name, but they got broken into and they had a bunch of drivers and shafts and equipment taken from their pro shop. Um, and again, my heart just broke. For them because it sucks when you see a local business getting victimized like that. Um, but I also do remember there was plywood up over their door and rally around golf garage and support that and make it look like nothing ever happened here within a day was remarkable. I mean, as a consumer in this market anyway, I don't know where about, you know, I don't know about everybody listening to this podcast, but right here in this market, if you call a contractor out to fix something at your house, they're 90 days out. Yeah, busy, busy. So to get people to rally behind you and come out here within minutes, literally, and get stuff rolling is a huge testament to the integrity of you, your business, and what you and what you do for the community.

Building Culture With A 10 Level System

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Yeah, like I said, it doesn't feel deserving at all. And it's just exciting that you know, just seeing everybody out here enjoying the facility. And I can't wait for some of the unique things that we're gonna have at golf garage this year. And just anything you can share? Yeah. Uh yeah. We are creating the culture now, right? So we know what we are. I just spent 13 hours of the last day and a half with my staff. And the the board behind you, it's got a bunch of stuff written on it. Uh, that is one of probably eight, you know, that we did that we erased and and deleted. None of that stuff's really that important to the podcast, but we are gonna give an experience unlike any other. We have this unique opportunity to do that. And not only is that, it's like, what can we do that a golf course can't do? And then what can we do with golf courses? And how can we build the community where the entire golf industry is working together? Right. That's the goal. So we're gonna grow the game of golf to create so many golfers that golf courses are going to have to continue to think about how to expand. We need to build more of them because there are so many golfers, and that's what's going to happen because of the player development and how we're doing it. Um, one of the things I've been really frustrated about because of time. I've always thought of myself as a good coach because of the ways I can explain things to people, the same thing over and over again, a hundred different ways, a hundred different times, and then the accountability. And then on top of the accountability, it's the communication and the relationship I've built with the student that I will reach out to them to find out how it's going, right? That's the relationship piece. I care so much about my students that from time to time I'm going to text them, hey, how did the round go? What's going on? How's the swing feeling? I texted Toby the other day after his tournament because I knew he couldn't finish and he was frustrated. You know, things like that. I love that piece of what I do. And then the successes that the students have after, and then going back and saying, Do you remember when you were so frustrated at this, that, or the other? So here's what we're doing. We've got a 10-level system that we put into play that has specific pieces on how to level up. It is so specific that a kid can be in it from level one to level 10, and we're making it to where adults can do it as well. By the time you're in level 10, you're playing college or tour golf.

unknown 25:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

So that was what was missing. We always had the tools. I had a lot of assessment tools. I had a lot of things I'd created in the past to measure. Well, tools mean nothing without a plan. Nothing without a plan. And so now the staff really understands what it is they need to do to make the student get to where they need to go. And again, every player's still different. The system, yeah. So the 10-level system, um, we're looking at next steps, will be probably some sort of an app that it'll tie into, whether it's our own app or a system app. But we want to make it easy. So our programming now is going to have the group elements still. So it let's just say you're in level one, and you know, let's say there's eight people in that class. We'll just start with juniors. That's the easiest to talk about. So eight juniors in this class, we don't care about age as much. We do when we don't. When we might not put a three-year-old with an eight-year-old, that doesn't necessarily make sense. Right. You want him to have fun, you want him to enjoy it. But guess what? You still have to get through level one the same way. And then once you do, there's level two. Here's the things you have to do. And so let's say week one, week two, week three, it's up to the coach to work through what that student needs to know to pass the test on week four.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Right.

Practicing With Intention And Stats

SPEAKER_00 27:22

And how many months will it take you to pass the test? I don't know. Every player is different. How often are you working on your game? So now if you see a student you think has potential and they're not passing and you're into week or month three, now you gotta have the conversation with the student and the parent. And you're like, hey guys, like we want you to get past level two. That level one actually is easy relative to how good you are. Why aren't you passing it? Is it that you're nervous during the competition? Is it that you're not practicing enough? Is it that you don't understand? You're not practicing the right things enough. There you go. So there's a lot of this element. I am so excited. I mean, this this meeting was about so many things within the business and about the coaches, but this was the thing I was most excited about doing. And we spent an hour yesterday and probably another hour, hour and a half this morning, and I had kind of restructured it. So I started with the rough draft, brought it to the coach's attention. What do we need? How do we do it? And then I restructured it last night after we talked, and then I brought it out and just about making a final draft.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

You know, it's funny, I'm gonna talk about practicing with intention for improving your game. I had this talk with my son because he's been here in the simulator, he shoots even to under two under par every round he plays. Get him out on the course, and in the last few nine hole tournaments or rounds he's played, nine holes, he's shooting 39 to 42. And I'm like, why isn't he shooting even par? Why isn't he shooting two under or two over? And I look at his scorecard and I talk to him and I take his stats, I'm like, he doesn't have one three putt on his card. He's not hitting greens in regulation, but he's close. And this is something that in the back of your mind you have to take account for. If you are three feet off of the green and you are chipping to go up and down, in your mind you need to count that chip as a putt. Because when you do that, then his three putts skyrocket because he's not going up and down from the first cut off of the green.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

So the only oh, okay, you're talking about the collar, not the rough. Right. Okay, yeah. You you confused me there for a second, and I was thinking about the rough, because the rough I would not count. Yeah, and I mean, I don't disagree with you at some level on that. I also like the idea of just counting putts on the green because it's a confidence booster to see how you do on the perfect surface. Right. Depending on the course, the callers are tricky and not necessarily they're like ramps, so they're not always that good of a baseline. What I will tell you is this Toby, we love you, but Toby wouldn't even be in level five in our system right now. He'd be a four. So that just that just tells you he's a great ball striker. He has a lot of distance, he's a 14-year-old kid that can shoot even par. But based on what we developed, this is the cool part about the system that that has gotten created. We were starting to actually look at our student base and we're like, how many people do we have that's even passed a level five in this? And it's it's not it's not their fault. It's our fault as coaches to not measure better. We should be measuring the students' progress better than we do, right? That's how much we care. And the thing is, is there's not a lot of systems out there that can do that. So what's great about golf garage's facility is most everything can be measured. So we can use the simulators to measure every single shot, right? We can measure spin and launch conditions, and we can change it up to to make wind and do what we want to do, right? Which goes, let's go to Toby again. The last lesson we gave, I actually had three up-and-coming professionals sitting and they shadowed the lesson. And with Toby, I like to spend 10 to 15 minutes working really hard on something with him and letting him work on that one thing for an hour or two and then checking again. That's what our Wednesdays are a lot about. Well, we spent about again, I at 15 minutes, I told the staff, I said, this is normally when I'm done with Toby, but I want you guys to see longer to just kind of see what happens with him. And he has a parameter. He has to look at his descent angle and he has to hit these flighted golf shots now where when they come out of the sky with an eight iron, he's got to be closer to 40 degrees out of the sky because he was at 49 degrees descent angle. That looks like it comes up and comes back at you. Yeah, it looks like it's coming back at you in the air. And so that's why he can hit a green and it stops, but he's also gonna come up short a lot or try to swing harder at it to get it there. So what was cool was all of a sudden I widened his swing a little bit and then I shortened it, and then I had him hit it like a quarter punch shot through, and he was hitting it just about as far as his full swing ripped eight iron because his descent angle was better and his contact was better. So when he was making this big full swing, he was hitting it thin or heavy. I don't know, let's say 40% of the time. When we changed it up, all of a sudden his low point got good and he got his swing to finish into his lead side, and all of a sudden now he's hitting it way farther with less effort. So one of my favorite things, effortless spin? Uh, spin rate was good, actually, still, but effortless power. It's descent angle. So think of the rainbow, right? Your ball goes up on this rainbow and it comes back down on this rainbow. Now think about it this way: your ball goes up on this awesome, awesome rainbow, and then all of a sudden it comes back and it drops straight down. So it's not so much about backspin, it's about how you how the ball is going up to it. So yes, spin has a factor in that, but we have to work a little bit harder on how his sequencing's happening so he can have forward shaftling it at impact. He was adding a lot of loft for sure at impact. Right. So it was really unique to give him this drill, and immediately on the very first one, he went from 49 to 43 on his descent angle. So we know he can do it. So that's how you know you're good in a lesson, and you're like, okay, he can do it. Now he's got to work on it. Right. Then he's got to work on it to a point of confidence in it. Then he's got to get so confident in it that he masters it. How much time does it take to master it? I don't know. It depends on if you're practicing the right way, like you said. It depends on if your body feels good. It depends on if you know what you're working on. Right. Can you feel it? Our goal as instructors is to keep you accountable and get you to feel it and then to build your confidence and then get you to work on it to master it. Yeah.

unknown 34:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

I I know in his tournament where he's like, hey, look, I two putted this. I said, yeah, I saw that, but I said, you chipped it to inside of six feet and you missed a five-foot putt. Yeah. You're I expect you to make that second putt. I said, but you shouldn't have missed that five foot putt three times in a row.

Mindset, Fitness, Rules, And Testing

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah, so I mean that's that's pretty unique. And we have so level five is passing a junior medalist assessment, which is all-encompassing, and you have to make a certain number of like that four, five, six-foot range putt. And it's yeah, if you're not doing it on the course, it's different. And that's why it's fun because we were as coaches, we were like playing devil's advocate a lot, and we're like, Whoa, that's kind of tough. And I'm like, Well, yeah, it's tough if you're in a tournament and you got to make the winning putt, but when you get 10 attempts at it and we're telling you to make seven out of 10 or whatever it is, that's not hard. That's just muscle memory, and you're doing it all at the same time. So, so that's not as difficult. So it's like even something as simple as lagging it to a certain distance that we set a parameter on, and you got to do it, you know, 10 times and and you know, however many need to be in there. So we've made it really fun. We've also added in some um mindset coaching, fitness side of it element to breed the success of the golfer, not only about swing mechanics, but injury prevention, emotional state on the golf course, how to act on the golf course, rules and etiquette all the way through. Cause an adult golfer, if they start at level one and want to go through this system too, they need to know how to mark their ball, right? They need to know what a golf club is. Where's the head? Where's the shaft? Where's the grip? What where do we hold it?

SPEAKER_01 36:26

They need to know how to give appropriate relief.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Without question, we put that in there too, right? So, like all of these things are also at the discretion of the coach at some level on some of it. The test is pretty black and white, but some of the things have to be done outside of the test. So as you level up, yeah, we have testing day, but if you didn't go and do your playing test, we're doing playing tests during the month and past that, then you don't get a level up that day either.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

So it gets you on the course. And then at some level, there is a tournament element. So we're like, now you got to be in a tournament element. Because again, an amateur golfer might only get to level five or level six or level seven. But then when it starts saying, I want to play, you know, you got to be in tournaments and you don't have time to play in tournaments or you don't want to play in tournaments, then you just don't get past seven.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Right? Because you're not a tournament golfer or eight, right? And then college to tours level ten.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

So again, that's hard, isn't it?

Spring Rough And The Gallery Drop

SPEAKER_01 37:21

So let's talk about this last topic here. Speaking of being on the co on the course and rules and etiquette, it's springtime, and I don't know about where you're at, but here in Southern Oregon, things are lush. Thing, you know, greens, you know, all the greenery is thick. You know. Gallery drops. I was out playing Stone Ridge golf course a couple weeks ago with a buddy.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

How many people were watching you play?

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Just the two of us.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Gallery drops.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Yeah. Well we would hit a T shot, it would land on the fairway, roll into the first cut of rough. We knew exactly where the ball was, I mean, within reason from 260 yards. Walk up to the ball, can't find it. We know where it's at, can't find it. Instead of spending 10 minutes looking for this damn golf ball, we're like, we're taking a gallery drop on the PGA tour, they would probably lose eight golf balls around. Right? So what what is the ethics behind respecting one pace of play and two I know I can say with absolute confidence my ball is in play. I saw where it landed, I saw where it rolled to. I can't find it because the rough is five inches deep, and you're not going to see your ball unless you step on it and you feel it under your foot. Taking a drop from there and hitting your second shot.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Well, let's let's go back to some basics. Number one, in Southern Oregon, we call that the spring flush, right? Okay. The grass for about a month is growing. Superintendents love it and hate it because the grass is turning green, they're fertilizing, and they're trying to get the rough mode as fast as possible, but then we get a rainstorm and they can't get the rough mower on it or something, right? And again, it's just this one month of just craziness on the golf course where everything's popping.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

If it's not on the fairway, it's not findable.

Lost Ball Rules And Pace Of Play

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Yeah. And a golf course like Stone Ridge, where there's a lot of slope and hillside, you don't want to put a big old mower on there that weighs a few tons with the, you know, it's dangerous. Right. So let's go to the rules of golf for a second here. The rules of golf are very, very clear in black and white of play the ball as it lies, right? We know that one. And you've got to find your golf ball to play it. So if you don't find your golf ball, it's now deemed a lost ball. And they change the rules from a five-minute search to a three-minute search. So you have three minutes to find it. And if you don't find it, you have to go back stroke and distance, and you have to hit another ball. So there's a lot of things you could say here from a from a PGA professional perspective. If I'm playing golf, I'm playing by the rules, right? If I don't find it, I'm gonna go back, and that's gonna frustrate me, but that's what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

However, it's gonna challenge the etiquette in golf if there's people stacked up behind you.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

Right, which is why you should be playing a provisional. The problem is half the time you think you should find your ball so you don't hit a provisional because you know it's on the golf course. And so this is kind of those differentiators. Number one, there is no such rule to wave the rules. You can't wave the rules, right? So is there a local rule, perhaps, that says if your ball was here, is there agreed upon?

SPEAKER_01 40:44

I've never seen it, even though Evan Evan says Stone Ridge has a rule. Yeah. The the the what do they call it? Is it the Stone Ridge rule? I don't know. He was telling me about a rule. He said he lost eight golf balls. Six of the eight, he said, he absolutely should have found were in play.

unknown 41:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

And and I'll second that because I just experienced that same thing a couple weeks before. Yeah, I mean, the rough was thick.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

It was eight inches rolled over. It was hey.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

And you can be on top of your golf ball and not know what's there, even in the first cut, unless you step on it and you feel it under your foot.

Why Pros Get So Much Relief

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Uh-huh. Yeah. So, I mean, on tour, they have galleries. They have the gallery, they have marshals out there. They and again, I think we have to be also aware of like how many tournaments a year is the rough super thick on tour. And every week. It's it's not as bad as you think it is. They actually have really manicured rough for the most part, and it just depends on major event versus non-major event. The courses themselves are tough enough with the bunkering and the forced carries that most of the time, yeah, maybe by Sunday, the rough is a little bit thicker if they're not mowing it. But again, if they're hitting it out of play, you do have the gallery, and the gallery's trampling it down. And if you look at the US Open, you might have eight inches of rough, and then where the gallery was, it's like a fairway cut. So what is it that these players are doing? They're hitting it into the gallery if they have a bad angle on purpose, intentionally, intentionally, with hopes that their ball has a good angle and they're sitting into a fairway cut.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

And who said golf wasn't corrupt?

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Oh man. Well, how about it's the same thing as we were talking about this earlier. What about the grandstands? Free relief. They get, yeah. So on tour, they get free relief from the grandstands, nearest point stroke, and there's no penalty. And then on top of that, if they're hitting at a tower, TV tower, this happened a few years back, and it was Rory McElroy of all golfers, I believe. And uh he he claimed that that was right in his line of play. So because of that, you're able to get relief from that. Oddly enough, right? That's not a normal thing on the golf course. Right. So they're giving these guys the benefit of the doubt that they're that good. And if it's in their sight line and where they're planning on intending on hitting it, they get it. So for me, I think there could be an amateur rule, right? The leaf rule, if you will. Right. Right. I've I've heard that one where fall comes around, the leaves are dropping, your ball's in play, but you can't find it. Well, this is where I think it was, and they drop it. It's kind of the same thing of a plugged ball in a marsh.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Like me and my buddy are standing there going, We know our ball was is within a 20 foot circle right here. We can't find it. If we were on the tour and there was a gallery here, they'd know exactly where our ball is and they'd flag it and they'd mark it for. And we'd be good to go.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Right. So as a tournament director, I would have to say, sorry, you can't wave the rules, sir. As a you know, weekend golfer, you gotta figure it out. Like you can make your own games on the course, can't you? So you can say, Hey, we're gonna play a scramble on hole one, we're gonna play a four-ball match on hole two, we're gonna play stroke play on hole three. Oh, and by the way, the conditions aren't great. So we're gonna be our own rules officials. Winner rules. We're not, yeah, we're winners. Yeah. Again, that's not a thing. Winner rules is something preferred lies that you decide right, you know, here's how we're going to play this based on the condition. So now, if you play it and waive the rules, you shouldn't be posting your score.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Wow. Right. Makes you be selective of what course you decide to play.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Yeah, there you go. Well, and I think ultimately, as an amateur golfer, you're going out there to play and compete and have fun, right? You're not playing for a bunch of money, maybe a couple of drinks.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

When you hit the best drive of your life, it lands in the fairway on a dog leg, rolls to the back of the dog leg, you're like, okay, it's stopped in the first cut of rough, and you walk up there all excited to hit your second shot, and you can't find your ball. Yeah, I think a squirrel probably took it though.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

I'm just kidding. I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Yeah, no, I'm that's a reality of how courses are here in Southern Oregon right now at this time of year.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Were you mad about losing the$8 golf ball, or were you mad about not being able to hit it? There you go. I I know, I know. It's funny, like curklin balls. Yeah. How many times have you been to a golf course and played with a player that will not let the golf ball go? They hit it in the water, you know it's in the water, and they just keep prowling. And it's like I saw the splash, I saw the ripples. I literally am like, I will give you another ball. Come on, let's go, stop it. And they expect the ball. Oh, they don't want to lose any balls.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

One of those 16-foot ball grabber things in my bat.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

All right, leave that in the trunk when we play together. Do you name it? No. You got to name it. It's not appropriate, but it's exciting. The extender.

unknown 46:06

Yeah.

How Many Balls Pros Would Lose

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Anyway, well, that's pretty good stuff. I I love I love where your head's at with this. I think you could go on and on and on about amateur rules versus professional rules.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

Let's let's let me ask you a very straightforward question that I expect a completely honest and blunt answer from. How many balls would the PGA tour players lose on the course if there wasn't a gallery or officials downrange to see where their ball is?

SPEAKER_00 46:35

So if it was at Stone Ridge, I would say in the time you played, and you're saying that they know the golf course or they don't know the golf course. That's the big question.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

They know the golf course, just like I do. I see my ball land on the fairway, roll into the first cutter rough. I know for a fact it's not in the bushes or the trees or the rocks. Here's the water.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Here's the answer. Ready? If they know the golf course, one. No more than one.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

I would say eight. Okay. I would say what? Because Stone Ridge was literally at the point to where if it wasn't on the fairway, it was not findable.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

That's why I'm saying one. Because that golf course is not long for them and they can hit an iron off every T if they want to. And they will adapt that quickly to it. So when they see the rough, they're gonna hit something else. They're gonna find the fairway.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

When I watch the tour players on TV, there's a lot of them that consistently miss fairways. They land on the fairways, but the ball doesn't stop on the fairway. At Stone Ridge, that ball would be lost.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Yeah, but when you look at the tour players that are missing the fairways, they're missing it in the correct position of the fairway where the rough isn't as thick normally.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

You're more defensive of these guys that I thought.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

That's because they're really, really good at golf. They are good, and I would love to see it because I've seen some tour players play some courses in our area and they're shooting eight under par like it's nothing. Our golf courses in Southern Oregon are quite frankly easy. And I don't mean to say it that way because golf's hard for the average golfer, but go somewhere else and try to play golf that has four or five private clubs that are all sub-1920 and they've lengthened those courses and added some bunkering. Now you're talking like really tough courses. And the same thing, it's like look at Augusta. Augusta doesn't have thick rough. It's short grass almost everywhere. It's got short rough. So, and it's a big wide open field. Yet the average golfer playing from those T's, playing on those greens, is gonna be shooting well over a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

What was the US Open at last year? We're going to Shannon. No, last year. Was it Oakmont?

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Yeah, Oakmont, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Don't tell me that doesn't have thick rough. I mean, their first cut of rough was eight inches.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

Oakmont's rough gets into the three feet. It's nuts. It's it's so cool. Uh I actually went to Oakmont for the US Open in 2010 and I saw Angel Cabrera hit a golf shot, and he was up to almost his waist where the grass was going, and he hits this wedge about 120 yards out of that stuff. I couldn't even believe it. I have a video of it. That's crazy. It was insane. Yeah, it was so cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

But I wish we had I wish we had your employee Evan in here for this debate because he was pretty heated. He's a very talented golfer, and he was pretty heated that he lost eight golf balls the other day.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

Well, he still has to buy his golf balls.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

He's not a pro yet, so he didn't pay for his round of golf, but he's like, I lost 50 bucks in golf balls.

SPEAKER_00 49:47

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'd be mad too. All right, man. Pleasure as always. Yeah, that was a great one, buddy. Looking forward to next time.