The One Skill Every Golfer Needs (And the 2 Things That Change Everything) | Alex Huang Part 2

 You don’t need more swing changes—you need better priorities. 

In Part 2 with Alex Huang, we move from theory into what actually lowers your scores on the golf course.

Alex is one of the leading minds behind the DECADE system, working with elite players to help them make smarter decisions and shoot lower scores—and in this episode, he breaks down the simple ideas that most amateur golfers completely overlook.

We dive into:

•  The one skill Alex wishes every golfer had (and why it’s not what you think) 
•  Why putting is misunderstood—and how pace control can transform your scoring 
•  The biggest mistakes mid-handicap golfers make with their practice 
•  And the two things that will move the needle fastest if you want to improve 

If you’ve ever felt like you’re working hard on your game but not seeing results, this episode will help you refocus on what actually matters.

This isn’t about swing changes.

It’s about thinking better, managing your game smarter—and finally understanding how to shoot lower scores.

🎧 Listen to Part 1: Think Better, Score Lower: The Decade Golf Approach Explained

🎧 Listen now and start turning bad rounds into better golf.

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💌 Contact → howlowcanyougopodcast@gmail.com

🏨 Big shout out to The Leddie Hotel on Scotland’s Golf Coast.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, leaving a review really helps us grow — and keeps us chasing better golf, faster. ⛳

Transcript

Section A

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Once you're outside 12 feet, I want your only goal putting is to leave yourself a tap in. Treat your putt as an approach shot and leave yourself a tap in. Going into the mindset of like, how do I best increase my chances of two putting?

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Welcome back to How Low Can You Go, the golf improvement podcast. Born in Scotland, the home of golf. We are really excited about today's episode, so we think this could genuinely change how you think about scoring in golf. This is part two with Alex Bong, one of the leading minds in golf strategy, working with elite players through the decade system. And this episode is all about what actually moves the needle in terms of improvement at any level in golf. There are two moments you really need to listen out for. First, the one skill key witches every golfer had. Later on, we ask, if you've only got a couple of hours a week to practice. Maximum. What should you actually focus on? His answer, particularly for players at my mid-handicap level. Just two things. And if you get these right, you will shoot lower scores. This is How Low Can You Go. How low can you go? So picking a really specific target from the T-Box. Yeah, which I as you said, as I as I mentioned, I am very guilty of even when I'm driving well, just feeling like, okay, good, yeah, somewhere down there, that that'll do nicely, and let's go. Whereas real something really specific. Aside from that, what about like kind of yes, the target, you've picked a specific target, but in terms of like how smart your target is, what should we be factoring in there as well? Obviously, I know looking out for trouble and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

The big thing is penalty hazards, right? So, first and foremost, your your first red flag when you're looking at T-Targets should simply be like, are there penalty hazards, right? Full shot penalty hazards. So we're talking OB or Pons. Those are oftentimes going to be the only factors that are going to lead you to potentially deviate away from driver, right? But but it's really crucial to also understand that like it's just really hard to hit the fairway with driver. You know, even at Dave's level, which Dave, what do you hit the ball? Like 240 off the T? Yeah, I would be around that whenever I'm driving well. Yeah. So for your normal driver dispersion, it's probably gonna look about 50 yards wide. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

So just think of like Chris is gonna laugh when he Chris is like add another 200 to that.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

We're laying like a 50 yard blanket on top of fairways that are what, 30, 40 yards wide, maybe where you guys are might be even less.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

Yeah, it can be less at our home course and and in Scotland, it can be less than that for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah. So you just don't get to hit the fairway that often, right? If we're if we're laying, you know, Chris, if he hits at 300, we're looking at about 65 yards. Lay a 65-yard wide blanket on top of a strip of fairway that's 25 yards wide, you just don't get to find the fairway that often.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

And so this obsession with driving accuracy, would we prefer to be in the fairway? Absolutely. But accepting that like I would much rather be 300 yards off the T in the rough than 250 back in the fairway. And once again, like that 250 layup does not guarantee us that we're in the fairway portion of our shot pattern. And also accepting that, hey, when you are in the rough, you still have the opportunity to get a good lie, have a good angle, right? Like I looked at like uh sawgrass number 18 for the players' championship. Scoring average for players that in the, I think it was the final round or the final two rounds, scoring average for players that put their T-shot left into the water was 2.07 over par. Scoring average of players that put it in the right trees, which is, you know, oh, these scary trees over here, we want to avoid them at all costs. Scoring average of them was 0.47 with six birdies. And it's again this idea that like just because you're obviously we'd rather be in the fairway, but the center line there calls for basically aiming at the left edge of the trees and just letting you hope get luck hope you get lucky in the right part of your shot pattern. But even if you hit it in the trees, you still get the chance to have an open look, get a little lucky, save car. You know, like a lot of these types of things still factor in. And we like to catastrophize that, like, if I'm in the trees, it's a double bogey. I'm gonna end up behind the tree, I'm going to X, Y, Z, not have a shot. Well, guess what? You don't get to make Birdie from the bottom of the ocean or bottom of the pond. You know, and and like this acceptance, and and also like to your point, when it comes to driver, the name of the game, aside from avoiding penalty hazards, is the name of the game is to just hit the ball as far as you can into a position that you get to find it again.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

And sometimes you find it and it's got a great lie, sometimes you find it and it doesn't. But in totality, that is really the main objective of T-shots.

unknown 5:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

You're trying to just send the ball as far as you can into a position where you're going to be able to find it again and hit it again.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

We had this perfect example, and obviously a Texas scramble, you're playing the like the best drive, but then obviously you have to pick three shots for each person and everything like that. And it came to a point where we were on the 10th hole at Malone, and one of our playing partners, we hadn't used as much as of his drives, but he did hit a cracker of a drive. And I'd stepped up and I'd say I'd probably hit it like 80 yards further than down the fairway. It was, it was it was, I would say, at least it was blowing. So we we were standing there, and this was like the pivotal moment in our game, and this like rings true to what you've just said, like to be closer to the pin and to the green, and it makes it so much easier in the score and average, like you'll just score better. And we were standing there, and Dave and I were looking at each other, and we were like, should we take this shot? Should we take the one up there? But because kids take that shot, we made the error and we took the shot that was like it was about 180 yards back instead of the hundred yard shot in and we all missed the green.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

With a howling wind in our faces, it was an unbelievably difficult shot that we took on there.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

It was yeah, that's a unique circumstance though, because you have that extra factor where you needed to use an allotment of his shots.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

But it showed.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

But but like, you know, down the road, if there's a situation where you're guaranteed to have like nine iron or less from the rough with the other guy's t-shot, that would probably have been the place to to do it. But there is this like scarcity idea where you have to meet these requirements of keeping three of his shots.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. And I've I've got one, I seen this uh the other day where it was Jason Day said, we always want what we don't have in golf. So I was wanting to ask you with amateurs, what piece of data doesn't actually really matter that amateurs are constantly focused on too much, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Honestly, I think it's just chasing trying to be positive strokes approach and strokes off the T.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Right? Because there's again, like when we look at strokes approach, there is a huge amount of noise as far as when you hit your approach shot, and like I said, I keep tying back to it, but like when you're on the good side of your dispersion pattern versus the whole location, your strokes approach is going to go up because your proximity is going to benefit. And then vice versa, like your strokes approach can be bad. And and like I looked at Scotty Scheffler, uh, I think it was last year. He had 16 rounds of play where he hit exactly 13 greens. Now, obviously, there's a little bit of noise there, but qualitatively, I think we would say that his iron play on those rounds was relatively close to one another, right? 13 greens every single round. The delta in his strokes gained approach in those 16 rounds where he hit 13 greens was six and a half shots. He had one where he gained three and a half strokes, and he had one where he lost three shots. But he hit the same number of greens. Now, maybe some of those rounds maybe hit like one in the water or something. But regardless, like if you're hitting 13 greens, we would say that your iron play is generally going to be within like the same realm of uh quality. And so I get these players who they obsess with trying to catch all four categories positive. I want to be strokes gain positive on approach, T, short game, and putting. It's like you just don't get to do that that often, right? Generally, the worse you hit your approach shots, the better your putting is going to be because you leave yourself with a lot of four to eight foot putts from chipping up. And it's like you better make your disproportionate number of those or else you're gonna shoot 85-90. And and then they obsess with proximity. And it's like if you're just picking good targets, over 18 holes, your proximity is gonna be pretty noisy. Because once again, it's just shot patterns, right? Um, and and so I see a lot of instructors do this with their college kids too, where they'll get them to focus on like proximity and these conversion rates. And it's like, as long as my player's you know, got a generally good baseline of reading greens and they're hitting greens with the appropriate speed, I will take assurances that their their make rate is going to normalize. One tournament where they made only 30% of their eight-footers doesn't indicate to me they're a bad putter. It's just they they flipped a coin 20 times and they got a little unlucky and landed on tails instead of heads 70% of the time. But that doesn't mean now all of a sudden I'm gonna deconstruct everything and think that the process and everything was bad. But then if the player shows me that from eight feet they left 50% of their putts short of the hole, well now we've got a real problem. But if it's strictly just an outcome-driven stat like that, it requires so much data for you to just definitively say, like, okay, I can now conclude that you are just a bad eight-foot putter. And one event is far, far, far from enough sample size for us to make these types of conclusions and overhaul certain aspects of their game that may actually be a strength, then we just got a little bad part of that like variance curve.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

And working with certain players, because it was interesting hearing I think it was Scott Akin talking about this, where he just felt it was a better use of his time to work on his driving and his approach play rather than spending lots and lots of time on short game. Do you find that even if it's a weakness in certain players' games that you work with, that you are still going to say to them, look, you're gonna get so much more bang for your buck if you continue to just keep your driver and your approach shots at a certain level rather than like spending X amount of time working on, I don't know, flop shots or whatever that uh you might rarely need in a round if your approach play is that good.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah, like missing greens is an inevitable part of the game, right? But again, it's kind of that idea of that nine-window approach drill is great. It's great to know how to work the ball right to left and left to right.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

Yes. And that just shows just for people listening here or wondering what that is, it's it's like you hit the ball in like kind of nine boxes in a grid, and you can you fade it low, can you fade it high? Can you draw it low and draw it high and kind of work around those boxes, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, that's exactly it. And it's like, yeah, it's it's cool to be able to do that, but leave that to the unicorns of the world that you know are on the future.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

That's definitely not me. Chris can verify that.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Um but like to your point about shots, right? Like, if you're putting yourself in a situation where you need to be able to flop it, once again, you're probably gonna make bogey anyway. So just take your medicine and move on.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And and like, you know, it's it's with especially like the high handicappers, the minute you have a shot where you're starting to worry about like the trajectory of my chip shot or having to like move the ball position and all of this stuff, increasing that level of difficulty of the shot is only going to decrease the likelihood you get to get up and down anyway. Yeah. And so I would rather you be able, like Scott talks a lot about like nailing your carry numbers on short game shots, being able to, he did he uses like five yards, seven yards, nine, eleven, fifteen. If you can nail those numbers, that's enough to probably capture, call it like 70% of your short game shots if you're missing in correct places over time.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

That other 30% where now all of a sudden you have to get really fancy and you need to get really, really creative, you're probably making bogey like 90% from there anyway.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

So it really is silly to like spend four hours of a of a season working on these little flop shots because it's like ultimately when you when those shots are demanded of the circumstance you're in, you're probably screwed. So just like take your medicine and accept that like use it as an opportunity to reflect back on like how did I end up here? Was it just a little unlucky? Maybe I got a bad bad kick or something, or did like I over-aggress and I got a little caught up in the idea that I had a wedge in my hand and this pin is four yards off the right, and instead of going two yards left of it, I went right at it, and now I'm paying for that bad decision. Yeah. Because again, like, yeah, pulling off that flop shot feels sweet, but the odds are stacked against you. And and then obviously, like the lesser skilled you are, the larger the range of outcomes of you potentially making a double or a triple or even worse by you know blading it straight over the green or going right under it or duffing it into a bunker, and now you're even more short-sighted. And so it ties back to that idea of having that honest conversation with yourself of like, okay, I'm in trouble here and I need to accept it, and I need to just limit my downside and move on.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Yes. Yeah, I think from your kind of poker background, you'd be saying to players, and and let's face it, Chris. I think we save we see far too many club golfers when you're out there on a Saturday trying that flop shot. Uh, but I think you would be saying to them, the house always wins in this situation, not like trying to do it.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Yeah, you know, if you have a deck of cards, right, and I said, Here's a deck of cards, can you draw a diamond out of it for me? And they drew a spade. Are they ever mad? Very rarely, right? But then I'm like, oh, have you ever been mad about missing a 15-foot putt? Well, absolutely. It's like, okay, well, your odds are actually better at drawing that diamond out of a full deck of cards than it was to make that 15-footer. But we have this like emotional weird attachment to that putt, even though mathematically our odds are way better drawing, drawing to, you know, a diamond out of a full deck of cards.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Okay, quick pause there. If you've been following the show and getting value from these conversations, we really, really appreciate it. But if you want to help us grow and help more golfers find this kind of advice, please just take honestly two minutes and leave us a quick review or else hit follow wherever you're listening. It makes a massive difference. Coming up in this episode, I ask Alex what someone of my level, mid-handicap, should be doing to try and get better if you've only got one or two hours a week to practice maximum. His answer is really interesting and it boils down to just two things. Let's get back into it. I'll ask this question on Chris's behalf. Chris has had to leave, but I'll ask on his his behalf and on my behalf, if you don't mind, Alex, right? And hopefully listeners can get a lot from this in terms of what would actually lower our scores fastest. Looking vicariously through the lens of mine and Chris's games, right? So, Alex, if if we were with you tomorrow, right, and we needed, like, if if I'm saying to you, our brief is we've got two hours per week, and that's our absolute maximum that we've got to practice. So I'll I'll start with Chris, right? I'll give you a little bit of Chris's profile. He hits it very, very far off the T. He has incredible swing speed. I would argue it's actually, you know, we looked at the track band numbers with the pro the other day, and they were shocked. It was like it was like borderline tour-level swing speed, right? So so much, so much there to offer. Uh he is pretty straight, very good with his arms, it's very good uh from around the sort of I'd say the kind of 60 to 100 yard mark with wedges. Can sometimes throw in the odd dodgy chip and dodgy three putts. Uh, and then on off days, at the moment he's had a bit of an issue where he's expecting to fade it, but then he double crosses it. So I don't know. I I hope, Chris, whenever you listen back, that's a fair fair summary of your profile as a player. But I'd say he's a kind of 2.9 index handicap at the moment, really wants to get to scratch. What would you be doing with him?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Firstly, is making sure his putting expectations are correct, right? So it starts it starts in understanding that once you're outside 20 feet, 25 feet, you should start but leaving a chunk of your putts short of the hole and accepting that that is proper. And once you're outside, you know, like with some of the best players I work with, once you're outside 12 feet, I want your only goal putting is to leave yourself a tap in. Treat your putt as an approach shot and leave yourself a tap in.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

And just on that, Alex, just very quickly, and sorry to cut you off, but uh because I I know you guys sometimes get crucified on social media over like these kind of leaving putts short because some people feel very strongly about this. You're not saying deliberately try and leave something short. It's more a case of you you've talked a lot today about shot patterns and you know dispersions. And that's not just exclusive to our driver and our arms. It's also you we have shot patterns and dispersions with our putters, right? And so you're saying leave your kind of shot pattern over a hole. It's not a case of, oh, I'm really gonna try and leave this one short, right? Is that is that fair?

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah. I mean, though there's exceptions would be if you're facing a severely downhill putt. But the easy way to think about it is if I, if I told told you, Dave, we're gonna go hit some 30-footers, I'm gonna have you hit 130 footers with the only goal of being every putt needs to be past hole high. And then we lined up all of those putts based off of how far beyond the hole they are. We're gonna have kind of like a chain of putts, right? The putt that was the shortest is gonna be hole high, right? Because in this exercise, every putt needs to get past the hole. The putt that is farthest, or the one you kind of hit the hardest, is maybe call it six or seven feet past the hole. So we're gonna have this string of string of balls, the shortest ones being hole high, and the longest ones about six or seven feet past.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Which you would not want coming back. Let's face it. So now if we take the six to seven footer coming back.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

If we take this chain and we now center it over the hole, where exactly half of them are short and exactly half of them are long, this whole putt that was originally whole high gets pulled back three feet. Now you've got a three-foot putt short. This putt that was now six or seven feet past gets pulled back three feet, and it's now three or four feet past. And everything between them is inside that three or four foot circle. And that's how the name of the game is played with with lag putting because it's about leaving yourself with the best opportunity to two-putt. And that is not derived by getting 100% of them past the hole. Yes, it's all about your proximity, thinking, thinking of your putts as an approach shot, right? Yes. You're trying to leave yourself the shortest next putt, and from longer ranges where the ball has has the ability to get more and more away from you, you need to start being okay with the idea that half of them are going to be short of the hole. And that's just so crucial to to realizing and accepting we don't get to make that many putts from that distance. So the name of the game is shifting out of this mindset of trying to make this, and instead going into the mindset of like, how do I best increase my chances of two putting?

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

And that's by leaving yourself with tap-ins, leaving yourself with inside three-foot putts.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

And and that is so good. I've said this a few times on the podcast, and I need to take my own advice. That is so good for the mind. Uh, is if you are regularly just kicking it in, you know, just tap in, tap in, tap in. You're not leaving yourself with these real agonizing two to four footers, you know, that is really good in terms of keeping yourself like kind of uh feeling feeling free and not like exhausted over these putts. But I really, really like what you're saying about uh viewing are you saying anything from 12 feet and over as an approach putt? Almost because I've not heard that before. I I quite like that terminology.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, so so with the players, I I tend to break putts into three buckets. Inside 12 feet, try to make it. Okay. From 12 to 25 feet, I want my players to be the tap in kings, the tap in queens. So I will literally have them track when I have a putt from 12 to 25 feet. Did I successfully leave myself a tap in?

SPEAKER_04 21:58

A tap in.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

And by tap in, I define that as. Like you walk up, you don't mark it. You literally just your partner says it's good, you knock it in one-handed, backhanded, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

That's a good thing. Outside 25 feet is this 10% rule, is what we call it at decade, right? So you're you're basically visualizing 10% short of the hole, 10% long of your putt's distance. So from 40 feet, you've got a four-foot circle short and a four-foot circle long. And a great way to practice is you find a 40-foot putt on your practice screen and put a T down four foot short of the hole, lay a club down four foot past the hole, and only focus on trying to lag putts in between these two gates.

unknown 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

And you'll be amazed if you can successfully do that. Go up and finish them out, and you'll be amazed how many accidentally go in or almost go in, and how many are literally just stress-free tap-ins.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Well, yeah. But I think what you're saying is if you lag it up to four foot exactly from 40 feet, you've done a pretty good job there, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah, I mean you if you can consistently get inside this 10% rule seven out of 10 times, you are putting at a top 10 strokes gain putting level on every makeup where every single I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

And just on the 40-footer as well, because I think if you're on the green and you've got a 40-foot putt, say, I think a lot of people probably get on the green and think, right, I should be two putting this, I should be two putting this. Like, or even if you've say you've got a longer putt than 40 feet, you know, as you say, it's it's exceptional putting to get within 10% of that distance. Like, say you end up four feet away. Let's face it, a four-footer is very missable in golf. You know, I my point and the point I'm getting to is people should not be beating themselves up if they three putt from 40 feet, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah, and and it's like the reality is from 60 feet, a tour pro three-puts that one out of three times. Wow. So why do you think you get to do better, right? And and like you never know. Again, like we have to manage our expectations in the sense that we have these tour benchmarks. But the reality is simply that like we aren't as good as Tor Pros, and so we need to understand that like we do miss putts more often, right? I played yesterday, and on the last hole, the 11 handicap in our group was begging for a two, two, two and a half footer. And I was like, absolutely not. You made me putt a three-footer earlier in the day. I want to see this. And sure enough, I pulled out my phone and I got a nice recording of him lipping out the two-footer to save each of us$40. But but like those are just nice benchmarks for us to manage our expectations and also realize on the PGA tour, they're going to miss their four footers 12% of the time.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

So for us to expect to make them 100% of the time is is silly.

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, those are remarkable stats as well. Okay, so yeah. So, Chris, with the putting, I think all of what you're saying, you know, get those expectations in check. What else would you be uh saying to Chris, you know, bearing in mind we're looking at maybe like one to two hours practice time each week?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, I mean, he would probably do well to just simplify the game a bit. I think players at his skill level have this um tendency to overcomplicate things where where they will try to we talked about chipping, right? Where they'll start trying to get too like in poker we use a term called fancy play syndrome. And it's that same idea here where it's like oftentimes a very basic shot is is the answer or good enough rather than thinking you need to be perfect. And that could come in the form of trying to get a little too cute with the trajectory or the type of shot you're hitting for a round the green shot, or um even with your approach shots, being like, oh well, I really want to draw it to this backpin, when in fact it's like you could just play a fade to 15 feet and and be like in a great position.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

So simplifying the game, which just reduces the amount of the range of outcomes and and like mitigates the variance, right? Because ultimately if we can shrink if we can shrink down the foul balls, the the like the big broad misses, that's going to help keep your misses tighter and allow you to really score better because you're potentially reducing your variance of your shot dispersion by 30% or reducing that flop shot that you got a little too cute with and you duffed it and left it in the same spot.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

And those little decision points, again, it's like the difference of Chris hitting a shot to 20 feet versus 25 feet is not impactful on his scoring average. But if that shot to 20 feet also introduced a double cross because he was doing something differently with his shot, well, now his scoring average goes up a ton because when he misses, it's a huge miss that now he's missed the green or he's short-sighted or he's in a penalty hazard. And those are going to be the ones that really tip the scales to the point where he's doing so much harm to his scoring average.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

And would you say to Chris, don't try, just I think on that point, don't try and shape it both ways with 100%. Pretty much every club right?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

The yeah, when I caddied for my LPGA player in Q school, our hard fast rule was you are not allowed to draw the ball. You may draw it by accident, but you are not allowed to intentionally draw it. She went four rounds at stage one, four rounds at stage two, five rounds of stage three, never hitting anything but a cut, and got her LPGA status.

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Wow. Brilliant. And then just last day, I suppose, on Chris, then off the tee, I've said already, he hits it far and is usually pretty accurate. At the moment, he has a little bit been battling between, you know, for a while it was drawing a little bit on him whenever he traditionally played a fade. And so he was thinking, do I need to just go and start playing a draw now? And now they've kind of that kind of baby cut has has thankfully come back for him. But at the same time, when we were there in Belfast the other day, it was like there were a few that he hit off the planet because it just went double cross. So what would be your advice there?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Again, it's it's about repetition, right? So someone of his skill level, I would I would be very keen to have him do like a quick little check and make sure his ball position is good, make sure that his um his process, his grip, and everything is sound. Because a double cross is hard for anyone. Oh, yeah. Right? Like there's a reason that the time Tiger shot 85 or whatever at the memorial, he was battling a double cross, right? Even even the greatest player of our generation can't you can't navigate a golf course with a double cross because you've now taken both sides, both misses, you don't know how to pick your targets. And so for someone of Chris's level in my experience with highly skilled players, it usually is something subtle when they start sort of missing it both ways. And it could just be like a subtlety with ball position, it could be a subtlety with alignment and whatever. But I would definitely start there and have some like really nice solid benchmarks, and that's why it's so important for players when they are hitting it well. I'm I'm a huge believer in just like getting a video recording of your swing when you're hitting it well, right? So you have a frame of reference so you can go back to it and be like, okay, my shoulders looked a little bit more square here, or maybe the ball position is slightly back or forward of where it used to be when I was really, really flushing it.

SPEAKER_04 29:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Because it just gives you a nice reference point.

SPEAKER_04 29:33

Yes. There was a really good tip that came out of uh from one of our guests that we had on our podcast recently, where they said if things are going awry, reset factory settings and things like what you've talked about, where you know, make sure that you've got that consistent ball position, make sure you've got that consistent alignment, all of that, you know, all the stuff like come on, people have heard this a thousand times, but it does ring true, I think. And certainly someone at Chris's level, it could be something as simple as that that's leading to a wayward double cross. Um, okay, great. Well, I'm sure he's gonna be interested in that. So moving on, and just really quickly, because I I know we've used up a lot of your time here, Alex. Uh, from my perspective, there was something that Scott said to me at my level. He was like, I just want to see you owning a shape with driver, which I think is great advice. And I and and actually since that then I had one horrible round, but then after that, I really I actually spoke to the pro at our uh home course and and I really kind of just zoned in on this fade that I've been playing. And uh I had a fantastic two very, very good driving days last week just by all I I could just hear Scott's Texas stroll in my head saying, I just want you to own a shape driver, you know? And that's what I did. I I just I just had that alignment and everything for that fade. But yeah, so that's that's one area that I'm really working on at the moment in my practice time. I'm devoting a lot of practice time to that. But you go ahead, Alex. You you tell me what you think you would also be doing with me.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah. Step step one would would be keeping it simple, right? It's kind of the same thing, but someone of your level, you you would be surprised. Like, let's just say you're you're standing over a shot and you're like, this is kind of like a between nine or eight iron, and we're so focused on hitting this like off-speed eight iron or whatever. It's like, why don't you just hit a stock eight iron? You know, the difference again of you hitting it to 40 feet but on the green versus I'm gonna try to hit like a little shaved off eight iron to to get it to call it like eight yards deep into the green. But now I'm introducing like worse contact, less predictability. Yeah. We've already said, like on the PGA tour, missing the green is worth a 0.44 penalty. For someone like you, that number is probably closer to like 0.7 to a full shot. Yes. So if we just prioritize doing what we do well, which is stock swings, and being less concerned about the proximity of our shot and focusing on prioritizing hitting as many greens as we can, that's the fastest way to shooting better scores. And yeah, sure, maybe if you hit three more greens, you three put one more time around, but that's going to heavily outperform the times you miss the green. And then inevitably one of those opportunities probably gives you a chance of making double or worse. Right. So, so it is a lot more of like really simplifying your process, right? If I was catting for you, it would, I would very, I would be very discouraging of trying to hit off-speed shots or three quarter swings. And it would just be like, let's just go with stock. We'll manage your shot pattern. Maybe you're a little deeper into the green because we're going with stock. But that's something that you're comfortable with. That's what you practice. You're not on the range practicing like a nine to nine to three swing, then a ten to a two swing, you know? You're probably just hitting balls with like a nice stock swing. And so if we can just take that and manage it around, and we'll wait till you get a little bit better technically for us to start getting a little bit more precise or demanding as far as what our expectations and what we're hoping to execute are.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

So, yeah, and on that, would you discourage people? Because you do hear people saying a lot, oh, it's great practice to learn how to hit a three-quarter shot and then a full shot, and then this shot and that shot with uh with different clubs. Would you discourage people of my level to even entertain doing something like that? Would you be saying just go stalk all the way until you get to a certain level, right?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Yeah, I again it's keeping things simple, right? It's the same way with with putting, right? Making sure that when you are putting, you're delivering the club with the proper same loft every time. Because if sometimes you hit the putt and you've got four degrees up and sometimes you got it and you're going negative two degrees down, you can't expect to have good speed control if you're not doing like the fundamentals well.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

And it's the same way with your irons, right? It's like the fundamentals are can you make a nice stock swing with every club in your bag? Because if so, we can probably manage it to a point that okay, maybe you're aimed a little deeper into the green than you prefer, but you're also going to mishit that shot more often than the average person. And when you mishit it, well, now instead of suffering where you're short-sighted and you're short of the green, now you've mishit it and it's pin high because you're trying to get a little past the hole. And again, it's that thinking of shots in the entire aggregate instead of that singular outcome.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Yes. And in terms of training those those uh stop shots, you know, at the moment, my practice sessions have been the weather hasn't been great here. So we've been using the track man uh at our home course facility. I've really just been setting up a station with that fade with my driver first and foremost. So, like just angled, like alignment sticks angled slightly left with an alignment stick that shows where my ball position is, where it's like kind of right, just sort of off the front foot. Uh does that sound like re-like a and then it I know there's debate that goes around block practice versus random practice and all of this? We don't want to end open up that can of worms right here necessarily, but uh does that sound like a reasonable uh practice station and and uh session to just do quite a lot of block practice with the driver, owning that shape, as you say, and as Scott would say, and maybe do that as well with the other with the irons, too?

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah, I I think it is so crucial to nail down the fundamentals, right? The best players I work with do this, right? I I made a post on Instagram last week of all of the ways that the players I work with used a basic alignment stick, right? They've got drawings on it so that they know how far from the ball they are with seven iron wedge and driver. They use it to make sure that their start lines on their tips are good. And all I see when I see these high handicappers using it is that they've just got it stuck by their feet to make sure they're aiming in the right direction. And they're not standardizing things in a way that they're able to kind of calibrate, recalibrate, because our body, our bodies change, right? Our our visual cues and everything, they change day to day. I'm sorry, my landscape happens to just be going by with the leaf load.

SPEAKER_04 36:14

I I'm actually surprised my dog hasn't done the same throughout. I was worried day to day.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

And you know, our feels change day to day. And so if we don't have processes in place to help standardize these things and allow us to kind of recalibrate or re-uh re-center ourselves, then we're just constantly shifting without with probably swaying too far to the other extreme where we're doing more harm than good.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Yes. I no, I I think that's that's great. And you know, sorry for anyone listening if they think, oh, well, isn't that that's that's boring advice? But I think it's good advice to just like stick to the fundamentals and get and get those uh as as nailed on as you can. Would you recommend someone like me to spend much time on short game? And if so, what would you recommend me doing?

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Yeah, I think again, like short game, it's about having a consistent being able to hit carry numbers is so crucial, right? Because if you think about a chip shot, a chip shot is basically you're you're doing a matchup of how far do I need to land the ball onto the green and how far do I think it's gonna release. Well, if you can figure out that one part of the equation of how far it's gonna carry and get that feel down, the rest is just judging the speed like a putt. And so again, not overcomplicating things, especially like, yes, is it great to be able to like hit a high spinny lob wedge and then you know, tiger is like, oh, I try to hit draw spin on all of my chips. Yeah, that's great if you're if you're trying to be that precise. But if we're talking about taking your game from a level of a 13 down to single digits, simplifying the game more and more is only going to be to your benefit.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Because we we aren't good enough at this time to now add 15 variables to what's already a very, very difficult game.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

And do you like seeing amateurs like me dial in those kind of five yards, seven yards, nine yards with lots of different wedges, or maybe just one or two wedges?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Just one or two. Yeah. Again, like if you're if you're facing a short shot that's going to demand all these little changes, it's probably its degree of difficulty for that shot is already going to be quite a bit higher. And so your level of success is going to be quite a bit lower. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

And I think I think with that, like from my perspective, I'm saying to you, right, Alex, here's the brief, and I've only got two hours to practice. You know, I reckon we've talked about this a lot now that the weather's getting better up here. I reckon we could go to a practice chipping green and spend 20 minutes doing that, and that could be a very, very fruitful 20 minutes. Uh, you know, just you know, and hopefully as weeks go by, you're noticing that you're just getting better at dialing in those short numbers and being able to get a good feel for what the rollout kind of distances would be. I feel like that, that for me is where I'm going to be focusing my kind of chipping practice this season based on what you've said and also what Scott Fawcett said as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Yeah, it's it's just a matter of like, you know, if you get 20% better at your proximity on chipping and you moved the ball from like eight feet to six feet, you've increased your make rate from 50% to 60% if we 65% if we're using kind of tour numbers. Compared to like, you know, I get players that are like, oh, I want to get 10% better on my proximity with my six iron. Okay, so six iron average proximity is call it, we'll call it 30 feet, and you want to get 10% better, you've moved it to 27 feet. You haven't like substantially impacted your make rate or scoring average at all. And you're you're like busting your butt on the range trying to do this. And same as lag putting, right? Like if all of your lag putts go from a four-foot window down to a three-foot window, you've taken it from an 88% make rate down to almost a hundred percent make rate. And it's just way better ROI and bang for your buck as far as you know, the the time spent. And when time is time is not of the abundance for the players we're describing, yeah. Like spend your efforts doing doing the stuff that's going to yield you the best, the best results. Right. And that's making sure, like, okay, I can hit my carry. Like, you don't even have to be as precise as Scott with five, seven, nine, eleven yards. Can you land on a five five-yard T? Can you land on a 10-yard T? If you can, like, that's kind of good enough for the level of golf we're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 40:36

Yeah. Oh, that's great. So, yeah, I think for me, it's I want to devote the majority of my practice time to the ball striking, the sort of stock driver, stock irons, because I think that's where I make the most mistakes, most probably, and that's where I just could see the most improvements. So that's where I would want to devote the most time. But I really like what you're saying, you know, with the short game side of things, really any time I'm devoting to the chipping, working on that, that kind of distance control, even simplify it, as you say, maybe like a 10-yard shot, uh like a 15-yard chip, something like that. And also lag putting, we've heard that from not just yourself, we've heard that from Scott, but we've also heard that from a number of other guests on this show. So, you know, pace control, lag putting, anyone listening out there, this is what a lot of these top voices in the game are telling us is you're gonna see much better scores if you get better at that skill, right, Alex?

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Yeah, if there's one skill that I give, I w I wish I could give all of my players at every event they play is I wish you were the best speed control player in the field that week. Because it just makes things so easy.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

You know, like Tiger always said like his lag putting was one of his superpowers. And why is that? Well, it's because whenever you're in trouble, if you can just take the ball and dump it to 40, 60 feet away from the pin and and feel assured and confident that you're just gonna lag it down and make a two from there, that's a great place to live because you can you can escape all sorts of trouble if you aren't all of a sudden worried that like, well, I better get this inside 30 feet or else I'll also three-put.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

And instead, it's this massive, massive safety net of being like, okay, I kind of screwed myself off the T, so I'm just going to iron it out to, you know, the other side of the green, and then just trust that my speed control is so elite that I'm just gonna lag it down there. And oh, by the way, sometimes I may accidentally hit it closer than I intended, or I may even make this 40 to 50 foot putt.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

Hmm. And would you agree, even like a player at my level who wants to get better, and a lot of our listeners are of that type of profile, if you had even less time to practice, would you say maybe if you were going to sort of strip back that kind of mini practice plan I talked about, where if you focused on owning that shape with driver and keeping it in play as much as possible and then lag potting, you would also probably see your scores dropping just if you focused on those two things alone. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

You know, it again, it's it's this understanding like players of your skill level, you probably average two to four three putts around.

SPEAKER_04 43:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

Right?

SPEAKER_04 43:25

And some penalty shots around.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Yeah, add some penalty shots, add some doubles or more. And if we can eliminate half of your three putts and one of your double bogeys, you've saved three shots and you're at a 10.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

With very little effort, right? And and just again, putting is such low hanging fruit because it's not a technically difficult go to a putt putt course, right? We can we can take any random off the street, give them a putter, and after a few holes, they'll kind of figure out how to just like deliver the putter to the ball. Putting speed just takes a little bit of work and a little bit of mindset. To understand sort of what your expectations are when you're putting. But it's again such low-hanging fruit because if we're able to take your four, three putts and cut them into two, and then we're able to take maybe like two of your chip shots that you bladed across the green or missed the green on, and take those doubles into single bogeys, now you go from 13 to 9 and you're well on your way to being single digits.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

Hmm. Well, I like the sound of that, Alex. I think that that's that would be my mission accomplished on this podcast. Then we could all pack up and go home. Perfect. So it bears repeating that anyone listening out there, if you're my level or maybe higher, if you work on getting your t-shots in play, particularly with driver, and you work on your pace control and you're able to work on nothing else, you will likely see your scores get better. Uh we heard that from Alex Huang of Decade. Alex, thank you so, so much for joining us on the High Low Can You Go Golf Podcast. Uh, where can people find you? If people have further questions for you, if they want to hear more about Decade, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Yeah, uh you can check me out. It's on Instagram, it's Alex Huang Golf. Um, as they said in the intro, I share a lot of kind of golf data. What I what I try to do with my information is I try to take some real world applications of PGA, college golf, LPGA, and show you the stuff that I've talked about on this show, the stuff you heard Scott talk about. It isn't just these ideas, right? I'm taking real examples on the PGA tour to show you that like this is what the best in the world are doing, right? They are leaving lag putts short. They are avoiding bogies and just kind of using that as a way to buoy or sustain their position on the leaderboard. And hopefully that type of stuff can help resonate with you to give you that belief that you need to start implementing these ideas into your game to shoot better scores. So, Alex Wong Golf on Instagram. Um, if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them. Really appreciate both Chris and Dave for inviting me on. I hope, I hope for those of listeners provided little things you guys can kind of implement with the weather turning that were able to help you shoot some lower scores and um you know would love to be on again.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

Yeah. Well, I was about to say that, Alex. Uh, we would love to check back in with you whenever the season gets going and let you know how we're getting on and and and put some of what you're saying into practice. So, yeah, Alex, thank you so much for coming on the show, and we look forward to speaking to you again soon. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Yeah, thank you guys.