May 31, 2023 • 37 mins
Paige kicks off the episode with some background on her new alter ego, Sandy Mounds, before getting into a few of the controversies around Michael Block. She and Sam then welcome Jen Saxton from Shot Scope to discuss performance tracking and how everyone, including weekend golfers, can use data to improve.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is playing around with Page Renee.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Playground Podcast. I'm your host,
Page Renee. Later on this episode, I'll be joined by
my co host Sam and Jen Saxon from shot Scope,
where we discuss how to use data to lower your
scores and to prepare yourself for competition. So keep on
listening for that. I want to discuss a lot of
things that have come out recently, because I'm very excited
(01:07):
about most of it. Recently, you guys were introduced to
Sandy Mounds. If you know you know so I did
this really fun video in collaboration with La Golf, and
the feedback has been absolutely incredible, so I thought I
would share a little bit more about how it came
to be. So, as you know, La Golf makes these
amazing graphite shafts, and most people believe that you should
(01:31):
be playing steel. I think it's this weird idea that
has been ingrained in our brains that steel shafts are
good and graphite is for bad players. But that's just false,
it's not true. And there are so many of these
ideas in golf that we just believe and that we think,
if you're a good player, you should be doing you know, X,
(01:52):
y Z, and playing steel shafts is one of them.
And most people don't want to go and play a
graphite shaft. And even though having a shaft you'll hit
it longer and straighter, the data proves that, and I've
seen it through La Golf. I play all graphite shafts
now and I've gained around ten to fifteen yards throughout
(02:13):
all of my clubs. So I'm a huge believer in it,
and it's just easier for me to swing. And so
the hard part is when you're trying to create content
is how do you prove this and how do you
show this? Because I think so many people are also
sick of hearing if you pick up this club, you'll
gain ten more yards and it's like bullshit. At this point,
(02:34):
I just don't believe you anymore because you hear it constantly,
day in and day out. And so I was brainstorming
this idea because I get this common all the time
about page are you a golfer, a stripper? Like pouring,
like all this stuff, and so it's like, how can
I incorporate all of this? Because La Golf is such
a great partner and they allow me to push the
boundaries and they allow me to have fun and they
(02:55):
allow me to be creative, and I really appreciate that,
and so I was thinking. I was like, what if
I'm on a steel strip a pole and I just suck,
like I absolutely suck my falling and it's not working.
And then all of a sudden, I go to an
La Golf graphite poll and I'm spinning up the speed
of light and that idea then morphed into this longer
(03:20):
form doc because one of my favorite movies is this
is Spinal Tap. I love satirical content and that's my
sense of humor. So I wanted to create this piece
of content for a very long time. And it's something
I'm really proud of because I directed it, and I
wrote it, and I read all my own content. But
(03:40):
I've only done short form content. The max that I
normally do is ninety seconds, and I feel like I
do that really well, but I've never tried my hand
at longer form like a piece like this, and so
I'm so incredibly proud of how it turned out. It
was so much fun. We rented a strip club, Sugar Daddies.
(04:02):
It was one of the nicer clubs I've ever seen.
It was really cool, really nice, and they wrapped two
of the poles with an la golf like wrapping to
make it look like a graphite shaft. And so we
spent you know, probably five hours there shooting all of
this content. There's some fun little Easter eggs in it,
(04:23):
one of them being that I go through finding my
outfit to go on stage for the first time this
Sandy Mounds, and I have all these, you know, very
revealing outfits and one I'm like completely naked, and then
it's like blurred out and then I go, it's not
revealing enough. And then the next outfit that you see
(04:45):
is me and this red polka dot polo dress. This
is funny because that dress I wore to a country
club and I told this story before, but this woman
braided me, just yelled at me about how inappropriate the
dress was. And so there's like fun little pieces like
that within the video. So if you haven't seen it,
(05:06):
definitely go check it out. It's on YouTube. Just type
in my name page Brannic and you'll find it. I
was really worried about the headlines because I'm so used
to just crazy headlines being written about me all the time,
and sometimes a sarcastic piece of content can go over
some people's head and I was really worried that this
(05:26):
would just be an outrageous headline. But it wasn't the
most crazy headline that it happened last week for me.
So if you listened to last week's podcast, if you
haven't a listen, I talked about Michael Block in the
PGA Championship. We did a whole recap. We basically gassed
him up and just talked about how amazing he was
(05:46):
and how great it was for golf and then a
passing comment about how I said Michael Block didn't kiss
his wife and how I would hold a grudge of
my partner if that happened. Clearly we were joking, but
that headline taken out of context, and guys, I got
a lot of hate and I'm used to it now.
I received ten x times hate for that headline. People
(06:11):
were outraged by and I think it's because it was
such a feel good story and everyone was on this
Michael Block train that me saying something that can be
construed as negative just really rubbed people the wrong way.
And I totally get that, but it made me sad
because someone could just read a headline and make the
(06:33):
snap judgement about who you are just by reading a sentence.
And this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life,
but imagine all the things that are going on in
our world right now that do matter and that are important,
that really do impact a ton of different issues in
our society, and people will make a snap judgment based
(06:58):
on one of those headlines. And so I just urge
everyone to read the article. Read the article, and Michael
Block was actually a victim of this. He was a hero.
Everyone loved him when within forty eight hours everyone was
off of the Michael Block train because of this podcast
(07:21):
clip that came out. It was probably thirty seconds only,
and he was talking about if he had Rory's length,
if he could hit it eighty yards farther, he would
be one of the best players in the world. And
people were very upset about that, and they said that,
you know, now he's a big head and he's over confident,
and just they were, you know, tearing him down. And
(07:44):
I understand both sides. I can see how it could
come off badly. I can also see what he was saying.
He was just trying to say that his short game
is great, it's world class. And that's something I actually
relate to because when I was playing, I struggled with
my full swing. I had really bad course anxiety and
(08:04):
so I had the yips off the tee and so
I really had to rely on my short game. And
my short game was world class. It was quite good.
If I could hit the ball like Nelly Korda, I
would be one of the best in the world too,
but everyone would be. I mean, if you could hit
the ball like the best in the world, you would
be the best in the world, and that's what says
people apart, and he was just trying to talk about
(08:26):
how great a short game is, but it came off,
you know, wrong, And I felt really bad for him
because I have been lucky enough, and I've seen this
with other people and the public guy that if you
go into something and right away off the bat people
dislike you, you can deal with the hate much easier.
(08:48):
I feel really bad for the people who go in
and they're beloved, absolutely beloved, very little hate, and then
all of a sudden people start hating on you because
it's such a star difference and it's something that no
one prepares you for. It's hard enough to go through
this and deal with the hate. It's just part of
(09:08):
what you have to do if you're in the public eye,
and it is what it is. But if you're not
prepared for it, it's really hard, really hard. And I
saw that clip come out and he had an afternoon
tea time he got a sponsor invite to the PGA
Tour event Charles Swab, and I knew he was gonna
play bad because I've been in that situation before and
(09:29):
du Buy my very first year playing and I had
all of that hate before I played, and it just
drains you, and you have to be a very special
person to be able to block all of that out,
or you just need to know how to deal with it.
And I just knew it was going to be a
tough round for him. Ended up shooting eighty one, and
then in his post round presser did it again. He said,
(09:50):
off shot fifty eight before I played, so bad, pro
I do it again, And he was trying to kind
of make fun of himself, but then it came off
like he was being cocky again, and so I'm like,
this guy's just getting a bad couple of days. And
I felt so horrible for him, because, you know, to
go from being a hero and then to have to
deal with the amount of hate he was getting was
(10:10):
really difficult. So then I deal with all of that stuff.
And then recently an article came out with Golf Digest.
I did a long sit down piece. Alison Glocke wrote it.
She's absolutely incredible, and she spent a couple of days
with me, and it was the first sit down interview
I've really done like this, where I've let someone come
(10:30):
into my life and into my business and we go
through the ins and outs and talked about the ups
and downs my childhood and my golf career and how
I managed my social anxiety. And a lot of you
who listened to this podcast know, and I've been very
transparent about, you know, the good and the bad. But
(10:51):
I was really excited for this piece to come out.
And when I first started doing all of this, when
I first started getting try on social media, I started
doing some work with Golf Digests, and I don't know
what it is about Golf Digest, but they have the
most vile comment section. It's absolutely disgusting. Seven years ago
(11:12):
when this was happening, I was getting comments I can't
even repeat. They're just grotesque, and it really bothered me.
It bothered me on a deep emotional level. I had
to see therapy. It was really difficult. I was thrown
into all of this and I didn't know how to
handle it. And it's kind of like Michael Block. You're
(11:34):
thrown into it. You're expected to know how to gracefully
handle all of this, and then you're just ill prepared
because who can prepare you for hundreds of thousands of
people just shitting on you like you can't prepare yourself
for that, and so it bothered me. And throughout the years,
I've grown a thicker skin, I've gotten stronger, I've changed
(11:55):
my outlook. I've become confident in who I am. I
have self belief. But today I was looking because the
article was released, I was looking at the comments and
it was the same exact shit, same stuff. And I
remember years ago I was thinking, well, if I'm more successful,
if I accomplish this, or if I do this or
I do this, then they like me. And today I
(12:17):
just laughed and I was like, it doesn't matter. It
does not matter. You can't live your life trying to
please other people. You have to have self confidence and
self belief and do things that make you happy and fulfilled,
and that is what you need to focus on. And
it took me years to figure that out, But today
(12:37):
I was really proud of the progress that I've made
in my life and in my career, where before, if
that happened to me, I would have just cried it's
literally that in a feudal position, and just been upset
about it. And now I can laugh about it, and
I understand it because you just got to think about it,
and if anyone gets hate online and everyone does. I
(12:58):
talk about it as sometimes it's like, oh, if you're
a public figure, but on social media, everyone gets hate.
And so if you are someone who has had hate
online or dealing with it at all, just remember this.
How fucking weird is it that someone's mad at you
because they think you're untalented or you're this, or you're
(13:22):
that or all these things. Like, really think about it.
I get these comments and people are like, you're untalented,
you're a whrn and no one loves you and all
this stuff, and it's like, why are you mad? Why
are you mad at me for being untalented? That should
make you happy, that should make you feel good, And
so it just shows you how fucking stupid the whole
thing is, and you just have to laugh it off
(13:43):
because in the grand scheme things, it does not matter
if you have your core group of people who love you,
who believe in you, who are there for you, and
that's what matters. So I just want to say I
believe in you. I believe that you guys can do this,
and I want to thank you for believing in me.
And I will need all of that belief because I'm
(14:04):
about to play John Daily and a match June fifth
at Geneva National. I'm quite nervous about it. So we're
playing the same teas and they tried to shorten the
course so it would take driver out of play for
John Daily, and I was thinking, I'm like, you drive me,
probably with like a four iron, maybe a five iron
(14:24):
if he really catches it. I'm like, I'm gonna get
absolutely destroyed in this match. And I'm quite nervous about
it because people are going to be there, and if
you guys are listening, there's still time for you to
buy your tickets. You can walk outside or inside the ropes.
We have like a VIP reception after a party of
(14:46):
the day before. It should be a lot of fun,
but I'm nervous because I am not used to playing
in front of a lot of people anymore, and I
don't really play at like competitive rounds of golf, and
so I get so nervous. I have anxiety. I put
up a post recently about this and I opened up
about having course anxiety, and everyone's like, I have course
(15:07):
anxiety too, What do you do? And I'm like, it's
a work of progress. I don't know the one thing
that's been working for me is going through the process
and trusting the process. So I use data from shot
Scope and we're gonna talk about this later, but knowing
what your weaknesses are and your strengths are brings a
sense of calmness. And so I know what I need
(15:27):
to practice and I know what I'm good at, and
it's nice to have reassurance to know the things that
you are good at. It's also nice to see that
you don't have to be perfect to play well. Sometimes
as a perfectionist, I put too much pressure on myself
to hit perfect shots and to hit the greens and
make the putts. And sometimes you don't have to do that.
You can play a very boring round of golf or
a safe round of golf, and that's a great round
(15:50):
of golf. Another thing is trying new things. So I
started working with Jonathan Yarwood and he's really helped me
make changes and my swing that will help me under pressure.
I've always had a very athletic swing, but it's based
on timing and I've been able to make it work
because I am fairly athletic. But when I do have
(16:10):
some pressure, it will deteriorate. So we've been making some changes.
So it's been nice to work on things and see
the progress. But I'm doing all this stuff and I'm like,
I'm still nervous. And I don't know about you guys,
but right before I have something big going on in
my life, I just get really anxious and it bleeds
into different parts of my relationships or my friendships or
(16:34):
whatever it may be. And sometimes I feel like I'm
a bit irritable. And so this time I'm doing my
best to have a very positive attitude. And I will
say it's been helping, you know, laughing at the times
where I don't feel as good, or trying to smile
when I'm feeling anxious. You can make an effort to
feel better. And I don't want to say, you know, like, oh,
(16:56):
you have anxiety, just don't have anxiety, But as simple
as it sounds, when you're feeling really shitty, smiling or
doing something that makes you feel happy does help. And
there are times where it's like I can choose to
be irritable towards someone, or I can make the effort
to go out of my way to be extra nice,
and you start to feel better about yourself because you're
(17:19):
doing the right things and you're making steps in the
right direction. And so if anyone struggles with big events
in their life and how it kind of bleeds into
other aspects of what their daily routine, just go out
of your way to be extra nice, extra smiling, like
where things that make you feel good, do things that
make you feel good. All of that really does help.
(17:39):
So that's kind of what's been going on in my
life recently. But I want to get into this interview
with Jen and Sam, So thank you guys so much
for listening to what's been going on my life, and
here's the interview.
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Speaker 4 (18:27):
And welcoming in Jen Saxon, marketing executive of Shotsco, but
quite the player herself, which we will get to here
in a second. We are thrilled to have Jen on
the pot today to talk all things shots Go products,
keeping track of your data, how it can help you
shoot lower scores. Jen, Welcome to the Playing Around podcast.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Thanks for having been nice to speak with you. So
I'm on.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Page Yeah, so, Jen and I actually played recently at
Liberty National, which was so much fun. And yeah, Jen,
you absolutely crushed the ball, such a great player. But
we were talking about using data to help your game,
and I thought it'd be interesting if you give us
just a little bit of your playing background and how
(19:07):
you use shot scope to get ready for your competitive
rounds of golf.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Now, yeah, so probably similar to both yourselves. I went
to like a golf college but here in Scotland, and
they have a golf program. You're on scholarship. It's a
lot of golf. You do it all day, every day. Yea,
And I was okay. I wasn't great, but I was
all right. And then when I finished that, I wasn't
really sure what direction I wanted to go. And I
(19:33):
didn't want to play professionally. I had no interest in that.
And shots we're looking for a golfer with a marketing degree,
so I kind of fit the bill. That was five
years ago, so been there ever since. And how I
think that's helped my game is like when you're at college,
you play golf all the time. Now I work full time,
(19:53):
so golf is like the breakaway for that. So I
enjoyed playing golf more often and then working alongside the
stats and data. I think just being around that you
become that your mindset changes on things. So I'm a
lot more aggressive. I hit driver everywhere as long as
there's not like a big hazard or anything in a way.
(20:16):
But just being in and around data day and the
day out, I think it gives you a better perspective
on what you should be doing on and off on
the golf course and what you shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Like quality over quantity, Like I you know, we were
talking about this where and you know Sam and I
talk about too that. You know, I think we're in
this mindset of practicing so much like in junior golf
and in college, and we're out there, you know, every
single day for hours and hours and hours, and I
wasn't improving. It's actually getting worse. And now that I
(20:48):
actually have less time, and I'm focusing on the things
that I really need to work on, and you find
that in the data. So you know, I'm a really
shitty long iron player, and I know that because I
look at my stats, and I also see that I
am about iron player because I'm not hitting enough fair ways.
And so you know, for me it's ball striking, and
then for other people at sam Player, all these different things.
(21:10):
And so instead of just grinding it for hours and
hours and hours, like I just focus in now on Okay,
if I have twenty minutes each day to practice, I'm
going to do some my my drills and work on
my long irons. Do you see a big change with
that too, where you actually kind of started to improve
when you were working on things that you actually need
to improve on.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, So for me, the big one short game, I'm terrible.
It's kind of like a running joke at shot Scope
you can only work for them if you suck at chipping.
But fortunately, I think we're all trending upward because we
now know how bad we were at it. So for
me generally strength we're off the tea and iron play.
But my short game let me down, and generally because
(21:51):
I didn't practice it, I got used to hitting quite
a lot of greened when I played, so I didn't
have to rely on getting up and down to score.
When I started working, I practiced less, so then when
I went out and played, I wasn't quite hitting it
as good, so I was missing greened and then you
do become reliant on needing to get up and down.
(22:12):
And I think that side of things. I learned how
to score when you're playing.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Bad, that's a huge one.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Yeah, And being able to get it round. Yeah, And
that's kind of what you said page when we played,
you could shoot a low round and hit hardly any
greens because your short game like safety.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, which is not something that I want to rely
on all the time. But you know, I have this
match against John Daily, and I don't play competitive as much,
and so I've been using the data to help me
practice and prepare. And you play a lot of competitive rounds.
How do you prepare yourself for that? Because I know
a lot of the people who are listening, have you
know member members and member guests and you know, fun
(22:51):
league events, and you know that that can be stressful because,
like you said, like we're all working and we have
all these responsibilities and you can't just go out every
single day, and so how do you use the limit
amount of time you have to prepare yourself for these
big time tournaments.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Yeah, so I think I have a good example of
one that worked really well for me last year. So
obviously I had one hundred and fiftieth Open. It's and Andrews.
As part of that, I looked at the Shotscope database
of users and we had seven thousand rounds played on
the Old Course, and I put together this big ebook
on how to play the Old Course as an amateur
(23:26):
around the Open. And obviously everyone's not going to be
able to do this for their tournament that they go
and play. But in the lead up to the Open,
I actually played a tournament at the Old Course, and
for two months prior to playing that, I've been looking
at stats on where you should go, where you shouldn't go,
where you're more likely to get up and down from
if you do mister Green. So the big example being
(23:48):
on the seventeenth road hole. Everyone thinks that bunker is
like really punishing, but in actual fact, it's better than
being long and on the road. People know how to
play a shot out of bunker, but they don't know
how to play one off the path or stones or
anything like that. So for me, again it's a strange
example because not everyone can do this. But I looked
(24:11):
at the old course every day for about two months
in the lead up to tournament. So when I went
out and played on that course, I felt like I
knew it better than ever. It was like a home
course if you let like I've played it a million times,
I knew knew it like the back of my hand.
And for me, that one worked out really well. It
managed to go on and sneak a little when in that.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
So that's an interesting point that I feel like a
lot of amateurs I love to generalize, So excuse me
for generalizing. A lot of people don't think about where
to miss it. Yeah, right, Like that's something that we
talk page and I talk about a lot, like, Okay,
you can't go along. So if anything, if you're in
between two clubs, hit the shorter one. So how important
is that and how can you like what does it
look like on the shot scope? Data for somebody who
(24:53):
might not know what it looks like when you're seeing
that kind of stuff and learning what to do on
these golf courses.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
So say some they plays the same course all the time.
We do the thing called course analysis. But you can
go and see every shot you've hit and it's plotted
on the map of your course. So you could take
your home club and look at a part three, see
your missus left and right, and there'll be color coded
based on score. So an example for me, the fifth
hole at my club, if I miss it left, I
(25:19):
never make a part. It's always a bowgi or worse,
it's a tricky green with a slope. So part of
that is you can go in and identify that miss.
But then next time I go stand on that tea
I know right, I'll maybe just shift my aim slightly
right so that if I do cook it a bit
or overdraw, it is going to be left side of
the green and not missing left, and I've got a
(25:39):
better chance of scoring slightly better. Kind of tricky. If
you play a different course all the time, you don't
know where you can and can't miss. Another example is
I've just been out in the States and play golf
with four guys who are like really into their stats
and data, and their expectations on chipping are ridiculous. They
all think they should be hitting everything like one foot,
(26:03):
whereas I think our overridingstat is a scratch golfer averages
like seven foot for short game shots. If you lay
that out on a green, that's quite a big circle,
and everyone expects to hit it way closer than that
all the time. So just learning what your averages are
and then picturing that on a golf course and learning
(26:24):
to just be nicer to yourself. Really, you can hit
a shot that's.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Okay, that's a huge thing. That's what I've really learned
through all of the Shotscope data is you think that
the tour pros are hitting seventeen out of eighteen greens
and they're chipping into a foot every single time, And
then you look at the data for like a scratch golfer,
which people would die to get to, and it's not
(26:49):
that scary. When you look at it, you're like, okay,
Like I really don't have to rehaul my entire game
to get to this point. And I do this shot
Scope coaching series where we do breaking one hundred, breaking
ninety breaking, eighty breaking, seventy, and it's just hit one
or two more greens around. And I think when you
see that data and you apply it to your your game,
(27:09):
you're like, Okay, I can do that. It's it's not
as big as It's not this daunting, scary task ahead
of me. It's just a couple things here and there.
And like you were saying, knowing how to play the
golf course, people just think that it's about, you know,
hitting the ball better, but we all have miss hits,
and so it's like where can you miss it? And
I think when we play the same course over and
over and over again, they're like, oh, I just have
(27:30):
that home course advantage because it's like yeah, because you
have that data in your head and shot scope just
helps provide that and so you can actually see it
laid out where it's okay, I know I can't miss here,
I can miss here. This is how I need to
play it. And it's really transformed my game and how
I practice is just using data. Because I was always
a real just field player and I never really kept
(27:51):
my stats, and I wish I did. I wish I
had access to this data when I was playing because
I think I would have approached it way differently than
I do now.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
We used to just keep it on a scorecard, right, like, yeah,
miss it, long, missed it left, Okay, next tomorrow. We
need to play it a little bit shorter, especially in
college rounds page and I talk about what used to
have to keep manual stats all the time, and then
I wouldn't do it, and so then in the hotel
I'd have to go back and be like, Okay, what
did I do on two? And then I'd get pissed,
and it was a whole thing. But you think about it,
and like, we're all above average golfers, right, but if
(28:23):
you think about the weekend golfer. I have heard people
amongst you know, my dad's group or like older people
who play once a week, twice a month maybe, and
they say like, oh, well, I'm not good enough, Like
I don't need to do that because I don't need
to keep my stats because I'm not good enough, or
I don't need I don't know exactly how far I
hit it, but it's whatever, I'm not good enough. How
can this stuff help somebody who isn't necessarily a scratch golfer?
(28:45):
But it could shave a few strokes off you score
by looking at the statu How can that help those people?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Yeah, so generally we would see meant to high handicaps
or sort of fifteen to twenty handicap, maybe even higher.
And after they've used the like the system like shotscope
for twenty to thirty round, they improve by about four
shots on average. And that's from just understanding what it
is they actually do. It's not biased about their game.
They might think they're a great driver of the ball
(29:13):
and they hit loads of fermiges, but they might not
in general for that sort of level of golfer. The
biggest thing we notice is approach play. Everyone misses the
green shot because they all think they can hit it
further than they actually do. And you see it on
social media. Someone puts out a post how far do
you hit your seven iron? And they all come in
one sixty, one seventy one eighty and you're like, no,
(29:34):
you don't. You maybe hit it that far once, but
on average it's probably more like one forty. And you
need to be able to play to your average because
you're not going to flush it every time, especially at
that level of the game. That's a very general assumption
for the majority of amateur golfers, but that is what
we see learning they're average club distances on the golf course,
(29:55):
not on the range with range balls or anything like that.
How far they're actually hitting it on the course when
they've maybe not got a perfect lie, they've got a
sloped stand or something like that. Once they've learned that,
they can then choose better clubs and hopefully miss short
less often.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
They miss short a ton. I think that was one
of the most interesting stats that most amateur golfers never
miss long, and I think it goes back to what
you're saying is that people think they hit it a
lot farther than they really do because they're on a
flat driving range and you know, they have a perfect
lie every single time. But that's not you know, what
it's like out on golf course. And also it's a
(30:34):
carry distance too, it's not you know, the rollout, and
I think some people get the rollout so that that's
that's fascinating, But the distance about being long. Is there
anything else that can go into that, like why people
always come up short.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
Without sounding horrible, They're not that good. They don't strike
it perfectly all the time. Nobody does. I don't. I
have the club face covered at times, but it's something
they can then work on. I guess with their if
they have a culture. If they do go and just
bash balls on the range, like just work on your
strike and getting a bit more consistent with that, the
bottle then go consistently more the same distance. The one
(31:11):
thing that we don't really do with shot Scope is
the sort of the lesson advice. We just provide the
stats and the data. I don't like writing an article
that then says, oh, you should try to change this
in your swing or poor data and course management, try this,
or change the way you think on the golf course,
rather than how to change your swing. And a lot
can be done without having to change your swing massively.
(31:33):
If you slice the ball, just almost learn to play
with it. Yes, you could maybe reduce it down to
a bit of a fade, but it's just working with
what you've got first, but understanding what your trends are
and how to play to your strengths.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Ultimately, speaking of working with what you have, I feel
like the distance conversation goes to ego a lot with
amateur golfers and weekend golfers. I mean sometimes I'll think
that I can hit a six horn further than I
can and it's like, no, that was just you want
too but you don't. And so we talk about this
a lot. Is watching women's golf can be more of
a relatable distance, you know, viewing opportunity than when you're
(32:10):
watching these PGA Tour guys hit a six iron like
two hundred and twenty yards. So I think it's get
these these amateur golfers realizing that the data is your data, right, Like,
and it doesn't matter what anybody else's r ard it
just looks like or what club they're hitting on the
T box, it doesn't matter. But your ego gets in
the way. Sometimes even when Paige and I play together,
I'm like, oh, you're hitting pitching lunch, all right, I'll
(32:30):
hit pitching lunch and then I like, shank it because
I'm trying to hit it so hard because I can't
hit that puff that far, and like it's just it's
just figuring out and realizing that it's what works for you,
I think is such an important part of what amateur
golfers don't utilize.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Yeah, definitely, And like so for using the data. I
had a big left miss in the last few years
and would be a bit of a snap poock page,
kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
To can't relate, Yeah, noursing that shot before, but you go.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
That I sorted now. So that was my missagies, and
my status would show me that I was missing left
a lot and it was costing me shots. So then
I switched to try and hit a fade so it
predominantly would hit a draw. I tried to hit a
fade and it was just so unnatural for me. It's
a big change in your swing. It's hard with a
driver because it's longer club. So I spent all of
(33:22):
last year trying to hit a fade. I was just
like swiping at it and it was going nowhere. It
was okay, but it wasn't great. And then just this
year I switched back to just going with the draw,
but just commit into it and hidden it out right.
I'm missing left less even though it's still going right
to left. So that's kind of just going with what
you know. Play to my striends, I'm much more comfortable
(33:43):
standing up there, setting up for a draw and just
seeing it turning over right to left, because that's what
I've done for my whole career pretty much. I tried
to change it and I didn't work. Things like that happened.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I've heard so many stories like that, and I think
what Sam said too is so true that what makes
tournament play so hard when or even just you know,
play with your buddies, is you compare yourself to the
other people that you're playing with. And we all have
very different games, and I think sometimes we can get
caught up and you know, like oh, Jen hits more
barroys and greens than I do, and you try to
(34:17):
stress that, you try to work on that, and you're
probably you know, I wish I could hit chipshot like this,
and you know Sam MiGs never misses a fair way,
and you get so caught up in that. But then
when you are reminded, it's like, okay, here is my data,
this is what I do well, this is what someone
else does well. You don't get caught up in what
everyone else is doing because you know your game. And
(34:39):
we always say this like swing your own swing, play
your own game, and that's so important and that's what
the data reminds you of. And also, like you said,
to be nicer to yourself, because sometimes having a seven
foot pot after a chip SHOT's the best that you
can do. And like, that's actually what the average is
if you're a scratch golfer, and that's not bad at all.
(34:59):
But I'm a huge fan of using data, using the
Shotscope products to get better.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
So for the weekend golfer who after listening to this
is obviously going to go purchase the shotscope product to
track their data, where do they start right? Like they play,
they play several rounds and then they're looking at the
data and they're like, I don't even know what this means.
What's a good place for someone to start not knowing,
you know, and not have ever looking at their stats before.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
So the first thing I'd say, when you look at
your stats, go to scoring and click constructs gained. Set
it to against a handicap that you're either at or
one below. So if you're a fifteen handicap, maybe compare
against that or a ten handicap. It will be quite obvious.
You'll have four different bars for areas of the game, tea, shots, approaches,
short game, and put in, and you'll get positive or
(35:45):
negative for each area. The ones that are negative they're
what you need to improve. So if it's T shots
that you're losing two shots on, you can then go
and look at your T shots and see if you're
missing left or right. Is it a two way miss
that's probably the most damaging. In that case, it might
be go and get a lesson someone starting on the
strokes gained overview just for the four areas of your game.
(36:08):
That'll pinpoint which one is your weakness and which ones
are your strength. If you're doing well against that handicap,
just put it down another one until you see something
that is needing to be improved.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Well, that's awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today,
and for anyone wanting to purchase any of these products,
head over to shotscope dot com. They have GPS watches,
range finders, a rangefinder with a GPS device on it.
They have everything that you need and so much more.
So definitely go check that out. Thank you so much
for joining us today, Jen.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Thank you thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Follow playing Around with Paige Renee on iHeartRadio or subscribe
wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Do you want to improve your game faster and hit
your driver longer? The good news is Shotscope can help
you achieve your goals. Shotscope has products for every golfer,
such as GPS, watches, laser rangefinders, and shot tracking devices
designed to lower scores and improve your golf by over
four shots on average. I use the pro x Plus
(37:13):
rangefinder on the course to get my distances. What I
love most about shot Scope is tracking my game and
reviewing my stats. The great news is your personalized stats
are completely free with no yearly subscription. If I can
use it, anyone can jump over to shotscope dot com
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Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is playing around with Page Renee.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Playground Podcast. I'm your host,
Page Renee. Later on this episode, I'll be joined by
my co host Sam and Jen Saxon from shot Scope,
where we discuss how to use data to lower your
scores and to prepare yourself for competition. So keep on
listening for that. I want to discuss a lot of
things that have come out recently, because I'm very excited
(01:07):
about most of it. Recently, you guys were introduced to
Sandy Mounds. If you know you know so I did
this really fun video in collaboration with La Golf, and
the feedback has been absolutely incredible, so I thought I
would share a little bit more about how it came
to be. So, as you know, La Golf makes these
amazing graphite shafts, and most people believe that you should
(01:31):
be playing steel. I think it's this weird idea that
has been ingrained in our brains that steel shafts are
good and graphite is for bad players. But that's just false,
it's not true. And there are so many of these
ideas in golf that we just believe and that we think,
if you're a good player, you should be doing you know, X,
(01:52):
y Z, and playing steel shafts is one of them.
And most people don't want to go and play a
graphite shaft. And even though having a shaft you'll hit
it longer and straighter, the data proves that, and I've
seen it through La Golf. I play all graphite shafts
now and I've gained around ten to fifteen yards throughout
(02:13):
all of my clubs. So I'm a huge believer in it,
and it's just easier for me to swing. And so
the hard part is when you're trying to create content
is how do you prove this and how do you
show this? Because I think so many people are also
sick of hearing if you pick up this club, you'll
gain ten more yards and it's like bullshit. At this point,
(02:34):
I just don't believe you anymore because you hear it constantly,
day in and day out. And so I was brainstorming
this idea because I get this common all the time
about page are you a golfer, a stripper? Like pouring,
like all this stuff, and so it's like, how can
I incorporate all of this? Because La Golf is such
a great partner and they allow me to push the
boundaries and they allow me to have fun and they
(02:55):
allow me to be creative, and I really appreciate that,
and so I was thinking. I was like, what if
I'm on a steel strip a pole and I just suck,
like I absolutely suck my falling and it's not working.
And then all of a sudden, I go to an
La Golf graphite poll and I'm spinning up the speed
of light and that idea then morphed into this longer
(03:20):
form doc because one of my favorite movies is this
is Spinal Tap. I love satirical content and that's my
sense of humor. So I wanted to create this piece
of content for a very long time. And it's something
I'm really proud of because I directed it, and I
wrote it, and I read all my own content. But
(03:40):
I've only done short form content. The max that I
normally do is ninety seconds, and I feel like I
do that really well, but I've never tried my hand
at longer form like a piece like this, and so
I'm so incredibly proud of how it turned out. It
was so much fun. We rented a strip club, Sugar Daddies.
(04:02):
It was one of the nicer clubs I've ever seen.
It was really cool, really nice, and they wrapped two
of the poles with an la golf like wrapping to
make it look like a graphite shaft. And so we
spent you know, probably five hours there shooting all of
this content. There's some fun little Easter eggs in it,
(04:23):
one of them being that I go through finding my
outfit to go on stage for the first time this
Sandy Mounds, and I have all these, you know, very
revealing outfits and one I'm like completely naked, and then
it's like blurred out and then I go, it's not
revealing enough. And then the next outfit that you see
(04:45):
is me and this red polka dot polo dress. This
is funny because that dress I wore to a country
club and I told this story before, but this woman
braided me, just yelled at me about how inappropriate the
dress was. And so there's like fun little pieces like
that within the video. So if you haven't seen it,
(05:06):
definitely go check it out. It's on YouTube. Just type
in my name page Brannic and you'll find it. I
was really worried about the headlines because I'm so used
to just crazy headlines being written about me all the time,
and sometimes a sarcastic piece of content can go over
some people's head and I was really worried that this
(05:26):
would just be an outrageous headline. But it wasn't the
most crazy headline that it happened last week for me.
So if you listened to last week's podcast, if you
haven't a listen, I talked about Michael Block in the
PGA Championship. We did a whole recap. We basically gassed
him up and just talked about how amazing he was
(05:46):
and how great it was for golf and then a
passing comment about how I said Michael Block didn't kiss
his wife and how I would hold a grudge of
my partner if that happened. Clearly we were joking, but
that headline taken out of context, and guys, I got
a lot of hate and I'm used to it now.
I received ten x times hate for that headline. People
(06:11):
were outraged by and I think it's because it was
such a feel good story and everyone was on this
Michael Block train that me saying something that can be
construed as negative just really rubbed people the wrong way.
And I totally get that, but it made me sad
because someone could just read a headline and make the
(06:33):
snap judgement about who you are just by reading a sentence.
And this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life,
but imagine all the things that are going on in
our world right now that do matter and that are important,
that really do impact a ton of different issues in
our society, and people will make a snap judgment based
(06:58):
on one of those headlines. And so I just urge
everyone to read the article. Read the article, and Michael
Block was actually a victim of this. He was a hero.
Everyone loved him when within forty eight hours everyone was
off of the Michael Block train because of this podcast
(07:21):
clip that came out. It was probably thirty seconds only,
and he was talking about if he had Rory's length,
if he could hit it eighty yards farther, he would
be one of the best players in the world. And
people were very upset about that, and they said that,
you know, now he's a big head and he's over confident,
and just they were, you know, tearing him down. And
(07:44):
I understand both sides. I can see how it could
come off badly. I can also see what he was saying.
He was just trying to say that his short game
is great, it's world class. And that's something I actually
relate to because when I was playing, I struggled with
my full swing. I had really bad course anxiety and
(08:04):
so I had the yips off the tee and so
I really had to rely on my short game. And
my short game was world class. It was quite good.
If I could hit the ball like Nelly Korda, I
would be one of the best in the world too,
but everyone would be. I mean, if you could hit
the ball like the best in the world, you would
be the best in the world, and that's what says
people apart, and he was just trying to talk about
(08:26):
how great a short game is, but it came off,
you know, wrong, And I felt really bad for him
because I have been lucky enough, and I've seen this
with other people and the public guy that if you
go into something and right away off the bat people
dislike you, you can deal with the hate much easier.
(08:48):
I feel really bad for the people who go in
and they're beloved, absolutely beloved, very little hate, and then
all of a sudden people start hating on you because
it's such a star difference and it's something that no
one prepares you for. It's hard enough to go through
this and deal with the hate. It's just part of
(09:08):
what you have to do if you're in the public eye,
and it is what it is. But if you're not
prepared for it, it's really hard, really hard. And I
saw that clip come out and he had an afternoon
tea time he got a sponsor invite to the PGA
Tour event Charles Swab, and I knew he was gonna
play bad because I've been in that situation before and
(09:29):
du Buy my very first year playing and I had
all of that hate before I played, and it just
drains you, and you have to be a very special
person to be able to block all of that out,
or you just need to know how to deal with it.
And I just knew it was going to be a
tough round for him. Ended up shooting eighty one, and
then in his post round presser did it again. He said,
(09:50):
off shot fifty eight before I played, so bad, pro
I do it again, And he was trying to kind
of make fun of himself, but then it came off
like he was being cocky again, and so I'm like,
this guy's just getting a bad couple of days. And
I felt so horrible for him, because, you know, to
go from being a hero and then to have to
deal with the amount of hate he was getting was
(10:10):
really difficult. So then I deal with all of that stuff.
And then recently an article came out with Golf Digest.
I did a long sit down piece. Alison Glocke wrote it.
She's absolutely incredible, and she spent a couple of days
with me, and it was the first sit down interview
I've really done like this, where I've let someone come
(10:30):
into my life and into my business and we go
through the ins and outs and talked about the ups
and downs my childhood and my golf career and how
I managed my social anxiety. And a lot of you
who listened to this podcast know, and I've been very
transparent about, you know, the good and the bad. But
(10:51):
I was really excited for this piece to come out.
And when I first started doing all of this, when
I first started getting try on social media, I started
doing some work with Golf Digests, and I don't know
what it is about Golf Digest, but they have the
most vile comment section. It's absolutely disgusting. Seven years ago
(11:12):
when this was happening, I was getting comments I can't
even repeat. They're just grotesque, and it really bothered me.
It bothered me on a deep emotional level. I had
to see therapy. It was really difficult. I was thrown
into all of this and I didn't know how to
handle it. And it's kind of like Michael Block. You're
(11:34):
thrown into it. You're expected to know how to gracefully
handle all of this, and then you're just ill prepared
because who can prepare you for hundreds of thousands of
people just shitting on you like you can't prepare yourself
for that, and so it bothered me. And throughout the years,
I've grown a thicker skin, I've gotten stronger, I've changed
(11:55):
my outlook. I've become confident in who I am. I
have self belief. But today I was looking because the
article was released, I was looking at the comments and
it was the same exact shit, same stuff. And I
remember years ago I was thinking, well, if I'm more successful,
if I accomplish this, or if I do this or
I do this, then they like me. And today I
(12:17):
just laughed and I was like, it doesn't matter. It
does not matter. You can't live your life trying to
please other people. You have to have self confidence and
self belief and do things that make you happy and fulfilled,
and that is what you need to focus on. And
it took me years to figure that out, But today
(12:37):
I was really proud of the progress that I've made
in my life and in my career, where before, if
that happened to me, I would have just cried it's
literally that in a feudal position, and just been upset
about it. And now I can laugh about it, and
I understand it because you just got to think about it,
and if anyone gets hate online and everyone does. I
(12:58):
talk about it as sometimes it's like, oh, if you're
a public figure, but on social media, everyone gets hate.
And so if you are someone who has had hate
online or dealing with it at all, just remember this.
How fucking weird is it that someone's mad at you
because they think you're untalented or you're this, or you're
(13:22):
that or all these things. Like, really think about it.
I get these comments and people are like, you're untalented,
you're a whrn and no one loves you and all
this stuff, and it's like, why are you mad? Why
are you mad at me for being untalented? That should
make you happy, that should make you feel good, And
so it just shows you how fucking stupid the whole
thing is, and you just have to laugh it off
(13:43):
because in the grand scheme things, it does not matter
if you have your core group of people who love you,
who believe in you, who are there for you, and
that's what matters. So I just want to say I
believe in you. I believe that you guys can do this,
and I want to thank you for believing in me.
And I will need all of that belief because I'm
(14:04):
about to play John Daily and a match June fifth
at Geneva National. I'm quite nervous about it. So we're
playing the same teas and they tried to shorten the
course so it would take driver out of play for
John Daily, and I was thinking, I'm like, you drive me,
probably with like a four iron, maybe a five iron
(14:24):
if he really catches it. I'm like, I'm gonna get
absolutely destroyed in this match. And I'm quite nervous about
it because people are going to be there, and if
you guys are listening, there's still time for you to
buy your tickets. You can walk outside or inside the ropes.
We have like a VIP reception after a party of
(14:46):
the day before. It should be a lot of fun,
but I'm nervous because I am not used to playing
in front of a lot of people anymore, and I
don't really play at like competitive rounds of golf, and
so I get so nervous. I have anxiety. I put
up a post recently about this and I opened up
about having course anxiety, and everyone's like, I have course
(15:07):
anxiety too, What do you do? And I'm like, it's
a work of progress. I don't know the one thing
that's been working for me is going through the process
and trusting the process. So I use data from shot
Scope and we're gonna talk about this later, but knowing
what your weaknesses are and your strengths are brings a
sense of calmness. And so I know what I need
(15:27):
to practice and I know what I'm good at, and
it's nice to have reassurance to know the things that
you are good at. It's also nice to see that
you don't have to be perfect to play well. Sometimes
as a perfectionist, I put too much pressure on myself
to hit perfect shots and to hit the greens and
make the putts. And sometimes you don't have to do that.
You can play a very boring round of golf or
a safe round of golf, and that's a great round
(15:50):
of golf. Another thing is trying new things. So I
started working with Jonathan Yarwood and he's really helped me
make changes and my swing that will help me under pressure.
I've always had a very athletic swing, but it's based
on timing and I've been able to make it work
because I am fairly athletic. But when I do have
(16:10):
some pressure, it will deteriorate. So we've been making some changes.
So it's been nice to work on things and see
the progress. But I'm doing all this stuff and I'm like,
I'm still nervous. And I don't know about you guys,
but right before I have something big going on in
my life, I just get really anxious and it bleeds
into different parts of my relationships or my friendships or
(16:34):
whatever it may be. And sometimes I feel like I'm
a bit irritable. And so this time I'm doing my
best to have a very positive attitude. And I will
say it's been helping, you know, laughing at the times
where I don't feel as good, or trying to smile
when I'm feeling anxious. You can make an effort to
feel better. And I don't want to say, you know, like, oh,
(16:56):
you have anxiety, just don't have anxiety, But as simple
as it sounds, when you're feeling really shitty, smiling or
doing something that makes you feel happy does help. And
there are times where it's like I can choose to
be irritable towards someone, or I can make the effort
to go out of my way to be extra nice,
and you start to feel better about yourself because you're
(17:19):
doing the right things and you're making steps in the
right direction. And so if anyone struggles with big events
in their life and how it kind of bleeds into
other aspects of what their daily routine, just go out
of your way to be extra nice, extra smiling, like
where things that make you feel good, do things that
make you feel good. All of that really does help.
(17:39):
So that's kind of what's been going on in my
life recently. But I want to get into this interview
with Jen and Sam, So thank you guys so much
for listening to what's been going on my life, and
here's the interview.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
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Speaker 4 (18:27):
And welcoming in Jen Saxon, marketing executive of Shotsco, but
quite the player herself, which we will get to here
in a second. We are thrilled to have Jen on
the pot today to talk all things shots Go products,
keeping track of your data, how it can help you
shoot lower scores. Jen, Welcome to the Playing Around podcast.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Thanks for having been nice to speak with you. So
I'm on.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Page Yeah, so, Jen and I actually played recently at
Liberty National, which was so much fun. And yeah, Jen,
you absolutely crushed the ball, such a great player. But
we were talking about using data to help your game,
and I thought it'd be interesting if you give us
just a little bit of your playing background and how
(19:07):
you use shot scope to get ready for your competitive
rounds of golf.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Now, yeah, so probably similar to both yourselves. I went
to like a golf college but here in Scotland, and
they have a golf program. You're on scholarship. It's a
lot of golf. You do it all day, every day. Yea,
And I was okay. I wasn't great, but I was
all right. And then when I finished that, I wasn't
really sure what direction I wanted to go. And I
(19:33):
didn't want to play professionally. I had no interest in that.
And shots we're looking for a golfer with a marketing degree,
so I kind of fit the bill. That was five
years ago, so been there ever since. And how I
think that's helped my game is like when you're at college,
you play golf all the time. Now I work full time,
(19:53):
so golf is like the breakaway for that. So I
enjoyed playing golf more often and then working alongside the
stats and data. I think just being around that you
become that your mindset changes on things. So I'm a
lot more aggressive. I hit driver everywhere as long as
there's not like a big hazard or anything in a way.
(20:16):
But just being in and around data day and the
day out, I think it gives you a better perspective
on what you should be doing on and off on
the golf course and what you shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Like quality over quantity, Like I you know, we were
talking about this where and you know Sam and I
talk about too that. You know, I think we're in
this mindset of practicing so much like in junior golf
and in college, and we're out there, you know, every
single day for hours and hours and hours, and I
wasn't improving. It's actually getting worse. And now that I
(20:48):
actually have less time, and I'm focusing on the things
that I really need to work on, and you find
that in the data. So you know, I'm a really
shitty long iron player, and I know that because I
look at my stats, and I also see that I
am about iron player because I'm not hitting enough fair ways.
And so you know, for me it's ball striking, and
then for other people at sam Player, all these different things.
(21:10):
And so instead of just grinding it for hours and
hours and hours, like I just focus in now on Okay,
if I have twenty minutes each day to practice, I'm
going to do some my my drills and work on
my long irons. Do you see a big change with
that too, where you actually kind of started to improve
when you were working on things that you actually need
to improve on.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, So for me, the big one short game, I'm terrible.
It's kind of like a running joke at shot Scope
you can only work for them if you suck at chipping.
But fortunately, I think we're all trending upward because we
now know how bad we were at it. So for
me generally strength we're off the tea and iron play.
But my short game let me down, and generally because
(21:51):
I didn't practice it, I got used to hitting quite
a lot of greened when I played, so I didn't
have to rely on getting up and down to score.
When I started working, I practiced less, so then when
I went out and played, I wasn't quite hitting it
as good, so I was missing greened and then you
do become reliant on needing to get up and down.
(22:12):
And I think that side of things. I learned how
to score when you're playing.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Bad, that's a huge one.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Yeah, And being able to get it round. Yeah, And
that's kind of what you said page when we played,
you could shoot a low round and hit hardly any
greens because your short game like safety.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, which is not something that I want to rely
on all the time. But you know, I have this
match against John Daily, and I don't play competitive as much,
and so I've been using the data to help me
practice and prepare. And you play a lot of competitive rounds.
How do you prepare yourself for that? Because I know
a lot of the people who are listening, have you
know member members and member guests and you know, fun
(22:51):
league events, and you know that that can be stressful because,
like you said, like we're all working and we have
all these responsibilities and you can't just go out every
single day, and so how do you use the limit
amount of time you have to prepare yourself for these
big time tournaments.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Yeah, so I think I have a good example of
one that worked really well for me last year. So
obviously I had one hundred and fiftieth Open. It's and Andrews.
As part of that, I looked at the Shotscope database
of users and we had seven thousand rounds played on
the Old Course, and I put together this big ebook
on how to play the Old Course as an amateur
(23:26):
around the Open. And obviously everyone's not going to be
able to do this for their tournament that they go
and play. But in the lead up to the Open,
I actually played a tournament at the Old Course, and
for two months prior to playing that, I've been looking
at stats on where you should go, where you shouldn't go,
where you're more likely to get up and down from
if you do mister Green. So the big example being
(23:48):
on the seventeenth road hole. Everyone thinks that bunker is
like really punishing, but in actual fact, it's better than
being long and on the road. People know how to
play a shot out of bunker, but they don't know
how to play one off the path or stones or
anything like that. So for me, again it's a strange
example because not everyone can do this. But I looked
(24:11):
at the old course every day for about two months
in the lead up to tournament. So when I went
out and played on that course, I felt like I
knew it better than ever. It was like a home
course if you let like I've played it a million times,
I knew knew it like the back of my hand.
And for me, that one worked out really well. It
managed to go on and sneak a little when in that.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
So that's an interesting point that I feel like a
lot of amateurs I love to generalize, So excuse me
for generalizing. A lot of people don't think about where
to miss it. Yeah, right, Like that's something that we
talk page and I talk about a lot, like, Okay,
you can't go along. So if anything, if you're in
between two clubs, hit the shorter one. So how important
is that and how can you like what does it
look like on the shot scope? Data for somebody who
(24:53):
might not know what it looks like when you're seeing
that kind of stuff and learning what to do on
these golf courses.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
So say some they plays the same course all the time.
We do the thing called course analysis. But you can
go and see every shot you've hit and it's plotted
on the map of your course. So you could take
your home club and look at a part three, see
your missus left and right, and there'll be color coded
based on score. So an example for me, the fifth
hole at my club, if I miss it left, I
(25:19):
never make a part. It's always a bowgi or worse,
it's a tricky green with a slope. So part of
that is you can go in and identify that miss.
But then next time I go stand on that tea
I know right, I'll maybe just shift my aim slightly
right so that if I do cook it a bit
or overdraw, it is going to be left side of
the green and not missing left, and I've got a
(25:39):
better chance of scoring slightly better. Kind of tricky. If
you play a different course all the time, you don't
know where you can and can't miss. Another example is
I've just been out in the States and play golf
with four guys who are like really into their stats
and data, and their expectations on chipping are ridiculous. They
all think they should be hitting everything like one foot,
(26:03):
whereas I think our overridingstat is a scratch golfer averages
like seven foot for short game shots. If you lay
that out on a green, that's quite a big circle,
and everyone expects to hit it way closer than that
all the time. So just learning what your averages are
and then picturing that on a golf course and learning
(26:24):
to just be nicer to yourself. Really, you can hit
a shot that's.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Okay, that's a huge thing. That's what I've really learned
through all of the Shotscope data is you think that
the tour pros are hitting seventeen out of eighteen greens
and they're chipping into a foot every single time, And
then you look at the data for like a scratch golfer,
which people would die to get to, and it's not
(26:49):
that scary. When you look at it, you're like, okay,
Like I really don't have to rehaul my entire game
to get to this point. And I do this shot
Scope coaching series where we do breaking one hundred, breaking
ninety breaking, eighty breaking, seventy, and it's just hit one
or two more greens around. And I think when you
see that data and you apply it to your your game,
(27:09):
you're like, Okay, I can do that. It's it's not
as big as It's not this daunting, scary task ahead
of me. It's just a couple things here and there.
And like you were saying, knowing how to play the
golf course, people just think that it's about, you know,
hitting the ball better, but we all have miss hits,
and so it's like where can you miss it? And
I think when we play the same course over and
over and over again, they're like, oh, I just have
(27:30):
that home course advantage because it's like yeah, because you
have that data in your head and shot scope just
helps provide that and so you can actually see it
laid out where it's okay, I know I can't miss here,
I can miss here. This is how I need to
play it. And it's really transformed my game and how
I practice is just using data. Because I was always
a real just field player and I never really kept
(27:51):
my stats, and I wish I did. I wish I
had access to this data when I was playing because
I think I would have approached it way differently than
I do now.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
We used to just keep it on a scorecard, right, like, yeah,
miss it, long, missed it left, Okay, next tomorrow. We
need to play it a little bit shorter, especially in
college rounds page and I talk about what used to
have to keep manual stats all the time, and then
I wouldn't do it, and so then in the hotel
I'd have to go back and be like, Okay, what
did I do on two? And then I'd get pissed,
and it was a whole thing. But you think about it,
and like, we're all above average golfers, right, but if
(28:23):
you think about the weekend golfer. I have heard people
amongst you know, my dad's group or like older people
who play once a week, twice a month maybe, and
they say like, oh, well, I'm not good enough, Like
I don't need to do that because I don't need
to keep my stats because I'm not good enough, or
I don't need I don't know exactly how far I
hit it, but it's whatever, I'm not good enough. How
can this stuff help somebody who isn't necessarily a scratch golfer?
(28:45):
But it could shave a few strokes off you score
by looking at the statu How can that help those people?
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Yeah, so generally we would see meant to high handicaps
or sort of fifteen to twenty handicap, maybe even higher.
And after they've used the like the system like shotscope
for twenty to thirty round, they improve by about four
shots on average. And that's from just understanding what it
is they actually do. It's not biased about their game.
They might think they're a great driver of the ball
(29:13):
and they hit loads of fermiges, but they might not
in general for that sort of level of golfer. The
biggest thing we notice is approach play. Everyone misses the
green shot because they all think they can hit it
further than they actually do. And you see it on
social media. Someone puts out a post how far do
you hit your seven iron? And they all come in
one sixty, one seventy one eighty and you're like, no,
(29:34):
you don't. You maybe hit it that far once, but
on average it's probably more like one forty. And you
need to be able to play to your average because
you're not going to flush it every time, especially at
that level of the game. That's a very general assumption
for the majority of amateur golfers, but that is what
we see learning they're average club distances on the golf course,
(29:55):
not on the range with range balls or anything like that.
How far they're actually hitting it on the course when
they've maybe not got a perfect lie, they've got a
sloped stand or something like that. Once they've learned that,
they can then choose better clubs and hopefully miss short
less often.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
They miss short a ton. I think that was one
of the most interesting stats that most amateur golfers never
miss long, and I think it goes back to what
you're saying is that people think they hit it a
lot farther than they really do because they're on a
flat driving range and you know, they have a perfect
lie every single time. But that's not you know, what
it's like out on golf course. And also it's a
(30:34):
carry distance too, it's not you know, the rollout, and
I think some people get the rollout so that that's
that's fascinating, But the distance about being long. Is there
anything else that can go into that, like why people
always come up short.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
Without sounding horrible, They're not that good. They don't strike
it perfectly all the time. Nobody does. I don't. I
have the club face covered at times, but it's something
they can then work on. I guess with their if
they have a culture. If they do go and just
bash balls on the range, like just work on your
strike and getting a bit more consistent with that, the
bottle then go consistently more the same distance. The one
(31:11):
thing that we don't really do with shot Scope is
the sort of the lesson advice. We just provide the
stats and the data. I don't like writing an article
that then says, oh, you should try to change this
in your swing or poor data and course management, try this,
or change the way you think on the golf course,
rather than how to change your swing. And a lot
can be done without having to change your swing massively.
(31:33):
If you slice the ball, just almost learn to play
with it. Yes, you could maybe reduce it down to
a bit of a fade, but it's just working with
what you've got first, but understanding what your trends are
and how to play to your strengths.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Ultimately, speaking of working with what you have, I feel
like the distance conversation goes to ego a lot with
amateur golfers and weekend golfers. I mean sometimes I'll think
that I can hit a six horn further than I
can and it's like, no, that was just you want
too but you don't. And so we talk about this
a lot. Is watching women's golf can be more of
a relatable distance, you know, viewing opportunity than when you're
(32:10):
watching these PGA Tour guys hit a six iron like
two hundred and twenty yards. So I think it's get
these these amateur golfers realizing that the data is your data, right, Like,
and it doesn't matter what anybody else's r ard it
just looks like or what club they're hitting on the
T box, it doesn't matter. But your ego gets in
the way. Sometimes even when Paige and I play together,
I'm like, oh, you're hitting pitching lunch, all right, I'll
(32:30):
hit pitching lunch and then I like, shank it because
I'm trying to hit it so hard because I can't
hit that puff that far, and like it's just it's
just figuring out and realizing that it's what works for you,
I think is such an important part of what amateur
golfers don't utilize.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Yeah, definitely, And like so for using the data. I
had a big left miss in the last few years
and would be a bit of a snap poock page,
kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
To can't relate, Yeah, noursing that shot before, but you go.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
That I sorted now. So that was my missagies, and
my status would show me that I was missing left
a lot and it was costing me shots. So then
I switched to try and hit a fade so it
predominantly would hit a draw. I tried to hit a
fade and it was just so unnatural for me. It's
a big change in your swing. It's hard with a
driver because it's longer club. So I spent all of
(33:22):
last year trying to hit a fade. I was just
like swiping at it and it was going nowhere. It
was okay, but it wasn't great. And then just this
year I switched back to just going with the draw,
but just commit into it and hidden it out right.
I'm missing left less even though it's still going right
to left. So that's kind of just going with what
you know. Play to my striends, I'm much more comfortable
(33:43):
standing up there, setting up for a draw and just
seeing it turning over right to left, because that's what
I've done for my whole career pretty much. I tried
to change it and I didn't work. Things like that happened.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I've heard so many stories like that, and I think
what Sam said too is so true that what makes
tournament play so hard when or even just you know,
play with your buddies, is you compare yourself to the
other people that you're playing with. And we all have
very different games, and I think sometimes we can get
caught up and you know, like oh, Jen hits more
barroys and greens than I do, and you try to
(34:17):
stress that, you try to work on that, and you're
probably you know, I wish I could hit chipshot like this,
and you know Sam MiGs never misses a fair way,
and you get so caught up in that. But then
when you are reminded, it's like, okay, here is my data,
this is what I do well, this is what someone
else does well. You don't get caught up in what
everyone else is doing because you know your game. And
(34:39):
we always say this like swing your own swing, play
your own game, and that's so important and that's what
the data reminds you of. And also, like you said,
to be nicer to yourself, because sometimes having a seven
foot pot after a chip SHOT's the best that you
can do. And like, that's actually what the average is
if you're a scratch golfer, and that's not bad at all.
(34:59):
But I'm a huge fan of using data, using the
Shotscope products to get better.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
So for the weekend golfer who after listening to this
is obviously going to go purchase the shotscope product to
track their data, where do they start right? Like they play,
they play several rounds and then they're looking at the
data and they're like, I don't even know what this means.
What's a good place for someone to start not knowing,
you know, and not have ever looking at their stats before.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
So the first thing I'd say, when you look at
your stats, go to scoring and click constructs gained. Set
it to against a handicap that you're either at or
one below. So if you're a fifteen handicap, maybe compare
against that or a ten handicap. It will be quite obvious.
You'll have four different bars for areas of the game, tea, shots, approaches,
short game, and put in, and you'll get positive or
(35:45):
negative for each area. The ones that are negative they're
what you need to improve. So if it's T shots
that you're losing two shots on, you can then go
and look at your T shots and see if you're
missing left or right. Is it a two way miss
that's probably the most damaging. In that case, it might
be go and get a lesson someone starting on the
strokes gained overview just for the four areas of your game.
(36:08):
That'll pinpoint which one is your weakness and which ones
are your strength. If you're doing well against that handicap,
just put it down another one until you see something
that is needing to be improved.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Well, that's awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today,
and for anyone wanting to purchase any of these products,
head over to shotscope dot com. They have GPS watches,
range finders, a rangefinder with a GPS device on it.
They have everything that you need and so much more.
So definitely go check that out. Thank you so much
for joining us today, Jen.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Thank you thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Follow playing Around with Paige Renee on iHeartRadio or subscribe
wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Do you want to improve your game faster and hit
your driver longer? The good news is Shotscope can help
you achieve your goals. Shotscope has products for every golfer,
such as GPS, watches, laser rangefinders, and shot tracking devices
designed to lower scores and improve your golf by over
four shots on average. I use the pro x Plus
(37:13):
rangefinder on the course to get my distances. What I
love most about shot Scope is tracking my game and
reviewing my stats. The great news is your personalized stats
are completely free with no yearly subscription. If I can
use it, anyone can jump over to shotscope dot com
today and find the perfect product for you. And remember
to use my code page at checkout.
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