January 29, 2025 • 32 mins
Claude welcomes elite instructor Justin Parsons to discuss Harris English's recent win at the Farmer's Insurance Open, the balance between technique and playing the game, and a few up-and-coming players that Justin instructs.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's the Son of a which podcast. I'm your host,
claud de Marmon my guests. This week, Justin Parsons teaches
out at Sea Island, Georgia. We have him on the
pod before. I mean, I'm biased, but I think he's
one of the best instructors in the game. And his student,
Harris English, gets his fifth win at the Farmers JP.
Always good when players get wins early on in the season.
(00:23):
But when I was looking at and doing some research
on this and I was watching on Sunday, I was
watching at a friend's house and he was like, man,
why is the Harris English win more? And I was like,
he wins today, it's this fifth win. So I think
when Harris does win and he gets in the hunt
and we watch him on TV and we watch him
firing on all cylinders JP. I mean, he's so much
fun to watch and he's such a complete player, and
(00:46):
when he does win, you watch his game and you're like, dude,
discussion win a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, his ability to get locked down and focus
is probably his greatest strength. His competitiveness, and you know,
all the way through his career he's been a great
competitor and extremely hard worker, which you know, I know
you would appreciate he uh, you know, he beats me
into the golf school and and uh in Sea Island
an awful lot. He's there, he does, he's in the
gym and he's doing his work.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I think as he's matured as a player, he's searched
for the fields of comfort and confidence through preparation and structure.
And that's almost got him away from some of the
natural kind of flamboyance, that ability just to be to
be a competitor and lock in and get focused. It
(01:34):
almost takes his brain like a little bit more like
left sided, Like let's get all of the analytical side done,
let's swing the golf club really well, let's do all
my drills, you know, so really from Palm Springs and
moving forward. I was trying to remind him that I
want to see harrising this the golfer. I'm not really
as concerned with watching your golf swing. I want to see,
you know, how you're behaving as a golfer, how you're walking,
(01:55):
how you how your focus is, how your.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Energy levels are.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And you know, he responds, he's a great lad to coach.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He responds, really really well.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He really really listens, and as you and I know,
that can be both a blessing and a curse because
if they really really listened to better tell them the
right stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You posted something on your Instagram and it was an
interview that Harris did post round on Saturday where he
talked about he was trying to not fall into the
trap JP, and it's something that you and I talk about,
you know, privately, it's something we talk about to our students,
But it's very easy as a competitive professional golfer to
get caught into the trap of what your technique looks like,
(02:35):
what your golf swing looks like, what the numbers look like,
what it looks like on video. But as I tell
players all the time, and you know this as well,
everybody in the game is trying to make their golf
swing better. Nellie Corda and Lydia Co on the women's side,
Scotti Scheffler, Rory mcaway on the men's slide. All four
of those players, or the best in the game are
(02:57):
trying to improve their technique, so that never changes. And
I thought it was interesting that Harris City's trying to
get back to maybe getting away from technique, technique, technique
the way it looks the numbers and kind of get
back into heating shots and playing the game. How do
you feel like that balance happens for players and what
(03:20):
do you feel like has helped Harris kind of get
back into that play mode as opposed to technique because
Jpe we talk a lot, you send me swings, We
talk about our players that we work with, and Harris
can go down the technique work rabbit hole, right. Harris
is a worker. He believes that the secret is in
the dirt, but sometimes you can try and make it
(03:43):
so perfect. And that's what he said, We're all trying
to make it perfect.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, are you know? On our responsibility is as coaches.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You know we've also you and I have also talked
about the fact that you know you've got to You
got some guys who are just swing coaches, and they're
just there to do a job as a as a
as a swing coach, which is basically like a Formula
one technician in the pit lane, and they're not there
to help the driver navigate the turns. They're just there
to make sure the cars going as fast and as
efficiently as possible. In our sort of role. You've got
(04:12):
to be a little bit of both. And I think that,
you know, a couple of things on that. I think
with young players that I work with now, I try
and help educate them that they've got to be able
to flick between the responsibility of swinging the golf club
properly and swinging the golf club efficiently and managing their tendencies,
and they've got to then flick back into I need
to be a competitor. I need to be able to
go and play. I need to be able to leave
(04:33):
all of that behind. And I would say that the
ability to flick between those two, you know, whether we
think of those twos as left brain, right brain, or
whether they.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Think of those two as two different mentalities. The ability
to do that quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think sometimes to me separate some of the best
players in the world from some of the excellent PGA
Tour players. I mean, I've certainly had a lot of
golfers that I've worked for who struggle.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
With that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I remember listening to Tiger Woods talking about the
fact that he can go from really breaking down his
technique and thinking very technically to you know, hitting his
windows and just being creative and being able to play.
And I think what Harris is an example of someone
who you know, is he's you know, he's a dad.
Now he's in his you know, he's in the he's
at the certainly the beginning of the second half of
(05:17):
his career, he's beginning to recognize that I need to
be somebody to win golf tournaments, and I also need
to be somebody else to be able to be efficient
enough to put myself in position that when I flick
that switch, I can go and win golf tournaments. And that's, uh,
you know, that's certainly a big responsibility of ours. And
I know you and I we try and we try
and break that puzzle all the time, and half the
time we were left wondering why it was so difficult
(05:39):
when they win, and how we're ever going to get them.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Back to that place when they're they're not hitting it
so good.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Harris is the type of player JP that has won
at every level of his golfing career. Like he's just
one of those guys. He's played the Walker Cup, you know,
he was a standout at Georgia. He was an accomplished
and then he's you know, an accomplished career on the
PGA Tour, turned pro in twenty twelve. It's made over
(06:06):
thirty million dollars. He's been on a Ryder Cup team.
Put that balance, JP, Why do you think that golfers
in general, but also at the elite level, JP, why
do you think sometimes players get out of the playing
of the game part of it and just get into
the technical part of it. You know, We've got a kid,
(06:28):
Nico Daris, who works with us a lot on performance stuff,
and Niko, he's been on the party, doesn't come from
the golf background, and he said, I find it fascinating
the way people practice golf. It says, if you're trying
to play in the NBA and the only thing you
do is practice free throws, that's it. And you play
the game and you evaluate what you did in the game,
(06:50):
and you look at the game, and then you just
go straight back to the free throw line and just
work on your shot and your technique. And there is
so much more to come peeting and playing. But the
trap of just technique, I mean, are we part of
the problem is instructors? You know, because I mean it's
it's fashionable to have people like us on your team
(07:12):
and stuff. But the balance of the playing of the
game and the technique of it. Why do you think
you can go down the rabbit hole and think, Okay,
the only way I can get better is just to
make my golfing matter.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
From a from a perspective of just the common sense
of it. I think it's probably laziness and lifestyle that
takes them in the direction that they go in. You know,
I always look at the college systems in the States,
and when I talk to Harris and Brian about being
in Georgia, they were they were either qualifying, or they
were competing, or they were doing the gauntlet short.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Game drills, or they we haven't putting competitions.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
And then when they move away from that, they get
out on their own and all of a sudden, they're
you know, on a range, they're beaten balls. They're not
playing golf with their buddies as much. They're not as
competitive because they're not surrounded by as many people. And
as they reach kind of like adulthood, they start thinking, well,
if I make this golf swing better, then I'm going
to be better.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And I try and remind them all the time.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
That you know, I need a blend of the way
that you were behaving as kids and the way that
you're behaving as adults, because undoubtedly, if if the if
the movement is incorrect and the shot patterns are terrible,
you can have the most competitive, wonderful mindset and you
can still go out and shoot seventy five. So again,
you know, our job is to ensure that they recognize
(08:27):
that if they're in a training, if they're in a
in a place where they're training their training, if they're
in a place where they're preparing, they're preparing, and whenever
they're they're able to perform, we should have we should
have prepared them for that. I agree that you know,
and I've tried to certainly try and make sure that
I'm not the problem. But you know, to your point,
sometimes when they're locked into that mentality of well, I
(08:48):
need to swing it better, and my teachers here.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Behind me, he needs to help me swing it better,
we can feed that.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
We can feed that addiction, and some players are are
locked into that addiction so much so that they find
it very difficult to ever move into into that sort
of more play mode. And you know, your father and
you have told me great techniques to help move from
from one of those modes to the other. And I
think you know, any of the teachers you know watching
these types of podcasts need to recognize that, you know,
(09:16):
that's a big part of what we're doing all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I worked with a kid the other day that Jean
Paul Abert, who's now the head coach at UNLV. He
was a longtime assistant at the University of Texas for
John Fields. He saw all their great players, his father
won the PGA. But this player came in. JP's a junior.
I mean, typical prototype college player that you see all
(09:38):
the time now, six one to six, three tons of speed,
hits at miles and really, like a lot of players
we see, JP somewhat lost. And he said that when
he played high school golf, he didn't think of anything right,
He just played. He just played the game. Didn't really
(09:59):
have a lot of tech thoughts, didn't really have a
lot of golf swing thoughts. But he said when he
got to college, everybody's got a launch monitor, everybody's working
on their drills, everybody's working on their swing. And he
said he went down this trap of thinking, Okay, I
need to constantly get golf balls on launch monitors. I
need to constantly work on that technique and the balance
(10:20):
for everyone listening, specifically JP, for the competitive golfers listening,
how do they navigate that execution technique? How much time
do you think they should be devoting to technique and
how much time should they be devoting to execution.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think it's definitely going to be different from player
to player. I mean, again, if somebody's if somebody's not
moving well and not putting the golf club on the ball, well,
say they're a midam and they're they're not fine in
the fair way and they're going to try go try
and play in the US midimal, Well they've got to
They've got to fix up. So again, it's like we
always say, it's individual, it's individual to individual, and I'm
(10:59):
certainly they're some people who respond just find it being
on the range a lot. You know, we've seen Bja
Sing over the years standing beating golf balls in the range.
We've seen Sergio Garcia who never hardly hit a shot
even in a warm up, and Colin Montgomery who hit
I think he hit thirteen shots or something in his
warm ups. So you know again, I think everyone has
to be treated individually. I do believe though, if you're
(11:21):
going down that rabbit hole of technique and you're starting
to think about a lot of things in the golf course,
then I think you've got to get back to, you know,
hitting some shot shapes, doing some of your nine ball
drills like you and I have talked about going I
play golf with a half set, play from different tees,
you know, get creative. I mean, I try and also
remind people that as we go through life. I remember
meeting this rather eccentric old South African psychologist when it
(11:45):
was working on the European tour, and I think he'd
written a book called the Nine Stages of Life, and
it was like, every five years, how your mentality shifts
a little bit. So undoubtedly, when you're fifteen to twenty,
you know you haven't kind of reached full adulthood. Certainly
the guys havn't reached full adulthood. We're still in that
playful kind of creative stage. We don't remember the bad things,
(12:06):
we remember all the good things. From twenty to twenty five,
that shifts a little bit from twenty five to thirty,
that definitely shifts and by the time you get to
our stage you realize that, you know, there's an awful
lot of water under the bridge. So I mean educating
the players you know in that regard, And that's again
one of the other reasons why you have to treat
these people so so much as individuals. I mean, Harris
English is an adult. He recognizes that if he sucks
(12:28):
the golf club inside and closes the face on the
way back and hits pools, he has to fix that.
But at the same time he also now is really
starting to recognize that, well, I can't have to fix
that on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Because I certainly can't be thinking about that an awful
lot on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
When you look at Harry's golf swing, JP, what is
the DNA of what he does that makes him a
great player, that makes him a great ball striker. Because listen,
we used to go up when DJ was playing on
the PJ Tour. We play a lot of practice rounds
with him. I mean they were boys kind of in
that kind of same kind of age demographic, Southern boys
(13:05):
and stuff like that. So we would play a lot
of golf with Harrison. And when you watch him hit
golf balls. I mean, I mean, like I said in
the opening, it's impressive. So what is his DNA? What
does he do when he plays well like last week
and wins, and then what are the traps that he
gets into that calls him to not play his best golf?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know, I think he was I think he was
coached really well.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
And you know, Jan Reeves is one of the guys
that works at Sea Island with me. Is Keith Mitchell's coach,
and Chan's that I become a great friend of mine,
like yourself, and we talk about the golf swing a lot.
On Chan came up looking at Davis Love's golf swing,
and Harris idolized Davis Love, who incident at least recovering
really well from from a little surgery he's just had,
so we all wish him well. I think that Harris's
(13:54):
golf swing reverberates around width and balance and rhythm, and
I think we probably lump you and your dad and
stuff into that would all recognize those as wonderful traits
with great players having great rhythm, having great balance, having
great width. I think that potentially his overall education about
staying wide was one of the things that we've certainly
(14:16):
talked about a little bit. You know, he didn't quite
understand when the arms would sort of fold and when
the golf club would sort of fold and allow the
golf club to stay in front of his body as
opposed to him kind of sucking it a little bit
too far behind him. And I think that that has
found him out. I think that some of the physical
limitations that he's had. We know that he had the
(14:37):
Valentine's Day twenty twenty two, he had that fairly significant
surgery on his right hip, and he's always had a
very limited amount of internal rotation as right hip. I
remember you talking to me about Graham McDowell, I think
who you worked for for many years in European tour
and a similar sort of thing. So I think within
those physical limitations, especially on that trail side, we run
into some some situations where the backswing can get a
(15:01):
little bit less efficient, he can get into some reverse patterns,
which is you know, I'm happy to say, is an
awful lot better now. So, like you know, we talk
about a lot, the DNA tends to come from the
physicality of the player coupled with the influences the early
coaching sort of styles, and that brings great strengths and
some weaknesses that we have to keep tidy.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
And I mean, we look at DJ's.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Golf swing that I kind of marvel at and we
can see that there are some things that he does
so so well and there's a couple of little things
that he needs to clear up.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And Harris is no different.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
When Harris plays his best like last week, JK, what
shape is he trying to hit?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
He loves his stock shot to be a fade, a.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Little bit of just kind of a bleeder to where
And that's interesting, jar Man, I think, tell this story.
You caddied for Harry earlier this year on the bag.
I've always I've done that, you know, a couple of
times and plast I'm years ago for the first ta
A Scott Cup. I caddy for Trevor Immomant for eighteen holes.
Is fascinating and carry the bag and be on the
(16:01):
bag in a competitive environment to see the way these
guys think, what was that like when you caddy form out.
I was in Napa, right, it.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Was in Napa.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He was, yeah, he was in in We were just
trying to figure a few things out. He'd been working
so hard and preparing well and looking great in this
preparation he we went out to NAPA. We I would
say that from my side, it helped me understand just
the sort of the energy that he brings to different shots,
certainly the potential to potentially over complicate some shots that
(16:33):
I think he needs to He needs to still kind
of frame and keep simple. I think when when some
people are put in uncomfortable positions, sometimes they get a
little bit more complex about the solutions as opposed to
just trying to keep it very simple. And we messed
up up a couple of you know, kind of complicated shots.
One shot off an uphill lie to a green that
sits from back to front, and he's got one thirty
(16:55):
eight and it's a you know, it's just a little
cam pitching wedge and even if he pulls it into
the middle of the green, it's not it's not one
of those shots even with a wedge, you're not going
to hit it very close. But he just, you know,
he kind of got muddled up with it and he
tried it a low cut off and upslope, and you know,
we so we we've talked about that so it was
a great way for me to see how he you know,
how he navigates those difficult situations.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Interesting player.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You know, when when you give him a number and
he needs to stretch an iron shot a little bit,
he's so so good at that. You know, he'd give
him a front left flag at you know, one one
eighty two and he hits his you know, he say,
he hits his eight iron one seventy one and it's
three or four downhill, He'll stretch it a little bit
and get a little bit more out of it, and
it's it's interesting that and it also helped me to
(17:38):
understand how naturally he doesn't kind of like taking distance off.
He'd rather stretch a club three four yards than then
start to sort of take four or five yards off
a club. So you know, getting into like, well, exactly
how should he prepare, Like if he's got an uncomfortable
situation with a you know, with a with a wedge shot,
for example, he's probably better off hitting a harder shot,
(18:00):
even if it spins to the front edge. Then you know,
then sometimes trying to do a little bit too much
for it. So really understanding the DNA of the players,
it helps us a great deal. It's something I'd be
very open to. However, my record of miss cut silver
mid cups on the PGA Tour anyway would possibly suggest
they shouldn't hire me as a county.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The eight felt anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
I coundied for Steve Elkington the week in New Orleans
and when I'm still in college, the week before he
won the his first Players Championship, we got paired with
Scott Hoak and chip Beck. Scott Hoak lifted out a
fifty footer on the first hole and threw the putter
and was complaining and complained for the entire eighteen holes.
(18:41):
And on Friday chip Beck missed the four footer to
make the cut and said to us, Caddy, you just
got to love having a chance to make the cut
out here. So that was the gauntlet of Scott hawk
mentality and chip Beck mentality. JP. Let's talk about the buttter.
I mean sometimes you'll pick up Harris English pudder and
the grip. There are putters at top golf that have
(19:05):
better grips than than the putter he's it's a putter
he's had. Did I see that since twenty and twelve?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I mean there's been a few picked up on eBay.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know, he's got a he's find a way that
he's find a way to grab a few more of them.
But yet this he calls it, it's the ping ho hum.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It's it's kind of there was a there was one
one after.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It looks like a kind of like a motorcyclist, you know,
the back of it. And it's just something I think
he's he's just got so used to. Yeah, he's not
a player that likes to change in awful lot of things.
He still plays with the titles PROB one, seventeen ball.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He's you know, he's been a he's been a ping
guy all his life.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
He he doesn't he doesn't like an awful lot of flux.
You you almost need. You know, I took his three
wood out of his bag a month or two ago,
and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking this thing
is about I mean, this thing's old and it's about
to go. And you know, he really, you know, he
needs time to get into things. And uh, you know,
I think that some somewhat of a great strength. You know,
you and I have been great friends with Darren Clark
(20:03):
over the years, and Clarky told me a story. At
one time he won the English Open and during the
tournament he played with three sets of irons.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
For Clarky and about nine thousand swing pots and oh yeah,
and he drove four different cars to the tournament. JP,
how much do you think Sea Island helps these guys?
I mean, Brian Harmon, you you live and work at
Sea Island. There is a crew of players there. A
lot of these guys grew up together. A lot of
(20:31):
these guys played college golf together. A lot of you
guys went you know, cashmeer Key, you know, Harry, Brian
Harmon all went to Georgia. That fraternity of players at
Sea Island. What do you think helps them about that?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I think there's a number of things. I think the
island is still very it's still a very comfortable place.
It's it's a place where those guys can go and
they can, you know, they can spend some time out doors,
they can spend some time on the water, they can
go to the local restaurants. People are kind of just
used to it all, so it's a very kind of
chilled out atmosphere. I think when they get on the
island they really feel like they can kind of decompress
(21:09):
an awful lot. There's not an awful lot of golf
feed type pressure on them. When you combine that with
the the you know, the facilities and the golf courses
that we have at Sea Island, with the Seaside Golf Course,
which is tends to be windy, has a lawful lot
of different little nuanced golf shots. The Plantation Course would
really good for wedge play and work, the Retreat Court
(21:29):
course across the street which is a really nice parkland
course where it's a little bit less played. We go
over there and spend a lot of time doing a
lot of our prep work. Ocean Forest which is a
fantastic golf courses hosted the Walker Cup recently been redone
and it's just an unbelievable condition. And the Performance Center
linking in with that, where we can you know, we
can put them on gears, we can get them on
(21:50):
swing cat we need to.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We've got the studios.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
We've got an unbelievable putting studio there in a gym,
you know, and they've got we've got a staff of
people like me who who have different levels of experience
and different levels of training to help these guys so
from a golf perspective, it's like when they drive on
the island, they can decompress and then when they decide that, yeah,
I want to go and get a session with Rondy Myers,
(22:13):
with Tom Hemmings and get my get my my fitness
stuff back up and run and they drive a mile
and a half and they can do that. And then
you know, I'm a I'm around most of the time
when i'm you know, when I'm home, and they can they.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Can jump in a quick session with me. So it's
a I think it's a it's.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
A relaxed performance atmosphere, maybe a little bit, probably quite
unique in the United States, and I think a lot
of those guys do benefit from it.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Obviously, with the success you've had with the players you
work with a major champion now and Brian Harmon, you're
working and you're being sought after JP by a lot
of young players. But these two just high speed South
Africans that you're working with whose names you can probably
pronounce better than I can.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'll do the best.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I mean, these boys look like they can hit it.
And your boy had a chance to win on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, Aldrich Potchkiter, who is a you know, he's an
unbelievable young man. I'll try and get this right. They
moved down to Australia when he was a teenager. He
was playing yeah, and he he did a little bit
of wrestling and within like eight or twelve months he
was on the Australian national wrestling team. He's an incredible
(23:27):
strong fellow with a really strong bass and very very
gifted player.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
You know, I'll be ben in your ear a few times.
He reminds me a little bit of DJ. Very very
strong grip, strong club face all the way through.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
He is that kind of that that pivot that you know,
kind of beats the face all the time, likes to
fade it hits it about three point fifty in the air.
He's twenty years old and you know he recently a
chance to win down in Sun City. He played really
really good in Australia. I'm trying to help he and
his family navigate the toil of this travel that you know,
(24:01):
people are kind of think that they're getting used to.
It's it's a brutal type of thing to try and
be coming up and done from South Africa. Crystal Lamprecht again,
a player with a great pedigree, both amateur champions who
played in the Masters and played in that and and
major championships, and.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He went to Georgia Tech and very very unique golf swing.
I got to watch him a couple of years ago
warming up at the Open Championship and it was two
years ago, and he played really really well on the
first day, and then when the conditions got you know,
a little bit dicey. I was just like, you know,
(24:39):
when you watch the move that he's got JP, when
you're looking at these guys, now, I mean these they're
high speed guys, right, I mean there aren't There aren't
ten people in the game that hit it the way
these guys do speed wise. But as you know, speed
is great, but speed can also really really it hurts you,
(25:01):
and it's navigating with so much speed. How to actually
harness that and play the game?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah, I mean Aldric, you know, give you a couple
of examples within that. You know, Aldric's ability to hit
any sort of soft web shot with the amount of
lean and the amount of the strong strength of his
grip and things like that is challenging for him. So
we've given him some ways to navigate that. And then
whenever I speak to his caddy and nice Australian lad rants,
you know he works in meters. I say, well, how
(25:29):
far is he had an eight iron? He goes, oh,
like one hundred and seventy meters, that's one hundred and
eighty seven yards. Well, how far is he had a
seven iron? He it's like one one eighty nine meters
like two's So I say, well, like, what do you
guys do from like one ninety five? Like so all
of a sudden, you've got a twenty yard gap between clubs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
So with the speed that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
They have, they've also got to recognize that they have
to hit their numbers, especially you know, at the level
of golf that we're talking about now on the PGA
Tour and major championships, et cetera. Like you you can't
really be five and six yards off an awful lot,
you know, Christo's movement, with the amount of vertical that
he's that he's had, I see that as something that
(26:08):
we've softened a lot through improving his posture. I wanted
to look at that from a perspective of making his
driving more consistent and taking some pressure off his lower
back and particularly his left knee, and I think that
although he hasn't he hasn't complained about those things, but
I would imagine that were he to continue to swing
it the way he did when you watched him in Liverpool,
(26:29):
he probably would have would have struggled a little bit
with with some things there. So I'm you know, I
take that responsibility very seriously. It's a long path. We've
got short, medium and long term things that we're trying
to do. I'm delighted with Aldrich's progress. Christo had a
chance to win down in the Bahamas, and you know
those two guys, I have to keep reminding myself and
(26:49):
you'll keep remind me too, that when they're as good
as they are, they need to be winning golf tournaments
and putting themselves in positions. So doing what they did
the last couple of weeks should be what they're what
they're about.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Lastly, JP, I had him on the podcast right at
the end of last year. Ray Han Thomas, our boy
from Dubai making his way in professional golf now got
off to a really good start, top tended in the Bahamas.
To see JP, we do this, We get a lot
of accolades for some of the superstars we get to
(27:21):
work with, but you and I have a soft spot
for Ray. He was starting in our junior program when
he was nine years old. I mean, it's just so
damn cool to see all the stuff. I mean, you
and I don't work with him anymore. He's been doing
great work with Dana Dlquiz, But Ray's part of the family.
It's just so cool to watch him play.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
And now I think the lovely the lovely thing about
Ray is I think he will always be part of
the family. Every time, yeah, every time he makes a verdie,
I get three or four texts from Dubai with people
his dad and Nick, Tara and all those sorts of guys.
And you know, I texted with him. Shooting sixty five
in the last day there and the Bahamas to finish
fourth was was fantastic. Dana and I have talked a lot. He's,
(27:59):
you know, one of the best guys out here, and
I'm just so I'm thrilled that Ray has found his feet,
you know, after a really tough time really for two
or three years, it could have gone a different direction
for him. But as you and I saw with him.
Load of the ground you used to call him. You know,
he turned up and he just he kept playing, He
kept working, and he kept working, and he would, you know,
(28:20):
he would. He would always exhibit the greatest attitude and
the greatest ability to be a wonderful human being when
when things were going well and when things were going badly.
And I think, I like you love the fact that
he's part of the family, and I'm just delighted to
see him playing good Because I got to.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Be honest with you those first two years at Oklahoma State.
If you would have told me after the start that
he had that OSU and the struggles that he had
the driver of City got JP. If you told me
he was finishing top five on a corn ferry event
after graduating in twenty twenty five, I got to be
(29:00):
honest with you. I would go, Wow, that's a big turnaround,
because he was lost, Like he got to college and
was a deer in the headlights and the way that
he has and in talking to him, and when he
was on the pod, he was doing all the right
stuff that you were trying to do to get better.
(29:21):
He was going, Okay, I'm going to practice more. I'm
going to spend more time on the range. I'm going
to spend more time on that technique. And he went
down that rabbit hole JP of in an effort to
try and get better. He got worse. And I think
it is a testament to him as a person as
much as it is to him as a player that
(29:42):
he fought through that and he has found his own
way to get to where he is today.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yeah, and maybe that's one of the things that he
had to do. He had to find his own way,
and that's you know, that's part of the journey that
they have and part of what he's done I think
has been so impressive is that whilst he's he's looked
in different cobby holes for different information. Everybody who's who's
worked with him, from Danny Lucas to yourself to Dana,
we all share an affinity for him, and we all,
(30:10):
you know, we all believe in him, and we all
know that this is the start of it and an
interesting journey.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
We've got to remember when he was sixteen years old
at the Dubai Creek Tournament, he made ten verdies in
a row. I think it was it, shot sixty two
in a professional event. So the pedigree was always there
with Ray and to be able to maintain that attitude
and be able to maintain that positivity when things, frankly
were going sideways, and for him to come out the
other side, I think he's going to find a great
deal of strength in that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
There's there's a there's a strength in that that could
lead him to great things in the future.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I couldn't agree more Rider Cup for Harry. I mean,
that's got to be the goal this year, right, keep
playing good and get some get it, get in this
contention in some of these majors, and and have a
good chance to be on that writer. I mean, I
know that there are a lot of guys on the
team that would like him on that team.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, I think I think that'd be a great goal
for him. You know, it was it was lovely to
sit down yesterday though he came down with this stomach
fluid that's been going around the West coast, so we
didn't see him yesterday, but to sit down and go
through his schedule and start to plan the way that
that would look. You know, he's got the opportunity to
go back to Tory Pines in two weeks and playing
the Genesis, which is going to be pretty cool for him.
(31:19):
As we've talked about, he loves difficult golf courses. With
being in all of the majors, now I kind of automatically,
so we'll, you know, we'll keep chipping away. I think
it's it's a great way to start the season based
on that ability for him to go all right, I
did all this good training work through December and into January.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I flicked the switch with my mentality and saw how
that was.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I was able to transition that into into winning a
golf tournament. If he can continue that type of that
blend of those two mentalities, then.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Who knows what he could do.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Well, you're doing a great job. Keep keep getting the better,
and we will catch up soon. Thanks to Age Justin
Parson on The Son of a Book's podcast rate Review.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We will see you
next week.
It's the Son of a which podcast. I'm your host,
claud de Marmon my guests. This week, Justin Parsons teaches
out at Sea Island, Georgia. We have him on the
pod before. I mean, I'm biased, but I think he's
one of the best instructors in the game. And his student,
Harris English, gets his fifth win at the Farmers JP.
Always good when players get wins early on in the season.
(00:23):
But when I was looking at and doing some research
on this and I was watching on Sunday, I was
watching at a friend's house and he was like, man,
why is the Harris English win more? And I was like,
he wins today, it's this fifth win. So I think
when Harris does win and he gets in the hunt
and we watch him on TV and we watch him
firing on all cylinders JP. I mean, he's so much
fun to watch and he's such a complete player, and
(00:46):
when he does win, you watch his game and you're like, dude,
discussion win a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, his ability to get locked down and focus
is probably his greatest strength. His competitiveness, and you know,
all the way through his career he's been a great
competitor and extremely hard worker, which you know, I know
you would appreciate he uh, you know, he beats me
into the golf school and and uh in Sea Island
an awful lot. He's there, he does, he's in the
gym and he's doing his work.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I think as he's matured as a player, he's searched
for the fields of comfort and confidence through preparation and structure.
And that's almost got him away from some of the
natural kind of flamboyance, that ability just to be to
be a competitor and lock in and get focused. It
(01:34):
almost takes his brain like a little bit more like
left sided, Like let's get all of the analytical side done,
let's swing the golf club really well, let's do all
my drills, you know, so really from Palm Springs and
moving forward. I was trying to remind him that I
want to see harrising this the golfer. I'm not really
as concerned with watching your golf swing. I want to see,
you know, how you're behaving as a golfer, how you're walking,
(01:55):
how you how your focus is, how your.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Energy levels are.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And you know, he responds, he's a great lad to coach.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He responds, really really well.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
He really really listens, and as you and I know,
that can be both a blessing and a curse because
if they really really listened to better tell them the
right stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You posted something on your Instagram and it was an
interview that Harris did post round on Saturday where he
talked about he was trying to not fall into the
trap JP, and it's something that you and I talk about,
you know, privately, it's something we talk about to our students,
But it's very easy as a competitive professional golfer to
get caught into the trap of what your technique looks like,
(02:35):
what your golf swing looks like, what the numbers look like,
what it looks like on video. But as I tell
players all the time, and you know this as well,
everybody in the game is trying to make their golf
swing better. Nellie Corda and Lydia Co on the women's side,
Scotti Scheffler, Rory mcaway on the men's slide. All four
of those players, or the best in the game are
(02:57):
trying to improve their technique, so that never changes. And
I thought it was interesting that Harris City's trying to
get back to maybe getting away from technique, technique, technique
the way it looks the numbers and kind of get
back into heating shots and playing the game. How do
you feel like that balance happens for players and what
(03:20):
do you feel like has helped Harris kind of get
back into that play mode as opposed to technique because
Jpe we talk a lot, you send me swings, We
talk about our players that we work with, and Harris
can go down the technique work rabbit hole, right. Harris
is a worker. He believes that the secret is in
the dirt, but sometimes you can try and make it
(03:43):
so perfect. And that's what he said, We're all trying
to make it perfect.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, are you know? On our responsibility is as coaches.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You know we've also you and I have also talked
about the fact that you know you've got to You
got some guys who are just swing coaches, and they're
just there to do a job as a as a
as a swing coach, which is basically like a Formula
one technician in the pit lane, and they're not there
to help the driver navigate the turns. They're just there
to make sure the cars going as fast and as
efficiently as possible. In our sort of role. You've got
(04:12):
to be a little bit of both. And I think that,
you know, a couple of things on that. I think
with young players that I work with now, I try
and help educate them that they've got to be able
to flick between the responsibility of swinging the golf club
properly and swinging the golf club efficiently and managing their tendencies,
and they've got to then flick back into I need
to be a competitor. I need to be able to
go and play. I need to be able to leave
(04:33):
all of that behind. And I would say that the
ability to flick between those two, you know, whether we
think of those twos as left brain, right brain, or
whether they.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Think of those two as two different mentalities. The ability
to do that quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I think sometimes to me separate some of the best
players in the world from some of the excellent PGA
Tour players. I mean, I've certainly had a lot of
golfers that I've worked for who struggle.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
With that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And I remember listening to Tiger Woods talking about the
fact that he can go from really breaking down his
technique and thinking very technically to you know, hitting his
windows and just being creative and being able to play.
And I think what Harris is an example of someone
who you know, is he's you know, he's a dad.
Now he's in his you know, he's in the he's
at the certainly the beginning of the second half of
(05:17):
his career, he's beginning to recognize that I need to
be somebody to win golf tournaments, and I also need
to be somebody else to be able to be efficient
enough to put myself in position that when I flick
that switch, I can go and win golf tournaments. And that's, uh,
you know, that's certainly a big responsibility of ours. And
I know you and I we try and we try
and break that puzzle all the time, and half the
time we were left wondering why it was so difficult
(05:39):
when they win, and how we're ever going to get them.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Back to that place when they're they're not hitting it
so good.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Harris is the type of player JP that has won
at every level of his golfing career. Like he's just
one of those guys. He's played the Walker Cup, you know,
he was a standout at Georgia. He was an accomplished
and then he's you know, an accomplished career on the
PGA Tour, turned pro in twenty twelve. It's made over
(06:06):
thirty million dollars. He's been on a Ryder Cup team.
Put that balance, JP, Why do you think that golfers
in general, but also at the elite level, JP, why
do you think sometimes players get out of the playing
of the game part of it and just get into
the technical part of it. You know, We've got a kid,
(06:28):
Nico Daris, who works with us a lot on performance stuff,
and Niko, he's been on the party, doesn't come from
the golf background, and he said, I find it fascinating
the way people practice golf. It says, if you're trying
to play in the NBA and the only thing you
do is practice free throws, that's it. And you play
the game and you evaluate what you did in the game,
(06:50):
and you look at the game, and then you just
go straight back to the free throw line and just
work on your shot and your technique. And there is
so much more to come peeting and playing. But the
trap of just technique, I mean, are we part of
the problem is instructors? You know, because I mean it's
it's fashionable to have people like us on your team
(07:12):
and stuff. But the balance of the playing of the
game and the technique of it. Why do you think
you can go down the rabbit hole and think, Okay,
the only way I can get better is just to
make my golfing matter.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
From a from a perspective of just the common sense
of it. I think it's probably laziness and lifestyle that
takes them in the direction that they go in. You know,
I always look at the college systems in the States,
and when I talk to Harris and Brian about being
in Georgia, they were they were either qualifying, or they
were competing, or they were doing the gauntlet short.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Game drills, or they we haven't putting competitions.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
And then when they move away from that, they get
out on their own and all of a sudden, they're
you know, on a range, they're beaten balls. They're not
playing golf with their buddies as much. They're not as
competitive because they're not surrounded by as many people. And
as they reach kind of like adulthood, they start thinking, well,
if I make this golf swing better, then I'm going
to be better.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And I try and remind them all the time.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
That you know, I need a blend of the way
that you were behaving as kids and the way that
you're behaving as adults, because undoubtedly, if if the if
the movement is incorrect and the shot patterns are terrible,
you can have the most competitive, wonderful mindset and you
can still go out and shoot seventy five. So again,
you know, our job is to ensure that they recognize
(08:27):
that if they're in a training, if they're in a
in a place where they're training their training, if they're
in a place where they're preparing, they're preparing, and whenever
they're they're able to perform, we should have we should
have prepared them for that. I agree that you know,
and I've tried to certainly try and make sure that
I'm not the problem. But you know, to your point,
sometimes when they're locked into that mentality of well, I
(08:48):
need to swing it better, and my teachers here.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Behind me, he needs to help me swing it better,
we can feed that.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
We can feed that addiction, and some players are are
locked into that addiction so much so that they find
it very difficult to ever move into into that sort
of more play mode. And you know, your father and
you have told me great techniques to help move from
from one of those modes to the other. And I
think you know, any of the teachers you know watching
these types of podcasts need to recognize that, you know,
(09:16):
that's a big part of what we're doing all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I worked with a kid the other day that Jean
Paul Abert, who's now the head coach at UNLV. He
was a longtime assistant at the University of Texas for
John Fields. He saw all their great players, his father
won the PGA. But this player came in. JP's a junior.
I mean, typical prototype college player that you see all
(09:38):
the time now, six one to six, three tons of speed,
hits at miles and really, like a lot of players
we see, JP somewhat lost. And he said that when
he played high school golf, he didn't think of anything right,
He just played. He just played the game. Didn't really
(09:59):
have a lot of tech thoughts, didn't really have a
lot of golf swing thoughts. But he said when he
got to college, everybody's got a launch monitor, everybody's working
on their drills, everybody's working on their swing. And he
said he went down this trap of thinking, Okay, I
need to constantly get golf balls on launch monitors. I
need to constantly work on that technique and the balance
(10:20):
for everyone listening, specifically JP, for the competitive golfers listening,
how do they navigate that execution technique? How much time
do you think they should be devoting to technique and
how much time should they be devoting to execution.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think it's definitely going to be different from player
to player. I mean, again, if somebody's if somebody's not
moving well and not putting the golf club on the ball, well,
say they're a midam and they're they're not fine in
the fair way and they're going to try go try
and play in the US midimal, Well they've got to
They've got to fix up. So again, it's like we
always say, it's individual, it's individual to individual, and I'm
(10:59):
certainly they're some people who respond just find it being
on the range a lot. You know, we've seen Bja
Sing over the years standing beating golf balls in the range.
We've seen Sergio Garcia who never hardly hit a shot
even in a warm up, and Colin Montgomery who hit
I think he hit thirteen shots or something in his
warm ups. So you know again, I think everyone has
to be treated individually. I do believe though, if you're
(11:21):
going down that rabbit hole of technique and you're starting
to think about a lot of things in the golf course,
then I think you've got to get back to, you know,
hitting some shot shapes, doing some of your nine ball
drills like you and I have talked about going I
play golf with a half set, play from different tees,
you know, get creative. I mean, I try and also
remind people that as we go through life. I remember
meeting this rather eccentric old South African psychologist when it
(11:45):
was working on the European tour, and I think he'd
written a book called the Nine Stages of Life, and
it was like, every five years, how your mentality shifts
a little bit. So undoubtedly, when you're fifteen to twenty,
you know you haven't kind of reached full adulthood. Certainly
the guys havn't reached full adulthood. We're still in that
playful kind of creative stage. We don't remember the bad things,
(12:06):
we remember all the good things. From twenty to twenty five,
that shifts a little bit from twenty five to thirty,
that definitely shifts and by the time you get to
our stage you realize that, you know, there's an awful
lot of water under the bridge. So I mean educating
the players you know in that regard, And that's again
one of the other reasons why you have to treat
these people so so much as individuals. I mean, Harris
English is an adult. He recognizes that if he sucks
(12:28):
the golf club inside and closes the face on the
way back and hits pools, he has to fix that.
But at the same time he also now is really
starting to recognize that, well, I can't have to fix
that on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Because I certainly can't be thinking about that an awful
lot on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
When you look at Harry's golf swing, JP, what is
the DNA of what he does that makes him a
great player, that makes him a great ball striker. Because listen,
we used to go up when DJ was playing on
the PJ Tour. We play a lot of practice rounds
with him. I mean they were boys kind of in
that kind of same kind of age demographic, Southern boys
(13:05):
and stuff like that. So we would play a lot
of golf with Harrison. And when you watch him hit
golf balls. I mean, I mean, like I said in
the opening, it's impressive. So what is his DNA? What
does he do when he plays well like last week
and wins, and then what are the traps that he
gets into that calls him to not play his best golf?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know, I think he was I think he was
coached really well.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
And you know, Jan Reeves is one of the guys
that works at Sea Island with me. Is Keith Mitchell's coach,
and Chan's that I become a great friend of mine,
like yourself, and we talk about the golf swing a lot.
On Chan came up looking at Davis Love's golf swing,
and Harris idolized Davis Love, who incident at least recovering
really well from from a little surgery he's just had,
so we all wish him well. I think that Harris's
(13:54):
golf swing reverberates around width and balance and rhythm, and
I think we probably lump you and your dad and
stuff into that would all recognize those as wonderful traits
with great players having great rhythm, having great balance, having
great width. I think that potentially his overall education about
staying wide was one of the things that we've certainly
(14:16):
talked about a little bit. You know, he didn't quite
understand when the arms would sort of fold and when
the golf club would sort of fold and allow the
golf club to stay in front of his body as
opposed to him kind of sucking it a little bit
too far behind him. And I think that that has
found him out. I think that some of the physical
limitations that he's had. We know that he had the
(14:37):
Valentine's Day twenty twenty two, he had that fairly significant
surgery on his right hip, and he's always had a
very limited amount of internal rotation as right hip. I
remember you talking to me about Graham McDowell, I think
who you worked for for many years in European tour
and a similar sort of thing. So I think within
those physical limitations, especially on that trail side, we run
into some some situations where the backswing can get a
(15:01):
little bit less efficient, he can get into some reverse patterns,
which is you know, I'm happy to say, is an
awful lot better now. So, like you know, we talk
about a lot, the DNA tends to come from the
physicality of the player coupled with the influences the early
coaching sort of styles, and that brings great strengths and
some weaknesses that we have to keep tidy.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
And I mean, we look at DJ's.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Golf swing that I kind of marvel at and we
can see that there are some things that he does
so so well and there's a couple of little things
that he needs to clear up.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And Harris is no different.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
When Harris plays his best like last week, JK, what
shape is he trying to hit?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
He loves his stock shot to be a fade, a.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Little bit of just kind of a bleeder to where
And that's interesting, jar Man, I think, tell this story.
You caddied for Harry earlier this year on the bag.
I've always I've done that, you know, a couple of
times and plast I'm years ago for the first ta
A Scott Cup. I caddy for Trevor Immomant for eighteen holes.
Is fascinating and carry the bag and be on the
(16:01):
bag in a competitive environment to see the way these
guys think, what was that like when you caddy form out.
I was in Napa, right, it.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Was in Napa.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
He was, yeah, he was in in We were just
trying to figure a few things out. He'd been working
so hard and preparing well and looking great in this
preparation he we went out to NAPA. We I would
say that from my side, it helped me understand just
the sort of the energy that he brings to different shots,
certainly the potential to potentially over complicate some shots that
(16:33):
I think he needs to He needs to still kind
of frame and keep simple. I think when when some
people are put in uncomfortable positions, sometimes they get a
little bit more complex about the solutions as opposed to
just trying to keep it very simple. And we messed
up up a couple of you know, kind of complicated shots.
One shot off an uphill lie to a green that
sits from back to front, and he's got one thirty
(16:55):
eight and it's a you know, it's just a little
cam pitching wedge and even if he pulls it into
the middle of the green, it's not it's not one
of those shots even with a wedge, you're not going
to hit it very close. But he just, you know,
he kind of got muddled up with it and he
tried it a low cut off and upslope, and you know,
we so we we've talked about that so it was
a great way for me to see how he you know,
how he navigates those difficult situations.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Interesting player.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You know, when when you give him a number and
he needs to stretch an iron shot a little bit,
he's so so good at that. You know, he'd give
him a front left flag at you know, one one
eighty two and he hits his you know, he say,
he hits his eight iron one seventy one and it's
three or four downhill, He'll stretch it a little bit
and get a little bit more out of it, and
it's it's interesting that and it also helped me to
(17:38):
understand how naturally he doesn't kind of like taking distance off.
He'd rather stretch a club three four yards than then
start to sort of take four or five yards off
a club. So you know, getting into like, well, exactly
how should he prepare, Like if he's got an uncomfortable
situation with a you know, with a with a wedge shot,
for example, he's probably better off hitting a harder shot,
(18:00):
even if it spins to the front edge. Then you know,
then sometimes trying to do a little bit too much
for it. So really understanding the DNA of the players,
it helps us a great deal. It's something I'd be
very open to. However, my record of miss cut silver
mid cups on the PGA Tour anyway would possibly suggest
they shouldn't hire me as a county.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The eight felt anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
I coundied for Steve Elkington the week in New Orleans
and when I'm still in college, the week before he
won the his first Players Championship, we got paired with
Scott Hoak and chip Beck. Scott Hoak lifted out a
fifty footer on the first hole and threw the putter
and was complaining and complained for the entire eighteen holes.
(18:41):
And on Friday chip Beck missed the four footer to
make the cut and said to us, Caddy, you just
got to love having a chance to make the cut
out here. So that was the gauntlet of Scott hawk
mentality and chip Beck mentality. JP. Let's talk about the buttter.
I mean sometimes you'll pick up Harris English pudder and
the grip. There are putters at top golf that have
(19:05):
better grips than than the putter he's it's a putter
he's had. Did I see that since twenty and twelve?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I mean there's been a few picked up on eBay.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know, he's got a he's find a way that
he's find a way to grab a few more of them.
But yet this he calls it, it's the ping ho hum.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It's it's kind of there was a there was one
one after.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It looks like a kind of like a motorcyclist, you know,
the back of it. And it's just something I think
he's he's just got so used to. Yeah, he's not
a player that likes to change in awful lot of things.
He still plays with the titles PROB one, seventeen ball.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He's you know, he's been a he's been a ping
guy all his life.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
He he doesn't he doesn't like an awful lot of flux.
You you almost need. You know, I took his three
wood out of his bag a month or two ago,
and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking this thing
is about I mean, this thing's old and it's about
to go. And you know, he really, you know, he
needs time to get into things. And uh, you know,
I think that some somewhat of a great strength. You know,
you and I have been great friends with Darren Clark
(20:03):
over the years, and Clarky told me a story. At
one time he won the English Open and during the
tournament he played with three sets of irons.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
For Clarky and about nine thousand swing pots and oh yeah,
and he drove four different cars to the tournament. JP,
how much do you think Sea Island helps these guys?
I mean, Brian Harmon, you you live and work at
Sea Island. There is a crew of players there. A
lot of these guys grew up together. A lot of
(20:31):
these guys played college golf together. A lot of you
guys went you know, cashmeer Key, you know, Harry, Brian
Harmon all went to Georgia. That fraternity of players at
Sea Island. What do you think helps them about that?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I think there's a number of things. I think the
island is still very it's still a very comfortable place.
It's it's a place where those guys can go and
they can, you know, they can spend some time out doors,
they can spend some time on the water, they can
go to the local restaurants. People are kind of just
used to it all, so it's a very kind of
chilled out atmosphere. I think when they get on the
island they really feel like they can kind of decompress
(21:09):
an awful lot. There's not an awful lot of golf
feed type pressure on them. When you combine that with
the the you know, the facilities and the golf courses
that we have at Sea Island, with the Seaside Golf Course,
which is tends to be windy, has a lawful lot
of different little nuanced golf shots. The Plantation Course would
really good for wedge play and work, the Retreat Court
(21:29):
course across the street which is a really nice parkland
course where it's a little bit less played. We go
over there and spend a lot of time doing a
lot of our prep work. Ocean Forest which is a
fantastic golf courses hosted the Walker Cup recently been redone
and it's just an unbelievable condition. And the Performance Center
linking in with that, where we can you know, we
can put them on gears, we can get them on
(21:50):
swing cat we need to.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We've got the studios.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
We've got an unbelievable putting studio there in a gym,
you know, and they've got we've got a staff of
people like me who who have different levels of experience
and different levels of training to help these guys so
from a golf perspective, it's like when they drive on
the island, they can decompress and then when they decide that, yeah,
I want to go and get a session with Rondy Myers,
(22:13):
with Tom Hemmings and get my get my my fitness
stuff back up and run and they drive a mile
and a half and they can do that. And then
you know, I'm a I'm around most of the time
when i'm you know, when I'm home, and they can they.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Can jump in a quick session with me. So it's
a I think it's a it's.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
A relaxed performance atmosphere, maybe a little bit, probably quite
unique in the United States, and I think a lot
of those guys do benefit from it.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Obviously, with the success you've had with the players you
work with a major champion now and Brian Harmon, you're
working and you're being sought after JP by a lot
of young players. But these two just high speed South
Africans that you're working with whose names you can probably
pronounce better than I can.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'll do the best.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I mean, these boys look like they can hit it.
And your boy had a chance to win on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, Aldrich Potchkiter, who is a you know, he's an
unbelievable young man. I'll try and get this right. They
moved down to Australia when he was a teenager. He
was playing yeah, and he he did a little bit
of wrestling and within like eight or twelve months he
was on the Australian national wrestling team. He's an incredible
(23:27):
strong fellow with a really strong bass and very very
gifted player.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
You know, I'll be ben in your ear a few times.
He reminds me a little bit of DJ. Very very
strong grip, strong club face all the way through.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
He is that kind of that that pivot that you know,
kind of beats the face all the time, likes to
fade it hits it about three point fifty in the air.
He's twenty years old and you know he recently a
chance to win down in Sun City. He played really
really good in Australia. I'm trying to help he and
his family navigate the toil of this travel that you know,
(24:01):
people are kind of think that they're getting used to.
It's it's a brutal type of thing to try and
be coming up and done from South Africa. Crystal Lamprecht again,
a player with a great pedigree, both amateur champions who
played in the Masters and played in that and and
major championships, and.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He went to Georgia Tech and very very unique golf swing.
I got to watch him a couple of years ago
warming up at the Open Championship and it was two
years ago, and he played really really well on the
first day, and then when the conditions got you know,
a little bit dicey. I was just like, you know,
(24:39):
when you watch the move that he's got JP, when
you're looking at these guys, now, I mean these they're
high speed guys, right, I mean there aren't There aren't
ten people in the game that hit it the way
these guys do speed wise. But as you know, speed
is great, but speed can also really really it hurts you,
(25:01):
and it's navigating with so much speed. How to actually
harness that and play the game?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah, I mean Aldric, you know, give you a couple
of examples within that. You know, Aldric's ability to hit
any sort of soft web shot with the amount of
lean and the amount of the strong strength of his
grip and things like that is challenging for him. So
we've given him some ways to navigate that. And then
whenever I speak to his caddy and nice Australian lad rants,
you know he works in meters. I say, well, how
(25:29):
far is he had an eight iron? He goes, oh,
like one hundred and seventy meters, that's one hundred and
eighty seven yards. Well, how far is he had a
seven iron? He it's like one one eighty nine meters
like two's So I say, well, like, what do you
guys do from like one ninety five? Like so all
of a sudden, you've got a twenty yard gap between clubs.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
So with the speed that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
They have, they've also got to recognize that they have
to hit their numbers, especially you know, at the level
of golf that we're talking about now on the PGA
Tour and major championships, et cetera. Like you you can't
really be five and six yards off an awful lot,
you know, Christo's movement, with the amount of vertical that
he's that he's had, I see that as something that
(26:08):
we've softened a lot through improving his posture. I wanted
to look at that from a perspective of making his
driving more consistent and taking some pressure off his lower
back and particularly his left knee, and I think that
although he hasn't he hasn't complained about those things, but
I would imagine that were he to continue to swing
it the way he did when you watched him in Liverpool,
(26:29):
he probably would have would have struggled a little bit
with with some things there. So I'm you know, I
take that responsibility very seriously. It's a long path. We've
got short, medium and long term things that we're trying
to do. I'm delighted with Aldrich's progress. Christo had a
chance to win down in the Bahamas, and you know
those two guys, I have to keep reminding myself and
(26:49):
you'll keep remind me too, that when they're as good
as they are, they need to be winning golf tournaments
and putting themselves in positions. So doing what they did
the last couple of weeks should be what they're what
they're about.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Lastly, JP, I had him on the podcast right at
the end of last year. Ray Han Thomas, our boy
from Dubai making his way in professional golf now got
off to a really good start, top tended in the Bahamas.
To see JP, we do this, We get a lot
of accolades for some of the superstars we get to
(27:21):
work with, but you and I have a soft spot
for Ray. He was starting in our junior program when
he was nine years old. I mean, it's just so
damn cool to see all the stuff. I mean, you
and I don't work with him anymore. He's been doing
great work with Dana Dlquiz, But Ray's part of the family.
It's just so cool to watch him play.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
And now I think the lovely the lovely thing about
Ray is I think he will always be part of
the family. Every time, yeah, every time he makes a verdie,
I get three or four texts from Dubai with people
his dad and Nick, Tara and all those sorts of guys.
And you know, I texted with him. Shooting sixty five
in the last day there and the Bahamas to finish
fourth was was fantastic. Dana and I have talked a lot. He's,
(27:59):
you know, one of the best guys out here, and
I'm just so I'm thrilled that Ray has found his feet,
you know, after a really tough time really for two
or three years, it could have gone a different direction
for him. But as you and I saw with him.
Load of the ground you used to call him. You know,
he turned up and he just he kept playing, He
kept working, and he kept working, and he would, you know,
(28:20):
he would. He would always exhibit the greatest attitude and
the greatest ability to be a wonderful human being when
when things were going well and when things were going badly.
And I think, I like you love the fact that
he's part of the family, and I'm just delighted to
see him playing good Because I got to.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Be honest with you those first two years at Oklahoma State.
If you would have told me after the start that
he had that OSU and the struggles that he had
the driver of City got JP. If you told me
he was finishing top five on a corn ferry event
after graduating in twenty twenty five, I got to be
(29:00):
honest with you. I would go, Wow, that's a big turnaround,
because he was lost, Like he got to college and
was a deer in the headlights and the way that
he has and in talking to him, and when he
was on the pod, he was doing all the right
stuff that you were trying to do to get better.
(29:21):
He was going, Okay, I'm going to practice more. I'm
going to spend more time on the range. I'm going
to spend more time on that technique. And he went
down that rabbit hole JP of in an effort to
try and get better. He got worse. And I think
it is a testament to him as a person as
much as it is to him as a player that
(29:42):
he fought through that and he has found his own
way to get to where he is today.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yeah, and maybe that's one of the things that he
had to do. He had to find his own way,
and that's you know, that's part of the journey that
they have and part of what he's done I think
has been so impressive is that whilst he's he's looked
in different cobby holes for different information. Everybody who's who's
worked with him, from Danny Lucas to yourself to Dana,
we all share an affinity for him, and we all,
(30:10):
you know, we all believe in him, and we all
know that this is the start of it and an
interesting journey.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
We've got to remember when he was sixteen years old
at the Dubai Creek Tournament, he made ten verdies in
a row. I think it was it, shot sixty two
in a professional event. So the pedigree was always there
with Ray and to be able to maintain that attitude
and be able to maintain that positivity when things, frankly
were going sideways, and for him to come out the
other side, I think he's going to find a great
deal of strength in that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
There's there's a there's a strength in that that could
lead him to great things in the future.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I couldn't agree more Rider Cup for Harry. I mean,
that's got to be the goal this year, right, keep
playing good and get some get it, get in this
contention in some of these majors, and and have a
good chance to be on that writer. I mean, I
know that there are a lot of guys on the
team that would like him on that team.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Yeah, I think I think that'd be a great goal
for him. You know, it was it was lovely to
sit down yesterday though he came down with this stomach
fluid that's been going around the West coast, so we
didn't see him yesterday, but to sit down and go
through his schedule and start to plan the way that
that would look. You know, he's got the opportunity to
go back to Tory Pines in two weeks and playing
the Genesis, which is going to be pretty cool for him.
(31:19):
As we've talked about, he loves difficult golf courses. With
being in all of the majors, now I kind of automatically,
so we'll, you know, we'll keep chipping away. I think
it's it's a great way to start the season based
on that ability for him to go all right, I
did all this good training work through December and into January.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I flicked the switch with my mentality and saw how
that was.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I was able to transition that into into winning a
golf tournament. If he can continue that type of that
blend of those two mentalities, then.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Who knows what he could do.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Well, you're doing a great job. Keep keep getting the better,
and we will catch up soon. Thanks to Age Justin
Parson on The Son of a Book's podcast rate Review.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We will see you
next week.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.