October 29, 2024 • 25 mins
Claude walks through his checklist that he applies to students and clients of all levels during a lesson.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Son of a Bitch podcast. I'm your host,
Claude harmon a solo episode of the pod this week,
and I thought i'd kind of go over some stuff.
I just I'm actually in Dubai at my academy, which
is always fun. It's over here the other night, but
I spoke at the Titleist Performance Institute World Golf Fitness
(00:24):
Summit on Friday, kind of did a presentation, but wanted
to go through one of the things that I talked about,
which was kind of my checklist when I'm giving golf
lessons right what I'm looking for and how I look
at golf swings, and I think by doing this, I
think it can help you think about your own golf
(00:46):
swing and your own golf game. So the first thing
I do when a player comes in and I watch
a player hit at golf balls, I always think, what
is that player's DNA or their kind of swing signature.
And I think, player, regardless of your handicap, you will
have something that is kind of your DNA, kind of
(01:07):
the way that you swing the golf club. And I
think a lot of times this is why players struggle
over years of and they tend to struggle when they don't,
when they don't get regular golf lessons and they're not
working on something, they're just trying a bunch of stuff,
but they don't really fundamentally understand kind of what it
(01:29):
is that they do. So when I look at a
golf swing and I look at a player, I'll always
ask a couple of things. But one of the things
I'll ask is tell me what you're trying to do
in the golf swing, and tell me why you're trying
to do this in the golf swing. And that sounds
and should be a pretty simple question and should be
(01:52):
a pretty simple answer. But I think a lot of
players they don't really know what they're trying to do.
They struggle with the concept of what they're trying to do.
But also, and I've talked about this on the pod before,
they don't understand what their body can do as well.
So when I look at a player, I'm trying to
figure out, Okay, what does that player do naturally. And
(02:15):
one of the things that my dad talked a lot
about when I was a young instructor, he said, listen,
I don't ever want to take away what a player
does naturally. And I think a lot of times for
the instructors out there listening. You can have a model
in your head maybe right, I'm not a huge fan
of that, but you can have a model in your
(02:35):
head about how you want everyone to swing the golf club.
The only problem with that is you might be taking
away what a player does naturally, and what they do
naturally could be a huge part of what makes them
who they are. So I'm always looking at a player.
Does a player have a tremendous amount of speed? Does
(02:57):
a player not have a lot of so I kind
of work. I'll give you an example. So there's two
players I work with who have a tremendous amount of speed.
Brooks and DJ on the men's side have a tremendous
amount of speed. I work with a player on the
LPGA Tour named Marina Alex. She played on the Solheim Cup.
She's a multiple winner on the LPGA Tour. Marina doesn't
(03:18):
have a lot of speed, right, Marina's back is a
little bit compromised. She's had some back issues. So there
are a lot of things that Marina does naturally that
you know, physically I can't change, even though I might
not like them. It's just she does certain things in
the golf swing. Her body has some limitations, so there
(03:40):
are some things that she does that are just part
of her golf swing and if I try and change those.
I mean, obviously everybody is trying to hit the golf
ball further, but on the LPGA Tour, distance is a
it's a differentiator. So the obvious thing in watching Marina
hit GoF balls is to say, Okay, she needs hit
(04:01):
the golf ball further. So there are loads of different things, now,
speed sticks, stacked, all of these different things that we
could do to try and help Marina hit the golf
ball further. We do all those things, her back's gonna
go down, it's gonna crash. So I have to take
a look at what she does physically. I have to
take a look at what she does naturally. Dustin Johnson's
another great example. The position he gets into at the
(04:25):
top of his backswing with that flat left wrist. That
is what he does naturally that he doesn't know why
he does that. He's never been taught to do that,
that's just what he does in the golf swing. So
years ago, probably I don't know, fifteen twenty years ago,
when my dad started working with DJ. Phil Michelson said, Hey,
I play a lot of golf with DJ. Has been
(04:46):
my partner in the money game. I want you to
take a look at him. My dad was working with Phil,
and I think everybody looked at DJ's golf swing when
he turned pro, looked at that position at the top
of the back swing. Nobody was really playing from that position.
Maybe back in the day Paul Aigsner from there, but
certainly nobody with a tremendous amount of speed. So I
think in looking at his goal swing, my dad looked
(05:09):
at that left risk position and was like, listen, that's
what DJ does. Naturally. I'm not training him to do that.
I'm not teaching him to do that. That's what he does.
It's a risk position in twenty twenty four that I
think a lot of people are trying to get into it.
It's Brooks is a little bit on the shut side.
DJ is a little bit on the shut side. We
(05:29):
are seeing more players play from that position. But that's
what DJ does naturally. No one's teaching him to do that.
The other thing I'm always looking at with a player
is I'm asking as say, Okay, what does this player
need do they need speed, do they need accuracy? Do
(05:50):
they need consistency? There will be something that the player needs,
so I'm always saying, Okay, do they need to hit it?
So again, using Marine Alex is an example, and I've
had her on the pod as well. Marina needs speed.
The problem is we have to work around that given
what her body can do physically. So I'm always trying
(06:12):
to balance that between what a player wants to do
versus what a player does and what a player can do.
Sometimes I think players just it's a concept issue. They
don't know they're supposed to be doing this. They don't
know they're not supposed to be doing this. So that's
why that first question, Hey, tell me what you do
(06:33):
in the golf swing, what you're trying to do in
the golf swing. Sometimes they'll just be a concept problem. Listen,
you don't know you're not supposed to do that, or
you don't know you're supposed to do this. Sometimes it'll
be a body issue. So the physical screen, getting screen
to understand what your body can and can't do naturally,
I think is huge. I'm always asking myself how much
(06:55):
is too much? Meaning I think it's important as an
instructure to understand the type of learner a person is,
and I learn a lot by asking questions about, Hey,
what do you do for a living? Listen, if you
work with somebody that says, oh, I'm an engineer, you
can probably give them a bunch of data and it's
not going to confuse them because that's the world they
(07:17):
live in. But if somebody doesn't have a brain like that,
and you overload them with tons of launch monitor data
or a bunch of information and a bunch of numbers,
and they don't learn like that. I've worked with two
players that are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so
Trevor Immerman. When I worked with Trevor in the early
two thousands, I couldn't give Trevor enough information, right, That's
(07:42):
the way his brain worked. He wanted as much information
as possible. DJ wants things to be pretty simple. His
brain just isn't wired like that, is not wired to
get a bunch of information. He wants things to be simple. Trevor,
on the other hand, wanted I wouldn't say Trevor wanted
(08:04):
things to be complicated in the years that I worked
with him, but Trevor wanted more information. I mean you
could give I mean information for Trevor was crack for
the crack addict. Just give me more, more, more, more more.
And I don't necessarily think at times that was the
best thing for him and his career. If I tried
(08:25):
to overload DJ with a bunch of information and a
bunch of numbers and data and stuff like that, It's
just not the way his brain works. So with regards
to the player, I'm always asking myself, Okay, how much
is too much? How much is too little. The other
thing I'm really trying to do when I look at
golf swings is as an instructor. If I'm working with
(08:49):
the player, I want to try and help them build
the golf swing that is going to hold up under pressure.
For the tour players that I'm incredibly lucky enough to
work with, that is the back nine on Sunday right,
that is coming down the stretch in a major, that
is trying to win a tournament on a tour somewhere
(09:09):
in the world. For the majority of you listening to
this podcast, pressure is trying to break one hundred for
the first time, trying to break ninety for the first time,
trying to break eighty for the first time, trying to
win the club championship, the city amateur. So pressure comes
and is different for everybody, but pressure's pressure, right. So
(09:31):
when I look at golf swings, I'm always thinking, Okay,
what am I doing to help this person while they're
on the golf course. I'm not thinking about how to
make their golf swing look good on the driving range, right,
I'm not thinking about a model in my head that
I have a specific swing model that I am going
(09:52):
to try and get everybody into. So for the instructors
out there, but also for everyone else listening that's playing.
If you aren't working on things in your golf swing
that are going to help you score and perform better
on the golf course, you're wasting your time. The reason
(10:15):
I say that is I think a lot of people
are trying to have their golf swing look better. Right.
I worked with Graham McDowell when he just turned pro,
probably Gosh two thousand and three, two thousand and four
won the Italian Open. But I worked with Graham in
two stints. I worked with them for a while and
(10:35):
then he moved on to another instructure, and I think
like five six he came back to me and said, hey,
I want to try and work with you again and stuff.
And I've got some video somewhere that I'm still trying
to find. I've got pictures of Graham McDowell looking like
Tiger in two thousand, right knee flexed, club online at
the top, club face dead, neutral, left wrist in a
(10:56):
perfect position. Looking at it on TV, the video looked
like Tiger Woods in two thousand. The only problem was
from that position Gmac could not get the club onto
the ball, couldn't make contact. Looked great on film, looked
great on video. Positions were perfect, just couldn't hit the
(11:17):
golf ball from there. So, when you're looking at your
golf swing, aesthetics or function, I am far more interested
in function than I am in aesthetics. Esthetics are the
way a golf swing looks and the style of a
golf swing. But golf is not figure skating, right, Golf
(11:38):
is not gymnastics. There's not judges saying, oh, yeah, he's
got the best looking golf swing. If that was the case.
Adam Scott, Nellie Corda, Tommy Fleetwood, the people that have
beautifully fundamentally sound golf swings that look really, really good,
they'd win all the time, but they don't. Across the gamut,
(12:00):
there's golf swings that are very, very different that are
winning golf tournaments. There's not one specific way to swing
the golf club. If you look at the Hall of Fame,
and you go to the World Golf Hall of Fame
and you go and look at all the people that
have been inducted, is there anybody out there listening that's
a golf instructor that has a junior golfer, female junior
(12:21):
golfer fifteen sixteen, Is anybody trying to teach her to
swing the golf club like on Akasians damp the greatest
golf female golfer of all time, one of the greatest
golfers of all time. No one's trying to do that, right,
No one's trying to teach any I don't see anybody
coming in. I don't see anything on social media where
people are trying to have everybody swing like on a
(12:42):
Coasorians dam right. I don't see anybody teaching putting like
Jack Nicholas putted, one of the greatest putters of all time.
Jack's one of the greatest putters of all time. Jack's
one of the greatest pressure putters of all time. But
nobody is trying to emulate that, right, but under pressure
Jack made every put So my point behind that is
(13:04):
your golf swing has to be functional. Yeah, it'd be
great if your golf swing looked good, but some of
my favorite golf swings don't necessarily look that great, but
they are one hundred functional. Great example would be Bubba Watson.
Anybody trying to swing the golf club like Bubba Watson.
Anybody trying to swing the golf club and shape it
(13:26):
and curve it like Bubba Watson. Nope, guys won two Masters,
Guy's got two Green jackets, been on Ryder Cups, He's
been on President's Cups, a hell of a player, has
had a hell of a career. But again, no one's
trying to swing like that. No one's trying to actively
work on the things that Bubba Watson does. But under
Pressure won two majors, one two Masters. So if you're
(13:51):
taking lessons, if you're working on your own game, you
have to think of it like this, what am I
working on in Will it help me score on the
golf course? Not will it make my golf swing look better?
On video will make it look better on the range
because none of that matters for the instructors out there.
(14:13):
Build a team, right, Build a team around you. Find
a physio, chiropractor, medical in your area. Right, So if
you have players, I think the guy Greg and Dave
Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, both who've been on the pod,
and you can go check them out the work that
they've done at the Titleist Performance Institute. They were big
(14:35):
on that, right, Create a team. So I'm currently at
my academy in Dubai. I have seven full time instructors
here and we have two full time fitness guys. Right,
that's mandatory for us. At my academy, at my dad's
academy in Florida, at the Floridian where I work, we
have instructors and then we have a fitness guy. Just
open up an academy out in Bangkok. We're in the
(14:57):
process of hiring. So we're building a team of people
around us. You want to work. If I'm taking lessons,
I want to find an instructor that if there's something
wrong with my body, he's got somebody that he can
send me to. If I'm doing something in my golf swing,
if I'm in pain hitting golf balls. He's got somebody
(15:18):
that I can go to. So I think building a
team as an instructor, building a core group of people
around you hugely important. I'm always trying to build a
strength with players, right. I think in order to be
(15:40):
a good golfer, you've got to have a strength, right.
I always say that at the elite tour level. Right.
If you look at the best players in the world,
they all have a strength, right, and their calling card
is that strength. Brad faxon great putter, Patrick Reid, Sevy,
bi Astero's unbelievable short game, Rory DJ Brooks. The strength
(16:05):
is speed the driver, Luke Donald unbelievable wedge player. Right.
So when you're looking at your own game, think about
do you have a strength? Right? And I listen, when
we're looking at strengths with players, I really don't care
what that strength is. Are you a good green reader
(16:26):
that could be a strength. Are you a good win
player that could be a strength, Or you a good
bunker player that could be your strength? Right? And then
you look at that strength and you try and ride that.
So let's say you're a really good wedge player, right,
You're gonna want to try and lay up to where
you lay up to your strength. Right. If you're a
(16:48):
great putter, you're gonna try and hit more greens so
you can take advantage of your putting. Right. If you're
not a great putter, if your short game isn't great, right,
then you've got to try and hit more greens. Right.
So I also when players come in and take a
golf lesson for the first time, I try and find
something in their golf swing that's a strength. Hey you've
(17:08):
got a great grip, that's the strength of yours. Hey,
you've got a great setup. You've got great posture, you've
got great tempo, you've got great rhythm. I don't care
what it is. It's easy for me in a golf
lesson to look at a twenty five handicapper and tell
them all the things are doing wrong, right. I want
to find some things. Hey, listen, I really like a
lot of these things in your golf swing. We just
(17:30):
need to clean up a couple of other things. But
you do a lot of really good things in the
golf swing. And when I say that to a fifteen
twenty handicapper, hey, I think you do some really nice
things good things in the golf swing. They're like, well,
why am I twenty five handicap? Why am I still
at fifteen? Right? Then I can say, well, these are
(17:50):
the problems, but you do this really really well, so
make sure you keep doing that really really well. Another
thing that I look at when I look at players,
and it's something that I've talked about before on the pod,
but I will continue to talk about it because I
think it's hugely important. Start line where the golf ball
is starting. When I'm looking at a player, I am
(18:12):
evaluating how good a player they are on their ability
to start the golf ball in the direction it needs
to start for the shape they're telling me they're trying
to hit. So if a player is trying to hit draws,
and we give them a target and say, all right,
you know, take a seven iron out. You know it's
one hundred and fifty yards one hundred and forty yards
hundred However, are you hit a seven iron? Right? What
(18:35):
shape you hit? And I do this before I tell
them anything, right, I do this at the beginning of
a golf lesson. Watch a player hit some balls. I'll
have them watched some you know, once they get warmed up. Hey,
hit me some seven irons. Tell me what you're trying
to do. What kind of shape you are you trying
to play? What kind of shape do you like to play?
Where's the miss what's the contact like on the golf course? Hey,
you know, I really like to try and draw the
(18:55):
golf ball. All right? Cool? Okay, So there's the target
flag and then we're gonna give you ten balls. And
the only thing I'm going to ask you to do
in these ten balls is can you start all ten
of them to the right? If you're a fader of
the golf ball, Hey, you like to hit fades? All right,
We're gonna pick out a target, give you seven iron,
give you eight iron, whatever the club, and say, all right,
just hit me ten balls. And the only task here
is all ten of them start. If you're trying to
(19:16):
fade it, all ten of them start left of the
target right. So I'm as much interested in that as
to how their golf swing looks right and how they're
I want to know, can you just concept wise what
would you need to do? I take a lot of
video and I'll show a player. Okay, let's say you're
trying to draw the golf ball and the club's working
(19:39):
very much on the outside on the takeaway. And then
we go to try and have you hit more of
a draw and feel like the club works maybe a
little bit more on the inside so that it can
work a little bit more into out on the downswing.
And what I'll do is say, all right, this is
the first swing you were making with the club you
know is working way outside, and now this is you
(20:00):
trying to hit a draw the club going back. So
I'll put the two pictures on the screen and say,
all right, if you didn't know this was you, tell
me which one hits fades and which ones hit draws. Right,
you should kind of be able to look at a
swing and say, yeah, I mean, it would look to
me like that swing would produce fade. It would look
to me like that swing would produce a draw. And
(20:21):
again that goes back into one of the things I
talked about at the beginning, which is concept Right, if
you're trying to draw the golf ball by take if
you're trying to fade the golf ball by massively taking
the golf club inside, right, you're going to have to
do more than likely what Hail Irwin did take it inside,
come over the top and hit a fade that way?
(20:42):
So I think also this always leads me in a
golf lesson to talk about intent. What is your intent?
What is your intention? What are you trying to do?
I think intent is really really important to me. The
intent is for regular handicapped golfers, non elite tour players.
(21:04):
I think intention is something that is missing. I think
you've got to ask yourself, Okay, what are you trying
to do with your golf swing? What are you trying
to do with this shot? Right? What is your intention?
I think that is incredibly powerful, I really do. And
I think start line ken. If you're a right hand
(21:26):
if you're right handed, you're trying to hit a draw
a ball, damn well needs to start right of your target.
If it starts at your target and curves, you're you're
gonna miss greens right, You're gonna be in trouble. You're
gonna have to have a hell of a short game.
So whatever shot you're trying to hit, if you're trying
to fade it, just stand up and say listen. If
you want to fade the golf ball, pick your target
(21:47):
flag out and say all right, I'm gonna hit ten balls,
and the only thing I'm going to do so if
I can start all ten of them left of my target.
If I'm trying to draw the golf ball, I'm just
gonna try and see if i can start all my
golf balls. Where the ball starts for me, is as important,
if not more important, than when the ball where the
ball finishes. But I think I've said this before. I
think everybody is hyper focused and just obsessed with the
(22:11):
curvature of the golf ball and where the golf ball
is ending up. For me, where the golf ball starts
is as important, if not more important, than when where
the ball ends up. And then the last team I'm
trying to do with giving golf lessons is just check
my ego right. Golf is hard. Golf isn't easy. I
don't ever think golf is easy. I never played to
(22:33):
any real high level, so to this day, golf is
still hard for me. So I'm always talking to my
instructors that are on my team, hey check here you go.
Nobody cares if you can do it. The only thing
that matters is if your students can do it right.
And I think a lot of players that come. A
lot of instructors that come from a playing background, they
(22:55):
can be guilty of that. Sometimes I just do it
like this, You're fine, Yeah, I can do it, so
you can do it. So I'm always trying to check
me ago at the door. I said this in my
presentation on Friday in Orlando for the TPI guys. I've
worked with Ernie Els he won the Open Championship in
twenty twelve. I work with Dustin Johnson. He won the
(23:16):
US Open in sixteen, he won the Masters in twenty
won the FedEx Cup. He's been number one in the
world for almost you know, he and Brooks have been
number one in the world for almost three years cumulative.
But I still don't know everything, right, I still don't.
I still haven't figured this out. I never think I have.
(23:36):
But it would be easy for me, at this stage
of my career to just say, listen, I've got all
these major champions, I've got all these guys that have
been number one in the world, worked with players that
have won basically all over the place. But I still
don't There's still days where I feel like I don't
know what I'm doing. There's still members of my team
that I say, hey man, can you take a look
(23:56):
at this golf swing? Maybe I'm just not seeing it,
maybe I'm too close to it. So I don't ever
think that I've figured it out and I've kind of
found it, because I don't think that quest will ever stop, right,
I'll always try to get better. I'll always try and improve,
so my knowledge base can always get better. And so
(24:18):
I always try and check my ego and just say, listen, man,
you don't know everything. You can learn something from other instructors.
I ask when I'm on tour. I'll sit with other
instructors on tour and say, hey man, i'm working on
this with a player, what do you think about this? Right?
And I don't necessarily agree with everything that every other
instructor does. You know, I have my own way of
(24:41):
doing things, but I don't know everything, and maybe they
can see something or come up with idea or concept
that I don't know. Having given that presentation, I just
thought it'd be a cool podcast to just talk about
how I think and about how I see golf swings
and what I'm trying to work on with players. So
(25:02):
just a little brief overview of kind of my checklist
when a player comes in for a golf lesson. Maybe
that's helpful, maybe it's not. But I think it's some
good information and I think you should be thinking about
this when you're taking your golf lessons, some of it
which comes to you most every week, Rate review, Subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks everyone for listening. We
(25:23):
will be back
It's the Son of a Bitch podcast. I'm your host,
Claude harmon a solo episode of the pod this week,
and I thought i'd kind of go over some stuff.
I just I'm actually in Dubai at my academy, which
is always fun. It's over here the other night, but
I spoke at the Titleist Performance Institute World Golf Fitness
(00:24):
Summit on Friday, kind of did a presentation, but wanted
to go through one of the things that I talked about,
which was kind of my checklist when I'm giving golf
lessons right what I'm looking for and how I look
at golf swings, and I think by doing this, I
think it can help you think about your own golf
(00:46):
swing and your own golf game. So the first thing
I do when a player comes in and I watch
a player hit at golf balls, I always think, what
is that player's DNA or their kind of swing signature.
And I think, player, regardless of your handicap, you will
have something that is kind of your DNA, kind of
(01:07):
the way that you swing the golf club. And I
think a lot of times this is why players struggle
over years of and they tend to struggle when they don't,
when they don't get regular golf lessons and they're not
working on something, they're just trying a bunch of stuff,
but they don't really fundamentally understand kind of what it
(01:29):
is that they do. So when I look at a
golf swing and I look at a player, I'll always
ask a couple of things. But one of the things
I'll ask is tell me what you're trying to do
in the golf swing, and tell me why you're trying
to do this in the golf swing. And that sounds
and should be a pretty simple question and should be
(01:52):
a pretty simple answer. But I think a lot of
players they don't really know what they're trying to do.
They struggle with the concept of what they're trying to do.
But also, and I've talked about this on the pod before,
they don't understand what their body can do as well.
So when I look at a player, I'm trying to
figure out, Okay, what does that player do naturally. And
(02:15):
one of the things that my dad talked a lot
about when I was a young instructor, he said, listen,
I don't ever want to take away what a player
does naturally. And I think a lot of times for
the instructors out there listening. You can have a model
in your head maybe right, I'm not a huge fan
of that, but you can have a model in your
(02:35):
head about how you want everyone to swing the golf club.
The only problem with that is you might be taking
away what a player does naturally, and what they do
naturally could be a huge part of what makes them
who they are. So I'm always looking at a player.
Does a player have a tremendous amount of speed? Does
(02:57):
a player not have a lot of so I kind
of work. I'll give you an example. So there's two
players I work with who have a tremendous amount of speed.
Brooks and DJ on the men's side have a tremendous
amount of speed. I work with a player on the
LPGA Tour named Marina Alex. She played on the Solheim Cup.
She's a multiple winner on the LPGA Tour. Marina doesn't
(03:18):
have a lot of speed, right, Marina's back is a
little bit compromised. She's had some back issues. So there
are a lot of things that Marina does naturally that
you know, physically I can't change, even though I might
not like them. It's just she does certain things in
the golf swing. Her body has some limitations, so there
(03:40):
are some things that she does that are just part
of her golf swing and if I try and change those.
I mean, obviously everybody is trying to hit the golf
ball further, but on the LPGA Tour, distance is a
it's a differentiator. So the obvious thing in watching Marina
hit GoF balls is to say, Okay, she needs hit
(04:01):
the golf ball further. So there are loads of different things, now,
speed sticks, stacked, all of these different things that we
could do to try and help Marina hit the golf
ball further. We do all those things, her back's gonna
go down, it's gonna crash. So I have to take
a look at what she does physically. I have to
take a look at what she does naturally. Dustin Johnson's
another great example. The position he gets into at the
(04:25):
top of his backswing with that flat left wrist. That
is what he does naturally that he doesn't know why
he does that. He's never been taught to do that,
that's just what he does in the golf swing. So
years ago, probably I don't know, fifteen twenty years ago,
when my dad started working with DJ. Phil Michelson said, Hey,
I play a lot of golf with DJ. Has been
(04:46):
my partner in the money game. I want you to
take a look at him. My dad was working with Phil,
and I think everybody looked at DJ's golf swing when
he turned pro, looked at that position at the top
of the back swing. Nobody was really playing from that position.
Maybe back in the day Paul Aigsner from there, but
certainly nobody with a tremendous amount of speed. So I
think in looking at his goal swing, my dad looked
(05:09):
at that left risk position and was like, listen, that's
what DJ does. Naturally. I'm not training him to do that.
I'm not teaching him to do that. That's what he does.
It's a risk position in twenty twenty four that I
think a lot of people are trying to get into it.
It's Brooks is a little bit on the shut side.
DJ is a little bit on the shut side. We
(05:29):
are seeing more players play from that position. But that's
what DJ does naturally. No one's teaching him to do that.
The other thing I'm always looking at with a player
is I'm asking as say, Okay, what does this player
need do they need speed, do they need accuracy? Do
(05:50):
they need consistency? There will be something that the player needs,
so I'm always saying, Okay, do they need to hit it?
So again, using Marine Alex is an example, and I've
had her on the pod as well. Marina needs speed.
The problem is we have to work around that given
what her body can do physically. So I'm always trying
(06:12):
to balance that between what a player wants to do
versus what a player does and what a player can do.
Sometimes I think players just it's a concept issue. They
don't know they're supposed to be doing this. They don't
know they're not supposed to be doing this. So that's
why that first question, Hey, tell me what you do
(06:33):
in the golf swing, what you're trying to do in
the golf swing. Sometimes they'll just be a concept problem. Listen,
you don't know you're not supposed to do that, or
you don't know you're supposed to do this. Sometimes it'll
be a body issue. So the physical screen, getting screen
to understand what your body can and can't do naturally,
I think is huge. I'm always asking myself how much
(06:55):
is too much? Meaning I think it's important as an
instructure to understand the type of learner a person is,
and I learn a lot by asking questions about, Hey,
what do you do for a living? Listen, if you
work with somebody that says, oh, I'm an engineer, you
can probably give them a bunch of data and it's
not going to confuse them because that's the world they
(07:17):
live in. But if somebody doesn't have a brain like that,
and you overload them with tons of launch monitor data
or a bunch of information and a bunch of numbers,
and they don't learn like that. I've worked with two
players that are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so
Trevor Immerman. When I worked with Trevor in the early
two thousands, I couldn't give Trevor enough information, right, That's
(07:42):
the way his brain worked. He wanted as much information
as possible. DJ wants things to be pretty simple. His
brain just isn't wired like that, is not wired to
get a bunch of information. He wants things to be simple. Trevor,
on the other hand, wanted I wouldn't say Trevor wanted
(08:04):
things to be complicated in the years that I worked
with him, but Trevor wanted more information. I mean you
could give I mean information for Trevor was crack for
the crack addict. Just give me more, more, more, more more.
And I don't necessarily think at times that was the
best thing for him and his career. If I tried
(08:25):
to overload DJ with a bunch of information and a
bunch of numbers and data and stuff like that, It's
just not the way his brain works. So with regards
to the player, I'm always asking myself, Okay, how much
is too much? How much is too little. The other
thing I'm really trying to do when I look at
golf swings is as an instructor. If I'm working with
(08:49):
the player, I want to try and help them build
the golf swing that is going to hold up under pressure.
For the tour players that I'm incredibly lucky enough to
work with, that is the back nine on Sunday right,
that is coming down the stretch in a major, that
is trying to win a tournament on a tour somewhere
(09:09):
in the world. For the majority of you listening to
this podcast, pressure is trying to break one hundred for
the first time, trying to break ninety for the first time,
trying to break eighty for the first time, trying to
win the club championship, the city amateur. So pressure comes
and is different for everybody, but pressure's pressure, right. So
(09:31):
when I look at golf swings, I'm always thinking, Okay,
what am I doing to help this person while they're
on the golf course. I'm not thinking about how to
make their golf swing look good on the driving range, right,
I'm not thinking about a model in my head that
I have a specific swing model that I am going
(09:52):
to try and get everybody into. So for the instructors
out there, but also for everyone else listening that's playing.
If you aren't working on things in your golf swing
that are going to help you score and perform better
on the golf course, you're wasting your time. The reason
(10:15):
I say that is I think a lot of people
are trying to have their golf swing look better. Right.
I worked with Graham McDowell when he just turned pro,
probably Gosh two thousand and three, two thousand and four
won the Italian Open. But I worked with Graham in
two stints. I worked with them for a while and
(10:35):
then he moved on to another instructure, and I think
like five six he came back to me and said, hey,
I want to try and work with you again and stuff.
And I've got some video somewhere that I'm still trying
to find. I've got pictures of Graham McDowell looking like
Tiger in two thousand, right knee flexed, club online at
the top, club face dead, neutral, left wrist in a
(10:56):
perfect position. Looking at it on TV, the video looked
like Tiger Woods in two thousand. The only problem was
from that position Gmac could not get the club onto
the ball, couldn't make contact. Looked great on film, looked
great on video. Positions were perfect, just couldn't hit the
(11:17):
golf ball from there. So, when you're looking at your
golf swing, aesthetics or function, I am far more interested
in function than I am in aesthetics. Esthetics are the
way a golf swing looks and the style of a
golf swing. But golf is not figure skating, right, Golf
(11:38):
is not gymnastics. There's not judges saying, oh, yeah, he's
got the best looking golf swing. If that was the case.
Adam Scott, Nellie Corda, Tommy Fleetwood, the people that have
beautifully fundamentally sound golf swings that look really, really good,
they'd win all the time, but they don't. Across the gamut,
(12:00):
there's golf swings that are very, very different that are
winning golf tournaments. There's not one specific way to swing
the golf club. If you look at the Hall of Fame,
and you go to the World Golf Hall of Fame
and you go and look at all the people that
have been inducted, is there anybody out there listening that's
a golf instructor that has a junior golfer, female junior
(12:21):
golfer fifteen sixteen, Is anybody trying to teach her to
swing the golf club like on Akasians damp the greatest
golf female golfer of all time, one of the greatest
golfers of all time. No one's trying to do that, right,
No one's trying to teach any I don't see anybody
coming in. I don't see anything on social media where
people are trying to have everybody swing like on a
(12:42):
Coasorians dam right. I don't see anybody teaching putting like
Jack Nicholas putted, one of the greatest putters of all time.
Jack's one of the greatest putters of all time. Jack's
one of the greatest pressure putters of all time. But
nobody is trying to emulate that, right, but under pressure
Jack made every put So my point behind that is
(13:04):
your golf swing has to be functional. Yeah, it'd be
great if your golf swing looked good, but some of
my favorite golf swings don't necessarily look that great, but
they are one hundred functional. Great example would be Bubba Watson.
Anybody trying to swing the golf club like Bubba Watson.
Anybody trying to swing the golf club and shape it
(13:26):
and curve it like Bubba Watson. Nope, guys won two Masters,
Guy's got two Green jackets, been on Ryder Cups, He's
been on President's Cups, a hell of a player, has
had a hell of a career. But again, no one's
trying to swing like that. No one's trying to actively
work on the things that Bubba Watson does. But under
Pressure won two majors, one two Masters. So if you're
(13:51):
taking lessons, if you're working on your own game, you
have to think of it like this, what am I
working on in Will it help me score on the
golf course? Not will it make my golf swing look better?
On video will make it look better on the range
because none of that matters for the instructors out there.
(14:13):
Build a team, right, Build a team around you. Find
a physio, chiropractor, medical in your area. Right, So if
you have players, I think the guy Greg and Dave
Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, both who've been on the pod,
and you can go check them out the work that
they've done at the Titleist Performance Institute. They were big
(14:35):
on that, right, Create a team. So I'm currently at
my academy in Dubai. I have seven full time instructors
here and we have two full time fitness guys. Right,
that's mandatory for us. At my academy, at my dad's
academy in Florida, at the Floridian where I work, we
have instructors and then we have a fitness guy. Just
open up an academy out in Bangkok. We're in the
(14:57):
process of hiring. So we're building a team of people
around us. You want to work. If I'm taking lessons,
I want to find an instructor that if there's something
wrong with my body, he's got somebody that he can
send me to. If I'm doing something in my golf swing,
if I'm in pain hitting golf balls. He's got somebody
(15:18):
that I can go to. So I think building a
team as an instructor, building a core group of people
around you hugely important. I'm always trying to build a
strength with players, right. I think in order to be
(15:40):
a good golfer, you've got to have a strength, right.
I always say that at the elite tour level. Right.
If you look at the best players in the world,
they all have a strength, right, and their calling card
is that strength. Brad faxon great putter, Patrick Reid, Sevy,
bi Astero's unbelievable short game, Rory DJ Brooks. The strength
(16:05):
is speed the driver, Luke Donald unbelievable wedge player. Right.
So when you're looking at your own game, think about
do you have a strength? Right? And I listen, when
we're looking at strengths with players, I really don't care
what that strength is. Are you a good green reader
(16:26):
that could be a strength. Are you a good win
player that could be a strength, Or you a good
bunker player that could be your strength? Right? And then
you look at that strength and you try and ride that.
So let's say you're a really good wedge player, right,
You're gonna want to try and lay up to where
you lay up to your strength. Right. If you're a
(16:48):
great putter, you're gonna try and hit more greens so
you can take advantage of your putting. Right. If you're
not a great putter, if your short game isn't great, right,
then you've got to try and hit more greens. Right.
So I also when players come in and take a
golf lesson for the first time, I try and find
something in their golf swing that's a strength. Hey you've
(17:08):
got a great grip, that's the strength of yours. Hey,
you've got a great setup. You've got great posture, you've
got great tempo, you've got great rhythm. I don't care
what it is. It's easy for me in a golf
lesson to look at a twenty five handicapper and tell
them all the things are doing wrong, right. I want
to find some things. Hey, listen, I really like a
lot of these things in your golf swing. We just
(17:30):
need to clean up a couple of other things. But
you do a lot of really good things in the
golf swing. And when I say that to a fifteen
twenty handicapper, hey, I think you do some really nice
things good things in the golf swing. They're like, well,
why am I twenty five handicap? Why am I still
at fifteen? Right? Then I can say, well, these are
(17:50):
the problems, but you do this really really well, so
make sure you keep doing that really really well. Another
thing that I look at when I look at players,
and it's something that I've talked about before on the pod,
but I will continue to talk about it because I
think it's hugely important. Start line where the golf ball
is starting. When I'm looking at a player, I am
(18:12):
evaluating how good a player they are on their ability
to start the golf ball in the direction it needs
to start for the shape they're telling me they're trying
to hit. So if a player is trying to hit draws,
and we give them a target and say, all right,
you know, take a seven iron out. You know it's
one hundred and fifty yards one hundred and forty yards
hundred However, are you hit a seven iron? Right? What
(18:35):
shape you hit? And I do this before I tell
them anything, right, I do this at the beginning of
a golf lesson. Watch a player hit some balls. I'll
have them watched some you know, once they get warmed up. Hey,
hit me some seven irons. Tell me what you're trying
to do. What kind of shape you are you trying
to play? What kind of shape do you like to play?
Where's the miss what's the contact like on the golf course? Hey,
you know, I really like to try and draw the
(18:55):
golf ball. All right? Cool? Okay, So there's the target
flag and then we're gonna give you ten balls. And
the only thing I'm going to ask you to do
in these ten balls is can you start all ten
of them to the right? If you're a fader of
the golf ball, Hey, you like to hit fades? All right,
We're gonna pick out a target, give you seven iron,
give you eight iron, whatever the club, and say, all right,
just hit me ten balls. And the only task here
is all ten of them start. If you're trying to
(19:16):
fade it, all ten of them start left of the
target right. So I'm as much interested in that as
to how their golf swing looks right and how they're
I want to know, can you just concept wise what
would you need to do? I take a lot of
video and I'll show a player. Okay, let's say you're
trying to draw the golf ball and the club's working
(19:39):
very much on the outside on the takeaway. And then
we go to try and have you hit more of
a draw and feel like the club works maybe a
little bit more on the inside so that it can
work a little bit more into out on the downswing.
And what I'll do is say, all right, this is
the first swing you were making with the club you
know is working way outside, and now this is you
(20:00):
trying to hit a draw the club going back. So
I'll put the two pictures on the screen and say,
all right, if you didn't know this was you, tell
me which one hits fades and which ones hit draws. Right,
you should kind of be able to look at a
swing and say, yeah, I mean, it would look to
me like that swing would produce fade. It would look
to me like that swing would produce a draw. And
(20:21):
again that goes back into one of the things I
talked about at the beginning, which is concept Right, if
you're trying to draw the golf ball by take if
you're trying to fade the golf ball by massively taking
the golf club inside, right, you're going to have to
do more than likely what Hail Irwin did take it inside,
come over the top and hit a fade that way?
(20:42):
So I think also this always leads me in a
golf lesson to talk about intent. What is your intent?
What is your intention? What are you trying to do?
I think intent is really really important to me. The
intent is for regular handicapped golfers, non elite tour players.
(21:04):
I think intention is something that is missing. I think
you've got to ask yourself, Okay, what are you trying
to do with your golf swing? What are you trying
to do with this shot? Right? What is your intention?
I think that is incredibly powerful, I really do. And
I think start line ken. If you're a right hand
(21:26):
if you're right handed, you're trying to hit a draw
a ball, damn well needs to start right of your target.
If it starts at your target and curves, you're you're
gonna miss greens right, You're gonna be in trouble. You're
gonna have to have a hell of a short game.
So whatever shot you're trying to hit, if you're trying
to fade it, just stand up and say listen. If
you want to fade the golf ball, pick your target
(21:47):
flag out and say all right, I'm gonna hit ten balls,
and the only thing I'm going to do so if
I can start all ten of them left of my target.
If I'm trying to draw the golf ball, I'm just
gonna try and see if i can start all my
golf balls. Where the ball starts for me, is as important,
if not more important, than when the ball where the
ball finishes. But I think I've said this before. I
think everybody is hyper focused and just obsessed with the
(22:11):
curvature of the golf ball and where the golf ball
is ending up. For me, where the golf ball starts
is as important, if not more important, than when where
the ball ends up. And then the last team I'm
trying to do with giving golf lessons is just check
my ego right. Golf is hard. Golf isn't easy. I
don't ever think golf is easy. I never played to
(22:33):
any real high level, so to this day, golf is
still hard for me. So I'm always talking to my
instructors that are on my team, hey check here you go.
Nobody cares if you can do it. The only thing
that matters is if your students can do it right.
And I think a lot of players that come. A
lot of instructors that come from a playing background, they
(22:55):
can be guilty of that. Sometimes I just do it
like this, You're fine, Yeah, I can do it, so
you can do it. So I'm always trying to check
me ago at the door. I said this in my
presentation on Friday in Orlando for the TPI guys. I've
worked with Ernie Els he won the Open Championship in
twenty twelve. I work with Dustin Johnson. He won the
(23:16):
US Open in sixteen, he won the Masters in twenty
won the FedEx Cup. He's been number one in the
world for almost you know, he and Brooks have been
number one in the world for almost three years cumulative.
But I still don't know everything, right, I still don't.
I still haven't figured this out. I never think I have.
(23:36):
But it would be easy for me, at this stage
of my career to just say, listen, I've got all
these major champions, I've got all these guys that have
been number one in the world, worked with players that
have won basically all over the place. But I still
don't There's still days where I feel like I don't
know what I'm doing. There's still members of my team
that I say, hey man, can you take a look
(23:56):
at this golf swing? Maybe I'm just not seeing it,
maybe I'm too close to it. So I don't ever
think that I've figured it out and I've kind of
found it, because I don't think that quest will ever stop, right,
I'll always try to get better. I'll always try and improve,
so my knowledge base can always get better. And so
(24:18):
I always try and check my ego and just say, listen, man,
you don't know everything. You can learn something from other instructors.
I ask when I'm on tour. I'll sit with other
instructors on tour and say, hey man, i'm working on
this with a player, what do you think about this? Right?
And I don't necessarily agree with everything that every other
instructor does. You know, I have my own way of
(24:41):
doing things, but I don't know everything, and maybe they
can see something or come up with idea or concept
that I don't know. Having given that presentation, I just
thought it'd be a cool podcast to just talk about
how I think and about how I see golf swings
and what I'm trying to work on with players. So
(25:02):
just a little brief overview of kind of my checklist
when a player comes in for a golf lesson. Maybe
that's helpful, maybe it's not. But I think it's some
good information and I think you should be thinking about
this when you're taking your golf lessons, some of it
which comes to you most every week, Rate review, Subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks everyone for listening. We
(25:23):
will be back
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