April 25, 2024 • 20 mins
After hearing talking heads discussing how Justin Thomas could improve his game, Hank Haney shares why the "danny be the ball" theory is ridiculously stupid.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hm hmm. I'm gonna tell it like it really is.
We know Haney doesn't give us silencing ridics and then
the name missus two chips, never except on shoulders. To
get better, everybody knows the name, read about it or
(00:29):
golf Teachers Hall of Fame. Never doubt it. It's time
for the truth. He is our due. You listen in
the Hany. You listen in the Hany, You listen in
to Hany. It's time for the truth. He is our dude.
You listen in the Hani, listen to.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
M hm mm hmm. All right, welcome to the hank
Any Podcast, recording right here on no Filter dot Net.
You can see the hank Any Podcast on nofilter dot net.
You can also see it on YouTube tv the hank
Any Podcast, and you can hear it on iHeartRadio or
(01:14):
wherever you get your podcasts. So make sure you find
us someplace. All right, today's podcast is going to be
about helping you get better. Guy. I had a subject
that I heard about on the I was listening to
the PGA Tour radio on Serious Exent, and one of
(01:37):
the analysts on there was talking about the Harbortown tournament.
I don't even know what it's called Heritage or something. Okay,
I call it Harbor Town. That's the golf course. I
can't remember the sponsor there, doesn't matter, it's a Harbortown tournament. Anyway,
they're talking about Justin Thomas and they were talking about
(01:59):
how he needs This is one guy talking. You got
to consider the source. But the one guy is he's
on this subject and his subject is Justin Thomas needs
to stop playing golf swing and just start playing golf.
And I thought, Okay, this is a good topic for
(02:22):
a podcast, So we're going to talk about that today,
and I'm going to kind of explain to you how
this can help you improve your golf game, because I'm
assuming now when people listen to the hank Any podcasts
or watch the hank Any podcast, they want to get
better golf. Today's podcast is brought to you by bet Online.
It is your number one source for all your summer
(02:44):
sports this season from MLB, Golf, NBA in the NHL.
All the latest stats, news scores are available to you.
You can follow your favorite teams. You can get all
the latest I and lines, including the latest team matchups,
player props, and odds just about every sport out there.
(03:06):
It's a fantastic uh website. Head to the website today,
bet online dot ag. You can use your mobile device
to get in on the action. Bet online it's where
the game starts. Bet online dot ag is where you
go to find it, all right, So go there and
check it out. And I'll tell you what. I'm a
fan of the of the golf bet so you can
(03:29):
do it at bet online dot ag. All right. The
topic I was talking about, this whole thing about play this, this, this,
This talking head is going on and on and on.
I'm listening to this and I'm like, first off, I
don't know what this guy's handicap is. I may he
may be a good player. I don't know what he is.
(03:51):
He's a six, he's a two. He maybe he's a scratch.
I don't know. First off, Well, for the let's talk
about what a scratch golfer is. How about that. Let's
just assume he's a scratch. A scratch golfer when they
go play in a tournament, they're going to shoot about
seventy eight. Okay. When a touring pro keeps a handicap,
(04:17):
he's like a plus six plus seven something like that,
plus five. He's a plus handicap, meaning on their home course,
playing with their buddies, they're going to average like sixty
six sixty seven with their ten best out of their
last twenty scores. Okay, of course it depends on the index,
the course rating, whatever they call it. But the difference
(04:39):
between a scratch player and a touring pro is about
six or eight shots around, okay. And if you put
the average player, if you put a well, if you
put the average player on a PGA tour course, they
would they wouldn't break one hundred. But even put a
scratch player on a pg TO of course, they wouldn't
(05:02):
break eighty. I mean like I'm not talking about like
this round. I'm talking about like ever. Okay, they wouldn't
they wouldn't ever put them on augusta. Oh my god, no, no, no,
no no, they wouldn't even sniff you know, a around
under eighty, not even not even sniff. So when I
(05:24):
hear people talking and they you know, talk like they're
they're they're the expert on this these subjects, I think like, really,
I mean you're the expert, I mean what what? So?
So there's the people are actually listening to this and
they're taking this stuff as gospel. And this one thing
(05:46):
they love to talk about is you got to play golf,
not golf swing. Justin Thomas is playing golf swing not
cop And I'm like, what exactly what does that mean?
What does that mean? First off, Justin Thomas has not
been playing great. His world ranking has dropped, and it's
(06:07):
a corrupt world golf ranking because it's not even an
accurate world golf rank because it didn't even count all
the LIV players. And I think he's dropped down to
you know, twenty second or something like that, and he was,
you know, a top five player in the words, So
he's had a big drop and he's had a huge
drop in his statistics. Historically, with all the players on
(06:30):
the PGA Tour, including the l IV players, he was
a top ten ball striker, top five ball striker every year,
like clockwork. Not a great putter, but a top ten,
top five ball striker, just like like every year he was.
And then all of a sudden, he doesn't. He's not
playing as good, he's not hidden it as good, and
(06:52):
he's still putting kind of not great. Okay, when you're
not hitting it good, there's something wrong with your mechanics.
Like I like, you know, the golf ball doesn't know
what you're thinking about. It doesn't know how confident you are.
(07:16):
The golf ball doesn't know anything. All the golf ball
knows is what the golf club does to it. And
if the golf club isn't doing something to the ball
that makes it go where you want it to go,
there's something wrong with your mechanics. So when people say, well,
he's thinking too much about his swing and he needs
to just play, I'm like, Justin Thomas knows how he
(07:39):
can hit the ball. He's a he's a two time
major championship winner. He has been a phenomenal ball striker.
He can go stand up on the driving range and
in two minutes tell you how he feels like he's
striking it today. And when something is off. I don't
(08:00):
understand the logic that people have that somehow he's just
supposed to be able to pretend like nothing's off and
I'm hitting it great, but I'm really not hitting it great,
you know. And when he sees the ball, you know,
and you stand up over a shot, you visualize where
you want the ball to start, you visualize which way
(08:22):
you want it to curve. Because you're playing the different
pin placements, you're playing holes at dogleg right, dog leg left,
you're playing in different wind conditions. So you determine where
you want the ball to start, which way you want
the ball to curve, and what trajectory you want to
hit the ball at. Those are the three things that
you have to be every time you stand up over
(08:43):
a shot. Even if you're not a very good golfer,
you're attempting to do those three things. Where do I
want the ball to start, which way do I want
to curve, and what trajectory do I want to hit
the ball at. And the trajectory is so important because
that allows you the ability to play in different conditions,
(09:03):
in other words, the wind and to different pin placements.
And it also allows you to hit partial shots. The
way you hit partial shots is you vary your trajectory.
So if I want to hit a you know, if
I'm trying to hit it as far as I can,
I'm not going to send it in their head high.
If I want to take a little distance off it,
I'll go a little more three quarter and I'll lower
(09:25):
the trajectory I remember when Tiger Woods first turned pro
and he moved into Alur down Orlando, and this is
when he became friends with Marko Myra, and Marko Mira
told him, he said, he said, Tier, he gave him
a great tip. He said, the most important thing you
can do on the PGA tour is you have to
(09:47):
be able to hit the ball pin high. And that's
the key. You got to hit the ball Pinneye, and
you have to hit the ball pin high so that
when you hit a shot that goes at the pin,
it goes the right distance and now you have a
legit to BIRDI butt. That was a great tip. But
to do that, you have to be able to control
your trajectory. That's the thing. And the best ball strikers
(10:07):
are always the ones that are able to control their trajectory.
You can't, you know, as they say, when you you
know you start, you got to start it through the
correct window. You know, if you're standing, if you're aiming
at a building and you're aiming to go through the
twentieth floor window and you hit a shot and it
goes through the tenth floor window, that ball would not
have gone the distance that you thought it was going.
(10:28):
To go. If you hit it too high, too low,
it's going to affect the distance it goes. So my
point is this, if a player liked Justin Thomas, that
could be any player, it doesn't matter who it is,
stands on the practice tee or the golf course and
they're hitting shots and they're not starting it off where
they want to, they're not curving at the amount or
(10:48):
in the direction that they want to, and they're not
able to control their trajectory like they want to. Then
there's something wrong with their mechanics relative if to how
they typically swing when they're able to do those things.
It's just as simple as that. And the correction for
that isn't just Danny be the ball, you know, like
(11:11):
I'm gonna Danny be the ball and you know from Caddyshack,
and you're just gonna visualize and you're gonna be the
ball and miraculously, this ball is just gonna take off
and it's going to go just like you wanted to.
That's fantasy land. That is not the way it works.
So when people say, you know, oh, you're thinking too
(11:32):
much about your swing and I and my thought is
when somebody says that, well, if you're not hitting it good,
then you must be thinking about maybe you're not thinking
about the right things. See, so Justin Thomas has been
he's been in flux with his swing. You know, I
don't think his dad is, which was this was a
(11:52):
bad move when he when he stopped listening to his
dad as much, because it doesn't sound like he's listened
to his dad quite as much. Maybe he is. I
don't know, but I would have put my trust in
his dad. Mike Thomas, a great coach, helped Justin's whole life.
I mean, you know, but when these guys, no matter
who they are, one thing that's certainly going to happen
is you're you're going to struggle. Everybody's going to struggle.
(12:15):
And when you start struggling, even the greatest players in
the world, they have rabbit ears. They will listen to
like you know they are, they're rabbit ears. They get
the big ears going. I mean, they're going to listen
to anything because they just are hoping somebody has something
and then that gets you, that gets you offline. But
you got to think about something in your swing. You
(12:38):
just can't. It just doesn't. It just doesn't happen. This
notion this playing golf dot golf swing? What does that mean?
What does that mean? How is that going to fit?
Like playing golf? Like what if you slice? If you
slice and I said to you, hey, just go play golf,
don't play golf swing. You think that's going to fix
your slice? If you hook the ball or you hit
(13:00):
it too low, or you hit it too high, And
I say, I don't you know, just just go play golf,
don't don't play golf swing, don't think about your swing
so much. How is that going to change what you're
currently doing? And the answer is it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
This stuff that people talk about is craziness. It's absolute lunacy.
I don't know where people come up with this, but they,
you know, they say it fast and they say it confidently,
and it makes you think it might be it might
be true, but it's not. It's not. You have to
figure out what is causing you to be inconsistent, what
(13:36):
is causing you to hit bad shots. You have to
understand what you need to do to hit a better shot,
and that means what the club is doing. That means
what your body is doing. Your hands, arms and body
are doing to affect the club, and then you have
to make some type of a correction, and then you
(13:56):
have to practice so you can do it consistently. And
that is it's It's as simple as it gets. That's it.
You want to you want to have something simple, that's it.
That's how you get it. I remember, I remember back
in the day. This is a story. Back in the day.
Markomra was my first student on the PGA Tour. And
I've told this story before, but Mark, Mark was a
(14:18):
great student when we started. He literally didn't know. He
didn't and he would tell you he didn't know anything
at all about the golf swing. Like when I first
talked to Hi about the golfs and I said, well, okay,
what's your issues? Is I hook it too much? I
just want to learn. I just want to fade every shot.
I don't want to hook it. And I'm like, okay,
I said, you know, I'm kind of listening. I'm thinking,
(14:39):
why don't we learn how to just why don't we
learn how to draw it correctly and learn how to
fade it? I mean, why do we just want to
fade every shot? I mean, what are we going to do?
What are we going to do in the whole curves
to the left. What are we going to do when
the pins on the left. What are we going to
do when the pins on the left and the win
(15:01):
out of the left and all we're and all we're
doing is fade and everything. What are we gonna do
with the pins on the left, the winds on the left,
the balls below our feet and all we can do
is fade the ball? I said, This doesn't sound like
a very good plan to me. I said, we need
to learn how to draw it correctly, so we don't
hook it too much and don't pull it, and then
(15:23):
we need to learn how to fade. We need to
learn how to hit both shots. But Mark learned and
he he he, he was a great student that I remember,
you know, in our you know we everybody has ups
and downs, and uh Mark had some some great great
up ups for sure, but then you know, there was
a stretch when he had some downs and maybe missed
(15:45):
a few cuts or had some bad poor finishes and
all the know it alls that that you know, you know,
like I said, they got the rabbit ears, okay, but
the know it alls would talk and the you know
and the proso listen, you know this was about the time.
I'm when the sports psychologists were all coming there was
that was a thing. Okay, that was a thing. And
(16:07):
he would tell Mark, you're thinking about your swing too much.
And all of a sudden, you know, Mark's missed a
couple of cuts and he says, ah, you know, maybe
I am thinking about my swing too much. You know,
this guy's got a good spiel over here. Maybe this
maybe maybe I maybe I am thinking about my swing
too much. You know, maybe I'll try this this deal.
(16:27):
I'll try this deal for at I'll try this visualizer
shot for a little for a while. So Mark goes
to the sports like I forget who it was. He
goes to this spot and this guy's telling, you know,
visualize this, visualize that. You know, Danny be the ball,
all this stuff, and Mark was into it. And he's
a dedicated student. I mean, like like he took notes
from every lesson I ever gave him. Uh, he religiously practiced,
(16:50):
thought about what and he you know, like he would
he went hook line and sinker for this whole thing.
You know, this visualized stuff. Play golf, not golf swing
you know what whatever these guys talk about that don't
know anything. I'll never forget it. You know. He he
did this for like a month. I remember he showed
up at Pebble Beach. I forget what tournament was. I
(17:10):
don't know if it was the Pebble Beach Invitation. He
won that thing like five times. It might have been
the US Open at Pebble Beach. I remember I was
walking with him. I remember, I remember exactly. I was
halfway we were. I was walking on the outside of
the ropes because I you know, I'm still there supporting them.
Watched him on the practice team. I'm giving them some lessons.
But you know, I'm kind of fighting against this Danny
(17:33):
be the ball stuff. You have a little fight, you know.
I mean, I'm not fighting hard because I just I
just figured this, let's just let it runs course, you know,
or wasting time. But hey, you know that's all right.
You know we had enough time. You know, we had
enough time. We had enough time to get him to
the Hall of Fame. Uh and we had enough time.
We could we can waste a little time. But that's
what we're doing right now, is wasting time. That's what
(17:53):
I was thinking. And I just you know, let him go,
you know, try to support him, try to sneak in
a few thoughts every once in a while. And while
he was playing, Danny be the ball. And anyway, we're
walking down the seventeenth hole. It was the end of
the tournament. It was like the seventy first hole of
the tournament. Walking down the seventeenth hole at Pebble Beach.
(18:14):
What a beautiful hole. Oh my god, love Pebble Beach. Anyway,
walking down the hole, I can remember exactly where I was.
There's a car path there, a road that cuts through
the seventeenth right in front of the tee, and I
had just walked past that road. Can you imagine I
can still remember this. I'd walked past that road. Mark
comes over to the ropes and he said, Hank, he said,
(18:34):
you know what, he said, I've been visualizing my swing
for a whole month, he said. I've visualized every single
shot just like I want to hit it, he said.
And for a month, he said, I haven't hit one
shot like I know I can hit, he said, tomorrow,
(19:00):
going back to thinking about my swing. And then you
know where he went. He went to the Hall of Fame.
That's where he went. So all this, Danny Be the
Ball play golf, not golf swing. You know what I
would say, You got to play a little golf swing
(19:20):
to play golf. That's what I would say. And if
you're thinking about something and it's not working, then my
suggestion would be find something else to think about. And
that is what I specialize in. I specialize in that
(19:41):
moment that people take a lesson and they say, Hank,
that's the best I've ever hit the ball, or I've
never hit a draw in my life, or you know,
I always hit it too low and today I'm getting
the ball. And that's what I specialize in. So anyway,
keep that in. Go to Hanuniversity dot com if you
(20:02):
want information on a golf lesson from me. You can
also register my free instructional videos. Go to Voodoo Payrelief
dot com if you've got the arthritis paining, because my
Voodoo payreleaf cream will help you tremendously and by all means.
Go to bet online dot ag. That's your number one
source for all your summer sports this season from MLB, golf, NBA,
(20:27):
and the NHL. You get the latest stats, news, scores,
everything you need to follow your favorite teams, and you
get all the odds and lines as well. It's great website.
You can also find it on your mobile device bet
online dot ag. That's where the game starts, all right.
Appreciate everybody listening. Hit the follow button on the iHeartRadio
(20:48):
app wherever you get your podcasts, and we will talk
to you soon on the Hank Haney Podcast
H m hm.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hm hmm. I'm gonna tell it like it really is.
We know Haney doesn't give us silencing ridics and then
the name missus two chips, never except on shoulders. To
get better, everybody knows the name, read about it or
(00:29):
golf Teachers Hall of Fame. Never doubt it. It's time
for the truth. He is our due. You listen in
the Hany. You listen in the Hany, You listen in
to Hany. It's time for the truth. He is our dude.
You listen in the Hani, listen to.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
M hm mm hmm. All right, welcome to the hank
Any Podcast, recording right here on no Filter dot Net.
You can see the hank Any Podcast on nofilter dot net.
You can also see it on YouTube tv the hank
Any Podcast, and you can hear it on iHeartRadio or
(01:14):
wherever you get your podcasts. So make sure you find
us someplace. All right, today's podcast is going to be
about helping you get better. Guy. I had a subject
that I heard about on the I was listening to
the PGA Tour radio on Serious Exent, and one of
(01:37):
the analysts on there was talking about the Harbortown tournament.
I don't even know what it's called Heritage or something. Okay,
I call it Harbor Town. That's the golf course. I
can't remember the sponsor there, doesn't matter, it's a Harbortown tournament. Anyway,
they're talking about Justin Thomas and they were talking about
(01:59):
how he needs This is one guy talking. You got
to consider the source. But the one guy is he's
on this subject and his subject is Justin Thomas needs
to stop playing golf swing and just start playing golf.
And I thought, Okay, this is a good topic for
(02:22):
a podcast, So we're going to talk about that today,
and I'm going to kind of explain to you how
this can help you improve your golf game, because I'm
assuming now when people listen to the hank Any podcasts
or watch the hank Any podcast, they want to get
better golf. Today's podcast is brought to you by bet Online.
It is your number one source for all your summer
(02:44):
sports this season from MLB, Golf, NBA in the NHL.
All the latest stats, news scores are available to you.
You can follow your favorite teams. You can get all
the latest I and lines, including the latest team matchups,
player props, and odds just about every sport out there.
(03:06):
It's a fantastic uh website. Head to the website today,
bet online dot ag. You can use your mobile device
to get in on the action. Bet online it's where
the game starts. Bet online dot ag is where you
go to find it, all right, So go there and
check it out. And I'll tell you what. I'm a
fan of the of the golf bet so you can
(03:29):
do it at bet online dot ag. All right. The
topic I was talking about, this whole thing about play this, this, this,
This talking head is going on and on and on.
I'm listening to this and I'm like, first off, I
don't know what this guy's handicap is. I may he
may be a good player. I don't know what he is.
(03:51):
He's a six, he's a two. He maybe he's a scratch.
I don't know. First off, Well, for the let's talk
about what a scratch golfer is. How about that. Let's
just assume he's a scratch. A scratch golfer when they
go play in a tournament, they're going to shoot about
seventy eight. Okay. When a touring pro keeps a handicap,
(04:17):
he's like a plus six plus seven something like that,
plus five. He's a plus handicap, meaning on their home course,
playing with their buddies, they're going to average like sixty
six sixty seven with their ten best out of their
last twenty scores. Okay, of course it depends on the index,
the course rating, whatever they call it. But the difference
(04:39):
between a scratch player and a touring pro is about
six or eight shots around, okay. And if you put
the average player, if you put a well, if you
put the average player on a PGA tour course, they
would they wouldn't break one hundred. But even put a
scratch player on a pg TO of course, they wouldn't
(05:02):
break eighty. I mean like I'm not talking about like
this round. I'm talking about like ever. Okay, they wouldn't
they wouldn't ever put them on augusta. Oh my god, no, no, no,
no no, they wouldn't even sniff you know, a around
under eighty, not even not even sniff. So when I
(05:24):
hear people talking and they you know, talk like they're
they're they're the expert on this these subjects, I think like, really,
I mean you're the expert, I mean what what? So?
So there's the people are actually listening to this and
they're taking this stuff as gospel. And this one thing
(05:46):
they love to talk about is you got to play golf,
not golf swing. Justin Thomas is playing golf swing not
cop And I'm like, what exactly what does that mean?
What does that mean? First off, Justin Thomas has not
been playing great. His world ranking has dropped, and it's
(06:07):
a corrupt world golf ranking because it's not even an
accurate world golf rank because it didn't even count all
the LIV players. And I think he's dropped down to
you know, twenty second or something like that, and he was,
you know, a top five player in the words, So
he's had a big drop and he's had a huge
drop in his statistics. Historically, with all the players on
(06:30):
the PGA Tour, including the l IV players, he was
a top ten ball striker, top five ball striker every year,
like clockwork. Not a great putter, but a top ten,
top five ball striker, just like like every year he was.
And then all of a sudden, he doesn't. He's not
playing as good, he's not hidden it as good, and
(06:52):
he's still putting kind of not great. Okay, when you're
not hitting it good, there's something wrong with your mechanics.
Like I like, you know, the golf ball doesn't know
what you're thinking about. It doesn't know how confident you are.
(07:16):
The golf ball doesn't know anything. All the golf ball
knows is what the golf club does to it. And
if the golf club isn't doing something to the ball
that makes it go where you want it to go,
there's something wrong with your mechanics. So when people say, well,
he's thinking too much about his swing and he needs
to just play, I'm like, Justin Thomas knows how he
(07:39):
can hit the ball. He's a he's a two time
major championship winner. He has been a phenomenal ball striker.
He can go stand up on the driving range and
in two minutes tell you how he feels like he's
striking it today. And when something is off. I don't
(08:00):
understand the logic that people have that somehow he's just
supposed to be able to pretend like nothing's off and
I'm hitting it great, but I'm really not hitting it great,
you know. And when he sees the ball, you know,
and you stand up over a shot, you visualize where
you want the ball to start, you visualize which way
(08:22):
you want it to curve. Because you're playing the different
pin placements, you're playing holes at dogleg right, dog leg left,
you're playing in different wind conditions. So you determine where
you want the ball to start, which way you want
the ball to curve, and what trajectory you want to
hit the ball at. Those are the three things that
you have to be every time you stand up over
(08:43):
a shot. Even if you're not a very good golfer,
you're attempting to do those three things. Where do I
want the ball to start, which way do I want
to curve, and what trajectory do I want to hit
the ball at. And the trajectory is so important because
that allows you the ability to play in different conditions,
(09:03):
in other words, the wind and to different pin placements.
And it also allows you to hit partial shots. The
way you hit partial shots is you vary your trajectory.
So if I want to hit a you know, if
I'm trying to hit it as far as I can,
I'm not going to send it in their head high.
If I want to take a little distance off it,
I'll go a little more three quarter and I'll lower
(09:25):
the trajectory I remember when Tiger Woods first turned pro
and he moved into Alur down Orlando, and this is
when he became friends with Marko Myra, and Marko Mira
told him, he said, he said, Tier, he gave him
a great tip. He said, the most important thing you
can do on the PGA tour is you have to
(09:47):
be able to hit the ball pin high. And that's
the key. You got to hit the ball Pinneye, and
you have to hit the ball pin high so that
when you hit a shot that goes at the pin,
it goes the right distance and now you have a
legit to BIRDI butt. That was a great tip. But
to do that, you have to be able to control
your trajectory. That's the thing. And the best ball strikers
(10:07):
are always the ones that are able to control their trajectory.
You can't, you know, as they say, when you you
know you start, you got to start it through the
correct window. You know, if you're standing, if you're aiming
at a building and you're aiming to go through the
twentieth floor window and you hit a shot and it
goes through the tenth floor window, that ball would not
have gone the distance that you thought it was going.
(10:28):
To go. If you hit it too high, too low,
it's going to affect the distance it goes. So my
point is this, if a player liked Justin Thomas, that
could be any player, it doesn't matter who it is,
stands on the practice tee or the golf course and
they're hitting shots and they're not starting it off where
they want to, they're not curving at the amount or
(10:48):
in the direction that they want to, and they're not
able to control their trajectory like they want to. Then
there's something wrong with their mechanics relative if to how
they typically swing when they're able to do those things.
It's just as simple as that. And the correction for
that isn't just Danny be the ball, you know, like
(11:11):
I'm gonna Danny be the ball and you know from Caddyshack,
and you're just gonna visualize and you're gonna be the
ball and miraculously, this ball is just gonna take off
and it's going to go just like you wanted to.
That's fantasy land. That is not the way it works.
So when people say, you know, oh, you're thinking too
(11:32):
much about your swing and I and my thought is
when somebody says that, well, if you're not hitting it good,
then you must be thinking about maybe you're not thinking
about the right things. See, so Justin Thomas has been
he's been in flux with his swing. You know, I
don't think his dad is, which was this was a
(11:52):
bad move when he when he stopped listening to his
dad as much, because it doesn't sound like he's listened
to his dad quite as much. Maybe he is. I
don't know, but I would have put my trust in
his dad. Mike Thomas, a great coach, helped Justin's whole life.
I mean, you know, but when these guys, no matter
who they are, one thing that's certainly going to happen
is you're you're going to struggle. Everybody's going to struggle.
(12:15):
And when you start struggling, even the greatest players in
the world, they have rabbit ears. They will listen to
like you know they are, they're rabbit ears. They get
the big ears going. I mean, they're going to listen
to anything because they just are hoping somebody has something
and then that gets you, that gets you offline. But
you got to think about something in your swing. You
(12:38):
just can't. It just doesn't. It just doesn't happen. This
notion this playing golf dot golf swing? What does that mean?
What does that mean? How is that going to fit?
Like playing golf? Like what if you slice? If you
slice and I said to you, hey, just go play golf,
don't play golf swing. You think that's going to fix
your slice? If you hook the ball or you hit
(13:00):
it too low, or you hit it too high, And
I say, I don't you know, just just go play golf,
don't don't play golf swing, don't think about your swing
so much. How is that going to change what you're
currently doing? And the answer is it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
This stuff that people talk about is craziness. It's absolute lunacy.
I don't know where people come up with this, but they,
you know, they say it fast and they say it confidently,
and it makes you think it might be it might
be true, but it's not. It's not. You have to
figure out what is causing you to be inconsistent, what
(13:36):
is causing you to hit bad shots. You have to
understand what you need to do to hit a better shot,
and that means what the club is doing. That means
what your body is doing. Your hands, arms and body
are doing to affect the club, and then you have
to make some type of a correction, and then you
(13:56):
have to practice so you can do it consistently. And
that is it's It's as simple as it gets. That's it.
You want to you want to have something simple, that's it.
That's how you get it. I remember, I remember back
in the day. This is a story. Back in the day.
Markomra was my first student on the PGA Tour. And
I've told this story before, but Mark, Mark was a
(14:18):
great student when we started. He literally didn't know. He
didn't and he would tell you he didn't know anything
at all about the golf swing. Like when I first
talked to Hi about the golfs and I said, well, okay,
what's your issues? Is I hook it too much? I
just want to learn. I just want to fade every shot.
I don't want to hook it. And I'm like, okay,
I said, you know, I'm kind of listening. I'm thinking,
(14:39):
why don't we learn how to just why don't we
learn how to draw it correctly and learn how to
fade it? I mean, why do we just want to
fade every shot? I mean, what are we going to do?
What are we going to do in the whole curves
to the left. What are we going to do when
the pins on the left. What are we going to
do when the pins on the left and the win
(15:01):
out of the left and all we're and all we're
doing is fade and everything. What are we gonna do
with the pins on the left, the winds on the left,
the balls below our feet and all we can do
is fade the ball? I said, This doesn't sound like
a very good plan to me. I said, we need
to learn how to draw it correctly, so we don't
hook it too much and don't pull it, and then
(15:23):
we need to learn how to fade. We need to
learn how to hit both shots. But Mark learned and
he he he, he was a great student that I remember,
you know, in our you know we everybody has ups
and downs, and uh Mark had some some great great
up ups for sure, but then you know, there was
a stretch when he had some downs and maybe missed
(15:45):
a few cuts or had some bad poor finishes and
all the know it alls that that you know, you know,
like I said, they got the rabbit ears, okay, but
the know it alls would talk and the you know
and the proso listen, you know this was about the time.
I'm when the sports psychologists were all coming there was
that was a thing. Okay, that was a thing. And
(16:07):
he would tell Mark, you're thinking about your swing too much.
And all of a sudden, you know, Mark's missed a
couple of cuts and he says, ah, you know, maybe
I am thinking about my swing too much. You know,
this guy's got a good spiel over here. Maybe this
maybe maybe I maybe I am thinking about my swing
too much. You know, maybe I'll try this this deal.
(16:27):
I'll try this deal for at I'll try this visualizer
shot for a little for a while. So Mark goes
to the sports like I forget who it was. He
goes to this spot and this guy's telling, you know,
visualize this, visualize that. You know, Danny be the ball,
all this stuff, and Mark was into it. And he's
a dedicated student. I mean, like like he took notes
from every lesson I ever gave him. Uh, he religiously practiced,
(16:50):
thought about what and he you know, like he would
he went hook line and sinker for this whole thing.
You know, this visualized stuff. Play golf, not golf swing
you know what whatever these guys talk about that don't
know anything. I'll never forget it. You know. He he
did this for like a month. I remember he showed
up at Pebble Beach. I forget what tournament was. I
(17:10):
don't know if it was the Pebble Beach Invitation. He
won that thing like five times. It might have been
the US Open at Pebble Beach. I remember I was
walking with him. I remember, I remember exactly. I was
halfway we were. I was walking on the outside of
the ropes because I you know, I'm still there supporting them.
Watched him on the practice team. I'm giving them some lessons.
But you know, I'm kind of fighting against this Danny
(17:33):
be the ball stuff. You have a little fight, you know.
I mean, I'm not fighting hard because I just I
just figured this, let's just let it runs course, you know,
or wasting time. But hey, you know that's all right.
You know we had enough time. You know, we had
enough time. We had enough time to get him to
the Hall of Fame. Uh and we had enough time.
We could we can waste a little time. But that's
what we're doing right now, is wasting time. That's what
(17:53):
I was thinking. And I just you know, let him go,
you know, try to support him, try to sneak in
a few thoughts every once in a while. And while
he was playing, Danny be the ball. And anyway, we're
walking down the seventeenth hole. It was the end of
the tournament. It was like the seventy first hole of
the tournament. Walking down the seventeenth hole at Pebble Beach.
(18:14):
What a beautiful hole. Oh my god, love Pebble Beach. Anyway,
walking down the hole, I can remember exactly where I was.
There's a car path there, a road that cuts through
the seventeenth right in front of the tee, and I
had just walked past that road. Can you imagine I
can still remember this. I'd walked past that road. Mark
comes over to the ropes and he said, Hank, he said,
(18:34):
you know what, he said, I've been visualizing my swing
for a whole month, he said. I've visualized every single
shot just like I want to hit it, he said.
And for a month, he said, I haven't hit one
shot like I know I can hit, he said, tomorrow,
(19:00):
going back to thinking about my swing. And then you
know where he went. He went to the Hall of Fame.
That's where he went. So all this, Danny Be the
Ball play golf, not golf swing. You know what I
would say, You got to play a little golf swing
(19:20):
to play golf. That's what I would say. And if
you're thinking about something and it's not working, then my
suggestion would be find something else to think about. And
that is what I specialize in. I specialize in that
(19:41):
moment that people take a lesson and they say, Hank,
that's the best I've ever hit the ball, or I've
never hit a draw in my life, or you know,
I always hit it too low and today I'm getting
the ball. And that's what I specialize in. So anyway,
keep that in. Go to Hanuniversity dot com if you
(20:02):
want information on a golf lesson from me. You can
also register my free instructional videos. Go to Voodoo Payrelief
dot com if you've got the arthritis paining, because my
Voodoo payreleaf cream will help you tremendously and by all means.
Go to bet online dot ag. That's your number one
source for all your summer sports this season from MLB, golf, NBA,
(20:27):
and the NHL. You get the latest stats, news, scores,
everything you need to follow your favorite teams, and you
get all the odds and lines as well. It's great website.
You can also find it on your mobile device bet
online dot ag. That's where the game starts, all right.
Appreciate everybody listening. Hit the follow button on the iHeartRadio
(20:48):
app wherever you get your podcasts, and we will talk
to you soon on the Hank Haney Podcast
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