Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 17 | July 24th, 2025 - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
The following broadcast is brought to you by the I
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
Golf Talk Live is sponsored by the I Golf Sports
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
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(00:42):
Welcome to Golf Talk Live with your host.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Ted oto Rico.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Join Ted each week as he speaks with some of
the best in golf. This week's special guest will join
us a bit later. But first up is another great
discussion on Coach's Corner, So let's introduce tonight's Coaches Corner Panel.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Season thirteen a Golf
Talk Live. I'm your host, hedod Rico. We've got a
great show for you this evening. We're gonna be starting
things off here in just a moment with another great
discussion on Coach's Corner and then a little bit later on,
I'm going to be bringing back in of course, our
travel segment with my good friend and co host and
travel expert Robert Kaufman, alongside this evening's special travel guest.

(01:25):
And then a little bit later on, I'm going to
be joined by Fraser Marriott. He's the head of golf
for Light Speed Commerce. He's gonna be joining me a
little bit later on in the broadcast as well, so
you want to make sure you stick around for that.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Just a couple of announcements.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
We were going to be joined by another gentleman, Pete
Buchanan on the Coach's Corner. Unfortunately he's not able to
make it. And congratulations to Pete and his family as
they welcome a new edition. Their grandson is joining them today,
so obviously he's at the hospital with family and enjoying
that new special addition to their family. So obviously Pete

(01:57):
had to bow for tonight. But we'll get more all
the details the next time he comes on the program
and get us to maybe he'll send us a pitcher
we can pop up here on the screen.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
But not to worry, though, we've got a great guest.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
A good friend of mine is going to be joining
us on the panel, but let me also mention to
watch the show, including the previous yeared episodes, you can
visit the I Golf Sports YouTube channel or go to
Spotify dot com. You can also listen to the audio
version at spreaker dot com or wherever you listen to
podcasts and don't while you're there, don't forget to subscribe
to our channel, I Golf Sports and get notified as

(02:30):
new episodes get added each and every week. Also, if
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use promo code golf Tips twenty five and get twenty
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(02:50):
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Speaker 3 (03:11):
All right.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
As I mentioned, we're going to be starting things off
with Coach's Corner. My good friend John Decker, the director
of instruction at the Medallion Club in Columbus, Ohio, is
here on the panel tonight, and he's also a senior
contributing editor and a top twenty five instructor with Golf
Tips Magazine. He was the twenty fifteen Southern Ohio Teacher
of the Year and author of two books, Golf Is
My Life, Glorifying God through the Game and Fairways to

(03:34):
Heaven One Shot at a Time. He's also available for
public speaking upon request, So please welcome to the show
once again, my good friend John Decker, John, welcome back.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Thank you Ted for having me on the show tonight.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Well, I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Always always a pleasure having you on, and I hate
that Pete's not going to be joining us, but certainly
I'm pretty sure he's on cloud nine right now, so
we're not going to hold that against him, and we're
excited for him and his family. So again, congratulations to
the Buchanan family. Further new addition, So all right, so
we're going to talk about some of the top issues

(04:07):
affecting the golf swing and this is a lot of
different things. So I'm going to sort of unpack this
a little bit and I'm going to get you done unpack.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
So what we're going to talk about is a number
of issues, and I want you to talk about some
of the uh what sort of cause an effect if
you will, So what the cause typically of this particular
issue that I'm going to bring to bring to bear here,
and then sort of talk about some of the I
guess remedies that you would put together with your student

(04:36):
on how to sort of overcome or or how to
recover from that. So one of them is is obviously
over the top. This is when we hear quite a
bit from some of our students. So what is typically
one of the causes of coming over to the top
and how would you go about trying to correct that
with one of your students?

Speaker 6 (04:55):
Well, ted, this is probably one of the most common
things I see in the golf and teaching golf, and
especially with men, because men tend to want to muscle
the ball using the rupper body. But the mistake that
a lot of people out there make is they try
to fix the over the top without fixing the problem,

(05:16):
and the problem. The root of the problem is an
open club face. Now, the open club face typically, if
I were to put a percentage on it, I would
say about eighty percent of the time it's because of
the grip. It's usually a week if you're a right
handed golf or a week left hand grip, but not always.
Sometimes the grip can be not the issue. The takeaway

(05:40):
can have a big influence on that. So if someone
rolls the club back because the risks are a hinge,
you know, so if you're swinging the club back and
you're rolling the club back and you're opening the face.
I've seen people who have really nice grips and by
the time the club gets waist high, I'll show them
them on video and I'll say, you took that really
nice grip, and now it's not a nice trip. You've

(06:01):
got the face wide open. So that's the second, you know,
main thing that I will look at. And then there
could be other things over the top could be caused
by your distance from the ball.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Ball position could affect that as well.

Speaker 6 (06:15):
But typically, you know, nine times out of ten or
eight times out of ten, and the percentages I gave you,
it's in the grip and that starts the domino effect.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, and I think it affects the
sequencing as well, because again, a lot of people try
to muscle, as you said, especially the men. I mean,
you know, we're all guilty of that at times. We
want to, you know, get that extra distance, so we're
sort of muscling the ball out there. But yeah, everything
starts with connection to the golf club. If you've got
a poor grip to start with, that throws your body
alignment out and so forth, and obviously ball position other

(06:47):
things can become a factor as well. So some great
points there and things to take an you know, I
always go back, and I know I mentioned him a
lot on the show, but I always go back to Nicholas.
Nicholas always talked about at the beginning of the season
how it was important for him to sort of go
over and rehearse the fundamentals again and make sure that
he had those sound because if you're starting out with
poor fundamentals each year, then it's gonna you know, sort

(07:09):
of parlay into some bad swing habits and things like that.
So he always wanted to make sure that was number
one thing that he worked on the beginning of each season,
is he wanted to make sure he had this sound fundamentals,
you know, working on the grip and the posture and
the stance and things like that. So I mean, you know,
here's a guy that went ahead and won many many
majors and many other tournaments and and and finished you know,

(07:31):
even runner up, more than I think just about anybody
else you know ever been on the tour. So you
know he was doing something right. So you know, words
to live by, I guess. But but some great points.
There Another one too, I think, John is we see
this a lot is with and these kind of I
guess these two you can put together is poor balance,
and that a lot of times can be a.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
Result of bad posture.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
So maybe you can talk about that people getting into
not a good posture and as a result have very
poor balance in their golf swing.

Speaker 6 (08:01):
Yes, the balance is an issue that you see all
the time with all kinds of players, young and old.
In fact, I was just doing a junior clinic today
and one of the things I have my juniors do
is I'll have them stand on one leg and just see, Okay,
I want you to stand on one leg. Let's test
your balance and then I'll have them stand on the

(08:22):
opposite leg, and usually that's not a big deal for
a junior to do. But then I have them close
their eyes. And when you stand on one leg and
you close your eyes, if you can do it for
thirty seconds, you're doing pretty well.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
It's very difficult to do.

Speaker 6 (08:37):
Those are things that for people out there listening, those
are things you could do at home, you know, and
I think you know, make sure that you're being careful.
If you're at home, you could be up against a
wall and have your hand on the wall or have
your hand near the wall so that if you do
lose your balance, and I don't want anyone to fall
or anything. But those are ways that's you know doing
and you can test your balance.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
But when you're looking at the golf swing.

Speaker 6 (09:00):
You're right, there's a lot of reasons why people lose
their balance, But the number one thing that I want
people to understand is when you're swinging that golf club,
you are producing centrifical force. And centrifical force is if
I take a piece of rope and I just hold
the piece of rope, it's going to kind of lay
toward the ground. But if I start swinging it like

(09:20):
a lasso, like a cowboy swinging a lasso, it's going.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
To rise up. That's centrifical force.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
When you swing a golf club, you produce centrifical force,
and that straightens you up. And as soon as you
start straightening up, you're gonna lose your balance, and so
the end you're gonna stop your rotation. The only way
you can counter that is by rotation. So I've always
thought that when I look at someone who has poor posture,

(09:46):
nine times out of ten they're distance from the ball's
not right. So they might be standing too far from
the ball, which is going to cause them to bend
over too much, or they're going to stand too close
to the ball, which is going to cause them to
be up to upright. If you take a golf swing
and you think about it, you're swinging a club.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
The average golfer out there might.

Speaker 6 (10:06):
Be swinging between seventy five and one hundred miles an hour.
When you start think about how fast that is. When
you're driving a car, you know, seventy five to one
hundred miles an hour, that's fast. Well, you're swinging a
club at seventy five to one hundred miles an hour
or more. If you're a better player, that's centrifugal force
is straightening you up, and that stops your rotation immediately,
and that's usually going to lead to fat thinshots, all

(10:28):
kinds of problems.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
So you know, posture has a big part of that.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
And uh, and that's something that you definitely one of
the first things that I will look at as a
teacher when I'm when I'm assessing someone's golf swing.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
Is there a drill that you like, a favorite drill
that you have for helping people get into that good
posture and also helping define their balance.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (10:49):
When when I'm having someone set up to the to
the ball, I describe it as, you know, your fourteen
clubs in your bag, we're going to take the putter.
We're not going to use the putter really in this one,
but in the full swing, which you have thirteen clubs,
each one of those clubs has a different length to them,
so they're like measuring sticks. So what I try to
do is get my students to bend from their hips

(11:10):
and bend from their knees and let their arms hang
straight down. And where their arms are hanging straight down.
That will be where they're hand. That's we're going to
be where they hold the clubs with an iron. Now,
if they're hitting a driver or a threewood or even
a hybrid, they're going to extend their arms out from
their body just a little bit because the clubs are longer.
That club is dictating your posture. Now, that's on a

(11:34):
level lie. Let's say we're on a perfectly level lie. Well,
as you all know, when we get out on the
golf course, the lives aren't always level. So when you
get on these uneven lines, now you have to account
for that as well. So there's a lot of adjustments
that are made to that. But if you're standing, you know,
on a mat, and you're doing it, then you want
to kind of you want to learn to do it
on a level life first because you have to master

(11:55):
that first, and that posture and distance from the ball.
They go hand in hand and the club that you have,
because your posture changes with every club. I do not
have the same posture with a driver as I would
with a putter because I have a forty five inch
club versus a thirty five inch club. So there's are
two totally different club links. So my postures with a
driver is going to be more upright, with a putter

(12:17):
is going to be bent over more So the club
and the lie really are what's going to dictate your posture.
And so that's something that would I would recommend doing.
I did a video on this, I don't really have it.
It's not really a drill, but just illustrating what I
just said. And if you go to Decker golf dot
com under full swing, that is measuring yourself to the ball,

(12:39):
I think is the way I labeled it. I've got
about seventy five videos or so on that in just
a full swing section on my website, but that video
is on the website.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Yeah, and you're so right. I mean, it's like we've
talked so many times on the show. If you're not
getting into a good posture from the get go, there's
a multitude of things that can happen.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's reactionary.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
So if you're you know, as you talked about earlier,
if your grip is not good, then that throws things
out of alignment. If your posture is not good, that
throws other things out of alignment. And balance, of course,
you have to be in balance when you're swinging, because again,
like you said, so many, you know, to one hundred
miles an hour, you're swinging that golf club and just
the pure centrifical force is going to throw you off
balance very easily if you're not set up in a

(13:23):
good posture.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
So it's very.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
Easy to get out of you know, get off balance
and to get out of posture if you're not set
up properly from the get go.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
So it's important to work on those things. And I
couldn't agree more.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
And again you give some great examples, and we'll remind
the folks at the end of this segment to visit
your website to see more of those videos and you
can point them to specific areas if you want. This
is something to John that I found interesting when I
was getting ready for tonight's show. This one particular here,
and it'll make perfect sense to everybody in a moment.
But you know, we used to see, especially with taller players,

(13:59):
we would see a lot of people would over rotate,
you know, we would see them take a huge, you know,
onset of people like John Daly, who you know, practically
wrapped the club around, you know, and everybody wanted to
emulate that. So you know, we saw a lot of
people trying to force that into a sort of an
over extension of the back swing. Well, then you know

(14:20):
people sort of you know in the Gulf has said, well,
you know, you need to shorten that backswing a little bit. Well,
now we run into a problem where you're seeing people
are trying to short it, shorten that backswing, but they're
not doing.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
It really correctly.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
They're just using their arms and just not going back
as far, so they're not now they're not completing the backswing.
So when somebody is not completing the backswing, first off,
what are they What are you looking for as a
coach when you're watching you're a student and they're getting
into a backswing. What are some of the key areas
that you're looking for.

Speaker 6 (14:47):
Well, I think the thing that I've really changed in
my teaching and with my own game is I was
for years trying to teach students to totally resist with
their lower to have you know, you're gonna have some
you're gonna have some hip turn. I'm not saying you're
not going to turn your hips, but trying to have
a real resisting you know, keeping the feet more on

(15:10):
the ground.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
I am.

Speaker 6 (15:12):
I'm totally changed on that now, I believe, especially as
I've gotten older. I mean, I look at Jack Nicholas,
I look at Sam Sneed, I look at Ben Hogan,
I look at all the classic golf swings. For years,
the left heel came up, and the left heel coming
up helps to get that full shoulder turn. If you're
trying to keep your left heel on the ground and

(15:33):
make a shoulder turn, it's gonna be very difficult unless
you're about fifteen.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know.

Speaker 6 (15:37):
If you're a teenager, yeah, that's not a big deal.
But when you're an adult, and I think you know,
a lot of the people that are listening and watching
the show are probably in the age range where flexibility
is an issue when when it comes to golf, and
so lifting the heel, the left heel if you're right
handed golfer, in making that turn is very important. On occasion,

(16:00):
I have had students where I will actually have them
turn their right toe out a little bit more to
get a little bit more flexibility to a little bit
more movement. I'm not a huge fan of that, but
if the you know, and that would be something that
maybe in ten percent of the students I work with,
I'll give that to them. Usually it's for students that
are maybe over the age of seventy that that might

(16:24):
be a good tip as well, because that will help you.
Keep in mind, if you start opening that toe up,
you can start incorporating some swaying and some over movement,
and now all of a sudden you're creating other problems.
So just kind of be careful with that. But the
lifting of the left heel, in my opinion, is something

(16:44):
that will really help you to make that shoulder turn
get more power. And you know, Jack Nicholas said when
he was aging and still trying to play competitively, like
on the Champions Tour or he said, his swing thought
was complete your ba.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
That was his swing thought to complete his backswing.

Speaker 6 (17:03):
You know, and because he and he lifted the heel,
and you know, in my opinion, had one of the
greatest swings to ever have any player to ever play
the game.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yeah, he had a very unique, uh swing and it
was one that you know a lot of people early
on tried to copy. The one thing I do want
to point out and people need to understand this about
lifting the heel is it's a result of the turn.
What I often see a lot of people do is
they'll sort of lift the heel up before they've even
really started moving into their backswing. That's not what we're
talking about. What you want to do is you want

(17:34):
to turn, and as you start to feel the tension build, uh,
and you're feeling that tour happening, it's okay to lift
it up. And again, you don't have to lift it
way up. You have to lift it up just enough
that you're able to complete that backswing. And for some
people it maybe for you, it might be a little
bit more. For me, it might be a little bit more.
So it varies, and that's something you have to experiment
a little bit. But I want to just point that
out because I see a lot of people on the
range that you know, especially older people, and I'll see

(17:56):
them sort of lifting that leg up as they're you know,
before they're even really getting into the backswing. And so
I want to make sure people it's a result of
the backswing itself for the result of the turn, So
you want to be careful of that. Alignment's another one,
John that I think a lot of people just seem
to miss the boat on I mean I see people

(18:16):
they get up there, you know, they're they're looking down
the line and say, okay, I know where I got
to aim now, And they get up to the ball
and they're aiming completely different than what they sort of visualized.
So how do how do we, you know, get that
alignment correct for them as well?

Speaker 3 (18:30):
What can we do?

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Maybe you can throw a drill in here as well
that you like to do, or something that you recommend
people to make sure that they're aligning.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
What are they looking for? First off?

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Well, the first thing that anytime I deal with anyone
on alignment, the first thing I want to know is
their eye dominance. You need to know your eye dominance,
and a lot of people don't.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
As I'm amazed.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
I'll do clinics for years and I'll have groups and
I can tell everyone what their eye dominance is. All
you have to simply do is take your hands and
put them together and put them up in front of
your face, and which and look at something and then
close one eye and then close the other. You'll figure
out really fast which eye is dominant. Everyone has an
eye dominant, and just because you're right handed does not

(19:13):
mean your right eye dominant. I am right handed and
I'm left eye dominant, so this has really affected me
in my alignment. If I, for example, get on the
right hand side of the t box, I have a
much better opportunity to line up properly, even though I
like to play a draw on most cases than if

(19:33):
I get on the left hand side of the t
box because of the way I perceive things. So you know,
everyone is different with eye dominant. So that's one of
the first things. But when I'm standing behind the ball
and I'm aiming, I form my target line. That's the
first thing I'm doing. I like to close my right
eye and hold the club up in front of me
and kind of put it over the ball and looking

(19:54):
looking down at the club. And this is from behind
the ball obviously, and I'll cover the ball and then
I'll point it at a target. It could be a
tree or whatever I'm aiming at. That helps to give
me my target line. And then from there, once I
have my target line, I want to walk in and
try to get my body parallel to that. So you're
always trying to be parallel to your target line for

(20:15):
a standard shot that you're trying to hit, So that
will help you on the golf course. Knowing your eye
dominics I think is important. But the best way and
the number one teaching tool that I see out on
the PGA tour is the alignment sticks. Using alignment sticks
is a must. You need to be doing that, and
I don't care. I tell my students this all the time,

(20:37):
even my really elite juniors that are going on to
play collegiately, I tell them, you are never going to
be good enough to not have to use this, because
you are going to fall into bad habits and you're
not going to And it's subtle. It's just a subtle
little okay, you're getting closed with your feet, or you're
getting open with your feet, or you're getting.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
Your shoulders open or your shoulders closed.

Speaker 6 (21:00):
Little things get off and then all of a sudden
it creates a domino effect. And it may not happen
for a round or two, but after a week or
two of it, that's when you start getting off.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
And that's when.

Speaker 6 (21:11):
You you quite frankly, need to get a lesson, and
you need to get that lesson. Don't wait till you're
about to jump off the bridge, and you're gonna give
up on golf wait till once you see yourself, you know,
struggling on the golf course getting yourself lined up. That's
something that I would That's when I would go get
find a PGA golf.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
Professional and try to get instruction as well.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
But the last thing I'll say on alignment is is
on the golf course, people will tend to line based
line up based on their ball flight. So if they're
a slicer, they're gonna tend to aim more to the left. Well,
the more you aim left, the more it's gonna slice.
If you're a hooker, the more you aim to the right,
the more it's gonna hook. So I tend my miss
when I'm not playing well is left. So I nine

(21:56):
times out of ten when I start missing it left,
I'll hit a shot and it goes left.

Speaker 5 (22:02):
I'll put a club down by my feet.

Speaker 6 (22:04):
I'll walk back there and look at it and oh
my gosh, I'm aim twenty yards right of my target.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
No wonder I hooked it like that.

Speaker 6 (22:11):
So that is where you know, being aware of your
tendencies and what's going on and your ballflight and making
sure that you're checking those boxes and getting that setup.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
It all goes back to the setup.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Making sure that you get that setup right is going
to be critical in alignment.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, and it's a great point. You know.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
It's funny because I remember a few years ago, I
had the opportunity they had locally here at one of
the courses the final round of the Q Series for
the LPGA, and I would always make a point of
going out early to watch the young ladies, you know,
teeing up on the range and you know, working and
getting prepared. And it's interesting you say that, and there's

(22:51):
a reason why the pros do it. But you'll see
them almost every one of them laid down alignment sticks.
And you know, you raised a really interesting point because
you talked about you know, when you're playing a lot
of golf, particularly after a while, you start to get
a little fatigued and your muscles will tense up. So
what happens naturally is you start to compensate when things
are a little bit tense. You relax a little bit

(23:11):
more on this side, or you do something different, or
you move until it feels comfortable. Well, all of a sudden,
your shoulders are way open or closed or whatever the
case may be, or you're relaxing another part of your body.
So it's always good to do that check. And it
goes back to what we said earlier. You know, with
Jack Nicholas, I mean he would do a lot of
that stuff. And I know he used alignment sticks as well.
He used other things. Well, he actually used golf clubs.

(23:33):
He would lay golf clubs. Those were his alignment sticks
more often not if you watch them in video, But
essentially it was accomplishing the same thing. And it was
again he wanted to make sure and you know, again,
this is the best player in the world for many,
many decades. You know, if he's laying clubs down his
case or alignment sticks, then when you see an amateur
golf rout, they're this busting to break a hundred. Why

(23:55):
are you not doing the same thing. They don't cost
very much. You can get them, you know, for next nothing.
Make your own. If you're that cheap, go make your own.
Go to your local loves or home depot and you
can get you know, some thin dowels or something like
that and just get them cut to you know, a
few feet and lay them down there. If you're cheap
enough to you know that you don't want to go
and buy lime and sticks. They're not that much so,

(24:16):
but it's just interesting. But you raise some great points,
and you know, we want people to become better. But again,
you know, really the purpose of Coach's Corner is and
sometimes I know it sounds like we're stating the obvious,
but it's amazing how many people that I talk to,
you know, every week, who still don't get a lot
of the simplest things. And it's because they don't practice.

(24:39):
They don't you know, they don't think about that. They're
they're so busy thinking about how can I muscle the
ball out there? How can I generate more power? And
that's great if that's what you want, But if all
of the other stuff isn't in sync, it doesn't matter
how much power you've got. If you're doing everything wrong,
all you're gonna do is you're gonna amplify that slice
or that hook or whatever it is. So let's work

(25:01):
on hitting the ball properly, first, getting it in balance,
getting you know, you know, getting the ball airborne naturally.
We're going to talk about that in a minute, because
this is another one that that stymies a lot of people.
But you know, getting it online and getting it on target.
And if you're not doing getting a good grip and
getting all these things established right from the get go,

(25:21):
then we can work on developing more power and to
help you get more distance. But let's let's get the
darn thing going straight first, you know, before you worry
about the other. This is one here, John, and this
makes me laugh. And you see this more often, particularly
with the irons. But everybody's trying to lift the ball.
They don't seem to understand that the club is there
to do the work for you and if you do

(25:43):
everything correctly, the ball will do what you need to do,
and that's to get the ball airborne.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
What's happening here? Talk about that a little bit. What
is it that people are.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Doing that you're seeing when they're trying to force that
lifting of the ball, and what do they really need
to be doing? What is it they're doing wrong, and
what is it they really need to be doing well.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
It starts with the ball position.

Speaker 6 (26:02):
I think that the majority of people that I see
play the ball too far back in their stands, and
this is There are times to move the ball back
in the stands, but I don't like to see the
ball go past the middle of my So if I'm
setting up, you know, I think back in my stance
is like where my sternum is. Anything forward of my

(26:25):
chest or sternum uh to my left heel is going
to be where I'm going to be playing the ball position.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
So obviously the driver will be the most.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
Forward, and then there's not much difference between the driver
and the nine iron. Really there's about maybe maybe an
inch and a half two inches. And if I'm going
to a sand wedge hitting a full shot with a sandwich,
I'll play it, you know, in the middle of my stands.
But my feet are more narrow, so that's I'm not
going to have as wide a stance with a sand
wedge as I would a driver.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
So yes, it starts with the ball position.

Speaker 6 (26:56):
People play the ball right of center, so they playing
it back toward their right shoulder and they're trying to
keep their weight back and lift the ball off the ground.
The other thing that that the other reason why they
do this is the majority of people have two week
of a grip, and so a weak grip and back
and the ball position back is a remedy for a

(27:19):
handsy golf swing where they're trying to lift with the hands,
scoop with the hands, or they're trying to lift with
the arms, and so those two kind of go hand
in hand.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
You're exactly right.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
The weight of the iron, you're supposed to use the body,
your body weight and the rotation of your body weight
to allow the club to hit the ball first the
ground second. With an iron and then with the driver,
we're hitting more up on the ball. So we are
hitting up on the ball with a driver, but with
an iron, we're hitting down on the ball. And that

(27:51):
downward descending blow is what creates the divot. So we're
hitting the ball first and then the ground.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
If you're not.

Speaker 6 (27:58):
Making a divot, then you are losing distance and you
are only going to be able to play golf when
you have a perfect lie. You have no chance when
you're out of the rough, no chance at all. So
you've got to learn to hit the ground, not the
top of the grass. You've got to learn to hit
the ground. And yes, you are supposed to make a divot.

(28:20):
So a lot of my students, I can't tell you
how many beginners I teach, they'll make a divot and
they go, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to do that, and they immediately go run and grab it,
and I'm like, no, no, that's fine, You're.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
Supposed to do that. That's okay.

Speaker 6 (28:32):
And I always tell them, we know how to grow grass,
We'll grow that back. So, you know, learning how to
make a divot, I think is one of the most
important parts of learning to be a good iron player. Now,
some people make too much of a divot. That's another problem.
But for the illustration of what you just said, the
people that are trying to lift the ball off the ground,

(28:53):
if they make a divot, their divid is four or
five inches behind the ball because that hanging back trying
to lift the ball off the ground is not the
way to get the ball in the air. You're trying
to use the loft of the club. Hit the ball
first round, second and that loft will put spin on
the ball, get the ball loshed in the air, and
you know, depending on what club you're using, make it

(29:15):
go a certain distance.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Yeah, and I think it also, John, I wanted to
mention this a little bit too. Is I think part
of the problem that a lot of amateur golfers have
is they don't know where the low point of their
swing is, especially with their irons. Again, as you mentioned
with the driver, you know you're hitting more on the upswing,
so it's a little bit different. But you know, they
don't know in relation to their body where the low
point is, so when they're swinging, the best way to

(29:37):
do that really is to swing the iron and just
sort of clip the grass and see where it's hitting.
And then you don't want your ball in front of that.
You want your ball actually just slightly behind that, so
that you're making contact with the ball before you make
that low point in your golf swing. And another way
to do it as well, and again for right handed golfers,
is when you're holding your club in your left hand,

(29:59):
really about right around the ball joint or maybe even
around the armpit of your left arm. Usually typically will
be about where the low point of your swing is
as you're rotating and you're coming back in. So again,
but if you're making a lot of lateral movements, that
can shift, so you have to be careful of that.
So that's why it's important to really swing the club.
And it might be slightly different. Again, it's not going
to be a huge difference for everybody, but again, depending

(30:21):
on your body style, and that it might be slightly different,
it might be as much as a half a ball
difference for maybe between you and I. But you have
to find that low point, especially for your irons. And
once you do that, and it typically tends to be
again a little bit more forward of center for most cases,
but you need to find that and then position the
ball accordingly, because if you're hitting way behind the ball,

(30:43):
that means you've moved your low point of the golf
swing behind where the ball is sitting, and that's why
you're hitting it fat. I mean there's other things as well,
but that's something that a lot of people need to
be aware of, and I know coaches teach that, but again,
because people don't practice as much as they should, they
don't know or they forget where it is, and then
they start And this brings us into the last one
here is poor weight transfer, poor weight shift.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
We see this all the.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Time, especially with tall players have a real hard problem
with this. I know when I was younger, this was
a sort of a stemy for me. Is I got
a lot of lateral movement in my golf swing and
I've had to really get more of a turn into
it as opposed to a shift, So talk about that
as well, talk about some of the issues with weight
transfer or poor shift, if you will, and what people

(31:26):
really need to be focusing on.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
Well.

Speaker 6 (31:28):
I was recently talking to one of the guy that
he works with biomechanics, and he works with fitness and does.
His name is Bill Williams, and he's here in Ohio
and I was talking to him and he said, you know,
when you play golf, you play golf on one leg.
And I was like, you know, you're right. I never

(31:51):
really thought of it. I never in my life had
ever heard that. In the short game, you know, you're
putting all your weight on one side usually and you're playing
your shot. But in the full swing, you're setting up.
If your weight is fifty to fifty, you go back,
all of your weight turns into your right hip. You
turn around that right hip and turn the shoulders back,
and then you transition into your left hip, and then
you turn around that left hip. And so the weight

(32:13):
shift is happening because of the rotation of the body
is not a side to side motion, so our body
works three different ways. It works down to up, so
I'm bending from the waist down to the ground and
I come up. That's one that's one plane of motion.
Then I can go side to side that's the second

(32:35):
plane of motion. And then the third plane emotion is
the turning back and through.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
And so when you.

Speaker 6 (32:41):
Set up to the golf ball you use in golf,
you use all three of those planes of motion, but
two of them are in the setup. So you bend
over like we talked about earlier. That's the first plane emotion.
You tilt your shoulders, which is important. You're dropping your
right shoulder and your left shoulders higher.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
You take your grip.

Speaker 6 (32:57):
That's the second plane emotion, and then from there you
turn back into the right hip, you turn back into
the left hip. That's the rotational part. So that's a
real important factor to understand in the how the weight
shift occurs. Now some drills for this. There's a ton
of drills. You can hit off downhill lies. That's a

(33:18):
great way to work on your weight shift. I've got
on my website. I've got all these transitional drills. There's
tap and go drill, the step forward drill, there's the
step through drill. Those are three drills, but a real
simple way to work on your weight shift.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
Is anyone can do this.

Speaker 6 (33:35):
Take a towel, like a small towel, like a golf
towel or a bathroom towel or something like that, and
put it on the ground, lay it on the ground,
and put your golf ball right in front of that,
and then set up to the ball and the idea
is to swing and hit the ball and not hit
that towel. This is kind of combining the weight shift
and what we just talked about in you know, using

(33:57):
making the divot, and that's a great way to usually
say wow, I don't want to hit back here with
the talis And if you do hit the towel, you're
not going to hurt anything. The towel will just fly
in the air and you can do it again. But
I'm amazed when you put that down there, because it's
not going to hurt if you hit it. But when
you put that down there, that's a great way to
do it. Because a lot of people who are practicing

(34:19):
golf in the winter months, for example, or they may
go to a driving range that does not allow you
to hit off grass. They're hitting off mats, they are
they're hitting shots to go, oh, I've got this. I'm
doing great when in reality they're not because the mat
allows the club to slide into the ball still and
they can hit a half inch behind the ball and

(34:39):
still hit a decent shot.

Speaker 5 (34:41):
When you put that.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
Towel down there, you have clear cut evidence of whether
you've done it correctly or you haven't done it correctly.
That is the cheap, easy way right there to go
out and have a good quality practice session with your
iron play.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
And I think that'll help the listeners out there.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
Yeah, that was so thing I remember when I was
really young. I remember going to the driving range with
my father and he, you know, he said, well, come on,
we're going to hit some balls before we go out
and play. And this was at a local range, and
then we were going to drive down the street to
a course, but he said, let's go up here and
we'll just practice a little bit and you don't have

(35:19):
a little more privacy. And the first thing I did
is I went over where the mats work, said well,
these are cool.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Let's do that. He said no, no, no, he said we're
going down a little further where the grass is and
I said, well, why, these are perfect. They're set up.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
There's a little rubber tee there for the driver when
we're ready to do that, and I can hit off
this nice, you know, plush looking grass. And he said
no for the very same reason, he said, because the
mats are meant to be a little more forgiving, and
because the clubhead will slide. You're not again, you could
hit half an inch or even an inch behind and
still come off with a pretty decent shot and think, oh, okay,
that's not so bad. Then you get out into the

(35:49):
golf course and you do the same thing. Now the
dirt's flying and the balls scald or it's you know,
hit a you know, some other thin shot or what
have you, and you're sitting there thinking, well, you know,
I feel like I'm hitting the same as I was
on the range. So I'm a big proponent. I know
people in the industry that are going to hear me
say this, they're going to hate it. But I don't

(36:10):
like hitting off the mats for that very reason, and
also too a lot of times what people don't now.
I know some of the newer locations are better, but
back at that time they used to have concrete underneath.
And the problem is, even though the MAT's a few
inches thick, it's very solid. There's no forgiveness. So if
you hit down on that, I've seen people break their clubs.

(36:30):
So I don't want to discourage anybody for going to range.
If they have mats, I know that they can be good.
But I just like hitting off the grass because I
like to get the real field and I like to
do in the twel drill. I think that's good. That's
always helped me over the years as well, So some
great points in doing that. But John Well, I really
appreciate your insight as well. I think we you know,

(36:52):
probably for the most part, I think we agree pretty
much on everything, and I think we will give a
few nuggets. The main thing is I want with coaches corner,
I want people to really, you know, open their ears
and listen to what we're trying to say. We're not
just saying it to hear ourselves talk. We're saying it
because we want people to understand that if you want
to become a better player, there's things, fundamental things that

(37:15):
you need to do to be successful, even if you're
not playing very often. If you go out and work
on these things and a lot of things, as we've
talked about over the years, You can do a lot
of things at home. If you don't have time to
go to the range, you can do these things at home,
working on your grip and working on your post, or
get in front of a mirror and you know, and
do things like that. You can even get some a
shorter club if you've got a lower ceiling and you
can just work on in front of a mirror and

(37:35):
work on your back swing and things like that and
look at the different positions that you're in, making sure
that you're doing what your coach is talking about. And
that's the big one is get together with a teach,
professional or a coach and say to them, you know,
I really want to get better on my game, but
then you've got to put it into practice. And if
you're not willing to do that, well, then you're not
going to get better. So you have to make a choice.
It's a decision. Is if you're going to get out

(37:56):
there and play, you've got to put the effort in. So,
but I want to thank you for coming tonight. As always,
you do a great job, and I'm going to give
you since we've got a couple extra minutes, go ahead
and take a minute or two. Tell the folks first off,
how they can get in touch with you where you
are right now, and obviously I know you're going to
be traveling again this fall back down South here, but
let them know about that and know about your website

(38:17):
and anything else. If you want to plug the books,
the floor is yours.

Speaker 6 (38:21):
Well, thanks again Ted for having me on the show,
and special congratulations to the Pete Buchanan family and Pete,
sorry you weren't on the show tonight, but we totally understand,
and congratulations again on your new grandson. For the listeners
out there, if you want to get in touch with me,
please go to deckergolf dot com. My website is designed,

(38:42):
it's self contained, is designed to help you to improve
your game. It's broken down into the categories of full swing, hutting, chipping, pitching, bunker,
course management, and golf fitness. There's no sign up, I
don't ask for emails or anything like that. It's free,
so please check out the way site or if you
like to go to YouTube, you can go to my

(39:03):
YouTube channel, John Decker Golf Instruction and that's if you
put that in. I've got about five hundred videos up
there so and I'll be putting out some more here
pretty soon.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
And I'm also on social.

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Media Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I have two books, Golf
Is My Life, Glorifying God through the Game and Fairways
to Having One Shot at a Time. I am a
Christian author, so those books are on Amazon, Barnes, and
Noble websites, and also Walmart has the books as well.

(39:37):
And my new audiobook for Fairways to Have It just
was released last week. So if you like to do audiobooks,
there's now audiobooks if you go to Amazon or wherever
you download your audiobooks, they're available there for both books.
And then I do public speaking, and if you're looking
for a public speaker, it could be at your church,

(39:58):
your golf course, your civic org organization.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
I'd love to come to your community and do that.

Speaker 6 (40:03):
And also, you know, I can do golf clinics as well,
so I can do a combination of speaking from the
faithside and also do instruction as well. And I'm in
currently teaching in the Columbus, Ohio area. I'm here at
Medallion Club, which is in Westerville. I will be here
until November and then I'm heading back down to Naples, Florida.

(40:26):
I'll be teaching at the Dennis Meyer Golf School from
December through March and that's at the High Biscus Golf Club.
So if you're looking for personal instruction with me again,
if you go to decergolf dot com, you can all
of my contact informations on there.

Speaker 5 (40:42):
Feel free to reach out and I'd love to work
with you.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
That sounds good.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
Well again, John, thank you very much as always for
joining me here on the Golf Talk Lives Coaches Corner panel.
It's always a pleasure to have you join me on
the show and always bring in your best And I
just want to let the listeners know again that if
they want to catch the show, they can go to
the I Golf Sports YouTube channel and subscribe there and

(41:08):
all of the shows there's with the audio versions as
well uploaded, which YouTube does allow to do that as well.
There's over nine hundred episodes up there, so thirteen years
that we've been doing this. We've been slepping this podcast
for a long time, so there's lots of great stuff,
and of course this year we've introduced the video version,
which has made a little bit more fun and enjoyable

(41:29):
for us. But you can go to the I goll
Sports YouTube channel and subscribe for that as well. But
John again, thank you very much for joining me. It's
always a pleasure and look forward to having you join
me again. And congratulations on the second audio book dropping
this week. And again go to deckergolf dot com to
get all of his contact information and to check out
where you can get a copy of the books. So

(41:50):
on that note, we're going to take a quick commercial break,
and when I come back and to be joined by
my good friend and co host the travel segment, Robert Kaffin,
we'll be right back, all right. Welcome back everybody, and

(42:45):
very excited to begin our travel segment tonight and with
me joining us of course, my good friend, co host
and travel expert, Robert Coaufin. Let me tell you a
little bit about him. Robert is an award winning photographer,
golf and travel writer, golf media consultant. He's worked with
a number of great publications such as truon Golf and
Travel Magazine, PJA Magazine, of course, Golf Tips Magazine, along

(43:06):
with the host of others. If you want to see
more of his great work, you can visit his website
Pitcherparfect dot com. Our special Travel guest tonight is Jose Marthlon.
He is the head golf professional at the Solmar Golf
Links in Cabo San Lucas. He is again a golf
professional for over thirty years of experience in the game.
He holds a degree in Business Administration Marketing from Coast

(43:29):
of Carolina University, where he also completed the PGA of
America's Professional Golf Management Program and is a Class A
member of the PGA America's International Section. And so, Jose
and Robert, welcome to Golf Talk Live in our Travel segment,
and welcome to the show.

Speaker 7 (43:45):
Great, thank you Jed, good to be back.

Speaker 8 (43:47):
Thank you Rob, and thank you Ded for such a
great introduction. Pleasure to be here.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
All right, Well, I did my best and I appreciate it.
So what I'm going to do, Jose, is I'm going
to sort of turn things over. I'm going to sit
here and kind of listen to the conversation. I like
to let Robert, you know, delve into some of the
questions and and just talk to you a little bit,
and then I'm gonna sort of wrap things up as
we get a little bit closer to the end of

(44:13):
the segment.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
But Robert. I'm gonna turn it over you and my
good friend and coast and have about it all.

Speaker 7 (44:18):
Right, Thank you, Ted, Well good great to see you again. Ose.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's been like forever since I was down there in Cabo.
It's been what four months maybe and a long time.
So yeah, I miss it.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
I miss it.

Speaker 9 (44:31):
You need to go more often?

Speaker 7 (44:34):
Yeah I do. I do.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
I need to go a lot of places more often.
But and anyway, just kind of get started here, you know,
before we get into the you know, resort property itself.
I just want to get your general overall impression of,
you know, what the attraction is about the destination of

(44:57):
Cabo San Lucas, you know, and what brings golfers there.

Speaker 8 (45:02):
Okay, I mean I think first of all, it would
be interesting to mention that I'm from Spain.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
You know.

Speaker 8 (45:09):
In Spain we have we have amazing both courses, you know,
but I decided to travel to the other side of
the world, you know, to come and work here. So
I think that that tells you that it's an amazing
gold destination, high class, like top of the line, maintenance
of courses, manicure, you know, so and most of them

(45:33):
are like great designers you know, in our case it's
correct Goman, you know, but all big names. Actually in
Gable was the first tables golf course, you know, so
cable cable is I mean unmke connections that have flights.
You know, you can go anywhere in the States. So yeah,

(45:58):
the quality, the big the sun, I think it never stops,
uh getting any better.

Speaker 9 (46:05):
And would Gobo you.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Know, yeah, how long have you been at the property now?
They said you came over.

Speaker 8 (46:12):
The Yeah, I mean I've been here in Atal Marco
f Links for now for a year and a half.
And before that, I mean I lived for another year
and a half in Macha, California, so I know the
region now for three years.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Okay, So you know what I what I really liked
about your property, And I know I've been to a
couple others down there, but yours, specifically Grand some Are
is in a very secluded spot right right on the ocean,
right on the Pacific Ocean.

Speaker 7 (46:45):
And you know, it's far from the you know.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
The touristy town of Cabos, so you're far you're far
removed from the from the all the hubbub of crowds
down there. So you know, talk talk to about the
you know, let's get into into the property now and
talk about you know, the location, what's so special about
it and what you know, what's going on down there.

Speaker 8 (47:11):
I mean the all the like the big developments and
properties you know, are expanding to ours, Tolos Santos. You
know that that's the Pacific Ocean, you know, so what
you can expect in our property are like amazing, amazing vieuse,
you know, amazing sunsets. Obviously, the beach it's it's it's huge.

(47:37):
It's just since it's just you on the on the beach,
there's so much space.

Speaker 7 (47:41):
You know, it goes on forever.

Speaker 8 (47:43):
But yeah, the projects keep coming up, and so it
really feels unique. Actually, I don't know if you know,
but the film Troyer you probably remember I was. It
was filmed and in that beach the property were that

(48:06):
was before you you were, you know, I mean it
was a few years ago, you know, but yeah, just
that the like I said that the debut the Sunset,
And you know what I like the most is that
I don't like the heat, you know, And when I
moved to California, I thought it was going to be
like like hell, you know, and I can tell you

(48:30):
that the weather is much better here right now than
in Spain because we have a little you have a
little brieze coming from the ocean, you know, so even
in the morning, I feel like getting like a little sweater,
you know.

Speaker 9 (48:44):
But it's it's it's great.

Speaker 8 (48:47):
And something else, you know, like when Fabruary in February Mars,
you can see like the whales, the big whales, you know,
like coming through off course. You can see when it's
when the when the ocean is it's no, you can
see the whales when they jump.

Speaker 9 (49:03):
So man, the location is spectacular.

Speaker 7 (49:07):
Yeah, that's that's got to be quite a sad. I know.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
One of my other visits down there, I had a
chance to go out whale watching and I was pretty
fortunate to see a couple of breaches and see a
lot of wheels go by. So it's it's a primaria
for whale watching for sure, you know, with your resort
with the hotel property. Uh, you know, all right there
on the ocean, tough to miss. Well, let's get into

(49:33):
the golf course. That's a that's a pretty special, unique
type of course, much different than pretty much of the
other golf course down in Cabo, so talk to us
about that. But you know, the designer I know is
Greg Norman and what he did down there to make
it such a dramatic course.

Speaker 8 (49:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we are some more golf links,
so we have a little bit of golf links, you know. Uh,
we have the very better bankers, you know. We have
like the tall rescue on the sides like in Scotland,
you know, a little bit like with the.

Speaker 9 (50:08):
Sand dunes, you know.

Speaker 8 (50:12):
So I think it really has everything that you expect
from a from a Lynx, I mean in gabble. You know,
it's not the samest thing as Scotland, but it's similar,
you know, just a bit warmer maybe, you know.

Speaker 9 (50:24):
So, yeah, it's a great Norman design.

Speaker 8 (50:27):
We have the ocean breeze, and I think what I
really like is that I think Reg Norman when he
designed the course, he really had in mind that little breeze,
you know, because it's you can tell it was design
considering that, you know. So even though when you get
a little breeze, you can play the course and you

(50:49):
can shoot low and you can enjoy. So yeah, I
would say those are the and the good thing also
is that since we are in a hill in this
side of the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, we're in a hill.
So pretty much all the holes you have deals into
the ocean.

Speaker 7 (51:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, most definitely.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yeah, talk about some of the the highlight holes. I mean,
I know that everyone's a highlight, but I'm sure summer
some stand out. I mean what I like actually is,
you know, it's nice that you guys had fun with
the naming of the holes, naming everyone after a whale, yeah,

(51:35):
which I found kind of amusing. I didn't even know
there were eighteen different types of whales.

Speaker 8 (51:39):
Yeah, I mean, I've read the names, but I have
not seen eighteen types of wells in my life. I've seen,
I think, you know. But yeah, I mean that's something
unique and curious. You know, people like to learn how
many different types of whales maybe you can find.

Speaker 9 (51:57):
But yeah, what what?

Speaker 7 (52:02):
So what are some of the holes that you enjoyed playing?

Speaker 8 (52:05):
I think, I mean, I usually when I'm at the
starting position, you know, I like to get people excited
about the course that they're going to play. You know,
I like to tell them that I really like numb two.
You know, number two green, it's ready at the ocean.
You know, it's spectacular number five. It's a part three
down the hill with sand dunes on both sides. You know,

(52:27):
it's a long part three, but I still I really
like it, you know. But I tell the people usually
tell the clients that I really like even better than
the backside.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
You know.

Speaker 8 (52:36):
So everything is starting in twelve thirteen. You know, thirteen
I really like because I can burn it. You know,
it's a part five, But my favorite holds fourteen, even
though it's not the easiest one, you know, because it
goes parallel along to the ocean. You know, you just
see sand dunes around you. You know, it's something that

(52:59):
you can only see here, you know. And people, I mean,
what I can tell you is, I don't know if
I'm supposed to to say or not. But people compare
our course to some renamed courses on the States. You know,
they remember, you know, I mean they say Brandon Dunes.

(53:20):
I never played, you know, But like like I said,
fourteen fifteen sixteen sixteen is a rich able part four.
You know, the green is very interesting because it's like
a half moon, you know, so in the center it's
a bunker. So when we have the pin location on
the left, it's difficult when we have on the right,

(53:41):
it's difficult.

Speaker 9 (53:42):
If you want to reach the green, the drive needs
to be high, you know.

Speaker 8 (53:48):
So yeah, my family, I would say it's fourteen definitely,
but it's not just one whole.

Speaker 9 (53:54):
I think the entire track. The people.

Speaker 8 (53:58):
What I can say is that the people when finished play,
they say, these people, this, this, this place is just spectacular, amazing,
I'm coming back.

Speaker 9 (54:06):
See. So that's that's very that's very powerful.

Speaker 8 (54:11):
And for us to work every day and have that
feedback every days, it's great.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Oh yeah, well, I'm sure a lot of folks show
up there, especially for the first time. They're they're pretty
surprised that, you know, the landscape there, and maybe they've
never played links golf before, and they get a pretty
good welcome to what what typic golf that that is
and how tough it.

Speaker 7 (54:36):
Could be, you know, depending upon the winds that are
blowing down.

Speaker 8 (54:38):
Yeah, especially even I'm surprised because a lot of times,
like you come into the lobby and you go through
the hole and you just see spectacular bills right right
from the stop. So people are right right when when
they arrived, they used to stop taking pictures, you know,
so that's that's very nice, right.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Right, right, and you've got some nice comfort stay out
there to kind of ease the pain a little bit.

Speaker 8 (55:03):
Yeah, you know, I mean we'll go for it requires
good food and good drinks, you know.

Speaker 9 (55:09):
So yeah, we got at this time.

Speaker 8 (55:12):
We got the food stations over you like a little
selection of food. We have tamies, which is which are
traditional from Mexico.

Speaker 9 (55:22):
See's you're thirsty.

Speaker 8 (55:24):
I always tell people to put on a lot of sauce,
you know, because life requires sauce, and Margaret is amazing,
but I cannot have them while I work.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
You know, right, and then there goes the petting stroke
right after that hot sauce exactly.

Speaker 8 (55:45):
Yeah, so we got we got four stops. You're stopping
whole number six, number eight, thirteen, and seventeen, you know.
And uh, the people have an amazing time.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, and it's open to any wonder does you one
have to stay at the resort there?

Speaker 9 (56:03):
No, this time is open to public.

Speaker 8 (56:06):
I mean people talk about it if in the future
is going to be private, but that's like talking what's
going to happen to me when I'm seventeen or sixty fifty.

Speaker 9 (56:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (56:16):
You know, this time is open to public, so people
have to come come now before it's.

Speaker 10 (56:22):
Now.

Speaker 8 (56:23):
We're open to public, and obviously it's focused for the
people that stay of the resort.

Speaker 9 (56:29):
We're welcome everybody, right, That's.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Great, Yeah, because I know a lot of those courses
in cob Or, you know a little bit standoffs to
public play and only allow resort guests and members. So
that's a that's a nice thing to have there. How
do you compare, I know they're pretty some of the
courses down there very pricey. How do you guys compare

(56:58):
on the I think I mean, I think we are
in the.

Speaker 8 (57:06):
I mean, if you want to play in Gable, I mean,
you're probably going to spend between It depends on the
time of the year you come. You know, in the
summer time you can play for three hundred bucks, you know,
and in the winter time you can play for four
you know, so pretty much all the courses manage the
same kind of rates, you know. I mean the good

(57:27):
thing is that you've got food and drinks included, you know,
So you're talking about eight drinks.

Speaker 9 (57:33):
I mean, nobody brings eight drinks.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
You know, it stands up afterwards.

Speaker 8 (57:41):
But like I said, it's I mean, if you come
with your friends a week trip, you play three gold
three the days of golf. You know, Ah, it's what
it is. You know, you're playing in one of the
most relevant golf destinations in the world, you know.

Speaker 7 (57:59):
So sure So.

Speaker 8 (58:01):
Actually, I mean I have to say that we never
have like we have in in seasons we have one
hundred sixty players maybe ourg we have a haundred and
twenty right okay, and right now for example this week
we had we are having like sixty seventy well maybe handed,
you know. And for how for that many players, we

(58:25):
never have people that say, oh, it's pricey, it's expensive,
you know. I think people are happy with with what
they get, you know, with the value proposition.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
No, I guess no, it's a it's a really good value,
you know for that destination. Like I said, you know,
and you know a lot of the courses their charge
quite a bit of money to play. Yeah, so what
you get there and the type of golf course it is,
and of course the views I mean.

Speaker 7 (58:53):
Really can't beat it down there.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Yeah, talk about the you know, let people know about
the resort there, I mean, which is right on on
the ocean there right next to the golf course.

Speaker 9 (59:06):
Yeah. Yeah, the result.

Speaker 8 (59:10):
Yeah, I really like because it's you can tell right
at the end that it's look serious. You know, it's
you feel like, wow, this is a good vacation.

Speaker 9 (59:21):
You know.

Speaker 8 (59:21):
And also I lie because we have like studios, we
have one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, four bedroom, even
we have a penthouse with with swimming pool, you know,
so for like good big groups of friends, families, you know.
You know, it's it's an amazing because I mean it's

(59:44):
like if you were like in a big house. You know,
you don't feel like you are in a hotel. You
feel like you're in a specious place.

Speaker 9 (59:51):
You know. I was really when.

Speaker 8 (59:54):
I started working in Somart, I was really impressed by
by the hotel, the amenities, the equality, you know. So
and sometimes you know, we have the challeel because people
come out to play, they don't know that there is
a hotel, and once they if they come down and.

Speaker 9 (01:00:13):
They really see what it's there, they are impressed. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Oh it's well, the amenities are great and it's so
spread out. I mean there could you could have a
full house there and you don't feel closed in you
don't see a lot of people at any one time.

Speaker 8 (01:00:31):
Yeah, actually that's what people say that they they don't
feel that the hotel is back, even though it could
be like in a high coup and see you know,
so that's that's good because you really feel that you
are resting during your vacation, you know. And then we
have like a like a natural like black wood, like
I don't know, it's like two three feet you know,

(01:00:54):
so you can go with the canoa the kayak or
you can swim you know.

Speaker 9 (01:00:59):
Therefore the king So also it's pretty nice.

Speaker 8 (01:01:01):
They have like h I don't know how you call
it when how you say in English like when you
go down there's live.

Speaker 9 (01:01:09):
So it's yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:01:10):
The pool side and then for the kids is very
fun maybe half our kids club, so it's it's great.

Speaker 7 (01:01:18):
No, you got there's lots of activities going on there,
so you know, you can do nothing or you can
really engage in a lot of the games and pool
and whatever that that you want down there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
And of course for the adults you got the spa treatments,
which you know, it was one of the better locations
that I've ever had for a spot. Tell you lay
down and uh, looking right at the right at the ocean.
I mean, if that doesn't put you asleep, I don't
know what.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
Yeah, it's that's good. Let me let me jump in
Robert if I can real quick. I want to ask
close to our time, Jose, I want to a couple
of things. How many of the holes you mentioned number
fourteen runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean? How many holes,
whether it be green or tea with the green head
into the ocean like head towards the ocean, in other words,

(01:02:12):
that's their backdrop and also also the tea or they
pretty much run parallel, sort of back and forth alongside
the ocean.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Or is there mixture of both?

Speaker 8 (01:02:20):
Yeah, I mean number two green, it's in the ocean.
Number three is a car, three that goes along the
ocean parallel. See the tea box in four is by
the ocean, you know. And then on the back side
you got fourteen goes along the ocean and fifteen piece
off by the ocean.

Speaker 9 (01:02:42):
But do you see the ocean from three mats.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
All pretty much everywhere?

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
So you've got yeah, you've got quite a few holes
right down along the ocean. And then you've obviously got
views so I'm assuming then that without seeing it, that
there's some elevation as well along the course, allowing you
to see some pretty panoramic views, not just alongside the ocean,
but from some of the other holes.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
You obviously have some.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Elevation a little bit that gives you some some really
good views.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Would that be accurate?

Speaker 9 (01:03:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Okay, good?

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Now, who typically some of the clients that you're getting there?
Is it typically more families that are coming Obviously, I'm
sure you're getting some Boddy trips. You're getting some some
you know, guide trips that are coming down there that
want to maybe play something a little bit different than
maybe they here in the United States. But are you
getting a lot of families as well? They're coming to
the resort and obviously some playing golf and some doing

(01:03:38):
some of the other activities.

Speaker 8 (01:03:39):
See, if I have to say a number, I would
say probably like maybe families and it's small groups of
friends traveling together, you know. But I mean as you
know in the summertime, or families travel together, groups of friends,
you know, a lot of parts or artists, you know, weddings,

(01:04:03):
you know, we we have sometimes like two groups you know,
playing the same day that they're getting married on Saturday
and they're playing on Friday.

Speaker 9 (01:04:11):
So a lot of people do that.

Speaker 8 (01:04:12):
You know, they come here for the wedding and they
have like a go golf outing, you know, right.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
Well, and and I'm assuming then too that you're getting
a lot of in addition to families and groups like that,
Now that more women are getting out and playing golf,
you're seeing a lot of couples, like just uh, couples
coming as well just for a great vacation and maybe
they're playing some golf as well.

Speaker 8 (01:04:38):
You're seeing rising definitely couples. I would say, it's like
the big percentage. You know, a lot of a lot
of couples, you know, Like I said, it's difficult for
me to tell how how much of it, but I
would say couples, groups of friends, families.

Speaker 4 (01:04:59):
So it's a it's a good diversity of different groups
that are coming in. That's that's that's important for people
to know because you know, again typically when people think
of golf, you know, what they see in advertisement. It's
kind of you know, the groups of guys are going
all the time, and it's nice to know, you know,
a lot of as I said, a lot of women
now are have taken up the game because of uh,
you know, seeing the LPGA Tour, how it's grown over

(01:05:20):
the years. Uh, and it's become a dominant force in golf.
You're seeing more women and obviously they want to play
with their husbands or and partners and things like that.
So it's good to see that you're getting a good diversity.
What's the I'm going to ask this last question and
Robert if you have anything else to as we get
ready to wrap up, But what's the best part of
your job?

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
What do you love the most about your job?

Speaker 8 (01:05:41):
I like the people are always happy, you know, so
dealing with people happy, people that just come to enjoy.
My job is just to keep them happy, you know.
It's it's uh, it's it's relatively easy, you know, just
don't give them any trouble. And I'm so the problems,
you know, I think. I think one of my qualities

(01:06:04):
that I like to say is that I'm a broad
and solver.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:06:08):
I just always tried to go bit ahead, you know.
I tried to exceed the people's expectations, you know, with service.

Speaker 9 (01:06:16):
And it's just it's not just me.

Speaker 8 (01:06:18):
I think that the whole team has that mentality and
people always congratulate the team because I think they offer
we offer a great service.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
That was one of the prime things that stood out
when I visited there is that it wasn't just Jos
but everywhere I went, every everyone that I came in
contact with throughout the property was on their a game,
you know, for for service and just taking care of
the the guests. So it's, uh, it's an all around

(01:06:52):
team effort. So it was very obvious down there.

Speaker 4 (01:06:57):
Thank you all fantastic And hose A, is there a
website if people want to get more information that they
can go to uh to you know obviously uh discover
for themselves the beautiful uh features of the resort and
and the hotel and that if they want to book,
where can they go as their website they can go to.

Speaker 8 (01:07:16):
Yeah, it's I mean for the for golf, it's all
margolf dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
So mark golf dot com and it's s O L
M A R golf dot com.

Speaker 9 (01:07:25):
Golf dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Yeah, perfect, Robert, any any final thoughts or do you
have anything you want to ask before we.

Speaker 7 (01:07:34):
One more thing?

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
I just you've got some nice stay in play packages
that uh that are good and what what's the ideal
ideal time of year to come down there. I know
there's a high and low season.

Speaker 8 (01:07:46):
I mean, if I had to come, I mean, October
can be fodder, you know, but October is pre season,
so there if you come like the last days of October,
you know, oh okay, or even if you come in June.
I mean, like it depends, you know, if people want
to save some money to come in no seasons, it

(01:08:08):
depends on you. But the whole year, I would maybe
not traveling hours September, you know, I would try to
maybe avoid those, you know, but yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:08:21):
Because those maybe are hotter.

Speaker 8 (01:08:22):
But right now we are almost in in August and
it's not hot, you know, like I said, the live breeze,
so even it's fine.

Speaker 7 (01:08:31):
Yeah, so it's a pretty good year around destination.

Speaker 9 (01:08:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
Well I'm in I'm I'm in Florida, Jose, so I
know what hot is all about. So I don't mind
the heat. So I would come down anytime there just
to see the whales jumping and play some good golf.

Speaker 9 (01:08:45):
So but family from Tampa today, Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
Yeah, so that's a that's a cool breeze compared to
what they're experiencing down in Tampa right now. But Jose,
I want to thank you very much for coming on
and talking a little bit about so more and Robert
always for doing a great job.

Speaker 7 (01:09:01):
But thank you again.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
Excuse me.

Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
If you want to go to solmargolf dot com you
can find out more about the golf course and check
out some of the other amenities that are there as well.
But we're going to take another quick commercial break and
when I come back, and you'll be joined by my
future guest of the evening, Fraser Marriott from Lightspeed Golf.

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Speaker 4 (01:11:16):
All right, welcome back everybody to Golf Talk Live again.
I'm your host, Heedero d Rico. We've got a great
As I said, we've been having a great show tonight,
and I'm really excited about having tonight's featured guests for
a couple of reasons. Always interested to meet new people,
and this is going to be our first time meeting officially.
But also he's a fellow Canuck, Canadian as it were,

(01:11:37):
so we'll have a few Canadian things that we'll insert
into the conversation, I'm sure along the way. But let
me tell you a little bit about him and then
we'll get into tonight's discussion. His name is Fraser Marriott.
He is the head of Golf for Light Speed Commerce
or Golf. He oversees all aspects of golf management, software
and payment processing tailored for courses, country clubs, resorts and communities.

(01:12:00):
Marriotte started in the company's retail division before shifting to
Light Speed Golf as director of Sales and subsequently Director
of Customer Management, playing an integral role significantly in scaling
the business, including partnerships with top multi course operators coast
to coast. So on that note, let me welcome my
very good special guest feature guest Tonight Fraser Marriott.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
Fraser, welcome to the show.

Speaker 7 (01:12:22):
Well, thanks so much for having me ted excited to
be here, all.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Right, appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
So again, as I mentioned, fellow Canucks, so you are
living in Quebec, right in Montreal specifically right.

Speaker 7 (01:12:34):
So, I'm actually just outside Montreal. I'm a little closer.

Speaker 12 (01:12:36):
I'm kind of between Ottawa and Montreal at the little
town called Chelsea that I am in Montreal quite frequently.

Speaker 7 (01:12:43):
That's where our headquarters is.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
Okay, very good, lots of good food. I've been to
Montreal many times over the years. I've been there for
a while, but lots of good food there. So we'll
maybe sneak a little bit of the cuisine in there
as we as we head in.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
But obvious conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:12:58):
But yeah, but so so I think, first off, I
think what we'll do. Obviously we'll learn a little bit more.
I know there's there's more things that we could talk
about here about you personally, but I want you to
give us a sort of an overview of who light
Speed is. So there's really a couple of components to it.
So give us a little bit of the backstory if

(01:13:19):
you will, to light Speed.

Speaker 12 (01:13:21):
Yeah, so a Lightspeed is founded in two thousand and
five by Daka Silva, our current CEO still to this day.
So it was originally it was a Mac based point
of sales software that was essentially built for small to.

Speaker 7 (01:13:34):
Medium sized businesses. So we basically wanted to.

Speaker 12 (01:13:36):
Offer enterprise level technology for kind of the small to
medium sized business So and it really took off. It
was really focused on, you know, more Canadian customers to
begin with, but as.

Speaker 7 (01:13:47):
It grew, we moved into North America and more.

Speaker 12 (01:13:50):
Global so and then you know, originally focused on the
retail side. And then as the company grew in twenty fourteen,
we made the pivot and actually you know, acquired a
hospitality company and moved into the hospitality space, continued to
ramp up. There are a few other acquisitions on the

(01:14:10):
on the retail side and on the restaurant side, such
as Gastro Fix, then ShopKeep, things like that, and with
us actually going I po in twenty nineteen, and that
was actually the same year that they acquired Krona Golf,
which was founded in Montreal, Quebec by J. D. Sam
Marteiner president, Gilm jack A wor Old CTO and Fred Jacquette,

(01:14:32):
who was you know, the main brains behind the operation
and he was actually a pro originally and and you know,
kind of saw the hole in the market and grew
it from there, which was super exciting. And so I
think what was neat about it and need about the
kind of acquisition of golf is Krona Golf at the
time was one of lights Sweat's best resellers, so they'd

(01:14:54):
resell Lightspeed the point of sales software for them, and
you know, I think the there was such alignment between
the leadership, between the people, between the kind of overarching
idea of supporting local businesses.

Speaker 7 (01:15:06):
That it was. It was a perfect fit.

Speaker 12 (01:15:09):
So kind of coming over in that era, and that's
around the same time I joined the company actually, and
then since then, you know, we've acquired an e commerce company,
a B to B wholesale management software called New Order,
and now the whole focus is really in North America
is to focus on the retail side and golf and
supporting local businesses, empowering our communities, you know, and bringing

(01:15:32):
people together through through commerce and then and we really
focus hospitality in Europe and then but we do actually
empower over one hundred countries with our software right.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
Now, that's some fantastic. So what's interesting is there's so
many components. You know, when we when most people think
about golf course, they're thinking about the tours, or they're
thinking about golf instruction and things like that, but there's
really so many other business components and you obviously our
leader in that at light Speed, And it's interesting that

(01:16:04):
it's not just you know, about the game itself, but
it's all of the support mechanisms that go into working
with different clients and not just the general public. So
give us again, I want to just drill down a
little bit more. Give us specifics of what exactly does
light Speed Golf do and does it typically serve just

(01:16:24):
the public, private or resort courses or a little all
of the above.

Speaker 7 (01:16:29):
Yeah, I mean, great question. So what we were were
one stop solutions, so we provide you know, like an
all encompassing offering for golf courses. So everything from you know,
booking tea times online, all the way through to your restaurant,
snack bar, en course.

Speaker 12 (01:16:45):
You know, we're we go very deep on the restaurant side,
retail side, golf side, so we empower the entire operation
not only on in the back end, but in the
front end as well for the customer facing for the golfer.
And then is well, we do also have payment processing,
so we our own payment processor, which is very cool.

(01:17:06):
And then who do we service so we actually have
our ideal customer profile is essentially every golf course you
can imagine right now, because we actually just created a
partnership with Woosh, so now we're able to enter the
private side. But previously our main focus has been on
the public, semi private resort and multi course operator. And

(01:17:27):
example of multi course operator would be a Kemper Landscapes,
Advanced Golf things like that. So just for the listeners
who don't know what multi course operators, it's basically a
conglomerate of golf courses, either through management or through ownership.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
Yeah, and there's so many now, and there's I mean
that the golf courses are. I mean, if people really
understood just how many golf courses there are around the world.
It would just blow their mind. And you know, I
guess what I want to really dive into a little
bit is from the operator, the golf course operators, because

(01:18:04):
these are the guys and gals that really, you know,
have a pretty stressful job because they've got to make
sure everything's running smoothly and everything's you know, working on point,
and they need to be able to get things working
and functioning correctly. So how are you guys able to
make their life a little bit easier, because I'm sure
they appreciate that.

Speaker 7 (01:18:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:18:26):
I think what's very important is that we're an all
and one, We're one stop shop, and I think, you
know what what I what I tell everyone what is
our biggest differentiator? Our biggest differentiators are people and kind
of our mission and supporting our customers. You know, we
as a team work with the unilateral net retention metric,
so our focus is really on retaining and helping grow

(01:18:46):
and optimize customers.

Speaker 7 (01:18:48):
So I really think it's our support that sets people apart.
I think a lot of softwares can be interchangeable, but
you know where a lot of softwares fall short is
really on the customer service side, and that's where I
really think we excel. I think in tandem with that,
we do use the best breed approach where essentially we're

(01:19:08):
we you know, if our software doesn't do it, we
find the right partner who can help fill that hole,
which I think is incredibly important. These were listening to
the customer. We're listening to their needs, and we're finding
the right providers to help provide the best software.

Speaker 4 (01:19:22):
And I would imagine that if as an operator, if
you're using the software, reporting is a big thing as well.
We want to be able to get those access to
those numbers quickly, reports things like that see how the
operation overall is doing, not just in tea times, but
obviously as you mentioned, restaurants and things like that. They
want to be able to say, Okay, these are the numbers,

(01:19:43):
these are the high points, these are the low points,
you know, given you know, given the season, they know
when there's strengths. They need to have that information. So
how easy is it for them to get access to
the information And is there a lot of challenges in
getting that initially set up?

Speaker 12 (01:20:00):
No, not at all. It comes right out of the box.
So what we do have is I mean, it was
a great point you spoke about, you know, reordering the
food work in the hospitality sector. So we have ingredient
management directly built into the restaurant side of things. On
the retail side as well, we have reorder points. It's
really easy to track inventory. You can you can show

(01:20:22):
your dust inventory, what's working well, what's not. You can
plan what needs to go on sale, what isn't going
to go on sale.

Speaker 7 (01:20:30):
It's very simplistic.

Speaker 12 (01:20:31):
So right out of the box you have well over
one hundred reports both on the golf side, retail and
restaurant that are really simple to use. They're all, you know,
basically click and play. And we actually are releasing a
whole new reporting suite called Business Intelligence that will be
coming out in early September, which which will kind of

(01:20:53):
redefine our whole reporting tool right then and right now.
In addition to that, we do have an advanced reporting
partner called Metolius run by Ross Liggett.

Speaker 7 (01:21:03):
You may know him Ted.

Speaker 12 (01:21:04):
He's a big name within the industry, and so he's
one of our great partners who works with us as well,
especially on our marketing side, digital marketing side. So I
think all in all. The whole point of this is
we empower you guys and these operators to essentially be
able to make faster, quicker, more nimble decisions, which which
I think is incredibly important.

Speaker 7 (01:21:25):
This day and age.

Speaker 12 (01:21:26):
You need to have access to that, to that, to
those numbers, to those reports instantaneously.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
Do some of the reports include in that or can
be easily integrated with other systems to provide like a
profit and loss statement so that they can see, Okay,
this is our revenues coming in, here's our expenses going out.
Here's an overall p and L that they can The
reason why I asked that is because one of the
things that a lot of companies are doing now is

(01:21:54):
being able to you know, before you had to run
a lot of stuff the account and had to you know,
go through all this, and now there's so many programs
out there where they can integrate together so you can
actually import it or export it right into your accounting software.

Speaker 3 (01:22:06):
So it's very easy.

Speaker 4 (01:22:07):
Is that something that that's available to your clients as well?

Speaker 5 (01:22:10):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 12 (01:22:11):
Yeah, we integrate with I would say ninety nine point
nine percent of accounting softwares. We have a completely open API,
which is very rare in this industry, and we encourage
our customers to come forth if there's any preferred accounting software.
We work with our amazing kind of head of Partnerships
and strategy, Matt Welliver, and he'll make any He'll make
all that magic happen for you. But yeah, we integrate

(01:22:33):
with basically any accounting software that you need. And it's
like you said, it really makes life easy. And although
the brains of the of the golf course really is
the account.

Speaker 4 (01:22:44):
Oh yeah, he tells he or she tells you whether
or not you're going to have a business next week
and what you can and cannot spend, you know, and
a lot a lot of people listening, might you know,
look at that and say, okay, what does that really matter?
But the truth of the truth of the fact is
from an operator with so much number one competition out there,
and obviously with other environmental impacts such as you know,

(01:23:07):
a slow economy that type of thing, you need to
have instant access to information. You know, years ago people
just look at the t sheet and say, okay, well
we've got you know, seventy people coming in today instead
of one hundred, so we know that our revenue is
gonna be a little bit down. But now there's so
many other components. Golf courses are not just looking at
tea times. They've got other options available. Maybe it's it's
you know, restaurants, you know, food and that sort of thing.

(01:23:30):
Or there may be other activities that their spas or
what especially for the resorts. So there's a lot of
other revenue streams that can come in so that they
can factor in and when they see ones not working
as effectively, what can we do to bramp this up
or how can we you know, work them together sort
of thing. So I think it's very very important from
an operator standpoint. I'm going to give you an opportunity

(01:23:51):
to brag a little bit about light Speed and that
I know that Saint Andrews in Scotland is is somebody
that light Speed works with.

Speaker 3 (01:23:58):
What are some of the other famous.

Speaker 4 (01:24:00):
Versus that, uh that you guys are working with on
on a big scale like that?

Speaker 12 (01:24:06):
Yeah, so I think it's twofold. I think we work
with some amazing m c o s. You know, we
work with Kemper Landscape, Advanced Golf founders, you know, Blue
Star Golf. Uh there there we have a tremendous kind
of rolodex of of of m c os that we
work with, I think if you're looking at bragging as
you know, kind of individual properties right now. We we

(01:24:28):
also operate in Capelua, Lac LaBelle out in Wisconsin French
Lick which is one hundred course which is which is
really really cool. So we're kind of scattered all over
the all over the map. I think in Canada we
work with Tobiano, which is an incredible golf course out west,
and and you know a few others, and we have
some great names coming in up and.

Speaker 7 (01:24:49):
Some great resorts that that have recently signed with us.

Speaker 12 (01:24:53):
You know, I'm actually heading over to Scotland to go
visit with St. Andrews and kind of talk about what
our future holds and how we're looking to expand, uh
in that in that part of the world too.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:25:02):
I was actually funny you mentioned I was just in
French Lick actually a weekend ago. Uhay for a short
trip and uh and uh yeah it was a great
great golf courses there, just an interesting property. And up
in of course Indiana, Uh right, every you know, I
gotta I gotta throw this out there. This is that

(01:25:23):
since you brought this up, what I was really and
I gotta I gotta say that now maybe we missed it,
but they a lot of the restaurants of course had
his jersey inside.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
Yeah, and I was surprised.

Speaker 4 (01:25:34):
I was like, no statue, no signage anywhere that I
could find. So for those of you from French lick,
if you're licking, you guys need to get a sign
or something up there or a little statue, you know,
in the town square and get that up A Larry
bird he needs to be he needs to get his props.
So just just throwing that out there, you know, Larry Legend, Yeah, exactly,
that's I mean, get him up there.

Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
But so.

Speaker 4 (01:25:58):
Again give us sort of an example since switching to
Lightspeed golf system in terms of the management software, and
that give us an example of the performance performance lift,
if you will, of a golf course. So what is
it doing? How is it helping sort of expand their business?
What can they expect using your system?

Speaker 12 (01:26:18):
So typically when using the systems, I think if you
start in payment processing, you know, you save around fifteen
percent per year on payment processing rates. I think that's
something really important to note. I think that there needs
to be there needs to be a further audit in
this industry on what companies are charging for payment processing.
I definitely think that that that's a tough one often

(01:26:39):
and it's not very transparent. We're extremely transparent using a
flat rate model, and we save around fifteen percent. I
think if you're looking at time savings through staff, which
is really important, is you're looking at saving around twenty
hours per week just for the simplicity of the software processing.
You know, we spoke earlier about reports. I think that's
another key key component is you able to extrapolate that information,

(01:27:02):
digest it quickly, and make those quick decisions. So I'd
say on average about twenty hours a week that you're
saving for your staff, and then around fifteen percent on
payment processing, which is huge for the bottom line, especially
you know with semi private public so tho's mom and
pop courses that you know every dollar matters, and those
those are what our companies, what point of sale companies,

(01:27:23):
what t SHE companies should be looking to support it
is they are the foundation of what golf is built on,
are these mom and pop shops, So we need to
ensure that we're supporting them. And listening to their needs.
And I think Lightspeed does a good job of that
by ensuring that we are priced below the competition and
as well as we're saving the money.

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
On payment processing.

Speaker 4 (01:27:42):
And I would imagine that all of your components to
your system can be easily branded to whatever course or
whatever brand they want. So if again in St. Andrews,
if they want to brand their pos, they can do
that to whatever component they have. I'm assuming that's integrated
into your system, correct.

Speaker 12 (01:28:01):
So that would be more on the customer facing side.
So you know about putting out receipts things like that. Yeah,
well we are able to do that, you know through
some of our partners, not innately in the system, but
throughts we're able to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:15):
Okay, that's great.

Speaker 4 (01:28:15):
Well, I mean that's good to note too, because people
want to have you know, brand recognition with with their propers.
People come and visit, even if it's something as simple
as a receipt, you know, if it's properly branded, that
that that you know, sends off some some bells and
whistles for people and they say, oh, okay, yeah, I
was at St.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
Andrews.

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
I remember this receipt and you know, and and it's
a good time. So I want to ask you something.
And normally I would ask this question right from the
get goal, but I thought i'd say this for a
little bit. So why golf? What is it about golf
that you enjoy? When did you first get integrated to golf?
In other words, when did you first sort of get
introduced to the game. And do you get a chance

(01:28:51):
to play that much now because you're sort of entrenched
into your job, But just give us a little history
of your your golfing experience from where you began and
to the point you are now.

Speaker 12 (01:29:02):
Yeah, I mean I originally was introduced to golf when
I was around fifteen years old by my godfather. And
you know, that first summer I played a part three
course and I chipped in for Bertie my first round.

Speaker 7 (01:29:16):
So I was completely hooked.

Speaker 12 (01:29:17):
It was probably two of the worst shots ever, but
it went in the hole, and so I was completely
hooked from that point. And so that summer I actually
got a job at a local golf course, Royal out
of a golf club under head pro Paul Caruthers, who's
still a great friend of mine, and so I actually
worked there from about fifteen to I'd say about twenty

(01:29:38):
one twenty two every summer, and my goal actually was
to become a CPGA golf professional. So I actually did
the PGM program post to actually ted where you grew up,
down in Nagar on the Lake. So I actually did
the three year program there, you know, and graduated and

(01:29:58):
anticipated really going into that field. At that time, I
didn't feel like I was ready to kind of jump
into a full time career, so I actually went back
to school and kind of took a slight deviation working
in a small startup and then moved to light speed
and didn't know if I'd get back to golf, but
I was still playing a lot. I have a huge

(01:30:19):
passion for the game, you know, for the history of it,
for you know, kind of the day to day and
the tradition.

Speaker 7 (01:30:26):
And then you know, when when.

Speaker 12 (01:30:27):
They acquired Krona Golf, my ears perked up, my eyes
for why, I was like, oh, man, how do I join?
And luckily JDR president actually was like, hey, would you
like to join the team, and kind of the rest
has been history. I think am I playing a lot
of golf? I think my wife will say that I'm
playing way too much.

Speaker 7 (01:30:42):
Golf.

Speaker 12 (01:30:42):
But I think me personally, I don't think I'm playing enough.
But I do get to go out to some amazing courses,
you know, due to a lot of our partners and customers,
you know, great life John and Jason Harshberger and Bryce
have taken me out to some great spots.

Speaker 7 (01:30:57):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:30:57):
I've been able to play Bay Hill, Pebble Beach, and
so I feel very fortunate because I don't think I
would ever been able to play a lot of these
courses in my life without that. So I would say
it probably play once once a week if I'm lucky,
and then try and get some practicing in.

Speaker 7 (01:31:15):
Whenever I can.

Speaker 12 (01:31:16):
I live about fifteen minutes from the golf course I
remember at so it's you know, fingers crossed that that'll
only increase.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
Right well, you know, And that's one of the things.

Speaker 4 (01:31:28):
And the reason I ask is because people don't really,
I think, fully appreciate. You know, when a lot of
people look at golf. Of course, their main introduction to golf,
if they haven't been introduced earlier on as you were,
is what they see on television. So they see it
at the pro level and they think, oh, you know,
there's no way I can play like that, and they
don't understand that. Really, it's a game for everybody, doesn't

(01:31:48):
matter what level you are, how good or bad you are.
It's I mean, I've seen people that you know, couldn't
break a hundred if their life depended on them, but
they have an incredible amount of fun. There's a you know,
there's a camaraderie. And you know, originally it was more
of a buddies type thing. It was a predominantly male
dominated sport. But now because of many of the pioneers
and the LPJ, it's now become a big dominant force

(01:32:10):
in women's golf as well. And you know, now you're
seeing even more couples play and and things like that.
Maybe you'll conventure your wife one day to come out
and join you on the links.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
We'll see. I'm not gonna I'm not going to push anything.
I don't want to.

Speaker 4 (01:32:24):
I don't want to create any bad blood. So if
she's listening, you know, I don't want to force the issue.
But you know, my sister was like that for years.
You know, I don't get it, I don't understand, and
I finally said, look, go and try it. And and
the next thing. You know, she's walking through with a
full set of clubs and several outfits and shoes and
the whole bit, And I said, what's.

Speaker 3 (01:32:40):
All this, Well, it's actually what you said it was.
It was a good game.

Speaker 7 (01:32:43):
So yeah, oh that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:32:45):
Yeah, so, uh, it's never too late.

Speaker 4 (01:32:47):
But you know, I want people to get out there
and play and and you know, it's it's great, you know,
for you doing what you do because you see a
lot of other aspects of the game. You see it
from a business side, not just from you know me
as an instructor or you know, as a players. You
get to see sort of behind the scenes of what
really goes on in a golf operation and see how

(01:33:08):
it's put together. And it's a lot more than just
hitting a white ball around the golf course. There's a
lot of components that go in and there's a lot
of support people that work to make the you know,
courses successful, and you know, systems like light Speed that
are able to now with technology, help these golf operators
we as we touched on earlier, to be able to

(01:33:29):
be even more successful at a quicker pace, and it
gives them instant that you know, information whereas you know,
before they might have had to it could be several
months before they really had all all the numbers put together.
Now they can just with a click of a button
or two, they've got all that information coming in real time.
So that's what What's the number one thing that you
enjoy most about your job? And what would you say

(01:33:51):
is the most challenging part of your job?

Speaker 12 (01:33:55):
The part that I enjoy the most is really the
people I've met along the way. You know, I think
I mentioned a few, like you know, Landscape, Kemper, great
life founders, a lot of these MCOs they've really helped sculpt,
you know, me who I am today. I would say
I've learned a lot from some of the great leaders
like you know, John Brown, Scott Wellman, Tom Everett, Jeff Osborne.

(01:34:16):
There are a lot of people that have been really
impactful in my life and in my career. And you know,
and I've made a lot of great friends. You know,
Pat Kelly and I for the advanced golf He and
I you'd have been texting go barbecues the other day.

Speaker 7 (01:34:29):
He was a buyer new barbecue. Like it's really the.

Speaker 12 (01:34:32):
People, I think, from a customer standpoint, but I think
also from an employee standpoint, I've worked with a lot
of people at lights Be Golf Now, I think we
have an incredible retention plan for employees. And I've worked
with a lot of people for five six years now
seven years, which I think is a rarity in this
day and age, as you know, a lot of millennials
and gen Z's bounce around jobs every six months, twelve

(01:34:54):
months if you're lucky, yeah, yeah, if if you're lucky,
and so it's it's definitely been been a huge, like
huge benefit to my like to you know, my personal
life and my professional life is just the people that
I've met and we've been able to build something pretty
neat From that standpoint, what's my biggest challenge, you know,

(01:35:17):
I I I think just staying ahead of kind of
what the what the you know, most recent trends are,
like golf is ever changing, you see, recreational golf is
becoming so you know, it's becoming such a prominent part
of this game. And just ensuring that we're supporting everyone
the best we can and we're developing the right parts
of the business uh to help support those customers. And

(01:35:38):
and and I think that you know, the most challenging
part is we have to ensure that we're listening to
every single customer in their needs. You know, we can't
we can't get stuck, you know, with tunnel vision here
focusing on one subset of what is an incredible industry.
So I think the most challenging part is ensuring that
we're still hearing the voice of the customer and staying
ahead of what is required for Lightspeed to remain you know,

(01:35:58):
one of the top players us in this industry.

Speaker 4 (01:36:02):
Yeah, you hit a great topic because you know, for
you know, from a teach professional side, this was one
of my concerns for a long long time as we
saw sort of a stagnation and you know, and where
golf instructors were sort of putting everybody in one box.
You know, this is we're going to teach the game

(01:36:23):
this way. This is how it's gonna be taught, and
they didn't really factor in that there were so many,
you know, different types of swings, different way people can
approach the game, and even different reasons for why people
want to play the game. You know, you have your
own reason, I have a different reason, and so and
so has another reason, and and they're not always, you know,
the same. There might be certain similarities, but they're all different,

(01:36:44):
I think, believe it or not. And as tragic as
it was, I think COVID was a real eye opener
for the industry. The industry obviously benefited, there's no doubt
about it, because of the type of industry that you are.
It's an outdoor game, so people were able to get
out and take advantage and and it brought a lot
of new people to the game that had never been.

Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
Exposed to it before.

Speaker 4 (01:37:04):
It brought back some people that had kind of hung
up the clubs for a while out of frustration or
whatever the reason, maybe age, and they said, you know what,
I'm tired of watching movies on Netflix. I got to
get out of the house. I can't stand it. And
you know, wife's driving me crazy, husband's drive me whatever.
And so they came out and then there was a
whole new generation. And I interviewed a CEO I'm not

(01:37:25):
going to give his name at this point, but one
of the top CEOs in the business, and he said,
you know, this is a chance for a real reset
for the golf business, for them to take a look
at it and say Okay, let's not go down the
same rabbit hole we have for twenty thirty years. Here's
a chance to look at the industry from a different
and you had the onset of companies like Top Golf
and others that have come up since then that have

(01:37:47):
come up and introduced people to a game. And yeah,
it may not be quote unquote traditional golf the way
you know, maybe you or I or others may look
at it, but at the same time, it's introducing people
to a game like never be for and it's giving
them an opportunity. And it's also it's removing a little
bit of the stuffiness. I mean, I'll be honest. I
mean I've been around golf. I mean I'm older than

(01:38:08):
you are, so I've been around golf for a long time,
since i was seven years old, and there's always been
a little bit of a stuffiness. And I think that
it's breaking a lot of that glass ceiling, if you will.
And it's opening not just to a younger generation, but
to a different generation too that you know, maybe doesn't
want to. I mean, for a while there they were
letting people come out in the golf course of some
of them with flip flops. I mean, you know, heck

(01:38:30):
with the golf shoes, they just wanted to get the
numbers out. And golf courses are changing too. I think
you're seeing more and more and I'm sure you're seeing
it through through your businesses that you know, your integration
with different courses. They're bringing back, you know, short courses
and things like that because sometimes people don't have time
to play you know, eighteen holes or what have you.
So you know, they're integrating a small nine and it's

(01:38:52):
almost like what they have at Augusta National with it's
sort of that chip and putt where it's a very
short course. It's meant to be fun, it's meant to
get out there and just and then next you know,
people say, oh, you know, I'm gonna I'm going to
try uh, you know, Pinehurst number two, or I'm going
to try this one over here. I'm gonna try that
over there. So it's a way of integrating to the game.
Are you seeing that through your lens as well? Or

(01:39:13):
am I just out in left field?

Speaker 7 (01:39:15):
No?

Speaker 12 (01:39:15):
I I definitely think you nailed it. I I really
think it's removed the barriered entry. I think that it
felt like golf was you couldn't come in, you couldn't join.
It was a tight knit community, which it still is
in many circles. But I think removing that bariered entry.
I think Top Golf and you know, track Man, all
these different simulator companies that have come in and really

(01:39:36):
redefined point entry for golfers has been incredible and you
can see the impact on occupancy rates.

Speaker 7 (01:39:44):
You can see that, you know, year over year we're
seeing that growth.

Speaker 12 (01:39:47):
I think we need to ensure that we don't lose
some of that you know kind of history and and
and some of that you know, what makes called special
as some of that tradition. But I definitely think the
buried entry it's really allowed you know, more people to
come and enjoy this beautiful game and and and I
think it's incredibly important and I think it's helped virtually

(01:40:10):
every golf course.

Speaker 3 (01:40:12):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think too.

Speaker 4 (01:40:16):
From an industry standard, I think one of the things
that I'm excited about seeing, you know, being able to
play around and seeing different you know, uh age demographics
and that is they're just having fun. I mean, you know,
you see now with these companies coming out, whether it's
you know, not just the big guys, but even some
of the new companies that are coming in. I mean

(01:40:37):
that you know, now you've seen the onset of the
Bluetooth speaker. You know, the guys are you know, using
the magnet and pomping it on their thing and they're
listing some tunes out there, and and uh, you know,
they're you know, most of them are being respectful. Some
of them are not, but most of them are being
pretty respectful. But it's it's opened a whole different dynamic
of the game, and it's made it fun. And this was,
you know, something I'd heard the industry for a long while,

(01:41:00):
long time. So you know, you know, you've got to
have fun when you're out there, well, when you're out
there and your game sucks and you're just not playing
very well. I mean, we look at I see the
stats that National Golf Foundation puts out every single year.
It's basically it's a repeat. It might as well just
print it and just put it out every season. It's
the same thing and say, same as before, is you're
not seeing the handicaps coming down. And that's really a

(01:41:21):
twofold is you have to make it fun for people.
You have to make it exciting for people to want
to go out there. So this is what a lot
of people have been juggling over the last several years.
And so when you think of that, what do you
see as some of the future trends, not just for
light speed, Where do you see your business moving in
the future, and where would you like to see golf move.

Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
As it continues on its journey of development and growth.

Speaker 7 (01:41:47):
Yeah, I think it's finding that happy medium.

Speaker 12 (01:41:51):
I mean, you know, if you look at our light
speed state the industry report, you know, there's a huge
percentage of millennials and gen z that really want to
have that customizable, personalized ex experience and and are kind
of yearning for that digital experience, you know, which is
the top tracers things like that. So I definitely think
there's a way to incorporate the two. I think there's

(01:42:11):
some you know, courses that have done it really well
having those top tracer ranges, you know, and and having
track man ranges. If you go to Cabot for a
lot of these these these incredible kind of destinations, they're
starting to encompass more of that fun, like you said,
those games, those short courses.

Speaker 7 (01:42:27):
So I think you kind of nailed it.

Speaker 12 (01:42:30):
I I think as long as golf is continuing to
go in kind of that fun, you know, collaborative community direction,
I think everyone in the industry will will you know,
benefit from that.

Speaker 7 (01:42:42):
So so for me, I I think we're headed in
the right direction. I think we just have to be
very conscious to not.

Speaker 12 (01:42:49):
Lose you know, the tradition of the game, you know,
and and and ensuring that there is like a certain
level of respect to to what is to what is
an amazing game, so you know, the speakers and everything's
it is a great addition to what we're doing. And
then I think it's just continuing to grow off of
that and make sure we're doing it the right way

(01:43:10):
and showing healthy growth. You know, golf is growing like this,
but you know, if the industry takes their eyes off
of the end goal of that healthy sustained growth, you know,
we can easily have a huge peak and a huge valley.
And we want to see that healthy sustain growth, which
I think is collaborating more with each other, and if
you're looking at it from a light speed perspective, I

(01:43:30):
want to see all of the industry better collaborate with
one another to you know, provide the right services, to
provide the perfect solution to help save the courses money
and allow them to kind of flourish and invest, you know,
put money back in their pockets so they can invest
in these new technologies to help attract more golfers to them.

Speaker 4 (01:43:49):
Yeah, you know, one thing I've said for I mean,
it's some great points, Fraser. What I want to see
I think the industry as a whole do is I think,
you know, the more ores in the water rowing in
the same direction, getting their industry moving in the same direction.
But it has to be open minded. It can't be said, well,
let's just do this, and everybody goes in the right

(01:44:11):
and may not necessarily be the best, so you have
to be careful that too.

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
And it's good to have some new new folks coming in.

Speaker 4 (01:44:17):
I think one of the biggest criticisms I had for golf,
and I'm gonna move from the instructional side a little bit,
is there was a mentality of well, you know, I'll
roll up the drive you know, pulling the driveway the
golf course, open the doors and people will come. Well,
you can't do that anymore and survive. You've got to
be out. There has to be outreaches to your community.
You have to find things of drawing people in. And

(01:44:39):
it's not just cheap tea times and I mean they've
tried that roote a thousand times and it works to
a point, but then you run a risk of you know,
pricing yourself out of the market, so you have to
find other ways. You know, years ago you had big
facilities where people would have their wedding or their reception
or something at golf course, and that was great. But
now what they're doing is, as I mentioned with the

(01:44:59):
short core and things like that, they're finding other ways
of drawing people in, having other activities non golf related,
but just getting people there so that you can bring
your family there now and you know, maybe they've got
horseback riding, maybe they've got other other things that they're doing.
So they're making it so that it's not just all
about golf. I mean, golf is still a central focus,

(01:45:20):
but a lot of these resorts, as I'm sure you see,
go all over and I mean they're on a lake
and there's boating and there's you know this that kayaking
and whatever, hiking, you know, horseback right like as I said,
all different types of things, So I think you have
to have a diversity. But also too, I think one
of the big issues that the younger generation is driving
is they value their time much more than we. I mean,

(01:45:41):
we didn't care. You know, we went out in the
golf course, you know, four four and a half hours
when you could still play for that short Now it's
five hours but or more. But they don't want to
do that anymore. They don't want to do that. They
want to go out and say I don't have five
hours of my day that I want to do that
because I have so many other cool things I want
to do. So the industry has had to make adjustments there.
How can we get them to the golf course, How

(01:46:02):
can we get them engaged so they're offering things instead
of just the traditional nine or eighteen holes, they might
just do six holes, say hey, I want to play
six holes or some other you know, abbreviated firm of it.
And they've had to adapt.

Speaker 10 (01:46:14):
That.

Speaker 4 (01:46:15):
Is that something that you're noticing a lot too, And
you know, as you look through some of your clients,
they're having to make those adjustments.

Speaker 12 (01:46:22):
Yeah, I mean you've looked at a lot of new builds,
like they're making short courses that are twelve holes, six holes,
you know, all these numbers you've kind of never seen before,
and there's a huge popularity for it. If you look
at a lot of the new builds in North America
that that's a lot of them either are an eighteen
in a short course or they're just building a twelve
hole course, they're just building a nine hole course. It's

(01:46:43):
a really interesting point and I think it will be
fun to watch how that continues to progress. But I mean,
I think twelve holes is becoming incredibly popular. If you
look at local course here that I play at, you know,
they offer a six hole, nine hole and twelve hole rate,
which you know, I would never have thought that that.

Speaker 7 (01:47:06):
Was a thing even two years ago, you know, three
years ago. So it's it's definitely interesting. Once again, you know,
it's removing that buried entry. So I think getting more
people to play the games incredibly important.

Speaker 4 (01:47:18):
Well, and you're seeing, you know a lot of innovators come,
a lot of young innovators coming into the game, whether
it's through apps or through other programs, or just even
just ideas saying, hey, you know what i'd like to
play this game. But I just don't have that time.
I just don't have you know, I just don't want
it right now. Maybe down the road I might, but

(01:47:39):
right now I want to be introduced to the game,
but I don't have the time that I can dedicate.
And even if instruction has had to adapt as well.
I mean, you know, used to be an hour long
lesson or sometimes even more even thirty minute lessons. Now
people don't want that anymore. They they want or they
want to get taught online and there's you know, people
are going online to get their information more so than

(01:48:00):
they are going to the golf course. So again, this
is why the academies have to make changes. They're bringing
in simulators and things like that, and they're and they're
building the simulators in such a way that they're you know,
they may offer refreshments or game night or something like that.
They're having to be very creative. And it's really being
driven by a lot of the younger generation coming in

(01:48:22):
and saying, you said it's going to be fun, so
let's make it fun.

Speaker 7 (01:48:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:48:26):
And that's why Top Golf was you know, went the
way it did, is because people say, hey, this is
pretty cool. It wasn't about the golf. It was really
about the entertainment experience, and it just happened to have
a golf was the vessel that they used. And you know,
it built up to, you know, a billion dollar industry.
So and you know, you know up in Manhattan, New York.
I mean, I know companies that have indoor stimulators right

(01:48:49):
down town Manhattan and you can go in there and
it's almost like going to the gym. You know, you
want to win for an hour and you know, play
pebble beach or you want to play whatever, you're going
to do that and don't even have to touch grass. So,
I mean, there's so many components to this. And I
don't know if you get down to the PGA Show
in January down in Orlando, but over the last few years,
if you look at you know, the way the trends

(01:49:12):
are more and more simulators are. You know, you're seeing that.
I mean five years ago there might have been a couple.
Now there's probably twenty simulators at the PGA show every year,
and probably going to be more agan this year because
everybody recognizes that they have to diversify their businesses. So
I want to ask you just a couple of more questions.
As we get ready to wrap up, I mentioned we

(01:49:32):
were going to talk a little bit about you and
that's some of the cuisine. So obviously, as I mentioned
at the top of the show, Montreal is famous for
some of it's cuisine. Great restaurants in downtown Montreal and
surrounding areas that do you have a favorite what's popular
in Montreal? For those that have never been, Oh.

Speaker 12 (01:49:52):
Well, I mean you have to say schwartz Is because
that's smoked meat. That's what Montreal is known for. You know,
if if you don't bring that one up, I don't
know if you've ever been to Montreal, but it is
a great spot.

Speaker 7 (01:50:04):
You need to get Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich.

Speaker 12 (01:50:09):
I'm a big fan of Satte Brothers in Saint Henry
in the southwest of the city. It's kind of Vietnamese
South Southeast Asian food. It's it's it's absolutely amazing. Really,
you know, back to that idea of recreational golf. That
place is all about having fun getting in there. It's
a quick, short experience and the food is simply incredible.

(01:50:30):
But you know, really throughout the city, there there's some
incredible spots. There's new restaurants Livio Long, which is done
by Danny Smiles, a top chef Canada finalists Who's Who's Great.
It's right by our office, So if you come down Ted,
I'll have to take you out there. And but I mean,
there's there's no short there's no shortness of fun, especially
in the summertime. I don't think there's a better city

(01:50:52):
in Canada than Montreal.

Speaker 4 (01:50:54):
Yeah, Montreal has some great diversity there in in not
only the culture, but just I mean food second to none.
I mean, I hate to say this, but you know
I've I've lived around Toronto for for many many years,
and there's some good restaurants, don't get me wrong, but
it doesn't come close to the cuisine in Montreal. So
if you're planning on a trip, a lot of great

(01:51:14):
golf courses in Montreal and Quebec in general, but if
you want to visit, there's a lot of great restaurants
in Montreal to go and eat, so you'll never you'll
never go hungry.

Speaker 3 (01:51:22):
Put it that way.

Speaker 4 (01:51:24):
Lastly, we're gonna touch on this is unrelated to golf,
unrelated to food, but we're a couple of Hockey Night
in Canada. Boys, I don't watch it as much. I
gotta be honest, I was. I was sad to hear
that you're an Ottawa Senators fan. I'm a Leaf fan,
was formerly a Montreal Canadian. They got to be concerned

(01:51:46):
in Quebec right now that you bailed on the Montreal
Canadians and you're voting for Ottawa. So what's the deal here?

Speaker 7 (01:51:52):
Well, so, I mean I was close.

Speaker 12 (01:51:55):
I live closer to Ottawa than I do to Montreal,
and I mean, I can tell you it was when
I started work at the office. I was not a
big hit that I was an Auto Cenators fan. I
think that was my fun fact when I started light
speed and got some booze. But it's yeah, so I
grew up. My dad was an Auto Senators fan. We
had a really good run in the early to mid

(01:52:15):
two thousands and then it has been absolute despair.

Speaker 5 (01:52:19):
We are.

Speaker 12 (01:52:20):
We did make the playoffs this year for the first
time in quite a few years, which is extremely exciting.
We battled your Leafs. We lost, but I think we
put up a pretty good fight. But yeah, no, I'm
I'm I'm unwilling to change because and I'll say it
on the air. The Montreal Canadians fans are insufferable. You know,
whether they're and and if they're doing well, you never

(01:52:40):
hear the end of it. So I'm I'm happy with
my choice.

Speaker 4 (01:52:44):
Yeah, just make sure you hide when you when you're
talking hockey out in public, and don't don't put down
the Montreal Canadian fans because they'll they'll hunt you down
like a pack of wolves, let me tell you.

Speaker 7 (01:52:57):
Oh yeah, I'm sure I'll get some grief on that.

Speaker 4 (01:53:00):
I'm sure well, especially from your office. But you know,
it all kidding aside. You know, as I was telling
you on our call last week that you know, following
the leaves, if anybody out there knows what I'm talking about.
A Toronto Map belief fan, we've had many years where
it was nothing happening in our end, so I know
exactly what it's like to have some bad seasons. But
you know what, there's a again, much like golf, there's

(01:53:23):
a camaraderie in in hockey and obviously, as Canadians, that's
our sport. Unlike you know, certainly we enjoy baseball and
football and not as well and uh, but Canada hockey
is our big thing and and golf I think comes
in a close second.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
But it's just it's just one of those things.

Speaker 4 (01:53:40):
It's interesting to learn about a little bit more about
light Speed, and it's interesting to have you and I
appreciate you coming on and sharing that any final thoughts
and as we any parting words that you want to
share with their audience and and anybody that wants to
maybe learn more information about light Speed, is there a
website that they can go and check it out.

Speaker 12 (01:53:57):
Yeah, you can go to you go on to lightspeed
dot and uh and and and check it out and
and uh and and learn more. I'm happy, uh, you know,
for for you to reach out to me directly on LinkedIn,
and I'm happy to have a conversation. I always love
to know what's going on in the industry. I think
Ted you brought up some incredible points and thoughts today
on where the industry is headed. I'm super excited and

(01:54:19):
bullish on where golf can go and and I encourage
any feedback things like that on on what how you
feel light speed can can grow, be better better support you.
So I'm always looking to hear from our customers and
and and learn more and yeah, Ted, thanks, thanks for
all you're doing for the industry. I think it's important
to have these conversations and and and and and have

(01:54:39):
those opinions and and figure out how we can work
all work together to grow this game.

Speaker 3 (01:54:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:54:44):
I always enjoy one of the things I you know,
this is my thirteen season doing the show, and I always,
you know, I always enjoy as as you do, meeting
new people. And you know, this is a little bit
different way of meeting them obviously than face to face,
but uh, you know, this is part of the technological age.
But I appreciate you know, what you bring to the
industry as well, obviously a fresh approach and obviously a

(01:55:07):
love of the game. And humility. I think it's important
in any business to have some humility as well and say,
you know, I don't know everything, and I'm always willing
to learn and grow with it, and that I think
that's important for our industry. And I think, you know,
as I alluded to earlier, that was something that the
industry it took a pandemic to get us to get
back on a more steady course. But I think it's

(01:55:30):
it's going to serve the industry well in the long run,
and I think a lot of people are excited about that.
But I want to thank you for joining and being
my very special guest this evening, and again go to
lightspeed dot com if you want to get more information
on their company, and I'm sure a lot of the
contact information is there. You can reach out and I'm
sure you'll be happy, as you said, through social media
and not to have some conversations and bring them up

(01:55:51):
to speed. And obviously if you're a golf course operator
and you're not currently working with light Speed, you can
reach out to them as well and learn more about
their business. I'm sure they'll be happy to step up
and answer any questions that you might have. But on
that note, Fraser, again, thank you very much. Hang tight
for a second. I'm just going to wrap up. I
want to also thank my guests earlier this evening, my
very special guest on the Coach's Corner panel, John Decker,

(01:56:13):
thank you as always for bringing your best to the show.
Also my special travel guests, my good friend Robert Kaufman,
co host and travel expert, along with our special travel
guest of the evening, Jose Marthlon from the soul Mar
Golf links and couple sent Lucas. Thank you Jose for
joining us and bring us some insight into your property
down there and a great place to go and visit

(01:56:37):
and just unwine and have maybe a few margarita's after
year round and maybe a little spa get spoiled with
some spa treatment and certainly, last but not least, again
a special thanks to Fraser Marriott, a head of golf
for light Speed. So on that note, I will see
you next week right here on Golf Talk Live. God
bless everybody and have a great week.

Speaker 3 (01:57:00):
Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:57:01):
We hope you enjoyed this week's broadcast of Golf Talklive.
We'd like to thank this week's Coach's Corner panel and
a special thank you to tonight's guest. Remember to join
Ted every Thursday from six to eight pm Central on
Golf Talk Live and be sure to follow Ted on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. If you're interested in being a guest

(01:57:22):
on Golf Talk Live, send Ted an email at Ted
dot golf Talklive at gmail dot com. This has been
a production of the Igolf Sports Network.

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Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 17 | July 24th, 2025

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 17 | July 24th, 2025