Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 20 | Aug 14th, 2025 - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
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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 3 (01:05):
Well, good evening, everybody, and welcome to season thirteen a
Golf Talk Live. I'm your host, Ted O'do Rico got
a great show for you tonight. Joining me this week
on the Coach's Corner Panel. Of course, our two great
friends John Hughes and John Decker, and I'll tell you
about both of them here in just a moment. And
then plus golf fitness expert Bob Forman is going to
be joining me with some more great fitness tips a
little bit later on in the broadcast. And then finally

(01:25):
to wrap things up tonight, I'm going to be joined
by this evening's featured guest, Miranda Turner, CEO of MGI Golf, Inc.
Leader in electric caddies and motorized carts. She's gonna be
joining me on the second half of the show, so
hope you stick around for that. If you'd like to
watch this week's show or any of the previously aired episodes,
visit our I Golf Sports YouTube channel or on Spotify

(01:47):
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(02:09):
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tipsmag dot com. All right, we're going to get into
tonight's coaches Corna, let me introduce the guys and we'll
get into tonight's discussion. First up, John Hughes a Pjmaster

(02:50):
Professional and the past president of the North Florida PJ
Section and a recipient of the twenty thirteen PGI America's
Professional Development Award, and in two thousand and nine and
twenty he was in North Florida, Florida North North Florida
PJA Teacher and Coach of the Year and a Golf
Digest Best in State Instructor in twenty twenty three to present.
And he's also a senior contributing editor and Top twenty

(03:11):
five instructor with Golf Tips. Also on the show is
John Decker, director of instructor at Medallion Club in Columbus, Ohio.
He's also a senior contributing editor and Top twenty five
instructor with Golf Tips as well, and in twenty twenty
five he was the Southern Ohio Teacher of the Year
and author of two books, Golf Is My Life, Glorifying
God through the Game and Fairways to Heaven One Shot

(03:32):
at a Time. And he's also available for public speaking
upon request. So, guys, welcome back to Coaches Corner.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Goodness.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
See, So we're going to talk about as I was
just mentioned to both of you guys on the air again,
thank you for joining us evening. We're going to talk
about hitting or how to really avoid hitting fat and
or thin shots in golf, and those seem to be
pretty common with a lot of our amage out there.

(04:01):
So really to avoid hitting fat and thin shots, we
want to focus on maintaining obviously some consistency with the
posture and swing plane and a lot of other things
we're going to get into. But I'm going to let
everybody know for those that maybe aren't a familiar just
sort of a little understanding of what I mean by
when I say fat and or thin shot. So, first off,

(04:21):
fat shots typically occur when the club hits the ground
significantly before the ball, resulting in a low, heavy strike.
And thin shots, of course, is the opposite occur when
the club strikes the ball too high on the club face,
often resulting in a low, skidding shot with reduced distance
and control. So we're going to talk about that. I'm
going to start in the order that I introduced to

(04:42):
you guys, so and I want you to be specific
into the point that I'm going to give you so
that we don't get too too far ahead of ourselves.
So some key tips to avoid fat and thin shots, John.
The first one is, let's talk about posture. Maintaining sort
of a consistent posture because this leads to both really
thin or fat shots. Talk about that, what we mean

(05:03):
by that, and what are some things maybe a drill
you might want to throw in there to help sort
of help maintain that posture.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Sure, first off, thanks as always Ted for the opportunity. John,
Great to see you again. Things are going well for you.
Posture is very simply in my book, from your built
up and how you're posture, how you're balancing your spine
over the rest of your core. Some people like to

(05:31):
take their cores and forward thrust them the early release.
We're hearing a lot about that. That can cause some
fat and thin shots. Being too much on your heels
or too much on your toes can alter the spine angle.
One of the really cool drills that if you can
do it, it's not necessarily putting your post he or

(05:54):
your end against the wall so much as can you
put your head against the wall, or can you put
your head against some kind of props that you can
keep it there and understand, Hey, as I make my turn,
my head isn't coming up, because that is what most
amateurs are doing. They're coming up and out of their posture,

(06:15):
unlike a tour pro who stays in their posture. We
may even see them come down to get the golf.
Faull won't get too specific with all that, but the
common cause that I see posturally is people are way
hunched over and then as they swing and try to
make a stab at swinging at the ball from the

(06:37):
waist up gets so tall and their core gets pushed
out towards the ball. That can that's going to lead
at the end of the day to the low point
of your golf swing, which we'll probably talk a lot about.
I have a feeling that low points never going to
be consistent from a verticality standpoint of view.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, well said, and yeah, we see a lot of
The other thing too, is we see a lot of
poor shoulder tilt. We see quite often people will swing
the club and they'll rotate the shoulder excuse me, more
around their body and again also lifting out of that
posture as well. So there's a lot of different things.
Of course, we can talk about that and we'll get
into a few things here in a moment. So John Decker,

(07:18):
let's talk about controlling the weight shift. That's another thing
as well. We see a lot of swaying and that
again goes back to what John was talking about about
posture and that, but talk about that again. A proper
weight shift can also lead to some fat and thin
shots as well, So maybe touch on that well.

Speaker 5 (07:34):
Ted, again, thank you for having us on the show,
and John is always a look forward to being on
with you. I think the weight shift is very important
in the golf swing, and to me, it all starts
and John kind of mentioned a little bit is getting
your weight in the balls of the feet. It starts
there to be in an athletic position, because when you
play golf, you are playing golf on one leg. You

(07:57):
start out with all of your weight in the balls
of your feet. But you go back and you turn
into your right hip, and you're turning and rotating back
into the right hip, and then you transition and rotate
into the left hip. And obviously this is if you
are a right handed golfer. And so the weight shift
in that movement of going into the right and going
into the left, that timing is the weight shift and

(08:20):
transition is really the most important sequence that you have
in the golf swing. And if you catch yourself playing
on two legs, where you're hitting the ball, and like
John was saying, you losing your spine angle, so you're
coming into the ball, you're losing your spine angle. You've
got basically both weight on both feet, so that when
you're hitting the ball, your right foot's on the ground

(08:41):
and your left foot's on the ground. You're now hitting
the ball only with your arms and hands. And this
is going to lead to a lot of fat and
thin shots. So if you look at the elite golfer
who is right handed, when they're hitting the golf ball,
they have transferred and rotated all of their weight around
their left hip right hit the right The only thing

(09:02):
really touching the ground from the right right foot is
you know, they might have the toe and maybe a
little bit of the ball the foot on the ground,
and then as they go through, all of that weight
comes off and their tip of their toe is barely
touching the ground. That is the sign that someone has
transferred all of their body weight. And I was always
taught and the way that my mentors have taught me

(09:22):
in the past is when you hit the golf ball,
you hit it with your body weight, and you hit
it with the rotation of your body weight. And if
you don't have that rotation where you're going into the
right hip and in the left hip and you're playing
on two legs, then you're essentially hitting the ball just
with your arms.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah. Again, a great point. And you know, we see
so many of our amateur players do a lot of
what you guys are talking about in in the sense
that they're not you know, they're not using the body correctly,
they're out of sequence in a lot of cases. And
this leads to a point that John Hughes touched on
here just a second ago, and that is really to

(09:59):
underst and the low point in your golf swing. I
guarantee it just from watching up and down the range.
There's a lot of folks that I can tell just
by how they're setting up to the ball that they
have no idea where the low point in their swing is.
And too often we see the ball moved either way
too forward and I'm talking about ironshots here now or
too far back, and ultimately that creates a lot of problems.

(10:21):
So John, let's talk about how do we identify the
low point in our swing and how do we make
sure that we're addressing the ball correctly so that low
point is in the correct place in order to make
good contact.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
So let's talk about what low point is not. Low
Point is not on the ninth hole you're getting so
low that you got to tell somebody about how low
you are. Low Point is not about how high you
get either, because the higher you get, the lower you're
going to go. With all comedic aside, low point is

(10:56):
basically the point. Think of everything as a pendulum, and
a pendulum swings in an arc. The bottom of that
pendulum arc is a low point where it is flush
and fifty percent. Let's call it there, and you can
always go forward, you can always go backwards, but there's

(11:16):
your low point. We are not swinging vertically like a pendulum.
We're actually swinging on at inclined plane, if you want
to use that term. So our low point is going
to be based on a how long your club is,
b not only how long your club is, but also
the loft of your club, and c not necessarily ball position.

(11:41):
So much is when you combine those two, how does
it alter the center? The low point is not at
your spine most of the time. Their Bobby clamp that
did a really good study as for his Master Professional
thesis years ago, and he showed everybody and everybody went

(12:02):
wow with a wedge tor pro's low point meaning at
that bottom, at that very bottom, was actually four to
four and a half inches in front of where the
ball was in someone's fans. And that's where I think
amateurs get a little bit confused. They think of low
point as ball position.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
It's not.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
You're trying to put the ball in a position based
on what you're trying to do. Wedges, scoring irons, you're
trying to hit that ball first in the low points,
actually in front. That's why you see these big pelts
of divots flying during four events because they reached the
low point in front of the golf ball. With fairway woods,

(12:47):
with hybrids, you're trying to strike the ball almost dead
at the low point. Is it okay to have a
little bit of turf in front, a little bit of
divot in front. Yeah, based on what you're trying to do,
but also based not only on your swing arc, but
the angle of attack as well as the path of
your club. When you have a quote unquote potside to

(13:11):
end or over the top, you're coming in more steeply,
so that angle of attack can actually alter the low
point based on the club you have or driver. Your
low point is four to four and a half inches
behind the golf ball, and we're talking about Hey, you're
trying to hit up on the ball. For that it happened.

(13:32):
The low point's got to be before you strike the
golf ball. If your low point is actually hitting the
golf ball with a driver, it's not a low point.
Most likely you're coming in very steep from the outside
and that's what's causing your face, that's what's causing your
pull hooks. So low point, let's be very clear with this,

(13:54):
is not your ball position. Is where the bottom of
the swing arc ISAs on verticality based on the incline
of the plane or we linked to that plane and
the direction of the plane is attacking the ball.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
On well said, So let's just excuse me, sort of
water this down a little bit for our listeners so
that they fully understand. So with irons, typically you want
the low point to be in front of the golf ball.
For driver or certainly longer fairwy woods, you want the

(14:29):
low point to be in front of the golf ball.
Is that correct?

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Just barely? As far as longer clubs, hybrids, longer longer irons,
most people are. Most people are trying to lift those
clubs anyway, and as soon as you lift, you've already
created your low point when you're lifting the club from
that low point, right. I talked to my clients about
the word through. Can you get through the golf ball?

(14:55):
And when you're hitting through the golf ball? A great
example is making a practice swing. Where does that club
brush the ground? That is the low point, And based
on the length of the golf club, that low point
can be very much in front of the golf ball.
It can be barely in front of the golf ball.
It could be right at the golf ball. If the

(15:16):
more highly skilled you are, the more you can control
that low point. Is it controlled by ball position, It's
also controlled by a lot of other things. When people
come to me and say I want to be consistent,
that is what they're talking about. They just don't know
the definition to it. And being able to give them
a simple drill like a shaft extension drill, give them

(15:39):
a simple drill putting a ball on a tee with
your feet together and just swinging with your arms and hands.
You can establish the low point of your swing art
and start feeling where that is. And then going from
their adjusting ball position, adjusting the club, adjusting the angle

(16:00):
of the tap, based on what you're trying to do,
what kind of shot you're trying to hit.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Again, well said mister Decker. Let's touch on these two
areas here also affects whether or not we're hitting fat
or thin shots and that is ensuring that we have
a number one of proper grip and also proper stance.
These both can affect whether or not you have a
fat or thin shot in your repertoire, so we want

(16:29):
to make sure that those are correct as well. So
maybe you can touch on both of those. You wouldn't mind.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
Well when you mentioned the word fat and thin. The
very first thing I check as an instructor, and really
with any player. I have a lot of collegiate players
I work with, and the first thing I look at
is their grip. Your grip is going to control the
club face, and if you have a poor grip, then

(16:53):
you're going to have to manipulate the club in some
way to be a high level player. And I see
people who are really good players who have poor grips,
but I never see a great player with a bad grip.
Great players have really good grips and that gives them
ultimate control and allows the body rotation which I talked
about earlier, to really power the swing and the club

(17:16):
just comes to where, like John was saying, the low point.
The club just finds that low point. You don't have
to manipulate it. But if you have a poor grip.
You have to create some manipulation. So the grip is
the first thing that I look at. I'm going to
strengthen someone's grip more often than I'm going to weaken
someone's grip, not always, And sometimes I get students who
have a strong they may have a weak left hand

(17:39):
and a strong right hand, or they may have you know,
or they may have their hands in a position to
where their connection of their hands is not right. So
there's a lot of factors in that. But the main
thing I look for the v's going to the right shoulder,
and that's going to give them a slightly stronger than
neutral grip that allows them to rotate with no manipulation.

(18:00):
You mentioned the stance as well. Stance has a lot
to do with your club face and has a lot
to do with the low point, ultimately leading to fat
and thin shots. So if you have a stance where
if you're a slicer, a lot of times you'll see slicers.
I see slicers who aim way left, but I also
see slicers who aim way right. So if you have

(18:22):
a slicer who aims their feet way right, then that
means their upper body, their shoulders and their arms and
ultimately their hands are trying to do everything they can
to get that club back, you know, going toward the target,
and they get stuck at the bottom. They're just literally
drive the club into the ground. Then they can't rotate
through because they have their body aiming one way and

(18:43):
they're swing going another way. That is a very common
mistake that I see. But alignment is important. But to me,
it all starts with the grip. If you get someone's
grip in the right position. So if I get a
slicer who's swinging way left and I changed their grip,
the first thing I say to him is you're going

(19:04):
to start You're going to start hitting the ball to
the left. That's good news. I can't take a slicer
and turn them into a straight ball hitter. I have
to take a slicer and teach them how to pull
the ball. And then once I match up their ball
flight with their the their grip, with their their swing
path and get their ball going where their swing's going,

(19:24):
and then I can start working on their path. And
a lot of times you're tweaking your you know, your alignment,
your distance from the ball, all of these factors I
had a really good player that I'm working with today.
His feet were lining up properly, his knees were lined
up properly, his hips were lining up properly, but his
shoulders were open. And he said, you know, he was
giving me the information before I saw him hitting the balls.

(19:47):
He goes, I'm pulling a few shots to the left
and my driver is kind of leaking to the right.
You know, I shot two under, but I'm just off
a little bit. And it was a matter of just
tweaking his shoulders and then he just started puring it.
And that's what you do with players. Even really good
players get off just a little bit. If one of
those things gets off, it starts a domino effect and

(20:10):
then that leads to inconsistency, and then your confidence goes down,
and that's when you start playing poorly.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, well said, let me just ask you follow up
on stands a little bit, because I think a lot
of people are maybe a little confused about this, and
I know there's obviously going to be some variances. Is
it typically you know, we've always sort of heard over
the years, you know, and I'm talking about iron shots.
We'll leave the longer clubs out of this for a mout,
but particularly your iron shots, where typically your feet are

(20:36):
about shoulder with the part, is it better to be
a little wider or a little narrower. Will that also
affect whether or not you're going to hit shots? And
does hype make make a difference on that factor as well?
So what I'm basically asking you is, depending on your height,
does that make a difference of whether you're maybe standing

(20:56):
with your feet a little bit wider than shoulder with
or a little bit in their or does that also
potentially affect whether you're gonna hit shots fat or thin.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
Yes, that's a great question because it's built. The first thing,
Like when I worked at Grand Cyprus, we use the
computer model that doctor Ralph Mann and the tour players
don't have the same with stance on every shot they hit.
So with their wedges they get their feet closer together
with their middle irons their shoulder with, and with their
longer clubs like their driver and fairway woods, they're wider

(21:27):
than shoulder with. And that's going to affect your center
of gravity. The wider I make my stance, the more
my center of gravity is going to move to my right.
As a right handed golfer. And so that means, you know,
like John was talking about the bottom point, that's going
to move my bottom point more back. If I get
my feet closer together like in chipping, then I'm gonna
get my bottom point more forward just by putting my

(21:48):
feet closer together. So if I want to lower my
ball flight, I narrow my stance. If I want to
hit a knockdown shot, I get a more narrow stance.
If I want to hit the ball higher in the air,
like over a tree, I'm going to widen my stands.
So if you don't play golf with just a one
size fits all, I'm going to always be shoulder with
the part because if you do the only thing that
you're really going to be able to hit well or
your middle irons, your short irons are going to be

(22:10):
fat and thin, and your long clubs, you're gonna lose
all your power. So with a stance, in my opinion,
is the most undertaught thing that I see from instructors.
A lot of times I look at them they're working
on all these other things. I'm like, just get their
stance with right, and they're going to start hitting the
ball more solid. So I think that's a great point
you just brought up.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, and that's the reason why, because I get asked
that a lot too, and I agree one hundred percent.
You know, I think that it varies depending on the
shot that you're going to be hitting and what club
you're using. And again, it doesn't necessarily have to be
a great difference in a lot of cases. I mean,
you know, between you know, a seven and six and
a five iron. You know, we're not talking a great distance.
But again, it does make a difference, and it also

(22:53):
moves the low point in your swing the wider narrow
your stances, so that's something to also to factor in
as well. Yes, mister Hughes, I'm coming back to you
and we're going to talk about swing plane a little
bit more. Obviously, we need to maintain a consistent swing
plane throughout the swing. A lot of times we see
people very steep or very shallow, which also can lead

(23:15):
to fatter, thin shots. So talk about the plane and again,
does the plane change, because again we've always heard in
the past people say, well, I'm a taller player, so
I'm going to be swinging a little bit more upright.
And yet I've also heard players that are tall, say well,
I still kind of swing a little more around my body.
So let's address that, talk about that. How does it
affect fat and thin shots? And is there a one

(23:36):
size fits all when it comes to swing plane.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
So I'm going to answer the first question the last
question first, and that answer is no, everybody's going to
fit into a little slightly different swing plane. To give
some generalities, I'll use the pen for an example. The
longer this pen is as a driver, the flatter you're
going to set up the club. What most people think

(24:02):
is swing plane. If my body's here with my hand,
is that this pen's going to extend on basically the
same line. So when we're talking about one plane swing,
that's literally what we're talking about. If my fingers were
my body, we're trying to swing on that one plane.
Whether it's driver that's a little flatter, your shorter clubs
are a little more vertical, your swing plane's going to

(24:25):
change based on what kind of club you're hitting. Now,
let's talk about path and plane, because I think that's
where amateurs really get their hearts set on doing certain things.
But because of physicality fitness, that kind of thing, they
may not be able to do it. And to John's
point and various points I've always made on this program,

(24:46):
are you set up to actually have this club work
on that plane? Not necessarily in the backswing, but definitely
is the club is approaching the ball to reach impact.
If this plane stays here, but it's coming more from
the outside across you and end it becomes more vertical.

(25:09):
It just that's just what happens. The catchphrase now or
with a lot of people, oh, I gotta flatten my swing,
I gotta I gotta shallow it out. Where they're really
talking about is bringing it this way. Either one of
those can create fat and thin shots. Based on all
the things we've talked about so far, low point, stance,

(25:30):
stance with hands, and grip, all those things are gonna
determine some of these things with plane. The real key
here is is to understand that the steeper this club
comes into the ball, you're you're gonna come in steeper.
You're gonna make bigger divots in front. If you're getting

(25:51):
all the way through the golf ball, if that ball
positions off, if anything's off, most likely you're gonna hit
that simply because it's coming in so steep and you're
committed to make that swing. I see more fats happen
than anything else. If someone recognizes that, you show them

(26:12):
a videot, Wow, I'm coming in really steep. They may
start trying to lift and as they trust, start trying
to lift with that vertical across plane. Now, all of
a sudden, as I said before, you've reached the bottom.
Now from here all you can do is go up.
And that's what's going to cause your thin shots. At
the end of the day, think of the golf ball.

(26:34):
If you're hitting the top, you're hitting a thin If
you're hitting behind it, you're hitting fat, you're hitting chunky shots.
Is there one cause for either? I think we've been
very clear, but in a lot of different directions, there's
multiple reasons why that can happen.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah. Yeah, And the trick is really why it's so
important to work with a teacher professional is to find out,
let them help isolate where the area is that that
you're you know, struggling with the most. Because again, you know,
just the four or five points that we've been talking
about to night. You know, we see a lot of
amateurs out in the range and they're tinkering around with
their golf swing. By the time they get out on

(27:13):
the golf course, they're so messed up because they've changed
the grip, they've changed their stance. You know, they've shallowed
out or steep in their angle of attack, and you know,
and they've moved their body position in such a way
that the low point is all over the place. One
time it's here, one time it's there, and so there's
no consistency. And this is why it's important really to

(27:34):
have that professional set of eyes watching and helping you
identify and getting you as you know, Decker, as you
talked about getting you in the proper set up to
start things off, and John, you were going to say something, go.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
Ahead, Yeah, I just want to follow this up with
John said, Hey, he works with a lot of collegians,
a lot of the lead. I have to I gave
that explanation based on the vast majority of people who
are watching this podcast, your amateurs. You can hit a
fat shot when you're coming too shallow, and we see
that all the time, particularly if the club's caught behind you.

(28:07):
That can create just as fat or just as thin
a shot from a really, really good player. So what
I see and correct me if I'm wrong. John, you
probably see it too. When we're trying to get that
very vertical deep swing shallowed out, you can actually overdo
it and get it so shallowed out that it gets

(28:29):
so stuck. All you can do is to manipulate your hands,
and wherever you manipulate those hands is going to determine
fat or thin.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah, and John Decker, of course I'm talking about now,
maybe you could talk a little bit about equipment, particularly
obviously again the irons, because that plays a factor as well.
If you're not properly fitted and you're you know, laying
those clubs a little flat on the ground and you're
not really laying them correctly, that's going to also create
some issues as well, including fat and thin shots correct.

(29:00):
So give us the argument there, or present heat the
argument and the solution for not having properly fit equipment.
And what I'm referring to.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
Well, I think there's a lot of factors there to
Number one is you want to make sure that you
get the right head design. You want to have a
cavity for if you're a higher handicapped player, you want
to have some forgiveness. You want to have and what
forgiveness is always tell people look at the soul of
the club, the bottom of the club. If it's really thin,
it is for a better high high caliber player. If

(29:32):
it has got a lot of meat down there, if
it's really thick or then that's something that's going to
be user friendly. It's going to help you to get
the ball into the air. And so they've just distributed
the weight, they've made it wider, They've given you more
of a flange at the bottom to help get the
ball up into the air. So a lot of times,
especially with the women that I teach, a lot of

(29:54):
the women I teach in our clinics, they come to
the lessons with their husband's hand me down clubs. There
are already behind the eight ball. You can't do that.
You've got to have if you're if you have a
slower swing speed, if you're just getting started the game,
you're most likely going to be in graphite shafts. The
shaft is the engine of the club, and it's by
far the most important part of the club in my opinion,

(30:16):
because if you have you can have the perfect head.
But if you have the wrong shaft, whether it's too
light or too weak or too strong. That is going
to affect you a lot. If you have a club
that's too heavy for you, you're going to tend to
pull down on it. You're going to tend to drive
the club into the ground. And if you have a
club that's too light for you, you're gonna get a
lot of torque in your swing and your ball. You

(30:37):
can make a really nice golf swing. Uh, and then
the ball is going to go who knows where. I
have had a lot of my teenagers who are you know,
they're they're they're just growing and they're getting bigger and stronger.
And I look at these clubs and I and I
and I've said to one one time, I said this club,
I said, it is just a matter of time before
you break one of these clubs because it's way too

(30:58):
weak for you. And the very next shot the club
had went flying down the driving range and he broke it.
And he goes, I can't believe that just happened. I said,
I just told you what was going to happen, and
you did it. So I said, you're you. I've got
to talk to your parents. And I said, we have
to get him new clubs because he's going to break
all of these clubs. He's way too strong for these clubs.
So there's there's those are Those are just two examples.

(31:21):
And then you have the length of the club. Now
that's a very important thing to take into consideration as well.
That's going to be based on your body build. And
then the last thing is the lie of the club
because like, for example, one of the things that I
have found and I just found this out last year
and this has really helped me out a lot. But
I'm tall, and so you would assume most fitters have

(31:42):
always fit me with upright clubs. But when I bend over,
I have very long arms, so my arms are down.
I actually need a I actually have gone to now
a one degree flat versus standard Lie angle, and it
has helped me out tremendously because I just feel more
comfortable when I set up to the wall. So you
can't just look at someone and go, well, he's short,

(32:04):
he needs a short club, and he's tall he needs
a long club. The size of your chest, the length
of your arms, all of these things, length to your legs,
all of these things go into club fitting. And so
if you're gonna get club fitting done right, you need
to go to someone that's going to take into consideration
your body build obviously your ability. Uh. And then and

(32:24):
then the last thing is the grip size, you know,
making sure like I see a lot of women that
come again with their husband's hand me down. They've got
these fat grips that are way too big for them.
They can't properly get their hands on the club.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
Those are all those things that I've just mentioned and
there and there's probably more that I've forgotten that are
going to go into making sure that you give yourself
the best opportunity to actually be able to make a
good golf swing. So you can't just give someone clubs
just because that you know they're you're passing him down.
It's really the best that you get fit.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
Yeah, I think it's okay to do that if you're
wanting to introduce them to the game and just let
them hit a few shots and you know, obviously it's
not gonna be perfect, but just to see whether they're
gonna be interesting, but if they're if they're seriously wanting
to play. I agree with that. I don't know how
many times I've seen, you know, wives come to the
to the driving range and and or practice tea for
a lesson, and same thing. They've got their husband or

(33:19):
boyfriend or whatever hand me down clubs and the shafts
are super stiff, and the rips are too big, and
you know, you know whatever. You can go on and on.
The list keeps growing, but uh, and they're just not
able to move the club the way it needs to
be moved. So I always say to them, you know,
you need to get fitted properly. If you're going to
take up this game and you want to play it
with any sort of uh, you know, reasonable skill level,

(33:41):
You've got to make sure you're fitted properly in all
the areas that you you touched on. Let's quickly, as
we get ready to wrap up, let's touch on. I
know you guys have sort of thrown a few in
here and there, but John Hughes, I'm gonna come back
to you and let's maybe just throw it a couple
of quick drills. Give us another low point drill. I
know you already touched on one earlier. What's another low
point drill that we can do to establish finding where

(34:02):
a low point of the swing is, or there's some
guides that we can do and then John'll come back
with another one for you.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
The two that I always go to, and this has
a lot to do with closing and opening the face
as well, is what I call the shaft extension drill.
It's basically taking a plastic rod that you can get
at any big box home store, and you're sticking it
in the hole in the grip. You're letting it go
halfway down the shaft or so, and it's definitely extended out.

(34:32):
And what you're trying to do is put that extension
under your front arm, and all you're trying to do
is rotate through the shot, trying to keep your arms extended.
I think one of the things that people do when
they can't find the low point is they go searching
for it by bending their arms and doing all sorts
of things with their wrists. So this shaft extension drill

(34:55):
is really simple. It's the basis to everything, whether it's
a chip shot, to make it grow into more of
a nine to three kind of drill, which is a
second drill just nine to three on the clock, swing
back to nine, swing forward to three. But with the
shaft extension, let the club brush the ground. Don't be
afraid for that club to brush the ground. That's another

(35:16):
reason why people struggle with low point. They're fearful of
what the ground's going to do reverberation wise through that
golf club. The other one I mentioned, I call it
the feet together release drill. Use it a lot with driver,
but I do use it quite a bit with irons
when somebody's having a hard time understanding the timing of

(35:36):
the release. And it's really important for the beginner and
the novice to tee the ball up doing this drill
when you're going after it down on the ground. You
may have some issues getting started with this drill, but
it's very easy. Put your feet together, club out and
all you're trying to do is bring it back. You

(35:57):
definitely are trying to bring it through and release a
little bit, but all you're trying to do is find
the golf ball. I mean, that's really what it's about.
Let's fine and collect that golf ball and see what
you can do to put a flat face on that ball,
not only for it to go straight, but I have
a little bit of ball speed too.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Yeah, and definitely tee it up. What I like, particularly
about the first drill that you mentioned it's a great
way to identify whether or not people are using too
much arm in their swing or if they're actually rotating
the body, because that shaft will come off their side
if you're setting up properly. If they're not making the
turn correctly, that shaft will come away from the body.
So it's a good idea to tell whether or not

(36:36):
they're using just swinging their arms back and or collapsing
their arms as well. So that's always a good drift.
I've seen you do that in a number of videos.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Yeah, it's when you get the welts on the side.
Don't blame that on me when your spouse asks what
you've been doing, whether you're male or female, But that
is exactly what you're saying, is that when you're so armsy, handsy,
this thing's going to hit you in the side every time.
Some have And what all you're trying to do with
the shaft extension drill is not allow that to get

(37:05):
touching you until very late, until you fully turn. You've
got the arms extended, and this is probably underneath you somewhere.
Will it touch you a little bit? Sure? Will it reverberate?
Will it vibrate? For sure? No big deal. The concept
is very simple. The faster, the harder, the more aggressive

(37:25):
you try to do that drill, the worse it gets.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. And just for you
ladies out there that listening, if you see any of
those hash marks on your husband, that's the John Hughes
low point drill that he gave here tonight.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
I truthful. Everybody knows. It's just take ownership and then
it's all okay, it goes away really quick.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Right, exactly, well done, John Decker. Let's give him another
weight shift drill as well. This is another area that again,
as you touched on, is there another favorite drill that
you like to do to help people make sure they're
shifting correctly in the golf swing.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yes. I have three drills for the transition and the
weight shift and they're all on my website deckorgolf dot com.
One is the step forward drill, where you start you
get into a setup position, you take your left foot
back and you put your feet together and you bring
the club back and you swing back and then you
physically step forward just like a lot of the kids

(38:24):
call it the happy Gilmour and drill, where you're stepping
into the ball, so you step forward and hit the ball.
That's one way. The other way is what Gary Player
actually did when he played on the Senior Tour, where
you actually step through the ball. You swing in your
right foot if you're right handed, will step over your
left foot and kind of go around your left leg.
That's the step through drill. And then the last one

(38:45):
is the tap and go drill, and that's that drill
was you swing back and you take your left foot
and tap your right foot as the club is going back,
and then you step forward and hit the ball. All
of these drills if you it's they're difficult to explain
in this format, but if you go on the website
and watch the videos, those three are on my website,

(39:07):
and I think those are three of my drills that
I go to. My favorite of the three is the
step through, which is how Gary Player again played on
the golf course, and I've had I've seen Tiger Woods
do this on the golf course from a downhill lies
and also when I'm on a downhill lie, I do
that drill. I did that recently in the tournament. I

(39:28):
was on extreme downhill lie and to make sure that
I got my way through. I actually hit the ball.
My right foot came off the ground, crossed over my
left foot and knocked it up on the green and
made birdie. So that drill can be taken out onto
the golf course and it's something that you can't use
on the course as.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Well well said. And I'm going to give each of
you guys a chance as we close out to let
the folks know number one, how they can reach out
and give them me your website because I know John
both John's have some great drills and tips on their
website that people can check out after the show. So
we'll go and order again. John Hughes go ahead to
howcking folks reach out if there's any quickly that you'd
like to plug, and don't forget to give them that website.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Absolutely, it's johnheyesgolf dot com. And whether it's a social channel,
my YouTube channel, just search for John Hughes Golf and
the drills and such that I have, they're not on
my website, they are on the YouTube channel. There's over
three hundred different types of videos that you can see there.
A lot of drills. Will set up a lot of
drills to try to find your low point a lot

(40:29):
of situational stuff. To John's point with that severe downhill, Lie,
that's the series that I'm in right now. Don't want
to plug it too soon, but come September there's going
to be some major things for me to plug and
announce that I'm really excited about. I'm spending a lot
of time on now that I'm hoping really provides a

(40:53):
deeper look into what I do, what is available and
what and be done with as little effort as possible
from the consumer and from the golf r end. And
that's as much as I'm going to tease it.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
That's about as little as as I think you've ever
said on promoting something here. John, You're going to be
on here before before that time comes, anyway, so we'll
get it to plug it more officially at that point.
But thank you as always for coming on. And mister Decker,
how can the folks reach out to you and let
them know where they can see some of your drills
that might cover only tonight's topics, but maybe some other

(41:31):
things that we've talked about before.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
Well, John, first of all, thank you for coming on
the show with us, and Ted, thank you for having us.
You give us a great opportunity and I really appreciate
it for the listeners out there. If you want to
get in touch with me, go to my website decergolf
dot com. On my website, I have all of my videos,
my video libraries, and I cover vidio pretty much every
situation that you're going to face on the golf course.

(41:56):
You can also find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and
Instagram and on my YouTube channel. Now I have over
five hundred videos that are are on my channel and
it's under John Decker Golf Instruction and my first thing
is spelled jo in for those out there, so if
you're searching that, it's to put in John Ducker Golf

(42:17):
and you'll find that on YouTube. And then I have
two books that I've written in both of them are
Christian golf books, and the first is Golf is My Life,
Glorifying God through the game, and the second is fair
Ways to Have a One Shot at the Time. And
both of those books are you can find them on
Amazon and Barnes and Noble, all the different websites out there.
And if you're looking for a speaking a public speaker,

(42:40):
it is speaking engagement. Feel free to reach out on
deckergolf dot com. I'd love to come to your golf
course or church or wherever and speak, So I'm looking
forward to doing some of that coming up here real soon.
So thanks again, Ted for having us on the show.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Thank you for bringing your best and I always enjoy
having you guys on the show. We're gonna take a
quick commercial break, and when I come back, I gonna
be joined by golf fitness expert mister Bob Foreman. We'll
be mm hmmm. Welcome back everyone. I'm excited to have

(43:51):
joined me once again, my great uh golf fitness expert,
mister Bob Foreman. He's joining me here on the show
once again, and just let me tell you a little
bit about him and then we'll get into tonight's discussion.
He's the former director of Fitness and Wellness for the
Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. He's internationally known as
a leader in the field of golf fitness. His programs

(44:13):
have been recognized multiple years by the Golf Fitness Association
of America. He holds a Master's of Science degree and
exercise physiology and as a certified golf fitness instructor through
the Titleist Performance Institute or TPI for short, and the
Great Institute as well. Bob, welcome back to the show.

(44:36):
I appreciate. And we were just talking off air here,
and Bob's gonna send me a few really good articles
on some of what we're going to be talking about
here tonight and some other things, and we'll get that
up on Golf tipsmag dot com real soon and let
you see some of his handy work, if you will,
and I think there'll be some great tips and insight

(44:56):
there into getting fit and being fit and just play
your best golf. So but tonight we're going to talk
about two areas that we haven't really touched on, and
I just want to give a disclaimer a little bit
here first, because I know this was something you had
brought to my attention. I know that you are a
certified golf fitness instructor, so we can talk about that.
But we're going to talk, as I said, about nutrition,

(45:18):
and I know you're not a certified nutritionalist, so I
want to make sure that people understand that whenever and
wherever possible, that it's always a good idea to consult
with an expert in whatever field, even with the golf fitness.
If you're not working with Bob directly, it's always good
to make sure that you seek consultation with your normal
physician to make sure that you're healthy enough to do

(45:39):
any of the exercises that we may discuss here, or
change any dietary and nutrition that you may be doing.
We want to make sure that you stay healthy. And
this is just really more for informational and give you
sort of a focal point, if you will. And a
guide always should consult a physician to make sure your doctor,
that is, to make sure that you're not putting yourself

(46:01):
in any sort of harm's way in that. So let's
talk about nutrition a little bit. So how does First off,
let's talk about something I think relatively easy, and that
is how does nutrition play a role in playing our
best golf?

Speaker 1 (46:13):
What?

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I mean, who cares? You know? We are what we eat?
I know that, But how does it play a role
and making us better golfers?

Speaker 6 (46:22):
Fuel the effectively so that you can play to your
utmost potential. So you know a big part of that is,
like you say, you are what you eat, so what
you put in your mouth really can kind of dictate
how you feel out there on the golf course and
during the four or five hours that it takes the

(46:43):
player around the golf I mean, you want to make
sure that you're properly fuel So yeah, it is important
to make sure you're eating the proper food substrates and
that you continue to do that through the round so
that you know, the back nine is not going to
be slugish.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
And let's touch on that a little bit. And again
keeping in mind that this is just sort of a
general discussion, just to give some ideas of sort of
some of the dews and don'ts. What are some of
the dews and don'ts when it comes to your nutrition
for golfers out there. I know I can think of
one off hand. I mean, we all like to have
that chili dog or what have your cheese dog at
the golf course, but that may not always be the

(47:26):
best thing for So if we're looking to keep our
stamina up out in the golf course, what are some
things what are some foods or nutritional items that we
should maybe scale back a little bit on, especially if
we're getting ready to play this week, and maybe some
other ones that we need to make sure that we're
you know, eating and or drinking. What are some good
options here, give us some of the dews and don'ts well.

Speaker 6 (47:45):
I mean, the probably the number one substrate you should
focus on is complex carbohydrates. You know, regardless of what
you read or what you hear, you know, the complex carbohydrates,
which are your fruits, your vegetables, your beans, I mean
even your pasta's in there and stuff like that, are
kind of what the body prefers, especially during a round

(48:08):
of golf. I mean, it's not an intense exercise, but
it is done over a period of time. So if
you can. As a matter of fact, you know the
dietary guidelines for Americans that came out and they come
out every four or five years. I mean, they're recommending
that eighty five percent of your total calories during the

(48:29):
day comes from nutrient dense food. And that's again your
complex carbohydrates, your protein, your fish, your you know, your meat,
stuff like that, egg whites, lentils. You know, it's the
fact that kind of sits in your stomach. So you know,
throughout the week, you want to make sure that you're

(48:51):
eating properly, not only for playing a good round of golf,
but just for overall health. But when it comes to
the actual day of playing golf. For while you're out
there on the golf course, because again it's four or
five hours. I mean, anything that you put in your
system that has you know, a lot of saturated fat
in it, it's just gonna sit in your system so

(49:13):
that that may kind of make you a little sluggish
out there. So you want to make sure that you're
getting that food that's gonna get ingested fairly quickly that
you can utilize throughout the around. And then on top
of that, you know, staying hydrated is also very important.
You know. I know everybody's out there likes to drink,
you know, I have a few beers on the golf
course or drinks and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
But don't squelter fun, Bob, don't squelter fun.

Speaker 6 (49:39):
You're gonna have fun, yeah, I know. I mean, I'll admit,
you know, the beard too out there, you know, with
the guys and stuff. But I mean, if you can
stick to the clear liquid, you know, the water, I mean,
that would be your best option obviously, especially you don't
want to get yourself dehydrated. You want to make sure
that you are well hydrated because if you do get
into a semi state of dehydration, and it doesn't take

(50:01):
long to get into a state of dehydration. You know,
that water is taken out of the blood, so now
the blood has less volume to kind of get the
nutrients around to the muscles that you're going to utilize
while you're playing around the golf. So saying hydrated is
just as important as eating the proper foods before during

(50:26):
the round of golf.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
You know, Jack Nicholas famously talked about in his video
from some years back now Golf my Way, how he
was felt it was important he would bring something. He'd bring,
you know, sometimes a sandwich or whatever. And a lot
of people don't want to do that. I get it
this day and age. And of course they got the
cute cart girl coming around there, so they want to
buy something for her. But if you were going to
advise somebody maybe what to stay away from when she

(50:52):
comes around as far as food is concerned, I mean
what people look for stamina, And you know, especially as
we get older, you know, you get that back nine
and by about the second or third hole in the
back nine value time, you get about thirteen four and
you're starting to lose some steam. So part of it,
I know is a hydration as you suggest, But what
would be maybe a good snack to bring to the course,

(51:13):
and or if you are going to get something off
of the cart, is there anything And again I know
that it's subject to debate, but is there anything on
the golf cart that maybe that typically most courses that
you could get that would be okay to that You're
not going to get this big sugar rush and then
crash after, So give us some thoughts on that. What
can we do to keep our stamina up.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Well, the sugar stuff isn't that bad. It's going to
get ingested pretty quick into the bloodstream, so you're going
to be able to utilize those calories fairly quickly versus
like I say, a fatty type food hot dog or
cheese or anything like that. You know, if you're going
to have a sugary type food, try to eat it,
you know, maybe with some sort of protein that will

(51:54):
slow that ingestion a little bit into the bloodstream. Like
you say, you don't want to get that quick spike
blood sugar and then it just quickly drops and you know,
come fourteen fifteen, you're all of a sudden feeling like
you got a load on your back. So yeah, I
mean complex carbhydrates. Like I say, you know, some breads
like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich might be a

(52:16):
good little thing to take with you or to take
off the food card that they have stuff like that.
Protein bars are always good, you know, to kind of
ingest while you're out there on the golf course. But again,
just stay away from like even the chocolate bars and
stuff like that because that stuff will just kind of
sit in your system.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Yeah, and you know I've also heard too, you know,
maybe bringing a small bag of almonds or something along
that line to you know, kind of crunch on a
little bit as you go through, not when your buddys
in his back swing. But you know, needless to say,
you want to have something like that. Again, you know
some some nuts are better than others, but those might
be something or protein bar as you suggest, But you

(52:57):
want to be able to make sure that you've got
some enough energy to finish out your round because again,
especially when you're here in the south, you know, or
even out in the west in the desert, you know,
and you're playing and you start getting those We're going
to talk about that. Now, you know, some of those
hotter temperatures out there, and if you're not properly hydrated,
and if you're not eating the right foods, you know,

(53:18):
on that second nine, you're starting to lose a lot
of energy, and it's just, you know, it's like I'm
not even gonna, you know, stand over the ball and
just I'll just punch the shot all the ways up
the fairway. And you get to the point where you
lose interest in the round. Even though you're finishing the round,
you're still losing interest and momentum. And you might have
started off having a great front nine, but now all
of a sudden you've you know, over indulged. Maybe you

(53:39):
had a couple of too many beers on the front nine,
and you're dehydrated and not eating enough getting enough good nutrition.
So those are some great tips. Let's talk about heat.
Battling the heat is a big issue, especially as I
mentioned here in the South. I think it seems it
should be pretty obvious, but again, how do we prepare
ourselves to handle that, because there's a couple of factors.

(54:00):
It's not just the nutritional side of things. But again,
especially if you're somebody that's traveling maybe from way up north,
maybe Canada or whatever. You're coming down here to the
south to play some golf. And now you've got a
twenty degree jumping in the temperature, and you throw some
humidity in there that you're not used to. Your body's
not quite climatized that, right, Give us walk us through
that a little bit. What do we need to do

(54:21):
here and what's happening to our bodies?

Speaker 6 (54:23):
Yeah, I mean for the folks that are up north
coming down south, I mean you've got to remember it
takes about two weeks to acclimate to the temperatures and
like you said, the humidity and stuff like that, and
it doesn't have to be extremely hot temperature wise, right,
they kind of feel the effects from the weather. I mean,
that's why it's important to kind of follow the heat index,

(54:44):
which takes into account temperature and humidity versus just what
the temperature is. Because you can have a temperature in
the mid eighties, but if the humidity level is up,
you know that heat index is going to be higher.
So that means that the body is going to have
to work harder to dissipate the internal body temperature. And again,

(55:05):
you know if your body's working harder to get rid
of that temperature, and you're not going to have you know,
as good around as you think you are, because you're
gonna feel sluggish, you're gonna feel tired, you may not
have the energy to you know, to kind of have
fun out there on the golf course because your body's
trying to you know, stay at a normal tempt. So yeah,

(55:29):
it's important to acclimate. Give yourself plenty of time to
acclimate to the warmer temperatures and humidity. And again it
goes back to make sure you stay hydrated, you know,
because again, like we said that, you get into that
semi state of dehydration, and again it doesn't take long
to get there. Your body is gonna try to conserve

(55:49):
that energy or use that energy to you know, get
your get you through, versus having that energy to swing
a golf club, and you'll feel sluggish, and like you say,
back nine will just see a drag.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah, And you know, I've seen that so many times
over the years, and it's just I keep saying to
these guys. You know, I've played with groups, and you know,
I'll join up in a group and and I'll see
them having a bunch of beer. They're not drinking hardly
any water at all. And and you know, again I
don't begrudge them. It's they're there to have fun. But
at the same time, I can just see it happen

(56:23):
and it's just like it's like the train's engines just dying.
You know, they're not feeding the coal anymore, and and
they've fed it something else, and it's just you know,
there's slugs, something else. I want to get you to
touch on because this was something years ago that used
used to hear a lot about. Now, with technology in
nutrition and things like that, it's changed, but talk about
electrolytes as well. This is something that people don't factor in.

(56:45):
I mean, it's good to drink water, but your body
is sweating a lot when you get into these warmer climate,
especially with humidity, and your body loses a certain element
of salt and and things like that. Years ago, a
lot of the players on the PGA tour would take
these I can remember some of them saying they taking
these salt tablets and things like that. Well they don't
do that anymore. They have some other replacements. But talk

(57:06):
about that a little bit, because that's an important thing
I think people overlook is it's not just the fact
that you're not having water, but you're losing a lot
of nutrients out of your body through sweat and other
things like that. So touch on that a little bitf
you wouldn't mind.

Speaker 6 (57:18):
Yeah, and I'm a big sweater, So I mean cut
the grass here down here in Charlotte, just outside Charlotte,
and I came in and it felt like a looked
like I just jumped in the pool. So yeah, I
mean the electrolytes, the sodium, potassium, magnesium, you know, you
gotta make sure that you keep those levels adequate within

(57:39):
the body because again, you know you're going to lose
those through your sweat and that may impact muscle contraction,
which you know you don't you don't want to be
tinkering with that while you're out on the golf course.
I mean, you can get into also things like heat cramps,
you know, which are basically cramps, and because of the

(58:01):
fact that you're losing thillose electrolytes or even worse, you
can get into a situation where you might get into
heat exhausted, which hopefully you never do, but it's important
to maintain those electrolytes, and you know, citrus juices are
a good thing to have because they will have some
of those you know, the chemicals in those drinks. Nowadays,

(58:24):
there's a lot of electrolyte drinks that you can have.
There's electrolyte tablets that you can buy that you can
put water like af thee selser and they'll just fizzle
and you can consume that, you know, the Gatorades, the
Power Aids, and just careful the sugar levels.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Yeah. I was just about to say, yeah, I gotta
be careful the sugar level. And again, you you know,
this is where maybe you want to consult with a
good nutritionist about that to find out to make sure. Again,
I'm not knocking any any one product, but there are
a lot out there that that talk about, oh this
is great for and I know you've already named one
of them. But you know, I'm not knocking Gatorad. I'm
guilty of it too. But I know sometimes when a

(59:02):
lot of the pro athletes used to you know, do
commercials and things like that, and they you know, drink
that stuff back, and you know, we find out years
later that maybe I'm not saying it's bad for you,
but there's a lot of sugar. People need to be mindful,
especially if you're diabetic. You need to make sure that
you're you know, you're not spiking your insolent levels and
things like that. So yeah, exactly, they're better now than
what they were back then. But yeah, I agree, but

(59:24):
you still need to figure that out and I think
it's important that you do that. But yeah, it's it's
just one of these things that I think that you
have to be mindful of and you just have to
be able to, you know, consult with the right people.
And I think it's so important, especially as we're getting
through you know, really in the in the cusp of
the summer right now, and it's hot everywhere. It's been

(59:45):
hot downe and we've had a lot of rain here
in Florida, so it's it hasn't been as bad, but
we've had some cooler you know periods at right after
the rain, which is unusual. Usually it gets the other
it gets hot. Uh, but you need to really be
mindful of the heat because it'll just zap every ounce
of energy. So again, I think the nutritional aspect of
it is important. And is there anything else you can

(01:00:06):
do from a physical standpoint to get yourself obviously being
in better shape to be able to handle that. I mean,
we've touched on the traditional what can you do from
a physical standpoint to get yourself in a little bit
better shape so that you can your body can handle
a little bit easier some of the things we've been
talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
I mean, obviously, the better you know, the more the
higher the fitness level of the individual, the more you're
going to be able to tolerate conditions like heat and
humidity and stuff like that. So if you can get
into a regular exercise program, you know, which consists of
strength and cardio and flexibility stretching, that's going to go

(01:00:48):
a long way in terms of combatting all those conditions
that you're going to confront out on the golf course,
which concludes not only the environment, but you know, the
the and being temperatures and such like that, and humidity
levels system brought and the same thing in the winter time.
So you know, the more efficient your body is at

(01:01:10):
getting that blood through the system and dissipating internal body heat,
which will obviously get better as your cardiovascular levels to
get better, it'll help you out on a golf course
in terms of getting through those hot, humid days, and
the same thing on the nutrition part of it, you know,
just to make sure obviously if you do exercise, hopefully

(01:01:32):
you're thinking about the food component and that you're also
eating better than those that may not be so concerned
about their their fitness and health. But you know that'll
take you, That'll take you a long way out on
the golf course.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And you know, you want
to stay away from things are going to zop your energy.
Because I've even gotten to the point now with a
lot of older golfers I've said to them, you know,
and I know some of them don't want to do this,
but I said, you know, instead of playing eighteen, play nine,
play the front nine today, play the especially golf you
know retirees and that that have a lot of time
on their hands, they're playing several rounds a week. I said,

(01:02:10):
instead of playing eighteen holes and tiring yourself out playing
nine holes you know in the morning maybe tomorrow morning,
play the back nine of that. If you've got a
favorite course and find combine your score for eighteen, it's
going to be pretty accurate from day to day. It's
not going to change a whole lot. You know, if
you're if you're you know, been playing for any sort
of regularity, and you're you're pretty you know, on on
the ball when it comes to your golf game in general,

(01:02:32):
but you know, start scaling back and just maybe playing
nine holes instead of eighteen. I mean, you know, you
don't have to play eighteen every time. And I'm not
saying it. In cooler days, okay, let's let's push a
little bit more. But when it gets hot out here,
especially down in Florida, you've got ninety five degree weather
and you got some you know, eighty five ninety year
old guy out there and he's trying to pump in
eighteen holes. It's just, you know, even the young guys

(01:02:53):
are struggling a little bit. It's just too much. So
scale it back.

Speaker 6 (01:02:56):
And the clothing too, I mean, now, yeah, manufacturers, you know,
off of Parels now and with the dry fit stuff,
and we'll just kind of wick that moisture away from
the body and help kind of dissipate it and keep
you cooler while you're out there. Obviously, a hat, you know,
to kind of keep the sun off the skin and
stuff like that will also help. They have towels, you know,

(01:03:18):
those cool towels that you can wet and then they
cool to keep you comfortable while you're playing in the
hot human days. So there's a lot of stuff out
there that can help you get through the round.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Well, Bob, I want to
thank you. I think we hit most of the highlights.
And again, I always want to encourage people to work
with a certified golf professional, a fitness professional like Bob
Foreman here. If you're interested in doing that, we'll give
your information out. I know you're not doing as much
as you used to, but maybe you can also give
them a website that they can go to to get

(01:03:53):
more information, see some great articles. And I'm going to
be taking some of Bob's favorite articles and we're going
to get those up on golf smag dot com here
real soon, so you can get some of that knowledge
as well. And then also maybe quickly just touch on
your book. You've got a great book that's available, Functional
Golf Fitness Training. Where's that available and how can people
get their hands on a copy?

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
Yeah, the book you can get through the book patch
and or you can go online to my website, and
there's a link there on my website is golf Fit Carolina.
It's one F one T, so it's like golf It
Carolina dot com. You know, I'm starting to get back
out on the road now that I'm semi retired.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
Quite officially retired, you know, you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:39):
Know, retired all the way. But so I'm getting back
out on the road and doing some golf fitness clinics
at some clubs and stuff like that. So if anybody's
interested in offering something like that at their glove or organization,
the informations on the website that they can contact me,
and you know, we kind of go through a lot
of good stuff to help golfers healthier golf.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
I couldn't agree more. All of Bob's information is on
his website. You can also get a link to his
book Functional Golf Fitness Training. I'm going to have that
as well with the link up on Golf Tips maag
here Golf tipsmag dot com real soon. So, Bob, I
want to thank you for coming on and look forward
to seeing you again. In a couple of weeks time.
We'll have you back and we'll have another segment that
we'll talk about making people a little bit better fit

(01:05:25):
and have a better time out on the golf course.
Cause if you're not in good shape, and if you're
lacking behind, slugging out in the back nine, we're going
to try and give you some things to help you
build up your stamina and help you become a better
player in the long run. Even if you're up up
in those years, there's still lots of great golf left,
so don't give up. But I want to thank you
for joining me tonight, and we're gonna take another quick

(01:05:46):
commercial break, and when I return, I can be joined
by this evening's feature guest, I'll be right back.

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Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm very very excited to bring on
my featured guest of the evening, Miranda Turner. I'm going
to tell you a little bit about her and then
we'll get into tonight's discussion here. Miranda, of course, is
the CEO of MGI Golf Inc. Here in North America.
She has been with the business since two thousand and
five and is the eldest daughter of MGI founder Ian Edwards.

(01:06:41):
With a deep understanding of the brand and its global potentials,
played a pivotal role as International Markets Director, where she
was instrumental in launching MGI in the North American market.
Under her leadership, MGI has grown significantly and is now
recognized as the number one electric golf caddie brand in America.
She also continues to drive the company's strategic vision, fostering

(01:07:04):
innovation and strengthening MGI's presence across North America. So, Miranda,
welcome to Golf Talk Live and thank you for joining me.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
Thanks me, Ted, it's so nice to meet Well, it's very.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Nice to meet you. So we get a little bit
of sort of a very brief history. Obviously you're the
daughter of Ian who developed mg I. But tell us
a little bit more how it got started, How did
he decide and why did he decide to start MGI.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Yeah, well, I mean it's thirty two years ago now,
it just seems like a blink ago when Dad started it.
I'd like to say that I wasn't born at that point,
but I was, and I do remember.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
It, actually barely.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
We're on video, so I think they know. But yeah, look,
it literally started, you know, in our garage, so I
was very aware, you know, you know if dad steps
into golf, I mean Friday golf. Dad was in tennis,
you know, we'd go to the Australian Open. He was
a distributor for your X and that really you know,

(01:08:08):
through sport, through tennis. He ended up over here at
what used to be the very big sports expo in Atlanta, Georgia.
He came over that through through his introductions, he was
able to connect with a lot of the UK based
sports network, you might say, and then he started thinking

(01:08:30):
about golf. From there, he kind of came back to
Australia and his dad was an avid golfer and was
really looking for you know, a better way to get
around the golf course. You know, Victoria is known for
its beautiful golf courses in Australia where this company begun,
but it's pretty flat but still, you know, people were
looking for that next piece of equipment. So for his dad,

(01:08:53):
my dad started really fishing out there and that's when
he came across electric golf caddies and in Australia call
the motorized golf buggies. So it's it's like the tech's
still so new every pocket and every industry or market.
It's market you might say, does have a different term
for them. There's trolley's, channelers, caddies, you know, electric push

(01:09:16):
which I don't know where that comes from. So from
there he really took it upon himself to really develop something.
So that was the best in market. We had a
look at the UK. They're really leading that way, as
we would know in the golf course, but you know
they only get to play six months eight months a year.

(01:09:38):
We needed to build something that could be played three
hundred and sixty five days a year. And our courses,
our fair waies that can be pretty rough in certain parts.
How good a golfer you are we're going to end up.
And so Dad really built something very robust, and then
from there his interesting golf really took off. He moved
away from tennis. He played golf just twenty four to seven.

(01:10:01):
And you know, he's an entrepreneur, but he's also had
a lot of you know, great ideas, a lot of
vision for how he can benefit how he could benefit
the product through new innovation. And so yeah, you kind
of fast forward to twenty eighteen where we're like, hey,
how about the US market, and that's where we really

(01:10:22):
you know, you know, fast forward to now being number
one here. It's a lot of water under the bridge
between that, but yeah, that's kind of where it all started.
We're all, you know, my sister's in the business, my
uncle as well, he just retired actually, so yeah, it's
been very much a family run business, you know, up

(01:10:43):
until this point.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
I think that's why it's it's become so successful. I
think when you have a business of your own and
you and again that doesn't mean that you may or
may not have other employees helping along the way, but
I think when it's a family run business, you look
at things differently than a lot lot of you know,
companies that just sort of point a CEO and then
you have other folks. And not saying that there aren't

(01:11:05):
other good companies, but I think when it's family run,
that's kind of your baby, for lack of better words,
and you're you're, you know, putting your blood, sweat and
tears into it, and it means it has a different meaning.
I think when it's your own company when as opposed
to working for somebody else. So let's fast forward a
little bit here. You come along. I'm assuming you were
somebody maybe played a little bit of golf earlier on,

(01:11:27):
but at some point you got involved in the business.
How did that take place?

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
Yeah, well, I studied university very much down that business path.
I'm obviously following my you know, my father's footsteps. But
it took me through the travel industry. You know, being Australian,
we love to get off our island when we can.
It's a big island. But so you know, through the
travel industry, through wholesale business and you know, sales is

(01:11:55):
really was my path. And you know from there, you know,
twenty years ago really to the day Dad said look
I really need more support, you know, I you know,
he had some people working in the business. When you
bring family in, you get that automatic trust. You probably
get automatic compliance as well. Back you know, I think

(01:12:16):
you know, you know, when you're looking in the fairly
two thousands coming out of the nineties, you know you've
got to look after your staff and you can't talk
to them probably the way he used to. So he
just said, look, can you come in. I really need
someone to look after national sales. And I said, look,
I will, but I'm going to continue to travel through
the country. And so from there, I you know, I

(01:12:38):
really identified that to grow we needed we need a
sales team. We were really running it quite you know,
a small small business based in Victoria. But you know,
so I went out and employed our reps, one in
every state, and you know, really tried to take sales
to that next level. And while I was enjoying that,

(01:12:59):
you know, twenty years goes on. But you know, I
had my own family and said to Dad, look, you
know National sales great, but you know I need a
little bit more flexibility in what I'm doing. He said,
what do you do international? You can get up at
two am, you know, talk to Denmark. You can get
up at midnight talk to Kay and I said, you
know what, that that probably suits what I need to do.

(01:13:22):
So I got more into product development and the international
side of the business and stepped away from Australian domestic
and yeah, I loved it, loved all of it. Love
relationship building, learning about golf being played all throughout the world,
different markets. And then alongside that, I got involved in
the product development, you know, and I really enjoyed that

(01:13:44):
part as well, right down to packaging design, to the
innovations in the in the product. And then yeah, again
that's when we started looking at America. And you know,
we are distributed, you know, in forty different countries, around
three any different distributors. But we knew that the US
we needed to run that business.

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
Sure, yeah, and that and that had to obviously present
a certain challenge. I mean, obviously, as everybody knows, the
US is is the big you know, fish in the
lake if you were. It's the biggest market out there,
especially when it comes to golf. And obviously you know
Europe and that is I would say, certainly a close
close second, but the US is obviously the big market,

(01:14:26):
so that presents its own challenge. You're coming over here
it's a different market. You know, a lot of people.
As you pointed out earlier, you know, there's not as
many walker I mean, it's it's changing now. But for
a while, there wasn't a lot of walkers. Everybody was
driving the electric carts, and actually it wasn't really an
enjoyable round anymore. I I used to walk all the time,
obviously when I was younger. But as you know, you

(01:14:47):
get older in the market gets more saturated with more golfers.
They're pushing you out there like cattle into the into
the golf carts, and people wanted to have a better experience,
and along you guys came and said, hey, we've got
something here. We can implement a little technology but at
the same time allow you to get out there and
walk but not have the burden of lugging the bag

(01:15:10):
on your shoulder or using a push cart. So that
was obviously a big step, and you guys have made
a lot of strides. I mean, you're now number one
leading in North America. That's a pretty big thing to
you know, feather in your cap sort of speak, to
have that. So that's going to make you guys feel
pretty excited to not only come into a new market
a few years back, but now advance into the number

(01:15:31):
one spot.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
Yeah, oh look, we don't take it lightly. So I'm
so humbled again, you know, to have that that number one.
You know, coming from a family business, we already work
for passion, you know. We're just so passionate about what
we are, highly competitive, so we'd always like to strive

(01:15:53):
to be that number one. We don't look back. We
were always we've always been leaders and pushing through those barriers.
And you're absolutely right when we first got here. You know,
some people in Australia were like, are you mad? I
don't think anyone walks in the US, and the numbers
will tell you different. You know. You look at the

(01:16:13):
number of pushcarts are being sold. We've seen in excess
of five hundred thousand pushcarts in one year be sold.
But look, you know, there's a couple of reasons that
things have changed, and I think the technology is one
of them. I think coming out with something that you
are just like a pro being able to walk down
that fairway with a remote control caddy. That absolute freedom

(01:16:37):
of being able to stand up straight, walk freely, you know,
and without worrying about your equipment. So I think the
technology has really caught the attention of people, but really
that focus of health and well being. I can still
remember before moving over here, and some of the customer
service was still done in Australia. In twenty twenty during

(01:16:57):
COVID when we couldn't travel, I was taking phone calls
at like two am, three and I spoke to this
gentleman in Texas and he said, I've sold what I've
purchased one of your caddies. I'm ringing up to tell
you how great it is. I'm in my fifties. I
can't believe i'n't been walking. We've been driving in carts.
You know, my friends and I are now we need

(01:17:19):
to buy more where do we buy them? And we
all need to start walking for our own health wellbeing.
And ever since then, I've seen that change and it's
so exciting. It's you know, everyone who is walking now,
or you know walked like you said, carrying their bag,
worrying about the weight. They're playing better rounds, you know
that nine when it's really tough, when we really got

(01:17:42):
to hang in. They've got more energy than their friends
and they're having a good time and I think the
tech is increasing the enjoyment and that's what I love.
I love hearing the stories people telling me how much
fun they're having with it and the difference that's making
on the game. It's just so good.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
And the technology has changed a lot to what you
offer now making I mean, we can't get into all
of it because you know, it would be probably a
couple of hour show, but touch on a little bit
how it sort of changed from when you first came
on online with your products to where it's at now.
I mean, obviously the onslaught of major major advancements and technology.

(01:18:22):
So what are some of the big changes that people
can see moving forward with with what you've got now?

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Like we came out, you know,
non remote and remote caddies. You know, the split used
to be, you know, fifty to fifty. Now you're looking
at a ten and a ninety. You know, everyone's moving
into something that you know, they really don't have to
put their hands on anymore. You know, we have SLA batteries,
you know, I my dad put one in my car once.

(01:18:51):
That's how big they were to turn the ignission on.
So you know, these kind of patties that MGI has
been building. We've come a long way in the tech
and we've we've built on every platform that we've had,
and I think that's the real difference between somebody that
just comes out. We woke up yesterday and said, I'm
going to do an electric golf caddy to something that's

(01:19:12):
really evolved, and I think that that's that's in the
real the nitty gritties of the tech that we offer,
the seamlessness between moving from a manual control to to remote.
Our caddies do have a gyroscope on board to keep
that product straight, so even if you're hitting a divot,

(01:19:33):
you don't have to worry about where it is where
your caddy is, it will straighten back up. So, you know,
bringing together that kind of technology has really changed the
game and really kind of pushed that boundary. I do
think that you know, our built in now GPS costs
mapping has been awesome. You know, we've got a orange
color touch screen. You can see where you are on

(01:19:55):
the golf course, you can see what's around that dog
leg on your part five. You can start learning more
about your game without coming to worry about plugging in
a handheld GPS, you know, without you know, with a
much bigger screen than something that might be on your watch,
you'll never forget it because it's built in, so you know,
you god to leave it behind. So I really feel

(01:20:15):
that starting to again take us to that next level
of tech. And you know, we've got some new product
coming out next year that's going to push those boundaries again.
But the tech is also not just greatful, you know,
you know, you and I. It's been revolutionizing the fleet
programs within the clubs as well, you know, the member experience,

(01:20:40):
the visitor experience. You know, we getting to this point
where we have ninety units sitting up at Oakdale Golf Club,
which is where the Canadian Open was played a couple
of years back. They have ninety of our Navigator GPS
plus is there so if you remember, you can literally
just walk from your car to the clubhouse and there

(01:21:01):
we will be your caddy, you know, or a caddy
with your bag on it, ready to go. So this
is where you know, some of these you know, private
courses are heading for that member satisfaction to really drive
the experience and set themselves apart from other clubs. So
it's really exciting where it's all going.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
Do you see and you may already have some of
that exposure, Now do you see that sort of parlaying
over into the resort experience as well, because a lot
of resorts obviously have driveable carts and stuff, which is
something they have to make available to their to their guests.
But do you see with more and more people becoming,
as you pointed out, health conscious and a little bit

(01:21:45):
more saying, hey, I want to I want to get
out there and start walking again. You know, I enjoy
the experience, are you do you see them starting to
gravitate to this type of product as well.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
When we joined into anship with True Golf Disovery or
nearly nearly a year ago now, as you know, they
preferred electric golf caddy and that's actually one of the
exact reasons that they were really interested in electric golf caddies.
They've never they've never had a vendor or a partnership
with our type of category before, but they definitely see

(01:22:22):
that that is changing, you know. They you know, we're
also an official sponsor of their True Fit program, which
they're really committed to, you know, maybe balancing out all
the fun you know, hospitality side that they also offer.
There's that you know, let's look after ourselves, let's you know,
ensure that we're not always writing in a golf cart.
So look, resorts are definitely coming around to it. I

(01:22:47):
think design, you know, cause design is a tough one.
You know, if you've got along, you know, even with
the most the best electric golf caddy, you're still walking.
So some are just not you know, will never be.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Yeah, but there's Broom's Edge that was just completed. Golf
course just opens up. It's walking only, you know, and
they open the brand new golf course. So there's been
about ten courses open in like the last twelve months
where they've had a real walking focus, you know, and
they've taken on a fleet of our mgis immediately. So yeah, yeah,

(01:23:23):
resorts are definitely you know, you know, I suppose our
next challenge for us, but I think with the product
evolving and we have these amazing programs where they can
buy them out right or they can do least financing,
which running parallel to a righte on golf cart. With
this new revenue stream for clubs as well.

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
Yeah, and it gives them an option you know, that's
not to say that they're going to suddenly do away
with with the writing cards, but not I think no.
I mean, there's always going to be somebody whos gonna
want that for whatever reason. But I think it's good
that they have that they will have this as an
option because again, and I think you probably noticed a
change with COVID as you know, challenging as COVID was

(01:24:06):
for a lot of people around the globe, Uh, the
one thing it did was really spiked golf. Golf benefited
unfortunately from from uh that situation. You know, whether you
look at it good or bad. But I think that
you have a new different type of golfer coming on
the scene now that maybe is a little bit more
fit conscious. That said, you know, younger generation coming up

(01:24:28):
that you're not saying that they won't drive a car,
but are looking at it saying I want to walk,
I want to you know, stay fit, I want to
be healthy, and this sort of walks right into your wheelhouse.
So that's something I think that you probably noticed coming
out of COVID as well, did you not?

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean, you know, golf is just such
a savior through that period, wasn't it. I mean I know,
I mean tennis was shut down, you know, I mean
there are a lot of sports where you know, and
you were to stay away from people, but hey, you
could walk that golf course. So yeah, I think everybody
saw the upside to that, and we you know, and

(01:25:05):
again you know, riding in a golf cart you could
take one or a lot of golf courses had to
put them away because they didn't have the resources to
be wiping them down and getting them prepared for the
next round. So you know, there was some challenges for
the golf course at that time. And I think you know,
products like ourselves that promoted that walking that you own
it yourself, you take it home. It definitely created a

(01:25:27):
new you know, a new a new way of course.
I think the demographics are changing, and I think that's
you know, that eighteen to thirty five year olds. I
think we just saw you know, recently, like they're you know,
the number one category you know of demographics playing golf now.
And what are they looking for? They're looking for tech.

(01:25:49):
They're like, you know, maybe you know they've got high
disposable income. You know, maybe you know they they haven't
had the children yet that you know, you can take
your time, and so they're like, you know what, I'm
spending all, you know, and we love them two girls,
my pride and joys. But yeah, I mean I think
to be able to you know, they'll spend money game

(01:26:11):
changing equipment and they see a product like mg I
and they're like, that is doing a three hundred and
sixty degree turn so fast on a dime. I don't
have that. This is a lot of fun and I
get to walk the golf course. I don't have to
be a hero anymore. You know, the Scottish Schefflers of
the world an't carrying their bag. It's not an ego thing, right, Yeah,

(01:26:32):
And I think, look, ow, you know, part of our
vision has always been, you know, to you know, accelerate
that tech piece and the acceptance of it, but also
you know, shape that next generation of golfer into wanting
to stay in the game, be progressive, you know who
you know, want to see tech come into the game.

(01:26:53):
And you know, we've been really excited to join the
Hurricane Junior Golf Association this year, you know, just to
do that amateur to pro programs. You know, that really
aligns with a lot of you know what what we
do for to drive growth, but personally, for me, I
love kids in sport, and that was I can do

(01:27:15):
the company line of it's part of our vision to
get more you know, products into the hands of people,
but to be part of kids' sport it is something
pretty special. And they do a great job out there
at Hurricane and you know, they've now got our product
at every event and kids can try one out, they
can rent it for the you know, the duration of

(01:27:36):
the event if they want. I think the parents are
having a bit of fun scene out there. But I
love seeing my product in amongst the kiddos, you know,
and that next golfers and practicing health and well being.

Speaker 3 (01:27:49):
Yeah, and if it's if it's the slightest bit cool,
they want to have it so that, you know, and
you guys have a great product. I mean it's very edgy,
it's very you know, very innovative, and it just looks great.
It's a great product. And you also have become the
official electric caddie for the Epsent Tour, who I'm very
familiar with. I interview the winners pretty much every week

(01:28:10):
on my other show, The Women of Golf, so I'm
very familiar with the Absent Tour people, and I was
very excited. In fact, I'll be honest, that was and
again not to take away from the products. That was
one of the reasons why I reached out when the
opportunity present itself to have you come on the show,
because I thought, Wow, this is great, because I just
love these young ladies on the Epsent Tour. They come
on the show, they're just excited, and I thought, what

(01:28:33):
a great partnership, and I'm glad to see their tour
has been growing. We've been, you know, in sort of
a partnership if you will, with them for probably about
ten years now, and we've been interviewing their winners and
various players and their chief business officer and that as
well has come on our podcast. So just very very
excited that you guys have done. So how did that

(01:28:55):
come about? Number one? And I know you've got some
I get I don't know if you're calling them ambassador
are not, But you've got a few of the ladies
that are actually really out there using the products. So
tell us about the how did that come about?

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
Look again, you know, trying to get more exposure to
our category has always been at the top of what
we do, but one of the drivers that we do
have is that is that amateur to pro program and
you know, the absence to it, you know, came into
our radar and I was like, you know this, I mean,
what a great event. I mean, this is this is

(01:29:29):
the women's version of the conferry. You know, it's a
exactly qualiflying event to get you know, get their ticket
onto the LPGA. And so, you know, obviously being a
bit of a bigger female, I was like, okay, well,
you know, I'd love to take a deeper dive on it.
And you know what we found was that we didn't
realize it was so much disparity between the men's and

(01:29:50):
the women's at that level, and you know, whether it's
you know, the winnings, the purse sizes were different, and
just the availability of fun to move around the number
of events that they do. And we were just like,
you know, if we can make a difference to those
to those athletes to you know, in their pursuit to

(01:30:10):
be the best that they can, we were like, this
is a great event. So we met Jodie Brothers, who
looks after the event, and I mean, what a wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:30:20):
Guy isn't he je phenomenal. Yeah, We've interviewed him many times.
He's a great guy.

Speaker 2 (01:30:24):
Oh, I mean yeah, I mean I'm just in awe
of him, you know. But the passion that he has
matches out passion for what we do. And we just went,
you know what, whatever you're doing, we want to be
a part of that. How how can we help? And
so one of those was, you know, was looking at
the looking at the players and seeing if we could,
you know, find some ambassadors that might enjoy products. So

(01:30:47):
we kind of threw the product out there and said,
everyone give it a go. And you know, I never
expected to find such wonderful athletes, so funny, so charismatic,
so hard working, so diligent. I mean they are out
there practicing, practicing, practicing their fitness. They're stretching and then

(01:31:10):
they go out and play thirty six holds, you know,
and then they do it again the next day. I
mean I've been yeah, really take my hat off to them.
Gin Kim is one of our ambassadors. She just got
a ticket to the LPGA and was just like, how amazing.
You know, you just get goose bumps to seeing that
so early in the year. Julian Hollis, she's been amazing.

(01:31:32):
So she ended up taking one of our caddies kind
of customized in a red for her and she's called
it Kevin, and so she has this moving around and
she she wrote to us and she said, she said,
she said, he's been so great and instrumental to my success.
So you know that these patties have got their own
little personalities. Put so do these amazing women. And you

(01:31:57):
know they're just touring around. They're not they're not home.
Some of them have family with some of them don't.
So when they have an electric golf caddy, it puts
them on that same that same level like playing field.
You might say, they don't want to carry their bag.
You know they're keeping you know, they're not allow to
use the carts. They've got to walk there using charts.

(01:32:18):
So Hayley Cooper, who came seventh in the Women's Open,
is an absolute rock star as well, so really enjoying
having her on you team. MG. I actually the episoen
to a crossover with the Legends tour the other day
at the Toledo Classic in Ohio. And presume I'm allowed

(01:32:44):
to say it on air, but you know, Carie Webb,
an Australian you know out one of our best Australian
women players ever is one of our m g I investors. Anyway,
she was playing that day.

Speaker 3 (01:33:00):
Yeah, she's fun. Sorry, I didn't mean you're interrupted. You
froze a little bit on the screen. So I just
wanted to sort of jump into real quick. You know,
we've interviewed Gina Kim three times this year because she
keeps winning all the time, and we actually had a
running joke on the show. I said that I think
there's a correlation between the because it would She came
on early in this year in I think March. She'd

(01:33:22):
won her first tournament in March, and she came on
I think the following week or might have been two weeks,
and then a few weeks later she won again. And
then she came on the show, and then a few
weeks later she won again. So I said, my partner
on the show, she's an LPJ professional, Sidney Miller, and
I said to her and and Gina when she was on,
I said, I think there's a correlation. Every time you

(01:33:43):
come on our show, you win another event. So we
got her fingers crossed that she's becoming on a fourth
time real soon. Well, the next best thing is she's
guaranteed her spot on the LPJ, which is really what
she was shooting for, So we'll take that as a
win as well. So we're happy to brag about her.
But you know, I really applauds you guys. Like I said,
I was really excited when I saw that announcement. I

(01:34:03):
actually have a post up on my company's website, Golf
tipsmag dot com, when that announcement was made about your
partnership with the Ebsent Tour, and I was really really excited,
obviously for you guys, but equally excited and in some
ways even more for the young girls on the Epsent Tour,
because again, it's a struggle. Most of them are just

(01:34:24):
coming fresh out of college and you know, they come
out their rookie year and the tour and it's completely different.
They're not on a team any longer. They've got to
find their wrong way, you know, their own way. And
just to sort of a shout out to Jody, Jody
Brothers has been a breath of fresh air, I think
to the Absent tour. He's just so passionate about building
that tour and as well as Epsen has been a
good partner with him for the last couple of years,

(01:34:46):
and I think hoping that they're going to stick around
for many more and renew again because they've they've again
brought a sort of a breath of fresh air in
more person money and more sponsorships as well. So between
Epsoin and Jodie Brothers, they're just doing a great job
and the young ladies deserve it. They work so hard
and deserve equal building. In fact, I enjoy watching them.

(01:35:09):
I went to there Tour Championship two years ago and
when it was still in Florida before it moved to California,
and it was just exciting to watch these young ladies.
They're just dedicated, very very humble, just smart and just
it actually made me sick to watch them play because
they were so good. You know, he just wanted to,
you know, give them a little slap and say, how

(01:35:29):
dare you make us look so bad the rest of us?
But you know, hey, that's what they're there for and
that's what they're doing, so let's again. I know, we
can't get into too much of the technology because you know,
there's not a lot there and we want to send
them at some point at the end of the of
the segment, we want to send them to your website
so they can see more and really do a deeper dive.
But give us a little bit of the technology. You

(01:35:50):
touched on a few things. But what really makes MGI's
products stand out.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Yeah, Look, I really do believe it's the gips of
product that we offer. You know, we really design our
product around the golfer. So we're not a single model company.
We've got the largest range of remote control caddies. We
also have non remote sure so when we look at

(01:36:17):
our range, we you know, we like to look at, okay, well,
what kind of course terrain are people playing on? You know,
it's really important that you know, it's some equipment, it
doesn't matter, but with our equipment, it should be taken
into consideration. So we look at We offer free wheel
electric golf caddies and we offer four wheel, so depending
on that terrain, you know, you might consider which one

(01:36:40):
you might need. You know, then we look at, you know,
within that course terrain, do you need things like downhills,
free speed control, do you need electronic park break? You know,
do you need gyroscope to traverse across a hill without
it wanting to voluntarily just speed away from you. So
course terrain will help you match the product diversity or

(01:37:01):
the pick the right product really and then it's about
technology too, right, So you know, are you more comfortable
looking at you know, standing behind it and just guiding it?
You know, is that all you need? We've got that.
Do you need right up to that? You know navit
you know, the AI navigator, GPS plus that's really going
to tell you everything about your game, you know, traverse

(01:37:25):
across that golf course freely, get you around thirty six holes,
you know, so you can start looking at it from
a tech perspective. And then we look at budget. You know,
are you down you know and just entering the market
at six ninety nine you know, you don't have to
come at you know, come in at that two thousand
dollars price points. So I think we really have that

(01:37:46):
all solution for everybody, because it's it shouldn't be one step,
you know, one stop shop, that's for sure. But look,
you know, sometimes beyond beyond the fair way, you have
to look outside of that. Because we do offer electronics
and we have motors, so we're a mechanical and electrical

(01:38:06):
style product, so that after sales service is super important.
So we offer like one of the longest warranties. We
have like a three warranty, and we offer like a
do it yourself opportunity too, So should anything go wrong,
you can call our friendly teams, super friendly team in
Las Vegas, where where I'm based, and we'll walk you

(01:38:27):
through what the issue might be. It might be a warranty,
it might be five years old. We'll walk you through it.
If we'll have a part and you can watch a
video on how to fix it or how to replace
that component, then you're away. So you know, we really
like to look after the product for a long time.
They can last a long time between well past the warranty.

(01:38:49):
So I think, you know, the after sales service really
you know ahead of the rest. You know, we've got
sales reps locally that are also part of our network
of golf professionals where you can buy the product from.
And you know, like you mentioned before, we own our company.

(01:39:10):
You know, we're here because we love it and we're
here to make sure everyone is a really good experience,
and we know they will when they buy it. But
it's just about getting in the hands of people out
there and matching them with their you know, their next
piece of really great golf equipment.

Speaker 3 (01:39:27):
How important is and I know the answer is, but
I'm going to ask anyways, how important is customer feedback
in addressing changes that you're going to make moving forward?
You know, obviously certain technologies that you've implemented that you've
touched on here tonight, I'm sure derived not only from
your own personal experiences and what you would like to see,

(01:39:48):
but also from customer feedback. Hey, we'd really love to
see this or you know, can you maybe in the
next model do this? So how much you know, do
you really rely on customer feedback? Because I think that's
important as well.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
Yeah, I think everything that we've built has been based
from feedback from the golf course, whether it was you know,
my dad, his friends who are our loyal you know,
demo drivers, you know, just to I mean, people are
amazingly passionate about their electric golf caddy. So we you know,

(01:40:21):
it's actually funny because I just reviewed the access points
for people to get straight to our product development team.
You know, you know, we don't want anybody just sending
an email just to the sales area. You know, we're
really trying to collect that information because golfers have fantastic ideas.
A lot of it really evolves around accessories, like I

(01:40:41):
need somewhere to put you know, I need somewhere to
magnetize my laser rangefinder. Now you know I need a
bigger basket, you know, to put everything in. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:40:54):
You know, everybody's bringing more stuff to the golf course,
and I.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
Can't believe that is actually handling it. Like I get
photos through you talk about customer experience, can I tell you,
like one of my favorite recently was a gentleman in Michigan.
He said through this beautiful photo him with his two mates,
all in the early seventies. So the electric cuddies are

(01:41:20):
lined up in front of them. Literally they were just
carrying everything for the kitchen sink. Right you can hardly
even see it was an MGI. And they stood there
and they were so proud they had their photo taken.
And he said, he said that the three of them
play three or four times a week. Wow, and they
strongly believe that it's because of their MGI that they're

(01:41:43):
able to do that at their age. And then it's
them walking. They said, you know, thanks for building such
a durable, functional device that enhances the game and helps
them with their mental and physical health. And I'm looking.
I have that on my screen for a whole day
their photo after reading that, and I just went, that's

(01:42:04):
why we do what we do. And he didn't do
that for any other reason that he was just so
proud of him his mates, and he wanted us to
let us know. He didn't ask for anything. Of course
I sent him something because it made my day, but
you know, that came all the way to me. We
sent that out to our global you know partners into

(01:42:24):
our Australian office to say, hey, this is what we're doing. So, yeah,
I think customer satisfaction, but customer experience and feedback that's what. Yeah. Yeah,
we're not a you know, we're a good sized company,
but we're big enough to deliver an R and D
on our product, but we're still small enough to listen

(01:42:47):
and we love that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:49):
Yeah, and that's that's so important. That's a really great
point that you make, because again, you know, sometimes customers
get lost in the in the shuffle of things. You know,
I'm not saying it's done intentionally, but a lot of companies,
you know, get so busy filling orders that they forget
to really listen and the next thing, you know, all
of a sudden, the problem arises and they're like, well,
how did this happen? Well, for the last you know,

(01:43:11):
year and a half, your customers have been chiming in
and saying, hey, you got a problem here, but you're
so busy pushing it out the front door that you're
forgetting to deal with the issues coming in the back door.
So I think that's really good, and kudos to you
and the rest of your family and others that are
participating as well and keeping that sort of in the forefront.
And I would imagine just I was sitting here thinking
as you were sharing the story with some of these

(01:43:34):
older gents that obviously are just loving their MGI is
I imagine there's even some competition there, because I can
just see them wanting to outdo one another and getting
the latest and greatest thing upgrade. I want to upgrade
before Bob does, and and I guarantee that's happening now.

Speaker 5 (01:43:50):
You.

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
I don't know whether you see that on your end
or whether that's going behind the scenes, but I guarantee
it that there's some guys out there that it's just
like a new car. You know, they're reeling it out
there and say, hey, look what I got and then
it starts a competition. So you know that that's I'm
sure something. If you haven't seen it, you're going to
see it here before too long.

Speaker 2 (01:44:09):
Yeah, you know the Navigator model, you know that's been around,
that's going to celebrate something like nearly twenty years the
Navigator name, and that's that platform of remote control that
we continue to build on. And so we now have
four Navigators and we notice that to exactly, the new
one comes out and you just you get a whole

(01:44:29):
lot of people panning off their original ones. So maybe
a wife, husband, the child, Oh I need the next one.
I need my new navigator. So it does us a
cult following. We continue to use the Navigator technology because
we love it, but our customers trust it, and that's,

(01:44:50):
you know, something we're pretty proud of. And you know,
we only deliver a product when the technology is ready
to go to you know, I do see you know, Look,
we've got some competitors out there, and some will rush
to market or some will do one mode really well
and another not so great. And we've always taken our time.
You know, product life's pretty long, it's like about four years,

(01:45:11):
but we always make sure that it comes out. I
don't want to, we don't want any any any dissatisfaction
with the product. But it's it paid off. It pays
off doing it like that.

Speaker 3 (01:45:21):
Yeah, I think sometimes if you know, slow and steady
is better than you know, coming out and then having
to you know, scale back or recall or whatever because
you've got multiple issues happening at the same time. And uh,
you know, especially now that you're a global company, it's
when it's local it's a little bit different. You can
handle that easier. But when you're a global company and
you're dealing with that, that becomes logistically an issue. What

(01:45:44):
do you see moving forward? What's sort of the next
big trend do you think is going to be in
in what you have to offer the golf and community.
I mean, you a lot of more technology. I'm sure
maybe integration with Bluetooth speakers charging. You know, maybe it
already offered lot of that now. But what do you
see as the next big trend moving forward?

Speaker 2 (01:46:04):
Yeah, Look, there's been there's a lot of talk about
you know, patties, and you know, like the prices, you know,
the prices are there. People are paying a lot for tech,
but there's a lot of exposure on the golf course, right,
there's eighteen holes of hazards. That's what a golf course
is all about. So one of the pieces of technology

(01:46:24):
that will be releasing next is the GEO Protect is
to protect the product from water and from bunkers. So
through that innovation of built in GPS course mapping, we
know exactly where those hazards are and we're going to
avoid them. That helps protect for the safety of product.

(01:46:46):
And of course what's inside that golf back you know life.
You know it's your wedding ring, right, you know, it's
it's you know, it's everything, it's your keys, the car,
so you know, it's not the caddies. So I really
do believe in protecting the product and on the golf course,
particularly as people are looking for more of that hands

(01:47:07):
free experience. They get too chatty, they're not watching what
the caddy is doing because it's trucking straight. But who knows,
really what direction did you really send it in? So
looking forward to bringing you know, protect you know into
you know, some of the new tech I can't exactly
talk about, but there's something coming out next year. But look,
you know, look, follow me technology has always been something

(01:47:30):
that people love to talk about. It's not the only
way to have an electric golf caddy. And actually it's
really hard to deliver, you know, nobody. I don't believe
any of our competitors that may have already introduced that
they're doing it well. Or if they do that well,
they don't do remote control well, or the manual well
well they integrate it completely into a seamless experience. But

(01:47:54):
I know when we release our follow me into twenty
twenty six, it's awesome, you know. And that with the
geo protect, that with the gyroscurt technology, it's just really
it's just going to be a really pleasant experience, you know,
doubt you know, along that fairway. And I think evolutions
in lithium batteries are really important too.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
That's changing all the time. I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
Yeah, it's you know, we're like electric scooters, you know,
e bikes. You know, we're really taking the position of
the leader in best practices for lithium at the golf
course and at home. So we work really closely with
the manufacturer, you know, of our battery to make sure

(01:48:40):
that we know what the best practices are. Our legal
teams have also worked on what is the best way
to look after these along with product development, and we're
really educating people just be you know, if they go
anywhere near water, you've got to dispose of that very quickly.
Don't plug it in and use it. Lift is actually

(01:49:01):
so secure and stable. It's only when it's put into
a particular environment in terms of how it's charged and
how it's used on that golf course. We came out
with a five proof charging box, which is one of
the first actually in the world. It is designed only
for an MGI at this point, but it just means

(01:49:22):
that golf courses, if they're storing them on site, maybe
they've got a fleet, maybe they've just got a lot
of members leaving them there, they can now put those
on site and just sleep easy knowing that everything is
in a five proof charging box. We don't charge a
lot for them. We've kept down margins low because we
want them out there. We think it's a great idea
just in case somebody did pop their electric gold get

(01:49:45):
it into the drink. Maybe they didn't declare it, maybe
they didn't realize that it was as bad as what
it could mean. It just keeps everybody safe and the
product safe. So I think lithium is going to know.
Our next new model will be five prepattery, so it's
completely you know, encapsulated, so that it even if the

(01:50:05):
lithium decided that it needed to, you know, die, it's
completely enclosed so nothing can happen. So, yeah, there's some
of the really nice advancements for the safety aspect and
the future of electric golf caddies with lithium. Yeah, and
also for the shift of electric golf caddies as well well.

Speaker 3 (01:50:25):
The main thing is we want to get more people,
both men and women and kids out there playing, and
we want them to be enjoying the game again. And
I think, you know, this gives them a much more
relaxed enjoyment of playing golf, you know. And again, not
to knock the driving carts, but I find that the
pace is very quick at times and it's not as enjoyable.
You feel rushed all the time, and I think people

(01:50:47):
just enjoy the walk. I mean, the golf courses are
beautiful and you want to be out there, you know,
feeling like you're part of nature, and that's one of
the very few sports that really allows you that opportunity.
And I think that's why so many people gravitate. And
it's you know, there's been a huge upsurge in the
last decade or so of more and more women, not
just at the professional level like the EPSOM or the
LPJ and other tours, but just from an amateur standpoint.

(01:51:10):
More and more women are being gravitated to the game
and they're going to look at a product like yours
and thinking, yeah, I want that too, and I want
the convenience of being able to walk and carry some
you know things along with me that I don't have
to worry about slepping around in a backpack or throwing
it at the back of the golf court. I can just
walk around and I can do that, and I can
do it all day long, and it's going to tell
me where I am on the golf course. It's going

(01:51:31):
to do some great things, and I feel confident with that.
So that's something that I think you're going to see.
It's become more and more as more golfers of all
stripes come into the game. But well, it's been very
interesting and again I know there's a lot of things
that we could have got into, but it's very difficult
obviously when you don't have it in front of you.
So we want to direct them. So where's the website?
Where can they go to learn more information and size

(01:51:53):
themselves up for one of your great electric caddies.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Get golf dot Com is definitely a great place to
start for researching exactly what you need. So I highly
recommend coming into our website. But you know what to to,
you know, touch you know the products, see it in action.
You know, I highly recommend talking to your golf professional.
We really do support green Grass and you know, the

(01:52:24):
local clubs as well, and we've seen a lot of
you know green Grass you know accounts that are open.
You know, we support your local golf club. But you
can also go in and see it in some of
course retail stores as well. You've got your Galaxies, Roger Dun's,
your golf marts, so you know, there's quite a wide
variety of places, of course, depending on where you love
to get your get your golf equipment. But you know,

(01:52:47):
most of all, have a look around your golf club
and if somebody's got an m G I come and
ask them, say what do you think, And I can
honestly guarantee that they're they're having a great experience, even
if like one little thing, I don't know, they've lost
their drink holder, they know that we looked after them.
And so I really believe that our biggest advocates are
our m g I owners and I thank them all

(01:53:08):
for that. And yeah, we're on this ride together and
it's it's fantastic, and yeah, I've really enjoyed today. Thanks
so much for interest, and you know what, kudos to
you too with the Epsent tour and supporting that tour.
I do think it's it's awesome, and you know, we
love the juniors and they're the book in and we're

(01:53:29):
looking forward to, you know, going into the collegiate area
and seeing what we can support that whole generation of
golfers coming through because it's it's so exciting and.

Speaker 3 (01:53:40):
Well, it's the future of the game, and especially you
know in the women's market. I mean, they're you know,
I've said this for for many many years now, I
actually enjoy watching the ladies play more so than I
do the men, because it's a more interesting game, it's
more challenging, and it's not just this grip at rippet mentality.
It's just about having fun and they just are are

(01:54:01):
more fun to play with, to be out in the
golf course. They just you know, they're a much more humble.
The egos are definitely put aside, so that's always makes
it fun to do. But Miranda, thank you very much
for joining me. I'm going to wrap up here now
with the show and then we'll we'll part ways, but
definitely we'll be in touch again real soon. So I
want to thank everybody for tuning in tonight to Golf

(01:54:21):
Talk Live. It's been a pleasure. I want to have
a special thanks to some of my earlier guests, John
Decker and John Hughes for joining me on the Coach's
Corner panel, and then also my very good friend, golf
fitness professional Bob Foreman for joining me here on the
fitness segment tonight. And then a special thank you to
my featured guest of the ning, Miranda Turner, the CEO
of MGI Golf. Again. Go to MGI golf dot com

(01:54:43):
and all of the information that we talked about tonight
and more is on their website, so make sure that
you check that out. But thank you everybody, and I
will see you next week right here on Golf Talk Live.
God bless everybody and have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Thanks for joining us. 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

(01:55:20):
in being a guest on Golf Talklive, 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 20 | Aug 14th, 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 20 | Aug 14th, 2025