Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 24 | Sept 18th, 2025 - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
The following broadcast is brought to you by the I
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(00:32):
the game's most in depth instruction magazine, including reviews on
the latest equipment, tips from top teaching professionals, all designed
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Golf Talk Live with your host ted Oto Rico. Join
Ted each week as he speaks with some of the
best in golf. This week's special guest will join us

(00:52):
a bit later, but first up is another great discussion
on Coach's Corner, So let's introduce tonight's coaches Corner Panel.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Good evening, everybody, Welcome to Season thirteen of Golf Talk Live.
I'm your host, Ted Roto Rico. Joining me this week
on the Coach's Corner panel is Pete Buchanan and Alex Fisher.
I'll tell you a little bit about both of them
in just a few moments. But later on I'll be
also joined on tonight's travel segment with co host and
travel expert Robert Kaufman, alongside this evening's travel guest Vince Runyon,
PJA and director of Golf at the Omni Mount Washington

(01:27):
Resort and Spa. He'll be joining us a little bit
later on along with Robert, and then tonight's featured guest
is Joe Pilkovich, VP of Marketing at Blue Te's Golf.
He'll be joining me a little bit later on in
the broadcast, so you want to make sure you stick
around for that so we can see what's new and
exciting coming out this season and maybe a sneak peek
into twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Six at Blue Teas Golf.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
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All right, we're going to get started with coaches corn.
Let me introduce the gang and and we'll get into
tonight's discussion. So first up, of course, is Pete Buchanan.
Pete's been teaching this great game now for over thirty years.
He's the founder and director of Instruction at Playing Simple
Golf PSG as I call it for short houses, the

(03:12):
Plain Simple Golf Circuit and Simple Swing Repeater Training Base
placed brace excuse me. Pete's been helping golfers around the
globe focus on building a repeatable swing and he's also
among the favorites here on the Coach's Corner panel. And
also another favorite fast becoming a big favorite as well
is Alex Fisher. Originally from Nottingham, England, Alex and his

(03:33):
wife Mary settled into the Arizona area to continue his
golfing career in the US, and in twenty twelve he
was recognized by Golf Digest as one of America's best
young teachers and top forty under forty instructors, and in
twenty twenty he was added to the prestigious list of
top twenty five instructors with Golf Tips magazine. And currently
you will see him as a director of Instruction at

(03:54):
the Glacier Club in Durango, Colorado, May through September and
PGA Teaching and Professional at the JW. Camelback Golf Club
in Phoenix, Arizona from October through April. So, guys, welcome
to Coach's Corner.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Thanks Sat, Thanks Ted.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Great to be here, and I would gather just very quickly.
Thank you. I always appreciate it. Guys.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Alex, I think you said you just drove back from
Colorado last night, so you must be already down to
Arizona getting ready for your fall swing of work.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Is that correct?

Speaker 5 (04:27):
Yep, definitely, there's done no rest for the wicked. I
actually have a golf school of teaching tomorrow, so jumping
straight back into the triple digit heat.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yes, well, good luck with that, brother.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
Thank you all right.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
So, as always, you know, we try to, you know,
help as many people as we can. Here in the
coaches corner, We've talked about a lot of different things,
and I thought what we would talk about tonight is
some of the more challenging shots that you might be
faced without in the golf course. And these are shots
sometimes that the pros make look real easy, but we
know from our own personal experiences that sometimes they can

(05:02):
present a challenge. So I'm going to, as I said
off air, I'm throwing you under the bus first, Alex,
just because you drove so far from Colorado, so I'm
going to give you the first one. So here's a
breakdown of some of the shots. The first one is
the long bunker shot, and it might be say forty
to sixty yards. These shoots obviously are challenging because they

(05:23):
require a combination of power to get the ball out
and sometimes might even require a lower trajectory than what
you typically would have with a green side bunker. So
I want you to talk about some of the challenges
with a longer bunker shot that typically people are faced with,
and how it sort of differs from our sort of
average green side bunker, and what we might do differently

(05:44):
in this type of a shot as opposed to a
green side Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:47):
I mean, I think with any of these challenging shots,
it's going to be hard, first off, for a place
to amateurs be to practice these shots. A lot of
facilities don't have a bunker where you can practice that,
whereas the torplaser more spoiled. Many many moons ago, I
was the director construction out of TPC Las Vegas, and
we had a lot of tour players out there back then,

(06:09):
and it was didn't really surprise me, but it was
pretty cool to see them practicing those difficult shots. And
there's a good reason why they are so good at
that because they do rehearse them, not just practicing the
perfect shots. And I think that's one of the challenges
that most amateurs have. They tend to fluff the ball
up perfectly. They try and kind of create the most
perfect situation, which golf is definitely not conducive to that, right.

(06:30):
But in terms of fairy bunker shots or even kind
of that that midwage shot, that's a shot that I
struggled with for many, many years. I got to a point,
honestly where I was playing holes in a very specific way,
playing away from bunkers because I just wasn't a fan
of being in them. I could get out of them,
and I was efficient enough, but I just wasn't really
that fulfilling in terms of the shots that I was hitting.

(06:52):
And right before my first year up in Durango, I
forced myself one July to basically sit in a bunker
for about an hour in one hundred and ten degree
heat until I convinced myself that I could hit that shot.
And it was just that determination that got me past
the concern of hitting that shot. But in terms of
you know, the thing I try and tell people first

(07:14):
off is that yeah, sand is just funny looking grass.
I think that's the one thing you can tell when
somebody's going into a bunker, just from their posture standpoint,
their shoulders kind of roll up. You can tell they're
just not a big fan of the situation. So you've
got to try and kind of convince yourself there isn't
a major difference between kind of hitting a forty yard
or an eighty sixty eighty yard shot from fairway versus

(07:36):
hitting it out of the sand. Things I like to
try and kind of remember people to remind people is
the obviously the lip is there in front of you,
not to get too greedy. I think the goal for
most amateurs would be just to get it out of
the bunker first off, and then take your medicine from there.
But in terms of you know, standing out on sand,
it is an unstable surface. So the things I like

(07:57):
to try and get students to do is obviously lean
into their front fet a little bit more and keep
the weight there. If you can set your weight first
and then just really kind of create almost like an
arm swing on the way back, at least if you
over rotate it going back in a bunker, it's easy
to kind of lose your footing a little bit, and
from there it's hard to recover from there. But do
make sure that your body just rotate through impact as well.

(08:20):
We want to try to make sure that the shaft
is leaning forward through impact so we catch the ball
before the sand. And just by getting your body to
rotate through the ball through the swing, I should say
a little bit more, it's a lot easier to keep
the shaft leaving for a bit. Obviously, we want to
make sure that we get out on the first try,
and just by making this sol adjustment in your setup,
you can certainly help you catch the ball first.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well said, And I think I just to clarify a
little bit just so that people understand, because you alluded
to this, but I want to make sure and just
get your thoughts on this. So here in this type
of shot, because you are looking at you know, trying
to gain a lot more distance, you're not right beside
the green. You're looking really to make contact with the
ball first, as opposed to taking you know, hitting behind

(09:04):
the ball and taking more sand with which you would
typically do with a green side bunker. And that's really
one of the big differences here, as well, is that correct?

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, totally. I think when you look at a green
slide bunker you're using your hands differently. Where one of
the big mistakes people making a green side bunkers that
they close the face They create rotation with their hands
through impacts like we would do in a regular shot.
But when you close the face down on a green
side bunker, the club tens to dig you're delofting it.
It's definitely something you want to try and avoid. In

(09:32):
a longer fairway bunker shot, the release point through impact
is going to be more consistent to a full swing shot.
So yeah, you definitely want to make sure you are
catching the ball first and then sound afterwards.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Well said, and Pete, I'm going to come to you
for this one.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Here.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
We're going to talk about shots from thick rough and
I'm going to give you just a couple of examples,
and I just want you to touch on those as well,
because this is an area again, much like you know
Alex was explaining about the longer bunkers shots, people don't
practice this a lot because it's not really available on
most ranges. Certainly a lot of ranges out there are
very generic and there is isn't a lot of room

(10:09):
to practice this. So I don't want to just talk about,
you know, some of your rough you might see off
of the fairway. With a lot of our courses that
we see here, particularly the United States, I want to
talk about, pardon me, I want to talk about rough
like fescue and and even gorse, what you see a
lot of in a lot of the European style courses,

(10:31):
and we're starting to see more and more here as
they're getting into that type of more open golf course,
but more punishing in that way. So there takes some
certain techniques that we need to deal with and getting
out of the rough. Certainly you can talk about some
general rough where it might be just thick grass off
of the fairway, but I want you to talk about
fescue in that because that's something that you know, if

(10:51):
you're playing, you know, not one of the traditional courses
that we might see here in the United States, you're
going to get into some of that there, especially if
you're going overseas.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
So touch on that if you wouldn't mind, Well, that's
a great question.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
I think. First of all, you know, anytime you get
into something, you've got to get yourself out of it
safely first, and I think that's what most players. They
try to make up for the trouble when they're in it,
and that's usually gives them more trouble. It's really easy
to turn a possible bogie into a triple by trying
to be too cute trying to get out of these situations.
So you need to make sure first of all. I

(11:25):
think most of the time they don't take enough loft
when they're trying to get out of these situations. You've
got to get the ball to get up in the air,
so you know they've got a distance to go, and
they're trying to equate the distance they're trying to hit it,
and you know as soon as they strike the ball
they're doing is driving it further into the rough. They're
not getting it up and out of it. So the
first thing I would do is take some loft. So

(11:46):
now you're looking at okay, I'm not going to get
to the green now, But that's okay. I drove it
in here, and now I got to get it out
of here, So I would take more loft. I would
also tend to in the regular thick ruffs and thick grasses.
I always like to tend to set the face a
little bit more open, and that way the grass won't
grab it as much. It tends to slide through the

(12:06):
grass a little bit better when you start with it open.
I know a lot of times they want to set
it forward and deal loft it and try to hit
down in there. And you've got to remember if when
you hit down, the ball goes down, so you're just
going to drive it further down into the stuff you're in.
So I'd rather have them get it a little bit
more open, almost to the certain point. With some of
those roughs, they're playing it like a bunker shot. You know,
get some loft, get the club up and downs, you know,

(12:28):
try to get the club down into the grass and
get it out of there with some pitch so you
can get it back into play. And you know, in
some of these tougher grasses, it's you know, it's it's
a little bit different sometimes. I always like to say,
you sort of got to cut your way out of it.
You've got to take a club that's you know, nine

(12:50):
eight seven something still with pitch, but you sort of
have to dig yourself and just cut the grass right
out from underneath to try to get it out of there.
You're not going to get much on the ball the
balls buried down deep in there, and so I would
always try to take it, you know, more like you're
trying to hit a you know, even a buried lie shot.
You're just going to take a club that's got some

(13:11):
leading edge to it, don't use the bounce at all,
and really take a more steep or more upright type
of swing and really just try to cut the grass
out from underneath the ball just to get your ball
out of there. I think many times, anytime you're down
in something, the swing needs to be more vertical versus shallow.
It needs to be more up and down. So you

(13:31):
need to be a little bit more arm oriented. Get
the club up in the air. Maybe not as much
of a big of a turn in those types of situations,
but get the club up so it'll go down and
that way you can create a steeper angle of attack
to get the ball out of there. But again I
think more than anything else, you've got to start with
some loft, and you've got to get yourself a chance
to get the ball up and out of that stuff

(13:52):
and then get it down the fairway as safely as
far as you can. For the most part, most of
them are going to get to the green. And I think,
you know Alex alluded to it. With these professionals, I mean,
in the shots they can hit, they're they're strong, They're
a lot stronger than you think they are. And you know,
I've got one of the guys that I coach. It's

(14:13):
five seven, one hundred and fifty pounds and he can
absolutely mul the ball. This kid as strong as anybody
I've seen. And so you know, it takes some strength
to drive the ball out of those out of those
deep grasses. So if they're struggling a little bit, then
you know, you just got to play it safe, get
it back on the fairway, and actually put it in
a distance where you're comfortable playing the next shot. I

(14:35):
know a lot of times you'll drive it in the
rough and then they'll hit it out in the fairway
at a distance that they're not very good at. Well,
that didn't help you at all. So kind of look
where you're trying to go. And if you're going to
hit this out of there, and it's going to go
fifty yards and it's going to give you you know,
a shot you're not looking at, then you know, try
to pitch it out to the side. Maybe you've got
a little longer swing that you're better at, a better
distance that you're at. And I think in that case,

(14:58):
now you've turned a negative, do a little bit more
of a positive on the next shot, something you're more
comfortable with that can get you where you're trying to go.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, I think that's a great observation there, because I
think again, you know, even the pros will evaluate the
situation first, take a look at it, and you know,
some of them will try to, you know, pull off
a hero shot and try to whack through the grass
and you'll see the ball pop up and it might
go a few yards or it might not come out
at all, depending on the situation. But for the most part,

(15:27):
they're they're looking for exactly what you're saying. They're looking for, Okay,
where am I Where do I want my next shot
to be played from? If you know, if you're two
hundred plus yards from the green because you've pushed your
your drive to the right or to the left, and
you're in thick rough and you know you're not going
to make that because the ball is sitting down. If
it's sitting up, it's a little maybe sitting up on
top of the grass a little bit. You might be

(15:47):
able to get a hybrid or something on it and
be able to get that distance if you're a better player,
But for the players that are not so good, yeah,
look at it. You know, it might be only fifty
yards you're going to advance. It might not even be
that much, but it might be twenty yards to get
it to a flat area that you know you're going
to be able to get a good shot on and
play your next shot. And as opposed to looking at
maybe getting a double or triple bogie, you might come
away with par depending on if it's a par four

(16:08):
or par five, you might even come out with a bogie,
which could be better than a triple or a double
or a triple bogie. So you have to, you know,
sort of assess the situation and make an informed decision
and look at you know, I'm only going to hit
at thirty forty yards, but I'm going to be putting
myself in a much better position for my next shot.
And that's really what you want to think about, is
you want to think about where can I play my
next shot from that, I'm likely going to have a

(16:30):
much higher percentage of success from. So I think that's
a good observation, Alex. I'm going to come back to
you on this one and again, there's a lot of
examples here, but I'm just going to give you one
or two and you're welcome to just take one and
then elaborate a little bit on the other ife you want.
But shots from awkward lies, and what I'm talking about
here is a lot of times we'll see the ball.

(16:50):
We never see a flat fair way anymore. It's always
the balls above our feet, below our feet, uphill, downhill, whatever,
all kinds of you know, rocking and rolling fair way
lies that we can get. So talk about that. How
do we set up for that? And you can give
an example or two if you want. When you got
the ball in an awkward lie, how do we handle that?

(17:14):
It's not one of our bread and butter shots, No.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
And again it's one that's very difficult to practice. That's
something that we run into basically all some along our
club up in Durango's about seventy five hundred feet and
you outside of a T box in the green, you
don't have a flat lie. So I think what you
know talking about a ball above your feet or below
your feet, or an uphill lie or a downhill lie.

(17:39):
I think one of the things straight away is you
know where amateurs make a mistake is they look for
the distance first, and they're basing their distances off of
a perfectly flat lie. And when you're dealing with an
awkward lie, your your balance is going to be compromised.
It's going to be hard to be, you know, making
an aggressive swing. So you tend to see amateurs just
under club first off. I think that's something to bear

(18:01):
in mind. Regardless of one of those four shots that
you may face, definitely take an extra club and just
just make sure that you're not sacrificing your balance. No,
I think one of the common ones that you get
is the ball above your feet. That's kind of a
slices nightmare, where the balls above your feet the plate
of the swing. We've got to make a flatter swing.
It's almost like a merry go round, and if the

(18:23):
balls below your feet, it's going to be a little
bit more like a ferris wheel in terms of being
a little bit steeper. With those with those situations there
if the balls above your feet, obviously the balls will
be close to your chest, so we want to grip
down the golf club a little bit and we can
kind of anticipate that the ball is going to go.
If you're a right handed golfer, it's going to go left.
That heel tends to dig a little bit more into

(18:44):
the to the ground and close the face, and that's
why we have to kind of try and compensate when
it comes to alignment. The ball above your sorry, ball
below your feet, that's just going to be the opposite
where now the toe is going to tend to want
to kind of drag through the turf a little bit more,
and we could anticipate that the ball can slowly from
that lie as well, and we have to adjust to those.
I think it's key in both of those situations that

(19:06):
you make practice wings. The plane can be so dramatic
depending on how much the ball is above or below
your feet, and those practice wings give you the chance,
first off, to get the cognitive steps out of the
way and all the thinking, but also try and figure
out what the adjustment needs to be when it comes
to change in your swing plane. I see the mistake
most people make. They just they look at the yardage,

(19:26):
they get up there, they may make a practice swing,
it's it's probably not the most convincing practice swing that
could make, and then you get up there and make
a mistake. And I think it's key that in those
situations you make in multiple swings for your practice wings.
If you like the first one, maybe do it again.
If you don't like the first one, do it again,
and then do it again. And that might kind of

(19:46):
hold up play to some people. But if you hit
a good job and you're going to play faster, So
I think that's a thing to kind of bear in
mind as well. In terms of like uphill or downhill.
If we're going uphill, obviously we may have to take
more than one up depending on how much of a
slope that we're dealing with. And if we're going downhill,
we may be able to kind of hit the club

(20:06):
that the yardage is calling for, or you may be
able to take a little bit less club there. In
those two situations, that's where you're going to change bob position.
You're not really going to change the plane of the swing,
but when the balls below your feet, you're going to
find that the golf of bottoms out early, and so
those practicings are going to be key to make sure
that you are finding where that low point of the
swing is. And then obviously if the balls, you know,

(20:29):
if you're in an uphill lie, the club tends to
bottom out a little bit later in that situation. I
see a lot of people topping the ball just because
of obviously falling back depending on the slope as well.
So I think the biggest key is going to be
in all of those four situations. You know, commit to
a yardage, commit to a club, but just make sure
that your swinging just not losing balance. I think balance

(20:51):
is so key, and if you're not balance, is just
no way that you can be aggressive and be consistent
in your swing.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, and just add real quick, you know, if you're
at the driving range, and you have a range that
might have at one end or the other has a
little bit of a slope to it, you know, as
long as you're not going to be interfering with anybody else,
if you can get yourself in a position where you
can put your ball, it may not be as much
as what you might be faced within the on the
golf course. But if you can have that ball a

(21:19):
little above your feet or below, depending on the circumstance,
you know, hit a few shots like that. Practice wherever
you can on the range, and obviously, in a playing
lesson with your pro, you know, insist on that, say
these are shots that I typically struggle with. Our next
playing lesson, can we get out there, can we work
on some of those, work on the technique and work
on some of the things that you just suggested, because

(21:40):
I think the more that you can practice whenever possible,
because you're not gonna be faced with perfect shots out
in the golf course. We know that it's just not realistic.
But as we mentioned at the top of the segment,
you know, most of the ranges out there don't always
have you know, the perfect conditions to practice those long
bunker shots or to practice the uphill downhill side a lot,

(22:00):
or what have you. So you have to take advantage
of those whenever possible, And if it's through a playing lesson,
if you want to spend a little bit of time that,
make sure you talk to your golf instructor coach or
what have you and say these are some areas I'm
really struggling with so some great points there as well.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Pete.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
This is another one that I think a lot of
golfers really find themselves a lot more, especially in a
lot of our tree line fairways golf courses. We see,
you know, a place like Pinehurst, which may be a
little more forgiving than some. But you get in there
and somebody hits their shot and they're looking at, you know,
a potential pinball machine with these trees in front of them,

(22:39):
and they think that they can thread that needle through
you know, a couple of yards between two trees, and
think they're going to get it up there, you know,
up nice and close to the green. Even the pros
will take a second look. There may be a little
bit more adventurous. So walk us through that again. I
know it's very similar with the others is you might
have to take your medicine. But if you're faced with
a situation like that and you think you can put

(23:02):
it through, what are some things that you have to
factor in if you're going to play it through uh
and out of the trees.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
Well, one of the things John Jacobs used to say
all the time. He said, a double boogie's a bad
shot followed by a dumb one, and so you know,
you have to make sure that you know you're you're
in a situation that you know it's not very good.
And the first thing I would ask any player if
any shots you're going to try to pull off, is
have you done this before? And if you haven't done

(23:31):
it before, then I wouldn't do it. If you you know,
the ones on TV that you see pulling those shots,
they've done that before because they're practicing those. And if
you missed a fairway by forty yards and now you're
trying to hit it through a six foot space, I
think you're going to struggle a little bit. So I
would probably find my safest route back to the fairway
and just to take your lumps and put the ball

(23:52):
back into that situation. But if you're if you're going
to try to do it, you know you have to
you have to look at first of all, you know,
what's space do you have? I mean you might have
some branches. Can you get the ball up in the
air is going to stay down, So that's going to
dictate what loft you're going to take. Obviously, the lower
loft that it is, the more off line you might

(24:13):
hit it. So then if you've got to hit a
four iron loft and you've got a four foot gap,
then I probably wouldn't suggest to try it that that's
probably not the in your favor to get that done.
But a little bit more loft you might have a
better chance control and where it goes. You know, it'd
be less likely to go more offline with the more
pitch you have. Then again, you know, is that going

(24:35):
to get you far enough toward you can play a
sensible next shot. But I think anytime you're messed into
the trees, I think you your best bet is to
find the fair way, the quickest route and just put
it back over there. Those shots, you know, you see
those videos all the time where a guy tries to
hit one and then comes right back at the camera.
So you know they just bounce it right off the

(24:56):
tree and it comes right back at them. It's you,
and it's one of those things that you know, we're
all trying to try to make the best of a situation.
But you know, the best thing you can do, if
you're trying to save your scores to get yourself back
in play, you'll make a put down the line you
probably didn't think you would make and that'll make up
for the shot you just took back to the fairway.

(25:17):
But you know, once you get into trouble, you just
got to get out of it. So those those shots,
trying to wind them through the trees or are tough
to do unless you have some space. And again, if
you've done it before, and if you practice those shots before,
you know that's fine. You know, as a kid, I
grew up in Kansas, so we hit at knee high
to a toad all the time. So hitting it low
out of something was easy to do because we had

(25:38):
to keep it under the wind, you know. So those
are types of things that we're practiced and so be
more likely to hit one low out of a situation
like that and put it in between the trees. But
you know, you got to have as much as people
don't want to hear it, you gotta have some sensibility
when you're out there. I mean, you know, look at
the level of player you are, and you know take
that to heart and you know, just put yourself back

(26:00):
where you need to be and play on from there.
It's not always the greatest of situations, but again, as
you know, we always say you hit it there so
now you got to deal with it.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, great, great points speaking truth to power.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
The other thing too, I think that a lot of
people have to consider is, you know, when you're in
these trees like that, you got to consider the why.
I mean, you don't know whether you're sitting up against
the root, you know, whether there's some pine cones in
the area, and and if you're on if the ball's
sitting on top of straw and you're now trying to
get a footing on top of straw, you know, you

(26:34):
got to you know, you're you're slipping and sliding a
little bit in your swing, so you know, you might
think you've got an opening there and then suddenly you
take your back swing swing through and your foot slips
a little bit. The next thing you know, you pulled
it five yards off line and you've hit you know,
two or three trees in the process. So there's a
lot of things to consider. It's great to have those
hero shots if you can pull them off, but you
have to look at the percentage of likelihood that you're

(26:56):
going to be able to pull that shot off.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
And it's a bit you.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Know, if you're looking at twenty thirty scent likelihood. That's
not a shot you want to take. Take your medicine,
hit it out in the fair way and say put
yourself in a better position. So I agree with you
on that there's a time and a place for any
of these shots. And the reason why I want to
touch on this is these are shots, as you've probably
gathered by now, these are shots that we're all facing
at some point.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
I don't care how good of a player you are.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Every once in a while, one of these shots is
going to fall within your wheelhouse and how you deal
with them is really paramount.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
And I don't care what level of golf you are.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
There's always, you know, that point where you have to assess, Okay,
what am I looking at? What am my risk and
reward here? Yeah, if I pull it off, I look great,
But if I don't, I could be in worse shape.
So you have to balance those pros and cons out.
But some great points, Pete Alex, this one's a fun
one too. I'm sure you've been faced with us yourself

(27:48):
and as many of your clients, But this is a
shot from a bear lie. We see this a lot
where somebody has come up with their second shot short
Some courses might have a very forgiving opening to the green,
where they might be able to put it twenty thirty
feet off of the green. Some might not be so
forgiving because it's very undulating and very slopey, if you will.

(28:10):
So they might be looking at hitting a chip from
there or a short pitch shot, but it's off a
very bare lie, and we see a lot of people
chunking those shots, even from just twenty thirty feet or
even a few yards off of the green. So give
us a talk here, what do we need to do.
We're dealing with a bare lie, And you might want
to touch on a little bit if you hadn't thought
of it, about how the bounce of a golf club

(28:32):
comes into play, because that's something that a lot of
people don't know a lot about.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Yeah, you just kind of stole my thunder there. So
one thing I do students, Yeah, well I appreciate that.
So no, I mean, I think most golfers carry at
least three wedges, and one of the stakes I see
people make is all three wedges having the same bounds. So, yeah,
you think about the leading edge of the front part
of the or the bottom part of the club, the

(28:58):
shop is part well, the bounce is the bad part
of the soul, and you can get different degrees and
clip that does all talk to you about whether you're
a digger or a picker, and they'll try and kind of,
you know, fit you into a certain bounce. But I
personally think it's important to have different types of bounds.
Maybe have a sand wedge that has you know, ten
twelve degrees of bounce which is kind of about a

(29:19):
mid to maybe slightly high bounce, and then maybe have
a more lofted wedge at fifty eight or a sixty
with a low bounce. And whether you are a picker
or a digger, I think having the option with those
two different types of bounces gives you gives you the
chance to deal with different types of turf conditions. I
think most people around the greens tend to use a
fifty six or some form of a sandwich, and the

(29:41):
sandwich does have the most amount of bounce because in
a bunker, we don't want the club to dig well
off of a buried lie or if you're hitting out
of a wet bunker where there's no sand, having bounce
is not really a great thing to have because the
club literally will bounce, So depending on how much directory
you you know, if you need to fly the ball
a bit higher and try and get the balls, maybe

(30:04):
land a little bit quicker and get it to stop
on the green, maybe that higher lofted low bounce where
it would be a better option. But if you do
have some green to work with, go back to being
an old school like I was back in back in England.
You're hitting seven nines and eight irons and nine eyes
and just hitting bump and runs. Really, I think in
those situations, you know, you hear students make the comment

(30:26):
that they struggle with distance control and things like that.
A lot of times it's because they're focusing so much
on the flag and the hole as they're making practice wings,
and because our instincts react to what we see, we
end up flying the ball way too close to the flag.
So if there is an opportunity to use a less
lofted club, then I think that's that's a better option
for you. You just have to make sure that you're looking

(30:46):
at your landing spots versus the hole itself, so that
way you can account for the role depending on what
loft of club you're using to me. I'm not a
big fan of playing shots off in the back of
my stance. I feel like I can create a little
bit too much chef leine and expose that leading edge
a little bit too much, and that's where that club
can dig. So personally, I like to try and see

(31:08):
students play the ball a little bit more in the
center of the stance, create a chaffeline with a body.
And what I mean by that is if you sett
up with your way fifty to fifty and then lean
your way to your front foot, just let the butt
end of the club follow your stir in them. So
you're creating chef line as it relates to your body,
but you're just not creating too much chefleine. I think
most people get their hands way too far forward and

(31:28):
they just kind of shove that club into the ground
and just get stuck way too much. And also, you're
with those smallest swings, you're trying to mimic what your
body would be doing as if you were making a
full swing, but at that very specific point of the swing.
I see a lot of students on those smaller swings
there's no body rotation through impact. Their arms and hands
are just outracing the body, and we tend to hit

(31:49):
a lot of thin or bladed shots, so it's important
that again we are mimicking the same movement that you'd
be making as if you were making a full swing,
but obviously at a very small a size. But yeah,
I think your clip selection is big. Bounces is huge.
I think it's it's really important, you know, going back
and talking to your local pro or you're in structure

(32:10):
and just talk about different bounces and try not to
make the mistake. I personally think anyway of just having
clubs that have all the same bounces when it comes
to your wedges.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, it's a great point, and you're exactly right. I
see so many people, you know, practicing these shots, you know,
at at the driving range, and you know they'll be
around the practice screen and they'll have a wedge with
a very high bounce and they're just skipping off and
blading the shot over the green every time. And I said,

(32:39):
why are you playing with a sand wedge with such
a predominant bounce, And they say, well, because I'm trying
to get some hype. But I said, but you're playing
off a tight light. You're not cutting through the grass.
You're not in a thick rough or something along that
where you need to get down a little bit under
the ball. You're playing off a very tight lie, you know,
in a in simulated fairway, if you will, and you're

(33:02):
playing with a high bounce club, and you need to
be looking at something different. And I always try to encourage,
like you said, I always try to encourage them to
maybe do a little bit old school and do that
seven eight nine hour and do a bump and run
and to go that route as opposed to trying to
fly it up, because nine times out of ten, most
amateurs are going to struggle. They're going to chunk it,
they're going to play the ball way too far back,

(33:24):
they're going to get that shaft wood leaning way up,
and the next thing you know, that leading edges is
digging in about an inch or so behind the ball
because as they're moving through and transitioning their body, that
club is just going down.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
All you hear is this thump.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
And I hear it every single time when I see
somebody doing that. So yeah, you raise some great points,
and it's just it's all really a matter of preparation.
Any golf shot, I don't care what shot it is.
It's how you prepare for that shot. You have to
analyze it, you have to look at it, and you
have to use a little bit common sense. But if
you're not somebody that practices a lot, it's very easy

(33:57):
to fall into those those traps that we see so often.
And that's why I think it's important to work with
a professional, get the foundation set up, and then go
out and practice those shots and do it. Once you
have the technique, once you understand how to do it,
it becomes very easy. But if you don't know how
to do it and you're just making the same mistakes
every time, then you're not gonna you know, you're not

(34:17):
gonna nothing's going to change. So you have to really
learn how to do these shots correctly and how to
be able to execute them properly, and then just go
oua and work on that and spend a little bit
of time. Get the feel down, get the you know,
the rhythm down, if you will, and then you're gonna
be able to be a little bit.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
More successful at the golf course.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
And you know, we're all, as I said, face with
these hard shots and hopefully you're not going to have
them too much but you need to understand what you
need to do when you are faced with them and
do it properly. So some excellent points that you raise,
and Pete the last one I'm going.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
To give for you.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
We've all had hit that dreaded shank if you will.
It's not really a tough shot physically.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
I mean, it happens.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
You can talk a little bit of what causes it
if you want, but mentally it becomes a bit of
a hurdle because once you've done it, some golfers up
there start making a lot of adjustments in their swing
in order to compensate.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
They think they know what caused it.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
So I want you to touch on what typically causes
a shank and what a golfer really needs to be
doing if they want to avoid that to get past
that mental hurdle.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yeah, that's a that's a tough one to overcome, and
you see it quite often, and it can It can
be done from each direction, you know, depending on where
the hands move. A lot of them will come so
far over it on the outside and get the hands
pitched out away from them. So they're coming on the outside,
they're going to put the heel right on it. And
some of them will come underneath it so much that
their hands will move so far away from them they'll

(35:39):
they'll hit it off the heel from the inside. They
can do it from both directions, so it's not that
it's you know, some would say, oh, it's only one
thing that does it. And those people that used to
say a shank is only you know, a quarter of
an inch away from a great shot, Well that's well
to be said. But you know, they missed it in
the wrong quarter of the club. So you know, I
think one of the things you can do is, if

(36:00):
you're somebody who's who's been up against that is I
like to have them set up to it at address
and and then what I'll do is I'll put another
ball to the inside of that ball, and then I'll say,
you know, stay where you are, but then I want
you to hit the one on the inside, just so
they can see that they can move the club a
little bit closer to them, just to just to get
a little visual of what they're trying to do, so

(36:21):
they can move it towards it's going to be towards
the toe vers, towards the heel. Just something visual that
they can do to see. You can put a tee
down and you know, try to make sure that they
hit the t versus the ball, put the tee to
the inside, and you know, just to give them a
different picture. And I think that that sometimes can can
help them get over the hurdle mentally of what they're

(36:42):
trying to do, you know. But it's a it's it's
funny you brought that up because I had a gentleman
that came just the other day and I said, hey, hit,
says man, I've been hitting a grate. And then I
just watched him hit laterals for about ten minutes and
I just sat there and watched him, and he said,
aren't you going to say anything? I said, I'm enjoying
watching you, you know, try to struggle to get it
out of I'm trying to watch what you're doing and

(37:02):
seeing in your mind, how are you trying to get
out of this? And you know, he was so far outside,
So the more left he tried to swing, the more
outside he went, the worse it got. And so finally
I just stopped him and said, hey, let's explain to
you what's going on here. So I wasn't trying to
make him feel too miserable, But I was just trying
to see how you go about trying to kind of yeah,

(37:23):
it was kind of fun. So and the you know,
the crazy thing is a pretty good player, so you know,
it happens, it happens to all of us. Oh, you know,
these guys are about a seven anticap and here he
is in laterals for ten minutes and it's just you know,
it's it's just something that that comes in there. But
I think more importantly it's it's understanding the concept of
of what you do. And I think that all boils

(37:43):
down to the overall instruction anyway. You know, we always
try to get everybody to understand, you know, what they
do and why they do the things they do. So
when situations like this come up, they're they're more educated
on their own movements and you know, they have a
chance to work themselves back out of it. But it's
a yeah, it's a tough one. I mean, mentally, it's
hard to get away from that. It's also the one

(38:04):
you know when you've got the big slicers and the
balls keep going to the right, and you know they
just no matter what they do, you set them up
a dress and the aim fifty yards left. I mean,
it's it's just in there. I mean, they you know,
they're so used to reacting to what they see, and
so I think, especially when somebody has been hitting them
off the heel like that, a little bit of understanding

(38:24):
as to why, a little bit understanding their own swing
and how that can cause that, and then from there
trying to direct them back with just some little visual changes.
And sometimes that's really all it is.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
You know.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
All I really did with this guys. I had them
set up to it, and then I just stuck a
tee an inch inside the ball and I said, all
I want you to do is hit the tee. And
the first one hit it right in the middle of
the club face and he just looked at me and
he goes, it can't be that easy, and I said,
you know, sometimes it is. It's just a little bit
different visual of what you're trying to do. But I said,
in your mind, the way you were trying to fix

(38:57):
it was the opposite of what you needed to do.
So the further you went outside, for worse it got.
So I said, we just have to give you a
visual of what you're trying to do. And I get
this club back on the ball. And then sometimes I
like to take them just take a practice swing to
the top stop and then I said, now it's slow motion.
Just put it back where the ball is, where's the
middle of the face, you know, where is it? And

(39:17):
sometimes it's it's that that easy for them to do.
It's just giving them a chance to do something and
get it right. And if you're if you're really struggling
and you got nobody to help you, put the irons away,
grab a wood doesn't have as much of a heel.
Hit some shots to get used to not hitting it
on a lateral, get yourself some confidence back, and then
go back and grab an iron and go back to it. So, yeah,

(39:40):
it's a it's it's not one of the fun ones.
You know, the old shank of bottomus. Nobody likes that one.
But you know, it's it's just something that you have
to you have to deal with, and like I said,
you can do it from both directions. But it's just
getting a little understanding of what you do and what
the cause of that can be, and then being able
to get your club back into a neutral pos so

(40:00):
you can get it back in the center of the face.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
It always to kill me when I would be up
at some of the local short ranges and I would
see and this is before they had the dividers between
the tea eras and you get some guy behind.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
You, it's shank it at your heel or something or
in the back of the leg.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Yeah, it's like, man, come on, you know, if we're
gonna do that, get on the other side of the rent,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
But anyways, it is what it is, all right.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Well, listen, guys, I want to thank you as always
for bringing your best to the Coach's Corner discussion here
in Golf Talk Live. It's always a pleasure to have
both of you. I'm gonna give you just a quick
moment if you don't mind, to let the folks know
how they can reach out to you. And if there's
anyth special you want to plug, go ahead and do that.
So Alex, I'm gonna come back to you. You go first,
and Pete you can follow up.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Yeah. Well, hey, Ted, thanks again for this. I really
enjoyed the subject stuff we talked today about. I think
next week we've got a big tournament coming up which
is gonna really kind of expose all those shots that
we talked about the Ride of Cup as a gratuitous plug.
I'm gonna be there next week to watch it, so
it's gonna be kind of cool and taking Mary, my son, Max,
and Lucy there and kind of a great time in

(41:08):
New York. And I haven't quite decided yet who I'm
rooting for. I've lived long. I've lived longer in the
US than I did the UK, and I'm keeping my
wife guessing. So I've beat to two other Ryder Cups
and we're gonna keep her guessing. But no, thanks for
having let me be on the show today. As you
mentioned earlier, I just got back from Colorado last night,

(41:29):
started back at the JW. Marriott Camel back in here
at Scottsdale, starting straight away, teaching tomorrow. And yeah, we're
we have some really cool stuff going on, not just
private instruction. We're doing golf schools, We're doing some play
development programs for women as well, and we've got a
really kind of a robust junior program that we started

(41:49):
about six years ago without really promoting it and it's
just kind of taken off really really well, and I've
had some really nice success stories with that. But all
that information you can find online at Alex Fisher PG
eight and there you can you can even submit a
contact form there and I promise I'll get back to
you within twenty four hours. And uh yeah, I would
just love to help any of your listeners out there

(42:11):
with anything they're looking to do with their golf game.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Well, fantastic, Thank you always, Alex for coming on. And
just a quick side note on the Ryder Cup. If
you and Mary pick one of the other, uh, you're
sure not to lose, so one can pick Europe, I
can pick you ask your guaranteed want to somebody in
the family is going to be a winner, Pete, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Well again, Ted, thanks for having me on. Alex is
great being with you this evening. It was a it
was a fun, fun topics to go over. And maybe
I'll run into you. I'll be at the Ryder Cup
next week too, so hopefully i'll run into you. But
you think you've reached me at Pete pucanon golf dot com.
All of my informations out there, and then there's a
contact form there. And as I always say, Ted, I
say it every time. You know, let's just start a conversation.

(42:53):
Just send me a message, give me your contact info,
and I can reach out to you and let's just
talk about your golf game and see what we can
take it.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
You know.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
It's it's I do a lot of online lessons and
we can work with guys all over the world, so
it's it's really easy to with today's technology to be
able to capture and watch and go live and watch
what you're doing. So it's it's real simple, but it
all starts with conversation first, So just reach out and
you know, let me know what's going on and we'll

(43:21):
go from there. We've got some things down the road
that are coming up. As I said before, I'm a
brand ambassa for X few and we're they're working behind
the scenes. There's a lot of things that are coming
with that app. So if you haven't seen it before,
you know, don't hesitate to going down at the free
versions out there that you can go get. But we're
really working to bring this thing to the forefront and

(43:42):
I think you're going to see a lot of cool
things coming out of that. So AI and a bunch
of stuff behind the scenes we're working on. It's it's
it should be pretty interesting coming up in twenty six.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Now, welcome back everybody.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
I'm excited to be joined by this evening's special featured guest,
Joe Pilkovich.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
He is the VP of Marketing at Blue Teas Golf.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Joe is an award winning creative leader who spent the
last fifteen plus years turning bold ideas into business results,
and as the VP of Marketing at Blue Teas Golf,
one of the fastest growing golf technology brands in the world,
Joe is helping redefine what a modern golf brand can
be leading creative brand and growth strategy across physical and

(45:07):
digital product experiences.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
So Joe, welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Ted well, glad to be here. I appreciate it. We've
I've obviously had you guys on.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
The show before, meaning Blue Teas and you guys are
definitely a great company. But what I want to do
is is if we can start two things I want
to do. First off, I want to talk a little
bit about you, besides obviously the intro that we just
did and what you're interested in golf. When your first
early memories of golf were for you, if if you played,

(45:39):
and when you got started, and then we'll talk a
little bit about sort of the history of blue teas.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
Sure sounds great, So I guess we're going to jump
right in and talk about golf. Huh. So it's funny,
you know, I think for me probably not unlike a
lot of a lot of guys my age. I think,
you know, golf is one of those things that I
was introduced to from my dad, Right. It was one
of those those bonding activities we would do every once

(46:04):
in a while. You know, I had played all sorts
of sports growing up as a kid, did baseball and
soccer and track, and there was something about golf that
was just a little bit different, right. It was a
little bit of a change of pace. It was something
that we can have a conversation around together, right, really
start to remember some of those moments which you know,
you don't necessarily get when you're in the thrill of
the moment in a fast pace, you know, competitive sport

(46:27):
or a team sport, if you will. So, you know,
I think it started there, you know early, you know,
early on, and then you know, from there just kind
of dripped throughout the rest of my life, getting involved
in you know, tournaments, through work, and playing with friends
here and there, and you know, lo and behold, I
found myself working in it, you know, years later.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Now, did you ever imagine when you look back now,
that you would be working for a golf company? Did
you ever envision that as you were, you know, growing
up in your earlier days and you know, you were
going to school and studying for you know, you know,
for your education. Did you ever imagine yourself being in

(47:06):
the golf business?

Speaker 6 (47:08):
Truthfully, not at all.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
You know.

Speaker 6 (47:09):
I think for me, I grew up in the probably
the first generation of the uh you know, the internet dwellers,
if you will, right. I grew up with with video games, Nintendo,
all these things, and you know, I was always in
my own mind destined to be the world's biggest gamer
or you know, a game developer. And there was something about,
you know, I think translating that into just the digital

(47:31):
medium and technology that sort of kept me in it.
And I think one thing led to another, and then
you know, looking at something like sports tech or just
technology in golf does have appeal to me. So I
think there was a natural progression that sort of got
me there. But yeah, if you asked my you know,
my thirteen year old their sixteen year old self, I would.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
Have probably laughed at you.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Yeah, it's you know, it's interesting because you know, obviously
I'm I'm a lot older than you are, and you
know I I but I grew up very similar in
the sense that my father was the one that introduced
me to the game.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
You know, he took me to the you.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Know, the first driving range, first golf course, and you know,
we played and he taught me the game. And then
you know, my earlier memory was, you know, I wanted
to battle out Nicholas and Palmer and all those guys
were still prominent, and for me, it was like, yeah,
I want to get out there and play with these guys.
I remember watching you know, Nicholas in the you know,
the seventies and and just being an on you know,

(48:24):
of course Arnie's army that was just it just blew
me away. And then there was so many others, I mean,
go through down the whole list, but you know, that
was my first and when I came to the realization
that was not going to happen, the next best thing
for me was to teach the game. So I've been
teaching for thirty two plus years. So you know, I thought, well,
I'm going to do the next best thing. So I
always had golf kind of in my blood, but I

(48:46):
just not not to the degree I wanted it.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
But I'm just as happy with what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
So I want to fast forward a little bit and
I want to talk about Blue Teas in the sense,
what is the.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
History of Blue Teas.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Give us a little bit idea, how it got started,
sort of who came up with the idea and why
do you think they felt in such a competitive market,
especially with technology, that they thought, hey, this is something
we wanted. We want to you know, tackle the beast
head on.

Speaker 6 (49:16):
That's a great question, Ted, and it's actually one of
my favorite aspects of the brand. And truthfully, what drew
me to it in the first place. You know, Blue
Teas got started, you know, a few short years ago,
I'll call it four four and a half years, and
really it was born out of five co founders, childhood friends.
They all they grew up playing the game, stayed closed together,
and you know a couple of years ago they were

(49:39):
playing and the thesis came up that it's like, you know, what,
why should we have to pay a premium price tag
you know, north of five hundred dollars for golf tech
or on the other side of that, you know, go
on a marketplace, you know, pick your marketplace of choice
and you know, find something that arguably falls apart after
a couple of uses or you drop it once and

(49:59):
that's it. And you know, I think that was sort
of the catalyst for the brand and the business. And
you know, they they looked at their collective skill sets
across the board and said, you know what we can
do better? Right, we are golfers ourselves, We love the game,
you know, we know what we want as players, so
let's go for it. And you know, from there, launched

(50:19):
the first rangefinder under the blue teese banner, and then
you know, one thing led to the next. Launched a
GPS speaker, became you know, market leader and speakers, and
have since moved on to a whole sort of of
other products in the portfolio wearables, handhelds, and you know,
some other stuff too. So really really fascinating story to

(50:40):
be able to look at, you know, look at a
category and say, you know, there's definitely an opportunity here
that you know, we can we can try to do
better for ourselves and know that there's so many others
like us, right, there's a whole new generation of golfers who,
you know, they care about the style and the aesthetic.
They care about finding a affordable, you know, high performance

(51:01):
technology that's easy to use and you know, looks good.
So I think it sort of becomes a natural extension
of yourself, you know, and what's in your bag. So
that's that's sort of the long and short of the story.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
You know, it's really interesting, just a very quick side story.
So just a few years ago, well, you guys, we
were up and coming in the market. I had acquired
a couple of competitor range finders and certainly good in
their own right. And I remember I had an extra
one and I had reached out to somebody that I

(51:36):
knew that was a golfer, and I said, hey, I've
got this rangefinder and you know, just throwing me a
couple of bucks, and you know, we'll call it even
type of thing. And the first thing out of the mouth,
is it Blue Tea? It was, young guys, Is it
Blue Tea's? I said, no, I'm not going to name
the name, but I said it was one of the
competitors of course, no, never mind.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
And so that was a test event to your brand.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I mean, you guys were only in the market a
little while and the guy and this was one of
the major competitors, and he just said, now that's okay,
he said, and that was a good deal. So, I
mean it just goes to you guys have done such
a great job, not just you know, with the technology
and and how far it's come from from its earlier days,
but how you've positioned yourselves. I know, I've talked to

(52:19):
other representatives from you know, some of the founders and whatnot,
from from Blue Te's, and you know, one of the
things that they're really proud about, obviously is the fact
that the technology is great. It's it's always you know, growing,
it's always developing in that. But the fact that it
was important for you guys to position yourself in the
market in such a way that you wanted to make

(52:42):
it affordable because the generation and I'm going to be
bluntly honest here, the generations coming up are cheap when
it comes to spending their money. I mean my generation, Hey,
if it was five hundred dollars, six hundred, yeah, okay,
you know, you cut the check and you know the
credit card comes out whatever. But you guys are much
more frugal. I mean, you'll pay for good technology, but

(53:03):
you also recognize that it has to be you know,
the price point is very very important. You're much more
diligent about that than I think some of the older
generations And I give you a lot of props for that.
And it's a very smart thing that you guys did
as you position yourself. It's not that you're dumping the
stuff on the market dirt cheap or anything like that.

(53:24):
You said, Okay, there is a need in this market.
There is a big need for this market, and we're
going to position ourselves in such a way that we're
not only going to come out and compete headhead with
the big boys with this product, but we're going to
create a price point that people won't even bat an
eyelash at and say, Okay, you know what this is
worth it. The technology is great and I can afford this,

(53:46):
so I can be part of that group as well.
And that was very very smart on your team, And
I want to get your thoughts on that. Was that
really something in the forefront of the mind when you
guys were creating all of.

Speaker 6 (53:58):
This, absolutely and thanks for that. I appreciate that. And
you're absolutely right to ed And I think the entire
brand was built built around that sweet spot in the marketplace. Right,
How do you create something that's affordable but has a
great experience tied to it, right, because that's what you know,
the audience is looking for, you know, as we like
to think about it, built to perform, price to play,

(54:19):
And I think that's sort of how we tend to
operate and how we really think about our entire portfolio
and you know, where we want to play in the market. Know,
how do we continue to push the bar for what
a good experience or a good piece of technology looks
like and feels like without you know, without ever having
to compromise on the price point. And I think that's
definitely been the magic, the underlying magic of the brand

(54:41):
from a positioning perspective, And I'm so excited to see
just us continuing to double down in that year after
year after year.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
And it served you guys well, I mean you, you
guys went from one position to you know, in the
in the top positions, I mean you guys, And I
don't look at the stats right now, but I think
you're in around like within it, certainly the top three.
I think you're number two, if I'm not mistaken, in
the top So I mean that is an incredible feat
for a company that's only been out in the market
for a few years to be able to come up

(55:10):
and raise the ranks because there's so much, as you know,
so much competition now.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
But what I wanted to also, you know, sort of
pick your.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Brains on, is is you come in with a great product.
You're always looking to improve that product, but you're looking
to do it in such a way that what is
it that the client really wants?

Speaker 3 (55:29):
What are they going to use? I mean, it's like cars.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
You can add a bunch of features in there, but
half the stuff nobody ever uses and they're paying for it.
You guys were very methodical. So how much and how
important was it to get a good feedback from your clientele?
So how how much research is R and D from
your standpoint, and how much of it let's reach out
to our customers and find out what is what is
it they really want?

Speaker 6 (55:52):
It's wildly important And I love that you brought that up,
and I think that's part of the magic of our
product development process is you know, like I mentioned before, right,
we're building for ourselves as players first and foremost. So
it's always great to have just that point of view
right where we know what we want, we know what
we use, and features that we don't need or wouldn't
want or don't need. So I think it starts there.

(56:13):
But you know, we're very fortunate to be able to
have a really a really great network in a community
to be able to tap. So there's players within our
community of all different formats, right. Some people are are
range finder users, some people don't care, right and they'd
rather handheld, So you start to get perspective from all
different use cases, all different preferences. We have some amazing

(56:33):
retail partners as well, folks that work in the pro shops.
They hear from their customers what they're invested in and
looking for, you know, all the way up to some
of our ambassadors and partners like you know Sean Foley,
former coach of Tiger Woods, right, who is used to
coaching the best of the best, right, and what they're
looking for and what features and data ultimately matter, And

(56:53):
you know, it becomes this really great sort of melting
pot of all of these these various data points, and
you know, looking at that and saying, okay, what do
we do with this? Right? What what? You know, how
do you have discipline to say, well, we don't actually
need these seventeen features that someone else is looking to launch,
because really players just want one thing or they just

(57:13):
want those two things. So for us, it's it's looking
at those and say let's give them the best, the
best experience. They can run that and then you know,
anything else is extra value add or you know, we
can think about how it comes to life somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
I remember when you guys first brought out your speaker
and I thought to myself, yeah, you know, this is cool.
But you know, I grew up obviously in the generation
where it was like out in the golf course, you know.
And I'm not saying that this. You know, people are
blasting at the top, but I'm sure there are a few.
But uh and I thought to myself, Okay, this is

(57:47):
this is cute, this is catchy. It's a big seller.
You guys moved really big into this market.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I mean, what do you see the change in the
market compared to say, and I'm gonna throw my self
under the bus, and I'm in my sixty So that
gives you an idea of what generation I'm from. What
is it about your generation that? Is it about just
having more fun out in the golf course, not taking
yourself sociated and that to mean you guys don't want
to be competitive, and doesn't mean you don't want to

(58:15):
play your best out there. But is it more about
just let's have some fun. If we're going to be
here for four hours, damn, we're gonna have some fun
while we're out here. Is that really what the thought
process behind something like your speakers is about?

Speaker 6 (58:27):
For sure? You know, I think that's a huge part
of it. I'd like to say that, you know, although
the soul of the game is the same, I think
golf is changing, right. I think golf more than ever
has become more social, more expressive, more personalized. And you
see a lot of different aspects in a lot of
different various forms of the categories surrounding it that have
led that things like top golf, things like you know,

(58:49):
launch monitors, being able to play off the course, you know,
do simon your own garage or your own basement, right,
So you know, for us and definitely you know, my generation,
our generation one's that come after me. You know, we
see that or we see people care about their group
chats and their playlists and the vibe just as much
as they care about their scores, right, if not more. Right,
And I think a product like the Speaker is you

(59:12):
know a great opportunity to serve both sides of that.
So you know, there's something for everybody, right, whether you're
out for just a good time and you want to
you know, have four hours of you know, great experience
with friends and not think about anything else, or you're
like really trying to lower your handicap and you're really
just trying to be the best you can. And it's
a sense of personal accomplishment or maybe even a little

(59:32):
a little gloating or boasting in your you know, your
friend circle. We've got something for you. We sort of
have you covered there.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Yeah, And they're very you know, I mean I've seen
a lot of you know, speakers on the market and
it's definitely among the sharpest looking one out there. So
you guys did a great job and your design team
and that I want to move into some of the
other stuff that you guys have. Earlier in April, you
guys launched the Playmaker Plus. That is the the first

(01:00:00):
swing friendly golf GPS golf watch. Tell us about that.
That's again another great component that you guys have come
out in the market, and it's very well price pointed
as well, very affordable for anybody to really get into
the market. But tell us about that, because that's a
big deal as well for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:00:17):
Yeah, this this year has been a great year for
you across the board for just going a little bit
wider in our portfolio. Definitely, the Playmaker Plus is a
good example of that. This is the first product we're
putting in the wearable wearable category and you know, another
example of building for ourselves. And I think one of
the things we saw from a lot of a lot
of consumers and a lot of our community and just

(01:00:38):
in general people people tend to have this, you know,
hesitation around wearing a watch while they play because it
impedes your swing, right if the face is too big,
sometimes it's weighty, so you know, you take it off,
your throw them in your bag, or you know, you
you find a way around it. So for us, you know,
we think about the watch experience. For us, First and foremost,
it's like, let's make something that people want to wear, right,

(01:01:00):
So the weight, the weight factor and the form factor
of you know, the industrial design was was principal number one.
How do we make it feel great? And some of
the early feedback we actually gotten it was like I
forgot it was on my risk of the first place,
which RUSS is a great indicator that we're we're heading
in the right direction. Secondly, from there, then you know,
take a lot of the foundational work and the data

(01:01:22):
and the experience that we've already created through some of
the other products, and say, how do we make that
a great experience on the watch? So you know, you
could very quickly track your shots, you get your distances,
you can you know, navigate to different greens, you're seeing
the green, all of those things, you know, whether it's weather,
it's sort of at your at your disposal without having
to pull out your phone also, which you know is

(01:01:43):
another big factor for people, right They don't want to
have to They want to be that guy that has
to go and pull out your phone while you're playing
and sort of takes you out of the headspace. So
I think that's sort of where we where we landed
with with the watch. And you know, it's so far,
so good as far as just being able to play
with it, and you know, a lot of the feedback
we've gotten from you know, from the community, and you know,
I think we've since we've launched it, we've learned a

(01:02:04):
lot as well, and we've continued to just invest in
doubling down on how we make it even better and
better and better. And you know, we're constantly ear the ground,
listening to how players are using it, what feedback they're having,
you know, even things you can't predict right the way
people are using it, and you know, their movements on
the course. So the team's been awesome at really just

(01:02:24):
incorporating feedback as we go and just constantly rolling out
new releases to make it as good as it possibly
can be.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
What's interesting about it, too, Joe, is this that you know,
the one thing I found, and I give credit to
your generation, is time is a much more important commodity
to your generation than mine. I mean, hey, if we
get four and a half five hours out in the
golf course, we were happy to get away from home
and you know whatever, but you guys have so many

(01:02:52):
other things. And my generation is now too, of course,
but just with the way times are. But what I've
found is that, you know, I've talked to a lot
of young guys over the years, not only teaching the game,
but just around the game, and one of the things
that was important is I've got other things in my
life that i want to do. I don't want to
be able to just be out on the golf course
all the time. I want to play, yes, but I

(01:03:12):
mean I've got other things, other activities, friends, whatever it
is I want to do. Do you think that one
of the benefits of having that watch is that I
can get the information I need quickly, I can get
the shot, and I can get my round done. Not
that it's speeding you up, but it's helping with slow
play a little bit because you're not having to fumbel around,
like you said, with some other device or check this

(01:03:33):
out or wait for that, or you know, see how
the crow flies, or whatever the case is. This technology
is really helping the younger generation enjoy something, be able
to do it in a quick manner so then get
onto other things and other things that they may enjoy
as well. Is that part of the sort of and
the reason I asked that is I'm really trying to
pick your brains as a young man to think about

(01:03:54):
is that's really what's going on at Blue Tea's. Is
you're trying to find a way to make the game fun, ardable,
but at the same time respecting the fact that people
have other things besides golf they may want to do.

Speaker 6 (01:04:06):
Totally ted and you hit the nail on the head
with that, And I think one of our core values
as a team is keep it fun.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:04:13):
We were in this because we love the game, right,
and we love we love everything that comes with playing.
And I think, you know, there's there's this constant battle
of too much data, too much technicality versus just out
for the enjoyment piece of it. So you know, we're
always trying to figure out, you know, how do you
create a better experience for somebody and optimize it. And yeah,

(01:04:35):
pace of play is definitely a concern right to some people.
Whether you're on a crowded course, every tea time is booked,
you have this constant need and you feel a little
bit of pressure. But yeah, the other side of it
is we may have five other things going on that
same day. How do you sneak in you know, three hours,
four hours and not burn the whole day? So, you know,
I think really for us, the underlying design philosophy of

(01:04:57):
that is how do you just take as much friction
out of it and just let people enjoy the game
or enjoy more conversations and not be constantly like pulling
out a device or fumbling or navigating everything else besides
thinking about their next shot. So I think that's that's
really a big piece of it, especially as we look
at and even just what's to come in the portfolio.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Yeah, you guys, I mean you've got some great products.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
You're always has said, very innovative with your updates, and
that brings me to you know, midsummer you did some
updates with your your major updates actually with your Ringer
GPS handheld. That's you know, I mean we're switching gears
here a little bit, but talk about that. What are
some of the new features that have changed from the

(01:05:43):
original Ringer that's come out, And you guys have to
be pretty excited about that. I mean, this is another
launch that you guys have done this season.

Speaker 6 (01:05:50):
Yeah, wildly excited. So you know, I think the Ringer
is a really great product that you know, it can
often be maybe overshadowed a little bit by the coolness
or the the vibe of the speaker. But you know,
what we found is that, you know, as a handheld,
there was just so much opportunity to continue to optimize
just the way people used it. So for us, you know,

(01:06:11):
and it's it's not even a new product right where
this was a free firm or update to anyone who
already owned one. So we were able to build on
an already awesome device and make it even better based
on some of the feedback we were hearing, so things like
you know, taking the full the display of it and
putting it in full color, like creating a lot more
of a vibrant read when you know, you might be
out on a sunny day and you want to be

(01:06:31):
able to look at your green view and see those
distances in the shape of a green. So that was
one piece of it. Another piece of it was shot tracking, right.
Shock tracking is one of those things that can be
can be a great thing or a miserable thing, depending
on just if you have to keep up with it
and you know, remember it to track shots. So we
wanted to make that experience much easier. We increase the

(01:06:53):
amount of shots that you can track, you know, per whole.
I think we move frombout four to ten, so caters
to to golf. Like me, that's all my handicap is.
But you know, it certainly certainly helps you know, things
just like connectivity the overall user experience, you know, wanting
to make sure that it's just lightning fast. And to
my previous point, it's like, how do you just how
do you take any additional swipes, taps, clicks, whatever it

(01:07:17):
is out of the the experience and just let people
play the game, get their data quickly and just keep going.
And you know, I'd say that the last big piece
of this was, you know, really connecting it in a
much bigger way to our analytics platform and our our
game app experience. So really being able to take all
the data that you're seeing or playing throughout a round

(01:07:37):
and capture that in a way that you can go
look at later, right and say like, how did I do?
How am I doing right over the course of X
amount of weeks or months? Am I shooting lower scores?

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
You know?

Speaker 6 (01:07:49):
Am I doing better? Am I doing worse? In some cases.
So really just wanted to start moving one one step
closer to the bigger picture for us, and that's you know,
really connecting and building just a super powerful ecosystem when
it comes to all golf tech.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
And you know, you raise a couple of really interesting
points because from a coach's perspective, one of the things
that we want to be able to do is to
to understand better when it comes to our players, the
data points.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
You know, what are they doing? How how are they
actually doing?

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
You know, it's one thing for to have a conversation
say well, yeah, and you know, I kind of sucked
last Saturday. But if I can understand, you know, how
their short game is really doing. How many shots that's
you know, they're taking, and and how many putts they're
making and not making, and how many greens they're hitting,
this sort of thing, when I can get a little
bit of information, you know, from that, these data points
become valuable as a coach because then I can tailor

(01:08:38):
make what I need to do and make adjustments and
get them in the right path as opposed to spending
you know, less and after less and going down a
rabbit hole that maybe they don't need to make changes
in so it becomes very valuable for the teaching side
of the game as well as the end user. And
then the other thing you know too, which is which
is unique is again you you touched on this and

(01:09:00):
you made a really great point. One of the things,
and I hate this myself, is if you've got to
spend three or four minutes going through one thousand screens
to get to what you want, that's a pain in that,
you know what. So if you can simplify that process,
because that's a game changer rate there in itself. If
I've got to go through ten thousand screens to get

(01:09:21):
to what I want, I don't want it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
I'm putting it down.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
It's not you know what I mean, the more user friendly,
the quicker, the pace, you know, that sort of thing.
So that's something and I like the fact that that
is something that you guys really paid attention to. And
I understand that technology changes, you know when they first
come out, you know, they're a little bit different, but
it sounds like you guys are really in the forefront
of that. And it brings me to this. You guys
participated in the PJ Summit, this August and you had

(01:09:49):
the launch of Tips. Tell us what Tips is and
why you guys did that and why it's creating so
much buzz.

Speaker 6 (01:09:58):
Sure, So yeah, Tips another new addition to our family
of brands here, right, obviously starting in really affordable premium
golf tech. For us really thinking about where else can
we add value to a golfer's life. And we talked
about the value of the modern golfers social circles, and
you know, they're doing more, right, There's there's often more

(01:10:20):
than just you know, a nine or eighteen on the course, right,
There's the weekend golf trips, there's you know, bachelor party weekends.
There's all sorts of other tournaments and events, and honestly,
these people are just doing more in their everyday life.
They may be going from work to the gym to
then you know, playing around.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:10:38):
So for us, we saw this opportunity to really just
build on what we'd already been offering to the market
and you know, launching a new soft goods brand that
can can meet golfers where they're at and give them
a little bit more, but go even wider than that, right, So,
so for us, Tips is really this this line that's
inspired same philosophy of Blue Tea's as you know, the

(01:10:59):
parent brand. But really it's all about minimalist travel gear
built for for life on the go. And so you know,
we're offering we're offering things in our first collection here.
We have eight pieces in the collection. Sure, things like
shoe bags or you know, valuables pouches to be able
to store you know, your maybe your Apple watch or
your wallet or your keys, throw it in your golf bag.

(01:11:20):
But you know, we have two different two different styles
of backpacks that are great for for carry ons or
just for everyday use. We have the commuter Sling to
be able to take to the gym or use for
you know, maybe an extra shirt or you know, anything
else you want to throw in there. We have a
Douffle bag perfect for the weekend getaway. So there's a
lot of pieces just really trying to build on just

(01:11:40):
the everyday life of modern golfers, beyond just life on
the course. So that's that's there where Tips is, and
you know where it sits, and you know, so far
the reception has been really positive. We're super excited. It's
just the beginning for us. And you know, also definitely
for a lot of other partners. What we've been hearing
is it makes great gifts from a promo side of things.

(01:12:02):
So we do offer the ability to custom brand the
products as well, which is great for tournaments, great for
gift giving. So just seemed to really round out our
portfolio a little bit more than just the technology piece
as an overarching brand.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
So, if I'm hearing you correctly, what it sounds like
to me is what you're really trying to do here
is to as many people in the clothing and accessory
end of the industry is trying to make it so
that it's not just nessary geared for golf, but it
becomes part of a lifestyle brand as well, so that
they can use it for you know, the pieces.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
Yeah, they might be.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Great for on the golf course, but if they want
to use it for other things as well, there's a
lot of crossover. And that's important too because you don't
want to you know, like with golf clothing. I mean,
I know growing up in that when you had golf
clothing was a typical pole of shirt things like that,
and you could tell it was a golf shirt. You
didn't wear it out anywhere except for at the golf course. Now,
a lot of brands coming out are I mean, yeah,

(01:13:00):
you can wear it in the golf course. It's still
kind of some of them polo style, but it's also
especially in the women's market, it's interchangeable with other clothing,
so people don't even know that you're out in the
golf course. It becomes part of their lifestyle brand. And
it sounds to me, really that's what Tips is trying
to do, is to create And I could be wrong,
but it sounds like that to me. Is what you're

(01:13:20):
trying to do is not only incorporate the versatility of
what it does for your existing brand, but also gives
them an opportunity to extend it out into other areas
of their life.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Would that be accurate?

Speaker 6 (01:13:34):
Exactly, Ted, And I think you nail there right. The
lifestyle piece of it is so integral to just how
a lot of a lot of folks that are modern
golfers and you know my generation thinks about it, right,
like I am wearing my golf shirt to work every day,
not just because I work in golf, but because it's comfortable, right,
that's at leisure, right. So I think the more we
start to integrate that into other aspects of our life.

(01:13:55):
The more, you know, we just we feel empowered to
just keep connecting those dots and you know, we want
to keep playing, We want to keep going, We want
to associate with others and be able to quickly hit
the gym together or they go play you know, the
back nine somewhere between, you know, between meetings. So I
think to your point, yeah, it's certainly a lifestyle, and
I think the more we can embrace that and it

(01:14:16):
just meet our community and you know, our audience is
where they're at in every which way, I think it's
a win for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
Yeah, and it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Really says a lot to the versatility of your company
because it looks at Okay, they're not just building this,
they're not just making that. That's great, But what happens
if I don't do this? And it's something that even
those are not quite yet die halled diehard golfers, they
can say, I can really I can relate to this.
You know, I can use these products even if I'm

(01:14:47):
not a you know, I may not be into the
technology right now because I'm not really playing golf much,
but tips is something that hey, I can get into
and you know, my boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the case may be,
you know we can we can use these together when
we go on a trip. So again it goes into
that lifestyle thing. What I want to ask you, which
is interesting and speaking of of you know, as we

(01:15:07):
look at upcoming generations, that are you seeing through your
own research a big uptick in female golfers coming to
Blue Teas? I mean obviously, you know, first starting out,
I'm sure it was predominantly male, but I imagine you're seeing
a lot of young female golfers coming up through the
mix as well. Are you seeing an uptick since you

(01:15:28):
guys started as the rest of the industry is on
your side of things as well.

Speaker 6 (01:15:34):
And you know, I think it's no secret when you
look across all sorts of studies and just across the
golf landscape in general, we're seeing an uptick in you know,
female golfers. And you know, for us, it's it's really
exciting as a brand because you know, we are philosophically
for everyone, right. We want to be for the weekend warriors,
we want to be for the casual golfers as much

(01:15:57):
as the people chasing lower scores. So yeah, as a marketer, Right,
I get really excited to see the diversity of perspective
and of play, of skill levels, of genders, of regions
and territories, and how they view golf as a game
and all the pieces of that. So for us, yeah,
we're seeing it too, and it's exciting, and you know,

(01:16:18):
we want to continue to double down in that and
just reach our community and meet them where they're at
and through through activations, through experiences, through content that they
can look at the brand and say, yeah, that's me.
And I think that's what resonates, and that's what continues
to grow the community and it becomes a really great
flywheel of sorts for us.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
Yeah, and that is important, you know, especially from not
just marketing, but just from a brand itself, as you
want to know that you're not just reaching you know,
this is the mistake with a lot of companies as
they just sort of pigeonhole themselves into we're going to
just go after this group here, and you have to
be able to be more diverse in your thinking because
if you want to and I hate to always use

(01:16:58):
as an example, but if you go back a few
years ago, we all went through COVID, it was very
difficult for a lot of people, some extremely difficult. But
what it did for our industry is it really woke
up the industry and said, you know what, because we
were very fortunate in the sense that people were able
to go out and play golf, unlike many other industries
that didn't have those same opportunities to be open or

(01:17:22):
you know, be taken advantage of. Golf really had sort
of a second breath of air because it not only
were we able to get out and play for us
diehard golfers, but it was able to introduce golf to
a generation of people that had never didn't grow up
like you did, where your dad introduced to you and
that didn't know how to hold a golf club but
wanted just to get the heck out of the house

(01:17:43):
and be able to do something said oh, you know what,
I'm going to go up to the range. Let's go
up to the range, or let's go and you know,
play nine holes. So it really introduced the game to
people that had never had an introduction before. And that's exciting,
especially for somebody like you guys, because it opened up
a market that was never there before and gave you
an opportunity to listen and say, what would you like
if you're going to come and play this game, how

(01:18:05):
would you like your experience to be? And that as
a marketer has to be pretty exciting. Would you agree?

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:18:11):
Absolutely? I mean you constantly need to be in tune
to the cultural zeitgeist, if you will, right, And I agree.
I think COVID was one of those great inflection points
for the golf industry in general. I mean for us
as a business too, right. We were born out of
a lot of that same sentiment being able to have
a little bit more time and to say, yeah, we
can still play together. Right, And to your point, whether

(01:18:33):
people didn't have time before and now they can, or
it became one of the few things you can still
do and feel comfortable because of just being out in
the open. It did open so many doors for the
industry and for I guess opened everyone's eyes to the
magic of the game. When you finally get that feeling
if you stripe one down the fairway and it becomes
a little bit infectious, right, you want to keep doing it,

(01:18:55):
and especially if you're doing it with friends too. So
I completely agree.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Yeah, I mean I know a lot of people that
got into the game, and I remember having some early
conversations and them saying to me, you know what, I
get out there and I really sucked, but you know what,
I went out there and hit a couple of really
good shots. And my friends and I were playing next Saturday,
and I'm like, Wow, never played the game before, it
never had a lesson, but now they're coming out and playing.

(01:19:20):
So it did open a lot of doors and opportunities
for great companies like yourself, And I think it speaks volumes.
I would imagine though, that being as busy as you
guys are, and I'm going to ask you personally, because
you alluded to your handicap is probably not what you
would like it to be. One of the sayings that

(01:19:42):
we have in the industry is if you want to
play a lot of golf, don't get in the golf business,
because you're going to get so busy doing other things
that you wanted to play yourself. Are you starting to
find that now as the Blue Te's business is growing,
that your game is suffering a little bit, Not because
of any technology you guys are putting out or any
you know, they advantages, but you're just so gosh darn
busy that you don't have time to get to the

(01:20:03):
golf course as much as you'd like.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Is that an accurate statement?

Speaker 6 (01:20:06):
It is? It is definitely an accurate statement. And you know,
I think I look at it as a good thing
as much as I would definitely love to lower my
handicap for sure, or get a little bit more time
out there. It is a great time, and it's a
really exciting time for us, especially this coming year. And
you know, I think we have a really big year
in front of us, probably the biggest year ever in
the history of the brand and the business. We're We're

(01:20:29):
coming out of the gates strong next year. We've got
some really interesting brand evolutions happening. We have an entirely
new product portfolio, we have a new category that we're
going to be entering and launching, and so excited to
start talking about some of this stuff. And you know,
most importantly for us, we're now for the first time
taking the vision we've always had as a brand, and

(01:20:51):
we're actually making that the front and center of everything
from our marketing and our content to our products themselves.
So yeah, certainly certainly have my hands full these days,
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Well, you know what, there'll be a day when when
you'll be able to retire from all this. If you
decide to do that, maybe you'll be able to ratchet
your game up a little bit at that point. But
you know, it's just a fact of life. But you know,
I think it's exciting for you guys. I know there's
a lot of things that you probably can't talk about
in the coming season quite yet. You've got some things
that maybe are not quite ready to be out in

(01:21:25):
the public forum. And we'll have to have you come
back on and when it's time and we can talk
about that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
But what do you want people? If if you had a.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
Minute, and I'm going to give you a minute, and
you wanted to send a message out to my audience,
why they should look up Blue Teas and I'll get
you to give the website at the end of it.
But what would your what would your pitch be to them?
What would you want them to know about Blue Teas
to get them and encourage them to come at least
take a look.

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
So I think beyond what we just talked about, right,
whether you're out for a good vibe, you're out to
lower your scores, you're out for a combination of everything.
You know, the thing I'm most excited for everybody to
know and here, especially moving into twenty twenty six and beyond,
is we're we have an ambitious goal. We're out to
build what I would say is the most accessible and

(01:22:17):
connected ecosystem in golf. And you know, certainly a lot
behind that and a lot I'd love to talk about,
but you know, for us, we're now connect We're trying
to connect the dots between on season, off season, on course,
off course and really enable players to be able to
take their data whether they're whether they're training or whether

(01:22:38):
they're playing on the course, and be able to just
continue to refine that and just grow as a player
and connect with others as a community. So even if
you're out there playing with you know, three other people
that you've never played with before, you have a regular foursome, right,
we have something for you, and we want to make
sure that we can continue to gamify that and just
grow that community experience in a way that's never been

(01:22:59):
done before. So I'm super excited if anyone has any
interest in being able to do that, and especially do
it in a way that's affordable, won't break the bank
and you know, really wants, really cares about just that
sense of you know, style and a great intuitive experience,
then we're for you for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
And the website Blue.

Speaker 6 (01:23:21):
Teasgolf dot Com definitely.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Looks simple as that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
Well, Joe, I want to thank you very much for
coming on and uh sharing some insight not only to
Blue Teas, but into your experience as well and into
obviously the products. And they can go to Blue Teasgolf
dot com and and see all of the things that
we were talking about tonight and more. And I think
there's gonna be a lot of excitement coming on the horizon.
I'm excited, I know, and we didn't touch into this,

(01:23:46):
but this will be for the next conversation. But uh,
I know that AI is going to be playing a
big opponent with a lot of companies moving forward, and
I'm sure as equally involved in you guys as well.
So we'll look forward to hear that is the change come.
But hang tight for a second. I want to thank
everybody for tuning in tonight special thanks to my earlier
guest Pete Buchanan and Alex Fisher for joining me on

(01:24:07):
the Coach's Corner panel and my Sincerius. Apologies for those
that were tuning in for our travel segment tonight. Unfortunately,
our guest I had a little bit of difficulty. Unfortunately
he was not able to connect with us, but we'll
reschedule and get him back on. And then, of course,
a very special thank you to my featured guest, Joe
Pikovich from Blue Tea's golf VP of Marketing. Thank you

(01:24:28):
for joining me. Don't forget to tune in each and
every week here on the Riverside dot FM network, and
you can go to the I Golf Sports YouTube channel
and subscribe and you can get all of the shows,
including tonight. Thanks for tuning into Golf Talk Live and
I will see you next week right here on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
God bless everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this week's
broadcast of Golf Talk Live. We'd like to thank this
week's Coaches Corner panel and a special thank you to
tonight's guest. Remember to join Ted every third state from
six to eight pm Central on Golf Talk Live, and
be sure to follow Ted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you're interested in being a guest on Golf Talklive,

(01:25:11):
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 24 | Sept 18th, 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 24 | Sept 18th, 2025