Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 25 | Oct 9th, 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
to help you improve from tee to green. Welcome to
Golf Talk Live with your host.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ted oto Rico.

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

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to season thirteen a Golf
Talk Live. I'm your host, Ted ohto Rico. Join me
this week on the Coaches Corner panels. My good friend
John Hughes. I'll tell you a little bit about him
in just a moment, and then Tonight's featured guest is
Marci Kamota, who is the CEO and co founder of
Pro Concept Golf. He'll be joining me a little bit
later on in the broadcast, But if you want to

(01:26):
see this week's show or any of the previously aired episodes,
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(01:48):
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(02:08):
you'll receive exclusive discounts from our premium golf partners. So
registered today at golf tipsmag dot com. All right, let
me tell you about my friend John here. I know
many of you are familiar with him for those of
you tuning into the broadcast, but I'll tell you anyways.
He is a PJ Master Professional and he's the past
president of the North Florida PJA Section and also a

(02:29):
recipient of the twenty thirteen pg of America Professional Development
Award and also twenty two thousand and nine and twenty
twenty three North Florida PJA Teacher and Coach of the
Year and the Golf Die Just Best in State Instructors
from twenty twenty three to present. And he's a senior
contributing editor and top twenty five instructor with Golf Tips magazine.

(02:49):
So John, welcome back once again to the show.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
Tag always a pleasure to take care of business with
you on this show.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, I appreciate it and glad you could join me.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
And you've got a beautiful backdrop there, so very quickly
tell us the folks where you are, and you're gonna
talk about it at the end of the broadcast.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
As you do, you're out credit. But where are you today?

Speaker 4 (03:11):
So right now, I'm in a very hospitable climate of
hot springs, virgin in behind me is the Omni Homestead Resort.
I'm hoping before the end of the podcast, I don't
start shivering because my Florida blood's two sent here.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, I would say, I feel sorry for you, John,
but now I'm not gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
You got to I don't think most people are feeling
sorry for me.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Sir, No, I don't. You got the best of both worlds.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
All right, my friend, we're gonna talk to you and
I are gonna talk about I know this is gonna
seem to some a similar road that we've traveled on before,
but we're gonna talk about the five most important areas
of golf really for any amateur to master. Obviously, we're
gonna talk about the putting and short game, and that
we're gonna do this from a little bit different perspective.
So I'm gonna throw these different areas, and what I

(04:02):
want you to do is to expand a little bit
talk about how it's going to save our amateur strokes.
And then I'm going to throw in a few things
that what amateurs should know. So I'm going to handle
that part of it, and you're going to talk about
an expanded version of how it's going to save them
some strokes. So we're going to talk about putting. And
I think putting is arguably the most critical and certainly
the highest leverage part of the game where you're going

(04:25):
to save a lot. So I want you to talk
about really how our amateurs becoming better putters are going
to save strokes. You can talk about different techniques if
you want, or different ways that they can better prepare
themselves on the dance floor as it were.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Again, thanks for the opportunity. Always fun to be here,
and you lost over it. I say it a little
bit more in somebody's face. The math says that if
you're shooting one hundred or even in the nineties, the
math says not, hey, put your driver and play. That's
only part of it. It's reducing your putting at to

(05:03):
share some of the things you're probably going to give.
The person is shooting one hundred, it's probably putting somewhere
between thirty six and forty four times around and there's
a lot of three putts. It could be some four putts,
but you have to understand what causes that many and
what a lot of people believe is, man, I miss
that short putt man, I miss that short putt. And

(05:25):
I've had four groups here the past couple of weeks
where people come in and they totally blame the short putting,
and I ask them, well, wait a minute, what about
the second putt that was twelve feet away that created
the third putt that was three feet away. The real
ambiance to this is understanding distance control and trying to

(05:49):
really get focused on targets, not necessarily how close I'm
trying to get it, but literally in my mind, you're
trying to make it without getting too aggressive. You're never
I would say it this way to the average amateur,
when was the last time you missed a putt twelve
feet to the side. You don't miss putts twelve feet

(06:10):
to the side, you miss them twelve feet shorter long.
So from that standpoint, can you start learning to control
the putts that you have from far away? And what
is that average first like putt, whether you hit a
green or not, what the stats are is you probably
have a thirty five footer most of the time. You're
not behind me on this practice green. Practicing thirty five footers,

(06:33):
you're concerned about your three and six footers, and you're
never having those until it's a third or fourth putt,
So you got to start their distance control. You got
to start with centered contact to help you keep good
distance control, and then if you can hit putts when
within three feet to gain some confidence all around the hole.

(06:55):
I call it you around the world drill. I've talked
about this before on previous episode of the podcast, they
call it the Hogan drill, where he was out at
the country Club of Charleston literally with ten balls at
ten feet, but he had started at three feet and
asked the people had come out and shine the headlights
on the putting dream. It's just amazing what you can

(07:17):
do building three feet of confidence and allowing it to
loot outward. However, how far out it's realistic, and once
you the beginner, the one hundred shooter the ninety gets
to about four feet, it gets a little bit iffy.
So that distance control is what brings it in for
your ability to have that three.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Foot well said, and you're exactly right.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Obviously, what I'm going to do now is I'm just
going to hit a few points that we want our
amateurs to know. And distance control is first and foremost
is key, and you want to focus obviously on the
speed of the putt first, then the line, because as
you said, you're not missing it left or right twelve feet,
you're missing it short or long twelve feet.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
So distance control is key.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
And then you also need to understand to become a
better putters, you need to know how to read the
greens properly. You know, look for the overall slope, subtle brakes,
and sort of the effects of the grain that may
have on the grass. So you want to be cognizant
of that. And then you always want to practice with purpose,
spend more time on short to mid range putts than
longer ones. Not saying you shouldn't practice long ones, but

(08:22):
if you work on your short game, which we're going
to talk about here now, is hopefully you're not going
to have too many long long putts. So you know,
those are some key things that every amateur should know,
and you touched on some great points as well, and
particularly the distance control I think is foremost in becoming
a better putter. The short game, John, we're going to

(08:42):
talk about chipping and pitching. These shots are typically played
from about one hundred yards from the green, and most
amateurs lose a lot of strokes here as well, So
how can they best save strokes? What can they do
to improve their their short game in order to save
those strokes there?

Speaker 4 (09:00):
So the first order of business is how do you
control distance? Again with both of these shots. Let's give
you the basic definition. A chip SHOT's going to roll
more than it flies. A pitch SHOT's gonna fly more
than it rolls. So you can actually hit a chip
shot with a sixty degree wedge, and you can hit

(09:21):
a pitch shot with a nine eye. You don't have
to be stereotypically having a club that's going to make
it go higher or lower to execute any of those shots.
The adage that you should live by if I can
put it, I'm gonna put it. If I can't putt it,
because maybe I'm too far off the green and there's

(09:42):
too much rough to put through, maybe there's a sprinkler
head between me and the green, maybe there's too much junk.
It's not it's not a smooth surface. Period. That's when
you're wanting the chip. So if you can put it,
putt it. If you can't put it, chip it. Numerous
times out on the golf course, I'm taking six iron

(10:03):
from one twenty five and setting up as a chip
shot and hitting like a nine to three shot, and
it's a bigger chip shot, and the ball doesn't go
very high. It lands short of the green and rolls forever,
and everybody's like, how did you do that? And how
did you get it so close. It's literally just sticking
to a standard of what a chip shot is, and

(10:24):
it's supposed to not fly very high, but it should
roll and release quite a bit. When we're talking about
short game, however, we're talking about close to the green.
I think what most people do is they don't try
to control their distance by choosing a club. They're trying
to do it with their swing, and they're doing it

(10:46):
in the wrong place of their swing. Think about it
this way. If you bring the club back this far,
it's got to finish this far. But what most people
do is they bring it back just that little bit
more and then try to slow it down. And that's
the biggest mistake I see with average amateurs in one
hundred range. They're trying to control the speed on the

(11:08):
way down. It's already set. It's already set, just like
as if you'd pull a slingshot. It's already set. You're
not gonna slow it down and then release it. It
doesn't work that way. There's other things I've written about
in blog posts as far as set up and how
you'd alter set up to change the distance it's gonna go.
But the real key is you must accelerate. I think

(11:30):
the biggest variable, the biggest setup opportunity anybody has to
limit your backswing, which in turn is gonna limit your distance,
is by opening up your stands and making a swing
that's not across your body, but a swing towards your target.
Because when you're opening your stance and you're trying to

(11:50):
go to your target, you can only bring the club
back but so far, and the more you open the stance,
the less it's gonna go. It's very compact, and now
you can accelerate. At a couple of schools up here
where two or three people were totally closed to their target,
and they wondered why they're always chunking. You're closed, you

(12:11):
have this big swing and you're trying to slow it down.
The other thing that you have to realize it's still
target orientation. It's still believe it or not trying to
make a chip shot. But you have to have an
intermediate target for you to make it. And what most
average hundred shooters do is they don't pick a spot

(12:32):
on the green for that ball to land.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Hoot.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
They're just arbitrarily saying, you know what, let's get it
on the green. See how far it rolls. Well, further
it flies to the hole, the more it's going to
roll pass it. You don't get it onto the green surface,
which provides you a very consistent rollout. Maybe you hit
the fringe, maybe you're just off the side. Those are
very inconsistent surfaces when it comes to the compaction, the

(12:57):
length of grass, that kind of thing. Lost total control
over the one shot. The one thing that you can
do that you have the most control over, and that's
to get the ball on the green rolling. So those
are the things that when somebody's shooting one hundred, we're
trying to get their short game, particularly chipping better. We

(13:17):
try I try to shy away from it. Most of
my coaches try to shy away from it. All the
people I've ever talked about with this about is we're
always trying to get someone to ship it before they
pitch it, because as soon as it gets up in
the air. There's a lot of control that you've given
up to faith.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, well said, and that's so true.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
And just a couple of other things that amateurs certainly
should know is understanding the difference between hip and pitch,
which you just pointed out here in your last statement.
And a chip typically again is a low running shot,
while pitch is a higher, more lofted shot meant to
lend softly, which is great under certain circumstances. But again
you're giving away a lot of the control when it's

(14:00):
the more it's up in the air, So you know
when you're able to chip, as you said, as opposed
to pitching whenever possible around the greens, that's the way
to go. You need to also know your clubs, use
different clubs from your wedges as much as even up
to a seven arn to control how the ball rolls
versus how it flies, and practice with one thought for
many amateurs, as simple hingine hold might be a technique

(14:22):
can produce predictable, consistent shots. So there's a lot of
good information there, and you pointed out and really expanded
on a lot of things. I think we'll help many
for our amateur golfers out there. All right, We're going
to move on to point number three, and that's course management.
This is the strategic side of golf, requiring you to
think through your shots and eight shot based on your
skill level. And certainly you know if you're a pro,

(14:44):
that's something you're working in all the time as well
as opposed to your ball striking. So how do we
save strokes here? How do we incorporate our course management
into the game. What do we need to be thinking
about when we're navigating ourselves around the golf course.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
And then I'll talk about what amateurs need to know.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
So again I'm going to try to keep it at
that hundred level. And we hear the word, the phrase
course management. Well, I'm always telling my golfers, whether they
shoot a hundred or they shoot sixty six, you don't
manage the golf course. Mother nature, and the superintendent manages
the golf course. Your job is to manage yourself and

(15:23):
to have all the education about the golf course you're
about to play readily available in your brain to make
good decisions, not just solely on what the golf course
is providing you, but the tools you have in your
tool chest that day and I'm not just talking about
the golf clubs. I'm talking about what you can do
right now that day with that shot. The shot you

(15:45):
hit yesterday may not show up today, may not show
up tomorrow. Having it in your brain knowing that you
can do it is one thing. Having in your brain
that you know how you did it, that's something else.
The krem to the krem is not only did you
know what you did and how you did it, you
went out and practiced it under some realistic conditions and

(16:06):
simulate it so the next time you're faced with it
you can do it. That's really Number one. I see
so many expect expectations from the golfers who shoot one
hundred and shoot ninety. I'm really good at this sport.
Why can't I do it with golf? You haven't prepared.
You haven't you haven't thought it out clearly, and you're thinking,

(16:29):
I've got to manage the golf course. No, you've got
to manage yourself. And the first thing you've got to
have is an inventory of what you're capable of. Number two.
A lot of people don't know this. Golf courses are
built backwards. Golf courses they build the greens and the
green complexes, and based on the land use management of

(16:49):
the whole project plan, whether there's homes or not, and
so forth. They work backwards. Have you ever looked backwards
from a green and really seen what the holes? That's
where you're going to get the true nature of what
the architect is thinking of for you, the average golfer,
here's where you need to play it. And there's two

(17:11):
rules of thumb that I'd love to give even good players,
because sometimes they'll tend to forget this. You're looking up
the tea box here at the old course, it's a
five hundred and fifty yard straight up the hill, seventy
five feet of elevation. There's two there's two fairway bunkers
down the left hand side. You see those predominantly from

(17:32):
the tee boxes. You climbing the hill, you don't want
to go left, you don't want to go left, so
you start pushing it right into the trees, and then
you get up to the green and look backwards and
those bunkers are gone. They're nowhere to be found.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Right.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
The architect's basically telling you, looking backwards, you should never
have ever been worried about those bunkers. When you're looking
at a fairway bunker with a high lift that's towards
the green, that's an indication it's not in play. It
could be a target, and your job is if you're
using it as a target, pick a club that doesn't
get you in there, or it goes over, or third,

(18:08):
your ball flight curves away from it. Really really simple
things to think about. And I think the third and
final thing is you got to play it what you got.
You can't be out we're trying to fix things. I
see so many high handicappers in a fix it mode.
Golf's meant to be played. Why are you going out

(18:29):
to try to fix something. It's too late to fix it.
You just got to go out there and play with it.
But understanding how the holes are shaped and why the
architects putting certain features in certain places. If you've got
that inventory, which is your predominant ball flight, and you're
willing to set up on different sides of the te

(18:50):
boxes to geometrically allow your ball flight to fly back
into play, to be able to know, hey, here's a
pin that's out of my reach, not because I can't
hit it there, but because the curvature is going to
put me in danger. I'm going to aim somewhere else.
These are all things that I would add up to
the difference between dumb and stupid. The thing I would

(19:12):
ask you to play is dumb golf. It's okay to
play dumb golf. Dumb means you don't know anything. You
didn't know any better when you've experienced it, and now
you have a situation again, we decide to do it
all over again. That's stupid. You knew a better right.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Well foot and you know, just to add real quick,
and then I'm going to give the some of the
amateurs what they should know. And just what you said
is sometimes that fairway bunker can be your friends, so
you know it could be a good target.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
So as you said what.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Amateur should know though, if they're learning to, you know,
wanting to navigate a little bit better around the golf course,
you need to know your shot tendencies. Are you more
likely to slice or hook the ball if you have
a left to right slice or aim you know, to
the left side of the fairway to account for it,
you know, there's a lot of things in that area
to consider. Aim for the center of the green. Rather
than targeting a dangerous pin position, hitting the fat part

(20:06):
of the green increases, you know, your chances of making
a two putt par and makes you're always This is
a big one that a lot of amateurs they, you know,
the old testosterone gets going play from the correct tease.
Using teas appropriate for your skill level rather than ego,
as I pointed out, makes the course more enjoyable and manageable.
And you know, I think those are all good tips

(20:28):
to to be able to help ched.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
I got I gotta call you out because you do
the women in golf show. It's not just testosterone. Estrogen
does it too.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, that's true, that's true. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
But I'll tell you what, the ladies are do a
better job of handling it than the men do. I
can guarantee you that especially. Yeah, all right. The fourth
one here is swing fundamentals, grip and set up and
that sort of thing. Well, many focus on the perfect swing,
which really doesn't exist. There's some good swings out there.
I think, just like the great Jack Nicholas always talked about,

(21:03):
you know, he always beginning of every season focused on
making sure his fundamentals were sound. So how do we
save strokes there. And I'll tell you what some things
that amateur should know.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
I would tell you need to obsess and make perfect
their setup. That's the difference between night and day. That's
the difference between a good shot and a bad shot.
Ninety five percent of the time for the average amateur.
The tour pros obsessed about it. And you see that
when you're watching television. They're on the range and they've

(21:36):
got this alignment sticks out and they've got the measuring
devices out, and your coaches that they're talking to them,
they're not talking a whole lot about movement. They're not
talking a whole lot about how they swing. They're literally
dissecting down to the degree. Hey, this curve war because
you were aimed to this side or that side. More.

(22:00):
Top hand position is real critical. I got a shout
out to Ian Mucklow up in Canada. He's doing a
tremendous job researching grip and grip pressure. And your top
hand is a culprit for me. My left hand, particularly
these three fingers to pinky, the ring finger and the
middle finger tend to let go of the club as

(22:23):
you swing. Can you work on more dexterity, more grip
strength that's in the fingers, to where when you're at
the top of your swing, you're holding on that club
more securely. What Ian's finding out is you don't let
you let go of the club throughout the entire swing.
Where a tour pro is steadily gaining more security to

(22:46):
where it impact, it's totally secure. So from a grip
standpoint of view, is it in the fingers? Can you
hold it in the finger versus the palm of your hand?
There's more security there. But if you're not used to
using the top hand because that's your weaker hand, I
would tell you it's not just the placement. You've got

(23:06):
to start working on. These three fingers get a little
bit more dexteris a little bit stronger, so that can happen.
The other thing is ball position, when people tend to
aim incorrectly, and that's probably the number one priority I
give everyone. It is the number one priority I give everyone.
Ball position can suffer when you're misaimed. And what I

(23:29):
see with the average amateur, no matter which side of
the ball they're swinging from, we'll tend to put that
ball position way forward. And then they ask the common
question why am I chunking it? Or why am I
topping it? As far as topping it, we've talked about
before the swing art. As you start swinging up and
the ball positions forward, Yes, you deserve to hit the
top of the ball, and that's exactly what's happening. But

(23:52):
the reason why the ball positions forward and you're chunking
it is because you know you've got to go down
and get it. And maybe you've swayed too, maybe you're
tossing the club too. S The swing is somewhat of
a toss, but the toss has got to be timed
out correctly. It's not back here, it's down where the
ball is yep. So that ball position is critical. Make

(24:13):
some practice swings left the club brush the ground. I
bet you brushes the ground in the exact same place
every time. That's where your ball should be.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, you got to find the low point in
your swing otherwise you're not going to make good solid contact.
Just some other things that amateurs should know, and you
talked about this very well. Need to learn to master
the grip. Find a grip like the interlock, overlap or
ten finger grip that works for you and provides the
best club face control, because that's what it's about, is
controlling the club face. Also maintaining a proper posture, keeping

(24:44):
your spine angle content throughout the swing. You don't want
to start standing up or slouching down as your swing.
Consistency is by far more important than power. Focus on
hitting the ball solidly first, and distance will come later.
So those are some things in a to what John
just talked about that we want to keep in mind.
And the last one, John, is the mind game and attitude.

(25:07):
Golf is much more a mental game as a physical one.
Many amateurs, attitude directly impacts the performance and enjoyment of
the sport. So how can we get our mind right
to save some strokes? And then I'll give some final
thoughts on what amateurs need to know.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
Two things come to mind right away. The amateur who
cares so much that they may be caring too much.
And when you're carrying that amount, you're trying to be
as good as you can be, and the slightest little
error can just totally ruin, or what you believe to

(25:46):
be ruined, an entire round. Let's back up a second.
The fact that you care is fantastic. How much you
care if you're carrying too much? In a very comical
bit of very serious way, I always ask somebody, wow,
golf must be really up high in your priority list.
What is it A? Is it number A or is

(26:09):
it B? Because there's a lot of other things that
I have in those A or B places kind of thing, family,
my business, my faith, whatever it happens to be. So
setting your mind right from the beginning is not that
you're carrying too little, but believe it or not, you can't.
You can care too much, and that typically causes attention

(26:31):
you feel as you swing, and is one of the
culprits of your dad swings or the bad results. So
you got to really level My father always told me
John when I played professional soccer when I was in
high school before that you're not going to go anywhere
until your highs are no longer too high and your
lows are no longer too low. And it's got to

(26:54):
be leveled out. And that's what I try to do
on course, not necessarily at the rain. I'll let somebody
get a little frustrated because it's a laboratory. You can
you can trial with a few things in experiment, and
it's okay to get frustrated there, but on the course,
you've got to be your best friend. And if if
you're if your highs are too high and you're carrying
too much, then you know what it's You're you're going

(27:19):
to have to learn from that mistake. The second thing
I see as far as mindset is are you prepared
are Do you have a plan? Are you willing to
stick to the plan regardless of wind or weather conditions matter?
Are you willing to stick with the plan because I
got paired with an idiot and I don't like this person,

(27:41):
but I still got to play. Whether it's tournaments or
you're a single and you're thrown into a threesome on
a Saturday morning, are you prepared to deal with your
with your circumstances. Are you prepared to deal with your adversities.
That's not about caring. This is totally different. You have

(28:04):
to be willing to play Murphy's law every shot and
use what I call conservative aggression. If you know your inventory,
know the toolbox that you have that day. Let's not
try to play the hero shot all the time, not
even when you're trying to put the ball and play
off the team, and I make a conservative decision on

(28:24):
what shot I'm going to hit and how I'm going
to set up. What that does It frees the mind
and body to play aggressively, not overly aggressive, not a
bull and a china shop kind of thing. What I
see hundreds people, hundreds golfers doing is the opposite. They
make this crazy aggressive decision, they set up for it

(28:47):
not properly, but then all of a sudden, in the
middle of the swing, they go uh oh, and they
get really conservative with how they swing, and that moment
is actually a worse mistake than if you'd just ahead
and swung. Think about it the other way. Can you
control your emotions and not be so high and not

(29:07):
be so overcarry sort of flat line it and have
a plan that allows you to understand what your toolboxes
that day and make the conservative decisions so you can
set up freely and swing freely. I think you'll surprise
yourself if you do those two times.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, well said, And just a few more things I
want to add to what amateurs should know is accept
your misses. Every golfer hits bad shots. Don't let a
poor shot on the first hole ruin the rest of
your round, and a lot of people do that even
sometimes the first couple of holes they've had a few
rough patches and the next thing, you know, their whole

(29:45):
round sort of falls to the ground. And be honest
about your game. You know, lying about your score or
taking too many mulligans prevents you know, you from truly
tracking your progress and understanding where you need to improve.
So you need to make sure that you look at that.
And then lastly is adopt a preshot routine whenever possible.
I think it's important. I think this helps focus your
mind and create a consistent, repeatable process for every shot.

(30:08):
That's why the pros do it, and if they're doing it,
there's no reason why you shouldn't do it. So those
are the five, you know, I think important things for
amateurs need to know, and I think it's, you know,
something that if they continue to focus on those instead
of just worrying about trying to make the best looking
swing all the time. Who cares what the swing? I mean,
everybody talks about Trevino's swing, Jim Fark and several others, Uh,

(30:31):
you know, they didn't have the prettiest swings out and
tour but boy, they sure did win some tournaments.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
So but great, you want to be functional or do
you want to have great film? Right?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Exactly?

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, the film looks great, but the score sucks, so
who really cares, right, I mean, you know that you're
not shooting, you're not out there shooting YouTube videos and
and if that's what you're out there doing, and great,
but you know, if you want to become a better golfer,
then you have to, you know, follow what we've been
talking about here tonight. So John is always a great discussion.
I know it's getting dark there, so we're gonna have
to wrap up.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Isn't it beautiful though?

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Oh yeah, it's beautiful. I got some beautiful lights in
the background and I can still see you.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
So we're good.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
But thank you as always for joining the coach's corner.
As always, I'm going to give you an opportunity let
folks know how they can reach out and if there's
any quickly that you'd like to plug as we as
we wrap.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Up, Yeah, let's start with the plug because the topic
tonight could have been more apropos. Literally, I'm within forty
eight hours of publishing my first book called Instant Off improvement.
And there's actually six things in there, and we covered
four of them tonight. It's a really good read. It
It was written out of frustration. My frustration is people

(31:41):
come for a lesson and they don't practice afterwards, and
they come to the next one thinking I've got magic dust.
And I've always said that if I have cheaching Chom's
magic dust that makes the reindeer fly for Santa, I
wouldn't be here with you. I wouldn't be helping you, right,
And it just got to the point I'm seeing over
time the evolution of generations that love golf, but you're

(32:05):
not putting into time. So what instant Golf improvements about
is six things that if you change your attitude, if
you change your heart direction about golf and just apply
some things without practice, You've got the possibility of experiencing
that instant and I'm hoping people will take to it. Realistically,

(32:26):
it's not meant as a panasy. It's not meant to
to cure off. It's more meant to, Hey, this is
for you, because this is what you're showing me on
the range. And if you do these things, you may
you may improve it so much that you may want
to come back and take a real lesson at some point,
and that's going to be released, I'm hoping within the

(32:46):
next five days. It goes to Amazon within the next
forty eight hours, so I'm really excited about that. There's
a new website with virtual coaching with IGI. There will
be new golf schools announced on that website. It's off
coming out here a matter of a few days. And
I've got you to think, because you pointed out a

(33:06):
couple of years ago as you were with me at
another location, that I shouldn't get so frustrated about that.
And I had this project in the back of me
and decided at that point, hey, I needed to finish it.
So thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Well my pleasure. And John, it's always an honor to
have you on the show. You were my first coach's
first coach rather on the coach's corner. You and I
have been through this journey as well on the podcast
for many years, and I appreciate all of the encouraging
words that you've given me as well, and sometimes even
a few verbal spankings along the way. So I appreciate that, yeah, exactly,

(33:43):
but no, you've done a great job I'm excited. So
how can very quickly, how can the folks if they
want to reach out, how can they get in touch
with you, John, And whether it's to take some lessons
or to get more information in general about what you're
doing coming up?

Speaker 4 (33:55):
Sure, So I'm at the end of my residency here
for the fall at Omni Homestead. We are in active
discussions earlier this evening getting dates for twenty twenty six
and should be announcing those shortly, just in time for
holiday gift giving. I am at the Omni champions Gate Resort,
Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate to be official, wonderful place,

(34:17):
two great golf courses as they have here, wonderful hotel,
great service. I now have some assistant coaches helping me there.
Easy to find me, John Hughesgolf dot com. Put an
anfer sign or a hashtag in front of that, and
you're going to find me on social media, email, text, call.
I've got something that I believe separates me from everyone else.

(34:39):
So if you contact me by five o'clock Eastern every day,
you're guaranteed a reply. And to me, that's critical because
if you're contacting me, you've got a need for improvement.
We want to help you improve those golf skills of yours.
So that's how you can find me. And whether it's
here at Homestead next year or beginning in about ten

(35:00):
days through say May of next year, come see me
in Orlando and love to be your host there.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
I appreciate John as always, thank you for bringing your
best to the Coaches Corner panel here and Golf Talk Live.
All right, I'm going to take a quick commercial break
and when I come back, I'll be joining by my
featured guest of the evening.

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(36:25):
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Speaker 2 (36:33):
All Right, Welcome back, everybody.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
I'm super excited to have tonight's featured guest Marci Kimota.
He is the CEO and co founder of Proto Concept Golf,
and I'll tell you a little bit about him and
the we're gonna get into tonight's featured discussion with my
very special guest, Marci Kimota, as I said, is the
CEO and co founder of Proto Concept Golf. He's a
trailblazer in the golf industry from Japan. Has held the

(36:56):
position of CEO since twenty twenty one, three years after
the company's inception. His significant accomplishments and creating top tier
golf equipment, expanding international sales programs, crafting award winning marketing campaigns,
and forging successful collaborations have all led to his present
position of leadership. His expert passion and expertise has culminated

(37:19):
in a comprehensive Proto Concept Golf Tour program, which has
been linked in numerous to five finishes, top ten placements,
and five professional tour victories. In twenty twenty four, under
Komodos guidance, Proto Concept Golf moved its corporate headquarters from
Japan to North America. So we're talk tom about that
a little bit more. But Marcy, welcome to the show.

Speaker 7 (37:40):
Thank you, thank you so much for their having time.
And then it's good introductions. Well not why I expected.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
It, No, no, no, no, I'm always about interaction. So it's
a pleasure and honor to have you here, and I'm
really excited to learn more. So what I'm going to
do is do this, yes sir, Before we get in
to the more serious talk, I want to know a
little bit more about you. So when was your first,
uh introduction to golf, not as a professional but as

(38:11):
in the business, but just golf in general. When did
you did you first start playing when you were young
or when did you first sort of get introduced to
the game.

Speaker 7 (38:18):
So I started the golf like when I was paying
eleven years old and then just starting to pray golf,
and I have a really good passion for the what's
the golf? But you know, I'm not that good enough,
you know as everyone else, and.

Speaker 5 (38:33):
I just better.

Speaker 7 (38:35):
I just really want to do something to the business
in the golf. So when I graduate university here in
the US, and I had an opportunity to start bring
like a golf manufacture company from Japan, which was fourteen
Golf and the two thousand and five I started off

(38:57):
in the US and grow the business, and so that
was my like business has started, you know, like before that.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yes, so at that point, so when you were playing,
you said about ten or eleven is when you started.
And much like the rest of us, you came to
realize that you were not going to be a professional
tour player. So you thought you do thet Yeah, you
thought you do the next best thing, and you get
into the golf business side of golf and do some
way of giving back to the game that obviously you enjoy.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
So so in.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Two thousand and five you started, brought a business over
from Japan. Uh and then at some point you met
your your partner, if you will, in pro concept. How
did that come about? When did that start to develop,
and how did that sort of come about? Give us
a little bit of background on that.

Speaker 7 (39:48):
So during the CORVID, fourteen Golf decided to withdraw from
the market.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
It was before after it before.

Speaker 7 (39:56):
The CORVID, right and before and then during the CORVID,
you know, they totally decided to withdraw from the market.
But before the COVID they decided to shut it down
the company, but they wanted to leave the tour sport only,
so I was just doing tour sport, but I didn't
do anything for the sales. But I know the people

(40:19):
who can help and who believed my business idea. So
when the proto Concept approached me and they send me,
first of all they send me, they send me their head,
like actually had the head, and then I didn't expect

(40:41):
it to that hit was really good. So I was
kind of to see, you know, let's let me let
me see it, let me check with it. But the
way I received all the heads from Japan proto Concept heads,
uh that quality, performance and the.

Speaker 5 (40:57):
Concept are outstanding.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
So by the time I was I wasn't sure before
I received the product, but one hundred percent sure we
can do something with the head after I received and
opened the box. So after I build, I tested with
my friend and also my like a supporter who are

(41:21):
the golf golf store, and then they started to show
the interest and then people started asking me where can
we get these heads and then so like it's kind
of good timing to starting to uh launching the product
in the US.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
And then with what I see, you know.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, And so what was it about the product?

Speaker 3 (41:44):
I mean, obviously it's very excuse me, a very high
quality UH product now, but what specifically was it about
the prot concept the heads that really stood out to you?
I mean, there's because as you know, there's so much
on the market that we see out there, and I
know that that uh, the Japanese quality and and that
that you've experienced over the years is probably some of

(42:08):
the best in the world. So you you obviously have
a very sharp eye when it comes to quality UH
in golf equipment. So what was it about their product
that stood out to you that said, you know, I
like this, I think I want to be a part
of that.

Speaker 7 (42:22):
H So, like every manufacturer can make it to good
quality of the club now because like the five years
ago and the ten years ago was a different situation,
but now these days everyone makes a good club, good
club and the good quality. But quality wise, if we
are talking about the tolerance and then also the head,

(42:44):
each of the head is the same UH weight, which
is the tolerance is tight and then also the finishes.
So we make so protocolncept. We don't do to build
and we don't to make many heads just keep it

(43:05):
the small batch all the time, so two hundred heads
to four hundred heads for each round. So most of
the company they do one thousand, two thousand, and three
thousand more than that, but we just keep it the
small bat and then we measure quality control. So each head,

(43:26):
we measure the weight, we measure the loft, we checked
all the finished quality. So that is what we designed,
what we came out, what we sell every single head
the same standard in their our company standard.

Speaker 5 (43:46):
So that's quality.

Speaker 7 (43:48):
And then the powermans each of the head is pretty
pretty outstanding.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
So what if I understand you correctly, So what you're
really saying is by by producing it in small or
more defined quality quantity excuse me, quality says consistent because
after a while, like if you have as you said,
if you have like a thousand or two thousand, after
a while, the consistency starts to fade because the quality
of the material, it's harder to spread that thin if

(44:17):
you will. By keeping it with smaller batch numbers, that
keeps the consistency throughout the product. And that's really what
you were looking for.

Speaker 7 (44:25):
And that's what yes, And I just don't want to
blame some other manufacturers so I try to use a
nice word to this, Libe, but yes, you are one
hundred percent right, And it's kind of it's kind of
difficult to keep really good quality of the clop if

(44:46):
we produce then manufacture like thousand two thousand each time.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Small right when you're doing high volumes like that. You're
again it's very hard to keep quality control. H at
that point, And you know, now, I'm glad you pointed
that out because now I can use that as an
excuse for my golf game because I'm not using your products,
so I can say, well, you know.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I must have got a big batch at the end
of the match, so you know I can use that,
I think so.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
But no, I'm glad you pointed that out because that
is very important, I think for people to understand.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
And again you're you're dealing with you know, it's great
to produce mass quantity, but at the same time, you
want quality to be there, and if it's not there,
then people are not getting the performance that they want
and and and in a game that requires you to
be very consistent, if that quality is not consistent throughout
the clubs, not just from one club, but throughout the
whole set if the heads are matching, and then there's

(45:45):
more consistency in your game overall, and that's what people want,
especially in golf. So I like how you put that,
But I'm making a note here for when I go
out and play the next time with my forsme, I'm
going to.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Use that as.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
That's right said, I should have been playing proto concept.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
You good to try to try what I say. Yeah,
but because everyone.

Speaker 7 (46:10):
Comes down to the place wise, and then whise proto
concept of charging really higher than any other manufacturers because
we keep it yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Sir, So we don't make it to so many. We
keep it low, so that costs higher. If we started
to make.

Speaker 7 (46:29):
More vodio, it's going to be a little bit less
the price.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
You know.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Well, and that's that's why, you know, some of the
big manufacturers, what's why they do that is they want
to be able to get the price point down so
they can get a right, a wider audience. So that
makes a lot of sense. So when you you know,
obviously I can tell that you have a lot of
passion what you do in that. But what drives you?
What is it about this game that just drives you?
And really motivates you to do what you do.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
I mean what it's sort of behind the man if
you will.

Speaker 7 (47:00):
That's a short answer. Is this talk talking to you.
You gave me the smile. It gives me smiles and
then that's that's my passion because we talk about like
a golf and then we're talking about the good things
about it and then everyone you know, like like talking
with good passions, good motivate and also they're always always

(47:23):
always smiling.

Speaker 5 (47:24):
Right, And I think it's no one talks about golf
with depressing face, you know, like like evening.

Speaker 7 (47:33):
Even making mistake, Oh hear me out or just listen
to this, that happened and that happened. Oh no, right,
but everyone gets a smile and then that's I like it.
There's to keep me uh pretty good praise to giving
giving my smile and then my you know, like a
passion to drive good way.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Yes, so about I think again to put this to
sort of summarize that, I think from a manufacturing standpoint,
I think we need to close the excuse manufacturing for
golfers that they have out on the course. I think
that would be one manufacturing I hope goes out of business.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Uh, because you're you're right.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
I mean, you know, I talked on an earlier segment
tonight's show with with a fellow golf coach.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
We talked about, you know, attitude in the game.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
You know, we all hit bad shots, we all hit
some but if you can't laugh about your game, and
you have to, you're so serious. Now obviously at the
tour level, I mean even they're kind of rolling their
eyes sometimes. I can't believe I, you know, hit that
into that bunker and I wanted to go here. I
wanted to go there. You have to have some fun.
The main thing is you're out to play the game,
but you have to have fun. And if you're not

(48:44):
having fun and you're not enjoying yourself, then what are
you doing out in the.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Golf course something?

Speaker 5 (48:49):
Right?

Speaker 3 (48:49):
So, yeah, exactly, So we're going to talk about I know,
you got the the wedges. We're going to talk about
that in a moment. But I want to get from
your perspective. Obviously you've had a chance to interact with customers.
Give us some of the feedback that you've had from
your customers. Obviously you're dealing with a very premium quality product.
So again, your customers are looking for that, they're willing

(49:12):
to pay for it. What's been some of the UH
and what are they looking for when they come to you.
Is it just a consistency and the overall performance or
they're looking for that sort of wow factor.

Speaker 7 (49:24):
Wow factor with satisfactions because people buys the club and
people people means my customers and my friend supporter, even
the tool prayers, they started to reach me out. They
contact me because they want to get like extra statists.

(49:46):
They want to see extra satisfactions with something like extra things.
Extra things means like are changing a gold club or
gold coach and inspects. Right, But we only provide everything
what we can do. You know, we cannot provide any

(50:09):
like a skill set. We cannot provide it anything power,
any no weight or jumping scale, right, But only that
we can provide it to satisfaction, which is I can
make you play better?

Speaker 5 (50:25):
How play better?

Speaker 7 (50:28):
If we're talking about like a distance wise one forty
seven one forty seven, there's a short haul one forty seven,
how do you hit? But I can go to a
little bit cut it off, a little bit drawer, maybe
sometimes shorter, but if I can, if I can give you.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
Some golf club with.

Speaker 7 (50:50):
Consistency, right, and then you can make better score. Used
to be like a boggie, but I can that that
prayer would be makeing a paw with consistency may be
the body and and then that's consistency. Consistency gives you
more satisfactions and a more smile.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
And I equated to it, well said, I equate it
to you know, having the right tools and the right equipment.
I mean, you have to bring as a person, as
a golfer, you have to bring the right skills to
the to the to the game. But if you don't
have the correct equipment, then that obviously does affect your
your game at some at some point. And it's kind
of like, you know, I look at it this way.

(51:32):
You know, if I was trying to put a screw
into a piece of wood, I need a screwdriver, yes,
as supposed to bring in a jackhammer or or some
other or you know what I'm saying. So again, you
have to have the right tools. So the tools, if
you will in your case, it's equipment has to be
fitted properly to that picular player, which we can talk

(51:53):
a little bit about if you'd like and that's what
they're looking for. I mean, obviously aesthetics. Everybody wants to
look at that golf club and they want to say
I like to look like that, and obviously they wanted
to feel. But it has to perform well and it
has to be fitted properly for the individual.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
So talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
What's the process that your customers go through to make
sure that they're getting the best fitted club for them?

Speaker 7 (52:16):
So under the many strations what you describe that, that's
that's that's happened to me many times because for example,
like a younger age of like a college student college golfer,
for example, they have their sadurn product from major manufacturers,

(52:39):
but each whole.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
They make mistake.

Speaker 7 (52:43):
Mistake means I cannot hit number seven, I cannot hit
number five, or maybe my wage.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
Distance is really inconsistent yep.

Speaker 7 (52:54):
And then take two the lion loved or sing weight
or specs from their like the flex is inconsistently to
show what he or she supposed to have in the back.
So I was talking to that player's palents a one time.

(53:18):
So my daughter is playing with a big manufacturer golf club. This, uh,
the golf club I got it from LPGA Prayer.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
Right, that's good.

Speaker 7 (53:34):
That's that's that's just a good, good gift from you know,
one of the LPGA prayer.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
But my daughter cannot he did this golf.

Speaker 7 (53:43):
Club, I said, of course, because that golf club fit
for LPGA prayer, sat on LPGA prayer on the field.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
It's not for your daughter.

Speaker 7 (53:54):
So that means you punishing your daughter every time he
goes to the to the tournament, right, because you believe
the equipment, but you didn't believe your daughter's skill. Right
because basically I got the micro Jordan basketball shoes, but

(54:16):
I cannot make it a point because I wear the
size nine, but he wears the size fourteen or whatever.

Speaker 5 (54:23):
Right, I cannot jump in it. I can wall because
of the size is different.

Speaker 7 (54:27):
And then so I was talking to them about the
fitting process, and then also that what's important in their
like like a fitting golf club because it's it's the
same as everything to be fit for you to be better,
score making better, score better. I usually starting to talk

(54:52):
to the players or parents, and I said, I don't
push to sell at all. Once you agree with me,
I can sell the golf club to you. But if
you don't want to. You don't need to purchase from
me because you can go to big Box and purchase.
So that is first ice break to approach. And in

(55:14):
second we are starting to the major major and then
starting to talk about the prey style, which is what
you like, what you make mistake, you know, how.

Speaker 5 (55:23):
Do you lose your score?

Speaker 7 (55:26):
So that is the next step, and then just try
to make it to Fracks and then Lenks and Liane
Loft and and so there's a multi step what I
do to fit in.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
You know that you raised some really great points because
I remember growing up much like you.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
I played a.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Little bit earlier than New a few years earlier New.
But I remember, you know, my father, you know, cutting
down clubs and you know, getting hand downs if you will,
And you know, at that stage it was okay. But
as I got older and got you know, more developed,
you know, I had to be and we didn't have
the technology that you have today for fitting and things.
I mean, it was a little bit different. Now it's
so fine tuned. I mean it's pretty hard to miss

(56:07):
the mark. But you know what, what I what I
like about what you just said is you know, who
wouldn't I would love to have, you know, Tiger Woods
golf clubs.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Yes, but I don't have Tiger.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
If I had Tiger Woods game, you know, to go
with it and his abilities, you know, that might be fine,
and you know, so forth. But you make a great
point because again, you know, if you want, especially if
you've got a college golf player, let's say they're playing
for the men's or the women's team, which ever doesn't matter.
You know, they're not going to play with a set
of hand me down clubs and be successful out in

(56:40):
the golf course if they're not fitted properly. So it's
very important to make sure that they get out there
and make sure the clubs are waited properly for the
make sure the right lengths, the right flex you know,
there's a million things that need to go through and
and that's why I wanted to find out what some
of the feedback. And that's a great point that you raised.
So how does it that feedback, How does it affect

(57:04):
future design and developments. So you're getting a lot of
information from your customers. Does that then translate into Okay,
I'm hearing a lot of this or I'm hearing a
lot of this from our customers, we need to pivot
or we may make adjustments because this seems to be
an underlying issue, not an issue per se, but in
a bad way. But they're wanting to see more distance

(57:26):
or they're wanting to see more of this. Do you
get a lot of that feedback and then sort of
you know, water not water, but go through it and
say here's where we need to make some changes moving forward.

Speaker 5 (57:37):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
So there's a certain prayers which I can talk about
but are genuinely this is a two types of the prayers.
So I'll beg Joe every day golfer, but it's even
the every day offer.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
They played once a month or.

Speaker 7 (57:55):
Every week, right, So everyone want to get the distance
sure or accuracy, but distance before right, so that is
more towards to h once amounts ablage golfer. But if
I like to play every week, they don't need a distance,

(58:16):
but they need the accuracy. So they are more like
to be narrowed down to be aiming point what they
want to hit it instead of right three hundred years right.
So that's that's a totally dependent So what I see
now they make suddle mistakes because the head make it

(58:38):
bigger and most of the golf club get it easy.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
Are so.

Speaker 7 (58:45):
Like just just depend on their what player's prospective and
then what they want to change or what they want
to see it. So that's that's kind of I cannot
give you sudden answer to one direction.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
Right, No, right, there's a two different type of the
broad spectrum.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Yeah, it's a very broad spectrum. I know, I get it.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
I just wanted to to maybe just get a general overview,
and I realized every every golfer is different, and every
level of golfer. I mean, obviously the tour levels, you know,
they they've already got the distance, so they're not really needing,
per se a big push on the distance. There more
is uh obviously consistency to and and I think it
goes back to the point you said earlier, is not

(59:29):
so much inconsistency in striking the ball, but consistency in
their equipment. They want to know when they picked up
this club that this is feels the same as this club,
even though it's got a different loft and li angle.
They want to have that feel because to them, it's
more about feel. It's not about you know, hitting it
three hundred yard. They were hitting it three hundred yards, right?

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Is that? Is that right?

Speaker 5 (59:48):
You're PC like? So right?

Speaker 7 (59:50):
Because I'm told most of most of the prayers when
I speak with I would say, maybe you might lose
it distance in the iron, but five irons goes to EFU.
I say eight iron, eight iron. You used to hit
one sixty five, but with my spec maybe you might

(01:00:14):
hit it like once fifty five.

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
You might lose ten ten years, but.

Speaker 7 (01:00:20):
Like a window is going to be smaller and then
mistake and then tolerance is going to be tight, which
is mistaking the tolerance.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
So which one you like?

Speaker 7 (01:00:34):
And then because always if you want to hit it
one fifty, I can give you suturn club, but it
might be shorter. It might be short. I means you
used to hit the number eight, but now you need
to number seven better, I give you better score or

(01:00:55):
making you I can give you the more better.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Making score.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Right, Well, that's what you're doing basically, is you're you
might be trading a little bit of distance, but you're
getting a tighter disbursement. Yes, I know that's what you
were looking for because that and again that goes to
the consistency because one of the things that we see
with a lot of our amateurs is they're spraying it all.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Over the golf course.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
You know, one minute they're in the right rough, the
next minute they're in the left roff, maybe in the
trees next time, and they need to tighten that down.
So really, I always say to a lot of my
students and have for years, is I would rather you
hit it one hundred and fifty yards straight, yes, and
hitting it two hundred yards and you're you know, left,
right and all over the place right. And that's what

(01:01:41):
the tour players understand. I mean, And obviously they're at
a different level, but they're essentially we're all human, we're
the same thing. We want to play our best, we
want to get out there. So they have to make
sure that the equipment fits them correctly and it gives
them the performance that they're looking for. And most if
you ask most tour players, you know, yeah, if they
can get a few extra yards out of it, great,

(01:02:03):
But they're really looking for is they know that their
accuracy has to be spot on because it could be
the difference of you know, ten twenty one hundred thousand,
you know, two hundred thousand dollars in an event. If
they're all over the place. So you know, again it
comes down to what's what's the priority. So the players

(01:02:23):
their priority is more they want that tight dispersement pattern pattern.
The amateur golfers they just want to get more distance.

Speaker 5 (01:02:31):
M hm.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Is that pretty accurate?

Speaker 7 (01:02:34):
It is, it is, sir, And also the what the
tour player wants to and then they want to get
an extra for giveness right sure under the under the
sat on pressure. Because when we pray golf, you know,
I'm you know, the amateurs, and and I prayed once
a month, and uh, making body on the path. I

(01:02:56):
get the numbers and everyone does. But it's pop up
is different feeling. And then bogie pad is make it
easy to make it a boggy right, and then if
you hit it down in the middle of the failway
is pretty good shot. And it comes to the like
on one stady, you'r and I try to make it

(01:03:17):
to something a good shot about making me say, but
if we have something forgiveness in the shop, which is head,
is easier to transaction to make it to contacting the
ball or something to be I make it a cat,
but it's cat doesn't go to right, It's going to

(01:03:38):
be a little.

Speaker 5 (01:03:38):
Big baby cat.

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
Yeah, it's helping it making a better score, right, that
is what we can provide, extra forgiveness from the golf crop.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
That's better score in the end. Everyone could be laughing,
right well.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Yeah, and you know from a from a player standpoint,
and I again I'm talking amateur players. If if I
can make it, so I'm only hitting it, you know,
ten feet to the right of twenty feet, that's a
big difference that now is it could be the difference
of keeping me in play or not being in play.
So yeah, that that's a big factor you mentioned, which

(01:04:18):
is interesting you mentioned you know, obviously consistency and especially
on those short shots.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
So let's talk about our wedges. Oh, thank you, Yeah,
let's talk about those. That's uh, those are are pretty
pretty nice.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
So tell us about, uh what you really like about
those and how they're going to help players out there.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
Sore.

Speaker 7 (01:04:39):
When we started to designer the wedges, our our new wedges,
which called are our wedges, people genitally generally last five
ten years, all the measure manufacturers start started to offer

(01:05:00):
all kinds of different grinding, right, So I don't know
that you like m glind the tea line or K line,
everyone talking about, oh I need to prefer the m grind,
I need to prefer the tea line. But and then
and then next they're talking about, oh I need to have.

Speaker 5 (01:05:21):
A low bounce, high bounds, but for me, and I'm
talking to fitters, so where do you fit usually?

Speaker 7 (01:05:34):
And then they fit in house, which is not the outside,
right in the studio. And then so you are talking
about the tough reactions, but tough reactions you cannot see
from like a fitting studio in house because all the

(01:05:58):
turf is like her like just just a general taught
there's a math, right, Matt doesn't see like digging deeper
shallower or naloa right, So while you're talking about what
do you know, everyone talking about like tap reaction to

(01:06:19):
pick all the solt because oh this is based on
my experience. Okay, your experiences, that's good, but that is
it's such a guessing each of the fitting right because
you hit deep, that is going to be more higher bounds.

(01:06:39):
And then like em grind because you like to shape
the m. But so our standpoint is, how can we
fix this problem easily to choose which soul is be
fit for you for everyone? So we have ag is
aggressive and then enterity is neutral and the SP is

(01:07:01):
a sleeper. So aggressive is people use face more in
their uh wedges is choose to choose to We can
recommend a G.

Speaker 5 (01:07:14):
So SP is people using more soil to.

Speaker 7 (01:07:17):
Be contact and then going to be speed and then
NT is in the middle. So a G is people
use more face to contact giving more pressure and then
also the steep.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
To the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:07:33):
So that's all that is, that is my swing, right,
so easy to this you might be fit with a G.
Soul choices that is, so that that choice is more
syn patent instead of the what you like to hear, right,
So this is this is that's a kind of different

(01:07:53):
approaching what we design it. So people are fitting in
house like a fitting studio, they can see the attacking
angle and then attacking angle can relate it to what
we suggest for their like their bounds and then soul
blinding it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
So you really what you're doing then is you're you're
giving multiple options for the same club for the different
levels of players, and not just so again for somebody
as you said that maybe hits down more and is
looking to compress the ball more, they're gonna have maybe
a GY and somebody that that's maybe gonna sweep a
little bit more and not go as deep, uh, you know,

(01:08:34):
would have one of the others. And right, So to me,
that makes more sense because again you're one hundred percent right.
You know, a lot of the fitting in that you
see is done inside on a mat and the masses.
The mats obviously tend to be a little softer in
most cases, so you're gonna get a little bit of

(01:08:54):
a bounce in that, and you know it's good for
some things, but again you're not gonna get really a
true accurate reading. You've got to be outside hitting on
actual turf.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
And it spends where you are.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
If you're playing in Florida or you're playing, you know,
out out in the desert.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
You know, you have different consistencies, yes, sir, right, So
you have to allow.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
For that, and tour players particularly have to allow for
that because they're playing all over the world, so they're
playing and not just different climates, but they're different different
turf conditions. So again, this is why the tour players
typically have multiple choices in their equipment and have to
make adjustments as they move from one coast to the
other or one venue. To another because again, the consistency

(01:09:35):
is not going to be the same from let's say
playing in California, then it would be up in the
northeast of the United States, or playing over in Europe somewhere,
or even in Japan.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
So again, you know, everybody thinks, well, the grass is green,
there's the green, there's the tea box, everything's.

Speaker 5 (01:09:50):
The same, different.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
And that's that's why you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
And I are talking here instead of playing at Pebble
Beach or you know whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:09:58):
So, yes, sir, the same, but it's different in the glassies.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Right exactly, So no, I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
So, as I mentioned earlier, you know, you guys moved
in proto concept, moved from Japan and is now in
southern California. So obviously North America is a big, big
market with so much competition. How did you decide what niche,

(01:10:25):
if you will, that you guys wanted to go into,
because again, I know you're more of a premium club.
You didn't want to obviously because you don't compete really
with the big box because I mean again, you're fitting
into a very unique niche, which is very good. I
like that because again I think when you get into
too much generality with anything and that. And that's fine

(01:10:48):
for like you said, the guy that plays once a
month or maybe even once a week, he may have
different needs. But if you're a tour level player playing
in the PGA or the LPGA or even the live
tour where you're playing week in, week out, you have
to have You can't be playing out of the box now,
have to be playing something, as we talked about earlier.
So that was something that you guys recognized. So how

(01:11:11):
did you decide what your niche was going to be.
Was that already decided when you sort of came about
with proto concept or was that something that gradually as
the business was developing, you said, we need to pick
a lane that we want to be.

Speaker 5 (01:11:24):
In because when we decided to just do more.

Speaker 7 (01:11:31):
Out on the and researching and development and also the
designing from from US side, because US side means from here,
that is more information we can get because if we
see good wedges and a good golf club, it's every

(01:11:51):
golf club.

Speaker 5 (01:11:54):
Come out from here in the US.

Speaker 7 (01:11:57):
It's not used to be from Japan, used to be
from like England, like Slassenger or some other club. Right,
But now what we see is every golf club came
out from here, Callo Taylor, the TI ping, right, and
everyone pray with them. Everyone, No it's not one hundred percent,

(01:12:22):
but you know most of the prayer.

Speaker 5 (01:12:24):
So we need.

Speaker 7 (01:12:27):
We cannot compete with them, but we can get some
sort of similar idea and a similar information where we
need to be. We need to be the same praise,
which is North America. And we go to our confiy tour,
we go to leave a tour and we go to

(01:12:50):
LPGA and try to get all the information what they
need and then that needs.

Speaker 5 (01:12:58):
To apply to our goal design for the future.

Speaker 7 (01:13:02):
That's that's that's the things we can do it but
we cannot do to mass product, we cannot do to
have a big advertisement. But we know what they need
to what they need to have or what they expect
to have, and which is help. And the help comes
to the design and then it's applied to what they

(01:13:26):
want what we can provide and it's good golf club.

Speaker 5 (01:13:30):
Right. So that that that's the reasoning is we are
here now you know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Well, and I think it gives you a uniqueness because again,
and I don't say this as a criticism to some
of the bigger companies. But what I often see with
the bigger companies is again that's sort of a very
broad approach.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
To the game.

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
And again when you're when you're somebody that's we can
Warrior or you're uh, you know, a collegiate golfer or
corn Faery tour LPG whatever, you know, you have differ
diferent levels, and obviously the tour levels are being taken
care of in a different way even with the big
box that we call the big the big box guys.
But what you're really doing is you're really hyper focusing

(01:14:14):
on a very unique client tell in the sense that
these are people that want to again get get the quality.
Number one is they want the quality, but they want
the consistency and they want to know that when they
come back and they're ready to make changes or whatever,
they know that consistency is still going to be there.
Where that's not always the case. You know, you can
buy a set of brand X, you know, which is

(01:14:37):
very common in the marketplace, and the next time, you know,
they come up with a new model and you go
and get that and there's not the same consistency. It's different, yes, yes,
So for you it really gives a very unique approach
to that and allows you to really again be hyper
focused with your with your customers. I want to go
back to and add to one of the questions I
asked you earlier, and I said about getting feedback and

(01:14:57):
how that how that sort of affects future design and developments.
I want to twist that question a little bit, and
I want to know, are there any any of your
game improvement wants or needs that have been projected into.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
The design?

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
So, in other words, from your own game, are there
certain things that you look for personally in your game
that you say I would. I think this is something
that we we come across with other players. Is there
anything in your designs, uh with your company that have
been inspired by by your own personal experiences?

Speaker 7 (01:15:35):
So all about So if we talk about the design,
or if we talk about the future, is the direction right?

Speaker 5 (01:15:41):
And I want to I want.

Speaker 7 (01:15:43):
To feel this is kind of kind of difficult to
EXPLAIND but abe one had a sixth sense, right, Yeah,
we don't know how we can explad but we know
this is good.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
This is not good for me, right, So I.

Speaker 7 (01:16:00):
Want to hit more sixth sense to be feeling something,
to be people cannot explain.

Speaker 5 (01:16:08):
But this is because we.

Speaker 7 (01:16:10):
Cannot experend now like in the golf probably like over
thee hundred years and one hundred and twenty years. But
even now we are talking about the mechanics and we
even know we are talking about the dynamics of the
golf swing, right, but they know they means we know,
you know, they know what is good, what is bad,

(01:16:34):
what is not the good. But that is about like
like hitting the sixth sense to be, we cannot experience
what is really good to everyone else. But if I
feel good, it's good. If you're feeling it's good, it's good.
So this is would be my goal to hit the

(01:16:54):
sixth sense to be.

Speaker 5 (01:16:56):
I don't know why I don't I like this, but
I really like this.

Speaker 7 (01:17:00):
And then that that is a club to for example,
that might be your hybrid wood or maybe your wedgies,
but everyone has stick with hybrid club to be. Oh,
I like this hybrid club, but I cannot change it
to anything new because I don't know why, but I

(01:17:21):
like it in the back and then last ten years
and then maybe next five six years, stick with this
hybrid But I don't know why I like it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:29):
But this is hitting the sixth sense.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
So let me ask you, uh, let me phrase this
in in a way, and you tell me if I'm correct. So, really,
what you're saying to me is you're trying to appeal
to their emotional side as opposed to their physical side.
In other words, it's all about feeling, not just feeling

(01:17:53):
with the club in the hand, but a personal feeling.
In other words, you're getting you're hitting them almost at
an emotional level and saying, I like that club because
it feels good, it does what I needed to do,
and obviously it looks good too. But so is that
what you're when you're saying sixth sense that what you're
really talking about is it's it's developing an emotional attachment

(01:18:14):
to that equipment because they're happy with how it's performing
for this.

Speaker 7 (01:18:18):
Yes, So that it came came down to the satisfaction
because I believe that this fitting is one hundred percent
right on hundred percent collect and then it works well.
But I make it to this same uh sing weight,
the same specs with different manufacturers, but doesn't feel right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
Sometimes that happened right, right, But this is right because
I spoke with Marcy, or I spoke with this.

Speaker 7 (01:18:49):
Guy, and then that makes it do better golf golf club,
and then that is probably head quality or something to be.
It's a good as symbol or respect to be settied up.
But we can describe all the numbers, land off or whatever,

(01:19:10):
but one of the point we cannot explain it, which
is satisfaction. I like this stick, I like this club,
but I cannot explain it to But this.

Speaker 5 (01:19:20):
Is comes down to be browndo loyality.

Speaker 7 (01:19:23):
Sure yea in the future because I like people say it,
I like a Calloway because I cannot change from Callaway
because I don't know why I.

Speaker 5 (01:19:33):
Like it, but I like Calloway, right the disease.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, I've driven a Twitter, I've driven
you know, Mercedes or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
Yeah, And I get that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
And you know it's funny because I know people that
have gone into a pro shop and they'll look at
a club and just by the looks alone, they'll develop
an emotional attachment to it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
Say, I like the look in the feel of this club.
I don't know why. I just I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
You'll kick up the one next to it, which is
very similar. I don't like that one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
Yes, never hitting either never hitting either one.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
Of them, you know, like ads right, just these.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
It's just it's almost like, and I know this is
getting a little philosophical, but it's almost like in a relationship.
You know, you meet somebody right away, there's a certain chemistry, yes, yes,
and then beyond that you develop the relationship and so forth.
Your equipment is very much like that is there's a

(01:20:32):
certain there's a certainly a visual appeal right away. But
then what you're doing is you're taking it a step further.
You're saying, Okay, well, I'm going to help you to
get to know my clubs a little bit better. I'm
going to find out what it is that you're looking for,
what you need, and how I can best provide that
to you so that you go away from here. It's
not just hey, you've got a great looking set of clubs.

(01:20:54):
You've got a set of clubs that are custom made,
fine tune to you personally, to your needs, your your
abilities and whatnot, so that that way, it's not just
a visual attachment, but there's an actual feeling that develops
because they work the way I want them to work,
not what the manufacturer tells me that they should work.

Speaker 7 (01:21:15):
Is that that's right, That's that's that's That's why what
I say comes down to my fitting because if you
used to hit number seven one sixty seven, wasn't sixty five, But.

Speaker 5 (01:21:28):
My seven will be one fifty seven all.

Speaker 7 (01:21:31):
The time, right, losing eight years, but it's going to
be one fifty seven all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
To support it on sport, it on consistency. But I
didn't change my swing.

Speaker 7 (01:21:43):
But I don't know why it can go to But
I feel this is my club, this is my stick, right,
That's that is what I can provide, what I can
do it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Yeah, but that see, that's valuable though to even amateur
players because one of the biggest problems is inconsistency on
the golf course. They never know how they don't know
how far number one they're hitting their clubs anyways, and
they're hitting them different distances because again, whether it's because
of the equipment's not fitted properly, or it's their golf
swing or what have you. So having those numbers and
having that consistency in your equipment makes a big difference.

(01:22:17):
Is ultimately going to relow in in lower scores and again,
more consistent play and more fun is what we talked
about the very beginning of our discussion is and want
to make it fun for people, right, And this is
right exactly, and get out and yeah, you're going to
hit some bad shots. You know, it doesn't matter what
you're playing, but you're gonna have some bad shots. But
at least you're gonna have fun doing it. And I

(01:22:40):
like this.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
I like that. And you've got a great smile, and
and thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:44):
You gave me the smile. That's why we make you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Laugh a few times. So that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:22:49):
Well, listen, I'm going to give them the website. It's protoconcept.
Golf dot com is the website. I want all of
the listeners to go and check this out. Their equipment
is is fantastic. And Marci, uh, thank you very much
for being my special guests tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:04):
I have enjoyed it so time.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
I hope you come back and visit me again.

Speaker 3 (01:23:08):
And and uh, and we'll talk about that in more depth.
But thank you for sharing with Yeah, well you got
something else to share, that's right, but I appreciate it.
So let me just wind down the show. So I
want to thank all of my guests tonight special thanks
to my good friend John Hughes for joining me in
the Coach's Corner panel earlier tonight. And then also a

(01:23:29):
very special thanks to my futured guest tonight, Marcy Kimota
from protost Concept Golf. Thank you very much again, go
to the website protoconceptgolf dot com, and again thank you
for tuning in tonight into the broadcast and I will
see you next week right here on Golf Talk Live.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
God bless everybody and have a great weekend. Thanks for
joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
We hope you enjoyed this week's broadcast at Golf Talk Live.
We'd like to thank this week's coaches Corner panel and
a special thing thank you to tonight's guest. Remember to
join Ted every Thursday from six to eight pm Central
on Golf Talk Live, and be sure to follow Ted
on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you're interested in being

(01:24:13):
a guest on Golf Talklive, send Ted an email at
Ted dot Golf Talklive at gmail dot com. This has
been a production of the Igolf Sports Network.

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Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 25 | Oct 9th, 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 25 | Oct 9th, 2025