Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 26 | Oct 16th, 2025 - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
The following broadcast is brought to you by the I
Golf Sports Network.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Golf Talk Live is sponsored by the I Golf Sports
Network and Golf Tips Magazine.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Here's Andrew to tell you more about our sponsors. I
Golf Sports is a livestream broadcast and media production company
providing quality programming designed to attract the golfing enthusiast. And
Golf Tips, 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.

(00:42):
Welcome to 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 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, Welcome to Season thirteen of Golf Talk Live.
I'm your host, tedrood Rico. We've got a great show
for you tonight. A little bit shorter than normal. Our
special guest Unfortunately tonight that was going to be joining
me fell a little bit under the weather. So he's
not going to be able to join you, but we've
still got a great show. We're going to start things
off here in just a moment with Coach's Corner. I
got two of my favorite pros joining me tonight and

(01:26):
then right afterwards, so I'm going to be followed up
by our travel segment with my good friend, co host
and travel expert Robert Kaufman, alongside this evening's special travel guest,
Ross Birch, the general manager of golf and Sports club
from the Mono Lani Resorts in Hawaii. He's going to
be joining us a little bit later on the broadcast.
But let me remind everybody, of course, if you want
to see this week's or any of the other previously

(01:46):
yeared episodes, you can visit the I Golf Sports YouTube channel,
or you can simply go to Spotify dot com and
you can catch the video version of this podcast, or
if you want to just listen to the audio version,
you can do that too. You can go to spreaker
dot com or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't
forget to subscribe to the channels when you're there so
you get notified as new episodes drop.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Each and every week, and I always ask this question.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
You know, if you're looking to step up your game
a little bit, then become a Premium member at golf
tipsmag dot com. We have three membership levels available Silver,
Gold or Platinum, and by becoming a Premium member, you'll
gain access to special content provided by our golf Tips
Top twenty five instructors. You can also check out the
latest golf news, equipment and product reviews, plus top travel

(02:27):
destinations just in time to book your next buddy trip.
And as a Premium member, you'll also risk receive excuse me,
exclusive discounts from our premium golf partners and there are
many of them.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
So regular today at golf.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Tips magep golf tipsmag dot com and become part of
our premium community. All right, As I mentioned, got two
great guys join me up. First up, of course, as
Pete Buchanan. Pete's been teaching golf now for over thirty years.
He is the founder and director of instruction for Plain
Simple Golf and Playing Simple Golf Houses, the Plain Simple
Golf Circuit and the Simple Swing Repeat Your Training Brace,

(03:01):
and Pete's been helping golfers of all levels around the
Globe focus on building a repeatable swing and as I mentioned,
one of the favorites here on the panel. Also another
favorite is John Decker. He is the director of instruction
at the Medallion Club in Columbus, Ohio. He's also a
senior contributing editor and a top twenty five instructor with
Golf Tips magazine, and he was the twenty fifteen Southern

(03:22):
Ohio Teacher of the Year. And he's authored two books,
Golf Is My Life, Glorifying God through the Game and
Fairways to Heaven One Shot at a Time. And he's
available for public speaking upon request. So, guys, welcome to
Coach's Corner.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
Thank you, Thank you Ted.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Thanks Ted. Good to be here.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
All right, So we're going to do something a little
different tonight.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
I thought this would be kind of interesting and we'll
see if we can get through all of it, because
it's there's quite a bit, believe it or not. We're
going to talk about giving and taking a video golf lesson.
We're going to first start off from the coaches perspective,
and then we're going to talk about if again if
we have time, and if not, I'll have to do
the second half, which is the student's perspective, maybe next week,

(04:01):
so we'll see how much we can get through tonight.
And I'm going to start peete because I know that
you do a lot of video online lessons and as
I mentioned, you've got a lot of students from around
the world, and and I want to get your your
thoughts here and then I'll get John to jump in
as well. So first off, from the coaches, what do
coaches need to do to prepare? And one of the
things I want you to talk about is obviously you

(04:24):
want to record your student and talk a little bit
how you set up, So go through if you wouldn't
mind maybe start how you record. What are you specifically
recording of your student? And are there certain positions that
you're trying to focus on, and maybe give us an
explanation as to why.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah again, Ted's great to be here, good to be
with you, John.

Speaker 6 (04:45):
You know, for me, I use the Golf Live app,
so you know, basically we can set it up where
the two of us are on you know, a lot
like FaceTime, but this gives me the ability to actually
record the swing in the app itself. And so I'll
have that set up and ready to go. And so
basically I'm depending on what I see. It'll it'll depend

(05:06):
on which view of the swing I want to get,
whether it's down the line or face on, and then
from there, I'm actually able to pull that video and
if I need to, I can place it in some
three D software if I want to show them something
a little bit different as we're going along, but that's
usually how I do it. So it's it's more behind
the scenes for me. It's you put it into a

(05:26):
broadcast mode and you're able to basically show them and
they can see the screen and they can understand, you know,
as I'm going through the swing analysis, they can see
what's going on, draw the lines, whatever, whatever you.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Have to do.

Speaker 6 (05:41):
So it's basically just running through that and it works
out really well. I mean, it's it's, you know, the
next best thing to being there. I'm obviously being face
to face is you know, one of the best ways
to do it. But when you're not, you know, I'm
just making sure that I understand what their ballflight is,
you know, because I obviously in the cameras sense you
can't see it, so I'll ask them, you know, basically

(06:03):
what's going on background wise, you know, having come from,
you know, watching so many swings over the years in
the golf school environment. I have a pretty good idea
where the wall is going to go just by watching
what happens. I'm sure John does two or both of
you do. You know, you see a backswing and you're like, yeah,
I know where that's going, and so it's it's a
matter of you know, just what are the variants? Is
how far offline right or left is it going? But

(06:25):
that's basically how I go about it. And you know,
once I record the swing through the app, I'm going
to run through exactly what I'm looking for and to
show them, you know, what I see, and then basically
move through the movements. And then once we're done analyzing it,
they can go back to hitting, and we're still chatting
with each other, and I can watch what they're doing,
and then we can walk through exactly what we're trying

(06:48):
to work on while I'm still there, you know, having
a live version of being able to look at what's
going on. I think to me, that's that's the best
way to do it. I mean, you can also do
it where they send you a video, you do an analysis,
send it back. I think having in and a live
version is a little bit easier because then you've got
them right there and you can talk through the changes
that you're trying to make while they're still on with you.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, and that's a great point because you know, if
you're in a situation where maybe your students in another state,
maybe even in another country, that gives you, with a
lot of the technology available now, that gives you an
opportunity again to do it in a live format and
to be able to instruct them what you want to see,
so they can set up, as you said, face on
or down the line, and you can record that video

(07:31):
and then you can actually discuss it in real time.
But John, sometime and also you mentioned Pete too, they
can also send you the video, which was kind of
old school. I mean, you know, we got to do
that a little bit more, and it still happens, but
more people are either doing it in the format that
you're talking about, or John, I'm going to get you
to talk about, which is also i won't say old school,
but a little bit more of the traditional where the

(07:51):
student is actually right there at the facility and maybe
you've got a phone or a camera of some kind,
you're setting up. So what do you do in your case,
if you've got a students actually coming to Medallion for
a lesson and you want to record in video their swing,
what are you looking for, how are you setting up,
what angles are you looking for? And typically what are

(08:14):
some of the steps that you go through during that
video lesson.

Speaker 7 (08:18):
Well, Ted, thanks again for having us on the show,
and Pete as always look forward to being on with
you tonight. I use the v one app, and you know,
I when I was at Grand Cyprus, and when I
was at New Albany, we had cameras that were already
set up and we basically it was like an indoor
facility where you're hitting out and so the cameras were

(08:38):
already set up and you you didn't have to worry
about that. But using the app, I we don't have
a building at Medallion unfortunately, and so we are going
to be getting a simulator and that will make things
a lot different. So I'm using my phone and the
v one app. And the thing that I would tell
anyone out there that's taking lessons and doing video lessons
is the.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Camera angle is critical.

Speaker 7 (09:00):
If you don't have the proper camera angle, then the
information is going to come across differently to the instructor,
and it's going to make things appear maybe you're doing
something that you're actually not doing. And so from the
face on, which is me looking at someone face on
when they're hitting a shot, I want the camera to
be directly on the golf ball. This way I can

(09:21):
look at their ball position. I can look at their
their tilt of their spine. Are they maybe in front
of the ball too much? Are they behind the ball
too much? I had a student today their ball position
was way too far forward. From the face on view,
it's an easy way to show them, and I can
draw the lines and do all that as well. And
then from the back view, I always try to position

(09:42):
the camera so that it's halfway between the golf ball
and they're toes. So if I'm standing on the ball,
or if I'm standing where the student is, that would
make their swing path look different. So you've got to
make sure that you're right in between where the golf
ball is and where the tip of their toes are.

(10:02):
So camera angle is very critical. Now then after the lesson,
what I do is is I do a video recap
because I am working hands you know, on, you know,
face to face with someone. I'll do a video recap
and I'll send them It's about a four to five
minute little recap of the entire lesson. I can draw lines,
I can do all of that. I'm a big believer

(10:23):
that less video during the lesson is better because if
you give someone too much video during the lesson, they
get too analytical and they lose all sense and feel
of swinging the club. So I like to do I
like to look at video just like as an X ray.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
It's like, here's where.

Speaker 7 (10:40):
The problem is. This is what we're going to attack.
And then I like to work on drills. I'm real
big into drills or whatever it is that I.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Want to do.

Speaker 7 (10:47):
So I do some online instruction because I'm in Florida
four months out of the year. I'm in Ohio eight
months out the year, and many of my students will
they will text me or they will email me videos
and I can download those and I can do exactly
kind of what Pete's doing.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
But I'm not doing it. I don't do it live
with them.

Speaker 7 (11:06):
I'll just go through and I'll take their videos and say,
here's what you need to work on, and then I'll
email it back to them and I usually get it
back to them within twenty four hours. So that is
a great way because the majority of those people I
already know what they're doing. It's just a way for
me to kind of monitor what they're doing. So technology
makes it great now. It's so much easier than it was,
you know, twenty five thirty years ago.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
You know, it's interesting you mentioned about the angles and that,
and I just wanted it to And this is more so.
I mean the coaches, or at least most of the
coaches shouldn't be doing this, but a lot of students,
of course, that take their own videos and then submit
it to the coach. I always used to see them
early on, not so much that you're getting a little
bit more savvy now, but earlier on they would always
have it would be like on a forty five degree angle,

(11:46):
so you couldn't really see where the ball position was,
you know, and when they say face on, they're not
really doing it face on. They're doing again on angles,
so you're really not able to see the swing path.
You know, you're not allowed to get the information that
we need, so you get a lot of guesswork. I mean,
the folks now are again becoming a little bit more savvy.
So let's talk about great points guys altogether. The reason

(12:09):
why I wanted to talk about this tonight is because
so many people are relying now on exchanging technology or
exchanging information through technology. Whether it's the format, Pete, that
you were talking about, where it's a live engagement. You
might be, you know, as I said, in another state
and you're engaging with a student that you've developed online
and you're able to in that real time do that. John,

(12:30):
you're doing it real time as well for the most part.
But then you're doing a follow up as well. And
I know, Pete you do as well, but you're doing
a follow up, you know, within twenty four hours to
give them that information. And sometimes that's good too, because
it allows them a chance to decompress a little bit
and get away from the lesson and say, Okay, now
I can think about it, I can look at it
different perspective. Maybe they weren't really happy with the way

(12:51):
they were hitting the ball, so they'd calm down and
cool down a little bit. Now they can hear, you know,
a little bit more perspective. So I want to talk
about the analysis and feedback. Pete, I'm going to come
back to you because this is crucial. I know you're
using a specific software that's a little bit different from John,
but again, there's so many different features that are available,
things like slow motion, playback, drawing tools, as you guys

(13:13):
have both talked about.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
In that.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Again, how do we keep it so that it's as
simple as possible for the student? Again, more advanced students
maybe want a little bit more detail, But how do
we in an environment like this, how do we keep
it as simplistic as possible getting the information that we
need to get to them and convey to them, but
not overwhelm them with so many different you know, you
get I mean I've seen somewhere they'll have fifty lines

(13:38):
drawn on it, and I'm sitting there myself. I'm trying
to figure out what are they trying to convey to
the student. So how do you find that happy balance
when you're analyzing what you've just seen on video?

Speaker 6 (13:49):
Well, I think it's just putting on the screen exactly
what you need them to work on or what they
need to see. So if you're trying to get the
club in a different swing plane or direction, you might
want to use lines or where that's going if they're
standing up, moving, you know, any kind of different spine
angle changes. You can put the skeleton on and then
you can, you know, some of the software I have

(14:12):
with x FU, I can put the numbers on so
I can measure the spine angle and then if they're
you know, early extending, we can see that, and so
I would just highlight just that feature. But I think
more than anything else you want to put on there,
exactly what you're trying to convey is that's the piece
we're going to work on now, and only put that
piece on as far as you know, any kind of
drawing tools or any any type of a thing you're

(14:34):
trying to move, And I think that in a sense
will get them started for what's going on. Maybe in
a recap sense if you're sending them something later, you
can put a couple other things in there, But you
know me, I try to keep it as simple as possible.
So I'm only going to highlight the exact area that
I'm trying to work on when I do video analysis,
and then I will leave the tools relative to that

(14:57):
for me to use to get the point I'm trying
to get across.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, I mean information is important. I mean obviously you
want to convey you know, as much information within reason
to the student because you're trying to help them correct
potential problems or ongoing issues that they may have. But John,
I want to come to you now and great again,
great points, Pete, thank you. You know again, it's important
to show the students where they're making some mistakes, where

(15:22):
improvement is needed. That and again, everybody is different, every
coach is going to do things a little bit differently.
But do you find yourself when you're showing them the
videos doing comparisons with other videos? Do you like to
incorporate that? And saying in other words, not necessarily pro videos,
but even some coaches I've seen like to relate to

(15:43):
other sports. You know a lot of people say the
golf swing is similar to the baseball swing, just a
little different angle. Do you like to incorporate some of
that analogy in your analysis with your student? And if so,
why and if not why?

Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (15:58):
I do, And I'm always asking my students, you know,
like what sports they played growing up? You know, obviously
their handicapability, things like that, Especially when I'm first getting
to know them. I probably use the throwing throwing a
ball analogy more than any because the sequence of a
baseball pitcher throwing a baseball and hitting a golf ball

(16:21):
or really the same sequence. The difference is is you
have a club in your hand versus a ball. And
so a lot of times I will use that sequence.
I'll say, you know, a pitcher doesn't take the ball
and just move his hands to start his swing or
to start the throw.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
He uses his body.

Speaker 7 (16:39):
He lifts his leg up, he turns his body, and
then he you know, drives off the mound and then
he plants all his weight into his left foot and
then the last thing to come is the ball. Well,
the golf swing is the same way. You don't use
the hands to start your swing. You use the upper body.
The club's going one way, and then you change directions
and then the the last thing to come down is

(17:02):
the clubhead. And so learning that those sequences in throwing
a ball and learning the sequences and hitting a golf
ball are very very similar. If you watch any of
my videos on deckergolf dot com, I talk a lot
about that. I have a lot of drills in there,
and I try to make things athletic if that student
has an athletic background. Now if they don't have an

(17:22):
athletic background, then I'll go to a different route.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
So I might use different.

Speaker 7 (17:27):
Analogies for people who maybe are engineers or someone that's
an accountant, who's really you know, they really want to
get down into the weeds that they want to know
numbers and things like that. So I always try to
figure out a person's personality, what is going to make
the most impact for that person. And I'm sure Pete
would echo these thoughts, is no two students are the same.

(17:49):
So you have a student come in and they could
have the exact same problem, but you may go about
it totally different depending on how they learn, what their
background is, and who they are as people. And so
that's that to me is what makes teaching fun. If
everyone if it was like fixing a car battery and
it was just the same way to do it every time,

(18:10):
I would be bored out of my mind. But to
deal with personalities, to deal with learning styles, I think
that's what really great teachers have the ability to do it.
And one other thing that's important, and my mentor taught
me this many years ago. The most important thing in
teaching is knowing how much to give a student. Anyone can.
I can over give information to a student and that

(18:32):
was not going to help them. So I have to
know when to pull back the reins. And it's taken
me years. I'm still learning how to do that. I
still sometimes tell myself, shut your mouth, John, You've given
him enough. He can't take anymore. You've got ten more
minutes left in the lesson. Let's save that for a
future lesson.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
You know, it's funny.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
A lot of people have said that to me too,
and I haven't learned that lesson yet. I'm talking so
now well said. You know, I think it's important because
you hit a lot of great points there, both of
you have. But John, in your segment there, you know,
you talk about really giving too much information and it

(19:10):
is very I mean, this was one of the criticisms
that a lot of people had sort of pre pandemic
that sort of walked away from the game somewhat, was
that they were getting bombarded with so much information that
it was just overwhelming them. And it's you know, the
golf swing and the game itself is very very challenging,
can be very challenging, but it can also be very warning.

(19:31):
Once you have the right tools and you're able to
understand the basics and build from that. But if you're
if you're bombarded with all kinds of information, you know,
sort of continually or all at once, it can be daunting.
And this brings me to a question for you, Pete,
and this is something that I'm sure both of you
experienced in your teaching careers, and that is how do

(19:55):
we encourage the students to ask questions? You know, a
lot of times we're up there, we're giving a lesson,
we're doing things, we're filming, we're doing whatever it is
that we're doing, and we'll maybe turn to the student
and say, you know, have any questions. No, And you know,
darn well, they've got to have some questions, especially if
you're going through certain swing changes. There's always should be questions.

(20:16):
So how do you encourage them? You know, what is
it that you say or do you do something specific?
Do you do it along throughout the process, or do
you wait to the end in order Because I think
it's important. I think it's important for them to maybe
acknowledge some of the things that you've been doing. But
also maybe come back and say, well, I don't quite
understand that, or can you maybe re explain that in

(20:36):
a different way that I can, you know, better grasp it.
So how do you encourage them to be more engaging
throughout that video lesson?

Speaker 6 (20:43):
Well, I learned a long time ago. My dad used
to have what he called the question test, and any
new kid that came to the house had to sit
in the couch with him, and my dad would ask
him questions and he'd answer their answer with another question
until he found out enough about him. Then he'd shoot
them along their way. And so I learned that right
off the bat. So that's what I do throughout the lesson.
I'm continuing to asking them questions and so they have

(21:04):
to come back and answer that, and when they answer,
I ask them another question. If I keep asking them
questions all the way throughout until I one, I get
the information that I'm looking for, and too, I get
a feeling that they're starting to understand what I'm asking
them to do. And so you know, we all know that.
You know, sometimes you'll ask them a question, they turn
around like deer in the headlights, so you know they

(21:24):
didn't understand a thing you said, But I think another
thing too that that can help out really at the beginning.
I think at the start of the lesson, you know,
I like to ask them how their day was. You know,
how's your day, how you doing? What's going on? You know,
how's the family, how the kids? You know, how's your
brother sister? You know, I heard something that's going on.
And I think if you can settle them down right
away at the beginning and just start having a conversation,

(21:47):
then I think it's a lot easier as you're going
through the lesson to be able to communicate more with them.
But again, like I said, I use my dad's old
question tests, and I just keep asking them questions and
making sure that they're in age the whole time. And
you know, in the middle of it, I may ask
them a random question and totally that's not even about golf.
If I if I see they're drifting, I'll just ask

(22:08):
them something different and they're like, wait a minute, and
it just stops them for a minute and they're like,
oh yeah, and I'll answer that question. I said, Hey,
let's get back to golf, you know. So I sometimes
you can tell when they're drifting away, So you can.
You can sort of plant another question in there and
ask them about something that's going on. And I would say, too,
it's not that going back to your point before, you know,

(22:29):
I had a great comment from one of the tour
guys that I've coached for a long time, and he said,
you know, the one thing I really like about your
golf instruction is the longer you work together, the less
you say. And there's a lot to that, you know,
And I said, well, I pride myself on that. I
try to say as little as possible, but I try
to make sure everything I say has meaning to it.
And so, yeah, you know, you can't overwhelm them, but

(22:50):
I think also in asking questions, you can also do
the same very thing throughout the lesson to keep them engaged.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, I think there's a point you have to and
I use the term pride, but it's almost like you
have to pry them a little bit to get information
out of them. And because a lot of times again,
and I like the fact that, you know, you use
the analogy of you know, let's start by having just
sort of a regular conversation. We're not going to get
into golf for a minute or two because again that

(23:19):
relaxing because I know a lot of people, especially first
time students, they come out there, they think, okay, you're
a golf professional. They're just coming up learning the game.
They're very intimidated by that. And you know, and again
I don't care how good of a pro you are
as far as your own abilities, but again, there's just
a a I don't want to say a stigma, but
there's just a you know, a.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
I guess it would be stigma.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Where people are are overwhelmed by the fact that you're
somebody that's been you know, teaching for thirty plus years,
and now all of a sudden they're taking a lesson
from you, and they're thinking to themselves, well, you know,
I'm not going to measure up to this. So right
away they kind of have an apprehension and and they're
not as aging unless you sort of break It's almost

(24:02):
like an ice breaker, I guess.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Is the best way to put it is just let's
break the ice.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Let's you know, get to know each other a little
bit better and then go from there. And then you
sort of build in those early stages. So we're going
to flip the script a little bit. We managed to
get some more time here. So we're going to talk
about from the students perspective, John and what students can
do to prepare.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
So to prepare for a video.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Golf lesson, I think it's important to organize your goals
and maybe gather essential equipment you might need. So if
you're bringing something to it, and again obviously the problem
may have their own equipment, but if you're in a
case where Pete is doing it on a live format
a life app, you know they've got to have their equipment.

(24:43):
They've got to make sure that they're in a position
that you're going to be able to communicate. So I
think it's important before the lesson that the player defines
their goals and that the coach helps go through. As
Pete said through questioning that, So talk a little bit
about that. What should be some of the things that
in your conversation with your student do you want to
gather and what do you want to make sure that

(25:04):
they lay out accordingly that's going to give you a
clear idea of what their goals or what they're end
result that they're looking for.

Speaker 7 (25:15):
Well, the first thing is is I just ask them,
you know, what is the main reason that you're here
for the lesson. Is it to improve your short game
or to get longer off the tee, or more consistent
with your irons. I think the word consistent is the
word I hear every day every single student. I want
to be more consistent. And my response is, you know,

(25:36):
you are consistent. You're consistently doing the same thing over
and over again. It's just not producing the shot that
you're looking for. So that's something that you know, I
hear a lot of and that goes usually to ball
striking and hitting the ball in the center of the
club face. But I want the student to let me
know what they're expecting out of the lesson. I also
ask them right up front, you know, are you looking

(25:58):
for a series of lessons or is this just a
quick fix quote? And I get some people who come in,
you know, and the member guest is the next day,
and they want a thirty minute lesson. There's not much
I can do in thirty minutes before the member guest.
So I try to know, you know, what tournaments they
have coming up. If they're a competitive player, you know,
if they're telling me they have a tournament next week,

(26:20):
I'm going to dial it back a lot. I'm probably
going to try to encourage them to maybe go to
the short game or something that I can I can
actually make an impact on, because if I try to
make a swing change to someone who's got a tournament
in even two weeks or three weeks, that is really
putting a lot of pressure on them and it's probably
not going to work out well for them. So I think,

(26:40):
you know they're if they have long range plans like
I've had. I've had students come to me and say,
you know, I want to make I'm a seventh grader
and I want to make the high school golf team.
That gives me a great idea of how I can
lay out a plan for them to really get them
on the right path. So I think, understanding what the
student wants, I always tell them your time, you are

(27:01):
buying this time, So I want to make sure and
fulfill that. But it's my job as the teacher to say, okay,
we need to have some kind of parental guidance here,
because if you're expecting, you know, to make a big
change in a short amount of time and see good results,
that's not realistic. So that there's a delicate fine line

(27:23):
with that, I typically feel like that for me to
really make an impact on someone where they're going to
see really sustainable improvement, I need to be with them
for at least three or four lessons. If I only
give them for one lesson, I will I can diagnose
the problem. I might be able to give them a drill,

(27:44):
but they're still they're not going to change their behavioral
patterns until they've had three to four lessons and they
have put in some practice time between those lessons. So
I try to gather what they want and then I
lay out the expectations.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
If you will want to reach these goals, this is
what you're going to have to do to get there.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yeah, that's an excellent point as well. I mean, we
can give them all the information that they would need,
but if they're not going to, you know, put it
into practice, if they're not going to get out there
and work on those things, then it's really for not
And you know, one of the things I want to
talk to you about is during the lesson.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
You know, I think it's a good idea.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
And again there's a lot of ways with technology they
can use that now, but I think it's a good
indicate whether whether you're doing it in a live format
like you're doing it, where again you're not in the
same geographic area. I think it's a good idea that
they're maybe taking notes or maybe if you're in a
position again, depending on the software, it may have the
ability to you can send them some details of not
just the video recording, but maybe it also some A

(28:46):
lot of the apps now have where AI will kick
in with will give you actually some text notes or
bullet points things like that. So, you know, I think
it's a good idea to take notes during the lesson,
But what are some of the other things too that
maybe while you're doing the least and in addition to
filming and recording everything are you looking for you know,
from the student, whether they're again coming in person, whether

(29:09):
they're you know, in a live lesson like you're doing,
or whether they're maybe recording on their own and then
sending you the information. What is it you're going to
do to sort of wrap things up for them?

Speaker 6 (29:21):
Well, first and foremost, I want to make sure that
you know they they have an understanding of what practice
time they have to put in. I mean that's important
that they can't just you know, come lesson after lesson
after lesson and not work on anything. So I want
to make sure they understand that, you know, they need
to practice in between. And then I also want to
help them to understand what to practice and how to
practice based on what we're working on. And so whether

(29:45):
that's say, hey, here are the drills we're going to do.
You know, if you have your camera, you can video
them now or I can send you a video later.
The big bonus of the live ones is the entire
lesson is recorded behind the scenes and they have access
to it later, so that's a that's a cool and
they can go back and pull things out if they
need to. But I always make sure that you know
there's there's drills in there, they understand what those drills are.

(30:08):
And I'll say, now you're going to remember this or
do we need to write it down and say, yeah,
we better write it down, or do we need to
where's your phone? Let's let's video this so you have it,
or you can hold my phone and I'll send it
to you. And so I always make sure that that
during the lesson with key points that we're working on,
that they understand what they are and if there's a
little bit of confusion, especially then I'll either have them

(30:30):
take a few notes or we'll take a little video
of it so they can remember exactly what we were
talking about, and and again that gives them something to
look back to later on when they're going. But I
think it's it's really important. I like to try to
map out practice sessions for him, and so when I
do that, that means that, you know, it'll encourage them

(30:50):
to actually go practice. And I'll say, look, you're going
to have to do this drill this many times, and
you're going to have to hit you know, this segment
of shots this many times before I see you again.
And so however long that takes, that's fine. And when
you're done doing those, let me know and we'll set
something else up again. But I want to make sure
that you take the time to put some work in
before we see each other again. Otherwise we're just you know,

(31:14):
kicking the can down the road and we're not really
getting anywhere. So we want to make sure there's some
productive practice time and you know, make sure they understand
what it is and whatever process they do. Some are audio,
some are visuals, some are note takers. You know, you
have to figure out how they are and how they
perform the best, and then give them that type of
feedback in remembrance going down the road for them to

(31:36):
continue to improve.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah, well said and John, I think just to sort
of summarize us a little bit too, something that we
can do after and I'll make this plural, but after
maybe a series of lessons, you're going to have initial
video very early on the process where maybe they're doing
some funky things that need to be looked at and
you've made some changes. So I think it's important to
get that on film as well so that they can

(32:01):
see a comparison. And I think it's important for you
to reinforce those new habits, correct and and maybe review
and reflect on some of the past issues. So is
a good idea do you think for them to maybe
have that so they can look at where they were
and where the and then go through that with you
initially and then let them sort of review that on
their own as well at a later point.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (32:22):
I'm always encouraging my students, you know, I said, you know,
treat every video that I send you. I want you
to make sure and follow it away, you know. And
it's like you're you got in a locker. It's like
you can pull that thing out. And I think that's
that's very important to look at where you were or
to be able during a lesson to compare. I had
a student the other day who made some significant changes

(32:44):
in less than an hour, and I was able to
show them all, right, here's where you were at the
beginning of the lesson and here's where you are now,
and put them up side by side. I think that's
a great that's you know, a picture's worth a thousand words.
And so I can sit there and they can see
the ball fly better, they can feel like they're getting better,
and they can there is you know, they can see that,

(33:06):
but they can't see themselves. And when they see themselves,
I think that's when you really know that you've made
the impact that the student is now totally going to
listen to what you have to say, because, as you know,
in golf, there's many times I felt like I'm doing
something in my own golf swing and I video it
and I go, wow, I think I'm doing something, but

(33:26):
that I'm not. And so it's you know, what you
feel is not real. That's the old saying. And I
think every teacher kind of uses and that's something that
that I know, working on my own golf game, I
have experienced myself.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Yeah, I'm the same way. I mean, I'm a very
visual person, much more. I mean, you can explain things
to me, and obviously as I've gotten older, I'm able
to understand better. But when I was younger, you know,
I can remember in school a lot of times I
would have to visualize what the teacher was saying in
my mind before I would truly understand it. And again,
you know, there's different ways, different learning style. So I think,

(34:01):
you know, the the onset of of you know, video
swing analysis has really set the game apart, you know
from from earlier years and obviously, as you know, Pete,
you touched on the technology now where you're able to
do it in live format, you know, whether they're abroader,
whether they're you know, in your backyard, really puts a

(34:22):
whole different perspective on things and allows you to capture
things that you maybe couldn't do, you know, twenty thirty
years ago, and it really helps the student to be
able to see I mean, you know a lot of times,
you know, as a coach, you're You're trying to explain
something to them and you can tell they're just not
understanding it. But then you show them the video and say, Okay,
here's what I'm talking about, and they say, oh, yeah, okay,
I see how my in my back swing, I'm not

(34:44):
you know, I'm not rotating very much, or I'm just
flaying my arms in a certain direction and I'm not
transferring my weight or what have you. So you know,
there's a lot of information that they can gather, and
it's you know, I think it's it's important for us
to be able to do that. And you know, there's
a lot of things that obviously we didn't cover. I mean,
there's a million things. And what I'm going to do

(35:04):
for the audience is I'm going to post a lot
of this up on golf tipsmag dot com this weekend
because i want both from the coach perspective but also
from the students, I think, just an idea of some
of the things that both should be looking for. I mean,
most coaches, I think are pretty up to speed with that,
but there's still it's always a good idea as a refresher.
But I want I want to particularly the audience, especially

(35:26):
the students to be able to see how they can
better participate in a video lesson, because I think the
more prepared they come, you know, the coaches are always preparing,
but the more prepared student comes, the better the experience
is going to be. So I'm going to have that
some quick points and things like that up on Golf
tipsmag dot com this weekend, so you want to stick

(35:47):
around for that. I'm going to give each of you
an opportunity. First off, thank you guys for for always
bringing your best.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
Pete.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
I'm gonna start with you if you want to let
the folks know how they can reach out and if
there's anything specific that you want to plug.

Speaker 6 (35:58):
Yeah, hey, thanks again, John, it's a pleasure to be
on with you and Ted, thanks for all you do
for all of us and having us on the show.
But they can reach me at Pete ucanangolf dot com.
All my informations out there. Just stay tuned. There's there's
there's about a half a dozen things that are in
the pipeline right now that are going on that are
going to be coming down the road, and so different

(36:19):
YouTube channels and different websites for working with and uh,
some influencers and some celebrity players. So we're working on
quite a bit of stuff, So keep tuned. There's gonna
be some exciting things and I'll try to keep everybody
updated as much as I can.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah, I hope you keep me updated, so I can.
I'll hear updated for sure.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, keep me updated when you come on the show,
for sure. Yeah, John, Yeah, I appreciate it, Pete, John
go ahead.

Speaker 7 (36:44):
Well again, Ted, thank you for having us on the
show and giving us this platform. And Pete, as always,
I enjoyed being on with you tonight as well. For
the listeners out there, if you want to go to
my website, it's decorgolf dot com. It's a free website.
You don't have to sign up. I've got hundreds of
videos on that website. Information on my book as well.
I'm also on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
And Instagram. On YouTube, my YouTube channel is.

Speaker 7 (37:10):
John Decker Golf Instruction and I'm posting a lot of
shorts videos up there. I've been posting pretty much every day.
I've got videos that are coming up on there, so
I think those are that's the popular trend now, so
I'm trying to hit that and get those videos out
as well, and my book Golf Is My Life, Glorifying
God through the Game, and my second book, Fairways to

(37:31):
Having One Shot at a Time. I'm a Christian author,
so I ti scripture and golf stories and life stories
all into one. Those books are available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon,
Walmart dot com. You can go on any of those
websites in order, and there's also audiobooks with both of
those books as well. So but thanks again Ted for

(37:53):
having us on the show. It was a great time
and great I really enjoy tonight's conversation.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, always look forward to, you know, trying to have
something a little bit different on here that you know
you can as much as I know we enjoy talking
about golf instruction, I think there's other topics that we
can bring in here.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
Now.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
This is one I was thinking about for a little
while actually, guys, you know, I thought it would be
interesting to have this conversation because again, everybody, you know, Pete,
you're doing something a little bit different. John, you're doing
something a little bit different, but it's all, you know,
really trying to yield the same results. So I think
it's important that we get the information out there so
that the viewers and listeners to the program can say,
you know what, I didn't think about that, or yeah,

(38:30):
maybe I need to get more engaged with my coach
doing that. So these are things that hopefully will initiate
some some future conversations with their golf professional. But on
the note, we're going to take a quick commercial break
and when we come back, I'll be joined by this
evening's travel guest.

Speaker 8 (38:45):
Improve You're putting with the alignment ballmark a revolutionary new
in game putting alignment tool in Ballmarker. IF patented design
allows you to read your putt and adjust your alignment
at the same time by using your putter, which improves
your accuracy and makes the process of putting faster one
hundred percent legal according to the USGA by their definition,
permitted under the Rules of Golf. Winner of Best New
Product at the PGA Show and only nine ninety nine

(39:08):
on Amazon, and it's also completely customizable for any golf
event or as a promotional giveaway. Order at alignment bomark
dot com.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
Welcome back, everybody.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'm excited to have once again my good friend Robert Kaufman.
The co hosts and travel expert on tonight's travels segment.
Let me tell you a little bit about him, and
then we'll introduce tonight's special featured travel guest that's going
to be joining us in the conversation. Robert of course,
is an award winning photographer, golf and travel writer, and
golf media consultant. He's worked with a number of great

(40:24):
publications such as Tune, goolf and Travel Magazine, PGA Magazine,
and of course, Golf Tips Magazine, along with a host
of others and if you want to see more of
his great work, you can visit his website Pitcherparfect dot com.
Our special travel guest tonight is Ross Birch. He is
the general manager of Golf and Sports Club at the
man Launey Resorts in Hawaii, and his expertise will help

(40:48):
to execute their strategic goals while overseeing daily operations, enhancing
the experiences of guests, residents, and the community at large.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
And as a former board member, chairman.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
And most recently as Executive Director of Island of Hawaii
Visitors Bureau UH, he is at the forefront of Hawaii
tourism initiatives, developing programs and overcoming critical challenges over the
past decade or so.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
So on that note, Robert and Ross, welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (41:18):
Thank you, Thank you, Ted.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Great great to see you again.

Speaker 9 (41:20):
Ross's been a while, it has You're looking good.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, yeah, look as good as I feel.

Speaker 10 (41:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
Well that's so that's open for debate.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Any As Robert was was showing off air, he was
showing that he's sporting the Monlauney hat there, so if
you want to just tilt your head a little bit,
Robert will give them a quick shout out.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I'll just keep my head down, just keep your head.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Yeah, we don't want to look at you anyways.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
So all right, so here's here's here's what we're going
to do. Ross, I'm gonna hand off to my my
good friend and co host Robert, who's got some questions
for you. I'm going to just sort of sit here
and listen. I may jump in one in a while,
but if not, I'll come in at the end and
may have some some follow up questions and things like that.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
But Robert's very capable, and Robert go ahead, thank you
as always.

Speaker 10 (42:09):
All right, Well here we go, Russ, you ready, I
am all right, Well, I just want to get going
here with you know, the fact you've been on the island,
the island of Hawaii, I should say, you know, for
what roughly thirty five years now according to my calculations. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(42:30):
so you know pretty much working in the golf s
tem all that time, and then but including to that
is you know.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
The ten years stint with the visitors bureaus. So what
I want to start off with is, you know, I
know it's a long time to digest, but how have
you seen tourism in Hawaii during those years and especially
from pre to post pandemic change?

Speaker 9 (42:56):
Well, that's a big question.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
That is a big question.

Speaker 9 (42:59):
Yeah, loaded, Yeah, loaded.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, That's why I wanted an hour down more to
pre and post pandemic because it's obviously been a big
shift and tourism.

Speaker 11 (43:10):
All over and I was heavily involved during those that
time period at the bureau. You know, we the pre pandemic,
we were starting to hit record tourism numbers, you know,
going into seventeen eighteen and then nineteen we saw record
year after record year. We were surpassing ten million visitors

(43:31):
a year. As a state and island was we were
doing very well as an island as well, but of
course you realize too that the islands don't or each
island gets different shares of visitation, and our island was
finally getting the visitation we had been wanting and needing
for quite a few years, where some of the other

(43:52):
islands were getting a little bit more oversaturated, and it
became an issue at that point. And then looking at
how we were marketing the islands and almost trying to
look at the management side of tourism as much as
we were marketing in twenty nineteen, and then the pandemic

(44:13):
comes and changes the whole script on us anyway, and
we went from basically at thirty thousand people on a
daily basis on the island to zero. I know it
very well because I got called on March twenty fifth
and said we need you at the airport March twenty

(44:33):
six because all flights are going to stop, and those
flights that are coming in we need to monitor who
is arriving on island. And we took it was the
two week quarantine, the fourteen day quarantine kicked in. We
ended up being the agency that flipped from marketing and
having everybody come into now managing everybody who was on

(44:57):
island that was visiting. We had to know where you're at,
we had to check in on you, We had to
do all that stuff for that period of time, and
the pandemic basically had two flights a day that were
five to six people on them for at least those
two weeks.

Speaker 9 (45:15):
It just absolutely shut down.

Speaker 11 (45:18):
And then once you stop, it's kind of like turning
a major ship, or it's basically like once it shuts down,
you have to then restart every you know, piece of
it before things start to.

Speaker 9 (45:34):
Click, and then you get a little bit going and
then a few more things come in. And it was a.

Speaker 11 (45:40):
Kind of a long haul for us to get any
type of that recovery to come back on the backside.
But then when it came, it was pent up demand.
So we've seen these kind of peaks and valleys and
spikes over the last few years where when it was
a full green light and we got everybody to start
coming back, it was now a year and a half

(46:02):
to two years of no visitation all coming at the
same time, right.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
So what was it that really created the the mass
flow after the pandemic? Mean, you know, was it more
marketing that you were doing, or people just wanted to
get back to the islands.

Speaker 11 (46:21):
Actually, the simple version of why we were so compacted
was all of the group business that were on the
books during the pandemic time period still had their deposits,
They still had their cash at the hotel, so they
had to come.

Speaker 9 (46:39):
They were like, okay, we are coming.

Speaker 11 (46:42):
And then all of a sudden, you got this everybody
was you know, cabin fever, and it's like they're ready
to go.

Speaker 9 (46:47):
So we had groups on top.

Speaker 11 (46:49):
Of ft, on top of you know, all of different
visitations saying I want to go now, and I want
to I.

Speaker 9 (46:55):
Don't care what the cost, I just want to go
now and be out there.

Speaker 11 (46:58):
So it was really that compact that yeah, forced it
in and everybody's like, oh, this is great, We'll just
continue what we did before. And I think now we're
finally getting to a point where it's really it's getting
back to what a normalcy would be as far as
visitation cycle is and the numbers we've had in the past.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Yeah, so you know, on top of the pandemic, you know,
what was it last year, I believe we know the
year before with the fires and Maui, you know, and
now the closure of Kapalua I mean, is that having
any extra impact on visitation to your island?

Speaker 9 (47:37):
The fire is not necessarily right away.

Speaker 11 (47:41):
The amount of time it's taking for Lehina to recover
and this process is now.

Speaker 9 (47:48):
Actually we're seeing more conversion of previous.

Speaker 11 (47:52):
Maui visitors coming to our island just because it's you know,
they still see the devastation, they still see that people
haven't gotten back to their house as yet. They're like, Okay,
well I'm going to go visit a different island this
time around. So we're picking up some of that Kappolo
being closed. Actually, I think we're going to benefit greatly
from something like that, And it sounds terrible and it's

(48:15):
not something we look forward or budget or anything like that,
but having the Marquee golf course like that shut down,
attracting the type of golfer it does, we kind of
fit into that situation to be able to take that
customer in lieu of them going to Maui on that side.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
So yeah, yeah, that's pretty huge shit, no doubt. So anyway,
let's switch gears to golf. So how would you rate You're,
like I said, you've been on the island for you know,
over three decades now. And so how would you rate
the golf courses on your island in terms of diversity,

(48:56):
because I mean all all the islands have their own
package of diverse golf courses, right, I would say the
island of Hawaii has has the most.

Speaker 11 (49:08):
We have, whether you've got the resort courses, it's really
it's based off of our climate, and our islands have, yeah,
almost every climate there is in the world on one location.
And if you don't like the weather where you're at,
just wait twenty minutes or drive twenty miles and you're
going to be in a totally different climate zone.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
So I just go up in the mountain, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 11 (49:29):
And you're going to drop temperature almost ten to fifteen
degrees easily and maybe even up to twenty degrees by
doing that, and then the scenery.

Speaker 9 (49:36):
Changes depending on the amount of moisture that's there.

Speaker 11 (49:39):
So where we are here on the coast, you've got
the you know, the real desert area with the lava flows,
or you can go up the mountain and get into
the lush greenery, or you can go to the east
side and play like the municipal golf courses or the
Volcano golf course and definitely be in the greenery on
that side.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah. So obviously everyone knows about the seaside courses like Manoalani.
What's the highest elevated course on the island, I will
to be pretty surprised.

Speaker 11 (50:08):
Well, it'd be Volcano Golf Course right next to the
entrance of the Volcano National Park, which is about forty
five hundred forty six hundred foot elevation.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (50:19):
And the course is flat, but it's at that high elevation.

Speaker 11 (50:23):
And then we've got a golf course on the west
side of the island, Maclay, which I had worked at
for a few years.

Speaker 9 (50:30):
That golf course actually.

Speaker 11 (50:31):
Have has a three thousand foot elevation change between one.

Speaker 9 (50:36):
Hole and the ninth hole.

Speaker 11 (50:39):
Okay, yeah, it goes from about twelve hundred feet to
almost thirty five hundred feet in elevation between first and
ninth doll.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah. So down along the Coholic coast where you you
know Manolani is situated. You know, you've got some other
high end resorts as well. How do you how does
Monolane differentiate from those resorts.

Speaker 11 (51:05):
As we kind of were fitting into like the basically
the white space right now.

Speaker 9 (51:12):
We've been kind of very fortunate that way.

Speaker 11 (51:15):
Gelowa resort on the south side of US, they're down
to twenty seven holes right now. They've been working through
some issues with irrigation and some other stuff like that.
You know, quality of play isn't quite what it had
been previously. Monicaa resort to the north of US, that
Monacaia golf course shut down a year and a half ago,
and now Halpuna is shut down as well for renovation.

(51:37):
So they're upgrading their product. But we kind of fit
that space right now where if you're looking for a
resort golf and we have the accessibility, you could play
Monolani and we're going to be about the best product
there is right now.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
No, so you guys are in a full steam ahead. Yep,
everything everything open. Yeah. Yeah. So you've got two courses
well plus the wiki wiki nine hole for juniors and families.
As far as the two eighteen hole courses, how do
they differ.

Speaker 11 (52:10):
It's amazing. We just had a group out here. We
spoke about this in our emails back and forth. We
had a few media that were visiting us, and when
I told them, I said, they're two absolutely different golf
courses within the same resort.

Speaker 9 (52:26):
They gave me the strange.

Speaker 11 (52:27):
Look like, how can you have two ocean front different courses,
But they are totally When they got done with them,
they were like, absolutely correct. You wouldn't even know that
one was on the same resort as the other because
we have a two separate lava flows that creates our resort,
and they're about almost two thousand years apart. Where one

(52:50):
of the golf courses is cut into a old kiave forest,
so you're tree lined everywhere, trees in the middle of
the fairway. It's really lush and it kind of has
a little elevation change. And then you go to our
South course, which is kind of our marquee ocean front course.
It has nothing but coconut trees and lava surrounding it.

(53:11):
So you've got completely different experiences.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Do you have a favorite?

Speaker 9 (53:19):
You know, it's I was mentioning this as well.

Speaker 11 (53:23):
It's I will play North seven seven out of ten times,
so it's I lean in that direction. It's more of
a player's course. There's a little bit more club changes.
South is beautiful, amazing, and you've got the scenery. It's
you want to get that ocean front golf. It's absolutely

(53:46):
what everybody's looking for, but it becomes it's it's very
generous off the tee and it's it's very close to
a driver wedge type of you know, all the part
fours are very similar.

Speaker 9 (53:58):
Yardages they play in to it very similar.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
So give more of a more of a resorts style
of course that people would expect out there. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah,
So kind of on a side note, uh, you know,
with the with the courses being carved out entirely on
top of volcanic rock, what uh what do you think
the injury rate is like with golfers wandering off course

(54:22):
to retrieve a ball.

Speaker 9 (54:24):
I highly do not suggest that you go it.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Yeah, but I'm not your average golfer that would do that.
You know, I've got plenty of balls in my bag.
But you know how golfers are. They they'll they'll give
up dying trying to find a golf ball.

Speaker 9 (54:38):
I've known a few, and I've done it myself.

Speaker 11 (54:41):
I've ruined a very good pair of leather golf shoes
trying to track my golf ball down.

Speaker 9 (54:46):
And yes, if that will ruin the leather, imagine what
it does to your skin.

Speaker 11 (54:50):
If you don't quite keep your balance, it's you'll find
yourself in the er pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Exactly. You have one on site, Yeah, we have.

Speaker 11 (55:02):
We have a Yes, we have a fire station that
is located actually within the Manolani property.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
Just for such occasions, Just for those occasions.

Speaker 11 (55:11):
Yes, And we keep a well stock supply of bandages
in the golf shop as well.

Speaker 9 (55:18):
So we're all trained in first states.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Probably should on every tea box.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
If you're worried about your golf balls, it's probably not
a good idea to bring your pro v ones to Monolani.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Well, if you're a straight hitter, we.

Speaker 11 (55:33):
Have we have generous spaces out there, but they do
tend to wander occasionally. Yeah, yeah, and fortunately it's the
most of them will actually return, hopefully when you hit
it out there and it gets that favorable bounce and
it'll come right back into the farreawey.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Right, all right, So let's talk about the You know,
overall the property has changed since OBErs took it over
in twenty eighteen, Is that correct?

Speaker 11 (55:57):
Yeah, At the end of twenty seventeen eighteen, the new
ownership came in put a two hundred and fifty million
dollar investment into the hotel.

Speaker 9 (56:07):
They were shut down for about.

Speaker 11 (56:08):
A year and it was it was another interesting time
for the hotel. It closes in twenty eighteen, gearing up
for a end of twenty nineteen twenty twenty opening and
everything was on pace, everything was going You put two
hundred and fifty million in.

Speaker 9 (56:27):
They opened at the end of nineteen.

Speaker 11 (56:30):
They opened in December of nineteen and then shut down
two months later and then finally reopened officially in the
June July time period, slowly bringing some people back. But
it was Yeah, it absolutely just pushed back the whole
timeline of what the expansion and the return was.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Yeah, it was a perfect storm. Huh, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
So what was done with that investment. I mean, obviously
they upgraded all the rooms, the lodging around the property
because you've got some options for accommodations, right.

Speaker 11 (57:10):
No, definitely they the rooms have been totally renovated. Inside it,
I mean through the whole process, everything was touched. I
don't think there was anything that wasn't untouched. The restaurants
were renovated, even the public areas, and the lobby was
totally reconstructed, and you know, check in, even move from
one side of.

Speaker 9 (57:30):
The hotel to the opposite side of the hotel.

Speaker 11 (57:32):
Now you've got this wonderful, beautiful view overlooking the ocean
as you're standing at the front desk. They completely opened
up that, you know, a trium, put a lot of
wood rather than previously when you were here was the
blue tile and the style of the eighties when it

(57:53):
was first constructed.

Speaker 9 (57:54):
And now it's really it's got a lot of soft corners.

Speaker 11 (57:57):
Now and it's got a lot of the wood touch
just to it to make it really a comfortable and
inviting environment.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Yeah, how many rooms do you have there?

Speaker 9 (58:07):
We have three hundred and thirty three?

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Wow, easy to question.

Speaker 9 (58:14):
For what I'm sorry, easy to remember? Three three three yeah,
and then we do have five residents.

Speaker 11 (58:21):
Is that are two bedroom individual units that have their
own swimming pools, their own hot tubs basically separated off
on the side of the resort and those could be
rented out individually as well.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Okay, Now, in addition to the courses, you've got a
pretty good variety of top quality amenities, you know, with
the pool and soda and and you run the sports
club too, correct you oversee that, Yes, that operation.

Speaker 11 (58:51):
Yeah, so the hotel has its own spot, it has
its own fitness facility that has everything included in that.

Speaker 9 (58:58):
You know, it's kind of goes down the line up.

Speaker 11 (58:59):
To be a five star resort, you have to have
everything on property. Previously he was located off property. So
we've got five tennis courts, we've got four pick a
ball courts, we've got a three lane Olympic swimming pool,
we've got a full fitness center and as the spa

(59:19):
as well attached to that facility.

Speaker 9 (59:22):
So we definitely have amenities.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, and what about off property? What does the resort offer?
I imagine they take guests to activities you know, up up
in the hills or up the coast.

Speaker 11 (59:36):
Absolutely, we work with all the different activity companies that
will do the hikes, they'll do the helicopter tours, and
you know, we work with a couple of helltopic companies
very closely, and we give them permission to land on
property for a little bit more elevated guests experience, and
we'll they'll do customize his tours as well, where it's
not going to be irregular. You know, everybody gets on

(59:58):
the same one and the same I like Disneyland, they'll
they'll change it up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
And yeah, yeah, So what would what would a typical
golf package look like? I mean, whether it's for a
couple coming over or maybe a group of guys that
want to get over to the to the resort, what
would they be looking at like three, four days, five days?

Speaker 11 (01:00:20):
I would say at least at least three days for
sure for the golf and five days is probably the
perfect number.

Speaker 9 (01:00:28):
That way, you're going to get a couple of days
separation in there, you get the two rounds on the
golf courses, you get an activity day, and you get
your downtime.

Speaker 11 (01:00:36):
Yeah, that would be the optimal and it's pretty much
on our average length the stays is right around those
five days. Of course we get the longer ones, but yeah,
that's usually the best way to get everything you want
to get done and not over.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Are you offering packages? You know?

Speaker 9 (01:00:55):
We do?

Speaker 11 (01:00:56):
Actually, we we work with our and being under the
same ownership Mannment. It's the hotel. We really do aggressively
market golf packages and and truly it's it's very few
dollars more than what you would be paying for the
room itself. So we we want that golfer to stay
in the hotel. It's you know, we've talked about this
in the past too, that the golf traveler is the

(01:01:18):
best traveler.

Speaker 9 (01:01:20):
And I'm being a little biased as well as that.
Well that's true.

Speaker 11 (01:01:24):
Yeah, yeah, you spend more money, you spend more time,
you eat at the better restaurant. I mean, you just
it's the golf traveler is the one that every resort
is kind of looking for as the ideal person that
they wanted a hotel.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Right, So you probably recall I don't know if a
lot of people would, but long time ago, what twenty
five years maybe twenty years Manolani hosted the PGA Tours
Skins Game.

Speaker 11 (01:01:54):
It hosted it for ten years from yeah, from from
ninety to two thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
Yeah, I need to two thousand. Okay, So are there
any is there any talk or plans to bring another
tour event back?

Speaker 9 (01:02:06):
Not at this point.

Speaker 11 (01:02:07):
I think the tour has got its hands full with
with what it needs to get done on this side.
Kappolu is now another hot topic on the tour side.
To figure out what they're going to do there with Mitsubishi.
If so, we already have a a champions event on
island at four seasons, so that's and that's a small field,

(01:02:30):
limited field event. With that, you know, as long as
it's going to keep going at that facility, we really
I don't think we're going to see much more activity
from a tour event or either way on the island.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah, would serve any benefit.

Speaker 9 (01:02:50):
It always does.

Speaker 11 (01:02:51):
It depends on the time of the year we can
get it in there, but typically it's going to be
first quarter, you know, that's away is kind of our
golf season is January February, and that's why we want
all the eyes on it. So I think I'm made
for television event. Maybe like just a foursome that plays
nine o's one day, nine o's the next day. I

(01:03:11):
think that'd be a wonderful opportunity for us, and it's
you know, low impact.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Yeah, just to get the on air exposure.

Speaker 11 (01:03:21):
And it'd be very similar to that Skinscape type of
format where yeah, you're just dealing with four players rather
than an entire field or a limited field.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Yeah. Okay, all right, so kind of kind of wrap
this up at least I'm I and Ted might have
some thoughts, what what do you want or what would
you like to see guests walk away from Modelani from
what I mean, what kind of experience would you like
to see them have?

Speaker 11 (01:03:47):
It's amazing from from a golf experience. We I talked
about this with the staff and I've heard them actually
mention this is we have golfers that come play are
both of our golf courses, so the the South course,
they they normally shoot some of the better scores they've
they shot in their lifetime, if not within the recent years,

(01:04:08):
and they they're basically giddy. Giddy is the word we use.
That they're just gotta just a crack smile on their face.
They're just glowing coming off the golf course and they're
they're loving it, and that continues into the rest of
the stay. And it also the hotel kind of gives
them that same feeling as well. It's just they're almost

(01:04:28):
giggly that it's that great of an experience and they've
had so much fun in the process of doing it.

Speaker 9 (01:04:36):
So the more I can see that, the better it's
gonna be.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Yeah, I'll usually crack that giddy smile when as soon
as I walk off the plane.

Speaker 9 (01:04:47):
You get started early.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
That's good, well, good Ted jumped in here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
I was gonna I was gonna add something, but I
don't think I should. I'll leave that one alone, Robert
so Ross, let me just ask a.

Speaker 4 (01:05:04):
Couple of.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
We'll do we'll do head off air.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
Yeah, I'm not gonna. I'm not even gonna go there.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
So Ross, let me ask you just a couple of
things here, just to follow up. You know, you were
you were talking about, you know, uh, professional events and
things like that. You know, a Skins game obviously would
be an ideal thing. But have there been ever been
any discussions in the last you know, decade or so
with the LPJ or any of the women's tours and

(01:05:31):
things like that or is that not something? I mean,
I know that I believe they're already over uh you know,
playing in in Hawaii early in the season and that,
But has there ever been any talk about with them
or even something similar? I think Wendy's had the wasn't
it the three Tour championship where they actually had uh,
the men, the women and the champions and that has
there ever been any thought about maybe something like that?

(01:05:53):
Again keeping it low key, but at the same time
with celebrity, well, the ladies.

Speaker 9 (01:05:57):
Were actually just here a couple of week ago at
the Lota on.

Speaker 11 (01:06:01):
Oahu, and the LPG has always talked about adding another
event in Hawaii to keep them here for a little
while longer. That's always been on the table. The tough
part is it's almost kind of a reverse structure when
it comes to the venue. It's basically you have to
have a sponsor. Is almost your very first thing. It's

(01:06:24):
going to put the money up. Then you look at, okay,
which tour we're going to do, and then you start
looking at the venue.

Speaker 9 (01:06:31):
You know, we.

Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Really doesn't come to us until they've actually got something
in hand and saying, hey, we're ready to go, can
you pull it off?

Speaker 9 (01:06:40):
Can we do it? Can we negotiate the contract? And
from that standpoint, so.

Speaker 11 (01:06:44):
We saying that we would do something, Yeah, sure, if
it came this direction and they had everything fall into
place and it was all good to go, then we
consider it for sure.

Speaker 9 (01:06:55):
Yeah, I think it would be a great venue.

Speaker 4 (01:06:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
You know, obviously you're you're exactly right now, analogy, because
you've got to really secure all the financing and that
in place, because it's different than you know, than some
of your your mainland tournaments.

Speaker 4 (01:07:07):
Because it is a bigger ordeal to getting.

Speaker 9 (01:07:10):
We've become the last step rather than the first step.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
Yeah, and that brings me to this question. I wanted
to ask you just to help people understand the experience
of playing, you know, on the island as opposed to
you know, other areas of the United States, like, for instance,
obviously Florida. We have it different than you know, would
say out in Scottsdale, Arizona and that. So what if
you could give us kind of just an overall experience,

(01:07:34):
I mean, not from a visual we obviously understand the
visual impacts that that you know, Hawaii offers, but as
far as playability, what can people expect different? You know,
I imagine you're getting a lot of the trade wins
coming in and at various times throughout the season, which
obviously is going to be affecting the game a little bit.
And that is is it? What's the experience like overall

(01:07:55):
playing there as opposed to maybe some of your other
locales in the United States.

Speaker 11 (01:08:01):
It's in our weather here, it's we're going to fluctuate
fifteen degrees throughout the entire year. We're def for we're
going to be in highs of probably the low eighties
up to about ninety five during the hottest times of
the year. So that's you're going to get very similar
weather except for the winds, depending on what type of

(01:08:22):
outside activity we have going on. If we've got a
high pressure system, or if we're in a hurricane season
and we've got some hurricanes that are passing by the island,
they actually shut the winds off more than produce them.
But being in the open area on the west, on
the coast here, we do get some of that trade
winds that pick up pretty good. You've got to learn
how to hit a little bit lower shot being at

(01:08:45):
sea level as well. It's people don't they're not getting
the ball flight that they would think they could get normally.
And from a resort standpoint, our greens and faraways are
pretty lush, you know, we're the We play in very
good conditions most of the time, so you don't get

(01:09:05):
a whole lot of role. Everything you get is gonna
have to be almost all carry and that's what we
got to do to keep it green out here, is
to make sure we've got that the softness out there,
and a lot of other places you're going to find
that it's a lot more firmer. It plays a lot different.
You're gonna get a little different shapier shots. But and

(01:09:26):
it's amazing. The littlest wind here actually feels like a
like a gale force wind in other places.

Speaker 9 (01:09:34):
It just pushes the ball that much.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
Yeah, I'll handle that that gale force win anytime. Just
for the scenery alone. Do you have a golf academy there?
Do you guys offer instruction and and for those resort
guests and that that are visiting Manlaune, is there facility
there that they can take advantage and work with one
of your your pros.

Speaker 9 (01:09:57):
We do, and it's interesting you do you this week?

Speaker 11 (01:10:00):
Actually I'm getting a green light moving forward on a project.
But we do have full time instruction. We offer clinics
and all different levels of instruction, multi day programs, things
like that. But our newest project is actually going to
be a twenty four stall covered hitting bay facility, all technology.

(01:10:24):
We're going to have top tracer in it, will have
food and beverage. It's basically going to be kind of
that top top golf similar experience right within the driving range.
We're also going to have grass stalls available for that,
and I can mention it it's gonna come online about
mid next year.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
Okay, but.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Is that going to be a resort, guest only course
or a facility.

Speaker 9 (01:10:50):
Or open to the top?

Speaker 11 (01:10:54):
Very good, Well even I can see that expanding our
hours even and doing some of the time events or
continued to keep it open for you know, the after
work hours and things like that.

Speaker 9 (01:11:07):
So, yeah, if you were to share some of the
diagrams with you at.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Some point, yeah, never mind the diagrams, we want an invite.

Speaker 9 (01:11:17):
You'll be here for the grand opening.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Yes, what I was going to ask you, and you know,
if you want to put this in a percentage or
or what have you. But you know, obviously being uh
you know on the island like that, very picturesque scenery
and that, what would you say as far as your
client tell uh, you mentioned obviously your you're traveling golfer?

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
Is that? Do you? Are you seeing more.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Couples coming because a lot more couples are playing golf
as opposed to just you know, the buddy force thems
that are traveling around. Are you starting to see an
increase in more couples golf? Uh, maybe even even family
golf where juniors are coming along for the ride type
of thing as well, And would you still say that
the predominant is is still your your buddy forsomes and

(01:12:02):
then maybe the couples are coming in second, what would
sort of be the breakdown.

Speaker 11 (01:12:05):
We're absolutely a couple's destination. We have this conversation as
well of a long time ago where it's, yeah, it's
it's a it's a buddies plus one trip where you're
going to come with the buddies and then all every
one of the buddies are going to have their plus.

Speaker 9 (01:12:19):
Ones that may not be playing, but they're there.

Speaker 11 (01:12:23):
And then what we get we're definitely seeing a lot
more couples golf. The participation on that side is just
increased dramatically. And the more ladies we get into golf,
it's just it's phenomenal. We're seeing them playing and a
lot of our memberships, our family memberships, actually the misses
of the family is out here more often than the

(01:12:47):
husband is most of the time.

Speaker 9 (01:12:49):
So they're getting their rounds in. We love it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Yeah, And I figured that because you know, if you
look at the trends in golf over the last decade
or so, you've seen a big increase of more women,
especially younger women, now getting into the game. They're being
drawn to it for whatever reason. And you know, as
Robert talked about with the changes you know, post pandemic,
you know, during the pandemic, a lot of people were
getting a little stir crazy, didn't know what to do,

(01:13:15):
and golf was one of the few activities that we
could all, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
Be engaged with.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
And there were a lot of folks who maybe had
walked away from the game for you know, they were
getting a little in you know, long in the tooth
as it were, when it come to age and and
but when the pandemic hit, suddenly they started coming back
into the game. And then he had a lot of
new people coming to the game as well. And that
was why I asked you about the academy, because this
gives an opportunity for you know, especially the ladies.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
Coming in that want to become better.

Speaker 11 (01:13:43):
It's kind of been the trend with with golf in general,
and we're kind of just now falling into that same
trend where our two eighteen hole championship golf courses, we
get to play, we get we've got the individuals that
are here, know what it is they come out and play,
but it's it's now being attractive to the new golfer

(01:14:05):
to the first time or to engage new individuals in
the game of golf. That's why we're leaning towards the
facility where we're gonna build on the range. That's why
we utilize the wikiwiki. We might enhance that as well.
Once we finished the first project, we'll work into that
and those those projects are fully created to bring people

(01:14:27):
to the game that haven't been there. We want to
just keep adding more players to it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Yeah, I think I think you guys have have got
to as I say, a.

Speaker 4 (01:14:36):
Home run there.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
So if people want to learn and get more information
as their website that we can direct them to.

Speaker 11 (01:14:42):
Yep, it's it's monolanigolf dot com, very very simple.

Speaker 12 (01:14:46):
And then also Albert's Resorts for the hotel side, it's
definitely interesting working on the hotel site a little closer
than I have in the golf business.

Speaker 9 (01:15:00):
For so.

Speaker 11 (01:15:02):
Priority shift a little bit and we focus on that
overall encompassing visitation.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
Well, it gives you a little bit of a bit
of variety in your in your work, so that makes
it a little bit more interesting as well so well.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
Ross, I want to thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
And Robert, thank you very much for for being my
great co host on the show. As we wrap up,
I want to special thanks to the guys in the
coaches Corner panel, John Decker and Pete McKinnon. Thanks guys
for doing a wonderful job. And again thank you to
Robert Kaufman, my travel expert and co host here on
the travel segment of Golf Talk Live, and our special

(01:15:39):
featured travel guest, Ross Birch GM of Golf and Sports
Club at Mont launi Are Resorts in Hawaii. So thank
you guys, and thank you all for tuning into the broadcast.
I will see you next week right here on Golf
Talk Live. God bless everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy this week's
broadcast of Golf Talklive. We'd like to thank this week's
Coach's Corner Panel and a special thank you to tonight's guest.
Remember to join Ted every Thursday from six to eight
pm Central on Golf Talk Live and be sure to
follow Ted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you're interested

(01:16:18):
in being a guest on Golf Talklive, send Ted an
email at Ted dot golf Talklive at gmail dot com.
This has been a production of the Igolf Sports Network

All Episodes

Golf Talk Live - Season 13 Episode 26 | Oct 16th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.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 26 | Oct 16th, 2025