golf SMARTER

631: Phil Mickleson’s coach, Dave Pelz, may be the most recognized short game instructor in golf today. Part of his mastery comes from being a physicist who loves golf, the other is that he possesses one of the most spectacular practice areas in his backyard that you’ll ever see.  In Part 1 of our conversation with Dave, we discuss how having a backyard practice area has improved both his game and his family life. When he was on Golf Smarter last April (episode 586), Dave introduced Host Fred Greene to an outdoor practice product called SynLawn. As we record this episode Fred’s new 5 hole putting green/chipping area installed by SynLawn Bay Area is being completed. Up next week, Dave returns to provide us with drills, games, and advice on how to best utilize your home practice to impact your scores on the course.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy, Dustin from Ohio has done a lot to improve his swing, but can't seem to stop his head from moving back and forward during his swing. Also, his backswing is just too long. Can our Academy Professor, Tony Manzoni help? What do you think? Let us help you! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy

630: Jeff Ritter, a regular contributor to the Golf Channel and Golf Digest is also a Golf Smarter favorite, as this is his 13th appearance on our podcast. Jeff is known for his unique approach to teaching the game. His passion for inspiration, body health and mental flexibility has set him apart as a purveyor of not only playing well but living well. Jeff announced his Make The Turn (MTT) initiative on Golf Smarter on episode 356 (11/6/12) that was the most popular series with more than 20 million viewers on Golf Digest TV. Now he’s here to report the release of the comprehensive MTT app that provides golf and health improvement tips, tricks and advice.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy, Steven from San Antonio, TX needs some putting warmup drills and Tony has an answer that could help all of us. In his answer he talked about advice from five time Major winner, Dave Stockton. Dave was a featured guest on Golf Smarter #430 on 4/1/14 and I highly recommend that you check it out. If you’ve already heard it, listen again!  Let us help you! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy

629: Jay Delsing was part of the legendary UCLA golf team in the early eighties that included Corey Pavin (1982 Player of the Year), Steve Pate (1983 Player of the Year), Duffy Waldorf, Tom Pernice, John Perles, and Roger Gunn. He then spent the next 20 years as a Touring Pro. Some of his fabulous advice and insights inspired today’s show title. Now, still associated with golf, he’s a sideline reporter for PGA Tour Live and a businessman focused on golf entertainment and hospitality. His father, Jim Delsing, played baseball for the St Louis Browns and is the answer to one of the all-time great random trivia questions. Jay is a fabulous story teller so we cover a lot of topics including St Louis sports, his touring years, and working with amateur golfers.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy, Patrick Lee from Lexington, KY has listened to Tony Manzoni’s last episode on the Single Pivot Swing at least 50 times, but he still wants some help from our Academy Professor. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy

628: Roger Gunn is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Alumni  who has experienced a variety of pro tours, but then discovered that teaching suited his personality, game, and lifestyle more than being on the road all the time. Currently Roger’s the Director of Instruction at Tierra Rejada Golf club in Moorpark, CA. The subject of this conversation was inspired by a video Roger did called Diagnosing Your Mistakes https://youtu.be/nHC7utWGb1w.Roger has worked with many PGA Tour pros, but one of his mentors was Jim Hardy who also talks about ball flight patterns as a way to identify swing issues. We featured Hardy’s book Solid Contact in two episodes back in 2012 on Golf Smarter. Here are the links if you’d like to check those out too. Episode #329 "Solid Contact! The New Book from Legendary Coach, Jim Hardy" and  #330 "Solid Contact! Part2 with Jim Hardy.  This week on the Golf Smarter Academy, Josh from California struggles with different clubs to hit a variety of shorter distances, but Tony has an answer. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy

627: We’ve all heard it. More golfers are quitting the game each year than those who are starting to play because it takes too long, it’s too expensive, and it’s too hard. Golf entrepreneur Harvey Silverman has created a solution called Quick Golf.  Quick Golf is designed for golf courses to offer a pay per hole program. Joining us in the conversation is Shellie Sinitiere, Asst Golf Pro at Pinewood Golf in a suburb New Orleans that is has eliminated their twilight rate and implemented a Quick.Golf rate for less than 9 holes at $2.50 per hole that includes a cart ($1.50 per hole to walk).  If you’d like to see the the most recent research paper from the National Golf Foundation on 2017 Golf Participation in the U.S. check out this interesting pdf.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy, Ben from Florida is struggling with a dead pull, but Tony has an answer. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy This week we launch season 2 of Radio Baseball Cards, a new podcast featuring amusing and amazing stories as told by the greatest baseball players from the 20th Century. Subscribe for free and get a new episode each week through the 2018 World Series.

626: Now that the Winter Olympics in South Korea are over, we say hello to Kathy Cho, from a large South Korean family who, after High School moved to Mexico, and then to Southern California to study English and discover golf. Being tenacious, she worked on her game and became a Class A Teaching Pro focused on families and children getting started in the game. In this conversation we also discuss how to successfully approach a course you’ve never played before. Along with writer Paul Cervantes (co-wrote Tony Manzoni’s “The Lost Fundamental”) Kathy wrote ”From The Hole To The Tee: Guide to Teaching Golf To Children”.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy presented by HealthIQ, Mark from Canada wants to turn his slice into a fade. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a workout shirt from HealthIQ, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy Golf Smarter Academy is presented by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, swimmers, cyclists, and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Visit to healthiq.com/golfsmarter to see if you qualify.

625: Most amateur golfers consider the time getting loose before a round as practice, but that's actually warming up and it may not be the best time to experiment or tinker with your swing. This week our guest is John Battaglia, a PGA Professional teaching at the PGA West Golf Academy in La Quinta, CA. His early training at Jim McLean’s academy has not only made him a better teacher, but a better golfer as well. In this week’s conversation, we explore the differences between warming up and practicing. John also offers online lessons for anyone around the world at 360GolfLesson.com.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy presented by HealthIQ, Todd from Philly has a question for Tony Manzoni about hip rotation. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a workout shirt from HealthIQ, a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy, and the all new Golf Smarter ball marker!  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy Golf Smarter Academy is presented by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, swimmers, cyclists, and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Visit to healthiq.com/golfsmarter to see if you qualify.

624: There’s no greater authority on fitting, creating, and golf club technology than Tom Wishon. This week Tom provides his State of the Industry on golf clubs and goes into detail on why the Sterling Irons single length clubs can help middle to high handicap golfers, and how he improved on an old, bad idea. You’ll also find out why Tom now has single length irons in his bag. If you’re interested in more consistency and lowering your anxiety over every shot, check out Sterling Irons today. Please use this link so they know you're a Golf Smarter listener.Episodes featuring Tom Wishon: 56, 81, 146, 219, 220, 301, 302, 363, 364, 484, 519On Golf Smarter Academy presented by HealthIQ, Andrew from VA, a 12hcp 64yr old lefty needs help on his hybrids. Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a workout shirt from HealthIQ, and a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy.  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy Golf Smarter Academy is presented by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, swimmers, cyclists, and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Visit to healthiq.com/golfsmarter to see if you qualify.This episode is brought to you by SeatGeek. SeatGeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices – fully guaranteed. Download the SeatGeek app and enter promo code GOLFSMARTER today. That’s promo code GOLFSMARTER for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase.

623: Bryson DeChambeau is the only Tour pro who uses irons that are all one length (nearly identical to a 7-iron). Consider yourself using the same posture, and the same swing every time, which could lead to more consistent contact. This week our guest is Jaacob Bowden who has teamed up with legendary club maker (and frequent Golf Smarter guest) Tom Wishon to create a new generation of single length irons. If you’re interested in more consistency and lowering your anxiety over every shot, check out Sterling Irons today.This week on the Golf Smarter Academy presented by HealthIQ, Jake from Boston needed some clarification about something Jim Waldron said about swing thoughts on the last episode (#622). Let us help you too! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony Manzoni’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental”, a workout shirt from HealthIQ, and a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy.  Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy Golf Smarter Academy is presented by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, swimmers, cyclists, and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Visit to healthiq.com/golfsmarter to see if you qualify.This episode is brought to you by SeatGeek. SeatGeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices – fully guaranteed. Download the SeatGeek app and enter promo code GOLFSMARTER today. That’s promo code GOLFSMARTER for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase.

622: The Yips Whisperer. The Yoda of Yips. Jim Waldron returns for his 22nd appearance on Golf Smarter and still delivers fresh, insightful, and useful information to improve our game. Jim is a nationally acclaimed golf teaching professional and mental game coach best known for his pioneering research on the mind/body connection approach to learning and teaching golf. His holistic approach to golf improvement blends swing and short game mechanics, mental focus skills, physical fitness and emotional state control into a revolutionary golf instruction paradigm.  This week on the Golf Smarter Academy with Tony Manzoni presented by HealthIQ we hear a call for help from Rick Petryk from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Let us help you! Submit your question by calling toll free 415-761-1498. Listeners who get answers receive a free copy of Tony’s DVD “The Lost Fundamental” and a diploma from the Golf Smarter Academy.  Need more? Take a 90 minute Golf Smarter Academy clinic for only $75 with Tony, Dave Evans, and Garry Hopkins. Get more at GolfSmarter.com/Academy.Golf Smarter Academy is presented by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, swimmers, cyclists, and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Visit to healthiq.com/golfsmarter to see if you qualify.This episode is brought to you by SeatGeek. SeatGeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices – fully guaranteed. Download the SeatGeek app and enter promo code GOLFSMARTER today. That’s promo code GOLFSMARTER for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase.