The 18STRONG Podcast

Guest: Alex Bennett; Fitness Specialist PGA Tour Performance Center (TPC Sawgrass)Host: Jeff PelizzaroEpisode Number: 351Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast Summary In this compelling discussion, we’re joined by Alex Bennett, a renowned fitness specialist at the PGA Tour Performance Center. Alex shares his journey from playing professional golf to becoming a fitness specialist, discussing the importance of golf-specific training. He also gives us a peek into his experiences working with tour players like Billy Horschel and Sam Ryder, helping them maximize their physical potential on the golf course. You’ll be captivated by Alex’s insights on golf and fitness, from his unique assessments for mobility, strength, power, and endurance, to his creative use of technology and equipment to improve golf swings. Moving forward, we shift our focus to the extensive facilities at the PGA Tour Performance Center and the essential role they play in enhancing players’ performance. Alex offers a detailed view of his day-to-day interaction with the tour players and other fitness trainers. From discussions about how he’s worked with retired golfers and juniors to his approach towards individual goal setting and conditioning, it’s an enriching conversation that will leave you with a better understanding of golf fitness. Wrapping up, we chat about the application of biomechanics in golf and the importance of creating speed and power efficiently. Alex shares how he uses cues and activations to connect players’ learning to their golf swings, helping them stay injury-free and perform at their highest level. He also reveals his book recommendations and recounts his memorable experiences at TPC Sawgrass. Listen in for a wealth of knowledge and expertise from a top PGA Tour fitness specialist. Whether you’re a tour player, an avid golfer, or just a fitness enthusiast, this is an episode you won’t want to miss! Main Topics (0:00:03) – Golf and Fitness With PGA SpecialistAlex Bennett shares assessments and recommendations for golfers to improve mobility, strength, power, fitness, and endurance. (0:07:57) – PGA Tour Fitness and FacilitiesAlex Bennett discusses the PGA Tour Performance Center, its facilities, staff, and how he works with tour players, retired golfers, and juniors. (0:12:14) – Improving Golf Performance and Preventing InjuriesAlex Bennett explains the importance of assessment, corrective-based warm-up routine, consistency, and professional-quality website. (0:16:40) – Golf Conditioning and Individual Goal SettingAlex works with golfers to improve conditioning, emphasizing injury prevention and shorter rest times with specific goals. (0:25:37) – Fitness and Golf Performance ConversationAlex Bennett works with golfers, emphasizing acclimation and avoiding running and powerlifting to help them stay healthy and perform at their best. (0:29:18) – Improve Golf Swing With TechnologyAlex Bennett helps tour players improve mechanics, activate muscles, and feel changes in their golf swing. (0:35:21) – Biomechanics and Power in BaseballAlex shares experience using Kaiser functional trainer to improve swing sequencing, create speed and power efficiently, and cue players with alignment rod. (0:44:49) – Biomechanics and Balance in Golf ImpactAlex Bennett shares insights on tour player training, mobility, stretching, fast twitch speed, and the Kaiser functional trainer for golf swing sequencing. (0:48:52) – Golf, Books, and Social Media RecommendationsAlex Bennett shares his love for rap music, recommends books, reveals his dream foursome, and recounts his experiences at TPC Sawgrass. Connect with Alex Instagram: @abfitnessandgolf Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew) Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” ????????) Transcript generated by Podium.page 0:00:03 – Jeff PelizzaroThe 18STRONG Podcast, episode Number 351, with Alex Bennett, fitness specialist at the PGA Tour Performance Center. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we’re here to help you build up your strength. We’re here to help you build a stronger game. This week we’ve got Alex Bennett, the fitness specialist at the PGA Tour Performance Center, down at TPC Sawgrass and this week we’re talking with him about everything under the sun when it comes to golf and fitness, specifically working with his tour players, what he’s doing with them to make them as strong as possible, get them as fit and conditioned as well as possible to get out on the golf course. He’s working with Billy Horschul, sam Ryder and a lot of other tour players that play out of TPC Sawgrass, but he also works with a lot of the general public, either golfers that are coming down for the week or golfers that work in the area and play golf there. So he has a lot of experience with every level of golfer, from juniors to collegiate players to professionals. So we discuss how does he utilize an assessment? What’s his recommendations for people when they come in and they’re struggling with either their mobility or their strength or their power or their fitness or just their general endurance out on the golf course. So you’re really going to enjoy this episode with Alex Bennett. We’re going to get into our conversation right after this. Our partners over at Linksoul have been providing us with the best apparel for both on the course and off the course, from polos to t-shirts like the one I have on right now. Everything that they have is meant to be worn from the golf course to wherever you’re going next, so it’s very casual whether that be to the beach. There’s all different options over there. So go to 18strong.com/linksoul. You’ll get 20% off of anything in your cart over on Linksoul’s website. So again, 18strong.com/linksoul for our favorite brand of apparel for anything on the golf course and off. Now let’s get to this week’s interview. So how long have you been down at TPC? 0:02:20 – Alex BennettThis is year seven actually. 0:02:23 – Jeff PelizzaroReally yeah. How did that whole thing come about? 0:02:28 – Alex BennettSo I was actually so I played in college and then I was playing professionally and I had a bunch of injuries and I kind of fell in love with the whole physical side of it and the whole corrective exercise science behind it. I realized that I was doing a lot of stuff to look good at the beach and not play good golf. So once I got more into the physical therapy side, I fell in love with it. I realized you really need to train for your specific sport and there’s a big difference between training to just look good and training for your sport. So I ended up breaking my wrist. I was on a cast and I did the National Academy of Sports Medicine, I did Athletic and Fitness Association of America, I did TPI. I basically did all the training I could possibly do. While I was in the cast and just killing time, I was working at a place called Fitness by Frank Jeff. Frank was the head of that gym. He’s VJ Singh’s guy. He kind of hired me to do a lot of the golf training and I was there for a little while and then I just got lucky. This place was under construction, it was opening and Todd Anderson knew me a little bit from my playing days. I used to work with Jared Zach on my swing and he’s working at Sea Island. We had actually me and Todd had never met and Todd Anderson was the director of instruction here, appointed the director of instruction here. So I came here, got lucky, got an interview and me and him hit it off and then it was kind of funny, the interview process. I thought the first interview went really well and he was like I’ll be in touch. I didn’t hear anything for a few months and I was like, well, whatever, it didn’t go my way. I was kind of new in the business. I was young, so they’re probably looking for someone with more experience. He called me on a Tuesday. I’ll never forget. He called me on a Tuesday out of nowhere and I was like, oh man, I got to take this call. Hopefully he’s calling me on purpose and it’s not a but down. But he was like hey man, can you meet me at Fresh Market? There’s a grocery store here right outside of TBC. Can you meet me at Fresh Market? We’re going to hop in my truck and we’re going to go to a client’s house. I want you to do an assessment on them and kind of tell us everything you would do differently or whatever you see, tell us. So I get in the car and we’re driving and he goes yeah, I’m taking you to Billy Horshaw’s house. It was the week of the Masters. He didn’t qualify for the Masters. He had kind of had a tough year and I was like man, all right, billy Horshaw, it’s pretty big name, so we’re going there. He was not the most welcoming guy and I think they were kind of testing me. They were seeing if I was just going to kind of be a yes man or if I was going to tell them what I thought he could get better at. And I was like the first 10 minutes I’m like I’m not going to get this job. This is not going great. Billy’s barely even looked at me. This is tough. So I was like all right, well, if I’m going to go out, I’m just going to tell him everything I think he could fix or that’s wrong with his body. We did an assessment. I pointed out what I would change, what I would do, and they ended up liking it a lot and Todd offered me the job in Billy’s driveway as we were leaving. So I was pretty thrilled. It was kind of funny too. I had just gotten engaged and my mom I had like six missed phone calls because I ended up being over there for almost three and a half hours and they were just like, did it, how did it go? We were hurting them, where are you? So it was pretty funny, but it was great and I’m like very thankful obviously to Todd and Billy for giving me an opportunity when I was I think I was 25, 26 when I got the job, so I was definitely definitely very thankful. 0:06:13 – Jeff PelizzaroAnd you’re still I mean, I still see you working with Billy on a regular basis, right? 0:06:17 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean Billy, have worked together pretty much ever since after I got this job. I think he finished out that year and then in the off season I started working with him and I’ve worked with him ever since. Yeah, wow. 0:06:30 – Jeff PelizzaroSo your pros are actually down right in your area. Are they members at TPC, like? Does Billy play there on a regular basis and do the other guys that I see you working with? 0:06:40 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean there’s there’s a lot of guys that are members here that play out of here. I don’t work with all of them. I’ve got I think I’ve got eight guys this year on tour and they all pretty much live out of here. Yeah. 0:06:55 – Jeff PelizzaroOkay, Gotcha. So the performance center. Describe it to people a little bit. I had a chance to go there the week of the players championship and unfortunately our paths didn’t cross. I knew you were working like some crazy hours and just didn’t. 0:07:07 – Alex BennettYeah, I was running around that week. That week’s always busy, for sure. 0:07:10 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, I mean, are you there like just sun up to sun down and then get out as quick as you can to get some shut eye? 0:07:16 – Alex BennettPlayers is tough. Yeah, I mean there’s a year I mean the year we had all the restarts when we had a ton of rain and it was cold. I think it was two years ago. I mean I don’t even remember that week. It was insane. I mean I was in here warming up guys at four in the morning and then hanging around because it was like we’d get a weather delay and then they’d want to warm up again at two o’clock for their you know, their restart. I mean that was a. That was a crazy week. This year was a little less crazy, but it was still. I mean, it’s always nuts Guys are wanting to warm up super early in the morning and then I’m kind of just hanging around and I had, I think I had six guys in the tournament this year, so it was definitely a busy one just kind of hanging around. I’ve got a whole new appreciation for the guys that travel nonstop on tour with their guys. I’m actually going to start traveling a little more next year, nice. So I know it’s, it’s definitely exhausting, but it’s it’s. I think it’s worth it just to get your you know, show your face out there on tour and kind of get some more eyeballs on you. 0:08:15 – Jeff PelizzaroI think when, when the players is going on, are the other guys that you don’t work with? Are they utilizing the performance center as well? Are they going to the fitness trailer, or how does that work? 0:08:26 – Alex BennettYeah, so we did a bit of both. Yeah, I mean guys were using the fitness trailer but guys were also coming over to the performance center. I mean we had a lot of players. You know, I’ve gotten to know a lot of trainers out there and now they’ll just shoot me a text like hey, can we come use the performance center, can we? You know trailers and little packed or hotel gyms, not as good as we thought. Whatever it may be, I’m always open to letting guys come over and use it. The PGA tour has been nice enough to let me keep it the last four or five years. When I first started here, they’d move all the gym equipment out and it would actually be like a headquarters for all the rules official. So it was insane. I mean we’ve had like doors broken just from people moving equipment in and out of the gym. The door still one of our doors to the gym still doesn’t work properly and everybody’s always like man, what’s that I’m like? Well, I was like five years ago the players and we had been bent to hinge and we haven’t fixed it still. But I mean now I’ve got so much equipment in there and it just became. It’s like you got this many guys playing in the tournament and I’ve got this many guys coming to the facility just to use the gym. I think you know the tour was like why don’t we just let them keep in? We’ll have that much extra space for players I mean, it is deep players. So let’s make it as good as possible for the players actually playing the tournament and give them as many options as possible. 0:09:39 – Jeff PelizzaroHow big is the place and what else is in there? Do you guys have hitting bays? Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go and really like so the performance center itself is pretty big. 0:09:46 – Alex BennettWe’ve got four hitting bays. I’m sitting right now, we’re sitting in our like break room kind of area. We’ve got four hitting bays. We’ve got the gym upstairs, we’ve got a putting lab upstairs, we’ve got a couple of offices upstairs, we’ve got a bunch of offices on the bottom floor, and then we just re-turfed our entire tee with a special type of Bermuda that they’re using. They used it in the Super Bowl and it’s supposed to like come back in half the time as normal Bermuda, because we’re we’re having a problem where we were running out of turf on our tee just because we were so busy, but this summer, luckily, like it’s been a little lighter. So our tee looks pretty good right now, but it’s. It’s a pretty big place. We’ve got a nice chipping green, nice putting green. We’ve got putting instructors, you know. We’ve got a few swing instructors. We’ve got Todd Anderson, obviously. So it’s it’s definitely a good place to work at if you’re looking to get better at golf. 0:10:39 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, Are you the the only fitness person in there? Are you the director of fitness? And? 0:10:44 – Alex BennettYeah, I’m the only fitness here, I’m the finals fitness specialist. The tours got some some interesting rules about what it takes to be a director. You kind of have to have two employees working underneath you. The problem with our space I don’t know if you got to see the gym, but I think it’s about 800 square feet, so it’s not like massive and it actually was originally two hitting bays that we’re going to be simulators, so it’s not the rooms, kind of like two rooms put together basically. So it’s not got the best like flow to it. So it gets crowded in there quick and sometimes, like I’ll have, especially when the cornferries off and the PGA tours off, I mean I’ll have three to four guys in there at a time and it’s it’s definitely gets crowded. So if we had another trainer and they were just we, it would be we’d really have to work on our scheduling right now. Like the tour players enjoy having the freedom of you know they book a time and they go. Oh hey, I saw you know so, and so is that eight. I’m just going to join them. So it’s like we try to keep it as fluid as possible around here, cause we’re always, we feel like we always say, schedule and pencil, cause you’re going to be erasing a lot. 0:11:54 – Jeff PelizzaroYes, yeah, yeah. So do you have other like just general public golfers that come in to see you too? 0:12:00 – Alex BennettI do. I have a lot of. I actually have a lot of just normal golfers that are either retired and they’re just looking to play three days in a row without being in a lot of pain, and I also have a lot of juniors that I work with as well. I really enjoy working with a lot of the juniors. Honestly, that’s kind of why I got into it, because I had all the injuries I had and I was doing the wrong things in the gym, so I was really like, all right, how do I help people not make the same mistakes I made? 0:12:25 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, let’s, let’s dive into that a little bit, because I think that there’s there’s so much like low hanging fruit kind of stuff that people just don’t realize. Just a few simple things can can make a huge difference. But talk a little bit about you know. You said you’re kind of more working out for the pool, working out for the beach, muscles kind of thing, like most of us guys do when we’re, you know, young and you know and so what are some of the things that you know, some of these, let’s say the young aspiring golfers, and even then just general John Q, public golfer can start to implement. they’re going to make some big differences. And what should they maybe start to kind of take away from the routine that they probably have adopted? 0:13:04 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean, the thing I always preach to people is just go get assessed like get assessed by a TPI certified trainer or functional movement patterns trainer, somebody and I’m a big fan of, like I said, corrective exercise science, I think somebody with an understanding, and that’s huge when you’re playing a sport that’s as one sided as golf is, because you’re just always going to be so imbalanced and seeing someone and being really, you know, accurate with what your issues are, and then seeing them to kind of be like all right, let’s design a warm up routine or a daily routine that’s corrective based. That’s going to really help me stay healthy and play consistently and not be in pain. All my players have very specific warm ups to them. I mean, there’s basic foundational things we do and all the warm ups, but each one of them has a little bit. There’ll be like three or four moves that are different from player A to player B and I’m just I tell amateurs all the time I say you know, working all day and then just driving 30 minutes of the course and then swinging two clubs and then trying to hit balls isn’t going to do it, like you’re going to be in pain and you’re not going to get better at golf and then they take, you know, they take 50 lessons and they don’t see much improvement. And I’m like, well, it’s great they’re telling you the right thing, but physically you just can’t do it. And then when you sit at a desk all day and you’re trying to get more external rotation on your shoulders or more thoracic rotation, and you’re sitting here at a computer all day like this, what makes you think you’re just bodies just going to naturally be like oh, I can go do this now. So seeing seeing someone getting assessed and like and then getting a, you know, in a specific routine to that individual that they can do daily, that’s not going to make them super sore, but it’s going to, it’s going to have, you know, core activation. It’s going to have glued activation and it’s going to have some thoracic rotation. It’s going to have, it’s going to address the issues that person has. I think it’s just so important for every single person, even if they’re not trying to play competitive golf, but if they want to just be healthy and play golf. 0:15:05 – Jeff PelizzaroWell in the consistency is so key too right? I saw on your website you have a great video and you talk about how, if you are somebody that’s that’s working at a desk, or really just anybody when you go to the tee, your body’s going to feel different every single time that you step up to swing a golf ball or to swing a golf club at the golf ball, and so having that consistency is just dialing in the body right. So having some sort of routine that you know day in, day out you’re, you know what you need to check off the list to get yourself prepared. 0:15:35 – Alex BennettYeah, the site. It’s a work in progress. Right now I just had this, uh, Sal Sincatus, his name. He’s like an expert in videography and photography and everything. He just like reshot everything for me and we’re reshooting all the like workout videos, because all the workout videos were just me shooting myself like doing moves and and we’ve broken down a bunch of programs and everything. But like I can’t I can’t thank Sal enough. The websites become, you know, really good quality compared to when I did it myself. He was like, dude, we got to make this. This looks real mom and pop shop. We got to, we got to fix this and I’m like, well, I, yeah, I did it myself on the computer on weekends, like with my daughter crawling all over me. 0:16:14 – Jeff PelizzaroSo that’s pretty funny. You’ve got some great B roll with all the guys you work with and everything. 0:16:20 – Alex BennettIs he the one? 0:16:21 – Jeff Pelizzaroshooting your YouTube videos too. 0:16:24 – Alex BennettSo he shot all the B roll and he shot all the footage for the site. His team, like, did everything on the site but I’m I’m still, I’m shooting all my own YouTube stuff. Uh, he’s, he’s doing enough for me. I don’t want to ask him to do too much, you know no, it looks good. 0:16:39 – Jeff PelizzaroIt looks good. I just kind of started. How long have you been doing the YouTube channel? 0:16:43 – Alex BennettNot long at all. I just started that. I mean I just started doing it seriously the last like month or so. 0:16:49 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, I, just I, because I just started to watch them and started seeing them pop up. Really good, though it’s cool to get an insight on some of the other stuff that you do, like you know, out on the soccer field doing some conditioning stuff, and that’s that’s something I was going to actually ask you about the conditioning that you do with your golfers, cause you know we see a lot of the, the stretch. You kind of moves in the, the stuff that everybody sees on Instagram. But you know you were talking about different conditioning. Especially you’re down in Florida the heat, um, you’ve got guys that are playing four days in a row but also practice rounds. So what are some of your go-tos when it is when you’re working on conditioning for your pros and then maybe also for just kind of the regular Joe? 0:17:27 – Alex BennettYeah, it’s uh, I mean, yeah, I started doing those. Those work I like because I think I did a video with like Ben Coles, who’s he was number one right now on the cornfairy money list. I did with Chandler Blanchet, who won PGA to rely on American money list. I just liked doing that cause I like giving the people kind of the behind the scenes. Look at these guys so they realized they’re just, they’re just normal every day, guys like everybody else. And we were doing like the little soccer challenge and stuff like that. But I I’m a big believer, especially like Chandler we were talking about he was playing in Tulum, mexico, for the tour championship which he won. But we were talking about like look, it’s going to be, you know, over a hundred degrees down there. Like let’s, let’s either do some sauna this week or let’s do some outdoor workouts, because you need to have some acclimation to that heat. And I mean credit to him, he did it. And then he goes down there and wins in extra holes and it’s like that. You know that stuff pays off. But that’s the stuff. I think people don’t really see like that level of oh, wow, okay, when these guys are going to play in a hot climate. They’re doing some acclimation to that hot climate before. I mean those guys are, they’re walking a minimum 72 holes. That’s just their. You know, tournament that’s not the practice rounds and everything like you said it’s. It’s definitely like a grueling sport that people don’t realize. But I mean I’m a big fan of more. So just in the gym, keeping the pace up when we’re doing our strength training Like I’m not, we’re not doing a ton of, especially in season, we’re not doing like a ton of power lifting where we’re going to have to take three to four minutes off in between reps. Most of the time I like to superset things. So guys are going for more exercise, right to the other exercise, back to the other exercise, and they’re not. You know, I mean when I have three to four guys in there, they definitely take a little more break and they’re they’re talking some crap to each other and talking about whatever game was on the night before, whatever that is. I’m all for that because that’s just camaraderie and guys enjoy it. But I’m more of a fan of just keeping the pace up in the gym, you know, having your specific movements. I’m not a big fan of running. I’ve just found that it just beats guys. I mean they just get beat up and no one’s in perfect, you know alignment and hardly any of these golfers have proper running motions or gates. So they go for like a long distance run and they’re like man my hips, killing me my knees, killing me my backs, you know so it’s. I just don’t do a lot of that stuff. I am a fan we have like a skier here, we’ve got the Techno Gym Curve Treadmill. I like getting guys doing some like sled pushes, even even lighter, quicker sled pushes. Where they’re, they’re maybe not moving a ton of weight, but they’re having to move it fast. I’m a big fan of that type of stuff. 0:20:09 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, I’m a. I’m in total agreement. As far as the running’s concerned, I think so many people lean on running it for conditioning or treadmill or whatever, just because it’s it’s easy to do. Right, it’s easy to just run. But to your point, especially for high level golfers that are earning a paycheck to send them out to condition and do that when their gate patterns might be off there they might do something that, just, you know, puts them out for the next week and they don’t necessarily need running capacity for for their golf, right. 0:20:41 – Alex BennettNo, I mean, I tell guys all the time the first, my first job is just not to injure you and and allow you not to get injured. So if there’s something like I have, guys show me like a you know Instagram clip, they’re like, oh man, look at this move, and I’m like, yeah, that’s great, but that guy’s a full-time crossfit athlete, like he’s not a golfer, he’s not going to play, you know, six weeks in a row and you know, and he doesn’t have he’s better shoulder mechanics than you or whatever it may be. So it’s like it’s it’s sometimes having to dial those guys back. They’re so competitive. It’s not all about pushing them. It’s sometimes being like, hey, let’s, let’s calm down a little bit, let’s not do that. That’s. That’s going to lead to some issues. So it’s definitely a different take relationship with those guys, though, too. 0:21:24 – Jeff PelizzaroSpeak, if you would, to the to the point of how important it is to have a specific goal in mind. So, like you’ve got Billy Horschel, you’ve got Sam Ryder. These guys obviously their, their goal is specifically for the PGA tour. Now you might have John Smith that comes in and he’s looking to you know, lose some weight. He wants his golf game to get better. But how might it be different that when you’re working with somebody like that, where you know they’re looking a little bit more for general health and a little bit of weight loss, that also helps their game? 0:21:54 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean it’s huge. I mean you got to have I don’t want to say an end goal in mind, because I feel like there’s never an end. You’re always just trying to get better but you got to have something. You got to have those those steps along the way where you go. Oh, I am getting better. My, my swing speed is up three miles an hour. I just played three days in a row and I just noticed my back doesn’t hurt. I’ve had guys, I mean, that are just like I just want to be able to bend over and tie my shoe, you know, and it’s like I’ve got. They come into the gym after a month or so and they’re like hey, alex, look at this, and they’re like pumped, as if, you know, somebody just came back and won, won a PGA tour event. It’s like that’s a big deal of them just to be able to bend over and tie their shoe with no pain. So I mean everyone’s got different goals and everyone’s starting with, you know, on a different scale. And it’s important to like realize that when you’re training them that hey, billy horse was here, but I’m not going to be able to push this guy to that level or I’m not going to be able to push them as hard. And I mean that’s something I’ve noticed, like Sam Ryder. Sam Ryder worked together for I mean I want to say it’s it’s probably been five years, maybe, maybe over five years. And and like this season going into this season, I noticed a huge difference with him, just knowing. He was just very focused and he was like look, I want to make top 70. That’s my, that’s my goal, I’m going to work hard. And he came out of the gates. I mean he didn’t miss a single workout, he didn’t show up late, like. And then he came out of the gates. He played great and it was. It was nice to see because he’s always been so talented Everyone around here that plays with him knows how talented that guy is and to see it finally like coming to fruition and him putting in the right work and and really just zeroed in. And we’ve been saying we just shot this thing for the PGA tour. It’s been on the golf channel the past couple of days and he makes a joke about it. But we’ve been saying all off season. We’ve been saying all the season you got to keep checking the boxes. And he’s like, yeah, when I wake up, I got to, I got to hydrate and then I got to do my warmup. That’s checking boxes, like he’s got to take the steps to be great and it’s, it’s. He’s finally, you know he’s over 30. 0:23:56 – Jeff PelizzaroAnd I think he’s like all right, it’s time for me to win, like it’s time for me to realize my full talent, and it’s fun to watch how much do you see that that little mental shift of even just the checking the boxes you know the process of, okay, I did this, I did this, I did this how has that seemed to impact his confidence level and just the way he carries himself? Because I know that, you know, you probably see with the juniors and anybody you work with, just when they start to to really see themselves doing the things that other people aren’t necessarily doing and they’re like, yeah, I’m, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, it seems, in my experience, seems to make them carry themselves a little differently. Have you seen that in him and some of the other guys? 0:24:36 – Alex Bennett100%. Yeah, 100%. I’ve seen it. Just in the way he carries himself, You’re right, I mean he’s just much more confident. He knows, he’s putting in the work. So, like he knows his skill, can, can, just show, he’s not relying purely on talent. So I mean you definitely see a difference in the way he carries himself and he’s I mean he might be mad at me for for saying this, but in the years past he was always a guy who texts me on like, say a Thursday, and be like hey, I’m going to be back next week, Can you put me in Monday through Friday. So I’d put him in the schedule, you know I’d be fine. And then Monday morning would roll around and he was supposed to come in at 10 AM, at be like 10, 10, and I’d text him and be like, hey, you know where are you at. And he’d be like, oh dude, sorry, Like I’m in, I’m in Las Vegas right now, Like I’ll be back in a couple of days, you know. So this year he hasn’t done that at all and he’s just been, you know, super focused and I think he’s just finally like all right, it’s time for me to realize my full potential and it’s it’s, it’s fun to see. It’s been enjoyable to watch. 0:25:37 – Jeff PelizzaroDo you get out and play with any of these guys at all? 0:25:40 – Alex BennettYeah, actually I just played a couple of months ago with Sam and Vince Kivello. I don’t know if you know Vince, he’s got his future tour card. He’s been on a medical. I don’t actually work with Vince, but he’s a. He’s a great guy and he’s around here, he’s a member at a Lanny Beach country club down here and we got out. We got out there and played and I was actually 400 through seven and Vince was like man, what, what made you you know what made you stop playing? Like, the game looks pretty solid. And I was like, oh, just just hang around, man, we still got some holes to go. Next thing, you know, you know, I ship a few drivers out of bounds into some houses. And he’s like, oh, okay, all right. 0:26:16 – Jeff PelizzaroI would imagine, though, that going out with those guys and them seeing that you, you can actually play, you know you’re not just a just a fitness guy, you’re. You’re a fitness guy that knows the game, you know the body, you know that’s got to give them a lot of confidence in you, which, again, they they know like hey, I’m working with a guy, that that he’s got my back, and I know that what we’re doing is the right thing to do, to put my to, to put me at my highest level. 0:26:40 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean, I think it definitely helps. And I think it goes back to kind of what I said about sometimes you got to dial these guys back and it’s like, look, I’ve played, I’ve played a schedule where I’ve been on the road a lot and I’m trying to play my my best golf and I’m just not capable because my body’s not agreeing with the travel or the routine of playing that many days in a row. And I tell those guys, like, look, I felt those feelings before, I’ve had injuries, I’ve had back injuries, I’ve had shoulder injuries, I’ve had the wrist injury. And it’s like I’m going to set them up to where they’re, they’re healthy and they’re feeling good. We might not push it into the gym to the max, where they’re lifting as heavy weight, as you know, so-and-so, but I’m going to make sure that I’m setting them up for success. When it comes down to them being on the road for four to five to six weeks, I don’t want them I mean, they always come back a little beat up after being on the road that long but I want them to be able to play good golf deep into the season and feel like they can play consistent golf all season. So I think it helps being able to be a decent player and I mean I don’t get out to play as much as I used to and I mean we’ve got, we’ve got a kid now and she’s she’s almost three, so like weekends are definitely just kind of hanging out with the family, so I definitely don’t get to play as much. But I think I think those guys appreciate that I can actually, you know, swing the club and I know what I’m talking about a little bit when it comes to swinging the club and and I work, I work with a lot of different tour players that work with a lot of different coaches and I think it helps the swing coaches be able to call me and go hey, you know, we’re really working on him using the ground a little bit better, getting a little more internal rotation into his left hip. He’s kind of bailing out. You know me just knowing immediately, like what they’re talking about. 0:28:16 – Jeff PelizzaroWhen you’re working with the coaches and obviously you work very closely with Todd and the staff there, which I want to hear a little bit more about that dynamic too but when you’re working with a player and you do know like, hey, this guy needs, are the coaches saying like this is the move we’re working on, these are the things that we’re seeing, how do you implement you know what you’re doing in the fitness world, in the fitness side of things, into the skills or the mechanics of it? You know there’s there’s a lot of people and again my own personal experience people come in what’s a good exercise for this? You know what’s a good golf exercise? And it’s not quite that simple, right? It doesn’t translate directly from the cable machine over to to the 100% to the golf course. Yeah. 0:28:59 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean I just I just remembered I got a call, got back, actually a coach that called me earlier that I didn’t call back but he so like we have a player that’s on corn fray tour. He’s had a really good season. Um, john Scott Ratten is the coach’s name and he’s out of congressional. Really good guy, really good coach. And Jimmy Stanger is the player and he he started to see me this off season. He had a lot of like back pain and it was a lot of stuff where I didn’t even need to know the golf swing because I was just like listen, like we got to clean all this up. He’s got some issues Mechanically. He’s not got the right activations, he doesn’t use the right muscles at the right time. Um, so we need to clean this up before I even, like start thinking about golf swing and what he needs to do differently to help his body. But he’s a great guy. I mean he’ll, he’ll FaceTime me, he’ll show me video and like a good thing with Jimmy Stanger is kind of similar. Like he wasn’t, his left leg was extending way too early in the swing, so all his rotational force was pretty much just going straight up the chain into his back. Um, he wasn’t, you know, absorb it. He wasn’t using the ground to help him break. There was no absorption of that power. And it was left leg. His left glute was like non-existent. Um, so we did a lot of work just getting his glute medius better, getting his left glute better, getting him to use like his quad and hammy and glute when he’s coming down into the downswing. So, like, when I look at a guy like that, I’m going to go all right, we’re going to do a lot of split stance work, you know, especially focusing on that left leg forward and having him, you know, thoracically rotate into that hip while he keeps his big toe down. What I find a lot of times with those guys is they just want to. As soon as they start rotating into it, they just want to lift their big toe. It’s like a kind of a cop out of actually using their glue to rotate into it. Those fashion lines with your big toe and your glue to have a lot of late, like you know, a lot of correlation. Um, so I really get those guys like I’ll put a band under their big toe and pull it and I’m like, hey, don’t, don’t, like you know, don’t let that big toe come up cause his band is going to hit me in the wrist. So things like that I’ll tie into when I, when I hear from a golf coach, hey, we need to get him better. And I see in the assessment like, hey, this is a direct correlation to the pain he’s feeling as well. Um, so it’s always good too when the swing instructors, you know eyes, are matching up with what I’m seeing in the assessment. It makes everybody’s job a little easier, makes my job easier, and then I can make his job easier. But but that’s where I, you know, I get. I get some crap on social media when I use, like a disc or a bozu ball, or some people are like, oh, this stuff, and it’s like not everything is about creating power. Like when I, obviously, when I put a disc under someone’s foot, they’re not going to create a ton of ground force, like they’re using the disc, but like with him, his left leg wasn’t very active. So I want to put a disc on, I want to put some instability and make him use that left leg to stabilize as he rotates. So it’s like there’s different uses for things. Like if I had a guy and I’m like, oh, we’re going to try to create ground force. I’m not going to be having them doing cleans on a, on a bozu ball, obviously, you know. So it’s like I love social media and I hate it at the same time, cause it’s like I’m not going to explain everything I’m doing it and I’m not going to put all the steps that it took to get to this spot or why we’re doing it, but I’ll explain a little bit. But you always get those people that jump on there and they’re like oh, what are you doing? It’s like just relax, relax. 0:32:12 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, yeah, social media can be the best and the worst, for sure. Yeah, yeah. So, then do you then have any place for them to to maybe swing and like feel that immediately in in their golf swing? I mean, obviously you have a place to do it. Do they go out to the range? Do they just do some swings in the gym? And how do you kind of take that? Okay, here’s. Here’s what we just did, we just activated this, we got this, this work in your feeling this. Now do you then have them feel that in their golf swing? 0:32:37 – Alex BennettYeah, 100%, I mean we’ll have. We always take lunch here from like 12 to one, and a lot of times I’ll have guys from 1230 to one. We’ll be in the bay doing like swing catalyst, trying to get them to feel like we’ll do a lot of cues and activations and then have them swing and a lot I mean pretty much every time they go. Oh yeah, all right, I see what you’re saying now, like they connect it. I mean these guys are all good athletes too. That’s. The thing is, is you give them the proper cue? They’re going to do it in the swing, like they got to where they’re at for a reason. When it comes to the, the amateurs, or like the retired guy that’s trying to get a little bit better, it might take a little more coaching and a little more time, but it’s the same idea. Like I’ll give them some cues. Be like I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone and given a player a cue and they go oh, that’s supposed to be like this. I’m supposed to feel like my glue back here and I’m like, yeah, you’re not supposed to just feel your hip flexor when you rotate, but it’s great. I mean, I’m very lucky to be at a place like this that allows me to just go down to the bay and have guys hit balls and, like Carl you on, he’s also. He’s a PGA Tour player I work with. He’s a guy he loves just like going to the bay. He’ll do a full workout in the bay in the heat and he’ll just be like, hey, let’s, you know, let’s bring a few bands, let’s bring a few med balls, and I’m going to bring my clubs and, like you know, we’ll do a couple sets of some exercises. Then it’ll hit 10 balls and he’s just trying to. He’s a very feel based guy and he’s just trying to feel that connection and same thing. Like that’s a good thing. Todd Anderson is his swing coach and that’s that’s. The other good thing is. So, you know, todd can just pop in and be like, oh, I like that, that’s a good feel, I like. You know, whatever it may be, he doesn’t always like the feels I try to come up with, but I like to think he’s pretty open minded about him for sure. 0:34:18 – Jeff PelizzaroWell, I think that’s what’s really cool is having you guys so close there that you can bounce those ideas off of each other, and I assume you guys have all kinds of technology that you use to mention this swing catalyst and what else. Do you guys have there, any biomechanics kind of stuff and any biomechanics specialists there that are helping with some of those things? 0:34:37 – Alex BennettSo we’re currently we’re currently getting gears, which will be great, yeah, which will be great. We had KVEST and we we ended up kind of getting rid of the KVEST. I mean it’s, it’s a great product. We just had issues with it getting like calibrated. And people are paying, you know, they’re paying a lot of money to come here for an hour and it’s like we don’t want to be calibrating something for 15, 20 minutes or them hitting one ball on us. How to you know, recalibrating. So we kind of went away from that. We’ve been, I mean, we really use swing cat a lot and then obviously we use video and track man. We’ve got all that good stuff, but the, the gears, will be a great, a great addition for sure. Have you worked with? 0:35:17 – Jeff Pelizzarothat at all before we have. 0:35:21 – Alex BennettI’m currently doing a lot of education just about like biomechanics and the gears and how to read all the data and everything like that and I find it. I love that stuff. I’m like a geek about that stuff, so I’m looking forward to getting it. It’s going to be exciting. It’s it’s cool to I. Right now I’m doing a bunch of stuff with a baseball guy just talking about rotation and power and it’s it’s cool. It’s cool to see the differences. I think there’s a lot of correlations in baseball and there’s also not a lot of correlations in baseball. It’s just totally different spine angles and you use your slings a little differently, but but it’s cool to see just different perspectives on how to create speed and how to create power. 0:35:59 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, I heard a great quote a couple of days ago, I think it was a. Have you ever heard of Dr Kwan? Yeah, and he said something about you. Know, movement sequencing is way more important than muscle conditioning when it comes to creating speed, creating efficiency. And and and I’m like you I want to learn so much more about the biomechanics piece of it and understanding the sequencing a little bit better and just watching some of those things which I’m sure you’re ingrained in completely with the biomechanics research you’re doing now or learning that you’re doing about, and speak to that a little bit, about how you try to develop some sequencing and what you see with your tour pros compared to some of the amateurs Because I know what I see is amateurs it seems like there’s so much effort being put forth in our swings versus the pros. They make it look so easy but yeah, they’re obviously swinging way faster, hitting a ball way further. 0:36:54 – Alex BennettYeah, the actually it’s funny. You said the thing I just shot with Sam Ryder. We were talking about how Sam likes to do a lot of dynamic work before he plays to improve that sequencing and really get those like fast twitch muscles going. And I was saying, yeah, sam tends to get quick, but quick can be slow. And the lady was like the producer was like, well, wait, what are you talking about? Quick can’t be slow. I’m like, well, if his hips get too quick and his arms get left behind, it’s going to be slow because he’s going to stall at impact and try to catch up with the face. She was like shut, your mind was I don’t. I don’t know if she ever really understood what I was saying, but it’s 100% true. I mean, there’s so many players and you hear it from amateurs all the time that they’ll come down and like, watch some of our tour players just hit some balls and they’ve got the track man numbers on the board and they’ll be like he does not look like he’s swinging at 120. You know, it looks like he’s swinging at 100. And I was like, well, it’s because the sequencing is perfect, you know, and it’s, it’s so efficient. And you’re right. You see all these amateurs that are trying to create a lot of speed and you see them getting real like herky jerky at the top and it’s like, yeah, but when you’re trying to get the ball to the top, what you’re doing, an impact and especially if you get real tilted, you’re actually slowing down at impact. Your max speed is happening back here somewhere, so you’re not actually creating that much speed when you hit the ball. And it’s what I found. My favorite thing in the gym is the Kaiser. I use the Kaiser functional trainer nonstop and what I find is when I have players do different types of chops whether it be like a split stance, choppers, you know, just a regular stance is you’re going to sequence it because you have to pull tension. So I do a lot of work with that Kaiser, where I make guys do a lot of different chops. I have a, an alignment rod with a golf grip on it and I make guys do a lot of like quick swings and I go we need to hear this whoosh, you know, at impact, or or, if it’s, if we’re working on specific stuff, I’ll have them be like all right, I need to hear this whoosh back here and I need this left foot to kind of hop. At the same time you need to time those up, sequence those up. So I mean there’s a lot of different ways and I try to. The good thing with the Kaiser is, you know it gives you the, gives you the power output per rep. So guys can really see like, oh, that was a fast wrap and I felt more pressure into my big toe or felt more pressure in the ball in my foot when I did that. So it’s like those instinct cues. And then with the you know, the alignment rod, with the grip on it, it’s the same thing. They can hear the whoosh when it happens and it’s like an instinct cue. They go oh okay, I did this a little different that time and that was faster this time. So I like, I like things that give guys instant feedback. 0:39:26 – Jeff PelizzaroIt’s almost like having a fitness launch monitor right, like being able to read the tension, or even just the audio cues, of being able to flip your driver over and swing, you know, with the handle and hear those same kind of whooshes and 100% and being able to do it in different spots means that you’re doing different things with your body, right? So just building up that awareness, absolutely. Let’s take a second to thank our partners over at LivePure. Livepure is the number one hydration drink that you need on the golf course, especially when it’s getting hot out there. You’re sweating, you’re playing lots of golf. You need something more than just water in your water bottle. So Dr Troy Van Biesen and his team formulated one of the greatest hydration products out there that is no sugar added, all natural ingredients and the top quality PGA Tour Pros, champions that you know are all using this on the golf course. So go over to LivePurecom that’s L-I-V-P-U-Rcom Check out all their products. You can use code 18STRONG and let LivePure champion your day Again with kind of more the not Tour Pros that you work with. But you know the people that just come and see you on a regular basis the country club guys, the. Do you have people that just come in like for a day they’re in town, they’re like, hey, I want to go to the performance center, and you know people that drop in like that. 0:40:54 – Alex BennettThat is. Yeah, that’s the cool thing about being here is you just never know who’s going to come in and you never know where they’re traveling from or whatever it may be. I mean we just did a big talk with 24 players from what’s called Pathway to Progressions. It’s a PGA Tour initiative to help players with diverse backgrounds to get noticed by college coaches, and I mean we do a lot of these types of clinics and stuff like that. And some of these clinics you’re like literally teaching people how to hold a club and like they come up to the gym and they’re like I didn’t know I was doing fitness, I don’t want to do fitness, and it’s like it can be brutal. But these guys, I mean I started with them and I was talking with them and they asked some like really good questions and I’m like man, these guys, I think these guys are pretty good players. And then, yeah, well and behold, we go out there and all our coaches were like man, these guys are like really good, these are like no joke. And it was cool to see, because I mean we had a couple of guys from like Argentina, that we had kids from Mexico. I mean people were coming from California, texas. They’re from all over the place and it was just it was cool to see how many. I mean it’s a cool thing that tour is doing, obviously, but it’s amazing they were just talking about a lot of these guys don’t get to play in like AJGA, so they don’t get noticed by coaches and they’re sending them out to Nevada to go in front of, like the coaches showcase and I mean it was cool because these guys are. I mean they’re insane. One of the guys shot 68 on stadium from the tips. Whoa, it was like and he just played in the US junior. I mean he’s, he’s, he’s a stud and it’s like he has no college offers and you’re like man it’s. But nobody, nobody’s heard of him, nobody knows him. 0:42:24 – Jeff PelizzaroSo, but that’s a cool thing. 0:42:27 – Alex BennettBut it’s, it’s definitely. I definitely have people, just normal people, that come in for a couple of days and they want to get an assessment done and they want like a quick you know program or two that they can do when they go back home, and I mean some of those it’s. I’ve met some really cool people that have come from all over the place to do those little like things. They follow me on Instagram or they just Google the performance center or whatever it may be. It’s always, I always enjoy it, I that’s. I’ve had people ask me like oh you know, would you ever just want to work with tour players? And I always say no, because I enjoy just meeting always different people with different backgrounds, the different experiences. It’s like it’s, it’s the fun part of my job. I know every hour is going to be a little different. You know that’s cool. 0:43:08 – Jeff PelizzaroObviously, I know everybody that shows up is going to have their own individual needs. You know they’re going to walk out of there with their own individualized program. But for the people that are listening, that are just looking for a couple things, you know, getting that, that idea of the low hanging fruit, what are, what are some of the biggest things that you see on a consistent basis, not for everybody, but you know that a lot of people are going to benefit from whether that be some sort of mobility or some sort of a little bit of a, some sort of mobility drill or, you know, warm up wise or anything along those lines. 0:43:37 – Alex BennettYeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing I see is people don’t realize how weak they are when it comes to lateral movement. So I’m a big fan of just giving someone a band and putting it in their golf bag and going, hey, just put this band, you know, over your shins, over your feet, over your quads, and just walk sideways and keep your toes straight, don’t let them flare out, don’t let them flare in. And it’s amazing to me like when people take a little band, that’s not much tension and how much their hips start burning and how we then they go Whoa, like I would have never guessed this. And I go yeah, you know, golf is a very lateral sport and we’re very linear people and when you don’t have that lateral stability, you’re going to have a hell of a time playing consistent golf or creating any speed. So I think that’s that’s like the the most common thing I see with people that have never done like much you know in the fitness background as far as when it comes to go off or or sport specific fitness is just how weak they are laterally. And then I have a lot of my tour players that have bands on their quads and they’ll be jumping side to side and I’ll make them keep the width between their knees. And and I mean A lot of my guys are good at it now. But when we first started there like how am I, how are my hips burning this bad, I’m like, well, we need to. We need to build them up, man. 0:44:49 – Jeff PelizzaroIt’s, it’s very surprising, and you know, back to the biomechanics, I mean People don’t realize how much of the the lateral forces impact the way that you rotate. We think everything’s rotation, rotation, but it’s like, no, there’s got to be lateral to create that right absolutely, absolutely. 0:45:06 – Alex BennettAnd I mean the other thing I see a lot of it’s just people not being able to like thoracically extend. So I mean I just I one of my favorite stretches just having someone take like a dialer or a pole and just put in their hands On top and just extending their arms straight, sinking their chest down towards the ground. And it’s like I mean, everyone I have is like, oh my god, this feels amazing and it’s like, yeah, it’s. It’s funny how such a simple stretch is something that, like, most people have just never done and you’re like, huh, I mean, but that’s like getting some lat length and like being able to get some extension out of the thoracic. Just everybody’s so rounded and they always, you know, they’re sitting there holding their phone, they’re looking down and so that’s. Those are two that I just see with everybody, that I think everybody should just do. 0:45:50 – Jeff PelizzaroAnd to your point like that’s why getting assessed can be so important. Yeah not even necessarily to get so specific on what you need, but like just to open your eyes. That holy cow I. I figured this stuff should be pretty easy and I can’t do it right like the bands around your ankles, how tight are your hamstrings? You know, can you touch your toes? Can you? You know how rounded are your shoulders, all of those little things. It’s amazing when you get put in a position that you haven’t done in a long time. You’ve been sitting at a desk and then all of a sudden, you’re, you’re tested and put in this Scenario where you you thought you’d be able to do something easily. Balance is one of those things, too, that I see a lot Like. People just can’t, can’t believe how bad their balance is they can’t stand on one leg. 0:46:34 – Alex BennettYeah, exactly to your point before. 0:46:35 – Jeff PelizzaroLike, balances, balances everything. 0:46:38 – Alex BennettBalancing you know, your, your corrections that you need, but also just balance to maintain yourself in the golf swing 100% and I think too, like I think parents One of the things I see that’s most common that parents get wrong is the hamstring test. Like they’re always like my son, he can’t even touch his shins, like what? And I’m like, well, you know, my first questions always have they grown a lot in the past? You know eight months and they’re like, oh yeah, they’ve grown, you know, three, four inches. And I’m like, well, that’s why, like the muscles so over stretched from the growth spurt that they can’t, they can’t. I’m like, just, you know, let’s do some active mobility and things like that, but let’s not just how to have them hold a hamstring stretch for a while and plus, you know, like you don’t want to take that, that speed away from them either, that quick twitch Speed. So I think that I mean that’s one of the things like low-hanging fruits that I see a lot with parents that they get wrong with, like their junior golfers is they’re like, oh, my son’s so tight. And I’m like, well, you know, he’s grown a lot, so he’s the muscles are overstretched already. But it’s also, you know, let’s not, let’s not take if the kids got a lot of fast twitch muscle, let’s not take it away from them. Let’s not turn them into a yogi. So it’s like what’s like? Like you’re saying, let’s do an assessment, let’s know the individual and what they’re good at and let’s I’m a big fan of Whatever you’re good at, let’s make it even better. And then if there’s some issues, you know limitations let’s obviously address those, but let’s not ignore what you’re really good at and try to make these limitations a strength, because I just feel like that never ends up in making the player actually better. 0:48:09 – Jeff PelizzaroThat’s a that’s a great point. I think it’s a natural default for people to think that everything in golf has to be about flexibility and being able to. Rotate and get in these positions and and you’re absolutely right that you know if you’ve got, especially if you have that fast twitch speed that’s the one thing you definitely don’t want to rob a kid of yeah, let’s not do that. All right, man, before we close it up, I got some typical questions we ask everybody that comes on the show. So yeah, first and foremost, caddy shaker, happy Gilmore. 0:48:36 – Alex BennettSo I’m definitely a happy Gilmore guy. I mean I was, I was born in 1990 and I mean I just feel like Adam Sandler was like my childhood. You know all those movies. I like caddy shack it’s a classic movie and it’s funny. But I’m definitely a happy Gilmore guy. 0:48:52 – Jeff PelizzaroIf you could pick a walk-up song to the first tee box, what’s your walk-up song? 0:48:55 – Alex BennettOh, man, this was a tough one for me. I Was. I was bouncing back and forth, I mean I always. You know, I just I Grew up listening to rap, my whole life pretty much, and I grew up in metro Detroit playing, playing all these types of sports and that’s just what we listen to, and it was. It was either between Something I mean any song on get rich or die, try and 50 cent, or I’m a big fan of the song blessings by by big shot and Drake. That’s like one of my favorite songs, so I’d say I’d say one of those two love it? 0:49:28 – Jeff PelizzaroIs there a book that that has meant a lot to you or that has really inspired you that you’d like to recommend to either your players or just to anyone in general? 0:49:37 – Alex BennettUm, that was a tough. I mean I feel like I like to read. I mean I’ve read so many good books. Chris Doris is like a really good author. That’s not, that’s not well known. He’s a good mental coach. He’s got a lot of good books like daily affirmations. Um, I mean, he’s got one. I mean it’s all about just kind of finding your purpose and chasing. I can’t. I’m blanking on the name right now it’s an older book. Um, chris Doris is a really good author. I love I just love his, his mental coach work as well. And then I’m reading a book called inner excellence right now. I think it’s jim murphy. 0:50:17 – Jeff PelizzaroYeah, I got it right on the shelf here. 0:50:19 – Alex BennettReally good book. It’s awesome. Really good book, yeah. So I mean, right now I’d say that’s the best book and that’s one that I’m definitely recommending to my players, for sure, is that is that book. 0:50:28 – Jeff PelizzaroThat’s a. That’s a huge one. I know that, like Shuffler has mentioned that book, some of the top level guys have mentioned that book and and just taking themselves to the next level. So, yeah, it’s. It’s unreal, really cool. Um, all right, what’s your dream for some? If you could pick a for some to go play golf with, could be anybody celebrities, historical figures, whoever who you picking. 0:50:49 – Alex BennettYeah, um, I would definitely say Michael Jordan grew up a huge Michael Jordan fan. Um, man, this was a Steve Iserman, Just I mean, you know, captain the red wings. My whole childhood I played hockey. My whole life is my favorite sport, so he was definitely like my hero growing up. Um, and the third one was was tough. I think I would just, I think I would just bring my dad, because I know you’d love to play with steve y and Michael Jordan, so I think I would just have to bring him. You know, very cool. 0:51:21 – Jeff PelizzaroAll right if we had the 18STRONG jet fueled up. We’re like Alex, we’re going anywhere you want to go. You got a free ticket where you heading. What would? 0:51:29 – Alex Bennettgolf course, oh, man, I mean, I feel like the automatic answer is augusta, just because it’s, it’s just this hollow plate, or you just, you know, you just want to go play, you just want to walk the grounds. Um, but man, I’ll tell you what I would. I would love to go to band and dunes. I’ve never been out there. I love, like I love, the pacific northwest and I’ve never really been there, but I just love the way it looks and I love mountains and I’m more of a mountain guy than an ocean guy, which kind of sucks living in florida because there’s not, there’s not even a hill here. But but I think I’d go. If it’s not augusta, I’d go somewhere out there. 0:52:09 – Jeff PelizzaroThat’s definitely on my list also. All right, I’m gonna throw another one in here. Um, that’s not on our normal list, but since you’re a tpc sawgrass. What’s what’s your hardest hole there and what’s your favorite hole there? 0:52:22 – Alex BennettOh man, that’s a good one man, mine. I mean, dude, my nemesis is number five. I’m just always, or you know what, actually, I take that back. My nemesis is number 14. Yeah, the par 4 with the water on the left, um oh yeah, I’ve just. I’ve made some birdies on five at least before teen. I just feel like I’ve never played well and I feel like the the wind is always just howling in your face and it’s just an absolute monster. I played a tournament here when I was a kid I was a junior in high school and my parents were standing on the car path about 30 yards right of the fairway and I almost killed them. I mean, it was like I just bailed out harder than you could ever bail out, and then the next day they were standing even further right and I almost got them again. I’ll never forget it. And it was just like my dad’s like hey, like what are you doing? There were 50 yards from the fairway and you’re always getting us and I was like man, I don’t know. I, this tbox just doesn’t add up to me. So I would say that hole for sure, and then my favorite hole out here, I mean I love, I love 16 that par 5. I think it’s just a cool hole and it’s it’s like you know you’re During the players. I think it’s one of my favorite holes because it’s the best view of 17, so it’s like you get, you get the, you get the stadium atmosphere as you’re walking down 16 and it’s like you’re just looking across the water at what’s to come and it’s, it’s just a cool, cool atmosphere. 0:53:52 – Jeff PelizzaroI totally agree. So I had a chance to play it the day after the players and I can remember, like driving up on 16, you kind of get past the grandstands in the fairway on the right hand side and then all of a sudden the water opens up. You see, 17, you got that big tree on the left hand side and it’s like man. It doesn’t get any better than this. 0:54:10 – Alex BennettIt was no, it’s awesome, so it’s awesome, all right. 0:54:14 – Jeff PelizzaroAnd then last one. Is there a social media account that you think the 18STRONG crew should go out and follow? Obviously, you’re doing an amazing job, posting a ton of great content. Is there somebody else that you’d like to follow, that you’d recommend? 0:54:25 – Alex BennettThis one. This one was really tough for me. I I feel like there’s just so many good golf fitness Guys out there now like I feel like if I name them, I’m gonna leave some people out. 0:54:37 – Jeff PelizzaroUm doesn’t that to be golf fitness could be, could be a totally unrelated account too. You want to go there, rat. 0:54:43 – Alex BennettOh, that’s tough. I mean honestly it’s, it’s. It’s gonna sound like a cop out, but when I’m not like posting stuff, I really try not to scroll. 0:54:52 – Jeff PelizzaroOh smart man much very smart man. 0:54:55 – Alex BennettI know I. I just find the more I scroll on social media the Less happy I am. So it’s like I really I really try. If I’m not on there, I’m not and I know I have there’s a lot of posts I probably should like from friends of mine that I haven’t liked and I always tell like a lot of my Close friends. No, I just don’t really go on social media. When I’m, I post and then I just kind of try to get off of it and I’ll respond to like comments on my page and stuff like that. But I just try to, I just try not to like, just start scrolling. Um, but man, there’s I. I mean I follow so many good golf. I mean you know all the golf fitness guys and I mean the ando, uh, andos of the world, um, athletic golf fitness, Jonathan Alvelos, I mean there’s just so many. Yeah, lots of good ones out there. 0:55:43 – Jeff PelizzaroLots of good, yeah, well, speaking of which, tell everybody where they can follow you, where’s the best place website wise, social media wise all that. 0:55:51 – Alex BennettSo so website and social media is just ab fitness and golf. Uh, youtube is alex Bennett fitness and golf. Um yeah, that’s, that’s where to find me excellent. 0:56:05 – Jeff PelizzaroWell, alex, thank you so much for coming on today. It’s finally nice to you know, connect and get a chance to chat, and I’m sure we’ll be chatting much more in the future. I love what you’re doing. I love the work that you do. Um, get some of those guys, some some wins, out on tour and we’ll be seeing much more of you. 0:56:21 – Alex BennettYeah, I appreciate it, man. Anytime I had a good time. 0:56:23 – Jeff PelizzaroYou got it brother awesome. Thanks for joining us this week on the 18STRONG podcast with alex bennett. If you want any more information that we talked about in the show, any of the links to his social media or any of the other Topps we talked about, go to 18strongcom. This is episode number 351 and you’ll find it all right there. We’ll catch up again with you next week with another great guest. Train hard, practice smart, play better golf. Transcribed by https://podium.page

Guest: Justin Bryant, Former Professional Golfer; Founder of The Good BogeyHost: Jeff PelizzaroEpisode Number: 350Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast Summary In this episode, Jeff Pelizzaro sits down with Justin Bryant, a former professional golfer who transitioned back to amateur status. Justin works full-time for Rapsodo Golf, helpong them develop some of the most cutting-edge mobile launch monitors on the market. They discuss Justin’s journey, the challenges of going from pro to amateur, and how he balances work, family, and competitive golf. Justin explains how the new Rapsodo MLM2PRO has helped him dial in his game, resulting in several successes on the Amateur/Mid-Am level this year (including punching his ticket to the 2023 US Mid-Am). They also discuss Justin’s artistic outlet/brand, The Good Bogey, which is quickly becoming a very recognizable brand making waves in the golf world (including how some golfers are even tattooing his designs on themselves ????). Main Topics Transition from Pro to Amateur The process and challenges of reverting back to amateur status. The role of the USGA in this transition. Balancing Life and Golf How Justin manages work, family, and competitive golf. The impact of COVID-19 on his career decisions. The Good Bogey Brand The origin and growth of Justin’s brand. The unique designs and the community around it. Competitive Mindset Justin’s approach to competitive golf, both as a pro and an amateur. The importance of setting achievable goals. National Club Championship Justin’s experience and victory at the National Club Championship. How it has fueled his competitive spirit. Resources Mentioned LINKSOUL: The official brand of apparel for 18STRONG. Get 20% off Conclusion Justin Bryant provides valuable insights into the world of competitive golf, sharing his experiences and challenges in both the professional and amateur circuits. Whether you’re an aspiring golfer or a seasoned veteran, this episode offers a unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in the game. Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” ????????) Jeff Pelizzaro: [00:00:00] The 18STRONG Podcast, episode number 350 with Justin Bryant of The Good Bogey. What’s up guys? Welcome back to The 18STRONG Podcast, where we are here to help you build a stronger game. I’m Jeff Pelizzaro, your host, and this week we have my good buddy, Justin Bryant, on the podcast. Justin is a former professional golfer, turned amateur again, and is a very highly competitive golfer here in St. Louis. Also works for Rap Soto, so we get to talk about the new MLM2PRO. We get to talk about how he uses it and how a lot of different golfers. are using the MLM2PRO to help their games and really what the [00:01:00] transition has been like for him going from professional to playing amateur, again, balancing, you know, working family life, having kids still being able to practice and play competitively. And then we get into his brand, the good bogey, and where that name came from, the designs that he’s putting out and where that all started and how he’s. Growing that brand as well. And even how some people have good bogey illustrations tattooed on their arms or somewhere on their body, which is kind of crazy to hear that that’s, that’s the case. So before we get into our conversation with Justin, just want to say a quick thanks to our sponsors over at Link Soul. Link Soul has been our partner for a long time and they are our official. Brand of apparel that we wear both on the golf course, off the golf course. I was just up in Michigan this past weekend. And whether it be being on the beach, whether it be on the golf course with my son, we were all decked out in our Linksoul gear. We have all of our buddies in our mandatory Golf Friday crew, which was also something started by Linksoul. And now we’re really bringing that [00:02:00] brand onto the links here in St. Louis, which is pretty cool. So go to 18strong. com slash Linksoul and you can get 20% off on anything in your cart. So again, 18STRONG. com slash link soul. Now let’s get into our conversation with Justin. All right. So just want to kind of get an idea of going from pro to an amateur. What does that process look like? And then we’ll kind of get into, you know, how your processes as far as practice and competitions and how that’s all changing. better, worse for the game or, and all that good stuff. But just the transition of going from pro to amateur. When did that happen? Justin Bryant: Yeah. So in 2019, uh, I was playing professional still, um, trying to get on the corn ferry tour. It might’ve, I think it was the corn ferry, maybe web. com at the time. Um, but going through Q school there and I missed. Uh, getting to final stage, which at least gets you like status on, on the Khorne Ferry tour of some kind. Uh, it bases off your finish, but you really want to [00:03:00] at least get to final stage. Um, and I missed that by a couple shots. Uh, can’t remember, tried to block that out of my memory. Um, but then it was kind of a moment where. My wife and I were trying to figure out kind of, you know, what’s life going to look like. We had two kids, my game felt really good, but kind of life had progressed. Um, it was in my early thirties. I don’t know how old I was at that time, but, uh, early thirties and, um, then kind of COVID hit. Um, which shut down all the tours, they kind of said no Q School the following year, so your status was kind of frozen for, for a year, which some players that was maybe beneficial, some it was kind of, you know, not. Um, for me, I felt like it was a good transition, so. Still didn’t know if I was going to reapply for amateur status or not, but it was kind of in my head. Uh, didn’t know what I wanted to do. Um, but I knew I wanted to stay competitive and realistically kind of looking at the landscape of events. I was a realistic way to play. Um, I didn’t want to kind of get that PGA certification to teach. [00:04:00] Um, So I was like, I’m going to end up playing like Monday, like two Monday qualifiers and like a couple events. And I was like, that’s not going to get my juices flowing. Plus I’m going to be playing against people that are playing full time. Uh, so I decided to reapply to be an amateur, um, and you do it through the USGA. So, um, you fill out a form essentially kind of saying like how long you’ve been playing, how much money you’ve earned, you know, when the last tournament was. And then they go through a process of kind of reviewing your application, looking at your results and things like that. And they basically say, you know, You have this amount of time, uh, till you’re reinstated as an Amber. So I don’t know if there’s specific cutoffs of like, you know, if Tiger reapplies as an Amber, they’re gonna say, sorry buddy, no. Yeah, like is it, Jeff Pelizzaro: you’ve made too much money, you’ve, you know, reached this point, you’ve played in this many events, not Justin Bryant: gonna happen. Uh, for me, uh, I got essentially like two years, uh, to be reinstated, so, um, So I had to wait for my last competitive round, so I think I got [00:05:00] it back in 21, end of 21, November of 21, uh, yeah, cause, uh, November of 19 was my last round, so yeah, they basically came back and said, um, you can be an amateur, you know, don’t fall under the pro rules for the next two years, um, and then you can get your amateur status back, so in that time you can play Um, events that are opens, so like you could play like the Metropolitan Open in town, I can play because there’s amateurs and pros playing. Uh, and I could do like US Open qualifying because it’s the same thing. But I couldn’t play in just an amateur event, um, as you’re getting reinstated. Until you officially get Jeff Pelizzaro: your card. Correct. Gotcha. Justin Bryant: Um, I think they’ve changed a little bit of the rules since, since I’ve reapplied, so I think it’s actually shorter now. So if I… Um, some guys, um, I think, um, I might’ve only gotten like a year. Um, it didn’t really matter too much because COVID, there wasn’t a ton going on. So I felt like it was a shorter sentence than, uh, in reality of two years. Yeah. Jeff Pelizzaro: Sidebar. I remember you and your wife are the first ones [00:06:00] to alert me to COVID. Really? Because you guys had a trip planned to Justin Bryant: China. Yeah, we were going to go. Her brother lives in Hong Kong. Uh, so we’re going to go see them and then like do a trip, just the two of us to, uh, yeah, Thailand. Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah. And you’re like, uh, yeah, I don’t think, I don’t know if it’s going to happen, this whole COVID thing. And that’s when I was like, what’s it, what, what are you talking about? And we had a big trip planned after that. And sure enough, obviously everything kind of, the world fell apart. But, uh, yeah. So you guys are the one, the first ones. I didn’t know. Tell me about the global pandemic. Yep. For sure. Uh, so professional wise, um, I know you had, uh, you played in quite a bit of different events, Monday qualifiers. I know you have a great story about the, well, great story, but not a great, uh, situation at the John Deere. Yeah. Right. So tell me a little bit about, uh, that and, and what other events you played in like corn fairy or whatever it was at the time, like what kind of level and how many events did you play in? And then, uh, you know, we’ll kind of. [00:07:00] that you’ve done recently. Justin Bryant: Yeah. So in 2012, I graduated from Wake Forest where I was on the golf team and then turned a professional that summer and played. I feel like I played in everything, at least the states you could play. Um, there’s definitely other journeymen that have played worldwide, but played European tour queue school. Canadian Q school. I had status up in Canada, um, only ended up playing like a couple of events up there. Um, played many tours all over the place. Uh, one day stuff, two day stuff, three day stuff, four day stuff. Played in the world par three championship out in Bermuda. Um, pretty much any competitive thing you could find. I tried to play. That was kind of the advice given to me is like, play as much as you can, play everything, play as much as you can. Um, cause that’s only gonna, I kind of look at it in two ways. One, it gives you more opportunities for good things to happen. Because in pro golf you really need to capitalize on when you’re playing well. Um, I think there’s a super small subset of golfers, you know, um, like [00:08:00] Tiger where they play well a lot. And then there’s kind of those other players that, uh, are really good players. I’m not saying they’re not, but they really, uh, make a lot of their money throughout the year on like two or three events. So it’s, it’s the same on the mini tours of, you know, the money’s way smaller, but whether that’s winning a mini tour event or, you know, playing your way into a Monday qualifier, things like that. So I, I tried to play as many opportunities as I can. I’m just like fortunate enough that I had the opportunities to do that. Um, played in some corn ferry tour events. I think I played in four, but never had, you know, status full time out there. So I was kind of Monday qualifying and then you kind of had your, your one shot to make something happen. Um, and then the John Deere. So I never played any, any PGA tour events, unfortunately, still on the bucket list, so we’ll see. But, uh. The John Deere, so if people don’t know, there’s pre qualifier at the PGA Tour events, so you kind of had to do the Thursday qualifier to get into the Monday one, so it was easy to do that here in St. Louis because the Deere, uh, I think it was in Moline, Illinois, where [00:09:00] it’s, you know, four hours away, so it was doing that and getting the Monday. It was playing well. I think I was, um, It was Pinnacle Country Club, I think is where it was. It’s kind of quirky. It’s got some weird holes. It was playing solid. I shot five under, I think. Maybe five or six, which Mondays you have to go pretty low. There’s only four spots for the PGA Tour. Normally you’re thinking like six, six to nine. Like six you’re kind of like, I got a chance. So when I shot five, I was like, maybe. Um, and there ended up being this huge playoff, uh, to get into it. So, I was really pumped. Uh, imagine July in Illinois. It was. so hot. I remember it was just pounding water waiting for that, uh, that playoff. And we finally get there. And I think it was like a six or seven for one playoff. So there’s seven guys playing at once, you know, one spot. So you’re thinking first playoff, I’ll definitely have to make birdie. Somebody is going to make birdie. Uh, and it’s this downhill hole. It’s pretty short. And I hit probably this one of the better drives on there. Kind of people would kind of sprayed it. Um, and everyone had hit their [00:10:00] shots, second shots into this par four and two, and no one was really that close. Like, I remember thinking, like, kind of surprised, like, 15 feet was maybe the closest, and these were all kind of wedge shots. Um, so I’m thinking, there’s me and one other guy left to hit. Uh, so I’m thinking, okay, if I, if I can get birdie here, somebody’s probably going to make a 15 footer, we’re going to go to the second play hole, but I like my odds. Like, I gotta hit this close. Visualized kind of where I wanted to land it. I think I had about, like, a seven footer. It was, it was pretty close, hit it exactly where I want to ball, like goes into the cup and comes out. And my adrenaline, my adrenaline’s pumping. I’m like, it’s going to go in and disappointed. It doesn’t go in, but at the same time, I’m like, Oh, it’s. So I’m not even really thinking about the last guy, the next guy to hit. I’m still kind of in like mode over the shot I just hit. And last guy to hit, he’s like two yards in front of me. It’s the same shot I do and it goes right in the hole. Um, and he [00:11:00] eagled the 18th hole to get into the playoff. So he finished, he eagled 18, eagled the playoff hole. Uh, it was a cool moment. I was obviously bummed, but like, he was hometown. That’s right, I remember that. Yeah, he had a bunch of friends there, and they were drinking beer and going crazy. So, it was a cool scene, but that’s as close as I got to kind of the big show, you can say. Jeff Pelizzaro: I remember, I don’t know if we were watching on the app at the time, because you and I were kind of working together at that time. I, I don’t remember if it was, what the situation was, whether it was Kelly that told me or you told me afterwards what, what happened, but, uh, man, I, I’ve told that story so many times myself. It was brutal. I still can Justin Bryant: see it in my head. But yeah. Jeff Pelizzaro: So crazy. So crazy. So now. Playing amateur golf, you transitioned over to, you know, coming back and playing a lot of amateur golf. Um, you are, you won the national club championship out in, was that Palm Springs? Yeah. So, what was that event? So, obviously, [00:12:00] club champion, St. Louis Country Club. Was that 21 or 22? That was Justin Bryant: 21, yeah. So 21, so I was able to play in the club championship while I was getting like reinstated because you can play in, in like club events. Okay. So as long as essentially the, you know, the head pro or, you know, kind of the golf committee says you can. So I said, you know, can I play in this? My, you know, competitive juices are flowing, I’m getting my amateur status back. And they said, yeah. Um, and was fortunate enough to win the club championship there. But I don’t think I could have played in the national one yet because of like I had to be an amateur for that event Okay, but I got and that event was in like December out in Palm Springs I think I got my amateur status back like the last week in November something like cutting it really close And it was a new event. I think they had previously done something but this is through like the PGA of America. They ran it and out in Palm Springs was working for Rapsodo and they actually had an event that we sponsored out there. So, um, one of our guys, um, was like, can you go do it? And I was like, [00:13:00] yeah, I might as well go play in the tournament. So, uh, it worked out perfectly kind of getting to help with that event and then playing it. And, uh, yeah, was, was kind of hitting on all cylinders and was able to get the, get the Jeff Pelizzaro: victory out there. And that was like, I just read, like, I think there are a couple different divisions, but like 300. male golfers that were in the competition. So what, I mean, what was that competition like? I assume there were quite a few guys like you that probably, you know, were club champs but had played, played pro. So the competition level obviously is very high. So what did that do for your motivation to keep playing and get, you know, kind of back into this really competitive mode? Yeah, I Justin Bryant: just, I love like tournament play. I love competition. Um, and there were a bunch of similar people in terms of like played college golf and, um, things of that nature, but everyone kind of has, you know, busy lives with, with work or family or things like that. So, um, I’ve tried to keep the same mindset that I had playing pro golf and amateur golf. [00:14:00] So, um, I don’t think of it as different competition to me, like, you know, golf and competitive golf, there’s one opponent and it’s yourself, um, whether that’s match play stroke play. So, um, you know, I kinda. I kind of will map out a course ahead of time, you know, like I’ll play it. And I used to do this way more in detail when I was playing professionally. So I’d kind of look at historical data, how people played it, what I thought needed to win, you know, how people played certain holes, what was hard and kind of put a pretty detailed game plan together. Uh, I don’t have the luxury of time to do that as much now, but I’ll, I’ll. I kind of mark it out a little bit in my head of, okay, this is what I want to execute on. And a lot of times, um, I don’t say it out loud to people because it’s going to sound ridiculous of like my goal is to shoot X amount under par, but my philosophy is you do the game plan. I don’t want to say perfect golf, but. Put together a game plan where you don’t think like, Hey, like, I hope I [00:15:00] play pretty well and shoot one under each round. Like, I’m going to put together a game plan. And maybe that’s going to fit where you are in your game now, but always stretch yourself in your game plan. So like, you know, my scoring average I think right now is like Like, I’m not gonna go put a game together in my next tournament where I shoot 70 77. Now that may win a tournament, it may be great, but you need to plan for the round that’s 9 under par, if you think that’s out there. Um, so that’s what I did that week. I think my goal was to make 18 birdies in 3 rounds. Uh, for people that don’t know, like Palm Springs, like the ball flies a little bit better. can be playing in a dome a little bit. I mean, you still got to execute, but um, that, that was my philosophy and I let the driver fly. And so I shot six under the first round, which was a PGA West, um, was in the lead and the other two courses. I can’t remember where they were, but I think I shot three under and then the final round, I shot like seven or eight under. Um, and so I think I finished. Making 18 [00:16:00] birdies. I think I finished like 17 or 16 under. I can’t remember, but, um, It all kind of came together in one of those moments, like yeah, that’s kind of what I was trying to do. Sometimes you put together that game plan and you go out and shoot two under for the week, and you know. That’s fine, and you may end up winning, but I’ve always kind of thought I’m going to put the game plan together of what I think is achievable if I go out and shoot well, and it’s not. It’s that, you know, 54 birdie and 8 hole mindset with a little bit of realistic in there. So I kind of try to, I kind of try to mix that. Um, which was a big, just like, shift in how I used to play golf. Um, which was, I was very scared, I don’t want to say scared, but like, I hated bogeys. Like, still hate them. You know, like, to me the round of like, no bogeys was like, okay, I played really well. And so, I think I played with the mindset of like, I’m not going to make bogey this hole. Um, and it’s more of shifting that mindset of like, no, I’m trying to pick birdies. And I don’t want to [00:17:00] make bogeys, so you’re still like plotting your air on the course, playing smart golf, um, you know, percentage golf, however you want to say it, but the mindset has, I won’t think about bogeys. Jeff Pelizzaro: When did that shift? Was that in your pro or is that more recent? Justin Bryant: Um, so I got to give credit to college. We used to laugh because there was one of my teammates, Lee Bedford, who’s a great, who was a great player, who’s an All American. He would say, and I don’t know if he got this from Coach Haas or not, but he would say, you know, if you make six birdies, you can only play so bad. And I was like, well, yeah, Lee, but like six birdies is pretty hard to do in a round. Um, and the older I got, I was kind of like, you know, Lee was kind of on to something, um, with that. And. You’re not going to average 6 birdies, but that’s kind of the scorecard I go under a round, is I’m going to try to make 6 birdies. And it’s not like I’m going to go out a tucked pin over water with a 3 iron to make 6 birdies. That might be, that hole I’m going to aim 40 feet to the right, and, okay, once I’m over the 40 footer, I’m trying to make it, you know, and if [00:18:00] it’s not in, I want good speed, so it’s a tap in. So, it’s not like this reckless, abandoned philosophy where I’m trying to make six birdies, but it’s that mindset of I’m trying to play the best of my ability each and every hole, each and every shot, each and every round. And since I’ve adopted that mindset, I shoot way more really, really low scores. And then, so my best scores got way better, and then my worst scores got better. Um, and I don’t. Think about like not making bogey, you know, so, um, yeah, I, I, it took me a while to adopt that. And I think there was some skill that needed to like improve to kind of really believe that I could do that. And then you kind of have to believe you can do it and then you’ve got to see yourself do it and then you’re kind of like, all right, let’s, Jeff Pelizzaro: let’s do it. I mean, you’ve seen yourself go pretty low quite a few times and now you can kind of go back to that memory bank. And so practice wise now, cause I know that before. You were very, a very stats driven. You kept spreadsheets, you kept XL [00:19:00] spreadsheets and you were a guy that went out and you practiced all day long. You had your routine, you had your regimen. Well, now you have three boys. You’ve got a beautiful wife. You’ve got a job. You’ve got all these things, but you’re still playing competitive golf. How has the practice. How has that changed, and how has that impacted the game? Justin Bryant: Yeah, I wish I knew what I knew now. You know, like playing. I think, I think a couple things, I think, um, When you’re in the mindset and the competitive nature of like, playing, trying to make it to PGA Tour, trying to become world number one, whatever the goal is, I had this sense of, I’m not doing enough, um, and I need to be practicing. There’s always somebody practicing, there’s always somebody going to get better, and that’s true. But really got to look at yourself and say, what do I need to do to do well? Not what does Jeff need to do or not? What is everybody else doing? But like really focus it on your bubble and like, what do I need to do to do well? Um, so I think one, like I don’t play as much. So [00:20:00] I think what I learned from that is like, I needed to rest more when I was playing professionally and like rest in terms of recovery, whether it’s sleep, nutrition. Anything. I think, I kind of thought I was doing that to some capacity, but like, I wasn’t really listening to my body when it like really hurt. I was kind of like, it’s hurt for the last ten years. Um, and so, a little bit of that perspective has been helpful. Um, But I would say too now it’s like I have an hour, so like what it really matters. Um, and I think a lot of that is more of like when I practice, it’s more like very, um, performance driven practice. Um, and I don’t care at all really what my swing looks like. Um, I say that more as an exercise, I care a lot about it, but, um, that’s more of the mindset. It looks pretty good, Jeff Pelizzaro: so you know. But… Justin Bryant: It’s, it’s doing, um, spending a lot more time on that kind of stuff. So like, um, doing little games on the range or if like I have an hour like really working on something specific like wedges. [00:21:00] So a lot of times I’ve, I’ve kind of realized that at least that the courses we play now that I’m operating pro are a little shorter. So, um, what do I need to do to do well? Um, and for me, I’m not saying this is everyone, like, I, I’m a pretty good driver of the ball. Um, I’m not super long, but like I, my misses are good. I’ve always said that’s like a strength of my game is like, I don’t hit, hit it the furthest, I don’t hit it the straightest, but when I hit it bad, it’s pretty straight. Um, so really working on like drivers and wedges. Um, and because I kind of feel like… There’s three different golf swings, not trying to confuse people, but like, as I’ve gotten better, I’ve learned, like, there’s not really one motion. Um, there’s kind of your, your stock swing, which we all learn, and then, like, with a driver, you kind of swing slightly differently. Um, so that might be, like, hitting up on the ball a little bit more, versus all other clubs, you’re kind of hitting down on it. Um, And, uh, wedges is completely different. Um, so the last, like, year or two, I’ve really spent a lot of time working [00:22:00] on, um, wedge play. And I’ve kind of set thought, like, if I hit, my wedge is good and I drive it well, that kind of blends the middle swing together well. Um, so, working on that, I hardly work on my putting, um, Really? Hardly. And my putting is way better than it used to be. Um, so I think that’s a big learning thing too, is like when I hit putts, um, it’s putting against, I have, you know, three boys, two of them, they’re little, they’re four and six, but I do very basic games with them. You know, speed games, making putts, and I don’t think about technique and putting at all because I just know like I’m not going to play that much and I’m not going to focus on it. So I have like a very couple checklists of the fundamentals and to me, I try to make putting as reactive and athletic as possible. Like, um, I’m like, I’ve just thought at this point I’ve hit so many putts. I know how to hit a putt. Um, and like when I play catch with my boys, I’m not thinking but there’s a couple things you think about. You [00:23:00] step forward, your momentum goes, you throw it. Like, you don’t think about my arm position, how far I’m taking it back because I’ve thrown a baseball at this point a ton of times. And I think over the years with like putting, I thought about I would be that person, like that kid that’s trying to figure out how to throw a baseball. Um, even though, you know, I’ve hit a ton of putts, so, um, kind of adopted the mindset of I’ve hit, I’ve put in the work already, um, and just focus on the target and play catch with the, with the target. Jeff Pelizzaro: That has always made so much sense to me. Not that I take that into my golf game necessarily, but, you know, I mean, coming from a soccer background and just. Speaking of baseball, like if you think about throwing a baseball in somebody’s glove could be anywhere, but you still, your body figures out how to get it to that different direction or you’re playing shortstop and you got to throw it to second or you got to throw it to first or you got to throw it home. You just naturally instinctively do that. So that, that makes a lot of sense to me. The dry or the, uh, the wedge, you said the wedge swing is a [00:24:00] little bit different. Just explain that a little bit. What, what’s different there that. Yeah, Justin Bryant: so I, I thought I was like a decent wedge player, um, but I used to swing it like I’d swing every other club and I’d kind of hit these like high spinny wedges and if there was no wind it was pretty good and then you’d kind of get in situations where it’s downhill, uphill. Um, and working at RepSoda, I’ve been lucky to be able to kind of pick the brains of Mark Blackburn, who coaches Max Homa, Claude Harmon, who’s coached a bunch of major winners. And kind of like, alright, what do good wedge players do? And this, them, and universally, it’s people, the best wedge players hit low wedge shots. Um, high, high spinning low wedge shots. So it’s the opposite of a driver. A driver, you kind of, if you’re trying to maximize distance, you want to launch it a little higher. Um, obviously, you know, not too high, but, uh, higher than I would say most people probably think, um, with low spin. That’s how you’re going to get it long, um, straight, but with wedges, you want to launch [00:25:00] them low. So low would be like sub 30 degrees. Um, so if you think about your wedge, you kind of want it as a general rule of thumb to flight. Half of what your degree in your club is. So, you know, I use a 58, so I’m looking for under, you know, 29 degrees of launch. And if I hit before, it 35. So, um, I kind of, we’re shooting some content with Mark with RepSoto, and he was working through this, and it was 100% a content shoot. Except for me, when I was like, this is, this is, I’m getting a nice lesson out of this. Um, and I struggled in that scenario of hitting it low with him. Um. And he gave some helpful tips and, but my takeaway is like, I got to figure out how to launch it low. Um, and so, and he was kind of telling me, you know, it’s a different swing. You got to come in a little more shallow. The wrists aren’t quite as active. Because if you’re coming in there with a ton of angle, you can kind of get steep. The ball is going to come up high with a lot of spin. So, I don’t really know what I do, but I fiddle it around with kind of, All right, I got to launch it, you know, get a launch [00:26:00] monitor out there or Mark had like these kind of sticks with pull pull motors and he said, this is, you know, if it’s under 30 degrees, it’s going to under hit it under it. So worked on hitting it low and kind of having a couple of yards to hit with the wedges and it’s, it’s helped tremendously. Um, cause I think the fear was when you hit them low, they’re going to not go, but, um, that they’ll stop if you hit it, if you hit it square. So, Jeff Pelizzaro: yeah, I mean, what an opportunity to work with. Some of those guys and just even pick their brains. Yeah, so it’s speaking of rap soda Obviously you’ve been working with them for a few years. Yeah How much of that do you utilize in your practice sessions? Obviously, you know You might have some opportunities at work to kind of dial a few points in while you’re working, right? Um, but it goes into that focus practice too, right? So how do you utilize that? What are the things that you’re looking at in different scenarios when you have the MLM with you? Justin Bryant: Yeah, so it’s definitely a nice perk. My game would probably be a little worse if I wasn’t at [00:27:00] Repso for the simple fact that we have like a setup in the office and you can kind of, you know, some people may go to the water or stand up and I might go to tent swing. So, um, it’s not a ton of practice, but it helps. So, um, but yeah, we have two launch monitors. So when I started there, it was the MOM, which launched in 2019, which is a radar based unit that uses the camera on your phone. Um, so really cool device. Uh, and then earlier this year, and it’s been fun for the last two years to be working on this project, uh, product, uh, the MLM2 Pro, which has two cameras integrated into it and the radar. So, you’re getting to see your swing from down the line, shot trace with it. Um, getting to see impact vision is what we call it. So you can see like where the ball is hitting the club on the, on the… Oh, really? The ball is hitting the club. On the club face? On the club face, which is really cool from behind. Um, which we’ve seen like a lot of funny videos too of like… Shanks, heel shots, tops. Um, so being able to use that product, um, has been huge, um, just in terms of, as I said, like, I only have, like, when my wife’s like, [00:28:00] you have an hour to go hit, I’m like, alright, um, I got an hour. So, for me, I really use it for, I would say three to four applications. So I don’t hit like a ton of, I think there’s good things for people that are just learning like their club gapping, like hitting a bunch of your shots in there, working on your seven iron. I really use it to dial in the wedges, um, to kind of check on my driver to make sure it’s kind of launching in the window. I want it to launch of like 12 to 15 degrees, um, with the right spin. Um, and then using, uh, our combine. Um, so people may be familiar with like a track main combine. Um, we developed a combine, um, with Dr. Sasha McKenzie who, um, is a genius, uh, in the golf space. Worked with, uh, Fitzpatrick, um, a ton of guys, um, but designed this combine to 24 shot test. Uh, that you can take, and it’s two approach starters and driver. So, for me, it’s like, alright, I got 15 20 minutes. Uh, I can’t go play, so I’m gonna, like, play, do this combine, and it gives you a score at the end of it with a handicap associated. You can see, like, where [00:29:00] your proximity is versus pro, versus your handicap range. And for me, it’s like, that’s kind of tests the game a little bit. Um, it’s not the same because you’re not getting the short game in putting, but, like, I know where my ball striking is. Um, if I go in there and I get a bad score on, like, a 50 yard shot, But I did really well from 180. It’s like, all right, next time I’m out here, I’m going to, I’m going to work on the 50 yards. So, um, really actionable that way. And then a fun feature in the two pro that I’ve, that I’ve used, and I wasn’t anticipating this is we have 30, 000 courses that you can play from, uh, as well as some other partnerships with, uh, simulation, uh, partners. But I’ll kind of like scout out a course ahead of time just on the sim. So, um, it’s, it’s auto putting on there, but like, you know, playing, playing persimmon this week, you know, look it up. Play it and it takes a very short amount of time and it gives you like a sense of like Alright, when am I going to head off one, when am I going to head off two, a little bit of like where I’m going to aim, um, especially for courses that we don’t, I don’t play, or haven’t played, haven’t played in a while, um, so [00:30:00] that’s been like a very, uh, helpful thing that I wasn’t anticipating in terms of like very practical Jeff Pelizzaro: way to use it. Yeah, you probably thought like, I won’t really use the simulator stuff very much, I’ll use it more for the practice, but. Whereas, you know, a lot of people just want to use it for the simulator because it’s just like playing golf, but that’s, that’s pretty cool. So how long does the combine take? And you said it’s only 24, 24 Justin Bryant: balls? Yeah, so it’s, yeah, it gives you kind of six warm up shots, uh, and then there’s 24 shots. So you’ll hit, um, it’s a nice rotation too. So you’ll hit two to the first approach target, two to the second approach target, and then two drivers. And then you’ll go through that, uh, four times. So 24 shots. So it takes me about 15 minutes, maybe 20 if I’m like very meticulous or… Cleaning my clubs between each shot or something like that, um, but yeah, it’s, it’s a fun way to do it. And actually in August, um, a cool thing we’re doing is if you take a combine on MLM or MM2 Pro, you are, uh, entered into a contest, or entered to win a virtual lesson with Claude Harmon III. Oh, wow. Which is pretty cool. Okay. So, may take out a couple [00:31:00] extra this month. That’s pretty cool. Jeff Pelizzaro: That’s awesome. So, um, as far as like, figuring out your distances on your clubs, the, you know, different gapping and stuff like that, is there a specific program that does that? Or is it something that you kind of have to piece together? How do you, how do you do that? I’ve Justin Bryant: never done that. Yeah, we got it. We got to document this. We got to get it because it’s, it’s shocking to me. How many people don’t that are like golfers, they just don’t know how far they hit it. Yeah. Um, and a lot of people like know how far they hit their best six iron or like their top 10% of their best six irons or they know like how far it goes in total. Um, really understand that carry number is really important to people. Um, but yeah, I, I just recommend the first time somebody gets it, like put it down, you know, hit six shots with each one of your clubs. Um, and then we have this session inside. So post session, you can click on that and it’ll show like. Your shortest shot with your six, your longest, and then your average, and then all your clubs. And so you can kind of see, um, you know, what distances you have between each [00:32:00] club. So, you kind of want twelve ish, ten, twelve yards, you know, between each club. Um, a lot of times what we’ll see with people is like their three or four iron or their three hybrid four iron, four or five, kind of go the same distance. Like, if you go in there and you hit shots and you have like a four yard difference. Like, you should go get fit and fight, you know, put, or put an extra wedge in there because that’s, that’s not going to be a meaningful bump on the golf course to, to make a difference. So that’s like the first thing I always tell people, just go out, hit every club in your bag, hit six of them, um, recommend six cause that’s kind of enough as a sample size, uh, to hit. And then you can kind of see. See how your bag looks that’s check number one Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah, I remember going through some of the combine stuff with you when you guys were doing all your testing Yeah, you were you were an early beta tester. I was I was and I remember it was an eye opening moment when you’re like You should always lay up to 90 yards Because like of all my clubs like that was the one club that I hit pretty consistently and you’re like whatever you do Lay up to 90 yards and that was eye opening [00:33:00] because I’d never really even, it was always just kind of like, just try to get as close as you possibly can. You’re like, no, you’re better. You’re better back here than you are up Justin Bryant: there. If you’re, yeah. If you’re averaging like 90 yards, your proximity is closer and you’re like twice as bad from 50 because that’s like, it’s good to know, you know, it’s like, it’s whether it’s that or like. I’d say kind of the three things are one, figuring out like where your strengths are. So like you understanding that, um, that leads into like this guy in our office, like loves hitting his driver. And so like, when he takes a combine, his, his handicap is like a one and then his approach targets, he’s like a 25 to 30 handicap. And I’m like, Brian, like you need to practice your irons. It’s very obvious, like where you spend all your time. Uh, and if you just want to hit drivers, it’s great. Like if you want to improve, it’s pretty obvious where you need to improve. Um, and two, it’s just like the, to be able to provide like context to people and what a good shot is. Um, because I think you watch the, you know, the PGA tour or shout out to the lid tour watching that and you see like the average distance, you know, of, uh, or you see that where they’re hitting it and it’s like, you’re seeing the best players on the planet, best [00:34:00] shots that week. So, um, when you take the comment, it’ll show you like, yeah, your proximity, what a pros is, and then your handicaps, you’re kind of like, oh, wow, pros from, I don’t know, I’m off the top of my head, but a hundred yards, it’s. 15 feet or whatever it is. Yeah. Um, it’s not five feet. So it kind of gives you two, like a little freedom, I think, to kind of, um, you know, swing without the pressure of like a half tip is to two feet. Cause in reality, you’re not going to do that every time. Jeff Pelizzaro: Let’s take a second to thank our partners over at Live Pure. Live Pure is the number one hydration drink that you need on the golf course, especially when it’s getting hot out there. You’re sweating. You’re playing lots of golf. You need something more than just water in your water bottle. So, Dr. Troy Van Biesen and his team formulated one of the greatest hydration products out there that is no sugar added, all natural ingredients, and the top quality PGA Tour pros, champions that you know, are all using this [00:35:00] on the golf course. So, go over to LivePure. com. That’s L I V P U R. com. Check out all their products. You can use the code 18STRONG. And let Live Peer champion your day. So, we’ve had a chance to play together a few times and we do our Friday morning mandatory golf Friday. Shout out to Link Soul for, for starting that. Um, so obviously when you’re playing in competitions, you’re playing with very high level golfers. When you’re playing in our Friday morning, we’ve, we’ve got run the gamut, right? Yeah, we got the Justin Bryant: range. We’ve Jeff Pelizzaro: got a few really good guys, couple plus handicappers. We’ve got some guys up in the twenties and you know, maybe even beyond there. Um, but so when you’re out there playing with guys of more that caliber, let’s say the 10 plus handicappers, what are you seeing out there where you’re like, man, if I could just work with that person or give them a little bit of, of hints or [00:36:00] instruction on like not necessarily like their golf swing, but. Like what they should be working on. What are some of the things that you see? And you could pick on me if you want, by all means. Um, but just a couple of like, like big rock things that many of us either get wrong or just don’t put the time in or don’t know that we should be putting the time in there. Justin Bryant: Yeah. So I think there’s a couple of things is people want, as we kind of talked about, they don’t know how far they hit it. They may think they know how far they hit it, but they don’t. So people grab clubs and I’m like, it’s not, it’s not going to get there. Like, so, you know, and then they hit it and I can’t believe I didn’t get there. Um, so I think one, it’s understanding your game. Uh, so one, where to hit it, and then, or how far you’re hitting it, and then two, it’s just like the course management stuff. So, whether that’s understanding what target to aim at. So, like, the thing that I love is when I’m helping a buddy out at the range, and he kind of wants a lesson, I’m like, alright. Or my boys, I’m like, well, where are you aimed? I’m like, I don’t know, I just want to hit it straight. And I’m like, that’s like going to the gym and just taking a basketball and just shooting it around. Like, [00:37:00] and you’re just like, what are you doing? Well, I’m just, I’m just trying to, I’m shooting it. And it’s like, you need to have a target on the range. And there’s a time on the range not to have a target if you’re working on technique and you just kind of need to grind something. But like, if you’re not working on something very specific technique wise. You need to pick a target and if you’re working on something technique wise like don’t even care where it goes because you’re trying to work on like a movement so one it’s picking a target out there and that’s like understanding that I call it like the the shot you know sniper versus the shotgun so a lot of people are aiming right at the pin. And like, I can’t tell you how few times I aim at the pin when I’m playing. Um, and you should swing as if you’re aiming at a very specific target, but understanding you really don’t know where the ball is going to go. So like, you need to swing like you know where it’s going. So it’s that fine thing of not really understanding it. So, you know, people need to just aim at the middle of the green and swing very aggressively at that middle target, and you’re going to hit the ball close to the pin by accident. So, like, as a general rule [00:38:00] of thumb, I think that is a good one. I think a really good exercise, too, in terms of just course management is, like, play with a half set or, like, five clubs. Yeah. Because, uh, I do it sometimes as an exercise of course management because then you get between, like, a, you know, it’s like, oh, man, it’s a perfect 7 iron, but you only have a 6 and 8 in your bag. And then the thought is either, how do I get this? there, uh, to be a 7 iron, or where do I want the ball to leave it. So, I think a lot of times it’s just understanding, like, 5 at Ruth Park. Like, you can’t go long there. I’ve played with so many people and they, they want to get in the back tier in the air mill, and I’m like, well you’re, now you’re dead. Now you’re legitimately dead. So, um, that’s a shot like it stinks when you hit it short and it rolls back, but it’s a way better shot than long. So I think it’s like… Understanding some of that nuance in like club selection too. So there’s learning how far you’re going to hit it, and then there’s just kind of like understanding targets and where your misses need to be. Um, and kind of managing that. Of like, you know, there’s certain holes when I [00:39:00] play, and guys are like, they see the fairway, and so they’re like, well I’m going to aim it down the fairway. And I’ll play a hole, there’s one at St. Louis, number 14. Um, there’s like woods right of the rough. And like, I say there’s the world to the left. So I aim down the left edge of the fairway in the rough. and understand that, like, I’m probably going to hit it in the left rough. But, like, it’s an easy wedge to the green. Versus if I aim in the middle of the fairway, 20% of the time I’m going to hit it in the right rough and I’m dead. Right. So, I just eliminate that side completely and accept, like, the rough’s fine. So, I think it’s kind of just, like, understanding some of that. That, like, you don’t have to hit it in the fairway. You don’t have to hit the green. Like, sometimes a little shorter the green’s better than 20 feet, you know, above the pin. So. Yeah, Jeff Pelizzaro: Ruth, Ruth Park number five. Hardest hole in St. Louis. Maybe the hardest green in St. Louis. If you’re on the wrong tier, you’re in trouble. Uh, when you’re out either just playing by yourself or even competitive rounds, what are you tracking now as opposed to what you used to track back in the day or if it’s the same maybe.[00:40:00] Just as far as your stats and how do you use them then to say, alright I need to go practice this or that. Justin Bryant: Yeah, so I still do it a little bit. I’m not as intense as I used to so I don’t do my practice stats. Uh, every once in a while, I’ll use, um, a couple different systems in terms of like, uh, I said I don’t practice my putting, but like they’re basically simulated putting is what I’ll do. So like decade app has one stack, I think has one where they’ll basically be like, all right, hit a 15 footer left to right. And I’ll kind of like do that and it’ll kind of say like what strokes gained you are. So to me, that’s like a valuable tool. Um, I don’t chart my practice stuff anymore outside of that. Um, but in terms of tournaments, I’ll still write the result of every shot down. So I’ll track my tournament rounds, and I use, uh, the Golf Metrics app, which is Mark Brody’s Strokes Gained app. Oh, yeah. Um, cause to me, it’s super easy to kind of plug them in. I’ve used it over the years. Is that something you have to do after Jeff Pelizzaro: your Justin Bryant: round, or? Yeah, so I do it after the round. So essentially, like, I’ll get a scorecard, or I’ll use the pin sheet, and it’s [00:41:00] like, you basically write the distance you have to the hole. And then, like, I don’t write the Y down there just because I put it in after the round and I remember where I hit it. That’s because you don’t have a hundred strokes. But it’ll be like, you know, the first hole, uh, was in the fairway and I was 86 yards to the pin. Hit 20 feet, put it to 2 feet in. And so you put that in there and then over the course of 18 holes, it uses the PGA Tour average. So you can use, like, uh, the amateur, um, or the, the pro stroke scan. I, I just use the pro. Um, but it’ll give you context of what the average is. So it’s not perfect system because on the tour, they’re using that data from that week on that whole, but I kind of look at it as like throughout the year, it’s going to kind of all even out with that. And it gives me context of like how, how, how I’m playing. So if I’m positive strokes gain on something, I did it well. If I’m negative, I don’t put a ton of thought into it. If it’s one round. Unless I was like, man, I, something funky was going on. Um, but if I like see over the course of a tournament or like a month, [00:42:00] there’s a trend going on, then I’ll kind of think about how I need to fix it, but I don’t try to make one off, one round. You’re gonna, you’re gonna put bad one round or hit a driver bad one round. So, it is what it Jeff Pelizzaro: is. What do you do, um, Are you, do you work with an instructor at all? I know you, you obviously know the golf swing very well. You, and you, you know, practice a lot or practice quite a bit. But, um, as far as like your swing in itself, when you find that maybe there’s something a little bit off, how do you go about kind of diagnosing and fixing that? What do you do to work on it? Do you have somebody that you lean on to look at your stuff or you just kind of Justin Bryant: work on your own? Yeah, at this point, I kind of work on my own. Uh, I would definitely recommend people find somebody though. So… Was very fortunate to, to grow up and take lessons from and learn from people like Mike Tucker, Brian Fote, St. Louis guys. Um, but also Jack Lumpkin taught me for like the majority I would say of like high school, college pro, at least 15 years. So, and he really instilled in me, [00:43:00] um, he was, he was always there if I needed him, but he was like, listen, like Jack Nicholas got like two lessons from his coach a year. I forget what it was, but basically trying to say like, you need to own your swing. Um, so I, I really think that that was like 15 years. We didn’t, like, learn everything to know about, like, golf swing, so I’m not, wouldn’t say, like, I’m really smart there, but I feel like I have a Ph. D. in my swing. Um, my tendency is what I need to do to get better, so I don’t work with anyone, um, now. I kind of, the, the values and lessons he taught me there, so I keep it really simple of, To me, normally, posture, grip, alignment is where you start, so PGA is pretty easy to remember. So if I’m hitting it funky, that’s the first three things I check. If that kind of goes off the, the, um, that seems fine, I kind of just keep it simple. So like, I, uh, I kind of think about the area between both, like my backswing for my hips on both sides. And if that area is good, [00:44:00] You’re going to hit it good, so like, I don’t have a ton of time now to like work on my backswing and where it’s going to be, so I kind of try to think about there, think about where I need to be at impact, um, think about the shot shapes I need to hit, so he always told me like, if you’re hooking it, just go on the range and hit a bunch of cuts. If you’re cutting it, you need too much, go on the range and add a bunch of draws. So, keeping it super simple is how I try to do it. And some days you feel so lost. And then Kelly, my wife, kids, I’ll come home and be like, I figured it out. And she’s like, yeah, I’ve heard that before. Jeff Pelizzaro: That’s, maybe that’s the next. Next, uh, good bogey shirt you need to make is, I figured it out. I was just thinking about that the end of day. I figured it out. That was a good one. Yeah. I mean, the, the words you hear most in the world of golf, that is like, oh, you just, you just cursed yourself. Right. It’s like figured it out. Oh, it’s, it feels so Justin Bryant: easy though. Yeah. It feels so easy. Then you go out the next day and you’re like, I, it’s not working. Nope. Jeff Pelizzaro: So speaking of, of coaches, you had the, the pleasure of, of playing for Coach Haas. Yeah. At Wake Forest you played with Web Simpson. [00:45:00] Any good Coach Haas stories for us? Oh Justin Bryant: man, Coach Hostor is, he’s just the best. I mean, he’s like a big kid, um, in some sense. Um, I love that man to death. Still text him and talk to him all the time. You know, we talk about, he’s from St. Louis, an area of Belleville. Um, so I always text him about the Blues and Cardinals and Nelly’s songs. And his son’s gonna be on the Wake team next year, which is awesome. Oh, no way. Yeah, he just won that Eastern AM, I think. Wow. So, uh, excited to follow, uh, follow Kyle’s career. Man. I don’t, I don’t know about like, I’m probably blanking on like a couple of gems, but like the one story that sticks out to me in college was, um, I didn’t make, so in college you got about like 12 guys on the team, only like 5 travel. I, I didn’t make this tournament, but early in the morning I get a knock on my door at like 4am. And I was like, some drunk kids here, like, so I kind of like went down to like a golf club. Because I was like, it was our house, and I was like, you just don’t know what you’re going to get before you get up in the morning. [00:46:00] Um, and it was this freshman on our team, he was like, you need to, you need to go to the tournament in Tampa. I was like, Brendan, what are you talking about? He’s like, you know, so and so’s sick, like you need to go down there. They’ve been trying to call you. Whatever. So, like, I pack, like, I think my flight was in, like, an hour and a half, had to drive to Charlotte, get down there, like, warm up, and have them play the course, jet late, they drive me to the course, um, and I’m, like, on the, hit a couple balls when we’re not with Coach Howes, and he’s kind of catted me away around, and he always jokes that I hit, I, he’s like, you were striping on the range, and then we tee it up, and you look like you hit a wiffle ball, because I hit this, like, big balloon slice, like, I’m sure I was nervous. I don’t remember. It was ugly. But hit it way out to the right, chip out, and I have like 90 yards to the green. And I look in my bag and I’m like, I have two 58 degrees in my bag. So I’m freaking out because I’m like, I just got penalized. But then I realized I have no sandwich. Um, but I [00:47:00] didn’t want to tell Coach Haas, and I like chunked the chip from the bunker. I made like double, triple in the first hole. Like, I didn’t want to tell Coach, like, I don’t, I don’t have a sandwich. Until we get to like the seventh hole, and we’re like in the rough, and I don’t remember, it was like 107 yards, and he’s like, we got 107, the wind’s doing this, you gotta land it here. He’s like, what do you, what do you like? And I was like, well, I was like, I could use the new 58 with fresh grooves or you can go the old 58 with worn out grooves. I was like, and he kind of paused and looks at me like, I don’t have a sandwich. And I don’t remember what he said, but he just very calmly was like, no grooves. Um, and I hit it and like we laughed just about that whole day because it was a bizarre day like flying in, I had two lob wedges, hit it, whiff a ball off the first hole, just terrible shot and ended up, I think, shooting like even or something. I had a good round, but, uh, that’s like the memory I have of coach the mouse there. Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah. We had him on the show a long time ago. He’s still, he has texted me a couple of times to get extra 18STRONG t shirts. Oh, he’s texting me too. He loves that shirt. He loves that shirt. [00:48:00] Uh, but no, he’s just such a, such a. Yeah. It’s a fun guy to just interact with. Obviously I’ve only had a couple of interactions with him, but that, that’s cool that his son’s going to be there and we’ll have to follow him as well. Um, all right. So obviously I’m sporting my, my good bogey shirt. Um, good bogey is your Instagram handle and, and, uh, tell us a little bit about, uh, Um, what the good bogey is, where it started. Obviously you’ve got some design background and, and, uh, you’re putting out some merch, but also the swing traces and all kinds of Justin Bryant: stuff. Yeah. So not a short elevator pitch answer on the good bogey, but essentially the short as I can make it was, um, during COVID, um, you know, finding other outlets, things to do, and I’ve always, my family has a huge, like art background. My sister has a, as a company that has a lot of art infused into it. Art history majors. It just kind of was always around me. Kelly’s, uh, my wife’s grandpa, uh, it’s a really good graphic designer. That’s done a lot of really cool, uh, famous logos. And so I feel like I’ve always kind of been [00:49:00] around that like design art kind of thing. And, and so there was like some specific things I was, I wrote like a kid’s book for, for Jack’s, um, my oldest son, um, during COVID. And I was like, I kind of don’t want any pictures or kind of some art stuff. And I was like, I kind of want, this is kind of the look I wanted, but like, It didn’t exist out there. So started kind of making some of my own things. Um, and then it was just like a really good exercise for me because one, like kind of have, I fall in the spectrum of like trying to be a perfectionist person, not caring about anything. So that’s like plays its way on the golf course. It plays its way throughout life. So I was like, all right, this is a good exercise for me of like, It doesn’t have to be perfect, but like, let’s get stuff done. Let’s put it out there. Like, let’s just kind of create. Um, and so that’s where the good bogey came from is like people, you know, are bogeys good or bad? Jeff Pelizzaro: I mean, they’re, they’re bad, but for many golfers, they’ll take bogey, bogey. Yeah. But that’s the, Justin Bryant: that’s the thing is like, it’s all relative, right? So like [00:50:00] some players, uh, bogey is good. Yeah. Like some players, bogey is really bad. They’re situationals. Like, you know, do you remember what Tiger did in 2019? Like, well, he won. Oh, yeah, he won. He won. Do you remember what he did on the first hole? No. Remember what he did on the last hole? No. So, I don’t remember he won. Yeah, but he bogeyed the last hole. Yeah. And he won by one. So, like, to me, like, if you isolate that one hole, like, did Tiger play that hole well, it’s like, I mean, no, but situationally he did. So it was, it was a good bogey in that sense. Yeah. Hitting your ball out of bounds and then making a bogey is a good bogey. So I think for me, it was more of like an exercise of just like that, you know, like, like if, in order to like for us to change as humans and like, whether that’s culturally beliefs, like you have to like have these rituals in your lives of like actually doing that. So for me, it was just like. I want to shed this like perfectionism and like do stuff and so the ritual was was creating stuff and just posting So like I had no expectation. It was an exercise purely for me. [00:51:00] It was purely fun Um, and it kind of morphed into what it is continuing to be, you know Now there’s kind of things I want to do with it, but it’s kind of golf art graphic design thing. So I’ve been fortunate enough to create some, some, um, designs for some people, um, and some of it for myself that I, that I sell, whether it’s t shirts or, you know, pieces of art, people have turned them into tattoos, which like still blows me away. Yeah. So like one of the, one of our logos is, is like a kid caddy. Um, is Jeff Pelizzaro: it on the back? Justin Bryant: It’s not on that one. It’s not on that one. It might, it’s on your fridge over there. Okay. Bye. It’s a kid caddy kind of like walking, um, walking with his bag and there’s kind of like an Augusta theme one. And there’s, you know, kind of like a Pinehurst theme one. Um, and there’s a couple other ones in the works, but that was kind of modeled off my middle kid, Lad. Um, I love Lad, which Lad’s awesome. All three of my kids and Lad just kind of has this like. [00:52:00] Love sports, love action, but like kind of doesn’t care. Um, so kind of embodying his energy a little bit into that character and lads tattooed on some people. So, uh, it’s pretty, it’s pretty wild. So thanks. So, uh, yeah, we’ve done some design and kind of the biggest thing that took off was, uh, the, um, signature sing, uh, swing signature, signature swing. Uh, swing signature is what it really is, but I kind of just flipped the word because the good bogey and gonna put it out of order. Um, but it’s essentially these traces of people’s paths on the downswing, uh, the backswing and I was really doing it completely for myself of like. During COVID, I was thinking about my golf swing a lot. Um, and, um, I used to look at my swing a ton on video. And as I said, like the more I understood golf, my game, the more problems I saw with it. So like I wanted to isolate it and not see it and actually just look at the pattern of what the club [00:53:00] was doing and then look like. What was Sne doing? What was Hogan doing? Like, what do their patterns look like? Um, cause I really, my, Jack Lumpkin, my golf coach, growing up, I’ll never forget when he said this to me when we were getting a lesson, and he said, you know, fairways are full of good players, or good looking swings. Um, and I was like, Oh gosh, yeah, you’re right. That doesn’t really matter what your swing looks like. Um, but really wanted to study these like movements. So I’m starting doing it and I, I post them on there and that kind of was kind of cool art forms. And, um, now it kind of people really hang them in their house. Um, I’ll do it. People have gotten them tattooed on themselves. Um, they get, they’re really popular gifts for people or like kind of wedding gifts for Uh, bachelors and stuff. And so it’s been like a really fun project that like had no intention that it would happen. It was just an exercise for myself. So where’s Jeff Pelizzaro: the, where’s the best place for people to go find that? Is it [00:54:00] Instagram Justin Bryant: or Instagram? Yeah. Working, working on a website right now, Instagram is the best. So it’s at the good bogey. Um, and you can kind of see, um, all the stuff, uh, created on there, uh, as well as kind of links to the stuff. If you fancy fancy to a printer shirt or something. So I Jeff Pelizzaro: think it’s interesting. Um, Before we were talking about your golf game and you said, I hate bogeys, hate them. And then your explanation of the good bogey, it’s like, it’s such a mental process of kind of getting over that. Like things don’t have to be perfect. Just kind of put it out there and get it out there. Same with the golf, with the golf game, right? Like put a swing on it, see where it goes, put another swing on it. I think that’s, that’s pretty cool. Um, so just golf wise for yourself now. Moving into end of 23, you’ve actually got a pretty big event coming up in the next couple of days here in St. Louis, um, which this episode will be out quite a bit after that event’s done. But what are some of the goals for 23, 24? I know you’ve got some, some things [00:55:00] that you’re kind of shooting for. And is it something that you kind of write down? I want to make this tournament or, you know, what does that look like for you? Justin Bryant: Yeah, I got it in my phone. Um, there’s definitely goals that I’ll have each year and then there’s kind of like things that I’m like, I want to accomplish. So, kind of the same mindset of putting the game plan together for tournament. Um, it’s the same for this. So, shooting, shooting big, you know, like I, I, um, I don’t know if I’m going to get into the exact ones but, I, you know, end of the day it’s kind of balancing of like, I have a job, I have a wife. Uh, and three kids, and I love, and I love spending, you know, time with them. So like, as my boys love the game, sometimes I’m, we’ll go to the range for three hours, and I’m like, I hit two balls, but to me, it’s like way more enjoyable to be with them, and interact with them, and help them if they, one kid likes the help, the other doesn’t. Um, and that’s completely fine. Um, so I try to kind of balance. That a little bit, but at the same time, it’s [00:56:00] like I’m signing up to the tournament to play the best I can. Um, and so, for me, that’s what it is. I’m just going to work. and family and golf. So, um, we’ll see what happens and fitness. There we go. No, I mean, that’s, that’s a huge part. That’s the foundation of playing good golf, especially at this age. Jeff Pelizzaro: So what does it look like? Kind of giving you a little trouble there, but you know, what does it look like right now? As far as like, what’s Kelly Kelly might be based on a little bet that we had that. You know, we had to institute exercise for her on because of something, but, uh, no, I mean, as far as what kind of a routine do you have? I know that you’ve always been, uh, you know, you’ve had your routines that you get up in the morning and do some different things. What does that look like for you now? Are there different things that you want to implement or, you know, what has worked for you in the past or Justin Bryant: whatnot? Yeah, so I’ve had [00:57:00] some back and neck stuff over the years, which, um, it’s gotten better, um, but then it’s like now working, sitting at a desk on a computer, it’s like that presents its own challenges, you know, and everyone else knows, uh, very well. So I think there’s really small stuff like standing at work, make sure I’m moving around. Um, I would say. Honestly gotten pretty lazy in the last year. Uh, let’s just call it what it is. Um, uh, my wife wakes up and gets after it. And, um, so it’s, it’s really cool to see that and kind of see the benefits of that. But, um, for me, it’s, it’s, it’s that too. So like right now. Like, understanding, like, if your body isn’t feeling good, like, forget golf, like, life just stinks, you know? Like, playing with the kids, feeling good. So, I think just understanding, um, that first and foremost, and then, like, I want to play good golf too. So, um, for me, it’s, it’s, um, a lot of [00:58:00] movements, you can say stretching, but kind of getting in positions of things that are gonna, um, help me feel good. So, things that you’ve taught me in terms of certain stretches. Um, you know, the basics of pushing and pulling, so, um, whether it’s push ups or things like that, and, um, you need to get into the gym more to do that, but, um, yeah. Making sure you’re feeling right so you can play right. Otherwise you’re compensating and you’re not feeling good. That’s Jeff Pelizzaro: tough for sure. All right. I got a couple questions to finish up with many people Probably don’t even know that you’ve been on the 18STRONG podcast. That’s right I mean one of the early early stages, so I don’t have this nice studio No, this wasn’t this wasn’t a thing back then. It was me in my back little room office or whatever But I I’m sure I asked you these questions, but we’re gonna ask them again. They may have been Change and some of the questions are different. First of all, Caddyshack or Happy Justin Bryant: Gilmore? Caddyshack. I mean, I love Happy Gilmore, too. But Caddyshack’s just a classic. I mean, [00:59:00] it’s it’s tough to beat. What’s what do you have like the actual like breakdown? I don’t I Jeff Pelizzaro: don’t have the numbers. I’ve said you need to hire somebody to go back and listen to each of them. I Justin Bryant: just feel like the found, like it, Happy Gilmore wouldn’t exist without Caddyshack. You know what I mean? I think you’re right. That humor. I bet Adam Sandler would say that too. Yeah, and it’s And I like Adam Sandler, and I love Happy Gilmore, but I mean, Caddyshack, I mean, I quote Caddyshack Whittemore and I quote Happy Gilmore, so I feel like that is the answer. Same. Jeff Pelizzaro: Alright, walk up song. If you could pick one to the first tee, what are you picking? Justin Bryant: You know, I did this actually in a Corner Fairy event, we did, I don’t remember picks. What I would pick now, man. What, wait, what do you, what would you pick? While I’m thinking about this? Jeff Pelizzaro: I’ve always said, uh, Beastie Boys, Sabotage. Yeah? Kind of depends on the mood though, I think. So, you know, Is this like a part three, part five walk up? I don’t know. Let’s say First Tee at St. Louis Country Club.[01:00:00] That’s a different vibe than I would probably go for. Let’s do that and then First Tee Justin Bryant: at Phoenix Open. Yeah, First Tee at Phoenix Open, man. That’s got to have some juice to it. Yeah. Um, first tea at Phoenix open, I’d probably do, uh, I’m going to say coming in hot by Andy Mineo. I’m going to cry. That’s the boy we play with. I play with the boys in the car a lot. It’s a very viral sound. So I’m going to go with that. St. Louis, we maybe go with like, you know, Mozart, Beethoven, something a little more classy. No, I probably, no, in all seriousness, probably go like the who. Um, Bob O’Reilly, you know, kind of good build up. Jeff Pelizzaro: Mellow. Yeah. Is there a book that you have read that’s influenced you, whether that be golf, that be, you know, just your overall philosophy that you have either recommended or would like to recommend to? Justin Bryant: Yeah, a good book. Outside of your book? Outside of my book, yes. He didn’t prompt me for that. Yeah. Um, man, I don’t read as much as I should, to be [01:01:00] honest. I read a ton before kids, and I don’t as much now. So for me, the Bible, I read. I read, um, and… Really that foundation of relationship with God and and understanding that so I would start with the Gospels If I would recommend to someone to check those out I think people have heard of them, but still it’s still good. It’s still good other books I mean in terms of like golf like Bob Rotel stuff’s really good I get in like some random books of like no one wants to read these Jeff Pelizzaro: Like, mindset, history, like what mindset Justin Bryant: I’m not a big like fiction person. So I like, yeah, understanding, you know, whether it’s numbers stuff or, um, just kind of how different people think. Um, so, but that’s kind of, I go to, I like to understand, like, uh, I was, I was an econ major in college and religion. So like, I like kind of the psychology or kind of [01:02:00] like understanding human behaviors, how people. Do things well or not well. So, anything that falls into that category, I just find really interesting. Jeff Pelizzaro: Who would be in your dream foursome? If you could go play golf with anybody, past, present. Who, who are you playing to pick, or who are you picking to play? Four or five hours with you can pick their brain. You can, Justin Bryant: um, I mean, I can give you two answers. Can I give you two? You can give me two. Okay. So answer number one is definitely my kids. I do it now and it’s just the best. It’s so fun. And they fight and there’s moments where you’re like, why are we doing this? But it’s the best. Um, if I was doing like the other foursome, I’m going to, I’m going to mix it up. I’m going to say, uh, so me, I’m going to go Adam Sandler. Um, we’ll get the, he has to hit his happy go more. We’ll get in there. Um, we’re going to go Bill Murray in there from Caddyshack. And then the last one to round out the four, who would be, uh, I’ll go Larry [01:03:00] David. Jeff Pelizzaro: Look at you. You’re going straight comedy. Justin Bryant: I just feel like that’d be like probably not high quality golf, but, and I don’t know if those people like each other. Maybe that’s like a disaster pairing, but I feel like there’d be a lot of, uh, a lot of, you know, entertainment value in that. That’d be a very, Jeff Pelizzaro: very entertaining round for sure. What’s a bucket list course that you would want to play? Like we said. Justin, we got the jet fueled up, we’re going tomorrow, where are you Justin Bryant: picking? There’s a lot. So, I, I played, um, our mutual, mutual friend, uh, Wheeler Frost, uh, went over for his graduation when he graduated from St. Andrews, but the old course was closed, so. Cause I think the Open was coming there in two weeks. I think that’s when Zach Johnson won. But we played like the New, we played Kings Barn, Carnoustie. And that was awesome. And I just love that. So I mean, to me, I know it’s cliche, but the old course, you want to play it. It’s like you’ve played it on video games and all stuff, but, uh, be that. But there’s, I mean, there’s so much good golf. Like I want to play Painted Dunes and stuff, uh, stateside. So. There’s a long list. Yeah. Long list. Like Jeff Pelizzaro: [01:04:00] most of us. What’s the best golf advice you’ve ever been given? Justin Bryant: Best golf advice I’ve ever been given? Um, um, care less about it. Like, care less. Like, think less. I think the more, I think there’s that fine line between every round. of like, you know, if you’re scaled from 0 to 10 on where you care, where your energy level is for that round, you kind of have to figure out where you play your best. So some people play best if they’re at a 10, best if they’re super mellowed out. I’m kind of in this like in between, I would say like a six or seven where like I’m, I really care, but I gotta pretend like I don’t. So, um, so for me kind of just like, Hey, just don’t care as much for me has been. Yeah. Really beneficial. Yeah. We’re, Jeff Pelizzaro: we’re starting to. So my son is 15 getting into golf. You, you met Sam before and I’m, I’m really finding that like when he’s not playing well, you can see he’s [01:05:00] just not enjoying being out there. Right. And, and so just trying to kind of get in, I mean, we all kind of, or I have struggled with this too, but it’s like, man, you have to realize that like, this is pretty good that we’re out here just playing. It’s just me, you, grandpa, you know, uncle Dino. We, you can’t let a couple of bad shots like ruin your whole day here. So, um, trying to work our way through that and where he doesn’t come home and be grumpy and Justin Bryant: the best exercise I’ve ever done for that. And it’s under this is. Like, just write down on a piece of paper, so I wrote it down on my phone, of like, when I play well, I do blank, and write a couple, and then like, when I play poorly, I do blank. And real quick, you’ll understand what you need to do. And I’ll read those, I don’t know, 50 times throughout the year. Like, if I’m not feeling well, like, before, like, I had a bad rating session on the way to the tee, I’ll just read that, and it’s like, alright, I’m just gonna do, I’m gonna do what I do when I play well, and see what happens, and like, you’ll be surprised how much that helps. That’s cool. It’ll just change your mind. And you may still play bad, but you’ll be in the [01:06:00] right mindset, Jeff Pelizzaro: which is at least the start. Alright, last one. What’s a social media account that you follow that you think would be fun for the 18STRONG crew to follow as well? Justin Bryant: Social media account? There’s like so many good ones that I feel like have popped up and are just really good. So obviously the Good Bodhi I’ve heard is like phenomenal content. A good social media account I’m thinking of ones I’ve seen recently that aren’t necessarily the best. Um, but I, I try to find stuff that, um, people that are putting out stuff that like will inspire you and you can kind of rip off of. So whatever that is. So like I’m in marketing at Repsoto and like, I saw there’s, there’s one account that basically is like, these are the top, I don’t know what it is, so sorry, I’m not giving them credit, but like these are the top ads I saw this week. And so for me, that’s the kind of stuff I like love is like, okay. That person did it. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I can like [01:07:00] reiterate off that. And it’s the same thing I do with like the good bogey designs. It’s like, no thoughts really original. It’s like, oh, I like a little bit of what Jeff’s doing over here. I like a little bit of what’s going on over here. And merging that together. So, there’s a ton of good creators in the golf space. I really like Radrey Golf. I think that, uh, R A D R Y on Instagram. I think his stuff’s really creative. It’s, it’s, it’s, and it’s good. Um, so way better than mine. Um, but it’s a cool brand of fouls, so people should check it out. Jeff Pelizzaro: Check it out. All right. Best place to follow you and even your golf journey. Would that be the good bogey? Do you post stuff about, you know, what’s going on in your Justin Bryant: golf life? Yeah, I do a little bit. Um, so yeah, at the good bogey is the best Instagram. Um, if you want to see what, see what pictures of me and my family, I’m at Justin D. Bryan on Instagram, but that’s not going to be as exciting majority of people. Uh, so I would check out at the good bogey and yeah, that’s. I’ll update, um, if I’m doing more kind of like national stuff, I’ll kind of have people [01:08:00] follow a little bit along, uh, on their kind of behind the scenes stuff. So cool. Jeff Pelizzaro: And then hopefully soon, uh, you’re going to be giving me some tutorials on the, uh, wrap soda and we post a little content on, you know, you could. Rib on me a little bit. Yeah, we gotta, we gotta, we Justin Bryant: gotta see, we’re gonna, we’re gonna say like, we’ll get you the 7 iron out and you got to call your distance on there. We’re gonna see how well you know your numbers. Jeff Pelizzaro: Okay, that’ll be an exercise. All right, man, really appreciate your time coming in and, uh, look forward to watching you over the next, you know, year or so and see what’s, what’s happened with these goals and where you’re going. Justin Bryant: Yeah, thanks, Jeff. All right, brother. Jeff Pelizzaro: Thanks for joining us this week on the 18STRONG Podcast with our good friend, Justin Bryant. We wish Justin all the luck in his upcoming future events. In his amateur journeys on the golf course, if you want any more information on Justin, the good bogey, or anything we talked about in this episode, just go to 18strong. com. This is episode number 350. We’ll talk to you again in the upcoming weeks with some great guests. [01:09:00] Train hard, practice smart, and play better golf. Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Guest: Tommy Kuhl, Professional Golfer and University of Illinois AlumniHost: Jeff PelizzaroEpisode Number: 349Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast SUMMARYIn this episode, Jeff Pelizzaro chats with Tommy Kuhl, a rising star in the world of professional golf. Tommy shares his journey from playing collegiate golf at the University of Illinois to transitioning into the professional realm, specifically the PGA Tour Canada. The conversation delves into the challenges, learning experiences, and the support system that has guided Tommy through this significant transition. MAIN TOPICS Introduction to Tommy Kuhl Tommy’s recent transition to professional golf after a successful stint at the University of Illinois. His experiences and challenges in the PGA Tour Canada. Tommy’s Collegiate Experience The prestige and challenges of playing for the University of Illinois. Team successes, individual achievements, and the influence of Coach Small. PGA Tour University System The benefits and structure of the PGA Tour University system for college players. Tommy’s insights into the system and its impact on his professional journey. Challenges of Professional Golf The mental and physical toll of continuous travel and tournaments. The financial challenges and the importance of enjoying the journey. Support System and Future Goals Tommy’s reliance on Coach Small and other Illini alumni for guidance. His aspirations and goals for the future in professional golf. RESOURCES MENTIONED Linksoul – The preferred brand of apparel for golfers. Mentioned as a sponsor in the episode. PGA Tour University – A system that aids college players in transitioning to professional golf. CONCLUSIONTommy Kuhl provides a candid look into the world of transitioning from collegiate to professional golf. His insights, challenges, and the support system that has been instrumental in his journey offer a unique perspective for aspiring golfers and fans alike. Tune into the 18STRONG Podcast for more in-depth conversations with golf’s rising stars. Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” ????????) Jeff Pelizzaro: [00:00:00] The 18STRONG Podcast episode number 349 with Tommy Kuhl, professional golfer. What’s up guys. Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we are here to help you build a stronger game. This week we have on Tommy Kuhl, recently turned professional golfer that played golf at the University of Illinois, had a great career there playing for coach small. He And he’s now transitioning over into the professional world, playing on the PGA tour Canada. And we talk about Tommy’s experience going from the collegiate game. And everything that goes on there with all the resources that he has there. And then now becoming his own, basically his own [00:01:00] business as a golfer. And now having to figure out and navigate through the professional world. Through the travel, through the fitness, and figuring out his routines. We talked today with Tommy about some of the experiences he’s already had. Playing in the John Deere Classic, which is his first. PGA Tour event that he’s ever played in. Also a bit of a situation that he was in, in a US Open qualifier, where he ended up having to DQ himself. You may have heard that story and seen that on, the Monday Q or some of the other golf publications. that put that out where Tommy actually called a penalty on himself after shooting a course record at Illini Country Club and had to DQ himself because of rules infraction. So we go through all of the different situations that Tommy’s been in, what it’s been like to transition, and it’s just a great conversation with a young up and coming golfer that is looking to make his dream come true on the PGA Tour. Real quick, I want to say thanks to our sponsors and partners here. at 18STRONG. First is Link Soul. Link [00:02:00] Soul is our preferred brand of apparel and we’ve been working with Link Soul for a long time. They now not only provide our basically entire wardrobe when we’re on the golf course in casual settings, but even our Ryder cups that we have with our college buddies, all the golf trips we go on, everybody is now wearing Link Soul in our crew. And that’s pretty cool to see. You can go check out all of Link Soul’s gear. At 18STRONG. com slash link soul, and you’re going to get a 20% off discount on anything in your cart. If you go ahead and click the link right there. So go check out link soul again. They’ve got everything from golf apparel, shorts, hoodies, polos, button ups, everything that you need for the golf course and beyond 18STRONG. com slash link soul. Okay. Let’s get into the conversation with Tommy cool. Tommy Kuhl: So Jeff Pelizzaro: are you back home right now? Tommy Kuhl: Are you sorry? Yeah. So I’m actually in Windsor, Ontario. we have an event this week up here and then, I have two off [00:03:00] weeks starting next week. We’re on a four week stretch. This is the last one. So I’m going to finish strong. All right, Jeff Pelizzaro: sweet. So yeah, you had a good weekend last weekend, right? Yeah, I Tommy Kuhl: did. Yep. Got back on track. just finally some good golf. So it felt good to put together some rounds and Jeff Pelizzaro: build off of it. where was that event? Tommy Kuhl: it was in Toronto, TPC Toronto. Jeff Pelizzaro: Okay. Third place finish? third place. Yeah. All right. so where does that put you right now? Order of merit? And, if you could even explain to people, like where? How the PGA Tour of Canada, what gets you to the next step and what’s your Yeah, Tommy Kuhl: basically, PGA Tour Canada, you’re playing for the top 5. top 5 on the money list, or the points list, I should say, gets your Corn Fairy Tour card at the end of the season. And we’re on week, I believe it’s 6 right now, 6 or 7. and, I, last week, helped me a lot. this tour is very top heavy with points. First or third. I made a clutch [00:04:00] birdie on hole 17, which bumped me up to solo third, got me a lot of points. And, I moved up, I think, 46 spots and I’m on 19th right now. I was outside the top 60, didn’t play my best golf, early this season, but, felt good to finally get a good finish. And, like I said, just going to keep building off of it and carry that momentum into this week. Jeff Pelizzaro: Nice. so you said there’s Four weeks left. Is that right? yes, Tommy Kuhl: this week and then three more after this. Jeff Pelizzaro: so a couple good finishes could, could pop you up towards the top there. and then that you said top five order AmeriCos to corn fairy tour, right? Correct. Tommy Kuhl: I believe first place gets their full corn cherry card and then two through five get conditional status. So that should get you in the first couple events of next season. just, that’s the goal for everyone up here, and a lot of guys up here are playing for top 25 on the Order of Merit, which gets you into second stage of Korn Ferry qualifying. But, I’m actually already exempt in the second stage through, the new PGA Tour [00:05:00] University. System. Jeff Pelizzaro: Okay, cool. so yeah, explain that a little bit to us. I want to get into, your time at Illinois and obviously that’s what kind of got you to where you are. You’re having a really strong year. Last year at Illinois, PGA Tour University, which I was just talking to, our buddy, Justin Barjay, who is now working with PGA Tour University. And, I know that you know him very well. It sounds like you actually saw him today. but tell us a little bit about like how does PGA Tour University, what does that do? How does that work? Because that’s a fairly new thing, right? Tommy Kuhl: Yes. I want to say it’s three years, three years old. they started, three years ago,they made this new PGA Tour University and it gives,college seniors, you stay in school, and you play for the rankings. they go off world amateur golf ranking points, wagger,and it only counts for college events and, PGA Tour events. Based on how you play in college tournaments, the number of lagger points you get based on the finish and that, that goes into the system. obviously, like [00:06:00] everything, the better you play, the higher up you’ll be. there’s not much to it, play good golf and you’ll be up on those Jeff Pelizzaro: rankings. And so the top spots at PGA Tour University. do they get their tour card? And then some guys go Corn Fairy. What does that break down? Tommy Kuhl: yes. they’re making changes always to it. But, this was the first year that number one on PGA Tour U got his PGA Tour card. this… Stud by the name of Ludwig Eber, went to Texas Tech, had a heck of a college career, and,he gained his full PGA Tour card, and he’s off and running, he’s killing it right now, and, and then 2 through 10 get, Corn Fairy status. I think 2 through 5 get their Corn Fairy Tour card, and then 6 through 10 get Conditional status, I believe. and then 11 through 20 get full status on PGA Tour Canada. Jeff Pelizzaro: Okay, awesome. Yeah, I was, that’s why I was texting with, Justin today. We’re gonna hopefully bring him on the show too, so he can go a little deeper into [00:07:00] what PGA Tour University is and really the whole program behind it and what that’s doing for Tommy Kuhl: the game. it’s funny you brought it up. I, like you said, I actually saw him today. I know he’s traveling to events. I think that’s his new role, just going to events, learning more about, what it’s like up here. and, this game, professional golf, amateur golf, it’s always changing. And, it was great to see him today. And obviously he has a better idea of what’s going on in PGA Tour University. But, what a platform for college players, but it’s, It makes players stay in college, work for something and have a job out of college, I was talking to him today. I was like, if I just graduated, two months ago, what would I be doing now? Probably just chasing the mini tours and, PGA Tour University gave me the opportunity to come up here and, get a jumpstart professional goal. Yeah. Jeff Pelizzaro: So at the end of this season, Canadian Tour, if by chance you do not make it in that top five. Are there other tournaments that you’ll then be, like, looking to play in the interim before you get to, next year’s Canadian Tour or [00:08:00] Corn Ferry Tour, going through Q School and things like that? What are the other avenues that you can then take, even just to earn paychecks and make money? Because, I know everybody out there is, you guys aren’t rolling in the dough like the PGA Tour guys. people think PGA Tour Canada, they think. That sounds really big, but I know that, it’s a struggle to get out there, stay out there, make money, and make all the ends meet when you’re traveling, how many weeks a year. Tommy Kuhl: Exactly, yeah. I’m sure, like I said, I’m new to this, so I’m learning as I go, but, I’ve heard, the guys up here who’ve been out here, grinding it out have said there’s some pretty good mini tour events during the off season, down in Florida. I know there’s a minor league golf tour down there, and then, out west, there’s a new tour called the Asher Tour, and they provide, players with good opportunities to play and some decent purses, I’m sure during the off season, I’ll, sign up for a couple of those and just stay fresh. and for me, more than anything, I want to be out playing more than practicing. Obviously, practice is important, but I think to go out and test your game and,that’s where [00:09:00] I see, the, Biggest improvement in my game is going out and actually doing it. So I’m sure a player knows and,see if that prepares me for Q school. I’m sure Jeff Pelizzaro: it will. What have been some of the biggest changes for you switching from, you’re playing at one of the most elusive collegiate organizations at Illinois University. you’ve got all tons of resources there. You’ve got crazy practice facilities. You’ve got an incredible coach. You have all of these different, things at your disposal and now you’re a business. You are Tommy Kuhl Incorporated, right? Like you’re now looking to make your ends meet and make your way onto the tour. What have been some of the biggest changes and were you prepared for some of these? Obviously you have a lot of guys you can lean on that have taken that step too. Tommy Kuhl: It’s been a huge learning experience for me, even these first… Six weeks, it’s I mean i’m playing for money now, which is One thing I mean at the end of the day, it’s golf, you know You still got to go out and produce scores, but playing for money and just the [00:10:00] travel That’s one thing i’ve learned is just you know How expensive the travel is as a professional golfer and you know how hard the travel is on your body. You know physically how hard that can be and I went through a stretch there. where I wasn’t playing great golf either and it’s hard on you mentally as well. you’re not making anything when you miss the cuts and it’s hard. So you just got to find a balance, mentally and just keep going. like I said, just a huge learning experience and I’m learning every single day I’m out here. it’s good to have guys I know out here who have, who’ve been through it. And obviously, Coach Small and a lot of the Illini moms, I lean on them for support, but,I think more than anything, you just got to enjoy it. Yeah, all of us up here in Canada probably don’t want to be, this isn’t where we want to be, playing for the rest of our lives, but you got to find a way to enjoy it and, enjoy the grind of it and, keep that end goal of making the PGA Tour and winning on the PGA Tour in the back of your mind. Jeff Pelizzaro: Have you had a chance to head home at all during this stretch? I know you had a couple [00:11:00] tournaments which we’ll get to in a little bit. You had a big tournament that you went and played in, some qualifiers and stuff. We’ll touch on that. But have you actually had a chance to do you get a couple weeks off or a week off in Tommy Kuhl: between? It’s been pretty constant going. I’ve tried straight from this college season. We had regionals, nationals. And then I actually had the opportunity to represent the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup. So I went straight from nationals to Arnold Palmer Cup and then straight from Arnold Palmer Cup to Canada. So I’ve been on the road. I want to say this is my 10th week in a row. Sprinkled in one day at home in there, when I got the opportunity to put in the PGA Tour event, but man, it’s just the constant grind, it’s hard, not a lot of time at home, which, is hard, but, like I said, you just got to enjoy and embrace the travel. Jeff Pelizzaro: Who are a few of the guys that you’ve been able to, reach out to? Obviously, you’ve got some PGA Tour guys that went through Illinois, and what’s some of the advice that they’ve maybe given you? [00:12:00] Regarding this big change in the travel and all the different things that you’re going through. Tommy Kuhl: I said, I would say the biggest person I’ve leaned on is Coach Small. Obviously, he’s been a huge role model for me. he’s someone I look up to and someone I respect a ton and he’s been through it. I think that’s why you see the program have so much success and, it’s because of him. he’s been through it. He’s been through the professional golf grind and I found myself calling him. A lot, just reaching out to him. It’s always good to hear his voice and the biggest thing he keeps telling me is, this is what you work for. This is what you’ve wanted to play professional golf and just more than anything go out and enjoy it You know, I think that’s one thing with golf that sometimes players can get wrapped up in this yeah, it’s hard on you. Sometimes it’s very hard, but you just got to find a way to enjoy it Enjoy the challenge of you know being up here competing, and just really embrace Jeff Pelizzaro: everything. take me [00:13:00] back to your Illinois days. So you were there five years, right? what did that trajectory look like? I know you and I had a chance to actually work together a little bit before you went to Illinois. it’s been really cool to be able to follow you and keep up with, what’s going on in your career. And, from the time you got to Illinois, Give us a little bit of a highlight reel, Tommy Kuhle highlight reel of, where things started, how, what it was like going there, knowing you’re going into this huge program. obviously it’s a huge honor that, and showed that you had tremendous talent going in. When you got there, was there a little bit of shell shock, or did you feel like you fit right in, fit into the family? How did those next five years play out? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, as a junior golfer from central Illinois, it was always a dream of mine to go play for the University of Illinois and coach Small. as a kid, I remember going to the Illinois golf camps with my brother and, getting to know coach Small and, get familiarity with, the university, the campus, the facilities. I always told my parents this was, That’s what I wanted was, that’s what I [00:14:00] wanted to work for is getting a scholarship to play for coach in the University of Illinois. I had a decent junior career, committed very early. I think I committed my sophomore or freshman year of high school. I had a decent junior career, won the state high school championship twice. And,going into my freshman year, it was a wake up call. I got there my freshman year and I didn’t know anything. that’s one way to put it. I thought I did, as a young player and I did my, such a big learning curve, to figure out and,it took me a while to, to learn as a selfish junior thinking he knows everything, and as I started to mature and as I got older in the university and, in the program, I started to see results more or less just listening to coach and what he Jeff Pelizzaro: preaches. when did you really start to get into the rotation of playing there? how many guys are on the actual squad? And then how many play in the individual events? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, [00:15:00] so we, so golf teams usually have around, I would say, 8 to 12 people, on the team. Our coach usually keeps our team around 8 to 10. fluctuated in that number of people. Through my time there and, freshman year, I didn’t play much in the lineup, obviously in college events, you have, let’s say, 10 guys on the team, and you do qualifying when you get there and throughout the year to see who’s in the lineup, five play in the lineup, and then depending on the tournament, coach might have the opportunity to take a few individuals, and those individuals, don’t get to play, for the team’s success. Basically, you’re just there playing, by yourself, which, that was me a lot of my freshman and sophomore year. I had a few opportunities to be in the lineup, and it was a huge learning experience for me. but, actually, my freshman year, I didn’t play the Big Ten championship. And then one of our fifth guy got hurt right before regionals and I got subbed [00:16:00] in for regionals and then we made it through and I got in the lineup for nationals as well. that was really the first time I was in the lineup and,it’s, it’s hard, man. It’s just, it’s hard to make the lineup at a program like that. It’s, you got to bring it every day and, that’s one thing I Jeff Pelizzaro: learned. What were some of the biggest successes that you guys had, both as a team and then you individually, in your five Tommy Kuhl: years at? as a team, we made it to the national championship three out of the four years. Obviously, COVID year, they didn’t, that season got cut short. But, we made nationals three out of the four years. We, er, sorry, nationals, yeah, three out of the four years. And then we made match play in nationals two out of the three years we were in. And that was probably, the biggest stage of golf I’ve been in, in college or even amateur golf. so that was really fun. just getting to chase that national championship with a group of guys, that’s what you work for all year. we, we, gave it all we had came up short, but,[00:17:00] definitely a very cool experience. And then individually, I never won in college. That was always my goal is to, get that individual win. obviously for me, I was more focused on the team success, but you do want to see individual results, but,had a couple of runner ups, But never got that win. So still searching for it. Jeff Pelizzaro: So I know that,you had a very successful last year. I was told to ask you, which are you more proud of being a first team All American or an academic All American? And I think that question came from, Tommy Kuhl: Oh, that’s a good one. Man, school for me was always hard, so it’s an honor to get the Academic All American, to be honest. I honestly put in a lot of work towards school, and to see, see me get that award is pretty special, and I know it means a lot to me and my family, but,First Team All American’s also a very big. Big honor to have and, honestly, if you would have told me I would have been a first team all american [00:18:00] my freshman year, I don’t know if I would have believed you, I always dreamed of it, as a junior golfer and obviously in college and that’s what you work for, but, man, I really don’t think, it, just a lot of hard work, honestly, and, very special year. Jeff Pelizzaro: What was that balance like? School, obviously, you put a lot of time and effort into your schoolwork. But then, playing golf at a Division I school like Illinois, many people equate it to a full time job. So what was it like to balance those things out, and what processes or routines did you find that were most beneficial to help you do that? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, it’s very difficult, and I would say one thing that helped me more than anything is just the resources that the University of Illinois offers to student athletes, specifically golf. we have an athletic academic counselor, Sherry Clapp. I don’t know if she’ll listen to this, but big shout out to her because she helps our team, [00:19:00] more than anything of just staying organized and making, enrolling for classes and just adjustment to college very easy. So having her was a huge advantage. And, I can equate my academic success to her, but, just one thing with golf, too, is tournaments. You’re gone for four or five days at a time, during a week when you’re traveling for tournament. you’re missing class, you’re doing homework on the road, whereas other sports, let’s say football or basketball, you’re gone for a night or two, that was one of the biggest things I learned is just saying organized communicating with your professors and finding the balance of one when to practice golf and when to study so I always, I got into a very good routine in college, and just stuck with me. Jeff Pelizzaro: is it nice now that you don’t have all the classes and everything that you have to take? I would assume you probably feel like you have some more free time in [00:20:00] order to put the time into your training, your practice, those kind of things. And have you still maintained a pretty solid, regimented routine? Or do you find yourself almost being like, I’ve got… More time and trying to figure out how to really piece those things together to really get your plan together for the future Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, i’m glad you brought that up because honestly, that’s the thing i’m trying to Focus on right now and learn is what’s my routine and obviously it depends where you’re at up here in channel, it’s hard to get into routine because for me, I know you focus on the fitness side of golf, but that’s been very important for me in my routine and how I feel physically and mentally. so I’m trying to find a routine that works good for me and working out, nutrition, golf practice, and then my free time. The free time is the biggest. The biggest thing I’m trying to learn is just what am I going to do to fill that free time because you have a lot of it up here. and lucky to have a lot of guys up here to [00:21:00] be doing things with, but,I think having a routine is probably the most important thing. and if you talk to a lot of professional golfers, they’ll say the same. What does Jeff Pelizzaro: your fitness routine kind of look like right now? Obviously you guys don’t have The same kind of resources that the PGA Tour do. Do you have any kind of a trail or anything, or is it more local gyms that you guys have access to, those type of things? Tommy Kuhl: Correct. Yeah, the PGA Tour can actually gives us, they’ll have three gyms a week, maybe one that we have access to, but usually Those are for the guy. I’m able to use them, but a lot of guys do Airbnbs. I’ve been doing hotels, so I’ve been just working out in the hotel gym. Obviously, they’re not the best resources for, from the fitness side of things, but, I’m easy. I just find a way to, get my body moving and I like to just focus on more of the mobility side of things right now. I do a lot of stretching and mobility before I work out or, maybe the [00:22:00] Monday of the week just to, after travel, I like to get my body moving, the blood flowing and just like I said, just trying to find that routine, which, what works Jeff Pelizzaro: best for me. When you guys were at Illinois, was the physical training a big part of your season, or was that more, prior to, because obviously in season you’re traveling a lot, but, I assume you have a dedicated strength coach or trainer that’s helping you guys up there. Yeah, Tommy Kuhl: so we actually worked out, I want to say three times in the off season. we were in the gym mandatory, and then, In season, we were two days a week, but, for me, those were the, strength days. So I would go in, I would four or five times a week, on the other days and just get mobility work and get some cardio work in. And for me, as I mentioned, just the routine of it, I feel. best mentally when I get in, that rhythm of waking up early, going to the gym, and then I’m able to go to class and [00:23:00] practice. I just like to stick to what I like and what I know. So Jeff Pelizzaro: it’s working so far. So just keep dialing in that routine. Let’s take a little break here to thank our partners over at Live Pure. Live Pure is a hydration product. That you are going to want to have in your golf bag in your gym bag because it’s going to handle anything that you need When it comes to your hydration, it’s got the electrolytes you need It’s going to help replenish your system on the hot muggy days, which we’re already starting to have here a little bit in st Louis, but they’ve got the energy. They’ve got the hydrate and they’ve got the recovery They’re going to handle everything that you need whether you’re on the golf course. You’re in the gym. You’re sweating it out You want to make sure that you have live pure All you have to do is tear open one of the pre made little packs, dump it right in with the water, and you’re set. They’ve got incredible flavors, including making blue raspberry a flavor for all of the products. They’ve got you covered. So go to LivePur.com. That’s L I V P U [00:24:00] R. com. Use the code 18STRONG to get your discount on every order that you place. And use LivePur to champion your day. I wanna talk to, you had a little bit of, 15 minutes of fame recently. a couple of times actually. one was a bit of a situation that I think many people applauded you for in the US Open qualifier. So take me back to… to that event at Illini Country Club, is that right? correct. Yeah, so you, you shoot a course record in a qualify, U. S. Open qualifier, and, you take the story from there. Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, U. S. Open local qualifying each year. It’s obviously every golfer’s dream to make the U. S. Open and compete, for a spot in that prestigious field. And, I had to go through the local process of it. And, a couple of teammates drove up there and, played a great round of golf. I shot bogey free nine under, My best run of the year and thought I had it. I thought I was in [00:25:00] One of my roommates was actually in a playoff to get the last spot and me and a couple teammates were walking Following him and I just mentioned to the guys like how hard it was to putt on the aerated greens You know the Midwest didn’t have a good spring as far as weather So a lot of the greens in the area weren’t Healed fully. and there were a few, or the greens were aerated and they weren’t filled in yet. The and I mentioned to one of my teammates how hard it was to put on the aerated greens and he mentioned, but yeah, it was hard ’cause you couldn’t fix ’em. And at that moment I honestly, I, it was the worst feeling ever. ’cause I, throughout the day I was fixing ’em and, didn’t know the rule. I didn’t know. with the new rule changes that you can, fix spike marks, tap down spike marks. I thought you could fix them, obviously, and you couldn’t, and, I went to rules official told him what I was doing throughout the day and Ultimately ended up dq’ing [00:26:00] myself. very unfortunate, but I tell people when they ask me You know, it comes down to me like nothing on the course nothing on the rules official nothing on the tournament i’m a golfer. This is what I do for a living. I should know the rules, so it falls on me. Yeah, it’s probably not the best rule, but that’s golf. That’s life. definitely learn from Jeff Pelizzaro: it. I can’t imagine that moment when that light bulb went off in your head and you’re like, just that sinking feeling of oh man, and I think myself, I remember sending you a text and I’m sure you got so many messages from other people like that. Just the integrity of that moment speaks so highly of your personality. but also just the game of golf itself, right? And that’s probably one of the reasons why you love this game why so many of us love this game and the fact that you did that i’m sure you got a lot of messages from people applauding that move You obviously got a lot of I had several articles written about it. What was that like, social media wise? Did you [00:27:00] get a lot of people reaching out to you and different interviews and things like that? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, I got so many people reaching out. It was almost very overwhelming and it was at a time right before we were starting, regionals. I had to shy away a couple interviews just because it was almost too much and I was focused on the team and making it to the national championship and winning the national championship. I answered a lot of people, but I just put it past me after a few days and I was just like, it happened, it’s in the past and let’s move on. But,I did have a lot of people reaching out and just, Sending their thoughts to me. I, and I told everyone it’s life, right? it’s on me. Let’s, definitely gonna learn from it. Jeff Pelizzaro: That’s awesome. And not only was it a, nine under round, that was a course record there, right? It Tommy Kuhl: was, yeah. So I don’t know if they kept it or not, but in my heart, in my head,I had the course record there. Hey, do you Jeff Pelizzaro: ever play there before? Tommy Kuhl: yeah, I’ve played there a couple times. [00:28:00] Gotcha. Yeah, and it’s a great course. And one thing with the media that I just was a little frustrated with was just a lot of it was towards a line at Country Club and, oh, they shouldn’t be aerating their greens. the matter of fact is every course has to aerate their greens for them to be healthy. it just, it was unfortunate, all the course in the area had the same problem. nothing on the line at Country Club. Great course, great venue for a local qualifier. Jeff Pelizzaro: so then not too long after that really, you had another pretty cool opportunity to play in your first, was this your first PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic? Correct. Yeah, first one. And so how did that transpire? How did you get into the John Tommy Kuhl: Deere? the John Deere Classic does a great job of giving, young guys right out of college opportunities, to play. make… Make their first pj tour start obviously jordan spieth he was a winner at the John Deere classic as a young gun. And there’s been [00:29:00] Handful of illinois guys that have gotten the opportunity to play in the john Deere classic and start their pro career you know starting the year that was one of my goals that I had was Potentially get the sponsors exemption with john Deere classic and I knew that I had to you know Play well to get it. It wasn’t just going to be like I’m a local kid. They’re, hopefully they give it to me. I wanted to earn it. And, after I had a really good fifth year, at the University of Illinois, I sent in a letter and, they, they got back to me two weeks before the tournament and, it was pretty special moment for me and my caddy. Jeff Pelizzaro: Set the scene for us a little bit when you got there. What were the nerves like? What was, what did it feel like? and then tell us a little bit about how you played out there and how you feel like you performed on that stage. Tommy Kuhl: it was an incredible week. Obviously, it was my first PGA Tour event, so I didn’t really know what to expect. And I didn’t have many expectations going into the week. I actually missed the cut in [00:30:00] Canada the week before, so if I were to make the cut, which obviously I’ve, I’m never planning to miss the cut or hope for that, but it was almost a blessing in disguise of travel and getting there and just. Just the run I was on with tournaments, it almost worked out perfect that I could get down to Silvis, Quad Cities area on Sunday night, play nine holes on Sunday, and then practice around Monday, Tuesday, and then right into the tournament. what a week. a PGA Tour event, I quickly learned that this is the lifestyle I want to live and, it’s always going to be in the back of my mind just being there and with the fans and how tour events are set up. that’s what’s going to keep pushing me, to make it there. And, I’m glad I got the opportunity to compete. to compete there. And, just, and the support I had, it’s it was an hour and 20 minutes from my hometown, and central Illinois. And the amount of people I had out there supporting me, it was,pretty special. It just put in, put everything [00:31:00] into perspective of how lucky I am to first off be playing this game, but also how many people there are behind me supporting me and,helping me Jeff Pelizzaro: reach my goal. So unfortunately you didn’t make a cut, but how do you feel like you played? How do you feel like you, you stacked up to the competition out there? Tommy Kuhl: yeah, so I shot one under the first round, even the second round. Looking at the stats, I want to say I was, I think I was 8 strokes gained approach, which is a crazy good stat, which is not good, given the fact I didn’t make the cut, which means I didn’t make many putts, which I didn’t, that was frustrating, but,I felt like I played fairly well, T to green. and I felt pretty comfortable out there. Obviously, the first two nerves were there and just getting comfortable out there. but, I felt like I belonged. it was a pretty cool feeling, almost an addictive feeling being out there. And, just what an incredible Jeff Pelizzaro: experience. What would you say are the big strengths of your game? And [00:32:00] then, are there any things that being out there that you saw throughout the couple of days? This is what I really need to work on or that I see these guys doing this or that and you know We talked about the process and routine or there’s certain things that you took away from that you know Like all right. This is why I got to step up. This is where I’m actually pretty darn good Tommy Kuhl: huh. I my strengths are always ball striking I’ve always been a really good ball striker to the green and great long iron player, great driver of the golf ball. But I learned if you want to compete out there, make cuts, make a living. It all comes down to short game. and coach Smalls preached that to me for five years. and,I’m still working on it. that’s the biggest thing I learned out there is everyone can hit the ball, far or straight. It comes down to, Short game, wedges, getting up and down, making putts, and not a lot of stuff people see. Everyone gets, goes crazy about the 350 yard drive someone hit, but they don’t look at the small things that, that it takes to win out there. And,moving forward, I think that’s the biggest thing I need to work on if I want to compete out there. [00:33:00] Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah, man, we just saw, what, last week at the Open Championship, Ryan Harmon, his putter was just… Incredible. Incredible. Tommy Kuhl: Yep. That’s what it comes down to is, and I think if you look at each week, the statistics on. The guys who went out there, they’re going to be top 10 in putting. It all comes down to putting. especially, with the scores they’re shooting now, it’s 20 plus under to win. And you just got to be making putts. You can’t be shooting those scores and Jeff Pelizzaro: not making them. What are a couple putting drills that you can give the 18STRONG crew that you’re working on or even short game stuff? do you have I’m sure you have tons of games you play any good ones that are pretty simple to describe and That anybody can go out to their own local putting green do the Tommy Kuhl: biggest thing I’m trying to learn with putting and talking to people just out on tour and coaches, making putting as athletic as possible, nowadays with coaching and [00:34:00] stuff, people can get so technical with putting, where the putter’s aimed, how my stroke is, what’s the perfect stroke. the matter of fact is everyone’s going to be stroking a different you, you look at. Some of the best putters on tour, they don’t do it conventionally at all, so right now for me Focusing on I use a chalk line. that’s one drill. I like for my alignment with my putter face where I feel comfortable alignment wise, and just starting the ball in line. I like to do that before, I tee off, the days leading up to the tournament. but other than that, just picking a target and reacting to that. It’s just people make the, the comparison, the shooting a free throw. it’s essentially the same thing. You have your routine, and do that every time, and having no expectations when you puff. Jeff Pelizzaro: Speaking of coaching,growing up, did you have a coach that you worked with a long time? Do you still, are you still working with a coach? what does that look like, especially with you traveling and everything? Everything’s a little bit more [00:35:00] remote these days. where are you there? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, I’ve worked with a bunch of people, a couple guys, obviously Brian Fogt, who you know, and, St. Louis guy, B Fogt’s the man, and, I still am in very good contact with, B Fogt, and, whenever I’m down in St. Louis, I love to go see him, and he helps me a lot. with my golf swing and he did growing up, but, not really working with anyone fully, there’s a couple of guys in the Champaign area, that have helped me obviously coach small and some guys, Chris Harder at Urbana Country Club has helped me a lot with my golf swing, but, I’m more of a field player, I don’t like to get too technical in my golf swing. yeah. just figure it out when I’m struggling by myself. Jeff Pelizzaro: And, yeah, I know, Coach Small obviously has a wealth of knowledge. Does he get into much instruction with you guys or do a lot of the guys already have their own coaches that they’re working with? And is that a bit of a balance there? Yeah, Tommy Kuhl: a lot of the guys come into school with swim coaches that they’ve worked with their whole life. and [00:36:00] he jumps in when he, when the When a player asks him to I wouldn’t say he forces himself in there But he does a lot of coaching on the short game side of things chipping he’s very knowledgeable with that and obviously the full swing too. He knows more than I can even wrap my head around But like I said, he’s not gonna tell you something if he doesn’t think it’s gonna help you So I think he Honestly, balance is perfect with his players, of when to help him with fundamentals and stuff like that. I Jeff Pelizzaro: know he’s a big, he’s really big on process. We had Dylan Meyer on the show a while back and he talked a lot about how, Coach Small is so big on process, and falling in love with the process, right? Knowing that he’s coaching all of these different athletes that have their own personal coaches. What would you say is his biggest role and where does he shine as far as, honestly, he’s one of the top coaches of all time in collegiate golf. what are the things that make it, him so special and make that program so special? Tommy Kuhl: I think the biggest thing [00:37:00] about coaching, what makes him so good is just how competitive he is. I think in any sport, that’s what it takes is just that competitive side, that competitive fire and,just going out there, giving it your all. And one thing I tell people is he sets the culture, he sets a very high standard in the culture. of the University of Illinois and he recruits players who buy in, if it’s, how we work in the weight room, how we work in our studies, how we treat people, how we go about our business, how we play golf. We’re gonna, he holds us to a high standard, and if we’re not doing it well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna hear about it. I think that’s what makes him, him so good. from a mental side of things and just, it’s not just golf, it’s everything. it’s how you carry yourself. And, as soon as I started to realize that, I started to see results and it’s crazy. You don’t even, you don’t even know it. and you’re playing better golf and you’re like, but it’s crazy. I wouldn’t trade my experience at the University of [00:38:00] Illinois for anything. he’s the best coach in the country for a reason. And, I think, I can’t speak highly enough about him and his role in my success. Jeff Pelizzaro: What about goal setting? going into your season, maybe this is something you guys did at Illinois as well and built on. Are you one of those kind of guys that sets goals specifically for yourself? I know, year in, year out, we’ll see Justin Thomas every now and then post, what his goals for the year were and whether he made them or didn’t make them. Is that kind of a process that you go through? Or is yours a little more loose or a little more tight and strategic? How do you go through that? And maybe what are the goals for, the end of this season and even looking Tommy Kuhl: into 24? Yeah, so yeah, I’m always goal oriented. I set my goals very high. I think anyone should, but,in college, I obviously set my goals, very high of playing well, a couple awards that I wanted to win, obviously first team all American, team goals, winning national champion, stuff like that. But I like to focus on process [00:39:00] goals. I think those are Jeff Pelizzaro: what Tommy Kuhl: are almost yeah. More important, what can I do to better myself to, to reach those goals? I’d say the process goals are something I like to focus on Jeff Pelizzaro: more. Can you give us an example of what that might look like? Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, so for example, let’s say,short game or putting, Statistically, we track our stats. Let’s say my putting stats weren’t all that I wanted. a process goal for me would be, so many three or four footers a day. Let’s, focus on alignment, speed, things like that. And ultimately, hopefully if you do the right things in those process goals, it’ll work out in the end goal. just little things like Jeff Pelizzaro: that. And then any, anything in regard to,how many tournaments you’re going to play a year, where are you going to be at the end of 24, or is it simply more, as long as I stick to the process, as long as I’m doing the things, in the gym, on the practice screen, on the drive range, on the golf course, I know that, that stuff will come. Tommy Kuhl: Yeah, you know what, as I’m, as I’ve turned professional, obviously I’m setting my [00:40:00] goals the same that I did in college, obviously I want to focus on PGA Tour Canada, what I can do up here and getting top five on the points list, getting my Korn Ferry Tour card and, just going from there, I think right now, obviously I have the end goal of making the PGA Tour and winning on the PGA Tour, but I need to focus on now and that’s PGA Tour Canada. Kind of just focusing on each week what I can do, you know The little things that we talked about and in my process goals Each week out here that coach preached to me every day and just focusing on those things and I know if I do Those every day, give it my all You know, at least I can look back and be like, at least I did the right things Jeff Pelizzaro: great answer All right, buddy. We’re gonna wrap it up with some of the questions. We ask everybody that comes on the show first one, I want to know, you’re obviously a different generation than I am. Are you more of a Candy Shack guy or more of a Happy Gilmore Tommy Kuhl: guy? Happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore guy. Jeff Pelizzaro: Is that one that you have on repeat? do you guys, as a team, did you ever watch any of those kind of movies? [00:41:00] Tommy Kuhl: We’d turn it on here and there, but, I, honestly, I haven’t seen it too much. but, I always get a good laugh out of Adam Sandler and some of his lines in, in, in that movie. Jeff Pelizzaro: Alright, if you could pick a walk up song to the first T Box. what’s your walk up song? Tommy Kuhl: I gotta go with Country, Morgan Wong, huge Morgan Wong guy, his new album, Sunrise. PGA Tour Canada asked me the same question, and I gave him the same answer. his new song, Sunrise, it’s a perfect vibe for me and my Midwest, Jeff Pelizzaro: Are you, are you a music on the golf course kind of guy when you’re out with your buddies? Or are you a little bit more… Tommy Kuhl: I’m not a big mus I love music, but once I’m on the course, I think just the peace and quiet of being out there and hearing the, sound of the club hitting the ball and just everything around you. that’s big for me, so I don’t really like listening to music on Jeff Pelizzaro: the course. Is there a book that you’ve read, that has inspired you or really given you some insights and something that you [00:42:00] might recommend that other people in the 18th Strong Crew check Tommy Kuhl: out? Yeah,I’m trying to get into reading more. I think it’s a big thing and I always love learning. One of, one of the books, I think a lot of golfers have read and one that helped me a lot is Golfers, Not a Game of Perfect. it’s by Bob Rotella, one of the most famous sports psychologists and such an easy read for a golfer wanting, to get… better and strive to be better. And, he just gives you a good insight on, the mental side of the game. some of some, he draws connections between some of the best players in the world. what goes through their head and, and I think the title is just says it all golf is not a game. Perfect. And it’s not great read and I’d recommend it to any golfer. Jeff Pelizzaro: Alright, if you could pick a dream foursome, and this could be celebrities, this could be influential figures, but basically a foursome that you would love to go spend four or five hours with, pick their brains and learn from, or just spend the time with, who’s [00:43:00] that? Tommy Kuhl: I’d have to go Tiger Woods, he’s a true competitor. obviously one of the greatest to ever do it. he, I’d have to throw him in there. Patrick Mahomes. quarterback. new documentary out on Netflix. It’s quarterback. I don’t know if you’ve seen it yet, but I Jeff Pelizzaro: haven’t seen it yet. No, I’ve heard good things. Tommy Kuhl: I’d check it out. after watching that, I got to throw him in there because it’s crazy to just see the type of competitor he is too and how bad he wants it, how high he sets his goals, how high his standard is. definitely throw him in there, and then, I’d throw Michael Jordan in there as well. He’s all, true competitors, and it’s what you want. Jeff Pelizzaro: A solid group of highly competitive dudes, that’s for sure. Yeah, exactly. Alright, is there a bucket list course that, if I told you, Tommy, we’re, we’ve got the 18STRONG G4 fueled up, we’re ready to go, we’re coming to pick you up, what golf course are we going to?[00:44:00] Tommy Kuhl: I’d say Pine Valley, out east, in New Jersey. I love that style of golf. That’s obviously Chicago has some of the best golf in the world, and so does, the east part, of the country. I’d say Pine Valley. Never played it. Always been a dream of mine to play there. if you have that jet fueled up, I’d say, Jeff, we’re heading out there to, for a quick Jeff Pelizzaro: 18. Sounds good. Sounds good. Alright, what’s the best piece of golf advice you’ve ever been given? Tommy Kuhl: coach always says golf owes you nothing. I think you got to go out and you got to earn it each and every day. and that’s something that’s stuck with me is, and it’s true. Golf does owe me nothing. I got to go put in the work each and every day and, create my own. Own blueprint of what, my story is going to look like and how I’m going to get there. I’m just, I think that’s one thing that’s stuck with me. Jeff Pelizzaro: And last one, is there a social media account, could be golf, could be fitness, could be kind of anything that you follow that you think is worth [00:45:00] agents for our crew checking out? Tommy Kuhl: I’d say one really cool social media account, that I follow is Monday Q info. I don’t know if you follow them on Twitter, but I think they give a group, the guy gives a, Great insight of what professional golf’s what mini tour life’s what, any professional golf tournament’s some of the stories from his content is pretty cool, and he just gives you a great, overview on professional golf. Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah, Ryan’s, he breaks a lot of the stories that end up coming out, stories like yours, from those kind of tournaments that don’t get the publicity that, Might from a golf magazine or golf digest or something, but then, he’s able to put it out because he’s got the inside track. totally. Yeah. Tommy Kuhl: When you hear some of the stories of just guys who, who don’t have much and who grind it out and get the opportunity to play and take advantage of it. It’s pretty cool just to see, some of the stories. Jeff Pelizzaro: For sure. All right, buddy. Where can everybody go to, to find you, follow your journey? Obviously, the 18STRONG Crew is going to [00:46:00] be backing and supporting you as you move forward and looking forward to you making it on the PGA Tommy Kuhl: Tour. Yeah, yeah, obviously, social media, I’m on social media, Instagram, Twitter, but hopefully, you guys can be following me on the PGA Tour app and climb my way up from PGA Tour Canada to Korn Ferry to PGA Tour and hopefully see my name on that number one on that PGA Tour app here in the next couple Jeff Pelizzaro: years. Absolutely, and that’s K U H L for you guys. K U H L, yeah. great golf name. Ever since I met you when you were, When did that, when did we first meet? Were you like 14, 15, something like that? Tommy Kuhl: I was probably, yeah, like 15 or 16, when I came down to St. Louis to, to see B Fogt. I stopped over to see you and we create, we created a great relationship and, I really respect You know what you and your team does over at 18STRONG. obviously your guys’ content’s great And you guys are the best in the business for a reason. Looking forward to working you guys working with you guys here in the next you know in the future and You [00:47:00] know decide to build this brand because like I said best in the business. Jeff Pelizzaro:  I appreciate that brother and and i’ve been saying since you were 15 years old or whenever you came in I remember telling my cousin Ryan, my circle of friends, like this kid is phenomenal. But what a great name for a golfer, Tommy cool, like cool as ice, cool under pressure. we’re rooting for you, we’re in your corner, bud, and, I know you’re going to do great things. You’re going to, you’re going to do some big time things on the PGA tour. So we’re looking forward to being part of that journey. Tommy Kuhl: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And, hopefully see you soon. Absolutely. Alrighty. Thanks Jeff. Jeff Pelizzaro: Thanks for joining us this week on the 18STRONG podcast with our buddy Tommy Kuhl. It’s gonna be really fun to see him grow and see him realize his dream on the PGA Tour. If you want any more information on Tommy or this episode just go to 18strong. com. This is episode number 349. We’ll catch up again with you with another great guest next week. Train hard, practice smart, and play [00:48:00] better golf. Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Guest: Sean Foley, renowned golf instructor known for his work with Tiger Woods and other PGA Tour players. Host: Jeff Pelizzaro Episode Number: 348 Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast Summary In this episode, we sit down with Sean Foley, one of the most recognizable golf instructors in the world, known for his time working with Tiger Woods. We delve into Sean’s background in fitness, his approach to golf instruction, and his innovative new device, the Pro Sendr. We also discuss the current state of professional golf, the importance of fitness and recovery, and the role of technology in golf instruction. Main Topics Sean Foley’s Background and Approach to Golf Instruction Sean’s initial background was in the fitness space, which heavily influences his approach to golf instruction. He emphasizes the importance of the body working properly for the golf swing and game to function optimally. The Pro Sendr Device Sean and David Woods have developed the Pro Sendr, a device that hooks onto your wrist and is gaining popularity among professional golfers. The device helps golfers understand the importance of wrist angles and the structure of delivering the geometry of the golf swing. The Current State of Professional Golf Sean shares his insights on the current state of professional golf, discussing the fitness regimens of top players and the importance of recovery. The Importance of Fitness in Golf Sean discusses the role of fitness in golf, emphasizing the importance of movement, hydration, sunlight, and weight lifting for both mental and physical health. The Role of Technology in Golf Instruction Sean talks about the use of technology in golf instruction, specifically discussing his Pro Sendr device and its role in improving golf swings. Resources Mentioned Linksoul – The preferred brand of apparel for golfers. Use the code “18STRONG” for a 20% discount. Pro Sendr – A device developed by Sean Foley and David Woods that helps golfers understand the importance of wrist angles and the structure of delivering the geometry of the golf swing. Conclusion In this episode, Sean Foley takes us on a journey through his approach to golf instruction, his innovative Pro Sendr device, and the current state of professional golf. He also discusses the importance of fitness in golf and the role of technology in golf instruction. Tune in to the 18STRONG Podcast to hear more about Sean’s experiences and insights. Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” ????????) Jeff Pelizzaro: [00:00:00] The 18STRONG podcast, episode number 348 with Sean Foley. What’s up guys. Welcome back to the 18STRONG podcast, where our mission here is to help you build a stronger game. And that’s on the course off the course. It’s everything that involves working harder, playing harder, playing better, enjoying the game more. And this week, I’m really excited. We have Sean Foley, probably one of the most recognizable golf instructors, coaches to the PGA tour players, obviously known for his time working with Tiger woods. And this week we get a chance to sit down and talk to him about really so many different things in the world of golf, his background, which I didn’t realize that [00:01:00] Sean’s initial background was in the fitness space. So we talk a lot about the body and how important it is that your body’s working properly in order to get your golf swing and your golf game working properly. We talk about his new device that he and David Woods have come up with, the Pro Sender that is really taking the world of golf and even the professional ranks of golf by storm. it’s a device that hooks onto your wrist. And we’ve seen the likes of Rory McIlroy and a lot of the PGA tour players on their Instagram channels using the Pro Center. So we’re going to talk about that and what’s different about it, why it’s not just a gimmicky tool and how Sean uses it and what it’s important for. And then we discuss a little bit of all of it. the current situation of the pro game today, the fitness regimens and how important recovery is and so many different topics. So I’m really excited to have Sean on here and share this episode. Before we jump into the interview, let’s thank our partners over at Link Soul. [00:02:00] As always, Linksoul is our preferred brand of apparel here at 18STRONG. We had our mandatory golf Friday this morning, and I would say that of the 12 guys playing this morning, at least 8 to 10 of them had some form of Linksoul on, and so it feels like we’re, we’ve got a little bit of Oceanside, California right here in St. Louis when we have our mandatory golf Fridays, so that’s pretty cool. So go and check out Linksoul. Go to 18strong. com slash Linksoul. You’ll get a 20% off discount if you go there on anything in your cart. I highly recommend the BoardWalker shorts. They now make them in two different inseams. So for all you youngsters out there that are wanting a little higher inseam, I know they’ve got the 8 inch inseam and the 10 inch still for the, the older guys like myself. So go over there, 18strong. com slash Linksoul to get your 20% off. All right, let’s jump into our chat with Sean Foley. First of all, thanks for coming on. This is awesome [00:03:00] Obviously Sean Foley: I looked into what you guys do and all that, but how would you explain it? Jeff Pelizzaro: 18STRONG it really started out as me just as a golf fitness pro trying to get some more information from some of the other people that i’d come across, like the tpi folks and Just try to get a little bit more word out on what the fitness part of the game does or what the fitness game does for the golfers and really was a way for me to start learning more about it. My background is physical therapy and, always wanted to do something a little bit more online as opposed to just having my own fitness training studio and as a way to disseminate information. And here we are 340 something episodes later where we’re still talking with, some of the best fitness people in the game, instructors, pros. And, really just trying to champion the idea of, no matter what age level, whatever you are, that putting some time and effort into your physical abilities, your mental abilities, that’s just as much a part of you being a better golfer as getting a new driver or [00:04:00] going and banging balls on the range. And so wanted to just try to disseminate some of the information and now some of the resources that we have, what to connect with people like yourself and put that out to our Sean Foley: community. Yeah. it’s something I’m pretty, I, when I started coaching golf, I was also a personal trainer. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah. It was really hard to make money teaching golf in Canada at that time. I was, I was, nobody knew who I was. so to build business in between, I was dead broke and I didn’t want to live at home anymore. two things. I continued to weigh tables and then I got my Canadian certification strength and conditioning. Deal took me like six months to eight months or whatever. And, so I did that and then I started, trading people. So I did it at that time to most of my clients were just overweight, right? I didn’t know, I didn’t have, I didn’t even go to biology class before. So I remember it’s like passing that test was a miracle by the way. and anyways, I started to do that, but then what happened was. [00:05:00] I met this guy named Dr. Craig Davies and Davies is, Cairo by training, but also a trainer for many years. And his goal was to train people in a way that they wouldn’t need to get treated because obviously his hands and fingers are going to fall off at some point from all the treatments that he’s done. And he’s moved over the years that we’ve been roommates on tour for 17 years. Craig is at the vault performance. And In all that time, all the different chiros, and osteopaths, and doctors of Chinese medicine, he was mentored by Mark Lindsay, and Scappaticci, who are kind of Canadian gods of soft tissue work, worked at the Olympics for four different Olympics, and I think the thing with Canada, with our PTs and our physios and our, Osteos and Kairos, they’re looked at very differently than in the U. S. And I think the main concern I have in the U. S. obviously is that [00:06:00] pharmaceutical companies, they don’t want you to believe that movement in hydration and sunlight and cold water and lifting weights is going to help with mental health or physical health, right? surgery makes a lot of money, for hospital, and pharmaceutical companies. And so in Canada, where we have social medicine, like where it’s completely free to the people while we pay taxes, obviously, these guys are at such a different level as one, how they’re perceived by society, but to, their ability, because. They’re, I remember being in the States and hearing the word chiropractor and people being like, Whoa, but as I came to learn, these chiros just don’t crack backs like Craig does frequency specific microcurrents. he’s been using voltage to treat his athletes for a long time. He’s got. 10, 000 hours in acupuncture is really expanded and expand. I’d say [00:07:00] his favorite thing to do is still to train people. I think that’s his favorite thing. so Craig and I were in 2010, we spoke, at the, World Golf Fitness Summit hosted by, by Greg and by Dave. Because I really think that we were really much the pioneers of coach and trainer slash Cairo to like really develop this team mentality around it. So my job was everything related to wrist angles. And the structure of how we deliver the geometry of the golf swing and hit it straight. And then Craig’s job was to create these eloquent human movements. So it was funny seeing Davies out there in oh seven, like teaching some of his higher level guys to do like Brazilian capoeira and watching their movement become really clean, like beautiful movement, like watching an athletic little kid, right?[00:08:00] it’s like I’m working with a trainer right now. Matt Palazzo, who’s from the Northeast and, he’s into golf, fitness and fitness in general, but very sharp guy. and he’s, we’re working on my gait cycle and then he shows me videos of his, one year old child. And I’m like, Oh, like that, like we’re born with the right hardware. It’s just because we live such a sedentary life and we do this. Like when did we do this? But if we did this over. The extent of 99% of the time we’ve been human beings, we would be hungry. So we had to move, right? So I think as a golf coach, I really super, super appreciate, the training aspect of it. And then two is really creating like lanes. Okay. Movement. So people, talk, a lot of golf coaches are into discussing, all these [00:09:00] ground forces. That are really based on the quality of movement through the foot and ankle, which look, but like we all walk on concrete and shoes, we were designed to walk on the earth with our feet. If we go to places where people have lived the same way for 300, 000 years, their feet don’t look like ours, they look like hands. And so all these back issues we have, neck issues, a lot of this stuff is just directly related to that, right? And A lot of times I would say to Craig, I’d like to do this with him and this with him. And then he would accept him both, passively and actively. And I don’t know if passively is even. Problem with putting someone at a table and assessing their ability to move, like the nervous system and the intention is not there. Justin Rose was always told, you only have three to four degrees internal hip rotation because he had a retroverted pelvis. So he had massive amounts in obviously external, but when we put 3d on him with Mark [00:10:00] bull, he moved like a gazelle. He had, he could just move. So if we kept his lower back in the right position and posture, we didn’t really have any issues. But a lot of people would look at that measurement and say, Oh, there’s no way he can play goals. So it’s all very tricky. And I think that within the training and the nervous system is the important part. So I’ve spent a better part of the last 17 years at night. Like I think back to the PGA championship in 2013, I stayed in the house with six trainers and therapists, right? So that was always what it was. And so listening to them argue and discuss, it just took me so much further in my understanding. One of what my responsibility is not as a golf coach. Okay. So yeah, of course I see their pivot. Of course I see how they load. Of course, I know that none of it is advantageous. It’s not going to really come from my lips and how to help them improve that. So we’re [00:11:00] talking about, getting people quicker in a linear and a vertical force. that’s a little naive and cavalier, isn’t it? If you can’t do it with you, if they can’t do it with you, Jeff, they’re certainly not going to do it with me. So that’s, what it does is to work towards this kind of golf homeostasis. I think the combination of the two and then us really understanding what we’re looking for. So I would say man, I need this player to be able to stay external slightly longer before they go internal. And he’d be like, we’re dead at the shoulders about as good as it’s gonna be. let me see what I can do as it relates to tibial, internal, external rotation, femur. And a little more thoracic. And then I’m like, Oh, bingo. That’s it. And we get this thing for a millisecond longer, but that can be that millisecond longer over 800 golf rounds could turn into 5 million. So anyways, that’s the thing that people don’t have never really understood about what I do is that most [00:12:00] of my buddies are all in movement, like period. I have a bunch of friends who are golf coaches too, but. I just found that it was a lot easier. I’m not really that interested in opinions. You know what I mean? Sure. How Jeff Pelizzaro: much with kind of the, the typical average golfer, let’s say, and I don’t know how many of these you actually work with, or if you’re working specifically more with the high level division one athletes pro. Sean Foley: Pro golfers, but I work with everybody really but more so like a higher level. Yes. So for Jeff Pelizzaro: the, more, more average, let’s say five handicap, 10 handicap, maybe the 40 to 60 year old range, how much do you think is of their, swing characteristics and what you’re trying to work on tends to be some of those physical limitations. Yeah. because of what we do all the time, like you said, sitting all the time. And how much of it is more skill based or just simply motor pattern based?[00:13:00] Sean Foley: I can’t really like, like I would, I’m not like a Stanford professor on this stuff. what I think I feel like I’ve done with a lot of disciplines is I’ve learned enough about all of them to know, who’s the guy. So if I had a player and it was like, I’m having some issues with this hip, I know the hip guy. So I don’t, So as it relates to that, look, how many people. That we’re talking about probably have an open club face, like 95% of them, right? Now they might be really trying to do, and that’s why we designed the Pro Sender is to help people understand the importance of these things, just the importance of these movements. And so it’s try and pull an object like this. So I come into the gym and you get me on the cables. I’m going to try and pull it like that. I’m probably going to go like that. Now, try to get me to do a shoulder press or bench press, I’m going to be in extension. [00:14:00] So of course, the idea of designing this to get it in extension with the wrist neutral or inflection, that ties in way deeper into how the body’s then going to work to create pulling and pushing, to create rotation from couple forces. The problem is, where we’ve been taught too much lately about rotation. It’s this idea of opening, but it’s not, it’s, I’m trying to create counter rotation. why would I want to get open and then where’s that even coming from? it’s we talk about vertical force, but most people can’t even move their big toe. if the big toe talks to the glute, then, what is the use of doing that? vertical force just becomes extension, which then ruins, like, how they hit the ball. club face is, the main difference between a pro and an amateur is their… Is their ability to create a consistent ish, it’s variability there, but it’s minimal of the club face. Because look, [00:15:00] Jeff, I go to 25 Pro Ams a year, and I will watch 22 Handicaps beat a pro on a par three. they finally time it up and it’s a beautiful shot to fix feet and there’s I couldn’t go onto an N B A court and make a shot on anybody. But that’s the thing that makes it all so beautiful, is that you see that quite often in pro ams. but why are the pros more consistent? and I think that you’re looking at special human movers, okay? And I don’t think you have to be on tour, but when you look at a DJ, or a Rory, or a Cameron Champ, Them focused on pitching at the age of eight. And it’s like the love of their life is pitching. I’m going to say they’re at least getting a division one scholarship. That’s high end, right? Like that, if you have a division one scholarship in baseball, football, or golf to a top 20 school in all those sports, you’re on the precipice of being a perfection. [00:16:00] So it, I think we need to appreciate that when we slow their videos down and we’re like, if you just do this, Mr. Jones, there’s there. There’s there’s side bend, and then there’s how DJ’s creating side bend. And it is more applied to the gait cycle than it is the ability. So then you watch these guys through the fairway. I’d say Cameron and Rory and DJ are the most beautiful walkers on tour. Adam Scott’s not so bad himself. And so when you watch defensive backs walking back to the huddles. You just, you’re like, Oh, that person’s a mover. You know what I, this is, I’m speaking your language obviously, but it’s when someone’s with me, I have to assess, okay, look, I don’t have Jeff or Craig here. in many cases with the people, who are 40 to 60 years old. A lot of times, 10 lessons in a row from 30 yards in will really suffice to playing better golf.[00:17:00] and so that’s the thing, like a senior tour player comes to me and he wants, he doesn’t hit it as far as he used to, but he’s still six foot two, 200 pounds, he’s still a big, strong man. Where has he lost his ability? His nervous system isn’t as fast as it was. And the tissue doesn’t work quite like it did. So it is a function of it’s basically like when I asked Cameron champ when he was 15 and I was Like losing my mind watching this kid hit golf balls. And at that time when I meet him, I am working with Tiger, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan, and Sean O’Hare. So I think I’ve seen it all. you can never say I’ve seen it all. this kid starts hitting balls and I’m like, holy shit. And so when we started to talk, cause I had a lot of questions for him, like, how’d you learn how to do that? I just do that. Do you play other sports? Yes. I play all these other sports. Are you good? Yes. I’m really good at all of them. how would you explain what you feel? He’s I do everything opposite of what [00:18:00] people have been taught. So I go on my left foot in my backswing and then I go on my right foot on my follow through and it’s Okay. That’s not really what we teach, but we have seen athletes move like that. and then in the transition of my swing, I feel like I just turned into a slingshot. So he, this kid’s feeling elastic, recoil throughout the whole system. that’s just not, that’s not teachable. Like you could help me get a higher vert, but we’re only gonna get so high, right? Jeff Pelizzaro: So I was ju I was actually on your Instagram. Looking at some pictures, flipping through Cam Champ’s pictures and I’m like, man, he just makes it look so effortless Sean Foley: and easy. But that’s how those DBs look when they walk back to the,go to New York City and watch people walk down the street in high heels and in dress shoes and on cement and you watch Gates just get destroyed. Then you watch those guys walk back to the huddle and you realize wow. These guys walk so [00:19:00] beautifully and they spend a quarter of their time going backwards and like training people to go backwards now is so in,we were on the whole force. We couldn’t turn around. We were supposed to be able to do that. So yeah, I think it’s not rocket science, but it’s definitely science, it’s, it, we just have to look at today’s society. It’s how we’ve been designed, both from a mental and a physical standpoint, we don’t live like that. I’m being told now, don’t go in the sun. What? Why would I not go in the sun? my ancestors would have been in the sun all day, starting at sun up. So when people send me a link from Huberman, and I think he’s fantastic, I love his stuff. I like evidence, right? they’re like, early sunlight is so important for sleep cycles. Yeah, because we always were in early morning sunlight forever, like the whole time cold water is more imperative than hot water. How long have we had hot water as it [00:20:00] relates to our biology, 60 years in wealthy countries. So it’s not once again, it’s science, but if you just look at, okay, this is how we evolve physically. Okay. a hundred years ago, the obesity rate was what, like 1%? Okay, what are we doing to ourselves? And what are we not doing that we used to do? Move all the time. move all the time. Move all the time. Exactly. Exactly. yeah. So I’m fascinated. Like I have so many smart friends that are in your discipline, and I love listening to them, but I just, I’m very good at staying in my own lane. You know what I mean? it’s just. It’s super important when you start, I think I felt at one point the ability to articulate all of these different things. So I knew 3% of everything. And so it was like, it just wasn’t deep. And if I got in amongst people who really knew the challenge was, I couldn’t handle the challenge. So I just was like, all right, [00:21:00] what do I need to know about how to overall mentorship role of my teams over the years? And so it was like getting the right people, and I feel like I did a very good job of getting the right person matched up with a certain player, not always the same people. Jeff Pelizzaro: So when you are out on the range and you’re working with somebody or you’re assessing somebody, and you know that you maybe don’t have the ability, especially right there in the moment, I assume people are coming in to see you, you might have a short period of time with them. You’re not really going to be able to send them off to your team if they’re not a professional golfer. This is, let’s say, more the country club golfer. And okay, we’re not going to fix everything that this person has going on physically. you probably have some sort of a, what might your screen be? physically, are you looking at and saying okay, this is where we’re going to, Maybe try to make a couple changes, or I know we got to work around some of these things just to make them hit the ball better today, and they’re [00:22:00] off and running. Sean Foley: Yeah, I got some, I have some tricks up my sleeve after 30 years, right? it’s, basically, most of these players who come to me, who are going to be,amateurs, what we’re mainly talking about. Most cases, their back swings are too short and their club face is too open. So I’m what I’m doing when someone comes to me, I’m I’m, I feel like a triage, I feel like I’m on the front lines and I’m a triage doctor. And so the grenade went off and I see like blood everywhere, but like where, like, where can I not miss it? So I got to take the flak jacket off and I have to see if it’s by any of the organs, because. My skin can be hanging off and that looks gross, but I’m not going to die from that. You know what I mean? So it’s trying to, in a way, like trying to find a tumor, which to be honest with you, most of the time, Jeff is just someone’s concept and understanding.[00:23:00] So a lot of people like, if we taught kids how to play baseball, like we teach them science, kids would think that baseball sucks, right? Like we need to start teaching science. Like we teach like sports. so I think. the first thing I’m gonna ask anybody is are you sore anywhere or have you have you had injuries? So like Aria Jantargaran is one of the girls I work with on LPGA and she dislocated her shoulder and then had a surgery. And so she in external is about right there, so she can’t go very far. Now, she played good golf after that. and she’s incredible. she’s so impressive to watch. She’s in my top three, like pure fleshers, men or women. she can really smash it and she hits it beautiful. And so when she came to me, she came after I worked with Lydia for two years [00:24:00] and she had turned early and had a deep hand path, which is. Can be the in thing from time to time, right? Getting deep. and we just totally don’t understand that most people do that, see it. And then go into like basic, like completely over retraction and elevation. And then it feels deep, but there’s like in a terrible place now. So we, that’s the word I don’t like to use, to be honest with you. so she did that because he was so limited, obviously her brain’s I’m not causing more issue there. So I’m just, Oh, that feels better. And so someone sent me a video the other day of her hitting it like way better than they remember. And they’re like, but she’s so outside. And so to get the center of mass of the club and transition to fall behind her, I have to use momentum because she just doesn’t have that. She doesn’t. So the thing is when she takes it out, the main thing that she has to be concerned about is making sure that she elevates as she turns. [00:25:00] So she feels the elevation, but sometimes she’ll just take it out and she won’t turn with it. Because obviously if the arms go in a certain direction, then the body’s just going to react. Basically, her feeling like she’s creating torque clockwise in the ankle and then feeling that it’s out and wide, it’s given us the ability to get it to fall back into that beautiful place that she can just release it and murder it from. That, that, that’s the thing is she’s very lateral and vertical and her sister is literally like this. So they’re the same, they’re sisters and they move so completely differently. if. If I was to give them the same lesson, one’s going to get better and one’s going to get way worse. So it’s knowing that there are different type of movers. There’s not many, there’s really not many. if you look at the ground force stuff from swing catalysts, you’ll see some guys who stay left and they use vertical a lot. And then you’ll see some guys who move from left to right and use [00:26:00] vertical. And then you’ll see guys like Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, and Justin Rose, who were a trifecta. So between linear, vertical, and torque, they hit torque average in all three. The funny thing is those are the swings people like to look at. Yeah, those are the pretty ones. Just what I’m saying. But a lot of the rhythm that they have in all of that comes from their ability of when they apply force. And to me, rhythm is not like something where I can have a good rhythm. Like people would say, Oh, John Bonham had great rhythm on the drums. He also had like incredibly competent mechanic. Give me a drum. I think I have decent rhythm in my golf swing, but give me a drum set right now. It’s not going to sound like I have very good rhythm. So it’s one of those throw out words. So I think the guys that have the ability to move. Not like in a unicorn way, Cameron might be like a unicorn [00:27:00] in a high end movement, air ability with the right wrist,with wrist angles that suit their grip. They’re the ones who end up really looking elegant and rhythmic is because, they can hit these angles and stay in these angles and then use things to, to go from there. So I don’t understand how we can talk about vertical force, but not talk about someone’s ability to like. Contract their muscles. So am I going to learn that on the range or if I wanted to get that better, would I just go to a sprint and jump mechanics coach? I think if I did that, I’m going to, I’m going to get it for free on the range. Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah. Yeah. How much do you think, I love this transition because we talk about. Strength training, we talk about all the fitness stuff. We talk about going out and practicing skills. The crossover there, I think, is where most of us tend to get lost a little bit. okay, how do I take that speed, that athleticism, and directly [00:28:00] correlate that into my golf swing? Are there certain things that you and maybe your team do with some of your players to, to bridge that bit of crossover, to make it a little bit more, for lack of better terms, golf specific when they’re working on some of, integrating Sean Foley: some of those pieces? Yeah, not really. not really. I just think what happens is just over time you just see that all come together. Because the thing is with the person’s swing, that thumbprint’s pretty heavy, right? Like that thumbprint’s, if I go and hit golf balls right now, I probably get hurt. Because when I. When I formally built my swing and got it to where it’s always going to be right. I moved way better than I do now. Like my ankles moved is whatever you want. I just moved way better. So I have to work on my movement right now, as it relates to hitting the ball better, because my hands and arms are very educated on what to do. See what [00:29:00] I’m saying? So it’s. If I get to the top of my swing and I’m like that, then I don’t care what you did in the gym with Jeff for the last year, because as soon as you go to apply all that stuff, physics wise, now you’re in trouble. but you know that I think one of the things that mystifies me is it relates to all the instruction about people keeping their butt on the wall and rotating. And then these world class players go into the gym and do a bunch of flexion and extension exercises. So when I think of the pivot, I see it more as the idea of a stretch phase, a counter rotation phase and an extension phase. Okay. But I think more people can do that than actually can build their backswing into a place where it’s going to be good. And I think that golf is very much a backswing game as it relates to. Once you get to the top of your backswing, you have three one hundredths of a second before you get to impact. So [00:30:00] the sail, the ship is sailed to some extent, the only angular changes you’ll be able to make will be with large movers. And so I don’t really think that extension is a problem. And I don’t really have to fix it. If I can get the mass of someone’s club coming in from the right place, they know what to do from there. Just like they know what to do from there. If you look at Jason day’s swing from five years ago till now, you could see obviously why he was, his back was getting hurt. his posture wasn’t good. he probably swayed more than he turns. He was very steep coming down and had to Pike up to not cut across it. And so if I look at the difference now, because of where his club is and because of where his arms are. And because of his posture, he’s probably not going to hurt himself again. So it’s like the back is better when the back’s not even the focus. It’s not even [00:31:00] the back’s getting hurt in these decelerations bases where we’re trying to make up for lost time of something we did wrong. And our intention is very clear and our brain’s very good with intention. And so if we get out here and then rotate, we’re just going to slight this. So we’re just going to early extend so we don’t slice across it. And then we think that early extension is the problem. Early extension is actually almost the talent. I’ve never heard it put that way, but yeah, Jeff Pelizzaro: it’s basically a compensation to fix what problem you had in the backswing. Sean Foley: Yeah. if you look at Sergio and Cameron Champ at impact, if Scottie Scheffler had his backswing where he did, and then look like them through impact, he’d be hitting huge slices because when you, but once again, what do they say? They ended up doing an article on why you should have his footwork. Of course. But honestly, if you look at it. and if he came to me, I wouldn’t say a word to him cause he hits it amazing. And so his [00:32:00] coach, Randy Smith has been brilliant just to know that this guy’s a big ball hitter and practices a lot. And they’ve got their couple of things that they work on and where Scotty has it is amazing, but it’s very rare that you’ll see a player on tour whose sternum is ahead of his pelvis. That his arms are very upright with the face open. These are rare. You don’t see it very much. And so if I’m up here and I’m already this way. As soon as I start down, if I was going to get open, look at where I’m coming from. Yes. If I now slide my hips really hard to the target, and then from there I start to extend, my foot is going back that way in relation to just trying not to spin out. Yeah. So that’s how he does Hovland.[00:33:00] Who, once again, you wouldn’t touch that because you don’t touch it because they’re number one and two in ball striking. So whatever they’re doing is lawful. They can do it, right? If it’s eight out of 10 people, those are two unicorns on the spectrum. And then everyone else is fits, in, into the middle. Jeff Pelizzaro: Tell us a little bit about the pro center and why you decided to go with, so obviously that you’re working primarily on implant impact. It’s basically one position, but tell us why the way that you guys designed it works so well to help improve that position. Works on the backswing, works on impact position. but I’ve heard you talk about the science of how our bodies learn and how you guys designed this specifically for that reason. Sean Foley: Yeah, I think because the backswing is two one hundredths of a second away from impact, I don’t think impact is the goal. I think [00:34:00] by the time we get there in our transition, that’s pretty much all hero. Okay. I know I’ve heard players say they saved it. That the physicists tell me that’s not possible. Okay. So feeling real, don’t really relate. So if you just think about us as we’ve evolved, some of the ways that we would have had to be able to create velocity. In the spear or in the stone or in our fist or in the sword, that’s where all of athleticism stems from. So back 5, 000 years ago in a big sword fight, the guy who was the best sword fighter was just the best athlete who loved sword fighting. Basically. So yeah, the whole idea of being in extension with the right wrist and the right forearm and pronation. [00:35:00] And the shoulder in external rotation that has so much to do with so many evolved movements. Okay. Now, obviously once I would take the spear, I would, if my weight, I would load, I would counter rotate, and then I would go ahead into extension phase and throw it. So I’m getting, I’m generating energy from the ground. What I’m doing to it, it’s doing to me. I have these factual slings, posterior and anterior. And then I have contraction of muscle and deceleration and acceleration, right? That’s where I’m at. I don’t think that I need to know much more than that. I feel like that’s about what’s happened. So when you watch modern javelin throwing today, that’s obviously a completely different process because you’re trying to throw it high as well, but you watch those guys [00:36:00] and they do have a lot of drills where they just work on being here and pushing. They’re not always running and loading. They’re also using, they’re also using that kind of, to me, it looks like how a dolphin moves, right? Propulsion to do this all together. No one says like a javelin thrower has great glutes. Javelin thrower has a great arm, right? So Nolan Ryan on his knees would put a hole in our chest. He’s obviously being able to create enough friction and resistance to then go against. But in your work, that’s why what you do with people’s core is so important. Cause now you’re giving me two ground. So I remember years ago, I met a guy who was a special forces in South Africa and was shot in war and was paralyzed, but became like the number one ranked adaptive golfer in the world. And so he built a golf cart that stood [00:37:00] him up. And then he was able to hit, And it could go on the green and everything. I think he sold lots of them. but he’s at 150 mile an hour club head speed. Oh my gosh. How heavy is a golf club? not very. So my friend, Sasha McKenzie, who’s a PhD in biomechanics up in, Nova Scotia. Sasha was the one who created that stack system that Matt Fitzpatrick used to increase his club head speed. what was really cool is that he was a good sprinter and he was a great lifter. So not only is he a PhD in biomechanics, he had very, a lot of wisdom in it. So Sashko says that how we apply. How we create force and speed into a golf club is more equivalent to a badminton racket than even a baseball bat. And then if you look at sports like lacrosse, obviously you have a pull hand and a push hand. [00:38:00] And the more you’re able to do that, the faster you can move it. Okay. Now, if you take a running start and do all everything else. A world class lacrosse player standing dead still doing that isn’t going to lose much velocity. that’s why this is so important, is because so much of what I’m doing in golf is in the grip and about the handle. Now, your job is to get me to move in an elegant way so that… I can get it into optimum places to make it really speed up. So the movement part has as much to do with hitting it straight as it does hitting it far, maybe more, to be honest with maybe more too, because no one’s ever done a biopsy of Cameron champs motor units, so that will be telling. Okay. that will be telling. So we can, we can say this, and this, but I think there’s slightly deeper levels to why there’s like when you have [00:39:00] one of one type of velocity, right? So just going off the idea of how we had, would have always produced, throwing energy, right? Cause I think of the golf club, like when old school pros talk about releasing it, that’s throwing it, just not letting go of it. So you got a pull hand and you got a push hand. So once you put it on and the way we did it, Jeff was basically right, Wrist extension on the PGA tour goes from say 40. There we go. Goes from 43 degrees to 62, roughly. Okay. So you might get some of the super bode guys, like in a higher level of it. Now, are they bowing their left wrist or are they corkscrewing their right so much that it’s pulling the wrist [00:40:00] into that position? Cause this, for people, this is a weird thing. Like with right handed golfers, this is like no man’s land, right? we built it at around 50 degrees. So that’s in the midpoint of that picture picture back in the day that I have a spear or a rock, it’s going to be in that position. We would never have been in that position. Now, say I was going to throw something would be in this position, I wouldn’t be, or in this position. Like a frisbee kind of a throw. Totally. Where I’m going, I’m probably flex early going into older, right? And so with the right wrist there, as the [00:41:00] person puts it on there to the top, sorry, based on their ability to obviously create space and time with their pivot. Once they’re into that position, ideally, what happens now is when we release it, we’re not releasing it this way. We’re releasing it as that arm is straightening. It has to obviously to create a mechanical advantage that the wrist is, it stays in it because it’s in extension, but it’s going older. Okay. So it’s not so much, it’s not so much of a draggy thing. Okay. Cause that might look better, but that ball is not going to go very high and it won’t give me what I need optimally. If you look at this movement here, so I’m in extension and I’m letting my right arm straighten. Okay, there’s been a lot of talk about keeping the elbow bent in front of you. I don’t know why you want to do that. I [00:42:00] think Jeff, you have to be so thick in forward bend and rotation to create enough side bend to actually even hit the ground. So if you can do it. But if you can’t do it, don’t do it. Not good. I think there’s a lot more players in the hall of fame who are here at impact than here. Okay. So I think I would call this kind of sidearm golf, right? How many pitchers in the major leagues are sidearm throwers? Is there five? Very few. Probably five, right? we have five golfers. Who can do that too. So once again, it’s just going to be human movement. So do I think for amateurs, it’s a good idea to go to the, to go to a lake and trying to learn how to skip rocks. Absolutely. 100%. the guys who could really do it and make it skip like 50 times are bent over so much that it’s just incredible that they can [00:43:00] keep that the plane of it that way. So the idea is that as I’m doing this, that motion there. It’s really not a lot different than that motion there. The reason I don’t want people’s elbows to be bent at impact is the reason as a boxing coach, I wouldn’t want your elbow to be bent when they hit somebody. So we have to get, we have to be able to use that pack and that shoulder to get that arm to extend in the tricep, make contact and generate push force. So what happens is when the amateurs get to the top and they’re out of it. This left side is going to have a lot more responsibility for what happens because the right side is just in no man’s land. So the face is going to be wide open. So they’ve got to, if the face is open, they’ve got to find a way to close it. So they try to swing left to help close it. But the problem is because it’s here, [00:44:00] it’s going to find a way to go back. And so the pro sender is getting it to where I’m going to make it go back in transition. And now I can go. Whereas when it comes down this way or steep, it’s going to go back late. And that’s why, 85% of people slice a golf ball. So this is much more important in the sense that when I’m in this angle, now picture the golf club connected to it, that club stays behind my hands as they work down. So this phase where the club would be on this angle, as I’m working down, they didn’t let me do that as a kid. Cause they said that I wasn’t on plane, but if you really wanted to create speed, you couldn’t be on plane. You wouldn’t go up. It’s not even, I don’t think it’s a word that even matters. It’s I think hopefully some of the language in golf evolves, right? Like why can we not call it a stretch phase, a counter rotation phase and an extension phase? Why isn’t a [00:45:00] backswing, a downswing and a follow through, right? Even when you talk to an amateur who is a beginner and you tell them to make a backswing, they literally swing backwards. Like, why wouldn’t they, right? So hopefully over time that can change because, when you guys discuss things, you say glute men or glute mead. You don’t make up a different name for it. There’s nothing wrong with challenging people to just a little higher form of contemplation, would you Jeff Pelizzaro: say that? For kind of that range of golf where you’re talking about before that’s the biggest miss that open club face at impact that, because I know that describes my golf swing perfectly, over the top move, which has been cool to, to play around with the pro center and see how it really does change the, just the feel of where my club is and, working on that position and Sean Foley: into the ball. And then I would imagine what you would feel is that say you felt like that got really improved. You would notice what your body was doing was way different than before, but you [00:46:00] didn’t even think about it. And the hands have a lot of memory in the brain. And so my saying has always been that the club face is the CEO, but the hands are the GPS. Do I need to turn my body or do I need to stretch away from myself? So a lot of the second baseman who steps up and the ball gets hit and he goes right and creates a horizontal breaking force and then creates a lateral force with a vertical force to catch the ball. He’s only trying to catch the ball. He just reacts like an athlete, right? he would have had that when he was five years old, the ability to go side to side like that. Now he could work with you to make it better and more explosive. He’s in the major leagues because he catches balls. so we can’t get, we can’t get lost in the It’s like when people talk about, what came first, the chicken or the egg?[00:47:00] what came before the chicken and the egg was atoms and molecules and electrons and protons, right? that’s what came first. I think the same can be true, with strength and conditioning and golf, right? Jeff Pelizzaro: Let’s take a quick break here to thank our partners over at Live Pure. Live Pure makes the highest quality hydration product on the market. It was developed in part with Dr. Troy Van Biesen, who is the chiropractor to some of the highest level players on the tour, including Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas. In fact, Justin Thomas is one of the investors in Live Pure, and just came out with his cool lime flavor. And I was at a member guest this past weekend in Kansas City, Missouri at Hallborough Country Club. And that is one of the things that helped us get through this member guest. It’s a marathon of a golf event from Wednesday to Saturday afternoon. And you better believe me, we had our [00:48:00] lip here on hand to help us get through the, Maybe there’s a couple of later nights and a little dehydration going on, but it’s important to keep it in the bag. We had it in our cart all day long. So go check out LivePure, L I V P U R. com. You’re going to get a discount with the code 18STRONG. Go over there, check them out and use LivePure to champion your day. Sean, I’m going to shift gears here a little bit. Cause I know we had a, we put out to our audience, that you were going to be on the show. So we want to get a couple of questions. So we have our crew in a segment. So I’m going to spitfire a different couple of questions at you. that may be in totally different ranges. First one comes at you from Kelly L who has a hardworking junior as a golfer, very dedicated to golfer, achieving some very high level goals. But get super, super nervous when going into competition or even before competition, what would you say to your players [00:49:00] that are achieving at a high level, but maybe suffer with a little bit of this nervousness,and really get on edge before going in to perform? Sean Foley: I don’t think nerves are a bad thing. I think the problem is nerves and anxieties feel similar, but they’re way different. if we’re nervous, blood leaves the inside and goes out to the outside, and that gives us more ability, right? Now, if we have anxiety, the opposite’s gonna happen. look, every player has to, one, really assess how they treat. How do you train? So if I’m going in the NFL season, I’ve had a bad start and I’m offensive lineman and all I’ve been doing is all the whole time all I’ve been doing is working on my backstrengths. That’s probably, I’m going to get pushed around, aren’t I? So I imagine offensive lineman from an anterior standpoint has to be very powerful. So let’s look at that [00:50:00] first before we think we have like mental issues, right? One, how does this young kid train? Okay, so if it’s like most everybody else, it’s, alignment rod down to a middle flag and hitting seven iron for two hours at the same flag. Not saying that doesn’t have its place. The last time I played golf, I didn’t have I didn’t have two circumstances that were the same, everything was different. So there’s that part that is important. The second part is getting them to understand, feeling like that’s fine. You’re feeling that because of the quality of your thinking. So when people say, I got a tournament in two days, what is that, what if never is like leads to a good, what is right. No one ever says what if this was the greatest week of my life? And so [00:51:00] getting the kids to understand one, it’s natural because so much of the brain’s process is just there to make sure we survive, not thrive, just survive, right? Thriving is like a new thing. It’s like the last 5, 000, right? But survival till that point. Okay. And so fear is natural. We’re born with it. What’s the first thing the baby does when they come out of the womb? They freak out because they’re afraid. Okay. What’s the second thing that happens? They give them to mom and then they quiet down. So fear and love are within the first minute of life. And then they both either add to or haunt us for the rest of our life. And it’s nothing, everything else is just made up names. There’s subsidiaries of those two things. So if you really love Galt. love it, right? That would do a lot to disseminate fear. But second is getting people to understand that fear [00:52:00] in most cases, that mechanism in our brain that’s there to protect us. So we have this thing called the, from what I understand, the mesocortex, which is the basal ganglia, the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. And that is our old brain. And it is, it’s faster than the new brain. it will outdo the old brain, the new brain. So the new brain might be going, it’s okay. That noise in the trees, that didn’t sound like much. The old brain is going, that’s saber tooth tiger, even though there’s no saber tooth tigers, it’s probably a squirrel, but right. Why did we get freaked out? It’s like we’re born. This is like generations of DNA that’s been transferred through the helix. That’s a noise in a book, that’s Sabretooth Tiger, even though I’m in Algonquin where it couldn’t possibly be a Sabretooth Tiger, right? that’s why the part of that brain that we need to get people to understand, it’s mostly inaccurate. then you take [00:53:00] the word fear. And create that, the acronym that I read, which is just so perfect is fear, meaning false evidence appearing real. So one training to, to understand that most of what you’re afraid of is just false evidence that appears real to you. And then if it appears real to you, then your brain knows how to react to what that is. So those are the first two points. And then the third point is since this generation has been so about parenting has been so much about themselves and not the children, we’re flying in the face of all the academics on from neuroscience and from childhood development and from genetics saying that these kids are born with 400 traits. They’re not an empty slate at all. they come with generations of information on who they are. And The idea that we can engineer academic [00:54:00] excellence and engineer sports excellence. that’s just allowed all these rackets in children’s sports where it costs like 30 grand to be good at any sport. especially certain sports. And so I think because the parents are making it more about themselves and they don’t mean to, okay. I’m not saying I’m perfect. I, but I look in the mirror a lot, right? That’s all I’m asking anyone to do is understand that. We’re not engineering these kids, these are sheep, they’re sheep. So all we can do as a functional shepherd is to ensure that we take them to safe pastures with soil, with a lot of nutrients, and then get them to understand what happens when they walk off a cliff, that’s it. That’s all a good shepherd does. It’s just guide. It ain’t engineering, no matter what you do, you’d never turn a sheep into a bird.[00:55:00] And so I think that the kids feel an incredible amount of pressure, especially in a time where, kids have NILs with sports companies because of all their followers on Instagram. And then someone sees that and it’s goes, Oh, I’m going to do that with my kid. It’s whatever happened to like, why you play the game in the first place. So I working with people like that. It gets very simple. Remember, we’re trying to strip away, we’re not trying to add to. Why do you feel this way? One, it’s okay to feel like that. Two, Tiger Woods was nervous on the first, Tiger Woods might be the worst ever in golf off the first tee. And I bet you if you asked him that, he’d probably say he was Michael Jordan missed more shots than anyone over a decade and was the best player in the game. Why are we so afraid to go out and play bad? like the thing I’ve learned in my career, since I stopped judging myself and [00:56:00] labeling everything was I would make a mistake with a player, but I wouldn’t make it again. And so when I feel now is like the players who work with me now, they have the best version of me and definitely the most, like the least dangerous. I have very few belief systems, which I think is important because this is not about belief. if you believe in Santa, that’s awesome, but this is not about, I’m not teaching you when you come to see me, I’m not teaching you what I believe to be true. of do I have preferences? Of course, who doesn’t have preferences, but I’m aware of my preference. So by being aware of my preference, you are safe from my preference. Like the best thing about failing is that. If you really look deeply at it and you’re reflective and you’re introspective about why you think it happened. And remember, it’s probably a me problem. It’s probably not your caddy. It’s not your coach. It’s not your, it’s [00:57:00] definitely inside of you. What did, what can I learn from this? And so you win when you lose, because then you apply it the next time. So I feel like these kids now are so afraid to make mistakes. because the parents are concerned that when their kids are making mistakes, it looked, them look like they’re not apt parents. if any parent was on, was being honest, I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea what I’m doing. Okay. I have no idea. All right. I tried to support them, create non negotiables and have unconditional love for them. I don’t know what else I can do. Yeah. Would I like him to go to Harvard? Sure. Do I care if he does or not? I don’t. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. If he’s in his board and I yell at him, it’s because he disrespected the ref. It’s not because he missed the net. I just watched the pros miss the net all day. You know what I mean? And you know what they do? They get into the next moment and they get ready for the next shot and then they shoot again. And yeah, I [00:58:00] don’t think that the kid feeling nervous is a problem. But it just depends if it’s nerves or it’s anxiety, and if it’s anxiety, then that kid is spending a lot of time thinking about the what ifs of tomorrow, which is not really responsible because there’s nothing you can do about tomorrow till tomorrow. So just getting them to be aware, I’m still gonna, these tournaments happen every week. Sometimes I sit there on Tuesday, I feel uneasy. I’m not sure what it is. I can normally draw it back to my ego and the fact that I’m wondering how Sunday’s going to go. of course, that’s why I feel uneasy because I’m not where I’m not where I’m at. So if I’m not where I’m at, I’m not going to feel natural. Cause it’s natural to be where I’m at. I’m just taking myself out of it. So all this talk about being present, you are present all the time until you take yourself out of it. It’s not a place, Jeff, that we need to get to. It’s a place that we live in. Like we take ourselves out of it. Yeah, as my career has moved on, I spent a lot more time discussing these things with players than [00:59:00] their, their golf swings. but just getting, understanding that doubt that you have is just mental constructs from previous experiences where you failed and maybe in failing you created a bit of trauma, which means it’s going to be remembered because the more emotionally you react to something, the deeper you reinforce it. Which is why having a real deep meta perspective on why you do what you do is really important because you only really fall as low as you climb high. So for me, I like to inspire people. I really enjoy the challenge of my job and I like to be right. Those are the three things. That’s me to a T. As long as I’m doing that and feeling like I’m helping others as I’m helping myself. Because every time I get them to believe in themselves more, I believe in myself more. But you can only believe in yourself when you’ve actually, when you’ve done it. And the problem is it about accomplishment or achievement, right? [01:00:00] the accomplishment is climbing the mountain. The achievement is the summit. The problem with the achievement is you can’t stay there for long because there’s no oxygen, it’s freezing cold and you got to get down and now you got to get down, but you’re going against gravity and you’re now eccentrically loading muscles that are already tired. So the better percentage of climbers die going down than going up like way more. I think it’s about more like accomplishment. to me, getting someone to understand that a lot of their doubts are mental constructs of previous experiences and it will feel real in the moment. And once again, the brain is just trying to protect you from feeling ashamed and failing. It really is. And next thing you don’t have any touch in your hands and you go out and shoot 45 and then everyone thinks it’s mental, but it’s not really mental, is it? Like it’s the brain. It’s not mental. I think if we had called mental health, [01:01:00] brain health a long time ago, we’d have way less problems with it now because mental health is like saying to someone, I got mental health issues. And they go, what’s wrong with you? nothing’s wrong with me, right? what’s wrong with me is I don’t understand what’s going on inside of it. And if I can help people understand what’s going on inside of them, am I ever going to hear like a noise in my house at two in the morning? And my first thought is not going to be saber to tiger. I’m not. But. when I understand that, for example, I’ll give you an example of like false evidence appearing real, this school shooting shit is a disaster, right? And it’s embarrassed. And this country is the greatest country in the world. And this is just a problem they shouldn’t have. And I’m not, look, I’ve not,I’m not for or against, I understand what people’s rights are. I get it. That’s that goes without saying whatever that doesn’t matter to me, [01:02:00] okay, but should I really fear that so if you look at the amount that we’ve had in the last 10 years and the amount of fatalities versus the amount of kids who’ve went to school every single day. During that time, the chances of it happening to me is as a kid is probably like 0. 00, almost infinite to the 1%. But the thing is, because our families matter so much to us. Is that when we see it, it’s like it, it deeply, do you remember where you were on nine 11? who doesn’t, right? Because the reaction emotionally was so heavy that it was reinforced so deeply that people can remember what they were wearing, what they ate for dinner the night before, the smell in the car dealership, remember crazy things. like my wedding day, I [01:03:00] remember almost every minute, but should I get to where 18 holes really matters that much to me? I don’t think I should. I don’t think that’s helped because this is a problem that we cannot let our kids go to school with that concern, but we do need to also recognize that when we turn the television on, it’s in their best interest to scare the shit out of us. It’s in their best interest, right? And so I just think that, people listening to this, just ask yourself, like what you’re afraid of one, how realistic is it? So I’ve never met anyone who’s afraid of heights, whoever fell from a building. So I’ll ask people, what are you afraid of? I’m afraid of spiders. Oh, have you been bit by like a tarantula? No. Oh, okay. So by a black widow. No, I’ve never been bit by a spider. Okay. So what are you so afraid of? they just look gross. [01:04:00] I think if that person educates themselves on spiders, they might not be as scared, right? So that’s the key. that’s where the knowledge comes into it. And then the wisdom is like, all right, so what are you afraid of? I heard this place has a lot of spiders. It does, but they’re not in here. there’s a way to get rid of that, but it’s just, it’s knowledge and wisdom. So it’s, that helps create understanding people who are afraid of flying. Planes don’t go down very often, Jeff. Okay. We’re in the 0. 0 billion percentage to one, right? But what’s amazing is they’re okay with driving to the airport, which is way more dangerous than flying. So I think when you can work with someone enough and them questions and challenge it and they’re open to it. They just exterminated as Oh, I’m taking a risk by getting on a plane, but in my car, I feel like I have more control. [01:05:00] I’m like, yeah, but you don’t control anyone who’s looking at TikTok driving next to you at a hundred miles an hour. You don’t control is like elusive. it’s phony. it’s not real. And so I think by getting to some of these deeper understandings, the idea of pre shot routines and visualization and self talk and that stuff goes out the window, man. Those are all things that I’m doing there. I’m adding things. I’m adding things. Are you going to tell me that this week whoever wins the PGA Championship that their routine is the same every time? It isn’t. It’s not. It really is not. It really isn’t. You ask half of them, you visualizing the shot? They’re like, no, should I? Look, dude, they’re really good at golf, which is why they are doing that. And then they side bend a little bit and they’re really strong and they hit these beautiful high draws. And then people say, do you want to draw it? Visualize it. If the face is open at impact, the ball is never going to draw no matter how epic your imagery is.[01:06:00] Jeff Pelizzaro: Those are words to live by right there. Sean Foley: I just think, look, man, I, you know what I’m trying to have a. I want to experience life and what I’ve learned along the way is that experiencing life doesn’t mean avoiding life, like it’s the good, the bad, and the ugly, right? Like you’re going to get all sorts. And I think if you can have limited belief systems and you can almost get to the point that you don’t label anything, your experience is going to be so different. when Jeff Pelizzaro: you had a chance to work with Tiger, you mentioned him in this whole discussion here. Is there anything you mentioned? He gets nervous, maybe more nervous than most. is there anything that you learned from him in your years with him that you have continued to pass on to your students these days? Sean Foley: he’s just the most structured ever. The most attention to detail as it relates to time. I learned in our [01:07:00] first lesson that seven o’clock meant six thirty. with most of my guys, if I said seven o’clock, I could show up at seven thirty and still have time. and then just the structure in his processes. This many chips, this many putts, this many range balls, this many golf holes, this many workouts, this many calories, it was just, and I think obviously he would have learned a lot of that his dad was a green brain in Vietnam. And so very militaristic. and I think that the way the military do things in many ways is very good for developing discipline, obviously. but just a level of concentration, he’s not on his phone. He ain’t talking to anybody. He looks reclusive and hard to approach. He’s not. He just is doing his thing, right? So it’s people would say, oh, I felt like Tiger was rude. No, I think you were rude by thinking you should say Heidi. That’s, rude is your determination of somebody else’s behavior. [01:08:00] That, so that’s rude. You know what I mean? But just so locked in, yeah,I would say that just prepared, like hitting balls in rain gear just to see how much the rain gear was going to affect his swing and see the adaptations that he’d have to make to either his footwork or his rhythm or his time, and then measuring it with me on a track man to see where it’s at. And then watching most everybody else get there and it starts raining and they complain they can’t swing in rain gear, like low hanging fruit like this. This is like a great lifter who we see deadlift a thousand pounds, but we don’t see the 30 minute activation period that he does before he tries to lift it. And you’d look at it and be like, how’s that going to help him lift all that weight? It’s just all the small details, man. I think that the goats are obviously, given a physical, have a physical gift. But then I just think they’re the most passionate about the Monday [01:09:00] and they love it so much. think about being a parent so hard. Imagine if you didn’t love your kids. they would be out on the street. So it’s just the love that like life is going to be a struggle, right? And love makes that endurable. Golf is going to be a struggle and your love for the game makes it endurable. So if I really love what I do for a living, like truly love helping people, love learning and love being right. Then why do I need to be positive about it? I don’t like I could look positive or negative from the outside, but that’s just where I’m at in consciousness. And you can’t really change that. I’m going to go from up to down. What can I do physiologically to ensure that I’m going to be in a higher state all day? Wake up early, get early morning sunlight, be super focused on my hydration, get in cold water, take a cold shower for three minutes. Maybe get 10, 15 minutes of cardio and maybe push ups and pull [01:10:00] ups. And now I’ve given myself a way better chance. So I think a lot of the psychological barriers that we have in society right now. All relate to the fact that physiologically, we’re not giving ourselves the information that we, from the, you know, from us, Yeah, Jeff Pelizzaro: absolutely. we’ve done some pretty cool shows, talking about so many of these things, like even just the earthing aspect, like you said, we’re never touching our bare skin to the ground. We’re never out in the sunlight in the morning. it’s Sean Foley: When they test Jeff, when they, when Craig tests, he’s got this thing that tests voltage, in the body. a lot of this stuff is as modern as it is from a physics standpoint, Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese medicine have been saying things like this for a long time, right? Meridian systems, all the channels, it really matches with science very well. And and it’s been around for 6, 000 years and it’s been tried to be disproven for 2, 000 years and they’ve yet to do it. it’s pretty legit, right? And so I had some bad [01:11:00] bursitis in my left ankle and this thing just would not get better. And so Craig went to his mentor, Tennant’s, Dr. Tennant’s and got this device. And so he started doing these things with me. And so he put it on my ankle to see what basically it’s putting out a charge into me. So think about a stun gun, but not a stunt. Okay. And he put it down on my ankle and… He looked up at me like, you don’t feel that? And I was like, no, I don’t feel that. And he’s Whoa. And I go, what does that mean? And he hit me in the trap with it. And I literally almost punched him. And so basically said that the voltage was so low from the cells in that area. And obviously the electrons and the protons. That the voltage was so low that the light system couldn’t help the nervous system, which couldn’t help the immune system. So I couldn’t, so basically got me to stand on,[01:12:00] they look super medieval, but, Just on these metal boards and I would hold on to these two metal things here and I would just sit on it if I spent the next,if I spent the next two weeks finding a way to be on the ground an hour and a half a day, things like inflammation, arthritis, these things are all going to go down. And a lot of these, a lot of these things that we have that could be more so autoimmune that we see more than we used to. It could just be related to that. We weren’t supposed to live in cement cities and wear rubber shoes, I really think that’s part of it. And then obviously diet, but that diet’s a whole other, that’s a whole other thing. Oh man, Jeff Pelizzaro: we could go on many different tangents about all of those things, but it’s so incredible when you, like you said, they’ve been looking at all of these different things for thousands and thousands of years, and now we’re just starting to maybe understand a little bit of it [01:13:00] from a research standpoint and scientific standpoint. Yeah, Sean Foley: so many. We, look, we’re probably intellectually beyond what we’ve ever been, and it is easier to be alive now than it’s ever been, okay? But we are definitely globally, but especially North America, as unhealthy as we’ve ever been. it’s like the science of fasting and everyone’s so into it. And it’s guys, we’ve been fasting forever. We weren’t, we couldn’t pick when we were going to eat. We could only eat when we had food, man. Like it’s natural for that. Like it’s amazing of all the things that start to happen in us when we don’t have food, that are all quite very helpful. it’s,Dave Matthews has a lyric. He says, progress takes away from what took forever to find. Love it. Jeff Pelizzaro: Sean, I can’t thank you enough for coming on. I know we’ve taken up more of your time than we should have, but,this was great. I really appreciate, everything that you’re doing, everything that you’re sharing, the pro center, obviously, where’s the best place for people to go find [01:14:00] you and info on the pro center and everything you’re doing. Sean Foley: I’m at Sean Foley performance on Instagram. I’m not on Twitter cause my wife will not let me Jeff. That would be a problem. we will be a problem. and so Sean Foley performance on Instagram, pro sender golf is also an Instagram and our website between David woods. And I think you’re having David on the show in a few weeks. David’s my partner and one of my close friends. David Woods pga and, you can find us on the web at ww pro sender golf.com. And we are, we’re in stock now. We have lefty version coming out, and we finally, as of this week, have worldwide shipping, so Awesome. Jeff Pelizzaro: Awesome. We’ll definitely make sure that all that stuff’s linked up in the show. real quick before we go, I got to ask you one quick question that everybody gets on this show. Caddyshack or Happy Gilmore? Oh, come on, Sean Foley: man. Caddyshack. Who says Happy Gilmore? They got to be younger than me. They got to be. You know what? they’re younger or they’re [01:15:00] European usually. Yeah. it’s good too, but Caddyshack is oh man, that, it doesn’t, that’s that’s such a. That’s such a classic. my, the line that always pops in my head is when Ty says to Dan, he says, do you do drugs? And he says, yeah, every day. And he goes, so what seems to be the problem? it’s so good. So good. I love it. Jeff Pelizzaro: All right, my friend, great to have you on. Hopefully we’ll do this again in the future sometime and good luck with all your players. I know you’ve got a lot of players doing some pretty cool things at all levels. we just appreciate you coming Sean Foley: on. Okay, Jeff. Have a great day. Jeff Pelizzaro: Thanks for joining us this week on the 18th Strong Podcast with our guest, Sean Foley. It was such a pleasure and an honor to have him on. And to get an insight in the way that his brain thinks and the way he looks at the game, which I think is very unique. He has a very different, philosophy and way of approaching how he works with his golfers, which is really cool to hear. So if you want any more information, you want any links, you can go to [01:16:00] 18STRONG.com. This is episode number 348, and this episode is also on YouTube. So if you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel lately, we are putting all the episodes up on YouTube as well as some clips of the episode. And we’re going to be shooting a lot more videos over there. So you’re going to see some changes coming to 18STRONG. We’ve got some new branding and everything coming up. So be ready to see some changes over at 18STRONG, and we will catch up with you again next week with another great guest train hard, practice, smart, and play better golf. Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Guest: Scott Stallings, three-time PGA Tour winner Host: Jeff Pelizzaro Episode Number: 347 Podcast: The 18 Strong Podcast Summary: Dive into this episode of the 18STRONG Podcast as we explore the world of professional golf with Scott Stallings, a three-time PGA Tour winner. We delve into Scott’s triumphant return to the Masters, his outstanding performance during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, and his unique fitness regimen that keeps him at the top of his game. Scott also shares his love for bourbon and challenges listeners with a 10-minute workout that requires no equipment. Main Topics Scott’s Return to the Masters Experience the thrill of the Masters through Scott’s eyes as he returns to the prestigious tournament after a seven-year hiatus. Learn about the importance of family in Scott’s journey and the challenges he faced playing in varying weather conditions. Scott’s Incredible Season in 2021 and 2022 Discover the strategies and planning that led to Scott’s successful seasons in 2021 and 2022, which ultimately led to his return to the Masters. Scott’s Fitness Regimen and Mental Game Gain insights into Scott’s fitness regimen that helps him maintain peak performance. Learn about the mental aspects of golf, and how Scott manages pressure and expectations. Scott’s Love for Bourbon Explore Scott’s passion for bourbon and get a glimpse into his impressive collection. Scott’s 10-Minute Workout Challenge Take on Scott’s 10-minute workout challenge that you can do anywhere, with no equipment needed. Are you up for the challenge? Resources Mentioned Linksoul – The preferred brand of apparel for golfers. Use the code “18STRONG” for a 20% discount. Conclusion In this episode, Scott Stallings takes us on a journey through his return to the Masters, his successful seasons, and his fitness regimen. He also reveals his love for bourbon and challenges listeners to a 10-minute workout. Tune in to the 18STRONG Podcast to hear more about Scott’s experiences and insights. Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” ????????) Jeff Pelizzaro: [00:00:00] The 18STRONG podcast, episode number 347 with three time PGA Tour winner, Scott Stalling. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast where we know the stronger we are, the better we play. I’m your host, Jeff ero, and this is your first time listening to the 18STRONG Podcast. This is a show about golf, about fitness, and really about stories and experiences and guests that can come on and help us all play at our best play at our strongest, and this week the guest is no exception. We have Scott Stallings three time PGA Tour winner. Most people think when you hear the term golf fitness or a P PGA tour golfer that is. The epitome of golf and fitness. Most people will say Scott Stallings. He’s kinda become that guy in the world of professional golf. this week we get a chance to talk to Scott about everything. We talk about his return to the masters, after not being there since 2014. We talk about him having such an incredible season in [00:01:00] 21 and 22, which ultimately is what got him back to the masters. We talk fitness, we talk his mental game regimen, we talk his bourbon collection. I found out that he’s a big bourbon guy. So we discussed that a little bit. And then we have a segment at the end of the show that’s a little bit new that we call our crew NA section. So we had questions from our crew, the 18th strong community that were posed on social media and via email that we put out to Scott too. And then a last little surprise, Scott gives us a little bit of homework. 18th Strong is all about being actionable, taking steps to getting better at this game, getting your fitness ready so you can play your best golf. So I asked Scott to put together a little workout for us. So Scott’s gonna go through a little 10 minute workout that you can do anywhere, no equipment, and we’re gonna challenge the crew a little bit to do this workout and post some results. So before we jump into our episode with Scott Stall, and I just wanna say a quick thanks to our partners over at linzel. Linzel is our preferred brand of apparel, [00:02:00] whether we’re on the golf course, off the golf course, and I have a very cool surprise. Not really surprised, but very cool announcement that Linzel is now and has been for the last several months at least. They have a whole line of female apparel now. So I know that my wife has really been like, Lacking on being able to get on the links, all board, on the links, all train, because they didn’t have a whole lot of women’s apparel. And now they do. They’ve got all kinds of tank tops, sweats, a lot of leisure wear and comfortable clothes, just like the stuff that they have for us. Now they’ve got it for the ladies. So go ahead and get your wife a gift. I know that, mother’s Day has just passed, but never too late to share the link. Soul Love with the ladies. So in order to get your discount, go to 18STRONG.com/link Soul. You can click through, you’re gonna get 20% off of anything that you put in your cart, and go ahead and get yourself something while you’re there. So again, 18STRONG.com/link Soul. All right, let’s jump into our conversation with Scott Stallings. Jeff Pelizzaro: [00:03:00] Scott, welcome back to the show, man. Scott Stallings: Nice. I’m glad. the wonders of technology never cease. happy to be here. Jeff Pelizzaro: It’s finally good to get the, the Internet’s working here. It’s crazy, man. hey, I wanna start out with, I know you’ve probably had so many questions about, the whole debacle with the masters invite and everything, but I wanna touch base on you. Just going back to the Masters this year, after, I believe it was 2014, that was the last time you were there. What did it mean to you to be able to get back on the grounds, be there again, and be able to play in the Masters again? Scott Stallings: it was a incredible experience. I think that, at any person in my position, at this point in my career with my kids and everything, like I wanted, no matter, I didn’t know when it was, I just wanted to be able to participate in the tournament and have my family be able to experience it with me. That Wednesday, the part three, that’s prob that was probably my favorite day in golf in my career. I have no idea what I shot. I did not make a hole in one. I [00:04:00] watched Shamus make two hole in ones back to back. I watched Scotty Shuffler slide in the hole on the ninth hole, and he’s my son’s favorite player. and just the all-encompassing of like golf at a absolute best and family, just everything coming in together to celebrate the, the full golf and full swing. And, the masters kicks off golf season for everybody. And even though we’ve been playing for a long time, and just for my family and my kids to be old enough to remember and look back, it’s that’s a day hopefully we’ll never forget. and we’re, I have the picture of, this was when my son was, he was 14 months old. When he was at the master’s there, I adjust my screen where you see the little better. Yeah, I can see it in the left hand corner there. Yeah. But,so we’ve got some new pictures to be able to replace that. And, that’s probably my favorite, golf picture I’ve ever seen. I’m biased, obviously it’s my kid, but just all, everything about it and what it is in its purest form. the tournament was great. I felt very fortunate to get opportunity to play the weekend. struggled coming down [00:05:00] the stretch on Friday with some of that crazy weather that happened, the starting the stopping. just sorta at the wrong place in the course, at the wrong time with the weather. And, but was fortunate enough to get at some tee times on the weekend and I felt like I took advantage of them. I played a really good round on, had to go back out on Saturday and play. It meant it was brutal out there. the course that we saw on Thursday and Friday was not the course that we saw on Saturday. it was tough. I hit wedge and Gap wedge into, 17 on, I hit on Thursday or Friday and Saturday morning I hit seven wood. Oh my gosh. it was a lot different, but battled, able to work my way up to the leaderboard. Obviously feel like I, I left a few out there, like everybody probably feels the same way, but, being in the situation, it was a great week to be out there and, just deal with it, battle it at, the best golf tournament in the world. And so it was a awesome week for me and my family. Jeff Pelizzaro: How many holes did you have [00:06:00] to get out and play on Scott Stallings: Sunday? I had to play, had to play 10, so 28 holes, I deploy. I start, we, they gave us the option to tee off on 18 on Saturday, and it was, dead in, off the left at 45 degrees. And,just full rain. And I was like, we’ll see you tomorrow. We’re good. We’re good? Yeah. Jeff Pelizzaro: when you came out Sunday morning was, was it still cold? Was it still windy or was it dramatically different than Saturday? Scott Stallings: dramatically different. Honestly. I’m not sure where my drive would’ve gone on Saturday. because it was raining so hard. me, I was playing, with Charles Schwartel and we were just laughing as far as what the clubs that we were considering hitting off 18 because not none of us could hit a drive straight, just because the, there were so low spin and the, you couldn’t keep the ball dry. just like balls were going everywhere. So it was still chilly, but meant very manageable and it ended up [00:07:00] being an incredible afternoon. being able to play and, fairly. Mundane conditions compared to what we dealt with on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Jeff Pelizzaro: What, there’s a lot of talk about the course changes and obviously 13 was different. Did that play a big role in scores that weekend or just how you approached the course at all, or was it not that big of a deal? Scott Stallings: I think it, when the weather was as it was on Friday and Saturday, it was a layup like that. Was it like you, I don’t know, maybe some guys early in the day or whatever. But there was no, I, no one that I saw was getting there. so I think there, it made some of the, if you were in the, the process of going for the green, it probably made the decision and the shot execution a little bit more difficult because the ball lays in up slope as far as where the ball’s significantly above your feet. But it also makes it a lot easier to lay up too. It takes the indecision cause I hit three good drives and [00:08:00] one drive in the hazard on Thursday. I hit the top of the tree and came down, went in the hazard. I went twice. one was successful, one was not successful. But it’s just such a awkward shot from that length of distance with the ball so far above your feet to a green that really you don’t want to be left of. But obviously you can’t be right of it either. I bet in normal dry conditions, the ball kind of gets a little bit further out there and it creates that yardage where you’re definitely going for the green, but you have to deal where in years past guys were able to drive it past that second hill into a flatter spot, which made the whole significantly easier. It brought the slopes of the fairway way more at the play. What Jeff Pelizzaro: kind of shot is it, like distance wise and what club would you normally be hitting there Scott Stallings: if you were to go for it? it’s just kinda depending on pin location and stuff. Let’s just say like a normal wind, somewhere between like that, like 230, 240 down to 200. one of the practice station was straight down wind and the pin [00:09:00] was middle right. And I had, I hit eight iron, but that’s like perfect scenario down off the right, like high ball kind of pulling a little bit and it’s perfect. maybe some of the longer guys would hit it a little bit further than that. But it’s just amazing you, the line you could take from that up tee when the downwind was so much further left that you could take it just because the trees on the line now, like you can’t carry all of them no matter whether it’s down or not. Jeff Pelizzaro: You had a monster year in 2021-2022, season, and that obviously is why you got into the Masters. Just for people that don’t know, what are the qualifications that do get you back into that tournament every year? Scott Stallings: I got in, based off of making it to East Lake and competing in the tour championship. So that’s the ultimate prize that, the carrot that dangled at the end of the season. And, something we’re, striving for a chance to compete for the FedEx Cup at the very end of the year and, had a really solid regular season. super disappointed with the way that [00:10:00] I played at FedEx. I just did not drive the ball in the fairway like I needed to, to be able to play. The course, that’s probably one of my favorites. On tour, I shot, I think I shot one over, shot two over one under something like that. And because I felt like I was playing great and just didn’t really execute very well off the tee and had a couple practice days there in Memphis, made my way up to B M W,where, up in Delaware where we played Wilmington and the, we played a practice round in my, I’m like, I’m just figuring out different ways to just not like this course in my Cady and, hunter, the guy that we work with from a stats standpoint is just like putting it all together and he’s man, I think you can play great here. I don’t know if they were, if they necessarily believed it at the time, but whatever. But I’m like, man, we played our first practice round. It was windy and cool and we played it all the way back and I was just hammering four irons into these greens and I’m like, [00:11:00] man, you just can’t hit four irons into these holes and all this and that. And just progressively, as the weather shifted and the course played a little bit more like they had in mind, I started to see what my guys were saying. You play a lot of shots out of the middle of the bag, which, predominantly is the best part of my game. and there’s a few holes you just have to manage. be disciplined, have a good attitude, and go out there and take what the kind of course gives you. But then you have a good spot, especially the par threes that are in that, 60, 75, 200 range, which is, that’s where I’ve been able to stay out here for as long as I have to be able to do that pretty well. So it was a great week. Patrick clip me by one and then it, pushed me into Atlanta for the Tour Championship, which opened up a lot of opportunities for this year. Yeah. So when you do Jeff Pelizzaro: make that top 30, to go to East Lake, you get in all the majors, the players championship. what are some of the other perks that you guys get? Because I, like you said, that is the big carrot at the Scott Stallings: end of the season. [00:12:00] Yeah, it was, all the majors,player championship, invitationals, Kapalua, and then they added it on this year where you were a two, you were given a two year exemption. Oh, okay. For making it. So it was definitely a needless to say it was a big deal. Yeah. Jeff Pelizzaro: I would imagine just even scheduling wise, knowing that you’re in those, the majors for sure, Kapalua, all that stuff. how important is that to know that stuff a year ahead of time for you to be able to plan things around for the next year? Scott Stallings: It was funny, we had this conver, I did another podcast and we were just talking about just the planning aspect of how far out you need to do that. And I played the open at Hoylake, Royal Liverpool. We were playing, in, when Rory won in 2014. And I was, I was literally like the last guy in the field and my caddie and I joked that we stayed in, basically, we stayed in a different country. it was so long to get to the course based off of where we stayed. And you’re not driving, [00:13:00] you’re using a shuttle. And I remember going, I had like a. we were like first out and it was, seven o’clock or whatever, and we’re getting picked up at three 30 because we gotta drive like way far away to get to the course. And I remember driving to the golf course and I see these guys walk outta their houses, like right across the street from the course, like coffee, gym shorts. And I’m like, I am messing up something here. Cause this guy I have, we have not hit a shot and he’s five shots ahead of me. So the ability to plan and work on those things has been,a good opportunity and, gave it still like a good, a leg up and make the, plan your schedule around. I’m currently in two weeks off, took off, Vita and Wells Fargo as far as building up my schedule to know that basically after this stretch I’m home one week until August. I wouldn’t have had that freedom, to be able to do that. you try to find opportunities to be able to take two weeks off and at some point in the season, and this is my only opportunity based [00:14:00] off course fit preference, all the different things that kind of go along with that. it’s gonna be a big stretch, but it’s also something that I plan for and,some courses that really fit my eye in places. I feel like I have an opportunity to play well and compete and, look forward to being able to do that, here the remainder of the season. Yeah. the Jeff Pelizzaro: Wells Fargo, that’s one of the elevated events, right? And so I would imagine that’s a big decision to decide to take that off and, apparently is that one that just doesn’t suit your eye, even though last time you said that you came in second place at the BMW Scott Stallings: Championship. last time I played Wells Fargo, I was in the second to last group on Sunday. It really struggled. But I had a game plan throughout the course of the week that just made me look at the course a little bit differently. But my career best finished there, I think is 32nd. and the field was relatively weak, based off the, strength of field. And obviously this field will be very strong. and Byron Nelson and I’ve had the opportunity to win twice, of course that I like much better. [00:15:00] and just opportunity, you start thinking of FedEx cut points. I think, the financial incentive of elevated events is obviously a huge indicator for a lot of people. But,a course fit and, understanding that an extra week off in the grand scheme of things, for me to feel like I’m obligated to go play a place that doesn’t necessarily fit, what I like to see, especially off a t, I like it for about two and a half days, and then I stop the ability to be able to cut my irons and start just hitting big draws. And when I have to feel like I play, like that is where my game just goes to struggle. And so I can hang in there for a little bit and then as soon as that ball stops falling right, it, those left pins really start looking better and that thing starts slinging over. It’s oh my gosh, I feel like it takes me a month. I feel like it takes me like a month to get out of it. Jeff Pelizzaro: what has your thought been about, just the changes of the season this year with the elevated events, you think that things are working out well and then I know there’s some big changes coming next year. what are your thoughts there?[00:16:00] Scott Stallings: I think probably it, it, Liv pushed the tour to make some changes. They were planning on doing probably faster than they were wanting to the FedEx Cup and all that stuff. And, I feel like we get it to a good spot where people generally understand the FedEx Cup and what, whatever it is. And then we go a couple years where we don’t have any real turmoil and then all of a sudden we just had to change it, where not even the players really understand what’s happening. so I don’t know if that’s an overreaction or under reaction. I’m not in those meetings, but from a player’s perspective, it seems like the idea of, there’s two tours in one now. Essentially they’re creating three. And as a player that’s been at some point in my career, in all phases of those. To go from one to the next was difficult, but from go to two or one, which would be the newcomers, Korn Ferry guys. And to be able to go to that top tier, fully elevated, 700 point events, 20 million persons like to crack your way into [00:17:00] those out of the tournaments that those guys have an opportunity for. It seems very hard to get into, but also very hard to get out of because that’s the only tournaments you’re playing, your world ranking stabilizes. your FedEx Cup point allotment is so much higher and so your ability to play your way in some guy that came from. That newer category of tour player to that upper echelon, that guy has played incredible. And obviously they’ll be somebody that does that. the new crop of players are incredibly talented, but it, it does seem a little one-sided. and, but it goes to show that the financial incentive from a lot of things, is not necessarily the driving force for certain people. We saw Rory, miss out on Harbortown and, basically, forfeited 3 million bucks. I think that’s, that’s something that people look at as far as him being the driving force. Rory and I get along very well. and would, it could honestly could not say a bad thing about him, but when you start to look out from that [00:18:00] perspective,if it’s that easy to take, tournaments away, that basically you were given a. just by competing in the event, we’re guaranteed the full value of your PIP bonus. I think that it’s just more the opportunity to create that competitive environment for that many weeks as sponsors and different things can go along to it instead of just people are just looking at the pure financial aspect of it. And I think that’s where people see the money from Liv and the Elevated and start to look at it instead of like, why are we doing this instead of starting to see at it. Obviously there’s financial incentives in a lot of things that we do, but I think that is the, gets picked up by the media instead of the players as far as what we look at. It’s and we wanna play and compete against the best. and that’s something that,I think somewhat gets overlooked when everyone just focuses on the financial part. Jeff Pelizzaro: Is that something, just the whole scenario, is it something that the PGA tour really sits down and listens to you guys? I would imagine there’s a big contingent of you guys, players association and you guys are all discussing this in the locker rooms and there’s [00:19:00] lots of talks going on. Is it something that you guys come to the table and discuss or is it a little bit top down, this is what we’re Scott Stallings: doing? Yeah, it’s very top down, very much, after the fact. but to be honest, those guys have earned the opportunity to be a driving, driving force in the game. And, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t benefit from the opportunity of them, staying with their,loyalty to the tour and helping push it in the direction that it is currently. I’m not naive to that fact. I do think that they’re the way that the schedule and the things are played out, I think there’s. Maybe some things that are being overlooked. I think the fall schedule and looking back to early parts of my career when the fall banded together to be a part of the FedEx Cup and, to get some insulation and coverage from benefiting of being a FedEx Cup event, rather than when it was just the fall by itself. I think those tournaments have fought really hard to be very relevant, and have huge impacts on guys starting to the [00:20:00] season and now, I think it’ll be pretty wild to see how those tournaments are affected as far as, what kind of fields, opportunities, sponsor obligations and where the interest falls. I don’t think anyone really knows the answer. but I, it’ll be very interesting to see,what that plays out, coming forward, especially with the schedule once after the playoffs are over. Gotcha. Jeff Pelizzaro: As far as your personal goals for this season is are they something that you sit down and say okay, this year I want to, like East Lake is my goal, or are there different levels of your goals short-term, long-term? And do you sit down with a team or do you sit down, just in a quiet room by yourself and put these things on paper? Scott Stallings: A little bit of both. I remember I played with Sahi, Sala at. East Lake and he was griping. We played together on Sunday and he is the absolutely fantastic dude. and he was just getting a little bit chirpy. He was not necessarily hitting it what he is capable of. And I said, ma’am, I one thing to think about if you’re gonna play bad, he might as well play bad here. And [00:21:00] he just looked at it. I said, man, you’re a rookie and you made the tour championship. And he just looked at me and just started buying laughing. He goes, man, I never thought of it that way. but you don’t know what you’re missing until you have the opportunity to experience. And obviously East Lake and everything that came with it and all the stuff that the tour has done to create such a incentive to be a part of that event as far as everything that comes with it. And it was just very, eye-opening to man, this is something that I knew that I needed to strive hard to be here. But now even more, it’s here we go. Obviously it goes to that same, being a part of that event and all that comes to. but you have to, it doesn’t just happen in one week now, the seven, the big thing from 1 25 to seven is a huge difference. So consistent play throughout the course of the year, you have to accumulate week in and week out. I haven’t necessarily capitalized on Sundays as well as I should have. with that kind of being said, there’s a lot of opportunity to come with it being forward, but,I want that feeling. I want the opportunity coming down the stretch [00:22:00] on Sunday and see what I’m working with and, manage the emotion, anxiety and all that stuff that comes along with it and, have a chance to compete for a title and,I feel like I’m making the steps in the right direction to be able to do that. With your Jeff Pelizzaro: two weeks off here, what does this kinda look like? I’m sure it’s great to be home and be able to chill out, hang with the family, prep wise, do you take a little downtime? The first. Part of the time that you’re home, what do,what’s the schedule like? Are you pretty regimented with the schedule for these two weeks? Scott Stallings: Trying to do as much as I can, and basically from my time my kids are taking us, we, we take them to school and by the time we pick ’em up, I’ve got two young kids, seven and 10, and they’re full going extra school’s over with soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, all these different things. So I wanna be as much of their lives outside of school as I possibly can. So that sort of dictates what happens, afternoon, morning, this and that. But, being that’s two weeks off, I train a little bit different,[00:23:00] than I normally do and practice a little bit different where, when one week off, I try to touch, each and every part of my game in a little bit, part of the fitness aspect, throughout the course of the week. And there may be like major focuses, but you’re still doing like the little things each and every day just to maintain wherein two weeks off, you can try to take bigger chunks and focus on and compartmentalize different parts of your game, different parts of fitness to be able to get the most opportunity to benefit from the most amount of time I’m gonna have for the remainder of the year. Jeff Pelizzaro: I saw a couple videos showing off the, the suite in that you guys put into your, at your house, and so you’ve got pretty much everything you need there. What do your workouts look like maybe this week, next week? we post on social media and we’ve got some questions from our crew later on, but so many people, obviously, this guy, you’re known as the fitness guy on the tour and people ever wanna know, what is Scott Stallings doing in his workout? What’s he doing when he is home? What’s he doing when he is on the tour? So what’s this look this week look like for you? Is it [00:24:00] just you in the gym? Do you have some buddies coming over? I know every now and then, at least during the covid times. You said you were having some people come over to the gym and do some group workouts, things like that. Scott Stallings: a little bit different. normally I follow a schedule of like tournament weekend stuff, heavier, slower, longer into shorter, faster, lighter. It would basically imagine like a Monday through Sunday, all depending on when I travel. And yeah, once Thursday through Sunday comes, relative to my tee times. try to get the vast majority of the heavier lifting done as far away from Thursday as I can. But with two weeks off, I. Traditionally mix, cardio and strength together, where with two weeks off, I have a little bit of opportunity to deal with, a little bit of soreness, a little bit of discomfort. So I separate, cardio and strength completely, and split it up into their shorter sessions, but they’re isolated to those like individual components, deadlift, squat, all the different stuff that kind of goes where you can definitely build in some strength, but Not necessarily incorporate the [00:25:00] cardio implement and do that separately. And, I’ve ran, I’ve rode, I’ve biked and just done everything either morning or afternoon and kind of compliment each other, based off what I’m doing. But as the week progresses, get back into a normal schedule. We had a big group workout today. had some University Tennessee guys come over this morning. They ran ’em through some stuff, like a team workout. And then I had some other buddies of mine come over and we ran through a little bit added bonus of what the guys did this morning. I don’t mind working out by myself. I don’t mind working out with a group. I was very fortunate to have a lot of people come alongside me and help push me in the right direction as far as in my, health and fitness journey, whatever that looked like. and so if I have an opportunity to speak in or show someone, what I had, what I’ve had an opportunity to learn from, I’m, you very open that opportunity and not something I take lightly. So we had Jeff Pelizzaro: you on the show back in 2017, I think it was episode number 1 25. And so now, five years later. I’m curious, how have [00:26:00] the workouts changed at all? A little bit. I know, you’re 38 years old now as opposed to 32 back then. the body changes a little bit. are there different emphasises, are there different focuses? What’s the recovery like these days? How have things changed since the last time you were on Scott Stallings: the show? I think,it’s still at that part in 17. I was still trying to figure out what fitness looked like. I really only knew how to met Conlin. I really knew only had a new, light and fast. Like I didn’t know how to really separate like. Heavy and slow, light and fast and like complimentary movements and like sort of protagonist antagonist pushing and pulling, up, down, left. A b ab what all that, how you’d put it all together. And, and to be honest, I was the training aspect was a huge part, but it was more just the health and trying to figure out what, where training was implemented throughout what I was doing day in and day out. And there was a lot of times where it felt like I was working out way more than I was practicing and my game [00:27:00] probably showed it, but in the time that I had made all those changes, like golf was not my priority. Eh, I felt like if I didn’t give the due diligence to figure out all those other shows, I was not gonna be able to play just because I needed to establish some habits that were gonna be lasting instead of just like flashing the pan. oh, maybe we’re gonna try fitness for a little bit and then see how it affects. no, we’re gonna figure out how this affects life and then see how golf fits in there. And so I think that’s a little bit where the story kind of gets backwards. oh, I did it for my game. It’s like I never thought about golf. like I was thinking of my wife and my kids and myself like, and just, man, if I got to play, that was a bonus. So I definitely feel like I got a second chance at my career and opportunity to go and play and compete against the best players in the world and have an opportunity to speak and tell some stories as far as how I neglected basically everything you could possibly neglect. blame everyone other than myself and take zero responsibility and then get smacked in the face and realized it was all on [00:28:00] me and I was the reason that I was in the situation. I was. And thankfully I had some people that were very willing to give their time and energy to help push me in the right direction and, make some changes that hopefully be lasting and have an impact that, you know, throughout the rest of my life, whether I’m playing or not. Jeff Pelizzaro: have you and I would assume, I know you work a lot with the guys at University of Tennessee and a lot of younger players. Are there some younger guys on tour that you’ve, had some of these candid conversations with or not, and I’m not asking for names or anything, but,where you’ve given them like, hey, this is what really helped me figure this out and this is the direction I went and, giving them the pros and cons of what they might be doing Scott Stallings: or not doing. Yeah, I had some guys this morning, and that guy was like, man, this is the most I’ve ever done before 8:00 AM And he’s and I looked at him and he’s what do you think about that? I was like, man, this is Thursday. And he just is like dumbfounded and just And this is just part of my day. Like I don’t really think about it like that. And this isn’t like a macho, like a beat [00:29:00] head thing. This is just man, I’m gonna train, I’m gonna practice. I’m like, it’s, I ha I had a really funny conversation with a friend of mine and he always starts like, what’d you work out today? Or Did you work out today? I was like, at some point you’re gonna realize that there’s training involved in every part of my day. throughout the entire week. Some days that’s mobility. Some days that’s a walk. Some days that’s a full on I’m over a rail in the backyard. there’s some training is evolved in every aspect of my life and, whether it’s playing, practicing, working out, all the different things. so being able to build that and tell that story and, because the moment that you think that you’re good enough, the moment that you think you’ve got it all figured out is the moment you just get, you just, you’re like that tortoise in the hair, man. You’re just coasting along and all of a sudden you see this guy with a hundred twenty nine, nine hour clubhead speed that’s flying at three 40 and you’re just like, where did that come from? And it just hits you outta nowhere and you’re sitting there man, I’m good enough [00:30:00] right now. And next thing you’re not continuing. Cause the best in the world, the guys that are literally holding the titles week in and week out, they’re consistently trying damned out, figure out ways to get better. and if you’re not doing that, and the moment I’m not even telling ’em touch the break, I’m saying the moment that the foot comes off the gas at all, these guys are racing right by you. And that’s the mentality you have to have as far as to go play and compete at this level. And, thankfully,have gathered a way to, to add that in notes, my routine and mentality and, be able to build it into a daily habit, but also figure out a way to get off the course, get outta my own head, utilize fitness and training to, to, be where I went, on good days where I go on bad days and everywhere in between, it all starts and end of the training. Has it Jeff Pelizzaro: become a, almost like a meditation for you or like a release where that’s some, one of those things where it’s like you get antsy if you haven’t trained that day or if you haven’t done something. and also on the other side of that, are there any specific like mental game things, meditation [00:31:00] that you have implemented over the course of the last several years that also help you with the way that you play and perform on the course? Scott Stallings: Yeah, my caddy, John, he’s worked for me, work. We’ve worked together for eight years and he’ll be the first to tell you, I’ll come out there some days and he’ll be like, what is going on? we’ll try to do some drills or this and that. And I’ll be like, squirrel, like just looking somewhere all over the place. And he’d be like, man, have you like moved your body or I like, nah man, I just slept and came out here and he. Get outta here. this is pointless. we’re not gonna do anything functional today until you go figure out something else, and then we’ll come back and try something later. yeah, I do a lot. I wouldn’t necessarily say I, I do well in competition as far as, making games with myself, whether it’s practice, play, competition, whatever that looks like. And figuring out ways to compete against myself. Obviously I’m competing against the course and my, fellow players on tour, but, [00:32:00] I feel like if I can hold myself to certain standards, whether that’s in the shot or, within a week, if I can maintain that and have some checks and balances in there, like my, my good, can’t compete with the best in the world. It’s, and it’s at this level, it’s not what your good is, it’s what your bad is. It’s like how good is your bad? And can you compete with that like b, c, D game? Tiger made so famous. It’s like I made hit four fairways and shoot 65 of yours. man, I don’t have that. I shaved four fairways. I’m like trunk slamming on Fridays. but just trying to figure out different ways to, play and compete with myself, but also understand and figure out ways that guys continually pushing themselves to get better. and again, just like with fitness, just like we’re playing and everything, or life, the moment that you figure it out, like it’s the moment that you hadn’t figured out anything and just there’s so many opportunities to learn and figure out better ways to get better at, whether it’s engulfing life. And I think that the [00:33:00] moment that you stop learning and training is like you, you can’t operate out here with what? Put out the door. Jeff Pelizzaro: Let’s take a little break here to thank our partners over at Live Pure. Live Pure is a hydration product. That you are gonna want to have in your golf bag, in your gym bag because it’s gonna handle anything that you need when it comes to your hydration, it’s got the electrolytes you need. It’s gonna help replenish your system. On the hot muggy Dayss, which we’re already starting to have here a little bit in St. Louis, but they’ve got the energy, they’ve got the Hydrate, and they’ve got the recovery. They’re gonna handle everything that you need. Whether you’re on the golf course, you’re in the gym, you’re sweating it out. You wanna make sure that you have live Pure in your bag. All you have to do is tear open one of the pre-made little packs, dump it right in with the water, and you’re set. They’ve got incredible flavors including making blue raspberry flavor for all of the products they’ve got you covered. So go to live pure.com. That’s L I V P U r.com. Use the code 18STRONG to get your discount on every order that you [00:34:00] place and use Live Pure to champion your day. Who out there on tour, if any, are guys that you practice with a lot, play some of these games with you. I feel like the people you surround yourself with often are, some of your best friends, but they’re also the ones that push and challenge you the most too. And either on the course, in the gym, whatever it might be. Are there certain guys that you kinda lean on and that lean on you when you’re out there? Or maybe back when you’re in Tennessee at home, you have a group of buddies it sounds like, that come over to the gym. anybody specific on tour though that would play that role A little bit. Scott Stallings: probably more just my team in general. I’m pretty, I would say that if I do anything, I’m pretty regimented as far as the time that I spend doing things. And I try to plan out my day well in advance. And I don’t want, I’m not nec like I would say that on the road, I’m fairly selfish with my time. Just in the fact of I golf is very counterintuitive to my personality because I am not patient. I don’t have the necessarily cognitive attributes to be good at the game. Just, it takes a lot [00:35:00] for me to, I. Zero in. So if I, if that is involved in my practice or week where I’m waiting on someone else or whatever, I’ve become very dysfunctional and I’m aware of that. So I try to create as much of focus on the things you can control my schedule, time, management body times that I train, all these different things to where I’m not constantly having to utilize the things that I need once the tournament goes around. because man, I can do it. But the having the other attributes of a week as far as playing in prep, like I’m not a 18 hole practice strong guy. I’m a,I need to, time and attention in certain quantities and be able to do it when it matters. But, I would say when I’m home, it’s a lot different. just for the simple fact of, I know that, the competition side is not coming. So I do create those same things a little bit, imbalance, uncomfortable situations, whether it’s with the Tennessee guys, other guys that I play with, other pros in the area, whether I travel or not, and be able to [00:36:00] try to find those uncomfortable moments. So where, when it continually happens, week in and week out on tour, you can remind yourself of this is what I did. And, constantly remind yourself of I know my good is good, but how can I continue to make my bad a little bit better? And so we do a lot of things like that. When you’re out there Jeff Pelizzaro: practicing for the golf game specifically, what are the things that you tend to spend the most time on? And then,what’s something that you really don’t like to practice you have to practice? Scott Stallings: I would definitely spend most of my time from inside 150 yards. If you ask any one of the Tennessee guys, they’ll say that I don’t hit balls, which is true, but also not true. I’m not scared to go in there and have a session. But if I’m, if the ball is flying out there the way that I’m expecting it to, like I’m not in, I’m not in the habit of trying to figure out how to hit it bad. And,so I know that there’s no person on earth that ever said they were too good at chipping and pudding or wedge flags. So I spent a lot of time in that area. I do [00:37:00] not enjoy hitting balls. I enjoy, like the new Strokes game thing on TrackMan has completely revitalized my practice because I’m gaming it and, competing against that kind of stuff. So I, I enjoy that a lot. so those situations I feel like has helped me a lot. But I can chip and putt all the time cause that’s something that growing up, high school, college stuff I neglected because I always hit it pretty good and never realized like, man, these are where you spend all your shots. I approved from 1 0 7 to 37 in stroke can pudding in a year. and obviously everything of that translated to scores on course opportunities to, to compete week in and week out, made a huge difference. And, so focus on the little areas is something that I try to touch that at every single part of my day, whether I’m playing or practicing before, during, and after. And, something that I’ll continue to do, for the remainder of my career. You’ve mentioned the Jeff Pelizzaro: University of Tennessee guys quite a bit. Do you do a lot of work with them? [00:38:00] And what’s a session like when you go out with those guys? I’m always curious what that dynamic is with these youngsters. I’m sure there’s a few hot shots they want to take down. The big dog, what’s that Scott Stallings: like? I don’t know. I do a lot of stuff with just the state of Tennessee in general as far as junior golf, whether our kids play free program, a tournament called the Scotty, which is a, team four ball. We have the junior cup where we split Tennessee down the Middle East versus west. 10 boys and four girls. we’re on our 12th season of that. so just have a little bit of touches throughout, whether new beginner developmental to upper echelon as far as, every single part of junior golf and. Brita Webb has built an unbelievable program over there and some really great guys that are playing and competing for him. and as much as I hate to say it, they’ve probably helped me as much as I’ve helped them. it doesn’t take much of an 18, 19 year old kid talking some trash before you realize that. Like, all right, I gotta show these guys. This old guy still got it. I played with them the other day and they were asking me if I needed to play the senior tees. they’re pretty ruthless now. But it’s a, [00:39:00] it’s a cool opportunity to be able to help, like it was just a situation if man, if I had access, like I would literally never leave the guy alone if I was their age. And it just so happens, it doesn’t matter that it’s me, but it’s just someone that doesn’t, at that level, they aspire to be. And,their facility is a joke. literally incredible as far as there’s no stone unturned and just Eddie in every opportunity to be better. So very thankful for him for the opportunity to be able to play and practice and, hopefully leave it a little bit better. And I found it. but it’s all to get to the sit it’s all situational. It’s, what’s needed. there’s probably a few things that we do. We’d probably just like to keep it to ourselves. Not that we feel like we’ve got the secret sauce or whatever, but we’ve got some stuff that in house that we manage to ourselves as far as some games that we like to operate. And,some scenarios we like to recreate it, especially being the fact that in college they have to balance stroke, play, and match play at the, in their ultimate event, whether it’s s e c Copper Championship [00:40:00] or NCAAs. And that is a weird dynamic as far as how you manage a golf course. Basically, you’re playing the same golf course and back to back days. One is a stroke play to be able to qualify for match play and then where score is. The ultimate indicator as far as if your team succeeds or not, who are in match play score. Obviously the lower score the better, but not necessarily the mentality as far as how you go about it. So putting guys and, constantly trying to find situations where you have to balance that and be able to work with what sides of your brain and situational awareness, different things like that. And as much as I’m doing it with, like taking these guys through that, I’m doing it myself as well. And so that’s probably a, a. Something that’s helped me tremendously. And just the competition side as far as I just don’t want to get beat by them. because I will never hear the, if I beat them, it’s expected. If they beat me, I’m just, if I beat them nine outta 10 times, they’re only talking about them one time they beat me. it’s just you know that, hey, once [00:41:00] that ball grows in the air, like it’s just a different scenario and you better be buttoned up. the chair is strong with those guys, so it’s fun. I told us, I, I said man, and I told one of our kids and I said, if you could learn to practice and apply the amount of trash talk that you can do with yourself and others, you would literally never lose a tournament. And so hopefully we can get him just turned the corner on that. this Jeff Pelizzaro: is funny, and this, I might, inquire some help from you here because I find myself now in this predicament really, that most guys I think are in your kids are a little younger. You said 10 and seven, I believe. But,I have a 15 year old boy just made the freshman golf team. And so it’s funny how that’s awesome. All of a sudden, like it just kicks in this competitive instinct in me. I never want this kid to beat me, ever. and I didn’t play any high level golf or anything, but now it’s like I’m really starting to put more time into my game. And, get a little better at my trash talking as well for the youngster. but [00:42:00] I don’t think he even knows that this is, this competition is at the forefront right now. But, I think so many guys, and I’ve talked to a couple of my buddies, it’s like now that our kids are starting to get to that age where we know eventually they’re gonna hit it farther than us, they’re starting way younger than me and my buddies did playing golf. And it’s man, it’s funny how it just kicks in our instinct to start putting in the time, putting in a little more work. So I’m gonna implore you to give all of us. Older guys, what advice would you have for us going in getting, knowing that we’re prepping to beat these youngsters as long as we possibly can? What’s a couple words of wisdom from Scott Scott Stallings: Stallings? Oh man. Like the harder you can throw the needle, the better. I give my guys a hard time all the time as far as, whether it’s our junior golfers or our college, whatever, as far as when they’re standing over it, just saying. I was a member at Whisper Rock for a long time in Scottsdale and there was one of the greatest trash talkers of all time that lived there. And he got this guy just in stitches because he said, man, no one else can hear those [00:43:00] voices as he was standing over it. because you could just tell this guy was like, man, he was going through it. And so I, I had taken that from him. and I tried to. because their physical talent and ability is far greater than mine. So I gotta supplement like my experience and discipline, some different things. like I gave the example of the they don’t know that these things are supposed to be feared or whatever. It’s like they see flag and this is at all level, like it doesn’t matter. They see pin, they don’t see like the fiery forest they have to get through. Instead of I’m like over here man, we can just walk around and we’re good. And I think that now there is a situation when it’s the perfect number and you gotta be able to get you in there man you gotta be able to step on the gas. But also there’s a scenario of knowing what not to do as well. And so he, I think that there’s a lot of things that where you can benefit from a little bit of experience that kind of goes a long way. But [00:44:00] also try to continually put themselves, because whether you’re a dad or a coach or whatever, like you want them to learn and have this, awareness enough so when they sit down, they’re like, all right, I get what you’re talking about. Because it’s one thing to be able to tell ’em, but it’s another thing to be able to show ’em. And so that’s a lot of what I do, whether it’s some juniors and stuff that I work with or the college guys or pros or whatever. I try to find scenarios where we talk about a question or whatever, just like that. And I put ’em in a spot of like, where there’s indecision, yo, it’s different. It’s a perfect nine iron pins perfect, whatever, man. hit it. But it’s when we don’t know and how to make your second decision first. And so that’s the scenario as, as much as my son doesn’t really show any interest in golf or whatever, but man, I would love the day that he beat me. that wouldn’t bother me at all, just for the simple fact of I’ll play against the best players in the world. if he’s beating me, like he’s doing something. And I think that’s just a [00:45:00] different thing because of what I do for a living. but it is funny like seeing some of the younger guys, like where you, they have their island, the prize or whatever, they’re gonna beat this guy, then that’s gonna lead to being this guy instead of eventually if you start to look at it from a little different perspective, you’re just gonna beat everybody so that, hopefully be able to navigate those and you’ll help them learn from themselves. We’ll also just keeping just a little bit of an edge and. Yo. because as soon as they figure out it’s over for you. I know. so hold onto it as long as you can. Jeff Pelizzaro: Yeah, I, and that’s the cool part, right? Because obviously as a dad, I want him to be the best possible player. He can’t be the best young man that he can. really, but, the day that he out is out driving me on a consistent basis, it’s gonna be bittersweet. The time that he starts beating me on a consistent basis gonna be bittersweet. But I want him to be the best he can. I’m gonna try to do everything I can to give him those resources. And I think that’s what’s neat is it then pushes me to, just to hang on a little bit longer. I gotta push myself a little bit more too. And I think [00:46:00] a lot of the guys and girls listening to our podcast are right there. That’s why. They’re interested in the stuff that, that you do, the fitness, the habits, the mental game, the practice. And so it’s just a fun little game that we’re playing, but is a way to, to keep moving along and just continuing to get a little bit better. So appreciate that. But, yeah, if your son grows up and starts beating you, that means he’s a pretty Scott Stallings: quality player. Yeah, we’re battling lacrosse and all the other things that I don’t know anything about. So I just sit on the sidelines and I cheer for the coach and make sure everyone’s having a good time, have as much many snacks as they need to, and, that’s where I’m at. I love it. Speaking Jeff Pelizzaro: of having a good time, rumor has it that you’ve got a little stock of some whiskey at the house that, you’ve become a bit of a whiskey connoisseur. I wanna know, first of all, being a Tennessee guy, are you more of a Tennessee whiskey, that’s I think sour mash, or is that, are you more of a bourbon guy? Scott Stallings: I spreaded around. I don’t have a distinct loyalty, to any, brand or [00:47:00] whatever. Taylor is my favorite. as far as just one like bottle that’s just sticks out. and that was. I would say that’s the one that’s week in and week out. If someone asked me what that is, or anyone that knows me would sit there and say, man, like he’s never gonna see that tall yellow label and be disappointed. but, I spread around and I just, I’ve gotten very involved in the nuance of it. I’ve become friends with some distillers as far as how the whole process works and how you can literally take all these just random things and put it in this whole situation and a little bit of heat, a little bit of time, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And next thing you get something completely different. And so I like the process of it a lot. and, just very interesting to me for whatever reason. And, so I’ve established a little bit of a collection,by no means like anything to call home about, but something that, you know, I’m interested in and something that I, continue to do and, share glass with a buddy every now and then go figure out a way to,[00:48:00] do something different. I heard Jeff Pelizzaro: when you were,back in when everything was kinda shut down, covid days, you kinda became the mixologist of the neighborhood. What, correct, what one, what did, what’d you get best at? What was your cocktail that you were the Scott Stallings: best at making? I don’t like gin at all. I just do, I think it smells like pine trees. It’s like someone that like, doesn’t like chi tea or whatever. It’s just man it, for whatever reason, I just do not enjoy it. I’ve had some of the best people in the world make. What do they think it is? man, this just got something in it that I don’t like. But I have a friend of ours that’s, a children’s hospital doctor, and obviously during covid and stuff, man, they were just, Working a tremendous amount of time. And for whatever reason I ended up making more like gin batches of different things like that. So I didn’t necessarily, I learned to like it, I learned to tolerate it. But I had a few different recipes that were, Friday afternoons is when we would do that. And we got a, one of those [00:49:00] like big giant mailboxes, our end of our driveway, and they’d have their labels written on these big mason jars and guys would pick ’em up Friday afternoons for the weekend or whenever. And but I had a couple, Tennessee inspired, one I hadn’t won. Feels like 98 based off the national championship. it’s all orange tequila,a couple other things. but mostly I just matched everything together and,when my daughter actually went back to school, she talked about one of the favorite things that she did at home while she was home, and she told her teacher, we made margaritas. And that was just like, that was like the email from the teachers. what are we doing? But the teacher said, we have some teachers here that would like that. so if that happens again, let us know. Jeff Pelizzaro: She’s carrying margaritas in her backpack to school. Scott Stallings: Yeah, we have not gotten that yet, but, to a, for a little bit. And that’s the direction we were headed. Love it. Jeff Pelizzaro: All right, Scott, we’re gonna close out with some questions. we pulled the audience and had some people from our crew sending in some questions for our crew and a segment. So I’m just [00:50:00] gonna roll through these pretty quick ones, and then we’ll get wrapped up here. First one is from James Lee on Instagram. He wants to know how many ACEs have you had and what was the most memorable one? Scott Stallings: I have had nine in my life. I had four on tour. They were all memorable for a different reason. my first one, day before my 13th birthday, the Tiger wins like masters and just starts this whole golf thing. I made one on Father’s Day with my dad, CADed for me. we were at the Korn Ferry event. It was nationwide, the time in Knoxville, and we went out and played. it was for, we did a Father’s Day clinic, junior clinic, and he was Cady for me. We not did this like nine hole exhibition thing and the second hole at Foxton, they don’t play there anymore. They play Holston, which is my home course here in town. And I made it and it was just like crazy. So that was him, Cady for me, walking around the course. That was pretty cool on Father’s Day to be able to go. And so that was probably the one that, I remember the most. That’s so awesome. [00:51:00] Jeff Pelizzaro: We got Rob, m g o Blue 7 25 from Instagram says, he wants to know what your typical nutrition on like game day looks like. What does that. Look like if you’re on tour, what’s breakfast and maybe some encore stuff that you tend to go to? Scott Stallings: it just kinda depends on when I play. I normally start like a morning day. I start three hours before I tee off. So there’s some early days, depending on whenever that is. I just don’t wanna be rushed and I want to have enough time and attention to be able to eat. Like I need to eat,move around. Like I need to move around and just prep, the way it needs to instead of just wait till the last minute and just, throw caution to the wind. so I’d say, more time than necessarily routine and just build it up. I don’t have anything, crazy, follow a little bit of macro planning, idea. I used the RP strength guys for a long time as far as helping, when I made some changes in my body and, the way that I ate and just managed intake with food and different things like that. But, on course I just started working with my menace, supplement company [00:52:00] and I use their fuel product a lot and my bars, the stuff that I eat do a little bit granola, a little bit different things. And I try to find whatever bar is local because that’s at some point man, you just get sick of eating whatever you are and just make sure it just doesn’t have a bunch of crap in it. And, just some keep munching on, but I think they’ll fuel old product from a menace. It’s a carb electrolyte combo. And it is my favorite thing I have and I feel like a dr. A drug pusher on tour, I’m just literally just handing them out everywhere and everyone’s and this is great because it’s very rare to find a carb electrolyte mix that is not just blow you up and, so it, they’ve done a really good job at develop their product that in the world of golf is very applicable. Cool. Jeff Pelizzaro: I know we had a lot of questions come in about, your fitness journey, your health journey. we did talk a lot about that on the last time you were on the show. So for those of you that were interested in those questions, go back to episode 1 25. Let’s get, Scott walked us through that. That was awesome. Victoria wants to know, what’s the worst shot you ever hit in a [00:53:00] pro event? Scott Stallings: Man, I’ve hit so many bad ones. I topped the ball out of the rough. I did it at Memorial. I did it at Man, probably more than I tend to, man. I have hit some bad ones. I did. I hit the worst shot of the year. This year. I was playing Q P E with my buddy Trey Mullinax, and we were playing with, Nelly and Denny McCarthy and Nelly Short Man was a joke, like her shipping is ridiculous. And Trey and I were Ham and egging it pretty good. and I was like, I just asked Nelly a lot about chipping and pitching and she won’t puff from off the green. She just chips. But she literally just chips everything. If it doesn’t go in, it’s have a chance. So we just asked a little bit about pitching and this and that. I, we in a play with,Maverick Neely and Lexi on Sunday, and we’re playing the low ball round and we’re on the 12th hole, which is the part three at Timberon. And I missed it long and right on the green, but I’m in the fairway. And so her, Nelly and I were [00:54:00] talking about just a little bit of setup pitching, and I work with Tim Gilbertson, for my short game. And man, he’s helped my chipping so much. But it was one of these shots that Nelly had described and I was like, here we go. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do right here. The ball did not go. A foot. I literally it was one of those where the ball’s here and you hit in the ground and the club goes over. Yeah. It literally, and what moved the ball is the earth. There was no contact with the ball with my club. But to say that the very next hole, which is the drivable hole, number 13 at Tiburon, I drove it right in front of the green and literally had the almost exact same shot and I made it for a two. So Nelly helped me out. I didn’t do so hot on the first one, and then the next one I made it. So she helped me out a bunch. See that? That’s a Jeff Pelizzaro: win-win right there. You made the rest of us normal. People feel good on your first shot and then you came back. So getting redeemed yourself on the Scott Stallings: second one. Perfect. [00:55:00] Literally we’re walk, we’re walking to the next tee and Trey puts some on me. He is that is the worst shot I’ve ever seen you hit. I was like, that is the worst shot I have hit. And and literally as I’m taking it back and hitting it as it’s making the contact with the ground, I’m laughing because I have just not done well and it was awful. And then you had the gut tr bringing up. Yeah, I mean I was committed to it at that moment and I was like, I’m figuring this out. Nelly told me this is what she does. I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna get in there and then I hooped it and the rest is history. That’s sick. Jeff Pelizzaro: All right. Eric wants to know if there’s something you can tell us that’s behind the scenes in a PGA tour event that most of us wouldn’t know about, have never seen, heard of something that might happen throughout the week that you guys do or see that none of us do on the Scott Stallings: outside. I would say that everyone is just pretty normal guys. we’re just like dudes that have a different job than most people. And it is weird [00:56:00] because the job that we have is what most people think about when they’re at their job. Would that, does that make sense? Absolutely. Like most people think about playing and that’s my job. So when I’m not, I don’t want to do this. And I, so I think that, I do enjoy playing when I’m off. I like seeing different courses, different things like that. I like some arch architecture and different things like that, but I think it would be surprising the number of guys that don’t enjoy playing when they don’t have to. I think that would be a bigger number than people realize. Wow. Yeah. I’ve Jeff Pelizzaro: never really thought about that. That yeah. Our leisure activity is job. Is my Scott Stallings: job. Yeah. Yeah. I got some friends, I got some friends that I asked me, he’s let’s go play. I’m like, Hey, let’s go do something else. I was like, one of my closest friends, I was an insurance office and he is man, when are we gonna play? I was like, man, when are we gonna go sell some insurance? And he’s I understand what you’re talking about. Jeff Pelizzaro: what is that for you? what is the hobby that you do like kinda look forward to when [00:57:00] you’re off? Scott Stallings: I like to cook. I like to, obviously I like to work out and I literally like to be on anyone’s schedule, but my own, like my kids and my family adapt so much to my life as a PGA tour player that when I am, in that mode, it’s like I’m not making any plans. Whatever y’all want to do, I’m in, I’ll drive, I’ll kick, I’ll pick up, I’ll carry, I’ll, whatever that looks like I’m in. my wife will joke around saying that I sometimes in off weeks is I’m a lost puppy, because it’s so like tournament week, it’s like I’m in charge. Like I make the plan, I do this, but it’s like home week. It’s whatever y’all need me to do, I’m ready to do it. Whatever that looks like. So because it’s so few and far between, I try to make the most of the time that I do have. So that’s just the best way that I feel like I can get that the most done and be, around with my family as much as I possibly can. That’s cool. I totally get that. Jeff Pelizzaro: All right, last one. Dave wants to know if you have any Scott Stallings: superstitions. I only use, I use a neon yellow [00:58:00] line on my golf ball, and I only used number ones. I played the wrong ball. I’m colored blind. and I played the wrong ball on the nationwide tour, and it made, it was like I, I had a black line and the guy had a blue line and I played his ball, so I just figured out a way to not, so that’s probably it. That’s probably the only thing that I don’t know. My caddy would probably tell you I’d do a bunch of other weird things. I don’t realize I do, but I play ones. And I use this crazy neon yellow line cause I know that’s my ball. Jeff Pelizzaro: Are Have you heard of any other guys that have any crazy superstitions out there? Any of your buddies? Oh, Scott Stallings: there’s a lot, like all over the place. we need to get into the whiskey closet and, have a little bit more time. Talk about the weird things. See out there. Jeff Pelizzaro: I’ll take a, I’ll take a rain check on that. I would love to, I’d love to do that behind the scenes for sure. Alright, man, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to be on the show. I do have one favor to ask you and I sent you a little text about [00:59:00] this. we wanna have a little bit of an action item for people to take away from their time with Scott Stallings here. And obviously you’re known as the fitness guy on, on the tour. What’s something that our folks can take this week and do, maybe a little workout, maybe a little scout, something that you like to do 20 minute workout or something like that, that we’re gonna task our crew to do. The week this episode goes out, I’ll, and I’ll do it myself. Scott Stallings: All right, so there’s a hundred, I thought about this when you text me. So there’s a workout in CrossFit, which is a hundred burpees for time. And basically like it, the fitness goal is that you are gonna try to break seven minutes. that’s a, like a benchmark. it’s a time cat, but it’s also like you need to have some relative idea of fitness if you cannot break this. So I turned it into a different of a workout. as far as you start on the minute and you make it a 10 minute cap. But in the process of, you are going to do E every minute after the [01:00:00] first one. So the first minute you can do as many as you want. that’s the only thing you’re doing. And then you are building in every single minute you’re gonna do five squat, five sit-ups, and you’re gonna build off of that. So you have to do 10 reps before you can go back to doing the burpees. And your goal is to try to beat it 10 minutes. okay. you think about it from an overall time cap that’s 10 burpees a minute, but under fatigue to be able to manage that entire time. And you have to do just basically five squat and then, yeah, that, that’s not an incredible amount of reps, but be able to build it. You can do it anywhere. You don’t need any equipment. And so that’s most of the time when people ask me these like little benchmark workouts, it’s like you had burpees and a little bit of time and something in there if my buddy Ben Bruno sees this, he’s a LA trainer buddy of mine. I know he hates bur, he hates burpees. So I’ll also add that in there to bust everything, anything. I do this, I add that in there and I’ll send it to him. I’m at work. He thinks they’re, he thinks they’re stupid and I know that he hates them and I love that he hates them. So [01:01:00] basically when I’m around him, I’ll always hit a couple, just what do you think? This is awesome Jeff Pelizzaro: because I had a feeling there were gonna be a bunch of burpees in here and I know that your buddies with Ben and we’re gonna tag him on this and make sure he sees this for sure. Scott Stallings: so now I’ve just determined that anyone asked me something. because he hates high volume, reps. especially if someone has some type of inhabit, like just inability to do something you don’t want to, whether it’s low back or, anything like that from where a high volume rep like that could really mess with you and he’s not wrong. For sure. But in the situation of now, it’s become like every single time he, we were doing a, we were in a text thread the other day and we were, someone asked about something and he’s Scott’s gonna say burpees, but they’re stupid. And so now I just put ’em in everything and I tag him in all of them. That’s hilarious. I love it. Jeff Pelizzaro: All right, man, I really appreciate you coming on. Good luck this season. obviously the 18STRONG crew is pulling for you. We wanna see you there at East Lake at the end, and, hopefully we can have [01:02:00] another one of these conversations in the future, maybe with a wi little whiskey next time. Scott Stallings: Absolutely. Just spend on one time of day, man. Sounds good. After the workout. I appreciate it, man. All right, it’s, see you, Scott. Jeff Pelizzaro: Thanks for joining us this week on the 18th Strong Podcast. If you want any more information, we’ll have information about the workout. We’ll have information about Scott Stallings and any other things that we talked about on this episode over on 18STRONG.com. Just look up episode number 347 with Scott Stallings and as far as the homework goes, now I’m gonna, full disclaimer, I’m with Ben Bruno. I am not a big Burpees fan, but I didn’t want to send Scott a message and say, Hey, you gotta limit this exercise or that one, because what I wanted him to do was give us something that he would do himself. And so I’m gonna join the challenge. I just caution you, be careful with your burpees. It’s not the greatest exercise for your wrists, for your shoulders, but just be careful. Now, with that being said, we are posing the challenge for you two within one week of [01:03:00] hearing this episode. To do the Scott Stallings 18STRONG. Workout. And so we’ll have it listed on our social media on Instagram. It’s the Scott Stallings workout post. You can go there and it’s got the details laid out. We’ll also have it in the show notes, but what we’re gonna ask of you is when you do the workout, leave a comment on that post and tag Scott in it and let us know if you pass or if you failed, if you’re able to do it in the 10 minutes or even better if you want to take a video of yourself doing the workout or a little snippet of you doing the workout. And then tag 18STRONG and Scott Stalling. And what the heck tag Ben Bruno in these two. I’m sure Ben will love it and Scott would really love for you to tag Ben in there. So let’s see how the 18STRONG crew comes through on the Scott Stallings workout. All right. That’s it for this week. We’re coming back next week with another great episode. We have another great guest lined up, so it’s day tuned to our social media and our emails because we are gonna continue this crew and a questioning every now and then when we have a, a guest coming on that we know that you’re gonna want to ask some questions for. All right. [01:04:00] Train hard, practice mark, and play Better go. Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

This week our guest is Mike Romatowski, creator of the Mach 3 Speed Training system. Mike and the team at Mach 3 are using very unconventional tools to help thousands of golfers get stronger and faster specifically for golf. The Mach 3 tools were developed over the years after Mike was exposed to the value of using ropes and chains for building strength and speed. Using “dynamic, oscillating, variable resistance,” these tools provide “live” resistance which forces the golfer to find efficiency and balance in order to move them with speed and force. Along with the concept of “Speed Out Front” Mike explains how his golfers are not simply learning to swing “harder.” They are learning to swing more efficiently, and effortlessly. And in doing so, they will become FASTER FOREVER. Mike’s Background Michael Romatowski, the creator of the revolutionary Mach 3 Golf Speed Training System, is a multi-certified personal trainer, golf fitness expert, and post-rehab exercise specialist. Mike is certified by the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) and has attained Level 2 status in both the fitness and medical professional tracks. In addition to TPI, Mike is a Tathata Golf Certified Movement Specialist. Tathata Golf Mike is also certified as a Posture and Alignment Specialist. Posture Therapy offers a means of dealing with pain and joint dysfunction through both passive positions and gentle exercises. Highlights from this Episode Mike explains the concept of “Speed Out Front” and how just this one concept will make you faster almost immediately and forever How the Mach 3 tools are different and why they not only build speed, but strength throughout the whole swing Mike explains why most of his golfers don’t do traditional workouts and how their training with the Mach 3 system has reduced the amount of time most of them spend on the range Why swinging harder is not the answer and why your speed should feel effortless. Find Mike Romatowski and Mach 3 Speed Training: Website Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Today I’m joined by Gabe Caldwell of Chicago Made Training. Gabe is a golf fitness professional out of Chicago, IL. that initially caught our eye because of all of the great content he puts out consistently on Instagram (@GabeCaldwellGolf). In today’s episode, Gabe helps us break down the difference between training your body to play better golf vs working on the “skills” of playing golf. Aside from discussing our games a little bit at the beginning, Gabe breaks down some of the key elements you should be working on to make sure your body is ready to finish your next 18 strong (…get it ????). From conditioning to mobility to medicine ball drills, we discuss it all. #Iam18STRONG #LIFTyourGame #NoMoreMulligans Gabe’s Background Gabe has over 15+ years in the fitness industry. He has worked with hundreds of clients from high-level athletes to everyone looking to improve their overall health. Gabe specializes in golf performance. As a golfer for the past 30 years, he understands the importance that mobility, posture, and strength training have on driving power off the tee and consistent play. Gabe is a licensed clinical massage therapist and completed his TPI certification in 2017. Highlights from this Episode Gabe discusses what he is personally working on in his game and how he blends his training and practice. We discuss the topics of mobility, speed, power and how to properly train for them Gabe expands on a form of endurance training (HICT) that he uses with his golfers that is a great way to blend strength, speed, and endurance into more “fun” workouts. Parting Questions: Favorite Golf Movie? Caddy Shack What is your walk-up song to the first tee-box? Cult of Personality (Living Color) Book Recommendation? Atomic Habits (James Clear) What’s your dream foursome? His buddies… Andrew, Ryan, & his Dad. If we could fly you to any golf course, where would you want to play?St. Andrews in Scotland. Social media Shoutout @Matsoffgolfs Best piece of golf advice you’ve ever been given?“Close the “f’ing” clubface!!!” Find Gabe Caldwell: Instagram Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Today I’m joined in the studio by my good friend Casey Cox. Casey is a world-class golf instructor (Director of Instruction at Old Warson Country Club), biomechanist, and one of the co-founders of Sports Science Solutions, an institute whose mission is … To provide world-class assessment and training solutions to help create a more healthy and sustainable next generation of athletes. In today’s episode, Casey and I take a deep dive into the world of golf instruction through his eyes as a biomechanist that works with not just golfers, but high-level athletes of all sports, and a major emphasis on hockey. #LIFTyourGame #NoMoreMulligans Casey’s Background Co-Founder of the Sports Science Solutions InstituteDirector of Instruction Old Warson Country Club Highlights from this Episode Casey walks us through his experience in the hockey and golf world and how it led him to starting the Sports Science Solutions InstituteHow 3D testing and other forms of assessment play a major role in the way he works with his golfers (and other athletes)shares his analogy of learning the alphabet and how the motor control of the golf swing is much the same… you have to learn the letters before you can spellHow to make swing changes without the club and why this is the most effective way to make true movement pattern changesHow golf instruction and physical/fitness training can combine properly to produce resultsThe balance between making major changes to your swing and what the “costs” are to doing that. Parting Questions: Favorite Golf Movie? Caddy Shack What is your walk-up song to the first tee-box? Welcome to the Jungle Book Recommendation? Golf is Not a Game of Perfect (Bob Rotella) Simplicity (Steven Yellin) What’s your dream foursome? My Dad, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer If we could fly you to any golf course, where would you want to play?Augusta National or St. Andrews just before the Open Championship Best piece of golf advice you’ve ever been given?His high school golf coach took all of his woods and through him in the trunk of his car and said “you’re gonna learn to hit your irons first!” Find Casey Cox & Sport Science Solutions: Website Facebook Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

It’s likely that you’ve never of this week’s podcast guest, Clint Ober and that’s a shame because it tells me that you likely don’t know about his mission.  Clint is a pioneer in health and performance, but one of the reasons that most of you haven’t heard of him is because he accidentally stumbled into being this pioneer of a health and fitness discovery that most people initially would write off as “a little out there.” In fact, many of the scientists and medical professionals that Clint talked too about this kind of blew him off a little bit initially. Secondly is that Clint is not a salesperson in any way, shape, or form (you’ll find that out in this episode,) and the reason is that his solution to helping you get healthier, helping you reduce pain and improve your performance is COMPLETELY FREE and accessible to every single person on the planet. Clint is the foremost expert and the face of the “Earthing” movement. If you haven’t heard of “Earthing” or “Grounding”, it’s the concept and phenomenon that by making bodily contact with the earth’s surface and its natural electric charge. So, think of the earth like a big battery: just like we ground every outlet and wire going into our house, when you touch your body to the earth’s natural electric charge it helps to stabilize our physiology by reducing pain, inflammation, improve blood flow, and improve your quality of sleep. Clint is on a mission to spread this solution to as many people on the planet as possible!  I’m honored to have him on the show and for 18STRONG to play a small part in getting Clint’s message out to the golf and fitness world. #LIFTyourGame #NoMoreMulligans Clint Ober’s Background Clint grew up on a farm in Montana where daily life existed in balance with Mother Nature. His childhood days were spent chasing cows, baling hay, and walking the long rows of beets and beans pulling weeds while barefoot. Clinton Ober is CEO of EarthFX Inc., a research and development company located in Palm Springs. He first learned of grounding when marketing and installing Cable TV systems in Billings, Montana in the early 1960s. A decade later, he formed Telecrafter Corporation and built it into the largest provider of cable installation services in the United States. This company specialized in the proper grounding of cable installations for safety and signal stability. In the 1980s, he turned his attention to the developing computer industry and partnered with McGraw-Hill to distribute live digital news services, via cable, to PCs.Following a health challenge in 1995, he retired and embarked on a personal journey looking for a higher purpose in life.Over the past eighteen years, he has supported a host of research studies that collectively demonstrate that grounding reduces inflammation and promotes normal functioning of all body systems. Highlights from this Episode Clint starts out with the basic definition of earthing and grounding as well as his story that has led him to be this pioneer in a new methodologyHow almost all health ailments come from inflammation or are a reaction to inflammation in the body and grounding and earthing’s effect on inflammation on the cellular levelHe tells a story about the benefits that he had seen from grounding a buddy’s golf shoes including range of motion, more power and flexibility from reduced inflammation and pain The questions that he typically gets in regards to grounding and the basic rules of thumb to getting started with grounding today. Parting Questions: Favorite Golf Movie? Caddy Shack What is your walk-up song to the first tee-box? Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis Favorite Book? Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a thousand faces” What’s your dream foursome?Neil Armstrong, Ted Barnett, and you (Jeff)What has you most excited about your work coming up?Educating the world and grounding as many people as possible Follow Clint Ober: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)

Josh Gregory is a short game and performance coach to some of the greatest players on the PGA tour. His most notable client right now is Will Zalatoris but he works with a stable of golfers on the Tour including a friend of 18STRONG, Adam Long. When Josh was coaching collegiately he won 2 national championships with a young Patrick Reed and he was also the coach that recruited Bryson DeChambeau to SMU. In our chat Josh goes really deep on his philosophies, what it’s like to be a coach not just an instructor, and how he really works on individualized programs and what he calls “blueprints” for his players based on their DNA as a player. We touch on what he sees us non-PGA golfers doing wrong and some simple fixes we can implement into our game and the fact that everything boils down to having a plan you can attack and work hard at and doing those things that will get you closer to your goals (sounds familiar here at 18STRONG #LIFTyourGame #NoMoreMulligans Josh Gregory’s Background Played collegiately at SMUWon 2 national championships as a coach at Augusta State where he worked with Patrick ReedRecruited and coached Bryson DeChambaeu at SMUCurrent short game and performance coach on the PGA Tour (notable clients include Will Zalatoris, Adam Long, Mackenzie Hughes, Henrik Norlander, and more) Highlights from this Episode How his college and golf experience affected how he coaches his golfers now and why he tells his players they have to believe they are twice as good as they really areHow he keeps his players from deflating and giving up when they are putting in the work but not seeing the results they want and how he feels he is most needed as a coach when his golfers are at their best rather than at their worst.How he differentiates his players on what makes them tick and tailors his coaching to the DNA of his individual golfers. He also dives into his past at SMU with Bryson and what brought them together.His thoughts on LIV golf vs PGA golf and whether the golfers that are making a ton of money at LIV golf are going to stop trying as hard because of the large paychecks.Who he thinks is at the top of the game in terms of the short game like chipping and putting like Patrick Reed. Parting Questions: Favorite Golf Movie? Caddy Shack What is your walk-up song to the first tee-box? Signs by Tesla Book Recommendation? A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstien What’s your dream foursome? My dad, Ben Hogan and Moe Norman If we could fly you to any golf course, where would you want to play?Pebble Beach Best piece of golf advice?When something is wrong and it needs to be fixed, you better say It and you better say it with conviction Follow Josh Gregory: Twitter Episode Partners: LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above. LivPur: For your 15% discount on LivPur products, go to LivPur.com (or click the logo above) and use the code “18STRONG“. 1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com More Cool Stuff to Check Out: To continue the conversation and ask any questions you may have, head over to the 18STRONG Movement group on Facebook. 18STRONG Pro Shop (Get your 18STRONG gear!) 18STRONG Resources (All of the cool stuff we recommend: products, books, golf stuff, etc – and discount codes for the 18STRONG Crew)