Sit back and get ready to take off with Dynamic Golf.
Hey Tampa Bay golfers, this is Sean Klotz from One Stop Golf Club.
Just want to give you guys a little insight into what we have up here in Wesley Chapel.
We've got a great facility.
It's called One Stop Golf Club and basically it's a private man cave or a woman cave depending
on what you're trying to do.
It's 24-7 access to Trackman which is a $20,000 machine that you'll see on tour and it's a
private hitting facility so it is member only.
We do offer golf lessons and club fittings in there as well but basically for $60 a month
you book your tee time online on our website and you have 24-7 access.
You can book a half an hour, an hour or two hours and we also have a speaker in here and
also the TV which has all multiple channels so just a great way to come in and practice,
work on your game.
Trackman has so many different apps inside of Trackman.
You can work on specific yardages, really get your numbers dialed in from a club perspective.
There's also 65 different golf courses inside Trackman so such a good way to work on your
game.
Also if you decide to have some friends that are members as well, great way to come in
and use it where you can play different golf courses, you can do close to pin contests,
long drives.
So just a ton of different ideas inside of Trackman that you can use.
Super easy to operate, very user friendly but again think of it as your own private
facility.
$60 a month for the base membership and then if you want the VIP membership where you can
bring in your friends that would be $130 a month.
We are excited to be in the Wesley Chapel area.
We've been open since August and had some great support from the community so far.
Look forward to working on your game.
Come down to One Stop Golf Club in Wesley Chapel or go to our website which is onestopgolfshopfl.com.
My name is Sean Klotz, the owner and operator of One Stop Golf Club.
Alright well welcome back to Dynamic Golf.
I'm your co-host Tim McElvanagh.
I'm here with my fellow co-host Sean Klotz.
Hey golfers, how are you guys doing today?
So Sean, tell us who do we have today?
This is a new friend of mine Tim.
Just met Tom.
Tom White is the gentleman's name.
Hey Tom.
Hey Sean, how are you?
Nice to meet you.
Yeah so Tom and I kind of struck up a friendship probably about three months ago.
We started coming into the golf studio and basically started working on his golf swing.
I don't know his age so I don't want to go with that.
But he is a great player.
You can tell just some great swings in there.
He's had some good pasts with his, we'll talk about some of his past accomplishments
and that type of stuff.
But came into me just honestly like everyone else does like they do with you.
Hey, let's start working on a lesson first.
Make sure all the dots are, all the stuff is the way it should be.
But the equipment was a little wrong.
We had to kind of get some lighter stuff for him.
Again, kind of a little bit aged.
We want to get a little softer shafts in there.
And then he's been doing that for probably about two months now.
I think we got the clubs in roughly six, eight weeks ago.
And we'll let him talk about that.
So Tom, even from that perspective, I know we've got a lot of ground to cover but just
from maybe, we'll almost go backwards.
So how have the new clubs improved?
Let's call that.
What are you feeling with the new clubs?
Because you've been a pretty steady steel shaft for a long time player and now you kind
of moved to graphite.
So let's talk about some of that.
Yeah, it's been nice seeing the ball go a little higher with the softer shafts.
The larger sweet spot is helpful.
So it's been different though coming from Denver.
The elevation change, the thicker air.
So it's been tough dialing those in.
And so having those new irons really have helped a lot.
Yeah, we actually talked about that in the talking points that we usually send our guests.
I think that's an important thing because you play sea level golf versus Denver is mile
high basically.
Exactly.
You're getting about 10% more distance.
That's huge.
It is.
You really got to basically change your mindset, right?
Absolutely.
It's never about the ego on the golf course.
Just whatever it takes to get the ball to go that distance.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Had you hit steel shafts all the way prior to this point?
Up until two years ago.
Two years ago, okay.
Yeah, up until then I was playing ping i2s, steel shafts for over 30 years.
Wow.
You know.
Ping i2s really?
Yeah, ping i2s.
You can tell the audience you're over 60?
I'm 67.
Okay.
Gotcha.
So kind of through the ageism you kind of saw your swing speed maybe slow down a little
bit?
Absolutely.
I've had some health issues that broke my shoulder in 2011.
And then I've had a couple shoulder surgeries.
So as you saw, I'm limited.
And so getting that a little extra pop, a little softer tip section helped.
So feeling, it feels like butter coming off the club.
So not every time.
No, no.
But I think that's the thing.
And we see this team act all the time when we do fittings.
It's like, you know, Tom was great because he walked in and he said, I don't care.
He's very blank slate.
Love that.
That's the thing.
He is not tailor-made or ping or whatever.
He's just open to whatever.
And we hit a few different clubs.
And graphite is so much different than it used to be when you were growing up, honestly,
Tom.
It was meant for who?
It was meant for the senior guy, lady, maybe, right?
Swing speed.
And now we got, you know, not necessarily guys on tour playing it, but they've kind
of moved to some steel fiber.
I mean, you've got steel fiber.
I mean, you've got Matt Kuchar playing that quite a bit.
I see the ladies on the LPGA playing a lot of steel fiber.
So and the senior players, we're talking about senior player.
Absolutely.
You know, and I think, you know, steel fiber, at least that shaft right there has all the
properties of steel without the weight.
Yeah.
So there's a lot of great options out there as far as club fitting.
And it's great that you came with an open mind to, you know, not get geared into tailor
made or ping or anything like that, because it just makes the club fitting process so
much easier for Sean when he does it, you know.
Right.
So you've done a decent amount of club fitting.
I know you do a lot of teaching.
We'll get into that too, right?
You did some club fitting back in Denver as well.
Yes.
Around 2007, 2008, I did a little club fitting.
And even interesting, like you did it, but then you realized that your passion was more
teaching.
Is that a good way to say it?
Yes.
Exactly.
So expand on that, like who you teach, who you like to teach, because you have some kind
of specialization that you figured out.
Yeah.
I, my wife and a friend, a lady I used to work for, Jill Nelson, they kind of, around
2007 or so, they were saying, you should teach golf, because I would go play.
Jill was my boss.
Okay.
And she said, what are you going to do this month?
And we'd go play golf.
And we talked about business, no business report.
It was great.
Yeah.
And so she said, you really should teach golf.
So she took me into a golf shop, a Delance Golf, met Dan Saltz, the owner, and it was
a club fitter.
And he watched me swing.
We did a club fitting.
And he said, well, if you want to teach here, you can teach here.
Really?
Uh-huh.
And I said, okay.
And so I said, well, I only want to work with beginners, really.
I don't want to work with any single digit handicappers, because I didn't feel like I
had any training in how to teach and so forth.
So he was very kind.
And I would go in on week, on Saturdays, just answer the phone, just to be around it.
And he wasn't paying me at that time.
And then eventually he let me tend the shop on Tuesdays, because it was the slowest day
of the week.
He figured, I can't screw up too much while I'm there alone.
But it was very interesting.
And in fact, one day, I don't know if you know the name, Gary Hallberg, he plays on
the senior tour.
Now he came in.
And he was on the floor stretching for 20 minutes, and he's hitting shots.
And I said to him, don't forget this.
Gary, I said, what do you do?
Play a draw, you play a fey.
He said, Tom, I try to hit the ball straight.
He said, because the equipment these days is made to hit the ball straight.
It's not like the old ballotta balls where it had tons of spin.
And so.
You just threw that in, by the way.
Gary Hallberg was on the PGA Tour, correct?
Yes.
That's the same guy.
He was in the 80s, early 90s.
Yes.
So just for our listeners, make sure.
He's not just a random guy, a PGA Tour player.
Who for the record stretched, warmed up before he started hitting balls?
Absolutely.
He was on the floor for 20 minutes stretching, doing his stretches.
And then he started hitting wedges.
It was fun to watch him.
And the way he used his routine, even hitting practice balls.
And it was, I learned a lot.
And I was just a student of the game.
There was a fellow at the shop, PJ Garber, neat guy.
And on his business card, he had student of the game.
And I love that.
And I consider myself a student of the game and kind of an ambassador of the game.
Because to answer your question, I've got, I really like to work with beginners.
And I coach a lot of kids.
When I started coaching, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by a felony, Brad Nair, who
was taught by Bob Tosky.
Okay.
And I've had several working golf.
Yeah, absolutely.
Tosky for the record.
Go look him up listeners.
Yes.
Wow.
He's a major player, legend, great teacher.
Yeah.
That's what you always know.
And we'll talk about Tosky in a second.
But keep going about Tosky because I'm going to put my two cents in about Tosky.
Okay.
Go ahead.
Brad Nair was?
Brad, he was my mentor.
Okay.
And we would do a lot of junior camps.
There was the thing called Gold Crown Foundation.
And they had a basketball program and then golf and nonprofit sports to get kids because
they were taking some high school gym classes out.
And so they needed a place for these kids to play and so forth.
But yeah, so I.
Did you work with Tosky?
Did you ever go see him personally?
Yes.
You did.
Okay.
Brad and I went to come down to Florida, spent a day watching him teach.
And it was fascinating.
What a character.
Yeah.
Really an interesting guy.
It was just a dream come true to be able to spend a day with him.
And then Brad taught me a lot.
He taught me how he was taught to teach by Bob Tosky.
And so we worked with a lot of juniors.
We did some Nike camps.
We'd have week long Nike camps.
The Boulder did that for a few years.
And then I've got, then I started actually working for the first tee, coaching for the
first tee of Green Valley Ranch.
Wow.
In 2006.
Yeah.
And I still do that today.
I love coaching for the first tee.
I love the kids.
My wife and I have been married 25 years.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
In April.
It'll be 25 years.
But we, I didn't get married until I was 43.
So a little too old to have kids.
So I get my fix having kids, you know.
Teaching.
Teaching and coaching.
And I feel blessed.
Yes.
You get to give them back too.
Exactly.
No, that's great.
So, toss skis is my little input there is I grew up in just north of Boston, about 20
miles north of Boston.
Dad was a terrible golfer.
I've said this before.
Great, great, greatest guy I've ever known.
But my dad was not a good golfer.
Lefty, didn't have a lot of strength.
And my brother is a six foot five left handed PGA member as well.
So he, you know, he kind of grew up through us.
My dad kind of lived through us.
Not one of those parents, but just brought us to the golf course.
Knew he didn't know what he was doing, so he got us in front of people that knew what
they were doing.
And the course that he brought us to was a par three, which I think is highly undervalued
in today's golf.
Especially for beginners.
Right?
I mean, we're all trying to learn out there on the 7,000 year old golf courses.
If you could take people to par threes, it would be so much better for a million reasons.
But yes, anyways, Middleton Golf Force was run by Chris Costa, which is kind of your
Brad Nair, like my sort of guy that I looked at when I was 13 years old saying, okay, I
want to be him maybe when I'm 25.
And then Middleton Golf Course was sponsored by Bob Tosky.
So he had a teaching center there at Middleton Golf Course.
So he would come in, like you just said, flying from Florida, do some short game clinics.
And again, I think when I'm 13, they're all like this.
And then I realized, no, no, they're not all teaching like this.
This guy, 10 years later, like, oh my gosh, that was pretty special to be in front of
that guy and just learning.
He'd come over and hold your club, no son, that's the way it's supposed to be.
So really, really cool.
It's interesting, you know, getting the chemistry that we kind of run into each other and have
similar stories.
Yeah.
Right.
So par three, just playing, because you have some par threes out there.
Yes.
Yeah.
And that's one thing when we met, I asked, are there any par threes around here?
Because I have a program where I love teaching beginners and so I'll do a four week program.
I ask them to pay up front for all four weeks because I want a commitment and I don't do
it.
It's not terribly expensive, but it's an investment for them.
Correct.
You know, about $400.
And the first week, like I was taught to teach, we started the hole and worked back.
And so the first week is putting, we do a little bump and run and at the end of the
first week, first lesson, I teach grip.
And then the second week, and I want to do it week, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday,
or Friday, you know, four weeks, give it intense, you know, not a boot camp, but the second
week review everything.
And then we do a little toe up, toe up, weight forward, half swing.
Third week, review everything, get to the full swing, teach a little bunker.
And then the fourth week is on a par three course.
The Green Valley Ranch par three, where I coach for the first tee is the first tee is
par three.
It's a great little par three.
Longest hole is 125 yards.
And I love taking the beginner students out there because that's the day that we teach,
I teach etiquette.
Okay.
How to get comfortable on the golf course.
Yeah.
I have a little book that my wife and I put together.
My wife put a section, how to be enjoyable to play with.
Yeah.
And I teach that how to play quickly without rushing, how to be comfortable out on the golf
course.
What do you do if there's people behind you, in front of you, how to make sure your balls
marks you're not dealing with lost balls on the course.
But I love par threes.
And when I was really, back late eighties, I had the bug when I moved to Colorado in
83, about 84, I decided I want to play on the senior tour.
Oh wow.
I thought, give me 20 years, I'll practice hard.
Yeah.
And I'll make the senior tour.
Yeah.
And that was my goal.
Yeah.
And in the summer, there was a little par three about a mile down the road.
And I'd be at the par three course two, three days a week in the morning, 5.36 o'clock,
play, go to work.
I'd be at the golf course every night playing tournaments, amateur tournaments and everything
and enjoy that.
But par threes, I tell everybody, they're less expensive in most cases.
They're quicker.
Everybody says, you don't have time for golf.
Play those par threes.
Well, we'll get into the PJ show.
Yeah.
But part of what we've been talking about, T-Mac, remember like the Cabot Farms and the
Pine.
The wedge and the slice out there.
Yeah.
And then Pinehurst, Streamsong.
You see these companies realizing that what we've talked about too, like their top golf,
one stock golf club, like people are trying to figure out ways to get non-golfers into
the game.
Well, I think there's definitely a niche to get people just not on the golf course, but
on different turfs, if you know what I mean.
Like a pop stroke thing.
Pop stroke.
Another thing that I'm seeing quite a bit is that they're building putting greens with
a lot of undulation to get the kids out there to putt and play with lights on out at night.
You know, because not everybody can be out there at eight o'clock in the morning, right?
But having lights out there so kids can putt or even bring your junior on out there or
have a junior camp out there at night.
They're just, I think that we're in the age of trying to find simulators and putting greens
and things to get people onto different turfs that get them excited about the game of golf.
Yeah, fun.
Yeah, making it fun, right?
Instead of just everybody used to just tournament golf, you know, let's play a little match
player, let's just play a couple, you know, for a Coke or something like that.
And it's just, I think they're trying to find fun and exciting avenues to get younger junior
people out there.
I look at it from having my three daughters who are 23, 21 and 18.
You got two daughters right now, right?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
But like in your ages or what?
One and five.
So they're running me ragged and I'm 47.
So what?
Maybe I wasn't too old.
When I've done like some of these PGA seminars that we've been able to talk about, but like
the thing about junior golf in today's stage is that you've got to get to them young.
If you haven't got a club in their hand by the time they're seven, they're doing gymnastics,
karate, soccer, basketball, whatever.
We're all five of them.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
But, and all those things, and again, Tom, we can talk about this some more, but even
the PGA league, the PGA junior league, right?
Literally the first two reasons why kids like the PGA junior league, because they get a
uniform and because they're playing on a team.
And they get a trophy at the end of the year.
Right.
When me and you go play golf, do we have a uniform on?
Nope.
We're playing individual golf.
We're playing against, I'm playing against you.
Tom playing against you.
But the studies that they've done in the past 10 years when they started birthing PGA junior
league, the kids like having a mentor.
So they like having the 12 year old kid with the seven year old kid.
Right?
They want to be able to have a partner.
That's also why they do it that way.
And then they want to have a uniform that's just the soccer and basketball, all the stuff
on part of the ladybugs or the-
Absolutely.
Whatever it is, right?
Absolutely.
Yep.
And then it's the fun.
It's the camaraderie, the friendship.
Absolutely.
They could care less what they score.
Who'd get great?
You'd probably ask them after that.
They wouldn't even have a clue what they shot.
But they're laughing and giggling and drinking sodas and having fun.
And, oh, hey, you shot 42.
Yay, great.
Who cares?
Give me a Coke.
So give me a little feedback from what you saw at the show and what you attended a couple
of conferences over there at PGA show and stuff.
I did.
And just to mention about the PGA junior league, I was fortunate enough to coach for PGA junior
league for several summers.
And I loved that program.
I loved that program, the kids.
And you're right, half the time they didn't know if they won or lost the match.
But they had fun.
And there wasn't that intense pressure of playing by themselves.
That two-person scramble is a real nice, but I love that.
The PGA show was amazing.
I've never been to it.
It was my first, not my last time.
I plan on going next year already.
That was amazing.
We had a coaches' conference, which I really went over there for.
But the time I got to spend on the floor of the show and met so many people and just learned
so much, it was very interesting.
The high-tech stuff.
There was a pickleball section, which I love pickleball.
It wasn't one of those five years ago.
I'll bet there wasn't.
Right?
No.
That's coming.
That's been coming.
Keep going.
But we had Mike McDonald did a great job, PGA Pro.
He runs the college or the coaches, the high school coaches association.
And he put on a nice conference for us, a three-day.
We had clinic Saturday morning before the coaches played Lake Buena Vista in a shamble
format.
Oh, yeah.
But Mike had set up some good speakers.
A fellow, Will Robbins, I really enjoyed listening to him.
He actually did a presentation for us this past Wednesday evening to follow up.
He couldn't get through everything he wanted to talk to us about.
He's a busy man.
That guy is a very busy man, Will Robbins.
He's amazing.
Oh, yeah.
24-7, go, go, go.
That guy.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
But he was so kind.
He spent an hour or so with us on Wednesday night.
I learned a lot about that I'm going to take back to help my high school players how to
score.
Yeah.
Will was excellent with that.
And I had never, the way he broke it down, I shouldn't admit because it'll make me seem
stupid, but just how to score.
And how to get the ball in the scoring zone inside 100 yards.
I'm going to start instituting that.
We're going to have a little different scorecard.
How many times you're getting inside the scoring zone, and then are you getting down in three
from there.
And so you kind of break it down.
We talked a little bit about Operation 36.
I was about to say that sounds a lot like Operation 36 right there.
A little bit like.
So that's great.
Which I love that.
It teaches you how to score and it's mostly those short clubs.
That gets me back to playing the par three.
Isn't it funny Tom, you're a three time club champ at two different golf courses.
Qualified for the Colorado Open?
Yes.
Twice.
And you just learned something last week about, maybe it just got something in your head again.
I used to do that.
That's how I used to score.
That's what I'm saying.
Like a student of the game type of thing, like you just never, we never stop learning.
We never stop learning how to swing better, score better, putt better, chip better, whatever
the thing is.
That's why it's a great, that's why the PGA show is great because it is the conglomeration
of all the PGA guys.
All around the world by the way.
It's not just US.
It just happens to be the biggest PGA or the biggest show in the world as far as I know.
But it seems to recharge your battery.
You know what I mean, you get out there, you're talking with people that you want to talk
with.
You come back off to that and you're recharged, you're refreshed, you've got great ideas coming
in.
I think that's the big thing for the PGA.
It's kind of like, as we were kind of talking about last week or a couple weeks ago, is
that when you go to a PGA tournament, that tempo, that feel kind of comes off.
It's kind of like when you go to the show, you start to get that recharge of battery.
You're excited about teaching, you're excited about getting back in the shop or whatever
it is.
And then it wears off by the time it gets to December and you're ready for that recharge
day in January, that's for sure.
I think me and you might have talked about this TMAC, but I don't know how the PGA can
do it.
We're just two golf pros here in the area, but they've got to somehow allow the public
to have more access to it.
Absolutely.
Because it's great that we're getting to it and we're able to be either through PGA family
or we can bring some guests or whatever.
But I know the vendors are tired by Friday, but there's got to be a day where, to me,
Tom, what I said was Saturday, the vendors should be there one more day.
I don't care.
I'll go over and volunteer to be in front of the Callaway booth or whatever.
It don't matter, right?
And $10 admission and guess what?
All that money goes to junior golf or whatever you want it to go to.
But it could be a huge fundraiser.
It could benefit golf or supposed to be the whole PGA tour is a fundraising avenue.
I think the big thing is it would give people an idea a little bit more of what the PGA
Pro does, what behind the scene is.
I think that, not to say that the PGA has lost its luster a little bit, but I think
people kind of get lost with PGA Tour, PGA of America.
So I think if you can kind of invite the public into whatever you're doing, especially Demo
Day, I think they would go absolutely nuts over Demo Day.
And I think more of the vendors would come back to that because there would be more people
there.
And I think-
They could sell more stuff.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right now, when I went over, you went over on Tuesday?
No, I had to get my band fixed.
That's fine.
But I went over on Tuesday.
You didn't make it either, right, for Demo Day?
It was so small compared to other years.
Why don't you tell us how long the wait was to get in?
Well, an hour and a half because the computer broke down and they can't figure out how to
do stuff without a computer.
But anyways, that's true.
But comparatively, it was so small because Callaway and TaylorMade were not there.
Tidal, Mizuno, Cobra, I think I saw Strix on Cleveland.
But point being, the companies are COVID after COVID.
Hey, you know what?
I don't need to go there anymore.
I don't need to go to the Demo Day because we're going to do it on social media.
Like me and you went to the demo to the Callaway-
Callaway thing.
And it was so specific, again, only PGA members could go to that introduction of the new launch
product back in December we went to.
So we're privileged to be able to go to that.
And we brought the ideas back to our members and talked about it.
But they're, I don't want to say the word arrogant, but they're getting pretty arrogant.
They don't need to spend the money like they used to to come to these huge events and talk
to the pros.
And we're selling your stuff.
Well, I don't understand why the PGA is so willing to support these guys when they're
not willing to support us.
You know what I mean?
They might not have a lot of people coming there, but Callaway or TaylorMade should be
there to support the PGA of America.
You know, I mean, we're the ones pushing their product to their players or to their public.
So I think, you know, it's a little bit scratch my back, scratch your back.
You might not like doing it, but do it anyway.
But that's me.
All right, we'll get back to you.
Anyway, back to JuniorDoll, right?
You and I are the JuniorDolls.
Sorry, Tom.
We can get on tangents like this sometimes.
It's okay.
I love it.
Hey, talk to us a little bit.
You brought your book and kind of your guidelines and sort of like you go through, you've kept
record, you've golfed in record as the name of the book, which is cool.
And essentially, I think it's a great, I wish we had some more video to show people, but
what have you done with this?
And pick out a page in a day and tell us what you did.
Yeah.
Well, it's like a golf diary, golf diary book and a hardbound book.
And I opened to July 15th, 1990.
I played in a couple of men's clubs.
That's really where my tournaments and that's where I won tournaments.
I was fortunate enough to play in the Colorado Open back in the day where you had to have
a 2.4 handicap or lower.
I think today it's 1.8.
The quality has gotten much better.
I was fortunate enough to play twice.
1996 was my last time I played in the Colorado Open.
Unfortunately, I only got to play two days both times.
I didn't play the weekend, but it was kind of fun having all the kids.
Well, we have good players in the world.
Oh my gosh, it was unbelievable.
It was a great experience.
It was a bucket list type thing.
It was a goal when I, you know, one of the goals I set to play in the Colorado Open.
It was just a thrill having a guy walking, carrying my bag with my name on it back.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was cool.
But I had a lot of fun playing amateur golf and this one was Meadow Hills President's
Cup.
I won that tournament and I shot a 71.
So on this one page it shows the scorecard so I write out the par and what I made on
each hole.
Sometimes I'll make notes on a club that I hit or how I played a hole.
I chipped in on number four for birdie, made putts on, da da da.
And so this gives me, especially as I got older and I've had some slumps, I've had
some ups and downs, I've had this demons in my head as we all have in this game and
I've had ups and downs.
I've walked away from the game and whenever I feel like a real chump, you know, I'll
get this out and I'm like, man, yeah, I used to play pretty darn good.
And now I found myself enjoying the game again, the last few years I had some stretch as I
mentioned with my tremor that just killed my game.
Because I was on track, I thought, man, when I started getting serious about the game,
I started tracking my handicap.
I was about an eight in 1984 and then by the end of October 1990 I was scratch.
And so I kept track of that, there's a history of my handicap in there.
Where do you get these little books or what is this?
This was a gift years ago from my parents and it's a neat little thing.
And then I got tired of doing as much, I got a little, I kept newspaper clippings and you
know, it's fun to look back and see some of the names, some of these guys that are playing.
Jonathan Kay played on tour for a number of years, one on tour and it was fun to see a
couple of the clippings with my name above his on the leaderboard.
Oh yeah.
What year was that?
What was that page that you just pulled out?
What's?
Ninety one.
Ninety one, yeah.
The Publinks.
So just my little two cents in TMAC, throw yours in here too.
When I do playing lessons with people, right, or you just go out and play, you're trying
to play your own ball, but invariably, hey, if you see anything in my swing, just let
me know.
Oh yeah.
I'm just trying to work on my own game, Mr. Moody.
I got my own stuff going on, right?
Right.
And then they'll see stuff and I do this with the high school kids a lot.
So when we coached high school, I would do this a lot.
Basically, and you can, this goes for all golfers, right?
So if I'm going to do a playing lesson, I want to know your fairways, your greens, your
up and downs and your putts.
Four things, really simple to figure out.
I want to know if you're in the fairway.
I want to know how many greens you hit in regulation.
I want to know your up and down percentage.
Now you figure out the yardage, if that's 20 yards away or if that's 15 yards away or
maybe you're 30 yards away, whatever the number is, decide, okay, I'm a pretty skilled player.
I feel like I should get up and down from 30 yards away.
Great.
If you're a 15 handicap, you're probably going to be 15 yards away to have that number,
right?
And that percentage, and then your putts, because we all know you can have 35 putts
and you could have hit a lot of greens and still shoot 72.
Or you could have 35 putts and 0 for 7 up and downs.
Correct.
It really starts giving you some, and I mean there might be other numbers you want to go,
but let's get to the basics because, and what I've seen lately, so Valerie Cole was one
of my high school golfers that she played some college golf in Alabama.
When the University of Tampa golf coach, the girls golf coach, Missy Jones came down and
evaluated Valerie, she didn't really care what her scoring average was.
She wanted to know how many greens and regulation you hit, and Valerie couldn't answer it.
You know, how many putts, what's your putt per average or per round?
What do you get up and down?
They want those numbers because you can score different ways is the point.
Correct.
There's your consistent ball striker, and it just helps all of us.
We all think we need to hit it further with driver.
Not really.
Not if you're hitting in the center.
Well, think about most of our lessons.
Everybody comes to us and wants a full swing lesson instead of a short game lesson.
What's the object of the game?
Put the ball in the hole.
So yeah, absolutely get a foundation.
So T-Mac, what would you, I guess, in your playing lesson thing, what would you sort
of focus on?
Basically the same things that what you did right there.
That's the foundation of beginning golf.
That and the grip, stance and posture.
Having where you stand, having a real idea of what you're doing instead of this.
Because I'll be honest with you, golfers, we can put fallacies in our head and think
that we're better than what we are.
I don't need to work on putting.
I don't need to work.
I mean, how many times I get, my short game gets me around all the time.
I'm like, well, what did you shoot?
I shot 110.
I think we could spend a little time on the short game there.
But it's tough to convince people of that.
But if they keep a track of their numbers, like you said, something like this, you can
revert back to it and you can look and see and chart your progress.
And then you're going to start seeing the scores lower and you're going to have some
correlation of why those scores are coming down and not just because God came down and
anointed me to that day.
So at least you have some idea of what you're doing and you're tracking your stats, which
is important.
Tom, I'm going to let you talk again, I promise.
Sorry.
No.
This is great.
I've been playing in 23 or 24 now.
There are plenty of apps that track those things.
Yeah.
Right.
And now I get a little frustrated when I play with the guy who after the end of the hole,
he's putting it all in his, you know, like he's putting it in his five and okay, did
I hit the green regulation?
No.
Like he's putting in all the stats and we're just trying to go to the next hole.
So technology is great because it's kind of made it electronic instead of Tom's golfing
record book, which I love.
I think that's a great thing.
But even, you know, this like, he's not the first one to have this.
Sam Snead was doing this back in 1953.
Like they were tracking their information because they knew what they had to work on.
So there's, there's different ways to do it is my point.
I don't care if you just, you know, basic, like I said, those four numbers, but you got
to have something, some baseline to know what to go work on.
Right.
So now go ahead and let you talk again.
Sorry.
Yeah, no.
So the coaches at the PGA show at the coaches conference, we've got a lot of stats and a
percent of putts made distance three foot pros are making 96 zero handicappers making
93 and that guy shooting in the nineties is making 84.
Yep.
Big percentage right there.
You know, and then shots from, from 75 yards and in distances, the zero handicappers 30
foot, you know, they go through this and they break down these analytics.
Yes.
Breaking down what's where there's that total number coming from.
And one of the, you know, the, the, the putting especially, you know, the easiest way to reduce
your score is to become a better putter.
And just seeing it, you know, everybody knows that.
And as you know, teachers, we know, Hey, who's what you want to work on?
But everybody wants to work on the driver and it's how to score.
And that's coming back to that par three stuff, I love getting people on par threes.
I think that's so helpful.
But even other sports, I mean, Belichick, right?
He didn't get it.
He hasn't gotten a job offer yet.
Bill Belichick won six Superbowl or nine something between the Giants and the Patriots won nine
maybe.
Right.
I mean, there's a reason why they're going with younger coaches because of analytics
and they can evaluate stuff better.
And then Greg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs has got the number one player in the
world.
They keep losing.
He's a little bit hard headed.
Like I'm just, I like the, it's, it's, it's, uh, it doesn't matter which sport, but you
start seeing the younger like Mike McDaniel.
I think that's the guy's name from the, uh, from the Miami Dolphins that coach.
Yeah.
Very analytical.
Very, very, and very cool.
Very inventive.
Like Andy Reed's very inventive.
Like they take the percentage of, Hey, I can throw a five yard pass at this corner or
I can throw a 15 yard pass.
But like you just said, with the stats of the putting the five yard pass three times
is going to get you 15 yards.
Correct.
So let's just do that.
Right.
Why would we run the ball into the line?
Well, even now when you watch the football games, they're like, well, the analog stay
to go for it.
And I mean, let's be honest, four or five years ago, you would have, who is this guy
in the booth?
I mean, what are you talking about?
Let's hunt.
But now you see people going for it, you know, and you just hear more and more just in every
sport alone.
Now you're using track man and baseball now.
I mean, it's just technology is creeping into every sport.
And I think it's just going to, it makes the sport that much better and more exciting.
Right.
And I love Tom, the fact that you're 67 and you're not, you're not the old guy in the,
in the porch saying, I'm not going to use Facebook.
I'm not going to use Instagram.
Like you get, you realize that, Hey, I got to get up with the times.
I got to keep up with the times.
I'm going to bring this information back to my 15 year old high school golfer in Colorado
and say, Hey dude, I'm glad you can hit driver 260.
Yeah.
But you need to make, you need to sit there and make pups for half an hour.
Right.
And then, I mean, my, my university Tampa stuff back in the day, nine 89 93, we could
not leave the putting green until we made 53 footers in a row.
Wow.
Period.
I love that.
You could not go play golf until you made 53 footers in a row.
I love that.
You made 48, you go back to make 50.
You got to go, but that was the installation of that coaches drill into my head.
Right.
And guess what?
You got pretty good at three footers.
You got to that 92 percentile.
Like you just said for the zero handicap golfer.
Yeah.
You can't, you just, you know, yeah.
How many times has that putt given in a regular old match?
You know, in the back of your mind, there was a 50 50 chance on that.
You're like, thank you.
I'll pick that up so quick, you know, but you've got to work on those.
You know, get the, get the old circle of death.
Like he said, where you put the tees out there and just sun up to sundown.
And I promise you, if you can, if you can do that, the putting just opens up because
all you're doing is just trying to get inside that circle or that wheelbarrow.
And then it's just, it really takes pressure off your game.
Yeah.
Cause then if you're going to chip it, then you're going to have as much pressure to chip
it so close.
Cause you know, you're going to make a five footer, right?
Right.
So it just changes the whole dynamic of what you're trying to do.
So it doesn't have to be, yeah, we want it to be 15 feet from 150 yards, but maybe it's
20 feet, but I know I'm going to to put it.
Yeah.
And again, sorry, Tommy.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Good enough.
We went to the Callaway, we went to this Callaway, uh, uh, drink the Kool-Aid new product demo
launch type of thing.
Right.
And one of the stats that they use was on their new AI putters, literally John Rom,
what was it?
Six million dollars more?
Like something.
Yeah.
It was outrageous.
And they have stat six million dollars more last year if you use the AI putter because
of the way that the AI putter again drink the Kool-Aid if you want to.
Right.
Would gear, gear effect old school term, right?
Would gear effect the ball closer to the hole on 30, 40, 50 footers.
So it wouldn't have had as many three putt percentages as he did.
Wow.
Speed control would be 20% closer to real.
And you know this for playing this turn of thought, you get me two, two, two strokes
better over 72 holes.
Oh my God.
That is made six million dollars over a year.
Yeah.
Wow.
Unbelievable.
So the point being like you were doing in 1991 and prior, keep your stats.
Yes.
And keep your stats.
It tells you what you need to work on.
In my case it's kind of an ego booster a little bit or one of those, hey, don't give up.
You can do it.
Yeah.
Because we all go through ups and downs in this game and that's what makes it such a
special game.
Yeah.
The last point I want to make on the three footer, how tall are you?
I'm eight.
How much do you weigh?
163.
Who's going to hit it further?
Sure.
Right.
I'm six foot two, 225.
I'm probably going to hit it further.
Yeah.
Can we both make three foot putts?
Absolutely.
All day long, right?
Absolutely.
Can we both chip it?
Yep.
That's why the game is also so unbelievably cool because yes, you know, Kyle Berkshire,
who was specifically designed and done everything he can to hit the ball 450 yards.
Smash them off.
Right?
He's worked out, he's done supplements, whatever.
He's designed his approach to hit the ball far.
But him and Tom Kite, I'm going to go back in the day, or Corey Pavin back in the day,
or Gary Hallberg will go really back in the day, or Gary Player, you keep going.
Like these guys were not big people.
They've gotten bigger since Tiger, we've talked about that in some podcasts.
They've gotten bigger, but the three foot putt is the three foot putt and the chip is
the chip.
Absolutely.
That's why Pavin could still win a U.S. Open in 1991 because he hit it straight.
He didn't hit it as far as those guys, Freddie and Davis Levin, those guys, but he could
hit it straight.
It's funny if you go back now to where he was, and they've gone back to where it was,
they say that most of the pros hit about a seven iron there now.
Instead of a five iron.
So think about that.
When you're talking about a complete low scoring iron to somebody hitting a wood, onto the
thing.
I find that amazing, that stat.
Nowadays they're hitting seven irons, 220, 30 yards now, where he had to hit a five when
he barely got it up there too.
It's everything to get it up there.
I think it's great.
It's a great game.
Before we end, Tom, if you don't mind, you were gracious enough to talk about this, maybe
expose yourself a little bit with some of your medical history.
I think that's an important factor to bring into the golfers that we have, some of our
senior players, and how you've adapted your game and said, okay, well, I'm not going to
quit.
I'm just going to get a heavier putter or whatever.
So go ahead and just talk on some of that topic.
It was life changing back in the late 90s.
Like you say, I played in my last Colorado Open in 96, and then a year or so after that,
I was playing in a tournament and I'm looking down at my putter and my putter is vibrating.
I'm like, what's going on?
I'm not nervous.
I mean, I played a lot of tournaments.
I wasn't nervous, but my putter was shaking.
And so I let it affect me for a while.
And then I finally went to the doctor and I went to two doctors.
Same day, they both said that I have what's called a benign essential tremor.
I talked to my father and he says, yes, I have a benign essential tremor.
Apparently there's a category or a family of tremors called essential tremors.
Anyway, it's not pre Parkinson's, thank the good Lord, but it ruined my game.
I couldn't make a three footer.
I was blading or chunking wedges.
In all honesty, it still haunts me to this day.
I'll never get rid of it, but they gave me beta blockers, which slows your heart rate
down, which I didn't want to take those.
But when I started teaching and working with Brad and there, he helped me go to the ball
quicker, not stand over it.
As you stand and you're looking at something shaking, that's not a good, you know, that's
not good for the one.
And he would say, Bobby Jones said, Hey, you know, an athlete, an athlete is never static.
You know, how many times do you see a guy standing still over a golf shot?
You know, the good ones don't, they're going like we've talked about the quicker pre shot
routine is so important.
So it was a, it was a struggle.
And you know, like I say, I played a club championship before I started to teach.
And I played a club championship, two day tournament where I would take the club back.
I was like Charles Barkley.
I would joke with my buddies.
I'm like, guys, I'm just trying to time the seizure.
And it was embarrassing.
And I would take the club back and they would go start slowing and it'd be 90 to a hundred
miles an hour and a split second.
It was terrible.
And I would take the club back in this two day tournament.
I would take the club back to the top, bring it down and like pump on the third pump, I'd
hit the ball.
I played two rounds like that, shot around 80 both days.
And that was a little embarrassing.
But the help that Brad gave me and coached me to get to it quicker, focus on target.
Focus target.
When I can focus target takes me out of my head and I'm the athlete again.
And so I've been blessed in a lot of ways.
You know, I tell folks, you know, I've won some tournaments, had some hole in ones.
13 I think, right?
11.
Okay, sorry.
I just want to make sure it wasn't a zero.
I'm still on zero.
Well, before we were on the par three at Green Valley, which I play about 40 times a summer.
That's great.
But I played a lot of tournaments and had a lot of fun, a lot of success on the golf
course.
But I never got goosebumps playing golf.
And I'd get goosebumps when I teach or help somebody out.
I know you guys have seen it.
Somebody hits a shot and their eyes bug out and you see a smile on their face or they
look over at you like, you saw that too, right?
We both saw that.
Yeah.
And yeah, we both saw it.
You did that.
And I get goosebumps.
And so I think the Lord put me in the right place.
That's cool, man.
That's cool.
Well, hey, I've got to say, I commend you on your courage to go out there in a tournament
when you're struggling.
I mean, even when I'm playing well, I don't even want to play in a tournament because
I'm afraid I'll get embarrassed.
But I think that's amazing.
That's great courage right there.
Thank you.
So Tom, thank you for your time.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate it.
Once again, thank you again for listening.
Your co-host, Tim McElvanna with...
Hey, guys.
Again, Tom, thanks for coming out.
We really, really appreciate it.
My pleasure.
Thanks for coming in your time.
We might have another golf etiquette one where we can do just a straight golf etiquette.
Yeah.
That might be one we do in the near future because I think that's an underutilized topic.
Absolutely.
That we see every day on golf courses.
But this is great.
This is really cool to meet you and talk more in depth.
Thank you.
Yep.
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, John.
Appreciate it.
Yep.
Enjoy this.
Good.
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