Get ready to take off with dynamic golf.
All right, welcome back listeners.
Welcome to Dynamic Golf.
I'm your co-host, Tim McElvano.
And with me is my fellow co-host, Sean Klotz.
Hey golfers out there in the Tampa area and the worldwide.
Good touch base with you guys again.
Team Mac, always great to hear from you.
I was really excited to talk about that master's podcast we did.
I think that's one that you really want to kind of go back and listen to a few times.
Because not only your experience, my experience, it's such a great venue.
And it comes up once a year.
But I just, I thought when I went back and listened to it to you,
I was like, oh my gosh, there's so much good information in here.
Yeah, there's a lot of great stuff, a lot of great stories,
a lot of great little hints to how to travel and what you kind of need to do
for a first experience, right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, with the turning of, you know, the masters,
you know, their big dedication to junior golf,
I know you're getting very involved with junior and PGA League.
Tell me a little bit of some of the clinics and programs that you guys are running
and doing over there up there in the New England area and stuff like that.
Well, it's great because yeah, so, you know, we did down at Silverado
when we were doing junior camps, you know, five or 10 years ago type of stuff, you know,
and that was great.
Anytime you get to, you know, you're supposed to grow the game, right?
That's kind of our mission.
One of our mission statements as PGA members is to kind of grow in the game.
You know, we both started off, when did you start?
Team Acura, a little bit older than me, I think, when you started, is that right?
I started playing the golf, game of golf when I was five years old.
Oh my gosh, okay.
That was your grandfather.
You think I'd be better than this.
Yeah, year by year, right? Exactly.
And who was your influence as your grandfather?
I know your dad played too, but...
My grandfather was a huge, you know, influencer for me.
He was a very accomplished golfer, very good golfer, so learned a lot from him.
Yeah.
Yeah, so, you know, up here at Oakley Country Club, we've got the PGA Junior League,
which is a very kind of nationwide, you know, event type of thing program.
It's great to see, first of all, like the support from the parents.
So there's 52 kids signed up right now, which is between the ages of six and 14,
I think is the age group.
Oh wow, okay.
Pretty big rate right there, yeah.
Yeah, pretty good range, pretty good range.
And they come, they have the opportunity, I'll use that for them,
the opportunity to come out basically Tuesday, or yeah, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
from 3.30 to 5.
And we do a, you know, instruction practice, kind of work with the golfers,
work with the kids, do some chipping, potting, you know, hey, here's how to hold the club
if they don't know how to do that.
Yeah.
But then obviously with that range is kind of different skill levels too.
So there's some, some kids are a little more accomplished, ready to go.
But it is, it's kind of that introduction to the game and keeping it fun for them,
which is I think a huge part of getting your junior into the game to make it fun for them.
So they don't get, you know, it's a slow moving sport at some points too, right?
Absolutely.
And I think you bring up a great, great part there, especially with the parents support
and stuff like that, is that you've got to make the game fun for the kids.
I see a, I see a couple of parents, I wouldn't say a lot of parents,
but some of them get a little too intense about the game a little bit.
And I think that you've got to understand that, you know, golf's a game of misses
and they're not all perfect and just enjoy the time that you're out there with your kid.
Oh, absolutely.
So we've seen that from the high school perspective when we coached, you know,
some of the local teams over there in Zephyr Hills, but, and you see the difference
of some of how the parents, and it's every sport, right?
It's, you know, our friend Ron Crump who's got a really accomplished son
who's playing a lot of golf now, he also played a lot of baseball.
Like you see it in the parenting of some of these parents where, you know,
if you're taking it more seriously than the kid is, or if you're not making it enjoyable
or fun anymore, the kid's probably going to back away a little bit and kind of shut down.
So from our side, from the golf perspective side, it's just, you know, again,
introducing, you know what, team up, this is something that happens a lot in junior golf.
It's getting better, but they don't come with the right tools, right?
They're given their uncles clubs that are cut down maybe a couple inches
and they're heavy and not the right shaft weight and all this stuff.
And it makes it makes it hard for anybody to swing a club.
So I would agree.
There's been a huge shift.
I mean, I wouldn't say huge, but a big shift compared to like when we were kids,
I mean, we definitely had the clubs out of the garage or something like that.
And some of the kids now, you know, maybe 50, 50 have something
that's kind of fit or cut to them or bought something from dicks that fit them better.
But you're right.
Most of the time they're coming with an extra long club or extra weighted club
than what they can swing and it gets them out of what they really need to be doing.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
And then so they have the opportunity again, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, come out and practice that on Saturdays, they have a, you know,
basically a little match.
It's called the PGA New League match.
And they do it in a good way.
It's kind of like the first tee operation does in Florida where, you know,
they every three holes, they get a flag and essentially, you know,
there's some scoring to it.
It's scramble, which I like that.
Oh, man, it's a scramble.
Two player or three player scramble golf.
So it doesn't put that, you know, kind of an innate pressure on the kid
to have to make the shot because it is a scramble format.
Yeah.
Keeps it fun, keeps it loose.
But each time when I talk to them, when they go to different golf course,
so, you know, my first question when they come back on Tuesday is, hey,
you know, hey, how'd you play?
Oh, we won our match by one.
Like, oh, that's great.
You know, how'd you play?
Because they still have the competitive part of it in there, too.
Yeah, that's great. That's great.
I mean, and, you know, I like the ability to, you know, keep them in a safe space
where, you know, you've got that extra partner behind you to kind of pick you up
so you don't feel, you know, as much pressure as a junior out there for sure.
And the way they try to do it is they try to pair kind of like a more
accomplished or slightly older, you know, child with, you know, slightly younger.
So you can kind of mentor the person a little bit, which is great.
I see that even on the daily when we do, you know, daily with the instruction,
you'll see the 12 year old girl out there, you know, helping the eight year old girl
come along and kind of, you know, hey, you can be on my team type of thing.
So it's just a good, I think it kind of gets back to the point of what you were
just saying earlier is that to grow the game, right?
We're here to grow the game.
And I think there's an innate instinct in all of us to help other people along
to help with this very difficult game and grow the game.
Yeah, no question.
And then the other thing, the last thing I'll say about the PGA Junior League,
which is something they identified, I'm going to say maybe 10 years ago,
as I had the show, you know, how they have those educational seminars.
And I did one on, you know, junior golf type of thing.
And one of the studies that they'd come up with was that the number one reason
why kids were like playing in the PGA Junior League was because they got a uniform.
They got a shirt.
So like, think about, again, when our baseball teams, when we're playing
baseball or basketball, when we were young, we had, you know, we had, we were part
of the team, right?
In golf, an individual sport.
So what the Junior League has kind of taken on when you see the kids come
over here from a different course, they've all got their red shirts on and we've
got all got our blue shirts on.
They all say their last name on the back room.
They got a number just like in basketball or baseball.
Yeah.
So it's cool.
It's an individual sport, but it's played as a team and there's a lot of support
from each other and then the support of the parents is even just more beneficial too.
So yeah.
Well, I think that, you know, they're doing a great job with, because, you know,
golf is very much an individual sport.
Right.
If you can introduce something as a, you know, a team or something like that, it
doesn't seem so daunting or, you know, so hard to do, you know what I mean?
Right.
I think kids get kind of turned off by the idea that, you know, that it's all on
me and if I make the mistake, it's all done, right?
And you're right.
You know, and I think that being on a baseball team or a basketball team, there
is kind of that, you know, I didn't have a great day, but my team still won.
You know what I mean?
So that builds confidence and stuff like that.
So I love how they're doing that and bringing that, that, that atmosphere.
And it's going to bring kids that aren't that talented right now to the game.
And they're going to get a lot more talented because they have that opportunity.
Well, you never know, right?
You don't want to discount anybody.
You never want to think that somebody can't because some of these kids will come
back and you can see the progression of just the nine weeks we have with them,
how much they progress and, you know, how much you, when you saw this, you know,
10 year old girl four weeks ago and now she's hitting the ball 75 yards in the air
on the range.
You look on her face is just awesome.
Yesterday, I got excited.
She was so now it's, it is, it's why we, you know, partially why we teach that
excitement of just kind of seeing that look on people's faces and just getting
them into it.
The other part of the team aspect, and this is something, you know, really
publicized over the last, I'm going to say kind of 20 years is the, the writer
cup, the president's cup, the Solheim cup, right?
All these different team events that they produced in either amateur world,
the Walker cup or in professional world.
And that's a big episode.
If they're watching, if their parents, mom, dad are watching the Walker
cup or the Solheim cup, oh, what's that?
That's a team event golf.
Oh, you know, like it, it, it translates.
It translates.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You know, even, even something like the Zurich classic last week, talking
about team events, you know, I, I think, I think there was something where there
was a nine or 10 of the teams were college roommates or college.
You know, so, you know, just that whole team aspect as you're coming through
shines through.
You can even talk about, you know, the, the other guys on the other side that
have that team event, I'm not going to name the tour, but those guys are there.
Oh, it's very true.
But the team event is very, very cool for the kids.
And I think that, you know, I think there's a lot of room for growth in that,
that area for a lot of things.
And I think there's a whole, another sport, whole, another industry that we're
waiting to explore there.
You really are spot on.
Cause I forgot about the whole other tour that we're talking about thing.
Adam Ember coming yesterday.
It was like, did you see the Sergio's team was doing this?
I'm like, I don't even watch it.
I mean, I don't have the, I haven't figured out how to follow it, but yeah,
like NASCAR has got team, you know, points to it.
Like they're on the whatever team, you know, Joe Gibbs team or whatever.
So it's, it's not like it's a unique thing.
I think the PGA is probably, or the golf industry is kind of like moving.
Okay.
Well, what again, the other tour, the tour we're not having, they do so many
things that are so different than the normal conventional, I wouldn't say
boring, but conventional tour that we are so used to watching.
They're trying to attract a different population.
So they're making it shorts and shotgun and teams and points and go, right?
Absolutely.
And you got to say that, you know, not, not to say anything against PGA Jr.
league, but it, it's kind of that same attitude, not that, you know, you know,
but we want the kids to have fun, be out there in a team atmosphere, hit it as
hard as you can, wear some shorts, play with your friends.
You know, we're trying to get to that point.
I think it's tough because we're so, you know, stuck in those old ways, but
I think everybody's kind of moving that way to a team event, team atmosphere.
And you just get more camaraderie with everybody.
Right.
So, hey, I want to pivot just a little bit.
I think, I think it's a great topic we just did, but let's pivot just a little
bit.
I just had a lesson this morning with a brand new first time golfer.
Right.
She's, she's, you know, whatever, mid 40s, but
brand new golfer, super excited about getting into the sport.
And I guess my question to you, team, that without us talking about prior,
which is good, sometimes it's going to get the off the cuff stuff.
So I'm almost explained to the listeners, like, what do you focus on when you
get that brand new golfer for that 45 minute session?
Like what's your, what's your key points that you go through to make sure that
they, you know, they start off on the right track?
Really.
I mean, really what I like to do is when I know it's a beginner, I have a
club with a grip trainer on it.
Okay.
And the first thing I'm doing is I'm getting their grip correct.
Um, you know, if it's 45 minutes on the grip, it's 45 minutes on the grip.
I'll be honest with you, but if I get past that grip point, it's going to be,
you know, stance and posture, you know, I want to lay that foundation for my new
beginner.
Um, you know, the other thing is I want to ask them questions about what they
think the golf swing is and try to get into what they, you know, cause they're,
they're going to have pre, you know, pre notions of what they think it is.
And we need to kind of make sure those are straight and we're all aligned in
thinking the same way.
Um, but you definitely want to do grip stance and postures is the first, the
Holy grail, the grail I think.
Yep.
That's, that's what I just did.
As I just did, I think we're all, you know, usually in concert on that, that
getting the connection between your body, which is your hands on that object,
which is the golf club, the proper way.
And, and, you know, going back to the juniors, a lot of juniors aren't
gripping it, gripping it correctly, meaning they might have some separation
between their hands.
They're definitely not interlocking, you know, just yet, but even with the juniors,
it's like, okay, hey guys, just get your hands together.
I don't care if it's interlocked or overlap just yet.
Yeah.
Just try not to have much spacing, but that's what we just did with the, uh,
with the lesson was we talked about grip.
And even when you talk about grip, you got to explain what a square face is,
what a closed faces, what an open faces, because the hand position is in
relationship to the face being square.
Correct.
Um, and then, and then, you know, okay, let's get in the athletic position,
you know, a little bend in the knees.
Definitely.
I, I really like to make the person like, you know, stand straight up and then
just, I put my left hand on my, my belt.
I just didn't have it hurt to it on her belt, but I'm just trying to get her to,
to basically bend over from the waist.
I think there's always that even in the golf, we've been playing for years,
they don't bend over enough for the waist.
They stand too tall.
And I think that's a great point right there that we need to just sit for a
second, that, that when you put your hand on that belt buckle and push it back,
there's a difference between that and just bending over.
If you know what I mean, you're really pushing your hips back and stuff like
this.
And I learned that from you watching you do that.
Um, you do a great job of putting that there and making sure the person
understands not to just flop the chest forward, but to actually kind of move
the pelvis back and move that body in an athletic position.
Cause what they end up doing, if you, if you tell someone to bend over what
you're saying, right?
You tell us how to bend over from the waist, their shoulders are going to slump.
Right now their arms are kind of like, no, it's just in a bad shoulder position.
Again, tour players, especially you can see it a lot in most men, but ladies
look like they're more precise with this for some reason that, that, that whole
old school kind of put the club shaft on your back from your butt all the way up
to your head type of thing.
Like that's what it's supposed to look like.
Your neck's not supposed to be hunched over from your shoulder.
You're supposed to look in a bent over position, but it's all about having
good posture.
So if you don't have good posture at the beginning, it doesn't matter what
you do from the rest of this one.
Yeah.
Again, kind of the basics.
Yeah.
I mean, what was old Ben Hogan said, 90% of your misses due to your setup.
Yeah.
So if you're not set up correctly, then it's, it's next to impossible to hit a
correct shot.
So I'm going to brag on this girl here a little bit.
So her first swing she took today was 31 miles an hour.
I say girl, she was again mid 40s, 31 miles an hour.
Never, never picked up a club until this, this today.
Right.
Super excited.
She's nervous, which is also a little side note of when you give golf lessons.
You got to remember that they are nervous because they don't know how to do it.
They don't know where to go.
They don't know what to expect.
Right.
You know, the clubhouse, who's this guy? Is he going to laugh at me?
A bunch of guys are going to be on the driving range.
Look at me.
I mean, it's got to be, it's got to be, you know, for, for us, it's like, well,
we're just going down the driving range.
But first, you know, female beginner, it's got to be pretty scary.
You know, intimidating.
So that's always like, if me and you went and did like ballroom dancing, how
silly would we look or feel?
Or if we went and did some kind of Pilates class, right?
Right. Yeah. Like part of the reason I don't like doing yoga at clout,
that in a classroom setting, because there's not a lot of six foot two guys
in the back room looking comfortable.
Right.
But so anyways, so she started at 31 miles an hour.
And you know, we, I mean, again, grip stance, okay, get your staying posture.
Okay. Here's your backswing.
Here's how we're going to make a good follow through and kind of talk through
follow through a lot, which I think again, doesn't get her.
We'll look by you and I, but it's a good thing.
It doesn't get her. We'll look by you and I, but, but maybe by the rest of the
world, like as far as why do I not hit it further?
Yeah.
Well, if you don't get to a good position, what is that matter?
The ball's already gone because you're losing so much speed after impact or at
impact that that's what pulls those guys up and those ladies up to these
beautiful picture perfect followers.
So she, last way she took, she was at 60 miles an hour with a seven hour.
Wow. Double their speed.
Isn't that crazy? That's great.
She hit the ball 85 yards in the air, 102 yards total.
I mean, and she's just demon.
Super excited.
So I probably had the biggest smile on her face as she was doing that.
Right. I mean, just looked at, you know, you, you look like a God to her now.
You know what I mean? It's up in the air. It's 85 yards.
She can do anything right now.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I think that's, you know, I, you know, we get mired sometimes in our day to
day operations and kind of what we're doing. You know, why are we in this
business type of stuff? But then I have one of those and I'm like, Oh yeah,
that's why I'm in this business. That's why.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Paying it forward, making sure that we're, you know, passing the game forward for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
So whether it's the six year old girl yesterday hitting it, you know, 40 yards
in the air or whether it's the, you know, the 10 year old boy that made a chip
yesterday when I told him to aim it a hole and he did, you know, it's just those
types of experiences that make it fun, which is again, again, we kind of get
married into the details of, Oh, we've got a big golf tournament tomorrow.
We got to make it look good for the people, the members of the golfers,
whatever. You know what? Those people are all coming out here tomorrow to have a
good time and play golf and meet people and be social and, you know,
and how many of those people worked with a PGA professional to get out there to
play with confidence out there? You know what I'm saying?
So when you look at those tournaments, just wonder how many
how many people our industry have touched to make sure that they're out there
playing and enjoying what they're doing.
Yeah. Yeah. So we, we did a real quick, maybe the last thing I'll say for the
day is basically we did a ladies clinic on Wednesday and we got kind of like a
succession of things throughout the month of May and it was cutting right.
It was a little chilly. It was like around 55 degrees. So chilly for me still.
But my point is, and this always happens, remember when we did the clinics up
at Silverado, this always happens when you post a clinic for ladies,
we had 16 people sign up. Now, if I post that clinic for men, how many people
are showing up to you now?
I'd be surprised if three did.
Like what is the deal?
But if it was a long drive, if it was a driver episode, how many guys would show
up for that one?
Exactly. But it's just the, I don't know, it's the ego of men. It's the,
but ladies are more inquisitive. How do I, and it was a great session.
It was fun. It was like, okay, why, why are you walking your put off, Sean?
Well, here's what, you know, like just inquisitive and that's, that should be
the mindset of all of us. We should keep working on these different things.
So not really a bash against men, more of like a, a hurray for, for ladies that
they're still open to it.
One last thing I would say is I would cap off on that is that I've always
found that juniors and ladies work better in a group setting.
They want to ask questions.
Women are always inquisitive, like you just said, they always ask questions
and they're always asking questions to their peers where men do not.
You know, they don't walk over and go, Hey, what about your grip?
What are you doing about that?
No, women will just sit there and they'll get in a group and they'll talk
and they'll chat and they learn very well that way.
And then they're going to come with you with a question and you better be
ready to get peppered with a couple questions.
But I love how they, you know, juniors and women work, I think, learn
best in a group setting when they're beginning.
Oh, right.
I agree.
Hey, that was good.
Good little session there, sir.
It was good.
Very good.
So once again, want to thank everybody for listening.
I'm your co-host, Tim McElvanna, with my fellow co-host, Sean Klotz.
Great, great, great doing this with your team, Mack.
Love, just, you know, chatting and then giving the, uh, giving our advice
whether, whether it gets taken up by some of our players, hopefully they can,
they can improve their game by some of the stuff we talked about.
Absolutely.
Great session today.
We talked about the juniors talked about the ladies.
Um, I don't think they get talked about enough, uh, especially in our
industry, so touching on those points is always great.
Um, we thank you everybody and have a great day.
See you guys next time.
Bye.
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