Jason Day Gives Me A Golf Lesson

In today’s video, Evan Thompson gets a golf lesson from former world No. 1 Jason Day.

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Today I’m getting a lesson from former world number one Jason Day. Most amateurs try and do that shot and it’s very very difficult to do. When you come through I don’t want your head to fall back behind it. Nice. Lovely. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the channel. To my right here, I have former world number one. I have a major champion, a farmer. His name is Jason Day, who is going to be helping me with my short game. Welcome to the channel, brother. Appreciate it, man. Of course. Of course. Thank you so much for coming on the channel and having this beautiful property here in Columbus, Ohio hosting us. This is awesome. So, Jason is going to help me with my short game and help you guys at home how to get better short chip shots, longer pitch shots, and bunker shots. So, what do you want to know? I want to know how you perfect that long width shot as well as trying to put a little bit of that sauce on the golf ball and control it better around the green. Perfect. Okay. So, we can do we can do a couple of them. So, let me start off with just like from here to one for instance. There’s obviously two pins, right? So, for me, I like to spot chip. So, I’ll pick a spot where I think I need to land it, which is probably somewhere around that two um number two uh cup there. And for me, um, essentially what I’ what I’d like to do is from what I understand is that you struggle with swinging it sometimes if you try and swing it short. Yes. You tend to muscle it and like you want to get in there and rip it because you like feel like you can’t get enough power on it. Right. That’s exactly right. So the a good indication of of how to make it work is okay, we’re looking at a very mono swing. like we want the thing to just kind of flow around the same speed, right? So, if I’m going to say, “Okay, that’s where I want to uh finish my back swing. I kind of want to match that and finish it on the way through.” So, I’m going to just match that swing, okay? the same speed. But the next thing is I want you when I’m going to when you’re going to come in here and and practice. Yeah. I want you to do the same back swing, same length back swing, same length uh follow through. And I want you to just kind of practice that mono kind of speed. Okay? And then we’re going to work on shortening his back swing cuz I know he likes to be a little bit longer and finish the follow through a little bit shorter. So here we go. So, just try and do a couple of practice swings there. So, it’s boom boom. And then did that feel like the same speed throughout the whole thing? Uh, yeah. I feel like I’m a little bit faster on the way down, but yeah. So, we want to match that. We want to try and match that speed for him because then what we’re going to do next is we’re going to we’re going to swing it a little bit shorter and then we’re going to have a gradual increase of speed through so that he has a longer back swing. So, it’s going to be a little bit shorter here, a little bit longer here, but we’re going to have here. And then just a gradual increase of speed. Okay? You don’t have to rip it. You’re just going to gradually increase. So, what we’re going to do is we’re not really going to focus on where we’re going to hit it. We just want to make sure that we get this correct first and then we can start to focus on. So, just focus on this first. Yes. Okay. So, boom. Boom. Okay. So, if we looked at that, and most people are going to see, I’m going to say he’s going to be a little bit faster on the back swing, which he was, and a little bit slower. We got to switch that around. So, we want we can keep the same speed, but we want to match the same energy and just create a little bit more speed through here. Okay? So, we either need to slow down the back swing and make the follow through faster, or we need to keep this back swing the same speed and make the follow through faster than Yeah. So, one of the two. Okay. Whatever feels good for you, but we want to just hit a little bit harder. Just a little bit harder. Okay. So, slower then faster. Yeah. Slower then faster. That’s better. That’s better. That felt a lot better. So, that will you probably you you’ll be able to see that. Maybe you won’t, maybe you will. But what we’ll be able to see is that things will the first one little quicker little slower on the way through which deceleration is is a problem with amongst a lot of amateurs even professionals but for him the second one was much much better. So we want to try and mimic that going through forward. Okay. The second one here Chris come from behind here. I want to see if this right here, if you guys can see at home, like my biggest thing, especially if you guys go watch the lads video with the course record. Um, obviously that was awesome. That was really cool. Um, but I I felt like I had a lot of tendency to to really have that fast takeaway and that slow fall through and that cost me. So, I think I think this is a huge help. So, yeah. So, we’re going to go we’re a little bit slower and a little bit gradual gradual speed going through and a little bit more aggressive through. And you can go a little bit harder than that. Harder than that, too, if you want. Okay. So, just like get um when you go from transition, just gradually get more speed. It’s okay. Just hit it past it. We’re not even trying to hit a shot here. We’re just trying to get the right speed. How is this One thing I really underestimate, how is this setup here? Setup is good, man. Your sternum is right here. That’s like right on the golf ball. behind it. We tend to like to, you know, our low point gets back here. So, we want to make sure that when we chip that if we’re chipping that we try and not do this. We want to make sure that we’re turning towards a target. Our body is facing the target. Oh, that that that makes a lot of sense to me. It’s it’s uh slower here, faster here, but kind of feel like the body facing the target. Yeah, because you always want things going forward. Now, granted, you have a great setup already because you’re the sternum. And what I meant by sternum is that if I grab the ball here that he’s not set up where the sternum or the low point is back here, he’s not set up where it’s in front. It’s actually right on the golf ball, the middle of his body, so that he he can pinch that ball off the fairway. I would say that’s the only thing that I can do. Yeah, man. It’s good. Like we’re we’re working on some stuff here. So slower back swing. Just feel like the body goes through the Yep. There you go. That’s nice. That felt really good. So that that on camera, which is going to be great. You’re going to see and it you didn’t try and muscle it. You just There was a lot of flow to it because when it comes to short game, we want some flow. We don’t want a lot of quick changes of direction because when you have quick changes of direction, it’s very difficult to control the club head, club face. Very difficult to control because it is such a small shot. It needs precise like uh or precision when it comes to clipping that ball off the fairway. We want just nice gradual um speed from the transition. Oh, that was a that was a short one. But Jason, when I watch you, and I’m sure everyone at home is the same way, when they watch like a longer pitch shot, I saw one that you hit, forgot what hole, at the US Open this year at Oakmont, and it’s kind of comes out like so dead and soft. Okay. So, I want you to teach me cuz this is if I have a shot that has, you know, probably six yards of room to work with. I like This is a perfect one. Exactly. So that that softy, not like so high, not a lot of spin, just like that high floaty one. Um cuz for me, I would just run it up to the bank and sometimes that gets me in trouble. Yeah. So there’s two ways of doing this. You can either do the specialty shot, which he’s talking about, where it’s floating it up, bouncing, spinning. Yeah. Or you can do it the easier way where it’s not as sexy, but you can set up like a normal chip shot. open the club fla club club face a little bit and as you’re coming through the impact zone, just give the the the hands just a little flick down the bottom and that’s a shallower. And then when you do that, it should pop it up with just a little bit of spin. Not as much as one where you like see guys where they go one bounce and stop and spin, but it should float enough and come down a little bit softer for you. So, what essentially what we want to do, we want to try and land it, you know, just obviously about one to two paces on the green. We want to open this club face a little bit, right? Yeah. Like that. We want to still chip same chipping technique. Okay. We’re not going to change our tip like our technique where we were hitting here. It’s going to be the same. We’re just going to open the face and just give it a little flick down the bottom. All right. So, it’s it’s slower here, faster here with a little flick at the bottom. Yep. Yep. Okay. And this is only called for with this type of shot. Yep. Oh. Okay. So, that’s good. Wow. That’s good. So, now granted when we do this Yeah. Here, hit us one. Yeah. Okay. So, because we are trying to We have the face open. We’re trying to hit a high shot. We have the face open. We give it a little bit extra flick or I’m going to exaggerate a little bit. A little bit more this way down the bottom. So, for me, I’m going to come down and I’m going to give it a little bit more almost to the point where the club is pointing straight back to my body like vertical because we’re doing that. It’s going to come out a little bit uh shorter. So, we got to make sure that we get enough energy on the ball to cover that front edge. So, that’s what I’ll try and do. Take a couple practice swings. Open. I’m going to just chip it normally. Okay. So, nice wide. See how aggressive I am through with my body, with the with the club. And then we go in here. Wow. And then it should just come in and just land pretty soft. Now you we can try the other shot where it’s like lower and spin and like but for us to be able to do that, we didn’t need to really do that here. Um, most amateurs try and do that shot. It’s very, very difficult to do. So, it’s it’s easier just to kind of set up, take your normal chipping swing, open the club face, just give it a little bit more release down the bottom, and keep going through, and it should pop up nice and high for you. All right, here we go. So, give it another shot there, Ev. Yeah, you can be a little bit more aggressive, man. Like, it’s it’s totally fine. There you go. Open face. Y faster or faster? And just give it a little bit more this way down the bottom at and just make sure you go gradually faster through. There you go. Wow. So that’s that’s nice. Like because if we if we wanted to hit something low, we’re going to have to change our shot spot land where we’re going to be landing it off the green and we’re going to be hitting something low to be bouncing on. He wants to try and play this shot where we’re just hitting it a little bit higher. It’s not going to be crazy high, but it’s going to be enough. There you go. Just a little bit of a mishit, right? Yeah. That’s what I feel like when I’m in like really pressure or tournament situations is I get some that come out perfect and then some that kind of thin or chunk. Right. Right. Right. So, so the only thing that I would say when people have thins uh like when they thin and chunk sometimes sometimes they don’t tell a good enough story. So, and what I mean by that is that they don’t fully see the shot going up and uh going through the air, landing and and bouncing. They kind of have a general idea of like that’s where I want to kind of land it and that’s where and then they come in and they don’t really have a good feel for it. So, if I’m going in here, I’m going to ask myself a question and say, “What does a good chip look like? What does a nice high chip look like?” Okay, I see it doing this going up through there, landing onto the, you know, front edge of that green. And then I go in here and then that’s when I I ask that question. I I see the shot and then I I come in and I’m trying to visualize and feel. Okay, that’s how that shot comes out and I’m seeing it. Okay. And then how do I match that right now? You did it right there. You like come back and you kind of like close your eyes. Is that when you’re picturing that shot right there and you’re telling that story? Yeah. So, you ask the question, what does a nice high chip look like? I close my eyes. I see it. I can feel it through my body. And then when I’m over this shot, I’m seeing the shot going through the air and I’m like, “Okay, well, if I need that, I need a little bit more open face to see that.” And then, okay, well, I just need a little bit more flick down the bottom. And then I’m just trying to match that flight with what I’m set up here cuz I’m not trying to do anything else with my with my chipping technique. I’m only just trying to change a few things. I’m trying to match the flight and I’m changing just the club face and the technique is the same. Well, let’s see. Go through the routine and like picture this shot here. And like I like I would definitely want myself to learn more cuz I feel like in chipping shorts, you kind of either rush it or you don’t think it’s important. And I think for myself and a lot of people at home, I feel like we don’t go through our routine in this. And it’s almost maybe more important because the shot at hand what it requires. So I it was a great story. Um I asked Tiger Woods one time and I was talking to him about distance control and I said how can I become better at you know distance and control right and this is a very important to the story. And he said once you understand that shot one is just as important as shot 72 at the end of the day on Thursday and you know shot 69 at the end of the day on Sunday is just as important as all the other ones. That’s when your distance and control will actually improve. What that means is that every shot he does, he’s putting his full intent and full like trust and ability to be able to go through his process to be able to hit this shot correct at that time. Do you know? So, it takes discipline to be able to do that. Absolutely. Because a lot of people just go in there and go, “Okay, I’ll just like hit that and then go through it and then they hit a bad shot and they go, yeah, I didn’t just didn’t play well today.” Well, most people struggle with it. So, what I’m going to do, yep, let’s see. I, like I said, I’m going to ask myself a question. I’m going to see the flight. I’m going to see what is a nice high chip look like. The brain has to answer. Always does when you ask a question. Close my eyes. I see it. I’m going to come in here and then I’m going to try and match. Okay, that was pretty good. That was pretty good. Always take three. That was a nice swing there. And I’m going to try and match that practice swing to the actual shot now. Wow. And then we land there and I blocked it, but we’ve got two feet, which is nice. So that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. So it’d be interesting to see. I mean, obviously your viewers are watching this. It’ be interesting to see how did my actual shot swing match my practice swings. Were they Were they not matching? I mean, obviously I’m going to be watching this, so I’ll be able to tell if I’m not correct or not. So, well, here here I’m going to try that exact thing. So, I’m going to try that picture, ask my brain a question, kind of go through my routine cuz I would say honestly and transparently, this is probably the spot of my game that I think about the less. I try to, you know, think less and kind of do more. Um, and so, well, you’re just trying to paint a picture, right? So, what if you try and paint a picture, it’s just better to be able to see the shot and then you can feel it through your body, right? So we what we want to do is we just want to just try and land something over that edge of that green. So whatever you can do just to get it just landing over it. Right. Got it. So I see it kind of like a branch in that tree kind of floating. Yep. And then floating down and landing like two yards on front of the Perfect. And then when when once you do this we’re going to talk about did it match and we’ll go through that. Okay. So here I’m going to set up. I see my shot. And then I’m going to go and I’m going to do your technique with three. Yep. So I still feel it. Okay. Last one here. Okay. I’ll come in here. I’m still seeing that branch. Still seeing a softy turning to body a little bit faster at the bottom. Nice. Lovely. I blocked it just like you blocked it. I’m a good players. Block it, man. But that was lovely. Yeah. Right now, it it’ll be interesting to see. Did the three practice swings match the actual swing? Did the flight come out exactly the way that you wanted it to? Now, now granted, like my shot is what, foot and a half. Yours is probably about 6 to 7 ft. both good shots, but we want to make sure that because this is practice, we want to be very, very precise because practice has to be harder than the actual tournament play. And when you’re critiquing yourself here, was it the flight that you wanted? Obviously, we blocked it, but was it the flight that you wanted? Was that the speed of the shot that you wanted in regards to the to the swing? Did that all match up? And if it did, great. Yeah. you know, and then you just go, okay, it’s just my my shot was just a little bit long. If it didn’t match, then we can kind of start to come up with a good educated decision of like what broke down, where can it like improve? Well, let’s head to the bunker here. Last last couple balls here. I think the biggest thing uh which I told Jason this uh Jason this in the lad’s video is that when I was growing up um and I got into golf when I was 15, he was actually one of the ones that got me into the game. So, I just want to say like this is this means the world and to have an opportunity to like showcase uh a part of the game and learn from one of the world’s best. It means the world. So, just I appreciate you saying that. It actually I enjoy helping people that actually want to improve. So, it’s my pleasure for you to come here today and and do this. Absolutely. No, I appreciate you. I think uh last part here, Jason, is we’re just going to hit a few bunker shots. What are you looking for in here? I think the biggest thing for me is consistency with bunker strikes. I feel like I’ll get some that come out. Okay, hit hit a few shots so I can see. I’ll hit like way behind here and then I’ll get too close to the ball. So, it’s something with consistency of the strike. So, I’ll just hit these two real fast. Yeah. Yeah. You can tell me what you see. So, I felt a little thin there. Okay. Now, go ahead. Mhm. Got the sand pretty good and they’re Yeah, man. It’s compact. The rain compacted the sand here. I felt like those were two really solid. Yeah. Um probably, you know, obviously swung way too hard. Let me run and grab it. That’s why we’re here. I think that’s why I uh 100% came for the bunker lesson cuz if there’s a spot in my game that I really need to work on, it’s definitely the bunker. Um but I’m I’m definitely interested to see what you think. So, the wet sand is going to make it shoot quicker. Yes. The first thing you got to understand, I know that you said that you struggle with consistency of strike. This is going to be pretty firm. Now, granted, you now you’re you’re raking it, which is good. Um, you first thing is you got to do is assess what type of sand it is. This is compact. It’s going to it’s going to shoot. So, we don’t have to hit it as hard, right? When it’s soft soft and sand, we got to start to swing a little bit harder. Um, the only thing that I want to I want you to do is I want you to kind of open up a little bit more. Okay. You know what I mean? Open up a little bit more. What do you mean by that? Like like my chest or kind of like what you’re saying about the the body going to target? Yep. Yep. And don’t hit don’t hit this as hard. Okay. Not like I mean I’m saying swing a little bit shorter. Still have the same aggression because I like the aggression, but just don’t hit it as hard cuz it’s going to shoot a little bit. So take a practice swing and just There you go. That’s nice. Dude, it’s not bad, dude. It’s not That’s great. That was a little bit I would say What would you think? That was obviously shorter on the way back. Probably the same speed, but we can be a little bit more aggressive through. Okay. But, um, how’d you feel on the strike? I felt like I gave up on it at the last second. That’s why I came. And why did you think why did you feel like you gave up on it? probably because I turn my body like really quick or not really quick but I felt like I try to get my body to the to the hole and that’s when I probably hit behind it. Okay. Do you do you struggle with bunkers regularly or no? I just feel like I I just feel like I I struggle with like for example the first two I probably hit like right there and that one I probably hit like right there. Right there. Okay. And so you’re just struggling with Go ahead again. I want to see see something. So, I’m going to try to hit like right there. We’ll see at home if I hit this line. See if I have the control here. Oh, that was nice. That was really good. Almost made that one. Dude, you’re not doing yourself any favors here. You say you struggle and he’s hit too many. The first The first two were good examples. I rocketed those. Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, it’s kind of it’s it’s very easy to do just because um the sand is compact. The first two are always going to shoot, but I mean, he hit two great shots. I mean, it’s the only thing I mean, I I’m not seeing a lot because he’s hit two good shots. I don’t see a lot of of things to change, you know, cuz you’re not really The only thing that you ever want to do, Evan, is to make sure that this stays high. Okay? So, if you’re saying, “Okay, if this stays when I take a swing, this stays as level as possible, then you’re always going to have a thin divot.” You know what I mean? you’re not going to dig it. If this starts to change, you’re going to have to start to reach or you’re going to be too cramped and then you’re going to start to do something. But if this stays pretty dang level, yes, throughout the swing. So, you’re you you feel that when you and you’re and you’re still doing the same thing. You’re still picturing the shot. I’ve been doing this. I haven’t worked on this for a while, but I’ve been doing it for ever since I was a kid. So, if I’m in here, I’m just going to picture. You can either feel like your chins are up or or the top of your cap is staying steady. Yes. Sorry, I just covered your boy. But that’s kind of that’s kind of what you want. Just I mean, we’ll see if this came down. But here, Chris, get behind here. We’re going to see if my head is moving. cuz I know I know that’s a part of my weakness in my wedge game too is like when I take the club back I’m like here and then I’m like there. So it’s like and it’s okay going up and down in the in the swing and stuff to a certain degree. You don’t want too much of it but in the bunker you really want to stay level. So so just feel like if I had my hand here that thing doesn’t come off. Okay. And it’ll feel awkward to begin with but you got to practice this. Okay. Okay. Still the same swing. Same everything. Yeah. Just keep your head head up. See, it’ll throw it’ll it’s gonna throw it’s gonna throw your timing out. Yes. That’s why I say you got to you have to practice this because it will not feel good. And you got to make sure you still, you know, give it enough to get out. You know what? I was probably thinking about my head so much. You gave up on it like you said. So, just make sure you be aggressive with it. Same thing. And just keep your head head steady. There you go. That was really good. That’s nice. All right, I’ll take that one. Yeah, man. All right, if we could leave the audience with one tip at home around the greens. Yeah. What is it going to be? Oh, that’s that’s going to be tough. Okay. Um, let me see here. Okay. Um, fairway rough or bunker. Let’s go. Let’s just go your typical fairway chip shot. One tip at home. Obviously, we worked at a lot. We worked on shorter shorter back swing, more aggressive body through. Yeah. But also painting the picture. Yeah. Okay. Painting the picture and visualization for most amateurs or just people getting into it is very difficult. So, what I would like to like going back earlier, I think when we pick a spot, we want to try and match the back swing to the follow through and have that kind of mono tone, mono mono swing, the same uh speed going through. Just practice that cuz we want we want some nice flow in in our chips, you know? We we we want to go from back to forward with the same flow. And then once you start to get that and get a feel for, okay, that feels pretty good from here to here, then just swing it a little bit shorter and gradual increase of speed is good. Make sure you keep rotating your arms and your hands are along for the ride. Your body is the engine of your chipping. So, make sure this never stops and this keeps moving. Wow. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to hit one final ball. I’m going to literally do that exact tip that Jason said, this short little tip here. Um, we’re going to end it off. Hopefully, we end it with a make. If if we have learned something today, it should be close to the hole. So, I’ve learned a little bit of more of a wider takeaway. I’m shorter but more aggressive. Yeah, that’s what I said. I’m shorter, but more aggressive, and I’m picturing the shot at hand. Yep. And hopefully my short game will get a little better. So that’s the way I come uh play this course next time. I’ll I’ll do much better. It will. It will. He’s going to work at it. Last last chip shot here, Jason. It’s good. He’s Oh my gosh. Well, that was amazing. Shore game clinic with one of the best in the world. I man, I can’t thank you enough. This has been an absolute dream come true. No worries. Um, man, I want to do a special giveaway for those at home as well. Um, if you would sign a a glove for the I’ll sign a hat. Sign a little hat for Perfect. We’ll do each of us. Sign it and we’ll give it away for a lucky winner. Just comment below if you want to see more of instructional videos as well as go subscribe to the lads. Thanks, Bella. Yes, they have a great channel coming out and Jason’s getting more into the content space which is awesome. So, like, comment, subscribe, and we’ll see you guys next time. We’ll see. We’ll see. Wait, wait, wait. We got a match coming tomorrow. Yeah. Oh, do you guys want to see that? Stay tuned for that one. And no shots are given. No shots are given. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough. All right. We’ll see you guys next time. Thank you, Jason. That was awesome.