This week on Pivot The Path, Scott dives into Brian Campbell’s breakthrough win at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic. After a clutch birdie in regulation, Campbell sealed the deal in a playoff to capture his second PGA Tour title—a milestone moment that vaulted him to No. 28 in the FedEx Cup standings and No. 55 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Across the pond, Daniel Brown claimed his second DP World Tour victory, continuing a run of steady form and building serious momentum as the season heats up.
Plus, with SSWING’s I.M.P.A.C.T. Group Training kicking off again next week, Scott shares 3 simple exercises every golfer should be doing, every day, to improve mobility and stability—two key pillars for building consistency and power in your game. If you’re serious about real improvement, it’s time to Own Your SSWING—on and off the course.
Notes:
SSWING Favorites: Resistance Bands: https://amzn.to/3IdtTff
Link to Episode 64 that Scott referenced: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Czckp7UtkxzkrG0ZksLOQ?si=at39bp-LQASM1jRUSkE2AQ
Good day golfers. Ever found yourself redirecting blame and making excuses after having an absolute shocker on a golf course? I know that I have. Range was closed. I was a little cold. Didn’t warm up. I hit it in those three old divots. Then we have the podcast for you. We focus on how to fundamentally own your swing. Strike it pure and consistently shoot in the 70s. Be it if you’re a weekend hack, retired and playing daily, a school phenom, or a tour professional, we present and discuss facts and physics pertaining to golf, trying to keep our ego and opinion at bay. We dispel myths such as keep your head down, bend your knees, or my all-time favorite, game improvement irons. So, stop drinking that mythical Kool-Aid and have a sip of ours. I think you’ll find it both inspiring and refreshing. I’m Scott Young, founder of Swing, PGA professional and ex- tour player. Welcome to Pivot the Path. Goodday golfers and welcome to Pivot the Path. Hope you’ve had a fantastic week. Fresh off July 4th. We had a terrific week at home with thousands of kids around at our house. We had a mate’s 50th birthday. It’s it’s on for young and old here. So, we do hope this finds you really well after such a great weekend. fireworks, food with friends, and uh and hopefully some safe times. Our improvement pivot point this week comes from a very resilient PGA tour. So, we’ll get to that in a little bit about how how you can actually own your swing. And the improvement pivot point is how we learn from these great athletes and how we can instill that into our game. And we’ll get into a bit of bit of uh bit of movement, too. News from the fairways. Now, our fairways this week are going to pivot a little bit. And on a very serious note, we’ve got a very big platform now that’s obviously growing exponentially with with pivot the path. And so, when you’ve got a big platform that goes to various countries and various uh communities throughout the US, we just wanted to pause for a minute and have a big shout out to the to the big old state of Texas, the Guadalupe River with the flooding that occurred on the weekend. Uh on a really serious note, we just wanted to pause and pivot and say, “Hey, our hearts are with you and our community is with you.” And we wanted to shout out all the first responders who have really stepped it up and we could name numerous. So, we just wanted to draw a couple of names. We we could shout out to hundreds of first responders. And we think the first responders really are the unsung heroes certainly in this country in in every country. Scott Ruskin’s a a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. I think it’s his first year on the job, and we could have dozens of names in his spot, but this guy is absolutely unbelievable. One year in the Coast Guard, he saved upward of 150, 200 kids. Now, to what degree, it doesn’t matter. They basically dropped him out of the helicopter, dropped him into into the the the heat zone, and he basically went about his business of rescuing 200 kids, getting them from huts and camps to safe ground, high ground to a helicopter, and then away they go. And in your next week, as you’re listening to this, just pause and look up this guy and you’ll see him on Instagram, you’ll see him on social media. The grace and elegance that this guy handles himself and what he what he stands for in the in the Coast Guard more broadly is absolutely momentous. And so we wanted to pause and say, “Mate, thank you for being a legend. I can’t Rosie and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a couple of kids go away for a camp and then not to return.” So, you know, thoughts to the families, to the parents, and to the first responders like Scott, you’re amazing. So, we just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Okay, getting back to a little bit of sport news from the fairways. I, as you know, love my F1. We had the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which is one of the homes of the entire sport and Lando Norris being an Englishman won his local home GP. I will tell you, I took from that that Oscar Pestri is an unsung hero. In my opinion, he should have won. Look into it. he broke in a in a safety car lap. But to have an Englishman win the F1 and for Oscar to handle himself with such elegance and grace, he was steaming when that race finished. I believe he should have won. Uh they know a lot more. Uh look into it. But he was interviewed and he said, “Look, I’m not going to say anything. I’m emotional. I’m fresh off a lap and it’s best that I don’t say anything. So look up the F1 this week. We’ll see what happens next week. Oscar, you’re to the DP tour. We had a pretty quiet week. Obviously, July 4th week DP tour, we had Englishman Daniel Brown. Good old good old English name. On his second DP tour event. Uh, good on you, mate. Playing pretty well there. He plays on the US tour as well, so he’s he’s starting to become a regular household name. LPGA didn’t play. Cornferry didn’t play. Liv didn’t play, which is kind of disappointing. Leave, you got to play more events. You’re losing me. Let’s look at what happened in the John Deere. And actually I didn’t know who started John Deere. So I actually backpedalled and loo looked at how was that company formed. It was formed in 1837 by no other than John Deere. And he basically designed the first steel plow that basically wouldn’t uh wouldn’t get mumbled jumbled when they’re plowing very clayy soils. So they were a uh company founded by basically farming equipment and then obviously the train left the station and off he went. So thank you Mr. dear for being such a bloody legend. So, let’s backpedal a little bit. Back in episode 64, we mentioned Brian Campbell’s win against the young South African point guer uh and the fact that Mr. Campbell basically hit his drive out of bounds in the playoff and hitting a tree came back in bounds and he went on to win. And I was somewhat harsh on the fact that I don’t want to watch one of the world’s best tours with some guy belting it out of bounds only to hit a tree and come back in bounds and win an event, which I stand by. I think that’s fair. I’m watching PGA Tour to be inspired and to draw from and to grow our community and grow the game. So I’m not inspired when a guy hits it out of town only to ricochet. However, also eat humble pie when we need to. That same guy six months later won the tour event. So, Brian, shout out to you, your family, and your team because you are the epitome of own your swing. Six months ago in a playoff, extremely nervous, carves it straight out of bounds, horrible golf shot, but wins that then. And I don’t know, Brian, but I am so impressed by you and your team and your family because obviously it’s a team event, right? We can’t put this on without Rosemary. I can’t put swing on without Rosemary. Behind every individual, whether it’s a man or a woman, is a team. So Brian, who looked pretty ordinary when he won his first event, then in the playoff on Sunday at the John Deere, absolutely pipes a driver on the first playoff hole after waiting for about 25 minutes to see if he was in a playoff or not. pipes his iron to about 10 foot, lips out to make birdie, and then wins the event. And this whole podcast is about owning your swing. And it matters not whether you have never picked up a club, you’re on PGA Tour, or you’re someone like me who never achieved his dreams on the golf course, but is still bloody working hard to grab those dreams. And so to watch Brian pump a driver, pump an iron, 10-foot, lip out, great putt, and just own his whole swing for that moment and win his second tour event in a far more esteemed PGA tour event. The first one was the Mexico event, which was that kind of half PGA Tour. Doesn’t get full rights, you know, it’s that kind of no man’s land PGA tour. This was a legit event. And I to say I’m proud of you, mate, and I don’t know you is an understatement. And that’s the epitome of what we love to talk about here. And so I thought that was a lovely parlay into talking about a little bit of on the greens for me and then our improvement pivot point because to watch a golfer go not five and a half months previously falter and spit and spurt and sput and and and get it done but then six months later to come out and just be in control dominant was absolutely lovely. And so I wanted to just talk about what that looks like in our business model which is swing and obviously pivot the path and something that I’ve worked really hard on and I’m very proud of at the age of 50 uh I wanted to set a goal when I dislocated this shoulder about six seven months ago. I was up to about 205 pounds and I wanted to set a goal to be at 189 and on the weekend I hit 190. It’s taken me about 4 and 1/2 months of bloody hard work. And so in the age of OMIC and in the age of it’s far easier to pop a pill to lose some weight. Well, no, that. I’m up I’m training four or five days a week. I’ve been intermittent fasting for about seven years. But until Mitch Little, who was a trainer in Australia, allowed me to understand a little bit of more about nutrition. And so Rosemary and I, we watch what we eat. I watch calories in versus calories out. I’m group training. I’m training myself five days a week. And at 50, I’m fitter than I was at 25 and 30. And I’m down to 190. And I want to be I’ve got one more pound till I hit 189. And so I haven’t been 189 since the day I was married, and I’m super pumped. So, what’s it about? It’s about owning your swing. And that life’s hard. You got to work hard. And there’s so many different excuses of why we don’t play good golf or why we’re not as fit as we want to be or why we don’t look the way we want. And the answer’s not popping a pill. The answer is bloody getting down and doing 50 push-ups. So, what we wanted to do was just say, here’s our own your swing moment on the greens. For me, this week’s about hitting my goal uh and really delivering on a on a promise that I made to myself to get fitter. And so what we wanted to do was just bring it back a little bit. And Brian really gave us some some momentum to go, “No, let’s keep it simple. Let’s keep it factual. Let’s keep it about owning your swing.” So the the improvement pivot point comes from Look, here’s three or four little exercises that you can do. It’s really simple. So, what I’d love to do with improvement pivot point is to talk about three little exercises that you can do every single day that will allow you to move better as a human, but also to own your swing and to move better in the golf. So, next week we’re delivering our summer session of group training, which we cannot wait to to to bring to our community. And so, what we wanted to do was just explain to you how easy it is to own your swing and own your movement. And so these three little exercises should be done daily and they’re really simple. This is five minutes worth of work. But that five minutes like I did losing, you know, 16 pounds is about owning your swing and not making excuses. Getting back to owning your swing, one of the chaps in Ireland I’ve sent a little gauntlet for and this particular individual didn’t like some of the greens. But if truth be told, I got him on video of his putting stroke and there’s some things there’s some big things we can work on that are really simple. The golf game’s really easy to project and and pass ownership of why you’re not playing well and what the swing brand and and pivot the path is about is to pivot your path on blaming other people and take ownership of your swing. I took ownership of my body and said, “Hey, for every pound that I’m carrying in weight, this is straight from HSSO uh hospital for special surgeries, there’s pine five pounds of pressure on your ankles, knees, and hips. For every pound that you’re carrying over, there’s five pounds per pound of weight of pressure on your joints. So for 16 pounds of weight loss, that’s about 80 to 85 pounds of pressure that my knees, ankle, and hips don’t have to absorb on a daily basis. In terms of disassociation of hip turn, I’m going to be able to turn my hips far greater with the same hip mobility carrying a little less pound. So what we wanted to do is say own your swing with three little exercises for our improvement pivot point that you can do every day. It takes five minutes. It will be allow you to be a far better mover as a person and also gravely improve your golf swing. So let’s get into it. So improvement pivot point. As a golf professional, what we try to do is just keep improvement simple. There are thousands of gadgets, philosophies, ideals. What we know and what the swing brand is about is always been the curator of information. Here are three exercises that you can do every single day that take five minutes of your time that will absolutely guaranteed improve your ability to move, reduce the amount of lower back pain if you happen to be susceptible, and improve the ability to disassociate. Okay, number one, I’m going to do this 30 times every single day. My kids do it. We try to get every single person in our community to improve the ability for the pelvis to tilt. This is a really simple exercise and there’s no excuses. We add a bit of flexion in the back leg. If this putting your foot up on a box creates too much pain in the quad or the hip flexor, you can leave that down. Make sure your torso is in line with your feur in in your thigh here. But all we’re going to do is just increase the ability to tilt. We want to turn the quads and the hip flexors off. So, we got to squeeze the glute. So, the first thing we’re going to do, because most people are tight. I do this 30 times every day. I row 3ks every day or five days a week. Even when I’m rowing, this is still a zero stretch for me, but I do it a lot. Now, ultimately, we don’t want you to stretch too much because we don’t believe the human body needs to stretch. We should learn to load and activate, but this is a fantastic stretch for golfers. So, for most of you, this is going to be screaming, like about a six out of 10. So, for that to occur, we’re going to start to reduce the amount of of stretch and pull you feel in the quad. We’re going to put both arms on the on the opposite leg. In this case, it’s my left knee. All for those who are listening on radio, I’ve just got my foot up on a box and I’ve got my thigh and my torso in one straight line vertically. And then I’m going to lean forward, bend forward. So my chest is facing my in this case my left knee with my right foot up on the box. First exercise, squeeze the glute. And as I squeeze my glute, you will feel this in a stretch either up top in your hip flexor or down below in your quad. For me, it’s a zero there. Without moving my arms, and importantly, gang, without moving your torso, I’m going to tuck my tailbone underneath me. So my belt buckle, if I had one, would be pointing to the sky. Again, this is a zero in the front of my leg. And then I’m going to relax. And my belt buckle is going to face the ground. And then I’m going to tuck my belt buckle up and under up to the sky. Belt buckle, ground. And all I’m doing is nothing’s moving other than my pelvis is tilting. We’re going to do that 10 times both sides. Why? Because if I can increase the ability for the pelvis to tilt, if I can improve and disarm or or quiet the pull on my quad and my hip flexor, my glute can can start to fire. If my glute fires and stabilizes, I can disassociate. When this gets tight, my glute turns off. When my glute turns off, everything turns together. Hip flexor stretch will allow more disassociation of your hips. For me personally, not for everyone, it is immediate impact to reducing lower back pain for me and for many of our customers. Number two, when you’ve got tight hips and your lower back starts to engage, which we don’t want, you lose upper back mobility for many people. So, number two, and there’s numerous ways to do this. I find this the best way. We’re going to bend our legs at 90°. Again, we’re going to tuck the tailbone. Why? Cuz we want to make sure that we lock the lower spine and we turn the core on. My bottom hand goes on my top knee. Why? Because we don’t want any lower back rotation. Now, this is where it starts to have every exercise is easy and difficult. This is the only part I want you guys to really focus on. This is not an arm motion. I’m trying to feel my scapula, my shoulder blade. My shoulder blade hits the ground with my eyes tr following. So all I’m doing is I’m locking my lower back. My eyes are going to follow my hand, but it’s not an arm. I’m not waving to someone. I’m trying to get my scapular bone, my people say their shoulder blade on the ground. We’re going to do this 10 times. Okay? And all that’s going to do is increase thoracic rotation. Remember why. If I thoracically rotate, the club stays square to me. What’s the rule of golf in my entire business model? Face less than path. If I can’t turn thoracically, the face will open. Golf gets difficult. Number three is a bandwalk. So part three is once we’ve opened thoracic rotation, once we’ve improved hip tilt, which affects hip rotation, remember your pelvis tilts, your hips turn. Number three is we’re going to activate your glutes to turn everything on. Again, this is super simple. We’re going to send a link on how to buy these Amazon. They’re about 40 bucks for a massive roll. You’re going to tie this on your feet. Super simple. Okay? And you will break them every now and then. Make sure the knot is to the sky. Again, guys, this is really, really simple stuff. I’m going to turn side on. The first thing we’re going to do is go in golf posture with your feet shoulderwidth apart, chest to ball. Now, I’m crazy anterly tilted. So, the first thing I must do is find neutral posture. Okay? And all I’m then going to be doing keeping tension on the band. Make sure your feet aren’t externally or internally rotated. Make sure your feet are perpendicular to the direction you’re going. Now, I’ve watched this exercise be done for literally 15 years. I was given this probably 10, 15 years ago, and it was a waste of time. Maddie, our doctor of PT, really cracked the whip on this exercise and made sure that we keep the feet perpendicular to direction and make sure we pick pick our feet up. So, again, chest to ball, legs are almost straight, tiny bit of knee flex, tuck tailbone, and then pick your feet up and march. 1 2 3 4. We’re going to do 10 both sides. And as I’m marching, I’m not sliding. I’m picking one foot up and the other foot. And you are going to feel with three sets of 10, you are going to absolutely light your ass up like a Christmas tree. Remember, when our glutes stabilize, our lower back starts to switch off. That’s a good thing. When our glutes stabilize, we can disassociate. You can’t really improve internal rotation. You got what you got. You can’t really improve internal rotation. Very difficult. But what we can is improve glute stability to maximize what rotation you have for your golf game. Remember, glutes turn on, lower back turns off, you’re going to be a happy happy camper. So remember, if you’re in New York City and you really want to commit to owning your swing and being a better individual, we’re releasing group training at lunchtimes, 50 minutes. Group training at 6:30 in the morning, 50 minutes, smash and grab, full locker room, showers here. You can you can shower and hit the road back to your uh back to your meetings. And you can absolutely own your swing with the work you put into your game, in this case, on the gym floor with group training starting next week. and so you can be a better golfer for it. Thanks for listening. Please share the newsletter, the podcast, and thanks again for being part of our community. And shout out Texas this week. We hope you guys uh you hope you guys are Texas strong and dig deep. Thanks very much. [Music]