Wednesday before the 2019 3M Open Tony Ruggiero, Dr Greg Cartin, Cordie Walker, Tom Lovelady, and Sepp Straka gathered around the mics to talk tournament prep and mindset leading into the last 5 events of the season.
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[Music] Hi, this is Tony Roiro the Dooeper. You’re about to listen to an episode of the Tour Coach, which is going to give you an inside look at coaching golf at the very highest level from on the PGA Tour with my guys all the way to here at Mobile Alabama in the Dooeperdome as we help folks of all skill levels, all walks of life learn to achieve their golfing goals. [Music] Hey everybody, welcome back to the Tour Coach Podcast. My name is Cordy Walker and today on the podcast we have a bit of a group conversation. We have Tony Rigiro and Dr. Greg Carton who we know from previous podcast and then players of Tony’s from previous podcast, Tom Love Lady and Sep Straa. We are gathered around a table here in the media center at the 3M Open which was in Minnesota just up the road from me. And it was uh it was fun to hang out. We had a we had a great week and thought we’d sit down and record this chat for the podcast to attempt to talk about what’s going on in some pre-ournament preparation, some mindset coming down the stretch here with five tournaments left in the in the FedEx season. So, a lot of interesting insights from players Tom and Se and then from coaches Tony and Greg as well. Enjoyed this. Stay tuned. As always, we have a few other good recordings from this week coming up on the Tour Coach Podcast. Make sure to subscribe, Spotify, Apple Podcast. Let’s get to it. The tour coach here, we’ve got the best sponsors in the entire world. And one of them, the folks at Vineyard Vines, take the best care of me that anybody in the world could. Always going above and beyond to make sure I’ve got the best apparel out there, as well as the best product and the best looking gear for me and all of my junior golfers and all the douche sweepers out there. And so now we want to share the love with those of you that like the Tour Coach Podcast. So each and every week we’re going to start a contest and we’re going to draw a winner for a couple of $100 gift cards where you can go online and get you some great looking Vineyard Vines golf. All you have to do is listen to the Tour Coach podcast and then go on Twitter and tweet me doergolf and vineyardines #ourcoach and put one of whatever is your favorite part of the tour coach podcast. You can do the same thing on Instagram. Go on Instagram, take a picture of the Tour Coach podcast, put what your favorite part of it is, and then just tag me at the DeWeeper and VineyardVines #ourcoach and we’ll do a drawing each week and you can be the lucky winner of some Vineyard Vines gear. [Music] We’ll start down here with you, Tom. Walk us through the week. What are you working on? What does this week look like for you? I don’t know. Not really working on that much. Just trying to stay levelheaded. I know that my golf swing is where I want it to be. Everything is where I want it to be physically. It’s just a matter of taking advantage of good opportunities and, you know, not letting the bad swings or shots or bad breaks or anything affect the next shot. I’m kind of in a position where I need to play well, but if I try to force myself to play well, then it’s just going to backfire on me. So, just have a lot of patience, probably more than I’ve ever had before. and just embrace where I am and enjoy the week no matter how it goes. Sounds like the uh stick with your plan concept that we hear often and not get reactionary, right? Like that’s something you talk about all the time. Yeah. I mean, I think exactly what he said. I mean, he’s swinging it great. I mean, there isn’t any really any work to do when you’re out here. That’s same with Seth. I mean, like playing good, you’re swinging great. I mean, the only thing we could do would be mess something up. So, you know, I think it’s why you work on off weeks and you do all that stuff, you know, but I mean, he hit the nail on the head, but I think it’s that way probably for most folks this time of year. You got to be getting a little tired, too, I would think. I mean, it’s hotter than I thought it was going to be in Minnesota. Apologize about that. I mean, doesn’t it get cold here in the winter too, Cordy? Occasionally. It was -60 this last winter, so we’ve we’ve swapped that around. Um, man, Steph, what about for you? Like what are you working on this week? You just trying to find a feel to take in into tomorrow. Today’s Wednesday, right? Yeah, not really. I mean, uh like Tony said, I’m swinging it really well right now. Just trying to keep the momentum going from last week. I mean, I’m playing well. Just uh keep doing what I’m doing and as long as I, you know, stay stay in the moment. Try to stay out of the way, basically. As long as I stay out of the way, good things are going to happen. Let’s turn it over to Greg. We’ve got the Dr. Greg Carton over here. So, what kind of advice are you what are the things you guys are talking about this week as uh you know they’re trying to play well every week and like Tom said these are important important starts right pressure is is on proverbally so like what kind of conversations are you having what kind of advice are you giving in this kind of situation yeah I think this these next few weeks sort of represent this final push for the season so guys well like you said there’s pressure to play well this week I think there’s pressure to play well every week but what’s nice to know is that for anyone one playing, the objective doesn’t change. The only thing that does is the stories you start to tell yourself about what it means. Meaning Tom or Se or anybody out there, their objective on the golf course never changes. They’re trying to make the lowest score possible. Regardless of whether they’re playing by themselves on a Sunday afternoon or they’re playing in the US Open, that won’t change. What does is what we tell ourselves it means, right? Like I got to lock up my card or I want to get a win. I want to get in the British. I want to get in the WGC. All these things, those are the only things that change. Paying attention to those is what’s really important this week. And because you will think those things, but they only matter if we resist them and say, “I’m not supposed to think that stuff.” So, the stories get sort of cooked up a little bit more this week. Observing those stories and just getting back to that essence or the objective is is what’s most important. I think that’s one of the things like I’ve learned like paying attention to Greg is is like you know as you watch young guys come up like it’s that it’s okay to like have doubts and you know when I was growing up they just told you all the time to be positive. I mean really that’s what like I wasn’t supposed to throw a club. I wasn’t supposed to get pissed. I wasn’t supposed to like like if I got on a you know wasn’t supposed to say I sucked. I’m aware that I suck, but uh but like, you know, and nowadays, you know, but just learning that like it’s okay to it’s okay to have thoughts go through your head that aren’t maybe the best thoughts, you know, when you’re on the back nine or you’re trying to make a cut or whatever. So, I think understanding that and and from a teacher perspective, being able to bounce those things off of Greg helps me too, you know, as much as the players really cuz you you bounce things off of like helps you have a better understanding of where the player is mentally or emotionally. When’s the right time to say something? Probably not a vodka deep probably isn’t the best time, but uh but you know, you learn when the best time is. Apparently, I was ready to do video analysis last night. Do you have an Do you have an example of that? [Music] So, Seth, we’ll throw this your way then. So, this week, uh, and I guess for you, I mean, this is just out of curiosity, like how do you play your best or like what do you look for coming into this week to like what kind of feels are you looking for? Like what kind of things are you looking for coming into this week? What’s important? And I feel like on this it every course is different. You want to, you know, last week the course wasn’t too challenging. Ball striking was not necessarily the biggest priority, but this week it’s definitely a little definitely a longer course. Uh you want to make sure you hit your driver good. But yeah, I mean just just get it and play off the tea, put in the short grass, and then from there you can take advantage. You can give yourself some birdie looks. But I mean last week I kind of had the mentality of keep pushing the rock up the hill. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Uh, and don’t cuz last week your scores were really deep. So, you played well. I did. Yeah. Yeah. It was easy to, you know, get mad. You make three pars in a row and then start wondering how many people have passed you in these last 30 minutes. But no, as long as you just keep your head down and keep hitting the shots you want to hit and then just kind of look at where you turn out at the end. Yeah. Do you have anything on that? No. I mean, I think that’s, you know, pushing the rock up the hill is a great analogy. I mean, like scores were crazy low. Like so to me it have been harder to like you could be playing fine and just make three or four pars and feel like hell. I mean you know what does that mean pushing the rock up the hill? What does that mean to you? Like where did you come up with that? So that was actually something my assistant coach told us back in college. But basically just if you’re pushing a rock up a hill, you don’t want to look down because the rock might crush you. You don’t want to see how much farther you have to go cuz it might slip out from under you. Uh, uh, yeah, just keep your head down and keep pushing it. Greg would like that one. You like that, Greg? Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s the best example. Just sort of being where you need to be, keep moving forward regardless of what happens. Tom, what about for you? You’re hitting like when we walked a few holes yesterday, hitting the ball great, right? Like that’s you’re feeling good. What are you thinking about going into this this week and these these next few weeks? Like what do you think are the things that you’re focused on? Like what are some of the keys for you here? Ideally, I just want to give myself as many birdie chances as possible, which obviously means hitting greens. But I’m starting to putt it pretty well and starting to see lines better and that getting confidence in my putting is kind of freed me up uh throughout the rest of my game. Um, you want to talk about that? I mean, you just switched to a new a new putter. Yeah, I I switched to a new putter probably a few months ago and it took me a little while to transition back just because it was something that I I didn’t use for I don’t know a year and a half, two years. I used a ping putter but just switched back to a Scotty Cameron style putter that I used for 10 years as a junior and amateur golfer all the way through college. And it’s just kind of allowed me to free up. I’ve started rolling the ball better, getting confident, seeing lines, like I said earlier, and it’s just kind of starting to take pressure off, and it’s allowing me to start gaining momentum and gaining confidence and most importantly having fun. Golf’s not a lot of fun. When you play two-day events and you have all the expenses piling up, but now that I’m where I am in my golf game, that’s the least of my worries. And it’s more of just it’s a matter matter of time if you know not if I’m going to play well but when I’m going to play well because I know that things are are lining up and and everything is getting to where it’s supposed to be. And and and on the mental side kind of how said pushing a rock up the hill. Coach Sabin always said be where your feet are. And I think that’s one of the most important things because only thing you can control is what you’re doing in that moment. You can’t control what’s going to happen. You can’t control what you already did because it’s already happened. So, just be where your feet are and and do the things that you need to do in that moment to be successful for the next shot, the next hole, the next round, the next, you know, week, whatever it might be. Just just do the best you can and in each opportunity that you have. I hear that Greg is Greg likes that answer. Yeah. Be where your feet are is one of the best. I mean, it’s it’s the ultimate sort of, you know, reminder of the only moment you can live in is this one with the understanding that you may be filled with doubt and thoughts and fears and thoughts about what’s already happened, but that you continue to return back to where your feet are. Everything’s pretty safe and free in that moment. [Music] Tony, it’s interesting how often you hear the story of like you get to the tour, whatnot, and then you go back and try to find what you did as in junior or college golf with like the putter for instance, right? Like have you seen stroke getting better, results getting better there, like going back to that more comfortable, you know, and I I’m you know, he’s changed putters before se and then goes back to the old reliable rife, too. And it’s amazing how like I don’t know. I mean, putters just seem to be different to me than any other club. Like if you’ve had a bunch of success with them, like it they just feel good and it’s uh like in Tom’s case, like to me instantly. I think it was Pebble first, right? Yeah. And it was like I mean those greens aren’t necessarily the easiest ones to putt in the world either. Like but you just instantly you just instantly looked more comfortable on the greens. Um and it was my best finish of the year. Yeah. And I think comfort’s a big deal, you know. I think being learning to be comfortable when things aren’t comfortable, you know, or not easy to be comfortable out there. And so having an old a putter that you’ve had a bunch of success with and won tournaments with and I mean I think it’s got to feel more comfortable to you. Yeah. Is that chase of comfort a good thing or a bad thing though? That’s a great question. I I think trying to achieve comfort and I don’t think that’s necessarily it feels that way but it happened sort of organically by just grabbing something different. It wasn’t an attempt necessarily to oh my god this is going to solve all my problems but it’s a little bit of a it does provide a little bit of comfort but I think Tom also knows that you can still play well and be uncomfortable. That’s that’s the important piece I think because rarely do we find comfort when we’re competing especially at this level the highest level but anytime we can create that in little ways like that I think it’s beneficial. Got it. So you guys as players, is that the reason that you know having a team like Greg and Tony come hang out? A little bit of that comfort, but just like to have that support, how much does that help you versus like the weeks where you don’t necessarily have that, right? Like is it is it noticeable? And I’ll throw it to Seth here first. Um I feel like I’ve played well both ways. Yeah. But it’s definitely nice to have them come out at least every like other week or every third week at at least just to make sure you know you’re not getting off path because there are certain times when I play well. My my swing doesn’t have to be perfect to play well by any means, but there’s certain parts of my swing where I play well from and certain ones where I get off track and I I don’t necessarily play too well. So, I could have a good week and be getting a little off track. And it’s good for Tony to and and to kind of, you know, come in and uh straighten that out and make sure I’m staying where I’m where I play well in my golf swing. So, what are you looking for then on to Monday through Wednesday here? Cuz, you know, when you hit it tee it up on Thursday, it’s a different different ball game, right? Like, so what are you looking for then if you know that like, oh, my swing doesn’t have to be perfect to play really well. Like, what what are the things that do matter in your mind? Monday through Wednesday, you know, being on the road a lot, especially in stretches like this one. I try to focus more on the golf course because last week we had Poa Greens, very different from this week. These are pure event. So, just really, you know, Monday, maybe come out and practice a little bit, maybe work on my swing early in the week, but usually by Wednesday, I’m I’m not working on my golf swing anymore ideally because I like to focus on the golf course. And obviously, everybody’s different. But yeah, Tuesday is my practice round day. get to know the course from a layout perspective. And then Wednesday just try to, you know, go through some putting drills, make sure I I do some chipping to get used to the grass and all that. But, uh, yeah, I think most of my preparation has to do with getting used to the golf course and learning the course. Oh, yeah. I think the hardest thing in in a lot of prep is to not get reactive to like you hit a bad shot or you do something like that. Like, how is it hard for you to like just, you know, bad shots are part of golf obviously, right? Like we all know that bad rounds of proto golf. How do you not get reactive and just say like all right, you know, it’s fine. We’ll just carry on. I feel like I did a good job of that last week. Normally I get pretty reactive. I mean, if you don’t play well, if you don’t hit the ball well one day, it’s easy to look at, you know, your swing or something and try to find a reason why you didn’t play well. But last week, I felt like I was pretty good about that cuz I didn’t hit the ball very well the first two days and I was texting Tony about that. But I knew it couldn’t be too far off cuz I had been playing well. So I just stuck with it. And the weekend I hit the ball very nicely. So yeah, it definitely gets hard, especially if you’re that’s that’s what’s nice about having him come out cuz you can talk to him about exactly what you’re working on, where you want it to be versus just, you know, hit I hit a lot of hooks. I’m going to try to hit this cut. But like both these guys are great from the standpoint of like they’re hitting it good. Like, so you mean like I don’t know that we really even talked about much like other than I mean we had a great dinner. I mean and it was that to me that was the best part of the whole trip. I mean it was fun cuz when when they’re all on the road sometimes you don’t get to do it like everybody go out and have a good time but like I mean I mean he’s striping it. He played great last week and like when he texted like you can’t kept saying the same thing. Can’t be far off. I mean you’ve been hitting it great and same thing with Tom like he’s you know swinging good hitting it good. So, like there really isn’t much to do Monday through Wednesday for me other than them just learn the golf course like you said, especially like here. Like it’s new to everybody. Hell, it’s new to everybody this year. [Music] Let’s do our segment with Tony for his restaurant review of the week in Minneapolis. Man, I I’m a big Manny’s fan and I can’t remember the waitress’s name. What was it? Heidi. Heidi. Allstar. all-star. I mean, some of the best oneliners. We can’t put them in this podcast, but she was phenomenal. And uh I mean, I can get a little bit on edge when I have a martini and the thing can take a turn for the worse. And she did an excellent job. Poor Seth was stuck next to me. We went to the slur early. How hard was the transition for you guys going from from college to pro tour? Obviously, like big big transition, right? Maybe we’ll bounce to Tom for this one, but like I mean that’s a pretty big shift to going from a team to solo game a little bit. Was that tough for you or It wasn’t necessarily tough. It was more just different. You’re used to having all of your travel and everything laid out for you cuz your coach will, you know, book your flight, book your hotel, you’re staying with him, here’s a car, this, that, and the other. As to where when you turn pro and you’re on the web, now you’re kind of in control of where you’re going to stay, when you’re going to get there, how you’re going to get there, are you going to get a car, where are you going to eat, all these places are new. And it’s also my year on the web was the most golf up to that point. The most golf that I had played in a calendar year, I mean, college you probably play, counting a spring, a summer golf, and fall, you might play 16 events. as to where on the web I think I played somewhere in the high 20s which is every other week if not you know a couple weeks over that which is a lot for anybody especially for a what 23 year old kid you know coming out thrown into the real world and now you have to make money to be able to play in the next event travel to the next event you have to be able to provide for yourself but at the same time that’s kind of everything that you’ve been working to do you’ve you’ve planned on getting to where you are and you know so it’s it’s no surprise and in the expectation of of what you have to do what you need to do but it’s more of just like you know welcome to the real world this is these are the little things you have to do daily and I wouldn’t say it was a difficult transition by any means I mean obviously when you when you turn pro and you start playing well right off the bat that obviously makes it much more enjoyable but obviously there’s always highs and lows and I would take the lows over any any day job for sure. I bring that up just talking about this idea of and I’ll geek out here for a minute, but there have been a lot of studies in European nations talking about the how difficult it is to go from like a national team to turning pro in the same aspect of like you lose everything all of a sudden you got to figure it all out, right? So looking at like how do you make that transition better so people are more successful in it and like I think this like the dinners I it’s obviously funny. There’s lots of good jokes that come out of that, but also it’s like maybe it makes it a little bit easier for that transition to have that support. I think the most important thing that I’ve learned is to surround yourself with a good team. And everybody says that, but it it couldn’t be more true. Surround yourself with good people that support you, want the best for you, you know, will go out of your way to help you. and having Tony and Greg and Colobby at home are my trainer. Just guys that you can rely on to have your back or when you’re down they can pick you up and you know especially when they come on the road and we all get together we obviously have fun but just for me personally it provides a a feeling of comfort just to be with you know people that you love being around and people that want to be around you. I think in this environment out here where it’s, you know, kind of like doggy dog, I think it’s nice to have relationships with people that can kind of bring you to ease when things aren’t going the best. Yeah. So, Tony, how many events here left? Five or so. Something like that. Five. Five, six. Five, six. What advice what advice do you have here? What wisdom are you going to impart? I mean, just keep doing what they’re doing. I mean, I think, you know, it’s why you work in the off season, the little bit there is, and then it’s why you work on off weeks and, you know, they’re playing great golf. They’re swinging great. I mean, just go, you know, just go do it. I mean, I mean, they’re both I mean, they’re impressive. I mean, Tom talked about the transition, but like been around, I know Greg has, too, but like it’s impressive watching these two guys go from, you know, turning pro first year and second year. I mean, there’s a lot mean there’s a lot thrown on them out here. It’s impressive to see the success they’ve had and how they handle themselves. And I mean, they’ll do they’ll do just fine. I mean, don’t worry about them at all. I mean, they, you know, make good decisions. They work hard. I mean, their golf swings are in good shape. All takes care of itself, I think. Greg, what do you got? Parting wisdom. Five. I think that’s the same. Yeah, it only takes one. So if you start looking ahead and thinking I got five left and start trying to plan things out and things can change in an instant this week. So it makes no sense to start to look that far ahead even though you will. And like Tony says, keep doing what you’re doing. If you could try to play well and you could actually do it well then golf would be a different game, right? So doing what you’re doing, committing to what you’re doing regardless of the short-term result, knowing you’re doing the right things is what’s most important. What’s your advice when you when the thought creeps up and when you start to think about it? Watch it. Don’t do anything and then it goes away. If you resist it, you’re going to cause yourself some tension. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the tour coach with Tony Ruiro. If you enjoyed this, make sure to hit subscribe Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you are listening to this podcast. you can stay up to date cuz we have weekly episodes coming your way with fascinating people in the world of golf instruction at the highest level. Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned. If you want to learn more about Tony, head over to do sweepersgolf.com to get all the details on what he’s up to. Maybe you want to see him grab a lesson or go to one of his camps, pick up his book, Lessons from the Legends. You can do that there. If you want to see Tony in action with some videos and other content, head over to golfciencelab.com/tonony to get more info there. This episode was powered by the Golf Science Lab and was edited, mixed, and produced by Just Hit Publish Productions. [Music] There’s one thing if you know about me, if you’ve listened to the Deceers. We put a lot of emotional investment into everything we do with every one of our players. And the same can be said for our partners and the folks that have been with us for the long haul and help the de sweepers, help our juniors, help us get to our tour players. And so I want to give a special thanks to our sponsors. 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