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GS#1,023 In this episode Chris Petefish highlights that golfers do not need to play perfectly to achieve great results, focusing instead on smart decision-making and managing expectations on the course. Chris also shares his journey as a professional golfer, discussing his experiences on the PGA Tour and the challenges he faces in balancing playing and coaching. He emphasizes the importance of strategic golf, mental resilience, and the role of statistics like strokes gained in improving performance. Chris also delves into the impact of LIV Golf on the professional landscape and shares insights on effective putting techniques, including the Aimpoint method and the significance of capture rate.
Hi, this is Dr. Russell Bourne from Jupiter, Florida and I play at Jonathan’s Landing Country Club. Welcome to Golf Smarter. Hi, this is Anton Basset from East London, South Africa, and I play at Westbank Golf Club, Gubi Golf Clubs, and all the other beautiful golf clubs in the area. This is Golf Smarter number 1,23. I feel like if you asked me as a 24, 25year-old, I would say no, I got to go to the tour. But sitting here as a 30-year-old that’s married and thinking about family and kids, that’d be hard to say no to. Where I’m at right now, Liv isn’t knocking on my door. I mean, I was a top 300 player 18 months ago, but where I’m currently sitting, that that would be pretty tempting when you’re playing purses that are a hundth of that PJ Tour Canada, which is why you see a lot of PJ tours had to come out and become much more prevalent of getting and keeping talent because if you wave a $10 million contract to a top five college player, that’s pretty hard to say no to versus, hey, you have to go through Q school if you don’t have it for that week. try again next year or go through the corn ferry tour and make way less money. You know, John Ram and Scotty Sheffller. I mean, John Rom was much better player, much more recognized three, four years ago. Scotty’s one of the greatest players to ever touch a club and that’s what people are going to remember from this generation is his dominance. John R’s making way more money, but no one cares. You don’t have to play perfect golf to play great golf with pro golfer and college standout Chris Petefish. This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips, and insights from great golf minds to help you lower your score and raise your golf. Here’s your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golfsmarter podcast, Chris. Hey, Fred. Good to see you, man. Yeah, you too. Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I I’m fascinated when uh I have guests on that say, “Yeah, I think I’d be a I’d be an valuable asset to the Golfsmarter podcast.” And so uh you sent me a bio and it’s like, “Oh, yeah. I agree with you. You will be. Tell me um what what you’re up to these days. You’re coaching and playing tournament golf or what? Doing what?” I am. Yes. So, I’m playing at PJ Tour Americas right now, formerly PJ Tour Canada. Uh, so yeah, I’ve been playing professional golf for eight years now, and I played two of them up in Canada, and then kind of lost a year or two in COVID, which I still had status up there, but everyone was frozen at the time. Yeah. I got my cornfairy card in 2000, end of 2021. I played out there for three years, 22, 23, 24. I was one shot away from my tour card in 2023. Uh but I mean there’s so many stories like that, you know. Yeah, but I want to hear yours. You know, I was having an okay year and then I showed up in Utah. This was I think early August, end of July of 23, and I just had an incredible week. I had one of the only I think 10 or 11 events in PJ tour history or cornfairy tour history without a bogey for 72 holes. Whoa. Yes. I didn’t record a bogey the entire week. Just played pitched the perfect game. I I think I was 24 under 23 under for the week. And I was sitting in the clubhouse I think up by two shots. And you know I I had a pretty good shot of winning the tournament. And there was only one guy that possibly could catch up. It was Roger Sloan and credit to him. The guy birdied three of the last four holes to edge me out by a shot. Uh I think he made like three two or three putts outside 15 ft in a row. Just like these are putts that have like you know 18 20% chance of going in and they just kept going in. And so that was a little bit of a snake bitten but it was you know such a high have such a great week. him. So wait, you almost won that that tournament, that event, and yet it prevented you from getting your card. You know, if I had won that tournament, then yeah, I definitely I probably would have gotten my card just based on how the points work. And I also finished tied for second a month later at one of the corner championship events at Ohio State. And I was in a two-way tie for second. And if I was solo second, that would have done as well. So it was really like one shot there or you know Roger Sloan not going crazy in the last four holes. But I mean that’s just how golf is like. Right. Right. And so does that is that frustration kind of make you question what you’re doing or are you just like okay I’m that close. I I can do this. I I think you have to have gain confidence out of that that I am that close and it is like I’m I am doing the right things because I mean at the end of the day you want to play golf where I’m not going back and frustrated. Oh, I should have done this, I should have done that, which is a part of like what we’ll talk about in playing strategic golf and getting the most out of your game as you can. And I think both those situations like you know what I did what I could and I just I just got beat. Yeah. You just play your game and if someone beats you, they beat you, right? Yeah, you just got to shake their hand. But so yeah, I’m still playing up in Canada right now as well as as teaching and u you know player performance coaching and really enjoy that as well. You know, some building a clientele and it’s it’s really fun to go back and and teach. Not only I do have a lot of juniors mostly, but also um you know some professional players um guys that are trying to get back into it and it’s it’s kind of fun just being able to teach them everything that I wish I knew 15 years ago across this whole journey of how to play your best golf. Interesting. But you also had an illustrious college career before you started going pro. I did. I mean, I guess if we’re going back, you know, I was I was like a top five high school recruit in my class in 2014 and obviously had a lot of options of where to play college golf. And uh was lucky enough that Georgia Tech also wanted me to play for them and so that’s where I end up playing from 2014 2018 and I did I had a good career. I you know I was all ACC and we had a ton of great teams. I actually never was number one on the team and just u you know I played all four years but yeah we had great teams a lot of success and you know I had a very solid career you’d say as a college player but does is Georgia Tech known for their college program? I mean their golf program. Yeah, very very much so. I mean, they’re definitely one of the bad better programs in the last 30 years under under Bruce Hepler. And they’ve won I I can’t even tell you how many ACC championships they’ve won their conference. It’s I mean, it’s got to be somewhere like around 20. And um yeah, just just a great program. A lot of great professionals that come out of there. Obviously, you talk about Bobby Jones like way back in the day, but you know, Matt Coocher, Steuart Sink, David Dval, a lot lot of great prestige uh coming out of that program. And you know, that was a place that I wanted to go knowing that I wanted to play professional golf. And, you know, Bruce knows how to get players ready to do that. And what do you feel is your window of opportunity to get to the show, get, you know, get to the tour? Um, where you feel like, okay, if I give it x amount of years and I don’t do it, then maybe I should just be focusing on instruction and things like that. Have you put that on yourself or you don’t even think about that? No, that’s definitely stuff I think about. I mean that that’s part of the reason I’m doing some some coaching now and like you know enjoying that almost as much as as playing myself and being out there. You know I am 30 years old. I got married 13 months ago which has been a blessing and congratulations. Yeah I appreciate it. And so it’s definitely I think you everyone has that question of like man how much time am I going to give myself? How good can I get this game? And it’s something that I think growing up was always just how good can I get? I’m going to compete against myself cuz golf is not a game where you can compete against other players. Not in the sense of physically like you can if you’re, you know, in tennis or whatnot, but it’s for me it’s always been a competition of like how good can I get and if I feel like that I plateauing or or not getting better, then I feel like that’s when and if I’m not on the tour, then that’s kind of when hey, you know, I’ve done what I can. Uh, if you’ve only been married 13 months, I gotta believe that your spouse is totally in on this. Oh, yeah. Or do you ever hear her toes tapping like, “Okay, it’s not working. Got to go.” No. No. She’s fully supportive of me. So, that’s good. Yeah. Found a good Good for you. Good for you. And what about your college team? Anybody that we would recognize their name that came out of the program that you played on for four years? Yeah. Yeah, I mean starting with when I was a freshman, Ollie Snider’s was a senior. You know, he was number one ammer in the world and he is a reserve on live right now, but I mean loads of talent there. Obviously, one of the best college players ever. And Andrew Albertson played quite a few years on PJ Tour. Seth Reeves did. Vince Whey’s out there right now. um he was someone that wasn’t like the hot shot coming out of high school and then just kept getting better and better and just it’s been impressive to watch him um you know in his career and then some of the young guys Andy Andy he won the USM he’s on live right now I’m trying to think Stface he won the US Sams and there’s there’s been a ton of great players and you know even from the four years I was there yeah Um, you brought this up and I’m I’m really fascinated because of the position you’re in that I I want to bring this up where you are getting close. You’re like you can taste the tour. You know, it’s right there. You just, you know, you could just got to play your best game and hope that nobody goes nuts in the last four holes of a tournament. Um, but Liv is there as well. And if they were to throw a bunch of money at you to play exhibition golf, which at this point Liv is still exhibition golf, um, where where would your mindset go? And and I’m sure you’ve thought about this and it’s not the first time it’s coming up to you. where, you know, where do you sit down with your spouse and say, “Yeah, maybe this is the better way to do this for the future of our family or no, I’ve got to I’ve got to play on the tour to know that I can play with the best.” Where are you and how does that sit? That’s a good question. I feel like if you ask me as a 24, 25 year old, I would say no, I got to go to the tour. I got to do this. But I sitting here as a 30-year-old that’s married and thinking about family and kids and all that stuff like that’d be hard to say no to because I mean where I’m at right now live isn’t knocking on my door even as someone that was I mean I was a top 300 player you know 18 months ago in the official world golf rankings but you know where I’m currently sitting that that would be pretty tempting uh when you’re playing you know purses that are a hundth of that PJ Tour Canada the Americas event. So, uh, yeah, that would be pretty pretty tempting and hard probably to say no to, which is why you see a lot of, you know, the PJ tour’s had to come out and become much more prevalent of getting and keeping talent because if you, you know, you wave a $10 million contract to a top five college player, that’s pretty hard to say no to versus, hey, you have to go through and go through Q school if you don’t have it for that week. you know, try again next year or go through the corn ferry tour and make way less money. like and you know there’s there’s so many good players that like it’s hard to blame if someone wants to take that which even if it’s not like the the dream of like you know PJ tour is a lot more meaningful golf like you know John Ram and Scotty Sheffller those were names that were I mean John Rom was much better player much more recognized three four years ago and now it’s like John R is making way more money but no one cares like Scotty’s one of the greatest players to ever touch a club and that’s that’s what people are right now going to remember from this generation is his dominance. That was a very thoughtful uh answer and I really appreciate you being open to talking about the live journey if it was there. What would it take for you to get that phone call? What would it take? You know, uh what do you think it would take for maybe some time getting that phone call going, “Oh, we got to consider this.” Gosh, that’s a good question. I mean, the easiest way to do it now would be if I got in through their promotions event. Otherwise, it’s like the guys that are getting invited there now are have had pretty good careers on the PJ tour. So, it’s almost like a catch 22. Like, I’d have to be on the PJ tour and having success out there for them to get that phone call. But the guys that you played with in college went to live. They did have they they went through their their international series. So they they qualified their way on. Andy played incredible golf on the uh the international series which is like their feeder tour, their cornfairy tour where only one person gets elevated to live. And so he played well through going through that tour. And then Olly got invited to the promotions event which is I think it’s in Abu Dhabi or something in in December but he he got that uh I think he came in like second or third and you know qualified for the international series u because you have to qualify just to get to the international series which is underneath live and then he won that first event in the international series and then became a reserve for the live golf league. So the easiest pathway for me to get there would be through that like their quote unquote Q school. Mhm. To then get onto their cornfairy. So it definitely is a process now where before I mean because there’s a limited number of players like it’s definitely tougher to to crack a spot. Yeah, absolutely. Um so right now you’re you’re playing and you’re coaching, correct? Yep. And so where how do you split that time and focus on your game versus other people’s games? Yeah, obviously. I mean, I got to put my clients needs first, like, you know, make sure that they’re getting what they need and I love enjoy working with them and and watching them play and just like, you know, I feel like I’m a coach, college coach, like I’m tracking all their leaderboards and seeing how they’re doing. And it’s definitely a juggling act between, you know, husband, player, coach. But honestly, it’s kind of like a fun challenge for me. I have to be very efficient with my time and I have to really practice what I preach, which is like a lot of these college kids coming out and playing against like they may be practicing and playing more than me, but they’re just not going to outsmart me on the golf course, which is a lot of the stuff that I preach is um you know, a lot of like decade principles and and course strategy of just going back to some of the events this summer of like you know, I’ve led two of the fields in bogey avoidance since I’ve been top five in in most of them. It’s just like I’m going to basically I’m just not going to give shots away. Like that that is my goal. I’m going to not make bogeies and if I make enough birdies, you know, so be it. That’s how you can tend to events and win events. But I’m just going to have to play very smart and practice smart if I don’t have as much time. We like golf smarter. Yeah. What’s your superpower on the course? What What is it that sets you apart from your competition? Well, I would say as a player, as a coach, as a Yeah, as a player, I would say a couple things like my mind obviously. Uh just being able to really be present and not get emotional when things go haywire, which they often do all literally all the time. And you know, I would say physical part of my game would be my iron play. I’m just I’m really solid with from like nine iron to five iron. Just been, you know, stroke game approach is somewhere I’ve been really good and so I do well on courses where it’s it’s demanding into the greens and there’s a bigger penalty that if you miss a green short side, it’s much harder to get up and down. I’ll do a good job of hitting a lot of green. So that’s where a lot of the bogey avoidance, it’s easier to be good at that when you’re hitting a lot of solid iron shots to, you know, 18 25 ft. Um, so that’s that’s part of the reason why I do well with not making a ton of bogeies. And I’ve actually done a better in corn ferry events where the scores aren’t super low for that reason. You know, two of my I’ve had a second and a third in events where like, you know, single digits won the event just cuz I was, you know, not making a ton of buries. I just wasn’t making bogeies and harder courses. So, and what’s what’s more I mean because we’ve heard Tiger talk about things like that, but to you is uh uh saving par and not making bogeies more valuable than making birdies. For sure. Yeah. I mean, the numbers would suggest that absolutely that, you know, 65 70% of your score is attributed to how well can you avoid a bogey versus how many birdies you can make. And yeah, I think in a lot of understanding the principles of like I hate to say this, but golf in general, just where does scoring come from and how do you avoid bogeies is something that isn’t taught enough or emphasized enough. Okay, let’s talk about it. Yeah, I mean, we talk everything from t-shots to putting, but I think putting is a really easy one to talk about. that’s lowhanging fruit and it’s just the capture rate of the hole I think is is not talked about enough and and things I see even from announcers on TV where you know they talk about oh I can’t believe he left this putt short or he’s got a really good look and it’s like an 18t slider I’m like that’s just not a high percentage putt to make and and the capture rate of the hole which you know I think it was either Lagner or someone I saw them tweet this out it was a great photo of like you know how big is actually the hole based on how far past you hit this putt because I mean the hole is 4.25 in but it’s not that big if you’re hitting it 4 ft past the hole. Like the ability for the ball to actually go in the hole is significantly significantly smaller if you’re hitting putts four feet past the hole. And I think what people don’t realize is like you’re actually have to leave some putts short in order to make it make more putts. And it sounds counterproductive. Whoa. Yeah. like you’ve got to leave. I mean I I played with someone really like at my club when I play if I leave a putt short I owed everyone on the group four five bucks each you know it’s like but you’re saying strategically just math. Yeah. You have to leave some putt short from like I’m talking anywhere outside 15 ft because again you have to think of putts as like a dispersion. So, you know, if I hit 100 putts from 25 ft, I’m not going to hit every putt within 2 ft. Like, there’s going to be a 4ft window of putts. And I have to place that 4ft window in the appropriate place where, you know, I’m giving myself the best chance for as many putts to go as possible. But, I’m not going to three putt cuz that’s the easiest way to to lose shots is to three putt. Absolutely. And that’s the thing when you think of the capture rate of the hole. Like if you’re hitting putts three, four, five feet past the hole, you’ve made the hole so small that a you’re not making those. Even if they’re a well struck putt, they’re probably going to lip out because you made the hole so small, but b you’re just going to you will miss three, four, and fivefooters occasionally. It will happen. And so if you don’t leave putt short, it’s like people say, “Okay, I can just hit within this two-ft window of, you know, at the hole or just past the hole.” Like that’s not possible. We’re not robots, you know. Golf is hard. Unless you’re 2015 Jordan Speed, like he may be the only person I can think of that hit every putt in a two foot window cuz he made putts from 20 to 25 ft. I’ve never seen before anyone’s ever seen four in golf. But for the rest of people, like yeah, you’re going to have a 4ft window from 20 25 ft if you’re a good player. You know, it might be six feet uh for the average player. So it’s like you’re going to h if you don’t leave any putts short and you have a 5ft window then you’re just going to have putts be at the hole 5 ft past everything from 3 to 5 ft past the hole doesn’t really have a shot of going in. You will three putt those. And so like yeah you have to leave some short in order for the putts you go past the hole actually have a chance to go in. And why is that why is a putt that goes 5t past uh more difficult to make than a putt that’s 5t short? It’s not it’s not that it’s five feet short. Like I’m not suggesting you hit five feet short. I’m suggesting if you have this window of putts that you hit, let’s say you hit 100 putts from 20 feet, like ideally I want to leave my window between one foot short and four feet past. I’m not saying like, you know, leave it 5t short. If you’re going to leave a putt five, I’d rather you hit 5t past. It might hit the hole, slow it down, or you get to see the read on the way through. But, and that’s a really important thing, seeing the read on the way through. If you miss the putt and it goes past, keep your eye on it, right? For sure. Yeah. Don’t You’re going to learn a lot. You will. Yes. And so, yeah, when it comes back to like putting, it’s like, you know, avoiding three putts from outside 20 ft is one of the fastest ways to save a shot or two or three around, you know, depending on the type of player. Cuz we spend so much time like, oh, I’m really trying to make this putt. And it’s like, no, what you really need to do is have is good speed. If that means leaving some one or two feet short, be happy going in and tap it in stress free, you know. I love it. I love it. You’ve mentioned capture rate a multiple times at this point. And I’ve never heard that term. Can you explain what that means? Capture rate. Yeah. It’s almost like imagine a putt that hangs on the lip and then falls in. You know, circa like, you know, Tiger Woods is chip in 2005. like that is using the maximum amount of the hole to have the ball go in. And you can almost think of it I think of it almost like an NBA shot where like if you have a a three-point shot with the perfect arc like Steph Curry, he’s using basically the most amount of the basket you can for it to go in of the hoop. Of the hoop of, you know, for it to go in versus someone that comes in there like a line drive, someone that’s not a good three-point shooter. I’m thinking like Russell Westbrook, uh, Andre Robersonson back in the day. Those guys that are three and D specials that just aren’t a good three-point shot. If it’s coming in fast and low, like you’re not using a lot of that hoop to go in. And that’s the same thing in putting. Like if you’re coming in with three, four, five feet past the hole, you are the guy that’s just throwing line drives at the basket and it’s just unlikely to go in unless it’s perfect. Interesting. Oh, I love this. Keep going. Do you ever use the the hole as like a clock um and going, “Okay, I need to come in at 4:00 here.” If if you’re where you’re standing is 6:00 on the on the face of the clock and I want my ball to break and it’s, you know, looking at what I have here as the break. I see the ball going in at 4 4:30. Do you Is that one of your strategies that you use and teach? I I have used that before. I think I’m just I’m an aimoint guy and so you know I’ll get my read using my feet and then once I have my line it’s really about the speed and seeing if just hoping that the hole gets in the way cuz I mean if I have good speed then I’m just going to make the hole as big as I possibly can and um you know I I think otherwise you start thinking about the clock which is fine like you know aim small miss small but if I think I think if I start think about the clock too much, then I’ll kind of lose sight on the speed. Are you familiar? You’re, you know, you’re down in Georgia. Are you familiar with Eric Alpenfeld’s uh at Pinehurst, head instructor at Pinehurst? I’m not. Okay. So, we did an episode with him recently, uh, about his book, Instinct Putting, which came out, I think it a decade ago. Um, and I’ve been talking a lot about it because it’s such a radical thought, but it’s really makes a lot of sense. And I know there’s a lot of things in golf that don’t make a lot of sense, but we do it anyway. And his whole theory on instinct putting is looking at the hole when you’re putting. I’m a huge belie. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It just has to be athletic. think about a free throw shooter like he when he’s dribbling you’re not looking at the ball like you’re looking at the basket you’re looking at the target and that’s I talk about that all the time is like simplest one to think of you know we talk about you know shooting a basket throwing a football throwing a baseball hitting a baseball cornhole is the easiest way to explain it to somebody it’s like you wouldn’t look at your hand when you’re throwing the bean bag right yeah no you have to be athletic and that’s something where putting is probably not probably it has been the weakness of my game that I think it’s held me back is like when I putt well I’m like top 10 top 15 in contending and that is something that I’ve struggled with because I want to think internally and think about you know how I’m putting it and it’s definitely a constant battle for me to like look at the target and it’s something I have to keep reinforcing to this day but it does it certainly helps a lot I can’t you know express how important is to look at the hole more because that is the goal it’s also going to help your speed yeah I mean do you ever look at the hole while you’re putting or do you go back bring your eyes back to the ball? I bring my eyes back to the ball. I you know I can’t really speed it and do do what he does with the short putts. That’s this book is all about. Yeah, it’s f it’s fascinating and it’s not something he’s like, “Oh, I’m going to go try that.” No, no, no. You’ve got to work on it. It takes time and you got to practice and you got and you got to trust it. And he talks about the your athletic intuition, which you were kind of alluding to the same thing. um is doing that and it just you know locking yourself into that. Also when you’re doing it and you’re looking at the hole and we’re just saying let’s a four or five foot putt and you’re looking at a very specific spot that you’re aiming for in the hole and and you keep looking at that you eliminate the the head game of mechanics and you don’t have to worry about lifting your head because it’s already lifted. That’s true. Right. But but it’s like eliminating the mechanics um or the worry of mechanics would happen. And I know that that’s always been an issue for me when I’m putting especially on short putts. It’s like, oh my hands. Oh, I didn’t I wasn’t, you know, holding the putter elevating it off the ground a little bit and I didn’t do that and didn’t do this. But by doing, you know, using this instinct putting now, um, I’m eliminating a lot of that and getting a lot more longer putts. Yeah. No, that’s good stuff. You You think of some of the best players in the world, they’re not usually the ones that have long routines. They’re not the ones standing over the ball. They’re the ones that are like taking one or two looks. They’re hitting it because they’re just athletic. They’re in a flow state. They’re not thinking about how to hit. They’re like, “Oh, there’s a target. There’s cool. Hit it.” And it’s just, you know, think of Brandon Snicker. I think of a couple of the guys that are incredible putters. Like even that play with Robbie Shelton, Braden Thornberry, like they’re so automatic with their putty and it’s very athletic and flowy. Interesting. And so when you’re playing competitively, um, you talked about, you said earlier you it’s tough to outsmart me on the course. So, it’s just not the physical element, the mechanics of your game that makes you an elite player. Correct. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, golf is a game. And the more you understand the rules of the game and how golf is scored, like the better you’re going to play, um, and the more consistent, the more you’re going to get out of your own game, I should say. And I almost kind of relate it to a very complicated game of blackjack. Like there’s just a set of rules and probabilities that you need to live by on the golf course to just take the emotion out of it and make good decisions over and over again. And yeah, it’s really helped me a get the most out of my game, but also b like it makes golf more fun because you’re not after round just thinking, “Oh man, what an idiot. Why did I do that? I just wasted this. I felt like I should have shot lower. A lot of my rounds like, you know what, I shot what I should have shot and, you know, if I went and shot, you know, 73 or 72 and it’s like, all right, let’s go work on some mechanics or go work on a few things. But like, you don’t need to play like at a competitive level, you don’t need to play perfect golf to play great golf. You understand, you need to know understand how to manage, you know, your strategy and manage your golf game. But I’ve played a ton of great tournaments in great golf with like, man, my swing doesn’t feel great and I have a miss, but I’m going to play it and I’m gonna center my shot pattern and I’m gonna play with what I have. I I think you just came up with the title of the episode. You don’t have You don’t need to play perfect golf to play great golf. There we go. I love that. Yeah, I I’m going to just isolate that and that will be the title of the episode most likely. Unless you come up with another gym like that, that’s pretty awesome. No, I mean I got a good story from the US Open that definitely applies to that cuz I mean I qualified for Pinehurst in 2024 and it was such a cool experience. It was my first major and you know I was really just I wanted to take it all in and just play as well as I could and just yeah it was just such a neat experience, cool venue. It ended up being an incredible tournament obviously with Bryson and Rory, but I I really spent the first 24 27 holes, which again, I preached this stuff, but I I played the first 27 holes just trying to be perfect. Like, I just need to be so good. Like, I’m in this moment. And I I wasn’t hitting it great. I really wasn’t hitting it like as good as I wanted to that whole year. But I got to the point where I was I think I was nine or 10 over par going into the last nine holes. And the cut was five over. So, it was unlikely. And I was turning to the front nine, which was the brutal side at Piners number two. Not that there’s an easy side because the place kind of wrecked everyone except for, you know, Bryson and Aory. But what I did was just like I kind of just snapped out of like you like listen, I’m basically I’m not within the cut line unless I go shoot four or five under on this side, which would be crazy. But like I just need to like play golf. I need to stop trying to play so perfect. I I have like a you know a 5 to 8 yard push right now. I’m just going to play it. So then I just that front nine at Pinehurst on Friday afternoon, I just remember having good targets and then centering my pattern which meant like you know if I was going to aim like four yards left like hole number one Friday it was a front right pin brutal hole and you know I’m aiming like four yards right of the hole. That’s where I want this ball to end up. But because I’m hitting like a five six yard push I was going like four to five yards left of that to account for the push. So, I’m not I’m like, you know, I’m kind of done trying to fix my golf swing in the middle of the US Open. That’s not a good idea. But what I did was just I played my miss and I just I started hitting I started having great results. I shot one under on that side and I missed like three seven foot putts that I should have made. I mean, it was one of those looking back and like I really could have shot four under the front nine uh there at the US Open and like threatened to make the cut. But I mean played I mean shooting one under par on that side was was really good. And again it was just like I didn’t have my best stuff. If I aimed where I had been aiming I’d probably shoot two or three over par again cuz if you’re short-sighted at piners you’re toast. If you miss greens at Piner you’re toast. And so just like okay I’m trying to play smart golf here and it’s not perfect but I can outsmart my miss. And you know it was still good enough to beat Scotty that day. It was good enough to tie Rory that day and it’s just like man like you don’t have to play perfect to play some good golf and even at the US Open. I’m curious what kind of putter you use. Yeah, I’ve been a ping guy forever. I got I want to say it’s like a DST or something. I’ve used quite a few putters in the day, but um yeah, I’ve been a pink guy my whole life. So between that and the Alley Blue, that’s kind of mostly what I’ve used. I’ve been a Mal guy for quite a bit, I just like the forgiveness. And I think what you’re seeing is a lot of the best players are starting to enjoy the forgiveness, too. Like if it makes it easier to have good speed, then a lot of people should probably be using mallets. And well, the audience knows that I’m I’m a huge fan of Lab Golf and have been since 2019. Um, they’ve kind of changed things in the way the world looks at small manufacturers. Couldn’t be happier for them. Uh, have you ever tried one? I have. Yeah. No, I’ve I’ve tinkered with them quite a bit. I’ve used them in some events. Like, yeah, they’re they’re solid. They’re really They’re good. Yeah, I like what they’ve done. Yeah, I love what they’ve done. Let’s talk about um uh you you mentioned you’re an aimoint guy. Explain your process. explain your pre-shot routine using aim point for your putting. I met with Mark putting mainly, right? Yes. Which I’ve actually heard people use it for chipping as well, which is interesting. But yeah, I I saw Mark Sweeney probably four to five years ago and he taught me the aim point express way of of calculating your uh where to aim. And it’s just something that you have to practice. But it’s not complicated. You know, you’re just measuring the percentage of slope in your feet. And then once you just learn and know what 1 2 3% feels like, then it just becomes very easy. And it’s nice to have that awareness, especially on putts where you’re just quite not sure where the break is or many times your eyes can just deceive you. And there’s a lot of smart golf architects out there that they have slopes going, you know, you think it’s a hard right to left slope, but where you’re actually putting, it’s relatively flat. And, you know, that’s the stuff that is nice to have that, hey, my eyes are telling me this, but I need to trust my feet because that’s where the ball’s going. The ball’s rolling across the ground. It’s not what my eyes think is happening. And um yeah, as long as you have a good process and you trust it, I think aim point is is really good. Obviously, there’s great players that don’t do it and trust their eyes and but at the same time like everyone’s everyone’s different. You know, some people may have be really gifted how how their eyes work. You know, some other people need contacts and glasses like myself. You know, we’re not all the same. But a points are great just for getting really good general reads like where where is this thing going? especially in like 20 30 footers cuz you want to talk about getting the ball close. If you’re misreading those and there’s anything around 2 3% slope that ball is going to get away from you quickly even if you have decent speed cuz then you’re you know you’re 3 or 4 feet left of the hole and then you’re talking about hey if I’m 3 four feet left the hole and I’m past the hole now I’m like six feet away. Yeah. You know it can get away from you quickly if you’re low side. So, with your aimoint pre-shot routine, Sure. Are you looking at the hole from multiple angles or are you just from behind the ball and just working there or do you go to the other side of the pin as well? I’m mainly just behind behind the ball and you know, you straddle the line in like multiple places. you know, one to two places, like a third of the way between the ball and the hole and and you know, two/ird of the way. And really, I’m just trying to make sure that I’m not again having my eyes confuse me. So, it’s really just the only thing that really matters is between me and the hole. So, that’s mostly where I focus on. And then once I get my percent, I know exactly where to put my fingers on my arm to know, you know, you put that uh the hole right in the middle of the hole in the left side of your your index. And then however fingers you have is, you know, on the right edge of your finger is kind of where you’re you’re supposed to aim. And uh it’s funny. You get you get definitely a lot of questions in pros like, “What are you doing with your hands, man?” Yeah. And I go through that process with them. And do you walk off the distance or is it all eyeballing it? It’s like I think Yeah. Talk to me about that. We Tim Tucker was on once and um he talked about, you know, look, everyone’s got their GPS and their rangefinder and they want to know whether the the hole is 180 or 90 yards or whatever it is, but when they get to the green, they’re just eyeballing it and they’re not really testing to see what is the actual distance. And then register that in your mind. And that was that was a huge revelation for me. So I’ve been doing that ever since and I really trust that. But how you know you say you do that as well. You walk it off. You know your distances how it feels. And I I originally did it because I wanted to make sure when I put my statistics in my strokes gain, you know, the apps and stuff like I want to make sure the information’s good. you know, I don’t want to say, hey, I’m making all these 12oot putts when they’re actually eight cuz then it skews all your data and it’s just, you know, you don’t want that as well. So, originally it was just for that purpose, but after time it became like there was more function functionality to it of hey, here’s how long I have this putt, you know, and I practice, you know, 15. I just know what a 15t putt feels like. when you’re practicing before events and you’re doing drills and it’s like okay this is 15 feet this is what I should expect you know the length of the stroke to be or on the opposite side like hey I’ve got a 27footer like that is just reinforcing my mind do not try to make this putt if it happens to go in with great speed that’s a bonus but like I’m not in a position where this is a go for this is not a green light if I got a 27footer it’s kind of like you’re the blackjack table and you know you’re showing I mean, let’s say you’re showing a 12 and the dealer’s got a 10. It’s like, you know, this isn’t a position of power. Do not try to do anything crazy here and like go for it cuz you’re more likely to three putt from 30 ft. You let’s say just outside 30 ft than you are to make it. And so, and that’s from tour pros are about two putt from 30 ft. So, I mean, talk about the amter game like much more likely to three putt from anywhere outside of 20 ft. So it’s like you’re going to make up shots in general on your competition. If you just have good speed, you two putt and if the hole gets in the way, great. So that’s measuring out also kind of helps manage expectations like, hey, where am I? What is the shot expectation here? And so that I don’t care if it’s for par, it’s for bogey, it’s for eagle. The shot expectation is the same. And it’s very easy to be like, oh, I have this par putt. Kind of like Rory the master the first hole. The final day he’s got this like 18 foot par putt. And I can guarantee you if it was a birdie putt, he does not hit this thing seven, eight feet past the hole. Like he zoomed it because he’s trying to make this putt. And a that’s ridiculous because you’re not going to make the putt. If you hit seven feet past the hole, that thing is just going to lip out unless it’s one of those that hits the back of the cup, launches in the air, and comes down. But you know that it’s very easy to be like, “Oh man, I have to make this as a par.” But like it’s still an 18 foot putt. Regardless if it’s your third shot or your 10th shot, like it’s the same probabilities of going in or not. Interesting. And how do you use strokes gained? The the information that you get from strokes gained uh that you know Mark Brody introduced us to and we recently played back the episode um where the week before his book came out and he didn’t know if people were going to accept it or not. It’s really become an important part. You know metrics has really changed how we look at game the at at our golf game. Um, and tell me how you use strokes gain information to improve your own game. Yeah, I was about to say, how much time do you have? Three minutes. Yeah, I’ll try to keep this short, man. I mean, I I use it for everything. I use it for not only like strategically how I play the game, but also, you know, what do I how do I need to practice? What do I need to work on? Like what is my recipe for success out there? Everyone’s game is different. Everyone else has a everyone has a DNA for how they’re going to play their best golf and it’s different usually for everybody. So, yeah, strokes has definitely revolutionized like the way I see the game and and really just like think about statistics and sports and how much like people realizing in basketball that you need to shoot three-pointers often early and often because you’re going to score more points. And it’s just golf is in kind of a similar elk, but there’s just obviously a lot more different ways of scoring other than twos versus threes. It’s much more complicated and so it’s harder to grasp, but the concept still remains like there is certain ways to play golf that you will score optimally if you follow these laws of strokes gain. Um, yeah, a lot of the apps are really solid and it’s just it I mean I think of it like almost like a doctor like you know this is like the X-ray or the MRI of your game and it’s like if you don’t know a what you’re looking at good luck but b like you need to at least start because otherwise you’re just going to be guessing on what needs to happen, how to score and how to get better. And how do you teach it for your students? How do you incorporate it into your instruction? Yeah. So, I mean, I I incorporate basically two main ways of like, hey, here are how you need to think of golf in general as in like targets off the tea, you know, ways of avoiding bogey like these are the trip, these are the the falls that people have and how even like how we talked about putting of like, hey, you know, outside the certain range, this is how we need to think of it in speed. And it’s like I can see their information in real time get better. It’s like, oh, I didn’t realize putting needed to be like that. And then I’m watching them like over time three putt less. And it’s like, okay, their scoring average is getting better just from putting alone. And then you have all these different areas of improvement and ways to also practice and like, hey, if I’m on the range, I’m on the practice screen. This is what I’m going to practice to reinforce, you know, again, all comes back from strokes gained and expectations. like here are the expectations for these shots. How am I going to practice this on the practice range in order to like play optimally on the golf course? So, it’s, you know, how do you practice? How are you specifically as the client going to play your best game? And like, you know, how do I get good targets? How do I think on the golf course? Interesting. And what about uh core strategy? That’s it’s got to be critically important to not only your game, but your instruction. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, um, you know, Scott Faucet is a guy that I’ve talked to for for many years and, uh, definitely agree with his methods of of decade and, um, you know, just being able to like apply a lot of the strokes gained philosophies and dispersions and really the more you understand that it’s it’s you’re going to play more optimal golf and be able to like trust numbers and math cuz I mean, the the more you get emotional out there, like it doesn’t even have to be golf. Like the more emotional you get and make emotional based decisions, they’re usually not better decisions. If that makes sense. When when when in your playing career did you have the epiphany of I shouldn’t be emotional? How where were you do you remember that moment? It’s like this has got to change. Yeah. I mean, for me, again, cuz none of this really was a thing before 2014. And um or you know, really the the mid early 2000s. And for me, that kind of breaking point was college. I you know, I was a high recruit. I I played pretty solid my freshman year and then it didn’t play as well sophomore and junior year. And actually, I missed the travel team for postseason, junior year. And that was kind of the breaking point like I should be I’m good enough. I have the talent. Like, I shouldn’t be missing this. Like, why am I not playing better golf? And it was good because I took ownership of like, man, like I I wasn’t wrong. Like, I truly just didn’t play well. And like, I need to do something different. I need to play better. I need to like untap my potential more. And that was kind of when a lot of the strokes gain stuff was really becoming more prevalent and like, hey, this is being introduced like, you know, keep track of your things. And I’ve always enjoyed math. I’ve always enjoyed statistics. Uh, it’s just kind of been like a second language for me. So, it became this journey of like, “Oh, this is really cool. Now I can apply it to the sport that I love playing and it can help me play better golf.” Like, I’m eating this up. And that’s kind of like, man, I can’t believe like I’ve been playing like such an idiot for so long. And like once you kind of understand like the grass is greener on the other side and it’s I I got by on a lot of talent alone and obviously you can still play a lot of great golf without strategy but you’re not going to play optimal if that makes sense. And so that’s just kind of when I was forced to then really dive into strokes gain and good core strategy because my talent only took me so far. I was running into really good players, not playing where I wanted to play and it was just like, oh, okay, I got to reinvent myself a little bit. So that’s kind of the story behind when that all happened. Well, that could be the other title of this episode. I can’t believe I’ve been playing like such an idiot. because I think every golfer is gonna relate. Exactly. We’ll all relate to that. I was like, I got to listen to that. I gotta listen to that. So, well, I know that uh personally, and I hope the Golfsmarter community will also now have increased interest in following your career. Um, how can we follow you online and and uh get lessons from you? What’s the best way to track you down? Yeah, you can follow me at my website, courseofactiongolf.com. I’m also on Instagram. I think it’s uh chris petefishgolf. I’m on a lot of the socials. But yeah, you can check out my website. I got a lot of detailed information there of, you know, how to work with me, what exactly I do. You can follow, you know, where I’m playing and uh yeah, all that all that good stuff. But yeah, I listen, I just I think I’ve I’ve been in such a long journey with this that I definitely kind of feel like, man, let’s kind of share kind of I shouldn’t say the secrets, but like what has really helped me play better and it’s been fun and will be fun to help others kind of achieve what they want to in golf. So, it’s pretty cool. Awesome. Course ofactionolf.com. That’s right, Chris. It’s been great talking to you. Uh it’s been not only an education, but it’s really a great journey that I appreciate you so much sharing it with us. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Brad. Thanks for having me on. It’s been it’s been really fun.
