Travis sits down with 8-time PGA TOUR winner, Brad Faxon, for an in-depth discussion about what we are seeing with putting instruction on the PGA Tour & for the amateur player.
Brad shares his thoughts, after sitting on the panel at the Open Forum (PGA Show). He also gives his analysis on Tony Finau, Scottie Scheffler & an update on his student – Rory McIllroy. This pod is a MUST watch!
#pgatour #pgachampionship #pga #bradfaxon #progolf #golfpodcast #golfchannel
And we’re back Stripes Show podcast thank you for making us part of your day it’s an instruction Thursday and I’m fired up for this one been working on it for a while we’re going all things short game in particularly putting and joining me just happens to be one of the best at it
Eight time winner on the PGA Tour Part of NBC Sports joining me from uh his Studio there with look at those Putters those bags and the in the backdrop there Mr Brad Faxon can’t thank you enough for joining me Travis thank you I’m glad we finally got to put this together it took
A while yeah well you know my uh my audience um they love a lot of things they love all things Golf and of course there’s no shortage of storylines uh when it comes to uh professional golf these days but what they really love um is a little coach speak you know and
Looking at some video and and breaking down not only what the best players in the world do you know but also some things that they can apply to their game and and you know putting and short game is something that uh that they can do you know they can apply some of the
Things that we’re going to talk about pretty easily to make more puts develop their short game and there’s some things happening in in in today’s game that I talk a lot about on the podcast and I want to get your perspective ipve and we’ll get into some of the specific
Strokes you know some of the things that we’re seeing with Tony F now um with kind of his unique approach now in putting Scotty shuffer of course is going through some things right now with his putting um and uh one of your students Ro M I want to talk about get
An update on where he is as he tees it up out there in Pebble Beach but I want to start uh with the open for PGA show was last week down in Orlando and I actually watched it on the plane I was flying in from the west coast and it was
Perfect timing we took off and the open Forum started and then when we landed it ended it was like absolute perfect timing so I got to watch the whole thing and I got to see you um up there on the stage where you were with Joe Mayo um
You were with James ridyard Parker mlof and some others and you guys really you know got into kind of some of the short game debate that’s really been sparked from Joe and some of the work that he’s done um with Victor havin and I’ll put up here for our audience and we’ve
Talked about this Brad you know this is the top one sequence when you look at Victor that’s what he was doing before saying like a you know a 20 30 40 yard shot and then on the bottom um you can see a difference in in how his upper
Center would really you know go left and he would hit it with more shaing and um and those types of things Leading Edge a little bit more on the ground versus some of the more modern instruction that you would hear from ridar in mlin which is no let’s utilize the bounce let’s
Make it a little bit cleaner at the bottom where we don’t have to be as precise and get the Leading Edge off the ground as you were up there and I thought your perspective was great and as you kind of reflect back on that discussion I’m curious what were some of
Your takeaways um from that great debate that was at the open Forum Travis I’ve been um lucky enough maybe unlucky enough to go to the open forum know the last few years going to the PGA show i’ I’ve sat on a couple different panels and this one I was not
Supposed to sit on Chris comoo kind of I don’t know if he strongly if I would sit up there while um Mayo was up there and also on the panel was Frederick from you know the head of track man and head of ping so the guys that
Are there are much smarter than I am you know I’m kind of late to the game in this instructional side and I certainly knew who Joe Mayo was before Victor hland I knew it his nicknam trackman mro and and how he learned um to teach better and and Travis I think that these
Top teachers um that know so much coaches whatever you want to call them um they they like to say why guess when you can measure when you you makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways if if you’re going to try and measure somebody’s swing and whatever it is that you’re
Measuring but I don’t think we’d ever seen anyone before Mayo um use trackman data for short game in the way that he did and I mean I admire what he did for Victor hin hin had been an incessant tinkerer um with lots of coaches um kind of apologetic at how bad
He was about the game and and really was kind of fun to watch even when he didn’t hit a good shot because he was so self-deprecating um but he he kind of catapulted to one of the best short game players um and I think we saw that we
Well we did see it live at the Ryder Cup of the first hole when hodin hit um his Chip Shot from the right Fringe where he would have puted that a thousand times out of a thousand a couple years ago and he hold it to start you know the
Europeans uh way to Victory I think what Mayo’s done is is he’s made people think about uh the way you can hit chip shots um with like you said a lot of shackling sometimes 10 to 15 degrees of forward shackling a double digit angle of attack into the ground
Using words like uh spin loft or vertical swing plane uh to help in his instruction and I think you know anybody that’s hit a nice shot from The Fringe when they hit it low when it’s spinning and it gets lots of juice and checks up quickly on a dime that’s one of the
Sexiest shots in golf and everybody wants to do that and you know we never knew things like launch angle under 30 until kind of recently in the golf world uh and certainly equipment’s changed a lot and I think I mentioned on that panel Travis you know I
I’m 62 and when I first got on the tour um I I still played a lot with Hubert green and sebie Bas steros and Raymond Floyd Tom Kite guys that had incredible short games with all kinds of technique that they had um and I know that Joe
With his this is the way you have to do it has really upset the instructors coaches that are more normal and and I would put more normal with Aram mlin Brett Rumford James ridard who was up there as well to James sikman um where it wasn’t
So drastic it was like you know when you show these pictures of Victor um his head moves forward in the back swing almost a foot you know it’s it’s massive amount um and you know Joe’s I think what his you know one of his biggest points is he he doesn’t
See um any chipper come to him that’s hitting too far in front of the ball you know it’s always behind it’s always low points back so he’s trying to get Center of Mass center of gravity of everything forward uh to hit that shot it feels it’s interesting and and
And the debate was uh was really good you know I I I thought it was handled really well uh with everyone up there and I was really happy actually Brad that you were up there even though you maybe you didn’t want to be because you know it’s interesting in today’s
Instruction world you and you mentioned you know why guess if you can measure and I think there’s certainly a a huge uh learning curve for myself and others when it comes to the measurement and it’s taught us so much and Joe is a leader of that but it almost um it feels
Like and I was texting with a couple other teachers as I was flying watching this it’s like you know are we pushing out great minds that maybe haven’t measured in the past and and maybe won’t measure as much in the instinctual side of the game right because just because you measure and you
Show it to a player doesn’t always lead to better results in the future we’re going to talk about a couple of those examples here a little bit into the show now for Victor it did uh Victor I think needed to get a little steeper I think Victor needed to have the
Conversation perhaps of a little more Leading Edge and the examples of Jordan spe and Scotty Sheffer that maybe hit pit shots more like this um and so I think in Victor’s situation his analytical mind maybe um his thirst for knowledge it it fit but I don’t think
Every player is that way and and I and I feel like my question to you is as you come out of your playing career career and and now you’re an analyst and you’ve you’re on these panels and you kind of see where our industry has gone from the outside are
We you know just because one maybe can’t speak to the number can’t speak to um the lower and upper vector and spin Loft and vertical swing plane which is all great education and maybe is not speaking in those terms um that that voice is becoming less important you know it’s it’s it’s
Less valued perhaps to the industry because they’re not speaking those terms but yet we all know there’s a balance to Performance and there’s a lot of players that can’t think that way and don’t need all that technical aspect or conversation it’s right you know there’s by the way we’re talking about
Short game and you can do all this measuring and obviously the full putting 100% yeah verify it but what I the point I was trying to make is if you look over the greats over a long time frame there were so many styles that worked U and there’s a certain Artistry
To it isn’t there there’s an imagination creativity and not once was that brought up on that panel discussion you know so from exactly now into this coaching world I’m still trying to figure out what’s more important and and if I were gonna speak on a topic I’d like to say
Like my topic would be how to talk to a tour player and I don’t think there’s many players like Victor hlin that want to hear um vertical uh swing plane or spin loft or angle of attack necessarily now Victor has spent a lot of time with different instructors like Lucas Wald
And Dana doist before he went to Mayo I would say Justin Rose would be in that camp where he wants to see all the data um and I I remember sitting at lunch with Rory after the Ryder Cup and I showed him a video of Victor’s um pitching motion from behind whereas you
Could actually see his head move forward and Rory was like incredulous like seeing that much and I asked him I said do you want to measure your um your chipping numbers he goes I don’t really have any interest in that and this was soon after maybe one of the greatest
Chips you’ve ever seen at the ryer cup remember left of 17 the par three um kind of had that shot from below the level of the green on a little down slope and hit that low spinny shot without taking a divot um and you know so so there’s different ways the great
Players like to think and and I’ll tell you just a few days ago Travis I went over to the Bears Club before Rory was going to go fly out to play this week at Pebble um and I just had my quad out I was hitting some chip shots um I had the
New sm10 58 degree um and I’m just kind of measuring my standard shot you know trying to fly at 12 to 14 yards see what my normal Spin and angle of attack and I’m I’m in the six seven8 range trying to fly 12 to 14 yards was in the high
3000s and spin and it was you know right about 28 29 launch angle and Rory came out and he had been busy with some calls this there there was some stuff going on with the tour and he took my wedge out and he was totally different his angle
Of attack was four and five his swing was much longer the face was um way more open at a dress uh Club was steeper outside his hands in the backstroke um and in a higher ball flight 33 34 launch angle way more spin uh High 4000s um
And are you going to tell Rory maoy who moved to third in the last year and strokes gained around the green and tell him he’s not correct yeah can’t do that yeah yeah it’s uh I think you bring there’s a lot of good points in there
One of them is your your thoughts on most of the top players they don’t really want to get that deep into it right as far as the measurement and the breakdown they they I think they they see the value and and and most of the coaches that are out there are able to
Provide that and then I and then I look at the open forum and I look at and I and I’ve been into those and I look at the audience and I see so many young teachers who are able to get into this education so early
Like when I got into the business 23 24 years ago like you you know this wasn’t like a like um launch monitors weren’t happening yet and so there’s been it’s easy to kind of get up to speed now I think as a young teacher and so I I look
At the open forum and I know it’s kind of we can nerd out on a lot of this stuff and have that convers ation but so much of the conversation Brad is geared towards the PGA Tour player and not the amateur and like I I talk with a lot of
Teachers and I say my advice to you is yeah you want to learn that stuff but the most important thing you can do right now is get out there and teach and get reps and put your hands on people and move them you know and make mistakes and do things right but build
Relationships in the art of teaching you know it’s not about the measurement it’s about the art of teaching and getting results all that important but I just feel like we’re kind of we’re getting so far that way that I think we lose a little bit of the artistic side
Of it and the value what is that you bring to the table Brad and I think so much of what has moved Rory forward as you mentioned your student Rory ma over the last six years um him coming to you and really I think um stabilizing his
His putter he’s become I think a much more instinctual putter I think he’s become a a better statistical Putter and a lot of that isn’t about the measurement right Brad it’s not about hey your path is this far back and or your stroke is this far back and
Through your Club face is your shaftan is this at a dress and this at impact you’re not having that conversation right it’s it’s more around the process and maybe tapping into some of the feels that Rory’s had take take us back to when you first started Rory and where he
Is now with his flat stick you know the the first time I met Rory um for a putting lesson was in March of 2018 right before Arnold Palmer’s tournament and it was Monday of the week when he was going up there uh I had I
Had seen him a month earlier at the sem Old Pro member and and Billy Andre and I who co-hosted the CVS Charity Classic golf tournament in Rhode Island for years were hoping to get him to come play and we had approached him and he’s so you know he’s just so genuine and
He’s he politely said you know I’ll think about it which probably meant that he wouldn’t do it and then a month later I was playing in a an event out in Newport Beach on the champions tour um and I got a call on or a text actually
From a 561 number I didn’t have in my phone uh and it was Rory just saying hey could you ever watch me hit some putts on Monday before I uh go up to Bay Hill and the funny thing is I had booked flights to come home on Monday from LAX
To Fort Lauderdale I wasn’t going to get back to uh my home here in in Palm Beach Gardens until like four o’clock so I wasn’t going to be able to make it so I changed my flight to take a red eye which nobody likes to take those um got
Home because I was excited you know you know you give opportunity to maybe speak with and help one of the best players in the world um I I took that seriously and I got there I was rested and I I knew he was working with Phil Kenyon uh
For three years I I told him look I’m never going to say anything on social media this is just you and I talking and I think that kind of let him exhale a little bit as he was going up that night and was going to see s uh see Phi the next day
And before Phil kenon Rory had worked with Dave Stockton a little bit butley a little bit um and was absolutely Terri terrific player and probably a streety Putter and there’s no question L Phil Kenny knows way more about the the details of the the putting stroke that
Than I do uh the mechanics of the putting stroke and I have no doubt in my mind that Phil was telling him things that were probably correct technique wise um and you know look Rory’s the genius in all this Travis but I felt like I need to
Kind of unlock what was inside a little bit what what could could I help him with um and you know I I talked to his coach Michael Bannon U who is his only swing coach he his old career guy is one of his dad’s close friends and Michael
Had told me look he likes to give Rory two or three thoughts on a week off prior to him playing and let him figure out which one of those thoughts he wants to use um so I I went with that kind of plan and and when I started to talk to
Him it was apparent to me that he he was like most of us do when we get bad at a part of the game we’re thinking a little bit too much about the mechanics things tend to slow down a little bit uh creativity and Instinct kind of fall to
The Wayside and I started just showing him I said look it looks like a little bit maybe of reading the instruction manual on how to do this um and we we talked a little bit about flow um letting the putter go a little bit sooner um and within I hate to say
Within minutes because that sounds dramatic but something emerged inside of him that that rhythmical Athlete on the putting green and it was really kind of like time to stop talking and there wasn’t much talk that day about mechanics and and I’ll give you an example of of of
Why you’ve got to listen as much as you’ve got to speak you know when I got there Rory and said he wanted to go back to a 34 inch putter he had been using a 33 inch putter for a few years you know it was a putter that he’ won his last
Major with um and I’m like yeah absolutely you can use a 34-in putter if that’s what you want to do he talked a little bit about feeling a little bit more open and really locked in square a lot of great Putters were a little bit
Open um and that week he he went up to beill and had a kind of an off week te to Green Well I shouldn’t say off we off week two days te to green and probably for the first time in a few years shot lower than scores than quality of how he
Hit a t degre and that’s always a great feeling like when you you get off the course you feel like you stole one uh and the opposite would be true when you you hit it so good and you can’t seem to get in the hole that’s a frustrating way
To play you know and Rory went on to win by four shots that week with some he was in the top 10 that week maybe top five in Strokes game putting and you know these great hitters of the ball like Scotty Sheffer and Victor but they don’t
Have to R they don’t have have to be great Putters week and we got to be dominant yeah I I played with Rory um at the Arnold Palmer Invitational um it was before you guys started working uh Raja Raja Manor with MasterCard I was I did a crash course with
Raja to get him to be able to play with Rory and Raja was kind of new to the game and so I Brad spent two hours with them two days before and two hours the next day and then we went and teed it up and um funny story it was so cold
That day and we were standing up on the first te it was I mean it was freezing and we were up on the white tea and I look back and I can see Rory back there he’s got his he’s just bottled up you just see his face and he steps up just
Nukes one around the corner you know I was like man this is going to be fun watching Rory all day you know hit the driver Roger steps up there he got his driver and he kind of rolls it off the front and and I could kind of see boy
You know it like boy this is g to be a long day you know and and so he’s like well give me the you know give me my three-wood I was like no no I was like just take your five iron and let’s just hit let’s just you know because we’ve
Been doing a lot of five iron let’s just get one down there and and Brady put a great swing on bust his five iron down there about 165 70 yards he’s like we get up there give me my three no no no no I said just let’s just get some go
Let’s just get going let’s just hit a club we know how to hit he he Brad he rips it down there again I mean just a perfect five iron down there and then I get him a wedge and he knocks it up there to like four feet and putts it in
We go to the next hole I’m like this is great you know and we had a fun day and we had our ups and downs but I talked to worry about the seventh hole we’re walking off and I said hey how’s it going you know with with um putting and
This and that he’ been working with Phil and I love Phil’s he’s a friend of mine and he’s a great teacher and he’s helped so many in this and and and Rory is like man I’m learning a lot you know I’m learning a lot about the technique and the measurement and all these
Things um but I don’t you know I think in the end like what you know you kind of look at some of the changes Rory made um I think they did go to the shorter Putter and he was more Square it felt like it
Was a little more of kind of an arc and those types of things which I think historically you know would kind of to your point a little more open kind of hold it off it was very different um than maybe some of the success that he’s had in the
Past um and so you know that technicality side and measurement it has its place right in the game we know that and I often tell and I tell teachers but it’s not everything like it’s not everything in fact it’s probably a smaller percentage than what you think
It is you know in the grand schema thing working with a 15 handicap AP working with a 10 handicap if you can’t sit there and look at them and watch ball flight and look at some 2D video and basic patterns that you’re seeing and you can’t get in there and move the
Needle then that’s you’re probably in the wrong business you know so measurement has a play it has a it has a place but it’s a small percent and I think as Rory made those changes and he eventually kind of evolved you know to you Brad um it wasn’t about measurement
Right it was it was about like you said tapping into that inner genius that so many of these players have so it’s an interesting conversation the one that we could go down um a a long time but I I look at some of the modern game players
You know Brad and I and and here’s one that you know I’m a little concerned with um right now it’s this guy right here and Scotty shuffler I mean this guy’s struggling with his putting and one of the questions I want to ask you is you know I’ve been listening to Justin Thomas
And how he’s kind of got his game back on track and he was he had he he gave a really good interview yesterday and he he went back and watched a lot of his old stuff tiger came back I think Chris Coma did a brilliant job going back and
Looking at old stuff and how the you know that inner genius and I when Scotty was struggling Brad I did a just a full podcast on Scotty I went back to when Scotty was putting the best and I just put up video and pictures of Scotty when he was winning everything
And versus when he was struggling and and and you look at the left and you look at the right and you and you just kind of start looking at and there was a lot more pictures Brad of the old versus the new and it was you it was clear like you could
See a clear difference in the way that he was going from Impact to PO impact and so when I look at Scotty now and he’s continuing to struggle and I look at the changes he made these are some wholesale changes changes you know and
You look at his setup and um and a lot of them are similar to what I think Rory kind of went through and a little shorter putter a little more over it um forearms a little bit more in line like that putter head working on a little bit
Of an arc looks good I love a lot of this stuff if I had to build a model setup this is probably where I would take it um but to me at the time it felt riskier than considering how great he was on the left when a player struggles
Brad and they come to you is that is that something you consider do you go back and look at well when you were a great putter or you’re a great short game player this is what you did versus now well 100% and not only just looking
At Old film but listening to what they have done when they’ve putted their best too um you know Scotty sheer has a lot of unusual things in his golf doesn’t you watch a player that’s as good as there ever been um there’s things in there that you you wouldn’t and couldn’t teach
Another player to do um and I think I I would love to talk to Scotty Sheffer about putting you know I know Randy Smith well and I put Randy SM in that old school camp like Butch Haron uh that’s as much a sport psychologist as they are an instructor um and you
Know when I look at players and setups I love what some of the stuff that I just saw with with Scotty but it doesn’t look like Scotty he doesn’t look to me as as comfortable over yeah like that looks contrived looking to me to from where he was
Certainly with a bigger grip there um the amount of incline he has over towards the ball um it doesn’t look as I don’t know relaxed I think as as he did to me I I don’t know that I would have found a tremendous you know when I first started
Watching him play a few years ago I didn’t see a tremendous amount of things wrong technically with the stroke what I would say technically um he has some peculiarities you know the Putter and the head of the club went out a little bit on his back backstroke but he did
That on his chip shots too um and I just watched sometimes like the way players move around the green when they’re reading and holding their putter what they look like um but I I don’t think I could I don’t feel like I’m in a good position here to
Just say this is what Scotty needs to do yeah yeah without having a conversation with him yeah I think where where I’m going with it is that it’s interesting with The Narrative The Narrative of modern instruction is if you if you you’re guessing if you’re not measuring and the
Reality is is that I think we both agree and I think most instructors would agree that most these guys they NE They Don’t Really necessarily want to be measured you know and most amateurs um I mean 15 handicap 20 handicap you’re telling me you got to do a full
Measurement on them these all these people to move the needle like you know like it’s it there’s a place for it but I’m just worried that we’re moving down that path too rapidly and and to get to the numbers and to the ideal and to the measurement right um yes there’s a
There’s a time and place for it and it’s helping people but um man it feels it feels I don’t know a little out of place at times and I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to and and um and Scotty man I I just you know I look at
The way he used to putt versus when he started struggling and what he’s doing now and I said it at the time I was like man these are these are some wholesale changes you know I mean these are some wholesale changes I I can tell you I’ve gotten friendly with Stephen Sweeney
Who’s another top yeah um he has a beautiful studio indor studio close by to where where I live and and a lot of players like Shane Lowry that he teaches can go inside and um you know he’s got Quint Tech he’s got gears for swing and putting he he’s got video of
Course you can measure just about anything you want to measure um and you know the trick is because I think I wanted to talk to Sweeny about ideas um on teaching elite players and he he wanted to measure my stroke and I still can putt pretty good Travis and my I’m
Sure numbers were really good I had a bias that particular day to be hitting slightly on the toe side of my Putter and and uh the putter traveled a little bit to the left after that and these putts were still going in the hole um my
Numbers were really good um and the last couple days when I went out to play I was thinking about two things that I don’t normally think about when I putt and and I puted really not as good as I normally do because I was thinking about some technique there and I’m not
Faulting anybody for that I’m not faulting Stephen I wasn’t playing anything that mattered but when Stephen asked me what did you feel when you were putting your best it’s a really hard question sometimes for players to to think about something they did subconsciously and put it into you know a language that
Somebody’s going to understand because it would the Great great players were just so good at doing this without really having to think about what they were doing yeah and that that’s going to be our challenge forever isn’t it that’s that’s what how do you keep that athlete inside while still helping them to
Improve their technique or do they really need to improve technique yeah that’s gonna be an age forever question it is it’s fascinating it really is um I talk to a lot of teachers and sometimes they’ll confide in me and they’ll you know they’ll sometimes I
Just they they feel like I just let them go and just let them vent a little bit about you know the ups and downs as a coach because there’s no perfect path and there’s so many brilliant teachers and what they know and the study of the game it’s no there’s no question it’s
Advanced us there’s no question but the art of it right and in teaching and bringing back to reality and you’re working with a human being and if the narrative is about the PGA Tour player there’s a genius inside already right it’s already in there so
It’s how do you tap into that and and it’s a sensitive sensitive thing um because it feels like it feels like that if you go in there and you make the wholesale changes it’s riskier and sometimes you come out on the other end but if you take that player down that
Path and it doesn’t work and you’re measuring and you’re quantifying and they’re not statistically a better putter then they lose their confidence even more right I mean like they now they’ve lost their confidence completely and it’s like it’s almost like I use the analogy of Sean Foley told me this analogy he
Said you take them down this path and you’re walking up the bridge and and pretty soon you you you take them so far down this different path and you go up the bridge and you look back and you’re like you can’t you can’t see land anymore yeah and you’re like man we just
Got to keep walking and eventually you’re like man we’re going to get to that top of that bridge and you know what we’re going to start walking down the other side and things are going to get easier and eventually you’re going to be able to see land on the other
Side but there’s always that moment as you’re going down that path and I feel like this is where we are with Scotty right now and maybe even the next guy I’m going to show you we’re walking up that bridge and he’s looking back he’s like where the hell am I right now
Like I don’t even I can’t maybe even remember what I used to do that genius because I look and feel so different but yet you’re telling me the numbers are good right yeah and now Brad I I just you know now you’re in a tough spot you know and every
Teacher’s made this every teacher has made this this every teacher’s been there if you’ve worked with these kinds of players and even different and even I would say sim amateur players you’ve made this mistake because it’s not that perfect artc but I think the analogy is
Valid that sea he told me was man you get up there close to the top of that bridge man you can’t you can’t see land on either side that’s a it’s a stressful that’s a stressful moment it’s an uncomfortable place to be in you know you you know
Scotty Sheffer was number one in the world for two years winning major championships um statistically not putting well but his comments were always like I feel like I’m rolling pretty well I’m hitting good putts and something’s changed where he’s I think he’s felt like he’s had to
Do something tramatic and I don’t know if that comes from himself if that comes from Ted Scott as caddy from Randy the whole team his wife um you don’t know what makes you want to make these wh sale changes um and maybe going down this path will get him
Back to to a place where he’s more comfortable because I think DJ tour needs Scotty Sheffer you know yes sure do as a class person that he is um you know I I think these players have had you know the ability to have conversations with other past greats but
All I know is I can’t become a a a great coach if all I do is tell a student what I used to do right I have to help them that’s that’s been the biggest learning point for me is okay if I’m going to help someone I can’t just tell them this
Is what I do just do what I do and I think that’s what most of the conversations and like like Al tabino you know when he starts talking to these players of the father son he he’s really just showing off the shots that he used to
Hit coming up with you know he’s the ultimate entertainer right that’s right I don’t know if that really helps either yeah you know you know who I would go to um dinner with if I was out there every single week this guy this guy is one of the best Putters that I’ve
Ever watched Denny McCarthy and I had him on I had him on um the podcast at the end of last year and I said you just look like you intimidate the Daylights out of me just by the way you walk up to the ball like you just looked like a
Great putter I mean just swag and up to the green and man I mean obviously he’s got a great stroke but he just it just absorbs it you can feel it when you watch it and you’re in his presence and he talks about it you know Denny McCarthy one of the great Putters
Um on the PGA tour and a great guy that um I um that I hope gets in the winter Circle I I really do he’s put on some good work um with his swing I gotta I I know you gota run you’re playing golf
Today I I got to ask you about one more person go ahead talk about Dennis there’s so much good in here you out of out of the box when when he looks like a horse where the gate is just opened and he got to get out to a quick
Start right he looks like he can’t wait to hit this putt um and you know one of the things I talk to my players about is this idea of continuous motion and at no point in his entire routine here as he stopped or is he stagnant is he still
What feet are moving hips are moving back forth fingers are moving head’s moving the amount of attention watch watch how many times he’s looked at the Target um before he hits that he has complete control of his imagery where he wants this ball to go and where he wants
To start with without having to have a tremendous amount of fields um look at that he’s never that’s an athlete hitting a putt um I even love um his head releases is after impact he’s not trying to keep his eyes down his eyes still his head still um everything about
What Denny McCarthy does is what I would embody if you were trying to become a better Putter and I would show that to Scotty Sheffer and say beat him oh man like you just look at I gotta pause here I me look at that it looks like he’s
Walking on the beach Ian he’s so he is walking on the beach he’s so comfortable and I mean I said you just intimidate the Daylights out of me and the way you just approach the ball like you’re in such freedom and and to your point just continuous motion I
Could watch this guy putt for hours and and you know when he’s walking up to the ball and that see how his right hand holding the grip end of the putter I’m sure that the the grip pressure there is on the light end this is like this is
The instrument you know this is um how I do my work um I I see a very right sided stroke here right feeling stroke when I watch him uh that’s beautiful interesting all right last one here so I had a a little breakdown yesterday on the Pod or on
Tuesday rather and I I just said look it’s time for an intervention here for Tony I I cannot Brad watch Tony F output like that on the left what we’ve seen to this point I mean when you talk about rocking the boat in changes in doing something dramatically different and
Maybe maybe he needs to go to this end of extreme to get to reestablish Middle Ground I I don’t know but when I look at when Tony was at least um statistically a middle of the- pack putter on the PGA tour he was much more upright now you
Look at the right he’s he’s had variation of the right-hand grip but Brad he was much more say allaha Brad Faxon Steve Stricker where the left wrist was you know more unhinged per per se right versus a lot of angle in the left wrist which then you know puts that
Right form in a very different position um the hands to the body very different position obviously look at the toe of the club off the ground I mean I I just boy I I look at this and it feels desperate um and I don’t is it is it desperate at this
Point for Tony with the flat stick because what we saw um you know last week um man if he just putts it all he wins he’s such a brilliant ball Striker uh when you when you look at this the difference between Tony on the right Tony the left what’s what what
Comes to your mind I I remember it was a great Japanese player when I grew up named I say II I puted with a bullseye like looking putter it wasn’t a bullseye but it was kind of almost heel shafted blade um where he had to toe way off the
Ground his hands very low like that and kind of up and out pop stroke um and he was excellent at it um you know when you have a six foot four guy like Tony uh with a sha that flat and the ball so far away from him it just looks like there’s
No way anybody could be consistent with a setup like that and it makes you makes you cringe um does cring a lot too because he’s like you said he’s one of the greatest guys and easiest guys to pull for um the type of person he is um and yeah again I
I I like his posture a lot better on the the picture on the right I mean there’s a lot going on there um and I I just I’d love to find a way for players to make things simpler not more difficult I think if there’s one guy
That needs to come talk to you it’s Tony well I certainly I think I I would love to talk to him I would love to Sheffer I don’t know that I could help them um but I could understand more why they’re doing this stuff I think um
And you watch what this game does to some of the great players in the world yeah mindboggling it’s frustrating and it kind of makes you shake your head you know my sometimes people listen to the Pod and they say well you’re you’re critique and you’re too harsh I’m
Like look I’m not I’m half jokingly about this a little bit to some degree um with Tony because I like Tony Boyd sum is one of my favorite people in the industry I mean he is the salt of the earth and so is Tony um and so I I know it’s frustrating
For these guys and I say it because you know I want I I just don’t I don’t believe the picture on the left is what Tony fow should be doing and to see that is is disheartening and and so it’s like okay I joke that an intervention is needed
Here and and Tony needs to go back to how his best putting was and it was much more upright and these kinds of things that we see on the right and I and I think that conversation applies to Scotty sheffler too um and how that he he was a genius
And would be a much better putter it’s in there and I think sometimes we as a player and or even as a coach we we start going down a path where maybe the numbers are telling us to do this or in some ways it’s it’s just desperation we got to try something
So different um you just hope that they can find their way back because gosh if Scotty sheffler is an upper third putter on the PGA tour God I’m on the record Brad saying he was gonna win five or six time this year no doubt he good Tony Tony as well and you
Mentioned Boyd summer Hayes when you think about the elite instructors now this kind of the new wave of instructors moving on from the Harmons boy summer I what he’s done with his kids fantastic all the players and he he he’s got to be one of the smartest phenomenal not just uh
Technique I agree that’s what I appreciate that out of Boyd um you know his all his players look a little different you know and and that’s what you know Butch I think was very much about right he was all they all looked different and you know I mean greatest teacher of
All time wasn’t out there just measuring every centimeter of the swing or the short game or the putting stroke right I mean Tiger Wood greatest player of all time Jack Nick I mean they’re not like there’s a place for it I think it’s moved our um industry along but I think
Your voice and we’ll we’ll finish with this um even though maybe you were reluctant to get up there because you couldn’t explain the number of the you know spin Loft and that’s not part of your you know your repertoire your voice is still very much needed you know and
You know I think we gotta you know we gotta keep we got to keep that dialogue going because it’s not all about measurement right right I mentioned Tom Kite early in the show he was a guy that told me he was trying to find way he was
One of the first players that went to a 60 degree wedge he he was trying to find ways to take spin-off shots Brett Rumford who I mean he’s the Envy of everybody with a sand wedge whether it’s out of the the rough or around a green
Um he said the same thing his he posted a couple things he actually was texting me while I was on the panel I had asked him to send me a down line pitch shot and it was from 12 to 13 yards and he holded it you know like he would expect
But it didn’t look like it was going in there with a ton of spin it just looked like what you would want to see with a beautiful motion and a great Tempo easy to repeat he got the blue man Wrong by the way you know I posted you know the blue
Man out there the swing and guess who it is and and I told you it was Smiley caufman a lot of people guess and and he Tech he he sent me a DM and he says that’s Alex noren I said nope it’s Smiley he’s like oh yeah
Okay yeah I got to get I got to get him on I mean he’s he’s a brilliant mind and and I love uh I love his approach but I know you got to go play golf I can’t thank you enough for joining us here um on the podcast really appreciate it
Thanks Travis nice to be show with you
