Fore Golfers Network/Michigan Golf Live Podcast – The Foundations of Winning Golf with Jon Sherman
In his follow-up to the international bestseller The Four Foundations of Golf, Jon Sherman reveals the mindset secrets that transform ordinary players into winners in The Foundations of Winning Golf. Whether you’re vying for success in friendly matches, club competitions, or tournaments at the junior and adult level, these proven strategies are your blueprint to succeed under pressure and have more fun.
Sherman shares everything he learned in his winding journey through competitive mid-amateur golf and coaching on the PGA Tour. Told from the perspective of a “player-coach” who never had any unique talent, he delivers easy-to-digest stories and coaching methods that golfers of all levels will find relatable.
The Foundations of Winning Golf is also about personal growth and development. Competitive golf offers a unique way to win in life. More than ever, people are anxious, overwhelmed, and stressed by the modern world. If we are open to it, many lessons we learn from golf can help us in our lives off the course.
CLICK HERE to buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Winning-Golf-Competition-Players/dp/B0CY24TF46/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1A3M9SHSD9Z0S&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dbEHsFmvLsxT8_Bel7eBjHJSmajl4031Z32eQtDHc67azekZ8iaKBV7IA8iSdGbxouyP_4GpwT5-GIq7sahNzVcHmE2ua6Crdo_8pKdhL55wECsZLZCCNK2KoJEvIsayovxRO2QV2sLyxnBRblay_iC_cQNUiTuF-fIRlsz6_GLv3Av54KJY_X1mv6u-THNn3fBfSTzzpQ081FssydZ3s2ibybjAgPQh-kDrOUSygls.rGwbOAcUPFY1m5sejAHkuJCTP4bdWAH0mhsOkxU0MYk&dib_tag=se&keywords=jon+sherman&qid=1711559704&sprefix=%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1
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How solid is your foundation for playing your very best golf I don’t mean your swing mechanics I mean the foundation up here between the ears coming up in the moments ahead we introduce you to John Sherman the author of the foundations of winning golf I guarantee you you’ll come
Away with some new tools you can put in the toolbx to play even better stick Around I have been excited about this conversation for quite some time because I have appreciated and enjoyed the work that John Sherman puts into his golf instruction his golf philosophy and I think this game uh is certainly challenging enough in real life version but it’s even more challenging to try to
Explain how to get better at it in written form takes a special kind of communication gift and and John I think you have that gift so you’ve you’ve moved a few copies of books over the years so it’s good to finally connect with you uh and talk sort of face to
Face through the uh through the zoom camera how are you thank you Bill appreciate the kind words nice to be on the show and uh yeah I uh it’s taken a while but I I think I’ve developed a little bit of a a style in writing that resonates with a few golfers but
Certainly didn’t happen overnight as you would assume well the golfer mind is so creatively constructed some people are feel oriented many are technically oriented and then there’s a smaller subsect I think that can take the written word and apply it to such a kinetic movement sort
Of an activity so what what’s the secret to putting into writing how you connect to Golfers uh I mean one of my secrets is I don’t talk about the golf swing I stay away from it like the plague because um you know something everyone should
Always know about me is like I I’m not a swing instructor I will call myself a golf coach but I’m trying to help with everything but the swing and you know when I first started writing uh almost 10 years ago on my website you know my thought was well if I can communicate
Directly to golfers from a golfer’s perspective maybe some people would connect with that more effectively than you know swing instructors they’re on the practice te all day they’re worrying about technique of the golf swing everything else you know mindset strategy how to conduct yourself on the course mental game you know
That’s not necessarily in their purview so those are the topics I like to hang my hat on and yeah I think over many years especially on social media my newsletter I just kept exploring different ways to say something and eventually when I found out what resonated the most I turned that into my
First book and then hopefully now with the second one as well so it’s almost like a comedian trying to figure out their 60-minute routine you’re trying out all these jokes and and and uh small clubs you’re taking notes on what bombs and what hits and then hopefully you you
Build up to your big special you know that’s an approach I can relate to I listen to a lot of comedians podcast and they they talk literally about workshopping they’re going into the uh to The Improv and they’re doing five minutes and in that five minutes they
Are testing out one word like the switch from Maroon to beige or something in the middle of a joke by setting a recorder in the back of the room and seeing what the difference in laughter is like from one version to the other it it blew my
Mind to think about the science approach to something like standup well it also blows my mind when you think about the the scientific approach to the mental side of golf it’s um we’re a mess we we being we being golfers we’re all over the place and you know what I’m talking
About so as you have collected that feedback from golfers over the years obviously it’s not in an improv Club it’s it’s usually online in some different uh Forum Twitter is my improv Club okay so yeah and Twitter’s Twitter can be a reliable barometer of those things and sometimes it can be
Misleading um what is it that you hear from golfers that has guided you into this book and by the way the book is the foundations of winning golf a guide to competition for players of all levels so what did you hear from those golfers that that led you in this direction so
Yeah I in the in both of my books I referred in my inbox as like a virtual confession Booth so I’m fortunate enough to hear from golfers all around the world they email me they DM me with their deepest darkest secrets and questions and I pay attention to what
Those questions are and what their problems are more importantly what they think the problems are sometimes that’s not really the problem and you know whether you’re competing against friends in a $5 Nassau trying to win a Club Championship or even trying to win on the PGA tour I think similar themes
Emerge um you know one thing that is very difficult and I think the path of lease resistance for most golfers is just being incredibly hard on yourself and having like a negative inner monologue um being very fearful and anxious of outcomes and a lot of this book is really drawing the line between
What we can control and can’t control and that’s been said for thousands of years in many different formats but that that really is one of the things I’m trying to get people to move towards is understanding you know what’s in my control what can I hang my hat on and
Then what’s all the useless stuff I’m wasting mental and emotional energy on that is not productive while I’m playing or even after I’m playing so you know I’m trying to figure out different ways to say the same thing but that to to your original point you know how you say
Something can resonate with different people so I tell people if you read one of my books I’m only hoping you get really one big idea from it I might give you a hundred or 200 ideas but if you get one big idea from it and you come
Away and like wow I’m really GNA work on this then I think it’s valuable because that’s how I view reading books myself yeah and how many parts of life would be vastly improved if we only spent mental energy on the things we can control
Right so we we have as as humans we have this psyche that is I don’t know it’s divinely inspired but it’s also divinely confusing because we often spend so much of our angst and our stress in our time on things that we literally can’t do anything about we we absolutely no
Chance about it and in golf I think it’s magnified 10x um whether it’s the guy I’m playing with is playing so well I’ll never beat him you can’t play defense and golf so why does his performance matter uh to the uh the self-con convincing that I
Cannot hit this shot over this Hazard I just can’t do it and then you step up and you’re shocked when your ball does go in the water um so I know you’ve taken these things in all sorts of different directions you start with the idea of the definition of winning so
Let’s work through that a little bit if you would John and give us a feel for what what it means to even be in the right mindset when we’re heading to play so I I think you know when people see the title of the book They’re assuming
You know winning in the in the literal sense um but it’s it’s I I try and make it a double on Tandra have multiple meanings because of course our goal when we compete you know whether that’s against friends uh in match play tournaments whatever the format of
Course you want to win that’s obvious like that’s why we compete and I absolutely want to help people win um but you have to be realistic about your chances as you get deeper into competition your chances to win in a literal sense decrease if I’m teeing it
Up in a stroke play tournament with 150 other golfers you know me stepping up on the first te saying I’m gonna win this thing well you know that my chances are a bit lower versus if I’m playing a match versus versus a friend so I try and give
People a healthy understanding of like what is the goal with win and what I’m more concerned with and what I think is more fulfilling and fun is finding other ways to win um finding all those things that are within your control those habits those mindsets that
You can kind of create these own boxes that you can check off every single time you play and feel good about them and know that you know I’m working towards something that’s giving me fulfillment in life you know most of the people who read the book are not competing for a
Living and I view golf as one of the greatest life teachers and one of the greatest Hobbies that we can have and I want to more make sure that people are successful and feeling like they’re winning on their own terms you know there’s the competition against yourself and there’s the competition against
Other people um and I think there’s multiple chances to win in that sense and and and I do try and explore that and again not everyone will gravitate towards certain Concepts but if you find one example of like hey that’s that would be a big win for me if I can set
Appropriate goals and and feel like I’m working towards something bigger um well that just was a big mindset shift for me how big of a factor in the mental approach to this game is the concept of embarrassment or I guess embarrassment egoo Pride right because that it’s all
Kind of connected together so absolutely what have you seen in your feedback in your petri dish of Twitter feedback and and the other things that you’ve researched uh for that embarrassment Factor yeah I think that’s one of the top questions I get is you know what are
My playing Partners thinking of me like what will my friends think of me if I post this score and I have those feelings as well like I I try and be I share some anecdotal stories um like for example I got into the US midam last
Year which was a huge achievement for me yeah um and I had a lot of people you know I knew a lot of people were supporting me from my golf club people who followed my everything I do online and they’d be watching the leaderboard and I played great the first day and the
Second day you know the wheels came off a bit I just struggled and I remember going to my buddy will who was cading for me I’m like you know after the rough start I’m like man this is this is tough I’m embarrassed right now I know all
These people are watching my score and they’re like and I knew that was my irrational brain speaking I just kind of wanted to let it out um and then I came back from it but you know everyone gets embarrassed I refer to something called the spotlight effect in the book which
Is like a true psychological phenomenon where you think people are paying way more attention to you than they really are yes and they’re and they’re not so if you’re playing in a group and you’re not playing well you know people notice you losing your temper or talking about how bad you’re
Playing but if you just kind of keep your mouth shut and go on with your business most people don’t even know what you’re scorers especially in a competitive context because we’re so focused on ourselves so that that’s one of the things I tell people is like no
One cares as much as as you think they do and they’re not paying attention so if you can remove that burden and Free Yourself from that um it kind of opens you up to playing a little bit more freely and and being in a more positive
Mindset oh I’m so glad that you said that it brings very freshly to my mind um something that one of my heroes and one of my mentors said he’s passed away a few years ago but um I used to work on staff at a summer camp in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan and he was the director he was the founder of the camp and he would play softball um every day so that he could stay in contact and in touch with the kids who were there for their week of camp and invariably every week you would
Have a kid who would do something poorly I if you strike out or get out or whatever and this kid would be enraged he would just be ticked he didn’t know how to handle that failure and he would be making quite a spectacle of himself
And my hero Billy Walker would I I can’t even tell you how many hundreds of times I saw it happen but he would walk over put his arm around the kid and he would say Young man there are over six billion people on this planet who don’t even know we’re
Out here today enjoy the sunshine and know that it’s going to be okay I take that I’ve had that echoing around in my bald head for decades since I first was introduced to that perspective and then I find myself on the golf course either to myself or to
Somebody I’m playing with saying to them you know if you had made that birdie putt I don’t think Golf Channel was going to break into programming and have Rich learner at the desk with a News Bulletin and crawl across the bottom of the screen that Dwayne just birdied
14 and I also don’t think they’re interrupting programming to say that you double bogied it from the Fairway after a perfect t- shot so um and and we’ve all seen the club thrower guys we’ve all seen the temper tantrum people and it’s it’s pretty pretty rough look so the
Perspective that you shared is so spot on with that we’ve just got to kind of back out to the 30,000 foot View and realize there ain’t nobody who really cares so yeah take a relaxment here it is fascinating to me I another thing I wrote In the book was again dealing with
Like results and control issues is that you know one of my big epiphanies in tournament plays I had this putt three or four years ago that I knew was either going to like get me into a very important tournament and if I missed it I probably wasn’t going to get in and I
Had this moment where I was like you know what it doesn’t ma if it goes in great if it doesn’t I’m I’m okay with that too my kids are going to you know talk to me the same later on my wife will still love me and when I finally in
That moment was okay with either result um I had more of a piece come over me and I did make the putt it wasn’t the reason I made the putt but it helped it was kind of an important realization and quite honestly I think you know I work
With a PGA Tour player and that’s a lot of what our discussion is is that you know texted him he had a chance to win last week and I said Beware of the golfer who is open to all possibilities and okay with all possibilities and he was okay
With not winning um and we felt you know that strategy his openness to everything is going to lead to better results in the long term not just on that day and I think that’s where you know a lot of power comes in golf when you let go
That’s really hard to do you don’t ever really do it of course we worry about putts going in and hitting balls out of bounds and staring at the at the hazards and worrying about hitting it there but the more often you can kind of let go of
That and just be open to the fact that you might hit it in the Fairway you might hit it in the water um that’s when you’re heading in the right direction man I can think of so many instances where I have miserably failed this litmus test so you know you talk about
Moments of competition and it’s now it’s like 15 years ago but I’m telling you John it is as fresh as if it was yesterday for me I have those feelings too yeah because golfers carry scars with them longer than carry celebration uh we don’t celebrate enough the things that we did really well
Instead we tend to dwell on the times that we didn’t and I’m playing in a an event that nobody cares about but it’s you know it’s a a Golf Association of Michigan uh event net amateur something like that a bunch of years ago two days um first day i’ done fairly decently I’m
I’m about a six so that that’ll give you an indication of where I am um second day uh got off to a decent start and then somewhere Midway through the round I for some reason hit seven consecutive grounders I don’t I don’t do that I’m a
Big boy I can get the ball to go in the air it just makes no sense and you you all of a sudden you’re reeling you’re spinning in this weird Vortex of nothing makes sense and how do I even move the club back F four inches let alone a full
Swing and I remember getting to the end of that round basically you know in some way shape or form apologizing to my playing Partners competitors I turned in my scorecard I took off my golf shoes I walked them over to a dumpster in the parking lot of this very nice club I
Threw them in the dumpster and I don’t believe I touch the club for like the next 2 to 3 weeks I was completely done with the stupid game this is you know 15 years ago because well because I didn’t have the foundations of winning golf in my hand
So to go you’re a little bit late but because I had lost that perspective and and I cannot imagine that I’m the only one who at some point in my playing life has struggled with that side of it so I really like that part I’ve also found
John that golfers um almost almost need an audience to vent even though none of us wants to be in that audience for the other guy nobody wants to hear me describe the seven grounders nobody wants to hear the guy who shot 78 tell you how it should have been 73 and walk
Nobody wants to hear any of that but have you found that golfers kind of they need somebody that they can just let it all out to yeah I think there there’s two ways I would look at that as one of course it feels good to vent um to your
Peers who understand what it’s like and you kind of have that shared uh joy and misery with the game like we all understand like yeah I I I could have shot a 73 today if I didn’t thre putt on the you know of course we have we all have our stories right um
But what I think is important is that you know if if you’re more serious about getting better um you do have to kind of draw the line with not blaming too many external things and taking more responsibility for what’s within your control so for example you know I’ve
Done this before a million times where like I’ve complained about playing Partners or the conditions of the course um about were the reason why I shot the score I did and I think that’s an easy trap to fall into as a golfer because we love to commiserate in these groups and
Say oh it was you know anything but me and I find that the more that you can take ownership and acknowledge of again the things that are within your control um I think you’re going to be a much stronger player and have a stronger mental game so that in those moments
Where kind of the wheels are coming off or stuff like that you’re going to have a bit more clarity um and the ability to weather that storm so I I would tell people like if if the problem is always elsewhere and it’s never you uh I would
Take a step back and ask if you questions on that uh because I’ve been there and I I still do it from time to time we do have to let off some steam there’s a balance here we see tour players doing it all the time they’re stamping down Spike marks they’re you
Know they they need to place blame elsewhere from time to time but I can guarantee you they’re going back to work at the at the range afterwards and trying to figure it out and take ownership over that so it’s a fine line to walk between you know letting some
Steam off and taking ownership of what we can funny you say that I cannot imagine how many times I’ve witnessed thanks to the microphones that are on courses now during televised events I I cannot even summarize how many times I’ve witnessed a PGA Tour player being on the unfortunate
Receiving end of a sudden gust of wind like yeah did you feel that did you feel that and nobody felt that because you just hit a bad shot it’s okay and you’re you know your poor Caddy’s like yeah boss oh yeah that was a a real nor
Easter that came through yeah it’s it’s a real thing I mean I don’t mention his name in the book but he’s fine with me talking about it elsewhere so I coached McKenzie Hughes and this weekend he had a chance to win the valpar yeah um and
On the 12th hole he had a pretty I think a 165 to a right pin and the wind just kept changing they actually had the live wind on the screen it was going from 5 miles an hour to 17 and it was not it was not the
Direction that it was supposed to be in the whole day so they backed off the shot a few times and they’re like okay it’s a nineiron and the second McKenzie stepped up to the ball the wind went up to 17 miles an hour and it just the ball
Took off went into the back of a bunker on a downhill sline he was just totally dead go yeah nowhere to go and the same thing happened on the next hole when he hit in the water and we talked about that and he accepted that that you know
It was a bad break but he fought after that he still he was one under par you know that unfortunately ended his chance of winning the tournament but in the past he probably would have not forgiven himself for that mistake and he hung in there and was one under for the rest of
The round and finished him third uh and we know that’ll serve him better in the future and I think all golfers can learn from that is that you know he took that punch you know he hit the shot he tried to and the wind just totally destroyed it and unfortunately Peter malady if
People were watching that he hit a shot that on the same hole where he he immediately was like oh no and the gust of wind helped him and and he hit it to 20 feet and he knocked in the birdie so unfortunately this is what happens when you compete there’s things that are
Going to happen to you and to your competitors that are just totally out of your control and the more you ruminate on them and scold yourself for those things um you’re not going to progress and grow as a player as hard as that is to do so yeah it can be I acknowledge
That a lot in the book there’s a lot of moments where you’re like God that just sucked and you have to let it go yeah and for all of us when we have those moments that are just kicks in the teeth they don’t usually cost us 300 Grand or
Whatever right so there’s even it was a lot of money yeah there’s this extra layer and I was watching McKenzie and I remember when I saw that shot on the Downs slope of the bunker um one of the broadcasters said I think overholser said there’s there’s nowhere to put this
He’s got no he’s dead and that was the third or fourth bad lie he had gotten in the bunker that day it wasn’t the first one but he he texted me afterwards he like that’s the way it goes yeah he was accepting of that well there’s something
About being uh The Thrill of the hunt and being in contention that can also Propel you to practice harder and to develop that thicker tougher skin in those moments um and I love your concept about setting goals you talk about in the book um I’m I’m always intrigued in
Fact you’re the you’re the one that I’ve been wanting to ask this question to which brand of golfer generally has a more volatile reaction to negative outcomes on the golf course is it the guy or the lady who has practiced hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and
Hours on the Range and on the short game area to get that that flop shot down or to work on their bunker game and then when it when the heat’s on because you got three 50 Cent skins on the line you blade it into the pond so that’s version
A of the golfer and their expectations obviously were set quite High because of all the practice they had put in or is the more volatile temper coming from the person who doesn’t practice at all steps up to the first T and expects to go out and shoot 68 and then is shocked beyond
Belief when they’re they’re turning in an 89 five hours later yeah I think I’d put my money on golfer B both both of them can have mismanaged expectations in those scenarios but yeah you you if you are putting in the right kind of work I think you can have higher expectations
But still understanding that you know no matter how good I get at this it’s still in the cards that I’m going to chunk it or or or blade it into uh into the Into the Bunker I mean we even see tour players doing that I I kind of sent out
A funny tweet the other day saying I have this when a tour player mangles a straightforward Chip Shot it almost makes me feel better because it’s like well they can do it all the practice they’re doing and like why am I getting so angry at myself when it happens to me
Um so yeah I think in terms of goals uh I make the distinction between external and internal goals in the book and an external goal would be like I want my handicap to get down to 10 or I want to win a Club Championship so golf makes it very easy to set external
Tangible goals um it’s a numbers game we always have a number we have a win or loss um I’m not against external goals I think they’re great that’s kind of what gives you the big big motivation but if you don’t have the right mixture of internal goals which are smaller more
Controllable and when I talked about checking off the boxes earlier that those are really the internal goals so when I tea up in a tournament I have a few goals for myself I’m not giving up I don’t care if I’m 20 overpar or three underpar I’m going to step up to every
Shot go through my routine pick an optimal Target and live with whatever result happens I know if I do that in every round 95 plus percent of the time I’m going to grow as a player um I’m committing to you know having hopefully reasonable reactions to shots and not
Having that disbelief if I pump one out of bounds and just saying well you know what it was that happens I I of course want to hit the Fairway but I have to also be able to have somewhat of a neutral reaction to shots I’m not happy
With because if I internalize them more and they kind of hang over me for the rest of the round then I’m not going to play as well so I think I challenge golfers to the external goals are easy to set and you obviously want to have reasonable ones so if you’re telling me
You’re a 10 handicap and you want to qualify for a US amateur I’d say well that’s ridiculous right they they have to be reasonable or let’s say it’s a handicap goal if you want to go from a 15 to a 10 I’m like great now let’s
Break it all apart part and you know do some introspection into the different parts of your game that need work and set a list of you know habits and and goals that you can achieve whether it’s how much time you’re practicing uh maybe keeping track of stats stuff like that
You know stuff that you can feel good about and that you’re making progress and we know this like humans know this like if you want to lose weight if you want to save more money like we know the right things to do it’s doing them
That’s the hard part um so I think you know having that blend between the right external goals and internal goals especially for competitors um is so crucial because if you don’t you’re just going to be fighting against yourself all the time is essentially what happens the the idea of
A quick fix culture is everywhere we understand that so it it is I hey I need to lose 20 pounds John meet me at Golden Corral right that’s that’s how it’s going to work um and at the same time in golf it’s difficult to for for amateurs for
People who are working for a living who have other lives it’s very difficult to find the time to put in that’s required in this game you you cannot get better at golf without putting in the time it doesn’t just naturally occur unless you are the the rare freak of
Nature so the realistic setting of expectations is so vital to all of that like you said you’re you’re probably not going to go from shooting in the mid90s to winning your Club Championship this year but you know what if you could take baby steps what if you could now break
90 what if you could get it to the mid 80 what if you can get under but these things are going to take time so in the in the concept of the foundations of winning golf what would be your recommendation for getting somebody started on the journey to
Improvement um so that so that they can actually check off some boxes of accomplishment as opposed to just beating their head up against the wall time and time again yeah I think it can take multiple forms so um let’s say you were that more um beginner type player
And you’re saying like Okay I’m going to start competing more you know I tell people having the mindset of being out there to learn um can be really important because if you go out there with not a lot of experience and you’re expecting to perform uh and I did this
Too earlier in my competitive journey I I just expected too much of myself um and if you out there with like a learning mindset you’re saying like I’m going to I’m going to see what happens today I’m going to pay attention to like what thoughts are going through my head um targets I’m
Selecting uh I’m just G to see what happens and then afterwards we’re going to take a look back on it and ask the right questions and and and see what happens here I think going on the course with that mindset um gives you a lot more patience with yourself versus if
You went out there and said o uh I got to shoot 74 today you know especially hard when you say to yourself all right all I got to do is be 300 through the first four yeah no problem I’m not going to hit any balls beforehand I’m going to
Roll up there seven minutes before my tea time I’ll meet the guys in the Pro Shop and then I’m going to be and you’re shocked when you’re five over through four and you think’s ruined right so it’s realistic expectation and giving yourself a chance to succeed it this is
A big game of like disassociating yourself from results because like every shot every every hole every round we get all this like instant feedback and if you don’t have something that you’re working towards that is outside of that result um then all you’re going to do is think
About the results saying like well I I if I don’t make this seven footer on the fifth hole I’m done here like I have no chance of making the cut um it’s over and a lot of alfers play with that mentality and I feel that pressure too
Sometimes I’m not immune from this stuff um but if you stood over that Putt and say okay I’m going to go through my routine have the right intention here and and just try and hit a good putt if goes in great if it doesn’t like we’re
Just going to move on to the next hole and see what happens there like that’s a healthier way to approach these things because I don’t know any golfer who can play well with results like in the Forefront of their mind all the time we have to find perspective shifts to like
Push them further further back and if you had a list of things that you were trying to accomplish in the round um outside of the results that makes it easier to put your attention there and I’m not the only one talking about this thousands and thousands of great competitors and great golfers figure
This out on their own terms um it’s it’s different but the same for everyone like they find different ways to make this happen uh like for me like on the putting green I play songs in my head as crazy as that sounds not not not earbuds
In your ears just no I have a song that like kind of gets stuck in my head and I get myself into this trance where I’m like I’m going through my read and my intention is all about speed I’m not thinking about my putting stroke and I’m
Not thinking about trying to make it I I’ve kind of put myself in this like um different world where I’m just like kind of going through this thing and I’m going to see a Target and react to it athletically some of them are going to
Go in some of them won’t but I can tell you I’m a hell of a better putter over the last five years with that mindset versus me standing over it and saying don’t pull this one don’t push it and it’s not to say those thoughts don’t
Ever go through my head they do but if I can place my intention and focus elsewhere uh and experiment with what resonates with me that puts me in a better position to succeed when the pressure inevitably comes back me out a little bit to the uh
To the story that leads to John Sherman loving this game of golf when when did that part start because you can’t do what you’re doing without having a a lifelong uh love aair with with this crazy game so what’s the backstory here uh I mean similar to other people like I
I grew up playing a ton of different sports baseball basketball hockey everything I just I love sports as a kid and my gr I I went to my grandmother’s house a lot um when I was younger we were very close and I went into her garage and there was like an old I
Didn’t really know my grandfather he had passed uh when I was very young there’s an old set of golf clubs in there probably from like the 1950s um and I just like took them out went across the street to an abandoned schoolyard and I was like taking all
This dead grass and like stacking it up and just hitting the the ball it was like old Pimon woods and irons with like wooden shafts and I just connected with one of them and it felt great and I watched the ball Sail through the air and that’s that’s how I got addicted um
Just feeling that that flush contact it was kind of like a drug and I’m probably still chasing it so yeah I just like other people I got exposed to the game and when I did something clicked and for a lot of other people like my kids it didn’t click with them unfortunately yet
Um but it clicked with me and you know that was when tiger was just about getting started in pro golf so yeah I grew up in a time where it it was fun to to watch him do what he did and I became you know deeply passionate about the
Game and I had a lot of downs too you know I talk about that in my first book like struggling with my temper as a junior golfer in my 20s and not enjoying the game and having really bad expectations and not putting in the right kind of work and expecting too
Much of myself so a lot of what I discussed the last 10 years was kind of like reminders to myself and almost like a rehabilitation process for me to enjoy the game and play better um but yeah I just fell in love with it like that that first
Day well you’ve been uh blessed with the gift of communication and um also the passion that is required to do something like this you folks you do not just sit down and hammer out a book um like in an afternoon you might you might be able to
Sketch out the broad strokes but you are not hammering out a book without being fully committed and fully immersed in it uh so I would encourage all of you to check out the foundations of winning Golf and John you’ve done a great job with it uh I appreciate the insight and
Hopefully when book number three comes out we can connect again and well if you ever make it to my part of the world let me know we’ll go Tee It Up and you can you know you can show me how in real life you demonstrate the concepts of the
Book well I’d love to take you up on that because I am desperate to play a lot of the amazing golf courses I know you guys have in Michigan I have some friends who are from there and I’ve seen the pictures and man you guys have that
That area you know I’d love to go to m Michigan and Wisconsin and explore all those courses you uh you would not want to leave so be maybe pack a few extra items maybe throw the kids and the family in the car because uh when you do it’s pure
Michigan you’ll want to stay until about yeah mid-February I’ve I’ve had some Lake Michigan exper not Lake like smaller lakes in Michigan experiences in summer it was yeah I I was very jealous uh I’m a New York guy we have the ocean here but the Lakes I think I prefer the
Lakes to be honest well it’s great to meet you thanks for the time and for the insight and for the work foundations of winning golf John Sherman and down the Road
