Ralph Bauer is the Director of Instruction at Hamilton Golf & Country Club and a coach on the PGA Tour! He joined Adam Scully to discuss that, plus his Tour Read Golf Green Reading App!
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good friend of the show Ralph Bower the director of instruction here at Hamilton PGA Tour coach many other titles that which we would take hours to go through but Ralph welcome back to GTC Adam thanks for having me I’ve had this circled on my calendar for a while and it’s super exciting to be here isn’t it great to be here and before we we get to the golf we had a little stoping chat here with uh your good pal Dwayne rolison roelly the goalie so how far back do you guys go wow long time uh High School wow yeah okay okay and so you instructed his kid is that right yeah so he we we would trade I would give his kids uh you know golf lessons and he would give my kids hockey lessons so it was a it was a pretty good deal wow and obviously Dwayne rolson was the goalie for the Edmonton Oilers acquisition of the 2006 NHL trade deadline and that freak injury Man game one against Carolina how things could have been different I know I know that still gives you nightmares doesn’t it yeah it it does and and uh yeah it’s a weird series they on roll and you know hopefully I’ve always been ever since then I’ve been an Oilers fan I think if you grew up in Canada you’ve always had some affinity for the oers right but uh you know it’ll be fun this uh this week too with them and uh you know hopefully we have a better outcome hopefully game six for that series which Dwayne is going to goes uh on Sunday but let’s talk about the golf course here Hamilton Golf and Country Club the redesign has been a hot topic of conversation in the best way possible what’s it like for you to hear the re action that it’s received so far yeah super exciting you know it’s almost like it’s almost like you know you make something for your friends for dinner and you’re hoping they like it right so all my friends are here from the tour and they’re like wow this R this place is great you know I had a couple comments like wow this place could hold us US Open well you know it’s get that border issue still but uh you know but no it’s overwhelmingly positive everybody loves it it’s you know if you’re a golfer you love old historic you know old school golf courses are fun where you have hit shots you’re not just bombing and gouging and you’re you know you have to think your way around the golf course Cades love that too Cades like love to be challenged they love to you know have to put the thinking caps on and do their homework and and new courses are fun too totally man yeah and so for someone who maybe isn’t aware of the redesign or hasn’t heard about it and they’re coming out for the first time this week to see it how different will it look or feel maybe to what we saw in 2019 I think a lot of the the the looks will be similar because the same routing yes right it’s more of subtle changes subtle changes around the greens the green complexes are more like an upside down bow now where there’s runaways and and and players are have so many options around the greens so you know you miss the green you you can you can fly it up you can bump run it you can run along the ground you know just amazing so and there’s some more much better sight lines off the t’s with with the bun with the faway bunkering right so that that’s been play players have loved that and yeah everybody’s been super positive about it that’s that’s amazing I remember when we were out here for the RBC Canadian open media day I texted you I said man I’m in love with this place this place is awesome and I love the runoff areas I love the the creativity that is needed because for example here the 10th hole is behind us and for us that day and I’ve seen it too in practice rounds back pin with that runoff right there you could hit any club in your bag and try to chip it close and with the how the rain has affected the golf course that that could mean many different shots yeah which is which is it’s fun as a fan to watch that as well right so so you’re you’re not just watching onedimensional you’re you’re learning shots this way that you can use your home golf course which is fun which is a lot of fun uh we’re in conversation here with Ralph Bower from PJ tour coach director of instruction at Hamilton golf and country club and we had this chat very briefly yesterday and I’m so glad you brought it up because we’re seeing a lot of success from Canadians on the PGA tour playing using their clubs but there’s also a ton of success the guys who are carrying their bags the caddies Canadian Cades tell us a little about about how successful Canadian caddies have been so far too yeah so I I feel like that’s that hasn’t been um out there as much as it as it could be that I’m a big fan of of the Canadian caddies they they they work hard they’re good at their job they love their Co they love their players and you know it’s it’s a lot of fun it’s almost like an F1 team right where where the caddies are comparison I like that yeah like a good F1 team right but uh you know like like the catties are helping each other out I I was out at the RBC har this year and and the players were all off site the the caddies were all together you know all rolling balls together they’re not technically allowed to share information but they can say hey come on over here and what you you know roll a ball from here right so they’re they’re just you know help they got the yst books they’re they’re making notes that’s what yeah they’re making notes they’re comparing you know comparing notes and and it’s it’s it’s really cool and now when a young player comes out on tour there’s this whole support network not only of other players right totally but other other caddies coaches right so I I remember when golf Canada first started their development program that the number one goal you know unspoken was was really to create a team environment so that when a a rookie would come out on tour there was a bunch of Canadians out there a bunch of support people out there and and you know they could ACC climatize to what what’s a pretty harsh environment right you know right away yeah 100% And it’s so amazing to see so much success from these caddies these players so far and it’s cool for you because as a coach there could be times when you spend a lot of time with these caddies too right yeah and most of the caddies at one point I’ve coached as well right so that’s been kind of fun but uh you know you you mentioned it you you saw uh you know Dave Markle was was first person on on Monday morning so Nick Taylor’s caddy you know defending Champion not taking anything for granted hey he’s the first one out right uh Jace Walker who caded for Mack and now works for svenny you know is is unbelievable Danny you know cat’s for Cory and you know Mitch and you know and then there’s you know there’s still the you know the Brennon Littles of the world who were an amazing resource for those guys so it’s it’s it’s a cool sub kind of topic on the PJ tour is how you know how hardworking and and great those caddies are yeah I saw Butchie little Butchie yesterday too Brandon little he’s doing really well awesome to see Gary Woodland here I think the current leader if I’m not mistaken has a Canadian uh caddy as well so heyy okay interesting um Sean O’Hare or is is Joseph bramlet lead Joseph bramlett’s one shot off the leag right now okay well one shot know we got to give the guy credit I love that I love that we’re with Ralph Bower here and Ralph we’ve had you on our show before talking about the tour read golf green reading system how has that gone and how has it continue to go yeah so I appreciate that so yeah it’s going great it’s uh been a lot of fun but what we’ve created is a is an app basically with a whole system in it that somebody can download it it now it teaches you how to put as well so it’s got a seven a seven day putting course that’s inside there that you can do at your house it’s it’s really good I’m super proud of it’s basically everything I’ve ever learned about putting last you know 20 30 years that I I tried to put into those videos I had a uh you know a top 20 player in the in the world a lady us opens this week and she like hey can you come down I like no I can’t but if I can see what the problem is if you just watch the third video in the app you’ll be fine so she did and she’s like yeah that that helped a lot thanks right so yeah that’s been a lot of fun um you know kind of some like last year both NCAA men’s and women’s teams you know were app users which is kind of cool this year we had the UCLA which is was runner up uh they downloaded for their whole team the next week they shot 31 under par right which is wow yeah pretty good and the coach said hey you know it it helps to read greens better right so yeah it’s been a lot of fun it’s been a lot of work but uh it it’s super fun to the average person that downloads it tells us they save two shots round inside a month oh my goodness yeah it’s funny I gave a golf lesson to um a young pro here last year here he came to Hamilton to see me and you know I just saw him in the pting green I kind of lost track of my guest sorry about that but you know he’s playing now he’s like yeah I’m saving like 1.5 shots around I like you good he’s like yeah just doing what you told me like okay sounds good well isn’t it crazy too because you know people work on their stroke all the time but reading greens well it’s pretty important to make putts isn’t it yeah you know and I feel like people people will will miss a putt they automatically default to I pushed or pulled it yes and then they go down a rabbit hole of trying to fix something that’s not broken right so and that’s frustrating it doesn’t lead to obviously to long-term Improvement if we can identify what the problem is uh you know it’s going to be a lot lot easier to to improve and one of my Fondest Memories selfishly with you was a couple summers ago you zako and I we were doing a shoot for golf talk with with your app and we rolled putts and we’re finished we’re sort of standing around and you’re like hey man do you mind if I give you a quick puttting lesson and I’m like I’m just floreda I’m like let’s get my popcorn ready my notepad was out and you changed my putting man so I I always have to thank you for that okay well you know sometimes you have to have an intervention and and I felt like that was the time to do it well we mentioned Dwayne rolson off the top and viewers and listeners of our show know I was a former goalie so there’s a couple screws loose up here obviously but sometimes that can be a bit of an interesting situation on the golf course in terms of mentally but anyway uh enough of that so before we we wrap here uh Ralph you mentioned director of instruction Hamilton Golf and Country Club someone watching someone listening 152 handicap what is the average what is the most common flaw you see with the average amateur golfer let’s say on the greens is it reading greens or is it with their stroke yeah reading greens if if I could default to the number one problem I see is people not spending enough time on their setup right so interesting yeah so their alignment like like they might work hard on their on their swing all winter yes right and they’ll come out and they’ll very casually be lined up 10 degrees off Target right so you know um yeah if we could take a little bit more time with our with our setup with our with all of our shots wow you know that that’d be and you know do some work in front of a mirror at home it doesn’t have to be fancy you know you can just go home you know get set up in front of a mirror without a club get comfortable there and you’ll bring that with with you here wow well okay before before we actually wrap now um people listening people watching want more information on the tour read app uh where can they find um probably our website would be the best way to go to read golf.com would be a great spot uh I try to put a lot of information on there so even if you don’t download it you’ll get some you know some information that that hopefully will help fantastic man well hey Ral thanks so much for your time today always enjoy getting however much time we get to spend together and hopefully we get to see each other again later the summer Adam thanks for everything you do
