Tee Time with Trottie Ep. 5 – Andre Iguodala

Learn from one of the best instructors in the game of golf Chris Trott, otherwise known as Trottie. Check out the Tee Time with Trottie series where he takes present and former athletes and improves their golf game. This episode’s guest is Andre Iguodala, 4x NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association, Co-Founder of Mosaic General Partnership, and co-host of “Point Forward” podcast.

Watch as Andre uses his newly upgraded equipment, learns the importance of the mental aspect of the game, the benefits of putting with a mallet, and more. Hit that play button and tee off with us today!

Catch up on past episodes and keep up with the series at the link below!
https://www.golfgalaxy.com/blog/a/tee-time-with-trottie

[Music] [Applause] this is tea time with trotty presented by Golf Galaxy today I’m joined by four time NBA champion Andre Iguodala good to have you here mate it’s good to be here we got a par four in front of us 300 bills to the trap on the right talk to me about what you going to do down here so when I play a hole I play with some pretty good players and what I’ve been taught is if there’s trouble whichever side there’s trouble you want to hit a shot kind of into it and so I’m aiming at that bunker I won’t carry it to it but if I can aim at that bunker and kind of draw it back into the Fairway that’d be the perfect shot and if it doesn’t draw it just goes straight and I’m still in a fairway let’s see if you can put that through into practice going to app oh God that was beautiful good shot mate good shot you sir so I believe you recently went for a fitting at Golf Galaxy I did Golf Galaxy um I frequent there a lot back home when uh I’m trying to sneak out the house hitting a couple Putters around the greens and just geeking out on the off GE how was the uh whole situation how was the experience how long did it take were they asking questions that like where were they diving in where they getting into what you truly needed and your needs cuz you’re actually quite golf equipment spot on I like I’ve been talking to you a little while I like what you have to say yeah so I went in and tried to give them some feedback on you know like I’m like a equipment geek like I’m on the the websites I’m on the blogs I’m seeing what’s coming out you know I’m seeing Roy’s 4 iron and you know Roy’s 4 iron I know who are you talking about and you know just letting them know like you know I like my wedges set up a certain way so I’m 59 5550 on my setup and I know my specs I know my lie um I know loss on most of my clubs and just giving them some background on what I’m looking for on my spin you know my launch it was a really good experience so they weren’t putting you in there too far past the point of the bell curve that’s how I always like to call it if you’re going to go in the experience is like Hey we’re here for a fitting rather than just to see you smash drivers correct correct so you know uh started with wedge and then I went into like a eight iron then went into the six iron looking for certain numbers and then uh went to my uh Fairway Woods went to a hybrid went to a driving iron just seeing like what type of launch numbers I would need or look for um so it was a it was an amazing experience getting to the driver you know you got three different uh options with the driver so went with the qi1 core driver you know seen a lot of uh a lot of guys on tour with it you know uh the low spin is usually good for me but I think this is you know a good blend of what I’m looking for with my game obviously with with your NBA championships that game is about precision and aiming you gave me a great visualization on what you were trying to do there do you use any of your former career to help you on a golf course yeah I would say so um golf has helped me in basketball I would say and so my problem on the court was you know I was one of those guys where if I missed a shot I would think about it on the next play so if I started the game over two 0 for three I’m nervous on pulling the trigger where on golf if you hit a bad shot you got to forget about you got to go to the next shot how do you do that you know I’m a competitor so if I don’t hit a good shot I’m pretty ticked at myself I got to get par and then you know my next shot is like pressure’s on but I like pressure moments because I put in work on my golf game and I know you put the work in the results are take care of themselves so I’m like I guarantee you I par and so it’s like motivation but you competing with yourself that’s why I love golf like I don’t gamble too much on the course because I’m playing against myself and it’s like the you know that’s like the ultimate place to be as a competitor if you can compete against yourself you’re going to continue to drive yourself to get better as we all try and get better at golf information that you’ve already alluded to with the qi1 core versus the ls versus the max that was in your mind you knew your numbers you’ve listed your Lofts on your wedges you’re going in with a technical mindset but also like a creative as well how do you let the creative flow over the technical information that you hear on a golf course and how do you do it on a basketball court because you must have people giving you guidance all the time yeah well on a basketball court you know everyone wants to emulate Michael Jordan’s fade away you know now every every kid wants to emulate Steph Curry’s shooting abilities and there are some technicalities in there but if you watch those athletes play they just put in the work and then once they get on the court and the game the real game is just free flowing yeah it’s just like you know now I’m just breathing and it’s letting it flow and come my way and it’s the same here where I’m on I’m on a course and when I get too technical I get tight and tense if I’m getting too tight and I’m trying to force this swing as opposed to just just get your swing path you know in out draw happens Let the Body flow I’m going to give that a go I like it okay down the right side see if we can just keep it out there let it flow you heard the man ball just like we pictured it are we playing cart golf we right next to each other we are right next to each other that’ll play keeps it social yes [Music] sir so with wedges and obviously this is a brand new club I saw even a couple of them you got them so recently you just taken the stickers off you can see the raw face you can feel everything in this watch your feedback so far on these wedges and obviously you’re very dialed in on the Lofts I love that that was very particular but what what was the experience like getting a wedge fitting and how did that go down so the wedges were really cool because of you know obviously when you getting a fresh pair of wedges you know it’s the spin you know and and and the feedback you get when you hit the ball and I like these wedges because as soon as I make contact I know if I hit a good or bad shot like right away like that’s what I love is just feeling that feedback and that’s what I learned like I practice with blades in house like I’ve never taken them outside but just to get feedback just to get feel so when I’m on the court you know on the course you just hit hitting the ball with confidence how did you get into golf um I got into golf at a young age watching tiger okay but I never had access yeah to courses didn’t know where to go didn’t have clubs you know and then in college you do a few um alumni events yeah you know you got boosters that come around and um you get to do one or two events with them every year and so I was able to play but you know clubs are rented you still don’t know what you’re doing still don’t know how to get to the course but then when I got to the pros I got a set of clubs you know my first 10 years in the league it was basketball basketball basketball no time so no time because but then uh it was like you work smarter not harder like you don’t kill yourself you know I’m not in the gym eight hours because I’m getting older so you want to be very efficient with your time and so when I got to the Warriors there was a coach Pete Meyers played for the Bulls back in the day my guy he taught me how to hit a draw cuz quite naturally the ball was just banana slicing lot people and so what I kept doing was you aim further left not knowing that’s going to make you slice it even more and so he taught me you know you got 12 to six you know inside the seven you know swing out to one and it’s good the first time I hit a draw it was like it was like perfect explosion in your hand right it was like the that feeling you get like boom and I dropped the club and almost ran away like the ball came back the other way I never seen it I’m like oh my God and then from there I was just hooked now I know a few players you know a lot I know a lot of tailor mate guys and then Rory was in his uh like he was in his prime when I really got into golf 2013 and so um you know he’s my favorite golfer yeah when you get fit for golf clubs being as tall as you are is that a challenge like obviously I don’t Stuffle with that myself but I know the weights and the swing weights go up a lot so on tour with players sometimes they’ struggle with the all weight or the swing weight of the golf club the balance point how about you how did you tackle that Golf Galaxy going so long in the golf sh when I got fitted um what I learned what I saw was they put this tape at the sole of the club yeah and then you hit a few balls and then it shows you you know uh where it interacts where it interacts with the ground and so that’s why I learned I was one degree upright also it’s uh where your floor so they were doing everything like wrist of floor and then looking at different lengths and playing around and obviously I know you ended up like inch and a half longer was that the maximum you wanted to go or did they were like recommending that and you were good with it yeah I was good with it over the time like I paid attention to you know even like how I should be putting the ball how long my putter should be yeah and so for me it’s just uh leaning on Experts sure at the same time so you know I’ll admit what I don’t know like hey you know don’t know much about this help me out and and the guys at Golf Galaxy were able to say like hey this is what you should be thinking like I got a whole putting lesson that is blowing my mind right now and I’m still thinking about I can’t wait till we get on the green well let’s get there then so we’ve got left in here if I look at this and we go to the back Edge I think I was saying earlier one second we have yeah9 to the back and then I think you’ve got about 115 to the flag we hit these pretty close to each other you all right so we got a which one I we don’t they’re both using the same number so we don’t look particularly I’ll go this ball first so for this one off a slight down bank it’s going to shoot out a bit quicker that 120 to the back numberers pretty important mhm and then with that flag I’m Andre I’m actually going to go a little right of it see if I can just go for the fat of the green here pretty stiff pretty happy with that line pretty happy with that golf shot so for me with these wedges why I like them and obviously for you you got freshy so there’s a bit more heat on you here I know exactly how far it’s going to go 120 to the back and that’s gone five yards short of it I’m happy with that that’s a that’s a Pros Miss right there you had no div you’re like tiger I’d like to say it was intended but same you got your 52 52 yes little right but it’s on the green I don’t hate it I don’t hate it either right Club yes sir so Andre we made it up to the dance floor we’re all the way out here putter in your hand is new and it’s beautiful talk to me a little bit about the experience you went through so uh when I went to Golf Galaxy to look at some Putters and obviously this stuck out to me cuz you know all the guys that are winning you know Scotty’s going crazy with it and you know Rory introduced it to him or you know uh suggested that he used it and I feel like this gave me great confidence you know straight forward straight back and a hidden putts you know with that the blade you got to have a small curve yeah in in your in your putting stroke and so for me uh getting some explanation about this putter too was was pretty uh informative in terms of you know uh thei moment of inertia do you know what that very uh sort of fitting you went through we do that at the Kingdom at tailor made 12T pot for a reason we’ve had the best players in the world over the last two or three decades there they don’t always strike that thing out in the middle so when you have a Potter like this and I don’t know if they showed you this that’s a nice grip by the way but if you take the Potter and you hold it like this I can tap away from the center I’m not on the center there and look how little that Potter is twisting so guys don’t hit them out the middle and the girls don’t hit them out the center all the time so what you’re experiencing that energy to the hole moment of inertia that Andre so fantastically got in there is basically reduction to twist and that’s why this has been so successful now you were telling me a little bit about the experience you had and looking at the Loft and the impact I know you and I have spoken about how important and it’s why I’ve got this Delonte arm lock but Li angle is but also the Loft you present at a dress yeah I learned a ton it kind of blew my mind in terms of you know how I put it so when I set up previously you know my putter I was pretty much straight up and down and I thought this is what I was seeing MH you know you got a full few guys on tour who do a small forward press yes but didn’t quite understand why and so when I was getting fitted and I started my forward press you know I got the heel just off the ground and so when I brought that heel up and I got it here it was more of a pure roll and I made like six straight putts it just blew my mind so now I’m really excited to get back home and get to working on it the main call out if anyone wants to try the forward press when you set up there just before you press the beauty of the spot sper is it’s got the white insert so it’s how far are you going to press right okay and a lot of them go to the point where you can’t see the white cuz if you put your hands here you can see the white yes but if you forward press no white and then you go yes and it’s great because you keep moving so I obviously don’t play basketball but imagine there must be part of your routine where you’re like hang on a minute I go Bam Bam or I throw the ball and let it spin back to me or you know I wipe the sweat off my brow there’s the routine right and that’s all part of it and then it’s bump bump one look go your forward press is just start of the same sort of the same thing so it’s like bum bum bum there’s my forward press it’s a trigger trigger it’s a trigger I like that I like that so this part obviously my markers out there just on the right side talk to me about your process as to are you going to walk up and get a feel for it are you going to just stick back here so if I’m playing a fun friendly round and we’re just moving along I normally just take a look from like this angle obviously when I was on my Approach shot I knew that I leave it a little bit long and it will spin Back Spin on that mil grind full wedge right not going at the pin but I can see that it’s a a back to front pin so being up here putting I know it’s a right to a left and so I have a good feel so now it’s up to me to see how far outside that I’m going to go obviously my chances of making bird birdie are pretty slim and so I’m trying to give myself an opportunity just to have a tap in or a short par putt I use my feet a lot on the green and so obviously I know now I’m going to be putting uphill because my feet tell me my you know my natural weight is falling on my heels and then when I stand on my line I stand between you know my imaginary line I’m seeing a lot of my weight is push falling over to the left side so I know it’s right to left so I do a lot of feet you know a lot of feel with my feet walk up and down the green to give me kind of a feel of like how far they hit it and what line it hit it on that’s awesome touch well like I knew what I was doing it’s good touch a little long but the line was right oh that went in there you go I’ll get that one for you me I’ll get that one all right let’s roll on