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[Applause] say I give you mine but I’m pretty dirty all right everyone welcome back to the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship i am PJ of America Golf Professional Ryan Adams here on the driving range we’re about to see some of the best players in the world uh warm up and get ready for their fourth round i’m joined here by PJ of America Golf Professional Natalie Favaldi natalie thanks for joining me yeah of course
just give a little introduction of where you’re from and and Natalie competed this weekend so uh talk about that as well yeah thank you Ryan so I am a PGA of America member from Southern California i work at Emerald Isle Golf Course in Oceanside uh it’s a beautiful little gem if you want to come visit us but yeah I qualified for this tournament through the LPGA professional championship last year in Inisbrook and Florida uh finished second place earned an exemption into this tournament this was my first time playing in a major in an LPJ event it was a great experience and I’m excited to kind of share that with you all today as we talk
awesome yeah and then we’re going to uh see a lot of the leaders today eventually at some point when they come up here and warm up for their rounds uh we’re going to start out with some of the uh few um few of the early notable names too brook Henderson Nelly Corda and then we’ll work our way up the leaderboard into Lexi Thompson and Mile Lee and Gino Titune so um we’re really excited about that and uh Natalie who are you looking forward to seeing mostly on the range
i’m looking forward to seeing Nelly um uh she’s got a great swing and it’s always a treat getting to watch her
all right we’re going to go to Broo Henderson now and uh make sure that we see uh a few things from her swing that we can you guys can learn at home um and uh we’ll we’ll go over to her at the moment and you know one of the things that I love about Brook’s swing is you may notice that she’s always uh choking down a little bit on the club and um that’s a little that’s something you can do at home for some more control um she’s always done that that’s always been part of her golf swing and uh I think you know if you’re looking to try something at home um to get a little bit more accuracy you can follow that as well natalie um what do you like from uh from from Brook’s golf swing
yeah you know I was just going to touch on that shorter club um a lot of times you know people will get their driver cut down an inch or something for a little bit more control and that’s definitely uh definitely something that helps yeah yeah for sure um and one of the things that we’ll see today uh is the top tracer range technology out here at Fields Ranch East and it’s a great um it’s a great tool for those uh players to see how far they’re hitting their their clubs and I think you know the one of the most important things is to know how far their distances are going today there’s going to be a lot of wind again today like there was yesterday we saw you know 20 30 even 40 mph winds at some points out on the course the course is playing a lot firmer so it’s important to get those carry distances down and make sure that those are dialed in but Natalie maybe go into Brooke’s swing um and kind of maybe what you like most about her back swing and how she kind of maybe a few takeaways people can take from their uh her swing
yeah she um she creates a lot of power we know that about Brook’s swing it’s incredible she creates a lot of power in conditions like this and the wind it’s kind of all about you know making sure you’re controlling that power when to step on it and when to kind of swing it easy you know the old saying when it’s breezy swing it easy sometimes that’s the play so she’s got an incredible move off the ball she’s getting ready to hit one right now yeah she’s got that long back swing creates a ton of power beautiful yeah yeah certainly and you know she’s a a former KPMG women’s PGA champion won at Sahali um in 2016 and it’s always great to see her competing for a major championship she’s one of uh you know the stars out here on the LPGA tour and you know she’s working through her bag a little bit here trying trying to maybe uh yesterday we saw a lot of the players kind of uh going back and forth between driver and fairway wood and trying to find um you know a fairway finder with those with those shorter woods and I think you know it’s important to find the fairway here you you you were out playing uh on the course earlier this week natalie maybe kind of go through what you what you were trying to do uh when you’re out on the tea
yeah and you know in the morning versus the afternoon the course plays so differently so um couple of like you know the later in the round some of these holes that are playing downwind 30 35 m an hour um you know you pull 3-wood out and keep that ball low keep it under the wind a little bit keep it low and um you know get a little bit more control making sure you’re hitting that fairway you know there’s a time for driver and then there’s a time for that fairway finder yeah definitely and uh you know we got a nice view of of Brook’s swing here brooke warming up um Yeah yeah and so um just trying to kind of dial in those distances you know a little bit of a stronger grip I would say um for out on tour but you can see a little bit more of that glove um than most but yeah you notice you slow choking down a little bit on those on those clubs um and uh I think you know that’s just part of her golf swing and one of the things that I always you know recommend is that you might see some some interesting swings out here you know we talk think of like Alexi Thompson or or Nelly Corda or or swings that maybe you want to copy directly and I always say like yeah you can take a few things from their swing but you don’t necessarily need to copy everything that they do so just take a few things maybe that will work for you and that um you know maybe choking down if you’re if you’re struggling with accuracy choking down on your clubs can always help with some more control so as we watch Brooke go back to the driver here
yeah you notice too like as you’re moving through the bag tempo is going to stay the same that’s one of the biggest things to watch in a professional golfer is the tempo the cadence of that swing she’s going to take her time in that pre-shot look down her target line um I think that’s you know really important for any golfer to do is make sure you’re taking that time go through the same pre-shot that you’re going to go through on the course that way when you get out there it doesn’t feel foreign look at that power there yeah yeah and and Natalie as we’re watching Brooke here I kind of want to go into your experience here at the championship uh you know um take us through kind of you know the early part of the week and then those first two tournament day rounds what was your range routine what was your warm-up routine and then how did you kind of bring that to the golf course
yeah definitely so the first day I had a 7:05 tea time it was really early yeah so you know I did a little warm up in the locker room making sure my body is feeling stretched out and my body’s feeling good um my routines kind of go through my bag i don’t hit a ton of balls when it’s hot and you kind of notice some of the girls doing that as well um it’s really warm out and you’re trying to conserve your energy it was maybe 95° super windy and it’s a long walk i think we clocked the walk about almost 9 miles for the 18 holes which is incredible normally you know it’s between four and five miles um so just trying to conserve your energy get yourself warmed up get yourself in a mental space to be ready to hit and then the afternoon round when when I played I did a little bit shorter of a warmup than my than my morning round
just to conserve that energy um for the rest of the day but generally staying the same going through my wedges up to my driver uh and then I like to always finish with a couple wedges go to the chipping green roll a few putts and then uh go out there my routine usually is about an hour maybe a little bit more i don’t tend to overdo it before the round but that’s just kind of my personal preference
yeah yeah no you see you see you see a lot of different uh routines out here and I think we’re going to head next to Gabby Lopez um in the green here and um yesterday we saw Nelly Corder come and it was funny you know when everyone found out that Nelly Corder was coming to the far end of the range there was like a huge group of people just like running over to this side and it was it was it it shows like how how much of a of a presence she’s she’s built as world number one but as we kind of watch Gabby Lopez warm up here and kind of go through her routine one of the things that I’m noticing is she’s starting out with a a more lofted club and we and has I think it’s uh yeah it has an alignment stick down there it looks like so um just trying to get you know her fundamentals um in check making sure you know posture grip alignment is good we talked yesterday uh Natalie a lot about uh Abby had this acronym PGA posture grip alignment so something that people can remember at home maybe if they’re struggling with those things but you know she I like her swing here you can see um she’s got a nice takeaway just trying to work on maybe a couple flighted shots um
yeah looks like she kind of has that ball back in her stance a hair hands a little forward trying to flight that wedge through the wind it’s windy out there and um you know just as little movement on those on those shots is the best when you’re that close to the green i also notice she has that um kind of small detail but she’s got that rangefinder right there and folks you know it’s a huge huge advantage when you’re warming up when you’re practicing i know these players are or their caddies are shooting those targets so when I was out there it’s you know this target’s 83 yards and as specific as you can be that way you get on the course and you get close to that number and and you know exactly what that feels like these girls are dialing in just as about as much as they can out here uh all the way down to the yard so you notice that alignment stick for alignment you notice that rangefinder making sure she knows exactly how far she’s hitting that ball yeah and she just kind of nudged that alignment stick a little bit probably trying to go out to the flags out on the on the range and just have a little bit of a different uh distance here now and um one of the things you’ll notice is she’s really centered over the golf ball too a lot of times amateur golfers get into trouble when they’re they sway off or sway you know too far forward and a good thing to focus on before you actually hit is just to be very centered over the ball you’re balanced the the weight is in the balls of your feet and you’re not too far back in your heels or too far on your toes you’re just kind of in a balanced state right before uh you know right before you go out and play so that’s one of the things I like a lot about Gabby swing and you notice too on this before she hits every shot she does a little bit of a takeaway motion
that one piece kind of takeaway i was just noticing that that little Y with her arms and hands going back in one piece u making sure she’s not breaking her wrists and hands we see that a lot with amateur beginner golfers when you got a lot of movement in the hands right away and that creates instability around the impact zone so just making sure that she’s got that one move back staying nice and connected another thing is you notice she’s walking off the ball what she’s doing is resetting every single hit she’s going through her routine she’s not going fast you a lot of times see people you know grab and and hit balls really fast but what she’s doing is she’s stepping into each shot to kind of mentally prepare herself um to hit the ball and replicate what she’s going to feel on the golf course never on the golf course do we get you know three or four whacks at it right in a row so that technique is a really great mental regimen that she’s working on and I’d recommend that for players at home who tend to work a little bit fast through the ball so um or through their through their bucket i know a lot of people do that they’ll all of a sudden hit an entire bucket in just a few minutes so you’ll notice she’s walking off and just kind of resetting each time to get herself in a place ready to hit and trying to put herself in that mental state to go compete
yeah and you know as we watch her kind of go uh warm up through a beggar I kind of want to go back to your encourse experience Natalie and you know there’s been a lot of chatter about the golf course um this weekend and this week it’s it’s played you know fairly difficult uh a lot of it due to the the conditions out on the golf course um windy hot dry but maybe kind of take us into the the players head a little bit on the range and kind of what are they thinking right now like what are they you know with your experience you had out on the golf course and and certain holes maybe think about you know what are they trying to trying to do today maybe on the final day here
yeah I think um with this amount of wind you know right now I don’t know it might be blowing like 18 20 m an hour which is actually kind of light compared to what it’s been and what it’s going to be this afternoon so I think they’re um kind of going through making sure their balls not have too much movement on it making sure they’re hitting you know kind of probably a little bit maybe lower flighted than they usually do keeping that ball below the wind just getting themselves in a mental state uh ready to compete and understanding how hard it’s going to be i think that’s probably one of the biggest things they’re probably working on breath work um going through their own pre-shot routine in their head of you know where they want the ball to land kind of visualizing how the day is going to go um where you know a lot of the thing about this course yeah there she goes she’s shooting that target she’s going to get exactly the number she needs to move her alignment stick yep there she goes she’s going to move that stick to a new target you know so she’s not just hitting the same same ball over and over and over again
yeah and maybe you know thinking about not just inside the ropes but outside the ropes you had a huge uh group of supporters following you i know they were all wearing coachnat hats and had little cutouts of your head and and your dog and stuff and you know talk about what that was like to have such a great group of support great support group with your family and friends following you around uh for those for those two days
yeah that was incredible i mean this is my I’m a new PGA member so I just qualified for this and um I used to play professionally full-time and in college and it was just the tribe behind me and the support is incredible and to have so many of my family and friends make the journey out here to Frisco and walk that 9 miles in that heat man I know who my tribe is and I just appreciated them so much it It was so fun to share this experience with them we actually got to go to PGA headquarters and take a tour as well and you know they’ve had such a great time and um I I just think this has been honestly one of the best weeks of my life being able to share this with family and friends it’s such an experience to do this um and you don’t really understand the nerves and the pressure until you’re here and there’s that many people and the cameras and all the things around you that you may not be used to so it was really fun and um it was just definitely a dream come true for me and to share it with all the people I love was like just absolutely special and hopefully we get to do that again
yeah so who who all was here following you around
well we had um well 50 people were here so we had family friends my parents were here um uh the owners of the golf course I work at they were here they’re great supporters John and Holly Kennedy i had my group of really good friends I love um you know there was so many people here my Porttoarta girls um Kathy Loberg my tailor made godmother was here i can’t even I couldn’t even begin to tell you it was it was just so fun looking out into the crowd and seeing their faces and they surprised me by making these cutouts of my face and my dog Bogey um he’s a my English cream golden retriever he comes to work with me at Emerald Isle he sits on the driving range and watches me give lessons and runs around the golf course he’s got a a pretty good life so uh they had a little cutouts of him and they they’d you know be yelling and it was it was rowdy it was really fun so thinking about that and then we’ve seen actually a lot of there’s not only like Caddy and we’ve seen that you know couple PGA coaches Joe Howlet’s been with Maya Stark and Lexi Thompson out here on the range um what is that like to have like a a support group around you and how does that kind of you know maybe benefit your your game before you head out and play in a major championship when you’re not just doing it alone you kind of have you know a group that can really lift you up
yeah I think it’s it’s absolutely it has to happen i mean for me everybody in my in my circle everyone that is here is a part of that a part of that team for me and and in in you know various ways but to have that support you can’t do this alone golf is is such a hard game and there’s so much to it you know and so at this level with this intensity you have to have that support group you have to have that tribe with you and and mine runs deep i love every single one of them so much and everyone kind of offers a different perspective um but everyone has my best interests at heart and knows me knows my personality my my tempers the moods the everything so when you’re going through something this big and you’ve got people around you that know you and love you it’s hard to feel anything but just so supported
yeah and you know as we watch Gabby Lopez kind of working through her bag here she now looks like she has a little bit of a a hybrid or a fairwood you’re a PGA coach you you you coach lessons you know you have your you have uh the dog with you on on the lesson here at the golf course um what are you what have you seen uh this week at at Fields Ranch East watching some of these players that you’re going to take back with you and and kind of impart on your on your students and players back in Southern California
yeah you know the consistency like just for example with this warm-up what what you can see here is someone that’s taking Yeah you know she she may mis hit that a little you can see her going through what she thinks she needs to do a little different in that swing but just the consistency in what they’re doing you’ll notice this routine is going to almost not change at all the amount of looks to the hole how many times she kind of milks the grip and gets her hand ready that amount she takes it back right there boom the tempo of her back swing to holding that finish um I just think the consistency is huge just to create that you can create that you can create a pre-shot routine and a mental regimen and that they say golf is 90% mental and if that’s even the slightest bit true then having that down is something you can control and you can work on at home and I I know guarantee promise you it will help your game so right now what it looks like she’s going to do is take that alignment stick out because we don’t get an alignment stick on the first te right so she’s probably going through here comes her pre-shot routine yep and uh going through making sure she knows where she’s going to hit her driver
yeah yeah and just a reminder for those watching at home uh feel free to drop in any questions any swing advice you’re looking for u maybe you see your favorite player out here on the range and you’re wondering a little bit more about their swing we got we got your back this morning and uh we’re excited just as much as you are to watch the best players so feel free to drop your questions in in the comments
i don’t notice how wide she got with that driver right she gets wedges and then as she gets to driver that little practice takeaway she’s doing with her arms and the club kind of keeping that Y that when I say a Y I mean the her green sleeves and the club kind of creates that Y she pushes it back to feel that takeaway being one solid piece and uh she that’s nice and wide with that driver as the club gets longer that width becomes even more important so she’s making sure that driver head is as far away from her as it can possibly be to be nice and wide and create a ton of power and consistency through the swing yeah no and we’re going to go into our first fan question here Natalie and uh what are some tips for both hitting into the wind and downwind i know you know they’re two different types of shots maybe or maybe there’s some things that are similar but for you what do you try to focus on when a when a players one of your students asks “How do how do I hit shots into the wind and then how do I hit shots downwind?”
Yeah great question and I mean you know when you’re hitting shots into the wind there’s an old saying that I always remember and I said it to myself many times out here when it’s breezy swing it easy and but I’m in my teaching philosophy I always like to talk about why like why do we need to swing it easy because sometimes the harder we hit it the more spin we put on the ball the more spin we have on the ball and the wind the more the wind touches the ball okay so if we can kind of take some of that spin rate off the ball by swinging a little smoother and not as much velocity we can kind of help the ball not move around as much that’s kind of like one little tip but a lot of times downwind what you want to make sure is amateur golfers a lot of times will shoot the pin but what you really want to know is where do you want this ball to land so for example there’s holes out here that are playing you know my approach shot in is 197 yards or 180 yards downwind i’m hitting eight iron that’s back home in San Diego my 140 45 yard club so you know where they want the ball to land release and roll out is kind of a big factor so I would say one of the biggest tips I have is for people is don’t just shoot the pin figure out where is the safest part on the green that I want this ball to land and then do your math and your calculations from there um for sure
mhm yeah and uh you know we got some great names coming up here on our range coverage charlie Hull will eventually be here and then we’re going to go right into Nelly Corda and then we’ll go right up the leaderboard uh into Lexi Thompson Gino Titakun and Miy Lee so stick around and make sure you’re watching us all the way through because as we go further into this into this stream you’ll see bigger and better and and maybe some more notable names um so looks like Gabby’s pulled out an iron so maybe she’s trying to work on a few flighted shots uh before she heads out natalie
yeah you know she very much might be kind of going through the first hole a lot of players will do that like the very last part of their warm-up they’ll kind of pseudo play the first hole so um looks like maybe she hit driver and then some sort of iron i know the first hole we got like par five out there laying up and then a wedge in i think that’s a great mental strategy to help calm the nerves right before you’re about to tee off you go kind of uh play the first hole in your head sometimes girls will play the first three holes in their head just to kind of get themselves ready um they get out there and then and their brain doesn’t know the difference between what you tell it and what reality is so you go “Okay I’ve done this already i’m just going to do it one more time.”
Yeah and maybe walk us through what a player is about to face on that first hole it’s a par five it looks like you know just based off the wind how it is now it’s going to be in and across with the wind with the wind how did you kind of approach that hole knowing that it’s a par five and you know it’s a quote unquote birdie opportunity but there’s a little bit of wind and it’s a little bit longer so how did how was your what was your kind of strategy for that hole
yeah that that hole is tough because there’s some very wellplaced bunkers and it’s very windy so some of the sometimes the green is hard to hold even when you have a wedge in your hand you saw this all week on TV if you’ve been watching you know you’ll hit a wedge and it it’ll release 20 30 40 feet if it’s downwind so yeah I think um just making sure you’re you’re ready and you’re goshi’s going to hit a wedge to get herself ready
yeah and we’re going to head over to Charlie Hall now um thanks for that breakdown of first so we’ll kind of get back into some more holes and your your advice on how you would play them but as we look uh for Charlie Hall here on the end of the range um in the blue hat and and the yellow skirt uh she’s obviously looking to uh rise up the leaderboard a little bit today and you know Charlie was in the hunt last year at Sahali um hasn’t won a a major championship yet but definitely someone that is going to be an interesting watch here on the range so maybe initial initial uh thoughts on what you see with Charlie
yeah you know you see a Trackman right behind her you see a a rangefinder right there next to her she’s dialing in her yardages i think that’s probably one of the biggest things um in the wind is understanding and knowing exactly how far you’re hitting that ball uh because course like this is is not forgiving if you don’t hit your spots and you don’t hit your yardages so she’s uh she’s got her whole team with her looks like she’s got maybe a mid iron in her hand or so and she’s going to know exactly how far each one of these golf balls lands nice powerful swing kind of leading in transfers that weight really well in the down swing back to her front foot yeah and I I will say one of the perks of working here at the at the PJ of America home is being able to walk out on the on the back porch and see the range so I’m sure we might have a few fellow employees uh checking out some of the swings but uh yeah interesting this is an interesting uh warm-up I would say you don’t see I don’t I’m not quite sure if she’s maybe trying to work on something maybe trying to feel something out but
I think it looks like she’s working on some club position she’s probably um trying to get the club maybe a little bit more on the inside and so she’s just doing a little drill to kind of help her feel what that club where that club should be a lot of times you’ll see people exaggerating um movements because then you know even if you get just a little bit closer to where you’re trying to be just exaggerating it kind of helps you feel where’s that club really supposed to be here
you can see the strength she produces from her lower body driving back driving through
yeah it looks like for every for every one that she does that drill she’s doing that swing you’ll notice all these players holding their finish too i think that’s a really kind of um almost easily forgotten about but you’ll see every single player here hold their finish as they uh as they hit the ball they’re going to watch it i think that um is really important when you hold that finish and create stability of that club face at the end of your swing what you’re really doing is that’s translating to more face stability at impact that’s the why behind that hold your finish besides that it looks really good
yeah yeah and uh you know Charlie’s got an alignment stick down there we saw that earlier with with Gabby Lopezm it’s we’ll see that again and again and again probably we saw that a lot um at Quail Hollow during the PGA Championship and we’ve seen that a lot this week at um at Fields Ranch East and one of the things that we also have which is nice uh here at the driving range is the top tracer range technology where we can see ball speed we can see launch angle we can see the apex of the shot we can see how far it carried and we can see kind of the shot shot shot tracker shot tracer um and so that information for players is super valuable i know maybe Natalie you can go into um some of those uh data points and maybe how you try to work with your players back home uh and and what do you focus on with those
yeah definitely i mean I have a full swing kit so I use that during lessons at times when we need to pull that out and check numbers a lot of people some people don’t like the information overload and some people really do some people love math and love numbers so it kind of depends on the player but we’re going to look at um you know things like face to path club head speed a lot of thing is knowing how far you hit i think that’s one of the biggest things I see in amateur golfers is not knowing exactly how far you actually hit each ball um and so just making sure you know exactly to get a rangefinder out or some sort of tool and know exactly how far you’re hitting each ball
yeah definitely and uh as we’re watching Charlie Hull kind of go through the bag here you notice her hands are a little bit maybe closer to her yeah I this is actually something really interesting she’s doing like a like a takeaway and then kind of trying to figure out like how how I’m um going back up to almost my on my back swing right and I think like you were talking about earlier Natalie it’s like she’s trying to feel something and trying to exaggerate those feels she does like maybe one of those those swings and then does a normal swing right
yeah she It looks like she kind of pulls the club away square i think we’ll probably see her do it again and we’ll go through it oh now she’s got a wood i’m not sure if she’s going to do it with a wood um maybe but you know she looks like she’s trying to pull that club away square see that square club face right at takeaway kind of like we saw Gabby Lopez doing um arms and and club stay in that nice straight line going back we’ll see if she does it here with her hybrid and then gets it in some sort of inside position in that back swing
yeah and you know Charlie Charlie might be uh you know came in uh to round two and and shot a nice score of 69 and then actually kind of uh not as well in round three with the 78 so maybe trying to kind of get back to those feels that she had in round two and maybe there was something there that she had in her warm-up routine before she went out on Friday and she’s trying to feel that you know she has her your her coach and her caddy there kind of watching things and you notice Charlie kind of almost slams the club against her neck
a lot of force i I wouldn’t recommend that uh at home but it’s a good uh good check for those you don’t necessarily have to do it with that much force but it’s a good check for those to to if you’re struggling with finishing your shots a lot of the times a lot of amateur golfers don’t finish their golf shots and they they kind of stop their hands because they’re afraid to hit it too far off line it’s it’s important to release the club all the way through impact and then go all the way around your neck and finish with that club shaft behind your behind your head right and that’s Charlie’s a great example of that so if you you’re out here you know eventually today watching her or you’re watching here right now at home maybe try that’s something you can mimic from her golf swing
absolutely it looks like she’s not quite doing that um that kind of practice swing with her woods it kind of looks like she’s moved into maybe a 3-wood here there’s been a lot of a lot of that some of the holes the par fives are playing pretty long so the layup on them a lot of them is 3-wood and then a wedge um I think only really one of them is reachable so yeah there she goes she’s going to do that one piece takeaway you’re going to see a lot of the players do that just trying to feel that connection and that that uh solid solid back swing
mhm
she’s got you know a little bit quicker tempo but again the tempo and the cadence of her swing is going to be the same kind of leading through her clubs that’s something to kind of note there even though hers is maybe a little faster than Brooke or Gabby that we saw earlier it’s still that same tempo through the bag it’s hers is just you know a little faster which is her preference and that’s fine as long as you keep that consistent I think
yeah and so you know Charlie had 69 and then 78 natalie what do you think you know going into today she’s you know from the from a players mindset and you were out there earlier um playing as part of the Corbage financial team this week what is she thinking about today like what what’s what’s her mindset going into the final round
yeah I mean the course played so hard so you know it just it wasn’t it wasn’t a terrible round i know she’s not happy with it probably um but the course was playing very tough the wind was up really high yesterday um so I think today she’s probably just going through a mental regimen of you know keep a score around even par is going to be a really good score in these conditions with the length of the golf course the grain on those greens um and the wind that’s up okay so I think you know she’s just kind of going through her routine thinking she’s going to probably be maybe a little more aggressive today because she can she’s you know it’s it’s Sunday and and she’s ready and looks like she’s pulling out driver now we’ll see if she kind of
changes her target or Yeah yeah no I think you know it’s important for those at home not to not to press too much either and we’re just kind of taking I’m take a look at the leaderboard and see where she’s at here but um I think that uh you know when it comes to h shooting a good score and then going into the third round and shooting you know a little bit higher of a number everyone was shooting a higher number yesterday it seemed except except a couple of the leaders so she probably just is going to you know dust off her shoulders and get right back up off the mat i mean Charlie’s one of the things that I really admire about Charlie she’s got a great mental game not a lot bothers her it seems she’s very unbothered so to speak um and I think uh she she carries herself a little bit of swagger and I think that’s a good thing to have those are good mental qualities to have going into probably another difficult round on the on the course with some windy conditions so
absolutely looks like she’s got a good team behind her um hand her phone maybe even texting a friend and someone’s wishing her luck that could be definitely part of her routine and she’s just kind of what you’ll notice is a lot of these players we talked about this earlier is they’re coming off the ball they’re going hitting driver walking back resetting then going back um just so that they’re not getting used to that same shot they’re kind of walking into it getting themselves ready individually for um for each swing
yeah and we got another fan question and again comments are open uh folks so make sure if you have any swing tips you’re looking for advice or you want us to go into some more analysis of anybody’s swing out here on the driving range we’re happy to do just about anything so the next question we have Natalie is how many wedges should you carry in your bag and what should the uh degree of lofts be for each of them i know everyone’s kind of got a particular set probably out here but for you as a PJ coach what do you recommend to your players for for what
yeah um I pretty much I carry I recommend what I carry and I recommend a 58 5450 setup the reason for that is a lot of players carry a 60deree wedge and there’s a lot of loft and bounce on that club is is just hard um I find the 58 to be a little more forgiving and golf is a game of mishits it’s not a matter of you know hitting the Phil Mickelson super high crazy flop all the time so you know I I recommend you know if you have a 60 that’s fine you could get your hands a little put your hands a little forward and delofted it make it a little easier to hit but I really like um 58 5450 which is essentially a lob wedge a sand wedge an approach wedge and then I also have a pitching wedge as well
yeah and um I I love that and I think you know the important part about wedges is to make sure they’re properly spaced out you want to have the proper gaps between your wedges too so I actually carry a 58 I carry a 54 and I carry um a 50 but they’re all bent to 60 56 and 52 so um It it it’s all kind of a a matter of what kind of almost like what you’re looking for with your wedges too like if you’re looking for you might want to add an extra 50°ree wedge if you have this if they have the 60 and a 56 and a 52 and um I think you know the most important thing with wedges is to make sure that they’re properly uh they have proper gaps between them like if you have a a 60 and a 58° that’s too much loft between two wedges right so you want to have those properly spaced out degrees right
yeah four degrees properly spaced out and another thing too everyone is PGA coaches are also club fitters and you can go to your local PGA coach um there’s they’re wellversed in all sorts of club fitting um specs and whether it’s a driver all the way down to your putter but wedges specifically you can go to them and and try out bunch of different wedges and see what what works best don’t go to the to the store and just buy wedges off the rack and just say “Oh well I saw Nelly Corda using this wedge at the KPMG i better use that one too.” No you need to have it make sure it’s it’s uh fit properly to you and as we kind of go back onto the range we’re going to see Lexi Thompson here um who you know you think about the start we talked about whole one yesterday and and Lexi Thompson selfie said “I had a pretty tough start yesterday.” and she had a cold top on her second shot hit her shot third shot way right and made an eight so um but the good part about Lexi is she remained resilient during the round and it didn’t really you know she had a bogey on the next hole but then really kind of hung on to have herself be in contention today so as we watch her kind of walk on the range here what do you think her mindset is today Natalie as as as someone who’s played uh in these conditions so far this week what is Lexi really uh focusing on today yeah you know this golf course is hard and you know golf is hard so I think you know she’s probably um just understanding hey mistakes are going to happen there’s going to be some high scores there’s going to be bogeies there’s maybe going to be a high score in there but just staying patient out in this in these conditions is so hard because a lot of these courses you can go after shoot six seven under and uh make a bunch of birdies but birdies are harder and fewer to come by on this course par on a lot of holes is an incredible incredible score um you know there’s some holes a lot of the holes most of the holes are playing over par for the week so you make a par on that hole during a few of them my caddy would look at me and he just said “We just picked up you know three on the field or we picked up one on the field there as we’re as we’re going through because some of these holes into the wind or even the downwind some of the short holes are just so difficult because of the wind and the conditions and the grain.”
Yeah yeah no great great analysis there and we have a a question in the chat lexi’s been hitting this power draw all week what are some tips Natalie that you give to your players to maybe kind of follow suit and hit a draw if they’re looking to to to hit that off the tea
yeah one of the things um I like to teach people is you know we’ve watched it if you’ve been on this feed and you’ve watching kind of the one piece takeaway arms and hands that why a lot of players will roll their hands open and open the face right away and that open face is going to translate to an open face right at target so when I’m teaching players that are kind of struggling with a slice or a ball going right or they just want to draw it I talk about grooves to the ground so the grooves of your club at setup or right behind the ball and as you take the club back pointing those grooves to the ground is essentially just keeping the club face square if we can keep it square on that takeaway we’re more likely to deliver it square or a touch closed at impact and that will uh create that little draw or straighter ball for you
yeah definitely and I’m sure that’s something she’s been working on um with her coach Joe Howlet um Joe’s a PGA teacher and coach of the year and you know teaches Mai Stark but also teaches Lexi Thompson so and he was on uh the feature group coverage earlier this week talking about you know he went through what him and Lexi are working on and a lot of it’s probably that draw right and you know we’re seeing Lexi now we’ve seen this the first few uh rounds too she has that band around her legs and she has this band around her legs for most of the warm-up session i would say it would be interesting to see if that continues today i bet it does then she takes it off for the last few shots so Natalie maybe kind of go into um what that resistance band around her legs does and what maybe she’s trying to accomplish with having that
yeah keeping stability in the lower body is really important in all parts of the game um right now it looks like she’s doing a little warm up she’s warming her glutes her hamstrings her core all the way up um you know I recently kind of figured out through working with my physical therapist and and a medical team that a lot of our power almost 75% of it comes from our groin and you know you it makes sense if you think about how you press off the ground off that back foot where that muscle really is is uh firing from is that right groin if you’re a right-handed player so in the last year I’ve actually worked a ton on strengthening my groin muscles and actually picked up probably 15 yards doing it so to the golfer out there watching this if you want to hit it farther um at any age at any skill level strengthen your groin muscles and um get back to us let us know cuz it’s really helped me out and it makes a lot of sense right now it looks like she’s kind of making sure there’s a you see a lot of stability see that in her lower body and her shoulders will rotate keeping that on during the warm-up just making sure her legs are stable her muscles are engaged and she’s getting that feel for what she needs in her golf swing
so you see some of those stretches she’s doing right now what What are the muscles that she’s warming up and maybe what why are those muscles important in the golf swing
yeah so um we’ll start at the core i would say the core is your most important muscle to for a golfer to have um obviously we just touched on the groin muscle but your your core it also keeps your back strong you know this is a long walk nine miles and swinging that club and uh competing at this level so core helps your back and it helps stability of your swing she’s warming up her glutes glutes are very important hamstrings and quads um I would say basically from your knees up to your stomach is what I tell people golfers are very strong their midsection um so you got core for the lower back glutes hamstrings quads yeah and uh as she kind of finishes up with some of her stretches here she’ll get into
That’s one’s my favorite right there that that hand down you put like a stop sign up and you pull your fingers back and then you pull it down you’re actually stretching out that forearm muscle which is sort of an interesting muscle to you don’t think about but as we grip the club and hold it tight we feel those muscles engage and over time they get fatigued so kind of keeping those forearm muscles nice and loose yeah definitely and uh you’ll see here that she does a little bit of a a hip height to hip height uh back and through motion and that’s just trying to kind of manage that impact zone right like how am I right off the bat and then how am I coming through right and I think you know half shots are a great way to to really dig into the dirt and and find out where you’re making contact with the ball right you don’t have to take it all the way back to the top to really figure out how am I hitting the ball you can just do a couple half shots with me to warm up she’s doing a little bit of a threequarter shot there with with one of her wedges and I think that’s a great way to start your warm-up is just to kind of hit a couple shorter shots get your tempo down get your feels down versus just pulling out the driver and ripping a few before you go to the first te right you want to make sure that you’re dialed in with with the the basics and the fundamentals and a good rhythm because especially a day like today where there’s a lot of wind tempo is super important because you don’t want to swing too fast natalie mentioned swing easy when it’s breezy that’s you know that doesn’t happen with a really out of out of sync tempo right you have to be in a good motion so
yeah and right there when I see her going back and forth kind of in that warm-up I call that when I teach I call that continuous swinging she’s trying to keep points of connection you’ll notice that her belly and the club move back together in one piece right and she’s going to stay connected through the swing body and arms are going to stay nice and connected i think the body and arms moving together in the swing is probably the most important part of the golf swing making sure that arms aren’t going while body stays still we see that a lot of times with amateurs you’re going to see her kind of rock and what you’re going to see is that midsection that core her shoulders going back and forth she’s just trying to feel those points of connection through her swing and then she’s just warming up with you know small wedges trying to flight them in this wind make sure she understands each day is a little different each day you feel a little different each day the wind’s a little different so just kind of understanding how that ball’s flighting today how are you feeling today how am I going to hit these shots how am I going to fight this wind yeah definitely and couple things just to kind of bring to your attention Natalie apparently a couple of the coachnat pack has infiltrated the comments section and blown us up a little bit so just maybe say a few things to them
hey guys who are you who is it i I need to know who it is i want to say hi um love you guys
coach Hen Coach Henry is in the coach
oh Henry henry how’s the aisle he’s over he’s back home holding down the fort for us at Emerald Isle we’ve got a great staff over there i love you guys miss you guys we’ll be back real soon um what do you want to know Henry what do we Why don’t you ask us a question fire one off henry’s got uh dialed in at a 10 handicap so
hey there we go Henry i love it um one of the things that another fan asked in the chat Natalie is uh how would you describe Lex’s followthrough yeah it’s changed through the years i think she’s you know she her swing has evolved over the years um but one of the things to remember is it’s consistent what she does is the same and you know we we’ve seen that throughout this session watching different players on the range whatever their routine is it’s consistent and so as she follows through I think her follow-through is a bit lower than it used to be a little bit lower exits left a little bit and that’s just a part of what you know what she’s working on in her swing
there she goes with that little routine again every one of these players consistency is key they’re going to be doing the same thing each time
yeah definitely and uh we will say that Nelly Carter just arrived on the range so we’ll be going to her next and uh really excited to see uh Nelly and we can do a little bit of analysis i know Natalie’s been looking forward to that but um as we kind of watch Lexi a little bit still here um just trying to get uh you know obviously the tough start yesterday but remain resilient and kind of kept herself in contention right so she knows what it’s probably going to take if she can just minimize the mistakes out on the golf course today I feel like um she’s got a good shot at uh at making sure that she’s she’s you know competing for another major title right and I think you know Lexi um you know was retired and then semi-retired and now I’m kind of just playing you know the the important events to me and I really respect that because she’s she’s been around the the game for for decades right she’s she started out really young um came onto the scene really young and uh as a teenager and now she’s you know uh one of the most recognizable uh faces in the sport and so I think it’s it’s really cool to see her kind of um adjust her schedule a little bit to get to a point where she’s just playing the events that mean the most to her and it’s great to see that her she’s competing in some of those major championships so but uh yeah you know we we eventually will get here to to Nelly Corda and you know but Lexi Lex’s uh uh step through kind of uh when she comes down Natalie it’s it’s very unique maybe talk a little bit about that because people will see a lot of that on the on the course today
yeah you notice she’s not really doing it with the wedges she’s going to create a lot of stability a lot of force into the ground as she works through the wedges and probably as her swing speed and velocity um increases as she goes through longer irons woods and drivers that’ll um that’ll change and I call that happy feet her feet will start moving around and you know that works for her and and that works for Scotty Sheffler pretty well when the feet are moving around a touch and you know again this is about consistency you’re going to do it fine but make sure you’re doing it consistently in the same each time um and that’s kind of part of her her motion here it looks like she’s moved into a wedge that’s not as lofted um maybe it is i’m trying to see yeah
uh yeah
she’s going to do that same exact routine and she’s going to do that kind of continuous swinging rocking the shoulders back and forth feeling that um feeling that connection point through the ball as she works through you’ll notice she’s kind of got I think it looks like she’s got an alignment stick down too on the ground for that
yeah definitely and we’re going to head over to uh to Nelly Corda next here and you know we watched Nelly a few times now on the range and I know Natalie mentioned at the top of the hour that or top of the broadcast that she’s really looking forward to it so I’m super excited to have her analysis of Nelly Corda and as we we move over to her here um Nelly moves through her warm-up session pretty quickly so we’ll have to kind of go uh twice as fast as we normally do but go ahead Natalie the floor is yours tell us what you see
you know she might be going through it uh for a couple of reasons one I know she’s battling a bit of a neck injury this week um she kind of might be going through it because of that but then also um it’s hot you know it’s really hot and it is a long walk out here it’s a grind so just trying to conserve her energy and make sure she feels good and she might just be feeling really good this week getting through her bag warming up and then um you know making sure she’s kind of feeling consistent and if that’s the case then you know she doesn’t need to overdo the warm-up and and waste some of that energy looks like she just hit a couple of wedges and she’s moved in to maybe an eight iron or so a a short mid iron but again look at that alignment stick everybody you know the these players aren’t just uh hitting balls they’re making sure they have an intended target they’re making sure they know how far and that really smooth tempo of hers look at that she takes the club back she’s going to do the same tempo each time with that club
yeah definitely and you know Nelly’s longtime PGA coach is um is Jamie Mulligan you saw you know someone there at the Virginia Country Club hat that’s one of Jamie’s assistants on the bag um I know you’re from Southern California do you know Jamie at all and maybe kind of have you kind of picked his brain a little bit as to what he does with Nelly
i don’t I don’t know him personally i know of him and I know people that have known him um I don’t know him personally but I do know he’s a great coach and obviously he’s done a really great job with Nelly he’s here uh making sure she’s feeling dialed answering any questions but really probably just raising her confidence telling her she looks great and um you know she’s she’s ready to go so you see how holding that finish that weight transfers to her front foot as she initiates the down swing and she’s going to make sure she’s got that solid finish that she’s holding creating stability just like she wants to do on the golf course
yeah definitely and I think one of the things that you also notice about Nelly is she does that little takeaway motion and she sets her wrist really nicely and she’s able to kind of clear out that lower body to be matched up square at impact and Nelly gets a lot of her power from the ground there’s not a you know we talked about Lexi and Lexi kind of jumps up on her toes and kind of rotates through to to to pull the club through nelly uh gets that weight back on the in the back swing in her back right heel and then turns through the ball clears that left hip out and is able to really come down with some power so Nelly is one of the longer hitters out here she’s always fun to watch because we know usually with that power comes a lot of straight shots too she doesn’t really hit a lot of wavered shots so um what are some of the things you see in Nelly’s swing that people at home watching could take away maybe from from her uh for for power for their own games
yeah I mean we talked about it earlier that lower body making sure you’re strong in your groin your glutes your hamstrings your quads you’ll notice that she’s not swinging out of her shoes she’s almost seemingly having like swinging slow and and she creates so much velocity and force from the ground um she just has such a great move through the ball um she’s an incredible player it’s fun to kind of watch that tempo of hers it’s just it’s beautiful yeah definitely and if you have any questions I’m not sure if the coachnap pack is still in the chat but um drop drop them in natalie will answer whatever whatever you you share but if you have any questions about Nellie swing Lexi swing um looks like uh Miy Lee just arrived at the range too so this is the place to be right now um there’s no better place to be than the r the range at Fields Ranch East so um yeah let us know if you have any questions swing tips whatever you’re looking for we can answer so as we kind of get back to Nelly’s swing here
I will say too the predominant wind on this range is into um so your entire warm-up you’re hitting into a probably at the least 10 15 mph wind and at the most a 30 35 mph gust so you’re kind of getting used to that um the the flags are are blowing today uh it’s probably at least you know 20 right now 15 20 yeah so um you know when you’re warming up and you’re hitting into the wind it is you kind of get used to it a lot of your opening holes one two three are all dead into the wind two is long uphill into the wind so a big drive and a long iron or hybrid in depending on on how that wind is gusting
yeah i was just going to ask you know how did how did you approach that opening stretch you know with the wind and knowing that the the first couple holes are into it and then it kind of switches when you turn the corner um you know after the par three uh fourth hole and go back the other way how did you kind of approach you know when you were out on the course feeling like you know that wind and and how do you kind of on course you know we talked about tips and fundamentals and stuff and technique for wind shots but how do you approach it from like a a shotmaking perspective
yeah when you hit that fourth hole so you’re into you’re into the fan directly on one two three and they’re and they’re long when you hit that fourth hole it’s directly off your right so um you’re on second day when I had a 12:30 tea time you know it’s probably 1:15 1:30 by the time I got to that hole and I’m aiming all of us aim probably 30 yards right of that green and the wind brings it back the wind wasn’t hurting um but we’re aiming 30 yards right and the ball’s coming back towards it and then you know when you get to that fifth hole you’re dead downwind so day one I hit driver day two I hit 3-wood further than I hit the driver because it’s downwind 35 and I want to keep that ball low to the ground i want it to hit and run kind of keep it um as away from that as possible and then again that was the whole number five where uh you have you know one you know 175 and you’re really just trying to hit it at 130 yards think nine iron in
yeah yeah definitely so Nelly Corda um you know not exactly you know couple shots back but a little further down the leaderboard she’s got to make some moves today if she really wants to compete for a KPMG Women’s PGA Championship title what do you think her mindset is as she warms up here on the range is she thinking like I need to be more aggressive today do I just let the course come to me or or what’s her mindset
i mean it it this course is so tough the field can come back a bit i mean anyone It’s why golf is such a beautiful game anyone at any time can be the hero and I think Nellie’s just going through her bag going I’m gonna I put together a good round and and it might just be good enough because this course is that hard you put together a round that’s a couple two three under par and you played one heck of a round and the field most definitely will come back to you so I think she’s just being patient out there she’s playing smart on the harder holes the longer holes those tougher pins and then when she has a chance to go for it you know and and opportunity presents itself she’s ready she’s going to go for it she’ll be a little bit more aggressive maybe with those wedges on the par five i think they’ll probably play 15 up and it’ll be a drivable par4 so you know instead of having a wedge in she’s probably going to go for driver there so just being aggressive when she can and playing smart the other ways and letting the field come back to her
yeah and we uh the CoachNT group is still in the chat kennedy Golf has a question what is your favorite drill on the range of all time oh wow what a great question from a great person um let’s see i really love my you know and you’re actually seeing a lot of the girls do it we just saw Lexi do it that continuous swinging drill where you’re kind of rotating back and through body and arms moving in one motion feeling those points of connection where body and arms stay together you kind of see Nelly do it right there you push that club back in one piece i think that’s a great drill for anybody to see and anyone to do uh making sure body and arms are always moving together a lot of times we see amateur golfers body lower body stays completely still and they kind of swing with their arms and then causes a ball that slices if we can get people to kind of rotate their body a little bit better in the swing um you see Nelly do that right there that little push back it’s keeping that points of connection in the golf swing yeah definitely and you know it’s a good it’s a great drill and I think you can also um it helps you avoid swaying too much and you’re if you can you know take that one Natalie talked about that one piece takeaway and turning the right way a lot of amateurs can sometimes she mentioned rolling the hands over or kind of going too far out and then looping them back and that’s where the slice comes in that’s where missits come in so yeah watching uh uh Nelly’s’s takeaway here is a great you know try that on the range you know just a couple push backs with your club see where it’s at you can look back you don’t necessarily need to hit a ball every time
a lot of times you can take that right hand off the club too and just push it back one piece so you can feel as your wrist rotating is your is your wrist breaking is the club moving um she’s got that alignment stick down she’s going to make sure every single swing of hers is going towards her intended line hands just a touch in front of the ball um probably middle maybe it looks even a little back um not surprised was doing that all week as well just slightly back in the stance just to help flight the ball a little lower in this wind
um so that the wind doesn’t touch it as much maybe take a little bit of loft off and help you especially into the breeze like this yeah definitely and uh you know as we watch her kind of warm up here and go through the bag Nelly’s has been again a little bit uh quicker of a warm so you know thinking about the temperature and the conditions what would be you know if it’s if it’s warm you know a lot of the times people think well it’s warm i don’t I feel like you know pretty loose already i don’t need to stretch too much but what are some of the recommendations you have to for people when maybe it’s a little hot out like what do you recommend for tips you know comes to sunscreen and water what what do you tell your players
yeah um if you’re hydrating like walking to the first tea you’re about 6 hours late on that hydration so I think that preparation you know for for us in this tournament for these girls right now it started obviously last week but this for today it started uh last night and this morning a ton of electrolytes um I I love to consume a lot of electrolytes when you’re sweating uh you just burning so many making sure you’re eating out there on the golf course too um yeah obviously you’ll see a lot of these girls wearing sleeves because it’s it’s really hot out here today um look at that tempo what a beautiful swing just and look how she’s on that front leg right there each swing she’s just fully rotated through the ball she’s no weight on her back foot she’s nice kind of got that almost straight line through impact um she’s going to create a lot of a lot of velocity and force through her lower body with um with her arm seemingly just like going really smooth through the ball
yeah definitely and you know we’re out here this morning on the range Natalie and um compared to yesterday and maybe the first couple days what do you feel like the wind is doing like do you feel like it’s going to be as much of a factor as it was yesterday you think it’s going to be more do you think it’s going to be less you know what uh what do you feel is is the most uh what’s going to happen today as far as the wind goes
yeah it’s early um but it it feels a bit windy it doesn’t feel as windy as yesterday yesterday was very windy this kind of reminds me of Friday’s round um I’m going to guess there’s going to be a solid wind at 20 and gusts up to 30 today if it gets more than that scores are going to be a little bit higher um and you know an even par round is one heck of a round out here um but yeah I think you know it it just kind of depends it looks like right now it’s it’s fairly windy i mean for us to say it’s it’s not as windy yet at its 20 that’s that’s a significant win especially with the course how hard and long it’s playing it’s you know over 6,600 yards
yeah definitely and um you know as we watch uh Nelly Porter warm up a little bit here more with just looks like she’s got a a fairway wood and um you know we talked about a lot of the holes out on Fields Ranch East are kind of meandering and they shape from from left to right and um there’s not a lot of a ton of straight holes there’s a lot of movement around the golf course a lot of knobs and stuff in the fairway so it’s important to have a club that you can reliably hit in the fairway and Elliot’s far enough to where I think that a club like this that she has right now could be something you see a lot um but also like you mentioned she needs to stay a little bit of have a little bit of an aggressive uh game plan right so I’m maybe this is a club she maybe hit into um you know a longer par4 or maybe try for the first hole depending on the win in her drive I guess
yeah it kind of looks like she’s got a hybrid in her hand right now um probably you know there might be it depends on where they have the tee um on some of the par 3s but you know what’s likely going to happen is that or a long iron into number two up the hill depending on how much winds up there um you know eight’s kind of short you there’s a lot of options off the eight hole you can hit driver up on the green you can hit uh a wood back a little give yourself a wedge or a hybrid to give yourself that full wedge that’ll spin a bit more but just having the variety through the bag um that right there is her wood probably your 3-wood there’s a lot a lot of that um out there on the downwind holes out here the par4s that are very long uh you’re hitting 3-wood on some of them because of the perfectly placed bunkers you know the uh hazards and the native area that comes into play and you know one thing is the Bermuda is so thick if your ball goes in the Bermuda you’re pretty much you’re pretty much having to get the ball up and down um
Yeah
from like you’re pretty much having to hack it out and and then try and get the ball up and down with a wedge
yeah and we got another great question in the chat and you know you think about Nelly Corda and and the things that she does well but Natalie someone asked “What is a good drill for weight shift?”
Yeah so um one thing you can do is a simple drill is you can put a golf ball underneath your right heel like say you’re a right-handed golfer um and as you rotate back I like to put my the club over the top of my shoulders uh pointing vertically down the range and as I rotate my back to the target loading that weight into that back heel I think is really important and we see Nelly do that you see her load her weight into her back heel and she kind of has this force that she creates from doing that and then she can transfer that into her front leg into the down swing so as you swing the club back you you know this would be a practice swing you press that ball into the grass
and then that way you know you’re nice and loaded up into that back right heel in your back swing
yeah definitely and another drill that you can do um is put a club or an alignment stick i like to have a club i put it across my shoulders and if the um grip end of the club points to the golf ball that means you’ve made a proper weight shift right if you’re not far enough or you’re too far you might be too much or too less a club across your your uh across your chest can really be a good uh checkpoint for seeing where you’re at in your weight shift um it’s important that just not to just turn your shoulders you also need to turn your lower body too at the same time a lot of times people will just kind of sway back with their lower body and turn their shoulders and then that kind of causes some mish hits right so as Natalie said when you you have that ball maybe and then you put a club across your shoulders you really need to feel your whole body turning back and not just you know your lower body or or your shoulders so yeah definitely you’ll see Nelly do that big shoulder turn hips move back weight shifts into the back looks like she’s going to probably go into driver here um like you know she doesn’t have super long warm-up but she doesn’t need it swing probably feels good she’s probably pretty confident in what she’s doing she’s just trying to mentally get to a place where she’s body feels good mind feels good you can see her laughing staying loose that’s really important there’s a lot of nerves there’s a lot going on out here a lot of pressure and yeah you want to make sure that you stay loose
definitely yeah no and as we go from one superstar to another Lexi Thompson who’s been uh working up her bag and pulling out the the fairway woods now it looks like and kind of trying to uh get those dialed in um she still has the band on around her legs um and you know we mentioned how that can really help with uh you know powering up your swing and and Natalie said a lot of your swing power can come from your groin so that’s that’s the area of her body where she’s getting a lot of power from right and so as we watch her kind of work through some fairway woods Natalie what do you notice the most about uh the swings with the longer clubs
yeah definitely i mean well just first and foremost you know every player is so different so we see Nelly going through already at driver and now we see Lexi just now getting to Woods so every player just has such a different routine what works for them finding out for you guys back home what works for you do you like a short warm-up do you like a longer warm-up what clubs do you want to kind of focus a bit more on your warm-up and it looks like she’s uh hitting three-wood when she might even have that on a T um
because you know a lot of these holes you’re not hitting driver you need a fairway finder you don’t want to be in that Bermuda it’s punishing to be in that Bermuda you’re losing stroke so just getting that ball in the fairway um especially on some of these downwind holes where it’s not a disadvantage to have a 3-wood off the tee now she’s kind of moving into driver i think she’s got you know what she’s doing with that band is creating stability in that lower body um it looks like that to me um she’s probably also warming up those muscles of hers uh again she’s got an alignment stick down she knows her target on each shot she’s going to go through her pre-shot routine um she’s you see how she grips the club methodically there and and here goes her continuous swinging we talked about earlier with that wedge she’s continuing that same routine through the driver we talked about again and again consistency these girls are going to do the same thing the same amount of looks there’s the look she’s going to milk the grip until she’s comfortable which is the exact same loading and then an explosive through the ball
yep she seemed like she liked that one
yeah definitely and you notice that she’s teeing the ball a little bit lower too um a lot of the times you know we talked yesterday and the days before about how high do you tee the ball but on a day like today you don’t want to tee it too high because it’ll get kind of caught up in the wind and and spin too much so you see your ball is kind of teed a little bit lower you probably can’t even really see too much of it um from the down the line view but um this is in in an attempt to flight the ball a little bit more it looks like it’s almost actually kind of further back in her stance too so
I actually did this all week i put the ball uh when we were into the wind and I would put the ball almost an inch from the ground very low again taking some of that spin off look how low that tee is it’s um you know a lot of people will tee the ball up really high but the higher we get that ball or the more spin we put on that ball the more the wind’s going to touch it and the whole goal here is let’s not let the wind as much as we can let’s not let the wind touch the ball that low tea below the height of her driver is going to ensure that she hits lower on the face and brings that center of gravity down just a little bit flights that ball i would you know put it back maybe an inch in your stance than when you’re used to just to try and get that ball launching a little bit lower than she normally would
yeah definitely and um you know maybe talk about you know there’s a lot of unique parts of Lexi swing right you know you have the the um a little bit of a stronger grip and then the the back swing and then the follow through so you know you you watch this swing and and you you wonder like how does she generate power so I’m curious Natalie when you watch her kind of go through the ball right and and she kind of jumps up off of her toes what is she exactly doing there to kind of like meet up that impact in the right way right like a lot of the times we’re not asked to jump up on our toes that’s kind of a bad thing but just explain for the people at home you know what what they’re seeing and how that is helping her actually hit the ball further
yeah she’s um I mean she’s strong she’s tall she’s very strong she has strong legs so her load it’s you know the old saying load and explode that’s what she’s doing um she’s using the ground and she’s using the strength of her legs throughout the swing i can see that ball is a little bit back and you know her swing is is unique but she creates a long back swing and it creates a lot of power there
yeah no definitely and I love that analysis and it’s definitely one of the more unique swings you’ll see and we’re about to head over to our current leader of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Miy Lee um who is warming up here pretty close to Natalie and I actually and she’s already on to the driver um has an alignment stick out as you can see then we have a great angle of her um and Natalie maybe kind of walking through what you’re seeing uh first impressions of Ninja swing
yeah look how she loads back into that back foot then gets through the ball kind of similar move that Nelly Corda does a little bit you’ll notice that ball’s teed low i bet you that’s um lower than maybe she would normally tee it um just Yeah look at that she’s got that ball low and trying to keep it below the wind right now like we said this driving range is playing probably 20 20 mph dead into the fan so um she swings nice and smooth creates power what you’ll notice about these players is and different than what you know what I work on with people on the lesson T and what I see a lot is a lot of people are what you call quick at the top of the back swing they try and create their power in their transition from their back swing to their down swing what you’ll see out here is these girls fastest part of their swing and the most powerful part of their swing is about 2 feet before impact impact and right after and that’s so important when you hear the announcers or people say “Oh they were a bit quick there.” That means they’re getting their their power from their either back swing or from their transition and you see that she has this slow smooth back swing she sets the club beautifully and then gets through it she’s going to get tossed another ball here and uh just you’ll see if you notice she’s going to take that alignment stick away you’re going to see a lot of the players do this you’re going to see them go into what it is on the golf course
mhm yeah definitely and you know um she’s probably trying to you know earlier Natalie mentioned playing the holes um before you go out and play um this is probably the club she’s going to have um on the first tee right and just trying to have a good T- shot good frame of mind before I go out with the club that I’m usually probably going to hit and so just trying to dial in that driver a little bit um you notice a couple of the fundamental things is her stance is is fairly normal it’s not too wide t not too narrow but in windy conditions sometimes you need a little bit little bit of an extra wide stance so Natalie maybe talk about the fundamentals a little bit
yeah she’s got a great setup you’re going to see the consistency again and all these players we keep reiterating it she’s going to do the exact same move every time um she’s going to set her feet and set her hands what she’s probably doing now that the alignment stick is g gone is she’s drawing a little um a little fairway in her head trying to hit her little fairway um and again a lot of players love to finish but that wedge just that feel finishing with feel not necessarily power the driver is is what it is but when you the last couple shots in the range you’ll see a lot of players they just want to hit a nice soft little wedge to get that feel down
yeah definitely and as we watch Mie warm up here before she heads out on the course natalie a question in the chat um
growth of the game you know this is a great example the women KPMG women’s PGA Championship um you know you see a lot of uh young girls out here looking for autographs from their favorite players you know we have uh you know PGA Junior League we have you know youth golf kind of on the rise you know think about you know going back to the Southern California PJ where you’re at kind of talk to me a little bit about what you’re doing there and then as a whole how has the growth of the game from your eyes happened
yeah it’s been incredible i mean I don’t know if if people recognize but since 2019 60% of the game’s growth is with women and that’s an incredible statistic that um I think is often overlooked and this tournament is showcase of that this these tournaments get bigger and better every year they become more prestigious and elite the sponsorship dollars grow they do such a great job of an example like Corbridge stepping in and taking care of players and their caddies um and so with the game growing for women it it’s really special and it’s an honor to be an SCPGA female um member i love it i love We have a lot of female membership and the support is incredible so just being out here this week and getting to and getting to share this and see the other side there’s two growths to the game there’s the players and then there’s the people on green grass facilities like myself and you Ryan so it’s really special opportunity to be out here and and kind of get perspective from both sides and figure out how can you bridge the gap between players and the green grass facilities and this this week is a is a beautiful example of that yeah definitely and uh you know as we watch Mi go off to uh probably hit a few putts before she goes off and plays um it’s going to be interesting to see you know how uh how she plays today right being in that position and and um where she’s going to end up natalie maybe kind of some of your thoughts about uh you know where the top of the leaders kind of end up today
yeah I mean you know it’s it is uh kind of she’s at what six under right now she’s got a four- stroke lead it you know I’m going to take a flying guess she shoots even par potentially wins the tournament it depends on the pins i mean usually Sunday pins are and not even close to easy it depends on how the wind holds up um and they might move some of the holes up to make them drivable but though that can be punishing some of these holes just cuz it’s drivable doesn’t mean it’s easy you miss the green and and you’ve got one heck of a chip so we’ll kind of see um we’ll kind of see where where she ends up but we’re rooting for her for sure and and a lot of the players out here a good solid round
yeah definitely and we’re going to move over to uh Gino Titakun next who u was yesterday’s uh leader uh actually at 600 as well and had a little bit of a struggle yesterday in round three playing alongside Mi Lee but she’s only four shots back and so um she you know has the talent probably to to know that uh I can I can be right back at the top again if I need to be so um Natalie Gino’s got one of the more you know interesting swings a lot of power in it but a lot of uh uh things that people can probably take away from it too what do you see that people uh might might be able to use on in their own golf swings
yeah first thing I’m noticing um you know from a face on view it’s a little easier to see but you can also see it from down the line she creates incredible width we talked about that earlier um I like to kind of teach where there’s like a string on the end of your golf club and that head look how wide that takeaway is and you’ll see it throughout her back swing is pushing that club as far away from her as she can to create width that creates consistency that creates power velocity um and you’re going to see that through the entirety of her back swing um that left arm is going to stay nice and straight she’s it almost looks like she pushes the club out away from her um right now she’s hitting irons just trying to get that feel for the wind again look at every one of these girls doing the exact same thing all the way to the grip like how they you know I call it milking the grip when you kind of grip to regrip i do it maybe three times and it’s the exact same every time you’ll see every single one of these girls go through the same routine on every shot another thing to kind of note is look how slowly she’s walking right she’s not rushed she’s staying calm she puts together an underpar round today she has an absolute chance this course is so tough the greens the grain on those greens and in these conditions with the length and the wind that’s out here you know she puts together a two three under par round and and she’s gonna scare some people out here so I’m really curious to see how the day goes it’s really anybody’s game it’s kind of looked like she’s moved into a hybrid um some of these par fours especially these first couple holes they’re long um and she will likely have a longer club in like a long iron or a hybrid
yeah definitely and you know Gino obviously probably a little disappointed with the 76 yesterday kind of tumbled out of the lead um talk to me Natalie as a player you know we’ve kind of walked you’ve done an excellent job walking through what the players are thinking before they go out to their round now let’s get to Gino right four shots back had a kind of a tough round yesterday what is she thinking before she heads out to the to the first TE
uh she’s staying in the moment she knows this course is hard she knows that the leader can go shoot a couple over and she could go shoot a couple under and she’s right in there so I think she’s staying patient she knows she’s got a chance she’s absolutely not out of it even though she’s four back and she had a tough day yesterday she’s absolutely not out of it and she knows that she’s she’s trying to stay calm she’s trying to stay present and she’s you know understanding that hey guess what bogeie is going to happen you’re not you’re probably not coming through this course without making a bogey so just understanding like hey if I make a bogey it’s not the end of of the round and that goes you know all the way back to anybody back home if she knows that right she can kind of recover from it a little bit quicker um and just kind of leave it there and then when the opportunity presents itself she’ll go for she’ll go for pins she’ll go for birdies but staying really really patient out there
yeah definitely and uh you know as we see her kind of work into a what looks like a fairway wood um we talked about what you’re going to need to do out there and that’s to find the fairway right and one of the things that I love about Gino’s swing you see the takeaway motion there is she has really high hands and then she gets that lower body through perfectly right she’s able to she’s able to you know a lot of the times people might get stuck might get kind of come over the top um with the with their with their upper body gino does a nice job of having those high hands and then almost like someone’s tugging the left side of her belt and getting those hips to clear out of the way right she’s able to find a way back to to to impact to make sure that she’s hitting it in the center of the face and maybe you know Natalie talk about a little bit what you see with her back swing and then you know coming down through through the transition
yeah she’s got nice wide stance pushing that club away and again that fastest part of the swing is impact that transition at the top of the swing i think one of the best parts you know something to note as you watch the the ladies all week is um how smooth that transition is it’s not snatchy up there she’s not ripping the club down as hard as she can she understands that power is created at impact and that is the h fastest hardest part of your golf swing if she pulls that club down you get disconnected hips get away from body and and that’s when when they start mhitting it so you’ll see that she’s going to take it back nice and smooth she’s going to set the club at the top and the fastest part which is almost a blur is right there at impact because that’s where the club’s moving the fastest she’s going to get into that front leg and hold that finish um making sure all her weight has transitioned off of her back foot through the back swing or through the down swing and through the ball
yeah definitely and you know um what are some of the things that you use in your swing Natalie um that you see in Gino’s swing right like we put your swing side by side and what are some of the things you know the two of you do similarly that maybe the uh people at home can take away
i love the width i talked about it earlier and I I think it’s really important keeping that club head away from you and not narrowing the swing plane and you’ll probably see a ton of width here as she moves into driver i really like that um I like to create that width too and kind of feel like I’m pushing the club away from me um let’s see i think she’s looks like she’s teed her ball up real low too it’s kind of a a common thing i did that all week um you know just kind of tee it low and hit it smooth trying to keep that spin off of those drivers because the that driver flies high so if that ball gets up there in the wind it’ll get gobbled up the Bermudas um out here especially when you’re down grain on these fairways you can hit a ball and um it’ll it can run out a lot so just keeping that ball nice and low but you can see that one piece takeaway i do that as well i really like that um
yeah and and we see her we see her a coach here everyone should what we saw this yesterday is what what he’s doing is trying to check to make sure um Gino’s shoulders are in the right place right a lot of the times people will have their driver and they won’t have a good launch position right and you know you have the top chaser range out here and you can see how far the launch angle is for some of these players what he’s doing is putting a club kind of right down uh the center of her body making sure that that tilt is in a good position right for Gino it’s important to hit up on the ball and get that’s how she gets the power right so a lot of the times amateurs will do the exact opposite where their front shoulder is actually lower than their back shoulder and that promotes that over the top motion you kind of can it’s hard for you to uh not get back to impact without looping back and hitting a slice so something for you to learn at home take that when you’re setting up for your driver shot take that back shoulder and just push it down a little bit and you’ll be in a better launching position kind of like Gino is so
kind of bump your you can bump your left hip up a little bit too and and feel like you’re kind of preloaded you can see that tilt that you’re talking about in her shoulder really wide smooth slow takeaway i love that really slow takeaway it’s incredible um what she’s doing there is she’s building momentum she’s building velocity and momentum like kind of a coil and then boom lets it go um you know just after the transition so that again the fastest part of that swing is right at impact yep definitely and and you know one more thing I just want to kind of talk about Natalie is you know um she’s in contention to win a major championship right what is the mindset you think of a champion you know Miy Lee is another one won a couple major championships what is that championship mindset nelly has it Alexi has it what is that what what is different about that than a normal golfer what can maybe they take away from it
i think probably you know grit adversity those those two words are the first thing that come to mind to me uh understanding that golf is a game of mis hits she’s gonna mish hit balls today but she’s gonna stay patient she’s gonna stay focused and she’s not going to let one bad shot turn into two three four bad shots or you know an entire bad nine she’s going to make sure that she stays focused she stays present she goes through her routine um and she stays mentally tough this game is a mental game she knows she has the tools to win she knows she can win she will win if she stays present and focused throughout the round and she knows that right each one of these players does so um whoever stays the toughest in these really really difficult conditions is who’s going to come out on top and I’m really excited to see who that is today
yeah definitely you know Gina only being four shots back she’s able to she’s able she’s not out of it by any means but she she definitely needs to kind of step on the gas a little bit right similar to a Nelly Porter you need to make a few birdies so you can get to maybe a three or a four under and kind of hope for MJI to kind of come back to the field a little bit right although Mji’s playing fantastic golf so wouldn’t be surprised to to see her kind of stay where she’s at but for Gino you know you have the power right you can get to some of these uh longer holes with shorter clubs um you know you know Natalie you mentioned to me earlier that a lot of these greens have a lot of grain in them so maybe talk to me about how Gino’s going to have to approach uh those those second shots and the fairways to get close to the hole right
yeah it just depends on you know what what she likes and what she feels like some of these holes that are shorter she might actually want to lay back um get the ball up in the air a little bit so it will sit because sometimes on this grain the ball just wants to release and run out and it’s even sometimes hard to even just stop a wedge so it’s going to depend on what she wants she’s going to figure out okay you know this yardage is what I feel comfortable with i like you know whatever in and then make so sure she’s in position to go do that and uh staying as as present as she can playing her game you know golf’s that game where in one hole MJI can make a bogey and she can make a birdie and they’re within two of each other and she knows that and she they’re playing together today so it’s going to be a battle out there this course is difficult and it just takes this is the craziest game where it just takes one mistake and one heroic shot to completely turn the script and then the mental side of it steps in where she gets a little bit of confidence and there’s some momentum flipping and I I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a little bit of all a little bit of that all day kind of going back and forth because there will be mistakes out here there’ll be birdies but there will be uh tough shots and tough lies and and low sitting balls in Bermuda that you’re just going to have to deal with so it’ll be kind of interesting uh interesting ground today it’s exciting
yeah and Natalie I know you uh you got to you’re a busy person today so you got to head off to a to a SiriusXM radio interview so thanks so much for being here we really appreciate it um really pleasure to be out here
yeah definitely yeah no doubt and we’ll be it’ll be curious to see who kind of ends up on top today um it’s important to kind of make sure you tune in later today for some uh some coverage and make sure that uh you know you’re following uh the coverage on Golf Channel NBC um we’re excited to see uh who eventually comes out on top and thanks again folks for joining us today um Natalie thank thanks for being here and we really appreciate it
really fun to be able to kind of take a closer look and deep dive into it and hopefully learned a couple things out here
yeah definitely and who who do you think uh is going to win today who who you
I don’t even want to make a guess what I want is I want to see a good game i want to see the field come back i want to see a tough battle out here this course is really difficult i want to see someone fight it out i want to see a little adversity a little grit and I want to say see who stays mentally tough and I’m rooting for all of them i never really liked just one yeah no I love that all right thank you folks really appreciate you tuning in hope you enjoyed it and uh uh go all the golfers i guess we’re excited to see who comes out on top here
see some good golf yeah that’s right yeah that’s right here at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
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5 Comments
Awesome, knowledgeable commentators. Would love to hear both on Golf Channel and NBC !
All the PGA YOUTUBE channels are a disaster. Whomever is managing this should be sacked.
They have no idea what the viewers want when it comes to content.
They have the worst golf channels on YouTube.
As expected,
All eyes are on the top….
especially,Nelly's team.
Lol.
Minjee is as cute as a coy.
I watch the lpga because of Minjee.