Adam Hadwin shares stories of what it felt like to be tackled by security when he celebrated his fellow Canadian Nick Taylor’s RBC Canadian Open win. Hadwin also shares tips on our golf games and what we can do better. Nick Taylor joins and reminisces about his historic win on home soil last year and shares swing and putting tips for the weekend golfer.
here with Adam hadwin Adam when I think about you know your strengths and and what you focus on in your game how do you approach driving like what are some of the pillars that you like to focus on with driving um besides keeping it in the Fairway right um well that’s a good question um that honestly kind of changes a little bit week to week depending on where my swing is at um what I’m working on that sort of thing um I think you know fundamentally I think that trying to approach the golf ball from the inside and up on it with a driver is is pretty key um when that attack angle starts getting down it gets very hard to control um so I think that would that would probably be one that I could pick out one key that I could pick out um I think it’s very important to hit up on it in general with with your driver’s shot and then when you look at iron shots I know a little bit different with The Arc of the club and where you kind of ground it um what’s kind of your overall approach and and the strengths you lean on with with iron play um I think for me it’s leaning into playing golf shots um I have a tendency to get my swing in general is very neutral um in comparison to a lot of guys I don’t really have let’s call it a stock shot whether it’s a fade or a little draw or something like that it’s um my club path and and the way that I approach the golf ball ends up being very neutral and so I I kind of get a shot that sort of starts straighter and and works away from the center versus starting uh away from the center working towards it and so I’m always working on um you know sort of picking one or the other so that I have margin for error um either hitting a left to right shot aiming left giving myself room so I’ve got uh an area to move it into versus the ball moving away from the flag and then vice versa and we think about like obviously golf’s a complicated game but one of the most complicated shots is the long bunker shot for you like what tends to be your approach for that shot man uh pray hope um yeah I mean I think the easiest thing you can do is go up and Club um again it varies depending on your PIN location but a lot of it is uh lowering your expectations um just giving yourself a chance is usually a pretty good shot um but I a lot of the time I’ll play it very similarly to a greenside bunker shot um but just go up to a you know gap wedge pitching wedge I’ve hit nine iron out of the bunker before um you know 40 30 40 yards or so so yeah just not be afraid to to take a little more Club then yeah open it up the same way and make the same swing and it it’ll come out lower and uh probably won’t stop as fast but it gives you a chance well what about with chipping I know we’re talking about variety with bunker shots and distance but what about with chipping what tends to be your overall mindset there yeah I mean I think the biggest thing is keeping your weight forward um that’s something that I’ve learned over these last few years um it hasn’t been a strong point of my game but um you got to keep your weight forward it keeps the center of gravity forward it keeps you from hitting the chunk and the blade and all the uh kind of problem shots that people have um you know most people that you see uh try and help the ball in the air we talk about that and that is simply a product of you know you’ll fall back to try and come up and that’s where all the ugly shots come from I think the if the the average player can just keep their weight on their left side um and kind of turn very simple almost like a putting motion I think they’d be much better off right and speaking of putting like what tends to be the right attitude for you as you kind of look at your putting and and you know improve as we’re always trying to improve yeah I mean I think the biggest thing is uh make sure you take care of the short putts um I don’t think people can hit enough putts from inside 5T I think it is very important to see the ball go in the hole on a consistent basis um I think that in itself will will lend to Greater confidence um you know the more times that you can bend over and pick it out of the hole um I think the better off you are and uh other than that other than you know being very proficient in uh inside 5 ft I work on speed control that’s about it um I think that the expectation once you get you know 10 plus feet 10 let’s say 10 to 20 feet um is very high and the odds are against you um I think I could be wrong here but I want to say tour players are like 50/50 from like 8 feet and in or something 8 ft is kind of that cut off and so anything outside of 8 ft you got less than a 50% chance of making so you’re standing there on a 15-footer yes you you know most guys are like I got to make this um it’s really just about I view it more as okay let’s just put a good roll on it and if I do if it does Miss I’m making this game as easy as possible on myself and tapping in um there’s no sense in having a 15f footer for birdie and then grinding on a 4-footer for power coming back so well making a hard ass game as easy as possible that’s music to my years correct um I was going to say too just like going through your bag make model and then degrees kind of how do you go through your 14 clubs um I still carry the old uh Callaway I think they’re the md5 I’m not 100% on that but um 60 bent to 59 uh 56 bent to 55 and a 52 bent to 50 and then I go uh pitching wedge through five iron is the tcbs the T cavity back uh um with a the uh Dynamic gold um I’m honestly not sure though the shaft don’t worry about the shaft and and just to make a model of kind of like the longer clubs too don’t have to go into too much detail okay so yeah uh pitching went through five iron uh tcbs I have a 21 degree driving iron utility iron um from a few years ago still the old model I have an 18° two iron hybrid uh Callaway U which I think is fantastic um three-wood is the Paradigm 3-wood uh sits at about 15° give or take and then I’ve got the new ai1 smoke uh driver at what degree is that sits at right around 11 I think something like that gotcha and I’d be remiss as we wrap up here we remiss not to ask you about uh this year’s Canadian open What’s going to be uh any mindset change with celebration so you don’t get knocked out this time what’s the Thought uh yeah um I was there I watched Nick win in Phoenix uh I made sure to stay near his family so that they knew I was not of a threat um and uh we’ll maybe just hesitate on rushing the green next time just a fraction of a second maybe learned your lesson a little bit or what’s the takeway yeah no definitely um I do not want to uh relive that moment again so we’ll we’ll take an extra few seconds this time and and maybe let him get off off the green sure your ribs don’t want to re live that either my friend Adam hin appreciate your time and good luck the rest of the year thank you and just to get to know kind of your your clubs and and kind of your tips for the game five quick tips about um what are ways that amers can get better things that you do well that amateur can learn and get better and when I think about driving what are some good kind of pillars of driving we should focus on you know I I do it a lot if I’m doing a clinic or anything it’s it’s back to the basics you know alignment is something that the pros work on constantly alignment ball position grip setup you know it seems like you know at the amateur level it’s things that are overlooked that we constantly try to do every day so it’s it’s to the basics um you know if you can set up properly you’re getting off to a good start and you can you can at least set yourself up no pun intend to actually hitting a good shot so um that would see that that was probably my best advice to start off with and then with irons do you want to have a kind of a a different approach to there not so kind of upright on the on the impact or what’s the focus on irons yeah the the drivers obviously kind of a stand swing where you want to probably hit up on it with angle of attack but um again when I go to an amateur player it’s starting with setup starting on a good position to be able put your body in a spot where you can actually be successful so um again you got to put time in it to be able to do it it’s it’s tough if you don’t play very often but I would start with the basics every time with alignment ball position grip and go from there what are some good basics for chipping um that you’ve kind of come across yeah um hate to preach the basics again but again with with uh with starting off alignment a lot of times you see you know anywhere from aiming way left aiming way right um and it’s amazing when I set up amateurs in the right spot just how the contact contact is a little bit cleaner um you know from there A lot of times amateurs try to get the ball up in the air where the the club’s going to do all the work for you so there’s certain things everyone’s a little bit different but again if you go back to the the basic fundamentals and put yourself in a good spot um it’s going to make a lot easier and forgetting amateurs for a minute but what are things that you really do well on checkpoints for Bunker play you know for me it’s um you get in there every sand is a little bit different for each week so you get a feel of um you know if it’s firmer sand you know you probably uh it’s going to be you don’t have to swing as hard the speed’s not there if it’s a thicker sand I Want A Little More Bounce to be able to get the ball Club through through the sand a little easier so you get a you get a feel of how the week starts um and again I go back to just just getting in there setting up correctly and then go from there putting obviously a big part of of the game and for you and winning and in the couple wins you’ve had I’m sure that the putting is something you find some good uh pillars with right yeah I have a a Matt that kind of sets me up with a with kind of the arc that I want with you know knowing where my face angle is um that’s something I do every day you know I know my ball position I know kind of my setup I like to use a mirror to know where my eyeline is so you know again it’s the simple stuff but when you do it every day your body um can get in that spot easily uh when you’re in pressure situations around the golf course so again I I kind of do the simple stuff every every day and try to engrain that yeah quickly through your bag like what uh what’s your driver and Loft angles and all that down the line what’s uh what’s that uh my driver is is 10° um you know everything’s pretty standard my my li angles are I think I’m one degree flat with my irons and sorry the make the make of the each Club down the line the 14 um I’m Voki wedges Titleist irons of the t100’s and the four irons I think the T200 I have a a tail made fivewood and then tus driver and 3-wood and I have the the spider X putter T um what what brand is the tiess Fairway Woods um that’s a good question it’s the older model I think it’s the two-y model I’m not great with stuff if it works I use it but uh I think it’s this TSI and the model for the uh for the driver again or is the two is is the older TS Mall the TSI 3 Goa yeah lastly I know that the Canadian open winning at home I mean that’s got to be in these last couple questions it’s got to be really an exciting thing to do to pull off what were the mo Motions like that day and how much looking forward to going back yeah it was a dream come true winning that type of tournament um one that I’ve obviously wanted to Peak at you know throughout my entire career to be able to pull it off kind of in that fashion um you know it’s tough to beat but I’m really excited to get to get back there to feel those kind of energy I’m sure the fans will be amazing um like they always are but um yeah I’m really looking forward to kind of Defending that in in May what was the hardest part about pushing through I know it would have to probably be some internal pressure I would think but for you what was the hardest part of that Sunday yeah you know you you know the fans were so amazing you know Ovations walking up to te’s to Greens you know as much as you want to win it for yourself you want to win it for your country for the fans that were there so I think their energy helped pull me through keep me focused in those in those points where I needed to be especially probably in the playoff but um yeah there was so much going on to be able to kind of stay focused was probably my biggest biggest uh strength that day but you did it though I mean in a playoff that’s that’s a lot of um you know internal what do you call that mental stress that you would have put yourself through I’m sure that you know that you’ve got to be proud of of the focus that you did pull through right yeah absolutely it’s something I can I can pull back on even the waist manager this year was definitely experiences I could I could fall back on and and know that I was able to to pull through when I needed to so uh it can be nothing but good going forward great stuan Nick Taylor enjoy uh defending in Canada again this year thank you appreciate it
