Hi, my golf friend. And welcome back to above par. I'm super happy that you're here and listening. So I have a special podcast today. I had my brother Dudley Hart, who was a former tour player, played on the PGA tour and his whole life and the champions tour. And now he is a assistant coach at the university of Florida and help lead them to a national championship last year. So we talked a lot about what he implemented relative to practice. Scoring course management. To help the kids. Get to a national championship. And so he shares a lot of details in that. And my membership. But what I wanted to do here was give you a little clip that I thought was really insightful about course management and. The mindset of course, management and clubs, selections. And this is an example. That he talked about playing in the senior British open. With his son. Who currently plays at the university of Florida, who was his caddy at the time. And how they saw the whole differently and how Dudley decided. On how he was going to play that whole ahead of time. And at the end of this example, I share with you three ways that I thought the information that you shared was going to be really impactful and valuable for you. So without further ado here is Dudley. My brother sharing his insight on course management and the senior British open.
Kathy:But the other thing that you're really, really good at Dudley, and I know this is a lot of, I, um, I am, I, did you see how I'm like in the, in the, uh, The last 40 minutes. Okay. The other thing that you're really good at is course management. Whenever you and I would play together with, let's say somebody else, I think of most often, I think at Caloosa Pines, which is in Naples, and it is a very challenging course to know where to put your ball. And it's so important to know where to leave yourself and. You're really good at explaining to people on where to hit it to a point where sometimes they look at me. They're like going, there's no way. Does he know that I'd like, I'm happy if I just make contact right now where you're like, hit it 10 feet to the right of the pin, like just short. He's like, I'm trying not to fat it. But with that being said. In my opinion, and I'd be curious to hear what your spin is, I know because I've been with you enough to know what you say to the kids that you're kind of shocked at the way that they make just quote unquote, I'm going to say dumb. There's a difference in my mind between a dumb mistake and one where we make a, we're not thinking clearly. Like, I don't even know why I did that. I wasn't in my own head. Other ones where we just weren't even paying attention. So short signing ourselves, trying to hit shots that we don't own, putting it up next to the green. I was thinking of that one hole where all the kids could drive it. And then they were over on the short side, they short sided themselves on the left side of that, that green, which is an impossible up and drown so that they could drive it almost to the green. But then you said you watched one tournament where the kids were all get there and make six because they're just going back and forth, back and forth. Yeah, which would be so much smarter if they played it back in the fairway and then, you know, hit a shot up onto the middle of the green, or if that spot, which you demonstrated was hit to the fat part of the green and give yourself that 35 foot putt and get the heck out of there and cut your losses. The other part of that story, and I tell this story because you told it to me, relative when you played in the British Open or the Irish Open, I don't know what you played in. Ryan Caperson. Ryan. Yeah. And you want to tell that story? I'm talking about the one with the poetry because I'm talking about the sand. I have a thing about hitting it into certain length bunkers I talk about all the time, but go ahead and tell the story because this is, again, course management where his brain is thinking one thing and your brain is thinking another. Well, this was more of a tee shot thing that I'm thinking of it at, uh, Royal Littleman St. Anne's at the, at the senior British. So my son Ryan was going to caddy for me, but he had to turn him to his own at home and I was out with all my girls and my girl. It was kind of, it was a blast because my girls all took turns caddying for me to practice round and they don't know a lot about golf, but it was awesome to spend time with them in my environment. But anyway. Ryan came in on Wednesday afternoon, flew in, and, um, so he, we go out on Thursday to play, and the first hole at Royal Lidholm is a par 3, and the second hole is about a 460 yard par 4, with a couple bunkers. Royal Lidholm has the fairway bunkers and, Link's Golf are generally bad to be in, but Royal Lidholm is really bad. And it's, they might as well be small little lakes because it's pretty much chip out sideways if you hit it in them. So you got to try to. Plan the best you can to stay away from them. And anyway, the second hole, wind blown left to right every day, and was supposed to blow left to right all week, according to the weather forecast. And there was a railroad track, like a lot of courses in Scotland, they have train, train tracks all over the place, and the train track was literally 15 yards, 20 yards off the fairway, and it was out of bounds. And there was a stand of a few trees, A little bit of rough and I'm just trying to set this scenario for you here. But, anyway, there were two bunkers on the right that were like about two 50 or 60 to carry, which I could carry. but more importantly, there were two bunkers down the left that ate into the fairway a little bit. So it's cut the fairway down that, we're about three 10 ish, 300 to three 10, if I remember right. And the ground is really firm. So my driver is most likely going to get to those bunkers. Which means that when I'm playing that hole, if I want to, if I want to hit driver and stay out of that bunker, I got to aim it more into the middle of the fairway and my miss, I'm a fader, the wind's blowing left to right. And my miss is a push fade. So I don't, not that I've never missed it left, but my tendency is if I don't hit it perfect, it's probably going to go on the right rough or within that scenario where I'm aiming and I probably going to hit it in the railroad tracks if I don't hit it perfect. And so I'd already made the decision in the practice round on Tuesday, actually, that, um, I am not getting to those two bunkers straight away. So I'm going to hit, and the left rough was really thin, wispy, you know, sometimes over there it looks really bad on TV, but it was, I could hit a three wood out of it and, um, short of that bunker. So I wasn't afraid of pulling it a little bit and leaving it as long as I stayed short of those left bunkers and right of the ones that were in the right half of the fairway. I'm going to have a five iron, four, five, six iron into that green, which was a lot, but I didn't care. The trouble for me, the uncomfortable part for me was that tee shot. So anyway, long story short, Ryan, we get out there and start on, I don't know what I made on number one, but I get on number two and I brought a driving iron over a long hot two iron with a metal shaft that I couldn't hit very well off the ground, but it was mainly I brought it over to use it off the tee for, for scenarios like this. And, uh, I pull that two iron out and Ryan doesn't know the golf course and he's looking at the whole sign that says 460 and I don't hit it as far as him and he's thinking why, why am I not hitting driver and I, I jokingly said, and this shows the issues I might have mentally, but it popped in my head like that. I said, Ryan, I said, I already made a decision that if I hit it in those bunkers down the left, or I hit it on those railroad tracks, I'm going to walk over on those tracks and wait for a train to run me over because I'm not doing it. I did not like that hole. I was not going to let that hole beat me. Um, I knew it was going to be a hard hole for everybody. And I figured if I play that hole one over, I would walk from the first green to the third tee if they'd let me and, uh, for four days and luckily. Um, I actually played at one under, um, and cause I, you know, I just hit it in the fat of the green four times and one, two times I had pretty good putts at it and I made one 20 footer and I, I finished that whole one under. So that's the, that's one of the struggles I have, with our guys, probably because I wasn't good at it at that age either. They're, they're all really good at golf, a little bit cocky. I think they're really good. I think they can hit every shot and they can hit every shot. It's just understanding. When you're uncomfortable and it's okay to be uncomfortable and it's okay to take a pass, it doesn't mean you play for a bogey necessarily. I just said, listen, I'm going to make birdie. I'm going to try and make birdie here, but I'm gonna have to make it with a four or five or six iron, and I might have to make a 25 or 30 footer, which I'm okay with on a really hard hole. I was fine with that because really one of the tricks becoming a high level golfer is to make less bogeys. It's not like you're going to make seven to nine birdies every day to shoot low scores, make less mistakes. And it's part of making less mistakes is, is understanding and having the discipline when you either on a certain day, you may not feel like you can hit that shot where normally you can, or you just. Don't like a scenario. And, you know, certain guys may play that hole and draw the ball. And they're like, this is perfect for me. I'm going to aim it in the right center of the fairway and hit the biggest draw. I feel like I can up against that wind and be fine. They might not have a problem with it. I didn't like it. And I just took a pass before the tournament started. Yeah, so okay, so some of the things that I'm just going to share to reiterate that you said, and there are a lot of good points 1 is that I think a lot of players just get into this mentality. It's driver hit whatever you can get it down there into the shortest distance. The next thing you know, they have this big number where they're not thinking ahead. About there's more than one way to go from point A to point B on a hole and still make the same number and doing what you mentioned what you're comfortable with gives you the best opportunity to make a good swing versus what you're uncomfortable with like you so it's like if you're standing on the tee box I don't like the tee I don't like the shot I'm not comfortable the chances of you making a bad swing go astronomically up and so you're putting a club in your hand that you're like I feel comfortable with this I also know that I'm going to hit a longer club in, so I'm kind of cutting my losses, which means you're thinking ahead of your future self. So you're planning for the next hole. I don't want to stand on that next T, T box with, I call it red ass. Like you're pissed off that you just made a big number and shouldn't have got there. And then the third thing that I want everybody to hear is how he's a tour player, played tour his whole life and he's planning on his misses. Right. Which is you said, I don't have a problem if I pull it a little bit. I know my miss is a little bit of a fade. Sometimes it's a push fade. Like he's not saying that it's shocked that he has misses. He knows he doesn't hit them all perfect. He's not saying that he's going to get really pissed off or disappointed that he pulls it a little bit or pushes a little bit. It's like that this goes into expectations, which I talk a lot about. We have to have our realistic expectations and you knowing your swing on what you do help set you up to make some of those better swings and planning your strategy on the whole. I think you probably, I know you run into a lot of kids who have really super high expectations for themselves where they think they shouldn't miss any shots or miss any fairways or admit. Even that sometimes I pull the ball, sometimes I push the ball, not a problem. For sure. I mean, I think they probably down deep like I would have thought, um, probably at the same age that you're admitting weakness or admitting you're afraid of something. And you don't really have to look at it that way. It's just learning from what your tendencies are. And that goes from what your miss is standing on a tee box, on a flat tee box. What, what are your tendencies when the ball's below your feet and the pin is left and you've got to hit an easy shot, what are you going to do? You know, the book kind of says that, typically when the ball's below your feet, the ball will fade or go to the right. Okay, well, that's true when I hit a shot easy, if I'm feeling like I have to hit an easy eight iron off of that. I typically do do that. But if I'm hitting one, like I'm trying to hit a full, full nine iron, I try not to say hard, I just don't love saying hard. I don't want to swing harder than I have to, but like a very full nine iron, I pull it, I pull it off that line because the heel catches a little bit more than the toe closed down. And I know I do that. So if I'm deciding I'm going to hit a full nine iron when the ball is below my feet, I'm going to shift my target, my start line to the right three to five yards because I'm going to hit on a good shot. Yeah. I'm going to pull it three to five yards. And on a bad one, I'm probably going to pull it more than that. So shifting where you aim the ball, and that's another tendency that we try to make guys and not everybody is going to have that same reaction. It's how you deliver the club to the ball has a lot to do with that. But, being aware of that, so you have to do those things over and over and over again. Those kind of learning things Of those scenarios and those tendencies so he can make a more informed decision when he's on the golf course doesn't mean you make all the right decisions in the world. And sometimes you just don't execute because you're a human being and the ball ends up where you don't want it. But you just have to know that statistically speaking, if I do X, it's going to do this. If I do Y, it's going to do this. And try to make it not thinking that you're broken. I think a lot of amateurs think that because they pulled the ball, they have to fix something. Like, I'm going to go to take a lesson because I just pulled it. Right? It's like, no, sometimes it's the lie. Sometimes it's just what you do. We don't want to. Chase things that aren't broken. So you're the language that you're talking about. A lot of amateurs think that, well, I pulled it. So there's something wrong with me versus your, your example. sometimes I pull it off of these lies and there's more of an acceptance there versus feeling like there's something broken. Because the minute you start thinking that you're broken somewhere in the middle of the golf course, you're going to struggle the rest of the way around.
Okay, so there you have it. I hope you found that helpful. Some really good information that you can use when you go out and decide on what clubs to hit. How to play holes, knowing what your tendencies are and understanding your misses and if you're not already on my email list, make sure you join me@cathyheartwood.com for slash join. So you can know about all. And any upcoming workshops. All right. Have a beautiful week. I'll talk to you next Wednesday. Bye.