Introduction and Overview

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Hey golfers, welcome to the course on playing Smart Golf.

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So in this course, we're going to talk about taking your game to the course.

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We're going to talk about more mental game stuff, strategy stuff, process stuff

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, a lot

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less technical aspects of the golf swing and more the process and the strategy

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and how

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to maximize what you're currently doing.

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So we're going to talk primarily about how to kind of use all the numbers to

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our advantage

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in order to shoot lower scores.

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Now on paper, golf is a really simple game, but it's definitely not easy.

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Simplicity of the game is in order to execute a good shot, you just want to

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play golf one

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shot at a time.

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Now golf has one of the biggest differences between the time actually executing

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the sport

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and the time it takes to play.

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So you might play for four, four and a half hours and you might only swing the

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club for

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a second and a half each time, add that up over the course of 18 holes.

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You might only be swinging for a few minutes while we're out there for four

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hours.

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There's a lot of things that can get in the way and so we need to have a good

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process

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and a good framework on how to get the most out of our technique.

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Roy McElroy kind of said it in an interview and paraphrasing here, but he was

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kind of

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a little tongue in cheek saying, you know, I get to the first tee, try to hit a

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good drive,

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then I go find my ball, try to hit another good shot.

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I repeat that until I run out of holes.

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The simplicity of that is that's how we want to play good golf is just take

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each shot at

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the time, not get ahead of ourselves, not think about bad shots in the past,

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but it's

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one of those things that's easier said and done, but it's easier done if you

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have a process

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in order to recreate this mental state.

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So everybody talks about hitting a good golf shot, what defines a good golf

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shot?

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Well a good golf shot could be defined based on a good process, it could be

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defined based

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on a good execution or it could be a good outcome.

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We're going to focus mostly on the good process because if we commit to a

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process it gives

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us the best chance of a good execution and good execution gives us the best

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chance at

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a good outcome though none of it's guaranteed.

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So what constitutes a good shot process?

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Basically I'm going, it's a four step little model, we're going to plan the

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shot, we're

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going to aim the shot, we're going to execute the shot that we chose and then

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we're going

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to react to the shot so that we can learn from it or ingrain what we did.

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We'll dig into each of those deeper in other videos.

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So defining a good shot, the end game is you should be able, when you're

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getting ready

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to hit the shot you should be able to quickly answer three key questions.

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What club am I going to hit, which shot am I going to hit with that club and

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where am

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I going to aim.

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If you can answer those three and be fully committed that that is what I'm

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going to do

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on the next shot you've got the best chance of hitting a good shot.

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So if that's one good shot a good hole we could define as consecutive good

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shots, that's

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what leads to a good hole.

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So I call this the leashman flow, named after the coach Jeff Leachman who kind

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of painted

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this picture for me.

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There are some rounds where you play the round and it feels really easy, you

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know you shoot

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low 70s and it felt like it couldn't have been any higher and there's other

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rounds that

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are exhausting.

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You shoot the same score but you were scrambling and grinding all over the

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place.

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The easier round or when you are more in the flow, more when you're staying in

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this model

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of basically hitting a good tee shot, hitting a good iron shot, for pros it's

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going to be

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mostly a good iron shot leads to a good chance at putt.

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But unless you're a scratch golfer, I like to include wedge play in your what's

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a good

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hole because at scratch golf you're going to average about 50% of your green.

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So if you're worse than that, if you're a 90 shooter, an 80 shooter, the

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majority of

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holes you are going to rely on a good wedge shot, either a pitch or a chip.

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So finesse wedge shot.

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And if you struggle with any one of those, like let's say you drove it into

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these trees

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or you hit it into the bunker, then we get into more recovery game where you're

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going

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to have to hit punch shots, deliberate curves as well as good wedge shots to

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help us get

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back in the flow.

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So graphically it kind of looks like this.

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I hit a good shot, hit a good iron, I have a chance at a birdie putt.

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If I fail on one of those, hit a bad drive, I go to recovery, hit a bad iron, I

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go to

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recovery, although I could have recovered and got back into the flow.

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If I hit a good drive and then a bad iron, a good recovery could lead me to a

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putt or

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it could lead me to a chip.

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So basically, recovery is how I get back in the flow.

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The longer I stay in recovery, the more exhausting this round is going to be.

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Bobby Jones said that competitive golf is played mainly on a five and a half

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inch course,

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the space between your ears.

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So he's talking about golf being a highly mental game.

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Now with all due respect to Bobby Jones, I would say that golf is mental as

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well as

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technical and the better your technique, so at the upper upper level, the more

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mental

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it is, the more that this process leads to better results.

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So from a technical side, we have aiming the shot, that's definitely a

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technical skill

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more so than a mental skill.

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We have building a repeatable swing which gives us predictable shot outcomes.

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We have our shot arsenal, so what tee shots do I have, what iron shots, fairway

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woods,

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hybrids, punch shots, recovery, all that stuff, wedge shots as well as putting.

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So that's my shot arsenal.

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And then recovery shots, I mentioned a few of those, punch, deliberate curves,

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hitting

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it over trees, around trees, wedge shots, bunkers, hitting on slopes, adjusting

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my technique.

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Those are all kind of recovery shots that keep us in that flow.

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But those are all technical, from the mental side, I have the strategy of

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evaluating the

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scenario and picking the best shot for my game.

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I have a pre shot routine where I'm going to aim, I'm going to remember to aim,

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so aiming

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is a technical skill, but remembering to aim is more of a mental skill and I'm

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going

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to commit fully to the shot, we'll talk about what that means.

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Then I'm going to execute the shot while staying in a good mental state and

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then after

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I've hit the shot, all I can do is respond.

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It's kind of the flow of the mental game.

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Now there's also an emotional game, which is basically not adding in layers of

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complexity

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to the shot and just taking the shot as it is.

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The phrase you'll hear in this program is the shot as the shot.

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Heard Tiger would say it to Charlie when he was giving him inspiration,

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basically, you

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know, it doesn't really matter if there's a million people watching or it's

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just you

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and me, the shot as the shot, if you can focus on it and go through the process

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, you're going

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to hit the best shot you can.

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That's our goal.

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So we have to be able to handle our emotions and react to the shot, process it

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and move

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on and get ready to do it again, because again, if we jump back to the very

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first slide, our

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goal is just hit one shot at time, but I can't hit one shot if I'm thinking

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about either

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the last shot or anticipating the next shot.

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So hitting a good shot is part process, part execution, and if we can string

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together some

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good shots, we can shoot low scores.

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In this program, we're going to talk about the good shot process.

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So we'll have a video digging deep into each one of these.

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We're going to talk about playing specific holes, so a little bit more in depth

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in strategy

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for par fours, par fives, par threes.

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We're going to talk about strategy and skills that you want to train in order

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to break some

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of your scoring barriers.

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So breaking 190, 80, or par, and then some bonus content, some more topics

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where we'll

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talk about kind of strategy, mental game, but maybe in a little less organized

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fashion,

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but some good stuff in there, some key takeaways that you might walk away from.

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So if you feel like you have a hard time taking your range game to the course,

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this course

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on playing smart golf is where we're going to start.

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So in the next video, we're going to start jumping into this good shot process.