Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
The Art and Science of Not Giving a Shit on the Golf Course
The monthly hybrid of fictional and non-fictional stories returns after an extended spring break to explore golf psychology, equipment science, and the struggle against our inner demons.
• Celebrating milestones including over 10,000 listeners across 1,200 cities in 62 countries on five continents
• Boston Dave's golf journey shows progress in managing emotions, limiting outbursts to "one cunt and two fucks" during an entire round
• The science of putter fitting reveals the importance of matching toe hang to your natural putting arc
• Working at a custom golf shop provides insider insights into equipment fitting
• Premium golf shafts can dramatically impact performance but require proper fitting
• The phenomenon of club breaking reveals the temporary insanity that takes over frustrated golfers
• Understanding that golf shops financially benefit from emotional club breakers
Talk to you soon from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina.
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Welcome to another episode from Just Tales, a monthly hybrid of fictional and non-fictional stories that compel me to rant. There'll always be a golf story or two laced into my blog, because, well, it's where I spend a good amount of my recreational time. So, whether you're a golfer or not, if you're a skeptic, doubter or open-minded, it is the place for you. So kick back and listen. Welcome back to Just Tales. I'm returning from my extended spring break, a break for really no reason other than writer's block and maybe mic fatigue and I'm not even certain that mic fatigue is a thing, but I thought it was a clever way of basically saying it's a good time to put my blog on pause. So here I am, back from celebrating another birthday that ended in a number that wasn't a zero or a five. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday to you, motherfucker. I celebrated my birthday with my now one-year-old pup, sammy, by lavishing her with attention, treats, dog park, beach walks and a belly rub, and she had a good fucking day. And, of course, what would a birthday celebration be without dinner and a hangover full of tequila with my youngest, lil Zippy, aka Dancing Dana, a name she fondly earned when, in California and at the age of four, would rocket the zip line that I built in the backyard, till one day she broke her arm after letting go a little bit too soon. Little Zippy, a moniker she would proudly wear on her jersey when she captained the OU dance team. She still dances parties and drives the same way she ziplined. Like everything else she does, she does it with Verve.
Speaker 2:And before I start my stories, I just want to thank all of my new and repeat listeners Recently over 10,000 unsolicited, non-advertised listeners In over 1,200 cities, 62 countries over five continents. Antarctica is the only continent, and that's okay. It's the overwhelming feedback, expanded listenership that keeps me coming back. So thanks. One cunt and two fucks and those are not my words, but that's the title of this story Pow, are you saying pow? What are you saying? Pow? It's the biggest helicopter leasing event in the Western Hemisphere since 1997. Pow, so I play golf with this buddy at Charleston National, a guy I call Boston, dave, a diehard Patriots, celtics and Bruins fan, which, after this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, makes him even more emotional than before.
Speaker 2:Dave could hit the ball and score, only to be interrupted by his inner demons.
Speaker 2:For those of you who don't play, if you don't play golf or you're new to the sport, we all have that inner gremlin, airworm, alter ego or just a self-doubter that, if left unchecked, can just fuck up a perfectly thought out, imagined ball flight and cause havoc to our swings.
Speaker 2:Honestly, Dave's working on just not giving a shit when he plays golf, which is a psychological game of cat and mouse with positive manifestation versus aging skill level. We both partnered up in the senior member member this year and neither of us visited the bar after either round, which is basically saying, if you're not visiting the bar after a round, you got nothing good to say. And the last thing you want to do is have guys come up to you and say how'd you do? How'd you score? Now, that's basically their way of getting you to turn around and ask them how they did, because they're either going to tell you about every great shot they hit, or they just want to know were you better than they were today or, even worse, a little bit of passive, aggressive, like guys saying you, you know we were 10 under, despite the fact that Joe missed two lip out eagle putts and two pin cock blocks.
Speaker 2:All they're trying to say is even though we beat you, guys, if not for these unlucky situations we would have just murdered you. Just too many competitive golfers could give two shits about your game or your scores unless you beat them. And if you beat them, I'm not too sure they care about your scores as much as were you sandbagging your handicaps. So during the two days of the competition, boston Dave and I talked about not getting sideways over bad shots. The first six holes of the tournament we were money par, par, par birdie, while the other guys, who most likely had lower handicaps than us, took a while to get going. By the end of seven we were well ahead of them. By the time we got to nine they started quickly catching up and when we got to the back nine we just threw up all over ourselves. And then the second day we continued the vomit fest. And during that whole time I'd say that Boston Dave kept his cool until neither of us could ham and egg it and we started making mistakes and every once in a while you'd get an F-bomb, he'd get a, god damn it. You'd see a lot of self-disappointment on his end, but he still kept his cool and he kept telling me look, I'm working on this. I know I have to have positive manifestation. I got to have a positive attitude. I can't let things get to me, because when they get to me the wheels fall off. So he was trying his best, but together we just stunk up the course. Hey, look on the positive side. No clubs were broken. The only thing that was broken and weakened was both of our golf confidences. If you ever watch a PGA pro squander a sizable lead, it tends to come down as self-doubt, particularly when their putters let them down. I mean, what self-respecting golfer doesn't own a stable of putters that let them down when it really mattered? Hey, I own five. I'll touch on that in the next segment.
Speaker 2:Now back to the story. So both Dave and I were more disappointed than elated about our games. He was just a smidge more vocal about it, which brings me to the title of this episode. So I passed Dave on the course the other day, and weeks had gone by since we played and as I'm passing him, he just says, hey, you'd be proud of me. Only one cunt and two fucks. And when he passed me and said it out loud, there were other people listening and I can't imagine what they were thinking, not knowing the context behind that. Dave was basically telling me he only got verbally annoyed with his game three times during the entire round. Now that is significant improvement. I mean, come on, man, only three expletives over the course of four and a half hours playing the most frustrating sport on the planet. Baby, that's progress. Toe hang, man, it's a thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is going to be so nasty, so nasty, so nasty. Many us Do. You have this situation in your life, jase, because you do not hit greens. You're not professional, you're amateur hour.
Speaker 2:In my extended spring break I took on this part-time gig at a local custom golf shop in Mount Pleasant. This is the most coveted golf improvement center in the entire Charleston market. What's unique about this place is if you pull up to it, you're somewhat underwhelmed by the outside. It's part of a strip center, it's the end of a strip center, but let me tell you, the magic happens inside. Like many of you listening, I've been to a lot of golf superstores and golf galaxies which are on the outside are just large footprints, so it makes a big impression when you see it. They're also stocked with millions of dollars of golf stuff with multiple hitting bays and simulation centers. They serve a purpose and are certainly eye candy to golfers. But this custom golf shop I'm working in now has something else that satisfies enthusiasts. Their personnel are so customer-centric that when you walk out of that store their whole goal is for you to have a better chance of golf happiness than when you walked in. You know the happiness could be caused by new swing awareness, custom fitted equipment, new shafts, new putters, drivers, fairy woods, iron sets, wedges, balls, tees, clothes or knickknacks. The secret sauce of this shop is not only the amount of experience that these golf bros have, but it's like their quest to leave customers feeling satisfied when they exit. It's to make them feel like they know more about their game or, in some situations, they sold them that new shiny object that's going to help improve their game. All of this leads me to my first aha moment. Working in the shop Of all the putter manufacturers, ping is one of the best at testing and manufacturing putters to fit most every golfer.
Speaker 2:There's both a science and art to picking the best putter for yourself. I mean, some of the things you might consider are the weight of the club, the visual alignment indicators, the lie angle, face grinds, inserts, head shapes, shafts and shaft lengths, grips. All of this contributes to the experience of making the best stroke that your body could make. They're all important, some because they contribute to a more consistent stroke, some because some of us just have a visual feel preference. Some of us like a mallet, some of us like a blade and some of us like something in between. Yeah, and some putter shoppers say like I don't care. I don't care what it looks like, I just want to make more putts. Of course you do. I mean that could make a big difference in every round. So the art of it is how does it look and how does it feel. That's important. But then the science of it studies the motion that most all golfers demonstrate when they stroke a putt.
Speaker 2:Some take the putter straight back and straight forward At least they're closer than most at doing that. Others have a slight arc or a strong arc to their putter path. Ping, like many other manufacturers, have done a considerable amount of work in this area. Ping's developed a tool that actually measures your putting stroke path. They, along with most putter manufacturers, have developed putter heads and shaft alignment that considers your natural path. Like golfers take the putter straight back and straight forward, benefit from a faced, balanced putter with minimal toe flow. The way you can tell if a putter head is face balanced is you take the putter, you balance the shaft a few inches from the putter head on your pointer finger. If the putter face, facing upward toward the sky or the ceiling, is parallel to the ground, that means that you've got a balanced putter face. Most all mallet head putters are face balanced, developed for those golfers that have very little arc in their putter path. On the other end of the path spectrum, golfers that have a very strong arc when they do the balance test. The putter head, when balanced on their finger, the toe should be facing almost directly down and if you have a slight arc, the toe should be somewhere between down and parallel, somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like I said earlier, I own five putters. I've owned them for quite a period of time and I tend to acquire new putters when the ones that I currently have are not performing up to my standards. And, quite frankly, every putter I've purchased was without the knowledge of what my arc was. In other words, I've been arc ignorant, stroken in the dark, careless clubbing, preoccupied with brand names and celebrity endorsements. Shame on me, but I'm not the only one. But I'm not the only one. So I'm buying putters on deal. I'm buying putters because certain pros are playing with those putters and I figure it's the putter. How can it be the pro? And so I've gone out and got different putters and found out recently, when I did my own alignment test and then I did a face balance test, that four out of my five putters don't match what my arc is. I've got two that are face balanced and I have two with a very strong arc and my putter path is slight. So I have been missing all these putts all these years because I've owned the wrong putters. And it's got to be that, because it can't be me Mind-blowing Probably not for those of you that know this, but for those of you that don't.
Speaker 2:The question is well, how do you find out which of those you are? And the answer is probably really hard to do on your own. There's a device that we have in the golf shop that, when put on a putter after three strokes, could measure what your arc is. And I had a customer the other day that took a blade putter. We put the device on the putter and he had a very strong arc and he's like, let's try a different putter, thinking the putter was the reason for the arc. And then he took another putter out, had exactly the same strong arc, which basically means this golfer would be best fitted with a club that takes into consideration his strong arc.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he was blown away by the results of the putter path test and the end result is he turns around and buys a putter with strong toe hang, yeah. So I'm trying to think of a witty bromide here. I guess it's measure twice and cut once. Measure yourself and see what your tendencies are and then try and fit a piece of equipment that is meant for your style of swing or stroke. Hey, dude, it's your shaft. Okay, for all guys like me that still think like an eight-year-old boy the shaft.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about isn't your shaft? It's the shaft.
Speaker 2:We all know golfers, or we might be the golfer that every year when new equipment comes out, we want to be first piggy to the trough. We want to try it. We know that all of these golf manufacturers are using more and more technology to help us do less work and get more. Kind of like what Dustin Johnson said, the reason that he's playing on the live tour Get paid more, play less. When it comes to golf equipment, don't we all want that new driver that we don't have to swing as hard, but it's going to launch the ball farther than it used to. The irons that hit shots that launch like a rocket and drop like a butterfly Wedges that spin the ball back into the hole. And I think every year at least one major manufacturer comes out with a better mousetrap. And first here's my disclaimer I'm not sponsored by any golf equipment company. I just happen to be working in a golf shop where rock stars help my curious mind soak up knowledge about what pros are asking about and what manufacturers are doing for them and the general public. I can't help it. I'm curious, like when I go to hit a shot, I to triangulate information distance, slope, wind, lie, angle, a laser, a watch and the gin app. Well, that's more than three things. I think triangulate is three things. So whatever the word is for taking in too much information, that's what I do. But it helps me think I figure with all this information if it all boils down to a similar number. It gives me the confidence to stand up and hit the ball with the right club that I chose. I think golf club fitting falls into that numbers funnel of facts and so I'm like I'm thinking golf heads, irons, hybrids, fairway woods and driver heads that's only part of the equation. Shafts are the other half, which contribute significantly to your ball flight distance, spin, all right. So here's an example. Fujikura, one of the most prominent golf club shaft manufacturers, teams up with TaylorMade to supply their Ventus Red, blue and Black shafts as stock shafts for the new line of Stealth II drivers. That's the hot thing from TaylorMade. They improved upon last year's Stealth by putting more carbon, making it lighter. Also they put in the Fujikura stock shafts. Now Fujikura stock shafts, venta shafts, are noteworthy. They're near the top of the food chain in the golf world. They're like BMW and Mercedes are to the car world. So when you test the new Stealth 2s with a Ventus shaft you might like the experience. But a good portion of that is the stock Ventus shaft that the club comes with. But the fun doesn't stop there. Fujikura makes an aftermarket shaft that beats their premium shaft. It's the Ventus TR with Velocort technology. It would be like what the M-Series is to BMW AMG is to Mercedes and the S-Series is to Audi. But Fujicore is not the only player with the ultra-premium shafts. You've got Hazardous Mitsubishi Tenzai, the Graphite Design and others.
Speaker 2:Look, if you're a once-a a month golfer or several times a year, stock shafts with regular, stiff, extra stiff, senior or women's should satisfy your game If you don't know where you fit. The general swing speed translator for drivers is 75 to 85 miles an hour should be a senior shaft, 85 to 95 regular, 95 to 105 stiff and 105 up extra stiff. These are general rules. Some people fall in between. And on the topic of styles of shafts and rigidity, when you ask somebody if they're playing with a stiff shaft and they turn around and go extra stiff, it is like they just flex their golf muscle. It's like asking a guy what he benches and he looks at you and says 400 pounds 10 times. It is an ego sign of manhood. It's like it suggests that your manhood could only be satisfied with the rigidity and stiffness of extra stiff. I mean, what man doesn't want? Extra stiff? And there it goes again. The eight-year-old boy in me Does regression ever stop? So look, if you don't know your speed, I think the best money you could spend in golf is in getting fitted. That way you understand everything about what your capabilities are and what equipment is right for you. So then you could enter the toy store and get all those shiny things that you need for your game and you're just a hell of avoiding the broken club.
Speaker 2:If you're a repeat listener, you've heard my philosophy on controlling temperament on a golf course. Earlier I shared a story about Boston, dave. Dave's one of thousands of golfers that emote their personal disappointment after a bad swing. When you're as good as Dave is, you don't want to manifest bad. You don't want to allow bad to find its way into your game. But bad is agnostic. It doesn't care how much you've practiced, how many lessons you've taken and paid for the new equipment you just mortgaged your future on, or how much money is on the line. Bad is like a lion waiting to pounce on its prey. Now, how you choose to deal with bad affects your future play and your effect on others. You play with Nobody at least nobody I know wants to play with a continuous whiner who bleeds their dismay into your game but separate of how you make others feel.
Speaker 2:Beating yourself up without a trigger that calms you down leads to further beatings and likely higher scores and folks. Higher scores typically lead to wallet openings at the end of the round and usually it's years which leads me to club breakers. In the past month I've worked at the shop and every day I'm there. A day doesn't go by without a golfer or a golfer's friend quote unquote walking in with two pieces of the same club in two different hands. They're coming in to replace shafts because the club was somehow broken in half out on the golf course, and I am blown away by the stories of golfers practice probably in front of a mirror before walking into the shop with their tail between their legs. When they walk in with these two pieces a shaft and some club head that really should be one piece and start the stories. One guy I hit a tree on my followthrough. Another guy I hit this hidden root or I lent the club to a pygmy. That guy actually said that last week.
Speaker 2:The inconvenient truth thank you, al Gore. Is that? Golf is hard, frustrating. And after a few shitty shots, who else are you going to punish besides yourself? Your golf partners, maybe, or anybody else in airshot distance when you go on your cursing tirade? It was the club's fault, so why not break it over your knee so that it no longer embarrasses you? It's temporary insanity.
Speaker 2:In a court of law, your defense attorney would argue that you are unable to appreciate the nature of wrongfulness of your acts when your temper boiled over and you snapped the club over your knee. Temporary insanity we all go through it, but human nature is predictable. You need to punish the one that wrongs you. So take that wedge, that chunk two balls into the water and bladed a sand shot into the next zip code. Teach it a lesson so it never misbehaves again and you can be assured it won't misbehave the day you break it. And then, once you break it, where do you put it? You can't put it back in your bag. Now you've got 13 clubs remaining. How many more can you apply corporal punishment to to assure all the bad is beaten out of them? You'll end up, like Tin Cup, with a 7-iron to play the remaining holes Some of the newer, more expensive shafts run from $150 to $350, plus the cost of labor.
Speaker 2:Like none of that cost analysis preceded your club shortening. I get it. Golf is hard and I wonder sometimes if club breakers are also dog kickers and spouse abusers. I'll leave that up to Malcolm Gladwell to research. What I do know is that the mishit was not the club's fault. It was the guy or gal who was holding it. Look, I choose not to play for big money anymore because I don't like the feeling of ripping off Benjamins and handing them to the guy who had a better day than I did.
Speaker 2:And if your anger and rage is all about your embarrassment in front of your boss, prospective employer or prospective in-laws, here's a news flash Nobody gives a royal hoot about your game. Now, your partner might be dismayed when you missed another three-footer to lose the match, but that's what the 19th hole is all about. Two drinks and the pain dissipates. Look, golf shops stay afloat on the shoulders of club breakers, so break them if you got them, and I'll see you at the shop. You at the shop. You're listening to another episode of Just Tales. Thanks for staying till the end. I'm your host, rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. Talk to you soon. Thank you, thank you, thank you.