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Out of all the sports, golf is the one that I think most people misunderstand the gap between PGA Tour pros and a good weekend golfer. The biggest reason for that is there aren’t the obvious, raw athletic talents on display for a lot of the Tour pros (aside from the freaks like Dustin Johnson). In basketball and football, the sheer size, speed, and strengths of the athletes playing make you keenly aware of your own personal shortcomings in those areas, and know that you wouldn’t stand a chance. In baseball, it’s the ability to either throw or hit a 90-100 mph fastball that is the quickest separation of regular people and the pros.
You can go on and on down the list of the various major pro sports, but in golf the differences are more subtle and thus create a false sense of closeness. Many of them look like regular guys, not spectacular athletes, and what they do best doesn’t usually jump off the screen at you when watching on TV. Things like putting, striking the ball purely, shaping shots, and their abilities from around the green don’t often wow you, but rest assured, they are exponentially better at all of it than you are.
I am a pretty good golfer on the grand scale of “everyone that plays golf,” with a handicap that’s floated between 5-7 since I stopped playing regularly and competitively after high school. Put me on a Trackman and my ball speed and swing speed will be in the lower end of Tour-level range, I strike my irons pretty well, and have some quality touch around the greens. I also know my shortcomings (putting, chiefly) and have been around enough really good golfers to know that, no, I would not be able to make it on Tour if I had unlimited time and resources to practice and work on my game.
Still, when TaylorMade extended an invite to come out to Columbus, Ohio prior to The Memorial for a media event and test out their new line of Hi-Toe wedges and MySpider putters with a chipping contest against Justin Rose as the centerpiece of the trip, I couldn’t help but feel like maybe I could pull out some magic against Rose.
As it turned out, we were catching Rose two days after he wrapped up his first win of the season at the Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial Country Club and two days before he’d begin a run to a T6 finish at The Memorial. So it’s safe to say we got his best game on that Tuesday afternoon, in what turned out to be both a wildly humbling experience and also the best short-game lesson of my life.
Rose explained how he worked with the TaylorMade designers on the new Hi-Toe wedge (which is exactly what its name describes, a wedge with a larger toe and grooves to the very edge to provide greater surface area with which to hit shots), and then proceeded to demonstrate the advantages of the design and the unique grind on the bounce of the club. To do so, he walked us through the three shots you’ll most common situations you’ll run into around the greens: a bunker shot, a flop shot out of some thick rough, and a tight lie from the fairway cut.
It didn’t take long to realize I, and the rest of the media contingent, weren’t going to stand a chance against Rose. He not only demonstrated how he’d play each shot, but also offered examples of how other Tour pros might approach them (he would often reference how noted short-game ace Phil Mickelson would do something), hitting near perfect shots with whatever technique he was demonstrating.
I decided to take my shot at Rose in the bunker, facing a 20-yard shot over a ridge and down into a valley where the pin resided. It wasn’t a particularly difficult shot, but also one that I would typically be pleased to get within 10 feet to leave a reasonable par putt. Rose quickly thumped a few golf balls at the hole to show off various approaches to a long bunker shot, none of which finished outside six feet from the hole.
After watching that dazzling display I climbed down into the bunker, made an effort to mimic what I just watched Rose do, and proceeded to clip my first effort a bit thin, sending it about 15-feet past the hole. As I dug in for my second attempt, Rose talked through what I needed to do in what is, easily, the best golf lesson I’ve ever received.
Keep your stance more square to the target. Open the face. Hands low. Keep your swing shallow and thump the sand behind the ball.
Half of those instructions were familiar. You’re always taught to open the face and thump the sand behind the ball, but the nuances of hand position (lower to help promote that shallower swing and, thus, getting more of the club on the ball to send it further for the longer shot) and keeping the stance more square rather than wide open (to prevent sweeping as much outside to in) were a bit different.
My second effort after this quick lesson landed on top of the ridge and trundled down to about 10 feet, a shot I was perfectly fine with, but Rose wasn’t impressed, offering as polite a backhanded compliment as I’ve ever received as he tilted his head and said, “Acceptable.” After a good laugh from everyone (and me, somewhat covering up the pain of that incredible burn), I asked what I could’ve done better, and he explained that I didn’t trust the club or the technique enough and pedaled off of it at the end.
So, I stepped back in for my third shot with the third-ranked player in the world standing behind me and telling me to trust what he told me. Plenty of golf teachers have told me that before, but when it’s the No. 3 player coming off of a win it’s suddenly much easier to put that trust in what you’re being told.
My third effort had that perfect thump sound that you always hear folks talk about on the TV broadcast. The ball landed a few feet in front of the cup, bounced once, and spun to a stop a few feet beyond and to the right, leaving about five feet, which even with my putting I’d feel confident in cleaning up. I turned to Rose, who nodded and said, “Acceptable,” as a big grin came across his face.
As he moved on to the flop shot and later the tight lie chip, he doled out more tremendous advice for us and was equally entertaining with one-liners — my favorites being him explaining that for flop shots out of deep rough you have to “Commit to the duff,” which is now my life’s motto, and him calling difficult shots “high tariff shots.”
I’ll take two main things away from those 20 minutes. The first is a greater appreciation for how ridiculously good the top pros are and how wide the gap is between them and us. Rose didn’t take any looks at the green to read the breaks or undulations before he strolled out there, fresh off a video shoot on the range, and stiffed about 20 various shots from around the green. The second is some tremendous short game knowledge that I might just be able to parlay into some strokes saved on the course.
My parting message is this, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re around a PGA Tour pro, don’t be stupid enough to put anything on the line in any sort of golfing contest. Instead, simply sit back and listen if they’re willing to offer thoughts, because any advice they give you is bound to be the best golf lesson you’ll ever get.
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