Jake (00:09.666)
Welcome to Divots and Skins episode four. My name is Brett, and I'm here with Brett. So how you doing? Doing well after today. You did did have a rough start for the day. I did. Yeah. And so we have a drop-in league, and it's called what? The Beer Blind? Beer League. The Beer League, Beer Blind, which we go to Thursday afternoons and play at Brookhaven. And

Doing well after today.

Brett (00:23.629)
I did.

Brett (00:30.402)
Beerly.

Jake (00:38.336)
It's basically a really cool way to do it because we don't have to get paired up with anybody and there's no like super tight time restraint. So we can go play the nine holes for that day when we have an opportunity in the afternoon. And so we went today and we started on the back nine for Brookhaven. And let's just say we really should have warmed up because neither one of us should have been out there without warming up.

It it was not pretty. I I had a good first drive, but I don't know how I hit the ball straight up into the air about five feet in front of me on my second shot. So not not the best start. How did you do start?

I I a German start, I like to call it. I saw a nine on the first hole. For those of you who don't know, that's German for no. it was not pretty. I'm not proud of it, but at the same time I it taught me a valuable lesson, and that is you can go out there and do everything right physically, other than keeping your head down on the ball. as most people know, your head comes up and then your whole body comes up. So I topped my first shot.

First goal.

Brett (01:51.29)
second shot I topped as well. Third shot I hit behind some tree branches. had to punch out, punched out too far into the water. it was just a downhill, I won't even say roller coaster. It was just a downhill straight shot to a nine. so it was it was ugly, but it gave me a new appreciation for getting off the T-box well, which we all know is my bugaboo.

Yeah.

Jake (02:17.004)
Well and and let's let's end this short discussion about the disaster of today with the positive that we went and played a couple of weeks ago in this drop in league and I won my money back because I won the team event and then you won money back because you got a skin.

I got a skin on a nice T shot on a par three closest to the hole. So I I don't know if I won it for the close to the hole contest or if it was because it was a skin. but I had knocked it to it was a par three. I knocked it to three feet eleven inches. and it w it's a terribly sloped green. So the closer you can get below the hole, the better. And I did. And and the rest being said, I I I guess, you know, being a birdie on that hole, I was expecting one or the other, truthfully. and I and it

I walked in there today and there was an envelope waiting for me with cash in it. So

Yeah, and so if that doesn't define amateur golf, I don't know what does. The guy who puts it what'd you say, three feet how three feet eleven inches on a par three can't get off the first hole of the day with a driver. So I again, if that doesn't sum up amateur golf, I don't know what does. But that's not the only reason we're here. We're not here to give you our sob stories, even though it seems like I've been doing that a lot.

Three feet eleven.

Jake (03:37.402)
but that has been my season so far has not been pretty. But I didn't get the chance to go to the latest US Amtour stop at Normanside, but you did. So why don't you tell everybody what your experience was like?

I had an matching 46s, I believe. I think I shot a 92. their fescue was up. typically this course, they have some really tall wild fescue, really tall grass for lack of a better term, that if you hit into it, long story short, you're gonna be chipping out directly sideways, trying to advance it through there. It snarls up in your club head as you're trying to pull through. You're not gonna get any distance out of it.

I stayed out of that for the most part. Second hole, I had a disastrous double par. I had an eight on a par four. Aside from that, I actually felt like I struck the ball pretty well. didn't putt particularly well that day. but as a whole, I held on, long story short, for a one-stroke win. my opponent went he was 17 strokes and two holes on holes nine and ten. that led to his demise.

I I don't feel like I should have won the tournament at all. I didn't play my best, but sometimes your best is not required. you just gotta do as best you can on that given day, and on that given day my 92 was enough.

And your nemesis wasn't there?

Brett (05:05.058)
My nemesis was not there. James was not there in the house.

All right, all right. So I obviously I I've played the course. I was there last year. and actually it was for the senior tour that I was there. I was I was helping to kind of fill in some spots. and I enjoyed playing the course. I thought the course was really, really nice. one of the things I really enjoyed was the fact that it has a really nice chipping area.

Yeah.

Jake (05:34.278)
it has an area that's set up specifically to chip in two different directions, kinda low to high. You can get around these different areas of the green and really practice your chipping, which is something that I've struggled with for many, many years. I've gotten better, but I definitely still need some work. So I appreciate it that it had that. The driving range is kind of out of the way a little bit. It's down a hill, but it's a pretty good driving range. It's got

Yeah, it's two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty yards deep, I believe. so it's it's very you know, for most of us amateurs, that's very manageable.

And and the facilities there are are absolutely beautiful. The the it almost looks like it was kinda new last year.

It it looks that way. I think it's it's a semi private course. and they've always, you know, put a great deal of emphasis, I think, on the facilities there. the day we were there. And it's it's coincidental that both years it's been this way. But they had a company that comes in, I think believe they're a priv private contractor does brick fired pizza, which is phenomenal. I got one last year, I didn't this year 'cause I just missed the boat. We got down a little bit too late. They were wrapping up shop, but still had a good time.

Yeah, that pizza was amazing last year. And I was really cool that they had that like outdoor oven and they were serving pizzas to people. So that was great. I know. It it seems like we we go to these golf courses and we find the breweries, the really good food. That's all part of it. I'll be honest with you. Exactly. If you're a golf course and you have good food, your golfers are gonna come back no matter how bad they play. Believe me, I know. So

Brett (06:51.918)
Starting to sound like a food review.

Brett (07:01.609)
When in Rome.

Jake (07:12.086)
Another thing I want to talk about is some of the holes there that I remember, because it has been a year. One of the holes that I actually thought was really, really interesting, and I say cool, but not because of the way I shot at it. But it was really interesting. It was a part three where you're kind of at level shooting across the gully, but the whole front end is all of these different bunkers across the front end. So you really gotta be precise and shoot at the green.

Or do what I did and be short and then you can chip up on. But the idea is you're supposed to go over the sand traps. But I just thought that was a really interesting design the way it had all these sand traps around the front of it to really protect the green. What can you say about some of the other holes there?

There's it was a particularly tough day with the wind. the wind kept shifting. first nine I should say was pretty predictable which way the wind was blowing. The back nine got really swirly. so you you couldn't necessarily step up to the ball with a hundred percent confidence that the wind was gonna blow left to right or right to left or at you or away from you because bec again, because of the swirling, you had to kind of kind of walk up to the I I walked up to several holes as a matter of fact with two clubs in my hand.

or several shots with two clubs in my hand, not knowing for sure if the club was going or the wind was going to be against me or with me. So it made it a little tough.

So how many people did you have at this tour stop?

Brett (08:41.378)
I don't remember the total number. I let's see, two, four. I think we had 13, so it wasn't a really big field. Again, it was you know, we're we're an upstart tour. This chapter of the tour is an upstart. Again, it's nationwide and some of the chapters have been open for years and years. ours is fairly new to the Albany region of New York. but we I I believe we had 13 people there if my memory serves me right. and

It w it's always golf is always going to feel competitive to me, as long as you have a couple other people in your division. I did, both from out of area. I'm not from the Capitol region either, and that's where this golf course was. but we had one guy from Malone, New York, which is way up closer to the Canada than it is anywhere else I can think of. the other guy was from western Massachusetts. So, you know, right on the right on the US, not US.

R right on the New York border, excuse me. but we had a good stiff competition all day. It was back and forth, back and forth. they both had a couple lousy holes mid-round, and that really dampered their chances of winning. But as a whole, I thought, you know, the competition is what I'm looking for and competition is what I got because I had some lousy holes late. And again, I I struggled to hang on. I triple bogeyed the last hole.

it didn't make my life a whole lot of fun, you know, having to sweat it out and watching a guy miss a a putt for par on the very last hole that would have tied it and it would've sent us to a playoff hole. And on this tour we do do playoff.

Well, I and think that's one of the cool things is to be in that environment. We all love watching the PGA when they get down to that last hole and that last putt makes a difference. So I think that's some of the fun of being in this tour is having those opportunities to i experience that adrenaline, that excitement and those nerves of what if he makes it, is it gonna go to a playoff hole? Are we gonna have to to battle it out on another hole? So I think that's some of the fun.

Jake (10:48.298)
Also, with the USM tour, there are a ton of opportunities to play across the country. And one of the things really interesting is we always love looking at the list of the different stops for other areas to say, okay, what what's an opportunity that we could go play in? Yes, we we wanted to go to West Point, which is down the state a bit. We we've looked at South Carolina, we've looked at North Carolina, we've looked at a bunch of different places as as to say, okay, as part of the USM tour.

Yeah.

Jake(11:18.23)
We have the opportunity to register for those events. So it's really interesting to hear that you've got somebody from way up north coming down to play that event and somebody from Massachusetts. And then also we've got opportunities for within our Albany region tour to play some places in Massachusetts. So I think that's gonna be really fun. But I think that's the thing I want people to realize is that Don sets up the stuff for Albany Region, but there is a national group.

Where you can go and look and say, okay, where do I want to play? Where am I going on vacation? Where do the guys want to go as a group? And if they're all part of the tour, or maybe you're just by yourself part of the tour, you find something there. We did something last year when we went down to North Carolina. We stopped in Virginia Beach for again, it was a different tour. It wasn't the USAM tour, but they had the same thing. And it was a great experience. That was a two day event, wasn't it? And and it was a great

experience to play with other people. And what was really cool is they announced us. They announced the fact that we were in Virginia Beach, but they said, hey, we got two guys from New York coming to play with us. So again, it's awesome to be able to not just play in the Albany region, but you can play all over the country. And then obviously there is a Nationals which is an where this year.

Nationals this year's in Sun River, Oregon.

Which I mean that that's an amazing opportunity for people from all over the country to come together and play from what I've heard some amazing courses. So again, remember that if you belong to the US Amtour, you're not kind of stifled to just play in the Capitol District or in the New York area. You can play anywhere in the country. You just gotta look up and see where you need to register and how much it's gonna be to play those those tour stops.

Jake(13:08.472)
We also have some interesting news and I teased this when we did the last episode. What happened this time?

Except for my bad golf at the end. yes, that's true. I wasn't the only one in my household to win. My wife won the second of back to back tournaments. Six days apart, she she was the winner. and regardless of her final score, which she actually shot fairly close to what I did, she she won back to back. And I'm telling ya, if you want competition, the US Am Tour is the way to go.

Well, you still won, but you weren't the only one.

Brett (13:45.932)
Because because of the fact that we're flighted, you're not gonna get blown out by twenty strokes and you're not gonna you're not gonna win by twenty strokes. my wife was in the same circumstance as I was. she actually it came down to the bitter end for her and she came out the victor.

Yeah, which is awesome because that is two tournaments in a row. She won McGregor, which we talked about in the last episode, episode three, and now she's won Norman's side that we're talking about in episode four. So I reached out to her and I said, Hey, I got some questions for you that I'd love for you to answer so that we can share them on the podcast. And so here's some of the answers she gave to the questions that I sent her. So the first question I sent to her was talking about what was it like

To have that back-to-back feeling of winning two tournaments in a row. And I said, winning once is special, but winning twice in a row is rare. What was going through your mind when you realized you've done it again? And she said, I didn't think I was all that close to winning at Norman side because I was behind going into the back nine. And then I double bogeyed whole ten, which put me further behind.

Knowing that, I just focused on trying not to implode on the rest of the round. What awesome advice. Because you and I talk about this all the time about not letting a hole deter your entire round. You and I actually had this conversation tonight about not letting a shot or a hole deter your whole round. So it's really awesome that even though she was behind.

And she was feeling the pressure, not necessarily of wanting to win, but the pressure of, hey, I just didn't shoot that hole really well. She took a step back and she didn't let it implode the rest of the round and she ended up winning. So that's great advice that she shared. I also asked her, what clicked? Was there a specific part of the game? Driving, iron play, putting, course management, which we talk about all the time.

Jake(15:57.026)
That felt locked in across both tournaments. She said, nothing really clicked. It's golf. When one part of your game is going well, the other part isn't. Have you ever seen that meme where you've got the sliders and you got the slider for the driver, the irons and the putter? That's what it feels like, because you never have them all the same direction.

I even said to you at one point, me, Jake, at McGregor, that I thought I was starting to fade. I felt like I was going to fall apart. But I told myself to try and hit the reset button and just concentrate on each shot at a time. Oddly enough, it worked until 18, which seems to be something of a nemesis for her at McGregor. Again.

Great advice about not letting shots bother you and not like she felt like she was starting to fade and she's like, nope, just gonna reset, play the next couple holes. But like so many other amateurs, she's got those holes that kind of haunt you. We all have them. So I want you to share what the third question was that I asked her.

So Jake asked her about the mental side. did winning the first tournament give you more confidence going into the second, or did it add pressure to perform? Her response, and I and I love the response because it's so true to golf and to tournament golf specifically. It definitely gave me confidence that I can beat the men, but it didn't really add any pressure because again, it's golf and how how I play can change without any notice, and not for the good, usually. you know, I

I wanna add on a little side note there to what she was saying there is that sh she was lacking in confidence coming into her first win at McGregor. she came close last year. She didn't get the job done on day two because it was a two-day major. and I knew she had it in her to win. I don't care if she's golfing against men, women, or anybody in between. she has the ability because she keeps the ball in play.

Brett (18:06.444)
You keep the ball in play, it is specifically in and the group that Jake and her are in, you have a chance. You give yourself an opportunity. if maybe you ship and putt little bit better than she normally does, that can lead you to victory. Maybe you you make a couple more par putts, couple more birdie putts, whatever, that can lead to victory. But I think for her, the the confidence boost.

was probably bigger than she lets on even. She said it gave her more confidence. I think it's even more than what most people would normally realize. And I know this speaking from myself on tour, that when I got my first win, I realized I am good enough to win out here. Competition, tournament competition is a unique thing in that you you can lose the confidence and gain the confidence. But once you get that first win under your belt, you realize

You you're in it to win it. You're you're you have a chance every single time you go out.

It it's funny what you're saying about confidence. So I at McGregor, she and I were in the same car. That's why she was making those comments to me in the previous question. She walked up to the first T box, and before she did, she turned to me and she's like, I just don't feel my driver lately. I feel like I I don't have the confidence in my driver. And of course, as you and I both know, she piped it down the middle. And of course I laughed at her and I'm like, really? You don't have confidence in your driver.

But I know she struggled with her driver recently when she's come played with Brookhaven. But to see her flip that switch as soon as she made that center drive, you could just see it in her where she was like, okay, it's back. That confidence is back. And so it's just really funny to to have her say that to me. I don't know. I don't know if I'm gonna hit this drive. Right, boom, right down the middle. And it and it's amazing how golf can do that. But golf will humble you too.

Brett (19:36.024)
Yeah.

Jake(19:59.98)
Because you'll be like all confident, think you're doing great, and then you hit a shot like I hit today where I'm like, I have no idea why that just went ninety degrees right. No idea. And it humbles you. But it was really great to see her get that confidence back at McGregor from the f first T box and then build from there.

She struggles with the confidence like Jake does in regards to, you know, if she lets it snowball a little bit, if if she hits a couple bad shots. I I look at it from a different perspective. Everybody's different. but I I, you know, I watch you guys sometimes struggle with that part of the game and I and I realize how important the mental part of the game is. it's the six inches between your ears is the hardest part of golf, as I always say, and it especially holds true for some people more than others.

I'm the eternal optimist, I think, on the golf course for the most part. I always feel like I can hit the next shot despite, you know, duffing more than I care sh you know, care to admit. but I some people have difficulty in letting that go and it just shows you that, you know, the confidence, the waning and waxing of confidence can can really affect someone's final score and how they do in a tournament or any other round.

You say you're the optimist, but we gotta talk about our friend Jeff, who I swear to God it you could hit a shot backwards and this man will say good shot and you did a great job. Jeff, I don't understand where you get that from, but I appreciate it because when we play together, I love the fact that you're always optimistic and you're always like, hey, the next one will be better. And like I said, I could hit it backwards and you would still say that to me. So I don't know if you're the one that's the most optimist.

I I think he's the living embodiment of my brother Art who's passed away since but when I first started golfing with my oldest brother, he used to t say everything was a chip and a putt. You know, you you if he'd miss the green by three hundred yards and you know, he'd say, that's just a chip and a putt. And he w he was the eternal optimist and I think Jeff's just carried that forward and I feel like, you know, again, he's livid embodiment of what my brother used to say all the time. And so it's kind of a nice refresher for me 'cause, you know, I miss golfing my brother and

Brett (22:07.192)
You know, Jeff's kind of the same way. He just feels like everything's attainable on the golf course all the time. You can save that for par. You can save that for par. He's he's that kind of guy and it's it's a it's a refreshing thing to see, honestly.

Absolutely. And it's so helpful for people like me who who struggle with that. And it's something I'm working on. And we've had conversations about it on how I can work on it. And I will continue to work on that. So let's go on to hole or let's go on to to number four, which is something we talk a lot about, is what are our favorite holes on golf course? And so I reached out to her and I said, So what was your favorite hole? Was there a particular hole across either tournament that you played especially well?

Or one that you felt was a turning point. She said, I don't think there was a there were any holes that were that I would say were my favorite holes, or left felt I can read, I swear, or felt like a turning point in either tournament. However, and I love the fact that she didn't have any favorite holes, but she's got a list of holes. However, holes 313 and 18 at McGregor.

And holes 12, 13, and 17 at Normanside. All part threes are ones I struggled with last year. So I told myself to really focus on having a good first shot so that all I'd have to do was putting. Because as you both know, my chipping sucks. It works for all but 18 at McGregor. and 17 at Normanside. I love the fact that she didn't have a favorite hole, but she had a list of

Going into the two tournaments of these are the holes I need to focus on. These are the holes I know I can play better. And we all know, at least for us, par threes, there's just something about them that I think they're the evil part of golf because for some reason, par fives, possible birdie, worst bogey. Part threes, doubles and triples. I don't know why.

Jake(24:10.658)
You would think the shorter holes would be easier to hit the green, but they're not. So I could definitely understand why Aaron feels that way. So why don't we talk about question number five?

This one's important to me because it's something her and I spoke of the last two years. it's something I don't know necessarily going back to the confidence and mental part of the game, I don't know if she necessarily believed in. But Jake asked her about breaking into a male-dominated space. You're the only woman competing on this tour, and you just won it twice in a row. What would you say to other women or girls who might be hesitant to tee it up in a round dominated by men? And what would it mean to see more women out there competing?

Fair question by Jake, and Aaron's answer was this. It's great having the different divisions because I know I'll be playing against a group of guys that are at the same level of play. So there's always that chance of winning. Everyone that I have golfed with has been very nice and welcoming. I do want to mention how important that is. Our tour is phenomenal. The people on it are so they they explain rules well if you're not familiar with the rules. they're super friendly both before, after, and during the round.

I'm not joking about this either. I'm not, you know, blowing smoke up anybody's rear end. this is the God's honest truth. I've had so much fun on this tour more than any other place I've ever been in my life on the golf course. so she says that makes it easier for her to come out of her shell as well as making each round more fun and competitive. As much as I like golfing with the men on tour, it'd be nice to have other females to talk and to get to know. she had the privilege last year at Nationals on a previous tour that she got to.

Golf with several other women one day. and I think it was a nice breath of fresh air for her. it was something she hadn't seen in the past because it is a you know, tournament golf, a tour golf is very male-dominated. we'd like to change that. We'd love to see the Albany chapter of the US Amtour grow to include a lot more women. to you women out there, even young girls, there's definitely an opportunity for you out there. And again, because of the fact that it's handicapped.

Brett (26:14.97)
it gives you a chance to win week in and week out. so s she also said, I was very nervous golfing with new people and still am, but once the round starts, I relax a little more because I know the men I am golfing with are in the d same division as me for a reason. Again, that's the handicapped part and that's so important. At some point they will have some pore shots just like me, so I don't have to worry about perfection the whole round. Which is awesome to hear because that's what we're all up against. And I don't even even if you're one in one of the scratch rounds,

you know the the the championship division or the next you know one above that which is you know whatever it is three to six handicap or whatever even those guys they're gonna have some bad shots you know I watched at McGregor again I got paired with somebody that was in a division much higher than me but I got to watch this guy and how phenomenal he was and then I realized yeah he hit a few bad shots too. So everybody does it. He put one out of play on a hole that I didn't think was possible to hit it out of play.

I thought it was plenty wide enough fairway for a guy of his caliber because man was he good. but it shows, you know, just like the PGA tour, guys, you occasionally just lose your mind and you hit a bad one. muscle memory does not always remember 100% of the time. So I was just glad to see you know to see her in a again as she put it in a male-dominated space or as you put it in a male-dominated space. I was glad to see her come out with a win for both the confidence level and and to reassure herself that.

we're all in the same boat that, you know, because we're in a handicapped group that you're gonna have some guys, you know, or a or girls hit hit holes that are way above what they should be hitting, but they're also gonna surprise you on some holes and shoot way better.

Well and I and I I know for a fact that Don was super excited to see her win two tour stops back to back. And again, that's that's rare. I mean, it it's impressive to do. And I think Don is excited because he he got to post about that and we get to talk about it on the podcast. To again, like Brett said, we really would love to see not just the USM tour Albany region grow, but to include more women.

Jake(28:23.744)
I I think it would be great because again, Aaron's excited to have that happen. But I also think that there aren't a lot of women playing on these tours and they need to realize that they're more than welcome. And we really hope that they'll consider it and join. Because I think there's a lot of really cool competition that can happen. So I'm really glad that Don got to to be able to say that about his region, that he had a woman win back to back.

And then I'm glad that Erin took the time to answer these questions for us so that we could share what it was from her perspective to go back to back. So thank you, Erin, for doing that for us.

Just on a side note, Jake. So I'm a landscaper, as y'all know. I own a landscaping company, and one of my contracts is on the backside of Glens Falls Country Club. It's a private club up here, you know, right next door to Queensbury. And I watch many women, there I believe on Wednesdays there is a some kind of women's league or women's night or whatever they do. but I watch many women golf. there's two holes that the backyard overlooks while I'm mowing.

And I see plenty of women that are out there golfing, that I am amazed by how well they strike the ball. and it's women like that that we should be calling out to, you know, if they want that competition instead of just golfing with their lady friends, if they want to come out onto a tour like the USAM tour, it's a phenomenal opportunity to get out there, meet a lot of new people, a lot of friendly people, and have that little competitive edge that all of us kind of strive, not all of us, but most of us strive for. That's why you

typically will join a tour like this. but that's that's the call out I'm I'm kind of giving personally because I see so many women leagues in our area and they see the same faces every week. They don't meet new personalities, new faces. and a lot of times, I'm not gonna lie, a lot of times it can be in a you know, if you're young in my at my age or Jake's age or even younger, it can be business contacts for you too. You can meet some new people that expand your horizons in a business aspect too. So

Brett (30:30.882)
There's a lot to be said for for tour golf like that.

So if you are interested in learning more about the USAM Tour, you can go to usamtour.com. That's U S A-M-T-O-U-R dot com and find out more. If you are interested in talking with Don directly, feel free to reach out to us and we'll connect you with Don. Don't always looking to have conversations about people or with people who want to join the tour and what the tour is all about. He's super excited to have started that this.

Here with the USam Tour Albany region. And again, if you're looking to find out more, go to usamtour.com. And before we move on, I as always, I want to send out a special thank you to the Luxury Box here in Queensbury, New York for allowing us to record this podcast in one of their bays at the Luxury Box. You can find out more information about the Luxury Box at theluxurybox.net.

And you can book your time here at simulators. If it's raining out, it's a great thing to do in the summertime. But I will tell you that we're here all winter long and we're swinging and we're making sure that our swings are working good and our backs are doing well when we're here at the luxury box. So if you're looking for somewhere to swing during the winter, swing during the rainy days, make sure you check out theluxurybox.net.

We're gonna fire up pretty soon for some guest appearances, right? We're gonna have some people hit some par threes here for some prizes. and and we're gonna we're gonna check out the simulator, have our have ourselves a little fun on the podcast and and have some guest appearances from some people both on and off tour and see how they do it at at Simulator Golf. It's a little different, but boy, it helps your game immense.

Jake(31:57.432)
Yeah, yeah.

Jake(32:18.144)
Absolutely, absolutely. And thank you, Dave, for allowing us to do this recording here in one of your bays. We appreciate it. So you know what time it is. It is rule of the daytime.

Rule of the daytime.

Alright, I'll keep it manageable this week, folks. I know sometimes these can get a little in depth, but I want to talk about putting alignment. So you can use your putter as an alignment tool. Sounds silly, right? Well, by that I mean you can get behind and line up the center line on your putter. Most putters have it unless you're using an antiquated putter. most of them will have a center line on it. This shows you where your putter is gonna point if you swing it in a relatively square fashion.

you you're allowed to do that. You're allowed to set the putter on the ground and then get into your stance. However, you have to reset at that point. And by that I mean by USGA standards, you're not allowed to keep that putter in a fixed position from the time you aligned it to the time you took the putting stroke. All right. The idea of this is so that you can't have a cheat code, so to speak.

step behind the ball, almost like you were setting your putter up with a tripod or some other alignment device, and then get grabbing your grip and then just having to backswing, forward swing. The other thing you're not allowed to do, if you have a caddy, that is if you're I do know some overseas places, I I shouldn't say just overseas places, there's places in the United States that have it too. But I know a lot of resort destinations offer pace of play reasons. They they make you have a caddy.

Brett (33:58.546)
the reason for this again is just pace of play. I can't think of any other reason why they make you have one. that maybe so the caddies can make some extra cash. I don't know. but if your caddy gets behind you and gives you the alignment and says, okay, you need to play it two balls outside the left lip of the cup, that's fine. Once you get into your stance, your caddy has to stay mum. He can't he can't offer any advice beyond that. He can't tell you your putter heads pointed too far to the right, too far to the left, or whatever.

he has to at that point become a neutral factor and and not say anything. last, last but not least on the putting. there is a unique USGA rule, and I bet most people don't know this. You cannot stand in a 180-degree line behind the person currently putting in order to steal their read, for lack of a better term. So a lot of us like to know which way the brake's gonna go, especially if it's a subtle brake, not just

which way it's gonna go. At times if it's a heavier break, how much it's gonna go. you can stand off to the side. you cannot be directly behind the person. That is until they make contact with the golf ball. Once they make contact to the golf ball, just like you see on the PGA tour, you can then walk directly behind them to see what the ball's doing as far as a break is concerned. But you can't do it preceding the contact of putter to ball.

And a lot of people on tour will stand just off of somebody who's putting if say they have a ball mark that's in front of that person who's putting and it's between they're putting between them and a hole. They wanna see that line, but you gotta be careful that you're not standing directly behind that person. There's a lot of people that get kind of weary about you standing behind them anyway because of like eyesight and stuff like that.

But the rule is you can't stand directly behind them. But like you said, it doesn't mean that you can't get that read. It's just you need to be ready to step out and say, okay, I want to see what that read is. The other thing that you didn't mention, and again, I don't know why anybody would do this, but it could happen. You can't stand exactly in front of them on the other side of the hole either. So even though you're away from them.

Jake(36:19.103)
It's still going to give you an advantage to see that directly on the other side of the hole. So it's it's good to get those reads. We all do it. We all step into them to be like, hey, I want to see what it's going to do. I want to see that subtle break. I want to see if you put it one way or the other. But you can't stand directly behind somebody because that is definitely against the rules. it's funny because talking about this rule, when we were playing the scramble the other day.

Brett was saying to me, he's like, man, he goes, I I want to say something. You're really good about not saying something. And and right, which it it would screw somebody up that's starting to putt if you're like, hey, you're too far left in the middle of their swing. But also because he he basically adheres to the rules and he feels that it's important. There are many times where he'd be like, Yeah, I could see that before you putt.

Try my best.

Jake(37:13.654)
And I think it's because you're right. Like when you're behind somebody, you can see where that line is on their putter and see that if it's if it's off or not. Where if you're standing over that putt, you may not see that. That's the rule of the day. Again, if you are watching this on YouTube, please make sure that you hit the like button. Make sure you definitely subscribe. But also hit the notification button so you know when the next episode goes up.

Yeah.

Jake(37:45.211)
And remember

Never leave a birdie pot short.