He Got Better Practicing Less - Cody Sundberg
Play Ready Golf | Strokes Gained for the 9 to 5 GolferShow Notes
Try Play Ready Golf free for 7 days and use code PRGPOD for 20 off your annual plan for life: https://onelink.to/93ggkv Free 59 minute practice plan: https://onelink.to/59minplan Virgil Abloh Foundation: https://thevirgilablohfoundation.com/donate/ Broomsedge: https://www.broomsedgegolf.com/
Most golfers think the path to lower scores is more reps. Hit more balls, grind more hours, fix the swing. Cody Sundberg is proof of the opposite. He is a plus 4.5 mid-amateur playing the best golf of his life right now, and he got there by practicing less, not more. Cody is also the guy who bet on Broomsedge, the brand new South Carolina course that just landed at number 94 on Golfweek's list of the best modern designs in the country. He went from grinding mini tours, to commercial real estate, to writing the first big check for a course that was being shaped by a guy with 82 dollars left in the bank. In this episode, Isaak and Hayden sit down with Cody to talk about why hitting more balls is quietly making you worse, how progressive overload applies to your golf game, what it actually took to build a nationally ranked course from dirt, and why great golf should not require two planes and a four hour drive. We cover: Why a plus 4.5 plays his best golf by practicing less The tour pro range habit that changed how Cody practices How progressive overload applies to golf, and why we never apply it Betting on a course being built by a guy with 82 dollars left The welcoming private club idea and sharing great golf with everyone What it really takes to build a nationally ranked course from scratch
Timestamps 0:00 The most mispronounced course in golf 1:09 How a real estate guy from Chicago got involved 2:00 The club supply problem that sparked the idea 3:26 Finding the land with Koprowski and Franz 4:31 Why Cody thought modern courses got too easy 6:14 Borrowing the UK model and letting outsiders play 7:05 Funded by spring, playing it by that October 7:40 Betting on a course built with 82 dollars left 9:02 Why he first wanted Broomsedge to be public 10:01 Learning to run five businesses at once 11:16 Bringing in Mike Keiser Jr. and Baker Thompson 12:29 The professional golf years 14:37 Life on the Hooters tour with future major winners 17:52 What he tells the golfer who wonders how good he could be 20:26 Why tournament golf is a completely different game 21:43 The welcoming private club idea 23:56 The design philosophy behind the course 26:10 Back-to-back par 3s and building on 180 acres 27:25 The postage stamp 11th that almost did not exist 29:48 What the Carolinas Mid-Am taught them 32:33 Why he plays his best golf practicing less 34:15 The tour pro range habit that changed everything 36:41 Why progressive overload applies to golf 38:34 The lessons his dad passed down 40:42 What is next on his calendar 42:51 Where to find Broomsedge
More from Play Ready Golf | Strokes Gained for the 9 to 5 Golfer
Kris Marshall didn't touch a golf club until he was 16. He sent his resume to 500 colleges and got zero responses, walked on at Kansas anyway, and left a two-time All-American. Today he's a +5 with a full-time career, three kids, and barely any practice time. We get into how he walked on at KU, six trips to Q School (four of them lost by a single shot), why he walked away from pro golf to start a family, and what he thinks about the reinstatement debate. Then he shares the forward tees drill that teaches you to go low, and why a 10 handicap should stop aiming at pins. HOPEKIDS: the charity Kris founded a golf tournament for, serving families of children with life-threatening illnesses https://hopekids.org/ FREE: 18 Golfers, 1 Question. What 18 elite mid-ams with day jobs say busy golfers get wrong about practice, plus their go-to drills https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam PLAY READY GOLF APP: practice plans built from your strokes gained and the time you actually have. 30 days free, and code PRGPOD takes $20 off the year. https://app.playready.golf/ Feedback or a topic idea? [email protected] CHAPTERS 0:00 What a 46-year-old knows that college kids don't 1:56 He didn't start golf until 16 3:10 500 colleges, zero responses 4:14 Sitting in the rain outside the KU coach's office 5:15 The walk-on trial: the only one under par 6:46 From walk-on to two-time All-American 11:43 Turning pro: "You don't have to, you get to" 17:05 Six trips to Q School 19:17 Why he walked away from pro golf 21:44 Reinstatement and the "true amateur" argument 24:13 Kris's fix for reinstatement 27:50 What makes a great mid-am event 35:29 How golf built his career 37:52 The 14 handicap who was nervous to play with a +5 41:48 How to go low: play the forward tees 43:37 Late to the tee, then four eagles at the Kansas Open 45:44 Set a scoring goal and don't move it 46:22 Chess, not checkers, off the tee 47:44 Data vs feel 51:28 What a 10 handicap should fix this week 53:12 22-year-old Kris vs 46-year-old Kris 56:50 HopeKids
Free 3x15 Week card (the 3 dials, every session scored): https://playready.golf/3x15 Play Ready Golf app, free 30 day trial, code PRGPOD: https://app.playready.golf Ep. 27, why the range is the most expensive habit in your bag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R9mVHabK0c If you went 10 for 10 at the range last night, you didn't practice. You performed. Adam Young, one of the best practice coaches in golf, wants his players making somewhere between 3 and 7 out of every 10. Most of us build every range session around never missing. That's why the good nights never show up on Saturday. In this episode, Isaak and Hayden get into how much you should actually be missing, what Rory McIlroy did after blowing the 2011 Masters, and the 3 dials (distance, target size and randomness) that make any drill show up on the course. Hayden also tells the full story of his 2024 Canadian Q School week in Dothan, Alabama. He was 7 under after two rounds. Then came a double on a 200 yard par 3, a misread tee time and a DQ before the final round. He shares what he does differently now. Tell us in the comments: what's your next drill, and how many out of 10 do you make? Studies and people we mention: Adam Young, The Practice Manual Guadagnoli and Lee (2004), the challenge point framework Robert Bjork, desirable difficulties Wilson et al. (2019), Nature Communications, the 85% rule Human Movement Science (2025), when a task gets too hard Jared Porter, LSU, moving from blocked to random practice Low and colleagues, 14 studies on pressure training Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets Sisk et al. (2018), the growth mindset meta-analysis Chapters: 0:00 Why 10 for 10 at the range is a bad sign 1:59 How much should you be missing? 3:08 Adam Young's 3 to 7 out of 10 rule 4:00 The 3 dials that change any drill 4:31 There's no such thing as a good drill 5:26 Why easy practice feels so good 6:46 The 85% rule for faster learning 7:34 When hard practice backfires 7:49 Signs your practice is too easy 10:26 What Rory did after the 2011 Masters 10:48 Rory's 496 for 496 inside 3 feet 14:54 Hayden's Q School blowup 17:23 The tee time mistake 19:42 How Hayden bounced back 22:04 Handling emotions after a miss 24:20 The 3 part plan 24:29 Part A: turn one dial 26:57 Add a consequence: Colby's match 28:56 Part B: stop judging by results 30:41 The 3 buckets for every miss 31:37 Part C: is growth mindset enough? 32:37 Playing to your personality 35:50 Ask: how many did I actually miss? 36:31 Isaak's GC3 ladder drill 37:37 Hayden's takeaway 40:15 New Friday schedule New schedule: episodes with just Isaak and Hayden now drop every Friday. Guest episodes are bonus episodes early in the week. Isaak is a competitive mid-am who helps busy golfers improve with the time they already have. Hayden is a professional golfer. Play Ready Golf helps you practice with purpose, so you show up to the first tee ready to score.
Secrets of the elite mid am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam
FREE: Secrets of the Mid-Am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam The Play Ready Golf App (7 Days Free) 👉 https://onelink.to/93ggkv Roughly 800 former pros apply to regain their amateur status every year, and virtually all are approved. This week at the U.S. Mid-Amateur, 7 of the 8 quarterfinalists were reinstated amateurs, and so are both finalists. Career amateur TJ Shuart, a veteran of 12 USGA championships, joins Isaak to ask whether a reinstated pro is ever really an amateur again. They walk through why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981, the news that brought this to a head, and the toughest counterarguments. Then TJ lays out a simple fix: a waiting period based on how long you played as a pro and how high you got. Every player discussed followed the rules as written. This conversation is about the rules. Feedback or a topic idea? [email protected] CHAPTERS 0:00 Preview 0:27 The fork in the road: pro or lifelong amateur 2:31 Why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981 4:30 TJ Shuart's career as an amateur 7:22 The Mid-Am 20 years ago 12:09 The numbers: 800 reinstatements a year 17:22 How we got here: Knost, the USGA pause, and Sposa 28:11 "Those guys stopped playing years ago" 34:20 Is a reinstated pro the same player? 38:21 The Stewart Hagestad question 42:21 Challenge 1: college players 43:44 Challenge 2: NIL money 46:51 Challenge 3: should pros ever come back? 49:19 TJ's fix: a tiered waiting period 54:43 The reinstated players, by the numbers 1:04:26 What John Peterson said 1:11:09 Where the USGA review stands 1:16:23 Mid-Am update: 7 of 8 and both finalists SOURCES USGA Mid-Am fact sheet: https://filecache.mediaroom.com/mr5mr_usga2/190647/download/2025%20Mid-Am%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf GOLF.com on reinstatement: https://golf.com/instruction/rules/how-pro-golfers-regain-amateur-status/ Golf Channel on the USGA pause: https://www.golfchannel.com/ncaa/news/usga-temporarily-pauses-review-of-amateur-status-reinstatement-guidelines NBC Sports on the 2025 quarterfinals: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/u-s-mid-amateur-quarters-filled-with-reinstated-ams-including-kft-vet-who-just-regained-status SI, the other side: https://www.si.com/golf/us-mid-amateur-does-not-have-professional-problem
Most golfers work on the wrong thing. They stretch when the problem is fear. They lift when the problem is transfer. They take a lesson when the problem is speed. Mike Carroll trains PGA Tour players through Fit For Golf, and he gave four at-home checks that tell you which one is actually holding you back. Then he laid out the exact 20 minute, three days a week template for a guy with a job, kids, and no gym. FREE: The 15 Minute Test (one page, four checks, your one thing this month) https://playready.golf/20-yards Play Ready Golf app, 7 days free. Code PRGPOD saves $20 a year for life. https://playready.golf Mike Carroll, Fit For Golf https://fitforgolf.blog Instagram and X: @fit_for_golf CHAPTERS 0:00 Mobility problem or technique problem? The three swing test 2:29 Four ways to find your real limiter 3:41 The 2 to 3 year strength rule 6:30 Technique vs skill: judge your best shots, not your average 7:38 The 15 minute test (free, first link) 8:11 The busy golfer: gym time or range time? 9:11 The calendar rule: tournament inside 3 months, skip the gym 14:07 Structure your year: winter builds capacity, spring transfers it 17:00 Strength benchmarks by age: pull up, push ups, jumps, split squats 26:34 Training 50,000 golfers from one app 27:46 Speed training: where a normal golfer starts 31:27 Your range speed vs your course speed 32:41 Transfer problem or capacity problem 35:22 When overload and underload tools earn their place 38:08 Four months out vs four weeks out 39:29 When speed stops being the lever 44:50 Play Ready Golf app 45:41 Isaak had 130 mph in college. It did not help. 49:40 The 20 minute template: Mon, Wed, Fri 52:20 Why power leaves first and almost nobody trains it 57:23 Speed work at the end of practice, not a separate session 59:48 Wrap up Every number in this episode comes from Mike on the recording. Strokes gained references are from Mark Broadie, Every Shot Counts. #golf #golffitness #golfpractice