Show Notes
FREE SIMPLE STAT TRACKER: https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/simplestatstracker PLAY READY GOLF APP Enter your round, the app does the strokes gained math and tells you what to practice. 7 day free trial. Code PRGPOD for $20 off the year. https://onelink.to/93ggkv Fairways hit is the golf stat every app shows you first, and it barely separates a scratch golfer from a 20 handicap. In this episode Isaak and Hayden go through the four golf stats on every scorecard app (fairways hit, greens in regulation, up and down percentage, putts per round), show what each one hides, and swap each one for a number you can track with a pencil that actually predicts your score. WHAT YOU WILL HEAR Why a scratch golfer hits only about 4% more fairways than a 20 handicap (Shot Scope) The stat that actually separates handicaps off the tee: 12% vs 45% of drives in penalty or recovery (Arccos, 2025 driving report) What the rough, trees, and a fairway bunker really cost you Bryson at Winged Foot: 23 of 56 fairways and a U.S. Open trophy Broadie's breakdown of where the scoring gap comes from: approach 40%, tee 28%, short game 17%, putting 15% Why greens in regulation cannot tell 6 feet from 60 Why up and down percentage grades your chip on your putt Hayden's 65 with 35 putts, and why putts per round rewards bad golf The two putts that separate handicaps: lags from 30 feet and makes inside 8 Strokes gained vs simple stats: which one you should keep Chapters: 0:00 Fairways hit barely separates golfers 1:10 Scratch vs 20 handicap: a 13 point stat 1:45 The disaster stat: 12% vs 45% of drives 3:08 What the rough, trees, and bunkers actually cost 4:54 Distance is worth more than accuracy 5:23 Stat 1: Tee shots in play 6:41 Bryson at Winged Foot: 23 of 56 fairways 7:31 Should a 56 year old chase distance? 8:41 Where the scoring gap really comes from 10:00 Why greens in regulation lies 12:50 Hayden's fringe confession 15:11 Short game is 17% of the gap 16:23 Up and down blends two shots 18:43 Stat 3: 11 feet vs 20 feet after a chip 19:33 Hayden pushes back on the 17% 21:31 Track five rounds and be honest 22:21 Why you should not copy how mid ams practice 25:57 You cannot know your tendencies without tracking them 26:56 The dumbest stat: putts per round 27:58 Hayden shot 65 with 35 putts 29:49 The two putts that separate handicaps 30:53 Strokes gained vs simple stats 31:05 Recap: the four simple stats 34:55 Bobby Rippey and 1,000 subscribers 36:57 Next: the driver episode
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