#129 - Nick Bradley: (World’s Most Innovative Golf Instructor)

Nick Bradley’s journey to success began with a bang in 1994, when at 23 years old, he became the youngest director at the world renowned David Leadbetter Academy. His swift ascent through the academy’s ranks earned him a position as one of Leadbetter’s most trusted instructors, guiding golfers of diverse ages, handicaps, and swing patterns.

Taking a bold leap in 2005, Bradley crossed the Atlantic from his native England to the United States, where he would ultimately establish himself as one of the most renowned and respected instructors on a global scale.

His illustrious client list reads like a who’s who of golfing legends, including Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, and Phil Mickelson. With a coaching resume boasting over 400 professional golfers, such as Justin Rose, Sir Nick Faldo, Captain Paul McGinley, and Seamus Power, Bradley is celebrated for transforming Rose’s career, propelling him from a modest ranking of 125 in the world to an impressive 5th.

Beyond the fairways, Nick Bradley boasts an impressive track record as a two-time best-selling author, serving as a global authority on golf education for esteemed organizations like the Golf Union of Ireland, the PGA of Great Britain, The English Golf Union, and the Russian Golf Federation.

Not limiting his expertise to professionals, Bradley extends his instruction to golfers of all levels and ages, driven by an ardent passion for helping people improve their game. Always willing to share his wealth of knowledge and experience, he stands as an approachable mentor for all who seek his guidance.

A true trailblazer in the realm of golf instruction, Nick Bradley’s innovative methods have nurtured some of the finest golfers in the world. His legacy as a pioneering figure in the field is securely etched, with his techniques set to inspire golfers of all levels for many generations.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we play golf.

Speaker 2: 0:02

Let me show you how we do it in the pros.

Speaker 3: 0:05

Yeah . Welcome to Behind the Golf Brand podcast. I never missed with the Seven Iron , a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf. My

Speaker 4: 0:16

Friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course, I lived on the driving range

Speaker 3: 0:19

From Pro Talk . You should learn something from each and every single round. You play to fun from on and off the green.

Speaker 5: 0:25

Why would you play golf if you don't play it for money?

Speaker 3: 0:27

Just let me put the ball in a hole. This is Behind the Golf Brand podcast with Paul Libert tore .

Speaker 6: 0:34

What's up guys? Welcome to the Behind the Golf Brand podcast this week I have a legend in the studio. I'm a good friend Nick Bradley. You guys have seen him everywhere. He is not only a phenomenal coach, but an author and has his own school and I'm really excited to having the show 'cause everybodys a lot of cool stories about where he started from and how he got to where he is at. So welcome to the show. Thanks

Speaker 7: 0:57

Very much Paul. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 6: 0:58

So where are you at right now?

Speaker 7: 1:00

So I'm a director of instruction at Nick Abo Country Club in Tenafly , New Jersey. Got up here August last year just off of a two and a half year consultancy in Pinehurst, where I started a full-time, junior Academy. And so , um, now that the kids have like flown the Nest and what have you, I always wanted to, in my career, always wanted to come to the Met section. Obviously in the, in the Springs and Summers and Falls. Um, this part of my career, I think that the MET section offers just a tremendous variety of golf and great golf courses. So , um, yeah, I'm glad to be there. The membership at Nick Ocker is fantastic, really engaging, dedicated to , uh, improving and it's a beautiful old Donald Ross golf course. So a 1914, the layout's fantastic.

Speaker 6: 1:48

I bet it's like beautiful there right now, isn't it? Or stunning . It's starting to get beautiful.

Speaker 7: 1:52

It's about 73 today, light breeze, so it's, it's really nice.

Speaker 6: 1:57

Where did you grow up at in London?

Speaker 7: 1:59

Yeah , so I'm from a little town called Kingston upon Thames , right on the River Thames in , uh, in England. And I actually, my sport before golf was swimming. Uh , I swam , I swam competitively from the age of eight to 21. Um, I, you guys have states, we have counties . So I was two time county champion for Butterfly. And so, you know, I represented my county and uh, used to actually train with the England squad in Crystal Palace. And so I got to a pretty high standard, but I'm only five foot seven and a half . So Hogan size for those nuts out there. And um, so, you know, I I started to compete against 14-year-old kids that were six foot and I just got so , uh, tired of that. So at 16 I took up golf, I got down to scratch in two years and I had four of my friends in my school that were golfers, they were already playing. So I needed to get good really quickly so I could play with them. And so I just read every book. I watched every video. It was like the led better Faldo era. So golf instruction was very popular at that point. So , um, I actually gravitated more towards golf instruction and what made people good and better rather than actually competing. I , I , I struggled competing. 'cause as you know, swimming is on your marks get set bang, and you are going, golf is not like that at all. So I just, I just developed an aptitude for technique and what works and what doesn't work and it kind of like , uh, uh, you know, it , it carried on. And then I was very fortunate at my golf club in, in England, we had a European tour player who used to play and practice at the golf club. And , uh, in 1989 he took me to the European Tour School and I cadd and ended up coaching that week as well. So from the age of 21, I was really immersed into tour level coaching. Not that I was probably any good at that stage by the way, but I was in that environment where I'd be walking onto the range at Wentworth with se Sandy Lyle, Ian Wman , who I played golf with actually last month. And , uh, you know, so so tour level golf and tour golf was always part of my life from a very early point.

Speaker 6: 4:19

How did you like get into a golf though? Was is your , did your dad play or your grandfather or?

Speaker 7: 4:24

No, none of us actually. I'm a first generation golfer. What happened was, there's a little island

Speaker 8: 4:30

You're a coach now, <laugh> . That's crazy.

Speaker 7: 4:32

Yeah , I know there's a little island of the south of England called the Isle of White, actually famously where Jimi Hendrix died. But anyway, that's the , that's digression. He , um, so anyway, you know, we are big into water sports windsurfing and water skiing. And the weather was so bad this one week in May, 1986, I think it was the month after Jack won the Masters. And , uh, so we couldn't do anything. So there was the little nine hole pitch and putt place, little seven iron putter. And I remember connecting with a couple of shots thinking, God , that that felt pretty good. And my godfather, who was always trying to get my dad to play golf for me, and we said, no, we don't wanna do it. My godfather played off of two. So he gave me Hogan's five fundamentals, five lessons, the book. And I got a cheap set of golf clubs and I just, that was it. I just got the bug. I mean, every night down the driving range, a hundred golf balls looking at golf world, golf Digest, I mean, I just, I was just a sponge. I mean, probably quite obsessed about it if the truth be known. But it led onto , um, led onto other things. And I turned pro at 19 and as I say , by the age of 20, I was working on tour, like working with players. And this one particular player, what actually elevated me was he won the 1993 , uh, Irish PGA championship at the K club where they went on to play the Rider Cup. And , um, and then I started to get noticed actually in 93, 94, I was headhunted by David Ledbetter and the organization and I went from England to Lake Nona in Orlando.

Speaker 6: 6:16

Wow. So then you moved overseas in what, 94 then?

Speaker 7: 6:21

93 4 , uh, April 94 . Um, I did like my apprenticeship with lead watching people like Andy Bean, Marco Om , Nick Faldo , Nick Price. And those were the days where we were the , like the second wave of instructors to come in to work under David. And you genuinely did every day . You know, you'd be work setting up his golf balls, setting up the cameras and the BHS , blah blah, blah . And you know, Fowler would rock up into town and you'd sit there with your notebook and you'd watch David actually coach all of these great players. And , um, so it was amazing baptism of fire. And um, that's kind of like where I first got to know Nick actually. You know, I was 23, 24 years old. But what then happened was I went from Lake Nona , um, I then started to direct some of his golf academies around Europe. Um, so most prominently Mount Juliet and Ireland , um, where I, I directed there, but then in Spain and various other places. So, you know, I was the youngest academy director in the company at 25. And uh, it was, it was fantastic. It was a fantastic, I think three and a half years with the company. It was good.

Speaker 6: 7:31

You must have been like, like amazing, like if you think about it 'cause you knew nothing and you wrote read books and then you just like started to teach yourself. And I mean, well what happened? Like, how'd you get that good that fast? Like once you got, did you get today in lessons and stuff when you got like, addicted to it or what?

Speaker 7: 7:47

Yeah, so I mean, if you look at , um, if you look at my first book, the Seven Laws of the Gold Swing, it kind of gives you a clue because , um, if you look at some of the images in there, they're very, they're very dynamic images. And I, what I did, the way that I learned the golf swings so quickly, I'm very artistic. I have a tremendous imagination. And what I did was I started to look at golf swings and actually drew, I started drawing golf swings. And so I understood about plane angles, I understood about radiuses, I understood about lags, I understood about ground pressure. I mean, it's quite funny that, you know, the, the, the law three, this book was published 2003, the third law is called Ground Force Dynamics, and this is 2003. Well, guess what all the buzzwords are now, how to use the ground and da da da . So, you know, so what I did was I noticed that people like Mo Norman Lee Trevino , um, Tom Wesoff with Jack, how they used the ground. And then what I did was I drew it and then that would feature in my book. So what I did was I, instead of trying to earn , learn the golf swing in a numerical or intellectual sense, I learned it in a very visual sense, which just plugged in and I just got it straight away. Just got it straight away. So , because you're

Speaker 6: 9:12

A visual learner, so you could see it and then you're like, I bet other people could just see this too and go, oh, I get it now. Not this like, you know, mathematical formula where you need to be at a certain time and whatever it

Speaker 7: 9:22

Might . Yeah . So if you look at great golf swings, especially now with biomechanics and everything, you really can see there are visual , um, commonalities in great golf swings. You know, it's very rare that you'll get a great looking golf swing that will hit the ball sideways. It just don't happen. Right. You know, you can't,

Speaker 6: 9:42

You haven't seen me golf yet.

Speaker 7: 9:44

You , you , well <laugh> , I need to see your swing <laugh> . You don't , you don't drive a Ferrari out of the parking lot and it only goes 60 miles an hour. Right. Because it's a Ferrari. And if you've got great technique sta let's say stable technique, then you, you would expect that that machine to, to be somewhat in control of everything. So I learned , I learned through , um, actually one of Nick Faldo's great books. It's called The Winning Formula. It was his first ever book and there were just hundreds of pictures in there. Hundreds. I wish I had it here, but it's in my studio. Um, and I just, every picture I I drew and sketched over. Um, so, and a lot of those sketches that I did back then in 87, 88, they now, they , they now feature in my books . I just , I just took them out and said, right, they're still relevant. So , um, that , that's how, you know, one of my, one of my mentors, I've always had mentors in my life. My father was my first one. And then, you know, I have others, one of my mentors in my life, he said, Nick, find out what you are really good at and keep doing it. Find out what you're at and never do it again.

Speaker 6: 10:56

<laugh> ,

Speaker 7: 10:57

Right? Yeah. So

Speaker 6: 10:58

What are you outta the golf <laugh>? Yeah . Nothing . I

Speaker 7: 11:01

Said , okay , what am I good at? What am I good at? You know , I'm really good at imagination. I'm really good at drawing. Yeah,

Speaker 6: 11:07

Exactly.

Speaker 7: 11:08

I'm gonna play to those strengths. Smart . And then I , that's smart. Then I ,

Speaker 6: 11:11

I ended up <crosstalk> and no one else is really doing that right back . I mean, you pictures in books, but no one was, was no one was anybody really teaching like that though, with visual or, you know, to that extent,

Speaker 7: 11:21

The closest was , um, Jim McLean , mc McQueen, who used to do Jack Nicholas's books. And they were quite cartoony. They were ,

Speaker 6: 11:31

I , my dad has a book, it's all yellow, and he is in front of like , like I know, I know exactly what book that is. My dad had that like , all beat up and Raggedy. Now there, you

Speaker 7: 11:39

Golf magazine used to do the weird sketches in the back and they, they were the bits that I just used to go to, you know, and , uh, 'cause they, they were really interesting. So it was , um, so that, that's how I learned , that's how I learned to, you know, say, well that kind of looks right and that doesn't, that no, that's not right. And this, and then , then I, then all the science kind of backed me up with , when I started, really took coaching on the tour with a lot of other players.

Speaker 6: 12:05

It's funny too with like ground force reaction. Like that's like the new thing now, right? In the last couple years or now it's starting to be, but like, it's not just in golf, like in baseball, I know it's the exact same thing. Like they talk about the exact same stuff. Like, you know, how to hit the ball farther as a baseball player. Oh, it's ground force . Right, right . Yeah . But no one talked about that 20 years ago

Speaker 7: 12:26

As you know, I mean, I , I'm, I'm associated with Square's golf shoes and the , the science that Bob has put into that, that sort of like realm of the golf swing is absolutely fascinating. And like you say , you know, 23, 20 years ago, whatever it is , um, I recognize that there were so many golfers on driving ranges, like checking their club face or checking their right arm, but they , they had legs like Bambi, right? So it does ,

Speaker 6: 12:54

I mean , ice <laugh> ,

Speaker 7: 12:55

You , you could be like, you could be like, Ben Hogan here, right? Ben Hogan here , but if your leg work is like you , you just have no chance you're putting the cart before the horse. So that was , um, that was one of the big things that I focused on was, okay, golf starts from the ground upwards because guess what, the most consistent thing in the golf swing is the ground. 'cause it don't move. So you have to build it up by virtue of the fact that the most consistent thing is the ground. So you've gotta use that.

Speaker 6: 13:25

When did, so you came across and then when did you start working with like, tour players right away? Or were you already doing that across overseas before that?

Speaker 7: 13:33

No, so I , a European tour I coached , um, I , I coached about five national champions by the age of 28. And I, I finished second actually in the , um, the head coach's position for the, the national team of Ireland . And , uh, 'cause I finished second, I went off and that was it. I was resurrected my tour work. So , um, you know, I've had pupils win the Italian open, the French Open. Uh, I , I started to work with Justin Rose actually in 2004. That was the first sort of time. But , uh, you know, in that period I had, I had winners win the Irish PG um , the Irish Amateur Championship, the ladies Italian Open. I had three or four challenge tour winners and blah, blah, blah . And then my foot , then my book came out in 2003. And I was like, well, I kind of need a new adventure now. And my, my father had always encouraged me to look to America and certainly golf instruction was, as a business, was way better in America than it ever was in the uk still is. Um, and so that was it. So what happened was when , um, I , I tick all my boxes on the European tour and releasing a book, I was like, okay, well America, here I come. So I, I had a very good friend of mine in a place called Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Uh, and he, there's a, there's a golf course down there called Barefoot, and you've got a Fazio Lu . It's a huge place. So I opened up my golf school there in November, 2005. Um, not thinking I was gonna work with any tour players. I wanted to open up golf academies. And then in May, 2006, I got a call from Justin Rose and that was it. I was back out on the PGA tour coaching, tour players <laugh> . So it was like, you know, oh God, you know, all the best intentions. So , um, so yeah , so I was at back out that , and I actually gifted that golf academy. I actually gifted it to my head assistant that said, Merry Christmas, goodbye. You know, that was it.

Speaker 6: 15:36

Like, I'm leaving, I got something going on. Yeah. So how did Justin find you just from before, like, you know, like earlier or did he hear about you or did he go to your school clinic or a class or through like what happened? Like how did that all

Speaker 7: 15:50

No , what happened was on the European tour, I've had a couple of winners. Um , and a couple of them actually ironically, were ex Ledbetter students. Now. At the time, Justin was working with David. So he, you know, one was a guy called Roger Winchester who won with me. Uh , and there was a couple of others. And then at the South African Open in 2004, he, I was walking down the range and he asked me to take a quick look at him. And then , um, and then it was like the Wachovia Championship as it was then in Quail Hollow. He asked me to take a quick look at him and you know, this Scottish Open, can you take a quick look at me? So it was always little quick looks at him and he would always play better after these quick looks. And then in 2006 I attended Quail Hollow, which is obviously, ironically this week. And , um, he said, oh, would you take a quick look? And I said, no. And he was like, what? Uh , I said, no, I , uh, listen , listen, every time I look at you, you play well. Uh , and you know, I , if you're gonna do this, let's do it correctly. Because, you know, I think he was like 120 in the world at the time and, you know, in complete free fall . And so , um, so I think it took him two weeks to muster up the college courage to call David and say, look, it's been fun. And then we started working together. I think the first , uh, I think it was maybe the Houston Open or something like that in 2006. And then in a year he got to world number five in European number one, 20 months. Actually, it's 20 months later. So , um, yeah, I put in a plan. I really understood the subject matter. Um, I , I organized stuff a lot, clear , you know, a lot more clearly. And then , um, and then things started to roll over . I mean, we , we did very well in the ma in the majors. And um, you know, he won three times with me. That , that , that was , um, that was good. Yeah.

Speaker 6: 17:46

Yeah, it was good.

Speaker 7: 17:47

<laugh> . Yeah. Yeah . <laugh> .

Speaker 6: 17:50

Just , just a little bit.

Speaker 7: 17:52

Well, I mean, I've always viewed myself as a consultant, not a golf instructor. I'm a consultant, you know, and the difference is this, and I see a lot of tour players making this , this mistake today. And that is that if you have a team around you, which are employees, paid employees, an employee will come in, look at the problem, fix the problem, but because they hang around, they then become part of the problem. And then the consultant comes in, looks at the problem, fixes the problem, then leaves. So then you hand over ownership to that player, right? So, so , um, so really, you know, I've always viewed myself as someone who comes in is a problem. Fixer will give you a plan, but I don't like to hang around too long, you know, because I don't want to be part of the furniture where complacency sets in. So , um, you know, I've done that with Kevin Chapel , um, who is actually, you know, down in , uh, Arizona, I believe, you know, Kevin Chapel came out of UCLA, his manager Ralph Cross called me. I was really busy. I actually got Kevin Chapel to write me a letter 'cause I wanted to find out how passionate he was about being a successful tour player. So Kevin wrote me a letter and I said, well, this guy's pretty, you know, passionate. So again, I I mapped out a plan. We did Monday qualifiers for nationwide tour events. And , um, he then qualified, he then got into the top 10, and then within seven months he'd won at Stone Break . And then we got onto the PGA tour , almost won the US open at Congressional in , uh, 14 . So, so I'm very good at , uh, problem solving . I'm not good. Um, I'm not good. I , I get bored quickly, right? So if there's something that really interests me, like, okay, here's a problem, okay, I will then go in. I get really excited about fixing the problem, learning the subject matter, getting in there, fixing the weeds. But I'm good as a consultant. Don't keep me on beyond six months. 'cause I , you know, you're boring me now. Right. You know, maybe bringing Yeah.

Speaker 6: 20:04

Like I told you already, like yeah. Like this is , this is the plan. Like you have to do it.

Speaker 7: 20:08

Yeah. I'm not very good at babysitting. Yeah,

Speaker 6: 20:11

Yeah .

Speaker 7: 20:11

You know , I don't like, you know, if you look at the best golfers in the world f though , Jack, Nicholas , tiger, they're pretty self-sufficient individuals. There's no drip feed of, you know, information all the time. And what I try to do with these players is try and make them self-sufficient so they understand their business plan. It's not my business plan, it's my business plan that I'm gonna give to them and they take ownership of it. If, if I hang around, oh , it's, it's terrible. Yeah . It's terrible because they become over-reliant. Yeah.

Speaker 6: 20:42

Yeah. Because you're like, you're babysitting at that point. It's like they have to rely on themselves. Like, here's the, here's the outline, here's the plan. You need to execute it. I'll help you execute it, but then it's on you to do this or not. Right. Well,

Speaker 7: 20:56

Here's, here's a great analogy for you. If the only color you knew was red, you wouldn't know it was red because you've got no other colors to compare it against. Right? And that's what happens with golf instructors, is they , there comes a point where they start to become swing blind where they can't, they've seen this swing so many times, you know, it's like, you know, even though the numbers are there, you've still gotta do the visual interpretation. 'cause unless something visually changes, the numbers aren't gonna change. That's just a fact. Right? So there comes a point in a relationship where, you know, like a graph, you go here and it's really good and you've got them very efficient. And then there comes a point where it goes down this, you've gotta pull out at this point Yeah . Where things are going well, you know, so , um, so I'm not very , very cognizant of that when I work with players, even amateur.

Speaker 6: 21:52

Where are your school ? Where's your schools at right now? Or where are you ? So you're in New Jersey, but you doing again , do , is there other schools too or just New Jersey , or do you travel throughout the year? Or what do you do?

Speaker 7: 22:01

Yeah, so I , um, I spend the summers up here , uh, which is fantastic. And then I am , I'm , I'm launching , um, some products , uh, in the winter this year, which are gonna be online tutorial products. So they're gonna be courses that people can buy, which I'm really excited about because being visual , uh, I really, I'm gonna use certain different dynamics with camera shots that have never been seen before. I'm gonna use , I'm , I don't wanna give too much away, but it's gonna be very different to what you may have seen already. And they're gonna be video products that people can watch them at their leisure. And , uh, but they're gonna be very high product, like master classes . Um , so if people want to come and see me, it's easy . You just go on Thrive. It's , I think it's Thrive Sports Thrive without an E, they can look me up in Tenafly , New Jersey, and they can, they can book in just, just on the, on the app. It's really easy to do. So , um, and fortunately with the club, I can , I can look at outside people as well, so it's good. Yeah ,

Speaker 6: 23:03

Because there's only so many hours in the day, right? So it's like, you, you can only see so many people in a day. Like that's just a

Speaker 7: 23:11

Yeah. But more than that, you know, I mean, it's like with tour players, you mention hours there. One of the big things that I flip with the tour player is get them to say, look , there's no such thing as time management. It's actually energy management. You know, you can't manage time anyway, right? You can't speed it up, you can't slow it down, you can't pause it, right? So what you can though, you can manage the energy in that day. So , um, I'm, I'm really careful about how much energy I use. Um, you know, throughout my teaching week, actually, I learned a lot from watching Tiger. Learned a lot from watching Tiger on the PGA tour, because Tiger, tiger was unique , um, in so much as he, he was outta there very fast. He'd get to the golf course at 5 45, 6 in the morning. He'd play, do his work by one 30. He was in his hotel room playing his Xbox or whatever it was, right? So from one 30, he was in recovery time. All the other tour players were there till six, quick shower, go and have dinner, and then up at, you know, seven the next morning. So Tiger's genius and , and Jack genius, 'cause Jack didn't play a full schedule at all, was the fact that they really understood energy management over time management. That would , that was the key thing. So I do that with my teaching. I'm , I wanna make sure that I'm always fresh for the student.

Speaker 6: 24:36

So like, one time, are you done teaching then? Have you , Ms. Williams , really interesting actually what you're saying , talking about, so like for you, what time is it like, okay, I've had a , I can't do anymore , my brain is wiped. Is there like a two o'clock, three o'clock and you're done? Or is it everyday different? Or how do you do that? If you're an entrepreneur, how

Speaker 7: 24:54

Do , what I found is variety keeps my brain fresh. So what I'll typically do is I'll do three sessions in the morning, two early afternoon, then take a break, and then I'll go on the golf course and do playing instruction, working on routines, rituals, breathing techniques, visualizing, blah, blah , blah . So I actually still do a full day, you know, nine till six. Yeah . But 'cause I'm breaking it up and making it different, it holds my interest and my energy if I was out there all the time. Next one, next

Speaker 6: 25:25

One on the range. Next, next. Yeah, there's no way, right? There's absolutely no way.

Speaker 7: 25:30

Yeah. Forget it. Forget it. And by , by the way, you are out there working on people's golf swings to take them on the golf course. You know, you don't want 'em to be just good range players. You wanna say, okay, let's go out there .

Speaker 6: 25:42

You're a really good range player. Yeah ,

Speaker 7: 25:44

Let , don't , don't leave here. We , we've built the car in the shop, let's go and put it on the test track, right? So that , so there's a lot of that as well. You know, I love doing that with juniors as well. I've been very lucky in my career. I've coached two juniors to world champions , uh, four national champions and what have you . Juniors, if you give me a great junior with a great learning attitude, God , I mean, it's, it's so much pleasure, so much pleasure.

Speaker 6: 26:10

Like, what's, what's the best part of your job? Like, what do you love? Like, what's the thing you love the most about it?

Speaker 7: 26:16

So one of the questions that I ask a student is what today? What does success look like to you in the next 60 minutes or half day session or whatever, what does success look like to you? And then when they give me that deliverable, I'm like, super focused on changing or manifesting that wish. So when I actually say, let's say someone comes over the top, I had a great guy the other day check out my Instagram channel that they , they over the top , um, you know, the club was coming through the neck. I mean, it was that steep. And then within 60 minutes, I've got it going through the bicep in his lot . He's a lot shallower in his jaw . He'd never, he'd never hit a drawer before. And it's that wonderment on the face that I think the

Speaker 6: 27:02

Joy, the pure joy, you're like, that just happens .

Speaker 7: 27:05

Who , who hit that shot? You know? And , um, more than that, it's even better when they understand how they did it

Speaker 6: 27:14

And they can repeat it again. Yeah. It's not first , right ?

Speaker 7: 27:17

Yeah. So , um, so yeah, I think the best part of my job is when people come to me, you know, and it could be a tour player as well. I mean, I , I'll give you another great example on those lines. Um, uh, Leona McGuire, who's on the LPGA tour, she was at Duke University. And , um, one day, about five years ago, I get a call from the parents and she had lost her number one ranking as an amateur in the world. And, you know, the , the coaching wasn't going well and she was confused, blah, blah, blah . So I get called up in a consultancy role and for like a year and a half, I work with her, I caddy for her in the US Open. And, and she gets back to world number one again. Um , that's a classic car , classic case of really digging someone out of, out of a problem. And I guess that's what still brings me back to the job day after day, is someone saying to me, I, I keep duffing my chips. I, I cannot get out of a bunker. And the best part of my job, to answer your question more succinctly, is that I'm not a teaching snob. I can work with Justin Rose and Nick Faldo just as well as I can work with a 20 handicapper. I'm really lucky and so much that I don't go, oh, I'm not gonna , I'm not gonna work with you. I'm just gonna go and work with you. Uh , I've never had that value system, which is really, I , I'm really lucky that way.

Speaker 6: 28:39

That's cool. So what, what is your favorite memory teaching so far? Because you got a lot of cool, like what is the coolest thing you like? Oh , this is the craziest thing. When Justin, were you with Justin when he won, when got , when he

Speaker 7: 28:53

No, it was , um, so Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley , um, called me in in 2013 for the 2014 matches. And he said, Nick , he said, I want you to, and you know, you can Google this Nick, I want you to create seven images for the team room , uh, for the, the , in like internal messaging for the team. So I worked for a year putting these images together with like little taglines, like subliminal taglines, but also very powerful images. And that year in 2014, there were only two consultants that came in to help the team. One of them was Sir Alex Ferguson, who's Manchester United's most winning, the most mini winning manager of all time, I think in any sport. He was one consultant and I was the other one. So I was deeply honored to do all of the messaging. So I did some really cool stuff with that. Like, for example, I found this, I found this really nine old 1976 image of se . And he had like a monobrow, that's how young he looked , right ? He had a monobrow, but he's looking in the camera like he's gonna rip your head off. And so I did a beautiful image of him that actually was by the door as my , our players walked out onto the range. So the last thing they saw was sebi , very emotional for the Europeans. And it said, I shake their hand, I pat them on the back, I wish them luck, but in my head I thinking I'm going to bury you. That's

Speaker 6: 30:30

Awesome.

Speaker 7: 30:31

Which is an actual quote from Sebi . So I , I , I tarted, I I , I created this image, and uh, that's where it was on the thing. That's the last thing. So they went, let's go. So that, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 6: 30:43

Yeah. Because they're going into battle, right? I mean, it's like they're gonna be gentlemen about it, but they're going into battle. They're still gonna wanna destroy

Speaker 7: 30:49

'em . Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And , um, so, so that, that was pretty cool being, you know, a consultant for the Ryder Cup team that won. That was nice. Um,

Speaker 6: 30:58

They're always winning <laugh> .

Speaker 7: 31:00

You're what?

Speaker 6: 31:01

They always win <laugh>. Well ,

Speaker 7: 31:04

You guys , yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, we'll see, we'll see next year , eh , yeah , we'll see next . But yeah, I've had some pretty cool memories. I mean, you know, working with Fowler was interesting. I mean, I remember after the Irish open in 94, Nick and his family came to Mount Juliet where I was running the academy , uh, just for a vacation. Nick was a big fly fisher, right? Still is in Montana. And , um, so he went down to the range with this little private range of Mount Juliet down by the river. And I said to him, can I come and watch you hit golf balls? And he said, sure, you know, no problem. I've never taught Nick Faldo at that point. I just watched David coaching him. So , um, anyway, so I, I put some on video just for my own benefit to look, and he, he , he kind of , he's a big guy. He is like six three, he's like gargantuan. And , um, he said, oh, he said, what do you see? What do you see in my swing? I was 23 years old. And I was like,

Speaker 6: 32:03

Like , looks good to me. <laugh> . Yeah.

Speaker 7: 32:05

I was like, like that. I said, well, you know, I think maybe this and this. And he goes, yeah. He said, that's what I'm working on with David. And I was like, wow . Like that, that , that was pretty cool. That was pretty nerve wracking. I mean,

Speaker 6: 32:20

You know , Nick , dude , you're like, you know, tons of stuff . Like, it's just, I like it 'cause I like it 'cause you're so humble, you know, it's like, you know your stuff and like, even 35 years ago, right? Like, you're just like, well, this is your bravo and the guy would listen to you and you're right. You know. But then, like, the way you look at things too is more like visual, which a lot of people are not, you know, and you like that, like, you like to visually show what you need to do to fix it, or what is a problem? Well ,

Speaker 7: 32:49

That , that is true because, you know, people play their worst golf, their worst golf. I've got a Korn Ferry guy at the moment is playing terrible golf at the moment, not anywhere near his capability. And that's because his focus is what we call narrow internal. Everything is like, me , me , me , me , me . Everything's directed in this way. And we know that players play their best when they are working with images and feelings. No one , no one ever really got better through hearing a great sentence. Someone got better by feeling something or they imagined something or whatever. So, you know, the more you can move away from like verbosity and words and what have you, and go into pictures and feelings, that's, that's the food that the brain wants to have, right? So if you can teach in those metaphors, then, you know, I , I think you've jumped over all the, all the clap trap that you, you can, you can get stuck into.

Speaker 6: 33:49

When did, when did your latest book come out?

Speaker 7: 33:52

Uh, so my latest book is this one, which is 50 Secrets to Great Golf You Don't Know About Yet, right? Yeah . And , um, no pictures in this one. So what? Yeah, so I'm a very , uh, I , I take a lot of notes, right? Like notes, notes, notes.

Speaker 6: 34:10

Oh my gosh, your notes . Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 7: 34:12

Yeah. So what I did was I was like, oh my God, I've got so many notes. What am I gonna do with these things? So I thought, okay, I'm gonna bring out like books. So this is 50 Secrets. They're just 50 small essays, 50 small essays that I've learned over 30 years of constructing, you know, and they're , they're , they're small . They're small. So they're not hard work on the brain. Uh, I'm writing a new book at the moment, which is called the PGA Tour Player's Handbook to Success. And it's all geared towards elite players. And this book, this book's pretty hard hitting , I'm pulling no punches with this book. So, you know, I'm saying like , if you do that, you are an idiot. Okay? You need to be doing this. Right? So , uh, again, it's based around all the notes that I've taken

Speaker 6: 35:01

Life , right? It's like you're not gonna , but you're not gonna sugarcoat it. So like, you've seen it, you know, like people , like, if you can't handle that, then you really shouldn't be on the tour. Right. Or you shouldn't be playing that level.

Speaker 7: 35:12

And by the way, you , you're not a grown adult. Right. You know? So , um, so yeah, so, so 50 Secrets , uh, is going really well. Uh, there's a , there's a, there's a section in the back actually for parents and juniors, which , uh, I'm proud of. Um, but I do wanna bring out in the next couple of years, I do wanna bring out a book that really blows out the , the biomechanics from a visual point of view. Like people can just turn the page and go,

Speaker 6: 35:42

It's simple . Yeah. It's so simple. They go, oh, I get it. Oh, I see.

Speaker 7: 35:45

Yeah . Boom . Yeah, that's it. So know , oh,

Speaker 6: 35:47

That's a ground force . Okay, now I get it. Yeah. Because you get all these like terms and they're like, oh, I think I understand what that means. But it's like they , I don't know . Yeah .

Speaker 7: 35:54

What does ground force mean? You know, you , you've got to visually show it. Um, so yeah, so I do, I , you know , there's another book in the works there, but , uh, one book at a time, Paul, one book at a Time,

Speaker 6: 36:07

<laugh> . Um, so how did you get, how'd you meet the Guides at Squares? Were you already talking about that kind of thing? And then Bob, you met Bob, or is it , was it through Nick or what ?

Speaker 7: 36:17

Well, well, obviously, you know, using the ground was very pertinent in my teaching. Yeah. You know , I've been writing about it for over two decades. And so what happened was, I was just on LinkedIn and I see Bob here, founder of Squares. Well, what is that? And then it said the leader in, you know, ground force technology with shoes. Now at that point, it could have been tennis, it could have been the Javelin. It could have been, yeah . I didn't know it was golf. So I looked, I looked at it and I was like, wow, someone actually gets it. You know, someone actually gets that. The most consistent thing in the golf swing is the ground, and you better darn well use it. So I called him up, I got in contact with him, and , um,

Speaker 6: 37:05

Bob's great. I love Bob Bob's Bob's Bob's Oscar . Yeah .

Speaker 7: 37:08

And I wanted to know his story. And then he sent me a pair of shoes, and I put the shoes on and I was like, you know, I I , I've been sponsored by Nike for 16 years and my F feet felt like they were in a sardine can, I mean, my feet were like this .

Speaker 6: 37:23

Oh yeah . Because the toe's so tight in them .

Speaker 7: 37:25

Oh, it's like a tor . Oh yeah,

Speaker 6: 37:26

Yeah. I hate that feeling like this .

Speaker 7: 37:28

So then I put squares on and all of a sudden my feet could splay, which is good for gripping, right? I can grip better like this than I can like that, right? Yeah . So all of a sudden now I'm feeling it. So yeah. So I , I, you know, I went up New Hampshire and I visited with him and we got on great. And you know, now I'm a kind of like an advisor in the company. Uh , and then, you know, I shot loads of adverts with Nick Aldo , which is ironic because that was my hero when I was back in 18, 19 years old. And here I am working with Nick , uh, with the golf shoes. So , um, so yeah, kind of like went full circle. But they're, they're fantastic. I mean, they, they feel so solid on your feet, not

Speaker 6: 38:10

Have you gotten the new ones? The , the , because they have those three new ones that just came out. Which

Speaker 7: 38:14

Ones ? Yeah, I've got a pair. I've got a pair over here. Yeah, I

Speaker 6: 38:16

Do. Which one, which one are you using? Or which one do you like of the three? Um,

Speaker 7: 38:21

The

Speaker 6: 38:22

B low or ,

Speaker 7: 38:23

Yeah, it's that one. Yeah.

Speaker 6: 38:25

Yeah, yeah . That's pretty cool too . So,

Speaker 7: 38:27

But , uh, the other, the other area why I love it is with putting, because with the square toe, as soon as I get my line down on the putter , um, with my on point bull marker , by the way, there's another great company you've, you've gotta , you've gotta look at on Point .

Speaker 6: 38:44

I'm friends of Briton too. I know Briton. Yeah. I known Briton for a long time.

Speaker 7: 38:48

What a great , um, what a great invention that is, by the way . But as soon as I've used the on point bull marker and put the line down, the square toes are so perfect for like, okay, well I'm here, bang like that. So , uh, between square's golf shoes and on point bull markers, you should, you should have your putting sorted out. I'm telling you

Speaker 6: 39:10

My putting's trash right now. I like had the best round of golf like ever last week, like ever. And then I've had like four, three putts. Like, I mean, I was out driving my iron , everything's going, my putting was trash. And I was like, had I just gotten my putting down even a normal putting day, it would've been like low eighties. But no, didn't happen. Yeah.

Speaker 7: 39:29

Well if , if you're three putting that much, you've gotta look at your pace. 'cause normally it's pace,

Speaker 6: 39:35

Is it? Yeah. I don't even know what I was doing wrong. I got a new putter like last couple months ago and yeah, I don't know, I that it was so frustrating. <laugh>, it's like the worst, like, you know, like your best round, you can't put, it's like, that's like how golf is. I feel like.

Speaker 7: 39:49

Well the frustrating thing about that is, is golf is like a set of scales. If your long game is up, your short game is down. If your short game is up, you'll , the trick to golf is get that equilibrium, right? So that's what normally happens with people's golf games. And of course if you are hitting a lot of fairways and greens subconsciously is putting pressure on you. 'cause you're thinking I should be making every put here 'cause I'm hitting all the greens. You know, it never

Speaker 6: 40:15

Happens. Like it never happened before. Like it's the complete opposite. Like usually it's , I'm not, my putting saves my and then my everything else doesn't work. And then this is a complete opposite. I know what to deal . Like I have four, three putts. It's a lot of three putts.

Speaker 7: 40:27

Yeah . Not good.

Speaker 6: 40:29

Not good. No, I gotta see Nick Bradley. So I need , I need to , I need to read your finish reading all your books. And

Speaker 7: 40:35

I haven't done a putting book yet, though . Actually in, in my second book, kinetic Golf , there's quite a lot of putting in there actually. Kinetic golf . So, you

Speaker 6: 40:43

Know , you should do with the last book, like with your YouTube channel, you should like, make reels on that. Or like little quick videos on like each one of those little secrets. That'd be cool. 'cause people would watch that . Yeah. You know, like number 47 . And then like, you just show the video, you know, 'cause that'd be a good reel and a good like four minute video, I don't know. And you just double dip.

Speaker 7: 41:04

It's like , um, I , I watch , uh, Robert Green, the 48 Laws of Power, you know, he does that. And then you've got , um, um, the , the guy who's the Daily stoic , uh, what's his name? I

Speaker 6: 41:16

Love Ryan Holiday . Ryan Holiday . I love Ryan Holiday . I just got like, IIII love his books. I just got the one that was like 365 days of Stoicism for Dads or something. I don't know , like Yeah,

Speaker 7: 41:30

Yeah. I've just finished , uh, uh, discipline is Destiny, which is good. I mean, I'm fairly disciplined anyway, but I mean, he , I do like the reels to your point that he does. And, and Robert,

Speaker 6: 41:43

Yeah. Um , the Be my favorite is , uh, was it Ego Is the Enemy And the Obstacle in the Way, the Obstacle in the Way is the first one I listened to.

Speaker 7: 41:53

Yeah. Obstacle is The Way. Actually Rory read that one. Really ? Rory read that that one five years ago when he went through a really bad patch and then started to read about Stoicism. And he, he read a couple of Ryan's books and really kind of like turned his thing , cleaned his thinking up, you know, cleaned it up.

Speaker 6: 42:12

I love stoicism. I'm like totally down with Stoicism, I think . Like, I didn't even know that was till like five years ago. And I'm like, where is this all my life?

Speaker 7: 42:18

Right? Yeah. I know . I , I had a friend, I had a friend, Morgan Mason give me a book , uh, Marcus Aurelius meditations. And this was back in like 2004 five. And uh , I found it quite difficult to understand 'cause there's no pictures <laugh>. And uh ,

Speaker 6: 42:34

You're like , you're like, I thought this was gonna be like Gladiator. What the hell?

Speaker 7: 42:38

<laugh> . Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Julius Caesar, Richard Burton no less. And um, and anyway, yeah , so, but Marcus Aurelius was my first , um, meditations, first insight into Stoicism.

Speaker 6: 42:50

So how'd you, how'd you meet Briston from On Point ?

Speaker 7: 42:55

Well , um, so I got introduced to Briston about three or four years ago. And I was, I was in between meetings and it was a quick hi bye sort of thing. And then , um, and then somehow we got connected again through a mutual friend , uh, of ours. And he sent me a load of the product. And I swear to you, I swear to you, I made more 10 foot putts using on point golf markers. 'cause I just set the marker down, set the marker down really quickly, get the line, bang , bam bang . And I was like, well, there's something in this. There's absolutely something in the fact that it's done Well ,

Speaker 6: 43:34

It's very visual, like you, right. Because like, that's, that's the key. It's like visual. It's like, it's not, it's three dimensional, right? We don't look at things flat.

Speaker 7: 43:43

No, you , your eyes have a problem because they're looking at a two dimensional coin. Yeah . And then they're trying to figure out the ball . Well this is like a camel's hump. It goes one, two and it's just , it just trundles on. So I used it and I was like, wow. So I then contacted Brison and you know, I've gone on , you know, I've done a lot of , uh, promotional stuff for Briton and what have you. And my son actually , um, my son who's in construction, he actually now works for Briston out in Aspen as well. 'cause you know, on point Bullock markers , believe it or not, this is the genius of Briston Peterson, is that he's , he , that's not his actual job. A little bit like , uh, you know, he's in construction, but guess who else had a side job was , uh, ping founder cast . And Solheim really cast Solheim. His actual occupation, believe it or not, was making prosthetic limbs. I didn't know that. And then he came up with the idea of Ping with the putter and then launched the , the Ping product. So Brisbane Peterson's exactly the same. He is, he's got a amazing company called Brico in Aspen, Colorado. But as a sideline, he said, oh , I'll just, I'll just invent these amazing bull markers , blah, blah , blah . So the folks listening should really check it out on point . Golf us . Really Amazing. Yeah,

Speaker 6: 45:00

I've been, I've known him Britons like for a long, like a long time. Like we're buddies. Yeah.

Speaker 7: 45:05

Such a lovely guy . He's a

Speaker 6: 45:07

Good dude. Yeah . So where can people find you or the best way people can find you? So

Speaker 7: 45:12

Yeah, YouTube, it's Nick Bradley golf , and it's the same with Instagram. And , um, uh, my web , my website's bradley golf.com. So there's , uh, there's some stuff on there, mainly online courses. But of course they can, they, they can see me in person if they want to. Um, and to get me direct , uh, just go through the website, there's a contact box there. They can email me direct and if they're in the area, I'll , uh, my first question to them will be what does success look like to you? And what can I do ?

Speaker 6: 45:45

That's awesome. Well, I really appreciate you being on the show. I know you're a very busy, busy man. And , um, I'm a big fan. I followed your career and you guys need to check out Nick's stuff Like Nick , Nick is the real deal. And um, so thank you for being on the show. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 7: 46:05

Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3: 46:07

Thanks for listening to another episode of Behind the Golf Brand podcast. You're gonna beat me and golf stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you win. Stay out of the beach and see you on the green.