Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
Re-Release The Zone: Unlocking Golf's Hidden Superpower
Finding your zone in golf requires mental clarity, physical precision, and an ability to get out of your own way when it matters most.
• What being in the zone feels like - the ball feels "like nothing" at impact
• Three Charleston National players share their unique mental strategies
• Wright Blanchard's comeback story - from hole-in-one to victory
• Brady Nash's technique of focusing on a single dimple on the ball
• Willie Charles' data-driven approach from analyzing 1,750 rounds
• Why "slumps" are a mental construct that players create for themselves
• The danger of negative self-talk and how it affects your performance
• Mental techniques to recover when you start a round poorly
• The importance of pre-shot routines in maintaining focus
• How visualization techniques help top players execute under pressure
Ready to find your zone? Practice getting your mind right before your body. Remember that golf is "90% mental and the other half is physical." Feel it, focus, then forget it.
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You're listening to Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, rich Easton, broadcasting from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. This episode is all about that elusive, intangible, impalpable, illusory and fleeting feeling of being in the zone. I mean, what would compel anybody to give two shits about being in the zone? For me it's intellectual curiosity on how better players summon their superpowers to hit incredible shots and go low. Golf is 90% mental and the other half is physical. And yeah, that's a Yogi Berra quote.
Speaker 1:I love that guy. I mean, he had others like the future ain't what it used to be. Or always go to other people's funerals, Otherwise they won't come to yours, or no one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded. Look, I love that guy. I knew exactly what he was talking about. So, talking about the zone Outside the sport of golf, it happens to us when we prepare for something and when the time comes, we deliver flawlessly. It's like a perfect sales pitch that gets the buyer to say yes immediately, a winning contract, a closing argument that steers the jury 180 degrees the other way, a singer, a dancer or a musician that gets a standing ovation. In golf, it's a place you go that allows you to get out of your own way to execute a flawless swing.
Speaker 2:Time for you to see the field. The field. I see the field. It's 445 yards long. It's got a little red flag at the end of it. It's 12 strokes ahead of it. Come on that end of it. It's 12 strokes ahead of it.
Speaker 1:That ain't it Because if you'd seen the field, you wouldn't be hacking at that ball like you was chopping weeds out from under your front porch. So while I'm writing this episode, I'm also watching the 120th US Open at Wingfoot and what's become glaringly obvious to me is golfers get in the zone and they do it at different times, different times in a round, different times in a tournament, different times in a year. I mean, nobody I know stays in it forever. There are so many stories of golfers on the verge of quitting until they find lightning in a bottle and then they usually go on to do something big, like winning a tournament, even winning a major. I mean, just look at this weekend.
Speaker 1:Four players that were ranked number one in the world all came to the tournament with the same expectations and on a pretty good trend. I mean DJ dominated the FedEx Cup. He's been playing great this year. Rory's been on fire. Jon Rahm's been on fire. Justin Thomas you just never know when he's going to go low. They all came, they all came prepared, they all came confident.
Speaker 1:Even Patrick Reed he's leading the tournament the first two days, you know, and the announcers couldn't say anything bad about this guy. You know he's usually not considered like the good humor man. But this guy could go low, he could play. He's a competitor. But he gets to Saturday morning he blows up, he shoots a 77.
Speaker 1:This guy was in the zone and this whole time they're watching Bryson and they're watching Bryson. This guy's killing drives, this guy's hitting it I don't know almost 400 yards. And what did this guy do? How did he separate himself from the pack? What did he do to get in the zone? But he hasn't been returning my call. So instead I chose to talk to three local gunslingers at Charleston National to get their take on being in the zone Wright Blanchard, brady Nash and Brandon McCracken two pros and one guy that I like to consider a bounty hunter. When people want to know how you did on the golf course, they'll ask you your score. I mean score is the descriptor that tells everything about your round. I mean, usually, when people ask how'd you play, the answer is usually well, I shot a 79. And then they start explaining. They start explaining the round and try and explain the fact that they had so many mistakes and they shot a 79. Imagine if they didn't, that could have been in the 60s.
Speaker 3:It usually goes something like this Right, I shot a 79, but I missed three putts that I should have made and had a triple that I'd like to forget about. It was on seven. I hit it in the trap. It was a fried egg. It took me two to get out and I three putted, but thank God I birdied eight and made a 40-foot snaking putt to save par on nine.
Speaker 1:By the time most golfers get done explaining their round, their listeners want to stick a fork in their eyes. Just to feel better, stick a fork in my eye.
Speaker 2:I'm getting older by the minute. Stick a fork in my eye, I can feel my brain flow shrinking and screaming.
Speaker 1:And for me, unless I shoot the round of my life or have four consecutive holes where I birdie it, my response is usually always the same the course record is safe. That's it. It's safe. I could be totally wrong about this, but I think when people are asking you how'd you play, they're kind of looking for a short answer, maybe a score, and not a diatribe afterwards. Maybe they're trying to be polite, they're just looking for a brief response so they can connect with you. Maybe they shot one of their low rounds and they just want to see if they're better than you. Or possibly they're just trying to see hey, did you get in the zone today? Did you shoot a hole-in-one? Did you have any eagles? Because everybody likes everybody else to do well in this sport. Unless you're competing head-to-head, then you don't wish the best for them. No-transcript. First let me introduce these three players to you before I go through their thoughts on being in the zone.
Speaker 1:Brady Nash is new to Charleston. He followed his older brother's footsteps, who's assistant pro over at the Country Club of Charleston. They were raised in Vancouver, washington. When I think of Vancouver Washington, I think of Portland Oregon. If you've ever seen that television show, portlandia with Fred Armiston from Saturday Night Live and, I think, kerry Portland, Oregon. If you've ever seen that television show Portlandia with Fred Armiston from Saturday Night Live and, I think, kerry Brownstein, I mean that that pretty much paints a picture of what the Portland area is like. And their dad was a golf pro in the Portland Vancouver area. So that's how both boys got their golf swing started.
Speaker 1:Brady came to Charleston following on his big brother's footsteps and he wants to be on the path to become a head pro. He's got to compete in a few PGA stepping stones before he does that, but he's early in his road. I mean to put this guy in his path, our head pro Chase Wells is starting to give him a little bit more responsibility. Is starting to give him a little bit more responsibility. He's got to hire and fire a lot of the staff. He's got to work out the Tuesday night Big Money League and that's the event of the week at Charleston National. But I think his biggest challenge is navigating the cart girl staff, which I think is his biggest opportunity for growth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of upsides. If you're catching my drift, wright Blanchard is the number two man at Charleston National behind head pro Chase Wells. He's been running the pro shop, tournaments, camps and lessons for the last seven years and he's one of the friendliest and most tolerant guys you'll meet in the golf industry. I mean when people come up to the counter and they're coming to pay for golf, I mean half the times it seems like they think they're in a dollar store or some bargain store where you have to bargain for price. I mean, it's just sometimes it's really funny to listen to.
Speaker 1:I'm fired up at 9-10, down 15.
Speaker 4:I'm fired up just sometimes. It's really funny to listen to.
Speaker 1:But Wright always handles it with like a calm demeanor and at the end of the day the people pay what they're supposed to pay but he doesn't make them feel badly. He's a good guy. I met him years ago when I used to come to the course and he's just a likable guy. We'd talk every once in a while and I'd be surprised, for his age and as much as he bites into life, that he could remember half the conversations we've had. I mean, the guy he's just a pure salesman Writes from three generations of Charlestonians and three generations of golfers. His dad was a player and he learned from his dad and a little bit from his grandfather. And Wright played at a young age. I mean, he went on to play in high school. He went up to college, he stopped playing. But then he even took on a job outside the golf industry. But it wasn't fun. It really wasn't, as most jobs aren't. But Wright knew he liked the golf industry. But it wasn't fun. It really wasn't, as most jobs aren't. But Wright knew he liked the golf industry, he liked the lifestyle that went with the golf industry. So he came back to Charleston, he re-entered the golf world and he started working at Charleston National for Chase.
Speaker 1:Wright's the kind of guy that collects friends. He still plays golf with guys from elementary school. I mean, there are these guys that come to the course Ross and Sky Matt. They've been teeing it up since like for the last 20 years. So you know, these guys all know where the bodies are buried. So if Wright says anything about their antics, they could always remind him. Hey, wright, remember when you were doing it with Ashley between the high school bleachers while her boyfriend was on the field? You know something like that. To put it in Western terms, wright's like the local gunslinger who gets challenged all the time by locals and people that have heard about him and they come in from out of town to play. He shot a 62 this year at wiles dunes at the links course. I mean I think that's like a 133 slope. That's a hard course and he started off bogeying the first hole. So again, he's one of the guys I want to talk to about. When you're kind of coming off and you're not starting well, how do you get in the zone? The third guy I spoke to is Brandon McCracken. Now, he's one of the local gunslingers that actually challenged Wright to a $100 match, and I'll talk about that in a second. I think it's a pretty cool story.
Speaker 1:Brandon's from Modesto, california. That's like an inland community near San Jose. He was raised by a family of tennis players. Nobody was a golfer, but he decided golf was more in his DNA than tennis players. Nobody was a golfer, but he decided golf was more in his DNA than tennis was. He played junior golf, he played high school golf. He even played in college and is by far the most verbose of the three. You know, when Brandon's in the room, his energy is hard to ignore.
Speaker 1:During the summer, when golf was one of the very few things charlestonians could do, brandon was at the course playing with different people all the time. He also shot a low round of 62 a hard course in california. So I thought wouldn't it be a good idea to have Wright and Brandon play against each other? I thought it'd be a good match. So here's a story for the ages.
Speaker 1:One day when I'm working at the first tee, wright was out on the course playing with another buddy of his, and then, shortly after Brandon comes up to the first tee, we start chatting it up and I said hey, you know, have you ever played right? And he's like, yeah, well, I've tried to, but I think right's afraid of me. And I'm thinking, yeah, I don't think so. But we started talking it up a little bit more. I said, hey, you know, right's on the course, this might be a good day for you guys to go at it. After Brandon and I were done talking, he took off and I really thought nothing of it again. And then, I don't know, maybe an hour or so later I see Brandon and Wright shooting by me going to the 10th tee box, and I just heard Brandon look at me and go game on, buddy game on. So in this case I was right. They had a match for the ages.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I got two different points of view on the match because I talked to each one of the players at different times. So here's Brandon's side of the story. So they head over to the tee box. He doesn't tell me about the conversation he had with Wright or why they're playing together, just they're heading to the tee box. That's where he starts his story and he crushes a drive and he beats him on 10. And maybe he beat him on 11, but I know he's two up going into 14. He's feeling confident and if you know Brandon, you know he exudes confidence, but so does Wright. Wright wears it a whole different way. He's just got this wicked smile, kind of telling you I know what I'm doing out here. So Brandon continues to tell me they get to 14, it's a par 3, and I think they're playing the back, so it's maybe 165, 170 yards.
Speaker 1:Brandon's up in the match, he hits first and he hits a really good shot on the green. Wright steps up and just hits the shot, hits the green, rolls towards the hole, disappears. They're not sure it's a hole-in-one, but I think they start coming around to the green and they look there's no ball, it's in the hole. So Wright beats him with 14. He gets to 15. He birdies the hole. Now he gets to 16. This is a dogleg left. You can't see the green. It's maybe 295 to 300 yards. Wright gets up, drives the green Understand he just came back, started beating him in two holes, stands up with his confidence, drives the green. He might have missed his eagle pup, but he won the hole. He goes on a 17. Smashes a drive, hits an incredible approach shot, putts in for birdie. And then Brandon would say hey, I just came up and said good game and he beat me on 17. That's Brandon's story. And Brandon would say I was so close, I was up and Wright, just, he just got into another gear and he beat me. But I'll get him next time.
Speaker 1:And now here's Wright's side of the story. Wright's out playing with a buddy having his normal match I think he's feeling pretty good about his game Gets to nine, hits his ball up on the green, putts out. And as soon as he putts out he hears a voice coming from the second story bar. There's a balcony out there and it's Brandon and he's standing out there and he's yelling 100 bucks, buddy, 100 bucks match. Play back nine now. Bucks match, play back nine now and Wright's like in his mind who does that? Who calls out somebody in front of other people at Wright's course? He's like fuck, game on. So they get to the 10th tee and Wright's the first one to tell you hey, didn't start off perfectly.
Speaker 1:Brandon wins a few holes, but Wright's feeling pretty good when he gets to 14. He's played this hole so many times and not intimidated at all, and so after he made his hole in one, he just looked at Brandon and he knew he just had it. He was in the zone. When he gets to 16, he just felt really good about the two shots. And when he gets up to 17, he has a choice. He could lay back and hit a club that gives him maybe 60 to 100 yards in, or he could go for it. And he was just feeling like if I go for it now and I get it on the green, I got this guy, so he does it. And when he gets to 17 and birdies, he says Brandon's so pissed, he throws $ dollars out of him and says good game. Now.
Speaker 1:You know, I think the story is generally the same from both players, but boy did they have a different perspective, and what was really cool to me is both of them got in the zone at some time in the match. Both of them got in the zone. It just seems like right turned on a different gear when it came down to the last four holes. I personally think these two guys are like Ali and Frazier, arnie and Jack I think they're Coke and Pepsi yeah, more like Coors and Budweiser. But I really think these guys have a future of matches where they just beat the shit out of each other and make each other better. So what do you think it feels like to be in the zone and strike the ball?
Speaker 2:There's only one shot that's in perfect harmony with the field. One shot that's his Authentic shot.
Speaker 1:So again, I asked all three. Wright would tell you the ball feels like nothing. He focuses on his target, never on his backswing, and he focuses on his target every shot. He doesn't think about the last shot, he just likes to keep it simple. When I was in sales, we used to have this acronym. It was called KISS Keep it simple. When I was in sales, we used to have this acronym. It was called KISS Keep it simple, stupid.
Speaker 1:And Wright knows how to eliminate elements and just focus on that next shot. And when I asked him, you know how does he forget his bad shots, like the one he might have hit before, it just wasn't the right shot? And he goes something like this I don't know, man, but that shit just doesn't help. I also asked him like how do you know when you're getting out of the zone, when you fall out of the zone, what do you do to get back in it? And he's like hey, rich, if I knew that, I'd never get out of the zone. And I'm thinking to myself this guy is like a Zen master. This guy is like a Zen master. Now, to his credit, he reads books by Dr Bob Rotello. I think the book he's reading now is. Golf is a Game of Confidence. So he knows the importance of the mental aspect of the game. He's got the swing dynamics down pat a few hours at the range and a few chapters of Rotella, and Wright gets himself in the zone. When I asked Brandon about what it's like to get in the zone, he kind of said something similar to right. He said the ball feels like nothing when you're in the zone. It feels like nothing. And I'm thinking if I had a swing speed exceeding 125 miles an hour, probably everything would feel like nothing. But he works on his pre-shot routine to settle his brain before he swings. But he works on his pre-shot routine to settle his brain before he swings. He also likes to visualize the shot when he walks up to it and he thinks about the trajectory, where he wants the ball going and specifically where he wants to land the ball. And when he swings the club right and he hits the ball square, he hears the special click sound that he says only a Pro V1 could make. Yeah, so there's a commercial.
Speaker 1:He also doesn't like to get ahead of himself when he's playing a match. He doesn't like to think how every hole impacts the 18 score. So what he does is he likes to divide the golf course into three holes at a time and in his mind he thinks, okay, I'd like to be one under, or I'd like to be two under in these three holes. And then when he gets out there to play, all he's thinking about is his shot. He's focusing on his target, he's imagining the way his shot should go.
Speaker 1:And when he gets to the end of each three-hole increment he looks at it and he goes hey, do I need to adjust? Can I lay back or do I have to go heavy? Do I have to step it up? And hey, a few beers on the course, man, that doesn't hurt either. Now, when I asked Brady about getting the zone, he said he knows he's in the zone when he strikes the ball and it feels like stale cotton candy. I mean, when you hear a quote like that, don't you want to know who his weed contact is? You want to get high man.
Speaker 3:That's how they do it. They got wooden balls, man.
Speaker 1:I got a joint here, man. I got a joint here, man. I was asking Brady about, like, can you remember a time when you were in the zone for a long period of time? And he said, yeah, he goes. When I was back in high school, my junior and senior year were probably some of my best scoring years of golf. When he was a junior he had a play against the number one golfer in the state of Oregon. He had a play against the number one golfer in the state of Oregon, brian Humphreys. Brian was beating everybody that year.
Speaker 1:So Brady gets paired up with him at this competition and his coach is like hey, just play your game, you could beat him. They set out on their match and Brian's just beating Brady a few holes in it. Maybe Brady was a little intimidated at first but he kind of knew he had his game. So they get to this one hole and I think Brady's down two and Brady comes out making this long snaking putt to beat Brian on the hole. Now he's got a little confidence. So he goes up to this next hole, a daunting 450-yard dogleg right water on the right trees on the left. And Brady gets up and I think his coach said just hit the three-wood, get it out in the center and play forward. Brady was feeling cocky, had this confidence from the last hole and he knows he saw Brian when he made that putt and he knows hey, I think I just got in his head. So he gets up to the tee box, he gets his driver out and he crushes this 315-yard drive right down the center of the fairway. Now he's looking at a short iron in and now it's Brian's turn. Now this guy is a good stick and nothing intimidates him. But here's this junior, brady Nash, who he knows he could beat and he had a three wood in his hand and he was following just his coach's direction. I mean, he just knew the right thing and had a plot along. But after Brady crushes that 315 yard drive, he goes back to his bag, he pulls out his driver and he's like kid, this is how it's done. And he hits this shot and it's got some spin on it and it's spinning more right, more right. He ends up dunking his ball in the water. He makes a six on the hole. Brady comes back. He's now even.
Speaker 1:Brady goes the rest of the round back and forth with this guy and wins on 17 and beats this guy, and he knew it before he even teed up his first ball. He was in the zone. He was just feeling it. That year he was just hitting all these great shots. I mean, he likes to simplify things. What he tells me is he likes to eliminate distractions. He walks up to his ball, he looks at his target and then he picks out one dimple on the back of the ball Now, mind you, there are 326 dimples on his ball and he picks out one to focus on. So then he swings the club and then usually that translates into a good shot. He's got the right feel. And when Brady goes ahead in the match and he's feeling really good about it, or even if his wheels get a little wobbly, he likes to become his own hype man to keep himself confident.
Speaker 4:Dilla killer in the house 100 USDA pure meat, no filler, right here.
Speaker 1:As I was finishing writing this episode, I happened to be at the first tee box yesterday and Willie Charles, one of our super senior golfers, drove by and stopped, talked to me for like an hour, which I thought was great, and I started asking him some of the same questions. I had asked the three amigos and now this guy. I understand this guy yesterday shot 73 or 74. He typically shoots close to 72. He has shot his age and he shot below par in recent times. This guy is consistent and it's rare that you'll ever see him in the high 70s Now.
Speaker 1:I think the reason is twofold. First of all, he's very talented. He's always a talented athlete, but this guy pays attention to everything in golf. Every time he hits it on the fairway, he hits it on the green or however he putts, he marks it down in his mini and then he goes back and he looks at it and he's got 1,750 rounds recorded in this so he could see if there are any trends. Like yesterday he shot a 73.
Speaker 1:I think he was on 12 fairways, you know, I think he was on 10 or 12 greens in regulation. I think he 27 putted. I know this because he has all the stats and he shares them with me and he looks for outliers. He'll look for a round where he had less greens in regulation or fairways in regulation or putted too much and he'll go out that next week and he'll practice that thing. He'll practice that thing. Now, when I talked to him about being in the zone, he shared some of the same principles that I heard from Brady Wright and Brandon, that I heard from Brady Wright and Brandon. When he gets up to his ball, he goes through a pre-shot routine and he looks for a specific point that he wants to hit the ball. I mean, if he wants to hit the ball 240 or 250, he's looking at a patch of grass 250 yards away and he says that's where I have to hit it to there's a perfect shot out there trying to find each and every one of us.
Speaker 2:All we got to do is get ourselves out of this way.
Speaker 1:Let it choose us. I mean he's that good, he's that accurate. When he's putting he'll look for a blade of grass that's on the line that he has to putt the ball. He'll look at the hole and then he'll look at that blade of grass and then all he does is look at the back of his ball and makes a putting stroke in the direction of that mark on the grass. This guy is precise.
Speaker 1:He practices so much and he typically practices out on the course. He doesn't like the range. He likes to see the consequences of his actions. By practicing on the course, it gives him the opportunity. When he gets to certain shots that are between distances of irons, he'll take the iron that hits it farthest and he'll choke down and he'll start doing things like practicing taking the club back to his shoulder, taking the club midway between his hip and his shoulder, maybe taking it back to his hip, and from that he gets the feel for how far do I hit it when I'm in between these clubs. I mean that's his way to dial it in.
Speaker 1:I mean he is a field player with years and years of focus. That's how he does it, when we're used to watching players play at their highest level, score their lowest. We kind of have certain expectations and when they don't meet those expectations, we put a word on it and the word is slump. You know, it's like watching your favorite baseball player. Guy's got like a 350 batting average and you're watching a game he can't get a hit. You're watching your favorite NBA player Guy averages 35 to 40 points a game and you're watching him. In this one game he's hitting the rim, he's throwing air balls, he just can't find it.
Speaker 1:Or how about the golfer that goes out and wins tournament after tournament after tournament, hitting the most incredible shots, winning from the sand, and then all of a sudden, the guy can't find his swing? It's like it reminds me of like Jordan Spieth, who I loved. It was 2015. He's winning everything, he's winning majors. I think he won 14 tournaments Maybe not that year, but totally. And then, all of a sudden, you're watching him this year he's standing over the ball for like 20 seconds. Reminds me of like 2002 or 2003. Sergio Garcia changes his grip and he re-grips, and he re-grips, and he re-grips and you're watching it. It's like Chinese water torture. But what happens?
Speaker 1:These guys who are in the zone, all of a sudden they're in what sports announcers and sports writers call a slump. So I wanted to talk to the three guys and get their point of view on what's it like to be in a slump, how long have you been in a slump, how do you get out of a slump? And all three guys kind of came up with a similar conclusion. They might have said it differently, but they're basically saying hey, wait, a slump is something that sports writers write about. It's that something sports announcers talk about to get you interested. But, as Brady would say, if you think you're in a slump now, you're in a slump.
Speaker 1:But I think people calling a slump on themselves is like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we all do it right. So you're three holes into a game. You've already lost two balls, and at Charleston National, the first three holes are not that easy, even if you've been at the range, which is, by the way, like walking the Appalachian trail to get to the range and back before your match. But all of a sudden, you start hearing something from players that are doing this like oh, that's it, my day's over, oh, this is going to be the worst golf round ever. They are putting a nail in their coffin without trying to say okay, let's turn it around, let's do something different this time, let's go, forget about the past. That's hard to do and I also play with a lot of golfers that let's say they start off slowly. Now they get mad, they get mad at themselves and you could feel their anger. And I've rarely ever played with somebody. They gets mad at themselves, yells at themselves, yells their own name on the golf course and turns it around.
Speaker 1:But I did have one buddy that I played with. His name was Stan Guy's, from Texas, and this guy was a Texan through and through. There was a time in his career where the EVP of sales said hey, stan, I need you to move from Denver to go to New York City in Boston and deal with our toughest customers. Stan is like McLeod going to New York City and if you guys don't know that, it was a show in the 1970s. The sheriff comes from Texas, goes to New York and cleans the place up. Well, that was like Stan. I mean wherever he goes the place up. Well, that was like Stan. I mean wherever he goes, stan brings Texas with him.
Speaker 1:So we're playing one day and Stan's a good player, he's a single digit handicap player, hits it a mile. But he gets a temper every once in a while and I thought playing with him a few times that he was just going to go berserk. We're playing one day and he gets so mad at himself. When he gets going hard he takes a draw into a duck hook left and he can't control it. So we're several holes into a match and he takes his driver, slams it down, breaks it hole, later hits a four iron so pissed he was by the woods wraps it around a tree, breaks it. And I'm thinking to myself this is going to be a long day. I mean Stan's going to implode. But with Stan he's just looking for a trigger to get better. After he wrapped that club around the tree and broke it, he goes on to birdie like three holes in a row and he wins the match. And he's one of the very few guys I know that actually can mad himself into playing better. Guys I know that actually can mad himself into playing better. I mean, self-anger is his friend, but my experience would tell me that doesn't happen for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Beating yourself up might be your way to wake yourself up, but it also sets you up for an early quit. That's just an observation. When players continue to berate themselves on the golf course for not bringing in their illusions of their A-game, they start to smell like rotten fish to their playing partners. It's like you're going to a camp concert and all you hear is like death growl. You just got to remember. Slumps are what writers write about, sports announcers talk about and dejected golfers cry about. If we all had to take a skinny minute and think about some insights from Wright, brandon, brady and even Willie, we might find that a shot that feels like butter, that takes off like a fighter jet and lands like a dead cat is 90% mental. You feel it, you focus and then you forget it. You've been listening to Tales from the First Tee. This is your host, rich Easton, from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina.