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Landon Ashworth on Visualization, Shot Creation and a Positive, Artistic Mindset for Golf
In this episode, Landon Ashworth shares his unique perspective on golf, emphasizing the power of visualization and a positive mindset. He discusses how his autism has shaped his approach to the game, ...
Landon Ashworth on Visualization, Shot Creation and a Positive, Artistic Mindset for Golf
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Interactive Transcript
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How's it on the mark tribe? I hope you are well. Thank you for downloading this podcast.
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As always I'm so very, very appreciative of each and every one of you wherever you are
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in the world. Our global tribe. Thank you for being a part of what we do. Thank you for
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supporting what we do. Thank you for helping growing what we do and the more we grow the better
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content we can get. And we have got some really cool podcasts coming at you down the track. I'm
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thinking here as I look down the list of upcoming guests we've got Kyle Berkshire Long Driving
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Champion on deck for you. We've got, hold on one sec just looking through the list. We have
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Mike Chromy, caddy to Chris Kirk and was on the back for Scotty Sheffler when Scotty Sheffler
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won the 2025 BMW Championship. I've got John Tadassol. I've got Milo Lines. There's some very,
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very good guests coming up. Now, good guests. Certainly, London Ashworth is one of those and I can't
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wait for you to get to the conversation because to me is the most interesting man in golf.
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And secondly, the way he visualizes everything that he does in the game, it's a skill. He calls it his
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superpower, but I want to say to you that visualization, channeling your mind, seeing events unfold
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before you go, that's built on faith. And I believe that everybody can do that. And if you have
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you know, faith very small, the size of a mustard seed, you can also start to take yourself places
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in your mind and in your game and in your life, incidentally, to places you probably never dreamed of.
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So I'm looking forward to the conversation playback in just a minute before then, some housekeeping.
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I'm really excited to tease the fact that I've spoken about this before, that the on the mark
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go to golf training aids.com, use the code on the mark one five on the mark one five to get 15% off
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whatever training aid you need to help you to make your practice count. And then of course,
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there's the whoop. I'm looking at my whoop readings now. And I've noticed that over the last,
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you know, little while when I've been at home, my rest, my recovery is up because I'm working out
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playing more tennis, my strain is up. And all in all, I am a healthier being. And I can track this
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all with my whoop. If you want to start tracking how your body is performing, I would highly
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and one free months membership on me join.wop.com slash on the mark. And just pick your color and go
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from there. Hey, well, I'm, why guess if you can measure? I've always said that whether it's a launch
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monitor, whether it's a whoop reading, whether it's a hack motion wrist device. Hey, I've been practicing
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golf here lately, been using my hack motion. And I'd like to say, and you'll see some videos up
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coming, that my wrist alignments, especially in my left wrist, my lead wrist, way more flat,
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way less cupped or extended at the top of my swing. So the face is stronger. I'm hitting the ball
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more squarely. I'm also using Taylor made clubs, loving those. But the wrist alignments are good
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because I know that they're good because I've seen with my hack motion. And you should get one
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to hackmotion.com hack, MOTion.com and use the code on the mark to get yours. Again, why guess
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when you can measure? What you also need to do though is visualize and think positive and stack
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the odds in your favor mentally. And land and ashworth is going to help you with those very things.
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Enjoy. On the mark fans, you guys come here to get golf insights. And speaking of insights,
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I've been watching this manner from far on social media. For the longest time and now we have him,
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it's land and ashworth. Land and welcome to the podcast. How are you?
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Uh, better than I deserve. Yeah, I'm you and me birth. Right. Before we get into the golf
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insight, I'm fascinated at you. I watch your social channel. It's a mixture between movie making
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and TV commercial making and then golf tips. And you are autistic and you say golf is your
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autistic superpower. I do. I'm keen for you to elaborate on that a little bit, please. Sure.
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Growing up, I was bullied bad, bad, badly for being weird and different. They didn't really
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have a name for it. Back then, of what I was, my parents were worried about me. So they sent me to
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childhood therapist because I didn't have a single friend in the world. And the childhood therapist
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said, your your mind works different. Don't really know how or why. This is, you know, almost 30 years
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ago, 35 years ago, whatever it was. I'm old. And so they said, um, if you're getting bullied,
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the best way to stop being bullied is to fit in. So, um, we think that you should get into
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acting classes to learn how to fake being normal. Mm-hmm. Now, as an adult, I realized that what they
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were asking me to do was learn how to mask my autism. Yeah, right. And so I learned how to act.
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And thank God, my brain worked in that way and acting spoke to me. So I could just do, I could
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that, I got into the mind of every time I went to school from then on out. I wasn't me anymore.
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I was a character learning how to fit in. Mm-hmm. And so it was hard. And so I still got bullied
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pretty bad, but it got better every time I went to acting class. It got a little bit better. And my
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only solace in the world was this nine-hole, a private country club. One step above a
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muni in my, you know, town of 4,000 people growing up was Carlinville Country Club. And it was the
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only place in the town that my bullies didn't go. You know, they were at the parks. They were at
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basketball courts. They were at the baseball diamonds. If I ever went there, I was going to get
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beat up and made fun of. So my, my place of solace was playing Legos in my room by myself for
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golfing with my dad. Mm-hmm. And so golf, to me, became life. If I, if I was on a golf course,
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it was like the one place that I could breathe outside and not be afraid that I was going to
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get me to fun over beat up. Yeah. And so fast forward. And I learned work ethic growing up. And
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then by the time that I was in college, I never really took golf seriously. It was just where I would
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go to, to be outside and not get me to fun. But then I realized, well, I wonder what would happen
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if I took my autistic brain and actually put that towards getting better, not just trying to,
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you know, hit geese with golf balls, you know, when I was 12. We're trying to skip a ball across
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the pond or just trying to juggle. What if I actually use my brain to get better? So, um,
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so that's what that's what I did. I surrendered myself to the game and I, I hyper,
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autistic hyper, hyper focus. And so I took my hyper focus from aerospace and astrophysics. And
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when I knew I wasn't going to become an astronaut, this is a total different side story. Sorry,
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I started to beat. Okay, got it. But anyway, so that's a little, a little fairy dust. Just put a
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pin in that. When that didn't work out, I was like, okay, well, I need to put my full soul into
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something else. What should it be other than golf? So that's when I adapted the mind frame
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of completely surrendering myself to practice. And for every one round of golf that I would play,
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I would probably have putted for a hundred hours hit, hit three or four hundred hours worth of chips.
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Uh, you know, a hundred hours worth of drives. Um, I became addicted to practicing.
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So when I got on the golf course, if I didn't shoot 65, I was deflated. I expected to make
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every single birdie because my practice was a trillion times harder than any golf course that I
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was ever going to play. Like I'd go to whistling streets in the wind and be like, this is supposed,
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this is what hard is this is like, this is an easy day compared to how hard I practice. Like,
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this is simple. This isn't hard at all. This isn't joke. You know, like groundskeepers revenge.
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Yeah. That would be my easy day practicing. I would make practice so much harder than golf
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because that's the only thing that challenged me. Like I need to be challenged. You know,
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if I see a wide open fairway, I'm like, this isn't even, like it's not even fun.
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All right. And it got to that point where golf to me wasn't fun anymore because I knew I was
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going to shoot under par. There's no question in the world that I wasn't going to shoot under par,
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is whether or not I was going to beat the course record or not. And that's where my brain lived.
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And then golf as a player kind of became a bit, a little bit of poison because I stopped enjoying
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playing golf. And the only thing that I would enjoy was practice because that's the only place
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that I was challenged. All right. That's fascinating. You talk about dropping a pin. I want to go
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back to something you said because I've looked golf is hard. We all know this. No, it's not.
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Okay. Yeah. And that's where you're going to help us. But for a lot of folks when they adopt their own
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golfing veneer, it's one of being defeated more times in what they're successful. If you talk to
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most folks watching this or listening to this, they're like, golf is hard. I'm failing more than
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I'm winning. But you almost in a way took yourself and you used golf as your solace, right?
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And it's a place where you went and became somebody else through your acting lessons and classes
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and career and such. I'm almost inclined to, and I'm going to make a statement that you respond.
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That I feel like more people would be better served. If in their head, they went to a place where I'm
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where they're like, I'm better than the golfer I think I am. I've practiced and I'm not going
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expecting the worst. I'm going there expecting the best. And I know I can do this. Are you
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getting where I'm going with us? Because I feel like too many folks go in there with this defeatist
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attitude. Yeah. So when I get on to a golf course and I step on to number one,
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here's where my brain is. I think I'm about to go into a very well planned battle. So imagine it's
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a course that I never played before. Imagine it. It's going to be a pine valley, right? Beautiful,
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amazing golf course. And sadly, I had to turn down my one invite to Pine Valley, which was gut-wrenching.
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But probably never getting invited again. But anyway, but see it's pine valley, right?
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Right. I'm not a person that shows up and it was like, oh man, I'm going to buy a booklet and see
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what the course is and ask the caddy. What does this one do? I've got the course memorized.
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There's, I'm studying satellite images of the course. I'm, I know every single shot that I'm
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going to hit before I even show up. And it's the same way that I, you know, handled directing big
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national golf rumors like if I'm directing Tiger or Onycar or Rory, there is no part of that day
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that I don't have meticulously scripted. And, and there's no derivation that I haven't thought about.
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And that's the exact same way with the golf course. I'm going to do this. What happens if there's a
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cost I'm going to do this? And so every single shot I've already played in my head a hundred times.
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I've memorized the course. I know what better than the caddies when I show up. So then when I show
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up on the first tee, I just look at my golf clubs and I say you and I are in battle together and you
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are my best friends and you are the only things that I have. So I look at my driver and before I
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hit the first shot, I say you're my best friend. Let's do it. And I just treat my clubs, you know,
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you don't yell at your golf clubs. You don't yell at your ball. You don't yell at the course and
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the slope. Everything there is a beautiful tapestry that all you're doing is painting, right? So I paint
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putts. I don't hit a putt. I don't stroke a putt. I make art, right? I'm drawn a picture with my ball.
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I'm I've already seen this neon line in my head and I'm just painting that picture, right? So golf to
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me because my brain is artistic in this way because I've been trained since I was a little kid to
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think of life as art truly. And it became my defense mechanism. Golf to me is art. I'm just out
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there painting pictures, right? I'm making semi-circles in my head. The club head is a neon light
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that projects a beam, right? So all I have to do is just draw the two semi-circles in my swing
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and the ball will go anywhere I want it to because I have memorized after meticulous practice the
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exact semi-circle I need to paint on the way back and through to hit any shot I want. If I need to
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hit a dead street rope, why I know what that semi-circle looks like in my brain. I've traced it a
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trillion times. If I need to hit a left or right breaker that breaks four inches, I know what that
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that line is in my head. I know how hard to hit it and that's just because I practice and make
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practice way harder than playing. So, you know, I've directed Tiger and talking with him and hearing
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his stories. He showed up just expecting to. If he didn't win, something was wrong, right? And
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I don't care about winning, which is why I have absolutely no aspirations to play competitive
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tournaments anymore. I just could not care less. If the PGA tour offered me $1 billion to play
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on one Thursday round regardless of my score, I would turn it down without even thinking, without
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even thinking, because that's not what golf is to me. Golf is about being there alone and executing
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a game plan. And I don't need to do it in front of fans and I don't need to do it for money and
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ruin my love for the game. I get to do it for free. Yeah, you've said so much there that it's
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fascinating. I'm going to push introducing you back just a few more seconds and let you respond
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to this. You did a very cool, your entire Instagram page is skits and reels and stuff of little
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movies you make and their interactions with where you act as your son and you're the father,
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which I find hilarious. And there was one where you were sleeping, again, this is a skit,
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and you wake up with a start and your golf clubs are talking to you. And you said earlier,
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where you're like, and it's me and my driver or me and my putter and we going to battle together.
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And in as much as what the little skit was entertaining and funny, there was a truism to it because
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most folks are not their own best friends. And most folks are like, I give so many lessons where
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someone's like, oh no, I hate my six iron. I see you shaking your head off you go. What?
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Yeah. Oh, that makes me so sad for their six iron. Their six iron should be their best friend.
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They should love their six iron. They should sleep with their six iron until it's their lover.
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There's not a club in my what's what's your if somebody ever asked me what's what's your favorite
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club in your bag? Yes. All right. No, no, like what specific club? Yes. Yes. All of them. Yeah,
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like I'm in love with all of them. I'm in love with all of them. Now the only caveat to that is
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every single time I go and play and practice. I'm a putty. Well, right now I don't because I'm
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renovating, but I usually have a putty and green at my house somewhere. And I have a rack,
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quite a, you know, I drink golf commercials. So, you know, I take a putter from every single set
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that I'm on. And I just have this expansive thing of putters. And I'll just start pulling out
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putters and hitting five putts a piece. And whatever one I feel confident with that day is the putter
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I use. So I can use in 10 rounds. I could go through 10 putters and shoot, you know, under par every
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single one and feel just as confident because it's about what I feel confident with on the day.
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The clubs clubs are my best friend. The putter, that's a special position of who I go into battle
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with that day because what club do you hit the most of every single round other than a putter?
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So the putter has to be chosen. The putter, I don't want to be stuck with a putter that that's
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the putter in my bag because you can, you can go to war with that putter. But if I choose the putter,
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that putter and me are best friends for the day. Love you no matter what it does. It's me and that
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putter against the world. That is so cool. Okay. I want to introduce you to folks who don't know who
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you are. We do have a global audience. Again, I'm going to read you back some of your stuff.
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149 IQ, you're a men's a candidate. All right. So, hopefully intelligent. You went to
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Emory Riddle University, studied aerodynamics and then you got into astrophysics and then
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you decided to pivot and get into TV and film and directing and acting and producing.
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You've been an airline pilot at gosh man. You like the most interesting man in the world,
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Zindlian Gulf. Talk to me just a little bit about this last story because I had no idea. You
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were just the guy with the videos. Yes. You know, you're you are a fascinating human being.
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Yeah. So, everything that I've ever done in my life was to become an astronaut. My great uncle
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Truman flew the B-17s into Pearl Harbor as it was being bombed. He was a four-star general in the
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US Air Corps. And I grew up hearing stories of my grandmother of your great uncle Truman was
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best friends with Eisenhower. He golfed with Arnold Palmer. Just he's amazing stories. John
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Glenn was a pole bearer in his funeral. Alan Shepherd came to our hometown to hang out. I think
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was Alan Shepherd. He's either Alan Shepherd or John Glenn came and he was like young. But
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she always said he always wanted to be an astronaut and I'd give anything to have a pilot in the
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family. So growing up as this bullied autistic kid, I thought, well, what is the one thing that
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everybody would think is cool? If I was if I was this, I would fit in. So I just associated being
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an astronaut of I would have friends if I was an astronaut because I had no friends growing up. None.
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And so I went to flight school and I got all of my jet pilot hours with United. Then I became a
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test pilot for NOAA doing whale protection missions. And then after that, I had enough hours to
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apply for NASA. And then they changed your hiring requirements and decided they were only going to
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spend too much money on training or something like that. So I had to pivot. And so I asked my academic
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advisor, well, what do I do now? And he said, well, they're sending, they're they're slated
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to mission to Mars. It's going to happen in six years and they're sending somebody from the arts
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community. Is there any way that you could go get like an MFA or some advanced film degree? I'm
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like, I'm going to get an advanced film degree because I spent my life in the theaters. This bullied
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autistic kid learning how to mask my autism. So I studied cinematography and filmmaking and
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all that stuff. Then they scrapped the Mars mission, which made all that training useless. So I was
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like, well, what do I do now? And he said, well, now you got to go get good, you got to go back and
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get your PhD or your MD. There's no other. And then you're just the shoe in of shoe ins. So I went
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and studied for an astrophysics PhD. And on my dissertation defense day, Obama put it in
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your hiring freeze on astronauts and privatized the space industry. So all three degrees
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became useless. So I knew I didn't want to be a test pilot or an airline pilot anymore.
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I've had too many test pilot friends die. And I've and I hated flying for the airlines,
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just miserable. I knew I didn't want to teach physics at university. I don't like teaching and I
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have crippling social anxiety. So standing up in front of other people show it was of no interest
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to me. So I was like, well, I know a lot about filmmaking and acting. Why don't I try to use this?
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So I moved to Los Angeles the day after my dissertation defense went up in smoke. And I moved
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on a sailboat next to a cast and director. And the cast director said, I'm taking you under my
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wing. And I want to let you know right now that there's not one single a list actor that doesn't
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have their own production company. Start making your own stuff. So I did. Now what I wish she would have
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said was start making your other stuff and collaborating with other people because I've built everything
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that I've had completely by myself. Because being autistic, I'm very zeroes and ones. I'm very black
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and white. Something is true or it is false. There is no gray. Which is why golf kind of makes sense to
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me. But any who? It's, you know, game predicated on rules. So I just followed their advice to the
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nth degree. I made stuff by myself. And I put out my own stuff. And then I had a producer take me
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under their wing. And they said, dude, you're making all of this viral sketch comedy. Why don't you start
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directing commercials? I was like, because I don't know anybody. He's like, I, me, I'm asking,
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I'm telling you, I'm going to help you. I was like, Oh, okay. And so he said, what is something that
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you know better than anybody else?
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I said, there's nothing that I know better. I'm going to direct any astrophysics and bring it back
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to me. So I did that. I shot a spec commercial in the golf, in, in, in, for a golf brand. And I
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showed it to him three days later, because I'm a relentless workaholic. And I shot it in a day and a
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half. And he's like, okay, you know how to tell a 30 second story. And this is pretty good.
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Focus all of your efforts on trying to build clients in golf in whatever way that you can.
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So the only reason that I started Instagram, the only reason was so that any time I got an ad
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pushed to me on Instagram, I clicked, it's irrelevant unless it was a golf ad. And then I,
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and then I click on the link and make sure that that algorithm knew if it was their golf ad,
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it's going to land in Ashworth. So then if there was any golf ad that I knew that I could shoot
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and write better content than what they had, I reached out to the brand and said, hey, I
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direct golf commercials for a living. This lowers your brand value. I can help raise it. And then
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if it was at the level that I could shoot at, because nothing's better, right? You got to believe
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in yourself. If it was at the level that I could shoot at, I just ignored it because they probably
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already have their team that they're happy with. So word kind of spread throughout the industry of
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like, hey man, like there's this weird kid doing some interesting stuff. If you want to shoot a
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golf commercial, like maybe like looking to this kid, but he's weird. He's a little different.
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And that's the tricky thing with autism is networking to get in the door. And then once you're
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in the door, you either really act like yourself and people get inundated with something new that
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they've never worked with before, different ways of thinking kind of like that. And Tiger,
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a Tiger Woods mentality of like, this guy thinks different than anybody else. And that's the exact
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same way that I approach filmmaking. And in an industry of status quo, which is the golf industry,
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the, you know, the old crusty dudes that are, you know, don't they don't they're all gusts,
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you know, the owners of all of the big golf brands are all Augusta members and they don't want to
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show up at a gust of be like, hey, John, I saw your new titleist commercial and really went weird
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with that one. You know, like they don't want to hear that. And that's what they don't care about
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selling golf clubs in an interesting way. They care about like looking good to their friends,
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which is so stupid. Unless that's all they care about because they have so much money that they
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can light money on fire, which some of them do. But at the end of the day, I'd have no idea if I'm
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answering your question. I'm sorry for the rambling, but all that is sufficeive to say every single
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thing that I've ever done in my entire life was to try to become an astronaut. It's an incredible
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story and it's very cool. Okay. Back to the golf. And I'm going to pitch you back a statement and
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I paraphrase that you made. And obviously you played golf with your dad. And you said in one
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or other post, you were like, I got down to a three-handicap, but every golf lesson I took
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didn't help me. And you've just told us that as an autistic person, it's black or white, you
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dollars and cents, you numbers, right? And there's no gray area.
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I fear, and this is part of the reason why this podcast exists. And I'm on a bit of a mission
spk_0
myself where there's so much BS floating around in the internet and everywhere else when it comes
spk_0
to golf instruction because everyone's hopping on the bandwagon. The poor golfers who are aspirant
spk_0
to get better are the victims and they're suffering because they're trying to do things that aren't
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necessarily going to work for them. So then you went on this voyage of self discovery and you've
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how you see golf swings, how you visualize shots. And this kind of took the three-handicap
spk_0
golfer over the top. Now I feel like where you are and benones to you, Landon, because I've talked
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to everyone from teachers, to physical trainers, to hypnotherapists, to therapists, to sports psychologists,
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the new frontier in golf development. There's not necessarily technology, but it's really channeling
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the mind, which you have found a way to do. Now I want you to describe because you've sort of brushed
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past it and I want to go back there. How you see your golf swing in colors, you see things in lines.
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You did this cool video where you had your launch monitor pointing at your simulator screen,
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then you took this bendy rod and you entered like was the bottom of a swing arc and you pointed it
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to the right of the target line and to the left and you're like, no, my club's going to go up and
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down the sock. And then you step up there and you had a dead stretch shot. And I'm like,
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surely this is not tag one, but it was. So I want you just to just go with that concept, please.
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Yeah, so you know, I'm careful about this because I don't want to become, I'm never going to,
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but you know, I fear of being rich shields or Andy Proudman and Pierce Ward and Mark Crossfield
spk_0
and all those dudes that are, you know, those street corner preachers that probably helped a lot
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of people, you know, Sean Foley and all the dudes that have great insight. The problem is,
spk_0
is none of that stuff works for, works for me because I'm a visual learner. So coaches would try to
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put me in first parallel and, you know, talk about, you know, the mechanics of where your elbow should
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be where. And I realized that I've been, I've had an active imagination my entire life. Now my
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imagination was a defense mechanism because, you know, if I'm stuck getting beat up and bullied,
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I need to be somewhere other than that. So I'd escape in my mind somewhere. So the only way to
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escape in your mind when you're grinding on the range to not get bored is to make a movie,
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right? That's what I did. So instead of making a regular movie like Ten Cop, The Legend of Back
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Advanced, I made it into a cartoon. And I thought, well, how would you draw a golf swing if you had
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drawn as art, right? And so there is this one dude I forget who it was. But it's the only time in my
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entire life where somebody spoke my language. And it was kind of an aha moment. And he said,
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grab this bucket. Now imagine your sling and paint, right? Where does the paint from the bucket go?
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And just instantly I'm like, golf is art. All I got to do is draw pictures. I can draw. I can make a
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movie. So I started visualizing what is if my if my club head was a neon light, right? Just
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imagine that anywhere I drew a back that neon light was going to live forever, almost like a
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jet eyesword, except yeah, yeah, a lightsaber, except imagine anywhere that lightsaber went
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it indelibly forever left in neon light, right? So I just imagined my club head as that neon
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light. And as I swung it back and then swung it through, what sort of semi-circle would that make?
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Would it make it would it would the back swing go out this way? Would it go straight behind me?
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Would it go inside? Hmm. Inside the line across the line, whatever, how you ever want to visualize?
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Straight down the line if you want to use golf technical terms. And then swinging down is the
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lightsaber golf club neon beam. Is that coming across the line? Is that laid off? Is it coming
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straight down the line? If that's how you want to, that's not how I think about it at all. I think
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about it. It's two semi-circles and how am I drawing them. And so from that moment, that little
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a-ha 10 years ago or whatever, that's what completely transformed my practice. Where practice just
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became about tracing lines and drawing pictures. And then memorizing how far back do I need to
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take the club? So I can hit my driver 160? I can hit it 320. And anywhere in between there on
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command. All right. Probably within a five yard distance maybe 10. But the reason I know how to do
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that is because I know exactly where to draw that line and to stop it and where to put that line
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on the way down to give me any shot that I want. It's, you know, I kind of, it's, I guess it's mostly a
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kin to my hero, Monormon, who's an autistic golfer. And his, you hear him explain how he golfs.
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And he just says, and you do, and you stand up and boom, there it goes, Death Street. And then
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boom, there it goes. And that's, that's what it's like when people, you know, recognize me on the
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driving range or whatever they're like, Glandon. Just hit one Dead Street. And I'm like, okay,
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it goes, Death Street. And they're like, well, how do you do that? I'm like, well, you just,
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you just, you stand here, right? And here you, and then boom, Death Street. It's like, I don't know
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how to explain it. But that's what goes on in my brain. I'm tracing lines. Okay. There's so much
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gold there that you've shared. First off, I love the tracing of the arc because it's amazing. If
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people honestly pay attention in golf broadcasts like I'm in, the shot tracer is changed broadcast.
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We can all agree on that, right? Yeah. And then if you watch social media, everyone now has an app
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where the club head can be traced as well. And it leaves almost a little sickle look.
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In fact, a recent guest on here, the guy's from AMG, talked about making the sickle shape at the
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top of the swing. And now you are describing that with your bucket of painter, with your neon
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lighter, whatever. And here's what I know for certain, London. If you have a clear picture in your
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mind, your body is going to come to the party. If you have a clear picture like that,
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then it's like just reaction to whatever. Yeah. You're like, where is my elbow in 3D space? I don't
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freaking know where my elbow is. Like somebody came up to me on the driving range. When I was playing
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Wikopa a couple days ago, it was the latest video that I just shot and released. But anyways,
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they came up to me and they're like, dude, what are you doing with your wrist? And I was like,
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I've never thought about my wrist a day in my life. And they're like, what about your hips? And
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like your ground floor is like, what are you doing with your right heel on? I'm like, what are you
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talking? I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't think about any of that stuff. I think
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about drawing a line. And then all I got to do is just trace a line. How hard is it to trace a line?
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Watch this. I'm going to trace a line from my nose to my head. Dude, dude, now I'm going to close my
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eyes. Dude, dude, exactly in line. All I did was just trace a line that I just drew. That's
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your practice wing. That's the line you're going to draw. Then you go up there and you trace the line.
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You just shot under par. It's not hard. Golf is so easy. You know what you just did. And this is
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something that I preach to many people. And then they hit a few shots and they go better. And the
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question or the response I get is like, it can't be that easy. Now this is the thing. Yeah. So this
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is the thing because the internet is a wash with you talked about it. Ground reaction force body
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pivots, body angles, early extension. Yeah, you've heard you've heard it all. And for the first thing
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on audio, I'm getting a big thumbs down from London. No. Here's what it is. The golf ball listens to
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the club face and the club face alone. So if that face is pointing in the direction and swinging
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in the direction of the target, you are heightening your chances of getting to the ball to go there.
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Simple as that. And this is what you do. And you're taking it to a different level by imagining
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how that club face is traveling throughout space. And the distance that's traveling. Yep.
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Yeah. Yeah. Distance and you know, distance. How far, how long does that line go on your Y-axis
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is the distance of your club. And then how far left or right is the direction that your ball is
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and then all you're doing is just how far do I want to hit my driver? I want to hit my driver 175. 175
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is this far back. Okay. And I want to hit a cut. So I want it to point a little left right about
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there. Okay. And I close my eyes and I do that in my head. And I was like, okay, now I've got to just
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dollar. Got to do just stand up there and trace the line. And in the worst, I'm going to be off is
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like, I'm not going to be in the center of the fairway. I'm going to be on the right side of the
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fairway. Wait, that's a mess. For the folks on audio, I'm smiling like a cheshire cats.
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And because what and because I'm no you folks listening are like, come on, this can't be real.
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But the reality is when I see the best of the very best on the weekends on the PGA tour announcing
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them, they're not thinking about where their swing should talk about and their body and stuff is,
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they are making art. They are propelling a ball in a certain fashion together.
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Just just just in rows, maybe thinking about a swing that guy so deep in his head, we got to give
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him a hug. Yeah, but when he's over the ball, then it's not. It's the stuff before the shot when
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he makes it ring it's free. Yes, I was shooting, I was shooting a master card commercial with
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Anika Soren. Stan Sop, you dropped this is my name. But any who Anika has that thing and I'm sure
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you know, Anika, so you know all about her think box and play box. Yes, right? Yeah. Yeah. So
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it's kind of just that Anika thought of, you know, you think and you think box and you play
spk_0
in your play box as soon as you're in your play box, your brand better be off or you are a toast.
spk_0
The think box and the play box folks are from Lin and Pierre from 1957. Yeah, but it's it's
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brilliant because I thought that was Anika original. Well, Anika was, she sort of made them famous
spk_0
in a way because she was Paul of fame. I learned something. Okay. And you said something I want to go
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back to where you mentioned all of us instructors and such. And then when you get to a golf course
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like a Gusta National where there's hills and valleys and nooks and crannies and stuff everywhere,
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then it's like well technique technique technique, but no, now you're going to be creative.
spk_0
Right. And you picture your landing spot and hit the ball there and imagine how the ball rolls
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down the slopes and stuff. So they're essentially asking you after being all auditory and telling you
spk_0
how the swing should be to now be creative and visual and stuff. I think because you could, the
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golfer has to decide, how do I learn best? Is it by seeing or hearing or like, where's my sweet
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spot? This is what I'm getting from you. And I want you to to confirm, deny, elaborate whatever you
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want. I think that Mark, you made a very, very good point. All right. There are a million
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different golfers that learn in a million different ways. I could explain how my brain sees a
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shot and somebody with no artistic ability. I could be speaking, you know, Mandarin to them.
spk_0
So nothing's going to work for everybody. There are some people that need to know where their
spk_0
elbow is in 3D space because they're very mechanical. Yeah. Some people are very technical.
spk_0
And the greatest golfers of all time, Tiger, Ben Hogan, I mean, I would argue to say that
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if he didn't have crippling social anxiety like me, Monormon would have been one of the best
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golfers of all time. They are able to blend seamlessly the technical and the artistic.
spk_0
And now that's what's going to make you great. If you can't do both and hey, man, you know,
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a four foot nine dude is not going to play in the NBA. Sorry, like you got to be realistic sometimes.
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If you are only technical or you are only artistic, you better get real good at mastering that thing
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and don't waste a second of your time on the technical. Become Picasso or become a robot. Pick
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your lane because if you're trying to become a Picasso robot like Ben Hogan and you don't have both
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skill sets, you are wasting time. You're being ruthlessly inefficient in my brain has no time
spk_0
for inefficiency. No. Yeah, well, look, I'll say this to you and let you respond.
spk_0
Back in a previous life, I was a college golf coach for 20 something years.
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Cool. And you know, managing young testosterone, laden men would be hard, you know, and so
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the one day I would see them because they'd get into golf and golf, they'd be panicking next thing
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and then they'd never play up to their potential. And I could see the mistakes his plane is
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days. The one day I'm like, you guys need to have intent and you need to be able to plan where
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you're going. So I laid out on the driving range land and now humor me while I describe this.
spk_0
Please. Okay, I'll me over your tape. All right. Cool. So I threw a golf club over there.
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And then I put a head cover over there and I had like a little like a little path if you would
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with different goodies on the ground. And I'm like, okay, you go to walk around that club and
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then you go to your left and you step over the head cover and I can see you closing your eyes and
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you imagining this. Then I'm like, I want you to walk past the golf bag and they're all looking
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at this and then you'll take five more steps and then you finish right over there.
spk_0
Okay. So I see them all looking and just like you, they got their eyes closed. And before they
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go, I can see them all with their eyes looking at the things and sort of calculating how many steps
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is it likely to be. So I send them all on their way and all of them sort of finished in the same
spk_0
place. All right. Now they might have missed walking around the golf club by step or two because
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it was calculation, but because they saw this before they did it, they ended up where they were
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supposed to be. But if I described them and I said, hey, over there on the ground, there's a golf
spk_0
club and you go to walk around that and then over there to the left of that, there's a head cover
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and you go to walk around that. There's no distance measurement there unless I'm describing it's
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10 steps and then 15 steps, then a right turn is such. So here's where I'm going really. I think
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the easier way to really get it is to see it. But to see it like you do in a way where you like,
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I really see it. It's not like I just see it. It's like I see where I've got to get to and I
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know I'm going to get there and then I see it. And this is what you're doing with your neon lights.
spk_0
Man, when you describe that, I can see how it's going and I'm like, I can go and swing my golf club
spk_0
like that. Well, it's because you're an artist for goodness sakes. No, well, okay. Well, I'm guessing even
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the even the robots can see the thing a little bit because the windows to the soul, right?
spk_0
That's right. You know, there's not very many launch monitors that don't have cameras on.
spk_0
This is true. Even the track man's got a camera on it.
spk_0
This is absolutely true because and like when you talk about the neon light or like on my phone
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right, I've got a fitness app and when I've done all the calories I should, there's the circle
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that it spins in a circle and it shoots off these like red or almost like little meteor of things
spk_0
and it's all shiny and cool and I love seeing this thing and I can see it in my mind's eye right
spk_0
now. Yeah. And when you see that, then I'm like, okay, I can recreate that thing whether I'm drawing
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it, swinging it, stepping it. And here's where you do it so well because people think golf is linear.
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They think in like straight lines. Talked about it like the golf swing is a circle.
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Behind me and up and back down in front of me and behind me and up. Yeah, nobody ever thinks about
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after the ball like exiting low and left. You know, that's the one thing that I was ever going to
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tell anybody. It's like, what am I doing with my wrist? What am I doing with my elbows? What am I
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doing with my feet? And I'm like, have your club exit low and left and you will become a single
spk_0
digit handicap in a week. Low and left. That's it. Like if I have to try to speak robot to you,
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low and left. You're exiting high into the right or blah blah blah blah. Low and left,
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low and left, low and left, low and left. You know what you just remind me of not too,
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and I'll let you elaborate. As a golf instructor, there are many times where like I'll explain the
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concept to them. And then if the swing is crooked, I'll put out two beacons. If they're in across
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it too much, I'll have one outside the ball. And these are electronic cones but small ones.
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And one here and I'm like, swing through the gate. So they're not trying to hit the ball. So they
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trying to swing through the gate or not hit the beacons. And all of a sudden they hit the ball.
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They're like, how can that be? You know, if you treat your treat their brain, it'd be an
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artist. I guess. Yeah, you got it. Sometimes you got to slap a robot in the face and be like,
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here's a paintbrush. Stop calculating. Yeah. But thinking in 3D. And oftentimes I feel like the
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target lies to us a bit because we stand to the side of the ball. Say if you know like you said
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yourself on the video, the target line looks like this. And my swing does that on and off the
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target line. That's gold, man. That is where the magic happens what you were describing there.
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So we could go out to the range after listening to this be like, that lead at Asworth was full of
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shit. I don't, you know what? I believe that if you can see it, your brain will send the signals
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to your body. Wow. So would you rather give up your sight or your hearing if you had to choose?
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Hearing because I could have somebody in the passenger seat handle the radios if I'm flying,
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but if I could never fly a jet or an airplane again, I think I'd die inside. I like flying much
spk_0
more than I like golf. You know, I've kind of like Mark Hubbard. You know the P.T.
spk_0
to a pro Mark Hubbard? I did a rapid fire interview with him and I love him so much. He's one of
spk_0
my favorite human beings ever. And I was like, so you're pretty good at golf. And he's like, golf is
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like my third favorite sport. And I'm like, I love you. That's exactly how I feel. Because like,
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there's things that I love more than golf certainly, but like golf, you know, as soon as you're
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really good at somebody, something, people want to pressure you and to make money doing it.
spk_0
Right? I can't tell you how many people that I've been paired with, they're like,
spk_0
join the freaking tour. And it's like, I can't think of anything that is less appealing to me
spk_0
in the world. Like I get to make films. I get to play, make believe for a living. I get to hang out
spk_0
with Tiger and Rory and make them laugh on camera. And it'll be there forever. Like I go out and play
spk_0
a tournament. And if I don't get first, I am mad at myself. Like I'm not going to ruin golf.
spk_0
I don't have anything to prove there. Like I want to make some art. That, that to me sounds
spk_0
much more appealing than playing golf for a living and having to need to win, to pay for your
spk_0
Airbnb and your caddy. And like, God, what a terrible existence.
spk_0
Love you. Honestly, putting it on to perspective for us.
spk_0
Okay, I've kept you for a very long time. And I'm really have. Okay. It's much fun.
spk_0
I'm going to not just, I'm going to tickle your autistic sensibilities a little bit. You
spk_0
already? Please. I'm going to ask you a question. I sometimes ask guests. And there's no holds
spk_0
bar here. And we're going to wind up the conversation like this. It could be golf related. It could
spk_0
be not. This could be laugh related. Golf and laugh to me into me into mingle. Well, for you,
spk_0
I certainly would assume you're quite a famous golf personality. So it's probably every aspect of
spk_0
your life. And for God's sake, you're doing a podcast. Yeah. Exactly. So you've been played
spk_0
We're going to get you on Pine Valley somehow. Okay. If you promise to be on your best
spk_0
behavior, no, for with me, you get what you get, man, you sign up for the landing show. I'm
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I'm I've faked who I am my entire childhood. I'm not doing that anymore.
spk_0
All right. Yeah. So I want I'm I'm I'm I'm full land enough. If you knew something for sure,
spk_0
and you're going to write this on your headstone, or this is a memoir for your kids,
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what do you know for sure, land and ashworth?
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What do you listen to these thinking? He's been he's been back against what looks like a
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closet with his eyes closed and I can see him imagining now, but listen to the smile out of him.
spk_0
Um, everybody is facing a battle. Yeah. And everybody deserves forgiveness.
spk_0
Amen, brother. I love that. Yes. It you know, I think about the people that bully me when
spk_0
I was a kid, and I wonder, what did they go home to? Did they go home to their dad and mom
spk_0
berating them and being mean to them? Did they go home to somebody abusing them? Like hurt people,
spk_0
hurt people. And sometimes hurt people didn't get any love. I got love from my mom and dad. When
spk_0
I got bullied as a little kid, I got to go home to a hug. Some people didn't get to some people
spk_0
get to go home to a hug. And I did. So that's nice. And I found a place that made me whole.
spk_0
And that was a golf course. And the best message that I ever get on social media is from
spk_0
parents that have autistic kids. And they say, you make me think that my kid has a chance.
spk_0
And that's because you are honest and open with who you are. And I hit it for so long. And I got sick
spk_0
of hiding it. And I wish that everybody could become comfortable and confident in their selves and
spk_0
forgiven them. God, that is just so hippie, dippy, crunchy BS. But it's true. God bless you, man. That's
spk_0
fantastic. All right. And nuts and bolts are this for the folks who don't follow you,
spk_0
Landon. Please share where they can go and find you, find some of your stuff, etc.
spk_0
Well, I just directed a movie. It's premiering at the Albuquerque Film Festival September 24th
spk_0
at 6 p.m. at the Lobo Theater on September 27th. It will be premiering at the Catalina Film Festival at
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130 at the ACC Theater. October 26th at the Twin Cities Film Festival. And I just found out
spk_0
the Soho Film Festival in Manhattan probably October 24th. I don't know if that dates or times
spk_0
there anything like that. And then if you want to see me on social media at Landon Ashworth Directs.
spk_0
You'll be thoroughly entertained and informed. And for the folks listening with the movie,
spk_0
this podcast was recorded in 2025. So let's get out there and see it if you're in 2025. Otherwise,
spk_0
look forward. What's the movie's name? Go on. Go on. Landon, you're a superstar.
spk_0
Well, that's a lie. God bless you. Keep shining. Okay. I'm going to try my best.
spk_0
I mean, people can't handle it. I'll just tell them to put on some sunglasses and shine just a
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little bit brighter. So many things to love there. But you know, one that stood out to me is how
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Landon spoke of surrendering to practice, getting addicted to practice. And I got to thinking,
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yeah, practice is important. And I did a post kind of snarky maybe on my Instagram handle the other
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day. If you don't follow the handles at Mark underscore emulman, I'm the same on X on YouTube. You
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can watch this over there. If you don't follow me on YouTube or you're unsubscribed, go and search
spk_0
and subscribe to Mark Emulman. Anyway, the post was about people that had practiced, which made me
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excited, but they were just dovet strewn all over the place. If you're going to practice, make lines
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people, save grass, you'll save an irrigation, you'll make the place better for everybody. It'll
spk_0
look better for everybody. But anyhow, to practice, make the practice count, right? And that's where,
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you know, if you have a hack motion rescensor or if you have a flat scope launch monitor,
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flatscope.com, use the code on the mark for 10% off. Then you'll know that, okay, I've got my
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Ristula Lamens good. I've got my swing pretty much online, the face is square. Now you can get all
spk_0
of that stuff from watching the golf ball, but you can get that MRI, how your clubs work, and if you
spk_0
have a good launch monitor, like a flatscope. If you have that launch monitor with a D-plane package,
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where you can read club path, face alignment, angle of attack, all that sort of stuff, I would
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advocate that you make your practice count. You really do, and when you do that, then you can use
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the powers of visualization too. Like me personally, I tend to swing too much inside out.
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So I've been visualizing the club coming a little more from outside of the golf ball.
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Like, Landon was saying, seeing the light beam, you know, imagining the club going around in a circle,
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and lo and behold, I did it the other day, and it really, really helped. Because every good swing,
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every good putting stroke, every good bunker shot, all originated out of your brain.
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So get the brain into it with me, go ahead and podcast recently, and spoke of the mind and body
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connection. Get that thing operational, get the clear picture in your mind, visualize where you
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go and keep it simple, be creative, all these things that you heard Landon talk of. He may sound
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kind of, you know, I'm using about it, but the stuff is real, trust me. If you're going to play golf,
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have lots of fun, make lots of berries, take it easy.