EP111 - 2 million subs, Stealth driver secrets,MyGolfSpy BEEF!

Yeah that's that's that's that's quite insulting actually it is that's actually a really insulting comment [Music] welcome back to richard's golf show podcast everybody 2022. it's at the start yeah that's it okay episode number 111 myself rick shiels co-host guy how are you how are you good i'm very good up to about 30 minutes ago you watched the office i hadn't seen you since 22nd of december maybe it's been a while yeah it's been a while um the beard's got thicker yes i've i've been looking at maybe just going big with it okay how big are we talking we'll see we'll see how much it annoys me i think you'll do like a new year new me vibe of some description. So i need to lose some bloody weight that's fine so you've been obviously on christmas we all have then.

You've been away on a holiday of the family i have so before christmas you were kind of well let's say november december you were on it running eating healthy let's say middle of december it kind of standard got a little bit like well it's christmas the rose is open exactly quality street going out. For some nice meals eating too much drinking too much yeah it's gone bad i took my running shoes optimistically to center parts when i went on holiday as you do i didn't see the light of day yeah didn't literally didn't get out the suitcase. But did you have that mindset you think i've walked a bit today.

Though well you know what though what's crazy because i bike. So much around the place every day i went on a garden i looked look at my steps i hardly ever got over 10 000 steps actually recycling yeah. So i feel like i don't really know if it i could justify it yeah i think what's concerning me though is today.

Is not monday it's a tuesday it is. So does that mean you're starting healthy now. Or is it gonna be next.

Week on a night yesterday was still okay transitional period today.

I'm back on it. So i have optimistically got my gym bag in the car i don't think i'm gonna make it today.

But but it was a start that's the mindset that you need yeah um anyway it's good to be back it's good to be back uh breaking news over the weekend we achieved something on youtube which we're very fortunate no you golf youtubers ever achieved before we hit 2 million subscribers thank you thank you congratulations richard thank you to you congratulations to you congratulations to the team to matt to harry to tim to amy to gary. And to yourself um it's we were desperately hoping to reach it by the end of 2021 just as a nice little yeah ticked off in 2021 it just ran over a week later um. But your support everyone behind it i'm looking straight down the lens of the camera now thank you everyone that supports the channel subscribes it does mean a lot um. And uh it's nice to hit 2 million it is. But it's weird isn't it like these numbers because we have things in our like sites are. So long and you hit them and it's like you can't actually believe that it's two million people if that makes you see a number do you know what i mean like we have these numbers in our head. And it's almost as if it's just a number but it's two million people crazy and even since that we've gained another 10 000 on top of that that is outrageous um yeah amazing i mean i always when i go onto other podcasts i always get this question what's the goal rick what do you want to get to well i just want to make great fun content that people enjoy. But realistically there's 65 million golfs in the world so i want 65 million subscribers please absolutely and then.

A few non-golfers who like your beard who follow for that so maybe 100 million yes it's not too much to ask no. But i think it's a weird one because a lot of people who kind of semi-understand youtube. Or don't understand youtube kind of don't understand what a subscriber actually is. Or the importance of it and to some degree it's a more obviously about views you want to make content people watch and people enjoy but it is nice to know that there's been that many people have gone this guy's content's good i'll subscribe correct the next.

Million onto the next.

Million um it's a shame i i've had quite a lot of people asking where's even my room asked oh where's your two million plaque now you get 100 000 which is the one just over car shoulder which we've got. For the podcast channel you get a bigger one for gold one for a million and then.

Actually the next.

Goal is 10 million. And you get a diamond play button question go for it i remember once me you and gary who mentioned a minute ago had a chat at the belfry in the cafe well it won the bars and at the time gary said he believed the roof at that time. For youtube subscribers was 700 000. And i think you had probably 400 at the time 400 000. So that seemed quite realistic that you couldn't comprehend being more than that when you said 10 million then.

My first thought is a negative way you'll never get that yeah. But it could happen like what do you do saying this now on 11th of january 2022 what do you think the ceiling is. Or do you think there is one realistically well you'll probably know more about this because you dive into analytics a bit more because the amount of unique viewers we get is astronomically isn't it it's a lot more than two million. And still even right now only 40 percent of the audience that watch the channel subscribed so even just using that slight maths you'd like to think there's going to be close to 5 million yeah achievable almost right now yeah that's true. So i think youtube is obviously still growing it's still a monstrous platform new people are always coming to youtube it's kind of definitely taking over from torrential torrential torrential terrestrial terrestrial um broadcasting tv traditional media etcetera. So um i'd like to think the goal is 10 million. But hey if we hit that that would be if we hit that we might look at that and go well is the next.

Goal 50 million who knows who knows. But it's exciting and we've got an exciting year of content coming your way we've got some new stuff that we're going to be bringing out. But also we're going to revisit some classic stuff that we know you guys absolutely love yes sometimes we've got guilty of when we make something that's really good. And you guys love it we stopped making it just because our own like we've done that but hopefully this year we're going to bring a little bit few of the uh the videos that you enjoy back a little bit more. And make them better definitely um apart from that did you have a nice christmas new year i did um i very much tried to think about what do i do this year like personally. And i've had years before i said right i'm going to stop eating chocolate yeah i'm sick of eating boring um. But i thought to myself what kind of sets like a bit of a resolution yeah that's achievable they're actually going to give me something back as well. So what i mean because i think if you start off the year. And say right that's it now i'm going to run four times a week. For example unless you actually enjoy running it's quite hard to stick to that we discussed this just before we finished for the christmas period you do a lot of running i didn't realize sly like i've done i was looking this morning i've done three this year already which isn't a lot. But it's just that level of fairly consistent eleventh thing i'm just trying to keep it ticking over but that's not the resolution for this year you've seen this on instagram i have my resolution this year is to just play more golf easy in any capacity because i was thinking that we have a weird spell you have in between christmas new year where you kind of not sure what day it is. And it's a bit weird and you're kind of thinking about the year ahead it's not christmas anymore but it's not quite new year i was just thinking that i've let golf slip like as a junior. And knew exactly the same golf was my life which would probably be too much at the time i'd get heart broken if i played badly yeah. But i do miss playing golf. And just i don't want to get to that point where it's not really my sport anymore we're kind of working golf and talk about golf i don't play so when a little trip i am a member of my home golf club by that playmore golf app that i've told you about within the app you get points use other courses by the way this is not sponsored absolutely not either pay 350 quid. For this if you do want to sponsor guy if you play more golfer give me some free points to play. And have like a monthly topic on the podcast i'll do it rick's not involved you can play no. But so i went on and it was like literally 10 o'clock at night i thought we're gonna go tomorrow i'm gonna go tomorrow. And play golf a random call scroll down scroll down keep going yeah yeah got to carden park. So is this giving you golf courses that are closest to you exactly. And are you are you saying no to some because you've played them before a mixture of i've played them before didn't massively like get the juices flowing yeah i don't know sometimes you might know they're a bit wet yeah exactly. And i wanted to go somewhere because i said i'll be my wife i'm gonna have to date himself come play golf. So i thought well i've got all day like if we were going filming somewhere that was an hour. And a half away it doesn't seem that far if that makes sense but on your own to go and play golf it does seem that far. But also what all day and also i said about playing on my own kind of weirdly i could have asked a friend whatever. But i wanted to go meow i don't know why it's a bit of a weird like it's like it's a weird epiphany this night that happened to me i don't know why it was a bit weird. So i went down got to carden park i thought you know what i've been there just on that you're on your own time exactly i've had a few days i had a few kind of back end of the year where um i've been even yesterday so you were off yesterday i went to the tourx. And white florida golf balls i chat to loads of emails i spent pretty much the majority of my day on my own loved it it's nice isn't it like your own company sometimes 100 and obviously with my old job i used to work away a lot i spent a lot of time on my own so i am fairly comfortable in my own company so i bought this tea time at cardone park i think it was 9 30. i didn't realize at the time of two courses yes there's the nicholas which is the more kind of i feel like the hotel watery course. And then.

There's the cheshire which is more kind of certainly on the back nine tree line. And i don't know if it's more interesting someone played the other one but it felt like it was a i don't know decent track i need to go. And play but an hour away from my house so set up quite early i was quite excited clubs were quite clean i was kind of on the way got there. And what's mad i've been there before carden park but how long is the drive from coming off the roads getting to the golf resort is the the first club is it really close to the entrance though yeah that's the nicholas yeah. But you still have to tee off i think quite far away uh okay. But the cheshire course is literally like not nowhere by a mile. And a half probably drive but obviously like 20 miles an hour took forever so i got to the clubhouse and the girl in the pro shop said that the front now which i was obviously going to tee off on i was following the men's comp okay. And it was busy. So i could go off the 10th and do the back nine first. And then.

Go back to one so i played and i loved it i absolutely loved it after the back nine first i'll be on a flew around because obviously there's nobody out yeah yeah. And it did something that i've done before it was quite interesting oh god you drive around every hole hit a lot of drivers it was going quite well. But i had 177 yards yeah on this powerful second shot it what have you played the cheshire course you know what i've actually i used to actually go. And see a golf coach there years ago really called adrian hill because on the cheshire course right near the clubhouse there was another little nine hole like a par three course i'm not sure if it's still there i'm not sure there used to be a golf academy there with a massive indoor putting green indoor bunker indoor studios. And everything um so weirdly i've actually been to carden park quite a few times but never played either of the golf courses the process it's good and so anyway 177 yards uphill he hit a seven eye in ball started blowing my feet doing a little bit laughing little cut around absolutely flushed it which wasn't flushing it all day but i flushed his shot and it smacked the flag before it literally clattered it and ended up a foot away i missed the port for a bit looking around to see if anyone's noticed well what i did this is quite sad i'm not going to show you this i hit the shot i just started filming i was like right i've just hit a shot because you thought it might go yeah i genuinely obviously people could still say it was fake. But whatever i was like hit a shot from 177 yards i'm gonna walk up to green yeah i was [ __ ] panting it. And that's how i don't fit oh what's going on this hill like panting like a dog got there. And it wasn't a footwear actually it was about two. And a half foot hit the flag then.

William summoned a pitch mark i missed the putt for a birdie ouch and played got down 18. which is my ninth walking down to the green. And somebody was like oh yeah i'm in the clubhouse that was cool. And then.

Got onto one but then.

Bataan was on the real first my tenth i did get stuck behind people. So the back nine was much slower it was quite wet. But i enjoyed it finished the round of golf clubs in the booth i thought you know what i'm gonna go for a drink on my own so when's the club i had a pint of lemonade enjoyed it very nice left went home another mac is in the way of the services at chester services. And mcdonald's what i've done really enjoyed it so i've got the bug back i like golf i must admit i feel like last year because you played with me a few times in the break 75s um i think he did robert dale press bridge sent andrews obviously jcb. So all of them that was it those are three yeah um it was four then.

Stockport i don't know raspberry pressbury jcb sent andrews oh yeah four. So yeah um think of that yeah i feel like i even just in that spell i saw a different you like in your golfing journey yeah i felt like you had your own epitheli in that in that time frame where you were like you almost set your own benchmark yes to just better to suit yourself yeah you get what i mean yeah i did because obviously you grew up as a really good golfer you were playing off three what was the lowest you ever got the most i got to was 2.6. So in your head that's what you play to yeah because that's you always played to yeah exactly. But obviously when you're not playing a lot of golf and you've had a little you know a few struggles with the driver you're not expected to go around a bird down shoot two over three over so you i think your goal around birthday was to break eighty-one yes. And and you did yeah comfortably. And you played right again around sent andrews you your goal was to not make a double bogey was the goal that's in andrews that's where i've got it confused you didn't play at saint andrews yeah he played that's right you played the day before that's right um. And you didn't play you bogey was a par that day it was solid um. So even i saw that kind of change in your mindset and you've talked about on the podcast a little bit making sure that people are going into this year with goals ambitions of i'm gonna get my handicap super super low this year i'm gonna practice every single day this year you know whatever it may be yeah that would have been me when i was kind of a young up. And coming you know i want to get better but i think a lot of people could take a lot of um that's right word a lot of important information from just going out this year. And saying you know what i'm going to do this year is enjoy every round if i play the experiences enjoy the people i'm playing with the surroundings i'm playing with. And tommy even said in that coaching video as long as you can walk off the golf course remember your three best shots yeah you've had a great day 100. And i think what's hard is saying that. And i agree with everything you've said. But equally if you go and pay to play another golf course if you've ever been to before and you play terribly it does make it hard to enjoy it. But what i really enjoyed about going to cardham park was i've never played the golf course before i didn't have a scorecard in my handy that not literally not an actual physical scorecard. So when i was finishing a hole. And going to the next.

Tee i had no idea what's in front of me is it a par five part three is the trees is the water. And it was that we i this weird like it sounds a bit deep this weird feeling of like absolutely almost it's just class it's just like you didn't know what you're going to do hitting the odd good shot i didn't care about score probably about 10 over honestly i didn't keep score. And he just really enjoyed it it made me think like i don't want to lose that because there's not many sports i can imagine what you get that feeling where you can play on your own. Or you can go into four balls just as much fun if not more. And it was really good um. So that's my goal this year is just to try. And play more golf and i don't think i'm bothered about probably joining the club i don't know you don't play in competitions i don't think. So you just go and play other courses well the thing is with competitions it's a commitment yes you'd have to do it on a saturday mm-hmm particularly morning that's the time you spend with abby. And your family and you you know whatever you want to do on that day. And i think that's the only challenge that a lot of compet com um members have at golf clubs now is how can they squeeze in a competitive round it's quite hard into yeah quite taxing on people's time did you play again i did something else as well. So i was quite clever with this i thought right you were you were off last week i was working i thought i found another game a goal i can't really play golf while i'm working i thought well if a text you can ask him. And say look i'm going into content ideas. And you know all sorts content for the podcast of course i thought on the off chance if imagine if i go and play somewhere and then.

Somebody tweets me and says i saw you today.

X uh where was rick shields pga. And you're there today.

On holiday. So i thought i'll just text you said look rick am i gonna play golf do you man you are no go. For it so i went to i'm a nice nice guy you are very nice guys you know where i went not clue stockport yeah a dm. So the head pro at stockport is gary norcat who's a great guy i think listen to the podcast as well we've been there. And filmed a few times he's really nice guy tried to float and i love it so i've never played it so i text him also dm'd him the evening yeah sorry i've never played it i keep getting confused with like press yes always kind of reminds me similar yeah. So i went to stockport and i had a t i think it began about 9 30. um. But it was quite busy again on something else i played the first two. And there was a four ball in front of me. But then.

A football fight then.

Black so when one two ten because it's the temperatures right now and then.

It did ten in. And then.

A bit of chipping afterwards and obviously it was quite a frozen morning. So it wasn't obvious like it was when we went in the summer. But i really enjoyed it again of course i've not played i knew all the holes have been though with you a couple of times but i just really again really enjoyed myself i had a little 40 minute drive there listen to a podcast played golf i had a chat with guy when i'd finished came home yeah a bit of exercise. And really enjoyed it so that's the vibe this year and how many video ideas did you come up with six great. So at the first video the first video is rick shields play stockport how can he do then.

It's rick shields return to stockport part two rickshaws beat my par on the third hole yes he didn't play the third the tenth hole the tenth hole. And the fourth one is rick shields versus gary norcott's stockbook pro that's. But that's a three-parter you see and then.

When you're in the chip it after yes can we learn how to chip exactly i love it speaking of video ideas. And videos in general though we have had a very busy starts the year with new drive releases yes we've had the taylormade stealth yeah. And we've had the callaway rogue st video's gone down well certainly the tailor made so there's two cop two things well three things you want to talk about and get your break pick your brains on any more at first well i'll i'll put them on the table then.

And we can go through them first thing is there anything you think you've not covered on the drives not not covered with any any more in-depth information. For our listeners that obviously can't miss the video yeah secondly why has taylormade destroyed callaway on views like ridiculously yeah. And thirdly a website my golf spy who are a very big online platform. For reviewing golf equipment i've kind of called you out a little bit rick we're going to go on to in a moment. So let's go on point number one bit of beef there is some b thief to start the year what do we like about beef cells uh right. So um anything that i didn't cover i don't know if there is i just didn't know we've got the time to go. For anything i feel like this year we collectively as a team certainly you me really really thought about how we would look at maybe adjusting a review changing it you know we had a few times where we were stood there ready to film we're like can we do this better um i feel like we did a really good job considering weather commitments. And stuff like we have obviously here in the uk um and i hit so many shots with taylormade and callaway drivers this year you did possibly more than i've hit in previous years i would 100 say that's the case. For taylormade for both but definitely tailor-made which might come on to in the next.

Point so i feel like i knew those drivers inside out i saw good numbers in carry total distance spin rate launch i saw less than normal numbers for ball speed but i would also equate that to i was swinging it slightly less than normal speeds. So i was even what someone sent me a review saying um like three. Or four years ago i can't remember what driver rick this 304 driver three or four year old driver was going longer than the stealth that you reviewed this year. And when he took the screenshot my swing speed was like 160 miles per hour on average what's happened to me getting old. But you know that's a good act a good point to make there'll be cars speaking about running before imagine if you watch a running reviewer yeah which happens on youtube reviews running shoes. And in 2015 they were running seven times a week loads of miles. And they reviewed a nike footwork a nike trainer and they ran a 5k in let's just say 20 minutes just random figure in 2021 testing you added that's running and run the 5k in 25 minutes yeah. But they've only run it running once a week because of injury or something you can't say that the adidas is worse than the nike just because it's five minutes slower yeah. And it's like if you for whatever reason if you've lost a bit of speed something else fast or whatever that's not that the old driver was better than the new ones worse it's that you've changed to be honest i was thinking about why is this as well. So i think yeah obviously i've got a bit older. But also the way i play golf i think is very different now compared to what it was five years ago like you've obviously been with me a lot more this year i do hit the ball a lot straighter yeah 100 like a lot straighter this year you don't really have that low left horrible out of bounds as much absolutely. And i think well maybe my swing speed as as alt to allow me tweet more fairways like i've almost become set in this kind of fourth gear because i'm more accurate in that fourth gear yeah because i've been playing this year. For a little bit more score with the break 75s or whatever it may be so i definitely want to try and up that back into fifth gear i'd love to get back into like 150 160 miles per hours as long as that doesn't affect my accuracy off the tee i saw a comment you made online that was quite bold i saw this comment again. And i very martin's video yeah i know. And i regret it now because it was outright. So i know i saw that i thought so martin i can't pronounce it or something the long drive guy he's really good friends with bryce and chambo at the moment um german guy bombs it obviously and i really like his content he's been making loads of youtube videos and i was watching one of them. And he's smashing it and these guys are getting comfortable in like 2 10 2 20 ball speeds yeah ridiculous speeds yeah i think kyle berkshire recently set the new world 230 something yeah 234. Or something like that outrageous so i was watching this video getting all hyped. And i'm like i'm gonna leave a comment i'm hyped about this i'm gonna leave a comment and normally my ball speeds 160 i might get to 165 every now and again but i'm never breaking 170. i've never seen 170 on a launch one forever on it obviously i must have had a glass of wine i'm like i love this video martin my goal for this 2022 is trying to get 190 miles per hour ball speed send. And i must admit yes the tumbleweed come across yesterday funny enough i went to torax again to wax some balls went in that middle studio just had a nice little chill out day to myself checking emails coming up some video ideas etc. And i'm smacking it i'm smacking i'm smacking i'm smacking it even i did even more shots with the taylormade. And callaway drivers just to just for my own sake 187 ball speed and i'm there thinking right so currently my fastest i got yesterday was 150 miles per hour club at speed yeah that's pretty good that's very good let me i did actually write it down um my fastest ball speed was 163 miles per hour okay. So that means i'm getting 1.42 smash factor yeah okay which on gc quad is about right you don't 1.52 is the absolute optimal yeah. But gc quad seems to measure it a little bit slower than that so if i was to get 190 miles per hour ball speed i know you're gonna say yeah i would have to swing the golf club 133 well that is exactly the map. So when i saw you for that car 133 miles per hour well when i saw that comment i thought that i i did it i divided it i did 190 divided by 1.45 smash which again if you're swinging fast yeah outrageous smash. And that puts you closer to one three one yeah. So when i saw that i thought do you realize you've got to gain 16 17 miles an hour anyway still ambitious that's why we work well because we have these outlandish dreams a little bit we meet some in the middle. And we make some good stuff um it's good to dream but that's good still to have these ambitions of getting i think you could gain realistically now i think you could get to one 22. yeah i must admit when i played with tommy at jtb. And on that 10th tee when i absolutely smoked one and when it just started before it just started raining after the par three just thought i loved that t-shirt i always hit a good one down there and i hit one really good and he kind of pulled one a little bit it wasn't quite a fair comparison but he was still 20 yards past me. And i was asking him there like what's your what's your club head speed normally he said i cruise at about 120 i thought i i could cruise at 120 yeah why not see if i do. But it might be a little serious this year who knows this is again though what i've had this discussion millions of times. But obviously corbett's speed and ball speed and all this stuff is really important to hitting the ball further we know that obviously. And it's been proven by the likes of bryson and stuff but again just speaking back to when i played the stop but of the day and i'm not getting my driver very well and it's a little bit better at the minute which i'm so excited about hit this shot that was the best driver probably in a year more in fact two three years. And it was on whole um 15 it's the one before the path three you've got 16 goes backwards 15 quite nice holds a bit of a forward t because it was obvious like kind of winter teased. And there's a pile in the background and it always feels that weirdly whenever there's a golf course the pylon the pylon's always the perfect thing to wear yeah you know in the distance. So i am in that pylon or whatever all that chimney yeah it's always a thing to wear. So i thought i'm gonna try the church staple exactly like there's always something steeple staples steeple i think yeah um the point of it yeah the bit that goes up with this guy. So i aimed at this thing i thought riley a little bit there's no trouble either way which always helps me cause i think i can hit it a bit commit to it more stupidly i'm gonna aim left of that. And fade it and try and land it essentially what would be on that um i've got the call down pilot i basically did it. And hit this what would be for me a 10 out of 10. yeah it was honestly the perfect shot the one that i've gone home remembering. And keeping on going play golf again. But i've got no idea what that ball speed was. Or club speed and then.

I went to um golf center since then.

And they've got obviously top treasure in every bay now i'm hitting drivers and standard i'm just going off ball speed. And just like it's out of the camera i need to tell you something about this in a minute okay. And it just makes you think that like when you use the range it i know of is. So so different like that shot that you hit when you think straight even if it's 155 ball speed you're in the fairway it's fairly long i think you seem to be careful chasing the numbers it's a complete vanity metric 100 of that. And i think all it is at the moment growing up going through college when i first turned pro when i first started making youtube videos i've never ever worried one part of my game i've never worried about is speed. And distance ever yeah it's never something i've been concerned about it's never something i've tried to hunt. For um i've always kind of had speed and distance not the longest in the world but long enough yeah yeah like i've never felt short i just feel at the moment right now with everything going on in the golfing world with what bryson's doing all these new long drive guys coming in me getting a little bit older starting to get closer to 40 i'm 30 even having a little mess about with you when we go to the driving range. Or whatever it may be i'm like where's my speed and and that's my only thing now i'm like where's my speed gone i just want to be able to have that that in my locker but do you think again that's like social media though if if why do i a six-pack because i see other social media why do why you've got an eight-pack someone better well i don't why do women want these amazing bodies because they see it on they see it on magazines. Or social media and also maybe you can be a pioneer though there's a lot of trend now which is quite good how women post pictures with the barely a bit bloated. Or sat in a funny way you give me that relatable guy so you can be like welcome to the driving rage this young looking lad absolutely talking it. And then.

You can go this is real life a little like 97 mile now clubhead speed right i just yeah i just feel like being short is not a problem my youth i'm clinging on to that excited puppy that could smash it as he wanted when he wants to. And i've not got that at the moment you know pop but what was that you want to say then.

A minute ago. So this was funny. So you went to traffic center yes on the 27th of december yes i don't know. Or the 28th okay it's one of those two days right sorry you posted you went early didn't you yes okay you posted on instagram oh yes. And you posted a picture of the leaderboard i was leading the long drive at 307. that day mm-hmm the kids were like can we go around we go out i'm like yeah let's go out i've got a plan okay put the kids clubs in the car yeah put my driver in the car with a filter in shaft put my glove on altered the loft of my driver you loft it put it in the car because i know at trafford to get a long one you've got it at low yeah loaded top tracy you've got to get it now put it in the car right. So we went to trafford first first protocol mini golf yeah okay loose not limber up 18 holes mini golf me. And the three kids loved it um believe it or not dude lost my golf ball so three holes in um i can't run which course we played there's lots of water around there anyway um he finishes his hole okay stupidly as a three-year-old does took his ball at the hole. And hit it back towards the tee okay goes down down the hill over the t down the path took a left kicked off into one of the water hazards couldn't get it. So dude's obviously crying yeah yeah i forgot to say. And we're like three holes in now so i'm not gonna walk back to the main reception because it's a trek with the three kids so there you go you can take my golf ball okay i'm the guy you are i'm a nice dad. And you always take a prove it one day i didn't give them a putter they took a scottish approach with the line on it it's weird how like there's all the parents they're waiting and richard aim pointing every green so yeah he pinched my ball um i kind of potted around. And tapped a few in when i needed to and whatever kept the speed of play yeah yeah marshall marshall. So we finished that so i was like right now we're going to the driving range okay now the kids to be honest are loving the driving range at the moment. And they're in a really nice stage where they're loving getting the bucket of balls by the way people are waiting. For this beef yeah yeah bucket of ball they love putting the card in they love seeing all the balls drop out they love tipping the golf balls into the automated tee dispenser things whatever they could do i think i think it all goes downhill from this part though once they've hit a ball in the t's then.

This is good. But they still keep going they're really all right at the moment they're really good right. So tipping the balls in we've got top traces set up and there's there's no nice benches behind the seats now yeah they're also really nice. So we got into this really nice pattern where each kid hit five golf balls and then.

They had to swap so we were in one bay yeah that was it yeah. So as soon as you start going in different bays certainly at that age it gets messy. So in one bay five shots the t's popping up i'm giving a little bit of instruction but they were doing really well like they were just. So they ivy went pearl went jude went i went right so i'm there just we drive yeah of course i'm thinking real seven in mind let me hit a few little looseners the problem is we only got 80 balls right okay there's four of us five shots each 20 balls each yeah it's not a lot it's not it's not like four rounds yeah of hitting okay. So i used my first five as a warm-up any good ones in there didn't break 270. no okay full total pretty much wow okay uh first five shots. So the kids are going around. So i'm like desperate from come on i want to get my five in so i thought i've got a gamble here now because as soon as i scan my account yeah. So as soon as i log in and see rickshield's pg as soon as i log in i've got to commit to this yeah. So if i log in right now and my best is 280 that's going up on the list. And you're at 307 you're up there i can see your name in lights yeah it wasn't. So i'm thinking all these hot chicks be honest oh my god three or seven are they all american worldly these chicks cheerleaders coming up go go. So next.

Five shots again little taster yeah started to see a promise. But not enough okay couldn't break 300. god's sake. So another round of the kids so now now i'm taking a gamble thinking do i do it. Or do i not i didn't i didn't commit okay what did you get long nothing i'm glad it was the right decision from the longest i was to here. So far this year the 20 shots that i hit i only had 40 balls i had 40 balls a lot of them are warmed up. So thank you very much uh the only other thing that i did annoyingly snapped the tee did you get the power that yes. But another problem though you've just hit the nail on the head with signing in to top tracer i went again the other day and the other eve it was a night oh deck i remember hit some more balls. And i signed in and i hit weirdly my longest game was 307 which was bizarre i didn't think anything of the leaderboard. And then.

Somebody um put a post now facebook group i don't know if you saw this they'd seen me at the range they didn't say anything to me they saw me at the range and then.

Thought right guys hit a good one i'll try and beat him and they got like 320. so they destroyed me but i think with top tracer wind is a big factor i guess isn't it. So you can get a little bit of wind. And even maybe drop in a real ball every now and again you can get some big ones we love top tracers we love top tracer really enjoyable i also um love um traffic golf center. So if you want to give me some free balls as a ball card do you not get them anywhere no oh you do don't you oh i've got black card yeah nando's black guy whenever you look at the red car gets rolled out i'm nervous quick i don't know it's a good range i'm just straight in i'll tell you what though jokes aside actually just on top trace there . For a second i was speaking to pete styles who's our director of golfer traffic a while ago about the kind of the importance almost now this kind of tracking your golf shots at the range. And i must admit i do prefer going to a range now we can actually see data how much more fun does it make hitting shots i think i saw her as well there's been a price change considering i have a lot of ads here at the moment. But it's not needed to get people and top tracer in yes. So you get your top tracer now so basically i think it works out better. For your actual golfer if that makes sense if you're a natural golfer who wants top tracer it works out better value anyway we've got beef to cover so if we covered everything with what you're asking the camera remember the first two questions were now the first question oh the review oh yeah the reviews the numbers difference that's a good point. So yeah drivers wise i've hit a load more. And everything that i've saw from the review is what i saw again yesterday um. So what are the numbers currently on the reviews then.

Oh the actual views numbers yeah it's the actual view. So the callaway video came out on the 4th of january at 8 00 am and as we sit here now it's at 399 591 views so we'll call that 400 thousand 400 sure 400 000. four hours later at 12 p.m lunch time on the fourth the taylormade stealth driver came out and that is sitting on 000 views. So literally but more than yeah well more than double why i honestly don't believe i've known a driver that has ever had i was going to say in the last 10 years. Or whatever that's had as much hype around the stealth the only one i would possibly think of in fairly recent history. But it was before the internet certainly well. For youtube will be with the r7 potentially. But even in modern times i really feel like the stealth had an unbelievable amount of interest about the driver why for a number of reasons i think you've got a red faced carbon face driver yes like that straight away is a is a really interesting the reds killed it the red face that must have been a gamble on their part because they must be thinking this is going to be quite polarizing yeah. But as soon as you see something that's so visible so iconic and it's it's carbon it's like what the hell is this different it's. So different so you have that yes you had the fact that they had the perfect storm in december yes tiger woods out of pretty much nowhere announces his potential return to golf like literally out of nowhere he played in the pnc with charlie woods which did you see the viewing figures the pnc last year certainly in america had more viewing figures than the open championship in 2021 outrageous it kind of upsets me in a way. But it's very how mad is that yeah. So tiger playing with charlie woods at the pnc the dad's the the fun competition tiger pops the stealth in the bag like for taylormade that must have been thinking well if we're going to launch it there's nobody better in the world to launch it perfect. So he puts it in the bag he then.

Goes and plays pretty well nearly wins the thing yeah i think the only thing that would have made it better if charlie woods would have had one in the bag too yeah if they're looking back at him too. So they have this perfect storm tigers using it they've got this mystery around the red face it's very eye-catching and then.

The roll that back into the the fourth of jan i don't believe i've ever seen a a company nail the marketing as well as taylormade did on the stealth oh it was it was all the content around it the teaser clips the main clips they released on the day i must admit obviously we had it. For review i don't think i've ever seen as many reviews of a driver like they seem to get it into a lot of reviewers hands um a lot of influencers hands i've seen even now this last week they've continued this they've now shipping out these really nice uh presentation boxes to like like every candles lang. For example but you've got one but we probably won't do anything with it um. So it's like a sheamus head cover and it comes with the red paint apparently it's rotten pot of red paint because all this about start line and all this bollocks um so in general they absolutely nailed it on the flip side callaway was really quiet this year callaway was very poor let's be honest i know well we were due to go to the top tracer event in january in vegas people might be wondering why we're not there that got cancelled because of covered. And obviously kellogg can be there as well launching the driver. And that got cancelled as well so i think part of the content plan was to utilize the the week in vegas. So that didn't happen but still they probably could have had some more stuff in the locker to help promote the driver i think the other big thing as well there wasn't that much different this year it's just a name that people have heard before yeah yeah subconsciously i've heard that already before. So like why is that new it wasn't massively eye-catching it's a lovely looking drive i've said this in the review it's lovely i actually really like it. But it's not that different to anything else yeah it's not visibly technology different. And people love this visible technology you know taylormade had that massive thing with the twist face speed injection twist face that again was visible technology when um the carbon crown on like the m1 m2 that's visible technology i don't feel like callaway always does that they have the jailbreak. But it's hidden and i think as well there's there's two kind of well there's obviously several different ways of bringing the product to market. But there's two for me there's really two key ways that when a new product comes out they're either kind of absolutely revolutionary or certainly the marketing eyes revolutionary i.e stealth over sim two taylormade will tell you. So the cows come home how different it is how groundbreaking it is that's one kind of story the other kind of story is more the kind of evolution. But if brands are that right that can actually get as much excitement sometimes. For example we know now very soon even probably this week the taylor the titleist sm9 voki's are coming out which obviously replaced the sm8 which plays the sm7 i'll keep going with that you know pro v1 every two years comes out the name doesn't change again tighten yourself at the 200 ions which have now built a franchise off will get replaced ping kind of similar issue the g range will get replaced when it's a brand. And you've seen like it's only an iphone just the number changes or in cameras the sony mark one mark ii when a brand does that. And does it well that can gain as much excitement because people know with volky you're gonna get a good wedge yes. And they almost kind of have this feeling that they're not gonna change them just for the sake of it they will be every couple of years they'll be a little bit different. But they're still going to be very good when a brand like a game like taylormade doors brings out an all singing dancing name. And story that again creates excitement i think callaway tried to do both they kind of go one year they go this is the new da da da initially it's just like oh this is a small kind of change you kind of get a bit lost as a consumer should i get excited about this is it just a tweak what is it you know what i mean. So i think. For callaway the brand that they are they have to every year like taylormade try. And do is bring something out that is very different yeah um because even with sim 2 that was kind of like not as much exciting as how you've just done sim again yeah it's tough even like just word on the street like again i bumped into a couple of guys at tourex yesterday you guessed what drive they're asking me about stealth yeah that's all they're asking me about they're not asking me about callaway driver um. So yeah i'd like to say it's a bit of a marketing ploy i think they nailed it this year the viewing figures obviously saw that um i'm. So glad everyone enjoyed our review um it's honest it's truthful it's factual it's everything that we've done for the last eight years of reviewing that's what i'll come on to next.

But what's interesting as well though is like at the moment. And certainly in the world we live in we can only go off views likes comments interest number three trended on youtube 1310 on youtube what will be interesting though is because it's kind of you know youtube views. And excitement's one thing it's actually let's give it both launch thinking february let's say we come back to this conversation in july when they've actually had a couple of months of being out on the shelves and see how well they're selling because sometimes you can be fooled by social media to some degree. And who knows people may go into the shop for a stealth try it and not be impressed not saying there will be. And then.

Go let's try that callaway and then.

Absolutely love it yeah. So maybe pound notes will tell the real story. But speaking of your review um and you know how good it was how well it went down. And how much effort we you know we put into it there's obviously a website called my golf spy and it's probably a short clip on youtube as well for those who want to dip in um my golf spy are an independent website they've got well kind of everything out there really website social media platform youtube channel. And podcast and do a very good job from what i've often been on there there's kind of those guys as golf wrx as well who are the two that you kind of think of. And what's really interesting is they have a lot of a big audience. And their audience probably differs from out a little bit in the sense that they're much more the hardcore golfer yeah. And the hardcore kind of equipment enthusiast as well who want to see clubs weeks and months before they come out and know every detail and know really the kind of intricate facts whereas our audience we have some of those which is great. But we have a much bigger audience that you casuals just want to quick dip in an hour of course get the top line figures what was interesting then.

Was my golf spy they have a forum that's very busy very active. And they also have obviously website articles below their website articles people can comment if they're signed into an account. And sometimes my goal spy will respond to comments okay within this article about about uh stealth there was a comment from a kind of a random viewer um reader whatever who mentioned that in your review you didn't see much difference from stealth over sim too whereas they were saying how they found massive ball speed games across the whole team what was interesting then.

Was my golf spy replied to said comment as the my golf spy account. So obviously several staff so i'm not sure who it was who wrote that comment. But it came under the my god spy brand anyway gets the comment they said when you get the size of a rick shields i think you have a responsibility to do it right. And be better it's really unfortunate that someone hitting five or ten shots the driver can impact a company that has been working at 20 years to develop then.

It goes on to say we have been testing golf equipment. For over a decade now and we understand and respect the responsibility to do it right. For the consumer after 10 plus years of testing what i can tell you is that the majority of these products that get released have to use words. And marketing to make their products sound good the reality though is something close to fact they are less than good they are average at best. And really are much better than the product they told you to buy last year which is also the best when it comes to stealth what i can tell you is that they i've never seen a single product in the driver category produce ball speed. And personal records for every staff member at my golf spy that tested the product that is a first will it be better. For everyone maybe not but we need to give kudos or something when actor deserves it and it's a couple bit couple more lines but not massively much else to add to what i've just said. So rick you've hit five or ten shots with a driver what do you think about that well that first off is yeah because i've hit a lot more than five to ten can we switch it out matt um yeah that's that's that's that's quite insulting actually it is that's actually a really insulting comment um i feel like there's there's been that disrespectful to be honest i feel like that that comment the way that they've disregarded um my review by saying i've only five to ten shots. So we'll cover that in a minute because you obviously know the truth behind that um i find it very interesting that they seem to um i'm not questioning this but seem to categorically say that every single team member has picked up ball speed that's that's bold that's very bold and is that ball speed on every shot. Or on good hits or miss hits what what is that they've gained more speed me just overall. Or what how does that look. And is that comparable to the driver they've currently using. So they can't question my um authenticity or or diligence if they're not actually going to show that as well okay um yeah that sounds that's bold i didn't pick up ball speed when i when i tested it against sim2 i did not pick up ball speed you saw it in the video um from let's let's rewind back to this to the what was the date about the 10th of december yes we went down to taylormade hq we did. And over from america the chief driver engineer yeah. And the chief iron engineer flew over to america to present the product to mean guy um with the intention of telling us all about the information of the golf equipment. And the very same day fitting us for the product at north hans where justin rhodes kind of grew up playing golf on the driving range there and i've been to many many many many many of these presentations as you have yep and they're all certainly tailor-made very very hyped presentations the videos that you watch are just out of this world. And you think oh my god this has to be the best club in the world you do. But i've become a bit more switched on now to go okay i've seen this year after year year after year after here i know that this is just a hype video yeah the truth is going to be when i start hitting this product. So i went to northants and um we probably got there around about half 10 11. yeah i can't remember the exact timings now. But yeah before lunch maybe 11 yeah. So on the driving range there they have this big kind of bubble driving range this very kind of secretive hub on the driving range set up and in there they'd um arrange for one of their best club fitters in the country who's from the world's really nice guy um his name's my mind right now but i feel like it's mickey oh anyway he came down from the wheel and he was there he was the chief fitter. For the session okay. So i started off hitting some irons hitting some three woods getting loose and this this not the other now one of the things that i never ever do in these scenarios because i've seen it before in the past. And i absolutely hate it they always say bring your gamer yes which i hate that term anyway. But bring your gamer bring the drive that you've currently got but that's not what i'm there for because it just becomes a dick measuring competition yeah well all they want to do then.

Is you hit some with your drive which at the moment is a ping g4 25 max that's kind of irrelevant you will hit five. Or ten with that while you're loosening up and you might get a best one of 163 ball speed yeah as long as they didn't get one with their drivers 163.1 out of shots just don't like it it's not a nice scenario i've done it i've made the mistake with brands before i had an awful experience with this at titleist once they're much better now aren't they oh yeah because i'm i'm a lot more yeah yeah i'm a lot more um switched on with it. But but surely to some degree if you're a customer paying for a product then.

Your current drive is important because they want to see your shot patterns. And also it sounds bad a lot of golfers overestimate how far they hit it we all do apple do as well. So you say yeah you know normally at my own driving 300 yards you've not got your own driver with you then..

And then.

You started to no one 290. well i've lost 10. in reality roll michael 270.. But i know my numbers you know your numbers and also this isn't the point you're getting fitted the best spec for you from taylormade stealth's 2022 lineup yeah your current driving that instance is borderline irrelevant well it is because forget that because i'm not you play golf with. And i'm currently not after distance with that driver i know it's not the longest driver i could be using i know it's not going to give me the fastest it's the max version. For a start it's not an ls tech but i know it's hitting me fairways yeah that's why i'm using it currently. So anyway um i didn't take that and i never do 20 fittings. So started hitting i think i actually started hitting stealth uh sim 2 first uh maybe to warm up okay i think you did actually yeah um they had they had a sim two there. And i was hitting the sim two. And i was collecting some numbers. And they're dead trap man i had my gc quad but didn't actually set it up at first so um i was hitting the driver shots. And and at this point i'm just taking in the information this is my first hit of a product um i don't often show this in a video because it can sometimes come across as it's almost too brandy well first of all you're in a tent that's got taylormade logos everywhere. And it's not really that for me it's not massively content it's you getting hitting a shotgun that's not the right club or them selling it's not the right shaft it's not really that exciting to watch and it's like the main reason like say it's it's too tailor-made i like to do things in my own time on my own space in my own setting with my own team that's where i'm comfortable as soon as i'm in this setting it's like it's not a particularly comfortable setting. For me either and also as well we you know you want to make the best videos you can those honest reviews you can which we believe you do. And even with that mindset it's we do do this. But it's quite difficult to turn around to somebody and say it's not very good when the guy that's designed the driver is stood there i mean no you did. But it's hard then.

You shove a cameron in yours in his face it can get a little bit these guys naturally they've got the jobs they're. So passionate all the product it's easier to do that away from them. And also we need time to think about what we want to say. And articulate it in hopefully the best way so i'm trying to think of. So then.

I started hitting stealth stealth plus stealth normal they were fitting me. And the guy did a nice job fitting i i always i'm always a little bit concerned about fittings because sometimes i'm hitting a driver really nice i'm loving it. And they're taking it away and putting a different shaft in yeah. And i'm like no give me that back i like that don't change it don't tweak it. So i was quite strict with that as well um i was in this bubble thing. And i was hitting off a mat. And i didn't particularly like the mat so i went out onto the grass at the front of the bane uh they had all tp5s there again not my normal golf ball but tp5s trackman and then.

I set my gc quad as well because i thought i just need to get my own numbers here as well just so i've got some clarity realistically how many golf balls do you think i hit i was stood there freezing i don't want to say student now i want to think properly well they had that they had that bag of balls yeah the shag bag i would say you might disagree on this in the region of 150 yeah i would say that i was going to say i was going to say about 120 yeah. So to the point where i'd hit all the golf balls in the in the bag they had to go and get extra golf balls yeah it was a good couple hours. And it was hitting a few then.

About a minute hitting it. But it was a lot of golf balls. And the reason being because i was questioning what i was seeing from the product i wasn't quite seen from the product of what i expected to see comparing it to sim 2 comparing it to stealth doing a com direct comparison there. And then.

And asking them the questions why am i not seeing more ball speed right now well they end up coming up the conclusion which is quite strange that the golf balls you were hitting with their golf balls their tp5 which the night before they were claiming is longer than titleist pro v1 were cold. And that they'd been left in the cold under this tent overnight and because they were cold they weren't going very far which was a bit strange when you fit in yeah somebody anyway we then.

Obviously took the drivers well got sent the drivers in the specs you got fitted. For and then.

You did a lot more testing which again summer's on camera some isn't on camera i would say the audience have probably seen ten percent of what i was literally saying yeah. So in the video i mean even less i don't know actually because even when i go tourex i was hitting all those drivers we're in that room. For a couple of hours all the shots like there's no point in seeing all the shots. But why what i kind of come back to with the comment from my golf spy and they can criticize how we do what you do what you say as much as they want. And they're very intelligent people so i'm not questioning their kind of the way they do things at all really. But my question is how would they say we hit five to ten shots because even on the video you hit well more than five. Or ten shots obviously but surely they know from kind of content creation the experiments they do that the actual product you show the consumer which might be a 10 minute video 20 minute video. So much goes into that even the editing process can take days like they obviously hit five ten. So why why are they using that as kind of a low blow suggest. And i have and this is where i think it differs i massively respect their test their testing process. And again this goes back to this point and i know i think there is a bit of a um a divide between this i still think it's my own review where they do a test a very a very very big test with lots. And lots of different golfers um of different abilities to come up with their actual summery yeah typically um. But yeah to go back to the point of hitting only five. Or six shots that's absolute horse i think an element this does come from a cagely thing the fact that these guys. And other people spend so long on like we do obviously just said creating a review. For product and then.

We powers out that gets 900 000 views which they can't compete with i i think another thing i do want to actually yeah i do possibly the other thing i want to touch on that is this idea that they're saying taylor may have been working on this. For 20 years okay well that's fine it should still work. For me first shot yeah yeah it should it should still work. For me in five shots yeah if that's their defense like if this new yeah what does it start to work yeah yeah if this new product is. So revolutionary that they're claiming it is that they fine if that's what they believe if they believe it's. So unbelievably revolutionary that the fact why should it take more than five shots for you to figure that out you only have one shot on it on the first tee dude so so maybe in future we should only hit five shots in a review yeah because like i say that's that is you need more than that realistically to just to figure out the weight of the driver. And the feel of it and whatever else but if it's that good it should work straight out the box i think what really opened my eyes as well is when you hitting shots. And obviously i think you had a couple minutes where you kind of had a breather because you're hitting. So many shots that's right to do you don't want to be putting laser swings in it one that guy said to me you have a shotgun now burn in mind i've been stood there freezing. For 45 minutes of this but longer in fact this is over now at this point. So i put your glove on and i hit three shots now as i just said earlier when i got a little bit more comfortable with the driver. But at this point it was only a month. Or so ago but i was. So hating in a driver i felt so unnatural over the golf ball but i hit three don't you remember this i do the first one i hit was straight. But thin the kind of shot on the course you would take on the first tee but not pretty but it would blow you away exactly but it wasn't the driver that was just me it was a bad shot. But it would hit a fairway would have been okay let's move on. And let's hit the next.

Shot my second shot with it was a massive 50-hour block which i can do obviously. And the third and final shot was a massive snap-up left because of my early extension my golf swing. So i can hit those three shots straight right. Or left it's horrible i don't know i'm gonna hit it when i stand on the tee but now i'm not for one second blaming that driver of course i'm not it wasn't probably in the exact right spec for me it was my first three swings today.

I was feeling horrible i had loads of layers on exactly. But you know really kind of like off swings but what it does show you though is it still is you in that instance i hit three shots two would have been out of bounds no matter if that driver is the brand new one that's got 20 years to make whatever it still does come down to you. And i know again you said this in reviews. But no golf club no matter how good the market is no golf club is a magic wand you talk about good swings. And it seems like people sometimes aren't happy the way if you test the product don't rave about it that's not good and if you test the product and it's not as good as people say that's not good but we've got no reason to say products not great if it is if anything that makes it better. For us if that driver gave you 20 yards that'd been an amazing video like a better video more views i think again what what maybe all the i don't know i don't want to say that because that's not that's not fair i think i'll talk from my point what i've become. So much more unbelievably more comfortable with right now is i know what i say on video that comes out my mouth is what i found. And what i found what effect that's going to have on the world of taylormade it's not my issue like that's not my issue if they decide. Or any brand decides not to send me products because they don't like what i do that's absolutely fine yeah i'll go. And buy it and look later and review it exactly the same way still gonna get the same video it'll just be a month later yeah. So i think i it's it's frustrating me that article. Or that reply chasse and i'd love to know who it's from and if someone from my golf spy would like to send me an email and explain what that means i'd love to hear that and we can share it on the podcast. For next.

Week i think your silence wouldn't particularly be great. And if you came out here fighting it'd be interesting to know what you're going to be fighting about. But let's see yeah basically you didn't gain anything you're getting no i didn't gain anything well i know another quick little what well this is funny though because again there was um whenever taylormade bring out a driver in particular as we said earlier on it gains loads of loads of eyeballs uh excitement negativity just general chat. And suppose you can't have all excitement without having some level of negativity so it's kind of essential it's part of it but what makes me laugh is people who have this perception that it's almost a bad thing to want a new driver because although we've just said then.

There's no real difference that's fine. But you can still want it if you're a massive taylormade fan you're a massive tiger fan. Or it's your birthday and you treat yourself to a new drive i just want the latest sometimes you know there's not much difference but you want the latest that's fine but what you see a lot is people commenting saying no way i'm going to get sucked into buying that drive it's no better than last year's i'm going to go. And buy a sim 2 now at reduced price now in theory that comment makes sense because okay yeah there is no difference. So why would you not go and buy a sim 2 for cheaper but that same person was saying the same thing last year in the year before yeah. So why buy a sim 2 why not go and buy the m5 because when the m5 to the next.

Driver which was the sim wasn't it you said there's no difference. And then.

To the sims the sim 2 the same person said there's no difference. And then.

From the sim 2 to the to the cell there's no difference. So why not go and buy an m5 for a hundred quid exactly why spending 350 on a sim 2. and and again this is i understand why people do it again the comments go i'm not good that's pretty ridiculous this bloody carbon face it's. So expensive and all this i would never i would never use one of them i bet bottom dollar they would have probably entered the giveaway yeah yeah the two million just because they wanna they secretly want it it's just that people can't always justify that's it if you wanna spend that much money on it like i don't care that my my car is new wealth it's new to me i got a year ago. And it was like four years old when i got it. So it's not a new car but there's obviously newer versions of that car come out but i'm not that offended or bothered because i'm not that into cars but i think as golfers we kind of like to have the latest games you don't need it obviously we've done loads of videos on that. But people kind of who are into the golf do quite like having the latest key. And it also hurts when new stuff comes out and an example again going back to volkey i got the sm8 it's only had them six months. Or so love them to bits the grooves are still perfect the grips are perfect don't need to replace them i'm a little bit like not upset. But like a little bit oh that the sm9 is coming out because mine will technically be a mud lold which is ridiculous i would never get the sm9 i don't need them. But you know what i mean i feel like that. So i do get that. But anyway what um question do you i know cat termine said this in the presentation do you think they're really going to stick with carbon face now. For for the foreseeable um well it's a weird one in it i imagine they probably will. But does that not prove that it's actually not that much different if it's. So easy to swap yeah. But then.

Why the fury was not carbon fiber. Yet well exactly everything's the carbon wood era if you've taken 20 years surely you could have launched the fairways at the same time it's the same old and it starts to think it's a bit predictable in goal brand brings out key hero technology in the driver 93 wood this year yeah next.

Year it will be should we do the c4 versus stealth that'll be good carbon versus carbon 20 years apart yeah let's do it do a couple of facebook questions to wrap it up it's been a good episode. So far um just first as well i thought we said kind of at the start. But um big happy new year to win the clubhouse because the people obviously the people in the club yes. And we've still had a few comments people on the group on our facebook group which is the rick shields golf show asking what is the clubhouse it's simple format rick simple concept if you've listened to every episode of the rickshaws golf show you are in the club house yeah it's a great place to class isn't it the best it's um comfortable it's always a really nice temperature like it's not you know we went to a room. And you're not warm you're not cold you don't even think about the temperature doesn't become a thing. And weirdly adjust to each individual it does if you want to wear a hoodie it's fine. For you if you want to just have a t-shirt absolutely fine what sometimes you wear no clothes at all clothing is is i a lot no clothes on i know. But don't talk about it and stealth in one hand thought it was on my own we're the first people to ever open the clubhouse why am i. So short i want more length i kept screaming it's obvious yeah thank you. So got a few questions on facebook next.

Week obviously we're going to be back again to our usual um little what i've forgot features. So we've got obviously like nightmare golf shots not done for a while um the um dear rick which is a big feature you can ask a question i think your mind's in a good place now yeah. And the redemption as well so if you've done something to the good place yeah because like you've had your christmas holiday you're back on it you're backing them in the gym you're going to really immediately get back today.

To be honest you're going to be gaining speed getting distance on it yeah. And then.

The what was that i forgot forgive. Or this is what two weeks off does to you yeah forgive. Or condemn where people can write in they've done it wrong. So get those in at a podcast rickshield.com we'll get one from my gospel you know what's an issue as well actually um how many people spell your name incorrectly it's ridiculous so yesterday i bought a pair of jeans which you know about i've got some new levi's jeans don't want to flex too much but i fancy new pro jeans a little bit of a baggier cut than normal i'm sick of the real skinny jean and i went into levi's and they send if you join the whatever club you get a five pound off yeah i'm not made of money i'll save five i gotta go to the stealth driver um. And they have some email address now gave a work email just because it's a bit easier to move the ones nonsense anyway she spelled shields wrong i tried to correct it even though i'd already told her how to spell it i made me think about a lot of people send their emails to the wrong email address oh yeah. So it's podcast at rick which you can't get too far wrong well you can it's r-i-c-k yeah r-i-c-k-s-h i dot com it's not dot co uk it's not dot net it's not dot org it's dot com um also you can reach out to us via the facebook group as well which is seventy thousand members who seem to get a lot of hole-in-ones [Applause] [Laughter] i think this same guy tweeted you as well. But he put in the group he had his first birdie yeah it's good that was really wholesome i think that's something that i've also what i love more than almost more than seeing people put that in is the reaction it gets because sometimes i'll see that i think that's awesome. And i'll accept into the group and i'll maybe a few hours later i think i hope that's done okay. And they've had no kind of weird negativity. And they don't get so many likes and comments and it must be really um kind of what's the word of like confidence building almost so oh god he's achieved something i've not achieved this year birdie yeah yeah i've lost a few golf balls already this year anyway you just made a birdie already yeah yeah i made a birdie yeah i had some long drives um. So we've had some questions on the facebook group as well i've got four good ones um so this is from matthew he said why do you think that wilson is not the whole household name in golf that it used to be is it because they cater. For the high handicappers um or they just won't shell out money for bigger names now obviously you've done that video you did the thing with wilson a number of years ago which was well you worked. For the golf channel on a wilson kind of show but just before actually we get on to that obviously i've been playing golf kind of the same time as used about 96 97 i started in a number of brands like wilson who were absolute the market leaders correct tonight i'm gonna reel some off now you might have some that i've not mentioned. But i'm gonna reel some off links yep wilson max fly yeah hippo dunlop now maybe the hippopotamus weren't as big a decent brand yeah strata. For the golf balls mcgregor yeah slazinger now they were they're a sports direct brand now. But slaving with a real deal back in the day maybe more yeah halsen yeah housing tommy armour yeah. And spalding yeah adams adams yeah it was a big one mizuno drivers yeah you know driving today.

So it's weird how the wheelbarrow people are to watch this. Or listening whatever comment below if you've got any more brands that were kind of really big 10 well 20 years ago maybe even more it'd be interesting if you properly looked at if there's any patterns that emerged with all of those yeah things have done kind of wrong yeah they've changed well they're quite different some of them. But let's take for example wilson obviously the question i think back in the day if i'm not mistaken i'd still believe wilson have the most major wins using the irons i feel like they do because it was a lot of the opens yeah in the whatever years uh even like padre carrington yeah only in the last kind of few decades as one opens with him. And then.

Gary woodland a couple of years ago wouldn't a major with using the wilson irons as well um for me i think that if you looked at it from a business standpoint i think he's probably n nailed on that with two things i think back in the day they've made phenomenal irons really really good brilliant blades they were killing it i think with a lot of these brands now as callaway. And taylormade have started to do they try. And make everything don't they yeah. And probably you've got each brand really has um its own exact um specialty yeah does that make sense i would say taylormade is more of a wood company i would say that. For example um titleist is more of a ball company i would say that ping is more of an iron company a potter company sorry ping yeah it's original originally. And then.

I think wilson what they started to do is try. And make too many different products drivers wedges golf ball posters etc etc which is still trying to do right now. And i also think they also tried to captivate the the package set market yes they did i think when they were really popular they also tried to go well we're killing it up here yeah the best players in the world good players how do we kill it down here as a mass product well our wilson deep red now is kind of that package set branch a decent gear it was at the time wilson deep red as their premium lights. And then.

They kind of brought it down yeah yeah exactly. So i think then.

The guys who are up here who regard wilson as being the best of the best start to look at these package sets. And go ah i'm now being associated with this brand yeah bill now what pxg have done yeah recently yeah i think we've seen this exact same trend. But with pxg they came out with these ridiculously expensive clubs really aspirational everybody wanted to try them i was getting tested about testing pxg they've gone off the planet now they're making package sets i never thought i'd see that strange isn't it if they were gonna make a package set i wanted to see make a 12 grand package set yeah not a thousand pounds package set which i think what they've brought out now sort of ram as well by the way ram was a good one. So i think over time what these brands sometimes do is maybe get a little bit greedy. And try and captivate every single market i would say the only real brand that has done that in the last decade or so and i'm not talking in golf it's probably apple um i probably would say apple the only brand that have actually managed to captivate the laptop market yeah the phone market the music market the speaker market you know what they do very differently though although they do completely right they take the time don't they. So they i don't know what year apple's formed but the first iphone i think oh seven. So it took a long time and then.

Like the wireless headphones were such a long time i didn't come out with the phone did they no exactly with the actual max yeah no exactly. So it makes you think that like does some of the guard fans rush into it again we've used this example a lot of times. But mizuno just it baffles me how again there's nothing there's no equipment it's fantastic if i was playing if i did play with a guy. Or whatever when i went to go and play at stockpot let's say he was off a five-handed cap. And i'd will snyder. And sorry mizuno lions i think nothing of it if they say. Or what ball you play nova zoono won you're almost thinking why doesn't do no ball it just seems like it's hard. For one brand i think titus is probably the only one in taylormade really who do everything. But i think tightly as well callaway has a few in the fact that they um head hunted experts in each field the titles were making golf ball. And they went right let's make some wedges we'll use the best person in wedges bob volkey okay you're going to come with us who's the best person making putters right now scotty cameron okay you're going to come with us i think as well another thing that comes down to it that often we don't kind of even consider is the actual forgetting about just golf. For a moment it's the actual brand themself and what is the kind of focus. So wilson sporting goods um are owned by amor sports which is a massive sporting company. But obviously wilson are very big in tennis. And other racket sport so i don't know i mean i'm sure we could find out with a bit of research maybe we should done some before. But i don't know in terms of what golf actually makes up the market of their business well i i went to in chicago and i went to wilson hq i went in with this mindset it's a golf company it golf was a tiny little space yeah in this gigantic office in chicago. So it's how much they want to put into it it was crazy stat like they make more tennis balls than do golf balls oh yeah i'm surprised like they sell. So many more rackets they they sell footballs and american footballs and you know for the company like wilson golf is such a like a side project almost where probably other brands like a callaway. Or taylormade that's all they do right now yeah um. And ping so to speak i've got a couple more questions and then.

I've got one last thing actually that i forgot to mention during the kind of body of the podcast i think it's really important. So um from brad he said predictions. For rick's temporary sports interest in 2022. so we've had the arts was a couple of years ago we've had football we've had badminton um f1 i've really gotten to really. So f1 the other day did he. And carlos sykes follow that one is a ferrari driver oh wow. So this year's gonna be f1 football's still there football dad off a bit loosely loosely still there what else could what else could you get into this year then.

Do you think anything else went. And played jay yeah yeah played tennis last night oh jay's name's not actually jay is it it's like um jonathan yeah i thought it was like actually james you'll be loving this by the way the shout out. So our girls go to brownies together and he told me he's turned up in his shorts hoodie on he's dead buzzing he's going i'm going playing tennis after this i'm not i'm not a tennis person i don't think i've ever played this there's a couple of sports i've never played tennis. And rugby rugby we actually got an email the other day i saw that yeah to promote rugby. But i was like i can't promote rugby because i know nothing about you know what i watched the day you know those weird programs like um where people move abroad. Or whatever yeah. And then.

They have like business and stuff it's like how they get on with it there's this sport it's called it's basically like paddle or something and it's basically badminton tennis and squash all those ones so it's like tennis but you can hit off the walls it's huge in space really yeah looks really good um. So maybe that will get into that um. And from robbie aston i said do you fancy come into my stag do it slightly hall yeah i've not been staggered. For years um paul you've got automates um the person who you were most starstruck by rick when you met them from paul seton that's a good question um silence uh who's the most star struck by oh i don't know probably robbie williams williams yeah the final thing that i want to cover um i guess that goes a bit of a clip. For the youtube channel was um is the new season of drivers we know that obviously we've got the taylormade driver. And we've had the callaway driver um there's a cobra coming soon i can definitely say. Or not but there is um we can. And this will be other bits. And bobs out of the year one brand who aren't bringing the driver this year is ping is this now being confirmed it's confirmed i might not tell my source just. Yet um who my source is. But it's confirmed so basically um a couple of reasons why um but ping aren't bringing out a new drive this year at all and the g425 will stay current until next.

Year to 2023 wow. And the reason i want to call that out was because i i'm using the ping. And i know you are. And i just think it's a really good driver not only. For everybody it's not the most conventional looking driver the turbo is on the top of hate sounds not. For everybody but for me that max head does feel forgiving it looks big it's mad when i was younger i'd love a real pear shaped drive. And now i want a huge footprint i'd have a squirt driver for cut actually now i want something big and for me that's what i get so it's definitely one that i think if you're looking at a new drive it's i try it it could be a bit marmite certain hands. But i saw somebody tweet either day and said hi rick do you know if the ping is getting replaced because i want one um. But i don't know if it's gonna get replaced or superseded very soon so the thing is though if it's the start of 2023 yeah it's only been out two years well yes. And no because it has. But it actually launched a lot earlier in australia if you remember it was announced about six months prior. So in theory i know you're correct in the uk yeah in the uk i've only been able to purchase it. For let's say what would have been just over two years and that's also if it launched at the start sorry i don't know when it will. But in reality it'll be in people's minds and they'll have seen it for what it's gonna come to about maybe not three years weirdly what's interesting though and i've been told by members of staff in stores it's gone up in price it's about 20 quid so to buy one new now the ping g4 25 25 max in england the uk is 420 quid i think it was 400 before. So i just thought it was kind of our almost not our duty. But i just wanted to give it to people who public service well yeah if you're after a ping from what i've heard which is genuine source it's not replaced until 2023. um interesting. And also what's different do you think more brands should do that yes well what's different ping is it's owned like family owned it is whereas other brands are obviously kind of publicly traded every now. And then.

Shareholders and all that kind of stuff so they need every year you need a massive influx of cash from new drivers whereas obviously ping don't want to lose money clearly but within a family-owned business they can do things like this i think due to coronavirus due to all the other aspects as well if you will have the next.

Driving nail done i can almost guarantee that like. So let's just call it ping g450 or whatever it's going to be called that will be made i can guarantee that maybe not in massive quantity. And that will be ready to launch whenever they want to launch in 2023 whatever that might be. But for now it's not going to get um replaced. So i just thought i'd bring that in as a little topic because it's interesting more brands do it a lot of people have been waiting. For g425s yeah as well i think it's been a bit of a battle it's one of the worst effective brands buy all the code stuff i we're now playing at stockbrother today.

As i said earlier on there was a guy come in that day i believe who ordered pingai in six months earlier wow. And they've just come in that day so it's taking them six months um but yeah we i think people would like that brands more as i don't know if ping will come on said this i think they should it'd be quite cool i don't know how they would do it how they would kind of market this. But they came out and said look our driver isn't going to play. For the year so go out and enjoy the g425 whatever we've not beat it yeah. Or whatever however. they want to spin it that would be interesting i just think a dead simple logo like still the best tick yeah it's like this is dylan we said that we had a brand i don't know if it's on the podcast. But a brand came to present us a product who kind of admitted that the g425 was what they call a unicorn driver yeah because it kind of does everything you want. And it's very hard to do that yeah it's forgiving it's long it's blah blah blah yeah um right that's good episode back how long was that matt 1 hour 15. whoa it's not bad. For free every it is yeah. And this will be out the same day of recording this is actually one of those weird ones what's the same day i feel like we should have talked about the crazy event in hawaii. Or whatever underpass i didn't watch any of it i'll be honest i watched a lot of highlights but they didn't watch anything live on the power yeah how would you how mad is that it's ridiculous it's ridiculous it was that night 900 a day in it well you had to be eight. And a half under a day that's ridiculous i mean by the way the golf course was seven thousand six hundred yards seventy three these guys are good i mean john ryan shoots 34 in the power. And doesn't win the thing is if you get your balls at 190 you know what's really funny about all that as well taylormade launch callaway launch titleist win the event cameron smith he's very good um pj memes video we did which showed around his house nice guy i like it i like camera smith yeah i i must admit i kind of never had many feelings either way who was talking about recently that i oh yeah robert mcintyre who again was kind of all those i didn't dislike him i didn't like him i just kind of felt quite neutral. And it was a little bit the same with cameron smith. But i watched that video with him where it was a bit of his house tour. And he looked kind of looks like a fairly kind of shy but yeah came across really well i like him even someone asked him recently because obviously he's now leading the fedex first event said what would you do with 15 million he went i've kind of got enough money i'd probably buy a bit more fishing gear right i think that's that chill that's one of the things i'm loving with with youtube these days. And social media is seeing a bit more of these golfers because you can sometimes have like um maybe not a negative opinion an opinion on a player just from what you see on tv in the short interviews. But what's funny is if you think about it you're a golfer you have to have a level of confidence playing golf with a massive confidence playing golf in front of people obviously they wouldn't get to where they were without it. And they must have some level of confidence in an interview to some degree but when you've just come off the golf course there's a camera shoved in your face that's not going to be not many guys who act exactly the same as they do in real life they can't do exactly. So then.

When you think actually you can see more stuff like with writing does on youtube now you see the real them it is interesting it's eye opener i think we'll see more of that he's had to pull out this next.

Event no bryce sonia yeah because of a wrist injury [Music] that is the well when you do watch his videos i'm not against bashing hitting it fast it's. So fun to watch but when you watch with his training the intensity of it it's probably inevitable someone's going to mental whether it be a gym injury. Or something from speed or whatever yeah it's absolutely crazy. But then.

Again for someone like him i think he's in the kind of golf where he might go like injury miscut win a couple. And that's the way that like there's nobody's like tiger now while they which just make every cut and win all the time until he comes back oh yeah would you take that though four let's say four pg tours. Or four pga tour wins a year but you m you missed more cuts than previously yeah i don't know they want to win where bryson is right now he just wants to win on it yeah like it's not a money thing surely now sure it will be a little bit. But he wants to make more wins yeah prediction just very quickly three predictions should start the year yeah okay okay by the end of this year 2022 yeah who will be the world number one golfer it's going to have a quick look at the world it's currently john rahm then.

Colin marakawa i think you've got i think mario kawas very very good in a um um should we put it in the envelope yeah i must admit i can't i can't see past marukawa i know it's number two it's not the most bold shout out ever. But he's just that good i'm not getting into the chest he won't be i'm gonna go bold i'm going to say zander shuffler okay. For no reason just because he's number seven would you want it to be then.

That's a different question i want it to be john ram yeah yeah wow i've really i've really really become a big fan of john brown don't know what it is just like him i think i would like it to be bryson i'll be honest i just think as well if if he because he's not been willing boy bryson no if he became world number one i think it would bring more eyeballs to sports that was he was my prediction at the start 2021 to end 2021 was number one would he come like eight. Or something he's eighth currently um very good last last one then.

One of them four names who are going to win a major it doesn't have to be four names um i think victor is gonna win i think rory's going to get one i think victor yeah it's a good shout out i think justin thomas yeah um. And i think tony feno i'd love all though i'd love i would like to see it because rory's not won that one now since 14 has he no which is ridiculous crazy oh. And tommy fleetwood i'd love to see my four well then.

The love list if you want to help lovely my top four would actually be tommy yeah minwoo lee sam horsefield people might get a shout out from no i would love to see tommy win one. And i really would i'd like to see mineral lee when well i'm just gonna see how good he actually is at golf it's ridiculous yeah um. And i would like to see bryson win more as well just to kind of prove people because i feel like how many haters now for what he's doing like to improve people right do you think he's got i think he's got less haters right now i might have less than he did obviously that's. But people who don't like him yeah am i. So much rumbling like mad i'm worried if you can hear it anyway should we um go. And film some club reviews let's go to the five shots yep five shots done easy-peasy cool all right then.

Let's see five-star rating please [Music] you.