Um so it's from a young guy um i'm going to call him well his name is josh. But i won't say surname because i don't kind of know if he wants to be anonymous or not um i did i did email him back. And say we're going to read this out. But i'll keep you anonymous unless you want me to say your name he didn't respond to that bit so i won't give his full name but it's really short and snappy but i think it's um something that a lot of people will hopefully benefit from. So it says becoming a tour pro dear rick i recently turned 16 and i'm currently playing off an 11 handicap and i aspire to become a tough pro i know that being off an 11 handicap at 16 will make a lot of people immediately say there's no way of becoming a tour pro. But i've set a goal to become a three handicap by october the first the weakest part of my game is within a hundred yards pitching chipping. And putting how do i improve this how do i get down to three. And any tips on um drills etc would really help so why i was thinking initially your massive forte is tips drills etcetera from 100 yards. And then.
We're going to cover that first. And then.
I've got a little angle and i then.
I think i want you to bounce in off the back because i think you'll be able to expand on that massively okay. So first off josh being 16 and being off 11. obviously you're right in saying that if you said that to a lot of people i would say the majority of people would say you've got no chance of making out at all that's just because of perception when you look at like we talk we spoke about it last week like tiger woods coming through the ranks at 16 he probably won x amount of events. And all you know it's crazy when you look at the youth and the talent that there is available um. So let's we'll break it down into the short game first i think one of the big things when you're practicing short game. And working on 100 yards and in you've got to make it very much pressure-based so you look at someone like um francesco molinari who had a really interesting weekend um he topped a shot and then.
Also got a violation on a rules violation and weirdly his rules violation was from the guy who i'm just going to talk about. So james richard yeah who is um francesco molinari's coach short game coach. But also this week at the at t acted as caddy one of the shots actually stood behind francesco molinari while he was in a bunker. And you know i'd stand directly behind the line but as a coach that's quite a natural place to stand yeah somebody phoned in on after seeing it on tv. And francesco manari ended up getting a two-shot penalty but either way why i bring that subject up because i find it really interesting whenever i see those two working together share a bit on social media it's always really game based and always really pushing the the idea of difficulty level so it will never just be stood in the bunker on a perfectly flat line playing to a person in a standard shot he'll mix it up where the bunk the ball is plugged in the face. And he's got an awkward stance he's got to get to a really tight pin but then.
The very next.
Shot his ball might be out the bunker but he's got to be stood in the bunker and it it's like real golf isn't it this is a real golfer learning those skills not from a technical standpoint i'm sure they do work on technique from a soul less video on camera making sure everything's perfect. But after that it's all gameplay it's all really kind of manipulated gameplay which makes it very interesting so when like say he's out in the golf course he's learning to adapt to those situations so i think that's really important don't get bogged down in in just soul what out classes block practice block practice you're still in one position you're hitting 100 golf balls in the same location almost like technique i guess that more than actually practice yeah. And there's an element of that yeah. And you do need a bit of that. But then.
Break away and get into much more of a game scenario where you're trying to really test yourself and if you really want to get down to three handicap in october that's what you've got to get really good at it's not stood on driving range hitting perfect 100 yard shots on a perfect flat lie it's been in situations and testing yourself under pressure so when you get on the golf course and you've got to perform for the next.
10 months whatever it's going to be till the 1st of october you have got a massive advantage against the golf course because that's what you're kind of getting yourself ready. For yeah that's the kind of short game side of it um. And then.
Going back to this kind of question 11 year old. And i know you've got some so 16 year old playing off 11 handicap there are obviously probably i would say that the stats are stacked against you if you just take it on paper. But you look a lot of professionals have actually came into the game much much later like there's a lot of golf professionals who actually you know someone like ian poulter was off four when he was 18 when he did his pga training ended up becoming a pga professional obviously he look someone like colin montgomery one of the famous ones he only started really playing golf seriously when he was 18 years old. And i'm sure there's many more examples as well um so it's never you're never going to make it. But the next.
Two or three years are really important yeah. And that's because obviously i grew up in the gender junior galton attitude and i was lucky enough to play with some golfers who've gone on to be on tour. And i've also no no no no players who were the next.
Big thing who didn't go on to make it. So i think you've answered that question perfectly about how he could get his short game you know how could he improve that basically in a long story short has practiced more real shots isn't it. But i actually took some time as you'd probably tell from the sounds and over the weekend to think about this because again it's something that resonates with me as a junior at the age of 16 being a golfer was my absolute ambition which obviously i didn't didn't fulfill. But a couple of questions i wanted to ask him a bit put towards him was he said he's 16 is off 11. if he's been playing since he was four that might not really impressive he's been playing. For a year for two years that could be may have only picked up clubs in lockdown for example and you know there's a lot of different scenarios so your handicap isn't always to be all and end all but it doesn't give us enough insight into how talented he actually is equally you know there could be a guy now. And there will be who are 16 not plus two off plus three. Or even off plus four that's fantastic but if a 16 year old is off plus four stops improving that's not good enough to get on tour whereas equally if josh improves every year by three. Or four shots the next.
Five six years he could be well you know what whatever it might be more than that but he might be good enough to get on tour so handicap alone isn't really the real end all that's the first thing i'd say but another thing and this you know just just some examples was you might remember this was a guy who was 16 i think he played the pga tour called tai trion in like the early 2000's i remember that name who was mena b the absolute next.
Big thing. And didn't massively fulfill what he was due to do. And on the other side of the coin i have known golfers who weren't amazing juniors but then.
I've gone on to make a career in golf one example actually you might know tom murray who's andrew i remember as a junior i was a low enough handicap to enter the faldo series which was obviously the nick faldo kind of where all the big guys were playing all the good juniors. But i was never low enough to get through the ballot. So there was one year at heaton park in manchester they had a competition. For people that were low enough. But not low enough to get in the ballot and one person who won each age group got like it through and i was heard of tom murray. So at the time he was obviously a good junior. But it wasn't amazing he wasn't even good enough to get into the faldo series straight off and i played with him his dad andrew murray was one of the european tour walk around with us. And he played quite well tommy actually got through i think kenny was a bit older he was about four. Or five he wasn't great but he's since going to play in the european toys one on the challenge tour. So that you know it can still happen. But another thing and then.
Obviously i want you to jump in as well here but would be it's hard like think less at 16. But he wants to have a dream and have a goal of ambition do that you know focus on the pga tour the european tour because you know it's good to have a dream in ambition at such a young age. But also he should look at golf more holistically and think right my goal at the top of the pyramid is to be a european tour player. But also i'd love to work in golf so i would like to be a club pro with an amazing fitting business or amazing coaching business do you want to be a golf content creator do you want to be a sales rep. For taylormade for ping for callaway so don't just see it that it's either that or nothing there's other avenues in golf it could be an amazing career and i'd like to think i'm i'm lucky enough to have done that i wanted to be a player i was nowhere near good enough. But now working golf and then.
Lastly on this and this is again it's quite hard to think about when you're only 16. But he's 11 handicap at 16 he's a very good player so there's two things to think about firstly you're gonna be about the motion mates who will also probably end up playing golf the next.
Five ten years. So you've already got a great standard which is good you'll be thankful. For that but also you can be playing a lot of gents at the golf club males. Or females who are business people who've got um good connections. And stuff like that so we should also think about. And again it's hard but just learning from adults social skills conversation skills get to you know we might leave school and get off the job by amazing guy at his golf club he's a businessman because he knows how much of a nice lad he is. And stuff so there's a lot of other benefits in a good junior golfer than having to get on tour or not i think it rounded out really nicely. And that's the things that potentially people don't always look past like say and i think you again you addressed it brilliantly you've got this goal at the very top of the tree. And that's what you're aiming for i understand this very much one track mind and if you take your mind and your focus off that you might slip up but just have this in mind that golf is a fantastic sport. And if you don't quite reach into tour like i mentioned there's so many different ways you can filter down into the world of golf. And still be i i'm blessed i get to put my golf shoes every day and call this my job you know and as much as my my career my job's kind of taken a completely different pattern what i fully expected and be open-minded to change as well because you know it is it is an opportunity. And hopefully josh continues and pushes hard and and does reach his goals whatever that may be. But also there's lots of pga pros who have made it on tour lasted a year and then.
Yeah kind of vanished. And now don't work in golf at all so because they might not have taken any more interest in other aspects of golf um so i think sometimes when when tour players don't get on tour i've seen it loads times before they almost look down on teaching people yeah they don't see it as their job they like it's like now it's going to teach where if you actually almost create a passion. For that in the background if you don't make it on tour at least you can jump out. And go well i've still got a passion yeah i actually really like helping you know golfers get better in whatever that way that may be. So yeah think of it josh. And hopefully you'll remember this chat from the richards golf show podcast and when you pick up that green jacket you'll give us a little name drop exactly and that's the thing though there's also as i said there's a lot of exciting jobs in golf you know every brand has got sales people marketing people custom fitters um you know people that work in the r d teams in the states people like chris trott work. For taylormade who's lit his job is to literally work with rory. And dustin johnson and build golf clubs for them so but ultimately without being rude all these people are mentioning are all essentially failed tour pros we all want to be tall probably none of us have done it. But very few of us have done it so yeah um should we get onto the main course.
