Mark Immelman, golf broadcaster, interviews acclaimed Golf Instructor, Author and Speaker. — Dr. Virgil Herring
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ABOUT THE EPISODE: Virgil Herring is an acclaimed Golf Instructor, Author and Speaker. He was named the 2015 Tennessee PGA Section Teacher of the Year and has won countless Tennessee PGA Section awards. He is also a “U.S. Kids Golf” Top 50 Instructor (source) and has guided many junior golfers to successful NCAA collegiate careers.
Herring has also worked with a number of PGA TOUR players, most notably former FedEx Cup Champion, bBrandt Snedeker.
He joins Mark Immelman to share his “4 Most Important Talents required to Compete Successfully.”
He discusses and elaborates on:
Driving Efficiency Carry Yardages Efficiency from within 40 yard of the Target, and Lag Putting and 3-Putt Avoidance. As he delves into each topic and shares ideas and tips on how to improve, Virgil addresses important elements and mindsets such as the Psychology of Expectation, Predictable Shot-shapes, the Perception of what it takes to be a Great Player, and Patience and Preparedness.
He uses examples from PGA TOUR players such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Boo Weekley and LIV players such as Greg Norman and Bryson DeChambeau.
STREAMING: On the Mark is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
ABOUT ON THE MARK: Mark’s knowledge, insight and experience have made him a sought-after mind on the PGA and European tours. Through his career, he has taught and/or consulted to various Major Champions, PGA Tour winners and global Tour professionals such as: Larry Mize, Loren Roberts, Louis Oosthuizen, Patton Kizzire, Trevor Immelman, Charl Schwartzel, Scott Brown, Andrew Georgiou and Rourke can der Spuy. His golf teaching experience and anecdotal storytelling broadcasting style makes him a popular host for golf outings.
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WEBSITE: Read top-notch golf content from Mark at https://markimmelman.com
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I’m somehow surprised they managed to sneak into this guy’s calendar there he is his virginal Herring actually he’s been on the show folks twice before Virgil I remember the one there when you talked about how to go from bad to good and good to great and there was one of
My favorites it was downloaded by the ton um welcome back to the show how are you I’m doing great Mark thanks for having me on my pleasure man um listen folks the audio listeners you can see Virgil in his sweet um Studio there uh if you go to
Mark inman.com just Pardon Me YouTube and just go and search Markman Virgil uh awesome setup there tell the folks from around the globe who haven’t heard of you a little bit about you and how you came to where you are please uh well my my name is Virgil Herring I went to uh
Mississippi State University in the golf Management program my mentor was the great Bill straws ball yeah Bill straws ball is so great that he won every major award that the PJ offer so they named the fifth award the bill straws ball award so that makes me very fortunate uh I’ve I’ve had the
Opportunity to coach over 200 kids to play college golf I’ve coached six national champions and probably the most prominent four player that I’ve coached uh coached for eight years was brt sneer and he T not good he made a bit of spending money on the PGA T he sure did
He should be really proud of himself he’s been a not only is he a great role model and Beacon of light for the tour but he’s he’s a he does a great charity work for our community here in Nashville especially for junior golf heck our Junior tour’s name the sneds tour so we
Are very grateful for all that brand provides I I have have a couple podcasts yours is on the mark mine’s on the verge and uh written three books and I teach golf here I have I have a studio in my home I I felt like financially it makes
The most sense in the world we live in today trackman I’ve been a longtime proponent of trackman so this is my studio and this is where I do nearly all of my coaching and for the audio listeners when he said this he he sort of looked over his right shoulder and
There’s is awesome uh v um simulator set up in behind him well lit really looks kind of slick and Chic and I’m sort of jealous all right Virgil um as I mentioned you’ve been on here before uh you recently did a Ted X talk tell us a
Little bit about that before we get into our material today I will I I applied because I’ve always dreamed ever since I saw the John Wooden Ted X yeah uh John Wooden was a great you know I never met him but I read everything that he did
Because I love coaching and I said I’m going to be on Ted x one day and then I got I saw something that Ted X was coming to Nashville or an Old Hickory Tennessee and I filled out the application form and like eight weeks later I get a phone call from a strange
Number and I almost never answered the call that would be me I have a strange phone number and I picked it up and it was uh the Ted people telling me that I’d been accepted to speak at Ted X Old Hickory and it was about uh elevating
Your community and I chose to speak on what we could learn from the great sports teams and great military teams to uh apply those systems and processes that they used to be great to improve our community and uh it went I have never been more nervous in my life when
I stepped on the stage yeah because it’s easy for me to talk golf but when I stepped out of my element I it was like a growing moment I I’d never done anything like that especially on a platform that gigantic but uh I prepared for it and it went uh swimmingly well
And it’ll be out here very soon and I’m super excited to share it because I want to see I just look forward for the feedback because it was a it was an exhilarating ride that’s for sure I’m certain okay uh shouldn’t date this cuz because it’s a podcast so go to tedx
Folks and go and um see what Virgil did there tease us please for the folks who haven’t seen it yet uh what is one thing that great sports teams or military installations did successful well I think that I had came up with an acronym and and the
Whole thing ended with what fruit can we reap if we follow a process or a system that has been proven successful and it’s get a pair which is growth mindset embrace the challenge take action um from there you have to accept the accept the situation as it is p
Prepare e execute the game plan a adaptability and b a a resilient and Relentless pursuit to the end and the whole point was is that if our community doesn’t uh if we want to reap the fruit we have to get a pair because we don’t get a pair
Soon no free to reap at all very cool play on words there congratulations my friend okay folks check out the Ted x uh let’s get to the business year Virgil Virgil um you said to me and I love this idea in fact you offered me a few and I
Was like yes yes all good all good but this one really resonated and you said I would like to address the four most important talents to competing and shooting low because and this one really hit me because you and me both but certainly me I see a lot of aspirant
Young you know professionals and and collegians and high school players even and they all want to be on the team and they all want to do well and they all kind of got the nuts and the bolts of it but you got to turn that into lower
Scores and turn that into the mindset to kind of grit and grin and bear it and hang in there and compete so so te us off please what’s the first most in your opinion or number one um Talent required to shoot low and compete well I believe
That the first piece is you have to be able to drive the golf ball effectively and obviously we know that the longer you hit it the more of an advantage you have as long as it’s playable and what we’ve we’ve learned and Scott Fett from decade has done a great job of helping
Us is that if you can hit it 25 yards longer than we’ll be considered average you can be in the rough and your proximity to the hole will be closer than somebody who’s in the Fairway 25 yards behind you so when we think of of the advantages that the best players in
The history of the game have had they were always the longest player of their era yeah you know Hogan Nicholas Norman Woods mroy DJ what do they all do they drive it longer and more effectively than everybody else and you can look at their Fairways hit numbers we got tiger
Too I can’t believe I didn’t leave tiger they their driving distance numbers they were so much farther than everybody else but they were only hitting like 55 54% of their Fairways but it really didn’t make a difference as long as they weren’t penalized or having to pitch out
Either due to high rough or trees so driving Effectiveness sets the table for greatness I want to throw you a curve bll there because look I agree I work on the PGA tour week in and week out and I see this and and it certainly is an
Advantage to hit a shorter Club to targets but here recently we had Brendan Todd on this podcast and and I have massive admiration as I do for bran s who came back from that horrid um rib sternum uh Melody I guess injury that he had but Brendan came back from the
Depths of the game and sort of stuck to what he was doing and he spoke of being driving actually I need to read the quote properly so I don’t get this wrong forgive me just one second into the big Tad here he said accuracy wins distance is a
Luxury and and now look I I’m with you but you said it and I want you to reiterate it that look driving it long doesn’t mean just swinging for the fences and having penalty balls all over the show you got to keep that Cannon controlled yes oh absolutely I mean at
The end of the day when you look at like what I think of the greatest driver of all time it’s it comes down to three people is Greg Norman Tiger Woods from like 2000 to 2002 and Rory mroy and they generally were in what I consider 97% of
The time their drives were may not have been in the Fairway but they were not obstructed or penalized to the green yeah and yes they hit it you know I think probably pound-for-pound Tiger Woods was longer than anybody’s ever been especially compared to the equipment they were playing yeah and but
He just they all had a certain shot shape that they could predict M you know and that’s really important that’s almost to fundamental having a predictable shot shape but at the end of the day you have to drive it in Play Because 350 in the trees is a pitch out
350 in the right rough you have a wedge in your hand and I would like I would like tiger from 3 350 Al in the rough over Brendan Todd at 295 in the Fairway for the rest of my life yeah no absolutely agree um give some folks
Advantage there because look we all have our threat threshold our governor you know when it comes to power and we can break this Governor we’ve seen guys and girls do it um so you they came to Virgil in your sweet Studio there for a lesson and me young golfer who wants to
Hit it 25 farther because I’ve listened to this podcast now and you look at me like all right Mark uh you’re hitting your Club Ed speeds 102 and you’re swinging out of your rear end to get it that extra distance where do we start I guess is my question well first thing we
Would do is we would start with the mechanics of the golf swing are you properly coiled is you if you’re right I’m just going to talk right-handed golfers because most people are but if if does your right leg stay braced and do you coil your shoulders until they
Can’t turn another degree no okay so there in lies the first question is if when you’re trying to maximize your output you’re maximize your speed is you have to coil your shoulders into your right leg until you can’t turn anymore or you lose your right leg one of those
Two things right so I always say like until you’re probably unless you’re a female under the age of 15 your back swing thought is turn until you can’t yeah into a brace right leg now if you are doing all of the mechanics right and in the back swing and then we’re talking
About coming into the down swing do you does your left leg post or do you have that so-called Justin Thomas Franchesco molinard jump like do you come out of the ground Bubba Watson’s another great example of coming up out of the ground are you maximizing your ground forces
Yeah if you’re not doing that we will be doing things to help you you know stand up post up on onto your lead leg coming in impact and pulling the golf club up to the Finish not throwing the head into the ball to the Finish if you have the
Mechanics now we’re left with are you willing to put in the training to make yourself stronger and faster that is gigantic yeah if you’re willing and then there are couple systems out there I think my opinion Sasha McKenzie’s stack system is probably the most incredible thing I’ve seen for a a golfer who
Doesn’t have or doesn’t have the want to train to get bigger faster and stronger but does have the want to maybe 35 minutes every other day do the stack system to increase their Club head speed yeah I obviously we saw what it did for Matthew Patrick but I’ve seen for
Teenagers I’ve seen 7 miles hour just this year from an already proficient Junior golfer a girl going from 91 to 99 and a boy going from 106 to 113 awesome um yeah well look I’ve had brassen on the show you know Bryson was like Bryson
1.0 one 2.0 then 3.0 and 2.0 he like I just got as heavy as I could because I was just trying to hit as hard as I could and then he learned by speed regimens and stuff and connecting with Kyle Burkshire that it’s a function of strength and efficiency to use your term
Yeah and I think that in my opinion from the people that I’ve seen in the in the industry Sasha McKenzie is the man yeah and I I really respect everything that he does so he’d be a great resource for the listeners out there to check out Sasha McKenzie he’s got great YouTube
Videos he’s awesome being on the show all right uh so driving efficiency is one thing required to shooting low and competing um number two uh what is that please you have to know how far you carry the golf ball with every Club reach Reverend Herring okay I I I really
Think that most people like here’s the thing when you’re on the driving range on a PGA Tour event I mean you can watch people with the trackman or whatever device that they have uh behind them and they can hit a shot like 171.5 and then you hear the beep and
Then the coach be like 171.8cm very like to almost to the half yard in some cases right I don’t think the average golfer is predictable in like within 10 yards most of almost all people think they hit it slightly longer to a lot longer than they really do and
So let’s take that that piece out just covering it’ be great to know how far you carry it the second part is is that you’re competing golfer the most important thing you need to know is what do you need to carry the water the bunker the high grass whatever it is
And then why well when you’re playing in the Northeast on bent greens and it’s soft and you’re 168 to the hole the ball’s probably going to go maybe one yard past its ball Mark at the most yeah but if you’re playing East Lake in September on hard Bermuda greens and you
Got a 168 carry over the bunker but the PIN is 177 all you have to do is basically just barely carry that bunker and the ball’s going to release to the hole so knowing the golf course and what the greens are like is really important because some
Greens the ball sticks in the ball Mark and others it releases 12 17 feet I’m so glad you highlighted that because and I want you to talk about this please so many golfers arrive at the ball pop out the cart grab the wrench find a laser
The flag and then they’re like 150 my 150 Club is a eight iron but what the eight iron does might be 150 total and not 150 in the air so please differentiate that yeah most people especially if they have access to a launch monitor they don’t look at the
Carry number because total number and so like oh man hit ad 153 and then they look over there and the Cary was 146 yep MH and so and it’s so fascinating when you look at the numbers like almost every Green that is missed is missed short and there’s a little bit of
Psychology and I got some of this from Tom Watson I was getting ready to go play in a proam in Ireland in 2004 and he told me to not try to do what tiger does which is H these stingers and manipulated shots he told me to take one
More club that I thought I needed until I hit it over the green so let’s just say it’s 20 miles per hour of wind and that means it’s got to be playing at least 30 yards longer keep in mind people out there that if you’re playing in 20 m per hour of wind
You’re gaining one yard for every mile per hour downwind but you’re losing 1.7 in so that 20 is 34 yards into the wind yeah and so he’s like if you think that from 150 that’s your eight iron and now it’s playing 184 and you think well
That’s six why don’t you just hit five and and try to hit it over the green two things happen one I’ve never hit it over the green I do find it funny though that the only time that he did hit it over the green was the one that broke my
Heart broke my heart the most but the other thing is that what it does psychology and psychologically when you hit a ball over the green you have overperformed against your expectation value so even though you you’re over the green you were better than you thought you were but there’s hardly anything
Worse even for the best players to be you know 150 absolutely flush that six iron into the 20 mile per hour wind and hit it in the front bunker when they flushed it that means they underperformed their expectation levels if you factor in what that does to the
Psyche over a long period of time yes most of the time over the green is not necessarily the best place to be but psychologically speaking I’m better than I think I am and it really shifts the mind on your own self-image and the self-image is a very critical point to playing Great
Golf okay I’m going to mine a little bit here for the for more gold along these things first off on this very show hell Sutton has been on you and you talk about Watson Hall of Famer hell Sutton my goodness I mean what an achiever what
A hard worker and he said he learned from get this right he learned from Ben Hogan because his dad was in the oil business Byron Nelson and his mentor when he arrived on the p DGA tour was um Raymond Floyd ultimate competitor and he said he got one lesson
From Floyd and that was hit the ball pin High every time every time now for folks watching or listening to this go and see when you play again how often you are pin high I would venture to guess it’s less than 25% of the time okay and secondly I want
To say this you know in terms of being over the green maybe on the PGA tour it’s bad because greens are so fast and firm so you typically you’re pitching or chipping or hitting a bunker shot downhill but for your average Club golfer don’t you think over the green
Not so bad I mean most of the trouble’s normally in the front you with me yeah 100% I think that that’s so spot on we have we always have to every once in a while there are certain topics that we have to delineate that’s a PGA Tour
Problem and this is an average or everybody’s problem the PGA Tour yes they have to be very concerned especially there certain golf courses that are known for their severity of their greens like it’s really it’s a bad idea to be long at Augusta National on certain holes yeah but still even some
Like colonial’s not that bad to be over the green on so Hilton Head not bad to be over the green on so there’s is that’s not a ubiquitous PGA tour tour statement there’s just certain golf courses that it would you have to strategically set up a short Miss but
Other than that I would say 95 times out of a 100 everywhere in the world it would be better for you to hit a shot that goes slightly long than it would be to be slightly short yes all right now for um observation number three I’m going to
Borrow your uh your your your innuendo you talked about earlier with getting a pair yeah I’m big on loow hanging fruit as it pertains to golf Improvement now your tip number three to me is lwh hanging fruit for better scoring so go there to be able to hit a proficient 20
To 40 yard pitch shot is an absolute Ace of Spades in your pocket for multiple reasons number one in the world we live in today and thanks to Scott Fett for all this information the closer we hit it to the hole the better the closer we’re going
To hit our next shot to the hole but in statistic speaking 20 to 40 yard shots in the PGA Tour Miss more greens in regulation than from a 100 it’s a tough shot yeah to be able to land your 20 to 40 yard shot onto the green with and with a
Proficiency that really makes your par five scoring go up your short par four scoring go up MH bad t-ball Pitch Out scoring go up yep those three things ultimately are what allowed tiger to dominate in his prime his par five scoring was absolutely insanely low like
4.3 he when every time he hit a poor shot he pitched it out and he would get it up and down an AB absurd amount of the time and he dominated par fors that were under 360 yards on the PGA tour just totally crushed it and how I know
That you people could argue that sevy was better than Tiger but the only person I can think of that’s even in the ballpark is sevy when it comes to Tiger from 20 to 40 yards and it is a super important shot yeah I couldn’t agree
More and and I want to share a couple observations with you and let you kind of elaborate first off I say this it’s kind of like my little diddy because I was a college coach for a while and they don’t listen very well so okay Y and I would always say to them
Okay if you are good at shot number three you’re going to make lots of threes and fours if you’re good at shot number one you’re going to make fewer sixes and sevens in that sort of stuff that would be the way I looked at it and they would listen and then you talk
About par five scoring when web Simpson was on this podcast and he talked with me at that time web Simpson who’s not the longest guy in the world was leading the PA five scoring on the PGA tour and I asked him about that and he goes well
You know I’m pretty good with hybrids and faway medals and stuff he goes but from inside 20 30 yards I’m always trying to play to the side which leaves the makes the shot as easy as possible but I worked on that and excelled on that and your’s web you know beating the
Rory and the DJs of the world in power five scoring because of the third shot 100% now once again there in lies that strategy piece gave away his secret right knowing angles knowing that on the PGA tour 75 to 80% of the pins are tucked to know where to give himself the
Most room to land the ball because at 30 yards you’re not backing a ball up no at best you’re hoping for what I call the bean bag shot where it hits and bounces and stops pretty close to its second contact with the Earth that’s at the
Best but if you’re coming out of the rough you have to have some room so if a pin’s back left and web’s going to try to miss it to the right he knows that maybe I if I just push it five yards I might be in the first cut which is going
To reduce the amount of spin I can put on the ball so I have to have the room to maybe land at 18 feet short and let it release because if I short sight it and I Got No Room well now I’m I’m not really having a real good chance I have
To make a 15 18 footer to make birdie so there’s at the highest level there’s so many moving parts to Greatness and some people don’t have to worry about some some things but at the end of the day angles and knowing how to attack a golf
Course for what you bring to the table is really one of the most important pieces don’t try to be Rory unless you got Rory’s game there’s more web Simpsons out there so to speak than are Rory mroy but learning how to tear apart a golf course what I call mathematically
Is a really important piece you reference strategy and not just Hing and hoping you know having a plan making the next shot as simple as as possible and then you also talked about spin you know your bean bag shot and I don’t think golfer is the average golfer watching or listening to
This realizes how often when I’m out there between the ropes with a player and he’s got 30 or 40 yards or whatever and he’s and he’s getting relief from a sprinkler head in the rough or something or even in the Fairway and the flags in the back and
The greens are the receptive you know through the summertime because of rainstorms over here all the time M if the area of relief is inside or or the from the area relief from the ball happens to clip the first cutter R if they’ve got a long ways for
The ball to go on the green they’ll drop the ball in that first cut to mitigate some of the spin so they know okay I can fly this thing lower and kind of run it in there because if it’s coming from the Fairway it might spin it might do the
Bean bag or it might hop forward that’s the unpredictability of it but just how widely they think to your observation yeah I think that I I spent a lot of time with st I’ve done a lot of golf schools a Stan and he he hates Back Spin because said
Heavy you know yeah you can’t back you can’t predict the backup so Stan always like to throw like the ball in there as Bean baggy as possible and let it release a little bit to the hole because that’s predictable the roll out is more predictable than the Back Spin now they
Are very like less than probably 8% of golf world really have to worry about backing a ball up but at the end of the day the ability to one know how far you’re going to hit it and two be able to control the spin is important and I
Know that the tour players love that first cut because that’s probably going to eliminate the chances of it really backing up and that gives them that hit and short release back pins that’s a really good that’s a really good thing to have in your pocket to not have to
Fly it all the way back there there’s a lot of there’s a lot of moving parts that answer but yeah man being able to control your spin is a super important well I’m going to stay with the moving Parts um again the tour pro because they are that good can manipulate a lofted
Wedge but from 40 yards wouldn’t you Advocate that a lot of golfers Juniors high schoolers even collegians Club golfers listening to this may want to look at more than their love WS from inside this range for certain shots given the situation yeah because we have to throw
Into the situation that how many percent of people TR Ry know how to impact the golf ball correctly to optimize spin control probably not that many but then there’s a host of others that are almost there they don’t have the perfect shaelan with the perfect descending blow
With the divot 4 Ines past the the low point4 inches past the golf ball but they clip it nice so those people even though they wouldn’t have what was now becoming a very popular term the correct spin Loft um for impact um sometimes we could have better luck with a 52 degree
Wedge from 70 yards than we would with a full lob wedge one I always referen like throwing darts Dart throwers throw it flat they don’t throw it way up into the air so to be able to keep your 52 it’s a smoother slower swing much easier to
Repeat the ball flight comes down it gives you that hit land maybe bean bag but maybe a release to 12 12 feet past the ball Mark man that is a huge shot for these players to learn and when you’re talking 20 to 40 yards I would probably not choose 52 if there’s a
Front bunker to worry about or a front pin but a 56 or their Sand Wedge is probably a better choice for two reasons one The Sand Wedge usually has more bounce than the lob wedge so it gives them a little insurance for contact and it gives them a little higher trajectory
Than the 52 but not so balloony like the 60 for most golfers and I’m going to call out the folks who’ve been or at least say hey all you folks is someone’s told you you flip it through contact I would contend Virgil and I want your take that a lot of these folks
Especially with short clubs they trying to Garner more speed that’s why they’re throwing their hands and wrist at the thing and so if you are trying to stretch a lob wedge there’s every likelihood you flipping this thing and then miss it’s occur but if you go with something a little shorter then the
Hands will naturally quen down because you know this is to your Tom Watson story I’m not trying to overhit this so as a result the hands and the wrist and stuff there that final Cog in the chain of um energy release is kind of just dulled a little bit well there like how
I put it like this when and to speak of the golf mechanics right most people when they hit a wedge they’re compelled to try to help the ball up a little bit so to not bore people with physics but as soon as the body goes backward it
Stops rotating and as soon as rotation stops levers get Throne that’s the that’s the early release so you’re seeing a lot of the best players and there’s you know Vic Victor hin story on going from probably one of the five worst pitchers of the golf ball to one
Of the best pitchers of the golf ball in one year and thanks to a good buddy mind Joe Mayo you know you’re seeing that you should be feeling like you’re getting in front of the ball slightly so that even if you do release it a little early
You’re still going to clip the ball first but it’s so this game is such an evil game the club makes you feel like you got to get back underneath it to help it up into the air and that gets most people but it’s actually counterintuitive to feel like you move
Forward and keep turning now you get the descending blow it keep helps you keep your right wrist for a right-handed golfer maintain that angle and you clip it off the grass much better but it’s really important to stay in barely in front of where you started lovely all
Right we’re three of four um what’s the final one this this one folks I love I I I got I got the memo beforehand but I love this one I I believe one of the the most underappreciated underutilized and under practice skill in the game is lag
Putting under practice for certain oh my goodness and like to me I’m guilty is charged my my mindset from age 16 to 23 when I was the dreamer that I might be able to do something in this game was I’m just going to hit it closer to the
Hole I don’t need to work on my 40 and 5050 foot putting I’m just going to hit it closer to the hole and I would have if I would have grown up in an era where Scott fet was in my ear at age 16 it have been better but at the
End of the day what I’ve learned now is if I’m not really clicking this allows me to play to the middle of the green and make easy pars because I roll my 30-footer up there to two feet tap it in and go to the next hole and if there’s
Anything that I’ve learned from Brandt is to just hang around until you find something yeah don’t shoot yourself out of it and Brandt was is certainly one of the 10 greatest Putters in tour history and there’s a lot to be learned because if you can take the pressure off by
Being able to hit it into the fat side of the green roll it up there to two or three feet tap it in for par and go to the next hole and rinse and repeat rinse and repeat good lag putting can keep your you know round well below standard because what ends up
Happening if you don’t practice your lag putting is you feel like you don’t have your a game you play to the middle of the green you got a 35 footer and you three putt it you go to the next hole and you’re like that’s okay first hole
Not wasn’t quite sure the green speed whatever next hole is a par three you hit five iron to 35 ft you roll that one up there to 5 feet lip it out now you’re two over through two you hit two greens regulations two three putts what’s the next thing you’re thinking on your
Approach shot on got it close I got I got to start taking out the flags because I’m a terrible leg Putter and so it’s the negative selft talk and the negative selft talk comes from underpreparedness and the underpreparedness is incorrect perception of what it takes to be a
Great player so to me lag putting is such an essential skill to to make an elite player stand out and a good player to take it to the next level because most people do not have the correct perception of what great golf looks like most people’s version of what great golf
Looks like has never ever happened it’s too perfect yeah it’s it’s so mundane how unbelievably good tiger and his prime Jack in his prime Greg Norman in his prime falo they just ground you up until they got hot because they just put it in play hit it to the middle of the
Green made a par oops get to a par five hit it it to two put birdie and then get a little momentum going and you know as you know this Mark I mean literally the birdies on the PGA tour come in bunches they’ll usually make three or four in a
Row in in like an hour’s time they get hot and then they kind of cool off and there’s their 68 they have four or five birdies make a bogey somewhere but those birdies come in bunches because they get a little hot streak I want to add to that couple
Things you know I began my broadcast career career in radio and our job there was to describe the action unlike TV where I just add something to the action hopefully mhm and I can’t tell you how many times I would stand behind a green and when you doing a radio show or TV
You know you’re on the leaders that I would describe a shot High drawer coming in there lands 25 feet left of the flag a three iron hits the green that’s going to be about 40 feet away as I sort of put a period on the call and I can’t to
This day I remember how many times I said 2 ft 25t 30t in terms of approach shots because that is what these guys are doing the line share of the time and I don’t think golfers to your thing about perception realize that yeah I tell you I’ll never forget this day as
Long as I live I was it was 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic I’m with Brandt and I’m I’m not in the conversation I’m just listening to boo weekly talk to Ian polter and somebody else and he said I only work on two putts I hit 30 foot putts and four foot
Putts because I’m going to hit it into the middle of every Green unless I have a wedge in my hand I won’t take I won’t even take a neron at the flag unless the flag’s in the middle of the green I’m going to hit in the middle of the green
And I just want to be the greatest 30 foot putter in the world never miss a short one and then be able to take advantage of the par fivs and the holes in which I got wedge into it where I will take on the flag
And I was like I listen to that at that point I hadn’t really gotten all the information on the analytics I’m like that is so strange that he literally Only Hits 30f Footers and four-footers yeah and there’s a lot of Merit to that there’s a lot of Merit to that because
If you you know think about it in 2015 Jason day didn’t miss a putt inside of five feet for the whole year you know you’re going to be a dominant figure if you’re not missing a putt inside of 5 do you know that that year um I asked him
About it post 2015 and he said his goal that year was to play the par 3es in even par on average and he played the par 3es to 3.01 which tells you he’s not firing at a whole bunch of flags on the threes because I’ve never seen a bad three and
For that matter and this is to all the collegians and the high schoolers and even some pros to this I’ve never really seen a bad 72 either there can be days on the tour that you should 73 and you’re getting drilled by everybody but
You know if you come if you shoot the 72 like Nick price mentioned to me then you stay in the game you’re still in it but if you’re try and force the issue and you shoot 73 or four now that’s a different animal 100% like patience in the tour world or in the
Competitive World usually stems from preparedness yeah they recognize that they can not give away a golf tournament early by just they don’t have their best stuff knowing how to mathematically angle their shots to give themselves the best chance for Success hit it into the middle of the green take
The risk out lag it up there you never know when you might make one you don’t make a lot of putts from that range but you just don’t want to give any away and that is such a powerful mechanism to being a great competitor is that when
You don’t feel like you have to do something when you don’t have your best stuff and you can just kind of wait around and let the game come to you that’s what the best players do is they don’t they’re they’re patient enough to know that they’re not going to suck for
Four hours but they might not have it all day but they’re GNA have like a nice run of par five short par four par five where that they could go birdie birdie eagle and they could totally change their day because they missed the first four Fairways they missed the first four
Greens they get it up and down save their par but this is going to be a hard day they hold on they they play to their percentages and then they catch that little hot streak usually because it’s like that I said par five short par four par five
They go four under that stretch and they get Mo on their team little momentum and then they finish strong and then you always see that interview it’s like man I kind of I really got a lot out of that round today because I didn’t really have
My best stuff got hot late and I’m really excited about it but I got to go to the range today because I got to figure something out before tomorrow you hear that a lot on the tour that’s uncanny too H for the Collegian who’s like I’m sucker I can’t hit it worth the
Flip and then they make a few accidental birdies and there hitting it great you know just because of the momentum hey I want to cap that with Abu weekly ISM who on the show said Mr Mark I had never seen the middle of the green move
Because I’m hitting at it he’s like a hunter he goes you know it’s a Sitting Duck I’m going to shoot at the thing that does doesn’t move all the time so let’s say the listeners now take heed of what Virgil Herring says you should because he knows what he’s talking about
And they hit at the middle of the green and they faced with 30 40 25 20 feet all day long what’s a drill how can they go and practice the lag putting please well so first things first right the transfer of energy between you having a ball in
Your hand and rolling it to the hole is remarkably similar to the exact same amount of energy that your arms would need to stroke the putt to make the ball roll that far okay most important piece to that is that you have to have good enough mechanics that you’re hitting it
Close to the center of the face so you have to able to hit the ball consistently on the face right consistently could be slightly on the toe or slightly on the heel or in the dead center but if you’re consistently hitting it there you have a degree of
Predictability but one of my favorite drills is just take four balls with you onto the putting green hold your putter if you’re you know I say you’re you’re right-handed golfer you hold your putter in your left hand and just put the golf ball in your right hand and just roll
The ball with your right arm and imagine how hard your right arm would have to swing until you get the ball to roll to the hole all right after you’ve successfully rolled the ball with your right hand to the hole put that right hand on the Putter and make the the same
Motion and watch how unbelievably efficient you roll the golf ball yeah it’s amazing you know as I was listening to that that’s a fantastic drill folks um and you’re not going to look crazy your friends aren’t going to think you’re nut gas just tell them Virgil
Said so and Mark agreed um but I’m looking at your simulator there and Des shamber you know when he was playing on the tour I would see that guy all the time on the putting green out there long range with a launch monitor measuring how fast the ball was coming off the
Face so that spoke to what you were saying about the consistency of contact and then when he got that down and he’s like well if I swing the putter this hard with this much emphasis the ball’s going that far on the screen and it almost became like math to him in the
End yeah I I have found it is very interesting there are there are people out there that are really that’re wired for that number like they hit wed shots with that in mind too which is really crazy to me uh but yeah I think that it’s super important for to for you to
Find something that you can cling to that is timing SLS speeed related some people feel that they can control that with a tick tock in their head or a one two in their head and some people can really just have an innate sense of that’s that ball coming off at
22 miles per hour or 17 miles per hour you each person has their own gifts it’s just your job is to figure out figure out what do you have to do to ensure that and the only thing that I can tell you is is that if you can do something
That practices through a gate so that you consistently have to hit it in a fairly consistent part of the putter face that’s the actual key Bryce at the Shambo hits it pretty much dead center every single time so that makes his speed control visual there easy for him but for the 18 handicapper
If you put like impact tape on their putter face and they hit 10 putts you might see six impact spots because they hit it all over the face so we definitely know that a ball off the toe is going to roll dead than a ball that’s
Hit in the center of the face with the exact same stroke so people could be like I must be making this radically different stroke and like no you’re hitting it differently on the club face and you’re getting a different energy transfer when you hit it so you have to
Tidy up your impact points for you to become a better lag poter which folks is as simple as Drilling and I know one Tiger Woods every day every day every tour Practice Day tournament Day first thing he does on the green you speak of that gate he puts a tea outside the toe
In the heel of the Putter and hits three Footers for about 10 minutes doing that yeah and he does it with one hand a lot too yeah and he’s actually and you can actually see the wear Mark in the middle of that Scotty Cameron putter of his
Te that’s a pretty value putter that’s that’s a uh you know he’s he’s remarkable in his ability mental ability to stay focused for long periods of time and to be able to to sift through all the information debris to get to the true fundamental so that he’s not wasting his
Time when he’s practicing so he recognizes that for him for him to be a great short Putter and for him to be a great lag putter he has to have have impact face control and he does that through Gates and other other simulations that force
Him to do it right and if he doesn’t do it right he gets the feedback which is what ultimately our practice should have when you don’t have a coach hanging around you what are you doing so that if you hit a bad one you know what happened instead of guessing what happened
Brilliant and folks he will is arguably tiger that is the greatest of all time and he does it every day even now it’s not like he’s developed it it is it’s continually herning his craft it’s it’s remarkable he is and there are many things that he does that it’s right in
Front of our face but we want to we want to see something else that’s not there because he’s so much better than most but it’s really not in the frill it’s in the it’s in the it’s in the core it’s in the fundamentals of what he does that allowed him
To think clearer because he had less interference in his mind because there was way less doubt in his mind oh so good all right um I’m looking at the clock there’s probably someone waiting for you in your studio there for the lesson um Virgil tell the folks where
They can find you the social media the website if they’re in Nashville how they can get in touch with you please so on social media on both Tik Tok and Instagram it’s Virgil doering uh for me you can catch me on Virgil hearing.com as my website my new
Video series which is VH blueprint.com I cover all of these fundamentals uh the things that I think are the most important parts of the game that’s the first of a volumes that I’m going to do uh the first ones are the fundamentals then it’ll be characteristics and it’ll
Be idiosyncrasies of greatness um but that’s out right now it’s Virgil VH blueprint.com and my phone number is 615 579 5190 I do I can do online I can do you know via FaceTime or obviously here in my studio in Nashville Tennessee get in before he gets further booked up folks
Virgil thanks for your time I appreciate you all thanks for having me on buddy best of luck to you and have a uh have a great rest to your Year buddy how’s
1 Comment
Spot on.