Dan Grieve: Becoming Golf’s Short Game Guru | Monthly Meets

We’re excited to announce the launch of Monthly Meets, a new interview series where we speak in depth to some of the biggest personalities in golf. We’re delighted to say that this first episode is with short game guru and social media sensation Dan Grieve! In this exclusive interview, Dan reveals all about how he became an expert in his field, the secrets behind the success of three releases, coaching some of the world’s best players, his best tips for golfers trying to improve their short game and much much more!

Be sure to tune in every month for more big interviews with some of the most high profile names in the sport! Massive thanks to Dan for being so generous with his time and joining us for the first ever episode of Monthly Meets!

CHAPTERS
Introduction 0:00-0:30
Can he believe his rise in popularity? 0:31
What has made him stand out of the last 18 months 1:23
Dan’s early days 4:40
Coaching Charley Hull 7:45
How he studied the short game 9:14
Origins of the 3 Releases 12:00
Which pro had the best short game? 16:32
Mental side of the short game 19:38
Where do the yips come from? 21:27
Coaching a Major champion 25:11
Most common mental errors amateurs make 28:49
Quick fire questions 32:06

► Get your own copy of ‘3 Releases: The Short Game System’ by Dan Grieve: https://hawk.ly/m/3-releases-the-short-game-system/i/GMYTD33

► Video shot on location at Woburn Golf Club. Visit https://www.woburngolf.co.uk/ for more information.

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► Watch more on Golf Monthly…
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📹 How To Play The Coolest Shots In Golf! 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzkHLeobKqI

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my big job was I to go and sweep the clubhouse with this biggest broom I’ve ever seen and I’ll be getting the VHS cassette of the 1987 Open Championship one of the worst sets of Ys I’ve ever seen he was missing the ball on occasions the way I’d been taught I couldn’t play certain shots I do feel like I can play Shots that most T players Camp there’s a rewiring that goes on where your brain starts saying okay maybe I can do this all right Dan thanks for joining us appreciate it uh if I’d set you down maybe 10 years ago let’s say 2014 I’d said here’s your YouTube subscribers here’s your Instagram followers you’ve got an international bestselling book would you have quite believed me no no way down not at all um you know I’ve always had Ambitions of where I want to sort of grow my my sort of coaching business and who I wanted to reach and Coach but I mean in terms of the social media I mean 10 years ago I mean it wasn’t really a thing back then it was some people were doing it and uh you know they’re still doing really well but I mean I never really set out to get into social media it’s something sort of fallen into and it’s just grown incredibly the last few years and it’s brought many opportunities it’s great fun been able to you know help golfers really all around the world that’s why I love being able to reach golfers um but yeah really particularly the bck I mean kri absolutely no no clue that um it would have the impact it’s had really and we’ll come on to that and the book and and sort of the way you teach a bit later um but what do you think specifically helped you stand out over the last 12 or 18 months in which you have kind of exploded everyone sort of knows you as a short game guy is there anything you can pinpoint specifically uh well I mean the social media I started doing that I would say properly only maybe three two or three years ago probably three years ago maybe and and and if you look online there’s so many golf coaches on there great golf coaches delivering great content but often just straight to the camera just delivering sort of tips to the camera and I think there’s worth in that but I didn’t want to go down that route I wanted to cuz you know before then you know had a lot of success coaching players at the top level and I saw myself as a proper coach as it were I didn’t want to be going down just a quick tip route on on on on social media I wanted to to be more organic and more natural so all of my content initially was just me coaching which was actually really easy to film because I didn’t have to plan anything I didn’t have to prepare anything I didn’t have to remember what I was going to say to camera it was just some someone Tim who used to help me on the short game schools and he still does and he would just basically just film it was really raw on on an iPhone nothing special and it was just filming me coaching generally on the short game schools golfers of all levels and we just sort of edited a little bit before and after so it’ be here’s the golf for hitting the shot not very well this is me stepping in and sort of talking about this is what you need to do and then you know generally people will get better after what I said and then there’d be sort of the after and I think when it’s natural coaching and you can see the effect I think that engages um golfers and I think when I started doing that two three years AG I don’t think there was there were many if any coaches really doing it that way was all to the camera so I think that’s probably what has sort of set it set me apart a little bit of course you know coaching Rick Shields that that was a big moment and you know he reached out to me he want some help of his own game because you know he’s always playing these break 75s and whatever he’s a lot of pressure on him actually doing that and want to improve a short game when he came and did a video here and that was that was that was great because that’s had I think had well over a million views actually I’m not sure exactly I think like 1.3 or 4 million views and that helped bring a greater audience to me as well which is which has helped move around some of different platforms and yeah enjoyed working with Rick he’s come back we’ve done some bit off camera as well some has come down we spend a day totally off camera work on his short game he is getting there a lot of people say you know he needs he needs why isn’t he doing the same he he’s getting better he’s hitting some great shots he just he’s just got to get find times to practice it and he’s always playing Under Pressure it’s hard for him because he’s got cameras on him all the time he’s playing some of the best players in the world on tough tour courses but he is improving so yeah I really enjoyed working with Rick and you know helping him with a short game yeah suggestion I tend to agree from what I’ve watch is it’s rare what you do I think it feels like you’re getting a peak inside an elite lesson which a lot of golfers kind of want to see right yeah that’s right yeah it feels like you just sort of you know you’re behind the shoulders sort of peeking in yeah and I think I think that’s what people like it’s just so it’s natural and I enjoy doing it as well it’s um and I never for once none of it’s staged I mean it’s just it’s just literally a group grou of eight that turn up on a short game school and and we just we just do it and and and lucky I seem to be able to make people hit better shots yeah and that is a good thing that’s got to be a great thing so uh for people who may have only discovered you the last six 12 18 months can you just take us sort of way back and how you’ve how you’ve got here you know how did you become a pro where were you based and how long have you been here at Wen for I guess yeah so I I’ve played all my life my my grandfather was a top top golfer dad’s a good player so it was in the family uh and uh I went to University went down that route got a business studies degree kept playing I was a sort of a decent decent low you know low handicap player and then in 1999 I decided to get into golf after finishing my degree and I started at Selby Golf Club in in North Yorkshire and uh then turned Pro and joined the PJ in 2000 and then I embarked upon the three-year training uh program and then ended up here today but you know the days at Selby they were they were great days you know it’s a private members Club you know busy members ship and I just I’ve always loveed the game of golf I just love it and I remember when I first started there it was it was just fantastic I love been in around the golf 247 I mean primarily I just worked in the shop that’s all I did you when I when I first started there Andrew Smith was a pro at the time great guy great coach um and and he took me on he paid me the princely sum of 75 a week that was my a little bit less in Winter a little bit more in summer but it was £75 a week um but I didn’t do it for them I I just loved I love love learning I was meeting people I was um in amongst the game 24/7 when I wasn’t in the shop I was out practicing I was playing and I and I just loved it and uh but uh you know I remember one of my key my key roles really I would open the shop at some like halfast 6 in the morning and then my big job was decided to go and sweep the clubhouse with this biggest broom I’ve ever seen I’ve never seen a broom this big since and I I would go and sweep all the mud and the cigarette butts from all around the clubhouse every morning took about half an hour and I did it in all weathers but it was my chance to sort of you know visualize and dream about wanting to achieve in golf and I never really sort of you know OB there all we particularly going out like going out in the rain doing it but it it it it was good for me it was good to sort of um feel like okay this is where I’m starting what have I got to do now to progress and and and and build and and you know progress through the career and you know you’ve been famously a short game coach now but at what point in your sort of times learning to be a coach and coaching all these great golfers that you have coached did did the short game stuff start to become your Niche it probably when I did come here to Oben which is uh 2006 came here um Eddie Bullock interviewed from M jar and got really great with Eddie really good guy and um you know he gave me the opportunity here which is amazing I mean this is just for me the best best golf club in the UK and uh you know I started you know mixing with with with everyone in the golf industry and I started coaching a guy called Steve Luton who’s you know top top player still he’s still got a great career now he’s just achieving great things out in the Asian tour and start coaching him in 2008 so not long after I came here and had some success got him on to European tour we went to the tour school together that was fantastic he got on to the European tour so that sort of got me a little bit of um recognition and then it wasn’t long after that that uh David Hull Charlie Hull’s dad um approached me because Charlie was was I’m a great amateur player but she was about to turn pro and he felt that she needed some help with her short game specifically and he’d seen some of the work I’d done with Steve and uh you know we started working and and that was when Charlie was 15 years old and she turned pro at 16 and then because back then I I knew short game I studied I studied it you know I love I love learning about the game but I would say I was equal on long game and short game and ping all the same um but then I was just doing just doing short game with um with Charlie excuse me and um and suddenly you get that reputation because because she was so high-profile she burst onto this scene she came second in her first five appearances on the lady Shan tour suddenly I’m I’m I’m doing clinics with her I’m I’m in golf magazines you know doing short game bits with the and I thought to myself well I better I better really learn how to do it now so I thought well I’m in this position I better really study it like really own it and really get into short game um in terms of the ins outs of it and that’s when I started working on my own game number one my own short game because if I’m coaching a top player I want to be able to demonstrate shots and particularly in the clinics I was doing I want to be able to demonstrate the shots shots and I wanted to be able to study it so if people ask me about it I could really answer it so I i’ say it was really all down to to Charlie Hull really which sort of got me in that Arena as a short game coach and from there it’s just developed it’s just leveraged off that really that’s really interesting so talk me through like talk me through your short game before you started studying it was it where was it at and what sort of studying did you do really to get yourself really to the stage you are now as a sort of Guru of the short game I guess yeah uh well I I mean I I was a a product of the late 80s sort of um you know mid 80s really late 80s when I was really sort of a junior golfer playing and and back then it was always back in the STS lots of off and just trap it and hit this sort of little low bullet bullet shot so it was always always about hands leading hands leading and I was proficient at it I could do it but I’d go and watch someone like sevy on play he’d be playing shots very differently he’d be he’d be letting the club release he’d be using the bounce a lot more he’d be getting a lot more control he’d be getting the ball flying through the air much much softer than I would I’m going back to the days at sby golf wasn’t that busy back then so I SP especially in the winter so I’d be in the Pro Shop and I’d be getting the VHS cassettes of the 1987 Open championship and I’d be putting that and I’d be watching it pausing it watching it so a lot of it was done from my own my own research and back then there was no internet so I was just doing off VHS cassetts and books as well you know looking at the falo um you know training training videos and and what I you um and then yeah I just I just remember having R of of paper I would go through big books I’ve still got them home that thick of my own notes wow and just several of them and I just I just love studying it I just loved it you know because I had a bit of an academic background anyway so I just thought you know you got to learn it like like any Academia and um you know got into it and in my own short game yeah I just wanted to be able to hit the shots that I saw people like sevie playing and I soon realized the way I’d been taught I couldn’t play certain shots you could play some shots really well I mean that is the way to play some shots and I still teach in the right situation of the correct line that’s the way to play the shot but I want my ball to come off softer and I started working on it was very much Against the Grain back then you know in terms of how I was doing it but I remember spending so much time over on the Marist uh chipping green which really quiet a private area I do that and I just go practice practice practice um so I would say I had a decent short game but I managed to take it to a whole new level through my own research and understanding that and I think doing that really helped me then with my coach when I was working with tour players um to be able to demonstrate shots cuz I do think it’s a really important skill to be able to demonstrate uh when I do the short game schools I think that’s what people enjoy I’m actually to stand there I’m able to talk about a shot for 5 minutes and I can stand there and demonstrate it and I think that’s really powerful because people learn really well through through copy and through you know from having the vision so I’ve always taken my own golf quite seriously and don’t ask me to a long ey and off a down a line or anything I’m useless to that like I done my long game is not that good but my short game I do feel like I can play Shots that most tour players can and I think I think that’s really important so I’m going to get this out now it’s the uh I feel like on gram Norton or something three releases International bestseller now but let’s we’re not going to go into detail about the three releases today people can find that on on our Channel your Channel or if they get the book themselves but talk me through the three releases and how you kind of came up with that how you came up with that framework and why you came up with that framework so go slightly back to how I was just saying about learning the different ways to swing the club okay so in the old days you just drive this way and I started to realize you know you can release the bounce mod get different trajectories and I started just using the terms release one two and three in my own coaching way back yeah 10 years ago you said I I was using these terms I never really thought much of it it was just it was just a way for me to coach people better so you could as a golfer would understand that okay if I finish there the ball will go lower okay if I finish there it’ll go a bit higher and if I get finish there it can go even higher and you can start matching it to the lie so really it was just a way of communicating um better to the golfer and letting the golfer almost be able to coach themselves and create some checkpoints so I was using it all the time and no one really said much about it it was like okay that’s quite useful that’s quite nice and and um it was only when I was doing the short game School some a few people said to me you should make a little bit more of this you know I think I think actually it’s it’s quite unique so that’s when I started doing the social media and talking a bit actually the first time putting it down in text release one starting use it in some of the videos release release two release three that led me to the book because now I’ve always I I love know listening and learning from other coaches all the time and I think it’s a great skill but what I didn’t the fear I had was what I didn’t want to do is turn Instagram on one day and a coach is saying this is release one this is release two and I’ve it’s been my baby for like 10 years right so really I wrote the book simply to sort of copyright the three releases and say that this is mine so you know if there’s any argument you we see that that’s that’s that’s listen if people cop and want to use it so don’t was the word copy but if people want to use it I’m honored now I love it I love it when I see other coaches doing it I really do and the book was there just to just to really put my stamp on it and and and give it a name and I think writing the book really actually help my own understanding as well of short game you know once you write a book and you start you start getting into it you start having to answer your own questions and how I’ve laid the the book out it’s very sequential it’s very about much about checklists and steps you have to go through and I think that’s why golfers like it because they can really sort of you know it make sense to them it’s translated to so many people and to your point there that it’s sort of copyrighted it I I’d say now your your name and the three releases is is synonymous with you now people sort of reference it sort of anywhere um is the reason it’s so easy to understand that I’ve sat and read the book and you know I’m starting to use it now is that it is for me anyway the most simplest thing I’ve heard about the game of golf whether it’s the long game or putting or short game there’s nothing that’s been quite decoded quite like this is that why you think people find it so easy yeah without doubt golf is like systems golfers when they’re having they like to know that if I put it there and I put it there I’m going to get the result okay and it’s sometimes not as simple as that but I think in short game it can be and I think short game has been like really poorly misunderstood like it’s been like well poorly taught you know it’s been misunderstood it’s like it’s not really been an area game that golfers have really understood so my my big dream with it is just to create Clarity and actually really help golfers love and understand a short game like never before that’s all I wanted to do and just just totally own it and that’s what it does it gives you three shots you can use different clubs of it but it gives you so many more shots but it gives you three ways of swinging a club um and these Shots by the way they’re not I’ve broken it down I’ve maybe sort of made people understand it more but golfers have been using this shot for years yeah you know so there’s some great video of Bobby Jones doing release 2os as I would call it release he wouldn’t have called it that but he was playing some of these shots on video 100 years ago um so people have been using these techniques it’s just all I’ve done is packaged it so you can be coached better and understood better which is which is for me is what coaching is the real skill of coaching is being able to get people better and if you can get people to understand it and have checkpoints that’s how you get better at this game and that’s what the book’s done and it’s working I’ve got to say a lot of people know using it reaping the benefits so talking short game more broadly we’re going to come on and chat about um the mental side the golf I think in a minute cuz I think short game especially gets a lot of people but who in your eyes in the professional game past or present has the best short game that you’ve seen whether that’s live or watching on telly who’s who really stands out I mean the obvious one would be sevie I’ve got to say sevie really I have to say because um he was absolute hero of mine growing up and I I lucky that I saw him playing open championships and I was there right in his prime he was winning Majors when I was a young Junior so he’s just an absolute hero and his his cre creativity and his ability to adapt and see shots and his visualization were off the charts there’s been no one like him since maybe Ty you could say yeah but he he was he was just a totally different level he could get the ball Landing I remember playing a shot of a 91 open where where I was there and he the ball landed on this mound I can still remember it and he’s landed there and I could see this big crowd coming and it was s and because you know when it lands next to at the open everyone brush his W I was there and I think you look back at the VHS from that um the Open Championship video I don’t know if it’s SI still got one I’m there and I’m holding my rock sack like this about this B is that like on the official open of that oh brilliant yeah so it’s there I’m there and I’ve got my sort of rock sack and he and he plays this shot and it just I remember it Just landing on the green just like a land just dropped like a bag of sugar it almost didn’t bounce I remember watching that ball go through the air and it was almost like Defying Gravity you know when you have this moment you remember think wow that’s seriously good and then just watched him play all these amazing shots over the years and so yeah heavy for me what was it about his technique that made him so great what like what can you pinpoint now go he could fire it in low if he wanted to that little low Skipper and then grip it he could he could release it he could use the B he he he just knew how to work work that club and it all came came from you know he a junior he didn’t have have the re full sets of clubs so he’d have stronger irons and you learn to be able to hit softer shots with a strong club and that’s what made him really appreciate how the club works you could get the ball coming off really softly and um and this is my big thing as well with Juniors by the way these days is like Junior these days are blessed with like so much equipment like brand new equipment yeah and sometimes if you give Junior too much too soon they lose they lose the flare lose a crazy or never really gain it actually so sey PRS him with an old three iron and an old worn out groes and trying to like almost like old golf balls and Stones that’s what gave him the feel and the touch and you know you give a junior a 60 degree Club at a young age they’re not not going to learn that ability to do it it’s very difficult that sometimes you know we try and give too much and actually the reason s was so good is he had so little and is there anyone in the modern game you know um I bumped into Augusta clang yes uh but we were walking around there watching some golfers was anyone that you watched that week or that you liked to watch in the modern game he were like yeah they they’ve got it I think Sha’s got a great short game I think he’s superb he’s he’s he’s he’s just mentally brilliant and he just he he played some amazing shots around the green that little low fizzer he could play I like the way Shane Lowry he’s got such soft hands that’s my big thing like he he looks So Soft over the ball and again he’s able to play all the shots so I think I think Lowry for me is probably the one I enjoy watching the most these days yet um so’s come on to the mental side of of the sport I know you’re really interested in it and I kind of want to pick into your mind about it because do you think the short game is is the most is the part of the golf game that’s most susceptible to a poor frame of mind and a a negative frame of mind or you know I can’t do this I’m not good at that shot do you think the short game specifically is most susceptible to poor mindset yeah I I think so I mean when you’re around the green you’re trying to save something aren’t you you’re trying to get up and down it’s a bit of pressure because you know you’re trying to do something off the tea perhaps there’s less pressure you know it’s a bit more of a committed swing and you’ve got to have the Finesse and you got to have the right touch and the right speed so you know you’ve got to you’ve got to feel it and and I I think um I’ve definitely seen a lot of people recently in particular who’ve got quite nervous and anxious over over shots and I do see it and um yeah I think I do think there is that pressure involved with short game until you get the right technique once you learn the right technique there’s no pressure really because you’s got this big margin for eror I mean I never feel anxious over a short game shot really but I mean um if you’ve got poor technique yes you are going to feel anxious but yeah I know what you mean you’ve got to you’ve got to you’re trying to save something aren’t you which is which is ke well that’s it it’s like whenever you’re chipping it’s because you probably need to make it up and down for some sort of score and the more important something is the harder it becomes right for me that makes the hardest part of the game would you agree that chpp I would agree CU I played with you in Hawaii and I’m you my partner and yeah you had a chemo I maybe didn’t quite pull the shift off quite I thought I’ve not got I’ve not gotten up and down with Dan greeve on my team it’s kind of sacriligious really you did fail there but we um we get half in the end we got uh we lost it down we lost it down the last I think because of my error yeah don’t remember r that but whatever um and I’m going to come to the Y word now the IPS because I I’ve had it and I think you’ve mentioned it there briefly but do you think The Yips are more because of a poor technique or more because of a a poor mindset which a great question I think it’s a great question and um technique for me first without doubt so generally the people who have got the IPS I think don’t don’t get afraid of saying the word you’ve almost got to embrace it you know I’m so so I’m a yipper and and then and then work it work on it from there but people who generally come with The Yips are people who have usually played to an okay standard and they probably used to chip okay but what’s happened is that their technique has just slipped and slipped and slipped to a point where they’re no longer trusting that club with the ground okay they’re not trusting it and they just it’s it’s a totally involuntary action you’re coming into the ball and their brain is saying I’m not trusting this and there’s an involuntary action it just electricity it just happens right through that so you can’t work on the Yip directly there a waste of time doing that because it is a mental issue it is neurological you got to understand that he’s neurological but for me it begins with technique once your Technique starts to improve there’s a rewiring that goes on where your brain starts saying okay maybe I can do this and you can work your way out of it you really can um so it comes from faar of the ground so it might be the fact the club’s coming too far on the inside and and it’s bottoming out too early it might be the fact that you’ve got too much shling a leading EDG is coming in you too sharp and it’s digging in so you know with with people with The Yips I just tend to get the ball a bit more further forward I really work on a good swing plane try and take the wrist out the takeaway try get the chest the bigger muscles working it and really try and educate the golfer that it’s okay to hit the ground before the ball if if the bounces on if it when right angle attack with the bounce on you can hit behind the ball up to two three four five inches before the ball and still get it on the green whereas a lot of golfers think they’ve got to get that perfect strike and I think that in itself creates anxiety because you’re trying to get that club perfectly on the back of the ball well you know when I’m standing up a chip actually I’m as long as as long as I hit within three or four inches of the ball a lot the time I know I’m going to get an okay shot and I don’t know about you I’d rather stand over a chip knowing I don’t need to be perfect than be perfect and I think it’s the art to trying to be perfect creates the anxiety with poor technique and then I mean I cured loads of people off the y i i that guy the other day I mean one of the worst sets of Yips I’ve ever seen he was missing the ball on occasions it was horrible but we worked on technique and he start it wasn’t every time he’s still going to have to work on it but he start get some proper shots and you can see the light bulb goes off and he starts to trust the ground and he’ll be fine he’ll be absolutely fine is that light bulb moment that that we rewiring of the brain you’ve just spoken about whereby it’s wired to be in a certain way something bad is going to happen so I’m going to do something not great how does it is it is it Case by case basis but how quick can someone rewire their brain out of those Yips you can’t if you’re not going to get rid of The Yips in half an hour no that isn’t going to happen it it is a bit of it’s a medium Pro term project but you I think you can get to something like a 50% strike ratio fairly quickly where you where you hitting one out of two pretty good you’re still going to get a little bit because youve done it for a while but when when the when the brain trusts the ground you you’ll you’ll fix yourself cuz we filmed a video out in Hawaii and you we were talking about this actually and you you sort of for your standard I think dunked one it was sort of four or five behind the ball and you hold it so that’s the point isn’t it you can play with the ground a little bit intentional I was just trying to show an intentional Duff and I I think I tried to hit it five or six in behind the ball or whatever and I did that and it went in and the contact was okay so I think that’s what that’s what people have got to get in their head around you don’t have to take that perfect ball first Contact you can if you got enough good ingredients in it you can get the club uh working on the ground in a in a much friendlier fashion so ched about sort of the amateur game and and their mentality you’ve coached major Champions Georgia Hall to to great success 2018 um just talk us through how her mindset was and how that developed over the years you were working with her to get her to that stage where she W she won that major yeah great days and really enjoyed working with ma Georgia started working with her probably about maybe three years before then um on all parts of the game actually Swing Swing um short game and putting and and uh yeah we’ve worked really hard on technique and I think I think go back to what we talk about technique just really developed all parts of the game but in particular a short game you know gave her a lot more um ability to hit different flighted shots um and and Bunker play hugely as well really it really worked very hard on that which was key when she won when she won the major at Liv in 18 the Open Championship Women’s Open championships so and she got up and down I think that we seven seven times out of the bunkers there out of seven that was felt quite gratifying that was great and and amazing final final day wasn’t it where she um had that sort of head-to-head shootout and came through so that was really special and you know she’s just got an amazing mental game you know she is so strong mentally she’s been always been really really gritty um you know back when she first turned Pro if he was on the cut line she’d make the cut by one you know she’d always kind of do that and then she started progressing and you know just had a had a fantastic career I mean an amazing career sort of top 10 player in the world and you know just Bentley extremely strong but I do think the Bedrock at his technique you know I think the technique allows you always said technically good mentally good just the technique if if you’re building blocks for example if you’re giving advice to a junior or something or any golf is it the building blocks of even if your head’s you know in the tumble dryers on Mars it’s all over the place put that to one side build your Technique first and then the mental side follows right yeah you’ve got it if you haven’t got technique and really good foundations you are not you’re not going to be a player who’s going to have any longevity and he’ll come and go a little bit like this you know if you want to have a really good career and really achieve the things you’ve got to work on just fantastic technique across the game uh it helps you mentally um it allows you to always fall back on on on on your Basics you got to know your Basics but but these great players they just they’re technically great and they also know what works for them as well they know what their technique needs to be they’re able to coach themselves and really own it they really own it but yeah I think I think technique not not so much everyone coaching the same way and it’s about knowing your Technique what’s important to you but really understanding it and did you have to drill much of that into Georgia did she sort of come with that great mindset already and that great technique I days I don’t think she particularly liked how she swung the club and I don’t think she liked that but um but but as a swing know I kept getting across to her you know the swing was was fantastic and we made a few changes but you know she she’s she was always very very strong mentally wanted to do things but I do yeah just I just think um just helped to sort of own it a little bit more really obviously on on the Sundays where we see a major Champion we just think oh great good for them but we forget about the team so what was that like sort of being part of georg’s team for that winning moment that was been really gratifying for you as a coach oh amazing yeah I mean it’s what I always wanted to do as coach coach a coach a player to a major championship so you know to have done that you can always say if coach a play Tom Asia now and it’s fantastic exactly so it’s done and you know it’s amazing yeah I was watching on TV actually at the time I sort of um didn’t want to go up there really and and sort of start changing things and being to leave to it and she won brilliant we talk that night and was fantastic yeah um so she had a great mental game as we’ve just discussed but what are the most sort of common mental errors you see amatees make around the green because so much as their technique might be great they could make a wrong error up here and and it cost them absolutely huge and uh you know people see my stuff I talk about what golfing IQ your golfing intelligence okay which is has to be developed and respected equally if not more important than the technique because you can have great technique with a poor golfing IQ and you just waste of time he won’t score well at all but equally you can have a great IQ and a poor technique you have to you have to marry the two you absolutely have to married to uh so really the key the key task of any go for you’ve got to be able to read the line M M which I really believe the vast majority of of Club golfers do not read the lie at all well whether it’s from the from the rough from the Fairway or the sand okay they don’t have the ability to look at the lie and then think okay so how will my how does my club need to interact with that ground to hit me the shot I need so most people tend to play the shot they think they should play like for example they they missed it under under the green they’ got uh not not that much green to work with they’re short-sided and they got to go in the air they’ll tend to play that that shot pretty much regardless of the LIE um so really I spend a lot of my time teaching golfers about reading the LIE what does that lie allow you to play what club does that does that lie allow you to play and once you understand that you can choose a shot and you can choose which release you’re going to use but um yeah reading the LI is huge everyone can develop their golfing IQ and do that better and um yeah and Club Choice really yeah you know just getting the right Club in your hand is huge particularly when you’ve got lots of green to work with I see uh I see to golfers using too much loft way too much loft so the pen will be at the back of the green uh the golfers maybe got 20 yards and they pull out of their favorite Club at 52 or 56 they play it nicely a nice little chip and run release one contact but it’ll it’ll check up too much and it doesn’t release out um down towards the flag so I think golfers could definitely benefit from using less Loft generally there are times when you need more Loft to get more check of course it’s all about reading the situation it’s about having the IQ to do that but essentially it’s about trying to get your ball roll into the hole a little bit more like a pot you know there are times I need to spin it but generally when you got green to work with just try and get some Le L you get less L it might be 79 it might be a 99 or whatever but just let it let it roll out a little bit do you like that because I I always get encouraged to take get a seven iron out and hit a little sort of putting stroke do do you encourage that as much as possible if if you’re right if it’s right if the LIE allows and and there’s a little bit of you know Green to work then yes if it’s down doing quick then no you know so it all depends when people say to me what club should I use what shot should I use the answer is there’s only one answer it all depends and there’s so different many different shots you can play around the green and you know there’s been debates recently going to be steep going to be shallow all these sort of things I’ve I’ve stayed out of them really because the answer is it all depends steep when you need to be shallow when you need to be it all depends there isn’t an answer there isn’t one way to do it you’ve got to be able to just play all the different shots but choose the right one at the right time but generally if you got green to work with get less Loft in your hand I think people shoot low scores if I do that I think take that away with you if you taking one thing away from this I’m going to take that away today um so Dan some quick fire questions to finish us off this afternoon um so you you work and we see on your Instagram with a lot of uh celebrities ex Sports people from from all walks of life um firstly how is it working with them is is it quite a lot of fun to meet them and and and they sort of come to you and say teach me and who’s the best who’s had the best short game would come up to you oh good question yeah now I’ve been lucky to to coach lots of you know well-known people from various different different Arenas I enjoy working with them because they’ve all got a similar mindset they’re quite High performing they’re quite determined to get better I teach a lot of exports people who’ve achieved at the very very top level in a particular Sport and then they move to golf and they they take the same mindset into golf so I love working with them because they’re all you know determined to improve um started working with Clive Woodward many many years ago and it was lovely working with Clive because he’s his work ethic is off the charts and that’s certainly rubbed off for me in terms of like how he’s just in terms of like work eting and really grinding he’s like just off the charts in that respect um and language I think language is really important in coaching as well and he’s taught me about how how to speak properly and the how to use right words at the right time so I learned a lot from Clive uh the best short game player has been Dan Walker like Dan Dan’s I mean great plays he’s one of the best amate I think I’ve ever talk you know he’s he’s he’s a he’s a scratch golfer he’s got a great feel for the game he just he crack up just spending time with him he’s so funny he’s always coming up with like new names for my shots uh so he’s just very creative his brain’s nonstop but he’s a great golfer he can hit all the shots so we’ve worked on some some key bits in his techniques so he can start to play more SP you know higher spinning shots but he can play he’s a seriously good golfer you know he really is very very impressive so I probably say Dan Walker U John Terry I thought made a massive improvement with him during the session he would I wouldn’t say he was yippy he was a bit anxious and he was very short and sort of proddy he wouldn’t sort of nothing was really flowing and within a few minutes we got him hit some of the best chips he’s ever seen he loved it you know we all sorts of shots uh you know Fringe shipping and and um bunker shots so he was probably the most improved player in a session John Terry but Dan walk is you know different league in terms of the shots he can hit yeah I watched him at I think the British par three a few years ago he’s got an unbelievable goal s hasn’t he so yeah rip it he carries it 3 through the was quite interesting with Dan as well we were talking and you know he did Strictly Come Dancing a few years ago and uh he he didn’t so it’s obviously full on when you’re doing that you’re training like for three months every day I mean flat out no time for anything else so he put his golf clubs away then did all his training three months later he goes back on the golf course and his swing speed had gone up 10 miles an hour without hitting a ball because of his legs and his glute strength they just gone through the roof from dancing so there’s a two if you’re looking to more distance that’s some Ball Room dancing I didn’t expect that as a piece of advice uh dream collaboration on on your channel dream collaboration uh any anyone from the 80s period I mean I I love you know the that for me was the Golden Era of golfing really you know you had you had sevy you had Langer you had falo wam Lyle alabel you know so really going at at winning majors and and for me as a young boy back then seeing these Europeans taking on the Americans winning the rider cup for the first few times and and and that that was really so anyone alasel or you know falo or some like falo’s absolute hero along with sebie so anyone like that and of course Tiger Woods would be great as well obviously it’s a nice one is but that’s that’s a bit of an obvious one uh okay uh Best Shot you’ve hit on camera and there might be a few here uh can you think of one that stood out uh best shot on camera I remember filming on the uh on the 17th of the Jukes course and there’s a tree that splits like this and Carri web famously hit a shop through it and when we had the Women’s Open Championship there on the on the Jukes here at Wen and she hid it through the Gap and onto the green so I thought I’d have go replicating it on camera and I did it for first time I it threw the Gap to about 8 ft or so so that was really good and also um recently just on the area here about 80 yards I was trying to demonstrate a draw pitch and the camera was right behind it and I hit this draw pitch and it landed and spun and went in the hole so um that got some nice hits on on Instagram so that was a nicely played shot I think I remember that one that’s a good looking shot uh on the other side of the coin the worst shot you fit on camera and I know from experience at golf mon 3 some may get deleted from our Channel you try and hide a few yeah they all get deleted so I don’t think there’s anything on camera that’s uh that’s that’s out there I hope not anyway bit of blackmail there R some but um no it’s uh I mean I hit bad shots a lot of the time when I’m doing videos as well I’m talking as I’m doing it so I’m not really fully focused so sometimes a bad when I hit a bad one but um I don’t take it too seriously I I don’t I try not to dwell on them no I agree that’s that’s a good bit of ADV as well um the most nervous you’ve been playing golf in your career with with somebody or an event uh yeah I mean these days don’t really get nervous too much I I just enjoy going out for a game now I I saying that we had we had the captain Pro matches here at Wen a pretty competitive and a few years ago Craig Watson and I the captain at the time we had an amazing run we won we won eight eight games in a row um so and they’re really competitive hard hard to win one never mind win eight in a row and I remember we we were really getting into it that felt quite nervous at times so that that was that was a bit of fun and then uh yeah just you know back in the day playing open qualifing I suppose was was quite nervous uh back then uh for these days I don’t really take it too seriously I just go and enjoy it and what will be will be um if you could pick one what yeah just one what’s the single best short game drill you think there is out there in terms of building technique yeah um I don’t want to stand up and do it but if you put if you put your your thumbs thumbs together and get your hands back pretty much as far as I go and pull your arms in this way so you got your triceps connected to your chest and if you then just put some wait through your through your lead foot and just move this way yeah your hands will end start working on the correct Arc you’ll start to feel the correct rotation in the action and that’s really what the for me is the foundation of all short game is is having a rotational movement because too many people tip this way and just by setting your hands in that mana and your arms in there it shows you the correct rotation and that’s something there that you can do from your kitchen wherever in the office and and it’s going to give you the feel of a short G and if you can move like that with a club in your hand you’ll be on the road to better a short game I suspect there’s a lot of people watching now who have just sat and done that probably sat watching it now at home um if you could only take one wedge out with you what or yeah one if you take one wedge out with you or what is your favorite wedge you know degree loft you could just take one as your take one I take my 52 out I’ve always loved my 52 I’ve always carried uh obviously a pitching wed out the set and a 52 and a 56 and a 60 60 is for emergency use only but I do carry it but the 52 I love because you can can play every shot with it and I think using a 52 when I was really trying to work on my own short game and develop it is what helped me develop the touch that I’ve got today because when you practice with a stronger Loft like a 52 it encourages you to release a club better encourage you to to be smoother and softer so you get the spin and get the control which you don’t get when you’re using a lofly club you know you the luxury of Loft hurts you I think in terms of building technique so love the 52 and I could very very easily just carried out on a golf course and I think if if the rules changed to only carrying 12 clubs I think I’d be I’d be much much higher up in terms of the echelon in professional golf because and and and golf is well you know generally because you know I I can play all the shots with a 52 and a lot of players can’t so I think 52 yeah good answer what bounce you have on that of Interest what an eight B Taylor Made Taylor Made hi to how was it with the G all the way at the top not in the 52 but 56 and 60 have the G across yeah very good I’m going to take that one with me um last Dan sort of the future for you what what are you going to build on now you’ve obviously got the book again I’ll get that out again um that was sort of something unexpected I think you said really but but it’s been quite fruitful um what’s the future for you for the channel going forward uh yeah I’m going to I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing I’m going to I’m going to keep coaching by the way I’m not going to just go full-time on on social media I’m going to keep just doing what I’m doing I’m going to spend more time making some videos on YouTube because YouTube’s grown it’s over 100,000 now which is you know which is a good amount and that’s and that’s enabling me to spend a bit more time making some content on there it’s been quite popular I think and people have enjoyed learning learning from it because it complement the book more than anything and that’s what people like they can read the book watch the videos and it helps them develop more understanding so I’ll make some more content U might start going on the golf course a little bit more as well so people can sort of get get into that that mental side about what it takes to get the ball around the golf course and yeah I just keep coaching and see what comes my way I’m I’m just just sort of very lucky things are just we’ll just see how things work out yeah brilliant well we’re enjoying it Dan thank you for joining us really appreciate it and uh make sure to follow Dan stuff I certainly will be okay thank you