The Hidden Costs of "Free" Golf Help

Ever received a "helpful" golf tip from a well-meaning stranger at the driving range, only to watch your game disintegrate? Or spent hours on YouTube searching for that magical golf fix, but ended up more frustrated than before? Let's explore why these so-called free golf tips can actually hurt your game and cost you money in the long run.

While it's tempting to seek out quick fixes and generic advice from friends or strangers online, the truth is, they're rarely tailored to your specific needs. In this episode, Jordan explains the importance of investing in personalized instruction from a qualified professional to truly elevate your golf game. Don't fall victim to the rabbit hole of free golf tips that may not even be relevant to your issues.

So, how do you find the right golf coach? Join us as Jordan discusses the value of investing in yourself and your game, and how to find the best personalized instruction for long-term success. Don't miss our upcoming Golf Shot Draft on Friday, where we'll debate and choose the best shots in golf. Listen in, learn from our experiences, and discover how to make better choices for your game without relying on free, but costly, golf advice.

Chapters

• 0:00 Free Golf Tips Cost Money
• 9:01 Why PureGolf Doesn't Put Mechanics on Youtube
• 16:57 Avoid Golf Instruction on YouTube
• 21:44 Finding the Right Golf Coach

Transcript

Speaker 1: What is going on? everyone? My name is Jordan and we are living our best lives today on the PureGolf podcast. Oh my gosh, i am so freaking excited to be doing this podcast today because it is a topic that is near and dear to me. It's gonna be a great podcast and a lot of things on this episode today. But first let me get us started with some announcements. Can we cue a little music change here, mr Producer, this week let's take a look at what we have coming out. 

Speaker 1: On Wednesday, we obviously have this podcast coming out Later today over on the YouTube channel. Zach is going to be putting out a video about playing three rounds of golf in three days. He's probably gonna be exhausted at the end of that video. That's my conclusion. Have you guys ever tried playing four rounds of golf in four days like the pros do? It is exhausting, like my word. Okay, so that's coming out later today on the YouTube channel for us. 

Speaker 1: On Friday, zach and I will be dropping a podcast where we do a draft on the quote unquote best shots in golf. We're going to go back and forth and choose what shot we would like. I'm very curious what goes number one here. Is it gonna be the 300 yard drive? Is it gonna be the five foot putt? Is it gonna be the high, lofted flop shot that lands on a dime right next to the pin? Who knows? The possibilities are endless here. I'm very, very excited for that draft. That is gonna be on Friday We have not recorded it yet, so no spoilers, because it's not possible to have spoilers. And then over the weekend, on Saturday, on the YouTube channel, zach is gonna be doing a match play against one of our favorite pure golf clients, jeffrey. We love this guy. He's been on the channel before, but we brought him back out for another match. He's super entertaining and we dig into his story a little bit more. But that is all for the announcements this week. 

Speaker 1: Let's get back to the podcast. Okay, let's get into this topic this week. Why the quote unquote free golf tips are costing you way more money in the long haul. This is one I'm probably gonna get pretty passionate about. So if you hear me getting a little heated or anything, you know why. 

Speaker 1: But before I get into this, i have this internal debate Do I end with a story or do I start with a story to bring it all together? And I'm gonna end with the story here to tie it all together. I write out these scripts and I don't know what comes first. Do I do story first or last? Today it's gonna go last, whatever. Okay. 

Speaker 1: So I've been teaching golf for close to a decade now. I've given tons and tons of golf lessons. It's been my full-time job for a bit now, and so when I share this stuff happening, i share it happening on the majority of golfers that I have a lesson with, and so majority means over 51% everyone. That means it is a very common thing in the world of golf. So picture with me, if you will. You're on the driving range. It's beautiful weather, skies are blue, there is not a cloud in the sky, there's this nice breeze coming across you, and then you just know it's gonna be a great day. It's just the perfect day to hit golf balls. Sun is out, the birds are chirping. 

Speaker 1: You go into the pro shop, you get your bucket of range balls, you set your bag down. Ideally, you do a little bit of stretching before you start hitting the balls, and then you just make some of those warm-up swings and you hit a few balls to get the body loose. You're hitting the ball well, but then, as the range session gets a little bit deeper and deeper, it's getting a little worse and worse, and when it's worse, something is going to happen, because it always does, and here's what I mean by that. What tends to happen many times and I swear it happens to female golfers more than male golfers is that someone comes over to help you with your swing. Someone sees you struggling and wants to give you help, often giving terrible quote, unquote advice And we do put advice in air quotes, as it's not advice at all, but it's free information, so why not listen? 

Speaker 1: Maybe this person sees something that you don't know about your golf swing, so you gotta listen to them. Right, they can hit the ball really well. Right, they must Spoiler alert many times. They aren't very good at golf at all, but that's neither here nor there in this broadcast. The other thing that could happen is you just blame yourself and start beating yourself up, questioning yourself as to why you can't just hit this stupid white ball that everybody else can hit but you. Another thing that could happen is you could be there with a friend who offers you some advice, which I always caution against listening to them, no matter how good they may be, or you could log into YouTube and look up how to fix fill in the blank. 

Speaker 1: Here is something I want to get across, and there's a reason that I wanted to get it across, because nobody seems to think of it. Don't go visit YouTube about your golf problem. Don't go to golfwhatevercom and look up 12 easy fixes for blank, or don't go to the latest golf magazine of how to flag your irons. It's all relatively free golf advice, but there's a problem. The reason I caution against YouTube that nobody seems to understand is because every single YouTube golf instruction channel was created to earn money for the creator. It was, and so when a creator does that, they're looking to solve very easy, generalized problems with advice that worked for them, but also advice in generalized problem solving that will be quick hitting, gain them multiple views, offer them more potential subscribers, etc. 

Speaker 1: The content was created to try and put you in a class of problems. It tries to be personal, but it's not. It was created to earn the creator money. That is the most simple truth I can offer about YouTube golf videos that are based on quote unquote, trying to help your golf game, and I do want to put this out there. That is not to question the creator themselves, who doesn't have a YouTube channel these days, and a lot of these guys are qualified to problem solve for you and your golf swing. 

Speaker 1: But when it's coming from a general video that is trying to get a lot of views, you have to make it not personal. You have to create kind of a sweeping effect, like the putting the net into the ocean and seeing what comes up. Put it, put this massive net into the ocean. Whatever fish you catch, you catch And that's how you make money on YouTube. That's just the fact of the matter. The more views, the more subscribers, the more money you make, and so you cast a wide net and you get as many viewers as you can. I can further say this from experience, because we have a YouTube channel spoiler alert And we intentionally don't put any golf instruction on there or any mechanics of the golf swing on there, because our you know, our goal is to monetize the channel. When we do a video, we are trying to cast a large net and whatever viewers we get, that's great. We really do try and interact with our viewers and make connections and bonds with them, but it's a growing channel, so sometimes we do and other times we don't. That part isn't my job. That's why we have Zach. But there's a reason that we don't talk golf swing mechanics on the channel or try to, you know, broadcast a lesson on YouTube, because why would we try and fix another person's golf swing on the channel? As soon as viewers view that video, they automatically apply it to themselves and then create problems for themselves that never should have been there in the first place. 

Speaker 1: Think about it in terms of seeing a superhero movie. Let's talk about Batman. Let's talk about the Dark Knight Rises. Okay, i'm going off script right now. I always do these scripts. We're going off script right now to talk about this. 

Speaker 1: When the Dark Knight Rises, bruce Wayne is trying to get out of this bottomless pit, and in order to get out of the bottomless pit, he has to do a lot of work on his body and on his back to try and escape what is the prison. So, because he has a broken back in case you haven't seen Dark Knight Rises he has a broken back and he has to escape the prison with a broken back. So he does all this core work, tries to escape a couple of times, fails And then, when he finally does escape. Every viewer in the audience is saying that could be me. That's me getting out of my problem. No matter what the problem is in life, that's us climbing the mountain out of the cell and getting back to where we need to get to, and every viewer identifies with that moment because that's life for us. 

Speaker 1: So when we view a movie, when we hear a story, we are always putting ourselves in the place of the hero, because we all want to be the hero of our own story. The same is true for golf. If you are fascinated by one part of the golf swing and you see Tiger Woods and Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson on the TV screen, you're always being like oh man, it's so great the way they just clear their hips or the way they get through the golf ball. Like I wish I could do that. That's just what we do as humans. We always put ourselves in the story. Why wouldn't we? 

Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example and actually a debate that Zach and I had earlier in the stages is let's say, zach and I have this awesome video we put out on YouTube about his golf swing, and right now I'll just make up whatever a problem is that day It can be anything. I'll come up with something off the top of my head. So let's just say Zach can't stop slicing his driver And we put out this YouTube video where we go in and look at his swing and come up with the solution that is causing Zach to slice. Every single golfer that struggles with a miss to the right is now applying that video to themselves. Just because they sometimes slice the ball, the belief is that, oh, zach fixed it like that, i can fix it like that. That's actually not the case at all And there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of reasons that you could be slicing the golf ball. But it's incredibly likely Old underscore, i tell us is incredibly likely that it's not the same reason as Zach. 

Speaker 1: Zach has a completely different body than you. Zach has different athleticism than you. Zach is very different from you, the viewer, and beyond that, zach also thinks about the golf swing differently than you. So what I say to him doesn't mean the same as what I say to somebody else. One word doesn't always equal the same assumption from somebody else. It'd be like going to the doctor for a stomach ache. The doctor has to ask you all sorts of questions, run some tests in order to get a proper diagnosis. But instead of going to the doctor, many times people just go to WebMD, which is this quick, easy, free, convenient form of advice, and it leads people to have more problems and think the diagnosis is way more serious than it often is. And it turns out that when you go through all the proper tests, that when you pay the money yes, pay the money and you get personalized help you get an answer that actually works many times not all the time, but many times And it's going to be far more effective than WebMD, but, yes, it does cost more money. 

Speaker 1: So early on, we made this commitment at Pure Golf that we aren't talking golf swing period, because what works for me in my field doesn't work for Zach and his field, which in turn, won't work for potentially millions of other golfers and their fields. So if it sounds like I'm getting passionate here about hating golf YouTube advice, it's because I do, because there's no filter, because as soon as one person goes to watch one video about this, they then go down the rabbit hole and just continue watching And in this weird way it becomes an addiction to. You want to. You found an interesting golf, you want to learn more about golf. So you just keep watching golf videos that are readily available to you because it's free. So why wouldn't you? as a teacher, i'm telling you from seeing multiple people struggle with the same thing that has created such a passionate podcast for you today. 

Speaker 1: It's costing you more money because you're planning more and more irrelevant stuff in your head that was never meant for you or ever personalized for you And it wasn't relayed in the proper way. But then you believe it for so long that this is what you need to do And you keep telling yourself that same thing over and over that you start to believe it. So when you do it, inevitably go pay teacher for their thoughts, their belief, their opinion. You can't get off of something that was never even true in the first place, because the longer person holds on to belief, whether that belief is true or not, the harder it is to cure them. cure is in quotes of that belief. I've had golfers walk into our headquarters at beer golf and tell me what they think is wrong with this thing, and I'm very rarely are they correct, but they wouldn't be in my office one if they were correct, or two if they knew how to fix the problem. They're banking on me to use the right words or show them something that they haven't thought about before to help them fix the problem, but very, very, very rarely are they correct. 

Speaker 1: So let's just be very straightforward here. Golf is incredibly expensive. So if you choose to play it, value yourself and what knowledge you take in. If it's something that you see yourself playing for a long time, don't try and shortcut it. If you're trying to shortcut the process and make golf quote unquote, free for yourself, it's just not going to work. It can't work. Value yourself and your time and go get some type of golf lesson. Pay for the personalized help to you and your game so you can get results far, far, far quicker because you paid for it, because it's personalized to you and your body type and your thoughts and your habits Thanks. 

Speaker 1: Last week I had this phone call with Ariane, who's on our golf tournament recap podcast, and as he and I are talking, he told me that he had this piece of golf advice from a teacher out where he lives and it made a really big difference in his golf game. He's like all the other pieces of information that I got over the years. He just made it all come together for me and it made it make sense And he appreciated that And he wanted to relay that message to other golfers and maybe even put it on the YouTube channel for us or something like that, to give pure golf like, hey, if this changed my game, it could probably change somebody else's game. And right then, and there I just told him absolutely not. I told him I get what you're saying and I'm glad it made a difference in your game, but we can't put that out on our channel because that very same advice that you got so much value out of could be very misconstrued entirely by other golfers throughout the game And as they try and attach it to their golf games, they might not even need it, they might not have ever need to hear that piece of advice you got about your swing or, even worse, they might misunderstand it entirely and falsely apply it and hurt themselves. So I get trying to help and I don't doubt his intent of wanting to help. 

Speaker 1: We're putting anything like that on our channel. We don't do swing fixes or mechanics on this channel. We never have, we aren't going to, we never will, because in the long haul it's going to cost our listeners and viewers far, far more. Get some personalized instruction, spend the money, spend the time, value your golf game and just how much goes into it. There is no quick fix. Tiger Woods said it. It's the truth. I think I referenced Tiger every single golf podcast. I am a disciple of Tiger Woods And if he says it, i just value it as the truth about the golf game. So if you are serious about your golf game, do the basics, get fit or get sized for clubs at the very least. It doesn't mean you have to spend thousands of thousands of dollars on clubs, but it does mean take your game seriously. I'll put a nice bow on this because I'm clearly in violation of my own rules sometimes and I learn with you guys in different ways, so I'll put a nice bow on this. 

Speaker 1: Two weeks ago, i think, we were going grocery shopping, putting food in the fridge, and ever since the pandemic, groceries have just been insane on the prices, am I right? So it's just staggering to me how high food prices are in relation to what they used to be. So, me being me, every week I've got a shop for some protein to put in the fridge. Got to have some type of protein to cook up throughout the week, but I'm also kind of frugal when it comes to shopping. I'm always trying to save money on this and that. So I get to the meat section that week, i'm scouring the section for like the deals and get to the red meat and I'm like, ok, this steak is definitely cheaper, it looks OK, it looks edible, we're just going to go with it. I'm just going to go save a few bucks. That's what we need to do. 

Speaker 1: It was a horrible, horrible decision, horrible. I attempted to cook it and eat it up and I couldn't. There were, like these bone pieces like scattered throughout it. That was like, ok, let's not choke and die today. You know it didn't taste great. It was very like tough, chewy meat. It wasn't good. I actually ended up just throwing it away after cooking it And I thought to myself, if I would have just spent five dollars more on a better quality of meat, i wouldn't be sitting here right now, now, hungry because I had to throw out the protein that I bought. I just wasted what I was trying to save money on, just just to save, like, and I'm not getting here five dollars. I got literally no value out of what I spent money on And I actually I spent money and I spent time on something that I never used And it was awful After. 

Speaker 1: The moral of the story is don't shortcut it. Spend a little extra money. Get what you need so you can get properly fed, like, metaphorically speaking, in your diet, but also in terms of your coffee. Spend a little bit of money. Take care of yourself. Value yourself. If you want to get better, get some fundamental teaching, get some fundamental clubs. You know, i just people don't really realize that about the YouTube content, that it wasn't created for you, and for every hundred videos you watch, maybe one makes a positive impact And I just I'm not for it. I'm just not Because it doesn't value yourself either. 

Speaker 1: Maybe one of these days I'll venture into some online golf academies that you pay for. I don't know, it's a sensitive topic, who knows? But I will call out the YouTube channels for make it personal, and a lot of times those channels are trying to get you to. You know, click here and you can go to this online golf academy and you can join it and you can get some personalized feedback. Okay, at least be like, be honest about it, you know. Anyways, that is all for me on this episode. Don't go to YouTube for golf instruction anymore. Value yourself, value your money, value your time. It will save you way, way more in the long haul, i promise you. 

Speaker 1: Anyways, this is a quick hitter one. It's not a super long episode, but it's something that was near and dear to me And I can't promise I won't revisit it again when I get more and more information on it. But yeah, go get some personalized lessons. It doesn't even have to be a pure golf. Just go see a local pro who will actually take a look and sit down with you and you're swinging like, sit down and hear your thoughts and understand. 

Speaker 1: Okay, i get what you're saying, but now we're going to actually tell you what's the right way to go about this. And if you don't have a connection with that pro and you're like you know what, i don't feel like this person is really hearing me out and go to a different one. But settle in, find a good coach, find a good system of feedback to help you, but stop trying to find the free, easy, quicker route. It ain't possible, it ain't happening, because each fix you do, it may lead to you hitting the ball for a couple of days, maybe a month, but if you don't have your fundamentals down, it ain't going too far. That's my piece. So okay, have a good day everyone. We will be back on here Friday with the golf draft, the golf shot draft, and it's going to be freaking awesome, really excited. All right, have a good day everyone. Peace!