Free 3x15 Week card (the 3 dials, every session scored): https://playready.golf/3x15

Play Ready Golf app, free 30 day trial, code PRGPOD: https://app.playready.golf

Ep. 27, why the range is the most expensive habit in your bag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R9mVHabK0c

If you went 10 for 10 at the range last night, you didn't practice. You performed.

Adam Young, one of the best practice coaches in golf, wants his players making somewhere between 3 and 7 out of every 10. Most of us build every range session around never missing. That's why the good nights never show up on Saturday.

In this episode, Isaak and Hayden get into how much you should actually be missing, what Rory McIlroy did after blowing the 2011 Masters, and the 3 dials (distance, target size and randomness) that make any drill show up on the course.

Hayden also tells the full story of his 2024 Canadian Q School week in Dothan, Alabama. He was 7 under after two rounds. Then came a double on a 200 yard par 3, a misread tee time and a DQ before the final round. He shares what he does differently now.

Tell us in the comments: what's your next drill, and how many out of 10 do you make?

Studies and people we mention:

Adam Young, The Practice Manual

Guadagnoli and Lee (2004), the challenge point framework

Robert Bjork, desirable difficulties

Wilson et al. (2019), Nature Communications, the 85% rule

Human Movement Science (2025), when a task gets too hard

Jared Porter, LSU, moving from blocked to random practice

Low and colleagues, 14 studies on pressure training

Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets

Sisk et al. (2018), the growth mindset meta-analysis

Chapters:

0:00 Why 10 for 10 at the range is a bad sign

1:59 How much should you be missing?

3:08 Adam Young's 3 to 7 out of 10 rule

4:00 The 3 dials that change any drill

4:31 There's no such thing as a good drill

5:26 Why easy practice feels so good

6:46 The 85% rule for faster learning

7:34 When hard practice backfires

7:49 Signs your practice is too easy

10:26 What Rory did after the 2011 Masters

10:48 Rory's 496 for 496 inside 3 feet

14:54 Hayden's Q School blowup

17:23 The tee time mistake

19:42 How Hayden bounced back

22:04 Handling emotions after a miss

24:20 The 3 part plan

24:29 Part A: turn one dial

26:57 Add a consequence: Colby's match

28:56 Part B: stop judging by results

30:41 The 3 buckets for every miss

31:37 Part C: is growth mindset enough?

32:37 Playing to your personality

35:50 Ask: how many did I actually miss?

36:31 Isaak's GC3 ladder drill

37:37 Hayden's takeaway

40:15 New Friday schedule

New schedule: episodes with just Isaak and Hayden now drop every Friday. Guest episodes are bonus episodes early in the week.

Isaak is a competitive mid-am who helps busy golfers improve with the time they already have. Hayden is a professional golfer. Play Ready Golf helps you practice with purpose, so you show up to the first tee ready to score.

Secrets of the elite mid am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam

Want a practice plan built for your game and your schedule? Try Play Ready Golf free for 7 days. Code ISAAK takes $20 off the year 👉 https://playready.golf/the-app

Sam Jackson sells windows for a living. He has a 7 month old at home and practices once or twice a week. He's also been South Carolina Golf Association Player of the Year 4 years in a row, made the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur, and won the 2025 South Carolina Amateur with a wedge to 3 inches on the final hole.

His edge isn't his swing. It's caring less. Golf used to be his #1 priority. Now it's 4th or 5th, and he plays better for it. In this episode he explains how to stop living and dying with every shot, the 3 checks he runs every time he practices, and why his best week in golf came after his worst prep.

You'll learn:

Why a 4x Player of the Year calls himself a mediocre college player

How to take the pressure off every single shot

Why he's hit it great and finished 7th, then hit it average and contended

The 3 fundamentals he checks every session

How he got into contention on 4 rounds in 4 months with a newborn

Where to start when you have an hour at the range and no plan

Follow Sam: https://www.instagram.com/samuelnotljackson

Need windows or doors in the Columbia, SC area? Sam's with Pella Windows and Doors of the Carolinas.

0:00 Not that Samuel Jackson

1:08 Starting golf at 12

2:30 What sped up his development

4:23 The U.S. Junior at 15

5:09 A 74.8 college scoring average

6:53 Treating every shot like the one

7:58 How to stop living and dying on every shot

8:22 The mental game beats the physical by a mile

9:01 Golf went from #1 to #5

10:35 Make golf as meaningless as possible

10:56 Less pressure at a D2 school

11:33 Staying sharp with a newborn

13:12 The 17 Golfers cheat sheet

13:41 4 rounds in 4 months, then the final group

15:07 How he picks what to practice

16:11 Where to start with an hour and no plan

17:44 The Play Ready Golf app

18:19 His 3 checks: grip, ball position, alignment

20:12 A $70 indoor winter setup

21:44 Getting away from the golf course

23:40 What golf can teach his daughter

26:00 Why he doesn't set goals

27:40 The 2023 U.S. Mid-Am and Stewart Hagestad

29:06 Bad prep, best week

30:58 The walk off at the 2025 South Carolina Am

33:38 Merion with his wife on the bag

36:43 The one thing to steal from Sam

38:01 It won't be on your tombstone

38:22 Where to find Sam

FREE: Secrets of the Mid-Am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam

The Play Ready Golf App (7 Days Free) 👉 https://onelink.to/93ggkv

Roughly 800 former pros apply to regain their amateur status every year, and virtually all are approved. This week at the U.S. Mid-Amateur, 7 of the 8 quarterfinalists were reinstated amateurs, and so are both finalists.

Career amateur TJ Shuart, a veteran of 12 USGA championships, joins Isaak to ask whether a reinstated pro is ever really an amateur again. They walk through why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981, the news that brought this to a head, and the toughest counterarguments. Then TJ lays out a simple fix: a waiting period based on how long you played as a pro and how high you got.

Every player discussed followed the rules as written. This conversation is about the rules.

Feedback or a topic idea? isaak@playready.golf

CHAPTERS

0:00 Preview

0:27 The fork in the road: pro or lifelong amateur

2:31 Why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981

4:30 TJ Shuart's career as an amateur

7:22 The Mid-Am 20 years ago

12:09 The numbers: 800 reinstatements a year

17:22 How we got here: Knost, the USGA pause, and Sposa

28:11 "Those guys stopped playing years ago"

34:20 Is a reinstated pro the same player?

38:21 The Stewart Hagestad question

42:21 Challenge 1: college players

43:44 Challenge 2: NIL money

46:51 Challenge 3: should pros ever come back?

49:19 TJ's fix: a tiered waiting period

54:43 The reinstated players, by the numbers

1:04:26 What John Peterson said

1:11:09 Where the USGA review stands

1:16:23 Mid-Am update: 7 of 8 and both finalists

SOURCES

USGA Mid-Am fact sheet: https://filecache.mediaroom.com/mr5mr_usga2/190647/download/2025%20Mid-Am%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

GOLF.com on reinstatement: https://golf.com/instruction/rules/how-pro-golfers-regain-amateur-status/

Golf Channel on the USGA pause: https://www.golfchannel.com/ncaa/news/usga-temporarily-pauses-review-of-amateur-status-reinstatement-guidelines

NBC Sports on the 2025 quarterfinals: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/u-s-mid-amateur-quarters-filled-with-reinstated-ams-including-kft-vet-who-just-regained-status

SI, the other side: https://www.si.com/golf/us-mid-amateur-does-not-have-professional-problem