Secrets of the elite Mid-AM: ⁠https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam⁠

Practice smarter with the Play Ready Golf app. 7 days free, code ISAAK takes $20 off the year: https://onelink.to/93ggkv

Follow Payne: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/paynerr/⁠

He plays 3 to 4 rounds before a tournament and hits balls maybe twice a week. He has a day job in logistics and just won his 3rd straight Tennessee State Amateur, something only 2 other golfers have done in 100 plus years.

Payne Denman has played 5 U.S. Amateurs, coached college golf at MTSU, Tennessee, and South Florida, and played pro golf on PGA Tour Latinoamerica before walking away. In this episode he breaks down exactly how he practices now: the 60 minute range hour he splits into 3 blocks, why he stopped hitting drivers and got better, the mirror work he does at home, and how he talks to himself like a coach talks to a player.

Timestamps

0:00 What he knows that college golfers don't

0:43 How many hours he actually practices

1:04 Mirror work, slow reps, and the 90 minute cap

2:10 Week 2: money games instead of range balls

2:33 The 45 minute session: where all the time goes

3:14 Why he quit hitting drivers (and got better)

4:41 Where college players waste unlimited hours

6:33 A lack of intent repeats what's easiest

7:10 How a coach fixes wasted practice

9:22 Talking to yourself like a coach

10:59 No coach? Write it down, 1 goal, max time

12:53 Separate mechanics from target practice

13:54 The 60 minute range hour: 3 blocks of 20

15:31 Why range games die on the course

16:22 Serial ball beating and why failure is the point

17:44 Playing scared: fear and embarrassment off the tee

19:14 Merion: the hardest course he's ever played

21:39 How he preps for championship setups

23:45 Adjusting to new grass, climates, and fog

26:45 The day job advantage

27:45 Down with 5 to play: birdies on 4 of the last 5

30:52 Fighting off the three-peat thoughts

32:22 What pro golf taught him about failure

33:35 The day he knew pro golf was over

36:32 What he tells players who want to turn pro

38:51 Reinstatement: the 4 year wait

41:31 PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the $4,000 career

44:32 What recreational golfers get wrong

46:45 What's next for Payne

Try the app free for 7 days. Code PRGPOD gets you 20 dollars off the annual plan for life : https://onelink.to/93ggkv

Free stats guide. Every benchmark from 3 feet to 300 yards, 20 handicap through tour pro : https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/comprehensivestats

Free 59 minute practice plan: https://onelink.to/59minplan

Coaches. PRG Teams is built for high school and college programs at about half what our competitors charge. First month free : https://playready.golf/teams

CHAPTERS

00:00 How many of your 14 clubs did you actually hit

01:19 The hybrid Isaak loved and had to take out

02:15 The Arccos study nobody talks about

03:37 This happens at every handicap level

04:04 The 5 most abandoned clubs in golf

05:18 Why the 3 wood is a security blanket

06:30 You carry it so you are not the guy without one

08:18 The free stats guide

09:28 You did not pick 14 clubs, you inherited a slot

10:47 The 1935 US Open and the guy with 32 clubs

12:00 Lawson Little and his 7 wedges

13:03 Why the USGA actually made the rule

14:20 The man who invented 14 said 14 was too many

16:56 Francis Ouimet won a US Open with 7 clubs

17:27 A limit is not a quota

18:20 Your 7 iron has the loft of a 1990s 5 iron

19:21 Isaak on 8 years in club fitting

20:24 The gap wedge exists to patch a hole

20:57 The case for owning more than 14 clubs

22:22 Hayden's qualifier, 14 holes, zero drivers

25:20 Why leaving a gap on purpose works

26:22 Rule 1: every club needs a job you can say out loud

28:01 Rule 2: two clubs cannot share a job

29:30 Rule 3: the receipt rule

30:46 Hybrid versus long iron, the Shot Scope numbers

31:58 Why long irons fail, and it is not your swing

33:05 What being the outlier actually costs you

36:00 Rule 4: replace it, do not just remove it

37:03 Driver versus 3 wood

39:09 Humility with a receipt

39:39 Arguing against our own episode

40:49 The USGA study on what golfers do not know

42:37 Where this data comes from and its limits

42:50 What to take with you

44:59 Hayden on discipline and the Ohio Open

SOURCES NAMED IN THIS EPISODE

Lou Stagner, analysis of the Arccos database, March 2023

Shot Scope, long iron versus hybrid greens in regulation

Arccos, driver versus 3 wood accuracy and distance

USGA TrackMan study, December 2023, 627 recreational golfers

Robert Harris, Sixty Years of Golf, 1953

Rand Jerris, USGA, on the origin of the 14 club rule

World Golf Hall of Fame on Lawson Little

Golf Digest and Ralph Maltby on iron loft changes

Try Play Ready Golf free for 7 days. Code PRGPOD takes $20 off every year, forever: https://onelink.to/93ggkv

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

Get a custom piece from Andrew: andrew@sanstudio.com

Andrew Chapman shot 90 in the first round of a U.S. Am qualifier and wondered if the USGA would send him a letter. 4 years later he won the Michigan Amateur as the 32 seed, and today he builds custom furniture, raises 2 boys, and still chases USGA qualifiers. We get into the line between supporting a kid and pushing one, the multi-sport locker room at Michigan, the rebuild that started with grip and stance, the wedge ladder that carries his whole bag, AimPoint with a carpenter's level, and what a craftsman knows about the difference between good and right.

Timestamps

0:00 Harder to watch than to compete

2:07 The temptation a champion dad resists

3:27 Family golf: 9 holes, 2 hours, 2 boys

5:33 Quick to the ball, then take your time

6:52 The line between helping and pushing

7:45 Playing golf swing instead of golf

9:43 What his parents got right

11:04 Too serious, and the try less lesson

13:19 The 12-second pre-shot fix

15:17 The golf bug at 13

17:49 Every Michigan player was multi-sport

22:29 Rock bottom: the 2009 qualifier

25:42 The 32 seed run, and where belief comes from

28:50 His practice: the 40 to 110 wedge ladder

30:13 AimPoint with a carpenter's level

32:12 The 9 shots drill

34:18 Good vs. right: lessons from the shop

37:40 Build this first: the beginner slab table

39:19 The 20 foot table at a golf course

40:36 What he wants his boys to take at 18

42:59 The reinstatement debate

47:24 Bring back the 36-hole qualifier

47:47 Staying with Scottie Scheffler at the U.S. Am 4

9:05 Where to find Andrew, and what's next