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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

Most golfers work on the wrong thing. They stretch when the problem is fear. They lift when the problem is transfer. They take a lesson when the problem is speed.

Mike Carroll trains PGA Tour players through Fit For Golf, and he gave four at-home checks that tell you which one is actually holding you back. Then he laid out the exact 20 minute, three days a week template for a guy with a job, kids, and no gym.

FREE: The 15 Minute Test (one page, four checks, your one thing this month)

https://playready.golf/20-yards

Play Ready Golf app, 7 days free. Code PRGPOD saves $20 a year for life.

https://playready.golf

Mike Carroll, Fit For Golf

https://fitforgolf.blog

Instagram and X: @fit_for_golf

CHAPTERS

0:00 Mobility problem or technique problem? The three swing test

2:29 Four ways to find your real limiter

3:41 The 2 to 3 year strength rule

6:30 Technique vs skill: judge your best shots, not your average

7:38 The 15 minute test (free, first link)

8:11 The busy golfer: gym time or range time?

9:11 The calendar rule: tournament inside 3 months, skip the gym

14:07 Structure your year: winter builds capacity, spring transfers it

17:00 Strength benchmarks by age: pull up, push ups, jumps, split squats

26:34 Training 50,000 golfers from one app

27:46 Speed training: where a normal golfer starts

31:27 Your range speed vs your course speed

32:41 Transfer problem or capacity problem

35:22 When overload and underload tools earn their place

38:08 Four months out vs four weeks out

39:29 When speed stops being the lever

44:50 Play Ready Golf app

45:41 Isaak had 130 mph in college. It did not help.

49:40 The 20 minute template: Mon, Wed, Fri

52:20 Why power leaves first and almost nobody trains it

57:23 Speed work at the end of practice, not a separate session

59:48 Wrap up

Every number in this episode comes from Mike on the recording. Strokes gained references are from Mark Broadie, Every Shot Counts.

#golf #golffitness #golfpractice

FREE SIMPLE STAT TRACKER: https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/simplestatstracker

PLAY READY GOLF APP

Enter your round, the app does the strokes gained math and tells you what to practice. 7 day free trial. Code PRGPOD for $20 off the year.

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Fairways hit is the golf stat every app shows you first, and it barely separates a scratch golfer from a 20 handicap. In this episode Isaak and Hayden go through the four golf stats on every scorecard app (fairways hit, greens in regulation, up and down percentage, putts per round), show what each one hides, and swap each one for a number you can track with a pencil that actually predicts your score.

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR

Why a scratch golfer hits only about 4% more fairways than a 20 handicap (Shot Scope)

The stat that actually separates handicaps off the tee: 12% vs 45% of drives in penalty or recovery (Arccos, 2025 driving report)

What the rough, trees, and a fairway bunker really cost you

Bryson at Winged Foot: 23 of 56 fairways and a U.S. Open trophy

Broadie's breakdown of where the scoring gap comes from: approach 40%, tee 28%, short game 17%, putting 15%

Why greens in regulation cannot tell 6 feet from 60

Why up and down percentage grades your chip on your putt

Hayden's 65 with 35 putts, and why putts per round rewards bad golf

The two putts that separate handicaps: lags from 30 feet and makes inside 8

Strokes gained vs simple stats: which one you should keep

Chapters:

0:00 Fairways hit barely separates golfers

1:10 Scratch vs 20 handicap: a 13 point stat

1:45 The disaster stat: 12% vs 45% of drives

3:08 What the rough, trees, and bunkers actually cost

4:54 Distance is worth more than accuracy

5:23 Stat 1: Tee shots in play

6:41 Bryson at Winged Foot: 23 of 56 fairways

7:31 Should a 56 year old chase distance?

8:41 Where the scoring gap really comes from

10:00 Why greens in regulation lies

12:50 Hayden's fringe confession

15:11 Short game is 17% of the gap

16:23 Up and down blends two shots

18:43 Stat 3: 11 feet vs 20 feet after a chip

19:33 Hayden pushes back on the 17%

21:31 Track five rounds and be honest

22:21 Why you should not copy how mid ams practice

25:57 You cannot know your tendencies without tracking them

26:56 The dumbest stat: putts per round

27:58 Hayden shot 65 with 35 putts

29:49 The two putts that separate handicaps

30:53 Strokes gained vs simple stats

31:05 Recap: the four simple stats

34:55 Bobby Rippey and 1,000 subscribers

36:57 Next: the driver episode

Get the free cheat sheet: ⁠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 PRGPOD takes $20 off every year: ⁠⁠https://playready.golf/the-app⁠⁠

Follow Austin: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/_alangdale⁠⁠_

Austin Langdale's job is deciding which college golfers get equipment deals. He scouts for Srixon/Cleveland Golf, which means he watches perfect golf swings every single week. Most of those players never make it. In this episode he explains what actually separates scorers from range heroes, and how he used it to win the 2026 South Carolina Amateur while playing twice a month with 2 kids and a full time job. 9 years after an MS diagnosis ended his shot at pro golf.

You'll learn:

Why players with 190 ball speed still shoot 76

The tell scouts look for when everyone on the range looks perfect

How to win a state am on 40 minutes of practice a week

What to buy with $1,000 and 2 hours a week, and what to skip

Why most golfers carry 14 clubs but only need 8 or 9

The 1 club drill that builds feel faster than new gear

Chapters

00:00 A state champion's practice month

01:29 Closing out Quixote with the lead

03:31 Watching good golf instead of practicing

04:28 What a Srixon rep actually does

06:29 Who gets signed and who gets passed

08:34 What a 15 handicap can steal

10:07 The lowest hanging fruit

11:28 The 16 Golfers cheat sheet

11:55 NIL and the new college golf

14:58 Everyone looks the part on the range

16:09 Feel is a lost art

17:10 The Play Ready Golf app

17:58 Beating NeSmith and Champ

20:36 The injuries start at Clemson

25:02 Turning pro and the MS diagnosis

26:49 What MS took and what it gave

29:50 What the dream means now

31:39 A trophy and a 4 year old

33:32 What he wants his boys to learn

37:08 2 hours and 1,000 dollars

41:17 Merion and the U.S. Amateur

45:45 Clemson football check in

48:31 The fall schedule

50:58 Where to find Austin

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

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Two weeks ago we quoted a stat saying driver and 3 wood hit almost the same percentage of fairways, and the comments came apart. One commenter was right, and we went and checked. The stat has a hole in it, and nobody in golf has fixed it. Not Arccos. Not Shot Scope. Not Lou Stagner or Mark Broadie.

In this one: how far you actually hit driver, the one simulation that gets around the broken stat, the physics of why a 3 wood mishit curves less, exactly how many golfers should be hitting 3 wood off the tee, and 3 rules for the tee box that cost nothing.

Isaak has been in and around club fitting since 2017. Hayden plays professionally.

CHAPTERS 00:00 How many times did you actually pull driver

01:00 The comment that started this episode

01:50 The Arccos driving distance report

02:12 The amateur distance boom that never happened

03:33 What you hit it by handicap and by age

04:00 Everybody is 10 to 20 yards off

04:40 Where the strokes actually go

04:57 12% versus 45.1%

05:37 What counts as a big miss

06:23 Your miss is the same. Your aim is not.

06:59 The free stats guide

07:40 The stat we quoted has a hole in it

09:06 Nobody in golf has ever fixed it

10:35 The one study that gets around the problem

11:22 The shortest club won

12:02 The safety club is not safe, it is just shorter

12:44 Is a driver harder to square than a 3 wood

14:06 Gear effect, bulge and roll

15:31 What the robot test showed on toe hits

16:19 Why your own tendencies beat any stat we quote

17:02 How many golfers are straighter with 3 wood

18:20 The 1 in 10 number

18:36 If your 3 wood is as long as your driver

20:03 The 5% out of bounds rule

21:20 Nobody walked in asking me to fix their driver

22:00 Cutting down the driver shaft

23:07 The 2 reasons to shorten a shaft

25:26 Is driver marketing a scam

26:22 What a manufacturer told me about their own numbers

28:10 The fitting thing nobody thinks about

30:00 Tools, not jewels

33:20 Rule 1: driver is the default

34:00 Jason Day's pattern was 74 yards wide

34:40 Rule 2: aim off the trouble by half your pattern

35:50 Tee up on the same side as the trouble

36:10 Rule 3: the only 3 reasons to club down

37:19 The forced carry mistake I made for years

38:30 If you club down on 3 holes a round

38:49 How to think about lessons

41:36 Hayden argues against the whole episode

42:46 What actually fixes a 45% penalty rate

44:16 The guy who does not trust it right now

45:34 Findable and hittable

46:17 Tiger hit driver once at Hoylake

47:37 You do not have a driver problem

SOURCES NAMED IN THIS EPISODE Arccos annual driving distance report, 25,000 golfers and 6.5 million tee shots Lou Stagner, analysis of the Arccos database Shot Scope, driver versus 3 wood fairway data Golf Digest and Golf Laboratories robot testing Mark Broadie, strokes gained Scott Fawcett, DECADE

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