Jason Day’s 5 Tips to get your kids to start playing – #3 is key!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I have always enjoyed teaching kids to play golf.
The look of thrill in kids’ faces when they hit a good shot always brings a smile to my face. I have always deemed it to be an honor to start a child on the path to golfing success. There so many reasons to get your kid(s) started in golf. Learning honesty, integrity, and respect are just 3 of many life lessons they can learn while starting golf. Jason Day gives his 5 reasons why you should encourage your children to accompany you to the range the next time you go. Thanks to Golf Digest and photographer Walter Iooss Jr. for this interesting article.
Welcome to the Family Issue. This is my son, Dash Day, who is 3½. He loves to hit balls. We’re not at the big course just yet, but I’m looking forward to all the rounds we’ll play together. Golf Digest asked me to share what we’ve been working on. Mainly, I just try to keep it fun, but I do certain things that might help you teach your rug rat. No matter what ages you have at home, you’ll find useful information on equipment and trips, plus stories from the tour and more in the coming pages. Although rounds with friends are special, there’s nothing quite like golf when it’s blood on blood.
— With Max Adler
DESIRE
Dash was a year old when he learned to walk, and that’s right about the time he got his first plastic golf club. He’d storm around swinging it one-handed. Six months later, he began gripping the club with two hands, but apart like holding a hockey stick. I figured it was correct enough that his right hand was on the bottom and just let him have at it. Before he turned 2, my friends at TaylorMade sent a cut-down JetSpeed driver. In these photographs, Dash has his new M1 driver. Amazing.
I was kind of pushed into golf as a kid, so I vowed never to do that with my son. My rule is, Dash has to ask me to go to the range. Our family travels to most tournaments in our RV, and our “home” is almost always parked on or near a golf course. So the game is very present in his world. Dash will grab his driver and say, “Hit balls, hit balls.” He really likes it, and watching his face light up when he connects with one brings me great joy.
‘My only swing thought: hit down on the ball to make it pop up.’
My coach and caddie, Colin Swatton, took me from a 12-year-old to where I am today. If Dash ever decides to pursue golf seriously, I’ll put Col in charge. I’d be too technical a teacher for a junior. For now, I just do my best to make it fun. If that ever stops being enough and Dash wants to play golf to win, that desire will have to come from within. Not from me.
‘If Dash ever wants to play to win, that desire will have to come from within.’
PATIENCE
No matter how much patience you have, when you become a parent, you find more.
It’s a good thing to have a lot of—in life and in golf. When Dash and I go to the range, I think we both build this quality in ourselves. To even tee a ball is a delicate motor skill at his age, and so to steady his hand, he must really focus and not get unnerved by failure. Me, I’ll be kneeling there, feeding balls and encouragement—not gushing positive feedback, but enough to let him know he’s doing a good job—all while watching that split grip. Once his hands began to migrate closer together, it took more than a month for them to finally touch. A couple times, I did try physically moving his hands and explaining why, but what really worked was Dash watching me hit balls. He understood it on his time. That’s golf.
You can talk to Jason Day while he’s putting – He’ll still beat you!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Recently, Golf Digest set up a 9-Ball Pool challenge on a putting green to test the skills of PGA Tour winner Jason Day.
Just like in a real billiards game, the balls were racked in pockets, and Day had to break them using a putter and a cue ball.
Watch this fun video to see what Jason scored and what made it more difficult!
Thanks to Golf Digest for this fun and entertaining video!
Golf Digest photoshoot with Jason Day but Dash is the star!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Jason Day had a great 2015. He won a Major Championship and also won another 4 times on the PGA Tour. Although he has been in the press a lot, his son Dash has captured the public’s heart. With a cute face and a mop of black hair, he is rock star material! I look to a bright future for this young man!
Thanks to Golf Digest for sharing this video of the photoshoot for the upcoming Golf Digest issue!
PGA champ Jason Day let his young son, Dash, practice his swing on the set of their Golf Digest cover shoot. Watch as Dash nearly takes out the photographer in one fell swoop!
Jason Day can hit it a lot further than you – Blindfolded!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Jason Day plays golf for a living, so we all know that he is better than most.
When John Benkus of ESPN Sports Science invited Jason to hit some balls to test clubhead speed and launch angle, it was pretty impressive. However, when he blindfolded Jason, and he then launched it higher and hit it further, that was mind-blowing! These guys are good!
As if you needed more reasons to feel bad about your long game, Jason Day comes along and makes it look easy. And if you didn’t feel bad enough, he’s going to rub it in by out driving most of the free world… blindfolded.
Check out PGA Star Jason Day’s Custom personal putter!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The PGA Pros play with equipment that is customized specifically for them; I get that.
I do clubfitting myself for the average golfers that come through my school. It makes a big difference in their games. But to have a putter made pretty much from scratch to fit your putting stroke? That is way cool! Here is the process of how they made Jason Day’s putter, video, and all brought to us by John Holmes of PGA.com. Don’t forget to go to the video link below the picture as well.
Jason Day has no sightline on his putter.
Welding the hosel into the proper position is a key part of the construction of Jason Day’s TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy Spider putter.
Jason Day could probably sink putts with a monkey wrench these days.
Still, the fact is that he’s won three of his last four starts – the RBC Canadian Open, the PGA Championship, and the Barclays – with a prototype model of TaylorMade’s Ghost Itsy Bitsy Spider mallet.
Earlier today, TaylorMade posted a video that shows how its technicians build Day’s putter from scratch. It is definitely worth the 152 seconds it’ll cost you to watch it.
TaylorMade describes the putter as an Itsy Bitsy Japan model with the hosel cut off. They then hand-weld a #3 short slant neck onto the head. Day prefers no sightline, TaylorMade says, so the technicians hand-weld in the existing line and buff the top until it’s smooth. They then coat the head with a custom acrylic to give it its grey finish.
5 Steps to take your game to a totally different level!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
We’ve all recently watched Jason Day close his eyes in his pre-shot routine.
Some viewers have wondered what he is thinking. The day isn’t really thinking… he is visualizing the shot to come, from beginning to end. I love this, and it supports a recent post where I said that if you can’t see the shot, you can’t hit the shot.
Greg Liberto, renowned ‘HEAD’ coach, gives you 5 easy steps for a pre-shot routine that can help you to get in the zone… the optimum place to be, mentally. This will take your game to a totally different level!
Liberto says that STEP No. 1 is to “Stop the Ants.” He says you must banish all Automatic Negative Thoughts like the poor shot on your last hole or don’t-go-out-of-bounds, etc.
Watch his video from Liberto to learn Steps 3, 4, and 5.
“Why is Jason Day Closing His Eyes?”
The concept of getting in “The Zone” is a very ambiguous and difficult feeling to attain. It seems to ebb and flow on its own schedule, and for many golfers it is never available when they need it most.
Last month, I delivered a 60-minute on-course coaching session with a top junior golfer in Rochester, N.Y. The goal of this session was to learn the process to be 100 percent ready on every shot. This is a five-step approach that allows you to take control of your pre-shot routine and get in The Zone on every shot, regardless of the situation.
For 55 of the 60 minutes, all we focused on was this game-changing, pre-shot routine. At the end of the session all my student had to say was, “I feel sorry for my competition.”
If you want to eliminate the inconsistencies in your game and approach every shot feeling ready, here are the steps to make it happen.
ANTS are Automatic Negative Thoughts that create terrible shots. ANTS come in all shapes and sizes and make you say things such as: don’t go out of bounds, I hate this hole, my short game stinks and a plethora of other unhealthy communication patterns. To STOP the ANTS you must:
Be aware that you are having a negative thought.
Take a four-second timeout.
Get focused.
Watch the video below to learn more about these steps.
The proper way to visualize your shot is to think of it like a movie. Close your eyes and envision it from the time it leaves your club to the time it stops. Another method is to envision your shot in reverse.
The New Millenium Triumvirate of McIlroy Spieth and Day!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The original Big 3 or the “Great Triumvirate” were James Braid, John Henry Taylor, and Harry Vardon.
They won 16 times in the 21 tournaments held between 1894 and 1914; Vardon won six times, with Braid and Taylor winning five apiece. In the five tournaments in this span, the triumvirate did not win; one or more of them finished runner-up.
Then came along the Modern Triumvirate of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus. They won 34 Major Championships and dominated the game from the early ’60s to the Mid ’80s.
Today we have the New Millenium Triumvirate of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Jason Day! Already they have won 7 Majors, and they are just beginning. I’m sure they will be swapping the #1 position in world golf for some time to come. Wow, I cannot wait for 2016 and beyond!
Jason Day, of Australia, holds up a trophy after winning The Barclays golf tournament Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015, in Edison, N.J. ( Photo/Pinterest)
Jordan Spieth was gone, but not forgotten, certainly not by Jason Day.
In his debut as the No. 1 player in the world, Spieth had back-to-back rounds over par for the first time all year and missed the cut. He already was assured of losing the No. 1 ranking back to Rory McIlroy when Day put together a weekend at The Barclays that was even better when put into recent context. He shot 63-62 on the weekend — the 62 was the lowest closing round by a PGA Tour winner all year — and finished at 19-under 261 for a six-shot win over Henrik Stenson. This was Day’s first tournament since he became the first player in a major to reach 20-under par in beating Spieth by three shots at the PGA Championship.
Throw in the Canadian Open, and Day has won three of his last four tournaments.
So it seemed to be a natural question who would get his vote as PGA Tour player of the year, which until last week was not really a question at all.
And it still isn’t to Day — not yet, anyway.
“Right now, Jordan Spieth gets my vote,” Day said. “Winning two major championships at such a young age is big. Winning four tournaments overall is great.”
Then again, there are still three FedEx Cup playoff events remaining, including the Tour Championship that determines the $10 million bonus. It’s already been a banner summer for the 27-year-old Australian, and he’s not done yet.
“I think winning the FedEx Cup and maybe one or two more tournaments, that could put my name in the mix for player of the year,” Day said. “I’m not sure. I’m going to leave that to the peers, to the people. That will definitely throw my name in the mix.”
The New Millenium Triumvirate of McIlroy Spieth and Day!
Spieth already has locked up the points-based award from the PGA of America because of a bonus awarded to multiple major champions.
And that’s not something to take lightly. The 22-year-old Texan is only the 19th player in 120 years to do that. As only the fourth player to get halfway to the Grand Slam, he handled the pressure by finishing one shot out of a playoff at St. Andrews. And with a runner-up at the PGA Championship, Spieth joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to finish in the top four at all four majors.
He also was runner-up three other times (Houston Open, Texas Open, Colonial), still is nearly $3 million ahead of Day on the money list and is leading the Vardon Trophy for the lowest adjusted scoring average on the PGA Tour.
That’s why Day was quick not to dismiss Spieth.
If the Australian were to win the Tour Championship, that makes it interesting, but still probably not enough. The Tour Championship and one other FedEx Cup playoff event? That would be six wins — only Woods and Vijay Singh have done that over the last 20 years — and then it moves the vote closer to a coin flip.
“I’m by far playing the best golf of my life,” Day said. “Just the synergy between my golf swing right now and what I’ve done with my body is working. I’m hitting it a long, long way. I feel like the accuracy has pulled in. … I feel like Jordan Spieth with how I’m putting. It’s a good feeling.”
Another race is shaping up that could prove to be more compelling.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Many of today’s top golfers have a tale to tell on how and where they grew up.
Jason Day is no different, but little do we know watching his smiling face each week on the PGA Tour, that if it was not for his mother, he might not have even been here to thrill us with his fabulous golfing skills!
On the heels of Jason Day’s PGA Championship on Monday, the Fil-Aussie’s mom bared that the sport of golf saved her son’s life.
In a report on The Courier Mail in Australia, Dening Day said that her son’s fascination with golf helped him go to the right direction when teenage troubles loomed over his life.
His work ethic and dedication for the sport changed Day’s life path, opening up the floodgates for the success he is currently garnering now.
“We knew he had the potential and the commitment but the waiting was making us anxious,” said Dening Day.
It was really a courageous stand for Jason, who lost his father Alvyn when he was 12.
Heroes and Zeros of the 2015 PGA Championship Week!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
What an incredible week of golf!
I feel a little sorry for Brook Henderson having her breakout win and getting member status on the LPGA Tour the same week as PGA Tour favorite Jason Day gets his first Major of his already outstanding career. But there were many storylines, both good and bad, and Alan Shipnuck of GOLF Magazine brings us all the news!
I’m usually a little melancholy in the days after the PGA Championship, mourning the end of the thrills and spills of the major championship summer, but it’s a different feeling this year. The Opens, here and abroad, were utterly thrilling, and while this PGA wasn’t quite as nerve-jangling, it was still a star-making tour de force for the champion. For the last decade, we’ve been fretting about the post-Tiger era — now that it’s here, it looks pretty damn good to me.
Heroes
1. Jason Day. He drove it like Rory and putted like Jordan.
Now he gets to join them in a wildly appealing neo-Big Three.
(Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
2. Spieth. This was, quite simply, one of the best seasons by a golfer in the post-Watson era.
What a thrill it is to watch this kid play.
(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
3. Branden Grace. Between Straits and Chambers, this underrated South African is turning into a big-game hunter.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
His insight into Jason Day’s mental techniques that helped him to victory in the PGA Championship and what it took for this young man to breakthrough can help your game as well! Read on and learn these tips for preparing yourself mentally for your best game ever!
“A lot of people would be saying that I couldn’t finish. You get to a breaking point in your golf game where it can go either way. You go, ‘OK, I’ve had enough, and I just need to sit down and chill out.’ Or you go, ‘no, stuff that, I’m going to push through it, and I’m not going to quit until I win.’”– Jason Day, 2015 PGA Champion
For anyone who’s been following professional golf for the past few years, Sunday’s major championship win for Jason Day feels like a huge relief. During most of the final round, I heard my inner voice saying, “Surely it’s not going to be another top 5 in a major without a win?!”
Before sinking that final putt on the 18th green at Whistling Straits, Jason had the second-highest number of top-10s in a major without a win (9 to be exact).
So after being in so many final pairings on a major championship Sunday, the question of whether he had the mental game to handle the pressure and get the job done was being asked. Jason was even beginning to doubt himself, and if he hadn’t sealed the win, he wasn’t sure he would have recovered:
“Not being able to finish, it would have been tough for me mentally to really kind of come back from that. Even though I feel like I’m a positive person, I think that in the back of my mind, something would have triggered, and I would have gone, `Maybe I can’t really finish it off.’”
But Jason Day is a fighter. He’s overcome many adversities throughout his life – from losing his dad at the age of 12 and being a poor, teenage tearaway, to more recently, suffering several injuries and illnesses.
Undeterred by these various setbacks, he said before the PGA at Whistling Straits: “Look, if I keep doing what I’m doing, I’m going to win one of these.”
And he was right.
Working on his mental game.
Since joining the PGA Tour in 2006, he’s developed one of the best all-round technical games out there, but, as anyone who’s played the game of golf knows, it’s only half the equation of success. Jason knew it was his mental game that needed just as much work to get him to major-winner status.
“The game of golf is so mental, and if you don’t have everything in the right order, it’s challenging to win golf tournaments.”
So how does Jason Day prepare and manage his mental game?
Visualization for golf
You probably saw Jason closing his eyes during his pre-shot routine. What he was doing there was visualizing himself hitting the perfect shot. It’s like seeing a color movie of what he desires, right before it actually happens for real. It only takes a couple of seconds, but it can have a big effect on how well you play a shot.
Not only does he visualize individual shots, but he also visualizes the future attainment of his goals. As a 14-year-old, he wrote his goals down on a sheet of paper and read them aloud before he went to bed every night. These included becoming the World No. 1 and winning major championships. Most of those who listened thought he was kidding himself.
More recently, after his PGA Tour win at the Farmers Insurance this year, he said:
“I visualized myself winning and holding the trophy before the week. I tried to visualize it over and over…That’s what I did in the match play, and that is what I did this week, so obviously, that tells me that I need to do that a lot more.”
Goal setting and visualizing future success might not mean that you will achieve it, but it’s proven to increase your self-image. This is a big factor in whether you do or not. In fact, the great Jack Nicklaus said that he attributes 50% of his success in golf to imagining it happening before it actually did.
Jordan Spieth was gone, but not forgotten, certainly not by Jason Day.
