WEBVTT
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Hey, this is Fred Green of Golf Smarter with our
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seventh installment of spring Back into Golf season with the
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late Tony Manzoni. This episode was published in twenty fourteen
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and podcasting still really hadn't caught on yet, so there
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wasn't a lot of competition between distributors at the time
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or know how to work the system. I'm pretty sure
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that was before I could schedule an episode to publish
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while I was on vacation. Now I can make sure
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that you never miss a week without a new episode,
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even when I'm away. So this episode was two weeks
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with Tony in one show episodes four hundred and thirty
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eight and four hundred thirty nine. So we packed a
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lot of information and a lot of topics into one
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long show, and it's a long one. It's over an
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hour now. Tony's book The Lost Fundamental is available on Amazon,
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and his DVD, which we converted to a private link online,
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is also available when you write to me. And for
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the most comprehensive information ever collected about Tony Manzoni, please
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go to Golfsmarter dot com. If you'd like to access
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that video, please write to me directly. Golf Smarter Podcast
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at gmail dot com, or click on the Heyfred button
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when you visit golfsmarter dot com.
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For members only. Golf Smarter numbers four hundred thirty eight
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and four hundred thirty nine. Published on May twenty seven,
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twenty fourteen. This is two weeks where the episode's delivered
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it once. It's an hour long conversation, but luckily it's
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a podcast and you can listen as much or as
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little as you want. Starting right now, Ben Hogan's Secret
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Letter and The Loss Fundamental Short Game with Tony Manzoni.
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This is Golf Smarter. Welcome back to the Golf Smarter Podcast.
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Tony, Hey, great to be back, Fred.
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It's great to talk to you. Have you been well.
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I had a little bit of a mishap. It's kind
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of funny in a way. I broke three bones of
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my right foot ankle by falling from a hill, hit
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a wet spot and slid downhill and body weight went
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forward and right leg didn't want to go forward and
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it snapped like a twig. So it's been a little setback,
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but other than that, life is really good. My golf
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team did well again. We won the twenty seventh Conference
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championship in a row, which is kind of crazy. Each year,
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I just shake my head. I don't know why it
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keeps happening, but it does.
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Do you recruit these kids? Are they find you? I mean,
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you keep winning and winning.
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Yeah, we get them from all over. This year we
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had a bunch of boys out of the country and
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some of them, yeah, some were really good players. And
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they're all coming back next year. But I always say
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to them, how did you find the College of the
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Desert from Belgium? But they go on the website and
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if you look at the website, you know our record
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really is really is sensational. And then the area that
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we'll end is such a beautiful area for golf. We
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go over one hundred golf courses, great weather, it's spring
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when we compete. We have a wonderful drive range on
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the facility. I'm a PGA member. I like to hope
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that part of them coming is my coaching, and the
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whole package is good for young person that really wants
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to get into golf in a serious way.
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So yeah, guess details, Yeah, more details about the school
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where it is and so people can Yeah.
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The name of the school is College of the Desert,
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it's in Palm Desert, California. It's a population of about
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ten thousand students. We have been rebuilding the college, built
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all kinds of new buildings and campus is fabulous. Of course,
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the weather in Palm desertgard to Cochello Valley is second
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to none, and especially in springtime. So it's just a
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marvelous place to come to. Uh. You know, we have
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a lot of we have the Coachella Fest and all
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kinds of activities for young people, but it's just a
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great place to live. I'm very lucky I left the
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Bay Area and you know, we we all know this
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is one of the greatest citas all all time, if
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not the greatest. Yeah, I do miss it, believe me.
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But but for me and golf and what I had
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wanted to accomplish, this is probably the best place I
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could have come to.
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M Well, congratulations, you guys have just owned it. And uh,
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I think it's more of a testimony to to your teaching.
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But even I hope it's part of it. For sure.
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I have I do have a formula that I use
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every year and it seems to be working out. And
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you know, the kids nowadays, you don't really have to
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teach much. When it comes to the apple, the movement
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of the swing, they're all pretty up to date, you know,
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they're all into rotation and connection and so forth. So
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it's not a hard sell. It's not like it was,
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let's say, fifteen years ago, where everybody was, you know,
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more of a hands and arm swinger opposed to body swinger.
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So that parts are really good.
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Well. And we've also had tremendous success. Your book and
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the video actually the only place that really available on
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golf Smarter. And it's amazing to me what a phenomenal
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response you've received from the golf Smarter community.
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It is amazing because you know, I'm you know, seriously,
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I'm a no name. I'm just a golf professional, although
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I think that i'm a pretty good teacher. And when
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we did the book, when we did the book, I
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did it kind of a friend and family and hoping
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that some people in golfing community would like it and
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accept it. And I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised.
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Thanks to your sight too, you have such a great
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group of people that are on your site all the time,
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so that's been a big plus for me, and I
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enjoyed a small success, so people out of the country
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by it, which is always kind of cool.
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And all over the world.
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It's crazy.
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It's crazy. Well, let's talk about the book and what
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you cover and what your method is, because it's very effective.
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It is a quick history. About fifteen twenty years ago.
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I had NFL walk in my office and tell me,
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would you like a copy of a letter that Ben
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Hogan wrote by explaining how to hit the driver? And
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also he has a film that was private film that
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he had taken and known I had actually seen him
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be home and swing, and you know, I almost jumped
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on his lap. So I read. The first thing I
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did is I read the letter, and the first thing
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I noticed was that Hogan stated, but on the top
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of the back swing, he has his weight shifts shifts
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to the instep of his left foot. And when I
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read it, I thought, well, I think he means the
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instep of his right foot, because that's what all traditional
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think he was. And then I went on to read
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the letter and that was really informative, and a lot
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of stick figure pictures and so forth. And then I
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watched the film, you know, and it was very obvious
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that he was staying on his left side. Throughout the backswing,
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it looked like he set up a little bit like
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side say sixty forty, and I think when you really
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center your head to the golf ball, you must be
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a little bit more on the left side of the
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right side. I noticed that his right the right hip
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was aligned on the inside of his right foot, so
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that was his right side. And I just noticed that
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when he's slung, he rotated his shoulders around his pine
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and the shoulders really were more level than his earlier swings.
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And the film that I had was after the accident,
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and that's really when he said, I'm going to start
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playing off the left side. And the funny thing about
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that statement the left side, A lot of people say that,
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but they don't know what it means. It certainly isn't
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stack and tilt. A lot of people will say, oh,
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you teach sack untilt, and I don't. And I'm not
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speaking against stack and tilt. I just believe that the
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shoulders really don't tilt on the down swing. I believe
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they turn based on the way they were set up
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at the ball, because when they tilt, it really steepens
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the swing and the down swing and it also the
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hands must finish, must higher, and the body ends up
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in kind of what we used to call a seat position.
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And people that do that on a lot, you know,
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do that a lot end up with lower back problems,
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as did most of the people from the era that
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I played in. So I believe in turning more level,
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as Hogan says, to turn the level left and posting
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up so that when you when you finish, your body
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is really more erect and your weight is really on
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the left side, and you're not your body isn't tilted back. Uh.
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So when I got all this information, I started applying
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it to some of the people that I taught, elderly
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people who their first complaint was I want to hit
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it farther. That seemed to be the number one chant
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that I got from everyone that I said, Well, what
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would you like to do in the golfing? I want
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to hit it farther. So I started working with this,
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and Holy mackerel, uh. Because I had them more on
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the left side, I can get them onto the total
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left side. I get them through the golf ball much
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easier than when they transferred their weight right and then
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back to the left. And I readily saw that there
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was a rationale for doing this. This wasn't a band aid,
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but this was really the way he did. And then
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going back into filming, you know, I saw the Palmers
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and the Nicholas's and all the greats. They had long careers,
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their head was very steady. They had did not move
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to the right in the back sleet. So little by
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little I started really buying into this. Then I got
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a call from al Geiberger, who is a resident here,
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and of course I'm a very famous golfer, mister fifteen nine.
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We call him and al said, you know, when I
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read your article in a golf magazine, local magazine, I
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thought you had flipped your wig, he said, but I
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started doing it with a fellow that was reversing his
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weight shift all the time. And he said it worked
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like a charm. I got him from falling back to
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the right side and he is now finishing and hitting
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the ball. You know, really really great. And then I
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started to tak creating. Now think about this, al Geiberger
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Lawyers having one of the great gosspems of all time.
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And he said, because of my age, I can't get
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to that left side like I used to. And he
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said it works like a charm. So that was the
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kind of the catalyst in the history of how I
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really bought into this, because I had to buy into
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it just like everybody else I was taught. You know,
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shift you away to the take your shirt them and
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shift your way to the right leg and then shift
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back to the left. And you know, there's a big
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timing element there because you've got to make a little
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lateral slide and then rotate. And this eliminates that lateral
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side slide. So then everyone that I taught, so you know,
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you need to write this in some kind of a
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book for him so other people can see it. And
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you know, they were rubbing my elbow pretty hard there.
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I'm the elbow, I mean, my ego pretty hard there.
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So I thought, well, what the heck, why not do that?
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So I wrote that little bit arioto, small little book,
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as you know, but I think it's concise. And I
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have done this now since today I got that letter.
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I have been continuous. I have never stopped doing this.
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And I can tell you that I have never had
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anyone say I can't do it this way, I can't
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hit it this way. I think this is wrong. Not
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one and I would tell you even if there was one,
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I would tell you it's never happened. And I've had
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a lot of guests, by the way, come from your
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side your site, that came into town to take a
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lesson from me, and I must say that I got
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love letters from them after.
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M I've received those letters as well. I've had people
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in the golf Smarter community right to me from all
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over the United States and even outside I'm pretty sure,
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who have come to Palm Desert in the Palm Springs
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area in southern California to take lessons with you and
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were just just so happy of the results.
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It really has been astounding, and you can only thank
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mister Hogan because he was really the one that I
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think there was other players that played off the left
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side for sure in this era, and subsequently some that
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did it after. I mean Lee Trevino, on a conversation
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I had with him, said to me, I've seen a
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lot of guys that had great, long careers that played
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off the left side, but I've never seen anyone that
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had a long career that played off the right side.
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And I didn't understand what he was saying, and of course,
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like most people, I was embarrassed to say, what do