Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
Hello and welcome to Flaghunters ! It is a privilege to bring to you this powerful insight into playing better Golf. In all my years of being in the game of Golf from competing at a high amateur level, to caddying, teaching, and being a overall Golf geek, I have an insatiable, curiosity driven desire to get down to the bottom of what it takes to truly get better playing the game of Golf that we all unconditionally love. This has been one of the greatest journeys of my life and I am deeply grateful for all that Golf has given me. Thank you for joining me in this incredible journey. This is my ever evolving love letter to Golf. Jesse Perryman P.S. Please Rate, Review and Subscribe !
Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
Peter Ballengall's Masterclass: Fusing Mental Fortitude and Innovative Teaching in Golf
Feel free to text me at (831)275-8804
What if the key to mastering golf isn't in the swing but in the mind? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Peter Ballengall as he takes us through his incredible journey from Wilson Sporting Goods to becoming a renowned golf coach and writer. Discover how his transformative experiences at John Jacobs' golf center shaped his unique teaching philosophy, emphasizing the principles of ball flight laws over traditional swing techniques. Hear about his pioneering role at Barnham Broom Golf and Country Club where he introduced residential golf schools, significantly impacting the UK golf scene.
Peter’s transition from the golf course to the written word is nothing short of fascinating. Despite initial apprehensions about publishing articles focused on the mental aspects of golf, his narrative-driven pieces quickly gained popularity, earning him a five-and-a-half-year stint as a celebrated writer for one of Europe's biggest-selling magazines. We also explore his successful authorship of several golf books, including the massively popular "Learn Golf in a Weekend," which sold over 500,000 copies. Now residing in Spain, Peter continues to share his golfing wisdom through a more relaxed coaching schedule.
This episode also pays homage to the legendary John Jacobs, whose teachings have left a lasting legacy in the world of golf. Learn about Jacobs' unconventional approach, which prioritized understanding ball flight laws and the club face's impact over the technical details of the swing. Peter sheds light on Jacobs' "Goldilocks teaching" philosophy and offers practical advice on effective practice habits and maintaining a positive attitude on the course. Whether you're a seasoned golfer or a novice, you'll find invaluable insights and stories that celebrate the joy and complexity of the game.
You can find Peter on LinkedIn.
To reach Justin, Justin@elitegolfswing.com
To reach Jesse, jesse@flaghuntersgolf.com
A big thank you to TaylorMade and Adidas for their continued support 🙏
Hello, this is Jesse Perryman from the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast. Along with my good friend, fellow co-host, justin Ting, we proudly bring you a man by the name of Peter Bollingall. Peter may not be the most well-known here in the US, but he certainly made his presence in Europe and beyond. He is a direct descendant of quite possibly the godfather of modern coaching, a man by the name of John Jacobs. Those who are teaching and helping people in this game undoubtedly know who John Jacobs is. One of the most influential golf instructors who ever lived, and Justin takes the lead in this episode.
Speaker 1:Peter is one of the great minds in the game. He has multiple books, my favorite being Trust and Let Go. I would recommend that to anybody. His basis of teaching really is mindset, and he explores the mindset and tries to get the practitioner or his students to have some paradigm shifts in the mind to enable one to play to their best. And he also wrote a book which was bold back in the day but has a lot of relevancy, and that is how to learn golf over a weekend or in a weekend, and that one I would pick up as well.
Speaker 1:But without further ado, we want to give you an extra special thanks once again for tuning in. Thank you to Peter for sharing his time with us with great stories and, quite frankly, helping us to understand the nature of ball flight and what it does, to tell us everything that we need to know when we hit a golf ball. And that's good advice, good, useful advice. But I will make sure to put all the pertinent information in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Hope everyone is having a fantastic week and once again I want to give my heartfelt condolences out to the Murray family for Grace and Murray and once again say that if you're hurting and you need help, please reach out and call someone. Help is always on the other side. Cheers everyone and have a fantastic. Hello. This is Jesse Perryman, your host of the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast. Along with my co-host, justin Tang, we are both pleased to bring you a very storied and celebrated man in the game of golf. His name is Peter Ballengall and Peter, thank you for coming on. My friend Justin, thank you. As always. Let's get right into it, thank you.
Speaker 2:Justin. Thank you, Peter. Peter, you've got an incredible story that I think is worth sharing with our listeners that not many people know. You spent seven years under the legendary John Jacobs and literally turned his business around, and then you wrote the book Learn Golf in a Weekend, which sold 500,000 copies in nine languages. I can't think of any golf book to date that has sold that many copies. So with that as a background, could you share how you came into golf and how you came to meet John Jacobs and the rest of your story?
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much. That was a very nice introduction. I'm really not that famous, okay, but I was very fortunate. I came. My family was full of great golfers, amateurs.
Speaker 3:When I left school I began to work with Wilson Sporting Goods and they opened a plant in Irvine and I was employee number 12 of 12 employees and I got to shake the hand of Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead, who were iconic tour players with Wilson. I was with Wilson for seven years or so and I learnt the fundamentals of club making. And then I left and I met John Jacobs. I actually I didn't really know who he was at that time I was very young and not very well educated in that sense, but he offered me a job as the golf center manager of his golf center in Newcastle-on-Tyne, which was failing at the time, and, okay, I happily took the job and I gave it everything and I turned it around to become very profitable and John would come often and coach his clients. And then I discovered, of course, that he was really very famous and he was absolutely very famous and he was absolutely brilliant as a golf teacher. The time I discovered, or I found out, he was probably the greatest golf teacher of our time. He was so good and I was always in his shadow listening to him coach and teach his clients, and you know, he never taught the golf swing. What he taught were the ball flight laws of face alignment at impact, the swing path through impact and the plane of the swing that determined the flight of the golf ball, and any adjustment that he made to any client's golf swing was purely to improve these three facets. And this was astonishing because throughout history Rose has been trying to teach the perfect golf swing to every client, the same golf swing for everybody, which is, of course, ridiculous. But he was completely different and it wasn't complicated. This was the magic, the magical thing about it was not complicated, anyway. So after about seven or eight years it was time to move on. That's another long story why it happened, but it happened.
Speaker 3:And I went to Norfolk in England and I was taken on as the first professional and golf director of a club called Barnum Broom Golf and Country Club. Well, hardly a country club, because all we had at the time was a wooden shack, but the architect's drawing on the wall of what it was going to be was the thing that kept all of us afloat and enthusiastic, and eventually the club was built. We had a 45-bedroom hotel, we had 18 holes of golf, we had tennis courts and stuff, and it was one of the first country clubs in the UK. And then I discovered, or I realized, that, hey, it would be good for business to fill these hotel rooms. I could do some residential golf schools.
Speaker 3:Now this was a whole new concept. Very, very, very, very few people were doing such things and so I began and in the first year I don't know how it happened, but I got about eight or ten people together and we had a three-day golf school. And in the first year, I think, I did five programs. The second year I did 10, the third year about 15, the fourth year, 25. It began to grow. And this is all free, internet free, youtube free, everything. It was very basic, but the concept was brilliant and I was doing my best.
Speaker 3:I was coaching golfers I don't say teaching, I was coaching golfers. I'm not a teacher, in fact and in the 80s and 90s I was running, between April and October, as many as 35 three-day and four-day courses in that six-month period. It was enormous. And then in the winter, to escape from the British climate, I would run schools in Carolina, in America. We went to Egypt, we came to Portugal, we went to Spain and I had another 15 or 20 weeks away from the UK doing these things. So it was a huge, colossal, colossal business and thoroughly enjoyable. And then, you know, I was motivated in those early days by some books, I suppose. Firstly, of course, it was John Jacobs and his Practical Golf book. John Jacobs and his practical golf book. And then I read another called Extraordinary Golf by Sue Marker, and then another one by Einhager I forget the title now.
Speaker 2:Anyway, and what about your experience with Tim Galway?
Speaker 3:Well, he influenced my life hugely because I was searching for something for myself. I'm not that bright. I was thinking, oh, I can do this for the world. I was looking for answers for me to get my own monkeys off my own back. You know, I could play golf, but I couldn't compete because my mindset was completely wrong. And so Galway's book Inner Game taught me how to manage my thinking, and he taught many people how to do the same thing, and it was extraordinary. And I began to introduce his concepts into my program Running Schools, and of course this was long before golf psychologists had invented themselves. You know, today the world is full of psychologists in all sports.
Speaker 3:In those days there were very few and I was one of them, and of course all my clients thought that I was an expert in this field, but in truth I was only one lesson ahead of them at the time, but it was true, and of course they were listening. Of course this is wonderfully exciting and of course every school I rang I learned something else the week before and was able to introduce it into my program, and so it was a bit of a con in some ways, but really the results were always amazing. You know from all the clients I taught and I taught thousands. You know from all the clients I taught and I taught thousands. 30% would return a second or more time. 30% of clients in a group of 10 each school would come on the personal recommendation of a former client. So I was only looking 30% to film my program each week. You know, that was easy Somehow, I don't know why.
Speaker 3:And then I was again very lucky because I met a guy called Malcolm Campbell who was the editor of Golf Monthly magazine at the time in the 80s. A lovely, lovely person. And he got wind of the fact that I was running some junior golf schools at Barnum Broome and he got in touch with me and he said Peter, look, I'm very interested to know about your junior golf schools. Send me some information and I can maybe publicize it in the magazine. And I wrote to him I said hey, malcolm, no, why don't you come down here to meet and we can discuss and talk about what we do? And he did. He came down to Norfolk from Glasgow and we had a very interesting weekend, very, very just a lovely person. We had a lot of fun, we played golf, we talked a lot. And then before he left, he said Peter, I think I'd like you to write a few articles in the magazine. You know, maybe six articles, an entree, a bit and then an excerpt, and that would be great. And I thought, wow, this is terrific. Hey, I'm going to have my name in print in the magazine, one of Europe's biggest selling magazines. I'm going to be famous, wow, anyway. So almost immediately I wrote six articles and the articles were full of the stuff I was coaching all this mind stuff, the right brain stuff, away from the decimal points and the huge technical details of how not to slice, how to get out of a bunker, and all that stuff. My articles are narratives about golfers who came to Barn and Broome, to my school, and Charlie had a problem with whatever, and I just described how we got over Charlie's problems and of course there are many, many, many Charlies out there with similar problems. And because they were narratives, they were interesting to read and so the articles were really well accepted and well received and the magazine, being so popular, went around the world. So my name is going around the world. This was just awesome.
Speaker 3:And so, after I remember at the time I wrote these first articles, I woke up in the middle of the night one night in a panic oh my God, what is John Jacobs going to say about this stuff that I'm writing about? The mindset and stuff like that, which he never did. I phoned Malcolm one day. I said Malcolm, I made a big mistake. Look, I'm really sorry. I'm going to cancel everything and rewrite all my articles all the six that you said I should do, and give the people what they're accustomed to receiving. Malcolm said hey, peter, I can't do that because A all the drawings, all the artists' impressions have been made and everything is ready to go. And I have to tell you I enjoyed very much your articles. So they went.
Speaker 3:The first article came out. I was really nervous. The second one came out a month later. I'm really nervous. I'm waiting for John Jacobs' phone call to ask me what the hell have I been doing? Waiting for John Jacobs' phone call to ask me what the hell have I been doing. But nothing came. And the third article came out and Malcolm phoned me to tell me Peter, your articles are so popular. The feedback we're getting is incredible. I want you to keep writing for as long as you have something to say. Wow, I wrote articles for five and a half every month, not just six articles, but for five and a half years.
Speaker 2:And then it was awesome. Yeah, you really took that to heart and you even managed to find time to write a few more books, six to be precise Pocket Guide to Golf, golf 101,. Pocket Guide to Golf Practice Drills, golf Learner in Germany, your latest book, trust and Let Go, a compendium of all your golf monthly articles and the granddaddy of all golf books Learn golf in a weekend.
Speaker 3:Aprender golf en una fin de semana in Spanish. Absolutely Well. That was the next thing that happened. Malcolm again got in touch with me one day because he, doreen Kindersley, were a big still are a big publishing house in Britain and Malcolm had done some work for them and they were bringing out a series of Learn Something in a Weekend. Malcolm recommended to them that I should do their learn golf in a weekend program. Well, that was easy for me to do, because learn golf in a weekend, well, I can go through a three-day golf school for my clients in the book and so it wasn't rocket science, it was very simple to produce. And the great thing about that book, I say I wrote the book. Hey, don't misunderstand this. I provided some words that went alongside some wonderful photographs, and it's the photographs that sold the book, not my wonderful words, I have to tell you. That's the soul of the book, not my wonderful words, I have to tell you. But you're correct, it did sell over 500,000 copies in nine languages only because of the power and marketing of Dorling Kindersley, the publisher. But I was the lucky recipient, the royalties and so on. And yes, you're right.
Speaker 3:Again, one winter, when it was cold and dark outside. I decided, hey, let's do a book on how to practice. Nobody practices because practicing is too boring and they don't know what to practice anyway. So I got in touch with Dorian Kindersley and they said, yeah, this is nice, send me your ideas. So I did. We had a photograph session, as usual, and they agreed to go ahead and produce a small handbook on how to practice, and that sold. I can't. It was amazing. That sold also about 180,000 copies, and so it went on. You know,000 copies, and so went on. So you know, I've just been so lucky through my life All the balls dropped in the right place and all the bounces were good bounces, and so I was very fortunate.
Speaker 3:And now, of course, I'm in Spain and I've been here 20 years now at El Rompido, which is in southwest Andalusia in Spain, an absolute paradise of a place. We have two golf courses, hotels and all that stuff. And although when I first came I ran schools, groups, I was actually running out of puff and I stopped partly because I didn't have a good enough secretary who did all the real donkey work and I say partly because I ran out of puff. So I now coach now and again. I coach in the mornings, I coach individually or maybe two or three people only, and by the hour and not for three or four days.
Speaker 3:Very interesting, because I get a lot of requests from tour operators to say they have clients and they want he and his wife and somebody else maybe they want tuition for two hours each morning for five mornings and golf. And I say no, I'm not going to do that. The three people two hours every morning for five mornings is impossible. Morning for five mornings is impossible. Fatigue, fatigue, physical inflammation, overload are the very things that are contrary to developing good golfers getting over their little problems and their problems are very small in reality and it is extraordinary that I just don't do that. So, okay, I may lose money, but I tell them I will give you one hour a morning. We'll work for three mornings in the week and that will be sufficient, and I will back out with some resume that you can hang on the back of the loo door and read it over now and again, and that's what I do. So I'm very happy with that.
Speaker 2:Your account is very. Your account is quite amazing in what I consider the free internet age yeah you actually had to, you actually had to physically write your manuscript down pen to paper.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Learn Golf in a Weekend was one of the most successful books ever produced by fax, phone call and photocopy. It was pre-internet. You look back and you think how did we do that? It was just incredible, immense. And when you see the book, it's been produced magnificently. It's still selling today and it is extraordinary. I was also quite in my coaching career by Hank Haney. You've heard of Hank Haney.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have.
Speaker 3:Okay, he also was a product of John Jacobs and I met Frank Hank Haney in Milan in 1990. He and I and a number of other pros were principal speakers of the first European teaching and coaching conference and that was a really exciting three, four days again, and it's like you know, each pro has something that he's got to offer. And after every day, all the guys who were giving their talks for an hour and a half or something during the conference we'd meet afterwards and one would say, hey, peter, I love the way you said this about that, tell me some more about it. And I would say, hank, I never really thought about approaching the way you teach from this angle, you know, and the energy that was going through that around that room. Afterwards I didn't need an airplane to fly home and I was flying under my own steam. It was just an amazing experience.
Speaker 3:And I loved Hank's way of. He said you know, there are only two types of golfers. One type hits the ball to the right of the fairway and the other type hits the ball to the left of the fairway. And I thought, well, that's absolutely true. Forget the guys who top it along the ground. But it answered true, forget the guys who top it along the ground. It answered one of the very important questions in golf. The question is do the arms swing, the golf club and the body turns twice, or does the body turn twice and the arms and the golf club are caused to have been swung? When you ask that question, it also comes with its own answers, because the guys who hit the ball to the right are not swinging their arms, they're heaving the bodies. The guys who are hitting it to the left, the arms and hands are so active that the body is not turning at all. And it's just so simple. When you stand back and just observe the ball flight once struck, the answers to the problem are obvious, and this is why I do not understand. Hey, listen, I respect any teacher who is a student of the game Okay, that's great. But I do not understand why so many pros are intent on teaching the perfect swing to every golfer, all of their clients the same. Ridiculous. It's not possible. We're all unique.
Speaker 3:Every golfer is unique in how they're put together, how they move, and so you have to deal with each client one-to-one. In a way, your ball is doing this. I explain why you want the ball to do that? Oh, it's easy. It's all about club face swing part and playing. And if you change one or two or all three, you get a different ball fight, how, how to swing it, I don't know. People say to me I've got to learn to play golf. I say, well, you can play golf. No, no, no, but I don't know how. Yeah, you can, you can swing it. You've seen it on TV. Show me what you would do. And they showed me a golf swing. I said what's a golf swing? And they realized what they want the ball to do rather than what they think they should do in order to hit the ball and think they should do in order to hit the ball. Then we make progress. Every golfer, to me, is completely unique. We are all unique anyway. The one hat does not fit all golfers, that's for sure. Do you understand?
Speaker 2:me. Yes, I'm quite interested to ask what did you teach during your three-day golf schools in those golden years where you were running 35 three to five-day courses from April to October? I know of a lot of golf pros that would sell their motherless to have that kind of schedule. What did you exactly teach? Because there are not many golf pros that would sell their motherless to have that kind of schedule. What did you exactly teach? Because there are not many golf pros that I know today who would dare to advertise learn golf in a weekend.
Speaker 3:I know it was a very brave. It was a very brave thing to do. Uh, what I taught, if I taught anything, it was mindset. And mindset, as you know very well, is building an I can belief system and getting rid of the garbage, getting rid of the doubts, the fear, the inhibitions of themselves. If we can get beyond that and then if you can give them a very simple idea of what the purpose of the golf swing is, which is nothing more than to present the club face squarely to the target through impact. That's all it is. That's the purpose of the game, and we're off to a good beginning when you emphasize the importance of a good, perfect golf group, because the hands control the face of the golf club. The ball will always end up where the face of the club is looking at the moment of impact. But there's a very logical pattern taking place. I don't care how you swing it, I don't even know how to swing it. To be honest with you, I'm not an expert in physical terms. What do they call them?
Speaker 2:Biomechanics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I don't understand anything like that. All I do know is that the ball reacts to the face of the club. Swing it any way you like and we will hit it straight if that's what you want to do. It's not rocket science. The problems come when the client is trying to replicate the pro with all his language and all his complicated moves and things that you have to do where they have to think about it, during the golf swing. The golf swing takes two seconds, for God's sake, and if you're thinking about all these wonderful things to do in the back swing and then the downswing and then finish, et cetera, well, are you going to play golf? Of course not.
Speaker 3:So the mindset was most important and I would say look, if we're going to miss it, let's miss it in style, shall we? And miss it with a smile on your face. But take a good grip, a good setup, act as though you can, and you will play better golf. That was what I taught. It was a mindset, although I have to say that when I was younger, I got into video cameras and stuff like that, and I wish I hadn't, because A I didn't really know how to use them properly. I was being useless. And secondly, the clients didn't really find it beneficial because they were more concerned about how they looked and how big their stomachs were or whatever, and it wasn't really that productive.
Speaker 3:So I very quickly stopped using the camera. I was sitting in the El Rompido clubhouse one morning and this very nice guy he was working for a tour operator in Holland, professional, he hadn't met his clients before, and I'm sitting having a coffee and he comes in and his clients arrive and he said to them okay, guys, this is who I am, and there are seven or eight of you and we're going to go out now and I'm going to film you to show you what you are doing wrong. I couldn't believe this. I said what the first thing he's going to do? Tell them what they're doing wrong. I was just amazed. I mean, what would that do for their confidence? What would that do for their progress? Nothing at all. I was completely. I said you're a pro, you can't be, you know. Anyway, that's what it's like out there now.
Speaker 2:Strange. So, John Jacobs, you spent seven years with him. How did the man actually coach? I've heard many anecdotal recollections. So there's no methods. You only did ball flight laws, which is very different to the approach that's taken today. How did Lee lose sight of club head focus instruction?
Speaker 3:He didn't teach the golf swing at all. He wasn't interested in what the golf swing looked like of his clients. All that he was interested in was what the ball did in the air. Once it was contacted by the club, the ball flight lost and in fact you probably won't believe this, but we were not allowed to teach under his name, his banner. Until we could give a session to a client that we didn't even see, we would be in one bay of the driving range and the client would be in the next bay, and all John would say was the client is left-handed or right-handed. So the ball kept slipping out of the range bay, however it behaved, unless we could make some intelligent comment or give intelligent advice to change the shape of that shot. We were not allowed to teach because it meant we didn't know anything. No, we couldn't see the golfer, but we could see the flight of the ball. The ball reacted to the face of the club and the direction of the shot came from the swing path and the curve in the flight where it went high or low came from the plane of the swing. Unless you could mix and match and make some changes, we weren't allowed to teach.
Speaker 3:What better grounding was there than that when you compare it to what some pros are doing, even still today? But in fairness to John Jacobs, he taught pros in Europe how to teach. There's no question what to teach in Europe how to teach. There's no question what to teach. And he and Ben Hogan would have huge arguments about coaching and teaching. And John was correct. I mean Ben Hogan's book.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you have thought about this, but his book, the Fundamentals of Golf, should have been entitled how Not to Slice. Do you understand me? Because his whole being was on the bottom, turning to the left in the downswing. Okay, and that was his whole philosophy how not to slice. And that was his whole philosophy how not to slice. But John would teach more slicers than hookers and he would make the golfer swing with his hands and arms more and give a switch with their hands at the bottom, and that was what he did.
Speaker 3:But of course John also worked with people like Jack Nicklaus, lee Trevino and all the greats at the Open Championships, etc. He was the only guy allowed inside the ropes at the time and I remember him. Jack Nicklaus was hitting the ball rather poorly and he saw John standing there and he said he went over to him and he said to him Mr Jacobs, look, can you give me some help here? And John said to Jack Nicklaus he said I'm glad you asked, I thought you'd never, which is absolutely Now. John was an amazing man. You know, when you're six foot four and you have a deep voice and you've got a Yorkshire accent, you are obliged to listen to what he says. There's no argument, there's no discussion. You can ask a question Make sure it's a sensible question and not a silly one, and he'll give you all the help you need.
Speaker 1:I remember.
Speaker 3:Can I just tell you one thing more?
Speaker 3:Talking about John my articles in Goldman were going very well. They were very well received and I was worried, as I told you, about what he would say if he read any of them. And I was with John some years later. We were having a coffee over or something Probably not a coffee but something else and I wondered always if he had ever read my articles. And he turned to me. He said, peter, if I had my life over again, I would have paid much more attention to the mental aspects of golf. And I thought, wow, you have read my articles. And that was just an amazing thing for him to say. And he was not too big or famous a person to say that to me, you know, and I know that he thought something of me because he influenced my life afterwards in many ways. He opened doors that would never have opened for me and he was amazing.
Speaker 3:One story I have to tell you when I was in Newcastle as the center manager, he was the official coach of the Scottish Golf Union and the Scottish squad were European champions at the time. This is in the early 70s, late 60s, and they came down to Newcastle to his golf center to be coached, as they did every spring, and they were? I mean Sandy, sadler, charlie Green, adler, charlie Green, they were just, oh, I forget their names. Now I had more time I'd probably get them all right, but they were brilliant golfers with all their own styles. You know, they were very individual.
Speaker 3:And this particular golfer, I think it was Charlie Green. He was blasting everything over the 12 o'clock mark and everything, that is, except for the driver where the ball went straight to one o'clock on the scale and all the Georgies were watching and all the guys the Scottish team were watching, laughing, thinking this was funny. And John turned to me and he said Peter, what is he doing wrong? Well, it went quiet, it went really quiet and I promise that the words that came out of my mouth, they started up in the sky, they came down to the ground. They came up my feet and ankles into my mouth.
Speaker 3:They started up in the sky, they came down to the ground, they came up with my feet and ankles into my body and out of my mouth and I said his driver is too flat for him. When he swings it, the toe of the club is hitting the ground first, opening the club face. Therefore, the ball goes to the right. And John said quite right, as though there was nothing Bill lend him your driver, will you? So Bill lent him his driver, bang. He walloped over the 12 o'clock mark straight away, and after that I had sleepless nights, waking up in a sweat thinking about what I might have said. And after that moment I think John saw me in a different light and he recognized that maybe there's something inside of me that was pretty good and that's why he was so helpful in so many ways and that's why he was so helpful in so many ways.
Speaker 2:I think at this point it's maybe useful to remind our listeners that John Jacobs was a former tour player. He played in a Ryder Cup event. He won a couple of tour events. He was twice two times brighter cup captain and the one of the founding fathers of the european tour, absolutely correct.
Speaker 3:His influence in golf has been immense. Uh, and in my, in my view, he was just the greatest teacher ever, ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean claim to fame. He won the 1957 South African Match Play Championship against Gary Player.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and in the Ryder Cup he played.
Speaker 3:I don't remember who it was, but he beat him twice in the same day. He only played the one match well, twice he won both points and my memory for names is gone now. No, he was not. He could play. He used to travel with Bernard Hunt, who was a great friend of his, and they would go to Egypt in the off-season and play money matches against whoever.
Speaker 3:And there's the need for the money. You know, and John Bernard Hunt used to get really I can't use the word pissed off, but I just did with John to say, look, will you please play golf today because we've got a big money match on. Okay, we need the money. And the reason he said that was because John couldn't decide before they went out whether he was going to hit the ball with fade today or hit the ball with draw today. He couldn't decide. That was the game. I'll decide when I get there. There was no great game plan as far as he was concerned and whatever he decided to do on the day was usually good enough to win the money. To do on the day was usually good enough to win the money. But I was curious that he was. That was the way he was. You know, I think I'll hit the ball high today instead of low. No, I think I'll hit it with fade, and that's the sort of thing he did. Incredible man, absolutely.
Speaker 2:He always felt that his future lay in coaching slash teaching. He was 100% confident in his ability as a teacher, but he was quoted as saying he never felt quite that way as a player. So I guess the tour's loss is the golf world's gain.
Speaker 3:Absolutely right, and of course the tour in those days was very small fry. Anyway, he launched the European tour and he just enjoyed coaching so much more.
Speaker 1:I remember the stories.
Speaker 3:He was pro at the time at Sandy Lodge Golf Club in England and he'd be on the practice ground and he'd be hitting it with slice, he'd be hitting it with hook, he'd be hitting it along the ground, he'd be shanking it all sorts of horrible golf shots. The members looking at him from the clubhouse windows would say, oh poor John, you know he's really struggling, he seems to have lost it all. Of course they hadn't realized that John was finding out what you did to shank it, to hook it, to slice it, to hit it along the ground. He was doing it on purpose, to find out how to do it so that he could find the cure. That was, that was what john jacobs was. It's actually amazing.
Speaker 3:He's completely unique person self-discovery I was just so fortunate to have come across him and you know know, when I first met him, I didn't know who the hell he was when he was advertising for a golf centre manager. I just went along. I didn't know who he was. Didn't take me long to find out, though.
Speaker 2:So what would you say were important lessons that John Jacobs taught you?
Speaker 3:Golf is a club face game. The ball reacts only to the face of the golf club and, rather like John, I follow suit. I never teach the golf string to my clients. I want to be more consistent Okay. I want to hit the ball from right to left Okay. I want to procure more consistent Okay. I want to hit the ball from right to left Okay. I want to procure my slice Okay.
Speaker 3:We can do that without radically changing the golf swing. Golf swing will change if you adjust the grip slightly, if you adjust the stance slightly and any adjustment I make. To the clients I say look, I don't want you to change your golf swing, I'm just making a small adjustment to your hands, a small adjustment to your setup. Swing it like you normally swing it. Don't finish at the ball. The ball is not the target, the target's over there. So finish your swing and that's basically what I do. I'm a bit of a fraud really. I suppose they're expecting miracle works on how they swing a golf club and I don't change that at all. The swing does change when you improve the grip and the setup, but it changes in a fashion they're not aware of. Um, but again, I'm. Who am I? I'm just different to some of them out there, but it served me well over the years john jacobs is known for coining this term goldilocks teaching you kill a slice.
Speaker 2:I said John Jacobs used to teach, used to correct mistakes by making a player do the exact opposite of that mistake. So if someone sliced it badly, he would get the person to hook it and vice versa, and thereby bringing that person's, I guess, equilibrium back closer to the center.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely right. And of course, for those who would question it, I don't know, if I do this, this will happen. You know, golfers have opinions, don't they? And John would say okay, prove me wrong, do what I ask and prove me wrong. And so they would try to prove him wrong. And, of course, good me wrong, do what I ask and prove. And so they would try to prove him wrong. And of course, good things happened.
Speaker 2:He was amazing, so any parting words of wisdom for our listeners on how to practice.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, be very clear what it is that you're going to practice and, if you're going to practice, clear what it is that you're going to practice. And if you're going to practice, make a small bucket of balls and take no more than half an hour maximum. Make a shot, practice at the pace that you play golf in. I see a lot of guys who come to the practice ground at El Rompido here and I say hello, it's good to see you. What are you practicing? Well, I'm practicing my driver. Oh, okay, that's good. And what are you practicing? Well, I told you I'm practicing my driver. Well, I heard you, but what are you practicing? Aren't you listening? I say, well, I hear what you're saying, but what are you practicing that is going to make you hit the ball better with your driver? What are you practicing? Oh, I haven't really thought about that, I was just hoping I did it better. So, really, that's the first thing Be clear what you are going to practice and practice intelligently. It's not just about hitting the ball better, it's about developing a. It's about developing a shape of shot that you're wanting to achieve through your different setup and the way you hold the club and stuff like that that's intelligent practice.
Speaker 3:And when you're practicing the short game, practice with one ball only. You know putting is so boring to practice because golfers take three. I don't know why they take three golf balls, but they all seem to take three and they putt, putt, putt and maybe they hold a third and on they go. Then they're practicing their putting, but they're not. It's boring Practice with one ball only. There's some games you can play, and chipping also. One ball only, chip to a target, wherever the ball ends up, putt to the hole. You're practicing making a chip and one putt, not two or three putts, and so things like that are quite important to me, in my view anyway.
Speaker 2:So could you talk a little bit about your book Trust and Let Go, as well as what can our listeners find inside those covers?
Speaker 3:Well, I think I told you that my articles in Golf Monthly were just narratives.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I had all my magazines in the house and I read them again. Amazing how much you read during a lockdown.
Speaker 3:And all the stuff I read was I realized hey, all this stuff is still valid and important today, so why don't you just get them, publish them and reach a new audience, you know a new generation, which I did, and so Trust and Let Go was the title I gave it, and those who buy it, they like it. As I said, the articles were never about how to cure this and how to do that. They were just narratives of people who had a problem and how we got over them and they were relaxing and nothing too heavy.
Speaker 3:And it's selling quite well. I'm quite happy with the way it's available through Amazon and I'm quite happy with the way it's going. And Trust and Let Go is a great title because it just completely describes the mindset that one needs to adopt in order to achieve anything in life. Forget goals for the moment, but anything in life is available to you. If you were to trust yourself and let go of your negative feelings and negative vibes and the doubts and uncertainties, you can do it. And if you're going to fail, end style, don't fail miserably because you're frightened of getting it wrong. That sort of mindset is important. It's a game important. It's a game. It's a game of life golf, nothing more, nothing more.
Speaker 3:it's been a wonderful journey, I have to tell you, and there are some people, out there who believe in what I do and who have similar approach to their clients as I have, which is heartening, because, you know, with YouTube today, everybody's out there looking for the secret move. There are hundreds of pros out there. They've all got the secret move, and some of them are very good. I've got to admit that there's an awful lot of rubbish out there as well. So there you have it now.
Speaker 2:I'm very glad that you were able to put all your precious thoughts written during those years in your latest book, trust and let go. I myself have that book and thoroughly enjoyed reading cover to cover twice thank twice.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. You're very kind. It gives me a lot of pleasure to hear you say that I'm pleased. Thank you very much for saying that.
Speaker 2:I think it's a real refreshing read in this day and age of technicality. Technical instruction Play golf swing by numbers rather than playing by feel. Are numbers important? Well, they are important, but they must be in their place. Unfortunately, a lot of instructors, well-meaning as they may be, they put it out of their place.
Speaker 3:Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you. I remember I got the copy of a book, the Golf Machine, and I forget the name of the author now.
Speaker 2:Homer Kelly.
Speaker 3:You're quite right, and I couldn't get beyond the second chapter because I didn't understand a word he was talking about. And I'm not saying he's not a good coach, a good teacher. I'm sure he's very knowledgeable, I'm sure he's helped a lot of golfers. But you know, you're either a left-brain person or a right-brain person and the difference being the way the mind works. If your left brain, like an architect, an accountant, a banker, an engineer, where the placing of the decimal point is critical to the whole exercise, you need when you're having a coaching session, you need, when you're having a coaching session, absolute, detailed explanation of every finite movement you're going to make. That's the way the mind works. An artist, an entrepreneur, a musician or something where you can respond to images and feelings, ideas, notions, and you can, you can articulate. In that way, you will perform very well, equally as the other guy on the left side can work very well, but the pro has to speak a language the client understands. Do you understand me? There's no point in me talking to a left-brained person. I want you to feel this. I want you to imagine that. I want you to enjoy the sound of this or something. You look at the skies and think I'm lunatic the sound of this or something. You look at the skies and think I'm lunatic.
Speaker 3:Equally the guy in the right brain. If I gave him the full monte of exactly what to do, he'll fall over when he tries to swing the club. So unless you speak a language that they understand, you don't get anywhere. And that's one of the first things that any instructor must do is find a common language with that client. A lot don't even bother with that. They just go straight in, take the video, show what's going wrong, tell them what to do in a very technical way using the language that only they understand, and expect them to do. Well, you know, I don't know. It's very strange. However, it's taken me 50 years to improve myself.
Speaker 2:It's taken you 50 years to distill it into one book Trust and Let Go.
Speaker 3:Finally got there.
Speaker 2:That's the irony, Jesse. Any questions for Peter?
Speaker 1:No, I'm just an absolute joyful listener in this episode. Peter, I can't thank you enough for coming on. While you were talking, I went on to the internet and ordered Trust and Let Go Great title. I love everything that you said and I think that as we progress in this game I mean it just seems as if the lowest hanging fruit that we as players have been, the lowest hanging fruit that we as players have been I hate to say it brainwashed into thinking that technique is going to solve everything that we can out. You know that we can outrun. Uh, you know what's going on inside of the mind with technique. We can, we can. We can out technique fear, we can out technique trust. You know when my technique is good, I'll trust my swing. When you know, quite frankly, it's the opposite. You know, because when you do trust yourself, your technique oftentimes gets better and you don't even know it. So I I applaud you and appreciate your works.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's very, really interesting. In the days of Arnold Palmer, jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, john Daly, I mean, all these guys were wonderful golfers and their styles were uniquely and I mean unique to themselves they played amazing golf. Today, when you look at the TV the uneducated call them that would see that they're all doing the same thing today. They all look very similar. Well, today there are a lot of similarities and so the guys on tour are playing pretty good golf, but in reality they're playing longer courses and they've got better equipment. But the scores aren't that much lower than they were in these old days, are they? The old guys are still pretty good, or were.
Speaker 3:But I take your point and you're quite right. Your swing is unique to you. Time you try to change it to become somebody else, you'll fail. You are you. I'm a great believer and I tell my clients I say look, I don't care how ugly your swing is. Ugly swings often produce really good results. All we need to do is reduce the margin between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable when you play golf. That's what we're trying to do. I'm not going to make you perfect. Enjoy golf, and when the next shot is playable, you'll enjoy golf more. It's an attitude, an attitude of mind, an attitude of how you approach the whole thing, and I just want you all to be happy playing the game you know, be happy with what you can do, be content and if you've had a bad day out there on the golf course just remember that when you go home at the end of the day, your dog will still wag its tail.
Speaker 3:It'll be so pleased to see you at the end of the day. Your dog will still wag its tail. It'll be so pleased to see you at the end of the day, and we mustn't forget that either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll remember that. We will remember that, peter. Thank you so much once again for your time thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 3:I hope you and the others who may be listening have enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:And there we have it. Peter Ballengel. His book Trust and Let Go can be found on Amazoncom. Thank you,