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
Transforming Your Golf Game: Anthony Broussard on Equipment Customization and Mental Mastery
Feel free to text me at (831)275-8804
Ever wondered how the right golf equipment and mental strength can transform your game? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Anthony Broussard, a former Corn Fairy Tour player turned elite golf coach in Dallas, Texas. Anthony provides a captivating journey through his career, highlighting critical moments like his achievements at the Texas State Open and the US Open at Pinehurst. With insights from his state-of-the-art teaching studio and invaluable experiences under legendary coach Chuck Cook, this episode promises to inspire golfers at all levels.
Anthony dives deep into the often-overlooked aspect of golf: equipment customization. Discover how fine-tuning variables such as bounce, angle, shaft profile, swing weight, and grip size can significantly impact your performance on the course. We discuss the role of cutting-edge technology in speeding up the process of finding the perfect equipment fit, ensuring that your gear aligns seamlessly with your playing style and goals. This chapter is a must-listen for anyone serious about optimizing their game through tailored equipment.
Beyond the physical aspects of golf, we explore the profound impact of mental health and spirituality on athletic performance. Hear from a professional golfer who candidly shares his battle with substance abuse and how achieving sobriety led to a resurgence in his career. From managing mental blocks to harnessing the power of faith, we delve into the psychological tools and spiritual practices that can elevate your game. This episode offers a holistic approach to mastering golf, emphasizing the importance of mental and spiritual growth in achieving true excellence.
To reach Anthony and his amazing staff, go to www.pureswinggolf.com
Hello, this is Jesse Perryman from the Flight Owners Golf Podcast, thanking you for tuning in and also welcoming you to this week's guest this week's conversation, the man who I spoke to this week. His name is Anthony Broussard. Anthony is in Dallas, texas. He is a coach, a former tour player made it all the way up into the Corn Fairy Tour and is now a world class coach, has taken all of his experiences playing professional golf, playing glimpse inside someone who has made it and achieved an extremely high level of golf and yet had some very human issues that he dealt with, had to deal with as he was playing, and has overcome beautifully. Now I will make sure to link all of his information to his teaching studio and I just don't want to give away too much here in this introduction, because the conversation is fascinating and we start from the back. In his timeline. We go backwards, which is a little bit of an idea that I had, so just bear with that timeline. It's an interesting way to have a conversation and I thought I'd switch it up a little bit, but his name is Anthony Broussard. I'll make sure once again to leak his information in the show notes. Enjoy this conversation. Anthony drops so many golden nuggets that you probably want to listen to this thing more than once. I hope everybody had a great week and I hope everybody is having a great week this week. Cheers and thanks again for tuning in.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast. You know me, my name is Jesse Perryman and I am your host, and thanks for tuning in. Today we got my friend, who's you're going to love to hear his story. He's one of the best ball strikers I've ever seen in my life. This dude can absolutely flush it. He's a great coach and before we hit the record button, we were talking about students beating coaches and I guarantee you not a lot of us can beat Anthony. His name is Anthony Broussard. Anthony, thanks for coming on, pal. Always good to see you. Always good chatting with you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:So let's dive right in. So let's start from the end and then go to the beginning. Let's do a little something, all right.
Speaker 2:You now are teaching. Where are you teaching? I'm teaching, I have a. I've started this golf business in 2018, in may of 2018. Um, it's right in the middle of dallas. So if you're familiar with dallas, it's at, uh, dallas north tollway and basically 635, it's right across the toy from the galleria.
Speaker 2:And, uh, we, what I did? I, uh, I used to take lessons from a guy named Chuck Cook, and Chuck Cook always had swing catalyst. He always had video. We had track man, cause it was indoor to outdoor dog place. We use we use four site GC quad. Um, and we had cave ass. Back then we have sports box. I don't know if you're familiar with sports box, but, um, so, anyways, I just I basically created the same thing that that I had when I was playing for a living and, uh, man, I made such quick and fast improvements when I was with Chuck cook. Um, I started with him in 2012 and, um, I worked with him for for three months and won my first event on the Hooters tour. Um, and then a couple of years went by. I played some good golf In 2014, I qualified and played the US Open at Pinehurst and I won the Texas State Open that year and then, in 2016, I won the second stage of Q School and then got my full status on the Corn Fairy Tour, and then lost my card.
Speaker 2:But anyways, back to the business. Where we're right, in the middle of Dallas, we have the best, the best technology. Anything you would want to diagnose what the hell's going on, um, and I think the thing that sets us apart. We get a lot of guys and they say well, what's the difference between you and golf tech? I said, well, um, I copied Golf Tech's model Right Like it's. They have a great model. I think Golf Tech has a great, a great system. They have a great program. We charge more than Golf Tech, but I think that we have better technology than they do. We have pressure plates, we have the sports box thing, and the thing that mainly separates us, though, is, I think, that all of our coaches can play golf and have played golf, like.
Speaker 2:One of the guys that works for me played golf at Arizona state. Another guy walked on at Arizona state, um played some pro golf. Another guy played in college. The other guy played in college as well, so all five of us have played at least college level golf. Um, three of us have played division one and pro golf and uh, like we were just talking about. I think that's important. I think that you know, if I got a junior, that I'm trying to get to the highest level. The guy wants to make it to the PGA tour. I think it helps a ton. Haven't had been there before.
Speaker 2:Um, and so, um, you know I'm I'm sober. I've been sober for three years. September 9th, september 3rd, 2021 is my sobriety date. So I just celebrated three years a couple of days ago, and one of the big things that I've learned in AA has been that, like I couldn't get sober just talking to my dad or my mom. They didn't have a problem with it, but when somebody that was a fucked up alcoholic living under a bridge told me their story, I listened, and because they were speaking from experience, and so I think that's valid in every industry, right? So if you're a good accountant and you talk to a guy that used to be an accountant and these are the mistakes he made and he can help you not to make them, then you're gaining some wisdom from the guy, and so I think that's how you get good quickly is you surround yourself with people that have been there before so that you don't have to make the same mistakes they made, then that allows you to get better faster.
Speaker 2:And when you look at like Tiger Woods right, I mean the guy like tidbits of his childhood come out. I mean the guy was around Sam Snead at a really young age, you know, like at 13, he's playing golf with Sam Snead. Well, fuck, I didn't play golf with Sam Snead at 13, but that's invaluable stuff there. And so I was lucky enough to spend a ton of time around Lee Trevino and I definitely couldn't beat Lee Trevino when he was in his prime and just having him to bounce ideas off of, I had a seven shot lead after the third round of the Texas state open in 2014. And I was scared to death and I called Lee. I was like, hey, dude, I'm freaked out, I don't know what to do tomorrow. And he was like you have to go out there and try to win by 10. He was like you keep your foot on the gas and go and like just having that, you know, a little bit of wisdom there frees you up, because otherwise you're going to go out there and play defensive and you know the shit can hit the fan. So just stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I think it's it's important to be able to play golf and I think it's also important to have the technology that you need to be able to measure what's going on, that you need to be able to measure what's going on and you can. You know, golf instruction has come such a long way in such a small frame of time that, like, why guess at something when we can measure it? And we have the ability to measure what your body's doing, what your club's doing, what your pressure's doing and we were just talking about club fitting, that's. You know, once we get your golf swing and your mind in a good spot, then the golf equipment is such a major part of what's going on. And uh, you know, I think there's a reason why those tour vans follow the tour around. It's because they want to make sure those guys have in their hands what they believe in.
Speaker 2:And then another thing that I found funny after we were talking about that forward golf that I just kind of told you about, is that, like Tiger Woods, has wooden dowels in his shafts. I don't know if you know that Bryson DeChambeau plays all one link clubs with those jumbo grips and they're, all you know, hogan bent his clubs extremely flat, jack Nicklaus played his clubs at C5, which is extremely light, and so it seems like all the really great players and I'm not necessarily putting Bryson at that great player yet, with Hogan and Nicklaus and Tiger, but like it seems like they all find an edge in that equipment. And so, like I think this process that we're starting to do it at our place is is cool because, like I think you know, it took Ben Hogan freaking probably 15 years to figure out what the hell he needed to do, right, and it took Bryson a while too. He didn't always have those jumbo grips on his gloves when he was in college, he was, he was playing one link stuff, he was playing Adele Irons, but he didn't have those jumbo grips. He didn't know. And then you know, and having the willingness to try that stuff and having an open mind enough to try it, so I'm really excited about that bidding process and, like I said, maybe we can learn something that makes it easier for people that are steep to get shallow. So, anyways, it's been an exciting journey.
Speaker 2:We've been extremely successful at Pure Swing Golf. I think we had our first profitable month after like year four, I mean after month four, and then we, I think, started to like, I think after year two, we were right at break even. And then, year three, we made money. Year four, we made a lot of money. Year five, we made a lot of money, like we've just been, we've been killing it. So we were doing really good. And I pray every night. The first thing I do is I I I thank God for keeping me sober, and the second thing I do is I ask that God work through all my coaches that we can serve the people that come into us and help them to enjoy the game of golf better. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Boy. That was a lot, anthony, awesome, so good. I mean, you said so much stuff. I mean we could really well. It's on my mind, it's two of us and we're bullshitting and it's great. You know the equipment and the instructional piece. In my time of doing this podcast, I have noticed a massive divide between the two and I think that it's got to be lockstep, I think, to those who are listening, if you have a coach and chime in Anthony because you're a coach. So if you have a coach that's telling you that you need to shallow the club out, but you're playing clubs that are upright, I mean, how, how hard is that going to? Be not easy, can, can you do it? I don't even think you can do it.
Speaker 2:I mean, maybe it's, you know, I think there's so many variables, you know, like, so what I've learned is that the heavier the swing weight, like we were talking about before, it's easier to drag the handle forward. Um, and so, like, well, if you have a guy that flips the shit out of it and is steep, well, I mean, who says that somebody can't play e5, you know, give them a heavy swing weight and and see and see if it helps them. It may not help them, but it might, and so I just think that golf equipment and golf instruction go hand in hand. If I'm trying to get a player to, you know, get the handle lower at impact, or whatever, or something that makes his handle get lower at impact, then, like, of course, we need to freaking, go to the lie machine and bend this freaking club splatter, you know. So I just think that there's. But with this process that I've told you about you, you isolate, you know, the first thing you do is you test bounce. Second thing you do is you test the angle. Third thing you do is you test shaft profile, then swing weight and then grip size, and then there's a couple other variables that are that are I'm drawing a blank on, but it's uh, it's something that like, if you could isolate those variables. Well, now it's like, okay, I showed you those pictures and it's like all right, here's the bounce I need, here's the shaft profile I need, here's the weight that I need, here's the swing weight that I need. And then if you're in a lesson, you gotta gotta steep as shit and dragging the handle forward, you know. So you steep on the way down and the handle's dragging. Well, like, I've been told a lot of times that lighter swing weight helps you to get the handle drag out, and so why not, like, go to that first as well? It's like I'm telling you what to do. You can't do it? Well, maybe it's because you're responding to the weight of this thing wrong, and if we could change that, maybe we see improvement faster. So, yeah, I think I think golf equipment and golf instruction there they should be tightly knit together and that's how it is. And golf instruction they should be tightly knit together and that's how it is. That's how it was when I was playing for a living. It was always.
Speaker 2:I just did this to my golf swing. Now, this driver that did used to fit me great once I made this change. But there was a time when I was with Chuck Cook, when I first started with him, I was hitting like one down on the driver and I had this really low spin driver that you know. I could hit this little flat cut out there and it would spin at 2,800 RPMs and Chuck got me hitting up on it you know two or three degrees and next thing, you know, that driver that was spinning 2,900 RPMs all of a sudden spinning at 2,000 and launching higher, and that driver didn't fit anymore, and so I had to get something that would produce some more spend for me and things like that. So yeah, there, it's really important to have those two things match.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just it's critical. It's critical. I mean I don't care how good of a race drive, race car driver you are. If you're driving in a car that has some mechanical flaws, you know over time you're not going to be as competitive you might get it, might have a good race and you know, luck might come your way. But I mean, I think equipment is a golfer's race car and you really need to have it attuned for you.
Speaker 1:You know, george, well, what a really good buddy of mine, long, long time in the equipment space for TaylorMade, part of their tour department, for decades. He has always told me, jesse, no rules, there's no rules, you have to figure it out for yourself. And thankfully, with technology and teaching places that you have, anthony, it'll shorten the process. Because back in the day I mean before the measurables, before the swing catalyst, the pressure plates and all this good stuff, 3d imaging and gears and all that you had to just go out and figure it out yourself. And for the for you know, even not so much for the average player but for the better player it's hard for equipment and you to cycle through equipment, to figure out what's going to work for you and what's not and then match it to your intention. So, going to your place you could get all of that.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm sure that you would ask the student what's your intention, what do you want to do with the golf ball, how do you want to hit the golf ball? What flight do you feel is going to serve you? And then you kind of go from there type thing. I mean, as I was telling you before we hit the record button, there's no way I would get fitted for what I play. There's just no way.
Speaker 1:There we hit the record button, there's no way I would get fitted for what I play. There's just no way. There's no way somebody is going to take my measurables 6'2", you know, my wrist to floor measurement and most likely and no real fault of theirs I'm going to get measured with something completely different than what I'm doing. But because of my, my coaching, or at least who I'm being taught by, and the methodology that we believe in, I play stuff that's net, three, three degrees flat. That's that is my interpretation of shallowing out the golf club and expressing the intentions I have for a standard operating golf shot and I want to try to, you know, minimize the left side of the golf course.
Speaker 2:You know I'm going to hit it over there.
Speaker 1:I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2:I don't quite hit it like you, anthony, but you know, stacking in my favor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, stacking the deck in my favor. And I think that a lot of people, even good players, are still to this day unaware of this very phenomenal, still to this day. How this very phenomenal, still to this day. How much equipment is, like you said before, it's going to impact how you deliver the golf club. 100% of the time you might express something if a shaft is too heavy and if the teacher doesn't know that, that's giving that lesson. There's going to just be false readings.
Speaker 2:You're not going to really see what is, until you find out the equipment is going to give you a start somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I think I think, yeah, you have to be willing to try the new stuff. I mean, I think a big. I was just thinking while you're talking, remember the guys back in the day used to hit so many golf balls on the range. I'm not saying that they don't hit balls anymore, but they don't hit nearly as many balls as they used to hit back in the day. I think freaking 50% of those balls those guys were hitting they were testing equipment, 100% that's what they were doing.
Speaker 2:My, the guy that taught me how to play golf said he used to play the Hooters store and he said that one day they brought out a big 50 gallon trash can just full of drivers, like he could barely squeeze another driver into this thing. So there are probably 150 drivers in this thing. And he was like I tested like 25 drivers a day until I found one that I liked and like there were persimmon. Some of them had screws in the face and some of them didn't, and some of them had whatever, and so it's just like that's what they did back in the day. It was trial and error and uh, and so we're kind of like you said you can just be so efficient now you can figure out in 10 minutes, but it used to take you 10 years to figure out.
Speaker 1:So, uh, you know, let's, let's go back one chapter. Uh, when you were, when you were out there playing you obviously you played at North Texas guys had a hell of a golf team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were we, we, we sucked, we, uh, when I was there we weren't very good, um, but we had two of us end up go play in pro golf. The other guy's name was Cole Howard and he was a good player. I think he won one time professionally on the mini tours. He played the US Open at Olympic Club. So he's a stud, he's a good player, and we just didn't have three other guys that were very good.
Speaker 2:But the team right after us is when Carlos Ortiz, rodolfo Casaban and Sebastian Munoz were on the same team, right, I think they were top 25 in the country and they were really good. And I think carlos, his first year out of college, he got a battlefield exemption, um, through the corn fairy tour and made it to the pga tour. So, yeah, he was, he was a badass. But really, roldofo cosabon was better than all of them. He was, he was better than those two guys. So, yeah, north texas has a good legacy. We won. We won four national championships in a row when don january I know this is a long time ago, but so there's a big golf legacy at the school yeah.
Speaker 1:So you, you played there, you turned pro, uh, you, you made it out there pretty far. Um. So when, when you made it to the corn fairy tour, what, what was going on with your game? Uh, what was happening out there? It's a big lead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. Um, I mean I don't think that the the talent of the golfers really changed much from the mini tours to the corn fairy, um, and really I just I don't, I don't know that the talent changes that much. To the pga tour. I mean there's, you know, the guy that just almost won the U S amateur, bobby Massey, where you fall on him, like I used to play against him on the on the on the mini tours and in college golf, and like there's not many guys that on tour that can do what that guy does with a golf ball.
Speaker 2:I mean he can move at 195 miles an hour with a 43 inch driver. He was an awesome putter. And so, like, there is talent, there is physical talent and more than physical talent, but there is certainly physical talent at the very lowest levels of pro golf. And so, physically, I would like to think that I was always like maybe in the top 5%. I was fast at my ball speeds 180 miles an hour. I could hit the ball high. I grew up in Texas so I know I'd hit it low and I didn't realize it. But when you grow up and play in so much wind, you have to learn how to work the ball, because when it's blowing 25 off the right, you can't freaking sling a draw on there. You better freaking work it against the wind. And so I could do all that stuff, um. And so physically I was good. I wasn't as good of a putter then as what I've come into now. I've really kind of figured out what I need to do to putt better, but my whole deal was mental and I just uh, I don't think it helped that I was smoking enough weed to kill a small horse. You know, every week and um, you know drinking a lot of drinking, a lot of alcohol and um, but I always took pretty good care of my body, except for what I was putting into my body, um, and I just don't think that you can be like mentally sharp, um, when you're smoking a ton of dope and drinking a ton of alcohol. And, um, I was one of those guys that, like, I wasn't quite like a genius level to to be able to like be smart enough and outsmart things, and I wasn't stupid enough to like be able to just kind of dumb out and zone out, and so I was kind of, you know, I was kind of right in between and so, um, just mentally I was, I was fucked up and I, um, I figured out. You know, I went to this mental coach. That really helped me in like 2012. And shortly after that I started winning pro events. My first pro event that I won was on the Hooters tour. Um, man, you had to go low out there, um, but I beat this guy. I think his last name was Shelby, or maybe his first name was Shelby. The dude had won like seven Hooters tour events and he's a really good player, um, so I won that in 2012. Then I won, um a little two round pro tournament to qualify me for the Texas state open that year. And then I won the Texas state open that year. Um, and then onto the corn fairy tour in 2016.
Speaker 2:And, uh, I was really probably the most burnt out. Um, I was playing at my highest level, but man, I was just this is my. I was not hanging around probably the best people I should be hanging around and, um, just a lot of a lot of drinking and smoking weed and my mind was bad. But since I've since I've gotten sober um, you sober I realized that I wasn't drinking and smoking weed because it was fun. I was doing it because I had to, because it was the only thing that made me stop thinking.
Speaker 2:And I had these problems in the past. My parents getting a divorce had some things happen when I was a kid, and I just never addressed those things. My parents getting a divorce had some things happen when I was a kid and, uh, I you know, I just never addressed those things. And so now I've got all these voices in my head, but at this point they're so deeply rooted in my my subconscious I don't even know why. I'm fucking miserable, but I'm miserable and the only thing that works is when I get to oblivion and um but so, like, once you go, once I went through the 12 steps and you got, get to the bottom of all that shit. Well then, like you don't have to fucking replace it with alcohol and drugs anymore to have, you know, some peace in your head.
Speaker 2:And, uh, man, I played.
Speaker 2:I played the first tournament I played in two years.
Speaker 2:If you win the Texas state open, you, uh, you get a lifetime exemption.
Speaker 2:So I played the first time I played in two years, cause last year Emma was like three months old, or no, she was a month old, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to go play a golf tournament that was two and a half hours away with my wife with a, uh, a three-year-old, a six-year-old and an infant. So I opted out the year before that, but then I but. So I played this last year and like I'm just so clear-headed now and I can, I can turn that focus, switch on, and I can turn it off and turn it back on, and I don't get mentally fatigued on the golf course. I'm not as fast to get pissed off. I still get a little pissed off. I do turn into an absolute cold blooded killer when I get into competition, but, like, I think that's probably a big problem. So I really do attribute that to probably the reason why I didn't get as far as I wanted to get. But I think there's a lot of guys like that out there that have problems with substance abuse.
Speaker 1:Well, I can only imagine. I mean I know I've never made it to that. Well, I can only imagine I mean I've never made it to that level. But I can only imagine there's a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. I mean you're playing for your livelihood. You probably have sponsors. You want to make sure that they get paid back, and it truly is a long road to hoe.
Speaker 1:And I would think from afar, Anthony, I mean you got to. I mean I've seen you play, We've been out there together. You've hit it as good as anybody I've ever seen. And you just you got to have a lot of your ducks in a row. You know you really do. You really got to have a lot of your ducks in a row. You know you really do. You really got to have a lot of your ducks in a row. Because I think so. I'm kind of thinking out loud, hypothetically here. Chime in on this the difference between where you were on the Corn Ferry tour, playing on on the regular tour, european tour, live tour, whatever, can it possibly be your ability to put stress in a different compartment in your mind, whatever that is, you know it, could that be a possibility so I think that I was reading this book on sports psychology and they define it pretty good.
Speaker 2:It's like there's a difference between being nervous and being stressed out. Stress means that you're like there's an element of fear that's within it. But when you're just nervous, you know we get all these positive things, that you get all these positive things, all the same things that come with stress. But I can lock in. But when I throw that lower energy of fear into the mix, all of a sudden, I don't have the capacity to be able to focus. So I'd say that when I'm really nervous and I'm not scared, then I can go into this hyper level of focus. But if there's a little bit of fear in there, if it's like, oh fuck, I don't want to hit this in the water because if I do I'll miss the cut, then your ability to focus goes out the window. And I mean I think that like that is the superpower of of the great player.
Speaker 2:You know a guy like a tiger woods, I mean like he was just he. You know his, his heart's beating through his chest. You know you're about to shoot the best round of your life, you're about to win a golf tournament, coming down the stretch or whatever it is, and you're nervous and, um, you can take a deep breath and freaking zone in and go. You're nervous and you can take a deep breath and freaking zone in and go. And if there's fear there, that's when you see guys that have a five-shot lead. Like who was that guy? It was a playoff of it, it was Max Grazerman. He'd never been into that situation before. He's got like a five-shot lead with he's on 13. He's got six holes to play or something.
Speaker 2:And the guy loses the golf tournament. Well, he didn't lose the golf tournament because he sucks. He lost the golf tournament because he's never been in that situation before. He was freaked out, he got scared, he started to do things that he wasn't used to. You know, your, your body responds to that fear and, uh it, it just doesn't the the, the body doesn't move like it needs to move whenever you throw fear in it. So it's. I forget the book I'm reading. It was Jeff Smith at Radar Golf Pro posted and he was like this is a great book for the mind. So I started reading. I hadn't read the whole thing, but defining that was really good.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a great point fear. So if you're coming down the stretch, Anthony, and and you feel the fear like the fear starts coming up and your brain starts going sideways, what can you do to counteract it?
Speaker 2:so I had a reset button that I was taught um by my sports psychologist. His name is lanny basham. He won the olympic gold medal in rifle shooting and he said that we have to have a physical reset button to trigger the mind, and it's something that you have to practice. You can't just magically put this reset button into play. So I've practiced it a few times before. I did it in a tournament and my reset button was I untied each of my shoes and I tied them again and that was my computer reset and I took a deep breath Okay, here's where I need my mind and I'd go, um, but yeah, I think the fear element another thing is I played my best golf was I was in my best spot spiritually and if, uh, if you don't have something to surrender the outcome to, if you are trying to control the outcome, you are so fucked and so, like most of the guys can't describe it.
Speaker 2:But I think a really big reason that scotty shepard's playing such great golf is because the guy is fucking just so freed up spiritually. He's got a good relationship with god. His relationship with his wife is amazing. He's got this awesome support system around him. Um, and I think you know, I don't. I don't think that scotty Sheffler is more physically talented than anybody else, but are your best ball striking days? Not when you can just fucking focus, right, you know, and when you're freed up and you don't have a bunch of fear in your mind and it's not like, oh, my fucking family's not going to love me If I don't make the cut this week. You know these stupid lies that you make up in your mind. It allows you to build a focus and scotty shepherd didn't have the best golf swing. He certainly has a good golf swing, but it's not the best, does some funky stuff, but fucking makes it work.
Speaker 2:And I think that what I look for at our facility is I just want it to be functional, because if you have laser sharp focus, you can make a functional golf swing perform at a really high level. I'm not looking for a guy. What I want to do as a coach is I want to take you, the guy that has this much talent and a guy that has a self-image that's this big and all he's doing is getting this small amount of talent out of this that he has here, because how he believes in himself is this big. So what I want to do as a coach is I want to take that self-image and grow that self-image besides your talent. Well, if this is all the talent you got, let's get all everything we can out of it so that you can freaking be an overachieving golfer yeah, I.
Speaker 1:You know there's more stories on the tour of overachievers than no doubt anything else on the pga tour right now. There's more overachievers out there than guys that just have you know godlike natural talent. There's more of those there's more.
Speaker 2:There's probably. There's probably more guys that have godlike natural talent that are planning to fucking mini tours. Yep, without a doubt they're so physically gifted and people have told him their whole life you're so fucking good, and then they put way too much pressure on themselves. Where you get a guy like a Chris Stroud who physically doesn't have, I don't feel like as much talent as a lot of the guys I played professional golf against, but where he had way more talent was his mind. He's probably the most mentally talented golfer I've ever been around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I want to touch on something that you said and I think that's something that I really noticed with Scotty Talking about Scotty Scheffler and he really he says the same thing in interviews over and over again, but people aren't really getting the memo. And that is Anthony. He says I am very good about being in the present moment. So I think being in the present moment and surrendering go hand in hand, absolutely go hand in hand. A lot of people don't talk about this. You know Bobby Jones said that the reason why he was able to play golf the way that he did, because he honestly believed in his heart of hearts that the winner had already been written before he played his first tee shot. He honestly believed that maybe that was his interpretation of faith, but when your whole body believes that you go out and just be yourself and play golf the best of your ability, look out.
Speaker 2:Look out.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, I mean, I think that Tiger had such a great belief in himself that he I mean I know he wanted to die in shots. I know he wanted to hit fairways and greens for sure. But yeah, he, he, he had a lot of he mapped it quite a bit and yet it didn't phase up. Maybe he got pissed off in the moment, but as soon as he walked away from that shot it was gone. He, just he. He had a sense of freedom in his own interpretation, and a lot of people don't talk about that. It's almost like OK, so you want to build a really good, high-functioning golf swing, a good quality, high-functioning golf swing. But, my goodness gracious, your mind is way more important than the high function.
Speaker 1:Way more important Way, more important, and listen, y'all who are listening. Anthony's one of the best ball strikers I've ever seen in my life and I don't say that lightly, because I've spent a lot of time out there with a lot of the great ones and when he's saying things like that, just take it to heart. Take it to heart. You know, I don't, I don't know if a lot of guys on tour would would maybe be that transparent. Maybe they would try to kind of button hook around it because, hey, they're still playing and other players are listening. They don't want to give out, you know, give out what their superpowers are. I don't blame them for it, um, but it seems to me that if you are intense in your focus and in your discipline and you play ultimately with freedom and that's when you set intentions, you want to go out there and do that you start feeling fear right out of the gate Start feeling you know it's like well, the ego, the ego is not not latching on to something.
Speaker 1:It's like you're letting the ego kind of go a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2:So then then the conversation has to go to expectations and, um, expectations, in my opinion, are useless. Um, it was never man, I'm going to this event to win. No, it was. It was yeah, If I play, you know, if I, if I can take care of the things that I need to take care of, then it'll give me the best opportunity to win. And I believe that if I focus my best on every shot and I can play with that freedom and not have a lot of fear, then I'll have a great chance to win. I probably will win, Um, but like I know that Tiger talked about, well, you know, I I come here to win and I get that.
Speaker 2:But what I believe that he thought winning was was that, what was what we just talked about? About he's going to play fearless this week. He's going to stay in the present moment and really focus hard, and that meant winning to him. And I think that you know, you could probably talk to him about it and it was like I just learned at an early age that if I could take care of those three things, I was going to win. I had enough physical talent to win, and I'm not saying physical talent isn't important, because it absolutely is. But there are 1500 guys in the world that have a shit ton of physical talent, but there's only about 300 of them that really make a good living doing it. And the difference between those 300 and the other 1200 is the ability to have a hyper level of focus, without fear and, you know, just basically free themselves up on the golf course. Just said it right there.
Speaker 1:That that that comes from from one of the best folks. My goodness, anthony, I mean, that's, that's it. You know, in this conversation we've really I'm going to tell everyone who's listening, myself included, that you need to go back and listen to this multiple times, because Anthony's dropping so many freaking nuggets of truth that it's not even funny. And as simple as it sounds, because it does sound simple, and I guess if you work on it enough and you have the right intentions, it does become simple. You know what a compliment Anthony.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, your golf swing looks so good. You know you hit it, you hit it so well and it looks so simple. Well, how many thousands of hours did you put in to make that action look simple, in to make that action look simple? Thousands thousands of hours, not just a few hundred thousands of ball beating, thinking about it, talking to your coaches about it, working on it every single day. It takes a while. So, where you are now's, what would you say to yourself 10, 10 year ago, self, 10 year ago, self, anthony broussard, knowing what you know now, rooted in your faith, grounded in your spirituality and your sobriety. Congratulations, by the way. That's amazing and I hope that inspires. Uh, anyone listening that is has a has an issue with it.
Speaker 2:What would you say to yourself? Yeah, so well. 10 years ago it was the 10-year anniversary of Pinehurst. I played at Pinehurst. This last year, in the past Texas State Open, I played in. I was at Texas State Open. I played in. So like I was probably peak physical prime there. So like I was probably peak physical um prime there.
Speaker 2:Um, I would definitely say to myself that, um, I knew I was an alcoholic. Then I would tell my buddies, like I'm an alcoholic, I have a problem and uh, so I would definitely have gone to AA and, um, I would have told myself that the freedom that I'm going to get in my golf game from getting to the problem or the bottom of my personal issues or the things that have always nagged me, my deepest, darkest secrets that I didn't want to tell anybody, getting rid of that shit, gave me a sense of freedom. The cool thing and I would tell myself, the cool thing about going to AA is that you walk into these rooms and there's different people, different races. They have different careers, different levels of income, but every single fucking person that's got some sobriety under their belt is comfortable with who the fuck they are and they live with a level of honesty and integrity and they live with a level of honesty and integrity. It's a rigorously honest person that tries to, that is sober, that has a high level of sobriety, a high time of sobriety, and I do think that there's people that are sober that probably have higher quality sobriety than other people that are sober, but that's the main thing. People that are sober but, um, that's the main thing.
Speaker 2:It would be that you know, like that, you know you, you, you can have a perfect golf swing and hit imperfect shots with a perfect golf swing. And, uh, I would tell chuck cook that all the time. I remember in 2014, he said, fuck, you're swinging perfect. And I said, well, I'm not fucking hitting it perfect. Um, but you know to be able to tell myself 10 years later well, like the difference, you know your golf swing. Being this far off and flushing it every time isn't your fucking technique. It's it's your ability to be able to focus in and and not have fear about the outcome and worry about the outcome when you're in the present or when you're in the future, you're anxious. When you're in the past, you're depressed. When you're in the present or when you're in the future, you're anxious. When you're in the past, you're depressed. When you're in the present, you're at peace. And so, if we can, you know, just kind of tell myself that.
Speaker 2:But the funny thing is I knew all of that stuff, or most of it.
Speaker 2:I had no clue how to apply it and so, like, spiritually, I went on this you know study regimen a long time ago and like really got to the bottom of a lot of stuff that I didn't understand, but like I didn't know exactly how to apply the application of it and like, um, you know, just maturing right, like how you learn lessons, and you start to really believe the fact that, like man, god closed this door for me because he wanted me to fucking walk through that fucking door over there and like, and you know, it's, it's, it's now, it's.
Speaker 2:Thank you, lord for for letting me have my story and letting me, you know, go through the shit that I went through. Because now I can, I can share this story with people. A lot of guys in the golf industry have a fucking hard time with drinking. So I can share my story and maybe I can shine that light on them and they can learn from my story and they don't have to fucking go through the same stuff that I went through, um, but like the other. The last thing I would say is just that, like the stage that I'm on, like if I'm talking about 2014 self, the stage that you are on is the stage that you're on because now you can impact all these lives. God has raised you up on this stage and a lot of people can see you, and so now your job is to be of service to those people, and I think that's probably most of it.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, that is absolutely well said, anthony. That's very, just, very deep. Thank you for sharing. Of course, you know we need more folks such as yourself to share and to tell the story. You know, this podcast is really geared toward the better player, and I know that the better player is going to listen to this and maybe give him or herself permission to investigate deeper, because you know what's interesting about the game especially under the gun playing, tournament golf is that all your fears and everything is going to come out. It really rips the Band-Aid off and if you're open-minded enough and aware enough, you can use that to your advantage. So that's what you did in this last little epilogue of what you said to your 10-year-ago self. It's very powerful. It's very, very, very, very, very powerful.
Speaker 1:I know that some of the greats in our game I remember in particular and I'm going to end it with this Gary Player. Somebody asked Gary Player what his formula was and he said you got to practice. He said I hit more balls than everyone, except for Ben Hogan. You got to work on your. You know you got to work on yourself. He said he idolized Ben Hogan so much he didn't want to offend him. You know you got to work on yourself. You've got to work. You know you're physically fit. You've got to watch what you eat and you've got to try to play in all the golf tournaments that you can play.
Speaker 1:But he said his last thing. He says you got to have a faith. You got to have a faith and the reason is this is that you're going to be tested in every sense of your being and you're going to question your sanity more than once and if you have a faith and if you're grounded in something, it's going to help you go get through those times. Because, I mean, playing good golf is a process and and and we all want to get to be the best version of ourselves playing the game of golf hopefully the best version of ourselves in life and and really having some sort of a of a grounded spiritual practice is really going to help you do that. And I got to tell you I see a lot of people missing that out there and and it's sad, it's really sad. You know, whatever that is, whatever that is, but this is, you know, two brothers talking man, and you know this is our opinion. Take it for what it's worth. We live in such a PC world. It kind of pisses me off a little bit. Um, I mean, anthony, what you said is the absolute truth. Um, the greats have said it.
Speaker 1:When you, when you can go play a round of golf and you are surrendered to what is, look out, look out, and even if you don't play that great, you're still going to have a great time, because you're not going to be. You know you're not going to be tied up in your ego. You're going to go. You know you're not going to be tied up in your ego. You're going to go back to the drawing board. You're going to go. Okay, well, this is what I did. Well, this is what I didn't do. Well, and you know, and, and over time, you, you see patterns out there and, but you, I really do, you, you hit it on the head. Scotty's Scotty Shuffler is Ruffler, is. He's playing with joy, and I think that he's playing with a lot of joy because he is fully surrendered. You know he's like whatever, whatever, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Tough place.
Speaker 1:You know tough place to be Takes work. It takes a belief. You got to work just as hard on on that as your physical game, if not harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think once you get to a certain level, it's, uh, the thing that you need to work the most on. You know, like, once you, once you get a good golf swing, you know how to play a shot around the greens and you got, you, know you. Basically, once you have all the tools, then the way that you get those tools sharper is to dive into your self right, your, your, your personal relationship with whatever you call god, whatever your higher power is. You have to sharpen that and that's how those tools get sharper. It's not necessarily from hitting balls or working with a coach or hitting on track man, it's, you know, fuck, if I can focus in more and I can have a big self-image and believe in what I'm doing, then that gives me the best opportunity to hit good golf shots.
Speaker 1:Look out, that's all I got to say is look out, anthony, I want you to come out again, my friend, please, I want you to come on again.