April 2, 2025 • 44 mins
The MyGolfSource podcast hosts Andy Baker, owner of Pacific Franchise Advisors, to discuss the franchise potential of Golf Garage and what makes a business franchise-worthy.
• Golf Garage builds community by creating a family-like atmosphere where people form genuine connections
• Indoor golf facilities offer unique advantages with year-round accessibility and multi-purpose use
• Successful franchises require low barriers to entry, clear differentiation, and solid ROI
• Golf creates natural relationship-building opportunities without awkward beginnings
• Golf Garage complements traditional courses rather than competing with them
• Multiple revenue streams through events, food/beverage, and additional services strengthen the business model
• Franchise opportunities must appeal to potential owners on both passion and business levels
• Golf training aids work best when recommended by professionals for specific swing issues
• Tempo and balance are more important than technical grip for most golfers
• Having a winning mindset is crucial in both golf and business
If you're interested in learning more about franchising opportunities, visit pacificfranchiseadvisors.com or contact Andy at abaker@pacfranchise.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome to the MyGolfSource podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to MyGolfSource.
I'm Darren Noah man.
Have you seen those girls atAugusta play yet?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
No, not yet.
I know I was going to watch thedrive chip and putt this
weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's so awesome right now.
I mean, they've added so muchto the masters.
They have the women's amateurthere.
They have the drive chip andputt there.
They have the par three contestthere Uh, we're actually
copying it.
We're going to have the parthree contest at golf garage on
Wednesday uh, all day long, andwe're gonna have prizes for low
score.
Well, you're watching theofficial par three contest.
(00:51):
That is so cool.
And then we're going to have afour person scramble on Friday,
so you can watch the masters onthe big screen and you can still
play Augusta, and then you'regoing to pick your player and
you're going to add that to yourfour-man team score.
So we're limiting it.
There's only going to be 10teams.
We're going to start openingthat up here in the next day.
It's going to fill up fast.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's going to be an awesome time.
It's going to be so much fun,yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So looking forward to Augusta week.
It's always special.
There's the Rogue Pro-Am intown as well, so it's four days
of golf to at grants past golfclub to at rogue Valley country
club.
It's one of the bigger localevents here.
Um, I know when Ryan was on acouple of weeks ago we kind of
talked about that as well andhow there's some really good
ones.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Where else can you do something like that, where you
have TVs, you have audio, youhave 10 SIM bays to play golf
and watch golf and kind of haveyour own little party?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Uh, not many.
Uh, golf garage probably andkind of have your own little
party Not many.
Golf Garage probably is one ofthe only in the world that
allows you to do it in the openspace that we have.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's pretty special, one of the only in the world,
for now.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
That's right and kind of leads us into our guest, and
a really good friend of minetaught his kids and we actually
met through our PGA JuniorLeague.
Andy Baker is our guest today.
Hey, andy.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks for having me.
I just actually came from thegolf garage.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Nice.
Did you play golf or what wereyou doing?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
No, it was perfect.
It was a business meeting.
We just went down there,grabbed some lunch and then
swung the clubs a little bit inthe bay, did a par three course,
about three times which nine,you know nine, nine holes at the
end of the day.
But you know, it was perfectbecause we, you know we had to
call it good and head home, butit was great.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Nice.
So you're taking care of somebusiness with the golf garage.
That's kind of the goal of mineis for people to do that here
locally and regionally and useit as that as a source.
You know, one of starting theshow was we were talking about
what Golf Garage could be andDarren kind of alluded to you
know, maybe not the only one,and you know you're the owner of
(02:50):
Pacific Franchise Advisors asone of your many businesses and
you know I'm just kind ofcurious, like we're working
together a little bit on what itcould look like to copy and
paste this.
And you know why do you thinkGolf Garage is a good fit for
that?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, I mean, when you look at it from a real
simple standpoint, when you wantto franchise a business, it's
got to be appealing, right.
I mean it's something thatpeople want to run, want to be
part of, and I think that's thebiggest thing that you have at
the Golf Garage, especially as Iwalk in there with a buddy of
mine who doesn't, who's not amember there, who hasn't been
there as much as me, and he'salready at the bay five, 10
minutes before me, because I'mhanging out and talking to all
(03:28):
the people that I know therewalking in like it's a home,
like it's like it's family,right.
So you're there, it's thiscommunity that you've built and
that's part of the experience.
And so I think that when youreally think about it, when
we're in the world of socialmedia and all the other things
that distract us and pull usaway from people, I think this
is just the greatest businessfrom that standpoint of building
(03:50):
that community.
It's around golf, it's aroundfamily too.
I mean you can take your familyto go swing golf club and
observe people hanging outoutside the bay and having some
lunch or having a drink orwhatever it is.
You can't really do that with,say, basketball, right, or any
other kind of sport.
I mean, this is really thesport that brings people
together, and I think you reallyhit the nail on the head when
(04:12):
it comes to building communityaround golf, and so, uh, that's
where I really feel like there'sa lot of benefit, a lot of
value to franchising this, thisbusiness potentially.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, I love that and it's funny.
So the last two days, um, andagain we talk a little bit
outside of here you know prettygood friends and we, we bounce
ideas off each other and it'sawesome.
But, like um, we just had stafftraining the last two days
because all the coaches are nowbecoming employees of the golf
garage and it's a totallydifferent shift in the model, um
and the makeup of what golfgarage is, which you hit the
nail on the head.
(04:45):
We're, we're creating a culture, but I, we talk about family
and, like SOU, golf is familyfirst and that's our model.
But it's a community, right?
So golf garage is a communityand it's that feel that you get,
in that sense that you get ofbeing at home.
And that's my ultimate goalwith this golf garage is how do
we keep that forever in thatfeeling?
And again, a feeling isn'tnecessarily I mean, you can
(05:07):
correct me if I'm wrong, youknow why you would franchise it,
but if it's going to bringpeople back and it can be a
successful business model, um, I, I am excited about it because
you definitely have changed mymind to um, the potential of
what it could be.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, and I think that's where that potential is
right.
I mean, a lot of people come tome like I want to start a
franchise.
It's like, oh great, where doyou want to start?
Like what do you want?
You know, and so many peopletalk about I want to do
something good in my community,I want to help my community.
It's like, okay, well, I don'tknow what that looks like to you
, but to me it looks likebringing people together and
building relationships andbuilding that community, and I
(05:44):
think that's something where Ithink it appeals to a lot of
people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, one of the things too.
If you really look at SouthernOregon, there's not a lot of
places you can go after hours,either, you know, on a date
night, or bring your family to.
I mean, there's the traditionalbowling alleys and the movie
theaters and all that stuff, andthat gets old after a while and
like, where can you actuallyhave a conversation?
Right, and I would just saysome of the best conversations
I've ever had are on the golfcourse, but that is eliminated
(06:10):
by daylight.
And so now you know you go havedinner and you're like, where
do we want to go?
I would love to hit my driver.
You know, let's go to the golfgarage.
So I think there was just somuch different thought to it.
Um, and again they are startingto pop up.
But you know, I like to thinkthat there's nothing like the
golf garage anywhere in theworld and I haven't seen
anything quite like it yet.
So you know, it's one of thosethings that you know I I'm
(06:33):
really excited to work with you.
Um, you're, you're a trueprofessional in what you do.
Um, you know, I've heardstories about, you know, other
franchises that you've broughtto fruition, and I know it's a
process.
So what do you like for someonegoing into that franchise and
you just kind of brought it upwhat?
Because, again, southern Oregonneeds to continue to grow.
So, for the Southern Oregonfolks, what do you look at with
(06:57):
them?
What's like a step-by-step,just in a nutshell, of creating
a franchise with you?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, so actually building a franchise, saying I
want to replicate my businessand make it a franchise, is that
what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We have a lot of small business owners right, so
maybe they don't even know theyshould be doing this, yet how do
we educate them?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, I mean the first thing is if you have a
replicatable business right andit's something you want to scale
and in some cases scaling abusiness isn't necessarily I,
you're limited to your audienceand so if you're looking to grow
your business and you havesomething that's doing well and
you can replicate that, thenlet's go put it into another
(07:32):
market.
But that doesn't mean younecessarily have to do that
yourself.
You know, for example, a friendof mine outside the state
wanted to replicate his businessand we went through the process
of franchising.
Because why not?
Why put your money out there togrow your business if you don't
have to?
And so that's really one way todo it.
And actually one of the waysthat how I've heard it said to
(07:54):
me was it's like going public,but not, it's one of the fastest
ways to grow your businesswithout taking in outside
investment.
So you don't give up more ofyour business, but you do have
people saying, yes, I want to bepart of this, I'm going to give
you money to be part of this,and then you support me in my
growth, and so as you look at itand you think about, hey, this
is a business that I'mpassionate about, but I want to
(08:15):
grow it and I want to share itwith others and I can help other
people realize the dream thatthey've always wanted, which is
to own their own business.
And if that resonates with you,then that's where I think you
need to think about franchise.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Andy, can you give us a good example of a franchise
model that maybe you've workedwith or just seen or heard about
?
That is a perfect example ofsomething that you know just
explodes once it franchises, andmaybe an example of a business
that somebody wanted tofranchise that you knew from the
get-go would be a failurebecause it just wasn't the right
(08:50):
model to franchise.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a failure opportunity.
So, yeah, I mean, there's afranchise I work very closely
with it's in the youth sportsfranchise, because I, you know,
youth sports is something thatyou know I'm passionate about.
I run a local AAU programaround here and you know so many
programs out there focus on onetime, one sport all the time,
(09:12):
and I think that's notparticularly healthy.
And so this one actually doesseason by season.
So there's a very distinctdifference between this one and
many others out there in thefranchise world.
And it's low cost as well, andso you can get into this
business and you can actually.
The ROI is solid as well,because you can actually ramp it
up fairly quickly.
(09:33):
Expenses are low, and so thatone to me and that's kind of
almost the boilerplate of asuccessful franchise right, low
barrier to entry, gooddifferentiation strategy, and
then you can just kind of gowith it and run with it.
The ones that I think are alittle tougher to be successful
in, the ones that don't havethat differentiation strategy
(09:56):
figured out yet, you can be ahigher expense franchise.
There's no problem with that.
We all see them all over theplace, typically fast food.
You got a lot of real estate,you got a lot of equipment, you
got a lot of staff, and thoseones can be fairly expensive.
But what everybody wants rightnow is hey, give me a
Chick-fil-A franchise.
(10:16):
I have to have that becauseit's busy.
So there's certain things thatcan be successful even at that
higher rate.
But what you do have to thinkabout is how much money am I
putting out for it?
And is that ROI completelythere?
And so I have seen some thathave gone out there and said,
yeah, we're going to build, youknow, let's say, a restaurant, a
small restaurant.
That's going to be a milliondollars, but our average ticket
(10:39):
price is maybe 15, 20 dollarsper customer.
That's that the economicsdoesn't work.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, it totally makes sense as well and it kind
of gets people thinking so, Andy, where are some places that
people can find you if they wantto get in touch with you, if
they have this interest infranchising, whether it's local
or global?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, just real simple.
Abaker at pacfranchisecom,we're going to look up
pacificfranchiseadvisorscom asthe website.
I also have another brand thatwe launched and we continue to
innovate, called Franflix, andthat's just.
You know.
I know it's kind of cheesy playoff of franchising and Netflix,
but easy to remember for thoseof you that do things easy to
(11:21):
remember, like me.
But you know, what I'm doing isI'm interviewing a lot of
franchises out there.
So right now, if you go out andyou research franchises, you're
going to come across a lot ofinformation out there.
That's really surface levelstuff, and what we're going to
do, what we do, is I interviewthese guys.
I interview a lot of thepresidents of the franchise, the
franchise development vicepresidents, folks like that, and
(11:42):
we just talk about thefranchise and ask the same
questions.
You guys are just asking whatare your differentiation
strategies, what are your plans?
How do you separate yourself,what's the cost, what's the
territory look like?
All these different things, andso that's a good place to get
some information.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's awesome, andy, and I mean just another shout
out to you and what you're doingwith business in general in
this area, and I know thatyou're doing it more.
You know on a national andlarger scale, but you know, for
our listeners out there, I thinkit's really important to you.
Know you don't want to find aused car salesman.
Andy is not that.
(12:20):
He will direct you and he's.
He's amazing.
I'm super excited to continuethat relationship with you.
Um, on a side note, golf wiseum, you know I met you through
PGA junior league, um, when Imoved back in 2019 and, uh, you
know your kiddos were justreally getting into golf and
ramping up.
And you know your family'sawesome.
You know, one of the funnythings that comes to mind
recently is is you know yourwife was never going to be a
golfer and what happened a weekago?
Where did she come into?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
She was there at the golf garage with her friends man
, that was like a ladies nightout.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Dude, I'm telling you what I was.
I literally like second guessthat I'm like, oh, andy probably
wants to start, and I calledyou.
I'm like, hey, is Tara comingin with her friends?
Like what, or are you coming in?
And so hopefully she had agreat time.
I haven't chatted with her yet,but uh, you know, love love to
see that.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It was good.
I think you might see them backhere real soon.
Man, that was.
They had a good time.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, I mean every time we had a junior league
match, Tara was out running thegolf course or looking for golf
balls.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I think she probably had like a world record at one
point between her and Gracie itwas like 40 golf balls or
something in like two holes.
It's probably not far off, heyAndy.
So as a businessman and amember at the golf garage, what?
What do you see in the valueand the experience here?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
at the golf garage.
Man, I just think, like I saidearlier, it's a community you
walk in and it's it's people youknow and you know the staff is
awesome because you know we'vebuilt so many cool relationships
there.
And I don't remember thestatistic.
I remember doing, actually, apresentation in college, but we
don't need to talk about howlong ago that was, but it was
about the value of actually.
It was a persuasive speech onthe value of golf when it comes
(13:53):
to business and how many dealswere done on the golf course and
it's just golf in general isjust such a good relationship
building opportunity.
You know you talk about.
You know breaking bread withpeople is one way that's the
most popular, right?
I mean go out there and havedinner or go have a meal, and
that's a great way to do it.
Golf is just that, without thatweird awkward start, right, I
mean it's a great way to do it.
Golf is just that, without thatweird awkward start, right, I
(14:14):
mean it's a little bit off thatfirst tee, but at the end of the
day you're out there golfing.
You guys all acknowledge that.
Hey, I'm not great at this.
You know, none of us are asgreat as Noah Horseman, right, I
mean, he's the one that's youknow he's hitting the ball.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, right, but that's what it is right.
We all kind of go out there, weaccept that, hey, we're all a
little vulnerable here.
None of us are perfect.
Let's just talk, let's have fun, let's be friends, let's build
that relationship, and I thinkthere's some real value in that.
And I think that's where thegolf grudge really hits it,
because it's a typical cloudyday out in southern Oregon and
(14:49):
I'm probably not known to beanything other than a fair
weather golfer.
But I had a blast, Went outthere and hung out with a good
friend of mine.
We caught up on life and itwasn't just sitting down at a
restaurant, it was grabbing abento box, having a little food
while we played three holes at atime.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's awesome, Andy, and I mean again, I think
from your standpoint as well.
You're a very busy entrepreneurand the fact that you can come
in for an hour at a time andfeel like you got your golf fix
is kind of a special thing.
So that's helpful, yeah, and Imean that's right on a on a side
note.
You know what you do isinvaluable and I think my goal
(15:31):
is that I'm seeing you in herein the conference room.
You know, working from hereevery day, that's like my
ultimate dream, with golfgarages, seeing all the business
professionals saying, hey, I'mgoing to work on here, I'm, you
know whatever.
And they're in here at the golfgarage at a bay, two hours,
take a break, play nine holesright, get back on your computer
(15:53):
for another two hours, take abreak, play another nine holes
Right, and then they'renetworking, and then maybe
there's a happy hour at two andthen it's like, you know, bring
the family down after school.
You know, super fun for sure.
And then, obviously, I want toget you on the course.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, gone are the days of that standing desk.
You just go out there and swingthe club and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Andy, has the golf garage improved your game on the
course?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Oh, I would say so for sure.
I mean, what I didn't know iswhat spin meant, what all the
carry distance was that I had oneach club, and I actually know
stuff now about my game.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Your driver spins a lot.
Let's get you another 30 yardswith that Sasquatch driver.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I think he's got the Nike square head.
Sasquatch is gone, man, oh thatSasquatch driver.
I think he's got the Nikesquare head.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Sasquatch is gone, man.
Oh okay, that's been gone for awhile, oh okay.
Well, that was the originaldriver he had when we played in
the Pro-Am down in Californiatogether.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Andy, what's the best course you've ever played?
What's your favorite course?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Man, it's going to be right on point there.
Noah just said we went down tothe Fairmont Del Mar and played
down there, and what was theplace?
We played the day before weplayed the Grand Del Mar.
The Grand.
Yeah, that's it, and the otherone that we had, I think it's
Phil.
Oh, we played the farms, Ibelieve, was it, the farms over
there.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In Carlsbad.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I mean, both of those courses were just beautiful,
and you know, and the Grand was,I think, probably one of my
favorites, and the Grand was, Ithink, probably one of my
favorites.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It was like the most expensive hotel in California.
Per room it was over a milliondollars per room to build the
Grand yeah, I think we had likethe different mosaic tiles and
the detail that was ingrainedwas pretty immaculate.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, yeah, we would hang out.
I was like, yeah, you know what, it's early night, I got a
million dollar room to hangoutulate.
Yeah, yeah, we would hang out.
I was like, yeah, you know whatEarly night, I got a million
dollar room to hang out and seeyou later.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And you know it was a great thing sitting out there.
There was like the outdoor,like bar area and the service
was perfect.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
It was awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Absolutely so.
I think the only other thingthat we forgot to ask him is
we're going to ask the what isyour?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Well, we ask people what their favorite food is, but
I'm going to ask you, as afranchise professional, what is
your?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
favorite franchise food.
Ooh, ooh, my favorite franchisefood.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So now, I got to sort through all the what did you
invest in last week, all theones that he doesn't want to say
, because it'll tick off someother clients.
Dutch Bros stock is doingreally good, if you can consider
that a food.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I mean, technically, coffee could be considered that.
I mean, there's food servedthere.
Gosh, that's a good question,guys.
You put me on the spot withthat one.
I tend to probably on a busywork day, I just hop on the hop
on the computer and order myselfsome a sandwich for for lunch.
(18:40):
So that's going to go to JimmyJohn's most likely Jersey Mike's
, something like that Freakyfast.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Jersey.
Mike's is awesome.
That's right, yes, that newsourdough and co is really good
as well.
Have you had that?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I haven't had it.
It sounds like I need to godown there.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Oh my goodness, it's over by Trader Joe's.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Really good, well, awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I'll give it a shot, andy, thanks for being on the
show with us today, excited foryou to be back at the garage and
excited to continue to workwith you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Likewise Thanks guys for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Thanks, Andy Take care.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
All right, take care.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Any predictions for the masters?
Oh man, I mean, brysonDeChambeau just got hit in the
chest with a football yesterday.
Uh, it was the quarterback, itwas a spoof, it was an April
fool's joke on Instagram and um,oh Matt, uh, going blank now,
anyway, they're like, hey,bryson DeChambeau is going to go
out for football.
And he's like, is he, he anygood?
(19:32):
And he just rifles one right athim and he goes out, turns for
it right off the chest.
He's like, yeah, we'll see whathappens in the masters.
Yeah, it's pretty funny.
Um, you know it's it's a longgolf course and so you have to
never rule out anybody that hitsit.
You know, 310 carry or moreyeah.
(19:56):
So you're always going to seethose guys like a dustin johnson
, bryson dechambeau you knowbaba won it that year.
You know, rory mcaroy it wouldbe fun to see rory do good.
I mean, it's hard not to likehim, regardless of how outspoken
he is, because he's my heighthe just won the players.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, like a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I'd like to see Rory get a green jacket for sure man
outside of that I haven't seen.
If he is or he isn't.
It's always a surprise, though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's always a surprise when he shows up.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I mean it would be great.
I thought he had hurt himselfagain recently and had a surgery
after TGL, so I don't knowwhat's actually happening with
him.
News is hard to actually figureout if it's real or not, which
is why part of the reason we hadthis podcast, you know, and we
go to some of our sources um,you know it was.
It's interesting, it was reallygreat to have Andy on the
podcast and, you know, I thinksome of our guests in the future
are going to get a little bitmore into that golf industry
(20:49):
where they're working, workingwith some of the tour players.
So I was just talking to myfriend earlier today who's, um,
you know, titleist rep and doesa lot of the tour fittings down
at TPI area.
So down in Carlsbad at Titleistnot TPI, sorry, it's just
attached and you know there'sother fitters that are out there
as well, like with TaylorMade,and I just think, hearing from
(21:10):
them, you're getting the insidescoop of what's really happening
.
Um, you know, and and again, Ithink getting out there and
getting some of that tour lifeis going to be pretty exciting
for sure, um, along with some ofthe caddies and whatnot.
So we'll definitely, uh,encourage some of that as we
move forward with this podcast.
But I would just say that youknow, when you get out there at
(21:31):
that level, augusta is insane.
It's all about your placementaround the greens, right.
So, even if you can hit it far,yes, that's a benefit, but I
would say the end game is theperson that's going to put it on
the correct spots.
On Sunday there's always thatchase around a man corner and
you know, you see a couple parsand all of a sudden you just see
(21:52):
guys trying to rattle offbirdies.
Um, as they get into that, 13,14, 15, right, um, 17.
Sometimes you get lucky, youknow, and you come into 18 and
you're just like, hopefully Ihave a one-shot lead and I can
pipe it because 18 standing onthat tee.
Um, when I was at drive chipand putt and I was caddying for
(22:13):
one of my students and she wasin it and we're standing on the
18th green and then we walkedaround.
That is so much narrower thanyou would ever imagine.
I mean, the TV makes it looknarrow, but that is just I can't
imagine.
You know, tied for the lead orone down or one, you're just
right in that contention and youhave to execute and you know I
(22:39):
do feel like more times than not, it's not a perfect execution
on that hole.
So it's pretty amazing to mehow good these guys are at
imagining how to carve one undera tree or around a bush in
order to play it up, to get upand down for par right.
We always see that sunday pinand they're playing it off of
(22:59):
banks left and right.
They hit it in a bunker andthen they're playing it 20 feet
away from the pin to get it downthere by the pin.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I mean, it's so fun I got a training, a question.
Yeah, my um social media feedhas been blowing up with this
thing.
Here it's.
It's a hinged shaft that willbreak if your backswing yeah
(23:25):
isn't good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Do these things work I have one of those, um, I think
the one I have is a five ironand I haven't used it since I
don't know the first year I evertaught.
You know, I think the idea ofthose is good, you know.
So if, like you, haven't playeda lot of golf but, let's face
(23:46):
it, every golfer is differentRight?
So if you're going to the firstposition, or P1, essentially is
what they call it, and there'snot a lot of definition but
essentially, where the shaft isparallel to the ground on the
initial takeaway and you take itaway slowly, right, that
shaft's not going to break, evenif I go inside or outside.
(24:08):
So if you take it away quickly,there's a potential for it to
break.
So there's a way to fool thetraining aid too, depending on
how slowly you take it back.
So, again, I think, if you knowwhat the tool is used for, if a
professional recommends thetool and they can explain why
you need it and it makes senseto you, that's half the battle,
(24:30):
right, when we look at a golferand they have an issue, we're
trying to find out, first andforemost, what is your goal,
like, why did you come to me fora lesson?
I can't tell you what you'regoing to need.
You know it's so funny.
It's like how much are lessons?
Well, I've never even seen you,I don't know.
(24:50):
I do an assessment, so let'sstart with an assessment.
It's $99 for an hour, right.
And then they come in.
I find the root cause of theirproblem.
In about five minutes.
We have a long discussion aboutthat.
I get to know them.
We continue some sort of ascreening body screening and
then we really discuss what thegoals are, how much time they
have to practice.
The interview is reallyin-depth and really important
(25:17):
and in that hour it's prettyeasy to find out what type of
personality trait they have,what type of learner they have,
which coach may make sense forthem to work with, if it's not
me and I think that's alsoreally important that you have
to understand that you have tomesh well with the coach that
you're with, build therelationship so you can trust
that person, because all toooften you're going to get
questions nonstop about you knowsomething that maybe they saw
(25:41):
and they learned and they're notsticking to their process.
So what I would say is this isif there's a training aid out
there, it's not the worst thingin the world to get it and play
with it, right.
But you need to know why you'regetting it.
Don't just get it because theinfomercial says fix your slice,
right.
How many of those do you see?
Get it, yeah.
(26:01):
Or ask a professional and say,hey, why would this be good for
me?
Or is it even good for me?
And if the pro doesn't know andsay, hey, get it, let's test it
.
You know, maybe they want toknow too.
And then, in a second or two, ifit's a good teaching pro and
that's a training aid, that prois going to feel that training
aid, see that training aid, useit and say, oh man, I can think
of five things.
This is good for you for, oh,that actually fixes the root
(26:22):
cause of your problem.
Don't stop using that Right.
So again, training aids aredesigned to create a feel, as we
know as instructors and as weknow as a player you're a player
.
Feel isn't real right.
We talked about that when Igave you that lesson in front of
all the pros and you're like itjust felt like I was moving so
much further, like into thescreen or whatever you said.
(26:45):
And I said great, that's yoursecret.
Don't tell anybody Like that'syours, that's not Toby's, that's
not your playing partners.
It probably won't work for them, because every player is
different.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Generally speaking, what's more important, like the
technical aspects of takeawayand how you're holding the club
or tempo?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Oh man, I would just say, more than anything, tempo,
tempo is balance, balance ispower.
Right?
How many guys hold itdifferently?
Oh, so many guys.
So how do you say that there'sone grip?
There's not.
That's why we say that there'sone grip.
There's not.
That's why we say there's astrong grip, there's a weak grip
, there's a left-hand low,there's a cross-handed, there's
all these things.
I actually played with a guynamed Gene Damani.
He was a member at CentennialGolf Club.
(27:27):
He was like 76 years old.
He played cross-handed, he didabout and he would shoot his
Ager better almost every time atCentennial, but he played
cross-handed.
So his club, I mean, it lookedlike he was only swinging
halfway and he would crush it.
So again, why would you evertell that guy he's playing wrong
?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And we all know a guy who on the top of his backswing
he pulls a Darryl Strawberryand he does a little
loop-de-loop with his club.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, I mean it works for.
Jim Furyk right it doesn't workfor Charles Barkley, it works
for Jim Furyk.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I have.
The one of the training aids Ihave is that the blue lag shot
and that helped me with tempodramatically.
Oh yeah, it had nothing thatdidn't help me with contact on
the ball or shot shape, but itdid help me.
It did help me with contact onthe ball or shot shape, but it
did help me with tempo.
It stopped me being too quickon the takeaway.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
The best tempo training aid in the world is the
Orange Whip Similar concept.
Right, yeah, it is.
It actually was out first.
Everyone's copying the OrangeWhip, essentially, and my good
friend is the creator of OrangeWhip.
He actually graduated fromOregon State University.
His name's jim hackenberg andthat's why it's orange and black
, because he played golf for thebeavers arizona state.
(28:44):
I think mickelson was there andhe realized how good mickelson
was and said okay, I'm going tomove to oregon state.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
It was like some joker of a story that he'll tell
and we've all seen the orangewhip in every pro shop we've
ever walked into.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It is, I think, the number one training aid sold.
It's.
You know, his tagline is yougot to feel it.
And I've actually taught atsection event where Jim was
opener, I was middle and thenthere was a keynote and we've
spent a lot of time together andhe just keeps coming out with
better and better inventions.
(29:15):
But the orange whip is just oneof those things that everyone
can use it.
They have junior ones, theyhave older ones.
They've come up with a speedwhip now and it has that flimsy
shaft where you can feel thecounterbalance.
So his differentiator is thathe has a counterbalance and no
one can copy that.
That's patented.
So that's where that orangeball on the butt end of the grip
(29:37):
comes in and it counterbalancesand allows that orange whip to
kind of pass the hands or thefeeling of the release on the
way through, and so you do haveto feel it.
That heaviness doesn't allowyou to come over the top, it
doesn't allow you, it makes youturn right.
So sequencing becomes a betterthing and um, there's so many
drills out there to feel thingslike that.
So, like and again.
(29:57):
Training aids are great, buthow many swings do you need with
a training aid before you hit aball.
I was just having a lessonearlier today and the student he
sent me a text and he's likehey, I just want to.
I really want to go over wheremy weaknesses are.
So in two seconds I go up, Ilook at the 20, 30 shots that he
had hit because he had it allsaved on the data.
So in two seconds I go up, Ilook at the 20, 30 shots that he
(30:17):
had hit because he had it allsaved on the data.
So now I don't have to spendhis money and his time warming
up.
I just say go, warm up, I'lllook at this.
I have everything I need toknow from what he did right
there.
As long as he puts in what clubhe used, it's super easy for me
Go through it.
I said you know what, mark, youneed to hit it farther, plain
(30:38):
and simple.
And he's like yeah, I wouldagree with you.
I said your swing is actuallylooking great.
I said you're very uh quoteunquote consistent, right, I
hate that word, but like thethings were happening very
similar through impact, you know, and and the distances between
pitching wedge and nine ironwere spot on, and like the
launch and the spin and all thethings, and even he said, like
the shot looks good too.
And I said said well, we needto get you further.
And he just had knee surgeryand I showed him one picture
(31:01):
that comes up.
What I love about theseforesight units is that with
dots on the face they're calledFiji shuls the camera can pick
up hit location within amillimeter lying, goal, with the
ground interaction and what theclub's doing at impact, where
it hits, behind the ball and atthe ball or in front of the ball
.
What I noticed was that he wasadding so much lofted impact.
(31:24):
Well, he had knee surgery onhis lead side, which is the side
you put all your pressure into.
He's a, he's a lefty, so it'shis right, right leg, right knee
and he's still afraid to do itright or something.
Transfer all the way to his.
You got you gotta transfer thatpressure in order to have right
leg, right knee and he's stillafraid to do it right or
something.
Transfer all the weight to hisleg.
You got to transfer thatpressure in order to have
stability or balance.
Then you can actually right,you can actually move your hips
(31:46):
into that side and you canrotate off of that once you do
that.
So it's all about pushing inthe ground to be able to move
your hips.
And so, in a nutshell, what wasreally unique was I brought it
to his attention and then hebrought something else up and I
said, ok, let's talk about howto make this change now, because
you know part of process isaccountability.
(32:08):
I got to make sure in that time, when we make that adjustment,
that you are clear and conciseOn understanding this is what we
need to do.
We need more shaft, lean atimpact.
So one of his things was well,that helped me with sequence and
what happens the chicken or theegg hips or that and I said,
well, your hips ultimately gofirst.
(32:30):
So there you go, there's yourchicken, right, but Both will
help you.
And then I went into some detailon why that was.
So now I take him out of thebay, I go up to a 90 degree
angle of one of my pillars ingolf garage and I said we're
going to work on learning how toset the club on the way back in
a chipping motion which isloading the wrist, essentially,
(32:52):
and rotating through andcreating as much exaggerated
shaft lean as possible andgetting that club face square to
that post.
I said do this four or fivetimes there's no real right or
wrong to how many You're tryingto remember what the feel is and
I'm going to go get you animpact bag and then we're going
to do something else.
So we have him do it.
He doesn't even like make itenough times before I come back.
(33:14):
And then he hits a ball and Isaid hey, how did that feel?
I said, how did how did thefeeling change when you were
doing this rehearsal?
And he says oh well, I, I feltlike I could get into my lead
side more.
I felt like I opened up, likesequenced a little bit better.
I said perfect.
I said so you hit the nail onthe head.
(33:36):
I said we just figured out whatyou wanted and a root cause,
right.
And then we created a feelingbased on a half a swing where
you identified clubface withsquared impact based on the pole
was in the way and a forwardshaft lean to get the feel into.
We're going to take that sameexaggeration and we're going to
hammer the impact bag two orthree times.
(33:58):
And he did it and his arms gotdisconnected and I said, hold on
a second, let's videotape that.
And then I'm going to hit oneand you're going to roll the
video and I'm going to show youthe difference of what I want
you to do.
And he was like oh my gosh, oh,that's what you want me to do.
His very pitching wedge swingwent 20 yards farther, I mean as
(34:19):
far as when I wasn't there.
So his first one, I think itwas like 10.
And then, um, and then when I,when I walked away, he's like,
hey, I left you a little littlegift on the screen and it went
20.
Wow, and I was like that'spretty awesome.
And he's not swinging more thanabout a mile an hour uh, faster
, but he has less lofted impact,which makes that ball go a lot
farther.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Right.
So we watch tour players on TVthat hit a nine iron 185 yards
and they make it look soeffortless.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, I mean their.
Their swings are efficient andthey create a lot of effortless
power because of the efficiency.
So tempo and balance right.
So someone like me I'm 125 to127 pounds, soaking wet.
I'm five foot seven, just alittle over right.
Why is it that when I'm rolling,I'm flying the ball to 75, I
(35:10):
can roll it out to 310 if it's afirm fairway, right, that's far
enough to play, absolutely.
I mean, I'm not going to beable to go carry the bunkers on
tour, but it's long enough toplay a tour golf course.
And it's because I've learnedto use the ground properly.
I've learned my efficienciesand inefficiencies and I
understand how to feel them veryquickly.
(35:32):
So if I don't play golf for twomonths, because of all the time
and work I put in understandingmy golf swing and my craft,
it's allowed me to get back toum in playing shape.
Let's call it in probably sixdays.
I've always said, you know, Ionly need about six days to get
ready to play in an event and aslong as I'm mentally prepared,
I'm going to shoot under par inthat event.
(35:52):
That's what I believe right.
And so a tour player with thatconfidence in that event, that's
what I believe Right.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And so a tour player with that confidence and that
mindset to any tournament isgoing to help you out too.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I think you have to.
I think you have to have thickskin in this game.
I think you have to have thickskin in life and I think, with
everything that you do, you justhave to go and say and I'm
going to win.
Why would you ever go into play?
Second, I had a marketingprofessor, um, in college and
knew I was a golfer and wetalked business as my senior
year.
And he's like how are youfeeling?
(36:20):
And I he's like you know how,you know, what do you think is a
good finish?
And I said I don't know, I'dprobably be happy in the top,
you know two or three orwhatever in this event.
And he's like stop.
He's like don't you want to win?
And I said, well, yeah.
And he's like why would you everthink differently than that?
You're going to win if you'regoing to go play in an event.
And I literally was floored.
(36:41):
I'm like my marketing professorjust gave me some of the best
advice I could ever have, andthis was like senior year and I
had already won, like I knew howto win tournaments, but I was
never thinking about I'm goingto step on your throat mentality
Like we've all heard aboutTiger Woods and what his dad
does, right and and his momreally kind of said hey, tiger,
(37:02):
you get the lead and you step ontheir throat.
Right, you're Tiger, you go andyou extend and you extend and
you extend.
People don't know how to dothat.
They're afraid of hurtingsomeone else's feelings or
they're worried about what itfeels like to have the lead.
And what if I lose the lead?
And the what ifs and theexpectation at that point, the
best marketers in the world getthat.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Though they get it, they're not going to go out and
market a product that they'renot a hundred percent convinced
to.
Behind that, this is going tochange people's lives for the
better.
We'll give them something,people, something that they want
.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, without question.
I mean, if you look at whatgolf garages in general right,
this is a huge risk to take onand build a building in Southern
Oregon.
You know there's 150,000 peoplehere.
There's 300,000 people in theCounty.
It's not a big Metro.
In a Metro, this thing would befull, this thing would be like
beyond that.
Right, we'd be building asecond one.
But this is hometown for me.
(37:48):
This is I need to show belief.
I want to prove this conceptthat it can be super successful.
Successful in a conservativearea, for the most part ultra
liberal and some conservativeand other.
we're not getting into politicson the show but, like, everyone
can belong to golf garage, right, and that's what's so cool.
It includes everyone.
And again, we're looking andwe're thinking outside the box
(38:11):
on how to make this successful.
We want to partner with everybusiness out there.
We want to partner with everybusiness out there.
We want to partner with everyorganization, nonprofit, try to
help them make money, try tohelp them network, and then we
become Southern Oregon strong,right, and I think that's what
all these communities talk about, what these teams talk about,
and I think one of the things atGolf Garage is this is the
melting pot place that allowseveryone to get together.
(38:32):
You don't know who's to yourright and who's to your left.
We have Fortune 500 people inhere, we have political people
in here, and it's so cool if wewere having some sort of
business strategy sessions wherewe're like, hey, let's get some
business people in here andlet's just talk, let's learn
from each other.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So we all know anybody in business knows the
term market analysis very welland understands what that is
With the term market analysisvery well and understands what
that is With an unproven conceptlike this, with no market
analysis really to go off of.
Based on this concept, what ledyou, what gave you the
(39:13):
confidence to jump in with bothfeet and go into a multi-million
dollar business venture with noprior data to?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
support it.
Yeah, field of dreams.
If you build it, they will come.
No, yeah, tell that to the bank.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Well, the funny thing is there.
There's quite a bit of marketanalysis done, because I grew up
here.
So you know, knowing the area,knowing that there's not enough
golf courses honestly in thearea, based on the number of
golfers.
You know, knowing that theweather and knowing that the
(39:47):
weather is eight months good,you know, four months not great,
or four months Great.
And then you also got smoke andother things.
We just had snow again, likeit's a weird weather year for us
, and we're getting busier nowbecause it's golf season.
Because when we opened in July,I was nervous.
I mean, the expectation ofopening, you know, in the summer
(40:09):
, wasn't the original plan, itwas an October previously of
opening.
We were just waiting forpermitting, and it took us
another six months, and so itwas probably one of the better
things that could have happened,though, because it was a soft
dish opening for three, fourmonths.
It allowed us to get our feetwet and it allowed us to
understand what we were and whowe are, and and then it allowed
(40:31):
us to market even harder.
And then I hate to use this, butyou know, when the snow fell
and other golf courses had someissues with their netting and
some things happened, you knowwe had a lot more foot traffic
in than what we would havegotten, because those people
were already used to going tothose facilities and now they
didn't have a facility to go to.
(40:52):
So now they had to come checkout golf garage regardless,
because if they wanted to playtheir golf, you know snow on the
ground and whatnot.
So, again, blessing in disguisewith the weather this year to
get people in the doorUltimately, again, there's a lot
of belief here, and it's goingto take a village for it to be.
You know what I want it to bein this area, but I think now
(41:18):
that we're starting to getreciprocal clubs right, I think
that was a big deal too.
I mean, we're up to six andit's really going to be a fun
summer when you own a businessthat's an indoor golf facility,
yet you've partnered with allthese golf courses and you're
taking people off your propertygolfing, but they're your
(41:41):
members and you're showing thema great time, and it's those
experiences that we want toshare with them too, and
hopefully they realize thatthat's the reason they want to
be members of Golf Garage.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You're not trying to take business away from a golf
course.
You're trying to make peoplebetter prepared to play on the
golf course.
We want to implement, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
We want to grow the game.
You know, ultimately we'regoing to grow the game in any
weather and we're going to takegolf trips all over the place.
Hey, if I had it my way, am Igoing to play golf in 50 degrees
or am I going to play a golfgarage where it's 70?
Absolutely, Golf garage handsdown, just because I don't want
to go practice in that, Right.
But if it's 65, I absolutelywant to go play some golf
outside.
I think I think it's a benefit,but I also think that you can
(42:23):
still have the best of bothbecause, again, you have all the
nighttime practice here thatyou want, and I think that's a
huge benefit.
So, um, the 24, seven conceptshuge.
The ability to partner withother golf courses is huge.
The, the fact that we have anevent space with the bar is huge
.
And again, we're we're evolving.
Um, you know, we're adding in aprivate Pilates room right now,
Um, and that's just because mywife's business is taking off
(42:47):
with Pilates, and now we'retrying to figure out a way where
those um Pilates students cango in and use a reformer
equipment without having to buyit and take it up space at their
house.
So now they're a member of herlittle Pilates studio as well,
and so it's getting more peoplein the door and I would say 70%
of her students don't golf andthey're starting to talk about
(43:08):
wanting to golf.
So if it was just a Pilatesstudio down the road, why would
they ever want to golf ifthey're not around it?
Now that they're seeing it, Um,and maybe you know they're
networking with people.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Who, who play.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Well, yeah, without question, I think that that is
going to be probably one of theultimate great feelings when you
start creating, um, new golfers, just based on having someone
walk in the door and they justsee it and they're like, well,
it looks fun, let's try that,right.
And then the other thing isthese events, that these work
parties, these other largersocial gatherings, are a lot of
(43:44):
non-golfers and we're gettingrepeat business because of this,
and we've had some people joinbecause of this, and I think
that you know, continuing tobuild those relationships is
huge and just getting people tounderstand what we are and you
know what we're trying to become.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
What do we have to look forward to next week?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, there's a couple of guys in the profession
that we're going to look attrying to bring on.
Definitely in the near futurewe're going to be bringing on
someone from the clubmanufacturing side, so golf club
industry and then master fitterI think that's somewhere where
we're at and I think also asuperintendent we got to talk
about golf course agronomy baby.
(44:21):
All right, man.
Well, hey, good show.
Go Raiders.
We're playing in the springclassic this week.
We're going to go try to takeone down, Thank you.
Welcome to the MyGolfSource podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to MyGolfSource.
I'm Darren Noah man.
Have you seen those girls atAugusta play yet?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
No, not yet.
I know I was going to watch thedrive chip and putt this
weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's so awesome right now.
I mean, they've added so muchto the masters.
They have the women's amateurthere.
They have the drive chip andputt there.
They have the par three contestthere Uh, we're actually
copying it.
We're going to have the parthree contest at golf garage on
Wednesday uh, all day long, andwe're gonna have prizes for low
score.
Well, you're watching theofficial par three contest.
(00:51):
That is so cool.
And then we're going to have afour person scramble on Friday,
so you can watch the masters onthe big screen and you can still
play Augusta, and then you'regoing to pick your player and
you're going to add that to yourfour-man team score.
So we're limiting it.
There's only going to be 10teams.
We're going to start openingthat up here in the next day.
It's going to fill up fast.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's going to be an awesome time.
It's going to be so much fun,yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So looking forward to Augusta week.
It's always special.
There's the Rogue Pro-Am intown as well, so it's four days
of golf to at grants past golfclub to at rogue Valley country
club.
It's one of the bigger localevents here.
Um, I know when Ryan was on acouple of weeks ago we kind of
talked about that as well andhow there's some really good
ones.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Where else can you do something like that, where you
have TVs, you have audio, youhave 10 SIM bays to play golf
and watch golf and kind of haveyour own little party?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Uh, not many.
Uh, golf garage probably andkind of have your own little
party Not many.
Golf Garage probably is one ofthe only in the world that
allows you to do it in the openspace that we have.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's pretty special, one of the only in the world,
for now.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
That's right and kind of leads us into our guest, and
a really good friend of minetaught his kids and we actually
met through our PGA JuniorLeague.
Andy Baker is our guest today.
Hey, andy.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks for having me.
I just actually came from thegolf garage.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Nice.
Did you play golf or what wereyou doing?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
No, it was perfect.
It was a business meeting.
We just went down there,grabbed some lunch and then
swung the clubs a little bit inthe bay, did a par three course,
about three times which nine,you know nine, nine holes at the
end of the day.
But you know, it was perfectbecause we, you know we had to
call it good and head home, butit was great.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Nice.
So you're taking care of somebusiness with the golf garage.
That's kind of the goal of mineis for people to do that here
locally and regionally and useit as that as a source.
You know, one of starting theshow was we were talking about
what Golf Garage could be andDarren kind of alluded to you
know, maybe not the only one,and you know you're the owner of
(02:50):
Pacific Franchise Advisors asone of your many businesses and
you know I'm just kind ofcurious, like we're working
together a little bit on what itcould look like to copy and
paste this.
And you know why do you thinkGolf Garage is a good fit for
that?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, I mean, when you look at it from a real
simple standpoint, when you wantto franchise a business, it's
got to be appealing, right.
I mean it's something thatpeople want to run, want to be
part of, and I think that's thebiggest thing that you have at
the Golf Garage, especially as Iwalk in there with a buddy of
mine who doesn't, who's not amember there, who hasn't been
there as much as me, and he'salready at the bay five, 10
minutes before me, because I'mhanging out and talking to all
(03:28):
the people that I know therewalking in like it's a home,
like it's like it's family,right.
So you're there, it's thiscommunity that you've built and
that's part of the experience.
And so I think that when youreally think about it, when
we're in the world of socialmedia and all the other things
that distract us and pull usaway from people, I think this
is just the greatest businessfrom that standpoint of building
(03:50):
that community.
It's around golf, it's aroundfamily too.
I mean you can take your familyto go swing golf club and
observe people hanging outoutside the bay and having some
lunch or having a drink orwhatever it is.
You can't really do that with,say, basketball, right, or any
other kind of sport.
I mean, this is really thesport that brings people
together, and I think you reallyhit the nail on the head when
(04:12):
it comes to building communityaround golf, and so, uh, that's
where I really feel like there'sa lot of benefit, a lot of
value to franchising this, thisbusiness potentially.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, I love that and it's funny.
So the last two days, um, andagain we talk a little bit
outside of here you know prettygood friends and we, we bounce
ideas off each other and it'sawesome.
But, like um, we just had stafftraining the last two days
because all the coaches are nowbecoming employees of the golf
garage and it's a totallydifferent shift in the model, um
and the makeup of what golfgarage is, which you hit the
nail on the head.
(04:45):
We're, we're creating a culture, but I, we talk about family
and, like SOU, golf is familyfirst and that's our model.
But it's a community, right?
So golf garage is a communityand it's that feel that you get,
in that sense that you get ofbeing at home.
And that's my ultimate goalwith this golf garage is how do
we keep that forever in thatfeeling?
And again, a feeling isn'tnecessarily I mean, you can
(05:07):
correct me if I'm wrong, youknow why you would franchise it,
but if it's going to bringpeople back and it can be a
successful business model, um, I, I am excited about it because
you definitely have changed mymind to um, the potential of
what it could be.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, and I think that's where that potential is
right.
I mean, a lot of people come tome like I want to start a
franchise.
It's like, oh great, where doyou want to start?
Like what do you want?
You know, and so many peopletalk about I want to do
something good in my community,I want to help my community.
It's like, okay, well, I don'tknow what that looks like to you
, but to me it looks likebringing people together and
building relationships andbuilding that community, and I
(05:44):
think that's something where Ithink it appeals to a lot of
people.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, one of the things too.
If you really look at SouthernOregon, there's not a lot of
places you can go after hours,either, you know, on a date
night, or bring your family to.
I mean, there's the traditionalbowling alleys and the movie
theaters and all that stuff, andthat gets old after a while and
like, where can you actuallyhave a conversation?
Right, and I would just saysome of the best conversations
I've ever had are on the golfcourse, but that is eliminated
(06:10):
by daylight.
And so now you know you go havedinner and you're like, where
do we want to go?
I would love to hit my driver.
You know, let's go to the golfgarage.
So I think there was just somuch different thought to it.
Um, and again they are startingto pop up.
But you know, I like to thinkthat there's nothing like the
golf garage anywhere in theworld and I haven't seen
anything quite like it yet.
So you know, it's one of thosethings that you know I I'm
(06:33):
really excited to work with you.
Um, you're, you're a trueprofessional in what you do.
Um, you know, I've heardstories about, you know, other
franchises that you've broughtto fruition, and I know it's a
process.
So what do you like for someonegoing into that franchise and
you just kind of brought it upwhat?
Because, again, southern Oregonneeds to continue to grow.
So, for the Southern Oregonfolks, what do you look at with
(06:57):
them?
What's like a step-by-step,just in a nutshell, of creating
a franchise with you?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, so actually building a franchise, saying I
want to replicate my businessand make it a franchise, is that
what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We have a lot of small business owners right, so
maybe they don't even know theyshould be doing this, yet how do
we educate them?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, I mean the first thing is if you have a
replicatable business right andit's something you want to scale
and in some cases scaling abusiness isn't necessarily I,
you're limited to your audienceand so if you're looking to grow
your business and you havesomething that's doing well and
you can replicate that, thenlet's go put it into another
(07:32):
market.
But that doesn't mean younecessarily have to do that
yourself.
You know, for example, a friendof mine outside the state
wanted to replicate his businessand we went through the process
of franchising.
Because why not?
Why put your money out there togrow your business if you don't
have to?
And so that's really one way todo it.
And actually one of the waysthat how I've heard it said to
(07:54):
me was it's like going public,but not, it's one of the fastest
ways to grow your businesswithout taking in outside
investment.
So you don't give up more ofyour business, but you do have
people saying, yes, I want to bepart of this, I'm going to give
you money to be part of this,and then you support me in my
growth, and so as you look at itand you think about, hey, this
is a business that I'mpassionate about, but I want to
(08:15):
grow it and I want to share itwith others and I can help other
people realize the dream thatthey've always wanted, which is
to own their own business.
And if that resonates with you,then that's where I think you
need to think about franchise.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Andy, can you give us a good example of a franchise
model that maybe you've workedwith or just seen or heard about
?
That is a perfect example ofsomething that you know just
explodes once it franchises, andmaybe an example of a business
that somebody wanted tofranchise that you knew from the
get-go would be a failurebecause it just wasn't the right
(08:50):
model to franchise.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a failure opportunity.
So, yeah, I mean, there's afranchise I work very closely
with it's in the youth sportsfranchise, because I, you know,
youth sports is something thatyou know I'm passionate about.
I run a local AAU programaround here and you know so many
programs out there focus on onetime, one sport all the time,
(09:12):
and I think that's notparticularly healthy.
And so this one actually doesseason by season.
So there's a very distinctdifference between this one and
many others out there in thefranchise world.
And it's low cost as well, andso you can get into this
business and you can actually.
The ROI is solid as well,because you can actually ramp it
up fairly quickly.
(09:33):
Expenses are low, and so thatone to me and that's kind of
almost the boilerplate of asuccessful franchise right, low
barrier to entry, gooddifferentiation strategy, and
then you can just kind of gowith it and run with it.
The ones that I think are alittle tougher to be successful
in, the ones that don't havethat differentiation strategy
(09:56):
figured out yet, you can be ahigher expense franchise.
There's no problem with that.
We all see them all over theplace, typically fast food.
You got a lot of real estate,you got a lot of equipment, you
got a lot of staff, and thoseones can be fairly expensive.
But what everybody wants rightnow is hey, give me a
Chick-fil-A franchise.
(10:16):
I have to have that becauseit's busy.
So there's certain things thatcan be successful even at that
higher rate.
But what you do have to thinkabout is how much money am I
putting out for it?
And is that ROI completelythere?
And so I have seen some thathave gone out there and said,
yeah, we're going to build, youknow, let's say, a restaurant, a
small restaurant.
That's going to be a milliondollars, but our average ticket
(10:39):
price is maybe 15, 20 dollarsper customer.
That's that the economicsdoesn't work.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, it totally makes sense as well and it kind
of gets people thinking so, Andy, where are some places that
people can find you if they wantto get in touch with you, if
they have this interest infranchising, whether it's local
or global?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, just real simple.
Abaker at pacfranchisecom,we're going to look up
pacificfranchiseadvisorscom asthe website.
I also have another brand thatwe launched and we continue to
innovate, called Franflix, andthat's just.
You know.
I know it's kind of cheesy playoff of franchising and Netflix,
but easy to remember for thoseof you that do things easy to
(11:21):
remember, like me.
But you know, what I'm doing isI'm interviewing a lot of
franchises out there.
So right now, if you go out andyou research franchises, you're
going to come across a lot ofinformation out there.
That's really surface levelstuff, and what we're going to
do, what we do, is I interviewthese guys.
I interview a lot of thepresidents of the franchise, the
franchise development vicepresidents, folks like that, and
(11:42):
we just talk about thefranchise and ask the same
questions.
You guys are just asking whatare your differentiation
strategies, what are your plans?
How do you separate yourself,what's the cost, what's the
territory look like?
All these different things, andso that's a good place to get
some information.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's awesome, andy, and I mean just another shout
out to you and what you're doingwith business in general in
this area, and I know thatyou're doing it more.
You know on a national andlarger scale, but you know, for
our listeners out there, I thinkit's really important to you.
Know you don't want to find aused car salesman.
Andy is not that.
(12:20):
He will direct you and he's.
He's amazing.
I'm super excited to continuethat relationship with you.
Um, on a side note, golf wiseum, you know I met you through
PGA junior league, um, when Imoved back in 2019 and, uh, you
know your kiddos were justreally getting into golf and
ramping up.
And you know your family'sawesome.
You know, one of the funnythings that comes to mind
recently is is you know yourwife was never going to be a
golfer and what happened a weekago?
Where did she come into?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
She was there at the golf garage with her friends man
, that was like a ladies nightout.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Dude, I'm telling you what I was.
I literally like second guessthat I'm like, oh, andy probably
wants to start, and I calledyou.
I'm like, hey, is Tara comingin with her friends?
Like what, or are you coming in?
And so hopefully she had agreat time.
I haven't chatted with her yet,but uh, you know, love love to
see that.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It was good.
I think you might see them backhere real soon.
Man, that was.
They had a good time.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, I mean every time we had a junior league
match, Tara was out running thegolf course or looking for golf
balls.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I think she probably had like a world record at one
point between her and Gracie itwas like 40 golf balls or
something in like two holes.
It's probably not far off, heyAndy.
So as a businessman and amember at the golf garage, what?
What do you see in the valueand the experience here?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
at the golf garage.
Man, I just think, like I saidearlier, it's a community you
walk in and it's it's people youknow and you know the staff is
awesome because you know we'vebuilt so many cool relationships
there.
And I don't remember thestatistic.
I remember doing, actually, apresentation in college, but we
don't need to talk about howlong ago that was, but it was
about the value of actually.
It was a persuasive speech onthe value of golf when it comes
(13:53):
to business and how many dealswere done on the golf course and
it's just golf in general isjust such a good relationship
building opportunity.
You know you talk about.
You know breaking bread withpeople is one way that's the
most popular, right?
I mean go out there and havedinner or go have a meal, and
that's a great way to do it.
Golf is just that, without thatweird awkward start, right, I
mean it's a great way to do it.
Golf is just that, without thatweird awkward start, right, I
(14:14):
mean it's a little bit off thatfirst tee, but at the end of the
day you're out there golfing.
You guys all acknowledge that.
Hey, I'm not great at this.
You know, none of us are asgreat as Noah Horseman, right, I
mean, he's the one that's youknow he's hitting the ball.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Get out of here.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, right, but that's what it is right.
We all kind of go out there, weaccept that, hey, we're all a
little vulnerable here.
None of us are perfect.
Let's just talk, let's have fun, let's be friends, let's build
that relationship, and I thinkthere's some real value in that.
And I think that's where thegolf grudge really hits it,
because it's a typical cloudyday out in southern Oregon and
(14:49):
I'm probably not known to beanything other than a fair
weather golfer.
But I had a blast, Went outthere and hung out with a good
friend of mine.
We caught up on life and itwasn't just sitting down at a
restaurant, it was grabbing abento box, having a little food
while we played three holes at atime.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's awesome, Andy, and I mean again, I think
from your standpoint as well.
You're a very busy entrepreneurand the fact that you can come
in for an hour at a time andfeel like you got your golf fix
is kind of a special thing.
So that's helpful, yeah, and Imean that's right on a on a side
note.
You know what you do isinvaluable and I think my goal
(15:31):
is that I'm seeing you in herein the conference room.
You know, working from hereevery day, that's like my
ultimate dream, with golfgarages, seeing all the business
professionals saying, hey, I'mgoing to work on here, I'm, you
know whatever.
And they're in here at the golfgarage at a bay, two hours,
take a break, play nine holesright, get back on your computer
(15:53):
for another two hours, take abreak, play another nine holes
Right, and then they'renetworking, and then maybe
there's a happy hour at two andthen it's like, you know, bring
the family down after school.
You know, super fun for sure.
And then, obviously, I want toget you on the course.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, gone are the days of that standing desk.
You just go out there and swingthe club and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Andy, has the golf garage improved your game on the
course?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Oh, I would say so for sure.
I mean, what I didn't know iswhat spin meant, what all the
carry distance was that I had oneach club, and I actually know
stuff now about my game.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Your driver spins a lot.
Let's get you another 30 yardswith that Sasquatch driver.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I think he's got the Nike square head.
Sasquatch is gone, man, oh thatSasquatch driver.
I think he's got the Nikesquare head.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Sasquatch is gone, man.
Oh okay, that's been gone for awhile, oh okay.
Well, that was the originaldriver he had when we played in
the Pro-Am down in Californiatogether.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Andy, what's the best course you've ever played?
What's your favorite course?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Man, it's going to be right on point there.
Noah just said we went down tothe Fairmont Del Mar and played
down there, and what was theplace?
We played the day before weplayed the Grand Del Mar.
The Grand.
Yeah, that's it, and the otherone that we had, I think it's
Phil.
Oh, we played the farms, Ibelieve, was it, the farms over
there.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In Carlsbad.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I mean, both of those courses were just beautiful,
and you know, and the Grand was,I think, probably one of my
favorites, and the Grand was, Ithink, probably one of my
favorites.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It was like the most expensive hotel in California.
Per room it was over a milliondollars per room to build the
Grand yeah, I think we had likethe different mosaic tiles and
the detail that was ingrainedwas pretty immaculate.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, yeah, we would hang out.
I was like, yeah, you know what, it's early night, I got a
million dollar room to hangoutulate.
Yeah, yeah, we would hang out.
I was like, yeah, you know whatEarly night, I got a million
dollar room to hang out and seeyou later.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And you know it was a great thing sitting out there.
There was like the outdoor,like bar area and the service
was perfect.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
It was awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Absolutely so.
I think the only other thingthat we forgot to ask him is
we're going to ask the what isyour?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Well, we ask people what their favorite food is, but
I'm going to ask you, as afranchise professional, what is
your?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
favorite franchise food.
Ooh, ooh, my favorite franchisefood.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So now, I got to sort through all the what did you
invest in last week, all theones that he doesn't want to say
, because it'll tick off someother clients.
Dutch Bros stock is doingreally good, if you can consider
that a food.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I mean, technically, coffee could be considered that.
I mean, there's food servedthere.
Gosh, that's a good question,guys.
You put me on the spot withthat one.
I tend to probably on a busywork day, I just hop on the hop
on the computer and order myselfsome a sandwich for for lunch.
(18:40):
So that's going to go to JimmyJohn's most likely Jersey Mike's
, something like that Freakyfast.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Jersey.
Mike's is awesome.
That's right, yes, that newsourdough and co is really good
as well.
Have you had that?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I haven't had it.
It sounds like I need to godown there.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Oh my goodness, it's over by Trader Joe's.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Really good, well, awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I'll give it a shot, andy, thanks for being on the
show with us today, excited foryou to be back at the garage and
excited to continue to workwith you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Likewise Thanks guys for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Thanks, Andy Take care.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
All right, take care.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Any predictions for the masters?
Oh man, I mean, brysonDeChambeau just got hit in the
chest with a football yesterday.
Uh, it was the quarterback, itwas a spoof, it was an April
fool's joke on Instagram and um,oh Matt, uh, going blank now,
anyway, they're like, hey,bryson DeChambeau is going to go
out for football.
And he's like, is he, he anygood?
(19:32):
And he just rifles one right athim and he goes out, turns for
it right off the chest.
He's like, yeah, we'll see whathappens in the masters.
Yeah, it's pretty funny.
Um, you know it's it's a longgolf course and so you have to
never rule out anybody that hitsit.
You know, 310 carry or moreyeah.
(19:56):
So you're always going to seethose guys like a dustin johnson
, bryson dechambeau you knowbaba won it that year.
You know, rory mcaroy it wouldbe fun to see rory do good.
I mean, it's hard not to likehim, regardless of how outspoken
he is, because he's my heighthe just won the players.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, like a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I'd like to see Rory get a green jacket for sure man
outside of that I haven't seen.
If he is or he isn't.
It's always a surprise, though.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's always a surprise when he shows up.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I mean it would be great.
I thought he had hurt himselfagain recently and had a surgery
after TGL, so I don't knowwhat's actually happening with
him.
News is hard to actually figureout if it's real or not, which
is why part of the reason we hadthis podcast, you know, and we
go to some of our sources um,you know it was.
It's interesting, it was reallygreat to have Andy on the
podcast and, you know, I thinksome of our guests in the future
are going to get a little bitmore into that golf industry
(20:49):
where they're working, workingwith some of the tour players.
So I was just talking to myfriend earlier today who's, um,
you know, titleist rep and doesa lot of the tour fittings down
at TPI area.
So down in Carlsbad at Titleistnot TPI, sorry, it's just
attached and you know there'sother fitters that are out there
as well, like with TaylorMade,and I just think, hearing from
(21:10):
them, you're getting the insidescoop of what's really happening
.
Um, you know, and and again, Ithink getting out there and
getting some of that tour lifeis going to be pretty exciting
for sure, um, along with some ofthe caddies and whatnot.
So we'll definitely, uh,encourage some of that as we
move forward with this podcast.
But I would just say that youknow, when you get out there at
(21:31):
that level, augusta is insane.
It's all about your placementaround the greens, right.
So, even if you can hit it far,yes, that's a benefit, but I
would say the end game is theperson that's going to put it on
the correct spots.
On Sunday there's always thatchase around a man corner and
you know, you see a couple parsand all of a sudden you just see
(21:52):
guys trying to rattle offbirdies.
Um, as they get into that, 13,14, 15, right, um, 17.
Sometimes you get lucky, youknow, and you come into 18 and
you're just like, hopefully Ihave a one-shot lead and I can
pipe it because 18 standing onthat tee.
Um, when I was at drive chipand putt and I was caddying for
(22:13):
one of my students and she wasin it and we're standing on the
18th green and then we walkedaround.
That is so much narrower thanyou would ever imagine.
I mean, the TV makes it looknarrow, but that is just I can't
imagine.
You know, tied for the lead orone down or one, you're just
right in that contention and youhave to execute and you know I
(22:39):
do feel like more times than not, it's not a perfect execution
on that hole.
So it's pretty amazing to mehow good these guys are at
imagining how to carve one undera tree or around a bush in
order to play it up, to get upand down for par right.
We always see that sunday pinand they're playing it off of
(22:59):
banks left and right.
They hit it in a bunker andthen they're playing it 20 feet
away from the pin to get it downthere by the pin.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I mean, it's so fun I got a training, a question.
Yeah, my um social media feedhas been blowing up with this
thing.
Here it's.
It's a hinged shaft that willbreak if your backswing yeah
(23:25):
isn't good.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Do these things work I have one of those, um, I think
the one I have is a five ironand I haven't used it since I
don't know the first year I evertaught.
You know, I think the idea ofthose is good, you know.
So if, like you, haven't playeda lot of golf but, let's face
(23:46):
it, every golfer is differentRight?
So if you're going to the firstposition, or P1, essentially is
what they call it, and there'snot a lot of definition but
essentially, where the shaft isparallel to the ground on the
initial takeaway and you take itaway slowly, right, that
shaft's not going to break, evenif I go inside or outside.
(24:08):
So if you take it away quickly,there's a potential for it to
break.
So there's a way to fool thetraining aid too, depending on
how slowly you take it back.
So, again, I think, if you knowwhat the tool is used for, if a
professional recommends thetool and they can explain why
you need it and it makes senseto you, that's half the battle,
(24:30):
right, when we look at a golferand they have an issue, we're
trying to find out, first andforemost, what is your goal,
like, why did you come to me fora lesson?
I can't tell you what you'regoing to need.
You know it's so funny.
It's like how much are lessons?
Well, I've never even seen you,I don't know.
(24:50):
I do an assessment, so let'sstart with an assessment.
It's $99 for an hour, right.
And then they come in.
I find the root cause of theirproblem.
In about five minutes.
We have a long discussion aboutthat.
I get to know them.
We continue some sort of ascreening body screening and
then we really discuss what thegoals are, how much time they
have to practice.
The interview is reallyin-depth and really important
(25:17):
and in that hour it's prettyeasy to find out what type of
personality trait they have,what type of learner they have,
which coach may make sense forthem to work with, if it's not
me and I think that's alsoreally important that you have
to understand that you have tomesh well with the coach that
you're with, build therelationship so you can trust
that person, because all toooften you're going to get
questions nonstop about you knowsomething that maybe they saw
(25:41):
and they learned and they're notsticking to their process.
So what I would say is this isif there's a training aid out
there, it's not the worst thingin the world to get it and play
with it, right.
But you need to know why you'regetting it.
Don't just get it because theinfomercial says fix your slice,
right.
How many of those do you see?
Get it, yeah.
(26:01):
Or ask a professional and say,hey, why would this be good for
me?
Or is it even good for me?
And if the pro doesn't know andsay, hey, get it, let's test it
.
You know, maybe they want toknow too.
And then, in a second or two, ifit's a good teaching pro and
that's a training aid, that prois going to feel that training
aid, see that training aid, useit and say, oh man, I can think
of five things.
This is good for you for, oh,that actually fixes the root
(26:22):
cause of your problem.
Don't stop using that Right.
So again, training aids aredesigned to create a feel, as we
know as instructors and as weknow as a player you're a player
.
Feel isn't real right.
We talked about that when Igave you that lesson in front of
all the pros and you're like itjust felt like I was moving so
much further, like into thescreen or whatever you said.
(26:45):
And I said great, that's yoursecret.
Don't tell anybody Like that'syours, that's not Toby's, that's
not your playing partners.
It probably won't work for them, because every player is
different.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Generally speaking, what's more important, like the
technical aspects of takeawayand how you're holding the club
or tempo?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Oh man, I would just say, more than anything, tempo,
tempo is balance, balance ispower.
Right?
How many guys hold itdifferently?
Oh, so many guys.
So how do you say that there'sone grip?
There's not.
That's why we say that there'sone grip.
There's not.
That's why we say there's astrong grip, there's a weak grip
, there's a left-hand low,there's a cross-handed, there's
all these things.
I actually played with a guynamed Gene Damani.
He was a member at CentennialGolf Club.
(27:27):
He was like 76 years old.
He played cross-handed, he didabout and he would shoot his
Ager better almost every time atCentennial, but he played
cross-handed.
So his club, I mean, it lookedlike he was only swinging
halfway and he would crush it.
So again, why would you evertell that guy he's playing wrong
?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And we all know a guy who on the top of his backswing
he pulls a Darryl Strawberryand he does a little
loop-de-loop with his club.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, I mean it works for.
Jim Furyk right it doesn't workfor Charles Barkley, it works
for Jim Furyk.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I have.
The one of the training aids Ihave is that the blue lag shot
and that helped me with tempodramatically.
Oh yeah, it had nothing thatdidn't help me with contact on
the ball or shot shape, but itdid help me.
It did help me with contact onthe ball or shot shape, but it
did help me with tempo.
It stopped me being too quickon the takeaway.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
The best tempo training aid in the world is the
Orange Whip Similar concept.
Right, yeah, it is.
It actually was out first.
Everyone's copying the OrangeWhip, essentially, and my good
friend is the creator of OrangeWhip.
He actually graduated fromOregon State University.
His name's jim hackenberg andthat's why it's orange and black
, because he played golf for thebeavers arizona state.
(28:44):
I think mickelson was there andhe realized how good mickelson
was and said okay, I'm going tomove to oregon state.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
It was like some joker of a story that he'll tell
and we've all seen the orangewhip in every pro shop we've
ever walked into.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It is, I think, the number one training aid sold.
It's.
You know, his tagline is yougot to feel it.
And I've actually taught atsection event where Jim was
opener, I was middle and thenthere was a keynote and we've
spent a lot of time together andhe just keeps coming out with
better and better inventions.
(29:15):
But the orange whip is just oneof those things that everyone
can use it.
They have junior ones, theyhave older ones.
They've come up with a speedwhip now and it has that flimsy
shaft where you can feel thecounterbalance.
So his differentiator is thathe has a counterbalance and no
one can copy that.
That's patented.
So that's where that orangeball on the butt end of the grip
(29:37):
comes in and it counterbalancesand allows that orange whip to
kind of pass the hands or thefeeling of the release on the
way through, and so you do haveto feel it.
That heaviness doesn't allowyou to come over the top, it
doesn't allow you, it makes youturn right.
So sequencing becomes a betterthing and um, there's so many
drills out there to feel thingslike that.
So, like and again.
(29:57):
Training aids are great, buthow many swings do you need with
a training aid before you hit aball.
I was just having a lessonearlier today and the student he
sent me a text and he's likehey, I just want to.
I really want to go over wheremy weaknesses are.
So in two seconds I go up, Ilook at the 20, 30 shots that he
had hit because he had it allsaved on the data.
So in two seconds I go up, Ilook at the 20, 30 shots that he
(30:17):
had hit because he had it allsaved on the data.
So now I don't have to spendhis money and his time warming
up.
I just say go, warm up, I'lllook at this.
I have everything I need toknow from what he did right
there.
As long as he puts in what clubhe used, it's super easy for me
Go through it.
I said you know what, mark, youneed to hit it farther, plain
(30:38):
and simple.
And he's like yeah, I wouldagree with you.
I said your swing is actuallylooking great.
I said you're very uh quoteunquote consistent, right, I
hate that word, but like thethings were happening very
similar through impact, you know, and and the distances between
pitching wedge and nine ironwere spot on, and like the
launch and the spin and all thethings, and even he said, like
the shot looks good too.
And I said said well, we needto get you further.
And he just had knee surgeryand I showed him one picture
(31:01):
that comes up.
What I love about theseforesight units is that with
dots on the face they're calledFiji shuls the camera can pick
up hit location within amillimeter lying, goal, with the
ground interaction and what theclub's doing at impact, where
it hits, behind the ball and atthe ball or in front of the ball
.
What I noticed was that he wasadding so much lofted impact.
(31:24):
Well, he had knee surgery onhis lead side, which is the side
you put all your pressure into.
He's a, he's a lefty, so it'shis right, right leg, right knee
and he's still afraid to do itright or something.
Transfer all the way to his.
You got you gotta transfer thatpressure in order to have right
leg, right knee and he's stillafraid to do it right or
something.
Transfer all the weight to hisleg.
You got to transfer thatpressure in order to have
stability or balance.
Then you can actually right,you can actually move your hips
(31:46):
into that side and you canrotate off of that once you do
that.
So it's all about pushing inthe ground to be able to move
your hips.
And so, in a nutshell, what wasreally unique was I brought it
to his attention and then hebrought something else up and I
said, ok, let's talk about howto make this change now, because
you know part of process isaccountability.
(32:08):
I got to make sure in that time, when we make that adjustment,
that you are clear and conciseOn understanding this is what we
need to do.
We need more shaft, lean atimpact.
So one of his things was well,that helped me with sequence and
what happens the chicken or theegg hips or that and I said,
well, your hips ultimately gofirst.
(32:30):
So there you go, there's yourchicken, right, but Both will
help you.
And then I went into some detailon why that was.
So now I take him out of thebay, I go up to a 90 degree
angle of one of my pillars ingolf garage and I said we're
going to work on learning how toset the club on the way back in
a chipping motion which isloading the wrist, essentially,
(32:52):
and rotating through andcreating as much exaggerated
shaft lean as possible andgetting that club face square to
that post.
I said do this four or fivetimes there's no real right or
wrong to how many You're tryingto remember what the feel is and
I'm going to go get you animpact bag and then we're going
to do something else.
So we have him do it.
He doesn't even like make itenough times before I come back.
(33:14):
And then he hits a ball and Isaid hey, how did that feel?
I said, how did how did thefeeling change when you were
doing this rehearsal?
And he says oh well, I, I feltlike I could get into my lead
side more.
I felt like I opened up, likesequenced a little bit better.
I said perfect.
I said so you hit the nail onthe head.
(33:36):
I said we just figured out whatyou wanted and a root cause,
right.
And then we created a feelingbased on a half a swing where
you identified clubface withsquared impact based on the pole
was in the way and a forwardshaft lean to get the feel into.
We're going to take that sameexaggeration and we're going to
hammer the impact bag two orthree times.
(33:58):
And he did it and his arms gotdisconnected and I said, hold on
a second, let's videotape that.
And then I'm going to hit oneand you're going to roll the
video and I'm going to show youthe difference of what I want
you to do.
And he was like oh my gosh, oh,that's what you want me to do.
His very pitching wedge swingwent 20 yards farther, I mean as
(34:19):
far as when I wasn't there.
So his first one, I think itwas like 10.
And then, um, and then when I,when I walked away, he's like,
hey, I left you a little littlegift on the screen and it went
20.
Wow, and I was like that'spretty awesome.
And he's not swinging more thanabout a mile an hour uh, faster
, but he has less lofted impact,which makes that ball go a lot
farther.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Right.
So we watch tour players on TVthat hit a nine iron 185 yards
and they make it look soeffortless.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, I mean their.
Their swings are efficient andthey create a lot of effortless
power because of the efficiency.
So tempo and balance right.
So someone like me I'm 125 to127 pounds, soaking wet.
I'm five foot seven, just alittle over right.
Why is it that when I'm rolling,I'm flying the ball to 75, I
(35:10):
can roll it out to 310 if it's afirm fairway, right, that's far
enough to play, absolutely.
I mean, I'm not going to beable to go carry the bunkers on
tour, but it's long enough toplay a tour golf course.
And it's because I've learnedto use the ground properly.
I've learned my efficienciesand inefficiencies and I
understand how to feel them veryquickly.
(35:32):
So if I don't play golf for twomonths, because of all the time
and work I put in understandingmy golf swing and my craft,
it's allowed me to get back toum in playing shape.
Let's call it in probably sixdays.
I've always said, you know, Ionly need about six days to get
ready to play in an event and aslong as I'm mentally prepared,
I'm going to shoot under par inthat event.
(35:52):
That's what I believe right.
And so a tour player with thatconfidence in that event, that's
what I believe Right.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And so a tour player with that confidence and that
mindset to any tournament isgoing to help you out too.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I think you have to.
I think you have to have thickskin in this game.
I think you have to have thickskin in life and I think, with
everything that you do, you justhave to go and say and I'm
going to win.
Why would you ever go into play?
Second, I had a marketingprofessor, um, in college and
knew I was a golfer and wetalked business as my senior
year.
And he's like how are youfeeling?
(36:20):
And I he's like you know how,you know, what do you think is a
good finish?
And I said I don't know, I'dprobably be happy in the top,
you know two or three orwhatever in this event.
And he's like stop.
He's like don't you want to win?
And I said, well, yeah.
And he's like why would you everthink differently than that?
You're going to win if you'regoing to go play in an event.
And I literally was floored.
(36:41):
I'm like my marketing professorjust gave me some of the best
advice I could ever have, andthis was like senior year and I
had already won, like I knew howto win tournaments, but I was
never thinking about I'm goingto step on your throat mentality
Like we've all heard aboutTiger Woods and what his dad
does, right and and his momreally kind of said hey, tiger,
(37:02):
you get the lead and you step ontheir throat.
Right, you're Tiger, you go andyou extend and you extend and
you extend.
People don't know how to dothat.
They're afraid of hurtingsomeone else's feelings or
they're worried about what itfeels like to have the lead.
And what if I lose the lead?
And the what ifs and theexpectation at that point, the
best marketers in the world getthat.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Though they get it, they're not going to go out and
market a product that they'renot a hundred percent convinced
to.
Behind that, this is going tochange people's lives for the
better.
We'll give them something,people, something that they want
.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, without question.
I mean, if you look at whatgolf garages in general right,
this is a huge risk to take onand build a building in Southern
Oregon.
You know there's 150,000 peoplehere.
There's 300,000 people in theCounty.
It's not a big Metro.
In a Metro, this thing would befull, this thing would be like
beyond that.
Right, we'd be building asecond one.
But this is hometown for me.
(37:48):
This is I need to show belief.
I want to prove this conceptthat it can be super successful.
Successful in a conservativearea, for the most part ultra
liberal and some conservativeand other.
we're not getting into politicson the show but, like, everyone
can belong to golf garage, right, and that's what's so cool.
It includes everyone.
And again, we're looking andwe're thinking outside the box
(38:11):
on how to make this successful.
We want to partner with everybusiness out there.
We want to partner with everybusiness out there.
We want to partner with everyorganization, nonprofit, try to
help them make money, try tohelp them network, and then we
become Southern Oregon strong,right, and I think that's what
all these communities talk about, what these teams talk about,
and I think one of the things atGolf Garage is this is the
melting pot place that allowseveryone to get together.
(38:32):
You don't know who's to yourright and who's to your left.
We have Fortune 500 people inhere, we have political people
in here, and it's so cool if wewere having some sort of
business strategy sessions wherewe're like, hey, let's get some
business people in here andlet's just talk, let's learn
from each other.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So we all know anybody in business knows the
term market analysis very welland understands what that is
With the term market analysisvery well and understands what
that is With an unproven conceptlike this, with no market
analysis really to go off of.
Based on this concept, what ledyou, what gave you the
(39:13):
confidence to jump in with bothfeet and go into a multi-million
dollar business venture with noprior data to?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
support it.
Yeah, field of dreams.
If you build it, they will come.
No, yeah, tell that to the bank.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Well, the funny thing is there.
There's quite a bit of marketanalysis done, because I grew up
here.
So you know, knowing the area,knowing that there's not enough
golf courses honestly in thearea, based on the number of
golfers.
You know, knowing that theweather and knowing that the
(39:47):
weather is eight months good,you know, four months not great,
or four months Great.
And then you also got smoke andother things.
We just had snow again, likeit's a weird weather year for us
, and we're getting busier nowbecause it's golf season.
Because when we opened in July,I was nervous.
I mean, the expectation ofopening, you know, in the summer
(40:09):
, wasn't the original plan, itwas an October previously of
opening.
We were just waiting forpermitting, and it took us
another six months, and so itwas probably one of the better
things that could have happened,though, because it was a soft
dish opening for three, fourmonths.
It allowed us to get our feetwet and it allowed us to
understand what we were and whowe are, and and then it allowed
(40:31):
us to market even harder.
And then I hate to use this, butyou know, when the snow fell
and other golf courses had someissues with their netting and
some things happened, you knowwe had a lot more foot traffic
in than what we would havegotten, because those people
were already used to going tothose facilities and now they
didn't have a facility to go to.
(40:52):
So now they had to come checkout golf garage regardless,
because if they wanted to playtheir golf, you know snow on the
ground and whatnot.
So, again, blessing in disguisewith the weather this year to
get people in the doorUltimately, again, there's a lot
of belief here, and it's goingto take a village for it to be.
You know what I want it to bein this area, but I think now
(41:18):
that we're starting to getreciprocal clubs right, I think
that was a big deal too.
I mean, we're up to six andit's really going to be a fun
summer when you own a businessthat's an indoor golf facility,
yet you've partnered with allthese golf courses and you're
taking people off your propertygolfing, but they're your
(41:41):
members and you're showing thema great time, and it's those
experiences that we want toshare with them too, and
hopefully they realize thatthat's the reason they want to
be members of Golf Garage.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
You're not trying to take business away from a golf
course.
You're trying to make peoplebetter prepared to play on the
golf course.
We want to implement, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
We want to grow the game.
You know, ultimately we'regoing to grow the game in any
weather and we're going to takegolf trips all over the place.
Hey, if I had it my way, am Igoing to play golf in 50 degrees
or am I going to play a golfgarage where it's 70?
Absolutely, Golf garage handsdown, just because I don't want
to go practice in that, Right.
But if it's 65, I absolutelywant to go play some golf
outside.
I think I think it's a benefit,but I also think that you can
(42:23):
still have the best of bothbecause, again, you have all the
nighttime practice here thatyou want, and I think that's a
huge benefit.
So, um, the 24, seven conceptshuge.
The ability to partner withother golf courses is huge.
The, the fact that we have anevent space with the bar is huge
.
And again, we're we're evolving.
Um, you know, we're adding in aprivate Pilates room right now,
Um, and that's just because mywife's business is taking off
(42:47):
with Pilates, and now we'retrying to figure out a way where
those um Pilates students cango in and use a reformer
equipment without having to buyit and take it up space at their
house.
So now they're a member of herlittle Pilates studio as well,
and so it's getting more peoplein the door and I would say 70%
of her students don't golf andthey're starting to talk about
(43:08):
wanting to golf.
So if it was just a Pilatesstudio down the road, why would
they ever want to golf ifthey're not around it?
Now that they're seeing it, Um,and maybe you know they're
networking with people.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Who, who play.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Well, yeah, without question, I think that that is
going to be probably one of theultimate great feelings when you
start creating, um, new golfers, just based on having someone
walk in the door and they justsee it and they're like, well,
it looks fun, let's try that,right.
And then the other thing isthese events, that these work
parties, these other largersocial gatherings, are a lot of
(43:44):
non-golfers and we're gettingrepeat business because of this,
and we've had some people joinbecause of this, and I think
that you know, continuing tobuild those relationships is
huge and just getting people tounderstand what we are and you
know what we're trying to become.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
What do we have to look forward to next week?
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, there's a couple of guys in the profession
that we're going to look attrying to bring on.
Definitely in the near futurewe're going to be bringing on
someone from the clubmanufacturing side, so golf club
industry and then master fitterI think that's somewhere where
we're at and I think also asuperintendent we got to talk
about golf course agronomy baby.
(44:21):
All right, man.
Well, hey, good show.
Go Raiders.
We're playing in the springclassic this week.
We're going to go try to takeone down, Thank you.
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