After more than four decades in professional golf, I am still learning about the game, sometimes from the players who are just beginning.
I am still a competitor. Most weeks during the season, I am preparing for a tournament, playing one or figuring out what I need to work on before the next one. I still have my own coaches, my own practice routine and plenty in my own game that keeps me curious.
So when I talk about spending time with younger golfers, I am not talking about being their swing coach. I think of it much more as mentoring. I enjoy talking with junior players, answering questions and sharing things I have learned through more than four decades of professional golf.
Sometimes the most useful thing I can offer has nothing to do with the golf swing. It might be how to handle a bad tournament, how to prepare for an important week, how to deal with pressure or how to stay patient when another player your age seems to be progressing faster. Sometimes it is simply reminding a young golfer that one bad round does not tell you very much about where your game is going.
Those are things I understand because I have lived them. But the interesting part is that those conversations teach me something too.
Young golfers today are growing up in a completely different golf environment than I did. They have technology, information, training and competitive opportunities we could not have imagined when I was their age. Spending time with them has given me a front row seat to where the game is going, and after all these years, they still manage to make me look at golf a little differently.
They Know More at 15 Than We Did at 25
The amount of information available to a young golfer today is incredible. A junior can stand on a practice range with a launch monitor and immediately know club speed, ball speed, spin, launch and carry distance. They can record a swing from multiple angles, compare statistics and watch instruction from some of the best teachers in the world before dinner.
When I was developing my game, we had considerably less information. We hit golf balls. A lot of them. We watched good players, listened to coaches and learned what different shots felt like. If the ball kept going somewhere we did not want it to go, we stayed on the range and tried to figure out why.
I am not convinced our way was better. It was simply different.
Technology has given this generation an enormous advantage. I know because I use it myself.
I Am Still Fascinated by How the Swing Works
I am probably more interested in the science of the golf swing today than I have ever been. Biomechanics fascinates me. I want to understand how the body moves, how those movements influence the club and why a particular pattern produces a particular ball flight. After all these years, I still enjoy figuring that out.
I continue to work with David Taraschi and Michael Manavian, whose instruction is rooted in the Stack & Tilt system. Michael also works extensively with biomechanics and three dimensional motion capture, giving us the ability to study movement in far greater detail than was possible when I began playing professionally.
That does not mean I want to stand over a golf ball thinking about ten different body movements. Quite the opposite. The value of understanding biomechanics is doing the work beforehand so that when I compete, I can keep things simple.
I also use Arccos to track my statistics. I carry the device because I want objective information about what is happening in my game. Sometimes what you feel happened during a round and what the statistics tell you happened are two different things. That is useful information because it keeps you from working on something simply because you think it is the problem.
Arccos can help show me where I am gaining or losing shots. Biomechanics can help us understand why something may be happening. David and Michael can help determine what actually deserves attention. Then I still have to do the part golfers have been doing forever.
I have to practice.
I have hit more golf balls than I could possibly count during my career, but I still do not believe I have the golf swing completely figured out. I am not sure anybody ever does. That is part of what makes this game so interesting.
Eventually You Have to Hit the Shot
For everything technology can tell us, golf is still played outside on a golf course. There is no perfect lie waiting for you on the seventh hole. The wind changes, your feet are uneven, the pin is tucked behind a bunker, you are between clubs and your swing may not feel quite right.
And sometimes your hands shake a little because the shot actually matters.
That is golf.
A launch monitor can give you tremendous information, but it cannot make the decision when you have 168 yards, the wind is hurting and there is trouble short. Arccos cannot hit the shot for you. Biomechanical analysis cannot make you commit to the club in your hands when something important is on the line.
Those things are learned through playing and competing. So are resilience, patience and learning how to hit the next shot after doing something on the previous one you would really like to forget.
Technology can make you a more informed golfer. It cannot replace experience.
That is the balance I want younger players to understand. Use the science to understand your game. Do the work to improve it. Then trust yourself enough to go play.
Sometimes the Best Thing You Can Give a Young Player Is Confidence
Young players do not always need another swing thought. Sometimes they need somebody they respect to tell them there is a lot of good in their game.
Young golfers today can see what everybody else is doing almost constantly. They see another player hitting it farther, watch beautiful swings online and have rankings and statistics available at their fingertips. It can become very easy to wonder whether they are falling behind.
I understand wanting to improve. I have spent my entire career trying to improve. But constantly searching for what is wrong can make a player forget everything that is already right.
That is where experience can help. Sometimes a young golfer does not need me to tell them how to swing the club. They need perspective. One tournament is not a career. One bad stretch does not mean you have lost your game, and somebody else succeeding before you does not mean your opportunity is gone.
Confidence in golf has to be earned, but it also has to be protected.
Junior Golf Has Become Serious Business
Young golfers today are exposed to high level competition much earlier. There are outstanding junior tours, national events, academies, college recruiting, rankings, specialized instructors and training programs. That creates tremendous opportunities, but it can also create tremendous pressure.
A 14 year old golfer can know exactly where they are ranked against other 14 year olds across the country. I am not sure a 14 year old always needs to know that.
Competition is important. I believe strongly in it. You learn things with a scorecard in your pocket that you cannot learn on a practice tee. But development does not happen according to a ranking. Some players mature early. Some get stronger later. Some figure things out quickly. Others need years.
I would hate to see a talented young golfer walk away from the game because they decided at 15 that somebody else was further ahead. Give yourself time. Golf has a way of rewarding patience.
Learn to Compete Without Your Best
One of the most valuable things a young golfer can learn is how to post a score when everything is not working. Professional golfers rarely wake up with every part of the game cooperating. You learn to play with what you have that day.
Maybe the driver is not cooperating, so you find another way to get the ball in play. Maybe your iron game is off, so your short game has to carry you. Maybe nothing seems to be falling on the greens, so you keep giving yourself chances and stay patient until one does.
That is tournament golf.
Some of the rounds I am most proud of during my career were not necessarily the ones when everything felt easy. They were the days when I did not have my best and still found a way to post a score.
Do not quit on a round because you do not have your best stuff. Those may be the rounds that teach you the most.
Put the Phone Down and Watch
If I could encourage young golfers to do one thing that has nothing to do with their own swings, it would be to really watch good players.
Do not just watch highlights on your phone. If you have an opportunity to attend a professional tournament, spend some time around the practice area and then follow a group for nine holes. Watch what a player does after missing a green. Watch where he leaves the ball when he cannot attack a flag. Watch his routine after making a bogey and what happens when something does not go according to plan.
When I was young, watching better players was part of how we learned. There is so much golf education available on a screen today that I sometimes think young players forget how much can be learned simply by paying attention.
Watch how great players practice. Watch how they compete. Then take whatever is useful and make it your own.
Pebble Beach, First Tee and a Week That Means More Than Golf
One of the events I look forward to most each year is the PURE Insurance Championship Impacting First Tee at Pebble Beach.
I have played golf all over the world, and Pebble Beach is still magical. There are certain places in the game that feel different the moment you arrive, and Pebble is one of them. The history is everywhere. You walk those fairways and think about the great players, championships and shots that have happened there. Then you look out over the Pacific and remember you are also standing on one of the most beautiful pieces of property in golf.
I never take playing there for granted.
That is part of what makes it so special to watch a First Tee junior experience Pebble Beach for the first time. Every year, First Tee gives a group of deserving young golfers an opportunity most people who love this game can only dream about. They earn the chance to compete at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill alongside PGA TOUR Champions professionals and amateur players.
Think about that for a young golfer. One day you are playing at your First Tee chapter back home. Then you are walking down a fairway at Pebble Beach with a professional golfer, competing in a nationally televised tournament with a scorecard in your pocket.
That is a remarkable gift.
But the reason I am such a believer in First Tee goes well beyond where these kids get to play golf. The organization uses the game to develop qualities that matter long after a scorecard is signed: confidence, perseverance, good judgment, goal setting, communication, building relationships and learning how to handle challenges when things do not go your way.
Those are golf lessons, but they are also life lessons.
The PURE Insurance Championship brings all of that together in one week. I am there to compete. Every PGA TOUR Champions player is. Once somebody hands us a scorecard, we want to win. But something else happens during this particular week.
You spend meaningful time with a First Tee junior. You walk fairways together, talk between shots and learn about their game, their family, where they come from and what they hope to do next. They get to experience professional tournament golf from inside the ropes, and we get to experience Pebble Beach through their eyes.
That might be one of the best parts.
The Relationship Does Not End on Sunday
For me, the mentoring part of the PURE Insurance Championship should not end when the last putt drops.
I enjoy staying connected with the juniors I meet through First Tee. I want to hear how they are playing and what tournaments they have coming up. I enjoy following their progress and being somebody they know they can reach out to.
That is what mentoring means to me. It is not one conversation during tournament week. It is building a relationship.
I remember being a young player and what it meant when an accomplished golfer took an interest in me. You do not forget those people. Now I have an opportunity to be that person for somebody else.
That is why I am such a fan of First Tee and what the organization stands for. Golf can teach honesty when nobody is watching. It can teach patience when things are not going your way. It can teach you to compete, shake somebody’s hand when it is over and come back tomorrow ready to try again.
Those qualities will serve a young person whether they ever play professional golf or not.
And then First Tee takes those lessons and, for a select group of juniors every year, gives them Pebble Beach.
That is pretty hard to beat.
Years from now, I may not remember every shot I hit in every PURE Insurance Championship. But I will remember watching a young golfer see Pebble Beach for the first time. I will remember the conversations walking down those fairways.
And if one of those juniors remembers that somebody who had spent a lifetime in professional golf took an interest in them, believed in them and stayed in their corner after the tournament was over, then that week meant a lot more than whatever number I wrote on my scorecard.
They Teach Me Too
Mentoring works both ways. Young players ask questions I might not have considered. They use technology differently, approach training differently and sometimes challenge assumptions I have carried around for years.
I like that.
After playing professional golf for this long, it would be easy to decide I already know what works. Golf has never allowed me that luxury. Young players remind me to stay curious.
They have also reinforced something I have come to believe more strongly as my career has gone on: there is no single path through this game. Some players love numbers. Some play by feel. Some want to understand every detail. Others play their best when they keep things simple.
My role is not to tell a young golfer exactly how to do it. Sometimes it is simply to share what I have learned, answer a question, offer some perspective and let them figure out what works for them.
What I Hope They Remember
Golf is going to keep changing, and I hope it does. Equipment will get better. Training will become more sophisticated. Technology will measure things we are probably not even thinking about today.
Use it. Learn from it. Stay curious.
But do not let all that information make a complicated game even more complicated. Learn your ball flight and your misses. Learn how to get the ball around a golf course when your swing is not perfect. Learn how to lose without falling apart and how to win without thinking you have the game figured out.
Work hard, but give yourself time. Listen to good people and learn to trust yourself. Most importantly, never become so focused on becoming a better golfer that you stop enjoying being one.
I have played this game professionally for more than four decades, and I am still trying to get better. I still work with David and Michael. I still study biomechanics. I still look at my Arccos numbers. I still stay after rounds and work on things that did not feel right. And I still learn from people who have been playing this game for a fraction of the time I have.
Maybe that is the lesson I would most like to pass along.
Never decide you know everything, because golf will prove you wrong pretty quickly. Stay curious, keep working and help somebody coming behind you when you can.
Then go play.