Shownotes
I speak with Rick Ward, a former NFL punter who transitioned to a career as a golf fitter and instructor, and that transition and his fitting expertise is the central theme of our conversation. We discuss his NFL background, his severe knee injury and later knee replacements, and how those experiences influenced his approach to golf and coaching. Rick and I explain the value of one-on-one club fitting, the role of TrackMan data, and the need for correct loft, lie, and shaft selection tailored to the individual. We caution listeners about impersonal big-box fittings and sales incentives, and we outline practical factors to watch for when choosing a fitter or a golf ball. Rick describes his fitting work at Rock Creek and with Srixon and invites golfers to book fittings through rlwardfittings.com. We also address equipment trends, distance gains, and the importance of choosing proper tees and balls so the game remains enjoyable.
Links referenced in this episode:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
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Transcripts
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores a golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass.
Speaker A:For the hackers, dew sweepers and turf spankers, here's Jeff.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker B:Welcome to Grilling at the green.
Speaker B:I'm J.P. we want to thank the folks at Birdie Ball for sponsoring this segment of the show.
Speaker B:As always, if you've got limited space to practice in at home, I would recommend highly that you go to birdieball.com they've got some great putting greens.
Speaker B:They also have these little widgets, if you will.
Speaker B:They call them clamshells that you can hit them.
Speaker B:They'll go at a max about 40 yards.
Speaker B:And they're great for working in your backyard or the park or wherever.
Speaker B:Pretty well Dot com.
Speaker B:Well, I got a great guest today for you, Rick Ward.
Speaker B:That main name may not just ring a great big bell with you, but it will by the time we're done with this show.
Speaker B:Rick's a former NFL player.
Speaker B:We're going to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker B:And then he transitioned away from getting the snot beat out of him during NFL games to golf and worked his way up in the ranks.
Speaker B:And now he's a golf fitter, a teacher, represents Richland.
Speaker B:Just a good guy.
Speaker B:And we came to find out that we live about 300 yards from each other, so.
Speaker B:And I didn't know it, and I don't think he did either.
Speaker B:Rick.
Speaker C:Well, thank you very much.
Speaker C:Glad to be here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So let's talk about NFL a little bit and growing up.
Speaker B:And you probably didn't think about NFL and in, you know, transitioning to golf later on when you were growing up, what was it like?
Speaker B:You grew up in eastern Oregon, Is that correct?
Speaker C:No, I, I went to Eastern Oregon in college, and that's an interesting story.
Speaker C:But I, I grew up in Roseburg, Oregon, played football for the legendary Thurman Bell, who just went into the Oregon Sports hall of Fame for one of the most winningest high school coaches.
Speaker C:And he coached 50 years at Roseburg High School.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:But when I was a, a junior in high school at Roseburg, I had a really severe knee injury, multiple reconstructions to ligaments and tendons and hamstring and whatnot.
Speaker C:And so I didn't get recruited to anywhere for college.
Speaker C:And so frustrating.
Speaker C:But eastern Oregon, little school in the grand over there, which I didn't even know existed at the time, said, hey, we want you to come and do track for us.
Speaker C:You know, because I was a High jumper.
Speaker C:And I said, well, do you have a football team?
Speaker C:And they said, yeah, we got a football team.
Speaker C:And I said, this is really simple.
Speaker C:If I can play football, then I'll come and run track.
Speaker C:And so they said, yes, and the rest is history.
Speaker C:And ended up being a national leader in punting.
Speaker C:And they got signed by the Redskins and then went to the Bears and Bengals after that.
Speaker C:So, you know, as a junior in high school, I didn't think I was going to be doing anything.
Speaker C:And halfway through the senior year, was hoping to be able to go somewhere.
Speaker C:So pretty lucky.
Speaker C:Really quite blessed.
Speaker C:And it's been a really good life I've had in and out of football.
Speaker B:So was it a big, if you will, culture shock to you, Rick, when you went to the NFL versus LeGrand?
Speaker C:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker C:You know, back in that time, we're talking about a long time ago.
Speaker B:Well, pre.
Speaker B:Previous entry, like me.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, like 80, you know, 485, 86, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker C:Um, I would.
Speaker C:And back then, everything culturally was different, but I.
Speaker C:One of the things I.
Speaker C:It was either, you know, you were good enough or the coaches didn't care to look.
Speaker C:Look at the next guy.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:It was like, there's no.
Speaker C:There wasn't any of this.
Speaker C:We're going to take care of you.
Speaker C:We love you.
Speaker C:You're part of our group.
Speaker C:It was like, do your job or you're gone.
Speaker C:You know, and.
Speaker C:And got.
Speaker C:And we would be in meetings and, you know, there'd be guys in the meeting smoking a cigarette, and I'd be like, what?
Speaker C:Where am I?
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Was full on adult grown men doing what they want to do.
Speaker C:But was.
Speaker C:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker C:I was very proud to be honored and to be able to be a part of things as little at a time as I did.
Speaker C:But the other thing is, is we didn't make much money back then.
Speaker C:You know, I think I.
Speaker C:My first contract was for $50,000, you know, and today it's like nothing.
Speaker C:So it was a different world all the way around.
Speaker B:I know I had Neil Lomax on the show a few weeks ago and.
Speaker B:And of course, we all followed his career, being at Portland State and doing great things and setting passing records and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:And he asked me, he goes.
Speaker B: bonus was in whenever it was: Speaker B:And I said, yeah.
Speaker B:I said, no, I'm guessing like 35, $40,000.
Speaker B:He goes, A little higher than that.
Speaker B:But it was 100,000, which was big money back, big money back then.
Speaker B:And, and he goes, now you can't even get the guys to pick up the phone for that kind of money.
Speaker C:So the only two guys in the NFL making a million dollars when I was in, when I was playing was Joe Theisman and Walter Payton, who I had the honor to play with both those guys.
Speaker C:So it was a different world.
Speaker C:And I think my best signing bonus was for $8,000 or something like that, which, I mean, nowadays, nothing so.
Speaker C:But it wasn't about the money for me.
Speaker C:It was about the pride and loving the game.
Speaker B:Did you ever get hurt while you were playing?
Speaker C:Well, I did in high school, pretty bad.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I was lucky, you know, and I played some linebacker and I played some tight end and, and at Eastern they thought about playing me at some outside linebacker and two and, but I'm glad I didn't because I never got hurt again.
Speaker C:And I punted and kicked and then mostly punt and kickoff in, in the NFL did.
Speaker B:Well now you got kickers like what's his name for.
Speaker B:Pays for the chief Buckner.
Speaker B:I mean that guy can hit him from, you know, 70 yards out almost.
Speaker B:How, how was your range in those days?
Speaker C:Well, you know, in a game, the longest field goal I made in a game at Eastern was 49 yards.
Speaker C:And I did that three times actually.
Speaker C:But I did have an 82 yard punt at Eastern Oregon, which was a record for a very long time.
Speaker C:But you might remember a guy named Kevin Butler.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker C:Kevin Butler was with the Bears.
Speaker C:We were together there for a little bit and he could, he could maybe make a 70 yarder, you know, but he never did.
Speaker C:You know, game time is different and the reason it's, it's, it's different is it used to be the, the rule was they had, you had to kick a brand new ball that wasn't, you know, still had the wax on it.
Speaker C:Now they're, they're greasing those balls up and, and, and putting them in the dryer and running them and wearing them in.
Speaker C:And if you can see the difference on tv, they're, they're dark brown.
Speaker C:They look like they got mink oil or something on them.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:And back in my day, they had a bag of brand new balls come right out of the plastic and they were a little harder to kick, to be honest.
Speaker C:I mean, a lot harder actually.
Speaker C:And I think that has a little bit to do with these guys.
Speaker C:But you know, you got Cam Little at, at Jacksonville kicking a 70 plus yarder already in the preseason.
Speaker C:And I think that 70 yard thing is going to happen a little bit about these young guys are so good now compared to years ago.
Speaker C:And then also the fact that the balls get treated and they're easier to,.
Speaker D:You know.
Speaker B:Well, when I played, which was bad in your era, not in NFL or anything, just in school.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, it was kind of like, can anybody kick a ball?
Speaker B:You know, we didn't have a punter, we didn't have a kickoff specialist, we didn't have any of that.
Speaker B:It was just kind of like, Tracy, get over here and see if you can kick this more than 20 yards, you know, type thing.
Speaker B:But now everybody's so specialized.
Speaker B:And then of course with.
Speaker B:We've had so many people that you see in the NFL, they kick it kind of soccer style.
Speaker B:Nobody just lines up straight behind it much anymore.
Speaker B:And boots that they're all coming in and kicking it at a 45 or whatever.
Speaker B:And like I said, a lot of them came from the soccer world and they're making good money for booting the ball.
Speaker C:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker C:It's interesting because, you know, back in the day, a lot of guys kicked with the straight toe shoe, you know,.
Speaker B:That right toe shoe, that old Dempsey looking thing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:He was the one that held the record for many, many, many years.
Speaker C:But now the NFL has made that illegal, saying that that's a illegal piece of equipment, not your natural foot, you know.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker C:So it was sort of like adjust to that, you know, and when I was young, a lot of guys kicked with the straight shoe.
Speaker C:You went and bought a straight shoe and see who could, who could punch it through.
Speaker C:But the game has changed so much.
Speaker C:And these guys nowadays, they are, you know, they're athletes.
Speaker C:I mean, a lot of people think, oh, the, the punters and kickers are not athletes.
Speaker C:Well, I, I'm I'm 63 and 230 pounds, you know, and I'm a punter.
Speaker C:And people say, what, you're so, you're so big you can't be a punter.
Speaker C:But the average punter in the NFL, 6, 4, 2, 25.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:Kickers are a little smaller.
Speaker B:We're going to take a break.
Speaker B:We're going to be back with Rick Ward.
Speaker B:We're going to talk about golf coming up.
Speaker B:Imagine that.
Speaker B:Stay with us.
Speaker E:Hey, everybody, J.T.
Speaker D:Here.
Speaker B:If you need something to practice with.
Speaker E:In the inclement weather, try birdie ball.
Speaker E:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have A couple of those and they work great.
Speaker E:Birdieball.com.
Speaker A:FOREIGN.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:We got Rick Ward with us today.
Speaker B:I'd like to thank the folks at Snell Golf.
Speaker B:They've got a new PR3 and PR4, and I've been playing the PR3s and their MTB blacks.
Speaker B:They put a limited edition of those out there.
Speaker B:So go to snellgolf.com we're talking with Rick Ward, who had would you.
Speaker B:Three years, four years in the NFL.
Speaker C:Four years off and on.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yep, yep.
Speaker C:One with the Redskins, one at the Bears and, and two at the Bengals.
Speaker B:So what made you decide to walk away from that?
Speaker C:Well, I honestly, I got cut, you know, and I had the, I had the bad injury in as a youngster and so I had, you know, got some big scars on that knee and, and I think it, it affected choices.
Speaker C:And, and also the thing is, is back in the day, if you went five years, you got a pension.
Speaker C:So, you know, it's a business.
Speaker C:And so they look at, okay, we got Rick here, he's got a bad name, he's pretty damn good kicker, punter, but man, we could get a young guy out of UCLA or Arkansas or somewhere and then have to pay him a pension.
Speaker C:And so I went through phases of working out with different teams, but I think I had that against me in terms of take me on now and you pay me a pension.
Speaker C:And I think a lot of guys, you know, go out at four years because of that.
Speaker B:Well, yeah.
Speaker B:Now you've got these 110, 120 million dollar contracts and they're trading them and they, nobody wants to get stuck with that if they're not sure.
Speaker B:And like you said, it's business.
Speaker B:But it's always kind of fascinating to me how the, you're a star one day and then by the end of the season, you're sitting on the bench getting slivers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Jerry Glanville was quite a character.
Speaker C:And his famous saying was the NFL is not for long.
Speaker B:So when you, when you left the NFL and you did some coaching, not at the NFL level, I don't think, but at lower in high school and maybe college and that type of stuff.
Speaker B:Was that a fairly easy transition for you?
Speaker C:You know, it was because of my sort of history in the NFL, you know, it was easy to get people to talk to me about and I ended up going to Weber State University and coaching with Mike Price for a couple years and then I was making $13,000 a year coaching football.
Speaker C:And I went back to the high school level at Lake Ridge, and.
Speaker C:And I went back to Lewis and Clark College with Tom Smythe, who's another really famous, you know, Oregon high school coach, and.
Speaker C:And then spent some.
Speaker C:And was at McNary as well.
Speaker C:And all that time that I was at the high school level, I coached golf and loved golf all the way.
Speaker C:I. I built my own clubs, and it's just a love that I had, you know, And.
Speaker C:And at the end of my coaching career, I retired about five years ago.
Speaker C:I got bored in about 20 minutes and said to John Grothe at Willamette Valley, hey, put me to work with your juniors.
Speaker C:I've been coaching golf for 25 years.
Speaker C:Give me something to do.
Speaker C:And right after that, he said, hey, we'd like to see you get your PGA and be an assistant pro here and that kind of thing.
Speaker C:And also during that time, I got my trackman certification.
Speaker C:You know what a trackman is?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:So, because my love was always to do the fitting, you know, versus running tournaments and things like that and teaching.
Speaker C:And so I transitioned out to Rock Creek Country Club with Blake Netter, who was the first assistant there.
Speaker C:And I do fittings there for.
Speaker C:With almost every manufacturer.
Speaker C:We have a simulator and a.
Speaker C:And I give some lessons and things like that.
Speaker C:And I have a website, rlwardfittings.com and people can sign up for a fitting that way.
Speaker C:And then I also do fittings for Shrixon because I'm on their staff.
Speaker C:I'm a Strixon staffer, and I have to tell you, I'm on that staff because I like the.
Speaker C:The product.
Speaker C:And sure, this weekend I'm at Charbonneau, and then I'll be at, you know, Oregon Golf Club in Columbia, Edgewater and down in Medford and up.
Speaker C:And I mean, I'll be all over the place over the next few weeks.
Speaker C:And so people can go on the Trixon website.
Speaker C:Those fittings are free for just Trixon stuff.
Speaker C:But if someone wants a fitting and they want to try out most of the manufacturers as they go through the fitting, they can do that through my website.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker B:Did you play golf as a kid?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:When did you pick it up?
Speaker C:Okay, so this is a really interesting story.
Speaker C:I was with the Bengals, and Coach says, hey, Coach White says, hey, we're going to a.
Speaker C:A fundraiser at Jack's Course up in Mirfield.
Speaker C:And, you know, you're.
Speaker C:You're going to play Golf with a group of people.
Speaker C:You're going to represent us and you know all that stuff.
Speaker C:I said, coach, I've never played golf in my.
Speaker C:He says, yeah, just smile and wear your Bengals shirt and be nice to everybody and sign their autographs.
Speaker C:He goes, it's all good.
Speaker C:So I go to this tournament and I get my first kind of sense of golf and Johnny Bench won a long drive and I got enamored by that.
Speaker C:And I go to Weber State and there's a ex player alum at Weber State that own carbon fiber golf products which is a golf shaft company in Ogden, Utah.
Speaker C:And he builds me a 50 inch driver with a 7 degree loft on it and starts teaching me long drives.
Speaker C:So I did that for a little while, taught me how to build my own clubs and then I was really self taught for many, many, many years.
Speaker C:And when I, when I got my knee replaced a year ago and so I'm transitioning through that which has been interesting for my golf game but.
Speaker B:Oh, I understand I'm the proud owner of two of them.
Speaker C:Oh, you got two of them.
Speaker C:Y.
Speaker C:That's quite a process, isn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah, it is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's, you know, it's not for the faint of heart.
Speaker B:I'm going to soapbox a little bit here.
Speaker B:Just break.
Speaker B:But it's not for the faint of heart.
Speaker B:Not because of the discomfort but because of the way.
Speaker B:I mean that.
Speaker B:There's plenty of that.
Speaker B:But it's not worse than it was before they put the thing in there.
Speaker B:But trying to figure out your, your movement mechanics afterwards.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's been coming on two years since my second one and I'm now starting to be able to move my knees and legs and stuff in the golf swing.
Speaker B:It takes a while.
Speaker C:It does.
Speaker C:You know, we.
Speaker C:You get a knee replacement.
Speaker C:You have a new relationship with staircases going downstairs.
Speaker B:Yeah, you do.
Speaker B:That's the God's honest truth.
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:We're going to take another break.
Speaker B:We're going to come back and talk more about artificial knees and other things here on Grilling it with Rick Ward right after this.
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Speaker B:You won't regret it.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:We're talking with Rick Ward today.
Speaker B:Don't forget, we're part of the Golf newsnet, besides all the podcast platforms and radio stations, but we're a proud part of Golf NewsNet Radio on iHeart, and you can hear this show on Fridays and Sundays there.
Speaker B:So Rick and I were talking about new knees, and for the demographic of the audience of this show, it's a relevant subject, I can tell you that.
Speaker B:And when you said you have a new relationship with stairs, that's.
Speaker B:That's the truth.
Speaker B:Especially.
Speaker B:Especially going downstairs.
Speaker C:For me, going up is okay, but down is a whole different deal.
Speaker B:Yeah, I find myself kind of walking sideways sometimes.
Speaker B:Not anymore, but at first, like a crab a little bit.
Speaker B:Because you, you know, just weird things.
Speaker B:And I guarantee you, you will not skip down the steps anymore.
Speaker C:No, it'll have your full attention.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That it does.
Speaker B:But like I said, I. I'm three years in on the first one and two years in on the second one, and now it's working great.
Speaker B:And I see improvement all the time, but.
Speaker B:And I never just sat around.
Speaker B:I did all the PT and was always moving and outside doing stuff.
Speaker B:But it takes a while.
Speaker C:It does.
Speaker B:Just takes a while.
Speaker B:So let's get back to talking a little more serious about golf for a second, Rick.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:You know, we get bombarded with the consumer with, get a proper fitting, get a proper fitting.
Speaker B:And I agree.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But sometimes I think that bombardment can be a bit overwhelming to the average consumer.
Speaker B:So how does.
Speaker B:How does a person in.
Speaker B:In with your advice and your knowledge now, how does a person go and select somebody to get fitted for?
Speaker B:Because I've had several fittings, a couple of them, just to see what they were all about.
Speaker B:And a couple of people were really good, really nice and all that.
Speaker B:And other ones were more like, well, this is just what you need.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So the, the golf fitting thing has changed an awful lot.
Speaker C:So I'm 6 foot 3 in my pro at Rock Creek, Blake netters, he's probably 5 foot 8.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Used to be go to GI Joes and somebody'd say, oh, these are for you.
Speaker C:And they'd give Blake at five, eight, the same clubs that they'd give me at six foot three.
Speaker C:And that's changed.
Speaker C:I mean, there's so much that we can do now with loft and lie, with shaft flex, with launch angles and everything else that can help the average.
Speaker C:So it comes down to what you want out of that experience.
Speaker C:So, for example, you go to a big box retailer and I'm not going to mention names right now, but you got three people lined up waiting to get in and it's more of a push and it's like, hey, are you going to buy this?
Speaker C:Because this guy wants to hit it too.
Speaker C:It's that kind of thing, you know?
Speaker C:Can be that kind of thing.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:What I feel like we do a better job with is your one on one one with me and the simulator and the trackman one on one.
Speaker C:Nobody's watching.
Speaker C:They hit a bad shot.
Speaker C:Nobody cares.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Because the nervousness comes.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, you're trying to hit it good and you're skunking the ball and you get all frustrated and.
Speaker C:And if you're at the big box store, you're just going to walk out and say, I can't do this.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Where, you know, a one on one deal is.
Speaker C:Is really nice in that you can take a deep breath and relax and realize there's no judgment from the fitter.
Speaker C:And while.
Speaker C:And the best thing for me is my job is to find the best club for you.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:I'm not trying to sell you clubs.
Speaker C:We will offer you a fair price if you want to want it, but I get paid.
Speaker C:Basically what I'm doing is finding the best club for you.
Speaker C:That's my whole goal in the thing.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think that's really important because some fitters also are affiliated with a certain club.
Speaker C:They make more money if they sell a certain club, that kind of thing.
Speaker C:So you want to watch out for that, that stuff.
Speaker C:And then the other side of it is the Shrixon thing.
Speaker C:I'm at X Country Club.
Speaker C:So let's say I'm at Oregon Golf Club and people can sign up and come out and hit all the tricks on stuff.
Speaker C:They're not going to hit Callaways and Titleists and others, but they hit the Srixon stuff and that, that's sort of brand perspective.
Speaker C:Our product Srixon has been awesome.
Speaker C:You know, Ryan Fox won the, won the British Open using our new stuff.
Speaker C:And that new stuff just came out.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:All brand new stuff.
Speaker B:Well, one of the things that I'll tell you a quick story.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I got invited to.
Speaker B:And again, no names, but I got invited to a new store that specializes in.
Speaker B:In fitting.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And, and, and I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker B:So the guy that invited me, Bruce Furman, who I know very well and used to be part of this show and, and coached me for a while and all that.
Speaker B:And, and I really like Bruce.
Speaker E:He.
Speaker B:They wanted him to come and see because it was kind of a.
Speaker B:Not a grand opening, but they were pretty new in the area.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker B:So he says, why don't you come and.
Speaker B:And I want to see how they, how they do things.
Speaker B:And you'll be the guinea pig.
Speaker B:And I'm like.
Speaker B:I'm like your worst player.
Speaker B:He goes, no, no, no.
Speaker B:So we go there.
Speaker B:So we go, and Bruce is sitting back there.
Speaker B:He never passes judgment or anything.
Speaker B:And, and the young guy who's helping me, he's like always trying to change heads in this.
Speaker B:And I'm sculling them like crazy because it was prior to my knees being done.
Speaker B:You know, I'm not making excuses.
Speaker B:I'm just stating the facts.
Speaker C:And so talking to a guy who understands that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I'm, I'm doing all this and the guy's writing stuff and typing stuff in, and he's looking at the numbers and he's.
Speaker B:And, and they really don't explain the numbers to you on the bottom.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Because I think you have choices of what you can put up there and what you can show people.
Speaker B:You can show them everything or minimal or whatever.
Speaker B:But that really not.
Speaker B:Did not get explained.
Speaker B:The, the bottom line, Rick is at the end of the session, he hands me a folder and I thanked him and I opened it up and it was basically like, you need this new $700 driver and this is what it is.
Speaker B:Now, I didn't go for that, and of course I didn't buy it,.
Speaker E:But.
Speaker B:I was like, if that was the whole focus of that whole session, a lot of people are going to come away either disheartened because it was.
Speaker B:You could kind of look at that same driver with this, pretty much the same specs, and buy it online for about 300 bucks cheaper, too, if you would.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:And so I'm like, that's my hesitancy of, again, big box stores.
Speaker B:You go in and even though it wasn't a store store, it was all golf centric.
Speaker B:But yeah, it kind of.
Speaker B:It really opened my eyes to the way some of these are conducting their business.
Speaker C:Yes, yes.
Speaker C:So there's a whole bunch of things that go through my head there.
Speaker C:So I'll try to, I'll try to get through them.
Speaker C:But the first thing is people go online and they see a set of irons and they go, gosh, I'd really like that.
Speaker C:They're only this, this much.
Speaker C:And then they find out that their last year's mod or they're a stock shaft that doesn't fit them.
Speaker C:You just have to be sure of what you're buying.
Speaker C:Also the other thing that we've seen in the industry of late, like everything else in this world, is you buy a Scotty Cameron putter online and you get it and it's fake, it's a, it's a copy.
Speaker C:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker C:Yeah, you really got to be careful about that.
Speaker C:But you really want a fitter that shows you when you're hitting your club what your numbers are on the track, man.
Speaker C:You know, your club head speed, your launch angle, your descent angle, all of those things.
Speaker C:And if they're not explaining that to you, it's not going to make sense to you why you should buy that.
Speaker A:Club.
Speaker C:Drivers, gosh, remember when they went to 300 bucks, everybody thought, what is this world coming to?
Speaker C:Drivers are 300 bucks.
Speaker C:And now the shafts are 300 bucks on some of these drivers.
Speaker C:And you know, a new.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker C:In, I go into big box stores and look around at retail pricing, just so I'm aware, you know, and I share a name brand driver with a premium shaft that was $989, you know, so you really have to pay attention to what you're getting and why that club is better for you.
Speaker C:Not just, hey, this is the best club for you.
Speaker C:Have them take the time to go through those numbers.
Speaker C:When you're fitting a driver, there's some very specific spin and other things that other, you know, specifications that, and then you see the distance at, when you hit those parameters.
Speaker C:So the distance doesn't come without the right shaft.
Speaker C:I get guys all the time that say, hey man, I just want to hit it 10 or 15 or 20 more yards, you know, Find me a shaft that'll do that.
Speaker C:And I'll, I'll have to tell you that you gotta, it's a, it's like any other sport.
Speaker C:You gotta do some other things.
Speaker C:You gotta stretch and you gotta work on your stability and yeah, you gotta work out, you know, I'll say, do you work out?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Do you stretch?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:Okay, well, that's part of it.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:When the beard Went white.
Speaker C:I say this all the time.
Speaker C:When the beard turned white, the swing speed changed a little bit.
Speaker B:Yes, it did.
Speaker B:We went from triple digits to double digits.
Speaker B:You know, I see that all the time now.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker B:And if, if, you know, if you're.
Speaker B:I played golf with a guy the other day.
Speaker B:I'll say this before we go to break real quick.
Speaker B:Played golf with a great guy, had a lot of fun with him and all that.
Speaker B:And he looked at me and he goes, I'm just going to tell you on this hole, you might want to use the number two T's.
Speaker B:He wasn't being mean, he wasn't being judgmental or anything like that.
Speaker B:He goes, but I'm guessing you're over 60 years old, so you might just consider that.
Speaker B:And I was like, well, I'm playing it anyway on the number twos on this hole, you know, just.
Speaker B:Yeah, because I played it before and I knew what it was, but I was laughing at that.
Speaker B:I thought, well, he's, he was being very kind, actually.
Speaker B:Some people might have been offended, but I wasn't.
Speaker B:So as I'm reaching for the WD40 for my knees.
Speaker B:Anyway, we got to take another break with Rick Ward.
Speaker B:We'll be back in just a minute.
Speaker B:Don't go away.
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Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:We've got Rick Ward with us today.
Speaker B:Speaking of oga, which Rick and I both.
Speaker B:Well, he lives on the course and I live a couple blocks away from it, but it's a great course.
Speaker B:If you're, if you're from Oregon, I invite you to come and play at oga.
Speaker B:And if you're not from Oregon and you come to the area, take a, take a minute.
Speaker B:Everybody always wants to go to Bandon.
Speaker B:I get that.
Speaker B:The Mecca, you know, the west coast mecca, golf and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:But you might be overlooking a fun Time if you don't stop by and play around at oga.
Speaker B:So that's what I mean.
Speaker C:Yeah, I got to say that, too.
Speaker C:You know, this golf course, I live here and I play here.
Speaker C:You got great folks up there.
Speaker C:And the golf course layout is a lot of fun.
Speaker C:It's challenging.
Speaker C:It's not the easiest golf course to play, but the greens and the conditions are really awesome for a public golf course.
Speaker C:And value wise, it's wonderful.
Speaker C:And if you haven't played it, get out and play it because it's worth it.
Speaker C:You'll find that you'll play it again and again.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I'm going to warn you, that fourth hole can really mess with your brain.
Speaker C:Yes, sir.
Speaker C:There are some tough golf holes here.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Don't, don't.
Speaker B:It's a beautiful setting and a beautiful picture, and if you see the aerial view, you're going to go, that doesn't look too tough.
Speaker B:Think again, partner.
Speaker B:That's what I'm getting.
Speaker B:That's what I'm getting.
Speaker C:It will test all, all levels of players.
Speaker B:Why do you think I've got Snell Golf for a sponsor?
Speaker B:I go through at least a ball or two on that whole every.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's true.
Speaker B:How do you think we've got a few minutes here and we'll pick this up in the after hours, too, Rick.
Speaker B:But how do you think overall, the, the technology of clubs and shafts and everything, and is that keeping up or is it surpassed the average golfer?
Speaker B:You know, there's a.
Speaker B:There's a 1 or 2% at the top, and then you've got probably another 5 or 10% that are, you know, single digits below 5, whatever.
Speaker B:And then there's the rest of us mere mortals that are, yeah, anywhere between 10 and 400, you know, type things.
Speaker C:So, you know, I think I. I have a lot of old golf clubs just because of my years of, you know, building and stuff.
Speaker C:And if you're, if you're, if you want a real test, grab yourself a set of old Wilson staffs and.
Speaker C:And then take them out there with one of these new cavity back, you know, and, and, and you'll see the technology.
Speaker C:The difference is amazing.
Speaker C:I still have people, though, that come in, they say, hey, I'd like my clubs are, you know, old, and I just want to see what the new stuff does.
Speaker C:And there's times when we go through a fitting and, and it's like, well, you're hitting that club just as good as you are the new one.
Speaker C:And you, you know, it's you may want to buy new clubs because this one's all scarred up and beat up and all that.
Speaker C:But there's still some clubs within the last 20 years that can, can compete.
Speaker C:But you know, back in the day when we used golf heads that were very small.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:The margin for error was much different.
Speaker C:And you know, guys in my day hitting long drive were hitting, you know, 330, 340 yards with a 50 inch shaft and a, you know, seven degree tailor made with the dimples on it.
Speaker C:If you're as old as we are, you remember.
Speaker C:But now these guys are hitting it, you know, on the Tour, they're hitting it 380 yards and the, the equipment is just that good.
Speaker C:And they're also talking now, you know, with RNA and, and of, of breaking these golf balls down because the golf balls better that they just fly much farther.
Speaker C:And, and I think that we're going to see that pretty soon where they start saying, okay, we're going to restrict these golf balls and, and we, we can't have guys hitting 8 irons 200 yards.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You see that on the Tour.
Speaker C:Now, of course, those guys bend their lofts a little bit, but still they hit it a lot.
Speaker B:Yeah, they do, they do.
Speaker B:But I would, I would take just for conversation sake.
Speaker B:I think that if you're the, as I call a mere mortal golfers like myself.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think you need the advantage if you can, with a, with the balls like that and, and with the shafts or whatever, it makes it more palatable to keep playing the game, you know, and so I kind of worry about that when I've talked to people on the show about it and people that test balls like Gene Perenni from golf labs and stuff, and he's like, you know, it's not going to make that much difference.
Speaker B:And it's, it's for the pros because they're like you said earlier, they're athletes and they train and they do that and they'll figure out a way, if they, if they roll the golf ball back 10 yards, they'll figure out a way to get that 10 yards back.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:And, and Jeff and Rick probably won't be able to figure that out or where we even waste time trying, you know, so.
Speaker C:No doubt.
Speaker C:And the ball you use is really important too.
Speaker C:I mean, if you, if you don't swing the, the club fast enough and compress the ball, then there, and there's some balls you think you should play, but no, you can't play this ball with a 72 mile an hour swing speed.
Speaker C:We got to go with different ball that compresses.
Speaker C:And of Jeff, the big ego thing about play the correct tee, you talked about that number 2, T, and Oga has gone to the 1, 2, 3, 4, which I think was really, really awesome, because, you know, now it's not like, okay, you're playing the ladies tees or the kids tee.
Speaker C:Yeah, whatever.
Speaker C:You play the tee based on how far you hit the ball so that you can enjoy the game.
Speaker C:Because if you go back to the back tees with a bunch of guys who can hit it a mile, the game's not that much fun for you anymore.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker B:And, you know, just so it's known out there publicly, nobody cares, but I. I switch between threes and twos.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Just depending on the position and the hole and that.
Speaker B:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker B:And it makes nothing with that more enjoyable if.
Speaker B:Because when I. I have played with guys that like to hit them off the fours, and I'm like, like you said, you know, they're.
Speaker B:They're beating me by 20 or 30 yards minimally on.
Speaker B:On these things, and it's like, that's not fun for me.
Speaker B:I mean, I still have some competitive juices left, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And so there's another thing in fitting that's kind of trending that way is that it used to be, you know, extra stiff, stiff, regular senior, and ladies.
Speaker C:And now this Sr. Senior is soft regular, because that's not senior.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And then the L is light flex, not lad flex, because there are gentlemen that play golf that need a light flex.
Speaker C:And, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah, you try to play the wrong flex and you're.
Speaker C:You're beating your head against the wall.
Speaker B:Yep, absolutely.
Speaker B:Rick, one more time here before we run out of time.
Speaker B:How can people find you and.
Speaker B:Or at least get online and spy on you?
Speaker C:We have a website, rlward fittings, rlward fittings.com and you can go on there.
Speaker C:My contact information is there, email, phone number.
Speaker C:You can book a fitting, you can book a lesson, and it's at Rock Creek, but I also do fittings at OGA here for Srixon, and those are on the Trixon website.
Speaker C:So just track me down if you.
Speaker C:If you have questions, and I'd be happy to help you out.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Rick Ward, thank you very much.
Speaker B:We're a little late, so my producers are going to yell at me, but that is absolutely no news on that.
Speaker B:Deal.
Speaker B:So we'll be back next week, and Rick's gonna stick around for after hours.
Speaker B:So as I always say, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Speaker B:But try to be kind out there, will you?
Speaker B:See you next week.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserve.
