I had the pleasure of spending 2 days shadowing & learning from the greatest golf coach we’ve ever seen! This man was an integral part of helping Tiger Woods play the greatest stretch of golf we’ve ever seen during 1999-2002.
1. Fix The Cancer In Your Golf Swing
Butch has famously said that golfers should be trying to fix the cancer in their golf swing. What he means by that phrase is that if you fix the most detrimental part of your swing that’s causing the ball to do what it’s doing or the contact to be what it is, who will likely fix a few other things as a result.
Don’t be focusing on your takeaway if that’s not the “thing” that is affecting impact. Fix the most important thing (the cancer). If you don’t know what that is, that’s why I’m here to help you
2. Practice Inside 100y
Butch was adamant that golfers don’t practice anywhere near enough inside 100y. This includes wedge play, pitching, chipping, bunker play & putting.
If you were to write down how many hours you practice inside 100y vs outside that distance, what would that look like?
3. What Matters When Trying to Make A Change?
I watched Butch coach multiple players in the 2 days I was with him & he said the same thing to every student… Where the ball goes & how far it goes DOES NOT MATTER when trying to make a swing change. You must learn the movement first, then worry about the ball and how far it’s going.
Of course, once you understand the movement and can perform it at slow speeds, the ball then can be used as feedback as to whether you made a good or poor move. As you get use to the new movement, you can add speed to the swing and distance then becomes important.
Butch made Tiger do hundreds/thousands of pause/slow swings when Tiger changed his swing.
4. Butch Will Tell You How It Is
Butch will not sugar coat anything… He will 100% tell you exactly how it is, even if it’s not what you want to hear.
Of course, he has the results from his players where he can stand there with confidence & say it how it is. If a younger coach did that, the student may walk the other way. Butch was telling me a few stories about players that he has personally sacked due to their attitude towards what he wanted them to do.
If you want to work with Butch, you better listen to what he has to say, you don’t argue with him, he has the authority after the tour wins & major championships, he helped his players win.
5. He Instils Confidence in You
On the flip side, if you are one of his students & are trying your best, he will say things that ooze confidence. When you hit a great shot, he will celebrate with you, when you don’t, he’ll explain why and get you doing it the right way.
He will never make you feel like you aren’t improving, it’s a great skill to be able to get the best out of your players and to have them feeling like they are 1 swing away from mastering what it is they are trying to do.
6. Golf Is Easy Without A Ball
I heard him say this many times… Golf is easy without a ball. What he means by this is when working on your swing, most players can perform the movement they are trying to do when there isn’t a ball in front of them.
This means that you CAN do the movement you want, but sometimes you need to let go of the result when there’s a ball in front of you. Don’t always be so eager to hit a ball when working on things. Work on your swing without a ball and as I say to students, “your practice swing is your future swing”.
7. You Need A Clear Plan
Every student I saw him teach basically had no idea why they were hitting the ball the way they were & had no idea how to fix it themselves. They may have THOUGHT they knew the solution, but they didn’t.
One guy said that the lesson he had that day just cured 15 years of frustration… 15 YEARS!!! (he may have exaggerated but still, my point remains)
If you are a golfer who doesn’t take lessons and have had an issue in your game that never improves year after year, please, seek out some help from a coach (me). I want you to enjoy this game, having 15 years of frustration is insane.
My takeaway from that comment as I was sitting there watching was that this golfer had just tried to do everything on their own and had gotten nowhere. It’s possible he had gotten even worse in his attempt to figure out his issues on his own.
8. Swing Changes Take Time
Butch told a story about how Tiger wanted to change his swing after 1997. During 1998 Tiger only won 1 PGA Tour event, which was due to him working on and changing his swing.
After a full year of working on his swing & making the changes he wanted, we saw the greatest run golf has ever seen with Tiger winning 7 Majors & 20 PGA Tour Events between 1999-2002 (I think my math is correct). He also won another 5 events in 2003.
The moral of the story is if the GOAT took a full year to make a change, what makes you think you can do it in a week or after a couple of lessons? Be realistic and understand that changes take time. Also, don’t try to tear your swing apart, you won’t be able to, just work on the low hanging fruit and the “cancer” in your swing.
9. External Devices
Butch was big on using external devices to make the necessary changes. Put something in your way and try to avoid it. A box, an alignment stick etc. It doesn’t always need to be thinking about your elbow, or wrist angles, it can be as simple as placing something in the way and trying to avoid it to change the path.
10. Amazing Stories
Butch has about 10,000 stories and is never short of telling one. He has played with the likes of President Obama, he plays Augusta a few times a year, obviously can go anywhere in the golf world and is treated like royalty which he has earned the right.
There were a ton of stories told that I absolutely cannot repeat. One where I was filming him as he was telling it and as he looked up, he quickly told me to stop recording haha! That one was definitely not for the internet.
I want to take this time to thank Mr Butch Harmon for allowing me to shadow. As a coach, it was an absolute pinch myself moment and I will forever be grateful. I did get an invite to come back at any time which is amazing.
To all my students & future students, I do these trips & learnings to ensure I stay up to date with coaching philosophies & to continue getting better at what I do, so I can help you to the best of my ability
If you are looking for a coach & would like to work with me,contact me & we can have a chat about which of my programs suit you best, & we’ll get started.
