Professional at Anything BUT Golf - Just Getting Started and I Need Some Help!

I am excited to bring you a new series where we will be focusing on the golf industry and how professionals across all fields use it for recreation, building relationships, and, sometimes, making deals happen.  I also cannot tackle this without a little help from Wes Altice, Director of Instruction at Top Golf in Jacksonville, FL.  I am happy to say he will be co-hosting much of this series and adding some much-needed expertise to the team!  

Golf has a close relationship with business, and we are going to explore all facets of how people look to play, improve and use the game to serve many purposes.  This is our kickoff episode where Wes Altice and I talk about where to get started and a number of the topics we will be brining you over the next year.  

So - if you are Professional at Anything BUT Golf...this is for you!

Transcript

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Wes Altice Golf: Can't remember what

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Wes Altice Golf: I could have some golden nuggets. You never know.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely, feet, roll.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yes.

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Jesse Stakes: Baby.

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Wes Altice Golf: Those are the best, anyway.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely

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Jesse Stakes: so. Hey, everybody! Welcome to making sense of it all. This is going to be a little bit of a detour from our typical shows. And we're gonna we're gonna do a series that I have been previewing a little bit over social media. It's going to be called

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Jesse Stakes: professional at anything but golf.

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Jesse Stakes: So this kind of germinated from my own experience with the game, from my own

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Jesse Stakes: from falling in love with it, from enjoying, using, utilizing it for business, for recreation, but also wanting to get better at the game. And so

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Jesse Stakes: I am also enlisted the help of one of my favorite people in the golf industry. He is my Gandalf, to my Frodo, my Moses to the Israelites. He is my spirit animal on this vision quest. It's Wes Altus. He is the head of instruction over at Topgolf, in Jacksonville, Wes. Thank you so much for being a part of this. Glad you could join me.

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Wes Altice Golf: Thanks for having me on, man. This is this sounds like an extremely fun project. And hopefully we can help a lot of golfers out there that are like yourself. Try to clean some things up and just get better at this thing.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, man. Well, I mean, I think it's if if nothing else, we'll have a lot of fun doing it. And I think, like you said hopefully. We put together something that's valuable for people, if if nothing else. Maybe we can cut through some noise and and give them a you know.

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Jesse Stakes: at least give them a clear idea of what's available and what what the options are out there for them. If they're interested in the game of golf.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, absolutely. That's I think that's the biggest thing.

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Wes Altice Golf: When it comes down to coaching, people is making sure coaching the person in front of you.

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Wes Altice Golf: You gotta understand why they're in front of you. What kind of time commitments they have. And like you said, there's a lot of information out there nowadays with, you know, Tiktok, Instagram, like you got all those coaches online

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Wes Altice Golf: problem is they don't see you. So how do you know the video is appropriate for you.

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Wes Altice Golf: So there's good information out there. I'm not knocking information. It's just how is it applicable. And

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Wes Altice Golf: you see it all the time. It's like, oh, I got 19 swing thoughts in my head, I'm like.

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Wes Altice Golf: and you got like 18 too many we need. We need. Let's let's rewind. I go. You might have some good stuff there, however.

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Wes Altice Golf: it may not apply to you, but

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Wes Altice Golf: social is good, but it's also I mean you. You gotta be very careful what you

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Wes Altice Golf: apply to your game.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: I I don't disagree with you, and I feel like I've I've found myself going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole sometimes, just in really maybe just having too much idle time with it, or not having enough focus with it. But but to your point, not necessarily.

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Jesse Stakes: not necessarily that it's terrible information. But you don't know what you don't know. And you can't see yourself, really, I mean, unless you've got a video camera on yourself constantly. And and you know what you're looking for you. Really, you really don't know what you're doing.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, he he hit the nail on the head right there. You know, everyone has a high speed video and

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Wes Altice Golf: making sure the angles are right. One is big. But also.

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Wes Altice Golf: do you really know what you're looking at? Is that really the root cause of what you need? I love video. I think it's great for my students that way. They know what to look for on their own when I'm not there.

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Wes Altice Golf: And that's it, you know, it's like, Hey, we're sticking to these 2 or 3 foundational pieces, and

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Wes Altice Golf: if you hear a coach say it different, that's great.

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Wes Altice Golf: Come back to me like, hey? Is this apple? And I doing that right? And is that what I need? It could be like the light bulb moment. They just worded a little bit different, and any good coach should never hold. You know their word as gospel, and no, it has to be the way I say it like. If it resonates with the student, and they do what they need to do.

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Wes Altice Golf: You have to go with it. I'm sorry. Just have to.

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Jesse Stakes: No, that I think I think that's honestly, I think that if more people looked at it that way rather than feeling like you have to follow my, you know my design, or you have to follow my path. If you're meeting people where they're at, I think for the audience that I'm talking about. And so

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Jesse Stakes: into this. What? What Wes and I, and what this series is going to be about is is people who are, you know, in that professional stage of life when they do something else for a living. But they've either picked up golf later in life they enjoy playing the game recreationally. They enjoy playing it, maybe semi competitively against their friends. They use it to, you know, to build relationships at work.

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Jesse Stakes: They're either there or they're trying to get there. They're they're that person who's just picked up the game. They don't really know where to go with it. They don't. They're they're, you know it's that old saying, Confuse mind, say no, or you know people kind of stand still. They don't want to. They don't want to go forward with something if they don't feel comfortable with it. So again, this is to kind of maybe help. Give some, you know. Give a little bit of a a map, if you will give some, you know, give some some ideas as far as wherever you are right now, with with golf, with the sport of golf, with the game of golf.

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Jesse Stakes: Hopefully listening to this, can get you an idea of where do I go from here? Where can I start to go forward? So I I mean, I'll start there, I guess, because I think it's a it's, you know, if if somebody has never picked up a club, if they're you know, if they're 20 something, 30, something years old, they maybe played another sport. They maybe maybe they weren't athletic when they were a kid.

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Jesse Stakes: But their job, or the people around them are starting to inner like, introduce them to golf. Say, hey, maybe you know, maybe you can come out and play with us. Maybe, you know, maybe it's a cut customer that's invited them out.

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Jesse Stakes: When you get a person like that, where do you start with them? What's what's number one for them. How do they? How do they?

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Jesse Stakes: You know? How do you start? What's what's step number one?

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, step number one is. Kinda well, it's explaining the task at hand. You know, they everyone has a Pre, you know.

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Wes Altice Golf: a model in their head on how it works or how it should work, or just, you know, athletes, you know, getting the ball up in the air. So I'm gonna try and hit underneath it. Well, as you and I both know, there's ground underneath the ball. 98% of the shots.

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Jesse Stakes: I felt that many times.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, right? So it's 1 of those things where one explain

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Wes Altice Golf: how the club kind of works, you know.

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Wes Altice Golf: swung in an arc. You know there's a little bit of down in it. There's a little bit of out

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Wes Altice Golf: and start setting them up so they can start. You know. I like to get people to draw the ball as quick as possible.

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Wes Altice Golf: because I think

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Wes Altice Golf: you going on the golf course. You're a golfer. Most people slice the hell out of it. So let's get them at least in the right direction of putting in some pieces early

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Wes Altice Golf: to make sure we're giving them the best opportunity to hit the ball first, st and at least control

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Wes Altice Golf: the curve of the golf ball a little bit. So is Grip important. Yup, you know how you set up to it. Yes, it's all important. But there, there's variables in that. So

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Wes Altice Golf: as a coach, you gotta figure out, hey? Does this player need to be stronger, because they always leave the face open. So

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Wes Altice Golf: you're trying to always piece it together. But I always start

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Wes Altice Golf: explaining what the task is, and then start them small swings and build them up from there, and it it a small swing for some people just might be a chip shot to start. Sure it just might. It's that way. They'd be like they don't get freaked out about hitting it far. They're more concerned about. I need to hit the ball first, st then the ground.

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Wes Altice Golf: and once they start getting better at that task, I've seen it start there with some people, and we're, you know, hitting 3 quarter knockdown shots in 30 to 45 min. So it really depends on the player. And what's in front of you, and you know their why? Why are why are they really here, you know, if it's a fun thing.

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Wes Altice Golf: we can go down one route if they're trying to be really good. And they're, you know, in their twenties, and they're athletic. Then we go down another path. But understanding that person in front of you is, I think, number one, and just get them. Hey? This is the task, and let's build

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Wes Altice Golf: your setup, your swing to match that task.

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Jesse Stakes: I think that's I. i i i want to kind of reiterate that because I think that's hugely important. You know, we're talking about something that really

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Jesse Stakes: you have to know. Somebody's why you have to know why they're doing it. What do they want to accomplish with it? And then.

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Jesse Stakes: no matter if it's you. Anybody who's trying to help them, or anybody anybody who is trying to, you know, give them any kind of advice. It all depends on what their why is. And I think that's like anything in life. If you're you know, whatever you're trying to do, if you're if you're doing something for a reason, without knowing that reason. Nobody can actually help you get where you're going.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah. And you know a lot of people.

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Wes Altice Golf: They they have an idea. But they really don't know

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Wes Altice Golf: what's going on. At the same time. It's like, you know, you get the person that let's say.

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Wes Altice Golf: just graduated college, just college and played a little bit of golf here and there with their buddies, you know. Go out drinking, smack the ball around, and they're like, man. I need this for business, right? And that's a bulk of what I'll see is your.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, 30 year olds they're they're just now like, Hey, golf is actually going to help me close deals or

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Wes Altice Golf: move up in the company a little bit. So there's a big golf coat culture in corporate America. I mean, it just is this what it is? So having them, you know. All right.

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Wes Altice Golf: We want to get you better. So you don't look like a you know, a fool, I'm like, yes, I'm like, okay.

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Wes Altice Golf: Then we can start going from there.

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Jesse Stakes: Right. You have to be adequate like if you want to participate, if you want to be, you know, and it's not like people say a boys, club or whatever. But it's not in today's world. In 2024. It's not just a boys, club women play golf, men play golf. Everybody. Everybody enjoys it. And people I mean, like, I think, about legs like, let the Ladies Executive Golf Society. It's a wonderful networking organization that people that women have put together a a woman that I know named Jillian Fost

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Jesse Stakes: that actually came from Jacksonville. She's rolling it out to the United States right now, but she uses it with women to help promote their businesses, and it has taken off like wildfire. So it's not just a guys thing anymore. It really is women women all over the place, I mean, there's tremendous, tremendous college golfers, tremendous professional women, I mean, it's it is definitely a unisex sport.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah. And just you know, off the legs thing. I have a you know student. She's heavily involved in legs, too, and she came to me.

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Wes Altice Golf: You know, she was a professional successful, and she's like.

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Wes Altice Golf: I need to get into golf. I'm like, okay.

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Wes Altice Golf: And we, you know, came with a plan she's super capable about now. She plays.

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Wes Altice Golf: I think, more than I do, and like she goes out afternoons, you know, out to the yards all this kind of stuff, and she's loving the game. She, you know, gobbles up information. Great. She's athletic, so she can do all the things, and you can just tell, like it's going to help just

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Wes Altice Golf: just in her personal life, just having something fun to do with her.

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Wes Altice Golf: her friends and other. You know, ladies in in that organization. I mean, they're having a a blast with it. And it's good. It's actually really good to see, because I'm starting to see more women

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Wes Altice Golf: coming in like, Oh, in my company. Do you know, they invite me to play these scrambles and all this stuff you're like, yeah. And you are, you know

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Wes Altice Golf: a woman, you know, they can strike the ball fairly decent, is actually kind of an asset in these scrambles, because they get to play forward.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely.

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Wes Altice Golf: If we get you hitting the ball like 2, 20 to 2 50, like you are the biggest weapon out there like you don't understand how big of an asset. And you're gonna have everyone at the office wanting to get you on their team like you are. Gonna be like the hot commodity. When it comes to these scrambles like Yup, she can play, she gets to play forward. And we basically don't have to hit t-balls.

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Jesse Stakes: Amen to that Amen to that. So.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, this is more drinking for us.

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Jesse Stakes: So true cheers.

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Jesse Stakes: So let me ask you this when you're when you're experiencing like when you're seeing these folks that are, you know, 20, something, 30 somethings, maybe even a 40, something that comes in and they're looking to. They're looking to start. What do you see? Is the biggest mistake or misstep error, whatever you want to call it, that you see that they make when they 1st start trying to pick up the game.

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Wes Altice Golf: I always go. Grips are usually God awful.

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Wes Altice Golf: That's usually number one. And the biggest thing is just.

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Jesse Stakes: When you're saying grips, you're talking about the physical way that they're grabbing the club. Yeah.

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Wes Altice Golf: They put their hands on the club like I said.

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Wes Altice Golf: the orientation of it. How it's turned, you know, that's

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Wes Altice Golf: you can look up another Pj. To arrange and see a variety right.

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Jesse Stakes: Sure.

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Wes Altice Golf: But the basic concept getting in the hands correctly, making sure the joints are in a good spot. That's it's just all over the place.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Wes Altice Golf: And I would say the biggest skill that they all lack.

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Wes Altice Golf: 98% of them is going to be where that club hits the ground up, and it's

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Wes Altice Golf: all over the place, you know. And that's where you hear I'm inconsistent. I'm like, yeah, definitely like you are hitting the ground or missing the ground or missing the ball. Yeah, it's really inconsistent, but you're also consistent at doing it.

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Wes Altice Golf: So it again, that goes back to what I was saying earlier, but have them understand the test like, Hey, when you watch, you know

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Wes Altice Golf: the big boys on the tour, they hit this. They hit the ball. And this dirt flies everywhere. They're like, yeah, yeah, like, that's happening after they hit the golf ball.

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Wes Altice Golf: And it's like, Oh.

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Wes Altice Golf: they think they're going underneath it. Some of these people like they have no concept

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Wes Altice Golf: how this thing is actually supposed to interact with the ball. So

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, setup pieces and grip is like

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Wes Altice Golf: no one comes in with a good grip that starts. I have.

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Wes Altice Golf: You have to see it been teaching a long time and just controlling where that club is hitting the ground you'll hear a lot of people refer to as the low point, you know. I just say you know the spot in front of the ground, hitting the small ball before the big ball.

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Jesse Stakes: No, I think that's fair. And I think that that's

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Jesse Stakes: you know it's again, if somebody's never played and they're listening to this, or if somebody's just getting started, it's it may be a slightly foreign concept, but it's

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Jesse Stakes: but it but it may. It makes sense once they start doing it. And you start actually, you know, seeing cause and effect it. It makes a whole lot of sense. Is there anything where you? You know? I know that this everyone looks for a magic bullet, or everyone thing you know thinks, Hey, there's 1 thing but but truly like, is there one thing that you believe that the audience is listening to this, that that wants to improve or wants to start playing? Is there anything that like they could do it tomorrow? And they're going to be better by either implementing this one thing or practicing one thing.

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Jesse Stakes: What would it be in your mind.

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Wes Altice Golf: So what I would do is, since I think the biggest problem is where people are controlling the low point.

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Wes Altice Golf: I would literally just draw a line on the ground.

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Wes Altice Golf: Set your weight a little bit on your front foot, and try and hit in front of that line over and over and over again, and it can be just like little 3 quarter Punch shot fields where you're keeping the arm straight in the finish. So you're actually controlling.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know the length of the club or the radius of the club the whole time.

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Wes Altice Golf: and just do that, and don't get too caught up in how far it goes because I wouldn't.

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Wes Altice Golf: Most of these people, I'm gonna guess, are losing a dozen balls. Let's just keep it in front of us to start, and if you're losing 10 yards to start. Good, but you're not out a dozen balls, and then.

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Jesse Stakes: Down.

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Wes Altice Golf: A minimum of 12 shots right there. So if we can just take that out.

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Wes Altice Golf: we can start seeing people actually shoot better. And just that developing that skill.

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Wes Altice Golf: smaller swing weights already a little bit forward, because we needed to be there anyway, at impact.

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Wes Altice Golf: And just practice that for 10 min a day, 30 swings a day, and just get good at that skill. Now there's more to it, obviously. But that's like to me.

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Wes Altice Golf: If you can start getting that in. That's gonna help.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know. You'll start hitting the ball further because you're gonna hit the center of the face which gives you more ball speed. You're banging it off the toe on the heel.

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Wes Altice Golf: as we know, you lose a ton of ball speed. So if you can control that, you might actually put in less effort and start hitting the ball the same

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Wes Altice Golf: distance that you do, you know, banging off the toe, trying to swing 200 miles an hour.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, and I think you know that those are those things that you start understanding it as you do it. But you're so right. It's it's just like anything else. Like if you if you try to turn a hammer sideways and hammer a nail doesn't work very well. You gotta use the tool correctly.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yes. Yup, yeah, that's that's a, you know. Great way to say it. I I love that.

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Jesse Stakes: You know, I I wanted to start there just because there, there's gonna be a lot of people from from my audience that don't necessarily play golf, or like I said they may. They may be just have dipped their toe into it. And it's and it's just like anything else. If you're if you don't feel comfortable doing it, then you kind of shy away from it. You don't, you don't really. You run. You don't run to it unless you, just for whatever reason you fall in love with it. You know there's something about it that just made you excited. That's great. But most people.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, they get a little nervous, they pull away from it. So this whole series that we're going to do that's just kind of a taste of of the things that we're going to get into. But but we're going to dive into so many things we're going to talk about.

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Jesse Stakes: I mean, we're going to talk about lessons, I mean, I know I mean, you're you're a golf pro by trade. So it's like you're giving lessons every day. So I know that you have. You know you're gonna have. You have a high opinion of having a second set of eyes on your swing and giving you true professional, you know, a true professional opinion on it.

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Jesse Stakes: we're going to talk about physical training and and how people you know, people might be in the gym every day, but they may be there might be little tweaks or some stretching that they can do that actually help them become better at the game.

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Jesse Stakes: Nutrition, you know. It's like one of the craziest things I like you and I talk. But I was in Vegas last week, and one of the guys that like when when I was playing golf out there, one of the guys told me. He's like you need to drink plenty of water. He's like you're he's like you might not feel the sweat, but he's like you will be dehydrated by the back 9 if you don't drink water, and people don't think about the value of proper nutrition when they're doing anything physical.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, especially hydration. I mean, I know in Florida we feel ourselves sweating like you said.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Wes Altice Golf: But even like

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Wes Altice Golf: loading up the night before around, like.

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Wes Altice Golf: if you know, you're playing the next day or that week, just start drinking a little bit more water than what you're used to, because you get that mental fog later in the rounds. Dehydration has a lot to do with performance, and

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Wes Altice Golf: you know the big boys on tour. They know about it. You see them like every 2 or 3 holes they got some kind of drink.

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Wes Altice Golf: There's something in it like some electrolytes and some salt to keep them going, because they're out there 5, 6 h walking. You get the luxury of a car.

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Wes Altice Golf: but still we're not physically gifted or as physically in shape as those guys are.

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Jesse Stakes: No, and it makes. And it's 1 of those things where you want to have more fun doing something, sustain the whole activity, be able to enjoy it by whole 18 just as much. You enjoyed it on the 1st hole.

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Wes Altice Golf: And if and if your goal is to go out and just drink with the boys I would highly recommend throwing the scorecard away and just drink with the boys.

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Wes Altice Golf: There are some.

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Jesse Stakes: Just go hit it.

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Wes Altice Golf: Just go hit it, find it.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, talk, trash, drink, and do what you want to do. But if you're looking at getting better.

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Wes Altice Golf: You do have to take the hydration and account, and I have a couple of drinks when I play, but I'm making sure I am. It's like sip for sip, sip a drink, sip of water, and just kind of keep it that way as much as possible.

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Jesse Stakes: There you go. So you know, the other one of the other things we're going to talk about is equipment, and like there's so many. There's so many topics when it comes to equipment, and I feel like, you know, one of the things that that you and when you and I were kind of going back and forth on what to talk about with this whole thing. I mean, I made a list of like just I mean whether it's whether it's, you know, proper fitting, if you know, is fitting, even necessary. Is it necessary? Is it not like, I think we're going to dive into that, and we might even get some, you know, get some help with that one as far as some people who do it professionally.

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Jesse Stakes: putters, I mean Christ. There are so many different styles and types of putters and ways to putt. And I mean, it's, you know, you can get lost in a sea of just just different techniques and different. You know.

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Jesse Stakes: it's it's just, I guess it's just like anything else to where it's like when you have, when you have kind of freedom of design. It's almost like art. It's like, you know, there's something for everybody out there. But but there's just a lot of choices. And so when there's a lot of choices, sometimes, it's very hard to make a decision. So you know, we're going to dedicate some time to talking about.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, putters, irons drive, like, you know, driving the ball everything from an equipment perspective shaft flex, I mean, like it's I think that's you know. That's what I think about a lot as far as for amateurs. Does it even matter, I mean, like what shaft flex you're playing.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, it it all. In the end. Game matters.

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Wes Altice Golf: You know, taking up the game.

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Wes Altice Golf: I think the biggest thing is just making sure you got the right lengths and the clubs not too heavy or light for you. I think that's

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Wes Altice Golf: that's the big one, because it is a big investment. I mean, golf is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But

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Wes Altice Golf: equipment does matter. You don't want to

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Wes Altice Golf: have ill food equipment, and you're trying to work on one thing, and the equipment's fighting you like liangles could be too upright or too flat, or

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Wes Altice Golf: the club's too long, I mean, then you're just fighting, trying to do the mechanics right? So

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Wes Altice Golf: that's where like I like to bring in. You know people that do that for a living and explain it better, but all in all, you should be fit it. I know it's it can be expensive. But if you're gonna take it serious, put some investment into it, and that way you stick. And I think it's put skin in the game

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Wes Altice Golf: you'll you'll actually follow through with it.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, and I think that you know to that point sometimes when you do it right. The 1st time which people talk about all the time in business, and it applies, no matter what you're doing. If you do it right the 1st time, then you don't have to go back and fix it the next time like, that's a lot more expensive than just doing it right the 1st time.

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Wes Altice Golf: Hence. Well, I'll get the 50 or 6 year olds I've been. I've been playing golf. I've had 3 lessons, and I've been swinging this way for 20 or 30 years. I'm like.

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Wes Altice Golf: Okay, we got 20 or 30 years to unwrap a movement pattern. And

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Wes Altice Golf: here we go. And but again, if they were to learn. You know

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Wes Altice Golf: the right way. First, st

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Wes Altice Golf: that pain and that, you know monetary investment

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Wes Altice Golf: is not as big, but it's kind of part of the journey, too, is trying to get a little bit better, and

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Wes Altice Golf: admitting, like I was going down the wrong path. And now I need to try and wipe my slate clean a little bit, which is tough to do.

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Jesse Stakes: And are, you know, I mean, along that equipment line. Sometimes, when you have so much variety and so much variation.

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Jesse Stakes: there's a collectibility to it, too. There's some people that just enjoy trying different things, and that's part of the joy of the game, or that can be part of the entertainment value of playing golf is, you know, it's you know it's there's a plenty of people that are Scotty Cameron. Collectors are there, you know they are, you know, it's it's they're just. They just like to try things simple, like plain and simple. But it's but it does. It adds to their enjoyment, or it is part of their enjoyment of the game.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, I I know a lot of those. And like every week they have a different piece of equipment. I'm like, where did this guy.

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Wes Altice Golf: I saw this, I'm like, okay, well, hopefully, it's just the right specs. I don't care what it is. Just make sure the specs are right, like whatever. But yeah, you you're 100% right? That's part of golf like the golf culture is. You kinda get wrapped up into certain things. You know, Scotty Cameron's a

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Wes Altice Golf: on collecting is a perfect example of that, and people go deep into that. And there's some. There's some crazy stuff out there with Scotty Cameron and all the subgroups. And they it's it's a pretty impressive community to be honest. They're very knowledgeable about that, those potters, that's for sure.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, and you've got. I mean, even let's go beyond even the the actual physical equipment you're using on the on the course

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Jesse Stakes: you've got soft goods now, I mean, like, I think, Covid in in

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Jesse Stakes: everything around Covid as golf got bigger and more popular. I mean, you've got so many soft, good companies that have popped up, and they offer customized head covers and all kinds of it makes the game funner. It allows you to kind of display your personality along with the game. But it's but there's a lot of there's a lot of personal entertainment value or personal personal value to being able to, you know, to be able to display those things and make your bag what you want it to be as well.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, I I'm I'm guilty as am I? Yeah, I mean, totally guilty like. And and that's

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Wes Altice Golf: great, like like you said it brings out your personality of the game and

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Wes Altice Golf: some people it'll be a talking point to some people like I've got. You know. One of my head covers is the the ghost tree from abandoned dunes. And you know, if you know, you know and there's a conversation there. Some people like, why do you have a tree. I'm like.

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Wes Altice Golf: it's old Mac, and like, Oh, okay. But the people that know you like oh, I've been there, and it, you know, it can be a conversation starter. And it's just like I said, it's cool. You can show your personality, and that's the beauty of this game, too.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt I got 1. 1 of the guys who kind of helps out with the show is a. It's a gentleman out of South Florida. He he owns a company called Bankroll golf.

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Jesse Stakes: If you guys want 20% off bankroll golf, just use the code pro the promo code makes sense. CENT. S. When you when you check out. But bankroll golf is all about. It's all about, you know, kind of integrating the financial industry or fun things on the finance side with head covers, and it's like I I'm in banking. So I use them a lot of the times for gifts for clients or things like, just because it's kind of something that hits what I do.

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Jesse Stakes: But it's fun, and it's something that is a nice gift for somebody, it always hits them. It always hits them and puts a smile on their face whether they use it or not. That's their own business, but it's it's something that's a little bit unique, a little different. And it's and it's a pretty cool product. So.

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Wes Altice Golf: The shop.

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Jesse Stakes: More. You know, one of the other things we'll probably dive into, because I mean, there's going to be a number of these things. But one of the things that makes golf a fun sport, is it? Also, I mean, and and we do this with a group that both you and I participate with but travel, I mean, like you get groups of, you know, groups of friends together.

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Jesse Stakes: and there's so like golf has become such a destination event or sport, or you know it's just again you wrap. You wrap a group of friends or colleagues around around the sport, and you can. I mean, there's so many cool places that you can travel, and they're set up to receive groups. And it's an it's an industry unto itself.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, yeah, the group we have is.

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Wes Altice Golf: I'm very fortunate to be invited to the group one, because

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Wes Altice Golf: I wouldn't have met you or hell, all those guys that we play golf with on a regular basis now. And I think if you were getting into golf, and I think your big goal. Once you start getting better is to do some kind of golf trip with a group of guys or group of girls and get out there and see

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Wes Altice Golf: all the different places you can go to, because golf in Florida is different than golf in just North Carolina or going out to the Pacific Northwest. You're gonna see all these different things. You're like, golf isn't just this like there's like the beauty of it. I mean, I got wrapped up in just architecture when I was invited to go to band. And I'm like, Oh, I'm going to learn everything about architecture. And now I like architecture, and I'm not that smart about it, but I can appreciate what a designer was trying to do here. And

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Wes Altice Golf: you go down these rabbit holes in golf that can be

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Wes Altice Golf: so much money, you would have never probably done architecture in me. Yeah, right? That's like the hardest thing from my mind. I thought I would get into. But it is really cool to understand what these great

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Wes Altice Golf: architects like their thought process, and how they see the game.

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Wes Altice Golf: and it opens your eyes like, wait a minute.

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Wes Altice Golf: I've been kind of playing this type of whole wrong all these years, and you start, it actually starts improving your game once you understand what the architect is trying to get you to do.

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Jesse Stakes: well, I think you're right. And it's. And it's you know even from a from a simpler

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Jesse Stakes: focus. I mean like to your point. It's beautiful.

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Jesse Stakes: The reality of it is is that these places like when they, when they set them up for trips and destinations most of the time, they're unbelievably gorgeous spots, and they use a premium piece of land. And so you know the golf. The gulf is part of it. But the other part is that you? You really are on a you're. You're typically fortunate to be walking out there and just enjoying whatever nature has to provide you that day because you're not going to find many other pieces of land in a lot of these spot in a lot of these destinations that's more beautiful than the land! You're playing golf on.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, I I

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Wes Altice Golf: perfectly said, I mean it. It does bring the extra element of what golf is is being outside outdoors

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Wes Altice Golf: on a beautiful piece of property with some good people, and then.

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Wes Altice Golf: It's rare. You get paired up with the random, and they're a complete asshole, it happens. And it's going to happen.

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Jesse Stakes: Sorry about that, you know.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah.

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Wes Altice Golf: it's going to happen. So yes, but, man, most of the time. It's someone that just loves golf just as much as you do, and they're probably a little like how I'm paired up, these people. How are they going to be?

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Wes Altice Golf: And it's part of the game. But there's not. I can't name too many rounds off top my head where we got paired with someone, and it was a miserable experience.

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Jesse Stakes: I I've met some really cool people on the golf course, and I think that that really kind of brings us full circle is the fact that you know the the overarching part of this is that you're spending 4 h outside with people that are other human beings, that you may not have spent 4 h with otherwise. And you get to meet some really cool people you get to meet, you get to develop some some great relationships, and then you have something in common from that point forward that you know you both really enjoy either playing the sport of playing the sport of golf.

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Jesse Stakes: or or the fact that you're just taking it up. It's that it's that bond it's like, you know, it's that is that something you have in common, that from that point forward. You know, you have it in common. And it's and like I said, I mean, I've I've

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Jesse Stakes: I've built some really great relationships because of the game because of, you know, like you said, like having the opportunity to travel with people and getting to meet people like yourself and me. We wouldn't have met otherwise. And it's and it's to me like you said there's not a whole lot of bad people that I've met through it. So I mean the the game has afforded me some some tremendous relationships that I feel really fortunate to have at this point in my life.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And

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Wes Altice Golf: I mean, you gotta figure you're spending 4 h out on somewhere.

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Wes Altice Golf: I mean, golf is just a great Bonder, because we're all in the same boat. We all have been in the same frustrations. And just like a tip to people that are just starting like.

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Wes Altice Golf: if you're keeping pace of play. No one's ever, gonna you know, be in a bad mood

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Wes Altice Golf: and also half the time. Are we really paying attention? What the other people are doing. We get so wrapped up in what we're trying to do. Yeah, we'll know. A ball went over here or there, and we're help, you know. Look for it. But we're not being like, Oh, my God! This guy just sucks, you know. It's like, Oh, rough day! Or you get so wrapped up what you're trying to do half the time. You don't even realize that maybe they shot 100 or they shot like 74, and they just shot their best round ever like, until after the fact you have a sense. But it's not like.

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Wes Altice Golf: Oh, this this is gonna be the worst round of my life, but because I'm so damn selfish when I play golf half the time you're just so worried about yourself and hitting good shots. It's like

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Wes Altice Golf: that's on. I don't know what's going on, which is fine.

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Jesse Stakes: Hey? You wanna you wanna develop some good friendships. Go into the marines or play golf with somebody. It's struggle both ways. So.

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Wes Altice Golf: Major.

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Jesse Stakes: Aside all my military folks out there. I am not trying to compare being in the marines and playing golf.

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Wes Altice Golf: No, not even close, not even close.

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Jesse Stakes: One thing. I'd be remiss, too, if I don't if I didn't kind of touch on as we're doing. This kind of opening episode is the fact that there's a lot of money raised for charity. There's a lot of good causes that golf helps support.

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Jesse Stakes: whether it's at the professional level of the game. If it's through scrambles that people host, you know, in their local, in their, in their local cities, and in their markets like where they're raising money for a good cause, raising money for charity, or just simply, you know what the sport does on a regular basis, as far as just, whether it's, you know, some of the military causes that they that they that they raise money for throughout the year the game of golf really is set up to give back to the communities.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah. And I, you know, mentioning the charity like scrambles and stuff like that

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Wes Altice Golf: probably have more fun playing in those with, you know 3 of your friends and just going out. You know it. It is a drinking opportunity and going out hitting balls, and you can just go for broke because you've got 3 other people.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, and you just you just go out. And you really just play a fun round of golf and you win it great if you don't. Who cares? The money went to a great cause? But that's another thing. Starting off, you know, find a group of people with varying skill levels. If you're starting off and

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Wes Altice Golf: playing these things and be, you know, forefront like, Hey, I'm just starting. But I really like golf. And I'm this and this I usually shoot. This

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Wes Altice Golf: people know upfront, especially in those situations. They're not going to care like dude. We're just going out drinking, and our company's paying for the foursome. It's like it's a free day. They're working, but it's a day out on the course with some, you know, adult beverages. So get involved in those scrambles. Yeah, get involved in those scrambles because it takes pressure off for you. It's just it's so much fun. I love them.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt. So as we're going through this, do you have a favorite topic, or do you have anything that you're kind of looking forward to talking about more than another.

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Wes Altice Golf: I think it's it's just why I got into, you know, teaching, anyway, just helping people. And

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, even hearing from different people like sending questions, and maybe we do a. QA. Session and help these people and clarify anything that we possibly can. And we don't have an answer for it.

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Wes Altice Golf: I feel we we got a good network. We'll we'll find out the answer, and, you know, bring them on as a guest or whatnot. But I think just talking about golf in general as generic as that sound is going to be the fun part about this, because there's so many different things of golf. You know we could go down. We never know we could go down the rabbit hole of bringing in a Scotty Cameron enthusiast collector, and they walk us through thing like there's so many.

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Jesse Stakes: I know a guy.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, I I think I know who you're talking about.

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Wes Altice Golf: But I think that kind of stuff would be fun just to show people that are getting into the game. It's just not chasing a little white ball around a field like there's so much more stuff that you could get involved with and become a

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Wes Altice Golf: a hobby within golf, too. So I think I think we got a lot of fun stuff, and I'm really excited to see where this kind of takes us in conversations, and the people we can meet and bring on.

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Jesse Stakes: I am, too. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I think it's it's just like anything else. I I think you know, people always say, Try to start with the end in mind, but I also think you got to keep an open mind to. You know

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Jesse Stakes: this may take us like kind of, you know, like it, down a different path, or we might go down some rabbit holes with this. But I think that's the fun. Part of any journey is kind of the rabbit holes that you find that things take you down and and just just enjoying the ride. So I I'm grateful for you doing this with me and and I, and I hope we do just that. We enjoy this ride, and we and we put some put together.

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Jesse Stakes: and also informational good content for people to where they enjoy listening to this over the next, say 12 months, and we'll see where we go from. There.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you

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Wes Altice Golf: invite me on to to do this with you. And you know, we'll just we're just gonna make this fun and as laid back as possible, because that's what most people are getting into golf, or anyways to have some fun.

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Wes Altice Golf: So we'll bring whatever topics we can clear things up the best we can, and hopefully make people

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Wes Altice Golf: play this game more and enjoy it.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely Wes as always. If anybody is interested in speaking to you about their own personal golf game, or if they'd like to learn more about what you're doing. What's the best way that they can find you.

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Wes Altice Golf: Any social West Altis golf. It's a LTIC, E, I've got my own website, Westsaltus golf com. You can just hop on there book lessons through there, or you can just reach out. You know Instagram is probably the best way. Just shoot me. A DM. Be more than happy to answer any questions, or if you got a topic you think would be cool to cover on this.

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Wes Altice Golf: Bring it on. We'd love to hear it.

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Jesse Stakes: Awesome, Wes. Thank you so much.

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Wes Altice Golf: Thank you, my man. Appreciate it, man.