Never Met a Putter I didn't Like - Putter Selection and Fitting

If you are Professional at Anything BUT Golf...this podcast is for you!

Mike Padron joins Wes Altice and Jesse Stakes to talk about putters, putting, and everything that goes into selecting our flatstick of choice on the greens!  

Wes, Jesse, and Mike talk about how golf can be such a powerful way to connect with clients.  Mike has been in sales for most of his career.  How often do you get 4 hours of interrupted time with the people you want to do business with doing something that you both enjoy?

Putting is the one activity in golf that we all have a chance to be great at.  Enjoy this conversation and your own personal journey finding success on the short grass!

#golf #putting #labrat #makescents #makessense #podcast #jessestakes

Transcript

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Jesse Stakes: Hey, everybody! Welcome to making sense of it all as part of our series of professional at anything but golf.

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Jesse Stakes: I am pleased to bring you one of my good friends, Mike Padron. And then, as always, Wes Altus is joining me as well. Guys thanks so much for joining me today.

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Mike Padron: Thanks, Jesse, appreciate you having me.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yup, always good to be on another fun conversation this time about some golf trip stuff.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, Wes, you're 100% wrong. But that's okay. Because we can edit this. We're actually gonna be talking about Mike's experience with putting so.

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Wes Altice Golf: This is this is.

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Jesse Stakes: So the edit button works really well.

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Jesse Stakes: No, but you certainly are.

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Wes Altice Golf: Ship.

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Jesse Stakes: So.

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Mike Padron: We can get into that.

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Jesse Stakes: We can touch base on that, too. But so, Mike.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: I wanted to have you on. I thought, you know, as part of this series we are. We're talking to people that are. You know that 30 something professional, that's, you know, 60 plus years old, and just talking about how how the game of golf is for them, how they enjoy it.

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Jesse Stakes: You know different things that I think are beneficial to them, as far as introducing people's businesses and introducing things that people do. But as part of this. I really wanted to have you on, because I feel like you've had a pretty interesting journey with equipment.

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Jesse Stakes: I I feel like, just from what from playing with you and from from, you know, kind of experiencing the journey like like you, you really have found something

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Jesse Stakes: with what you're using now and it but it's but I I wanted you to be able to kind of talk about that journey with the people that listen, because I think everybody goes through that, whether it's putting, whether it's, you know, irons, wedges, whatever it is. People people are searching, and people want to find something that works for them, and that they they feel really comfortable with. So I I wanted us to be able to discuss putting today guys, you think that's

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Jesse Stakes: fair game.

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Mike Padron: Yeah, absolutely.

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Jesse Stakes: Awesome.

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Wes Altice Golf: Absolutely.

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Mike Padron: I'd love to.

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Jesse Stakes: So before we get into, go ahead. Sorry about that.

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Mike Padron: I was saying, you put it an interesting journey. It would be an understatement.

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Mike Padron: But yeah, it's it's been. It's been fun. I mean I've been. I've been playing for shoot man. I don't even know since high school. So let's say, 10 years ago.

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Mike Padron: yeah, it's just been I used now I started playing with one of our good friends. Shelt Mike Shelton, and back in

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Mike Padron: place called Reynolds Reynolds, which is now which was Cat Tail creek.

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Mike Padron: And now it's just

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Mike Padron: junkyard, basically back. When we were in high school man it was it just we got hooked play baseball all of our lives, as you know, and it's just once you once you get over to over the golf you're like, Oh, man, this is awesome.

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Mike Padron: Just hooked ever since then.

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Mike Padron: And yeah, and I really the whole

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Mike Padron: industry, as far as equipment and all that. I'd never really even looked into.

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Mike Padron: for all because I had no money. But.

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Jesse Stakes: It was just.

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Mike Padron: Until I can actually look into it and not have my parents buy me a club. Then. Yeah, that was after that, it just kind of took off, and I was like man. I could do this. I could do that, and it's been messing with it ever since. But I think we found the groove now, so we're going to stimulate for at least a little bit.

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Jesse Stakes: Very cool. So before we jump into all that, I want to kind of step back and talk about, you know you, because I feel like you are exactly who the audience is. Tell everybody what you do for a living.

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Mike Padron: So I'm in sales. I'm in the. I've been in the roofing industry since 2,009 that when I was in Texas

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Mike Padron: and obviously with sales, any kind of sales

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Mike Padron: being a golfer, or at least being able to get up there and hack it a little bit, is huge for for business for me. So I I'm in the like, I said. I'm in the roofing industry. I've been bouncing around in Texas, Arkansas, Virginia. And now back home to Florida and

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Mike Padron: I cover the entire State of Florida. I don't go west of Tallahassee, but I cover the rest of the state and I I mean, I hit anywhere I can, as far as golf goes. And

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Mike Padron: you know, we actually just today booked the booked the trip to with 2 customers to cabinet citrus farms at the end of September. So it's always something that's coming up in conversation. It's always something that we talk about

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Mike Padron: especially if I hit it off with one of my customers. That's that's a golfer. So it's been a huge thing for me to be able to at least talk it with them and go out there. And you in my industry, in sales or any sales industry

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Mike Padron: man, you're rarely ever going to get 4 h with somebody riding in a cart, or, you know, talking whatever having a beer like that's just rare to ever have with a customer. Somebody that's important to you and your business, and that's kind of where where I'm at with with the golf game and how it integrates with my business right now.

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Mike Padron: So it's been. It's been really good.

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Jesse Stakes: No, I I 100% agree. I there's not. There's not many things where you can talk, you know, when you and your customer have that in common that you can bond over it like you do golf. It's not the same thing as going to a football game or going to, you know, taking them out to a baseball game. Anything like that. It's, you know, people who play golf. You typically are passionate about it, whether they're good or bad at it. It doesn't really matter. They still they have a desire to be. You know, they have a desire to play the game, and there's something about it that grabs them.

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Mike Padron: Absolutely absolutely. And it's go ahead, les.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, like, just say, like, golf is such a like, almost essentially bonding experience of strangers like you get to meet some incredible people. And like you, said Mike, like

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Wes Altice Golf: how many business deals get done on the golf course because you got them for 4 and a half hours like, and most. I was talking about golf, a little business sprinkled in, and you get to know your customer really well, too, because you just see what kind of person. They are out on the golf course.

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Jesse Stakes: Hey? In West, just for you. When people realize you're a good golfer, you get invited to everything, too. So it's like everybody wants you on their team for their for their scrambles.

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Wes Altice Golf: Everything that's.

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Jesse Stakes: When they know that you're gonna when you're gonna win them a trophy.

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Mike Padron: And you'll still, and you'll still lose to a 49.

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Wes Altice Golf: Those strokes. Man.

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Jesse Stakes: Fair enough. So so what was it that hooked you? In the 1st place, like I mean, as far as I know, you said that you and your friend Mike, which is also a friend of mine, and it's ironic because I think the 1st round of golf that I ever played was actually with Mike Shelton at Westlands, in Jacksonville. God rest its soul!

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Wes Altice Golf: Wow!

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Mike Padron: Yeah, I think.

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Mike Padron: I think as a competitor

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Mike Padron: just growing up playing baseball my entire life. I think

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Mike Padron: it was

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Mike Padron: not only the competition of golf and trying to get better and trying to get better. But it was

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Mike Padron: almost a relaxation of away from the baseball field of all right. Now I can go have fun, be competitive, but this I'm not. It's not a ride or die for me. I'm not trying to earn a scholarship, or I'm not, you know, trying to be one of the top baseball players in the city, or whatever it was. Just. It was a relaxing time for me to get away. And then, once my baseball career was over, that's when I can continue with my competitiveness

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Mike Padron: of golf, and then try to get better and better and better. And that's kind of where all of this whole journey of equipment comes in, because I'm like, I got to get better. I gotta get better.

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Mike Padron: and it just keeps going and going and going. That's where it's kind of turned into where before it was. Just a I mean, it's still awesome and relaxing, and everything else just to get away. But I think a lot of that was why I got hooked to it, because, you know, you can go out there and play with anybody and still have fun.

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Mike Padron: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%. No doubt I feel it's funny, because, like, I was always afraid when I was younger, that that golf was gonna mess up my baseball swing. So I stayed away from it almost out of fear. Cause I'm like I always felt like it was. Gonna give me a long swing it was. Gonna it was gonna mess me up. And I was like, I was like, I'm not messing with my baseball swing. So I really stayed away from golf other than the occasional round, and

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Jesse Stakes: until I was completely done with baseball, do you? Do you see people like that? We that come to us where you get some kids that are. Maybe maybe they're not a golfer first, st but it's like they're in another sport. And they're like they're concerned with how it's going to impact, how they you know how how they perform at the at the sport, that they're in.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, you get

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Wes Altice Golf: you get the kids. The baseball players is the probably the biggest

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Wes Altice Golf: hurdle like transition to golf as far as if they're currently playing in the competitive because it is different. I mean, in golf. You're hitting a round object with a flat object baseball. It's round on round. So

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Wes Altice Golf: base control is so important in golf. And they just don't have that concept. The great thing with baseball players is they got speed

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Wes Altice Golf: they got speed for days. So it's like, all right, that's 1 thing off the table.

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Wes Altice Golf: But it's like being very careful. Let's during that interview process like, well, how serious is the baseball I'm like, Oh, it's traveling. It's this, this system, like, okay.

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Wes Altice Golf: might want to put a pause on golf a little bit, because I don't want that to mess up

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Wes Altice Golf: going forward, especially if the kid gets into it, because I have seen it where a kid will come to me for the summer when baseball is kind of done.

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Wes Altice Golf: and they'll go through their baseball season and come back, and the swing is completely changed, like.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah.

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Wes Altice Golf: Night and day difference. So it's definitely one of those things you have to be very, very careful of as a golf instructor is

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Wes Altice Golf: if that baseball is going to take them into a career like college, or whatever you just have to be careful and have the conversation with the parents like, Hey.

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Wes Altice Golf: now, definitely want to get them in the golf. But we gotta be very careful. It doesn't mess up.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know his baseball career. But if they're a pitcher.

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Wes Altice Golf: Who cares? But the mechanics are actually, I'd rather teach pictures all day than I would. You know a you know, a slugger.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt.

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Mike Padron: And those are some of the best golfers right now.

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Jesse Stakes: Hey, man, I mean, I was about to say, throwing it to me, throwing a baseball and hitting a golf ball are very similar as far as biomechanics.

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Wes Altice Golf: And and kicking. Kicking is also a big one. Kicking is like soccer players, you know, E, even

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, base or football kickers. I mean, it's all pretty relative, like Mike's son, like the kid absolutely smashed it. But he has good

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Wes Altice Golf: understanding of how to move, you know, above and on our because he has to do that with his leg and land on that front foot. So

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Wes Altice Golf: that kind of stuff. When I hear soccer player kick or something like that. I'm like, Yup, this is going to be nice and easy and fun.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, very cool. So did you. Did you have that feeling, Mike, when you 1st started playing golf

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Jesse Stakes: when you were still playing baseball, was it? Did it? Did one impact the other at all? Or did you feel like it was 2 totally different things.

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Mike Padron: I didn't. I didn't play enough golf at that time.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah.

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Mike Padron: Probably because my baseball swing was impacting it, cause I was hit

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Mike Padron: really hard and really far. It was just going about 300 yards right?

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Mike Padron: So at that time. At that time I really didn't take it seriously. And then my dad being a baseball coach, really didn't let me play as often. And he was probably right. But now, looking back at my baseball career is over, I could say, and I wish I was playing golf at that age, and then just stuck with it at that time. But but yeah, it was

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Mike Padron: I I didn't play enough. I don't think, to see the impact. I know that it took me a very long time to get rid of that, and I still at times have it. But it's still, I still took me a long time to get rid of it, and I can, I can tell when I'm out there with like a foursome, and you know, we get paired with 2 random guys and one guy takes a swing. I'm like, that's a baseball player, and you can just you can tell everything about it. Maybe not us. Now, ex baseball players that have been playing golf now for 20 years, that's different. But when you see a kid right out of college, and you see him take one swing. You're like, yep.

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Mike Padron: that's baseball player. So.

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Wes Altice Golf: Controversary.

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Mike Padron: Cool, to watch.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, for sure.

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Jesse Stakes: I used to have the griffy one handed finish with my golf swing when I 1st started. It was that bad, so.

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Mike Padron: That is great.

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Jesse Stakes: So let's let's kind of get into this. We're we're here to talk about putting. We're here to kind of talk about your experience with it. What was the 1st putter that you ever used.

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Mike Padron: Scotty Cameron actually and now and it was a new.

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Jesse Stakes: Time.

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Mike Padron: Newport, 1.5. I bought it used at a store in Miami

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Mike Padron: 1st club, actually the 1st club I ever purchased with my own money, and it was like $125. I mean, it was like. And at that time I'm just like

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Mike Padron: I got this new credit card. I'm just gonna put it on

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Mike Padron: and.

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Wes Altice Golf: And I.

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Mike Padron: That time I swore it changed my game, because now I have a Scotty Cameron I'm playing with, and ironically, it's now with you mentioned my son. He took it with him to college. So it's in College station right now, and he absolutely loves it, and he's playing with it, which is actually kind of cool. He fell in love with that putter as well. So that was the very 1st one.

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Jesse Stakes: Very good investment is what you're saying.

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Mike Padron: Oh, absolutely! I still got. I would never sell it. I'd I'd you know he might sell it eventually, not tell me.

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Wes Altice Golf: But I'll never sell it.

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Jesse Stakes: Make sure he gets what it's worth.

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Mike Padron: Overhead.

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Wes Altice Golf: Exactly, exactly.

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Jesse Stakes: So

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Jesse Stakes: at what point do you think that you started to actually think, okay, I need to.

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Jesse Stakes: maybe look at putting a little bit differently, maybe get a little more granular with it.

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Jesse Stakes: Actually start, you know whether it's experimenting with stroke types looking at different types of potters. When did that come in for you.

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Mike Padron: So I was trying to think of that earlier today. And I think what really

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Mike Padron: changed my whole mindset on specifically putting was a few years ago. I I try like, I said earlier, I travel a lot. So I either have news on or I'll have PGA to a radio on on Series Xm, and that's all I listen to. And I remember one thing on the on. John Mcginnis said one thing a couple of years ago, he mentioned how putting is the only thing you can do like a pro.

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Mike Padron: And I thought about it. I was like, man. I'll never hit a driver like Rory. I'll never hit my irons like Maura Calla. I'm not gonna

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Mike Padron: tip and get up and down like speed.

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Mike Padron: but I can pro. I mean I physically. And what I mean, maybe not mentally but physically.

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Mike Padron: I can put as good as anybody in the world, technically, because it doesn't require all this. You know.

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Mike Padron: 200 mile an hour, plus ball speed and all that stuff and that kind of flipped my switch. I was like, well, there's 1 thing that

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Mike Padron: I can change right now is I need to start concentrating on putting. And that was really

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Mike Padron: changed my whole game. Honestly. You don't realize that I mean what? As you're shooting 80, you mean

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Mike Padron: 30 plus strokes are going to be on the green putting, I mean on a good day. I mean, it's so

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Mike Padron: I figured. You know that for some reason that one quote, he said, about that. You can do it like that's the only thing you can do. Like the pros. Just kind of like it's like, Oh, my gosh! It was mind blowing. And that's kind of when I started going into. That's probably why I'm 6 putters later, you know. That's where I'm at now. So.

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Jesse Stakes: That's the journey.

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Wes Altice Golf: 6.

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Mike Padron: I don't know.

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Mike Padron: I'll look at it. I got I got 3 in my bag sitting here in the office, and then Liam's got 2 in our in our in college station. So.

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Jesse Stakes: Seen you with a couple of putters, too, Buddy.

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Mike Padron: Yeah.

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Wes Altice Golf: I got. I got different reasons, though.

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Jesse Stakes: So so, Mike, as far as have you ever like when you started this, when you said, Okay, I want to get better at this like what was like? Did you take a lesson like, how did you like? What was it? Where you took stock of what you were doing like? Where? Where did you start?

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Mike Padron: There was a lot of research on

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Mike Padron: the kind. I I didn't realize how important the kind of putter

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Mike Padron: or the shaft, or you know the

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Mike Padron: the different ways these putters work. You think when you're growing up, you're like, Oh, they're all just a flat stick, and just put it right right, but it all depends on your stroke. So I I got the mirror out or I'll have my phone behind me and leaning on something, and I could see what my stroke is doing, and I'm a straight back, straight forward.

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Mike Padron: putter like I. I don't have barely any arc in my putter which I never would have known until I started really looking at it. So then I started researching, okay, what are the best putters for this and this and this? And that's kind of where the journey started. And then after that, it was just tinkering with different things. And I've had. I'm on my second center shaft putter, because that's 1 of the better ones

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Mike Padron: for that for no arc, and that's kind of where where I'm at now with it. And it's been.

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Mike Padron: you know. It's been wonders for my putting game.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah. Well, I think we'll get into that here a little little bit later. But, Wes, have you like as far as when you have a student, and you have somebody who's kind of looking to looking to explore, putting. Or they're saying, Okay, I want to get better at this

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Jesse Stakes: kind of take me through. What do you do with that person? How do you start with them? Kind of what do you know? Where do you go? As far as as far as if you're gonna if you're gonna help them, you know. Kind of give, you know. Be a guide to them on those on that journey. What do you do?

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, 1st thing I'm gonna obviously just watch him hit butts. So what I'm looking for is how well they can judge speed how good. They can start the ball on their intended line.

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Wes Altice Golf: Green reading. So you take the whole thing in, and

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Wes Altice Golf: I don't get too caught up in how their initial aim is, I'm more worried about how they start

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Wes Altice Golf: the ball on the their intended line. So if they've got the putter face 2 to 3 degrees open, but they start the ball online every single time, and can roll their ball over a dime. That's, you know, a foot or 2 away.

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Wes Altice Golf: I'm not going to mess with them.

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Wes Altice Golf: So I think the big thing is

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Wes Altice Golf: honestly, speed to me is like the biggest. If you can't roll the rock at at a proper speed, so you can

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Wes Altice Golf: have it finished within a foot to 18 inches by the hole.

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Wes Altice Golf: You're not going to be able to read the greens right? So speed to me is always number one, and most people can't control speed

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Wes Altice Golf: or to anything. They're actually pretty good at starting the ball on into their intended line.

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Wes Altice Golf: Lining up could be a little bit different, but the speed to me is number one.

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Wes Altice Golf: and then, being able to start on their intended line is going to be 2 for me, and then green reading goes number 3, but they all end up

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Wes Altice Golf: hand in hand with each other. But I will look at equipment, and if that's causing something within their stroke, or how they're.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, using their levers to power the show.

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Wes Altice Golf: Then maybe we start talking about equipment.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, I think it's interesting, like, as far as because, you know, like, Mike said earlier.

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Jesse Stakes: putting is one of those things to where you can be as good as the professionals, or you can. You can.

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Jesse Stakes: It's it doesn't take some sort of talent or anything. It's something that you can learn when you talk about rolling, you know, rolling a ball the right speed like

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Jesse Stakes: that's 1 of those things I feel like we when I go out with people who don't play very often, or when I go out with people who are, you know they're kind of, you know. They're that once every 6 months. Golfer. That's 1 of the biggest things I notice is that people will go out there to blow the ball 10 feet past, or they'll be 5 feet short, or you know, it's all like, so

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Jesse Stakes: you know, and this kind of dovetails into a different conversation that you and I had that that our audience will hear as well. But

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Jesse Stakes: when it comes to kind of giving somebody that baseline of saying, Okay, here's how you control speed, you know, just briefly like, How do you like? What does that look like? What is that? You know? How? How do you explain that to somebody? If you're you know it's sometimes I I've always thought about it as like, okay, I'm gonna throw a ball underhand. And how like it's it's like, you know, how how hard do I have to throw it to throw at this distance, but that goes back to my athletic background, and I'm trying to liken it to something that I've done before. Essentially

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Jesse Stakes: like it's some. It's something that I can recall in my, you know, as far as my, you know, in in the, in the back of my brain that that's what I'm looking at. But

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Jesse Stakes: there is more scientific, better ways to do that.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, there, there definitely is. And I think you know something people can take home right away.

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Wes Altice Golf: Go to your local course, or if you're about to play around, even at a new course you haven't played yet. Go out to the putting green. Find a flat spot.

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Wes Altice Golf: bring 3 t's with you the 1st T, you're going to put where the you're starting the ball out, and then you're going to take

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Wes Altice Golf: your putter grip length unless you have one of these massively big ones, but about a putter. Grip.

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Wes Altice Golf: line up on the tee, place the T there, then roll it back one from where the ball is, put another tee, and then you have

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Wes Altice Golf: this bandwidth to operate on

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Wes Altice Golf: and hit a series of 5 to 10 putts.

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Wes Altice Golf: trying to get the putter to go back to about where that 1st tee is on the back stroke. Finish where the second tee is on the forward stroke.

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Wes Altice Golf: and go out and pace off. How far the ball's rolling on a flat putt. Now you've got a baseline to be like. All right. If I take this stroke with my nice normal tempo. I'm not trying to, you know. Put any energy into this thing. How far is that ball rolling?

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Wes Altice Golf: Let's say today, it's, you know, rolling 3 paces. So it's about 9 feet. Now, you know, when you got a 9 footer that's flat. You know basically how far you need to move the putter head back and through

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Wes Altice Golf: it it can be that simple, and it's an easy way to figure out the pace of the brains on a new course that you haven't been on before.

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Jesse Stakes: I think that's awesome. I I'll make sure that that's that that's cut and shared with everybody as far as just as a sound bite, because I think that that's something that people like you said. People can take that right out tomorrow and do that like. It's something that everybody could get better by doing so. Let's get into this the equipment side of this thing. You said that you have had 6 putters since you started playing golf.

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Mike Padron: So.

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Jesse Stakes: Like all seriousness here, like what was it like, as far as what inspired you to to grab like, you know, when you when you went from that 1st Scotty Cameron, or even when you look at that Scotty Cameron, what was it that made you feel like you wanted the Scotty Cameron, in the 1st place, was it that you saw people playing it on TV? Was it, you know? Was it something so all right, so so celebrity, essentially the endorsement.

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Mike Padron: Yeah. So the very first, st the very 1st one, the Scotty, was just a pure oh, my gosh, there's Scott, yeah. And I grabbed it. Honestly, I mean, I'm not. I'm not gonna tell you. Oh, because of the plumber's neck, or you know anything like I like the middle on the front. No, it was nothing. It was just that's a cool looking Scotty camera. Yeah. So that was the very 1st one and then

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Mike Padron: I had a couple between. I couldn't even tell you which ones. But then

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Mike Padron: the one that kind of really changed everything I had. I got another Scotty Cam and I bought a used one. That was a center shaft.

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Mike Padron: Is more of a mallet style, which is one of my 1st mallet styles I got was a center chef, Scott. Yet I forget the S 6 or 6 s. Or something.

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Mike Padron: And

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Mike Padron: that's when I realized kind of I started looking into it. That was after. I did all the research about my straight back and forward. What do I go to? And that would kind of really started changing everything, feed, alignment everything and started. I'm like, all right now. I'm starting to dial in

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Mike Padron: where I am, there and then that one I kind of putted for a little bit. I probably just had like a bad round, and I'm starting looking up other stuff, which is what golfers.

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Jesse Stakes: Amen!

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Mike Padron: A professional anything but golf. Do like all right. Never mind throwing that.

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Jesse Stakes: Out the window.

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Mike Padron: But about a year and a half 2 years ago I think it was about 2 years ago. I don't know if you want to get into the lab stuff or not, but.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, let's do it. Let's get no time like the present.

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Mike Padron: So about 2 years ago I got

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Mike Padron: I I again. Here's my serious Xm thing somebody on there started talking about. I don't even know if it was a plug for the company or not. And it was just mentioned on the radio. And I'm like, Oh, Scott! So I was at the hotel. And I started doing some Youtube stuff and looking up. And I'm like, this is actually cool it. Actually, I like the idea of the liangal balance.

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Mike Padron: how it doesn't torque and everything like that I was like. Let me let me give it a try. So they actually have a fitting thing, remote fitting where you you take some video of yourself putting. And then they tell you, all right. This is the height we think you should be at, or as far as the length of the putter. And then this is your line angle

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Mike Padron: and I got the video back. And then I started building. And I'm like, all right, that's kind of pricey. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go see if I can find a used one. And this is kind of it circles back around. But I I so I went to the store again, and I saw a used one. It was the the mez, and it was the one they had theirs use. I'm like, all right, I'll buy. This saved a couple of 100 bucks I'm like I'll get it, and then, like an idiot, I went out and played Member Guest with it.

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Mike Padron: and I was. I was atrocious I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. I was so bad with it, and I am not joking. I had my wife, Shane, and I called her on the 15th green, a 15th green on St. John's golf, and I said, Go into my office. There's a bag sitting up against the corner by the putter mat. Grab every putter in there and have the guy bring it up to me. So about 5 min later, 10 min later, the cart guy cart barn, Guy drives up to me with like 5 putters, hey? My! Your wife told me to give this to you.

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Mike Padron: Guest. Part of it, I was like, yes, thank you. So I grabbed all of them, and then the guy I was playing with actually Shelton at the time was like.

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Mike Padron: We can't. You can't just put that into play. Now, I'm like, all right. So between rounds I'll I'll put it in for the next round, and I went back to the Scotty. I hadn't put it in 20 years.

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Mike Padron: and I just started putting that the rest of them were guess, and I was fine. So there is a mental aspect to this that.

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Jesse Stakes: Don't say but

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Mike Padron: So I got that Mez went back to the store, come to find out. It was at the stock 69 degree line angle, and I'm a like the guy at Lab said I was 74. That's a big difference. When you're standing over a putter. My heel was sitting up.

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Mike Padron: It was just not for me.

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Mike Padron: So I went ahead and ordered. I ordered the link, which is their blade style, which I've always wanted to use a blade like the Scotty, but it doesn't really work with my back and forth, or at least I'm telling myself it doesn't really work. So I went ahead and ordered that one. And then, ever since I've gotten that one and you've seen me probably I mean it was. I just

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Mike Padron: fell in love with it so mentally I love it. It's I know it's built for me. So I think there's that mental aspect of it, and I know that I'm putting it at least online every single time. And it's completely changed.

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Mike Padron: Everything about my putting, for, you know, for the last couple of years. And it's been it's going to be in a bag for a while. I mean, it could be a 3 rounds away from being out of my bag, but for now it's in my bag. Well, I.

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Jesse Stakes: I can tell you. That's that's kind of what inspired me to even want to do. This episode with you was that like I have seen such an enormous difference in your game and in your confidence and in your comfort level. Once you put that in the bag and you've been happy with it. It's I mean, it's night and day not to say that you were a bad player before, because you are not. You're you're you're a solid golfer.

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Jesse Stakes: But but the fact that that you thought you could make that you can make anything when you get on the green, that you have a potential chance of rolling it in. It's a huge difference between that and being worried like. All right, I'm not close enough to potentially make this putt. So I I it made an enormous difference just from me, seeing you play golf.

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Mike Padron: Yeah, and that. And like, I said, I think Wes mentioned it earlier. The 3 aspects of it, with a read, the Green Reading, the speed and your alignment I'm taking for me mentally. When I stand over a putt.

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Mike Padron: I am a hundred percent confident now. Whether it's true or not I don't know, but I think the confidence is making the difference. I'm 100% confidence. I am starting this ball every time where I want to hit it. And I use the the picks balls. The tailor made picks, balls, and obviously you can see it when it's pure. And most I would say 90 90 plus percent of my balls are pure end over end. Where you see those orange strikes

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Mike Padron: going down, and I know it's starting now. I may have totally misread it, and I thought it was a left to right, and it went. It went right to left. That's on me, and that's something I I. But now I don't have to concentrate on where it's gonna start. I can concentrate on heart. Now I gotta get my green reading better. Now I gotta get my speed a little better. I'm pretty. I'm still pretty good with the speed because of this one. If I have a big

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Mike Padron: oh, the other day I went back to the PGA store, just messing around wasting time before dinner with a customer, and I started putting with the the other lab the bigger one, the Df 3. And I just could not get the speed right. I just there was something I could hit it online again, because that's what they're supposed to do. But I just could not get the speed right with that. With that club. I loved. It loved everything about it. But I'm like, I just feel like with that blade. I have a lot more control of what I'm doing.

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Mike Padron: We have one round lately, and you were a witness to this I could not get the speed. But I'm blaming those greens. I'm not blaming myself. That was.

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Jesse Stakes: It was.

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Mike Padron: It was. It was like putting on Berber carpet. Man it was. I just couldn't. I couldn't get it right. But now it's not.

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Jesse Stakes: The time to air grievances.

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Mike Padron: But I was looking at some stats like, and I think I told you earlier, like it was I. I have 12 rounds on on Ghi, n, and I'm averaging it says 32.9 putts around in those 12 rounds.

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Mike Padron: 91%, 2 putts are better.

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Mike Padron: 65%. To put. I mean, it's just it's that's it's a huge difference, man, when you can just stay that many strokes on a green.

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Mike Padron: And we do I know, I know you and Wes are saying we do a lot of match play. Man you could.

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Mike Padron: It's a dagger to some people when you can play.

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Jesse Stakes: Odell.

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Mike Padron: You win or lose a lot of these matches just in putting. I mean, because you guys are going to go out of play and your partner's going to go out of play and everything. But you could save a lot of strokes around that green or on the green, and that's kind of where my mindset was. And

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Mike Padron: and you're right. I just feel it's a confidence thing for me. And this lab Hunter has just been.

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Mike Padron: and I'm not endorsed, or anything by lab. This is just me. But if they want to pay me, that's fine, I think that's.

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Jesse Stakes: So I I also think that it does so much for people like it's like you talk about a match play situation, or if you're playing against somebody. When somebody believes that you're gonna make every putt that you look at, too. It puts a lot of pressure on your on the guys who are you're playing against as well. So I think there's a lot to be said about that.

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Jesse Stakes: Wes. I know that like we we kind of made a joke about it earlier, but I mean, like as as far as your experience, I know it's a little bit different for you, but like

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Jesse Stakes: when you're when you're looking at different putters or when you're looking like, what are the reasons why you why you experiment with different things, or why you look at different things.

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Wes Altice Golf: So big thing for me is I am a mallet guy, through and through. I cannot putt with a blade putter to save my life.

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Wes Altice Golf: I think, looking down, it comes down to confidence. You put that putter down behind the ball. It's like

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Wes Altice Golf: Yup. This is pointing in the right direction. I think it is. It looks good to my eye.

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Wes Altice Golf: for whatever reason I like knowing, I have a little bit of forgiveness when I'm putting so the speed, if I do hit it a little off center. I know it's going to get closer to the hole. It's not going to be a complete disaster.

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Wes Altice Golf: So that's the big thing for me is when I look down on it. I'm like, all right. This is pointing in the direction that I think it is, and I had. I had a fitting where I was, you know. Hey? I got a study, Cameron blade in my hand. I'm going to be a good putter.

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Wes Altice Golf: I went to fitting, and the guy was like, you can't line this thing up at all. I was aiming this putter like

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Wes Altice Golf: 5 or 6 inches outside the hole on the right, like every single time.

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Jesse Stakes: Interesting. You.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, it's really interesting. And a lot of it was

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Wes Altice Golf: it being a blade style, but also the type of neck.

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Wes Altice Golf: And that did definitely help me. He's like, it's actually kind of impressive. You can hit the putts online. You want to just how far open everything is.

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Wes Altice Golf: So I got that in my hand, and definitely, I could feel all right. Now, I'm not trying to feel like I'm doing a big open to close stroke anymore. It feels more manageable. I felt like I definitely had to force the thing close.

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Wes Altice Golf: and there's a reason for it. I was aiming way too far a couple inches or a degree or 2. That's not a big deal.

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Wes Altice Golf: But when it was that bad, I mean, it was outside the hole. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. So that's what turned me on.

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Wes Altice Golf: No, alright, it has to be balanced, if you know.

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Wes Altice Golf: on alignment

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Wes Altice Golf: that's on the face, close to the face

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Wes Altice Golf: all that kind of stuff. So for me, that's what I'm looking for mostly in my potters is that type of characteristic.

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Jesse Stakes: So I know that you've had a little bit of an experience with lab as well.

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Jesse Stakes: What is it? What is it about it that attracted you to that? I mean, as far as the just, the the

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Jesse Stakes: they're just kind of what lab it represents, what it, what they're doing. What is it that was attractive?

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, I think the big thing for me was one I love the mallets 2. It was that whole idea that the cutter face is going to stay square to the arc of the stroke

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Wes Altice Golf: without you having to do a ton of manipulations which I always think is great. I've been

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Wes Altice Golf: a very kind of shoulder driven

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Wes Altice Golf: putter like I'm not a handsy guy. I kind of keep the elbows close to me and kind of rock my shoulders.

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Wes Altice Golf: And that's what appealed to me

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Wes Altice Golf: the most is the fact that all right, if this thing, if I don't do anything stupid.

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Wes Altice Golf: I can just kind of. Do what I do. This other face will stay as square to the arc as it possibly can without me having to do

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Wes Altice Golf: extra things are set up differently.

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Wes Altice Golf: So that's what got me going. I did, really. I have a good friend of mine down in South Florida. He actually helped develop one of the shafts

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Wes Altice Golf: for a lab, and he's a

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Wes Altice Golf: he's got gears at his facility, and I just sent him a note like, All right. Is this stuff legit, and he goes. When I run this thing on gears, it does exactly what it's supposed to do. I'm like.

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Wes Altice Golf: cool

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Wes Altice Golf: got the fitting online. I asked him about that. He was like the fitting is spot on. If you do the camera angles right. That big tip, if anyone does it make sure you do the camera right

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Wes Altice Golf: as they describe.

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Wes Altice Golf: and came back with basically the specs I've always been

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Wes Altice Golf: set up for. So I'm like, all right, this like they know what they're doing. So I I had to kind of pull the trigger.

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Wes Altice Golf: and I'm now in the Lab Rat crew.

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Jesse Stakes: Very cool

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Jesse Stakes: what I hear with all of this and like, and I think that it's what what people can take away from this, and you and you correct me if you think I'm wrong here. But you know people need to spend a little bit of time upfront, understanding how they how they biomechanically move through a put

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Jesse Stakes: like, do they do? They naturally open the face and close the face. They need to understand how they aim the putt like, what? What is it? What is it that you utilize to aim? Because different people use different things? Some people use the leading edge. Some people use alignment aids, I mean, that's why they are so popular with Odyssey is because so many people could aim the 2 ball better than another putter. So there, there's there's a there's some core things that you need to understand about yourself.

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Jesse Stakes: and then you can. Then you can prop at least start properly looking in the right direction, as far as what type of putter should you be playing to allow you to play your best golf to potentially make the most putts that you can.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, that's very well said, because I think people just as they see.

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Wes Altice Golf: Let's let's throw Scotty Schaffler up there, he went from, you know blade style. Now he's, you know, lights out with the mallet.

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Wes Altice Golf: I mean that obviously him and his putting coach sat down and they looked at stuff, and they're like we got to give this now the cry because it fits what you do. I don't know exactly what that is. Nothing's been really said about it. There is something out there. Let us know. But yeah, I think you've got to look at guys that make these switches.

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Wes Altice Golf: They're doing the switch for a reason. And it's just not because the putter looks good. They're playing for a lot of frickin money out there. They're going to do something that gets that ball in the hole as fast as possible, and you'll see some guys just change us.

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Wes Altice Golf: you know. Put their other putter in time out to just need a mental reset.

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Mike Padron: But.

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Wes Altice Golf: There is a reason for

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Wes Altice Golf: that change, and

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Wes Altice Golf: you know most most of the time

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Wes Altice Golf: they kind of go back to their original. But

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Wes Altice Golf: you know, if they start holding pots and the stats are

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Wes Altice Golf: lining up.

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Wes Altice Golf: they're going to make that switch and keep it.

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Jesse Stakes: Very cool.

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Jesse Stakes: Mike. Anything you'd add add to the whole putter conversation.

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Mike Padron: No, I think the the one thing, now that I know I have a partner I can trust, although Wes is making a good case for me going to a mallet.

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Mike Padron: Appreciate that.

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Wes Altice Golf: That's what I'm here for.

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Mike Padron: No, the one thing I do mess with quite a bit. I did a lot of

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Mike Padron: different tests, and when I say, test, it's in my office on the perfect perfect practice, whatever Matt, with grips

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Mike Padron: and again, again, I did the looks on. I did. The Google searches on straight, back and forth.

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Mike Padron: you know, center shaft. What's the best grip? And then you have. You've got different people saying different things. So I narrowed it down to basically a traditional like a tiger grip

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Mike Padron: and

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Mike Padron: and a left hand low

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Mike Padron: where I still overlap it. And I kind of just go back and forth from those, and that's the only change I made.

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Mike Padron: If I feel like I'm not putting well, one day, and the next day I was like, Yeah, I'll just go like on Tuesday I played and I went back to

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Mike Padron: I went back to the left hand low, and I put it excellent. That was probably one of my better putting days. But so that's the only thing I'll kind of mess with here and there, because the grip can make a big difference.

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Mike Padron: just

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Mike Padron: I. I don't even know how to explain it, but my my hands going straight back, it's easier to do with me with a left hand low.

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Mike Padron: I feel like I stay more locked in

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Mike Padron: but then again, there's some feel stuff with with the traditional grip that I feel like it's a little more risky. That I go to every once in a while. But

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Mike Padron: yeah, that's the only thing I mess with now I feel like the confidence on the actual putter itself is there? And then I'll just. I'll just kind of play back and forth with with the grip, if I need to. So right now I'm left hand low and we'll we'll see. We'll see where we go from. There.

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Jesse Stakes: Very cool. It's funny, because, like I, I feel like my own, my own journey, like I, the 1st putter that I ever used

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Jesse Stakes: was. It's funny because it was a gift. It wasn't. It was a college football, themed like one of those mallets that's like that's like colored. And it's got the logo on the top of it, and it was just like a Christmas gift or something like that. And it was terrible. It was ho! It was absolutely atrocious.

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Jesse Stakes: But the 1st putter that I can ever remember wanting to have was an old 8,802 style putter. It was a Cleveland classic. I'll never forget. It's a gunmetal putter. I probably I wish I still had it now, but it was just for whatever reason it was always a very attractive putter to me. Just the lines on it. It was very. It almost looked like it just melted into the ground just the way that it looked, and so it always fit my eye.

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Jesse Stakes: And I used that style of putter for a long time until somebody stuck me on a Sam putt lab, actually. And this is where sometimes I do caution, make sure that you're talking to people who really know what they're doing. And actually, people that are good at what they do, because I had somebody basically look at me, and he's like, Well, you go 8 degrees open, and you know, and you go 8 degrees close. He's like, you're just. You're swinging it like a, you know, like a like a like a door. Essentially. And so he immediately put doubt in my head as to like well, maybe I shouldn't be using this.

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Jesse Stakes: And so it started me down a path of going after.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, a a more square to square stroke or a more, you know, making sure that I wasn't rotating the blade so much when I was actually a pretty decent putter with a putter that I really like to look at. But it's it's interesting how sometimes, at least in my own personal journey, sometimes other people, or their opinion of it. If you think that they're coming from a position of authority on it, can shake your confidence in something that you never even thought about changing before.

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Wes Altice Golf: Yeah, that's so true. And that's where I kind of start off. You know, the start line thing.

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Wes Altice Golf: You're 8 degrees open, 8 degrees closed, and you're able to start

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Wes Altice Golf: it online with a high rate of consistency. I mean, that's probably the method we should have been looking at

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Wes Altice Golf: is, how consistent. Are you returning the club base

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Wes Altice Golf: back to the Ball Square? So you can start the ball online. I mean.

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Wes Altice Golf: that's crazy. I can't believe that was actually a thing. I mean, I I it's a lot. But if it's consistent, who cares? And confidence is there? That's a big one.

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Jesse Stakes: Well in the.

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Mike Padron: Go ahead, Mike. On that point. I play with guys

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Mike Padron: that. And we play with the same like where you're looking at it, because obviously we. We play a scramble every once in a while, or you're you're watching your teammate putt.

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Mike Padron: and you want to stop them. You're like Holy Cow. He's he's putting it a foot right of where he needs to be.

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Mike Padron: But I don't say anything, because I know that when it comes to where he's actually gonna put it. I don't know how they do it, but they're back online, and they're putting it exactly where they're supposed to.

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Mike Padron: And that's why you can't. You can't just go off of. It's not a black or white thing like it's just, hey, you're 8 degrees. So this is what you have to do like it. Just

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Mike Padron: some people it just works. And you just gotta like like West said. Just leave it.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah.

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Mike Padron: Online. And you can just concentrate on speed and reading the greens. And you're taking one aspect out of the whole game

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Mike Padron: that you don't have to worry about. It doesn't matter what your swing is. It's just I mean.

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Mike Padron: that's something I see. I see it all the time.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%. Very well, said

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Jesse Stakes: guys, before we close this out, anything that you have that you'd like to add, or anything you'd like to put a final point on this conversation.

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Wes Altice Golf: I think for me is

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Wes Altice Golf: getting a putter. Fitting is invaluable, and I think you need to go, especially if you're this guy that you're jumping all all over on different putters, which fine, but make sure

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Wes Altice Golf: the putters you're experimenting with are the right spec. You know the law, the line angle, which is absolutely huge. Length, I think, is overlooked a lot.

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Wes Altice Golf: So get out there, spend a little, you know, 100 bucks to go get fit and do it the right way, and then experiment all you want with the different heads and the new stuff that comes out. But make sure the specs are there because you don't know if you're getting a true read on that new partner that you think is gonna work.

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Wes Altice Golf: If it's not to your respect.

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Jesse Stakes: Well said.

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Mike Padron: Yeah, I'd add, I'd add to that exact. I mean, I was, gonna say, the exact same thing. And I've been doing my fitting for putters has always been, go to the store and just put around, and the one I make the most that must be the one I like. That's that's mine, and I've made that mistake several times. And actually my 1st I mean, I had a lab. So

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Mike Padron: I had a lab hunter that was just not made for me.

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Mike Padron: and I could not put well with it.

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Mike Padron: And then I went to one that was made for me, and it was completely changed. My game. So yeah, I mean, I I could not agree more with less about making sure that you do the little extra homework and and make sure that you put you put yourself in a putter that's made for you.

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Mike Padron: And that's I. I think it makes a world of difference. And then from there knowing it's yours. Then you can adjust little things here and there. And then kind of go from there. And just it's a lot of it, mental, too, though, but it's just it'll change. It'll change your whole game. And you have like, I said, half your strokes.

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Mike Padron: Well, not half your strokes, but eventually half my strokes will be funny.

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Mike Padron: But we're not there yet.

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Wes Altice Golf: I love.

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Jesse Stakes: On that guys. We're gonna wrap this up. Mike. I really appreciate you joining. I'm I'm looking forward. I hope you enjoyed yourself doing this because I look forward to giving getting you to come back. Talk about some travel, talk about some of the some of the events that you've set up because you've done a lot of fun things with golf

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Jesse Stakes: like you said for work, for for your friends, all kinds of stuff that you've done, and I and I. I can't wait to talk about it as long as you've had a good time, and you're looking forward to coming back.

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Mike Padron: Oh, man, I'd absolutely love to man. I we spend the minute we're done with a golf trip. I'm planning the next one, and it's I just absolutely love doing it. I think there's nothing like

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Mike Padron: getting together, you know, 16 or 20 of your closest buddies, and spending a weekend together, and just, you know, experiencing a new course or new destination, or whatever and it's just it's something that I enjoy. And I would absolutely love to talk about my experience with it.

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Jesse Stakes: Awesome. We would love to have you, Wes, as always. Thank you so much for being a part of this, and we'll catch you guys down the road.

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Wes Altice Golf: Thanks, Jesse.

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Mike Padron: I get.