This week on Secret Golf, the Scot is definitely out-numbered by the Aussies! Elk & Knoxy speak to player-turned-coach, and Elk's 1994 President's Cup team-mate, Bradley Hughes. After playing on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour of Australia, amongst others, Bradley now works as a highly successful golf coach and is part of our Secret Golf roster, with his instructional videos live now at secretgolf.com. We talk to 'Hugo' about his professional career, his coaching philosophy and the differences in coaching techniques over the years.
[THEME MUSIC] THEME SONG: It's Secret Golf. It's what I'm looking for. It's why I get up every morning, have a good time with friends. Keeps me coming back for more. Secret Golf, we're headed down the road. We just load it up, the big show, going looking for the heart and soul. Rolling till the wheels fall off, it's Secret Golf. Shh, it's a secret.
It's Thanksgiving week, and welcome to another Secret Golf podcast. I'm Diane Knox, and Steve Elkington is going to be here very, very shortly.
Today on the podcast, we're going to be joined by a special guest. And it's a guy that I'm really looking forward to hearing from and learning more about. He is one of our players here at Secret Golf. And we've got his player channel live on the website right now, but also works as a coach as well-- Bradley Hughes.
Hi, Bradley. How are you?
I'm great, Diane. Thanks for having me.
Bradley's had a very successful playing career, seven professional wins. Played on the PGA Tour. Played in Australia as well. And the wins include earning the Australian Masters twice and the Australian Players Championship.
Not only that-- and being a fellow Aussie, a good friend of Elk. And the two of them actually played together on the President's Cup Team in 1994.
That's right, yeah. We do it in pairs in Australia.
Elk, it's good to have Bradley on the podcast today.
It certainly is. Bradley and I have been friends for a long time. It's always interesting to see where the game takes you. And Bradley, of course, was a very successful golfer. Played on the PGA Tour.
I think Hugo was most famous when he broke Greg Norman's record, I think, in the Australian Masters, which was this really hard course that is in the Sandbelt. At least the course is still there, mate. Huntingdale Golf Club was probably regarded as probably the narrowest course we ever played when we were on the tour. And Greg Norman became really famous down there when he used to drive straight and long, which we all know about.
But mate, what was the score? He set a record there that would never be broken. And you broke it by about 6, didn't you?
Yeah, he shot 19 under. I think maybe in the late '80s or early '90s. And obviously, there was a tournament. I grew up probably watching one of the first pro tournaments I ever went and watched. The first pro tournament I ever caddied in. And I grew up about 10 miles away. So I knew the course pretty well. And I'd had success there in the past.
I actually won in '93. I [? laid it ?] down in the back 9 in '92 and ended up 4th. I had a second [INAUDIBLE] in '96. So I had a good run of things there.
And in 1998, I was just playing really well. And my putting was struggling a little bit the week before at the Australian, which we'll talk about later where the Australian Open is this week. I shot, like 8 under and came about 7th or so.
People hit, like 63 greens in regulation that week. I had a really good ball-striking week. My putting was not very good at the Australian. So I just knew if I could get my putter right.
And all of a sudden, I did. And I went out and I shot 10 under the first round. And ended up shooting 24 under for the week and breaking the shark's record by five strokes. So that was a pretty fun thing to do, especially with him being my idol growing up.
Yeah, mate. I'll never forget that total. That was just one of those scores that raises your eyebrows when you see it.
And tell the people that are listening today-- of course, we know that Australia has tremendous golf courses. But they're really congregated in Melbourne where you grew up. And we know that, of course, it's called the Sandbelt. And that's apparently where there was sort of an ocean that was in the middle of Australia millions of years ago and drained out right through your backyard over there.
And mate, tell us about some of those courses that are so famous there in a row. And what was that like? Because it was so intimidating for me as a kid going to Melbourne, putting on these greens. Hard for people to believe listening to his podcast, mate. But a typical day down there at Royal Melbourne [INAUDIBLE], you might be putting on greens that are older than 13, 14, 15. Just any old schoolboy championship.
Yeah. And you know, also when we get that north wind off the desert, that everything dried out and got even faster. I was always a good fast green putter growing up in Melbourne. I'm obviously used to that. And you know, I didn't know how good the courses were.
You grow up and they're right there. And you're just [INAUDIBLE] with them and you're used to it. But once I started traveling around, it really opens my eyes just how lucky I was to grow up in that area.
We had wind. We had four seasons as you know. As the Sydney people like to joke about our weather. But we had a lot of different conditions that we got to play in. And it really helped us, I think, even all of Australia. Sydney's still windy and things like that. We had a lot of varying conditions that really put us in good stead for later on when we had to travel around the world and play these other style of courses and different conditions.
Yeah. As we all, both of us, have gotten a little long in the tooth, mate. And we're not playing the tour regular now. And you've turned a lot of your attention now to coaching.
And I know because I know you, you've taught almost all kinds of people. You've taught young children. One of the best-looking young players I've ever seen is in your stable right now. And you've taught a lot of LPGA girls. As well as currently, you have PGA Tour players on your roster.
Mate, what's it like teaching the LPGA girls? What's that like?
It was actually quite easy. I think, for the most part, the women have probably a little bit more fundamentally sound golf swings because they can't overpower the club and they tend to use the physics of their body a little bit better to try and create speed. Whereas, men may overpower it a little bit more with their hands and arms and things like that.
So I did a little bit of work with Sophie Gustafson and one of the girls in Australia, Tammy [? Borden. ?] Did a bit of work with her. And they're both tremendous hitters of the ball.
And even the pros I work with. I've worked with Greg Chalmers and Robert Allenby. It's quite easy to teach a pro because I think at some point, whatever I'm showing them-- and I'm only showing them physics of golf. It's nothing new. I haven't invented the wheel with what I teach. But I think the ball doesn't know who's hitting it. And it really does what it's told.
So for the most part, the pros have done what I'm trying to point them back to at some point in their career in their swings. And it's quite easy, because if you've done something before, the feels and the logics come back to you quite swiftly. So that's the easy part of things. It's quite basic.
I think as you get into teaching the higher handicapped people, they don't have a lot of those dynamics of their swing. So some of the stuff is quite foreign to them. And they need a lot more work. You've got to point them to something they've never felt before. Rather than with the pros, I'm showing them something that's sort of stuck in their memory to some degree.
So it's a little bit more overhaul with the basic golfer that doesn't know all that previously. But if you give them the right tools and they're determined to work on it, it works. Because like I've said previously, the golf ball just does what it's told to do.
So if you're providing the right physics on it. I teach things a little bit differently for the average guy. I teach him impact first. We've all heard impact is the most important thing. But they need to have a really good understanding of that. Because for the most part, they're doing it wrong. So
Sometimes, you can back pedal a little bit by getting them to work on that and understand it and feel it. But long term, I'm a big believer in if your body can do something, it can repeat more often. And then when that happens, your brain won't get in the way. So it's a little bit more long haul with the basic golfer, but it definitely works.
And I've had success with guys from 20 handicap dropping down to a 2 within a year's work just from doing the right stuff. So it definitely works.
No one is unteachable, even though you might think sometimes [INAUDIBLE].
Diane, you've got some hope for you.
Don't you be so cheeky. But Bradley, I was going to ask you about that-- from my point of view, as someone that-- I've been playing golf for, I would say, properly for maybe about a year and a half now.
My brother, Russell Knox, plays on [INAUDIBLE]. Golf's been in my family for a very long time. It's probably something that I rebelled against for a while because if your younger brother is doing it, then it's not very cool to follow in his footsteps.
But from my point of view, I might find it quite intimidating to go to a former PGA Tour player, someone like you that's had a huge amount of success themselves. For me, it might be quite an intimidating process, thinking, oh my gosh, I'm never going to be good enough but do you see people from that level all the time?
Absolutely. Yeah, Like I said, if you're doing the right things, and you're repeating them, and you're doing over and over, it's going to get better.
The hardest thing about, I think, golf instruction is there's so many outlets now. Read it in newspapers or magazines. And we got the Golf Channel that's on your TV all day long. And you hear a lot of differing thoughts.
And whether you want to pay attention to them or not, a lot of that is getting mixed in your brain. So you're hearing all these things. So I just did some more filming with Elk down at Sea Island, Georgia, about a month ago. It was a beautiful spot. Can't wait to see the videos of that.
And we did one at Champions a couple of years back. Maybe step three, we'll get Diane out and we'll do the whole thing. And film a little series and see how good we can get you.
Get me down to a two handicap.
This is must-see TV. Must-see TV, for sure.
I'm OK with that. So would you coach anyone? And if someone came to you, is there any sort of a stipulation you would have? Or someone that's never picked up a golf club before in their life, would you start with them straight away?
As long as they enjoy golf and they realize there's a little bit of a process to it and they want to get better, that's good enough for me. I'm happy to help anyone.
In fact, my first person I ever really taught-- I came up with-- and Elk's seen some of the stuff that I work on with these basic people. And when I came up with the idea or planned for it, I actually used Guinea pig. A person that was not very good at golf. Their best score was 130. And I thought, this would be a really good test to test my ideas of what I thought would work to help someone improve out of sight.
And he did that. We went to work. I showed him one of my first things. We worked on that for a little while, progressed along. So long story short, he called me up about two months later after we first started. And remember, his best score was 130. He called me up excited at night from playing a round of golf and he said he had broken 100 for the first time.
Wow.
That's over 30 shots in 2 months. But the big thing about that was not only did he break 100. He went through the 90's. He shot 88.
Wow.
So he dropped over 40 strokes within 2 months. And then by the end of the year, his best score had gone from 130 to 74. And that's when I knew that I had a winner with what I'd planned and thought out. And ultimately, started teaching a lot of people.
That's amazing. That's so good.
So asking you about that a little bit. You were really famous-- in my mind, you were, when you [INAUDIBLE] 4:30 delivery path, which basically, just for this podcast, there's so much you can do, whatever you're going to do on the back swing. But there's sort of this real common delivery path or angle which sort of resembles the hands on a clock coming into the ball. It's very similar to-- all good players do that. And you've found that to be true.
Mate, I got to ask you, teaching the new tour players. And of course, you and I, we never had any cameras. We never had any TrackMan. Do you or some of your players now need that? Or how do you balance that situation out?
Well, I can do all that stuff if I want to. But I think a lot of those things are more not for my benefit or not even for the person's benefit. You can show them things. But even like numbers on a machine or lines on a video, some of those things alter, change. They look different based on the shot you're hitting. So I'm not a slave to all that stuff.
I think the important thing is understand-- or getting the student to understand what it feels like. And if you can get that, what a good shot feels like, and then consistently start doing it more and more and more, then you can determine the difference between what's a good swing and what's a bad swing because you'll feel it rather than-- and you'll learn from the ball flight and things like that. I teach them that. But I don't think you need to be a slave to the video and even slave to numbers.
I mean, I could get a number on a screen there and it worked well for that shot. But then, how do you repeat it? Well, you don't want to be trying to get that same number again. You want to internally feel.
And I think Jackie Burke said this before, too. [? We ?] spent a lot of time with the inside really moves what's happening on the outside. So the view people get of a golf swing is more what's happening from inside the body rather than what the club and everything is doing. So that's why I'm a big believer in feel is more important than look.
I'll never forget a quote from one of our great legends of Australia, Peter Thompson, who won five British Opens, who was known as maybe having the most simple swing that ever was. And he never used to watch his swing on TV or on the video.
And one time, he saw it. Right after he'd won his fifth British Open, someone showed him his swing on the video camera. And he was doing a news broadcast not long after that. And they said, well, what did you think of your swing? He said, I've never been so disappointed in my life. He said, in my mind, it didn't look like that.
And mate, I've got to be honest. I don't like looking at my swing. Because when I see it on-- and I have a good swing. Always been known to having a good swing. But when I look at it on the video, I always say, well, I should change that just a little bit right there. Can't ever let it go. right?
Yeah. And I think that's important to not film your swing every time. You can look at it in a month's time down the road after you've done the work. I think it's really hard. Unless you're a really good player and have done things before, like I've mentioned, you're not going to change your swing by thinking something. And everyone knows that.
They say, well, I'm going to tilt my head here. And I'm going to lift my hands up here. And I'm going to do something different. And then, they film it and it doesn't look any different at all. So that's why the drill stuff that I came up with, that's more body-orientated. And it's all with a golf club. We're not swinging towels, and fans, and things like that. It's all golf club-orientated.
And once you change, basically the range of motion and the little different things in your body, that's how the swing starts to look different. So it's important to look at it, to see any changes that are forthcoming. But you know, not full-on every day, all day. It's more of a progression.
I always try and tell my students, we're here for a marathon. We're not here for a sprint.
And of course, you can demonstrate all this as well. And a lot of your drills-- and in fact, you put together a little-- I was with you at Sea Island as you noted about a month ago. And my son, Sam, was having a little trouble with one part of his swing. And you were nice enough to put a couple of drills for him on video.
And I'm pleased to tell you, mate, he's got that club coming out real nice now at 4:30. And he's back to hitting it. He beat me the other day, which I said, Hughes caused this. This was all caused by Hughes down in South Carolina, this loss.
Bradley, one thing I want to ask you about. And you were talking about Sea Island. And we were there not long ago shooting our Patton Kizzire Player Channel. And a big bit of what Patton was talking about was working out and being in the gym. And it is something that more and more, this is now a big part of it. I guess it's being a professional athlete. You want to keep your body toned, in check, and make sure you're doing the correct exercises.
And when Patton was there, his kind of workout coach was talking about posture, rotation, balance. Is that something that you incorporate into your coaching?
I do. I think if you do all the drills that I worked out, I think a lot of it takes care of some of that. I think flexibility is a big thing. And strength in certain areas is a big thing.
And just based on that, I'll tell you a quick story. I had Pete Sampras come and do some lessons with me. A big, strong tennis player champion, major records and all that. And I got him to my first drill that Elk talked about, the 4:30 drill. And we do that two-handed, and left-handed, and right-handed.
So he's a big, strong guy, obviously from years of flicking the ball around the court. And he could do six of the single-handed ones and then his arm hurt. So you could see that he's strong, but he wasn't as strong in the golf-specific areas that I sort of designed them around.
So I think working out is a tremendous facet of it. As long as you're working on the right things. And we know Gary Player used to pull a weight up-- a piece of string a connected to a rod. And he's working his wrists.
And Ben Hogan used to squeeze a tennis ball working his wrists and fingers. And you know, there's a lot of specific areas that are very golf-related and some aren't. So I think there's a fine line between that. And I did provide to my students a workout regime based around the drills also, if they do like to hit the gym and do that. Just so they keep things in tune with the whole process and not overdo it in the wrong areas.
Good. It's interesting.
I'll get blown up like I always do on this, but I always say that if you workout an hour a day for six days a week, I'd rather have the six hours on the range, still hitting three irons or something. That was my workout, staying out there and getting a lot of endurance.
I don't think anyone's ever improved their golf from working out. I think they improved their swing. They might improve their balance. That might improve their core strength. But mate, they're not going to lower their scores from being in the gym. And I do agree, it's that fine line.
I think the strength in golf comes from the correct motion, as you said about Pete Sampras. I'm the same as you, mate. I Take guys out to the golf. And we can hit a little of balls. A lot of forearm strength, a lot a leg strength, a lot of butt strength, and lower back strength.
But mate, I think probably the missing link to the modern day-- it's not missing-- Is the flexibility in the shoulders. And being what I call "rubbery," springy like a Greyhound. That's the golf body that I think is the best one. Because everyone has their own and they can't do anything about it. But I think that rubbery, springy body.
And I think one of the best tools for working out and keeping your body in tune is hitting balls. It's I never used to workout when I was younger and just hit a bunch of balls. And you know, kids-- I'd sleep in a tent on the range overnight and be up at 6:00 AM when the birds started chirping or the mowers came around, and bang balls, and go play three rounds of golf, and things like that. And you were always working on the right things.
Obviously, golf. There's a left side and a right side. And one can turn more than the other. So it's OK to increase flexibility on both sides. You'll even see guys swinging left-handed now to try and motivate the muscles to work in both directions. But you know, hitting balls is one of the greatest things you can do.
You look at Trevino and Player. I mean, Player work out, too. But I doubt Trevino worked out. The He used to hit ball after ball after ball and still be fit as a fiddle and have all the right motion in there and do whatever he wanted to with it.
Same with Jack, I assume.
Yeah, I agree with you. And I think Vijay Singh was-- he's the one who hit the most balls. But he used to work out, too. And I know you're friends with Vijay.
Was he one of your partners in one of the President's Cup matches? You played a lot of matches with Vijay. You helped him on occasion, I know.
Yeah. He was at Australia playing the Masters one year and he just saw me hitting balls. I was actually playing. And we were playing at Royal Melbourne, actually. He said, hey, coach or mate, come have a look at what I'm trying to think of here. What would you suggest? And I gave him a couple of thoughts about it. And he went out and shot 63 the next day. So that's living proof that a pro can pick up things real quick.
Yeah. I think once you get the right thought back in there. Now, mate, you've been around the tour all season. What is the vibe on the tour? Where are these guys? You got Tiger Woods is getting ready to come back out. There's been so much conjecture about his coach and whatever you want to call it over there. What's going on over there?
Yeah. I don't know, that's a hard one to fathom. I think, just from some of the swings that he's posted, it doesn't look any different to me. He was in a tough boat, because, one, he was injured and he had a lot of time off. But I would have thought over that period that he would have had a lot more deep thinking about, what do I have to do with this swing to, 1, hit the ball better? And 2, to not hurt myself again?
And I've never had to have an operation or anything, so I can't say this 100%. But I would have thought all those injury specialists, you've worked on him or you've had an operation, it's quite easy to flare up again if your pattern stays similar, your swing pattern.
There was a reason that he got hurt. And I don't see any difference in his swing now. I thought he may have used that time a bit more wisely to come up with a better plan to resist the swing that hurt him previously and come up with something different. But I don't see that at the moment. So time will tell what happens. He's made a couple of comebacks before from injury, and they both ended up in tragedy again. So we'll just have to wait and see.
I've always said that when you have players like Tiger Woods, or Rickie Fowler, or Dustin Johnson, that's not very hard to coach guys that are already better than everyone else to stay better than them, right? They don't need much because they're already better.
Did Tiger paint himself into a corner when he was getting away from the other coaches and he was trying to look for something different? I mean, I'm sort of answering my own question here a little bit, but I want to hear it from you because you're in the business more on the coaching side.
I went to trying to find the numbers on TrackMan, and the launch angles, and so on. Was that a waste of time?
Well, I think he was in a tough position. And even some of the other guys you mentioned in that. For the most part, he could do anything better than anyone else. So what coach could teach him to improve? And I think that's where I've had success because I could actually do a lot of the things that I'm telling these guys. And some of the coaching is very-- well, it's not performance-based on that person. It's more of an I can see something in someone. Let me make up a logic involved about it, like a flavor of the month thing, and try and get you to do it.
But unless you can do it yourself, I think it's a lot harder to pass that information on. I think Tiger just got stuck into the mold of his body wanted to do one thing and his brain from other sources were telling him to do something else. And it just didn't match up.
I think if my computer broke down and I could make a phone call overseas somewhere or I could get Bill Gates in to help me, I'd get Bill Gates in. I'd get someone that could do it better than the previous person. And you know, that's a hard thing for him because he's number 1 player in the world just about ever.
So I think you can only learn off people who could-- at least your level, or standard, or something like that. And you know, it's something that we've see in tennis. Recently, a lot of the tennis players are now going to former tennis players to coach them. Because they understand not so much the action. You don't have to know your action to be a good player. You can just do things. But it's good to have someone that maybe jumped in the field as a coach to be able to explain why you are doing that. What's the reason behind it? Because they've been through it themselves.
Golf probably won't go that track too much because most of the players are still playing. They're not jumping fields like I have and going out into the coaching side of things. But I think as an added benefit, like even one of the guys you worked with from one of your things, Larry Mowry. He was a good player. He's going to be able to hand things down to people that he experienced. And not just swing-wise. The mental side, and the preparation, all different things, being a full tournament player rather than just being on the range watching people hit balls.
I wish I could have known Larry Mowry when he played on the Champions Tour. I probably would have stayed out there and played it just because of his enthusiasm. He was a guy that never played on a regular tour. Only played when he got to the [INAUDIBLE] Champions Tour and won about 15 times out there, including his greatest day was when he was paired with Gary Player and Arnold Palmer in the final round of the Senior PGA. And he was two-shot lead and they just knew he was going to croak. And he ends up winning by 6. So that was Larry Mowry.
It's no surprise to me when I think of the top players in the world now that have had longstanding relationships with the same coach. When you think about Dustin Johnson. Even though he's [? in the ?] Butch Harmon, he's got the same swing he had when he was younger.
Jordan Spieth, same guy for 30 [? years. ?]
Justin Thomas, his dad. Brooks Koepka, same. Just all these guys have had these longstanding relationships where they haven't changed their swing. And it seems to me that the change, mate. When they change, you can't beat me if I'm playing that good for 30 years and my swing's all grooved in there. And then you're going to change and you expect to come back out and beat them. Can't do it.
Well, we saw Jack Nicklaus. He had Jack Grout his whole life pretty much. And he used to go see him in January for a day, and that was it. You He learned to understand his golf swing, not anyone else's. And he understood how it worked. And he'd just get a little brush-up with Jack Grout at the start of the year. And that's important.
Because when you're out playing, even if you do have your coach there, and you got your caddy out there and everything, the best thing is for you to know your action. So if something does go south-- and it always does to a degree at some point during a round or even during a week. You know how to fix it yourself. And you're not searching for swing 42 [? AB. ?] You don't play 15 different swings until it gets right. You know the essence of being a good golfer is if you hit a bad shot-- and we all do-- you know how to fix it immediately.
And I think with all the tools and all these other things, some of these guys don't know how to fix their swing immediately. They're on the phone to a coach straightaway, like with the SOS for help. And they get lost and wrapped around in circles because they're trying so many different things to try to get back on track.
Well, I never asked you this, but I can tell you this and you'll believe it. Because I know you'll see this. But whenever I got in trouble, I always aimed a little too far left, which made me slide my knees too far down through the hitting zone. So I'd start to get sideswiped. So I always had to square off a little bit and not slide as much was always the two things that I had to work on to make sure my club face was stable.
Mate, I've never asked you this question. What was yours? What was your thing that you had to watch? Because you were a great striker of the ball always.
Yeah, mine's the same thing. I'm very right-eyed dominant. I got whacked in the head with a golf club when I was young. My vision out of my left eye is good, but it's weak. That's why I always wore sunglasses because I squint and I can't see. I can't even keep my left eye open when the sun's out. So I was very right-eyed dominant. I tend to get on top of the ball and maybe aim right. I'd be the opposite to you. I'd aim right and want to look at it backwards towards the target with my right eye. And that would just tend to get me on top of the ball a little bit too much. And I'd have to fall back and try and release my hands and flick it back around the corner.
So I sort of went the opposite to you. I had to feel like I opened my stance up and set up a little bit more behind it. Then, I try [? to do a ?] wide takeaway, which we've discussed in some of our videos together, to make sure I got behind the ball and stayed there for as long as I could.
Well, we have some very exciting things coming to Secret Golf, as you know. You've been helping us develop it.
Diane, you should have learned a lot today. How was that?
Very, very interesting. I have learned a lot. And that's the thing, Bradley. You've been there, done it. You've played on tour. You know what it's like out there.
I think a big side of it is the mental side of things. And you know that. So when you're coaching these people, you know exactly what to tell them. You know exactly how to prepare them. And as you say, you get great results. And you know how to knock the shots off the round.
We do have your player channel on at secretgolf.com. So people can go and look at that right now because you've got it all up there with some tremendous videos and some brilliant coaching tips.
What would you like people to takeaway from your player channel on Secret Golf?
I'd like that there is-- while there are certain things that we're looking for in a golf swing, they don't have to be perfect. Everyone is going to look a little bit different based on how-- like I just mentioned. Like based on your eye dominance. Based on your strengths in your legs, or your arms, or your core. Everyone is going to look different. So trying to swing like another person is really playing with fire because we're all built differently. We all see things differently.
But as we've seen over the years of all the great players through history, there are certain things that they all do very similar in certain points of the golf swing. So they're the important stuff. The rest is [? ascetics ?] and we don't have to get too involved. We'd like to have our own individual style and flair based around a dynamic swing and how the club can really work to our benefit.
And keeping the fundamentals, I guess. There's those basic set fundamentals. And those are the things that you work on and make sure you've got right.
Yeah. And I think the important thing is to find your own fundamentals. Like work out what works for you, don't base it around what everyone else, says, thinks, or does.
OK, good.
And of course, the signature is always in the sky, mate. We always know that that's the true judgment of all, whether it's flying right down to the line and trajectory that you are desiring.
Before I let you go, mate. It's been a fascinating conversation, of course, being with you. And I always enjoy my time together. Mate, the Australian Open this week is at the Australian. Sam and I got to play the redo of Jack Niklaus's masterpiece right there in the middle of Sydney.
Mate, that course, they've lengthened it about-- oh, I think a couple of hundred yards. And they've added some bunkers. Jordan Spieth, of course, is going back down. That's exciting. Jason Day is down there.
It's our premier event, mate. And I was lucky enough to win that tournament in '92 just across the highway there at the Lakes. What do you recall? And what are people going to be looking forward to about the [INAUDIBLE]? You know that course well.
I do. I actually played there a few years back. The first one that they [? redid. ?] And I think Jordan Spieth might have won that. Shot an amazing, like 63.
He did. 64 last day, I think. Yeah.
Yeah. And that course was too hard for me. I wore my three iron out. I just [? hit, ?] drive a three iron into every hole. It was a tough, really tough test. And it's a long course. Obviously, it's a great test. You're not going to have a fluke winner. You're going to have someone that's really up in the upper echelon of golf.
You look for those guys that you mentioned to really perform-- to perform well and get up there. And two of my guys, Robert Allenby and Greg Chalmers, have won it before on a couple of occasions. They're over there playing, so I'll be keeping a keen eye on it and seeing if they can snatch it away from Jordan and get another third trophy in their hands.
And Diane, your brother is not visiting Australia this time. So we're safe there from the Scottish contingent. I'm sure there will be some Scots in the field. But mate, it will be pretty tough on them Scots over there. It's going to be about 100 degrees.
He played the World's Cup, the Golf World Cup was in Australia. And played the Australian Open at the same time. But he still speaks about the golf courses out there and just said that he had an amazing time and would definitely like to go back one day.
OK. Well, listen, [INAUDIBLE]. Thanks for this very interesting call today, talking about coaching with all the players in the world of golf. Looking forward to all the work that we'll be doing this season. We've got some very exciting stuff coming to Secret Golf, and wanted to thank you for all your support and your contributions to the channel, mate. Fantastic.
You're welcome. It's been a lot of fun. Hopefully, people are getting better on behalf of my instruction that I've got on there.
I'm sure they definitely are. Bradley, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Thanks, [INAUDIBLE].
Thank you, Diana.
So Elk, great to have Bradley. He's on today. As we said, he's a big supporter of Secret Golf. We got his player channel with all of his advice and instruction on there right now. But also, he's a good friend of yours. And you really respect and admire what he's done in the past and what he's doing now.
Oh, yeah. I mean, he's been a great player his whole career. He's been a renowned ball striker. I mean, he grew up idolizing Greg Norman. He has that real wide swing on the back swing, and hits the ball a mile for a little guy. I mean, when I say "little," he's-- I don't know. He's 5'11", I suppose. 5'10", 5'11". Good, thick build.
But you know, the thing about coaches. I've always been attracted to coaches, like Jackie Burke and Claude Harmon Sr. But Hughes is one of those unusual coaches which can play the game at a pro level. He can articulate the game to all different levels. And most importantly, he can demonstrate what he's trying to show the student.
Unfortunately, I was telling someone the other day in golf instruction or golf teaching, there's no regulation in golf teaching. I mean, you could open a shop tomorrow, Diane, and say you're giving lessons. And you could take people's money. There is no regulation to being a golf coach. But
So to me, he has that 30-year apprenticeship of playing the tour and actually learning what works. And I think I learned a few things just listening to him today, which was the internal causes the external. We know that, but I like hearing it more.
So many people-- my son and a lot of the younger generation-- just totally look at the camera to see what the angle of the shaft is saying. And it's just not relevant to the bigger picture. It's just a piece of the pizza. It's not the whole slab.
That was really interesting to me. I enjoyed that. And yeah, as we said, all of his videos online at secretgolf.com. So you can go and have a look at them.
And I'm going to take him up on the offer of the free lessons when I next see him, too. Definitely.
No doubt. He'll get you delivering at that famous 4:30 path.
I want those people who haven't seen some of his videos and drills to go to the 4:30 delivery path. It's very, very good content.
So last week on the PGA Tour, we have to mention the RSM Classic was in Sea Island, the home of Patton Kizzire and Brian Harmon, two players that we have. And Brian finished great. Tied fourth end of the season now, but that was amazing for him.
Yes, it was. Those that don't know Brian Harmon very well-- and one of the great things about Secret Golf and having some of these players that people don't get to see that much is they are going to get to learn all about them. And I'm so excited for Harmon. I texted him last night and told him-- mate, I said, your 2018 season, his potential was coming out for this year is so strong. I mean, he's Ryder Cup. He's all that coming up. [? Tournament ?] winner.
When I said the end of the season, it's the end of the [INAUDIBLE] season. And Harmon's played the 3 events so far and had 3 top 10 finishes. So for him--
I think 3 top 5.
Yeah.
3 top 5.
Amazing. So a little bit of time off, and then heading into January fully refreshed, which is going to be great.
Thanksgiving this week as well. So are you guys in the Elkington household in Houston having a big shindig?
Well, we are. We're going to go down to [INAUDIBLE], which is where we feed all the homeless. We're going to go down there and do that. That's a nice balancing point for our family. We all go down there together and do that.
Maybe I'll put some pictures up.
Yes, definitely.
See what that's [INAUDIBLE] all about.
And then, have Thanksgiving dinner later in the day as a family?
That's right. And then, wrestle on the floor.
Oh, gosh.
Punch Sam.
Oh, wow. Yeah, my brother, Russell, is home.
You punch your brother.
I'll punch him, for sure. I haven't seen him for long enough. So he's going to be home now for a little while. And it will be good to actually have a day with him where he has to hang out with me and speak to me.
Oh, he has to be with his sister. That's the truth, isn't it?
It's the one day. I'm going to get him a little bit for Thanksgiving, a little bit on Christmas day. And I probably won't see him much in between.
It's so true. Actually, I have to book a lesson. I have to book a time to see my kids. Like, come see me. Come up and visit. Let me watch you practice, whatever. No, Dad, I'm not--
That's what happens.
[INAUDIBLE]. Not happening today.
I know. It just happens. That's exactly how it is with my family, too.
All right. Well, thank you. It was a good podcast today. Good to get Bradley on. Good to talk to you, as always. And have a lovely Thanksgiving. Love to all the family.
Thank you.
[THEME MUSIC]