About halfway through a brain-bending 45-minute range session with Jordan Spieth, I ask what might be a very dumb question.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you could turn your brain completely off and just swing the golf club, what would happen?\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth doesn\u2019t hesitate, which suggests he\u2019s thought plenty about this before. That\u2019s always a safe assumption with Spieth, who may have the most active mind in professional golf: he\u2019s thought plenty about this before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be horrendous,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you said \u2018don\u2019t think and just swing\u2019 \u2014 I\u2019ve never actually played like that. I\u2019ve always had a manipulating feel through my backswing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spieth explains that he needs to have something to focus on as he takes the club away or things go awry.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of a level of 10 difficulty going back, I always like it to be somewhere like a four or five for what to think about. And that normally sets the timing up. That\u2019s just in the backswing; from there it\u2019s be an athlete and hit the shot. But if I think about nothing, I get all sorts of messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been filming \u201cWarming Up\u201d episodes<\/a> for two years now, and it\u2019s been arguably the coolest thing I\u2019ve gotten to do in this job \u2014 a lineup of bucket-list interviews and pinch-me moments. But I\u2019ve stayed greedy, too, keeping Spieth\u2019s name atop my wish-list from Day 1. <\/p>\n At last, this winter, through a happy combination of persistence, acquiescence and scheduling, we landed the big fish: Spieth agreed to spend some time with us on a driving range of his choosing \u2014 and to open up a window into his beautiful golfing mind.<\/p>\n You can watch the full episode below or on YouTube here<\/a>. But if you\u2019re in reading mode, below you\u2019ll find 10 lessons \u2014\u00a0about his game, golf in general or life in general \u2014\u00a0that\u2019ll stick with me. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n “><\/p>\n 10 lessons from Jordan Spieth1. Be an athlete and an artist.<\/p>\n Mess around, Spieth says, especially as you begin your warmup. He grabs a 60-degree wedge and starts with some quarter- and half-swing wedge shots, hitting his first balls only 20 yards or so, working his way up a few yards at a time.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important to finding his feel is varying the types of shots he\u2019s hitting, even at short range.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not all the same shot,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll work some different heights and then when I get to about 60 yards I\u2019ll start hitting three trajectories at 60 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime he messes around with opening the face, creating spin, hitting one shot he\u2019ll hope will hit and stop and another he hopes will run out more. He\u2019s using different planes of motion, he says, to try out different shots.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just kind of being an athlete, being an artist with the wedge, and then as you get more into full shots, you\u2019ve maybe got a little bit better club-face control than if you just started doing it from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Have intention.<\/p>\n When Spieth first played on the PGA Tour he was a high-school phenom with no real warm-up routine. One of the things he learned watching the pros? Do everything with intention.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t go to the gym when I was 16 before [the round], no warm-up, and I\u2019d just kind of hit whatever I wanted to [on the range],\u201d he says. That was the difference. \u201cTo watch guys actually deliberately have intention even in their warmups versus just kind of getting loose.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Practice real shots from the course.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some shots that you might need on certain holes out there,\u201d Spieth says. Because it\u2019s golf, you don\u2019t know exactly what shots you\u2019ll face when you get out on the course. But you do know a few of \u2019em: \u201cThe par-3s, I\u2019ll ask that yardage and I\u2019ll make sure I hit that club. You always say you\u2019re \u2018second-team All-American;\u2019 [when you hit two balls] that second ball\u2019s amazing. Well, I\u2019ll just make sure that my second ball is the first ball that I hit out on that par-3. So you\u2019re trying to hit the shot, you see it, you feel it, you know it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Work the ball towards the hole (at your own risk)<\/p>\n Spieth grew up playing a draw but now hits majority fades. Still, when he\u2019s playing his best he likes to be able to move it both ways so that he can take on every hole location \u2014\u00a0especially given the PGA Tour likes to tuck them in corners.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just have these pins where it\u2019s like, if you play a fade, you sometimes just can\u2019t get it close. It\u2019ll be spinning with the hill on a left pin and you just can\u2019t get it close. And that\u2019s probably okay, but it\u2019s a pet peeve of mine. It bugs me that it\u2019s not going to be working towards the hole. So I always want to be able to hit the draw.\u201d<\/p>\n But there is a protective measure Spieth takes to make sure he\u2019s not getting too risky as he takes on every pin.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I\u2019m hitting a draw or a fade, I\u2019m training myself that that ball cannot over-curve,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it under-curves, I\u2019m in the fat part of the green. If it over-curves, I\u2019m short-sided.\u201d<\/p>\n Under-curving, then, is the goal.<\/p>\n 5. Appreciate your 7-iron \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s the best club.<\/p>\n I liked that Spieth was able to go full golf-nerd \u2014 talking planes of motion, degrees of rotation, swing DNA, etc. \u2014\u00a0while also making the simplest statement of them all: he likes the way 7-iron looks the most.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m holding 7-iron. I love my 7-iron,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, my favorite iron to look at. It\u2019s the perfect rectangle. It just has that look to me.\u201d<\/p>\n For those curious, Spieth generally hits 7-iron anywhere from 175 to 190 yards, depending on the conditions \u2014\u00a0though at the Open Championship all rules go out the window and he may hit 7 from 150. As for when to hit 7 vs. 6? That depends not just on yardage to the hole but pin position, too; if he has to stop the ball quickly he\u2019d rather step on a 7-iron than try to hit a baby 6. Also, again, it looks the best.<\/p>\n READ: Here\u2019s what Ludvig \u00c5berg taught me in a half-hour on the range<\/a><\/p>\n 6. Remember: Golf can work in opposites. <\/p>\n Explaining his current feel, Spieth hits on something interesting:<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times the game works in opposites,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta feel right to go left, y\u2019know? Like, whenever someone\u2019s slicing it, [tell them] to swing to the right. They\u2019re like, \u2018no way, it\u2019s gonna go further right,\u2019 but they square it up.\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder if Spieth dishes out anti-slice advice every pro-am hole he plays. He says he\u2019ll wait until prompted.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to wait until someone asks because I don\u2019t really want them giving me advice unless I were to ask,\u201d he says. Wait \u2014 Jordan Spieth is getting advice?! \u201cBetween pro-ams and mail and everything, I promise I\u2019ve had all kinds of advice. I don\u2019t see or hear it all, but yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Making a swing change? Stress-test it.<\/p>\n As Spieth has chased a complex hybrid of his past and present golf swings (the backswing depth of his 2017 self, the hand path of his younger self, the gym routine of his current self, etc.) he has tried to work in that new swing first in a controlled range setting and gradually gotten it ready for competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve moved from hitting most of the shots in a hitting bay on video the first eight weeks to checkpoints in the hitting bay and then outside \u2026 and then do performance,\u201d he says. Performance means setting up a combine for himself, stress-testing specific shots on command, three-quarters shots, different feels and shapes in different conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt had to be swing-focused for a little while \u2026 and while it requires a little more focus than I\u2019d like to play at my best, I\u2019m able to make really good swings on the course, which \u2014\u00a0it took a while to get to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. Find a good measuring stick.<\/p>\n For Spieth, that\u2019s World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who happens to live near Spieth and serve as a frequent sparring partner.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we play games at home, I play with play with Scottie quite a bit at home and we play with guys that are anywhere from a plus two to a two handicapper, and the separation isn\u2019t what it would be if we were playing out [on Tour] just strictly because of what you\u2019re mentioning, [tucked] pin positions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As for playing with Scottie?<\/p>\n \u201cObviously if you\u2019re playing playing with Scottie, you got a pretty good gauge on where you are compared to everyone else, right? So it\u2019s helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n 9. Forgive the past.<\/p>\n This comes in perhaps Spieth\u2019s most profound answer, one I keep thinking more about. What\u2019s it like, I ask, to have set such a high standard at such a young age that he\u2019s constantly compared to his own greatness? Here\u2019s his answer in full:<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be very challenging at times,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, I wouldn\u2019t wish a couple years of the last five, ten years on a lot of people. You live in problem-solving mode, trying to figure out how to be, whatever. And to know a lot of it is mechanics is even more frustrating because it\u2019s not like everything\u2019s fine and it\u2019s just coming. It\u2019s like no, I gotta actually\u2014<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time, knowing that once I get the club position the way, at least the way my DNA is, the way I want it to, then good things are right around the corner. Golf\u2019s funny, right? I\u2019m 32, so I could play at a very high level for another 10 years, and that\u2019s a long time. That\u2019s a full career for most any other sport. So I can forget about \u2014 I can forgive the past, I can be pumped about what I\u2019ve done, I can forgive the times that were hard and just be forward-focused with some scar tissue that can help, you know. So as long as I stay in that mindset, I do believe that good things are coming.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Be a goldfish.<\/p>\n