Hack It Out Golf

In this episode of the Hack It Out Golf podcast, Mark, Lou, and Greg talk coaching—and when to consider changing coaches. With some big name Tour players either changing coaches or making headlines from seeing new coaches, it's a good time to consider the reasons that you might find benefit in a different instructor. Greg will talk about his own experience with coaching on a Tour level, Mark bring...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. Following up on last week's episode, this week we're sitting on the tee of a 500 yard par 5 with a scratch golfer and a 20 handicap. On average, how many shots will it take each of them to finish the hole? Lou poses this question to Mark and Greg, and after sorting through the answers, they consider how these averages s...

The advice to lay up to your favorite yardage simply refuses to go away, and people who really ought to know better continue to advocate for a strategy that is objectively unsound. In this episode, Mark and Lou (minus Greg, who was out owning the Champions Tour) attack this myth again. They also give important clarification: in rejecting "laying up to a preferred yardage," are they advocating atta...

It's the first major of the year! In this episode, Mark, Greg, and Lou talk about the 2024 Masters, offering their projections for winners, notable missed cuts, and what Tiger Woods might do this year. Along the way, they talk about their own experiences at Augusta. Settle in for a great intro to one of the best week's in the golf year. Where to find us: Mark Crossfield's weekly newsletter: https:...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. In this episode, we're sitting on the tee of a 400 yard par 4 with a scratch golfer and a 20 handicap. On average, how many shots will it take each of them to finish the hole? Lou poses this question to Mark and Greg, and after sorting through the answers, they consider how these averages should shape our expectations a...

Last week, Hack It Out co-host Greg Chalmers continued his first season on the Champions Tour by qualifying for the Galleri Classic. Once again, he needed to play very well to continue to earn spots in upcoming Champions Tour events. In this episode, he's joined by Lou Stagner and Mark Crossfield as he recaps the week, from the Tuesday Qualifier, to playing the pro-am with a Hack It Out listener,...

Most years, the new driver releases boast about their new higher ball speeds and being the longest ever. This year, a major talking point for a few of the driver releases is their higher forgiveness, boasting 10K MOI specifications. In this episode, Mark leads Lou and Greg in a discussion of MOI, marketing, and whether these new drivers are likely to help your game in a way that you'll notice. Whe...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. 150 yards in the fairway is considered by many golfers to be a really ideal spot. Expectations are high; is a birdie in play? In this episode, Lou asks Greg and Mark what a scratch golfer and 15-index golfer should think of as being a good shot: one that, relatively to their handicap, loses no strokes. These answers are...

Serious question: are the clubs in your bag the very best clubs to help you shoot your lowest scores? Or are you (perhaps) refusing to use (totally legal!) gear that might help you play better? In this episode, Mark, Lou, and Greg talk about three clubs that you really need to consider owning and using if you want to play your best golf. Where to find us: Mark Crossfield's weekly newsletter: https...

Does your ball matter? Do you have a particular model ball that you play? Or if we opened your bag right now, would we discover two dozen random balls that you've found in the woods and water? In this episode, Mark, Lou, and Greg talk about the difference a good ball can make for your game, and what you should consider the next time you purchase a sleeve or a dozen. Where to find us: Mark Crossfie...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. In today's episode, we begin by refreshing the difference between average and median , and then the question is about median proximity to the hole for highly skilled and higher handicap golfers from 40 yards in the rough. Lou's numbers alongside Mark and Greg's guesses set the table for an important discussion for how b...

Last week's Players Championship was a great event, ending with a dramatic, heartbreaking lip out. Historically, this tournament has tended to have one of the strongest—if not the strongest—fields in professional golf. Obviously, that was slightly less true this year, with yet another major competitor having decided to play on the LIV Tour. In this episode, Mark, Lou, and Greg discuss some of the...

It's weird when we stop to think about it: almost none of us have to play golf. And yet very often, we allow aspects of our leisure activity to fill us with fear: terror about certains kinds of shots, pressure situations, or outcomes. In this episode, Lou, Mark, and Greg talk about their greatest golf fears and the steps they've taken to address them. Their advice here will help us all to enjoy ou...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. In this episode, Lou has chosen a stat that highlights the enormous importance of hitting greens. Suppose a scratch golfer is in the fairway, 125 from the pin. What's the expected difference in his scoring when he hits the green versus missing the green? Mark and Greg register their guesses, and then talk about ways to...

Gregulators: Mount Up! In this episode, Greg leads Mark and Lou through his very first Champions Tour event, the Cologuard Classic. Greg talks about the different "feel" around a Champions Tour event, the process of qualifying, some work he did to prepare for this event, and the challenges of trying to gain and retain starts on the Tour. Listen in as Greg recaps his very solid debut event! Where t...

When you're at the top of your backswing, where is your clubface pointing? And what does that mean for how the rest of your swing needs to work? In this episode, Mark, Lou, and Greg discuss not just clubface control, but clubface awareness : knowing and feeling what the clubface is doing all through the swing. They suggest drills that will help you develop the feel of the clubface—a major key to h...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. Many of us have spent the winter months working on indoor putting mats. When we return to the course, it's a bit shocking to remember that real greens don't have alignment lines. Making 15 straight ten-footers no longer seems quite so easy. In today's episode, Lou serves up a classic—and helpful—dose of expectation mana...

What does changing your grip do for your golf game? Turns out, it isn't quite so simple as "stronger goes left." In this episode, Mark leads Lou and Greg in a discussion on how golfers hold the club. Do you release a re-grip the club during your swing? Are you sure ? In what ways does grip interact with path? And did an episode of Project Lou break out in a non-Project Lou episode? (Answer: pretty...

Over the past couple of years, Mark Crossfield has gained serious distance. For a long time, it was a joke on Mark's YouTube reviews that, whatever driver, whatever ball, he always carried every tee shot 262 yards. Then he began to put real work into the science of how speed in generated in the swing. In this episode, he and Lou and Greg talk about what he's learned, to what degree he is limited b...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. Not all shots from 10-index players in the fairway from 150 yards are the same. At some courses, the greens are enormous. At others, the targets are tiny. How much difference is there for our 10-index golfer when he's attempting to hit these two greens? In this episode, Greg and Mark try to tackle that question from Lou...

For years, the consensus advice for golfers was to swing smoothly. We've all admired the superb players who seem to exert no effort at all. But in more recent years, we've learned the value of distance, and increasingly we've seen swings (even at the highest levels of golf) in which golfers swing so hard that they finish off-balance, recoiling the club back around. So what are we supposed to be do...

The PGA Tour continues to rebuild its membership structure on the fly, changing up who qualifies for a card and what events different players can get in. In this season, that has created a crunch for those who earned their cards through Q School, many of whom are struggling to get any starts on Tour so far. In this episode, Greg and Mark and Lou talk about these changes, what they mean for players...

Welcome to the "Saturday Morning Golf Stat" from the Hack it Out Golf Podcast. There are fewer attributes more requested by amateur golfers than consistency . What does that mean? In this episode, Lou quizzes Mark and Greg about the range of scores typical of a 10–15 index golfer, along with their "outlier" rounds, in which they score 5 shots better or worse than average. In addition to useful fac...

With the benefit of a few days past the event to cool down, Greg, Mark, and Lou take up the topic of the increasingly unruly fan behavior at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Was a line crossed? What is it like to be in the field when the gallery starts feeling free to engage in acts that might disrupt play? Where to find us: Mark Crossfield's weekly newsletter: https://www.crossfieldgolf.com/sub...

Hack It Out 's Greg Chalmers is making the transition from the PGA Tour to the Champions Tour. In this episode, Greg joins Lou and Mark to take us through his first Champions Tour Monday Qualifier. We'll learn about the different pressure of starting a round knowing that you have to go low, the knife-edge of being derailed by one swing, and Lou's plans to get Greg the tournament reps he needs to p...