Personal Guru – Page 2 – The Golf Guru Show

2010 in review: Thank You All For Supporting My Blog

January 2, 2011

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 21,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 120 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 144 posts. There were 130 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 87mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 3rd with 240 views. The most popular post that day was Guru’s Youtube.com Channel.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were danarader.com, twitter.com, facebook.com, mail.live.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for jason sutton golf, chambers bay, golf guru tv, d plane, and aimpoint golf.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Guru’s Youtube.com Channel June 2010
2 comments

“THE BALL FLIGHT LIES” AND THE “D-PLANE” February 2010
3 comments

A Practice Plan :Serious Golfers Only Please March 2010
2 comments

Guru’s Bio October 2009
9 comments

The Moment Of Truth January 2010
2 comments

I want to thank everyone for making 2010 a successful first year of blogging for me. I hope you have found the information helpful and I lo

20 Days With the Guru: Day 5….My Christmas List: What Do You Want Under Your Golfing Tree?

December 10, 2010

As the P.G.A. Tour schedule wind down and we have time to catch our breath, we should all find a quiet place to help us think. So what should we think about. What should we dream about. Should we look back on the past season of golf? Should we dare look ahead to the next year and want we want. The answer is YES, YES AND DID I MENTION YES. I don’t know where I find you in your golfing career. Some of you may be contemplating whether to play for a living. Some of you might be finishing up a college career (like the young Englishman that I gave a lesson to today), A few of you are looking to break new scoring barriers such as 90 or 80 and some might be just getting started with this great game. Regardless of where you are in golf, as long as you in it. That is what is important. As the stats reveal every year, there are just as many golfers leave the game as there are taking it up…..I am here to try to inspire you to embrace golf as you would your favorite blanket and let’s dream big for 2011. So what do you want Santa Guru to bring you for Christmas this year? Let me share my list of the 12 things I want under my tree:

12 new students with a passion for the game

11 junior golfers that want to play college golf

10 rounds of golf (compared to the 7 that I played this year)

9 new ideas about teaching and coaching that will help my students

8 flat lead wrists at impact

7 birdies on 9 holes with 6 putts

6 phone calls for people asking me to speak at their seminar or function

5 great book ideas for the winter that will help me grow

4 different major champions under 30 years old (including Ricky Fowler, please)

3 trips to top a top ten golf course (hopefully Augusta National if anyone is wondering)

2 P.G.A. Tour players to coach

1 Golf Magazine Top 100 List with my Name on it (It is spelled Jason E. Sutton)…..a guy can dream right

What can I do to help you reach your golfing dreams this upcoming year? I encourage all of you to evaluate your goals that you set this year, reflect, set goals for next year and develop a plan to get there. I would love to be a part of it.

If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.
Zig Ziglar

Follow me on twitter @twitter.com/onplanegolf

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason

Chicago Marathon Recap: God Wins Again

October 12, 2010

015 — Me and Friend Steve.....this guy did a 3:16....what a beast

Trying to collect myself and think back on all of the moments that happened in the last 3 days is overwhelming. I learn something about myself every time I compete in these endurance events. This was definitely an endurance event! There is a good reason that they don’t have too many marathons in the summer (with the exception of ultra events such as Badwater 135), because the heat makes it tough to stay hydrated and keep the muscles from cramping up. For those of you who have been under a rock, kidding, I was running for Team In Training and raising money for Leukemia while honoring my father in law, Butch Worrell who was diagnosed with LS in April. The virtual team is a collection of people from all over the country who have been in touch with the

071 — lunch with the fam on Saturday before the race

coach and mentors (Maureen, Tim and Lisa) through email and facebook but have not ever met. So we had a group run on Saturday where we got to put most of the faces with the names. It was great to share fundraising stories and really come together for the upcoming weekends events. Saturday night we had the TNT banquet and dinner in which i was recognized as the 2nd leading fundraiser in the country (over 20,000 dollars) which was cool and the MC was “the penguin” for those of you who run know him a the back in the packer. He was very entertaining. A girl spoke about how Leukemia had taken her mom and she was running as well, which really hit home in the fact that my father in law was going to beat cancer but many stories don’t end in a happy ending. It really hit me at this time why I was really here. My goals changed. Selfishly my time goal was to break 4 hours but as we approached race day the forecast didn’t look like it was going to allow it. High 60’s at the start and climbing into the high 80’s on the second half. Not good for fast times. I was so grateful that my father in law, mother in law, sister-in-law and wife and 2 kids could come and be a part of this great event.

For those of you who have not run or spectated at a major marathon can’t understand how many people (45,000 runners and 1.5 million spectators) embrace these things. The race started off fine and I was feeling ok as I made it to mile 12 at about 3:50 race pace. I managed to see my family and stopped and gave them all a hug which was cool. I told my wife to expect a very slow second half so she wouldn’t worry if she didn’t see me at the expected 3:45 to 4:00 slot because I wasn’t feeling great and I knew it was getting hot so I went on. I hadn’t got my head around the fact that it is ok to walk a bit in a marathon if needed, because I hadn’t walked in any of my other races (I should have at Marine Corp) for those who saw my last post), so when I started getting cramps in my calf’s at mile 15, I was forced to walk and stretch. A young man named Sean Flanagan, a member of Chicago Team in Training came up beside me and we engaged in conversation. When asked how I was doing, I replied, “not too good.” Come to find he was struggling a bit with the heat as well. It was his first marathon and I think we both needed some companionship and a distraction from the pain so we decided to run the rest of the way together. He pulled me along when I was cramping and I pulled him to the finish. We talked about life and our jobs, families and so forth until we reached the finish. We shared who we were running for and agreed that we were meant to suffer today for the ones who were suffering way more than us. We finished the race side by side and then hooked up at the charity tent for a

marathon finish with sean — finishing with Sean

closing picture. I don’t know if Sean will ever read this post but I hope to tell him how much it meant to me for his friendship and comradrie. At the charity tent I reunited with my family and put the medal around my father in laws neck as he was the champion for his positivity, support and for beating cancer. The running was the easy part. TIME. It was never about the time of my marathon but all about the time spent with the people you love, time spent creating long-lasting relationships with people who you had never met and Time to Reflect. Thank you for being a part of my very memorable Chicago Marathon weekend and allowing me to show you my heart……because without heart, love and faith…….what else is there. Hope did prevail and God Wins Again. Do you trust him, I sure do.

I promise that the golf tips will be coming soon as I can only focus on what is in front of me. There is a lot of the horizon for me in my career in the next few months so hold on and enjoy the ride and I will strive to bring you valuable content and insight on life and golf as I promised.

Humbled Guru

112 — we run for the medal or the t-shirt

Enjoy the pics of our great weekend

106 — back of my running shirt.....had to get the blog plug, right!

GOLF AND RUNNING: HOPE VS. DOUBT…..THE BATTLE PART 2

October 9, 2010

As I sit in my hotel room in Chicago, mentally preparing for the weekend ahead, I felt the need to share a little more about the importance of this upcoming race. As I write this my family (wife, 2 kids) and I just finished a wonderful meal in the hotel in which we got to spend some time with my mother in law, Judy, my sister-in-law, Tammy and the guest of honor, my father in law Butch. For those of you who haven’t followed my blog, I am running the Chicago marathon in his honor. Butch was diagnosed with Leukemia this past April. This led me to compete in another marathon and raise money for LLS with team in training(which I raised over 20000.00) *. So my first priority is to make sure that everyone has an enjoyable time and secondly, finish the race in one piece. This might seem like a given but sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Some of you that know me already know this story so I will give you the cliff notes which will help you understand my mindset as I stand at the starting line, both physically and metaphorically. I am no stranger to running as I have been doing it regularly since about 2005. For those who don’t know, I don’t do anything half way (my wife says I have OCD). I did my first race in 2005 (a 10k) and I was hooked on the whole man vs. race course thing and it is so much more but I don’t have time. It made me feel like an athlete. So I figured if I can do 6.2, whats another 20? Right? So with the help of my coach and now my best friend, Steve, we did the Chicago marathon in 2006. Everything went well for my first time but I needed more. I did a half mary in 07 after recovering from an Achilles rupture. So I was ready for another full. I didn’t get into New York I signed up for the Kiawah Marathon. Training was going fine until I got mononucleosis that summer, I promise I wasn’t kissing anyone but my wife. I ran into one of my students shortly after that was in the shoe business and offered me a free entry into the Marine Corp Marathon which was a couple of months earlier than Kiawah. I thought this would be a great opportunity to take the family to D.C., do some sightseeing and do a very slow marathon and treat it like a training run for KI. Skipping ahead……….At about mile 12, I started to feel really bad as if my body was shutting down for some reason. I was fully trained so I knew that it wasn’t that I wasn’t prepared. By mile 18 (which I don’t remember running), I was spotted bobbing and weaving. I woke up in the back of an ambulance, severely dehydrated and catatonic. I didn’t know it at the time but my heart rate was about 255 (nearly heart attack rate). After a day in the hospital, getting hydrated and back to normal, I saw a heart doc and they found nothing wrong. Several tests and more checkups including a couple of months ago, NOTHING. We think it was the mono, but don’t know for sure. Needless to say, it took my wife and kids a long time to get comfortable with me running another race. Shortly thereafter I started a running streak of 300 days in a row (OCD, nahhh). I set a personal record in the half marathon last December, just to prove that I was alright. It was a very scary deal as I thought I was going to see Jesus a little sooner than I imagined. This is why this is a very important race for me. Obviously I am aware of the symptoms and will have no problem stopping and walking if necessary (which I didn’t do last time, high pain tolerance as well).

This is no different than what Dustin Johnson experienced at the P.G.A. , (with the exception of the life threatening part). We all have bad rounds and make mistakes that we regret. You have to be mentally tough and hang in there. Not to encourage stupidity but sometimes we need to stop running and catch our breath or take a few weeks off and just relax. But I encourage you today, if you believe something and you believe in yourself…. Push yourself past your doubt and fear which is the number one reason Jack Nicklaus says people fail….FEAR! I have always prided myself on being mentally tough and I try to instill this in my students. No excuses and no doubts. What do I do? I sell HOPE EVERYDAY. Hope will win in the end if we stay positive and live everyday as if it our last. Lastly I am such a mindset of thankfulness tonight and I want to send out my list of thank you’s:

1. my wonderful wife, Tiffanie, who puts up with my disorders and drive, thank you for being my rock, my life and soul mate and the reason I push so hard everyday.

2. my kids, Brittanie and Nicklaus….the loves of my life and my biggest fans and supporters.

3. My parents that raised me and taught me work ethic and the willingness to be scared and face my fears

4. My father in law Butch, for never giving up and staying positive while battling this awful disease.

5. My running buddy and friend, Steve Hightower for providing wisdom and clarity through injuries and pain. All the great talks we have on our long runs are priceless. Someone needs to make another “spirit of the marathon and follow our group” It would kill. Golf and Life lessons on the run.

6. To my trainer, Mark Kane and my massage therapist Summer who keeps me healthy and strong. Mark, you are truly the best in the business. kanetraining.com

7. My “shoe pimp” and friend, Steve Sheridan who keeps in great shoes and gu. Awesome.

8. To my marathon and ultra running friends and students, Hal “Dean Kanazes jr.” Hawisher and Darryl Dewberry….spending time with you guys makes me a better person. I have learned more from you than I can ever teach you.

9. To all my students that are so faithful and make my job the best in the world. I am so lucky to have met all of you.

10. And lastly but not least important, All of you that donated your hard-earned dollars in the likes of this down economy….Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are so giving and generous.

Thank you for letting me dump and vent but I wanted you all to know what I was taking to the starting line this Sunday. I will be running with all of you on my mind as I guarantee that (Just like Dustin Johnson winning the BMW Championship) the HOPE WILL PREVAIL and I will give GOD All The Glory.

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason

Mattie Tobey signs with Texas Tech: The coming of age for a Junior Golf Champion

September 13, 2010

I work with golfers of all levels including some Mini-Tour Players but one of my greatest joys in the world is coaching junior golfers that progress to a level to play in college. I have had several junior boys to go on to play college golf but my first girl junior just committed to play for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Bill and Deb Tobey brought Mattie to see me when she was 12 years old and after working with her the first time, I knew that she was something special. Even at a young age, Mattie could hit the ball over 200 yards. Now she drives it distances over 280 yards at times which is something that sets her apart from most young women. You look at her golf swing today and you think,”She makes it look so easy, but it wasn’t always that way.” Mattie has worked extremely hard on her golf game and has earned everything that she has accomplished. Her parents, Bill and Debbie have done a great job of instilling a sound work ethic and a great balance of the importance of academics as she is an “A” student as well. It takes such a commitment from the entire family (Ben, her brother…whom I coach plays at Pfeiffer University and is a fine player himself), with all the travel to tournaments, the lessons and the entry fees paid. The family support is a huge key for a junior to reach their full potential and Mattie has a great team around her. Mattie was starting to climb the state rankings in the last couple of years but really broke out this summer when she won the AJGA Palmetto Classic, finished runner-up in the N.C. Junior Girls match play and then qualified for the very prestigious Big I Youth classic Nationals. There were a few colleges interested before that stretch but then the phone and emails started buzzing. Coaching these elite juniors has been a big learning experience for me as I have been fortunate enough to be involved by the parents in the recruiting process. One coach came out the school and watched Mattie and I work together and several others were calling me on the phone to get my take on this outstanding young golfer. At the very end, Texas Techs (we are all family mentality) and the fact that the coach was willing to work with me through the magic of v1 video including their outstanding practice facility…..made her decision very easy and myself and her parents felt comfortable sending her off to Texas Tech to play big time Big 12 golf. As you can tell, I am so proud of what Mattie has accomplished (like she was one of my own) and expect her to get better and better as she embarks on her college career. I will keep you posted on her progress and with any luck we will see her on TV in a few years (LPGA Tour) because (You can’t teach 280), but at worst Mattie will be a doctor (or whatever she chooses to do in her career) that plays pretty good golf which is alright too!

cwvDm9asA3Lw9bM2Abl5etGLkg — Mattie Tobey Killing It

I want to thank Bill and Deb for allowing me to be Mattie’s coach and to think I might have had some positive influence on her life is simply what makes my job so great and why I enjoy getting out of bed in the morning. Best of luck Mattie Tobey and always remember, “I will always be here for you and I am always a phone call or text away, Go Lady Red Raiders!”

See you on the lesson tee,

Guru

Sean Foley Article: Is He right for Tiger?

September 5, 2010

I apologize for the last post. I hooked up the link and it didn’t work. Here is a little insight on Sean Foley and his potential work with Tiger. Let me know what you think. I look forward to your feedback on world number 1. Have a great Labor Day weekend and I will be back soon, hopefully with my golf channel video.

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/Sean-Foley-enjoying-challenge-of-coaching-Tiger-Woods-090210

See you on the lesson tee,

Guru

Guruism’s and The lighter side of Jason

September 3, 2010

I had a few minutes in between lessons today, which is unusual, so I thought I would write about whatever was on my mind. As I spend another year on the lesson tee, loaded down with sunscreen,, zinc on my nose and a huge hat on my head, fatigue often sets in. I know, I know what you are thinking. Guru, you are in phenomenal shape and you only teach 3000 lesson per year, how can you ever get tired? But after doing this job, which I love with a passion, for 18 years……..Sometimes I get irritable or as we call it at the 5 o’clock hour on a long hot day at the golf school……PUNCHY. For those of you out there that have worked with me and know me, I don’t pull any punches…..I try to call it as I see it! Honesty is what I call it. Sometimes it may be brutal but I feel I owe my students the truth. If your club face is wide open and you are swing over the top and scooping it, It is not going to do any good if I give you fluffy advice or tell you that your swing looks great and that I wouldn’t change anything. I am going to kindly explain that we have some work to do. Just after the initial interview and watching some students warm up, One of the most common questions that I get as we approach the video room is, “GURU, IS THERE ANY HOPE”. My response is always the same, “YES SIR, I SELL HOPE” (At 125.00 hour mind you). So I thought I would give you some of the sayings that I use on the lesson tee to help lighten the mood or relax the student or just plain get my point across. Feel Free to use or repeat when appropriate as I may have stolen it from you or someone you know.You

1. There are plenty of seats on the plane – if you are working on swing plane.

2. Where is the only place to get off of the plane? The Airport

3. You couldn’t draw a ball with a pencil – for all you slicers out there (And a pull is not a draw)

4. Hands and Arms University, enrollment is free.

5. Student says after making a plane change,”I feel like I am making a loop,”…response: you were already making a loop, just the wrong direction.

6. It feels unnatural (student making a change), response: I am not in the comfort business….but I promise it will make you better.

7. You have to feel as if you change it 2 miles to change it 2 inches

8. Feel is not always real. Do you know what is between the two? A looooooong bridge. My job is to make it shorter

9. My favorite training aid:”The orange whip” is “The Answer To Cancer”

10. We must not mistake MOVEMENT for ACHIEVEMENT…..Practice with a purpose

That is enough for now. Throughout the day, myself and the other instructors use a lot of movie quotes………that is for another post. I am late for my next lesson. Talk to you later.

See you on the lesson tee and don’t forget to breathe in a 4 count rhythm,

Guru

Your Golf I.Q. Part 2: How To Raise It

July 4, 2010

As my previous post on how to raise your golf I.Q. got a tremendous amount of feedback from my peeps from Guru Nation and Twitter, I know that you have been patiently awaiting the follow-up post. You may have found yourself in a one or a few of the categories that were included in the former post and you are thinking,”Hey Guru, I want to change. How do I raise my Golf I.Q.? I have bought into the “As If” philosophy and am ready to start thinking above my current level of play. Help me help you! How many of you googled Boiler Room? Organized your clubs or Burned your iron head covers? That’s what I am talking about, so who’s coming with me? As I write this post, I am watching Justin Rose trying to hang on to win his second P.G.A. Tour event and just shows you how hard it is to win at the highest level. Did he lose his swing or did he just lose his mind last week. We will see how he does coming in. Back to this post. Here is my list to help raise your golf I.Q. and get you in the mindset that “You are the Best Player in the World” (thank you Alan for that wonderful comment)

1. Learn to dress like a player: Don’t be afraid to wear a white belt and/or white pants. If we are emulating the best players in the world this is important. If you dress like a player, you just might play like one. I have not seen anyone on the tour that has a belt with a sailfish or your club logo on it…..I’m just sayin. Dress as If and no high socks either. I don’t care if they have a swoosh on it….save that for the basketball court. You know who you are! Get a white belt.

2. Put a hybrid in your bag: Don’t be afraid of technology. Next to the golf ball, the hybrid is the biggest jump in technology in the last 5 years. Take the 2 and 3 iron out of your bag and insert hybrid. You will thank me later.

3. Read up on your golf history. How many majors has Jack Nicklaus won? 18 people. To have a passion for the game, you must know some history. I suggest you learn about the greats of Hagen, Hogan, Trevino, Ouimet, Old Tom Morris etc.

4. Take at least 4 lessons per year. I don’t care is Tiger thinks he can get better without a coach. Golf is a sport where feel isn’t real and even the best players need another set of eyes and some motivation to get better. Do your research, find a coach and stick with him/her. If you don’t you can’t complain that your game is getting worse.

5. Get fit for a new driver on a launch monitor. It is amazing what the correct fit will do to maximize your driving. The numbers don’t lie and an expert fitter can get you twenty yards in a heartbeat. Is your driver holding you back, go find out. I recommend Stan Roach at www.danarader.com.

6. How are your wedges and putter? In the year of the last year of non-conforming grooves, buy a new wedge of at least 58 degrees. If you don’t own or can’t use a lob wedge you may as well add 5 shots to your score before you tee off. Aside from putting, pitching is the most important part of the short game………learn to pitch it and you can’t with your pitching wedge….just saying. recommend the Callaway X/Jaws or Cleveland with zip grooves. This is the last year that they will make them with non conforming grooves.

7. Be a stat keeper: If you are not aware of your basic stats, how do you really know your strengths and weaknesses. Take inventory of your game so you know what to work on. The educated golfer works on the things that they do well so get out of your comfort zone and start to work on your weak areas like putting. I recommend www.shotbyshot.com. Let’s be smart about our golf games and where to practice.

8. Understand the physical basics of the golf club. An educated student understands that you must do two things with the golf club. 1) swing the club on or parallel to the plane that is created at address. 2)strike the ball with the shaft leaning toward the target…..Impact people. Any other philosophy is not golf!

9. Do Not Fall Victim To Golf’s Misconceptions: Head down, left arm straight, tuck the right elbow…..NO! Here is are thoughts of an educated student: swing the club on plane (see #8), hit the inside quadrant of the ball, release the head with the body, the low point of my swing is even with my front shoulder, flat lead wrist/bent rear wrist, swing to right field, stay connected, find the slot, hit the lowest shot possible around the greens, I practice my putting because it IS important.

10. Be your own best friend: I can’t believe what you just said to yourself! In an recent excercise that I did with one of my elite juniors, I said,”Imagine that you are on playing lessons with the pros and you are the pro.” “Describe what you are going to do with this shot.” I heard him say that he was going to kinda hit it over there and sorta let it land at this spot and hope it trickles down to the hole……No, No, NO. You have to be committed and exact with what you are telling your brain and body to do. Let’s be committed to every shot. If you talk like this to yourself, stop. Justin Rose did and he just won for the second time this year. I suggest reading the 30 second golf swing by T.J. Tomassi.

Good Luck and don’t forget to breathe. The fact that you are reading this blog, raises your I.Q. already…..thanks so much.

See you on the lesson tee and I hope you had a happy 4th,

Guru……………..704-542-7635

Guru and Son Nick Get Their Heads Shaved for Papa: We Love You Papa

May 13, 2010

Here is the video of my son Nicklaus getting our heads shaved in honor of my father in law, Butch who is fighting Leukemia. A big Thank You to everyone who has donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Team in Training fundraiser. Let’s keep it going and spread the word about this great cause. Check out my page with my running log and the link to my fundraising page.

###Special Thanks to Tina Love and Hair Works Salon in Monroe, N.C……you are the best

Guru

Happy Thanksgiving (Guru Blessing)

November 26, 2009

Just wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and wanted to let you know what I am thankful for. So I made a list:

1. My lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what he did for us

2. My wonderful wife, Tiffanie and my 2 great kids, Brittanie and Nicklaus (I love you baby and my babies)

3. My mom, dad, brother and my in laws

4. all my friends

5. my health

6. being able to do what I love and love what I do

7. running and still being able to do it

8. fishing

9. Tiger Woods and being alive to see the greatest golfer ever

10. I am the most blessed and am living the dream

What are you thankful for?