He’s 19 years old. And when Gordon Sargent teed it up at the 2023 Masters Tournament the world-at-large hadn’t heard much about the teenager. Relating his experience on the Back of the Range podcast, (hosted by Ben Adelberg), Sargent says he walked into the pro shop to enquire about his tee time. “I’m like, ‘Look, I’m a player, I have my caddie right here.’ The guy’s, like, ‘No, you’re going to have to have your badge.”’
He may not have been a recognisable figure on that stage but Sargent was already a bit of a star on the US Collegiate circuit and only the second amateur to be invited by the Masters Tournament committee to come play in the Masters in this century.
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That changed pretty quickly. Playing his practice round with Max Homa and Justin Thomas, Sargent outdrove the PGA Tour winners by as much as 40 yards on some holes. When asked how many times he out drove them, Homa replied, “ I don’t know, I stopped counting…”
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Don’t romanticise hard work: It’s better to focus on the 20% work that produces 80% of your results Sargent comfortably generates a 185 mph ball speed with driver. Even though he’s only six feet and weighs 79 kgs, Sargent is able to generate these astonishing numbers because of an exceptional ‘X-Factor:’ measured at the top of the backswing, when the shoulders reach their maximum rotation, X factor is defined as the difference in rotation between shoulders and hips. Amateurs average about 40 degrees, PGA Tour players, 74 degrees, and Sargent’s is estimated to be at least 80 degrees. That level of separation creates an incredible amount of torque that allows the relatively lightweight Sargent to consistently drive well over 350 yards. Goes without saying that he’s supremely fit. Don’t try this at home folks.
On another note, Sargent’s story is one that’s repeated year after year, as scores of young players who join the professional ranks hit the golf ball further than ever before. You don’t even have to look at an outlier like a Bryson de Chambeau, who regularly hits precision drives that go over 400 yards; even Rory McIlroy, the top-ranked player in the world consistently drives well over 300 yards. Supremely talented as he is, the Irishman’s virtues when it comes to golf are very different from, say a yesteryears star like Seve Ballesteros who could barely hit a straight drive and yet excelled in creative escapes and imaginative shotmaking. Ballesteros, who famously remarked that ‘my hands are my computer,’ while dismissing modern tech, made the game ‘fun’ to watch.
Golf, the way it was intended to be played, is a complex sport of skill, both physical and mental. It’s a sport that combines physical abilities, creativity—both in terms of shotmaking and strategy—and mental strength. Traditionally, power has been important: length off the tee has always given the long-hitters an advantage.
But that was tempered by the inherent need for finesse around the greens, and rewards for precision. In the modern age, Woods is possibly the only modern golfer who is as imaginative and creative as he is powerful. But the current stars of the game, are ‘bomb and gouge,’ artistes—hitting it as long as they can and then wedging it close to the pin.
Watching their favourite players, most amateurs become equally skewed in their focus and their practice towards the long ball. Something not lost on equipment companies that release bigger and more forgiving drivers every year in a ploy to bait weekend golfers on a quest for bigger and more booming drives.
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The fact that the ten-yard greenside bunker shot, or approach, counts as much as that 250-yard drive off the tee is conveniently ignored. If all you’re seeing on television is pros bombing it 300 yards and hitting wedges into 500 yard par 4s then its unlikely that you’ll be motivated to work on a deft touch around the greens. Who wants to spend hours in a bunker practicing shots, or little chips off the green when you can tee it up and go all ape on the ball?
And that works fine when you’re on your home club where there’s really no new strategy required and you know exactly where to hit the ball. Trouble arises on new courses where you’re required to ‘place’ the ball—off the tee, and off the fairway—while avoiding hazards that aren’t already mapped in your golfing brain. That’s when the ‘grip it and rip it’, swing falls apart and fear takes over. Your muscles get tight and the ball goes precisely where you don’t want it to go.
Without a doubt, the best way to get an accurate reflection of the merits of your swing (or lack of them) is to play courses you’re unfamiliar with. That’s when it hits you: this is a game of precision. Perhaps the best advice for amateurs came from PGA Tour player and Major-winner Geoff Ogilvy who remarked in an interview to the New York Times that amateur golfers love the driver because, “They think they’re practicing to have nice scores, but they’re really only practicing to have fun.” Would you rather have a fun day with the driver and not such a great score? Or, would you rather not hit any blinding drives but walk off with a decent score? I know, what the answer to that conundrum is, for me at least. And I’m no smarter than the rest of us.
He’s 19 years old. And when Gordon Sargent teed it up at the 2023 Masters Tournament the world-at-large hadn’t heard much about the teenager. Relating his experience on the Back of the Range podcast, (hosted by Ben Adelberg), Sargent says he walked into the pro shop to enquire about his tee time. “I’m like, ‘Look, I’m a player, I have my caddie right here.’ The guy’s, like, ‘No, you’re going to have to have your badge.”’
He may not have been a recognisable figure on that stage but Sargent was already a bit of a star on the US Collegiate circuit and only the second amateur to be invited by the Masters Tournament committee to come play in the Masters in this century.
That changed pretty quickly. Playing his practice round with Max Homa and Justin Thomas, Sargent outdrove the PGA Tour winners by as much as 40 yards on some holes. When asked how many times he out drove them, Homa replied, “ I don’t know, I stopped counting…”
Sargent comfortably generates a 185 mph ball speed with driver. Even though he’s only six feet and weighs 79 kgs, Sargent is able to generate these astonishing numbers because of an exceptional ‘X-Factor:’ measured at the top of the backswing, when the shoulders reach their maximum rotation, X factor is defined as the difference in rotation between shoulders and hips. Amateurs average about 40 degrees, PGA Tour players, 74 degrees, and Sargent’s is estimated to be at least 80 degrees. That level of separation creates an incredible amount of torque that allows the relatively lightweight Sargent to consistently drive well over 350 yards. Goes without saying that he’s supremely fit. Don’t try this at home folks.
On another note, Sargent’s story is one that’s repeated year after year, as scores of young players who join the professional ranks hit the golf ball further than ever before. You don’t even have to look at an outlier like a Bryson de Chambeau, who regularly hits precision drives that go over 400 yards; even Rory McIlroy, the top-ranked player in the world consistently drives well over 300 yards. Supremely talented as he is, the Irishman’s virtues when it comes to golf are very different from, say a yesteryears star like Seve Ballesteros who could barely hit a straight drive and yet excelled in creative escapes and imaginative shotmaking. Ballesteros, who famously remarked that ‘my hands are my computer,’ while dismissing modern tech, made the game ‘fun’ to watch.
Golf, the way it was intended to be played, is a complex sport of skill, both physical and mental. It’s a sport that combines physical abilities, creativity—both in terms of shotmaking and strategy—and mental strength. Traditionally, power has been important: length off the tee has always given the long-hitters an advantage.
But that was tempered by the inherent need for finesse around the greens, and rewards for precision. In the modern age, Woods is possibly the only modern golfer who is as imaginative and creative as he is powerful. But the current stars of the game, are ‘bomb and gouge,’ artistes—hitting it as long as they can and then wedging it close to the pin.
Watching their favourite players, most amateurs become equally skewed in their focus and their practice towards the long ball. Something not lost on equipment companies that release bigger and more forgiving drivers every year in a ploy to bait weekend golfers on a quest for bigger and more booming drives.
The fact that the ten-yard greenside bunker shot, or approach, counts as much as that 250-yard drive off the tee is conveniently ignored. If all you’re seeing on television is pros bombing it 300 yards and hitting wedges into 500 yard par 4s then its unlikely that you’ll be motivated to work on a deft touch around the greens. Who wants to spend hours in a bunker practicing shots, or little chips off the green when you can tee it up and go all ape on the ball?
And that works fine when you’re on your home club where there’s really no new strategy required and you know exactly where to hit the ball. Trouble arises on new courses where you’re required to ‘place’ the ball—off the tee, and off the fairway—while avoiding hazards that aren’t already mapped in your golfing brain. That’s when the ‘grip it and rip it’, swing falls apart and fear takes over. Your muscles get tight and the ball goes precisely where you don’t want it to go.
Without a doubt, the best way to get an accurate reflection of the merits of your swing (or lack of them) is to play courses you’re unfamiliar with. That’s when it hits you: this is a game of precision. Perhaps the best advice for amateurs came from PGA Tour player and Major-winner Geoff Ogilvy who remarked in an interview to the New York Times that amateur golfers love the driver because, “They think they’re practicing to have nice scores, but they’re really only practicing to have fun.” Would you rather have a fun day with the driver and not such a great score? Or, would you rather not hit any blinding drives but walk off with a decent score? I know, what the answer to that conundrum is, for me at least. And I’m no smarter than the rest of us.
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