Don’t Practice Until You Get It Right! Practice Until You Can’t Get It Wrong! | Jason D’Amore

This is the I Want to Play College Golf podcast. We talk to those who coached and those who have played college golf, so you can learn what it takes to be a college golfer. Are you ready to tee off? Let's go.

Jason D'Amore, head men's golf coach at Loyola Marymount University.

Yeah. So for the first question, how do you get started in golf?

I got started in golf when I was four years old, my dad on a golf club for me. And I, that was the first time I swung the golf club. But I played a lot of sports growing up. And as I got to eight, 910 years old, I seem to be a little bit better at golf, and I wasn't so the other ones. And I kept playing a lot of sports till I was about, oh, probably 13 or 14. But when I got to high school, my high school coach had actually called me before high school and said, Hey, you, it seems like you're a pretty good player, I think you could play on our varsity team your freshman year. And once I had heard that, I just kind of switched all my attention to golf. So I didn't get a lesson from anyone on my swing on putt on how to chip or anything until I was a sophomore in high school. So until I was 16, I just kind of learned how to do it on my own, I saw a ball and I saw the hole. And you know, I had these clubs, my dad had gotten me and he was like, you know, figure out a way to get it in the hole. And so I kind of developed my own feel for the game, my own way of visualizing shots and feeling you know what the trajectory of the ball need to look like in order to make it go the right distance or spin or react to weigh on the green or in the fairway, whatever it may be. But I really just got started from my dad, he was he was a good player. And I play a lot with him and he gave me clubs and we went out and played and I just really learned the game by being on the golf course and playing and then from there, you know, out of high school, played golf at LMU and won a conference championship my sophomore year and then made it to the NCAA tournament, my June sophomore junior and senior year, two years as an individual in one year as part of the team. And then I decided to turn professional and played, played on the Canadian Tour for two years and went to PGA Tour qualifying school two times and didn't get through the qualifying school to get on the PGA Tour. And so I played up in Canada, and then after a few years up there, I was just kind of ready to come home and settle and was didn't want to keep traveling as much as I was so decided to get into real estate and finance. And a couple years ago, I was lucky enough to get inducted into the LMU Hall of Fame for my career at LMU. And that's pretty much the story.

What was one of your memorable wins and golf experiences as a junior

I would say my most memorable Junior Golf When was I don't know if it was the first tournament I won. But there's a nine hole course near where my parents live that had a Junior Championship when I was maybe it was 10 years old. And it was one round a day of nine holes for three days. And I was also playing baseball. And so I had to decide. I had baseball games like every day at the same time as a golf tournament, I had to decide which one I was going to play. And I think it was all star baseball team and my coach for the all star baseball team kept saying like you're not going to miss our game, right? And so I would actually ended up playing in the golf tournaments and then showing up in the middle of the baseball game because I just, I couldn't stop playing golf. I loved it. And I ended up winning the tournament. But I think it's so memorable to me because I realized at that point how much more I prioritized golf than I prioritize baseball. So yeah, that was the first one. It was just a little nine hole course. And it was probably when I was 10 years old.

That's cool. And there are many players within South Southern California. How do you maintain your competitive edge?

That's a great question. And yeah, there's an incredible amount of good players in Southern California. You know, I think part of maintaining your competitive edge is just always creating and finding good competition to compete against so for me, it was big. I don't know if you if you know who Anthony Kim is. But he played on the PGA Tour for quite a while and then he got hurt or something in the last few years. But every time I went out and played in a tournament as a junior I was playing in tournaments where there was 25 kids that were being recruited to go play college golf and so I think being able to play in that sort of competition all the time just kept me hungry and made me realize, like, if I just kept doing what I was doing, and I started to win those sorts of tournaments, then I wouldn't be able to play college golf as well. So I was also I'm an only child, I didn't have any brothers or sisters. So my competitive edge and fire probably came from the fact that I want to just go out and achieve something like kind of living through anyone else's success. It was all on me. And I enjoyed that I enjoyed playing a sport where I didn't have to rely on somebody, I am playing baseball, where I threw a pitch and the batter hit a ground ball and someone didn't catch it, or they missed it or whatever. And I did my job, but they didn't do theirs. And so I just wanted to have all the all the pressure and all the attention on me in order to get it done.

Oh, that's cool. And during your high school years, how did you manage to balance school and golf?

It was a struggle. I can tell you, my first year of high school, I had a few classes I got behind. And I really didn't understand how much time I had to put into school and golf. But I just got into a routine I got into a system of you know, I think my parents probably did a better job than I did, of realizing what I needed to do. But they just created a schedule and like, you're gonna come home from school, and you're gonna finish all your schoolwork and then you can go practice. And it was incredible how quickly I got my schoolwork done when I knew I could go practice afterwards. So or, you know, I couldn't play in a tournament if I didn't get good grades, or whatever it was. And then all of a sudden, I was, I would just every day after school is over. I was like, Okay, what do I just tell me what I have to do before I'm allowed to go play golf. That's all I want to do. You know, it just a lot of help from my parents. But it came down to just creating priorities and time management and making sure that it carried through to college to I really needed that in college that you have to understand. You've got however many hours of daylight and I have to do schoolwork and I have to play golf. So how do I manage that in order to make it work?

Oh, that's very nice. And did you get a golf scholarship to LMU?

I did. Can you tell us about your recruiting process.

Recruiting is such a tough thing. And I feel for so many kids now that we recruit because it's, you know, I was so I was being recruited by Cao, Arizona State, San Diego State and LMU. And I ended up going to LMU. Because I actually wanted to get as far away from home as possible. And I chose the school that was as close to my house as possible. And I, I think the end of the day, I did it just because I realized if I went to LMU, I knew I was going to be one of the best players on the team. And at one of those other schools, I knew I was going to be I was going to be hard for me to actually make the team and travel. And it was appealing to me to go to a place where I felt like I can make an impact and I could get better. And I was gonna get better by winning or by performing really well and helping the team and once again, having the pressure on me. So all the coaches were great. It's just the recruiting process is so tough, because there's so many junior golfers. And I mean, I can tell you right now as a head coach of a men's team at LMU, in an average year, I get about 90 to 1000 emails from junior golfers. And every year, we bring in roughly two players. So when you're trying to figure out who the two players are, you want to bring in out of 900 to 1000, there's got to be something that's that stands out now going out and shooting the lowest scores always. But it could be you know, you can only send someone so much information in an email, and give them a chance to know about you. But the best players and the best recruits find a way to give you some insight about who they are, how they're doing in school, or, you know, there's a lot of questions coaches have have when you're being recruited. If a junior golfer answers all those questions in the email that sent, you can tell they've put the thought into it. You know, it's one of those things, it seems like a drag and not everyone wants to send an email to 20 different coaches. But if you take the time to personalize each one and do some research on their program, or their school, or whatever it is, and they know that this player this, you know, recruit has done what they've needed to do to research my school. It just you have a much better chance of getting a response and getting some sort of relationship developed. So I really tried to do that. And I think it worked well for me, but you know, there's still some coaches just based on the time and the amount of emails you get that they're not always getting a response.

That's very interesting. And how has experienced that LMU

who was great. No, it's a great academic school. It definitely challenged me academically but it was really cool. We got to play some of the best golf courses tree and you for practice and When we got to travel, we went to Hawaii every year, which was great. And we traveled around the US to I think we played tournaments in 14 or 15 Different states while I was there, so I just really enjoyed playing golf on courses I hadn't seen before seeing a new year, you know, getting to travel with your teammates, that's always a blast. So that was a big thing for me. But it was it was really good. I very lucky to get the opportunity I did.

That's nice. And during college, did you work more on your short game or your full swing?

I'd say I probably spent more time on my full swing, which is definitely not what you need to do. You really don't need to spend much time on your swing at all. All you need to do is work on your short game and your mental process. That's it. If you can think clearly, and you can chip and putt, you can always compete, you always have a chance to win.

And you lead your team to the NCAA championship in 2006. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah,

it was so much fun. And everyone had the same goals, and everyone pushed each other. And we all worked really hard. And that doesn't sound very complicated. But that's literally all it takes. You got to have fun, and you got to work hard, and everyone's got to want the same thing. And if everyone's in that same place, it's pretty immune, how things can happen. So that was really, I mean, to be honest, it was there wasn't much to it. It's not like we changed is people are figured out some magical secret that only PGA Tour pros, no one no one else does. It was just that everyone really, really wanted to succeed and win and crazy how what you can achieve when everyone has that same thought,

Oh, that's nice. And you put it in the Canadian Tour after college. How was that?

That was great. That was a huge learning experience traveling to a different country. It was it was difficult, but it was a lot of fun. You meet a lot of people that are have the same dreams and goals you do and are willing to, you know, share hotel rooms or rental cars or whatever it may be to figure out how to make it work financially. But it was it was so much fun, great experience. You know, there's a lot of people who budge and you graduate, and then they go back and get a graduate degree, like a second four years in college and I just can consider playing on the Canadian Tour, or my graduate degree because the took all my travel, I had to write letters to sponsors, I had to manage my budget, I had to develop my own practice plan. I mean, you're your own boss. So you get as far as you want to get. And as hungry as you are is going to determine you know whether or not you succeed or not. So it was it was really, really good. I think it I wasn't up there making a lot of money. But it definitely had a great precedent for how I could run the rest of my life to live the way I wanted to.

That sounds fun. And what was the transition between playing professionally to working for Investor's Business Daily?

Oh, wow, you guys have done your research. I would say the transition, stunk. I didn't want to go work. You know, I wanted to still play golf, I want to do the wants to go work. You know, it was tough. Because once again, like no one wants to stop playing. But I think it was necessary golf started to feel a little bit too much to me like a job and not just like something I loved. So I still played golf, but not as much. And then when I got the opportunity to come back to LMU and be a coach, I had like never had more passion and energy behind it. So the transition was definitely difficult, because you're kind of giving up on a dream. But you know, I think dreams continued to evolve. And you figure out like a different point for what it is that you want at that time. And so I'm, I'm still in golf, I'm still tied to college golf, I have an opportunity to talk to other guys on our team about where they are and what they can do and all that sort of stuff. So I'm lucky in that respect. But yeah, it was difficult for sure. But I had fun with it. And I still got the chance.

Oh, that's nice. And what was your coaching philosophy?

Now at LMU? Ah, yeah. My coaching philosophy is, I mean, I kind of already said it to you, but the only things we work on really, as a team are short games and our mental thought process and making sure we prepare, right. Eric Meeks talks about a lot of things that are very, that are great and are very technical. The golf swing and son, for example, is someone that it wouldn't make any sense for cam to come out to LMU and for Kim and I to work on his golf swing, and he has been working on it with his dad for over 20 years. So they all the guys on our team have their own swing coaches and I like to keep it that way. And then my influence is more about me To ensure that you understand where the flag is going to be or different yardage is or when conditions are, you know, you hit a bad shot in the middle of the round how you can put that behind you and move forward and let it affect you and not get frustrated and simple things as far as like eating and drinking throughout the round at a consistent rate and not getting too thirsty or too hungry at one point and how that turns into a bad decision. Sometimes, it's really the basic stuff, you know, I kind of tell the guys I'm like, I'm like your parent on the road when your parents aren't around. And we're just going to, I'm not going to do your laundry or brush your teeth for you. But like all those other things that mom and dad normally do. That's kind of where I am now and trying to just make sure they they have someone to talk to and and can come to me with anything. So simple stuff. I don't like to make it too complicated.

Oh, that's, that's great. And I know you already told her about your recruiting process. But obviously, the rules of golf have changed over the past 10 years. Can you tell us about the current recruiting process? Sure. Yeah. You

know, it's, like I said before, I think the thing that's so difficult, there's so many junior golfers at all and play college golf. So the competition to get into college golf is very, very tough. But the progress really is, we start looking at a at a player, maybe their freshman year of high school. And we'll start looking at a player purely based upon scores, you know, we can't go out and research Every golfer in the country that's a freshman in high school. So we have to, we have to see some sort of scores for a player to get on our radar. But if not, if a player sends us an email, you know, I've got my email that's got labeled folders for the class of 2020, and 2122 2324 25. And I'm keeping all of our recruits in those folders. And so I know who's coming in, and we're generally watching a player their freshman year, their sophomore year, they can't come on campus until between their sophomore and junior year that summer. So we might, if we have a camp or a clinic, we might try and invite them to a camp or a clinic before then. But really, we're just trying to watch as much golf as possible. And, you know, maybe talk to their swing coach or someone who knows them to get an idea of their personality or how they do in school and all that sort of stuff. And then by the time junior year hits a FICO, it really gets pretty intense because a lot of players may go visit a school on June 15, through August or June 15, you can talk to them. But August 1, they can means it's an A lot of players commit to a school on June 15, they've got their list of the Big Five schools they really like and on June 15, the coach calls them and makes an offer and they commit that day because it's a school they want and scholarship they want. And whatever it may be for us, we probably take a little bit longer and try to get to know the player in the family and make sure the school is a good fit. Because you're moving away from home for four years. And so you want to make sure that you don't only enjoy playing golf at the school, but you enjoy the coaches and school itself and the team and the family that you'll kind of create once you get away from home. So that's really the process as far as we just watch as much as possible to know the family and the players and make sure they got good grades. And you know, there's no, you know, they're not going to cause any problems with the team. And from there, we generally have a pretty good idea of who we want to recruit.

Oh, that sounds very interesting. And how can players improve their game?

I think you know, it's probably sound annoying that I keep saying this over and over again. But you can your short game. I don't know anyone who's had 18 putts and around. And if you forgot more than 18 putts, you could have made somewhere that you didn't make. And to me, you know, you may play with some players who hit it really far. And some players who don't hit it far. And yet they still get it to the green in the same amount of shots. Or they both miss the green with their second shot and it comes down to chipping and putting. I just don't think you can spend a dime on chipping and putting it's so important. And it makes such a huge difference. I think doing that and then, you know a simple way to improve having a swing instructor is very important. Having someone like Eric Meeks is great to get that foundation in. But I think a lot of it just comes down to another. We talked about this a lot on our team. It's kind of the same way that you figure out your group of friends when you're in school. Like you figure out your group of friends based upon the type of people you'd like to be around and and generally tells you who you are as a person whether you like to go out with your friends all the time or you like to stay home and watch movies or whatever it is. You can describe yourself as a person to anyone generally based on what you do with your friends. I think it's really important for a junior golfer to be able to just Grab themselves as a golfer, like, how do they go out and play the game? And why do they play it that way. And is there's something about that, you know, I would say for myself. I'm a player who hits a draw and has a great short game. And I control my ball flight. Like just based upon hearing that if a junior golfer told me that, I would know that that junior golfer plays within their control, they don't hit shots that they can't hit. And they probably score pretty well because they can chip and putt. So I would be going out watching them looking to see someone who's not hitting it really high. They're not hitting it really far. But they're probably very consistent. They probably hit a lot of greens, they probably make all their short putts and, you know, they get up and down pretty frequently missed the green. So I think knowing yourself as a player, and then working on your short game as much as possible.

Oh, that's an interesting insight. And what do you believe should be in a pre shot? pre shot routine?

I think there should be some visualization, I think there should be some sort of breathing. It can be one deep breath, it can be numerous breaths. But I think you have to know your target, you have to know what you want the ball to do to get to that target. And you have to visualize that. And then you have to breathe properly to make sure your body's ready to go. And I think probably the most important thing about a pre shot routine is that it needs to be consistent. And you have to do it before every time you hit a shot, not just every once in a while.

Oh, that's nice. And what should be the mindset of a competitive goal?

To win. I know that sounds pretty simple. But if you're going to play it and you don't, one, I'm not sure why you're entering a tournament, I think that's the biggest thing. People that go out and try to finish in the top 10. If you set your don't achieve them, you generally finish in 20 to 30th place. If you set your goals to win and you don't win, you're generally going to finish inside the top 10. So you're not always going to win. But you have to go in thinking and believing that you can win in order to even just have a good finish. And then when you do that over and over again, you start to win pretty consistently.

Oh, that's very interesting. And do you believe that parents should get very involved in the game in their junior skating?

I think everyone's got their own individual relationships with their parents. But I can tell you from a coaching aspect, as a coach, I would prefer I've had some players that I've recruited that I've never talked to their parents, until I made an offer to the player. So I think the less parents are involved, the better in the recruiting process as far as their golf game, if you have a parent that's supportive and gives the child all the resources they need. That's all you can really ask for. But beyond that, you have to be independent and learn how to do it on your own. And I mean, kind of just like you're doing with reading this book, like, you know, you're learning a whole lot by the people you're interviewing, and it's helping you on your own, there's not someone else doing that for you. So I think independence is really big, I would limit parent activity if possible.

Okay, thank you for that. And do you believe Jr should start working out or going to the gym?

I don't know that that's necessary. If it's an interest someone has, that's fine. But I don't think you really need to. I mean, I, I would say doing things cardio wise, or stretching, you know, maybe going through an evaluation of your body and seeing if there's anything that doesn't work right and trying to work on that. But I don't think you need to be lifting weights to any extreme before you get to college.

Oh, okay. Thank you for that. And what is your secret sauce of advice for golf and life in general?

Did you say what is my secret sauce?

Yeah, your secret sauce.

My secret sauce for golf in life in general, secret sauce for golf? Is this probably my favorite quote is don't practice till you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong. And then my secret I know that's kind of a mind blowing thing as soon as someone tells you that for the first time because you think about how often you have to do it to not get it wrong. I would say my secret sauce life is say yes to every opportunity. Don't be afraid to take chances. And it's pretty credible what you can achieve if you just believe in yourself. And knowing that, I mean, you can really apart from some resources and things you may need in life, you can really do anything you wanted anytime you want. That's kind of the beauty we have with where we live. But there's no reason not to try and do anything that you can think of. Don't be afraid to say yes and try something new.

Oh, that's great. And finally, we're coming to the end. What advice would you give junior golfers and their parents,

make sure you love it. Don't turn Junior Golf into a job. Make sure it's fun. Make sure you want to do it every day. And make sure you have friends. And I would say to the let your children be children, they're going to make mistakes. And that's fine. They have to make mistakes in order to learn from them and become better. But you have to you have to let them be kids. And you have to let them have fun. And that's just the biggest thing. I think at the end of the day, I see too many junior golfers that it's not fun. They're just doing it because their parents want them to or because their friends are doing it. But if they don't really love it. In the end, it's not going to end up working out very well for you. So it's got to be fun.

Oh, that's a great piece of advice. And thank you so much for letting us interview you.