No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 862 - The Psychology of the Shanks

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

In the second installment of “NLU Special Projects,” Kevin Van Valkenburg takes us through a universal nightmare for any golfer: having a case of the shanks. He gets insights from pros like Tiger, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler, as well as amateurs, coaches, and even a hypnotist, all in an effort to unravel one of golf’s most universally dreaded experiences. For more narrative pieces like this, you can also visit us at NoLayingUp.com If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at nolayingup.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about the end? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. My name is Chris Solomon, which you will not

be hearing from me today. I'm going to be turning the reins over to our guy, Kevin Van Valkenburg, who has been working on a very special project. He has taken a deep dive into, you know what? I'm not going to say the word. The word has been said enough in what you're about to hear. It is fantastic. He has talked to a lot of the top professionals in the game, some of the not top amateurs in the game,

and I'm not going to delay things any further. Here's Kevin. I try not to like look at or think about it because it's not a good, it does feel like it's contagious. You just hope it's a one-off. You hope it's not a good. It does feel like it's contagious. You just hope it's a one-off. You hope it's an anomaly. I think it's better if you just act like you didn't see it. If you can't get over it mentally, then that's where it spirals. This is the most frustrating thing imaginable and I have this anger like bubbling, but I'm like no, no, no, don't show it. Don't show it.

You start getting negative thoughts. You know what I want to hear from anybody else in that moment is just absolutely nothing. All of a sudden it's like, well, maybe if I make par on the second ball, I can make a double. I don't want to be around anymore. After the third one happens, I don't want to be around anymore. After the third one happens, you quickly or at least I quickly got to a point of acceptance. We all do it. I'm not running from them anymore.

I'm not running from them. I know they can always travel with me. It's just who I am and how it's going to be. Here is something that's universally true about golf. Nobody wants to hear you describe how good your round almost was. Those stories are all the same. You could have broken 80 if you'd just made a few putts. You played great except for a few double bogeys, but your ball striking was so good and you were so close to putting it all together. I can sense your eyes glazing over already. But a golf horror story? Now that can hold a room's attention. I'm Kevin Van Volkerberg, editorial director at NoLayingUp, and I want to tell you a story about the weekend where I contemplated quitting golf forever. In 2018, on the eve of Masters week, I flew to Atlanta, rented a car, and instead of heading

east to cover the most famous golf tournament in the world, I headed north towards Tennessee. My friend Dennis was turning 30. That would be DJ Pajhowski, now my coworker and podcast collaborator. To celebrate this milestone, his wife Justine invited about 30 of his closest friends to spend the day at Sweeten's Cove. It's a nine-hole golf course at the end of a dirt road in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, a tiny rural town on the Alabama-Tennessee border. We had rented out the entire property, and though I had never been, I could scarcely contain my excitement. It felt like a summit of all my favorite people in golf. We had dubbed it the Thirsty Cup, a sarcastic nod to all the social climbers and attention seekers in our generation of media.

Pulling into the gravel parking lot, I had that same feeling in my chest I used to get in high school when I'd show up for a first date. I was the good kind of nervous. I wanted to play well, but was excited for what lay ahead. There is no driving range at Sweeten's, and thus, no chance to iron out the quirks or reboot a swing like mine. It was dusk when I arrived. The competition was set to begin the following day. But a big group of my friends were sipping beers and flushing seven irons toward the eighth grain from the hill above the first hole. The course was otherwise empty. Someone dropped a ball near my feet, then handed me a club and encouraged me to fire

a shot at the beer-it's grain down below. A fantasy took shape in my mind. What if I hold out in front of all these people? I can still remember six years later how quickly those good vibes evaporated and how fast I got lost in the labyrinth of my own mind. The golfers can be a suspicious breed. Some don't even like to speak the word aloud, lest you give it additional power. But I am willing to speak my truth. I hit a shank. In fact, I hit dozens of them. Shank is originally an Old English word of West Germanic origin that refers to the lower part of

the leg, hence the lamb shank. Etymologists think it came into use as a verb and a golfing term in the 1920s. It's hard to find much definitive scholarly information about its origins, but it likely originated in Scotland and then immigrated, along with the sport, to the United States in the early 20th century. In layman's terms, a shank occurs when a ball collides with the hosel of a club, not the face. It doesn't matter if the face is open or closed, the ball tends to go screaming out to the right, without height or control. If the word shank makes you recoil in horror, you might refer to them as hosel rockets. What I remember about the first shank I hit that weekend at Sweeten's wasn't the stinging vibrations

rippling up my left arm. It wasn't the hollow thunk the ball made when it collided with the hosel before it went zooming into the ether. It was the silence that hung in the air, before it went zooming into the ether. It was the silence that hung in the air, that sound of uncomfortable second-hand embarrassment that lingered louder than thunder could have. I tried to laugh it off, but a second swing produced a similar result. Clearly I was tired from the flight and the long drive from Atlanta, I joked. I'd hit occasional shanks before. I mean, frankly, who hadn't, but I never thought of them as an incurable malady. But then a third shake, then a fourth. It was now officially

awkward. I could sense a friend or two looking away. My friend Chris Solomon put a gentle hand on my shoulder. Hey, no worries, brother. Let's just relax. Deep breath. Slow things down. Here, I'll be Bones and you be Phil. We'll pick out a target, talk through your process, and then I just want you to smooth out your transition. Don't overthink it.

I stood over the ball, let my mind go quiet. I took the club back, paused, then flushed it. I've never hit a better ball in my life. I think it waved goodbye paused, then flushed it. I have never hit a better ball in my life. I think it waved goodbye as it knifed through that spring Tennessee air. The group's playful applause helped convince me that I had been cured. I had not been cured. I was, I realize now, merely entering denial, the first of the five stages of grief as defined

by psychologists. And on this show, we've decided that the bereavement process does indeed apply to the Shanks. So much so that it deserves its own episode. My debacle at Sweden's is just the start, but it's the front door into this NLU special projects deep dive into one of the biggest taboos in golf. What do you do when you catch a bad case of the shanks? Is there anything in golf as relatable as the misery of a shank? It doesn't matter who you are. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, John Rahm, you've almost certainly hit one, if not a dozen over the course of your

golfing life. It's the one experience in the game that is truly universal, the dejection you feel in your stomach when you watch the ball go tumbling sideways, headed swiftly towards parts unknown. You've probably never hit a shot like Nicholas did when he lasered a one iron through the wind on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach to wrap up a win at the 1972 US Open. But you likely hit a shot like the one Nicholas hit in the 1964 Masters where he shanked a mid-iron so badly on the 12th hole it didn't even reach raised creek. Good gravy that's unbelievable he shanked that shot it's arcing way up to the right Jack Jack takes it very good naturedly. Must be years since he cold shanked a shot like that.

Nicholas later told Sports Illustrated that the shank, even now, is one of the most memorable shots in all his years of playing the Masters. Right before he addressed the ball, he glanced to his right and noticed that Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, Augusta Nationals co-founders, were watching him from a golf cart.

He couldn't help but feel a little nervous. I couldn't resist bringing you up with Nicholas at this year's Masters. Gentlemen in the front right, please. Beck, YouTube has allowed us to kind of, who weren't around for some of your prime, to see a lot of your greatest shots from here at the Masters. I was watching something a while back and I saw a shot that you hit on 12, I think it was in 67. You hit sort of a sideways shank, I think like Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones were- 64.

64. It was an 8-iron and I almost killed Bob Jones and Cliff Roberts. Shanked it right over their head in the last round. I can't imagine you've shanked too many shots in your career Not too many, but I've shanked one or two that was one very Jones and Roberts came down to watch us Watch as a 12th hole the cart was out in front here about

2025 yards on the right side. I just put right over their head with an 8-iron Nearly I nearly made three yeah I just put it right over their head with an 8-iron. I nearly made three. What did you do when you hit those kind of shots, rare as they were, to sort of like steal yourself? Go play the next one. What can you do? You know, you hit it, you got to go chase it.

It didn't linger. Nicholas eagled the next hole and finished the tournament tied for second. A runner-up to Arnold Palmer. Mortals tend to embrace denial when the Shanks attack, but facing a shank head-on can be an effective suit of armor for a major champion. In the final round of the 2022 PGA Championship, Justin Thomas hit a cold shank on the sixth hole at Southern Hills, just narrowly avoiding a creek that runs along the right side. That's a shank.

Oh my God. Oh, and that's come back. Oh, and it stayed just out of the creek behind number two. Wow, I think we've seen everything now. That is unbelievable. But the shank ultimately turned out to be a footnote in one of the most memorable final rounds of Thomas' career. He made a bogey from next to the creek, then played the next 12 holes in four under par, beating Will Zalatorres in a playoff for his second major championship.

It's just one of those things that I think it's so bizarre and out there that you, at least to me, like you just laugh it off. Wasn't very funny on Sunday at the PGA, that's for sure, because it went to a pretty terrible spot and made a four that arguably won us the tournament. But because you know, you may have a lot of thoughts or options maybe if you're behind the ball, thinking of where your ball could go and like don't hit it here don't do there but shank is never one of them and then when it happens you're like okay I was not expecting that.

Thomas's shank came with a six iron in his hands. As fate would have it he immediately faced a similar shot after hitting a good drive on the seventh hole. The funny thing is of the one at the P no shit, we literally had the same exact yardage on the next hole and had to hit the same club, same shot, same yardage, and hit a really good one in there about 10 feet. But it was just, we're both doing the math and we're just like, shit, are you kidding me?

Like this is, here we go, we're going to see where we're at. To be great at a sport often means having a short memory. For a legend like Jack or Justin that's part of your DNA, part of what makes you capable of extraordinary feats. Not so for mortals like me. Like a lunatic I had lain in bed that night trying to suffocate my golfing anxieties. A decision that, as you might guess, instead gave them oxygen. When I returned to Sweeten's the following morning, my shanks were, if this is even possible, somehow worse. Every swing felt like an additional snowflake in an avalanche of my own humiliation. I could still slice my drives into play, but

on the first hole, my approach deflected off the hosel and dribbled into a bunker. I felt like apologizing to my playing partners after every shot. I didn't want to feel like I had ruined DJ's birthday party, and I was starting to feel like I had ruined it. I imagined his friends pulling him aside and whispering, you invited this guy. Thankfully, he didn't see it that way. When you have a group of, you know, I won't say like accomplished golfers, but like people who kind of know what they're doing and have played for a long time. When word starts to travel through, like, Oh, Kevin has the shanks. It's basically the same as saying like, you know, Oh, Kevin has like a rare,

a rare disease. Everybody knows exactly what it means. Everybody knows what he's going through specifically. It's just, the only way it can get better usually is like going to sleep, right? And waking up the next day as a different person. DJ's birthday party also marked the first time I'd meet my future NLU colleague, Phil Landis, AKA Big Randy.

When we were paired together that afternoon, I even apologized in advance, as though I was asking him to accompany me through a crime scene. By that point, I had hit so many shanks, I couldn't even muster up fake optimism. It had been overtaken by rage. Remarkably, some audio of my humiliation

exists from that day. If you listen closely, you can hear not only the clank of the ball but the sigh of resignation after I sent my four iron helicoptering into the weeds. Believe me, there is no indignity quite like having to do a walk of shame chasing after a club you just chucked in front of an audience. Let's hear that one more time, just for fun, shall we? If you're thinking, what an asshole, you're not wrong. Mercifully, I was not greeted by judgment. In Landis, I had found a kindred spirit.

It's such a helpless feeling watching somebody go through it because I know exactly what you're feeling and what you're struggling with. I remember feeling a lot of sympathy and empathy, but also a helplessness, right? Listen, if I had the silver bullet, if I had the elixir, I would believe me, I would give it to you in this moment, Kevin. But I don't have that for you. This is a journey you have to walk on your own. I would love to be able to tell you I was able to retreat into

a state of Zen and enjoy the round, but I had reached only the second stage of grief, anger. What I remember most about that day is I was very envious of you just letting your anger out in the moment. You have a way of tossing a club, yelling a profanity, beating up on yourself that honestly is commendable because I think a lot of time I hold things in and I have this anger like bubbling, but I'm like, no, no, no, don't show it, don't show it, don't show it. Whereas I remember you just being like,

ah, fuck! And like doing a club toss and I'm like, well, maybe that's a better approach to having the shanks and getting your frustration out. What exactly constitutes a shank? And why did it become such a dirty word in the world of golf? This spring I set off on a mission to unpack a bit of the mystery behind one of golf's biggest taboos. Why do the shanks inspire such psychological torment? I might not be any good at golf but my job allows me to talk to the best golfers in the world. I decided to ask when was the last time you hit a shank? Roy McIlroy claims it's been years since he hit one.

Thankfully, I can't remember. But it's funny, I was watching the coverage last week and I saw Justin Rose hit one. It's where he finds, I was like, oh. It turns out seeing a shank can be nearly as unnerving as hitting one. And when you play in Pro-Ams alongside CEOs, wealth managers, NFL players or YouTube personalities, you're bound to see your share of shanks. It affects you. Yeah. It shouldn't, but it does. Some professional golfers are so hesitant to talk about the shanks, they'll refuse to even

say the word out loud, treating it like you're summoning a demon. When I asked PGA Tour player Mark Hubbard if he'd talk about the Shanks, he recoiled in mock horror. I'm gonna ask him like, you know, because I've had the Shanks, you know, a hundred times, and you know, every golfer at any level has always like, has hit one shank at least in their lives. So I kind of want to ask, like have you ever hit a shank in competition? First of all, you've said that word way too many times in this interview already. Yeah, it's like Voldemort. You can't say it. Scottie Scheffler was similarly bemused. It's kind of loosely titled, The Psychology of a Shank.

I wanted to ask all the basketball strikers, well I don't have 30 seconds for you to talk about shanks. Oh goodness. Have you ever hit a shank? Have I ever hit a shank? Yeah, I've shanked shots all the time. I actually shanked one today. What does it feel like when you do that? It doesn't feel good. I've never shanked shots all the time. I actually shanked one today. What does it feel like when you do that?

It feels good. What goes through your mind when it happens? I mean, I kind of just toss it out. I don't really think. I've never shanked two in a row. That makes sense. It's some people that don't want to talk about it. It's like saying the word, Baltimore, you know.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll be honest. I love talking about shanking it, but like, Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll be I'll be honest. I love talking about shaking it. But like, yeah, I did. I went over. Usually I'll hit balls before I chip. Today I went over to the bunker because I was doing a little wedge work and my first shot was a shank. I was like, oh, gosh, that's weird.

And I hit the next one. It wasn't. I was like, OK, good. Good news. Deep breath. There was never two in a row and I become an issue as long as one's fine. Yeah. When Tiger Woods shanked an eight iron this year on the 18th hole If there was ever two in a row, it might become an issue. One's fine. When Tiger Woods shanked an eight iron this year on the 18th hole during the first round of the Genesis Invitational, it was such an anomaly. If you'd just heard the audio of the broadcast, you would have assumed the announcers

had just witnessed a UFO land. Eight iron in hand, 176. Gotta be a pretty comfortable pin for him on that right side. Oh, hello. Yeah. That. Hossle. Yep. Wow. Right away. Even the greatest. There was some hesitancy in the media over how to even bring it up with woods

during his post-round interview. When Dan Rapoport of Barstool Sports and I asked Woods about what had happened, we waded cautiously into the conversation, uncertain about whether or not the 15-time major winner would want to go there. Woods answered us with atypical candor. Tiger, I'm not going to say the word, but on 18... Oh, definitely. I shanked it. What happened there? And is that still a shock to the system for you when that happens? Well, my back was spazzing in the last couple holes and it was

locking up so I came down and it didn't move and I presented hozzle first and shanked it. When's the last time you had a shank Tiger? I think you can remember. It's been a while. It's definitely been a while. Tiger's wonky explanation that he presented hozle first inspired a few laughs for how clinical it sounded, like he was a surgeon describing what went wrong during a procedure. But it was actually a forthright breakdown of the technical mistakes that lead to a shank. When a professional golfer starts rifling balls off the hosel, they're typically not

mired in a mental tailspin like I was. They're usually suffering from some kind of technical breakdown. And the same, it turns out, is true of amateurs. To go a bit deeper on the causes of the shanks, I tracked down Mark Blackburn during the Genesis Invitational this year. Golf Digest calls him the game's top ranked instructor. I asked what he does when a client comes to him and says they can't stop hitting shanks. I basically tell them, look, shank is like a hook or a slice. There's a reason you're doing it. So let's fix it. Don't think that it means that you've, you've, you're plagued, so to speak.

So I'm always like, here it is. Here's what you're doing. Here's why you're doing it. Here's the fix. And then once most people understand, okay, well, that's why I'm doing it. It's pretty simple. Like, I think if you make more of a deal of it, they have issues. Why do you think some people like get it in their heads?

Like as a psychological thing? Well, I think there's sort of phobia and people associate with golf. A lot of the things are, if you do this, this happens. And if you do that, this happens. I think there's a folklore probably. I think there's a bunch of nonsense. I mean, I think there's people who think that once they've got it, they can't fix it.

But again, if you're looking at it objectively, most people don't take golf lessons. They try and fix themselves anecdotally from a magazine tip I may have written or someone else or a buddy. But when you feel sick, you don't just try and fix yourself. You go to the doctor. Well, that's the half the problem with the Shanks. Once a player moves past their anger, the Shanks, they're ready to engage with the next stage of grief.

Bargaining. This brings us to the role the Shanks play in one of golf's shining pop culture moments, that infamous scene in Tin Cup. In the film, Kevin Costner's character, Roy McAvoy, qualifies for the US Open. But in the lead up to the tournament, he becomes a headcase. He's afflicted with an inexplicable bow to the shanks. As he warms up on the driving range, he sends a handful of Hossle Rockets shooting sideways, then gets into a heated debate with his caddy, Romeo, played by Cheech Marin, over how to fix them. Maybe you should hit your putter, you can't shank that one. Look, if you're the Mexican

Mac-O-Grady, you've got to figure out why I'm still shanking the ball. You know. What's the problem? I'm catching on the Hosel right? Yeah right right. Moving my head? Yeah. I'm laying it off? Well that too. I'm pronating? When you're not supernatant. I'm clearing too early, I'm clearing too late. My god my swing feels like an unfolding lawn chair. In desperation, Marin tricks Costner's character into completely rebooting his thinking to cure the shanks by not thinking about the shanks at all. All right take all your change and put it in your left hand pocket. Go on do it Roy. All right now tie your left shoe in a double knot. Right now, Roy, do it.

Turn your hat around backwards. Turn your hat around. Do it, Roy. Now take this tee and stick it behind your left ear. Stick it. I look like a fool. What the hell do you think you look like shooting them chili peppers up Lee Jansen's ass? Now you do it right now or I swear to God I'm gonna quit.

I swear to God. All right. All right, good. Now take this little ball, hit it the hell up the fairway. You ready? Good. Now take this little ball, hit it the hell up the fairway. You're ready. How'd I do that? Because you're not thinking about shanking.

Even for the best ball strikers on Earth, there is something that rings true about that scene. Jordan Spieth, who has hit a few shanks in his career, can recite much of it from memory. I think they approached it really well. It's like, you're not thinking about the doctor lady. You know, you put the change in, switch the change in your pocket and hat backward, look like a fool,

and your mind's elsewhere. I mean, I think there's a lot to it. I think it's probably best orchestrated actually from that scene. The Shanks can feel like such a crippling nightmare that I never imagined a scenario where anyone would try to hit them on purpose. But that was before I met Sahith Thakala.

Hey, Kevin, what's going on? Yeah, nice to see you too. Good. Sure. So we're trying to do this. Fagala is one of the PGA TOUR's most promising young players. He started incorporating intentional shanks into his warm-up routine when he was a teenager growing up

in California. Yeah, yeah. It started in high school, in high school matches, because I was really nervous. I've always been, still am, a nervous player. So to kind of keep it light, I just kind of dig her out on purpose. It fit with his personality, goofy and intentionally unserious, but it had a secondary benefit. It would rattle his competitors who were often warming up a few feet away. He continued to practice in college, including one memorable tournament when

he sent a ball screaming past the feet of John Rom, then the number one ranked amateur in the world. Rom, as you can imagine, was less than thrilled. Tagala pretended to hang his head in shame, but what started as a teenage trolling eventually helped Tagala better understand his golf swing. I think a part of it is take the nerves off and another part of it is you kind of gain a sneaky, like you gain better control of the face because it's kind of hard to hit it off the oz if you're trying to. The more players I talked to the more frequently one golfer's name kept coming up. He's like the patron saint of shanking, so much so that he doesn't mind chatting openly about it. It's a terrible feeling. There's nothing really good that comes from it.

I've hit quite a few. I don't know if I've hit 10, but I'm close. I'm talking, as you might have guessed, to Webb Simpson. On the surface, Simpson seems like a strange person to hold such a dishonorable distinction. He won the 2012 US Open. He's earned over 47 million in winnings during his career. He's been a member of three Ryder Cup teams, and he has the reputation for being one of the best iron players in golf. But along the way, he has hit some memorable shanks.

The kind that might have wrecked someone with a less sunny disposition. And I have two that are the most embarrassing. One was 16 at August on Saturday, front right pin. That was awful. Because you know all the people between 15 and 16, and they got their chairs and their merchandise and their tin cups, so I gotta wait for them to move.

And then the other one was final round at Ryder Cup in Medina with Poulter. I think, you know, one of my best years on tour was 2012 with the Open, and I had a bunch of shanks that year. So like, I kind of got used to it. And there's no, there's no good or right time for a shank, but you hope there's no trouble, right? Like out of bounds for water.

But yeah, I mean, I've always been a drawer. So I've always been a heel striker, if anything. And so if I'm not timing things up well the it'll this point of contact will go closer that heel and I've hit him but it's just part of it but no the the last one I've had felt as bad as the first one. How I wanted to know do you muster the courage to hit a good golf shot after you've just sent one rocketing sideways in front of thousands of people. It's hard.

I mean, this was funny to Gustav. So I was trying to hit a hard cut eight iron. We get to 17 and the pins middle right with the right to left wind. So I got to hit like a, I got to hit like a cut eight iron again to hold the wind. So Paulie gives me the numbers and I'm like, I like that cut eight, like 10 feet left of it. He's like, I like that big drawing nine. And I'm like, I said, Paulie, 10 feet left of it. He's like, I like that big drawing nine. And I'm like, I said, Paulie,

nine hours is gonna go to 40 feet, best case. And he's like, I like it. And I'm like, I don't like it. I like it, why are you on this hard nine? And he kind of leans in and whispers, cause there's mics everywhere. He goes, well, you just shanked this exact shot that you're wanting to hit.

I laughed, I'm like, I'm hitting eight. Hit a toe to about 40 feet. But yeah, you have to move on. Yeah, like in a bad frame of mind, you're hoping the next one's not a shank, but that's, you know, as what Sports Psych says, you're focused on what you don't want to have happen. You got to continue to focus on what you want to have happen and got to rebound. I've never hit two in a row, so hopefully I won't do that. If you're one of the most talented golfers on earth, you might hit a few shanks, do a little bargaining with yourself and find your way out of the darkness.

If you're immortal, it might be a bit more complicated. More after the break. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Rac. You all know Robac. Best fit, best feel. It is summer. We are living in Robac. They just released their American Summer Collection. Trust us when we say it is fantastic beyond the golf. They've got bathing suits now, which we'll be using to go from a hot day on the course straight to the pool. The performance polos, they're moisture wicking. They've got great stretch. The collar is crisp. It does not lose its shape. They fit way better than those old boxy polos do. Simply put, these are the best designs paired with the best feeling polos out there. Their shorts are fantastic. The everyday

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with code N-L-U. Summer isn't the same without Roeback. Let's get back to Kevin Van Balkenberg. ["Spring Day"] Can a bad case of the shank send you into a spiral of depression? I was scrolling through social media one day when I noticed Patrick Burda responding to a tweet about Tiger Woods' shank.

There were dozens of people cracking jokes, but his tweet was more earnest. He said he'd quit his college golf team because of them. When I shot him a note asking if he might unpack what happened, he confessed that he'd never talked with anyone about it in detail. We agreed to have what amounted to a therapy session and explore the fourth stage of grief, depression. Berta was admittedly not a phenom growing up in Northern California, but he did have considerable game. His father

was an accomplished California amateur and Berta wanted to follow in his footsteps. He was determined to play college golf. That was kind of my dream. I wanted to play D1 golf, Pac-10, Pac-12 golf, whatever you want to call it. That was kind of my dream. I was a stubborn kid and didn't really listen to my dad when he would give me lessons and didn't really take any lessons from any pros. So sort of had a little bit of a homemade swing and was a decent enough athlete where I could get it around and I had some success in junior golf.

I was kind of one of those kids that was always maybe a step below the really elite junior golfers, maybe the kids that were winning a lot or some of the age AGA. I think I won. I think I won one junior event as a 17-year-old. That was my only win and didn't really get recruited. But a little Division II school down the road about 20 miles from me called Stanislaus State had a very accomplished golf team. And I knew they were good. And I knew I had a chance to walk onto that team. Tiger Woods had just burst onto the scene in professional golf and suddenly the sport had a cachet it didn't previously possess. For his senior year he played well in his high school league and

so he had a bit of swagger when he showed up in college. Take me back to that time when things started to go awry. You know typical typical kind of college story. I was focused on partying a little bit and looking for girls and I didn't really focus my freshman year as much as I should have. But around the junior year was when things started to go off the rails a little bit. And I developed a case of the shanks. Best I remember and Kevin, I gotta be honest, this is the first time I've really talked about this

in depth, it's been 20 years, bud, and so this is gonna be my therapy, so if my memory is a little hazy, this is something I've buried for a long time, and so just bear with me here. Status law states spring tryouts took place over 10 rounds at 10 different courses. At the end, the top six players would make it into the starting lineup.

Berta felt confident going in, but that confidence quickly evaporated. First couple rounds of qualifying, I shanked two irons out of bounds and I think I shot 78 or 79. And it just kind of got worse from there throughout the 10 round qualifying and I couldn't not shank a four, five or six iron two or three times around. Didn't know when they were coming obviously, was able to hit other good shots throughout the round that would enable me to kind of keep it together a little bit and maybe break 80, but kind of got to that point where I knew I was going to shank two or three around.

If you walk into a room and there's a poisonous snake in the corner it's impossible not to think about the snake especially when a part of your brain is telling you don't worry about the snake. That is what trying to block out the shanks feels like. I mean I would just have a conversation in my head of like is this going to be the one now? Am I going to shank this one? And then it would be like, okay, we'll try to block that out. And I mean, I wasn't into the Bob Rotella stuff yet. I wasn't quite into that, the golf psychology stuff. So I didn't know how to deal with it. I didn't know how to step back, visualize good stuff and block out the bad. And so it was just a constant battle of, oh my God, everybody's watching me. The whole team's watching me. This would happen on par threes where, you know, we may have two groups on a tee and I would just,

I would be terrified of embarrassing myself. And I developed the nickname, Patty Longshanks. And that was my nickname for like two years. And ha ha ha, it was funny, but you know, not real funny when you're a self-conscious 21 year old trying to do some good stuff. Things came to a head in the team's final stage of qualifying when Berta shanked three balls out of bounds. The 10th and final round was going to be at

Pasatiempo, the historic Alistair Mackenzie design. Berta had never played it before, but he had built it up in his head as one of the most challenging courses in America. I mean I had an emotional breakdown on the car ride, the two hour car ride over to Paso Tiempo the night before. It was me and my buddy, my roommate, he and I were driving over there. He was in first or second at that point in the qualifying. So he was in good shape.

I'm sure he did not want to hear about any of my problems and my travails, but I was in the passenger seat and I was like, Chris, I'm not going to break a hundred at Positupo tomorrow. I'm not going to be able to get it around. And I mean, truly like, I mean, looking back on it now, it was probably a little bit of a panic attack. Werner remembers scraping it around somehow. The round is mostly a blur. He knows he shanked a few balls, shot something like 82, and that was it.

He was so riddled with doubt and despair, he essentially walked away from competitive golf for the next three years. Golf is not fun to play that way. You drive to practice, and I'm driving to these great golf courses for golf practice, and we're so lucky to play these great places. Golf is utopia, and I'm miserable. I mean, just miserable. I just didn't play golf my senior year and I'm miserable. I mean, just miserable. I just didn't play golf my senior year.

I told coach, sorry. So quitter attitude. I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I would have stuck it out, but you know, that's kind of where it ended up. It just completely broke me down and I did not wanna go be on the golf course. Bertha is 42 now.

He works as a commercial loan officer at a small California bank. He plays golf regularly and is a scratch handicap. His game is better now than it's ever been. When he looks back on that dark period, he wishes he would have been less stubborn and more willing to seek help. Reading about the mental side of the game, particularly Bob Rotella's golf is not a game of perfect, helped free him up to enjoy the sport again. I can't remember the last time I've hit a hosel shank. I mean, it's been a decade. I really don't know. I hit it off the toe a lot now, Kev, and that's probably a side effect of some bad demons. That's probably my miss is hitting an iron shot off the toe. I rarely hit it off near the hosel. I play with guys that do do and if they do, it

creeps in my head that, there but for the grace of God go I and I know it can happen to me on the next shot. That's when I kind of lean into the good golf psychology that I've built up over the last few years of just envision the good shot. You're good enough. If it does happen, you can see the reactions of pros, right? They laugh at themselves and I'm not going pro. I'm a scratch golfer, but I know my ceiling and I know that bad shots are gonna happen and all you can do is laugh at it. And that's probably something I didn't understand 20 years ago that I understand now. A

great shank story doesn't have to make you miserable. Bertha is right. It's essential to laugh if you can. At the Genesis, I was chatting with Jim Bones-McKie, who caddied for Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas. Well, I was going to say there's a great Paul Goido spread couple shank story from Muirfield Village if you want to hear it. Yeah, I would love to.

Have you been there? The range is like circular. Have. Okay. So you're kind of, you're at different angles. It's not just a straight line of players hitting balls on the range. And Fred Couples was hitting balls there years ago. And a ball came whizzing quite close to him. And, you know, he gave it one of these and backed off and turned around.

You know, Gordos was 12 people down there on the range and he shanked one. And, you know, they nodded each other and go, sorry Fred, Fred, no problem, Paul, no problem. And Gordos goes, I do that a lot. And Fred goes, I'm sure you don't. He goes, no, trust me, I do that a lot. So they had a chuckle about it. And later that afternoon, the tea times came out.

Of course, Thursday, Friday, it's Gordos, Fred and somebody else. And they lay it up on the very short third and Gordos has a nine iron in there and there's a lake short short right of the green there and Gordos just hits this amazingly tinny shank and the ball's in the air heading towards the out of bounds and he just yells out told you. Bones has been around the game long enough to know that the best antidote for a shank is laughter.

But there are plenty of times when even the pros stop laughing and seek help in unorthodox places. In the midst of my research, I started hearing stories about a couple of unnamed touring pros who went so far down the shank spiral they eventually sought help from a hypnotist. It didn't sound real at first. It sounded more like a playful joke. I had images of Butch Harmon dangling a pocket watch in front of Webb Simpson on the first tee. Look into my eyes.

But a quick bit of Googling put me in touch with Steve Woods, a certified professional hypnotist from England who specializes in helping golfers overcome the shanks with hypnosis. And he confirmed, yes, he has worked with several professional golfers, although obviously he couldn't say who. I had a dozen questions for Woods, but first off I wanted to know, how does one become a golf hypnotist? Well, I'd love to say at school I really wanted to be a golf hypnotist, but that was a very long time ago and didn't know anything about hypnosis back then,

so that wasn't the case. I got into hypnosis as often people do through self-development. So wanting to either do better or sometimes it's also somebody has hypnosis or hypnotherapy for something. So there's two ways in, but for me it was seeing a stage hypnotist,

getting some self-hypnosis tapes, that's how long ago it was seeing a stage hypnotist, getting some self hypnosis tapes, that's how long ago it was from them and really just playing with it for a while. And then 20 years ago, decided to get some proper qualifications that led me into the hypnotherapy route. And then this will be the most probably the interesting bit is now about six, maybe seven years ago, I was introduced to a golfer who had the shanks. The golfer, Wood shared, was the captain of his club, but he shanked the ball so frequently and so violently, no one wanted to play with him. It was no enjoyment of the game. It was, I'm about to

sell all this kit because when I use it, I'm not enjoying it. I'm actually hating going. I think because he was captain of the club as well, of course, he felt obliged to be there. He felt obliged to be there for the members to play against, but the members didn't want to play. And if they did, they'd turn his back on him before he made a shot virtually, almost fully turn the back, because they didn't want to see, they didn't want to risk seeing that S word happen because then it's in here, it's in their mind and then they're going to think about it and then they're going to do it as well. Woods didn't play golf, but he didn't think that was important. He didn't box or drive race cars either and he'd had success with professionals in each of those fields.

Did the hypnosis with him, obviously had to learn about what the shanks were a little bit and learn about golf a little bit as well enough to be able to use the right language and he got great results. Golf psychology is helpful Wood said but that's dealing with the conscious mind. Hypnosis deals with the subconscious mind. The details here are a little vague you have to pay for sessions with Woods to truly unlock your potential but he insists the potential for golfers is real. He's not trying to hook anyone on paying a monthly fee or to grow dependent on hypnosis sessions. He trains golfers to mentally rewire themselves, to expect success instead of accepting despair. The process now would be to get you in the zone. So for everybody that I work with, I think everyone's had that experience where they've made a

great shot, they've not really thought about it. And then someone else will say, Kevin, that was an amazing shot. Fantastic. And you go, Oh, yeah, how did I do that? And then you try and recreate it. And of course, you start to think about it in that conscious part of your mind. And that then slows it down doesn't quite work as well. But I think everyone in any sport, probably any activity in life really, they've had that moment where they've been in the zone.

So the conversation with somebody is to say, actually I can help you get back into that zone each and every time. Selfishly, I was hoping to hear that Woods might be putting golfers into a trance over Zoom. Then, like a stage hypnotist, he'd snap his fingers and say a trigger word that would bring them back to the conscious realm, no longer plagued by the shanks.

Woods told me that while he does appreciate the skill of stage hypnotists, what he does requires a bit more work on the client's end to see lasting results. With the shanks, just like in life, there are no magic fixes. As for the golfer whose friends were turning their back on him when he hit balls, hypnosis saved him from walking away from the game. It was generally first session onwards. I think it was either session one or session two where he really reported noticing a difference or after that session. So because what we're doing is we're creating new habits, new behaviors, because we're doing it in the subconscious mind, that automated

part of the mind, then those habits embed really quickly. Beliefs around habit changing can be anything from 28 days of continuously doing something to 90 days or so recently. But in that, once you're free of that doubt in conscious part of your mind, and it's not just working with me, that's working with anybody in this world,

but once you're out of that conscious part of the mind, the it's not just working with me, that's working with anybody in this world. But once you're out of that conscious part of the mind, the subconscious can make those changes, and it can make those changes really quickly. This episode is also brought to you by our friends at Mizuho Americas. They're part of the Mizuho Financial Group, the 15th largest bank in the world. They're a corporate and investment bank serving corporate and institutional clients. They advise and fund businesses looking to go public, raise money, expand operations, or connect with large investors. They also help finance large infrastructure projects that promote civic improvement. While you may not know the name Mizuho, you likely know many of the name brand companies

they have helped or the projects they have funded. It is a name worth knowing. They're also the title sponsor of the Mizuho America's Open, which has been two years running at Liberty National. They do a lot of great things in golf, specifically in the women's game. They're also a great supporter of our LPGA content. Some of the highlights of what they've done is they've increased the purse of $3 million at the Mizuho Americas Open. They cover player accommodations, all kinds of fantastic things. So a big shout to Mizuho. And for more information, you can visit www.mizuhoamericas.com. Again, that's

www.mizuhoamericas.com. Again, that's www.MizzouhoAmericas.com. Let's get back to Kevin Van Balkenberg. ["The Road to Overcoming the Shanks"] There are many roads that lead to overcoming the shanks, but one common theme emerges and weaves them all together. It's also the fifth stage of grief, which hopefully leads to healing. It's about acceptance. For that, I wanted to hear from someone widely renowned for having the most positive attitude in professional golf, Peter Malnach.

Okay, so have you ever hit a shank in competition? Oh yeah. How do you overcome it when you do? Go get up and down. I mean, I've hit every kind of bad shot you can possibly hit, but you always get to hit another one. Even if you have to take a penalty shot first, you always get to hit another one. And so until I've hit my last shot,

I'm just not that worried about the last one. Like, they bother me. I get mad. I get frustrated. I mean, I've missed a lot of cuts, and they all make me sad. But when you hit a bad shot, you just go hit the next one. And I don't really know what causes a good one versus a bad

one half the time anyway. So a bad one could be an anomaly just as much as the good one seemed to be an anomaly sometimes. He's the good one seemed to be anomaly sometime. He's right. If you play golf long enough, you're going to hit shanks. They are as much a part of the game as lip outs or bad bounces or finding your ball in a fairway. If Tiger Woods and Jack Nicholas have hit a shank, then you will too. Lucas Glover doesn't hit shanks very often, but he's wrestled for years with what might as well be the shanks closest sibling the putting yips

For years he'd stand over putts and essentially flinch at contact Pretending it wasn't happening never helped. I just think any any stigma of Something, you know something bad people don't talk about it. Don't talk about it You know, I remember, you know, it was like the hips, you know Which I've suffered through and it didn't start getting better until I started talking about it being open about it You know, I don't talk about it you know I remember you know it was like the ips you know which I've suffered through and it didn't start getting better until I started talking about it being open about it you know I don't talk about it you know but uh it's just a stigma people have and don't want to don't want to don't they think you it's like a germ or a bacteria you know if you hear about it you might catch it. My journey into the mysteries of the shanks ultimately led me back to where I

started to the wisdom of my friend Big Randy. Not long after we parted ways at Sweeten's, Randy joined the rest of the NLU gang on a trip to Scotland for season two of Tura Sauce. It was a long and magical trip to some of the greatest golf courses in the world. But near the end of the trip, one of the most memorable sequences in the history of Tura Sauce took place. Big Randy, even though he'd been playing good golf on the trip, caught an inexplicable bout of the shanks and it was all caught on film, his humiliation on display for our entertainment. We're here at number 10 at Royal Dornec, this is unprecedented. We have a tin cup-esque situation. It has nothing to do with carrying a hazard, it has to do with him firing Hossle Rockets into the course on the right.

This one might go backwards. This is our third. Another one! Again! Hit him again! It was, to put it bluntly, one of the weirdest rounds of his life. I think for me that happened, you know, it was a matter of like, how am I gonna play

the rest of these nine holes if, you know, every time I stand over an iron shot, I'm thinking cold shank. And so I feel like on 10T there, I made the decision, you know what guys, the score's out the window, this is the last nine holes of the trip, I'm not playing for anything, we're just going to try to get around the second nine of Dornuk with my trusty hybrid.

Had anything like that ever happened before? Oh yeah, lots of times. Yeah, the Shanks are a thing that I've lived with all my golfing life. You know, they usually, I think what was unique about that, they usually don't come on just mid-round out of nowhere. I will say the further back I go in my golfing life, you know, the more typical emergence of the shanks would be on the driving range. I feel like the more balls I hit on the driving range, the worse my habits

get, the worse my swing gets, and that can usually result in a bad case of the shank. So that really has scarred me for a lot of my life to the point where I don't really enjoy hitting golf balls on the driving range, and I certainly don't enjoy hitting balls on the driving range to warm up before a round because in the back of my mind I know, you know, I can develop the shanks on the driving range. So I would say the most common occurrence has been to almost go into a round having the shanks, fearing the shanks, guarding against them. But yeah, just almost the job of the hat split second them coming on to the point where, you know, I'll hit, I mean, God, I can hit a one off shank any round that I play anytime, anywhere. But it was the second, the third, that

feeling where you just cannot find the face of an iron, that was kind of a new experience coming on just midway through around. That's not fun. Something happened, however, on that back nine. Big Randy navigated his way around the course with nothing but woods, a hybrid and a putter, bumping shots along the ground and leaning into some of what he loves about the game. It felt at times almost spiritual. Here he was on a bucket list trip with some of what he loves about the game. It felt at times almost spiritual.

Here he was on a bucket list trip with some of his best friends. Why get upset about something so trivial? I think through my journey, I used to try to keep the Shanks and the thought of the Shanks really out of my mind. And then I kind of went through this weird transformation after Dornak even,

I think Dornak played a part in this was, I'm just going to think about it and I'm going to explore it. I almost think it was like therapy for me really. It's like just trying to think through, okay, if it does happen, then what? It's like, well, you've been here before. Dornak's a great example of that for me, right? I can always have that in my mind of, listen, you've been here before. You've had the Shanks on one of the best

golf courses in the world. Like, life goes on. You make the best of it. You try to have some fun. You hit some good shots with a hybrid or a wood or, you know, whatever it may be. But I found that to be a lot more positive and a lot more beneficial thinking about them, trying to think through them, almost demystifying them and scraping away the anxiety and the fear around it has been a lot more helpful to me

than just like trying to push it out of my mind and like don't say it, don't think about it, an approach like that. If this journey has helped me understand anything, it's that the Shanks will probably always be with me. They may lie dormant for years like a virus. I'll have days when they never creep into my brain, but eventually they'll probably surface again. My hope, both for myself and for others is that we'll all lean into the big

Randy philosophy of acceptance. I would also encourage people if you do struggle with the shanks, don't run from them. I think the more you can just sit with them in your thoughts, think about it, think through, you know, Hey, if I get them, then what? And, and be able to almost process your emotions. It really has helped me. It's, it's part of my mental, hey, if I get them, then what? And be able to almost process your emotions. It really has helped me. It's part of my mental, my vaunted mental practice game.

But yeah, it's just, they're no fun. They're no fun. I think part of the excitement, part of the aura of them is truly, you never know when one's coming. And that's, you know, you can't, we always joke, there aren't many true surprises left in life. And I think a shank you could put in that category.

["The Shank of Life"] At No Lang Ups club championship this year, I had a thought. What if I lean the other way? What if I tried to hit some shanks on the range, just to prove I wasn't afraid of them anymore? It might be like walking back into the lion's den dressed like a gazelle, but what did I have to lose? You can't overcome your demons if you don't confront them. So we're out here at Aaron Hills and we're gonna try to hit some shanks for you. That was a nasty one right there. That was me just completely flushing a shank right off the hosel.

Oh that was a good one. Oh no, too flush. Thanks for listening to this edition of Vanity U special projects. Music and sound editing in this episode was done by Justine Pajowski, editing by DJ Pajowski. You can find more writing like this on our website, noelingup.com, which is free to everyone. But we'd also encourage you to join the Nest, our community of avid golfers. Nest members get a 15% discount in our Pro Shop, access to exclusive content like our monthly Nest podcast, as well as the chance to sign up earlier for our Roost events held all around the country. We appreciate your support.

If you'd like to leave a comment about this podcast or share your best shank story, you can reach me at kbv at nolangup.com. Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most!