Today’s Equipment Could Be Hurting Your Game with John "Lag" Erickson

golf SMARTER

Josh Karp

Sports, Golf

4.3 • 577 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

GS#386 May 28, 2013: From Touring to Teaching, John “Lag” Erickson has seen golf from all sides and is concerned that the art of ball striking is disappearing. He contends that today’s highly advanced research to make clubs more forgiving is ruining the ability to become a great ball striker. Even the greatest players of today struggle when handed persimmon clubs, nor could they compete with the pre-metal club pros. It’s not just touch, but the sound of hitting balls has changed for the worst. Are you more interested in scoring than ball striking? Jon thinks you may be missing the point. He also says that the USGA and R&A hate golf. For more, check out John’s website at AdvancedBallStriking.com. Jon returns for Part 2 of our conversation in a Members Only episode to discuss his theories of instruction that teaches the swing from impact backwards. John referred to the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf classic matchup of Hogan vs. Snead. Watch it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/F2wY30noVmM?si=X5vHE_wiqPc8JsySGet more when your visit the refreshed golfsmarter.com! Introduce an Upcoming Episode: Receive free gifts for recording a show opening by clicking on "Record Your Show Open Here!" tab on the right side of golfsmarter.com. Watch Daily Video Highlights from Our Interviews: Follow @golfsmarter on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube daily to see our highlights and helpful insights from our interviews on the podcast. Post a Review: you'll receive three free gifts when you post an honest review about Golf Smarter the podcast. Fill Out a Listener Survey: It only takes a few minutes to fill out our survey, which helps us to better serve your interests in the podcast. You'll receive a free link to Tony Manzoni's video and Justin Tang’s summary of Tony’s Lost Fundamental on pdf! Visit tourstriker.com/TSGA and use the code GOLFSMARTER to get your first month of the Tour Striker GolfAcademy Online free, plus instant access to two bonus courses—'The Recipe for Better Golf' and 'Bombs: How to Consistently Smash the Driver”: a $194 value for free.This episode is brought to you by PXG. Schedule your fitting today and for a limited time you could save up to 20% on your ENTIRE order! Head over to PXG.com/smarter. Restrictions apply, see site for details.This episode is sponsored by Indeed. Please visit indeed.com/GOLFSMARTER and get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is sponsored by HIMS. Start your free online visit today HIMS.com/golfsmarter and received personalized ED treatment options.This episode is also sponsored by SelectQuote. Make sure you get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/golfsmarter today and get started. For exclusive content and first access check out Corrected Mistakes on Substack: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Golf Smarter number 386, published on May 28, 2013.
0:05.5	Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans.
0:08.4	Your second chance to gain insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the Golf Smarter podcast.
0:16.6	Great golf instruction never gets old.
0:19.5	Our interview library features hundreds of hours of game
0:23.6	improvement conversations like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
0:28.8	A fellow teammate of mine recently, who, in the PGA up here, and he came out to watch a friend
0:33.8	of mine play. We were playing Persimmons, and we handed him a Persimmon driver to hit a shot, and he hit it about 210 yards. I mean, he just couldn't
0:41.3	hit it at all. But with a modern driver that's 10 ounces or 11 ounces, and it's 46 inches long
0:47.4	and it has a giant titanium head on it, he can just sort of slap out it with his hands and
0:52.3	get 105 miles an hour of club head speed, knock the thing out there, 280 yards. And you don't like this? No, I don't like this. It's dumbing down the game. The thing that's been eliminated from the game has been having to hit long irons, and that's how golf courses were designed. The great architects designed these courses, and they said there's 10 parforas on a golf course.
1:11.8	So the golf course is designed to have typically three long parforis, meaning two, three, and four
1:16.8	iron for approach shot. And then they're going to have four mid-range, five, six and seven irons for
1:21.5	a pro shot, and then three short parfor's, eight, nine, and wedge. So the reason that they do that
1:26.8	is to test the skill set
1:29.0	of the professional player, the top amateur player on a professional championship course. The player
1:33.9	has to show their ability to play long irons, mid irons, and short irons. That's golf.
1:45.8	Today's equipment could be hurting your game with John Lag Erickson.
1:50.0	This is Golf Smarter.
1:52.4	Sharing tips and insights from golfers and golf professionals to help lower your score.
1:58.2	It's worked for your host, Fred Green.
2:02.2	Welcome to the Golf Smarter podcast, John. Thanks for having me out. I appreciate you coming out to a studio here and
	...

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