On the Mark Golf Podcast

In this episode of On The Mark, host Mark Immelman welcomes back Dr. Luke Benoit, golf instructor, motor learning expert, and creator of the RypStick, for a deep dive into one of golf’s biggest questions: Why is it so hard to change your swing — and why does your range game often disappear on the golf course? Luke shares insights from his upcoming book, The Golf Textbook, and explains how motor learning, biomechanics, practice design, and performance psychology all work together when golfers try to improve.
The conversation challenges common assumptions about practice, range work, swing changes, and the way golfers train. Instead of simply “hitting more balls,” Luke lays out a smarter path for building better patterns, transferring them to the course, and learning when to think mechanically — and when to play freely.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why your practice swing often looks better than your real swing.
Why hitting range balls is not always the best way to change a motor pattern.
How pressure changes your movement patterns on the golf course.
Why golfers must separate swing-building practice from performance practice .
The difference between changing your swing for tomorrow vs. changing it for 90 days from now.
Why learning a new swing pattern may require practicing without a golf ball.
How video feedback can help you build a new movement pattern faster.
Why calibration is key to fixing slices, hooks, tops, shanks, and contact issues.
The four zones of improvement: Construction, Calibration, Transfer, and Performance, and
How to build a “firewall” between mechanical thinking and on-course performance.
Key Conversation Points:
1. Why Golf Swings Are Hard to Change Luke explains that golf swings are deeply ingrained motor patterns. Once a pattern has been built over time, it behaves almost like a riverbed: the movement naturally wants to return to the same path. To change it, golfers need to understand that they are not simply “trying a tip.” They are building a new pattern — and that takes the right environment, feedback, and repetition.
2. Why the Golf Ball Gets in the Way One of Luke’s biggest points is that the golf ball creates conflict. When a golfer is trying to change mechanics and hit a good shot at the same time, the brain often prioritizes the result of the ball over the new movement. That is why Luke recommends separating swing-building work from ball-striking work. If the goal is to change your movement, the ball may not matter early in the process.
3. Construction: Building the Swing The construction zone is where golfers build a new movement pattern. Luke says this is the time to think like an engineer. This is not about hitting perfect shots. It is about creating the movement correctly, using video, feedback, and intentional reps. Luke also explains the value of reverse chaining — learning the downswing before adding the backswing.
4. Calibration: Fixing Ball-Flight Biases Calibration is where golfers learn how to control impact. If you slice it, learn to hook it. If you hit it low, learn to hit it higher. If you hit the ground first, learn to hit the ball first. Mark and Luke emphasize that many ball-flight problems can be improved quickly when golfers understand impact opposites and stop overcomplicating the fix.
5. Transfer: Taking Practice to the Course The transfer zone is where practice starts to look more like golf. Instead of hitting the same shot repeatedly, golfers must learn to change targets, vary situations, and make practice feel closer to the course. This is where many golfers struggle because traditional range practice often rewards comfort instead of adaptability.
6. Performance: Playing Without Mechanical Overload The final zone is performance. On the course, Luke believes golfers need to trust their training, trust their routine, and stop trying to solve every swing issue mid-round. The goal is to create a firewall between mechanical practice and on-course performance so the golfer can play freely, even while working through a swing change.
This podcast is guaranteed to help you turn your practice into good scores.  Share it with your golf buddies, and watch it on YouTube by searching for and subscribing to Mark Immelman.

In this episode of On The Mark, Mark Immelman is joined by Dutch Skiver, founder of Blind Strike Golf, for a wide-ranging conversation on how golfers can stop overthinking, quiet the mind, and learn to play with more feel, freedom, and trust.
Dutch’s teaching philosophy is refreshingly simple: golf does not need to be buried under technical jargon. Instead, better golf begins with clear communication, a reliable routine, and learning how to let the club do what it was designed to do — swing.
Mark and Dutch discuss the difference between instruction and coaching; why many golfers lose their natural motion when a ball is introduced, and how the right training aid can help a player feel the solution instead of drowning in more swing thoughts.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
 ✅ Why “impossible” in golf often becomes possible when the lesson is explained in a way the player can actually understand.
✅ The difference between instruction and coaching — and why golfers need more than just information.
✅ Dutch’s two core keys to improvement: build a great routine and find finish.
✅ Why golf clubs are designed to swing — not be over-controlled or manipulated.
✅ How the “hit impulse” changes a golfer’s motion when a ball is placed in front of them.
✅ Why putting and short-game struggles often begin with the eyes, tension, and early movement.
✅ How Dutch developed the Blind Strike training aids to help golfers quiet their vision, improve strike, and release the club more naturally.
✅ Why a released putter gives you a better chance to make putts than a held-off or manipulated stroke.
✅ How the Short Plate can help golfers better understand strike, bounce, landing point, and short-game contact.
Key Conversation Points:
1. Golf Improvement Starts with Better Communication - Dutch explains that every golfer thinks differently. A good coach should understand the player’s world and communicate in language that connects with them — instead of forcing the player into complicated golf terminology. 
2. Coaching Is More Than Giving Information - Dutch uses a powerful analogy: handing someone golf balls without a basket gives them no place to hold the information. Coaching gives the player a “basket” — a structure for applying what they learn. 
3. Routine and Finish Are Everything - Dutch believes golfers need two essentials: a great routine and a committed finish. If a player can build those, the swing can become more natural, repeatable, and less cluttered by technical thoughts. 
4. Practice Swing vs. Real Swing - Many golfers make beautiful practice swings, then change completely when the ball appears. Dutch explains that the mission shifts from “swing” to “hit,” and that change creates tension, manipulation, and poor contact. 
5. The Eyes Matter More Than Golfers Realize - Dutch and Mark discuss how early eye movement, peripheral vision, and the urge to “see the result” can disrupt putting, chipping, and pitching. The goal is to quiet the eyes long enough for the stroke or swing to complete. 
6. Let the Club Work - Dutch’s biggest message is that golf is not about overpowering the club with the body or the brain. Once golfers understand the club’s role, they can better understand their own role: allow the club to swing and respond with feel.
You can also watch Dutch demonstrate his lessons if you search and subscribe to Mark Immelman on YouTube.  Make you practice purpose-driven and productive, employ some simple to apply lessons from PGA Pro Dutch Skiver.

In this episode of On The Mark, host Mark Immelman is joined by South African golf instructor Rick Currin, who teaches in Malaysia and specializes in making golf simpler, more playable, and easier to improve.
Rick brings a biomechanics and sports science background to his coaching, but his message is refreshingly practical: stop overcomplicating the game, manage the course smarter, and build a swing and short game that help you avoid big numbers.
Mark and Rick walk through a “mini boot camp” for your whole game—course management, driver setup, iron play, pitching, bunker shots, lag putting, and short putts—with one clear goal: help golfers score better by making better decisions and executing simpler shots.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
✅ Why avoiding double bogeys is one of the fastest ways to lower scores
✅ How to manage a golf course by playing to your strengths—not your ego
✅ Why “boring golf” can be the smartest path to better scores
✅ How better posture and setup can help you drive the ball more consistently
✅ Why irons should be treated like precision clubs, not power clubs
 ✅ A simple pitching key: narrow stance, toe down, rhythm, and less tension
✅ The bunker-shot mindset: speed and trust
✅ Why lag putting is an overlooked scoring skill—and how to practice it better, and
✅ How to improve short putts with a simple, repeatable routine.
Key Themes:
Golf Made Simple - Rick’s coaching philosophy is built around cutting through overload. Instead of chasing every tip, golfers need simple, repeatable ideas they can actually use on the course.
Course Management Saves Shots - You do not always need driver off the tee. Sometimes a 6-iron in play, followed by another smart shot, creates a better scoring opportunity than forcing driver into trouble. 
Discipline Starts Before the Swing - Rick emphasizes discipline in the pre-shot routine and decision-making. Poor choices often begin before the club ever moves.
Athletic Setup Matters - Better driving starts with posture, balance, and body readiness. Rick explains how rounded posture and tension can limit rotation and make it harder to square the face.
Precision Over Power With irons and wedges - Rick encourages golfers to take an extra club, make a controlled swing, and focus on solid contact and dispersion—not maximum distance.
Short Game Variety Wins - You do not always have to fly the ball to the hole. Rick prefers using the contours of the course, bump-and-run options, and different clubs around the green when the shot allows it.
This podcast is also available as a vodcast on YouTube - search and subscribe to Mark Immelman to watch it.

In this episode of On The Mark, Mark Immelman welcomes back Will Stubbs from Zen Green Stage / Zen Swing Stage for a conversation that hits a major truth about modern golf: the game doesn’t have an attraction problem—it has a retention problem. Golf participation has surged, but most new players don’t stick—largely because golf is hard, practice isn’t realistic, and learning infrastructure hasn’t kept up with access.
Will breaks down the “practice gap”—why sterile range/simulator reps don’t translate to the real golf course where slopes, lies, turf conditions, and wind change everything. Then he shares actionable ways to improve faster: build situational awareness, train on uneven lies, and learn to read greens using a simple clock-face method that teaches you to see gravity like a blueprint.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
Why golf has a retention problem (not an attraction problem)
The stat that should shock everyone: only ~25–27% become “committed golfers”
Why most beginners never get lessons (and how golf learning hasn’t scaled)
The “practice gap”: why simulator/range practice can be misleading
Why slopes (not length) are a course’s greatest defense
A simple putting read framework: Zero-grade line + clock face
How Zen Green Stage helps golfers train compound breaks and real-world pace/reads
How Zen Swing Stage recreates your lie instantly after each shot in sim play
Why better practice turns fear into confidence (tension comes from doubt), and
Where to find Zen + resources.
Key Takeaways
Access has exploded, learning hasn’t. More people try golf, but most don’t become committed players.
Information ≠ understanding. Data is everywhere, but experience is what teaches.
Practice should look like golf. If you only train flat lies, the course will expose you.
Read greens by finding gravity first. The clock-face method simplifies the entire problem.
Better puzzle-solvers score better. Golf is problem solving—practice needs variety and constraints.
This podcast is also available to watch on YouTube.  Search and subscribe to Mark Immelman.

In this episode of On The Mark, Mark Immelman welcomes Carolin Pinegger (Austrian national team alum, UCF golfer, former LPGA/Symetra player, and now coach + social media star). Carolin shares what it was like competing on Big Break: Myrtle Beach—five weeks isolated, long production days, constant cameras—and why that experience made competitive golf feel easy by comparison.
From there, the episode becomes a masterclass on what really wrecks swings: Tension, driven by brain “traffic.” Carolin explains how to train your brain like a muscle, use breathing to shift from “red” (overstimulated) back to “green,” and build dependable systems that hold up under pressure.
Then she delivers a set of at-home drills (no range required) to improve grip, sequencing, pressure shift, and putting start line—using everyday items like a hammer, mirror, towels, and books.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover: 
What Big Break pressure is really like (cameras, no phones, 3 hours sleep)
Why tension happens — and how the brain’s “traffic” affects your body
The mindset truth: You don’t rise to standards — you fall to systems
How to move from “red” to “green” using belly breathing, and
Why at-home motion training works (less “hit ball” mode, more learning.)
Carolin also share 5 Game Improvement drills you can do at home:
Drill #1: Hammer & Hinge (fix grip + wrist set, stop early elbow fold)
Drill #2: Backswing Sequence (Mirror) (hinge → arms → shoulders → hips)
Drill #3: Mirror Depth Check (hands near heels; match top position to your shot shape)
Drill #4: Flow / Pressure Shift (towels under feet for rhythm + movement)
Drill #5: Book Putting Gate (start-line training + “through” mindset.) 
Key Takeaways:
Your brain is trainable. Treat it like a muscle and build routines that lower “traffic.” 
Pressure kills feel. Systems hold up when nerves show up.
Grip + wrist function matter. Many swing issues start with the trail hand and early elbow fold.
Sequence starts in the backswing. Build separation in the backswing, then keep moving through.
Putting begins with start line. You can’t make it if you can’t start it on your intended line.
This podcast is also available as a vodcast on YouTube.  In fact it is recommendable to watch it so you can learn exactly how to do the drills.  Search and subscribe to Mark Immelman.