A few years ago, I was working with a Japanese LPGA player in Taiwan. Talented. Focused. Relentless on the range. But inside 60 yards, something wasn’t landing right.
Her pitch shots looked good — clean contact, nice flight, soft landings — but she wasn’t scoring.
So I laid a towel out 40 yards away. Folded. A visual target for the ball to land on.
I told her, “Let’s try to have your ball finish on the towel.”
At first, she tried. But she wasn’t having any luck. As I stood behind her, I noticed the patterns: some shots spun too much and checked up. Some didn’t spin at all and rolled out. Some had draw spin. Some cut.
I stopped her and asked, “What are you trying to do?”
She replied, “I’m just trying to hit the right distance.”
I was shocked.
That’s when I realized — she was obsessed with the swing, the flight, the distance — but hadn’t trained her awareness to feel and read the first bounce reaction.
So I explained to her the importance of the first bounce. Not just where the ball lands, but how it reacts. The ground talks back, if you’re listening.
And that’s when it clicked.
It’s not just the swing. It’s not just the distance. It’s the first bounce that tells you if your shot did what you needed.
🧭 Here’s the takeaway:
You can’t control every lie.
You can’t predict every bounce.
But you can train your eyes to see what matters most.
In golf, that means practicing awareness.
In life, that means listening more than talking.
In business, that means watching how the world responds before declaring something a failure (or a success).
I still use the towel drill.
But now, I teach it as more than a short-game lesson.
It’s about the feel — and the feedback — of what happens next.
So I’ll leave you with this question:
What’s the first bounce in your life right now?
Are you watching it carefully… or just admiring the swing?