Coach's Corner with PGA Professional John Fischer

The difference between making the cut and packing it in early at a golf tournament often comes down to one stroke or even just one shot on the course.

It’s that margin of error Brody Fischer and his coach/father John Fischer focused on following last week’s Wells Fargo Pre-Qualifier at the Gaston Country Club in North Carolina.

Fischer was even par heading into the final three holes before one mishit reshaped his round.

“He had an easy par 5 that he should have birdied and he ended up bogeying because he hit the ball in the water off the tee,” John Fischer said. “He was playing a very solid round. He wasn't making a lot of birdies, but he was playing solid golf on a course he hasn't played.”

Fischer had been playing with a Callaway Big Bertha Double Diamond driver but made the switch to the Callaway Epic in order to provide more weight in both the shaft and club head to minimize twisting at impact.

“The head is more stable on mishits,” John Fischer said. “It doesn’t twist as much so we feel when he mishits a drive it’s going to be a lot more in play, maybe right rough or left rough and not in the trees or worse. He doesn’t miss very often but what’s costing him is a drive here or there.”

Callaway’s Jailbreak Technology and Exo-Cage/triaxial carbon construction promise to deliver more speed, distance and control on each drive.

The Fischers are primarily concerned with the control.

“His swing is pretty much on point right now,” John Fischer said. “He's hitting the ball very solid. It's that drive every now and then that's getting him into trouble.”

Stabilizing Bars behind club face

In addition to a heavier shaft and head, the Epic driver also has two stabilizer bars behind the face to minimize twisting of the club head.

“That’s where his misses will be better because it’s a more stable head with these two stabilizing bars,” John Fischer said.

The difference at impact is minimal, only a fraction of an inch, but even one degree off center could lead to a disastrous shot.

“One degree could be 10 yards off line and 10 yards could be in the water or out of bounds instead of in the right or left rough,” John Fischer said. “We're only talking about one or two swings per round, but that's kind of what's costing him.”

Another focus heading into the US Open Qualifier at South Bend Country Club on May 15 has been to tighten up Fischer’s iron game to set up more realistic birdie opportunities.

“We’re trying to throw the ball a little closer in proximity to the hole,” John Fischer said.

According to current PGA statistics, Mackenzie Hughes is ranked first in made putts from 10-15 feet. Hughes has one-putted from that distance 13.5-percent of the time.

That percentage drops considerably on distances of 25-feet or more.

Cody Gribble is ranked first from that distance with just a 7.6-percent ratio.

“When you look at the PGA, they don’t make many putts from that distance,” John Fischer said. “We’ve got to get the ball to 12 or 15 or 18 feet with his short irons so he’s got more realistic birdie opportunities.”

At Gaston, Fischer made just three birdies while finishing one over on four holes and recording one double bogey.

“He's very young,” John Fischer said of his son. “I'm not making excuses, but he's going out there and playing one practice round and going out the next day trying to qualify and shoot a number. It's not like a three or four day tournament where you can recover. There's a lot of pressure for a young kid. Even though he has a lot of experience he doesn't have a lot of experience with the courses he's playing.”

That’s why it’s even more important for Fischer to become more consistent in every aspect of his game.

The good news is his mechanics are solid.

“Technically, we're not making any swing changes right now,” John Fischer said. “I work hard with him on short game, which is chipping and putting and bunker play.”

On the green, Fischer has been working to develop a soft grip throughout the swing.

“I try to get Brody to feel the putter swinging more instead of being so robotic,” John Fischer said. “He sometimes gets robotic and stiff and doesn't swing the putter enough like a pendulum would swing. When he doesn’t swing the putter his distance control on his longer putts is kind of all over the ball. On longer putts, 30 to 40 feet, if he doesn't let the putter swing and keep a softer grip pressure he has distance control issues.”

Consistency on the course comes with hard work and experience playing each track on tour.

“This is his first year trying to make it on the tour,” John Fischer said. “He's seeing all these courses for the first time. It's not like a basketball court or football field with the same dimensions. Golf courses are tremendously different. The terrain is different, the types of grass depending on what part of the country that you go to is different, the sand is different. In his first year, he's kind of like a minor league baseball player getting used to 90-mile an hour fastballs.”

Eventually, Fischer will hit fewer foul balls and more line drives into the gap.

“That swing for Brody (at Gaston) is a fluke,” John Fischer said. “He hit behind the ball. The club turned over and he hit a low hook. That's just one of those things that's kind of freakish. It's like a quarterback having a wide open receiver in the end zone and he totally misses him. That only happens maybe once out of a hundred times.”

Fischer will tee off at the South Bend Country club at 8:55 a.m.