Focus shifts to the green

Now that the summer tour has come to a close, Brody Fischer has turned his attention to his putting. Fischer is looking to become more consistent on the greens in an effort to cut out several strokes per round.

Looking back on the tour, Fischer realizes with fewer two and three putt holes he’d have put himself in position to advance in the qualification process.

“Overall, I wasn’t making enough putts in tournaments,” he said. “My average was 33 putts for the summer season, that’s about four or five too many. My scores reflected that.”

After consulting with his coach/father, PGA pro John Fischer, the two decided to visit with putting guru Mike Shannon at the Sea Island Golf Performance Center in Georgia.

In addition to being recognized by several golf magazines as one of the top instructors in the country, Shannon invented the Laser Optics Putting Improvement System that is currently used by more than 100 tour players.

“He doesn’t really work on anything else,” Fischer said. “They have a PGA event down there in the fall and 130 guys go to his lab and get on his machines.”

During his first visit with Shannon, Fischer changed his stance and even his mental approach to putting.

“He got me into a little more consistent stance and posture,” Fischer said. “I’m a little bit more over the ball and I’ve got my elbows in a little more. We spent about two hours together and he went over everything. He kind of felt me out to see what kind of play I am.”

Fischer is optimistic about implementing the new training into his game.

“It gives me a lot of confidence if I can do that,” he said. “I missed so many cuts by two or three strokes.”

The plan moving forward is to keep in touch with Shannon, both for insight into his putting stroke and the mental approach to handling the greens.

“I’m going to see him for some mental stuff like reading the greens and what I’m thinking about walking up to the greens and my heart rate and all that stuff you wouldn’t think of,” Fischer said. “It was really cool to work with him down there. It’s a very good connection to make.”

Fischer’s playing schedule will pick up this fall after the PGA playoffs are completed.

Last week, Fischer spent time in Myrtle Beach with his father and members of his sponsorship group, Lifestyle Health Plans.

The foursome—made up of Brody and John Fischer, Jim Kilcoin and Dan Whitney—played 27 holes of golf together.

“They were down there for Lifestyle meetings and asked if I could come down and play a round,” Fischer said. “We played at the Dunes Beach Club, a beautiful course right there in Myrtle Beach. It was really cool.”

Fischer took the opportunity to showcase all the facets of his game he has been working on.

“I hit the ball pretty well and got to show them what Mike and I worked on,” Fischer said. “They were a little curious. I putted great, so it started to show. It’s a long process, the putting change, but it was good to put it in motion and play a competitive round.”