How listening to podcast helped one PGA Tour pro to best finish in 7 years

PGA Tour players will often make concerted efforts to avoid consuming media, whether about them or otherwise.

Michael Kim is not one of those pros.

In fact, Kim traces his recent chipping gains to a recent No Laying Up podcast. Kim says he listened to the NLU episode with short-game guru Joe Mayo and was so intrigued that he then reached out to Mayo for a lesson.

As Kim explained on social media, he had one of the shallowest angles of attack on chips – and it played a role in Kim ranking no better than 93rd in strokes gained: around-the-green every season since 2018-19 – so he and Mayo worked to steepen that angle, going from 3 degrees to about 7 degrees.

“It wasn’t too complicated, a lot of setup and club working way more vertical,” Kim explained. “This week, with the overseeded rye, it’s very forgiving, which made the change pretty comfortable. I don’t know how I would have felt if it was tight Bermuda. Regardless, I had better contact, which lead to better distance control.”

And it was a big reason, Kim adds, that he ranked ninth in strokes gained: around-the-green at last week’s WM Phoenix, where he carded just one bogey the entire tournament before tying for second, his best finish since winning the 2018 John Deere Classic.

Kim also jumped 90 spots in that strokes-gained category after TPC Scottsdale, rising to No. 44.

“Will keep at it,” Kim said in closing.