About Play Ready Golf | Strokes Gained for the 9 to 5 Golfer
Golf improvement for people with a 9 to 5. We use strokes gained data and motor learning science to help you practice smarter, save time, and shoot lower scores with the clubs, schedule, and life you already have. Most golf advice is built for people with unlimited range time and a coach on speed dial. This show is built for the rest of us. The weekend warrior. The dad who gets 90 minutes on a Saturday. The mid-handicapper who has been stuck at the same score for three years. Every episode gives you one thing you can actually use. A practice drill you can do in your living room. A course management decision that saves you two shots. A data point that shuts down the bad advice you keep getting from your buddies. New episodes every Friday morning. Try the Play Ready Golf app free for 7 days at playready.golf (http://playready.golf)
Publisher
Isaak Ramsey & Hayden Zimmerer | Smarter Golf Practice in Less Time
Why You Play Better When You Don't Care - Sam Jackson
Secrets of the elite mid am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam (https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam)
Want a practice plan built for your game and your schedule? Try Play Ready Golf free for 7 days. Code ISAAK takes $20 off the year 👉 https://playready.golf/the-app (https://playready.golf/the-app)
Sam Jackson sells windows for a living. He has a 7 month old at home and practices once or twice a week. He's also been South Carolina Golf Association Player of the Year 4 years in a row, made the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur, and won the 2025 South Carolina Amateur with a wedge to 3 inches on the final hole.
His edge isn't his swing. It's caring less. Golf used to be his #1 priority. Now it's 4th or 5th, and he plays better for it. In this episode he explains how to stop living and dying with every shot, the 3 checks he runs every time he practices, and why his best week in golf came after his worst prep.
You'll learn:
Why a 4x Player of the Year calls himself a mediocre college player
How to take the pressure off every single shot
Why he's hit it great and finished 7th, then hit it average and contended
The 3 fundamentals he checks every session
How he got into contention on 4 rounds in 4 months with a newborn
Where to start when you have an hour at the range and no plan
Follow Sam: https://www.instagram.com/samuelnotljackson (https://www.instagram.com/samuelnotljackson)
Need windows or doors in the Columbia, SC area? Sam's with Pella Windows and Doors of the Carolinas.
0:00 Not that Samuel Jackson
1:08 Starting golf at 12
2:30 What sped up his development
4:23 The U.S. Junior at 15
5:09 A 74.8 college scoring average
6:53 Treating every shot like the one
7:58 How to stop living and dying on every shot
8:22 The mental game beats the physical by a mile
9:01 Golf went from #1 to #5
10:35 Make golf as meaningless as possible
10:56 Less pressure at a D2 school
11:33 Staying sharp with a newborn
13:12 The 17 Golfers cheat sheet
13:41 4 rounds in 4 months, then the final group
15:07 How he picks what to practice
16:11 Where to start with an hour and no plan
17:44 The Play Ready Golf app
18:19 His 3 checks: grip, ball position, alignment
20:12 A $70 indoor winter setup
21:44 Getting away from the golf course
23:40 What golf can teach his daughter
26:00 Why he doesn't set goals
27:40 The 2023 U.S. Mid-Am and Stewart Hagestad
29:06 Bad prep, best week
30:58 The walk off at the 2025 South Carolina Am
33:38 Merion with his wife on the bag
36:43 The one thing to steal from Sam
38:01 It won't be on your tombstone
38:22 Where to find Sam
9 Oct 2026
Amateurs Aren't Bad Golfers. They Care Too Much. - Sam Jackson
Secrets of the elite mid am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam (https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam)
Want a practice plan built for your game and your schedule? Try Play Ready Golf free for 7 days. Code ISAAK takes $20 off the year 👉 https://playready.golf/the-app (https://playready.golf/the-app)
Sam Jackson sells windows for a living. He has a 7 month old at home and practices once or twice a week. He's also been South Carolina Golf Association Player of the Year 4 years in a row, made the semifinals of the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur, and won the 2025 South Carolina Amateur with a wedge to 3 inches on the final hole.
His edge isn't his swing. It's caring less. Golf used to be his #1 priority. Now it's 4th or 5th, and he plays better for it. In this episode he explains how to stop living and dying with every shot, the 3 checks he runs every time he practices, and why his best week in golf came after his worst prep.
You'll learn:
Why a 4x Player of the Year calls himself a mediocre college player
How to take the pressure off every single shot
Why he's hit it great and finished 7th, then hit it average and contended
The 3 fundamentals he checks every session
How he got into contention on 4 rounds in 4 months with a newborn
Where to start when you have an hour at the range and no plan
Follow Sam: https://www.instagram.com/samuelnotljackson (https://www.instagram.com/samuelnotljackson)
Need windows or doors in the Columbia, SC area? Sam's with Pella Windows and Doors of the Carolinas.
0:00 Not that Samuel Jackson
1:08 Starting golf at 12
2:30 What sped up his development
4:23 The U.S. Junior at 15
5:09 A 74.8 college scoring average
6:53 Treating every shot like the one
7:58 How to stop living and dying on every shot
8:22 The mental game beats the physical by a mile
9:01 Golf went from #1 to #5
10:35 Make golf as meaningless as possible
10:56 Less pressure at a D2 school
11:33 Staying sharp with a newborn
13:12 The 17 Golfers cheat sheet
13:41 4 rounds in 4 months, then the final group
15:07 How he picks what to practice
16:11 Where to start with an hour and no plan
17:44 The Play Ready Golf app
18:19 His 3 checks: grip, ball position, alignment
20:12 A $70 indoor winter setup
21:44 Getting away from the golf course
23:40 What golf can teach his daughter
26:00 Why he doesn't set goals
27:40 The 2023 U.S. Mid-Am and Stewart Hagestad
29:06 Bad prep, best week
30:58 The walk off at the 2025 South Carolina Am
33:38 Merion with his wife on the bag
36:43 The one thing to steal from Sam
38:01 It won't be on your tombstone
38:22 Where to find Sam
2 Oct 2026
Amateur Golf's Reinstatement Problem Has a Simple Fix
FREE: Secrets of the Mid-Am 👉 https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam (https://playreadygolf.beehiiv.com/secretsofthemidam)
The Play Ready Golf App (7 Days Free) 👉 https://onelink.to/93ggkv (https://onelink.to/93ggkv)
Roughly 800 former pros apply to regain their amateur status every year, and virtually all are approved. This week at the U.S. Mid-Amateur, 7 of the 8 quarterfinalists were reinstated amateurs, and so are both finalists.
Career amateur TJ Shuart, a veteran of 12 USGA championships, joins Isaak to ask whether a reinstated pro is ever really an amateur again. They walk through why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981, the news that brought this to a head, and the toughest counterarguments. Then TJ lays out a simple fix: a waiting period based on how long you played as a pro and how high you got.
Every player discussed followed the rules as written. This conversation is about the rules.
Feedback or a topic idea? isaak@playready.golf (mailto:isaak@playready.golf)
CHAPTERS
0:00 Preview
0:27 The fork in the road: pro or lifelong amateur
2:31 Why the USGA built the Mid-Am in 1981
4:30 TJ Shuart's career as an amateur
7:22 The Mid-Am 20 years ago
12:09 The numbers: 800 reinstatements a year
17:22 How we got here: Knost, the USGA pause, and Sposa
28:11 "Those guys stopped playing years ago"
34:20 Is a reinstated pro the same player?
38:21 The Stewart Hagestad question
42:21 Challenge 1: college players
43:44 Challenge 2: NIL money
46:51 Challenge 3: should pros ever come back?
49:19 TJ's fix: a tiered waiting period
54:43 The reinstated players, by the numbers
1:04:26 What John Peterson said
1:11:09 Where the USGA review stands
1:16:23 Mid-Am update: 7 of 8 and both finalists
SOURCES
USGA Mid-Am fact sheet: https://filecache.mediaroom.com/mr5mr_usga2/190647/download/2025%20Mid-Am%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf (https://filecache.mediaroom.com/mr5mr_usga2/190647/download/2025%20Mid-Am%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf)
GOLF.com (http://GOLF.com) on reinstatement: https://golf.com/instruction/rules/how-pro-golfers-regain-amateur-status/ (https://golf.com/instruction/rules/how-pro-golfers-regain-amateur-status/)
Golf Channel on the USGA pause: https://www.golfchannel.com/ncaa/news/usga-temporarily-pauses-review-of-amateur-status-reinstatement-guidelines (https://www.golfchannel.com/ncaa/news/usga-temporarily-pauses-review-of-amateur-status-reinstatement-guidelines)
NBC Sports on the 2025 quarterfinals: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/u-s-mid-amateur-quarters-filled-with-reinstated-ams-including-kft-vet-who-just-regained-status (https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/u-s-mid-amateur-quarters-filled-with-reinstated-ams-including-kft-vet-who-just-regained-status)
SI, the other side: https://www.si.com/golf/us-mid-amateur-does-not-have-professional-problem (https://www.si.com/golf/us-mid-amateur-does-not-have-professional-problem)
Reach and audience
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.0 / 5
4 ratings
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