ASCENSION CHARITY CLASSIC

September 6, 2024

Justin Leonard

Norwood Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. So, this is a video of you hitting. If you just hit play. Then watching your swing, you played well. Tell me what you and Mike worked on.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Okay, getting the club back on plane, but then really it's more on the downswing. Like I was getting it back okay, but then dropping the club. So then it's become -- it's underneath and coming too much from the inside. So hitting it in to out.

So it was pretty easy to hit a hook. It's really hard to hit a cut or a straight ball. It became where I had to time it so well with my hands. Like the club face wasn't square for very long.

So I put a lot of work -- the first two weeks it felt over the top because I was really trying to get it coming down the same plane it's going back on.

I hit more cuts in the last six weeks than I've ever hit in my life just to get the feeling. Still on the range in the morning I've got to feel like I'm hitting some cuts.

Again, on the golf course the big thing is not thinking about it. But will you send me that? I really like that swing and I'm going to send it to Mike and Randy. You got a little conglomeration of coaches going on.

And then even like after the Sunday in Michigan I was like, golly, should be better than this. To Randy, I didn't have any swings to send him. It was Monday afternoon, I. Was home and talking to him. He said, well, sounds like you've got your grip too much in the palm.

I'm like, what? He said well, if you're battling left and this and that, you know, didn't quite have speed with my driver and those things, feel like you get it in the fingers.

So he tells me, I go out in the driveway while I'm on the phone with him with a club and tells me to swing it one-handed as hard as I could five or six times. He said, don't move anything. Where do you feel the club now? Yeah, it's in my fingers. He said, is that where it's felt? I was like, no. He said, okay, there you go.

That's what I rolled into last week, was really trying to feel things in the fingers. Sure enough I've gotten a little more speed from it. You know, look, we're all nuts. We been doing this a long time and we're trying to make a living off this game, so we're all a little bit nutty.

But it's fun when you find a few things and then like you can have a round like today, which I haven't played well seems like in a very long time. Just as a bit of confirmation that what I'm doing is the right thing.

I knew that going in, but it's just nice to shoot a score and kind of justify it a little bit.

Q. Heading into that, so you want to play well in every tournament. Being an Ascension ambassador, starting the way you did, a few shots back heading into the weekend, talk about that confidence you have now.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, it's fun. It's nice to be here in St. Louis and with Ascension. You know, you do, like I feel like I know a lot of these people and have met over the last couple years with come dinners and things I've done.

So maybe a little more support here for some of their ambassadors which is always nice.