No More Lies

The lie this week is that the left arm has to be straight at impact and past impact, with both arms straight and together. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's No. 14-ranked teacher in America, and Sam Osborne take on the 2026 version of the argument: AMG and their Gears numbers on one side, the stack and tilt camp and their stills on the other. Brian owns a Gears system, explains how the markers and ten cameras actually work, and lands on the verdict in one line. You do not want it straight.

The case: a young player who picked up 26 yards on an 8 iron after Brian bent his left arm and cupped his wrist. The Methods of Golf's Masters from 1975, with Thomson and Middlecoff more bent at the top than anyone Brian teaches. Bobby Locke, Ed Furgol, and Lee Westwood, bent like a dog at impact and one of the most consistent players of his generation. Sam Snead's book on how Hogan always hit a draw with the driver. Michael Jacobs, who studied cadavers with Tom Myers and wants it bent at impact. Wild Bill Mehlhorn. The coaxial cable arm. And at the end, Rory McIlroy on Gears, 7 iron at 99.7, left arm bent about 20 degrees.

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
1:18 The lie: straight left arm at impact and past it
2:24 Faldo, Nicklaus, and the beginner's cliche
6:56 Brian, Ben Doyle, and the former flipper
11:05 AMG vs. the stack and tilters
11:45 How Gears actually works
15:42 "You do not want it straight"
16:03 A 176-yard 8 iron with a bent left arm
17:09 The Methods of Golf's Masters, 1975
19:00 Peter Thomson and Cary Middlecoff
21:50 Ed Furgol and Lee Westwood
23:30 The worst hacker at City Park
25:57 The 90-minute cure for boxed arms
29:45 Snead's book: Hogan always hit a draw
31:17 "We wouldn't have spent 40,000 on it"
34:37 Michael Jacobs: bend it at impact
38:54 The coaxial cable arm
43:33 "Straight left arm ain't worth a damn"
47:32 Pebble on the sim: 257 to the pin
53:34 Rory McIlroy on Gears: bent 20 degrees

No More Lies is Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne: the lie, the argument for, the argument against, and what you really ought to be doing.

New episodes of No More Lies every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

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The biggest lie the show has taken on: that Ben Hogan's Five Lessons has been bad for golf instruction for 69 years and turned golfers into slicers. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and Sam Osborne go through the critics (Brandel Chamblee, GolfWRX, Golf Digest, the USGTF) and then the book, chapter by chapter: the heel pad grip, the stance and the right foot, the posture, the waggle, the pane of glass, the training exercise from the Ed Sullivan Show, the free ride, and the supination pictures. One rule throughout: what Hogan prescribed, not what Hogan did. The verdict: it's a good book, a regular Joe shooting 90 can break 80 with it, and if everybody did it to the letter nobody would be over a 10 handicap.

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:43 New Orleans and Lake Geneva
2:04 Today's big lie
2:23 Ben Hogan wrote two books
3:02 Five Lessons, and eight fundamentals
3:14 The lie: the book made slicers
4:03 Harvey Penick and John Jacobs
4:43 The critics, one at a time
5:13 Brandel Chamblee
5:32 "The origin of bad golf instruction"
6:10 Sam: "That's nonsense"
6:49 What makes a bad teacher
7:47 1957 to 2007: would golf be worse?
8:28 Hogan never retracted a word
9:14 Chamblee's weak grip claim
9:30 "Didn't you make it on tour?"
9:43 GolfWRX: 75% end up slicing
10:32 Golf Digest and tour level torque
10:42 "Which torque, Luke?"
10:56 The Life magazine secret vs. the book
11:24 USGTF: weaker than tour
11:47 The grip: heel pad and forefinger
12:33 What he prescribed, not what he did
13:01 148 million golfers
13:35 How many can pick it up? 16%
14:40 The Vs: right eye and chin
15:30 Twist leverage and gamma rotation
17:04 Sam Snead's grip
17:47 The water pistol drill
18:40 Would this grip make more slicers?
19:06 It would probably screw up Scottie Scheffler
19:53 Stance and posture
20:34 Square right foot, ball on the left heel
21:56 Ball position: what YouTube will say
22:52 The D plane element
23:14 Right foot back: 90% of slicers
23:47 Ben Doyle and the firing squad
24:14 It's hand placement, folks
24:38 Hitting it low: move the ball back?
25:22 The shooting stick
25:49 Less booty up in the air
26:18 Would Hogan's posture make slicers?
27:15 Right arm more bent than the left
27:45 The waggle
28:04 Hey Brandel, hey GolfWRX
29:09 The delayed pivot and the right leg post
29:32 The top: 90 and 45
29:53 "I would've made a lot less money"
31:27 The pane of glass
31:48 Manzella's most famous thing: the sickle
33:24 All you Ben Hogan book haters
33:40 Straight back and flop it
34:19 A little flatter, under the glass
35:03 Dropping the plane coming down
35:23 The training exercise
35:48 Google Ben Hogan Ed Sullivan Show
36:21 The number one most important drill in golf
36:51 Does that look handle-dragging slicey?
37:49 The one thing that might: the free ride
38:52 Would the free ride make slicers?
39:13 The one hand ball throw
39:35 Supination and the arched wrist
40:07 Cupped, flat, arched: HackMotion
40:31 90% of slicers wouldn't slice again
40:46 Sam: before his time
41:18 "I wish I had three right hands"
41:44 Nobody over a 10 handicap
42:08 Practically everyone can break 80
42:40 Where's the evidence?
43:12 69 years of bad instruction?
43:37 Total baloney
44:06 Don't stay away from the book
44:17 Regular Joe shooting 90 can break 80
44:27 Sam: way ahead of his time
44:47 An original Anthony Ravielli
45:06 Proved piece by piece
45:33 Great show

The lie: bow your wrist at the top, keep it bowed at impact, and you'll hit it better. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, calls it one that just doesn't want to die, and says it's definitely not for 99.999% of the people. Sam Osborne is back in his seat and tends to agree. It only takes a few minutes in some old golf books to see this was kicking about 60 or 70 years ago.

First, the terms. Bowed, arched, flexed: it's all the same thing. Nobody says to bow it at address, but there's a sect that wants forward hands, and Brian's read is that they're in the business of selling push draws. Then the backswing: most of the people who teach arched like it laid off, and it turns out there are two ways to arch a wrist. Sam's problem with it: that's a young man's game, with the stress it puts on your body and your wrists. And try it yourself: flex your left wrist, put your left arm above your shoulders, and you'll almost certainly bend your left arm.

Then the confession. In 1993 Brian wanted a student to flatten his wrist. The student didn't want to do it, Brian wouldn't budge, and the man never took another lesson. He went on to hit balls at City Park three or four days a week, cupping his wrist, and became a single-digit handicap of some note. Brian: he was right and I was wrong. And the era when Lynn Blake called Brian's the flattest left wrist in golf? The worst he ever played.

And what's right. Hogan didn't have much forward lean in his prime. Nicklaus was notorious for not having it. Trevino had his wrist arched, hit the ball low, and had to learn to hit it higher. Lee Westwood had a noticeably cupped left wrist at impact and was a fantastic ball striker over decades. What HackMotion and the old AMM graphs show: slightly cupped at the top, moving toward bowed on the way down, then coming out of it into impact and more past impact. Brian's number: 95% of the golfers in history who could beat him learned that sequence completely organically and have no idea that's what they do. Which is why Sam doesn't believe the motorcycle move is going to help a great many people.

Plus where "flat at the top" came from: Dick Aultman and Square-to-Square, the rock and block, and how it took over golf instruction. Why nobody, Trevino included, plays from shut to open. And the discovery Brian says got the least action of anything he's ever put on the internet: bend the elbow at the top and the wrist arches more while the clubface stays relatively the same.

The fix. Work on your grip. Get it under your heel pad, learn a good left hand grip, point the club at the target at the top with the clubface sort of matching your forearm, and hit the crap out of it. You'll do most of the other stuff. Then the homework: a pair of white gloves and a backhand slap.

No More Lies is Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne: the lie, the argument for, the argument against, and what you really ought to be doing.

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The lie: early extension is the root of all evil in the golf swing, the thing that separates good players from bad players. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, opens with his answer: it's the single most overrated thing there is to work on if you want to improve your ball flight. Sam Osborne reserves judgment, for a few minutes.

First, what it is. You're bent over your belt buckle at address, and at some point through the ball you have no forward bend at all. Everybody extends. Johnny Miller, Weiskopf, Nicklaus, Watson, Norman, Faldo, Tiger, Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Justin Rose. Sit in a stadium seat looking at your feet, then do the wave. That's the move. The one guy who doesn't is Mr. Havercamp in Caddyshack.

Then the argument. Draw a line on your backside from a down-the-line camera, and if your hips come off it before impact, they call it early extension. By that definition Brian puts it at 98% of all golfers, at least. The term didn't exist until video cameras and line drawing, and TPI made it popular. The sales pitch Sam got as a young player: stay in your posture or you'll block it and hook it. Sam's answer: if it's a must, Jack Nicklaus has got a lot of trophies in his closet.

And what's right. Sam Burns at 16, hips around 60 degrees open at impact, and why a player that open looks "on the line" on 2D video without staying in forward bend at all. Why slicers do it more than non-slicers: the club is shifted out, and standing up is a fit-in move. Nicklaus, Craig Stadler, and David Toms on the turned shoulder plane. And what Brian thinks Michael Jacobs would say: it's an effect.

The fix. Brian uses it in a lesson fewer than five times a year. Get in a good posture, upgrade your whole swing before you ever look at it, and it shows up less on its own. Go to the range and try to keep your butt back and you'll hit the ground more, hook it more, or slice it worse. Sam's last word: Jack early extended his way to a sixth green jacket.

Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:43 No More Lies 0:55 The lie: early extension is the root of all evil 1:19 Brian: the single most overrated thing to work on 4:47 Sam at 19 and the low 3 iron 5:51 What early extension actually is 7:54 The stadium wave: everybody extends 8:43 Every swing everybody likes does it 10:06 Mr. Havercamp, the one guy who doesn't 10:49 Is it just the direction you extend? 11:25 Sam: video, V1, and "you're standing up" 13:26 The argument: the line on your backside 14:05 98% of all golfers 14:53 Teaching a new golfer to bend over 16:53 The first lesson Brian ever gave, 1982 18:54 Where the term came from: video, line drawing, TPI 20:47 The sales pitch: stay in your posture 22:15 Jack Nicklaus, the most famous early extender 22:51 Sam Burns at 16 24:13 Why wide-open players look "on the line" 25:13 Slicers early extend more than non-slicers 27:31 The fit-in move 28:38 Turned shoulder plane: Nicklaus, Stadler, David Toms 30:32 So what should you care about? 30:46 Brian uses it fewer than five times a year 31:52 Michael Jacobs: it's an effect 33:54 Should you practice with your butt on a wall? 34:33 The 6 handicap from The Brian Manzella Show 36:08 The solution: posture, then upgrade the whole swing 37:51 What happens if you go try it anyway 41:13 Why it's still a thing 43:29 Sam: extension is a power move 44:17 The move worth learning 45:59 What most people will do instead 46:28 Way, way down the list 47:14 Go watch the '86 Masters

No More Lies is Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne: the lie, the argument for, the argument against, and what you really ought to be doing.

New episodes of No More Lies every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

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Sam is out, so the Good Misses guys sit in. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, asks Kieran Harris and JT Perrine where the lean-left, ball-back chip shot came from, and neither of them saw it taught 13 years ago. Brian makes the case that it's a fad: Ben Doyle never needed it, there's no mechanical requirement to be in front of the ball except your hands, and regular golfers are never going to hit the tour version anyway. Plus the 100-golfer pitching contest, the flick drill, why handle dragging is the root of most pitching yips, the right-knee rule that shamed a generation, and why nothing out there is the solution to the pitching yip epidemic.

Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:45 No More Lies 1:09 Sam is out. Meet Kieran Harris and JT Perrine 3:05 The Big Lie: where did the lean-left chip come from? 4:59 Brian's short game growing up: chipping on total crap 7:16 Left-leaning spines with the ball back. Why is it a thing now? 9:37 JT: chin over the belt buckle, ball first contact 10:13 Arc depth vs. low point, defined on Trackman 13:38 Nobody taught it 13 years ago 15:04 Kieran: more weight left, never spine tilt left 17:07 Kieran's full-blown chipping yips 19:30 Ben Doyle: the tee drill and the three wood pitch 22:09 No mechanical requirement to be in front of the ball 22:53 The Nunez Tour will never hit the tour pitch shot 25:46 How much angle of attack? JT says 3 to 4 down 26:41 The 10-handicapper lesson test 28:28 Kevin from the Nunez Tour goes to Toronto for a pitching lesson 31:35 The "I'm not getting under it" crowd 34:31 Through the ball: toss it or keep it up the left arm? 35:23 The 100-golfer pitching contest: wrist only vs. no wrist 39:08 Same contest, everybody has the yips 41:13 The flick drill: hands don't move 42:40 Handle dragging is the root of most pitching yips 44:41 Kieran's de-junk drill: trigger finger on the steel 46:26 JT is going to try the flick 47:07 Where's your data? Ridiculous Trials 48:40 Three forces and three torques: the rope 50:14 Why the bunker shot is easy and the 15-yard pitch isn't 52:58 The right knee: shamed from 1960 to the early 80s 54:36 The lean-left chip is a fad 55:37 None of these are the solution to the pitching yip epidemic 56:35 Paul Runyan and the restricted grip 57:28 Seve's trail shoulder and Dan Grieve's 3 Releases 59:19 What is Good Misses? 60:50 We're golf geeks. Not better, more like you

Kieran Harris runs Feel Good Golf Academy in Toronto. JT Perrine is part owner of Fairhope Golf Works in Fairhope, Alabama. Together they host Good Misses, part of the Funnel Golf slate.

New episodes of No More Lies every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Sam is in England, so JT Perrine of Fairhope Golf Works joins Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America. They do the math on 50,000 golf teachers and land on a number that will annoy a lot of people. Also: the three tests of a great teacher, Ballard and O'Grady into the Hall of Fame by executive order, the end of the PGA Teaching Summit, teacher vs. coach, and why going from an 8 to a +2 means breaking things.

Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:44 Sam is in England. Meet JT Perrine 1:43 Funnel Golf now has a third show: Good Misses 3:15 What your detractors say about you 6:24 Inside JT's studio: Trackman, Gears, force plates 8:28 Should a teacher still be able to play? 10:49 Talking too much in a lesson 12:33 Every teacher's biggest weakness 14:37 50,000 teachers. How many are good? 17:50 Reading 600 resumes for the Golf Magazine Top 100 22:16 The three tests of a great teacher 26:54 Ballard and O'Grady: Hall of Fame by executive order 27:53 The JT plan and a playing ability test 30:22 The PGA killed the Teaching Summit 38:30 Why they call us coaches now 41:31 What every new student is actually looking for 44:06 You will not practice your way from 8 to +2 47:44 The best feeling in teaching 49:15 Why put the Gears suit on? 51:32 Not enough factual information 55:31 What Good Misses is about 57:20 Brian's talent scout call

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Nobody gets good at golf alone. Brian Manzella (Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America) and Sam Osborne (former touring pro) name the people who got them here: the books, the better players who never gave them a tip, the stranger on a putting green, the former prizefighter who tended the pin on Brian's first 79, and the famous names who put in a word.

Stories include Simon Griffiths at Wentworth, Joe Cook and Johnny Scurich at City Park, Ernie Makepeace, Walter Pryor, Carl Poche and Paul Azinger's college team, the Sea Island playoff, Monty, Bill Strausbaugh and Paul Marchand at the 1992 Teaching Summit, and Peter Fowler telling a kid to quit school. The takeaway: you don't improve in a straight line, you need people, and being nice is not that hard.

Watch the video version on YouTube at @funnelgolfx. Be your own coach.

Chapters

0:00 Cold open

0:42 Who got us here

1:31 Sam's first golf books: Leadbetter and Henry Cotton

7:21 Simon Griffiths: the best lesson was never a lesson

10:42 Brian's cousin, Don Horn and Street & Smith's

15:20 Reading Golf Digest cover to cover

18:09 City Park, Gary Schultz and Al Juhl

20:20 Joe Cook, Johnny Scurich and the first 79

30:52 Golf is hard: you need things to happen

32:19 Sam at 17: the Mail on Sunday and the Sea Island playoff

37:14 Brian at 15: shooting 67 and looking for a game

39:52 Ernie Makepeace and the putting green invite

42:42 Walter Pryor, Jimmy Cole and the money games

43:14 Carl Poche and Paul Azinger's college team

47:54 Walter Pryor's Tommy Moore advice

49:45 Famous people who helped: Monty

52:51 The Teaching Summit: Bill Strausbaugh and Paul Marchand

56:57 Being nice is not that hard

57:54 Peter Fowler and the closer

This week's big lie: the pursuit of compression is great for your golf game. Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and Sam Osborne, former touring pro, both chased it, both got worse, and both came back. They cover what compression actually is (a delivery number, not a hand position), what Tiger meant about divots, the Foley years, why Hogan and Nicklaus got better with less forward lean, the selective picture posters, and what The Golfing Machine really says about the flat left wrist. Plus the horror stories: the pitching yips, 14 degrees down, and Brian's decade of going backwards.

0:00 No More Lies Ep. 15: Compression 1:46 This week's big lie: chasing compression helps your game 2:42 Ben Doyle, shiny divots, and the Manzella Forum days 3:47 The first time we heard the word compression 8:53 Homer Kelly, The Golfing Machine, and smash factor 11:51 Ben Doyle rebuilds Brian's swing 14:49 What compression actually is: dynamic loft minus angle of attack 16:10 Sam's friends who chased it and did not get better 18:01 Force across the shaft and tour quality impact 19:57 McIlroy vs the 3 wood: the ball does not know where your hands are 22:40 How little forward lean club champions really have 25:01 Faldo, Leadbetter, and Greg Norman's no-divot week 26:52 What Tiger meant when he told Scheffler he does not take divots 28:34 Confessions of a Former Flipper 31:37 Hogan and Nicklaus got better with less forward lean 32:21 How the compression craze started 33:25 The camera in your pocket epidemic 34:53 Selective picture posters, named 37:02 What The Golfing Machine says about the line of compression 39:22 Flat left wrist, not arched 41:35 Get on Trackman: you need more loft than you think 43:05 The low shot lie: David Toms finished with his hands over his head 44:57 Force across the shaft on Tour: Masters 1975 vs 2026 47:10 Are today's players better ball strikers? 49:27 Should regular golfers lean the shaft? 51:38 Who actually needs more forward lean and how to learn it 52:23 Horror stories: Tiger, Foley, and the pitching yips 53:25 Michael Jacobs hits 14 degrees down 55:00 Brian got worse every year until he stopped compressing 57:57 Sam copies Greg Norman's finish and the game gets easy 59:14 Steve Elkington on Trackman 62:00 The moral: compression is a club delivery specification 64:14 The flattest left wrist in golf

New episodes every Monday.

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Be your own coach.

There is no test, no license, and no minimum standard to call yourself a golf teacher. This week Brian Manzella (Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America) and former touring pro Sam Osborne dig into the most unregulated profession in sports: why some of the world's most famous instructors were never in the PGA of America, how club pros really earned a living 50 years ago, what an actual teaching certification could look like, and why the average teacher stays under-informed in an era when a bot can answer any question. Also on the tee: the "you're toast" backswing myth, Bobby Jones vs. Scottie Scheffler, the Ishkabibble swing, and the George Gankas Golf Channel story.

Chapters 0:00 Intro: Golf Teachers Are Gonna Hate This One 2:19 Why Golf Instructors Disagree So Much 5:01 Bobby Jones vs Scottie Scheffler: The Backswing Test 6:19 No License Required: How Anyone Can Teach Golf 10:12 The You're Toast Backswing Myth 14:38 Why the Average Golf Teacher Is Under-Informed 16:35 What Butch Harmon Gets Right 19:09 Sam and Brian on Playing for a Living 25:17 How Golf Pros Made Money 50 Years Ago 32:01 A Working-Class Dad and a Golf Teaching Career 36:49 The PGA of America and Golf Instruction 42:39 Brian's Pilot Program: Certify the Teachers 46:24 Butch Harmon, Joe Mayo, Chris Como: Not in the PGA 52:57 The Ishkabibble Swing 54:58 The George Gankas Golf Channel Story 58:56 Golf Improvement Is Like Weight Loss

New episodes every Monday. Golf without the spin. Be your own coach.

Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and former touring pro Sam Osborne take apart the most persistent swing trend of the last decade: laying the club down. Where it hatched, who it might actually help, why the physics behind it doesn't hold up, and Brian's flat answer to whether anyone should try to shallow the shaft on the downswing.

Along the way: Hogan's real secret, the Ben Doyle flat left wrist confession, arch wrists jumping from 10% of golfers to 50%, and the 2D camera illusion that fools almost everyone.

Watch the full video episode on YouTube: @funnelgolfx

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
1:36 Today's topic: misguided swing ideas
3:34 The Leadbetter and Faldo shallowing era
7:48 Three categories: shallowing, laying down, laid off
14:00 Ben Hogan's real secret
16:23 How fixing slicers created laid-off swings
25:52 The laydown pattern, step by step
38:05 Confessions of a Former Flipper
42:00 Arch wrists: 10% then, 50% now
51:33 You cannot backward waggle IN a downswing
58:33 The motorboat analogy, debunked
68:08 The verdict: never TRY TO shallow the shaft

Brian and Sam continue the top 100 golf swings of all time, covering Annika Sorenstam, Calvin Peete, Tom Watson, Louis Oosthuizen, Greg Norman's 1986 swing, Gene Littler, Davis Love III, and Ernie Els. Brian makes the case that Oosthuizen, not Hogan, is the swing most golfers should copy, tells the story of quietly helping Robert Rock in 2019, and Sam remembers his Team Faldo days with a 13-year-old Rory McIlroy. The episode closes with a tease: the player at #30 hurt his hip in 1964, never swung the same way again, and may have the best hip action ever recorded. He gets the full treatment next week.

0:00 Intro
1:17 The Top 100 Swings List Strikes a Nerve
2:23 The Orange County National Wrist Experiment
5:55 Why Brian's List Changes: Bobby Jones and Fred Couples
7:41 Helping Robert Rock and the Players Brian Never Named
12:28 Calvin Peete: The Best Ball Striker Nobody Copies
16:04 What Makes a Swing Great: Your Best Shot vs. Your Worst
18:21 Calvin Peete's 1,500 Balls a Day
23:05 Annika Sorenstam at #22
26:02 Kevin Shields, Lindsay Newman, and the Mike Hebron Lesson
28:43 Nick Faldo 1989 and Sam's Team Faldo Years
38:53 Tom Watson, "The Secret," and the Remade Swing
44:12 Louis Oosthuizen at #25: The Swing Most Golfers Should Copy
48:57 Greg Norman 1986
53:10 Gene Littler 1959
54:12 Davis Love III 1992
56:47 Ernie Els 2004
59:41 The Mystery Swing at #30

Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne continue the book series by comparing Claude's top 50 most influential golf instruction books against Grok's top 20, focusing on the titles the two lists disagree on. Along the way: Tommy Armour's hands-first gospel, Bobby Jones as a writer, Harry Vardon, Seymour Dunn's geometry, the flip-book that taught Ben Doyle, Alex Morrison's footwork revolution and the banked right heel in early Hogan and Snead film, the pre-accident Hogan sequences in Power Golf, and the swing science shelf from David Williams to Mark Broadie's Every Shot Counts.

The strongest take of the episode: John Jacobs' Practical Golf belongs in any legitimate top 10, and Sam has the Zane Scotland story to prove it. Two tweaks from Jacobs turned a struggling Challenge Tour player into a European Tour card holder in a matter of weeks.

Coming soon: the remaining 25 books, 80 more swings from the greatest swings list, and the Brian Manzella Teacher Hall of Fame episode before Christmas.

Be your own coach.

The greatest golf swings of all time, positions 11 through 20. Bobby Jones, Harry Vardon, Steve Elkington, David Toms, Peter Thomson, Tom Weiskopf, Ian Woosnam, Nick Price, Sergio Garcia, and Scottie Scheffler.

Tiger Woods called one of these players the best ball-striker he ever saw. Brian worked with another one during the 2012 FedEx Cup and watched him hit it perfect for weeks at a time. And a witness once saw Harry Vardon hit drivers at a tarp for an hour without missing the center.

Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and former touring pro Sam Osborne break down what made each swing great, which rankings will draw pushback, and why Sergio Garcia is the unintentional model for Brian's entire teaching philosophy.

Calvin Peete fans: he's on the next list episode.

New episodes every Monday. Ep. 10.

Be your own coach.

Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne break down everything that happened at The Open Championship, and everything golf media won't say about it.

Ryan Fox came from outside the top 50 in the world to beat Sam Burns down the stretch, taking two brutal breaks on 15 and 17 without so much as a raised eyebrow. TV gave Fox credit for staying cool. What nobody mentioned is that Sam Burns has now missed the putts that mattered the last couple of times he had a chance to win a major. That's the story the broadcast skipped.

Then the big one: Bryson DeChambeau's two-stroke penalty for improving his lie in the second round. Brian and Sam agree the ruling was correct. They also agree it's a double standard, because this happens on tour constantly and only gets called when the cameras and the crowds are on you. From Dustin Johnson in 2019 at Royal Portrush and this year with Wyndham Clark at Shinnecock to the questions around Tiger, the history here is longer than the broadcast wants to admit.

Plus: Rory McIlroy says he doesn't care about his legacy, and neither host is buying it. Why Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns seem allergic to stardom. How $100 million in the bank changed player motivation compared to the Nicklaus and Watson era. And a full teardown of NBC and Peacock's Open coverage: Adam Scott and Russell Henley finished ninth and barely got a single shot on air, Kevin Kisner has been neutered by producers, and Johnny Miller remains the gold standard nobody will let anyone copy.

Sam also owns up to his own tournament meltdown, including back-to-back double and triple bogey, and teases the side saddle putting conversation coming in a future episode.

Next up on No More Lies: the second ten of the most influential golf books of all time, and the next installment of the top 100 golf swings.

No More Lies is golf without the spin. Two veterans saying what golf media won't. Be your own coach.

Brian Manzella has stood next to more great ball strikers than almost anyone alive. He watched Jack Nicklaus play 600 holes. He sat next to Lee Trevino. He watched Byron Nelson hit the whole bag. He was at Valhalla for prime Tiger. So when he ranks the greatest golf swings of all time, it is not a listicle. It is a verdict from someone who was actually there.

In this episode Brian unveils the 12th edition of his Top 100 Golf Swings of All Time, and he and Sam Osborne break down the top 10 one by one. Sam had never seen the list, so every reaction is live and unscripted.

They cover Ben Hogan at No. 1, why the 2005 Tiger swing edged out 2000, Sam Snead's impossibly quiet head, the deliberate genius of Jack Nicklaus's flying right elbow, Johnny Miller's weak grip and laser irons, and the pick nobody sees coming at No. 6. Plus the argument that ties the whole list together: course management is worthless if you cannot actually hit the shot.

The full top 10: Hogan, Woods, Snead, Nicklaus, Miller, Couples, Wright, Trevino, Nelson, McIlroy.

Brian Manzella is Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America. Sam Osborne is a former touring pro. Together they give you golf history the way it actually happened, with no spin.

Full video on YouTube at @funnelgolfx. New episodes of No More Lies every Monday.

We asked AI to rank the 20 most influential golf instruction books in history. Then we tore the list apart.

Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and former touring pro Sam Osborne react to Grok's top 10: Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, Ben Hogan's Five Lessons, The Golfing Machine, Bob Rotella, Dave Pelz, Mark Broadie and more.

In this episode:

Why Hogan's "Five Lessons" actually contains eight fundamentals, and why the claim that it ruins slicers is baloney. The one grip picture in the book Brian says you should not copy.

The Golfing Machine: the hardest book to find, the worst-written book on the list, and still the most influential book in golf instruction today. It's not close.

The putting setup that had Brian rolling everything in from eight feet (a Pelz putting track and a training aid called The Plip, if you can find one on eBay).

How Bob Rotella invented the tour mental coach, how Mark Broadie's strokes gained proved the real separator between golfers is the 200-yard shot, and the one book Grok left off the list entirely that belongs in the top ten.

New episodes of No More Lies every Monday.

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Be your own coach.

Golf instruction has a war going on, and this week Brian and Sam walk straight into it.

Brian Manzella (Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America) and Sam Osborne (former touring pro) trace Stack & Tilt back to its real roots: Homer Kelley's The Golfing Machine, Mac O'Grady's MORAD, and the symposiums that shaped a generation of teachers. Sam shares what happened when he actually tried the method as a tour player, and Brian makes the case for why no single system will ever take over golf, backed by GEARS data sitting right there in the room.

Also in this episode: Brian brings TrackMan proof that at 64 he can still get it out there (103.9 mph club head, 155.4 ball speed), and the guys debate whether distance is something you're born with. Sam checks in from the Ray Fisher amateur in Wisconsin and explains what it's really like teeing it up against college kids half his age, plus his honest take on whether ex-pros getting amateur status back is fair.

On the pro side: why Brian and Sam think the ball rollback died under Tour pressure, what the two-tier PGA Tour actually means for players (and the hometown-event problem nobody's talking about), and Sam's verdict on the Shinnecock setup from a guy who's played a U.S. Open himself.

No gurus. No systems. No spin.

New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Bryson DeChambeau went to the press and said AI helped fix his golf swing, name-dropping Google Gemini and tossing out terms like alpha torque, gamma torque, and passive squaring. Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne were not buying it.

In Episode 5 of No More Lies, the two veterans break down Bryson's AI press conference line by line: what he got right, what he got wrong, and why the idea of "passive squaring" does not survive contact with the actual physics. Brian explains real 6D club kinetics.

Then it gets bigger. The guys make the case that AI and swing apps will wipe out the middle tier of golf instruction within five years, why the top and the bottom of the market survive, and what that means for anyone teaching the game. Plus the gutting of Sports Illustrated's golf desk, why golf magazines always ducked the hard instruction stories, and a Jack Nicklaus equipment story that will stop you cold.

Golf without the spin. Two veterans saying what golf media won't.

Hosted by Brian Manzella, Golf Digest's #14-ranked teacher in America, and Sam Osborne, former touring pro. New episodes weekly.

Brian Manzella and Sam Osborne take on the loudest fight in golf: the distance debate. Both land on the same side, then explain why the people pushing hardest against a rollback are the ones with the most money on the line.

In Episode 4:

• Why the pro game has outgrown its own golf courses
• The case that a shorter, spinnier ball brings real skill back (long irons into par 4s again)
• Why the "rolled-back ball still goes 375" story is marketing, not fact
• A pilot program that would settle the whole argument with real data instead of noise
• The origin story: the D-plane video, the trip to Ping, Dr. Kwon's pressure plates, and the night Brandel Chamblee bet he could read TrackMan numbers off the ball, a dollar a ball

No gurus. No patented systems. Two veterans saying what golf media won't.

New episodes every Monday. Watch, then tell us where we're wrong in the comments.

#golfpodcast

Before YouTube. Before Instagram. Before anyone was farming golf tips for engagement, the real arguments happened on message boards at 2am.

Brian Manzella was there for all of it.

In this episode, Brian and Sam trace the strange, scrappy history of golf instruction online, from a clunky Macintosh in 1996 to the forum that genuinely changed how the game gets taught.

What's inside:

Why Brian got banned from forum after forum for one heretical idea: the clubface, not your path, is what makes you slice

The six-page Teacher of the Year application he dropped into a thread to settle the credentials argument (it got him banned again)

The David Toms story at English Turn: a towel, a hurdle drill, and a mishit that rolled straight through David Duval's legs on the next bay. Toms went on to lap the field at Quail Hollow

How Brian built his own forum and watched it hit 30,000 members

Sam discovering the whole thing from across the pond as "Slammin' Sam 2"

The Golfing Machine wars, the Atlanta school that fell apart the same week as Katrina, and why the best ideas usually won anyway.

No gurus. No patented systems. Just two guys who lived inside the game telling you how it actually went down.

New episodes every week.