Our ultimate golfing machines.
Tommy Does Golf - The Podcast
EPISODE 5
SEASON 01
17 Feb 2026
tommy: Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three old timers give you our opinions on everything. Golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow PGA professionals, James Morgan and Paul Charman. With over a hundred years and counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our back nines. We'll do our best to stay on topic, but just like our tee shots these days, this podcast could go anywhere.
We are hoping you enjoy the banter and maybe just maybe we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it.
First things first. A massive shout out to Cam Jackson from Indiana who inspired this episode. He sent us a fantastic suggestion, tasking the three of us to put together our ultimate golfing machine. We love that idea. So that's exactly what we've done. Here's how it works. We broke it down into six key categories, driving iron, play, pitching, short game, putting, and finally mental strength.
Now, the one big rule, is you can only use one player once. Pick them for one category and they're out for the other five, meaning we end up with six different names combining to create our ultimate golfing machine. Now, we haven't done this on the spur of the moment. I gave the boys a few days to think about it, so we've all had time to really consider our picks and our reasons.
It's gonna be really interesting to hear what names they've come up with.
I'm pretty certain that for one of the categories, we will all have picked the same name, but only time will tell if my hunch is correct. .
James, your first up, tell me who is your ultimate driver of the golf ball and give me your reasons why you've selected them for this category.
james: At this point I would like to say that just before we started this podcast, we're having a quick chat and our friend announced to us, he hasn't picked any South Africans, which is a bit annoying because I actually had a couple of South Africans and I went, no, he'll have them.
I won't bother. Cause we've gotta go category by category. I chose Pierceson Coody
tommy: Okay.
james: He's a young guy for driving. For driving. He's 26 in distance. He's 56 in accuracy, and that puts him about fourth or fifth in the overall.
tommy: Okay.
james: So then again, the difference between first and say 26, there's only about eight yards.
Mm-hmm. Of distant accuracy. Again, the difference between 20th and 50th is actually only like two or 3% for fairways hit, but. Having watched his swing and analyzed his swing and had a good look at it. I thought there's a golf swing that if under pressure he had to pipe on down the middle. I thought he could do it.
Okay. My original pick was Aldrich Potgeiter
Tommy: Yeah.
james: Because he bombs it and he straight. Yeah. But I left him out. Yeah.
Because he thought you would have it, Paul.
paul: I did have him. No, but
james: I changed him.
paul: Okay.
james: Yeah, I I did,
Tommy: Okay. Alright. Paul who did you go for ?
paul: I went for Tiger Woods
Tommy: Okay.
paul: I put down the ability to move the ball from right to left. You know, he's got the distance, but for him to have achieved what he has achieved in the game of golf, you cannot be a bad driver.
tommy: I'm quite surprised that he's gone for Woods for driving. But anyway, Hey, you're building your Ultimate golfing machine.
Paul: I knew it would be controversial.
Tommy: No, I don't think it's controversial. Yeah, I'm just surprised. But anyway, I've actually gone for a past player and you're gonna be quite surprised who I've gone for. But I went for Jim Furyk. I was gonna go for Scottie Scheffler.
paul: Scheffler hits the ball a long way.right.
tommy: He is obviously not up there with the Bryson De Chambeau’s of this world, but I looked at Jim Furyk and although his golf swing wasn't a thing of beauty, although his bank balance would suggest otherwise,
james: only player to break 60 twice.
tommy: Only player to break 60 twice. But you know, he led the PGA tour in driving stats record seven times, and he averaged 70% of fairways hit in his prime, peaking at 79% in 1997, and he was a consistent 281 yards in his peak years between 2003, 2006.
At six foot two, I fancy 20 years on with today's tech that's gone into the big stick, he would've averaged closer to 300 yards, which is decent. I remember watching Jim Furyk on numerous occasions when he was in the hunt to win a tournament, and was very much under the pump. He was stoic. He had the ability to thread the ball through the eye of a needle off the tee.
He didn't just hit fairways, he split them in two. So even though I was tempted to go for Scottie Scheffler, I opted for Furyk as he proved himself as being up to the task on so many occasions.
Okay, let's move on. So you went with Coody you went with Woods And I went with Jim Furyk. Alright, James Iron Play. Who have you got?
james: You've got Long and mid Iron?
tommy: Long All Iron play
james: Because I think this guy, the wedge play for him is rubbish. It is Rory McIlroy.
Tommy: Okay.
james: You just have to look at that shot that he had to hit into the 15th. Yeah, I've referred to it in other podcasts.
tommy: Amazing Shot.
james: An amazing shot under the pump, just high landing area of about three, four yards high draw. Just stunning. And he hits so many iron shots that you just go, wow.
tommy: Yes.
james: Yeah. I mean, you'd almost choose him for driving, but I chose him for his iron play because I don't think there's many that are as good with a long iron in their hand or a mid iron like he is.Yeah, I think Rory hits his best shots full throttle. When, he has to pull it off. He seems to full
throttle Right to left.
tommy: Yeah, so that's pretty strong. Okay, Paul, go on. who have you gone for ?
paul: I'm going with Ian Woosnam
tommy: Okay.
paul: Yeah, Pretty good. Long iron player.
james: I've got a story about him
paul: and I would like to hear that story because I was fortunate enough not only to play a couple of holes withIan Woosnam, but I've stood on a driving range and watched him hit a ping one iron and. I'm gonna say that it was orgasmic because that is the only way that I can actually describe truly what it was like to watch this guy hit these one irons off the deck. Mm-hmm. And I dunno whether it was to do with his stature, but it was effortless. Absolutely effortless.
Tommy: Yes.
paul: And the funny thing was that when he actually took the one iron out of his bag, obviously Woosy, we all know was. Short. So he wasn't the tallest person.
Tommy: Well, he was shorter than me, so that's pretty short.
paul: He was. He was. He was, yeah. He was a promise. But I just remember watching him hit these shots and it was effortless.
All he did was he rotated. He hardly took a divot, and it just was pure, absolutely pure. He was so, so strong.
tommy: It's funny that you say you dunno whether it was to do with his stature.
Because I was also fortunate enough to be able to watch woozy hits and balls close up, and I think his stature was geared towards that naturally flatter swing plane, which was perfect for hitting the longer stuff.
You know, I mean, I remember when he had the Maruman driver and the Maruman two iron and he used to just absolutely flush them. And you just thinking it's not possible to hit it that well with that club.
So I agree with you,
paul: and it's funny how I put down here that when he took out his one iron and he held it in his hand, it looked like a telegraph pole because it was so abnormally. Far out in front of him.
tommy: Yep.
paul: You know? Yep. And like I say, he just literally stood there. Obviously the angle of the golf club had been changed to suit his stance and his setup. But that was it. He just stood there and rotated his shoulders, anchored to the ground. With his legs and his feet and it was effortless in his pa it was just incredible to watch, wasn't it?
Tommy: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. James what was your story?
james: So the story was that the U S Masters, he's standing there and in those days they had the net, at the end of the driving range was at 270.
tommy: Yep.
james: And he's hitting drivers and they're going bounce, bounce into the bottom of the net.
Mark Calcavecchia
Tommy : yeah won the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 1989.
james: and Calcavecchia was flying it one bounce and it was hitting the net. He goes. Says to Ian Woosnam I thought you were long, woozy, pegged one up and flies it over the net. And says, I am. And then he goes back and, just ignored him.
Tommy: Fantastic.
james: I am long fetch.
tommy: Pretty cool. So woozy. I like that. That's a great pick. Okay. I have gone for Steve Stricker. And the reason I went for Steve Stricker Greens in regulation, this will surprise you, but I did a little bit of homework. I don't normally, but I did a little bit homework. I thought I won't come and wing it again.
So anyway, he led the PGA tour in greens in regulation three times, and he was in the top 10 for greens in regulation 13 consecutive seasons on the PGA tour, which is pretty incredible really. He also won 12 PGA tour events after the age of 40
in terms of hitting greens from the fairway. I just had to go with Steve Stricker, really.I mean, he's not a particular favorite of mine, but when you look at what he did and the boring consistency of the man, I went with Steve Stricker. So you know, not a name that sort of sets the world of light or gets me particularly excited. But yeah, I just think that under pressure, he didn't really feel the pressure.
He just put it on the dance floor. Okay, so moving on, let's go to our next category, James, which is pitching. This is gonna be interesting.
James who have you got for Wedge play?
james: my wedge play pick. Would be Phil Mickelson.
tommy: Okay.
james: His control of spin. He can move the ball with a wedge, left or right, right to left, and his visualization of the shot of being able to land it in an area, spin it, and then get a slope to move it to the pin.
Mickelson under pressure. Hit some stunning wedge shots.
Tommy: Yeah, that's an annoyingly good pick actually. Yeah, he is actually, I hadn't really thought about that, but that's an annoyingly good pick.
james: Thank you. Google.
tommy: I can't, yeah, I can't, I can't have him. I'm not gonna check. Well, obviously I can't do it 'cause you picked him.
But okay. Paul, who you I've
paul: I’ve gone with Rory McIlroy and in brackets I put now Rory now.
James: Oh, that's contentious.
paul: And the reason I put Rory now is because it's well documented how. Hard. He has worked on his pitching because it was considered that it was his weakest part of his game, but I just think that Rory has improved so much in that area, but you just have to see it when he's playing.
Now he looks confident. He's knocking the flag out with his wedge. But I've also written down Scottie Scheffler and I've put Scotty brackets. Distance control.
tommy: Yes.
paul: So my two, I've gone Rory now.
tommy: So who are you going for? You got pick one. One or the other. You can't have two.
James: Can't have two.
tommy: It wasn't the rules.
paul: Okay, I'm gonna go, I'll go with Scottie Scheffler.
Tommy: Okay. I'm going for, here we go. I'm going for David Toms. There you go. David Toms. I'm going for David Toms.
James: Wow.
Tommy: And the reason I'm going for David Toms, I looked at it, went through the stats. He had one of those rhythmical golf swings. I mean, when we watched David Toms swing the club, when he’s hitting the driver and he’s hitting a wedge, the rhythm doesn't seem to change his signature moment.He perfectly judged a wedge shot to 12 feet to win the USPGA championship in 2001. You've talked about how Phil Mickelson can control spin control the way that it spins, whether it lands and spins to the right or spins to the left. But I just think with his rhythm, he never went at it too hard. So he was able to control the spin.
Also, when he was playing wedge shots, you know when people use the clock method and if they back swing to 10 o'clock back threw swing to 10 o'clock. Yeah. He was able to get that quite consistently, simply because his golf swing wasn't too fast. The other person that I thought about using was Matt Fitzpatrick.
'cause Matt Fitzpatrick is very good with a wedge, however. I went with David Toms. Alright, this is gonna be interesting. Well probably not. We're gonna go with short game. I'm gonna go to James and you are gonna give me the name of
james: Severiano Ballesteros
Tommy: Okay. Alright.
james: Because he used to miss quite a lot of greens and he just had the most amazing pair of hands.
tommy: We've all got seve probably that was the category I was referring to the start of the thing, but I dunno. Paul might have gone somebody different.
Paul : No. I also went for Seve
james: It had to be.
Tommy: Same.
james: I went to one of his clinics and you see him with a three iron. It was an old thin three iron, so it was like one of the modern, chunky ones.
But when he is playing chop shots, green side shots facing the hole, slicing across the ball, spinning it left or right, it was just unbelievable. The vision, the feel, everything about it, the technique, just unbelievable.
tommy: Now, probably speaking for all of us here, but anywhere around the green. I was expecting him to get up and down.
I wasn't even thinking, you're not getting up and down. It was a case of is he gonna hole it or is he just gonna make Par?
james: But that's the thing the commentators used to say, oh well this is a tough up and down. And then as later in his career, well it is Seve. And then when it lips out. He's like, oh, I can't believe I've missed.
tommy: Yeah,
james: that was the thing. He tried to hole every single one. He never, ever thought about, oh, let's just play it to the safe part, and two putt its, how can I get it next to that?
tommy: Absolutely. He had a different alternative method to what we've seen. He was a genius. So Paul, very quickly then, I mean, I've gone for, I'm jumping ahead here.
There. It was an obvious, I've gone for Seve. Anything to add on that? Vision.
james: It was just that vision.
paul: That's the word. It is. It is
james: unbelievable.
tommy: He was incredible.
paul: But when you're, when you are that good, it also takes the pressure off the shot that you are playing towards the green. Yes. 'cause you are actually, he's actually also therefore thinking I'm gonna hit this shot, but if I do miss it, I wanna make sure that I miss it in this particular position because I know that from that position, I've got a good chance that I can hold this chip.
Do you know what I mean?
tommy: I think, yeah. I think the other thing with him though is that. And , you guys correct me if you think I'm wrong, but when Seve faced a chip shot or an escape shot with a missed Green, Seve enjoyed playing that shot. Whereas other players would be. Fearful sometimes of playing that shot.What could go wrong in the back of their mind? I mean, admittedly they commit to a shot and they're not like your 18 handicapper is thinking, crikey, I could chunk this or skinny it through the green. But it was almost like he enjoyed the challenge. He loved it, he thrived on it. And you knew he was gonna produce something magic.. I also think he had his own unique style. There's no one looks the same over a chip shot he kind of just settled and lowered himself into this position and you just, knew that was seve
James: just on that one, there was a brilliant story about SEVE that Sam Torrance told and he goes, they're in the Ryder Cup. And Seve’s helping them with their short game. He showed me this shot.I'm copying him, he said. Then from two weeks later, at the next event that we're playing him, he says, Seve , Seve, come over here. Seve I just need a little bit of help with this. He goes, sod off, he goes you gotta wait two years, then I'll give you hand at the next Ryder cup
tommy: James putting, who have you got?
james: I've gone with Tiger Woods.
tommy: Okay.
james: How many puts did he hole? Under pressure on the last green.
tommy: Yes.
james: Yeah. You almost put Jack Nicklaus in the same category as him.
tommy: Yes.
james: And the other thing that I remember reading about Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, even if they weren't gonna win the tournament, they get to that last hole.There's a crowd down there, they wanna birdie it. The number of times they've holed putts on the 18th green from 15 to 20 feet, there was a stat that came out and how many putts they'd holed on the last round, on the 18th green. It was astronomically high.
tommy: Yes.
james: And if you had a. 10 footer with two inches of break to save your life.
Would you trust Tiger Woods? Not many other people under that pressure. that I would mind you, he probably doesn't give a monkeys about this, so if it was to save his own life he would hole it
Tommy: Paul given that you've used Tiger for driving, this is gonna be interesting James, isn't it?
Who have you gone for?
Paul: Okay, I've gone for Ian Poulter
tommy: Okay.
paul: And the reason I've gone for Ian Poulter is because he has delivered, you know, everybody knows what he's called. Everybody knows his nickname, but how many times have he just seen that steely determination over a 10, 15 foot putt? That is crucial.
And he stands over it. And before he even makes the putt, you feel that it's gone in, you actually feel that this ball has gone in. Okay. So I've gone for Ian Poulter.
tommy: Okay. I had to go with Tiger Woods and it's quite funny when you think about the categories that we're going through, but like you said, James, he was the best putter in the world.
He was the best putter in the world. I've never seen a putter like him. Yes, he had the unmatched ability to hold crucial momentum saving putts and make seemingly impossible putts under the highest pressure. He led the PGA tour in putting average putts per green five times. His best season was 1.705 putts per green in regulation in 2004. Now we all know that even the top players have the odd bad hole or two, and around the golf, well certainly over the course of a tournament anyway, but Tiger's ability to hole an eight footer for a par or even for a bogey so as not to derail putting a score together was second to none in those moments, and I can recall so many of them over the years, tiger just drained those putts time and time again. And as we've always said, no one's ever won a tournament putting badly. I'm yet to see somebody when it's on the putting badly. So Tiger Woods, I just think, like you said, James, under pressure, under the absolute gun, Tiger Woods has to be. Yeah. Let's come to this final one, then we're gonna go mental strength.
Who have you got, James?
James: I'm not actually gonna change my original pick. Because I have got Scottie Scheffler. And this is something that I bang on about a lot. So my pupils, and I've mentioned loads of podcasts. It's his process. He has a process and he sticks to it over every single shot.
And it doesn't matter what's happened before, he's not worrying about what's happening and he follows the process and he just pulls it off. And that goes back to The Open, which we, I know we've discussed in other podcast where last year he turned around, just said, well, two minutes after I've putted it out, I'm moving on to the next tournament. he didn't even celebrate that night. He caught his plane and flew home. he just goes, I want to hit this tee shot there. It doesn't matter whether I'm one under two under. Six over whatever, and he has a process and the mental strength to do that along with his game. Obviously he's got a good game to go with it.So he's my pick.
paul: Well, I cant really argue with those comments.
Tommy :Does that mean you’ve gone for him too Paul ?
paul: No. I've gone with Jack, Jack Nicklaus, and the reason I've done that is because I just think that to win as many tournaments as he's won to play under the most extreme pressure.Why wouldn't you have him at the top of your list?
james: The other thing is that when you look at things like his major record, it was how many seconds and how many thirds?
tommy: 19 seconds.
james: Yeah so 18 wins, 19 seconds.
paul: Incredible.
james: And then third and fourth.
paul: I also think though that going back to what you said about Scottie
A process. Jack Nicklaus also had a process. It was one shot at a time. Yeah, it was literally one shot at a time. But I think someone like Nicklaus, he's got the records and I think to be able to do what he's done in the game of golf, you've got to be mentally very strong. So that's my pick
Tommy: my turn. Paul said most of it for me.
Speaker 12: Jack Nicklaus. I had to go for Jack Nicklaus.
paul: Yes. ,
tommy: I have to say, I'm not name dropping here. I'll just pick that up. That, I've been fortunate to have spent a little bit of time with Jack.
Paul: Absolutely you have
Tommy: And I'm sure he will be listening into this and if I see him again, he would crucify me if I didn't have him in at least one category.
So I have saved it and for the same reasons as what Paul said, 18 major wins. 19 second place finishes 73 official PGA tour events that he won. Unbelievable. Just an unbelievable competitor. And mental strength is absolutely incredible. So I think arguably mentally the strongest player that there has been.When you talked about the process that he goes through, he had that 70 30 rule. And he said that if he thought he had a 70% chance or better at pulling a shot off, he'd go for it. But anything 30% or less, he would play safe..
That's been quite an interesting pod, guys.. I'll quickly recap the ultimate golfing machines we've put together. First up, James Driving. You went for Pierceson Coody Iron player. You picked Rory McIlroy for iron play You chose Lefty Phil, the Thrill Mickelson for Wedge play short game The maestro himself, Severiano Ballesteros , putting Tiger Woods and Mental game.
You went for Scottie Scheffler. Paul Driving. You went with Tiger Woods Iron Play the Welsh Wizard. Ian Woosnam wedge play Eventually you chose Scottie Scheffler over Rory. Short game. The only pick you could go for Seve and putting You chose the man who always delivers the Postman. Ian Poulter Mental Strength The Golden Bear, Mr.
Jack Nicklaus. And finally, my choices were Mr. Consistent Jim Furyk for driving. Steve Stricker for iron Play Mr. Rhythm. David Toms for wedge play. Short game, there's only one Severiano Ballesteros and the flat Stick I went for Tiger Woods. And for between the years mental game, I went for Jack Nicklaus. There will be plenty of people who think we're all wrong.
We'd like to hear what you think
james: Yes.
tommy: head to Tommy does golf and email through your Players category by category. Tell us why you think we are wrong with our choices, but also who wins out of our three ultimate golfing machines. Thanks for listening. Share this pod to your friends. We'll catch you next time.
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