My Fitness & Golf Story

The Beginning:

My fitness journey started in the spring of 2015... the year I got done playing ice hockey after I graduated high school.

I was 17, and the sport I played for the last 12 years was gone, so I had to find a new outlet to put my time and energy into.

I was athletic and strong, but skinny. When I began my fitness journey I was 5'11", the same height I am now, but 150 pounds, about 35 pounds lighter than I am now.

One of my best friends and I started going to the gym together and it never stopped for me.

I became obsessed with the process of learning exercise technique, getting stronger, and morphing my body into an athletic and aesthetic physique.

Turning Fitness Into My Career

After a couple years of working out consistently, learning a lot of lessons along the way, I decided that I wanted to become a personal trainer and help other people with their own fitness journey.

I got my certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine in 2017, and began my career in personal training in the spring of 2018, about 3 years after I started working out back in 2015.

Between 2015 and 2020, I was solely focused on finding the best ways to build muscle, strength, and improve my physique.

But then I got introduced to the game of golf... and it started to consume me.

The Start Of My Golf Journey

It was summer of 2020, and I got invited to play a round of golf at Del Mar Country Club and I couldn't say no to that.

I showed up, shot a 120, lost probably 15 balls, and I thought "I never want to embarrass myself like that ever again".

No longer was I only trying to improve my strength and physique, but I was trying to improve my swing and lower my scores.

Instead of waking up on a Saturday excited to go crush a workout, I was waking up excited to go to the driving range and hit some balls.

Now I had 2 obsessions... fitness and golf. A great combo, because they mirror each other in many ways.

My Learning Process

I've learned a lot of what I know about working out from watching YouTube videos, experimenting, filming myself working out, and working out with people who are more experienced than me.

I knew the steps to get good at working out, so I figured why can't I just do the same with golf?

And so I did.

My YouTube search history went from "Best ways to gain muscle" to "How to break 100".

I started experimenting with new things (a lot of them being terribly wrong and a waste of time)

I started filming my swing, analyzing it, and comparing it to someone else's swing who is much more experienced than me.

I started playing with people who were better than me, and I began to pick up on some things that they do that will help me shoot lower scores.

And the process worked!

Starting To Get Better

I went from shooting 120+, to 110, to 103, to 101, and then on March 5, 2021, I did the impossible, and I broke 100 for the first time ever. Torrey Pines North course stood no chance that day! A crisp 98 from the White Tees had me feeling on top of the world!

About 7 months into my golf journey I broke 100 for the first time.

A lot of practice and determination is what helped me do it, but I was just scratching the surface of my golfing potential.

I knew I was capable of being a much better golfer, so I continued my process of learning and practicing.

Only about 4 months after breaking 100 for the first time, I broke 90 for the first time.

I thought I felt on top of the world when I broke 100... but when I broke 90, I thought I was a God!

That feeling didn't last long though, because I remember shooting a 103 the very next time I played.

The Trap

This is where I see a lot of golfers get stuck. They get stuck in the "breaking 90" trap.

In my case, shooting an 88 (that felt lucky) on a good day, and shooting 103 on a bad day.

The Trap of shooting 15-25 over par. (87-97)

No golfer that has been playing the game for many years should be shooting 30 over.

maybe my opinion is jaded, but thats where fitness comes in.

I knew that the goal of breaking 90 was just a milestone, and that I didn't want to end up like most golfers... shooting 88 on a good day.

Don't get me wrong, as a recreational golfer, being able to shoot in the high 80's is pretty solid. Making some pars, maybe some birdies, but the majority of holes are still bogey or worse.

75% of golfers never break 90, so being in the top 25% of golfers isn't a terrible place to be.

I thought "Damn, I'm in the top 25% of golfers and I've only been playing for about 10 months. I can do this no problem! It's been a smooth process so far!"

Plus, I was playing with guys where a bad day is in the low 80s and a good day is breaking par.

So naturally, my next goal was to break 80.

98% of golfers never break 80, so now I knew I had my hands full and this next part wasn't going to be easy.

Long story short, I ended up breaking 80 for the 1st time in July 2022, almost 2 years after starting my golf journey.

Where I Went Wrong

I kept doing what helped me go from shooting in the 100s to shooting low 80s...

Practice, practice, practice.

I started skipping workouts to "stay fresh" for golf (mostly leg days). Bad idea.

I was practicing a lot and experimenting with some of the wrong things, and I found myself in one of the worst spots for someone that wants to play a game.

Pain.

I developed some of the worst knee pain I have ever felt.

I knew it wasn't from working out because I was skipping leg days to play golf instead.

I realized it was golf that hurt me.

The least physical sport on the planet caused me the worst physical pain I'd ever felt.

I was overdoing it, and it came back to bite me in the ass.

I knew I had to make a change to how I approached my fitness and my golf.

I put together a workout routine that wouldn't mess with my readiness for golf... it actually helped it.

I figured out what I was doing that caused my knee to hurt so bad (which turned out to be excessive swaying and sliding) and adjusted to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Looking back, this pain that I was going through was a major blessing, because not only did it help me get even better, but it is what helped me merge my 2 passions together, which is what I now call Jacked Golfer.

The Start Of Jacked Golfer.

While I was in trying to figure out how I could heal my knee and figure out the best way to integrate my fitness and golf training together, I started researching golf fitness programs.

I found a ton of programs that focused on mobility, and power, but I couldn't find anything that also integrated strength training into the program.

I saw an opportunity to solve that problem, so I started learning more about golf fitness, experimenting, and eventually got my Level-1 Certification through TPI (Titliest Performance Institute) and learned way more about the Body Swing Connection.

I started working with a couple of golfers with their workouts, and the program worked!

They started getting stronger, building muscle, losing fat, AND playing better golf.

I knew I was on to something, so I thought of a name, designed a logo, started an instagram page, created a website, and now here we are!

What is Jacked Golfer?

Jacked golfer is a fitness program for golfers that creates the ultimate golf body.

Mobile. Strong. Powerful. Durable. Conditioned.

My Mission

There are a lot of golfers that are either overweight, weak, very injury prone, or all of the above.

My goal with Jacked Golfer is to help those golfers who want to create better habits, start crushing the gym, and ultimately get better at golf as a result.

I'll go into more detail in another article about exactly what the Jacked Golfer Program is, so stay tuned for that one!

Thank you for reading my story, and if you are someone who might be interested in joining the Jacked Golfer program, please apply here!

Be great,

Wyatt