Dave Phillips on Developing Golfers and Business

Dave Phillips believes in living life with passion, curiosity, and purpose.

Described as "a visionary thinker with a passion for high-performance coaching," Phillips co-founded the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). A member of the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America since 1993. Dave has been a Golf Magazine Top 100 teacher since 2000 and is a Golf Digest Top 50 teacher in America. He currently coaches world number one golfer Jon Rahm and is part of hall of fame golfer Phil Mickelson's team.

In 2004, Dave Phillips and Dr. Greg Rose developed TPI, the world's first golf performance facility that looked at every aspect of a player's game, from equipment fitting to biomechanics and the human body. As TPI developed, it became evident that we should pass on the information obtained from working with the game's best through education, and the TPI Certified Brand was born. The TPI-certified brand is the largest of its kind globally, and those accredited experts have helped hundreds of thousands of recreational golfers enjoy the game. Since the start of the educational seminars in 2006, over 27,000 TPI-certified experts are now in 65 countries worldwide.

Dave appeared on the Golf Channel as co-host of the Golf Fitness Academy and Titleist Performance Institute Television shows, broadcast in 77 countries over an eight-year time frame. Dave has also written articles for Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, and The Wall Street Journal; he is a sought-after public speaker who has lectured worldwide on sports performance and business.

David had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“We dive a little deeper. We heavily look at the physical attributes of athletes first, because that kind of unlocks how they work” (8:00).

“There’s a lot of people trying to be the best golfer in the world, but they’re trying to be somebody else because that’s their idol. And that’s not necessarily who they are” (8:15).

“My expertise is taking what I get, and then figuring out that puzzle… You’re trying to put the pieces back together so they can perform at their best” (8:30).

“I see a lot of younger players struggle because they’re trying to be someone that they’re not” (8:35).

“How can I do better with what I already have?” (11:30)

“It doesn’t matter what you look like. It matters can you perform” (13:20).

“I like to see unusual golf swings, I like to see unusual looking athletes, because if they’re competing at the same level as what people consider the model, then I’m way more interested in them than the normal” (13:35).

“Great athletes are willing to do the things that others aren’t willing to do” (14:30).

“Curiosity is that natural instinct we have to want to learn and to want to get better at something that we’re passionate about” (16:20).

“What great athletes have in common is they have a love for the game that they’re playing” (16:30).

“That’s the danger of being curious, you don’t know how to assemble the pieces. And that’s where great coaching comes in” (17:00).

“I think there’s a lot of us that are curious, but it does affect our ability to perform in competition” (17:15).

“If we can learn how we are, how can we then take that into a coaching model” (18:15).

“People think they’re going to get worse before they get better if they take a golf lesson. That’s a problem that the PGA of America should be addressing and needs to address” (28:15).

“If the door swings half open, I’m going through it” (33:20).

“One of the beautiful things about understanding the body is it’s just common sense” (36:30).

“It all starts [with movement]” (37:15).

“Movement, to me, is everything” (37:30).

“We’ve impacted hundreds of thousands of golfers, and I think we’re just scratching the surface” (40:25).

“We need to develop a well-care instead of a health-care society. People need ways to take better care of themselves and not rely so much on the system to take care of them” (41:45).

“I love what I do every day. I love trying to find out how to make players that are working with me better” (44:15).

“If you’ve got all this knowledge but you can’t get it out there, that to me is dangerous” (45:30).

“Having partners that have a like-minded mentality allow you to get to where you want to go much faster than you have before” (48:50).

“I very rarely say no because of my curiosity” (56:30).

“It’s really easy today to be judgmental… but be curious. Try and ask yourself the question ‘Why do they think that way’” (1:00:45).

“You need to end your day watching or listening to something funny. Don’t go to bed mad or upset” (1:03:00).

Additionally, make sure to follow TPI on all forms of social media @mytpi, and to check out the TPI website here!

Thank you so much to David for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian