In a day and age when it’s commonplace to see PGA Tour pros carrying their shoes in one hand and a launch monitor in the other, Chandler Phillips defies that convention.
Never mind that the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour graduate likely won’t touch his clubs for the next month and a half before his debut as a PGA Tour member at the Sony Open. On this week’s episode of GOLF Subpar, Phillips told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz he rarely uses launch monitors.
“Nothing against it,” Phillips said. “I think it’s all great technology, but I don’t use it. Yeah, it’s just I’ve always been kind of a feel player. The only time I’ve really used it is wedges and stuff like that. But I don’t sit on the range a lot. My practice is a lot of playing.”
In an era when Tour pros often spend hours upon hours on the range with launch monitors and other technology so they know just how far every club flies, hearing that one rarely uses one is a shock. At some events, you may even see pros using two different launch monitors to get dialed.
Tour rookie Chandler Phillips won’t touch his clubs for months. Yes, really
But Phillips, a former three-time All-American at Texas A&M, said he only uses them for wedge shots because that’s where he feels he gains the most from practice. He mentioned he’s not a long hitter by Tour standards — he was 99th on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 — and getting dialed with his wedges is where he’ll pick up strokes.
“If I practice my chipping and putting to where I feel comfortable, where it’s as good as you can get for me, I feel like I can go hit nine, ten greens a round and still post a number,” Phillips said. “If I stripe it, then I feel like I can go really low.”
Phillips also revealed he defies convention in another way: he currently has no swing coach.
He used to have a coach from his hometown, but he’s no longer in the golf industry. However, Phillips and his coach worked together for so long that he feels like he has enough to fall back on if anything ever goes awry.
“I kind of already know what it is and I already have something that I can work towards getting it back to where I needed to be,” Phillips said.
For more fun stories from Phillips, check out the full episode below.
