How Bad Is Martin Hall On The Golf Channel

[Smash Factors]

[quote name='Hou_Hater' timestamp='1403488996' post='9554367']
I cannot stand this guy, even in the 10 second mini lessons he does for commercial spots. I'm not talking about him personally, just his teaching style/philosophy. He seems nutty and incoherent. His swing doesn't even look that good. Where did this guy come from and how did he land that gig?
[/quote]

He was taught by Bob Toske. Not saying anything bad about Toske; just throwing it out there.

[Reasonability]

I hear they serve lamb chops in the break room. That and a nice Chianti with liver and fava beans...

...thank you Clarice.

[michaelmoore66]

I have enjoyed watching Martin Hall-a bit nuts, agreed-but generally for my learning and playing style-it works. And Holly is a good distraction from him when he gets Manic (or, anytime). That being said, I only watch the quick fix type edits from "night school" in the GC app, an entire program would be a different story.

[RecreationalHacker]

I like him. He's a good contrast in approach and presentation to M. Breed.

[Mr22putt]

and woman who's name escapes me, but I know she was married to Dan Janson). Viewers voted on who shoukd get their own show, with Hall obviosly winning. When I've watched it, I think his best stuff comes out when he has a pro as the co-host. When it's just him and the airhead... Game over

Karen Palacios Jansen

 

and the airhead.....hmmmmm....let me guess.

[Mr22putt]

I miss Stephanie Sparks.

Me too.

[Trickyputt]

Oh Holly...
Anyway, I grabbed an instructional video that had Tom Lehman as the pro because I am a fan of his, and Martin did the color. Tom isnt a guy with a lot of words. He is right down to it in a few sentences and I found him very clear and illuminating. Then Martin would have his filler segment. It was fun in a way, because he could take what Tom said and destroy it so badly the the viewer was utterly confused. The video is best if you skip to the Lehman talks and over Martins segments.

[Flip4000]

He has coined the best golfwrx inspired quotes " if you keep doing what your doing, you'll keep getting what your getting"

[Hou_Hater]

[quote name='Steve Ryan' timestamp='1403579658' post='9563533']
[quote name='Hou_Hater' timestamp='1403488996' post='9554367']
I cannot stand this guy, even in the 10 second mini lessons he does for commercial spots. I'm not talking about him personally, just his teaching style/philosophy. He seems nutty and incoherent. His swing doesn't even look that good. Where did this guy come from and how did he land that gig?
[/quote]

He was taught by Bob Toske. Not saying anything bad about Toske; just throwing it out there.
[/quote]

A quick Google search shows he cheated on the tour. Anything else relevant?

[Smash Factors]

[quote name='Hou_Hater' timestamp='1403662600' post='9571193']
[quote name='Steve Ryan' timestamp='1403579658' post='9563533']
[quote name='Hou_Hater' timestamp='1403488996' post='9554367']
I cannot stand this guy, even in the 10 second mini lessons he does for commercial spots. I'm not talking about him personally, just his teaching style/philosophy. He seems nutty and incoherent. His swing doesn't even look that good. Where did this guy come from and how did he land that gig?
[/quote]

He was taught by Bob Toske. Not saying anything bad about Toske; just throwing it out there.
[/quote]

A quick Google search shows he cheated on the tour. Anything else relevant?
[/quote]

LOL. You have never heard of Bob Toski? He's basically a legend.

[596]

There are people in the world that watch the Golf Channel? Yikes!!

[Backspin9]

All the gadgets don't appeal to me but he does have some good info once in a while. There is always something you can learn but you have to take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Holly is a pretty good player and I'm surprised she can hit the ball at all after getting so many tips week in and week out. I would be totally confused.

[larrybud]

I think showing how to use everyday and cheap items for drills instead of $40 for a piece of injection molded plastic is a great idea.

[bellview17]

Is he the one that stands and talks next to the "walking rack", huh never really noticed him.....

[Bobalu]

Would have been very interesting if Monte did this Golf School segment every week. I'd rather watch him crush balls into the simulator during weekly lessons. I'll take a Monte and Stephanie Sparks instructional show for the win. Got my vote!

[Reasonability]

This week's show was a prime example of what I like and opt to ignore -- glad to have watched it, but...

Our friend Martin ends up in the field connected to some contraption that leaves him looking like Frankenstein on the table waiting for lightning. This device emits a tone when he bumps the hips laterally in transition. OK, I'm good with the concept - but after five minutes he ends the segment with a simple alignment stick in the ground that accomplishes the same thing and FINALLY mentions that hip rotation is important too lest the viewer become fixated on sway. On the same show, he spoke of separation in the downswing. I'm for it personally to the extent the lower body should lead the DS. But he went on to suggest the arms can often work "better" in the DS if left well behind the chest and allowed to rapidly catch back up through impact. That advice will serve some golfers -- and would absolutely ruin many others.

Did I enjoy the show? - absolutely. Was Holly once again playing the role of attentive student very well? She did indeed. But was part of Martin's advice rrrrrrrrrrrrrrubish? To me some of it was, and a lot of it was pretty good stuff. ....to each his own.

[UHCougar]

I'm not a fan of the "gimmick-ey" style of instruction at all.

"Try this simple trick and I GUARANTEE you'll be hitting it long and straight in no time!!" blah blah

Silly training aids and drills don't do it for me. I prefer to be shown the whats and whys of my misses and how to "organically" (for lack of a better word) fix them.

A perfect example: I was tending to hit out of the heel recently and decided to look up videos of how to cure it. The majority of videos used the 2x4 / tee / waterbottle whatever training aid that you put on the toe side of the ball so as to avoid hitting the heel shot. But these actually don't address WHAT in your swing is causing that, and WHY it is happening. It just gives you negative feedback when you do it, which is useless to me when I'm actually on the course.

Maybe it works for some people... not me...

[daftmunkee]

He's much more useful than Breed is

[Burt Chance]

Hall is great

[station2station]

Gimmicky...contraptions.

Not a fan of the instruction

[ahopkins13]

I like both Breed and Monte,

Monte has a great energy but i can see how some dont like his tools of instruction.

I think Holly is nice to look at but it bugs me a little that they have to stick a bombshell into a golf instruction show. I feel like its the typical sex sells formula. I like Holly and respect her game. My feelings about her on the show are of no fault of hers. More of a producer or director issue.

[Mac07]

I like him better then Breed. Breed used to be good but he is way too gimmicky, he needs to cool it with the pool noodles...

[Forged4ever]

[quote name='tx_rican' timestamp='1403525553' post='9556041']
Can't stand the guy but he is one of the top 100 golf instructors I believe.
[/quote]Yep, one of the top tenners, and has been since GD's list began.

Also, and this is no small achievement, was PGA Teaching Pro of The Year in either 2008 or '09.

RB articulated my thoughts better than I can, so his post, lol

Fairways & Greens My Friends,
Richard

[mr_divots]

I have no idea the drill or concept being relayed in a recent commercial, but I just laughed when he half-a** lazily swipes at the ball with a hurried setup and it goes about 40 yards on the sim. And he celebrates successfully pulling it off. Woo hoo!
I wasn't even aware I needed to be taught that!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time spent in front of that golf sim on the GC. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. (Hint, hint, go outside occasionally to....I dunno....play golf on grass?) Nah....that's BIG budget stuff, a camera and the outdoors. LOL!

[Ruddy]

I like Martin Hall. He tries to give you memory aids to jog your mind when you're out on the course, blowing. Yes, Mike Breed has a much prettier swing, but have you ever just listened to Breed's word? ! The guy trips over his own tongue, he just can't spit it out. Frankly, both Breed and Hall are DIY hardware guys, building aids on the set! What do you call a floatie or a swim noodle? Finished golf products? also like Hall's book recommendations, even tho 90% of the audience doesn't read. When I want to swing well, I visualize Breeds swing. But both are not the best instructor. I have got more from Butch Harmon, Rick Smith and Hank Haney, who's personality I can't stand.

[SwingBlade]

If I watch Breed I'll maybe pick up one or two good ideas per show. The enthusiasm gets a little old but, I still usually enjoy his show.

With Martin I pick up two to maybe three good ideas per show. Often they only remind me of some small aspect of the game that I haven't been paying attention to lately because there are so many other things to be cognizant of. I enjoy the show because he is sincere in his desire to teach.

If you were watching the show when she first came on, her swing was just OK and her on air confidence was lacking. This year she is playing like dynamite. Her swing is almost perfection. If she was playing five times a week she could probably easily make it on tour. But what she is doing now will likely eventually pay off far beyond the women's tour.

First rule of picking a barber? Go with the guy in the shop with the worst haircut. Martin has been teaching her week after week for over a year. The results show. Period. He's putting forth teaching points to a few thousand golfers each week. If you can really watch the show for a couple weeks and not take away something of value you must be one hell of a golfer and yeah, one on one's with Butch will probably be of greater benefit to your game.

For the rest of us, Martin puts out maybe 10 valid teaching points per show. Even if only one or two of them speaks to you or reminds you of some game aspect you need to put back into play, it's probably quite worthwhile.

[Willie Malay]

I like him a lot better than...................The Mouth!! Actually I really like him. Straight forward, no hype crap.

[guyrestivo]

i like martin hall ...he's very knowledgeable and seems to be a good guy.....but i stopped watching his show when they put on that phony model Blair with that phony smile.....prior to Blair they had a wonderful down to earth girl...Sara brown...it was a NBC/golf channel decision but Hall could have supported brown which he obviously didn't....and now the golf channel did away with the blog/comment section.....no reason to log on to their site anymore....it sucked except for the blog/comments...

[ray9898]

i like martin hall ...he's very knowledgeable and seems to be a good guy.....but i stopped watching his show when they put on that phony model Blair with that phony smile.....prior to Blair they had a wonderful down to earth girl...Sara brown...it was a NBC/golf channel decision but Hall could have supported brown which he obviously didn't....and now the golf channel did away with the blog/comment section.....no reason to log on to their site anymore....it sucked except for the blog/comments...

 

LOL...both were college golfers...both were contestants on multiple seasons of the Big Break which Blair won...both play on the Symetra Tour. How is one more 'real' than the other?

[onetime19]

I don't mind him at all, if I can pick up a tip or two, he has done his job.