Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Claude Harman. This week's guest one of the most popular
Speaker 1: players in the game, Ricky Fowler. He's had an amazing career.
Speaker 1: I think he changed the game with regards to fashion,
Speaker 1: and he's just always been a player that the fans
Speaker 1: have been drawn to. Won the Players Championship, He's won
Speaker 1: on DP World, He's won on some big golf courses
Speaker 1: in the United States, and I'm a fan. My dad
Speaker 1: and I've worked with him in the past. And what
Speaker 1: you see is what you get from Ricky. This is
Speaker 1: a good one. Sit back and enjoy listening to Ricky Feller.
Speaker 1: Rick we were talking before we started recording. Next year is
Speaker 1: going to be your sixteenth year on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: You're thirty five years old, You're father of two. Now
Speaker 1: you are a veteran, but I think some people still
Speaker 1: see you as like one of the up and coming players.
Speaker 1: Do you see yourself now as a veteran on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour?
Speaker 2: Yes and no.
Speaker 3: And you go down and look at the timeline and
Speaker 3: you know, been out here for a while and definitely
Speaker 3: have more experience now. Mentally, I don't think I've gone
Speaker 3: past fifteen years old, so there's yeah, I still feel
Speaker 3: like a young guy, but uh, just more experienced.
Speaker 1: When you look at the arc of your career, Rick,
Speaker 1: do you feel like you've in your head when you
Speaker 1: look at your game and the things that you've accomplished.
Speaker 1: I mean, I look at the things that you've done.
Speaker 1: Players Championship, you know, six wins, President's got to Ryder Cups.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've had a hell of a career. But
Speaker 1: when you evaluate your career, are you harder on yourself
Speaker 1: and say I should have done maybe better at this point?
Speaker 1: Are you comfortable with where you're at? Because I look
Speaker 1: at what you've done and how your career has you know,
Speaker 1: basically just continued to go in a positive direction. And
Speaker 1: but golfers are hard on themselves. I think everybody listening
Speaker 1: is hard on themselves from a golf standpoint. Are you
Speaker 1: happy with where you are right now?
Speaker 2: Depends how you look at it, because you always want more.
Speaker 3: But for me, if you if you kind of remove
Speaker 3: yourself from current situation and go back to me as
Speaker 3: a kid, I just I dreamed of playing on the
Speaker 3: PGA Tour and winning on tour. So when you start
Speaker 3: to add things up, and once you've been out here
Speaker 3: and know how hard it is to win on tour,
Speaker 3: you know to have done that multiple times and have
Speaker 3: a players in there, be on you know, a handful
Speaker 3: of team events. It's a solid career, but when you're
Speaker 3: in it, you always want more. But that's that's a
Speaker 3: good thing because you you never want to be satisfied,
Speaker 3: because you want to continue to push yourself. You know,
Speaker 3: there's plenty of things that I still want to do.
Speaker 3: If I was just okay with it, there's no point
Speaker 3: in continuing to play. But I love to play, even
Speaker 3: if I'm not competing. I love to play at home.
Speaker 3: It's always a fun grind and trying to figure out
Speaker 3: how to get better. There's no way to perfect it,
Speaker 3: so we're we're always working towards more.
Speaker 1: I think obviously your image has been one of the
Speaker 1: biggest images in golf. You've been one of the biggest figures.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the cool things for those
Speaker 1: of us that are lucky enough to know you personally
Speaker 1: and be around you. You and I have worked together
Speaker 1: in the past. You've worked and worked with my dad.
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize how hard you work. Where
Speaker 1: do you think the drive and the work ethic that
Speaker 1: you have and that I've been lucky enough to witness,
Speaker 1: where does that come from? And how can other young
Speaker 1: players kind of learn from the way that you've approached
Speaker 1: the game and the way that you approach your practice
Speaker 1: and all of those things.
Speaker 3: I mean, I just at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: I love it. I've loved it since I was a
Speaker 3: little kid. There's a lot of factors that go into it.
Speaker 3: I mean, my parents and grandparents and family around me.
Speaker 3: They one just always supported it and it was never
Speaker 3: something that was pushed on me. It was always something
Speaker 3: I wanted to do. Like I said, I loved playing
Speaker 3: and the grind of it from day one. So it's
Speaker 3: it's different for everyone, and there's some people that are
Speaker 3: good at it that don't necessarily fully love it and
Speaker 3: it feels more like work. For me, it's always just
Speaker 3: been fun. Even when we've gone through tough times, it's
Speaker 3: still part of the grind. There's still something that's when
Speaker 3: you look back at it, there's fun to it because
Speaker 3: you're trying to figure out how to get it done,
Speaker 3: and ultimately when you do come out of the other side,
Speaker 3: it's so satisfying. So yeah, there's a lot of factors
Speaker 3: that go into for me, but I think the biggest
Speaker 3: thing is I've always loved it when.
Speaker 1: You were younger and growing up and playing golf. Obviously
Speaker 1: everybody knows about, you know, the extreme sports that you
Speaker 1: love to do and stuff like that, but what drew
Speaker 1: you to golf and when you were younger, what did
Speaker 1: you like about golf at a young age.
Speaker 3: I always liked individual things. I wasn't a big team
Speaker 3: sport guy, played you know, some baseball. As a little kid,
Speaker 3: I pitched, and so that's about as individuals you can
Speaker 3: get in that situation. Rod and Rice dirt bikes, it's
Speaker 3: just you on the bike and then fishing and golf.
Speaker 3: So for me, it was, you know, there's really no
Speaker 3: one else to blame. It's it's all on you. Some
Speaker 3: guys will blame caddies and know there's situations like that,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, it's it's just
Speaker 3: you and I always I always liked that. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure why, because as as a kid at two, three
Speaker 3: four years old, really don't know what's going on a
Speaker 3: whole lot of times. But for some reason, it was
Speaker 3: just what I loved and you know, my parents would
Speaker 3: drop me off of the range. I'd hang out there
Speaker 3: all day and they'd pick me up and it was dark.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you love the individual thing about golf,
Speaker 1: but if you look at your relationship with the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State Golf program, how how important that relationship has been
Speaker 1: to you, How important that relationship has been to your career.
Speaker 1: I mean it's almost like you're still on the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State Golf team. You care about that so much. You
Speaker 1: love being on the President's Cup, you love being on
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup. So as much as you love the
Speaker 1: individual part part of it, the team part of it
Speaker 1: is something I know that is really really important to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a lot of it is it comes
Speaker 3: down to, like the relationships and friendships you can.
Speaker 2: Build with the game of golf.
Speaker 3: Just the individual side is literally you just you know,
Speaker 3: hitting the shots and pulling the trigger and playing your game.
Speaker 3: But outside of that, the family that we have out here,
Speaker 3: and like you said, the relationships you get to build
Speaker 3: and we're all out there grinding it out together, trying
Speaker 3: to beat each other up as bad as possible. But
Speaker 3: it's you know, sharing houses together, traveling together, that's that's
Speaker 3: the other side of it that a lot of people
Speaker 3: don't necessarily see. They just see us grinding it out
Speaker 3: inside the ropes. I guess they've seen a little bit
Speaker 3: of us having some fun outside. But that's that's the balance,
Speaker 3: and it's amazing the you said the friendships and relationships
Speaker 3: you get to build over the years.
Speaker 1: The PGA Tour is kind of like high school, right.
Speaker 1: You've got the cool kids. You've got the kind of
Speaker 1: kids that do their own things. You've got the kids
Speaker 1: that want to You've always been, in my opinion, in
Speaker 1: the cool kid category. You JT, Jordan, the boys that
Speaker 1: you kind of hang out with. You guys always play
Speaker 1: your practice rounds together, and I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why the fans relate to you so well,
Speaker 1: that relationship you have with with JT and Jordan. You
Speaker 1: guys stay in houses together and stuff. Do you think
Speaker 1: that makes the life that you lead on the PGA
Speaker 1: tour easier? I mean a lot of this was before
Speaker 1: you got married, before you had a family. But it
Speaker 1: is a very lonely life. I mean, it's an individual sport.
Speaker 1: You're traveling twenty thirty weeks a year. The relationships and
Speaker 1: the friendships that you've got on tour with all of
Speaker 1: the various players. Do you think that's helped kind of
Speaker 1: elongate your career and make it, you know, make it
Speaker 1: more fun for you when you're on the road.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean being able. I feel like, in a way,
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit of a rover. I can kind
Speaker 3: of go and hang wherever, kind of hang out with
Speaker 3: all the different groups. I like to be able to
Speaker 3: fit in and have a good time with anyone. So
Speaker 3: it makes it definitely makes it more fun on the
Speaker 3: road if it's there's other guys that are are very
Speaker 3: much just themselves. They go out there, do their job,
Speaker 3: do what they need to do. I like to have
Speaker 3: fun while I'm out there. I love playing and practicing
Speaker 3: in the grind of it, but it's a lot more
Speaker 3: fun when you can, you know, be with your buddies
Speaker 3: and kind of mix that up a bit. So yeah,
Speaker 3: being able to stay in houses together, which has gotten
Speaker 3: a bit tougher, you know, having a family, and it's
Speaker 3: hard to find big enough houses if you got myself
Speaker 3: and the family, and Jordan.
Speaker 1: And his family are married now and having.
Speaker 3: Kids too, so you know, at least maybe we can
Speaker 3: start working on trying to get houses closer together. But
Speaker 3: it's it's that's created a whole another dynamic. And you know,
Speaker 3: like with Jordan's oldest Sammy, he's four days older than Maya,
Speaker 3: and so like when we're on the road, they're they're
Speaker 3: together all the time, and then they have another and
Speaker 3: our second will be about a year behind. JT's got
Speaker 3: one coming here shortly, so that's going to continue to
Speaker 3: keep us together at a different level.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I I enjoy having a good time, and whether that's
Speaker 3: you know, having fun with the grind of golf and
Speaker 3: practice and working at that, or you know, having games
Speaker 3: with the guys or having the families hang out and
Speaker 3: you know, maybe have a few drinks.
Speaker 1: The Ryder Cup and the President's Cup, but specifically the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup are such a huge part of the game
Speaker 1: of golf. Every two years, that's the one everybody wants
Speaker 1: to watch. Anytime there's a Ryder Cup year, everything's ramped
Speaker 1: up because everybody's trying to play, is trying to make
Speaker 1: those teams for the fans. What's it like getting on
Speaker 1: those teams? Trying to get on those teams. But also
Speaker 1: I think everybody is fascinating the bond. I remember when
Speaker 1: Brooks finally made his first Ryder Cup team at Hazel Team,
Speaker 1: I kept telling once you get on one of these teams,
Speaker 1: you will never ever not want to be on one.
Speaker 1: There's something about what do you think about those weeks?
Speaker 1: Make them so special? Even though you don't necessarily win
Speaker 1: every single time. Yeah, but the weeks and the bonds
Speaker 1: that I've been able lucky enough to watch, it's like
Speaker 1: there's a Ryder Cup fraternity and if you've been on one,
Speaker 1: it's almost like your boys for life, right, you're always
Speaker 1: because you shared that one week experience that was so intensive.
Speaker 1: What's it like for the fans? I mean, what's it
Speaker 1: feel like to get the call to know you've made it?
Speaker 1: And then the weeks are just I mean, I'm on
Speaker 1: the outside looking at as a coach, but they just
Speaker 1: must be magical for you guys to spend time together
Speaker 1: in ways that you don't normally do that.
Speaker 3: It's I mean, yeah, you go out and play practice
Speaker 3: around with your buddies and for a normal tournament, and
Speaker 3: it's those are fun, but it's different when you're there
Speaker 3: together for the same cause and playing together and on
Speaker 3: the same team. I think more goes away from the
Speaker 3: course and you know, whether it's the rights to the course,
Speaker 3: being in the team room, it's a it's kind of
Speaker 3: a bummer. It's only just that one week, six seven days,
Speaker 3: and once you're there, they fly by. So it'd be nice,
Speaker 3: we'd all want them to be longer, but I think
Speaker 3: it's such a you know, little just small piece of
Speaker 3: time compared to all that we put into, you know,
Speaker 3: the years of playing and other tournaments. What makes them
Speaker 3: so special. If they happen more often or they were
Speaker 3: a longer amount of time, they wouldn't be as special.
Speaker 3: But like you said, once you're once you're a part
Speaker 3: of one, or you've been on a Ryder Cup team
Speaker 3: or President's Cup team, you're in it's like being verified
Speaker 3: on Instagram or something like you've got that stamp.
Speaker 2: It's it's you got it.
Speaker 1: Almost like you've arrived. When you make one of those, right,
Speaker 1: there's always those rookies that everybody knows is a really,
Speaker 1: really good player and then all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: Max Max Homwich, it gets on on a on a
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup team and just plays unbelievable goal even though
Speaker 1: the team didn't win. But you have these players that
Speaker 1: basically get into that environment and it's it is sink
Speaker 1: or swim. You have guys that are great players that
Speaker 1: necessarily don't have great Ryder Cup records. But then you
Speaker 1: always have players, you know that are rookies that sometimes
Speaker 1: just had that breakout. When you were a rookie on
Speaker 1: your first Ryder Cup team, were you nervous, did you
Speaker 1: feel the weight of everything, the weight of the US
Speaker 1: and playing for the flag and all that, or were
Speaker 1: you able to do what I think you you've always
Speaker 1: been able to do is just kind of act like
Speaker 1: a kid, be a kid and just have fun.
Speaker 2: Uh combo.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're not nervous at the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 3: then you're doing the wrong thing. It doesn't matter. If
Speaker 3: you're the best player in the world, then you're you
Speaker 3: know you're going to go beat everyone. It's you're still nervous.
Speaker 3: It's it's the Ryder Cup. I haven't had the obviously
Speaker 3: the best record by any means in the Ryder Cup.
Speaker 3: I've I've had my fair share of maybe meaningful half
Speaker 3: points or a point here and there. At least we
Speaker 3: don't have a goose egg to start. They're just they're special,
Speaker 3: and like you said, there's there's plenty of situations where
Speaker 3: guys maybe haven't played as well but make the team
Speaker 3: or get a pick and then ball out. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think looking at last Ryder Cup with JT not
Speaker 3: necessarily being in a great spot, but he's someone that
Speaker 3: you know, rises to the occasion, played great over in Rome.
Speaker 3: Obviously the team didn't play as you know, well as
Speaker 3: we all would have liked to. But there's definitely situations
Speaker 3: where you see guys, you know sometimes that gives them
Speaker 3: that little spark and ignites their game being in that situation.
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Speaker 1: I talk a lot on the podcast kind of switching
Speaker 1: to you know, golf and technique and stuff I talk
Speaker 1: a lot about. I think there's a there's a big
Speaker 1: balance in golf between the technical part of things, your technique,
Speaker 1: your golf swing, and then the execution part. What have
Speaker 1: you learned in your you know, going on fifteen sixteen
Speaker 1: years on the PGA Tour about executing on the golf course.
Speaker 1: And I think so many players are convinced, Ricky that
Speaker 1: you know, you go to the range, you work on it,
Speaker 1: you work on it, you work on it, and what
Speaker 1: happens on the range. If you hit it good on
Speaker 1: the range, you're going to hit it good on the course. Right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the warm up is bad and then sometimes you
Speaker 1: play great on the course. But the executing part, the
Speaker 1: playing of the game. What have you learned in your
Speaker 1: time on tour? You feel like you're better now at
Speaker 1: playing the game of golf? And how do you do that?
Speaker 1: Because I think so many people think, Okay, go shoot
Speaker 1: eighty five. I just go straight to the range. Technique, technique,
Speaker 1: work on my game, work on my game, Whereas sometimes
Speaker 1: it doesn't really have anything to do with what your
Speaker 1: technique is. It's how you're playing the game of golf.
Speaker 1: So when you look back at when you started versus now,
Speaker 1: as I said, you are sixteen year veteran on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, what have you learned now or know now
Speaker 1: about playing golf that maybe you didn't know when you
Speaker 1: were rookie.
Speaker 3: I was always good at playing the game technically, I
Speaker 3: wasn't as sound as I am now going back to
Speaker 3: the start of this, I have a lot more experience,
Speaker 3: and I think i'm I know, I'm a much more
Speaker 3: like well rounded and better player technically and playing the game.
Speaker 3: I was always good at hitting shots and working my
Speaker 3: right way around the golf course, but if I got
Speaker 3: a little off where the golf swing was, I would
Speaker 3: get too far off. And then working with your dad,
Speaker 3: you I learned a lot. Also with Tillery, I probably
Speaker 3: got too far into the golf swing there, but also
Speaker 3: those were times and some stuff with the golf swing
Speaker 3: where I learned some of my most how things should work.
Speaker 2: And that set me up.
Speaker 3: After being with Tillery, being back with your Dad and
Speaker 3: I had a probably at that point is when I
Speaker 3: had the best understanding of kind of everything from swing
Speaker 3: to playing and being able to get back to that
Speaker 3: two years ago and playing well last year was just
Speaker 3: that was golf. So now I definitely feel like I
Speaker 3: said a lot better understanding top to bottom from the
Speaker 3: playing side and the swing side, because at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, it's it's about hitting golf shots. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter what it looks like, but can you step
Speaker 3: up there and yeah, it comes down to execution. So
Speaker 3: when you're playing your best, whether it's me other guys
Speaker 3: out there, you're just hitting shots and hitting your numbers,
Speaker 3: and you're not thinking about, well, to hit a cut,
Speaker 3: I need to do this and make sure it's here.
Speaker 3: It's like, no, I'm gonna aim there. I'm gonna cut
Speaker 3: it five yards and hit it one p seventy in
Speaker 3: the air.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: We hear that a lot. I mean, obviously, when you're
Speaker 1: playing good, it feels the game feels very, very easy.
Speaker 1: And I think you know when you went through that
Speaker 1: struggle for those couple of years, the fans and the
Speaker 1: average golfers, it was as close as they're ever going
Speaker 1: to get to you. They struggle with their golf swing.
Speaker 1: They're not hitting it where they're looking. They're not hitting
Speaker 1: the type of shots that they're wanting to hit. When
Speaker 1: you are in that space, because you, like all the
Speaker 1: great players, you guys can make the game Ricky look
Speaker 1: so easy. You know, as a coach, I've been lucky
Speaker 1: enough to watch all of you guys play for the
Speaker 1: last twenty five years, and I just marvel at what
Speaker 1: you guys do under the pressure that you're under. I mean,
Speaker 1: I still to this day, I know how nervous I
Speaker 1: am as a coach when any of the players that
Speaker 1: I've been lucky have to work with like you, when
Speaker 1: you have a chance to win, I know how nervous
Speaker 1: I am. And I'm sitting to myself saying, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can barely even hold my phone or take a
Speaker 1: cap off a bottle of water. I'm so nervous. So
Speaker 1: I always I just I don't think you will get
Speaker 1: enough credit for the pressure that you're under. But when
Speaker 1: you do go through a struggle and it was really
Speaker 1: kind of the first kind of time in your life
Speaker 1: to where the ball wasn't going where you wanted to,
Speaker 1: you weren't able to do the things you wanted to do.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, you've been, in my opinion, one
Speaker 1: of the greatest pure putters that I've ever seen, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you're not making the putts easy.
Speaker 1: What's that like for you as a player, Because you're
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out and you can't take six
Speaker 1: months off to figure it out. Now you have to
Speaker 1: keep playing when you are struggling, and you know you're
Speaker 1: going to have to go play, and you know you're
Speaker 1: going to be on TV and you're on the spotlight.
Speaker 1: Is it hard to stay positive to just say listen,
Speaker 1: just got to keep grinding out, grinding and out, grinding
Speaker 1: and out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is stuff because I mean, like you said,
Speaker 3: with how the schedule works, you can't It's not like
Speaker 3: you can hide or go and like I'm going to
Speaker 3: go take four or five months and you know, go
Speaker 3: dig it out and figure it out. But at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, the best way to fix it
Speaker 3: and where you need to get work done is at
Speaker 3: a tournament. I mean, you can do stuff at home,
Speaker 3: but until it's under the gun, I don't care how
Speaker 3: good you hit it at home.
Speaker 2: It's not relate.
Speaker 1: Rarely do you guys shoot over. I mean it's not
Speaker 1: like you shoot seventy five at home. No, I mean
Speaker 1: your home course you got And that's the other thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think the people listening to the pod understand
Speaker 1: when you guys are at home. I mean, you shot
Speaker 1: the course record here at the Floridian and you shot
Speaker 1: twenty nine on the front and or on the back.
Speaker 1: We started on the back and we were going to
Speaker 1: go have lunch and you weren't even gonna finish the
Speaker 1: back and you just shot twenty nine, and but you said, hey,
Speaker 1: why we go play the front nine and you shot
Speaker 1: the course record and you had a chance to shoot
Speaker 1: fifty nine. So when you guys are at home, you
Speaker 1: light it up. But when you go out on tour,
Speaker 1: So you can be playing good at home, working on
Speaker 1: good stuff, but the pressure of the tour and all
Speaker 1: of the other things that can sometimes magnify any kind
Speaker 1: of changes that you're trying to make.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, I mean, yeah, it's it's so different
Speaker 3: from Yeah, you can be playing what you think is
Speaker 3: decent golf at home, but until it's like I said,
Speaker 3: under the and when you need to do it and
Speaker 3: the pressure's on, it's not like oh, I can just
Speaker 3: hit another ball, or maybe I'll just go to the
Speaker 3: range and work on some stuff after this, Like no,
Speaker 3: it counts. You can't hide. You're fully exposed. But that's
Speaker 3: where you have to fight through it. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: going through that, it's I think the biggest thing is
Speaker 3: trying to find and look for as many positives as
Speaker 3: possible to continue to build on, because if you're you know,
Speaker 3: sitting there dwelling on bad shots and you're just going
Speaker 3: to go further and further down that was.
Speaker 1: It helpful to have a friend like Jordan who went
Speaker 1: through a downtime as well? He went through a couple
Speaker 1: of year period where he was struggling. He wasn't playing
Speaker 1: the type of golf that we all know he can
Speaker 1: play and that we're all accustomed to seeing him play.
Speaker 1: Is it easier to have a friend like that on
Speaker 1: tour who you know is going somewhat through the same thing?
Speaker 1: And how much did you lean on your boys on
Speaker 1: tour when you were going through that.
Speaker 3: No, that's where I mean having your crew and the
Speaker 3: guys that you you know a lot of time with,
Speaker 3: they know you, you know them, they're not afraid to you know,
Speaker 3: whether it's if there's something they really see or give
Speaker 3: their opinion whether it's good or bad. That's where it's
Speaker 3: it's nice to be able to lean on guys, you know,
Speaker 3: between talking with JT and Jordan too, you know, with Duff,
Speaker 3: who's another close friend. Well, that's the other thing that's
Speaker 3: fun is we're we're all there for each other, like
Speaker 3: we bounce ideas off each other. You know, I helped
Speaker 3: JT when we're at home sometimes, same with him with
Speaker 3: me it's we all want to see each other play well.
Speaker 3: And when you see like in past, when you know
Speaker 3: I've been there for guys when they've won, or guys
Speaker 3: have been there for me. You know, some people have
Speaker 3: give me a hard time for like why are you
Speaker 3: like celebrating your buddies wins and stuff. It's like, well,
Speaker 3: I was done playing boy, Yeah, I left everything out there,
Speaker 3: like and then vice versa, like you want to beat
Speaker 3: your friends when they play well, you know, if if
Speaker 3: they're going to beat me, they played better, And it's
Speaker 3: it's just that's how it's always been, even growing up,
Speaker 3: you know, having putting and chipping contests with buddies at
Speaker 3: the range, back home to high school golf to college golf.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's where you get the best.
Speaker 3: Out of your game, is being able to be with
Speaker 3: you know, friends and be able to push each other.
Speaker 1: It helps to have three friends like that that are
Speaker 1: all major champions, too, and that's helpful.
Speaker 2: I got some work to do in that category.
Speaker 1: I mentioned you're putting. I think you've got one of
Speaker 1: the best putting strokes I've ever seen. I was asking
Speaker 1: you once what you thought about when you were putting
Speaker 1: and I'd love for you to tell everybody what you
Speaker 1: told me you were thinking about when you're putting, because
Speaker 1: you talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can remember, I.
Speaker 1: Was your brain off as you get into it, once
Speaker 1: you go to the information gathering system. And I think
Speaker 1: putting for the average golf and for a lot of
Speaker 1: people listening to the podcast Rick, putting is something that
Speaker 1: is so difficult for so many people. I've always thought
Speaker 1: that as instructors, we kind of teach putting backwards. We
Speaker 1: teach technique can stroke first, and then we kind of
Speaker 1: work on speed your natural stroke. The fact that you
Speaker 1: told me that when you get over potts you try
Speaker 1: and turn your brain off. I think that's the total
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty degree opposite of most of the
Speaker 1: people listen. They can't turn the brain off when they
Speaker 1: put They're thinking of so many things. But what is
Speaker 1: to you when you said turning your brain off? What
Speaker 1: does it mean for you?
Speaker 3: Well, I think, I mean it's hard to say. There's
Speaker 3: ever like nothing, But when you're putting, well, it's like
Speaker 3: you're going into it. You have a picture you visualize
Speaker 3: where you see the ball rolling, and whether you're looking
Speaker 3: at a spot and started it there and you're over
Speaker 3: the ball, you're set up, you've lined up, and you
Speaker 3: and you kind of have that look from behind as
Speaker 3: well as in front. You've you've got that picture in
Speaker 3: your head. And a lot of times I look at
Speaker 3: like the grass just behind the ball, because I mean,
Speaker 3: one of the things is you don't want your eyes
Speaker 3: to follow the ball, so staying fixed on that. But
Speaker 3: I'm looking there, but I kind of have like a
Speaker 3: picture there of what I see the putt doing. And
Speaker 3: really it's just thinking of the speed and how hard
Speaker 3: I'm hitting. How do I make that picture happen. But yeah,
Speaker 3: when you're doing it, I'm not thinking of.
Speaker 1: Stroked mechanics or anything like that.
Speaker 2: No, it kind of just goes somewhat.
Speaker 3: I guess you kind of say blank, Yeah, it's there,
Speaker 3: and you're subconscious you know what to do. That's where
Speaker 3: you know, going back to like talking about the mechanics
Speaker 3: of the golf swing and executing. You've hit plenty of
Speaker 3: cuts on the range, working on stuff, You've hit plenty
Speaker 3: of draws.
Speaker 2: It's in there. You know what to do. You don't
Speaker 2: need to.
Speaker 3: Like tell yourself twice you're already trying to hit a draw.
Speaker 3: You don't need to tell yourself to do it on
Speaker 3: top of that. So that's where the practice the same
Speaker 3: thing into the putting. Like you've worked on your stroke,
Speaker 3: you're starting it online. Just aim at your spot and
Speaker 3: here's how hard I need to hit it.
Speaker 1: I think you have a great visual approach to putting.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I always say to
Speaker 1: the juniors that are struggling with putting, I always Ricky
Speaker 1: use you as an example. One of the things I
Speaker 1: love about you is you'll have a twelve foot of
Speaker 1: for birdie and if you miss it, you kind of
Speaker 1: look at it. Take it well. The next part of
Speaker 1: it is you go over to the bag, you put
Speaker 1: the putter back in the bag. I've never seen you
Speaker 1: go over and work on your stroke like a lot
Speaker 1: of players do. To me, that's the sign that you
Speaker 1: are a great putter because you don't feel like you're
Speaker 1: going to lose it. But for everyone listening, do you
Speaker 1: think that how much of it is feel? And how
Speaker 1: much of your practice do you think for golfers needs
Speaker 1: to be technical stroke mechanics and then feel. Because I
Speaker 1: just don't see a lot of people on the putting green.
Speaker 1: You'll see them every now and again, go putt long pots,
Speaker 1: just oh, let me go get the speed of the green.
Speaker 1: But they're not really doing anything and they think they're
Speaker 1: supposed to. So feel for you means what on the greens?
Speaker 1: Is it a visual thing? Are you? Do you feel
Speaker 1: it kind of when you look at it? Do you
Speaker 1: feel it in your feet? Or are you trying to
Speaker 1: take all of this in? Because I think you are
Speaker 1: the old in my opinion, you're one of the ultimate
Speaker 1: field putters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I thought it with a line here
Speaker 3: and there in parts of my career, but definitely a
Speaker 3: lot better of just whether it's feeling with feet and eyes,
Speaker 3: and there's there's greens that I see better just like anyone.
Speaker 3: Some some guys just sea greens well that week, and
Speaker 3: sometimes you're a bit off. No, Like putting has always
Speaker 3: been super interesting. I've spent a lot of time with
Speaker 3: Paul at Scotti's, and I've learned so much down there
Speaker 3: over the years of stroke mechanics and having an understanding
Speaker 3: there but also still being able to take that and
Speaker 3: and still be a field putter.
Speaker 2: So I feel like.
Speaker 3: I've always had a where kind of I am now
Speaker 3: golf swing wise. I've been with putting for a long
Speaker 3: time and putting you don't you don't have to be perfect.
Speaker 3: I mean there's there's three variables. There's you know, starting
Speaker 3: the ball online, speed, and read. And I think when
Speaker 3: you go back to talking about me kind of accepting
Speaker 3: a pot and moving on, it's it's being able to
Speaker 3: have a you know, quick assessment of like which one
Speaker 3: was wrong? You know, did I hit it too hard?
Speaker 2: Too soft? Maybe my read was wrong.
Speaker 3: And I mean the one that you don't really want
Speaker 3: is starting it offline. But you're gonna push or pull
Speaker 3: a pot here and there. But if you can take
Speaker 3: one of those and you're like, okay, this is what
Speaker 3: I did wrong, We're going.
Speaker 1: To move forward Augusta Nashville where you you've had a
Speaker 1: chance to win. He came so close. Do you love
Speaker 1: those greens? Do you? I mean you must, I mean,
Speaker 1: knowing you the way you must love those greens? Right?
Speaker 1: What do you love about them?
Speaker 3: There's yeah, you have to be able to visualize it.
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, with with ame point stuff. You can
Speaker 3: you know, in today's kind of green reading aame point
Speaker 3: you can get you know, pretty good there. But I
Speaker 3: feel like having createivity and imagination only helps you on
Speaker 3: those greens. I had one of my best putting rounds there.
Speaker 3: I can't remember which year, but I doubled one and
Speaker 3: I doubled ten shot sixty eight with twenty one putts.
Speaker 2: It was just one of those days. It was a
Speaker 2: trash can and I just filled it up.
Speaker 1: When you do putt well at Augusta on those greens
Speaker 1: in competition under the heat, you must just come away
Speaker 1: from that saying yeahuts, and it's that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: It's I would say it's a big majority of that
Speaker 3: is speed because, as you know, with the movement and
Speaker 3: it's not like you get like perfect planar putts. There's
Speaker 3: just always something going on. You could play a putt
Speaker 3: in so many different spots, but you have to have
Speaker 3: the speed to match it to that. So it's picking
Speaker 3: your read but then committing to what that speed is.
Speaker 3: So speed control is probably one of the biggest things there.
Speaker 1: What's the hardest green to read it Augusta Nashville? For you?
Speaker 1: Is there one where you get on that when you're.
Speaker 3: Like not now, I feel like you know, some greens
Speaker 3: will have subtle changes over years, but since I've been
Speaker 3: there so many times, I usually I mean, I have
Speaker 3: a pretty good feeling, like you could almost tell me, hey,
Speaker 3: this pin this spot from eight feet where should I
Speaker 3: be playing it? I have a pretty good memory. I
Speaker 3: could probably go around and give some decent reads just
Speaker 3: off memory.
Speaker 1: And when you put rick, do you see there's linear
Speaker 1: and nonlinear? Right linears already put straight putt to the
Speaker 1: brake and then let the brake go way. When you're
Speaker 1: looking at a putt, do you see the curve? Do
Speaker 1: you see it going in? Do you see it like
Speaker 1: a clock to where you know it's twelve o'clock, six
Speaker 1: o'clock and I'm try and have this left righter come
Speaker 1: in about eight eight thirty nine o'clock. Do you see
Speaker 1: it like that?
Speaker 2: It's a little yeah, a little bit of both.
Speaker 3: That definitely starts with like where the ball's entering the
Speaker 3: hole and then drawing lines back from there. Part of
Speaker 3: it is because you'll see me kind of plumbob in
Speaker 3: a way, but it's it's kind of my own I'm
Speaker 3: not just letting it sit there, so I'm almost finding
Speaker 3: like a straight line to a high point and then
Speaker 3: depending if it's downhill or uphill, varies on how far
Speaker 3: up the shaft I'll go, so kind of creating some
Speaker 3: sort of a triangle in a way, and then within
Speaker 3: that triangle is the circle or like the curve yeap,
Speaker 3: so like that.
Speaker 1: I've never thought about that. So you basically kind of
Speaker 1: create like a barrier and then you're trying to curve it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it would be like the entry and then
Speaker 3: the start. Obviously you're never going to get to that
Speaker 3: high point of the triangle, but it's gonna start and
Speaker 3: then finish on those lines.
Speaker 1: Grade for twenty twenty four, goals for twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: coming off twenty three.
Speaker 2: Twenty four was about.
Speaker 3: An f.
Speaker 2: I didn't think you were gonna say that D minus.
Speaker 3: Honestly, looking at early parts of events, probably I wasn't
Speaker 3: that far off of some of the starts in twenty three.
Speaker 3: Is just when I had chances or what I did
Speaker 3: on weekends in twenty three was the big difference. I
Speaker 3: didn't execute, you know, I missed a handful of cuts,
Speaker 3: but nothing like the years prior. So twenty three I
Speaker 3: just did a really good job of getting myself a
Speaker 3: tea time and then moved forward on the weekend and
Speaker 3: if I was in a decent spot, I was in
Speaker 3: contention and had chances to win. So I like what
Speaker 3: I saw from the last three events that I just played,
Speaker 3: coming off a nice little break, feeling refreshed and happy
Speaker 3: with where things are going. I've got a nice good
Speaker 3: chunk of time right now with some work stuff, time
Speaker 3: with family, but also be able to get ready building
Speaker 3: off of these these three events going into twenty five.
Speaker 3: So yeah, twenty five is definitely gonna be better than
Speaker 3: twenty four.
Speaker 1: In twenty five, you'll be celebrating fifteen years with Puma,
Speaker 1: in ten years with Cobra Golf. What's that relationship been
Speaker 1: like and how important has that relationship with the Cobra
Speaker 1: Puma family been to you in your career.
Speaker 3: For me, it's always been about you know, partnerships and
Speaker 3: being able to you know, work with you know, companies
Speaker 3: or people you believe in and obviously want to be with.
Speaker 3: To me, it's, you know, we're all family, and it's
Speaker 3: it's felt like that from from day one, So yeah,
Speaker 3: we're in it together.
Speaker 2: It's it's hard to really put.
Speaker 3: It into kind of perspective for people on the outside
Speaker 3: or have a full understanding, but yeah, it's not like
Speaker 3: I don't feel like, hey, we pay you to, you know,
Speaker 3: wear these clothes or you know you need to hit
Speaker 3: this stuff. It's like, we work on this stuff together
Speaker 3: and we all want to see it do well. And
Speaker 3: now it's been fun. I said, I'm someone that looks
Speaker 3: to have partnerships and do stuff together and have a
Speaker 3: good time.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the family, asked of it. Ben Showman and
Speaker 1: James Posey work on the tour truck. Ben does a
Speaker 1: lot of your fittings. James does as well. That relationship
Speaker 1: that you've created, it's almost like I look at the
Speaker 1: relationship you have with Ben, it's almost like an F
Speaker 1: one driver and the engineer, you know, the relationship that
Speaker 1: kind of Lewis has with Bono, his chief engineer. You
Speaker 1: guys are kind of always in the trenches kind of.
Speaker 1: And you're a tinkerer too. I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of people realize how much you're constantly trying different stuff
Speaker 1: because you're trying. I don't think you're trying to try.
Speaker 1: I think you're trying to gain an edge. But that
Speaker 1: relationship that you and Ben and James, you know from
Speaker 1: a tour department, they're the ones that build your equipment,
Speaker 1: They're the ones that help you test it. What's that
Speaker 1: relationship like now and how has it changed over the years.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's an amazing team and what's fun. You know,
Speaker 3: We've always had a fairly small team, so it's it's
Speaker 3: just a few guys girls, So it's not like trying
Speaker 3: to work with a big crew. Our input is you know,
Speaker 3: actually gets hurt and being able to work with Ben
Speaker 3: and James and you know everyone back in the shop
Speaker 3: and engineers. But yeah, I love being able to test
Speaker 3: and mess with stuff and figure out why things work,
Speaker 3: why some stuff doesn't, what causes that, what are the differences,
Speaker 3: Just to have an understanding. I've always loved equipment from Woods, Irons, putters, everything,
Speaker 3: So it's always trying to figure out like or we'll
Speaker 3: talking about our experience earlier, but it's like having an
Speaker 3: understanding of what causes what and ultimately how do we
Speaker 3: make things better.
Speaker 1: Well, I know you're a big car guy, but it
Speaker 1: is a little bit like an engineer in F one.
Speaker 1: They know how you like the car to run right,
Speaker 1: they know how you like your equipment to look, they
Speaker 1: know how you like your equipment to feel. How much
Speaker 1: when you're testing equipment with Ben and Jas how much
Speaker 1: of that is you balancing what the numbers are saying
Speaker 1: versus the look and the feel of the clubs that
Speaker 1: they're trying to put into your hands, because it's tough
Speaker 1: to play clubs that you don't.
Speaker 3: Like the look of Yeah, I mean, look is kind
Speaker 3: of the first one. You feel has a big part
Speaker 3: to do with it. But if it if the look
Speaker 3: and it performs, you can deal with feel being you know,
Speaker 3: maybe not your normal. So I'd say, yeah, the first
Speaker 3: thing when someone puts a club down.
Speaker 2: Is it has to pass the looks test.
Speaker 1: It's got to look good. Yeah, you put the King
Speaker 1: Tour Black Irons in your bag. They look really cool.
Speaker 1: I mean I took him out when I got sent down,
Speaker 1: I took him out. I was like, man, these sends
Speaker 1: look money. What do you like about them from a
Speaker 1: look standpoint but also from a playability standpoint?
Speaker 3: Uh, well, I've been in the King Too or Iron
Speaker 3: Now for a little over two years. When I tested
Speaker 3: them against having the NBS and the CBS, I took
Speaker 3: them all out. And this was obviously a couple of
Speaker 3: years back, but I was seeing them basically the same
Speaker 3: numbers with the King Tours. But I was just noticing
Speaker 3: on on little off center hits, whether it was groove
Speaker 3: low or healed tobias, the numbers or the carry numbers
Speaker 3: were staying a lot closer to a full number. So
Speaker 3: mishits were, We're a bit better if you can get
Speaker 3: away with you know, saving two or three yards here
Speaker 3: and there, that's that can be a big difference. So
Speaker 3: very similar performance, just a bit more forgiving. So I
Speaker 3: was like, well, why make it harder on myself, I'll
Speaker 3: go here and then I didn't even really know about
Speaker 3: the black and the works.
Speaker 2: That was a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3: Ben sent a fresh set of Irons as well as
Speaker 3: the black, and I don't think the fresh set of
Speaker 3: the silver King Tours have been hit yet. I just
Speaker 3: took the black, which, yeah, obviously same head, same shape, everything,
Speaker 3: just you know, being in black, and you know with
Speaker 3: the black heads, you know, the King Tours are obviously
Speaker 3: a little bigger profile than like an NB or CB,
Speaker 3: but the black does help kind of mute the edges
Speaker 3: and makes the head look a fraction smaller.
Speaker 2: To me, they look better in black.
Speaker 3: I obviously played well and have had plenty of success
Speaker 3: with the over, but in black I thought it did
Speaker 3: a better job, and sometimes in that brush finish the
Speaker 3: edges or leading edge or some of those high points
Speaker 3: can pop a little bit, So the black kind of
Speaker 3: helped kind of mute and just quiet them down a bit.
Speaker 1: Cobra has some cool new technology coming out in driver
Speaker 1: fitting and adjustable huzzle future Fit thirty three to be
Speaker 1: able to adjust the loft and the lie for everyone listening.
Speaker 1: Not everybody knows you can adjust the loft on a
Speaker 1: driver round. That technology has been around, but I think
Speaker 1: the cool thing that Cover has come out with is
Speaker 1: all these abilities to change the lie of your metal ones.
Speaker 1: Why is that important and how can that help regular golfers?
Speaker 3: Well, just being able to have that many options, and
Speaker 3: I mean not you're not going to be using all
Speaker 3: of them, but starting in the middle and have an
Speaker 3: idea of maybe where to go from there. Then you
Speaker 3: have a quadrant that you would kind of live in.
Speaker 3: But having that many options in that area it's I
Speaker 3: think four times the amount of options. But being able
Speaker 3: to do loft and lie independently. You know, if you
Speaker 3: want a more loft but flatter or vice versa. It
Speaker 3: just helps fine tune it a bit more, especially when
Speaker 3: you're looking for a certain look. I want to see,
Speaker 3: you know, more face. I want some more loft, But
Speaker 3: I don't want this thing to come upright on me.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me how many when we look at drivers,
Speaker 1: how different all of the all of you guys that play,
Speaker 1: How different you want the driver to look at address.
Speaker 1: Some guys don't want to see a lot of the face.
Speaker 1: Some guys want to look down and see that. Some
Speaker 1: guys don't want to see the toe. Some guys no, No,
Speaker 1: that looks way way too shut for me. I need
Speaker 1: when you look down at your driver, what do you
Speaker 1: like to see from a look standpoint? Do you want
Speaker 1: to see a little bit more of the face? Do
Speaker 1: you want to see a little bit more of the toe,
Speaker 1: or do you want to see that kind of toed
Speaker 1: and less of the loft?
Speaker 3: I would say it would be if you measure it
Speaker 3: probably be towards just a fraction open. What would look
Speaker 3: square to a player's eye, or for most players, I
Speaker 3: would say, And then I want to see a little
Speaker 3: bit of face, because I feel like when you get
Speaker 3: to a point where you don't see enough face, then.
Speaker 1: You trying to get it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: The average golfer doesn't realize the more loft they put
Speaker 1: on the driver, it's going to help them get the
Speaker 1: ball in the air, because the less loft they go,
Speaker 1: it looks like there's no loft. It looks shut and
Speaker 1: then they get hanging back and trying to hit up
Speaker 1: on it and work it in the air.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And a big thing is, you know, being able
Speaker 3: to deliver it in a good way and let the
Speaker 3: driver work for you, not trying to you know, help
Speaker 3: it or so one. I mean obviously getting into a
Speaker 3: shaft that fits you, but then being able to mess
Speaker 3: with the loft and lie to get it in the
Speaker 3: spot where one it looks good but either there's going
Speaker 3: to be enough loft for you or where you don't
Speaker 3: have to try and manipulate it.
Speaker 1: Covers also doing some really cool things with three D printing.
Speaker 1: They got a new iron. You like that technology and
Speaker 1: where do you think that technology can go down the line?
Speaker 3: The three D and printing is really cool, you know,
Speaker 3: from being able to do some different wedges and you know,
Speaker 3: if there's you know, having a grind that you might
Speaker 3: like and being able to scan it and duplicate it
Speaker 3: a lot easier from the irons and being able to
Speaker 3: move waiting around. We've done some testing there and going
Speaker 3: to try some more extremes as well, because with that
Speaker 3: printing you can i mean move weight and CG and
Speaker 3: in a bunch of different places and seeing you know,
Speaker 3: how that translates. You know, sometimes just because of moving
Speaker 3: weight in a certain direction, sometimes it doesn't fully translate
Speaker 3: how you think it might or like what a robot
Speaker 3: might do, because you know, once it's in your hands
Speaker 3: and you're swinging it, players will react to what that
Speaker 3: feel is. So it's been interesting to mess with that
Speaker 3: a bit, and we're going to do some more testing
Speaker 3: in that area. I think being able to use the
Speaker 3: printing in other ways to you know, whether it's being
Speaker 3: able to print woodheads or whatever there's there's it makes
Speaker 3: prototyping a lot easier.
Speaker 2: And being able to test things out because.
Speaker 1: You could say, hey, listen, I wanted to look like this,
Speaker 1: and then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and being able to you know, down the road
Speaker 3: as far as you know, if you wanted to have
Speaker 3: an iron that had this soul, this top line, this
Speaker 3: heel toe length, kind of just pick and choose and
Speaker 3: hit a button and here's your iron.
Speaker 1: Your relationship with my dad. Butch Harmon not that what
Speaker 1: she needs is ego massaged more, because I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: we know how much he feels about himself. I think
Speaker 1: he's the one of the best, if not the best,
Speaker 1: golf instructor at the tour level. But I've never asked
Speaker 1: any of his guys, and I've always wanted to. So
Speaker 1: you're the first opportunity that I'm going to get to.
Speaker 1: What do you think makes him such a great tour coach?
Speaker 3: I mean we can say kind of whatever on here. Well,
Speaker 3: he's not gonna bullshit you.
Speaker 1: He's definitely not gonna do that.
Speaker 3: I mean some of the texts or responses or like
Speaker 3: what the fuck was that?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I know, yeah.
Speaker 1: He's I think people don't realize one and a lot tummy.
Speaker 1: Fleetwood said this to me. He said he was unprepared
Speaker 1: for how much my dad cared. And I think the
Speaker 1: thing that people are surprised at given kind of his
Speaker 1: public persona, you know, the Butch Harmon kind of throwing,
Speaker 1: you know, jabs at everybody. You know, Tony Navarro used
Speaker 1: to say, who used to caddy for Greg Norman? Who
Speaker 1: caddy Prada? Suff the world is his dart board? He's
Speaker 1: just firing darts at everybody. But I do think that
Speaker 1: and I learned that from him with all of the
Speaker 1: players that I've got, And my wife always says to me,
Speaker 1: you care too much about the guys you work with.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know how to do my job
Speaker 1: if I don't. And I think he is the ultimate cheerleader.
Speaker 1: He's he's a he's a bad cop at times, but
Speaker 1: there's way more good cup for you guys, not for me,
Speaker 1: but for you guys. They're more good cup for Butchy
Speaker 1: than people realize.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, he's he's he's always watching them. He always
Speaker 3: knows what's going on. He's always keeping an eye.
Speaker 1: I think one bad swinging, he's gonna tell you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, No, he's gonna let you hear it. He's
Speaker 3: he's not a he's not a yes man. He's gonna
Speaker 3: even if you did play well, he'll pick a part
Speaker 3: like this needs to be better, or you know, you
Speaker 3: were getting a long today, or you're getting quick like
Speaker 3: you did a good job of getting away with it.
Speaker 3: And that goes back to kind of the executing and
Speaker 3: finding a way. But he will be the first to
Speaker 3: tell you you're you're doing a good job. You sure well
Speaker 3: you have to get to that point, as far as
Speaker 3: it takes work.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping I get there one day.
Speaker 3: Because I think he's nicer to his players than to you,
Speaker 3: but because you're you're blood. But he wants to be
Speaker 3: able to push you and and he means it in
Speaker 3: a good way. He's trying to make you better. But
Speaker 3: he'll keep keep me, will keep pushing you because he
Speaker 3: wants the he wants the best of his guys.
Speaker 1: And I think he has And this is the thing
Speaker 1: I'm marvel at him that I've tried to emulate over
Speaker 1: my career. He has this unbelievable and aate ability to
Speaker 1: say the right thing at the right time. But the
Speaker 1: other thing that he told me when I first started
Speaker 1: working with tour players, he said, listen, this will be
Speaker 1: hard to understand, but sometimes it's what you don't say
Speaker 1: that makes all the difference. Because he said, it's easy
Speaker 1: to just go in and go, hey, we need to
Speaker 1: change this, this, this, this, Hey, you didn't do this,
Speaker 1: you didn't do this. But I do think that there
Speaker 1: are times where he doesn't say something to beat you up,
Speaker 1: and you're surprised by that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, there's there's definitely been times where you're expecting
Speaker 3: something and kind of radio silent. I think, what what?
Speaker 3: Butch does a very good job at with with a
Speaker 3: you know, number of guys one with him understanding both
Speaker 3: the playing and the coaching side. That's invaluable, being able
Speaker 3: to keep it fairly simple and sometimes even more simple
Speaker 3: depending on how it's going. But working or saying we
Speaker 3: need to work on this certain thing, but that certain
Speaker 3: thing will help these others get into place, not saying
Speaker 3: this is what we need to we need to do
Speaker 3: all these things and be like gonna hammer this and
Speaker 3: he knows it's going to help clean up other things.
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing is, you know, my
Speaker 1: dad is he's a winner, right, He's one that he
Speaker 1: prides himself on that he is so proud of you
Speaker 1: guys when you win. I mean it's almost like he
Speaker 1: wants it more sometimes than you guys.
Speaker 3: Like you're saying earlier about like being nervous when the
Speaker 3: guys you know, you guys have a chance and stuff,
Speaker 3: like you guys are as much invested as all of us.
Speaker 1: Lastly, Ricky, I think you changed golf fashion forever. I
Speaker 1: think when you came out on tour, the way that
Speaker 1: people view dressing in golf and the way people now
Speaker 1: dress in golf, and if you look at not just
Speaker 1: the relationship and the work you've done with with Puma Golf,
Speaker 1: but I think when you came out on tour, nobody
Speaker 1: had seen anything like that. The Justin Bieber hair, the
Speaker 1: flat bills, the orange, the monochrome, all of that. Are
Speaker 1: you proud of the fact that you kind of you
Speaker 1: took golf maybe in a different direction just based off
Speaker 1: of the way you dressed.
Speaker 3: I mean it was obviously we didn't go into it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: It was fun being able to, you know, start with
Speaker 3: Puma and kind of have like open doors and be
Speaker 3: able to just let's have fun, you know, having the
Speaker 3: Moto background and being from southern California kind of I'm
Speaker 3: definitely Moto Capital World and Action sports and and just
Speaker 3: kind of bring my childhood into you know, me being
Speaker 3: me on the golf course and to see the like
Speaker 3: how much the definitely younger generation like took that in
Speaker 3: and and to see you know, how many kids wanted
Speaker 3: to you know, wear our gear and the hats. That
Speaker 3: was just I mean a huge bonus because it was
Speaker 3: just I wanted to go out, have fun and wear
Speaker 3: what I wanted to wear.
Speaker 2: And then here we are.
Speaker 1: Have you ever dressed as Halloween is just a regular
Speaker 1: golfer And that's my Halloween now. And I'm wearing pleated
Speaker 1: pants and I'll wear kakis. I'm gonna wear some big
Speaker 1: sleeve shirts. And you know something.
Speaker 3: One time was I can't remember if I was like
Speaker 3: seven or eight, but I dressed as Freddy, so that
Speaker 3: might have been as that might have been as traditional
Speaker 3: old school as I've gotten for Halloween.
Speaker 1: It's been so fun to watch your career. I've been
Speaker 1: lucky enough to spend a lot of time with you.
Speaker 1: I consider your friend. I know my dad was happy
Speaker 1: when you got back in the Winter Circle last year.
Speaker 1: I'd be honest with you. I was sitting in my
Speaker 1: hotel room. I was in London at a tournament, and
Speaker 1: I was crying. It's great to see you back. You're
Speaker 1: such a great ambassador, Ricky for the game, for the
Speaker 1: way the game should be played, and the way that everybody.
Speaker 1: I told all the junior golfers two people if you
Speaker 1: could model your career off of obviously the og goat
Speaker 1: Adam scott everybody wants to be Scottie, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's kind of the gold standard of class. But I
Speaker 1: think when I look at the way that you have
Speaker 1: conducted yourself and the things that you've been able to do,
Speaker 1: and the way that you have handled not only great
Speaker 1: successes but also adversity and the friendships, when we see
Speaker 1: you behind the greens waiting for guys that you're trying
Speaker 1: to be the it shows that people mean something to
Speaker 1: you and and relationships mean something new. And I'm so
Speaker 1: lucky to get to watch your career, but I'm also
Speaker 1: incredibly lucky to get a chance to spend time with
Speaker 1: you and work with you in the past. So great
Speaker 1: to see him.
Speaker 2: We got too, thank you.
Speaker 1: So a really good interview with Ricky Fowler and easy
Speaker 1: to see why he is so popular with the fans.
Speaker 1: I just think he's a really, really genuine person. I
Speaker 1: think it comes across in all of his interviews and
Speaker 1: just kind of the way he carries himself. And listen,
Speaker 1: you could make an argument that he could have won more,
Speaker 1: but I look at Ricky Feller, and I look at
Speaker 1: the career he's had, and listen, golf is tough, and
Speaker 1: I think we expect a lot from our superstars, but
Speaker 1: I think Ricky's delivered. I think he's delivered at a really,
Speaker 1: really high level. And I still think he has some
Speaker 1: great golf left in him and his career, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if he goes on to do some
Speaker 1: incredibly big things even at this stage of his career.
Speaker 1: Can't thank everybody enough for listening. Son of Butch comes
Speaker 1: to you almost every Wednesday, but we will definitely see
Speaker 1: you next week for a little master's preview