WEBVTT - Will Zalatoris Talks Injury Comeback, Augusta National, & Much More 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.960 And when I find my ball in a fried egg 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.840 Friday Egg, the dreaded Friday Friday Friday Brian egg Lie, 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:13.360 I'm about ready to run off of the. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.279 Welcome back to the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.840 host Andy Johnson. Today I am excited to be joined 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.000 by Will zl Taurus. Will is a I don't think 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.040 you probably need to know who Will is. He's a 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.440 great PGA Tour player, obviously has dealt with some injury 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.440 issues the last couple of years. With us back we 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.720 talked through him coming back to the PGA Tour. He'll 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:05.200 kick off his season at Palm Springs at the AMAX, 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.200 and we will you know, it will be fun to 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.400 watch him come back to the circuit. Obviously one of 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:17.400 the great major championship golfers in the sport. So looking 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.280 forward to Will hitting back to the PGA Tour. And 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.039 was great to chat golf with him for about an 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.680 hour and a half. So before we get to Will, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.039 now's a great time be a better golf fan this year. 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.640 Join Friday Golf Club. It's our membership, it's our community. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.520 It is a place to talk about golf on our forums, 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.800 read more about golf, and have more fun with golf. Obviously, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.480 the PGA Tour is kicking off this week at the 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.440 Sony Open. 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I think it's a little more than a million now. No, 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.320 it's good, It's really good. It was a long three years. 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.079 I think if you take it back to twenty to 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:47.679 twenty one was really the first time I heard it. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.120 Twenty two is when I blew it out. When I 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.560 first had my surgery and twenty three, the surgeon said, hey, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:57.239 look if we get two to eight years out of 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.359 this before, like, I just don't want to play a 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.320 fake disc in a twenty at the time, twenty six, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.200 twenty seven year old, Like that's just not what we do. 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.400 I'd rather you like actually be a candidate to blowing 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.679 them out and then we go ahead and we just 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.079 know for sure. So it lasted two years and then 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.079 I ended up doing the fake disc route, which a 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:18.760 lot of guys have done it in their neck like 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.600 Jack Eichel in the NHL Stricker just got his in 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:27.120 his neck. Tiger announced that he had one done, and 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.080 it's a game changer. I mean, it's like all these 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.000 guys like when you're doing all these like stretching for 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.600 your back and whatnot, like every modality that you can 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.200 think of, I've done it. Like I'm at that point 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.160 with it where I'm like, look, I've I've purchased my 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.440 back at this point, like to get back to this point. So, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.840 I mean, I think the thing that has helped me 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.400 a lot was I just all of the height that 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.320 I had in my disc was just gone, Like I 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.440 had a back of basically like a fifty year old, 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.000 and so I needed to figure out a way how 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:58.920 to get the hype back. Otherwise it was like, hey, 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.520 we're either going to have to fuse you, which is 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.800 the death sentence basically at my age, or you know, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.000 we want to wait as long as we can, as 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.200 we think the technology is going to get better. Had 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.080 I waited or had I done this a few years ago, like, yeah, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.160 maybe I wouldn't have been in this situation now. But 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.960 the thing I would say is that the technology only 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.520 got better. So like this go around, you know, it 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.880 was eight weeks of no putting and then I was 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.760 back putting. When I did the micro diskectomy. I was 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.320 out for five months before I touched the golf club again. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.880 So I mean, this one was a little bit harder 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:39.040 because mentally than it was physically, because you know, the 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:40.680 other one it was just kind of like, all right, 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.480 you're trying to get back to where you were. This 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:45.720 one is like, hey, we're fixing something in here and 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.480 we think it's going to work, but we don't really 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.240 have a lot of data on it, at least at 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.240 your age. And the part that I thought was so 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.400 cool was that I came back like a three quarters 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.520 of an inch taller, like literally, so I'm not lying. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.160 I'm actually six to now, you know, but the thing 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.800 that like that's got to bump it to six three. Yeah, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.360 I know, right, but it's it's kind of funny how 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.080 like when I saw some guys after your time off 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:17.080 like gutten taller, I'm like, yeah, I have, but no, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.640 I just I think the all of we checked all 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.240 of the boxes in the twenty twenty hindsight, you could 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:24.680 look at it and go like, yeah, we could have 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.400 done this faster, but it also wouldn't have been this effective. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.200 So like for two and a half three months, I 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.839 literally just played as much golf as I possibly could, 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:34.880 and the surgeons were like, hey, we want you to 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.800 go find your limit, like go walk, go push it, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.000 you know, push a car, like just don't carry a bag. 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:45.080 Like we're over that at this point. So I mean 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:46.480 I just went out and played as much golf as 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.599 I possibly could. I mean, we we messaged a little 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.800 bit of like I just went and played anywhere new 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:52.800 and fun and just kind of made the game fun 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.000 again and was traveling with some buddies. So it was cool. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.080 It was actually kind of a fun recovery as opposed 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.760 to like kind of it on my ass and you know, 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.039 waiting for you know, towiling golf club between my hands 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:06.480 until I get the okay to go. 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.440 You've been in this competitive golf mode since you were 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.560 like nine ten years old, where you know, kind of 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.560 golf is a you're out there trying to get better 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.160 all the time. What was it like playing personal golf 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:24.480 where you're just playing golf? 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:30.120 Yeah, it's fun. I mean I think through COVID I 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.040 got back to playing more fun golf again, and I 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.440 kind of lost that just through all of the back 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.520 stuff and having to work on the swing and like, 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.120 you know, show up one day and feel like I've 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:43.840 got to hit all these balls and then oh man, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.560 my back's killing me. Gotta take some time off. So 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.160 I kind of had that taken away from me. And 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.960 that's how I've always been is like would you would 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.280 I be? You know David Price, who the rules to 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.080 Pischon Tours, a head pro at the club that I 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.240 grew up at, Benry in Dallas. He basically told me 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.839 that in college because he went to the University of Texas. 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:02.359 He said, Ben Crenschat would go play thirty six holes 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.280 and he was just the athlete, like he would go 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.320 find ways to make par he'd you know, go make 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:09.240 up and downs. And then you'd have Tom Kite who'd 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.880 hit golf balls for twelve hours until he'd need a 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.720 new sandwich because the grooves were gone. You know, those 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.520 were the two opposites that I saw. And he was 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.600 like every pro that I've ever talked to, whether it's 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.000 been Landy, Watkins, Leech, Travino, go play. And so that's 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.360 always kind of been my mindset is it's just always 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:26.680 been kind of like play it for fun. And I 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:28.280 just kind of lost that for a while just because 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.400 it was like go work on your swinging, figure out 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.440 how to get out of pain, whatever. But you know, 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.760 going to cal Club, going to Cyprus, Albert National, Childress Hall, 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.360 you know, Dallas National just reopened. I remember at Brook Hollows. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.040 So it's been fun. You know, it's been kind of 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.200 fun bouncing around and playing some cool places and you know, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.440 kind of the for fun of it, I guess, you know, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:52.160 kind of the get done with the round and go 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.000 have a beer with the guys type thing. That's the 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.920 stuff that we all kind of enjoy and sometimes it's 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:58.560 kind of easy to get lost in that into her 0:07:58.640 --> 0:07:59.280 life a little bit. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:03.640 Do you have a couple favorite places that you saw 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:08.840 that maybe you didn't know a tout about, or you 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:10.520 know that just knocked your socks off? 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.760 Yeah, I mean shoulders now or shoulder saw was really 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.360 really cool to see. The Dope course when we went, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.240 it was hot and windy, it was hard. The hands 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.480 course there is we it wasn't open yet. I think 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.040 it just opened for play about now, or maybe a 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.560 couple of months ago. But I mean it is just 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.480 so fun to go up there, you know, have a 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.080 caddy go walk twenty seven one day, you know, mess 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.480 around a little bit, play alternate holes. You know, stuff 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.800 like that was really cool. And then you know, going 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.599 from the all natural to kind of the opposite of 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.040 doctor Howard's course, which is all fog yo man made 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:54.160 insanely manicured to the nines. You know, he did a 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.360 little article and a little deal on his golf course 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:58.959 and he just wants to make it for him, like 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.800 him and his family, and it's it's just it's fun. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.400 It's cool to see the polar opposites of it all. 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.480 And you know, Dallas in particular has had a lot 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.400 of building going on with was it Blue Jack Ranch, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.000 and then we have Maverick going in. We've had p Day, 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.360 Frisco go in, you know, so we've had a lot. 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.199 I mean, so I think on that side of it's 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.280 kind of fun seeing the development side of it, of 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.319 the place reve life for the last twenty years of school. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.559 But on the other side of it. Tool On the 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:26.040 other side of it too, which we kind of talked 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.280 about earlier before we got on, is all we have 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.400 is land and a lot of oil and a lot 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.320 of money in Texas. So there's a lot of golf 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.160 courses and a lot of people moving here. So it's 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:35.000 only going to get better. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.679 Yeah, I feel like the new golf course boom of 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.400 Texas is kind of just starting. As you know, people 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.280 find more and more pockets of sand or really interesting land, 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.800 whether you know where it be. There's just you know, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.719 you look around on the internet at land. There's a 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.400 lot of land in Texas, as you said, has it 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.199 over the course of these couple of years. You know, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.920 being in a position where you're probably thinking about golf 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:06.920 or you are thinking about golf a lot more than 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.360 you're playing about it or playing it. Have your thoughts 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:12.440 about golf changed at all? 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.640 Yeah, I mean, you know what's funny. I mean it's 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.719 a really good question because when I got out was 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:26.720 during COVID LID was just kind of this talked about idea. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.800 You know, there's, hey, there's a Saudi back golf league 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.120 that's getting started. What, oh, okay cool? And then fast 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.440 forward literally two years later, and all of a sudden, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.079 I'm in a meeting in Delaware with you know, thirty 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.400 other guys trying to figure out like what's the best 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.719 path forward for the PGA Tour. And it's kind of like, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.319 holy cow, Like I've the four or five years. I 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.240 know that, especially when you hear someone when they're like young, like, man, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.199 I've really lived through some stuff. I'm like, No, the 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.680 last five years has been crazy, Like I've really kind 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.280 of been around some some wild stuff for or at 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:05.760 least in my sport. But no, I think going and 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.319 playing and I would say playing new golf, old golf, 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.360 it's opened my eyes to the fact of I think 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.920 when we first for having the conversations of the driver ball, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.920 and it was first presented to the pros in general, 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:23.760 it was presented in a way where it was like, 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:29.000 we're gonna take everything so far back that it's like, hey, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.599 we need to take this little steady rise and we 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.439 need to get this thing so far back down so 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.560 that all of these seventy four hundred plus yard golf 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.160 course isn't you know now it's seventy six if they're 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.800 brand new, you know, what do you know? How do 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.120 we minimize that? And I think at the time, the 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.480 way how it was presented was hey, a plus people see, 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:49.880 you guys are gonna be on board. This is what 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.520 we're gonna do, and it was kind of like a whoa, whoa, 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.920 wha whoa, Like let's break down piece by piece. And 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:01.640 obviously you have the side of you know, the manufacturing 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:03.599 side where they're trying to protect you know, hey, this 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.320 is how we've done things for a very long time. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.679 You have the maybe you could say purist if you will, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.400 where they're saying, hey, these old school golf courses, you know, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.600 these bunkers where people were supposed to be hitting drivers, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:15.760 you know, neck and neck with even regular golfers are 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:20.839 carrying these bunkers now. So I think where the middle 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.079 ground has come is that it's not so much, and 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.400 this is how it should have been presented in my opinion. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.800 And again this is just somebody from the PGA tour perspective. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.959 I'm not in the mass audience. I come from a 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.680 community of two hundred and fifty. Looking from this side out, 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:42.000 I guess I would say that they're trying to get 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.120 what basically is a one yard increment every single year 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.000 to just flatten, just get it to where it goes 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.960 to maybe half a yard for ten years. The manufacturers 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:53.920 are going to figure out this difference. They're too good 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.319 to not figure it out. I just think at the 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.719 time that was so much where the example that I 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.000 used was like take number eleven at bay Hill. Now 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:03.839 number eleven at bay Hill is a terrible example, but 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.079 we had the player, we had this meeting in bay Hill. 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:07.679 So this was my argument, and I've been saying it 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:09.719 for three years, so I'm just gonna stick with it. 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:11.960 But the argument that I had is that I always 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.959 hit driver there. I aim at the left water and 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:15.880 I peel a fade, knowing that if I overdo the 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.200 fad it's going to go on the right bunker. Right. Well, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.319 the difference is is that the guys that all of 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.199 a sudden if now that ball is going to be 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.600 drawn back, the other guys who were hitting driver were 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.959 all of a sudden, I was hitting wedge maybe nine 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:28.320 er and in I have hit lob wedge in there 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.680 when it's been down. When now I'm moving that back 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.560 to nine eight seven, whereas the guy who was hitting 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.840 nine eight seven before is now hitting seven six five. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.240 I'm like, I will take that fight all day long. 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.480 You know, if someone's two clubs shorter than me, like, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.920 that's just going to benefit the longer guy, which I 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.959 think is when Rory kind of switched his stance a 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:51.480 little bit, going from really anti to four. I kind 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.199 of once it was kind of presented in a way 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.800 that made sense. Then I think that's where I was like, Okay, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.880 I get it. I didn't want someone to be like, hey, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.280 what driver do you play? Like, well, I played a 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.040 new one, but it goes if you try, it's going 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.440 to go twenty yards shorter. And it's like, well, how 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:07.440 hell are we supposed to sell golf clubs as pros, 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.360 you know, being ambassador's form, Like, that's not if they 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.280 were to pull that back that far. So I think 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.760 that's where like the communication up front at first was 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.760 a little rough, and then I think it finally refined itself. 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.400 But I know that that's where it's like when you 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.800 talk your question was more about the game of golf 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.320 in general, but I know I took it to that direction. 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:28.760 But I think with me, it's like kind of seeing 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.800 the old and the new coming in in Texas. That's 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:32.680 been on the forefront of my mind a lot. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:39.080 I think also when you're a competitive golfer, your job 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.600 is to get the ball in the hole in the 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.280 fust amount of shots, and like you're playing professional golf. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:49.480 Like I if I was a professional golfer, I think 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.880 I would have a hard time wanting anything to change 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.280 because with the with the clubs I have, the equipment 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.640 I have, I got here, I got to the highest 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.480 level of the game, and I understand that sentiment. I 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:08.800 do think, like the reality when you play recreational golf, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.920 and if you're aware of what's going around you, you see, 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.680 like I have buddies who are like sixteen handicaps who 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.000 hit the ball three hundred yards and it's like where 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.720 they hit it is like a complete crapshoot, you know, 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.320 it goes like it goes miles offline, and it's like, well, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.080 like this probably isn't it. It's not. I think like 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:33.400 maybe the messaging problem is that it isn't just a 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:39.320 professional golf issue in the distance the thing I struggle 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.240 with on the professional golf level. And I'm curious where 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.720 what you think about this is like the way the 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:51.120 driver heads evolved even during like your time out there, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.200 where this for the forgiveness has gotten so great that 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.280 it almost has become less It has become less and 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.760 less important to hit the center of the sweet spot 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:03.440 on a driver. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:12.000 Yeah, I mean I think it definitely has gotten easier. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.360 I think you know what's funny is like I've had 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.280 this conversation with multiple people from the USGA that are 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.880 just buddies, just you know, kind of shooting the breeze, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.720 and that they've asked me, like, what's your stance? I'm like, 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:29.440 you want to know how to get under four hours? 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.440 Real quick? Draw it back to where the longest guy 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.960 is two hundred and sixty yards, Like that's real easy, 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.200 Like instead of this walking back eighty yards to this 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:38.760 new tea that you guys are so proud of that 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.840 costs one hundred grand to build. How about we played 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.040 the old tea and then that saved this a little 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.400 bit of time there. Now that walking in between holes 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.240 gets faster, I'm all for ball going way shorter, but 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.840 it would be you know, it has to be done 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:57.880 the right way. I think. Where my the issue where 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.040 I kind of got lost with it is when the 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.480 talk of bifurcation in general, I'm like, you look at 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.920 it in terms of a player development. Does a kid 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.400 who let's say is getting really like, let's say there's 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.400 just a pro level a PG tour, decides to bifurkate. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.640 The problem with that is in general, does a kid 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.040 now play what's in theory inferior equipment while they're in 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.440 college and they're going through development to get to the 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.159 PGA tour, or do they play what's in thought of 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.440 superior equipment and then they get to the tour and 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.600 they play something completely different? So like there's no win there. 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.560 But when it comes to yes, like are there more 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.280 people just randomly hitting it miles offline and really really far? Yes, 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.760 but I would my personal stance of it is extremely 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.120 drastic and probably would be something that would be totally ignored. 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.760 But I'm like, look, when I'm at home and I'm 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.760 playing in Dallas, I'll play thirty six holes in five 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.639 hours by myself. Like I love playing fast and I 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.360 love whizzing around as much as I can. I don't 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.440 like playing the back tease if I played the afternoon 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.159 round either, just because I want to mix it up 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.640 on some holes. But so that's where I'm like, look 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:08.960 the amount of times that I swear I got I'm 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.040 on a par three on tour and it's like we're 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.159 like walking it off and it's like perfectly two hundred, 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.960 like right on the number. I'm like, are you guys 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.040 trying to get here? Like I'm just kind of curious, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.240 like like why is it always two hundred, like right 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.640 on the number, Like you might have like a plus 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.560 six or a minus six for the updown or whatever, 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.120 but I'm like it's always right there. But yeah, I mean, 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.040 I do agree that miss hits has gotten easier. There 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.199 is a little bit of the bombing gouge that has 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.840 definitely helped a lot in terms of strategy. You know, 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.800 like when I my first tour event I ever played in, 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.399 It's twenty seventeen at Rivira Number ten. I think it 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:50.760 was like sixty percent went for it and now it's 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.639 like ninety five percent or going for it, and so 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:57.960 there is a little bit of that aspect to it. 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.440 But yeah, I mean when you see something kids in 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.800 college and they're just like they're just popping off like 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.119 one eighty five one ninety ball speeds, that part of 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.400 it is ridiculous. Like that's something that I'm just like, yeah, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.440 I see the trend. I know where this is going. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.280 But then it's like you always have to think about 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.040 the common golfer too, because it's like we're at a 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.560 golf boom post COVID, we have most golfers we've ever had, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.800 you know, playing in the United States. Ever, like, let's 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.040 not make this a detriment. And I think at first 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.080 that's kind of how it got presented, was now everyone's 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:27.600 going to hit it way shorter, and it's like that's 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.320 not like, let's not piss off the people we just got, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.200 you know. So I don't know, I I wrestle with it. 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.560 I don't know for the recreational golfer, I am intrigued 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.920 to try the prototype ball. I haven't I to be 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.600 totally honest with the titleists, will probably give us some 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.040 prototypes pretty soon to just kind of try and get 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.240 our feedback. They won't be the final ball, they always 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.639 do that, but they're really obviously looking at the future. 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.960 Forty pits in that crew there are so freaking good 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.960 that That's why I'm like, what are you going to 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.280 to do? Like drop back for a year for three 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.040 yards and then they're going to find a way to 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.040 get it figure that out, Like, yeah, I might go 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.280 a little crooked, but no one's going to really notice that. 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.359 I mean, if anything, guys can be like, god, I 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.320 just need to figure this out my golf game, Like 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:14.879 what is this? You know? 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.720 So if the history of ball regulation and golf can 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.840 teach us anything is that if you give engineers like 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:29.760 specs to to innovate against, they're going to end up 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:31.520 in the same spot that they're in. 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.560 And that was the best one ever. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.480 Yeah, it's it's just it's going to be the same 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.440 by the time we get there. And I just I 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.480 agree with you in the sense of what if you 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.480 wanted to make an impact, you had to get super aggressive. 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.560 It should have been like and nobody would have gone 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.160 for it. But if you had said, we're gonna knock 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.240 five percent off drivers where all of a sudden we're 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.520 talking about like somebody who hits a three twenty is 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.359 sixty yards shorter. You know, then all of a sudden 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:12.920 you would get somewhere with pace of play like you 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.720 talked about, the ball would go further less offline. And 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.200 I think then, like what you were talking about with 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:23.200 the with the I'm going to nine iron, they're going 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.320 to six or seven. If you're going down to a 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.840 let's just call it like a a six iron and 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.600 they're going to four iron, that fairway rough dynamic might 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.640 have like a little bit more of a sure quill 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.520 waiting right for sure. And that's like the game got. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.960 The game got so far out of balance that I 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.080 I don't know how you put the genie back in 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.800 the bottle without a like huge change. And I do 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.200 I do agree with you on on the the the 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.000 kids growing up, like what what do they do? But 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.880 I think baseball, I mean, like I'm I'm actually would 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.359 be curious to hear like a baseball scout talk about 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:10.400 like how do they how do they figure out which 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.280 kids can transition from aluminum to wood bats without like 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:18.960 losing power? You know, Yeah, it's fascinating. I didn't expect 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.200 to get there, get here, there, get to this topic. 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:27.119 This's early, but I you know, before we I mean, 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.359 we could talk about this for for hours. But I 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:34.399 I'm curious, you know, you with these back injuries, I 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.080 imagine that you've worked on your putting a ton. Yeah, 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:44.320 and I think, like, listen, the putting. Your putting has 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.399 been uh, you know, straw on the interest of of 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:52.920 widespread audience over the years. You switched a broom, and 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.359 I think like one of the things that is fascinating 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.960 people like get mad about people switching your broom, but 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:04.040 like you're learning a completely new motion. It's a completely 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.640 different style of putting. Like you've put it one way 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:09.400 your whole life. You go to you know, you went 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:11.359 to obviously the arm block, and then you went to 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:15.600 the broom. How much more comfortable are you now after 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:18.920 a couple of years than say that first year when 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:19.520 you switched. 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.320 Yeah, so much more comfortable. I just have a better 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.399 understanding of how to use it. I started working a 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:29.520 little bit with Blair Phillip on my putting this go 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:33.719 around this offseason, and he's taught me so much. I mean, 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:38.040 just a lot of ownership and kind of like how 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:40.920 to use a broom. I think I had just kind 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:44.159 of figured it out myself talk to some of the 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:46.080 older guys and kind of how they had used it, 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:48.440 and then just kind of gone from there, you know, 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:52.840 talk to Sam Han from you know Lab and I. 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:54.960 You know, the thing that's so cool about it is 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:56.840 that you kind of still have to make it your own. 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.120 And yeah, it was a completely different tool to learn 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.680 how to use. And I think like the part that's 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:08.879 fun about it now is I've always been really linear 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:11.600 and I've I've always anytime that I got really off, 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.000 I would not be able to see my like a 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:16.960 straight line, and so it would be like that on 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:19.040 comfort would kind of come from there, and so I 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:21.400 think when I went to the broom, it just immediately 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.320 cleaned up, where everything just gave me like straight lines 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:26.520 to just kind of aim at every single puts a 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:29.080 dead flats straight putt. And so kind of what I've 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:31.120 worked on with Blair over the last couple of months 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:33.320 is like, hey, get a PhD. And how you see 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:35.560 greens red and how you see your lines better? And 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:38.080 that immediately kind of freed me up to be way 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:41.280 more process oriented as opposed to like, oh I hope 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:43.320 I make this, you know, like that kind of you know, 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:45.960 four foot lag is like I used to jokingly call it, 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:50.399 you know, So it's like I think the part for 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:54.199 me now is it's like I had kind of tried 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:58.760 so many different things for a while with putting that 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:02.119 I needed to try something new and then stick with 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:06.680 it and then immediately it clicked. And learning how to 0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:08.720 use it, I think, is something that it's like it's 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:12.040 a skill, like it's it's like anytime that I go 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:14.560 back to like old putting mechanics, like I will pull 0:25:14.640 --> 0:25:16.680 the living crap out of the ball, like it's it's 0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:20.080 really funny, like it's like this thing is like I'm 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:22.399 holding this in. There's two ways to basically putt with 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:24.639 a broom at least like how Sam Honill tell you 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:27.560 is you have the right hand motor, which that's just 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:29.960 kind of sweeping from underneath, and then you have the triangle, 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:32.280 which is kind of how Adam Scott putts and how 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:35.560 I try to mirror it putting. And at that side 0:25:35.560 --> 0:25:37.159 of it is like everything just kind of gets locked in. 0:25:37.280 --> 0:25:38.679 You see your line, and then you go from there 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:40.720 and you rock it, and I think that's just it's 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:43.440 made it so simple for me, and that's the biggest difference. 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:45.960 And so when I was kind of like, I didn't 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:48.960 really putt very well through kind of the start of 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:51.520 this year, and I was I was hurting pretty bad. 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:54.280 I mean, I probably shouldn't have even really started this year. 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:59.800 But I think the thing that this time has given 0:25:59.840 --> 0:26:01.760 me is just a lot of time to just work 0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:04.959 on my short game in general and really learn how 0:26:05.000 --> 0:26:07.080 to use that thing. And so you know, when you're 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:09.359 in Dallas and you have guys like Scotty and Jordan 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:11.600 and some other you know, really good players, you kind 0:26:11.640 --> 0:26:13.560 of learned really quickly where your game's at, even if 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:17.400 you're not playing in tournaments. And so yeah, it's made 0:26:17.440 --> 0:26:20.920 putting fun again. That's the thing for sure. I think 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:22.680 is probably the best way to kind of put it. 0:26:24.359 --> 0:26:30.000 I could you you obviously throughout your life have been 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.840 you know, the life that you know, since I've been 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:40.160 covering off a sublime te degreen player, like as good 0:26:40.200 --> 0:26:43.560 as it gets in the world at you know, driving 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:48.280 a ball iron play. What was it like in your 0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:51.960 kind of lowest moments with the putter, you know, particularly 0:26:52.040 --> 0:26:54.800 I imagine when you had yet to make the PGA Tour, 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:58.320 what what was that frustrate What did that frustration feel like? 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:04.440 Yeah, I think you know the part where it got 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:08.960 or where it gets hard. I wouldn't even solely just 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:11.280 put it as putting as much as it was just 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:16.320 like getting there, because it was like, okay, like, yeah, 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:19.240 you gotta go play Monday qualifiers at this point, or 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:21.600 go play Canada. Well you gotta go shoot twenty five hundred. 0:27:21.600 --> 0:27:23.439 They're pitching putts, you gotta you gotta find a way 0:27:23.480 --> 0:27:24.920 to get the ball in the hole no matter what. 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:29.160 So doing the Monday shooting sixty six is and going 0:27:29.320 --> 0:27:31.680 being on a flight home that afternoon really wasn't that fun. 0:27:32.000 --> 0:27:34.880 And so having to really kind of work my way 0:27:34.920 --> 0:27:36.480 through that kind of gave me a lot of the 0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:38.840 belief in what I was doing. Now. Of course, there 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:40.800 are moments where it's like, yeah, like what the hell 0:27:40.920 --> 0:27:43.120 is going on? You know, I work my tail off 0:27:43.160 --> 0:27:47.640 and I'm you know, playing terrible. I think that's where 0:27:47.960 --> 0:27:50.320 it just gives you the appreciation of when it's like 0:27:50.520 --> 0:27:52.920 you have those moments to like win a tournament or 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:55.639 whatever where it's like, yeah, I've been through it like this, 0:27:55.880 --> 0:27:57.920 these are the this is the scards issue that I have. 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:01.680 But I've always succeeded, like at every level that I've 0:28:01.720 --> 0:28:04.880 played at, where it's almost like, you know, it's like, oh, 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:07.320 we had a decent junior career, Well he didn't want 0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:09.560 won the US Junior and a bunch of amateur events 0:28:09.720 --> 0:28:11.680 his senior year. Going into his freshman year of college, 0:28:11.720 --> 0:28:13.400 well he was okay in college. You want a couple 0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:15.359 of times like other players have done a lot more 0:28:15.400 --> 0:28:19.000 at wake, and then it was like all of a sudden, 0:28:19.040 --> 0:28:21.280 I leave early, I have a year where I try 0:28:21.320 --> 0:28:23.840 to turn pro that didn't really work out. I finally 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:27.480 get my status through Cornfiry, then I have COVID, and 0:28:28.080 --> 0:28:30.560 then I'm stuck on Corn for another year. So like 0:28:30.840 --> 0:28:34.080 there was kind of a little bit of like more 0:28:34.200 --> 0:28:37.040 so just dealing with the junk of just being a 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:39.600 pro where it's like, Okay, when's my next start? How 0:28:39.600 --> 0:28:41.800 am I going to go? You know what? You know, 0:28:42.000 --> 0:28:44.040 here's my end goals. So like when things weren't really 0:28:44.120 --> 0:28:47.960 going that well, you still kind of like, all right, 0:28:48.040 --> 0:28:50.880 I've always succeeded no matter where I've been, Like I've 0:28:50.920 --> 0:28:53.040 wanted every level you know, I'm going to find a 0:28:53.080 --> 0:28:55.239 way to get there somehow, someway, even if it's an 0:28:55.240 --> 0:28:57.560 insane belief. But that was just kind of where I 0:28:57.760 --> 0:28:59.440 was with it, and I tried a lot of different things. 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:00.920 You know, I worked with a lot of different coaches, 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:05.960 but I think like the simplest method that I've come 0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:08.440 up with, and it's like it's just natural, Like now, 0:29:08.960 --> 0:29:10.640 that's just it's like when I picked that up, it's 0:29:10.640 --> 0:29:12.520 actually made whenever I pick up a short putter better, 0:29:13.720 --> 0:29:15.640 you know. So it's just it's stuff like that where 0:29:15.680 --> 0:29:17.560 it's like I know how I like to putt, and 0:29:18.080 --> 0:29:20.360 as opposed to trying some other method or hey, this 0:29:20.440 --> 0:29:22.600 doesn't work, let's try something completely new, it's like, now, 0:29:22.680 --> 0:29:25.120 let's just you're really good at this, let's stick with that. 0:29:26.000 --> 0:29:29.280 It's it's funny. I I always, when I was younger, 0:29:29.320 --> 0:29:32.240 struggled with putting and I went to a belly putter 0:29:32.360 --> 0:29:34.840 for a period of time. I'm showing my age here. 0:29:36.400 --> 0:29:39.280 I tried that when I came I tried it. Yeah, 0:29:39.400 --> 0:29:41.920 when I came out of it, though, I was so 0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:44.240 much better with a short putter. I've been like, you know, 0:29:44.280 --> 0:29:46.120 I feel like I've been great with the short putter 0:29:46.200 --> 0:29:49.520 ever since then. And it's like sometimes even just trying 0:29:50.320 --> 0:29:52.760 different stuff helps you with the you know, it's like 0:29:52.840 --> 0:29:55.360 the opposite of everybody's like just go lock yourself on 0:29:55.440 --> 0:29:57.240 a putting green and hit the three footers. Well, like 0:29:57.360 --> 0:30:00.360 sometimes that does not help, you know, Like yeah, I. 0:30:00.400 --> 0:30:03.440 Think, yeah, I think where for me, like when I 0:30:03.520 --> 0:30:06.200 look back on kind of where I used to just 0:30:06.320 --> 0:30:10.080 be so results oriented as a kid, Like everything I 0:30:10.160 --> 0:30:12.360 did was results oriented and it was like, oh, I 0:30:12.440 --> 0:30:14.200 got to get this to get that, And it's kind 0:30:14.240 --> 0:30:16.080 of like it's a good reminder for where I'm at 0:30:16.240 --> 0:30:20.560 back on tour right now, where it's like, you know, 0:30:21.080 --> 0:30:23.040 we don't really know what the schedule kind of looks 0:30:23.160 --> 0:30:25.920 like in general, let alone especially for me where it's 0:30:25.960 --> 0:30:28.280 like Okay, you've got a major medical you're gonna get 0:30:28.280 --> 0:30:30.280 in all the regular events where it's like I'm leaving 0:30:30.320 --> 0:30:32.680 Sunday to go to Palm Springs. Am I leaving for 0:30:32.760 --> 0:30:35.240 two weeks? Or am I leaving for six? I don't know? 0:30:36.720 --> 0:30:42.080 So you know, I think you know that part of 0:30:42.160 --> 0:30:42.800 it is uh. 0:30:44.320 --> 0:30:47.760 Yeah, it's I imagine the putting, you know, and just 0:30:47.920 --> 0:30:52.840 the journey the COVID situation that you dealt with and 0:30:53.080 --> 0:30:55.520 just the you know, the journey to the PGA Tour, 0:30:55.640 --> 0:30:58.520 which like a lot of your peers were just some 0:30:58.720 --> 0:31:02.720 of them were straight, you know, obviously, Scottie. It took 0:31:02.960 --> 0:31:07.280 a little bit of time, but that journey probably helped 0:31:07.360 --> 0:31:10.040 you a little bit with the injuries that you've been 0:31:10.080 --> 0:31:12.080 going through and just your mindset through those. 0:31:12.720 --> 0:31:17.840 Yeah, because I mean I would say, you know, I 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:20.840 had my when I had my first back surgery in 0:31:20.920 --> 0:31:24.120 twenty three, I had to go back in for surgery 0:31:24.240 --> 0:31:29.440 five weeks later for a revision. You know, that time 0:31:29.560 --> 0:31:32.440 was pretty hard because it was like I'm starting kind 0:31:32.440 --> 0:31:34.480 of over here with my body. I have no idea 0:31:34.520 --> 0:31:37.080 where I'm at. My first event back, I'm playing at 0:31:37.160 --> 0:31:40.280 Hero I finished in last by nine. I'm like, oh god, 0:31:40.360 --> 0:31:42.400 this year is gonna be interesting. I have no idea 0:31:42.480 --> 0:31:44.800 what well, you know, what's going to happen. And coming 0:31:44.840 --> 0:31:46.840 out and having a top ten in a major, you know, 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:51.880 finishing second again, you know, I think was pretty solidifying 0:31:51.960 --> 0:31:54.720 where it's like, okay, like on any given week, I 0:31:54.800 --> 0:31:57.600 can play good. It's just a matter of let's get healthy. 0:31:58.800 --> 0:32:01.640 And I really like I was kind of getting by 0:32:01.760 --> 0:32:04.520 by cortizone shots, you know, where it was like getting 0:32:04.560 --> 0:32:08.320 them every quarter and that, honestly, like it kind of 0:32:08.400 --> 0:32:13.040 affected a lot of my putting because I'm standing taller 0:32:13.120 --> 0:32:15.240 with the broom like you know, putting with something that's 0:32:15.280 --> 0:32:19.400 forty five plus inches. You know, I would putt for 0:32:19.600 --> 0:32:21.520 hours and hours like you said, where it's like he'd 0:32:21.560 --> 0:32:22.840 be on the putting green it's like, oh my god, 0:32:22.880 --> 0:32:24.440 I missed a three footer. I'm gonna go hitting nine 0:32:24.520 --> 0:32:26.160 million of them and it's like, well, that's not good 0:32:26.200 --> 0:32:28.120 for a guy with herniated diss in his back either. 0:32:28.240 --> 0:32:30.040 By the way, Like this isn't just because I have 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:32.160 a big sea bend and you know at the time 0:32:32.200 --> 0:32:33.960 of my golf swing, it's like this, this is the 0:32:34.040 --> 0:32:36.160 mixed bag of both. Like I'm not just like hitting 0:32:36.200 --> 0:32:38.400 a million golf balls and ignoring my putting either, Like 0:32:38.480 --> 0:32:41.360 if anything, I'm overworking my putting and that's causing more issues. 0:32:42.760 --> 0:32:45.680 And so like now getting back to like just playing 0:32:45.760 --> 0:32:50.800 where as opposed to like you know, doing all of 0:32:50.880 --> 0:32:53.840 that where it's just so much like granular work and 0:32:53.960 --> 0:32:56.600 putting hours and hours and hours in it's now it's 0:32:56.680 --> 0:32:58.680 just so nice to just slap the mirror down, check 0:32:58.720 --> 0:33:02.120 my eyes, you know, do a few speed drills and sick. 0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:03.760 All right, let just keep a moving. Let's go play 0:33:03.800 --> 0:33:05.000 some golf. What do you guys want to play for? 0:33:05.160 --> 0:33:08.720 You know that stuff that I'd missed for years, you know, 0:33:09.120 --> 0:33:12.360 but like when I really I think in twenty three 0:33:12.680 --> 0:33:15.360 was probably the scariest it had been. And I made 0:33:15.440 --> 0:33:19.080 myself busy by going back to school, you know, this 0:33:19.240 --> 0:33:21.560 go around, I try to make golf as fun as 0:33:21.600 --> 0:33:25.360 I could with upon my comeback, where it's like, all right, 0:33:25.840 --> 0:33:27.920 the fun of golf had been taken away from me 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:30.640 for two years, Let's go play some fun golf. Like, 0:33:30.720 --> 0:33:33.480 let's go play some new places, like let's go you know. 0:33:34.000 --> 0:33:38.600 I had the California and at cal Club for one night, 0:33:38.720 --> 0:33:40.280 and then the next morning I was picked up by 0:33:40.280 --> 0:33:42.120 a buddy at five am. I went and played Cyprus 0:33:42.440 --> 0:33:45.560 like like you know, stuff like that. It's like for 0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:47.720 the love of the game type thing, you know, getting 0:33:47.800 --> 0:33:49.680 up early, you know, stuff like that where yeah, it's 0:33:49.760 --> 0:33:51.480 just kind of fun to do it again. Where I think, 0:33:52.200 --> 0:33:54.520 you know, there were times where it's like I was 0:33:54.600 --> 0:33:57.160 so frustrated with my game and my body felt so bad. 0:33:57.240 --> 0:33:59.840 It's like man, I'm on tour and this sucks. Like this, 0:34:00.000 --> 0:34:03.360 this is no fun. So getting back to that thing, 0:34:03.720 --> 0:34:07.280 I think when you've gone through things that even as 0:34:07.320 --> 0:34:10.200 simple as like driving four and a half hours to 0:34:10.280 --> 0:34:12.600 save like six hundred bucks on a rental car like 0:34:12.840 --> 0:34:15.160 seven or eight years ago, it kind of puts things 0:34:15.200 --> 0:34:18.080 in perspective when you're sitting here now all these years later. 0:34:18.960 --> 0:34:21.680 You know, TJ Tour equity owner Winter on tour and 0:34:21.760 --> 0:34:23.680 you're like, damn, I got to sit this one out 0:34:23.760 --> 0:34:26.480 for six months. It's like, thanks gonna be a lot worse, dude, 0:34:26.960 --> 0:34:27.959 It's gonna be a lot worse. 0:34:29.080 --> 0:34:32.239 Yeah. Yeah, I think that a lot. You think you 0:34:32.320 --> 0:34:34.239 think back to your younger years and some of the 0:34:34.320 --> 0:34:37.000 crazy things you do when you have to save money. 0:34:38.440 --> 0:34:42.240 So a stat that, uh is someone on my staff 0:34:42.360 --> 0:34:45.600 unearthed Joseph Levonia, four player of four golfers in the 0:34:45.680 --> 0:34:47.560 history of the sport of finished in the top ten 0:34:47.920 --> 0:34:51.200 in their first three Masters appearance appearances. Do you know 0:34:51.239 --> 0:34:51.719 who they are? 0:34:52.960 --> 0:34:53.080 Uh? 0:34:54.680 --> 0:34:59.680 I don't, so you're one of them, but yeah, you're good. 0:34:59.719 --> 0:35:03.400 Buddy speak is another one, and then it's Paul Runyon 0:35:03.640 --> 0:35:08.640 from thirty four to thirty six and Ralph Goodall, also 0:35:08.840 --> 0:35:12.480 Dallas resident from thirty seven to thirty nine, so very 0:35:12.560 --> 0:35:17.840 long time. What would you say has made you so 0:35:18.000 --> 0:35:19.720 successful at Augusta National. 0:35:22.080 --> 0:35:27.600 I mean, I think it's I mean, for one, ball 0:35:27.680 --> 0:35:29.680 striking it around that place, like there's been so many 0:35:29.719 --> 0:35:33.080 different winners. That's that's one thing. But ball striking your 0:35:33.120 --> 0:35:37.200 way around that place makes putting so much easier. It's incredible. 0:35:38.000 --> 0:35:42.960 So you know, like I think I think the year 0:35:43.000 --> 0:35:46.920 I finished second, I played five and five and eleven, 0:35:47.000 --> 0:35:49.560 and even I think another year I played five and 0:35:49.600 --> 0:35:52.880 eleven and like one or two wonder in total, Like 0:35:53.760 --> 0:35:56.239 just ball striking my way around and putting him in 0:35:56.280 --> 0:36:00.879 the right like Ken high in the right spots, being 0:36:00.960 --> 0:36:03.400 really good at lag putting for one, I mean, just 0:36:03.520 --> 0:36:05.239 knowing where to miss it. Like I just feel like 0:36:06.080 --> 0:36:09.440 around that place, anytime that I've played poorly, it's just 0:36:09.560 --> 0:36:14.160 blown like forty and I've just misjudged wins like crazy, 0:36:14.360 --> 0:36:16.440 you know, winds bouncing all over the place like they 0:36:16.520 --> 0:36:21.600 normally do. But yeah, I just I think the part 0:36:21.719 --> 0:36:23.480 that I love about that place is that it's like 0:36:24.880 --> 0:36:27.080 there's it's the one place to go every year and 0:36:27.160 --> 0:36:30.040 there's never like there never is anything to lose. But 0:36:30.120 --> 0:36:33.160 it's like, all right, I finished second in three majors. 0:36:33.239 --> 0:36:35.799 Now I really don't care for looking at silver every 0:36:35.880 --> 0:36:38.160 night I go to bed, you know, So I think 0:36:38.239 --> 0:36:40.560 that part of it too early on in my career, 0:36:40.760 --> 0:36:43.759 having the second that close has just kind of freed 0:36:43.800 --> 0:36:46.160 me up when I go there. But yeah, I just 0:36:46.440 --> 0:36:49.520 I love. It's hard not to just fall in love 0:36:49.560 --> 0:36:52.400 with that place, you know, Like I get so arrogant 0:36:52.440 --> 0:36:55.080 when I play there, Like internally when I play that, 0:36:55.320 --> 0:36:57.800 I'm pulling off shots that even my cat he's like 0:36:58.719 --> 0:37:00.440 there was one year that I was hit it right 0:37:00.480 --> 0:37:02.040 at the bunk around eight off the tee, and I 0:37:02.120 --> 0:37:04.960 had a gap like two and a half feet with 0:37:05.040 --> 0:37:07.200 a bunch of mud on the ball, and and I 0:37:07.320 --> 0:37:10.239 was like, I'm in thirty second. I really don't care. 0:37:10.560 --> 0:37:12.600 Like if this ball hits the tree, we make set, 0:37:12.719 --> 0:37:15.439 we make seven or eight, like we're gonna finish forty fifth, 0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:19.880 Like like this ball needs to get through the trees. 0:37:20.000 --> 0:37:21.799 I've hit it through the trees, made Birdie and he's 0:37:21.840 --> 0:37:25.080 just like sick. You know the memory of Augusta, you know, 0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:27.040 you know, to get the crystal whenever you make the 0:37:27.080 --> 0:37:29.239 Eagles too, so like you know, I've drinking out of 0:37:29.280 --> 0:37:31.200 those whenever in the off season you come home, you're like, 0:37:31.280 --> 0:37:34.360 damn this, I want some more of this. But Scotty 0:37:34.400 --> 0:37:36.759 and Jordan too, growing up with them them having the 0:37:36.800 --> 0:37:40.319 success there right away, I think he's also just kind 0:37:40.320 --> 0:37:44.000 of freed me up around that place. But yeah, it's 0:37:44.080 --> 0:37:46.640 just it's just so fun the buzz around that place. 0:37:46.760 --> 0:37:48.960 Like I think, I it's the event that I embrace 0:37:49.040 --> 0:37:50.920 the mouse for sure, because I think it's you know, 0:37:51.000 --> 0:37:54.120 it's changed my life in a lot of different ways, 0:37:54.200 --> 0:37:58.279 that event. So it's it's kind of one of those 0:37:58.320 --> 0:38:00.680 where it's like even with all the dynamics of the 0:38:00.760 --> 0:38:06.279 tour changing, like if I'm not in the signatures, like 0:38:06.520 --> 0:38:08.640 I may go to the South African Open because the 0:38:08.680 --> 0:38:11.040 winner gets the spot and the masters in the top 0:38:11.160 --> 0:38:16.120 three Narder qualified are in the Open Championship, where it's like, yeah, 0:38:16.280 --> 0:38:20.000 that's what I'm That's what that's why I play this game, 0:38:20.200 --> 0:38:22.319 Like that's you know, we have a lot of cool 0:38:22.360 --> 0:38:24.400 stuff on tour and all, but it's like this is 0:38:24.600 --> 0:38:26.200 this is the main the main treat. 0:38:26.440 --> 0:38:31.480 So something you mentioned earlier is like the frustration of 0:38:31.640 --> 0:38:37.719 Monday qualifiers and pitch and putt Canadian tour courses where like, effectively, 0:38:38.200 --> 0:38:40.640 you know, if you shoot sixty six four days in 0:38:40.680 --> 0:38:42.759 a row, you're going to be right around the lead 0:38:42.840 --> 0:38:46.640 of almost any tournament at a at a Monday qualifier, 0:38:46.800 --> 0:38:50.080 you're not even sniffing, you know, oftentimes getting through it. 0:38:50.160 --> 0:38:53.320 I shot sixty four and have not been in a playoff. Yeah, No, 0:38:53.600 --> 0:38:55.080 it's real. It is real. 0:38:56.200 --> 0:38:58.520 And a lot of that goes to like the level 0:38:58.600 --> 0:39:01.560 of golf course in this sense of and what I 0:39:01.640 --> 0:39:03.840 think is is you know you hit on is the 0:39:03.920 --> 0:39:08.800 ball striking is like Augusta National, the demands that it 0:39:08.960 --> 0:39:13.239 puts on your shot making, particularly from fairways, because you're 0:39:14.320 --> 0:39:17.320 I think it's a sneaky, tough driving course, but you 0:39:17.440 --> 0:39:19.600 have to drive it well, it's a prerequisite. But like 0:39:19.760 --> 0:39:23.120 if you're hitting balls from fairways, they're rarely from flat lies, 0:39:23.520 --> 0:39:27.360 and there is like completely right and wrong places to 0:39:27.440 --> 0:39:31.480 miss it. And then the targets of having makeable birdies 0:39:32.040 --> 0:39:36.040 are so small, right, very that all pure combination of 0:39:36.080 --> 0:39:37.040 all those factors. 0:39:38.000 --> 0:39:43.759 Yeah, I mean I think so like when you take 0:39:44.320 --> 0:39:49.239 the back nine in particular, there's all you can look 0:39:49.320 --> 0:39:53.800 like I could dissect like all four pins and this 0:39:54.040 --> 0:39:56.399 bunker on this hole will be great for this pin, 0:39:56.600 --> 0:39:59.600 horrendous for the next one, like but the beauty of 0:40:00.000 --> 0:40:02.840 I would say, like kind of a funny kind of 0:40:02.960 --> 0:40:05.520 happenstance thing was a couple of years ago, like I 0:40:05.560 --> 0:40:08.040 had done Tiger's Charity then a little a couple of 0:40:08.080 --> 0:40:11.240 times up in New York. Was super early on a Monday, 0:40:11.239 --> 0:40:12.440 and I was just thinking I was gonna have a 0:40:12.520 --> 0:40:15.239 nice little cruise into my week play the back nine 0:40:15.280 --> 0:40:17.520 at the Gusts at eight am, and he goes, hey, 0:40:17.520 --> 0:40:18.560 do you want to have a game, And I'm like, 0:40:19.640 --> 0:40:22.360 what am I supposed to say? No? Like? And so 0:40:22.719 --> 0:40:26.480 I ended up joining him for the back and watching 0:40:26.640 --> 0:40:31.040 him like practice the lags and like go through the 0:40:31.239 --> 0:40:35.080 different sections, like the putting. Like it was the most 0:40:35.200 --> 0:40:38.480 worthless nine hole practice round I've ever had personally for 0:40:38.760 --> 0:40:41.759 my game in terms of what I did that day, 0:40:41.800 --> 0:40:45.840 because I did absolutely nothing and just was over my 0:40:45.920 --> 0:40:48.200 shoulder the entire time watching what he was doing like 0:40:48.280 --> 0:40:53.160 anybody else would do, but watching him dissect the different 0:40:53.280 --> 0:40:57.360 sections of the greens and the different spots and chipping 0:40:58.760 --> 0:41:01.000 it kind of confirmed a lot of like what I thought, 0:41:01.120 --> 0:41:03.120 But it was even more in the sense of like 0:41:04.040 --> 0:41:06.600 picking his brain on like of little what he would 0:41:06.640 --> 0:41:09.120 give me, you know, obviously like on twelve, of like 0:41:09.200 --> 0:41:12.040 where he would aim. Stuff like that. I think was 0:41:12.719 --> 0:41:15.520 there's just so much strategy that gets involved where it's 0:41:15.600 --> 0:41:19.040 like to your point, like you can hit something in 0:41:19.120 --> 0:41:21.040 the fat side of a fairway, but it's gonna be 0:41:21.160 --> 0:41:23.600 that much more destrimental on your second shot. Like thirteen, 0:41:23.640 --> 0:41:25.320 if you hug the trees up the left side of 0:41:25.400 --> 0:41:27.200 the you know, the left middle half of the fairway, 0:41:27.200 --> 0:41:30.200 you're gonna be sitting on a dead flat lie. Now, granted, 0:41:30.360 --> 0:41:31.840 it's gonna be a little bit of a kind of 0:41:31.920 --> 0:41:33.680 a tough wrangle to get in there. But if you 0:41:33.760 --> 0:41:35.239 hit something over on the fat side of the fair 0:41:35.360 --> 0:41:36.920 on the right, the ball is so far above your 0:41:36.960 --> 0:41:39.839 feet that you're like, I got to aim a six 0:41:39.880 --> 0:41:41.719 iron right at this creek, and I gotta trust that 0:41:41.760 --> 0:41:43.480 this ball is gonna hook over. But I know that 0:41:43.560 --> 0:41:45.839 there's wind coming in off the left that I can't feel. 0:41:46.680 --> 0:41:49.480 There's just a lot of that that goes on around there, 0:41:49.600 --> 0:41:51.680 and you kind of have to know pick and choose 0:41:51.719 --> 0:41:57.160 your situations. It's just I think the part like there's 0:41:57.200 --> 0:41:59.239 just been so many different winners. But to your point, 0:41:59.320 --> 0:42:01.799 it's the white narrowest golf course you're ever gonna play. 0:42:02.360 --> 0:42:04.960 Like you have like the fairways like number ten fairway 0:42:05.000 --> 0:42:07.120 from from like the widest point has got to be 0:42:08.000 --> 0:42:09.759 ninety yards wide. But if you want to hit it 0:42:09.840 --> 0:42:11.360 down there to where you have like an eight or 0:42:11.360 --> 0:42:12.759 a seven are and inn, you have to hook this 0:42:12.880 --> 0:42:15.359 thing thirty five yards and it needs to carry two 0:42:15.400 --> 0:42:17.239 seventy five. Like there's a lot of demand it. I 0:42:17.280 --> 0:42:19.840 guess that goes around there. And the shot shaping, I 0:42:19.880 --> 0:42:22.279 think is where I excel a lot in. But I 0:42:22.320 --> 0:42:24.239 will say this the first couple of year, the first 0:42:24.600 --> 0:42:27.320 year or so, I was there the end of the grain, 0:42:29.120 --> 0:42:32.160 like it's real, like it is like down like hitting 0:42:32.200 --> 0:42:35.120 off a downhill on nine like in its mode backup hill, 0:42:35.200 --> 0:42:38.560 Like it's very real. So I think like for a while, 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:41.560 like my wedge player around Augusta was so bad because 0:42:41.600 --> 0:42:43.759 that would just be like the wedge would just stick 0:42:43.800 --> 0:42:45.440 in the ground ball right up the face. And it 0:42:45.560 --> 0:42:49.520 finally had to be like okay, Texas kid, get rid 0:42:49.560 --> 0:42:51.839 of the four degrees and hinge it into the turf, 0:42:51.960 --> 0:42:55.640 like learn how to shallow it. But it's just there's 0:42:55.719 --> 0:42:57.799 so many little intricacies around that place. 0:42:58.640 --> 0:43:02.080 So what you're saying is to play it to hit 0:43:02.239 --> 0:43:05.320 really good wedges at Augusta, you just have to be 0:43:05.480 --> 0:43:09.000 super shallow because then that grain's impacting the club a 0:43:09.040 --> 0:43:09.680 little bit less. 0:43:09.840 --> 0:43:14.800 It just like it's funny, so I I it's you 0:43:14.960 --> 0:43:17.480 can get some down grain spots that you can just 0:43:17.600 --> 0:43:22.400 hit some nasty, really like beautiful spinning wedges, you know, 0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:25.200 short sided shots from around the green, and then you 0:43:25.320 --> 0:43:28.200 have these like into the grainers where you're like, if 0:43:28.280 --> 0:43:30.640 this fall kind of rides up the face, this thing 0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:33.200 could seriously just like land on the green and roll 0:43:33.239 --> 0:43:37.919 out forty feet. And the thing that I've always told 0:43:38.000 --> 0:43:40.720 people and asked me, like, what's something you don't expect 0:43:40.760 --> 0:43:46.040 about Augusta, it's actually more of the fringes. Like their 0:43:46.080 --> 0:43:49.640 fringes are so brilliantly built because everywhere where they're chipping, 0:43:50.080 --> 0:43:52.880 they're always making the chipping harder. So like on the 0:43:53.000 --> 0:43:56.560 left side of thirteen, the fringe falls this way, so 0:43:56.800 --> 0:43:59.160 like all of a sudden, the second like a ball 0:43:59.320 --> 0:44:01.680 lands up on the green, it's just immediately going downhill. 0:44:01.800 --> 0:44:04.720 And then behind fifteen it goes, it tilts back towards 0:44:04.760 --> 0:44:06.680 the front of the water. So if you land something 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:08.800 over the back of the green, you're chipping back, bumping 0:44:08.880 --> 0:44:11.359 it into the hill. But if it literally gets set 0:44:11.400 --> 0:44:13.480 of two bounces, it gets won. It's literally in the water. 0:44:14.200 --> 0:44:16.400 So like there's just a lot of like the Okay, 0:44:17.200 --> 0:44:19.520 I'm gonna hit this to twelve feet, take my look, 0:44:19.840 --> 0:44:22.120 and if I make it, I make it. But you know, 0:44:22.440 --> 0:44:24.320 then all of a sudden on Sunday, that's you know, 0:44:24.480 --> 0:44:25.680 things might change a little bit. 0:44:25.719 --> 0:44:30.960 But it's as fascinating. I would contend that the worst 0:44:31.000 --> 0:44:34.160 feeling in golf is when a ball is rolling up 0:44:34.200 --> 0:44:35.200 the face of your ledge. 0:44:36.560 --> 0:44:38.640 Well you know what was really is so w and 0:44:38.840 --> 0:44:43.319 Rory hit the wedge on thirteen when he won this year, 0:44:43.440 --> 0:44:45.439 and he hit it in the water. I didn't want 0:44:45.480 --> 0:44:48.640 to say like I could see that happening because that 0:44:48.760 --> 0:44:51.840 just sounds like such a jackass comment to say. But 0:44:51.960 --> 0:44:54.239 I was like, I've done that. I've totally done that, 0:44:54.560 --> 0:44:58.759 Like like I know that feeling, or I'm like, ball 0:44:58.880 --> 0:45:01.120 just glances off the face. I'm like, oh no, that's 0:45:01.160 --> 0:45:04.520 short and right. I'm like, but I just was laughing 0:45:04.600 --> 0:45:07.600 watching that where I was like, that is a all 0:45:07.640 --> 0:45:09.320 of us are feeling from in that moment. I'm like, 0:45:09.360 --> 0:45:11.239 I literally had done that on that exact doll. 0:45:13.120 --> 0:45:18.359 How would you say your course management philosophy has adapted 0:45:18.640 --> 0:45:20.719 or is it just stayed the same since you turned pro? 0:45:22.040 --> 0:45:27.080 Yeah, I mean, I think you know a lot of it. 0:45:27.239 --> 0:45:31.799 I've I've stayed pretty true to who I am, where 0:45:33.440 --> 0:45:38.440 I typically will pick really conservative targets, move them to 0:45:38.640 --> 0:45:40.640 the spot where I'm trying to go, and if I 0:45:40.880 --> 0:45:44.080 overwork them, then I look like a hero. And that's 0:45:44.200 --> 0:45:49.800 probably why I hit so many greens, I think. And 0:45:49.880 --> 0:45:51.520 then the other thing I would say is that I've 0:45:51.560 --> 0:45:57.400 really learned that when I'm aggressive, like being able to 0:45:57.480 --> 0:46:00.200 hit something hard and hooking to a left pin, I've 0:46:00.200 --> 0:46:02.680 always been very good with anything. A little bit softer 0:46:03.440 --> 0:46:06.000 has kind of been something I've worked on, especially with 0:46:06.600 --> 0:46:09.000 me having a new back, is just being a little 0:46:09.040 --> 0:46:11.200 bit shower and being better at just timing up like 0:46:11.320 --> 0:46:16.000 the shorter three quarter shots, so I you know, like 0:46:16.440 --> 0:46:19.920 back left pins, front right pins, like obviously as a variety, 0:46:20.040 --> 0:46:22.399 those are things you love, but I always loved kind 0:46:22.440 --> 0:46:24.680 of like working them in there. But whenever I kind 0:46:24.719 --> 0:46:27.160 of got really going. People would always think that I'd 0:46:27.200 --> 0:46:30.800 be firing at Flags, and I'm still not. You know, 0:46:31.160 --> 0:46:35.680 so I think like I've definitely gotten to a point 0:46:35.719 --> 0:46:38.759 where I'm still shaping it both ways, but I'm still 0:46:38.880 --> 0:46:44.520 picking really conservative targets based off of what you probably 0:46:44.800 --> 0:46:45.480 think I'm doing. 0:46:46.800 --> 0:46:51.440 Yeah, I feel like I remember vividly like I was, 0:46:51.680 --> 0:46:54.560 you know, kind of looking through the leaderboard on Saturday 0:46:54.760 --> 0:46:57.719 at Brookline and you know me as a media member, 0:46:57.960 --> 0:47:02.160 you know, you on Saturdays of tight tournaments, you're kind 0:47:02.200 --> 0:47:05.440 of just like throwing a dart at the wall of like, 0:47:05.719 --> 0:47:08.080 who Who's going to play well? And I remember I 0:47:08.239 --> 0:47:10.239 was like, uh, I'm gonna go watch will z l 0:47:10.360 --> 0:47:13.080 Taurus play And that day that was one of the 0:47:13.120 --> 0:47:16.120 best rounds of golf I've seen in a long time 0:47:16.360 --> 0:47:20.040 that that course had gotten so Saturday Saturday, I feel 0:47:20.080 --> 0:47:24.759 like maybe Friday was it Friday, I don't know, one 0:47:24.800 --> 0:47:25.040 of those. 0:47:25.160 --> 0:47:29.239 Yeah, that week I played, Yeah, I mean not just 0:47:29.320 --> 0:47:32.040 flat out beat me that week. I was like that 0:47:32.120 --> 0:47:33.960 whole week, I felt like I played so good. That's 0:47:34.000 --> 0:47:37.359 why I was like, yeah, every day felt good. 0:47:38.040 --> 0:47:41.439 But that route, you know, it looked like you watch 0:47:41.520 --> 0:47:44.279 it and it's you're moving the ball right to left, left, 0:47:44.480 --> 0:47:47.440 right and into all those all the You're hitting it 0:47:47.560 --> 0:47:50.640 close all over the place, and it was, you know, 0:47:50.760 --> 0:47:53.040 like full it looked like full command, but really you're 0:47:53.200 --> 0:47:55.040 you're you're still amy away. 0:47:56.280 --> 0:47:59.200 Yeah, I mean, so the theory, like, at least this 0:47:59.400 --> 0:48:01.799 is my theory, and it's a little bit of I'm 0:48:01.880 --> 0:48:05.160 stealing it a little bit from some other. Like I've 0:48:05.200 --> 0:48:07.800 heard this from two quarterbacks. I'll say this, one of 0:48:07.840 --> 0:48:10.400 the pros, one is the college player, and both of 0:48:10.520 --> 0:48:12.719 them have said that anytime that they've been able to 0:48:12.800 --> 0:48:15.440 feel like they're able to commit to throwing something one 0:48:15.560 --> 0:48:18.719 hundred percent, like they have some route that they love 0:48:18.800 --> 0:48:20.640 that they know that they can just sling one as 0:48:20.719 --> 0:48:23.040 hard as they can, or a lead a receiver. So 0:48:23.200 --> 0:48:24.920 my point with that is that it's like when I'm 0:48:24.960 --> 0:48:28.080 on eighteen at Sawgrass, like most people are probably slinging 0:48:28.160 --> 0:48:30.520 like an iron up the right or a hybrid, and 0:48:30.680 --> 0:48:32.640 I'm aiming in the middle of the lake and I'm 0:48:33.280 --> 0:48:36.600 hammering that fade. Because my theory is if I'm going 0:48:36.640 --> 0:48:39.480 to fade something, I'm going to do it one hundred percent, 0:48:40.040 --> 0:48:42.560 Like I want to fully commit to that fade. Not like, oh, 0:48:42.640 --> 0:48:45.320 I want to steer this draw over, you know. So 0:48:46.200 --> 0:48:49.080 that's where for me, I think my ball striking, like 0:48:49.160 --> 0:48:52.160 I've kind of had that mindset where I'm like, hey, 0:48:52.200 --> 0:48:55.440 it pins on the right, I'm going to aim, you know, 0:48:55.719 --> 0:48:57.760 five steps left of it, but I'm going to start 0:48:57.800 --> 0:49:01.080 a fade four steps left that and then if I 0:49:01.239 --> 0:49:03.640 overcut it, you know, I'm able to commit to hitting 0:49:03.680 --> 0:49:05.839 that cut, and I know that if I overcut, it's 0:49:05.840 --> 0:49:07.520 still gonna end up on the right side of the green. 0:49:07.640 --> 0:49:09.719 And if it's just the perfect amount of faith, then 0:49:09.719 --> 0:49:12.120 you're like, man, he's firing at everything today. It's like, no, 0:49:12.360 --> 0:49:16.719 not really. I mean, so I do. I don't really 0:49:16.840 --> 0:49:19.560 get in the mindset of firing at flags, Like I 0:49:19.640 --> 0:49:21.880 don't just like drop everything and start going and stuff. 0:49:22.320 --> 0:49:24.120 I might get a little more aggressive off the tee, 0:49:24.480 --> 0:49:30.160 but yeah, I just it's just kind of like, give 0:49:30.200 --> 0:49:31.839 me the best chance to make up and down. That's 0:49:31.960 --> 0:49:34.759 like kind of the mindset that I have. And it's 0:49:34.840 --> 0:49:36.800 like firing at this flag from two hundred and not 0:49:36.880 --> 0:49:42.080 gonna be it, you know. So, I mean I do 0:49:42.239 --> 0:49:44.880 think a lot of it is just picked, you know. 0:49:45.040 --> 0:49:47.560 I think there's one guy you said it best where 0:49:47.600 --> 0:49:49.439 it's like, how do you shoot sixty five on tour 0:49:49.680 --> 0:49:52.600 and it's you thirty All the par fives, you probably 0:49:52.680 --> 0:49:54.000 hit a wedge or too close and you make it 0:49:54.080 --> 0:49:57.160 thirty footer and it's like, that's Devin, and you did 0:49:57.280 --> 0:49:59.920 one thing that was probably special, and that's the third. 0:50:01.280 --> 0:50:03.520 And so I think that's kind of where I come 0:50:03.560 --> 0:50:05.320 from a little bit where it's like kind of the 0:50:05.440 --> 0:50:07.520 death by a thousand paper cuts. And that's why I 0:50:07.640 --> 0:50:11.560 played so well in the Majors. Like there was I 0:50:11.680 --> 0:50:15.400 think it was it might have been that Saturday at Brookline, 0:50:15.560 --> 0:50:19.520 but like I was actively hitting chip shots away from 0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:21.600 flag sticks just because I was like, if I go 0:50:21.680 --> 0:50:23.239 to this flag, like I could hit this thing to 0:50:23.320 --> 0:50:25.440 thirty feet, but if I just kind of baild this 0:50:25.520 --> 0:50:28.880 thing out over here, I'm gonna have ten guaranteed. And 0:50:28.960 --> 0:50:30.839 I would take the ten guaranteed. And then that week 0:50:30.880 --> 0:50:33.200 I just made the ten footer. So that's where some 0:50:33.360 --> 0:50:35.640 of that kind of mindset was kind of coming from, 0:50:35.719 --> 0:50:37.920 where it's like six is gonna kill you, five is not. 0:50:38.239 --> 0:50:41.000 But the weeks that I played well in the Majors, 0:50:41.000 --> 0:50:42.360 I ended up making all those part butts. 0:50:43.920 --> 0:50:49.200 Yeah, I mean, hard golf's interesting. I you know, my 0:50:49.600 --> 0:50:52.960 limited career, I always played best in like state ams 0:50:53.040 --> 0:50:56.200 where I knew I had seventy two holes and a 0:50:56.280 --> 0:50:59.040 bogie here or there wouldn't kill you, because it's just 0:50:59.120 --> 0:51:02.960 a different mindset at when the when the challenge, when 0:51:03.040 --> 0:51:08.520 the course and the conditioning ramps up, where like, okay, 0:51:08.719 --> 0:51:13.040 I can make a bogie. It almost is a freeing mindset. 0:51:13.120 --> 0:51:16.000 I find like when I played my first US Open 0:51:16.239 --> 0:51:19.320 at Pebble Beach, I'm going to play so bad in 0:51:19.400 --> 0:51:21.480 those practice rounds because we've played it as the pro 0:51:21.560 --> 0:51:24.439 am for something for all those years, Like I'm gonna 0:51:24.440 --> 0:51:26.080 be I'm just gonna go there. I'm gonna be like, 0:51:26.320 --> 0:51:28.759 what the hell is this? Like I've been able to 0:51:28.800 --> 0:51:31.000 make up and down behind eight every single time, Like 0:51:31.080 --> 0:51:33.320 I can't even keep it on the golf course. 0:51:34.640 --> 0:51:38.399 That's funny. I never thought about it from like a eight. 0:51:38.600 --> 0:51:41.800 I like, I always think it's like it's kind of weird, 0:51:41.960 --> 0:51:44.319 you know. I think majors at like when we heard 0:51:44.400 --> 0:51:49.120 this discourse at Quail last year, majors at host courses 0:51:49.440 --> 0:51:52.920 are you know, they just lack a little bit of juice. 0:51:53.680 --> 0:51:57.080 But the thing with Pebble is like the conditioning that 0:51:57.239 --> 0:52:01.200 you present in in June. Is it's just so drastically 0:52:01.280 --> 0:52:02.400 different than February. 0:52:02.880 --> 0:52:05.839 Yeah, I'm so intrigued to see what they do over 0:52:06.640 --> 0:52:08.960 like the next ten years there, like just being a 0:52:09.080 --> 0:52:11.920 kid who went there, you know, back when it was 0:52:12.040 --> 0:52:15.719 Peter Hay. Now I obviously you know it's the Hey Tigers, 0:52:15.920 --> 0:52:17.440 Little nine Hole. I used to go down there in 0:52:17.480 --> 0:52:20.400 junior camps all the time. So I'm really intrigued to 0:52:20.480 --> 0:52:22.200 see when they do an update because they know what 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:24.760 they do in Spanish Bay right now, Yeah, we're about 0:52:24.840 --> 0:52:27.399 to and then I feel like that's I guess that's 0:52:27.480 --> 0:52:30.080 kind of their trial run for the big show. So 0:52:30.360 --> 0:52:33.759 I'm intrigued. I've always loved Pebble. I've just played so 0:52:34.080 --> 0:52:36.480 bad every year at AT and T and I love 0:52:36.560 --> 0:52:38.960 playing it too, but I'm just like, every year I 0:52:39.040 --> 0:52:40.920 go there, I'm like, I literally grew up here, and 0:52:40.960 --> 0:52:42.480 I don't think I've had a better finish than like 0:52:42.600 --> 0:52:43.040 forty eight. 0:52:44.920 --> 0:52:48.280 It's funny. It's just funny how sometimes that that happens 0:52:48.320 --> 0:52:50.600 to golf, where it's like, yeah, I love the place, 0:52:50.640 --> 0:52:53.239 but the place doesn't necessarily love you back, Like. 0:52:53.360 --> 0:52:55.800 I should in theory love Quail, And I've played so 0:52:56.040 --> 0:52:59.239 bad at Quail every time I've been there, Like there's 0:52:59.360 --> 0:53:02.040 nothing about that place that I should dislike considering my 0:53:02.120 --> 0:53:04.440 golf game, and I have just played awful, and I'm like, 0:53:04.560 --> 0:53:07.279 I gotta figure that out. Uh. 0:53:07.800 --> 0:53:14.080 Kind of different type question here. When was the most 0:53:14.280 --> 0:53:16.520 nervous you've ever been on a golf course and why? 0:53:17.480 --> 0:53:19.840 I got to ask this literally two days ago and 0:53:19.960 --> 0:53:22.080 we just kind of talked about it. It was literally 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:25.840 playing that nine holes with Tiger on Monday because it 0:53:25.960 --> 0:53:29.600 was just so unprepared. You know. It's like, all right, 0:53:29.600 --> 0:53:32.399 I'm gonna go kind of meander around augusta ease into 0:53:32.440 --> 0:53:34.600 my week. It's a big week in general, and it 0:53:34.719 --> 0:53:38.800 turns into ten thousand people and playing with your you know, 0:53:38.920 --> 0:53:42.960 longtime hero. So it's like, okay, not ready for that. 0:53:43.160 --> 0:53:44.960 You know, most people would expect me to say, like, 0:53:45.120 --> 0:53:47.920 you know, put the putts to win the US Open 0:53:48.160 --> 0:53:51.279 or whatever. I'm like, no, like those you like, you've 0:53:51.360 --> 0:53:53.680 hit that put in your mind a million times, Like 0:53:53.880 --> 0:53:56.399 sometimes they go in. Sometimes they don't like that three 0:53:56.440 --> 0:53:59.839 would on ten that I had to hit like kind 0:53:59.880 --> 0:54:02.279 of half ass warmed up to be totally honest with 0:54:02.440 --> 0:54:07.120 you then turned into playing with him. I'm like kiddish, 0:54:09.040 --> 0:54:11.120 so I mean, you know, like and I played with 0:54:11.200 --> 0:54:13.040 him in the US Open. I think when I'm like 0:54:14.080 --> 0:54:16.600 going about my business, it's different. But when it was 0:54:16.760 --> 0:54:20.160 just so impromptu, I think that's where I was like, wow, 0:54:20.360 --> 0:54:23.680 I am nervous, like and I know that he would 0:54:23.960 --> 0:54:26.400 die laugh and knowing that, but it's like, you know, 0:54:26.680 --> 0:54:29.120 it's he's he's him, and I'm playing back down. I 0:54:29.120 --> 0:54:32.400 guess though, with my hero, Like, why wouldn't I be nervous? 0:54:34.560 --> 0:54:37.200 Yeah, I always think about Uh. I think it was 0:54:37.360 --> 0:54:40.399 Adrian Morunk was teeing off at like something like six 0:54:40.480 --> 0:54:43.439 am on the old course off ten, so like way 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:46.360 way the hell out there, and then the Tiger just 0:54:46.440 --> 0:54:49.480 showed up. And this six foot eight Polish guy you know, 0:54:49.719 --> 0:54:51.880 is playing golf with Tiger Woods, who you know you 0:54:52.040 --> 0:54:54.640 probably never in his life imagined he'd be doing that, 0:54:54.719 --> 0:54:56.560 but he just showed up on the tee. That's it's 0:54:56.680 --> 0:54:57.720 just that's a cool story. 0:54:58.400 --> 0:55:00.359 We'll say. The thing is so cool about the course 0:55:00.400 --> 0:55:02.960 real quick is the fact that when you play there 0:55:03.280 --> 0:55:06.480 in the practice rounds early on, when they haven't opened there, 0:55:06.560 --> 0:55:10.760 they open it up to everybody, so that I missed 0:55:10.800 --> 0:55:13.440 the cut at the Scottish Drove Down. I played eighteen 0:55:13.520 --> 0:55:16.360 at like five pm on like Saturday, and they it 0:55:16.480 --> 0:55:18.200 was him and JT teed off at six and I 0:55:18.280 --> 0:55:20.719 mean we had like I was walking back to the 0:55:20.800 --> 0:55:23.399 Old Course hotel. He and JT were on seventeen green 0:55:23.480 --> 0:55:25.319 and they must have had one hundred people with them, 0:55:26.000 --> 0:55:29.040 thirty dogs, kids were throwing frisbees and I was like, 0:55:29.160 --> 0:55:32.680 this is awesome, Like you just can't get this anywhere. 0:55:32.719 --> 0:55:35.120 It's like, literally, you have one of the great the 0:55:35.280 --> 0:55:37.200 greatest player of all time. You have a guy who's 0:55:37.200 --> 0:55:39.359 a two time major champion, and they're just playing golf 0:55:39.400 --> 0:55:40.759 with the Old Course at ten o'clock at night and 0:55:40.800 --> 0:55:42.600 there's a bunch of people just walking down the fairway. 0:55:43.480 --> 0:55:48.920 It's so great, it's so cool. A memory from that 0:55:49.440 --> 0:55:52.960 open that I will never forget is I walked out 0:55:52.960 --> 0:55:55.520 of the media center a couple hours after you know, 0:55:55.680 --> 0:56:00.600 Cam had that crazy win and I'm you know, we're walking. 0:56:00.719 --> 0:56:03.319 I stayed in the dorms right across from the from 0:56:03.400 --> 0:56:07.120 the Swolken Bridge that week and I'm walking back. It's 0:56:07.160 --> 0:56:10.520 down the course and there's like it turned back into 0:56:10.560 --> 0:56:13.919 a park. It's three hours after the tournament ended. 0:56:14.280 --> 0:56:15.480 They're so crazy. 0:56:15.800 --> 0:56:19.200 There's kids, like little like three year olds playing in 0:56:19.280 --> 0:56:22.839 the bunker like it's a sandbox, and like I'm thinking about, 0:56:22.960 --> 0:56:26.040 like where else in the world with this, you know, 0:56:26.239 --> 0:56:29.160 It's just it's such a cool rule with the park 0:56:29.280 --> 0:56:32.600 and the the open openness and how Scotland's got that 0:56:32.760 --> 0:56:35.200 right to rome where people just walk everywhere. You know, 0:56:35.280 --> 0:56:36.319 it's so good. 0:56:36.480 --> 0:56:38.759 I'm just like walking down fairways and like guys are 0:56:38.800 --> 0:56:40.880 looking in my golf bag like seeing what iron I 0:56:41.000 --> 0:56:43.440 hit and whatnot. I'm like, this is awesome. Like you know, 0:56:43.560 --> 0:56:45.320 some guys might freak out by this, but I'm like, 0:56:45.400 --> 0:56:46.320 this is so great. 0:56:47.480 --> 0:56:52.200 It's uh you li a Dallas. As we've talked about, 0:56:52.480 --> 0:56:54.520 what do you think where do you think the best 0:56:54.640 --> 0:56:57.279 place is for a pro to living practice? And why 0:56:57.840 --> 0:56:58.879 is Dallas good? 0:57:00.200 --> 0:57:04.600 I mean I would put Dallas as the best in 0:57:04.760 --> 0:57:09.239 this sense that you get four seasons. You know, Like 0:57:09.560 --> 0:57:13.359 I was born in California. You know it gets cold there, 0:57:13.520 --> 0:57:15.360 but you know, if it gets little rainy, it is 0:57:15.440 --> 0:57:18.800 what it is. But like here, it's like if it's 0:57:18.840 --> 0:57:22.120 forty degrees, like you still go play, you know, And 0:57:22.480 --> 0:57:24.040 so I think that's where like and if it's one 0:57:24.120 --> 0:57:26.040 hundred and ten, you still go play. And so that 0:57:26.200 --> 0:57:29.000 part of it's really good. The no state income tax 0:57:29.080 --> 0:57:31.160 obviously is a big draw for a lot of guys. 0:57:33.320 --> 0:57:36.200 You know, when I think of the other places, I 0:57:36.360 --> 0:57:39.760 just think Dallas because of the four seasons. That's why 0:57:39.920 --> 0:57:43.120 I say that, you know, Florida, it's perfect for most 0:57:43.200 --> 0:57:45.000 of the year. You know, I might get a little 0:57:45.040 --> 0:57:48.160 cold in the winter in the desert, but like I 0:57:48.320 --> 0:57:50.920 just think in terms of like what we have, you know, 0:57:51.440 --> 0:57:53.800 the premier courses that we have, you can plan on 0:57:53.880 --> 0:57:57.840 every single type of grass, you know, because we're right 0:57:57.920 --> 0:58:00.800 on kind of that cusp. And more and more courses 0:58:00.840 --> 0:58:03.640 are going to hydraunics with bermudas or with bent so 0:58:04.040 --> 0:58:05.960 you know, now all of a sudden you've got bent 0:58:06.040 --> 0:58:08.120 grass screens that are running, you know, twelves in the 0:58:08.160 --> 0:58:11.120 summer as opposed to mush. So I think that's why, 0:58:11.240 --> 0:58:15.160 like for us, it's so good, you know, but you 0:58:15.240 --> 0:58:17.440 can't go wrong with I would say with Jupiter in 0:58:17.560 --> 0:58:21.400 terms of practicing, but playing here year round, like you're 0:58:21.440 --> 0:58:22.200 just gonna get better. 0:58:23.160 --> 0:58:26.920 It's gotta be easier travel too, just being someone who 0:58:27.000 --> 0:58:28.040 lives in countries. 0:58:28.640 --> 0:58:31.000 Yeah, yeah, no, I mean middle of the country and yeah, 0:58:31.040 --> 0:58:34.880 American and southwestl fly anywhere you want basically NonStop. So 0:58:35.120 --> 0:58:37.040 it's it's tough to beat. And we've got a good 0:58:37.120 --> 0:58:39.680 crew of guys here. I mean offseason, the games get 0:58:39.680 --> 0:58:44.000 a little bloody, so it's good. It's it's a really 0:58:44.040 --> 0:58:48.959 good kind of mix that we have here. But yeah, 0:58:49.160 --> 0:58:51.600 I would say at least when you have this many 0:58:51.720 --> 0:58:54.120 guys that are here day and day out, that's a 0:58:54.160 --> 0:58:56.440 big part of it too, not only just the golf courses. 0:58:57.840 --> 0:59:01.880 You've had a peer of Scotty Scheffler. You guys are 0:59:01.960 --> 0:59:04.920 the same age. You grew up playing golf with him 0:59:05.000 --> 0:59:11.040 and Jordan Speith uh regularly. When I would say, when 0:59:11.080 --> 0:59:15.120 your injuries happened, you and Scottie were effectively, you know, 0:59:15.440 --> 0:59:18.959 in the same kind of you know, they're really really 0:59:19.120 --> 0:59:24.560 promising players who haven't gotten it necessarily done yet. Looking 0:59:24.600 --> 0:59:28.760 at where Scotty's gone the last three years, did you 0:59:29.000 --> 0:59:30.760 see this coming? 0:59:31.960 --> 0:59:37.760 No? I mean yes, but no, I mean like he 0:59:38.040 --> 0:59:43.440 always wanted to beat you, no matter like how what 0:59:43.640 --> 0:59:45.920 it was, whether it was ping pong, golf, like it 0:59:46.080 --> 0:59:46.720 just didn't matter. 0:59:48.280 --> 0:59:50.000 And so but his. 0:59:51.480 --> 0:59:55.280 Three year run that he's had in terms of always 0:59:55.440 --> 1:00:00.880 trying to get better, I just like it so admirable 1:00:00.960 --> 1:00:05.400 because he's such a humble, chill guy that it's like 1:00:05.680 --> 1:00:08.120 and then he's the stone cold Iceman killer you know 1:00:08.440 --> 1:00:11.960 when it comes Sunday. But he was always that kid 1:00:12.520 --> 1:00:15.000 where he wanted to beat you, but it was still 1:00:15.160 --> 1:00:18.560 just like this acceleration over the last three years has 1:00:18.640 --> 1:00:21.680 been like it's just it's hard not to love it. 1:00:23.560 --> 1:00:26.720 But yeah, I mean you want him, like he's such 1:00:26.720 --> 1:00:28.960 a good dude. Like that's the other part though. He's 1:00:29.000 --> 1:00:31.520 so approachable, he's so chill, like he's still playing with 1:00:31.600 --> 1:00:35.160 the same guys, Like he's still East Chipotle probably five 1:00:35.240 --> 1:00:37.640 days a week, Like he's just he's just a regular 1:00:37.680 --> 1:00:39.840 old dude. But he just wants to beat the crap 1:00:39.920 --> 1:00:42.600 out of you at golf. And that part of it, 1:00:42.720 --> 1:00:44.600 I think is where it's like he's been obsessed at 1:00:44.640 --> 1:00:48.120 being good and trying to be the best he can be. 1:00:48.440 --> 1:00:51.920 He's just he's always living in that spot. And I 1:00:52.040 --> 1:00:55.560 think having a guy like Randy be his mentor for 1:00:55.720 --> 1:00:58.120 so long. I love Randy. I mean the stories that 1:00:58.200 --> 1:01:00.120 that guy. You just hang around him and you just 1:01:00.160 --> 1:01:02.280 gonna laugh, and you're gonna hear golf stories for days, 1:01:03.920 --> 1:01:07.280 you know. But I think, you know, Randy grew up 1:01:07.360 --> 1:01:11.480 with Justin Leonard, or Randy had Justin Leonard, you know 1:01:11.560 --> 1:01:14.560 as his disciple for a really long time. Actually, Randy 1:01:14.640 --> 1:01:18.200 Smith grew up with my mentor at Benry that Efforts 1:01:18.200 --> 1:01:20.680 to earlier, David Price. They were kids together growing up 1:01:20.720 --> 1:01:25.240 in Odessa. So the fact that you know, Scotty and I, 1:01:25.680 --> 1:01:27.959 you know, grew up together with basically two best friends 1:01:28.000 --> 1:01:30.240 and our mentors is kind of makes it even more fun. 1:01:31.800 --> 1:01:34.800 But yeah, he's just like it has just been so 1:01:35.120 --> 1:01:36.840 freaking cool to watch. You know. I saw him the 1:01:36.880 --> 1:01:40.360 other day, you know, working at National and with Phil 1:01:40.440 --> 1:01:43.520 Kenyon and they were, you know, grinding on you know, 1:01:43.640 --> 1:01:47.640 some Sam Putt lab stuff and you know, just going 1:01:47.680 --> 1:01:49.800 to work world number one doing exactly what you you know, 1:01:49.920 --> 1:01:53.480 doing world number one things. And I just say, you 1:01:53.520 --> 1:01:54.120 think it's so cool. 1:01:54.200 --> 1:01:55.080 Is he's just so chill. 1:01:55.320 --> 1:01:58.520 He's such a cool, humble guy. And it's like, dude, like, 1:01:59.440 --> 1:02:01.200 can you just be an asshole for like a minute, 1:02:01.440 --> 1:02:04.160 like you know, like just a minute, like just for me, 1:02:04.560 --> 1:02:06.800 like just for me, I just want that deep down 1:02:06.880 --> 1:02:07.400 just one time. 1:02:10.120 --> 1:02:13.920 Is there what is like the thing, you know, besides 1:02:14.120 --> 1:02:18.520 just how nice he is, is there something about him 1:02:18.720 --> 1:02:22.360 his golf game that might get overlooked by most people. 1:02:25.000 --> 1:02:26.160 Think gets overlooked. 1:02:28.400 --> 1:02:28.840 I mean. 1:02:30.240 --> 1:02:33.280 Hard to say anything was what he's done. I mean, 1:02:34.240 --> 1:02:39.240 he's always been a really good he was always a 1:02:39.480 --> 1:02:44.760 really really good chipper potter wedger, pretty good with the irons. 1:02:45.080 --> 1:02:48.840 But the ball striking and the speed when he got 1:02:48.880 --> 1:02:52.640 out on tour was it like I would say that 1:02:52.920 --> 1:02:56.080 development happened from when he got from corn Ferry to 1:02:56.400 --> 1:02:58.680 on tour and then when he got to on tour 1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:02.840 it just everything fine, just everything just got better. So 1:03:02.920 --> 1:03:05.080 it's kind of hard to say that anything was overlooked. 1:03:05.960 --> 1:03:08.880 His short game, I think, is the epitome of like 1:03:09.880 --> 1:03:14.400 nothing flashy, but it just produces results. Like you know, 1:03:14.640 --> 1:03:15.680 just the if you go and you look at the 1:03:15.720 --> 1:03:18.600 amount of chippins and whatnot, you just kind of go damn, 1:03:18.880 --> 1:03:22.320 Like you know, like wow, well this wasn't like some 1:03:22.680 --> 1:03:26.680 super special, you know, crazy flop. It was just like, yeah, 1:03:26.720 --> 1:03:28.640 you just chipped in like a thirty five footer from 1:03:28.640 --> 1:03:30.560 off the green, like I just did it again, like 1:03:30.760 --> 1:03:33.640 I just hoooped a bucker shot. Like but the I 1:03:33.720 --> 1:03:38.840 think that's where it's like, like even when he's playing 1:03:38.880 --> 1:03:40.880 at home, like we're playing money games with him, it's 1:03:41.040 --> 1:03:44.240 just it's it's still disgusting where it's like, yeah, he's 1:03:44.280 --> 1:03:46.240 gonna make seven eight birdies, like you're just gonna have 1:03:46.280 --> 1:03:46.720 to beat them. 1:03:47.840 --> 1:03:51.520 You know, it had to be fun having chipping contest 1:03:51.560 --> 1:03:53.440 as a kid against Scottie and Jordan. 1:03:54.840 --> 1:03:59.560 No, it wasn't at all, not even a little bit. 1:04:01.320 --> 1:04:05.360 But like, yeah, I mean the probably like in terms 1:04:05.400 --> 1:04:08.720 of like growing up with those guys, just in terms 1:04:08.760 --> 1:04:13.920 of like when you knew they were special. Jordan, when 1:04:13.960 --> 1:04:17.439 he was fourteen, shot the course record at bent Tree. 1:04:18.440 --> 1:04:21.000 Weren't all enough to take carts, took the carts anyways. 1:04:23.240 --> 1:04:26.200 He hit his first t ball in the wrong fairway, 1:04:26.320 --> 1:04:28.440 say blew it out right, hits a five one on 1:04:28.520 --> 1:04:31.880 the front right bunker about like eighty feet away, hits 1:04:31.920 --> 1:04:35.080 that to the fringe, makes the twenty five footer and 1:04:35.200 --> 1:04:38.440 then he birdies six out of his next seven and 1:04:38.680 --> 1:04:40.800 she's twenty nine on the front. And then the part 1:04:40.960 --> 1:04:43.680 that me and another buddy we always die laughing at 1:04:44.000 --> 1:04:47.040 was on fourteen, I flew a ball in the hole 1:04:47.640 --> 1:04:49.560 and it like popped out one to a foot, blew 1:04:49.640 --> 1:04:53.040 up the lip, and Jordan lipped one out off of 1:04:53.120 --> 1:04:56.200 the blown up side the lip, and he's like kidding me, 1:04:56.960 --> 1:04:59.440 And I was just like, yeah, it's all my fault that, 1:04:59.600 --> 1:05:02.919 you know, you've made one bogie today. But like those 1:05:03.000 --> 1:05:04.959 little memories like that, like you stay with you forever. 1:05:05.120 --> 1:05:06.600 Like I brought up to Jordan the other day, He's like, 1:05:06.640 --> 1:05:08.120 I don't remember that. I'm like, yeah, because you shot 1:05:08.160 --> 1:05:10.240 have so many sixty threes in your life, you forgot 1:05:10.360 --> 1:05:13.240 I get it. I get it. But but like, you know, 1:05:13.280 --> 1:05:15.520 the same thing with Scotty, Like Scotty would go on 1:05:15.760 --> 1:05:18.600 like always wore he always wore pants to junior events. 1:05:20.960 --> 1:05:22.560 It didn't matter if it was one hundred and ten, 1:05:23.000 --> 1:05:26.400 Like dude was wearing pants, carry his own bag, you know. 1:05:26.720 --> 1:05:29.080 But through I mean there were a few times, like 1:05:29.080 --> 1:05:30.920 I remember when I was like eleven, twelve thirteen, where 1:05:30.960 --> 1:05:33.720 he was just thrown up numbers that were like like 1:05:33.800 --> 1:05:36.320 shooting sixty sixes was like an eleven year old from 1:05:36.400 --> 1:05:39.360 like sixty three hundred yards. It was just like what 1:05:40.520 --> 1:05:42.360 you know, So those are the guys that I grew 1:05:42.440 --> 1:05:44.400 up playing against. So yeah, when you ask if Chip 1:05:44.520 --> 1:05:46.760 and contests were fun of them, No they weren't, but 1:05:47.480 --> 1:05:49.840 I definitely they definitely made me better, which is a 1:05:49.920 --> 1:05:50.240 good thing. 1:05:50.840 --> 1:05:54.560 I mean, you could put it like them, uh, Patrick Reid, 1:05:55.000 --> 1:05:59.200 Like there's like the among the greatest short games and 1:05:59.520 --> 1:06:00.920 you know the last twenty years. 1:06:01.640 --> 1:06:06.080 Yeah, Like Jordan, Jordan makes the most ridiculous shots, Like 1:06:06.200 --> 1:06:09.400 gambling with him is impossible, Like playing a wolf Hammer 1:06:09.480 --> 1:06:14.720 game with him is just undeniably awful. But like with Scotty, 1:06:14.800 --> 1:06:17.959 it's just like he's gonna yeah, it's just it's gonna 1:06:18.000 --> 1:06:20.120 be like if he makes a mistakes the twelve footter 1:06:20.160 --> 1:06:21.640 for Pars going in, and then he's gonna bear you 1:06:21.640 --> 1:06:25.000 the next three. But with Jordan, it's like nine iron 1:06:25.080 --> 1:06:27.520 on one hundred and fifty yard part three left of 1:06:27.600 --> 1:06:30.480 the car path, banks it into the slope, pops up 1:06:30.520 --> 1:06:31.960 on the green and goes in the hole and we 1:06:32.040 --> 1:06:34.960 had already hammered, and I'm like, great, we'll drop that 1:06:35.120 --> 1:06:39.120 hammer back. Thanks, you know, lovely, you know. So that's 1:06:39.240 --> 1:06:42.200 like it's fun though, it makes it makes hammer games 1:06:42.240 --> 1:06:43.800 all of a sudden when people ask me why I 1:06:43.880 --> 1:06:46.760 might be dropping. I'm like, I play with Jordan a 1:06:46.880 --> 1:06:50.160 lot like that is why I'm probably dropping. I shouldn't. 1:06:50.240 --> 1:06:52.680 I know that we're gambling, but that's why. 1:06:56.320 --> 1:07:02.960 Big Golf News yesterday, Brooks kopka Is stated, what are 1:07:03.040 --> 1:07:07.600 your thoughts on Brooks rejoining the tour? And uh, did 1:07:07.680 --> 1:07:09.880 you think that the crib justified? 1:07:10.240 --> 1:07:10.400 You know? 1:07:10.680 --> 1:07:12.760 Was it was it the penalty or that he had 1:07:12.800 --> 1:07:16.720 to you know, pay the right you know? Was it 1:07:16.800 --> 1:07:17.560 the right decision? 1:07:19.240 --> 1:07:24.360 Yeah? I mean, first off, I love that he's back. 1:07:24.960 --> 1:07:29.840 Anybody who loves golf like the fact that he's going 1:07:29.920 --> 1:07:33.640 to be playing with us again. I love that. I 1:07:33.760 --> 1:07:37.120 think that's that's great for the game. There's more eyeballs 1:07:37.120 --> 1:07:39.040 that are going to be on Brooks. That's just it's 1:07:39.080 --> 1:07:42.960 good for all of us. The punishment side, yeah, I 1:07:43.400 --> 1:07:47.960 don't like my I do think it's a I do 1:07:48.120 --> 1:07:51.160 think it's a very fitting punishment, if you will. I 1:07:51.200 --> 1:07:57.200 don't like. I think any PGA Tour player at this 1:07:57.400 --> 1:08:01.480 point in time can undeniably say that they just want 1:08:01.520 --> 1:08:04.360 the best product going forward. What that is we don't know. 1:08:04.680 --> 1:08:07.600 But if you have the best players, that's that's step one. 1:08:09.400 --> 1:08:12.480 And I think when people were kind of looking at 1:08:12.520 --> 1:08:15.600 the merger talks for the longest of time or acquisition 1:08:15.760 --> 1:08:18.120 talks or whatever you want to call them, over the 1:08:18.240 --> 1:08:22.000 last eighteen months, or just lack of talking. It's like, 1:08:22.120 --> 1:08:25.599 what are we what is the PGA tour actually trying 1:08:25.800 --> 1:08:28.519 to buy? You're not trying to buy their tour. You're 1:08:28.560 --> 1:08:30.560 not trying to buy their media agreements. You're trying to 1:08:30.680 --> 1:08:35.040 get all of the players or however many players you 1:08:35.160 --> 1:08:38.320 want to say, back under one roof. So I think 1:08:38.479 --> 1:08:40.479 like when you look at it in terms of now 1:08:40.600 --> 1:08:43.640 where those of us that stayed, you know, and you 1:08:43.720 --> 1:08:46.240 have the player equity program, which is the massive piece 1:08:46.320 --> 1:08:49.599 of it. I think that's where like the player equity 1:08:49.640 --> 1:08:53.280 program is essentially acting as like another pension for the players, 1:08:53.600 --> 1:08:56.760 but we get to act as equity owners in the tour, 1:08:57.520 --> 1:09:00.280 so you know, we're voting members. We have full say. 1:09:00.400 --> 1:09:03.479 This is something that you know, Tiger, a lot of 1:09:03.520 --> 1:09:06.120 the players fought for. How we got to this point, 1:09:06.520 --> 1:09:08.720 it would be a million different steps that honestly I 1:09:08.760 --> 1:09:12.120 couldn't even tell you half of them. But the brilliance 1:09:12.120 --> 1:09:15.360 sent us the players actually owning their own tour, and 1:09:15.439 --> 1:09:18.400 that's the first sport that that's kind of ever happened. 1:09:18.960 --> 1:09:21.360 I think is now kind of takes all of a 1:09:21.400 --> 1:09:22.840 sudden if you were to kind of look at a 1:09:22.920 --> 1:09:25.600 lot of us that stayed and kind of made a 1:09:25.680 --> 1:09:28.439 lot of those like no, they're gone, that's it, And 1:09:28.520 --> 1:09:30.559 now all of a sudden where it's now a player run, 1:09:30.680 --> 1:09:34.200 player owned institution. I think any player shouldn't have an 1:09:34.240 --> 1:09:36.599 issue with it now in terms of where the tour 1:09:36.680 --> 1:09:39.240 is gonna go in twenty seven, I haven't even met 1:09:39.280 --> 1:09:41.400 Brian row Up. I mean they've asked me to, you know, 1:09:41.640 --> 1:09:43.320 catch up with them and talk, and I'm like, I'll 1:09:43.360 --> 1:09:45.400 meet you in person down the road. I've been out 1:09:45.520 --> 1:09:48.120 for five months. I don't even know who's in office 1:09:48.200 --> 1:09:50.920 right now, Like I don't know who's there. You know, 1:09:51.000 --> 1:09:55.200 we'll catch up, like when that time's right. But but yeah, 1:09:55.280 --> 1:09:58.880 I just I think having all of us back under 1:09:58.920 --> 1:10:01.600 one roof is just a win. And the fact that 1:10:01.760 --> 1:10:05.560 the tour has made it a player equity run or 1:10:05.640 --> 1:10:08.680 player equity this player equity program has made it to 1:10:08.800 --> 1:10:11.240 a point where it's like, yeah, this is when these 1:10:11.280 --> 1:10:14.120 guys come back. It benefits you, So why wouldn't you 1:10:14.160 --> 1:10:14.720 want them back? 1:10:15.600 --> 1:10:18.120 That's I mean That's the biggest thing, right, is that 1:10:18.240 --> 1:10:21.600 if you're an equity owner of the tour, it is 1:10:21.720 --> 1:10:24.439 good for the tour to have Brooks kept get back, 1:10:24.800 --> 1:10:27.599 you know, it's good for the tour. If John Rahm 1:10:28.040 --> 1:10:30.680 decided to try and come back. I don't know how 1:10:31.040 --> 1:10:33.439 some of these guys would come back with their contracts 1:10:33.560 --> 1:10:36.760 that is, but like you want, you know, certainly, you know, 1:10:36.840 --> 1:10:39.160 I don't think this is about Scott Vincent, no offense 1:10:39.240 --> 1:10:42.000 to Scott Vincent, but it's about you know, the select 1:10:42.520 --> 1:10:46.760 couple guys that actually, you know, move the you know, 1:10:48.240 --> 1:10:51.000 you know that that a fan would recognize and a 1:10:51.080 --> 1:10:52.360 fan people. 1:10:52.160 --> 1:10:54.400 Are going to come watch him or come watch Brooks 1:10:54.439 --> 1:10:58.120 at Farmers Now that like those people would maybe or 1:10:58.240 --> 1:11:00.920 maybe not be there or the on a focus that 1:11:01.720 --> 1:11:03.840 PJ Tour Live's going to have on him being back. 1:11:03.960 --> 1:11:06.240 Like that's that stuff that we need. And I think 1:11:06.320 --> 1:11:11.960 that's where it's like we for the longest time, you 1:11:12.080 --> 1:11:15.160 basically were trying to run a golf tour as a 1:11:15.240 --> 1:11:21.160 public affairs group, needing legal repor needing legal advice, while 1:11:21.240 --> 1:11:23.360 also being an m and a expert. And it's like 1:11:23.400 --> 1:11:27.320 if anybody's hiring, we're available. So I think that's where 1:11:27.439 --> 1:11:30.000 like with Brian, you know, like I've loved everything he's 1:11:30.000 --> 1:11:33.320 done from thirty thousand feet, you know, I'm I think 1:11:33.360 --> 1:11:36.439 it's been awesome, but it's like there's just so many 1:11:36.560 --> 1:11:38.200 changes that are going to be in the works. And 1:11:38.520 --> 1:11:40.680 my first few years out on tour, like I was 1:11:40.720 --> 1:11:44.000 on the player Advisory Council going through those meetings and 1:11:44.040 --> 1:11:46.120 then all of a sudden realizing that the last two 1:11:46.200 --> 1:11:49.120 hours was kind of not a waste of time, but 1:11:49.360 --> 1:11:52.080 like it just got everything we just talked about just 1:11:52.160 --> 1:11:55.080 got nixed within five minutes. It was just kind of like, 1:11:55.080 --> 1:11:58.160 all right, well maybe you just give you the summary 1:11:58.200 --> 1:12:01.000 on the back half, and like I'll just keep playing golf, 1:12:01.840 --> 1:12:05.080 and like I'm not into this institutional stuff, but you 1:12:05.160 --> 1:12:09.720 guys just have fun with that. But like I just 1:12:09.880 --> 1:12:13.120 I think at the now that we're at that point 1:12:13.240 --> 1:12:17.400 where we're able to have these conversations, I don't know 1:12:17.520 --> 1:12:19.720 how they feel about it. I don't know how if 1:12:19.760 --> 1:12:23.680 they feel the punishment's right or wrong or whatever. That's 1:12:23.800 --> 1:12:26.840 kind of not up for me to decide, and I'm 1:12:26.920 --> 1:12:28.600 kind of glad it's not for me to decide. I 1:12:28.760 --> 1:12:31.000 just know that I want them playing under our umbrella. 1:12:31.160 --> 1:12:33.800 The punishments, the punishment. You know, if other guys have 1:12:33.960 --> 1:12:36.519 issues with it, I'm happy to hear it, but I 1:12:37.439 --> 1:12:38.400 I don't have an issue with it. 1:12:42.240 --> 1:12:45.519 Jeff Ogilvy said up this podcast once that if about 1:12:45.560 --> 1:12:47.800 the Player Advisory Council, if you put if you lock 1:12:47.880 --> 1:12:50.880 twelve people in the room long enough, they could talk 1:12:50.920 --> 1:12:52.000 themselves into anything. 1:12:52.240 --> 1:12:58.200 So yeah, oh, I have it on. Multiple veterans have 1:12:58.360 --> 1:13:00.679 walked into those meetings and I'm not saying their names 1:13:00.680 --> 1:13:03.080 because I love them dearly, but they've walked in those 1:13:03.160 --> 1:13:05.840 meetings and said, after ninety minutes, you have to start 1:13:05.880 --> 1:13:12.439 paying me. And they've gotten way way more productive. Like 1:13:12.680 --> 1:13:16.479 they've got different subcommittees now, like it is run. It's 1:13:16.640 --> 1:13:19.920 run as an institution as opposed to a golf tour 1:13:20.040 --> 1:13:22.479 that owns all these assets and trying to figure it out. 1:13:23.320 --> 1:13:25.720 So it's way way better than when I was there. 1:13:26.840 --> 1:13:28.840 But so that's why, like when I come back, I'm 1:13:29.040 --> 1:13:31.000 I'm honestly just kind of looking at it as like, 1:13:31.040 --> 1:13:33.919 all right, what are you guys doing? You know, I'm 1:13:34.600 --> 1:13:36.760 happy to give my input where it is, but just 1:13:36.880 --> 1:13:38.880 so many things they're going to keep changing and I'm 1:13:38.960 --> 1:13:41.120 just I'm gonna go try to play my best golf 1:13:41.120 --> 1:13:42.519 and hopefully I get a spot next week. 1:13:44.280 --> 1:13:48.080 You basically have never played on a Ryder Cup or 1:13:48.120 --> 1:13:52.559 a President's Cup team, which is, you know, unfortunate. I'm 1:13:52.720 --> 1:13:56.360 curious as a as a spectator of the American Ryder 1:13:56.479 --> 1:14:01.280 Cup team, do you think that there's like something that 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:05.439 Europeans do better or is this just kind of Hey, 1:14:05.520 --> 1:14:08.840 it's it's a bunch of you know, kind of they 1:14:09.000 --> 1:14:12.759 just outperformed us on a biannual basis. 1:14:13.479 --> 1:14:21.439 It's I don't I mean, at least the setup for 1:14:21.560 --> 1:14:24.640 this one was obviously the biggest issue that we can 1:14:24.880 --> 1:14:29.519 undeniably say that that the at least from minuder standing 1:14:29.560 --> 1:14:33.160 on the Ryder Cup side, we started messing around with 1:14:33.280 --> 1:14:40.679 the setup pretty heavily at in Minnesota, I think, yeah, 1:14:40.720 --> 1:14:45.320 hazelteen in like sixteen, is that right? We started messing 1:14:45.400 --> 1:14:49.880 with the setup a lot and to benefit us. And 1:14:50.040 --> 1:14:56.040 then you go to Rome and it's like, Okay, all 1:14:56.080 --> 1:15:00.639 of our guys hit in an absolute mile and wedging 1:15:00.760 --> 1:15:03.679 and shipping is not really like the forte of the team. 1:15:03.760 --> 1:15:06.479 Obviously the best twelve Americans in the world. That's saying 1:15:06.520 --> 1:15:10.320 they're not the best is subjective, but they basically moved 1:15:10.400 --> 1:15:14.240 every single par four under four hundred yards or like 1:15:14.400 --> 1:15:16.720 under three eighty and then they just took all of 1:15:16.760 --> 1:15:19.439 the four hundred and sixty yard holes and pushed it 1:15:19.600 --> 1:15:21.439 all the way back to like five hundred, so there's 1:15:21.520 --> 1:15:24.040 no par fors between four hundred and five hundred. Like 1:15:24.120 --> 1:15:26.160 basically there was like one or two a day max 1:15:26.280 --> 1:15:30.280 on the par fours. And it's like that ingenious setup, 1:15:30.439 --> 1:15:32.559 only like that's just like a point and a half 1:15:32.640 --> 1:15:34.120 or whatever you want to say. It is right there 1:15:34.960 --> 1:15:37.600 when it comes to like them just beating us with 1:15:37.680 --> 1:15:40.720 the camaraderie. I don't know. I've only been on a 1:15:40.800 --> 1:15:44.479 Walker Cup team. I've been to a President's Cup for 1:15:44.560 --> 1:15:47.320 the first day in twenty two. They invited me because 1:15:47.320 --> 1:15:48.920 they would have been on the team, but I got hurt. 1:15:49.880 --> 1:15:52.479 So I got to see like kind of the inner workings. 1:15:52.520 --> 1:15:55.960 I guess of how it works in general. You know 1:15:56.040 --> 1:15:59.559 where you have like here's some stats, guys, Physiogan's over 1:15:59.640 --> 1:16:01.800 here is our team meeting room, Like just to see 1:16:02.200 --> 1:16:04.519 all the you know, man, the stuff that they have 1:16:04.640 --> 1:16:07.760 to do, just see how it works. The Ryder Cup. 1:16:07.920 --> 1:16:14.360 I don't know I I mean the when you look 1:16:14.400 --> 1:16:16.880 at like the Walker Cup in general, it's been pretty 1:16:16.960 --> 1:16:19.799 fifty to fifty over the last like I think thirty 1:16:19.920 --> 1:16:24.800 ish sessions and then you extrapolate that and then all 1:16:24.800 --> 1:16:28.200 of a sudden we get absolutely destroyed in the Ryder Cups. 1:16:28.240 --> 1:16:32.200 So for me, I'm I'm at a little bit of 1:16:32.240 --> 1:16:34.200 a loss. I thought some of the pairings were maybe 1:16:34.439 --> 1:16:37.120 like not our best pairings in general. I know, none 1:16:37.160 --> 1:16:39.080 of this is stuff that you know, This isn't earth 1:16:39.120 --> 1:16:42.640 breaking stuff. You know that I'm saying, but it's I 1:16:42.760 --> 1:16:44.559 just felt like there was a little bit too much, 1:16:44.880 --> 1:16:49.080 too much thought going into there, Like you know, if 1:16:49.200 --> 1:16:51.679 one guy says, you know, if there's one guy that says, 1:16:52.000 --> 1:16:55.439 you know, hey, I like, uh, there's a lot of 1:16:55.479 --> 1:16:57.160 mid irons here. I feel like my mid iron game 1:16:57.240 --> 1:16:59.559 is strong. It's kind of like do you just tell 1:16:59.600 --> 1:17:01.679 them no, Like you just tell one of the best players, 1:17:01.760 --> 1:17:04.160 but one of the best players in the world like yeah, 1:17:04.280 --> 1:17:07.400 but like stats are saying like not even close, this 1:17:07.520 --> 1:17:10.960 is not you. And so I think a little bit 1:17:11.000 --> 1:17:13.560 of that. And I don't mean to like speak for 1:17:13.640 --> 1:17:15.960 the captains and the vice captains of like why they 1:17:16.040 --> 1:17:17.840 picked who they picked, But it's a little bit of 1:17:17.960 --> 1:17:20.920 like why did you pick who you picked? Like, why 1:17:20.960 --> 1:17:22.519 did you put these parents together? You know what I mean. 1:17:22.560 --> 1:17:25.840 I'm like, I don't know. I just I And this 1:17:26.000 --> 1:17:27.800 is me not being somebody who's ever played on a 1:17:27.880 --> 1:17:29.439 Ryder Cup, but just kind of looking at it and 1:17:29.520 --> 1:17:31.479 I'm like, I don't know, I even I don't know, 1:17:31.640 --> 1:17:38.519 but I know that I was it. Next one's no, 1:17:39.520 --> 1:17:40.880 where's the next one that's in the stakes? 1:17:42.200 --> 1:17:43.960 And then I think it's Hazel Team again? 1:17:45.360 --> 1:17:47.000 Is it back at Hazel Team? Yeah? I can remember 1:17:47.080 --> 1:17:48.720 Madonna is the President's. 1:17:48.360 --> 1:17:51.360 Cup, right, Yeah, President that you should go see that. 1:17:51.520 --> 1:17:53.200 I mean, it's another big boy golf course. 1:17:54.120 --> 1:17:58.360 Yeah, new But Dinah's really cool. I'm actually really excited 1:17:58.360 --> 1:18:01.519 about the Presidents. Hopefully you'll be playing on this team, 1:18:01.640 --> 1:18:05.840 you know, that would be that'd be great. But uh yeah, 1:18:06.320 --> 1:18:09.680 the whole the whole Ryder Cup things that I think 1:18:09.720 --> 1:18:13.560 there is like a certain aspect of like they just 1:18:13.640 --> 1:18:16.479 played better for a while, and there were a couple 1:18:16.520 --> 1:18:22.840 of decisions head scratchers that might have, you know, gotten 1:18:23.000 --> 1:18:25.040 the US team out of the gates a little slower 1:18:25.080 --> 1:18:27.519 than they could have. But like those guys played great 1:18:27.640 --> 1:18:29.920 and that like, that's the thing. I think the difference 1:18:29.960 --> 1:18:32.160 between match play and stroke play is like the other 1:18:32.479 --> 1:18:35.600 part of this where it's a different format and like 1:18:36.479 --> 1:18:38.840 you can you know, go out and play incredible and 1:18:38.920 --> 1:18:40.800 still lose, you know, And I think that's like the 1:18:41.200 --> 1:18:44.760 tricky thing with with with this And yeah, I don't 1:18:44.800 --> 1:18:46.720 know I would agree with the setup. The setup was 1:18:46.760 --> 1:18:47.599 like a head scratcher. 1:18:48.040 --> 1:18:48.200 You know. 1:18:48.280 --> 1:18:51.080 The Europeans were, I think floored when they saw the setup. 1:18:52.520 --> 1:18:55.000 Let's get you out of here on one last kind 1:18:55.000 --> 1:18:57.799 of fun question. In your opinion, who's the best player 1:18:57.880 --> 1:19:00.439 in the world that nobody talks about? Does get the 1:19:00.560 --> 1:19:03.200 most well, we can say the most underrated golfer in 1:19:03.280 --> 1:19:14.439 the world. Underrated just doesn't get talked about as much 1:19:14.520 --> 1:19:18.200 as they should given the talent level. And when you 1:19:18.360 --> 1:19:21.960 watch them play, you're like, holy shit, I can't believe. 1:19:22.240 --> 1:19:24.960 So I will say this and I hate ever saying 1:19:25.000 --> 1:19:28.439 this about putting any like I don't even want to 1:19:28.479 --> 1:19:30.559 put expectations on the kids. He's such a good kid 1:19:30.600 --> 1:19:33.320 and he won't even care that is this. But Miles Russell, 1:19:34.240 --> 1:19:37.679 who's the sixteen seventeen year old he's going to Florida 1:19:37.760 --> 1:19:42.679 State I'm just telling you, like I grew up with Jordan, 1:19:42.880 --> 1:19:45.439 I grew up with Scottie rom was the guy when 1:19:45.479 --> 1:19:48.640 I was in college, Like, this kid's sixteen seventeen, and 1:19:48.760 --> 1:19:53.000 he's so mature, Like he's way way more mature than 1:19:53.040 --> 1:19:54.560 I am. Like even when it comes down to the 1:19:54.600 --> 1:19:56.760 golf course where I'm just like, you're doing stuff that 1:19:56.840 --> 1:19:59.040 I've like I've paid people to help me with, Like 1:20:00.280 --> 1:20:02.360 and you're sixteen seventeen, you do it naturally. And the 1:20:02.479 --> 1:20:04.519 kid's golf kids golf game. He's one of the most 1:20:04.640 --> 1:20:07.320 naturally gifted kids I think I've ever seen. I know 1:20:07.400 --> 1:20:09.719 that that's ridiculous because I know you want a tour answer. 1:20:10.439 --> 1:20:14.880 I'm just telling you this kid is he's another kid 1:20:14.920 --> 1:20:19.240 who's like he's such a good kid, and he's so good, 1:20:19.680 --> 1:20:22.200 like just it was it was just one of those 1:20:22.280 --> 1:20:24.120 rounds where like when I watched him play, I was 1:20:24.160 --> 1:20:28.000 like looking because we sure we actually share our guy 1:20:28.120 --> 1:20:29.920 does his in a ile stuff's also my agent and 1:20:30.160 --> 1:20:31.479 so I've got to spend a whole time with them. 1:20:31.520 --> 1:20:35.439 But every time I've been around this kid, I'm just like, wow, 1:20:36.200 --> 1:20:39.879 like you are like you you are, you are sixteen 1:20:39.960 --> 1:20:44.200 seventeen and you're doing stuff that tour pros can't even do. So, yeah, 1:20:44.520 --> 1:20:47.400 that's a guy that I'm I'm very excited for. I'm 1:20:47.400 --> 1:20:49.880 always in that kid's corner, like I'm I'm that kid's 1:20:49.880 --> 1:20:52.000 biggest cheerleader, like I want I want him to be 1:20:52.320 --> 1:20:54.720 the next big thing because he's he's such a good 1:20:54.760 --> 1:20:57.120 kid and he's so good. But there's so many kids 1:20:57.160 --> 1:20:58.840 coming up in college now. They all got one eighty 1:20:58.880 --> 1:21:00.720 five ball speed and they all you know, they're all 1:21:00.880 --> 1:21:02.560 hit it a mile and they're all pluck good. And 1:21:03.400 --> 1:21:05.760 I'm over there doing my speed drills and you know, 1:21:05.920 --> 1:21:08.200 hit my wedges and I'm not going to be your 1:21:08.320 --> 1:21:10.400 three forty guy off the tea anymore. I might be 1:21:10.520 --> 1:21:14.160 three twenty, but you know, I'll be getting airmailed about 1:21:14.160 --> 1:21:16.040 all the young kids coming out. That's just how it 1:21:16.120 --> 1:21:19.880 always is. But yeah, Miles, I'm telling you, Miles, this kid's, 1:21:20.040 --> 1:21:22.160 this kid's, this kid's gonna be special. 1:21:22.600 --> 1:21:26.439 There is special the uh it'll you know. And I 1:21:26.520 --> 1:21:31.439 think like in a way, navigating junior golf and college 1:21:31.520 --> 1:21:35.600 golf for kids in the nil era is like, you know, 1:21:35.680 --> 1:21:38.639 people will say, oh, it's not challenging because they're getting paid. 1:21:39.320 --> 1:21:43.320 I think that makes being a junior golfer and a 1:21:43.479 --> 1:21:49.600 college golfer more difficult because of expectations and just like 1:21:50.280 --> 1:21:52.920 it's not just I'm going out and having fun. 1:21:53.600 --> 1:21:58.040 Yeah no, And I think that's where I'm I shouldn't 1:21:58.040 --> 1:22:00.599 even say proud of them because that's just coming off 1:22:00.640 --> 1:22:04.640 as condescending. But it's like he just doesn't care about that, 1:22:04.880 --> 1:22:07.680 about all that other stuff. He just wants to be 1:22:07.880 --> 1:22:10.479 really really good at golf. And I think when you 1:22:10.560 --> 1:22:13.880 see somebody like coming in the nil era and they're 1:22:13.960 --> 1:22:19.479 just like, yeah, this like deal or whatever, I just don't, 1:22:19.680 --> 1:22:23.160 I don't care. Like that reminds me of Scotty. Scotty's 1:22:23.240 --> 1:22:27.439 like he just he's like, yeah, I like this hat. 1:22:27.760 --> 1:22:29.519 You know, this hat has holes in it, it's got 1:22:29.520 --> 1:22:31.840 sweat stains, But I like this hat. That's the only 1:22:31.880 --> 1:22:34.000 reason why I wear it. And I love guys like 1:22:34.080 --> 1:22:37.160 that because it's you know, so I think, I know 1:22:37.320 --> 1:22:39.799 it's it's crazy to I wouldn't even say it's crazy 1:22:39.880 --> 1:22:43.400 to say, but yeah, I just this kid, he's got 1:22:43.479 --> 1:22:45.519 no holes in his game. It's just a matter of time. 1:22:46.080 --> 1:22:49.280 Like I'm I'm one of those guys on him where 1:22:49.360 --> 1:22:52.240 I'm like, yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna be proven right, 1:22:52.320 --> 1:22:54.040 and I want all you guys to just remember that. 1:22:55.800 --> 1:22:58.320 All right, Well, we'll keep those receipts for a couple 1:22:58.320 --> 1:23:01.519 of years from now. Now we have it, so you'll 1:23:01.560 --> 1:23:03.760 be able to play the clip. You'll say, hey, I 1:23:03.880 --> 1:23:07.160 told you in twenty twenty six. Will can't wait to 1:23:07.240 --> 1:23:11.240 watch you play Palm Springs and see you back out there. 1:23:11.360 --> 1:23:13.479 I think it's one of the one of the big 1:23:13.560 --> 1:23:16.519 stories of twenty twenty six and look forward to seeing 1:23:16.560 --> 1:23:20.519 you have a chance late on Sunday at some more majors. 1:23:21.760 --> 1:23:34.680 Thanks Man, really appreciate it, all right. 1:23:34.760 --> 1:23:37.640 Big thanks to Will for joining and giving us so 1:23:37.760 --> 1:23:40.120 much of his time. Look forward to seeing him back 1:23:40.240 --> 1:23:45.200 on the PGA tour at Lakina and PGA West. Big 1:23:45.320 --> 1:23:48.719 thanks also to PJ. Clark for editing and producing this show. 1:23:49.360 --> 1:23:50.840 And we'll see you next week.