Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Bush podcast. Your host Claude
Speaker 1: ha Rman. My guest this week is a nineteen year
Speaker 1: old sophomore at the University of Iowa. You just lost
Speaker 1: in the finals of the us AM. It would have
Speaker 1: been much cooler to say, no, you won in the
Speaker 1: finals of the us AM. But I mean it was
Speaker 1: a hell of a summer for you. I mean what happened.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously, you played great at Iowa last year
Speaker 1: as a freshman, led the team in scoring average, played
Speaker 1: in every tournament as a freshman, which I think is
Speaker 1: a Division one college golfer is very very rare. Your
Speaker 1: stroke average was great, you had a bunch of top tens.
Speaker 1: But you went into the us AM I think ranked
Speaker 1: five hundred and sixty and in the Wagger rankings and
Speaker 1: you got to the finals. So it's been about just
Speaker 1: a little bit under a month. Have you had time
Speaker 1: to decompress and have any kind of reflection on what
Speaker 1: you actually kind of did. I'm second at the Porter
Speaker 1: Cup this summer, so that was a huge stepping stone.
Speaker 1: I think the year in the development. But I mean
Speaker 1: the USM is you know, it's close to being a
Speaker 1: major for you know, you look at the names on
Speaker 1: that trophy of everybody who's wanted. But if you had
Speaker 1: a chance to kind of take stock of what.
Speaker 2: Happened, Yeah, I just want to say thank you so
Speaker 2: much for having me on. This is awesome. It means
Speaker 2: a lot. I don't know. I really haven't reflected yet,
Speaker 2: to be quite honest. I mean, I mean, yeah, my
Speaker 2: dad sent me a thing, and so my parents, my
Speaker 2: mom and Dana. It's just like you get to eat,
Speaker 2: like you see the stuff on Gulf Diye. Just it's
Speaker 2: like here's the Masters field, like going into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: It's just like you see your name and it's just like, huh,
Speaker 2: that's pretty interesting. But it's like, yeah, I mean it
Speaker 2: was a ton of fun. I feel like talking to
Speaker 2: you and talking to Brett, like everybody around me, I
Speaker 2: have like a really awesome team, which means the world
Speaker 2: who all believe in me, probably more than I believe
Speaker 2: in myself at times. So I feel like for me,
Speaker 2: I finally believed in myself the way I should and
Speaker 2: it kind of reflected as as belief. But I guess
Speaker 2: in the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean for everyone listening that doesn't know if
Speaker 1: you make it to the finals of the US Amateur,
Speaker 1: you get into the Masters, and the following year you
Speaker 1: get into the US Open. I want to go back
Speaker 1: to the beginning. Your dad was a golfer. He played
Speaker 1: in the US Junior. Your stepdad, Data Fryes, a golf
Speaker 1: course architect, designed Aaron Hills where Brooks won his first
Speaker 1: major championship. I was there your stepdad, Dana. He took
Speaker 1: you to that tournament. You met Rory McElroy. You were
Speaker 1: playing hockey at that point. How old were you back then?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm bad at math, so.
Speaker 2: I think it was nine in twenty seventeen ten.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to guess because I would have failed.
Speaker 1: So you're nine years old, you meet Rory McElroy out
Speaker 1: of major championship. What was that like? I mean, he
Speaker 1: obviously you knew who he was, but how did that
Speaker 1: come about? And what was that experience like for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he missed the cut, which is kind of
Speaker 2: funny because somebody still gave me time. And Dana met
Speaker 2: Sean earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: Seawn his agent, Sean Flerty. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know the thing, it kind of stuck out.
Speaker 2: It's like Rory is not that tall Orray's not that big,
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of like, how do you hit the
Speaker 2: ball so far? And he told me how it's all
Speaker 2: in your legs, And I feel like whenever I met him,
Speaker 2: I'm like, this would be kind of cool to do it.
Speaker 2: He just did, like playing a major championship. Like I'm
Speaker 2: a little kid, like not really thinking much of it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, like I want to quit hockey and
Speaker 2: play golf.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, not many kids like get that
Speaker 1: opportunity to meet, you know, someone from another sport who
Speaker 1: is a you know, I mean Rory at that point,
Speaker 1: is it's incredible that he's still sitting on the same
Speaker 1: amount of majors in twenty four that he was sitting
Speaker 1: on in seventeen. He's been the number one player in
Speaker 1: the world. I mean, you can make an argument that
Speaker 1: when he's on I mean, I think he's one of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world day in and day out.
Speaker 1: I think he'll go down as one of the best
Speaker 1: of this generation. But you made the decision to change,
Speaker 1: and you played a lot of golf up until that point.
Speaker 1: I mean, what was your by the time you were
Speaker 1: nine ten years old, when you decided to choose the
Speaker 1: pathway of saying, Okay, I'm going to just play competitive
Speaker 1: junior golf. How much golf had you really played?
Speaker 2: My dad got me starting it, but I feel like
Speaker 2: Dana played probably the biggest role in like really getting
Speaker 2: me into it. So he did a course called Colucive Pines,
Speaker 2: which is right by where I live in Naples, Florida.
Speaker 2: And I did a chipping competition no longer after that
Speaker 2: with Rocko Media eight and I hold a couple chip
Speaker 2: shots in front of him, and you know, it's kind
Speaker 2: of like you got like a little I didn't even
Speaker 2: know what my ego was at the time that young,
Speaker 2: when he kind of like boosted me up like oh yeah,
Speaker 2: like you're a really good chipper. And it's like kind
Speaker 2: of after that, like you get told you're good at
Speaker 2: something when you're a little kid, and you're kind of like, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe I start doing this more, and yeah, I just
Speaker 2: started taking it serious. From there.
Speaker 1: I read a story that Tommy Morrison, who's you know,
Speaker 1: Tommy's a stud right playing at the University of Texas.
Speaker 1: He came and played in a tournament. Was it at
Speaker 1: Calusa or Naples? When you were how old Naples National.
Speaker 1: I was the Terra Cotta, right, the Terracotta Amateur, which
Speaker 1: is a which is a big junior golf tournament. A
Speaker 1: bunch of players have won that before. Tommy is you know,
Speaker 1: I mean he's a larger than what's he like, six
Speaker 1: seven six eight?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I met him when that year as we were
Speaker 2: both fourteen. He was six eight and I was five
Speaker 2: six six eight.
Speaker 1: Is a prech as a fourteen year old. You're six '
Speaker 1: four now, so you don't have to look up to
Speaker 1: him as much. But again, you meet a young, you know,
Speaker 1: player who was getting a lot of buzz at that time,
Speaker 1: and he spends time with you. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: huge for kids, Noah, to have these kind of data
Speaker 1: points in your life. Right, everybody wants to be you know,
Speaker 1: when you're a junior golfer, I think everybody wants to
Speaker 1: be their heroes, right, you want to be Scotty Scheffler,
Speaker 1: Ory McElroy, genre whoever it is. But when you meet
Speaker 1: someone who's kind of a similar age that you're at,
Speaker 1: it's a junior golfer like you are, I think it
Speaker 1: can be a really big boost to help kind of
Speaker 1: plant that seed to where Okay, I could do this
Speaker 1: as well. So you meet him, did you play with him?
Speaker 1: Did you watch him practice? What was that story?
Speaker 2: So I was a standard Bear that year. So I
Speaker 2: was taking scores and I told Dana, I'm like, go
Speaker 2: watch this kid play. Like I know he's fourteen. I
Speaker 2: think he's pretty good. I didn't know how Tolly was actually,
Speaker 2: So then after a round I met him. We got
Speaker 2: a photo and I'm like, I want to go play
Speaker 2: nine holes, like you want to come play with and
Speaker 2: he was hitting the two iron pass my driver. And
Speaker 2: after the round, I go to Dana, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I got a long way to go if he's fourteen,
Speaker 2: and I'm fourteen, Like so yeah, I mean we actually
Speaker 2: played a practice round together before the USM at Chaska
Speaker 2: Town Course, and the funny thing was was on the
Speaker 2: seventh hole, I went up to him like it's not
Speaker 2: like we're fourteen anymore, and I'm like twenty by him now.
Speaker 2: So it's funny the kid.
Speaker 1: I think he's got a bright future. And when you
Speaker 1: see him, you just don't see golfers that big. But
Speaker 1: I think you now, as a sophomore, you are kind
Speaker 1: of the prototype of what we see the modern and
Speaker 1: a junior golfer and modern college golfer six foot four.
Speaker 1: Just to piss everybody off, that's that's not a superstar
Speaker 1: like yourself as an amateur. What's your ball speed? What's
Speaker 1: your clubhead speed? Right now? Who's like not trying to
Speaker 1: go after once? What do you kind of cruise clubheadspeed
Speaker 1: and ball speed at.
Speaker 2: I'd probably say it's like probably somewhere between like twenty
Speaker 2: three and twenty six, and it's probably like eighty four
Speaker 2: to like eighty eight somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: Okay, So for everybody listening, that's one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: two to one hundred and twenty three miles per hour
Speaker 1: cluppet speed and kind of mid one eighties ball speed,
Speaker 1: which is on a pore with some of the longest
Speaker 1: hitters in the game. I mean, we'll just keep going
Speaker 1: with this to piss everybody off. How far are you
Speaker 1: here in five iron carry, no wind, flat carry, not
Speaker 1: trying to kill one to twenty five twenty five? Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. Everybody's gonna love that seven iron.
Speaker 2: One ninety five two hundred.
Speaker 1: One ninety five, two hundred. You know you can step
Speaker 1: on it and get it to two fifteen. Okay, this
Speaker 1: will be the one that treats everybody out nine iron?
Speaker 1: How far are you here?
Speaker 2: Nine?
Speaker 1: I just stock nine iron, no wind, flat line.
Speaker 2: One hundred and sixty, one hundred and sixty five.
Speaker 1: When I first saw you, I mean, what's it been
Speaker 1: like four years ago? I think four years ago. I
Speaker 1: mean obviously when someone like you as a young kid
Speaker 1: gets brought, you know, by their parents. To me, I'm
Speaker 1: lucky enough to work with some really good players that
Speaker 1: have a tremendous amount of speed, and I've got to
Speaker 1: be honest with you. See you hit a golf ball
Speaker 1: and watching you kind of ramp up through that first
Speaker 1: lesson we got looking at the size you were looking
Speaker 1: at kind of the raw speed that you had, it
Speaker 1: reminded me a lot of the first time that I
Speaker 1: saw Brooks. I met Brooks after he graduated from Florida State.
Speaker 1: He was Peter u Line's roommate. They were playing on
Speaker 1: the Challenge Store. I was working with DJ at the time,
Speaker 1: but I was working with Ernie Els he just won
Speaker 1: his fourth major, and I saw Brooks and I'm just
Speaker 1: watching the speed, and I think it was a very
Speaker 1: similar situation and watching you, I mean I went away
Speaker 1: from that first golf lesson even though you were still
Speaker 1: really really young and still really really raw. You have
Speaker 1: a lot of the attributes in golf that you can't teach. Right.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like being a running back or
Speaker 1: a wide receiver, either faster or not right. You can
Speaker 1: either teach that maybe, but either have that. So you
Speaker 1: have all this speed, you have all this power, and
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's taken you
Speaker 1: a while to kind of grow into that, to kind
Speaker 1: of understand the speed and the power or you have,
Speaker 1: but also how to use that. Have you noticed, Noah,
Speaker 1: the jump from being a high school junior golfer to
Speaker 1: now going into your second year as a college golfer.
Speaker 1: How have you learned and tried to deal with the
Speaker 1: fact that you have this kind of formula one kind
Speaker 1: of race car, right? I mean you can go as
Speaker 1: fast as you want if we tell you to hit
Speaker 1: it further. I mean, if you really want to jump
Speaker 1: on one with your driver, I mean, how far do
Speaker 1: you feel like you can carry it in the air?
Speaker 1: You really want to step on one?
Speaker 2: I got one last winter time in the simulator was
Speaker 2: called here. I got one three sixty at sea level.
Speaker 1: So the obvious question is you just played your first
Speaker 1: tournament of the year for the University of Iiowa. You
Speaker 1: guys went up to Minnesota. Back to Minnesota where the
Speaker 1: USAMA was not at hazel team, but good vibes up there.
Speaker 1: Took me through the eight that you make on a
Speaker 1: part five with all the damn speed you have. Talk
Speaker 1: me through that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great great hole to ask about. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2: So I feel like whenever I hit a cut, now
Speaker 2: that's something we've worked on together, and you know, I
Speaker 2: decided to try and not hit a cut, which was
Speaker 2: a dumb, nineteen year old decision that I decided to make.
Speaker 2: And yeah, that golf ball's gone living in the woods
Speaker 2: somewhere in Minnesota and.
Speaker 1: Going to have a cold winter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I hit another one with my mini
Speaker 2: driver and I had to take an unplayable after that drive,
Speaker 2: and yeah, made Nate. That's how that.
Speaker 1: You know, when you juniors and college players, you know,
Speaker 1: talk about these big numbers you make, there's always this
Speaker 1: story about, you know, I did this and I did that.
Speaker 1: Then it hit into you know, I mean the two iron.
Speaker 1: You've got your back how far you carry that?
Speaker 2: I took that out. I have a five wood now.
Speaker 1: Okay, so how far you carry the five one comfortable.
Speaker 2: Is probably to sixty five?
Speaker 1: Okay. How long was the par five you just made
Speaker 1: Nate on. I mean it wasn't seven hundred yards tixo
Speaker 1: five okay, so you still could have hit five wood
Speaker 1: in the middle of the fairway. Lay up, Yeah, make
Speaker 1: a birdie. The jump from junior golf to college golf.
Speaker 1: What have you noticed is the difference for you as
Speaker 1: a player, right, because there is a big step right
Speaker 1: every developmental stage that you go at as an athlete,
Speaker 1: but specifically as a golfer, there is a jump from
Speaker 1: junior golf from you know, AJGA golf to high level
Speaker 1: junior golf and then the level that you're trying to
Speaker 1: go out now. When you got to Iowa as a freshman,
Speaker 1: the mac McLear story fifth your senior two time Big
Speaker 1: Big ten champ, tell everybody what you decided to tell
Speaker 1: your coach that you wanted to do as soon as
Speaker 1: you got to Iowa as a freshman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just wanted them as much as I can
Speaker 2: and beat them as much as I can, And I
Speaker 2: kind of I kind of did that, So that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: So you said to your coach, Hey, he's the best
Speaker 1: player on the team, he's kind of a stud. I'm
Speaker 1: a freshman coming in. I want to play him and
Speaker 1: see what I can do. You won, right, Yeah, three
Speaker 1: and two, three and two. What did you notice about
Speaker 1: your game going up against someone who's obviously in the
Speaker 1: college ranks, a fifty year senior, two time Big ten champ.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the stud of the team, right. Every
Speaker 1: college golf team kind of has that guy that is
Speaker 1: the stud. Most of the time they're either you know,
Speaker 1: juniors or seniors. But there are guys that are studs
Speaker 1: as a freshman, as a sophomore, but very rarely. But
Speaker 1: when you got to iowan you kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: let's be honest. You called out Mac and Sid listen,
Speaker 1: I want to see what my game can do against
Speaker 1: the team's best player. Were you surprised at the way
Speaker 1: you played? Were you surprised at the way he played?
Speaker 1: What did you notice about that day?
Speaker 2: Uh? I figured out that he doesn't make as many
Speaker 2: big numbers as I do. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: everybody who's the best in college golf. What I've realized
Speaker 2: I've learned a lot from my freshman a sophomore, you're
Speaker 2: like freshman year, I'm kind of looking in like wow,
Speaker 2: like everybody's like really good. And you get to your
Speaker 2: sophomore and now I kind of feel like I'm kind
Speaker 2: of one of the bigger dogs, like people are kind
Speaker 2: of looking up to me now. But like as a freshman,
Speaker 2: like you see Mac and it's like you don't make
Speaker 2: a big number, Like he doesn't make a double bogie,
Speaker 2: Like he makes a bogie at worst. And that's something
Speaker 2: like you talk about how I'm like a race car driver, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can make seven birdies around, but I can make
Speaker 2: two triples and a bogie or something.
Speaker 1: You can crash the car, right, you can have the
Speaker 1: fastest lap in the race, be leading the race, and
Speaker 1: then just through. But I think a lot of that
Speaker 1: no is you don't know what you don't know, right,
Speaker 1: And so the learning curve, like you said your freshman year,
Speaker 1: I think saying every tournament, qualifying for every tournament you've
Speaker 1: got how many you're what four or five tournaments in
Speaker 1: the fall, four or five tournaments in the spring, You've
Speaker 1: got to go qualify for those? What's it for everybody
Speaker 1: listening your college freshman, what's the qualifying process like for
Speaker 1: people that don't know, is a Division one college golfer?
Speaker 2: Yeap. So for our first event on a fall, we'll
Speaker 2: do we did five rounds of qualifying, so play five rounds,
Speaker 2: eighteen holes. Top three guys make it and it's two
Speaker 2: coaches picks. So yeah, won the qualifying this year by ten,
Speaker 2: So that was quite nice.
Speaker 1: What you do last year in the first qualifier.
Speaker 2: They shot on a shoot. Last year I came second.
Speaker 2: I shot fourteen hunder and lost by eleven. Yeah to
Speaker 2: mac so that was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Was there a learning curve in playing the golf courses
Speaker 1: your freshman year, because obviously you're going to be playing
Speaker 1: on maybe something You're lucky that you grew up kind
Speaker 1: of in Naples. You grew up on good golf courses,
Speaker 1: but still you're going to be going from that jump
Speaker 1: from high school golf to and junior golf to college golf.
Speaker 1: The golf courses are going to be longer, they're going
Speaker 1: to be more difficult, They're going to tuck the pins.
Speaker 1: What do you feel like your freshman year at the
Speaker 1: University of Iowa that you learned from yourself, that you
Speaker 1: learned from your teammates, but more importantly, what you learn
Speaker 1: from your coaches at Iowa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I feel like everybody in junior golf,
Speaker 2: and I mean I can attest to it because I
Speaker 2: know how I was. I mean, you think your prime
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods in nineteen ninety nine and you see a pen,
Speaker 2: you fire at the pin and you hope it's really close.
Speaker 2: And you get to college and the pins are three off,
Speaker 2: the corners above ridges, the greens are firm. Every course
Speaker 2: you play in college golf is good at the Division
Speaker 2: one level. Every single golf course you're gonna play is
Speaker 2: gonna be good, and it's gonna they're gonna make it
Speaker 2: as hard as you can. I feel like the thing
Speaker 2: that I've taken in for my coaches, especially from you,
Speaker 2: is like you have to pick and choose your points
Speaker 2: and when to use my speed and when to use
Speaker 2: my talent that I'm lucky enough to have, and I
Speaker 2: work really hard to keep it and get it better
Speaker 2: and better and better to where I want to go.
Speaker 2: And it's like if the pick and choose your spots,
Speaker 2: I feel like you told me one time. We're talking
Speaker 2: about Brooks like asking how many flagsticks and a major
Speaker 2: championship he aims at and I think you said for
Speaker 2: four rounds. It was something like four and four rounds.
Speaker 1: He just doesn't do it that all state. And I
Speaker 1: think you know, certainly, but that's something that no one
Speaker 1: can tell you, right. I mean I can sit here,
Speaker 1: no matter how many good players that I've worked with,
Speaker 1: no matter how much information I can give you, it's
Speaker 1: still you as the player, having to go out and
Speaker 1: make those mistakes yourself. Do you feel like you've learned
Speaker 1: from the experiences that you had that freshman year of
Speaker 1: college that you feel like are starting to become kind
Speaker 1: of I don't want to say non negotiables for you,
Speaker 1: but I think you have a better understanding of how
Speaker 1: to play the game. But like you said, when you're
Speaker 1: a junior, you can get by I think on being long, right,
Speaker 1: I mean when you were in high school. I mean,
Speaker 1: how much further past everybody on your high school team?
Speaker 1: Are you hitting it? One hundred?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty it's a long way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you get to Iowa. What's a typical week
Speaker 1: for you at Iowa? Like in season? Right, So obviously
Speaker 1: you're going to class Monday, through Friday, but from a
Speaker 1: from a golf standpoint, because I think it's a good
Speaker 1: insight for a lot of people listening, maybe that are
Speaker 1: thinking about trying to play competitively, maybe their junior or
Speaker 1: they have you know, we've got parents listening. So what's
Speaker 1: a typical week like for you? Talk me through last week?
Speaker 1: You get to Iowa Monday, Talk me through Monday through
Speaker 1: Friday of last week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so leading the tournament will lift three days a week,
Speaker 2: concluding another day before we leave, like kind of like
Speaker 2: a primer getting ready. So last week Monday, we don't
Speaker 2: have LYFT, but we have practice structured practice from two
Speaker 2: to five. You can do whatever you want. So I'm
Speaker 2: pretty much out there at a like eleven thirty eleven,
Speaker 2: getting my work in before practice and doing a structure.
Speaker 2: Tuesday we have LYFT six thirty to seven thirty, which
Speaker 2: also happens on Thursday and Friday in the morning in
Speaker 2: the morning, and then you'll have class and then structured
Speaker 2: practice again pretty much every day. Structured practice will be
Speaker 2: at two o'clock, two to five o'clock. Just that's the
Speaker 2: best for us. But I'm always out there early trying
Speaker 2: to get in work before everybody. I'm lucky enough to
Speaker 2: where I don't have class Thursday and Friday. I'd take
Speaker 2: some online classes so I can allow myself to practice
Speaker 2: little more. So I mean Thursday and Friday for me,
Speaker 2: if I'm done with the left and I got my
Speaker 2: homework done, I'll be at the golf course for eight hours.
Speaker 2: Just you gotta take advantage of the good weather. I
Speaker 2: got it, so you know.
Speaker 1: I talked to Chris Venturo, who's a member at the Floridian.
Speaker 1: He and Victor Hovelin are both They both just kept
Speaker 1: on playing the Olympics Fornary, but they were part of
Speaker 1: that national championship team with Matt Wolfe at Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: And when I talked to Chris about what he did
Speaker 1: in college, he said that Wolfie, Bobby and Chris, he
Speaker 1: said they just played way more than they practiced. How
Speaker 1: are you finding that balance between how much you play
Speaker 1: versus how much you're practicing your technique and that kind
Speaker 1: of blending of the two, because that's again, that is
Speaker 1: that is hard to do, right because you think the
Speaker 1: way you're going to get better is just practice, practice, practice, practice.
Speaker 1: Are you finding that playing and seeing what happens on
Speaker 1: the golf course is becoming more of a priority or
Speaker 1: you locked into kind of what you're doing technique wise.
Speaker 2: No, I don't really spend that like, to be completely honest,
Speaker 2: I kind of limit myself, Like I'll give myself like
Speaker 2: a thirty minute time period on the range where it's
Speaker 2: like okay, like I'm gonna do like technique stuff and
Speaker 2: check my stuff to make sure everything's good. But it's
Speaker 2: like I've had this talk with my teammates. I'm a
Speaker 2: captain this year, and I tell them it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like cool. You can make a five footer on
Speaker 2: a putting green or a fifteen footer, or you can
Speaker 2: get a draw in a range. I'm a big believer
Speaker 2: in you gotta do it on the golf course too,
Speaker 2: Like can you hit a driver down a twenty yard
Speaker 2: wide fairway? Can you to seven iron from however far
Speaker 2: to this pin? I feel like the only way you're
Speaker 2: gonna learn is by getting a ball in the actual hole,
Speaker 2: not getting in a putting green. Cup. So I play
Speaker 2: every single day that I can.
Speaker 1: With your teammates, do you guys play matches? Are you
Speaker 1: always playing for something or do you guys just kind
Speaker 1: of go out and kind of freewheel it.
Speaker 2: No, So like today, me and two other guys on
Speaker 2: the team went up and played banker. So that was fun.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what is I don't even know what banker is.
Speaker 2: So there's three guys. Uh, one guy's banker. It's individual matches.
Speaker 2: So it's me, Ryan and Josh to my teammates. So
Speaker 2: banker hits last. You play like a five dollar match
Speaker 2: versus everybody on that hole, and yes, it's me versus Ryan,
Speaker 2: then Josh rous May and banker. He can press the banker,
Speaker 2: but if the banker presses, you have to press both people. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: you win today, I actually lost. That was kind of embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Let's get to I alluded to. It was a hell
Speaker 1: of a summer for you. Cup, which is one of
Speaker 1: the big kind of amateur golf tournaments. Everybody Brooks has
Speaker 1: played in it. Everybody's played in it. Again, that's a
Speaker 1: trophy that when you look at the names on that
Speaker 1: and you look at the entry list of players that
Speaker 1: have played in I think everybody that's played Division one
Speaker 1: college golf. There are a lot of people playing all
Speaker 1: over the world on various tours. They've all played in
Speaker 1: the Porter Cup, you finished second. Did that kind of
Speaker 1: give you a little bit of boosting confidence coming off
Speaker 1: of a really solid freshman year at Iowa to where
Speaker 1: you went, Okay, I've got some big tournaments to play in,
Speaker 1: you know, the USAMBI and one of them. Did you
Speaker 1: feel after finishing second at the Porter Cup that it
Speaker 1: could be a springboard and give you that kind of
Speaker 1: confidence in your game and take it to a big, big,
Speaker 1: the biggest tournament you've ever played in, which is the USAM. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I feel like the thing I learned without myself
Speaker 2: that week is I didn't think a bogie on the
Speaker 2: back nine the whole entire tournament.
Speaker 1: That helps.
Speaker 2: So, I mean I closed really well, sixty seven sixty seven,
Speaker 2: sixty seven sixty nine. I mean, I lost my a shot,
Speaker 2: but you know, it stinks to lose. But I learned
Speaker 2: for myself that I can fire four rounds in our
Speaker 2: own a sixties. And granted didn't close the tournament the
Speaker 2: way I wanted to, but I learned that I can
Speaker 2: put it together in a big tournament. Is actually funny.
Speaker 2: So I wasn't qualified for the USAM before that tournament.
Speaker 1: You had to go qualify.
Speaker 2: I drove down five hours that night to another place
Speaker 2: in New York, play a practice round, and qualify the
Speaker 2: next day, which you shooting the qualifier sixty seven medalists.
Speaker 1: I actually think that that actually helps. Right. You come
Speaker 1: off of a big finish for you, probably the biggest
Speaker 1: finish you've had in a big amateur tournament, and you
Speaker 1: still have to go qualify for the US. And let's
Speaker 1: tell everybody the story about you qualified for the US
Speaker 1: Junior last year, which was the kind of the biggest
Speaker 1: tournament that you played in. Tell everybody what your prep
Speaker 1: was for the US Junior and why you didn't play
Speaker 1: in the US Junior last summer.
Speaker 2: Yeap qualified for the s Junior, which was.
Speaker 1: A huge goal of yours, right, I mean that's.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, qualified for it, qumongous conference booster, like a
Speaker 2: big sy relief. Go to the Southern Junior, come third,
Speaker 2: go to the Western Junior, finished runner up, and then
Speaker 2: four days later I fell off an ATV and broke
Speaker 2: my wrist.
Speaker 1: You thought it would be a good idea after coming
Speaker 1: off two of your best finishes as a junior. You've
Speaker 1: got your biggest junior tournament you've ever played, and you
Speaker 1: thought it'd be good to get on some sort of
Speaker 1: motorcycle out in the middle of the trees and gost
Speaker 1: around and mess shit up and fracture your wrist.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How many How many weeks out were you?
Speaker 2: They told me four? So I was kind of hopeful
Speaker 2: I was gonna be able to play and it took eleven.
Speaker 1: Eleven that injury. What I tell you, I told you no.
Speaker 1: No athlete comes back from an injury too late, right,
Speaker 1: everybody tries to come back too early. Yeah, we're joking
Speaker 1: about it because I know you were devastated by that.
Speaker 1: What in missing out on that US Junior do mentally
Speaker 1: for you? Did you get down on yourself or did
Speaker 1: you use it as on a fuel and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity here to play in the US Junior.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened happened.
Speaker 2: I feel like in the moment, you're kind of like,
Speaker 2: oh God, Like what did you do? Like this is
Speaker 2: the biggest moment your junior career and you're playing super
Speaker 2: good and you messed it up? Like and talking to
Speaker 2: all my friends. One of my best friends from back home,
Speaker 2: he qualified for the one out at Bandon and I
Speaker 2: really wanted to do it. I didn't qualify. So I
Speaker 2: feel like after it happened, like I'm in a like
Speaker 2: a brace and I can't do anything and I have
Speaker 2: to learn how to do everything left handed. It made
Speaker 2: me like more hungry and put more of an emphasis
Speaker 2: on qualifying for the us AM. So I feel like
Speaker 2: it was almost a blessing in disguise because I really
Speaker 2: loved golf. But I feel like after that happened, I
Speaker 2: feel like it made me want it more and realize
Speaker 2: what I can do with qualify.
Speaker 1: Sixty seven, the US Amateur Hazel Team US won a
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup there. I mean Tiger Waite Yang, I mean
Speaker 1: they went down the stretch. I mean. It is a
Speaker 1: big time golf course. It has a major championship pedigree.
Speaker 1: Three hundred and twelve players. Did you know that three
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve players start? Yeah, there's two rounds in qualifying.
Speaker 1: You got off to a fantastic start in the qualifier
Speaker 1: through a little opening round seventy seven at them in
Speaker 1: the qualifier, and there's two courses. You shot seventy seven
Speaker 1: on the Big Course, yep. And then there's always two
Speaker 1: courses for the USAM there's one they do one round
Speaker 1: on the Big Course. And then you do one on
Speaker 1: kind of a satellite course. So you know, going to
Speaker 1: the second qualifying round, you basically got to shoot zero. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the only way you're going to have a
Speaker 1: chance to qualify for the USAM is to shoot something
Speaker 1: in the sixties. What was your goal? You figured you'd
Speaker 1: probably you need to go out shoot sixty six.
Speaker 2: No, I knew I needed sixty four or sixty three.
Speaker 1: So you knew you needed sixty four. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was great too, because I haven't made a birdie
Speaker 2: in eighteen holes, and I need to make birdies, so
Speaker 2: that was a little helpful. That was helpful.
Speaker 1: So yeah, how many birdies did you make in the
Speaker 1: second round? Six six? Yeah, big confidence booster I think
Speaker 1: for you to get through that, because I think you
Speaker 1: would have been just destroyed to get to USAM after everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, after qualifying, after coming off the Porter Cup.
Speaker 2: That was probably the best round of golf I have
Speaker 2: played in a circumstantial condition. Like I opened the around
Speaker 2: thirty on the front nine, just hot, just hot, and
Speaker 2: I go in, I get to the front nine, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna shoot fifty nine and I make I think
Speaker 2: part of the first five holes in a row in
Speaker 2: the back nine, and this is actually really funny. So
Speaker 2: I asked my caddy, like, pulled the leaderboard, like where
Speaker 2: are we standing? He checked in on the back nine
Speaker 2: which I started, which was my front nine, and it
Speaker 2: didn't update, so it showed me two back of where
Speaker 2: I needed to be going in the sixth hole, and
Speaker 2: I chipped in from across the green on a par
Speaker 2: three and I hit it to eight feet on my
Speaker 2: sixteenth hole and missed it. Hit it to five feet
Speaker 2: on my seventeenth hole and missed it in three, putted
Speaker 2: apar five, which is my last hole on nine, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, like I just choked. I
Speaker 2: just choked.
Speaker 1: And you're knocking the flag down with the last three
Speaker 1: holes and you're getting uping out of it. No.
Speaker 2: And then I update my phone and my my mom's
Speaker 2: going nuts and I look at my phone, like what's
Speaker 2: going on? Like I missed it by one. I look
Speaker 2: at my phone. It shows him in forty first only
Speaker 2: Oh my god, like I did it, Like holy crap.
Speaker 1: So now you get to the round of sixty four,
Speaker 1: so it's match play. You win your first match and
Speaker 1: not to play four and two go to the round
Speaker 1: to thirty two, two and one, get to the quarters.
Speaker 1: Are the round of sixteen four and two quarters, three
Speaker 1: and two. Let's go to the semifinals. So you get
Speaker 1: paired up against Jackson Buchanan. He's stud He's at the
Speaker 1: University of Illinois, which is in the Big ten, so
Speaker 1: he's a rival. He beat Preston Summer Hayes won the
Speaker 1: US Junior I mean, that kid's stud. He's at Arizona State.
Speaker 1: He beats the number one ranked amateur in the world,
Speaker 1: Luke Clanton, who's basically kicking the shit out of people
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour, and you beat him two up.
Speaker 1: Talk us through that match, I mean at that point
Speaker 1: was your confidence through the roof? Where you trying to
Speaker 1: stay in the moment because obviously you come in with
Speaker 1: nobody even picking you, right, They're picking Luke Clanton to
Speaker 1: win missing right. He's making cut some PGA Tour events.
Speaker 1: He's in second to last group of PJ Tour events.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're not one of the favorites, right, You're
Speaker 1: beating some of the favorites to get to the final.
Speaker 1: How did you ride that wave of kind of good
Speaker 1: play and kind of get out of your own way
Speaker 1: because sometimes you know I've told you this in the past.
Speaker 1: I think you always have to be ready for the wave,
Speaker 1: because the wave will come right. Things will come in waves,
Speaker 1: and when you get the right wave, you gotta have
Speaker 1: the guts to get up and ride it. You qualify,
Speaker 1: you shoot a really low round. Did you just feel
Speaker 1: like from then, Okay, I got nothing to lose. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go see how good I can be
Speaker 1: here and see how far I can get.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like once I made match play, I
Speaker 2: feel like it just plays into my hands more. I
Speaker 2: mean you say, I'm like an F one car, I'm fast.
Speaker 2: I make a ton of birdies. You can kind of
Speaker 2: forget about the double you make. And I mean I
Speaker 2: played awesome golf. I mean, you can win a match
Speaker 2: a match play. So it's like I got through the
Speaker 2: round of sixty four and it's kind of like, oh, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to match thirty two one again, which is
Speaker 2: actually a hard match that's a great fight, and round
Speaker 2: of sixteen. I feel like in my quarterfinal match, I
Speaker 2: showed like a lot of guts and like a lot
Speaker 2: of like what you're saying, like ride the wave. I
Speaker 2: think I was eight under through twelve in my quarter
Speaker 2: final match or something like that, and I got against Jackson.
Speaker 2: You like, look at who's being beat press and you
Speaker 2: beat Luke that week, I'm like, okay, like you gotta
Speaker 2: get ready for like a dog fight, like who's gonna
Speaker 2: wan on it more? And you know, I feel like
Speaker 2: going into the round, he kind of handed me a
Speaker 2: couple shots early and I got up late. But you know,
Speaker 2: I just I feel like I wanted it more than
Speaker 2: everybody else there that league. Once I finally got what
Speaker 2: it tastes, the success felt like and talked to my caddy.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think I hit one of the most
Speaker 2: clutch shots in my life on the eighteenth hole in
Speaker 2: that match, like to step up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the hero shot. The clutch shot
Speaker 1: that you hit was to stand up on the eighteenth
Speaker 1: pole at Hazel Team, where if you missed that fair
Speaker 1: away you hit it in either of the bunkers, you're
Speaker 1: probably not making berdie. You know, I was messaging with
Speaker 1: your sports psychologist, doctor Brett mckable I've had on the
Speaker 1: podcast before. We were messaging when you were on the
Speaker 1: eighteenth going to the att and I was messaging some
Speaker 1: other people that were watching, and I was like, there
Speaker 1: are times in every round of golf, but in every
Speaker 1: tournament to where there is no other option other than
Speaker 1: you just have to stand up and hit a great shot.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like playing football, basketball, whatever other sports.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just have to stand up and make a play.
Speaker 1: So what were your nerves going like? Because I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys had a really good fight. Ear
Speaker 1: Jackson in that semifinal match. You could have closed it
Speaker 1: out on seventeen. He pulled it on seventeen, pinned was
Speaker 1: back left almost wet in the water. Another big part
Speaker 1: of that match, that semifinal match, was it on fifteen
Speaker 1: to where.
Speaker 2: Oh I was literally going to talk about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, talk us through the fifteenth hole part five?
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, So I think he hits first and he
Speaker 2: just like quick sniped it off the tee, but he
Speaker 2: got firing like left's find another hole. And you know
Speaker 2: that's a hard t ball for me. When does in
Speaker 2: and off the left and there's obi right, I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh god, so I hit the fairway and I'm like okay,
Speaker 2: like he's in trouble. He laid it up in the rough.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure, maybe it was in the fair. I
Speaker 2: can't remember. I had three hundred yards. I'm like, if
Speaker 2: I had a good Mini driver, like, it's gonna get
Speaker 2: up there and I can put this then away, chun
Speaker 2: cook it in the left rough and yeah. Then he
Speaker 2: hits a ledge up there to like twenty feet and
Speaker 2: he's probably thinking, and he's fine, I have the worst
Speaker 2: lie I've ever seen in my life from like seventy
Speaker 2: five yards and I hit this like high, like soft,
Speaker 2: like saw it come on. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: like it's so good. It lands like perfectly in the
Speaker 2: slope and I hit it inside of him, and then
Speaker 2: he stepped up there and made it.
Speaker 1: You've hit it to like fifteen feet right, yeah, which
Speaker 1: based off of the lie you had when you hit
Speaker 1: that shot, I'm like, wow, that is a hell of
Speaker 1: a shot, right. And in match play, there's always parts
Speaker 1: in the match like this, right, there are these kind
Speaker 1: of opportunities where it looks like your gown looks like
Speaker 1: you don't have the advantage. And then so he hoops
Speaker 1: it from twenty feet right for birdie.
Speaker 2: So he hoops it and I'm only one up at
Speaker 2: the time, so I'm like thinking to myself. This is
Speaker 2: when it like started like really running through my head,
Speaker 2: like okay, like shit, like it's gonna be like all square,
Speaker 2: like going to sixteen and I like look at this
Speaker 2: putt and I'm like I had like a weird like
Speaker 2: sudden like calmness like over I'm like, oh, it's gonna
Speaker 2: go in. And I get up and it's like like
Speaker 2: seven of the like fifteen feet there. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I made it, and like as soon as it went
Speaker 2: over the edge, I like gave it like a big
Speaker 2: fist pump and I like kind of like, yeah, they
Speaker 2: hit it in the water. On sixteen, I was two
Speaker 2: up with two to play. That was the most nervous
Speaker 2: I've ever been. Is actually on seven, I wasn't nervous.
Speaker 2: On eighteen it was really weird.
Speaker 1: I mean seventeen, you know, there's water left, and for
Speaker 1: people listening, the seventeen Hazel team is where Rory and
Speaker 1: Patrick Reed and the ryder cop. Rory makes this massive
Speaker 1: long pot at the par three there's more huge grand
Speaker 1: stands there and does the kind of I can't hear
Speaker 1: you thing, I can't hear you, and then pet Reed
Speaker 1: kind of makes one from twenty feet right on top
Speaker 1: of him and does the finger and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: How did you deal with the pressure on seventeen? Knowing
Speaker 1: where that pin was, which was back left when it
Speaker 1: was in the air, do you think you hit it
Speaker 1: in the water.
Speaker 2: I didn't think I hit it in the water. I
Speaker 2: thought maybe there's a chance I was going to catch
Speaker 2: the left edge. I was just happy I made contact
Speaker 2: with the golf ball. To be completely honest, I mean
Speaker 2: I am legit like on the T box, like I've
Speaker 2: never thought about it in my life. It is the
Speaker 2: first time, like the Masters, like cross like the top
Speaker 2: of my head, and I think I like I wasn't
Speaker 2: ready to go, Like my hands are like shaking, like
Speaker 2: I'm drinking like a bottle of gatorade. I'm like talking
Speaker 2: to my caddy. I'm like, dude, like I can't swing
Speaker 2: right now. And I do it and it stayed up
Speaker 2: and he had a dart like what I was thinking.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, like he's not getting at a bad shot,
Speaker 2: and you know I flubbed my chip, didn't chip it in.
Speaker 2: I'm like okay, like I'm gonna make four. Like he's
Speaker 2: got like a twelve foot or dead down the hill.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to give it to him. He can
Speaker 2: still hit it by he made it. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: like great, like he just made burry Like he feels good.
Speaker 1: So how far it's the eighteen pole?
Speaker 2: I think it's is it for eighty or is it
Speaker 2: it's four seventy or four eighty something like.
Speaker 1: That, But it's the shot. It's uphill, yeah, all the
Speaker 1: way up home. Mean you can't even I mean you're
Speaker 1: standing on the tea box there. You can't even. I'm
Speaker 1: close to seeing the green.
Speaker 2: You can see like where everybody's standing, but you can
Speaker 2: just see the top of the landing area. That's about it.
Speaker 1: So what's that mental self too? Because it's actually a
Speaker 1: pretty good walk from seventeen all the way over to
Speaker 1: the eighteenth pole. I mean it's it's not close. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean you've got time to think. It's not like
Speaker 1: the t boxes right off the seventeenth grade. What were
Speaker 1: you saying to yourself? What'd your caddies say to you?
Speaker 1: And what was the thought process standing up there?
Speaker 2: I feel like he gave me a little bit of
Speaker 2: space once I got off the hole. He's like, okay,
Speaker 2: like let him calm down. He was actually the guy
Speaker 2: that caddy for me in the Porter Cup, so I
Speaker 2: brought him with me to Minnesota and he's kind of
Speaker 2: had this saying with me, it's like it's a one
Speaker 2: hole match, one whole match, Like forget about it, dude,
Speaker 2: Like it doesn't matter, like it's in the past. So
Speaker 2: got up to the eighteenth t you know, kind of
Speaker 2: was just like it's time to just hit a shot.
Speaker 2: Like how He's like, how bad do you like really
Speaker 2: want it? Like do you want it bad?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, I really really want it. And
Speaker 2: Jackson hit first, which I feel like is like you're
Speaker 2: gonna know that there's pressure. But he hit a bat
Speaker 2: He didn't hit his best drive in the left trap,
Speaker 2: and I got up there and for me, I loven't
Speaker 2: and too off the right wind and it was perfectly
Speaker 2: you get hold it up. Yeah, I'm just like, get
Speaker 2: it airborne with a cut and it's perfect.
Speaker 1: What was the yardage?
Speaker 2: I had one hundred and eighty yards in from my
Speaker 2: second shot and then hit a chip seven after he
Speaker 2: hit the lip of the bunker actually on a second.
Speaker 1: Shot, which made it easier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, okay, like just hit it on the
Speaker 2: Green please, and then yeah, hit it up there like
Speaker 2: four feet and I'm like, oh, yeah, like you've probably
Speaker 2: seen I like pimp Step that I knew what I did, like.
Speaker 1: I did it, Like, oh, that's so good, and yeah,
Speaker 1: is that kind of the first time that you really
Speaker 1: kind of felt like a player? Yeah, like the people
Speaker 1: you watch on television, right, I mean you've spent so
Speaker 1: much time as everybody does watching players on TV. You
Speaker 1: watch all these guys down the stretch hit all these
Speaker 1: great shots. You know Rory, you know, Scottie Scheffler, maximum,
Speaker 1: all these superstars that you watch that play all these
Speaker 1: big tournaments and stuff. Was that really kind of the
Speaker 1: first moment where you're like, dude, wow, I just did that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like the first one I did was in
Speaker 2: the quarterfinal match, the flopshot a hole. It was just stupid.
Speaker 1: Oh that was a joke.
Speaker 2: That was a joke. But yeah, I mean I look
Speaker 2: back at it because I'm like on like the reels
Speaker 2: or whatever with the USGN and Instagram, and I like,
Speaker 2: I watch it back, I'm kind of like, damn, dude,
Speaker 2: I'm like, you were like buck. Then then they're like
Speaker 2: that was Yeah, it was kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: So now, obviously, you know when you get to the
Speaker 1: final of the US m you know you've got a
Speaker 1: Birth of the Masters. You're going to the US Open,
Speaker 1: which will be at Oakmont next year, which is an iconic, iconic,
Speaker 1: one of the hardest. Dude, if you're a played Oakmont, Yeah,
Speaker 1: why do you play that in the US Open? Because
Speaker 1: as hard as you think that golf course is, the
Speaker 1: time you played it, I mean you're talking like pie
Speaker 1: are squared harder than what you've got Now, I sent
Speaker 1: you a message and said, the job isn't done. Still
Speaker 1: gonna go win the tournament because only buy a scare
Speaker 1: that kid's baller the kid's ball Yeah, yeah, great. I
Speaker 1: was in Greenbrier and I was talking to John ram
Speaker 1: about him, obviously because that would being from from Spain.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Sergio, he works, Sergio's dad helps
Speaker 1: him as well. They were like, I mean, John Robinson, dude,
Speaker 1: he beats me. I mean, he's he's going he hits
Speaker 1: it miles. You're you're not used to really playing with
Speaker 1: people that he as far as you do, or hit
Speaker 1: it further than you, and that kid can smoke it
Speaker 1: off the tea. So what was the night before the
Speaker 1: USAM Like, I mean, how did you prepare? What were
Speaker 1: you thinking? Did you get a lot of sleep?
Speaker 2: I slipped recently. I turned my phone on do not disturb.
Speaker 2: It was way too many text messages. I mean, me
Speaker 2: and Mike Caddie played college football like we've been doing
Speaker 2: every night. So just kind of like you treat it
Speaker 2: like a little bit like a normal night, like you
Speaker 2: kind of just like sit back and have fun. And
Speaker 2: we knew the job wasn't done, Like we never even
Speaker 2: talked about it really like what it would be like
Speaker 2: to like host that trophy or whatever. And you know,
Speaker 2: I got there in the morning, and you know, the
Speaker 2: morning eighteen was a struggle for me. I mean I
Speaker 2: didn't hit it good at all. I had a pounding
Speaker 2: headache the whole entire round. Probably it was adrenaline. I
Speaker 2: mean it was the first time in a tournament, even
Speaker 2: in these big amateur tournaments, Like you get nervous in
Speaker 2: a final round with a chance to win. But like
Speaker 2: you see the trophy on the first tee. You have
Speaker 2: Larry Fitzgerald who's standing right next to the first team,
Speaker 2: who's there to just watch.
Speaker 1: You NFL legend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just like it kind of like really
Speaker 2: hits you. It's like, oh my God, Like you know,
Speaker 2: like everything leading up to it means so much, but
Speaker 2: it's like, now you have thirty six holes to fight
Speaker 2: for your life and voice one of the biggest amateur
Speaker 2: trophies in the world. And you know, I'm very proud
Speaker 2: of myself for the way that I thought.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're three so for people don't know, I mean
Speaker 1: you were three down through four holes. Yeah, you're four
Speaker 1: down after the eighteen holes. Yeah, there were big crowds
Speaker 1: out there, obviously the Iowa connection being in the Midwest,
Speaker 1: were those some of the biggest crowds and some of
Speaker 1: the biggest roars you've ever played in front of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think ninety nine percent of the crowd wanted
Speaker 2: me to win, so yeah.
Speaker 1: And as an athlete and as a golfer, you can
Speaker 1: feed off of that. And I'm sure that's probably the
Speaker 1: first time that you've really kind of felt what you know,
Speaker 1: they feel in the right cop what Rory and DJ
Speaker 1: and Brooks feel like when they take the lead with
Speaker 1: three holes left and there's a big crowd. That must
Speaker 1: have been so cool to kind of hear those roles,
Speaker 1: to know that you had a big following.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean I chipped in on my nineteenth hole
Speaker 2: to start the match, which was electric, and I got
Speaker 2: it gone. I'm like, okay, like I can come back.
Speaker 2: And I feel like it was either you or Brett
Speaker 2: who told me is like get it two down at
Speaker 2: the turn.
Speaker 1: I told I think we were all telling you that, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I kind of felt like if you could get close
Speaker 1: through nine. Obviously Oselli he's never been in that situation
Speaker 1: before either. Right, he's trying to win the biggest tournament
Speaker 1: of his life. You're going to have that moment of
Speaker 1: confidence crisis right where you're like, okay, I'm four up.
Speaker 1: And I kept everybody that I was talking to. I
Speaker 1: was at Greenbrier for lib but all the guys that
Speaker 1: were playing, you know that knew you were in it.
Speaker 1: They all just were like, DJ was gone, dude, if
Speaker 1: you could get it somehow around two, But if it's
Speaker 1: at four and it goes to five, you're going to
Speaker 1: to run out of holes. Yeah, and you're you're gonna
Speaker 1: run out of holes because mentally you're like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: five down now with X amount of holes to play,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, you know, you go five down in
Speaker 1: that match early. Yeah, you start thinking, okay, I don't
Speaker 1: have enough holes time. Yeah, what was the time between
Speaker 1: the morning round and second round? What were you thinking?
Speaker 1: How did you kind of flip that switch and kind
Speaker 1: of make it a run in the second eighteen?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I took a shower actually in between rounds, and
Speaker 2: then I called you talk to you. I talked to
Speaker 2: Brett McCabe, who's my sports psychologist, and then I talked
Speaker 2: to John Harris actually too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who's a former USAM Champion's a member of AUGUSTA. I
Speaker 1: mean he's he's an amateur legend. I know his health
Speaker 1: hasn't been great. You talked about it in the broadcast.
Speaker 1: What advice did he give you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: He knew I was struggling a bit. He's like, you
Speaker 2: deserve to be there, Like you're better than this kid.
Speaker 2: And he's just like, whenever you're warming up for you around,
Speaker 2: get creative, hit a bunch of hooks, hit a bunch
Speaker 2: of slices, and he said, bring high energy. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm out there in the range and I'm sure
Speaker 2: everybody's thinking, like what the heck is this kid doing?
Speaker 2: Like I'm hitting eight iron hooks and slicing eight irons
Speaker 2: and great advice. I'm like, okay, like I feel much
Speaker 2: better than I did in the morning. Like I'm like,
Speaker 2: I feel like now like I'm playing around with my buddies,
Speaker 2: which is kind of funny, but I'm not like it
Speaker 2: was more serious than that. But I'm warming up like
Speaker 2: it's a nine am on a Sunday, and yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: as soon as I hold that chip on one, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna win this golf tournament. Like that was in
Speaker 2: the morning. I did not think that the morning. I
Speaker 2: struggled a lot, but then whenever I got it back
Speaker 2: after that, I'm like, the crowd is so on my
Speaker 2: side right now, like it is not with Josele. And
Speaker 2: then he made a big pot on two and I
Speaker 2: kind of like got put back in my place. I'm like, damn,
Speaker 2: like okay, and then.
Speaker 1: I was three down. Now I'm back to four down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of get up on the second team.
Speaker 2: It's a bit deflating. And he pounded a dry he smoked,
Speaker 2: So I made a funny joke to the later in
Speaker 2: the round, to the people who were watching. So he
Speaker 2: smokes when like dead straight and I look at a
Speaker 2: j and I'm like, okay, like it's time to like ball.
Speaker 2: And I hit it by him on that tea box
Speaker 2: and he hits it right. I hit the par five
Speaker 2: and two made birdie and I think on seven, I
Speaker 2: made like a thirty five footer for eagle and I
Speaker 2: got it back to two down and then I stuffed
Speaker 2: it on eight and he had like a chip shot.
Speaker 2: He almost shipped it in. I made my putt. I
Speaker 2: go to ag I'm like, if we make this like
Speaker 2: this is huge and I ended up barely missing and
Speaker 2: I but I made the turn it two down. I'm
Speaker 2: looking at him and I'm like, dude, like when one
Speaker 2: more hole and this kid's gonna be like crapping himself.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be nervous because I mean, again, neither one
Speaker 1: of you have ever been in that situation. And I
Speaker 1: think you know match play can turn on these moments
Speaker 1: to where you think you're fine by the time you
Speaker 1: you get it back to one up. He's got to
Speaker 1: be thinking, Okay, I was cruising in the morning. This
Speaker 1: kid had nothing, I mean, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: with not that long ago.
Speaker 2: I one down, but I gave him two holes back.
Speaker 2: Actually I gave him a tenth hole, which is bad.
Speaker 2: So he was back to three up on eleven and
Speaker 2: he made a great birdie. So I'm four down with
Speaker 2: seven to play, and I look at aj again and
Speaker 2: like he's like, how bad do you want it? And
Speaker 2: we tied twelve and thirteen was the first time. I
Speaker 2: don't know how many holes that is. That was the
Speaker 2: first time, Like he handed me a hole was thirteen
Speaker 2: because he hit it in the water, and I still
Speaker 2: made it hard for me to win, like I staw
Speaker 2: to make like a five footer for par and then
Speaker 2: I made a huge pot on fourteen. We both birdied fifteen.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, one, sixteen, tied seven. Yeah, I got
Speaker 2: it to the eighteenth. I guarantee you. I can't imagine
Speaker 2: how many people thought after the morning eighteen there was
Speaker 2: no way that match was getting me the eighteenth hole.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest. I I mean, obviously you didn't have
Speaker 1: your best stuff going into you know that. After that
Speaker 1: morning round, I thought it was going to be a
Speaker 1: struggle for you because you've just never been in that
Speaker 1: situation before, right, I Mean it's not like you've been
Speaker 1: down the stretch in major championships. You know, you know
Speaker 1: what that feels like. It's also probably your first real
Speaker 1: real test of managing your adrenaline on some of the holes.
Speaker 1: How much further were you hitting it with your irons
Speaker 1: than you normally do, just because you're so jacked up
Speaker 1: on all the adrenaline. Because I think the first hole
Speaker 1: in the second round, that's what got you right. You
Speaker 1: piped it in the start of the second eighteen. You're
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the fair way and you
Speaker 1: one bounced it over the green. And I guarantee you
Speaker 1: you thought you had the white club and the right
Speaker 1: number and you didn't think you could hit it over it.
Speaker 1: But you just go to all this adrenaline going and
Speaker 1: you're like, man, how far did that go? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I feel like there there's a couple of shots that
Speaker 2: like stand out. I think the third hole, I think
Speaker 2: it five would from three hundred and then seven was
Speaker 2: four iron from like two forty five, And I think
Speaker 2: I on twelve, I think I had eight iron from
Speaker 2: two hundred. That's just fifteen. That was probably one of
Speaker 2: the best pressure shots I've hit. Hit nine iron from
Speaker 2: like one hundred and thirty yards on fifteen and took
Speaker 2: spin off of it and stuffed it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so you didn't get the job done, you
Speaker 1: end up losing two up. Yeah, you're going to the Masters,
Speaker 1: You're in the US Open. What's the one thing coming
Speaker 1: out of that experience at the USM nor that you
Speaker 1: learned about yourself that you didn't know at the start
Speaker 1: of the week.
Speaker 2: That I belong with the the Leuke Clantons of the world,
Speaker 2: the jose Lee by Stairs of the world, the Gordon
Speaker 2: Sergeants of the world. I belong with as much as
Speaker 2: their name is up there, I know that I can
Speaker 2: fight for my right to be up there with them too.
Speaker 1: I think there will be a lot of people that
Speaker 1: will hear that no one and think, Okay, that's that's
Speaker 1: being cocky, that's being arrogant. But you have to believe
Speaker 1: in yourself and your ability to get to the next
Speaker 1: level if you don't. I mean, I had a lot
Speaker 1: of players at the tournament when Brooks won the PGA
Speaker 1: Beth Page when he made that comment in the press conference,
Speaker 1: and you know everybody knows it. He was like, I
Speaker 1: think major's the easiest ones to win. Nicholas thought this way,
Speaker 1: and he went through that, and I had players, a
Speaker 1: couple of players that I was working with, though, I mean,
Speaker 1: who the hell does this kid think he is? And
Speaker 1: I remember texting someone back going, don't you want to
Speaker 1: think like that? And there's that borderline between being arrogant,
Speaker 1: but also you have to believe in yourself as a
Speaker 1: goal forer and you have to believe in yourself as
Speaker 1: an athlete. And I think you need experiences like you
Speaker 1: went through to believe, because I'll be honest with you,
Speaker 1: and Brett and I have talked about this. You stepped out,
Speaker 1: Dana and I've talked Abouss. I don't think you believed
Speaker 1: you were good before this past summer. I think you
Speaker 1: knew you had talent, but I don't think you believed
Speaker 1: that you could go out and win big tournaments. What
Speaker 1: do you do now going into your sophomore year with
Speaker 1: that belief? How do you not get ahead of yourself?
Speaker 1: How do you not fall into some of the traps
Speaker 1: that you can fall into where you get sidetracked, you
Speaker 1: start thinking you're a baller. Everybody starts because now everybody's
Speaker 1: going to tell you you're good, right, Everybody kind of
Speaker 1: knew you were good before this, So how do you
Speaker 1: deal with the weight of expectation, but also how do
Speaker 1: you deal with, like I said, not getting ahead of yourself,
Speaker 1: staying humble, continuing to work hard so that you can
Speaker 1: still achieve the goals and the dreams that you've got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I feel like I was. I talked
Speaker 2: to Brett before this, before the USAM, I was always
Speaker 2: one of the kids who would kind of be like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, like that's Gordon Sergeant on the range, like
Speaker 2: it's cool to be like competing against him. And you know,
Speaker 2: my first college front back, I felt like I was
Speaker 2: a kid that kind of everybody was looking at, which
Speaker 2: is a new thing for me because I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm a very humble kid, like I kinda very like
Speaker 2: relaxed and you know, now I know which is really
Speaker 2: hard for me to say, but I will admitted in
Speaker 2: this last college urm, I got too comfortable, and I'll
Speaker 2: fully admit that, like that's how I messed up, and
Speaker 2: I learned from it. I was in the lead and
Speaker 2: I ended up finishing thirteenth, and you know, I learned
Speaker 2: a lot from this week, which is something I think
Speaker 2: I needed for the future, to be completely honest. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I got too comfortable.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, I think two of the best things
Speaker 1: that I think when you look back, I think this
Speaker 1: past week are two really really important things. Post getting
Speaker 1: to the finals of the USM. One, you go out
Speaker 1: your sophomore year at Iowa and your first college tournament.
Speaker 1: After the USM you're leading after the first round, and
Speaker 1: I think in the long run, finishing thirteen thinking that Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep playing good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's huge for your learning, and I
Speaker 1: think it's it's massive that you understand that you still
Speaker 1: have a long way to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I mean, I was mad for about an
Speaker 2: hour after the golf tournament, but like I really like
Speaker 2: got into it. I did all my stat work that
Speaker 2: we do. I looked into and I'm like, I think
Speaker 2: I'm like man, Like, as much as like it sucks,
Speaker 2: it's like over with, Like I can't change it. It's
Speaker 2: like I can use this to my advantage so much
Speaker 2: better in the future. Like we have Purdue in two
Speaker 2: weeks and it's like, speak, I'm hungry than I ever was.
Speaker 2: Like I want to win so bad. I can't force it.
Speaker 2: I kind of gotta let it. I mean, like let
Speaker 2: it happen, but like I now know, I feel like
Speaker 2: the last two turns the USA am and that like
Speaker 2: I've learned so much to what it means to close
Speaker 2: out a golf throat now that I just I feel
Speaker 2: like I have so much of an advantage and I
Speaker 2: know how to use it. More like I feel like
Speaker 2: what you said, like it was great to be like
Speaker 2: in the lead, I got comfortable, but now I feel
Speaker 2: like I know what I need to do to stay
Speaker 2: within myself to close it out for the final eight team.
Speaker 1: You know, I've told you the story before, but Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods in two thousand and one, when my dad was
Speaker 1: working with Tiger, my dad and I never work with
Speaker 1: Adam Scott. We were at the PGA the Atlanta Athletic
Speaker 1: Club that David Toms won, and we got Scotty to
Speaker 1: play practun with Tiger. I mean, it's two thousand and
Speaker 1: one Tiger, so it's it's as good as it gets, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's Tiger Mania that stretch from two
Speaker 1: thousand to two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't beat him. And Adam was still
Speaker 1: playing on the European Tour and Tiger said, Hey, you
Speaker 1: just got to learn how to hang around and get
Speaker 1: in position more often, put yourself in position all the time.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like maybe that's something that you haven't
Speaker 1: felt before that it's as much about getting yourself into
Speaker 1: position to win tournaments as opposed to trying to shoot
Speaker 1: sixty four on the first day and birdie every hole,
Speaker 1: because it's hard to do that, right, It's hard to
Speaker 1: play good all the time. What are your goals now, Noah?
Speaker 1: Moving forward? Obviously you're going to play in two majors
Speaker 1: next year. Yeah, but what are your goals for this
Speaker 1: year and this season at IOWA?
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm very good at like breaking it
Speaker 2: down into parts of the year, so I'm kind of
Speaker 2: letting that end of the year kind of be its
Speaker 2: own thing. I'm really focused on what's going on now
Speaker 2: on the fall, so we have three more events that
Speaker 2: were playing in the fall. I want my scoring average
Speaker 2: to be below seventy and a half, so that's one
Speaker 2: of my goals.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So last year you played every tournament, it's
Speaker 1: seventy two point eight. Do you find a way to
Speaker 1: shave off two strokes?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How you do that? I'm really interested to hear this.
Speaker 2: So right now my scoring average is seventy one point six,
Speaker 2: which is pretty decent. But now we switched over our
Speaker 2: stats to clipt YEP, so it's really in depth. So
Speaker 2: I've been I've never been more on top of it
Speaker 2: in my life. So for me, I'm a really good
Speaker 2: iron player and a really good putter. So for me,
Speaker 2: I was getting better off the tee. So I want
Speaker 2: to limit my penalty shots I have per tournament. If
Speaker 2: I limit my penalty shots, I think that's easily a
Speaker 2: stroke for me off my scoring average over the whole year.
Speaker 1: Thinking about it, the biggest weapon you have is the driver.
Speaker 1: But with a big weapon like a driver, we see
Speaker 1: some of the best players in the world. I mean,
Speaker 1: Rory drives the shit out of it, right, But when
Speaker 1: you hit it as far as you guys hit it
Speaker 1: with the speed that you've got, when it goes offline,
Speaker 1: it goes a long way offline.
Speaker 2: I feel like a big proponent to me get it.
Speaker 2: My score is lower as a Tiger five, so it's
Speaker 2: no bad up and it's no three putts I think.
Speaker 2: I think it's no bogies with a scoring club in
Speaker 2: your hand.
Speaker 1: So Tiger's mantra was no bogies on par fives, no
Speaker 1: big numbers, so no doubles triples, no bogies inside of
Speaker 1: one hundred yards, no three potts, and no blown easy
Speaker 1: up and downs. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I think if I do that mixed with my
Speaker 2: hazard balls and not losing any balls, I think there's
Speaker 2: a pretty good shot I can do what I have
Speaker 2: that goal for. I don't wanta for three more. I
Speaker 2: don't want to finish outside of the top twenty, on
Speaker 2: inside the top twenty all that tournaments, and a big
Speaker 2: one for me is getting in the gym. War So
Speaker 2: I would say those are my three big ones for
Speaker 2: me right now that I'm focusing on. Obviously I have
Speaker 2: smart goals, but those are my three kind of like
Speaker 2: big goals. I don't want to knock out.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just gonna go out ahead and say this.
Speaker 1: If you're not getting your ass into the gym, the
Speaker 1: hell is wrong with you because someone else playing college golf,
Speaker 1: playing amateur golf, and all the people that you're going
Speaker 1: to be playing with, and the masters in the US Open,
Speaker 1: they're in the gym. They're not taking any days off. Now,
Speaker 1: it's been a hell of a summer man, it was
Speaker 1: fun to watch you play. It was fun to I
Speaker 1: sent you a picture after your semifinal round. I was
Speaker 1: out to dinner and I'm sitting at a restaurant at
Speaker 1: the Greenbrier, and I look at the bar and the
Speaker 1: TV at the bar, and you're getting interviewed. Definitely something
Speaker 1: that I thought would happen at some point. I didn't
Speaker 1: think it would happen this early, or you as a
Speaker 1: nineteen year old. But listen, it's been fun. I think
Speaker 1: you've had of proven to yourself that you belong, you know,
Speaker 1: on the competitive amateur circuit, you know, in big competitive ones.
Speaker 1: And I think everybody listening will follow you. It'll be
Speaker 1: a fun story at the Masters. And you got to
Speaker 1: go get some w's this all and this spring at Iowa,
Speaker 1: you got to go get some wins. So you better
Speaker 1: bring home some trophies all the Hawkeyes. Noah, great talking
Speaker 1: to you, pal. We're proud of you. And go to school,
Speaker 1: go to class, get your ass.
Speaker 2: In the gen Oh well, well, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for having me.
Speaker 1: Great talking to you. So that was no a kent,
Speaker 1: And listen, I think the kid's got a bright future.
Speaker 1: He's got a lot of tools. In the toolbox. But
Speaker 1: it'll be very interesting to see if he can take,
Speaker 1: you know, a really good run at the USM and
Speaker 1: and turn that into an amateur career that is filled
Speaker 1: with a lot of promise because, like I said, he
Speaker 1: hits at miles. He's kind of got the prototype of
Speaker 1: what the modern game is. But that's no guarantee for success.
Speaker 1: But I think he's got a bright future and I
Speaker 1: think he is someone that we will hear from again.
Speaker 1: I want to thank everyone for listening, rate, review, subscribe
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.