WEBVTT - Stewart Cink on His 2009 Open Win, U.S. Ryder Cup, & 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 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a fried. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.600 Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Friday Frida Egg Egg, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:11.840 Frida egg bride egg. 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.080 Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.159 Welcome back to the Friday E Golf Podcast. I am 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.879 your host, Andy Johnson. I'm really excited. This week we 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:48.360 are joined by Stuart Sinc. This has been years in 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.479 the making. I don't really know why I delayed so 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.800 long on having stew on. We've been talking about him 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.240 coming on since the Open at the Old Course a 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.920 couple of years ago, a topic we we get into 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.840 a little bit on this podcast, but it was really 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.720 great chatting with someone who has played golf at a 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.120 extraordinarily high level for a very very long time. 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.480 So we get into all. 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.920 Sorts of topics about his career and golf as a whole, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.960 and super fun. Big thanks to ste for giving us 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:27.040 so much time. And before we get to Stuart, let's 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.280 talk about a new sponsor, Cobalt Rangefinders. Ironically, we talked 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.680 about rangefinders in this episode. I just got my new Cobalt. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:37.040 It is awesome. 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:37.760 I used it. 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.319 I went out and played to use it before we 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.000 had to start using the doing these reads using this Cobalt, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.440 I was amazed at some of the features that they've 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:52.400 added on. In particular, they have an optical zoom which 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.640 you can get up to twelve x. This is a 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.960 particular pain point if you hit a tree behind a hole, okay, 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.279 like a flag. This is can like ruin your round 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:05.960 if you're especially if you're playing for something and it's 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.040 happened to me before and you mail it over the green, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:09.280 You're like, what the hell happened? 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:11.520 The zoom is such. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.000 A game changer for the rangefinder, so they go from 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.800 six x to twelve x zoom, which allows you to 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.760 be really precise with what you're hitting, whether it's bunker, 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.519 edge or whatever it is. It's designed to build for 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.960 golfers who prioritize precision, consistency, and performance, and the QZ 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:33.120 six delivers enhance visual clarity and confident distance measurements shot 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:37.520 after shot. If you're interested in learning more about Cobalt rangefinders, 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:42.160 go to Cobalt dashgolf dot com. That's Cobalt dashgolf dot 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.040 com and use the promo code fried egg Pod fifteen 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.360 all one word fried Egg Pod fifteen four fifteen percent 0:02:50.440 --> 0:03:01.440 off your order. Let's get to Stewart Sync. Now, all right, Stuart, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.960 this has been years in the making. Glad to have 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.359 you on. I got to ask as I was kind 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.880 of just scrolling through and thinking about your career. I 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.520 think one of your great accomplishments that is maybe goes 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.400 under the radar. You were the first pro golfer on Twitter. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.359 You were the og. Well was it like, how did 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.400 you become the early adopter back in I think it 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:29.680 was maybe like nine. 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.560 Oh wait, yeah, I don't know if I was the 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.360 first one to get on there, but I was the 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.760 first one to really gain a lot of followers and 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.680 create these connections, like a one on one connection with 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:42.800 each follower. That's the way I did it back then, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:44.640 and it was a new thing and the way it 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.600 got started. My kids were I have to do some math. 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.840 My kids were like in their early teenage years and 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:56.920 they played ice hockey. And so remember the show PTI, Right, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:01.280 So I was watching PTI and they were talking about 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.520 an NBA player who was asking for a trade, but 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.360 he didn't use the traditional route, like he didn't go 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.280 to the front office and sort of like submit it 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:12.800 in writing and all that. He went on social media 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.640 and said I want out. I don't remember the player. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:22.240 And so the conversation between Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser was 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.080 not about the player in the NBA. It quickly shifted 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:27.560 over to like, is this going to be like a 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.000 new way for athletes to talk to their front offices 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:35.080 and to their fans and like this social media thing, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.920 Like what is it? What's going on? And so it 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:43.280 got me thinking, like, as a golfer, I it's hard 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.560 to get your personality across through the television lens and 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.000 through the into the living room of the fans if 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.920 you're not Tiger Woods or somebody that has like this 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.360 unique sort of look or you know, a trade like 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.000 Camilla was that at the time was like the guy 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:03.600 who's just you know, a great looking dude, And come on, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.039 I mean, how's a guy like me competing against that. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:07.479 I mean, I can hit my eight iron, you know, 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.080 pretty accurately, and I can shoot decent scores, But come on, Millo, 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.279 I mean, it's not giving anybody a chance. So I 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.599 thought well, maybe, like it's hard for me to do that, 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.800 so maybe this is a way for me to sort 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.039 of like interact with some fans and get a few 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:25.960 fans or find out that there's some out there. And 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.360 I asked my son, Connor, who was, like, I said, 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.279 about thirteen or fourteen. I said, what is this? What 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.520 is Twitter? What is this? And he said, it's kind 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.440 of like a bare bones Facebook. And the way it 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.960 works is you like put a statement out there and 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.880 then people like either like it or they don't like it, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.800 and they might follow you and become like your friend 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.080 or fan. And I understood a little bit about Facebook 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.240 because it was already existing. Twitter was just getting on 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.640 the scene and and so I said, I don't see 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.520 why I wouldn't try this, and he said, yeah, what'll 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.680 probably happen is you'll probably find out like that you 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.120 have like two or three hundred people out there that 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:03.720 like want to know what you're talking about. I'm like 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.159 two or three hundred. That sounds incredible, Like that's awesome. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.839 So I tweeted one day, I just opened up a 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:15.599 Twitter account and I tweeted taking my son to hockey practice. Period. 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.800 You know, it's like, okay, it's not I demand a trade, 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.040 but it's like something about me in my life. And 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.120 so as I found out there were people out there 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.920 that were kind of just waiting for you know, sports 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.280 figures or whatever to start putting messages on Twitter. And 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.120 I got several hundred responses to just that one message, 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.479 and every one of them followed me. And I wasn't 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.800 ever a big follower back. That's probably there was quite 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:42.839 a huge ambalance in that. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.839 And that's part of Twitter is cultivating your feet. You know, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.440 you got to you gotta be spartan with with uh 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.839 you know who gets into that feed? 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.800 Yeah. So, and I used it like a one on 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.240 one connection with every like I would answer their questions 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.400 and talk to them about their day and tell them 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.640 about my day. I would tell everybody at once, but 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.240 I would interact with them one on one, and it 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.760 was time consuming a little bit, And of course as 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.360 it grew, as the followership grew, I learned a little 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.640 bit about what they wanted to hear and about what 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.640 I had fun talking about. Not that much golf, by 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.760 the way, and the one on one thing just started 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.880 to lessen just by the sheer number of people. But 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.960 it grew and grew, and I had a lot of 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:38.040 fun doing it, and it lasted until probably it lasts 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:43.000 about eight years where they continued to grow and that culture, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:44.800 you know that the culture out there kind of changed 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:45.320 to a little bit. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.800 And then, oh yeah, I miss what you're describing the 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.480 idea of tweeting I'm taking my kid to hockey practice. 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:53.760 I missed that Twitter. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.240 I missed the version of like, you know what, I 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.800 liked the world whereas like I'm eating a croissant, you know, that's. 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.880 My exactly a simple world. And then nowadays I feel 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.440 like if you, if you whatever they call it anymore. 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:09.240 I mean, I know it's called X, but it's still 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:13.760 called tweeting. If you post on X now I'm taking 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:15.800 my hit kid to hockey practice, There'll be fifty people 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:17.360 in my inbox that say, like, why don't you go 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:18.200 f yourself? 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.800 Yeah, yeah, there's a different energy out there. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.160 Yeah, there is a world and it's energy on Twitter. Now. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.600 X is what kind of drove me to sort of 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.240 be like, all right, I think I'm going to join 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.560 the ranks and first use it as a megaphone, which 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.839 I didn't really want to do at first, and then 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.880 eventually just kind of just got out of it, and 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.920 I'm still on there. I don't really do much posting 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.720 that much, really, but anyway, that's sort of the backstory. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:48.160 You hit on something. 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.199 The difficulty as a pro caall for to get your 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:56.640 personality across. You hit shots, you're inside the ropes, you're 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.359 far away. You know, the only times you get interviewed 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.000 are if you're near the lead, which you know there's 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.280 one hundred and forty people trying to be near the lead. 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.880 In your opinion, what are some ways And this is obviously, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.480 you know, a prescient topic and golf, that golf can 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.520 do a better job of highlighting personalities and about and 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:17.079 stories about players. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.600 Well, I think it's a two way thing. First of all, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.160 I think golf, especially the golf media, can do a 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.360 little bit better job. It's perfect timing. Right now, we 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.160 got the Olympics going, and I've always thought that well, 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.559 and think in my lifetime, NBC has been the majority. 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.280 You know, they're the carrier for the Olympics, and they 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.560 do a good job packaging those little little, uh like 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.200 three or four minute promos for a sport and an 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.080 athlete that you would probably never watch other than Olympics. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.880 You know, some obscure athlete from another country and telling 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.360 the backstory and when that sport comes on, now you're like, 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:55.800 that is my athlete. I want that guy or that 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.000 gal to win, and you know a little bit about him. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:00.480 They create a connection, and I think we could do 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.400 a little bit better job of that in golf. Let's 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.400 have some of these little I don't know what you 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.040 call you guys probably know, but a little two or 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.760 three minutes, just a little segment about a player in 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.760 the cain waiting for that player to be in contention 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.320 for the weekend, and let's run that, you know, let's 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.720 let's get that player out there. And that's one thing 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:24.600 I think, But the other thing is the player. I mean, 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.400 we also we can benefit by just showing a little 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:33.400 bit more emotion. The problem with that is that, you know, Tiger, 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:35.840 there's a select few people that thrive on it, but 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.040 most of us have figured out that we play better 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:40.920 golf and we're more consistent when we kind of keep 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.439 the heart rate down and try to like suppress the 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:47.439 adrenaline a little bit. And that comes off as being 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:53.360 boring and robotic and emotionless and unengageable. That's that's a problem. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:59.160 It's a conflict. So personally, I like to try to 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.520 just smile and remember like my gratitude for me being 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.760 grateful out there is a great way for the personality 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:07.960 just to come oozing out. And it doesn't mean I 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.920 fist plump, It doesn't mean I'm like you know, jumping 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.160 up and down and like getting excited. But it makes 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.200 you knowable when you smile and when you look excited 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.920 and happy about something, and when you look upset and 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.400 disappointed about something, people can see it on your face. 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.360 It matters. And and so I think that's one thing 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.079 that we all need to do too, just to let 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.880 that let the personality come through a little bit and 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.240 maybe some creative ways. And our partners out there in 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:36.480 the media I think could do a little bit better 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:37.400 job promoting us too. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.720 I think, yeah, it's definitely a two way street. 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.680 Something like it's really clear, you know, especially in the 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.679 I would say the last twenty five thirty years, like 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:53.560 the sports psychology, it's like stay in the present, you know, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.400 keep your keep your emotions at a certain level that 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.160 like that equal where you. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.400 Were most common table and you. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.480 See outside of like team competitions. I think you don't 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.160 see those huge reactions very often. And I think like 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.680 it's just kind of like the push and pull of 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.000 how the sport plays out. It's not like a massive 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:21.320 adrenaline sport like basketball or you know any any real 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.439 you know, football, where you know, you make a play, 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.000 you've got this time to you know, you're operating on 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.800 adrenaline and these other sports, and in golf it's like 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.480 it's kind of like adrenaline could be a bad thing. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.480 You know, it can lead to you not hanging your 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.960 numbers and all these things. I completely agree with the 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.079 vignette thing. I think like as a whole golf and 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.080 this is like totally you know, it kind of ties 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.800 back to what we were talking about earlier with Twitter, 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.600 Like you know, there's this you know, rash of people 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.360 that show more shots, show more shots, show more shots, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.080 and that's all the networks here now show more shots 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.640 and what's gotten cut at the expense. So that is 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.720 any sort of storytelling where you know, they feel they're 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.040 like afraid to take the camera off you know, the 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.040 players and the shots and show these vignettes. But I 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.120 think they're missing the point, Like you know, I was 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.280 on Golf Week yesterday and they aggregate stories from all 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.160 over the country, you know, on their website with their 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.200 I think it's like the USA Today or whatever network 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.240 of newspapers. And there was an article written by the 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.680 Patosky like the Patoski Free Press or whatever it's called, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:34.120 and it was about Joey Garber. 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.920 And I didn't realize Joey Garber grew. 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.280 Up in Pataski, Michigan, which is like way at the 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:40.560 very top of Michigan. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.319 And I found that fascinating. 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.760 It's like, okay, like this is not a place that 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.080 pro golfers typically come from, like you know, it's covered 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.160 in snow six months of the year, Like how did 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.199 this happen? And I was enthralled reading the story about 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.720 you know, Joey Garber and how he moved to Florida 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.520 and he came back. That could be a great little 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.199 short video in like you said, if Joey Garber ever 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.800 got in the mix, it's like here, here's that you know, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.840 and pardon me wonders if like that's partly on the tour, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.880 Like how can the tour create these assets that that 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.280 then can be used when players get in the hunt 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.000 but you know, it is hard. Golf is a I 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.280 think that's like the tricky thing with golf as you 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.880 talk about the next you know, twenty years, is like, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.840 you know, how do you how do you get people 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:33.080 to care about number seventy in the world. And these 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.880 are extraordinarily high achievers and but like outside of you know, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.520 these mega moments where Joel Damon takes a shirt off, 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.320 it doesn't it seems very hard for players of that 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:44.360 ilk to break through. 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.600 That's true. And I like to compare this to like 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.120 a team in the NBA, where teams are generally categorized 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.640 either in win now or rebuilding for the future, right 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.680 unless I feel like the PGA Tour exceptables, yeah, bull. 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:02.320 Team. 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.080 Same with the Hawks. It seems like it's Hawks bulled 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:13.000 every year and we're but we're it feels like the 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.520 PGA Tour. We're always in a win now mode. We 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.520 were writing our superstars and we're asking a lot of them. 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.520 That's you know, it's part of the nature of our business. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:27.280 But it's also not really that fair. But the greatest 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.000 example is when Tiger went down for his massive uh disappearance, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.920 you know, back in two thousand and nine and all 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.280 of a sudden, we're all like, what are we gonna do? 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.520 There's a void. Tiger is like the greatest athlete on 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.440 the planet right now, and all of a sudden he's 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.120 not here. Well, golf does a great job of backfilling 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:50.040 it's stars. Jordan Speech comes on board, Justin Thomas, Ricky Fowler. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.480 Guys like that are really popular, and they still are. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.560 I'm not saying anybody will ever fill the Tiger void, 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.560 because Tiger's his own thing. But the thing is, it 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:03.240 takes time for that backfield to happen, and if we're 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:08.560 writing the superstars, we're never gonna have any immediate backfill. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.560 With guys like the Joey Garber story, that's a great example. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.760 These vignettes I think can educate the fans, and I'm 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.920 not really sure that the I know the focus groups, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.040 I'll say, show more shots, show more shots. But all 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.440 my friends that I talked to that watch golf say 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.280 I don't know who anybody is, And my response is always, 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.880 I don't care if you know who they are. Their 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.880 shots are amazing, and if you want to watch shots, 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.200 you want to watch amazing shots. It does shouldn't matter 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.560 who hit the shot. But the people that watch golf 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.320 will tell you that I don't know who the names are, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.760 and if there's big names on the leaderboard, they'll watch. 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.120 If there's not, they probably won't watch. And the march 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.080 madness proves it out too. Everybody wants the underdogs to win. 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.320 It's great, you know the five beats that are five 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.240 losers to the twelve and everybody's brackets get torn up. 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.000 Well at the final four when you have a bunch 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.000 of middle seed teams, the ratings are in the toilet 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:01.600 because no one was to watch. 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.880 Everybody wants the underdog story until the final four. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.680 Exactly. Yeah, that's right, it's. 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.199 I yeah, I think that's a good I think the 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.080 thing that maybe golf needs to do is like where 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:19.320 the telecast needs to be shook up is on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.560 That's the moments in time for the storytelling and then 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.760 it's you know, the last two hours of the telecast 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.440 sits lock in and watch what happens in the tournament. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.159 It's a I I you know, the storytelling aspect is 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.119 the thing I think that's missed by the show more shots, 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.239 show more shots, and I think there is like we 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.919 people get obsessed with like, you know, what are what 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:44.399 are the fans saying? 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:44.919 You know? 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.440 And I agree that the fans are a big constituent 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.720 that you want to listen to. You don't want to 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:52.720 not listen to them. But there is like a certain 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.800 degree of like the experts in there rita are the 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.840 media executives that should be determining some of the things, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.719 Like some people don't know what they want until they 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.520 see it or experience it. And I think that's like 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.399 another aspect of this that gets, you know, kind of changed. 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.200 I think you're a unique you know, when you talk about. 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.720 Golf and and people becoming fans of people, you are 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.360 kind of like a person that I point to you 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.160 like you a lot of your peers Jim Furick, Steve Stricker. 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.880 One of the aspects of golf that is super important 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.960 that I wonder about over the next twenty years is 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.159 you know, your your era of players. There were a 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:41.760 lot of twenty thirty year careers, you know, twenty your 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.840 your career spanned. You know, you won basically in three decades, 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.560 which is insane. But in that time, you think about 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.600 like how golf fans get to know you over the years, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.120 and you go from in the early two thousands being 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.120 a young player to then, you know, in the mid 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.760 two thousand, in the mid two thousands, you're this established 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.400 top ten player in the world, and then your tail 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.760 of your career continues into the twenty twenties where you're 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.080 a household name. And that's kind of I think, like 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.080 I always think about like how golf really works. Well, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.359 it's like when you have this crew of household names, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.919 do you think part of this, like building fandom is 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.720 more important because do you see the world of golf 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.000 changing in terms of like your types of careers are 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:32.760 maybe less likely in the future. 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.359 I do think it's less like in the future because 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.920 as it sounds like the tour shrinking, that's just gonna 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:45.119 be less players starting. We've already seen this, and with 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.560 less players starting, there's just there's the door. It just 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.399 we reach capacity quicker and so there's gonna be more 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.879 people leaving. So just a math doesn't work for longer 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:59.199 careers anymore. And when you add the typical golfer, you know, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.800 client around like early forties, you can play a long 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.920 time and still be very effective, but it's not really 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.720 the distance anymore. It's not the you know, the physical 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.000 tools anymore. It's more like the physiology and the chemicals 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.920 the brain produces when you're fifty as opposed to when 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:22.119 you're twenty five. It just doesn't let me that well, 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.199 your brain shifts from a sort of like I just 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.320 want to like bust through every wall and get everything 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.239 I can get when you're in their twenties to when 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:32.840 you're in the fifties. It's kind of like, let's just 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.240 gather these acorns and put them in the little basket 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.040 and we'll just walk away quietly and conserve. That's the 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:42.200 way that human beings' brains develop, and that fifty year 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.879 old conservative mentality, and I'm not talking politically conservative, I 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:51.720 mean conservational. That doesn't equate to like rip your heart out, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.840 go for broke golf, and when you're playing against guys 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.639 that have that kind of chemical physiology, well, that's the 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:00.479 reason that we decline. It's not because we can't hit 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.040 it far. Most of the guys that are turning fifty 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:04.560 now hit it just as far as they did when 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.960 they were, you know, thirty six. So technology and what 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.840 we know about biomechanics and all that has made that possible. 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.720 But you can't turn off that chemical falset in your brain. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.400 It just it changes because that's the way the human 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.440 beings were created. And that's that's a fact. So long 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.760 answer anyway, Yes, I do feel like because of that 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.600 natural decline in the forties that more players are going 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.040 to leave earlier than they have over the course of 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.760 history because the pool is just smaller. There's not as 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:37.720 much room in there. 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.080 That mental shift. 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.399 I you know, I there's a great Padrick Harrington quote 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.399 from a couple of years ago at the Open. It was, like, 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.000 I think it was along the lines of like experiences 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.800 is all it's cracked up to be. With experience, you 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.199 lose innocence, and that seems to be what you're kind 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.440