Speaker 1: The guys from paying They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
Speaker 1: hit any shot I kind of want.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 2: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Ping proven Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane
Speaker 1: Baker and that's Marty Jerts and Marty. We've got another
Speaker 1: great guest in the tour truck with Taylor Moore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Taylor. It's excited to spend
Speaker 2: a little time together, hear about your journey and talk
Speaker 2: little gear.
Speaker 1: I want to kind of start with the journey because
Speaker 1: you're a thirty year old player. You won on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour this year for the first time. What was
Speaker 1: the journey like? How did you kind of handle going
Speaker 1: through different tours? You had a great amateur career. What
Speaker 1: was the journey like to the point where you win
Speaker 1: on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, I spent five years outside the PGA
Speaker 3: Tour but playing professional golf, and so I feel like
Speaker 3: I was pretty acclimated to, you know, what professional golf was.
Speaker 3: And yeah, my senior year at Arkansas. I qualified for
Speaker 3: the Canadian Tour and had status out there immediately, and
Speaker 3: then right after our national championship, you know, my year,
Speaker 3: I went straight up to Canada and got acclimated to
Speaker 3: what you know, professional golf was. And so that's how Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's all I got started.
Speaker 1: How was Arkansas out Canada? How was that? How was
Speaker 1: that switch?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You're like, where are where?
Speaker 3: Where are we here?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: I was actually we were actually in Eugene, organ and
Speaker 3: so we're kind of close to my first term. It
Speaker 3: was in Victoria, British Columbia, so it wasn't too too
Speaker 3: far to travel. But it was funny. I went up
Speaker 3: there and wore all my Arkansas gear and you know,
Speaker 3: playing with professional golfers. It was this college kid, you know,
Speaker 3: up here trying to get after it. So that was
Speaker 3: that was pretty fun.
Speaker 1: Did you have a moment during the journey where golf
Speaker 1: was frustrated and you were thinking, maybe this isn't going
Speaker 1: to be it, Maybe I'm gonna pursue something else, What
Speaker 1: else could I do? Was there ever anything like that
Speaker 1: that float it through the brain.
Speaker 3: I definitely had, you know a couple of peers that
Speaker 3: come to mind that I was frustrated. I never really
Speaker 3: allowed myself to, you know, think about what I potentially
Speaker 3: wanted to do elsewise, you know, or otherwise, and I, yeah,
Speaker 3: I got injured in nineteen. I was I was kind
Speaker 3: of a big moment for me, just to get some
Speaker 3: perspective on life and you know, have some time away
Speaker 3: from the game. And then we had a two and
Speaker 3: one you know season during COVID on the corn Ferry
Speaker 3: and I was about seventy fifth place roughly after the
Speaker 3: first kind of you know part of it, and was
Speaker 3: just very frustrated with how I was playing, and you
Speaker 3: know had to really you know, grab a bull by
Speaker 3: the horns and redirect a little bit. And uh yeah,
Speaker 3: teared up to that last season to get out here.
Speaker 2: Did you graduate from Canadian to corn Ferry And then
Speaker 2: what point in your journey on Canadian did you get
Speaker 2: your win there?
Speaker 1: I did Median.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I finished third on that money list in Canada,
Speaker 3: and I went, like I said, straight from Oregon to
Speaker 3: Victoria and I finished solo second my first event, so
Speaker 3: it kind of kind of kind of popped me up
Speaker 3: on the on the money list right there. And that
Speaker 3: was the second event out of the twelve that we
Speaker 3: played over the course of the summer, and about halfway
Speaker 3: through I won in Thunder Bay and so that was
Speaker 3: a pretty cool week, first professional win. My dad was
Speaker 3: on the back. He came up to hang out with
Speaker 3: me for the week, and you know, we happened to win,
Speaker 3: which was a lot of fun and something that that
Speaker 3: we definitely remember.
Speaker 2: Was it close or did you how many did you
Speaker 2: win by? It?
Speaker 3: Go went by two or three? But I was actually
Speaker 3: I was paired in the final round with another ping pro,
Speaker 3: Corey Connors, Canadians, So that was kind of that was
Speaker 3: a cool kind of duel by.
Speaker 1: Three, by the way, I'm telling you, unbelievable.
Speaker 3: It was funny, Like, so I had a couple shot
Speaker 3: lead obviously on eighteen and uh, hit it in the fairway.
Speaker 3: My dad's like, what do you think? What do you think?
Speaker 3: I'm like, driver off the decks, end it up there,
Speaker 3: like you know, I kind of freaked him out and
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm just kidding, I'm gonna lay up. That
Speaker 3: was pretty funny. He's, uh, he always tells that story.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was It was a lot of fun
Speaker 3: to get my first first win up there.
Speaker 2: And then Corn Ferry Tour. When uh, tell us about
Speaker 2: that win, because you've knocked off a win on Canadian
Speaker 2: corn Fairy and then this year.
Speaker 1: Real quick, would you win by in corn Fairy? Let's see?
Speaker 1: How Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was that?
Speaker 3: I know, I just remember blacking out on Saturday and
Speaker 3: shooting sixty and then shoot six and then I think
Speaker 3: sixty six the final round, but maybe two ye by three? Three? Yeah, two,
Speaker 3: I like to one by three. Yeah. No, that was
Speaker 3: That was pretty cool. And that was a couple of
Speaker 3: years into corner. You know, I think I was my
Speaker 3: fourth season on corn Fairy, hadn't won my previous three,
Speaker 3: and you know, obviously been close a few times, and
Speaker 3: you know, kept my card on corn Fair every year.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was that was pretty surreal. I was
Speaker 3: in a really good period of playing golf during that summer,
Speaker 3: my last year on corn Fairy. You know, I shot
Speaker 3: twenty seven under to win that week, shot twenty five
Speaker 3: under the next finished sol the second, you know, which
Speaker 3: obviously elevated me to you know, pretty high number on
Speaker 3: the Corn Fairy Tour pointsless so.
Speaker 1: Taylor the mentality of a Corn Fairy Tour player. I
Speaker 1: don't think casual golf fans quite understand the difference in
Speaker 1: corn Fairy Tour golf versus PGA Tour golf. When you're
Speaker 1: out there on the KFT, it's it's a birdy fest.
Speaker 1: You're trying to shoot as low as possible. You can
Speaker 1: kind of hit it offline and still get away with it.
Speaker 1: What was the biggest change for you when you got
Speaker 1: to the PGA Tour. It just in terms of how
Speaker 1: you play golf.
Speaker 3: Course management's obviously a lot different, you know out here,
Speaker 3: just based on course setup and conditions, I feel like,
Speaker 3: but I was. I was appreciative of the fact that
Speaker 3: I had to learn how to play that style of
Speaker 3: golf as well, the aggressive, stay aggresive style. I'm just
Speaker 3: learning how to make birdies and get comfortable making birdies
Speaker 3: because you know, there are some weeks out here that
Speaker 3: are like that. But also out here, you know, driving
Speaker 3: the volume the fairways of value, missing in correct spots
Speaker 3: and giving yourself some space is of value. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I was appreciative, and you know, like I said, there's
Speaker 3: some weeks out here we got to go low, but
Speaker 3: definitely gotta gotta play smart out here and a little
Speaker 3: more conservative at times.
Speaker 2: I find that very interesting. So your your wins, your
Speaker 2: win on corn Fair was like twenty three hundred, you
Speaker 2: shot twenty twenty six under, and then you win one
Speaker 2: of the hardest events relative to par this year at
Speaker 2: the Valspar. I mean watching the Valspar every year, it's
Speaker 2: like watching a mat, like the scores like watching a major.
Speaker 2: You know, usually like single digits under par. I think
Speaker 2: you shot ten right this year to win by one.
Speaker 2: So what was it about that course that you know
Speaker 2: you think suited your game?
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think I think that whole Florida kind
Speaker 3: of swing, I've like internally feel comfortab because it's on Bermuda.
Speaker 3: It's a little fa it gets, you know, a little
Speaker 3: crazy in some spots, like they Hill. There's literally no
Speaker 3: grass on those greens, zero friction. And actually valls War
Speaker 3: got a little bit that way as well, and so
Speaker 3: you know, I think I'm comfortable on that type of
Speaker 3: grass in that environment. And just with how fast I got,
Speaker 3: I knew just to give myself some space if I
Speaker 3: did miss, and you know, try to drive the ball
Speaker 3: on the fairway and get as many you know, short
Speaker 3: irons and wedges as possible and had a good week
Speaker 3: on the greens, you know that we anytime I feel
Speaker 3: like my game no three putts, you know, no balls
Speaker 3: in the hat, just little stuff that we always talk about.
Speaker 3: And I did a really good job of that that week, like.
Speaker 1: The Tiger rules, right, yeah, bogie par five, no three putts,
Speaker 1: try not to lose a golf ball and if you
Speaker 1: can kind of check those off a list of ye
Speaker 1: hanging out.
Speaker 3: All that little stuff adds up, you know, over four days,
Speaker 3: and I think there's one set that popped up where
Speaker 3: I didn't miss a pot inside it, you know, seven
Speaker 3: feet all week, seventy of seventy or something like that,
Speaker 3: which is like that stuff has to happen sometimes for
Speaker 3: you to win, right exactly. Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 1: What would you sign up for, Let's say next year
Speaker 1: the tour was looking at scheduling all the golf courses
Speaker 1: that you want to play. Are you looking at twenty
Speaker 1: five under and you got to go low and get
Speaker 1: out there and get it, or are you looking more
Speaker 1: a Valce bar where ten undred has a possibility of winning.
Speaker 1: What fits your game is better.
Speaker 3: I prefer the harder courses, but I think some of
Speaker 3: the ones that you you know, can go low, or
Speaker 3: some fun tracks as well, so I think I'll do
Speaker 3: a little bit of a balance, you know, if I had,
Speaker 3: if I had to guess, But it seems like the
Speaker 3: the way the tour is going, the you know, elevated
Speaker 3: events and the majors, those are obviously going to be
Speaker 3: you know, your higher scoring events for the most part.
Speaker 2: So Taylor winning that event in March got you into
Speaker 2: all the majors right this year. Yeah, so tell us
Speaker 2: about that you went from playing no major. I mean,
Speaker 2: this journey is incredible, you know, It's it's.
Speaker 1: Why again, like why following pro golf is so fun
Speaker 1: because you have the kind of super duper young stars
Speaker 1: like the Jordan Speeds and you know, I mean obviously
Speaker 1: see Ricky Fowler pop up and nearly win right out
Speaker 1: of the gate. But there are so many extremely talented
Speaker 1: players that do go through this journey like yours, which
Speaker 1: again I'm sure gives you great perspective in terms of
Speaker 1: PGA tor golf because you check those boxes on your
Speaker 1: way to this path.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, I think everybody's journey out
Speaker 3: here is different, right, Like you guys are saying speed,
Speaker 3: there's some star studded guys coming out of school, especially now,
Speaker 3: that can come out here and play immediately. And you know,
Speaker 3: for me, I think personally I needed those years on
Speaker 3: the corn for you just to learn how to play golf,
Speaker 3: learn how to be a professional, you know, learn how
Speaker 3: to score in all different kinds of conditions and tournaments
Speaker 3: and scenarios. And I think if I potentially would have
Speaker 3: made the Tour after my first or second year on Cornfery,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I would have stayed out here
Speaker 3: just because I wasn't ready. But yeah, it's just it's
Speaker 3: pretty cool to see.
Speaker 2: To your point, What was it like turning up at
Speaker 2: Augusta this year?
Speaker 3: It was pretty cool, man, Yeah, it was awesome. I
Speaker 3: had never been out there. You had a chance to
Speaker 3: play a ride in you I had a chance to
Speaker 3: play say I'm.
Speaker 1: Good, which is still crazy to me. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I Dustin told me he did it one time. Dustin
Speaker 1: had a chance to play it. I know Colt knows
Speaker 1: qualified for the Masters because you in the Am and
Speaker 1: then turned pro at the invite. I mean, there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of people on this planet, maybe less people
Speaker 1: that have walked on the Moon that have turned down
Speaker 1: on Augustina.
Speaker 3: I know, I know, well it had just been a
Speaker 3: thing for me and my dad. We wanted, you know,
Speaker 3: our first time out there to be when I qualified,
Speaker 3: and so obviously some incentive there. But I had a chance,
Speaker 3: you know, from a member that I met at school
Speaker 3: at Arkansas, to to go out there and play. And
Speaker 3: my dad wasn't able to go on the trip. It
Speaker 3: was just going to be me. So I was like,
Speaker 3: I appreciate it, but no, Sirah, like, my dad can't go,
Speaker 3: then I don't, you know, I don't want to break
Speaker 3: our little little thing we got going. So yeah, that
Speaker 3: was cool.
Speaker 1: You talked a lot about your dad and he's caddied
Speaker 1: for you. How's your dad's golf game? Is he who
Speaker 1: got you into golf?
Speaker 3: He is? Yeah, he got me into the game, and
Speaker 3: you know, he coached college baseball a little bit high
Speaker 3: school baseball the end of his career and him and
Speaker 3: his coaching, but as we go play golf in their
Speaker 3: in their free time, and I just you know, tagging
Speaker 3: along and hop in the cart and you know, try
Speaker 3: to do what they did when I was you know, three,
Speaker 3: four or five years old, and that's how I got
Speaker 3: into it. But yeah, he's caddy for me a little
Speaker 3: bit got me to the game lost following. I think
Speaker 3: it's hard, you know, for a lot of dads out
Speaker 3: here to have sons, you know, the PGA Tour, it's
Speaker 3: hard just being dad because a lot of them were
Speaker 3: so involved at a young age. So that's been a big,
Speaker 3: you know, learning curve for him. But yeah, he's uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's good.
Speaker 1: Is he comfortable now being dad?
Speaker 2: Ye?
Speaker 1: Comfortable kind of taking that step away. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you've got that coaching mind, you're always thinking about coaching,
Speaker 1: and obviously with your son playing so well and competing,
Speaker 1: he wants to coach his son. Is he okay now
Speaker 1: just kind of sitting back cocktail and so and watching
Speaker 1: golf from the tower.
Speaker 3: He is, he is. And you know, have a younger
Speaker 3: brother as well, so everybody's out of the house. Everybody's adults,
Speaker 3: everybody you know, you know, living their own lives, and
Speaker 3: so yeah, he's uh, he's fully adjusted now and totally
Speaker 3: content coming out here and uh, you know, getting into
Speaker 3: player dining and hanging out and being a part of
Speaker 3: being a part of it. So he's great as well.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't have to get you a sandwich
Speaker 3: and doctor Pember at the turn anymore, like I can
Speaker 3: just go in here and do that.
Speaker 2: So, Taylor, you mentioned baseball, your dad coaching baseball, you
Speaker 2: were a baseball player. Tell us about your journey like
Speaker 2: baseball golf, When did the when did.
Speaker 1: The Yeah we heard good, Yeah we heard you like
Speaker 1: a good really good baseball.
Speaker 3: Yeah I was. I was really good. You know. I
Speaker 3: quit baseball for my freshman year high school. So I
Speaker 3: played both pretty parallel, I would say, until about eighth grade,
Speaker 3: and then I started really you know, picking more and
Speaker 3: more golf tournaments and kind of the time frame too.
Speaker 3: When I got into the pen junior program. I was fourteen.
Speaker 3: Jeff Brown found me when I was in eighth grade.
Speaker 3: You know, we weren't totally sure if it was legal
Speaker 3: to get golf equipment because my dad, being a baseball coach,
Speaker 3: was like, no kids can get sponsored. And you know,
Speaker 3: in team sports, you can't get free equipment. You can't
Speaker 3: do anything unless you know the team has all the
Speaker 3: access to it. But yeah, I played baseball at a
Speaker 3: high level, you know, through my freshman year and was
Speaker 3: going to camps in the summer and you know, really
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what I wanted to do in college.
Speaker 1: And at the next level, what position did you play, Like,
Speaker 1: what what were you good at in baseball?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I played short and second you know, middle figure,
Speaker 3: probably the coach's son. It was kind of like, you know,
Speaker 3: you're required to play that at some point, I feel like,
Speaker 3: but my dad played center field, and I really enjoyed
Speaker 3: playing outfield too. That was that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think it was just naturally more gifted short, short,
Speaker 3: and second base.
Speaker 1: I was a lefty coming up in East Texas playing baseball,
Speaker 1: and my coach made me play catcher a little bit
Speaker 1: as a catcher, which lefties don't play catcher. Yes, so crazy,
Speaker 1: But me and my buddy, my buddy Russy played first.
Speaker 1: We'd pick off so many guys that were getting sleepy
Speaker 1: on first because you could just rifle it down first base.
Speaker 1: It was always fun. But yeah, having the baseball and
Speaker 1: the golf thing, I don't know for you, it was
Speaker 1: really tough for me because the swings are so different.
Speaker 1: So you're in a batting cage, you're hitting balls baseball wise,
Speaker 1: and then you go to the driving range. It always
Speaker 1: took me a little bit of time to adjust. Was
Speaker 1: that part of the reason you decided to give up baseball.
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't really have that issue. A lot
Speaker 3: of people maybe would assume, but for me, I just
Speaker 3: I didn't really have that problem. I was able to,
Speaker 3: you know, decipher ball being still on a tee and
Speaker 3: then a ball coming at you and being able to react,
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe it's just lucky and God given
Speaker 3: a little bit. But I didn't have, you know, too
Speaker 3: much of that. I had more rust just from not
Speaker 3: playing golf right than anything, because I would go, you know,
Speaker 3: play a baseball tournament over the weekend Thursday through Sunday,
Speaker 3: and then roll around and play oaklhand junior golf men
Speaker 3: on Monday morning. He's like, Okay, this is weird, like
Speaker 3: and I haven't practiced ready. You haven't done anything.
Speaker 2: So, Taylor, you mentioned Jeff brown took care of you
Speaker 2: starting at age thirteen fourteen. I want to know some
Speaker 2: of your like favorite pin clubs, whether it's driver, iron,
Speaker 2: what'd you use those early days? What do you what
Speaker 2: do you remember about them?
Speaker 3: So I remember my first driver that Brownie got me
Speaker 3: was a G two eleven and a half degree with
Speaker 3: a lady's flex in it. Because I was a small kid.
Speaker 3: That was like literally like maybe five foot one hundred pounds,
Speaker 3: and he's like, let's get you some loft in a
Speaker 3: in a cheft that you can whip around and swing
Speaker 3: as fast as you can. So that was that was
Speaker 3: pretty cool, just so you know, think about that. Other
Speaker 3: clubs I love. I love the Rapture V two at
Speaker 3: a Mitsubishi dmana whiteboarding it and the V two with
Speaker 3: some with some loft as well. Ten five.
Speaker 1: I think you still have these clubs somewhere, do you think?
Speaker 3: Somewhere at home? Probably probably my parents' house. They have
Speaker 3: a little they call it the Taylor Golf Shed in
Speaker 3: the back corner. They got literally all kinds of you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: for the podcast, we might.
Speaker 2: What about putters? What about putter?
Speaker 3: Redwood D sixty six, Oh nice, Yeah, those are still,
Speaker 3: in my opinion, some of the best, you know, feeling putters.
Speaker 3: And you know, obviously the new PLD line with the
Speaker 3: mild face and stuff is about as close as we've
Speaker 3: we've gotten to that, which feels, you know, very similar.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Redwood D sixty six, I'm still I still
Speaker 3: play the S fifty five irons, so I have to
Speaker 3: mention those, you know. Oh yeah, Seven eight nine years
Speaker 3: old and probably no better than you, but yeah I played.
Speaker 1: Have you have you tinkered with some of the new
Speaker 1: irons and thought about going into them? And why do
Speaker 1: you kind of stick to the the O g irons
Speaker 1: that you've had in the bag for a few years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, I've tried, you know, anything new that
Speaker 3: comes out, especially now being on tour we have access
Speaker 3: to right and so I did play the Blueprints for
Speaker 3: a period of time, you know, on my last year
Speaker 3: on corn Ferry and when I first got out here
Speaker 3: on tour, which I love because there's so much playability
Speaker 3: in the Blueprint irons, you know, not a lot of
Speaker 3: offset able to work it both ways pretty easy obviously
Speaker 3: the player profile with the smaller blade, which is awesome,
Speaker 3: but always gravitated back. I think just naturally being a
Speaker 3: pink kid, I love to look at a little bit
Speaker 3: of offset, have a little bit of forgiveness in the
Speaker 3: long irons, especially you know out here on tour, you know,
Speaker 3: in that three and four, and I would like a
Speaker 3: little bit of mass to look at times playing on
Speaker 3: these firm hard courses.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So our blue our Blueprint S is kind of
Speaker 2: that marriage of the S from S fifty five with
Speaker 2: the blueprint and getting some of those soul design properties,
Speaker 2: you know Areddiction think.
Speaker 3: S Blueprints twenty four. You heard it here first here
Speaker 3: the iron change.
Speaker 1: You're a guy that likes to move the ball kind
Speaker 1: of the opposite way of what maybe the modern player does.
Speaker 1: I know you guys do some waiting in that world
Speaker 1: as well with your woods. Why do you like to
Speaker 1: see the ball move that way? And how many players
Speaker 1: do you play with its still kind of turn the
Speaker 1: ball over?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just a naturally drawler right like right to
Speaker 3: left is what I see in my head, and you
Speaker 3: know I tend to aim to, you know, that way
Speaker 3: on the course to play for that. And yeah, it
Speaker 3: is a little bit odd nowadays, especially for some higher
Speaker 3: speed players to maybe move it that way, just with
Speaker 3: the technology and the and the ball being a little
Speaker 3: bit less spinny than you know it used to be,
Speaker 3: especially when we're growing up. But yeah, there's still some
Speaker 3: guys out here that singing it. Guy that comes to
Speaker 3: mind is Chris Kirt. You know, I played with him
Speaker 3: a few times and he's he's definitely a drawer. And
Speaker 3: I think the cool thing about you know, being on
Speaker 3: tour and you know, just seeing some of the top
Speaker 3: rank players in the world, is they go both ways
Speaker 3: with it, right. I mean I played with rom who
Speaker 3: I believed was a cutter, and I'm just like, man,
Speaker 3: every ball is going to go left right And we
Speaker 3: get on a couple of teas with left right win
Speaker 3: and he draws it back into him, Like, so, why
Speaker 3: you're a number one of them?
Speaker 2: Yeah? We saw pulled that off with Augusta.
Speaker 3: Yea, yeah, which is pretty cool. So yeah, I just
Speaker 3: that's just what I see in my head though.
Speaker 1: Joe, who have you fan boyd out to this year
Speaker 1: getting paired with or playing with where you have to
Speaker 1: kind of remind yourself that you're a peer of this
Speaker 1: person you mentioned playing with John Rahm? Who have you
Speaker 1: played golf alongside on the PGA Tour this season? Where
Speaker 1: you're like this is this is really sick?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Another you know, really cool guy that I've enjoyed
Speaker 3: also King Staffers Female getting paired with him a few times.
Speaker 3: We played a Saturday at Players. We both played really well,
Speaker 3: made a ton of birdies, which a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: And then I was paired with him last week at BMW. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so that was cool. And then played with JT over
Speaker 3: the week in that Waste management and just in that
Speaker 3: atmosphere was crazy. Obviously. Yeah, you know, playing with JT.
Speaker 3: You know you're gonna have some fans anyway, but obviously
Speaker 3: magnified out there at Waste. Uh, that was really cool
Speaker 3: and we both played really well and you know, kind
Speaker 3: of fed off each other a little bit. That was
Speaker 3: that was fun experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Taylor. One interesting thing in your bag which has
Speaker 2: become a little popular out here is a seven would
Speaker 2: So what's the story, what's the story? How did it start?
Speaker 2: And uh, what have been some fun, fun and valuable
Speaker 2: shots you've hit with that? And why is that important
Speaker 2: an important club out on the PJ Tour.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, it started Tahoe last year got the
Speaker 3: seven wood in the bag. It was more so just
Speaker 3: for testing. I was kind of looking, you know, either
Speaker 3: for some height on some long irons and really to
Speaker 3: feel like the two forty to two fifty gap in
Speaker 3: my game, just trying to find some consistency in that
Speaker 3: area because I noticed, like if I drove the ball
Speaker 3: in the fairway on some par fives, having two three
Speaker 3: four and in a lot of times, especially at the
Speaker 3: harder firm or places I wasn't able to hold you know,
Speaker 3: the green all the time. Yeah, so having some loft
Speaker 3: and some height and some spin coming into those was huge.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, really just got comfortable with it off
Speaker 3: the t as well, and it's been a huge asset
Speaker 3: to my game long part threes and going into part
Speaker 3: fives from the fairway.
Speaker 1: What's your process on a Saturday when Arkansas was playing
Speaker 1: football and you're playing golf, Like, is the phone in
Speaker 1: the bag or aad? He checked the scores? Like how
Speaker 1: do you go?
Speaker 3: No, I really tried to put the phone up, especially
Speaker 3: out here. I don't want to get get in trouble
Speaker 3: on tour. But it's funny. I'll have a you know.
Speaker 3: I think at Jackson last year, for example, I asked
Speaker 3: the walking scores. We had a morning game eleven am
Speaker 3: kick and I was playing at that time. I was like, hey, guys,
Speaker 3: like every three or four holes, like I'm gonna come over,
Speaker 3: like I need I need some updates of the leader.
Speaker 3: You're like no, like you guys are volunteering. You have
Speaker 3: a phone out to Keybart, like we need we need
Speaker 3: a score update every couples.
Speaker 1: Always tough, I mean the phone being away in golf
Speaker 1: is one of the few places, Marty where the phone
Speaker 1: actually goes away. Yeah, I feel like, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you're playing, especially if you're playing tournament golf, I mean,
Speaker 1: it'll be five hours of I mean you're not checking
Speaker 1: what's going on in your life, you know exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, falls fall time with football especially, I mean Sunday
Speaker 3: is fantasy football. Like I remember pulling my phone out
Speaker 3: after like the second or third hole one time because
Speaker 3: my fantasy line it wasn't set yet, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I have to make sure this is ready to modern
Speaker 3: professional golf man.
Speaker 1: No messing around, Taylor.
Speaker 2: Let's go. Let's go into the putter a little bit.
Speaker 2: You mentioned PLD, So what's in the bag right now?
Speaker 2: And uh and and what have you enjoyed about that
Speaker 2: PLD process in terms of dialing in uh, the OSLO
Speaker 2: right yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going a peel d also for.
Speaker 3: I think the cool thing about the PLD is just
Speaker 3: the customization factors we're able to have right and and
Speaker 3: getting the alignment aids the way we want, getting the
Speaker 3: you know, site lines the way we want, being able
Speaker 3: to implement whatever kind of hozzle you know, into a
Speaker 3: head just to you know, be able to optimize and
Speaker 3: get the ball to roll the way we want every time.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I've always loved the feel of a
Speaker 3: mallet or you know, maybe a mid mallet, smaller mallet
Speaker 3: for alignment purposes on shorter puts. Its really helped me
Speaker 3: over the years. But I love the you know, feel
Speaker 3: of I think every pink kid of an answer to
Speaker 3: and just a blade and just that you know, that
Speaker 3: noise and so really trying to mesh those two together
Speaker 3: is what I've you know, found with the OSLO and
Speaker 3: especially the PLD line.
Speaker 2: So the acoustics were important to you.
Speaker 3: Yes, acoustics and feel for sure.
Speaker 2: So we we in working on your PLD, we tried
Speaker 2: did you try to an insert? It's different, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: know face texture I have.
Speaker 3: I've tried a ton and that's you know, Tony and
Speaker 3: everybody has been so helpful and just helping me find
Speaker 3: exactly what I want because I want the ball to
Speaker 3: come off fast, right yeah, but I also want some noise,
Speaker 3: and so we've we've played around with insert, We played
Speaker 3: around with deep milk, played around with flat face. You know,
Speaker 3: just really trying to get that perfect marriage and what's
Speaker 3: going to help me, you know, when I teed up
Speaker 3: Thursday through Sunday, and so it's been it's been a
Speaker 3: cool process. It's been fun. And you know, from time
Speaker 3: to time out here, if you go through a couple
Speaker 3: of cold you know, weeks, you're like, all right, let's
Speaker 3: let's try something else, let's mix it up, which I'm
Speaker 3: definitely not scared to do. But I've been. I've been
Speaker 3: with this also for Style now for over a year,
Speaker 3: which has been nice to have some consistency for sure.
Speaker 1: Taylor, you talked about being fourteen years old and being
Speaker 1: approached by paying you kind of fast forward now to
Speaker 1: being a thirty year old and you can walk in
Speaker 1: the tour truck and grab a new hat and have
Speaker 1: your clubs fixed. How wild is it to kind of
Speaker 1: think back to that, what sixteen years ago, being a
Speaker 1: kid wondering if you could even be approached by Ping.
Speaker 1: Now to be able to come through the door and
Speaker 1: get your clubs fixed and have multiple putter options, I mean,
Speaker 1: how wild has this journey been?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty surreal, you know when you break it
Speaker 3: down like that, just to see what Ping has meant,
Speaker 3: you know, to me and my life and my family
Speaker 3: and just being able to you know, also be a
Speaker 3: part of the Ping family, which has been so awesome.
Speaker 3: And it's, uh yeah, it's been coolder relationships you know
Speaker 3: that I've been able to have and the people that
Speaker 3: I've met, and yeah, we thought, we thought Brownie, you know,
Speaker 3: when I was fourteen, was just a college coach watching
Speaker 3: some of the older guys in my group. And then
Speaker 3: next thing, you know, he's talking to my dad on
Speaker 3: a picnic table after the round. It's like, all right,
Speaker 3: I guess we're going to Phoenix. We yeah, right, So yeah,
Speaker 3: I know it's it is pretty cool, and it's you know,
Speaker 3: obviously a lot of hard work and dedication to to
Speaker 3: my craft, but also at the same time just that
Speaker 3: that family kind of atmosphere and love and you know,
Speaker 3: any any one of these guys on the truck would
Speaker 3: do anything to help me save a shot when I
Speaker 3: tee it up right, And so that's been uh yeah,
Speaker 3: something that obviously remember forever.
Speaker 2: Gonna cut some things on the truck. I was taking
Speaker 2: a look at your lob wedge, pretty unique, like the
Speaker 2: grind you have on there, the the you know, amount
Speaker 2: of camber on the lead edge. Tell us about what
Speaker 2: are some of the important things for you is one
Speaker 2: of the I think for the listener out there is
Speaker 2: like one of the hardest things is like, how do
Speaker 2: you pick the right grind in your lob wedge? What
Speaker 2: are some of the shots that you like to hear?
Speaker 2: Do you open around the greens or not? So, you know,
Speaker 2: that's such an important thing out here. What it described
Speaker 2: the process again to the grind that you have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's massive. You know, obviously some trial and error
Speaker 3: and to get to the point where're at now, but
Speaker 3: some really some trial and air too during like tournament situations,
Speaker 3: it's really hard to simulate a lot of times on
Speaker 3: the chipping green, perfect lies, you know, yeah, giving yourself
Speaker 3: a great line in the bunker like I wanted to,
Speaker 3: you know, try a lot of what we wanted to
Speaker 3: do in a tournament situation. And yeah, I have a
Speaker 3: ton of a ton of like material removed from the heel.
Speaker 3: Yeah I want yeah, I want a ton of your
Speaker 3: relief so I can lay it open in the bunkers.
Speaker 3: I can lay it open when I have good lies
Speaker 3: and not have it dig because I really want the
Speaker 3: bounce to be exposed as much as possible. And like
Speaker 3: I'm a pretty neutral chipper. And when I say that,
Speaker 3: I mean I don't really have a ton of handle lean.
Speaker 3: So I don't want the leading edge getting in the ground.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: And so I think they roll the lead edge for
Speaker 3: me quite a bit as well, take some you know,
Speaker 3: off there, soften it that way. When I, you know,
Speaker 3: coming in and delivering the club, my handle's pretty neutral,
Speaker 3: just to really have as much bounce exposed on a
Speaker 3: square face shot, square face shot, yep, yep. And then
Speaker 3: when I when it I do go open face to
Speaker 3: get some height or to try to get a lot
Speaker 3: of spin. I throw the right hand a ton and
Speaker 3: so I do not want that thing going to the ground,
Speaker 3: especially when we're playing bermuda, grass in the grain, you know,
Speaker 3: things of that nature. I want as much relief as possible.
Speaker 3: Do you lower the handle on those shots out of
Speaker 3: the bunker? I do, Yeah, I'm trying to get some
Speaker 3: height out of the bunker. I go super low, handle,
Speaker 3: super open, and a ton of right hand throw with
Speaker 3: some speed and try to try shoot that thing.
Speaker 1: Of all these things are going on in the brain works.
Speaker 2: Awesome of it.
Speaker 3: I'm not like totally sure about you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of the other guys. Is it a lot of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just a lot of heel relief, and so when
Speaker 2: you it's kind of has a little bit of the
Speaker 2: essence of the I two long wedge in the bunker.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I too had is
Speaker 2: a very small surface area. So if you kind of
Speaker 2: look at the heel section, it's going to like knife
Speaker 2: into the bunker early, but then you got you still
Speaker 2: have that angle late.
Speaker 3: It's funny. It's funny you mentioned that. That's maybe why
Speaker 3: I like it, because when I did get into the game,
Speaker 3: like we were talking about, you know earlier, my dad
Speaker 3: got a set of I twos from a pawn shop
Speaker 3: when he was getting out of college, and so I
Speaker 3: grew up playing his clubs like I would end the
Speaker 3: bunker with a I two sandwidge. Oh yeah, so that's
Speaker 3: how I learned how to hit bunker shots with the
Speaker 3: I two. And then yeah, actually my Rookie Year also
Speaker 3: from that same set he got I played a peeing
Speaker 3: answer to that had gotten that same set from like
Speaker 3: the late eighties. I used it like my Rookie Year
Speaker 3: on Corn Faery your ton of Light tape because it
Speaker 3: was pretty live.
Speaker 1: But you like it, you like the old school quest
Speaker 1: and I appreciate it. Uh, Taylor, been a big year
Speaker 1: for you obviously, went on the PGA Tour, making it
Speaker 1: to the tour championship. Are you a goal guy? Do
Speaker 1: you write down goals for next year? You kind of
Speaker 1: lay out what you might think about when you kind
Speaker 1: of get towards twenty four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a goal guide to some extent. You know,
Speaker 3: I really tried to reframe a little bit how I
Speaker 3: think about, you know, goals and future stuff. And this
Speaker 3: has been a big part of highre. A mental performance
Speaker 3: coach with my last year on Cornferry and her name
Speaker 3: is Sarah Taylor, and she's helped me out a ton.
Speaker 3: And you know, goal setting is great for for anybody,
Speaker 3: but for me personally, we're more so focused on like
Speaker 3: just being where my feet are okay, and if I
Speaker 3: can control where I'm as Yeah, just a little bit
Speaker 3: more present like and weekly stuff like what are the
Speaker 3: things you want to get done this week? How do
Speaker 3: you want to you know, budget your time, how do
Speaker 3: you want to practice? How do you want to you know?
Speaker 3: And for me that is that's just worked better. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's uh, it's really cool, you know, to be beitiously
Speaker 3: being the Tour Championship I first went on tour, you know,
Speaker 3: playing all four majors my second year out. Definitely definitely
Speaker 3: done a lot of cool things and looking forward to
Speaker 3: what's come.
Speaker 1: How do you budget your time? I mean, you play golf.
Speaker 1: We always talked about. You play golf for four or
Speaker 1: five hours a day, and you practice maybe for an
Speaker 1: hour or two on the front or back end, right,
Speaker 1: and you have like the full day. Yeah, how do
Speaker 1: you budget that time as you're traveling week to week?
Speaker 1: And how do you budge your time to make you
Speaker 1: stay in the president and not kind of get ahead
Speaker 1: of yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, and you know that's when
Speaker 3: I'm coming out of college. You don't realize how much
Speaker 3: time you are going to have. You know, you go
Speaker 3: from playing a one practice round in three competitive rounds
Speaker 3: and now you have the whole week to practice before
Speaker 3: and then you're playing four rounds. And so it's been
Speaker 3: a little bit of trial and air in that aspect.
Speaker 3: But you know, I really try to rest and recover
Speaker 3: as much as possible now too, just with the travel
Speaker 3: and the amount of tournaments I'm playing. Try to make
Speaker 3: sure I'm getting eight hours of sleep, a little bit
Speaker 3: of downtime in the evening. You know. We set up
Speaker 3: some daily routines for me, which has worked great. So
Speaker 3: I have an AM and a PM routine, try to
Speaker 3: get in the gym, get the body. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff that goes into it, but we
Speaker 3: found a pretty good recipe. You know now that that
Speaker 3: works for me.
Speaker 2: Are you an early morning practice, round player, late afternoon,
Speaker 2: mid morning variable?
Speaker 3: I would say, I like getting out early if I can.
Speaker 3: You know, if my schedules, you know, set up to
Speaker 3: where I can go te off before seven thirty or
Speaker 3: eight o'clock and get nine holes in. I like to
Speaker 3: warm up, go play first, and then practice after That
Speaker 3: to me is like an Idol day. He done it
Speaker 3: at noon or one would be would be ideal, especially
Speaker 3: if I can watch football after So that would.
Speaker 1: Be basically just dependent on what's happened. That's kind of
Speaker 1: Taylor lays out the schedule. We appreciate the time of man.
Speaker 1: Congrats on a great year, Congrats on the win, Congrats
Speaker 1: will make it to the tour championship, and we look
Speaker 1: forward to see him what you do in twenty.
Speaker 3: Four, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks guys keep it up date. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast.