Speaker 1: The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much equipment matters. I just love that I can hit
Speaker 1: 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 3: Welcome back to the Proving Grounds podcast. Here with Saw
Speaker 3: Hit Tagala in the Ping Tour truck. Is this where
Speaker 3: the magic happens or you happens? Are you a visitor
Speaker 3: of this like weekly? Do you come over this way much?
Speaker 3: Do you kind of tinker a lot with your stuff?
Speaker 1: You know? I'm not a big tinker. I really don't. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think I am, although recently I feel like
Speaker 1: I have been Actually I haven't been in the truck
Speaker 1: that much, but I feel like I've had guys going
Speaker 1: and out of the truck with Ko and Adam and
Speaker 1: Jack and but yeah, I don't usually tinker a whole lot.
Speaker 1: The only thing I've been kind of messing around with
Speaker 1: this driver stuff and just different shafts and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So but honestly, I need to come in here more.
Speaker 1: I need to steal some snacks.
Speaker 3: Is there a thing that the driver you're trying to hit,
Speaker 3: like window or trying to make a move one way
Speaker 3: or the other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I've always been driver has always been the
Speaker 1: worst part of my game, and I've always been the
Speaker 1: way I've gone about my driving, which like ping has
Speaker 1: done a great job of helping me through this is like,
Speaker 1: let's just go anti this driver instead of like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's make I'm not even worried how good my good
Speaker 1: shots are. I just want my bad shots to be
Speaker 1: less bad. So I went to like a my driver's tip,
Speaker 1: like I want to say, almost two it's either an
Speaker 1: inch and a half or two inches the inch and
Speaker 1: a half. It's something. It's crazy bordy, like it has
Speaker 1: no kick in it. And I played a shorter shaft
Speaker 1: for a while too. I just switched back to a
Speaker 1: forty five inch but it's just basically an anti left
Speaker 1: shaft for me, and it does not like, honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't spin it very much. I'm definitely bottom fifteen on
Speaker 1: tour and spin. Yeah, but that's just my mechanism not
Speaker 1: hitting it left. And we're just trying just because my
Speaker 1: swing and my body's gotten a little bit better. We're
Speaker 1: trying to like see if I can get into a
Speaker 1: more normal setup and see if like even my bad
Speaker 1: ones are less bad, but also my good ones are
Speaker 1: actually going to be really good.
Speaker 4: So you're good ones. Are you trying to hit it
Speaker 4: like dead straight or little cut?
Speaker 1: Definitely cutting? Yeah, I used to play a big cut,
Speaker 1: but now it's say my stop cut is like between
Speaker 1: it's still pretty big ten and ten to fifteen yards.
Speaker 1: It's definitely falling pretty tilts, falling right pretty aggressively. But
Speaker 1: my swing is like, just from being in better shape,
Speaker 1: my swing's gotten better and tighter. So now my start
Speaker 1: lines are a little bit tighter and sometimes I'm missing
Speaker 1: it a little left. Yeah, not curby as much because
Speaker 1: of that. So that's why we're trying.
Speaker 3: What are you What are you doing in terms of fitness?
Speaker 3: I mean, what have you changed? Has it been plast
Speaker 3: six months last year?
Speaker 1: What have you done in that world? I'd say it's
Speaker 1: my last four years. Honestly, I didn't work out one
Speaker 1: time in my life till college. I got to college
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can't even do these basic I can't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do a dead bug. I couldn't. I was
Speaker 1: benching twenty five pound dumbells in each hand.
Speaker 2: It was embarrassing, like when he first came the Lakers,
Speaker 2: just straight off picture worse but worse.
Speaker 1: I've literally never worked out, And then in college I
Speaker 1: realized the importance. I got injured a decent amount of college,
Speaker 1: which was a bummer, but I realized, like, I can
Speaker 1: prevent this by just get in the gym. And I honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't lift very much at all. But I've been
Speaker 1: working with the same trainer even actually even in college
Speaker 1: but after college, and he does a great job kind
Speaker 1: of dialing me in and my flexibility has gotten better.
Speaker 1: It's just honestly all on where I was injury prevention
Speaker 1: and knock on whatever, knock on wood. I haven't been
Speaker 1: injured since since I've turned pro.
Speaker 2: You probably know, say, but you've played more events in
Speaker 2: the last twelve months than anything tour. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think that's a good takeaway from Yeah, bitiness standpoint
Speaker 2: for the listeners, like, for sure, here's straight from you.
Speaker 4: You're just trying not to get injured.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, I'm just trying not to get injured. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I played thirty two last year and I was really
Speaker 1: happy with how my body held up. There's definitely too much,
Speaker 1: definitely too much. That'll that'll be the most, That'll be
Speaker 1: the max you play in your career. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've taken so many weeks off this year and I'm
Speaker 1: still gonna play twenty seven or twenty eight, which was
Speaker 1: a lot, but uh yeah, it's just a testament to
Speaker 1: my trainer and then the work I've been putting in.
Speaker 1: I've just been more diligent about it. Yeah, there's just
Speaker 1: times where like in the even my first year as
Speaker 1: a pro, I was I was getting better at it,
Speaker 1: but I just wasn't on top of it, so I'd
Speaker 1: go on the road for two weeks and lose all
Speaker 1: my progress. But now I feel like I'm stacking my
Speaker 1: progress and I've just gotten better and better at it.
Speaker 1: It's huge help. I haven't even tried to gain distance
Speaker 1: or any luckily, Like I just have long levers and
Speaker 1: hit it. I'd say averagely far. But I've never even
Speaker 1: worked on speed stuff, and I've gained four or five
Speaker 1: miles per ball speed just not even not working any speed.
Speaker 1: And we'll see if I do. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I got to cover you?
Speaker 3: I remember I think it was the Oakland Hills, USAM
Speaker 3: and oh yeah, it was like maybe twenty sixteen, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you were sixteen. I mean it must have been sixteen
Speaker 3: or seventeen years old and you made a run. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it was a lot of fun to cover you.
Speaker 3: And then obviously to see this progression into pro golf
Speaker 3: and now on the PGA Tour. Obviously, the popularity of
Speaker 3: what happened at Phoenix last year and then Netflix. What
Speaker 3: is this year over the last twelve months been like
Speaker 3: for you to go from a very good player obviously,
Speaker 3: and then a professional golfer it's and now being somebody
Speaker 3: that people yell out I want to autograph from.
Speaker 1: It's pretty nuts. I never saw myself as a very
Speaker 1: good golfer even through college. I know that twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: am really gave me a lot of confidence and helped
Speaker 1: me come into my own and I had a couple
Speaker 1: of nice years in college after that, But even then
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know if I was good
Speaker 1: enough to I always thought I could make the tour,
Speaker 1: but I was just even in the end of college
Speaker 1: where I was like, am I gonna be any good?
Speaker 1: And last year or last year helped a lot. I
Speaker 1: just it's just been so fun, like the journey to
Speaker 1: get better is fun. I'm not even worried about the results,
Speaker 1: and I think that's been key for me. I have
Speaker 1: very little expectations for myself and I'm just like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm living my dream like I'm just gonna go out there,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'd be doing myself and my
Speaker 1: team and my family and friends a disservice if I'm
Speaker 1: not giving it my all to get as good as
Speaker 1: I am, because I'm given this opportunity now. So that
Speaker 1: part's been really really cool and definitely humbling to see
Speaker 1: all the fans that I've gotten over the last year,
Speaker 1: and at this point, I feel like I'm doing it
Speaker 1: a lot for them to I mean, it comes from myself,
Speaker 1: but I feel like I want to like play well
Speaker 1: for them too, and that that's kind of helped too.
Speaker 1: But it's been really really cool. I will say it's
Speaker 1: been overwhelming sometimes because I'm an introvert at art and
Speaker 1: I love having my own space and I feel like
Speaker 1: I play a lot of golf from around a lot
Speaker 1: of people. Yeah, but no, I think that's a good
Speaker 1: problem to have and I'm I'm definitely getting more used
Speaker 1: to it. And I used to be a horrible, horrible speaker.
Speaker 1: I'm still not great at it. I'm getting better, but
Speaker 1: but no, I mean, life's been I cannot complain it all.
Speaker 1: It's been an awesome ride.
Speaker 4: So he does.
Speaker 2: Man, that's so refreshing, is that? I mean, you want
Speaker 2: three Junior Worlds?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, really tiger number of Junior Worlds and you're still
Speaker 2: don't have that. On the confidence meet, I'm picturing this
Speaker 2: confidence meter. Yeah, and he was even going through college,
Speaker 2: it wasn't that well.
Speaker 1: You know what happened is I was really really good
Speaker 1: when I was young, like young young. I won my
Speaker 1: Junior World six, eight and ten. I was just going
Speaker 1: off of like talent. I was just bigger than other
Speaker 1: kids when I was young, so it was just getting
Speaker 1: it further. And I wasn't even that skilled, I felt like.
Speaker 1: And then once started, once people started really practicing and
Speaker 1: getting real at their craft in middle school in early
Speaker 1: high school, that's when I went into a huge slump
Speaker 1: hit my growth spurt. I was not a good recruit
Speaker 1: and even in high school, and I didn't play any
Speaker 1: of the inmates, like I never played any invitationals, and
Speaker 1: I was lucky that even I I was looking at
Speaker 1: some bigger schools but I wouldn't. I was gonna be
Speaker 1: essentially a walk on. So Pepperdine was kind of a
Speaker 1: blessing for me that I knew I was gonna play
Speaker 1: right away. So definitely college was a big kind of
Speaker 1: step in the right direction. That's why I just went
Speaker 1: through a pretty big slump, I feel like, and well,
Speaker 1: for me, I felt like it was a slump. I
Speaker 1: still had good tournaments and one a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I just didn't know if it was next level potential.
Speaker 2: Did you think that gives you that extra motivation? Made
Speaker 2: a room around here on the tour as you're you're
Speaker 2: out here practicing.
Speaker 1: A lot at least, you know, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: I just I just love it, you know, I'm I.
Speaker 3: I truly love love the game. You love the practice,
Speaker 3: You love the grind, which everything out of it.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: I love the grind. I really do love the grind.
Speaker 1: There's obviously days where're like, god, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do this, or like travel day, or you know, you know,
Speaker 1: to work on something that week on the range, and
Speaker 1: I don't. Personally, I don't love just beating balls. I
Speaker 1: love chipping now. It's my favorite part of my game.
Speaker 1: I can sit on chip. I can sit on these
Speaker 1: chipping greens for legit ten hours. I can sit all
Speaker 1: day if you leave me on supervised. But I just
Speaker 1: love it. I love playing just every part of it. Again,
Speaker 1: I think it goes back to the fact that I
Speaker 1: have this chance to do it, so it's like, why
Speaker 1: not give it my all? Within reason? And I'm getting
Speaker 1: better at leaving the I've spent Last year, I spent
Speaker 1: all day every day at the golf course, and this
Speaker 1: year I'm doing a good job breaking it down where
Speaker 1: I only spend like Tomorrow, Wednesdays, I've been my chill
Speaker 1: days where I'm only on the course. Luckily, I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of morning prim times I'll leave the course
Speaker 1: by one or two pm. Yeah, but a day like today,
Speaker 1: I'm usually I'm just here all day. I'll sleep in
Speaker 1: a little ground on a Tuesday. Yeah yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what's grinding though, because I sleep
Speaker 1: in I Like today, I got up at like seven
Speaker 1: forty five eight meandered over here, had breakfast, got to
Speaker 1: the range like nine. Didn't feel like I was stressing,
Speaker 1: didn't feel like I obviously I had stuff that I
Speaker 1: wanted to get done In practice, and stuff that I
Speaker 1: wanted to get done on the course, but I spent
Speaker 1: six hours out there and it just went like that.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, It's just it's it's really nice
Speaker 1: to have all these every week. Have insane practice facilities too,
Speaker 1: where you just kind of get lost. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: it putting means perfect, I might as well go sit
Speaker 1: there and putt for a while. So but I'm learning
Speaker 1: the balance of overdoing it and still getting my work done.
Speaker 2: So you love chipping. Tell us about your your WEDB
Speaker 2: set up. You know we've always you're playing fifty eighth
Speaker 2: grade right now? Yeah, did you grow up chipp in
Speaker 2: the fifty eight ever reached sixty to fifty six?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I grew up chipping with only a fifty six.
Speaker 1: And there's no really rhyme or reason for that. I
Speaker 1: think just when I started playing golf, I just picked
Speaker 1: up a fifty six and didn't feel like I needed
Speaker 1: a law bludge.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a law blunch when I was young.
Speaker 1: I didn't know any better. But I think I graduated
Speaker 1: to a fifty eighth degree pretty late in high school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I've tried a sixty degree one time and I
Speaker 1: just hated it, like I've just been so used to
Speaker 1: my whole life, fifty six fifty eight. I just liked
Speaker 1: seeing chip shots come out, come out in a certain window.
Speaker 1: And I hit full shots, well full shots with my
Speaker 1: fifty eight degree too, you know, ninety percent shots for
Speaker 1: I feel like with a sixty it's almost too much off.
Speaker 1: But it's definitely something I think I'm going to invest
Speaker 1: you in the future because the greens are so firm
Speaker 1: and fast every week, and I feel like golf course
Speaker 1: are getting tighter and tighter with the grasses, so you
Speaker 1: need a little more nip. But yeah, I've always been
Speaker 1: a fifty eight, so I go fifty eight, fifty four, fifty,
Speaker 1: and then I've kind of bounced between a forty seven
Speaker 1: or forty six degree and then a blueprint pitching ledge.
Speaker 1: I've been kind of the blueprint pitching ledge for a wow.
Speaker 3: So a really hard hitting question here, how many I
Speaker 3: have the over UNDERD three and a half. How many
Speaker 3: iterations of facial hair do you feel like you've had
Speaker 3: on tour? Yeah, I mean because the stand you had
Speaker 3: the stash for a bit and it was Hall of Famer,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 1: I think four because when I first got on tour,
Speaker 1: I had like the high. I didn't really shave it
Speaker 1: down very or trim it down very much. I had
Speaker 1: like the high, unkempt, just caveman beard, and then I
Speaker 1: went clean shaven for a while. I still randomly, you know,
Speaker 1: one one or two weeks randomly you need new car
Speaker 1: or you need new uh what's the word. You just
Speaker 1: need good vibe, you need new vibes. With the beard.
Speaker 1: You need to get rid of the old vibe. So
Speaker 1: I just clean shave it and then try and get
Speaker 1: some new vibes with new facial hair. I've gone the
Speaker 1: stash two weeks. I did it as you play with theah.
Speaker 1: Not great. Actually I did it last year with the players.
Speaker 1: That was my first iterational stash. It was sick. But
Speaker 1: I improved on it this year because I went like,
Speaker 1: I didn't trim anything. I just left it all there
Speaker 1: and I went clean on the end right, which was
Speaker 1: a little aggressive. It is very true. I know, I
Speaker 1: know you're I know you're younger. There's never been a
Speaker 1: mustache that's mauntograss. That's actually part of the mustache experience.
Speaker 1: My take on mustache is, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys agree, is like, I don't think anyone actually looks
Speaker 1: better with the mustache. Acically, it's a statement, agreed. You
Speaker 1: make a statement, You're like, that guy has a mustache,
Speaker 1: like he's confident, and then all of a sudden you
Speaker 1: think that he looks better like my Caddy car. Actually,
Speaker 1: my Caddy Carl is a really good looking mustache. I'll
Speaker 1: give him that. If he shaved it clean, would he
Speaker 1: looked better? No, I don't think I was one of
Speaker 1: so ingrained in my head right that it's become a
Speaker 1: part of this thing now. But this, like you say, exactly, yeah,
Speaker 1: you see it in your brain. But this year I
Speaker 1: went the stash, but with like a one on the
Speaker 1: rest of my beard, and I think it looked a
Speaker 1: lot better and I played well. I came in fourteenth
Speaker 1: at Bail with it.
Speaker 4: That was my question, what's the correlation there?
Speaker 1: You know, the first one I missed the kind of
Speaker 1: the players last year, but immediate, immediate shade.
Speaker 3: So you play a ton of golf. We've heard you're
Speaker 3: a pretty competitive chess player as well. Yeah, how good
Speaker 3: are you want? Your handicap at chess? And you what
Speaker 3: would you put yourself.
Speaker 1: At if I had to put my chess eglo as
Speaker 1: a handicap. I'd say I'm a one or two ny caps,
Speaker 1: so you're very I think some other people would say
Speaker 1: I'm a scratcher better, but I just I don't believe
Speaker 1: that because I've only really played online. I haven't played
Speaker 1: in person that much because I picked it up over
Speaker 1: when I hurt my wrist in twenty nineteen. So I'm
Speaker 1: pretty good. My rating is nineteen hundred, okay, I'd say
Speaker 1: a beginner, A true beginner is probably four hundred, five hundred,
Speaker 1: and then you can intermediate players on thy to twelve hundred.
Speaker 1: So I'd say I'm definitely I'm better than like on
Speaker 1: my chest dot com thing, it says what percentage your
Speaker 1: profilesand I'm ninety nine point four or five. I'd feel
Speaker 1: pretty confident it could beat anyone like you feel like
Speaker 1: you the best chess player on tour. That's my question. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd I don't want to make one Chess FedEx cup
Speaker 1: you're leading. Yes, I don't. Actually, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that too, because there could be some guys finally
Speaker 1: out there. You've got to put it out there.
Speaker 4: You didn't grow up. You didn't play chess growing up.
Speaker 1: You just started, so I knew the moves, and I
Speaker 1: went to Chess Masters thing in middle school, so I
Speaker 1: knew the moves. I knew I didn't know any openings,
Speaker 1: but I knew how all the pieces moved, and I
Speaker 1: knew the objectives. So when I started off, I didn't
Speaker 1: start off as a four or five hundred. I kind
Speaker 1: of started off as like a seven hundred, so I
Speaker 1: had a little better grasp of it. And then I
Speaker 1: have a very addictive personality. Once I get stuck on something,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just sending the books. I'll just in
Speaker 1: injury three books in a week. And but I did
Speaker 1: this thing with chess where I just I couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything because I had surgery my wrist. I just watched
Speaker 1: chess videos for six hours and study openings.
Speaker 2: So so the engineers at PING, they're working on data
Speaker 2: scientists and all stuff. Data scientists Ping, they're on chess
Speaker 2: dot Com. A few of them played you related you
Speaker 2: He's like, no way, I'm playing no way. Yeah, someone
Speaker 2: a couple do you know what?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I can't remember.
Speaker 1: Got the results. I haven't been playing in it. But
Speaker 1: also addicting. I played last week a decent amount and
Speaker 1: I had a bunch of just like fans give me
Speaker 1: challenges that I played one of them, someone beat me.
Speaker 1: So it's like your user name like the Gala one.
Speaker 1: How do they feel that's s R. And then Daniel
Speaker 1: Daniel Rapp report in late last year was like tweeting
Speaker 1: about my chess or asking me about chess and like
Speaker 1: here here's my account. Challenge me and I'll play. And
Speaker 1: I got a thousand requests. I couldn't even play anyone
Speaker 1: because I got too many. So I think now that
Speaker 1: it's died down, now I'm actually able to play people
Speaker 1: that want to play. You said you said you're into
Speaker 1: books when you read right now, right now I'm reading.
Speaker 1: I'm rereading The Kill Mockingbird. I have one of my
Speaker 1: favorite authors. He's kind of a young adult author. I'd
Speaker 1: said my brother he's at and he gave me his book.
Speaker 1: It's a Neil Schusterman book called Roxy. But I read
Speaker 1: a lot of just I like fiction, just like I
Speaker 1: like easy reads. And I'm not a huge I mean
Speaker 1: I read like some self provement books are life books,
Speaker 1: but not not very often. But those are the two
Speaker 1: books I have right now?
Speaker 4: Are you digital?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: No heart the heart?
Speaker 1: But you know I get a headache looking at it.
Speaker 3: Oh man, I've been like deep in your my kindle, kindle,
Speaker 3: my four you'll just scratch my kindles now it's like
Speaker 3: not only reading on a kindle, but has just this
Speaker 3: deep scratch right middle.
Speaker 1: That's not brutal, it's brutal. That's why maybe I haven't read.
Speaker 2: When do you read like on the on your tour schedules,
Speaker 2: at traveling weeks only hotel, let's see it with your.
Speaker 4: Just kind of at night.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to because like I'd literally fall asleep
Speaker 1: watching Chester Years or playing chess or watching YouTube or something.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, I'm gonna try and sleep without my
Speaker 1: phone near me. So I put my phone away, pick
Speaker 1: up the book, and then soon enough you get tired
Speaker 1: enough when you shut it away. But it's pretty much
Speaker 1: only at night. And then if I have an off
Speaker 1: week and I'm just sitting at home doing nothing, I'll
Speaker 1: pick it up and read song. But I used to
Speaker 1: be crazy reader when I was younger, but I probably
Speaker 1: stopped for four or five years and just picked it
Speaker 1: back up a year or two ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when did your relationship with paying start? Because I
Speaker 3: know you'd mentioned some stuff at knowledge. When did that
Speaker 3: relationship again?
Speaker 1: It was all Brownie, to be honest to my coach,
Speaker 1: Rick Connor, who is still with me, we've been together
Speaker 1: seventeen years now, but he was on Ping staff when
Speaker 1: I was playing Junior Roads when I was twelve and thirteen.
Speaker 1: So when I was thirteen years old, Brownie came and
Speaker 1: watched me at a Riverwalk golf course in San Diego.
Speaker 1: And ever since then, I traded in my US kids
Speaker 1: golf clubs because I literally played them until I was
Speaker 1: thirteen for Pings and that was my first set I
Speaker 1: think it was.
Speaker 5: S fifty seven's maybe does that sound about right? I
Speaker 5: like S fifty seven I started with, like the those
Speaker 5: felt like impossible places to hit for me at the time.
Speaker 5: But yeah, so I've been playing Ping since I was thirteen,
Speaker 5: and honestly I've played fourteen clubs for a few years now.
Speaker 3: Is it wild thinking back to that kid that's twelve
Speaker 3: and thirteen. It's getting clubs to now wear the hat,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like to be paid and
Speaker 3: to be sponsored and to come in a truck like this,
Speaker 3: like you ever have moments where you think.
Speaker 1: Back and go, I can't believe this company cares enough
Speaker 1: to do this. Well, I couldn't believe they're like, I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe they trust me that much when I was
Speaker 1: that young. And the fact that I was getting free
Speaker 1: golf clubs where some of my friends are paying right
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of dollars on golf clubs and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. I definitely never took it for granted, but
Speaker 1: now it is. It's really cool that I've been wrapping
Speaker 1: paying And the thing I tell people is that I
Speaker 1: just feel like equipment is such a comfort based thing.
Speaker 1: You need to really love the feel and comfortability of
Speaker 1: your clubs, and it's got to look good to you too.
Speaker 1: And I think playing ping for a while and that
Speaker 1: I'm just so comfortable in the look down be hard
Speaker 1: to look down something else. And then the relationships too,
Speaker 1: Like I've gotten to know the ping guys so well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're just great people. You can just joke around,
Speaker 1: and I feel like we've genuinely become friends and acquaintances
Speaker 1: and it's fun to be around them, which is great too.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned, Okay, going back to the stats, you
Speaker 2: think you're ninety nine percentile in chess, yes, you know,
Speaker 2: or at least out here on tour do you are you?
Speaker 2: Let's talk about on your golf game. Are you into
Speaker 2: the stats? You follow the stats and your coach your team,
Speaker 2: you know, and then you know because looking and looking
Speaker 2: at your strokes gain stats.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean one of your best parts of your game
Speaker 2: is iron iron play over two hundred yards, Like you're
Speaker 2: in the top ten percentile out here, which is just
Speaker 2: filming and it probably drives your you know, long part three, Yeah,
Speaker 2: turns long part threes over two hundred you get to
Speaker 2: a big golf course, yeah, second shounts on part fours,
Speaker 2: then you can attack part fives.
Speaker 4: What would you say are your strengths your game?
Speaker 2: And how much do you look at analytics versus kind
Speaker 2: of just trusting your instinct.
Speaker 1: I've always loved looking at stats for other people and
Speaker 1: in general, but for myself personally, I don't really love
Speaker 1: I mean, I like looking at my stats, but I
Speaker 1: don't use my stats to do a whole lot in
Speaker 1: terms of analytics except my putting putting stuff. I definitely
Speaker 1: look at what rangers on best at, like my speed
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. I definitely do that, but in
Speaker 1: terms of ball striking stuff, I don't look at it
Speaker 1: too much because I feel like my iron play has
Speaker 1: always been good. I've never felt like a great iron player.
Speaker 1: I think I'm trying. I'm getting close. I'm getting close
Speaker 1: to being more consistent. But one thing I've never had
Speaker 1: an issue is gettinghigh on the ball, So I think
Speaker 1: that's why my my part three scoring average has always
Speaker 1: been great. My long irons, I always feel like are
Speaker 1: good because I can kind of hoist them and just
Speaker 1: kind of land them in the middle of the not
Speaker 1: try to fit it in this little two yard window
Speaker 1: you're trying to land on because it's firm. So I
Speaker 1: feel like that's why my long irons have always been good.
Speaker 1: But I'd say the best part of my game is
Speaker 1: always my short game. My putting and chipping and stats
Speaker 1: always back up, except last year with my putting, which
Speaker 1: was weird, but uh, my stats always back that up.
Speaker 1: I feel like, even through college I was such a
Speaker 1: bad ball stricker. I would legit game for a couple
Speaker 1: of seasons. I gained over a shot on the greens
Speaker 1: for the year and still not winning. I just should
Speaker 1: have bad. I was hitting it.
Speaker 2: But your total strokes game is trending that it is
Speaker 2: five or six years, which were they tracked some you're
Speaker 2: playing the amateur events school.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're in a nice trend.
Speaker 1: And I think the reason I kind of refocused myself
Speaker 1: a little bit last year because I was just kind
Speaker 1: of getting sucked in a little bit to looking at Okay,
Speaker 1: I need to get my driving better because my driving
Speaker 1: I was like one to eightieth and off the tea
Speaker 1: last year, So I need to get this better. I
Speaker 1: need to hit these irons better. I'm like, I got
Speaker 1: to stick to my DNA, which is just my short game.
Speaker 1: So honestly, I just re kind of focused myself into
Speaker 1: practicing more short game. So it's sick. Even though stats
Speaker 1: are saying these are the worst parts of my game,
Speaker 1: I ended up working harder on my best parts of
Speaker 1: my game, and that's really shown this year. I don't
Speaker 1: think my stats are actually that good overall, which is
Speaker 1: always a funny thing to me. But I think I'm
Speaker 1: in the mid thirties to forties and short game and putting,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I haven't putted that great this year,
Speaker 1: but it's good to see the improvement. And then the
Speaker 1: long game. Just I feel like practicing more my short game.
Speaker 1: It's kind of taking stress off my long game. And
Speaker 1: this is the best ball striking year I've ever had
Speaker 1: in my life, which is funny because I'm still one
Speaker 1: thirtieth off the team.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the give and take with the ses it.
Speaker 3: You can feel I'm improving here. I see it in
Speaker 3: front of me. Yes, and you know, being one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirtieth on planet Earth, that one thing is when
Speaker 3: you compare it to that, Yeah, it's like it's a
Speaker 3: little bit of a different thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: You can be self deprecated about your golf game, which
Speaker 3: is a good thing.
Speaker 1: I think Harry's self deprecated about pretty much everything in
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 3: You're very honest, you know, you talk about loving the grind.
Speaker 3: Who do you look up to that's either played before
Speaker 3: we're out on tour as someone that you kind of
Speaker 3: want to follow along in the way they've done it
Speaker 3: and the.
Speaker 1: Way they do it. Yeah, obviously, I just feel like
Speaker 1: people my age that the big three, at least for me,
Speaker 1: well it's almost four, but there's Tiger VJ and Phil
Speaker 1: and then I definitely put Ernie in there. I think
Speaker 1: you could argue Ernie's have a share a career than VJ. Actually,
Speaker 1: but those guys and then the guy I grew up
Speaker 1: a lot watching in my more formative years of high
Speaker 1: school and middle school, high school at college was Rory,
Speaker 1: And I just love Rurry's game. My game is nothing
Speaker 1: like Rory's. It's it's as opposite. It's been get for Rory's,
Speaker 1: to be honest, but uh, just watching him, I've always like, man,
Speaker 1: if I can ever get to any even if I
Speaker 1: can get to ten percent of what Rory does, that
Speaker 1: would be that would be really really cool. But you
Speaker 1: played with him. I just played the first time in
Speaker 1: my life last week in Charlotte, and it was sick.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately it was Saturday and we're like third group off,
Speaker 1: so we weren't having a week. But we didn't play
Speaker 1: it well either. We actually script her. We both shot
Speaker 1: even the third round. But he was such a cool
Speaker 1: guy and I've always kind of looked up to him,
Speaker 1: and even though he's only eight years older than me
Speaker 1: or something. But another guy whose game I loved watching
Speaker 1: in high school and college was JT. I feel like,
Speaker 1: if anyone, I feel like my game is closest to his,
Speaker 1: you definitely see him hit some shots what the world
Speaker 1: worst shots ever seen, and then he'll hit just magical shots.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy, the way he works the ball.
Speaker 1: I've played with them, I've goten lucky enough playing them
Speaker 1: three times now this year. And the way he works
Speaker 1: the ball is a joke, Like it looks fake, almost
Speaker 1: like he'll have a back left pin. He's been hitting
Speaker 1: these tight cuts ol Daniel snipe a thirty yard drawn
Speaker 1: there just because it's the hits. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: his way of seeing the shot the best and the
Speaker 1: way he flights his wedges as a joke. I mean,
Speaker 1: of all the people in terms of that have been like, wow,
Speaker 1: this games really is probably JT. Which is cool to
Speaker 1: see because I was like, I kind of want to.
Speaker 1: I'm not mimic my game after him, but good person
Speaker 1: to mimic a game? Yeah, for sure, one a lot
Speaker 1: and he's won a lot of big things. Yeah you know,
Speaker 1: if you can, if you can do it and it
Speaker 1: makes sense, do you want to right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Would you say he's the players out out here right
Speaker 2: now is shape in the ball into the pens the
Speaker 2: most of you play with.
Speaker 1: You know what's crazy is I feel like if he
Speaker 1: just steps up there and hits a stock swing, I
Speaker 1: feel like his stock swing doesn't even move. It's like
Speaker 1: dead straight, maybe falls a yard right. So, in terms
Speaker 1: of the guy guys I've played with, he definitely moves
Speaker 1: it the most. Max Home also gets a moving, pretty
Speaker 1: good left right, which I love because I do that.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the other I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of the other guys I've played with, they can
Speaker 1: move it both ways, but it is just so so tight,
Speaker 1: like Xander and Pat and those guys, I mean, they're
Speaker 1: ball moves that much, these teeny little Yeah, do.
Speaker 3: You struggle seeing yourself equal to those guys? Like, how
Speaker 3: do you how do you combat that? Like, how do
Speaker 3: you combat the feeling that these guys are here and
Speaker 3: I'm here trying to get to that place.
Speaker 1: I just I just from an eye test and looking,
Speaker 1: I know everyone is biased somewhat. Well, I tend to
Speaker 1: think people are biased more negatively than positively when thinking
Speaker 1: about your own shots and game especially, I'll hit ourselves
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, I just feel like my good
Speaker 1: shots don't look anything like these other guys the good shots,
Speaker 1: And I know that's not true. I know that's not true,
Speaker 1: but I always I just asked. I joke with my
Speaker 1: buddies out here. I still think I hit some of
Speaker 1: the worst shots on tour period. I think there's there's
Speaker 1: probably a compilation of my space balls, and I've had
Speaker 1: to sign so many gloves and balls for people. But
Speaker 1: it definitely was hard. Last year I had I didn't
Speaker 1: even think I could compete with some of these guys,
Speaker 1: and last year was big, making tour championship and still
Speaker 1: feeling I had the world to improve on my game.
Speaker 1: So I know how hard it is and you can
Speaker 1: lose it at any moment's notice. But just kind of
Speaker 1: knowing also knowing how hard it is, it's like, you
Speaker 1: know I shouldn't. I'm not scared of any of these guys,
Speaker 1: but I just still feel like I have a ways
Speaker 1: to go to reach those guys's levels of Sander and
Speaker 1: Pat and Scotty and those guys, they just do it
Speaker 1: every week, like I have a great week and I'll
Speaker 1: finish fifth, right, I'll have a great week, played great.
Speaker 1: They'll have an off week and finish seventh. That's their
Speaker 1: third worst finish the year. I was mind I was
Speaker 1: diving through some finishes. I was looking at Tony's. It's sillier.
Speaker 1: It's the worst finish is thirty fifth, thirty first.
Speaker 3: You know, like that consistency and again, but I mean
Speaker 3: that's that's attainable. I mean, that's the thing about consistency
Speaker 3: is you see players work to that point where they
Speaker 3: get into a position where that game is consistent, and
Speaker 3: then it makes more sense.
Speaker 1: An interesting take about this is just like ranking stuff.
Speaker 1: I just feel like any given week, anybody can win everybody.
Speaker 1: He's so good out here. The one hundred and eightieth
Speaker 1: guy on Fest for sure could have one. There's a
Speaker 1: reason they're out there. They're out here and playing well.
Speaker 1: But I will say I think there's a gap between
Speaker 1: you know, the top six to eight guys in the
Speaker 1: world and then everybody else. I think there's a discernible
Speaker 1: gap where I think even Max was talking about it,
Speaker 1: like even you know, that guy's on a heater, he's
Speaker 1: playing the best, one of the nicest guys, playing the
Speaker 1: best golf of his life, and he still feels like
Speaker 1: there's a gap between him. Yeah, and John Rahm and
Speaker 1: these guys are just playing absurd golf week in and
Speaker 1: week out, and I think that goes kind of under
Speaker 1: the radar sometimes, like you, I feel like people get
Speaker 1: like power finished twelfth in an event and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's slumping or something like Colin. Colin's like eighth in
Speaker 1: the world. Now everyone's like, oh, he's on the playing
Speaker 1: horrible slumping. He's leading strokes, he can approach, it's made
Speaker 1: six five mili. He's having his best Irony ever this year.
Speaker 1: He's best iron youer ever. People are just like so
Speaker 1: it's just crazy result oriented, I guess. But yeah, just
Speaker 1: how consistent those guys are.
Speaker 2: So say you, I'm combined two things I want to
Speaker 2: hear that we want to hear this story. Yeah, one
Speaker 2: being in with the gallery or in this case the
Speaker 2: patrons and two year short yes, tell us about sixteen
Speaker 2: and a guest.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So I'll give some background on my
Speaker 1: golf game that led to that shot. Anyway, the last
Speaker 1: five months I've been playing almost strictly a cut with irons,
Speaker 1: and my whole first year on tour, I was hitting
Speaker 1: like shallow draws, which I've never hit my life, and
Speaker 1: that's part of the reason why I played well. But
Speaker 1: for some reason on this whole I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna to drop back left pin, like the slope, all
Speaker 1: that stuff right, and my draw definitely spins less and
Speaker 1: comes off a touch lower. But I've been used to
Speaker 1: my fade yardages, which if I was fading it, I
Speaker 1: probably would have hit six iron there, one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty five yards into the wind out of the right.
Speaker 1: But I hit seven and I actually thought I'd put
Speaker 1: a good swing on it, but it just I pulled
Speaker 1: it a hair and it rode the wind. And I'm
Speaker 1: looking at this thing. I'm like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is so long. This is ten yards left of the pin.
Speaker 1: This is gonna kill somebody.
Speaker 4: Sure enough.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even lay. It lay in the gallery right.
Speaker 1: I landed fifteen years over the pin, and I hit
Speaker 1: a poor lady in the head. I did send a
Speaker 1: picture out to her, though she signed it the next wee,
Speaker 1: but I hit her in the head, which kept it
Speaker 1: from going on the whole six essentially, so it stayed
Speaker 1: in the middle of the gallery, kind of in the
Speaker 1: mud there, and it took three minutes to clear the
Speaker 1: whole gallery out there, And of course in those three minutes,
Speaker 1: one hundred people were talking about the Tiger shot. Dude
Speaker 1: for Tiger, and I'm just hearing it. And at one
Speaker 1: point I wasn't like chippier. I was laughing at everything.
Speaker 1: At one point was like chipping in like Tiger. I
Speaker 1: was like, bro. I literally turned to the guys dead quiet.
Speaker 1: I was like, bro, I'm trying to chip this on
Speaker 1: the green. Everyone started laughing and I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 1: laughing right, I'm just trying to get it on. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm on trying to not make five I'm literally on
Speaker 1: wet dirt. I'm like, I just can't chunk this or
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna hit two feet in front of me.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be embarrassing. But I just kind of blocked out. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I was already feeling the nerves from just the whole
Speaker 1: day and the whole week, and I kind of blocked
Speaker 1: out over the chip, and sure enough, I landed it
Speaker 1: right on my spot and I'm like, oh sick. I
Speaker 1: just said it to like I probably have five feet
Speaker 1: coming back for part. And I took a couple of
Speaker 1: steps forward to get a better look, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: no way.
Speaker 4: Since that first started thinking that yeah, with like.
Speaker 1: Six feet to go, I was like this, this thing
Speaker 1: could go in the hole, and sure enough it went in.
Speaker 1: I just I kind of lost it, like I I
Speaker 1: don't remember even what I did celebration wise, but I
Speaker 1: know I high five three guys harder than I ever
Speaker 1: have in my life. I slapped Carl on the back
Speaker 1: so hard, and it got me fired up even more
Speaker 1: because I never see Carl is the most even keel guy,
Speaker 1: and he was just and then Tony playing with Tony
Speaker 1: and his caddie Mark. They're the biggest chillers ever. They're
Speaker 1: so pumped me so but I just I could not control.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming you watched it. I lost it, And if
Speaker 1: you have, you watched the Chip watch. Yes, I've watched
Speaker 1: that shot more than I've watched any other show on
Speaker 1: my life, not even close, because it's like you see
Speaker 1: a different thing with like the fans every time every
Speaker 1: somebody else. Yeah, in the gallery, but I was shaking.
Speaker 1: It was like I don't I don't do drugs, but
Speaker 1: I feel like it's better than any drug that I
Speaker 1: could ever take in my life. I mean, that feeling
Speaker 1: was unbelievable and we're just striped it.
Speaker 2: Did you?
Speaker 1: I was shaking. I was shaking, literally shaking, striped it.
Speaker 1: And then I hit the worst iron shot on my
Speaker 1: entire life on the second shot because I was still nervous.
Speaker 1: You're still still I just wish I didn't have two
Speaker 1: more holes to play after that chip in. But I
Speaker 1: had one hundred and sixty eight yard shot forty seven
Speaker 1: literally forty seven yards offline after the drop after the
Speaker 1: drop from the grand stand, so it was like sixty
Speaker 1: yards off line. I didn't know the grandstand to a
Speaker 1: back right pin with a nine iron on seventeen staff.
Speaker 1: But uh no, that was the coolest moment. That's your
Speaker 1: moment so far, for sure. So before we let you go,
Speaker 1: just a couple of quick hitters. Yeah, favorite candy is
Speaker 1: what probably twigs? Random? Did you have? I don't have
Speaker 1: twix a week. No, I don't twix a month. No,
Speaker 1: I don't even chocolate.
Speaker 3: When's the last time you watch the movie theater and
Speaker 3: saw a movie in the theater and you know if
Speaker 3: you if you've seen it, what was the movie?
Speaker 1: I don't remember the name of the movie. But the
Speaker 1: only time I go to the movie theater I was
Speaker 1: with my parents and then we watch Indian movies. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't even know the name of It's been six
Speaker 1: months now since Winter, that's not bad.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 1: When's the last time you saw a movie?
Speaker 4: One?
Speaker 2: I was I was thinking, is that Alex Conold movie
Speaker 2: where in the in the theater?
Speaker 1: You saw theater?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well I bet that was in it.
Speaker 4: Yeah it was intense, man.
Speaker 1: I would have liked to see this. See I want
Speaker 1: to go see Air. Two kids. I want to see Air.
Speaker 1: And now it's like out on Netflix. My wife's like,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna watch it.
Speaker 4: Go do that.
Speaker 3: You're just gonna stay it on me. But yeah, when
Speaker 3: you get the courtesy card, you drive a ride. I
Speaker 3: drive every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't even have Usually I troubled by myself,
Speaker 1: so it's just me.
Speaker 3: Who is Do you think you've played on your phone
Speaker 3: the most the last two years? In terms of an artist,
Speaker 3: my musical taste is very nobody relaxed. I listened to
Speaker 3: a lot of techno. Don't say Charlotte DeWitt. She's like
Speaker 3: a very technoly, pretty hard hardcore techno.
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 3: Are you like going hardcore on the like if you're
Speaker 3: listening to music on the range and stuff, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't listen to music while I practice. It's just
Speaker 1: like I'm so sound and strike based that I've tried
Speaker 1: and it just hasn't worked. But a bit pre round
Speaker 1: for sure. I'll bump some medim and some I won't
Speaker 1: go hardcore tech noo, but I'll go like some nice
Speaker 1: deep house or something like that. What do you think
Speaker 1: you eat?
Speaker 3: What place do you think you eat at the most
Speaker 3: throughout the year on the road, Like if you it's
Speaker 3: like you're staple, it's I mean chick.
Speaker 1: Fil a or Chipoli or something like that. I eat
Speaker 1: a decent amount of chick fl in Chipole, I'd say
Speaker 1: once a week, just either on a travel day or
Speaker 1: just a day where you know you finish late and
Speaker 1: you have an early tea time ago chippolet. But I
Speaker 1: love Thai food. I probably have Taie food at least
Speaker 1: twice a week on the week. Yeah, And I love
Speaker 1: sushi and Japanese food, and my stomach usually handles everything
Speaker 1: pretty well. So I'm a little loose on what I eat.
Speaker 1: Which is on the Tai food or you like a
Speaker 1: yelp guy like how are you doing in these places? Well,
Speaker 1: I'll go double. I make sure we've been on a
Speaker 1: hot streak. I haven't eaten in a bad type place
Speaker 1: in like a year and a half. But I'll go
Speaker 1: I'll go double. I'll go Yelp and Google reviews.
Speaker 4: Double down.
Speaker 1: You gotta down because sometimes sometimes you never know. But
Speaker 1: I've seen good Yelper moves and bad Google and vice
Speaker 1: versa too. But I okay, So I have a take
Speaker 1: you had to take earlier.
Speaker 3: I have a take on this whole Yelp world we
Speaker 3: live in because you know, we travel a decent amount lot. Right,
Speaker 3: It's a little bit like who you talked about with
Speaker 3: stats with the golf game, is like you can look
Speaker 3: at these things, but like, I live in an area
Speaker 3: where the best wings are like the work.
Speaker 1: You would never go in this place in a million years.
Speaker 1: It's the worst looking to live in the world.
Speaker 3: And there's a tight place down the street from my
Speaker 3: house that's the same way you would walk in the
Speaker 3: in the front door. So I feel like I focus
Speaker 3: so much on Yelp and I have to remind us
Speaker 3: all the time it.
Speaker 1: Actually might be okay. Yeah, Well that's why if I'm
Speaker 1: at new places, I usually ask guys what they do
Speaker 1: or where they eat. A lot of the times they
Speaker 1: eat a really nice places, Like I haven't reached that
Speaker 1: level yet, but I'll ask like the volunteers or the
Speaker 1: people working in the shop and stuff like, hey, like
Speaker 1: it's a good place to go get wings or what's
Speaker 1: a good go good place to go get sushi and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and and see like some I've definitely
Speaker 1: eaten at some places that haven't had good views, but
Speaker 1: guys have recommended to me. It's been great.
Speaker 2: So I love hearing the story on sixteen in Augusta
Speaker 2: because this is what you don't hear in I'm just
Speaker 2: seeing that.
Speaker 4: We just see the chip, you see celebrate. I want
Speaker 4: to hear what the feeling.
Speaker 1: I love the show. Now, you know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 3: The first thing I'm gonna do work with this is
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go to Masters dot Com. I'm gonna look
Speaker 3: at the tracer on seventeen in their second show.
Speaker 1: It's a little narcissistic, but I might have to do it.
Speaker 1: He's got it out as well. I appreciate the time
Speaker 1: as
Speaker 3: Always, like the rest of the year, doing what you're
Speaker 3: doing for Thanks Mary, tell you was awesome.