Speaker 1: Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Shane Bacon, and apologies for no US Open rap podcast.
Speaker 1: Last week been a little bit busy. My wife and
Speaker 1: I introduced our first kiddo to the world in early
Speaker 1: June and the week before the US Open. Good timing,
Speaker 1: I know, And so it's been a little bit busy.
Speaker 1: Coming back, obviously from Pebble Beach. It was busy week there.
Speaker 1: It was a really fun week. We had a great,
Speaker 1: a great championship. The crew at Fox did and I
Speaker 1: feel like the US j had a great one and
Speaker 1: everybody really really enjoyed watching Pebble and everything that comes
Speaker 1: with it. And I came home and I've been on
Speaker 1: daddy duty basically for the last week and uh and
Speaker 1: getting set for what is coming this week, the US
Speaker 1: Senior Open. It's at the war and Course at at
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. It's gonna be a great, great championship. We
Speaker 1: get going on Wednesday noon to one. We have a
Speaker 1: previous show on FS one and then we rock and
Speaker 1: roll Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday commercial free, no commercials all
Speaker 1: four days of the championship. So if you want to
Speaker 1: see whole bunch of golf shots and you want to
Speaker 1: see a lot a lot of players tune in. It
Speaker 1: should be a lot of fun. Curtis Strange will be
Speaker 1: up in the booth with me, Brad Facts will be
Speaker 1: doing some holes and and yet we rock and roll, uh.
Speaker 1: Starting as I said, Wednesday and then into Thursday in
Speaker 1: the Championship. This podcast as all Clubhouse podcasts, brought to
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Speaker 1: Scott McCarron here this week to kind of talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the PGA Tour and the transition into
Speaker 1: the champions and how it's how it's gone for him,
Speaker 1: both positively and maybe differently than he expected it would
Speaker 1: be over the last three years as he's really become
Speaker 1: one of the dominant figures on the PGA Tour champions
Speaker 1: And then we previewed a little bit about the Senior
Speaker 1: Open and just talked about what needs to change for him.
Speaker 1: He's never had a great track record at US Opens
Speaker 1: and US Senior Opens, and he talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about that and what he hopes will be different this
Speaker 1: week at the war And Course will be a Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: We're excited to get there. As I mentioned, we've had
Speaker 1: a great season so far. The Women's Open was awesome.
Speaker 1: Of course US Open was great at Pebble, and now
Speaker 1: we rock and roll into the Senior and then into
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of the amateur events. So I hope
Speaker 1: you're paying attention to tuning in. As I said Wednesday
Speaker 1: preview show, Thursday, we get going. Let's get to Scott
Speaker 1: and we welcome into the clubhouse Scott McCarron, who is
Speaker 1: having one heck of a year, three wins already, including
Speaker 1: one a couple of weeks ago in Japan. Scott, is
Speaker 1: is that? Is that? Two continents with wins in two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen. You're gonna try to rack up a few more?
Speaker 1: What's the deal here? Well, I'll tell you what. We've
Speaker 1: been on a pretty good role. Just been having a
Speaker 1: lot of fun out here, putting myself in position with
Speaker 1: nine holes ago and that's, you know, kind of our goal.
Speaker 1: And I've been able to come through three times with
Speaker 1: three wins here in the last seven weeks. So playing
Speaker 1: some good golf and having a lot of fun. Well,
Speaker 1: something I wanted to just kind of start with that
Speaker 1: I've always found very, very interesting, and I just I
Speaker 1: would like for someone like you to explain it to me.
Speaker 1: You know, we we focus so much on the pg
Speaker 1: Tour as players make their way through their careers, and
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of competed against guys like Greg
Speaker 1: Norman and Paul Ezinger and the Curtis Strangers of the world,
Speaker 1: and then they turned fifty and they don't have a
Speaker 1: careers are great careers on the PGA Tour champions And
Speaker 1: then there's guys like you who had solid PGA Tour careers.
Speaker 1: They turned fifty and it's like something clicks and the
Speaker 1: in the in the career takes off, you know, fifty
Speaker 1: and beyond. What do you feel like is the number
Speaker 1: one factor for the success on the PGA Tour champions
Speaker 1: for for somebody like you who has obviously embraced this
Speaker 1: and has done so well with it over the last
Speaker 1: three years of your career. You know, that's a great question, Shane.
Speaker 1: I think maybe a little bit of it would be hunger,
Speaker 1: meaning I'm hungry, I want to win, I want to
Speaker 1: win majors. I want to win as much as I can.
Speaker 1: I want to make as much money as I can
Speaker 1: in the next ten and twelve years so that I
Speaker 1: can retire and do something else. Um. I think some
Speaker 1: of those guys come out here that had great careers
Speaker 1: and made a bunch of money, a lot of other businesses,
Speaker 1: a lot of the things going on might not be
Speaker 1: as hungry to you know, put all the work in
Speaker 1: that you need to do every single week. UM. I
Speaker 1: know Bernard Lawnger is hungry. He works his butt off.
Speaker 1: Miguel i'm Aneljmenez is hungry. Um, Jerry Kelly, you know
Speaker 1: these guys are hungry. And I think that's what kind
Speaker 1: of separates a little bit the guys that are doing
Speaker 1: really well out here in the PG Church champions and
Speaker 1: the guys that come out and have already had great
Speaker 1: careers and have already done it and I just want
Speaker 1: to come out here and have a good time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One thing I've noticed, and I feel like this also
Speaker 1: has to be a factor. And and you're a guy
Speaker 1: that's always been very committed to fitnesses. I feel like
Speaker 1: the guys that have continued to really keep themselves in
Speaker 1: great shape, you can tell when they turned fifty and
Speaker 1: move on to the champions. It seems like those two
Speaker 1: things kind of go hand and hand a little bit.
Speaker 1: Well they do and mean the guy. It's kind of funny.
Speaker 1: The same guys that were working out, you know, when
Speaker 1: I was on tour twenty years ago, um, are the
Speaker 1: same guys that are working out now. I mean there
Speaker 1: was only a handful of us that we were in
Speaker 1: the fitness trailers working out all the time, and it's
Speaker 1: the same guys are in the fitness trailer now. They're
Speaker 1: trying to prolong their careers. UM have less injuries, be
Speaker 1: able to keep up hitting the ball far with distance,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things I think is key.
Speaker 1: If you can still hit the ball far. I'm the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour champions. You can compete into your sixties. It's
Speaker 1: the guys that don't hit it far, never did hit
Speaker 1: it far. They'll have a good three or four years,
Speaker 1: but then they have a tougher time competing because they're
Speaker 1: losing distance. And then the new young guys we say
Speaker 1: young at coming on this tour and they're hitting it far.
Speaker 1: So I think if you could have some length, UM,
Speaker 1: you can have a you know, fairly extended career out
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour Champions up until you're sixty two, sixty three,
Speaker 1: sixty four. Yeah, it is. It is interesting. And listen,
Speaker 1: I know none of us like to talk about our
Speaker 1: mortality and and and how long we have on this earth,
Speaker 1: but I do. I talked to Steve Flesh about this
Speaker 1: when he was forty eight years old. I remember we
Speaker 1: were sitting we were doing Norman's event down in Florida,
Speaker 1: and he was talking about how he was going to
Speaker 1: get back into it. You know, he was gonna play
Speaker 1: in some web events and he's been kind of grinding
Speaker 1: on the practice green, you'd been hit a little bit
Speaker 1: more range balls, and he was getting ready for fifty.
Speaker 1: And you know, when you look at a lot of
Speaker 1: players over the years on the Champions Tour, it is
Speaker 1: one of those things where you might have and you've
Speaker 1: mentioned ten, eleven, twelve years, which is possible for sure,
Speaker 1: but you do see a lot of the successes coming
Speaker 1: from guys that are fifty two, fifty three, fifty five,
Speaker 1: And you mentioned it when you started. It's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go out and get it now when I can.
Speaker 1: And for you, I mean, you are doing so well
Speaker 1: as you've gotten older. I mean it's seen you. I
Speaker 1: even saw you read a quote you said where it
Speaker 1: seems like this year you felt more and more comfortable
Speaker 1: out there. Do you do you in a weird way?
Speaker 1: Do you look at the calendar? Do you look at
Speaker 1: the clock and go, all right, three wins? I'm fifty three,
Speaker 1: now I got you know, I can get him, get
Speaker 1: a couple more majors, all that stuff for. Are you
Speaker 1: just trying to do it as long as you can? Well?
Speaker 1: You know that It's interesting. When I first came out here,
Speaker 1: before I even turned fifty, guys say, hey, come out ready,
Speaker 1: go play the you know web dot com or the
Speaker 1: new Corn Ferry Tour. Uh a little plug in for today.
Speaker 1: Uh play as much as you can and be ready,
Speaker 1: because you know you might only have two or three
Speaker 1: year window to make all your money. Um. And when
Speaker 1: I got out here, I thought, you know, that's probably correct.
Speaker 1: I better get out here, and I better win. I
Speaker 1: better do as much as I can the next two
Speaker 1: or three or four years. But now having said that,
Speaker 1: I feel very comfortable and if I can stay in shape,
Speaker 1: you know, injury free. And that's the other thing. We
Speaker 1: get older you know you're gonna get injuries as we
Speaker 1: get older. Um, if I can stay injury free and
Speaker 1: stay in shape, I feel I can be competitive until
Speaker 1: I'm in the sixties. I mean, look at what Bernard
Speaker 1: Longer is doing. I mean, that guy is kind of
Speaker 1: our benchmark for when we look at what can we
Speaker 1: do and what's humanly possible. The guys playing some great
Speaker 1: golf still in the sixties sixty one, almost sixty two,
Speaker 1: So I think if you can stay in shape, you
Speaker 1: can have a longer career. But for a lot of guys, yeah,
Speaker 1: you better get it, get it done in the first
Speaker 1: three or four years, because more younger guys are coming out,
Speaker 1: you know, to come out here and compete, and they're
Speaker 1: these guys are good. I mean we got Phil Mickelson
Speaker 1: can be out here, you know a little bit. Tiger
Speaker 1: Wood could be out here in a little bit. Ernie
Speaker 1: Els is coming out. So we've got some good players
Speaker 1: coming out here on the PGA Church Champions And I
Speaker 1: hope that all these guys will embrace the tour and
Speaker 1: come out and play because it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget two years ago. I'll bet amounting
Speaker 1: with Jack Nicholas um at loss Tree and we had
Speaker 1: dinner over at their house and he had just won
Speaker 1: the Alliance Tournament UH the week before, and he pulled
Speaker 1: me aside and says, hey, I just want you to
Speaker 1: know I have one regret. I wish I would have
Speaker 1: played more on the PGA Church Champions. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I had so much fun, but I wish I would
Speaker 1: have played more, because once it's over, it's over, and
Speaker 1: that's it. I mean that that's such a great point.
Speaker 1: Is you know, the the whole you know best mulligan.
Speaker 1: You know that Lee Travino quote. You know it's it's
Speaker 1: the greatest mulligan in golf as you turn fifty. But
Speaker 1: there's not a sixty five or seven year old tour.
Speaker 1: So this is it. As you mentioned, I mean, when
Speaker 1: you get going, when you turned fifty and you made
Speaker 1: the switch, did it Was it more competitive? Was it
Speaker 1: more serious? Was it what you thought it would be?
Speaker 1: What do you feel like as you look back three
Speaker 1: years ago, what do you feel like the PGA Torch
Speaker 1: Champions has been for you in the sense of competition
Speaker 1: compared to maybe what you thought it would be. And
Speaker 1: I know, I know you'd spent some time and still
Speaker 1: have some friends out there. But just being between the ropes,
Speaker 1: it was it was it equal to more than or
Speaker 1: less than what you thought it might be. You know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I got a lot of advice, and I
Speaker 1: was seeking advice before I got out there, and everybody said, oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna love it. You know, guys don't really practice much,
Speaker 1: and guys go have a beer after the round, and
Speaker 1: you know it's very very easy going and you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a good time. Well, I got out
Speaker 1: here and these guys were practicing harder than they ever
Speaker 1: did on the PGA Tour, and no one was in
Speaker 1: the bar after the round. Um, these guys were working out,
Speaker 1: and these guys were going low, starting on the first
Speaker 1: day on Friday and shooting fifteen to twenty under in
Speaker 1: three rounds. I mean, I was shocked at how good
Speaker 1: these guys still could play under tough conditions. The golf
Speaker 1: courses were not short. We were playing some of the
Speaker 1: courses that I played on the PGA Tour, and we're
Speaker 1: playing the same distance on the PGA Church Champions as
Speaker 1: we did back in my PGA Tour days. These courses
Speaker 1: were set up off the whole locations, we're talk um rough,
Speaker 1: maybe not quite as high as maybe we had sometimes
Speaker 1: on the PGA two days, but still these golf courses
Speaker 1: were playing good and these guys were going low. So
Speaker 1: I was kind of shocked at how good these guys
Speaker 1: really were, and I said, you know, and I'd better
Speaker 1: start really getting my game going if I want to
Speaker 1: compete out here. Now. Is that a little bit of
Speaker 1: a bumber though, I mean not a bummer in the
Speaker 1: sense that you're gonna have to keep grinding and keep
Speaker 1: going after it. But if you're sitting there going all right,
Speaker 1: I'll have a couple of bud lights after the round
Speaker 1: and I get to kind of go back to the
Speaker 1: hotel and chill. And you get out there and you're going,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I didn't expot and sign up for
Speaker 1: rains balls for four hours a day. You know, it's
Speaker 1: for me. I love that. I've always been a hard worker, um,
Speaker 1: and I liked the work. So that was that was
Speaker 1: a little bit shocked at how much these guys are practicing.
Speaker 1: But that's exactly what I knew I needed to do
Speaker 1: to come out here and compete. I've always done that
Speaker 1: my whole career. So um, I was actually happy to
Speaker 1: see that the guys were out there working hard and
Speaker 1: doing that because it motivates you. I mean when I
Speaker 1: see Brenn Longer in there when I first came out
Speaker 1: in the fifties, seven fifty eight, out there working, working
Speaker 1: out as hard as he is, um, eating right, you know,
Speaker 1: not drinking. I mean, all these things that he's doing,
Speaker 1: and he's out there on Monday after he just wanted
Speaker 1: a tournament, walking the golf course that's out Holy cow.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the type of work you gotta
Speaker 1: put in if you want to be successful. I wanted
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Speaker 1: hire all right back to Scott mccaren, Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it goes back to I mean, if you look at
Speaker 1: the LPG Tour, obviously, the PGA Tour, PGA Tour champions
Speaker 1: if you look at all of these things, and I
Speaker 1: feel like the players that are the most successful are
Speaker 1: the ones that are happy with success but never content
Speaker 1: with it. And and to your point, a lot of
Speaker 1: the times you'll see guys win and the next week,
Speaker 1: you know, they're on the driving range on Monday, You're
Speaker 1: there on the driving range on Tuesday. Even even Rory
Speaker 1: McElroy when he won the Wills Fargo a few weeks back,
Speaker 1: you know, he goes somebody asked him, do you wish
Speaker 1: the US Open started tomorrow and he goes, no, I'll
Speaker 1: probably be hungover, and sure enough he was literally at
Speaker 1: Pebble Monday morning for a practice around. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like we can sit here and be completely happy with
Speaker 1: what we've done six success wise, but you've got to
Speaker 1: kind of go back out there because the next week
Speaker 1: is a completely new deal. I mean, the they've they've
Speaker 1: shuffled the cards and you don't know what you're gonna get.
Speaker 1: And so, as you said, it's it's really about, you know,
Speaker 1: year to year, what am I gonna do now? And
Speaker 1: you're having your best year of your career, what do
Speaker 1: you feel like has changed in two thousand and nineteen
Speaker 1: compared to season's past when you've obviously had success as well. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't say not so much has changed
Speaker 1: this year. You know, I've won eleven times out here
Speaker 1: with the Major, so um, I've finished fourth in the
Speaker 1: Schwab Cup. I finished second on the money list last
Speaker 1: two years, so I've been very competitive out here and
Speaker 1: you know, trying to win the Schwab Cup. I had
Speaker 1: a chance with nine holes to go last year to
Speaker 1: win a Swab Cup, but VJ saying played a great
Speaker 1: back nine so, um, I've been playing well. You know,
Speaker 1: people think, oh, you know, what's totally different this year?
Speaker 1: You know, not much. I mean I've won three times
Speaker 1: in the last seven weeks, which has been great. I
Speaker 1: felt I left a couple of tournaments out there. The
Speaker 1: whole Classic in Newport, I felt like, you know, let
Speaker 1: one go there, um Kirk Triplett one. I lost the
Speaker 1: playoff five shot, and then the Senior p GA Kenny
Speaker 1: Tenna gallabeat me in the last hole with the pot
Speaker 1: from about twelve ft, which is a great pot. But
Speaker 1: I felt, you know, I left some shots out there,
Speaker 1: uh that I felt like I could have given myself
Speaker 1: a better chance to win. So even though I've won three,
Speaker 1: I feel like I should have won five, you know,
Speaker 1: And when you win five, you feel like you should
Speaker 1: have won seven. And when you do that, when you win,
Speaker 1: you want to be on their next week on Monday,
Speaker 1: out there practicing play and getting ready. It's kind of
Speaker 1: mindset of you can never be too content about winning.
Speaker 1: And one of the things out here in the PG
Speaker 1: two Champions, you went a tournament. It's not like I'm
Speaker 1: women you know, millions of dollars. You know, you're winning
Speaker 1: a couple of hundred thousand and maybe three. But you
Speaker 1: can't rest on that. You know, you gotta keep going
Speaker 1: and you gotta win as much as you can um
Speaker 1: out here. So you know, I'm working hard. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to win as much as I can and I want
Speaker 1: to win this Schwab Cup at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: That's that was my goal, and it's been my goal
Speaker 1: in the last three years. Just Burn Longer has had
Speaker 1: a little bit of a stragglehold on it. He's had
Speaker 1: a straggle hold on everything that got I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: he's not a human. He's just an He's he just
Speaker 1: is a golfing machine built to play golf. I'm convinced
Speaker 1: of that until somebody tells me otherwise. You mentioned Tanagawa.
Speaker 1: So the rumor is his nickname is the Assassin. Rumor
Speaker 1: is that he just you do not want to play
Speaker 1: the golf for money? Is is that? Is that? Is
Speaker 1: that a fact? That's what I've heard. That is the
Speaker 1: fact that Whisper Rock he is the Assassin, And you
Speaker 1: know he he is been a great player. We played
Speaker 1: college golf together. He was two years younger than I was,
Speaker 1: and Kenny t was always one of the greatest guys
Speaker 1: that ever been around, and a great player. Played in
Speaker 1: Japan and then tried to play a little bit in
Speaker 1: the web. You know, never had much success, but we
Speaker 1: knew if he got out here he was going to
Speaker 1: do well because he still hits the ball a long ways,
Speaker 1: got a great short game. Um, he just had to
Speaker 1: learn how to, you know, really be competitive again and
Speaker 1: be comfortable in that situation. And it didn't take him
Speaker 1: long once he got out here. And we Kenny T
Speaker 1: and I play every Tuesday. We have a little game.
Speaker 1: Grant Job and I, who went to you Slay together,
Speaker 1: were roommates and frattorney brothers take on all comers. So
Speaker 1: we're usually playing against Kenny T and Glenn Day or
Speaker 1: Kent Jones. And I'll tell you what. The assassin might
Speaker 1: get a lot of money at Whisper Rock in Arizona,
Speaker 1: but he pays out a lot your champion there. You
Speaker 1: put that out there on the airways. Oh, they take
Speaker 1: the assassin on. I'm not I'm not touching him. I'm
Speaker 1: not driving thirty minutes north to play the guy at
Speaker 1: Whisper Rock. I've heard too many rumors about about hopefully
Speaker 1: your bill fold is double the size when you show
Speaker 1: up because they're not gonna leave that way. But so
Speaker 1: all right, so what's your game. Let's let's hear the game.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're out there, you're battling, you, you're you're
Speaker 1: throwing a couple of shacks. Either way. What do you
Speaker 1: guys play on Tuesday? Yeah? We basically we just play
Speaker 1: all comers, just twenty three ways, auto two downs and uh, Brandon,
Speaker 1: I take mom bastball. That's pretty much how it goes.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you right now, Brandon and I
Speaker 1: have not lost this year, and I think we only
Speaker 1: lost once last year, so we we've gotten into their
Speaker 1: pockets pretty good, hopeful last couple of years. Uh, and
Speaker 1: it's I'll tell you what. We have so much fun
Speaker 1: playing and just the ribbing going back and forth all
Speaker 1: day long. Glen Day is just absolutely hilarious. He's America's
Speaker 1: favorite a redneck and we just love him. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: have to get a translated to figure out what he's saying,
Speaker 1: but he is just one of the funniest guys ever
Speaker 1: been around. It's like water Boy, You're like watching the
Speaker 1: Adam stay On in the movie, Like what what was
Speaker 1: that exact phrase? I'm not totally completely sure what happened.
Speaker 1: I know you've told this story plenty of times, but
Speaker 1: I just I really enjoyed it. I think it's super cool.
Speaker 1: Take me back to when you were having kind of
Speaker 1: putting yips and you basically built your own long putter,
Speaker 1: which is still to me kind of kind of mind boggling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that it is a funny story, but that story really
Speaker 1: got me back into gulf. Um. I wasn't putting well
Speaker 1: uh into college, and I kind of quit. I started
Speaker 1: putting left handed, which I could put left hand really well,
Speaker 1: but I always had a tough time lining up putting
Speaker 1: left handed. Um, And so I really just quit golf
Speaker 1: for about three years, didn't play hardly at all. And
Speaker 1: it happened to be a Champions Tour event at my
Speaker 1: home course in Sacramento Ranch and Marianna called the Rayley
Speaker 1: scene the gold Rush. And I saw like five or
Speaker 1: six of these guys uh put with a long putter,
Speaker 1: and I'd never you know, I kind of been out
Speaker 1: of golf a little bit. I've never really seen a
Speaker 1: long putter or seeing a putt with it, and so
Speaker 1: I just stood in the practice green watching these guys
Speaker 1: putting long potter, and I said, hey, that looks that
Speaker 1: looks pretty good. I'm gonna go see if I can
Speaker 1: make one. So that night I went home. Um, I
Speaker 1: think I drank about six are about of pale ale beers,
Speaker 1: and I took a ping answer uh potter, cut off
Speaker 1: the top of the grip, and then I took a
Speaker 1: three wood, an old all of our three wood, that
Speaker 1: was an actual wood three wood, and I snapped it
Speaker 1: over my leg and uh. Then I subbed that shaft
Speaker 1: with the grip and down the putter shaft, down the
Speaker 1: ping answer um shaft, and it just kind of stopped
Speaker 1: because it wouldn't go any farther because the diameter or
Speaker 1: the shaft right at about. And I'm like, oh, that
Speaker 1: feels pretty good. But it was a little light. So
Speaker 1: I tried to figure out how am I gonna put
Speaker 1: enough lead tape on this pin answer. So I started
Speaker 1: loading up the lead tape, but it wasn't quite enough.
Speaker 1: So I felt like I needed something else. And I
Speaker 1: lived on a golf or so what flashlight in the
Speaker 1: golf cart out to the golf course, got some sand
Speaker 1: out of the bunker and started putting sand down the
Speaker 1: shift of this thing to try to wait it up. Um.
Speaker 1: Then I it kind of rattled, so I had to
Speaker 1: take some bubble gum, shoot some hubble bubble bubblegum, stuck
Speaker 1: it around the shaft so it wouldn't rattle. And then
Speaker 1: all I had was Elmer's glue at the time, so
Speaker 1: I just stuck Elmo's blue in there and glued the
Speaker 1: shaft together and that was it. UM went up. The
Speaker 1: next morning, called in sick to work. So I go
Speaker 1: practice putting, and it felt good right from the get go,
Speaker 1: and I was like, holy cow, this feels great. I
Speaker 1: think I can I can do this again. And so
Speaker 1: I started playing golf again, playing some amateur events and
Speaker 1: then uh, I qualified for the U S Mid Amateur
Speaker 1: when I was twenty five, and it was in Hilton
Speaker 1: Head Long Cove Country Club and lost in the quarterfinals.
Speaker 1: So you know, I had fun, and I was playing
Speaker 1: in front of people. I'm like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: really what I wanted to do all along. Let's give
Speaker 1: this a shot. And it's all because of the long putter. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. I mean, it's safe to say,
Speaker 1: you know, I love those stories because it's just one
Speaker 1: thing like you said you had, let's have six beers
Speaker 1: and try to figure out a way to get around
Speaker 1: this obstacle that's in my life and my career. Would
Speaker 1: you say, I mean, you don't have that night, or
Speaker 1: you don't figure this out and it goes five, six,
Speaker 1: seven years, I mean, maybe you don't have a career
Speaker 1: and professional golf. Is that safe to say? Oh, Shane, absolutely,
Speaker 1: If if that night does not happen, I'm probably not
Speaker 1: playing professional golf. I'm probably going to doing something else.
Speaker 1: I mean really, And that was that was a tipping
Speaker 1: point for me to see that happen, to see that
Speaker 1: happen at my home course, to give it a try,
Speaker 1: and to figure out a different way to put um.
Speaker 1: Without it, there's no question I wouldn't be around today.
Speaker 1: And and and so then, I mean, of course, a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, you've got Now you've got a new obstacle.
Speaker 1: Now you've got to figure out a new way to
Speaker 1: do something you've been doing for what years? And yeah,
Speaker 1: and you knew, I mean we all knew the rules
Speaker 1: were coming. We all knew the rule changes were coming.
Speaker 1: Was it something? I mean, were you were you nervous?
Speaker 1: Were you interested in finding kind of a new way
Speaker 1: to do what so comfortably to you in the past.
Speaker 1: I mean, how did that process go down to figure
Speaker 1: out a way. I've got to figure out how I
Speaker 1: can still make putts or you know, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to hang them up. Yeah, no question. So when I
Speaker 1: came out in the PG Church Champions, I had eight
Speaker 1: events before the rule came into effect. So I turned
Speaker 1: fifty in July, had eight events. UM. I came out
Speaker 1: here with a little bit of success. I've had three
Speaker 1: top tens, but I felt like, okay, you know I
Speaker 1: can play UM. But then I always in the back
Speaker 1: of my mind was okay, I've got to figure out
Speaker 1: another way to put So after the eight events UM,
Speaker 1: I went and played an event up in Pebble Beach
Speaker 1: called the Callowy Invitational UM that turned in out of
Speaker 1: Tailor made Invitational. And so that was the first event
Speaker 1: before the band went into effects for anchoring that I
Speaker 1: putted not anchored UM, without really any practice, And as
Speaker 1: I was doing it, I started getting more and more
Speaker 1: comfortable as the days were going on. I didn't play great,
Speaker 1: I didn't put great, but I putted well enough. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, with practice, I think I can do this,
Speaker 1: so um that gave me confidence to go back home,
Speaker 1: and I just worked hard at it. But I tried,
Speaker 1: you know, cross handed, I tried claw grip, I tried
Speaker 1: sad side saddle, um, I tried counterbalance weights. I mean,
Speaker 1: I really spent two months or so trying everything and
Speaker 1: playing golf and trying to have games to put some
Speaker 1: pressure on me to figure out a way that I
Speaker 1: could put um. And I went to the first event
Speaker 1: in Boca uh that next year with a different putter
Speaker 1: that was really heavy, counterbalanced, and it was really windy,
Speaker 1: and I didn't put well at all. And so the
Speaker 1: next week I putted one round with a long putter.
Speaker 1: The second round, I said, you know, screw this, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to a short putter claw. And I put
Speaker 1: it short putter claw, and you know, I put it okay,
Speaker 1: But I didn't put well enough where I thought I
Speaker 1: could win with this. I thought, you know, I could
Speaker 1: get by, I could maybe finish in the top thirty
Speaker 1: or forty on the money list and and just kind
Speaker 1: of have a ice low career. But I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like I could win with this. Under the gun um
Speaker 1: I put it the next week in Tucson with it,
Speaker 1: and then I had like a month off and I
Speaker 1: took that month and I really was experimenting with the
Speaker 1: long potter not anchored. Um I cut it. I cut
Speaker 1: my normal long putter down and about an inch and
Speaker 1: a half so I get over the ball a little more.
Speaker 1: Then I had to add lead tape to make the
Speaker 1: head weight heavier just by a little bit. And then
Speaker 1: I started figuring out that if I got a little
Speaker 1: bit short of the putter out of that lead tape,
Speaker 1: then I could get my left arm parallel to the
Speaker 1: ground and uh stroke it that way. And once I
Speaker 1: figured that out, I'm like, Okay, I can do this.
Speaker 1: But it was good three four month process of getting comfortable.
Speaker 1: And now, um, I am so happy that they banned
Speaker 1: anchoring because it's a better way to put. It's a
Speaker 1: freer stroke. I always felt if I was anchored my
Speaker 1: body stopped, then I couldn't get the putter through impact.
Speaker 1: But now that the putter grip or the hand is
Speaker 1: not anchored at all, if my body stops, it's still
Speaker 1: free flowing through impact, and it's a much better way
Speaker 1: to put. Once you figure it out. Yeah, I saw,
Speaker 1: I saw what you said. That even if they allowed
Speaker 1: it again, you wouldn't go back. I mean you would
Speaker 1: just continue to chance. Yeah, no chance. I mean I've
Speaker 1: turned into a much better putter with it not anchored.
Speaker 1: Now it's listen. I tell everyone it's really easy to
Speaker 1: put with a long putter not anchored. It's just not
Speaker 1: easy to put well. And you got to remember, I've
Speaker 1: been using the same similar strokes in this is pretty
Speaker 1: much all I know how to do. Um. If you
Speaker 1: take a guy who's just to puts with the regular
Speaker 1: putter all his life, and all of sudden you give
Speaker 1: him a long putter and say here, go go play
Speaker 1: a tournament with it and don't anchor it not, They're
Speaker 1: gonna have a very difficult time putting because they haven't
Speaker 1: done it before. But because I've been doing this since
Speaker 1: ninety one, it really wasn't that hard to transition once
Speaker 1: I've figured out the length and the weight of the
Speaker 1: of the putter. How many putters did you have at
Speaker 1: your house when you were going through the what the
Speaker 1: hell am I going to do? Phase with the putting
Speaker 1: I have? I that could be the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: of long putters. Um, I have hundreds of long putters uh,
Speaker 1: in my in my house, and and I have left
Speaker 1: handed putters. I had bass awkwards putters, the thing putters.
Speaker 1: I mean every type of putter contraption that you can
Speaker 1: possibly think of. I think I have or I have
Speaker 1: tried at some point. Um side sattle. My dad actually
Speaker 1: put in side sattle for years with an old bob
Speaker 1: dude and special um and I got him. He was
Speaker 1: a guy who was a very good player scratch player,
Speaker 1: still plays shoots his age, but couldn't put either and
Speaker 1: got the yips and that you know, I've never heard
Speaker 1: of the yips. And my dad got the yips and
Speaker 1: he literally would have He couldn't play unless he had
Speaker 1: a bottle of wine or or a vodka someting like that.
Speaker 1: And one of the head pro said, your dad was
Speaker 1: the only guy I know that when we teed off,
Speaker 1: he charged a corkage fee to play around with him. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad, I taught him how to put
Speaker 1: the long putter, and he puts great with the long
Speaker 1: putter now and and has for a long time. So
Speaker 1: I'm glad he doesn't have to have a bottle of
Speaker 1: wine before he teas off. Yeah, there's a there's a
Speaker 1: there's a guy I know his name. I will not
Speaker 1: mention that that one has had won a pretty huge
Speaker 1: event on the PGA Tour who now is has gotten
Speaker 1: into broadcasting. That told me that if he plays golf now,
Speaker 1: he'll shoot forty to forty three on the front, but
Speaker 1: he drinks six beers on the front and by the
Speaker 1: time he gets to the back he shoots about thirty
Speaker 1: thirty one. I said, yeah, I don't know if they're
Speaker 1: gonna let you do that professionally, but maybe that will
Speaker 1: calm the old nerves. I totally understand that that is
Speaker 1: that that is. Hey, it works for some people. Apparently, Hey,
Speaker 1: weekend golfers, it works. It's just you gotta keep that
Speaker 1: very fine line going for four hours right the holes.
Speaker 1: I think it's very difficult, very difficult. So the last question,
Speaker 1: then I'll let you go. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the major championships on the senior side of things. I
Speaker 1: was looking up your stats, and I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you've played really well in your career on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour champions but eighteen major starts, eleven top seven finishes,
Speaker 1: including that win at the Players in two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: That said you haven't played great in the US Senior
Speaker 1: Open thus far in your career. So first question is
Speaker 1: have you played the war in course? Do you know
Speaker 1: much about it? Have you had a chance to go
Speaker 1: out there and see it before obviously we get going.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting you bring up that spat with
Speaker 1: the the Senior Opens. I never really played well in
Speaker 1: the U s Open either, and I had one top
Speaker 1: ten a congressional years ago. I made a few cuts,
Speaker 1: but I was never like felt like that was the
Speaker 1: tournament I could win it. Um, I was along, you know,
Speaker 1: I hit the ball along back in the day, but
Speaker 1: I didn't hit it, you know, as accurate as I
Speaker 1: do now. So I never really did a good job
Speaker 1: competing in US Opens, and it's kind of continued for
Speaker 1: some reason over to the Senior Open. You know, they
Speaker 1: set up the golf course is tough and the whole bit.
Speaker 1: And I haven't played well yet in the Senior Open,
Speaker 1: but I feel like my game is coming around where
Speaker 1: I'm driving a lot straighter. Uh, my short games better. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we just played okill and the Senior PGA Championship,
Speaker 1: and that was set up. That golf course was set
Speaker 1: up as good as any golf we're seeing with deep, rough,
Speaker 1: hard fast green. So it was more like US Open
Speaker 1: conditions and I competed and I, you know, finished second,
Speaker 1: had a chance to win. So I feel like this year,
Speaker 1: hopefully going forward, I'll be able to compete better and
Speaker 1: in senior open time. I haven't played the Warran course
Speaker 1: yet and Notre Dame. I hear it's absolutely fantastic and
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to getting there and playing and
Speaker 1: having Fox uh broadcast at the best best broadcast company
Speaker 1: and Alive golf. Now from what I hear and I've
Speaker 1: been reading, guys, that's such a good job. Last week
Speaker 1: in pebble Um. I was happy to be with you
Speaker 1: guys for two years. And obviously me leaving has had
Speaker 1: something to do with you guys getting better. That is
Speaker 1: not the case. We we miss you. I I miss
Speaker 1: having you around just to have one of the one
Speaker 1: more guy to go out and play. You were always
Speaker 1: down to go tee it, which is uh, which is nice.
Speaker 1: It was like you and facts and we're in. We
Speaker 1: have We have added Brett Quigly, who again is another
Speaker 1: guy that is UH that is massively excited to not
Speaker 1: only turn fifty but always excited if you if you
Speaker 1: have a game or anything, He'll drive forty five minutes
Speaker 1: to play. I did ask Facts some questions to ask you,
Speaker 1: just anything random, he said. Ask him if he's ever
Speaker 1: beat me in a sport with a racket? Is is
Speaker 1: Brad Factson's question? Do you Scott Brad Facts? Yeah? Mr
Speaker 1: I'm the best with the racket. Okay, so Facts and
Speaker 1: arguably is one of the best ping punk players ever seen.
Speaker 1: Have not beat him at ping punker pop tennis. Um,
Speaker 1: I would say I would be pretty competitive with him.
Speaker 1: I only played him one time in pop tennis. UM
Speaker 1: I would probably beat him at tennis. Racquetball we played
Speaker 1: years ago. Um I beat him one game. He beat
Speaker 1: me two games. But it was pretty darned close. Um.
Speaker 1: And it was so close that afterwards there were some
Speaker 1: stairs leading out of the racquetball courts. Um neither of
Speaker 1: us could had to crawl up. I mean this was
Speaker 1: this was blood, sweat and tears out in the racketball court.
Speaker 1: I want to beat him so bad, but now he
Speaker 1: got me. The guy is pretty good with a racket,
Speaker 1: and uh I look forward to at some point playing
Speaker 1: him and maybe some tennis or something like that I
Speaker 1: would say tennis. Back in my DA, I could have
Speaker 1: beat him. I made the j B team at hes
Speaker 1: still I playing tennis. I was pretty a tennis player,
Speaker 1: but ping pong no chance. Racketball would be close and
Speaker 1: pop tennis. Now he plays all the time, so he's
Speaker 1: better than me. At that last question, what is it like,
Speaker 1: can even considering your ability to stay in great shape
Speaker 1: at fifty three being the second best athlete in the family. Exactly,
Speaker 1: I am the second best. I got my wife Jenny,
Speaker 1: the triathlete, uh golfer seven handicap. You know she's a
Speaker 1: great shot. She can do it all. She's now got
Speaker 1: in got into horses. She's horse jumping. Now we now
Speaker 1: have a horse Keeddy Roosevelt. And you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: keep playing to keep up with that sport. I know,
Speaker 1: I you know. She she's amazing woman. She keeps me
Speaker 1: in shape, she keeps me young. I'm chasing around all
Speaker 1: the time. We have so much fun. She's a good
Speaker 1: wake surfer. And uh, no question on the second best
Speaker 1: athlete in our household. Well, Scott, I appreciate it. Good
Speaker 1: luck obviously. At the U S Senior Open, we're pumped
Speaker 1: to h to be there. I know you mentioned the
Speaker 1: golf course and uh and yeah, I mean I've heard
Speaker 1: from everything I've read and seen, Um, it's it's an
Speaker 1: unbelievable place. And I've I've had a few messages on
Speaker 1: social media from people that say it's in like as
Speaker 1: good a condition as they can remember a themes. So
Speaker 1: it should be a great week and and we're excited
Speaker 1: to cover and excited to see out they're playing. Jane.
Speaker 1: Thanks to look forward to seeing you and Buddy. You're
Speaker 1: doing a great job with the Fox broadcast, all the
Speaker 1: things you're doing. It's fun seeing you just blossom becoming
Speaker 1: one of the best broadcasters in the sport. Thanks man,
Speaker 1: it looks like I'm a wreck. It's a big thanks
Speaker 1: to Scott for jumping on. Make sure you check us
Speaker 1: out on Wednesday for the previous show and into Thursday
Speaker 1: through Sunday for the championship. It'll be on FS one
Speaker 1: and Fox. A big thanks to Zip Recruiter and of
Speaker 1: course titlist and the pro v one in pro v
Speaker 1: one X. Hope you guys have a great week and
Speaker 1: a great weekend watch them. Golf will be there. We're
Speaker 1: excited about it and we'll be back next week. Way
Speaker 1: Way