Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter. I've I've always said it, and
Speaker 1: I'll keep saying it. It doesn't matter where the tournament's at.
Speaker 1: I'm not scared to go anywhere in the world. Um.
Speaker 1: I just want to play golf, and I want to
Speaker 1: play in golf tournaments that matter, and golf tournaments that
Speaker 1: have world ranking points, and golf tournaments that can get
Speaker 1: me to be one of the best players in the world.
Speaker 1: So um, that's been my goal since I was four
Speaker 1: or five years old, and that will continue to be
Speaker 1: my goal until I get there. So Hello, this is
Speaker 1: Alan ship Knuck back from their Fire Drill podcast. We
Speaker 1: are delighted to be joined Michael Bamberg and I that
Speaker 1: is joined by Andy Ogletree, who's just coming off a
Speaker 1: career changing victory on Asian Tour in Egypt, of all places.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's cool to win a tournament anywhere, but
Speaker 1: it's like extra cool to win win in Egypt, right
Speaker 1: like that. That's got to be kind of fun. So, uh,
Speaker 1: tell us if you're probably still on cloud nine, but
Speaker 1: how does it feel to have broken through? Andy? And
Speaker 1: and most and the biggest question of all is how
Speaker 1: is this going to change your career? Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: it just feels like a huge weight off my shoulders, honestly,
Speaker 1: because the last year and a half it has kind
Speaker 1: of just been a spiral of trying to find places
Speaker 1: to play and trying to find exemptions, and UM, it
Speaker 1: just feels like I finally have relief because I have
Speaker 1: somewhere guaranteed to play for the next two and a
Speaker 1: half years. Um. This win gives me a full Asian
Speaker 1: Tour card for the rest of this year, all of
Speaker 1: next year and for four so I can pick and
Speaker 1: choose what tournaments I play. UM. I could play regular
Speaker 1: Asian Tour events, I can play in the National Series. UM.
Speaker 1: And and that's just all I can wish for right
Speaker 1: now is to have somewhere guaranteed to play for them
Speaker 1: two and a half years. That's great, Andy, What was
Speaker 1: it's Michael Baermberger in Philadelphia. What was it like to
Speaker 1: play in Egypt? I imagine you had never probably been
Speaker 1: there before. Yeah, first time to Egypt. UM, I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think many people go unless you're going to
Speaker 1: see the pyramids. So I actually did the Pyramids on
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning. They Asian two or Charter two buses and
Speaker 1: the whole tournament went. So it was super cool. We
Speaker 1: had tour guides telling us everything and all the fun
Speaker 1: facts and uh no, it was super cool. And we
Speaker 1: stayed at a great hotel there. Um, it's interesting in Egypt,
Speaker 1: So they built out these whole cities before they let
Speaker 1: anyone move there, so we stayed in the city with
Speaker 1: no people. It was. It was really interesting, but I
Speaker 1: guess they're bringing people in like twenty at a time.
Speaker 1: They said they're at twenty percent capacity right now. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be their new capital. Um they're at right now,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna hopefully be at a couple of years,
Speaker 1: they said. So it was. It was really weird. It
Speaker 1: was like a ghost town. It was this brand new city,
Speaker 1: super nice and modern, with no people. Does it feel
Speaker 1: like Phoenix? What? What does it? What does it feel like?
Speaker 1: They're you kind of feel like you're in Phoenix. Scottsdale. Um.
Speaker 1: The golf course was very artificial. All the lakes were
Speaker 1: bright blue, looked like this cool. It was cool to see,
Speaker 1: but I mean, the course was perfectly The fairways were
Speaker 1: probably the nicest fairways I've ever played in my life,
Speaker 1: not even not even exaggerating that. So um, super cool,
Speaker 1: I mean, awesome tournament. I mean that's one of the
Speaker 1: things that's interesting is young players when they hear about
Speaker 1: going over to Europe or or to Asia or to
Speaker 1: any of these far away tours. Yeah. I know there's
Speaker 1: some apprehension like how how am I going to survive
Speaker 1: this exotic landscape? But how do you translate the challenges
Speaker 1: of maybe, um, obviously jet lag and maintaining a diet
Speaker 1: and work out schedule it works for you, And then
Speaker 1: and then take that onto the golf course And I mean,
Speaker 1: are you able to to kind of calibrate or do
Speaker 1: you just have to say, hey man, this is all
Speaker 1: gonna be different and just go with it. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean I've always been a really good planner. So the
Speaker 1: first couple of trips, I took a lot of notes
Speaker 1: and Okay, this is how early I need to be there,
Speaker 1: and this is how many days I need to have
Speaker 1: to adjust to the time change, and this is how
Speaker 1: I'm going to travel. So in America usually use the gyms.
Speaker 1: Here over there, you don't really know what you're gonna get,
Speaker 1: so I pretty much travel with my gym. I traveled
Speaker 1: with foam rollers, bands, all the stuff that I use
Speaker 1: in my warm up, um to kind of make sure
Speaker 1: I have everything that I need. And then um, they
Speaker 1: have physios on site, so I'm able to work with them.
Speaker 1: And over the five tournaments working with those people, they've
Speaker 1: learned my body pretty well. So um, there's really not
Speaker 1: many challenges other than food and the language barrier. And
Speaker 1: you basically never leave the hotels because there's always a
Speaker 1: couple of restaurants there that you can find something. I mean,
Speaker 1: I eat a lot of Italian because Italian foods pretty universal.
Speaker 1: So um, you get some pasta and call it a night.
Speaker 1: Any what did you do for a caddy over there?
Speaker 1: I've been taking locals, but I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get somebody traveling with me full time now that well,
Speaker 1: that membership has its privileges, right, I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be great just to have some money every week
Speaker 1: and be able to actually do it. I mean I've
Speaker 1: been I've been taking locals and they don't really speak
Speaker 1: any English, so I've just had someone carrying the bag
Speaker 1: for the first five basically. Yeah. So let's drill down
Speaker 1: a little bit more on on the career advancement here.
Speaker 1: So play the Asian Tours. We know that it's getting
Speaker 1: a big influx already has and it's going to continue
Speaker 1: get a big influx of money from Live Golf. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the persons are going up, the fields are getting deeper.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be more world ranking points than probably ever
Speaker 1: in the history of that tour. I mean, are you
Speaker 1: satisfied to make to make Asia your home tour for
Speaker 1: turn a half years or do you still have designs
Speaker 1: on either Live Golf or even the PGA Tour. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: I mean I obviously want to play either live on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, but the Asian Tour is a great
Speaker 1: place to start for me because it just gives me
Speaker 1: that guaranteed place to play. I mean, I'll still probably
Speaker 1: try to do some mondays Um for PGA Tour events
Speaker 1: this coming year when they work in my schedule and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So I'm trying to try to go
Speaker 1: at it both ways, to go at it from the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour side and go at it from the lip side.
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to go to Indonesia in a week
Speaker 1: and a half, so um it'll be the last Asian
Speaker 1: two international series of end of the year, and I
Speaker 1: think if I win, I have a chance to win
Speaker 1: the Order of Merit on the International Series is what
Speaker 1: we've kind of figured out. So um that's the goal.
Speaker 1: And if I win the Order of Merit on the
Speaker 1: International Series, that gets you a live card for next
Speaker 1: year or so that would be the route back. And
Speaker 1: that's a key point because we we've talked, we've talked
Speaker 1: about in the first time around this podcast, and we've
Speaker 1: gone over but not every golf fan realizes that live
Speaker 1: is not a closed shop. It's not invitation only. There
Speaker 1: are avenues to play your way. There's been guys do
Speaker 1: it all year. So um, this year it was top
Speaker 1: three players on the current Order of Merit of International
Speaker 1: Series played all the events. So like the guys like
Speaker 1: Scott Vincent and she wanted Kim and um so nom.
Speaker 1: I don't know Saddam's last name, but uh, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of guys play a lot of live events
Speaker 1: through the Asian two International Series Order of Merit. And
Speaker 1: you you grew up in in Mississippi, live in Atlanta. Uh,
Speaker 1: you've been in the United States mos your life. What
Speaker 1: does in your travels? What does the American golf fan
Speaker 1: not understand about what this live series is all about Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a loaded question. I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that people don't really understand and gather.
Speaker 1: But um, the biggest thing I found is they just
Speaker 1: don't really understand how great these events are and how
Speaker 1: excited people are to be there. Um. I think people
Speaker 1: thought that they wouldn't get a lot of crowds, and
Speaker 1: early on they weren't selling a lot of tickets and
Speaker 1: that was all the things you were here in America.
Speaker 1: But when you get to the tournaments, I mean there's
Speaker 1: tons of people there. People are really excited to see it. Um.
Speaker 1: They really is like a new a new version of golf.
Speaker 1: It's very different than the standard. Um be quiet and
Speaker 1: quiet with the collapse and no one talking. And I
Speaker 1: mean there's a concert as soon as the last part
Speaker 1: goes in on eighteen. Everyone goes to the fan village
Speaker 1: and there's a concert by a famous performer every night.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like a circus, traveling circus to
Speaker 1: play the live tour. It's uh, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: different than PGA two events. Also because everyone stays at
Speaker 1: the same hotel and everything's paid for by the tour,
Speaker 1: so they're paying for all your travel. They're paying for
Speaker 1: all the hotels, personal drivers for the week, shups at
Speaker 1: the hotel. I mean, everyone's kind of all inclusive. Everyone
Speaker 1: stays at the same place and hangs out. There's live
Speaker 1: you know, rooms for families and kid rooms at the hotel,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, it's just a lot, a lot
Speaker 1: different vibe than I think people realize. And you you
Speaker 1: just want to seventy two whole event. You played with
Speaker 1: tiger Woods for two rounds and made a cut in
Speaker 1: a master's As an amateur, I watched thirty six year holds.
Speaker 1: It was astounding, as of course you know, and and
Speaker 1: our listeners who know the live for now it's a
Speaker 1: fifty four whole events. There's a lot of discussion as
Speaker 1: to what they look at ranking points. Um, could you
Speaker 1: imagine a scenario where Live expans from fifty four to
Speaker 1: seventy two? Are you talking about holes played or players
Speaker 1: or could these live events that are now fifty or
Speaker 1: par whole events could if that was the stumbling block
Speaker 1: to them get to live series getting world ranking points,
Speaker 1: could you imagine expanding to sewo I think they'll do
Speaker 1: whatever they whatever they have to do at the end
Speaker 1: of the day to give world ranking points. Um, that's
Speaker 1: the literally only thing holding them back right now. So
Speaker 1: I think whatever they have to do to get those
Speaker 1: world ranking points is what they'll have to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with that. You said earlier that you're thinking
Speaker 1: about doing some some mondays on the PG Tour, and
Speaker 1: you know, some of the listeners probably remember that when
Speaker 1: you played the London event you were suspended by the tour,
Speaker 1: But unlike some of these other guys who were actual
Speaker 1: members of the tour, you did not have a card,
Speaker 1: and therefore the suspension really is only going to go
Speaker 1: to the end of this year. Correct? And then is
Speaker 1: your understanding that you have you have total access to sponsors, exemptions, mondays,
Speaker 1: and any other way you can clete your way onto
Speaker 1: the PG Tour. I understanding is my my ban is
Speaker 1: completely completely over starting January one of next year. So, um,
Speaker 1: I'm under the understanding that I can go to Monday,
Speaker 1: I can receive a sponsor invite, I can do do
Speaker 1: whatever unless something changes between now and them. I mean
Speaker 1: that sets up some obviously very interesting hypotheticals, right like
Speaker 1: if I don't, I don't. I'm not sure if you're
Speaker 1: an Asian to remember. I need to check on this,
Speaker 1: But if you're an Asian to remember, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have to do prequel are the pre cuse
Speaker 1: for the Mondays. So that's another interesting thing that might
Speaker 1: have come from getting status in the Asian Tour. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that gives you anything or any ability
Speaker 1: to not have to do the pre cuse. But that's
Speaker 1: the only thing that is awful for the Monday qualifiers
Speaker 1: next year is I'll have to go on Wednesday, play
Speaker 1: a practice round for the pre qualifier, and then play
Speaker 1: the Monday. So it's gonna be a weeklong process to
Speaker 1: play Monday. Yeah, no, getting that would be huge if
Speaker 1: you could. If you could skip the pre cues. Um,
Speaker 1: if you play another live event going forward, then are
Speaker 1: you back and are you out again? Like how is
Speaker 1: that going to work? I have no idea because I'm
Speaker 1: not a The reason that I was suspended last time
Speaker 1: is because I was a member of the corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker 1: But I'm not a member anymore because I didn't get
Speaker 1: to go to Q school this year, So I don't
Speaker 1: know how I could be suspended further. But we'll see.
Speaker 1: Like an animal House, double secret probation, like that's that's
Speaker 1: what I'm I'm curious about the guys like the James
Speaker 1: Piots and the David Poge and those guys that never
Speaker 1: had status on any tour. I'm curious what they could do.
Speaker 1: I don't know any how has golf changed for you
Speaker 1: not playing in glasses anymore? Yeah, it's a little different.
Speaker 1: I'm playing sunglasses now. I had lasi um dr wouldn't
Speaker 1: up in Washington, d C. I flew up and had
Speaker 1: had lastick with him. It was great, everything went well,
Speaker 1: But I have kind of dry eyes anyway, so sunglasses
Speaker 1: helped me and I'm able to see the ball a
Speaker 1: little bit better. So I've never been able to wear sunglasses.
Speaker 1: I'm taking full advantage of that. Now. Did you compare
Speaker 1: notes with Tiger at all about about playing with glasses
Speaker 1: and without? No, But it's the same doctor that he
Speaker 1: used so very very renowned. Is there is there like
Speaker 1: a ten percent off discount if you're a professional golfer,
Speaker 1: Like this is just Michael not. He wants to hear
Speaker 1: about you know, your glasses and the and the food
Speaker 1: in in Egypt. And I'm really super hyper focused on
Speaker 1: what this all means in the larger scheme of professional
Speaker 1: golf because you are you are in this really unique
Speaker 1: position anyway, You're kind of you You're like the canary
Speaker 1: in the coal mine, like how the tour deals with you,
Speaker 1: and it could have ramifications for a lot of other players.
Speaker 1: So I'm amazed you haven't had much contact with the tour. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I would think that that, you know, it
Speaker 1: just sounds like you're still learning as you go, Like
Speaker 1: what this means, We're all we're all learning every day,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's obviously a new territory
Speaker 1: and no one really knows what's going to happen. So
Speaker 1: um then as hasn't been done before, so we'll just
Speaker 1: keep playing about here and taking it as it comes.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's put you on the hots here.
Speaker 1: So you you you want to qualify on a wet
Speaker 1: you know, early in the season, you play well, you
Speaker 1: you finished type for ninth. Now you can play the
Speaker 1: next tour event. But there's there's a live event where
Speaker 1: you you've gotten yourself into and the powers that we
Speaker 1: make it clear you know that this is the fork
Speaker 1: in the road you got You're either fish or foul.
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta pick your metaphor. You gotta make
Speaker 1: a choice here, like what do you do? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm probably calling Mac Barnhart say, I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: that'd be tough, but it'd be It'd be a good
Speaker 1: problem to have, it, would it would? What what did
Speaker 1: you find in your game that that that helped you? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, go to this next level in Egypt? You
Speaker 1: know we talked in your previous pot about some injuries
Speaker 1: and some swing changes, and you've had a run of
Speaker 1: bad luck. But what what got you across the line? Oh? Alan,
Speaker 1: it is the floor now open to golf question. Okay, now, okay,
Speaker 1: whatever you want, Michael, go for it. Yeah, my body's
Speaker 1: come a long way. Um. So when I played the event,
Speaker 1: that first Asian Tour event I played was at Slately Hall.
Speaker 1: It was the International Series the week before I live,
Speaker 1: and my body was awful. My back was hurting. Wasn't
Speaker 1: really happy to be of course, because I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to swing like I wanted to and I had a
Speaker 1: chance to win in Korea. So getting back into contention again,
Speaker 1: feeling those juices, I learned a lot from that experience.
Speaker 1: I kind of blew a lead on the back now
Speaker 1: and there um had a chance to win and then
Speaker 1: messed it up, And so I learned a lot from that.
Speaker 1: You know that that helped me coming down the stretch.
Speaker 1: And that's cool. How did you celebrate on after the win?
Speaker 1: I took all the boys to dinner, So all the
Speaker 1: Americans that were with us, we all went to dinner.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's our ever wins that wins the
Speaker 1: event takes everybody out to dinner. Nice. That'll be our
Speaker 1: tradition over there. And he you had to you've dug
Speaker 1: deep in your young life. You want you want to
Speaker 1: hear a shocker aland this young man is twenty four
Speaker 1: years old. It feels like we've known him forever. But
Speaker 1: time slowed during the pandemic, and you had to wait
Speaker 1: a long time to play in that Masters. And and
Speaker 1: also it's some other things. Where did you a lot
Speaker 1: of people might have just hung it up, uh and
Speaker 1: done something else? Uh? Where did you find the strength
Speaker 1: to uh to to really stay at it and and
Speaker 1: and rise to the level where you are right now.
Speaker 1: I love playing golf, I love competing. I love everything
Speaker 1: about golf. And it doesn't really matter. I've I've always
Speaker 1: said it, and I'll keep saying it. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: where the tournament's at. I'm not scared to go anywhere
Speaker 1: in the world. Um. I just want to play golf,
Speaker 1: and I want to play in golf tournaments that matter,
Speaker 1: and golf tournaments that have world ranking points, and golf
Speaker 1: tournaments that can get me to be one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world. So, um, that's been my
Speaker 1: goal since I was four or five years old, and
Speaker 1: that will continue to be my goal until I get there.
Speaker 1: So um that's that's my only focus. And um, I
Speaker 1: never lost confidence. I knew my good golf was still
Speaker 1: really good. I just I was not able to play
Speaker 1: golf like I wanted to because my body was not
Speaker 1: in a good place. So now that my body is now,
Speaker 1: I get to really see, uh see where my game's
Speaker 1: out and and just what do you take from that
Speaker 1: that hold experience out Augusta with Tiger Woods for those
Speaker 1: in no, no, and he played two rounds with the
Speaker 1: Tiger and made the cut. What you know now a
Speaker 1: couple of years later, what do you take from that experience? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I remember just the nerves that I had
Speaker 1: before I tied that up and Um, there were actually
Speaker 1: a lot less than I expected. I kinda I made
Speaker 1: it such a big deal in my head, and UM
Speaker 1: kind of amped up so much that I felt like
Speaker 1: when I got to the first tea I was kind
Speaker 1: of calm, and once I hit the tea shot, even
Speaker 1: though I didn't get off to a great start, my
Speaker 1: mind was not just like into the shots, but um,
Speaker 1: I felt like my body reacted better than I thought
Speaker 1: it would, and I just I've kind of taken that
Speaker 1: further in my career that coming on the back nine
Speaker 1: of the Asian Tour International Series of it that I
Speaker 1: just won. I mean I had had a friend tell
Speaker 1: me once, uh, no matter how nervous you are, you're
Speaker 1: still gonna make contact with the ball, go hit it
Speaker 1: and find it. So I mean that's kind of the
Speaker 1: mindset I'll play with, is like, Yeah, I mean, my
Speaker 1: my hands may be shaking, I might be nervous, I
Speaker 1: might be thinking bad thoughts or whatever people think are
Speaker 1: bad thoughts. But um, I've done a lot of work
Speaker 1: with sports psychologists throughout the years, and I've learned a
Speaker 1: lot from from a lot of different people, and I'll
Speaker 1: just take tidbits from from everyone and trying to piece
Speaker 1: together what works for me, and um, I'll keep trying
Speaker 1: to do that for for the rest of my career
Speaker 1: and just trying to get a little better every day
Speaker 1: and every tournament and just keep building into and hopefully
Speaker 1: what's to come. I love that. Padrick Harrington told me
Speaker 1: one time. He said, you know what I learned is
Speaker 1: there's not an infinite nervousness, like there's only you can
Speaker 1: only get maximum nerves. And and then you realize it's
Speaker 1: not that much different on back nine and you're trying
Speaker 1: to win an Open championship as it was on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and you're trying to make the cut or Friday or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And he said, it's just that was
Speaker 1: a huge relief to him when he realized he knew
Speaker 1: what it felt like. Thing that like everyone else is
Speaker 1: feeling the same thing. It's not like you're bad or
Speaker 1: weak because you feel nervous, like everyone feels the same thing.
Speaker 1: Some people are just a lot better at hand and
Speaker 1: embrace and others and yeah, that's what I mean. Tiger
Speaker 1: said a lot about that. Tiger says was never He'll
Speaker 1: never play a tournament unless he has butterflies. When he
Speaker 1: tease it up on Thursdays, right, So I mean there
Speaker 1: has been some events this past year that I had
Speaker 1: had no butterflies on Thursday because I was playing so
Speaker 1: bad it I wasn't not gonna wait all tournaments. So
Speaker 1: it's great to be back in a place where I
Speaker 1: am feeling nervous. I'm so thankful to feel nerves. And uh,
Speaker 1: my my coach in college always said, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're if you're feeling nervous, if you're anxious, something goods happening,
Speaker 1: So embrace that and run towards it versus you know,
Speaker 1: being afraid of that. So I've never never been afraid
Speaker 1: of of nerves and pressure, and I've always actually played
Speaker 1: better when when I'm under the gun. That's really neat um.
Speaker 1: And speaking of sports a colleges, I think you talked
Speaker 1: to one on almost daily basis, even though he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the degree. A friend of Allen's in mind, Mac
Speaker 1: partnhark uh what what what kind of role does Mac
Speaker 1: play in your life? And and tell our audience please
Speaker 1: if you would a little bit about Mac for those
Speaker 1: who wouldn't know him. Ac is listed as my agent,
Speaker 1: but I think he's more of a life coach. He's
Speaker 1: he's seen this for so long, and I mean he's
Speaker 1: been around the game for thirty plus years. So, um,
Speaker 1: I think all the advice I can get from him,
Speaker 1: and I picked his brain a lot and call him
Speaker 1: and ask him his opinion, because I really trust um
Speaker 1: all that he's seen and and he just has a
Speaker 1: really good perception of how life works. And uh, I
Speaker 1: think I wouldn't have made it through this downward fall
Speaker 1: that I've had without Mac telling me that, telling me
Speaker 1: I'm still great at golf and telling me that I'm
Speaker 1: going to get there. And you know, He's always been
Speaker 1: that positive reassurance for me, and UM, I definitely owe
Speaker 1: him a lot for for getting back to a place
Speaker 1: where I'm playing good golf again. And you know, Max
Speaker 1: been on some of our Fire Drill podcasts and I
Speaker 1: invited him to be on this one and he said no,
Speaker 1: I just kind of want Andy to have the spotlight,
Speaker 1: which I thought was cute because some of the agents,
Speaker 1: you know, they want to they want to give out
Speaker 1: the first hug on on the green, and they want
Speaker 1: to be in the background of every interview. So I
Speaker 1: would be remiss. Our our colleague Ryan French Monday que Info.
Speaker 1: He want to be part of this podcast. He couldn't
Speaker 1: make it for scheduling reasons, but he texted me and said,
Speaker 1: ask ask anybody's hurt about Monday Qualifiers on Live next year.
Speaker 1: You know this has been there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about this. Do you have any any usable intel?
Speaker 1: As they say, that would be great for him? He
Speaker 1: even love that one man. Yeah, have you heard any
Speaker 1: buzz about that? Andy wouldn't be able to handle it
Speaker 1: because if you qualify, you're guaranteed to get twenty k.
Speaker 1: I mean, it becomes the most lucrative Monday qualifying ever. Right.
Speaker 1: I don't know if people are gonna flout Australia to
Speaker 1: play Monday Qualifier. They might, they might, But are you
Speaker 1: hearing that that's gonna happen? I haven't heard that. No, Yeah, sorry, Ryan,
Speaker 1: we try and that'd be cool, it really cool. No,
Speaker 1: I've been I've been hearing. I've been hearing a lot
Speaker 1: of buzz about that, because again, in the ongoing attempts
Speaker 1: to get world ranking points, last year, they let the
Speaker 1: current order of merit on the Asians who are into
Speaker 1: the events. So if you were fourth on the list
Speaker 1: going into one of the events, then you didn't get in.
Speaker 1: But if you, you know, finished second the next Asian
Speaker 1: who are International Series and moved up to third on
Speaker 1: the order of merit, then you got in the next
Speaker 1: live events. So it kind of wasn't Monday qualifying away
Speaker 1: because the current order of merit was getting into all
Speaker 1: the events. So I don't know if they'll keep that
Speaker 1: going next year, but I think it was really cool
Speaker 1: how they did that this year. Yeah, for the listeners
Speaker 1: who may not not understand, how would you define the
Speaker 1: relationship between the International Series and Asian Tour. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the International Series is like the elevated purses and a
Speaker 1: little bit smaller. I think some of them are smaller
Speaker 1: fields and Asian Tour events I could be wrong there,
Speaker 1: but usually add twenty people and there backed by um
Speaker 1: Lift Golf. So the persons this year between one and
Speaker 1: a half and two million. There was seven events out
Speaker 1: of the I don't know how many events. The Asian
Speaker 1: Tour has probably twenty five. So they're just these elevated
Speaker 1: events kind of like the w gcs are the invitationals
Speaker 1: of the PGA Tour. Um how they are affiliated with
Speaker 1: the tour, but it's a different category of exemptions to
Speaker 1: get in. Yeah, and next year I think that the
Speaker 1: International series persons are gonna go to three million, right
Speaker 1: or even three five. So these some that are three,
Speaker 1: I think most are going to be two to three.
Speaker 1: So as you, as you've had this sort of unlikely
Speaker 1: role as this this this pioneer across the vast landscape
Speaker 1: professional golfer, are you getting more questions now from from
Speaker 1: young Americans about how all this works going always asked me,
Speaker 1: like what's going on with Live and what's going on
Speaker 1: with the Asian Tour? And I just think it's a
Speaker 1: may eason to me how little people know in America
Speaker 1: about the Asian Tour and all the other tours across
Speaker 1: the world. I mean, I've learned a lot about the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, are the Japanese Tour and the Korean Tour
Speaker 1: and the Asian Tour, and there's the Minto Tour now
Speaker 1: that we've found, and I just think there's and Sunshine
Speaker 1: Tour and Challenge Tour, Like there's so many places to
Speaker 1: play in the world. And I've become friends with a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys in the Asian Tour, and I
Speaker 1: mean they hold cards on three or four different tours.
Speaker 1: So um, there's a lot of guys out there that
Speaker 1: play forty events a year across the world. So um,
Speaker 1: I just think Americans get so stuck into this, like
Speaker 1: you have to go to corn Ferry Q School and
Speaker 1: then you have to go if you don't get through that,
Speaker 1: then you have to go to PGA Tour Canada, and
Speaker 1: then if you don't get through that, then you have
Speaker 1: to go to Latin America to have to get to
Speaker 1: the corn Ferry Tour because that's the only routes to
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. So um, I think it's really interesting
Speaker 1: that if you don't make it through HU school, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of other opportunities to make a great
Speaker 1: living playing golf. I mean, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: making over a million dollars a year playing golf, and um,
Speaker 1: you're definitely not doing that playing Monday qualifiers and many
Speaker 1: tour events in America. So I think people just really
Speaker 1: need to open up to the idea that there's a
Speaker 1: big world out there and if you if you're willing
Speaker 1: to travel and um, willing to do some hard things,
Speaker 1: and you can you can make it a lot of
Speaker 1: different places. How and this this young man is a
Speaker 1: good spokesman for his tour, isn't he? Yeah? That was
Speaker 1: that was very, very very impressive, and the wondering have
Speaker 1: you were you able to spend any time with Greg
Speaker 1: Norman and if so, what are what are your impressions
Speaker 1: of him? Yeah, he was really nice to me. Um.
Speaker 1: We did some emailing before the first event, Um talked
Speaker 1: a lot, and then the first event he came up
Speaker 1: to me and he was like, hey, man, I know
Speaker 1: you've you've been struggling. I've seen you in the pt
Speaker 1: room every day. He was like, just go out there
Speaker 1: and give it your best. And I thought that was
Speaker 1: super nice that you can took the time it was
Speaker 1: at the welcome party, took the time to come over
Speaker 1: and speak to me and and give me that that
Speaker 1: little pep talk, because Um, I was worried and you know,
Speaker 1: I I was kind of embarrassed because of how I
Speaker 1: was playing, and Um, for him to come up and
Speaker 1: embrace me like that was super great. And then he
Speaker 1: sent me a nice note congratulations after I want in Asia.
Speaker 1: So that was really nice of him and I really
Speaker 1: appreciated that. I mean, it takes a certain amount of
Speaker 1: bravery to admit that you're embarrassed by your score, right.
Speaker 1: I mean that a lot a lot of pro athletes,
Speaker 1: a lot of pro golfers won't go there. But I
Speaker 1: mean that that's real emotion. And um, I guess I'm
Speaker 1: you know, if we can project fifteen years from now
Speaker 1: and you've had a very long, prosperous career, Andy, wherever
Speaker 1: you just wind up playing, what do you think this
Speaker 1: little stretch will have have meant to you and your development,
Speaker 1: everything you've gone through and now not winning. You know,
Speaker 1: I just think I'll look back to this moment as
Speaker 1: like getting through a rough period, right, because I had
Speaker 1: I did. I had a lot go wrong. I mean
Speaker 1: you look at turning pro and COVID and you know,
Speaker 1: turning pro at the wrong time, and then having hip
Speaker 1: surgery and then kind of all the residual effects that
Speaker 1: I had from that surgery, and um getting the final
Speaker 1: stage and I had a pulled muscle in my elbow
Speaker 1: that week, which is like a super fluke thing, And
Speaker 1: I mean, all these things just kept happening, and it
Speaker 1: felt like I had the wind in my face for
Speaker 1: such a long time that I was able to get
Speaker 1: through that and finally get to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 1: so to speak, and go down the other side, which
Speaker 1: is what I'm what I'm hoping to do now. So, um,
Speaker 1: you never know, golf. I mean, anything can happen in golf.
Speaker 1: I could. I could go back to the other side
Speaker 1: of the mountain tomorrow. But um, it feels like I
Speaker 1: finally kind of made it over the crest. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I love it. That seems like the right place to
Speaker 1: end this conversation. But I was joking, but I wasn't joking.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we'll try and do this again
Speaker 1: at the right moment, because, um, you know, you've I
Speaker 1: think golf fans are learning a lot through your story,
Speaker 1: and I think it's I think it's really cool people
Speaker 1: are able to be exposed to the Asian tour and
Speaker 1: all the things that people are doing over there because
Speaker 1: this it's such a different lifestyle, and I want to
Speaker 1: be I want to be active on social media and
Speaker 1: kind of show people all the all the things that
Speaker 1: are possible if you're willing to travel and try new things.
Speaker 1: So I've tried to eat a lot of different food.
Speaker 1: I've tried to take in the local cultures. I've tried
Speaker 1: to see all the local attractions that tourists do, and UM,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's super cool to be
Speaker 1: twenty four and travel in the world and playing golf
Speaker 1: and doing what I love. So I'm like, I'm in
Speaker 1: a good place and we'll see what and you do
Speaker 1: happen to know what happened to your world golf ranking
Speaker 1: as as it relates to winning in Egypt. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's a that's an interesting topic. Is something I want
Speaker 1: to talk about. Actually, because I've attracted my attempt to
Speaker 1: end the podcast, continue please, UM. I was looking at
Speaker 1: the world rankings and I got four and a half
Speaker 1: points for winning, which is great. But I looked at
Speaker 1: Scott Vincent's world ranking and Scott Vincen's top one hund
Speaker 1: in the world right now, and when he at Slately
Speaker 1: Hall the first of it, it of the year before
Speaker 1: people really knew that the International Series was part of
Speaker 1: Live and before um it was gonna be the qualifying
Speaker 1: tour for Live. Scott Vincent got sixteen points for winning
Speaker 1: that tournament, and then all of a sudden they redid
Speaker 1: the the structure of the Asian Tour um official World
Speaker 1: Golf Ranking points and I got four and a half
Speaker 1: for winning now, so um, it's almost the fourth of
Speaker 1: what it was before. But I mean it's still great.
Speaker 1: It gives me I went from hundred in the world
Speaker 1: to eight hundreds, so um, I think, uh, it's great.
Speaker 1: But there's there's no way you can ever get to
Speaker 1: you know, top fifty, top whatever in the world if
Speaker 1: you're if you're only getting four and a half for
Speaker 1: winning a strong tournament. Part of me and I for
Speaker 1: not doing this. What what is the reference where Asian
Speaker 1: Tour wins quartered in terms of value in a Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was not aware that. Yeah. I mean they basically
Speaker 1: the the world ranking periodically overhauls it how it does
Speaker 1: the math. This has been going on forever. There's always
Speaker 1: been squawking about this, that or the other. But the
Speaker 1: new changes definitely hurt um certain tours and certain events,
Speaker 1: and it seems it seems Asia took a big hit.
Speaker 1: Patrick Reed came out and said that, oh man, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna come play these Asian Tour events to keep
Speaker 1: our world ranking up, and um, the next week the
Speaker 1: rank redone. So maybe coincidence, but I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised that that's not a bigger story because you
Speaker 1: would think just on the basic logic of it, as
Speaker 1: the fields improvement quality, you would think it would go
Speaker 1: the other way, not one thing. It almost sounds Michael like,
Speaker 1: you're right, you're writing a legal brief that could be
Speaker 1: introduced as an opening statement in a court of lot
Speaker 1: at some point. Um, it could be I think it, Yeah, Alan, Alan,
Speaker 1: Aside from you and Bob Harrick, are there are there
Speaker 1: too many of our colleagues know about this? It sounds yeah,
Speaker 1: It's been a talking point, Michael, And I think it
Speaker 1: feels somewhat inevitable that unless something changes quick, there is
Speaker 1: going to be a lawsuit between Live and or the
Speaker 1: Asian Tour against the world ranking governing body. And it's
Speaker 1: probably gonna get be filed in the UK, which seems
Speaker 1: to be a lot more friendly to those arguments. And
Speaker 1: so um, you know this, this has been bubbling up,
Speaker 1: um and when you know the as Andy very succinctly summarized, it's, um,
Speaker 1: it's countertuitive. If a tour is getting stronger, it should
Speaker 1: be getting more points, not less. And so um, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting to see what happens for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm intrigued. I'm sure you are. I mean, part
Speaker 1: of part of the part of the appeal, of course
Speaker 1: of the Masters over the years, was there were you know,
Speaker 1: long before Tiger Woods, there was always a Tiger Wood Zori,
Speaker 1: Greg and Norman of some tour you didn't know much about,
Speaker 1: and come in April, this guy would show up, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the Ozaki brothers or whomever it might. That
Speaker 1: might not be the best example, but somebody you didn't know.
Speaker 1: And it's just weird to think that you could be
Speaker 1: the Tiger Woods and Asian Tour and not play your
Speaker 1: way into the Masters. I play with some guys that
Speaker 1: are super impressive. I'm like, man, there's there's good players everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's not just not just in America, that's for sure. Well,
Speaker 1: this conversation shows me on how you have to really
Speaker 1: keep an open mind about everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: golf now, and you can't just go on the information
Speaker 1: you already have. You got to be open to learning
Speaker 1: new things. I'm really glad to have this conversation that
Speaker 1: I had no idea that last part or any of
Speaker 1: Vandy story. Really, it's terrific to know I've got I've
Speaker 1: got all my friends, uh signing up for Asian Tour
Speaker 1: Key School, so I need I need some bodies over there. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and and by the way, the first time ever they're
Speaker 1: doing Asian Tour Q School in the US. I mean
Speaker 1: it just shows you how all the walls are coming down.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm hearing there's rumors of there might be
Speaker 1: a couple of international series even in America next year,
Speaker 1: So fingers crossed for that. I would love to love
Speaker 1: to flop three hours to an event. That sounds awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's cool. You're going Indonesia like that, That's
Speaker 1: that's near the top of my bucket list. I've I've
Speaker 1: been to a lot of places, but people love Indonesia.
Speaker 1: I think you have a great time there. It's pretty
Speaker 1: funny if you google farthest place from me in the
Speaker 1: world right now where I'm sitting is Indonesia. What is
Speaker 1: what is your what is your route by airport? How
Speaker 1: are you gonna get there? Looking at it right now, um,
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure it out. It's like do you
Speaker 1: go east or do you go west? That so I
Speaker 1: think we'll probably got a soul of Korea and then
Speaker 1: go from there. It's like fifteen direct to Soul and
Speaker 1: then like another seven or eight man. Yeah, I'm flying
Speaker 1: to Melbourne next month and that's I think fifteen or
Speaker 1: sixteen NonStop international series is starting in Australia, so that'd
Speaker 1: be cool. I've never been Australia off all the continents
Speaker 1: for me playing golf. Yeah, you're gonna love it. You're
Speaker 1: the courses down there are spectacular. Like I've been having
Speaker 1: this debate with people, especially around Melbourne, like from the
Speaker 1: West Coast, it's almost the same trip to get to
Speaker 1: Melbourne as it is to get to to Dublin or
Speaker 1: to get to you know, uh, Edinburgh. And I think
Speaker 1: if I think if you go to Australia, you might
Speaker 1: get the best golf experience of all of them. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna m fast. And I've always liked that kind
Speaker 1: of golf. So cool. That's killing all right, Well, this
Speaker 1: is uh we set out to educate the golf fans.
Speaker 1: Turns out we've educated Michael Bamberger and myself along the way.
Speaker 1: So thank you for your golf fans. So we are
Speaker 1: at our core. We are Yeah, this is this is
Speaker 1: a good stuff. We appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Andy,
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Yeah, let's do something, make some more noise,
Speaker 1: and we'll have you back on. We'll keep this conversation going,
Speaker 1: so keep keep the putter hot, keep all right, good stuff,
Speaker 1: thanks again, thank you, all right he yes,