Speaker 1: I miss the green.
Speaker 2: For example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball
Speaker 2: in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 3: And when I find my ball.
Speaker 1: In a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg
Speaker 1: Friday Frida Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run.
Speaker 3: Off of the course. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to
Speaker 3: another edition of the FRIDAYGG Podcast. Today, Kyle, Nathan and
Speaker 3: I are joined by Michael Weaver, former All American at
Speaker 3: cal U s M runner up Walker Cupper and currently
Speaker 3: playing on the web dot Com Tour. Michael, welcome on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks, thanks for having me. Guys, got to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Michael, thanks for being here. I guess we'll
Speaker 2: get started right away. I read some interesting stuff about you,
Speaker 2: and one of my favorite tidbits was that you were
Speaker 2: an elite level go kart racer. Yeah, so tell me
Speaker 2: about that, and then what made you get into golf?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, my dad's always been into racing and I
Speaker 1: started down on six. My my dad was probably a
Speaker 1: little bit crazy. Uh, one day just started driving go karts.
Speaker 1: We had some friends that did that, and I really
Speaker 1: liked it. Kind of was okay, I had to start
Speaker 1: and then you couldn't race. Excuse me, couldn't start racing
Speaker 1: until you're eight. So for like two years I just
Speaker 1: practiced basically and got kind of good at it, and
Speaker 1: then raced kind of all over California, and yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: I was really into it. It was. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I mean, you can imagine. It was
Speaker 1: racing go karts that probably went about like fifty five
Speaker 1: or sixty and it's a bunch of like second third kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was. It was pretty serious. I think some
Speaker 1: of my parents' friends probably thought my dad was out
Speaker 1: of his mind, and but no, I was really competitive.
Speaker 1: But that I did that until I was about twelve.
Speaker 1: I started playing golf when I was tense. I had
Speaker 1: a little bit of overlap. I was racing and playing golf,
Speaker 1: and eventually kind of my dad pointed out to me
Speaker 1: that I hadn't raced at one point in like six
Speaker 1: months or a year I think it was, and that
Speaker 1: I kind of needed to pick one or the other
Speaker 1: because if we were going to keep racing, I needed
Speaker 1: to be committed to that, and if not, like that
Speaker 1: stuff was he wanted to get rid of the racing stuff,
Speaker 1: and if I wasn't going to do it, because it
Speaker 1: seemed at that point I was pretty pretty set on
Speaker 1: playing golf. I started starting I was ten, just played
Speaker 1: for like a year, then started playing tournaments, and think
Speaker 1: when I was eleven and summer, summertime became, you know,
Speaker 1: three tournaments a week, like a one day or here,
Speaker 1: a two day or there, all throughout northern California. So
Speaker 1: racing kind of took a back seat, and I stopped
Speaker 1: doing that, yeah, when I was twelve, and since then
Speaker 1: just been playing golf. But I'm still still pretty interested
Speaker 1: in racing in general, like the Formula one. My dad
Speaker 1: still races as like a hobby, as an open wheale
Speaker 1: race car. I've driven a few times. It's it's a blast.
Speaker 1: It's way more fun than golf. I'm not gonna idea.
Speaker 2: He's from racing or golf.
Speaker 1: I was pretty lucky. Never racing go cars is pretty
Speaker 1: common they'd flip, and I never that never happened to me,
Speaker 1: so I'd never got hurt doing that, fortunately, And I've
Speaker 1: kind of had pretty good luck with golf too. I've
Speaker 1: never knock on wood, never, never really had a serious injury.
Speaker 1: I honestly can't remember a time where I've missed playing
Speaker 1: golf for more than really at all. There's been maybe
Speaker 1: something here there that's kind of bothered me, But I
Speaker 1: don't think I could directly attribute that to playing golf
Speaker 1: or working out related to golf. So I've been been
Speaker 1: pretty fortunate to been playing for I guess sixteen years now.
Speaker 1: You hear about guys periodically, you know, their backs, bothering them,
Speaker 1: risked whatever. I have been pretty fortunate. I have to
Speaker 1: deal with that.
Speaker 3: So what are worse racing parents or golf parents?
Speaker 1: Oh Man, Probably racing parents because they have a bit
Speaker 1: of a temper. Golf parents are just crazy, you know
Speaker 1: they might they might kind of like snap at their kid.
Speaker 1: But like racing, he se some pretty like redneck stuff,
Speaker 1: like people literally lost their mind. It was. It was
Speaker 1: pretty embarrassing for the kids. I'm sure you know it
Speaker 1: was like the little It was equivalent to like the
Speaker 1: Little League, dad. But I don't think you see that
Speaker 1: as much in golf, just because it's more you know,
Speaker 1: you're competing against everyone else, but less so than in racing,
Speaker 1: I guess. And you can kind of directly attribute your
Speaker 1: bad play to yourself and golf wers. If someone makes
Speaker 1: a bonehead move. Racing, you could point the finger at them,
Speaker 1: you know, with some certainty, so you'd see it occasionally.
Speaker 1: You know, people get pretty pissed, but not you don't
Speaker 1: see that in golf.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I bet you could be like a you could
Speaker 3: drive like a jackass and like block people out and
Speaker 3: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: So in terms of growing up, you grew up in
Speaker 3: Fresno and there's like a stable of talented golfers that
Speaker 3: have come from there, like Watney and Yea, Chapel, Bryson,
Speaker 3: you you know, what is it about Fresno.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's kind of funny. I was talking with this,
Speaker 1: talking about this with someone recently. You know, you have
Speaker 1: the guys you mentioned, plus Derek Ernst as well. You know,
Speaker 1: Derek's a year older than me. Bryson is three years
Speaker 1: younger than me. So I played played quite a bit
Speaker 1: with Derek growing up, played a little bit with Bryson,
Speaker 1: but we're at a big enough age gap to like
Speaker 1: high school golf, we're all in the same league and
Speaker 1: we would. I'd play with Bryson pretty regularly, but I
Speaker 1: was was kind of a big age difference then. I
Speaker 1: wasn't real close with them, but no, we've I don't
Speaker 1: know what to attribute that to. It's kind of strange
Speaker 1: because Kevin Chappel and I grew up playing the same
Speaker 1: golf course. Bryson and Derek grew up playing the same
Speaker 1: a different course, but the same one as each other. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Watney has had a good career. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's just like a fluky thing. That's kind
Speaker 1: of When I was talking to a friend about this,
Speaker 1: I said, it just seems like a like a fluke deal.
Speaker 1: Like my high school team, even we had four or
Speaker 1: five guys played Division one golf as well at you
Speaker 1: know various you know, myself and one other guy both
Speaker 1: went to cal Pace Johnson, and then a couple other
Speaker 1: guys played like Cal Pauly Soccramento State. I guess that'd
Speaker 1: be it, But no, it's just kind of one of
Speaker 1: maybe one of those things. It's more coincidence than anything.
Speaker 1: I can't say, Oh, it's because we have all these
Speaker 1: great courses or facilities or whatever we can play with
Speaker 1: golf year around. But that's true for anywhere in California.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember at Paul Golido Sound and he grew
Speaker 3: up playing this Muni and Long Beach that like Patrick
Speaker 3: Cantley and a bunch of other tour pros of all
Speaker 3: grown up playing, which is is kind of crazy how
Speaker 3: like sometimes they all everybody comes from like one course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see that. Where like with our team
Speaker 1: at Cal, like when you have a bunch of good
Speaker 1: players all together, everyone's very competitive. I know growing up,
Speaker 1: all of us were pretty competitive against each other, So
Speaker 1: maybe that has something to do with it. I could
Speaker 1: when you're it's better, it's better to be surrounded by
Speaker 1: people kind of you know, similar ability there. You know,
Speaker 1: all of us are trying to get to say college
Speaker 1: golf at that point, and pushed each other and we
Speaker 1: all wanted to be each other. So I'm sure that
Speaker 1: that counts for something. But you know, beyond that, you know,
Speaker 1: and professional golf to have, I guess it'd be five
Speaker 1: or six guys. You know, Watney's from Sacramento but went
Speaker 1: to President State and then myself, Bryce and Derek and Kevin,
Speaker 1: all four of us either you know right or kind
Speaker 1: on the web. The two others on the PGA tourrets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just kind of got an anomaly more than anything.
Speaker 2: Probably, So you mentioned your team at CAL, which was loaded.
Speaker 2: I mean, you guys had hey, he Michael Kim, Max
Speaker 2: Homo yourself. What do you think you guys did at
Speaker 2: CAL to prepare your guy, prepare yourself so well to
Speaker 2: play professionally.
Speaker 1: I think kind of what I was talking about, the
Speaker 1: competition we were. We were all very competitive. None of
Speaker 1: us like to lose to one another. We would I
Speaker 1: mean we had this we had this this practice facility
Speaker 1: at CAL. Uh got a course called Metropolitan Golf Links
Speaker 1: and uh like Oakland, San leandera right next to the
Speaker 1: Oakland Airport, and we had this huge shorting facility there.
Speaker 1: And there would be days where like nobody really wanted
Speaker 1: to go practice, but like Michael Kim and I for example,
Speaker 1: would say play for you know, trying to beat each other.
Speaker 1: And that was that was that happened literally every day.
Speaker 1: Get It's like we'd go hit balls for like an
Speaker 1: hour and then have a two or three hour up
Speaker 1: and down contest. There are several contests within a two
Speaker 1: or three hour period. I think that's just kind of
Speaker 1: that element where we were everyone wanted to beat each other,
Speaker 1: we all hated to lose to each other, and that
Speaker 1: that I think that was worth a lot because I know, say,
Speaker 1: like my recruiting class was myself, Max and Brandon, and
Speaker 1: I think that I for each of us, Cal wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily our first choice going into the recruiting process. You know,
Speaker 1: you have all these schools you're looking at, Like it
Speaker 1: wasn't like it was Cal or then the other things
Speaker 1: everything else to be settling, like we I know, I
Speaker 1: was interested in saying the UCLA, Stanford like all the
Speaker 1: big schools in California, And I know Haye was kind
Speaker 1: of the same way with I think USC and Max's
Speaker 1: kind of the same boat as us. There's both of
Speaker 1: us as well, Like Cal was on the list, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't like with all those other programs at that
Speaker 1: time were higher ranked than us. So it was kind
Speaker 1: of common. You know, we all heard it, Max, Brandon
Speaker 1: and I that from other coaches in the Pac twelve,
Speaker 1: like they kind of overlooked our class. And then that
Speaker 1: was kind of a common thing with even with like
Speaker 1: Michael Kim as well. It was all these guys who
Speaker 1: might have been a little bit overlooked, Say Michael Kim
Speaker 1: was overlood because he hit it short thin. Max brand
Speaker 1: and I had not really like hit our stride yet
Speaker 1: I guess you could say we had good junior careers
Speaker 1: but not great, and then you know they certainly weren't
Speaker 1: up to par with our collegiate careers. So I think
Speaker 1: it was just, you know, we had a great group
Speaker 1: of guys. We all got along really well, and we
Speaker 1: were all really competitive, and everyone was willing to work
Speaker 1: really hard. I mean we never had to. There was
Speaker 1: never anybody on the team that, like you kind of
Speaker 1: had to light a fire under him, Like everybody knew
Speaker 1: where they wanted to be and believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: we were working, we were doing all the right things
Speaker 1: to you know, be a top ten or top five
Speaker 1: team or the number one team in the country.
Speaker 2: That's awesome and interesting, guys, I'll had kind of a
Speaker 2: chip on your shoulder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be a good way to play it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome something to prove.
Speaker 3: What what would you say in terms of making the
Speaker 3: transition from college to pro golf, did you like overlook
Speaker 3: that was like that spent that like maybe is tougher
Speaker 3: than you would think, Like as an outsider.
Speaker 1: You know, this is something I took for granted in
Speaker 1: college that I've just kind of started to realize in
Speaker 1: the last six months or so, is everybody say, like,
Speaker 1: you play a lot more in professional golf in college
Speaker 1: golf and ice think, well, in college, I played thirteen
Speaker 1: or fourteen tournaments in a school year, and then six
Speaker 1: to eight tournaments during the summer, so playing you know,
Speaker 1: twenty two, you know, say, twenty two events a year.
Speaker 1: And then my buddy, one of my friend of mine
Speaker 1: from cal who's a few years older, said well, I
Speaker 1: played twenty five or twenty six professional events a year,
Speaker 1: and I kind of looked at that, like, that's only
Speaker 1: like a couple more, that's not that big of a difference.
Speaker 1: But what you what I kind of overlooked was in college,
Speaker 1: your events are four days at most, and you have
Speaker 1: a travel day, practice around day thirty six, and then
Speaker 1: eighteen whole day, and then you go home that night.
Speaker 1: Whereas professional event it's uh, you know, you say, you
Speaker 1: fly on Sunday or Monday, you play practice on Monday. Tuesday,
Speaker 1: you're either in the program or you're practicing on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and then you play four rounds and you do that's
Speaker 1: like last year, I played thirty tournaments and that's thirty
Speaker 1: weeks essentially, it's not you know, it's not thirty half
Speaker 1: college tournaments, half amateur events where it's they're shorter. So
Speaker 1: that was something that I think that's something that's overlooked
Speaker 1: is people look at oh, it's you play pro golf,
Speaker 1: like you get to go and go to all these
Speaker 1: cool places. Which that's true. Sometimes I think if you
Speaker 1: took an honest look at like the web dot Com schedule,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't say like, I'm dying to go to Wichita,
Speaker 1: Kansas and Omaha and Springfield and is or I mean
Speaker 1: I've played. Yeah, it's like courses are good, the tournaments
Speaker 1: are well run. But that's like people think that professional
Speaker 1: golf you're going to all these cool destinations, you get
Speaker 1: to do cool stuff. Well, like the reality is like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to try to make time to go
Speaker 1: to the Panama Canal this week because I've never been.
Speaker 1: But most weeks like I'm not doing anything touristy. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm just lazy about that or not. It's not that
Speaker 1: important to me, I guess, but most weeks like there's
Speaker 1: just not there's just not a whole lot of time
Speaker 1: because you got to play your practice rounds and then
Speaker 1: your practice and your workout and whatever else you have
Speaker 1: to do to get ready to go on Thursday. I
Speaker 1: think that's something that's so easily overlooked is the tournament.
Speaker 1: It's four days, but you know, being ready to play
Speaker 1: tournam involves a week, and you have to at the
Speaker 1: level that if you're not, if you haven't won on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. I guess the way I look at
Speaker 1: it is you need to play pretty much every chance
Speaker 1: you get because you can't really you can't really like
Speaker 1: be complacent because it's so easy to if you're like
Speaker 1: a rookie on tour, so it's not easy, it's so
Speaker 1: difficult to get into events. You're kind of forced in
Speaker 1: your rookie year to play the events you get into,
Speaker 1: rather than you know, picking your schedule, which you kind
Speaker 1: of have to take advantage of that then saying your
Speaker 1: second or third year, once you move up in the
Speaker 1: world ranking or if you win a tournament, then you're
Speaker 1: then you can have that luxury. But I think that's
Speaker 1: something that is probably the most overlooked, even for guys
Speaker 1: who played golf necessarily in college. That says I'm saying, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to play more than two events in
Speaker 1: a row in a row, and for an amateur schedule,
Speaker 1: it's like during the summer, it's like you guys need
Speaker 1: to kind of get used to playing four or five
Speaker 1: in a row because you might have no status. Monday
Speaker 1: into a Web event and top twenty five a few
Speaker 1: of them, and then all of a sudden, like I
Speaker 1: had to stretch this summer. I was planning on playing
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks on, a couple of weeks off
Speaker 1: to that, and then like six six tournaments over like
Speaker 1: a nine week stretch, and the week said off, I'm
Speaker 1: did into a Web event and combined them into nine
Speaker 1: straight weeks, and that you know, after nine weeks, I
Speaker 1: was sick of playing golf. But that's kind of the
Speaker 1: nature of it. You know, you you get you have
Speaker 1: to you kind of have to go and you're hot
Speaker 1: and keep going.
Speaker 2: And that's speaking of playing a lot of golf in
Speaker 2: a small amount of time. Obviously, you had a great
Speaker 2: run at the USAM at Cherry Hills. Talk to us
Speaker 2: a little bit about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was that was kind of a surprise.
Speaker 1: More than anything I knew I had been playing. I
Speaker 1: knew like my game was going in the right direction.
Speaker 1: I was improving, you know, I was working hard, but
Speaker 1: I was kind of having a bad summer before that.
Speaker 1: I had remember I played really poorly at the Western
Speaker 1: at north Shore, I believe like two weeks before, and
Speaker 1: I was pissed at how I played, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I went home and practiced a lot. It's like I
Speaker 1: hadn't really done anything to redeeming that summer, I felt like.
Speaker 1: So I feared out hopefully and I'd qualify for the AM.
Speaker 1: That was really the only highlight, I guess, and I
Speaker 1: think that was. That was my second us M. I
Speaker 1: played at Aaron Hills the year before. I missed the
Speaker 1: Cup by one there, missed the playoff I won, so
Speaker 1: I kind of like fired up to go to the AM.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about Cherry Ells in particular, rather
Speaker 1: than it was at altitude in Denver. I mean I
Speaker 1: knew about, you know, the like Arnold Palmer playing there
Speaker 1: and that I'm not like not a huge like golf
Speaker 1: like history junkie. So that was that was about it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I uh so I played common played Cherry
Speaker 1: Hills first, then played common Ground and I made like
Speaker 1: a double or a triple on my tenth hole at
Speaker 1: common Ground. I remember, and it was kind of I
Speaker 1: knew that I was probably outside of the cut line.
Speaker 1: And I want to say Birdie, like three of my
Speaker 1: last seven or eight got into the playoff, which was
Speaker 1: seventeen for fourteen bogie the first playoff. All went on
Speaker 1: the next one and then part of that and Birdie
Speaker 1: the twelfth hole at Cherry El's like a part three
Speaker 1: over water. It's about two hundred or so to ten. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then I had quite the draw and matchplay. I felt
Speaker 1: like I played a lot of guys who are doing
Speaker 1: really well right now, so I was now looking back,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a cool, kind of a cool thing
Speaker 1: to think about. I played Zach Blair in the first round.
Speaker 1: I think I won two and one. Played Albin No no No,
Speaker 1: played Patrick Rodgers in the second round, beat him and
Speaker 1: two up. I played Alvin Troy in the third round,
Speaker 1: and I never led that. I was trailing all day
Speaker 1: one to eighteen to get to a playoff, and then
Speaker 1: got up and down in a bunker. I was from
Speaker 1: a bunker on one for Berdie to win, so I
Speaker 1: was kind of dirty. I felt like I stole that
Speaker 1: one and then quarters I played Ricardo Govea plays on
Speaker 1: European Tour now semis. I played Justin Thomas and then
Speaker 1: lost to Stephen Box on the thirty seventh hole. But
Speaker 1: all in all, in that it was like a it
Speaker 1: was a sick week. I mean, I had my dad
Speaker 1: caddy for me. We had a blast. It was obviously
Speaker 1: a really cool experience for my dad and I have
Speaker 1: shared together. He he'd carry from me periodically and just
Speaker 1: for me. And knowing that I was in the Masters
Speaker 1: in the US Open the following year was a pretty
Speaker 1: incredible feeling.
Speaker 2: What was it like to play in the Masters in
Speaker 2: the US Open?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Masters, I was really nervous, really excited. Obviously.
Speaker 1: It was it was, you know, everything I expected and more.
Speaker 1: I mean, the course was, you know, incredible. I went
Speaker 1: made two separate trips out to Augusta prior to the
Speaker 1: week of the tournament. I went in January once and
Speaker 1: then I went in March. Yeah, so it was it
Speaker 1: was like kind of everything I had expected and more.
Speaker 1: I mean it was just I got to play ten
Speaker 1: rounds or so prior to the tournament week. One of those.
Speaker 1: Ricky Fowler was there one day, so I got to
Speaker 1: play eighteen holes with them, which that was actually pretty
Speaker 1: helpful because I kind of got the like the wow
Speaker 1: factor or whatever you want to call it, like shock
Speaker 1: and awe of playing with a big name player out
Speaker 1: of the way before the practice rounds or the tournament started.
Speaker 1: So uh. And then yeah, I played some played practice
Speaker 1: on some pretty good guys. Played with Wattney and Luke
Speaker 1: Donald one day, put up Duffner. Another day I played
Speaker 1: with Fuzzy Zeller for ninals, which was a hilarious. And
Speaker 1: then I played the Part three contests with him as
Speaker 1: well and Hubert Green, which was pretty cool. We got
Speaker 1: put like I'll put on the clock. We got told
Speaker 1: to stop signing stuff because we well fell about two
Speaker 1: holes behind because Fuzzy did as a single person. And
Speaker 1: then I played with McElroy that day as well for
Speaker 1: nine holes and Robert Garagus. So no, I was, it
Speaker 1: was it was incredible. Then the US Open that was
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I was, it doesn't quite compare to the Masters,
Speaker 1: I don't think. I think part of that just because
Speaker 1: it's so difficult to get into the Masters. Where was
Speaker 1: the US Open? You can qualify for it every year.
Speaker 1: It's obviously difficult, but it's much more attainable and uh
Speaker 1: that was that was pretty cool experience there. Though I
Speaker 1: made the cut there, I didn't play great on Saturday,
Speaker 1: but I had my dad caddy for me there as well,
Speaker 1: so that was also like another really cool experience like
Speaker 1: finishing on Father's Day. Have my dad caddy for me
Speaker 1: was definitely a something pretty cool that we could share together.
Speaker 1: So no, I was Fortunately we got to play mary Into,
Speaker 1: which was I thought a really cool course and it
Speaker 1: was interesting playing the practice rounds there. Guys are saying
Speaker 1: or sorry, TV was saying, this course will be easy,
Speaker 1: it's short, whatever. I remember playing with Bill Haas and
Speaker 1: Nick Watney and I was worried because I didn't think
Speaker 1: the course was that easy. I asked Bill Haass, like,
Speaker 1: what do you think about this course? And I was
Speaker 1: gonna be really concerned if he said, oh, I think
Speaker 1: this is gonna be pretty easy. And he goes, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell TV's talking about. You guys
Speaker 1: haven't been out. I haven't played it, And sure enough
Speaker 1: that proved me right. I mean one over one and
Speaker 1: the cut was eight over par. It was it was
Speaker 1: like a early two thousands the US Open.
Speaker 3: So if you were building a course that that was
Speaker 3: going to challenge like the professional player, how would you
Speaker 3: build it to have a score? A winning score around.
Speaker 1: Park probably have need to be kind of narrow, like
Speaker 1: that's sort of the thing off the tea longer off
Speaker 1: off the tee, and then you wouldn't need longer like
Speaker 1: little or no rough around the greens like but it
Speaker 1: needed you need stuff like Chambers Bay. I feel like
Speaker 1: where it's just kind of all runs away from the greens,
Speaker 1: you get way below the level of the greens. That's
Speaker 1: like that's the hardest to tip out of rather than
Speaker 1: if I'm in four inch rough like a foot off
Speaker 1: the green or five feet off the green, even as
Speaker 1: long as I'm not like really short sighted, it's not
Speaker 1: it doesn't usually get away from me too much there.
Speaker 1: You don't get like you don't chip it up and
Speaker 1: to roll back to you. That's I think that's something
Speaker 1: that like a long rough that's like the difference between
Speaker 1: like what amateurs like that just scares the heck out
Speaker 1: of them because they can't put out of it. Whereas
Speaker 1: if it's like you got a collection ay that's six
Speaker 1: people below the edge of the green and it's really firm,
Speaker 1: like that's just really tough, Like you can't hard to
Speaker 1: get hard to hit high with spin. You can put
Speaker 1: it up, I guess, but I've never really liked doing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there is kind of kind of
Speaker 1: narrow off, too long rough that seems to be the uh,
Speaker 1: the thing that keeps guys from getting too low, because
Speaker 1: you know, if you just bring the faraways in narrow enough.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much what they did at Marion. The rough
Speaker 1: was long around the greens as well. But you know,
Speaker 1: say if they had a bunch of runoffs, say like
Speaker 1: a it was like a pinehurs around the greens, I
Speaker 1: think it might have been tougher than just if you
Speaker 1: run one through the green, ball stops pretty close to
Speaker 1: the pin, you can kind of hack it out to
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen feet hopefully and be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, always say like the worst thing for good players
Speaker 3: to see is the ball like rolling away on like
Speaker 3: approach shots, like the ball rolling in general, because when
Speaker 3: it's in the air, you pretty much know how far
Speaker 3: it's going to fly, how it's going to But then
Speaker 3: if it rolls away, that's when I like, you know
Speaker 3: you've lost control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you feel totally helpless. It's like you're well, ec
Speaker 1: ball starts spinning back down a ridge, just like there's
Speaker 1: like no worse feeling.
Speaker 2: And did did you learn anything from your two major
Speaker 2: championships you played in at Marion and Augusta that you
Speaker 2: still use today?
Speaker 1: Maybe more just like the confidence that i'd been there
Speaker 1: to where if I'm back in that position, it'll be
Speaker 1: familiar and that know that, Uh yeah, it's just something
Speaker 1: I know I'd be more comfortable next time. Like this,
Speaker 1: the difference from the Masters of the US Open, how
Speaker 1: much more comfort I felt me I teed off the
Speaker 1: first hit Masters like I had I hit my first
Speaker 1: T shirt. I had no idea when I was so nervous,
Speaker 1: I couldn't have told you this sort of thing. And
Speaker 1: then I started at the US OP when I wasn't
Speaker 1: nearly as nervous. That was something that you just with anything,
Speaker 1: the more you do it, the more comfortable you get.
Speaker 1: So I think that was that was a big takeaway.
Speaker 1: And obviously playing with I wanted to play with big
Speaker 1: name guys just more curiosity than anything, see what their
Speaker 1: game was like. And yeah, I mean I know that
Speaker 1: guys hit bad shots and all that, but when you
Speaker 1: watch on TV. You don't see that. So it was
Speaker 1: kind of cool to play practice around and see it.
Speaker 1: Talk to some guys that I played with, see what
Speaker 1: they did, and you realize that it's not it's not
Speaker 1: like way different than what you're doing. They're just like
Speaker 1: they're bad. It's just a little bit just better. Like
Speaker 1: everyone can play. It's everyone can play really good golf.
Speaker 1: It's just these guys aren't as bad when they're bad.
Speaker 3: What's the area of your game that you've had to
Speaker 3: work on the most since turning pro? Like maybe an
Speaker 3: area that you didn't think was that that you didn't
Speaker 3: think deemed a lot of work, but you've had to work.
Speaker 1: On a lot, probably like distance wedges. That's something that
Speaker 1: I've kind of starting, like middle of college, I started
Speaker 1: working more on I wasn't very good at at all
Speaker 1: early on in college. So that's that's something that I
Speaker 1: guess it kind of started the end of my college career.
Speaker 1: But that's something I've been pretty diligent about because I
Speaker 1: don't know, had it really far, but I hit above average,
Speaker 1: i'd say, and you know, I have more more of
Speaker 1: those opportunities, And you watch guys who and i'd play
Speaker 1: with guys in mini tour events who like poof it,
Speaker 1: hit it like two sixty five, two seventy, and we
Speaker 1: play these sixty seven hundred yard courses and they would
Speaker 1: just like rip it up. And that was something that
Speaker 1: just like drove me freaking nuts. And because I felt
Speaker 1: like I would take an advantage I had was being
Speaker 1: taken away and being replaced was something I wasn't very
Speaker 1: good at. So that was That's something that I I'm
Speaker 1: probably the most diligent about practicing right now that my
Speaker 1: coach and I are working on.
Speaker 2: So you played in Latin America. Speaking of some of
Speaker 2: the many tours you played on, do you have any
Speaker 2: crazy Latin American tour stories?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do. It mostly involves other people doing funny stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean I have one friend in particular who has played,
Speaker 1: as far as I know, at least two rounds without
Speaker 1: going to sleep. Yeah, went out one night, didn't go
Speaker 1: to bed, showed up at the hotel. I remember I
Speaker 1: was first off. This was in twenty fifteen, and they
Speaker 1: did it again this past year. And let's see in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen one. In twenty fifteen, it was really impressive.
Speaker 1: We're playing this course in central Argentina, Cortaback Golf Club.
Speaker 1: It's called it's kind of like Posit Tiampa but really narrow.
Speaker 3: That's Cabrera's home course, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So yeah, it's final round and it's boy
Speaker 1: in like twenty all day. I'm like first off, so
Speaker 1: I kind of like luck out with the draw. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that windy and I played. I played well. I
Speaker 1: think there were I shot two hundred and like four
Speaker 1: or five other guys did as well that day and
Speaker 1: I was low score. My buddy went out with the
Speaker 1: guy I was rooming with that week, and the guy
Speaker 1: I'm rooming with says, Hey, I'm going to crash in
Speaker 1: someone else's hotel room tonight, so I don't wake you
Speaker 1: up when I get back sick. Thanks, because in Argentina,
Speaker 1: like you go to the bars like midnight or one.
Speaker 1: You stay till the sun comes up, pretty much. And
Speaker 1: I was teen off at like eight, so I leave
Speaker 1: for the course. My roommate's not there, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think anything of it, and he went out
Speaker 1: with my friend who had like thirty They got even
Speaker 1: thirty or eight o'clock in the morning and he had
Speaker 1: to like grab his stuff and bolt to the course,
Speaker 1: no warm up, nothing goes out. He and plays in
Speaker 1: the wind, shoots like one over. I think that's probably
Speaker 1: one of the best rounds I've ever seen. I didn't
Speaker 1: see it, but like that, I heard about it. I
Speaker 1: mean he was I'm pretty sure he was. He probably
Speaker 1: wasn't hungover because he was probably still drunk when he
Speaker 1: teed off. Right, he did that again, I can't remember where.
Speaker 1: Oh the Argentina Open, uh.
Speaker 3: Man, yeahs is a little bit better than Cordova.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I did it. Yeah, this about two months ago.
Speaker 1: So oh wow. He apparently double hit his second double
Speaker 1: hit a putt and still shot one under on the
Speaker 1: first of all the world. But the guy I'm saying
Speaker 1: with this week with room with him periodically, so he's laughing.
Speaker 1: Let's see. Then, I don't know, it was just stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and then there was always there was always
Speaker 1: like some hustle, like some caddy was wanting more money,
Speaker 1: and there I think kind of the stuff, the stuff
Speaker 1: of all players was just usually more interesting because you
Speaker 1: got a bunch of guys like running around kind of
Speaker 1: wild West. I mean, these are you kind of forget
Speaker 1: their third world countries, and yeah, it's there was. I
Speaker 1: was never I never felt like concerned, like safety wise,
Speaker 1: but it was just something you had to be aware of.
Speaker 3: What's uh, what's worse the caddies on the Latin America
Speaker 3: Tour or the scorers in the Bahamas for the WEB event.
Speaker 1: Oh man, the scores in the Bahamas, because at least
Speaker 1: in the Latin events, like certain countries, you know you'll
Speaker 1: get decent caddies, like in Argentina, Columbia, or like the
Speaker 1: countries where they're were golf is actually popular in South America,
Speaker 1: they will have decent caddies. They at least usually at
Speaker 1: least nowhere to stand, which is the biggest part of it.
Speaker 1: But I mean the people in uh, the scorers in
Speaker 1: the Bahamas the last couple of weeks were outrageous. I mean,
Speaker 1: I uh, the first round at Avoco, the second event,
Speaker 1: my group, this the roles official came up to us
Speaker 1: on the twelve hole off on ten and it's none
Speaker 1: of you guys made a whole in one on ten
Speaker 1: right as part three the walking score, the walking scorer
Speaker 1: put us all down for once and I made a
Speaker 1: triple on the next toll should come down for a
Speaker 1: thirty I wish but they.
Speaker 2: Need those that crew travel to every web dot com event.
Speaker 1: It's like it's kind of like a waste that they do,
Speaker 1: like because like in Latin America scoring we have, they
Speaker 1: do just get to volunteer every three holes, I need
Speaker 1: to tell them your score. And it was never that bad.
Speaker 1: Like my parents would follow along and you know, my
Speaker 1: dad would say, oh, they had you for a bogie
Speaker 1: on this hole, but you made a par or vice
Speaker 1: versa like maybe following my around every they do three
Speaker 1: hole scoring kind of like college, and that seemed to
Speaker 1: work good enough, Like it was never you never had
Speaker 1: anything too wild. But I mean the Bahamas is just
Speaker 1: like I'm not really sure what the strategy is, but
Speaker 1: it's clearly not working. I mean, they kind of doubled
Speaker 1: down on it this year too. I remember last year
Speaker 1: it was the same way.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying on Twitter is like they just
Speaker 3: need to suspend the live scoring down there, because I
Speaker 3: remember I was tracking it last year and I was like,
Speaker 3: my buddy was like they had him for like one
Speaker 3: under and he was like in fifth place and then
Speaker 3: he signed for like eighty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at the turn, they'd take our card and like
Speaker 1: snap a picture with their phone, and I guess they'd
Speaker 1: use that to put it into the computer. So I
Speaker 1: think you would see guys scores correct at the turn.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing, but yeah, I mean I think I saw
Speaker 1: like Lee McCoy tweeted during one of the delays the
Speaker 1: first the first week, it said something he was like
Speaker 1: five over on the PJ Tour app because I'm one
Speaker 1: under right now. It's like how, I just don't know
Speaker 1: how I could get that far off, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're blowing it on par three's which it's just so simple,
Speaker 1: like there's not even that much to keep track of.
Speaker 1: Everybody shot ball, but yeah, it's it really made you question,
Speaker 1: like what what was happening in these people's minds?
Speaker 2: How did they get this job?
Speaker 3: What? What was your favorite stop on the Latin America Tour.
Speaker 1: I I liked Lima, Peru just because the course was
Speaker 1: course was good, like good, not great, but it was
Speaker 1: just the event was really well run. Lima is kind
Speaker 1: of a cool city. Bogata is good in general, so
Speaker 1: we usually put decent courses there. I know the golf
Speaker 1: courses in Argentina were good, but as something about I
Speaker 1: just I was never really a huge fan of Argentina.
Speaker 1: They dinner really late there. That was kind of a hassle.
Speaker 1: You'd play at seven thirty in the morning and restaurants
Speaker 1: opening like eight or nine km So probably yeah, Lima, Colombia,
Speaker 1: those are good. You kind of got to stay in
Speaker 1: the city. We're in Central America. You stay out in
Speaker 1: these resorts you have, you're like stranded. It's you kind
Speaker 1: of just you're stuck. You can't really go out and
Speaker 1: check anything out. I mean I was, I kind of cared.
Speaker 1: I was more intertured like the other stuff, like at
Speaker 1: least kind of see I looked at, you know, playing
Speaker 1: in Latin America, going to I was going to a
Speaker 1: bunch of places that I kind of figured I never would.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of interesting to check it out. Especially
Speaker 1: the first year round in twenty fifteen, like every every
Speaker 1: week was kind of a like a new adventure, like
Speaker 1: go check this place out, just see what it's like.
Speaker 1: And the courses were just really hit and miss their
Speaker 1: Central America. You'd have all these like huge resort courses
Speaker 1: with lots of lakes and huge fairways and nothing special.
Speaker 1: And then Argentina did have some good courses, but I
Speaker 1: kind of Argentina was just kind of blowed to me.
Speaker 2: What was the pace of play like out there? I
Speaker 2: know that, you know, golf Twitter had a breakdown last night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't see what happened, but I read about it.
Speaker 1: Apparently it took JB Holmes four minutes to lay up,
Speaker 1: and I don't even I'm not sure what happened with
Speaker 1: Alex Norn, but apparently it affected him.
Speaker 2: He had that second shot on eighteen, you know from
Speaker 2: whatever it was too thirty and you know, obviously he
Speaker 2: was going to go for it, and JB took the
Speaker 2: four minutes to sit there and decide what he was doing.
Speaker 2: So Norn was sitting there like, you know, the tournament
Speaker 2: on the line, twiddling his thumbs.
Speaker 1: But right, yeah, I totally I get that far I'd
Speaker 1: be I would have told if I was in Alex
Speaker 1: Orange shoes. I feel like I would have at some
Speaker 1: point just ejected from the wait and told JB. I'm
Speaker 1: hitting and I'm a bit impatient. So that would have
Speaker 1: driven me up the wall off for about a minute
Speaker 1: and a half, especially if he has an iron out
Speaker 1: laying up. Pace of play on Latin was usually pretty good.
Speaker 1: They did a decent job of policing NFL, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, there's some guys who are just like a
Speaker 1: human rein delay that you knew going in, Like if
Speaker 1: you have to look for a ball or something, you're
Speaker 1: probably gonna get put on the clock. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I get the pace of play thing in
Speaker 1: the pace of play down here or sorry. In Latin
Speaker 1: America it was fine. I mean, they they put you
Speaker 1: on the clock. But the way they police it in general,
Speaker 1: I just think is it doesn't really they're not solving
Speaker 1: any problems. They're you get put on the clock and
Speaker 1: everyone just speeds up. So if you get put on
Speaker 1: the clock, I think it's ten times in a year
Speaker 1: on whatever tour it is, you started to find the
Speaker 1: fine start to find start at ten timings, whether you're
Speaker 1: you get a bad time or not. If you get
Speaker 1: put on the clock enough, you'll get fine. But the
Speaker 1: fine at each level is like kind of it's kind
Speaker 1: of a joke, like say it's not worth it's worth
Speaker 1: paying the fine and not. And if it doesn't affect
Speaker 1: you playing faster, you know, if you have to try
Speaker 1: to speed up and it affects you, know you it
Speaker 1: costs you a shot or two, like that's worth way
Speaker 1: more because like I think in Latin they find you
Speaker 1: like two hundred and fifty bucks. Web. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what it is on the web, but I know like
Speaker 1: PGA tour, I think it's like ten grand, but you
Speaker 1: know that ten comes what's that?
Speaker 3: A SHOT's worth way more?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Like you know, if I get put on
Speaker 1: the clock, I'm in this second to last group at
Speaker 1: a tour event, like if they're gonna find me ten
Speaker 1: grand like whatever, you know, that's right, Like one shot
Speaker 1: could at that point is worth fifty to two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars depending one hundred word you are, you know,
Speaker 1: so until they start like actually penalizing guys with strokes
Speaker 1: and if I don't know, I don't you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know the answer to this. But you know, I
Speaker 1: got put on the clock in the Bahamas, and I
Speaker 1: know I'm not a really slow player, and everyone sped up,
Speaker 1: so like even if I was playing with guys who
Speaker 1: were slow, everybody sped up, Like the rules of visual
Speaker 1: didn't witness anyone playing slow. It's kind of like it
Speaker 1: just it's a total waste of time. It seems like
Speaker 1: that the way the way they're going about it. I
Speaker 1: don't know how. I don't know how you improve it,
Speaker 1: but I know that finding guys cash is not the
Speaker 1: It's probably not the best incentive disincentive to make them
Speaker 1: play faster, you know. I think we look at how
Speaker 1: well AJGA did timing. I mean you were like they
Speaker 1: had still like the fear of God and the kids,
Speaker 1: like if you got to got one red card, you
Speaker 1: were you were hauling the next three or four holes
Speaker 1: like you never saw anybody got to get a penalty
Speaker 1: and obviously couldn't find the kids, and penalty structure seemed
Speaker 1: to work. I mean, we'd played a J. G Avins
Speaker 1: in four hours and ten minutes, and now we play
Speaker 1: you know, I consider a four and a half hour
Speaker 1: round in a tournament be pretty quick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the way I feel and am golf. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 3: he played really fast day. I mean I look at
Speaker 3: my like phone of the rounds four and a half hours.
Speaker 3: So let's get uh, let's get out of here with
Speaker 3: some uh, some fun questions, no more like you know,
Speaker 3: pace of play. We'll do uh, we'll do one last
Speaker 3: question and then we'll get into overrated underrated, all right,
Speaker 3: So we talked about your Cal team earlier. If you
Speaker 3: could take like one part of any of your teammates' games,
Speaker 3: what would it be?
Speaker 1: Uh, I don't. It's toss up between Michael Kim's putting
Speaker 1: and Hage's length.
Speaker 3: I figured he's like two good things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, I'd probably take Hagy's length. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I just Michael ken pots it really good. But hay, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: he's a joke. I mean, I mean, my ball speed's
Speaker 1: like one seventy five is just like one eighty seven
Speaker 1: or something like. I'm like, i'd like i'd be top
Speaker 1: twenty percent in ball speed and he just twelve miles
Speaker 1: an hour faster. Like that's that's a joke.
Speaker 3: He murders it. Yeah, walked with him one day at
Speaker 3: a web event in Chicago, and god, he kills the ball.
Speaker 3: It's uh, it's crazy. All right, Let's say we'll do
Speaker 3: some overrated under ads overrated underrated Northern California, like for
Speaker 3: golf or just in general.
Speaker 1: Uh, underrated only because Southern California is so overrated.
Speaker 2: That's a good answer.
Speaker 1: Well, California, it's underrated.
Speaker 2: Let's go overrated underrated Panama, which you're.
Speaker 1: There, now, oh man, probably underrated. Uh, I mean this
Speaker 1: is like the perfect spring break stop. There's like you
Speaker 1: can get yourself in all sorts of trouble. It's cheap, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's you could have all kinds of fun here.
Speaker 1: And yeah that probably underrated.
Speaker 2: We'll have to see on Saturday. Who misses the cut there?
Speaker 1: Yeah it might. It'd be a be a good week
Speaker 1: to be a fly on the wall for if guys.
Speaker 2: That probably how about overrated? Underrated? The Crow's Nest?
Speaker 1: Oh oh man, it's not over.
Speaker 2: You don't want to get yourself in trouble.
Speaker 1: Not underrated? Uh yeah, properly rated. I'll leave it that.
Speaker 1: The political answer something something you have to do. But
Speaker 1: when I was there, I stayed there a couple of nights.
Speaker 1: I'll elaborate it doesn't matter. I mean I stayed there
Speaker 1: a couple of nights and it was like I just
Speaker 1: kind of hung out there, like I'm you know, I
Speaker 1: like golf, Like I'm not like a huge the history
Speaker 1: part of it. To me, It's it's cool, but like
Speaker 1: I don't have the greatest appreciation for it, I guess,
Speaker 1: and I think it would have been I would have
Speaker 1: I might have felt differently. Like when I was there,
Speaker 1: the only guy that was staying there was the fourteen
Speaker 1: year old kid, uh gone, and he was like doing
Speaker 1: homework the whole time we're there. So I was like
Speaker 1: I was just like laid up on the couch watching
Speaker 1: watching TV and like the thirteen inch TV they have
Speaker 1: in there, like hanging out, my man and how we're there.
Speaker 1: I was texting my friends like what do you guys
Speaker 1: up to see? I was kind of bored. And I
Speaker 1: was supposed to have for three nights. I ended up
Speaker 1: staying for two because like Stephen Box and TJ. Vogel
Speaker 1: and Nathan Smith were all staying there different nights, so
Speaker 1: kind of like the camaraderie wasn't there, I guess you
Speaker 1: could say, but I mean it was cool. Like don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I I'm really good. You have to
Speaker 1: do it. It's just that's part if you play as
Speaker 1: an amateur, like that's you gotta do it. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad I did. But I have a lot of people
Speaker 1: asking about it, and I always tell him like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was cool, but I could say I did it,
Speaker 1: but that's about.
Speaker 3: It, all right. Last one, Max Helma's Twitter.
Speaker 1: Game underrated, Uh his Twitter game is pretty good. He
Speaker 1: I I'll read what he says sometimes and think, oh
Speaker 1: that was that was. He has some pretty strong takes
Speaker 1: at times, but he's pretty funny. That's one thing with Max. Like, gosh,
Speaker 1: he had a good one about the Browns, the NFL
Speaker 1: team a couple of weeks ago. Something someone equating the
Speaker 1: NFL's ratings and Donald Trump and the Browns, and he's
Speaker 1: saying Max is not into politics at all. He says,
Speaker 1: whoever the guy was, is, I'm not a politics man.
Speaker 1: But if we should watch it grounds a game on
Speaker 1: TV and then think, after what you saw, would you
Speaker 1: pay money to go watch the Browns? Because the picture was,
Speaker 1: you know, with all the political stuff for the NFL
Speaker 1: stadium's empty, but the Browns at this point are like
Speaker 1: oh and nine or oh to ten at least? Is
Speaker 1: would you go and pay to watch it? After watching
Speaker 1: it on TV? It's like that one. That was probably
Speaker 1: one of his best. I see it in a while.
Speaker 1: I I got to kick out some of the stuff
Speaker 1: he puts on there.
Speaker 3: I feel like he's at his best when he weighs
Speaker 3: in on really random subjects.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's really into pop culture, which I h I'm
Speaker 1: not too well versed in so I some of it
Speaker 1: I feel like I probably missed. But there's always some uh,
Speaker 1: some off the wall thing that, like you say, it's
Speaker 1: like an award show or whatever. Like he doesn't miss
Speaker 1: a beat if he has a pretty it's a pretty
Speaker 1: broad uh range of content on his Twitter account.
Speaker 3: All right, awesome, Well, thanks for coming on and we'll
Speaker 3: look forward to uh seeing you play well this week
Speaker 3: and this season on the web and hopefully up on
Speaker 3: PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks, guys, thanks to win this week.
Speaker 2: That'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, thanks, yeah, yeah, I will definitely be sleeping
Speaker 1: before all of my rounds. All right, man, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks guys, you've.
Speaker 3: Been listening to the podcast. We do the digging for you.