Speaker 1: It's the son of a butcher podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Claude harmon come to you every Wednesday. This week's guest,
Speaker 1: I think, one of the real feel good, kind of
Speaker 1: positive stories currently in this crazy game of professional golf
Speaker 1: that we find ourselves in. Um. Kyle, one of the
Speaker 1: graduates off the corn ferry, has his PGA Tour Card.
Speaker 1: Now you will see him on the PGA tour. uh,
Speaker 1: but what a really interesting story, interesting background. Uh. Went
Speaker 1: to the Air Force Academy. UH, served five years after
Speaker 1: the Military Academy. Um, so a tenure process to get
Speaker 1: to the corn ferry and then to get his card.
Speaker 1: and Um, I really really enjoyed talking to kyle. I'd
Speaker 1: watched him Um at the US Open that he qualified
Speaker 1: for out at Tory Pines in Um. But I think
Speaker 1: this is a story that everybody can get behind and
Speaker 1: kind of his journey to the PGA tour is very,
Speaker 1: I think, unique. Um, it's inspiring and um I think
Speaker 1: everybody's going to really really enjoy listening to it and
Speaker 1: I think that with the PGA tour starting, Um, the
Speaker 1: new season, the rap around and I think he is
Speaker 1: going to be someone that everybody listening will be looking
Speaker 1: out for. So really excited for the talk with Kyle Westmoreland.
Speaker 1: My guest is one of the twenty five players from
Speaker 1: the corner ferry tour to secure their PGA tour card.
Speaker 1: Kyle Westmoreland. Um, Kyle, you're the first player to play
Speaker 1: on the PGA tour to come out of the Air
Speaker 1: Force Academy. I mean, are you gonna demand that they
Speaker 1: announce you on the on the first tie of your
Speaker 1: first PGA tour event as Captain Kyle Westmoreland? Are you
Speaker 1: just happy with Kyle? I'm just happy with Kyle. You know,
Speaker 1: captain was something we were in the past, but happy
Speaker 1: to be a golfer now and happy to be playing
Speaker 1: on the golf spe stage. I really appreciate you having
Speaker 1: me on. Um, what an amazing story. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think with all the craziness currently going on, Um, in
Speaker 1: the world of Professional Golf, with the PGA tour and
Speaker 1: the live and all that, you know, crazy drama. I mean,
Speaker 1: your story to me is one of the great kind
Speaker 1: of feel good stories about, you know, what the game
Speaker 1: of golf allows people to do and and your story, Um,
Speaker 1: I mean there's so much to unpack, but I've got
Speaker 1: I gotta Talk to you. I don't think people that
Speaker 1: that watch golf realize that, you know, trying to make
Speaker 1: it into the tour championship, trying to keep your card.
Speaker 1: But I think, Um, the drama on on the corn
Speaker 1: ferry every year for guys trying to get their cards,
Speaker 1: to get twenty five opportunities to to have a life
Speaker 1: changer to play on the PGA tour. Um, it's always
Speaker 1: to me some of the best drama. What was it
Speaker 1: like for you? Um, you missed the cut in the
Speaker 1: first of the finals, which puts you behind the eight ball,
Speaker 1: and then you pull it out. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: honestly there's not. There's not much like it. You feel
Speaker 1: you feel some nerves or anxiousness, you know, playing different
Speaker 1: tournaments in different situations, but honestly, there's nothing that compares
Speaker 1: to the Corn Ferry Tour finals coming down to the
Speaker 1: end on the bubble Um, other than maybe q school right.
Speaker 1: Q schools super, you know, competitive and there's so many
Speaker 1: guys fighting for spots and you know you're just trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, prove your worth there and uh, and you're
Speaker 1: trying to do the same, you know, Corn Ferry tour finals.
Speaker 1: I did put myself on the eight ball, which didn't help.
Speaker 1: Played well in Ohio. You know, we're pushing for a
Speaker 1: Birdie or two down the stretch. That, you know, really
Speaker 1: would have capped it off and made it not come
Speaker 1: down to uh, two hours after I finished on a
Speaker 1: Sunday of Victorian national. But you know, it's just awesome
Speaker 1: to be there and then just it's just chaos. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're on the bubble, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I told you, I recommend everyone play better and not
Speaker 1: be on the bubble. It's a it's a great thing
Speaker 1: to get your card, but the two hours leading up
Speaker 1: to it, you know, we're pretty stressful for me and
Speaker 1: my wife, my family. But then being there was awesome.
Speaker 1: You know, that made it, made the variants. Now is
Speaker 1: and memory will never forget and I'm just thankful to
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to plan a PGA tour. It's one
Speaker 1: of those opportunities, Kyle, to where going into the finals,
Speaker 1: I mean with the cards available. Um, if you're one
Speaker 1: of those guys, as you said, on the bubble, there's
Speaker 1: you know what you need to do right. You know
Speaker 1: that every single shot, every single pot Um. You know
Speaker 1: that making a bogey on a par five, you know,
Speaker 1: a silly bogey, and you look up and you're like,
Speaker 1: I've just dropped three spots. So it's that constant checking
Speaker 1: of the leader boards. All the golf sports psychologists always
Speaker 1: say listen, stay in the moment. I mean, as a
Speaker 1: coach I'm constantly telling my players stay in the moment,
Speaker 1: stay in the moment. You can't affect what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: You can't be affected by what has happened. But that's
Speaker 1: so much easier said than done when you're in that
Speaker 1: kind of cauldron, last round of the year on the
Speaker 1: corn ferry and you know that if you go out
Speaker 1: and get your job done, Um, some things could happen
Speaker 1: to where it's taken out of your control. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, I typically do my best to uh, like
Speaker 1: you said, stay in the moment, kind of detached in
Speaker 1: the situation. I don't play with a bunch of emotion.
Speaker 1: Try Not to, because I think you know, emotional decisions
Speaker 1: are the most of the time bad ones. Um. But
Speaker 1: I don't watch any leaderboards. So I don't look at
Speaker 1: the leader board. I don't even I don't want to know. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, if someone you know tells me. I look,
Speaker 1: I'll see where the leaders at. So, you know, see
Speaker 1: what kind of what we need to do to try
Speaker 1: to get get to there. But you know, other than
Speaker 1: once when when I get to the last three holes,
Speaker 1: I typically asked Im like hey, what do we need here?
Speaker 1: What needs to happen? But until then it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: creating that game plan, trying to execute the best your ability.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm confident in my game and in the
Speaker 1: confident in the game plan that we come up with
Speaker 1: each and every week and I know that if I
Speaker 1: go out and I execute well, I'll be competitive. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's just trying to do that. I think everybody
Speaker 1: listening is always fascinated when you're watching golf when you
Speaker 1: hear players say, listen, I didn't watch any leaderboards today.
Speaker 1: I mean there was a great there's a famous story yes,
Speaker 1: for Parnivic back in the day, had a chance to
Speaker 1: win the open championship. Um, at turnberry, didn't look at
Speaker 1: a leaderboard, didn't know that he needed not to make
Speaker 1: a Birdie. Um. I think people, the fans, are always
Speaker 1: kind of maybe sometimes confused by that, because in other
Speaker 1: sports you're constantly aware of what's happening in the game. Right,
Speaker 1: if you're an NFL quarterback, it's not like you don't
Speaker 1: want to know what down it is, what score it is.
Speaker 1: What you need to do. Um, the thought process behind
Speaker 1: not watching the leaderboard, because there are players called watch leaderboards.
Speaker 1: They want to know where they are. Um, why do
Speaker 1: you take the approach? You said you know, you'll you'll
Speaker 1: kind of ask on the last three holes in these
Speaker 1: type of pressure situations. But what is it about not
Speaker 1: watching leaderboards that you think does for you and for
Speaker 1: your mental kind of frame of mind? Yeah, I try
Speaker 1: to only put energy into stuff that I can control.
Speaker 1: And I can't control what's going on to the leaderboard,
Speaker 1: but I can't control what's up, what's up in front
Speaker 1: of me. And and you know, if I if it
Speaker 1: comes down in the last three holes, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and I asked and I want to know. There
Speaker 1: there is a point where the caddy does need to
Speaker 1: know where we're at. It does need to know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: caddy has got to know. That's part of the job.
Speaker 1: But but for me, Um, if I can't control the situation,
Speaker 1: I can't control it, then I don't I don't care
Speaker 1: about it. You know, it doesn't. It doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 1: And if someone goes on a six, you know six
Speaker 1: whole Birdie run or whatever, and you see you know
Speaker 1: so and joey garbage made four executive birdies, then uh, then,
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't do anything for me to look
Speaker 1: at it doesn't do anything for me to add some
Speaker 1: external pressure. Sure that doesn't necessarily need to be there.
Speaker 1: And when I got to hit a you know, when
Speaker 1: I need to hit a two dirty yard shot over
Speaker 1: the water too, you know, a green that has uh,
Speaker 1: you know, water in front, bunkers on the left and right.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't need to know that Joey made
Speaker 1: four Birdie. Doesn't matter to me. But but I will
Speaker 1: say caddy doesn't need to know. And coming down to
Speaker 1: the last three holes, that can kind of change a
Speaker 1: little bit because you start, you know, you start trying
Speaker 1: to feel where you're at, what you need to do,
Speaker 1: and especially this last round, right last trying to Victoria national,
Speaker 1: I'm struggling to shoot even par. Right, I'm I think
Speaker 1: I made a double. UH, part three, really sloppy shot,
Speaker 1: bad shot and UH camera showed up. You know, cameras
Speaker 1: had followed us. So so I know there's no reason
Speaker 1: that something that cameras should follow a guy shooting even
Speaker 1: par unless he's on the bubble. So I knew where
Speaker 1: I was at and so I kind of asked it
Speaker 1: then and I thought we needed to make a Birdie
Speaker 1: on the last. Turns out we uh, we, you know,
Speaker 1: we could. We would have been okay not making it,
Speaker 1: but it was nice to make the Birdie in a
Speaker 1: situation that you think you need to, even though you're
Speaker 1: you're playing professional golf. If you're not one of those guys,
Speaker 1: you know, like a rory mcilory or Dustin Johnson or
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas who basically they're on camera from the time
Speaker 1: they get to the golf course right there on their
Speaker 1: on camera. There's people following them from the parking lot,
Speaker 1: they're following them to the driving range. So they're used
Speaker 1: to that. If you're not a superstar and you're playing
Speaker 1: on the web and and and or on the corn
Speaker 1: ferry end and the corn ferry, there's less cameras than
Speaker 1: there are on the P G A tour right. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's a way different kind of media set up.
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden the cameras show up. You know,
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, that that puts. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: that puts added pressure on you? Because all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you're like, okay, it's not just me doing out
Speaker 1: this out here on my own. Now I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: in the coverage. Everything I do, all the shots that
Speaker 1: I hit now are going to be televised. Do you
Speaker 1: feel that and you sense that? Not so much pressure,
Speaker 1: but are you aware that that's happening? Um, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say I feel any extra pressure. I would say actually
Speaker 1: the opposite. This past week Victoria national, you know I
Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't playing great six under. I wasn't in
Speaker 1: the mix to win. I knew I was, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty far down the leaderboard, but cameras were there. So
Speaker 1: get you pretty fired up and try to finish. You
Speaker 1: know you're doing and something you know you're in the mix. Um, and,
Speaker 1: and I love that. I think cameras there, you know,
Speaker 1: allows my family friends from around the world to watch.
Speaker 1: I mean I finished and had about five hundred texts
Speaker 1: from buddies that are stationed all over the world that
Speaker 1: I went to school with. Their met military time and
Speaker 1: it's just a it was awesome for me and honestly,
Speaker 1: it was nice to have them there and let me
Speaker 1: know that, like hey, we are in the mix and
Speaker 1: we are you know, this is still still golf tournament.
Speaker 1: We're not playing great, but may a couple of birdies.
Speaker 1: We can, you know, control our own faith. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the military there. It's so much a part of your story. Um,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the beginning. You grew up in in.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you grew up in Houston Texas. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Houston Texas. Let's go um what. You
Speaker 1: wanted to go to the University of Texas and play
Speaker 1: golf there. Such an amazing history. They've had so many
Speaker 1: great players. They just won the national championships again, coach fields.
Speaker 1: You know. I mean the list of players that have
Speaker 1: played at ut from a golf standpoint. Scottie Scheffler, Um,
Speaker 1: just our Jordan's speed, Ben Crunshaw, all the greats, Tom Kite, um.
Speaker 1: But you chose to go to the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 1: Talk me through what that process was like. Did you
Speaker 1: have other offers, UM, from other programs in in in college?
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, so I was fortunate, you know, to
Speaker 1: have some options. Most of the smaller schools and in
Speaker 1: Texas at the time. They've since, you know, grown quite
Speaker 1: a bit. But, like you have h was one that
Speaker 1: I looked to. I looked at Texas tech for a brief,
Speaker 1: brief amount of time. Looked at a couple of schools
Speaker 1: in Kansas, which tos state in Kansas State. Looked at
Speaker 1: Air Force Academy. But, to be honest, I was pretty
Speaker 1: rock coming out of out of high school. You know,
Speaker 1: I played, played other sports all growing up and and
Speaker 1: I played golf in the summertimes, but it was kind
Speaker 1: of you know, you know, secondary tertiary sports. So it
Speaker 1: was it was awesome when I, you know, chose to
Speaker 1: really pursue golf my last three years of high school
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, dove into it. But I
Speaker 1: was Rong. I had a lot of speed. Didn't always
Speaker 1: know where it was going. Um, but the you know,
Speaker 1: the benefit of that is we learned how to chip right, great.
Speaker 1: The thing. The thing about chipping is, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't you don't get good at chipping by hitting fifteen
Speaker 1: greens around. So so it was awesome. Got The hone
Speaker 1: in the short game, I say, Um, and then chose
Speaker 1: air force coach fields, was actually one of the people that,
Speaker 1: you know, convinced me to not convinced, but talk to
Speaker 1: me into thinking about air force. I I visited. Didn't
Speaker 1: plan on going there, UM, but I really like the
Speaker 1: coaching staff, liked what the school is about. I thought
Speaker 1: it would be a challenge for me and, uh, it
Speaker 1: turns out it really was a challenge for me, but
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a challenge for me and
Speaker 1: and coach fields, you know, they he really didn't have
Speaker 1: space on his team. He had a he has a
Speaker 1: great program that if you Um, if you check a
Speaker 1: few boxes, you're guarantee. Uh, I guess I guarantee walk
Speaker 1: on right. Prefer Walk On. So that's what I planned
Speaker 1: on doing. However, the Air Force Academy, you know, came
Speaker 1: about and talked to him and he said, Hey, you
Speaker 1: should consider this, and ended up, you know, with the coaches,
Speaker 1: coaching staff there. We went there, got a lot better
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I wouldn't change anything. Before we
Speaker 1: get to to military report, you mentioned that you started,
Speaker 1: you played, you really only focused golf the last three
Speaker 1: years of of of high school. What other sports did
Speaker 1: you play growing up? Yeah, I grew up playing football,
Speaker 1: basketball and baseball as well. Baseball was probably the main sport. Football.
Speaker 1: You know, if you'd asked me in middle school if
Speaker 1: you know what sport I'd be playing, I would have
Speaker 1: told you I was the next eventce young right. Turns
Speaker 1: out I wasn't nearly as athletic or capable on football field,
Speaker 1: but but I enjoyed it. And and then basketball. You
Speaker 1: know I love basketball as well. You know, pretty much
Speaker 1: anything with the ball I've played it at some point
Speaker 1: in time, but baseball is probably my sport. I see
Speaker 1: so many college see so many kids trying to play
Speaker 1: golf and you know, the one that's always difficult for
Speaker 1: me is the you know, fourteen, fifteen year old, you know,
Speaker 1: either boy or girl, that comes in. You asked them
Speaker 1: what other sports they play and the parents say listen,
Speaker 1: you know, they a little soccer when she was younger,
Speaker 1: but really for the last six seven years all she's
Speaker 1: done is play golf. Um, as a coach, that's always
Speaker 1: a really tough one for me. Um, because I think
Speaker 1: high school and and and junior high, being in competitive sports,
Speaker 1: competitive athletics, being on a team. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I think is hugely important for the development of
Speaker 1: a Golfer who is trying to play at an elite
Speaker 1: level is to have been a part of some sort
Speaker 1: of competitive team to where they could play good in
Speaker 1: the team could lose and they could play bad and
Speaker 1: the team could win. What do you think playing team sports,
Speaker 1: playing other sports did once you made that choice to say, okay, now,
Speaker 1: in my last three years of high school, I'm really
Speaker 1: just now going to be a one sport athlete. But
Speaker 1: up until that sport, because I tell parents, kyle all
Speaker 1: the time, keep your kids playing as many sports as
Speaker 1: possible as long as possible. Yeah, yeah, exactly that. You know,
Speaker 1: playing in a team sports, you learned so much, so
Speaker 1: many valuable lessons there, um, that translate into all walks
Speaker 1: of life. You know, even even in Golf, right, that
Speaker 1: is an individual sport, but as a team, playing team sports,
Speaker 1: I loved being a part of it. I love the Camaraderie. Um.
Speaker 1: That being said, you know, Golf was my summertime, summertime
Speaker 1: out right I was I started playing golf because it
Speaker 1: was the it was the cheapest form of babysitting growing
Speaker 1: up and like actually grew up the outside of the
Speaker 1: Fort Worth there. He went to high school, Junior High
Speaker 1: High School in Houston, but Um, it was like two
Speaker 1: dollars to play all you can play. We didn't have
Speaker 1: a range or anything. So and I didn't do well
Speaker 1: the babysitters. So my mom would send me to the
Speaker 1: golf course at five bucks. And you know, it's been
Speaker 1: too by, you know, Sandwich with the other one and
Speaker 1: then playing Nassau with the old guys, you know, early on.
Speaker 1: So I learned how to do that in the summertime.
Speaker 1: But but all those other sports, you know, they made
Speaker 1: me better at different things. Football, you know, obviously Um
Speaker 1: gave me some size. You you grow up training for
Speaker 1: football and and uh, you know, I think strength wise,
Speaker 1: you you can really benefit there Um as well as
Speaker 1: well as, you know, just development, learning how to lose
Speaker 1: and continue on and make a good play or make
Speaker 1: a bad play and continue to come back because other
Speaker 1: people are counting on you to do your job. And
Speaker 1: then on the golf course, you know, I think I
Speaker 1: took those other sports, the accountability that comes from those,
Speaker 1: from those other sports, and applied it and applied the
Speaker 1: same drive and and I was able to, you know,
Speaker 1: Mosey into a sport that is uh, you know, you
Speaker 1: you control your own faith, right. So there's there's bounces,
Speaker 1: there's things that will happen to you on the golf course.
Speaker 1: But if, I think, if you apply those same work
Speaker 1: ethics that you learn in those other sports in the Gulf,
Speaker 1: I think that's a, you know, a winning recipe. One
Speaker 1: of the other things called that I find when you
Speaker 1: work with young kids who really get out of all
Speaker 1: other sports and they just focus on golf. Um, from
Speaker 1: a coach standpoint, from an instruction standpoint, Um, sometimes kids
Speaker 1: that have been an individual sports and nothing else, they're
Speaker 1: very difficult to coach because they've never really he had
Speaker 1: to deal with anyone with a coach saying hey, you
Speaker 1: miss that play, get out, we'll bring somebody in. That
Speaker 1: kind of I always say to the players it's funny
Speaker 1: in golf you can be working on something with a
Speaker 1: player and say, listen, why don't you? You know, you
Speaker 1: try and let's hit this shot right, we're gonna hit fades, fade, fade,
Speaker 1: fade to fade, and you know you're trying to start
Speaker 1: the golf ball left and you know the golf ball
Speaker 1: starting to the right, starting to the right, starting to
Speaker 1: the right. And and I'm always thinking if this was
Speaker 1: team sports, if this was high school football and the
Speaker 1: coach was telling you to run an out pattern and
Speaker 1: you were supposed to run five yards and then cut
Speaker 1: across and go across the middle, and you kept running
Speaker 1: five yards and cutting towards the sideline. The coach would
Speaker 1: sit your ass down. They'd bring somebody in and you
Speaker 1: would sit there. You don't go practice, you don't go
Speaker 1: work on it like we're doing golf. You just go sit.
Speaker 1: And I am always interested in somehow, some way in
Speaker 1: team sports, when the coaches take you out, you don't
Speaker 1: go to the you don't go to the range and
Speaker 1: hit balls. You sit there and then the coach will
Speaker 1: come back to you and say, okay, are you ready
Speaker 1: to come back in and do your job? And do
Speaker 1: the job like we've practiced it. I'm always fascinated that
Speaker 1: that seems to work in team sports, put an individual sports.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can tell somebody what to do over and
Speaker 1: over and over again and they struggled to do it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I mean just facing adversity mentally. You know,
Speaker 1: it is something that you learned so early in team sports,
Speaker 1: especially like a football or a baseball right, because there's
Speaker 1: immediate feedback with your coaches and yeah, I just I agree.
Speaker 1: You know, I haven't really thought about it like that
Speaker 1: in that sense. But yeah, but you know, if I
Speaker 1: have missed a snap in football, you know I was
Speaker 1: going to hear about it. Right there's immediate repercussion and
Speaker 1: I guess you know, if you were to set me
Speaker 1: up on the range and say hey, you need to
Speaker 1: hit a cut right now, I would probably hit a cut,
Speaker 1: you know, if I knew that there was a repercussion
Speaker 1: of somebody yelling at me right. So you could. You
Speaker 1: can hit a cut. You can take a guy and
Speaker 1: you can tell them, hey, you need to hook this,
Speaker 1: you can't cut it. You know, it needs to start
Speaker 1: writing hook to figure it out, especially people going at
Speaker 1: this level or or even in high school. Right, you
Speaker 1: can do that in high school. But but I agree,
Speaker 1: that's neat. I haven't thought about it like that. So
Speaker 1: let's take a short break and we will be back
Speaker 1: right after this. All right, let's get back to the interview.
Speaker 1: Most people that are going to go to college in
Speaker 1: the United States and try and play competitive Um Golf
Speaker 1: and go to college. It's very different to go into
Speaker 1: the University of Texas and being a College Golfer and
Speaker 1: making that decision when you're eighteen, nineteen years old, and
Speaker 1: then the decision you made to go Um, not only
Speaker 1: to you know, the Air Force, but you're enlisting in
Speaker 1: the armed services. It's not like you're going to go
Speaker 1: did you? Were you aware of everything that would come
Speaker 1: after that at the time you made that decision? Because
Speaker 1: you go to college for five years Um. I read
Speaker 1: that after after college, used still had five more years
Speaker 1: that you had to do in the military. You're seeing
Speaker 1: people that you played with in College Golf, people that
Speaker 1: were in college golf at the same time as you.
Speaker 1: Maybe go to the PGA tour, maybe go to the
Speaker 1: corn ferry tour basically, they played their college career, however
Speaker 1: long that was Um, and then they had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to go live their dreams. You go play, you have
Speaker 1: a really good career at the Air Force Academy, you
Speaker 1: win tournaments and then everybody goes to q school, does
Speaker 1: what they do to chase the next phase and you've
Speaker 1: got to wait five more years in order to do
Speaker 1: that that. Were you aware when you started the process
Speaker 1: as an eighteen or nineteen year old that it was
Speaker 1: going to take that long? I didn't know what would
Speaker 1: happened six months from then. So so I visited the
Speaker 1: academy and the coaches were great. I knew that I
Speaker 1: didn't have anyone that had gone there in the past,
Speaker 1: you know, so I didn't. I knew there were service
Speaker 1: time afterwards and that, you know, likely playing sport was
Speaker 1: off the table. But I uh, you know, I chose
Speaker 1: to go there. Had No idea that anything happened after
Speaker 1: basic chining. So how it works as your fresh year,
Speaker 1: summer before your freshman year, in June, is when was mine,
Speaker 1: when mine was your report, and you're straight into basic training.
Speaker 1: You know, you're going full speed eight weeks and then
Speaker 1: the school the academic season, their academic year starters. And
Speaker 1: when that academic year starts, you know, I thought that
Speaker 1: was it, like Hey, I've gone through basically, you know,
Speaker 1: a part of the academy. It turns out there's like
Speaker 1: a whole freshman year process. So you're still getting you know,
Speaker 1: you're still getting the brunt of it for for the
Speaker 1: whole year there, and then after that, you know it's
Speaker 1: your sophomore year. kind of tears tears you up mentally.
Speaker 1: As far as you know, they just load courses on
Speaker 1: you and then your junior and senior year much better,
Speaker 1: but you have service time after that. You know, I
Speaker 1: chose not to fly and so I had a five
Speaker 1: year service commitment. If you fly out of the Academy
Speaker 1: it's a twelve year commitment. Um. So it's so it's
Speaker 1: like basically. It's like basically. Either it's like basically going
Speaker 1: to med school. You know that wherever you go to
Speaker 1: to college and get your your degree in medicine, then
Speaker 1: there is another process. So for you to one day
Speaker 1: have your practice and someone call you Dr Wes Mooreland,
Speaker 1: you know as a doctor that that process is X. Um.
Speaker 1: What was the reason? Was the reason that you chose
Speaker 1: not to go down the pilot route at the Air
Speaker 1: Force Academy? I mean, I think you know in the military,
Speaker 1: whether it's the army, the Navy, the Air Force and Marines,
Speaker 1: there are so many you know, the commercials show you
Speaker 1: all of these different things that you can do. It's
Speaker 1: just not being a general, it's just not being, you know,
Speaker 1: a fighter. was there a conscious decision that said, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to try and have a career in golf
Speaker 1: after this. Um, the commitment to be a pilot is
Speaker 1: probably going to make me miss that window. Absolutely. So
Speaker 1: I didn't. When I got to the Air Force Academy,
Speaker 1: I was excited and while I was interested in was,
Speaker 1: you know, making those first tournaments and competing and that
Speaker 1: even you know, that drive even got further through basic
Speaker 1: train any when I learned that, you know, there was something.
Speaker 1: There was a freshman year that was still you're still
Speaker 1: going to be in the front of it, but if
Speaker 1: you went to a tournament, you know you're gonna miss
Speaker 1: a week of that at a time. So so it
Speaker 1: was even you know, spurred to make those tournaments more.
Speaker 1: But I had great coaching there. Um, I had, you know,
Speaker 1: coach George Corey, who was a head coach at the
Speaker 1: Air Force for a long time, and then coach Chris Wilson,
Speaker 1: who's now in Kansas, but he's a great coach. He's
Speaker 1: gotten he's made teams better everywhere he's gone and he's
Speaker 1: really a player development guy. Now there's a sense like
Speaker 1: swing technique and stuff like that, but kind of course management,
Speaker 1: game management. So I got there and he introduced me
Speaker 1: to the thing called a wedge basket and, uh, we
Speaker 1: sat on Wedge Baskets for about my first year and
Speaker 1: a half. There and you know, so we kind of
Speaker 1: worked on that short game, worked on the wedges, worked
Speaker 1: on the scoring clubs and just beat it into us
Speaker 1: and you know, we we got that. The whole team
Speaker 1: got better those years. It turned out to be the
Speaker 1: best team air force has ever had. But for me,
Speaker 1: my junior senior year at Backman to some success. You know,
Speaker 1: I was able to when I guess, uh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like five times or so, but I won a all
Speaker 1: American Tournament and at that point I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can do this, I can compete with these guys
Speaker 1: and I want to do it. I want to pursue this.
Speaker 1: And so that was the time where I made the
Speaker 1: conscious decision that golf is what I was going to
Speaker 1: do after after my service time. Going there, I didn't
Speaker 1: know the golf is what I was going to do,
Speaker 1: but I kind of backed into it um so. So
Speaker 1: it was an awesome experience and as soon as I
Speaker 1: made that decision I knew pilot was out the window.
Speaker 1: Twelve years is too long. In the first two years
Speaker 1: of those twelve years you are not touching the golf
Speaker 1: club because you're you know, you're going through pilot training.
Speaker 1: Your studying and you've got all kinds of stuff going.
Speaker 1: So I chose a career field. Um, well, they chose
Speaker 1: a career for me, but it turned out to the
Speaker 1: financial management. Took me to Bloxi and Charleston. Um, so both,
Speaker 1: you know, in the south, which were great. You know,
Speaker 1: allowed me to get out and play in practice. Used to.
Speaker 1: There's a night range in Charleston, so I use that
Speaker 1: a bunch. Knew the College of Charleston Coach through college
Speaker 1: to play a lot with their team on the weekends
Speaker 1: and and just trying to get better. Um, I know
Speaker 1: you know Alan Tarrell. I worked at Allent Haarrell for
Speaker 1: a long time and he was up in Myrtle Beach,
Speaker 1: so about ninety minutes away. So it was it was
Speaker 1: a good time and try to get better where I could.
Speaker 1: But like to answer your question. It was a conscious
Speaker 1: decision about my I guess my junior year that I
Speaker 1: was not going to fly. So five years you have
Speaker 1: some success, but then you graduate from the Air Force
Speaker 1: Econemy and you know that you've got to wait another
Speaker 1: five years of giving your service to the Air Force.
Speaker 1: Cat It takes, I would kyle, it takes a lot
Speaker 1: of mental strength to stay focused on a dream and
Speaker 1: a goal that long, because I worked with so many
Speaker 1: young kids that are seventeen, eighteen. You remember what you
Speaker 1: were like there, and you say, listen, I want to
Speaker 1: go play Division One college golf or division two whatever.
Speaker 1: And I say this all the time on the PODCAST.
Speaker 1: I see more kids that are better when they're sixteen
Speaker 1: years old than they are when they're nineteen and twenty.
Speaker 1: They get burned out. Life happens. They meet, you know,
Speaker 1: a guy or a girl, they've never had a boyfriend
Speaker 1: or a girlfriend. They they're away from their parents for
Speaker 1: the first time, Um, and they just said, listen, I
Speaker 1: ultimately I just I just don't want to work this hard. Um,
Speaker 1: was it hard? Or does all of the training that
Speaker 1: the military, the air force, puts you through on the process,
Speaker 1: on discipline, on all of the things, did it make
Speaker 1: the five years easier for you? Do you think? You know,
Speaker 1: as far as the easier in the sense of in
Speaker 1: the sense of golf not burning out? You know, I've
Speaker 1: always seen golf, from the time I went to college,
Speaker 1: even in high school, as as an opportunity. Right. So
Speaker 1: opportunity to play in a golf tournament is always something
Speaker 1: that you know, has been great. Um has been you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've looked forward to and I still look forward
Speaker 1: to him even playing. You know, there's twenty six weeks
Speaker 1: on the corn ferry. We played twenty seven, so we
Speaker 1: played them all and then one up on the we
Speaker 1: played the Honda as well. So, you know, play one there.
Speaker 1: But but throughout my service time, you know, I looked
Speaker 1: forward to going on the weekends to work on Golf.
Speaker 1: I look forward to playing in my next tournament, whether
Speaker 1: that was a state open or a Monday qualifier or
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. Um. But the perspective and and
Speaker 1: I really like the process of, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: get better, going out playing, analyzing what you did, trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, put some data behind it and go and go,
Speaker 1: get better at that. And I've always liked that and
Speaker 1: I think the military doesn't still that in you. And
Speaker 1: you know, the thing I'm most you know, most glad
Speaker 1: they're most appreciative of them from the military are the
Speaker 1: people that I met. You. I met so many good people,
Speaker 1: so many great supportive people that, you know, followed me
Speaker 1: through this journey. Um. And then the perspective, you know
Speaker 1: that he gave me right I was able to travel around,
Speaker 1: got to uh, you know, I had going into college.
Speaker 1: I had been to one other country and I was Mexico,
Speaker 1: and it was, for you know, a graduation trip, right,
Speaker 1: and so I got to tour around the world see
Speaker 1: some different parts of the world, good bad. I met
Speaker 1: some great people along the way and I think that
Speaker 1: perspective carries me and, you know, kind of defines who
Speaker 1: we are now and you learn who you are right.
Speaker 1: I think it's a huge leg up on the guys
Speaker 1: that are coming straight out of college. You know, you
Speaker 1: barely know how to tie your shoes or what's important
Speaker 1: as far as what's important to you coming out of
Speaker 1: college and I got to kind of learn who who
Speaker 1: we who we were, we being my wife and I
Speaker 1: am going through this together, but kind of learn who
Speaker 1: we are and what's important to us. And you know,
Speaker 1: you can try to carry that into the game of golf.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that I find interesting is,
Speaker 1: you know, if if you you wanted to go to
Speaker 1: the University of Texas, because you see Scottische Scheffler have success.
Speaker 1: You know Jordan's speak, all of the great players that
Speaker 1: have come Justin Leonard, all the great players that have
Speaker 1: come out of those programs and you can find them anywhere.
Speaker 1: You can find them at Alabama, you can find them
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma state. There aren't other than Billy Hurley, who
Speaker 1: was in the navy. There isn't someone that you can
Speaker 1: point to and look to and say, okay, he's my
Speaker 1: role model, because there's not twenty people that have come
Speaker 1: out of the armed forces and said, okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play professional golf and make it on the PGA tour,
Speaker 1: on the European tour, wherever they play. I think it's
Speaker 1: fascinating that. Um, I always think it's interesting that you
Speaker 1: know a lot of the players that come from around
Speaker 1: the world, from different countries. It allows the junior golfers
Speaker 1: to say, listen, I'm I'm a junior golfer in India
Speaker 1: and honor Bond Lahieri plays on the PGA tour. I
Speaker 1: can do that. He's a role model for you. You
Speaker 1: you don't have that at the Air Force. There's somebody
Speaker 1: that you said, Oh, yeah, there was a guy two
Speaker 1: years ago, he's now playing on there. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: there was a guy six years ago. He came out
Speaker 1: of the academy, he's on tour now. Um, was that
Speaker 1: hard to not have that kind of role model that
Speaker 1: you could kind of look up to and then ask, Hey,
Speaker 1: how did you do this? Yeah, so I actually am
Speaker 1: fortunate to be friend pretty your friends and Billy Hurley.
Speaker 1: He lives about a mile from me now and UH,
Speaker 1: in Charleston, South Carolina. So, so billy had done it.
Speaker 1: And there's a guy named Tom Whitney. He was about
Speaker 1: four years older than me. He's doing is on a
Speaker 1: corn ferry tour. Um, but not having, you know, not
Speaker 1: having someone to talk to about it too much. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not super worried about I've been fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: meet meet some guys. Gary Woodland is a great guy
Speaker 1: and and to be honest, you know, and in my
Speaker 1: it sounds bad, but I don't. I don't really idolize golfers. Right,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. You know, I love aspects of
Speaker 1: People's games. I love to see how guys handle different situations. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, that's just one of those things where
Speaker 1: you know who you are and you gotta trust in
Speaker 1: what you have. And Uh, you know whether there hasn't
Speaker 1: been anyone from the air force, but I hope there's
Speaker 1: gonna be more after this and I'm an open book
Speaker 1: if anyone you know in the military wants to reach
Speaker 1: out and ask how I did it and or you
Speaker 1: know what I would do differently or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So hopefully, hopefully I can be be that to some
Speaker 1: people coming out of the military. So you finished your
Speaker 1: military service, you know, ten years at the academy as
Speaker 1: a student as a Golfer, then ten years. I read that. Um,
Speaker 1: during those five years, Um, when you were, you know,
Speaker 1: waiting to to get out of the military, Um, you
Speaker 1: would do a lot of stuff at night, sometimes if
Speaker 1: you were traveling in a hotel room, putting short game
Speaker 1: um in your hotel. I mean talk me through that process. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have a night range here in Charleston that you know.
Speaker 1: It has, has lights on it or whatnot. So I
Speaker 1: ended up going out there a lot. I contributed. I
Speaker 1: was a frequent range member there. During the week I
Speaker 1: went out to a place called Patriots Point, where College
Speaker 1: Charleston Practices here and grinded on a pretty hard in
Speaker 1: the weekend. But I got really good at putting on
Speaker 1: a ruler. You know, there's there's always the saying that
Speaker 1: an air force, Air Force based has a golf course
Speaker 1: and most of them do. But that is the Venus
Speaker 1: in great shape or anything. So chip and stuff. I
Speaker 1: chipped to you know, people laugh at me because my
Speaker 1: chipping practice now I chipped the holes right it so
Speaker 1: just trying to land it in the hole, not where
Speaker 1: it was going to. So I got Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I started chipping the holes to tease and then putting
Speaker 1: on a ruler right, so just making strike and can
Speaker 1: control that first eighteen inches of the put. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: it's what I grinded on a lot during my time,
Speaker 1: whether that was wearing boots or whatever, you know, doing it.
Speaker 1: It was you know, there's a little gray area there,
Speaker 1: but but it was. But it was awesome and you know,
Speaker 1: I just tried to get better where I could. And
Speaker 1: then my last assignment was back at the Air Force
Speaker 1: Academy and teaching. So that was a great assignment for
Speaker 1: me because I had access to the same facilities that
Speaker 1: he was using in college and even if it was
Speaker 1: dark there's they do have an indoor there. So I
Speaker 1: was able to, you know, really get some work in,
Speaker 1: get some video work in. But you know, there's Times
Speaker 1: where I was gone played, you know, as we got
Speaker 1: stuck in Spain. We were in route to Africa. Got
Speaker 1: Stuck in Spain and played three rounds of golf with
Speaker 1: you know, they only let me it would only let
Speaker 1: me rent one club per day. So I played to
Speaker 1: the six iron, player with the seven iron, played with
Speaker 1: an eight iron, and it turns out the six iron
Speaker 1: is probably the best one play with on that course.
Speaker 1: So so I have one clubbed it for three days.
Speaker 1: But you know, it just got better where we could
Speaker 1: and got ready to go. You're not alone in practicing Um,
Speaker 1: you know inside I could. I remember and Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: was in college and my dad was working with tiger
Speaker 1: and he called from a tournament and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't really hitting at that good and he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like the cloud was getting a
Speaker 1: little bit behind me, or whatever he was saying. And
Speaker 1: My Dad told me the story afterwards and my dad said, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, we've been working on trying to get the
Speaker 1: club here, here, here, and Tiger said, hold on a
Speaker 1: minute and he put the phone down. In my dad
Speaker 1: says he here's this noise of Tiger hitting a shot.
Speaker 1: In my dad says, are you in your hotel room?
Speaker 1: What are you doing? He goes yeah, no, I took
Speaker 1: the rug and put it over the window and I'm
Speaker 1: hitting balls inside my room into a rug in the
Speaker 1: hotel room and said you're gonna break something and tigers
Speaker 1: to no. I mean, I've got to try and work
Speaker 1: on this. Like. So you're not alone in trying, Um,
Speaker 1: to get better. I think you've said this a couple
Speaker 1: of times. Get better where you can. Um. Where does
Speaker 1: that kind of philosophy and thought come from for you? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. I think between coaches and
Speaker 1: in my military time, you know, you're always you're throwing
Speaker 1: different stuff, maybe playing other courts. You're always there's always
Speaker 1: gonna be some scenario, but you can always, you know,
Speaker 1: do your part and feel like you're doing, you know,
Speaker 1: everything you can, and I think that that's half the battle, right,
Speaker 1: is having being mentally, you know, sharp enough and confident
Speaker 1: enough to say like Hey, I've done everything I can
Speaker 1: to get here, to make this possible. Now it's time
Speaker 1: to go out and do it right. I think if
Speaker 1: you believe that you've done the preparation, you believe in
Speaker 1: your game. Um, I think that you know, that goes
Speaker 1: a long way. They say they say. You know, true,
Speaker 1: you can, you can have a chip on your shoulder
Speaker 1: right for not being able to play for five years,
Speaker 1: but that only gets you so far. Confidence will take
Speaker 1: you the rest of the way. So I don't need
Speaker 1: to be cocky about it, but you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I just I want to know that I've given everything
Speaker 1: I have and I've done all the preparation I can
Speaker 1: to be ready to go. How much of your time
Speaker 1: in the military and the things that being um in
Speaker 1: the military, being in the Air Force, going through basic training,
Speaker 1: how much of that regimented day in, day out? Of
Speaker 1: Do it? You've got to do it this way. There's
Speaker 1: one way to do things. We stick to the process. Uh,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that has helped you with not only
Speaker 1: your golf on the golf course, but are you very
Speaker 1: regimented in the way that you practice and the way
Speaker 1: that you prepare? Very very much. So, yeah, yeah, everything's
Speaker 1: you know it. It may change a little bit pending
Speaker 1: on the day, but I'm very structured. I have things
Speaker 1: that I want to get done every day and you know,
Speaker 1: basically I try to check them off. You know, there's
Speaker 1: days where I'll fall short because I didn't make it
Speaker 1: out of a drill or something like that. But I
Speaker 1: you know, but I need to. I mean I feel
Speaker 1: like sticking to that regiment that you kind of the
Speaker 1: military military has instructed and instilled in me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have things I want to get done and I
Speaker 1: get them done, whether it takes, you know, two hours
Speaker 1: or twenty minutes. You know, I just want to get
Speaker 1: those done and I would say yes, I'm very, very regiment,
Speaker 1: especially on playing days. So give me kind of a
Speaker 1: overall view of of your game. Um, I've read you
Speaker 1: can get up to two hundred and six ball speed
Speaker 1: with the driver. I mean that is pushing kind of
Speaker 1: that kind of low end of where the long drivers are.
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of the range that you know,
Speaker 1: Bryson got into. I mean Dj. I mean I think
Speaker 1: the most I've seen DJ get up to, you know,
Speaker 1: ball speed wise, is kind of in somewhere in the
Speaker 1: not in the one nineties. Um, driving the golf ball. Um,
Speaker 1: another thing I read you have three you said you
Speaker 1: have three different driver swings. Talk me through the three
Speaker 1: different driver swings and what they are. Yeah, just depending
Speaker 1: on the course, you know, playing at. I never I'll
Speaker 1: never play. I'll never play a golf course with, you know,
Speaker 1: over two hundred ball speed. Right. It's there. They're just
Speaker 1: not enough for him to hit it. If you you know,
Speaker 1: draw out that cone, that decade cone, if you want
Speaker 1: to use decade, it's it's a uh, it gets pretty
Speaker 1: wide there that landing area. But you know, I my
Speaker 1: cruising speed, you know speeds, we call it a cruising swing,
Speaker 1: isn't anywhere from about eight eight to nine and two
Speaker 1: and I think that's a comfortable I think it's a
Speaker 1: comfortable place to play. You can play everywhere Um for
Speaker 1: the most part. And you know, it for control for
Speaker 1: me is there. I like to I like to cut
Speaker 1: a driver like draw three wood Um, so you know
Speaker 1: kind of where where it fits right. And then the
Speaker 1: second swing is a we call it a bunt. Um
Speaker 1: comes off about undred sixty ball speed, flies about two
Speaker 1: fifty and it basically a shot that you know, in
Speaker 1: Colorado started using because it you know, winds can blow
Speaker 1: fifty miles per hour. So the ball gets probably fifteen
Speaker 1: feet in year and flies about two fifty. It's it's
Speaker 1: the same. It's the same as a two iron. I
Speaker 1: just there's just less room for error, right. But there's
Speaker 1: a time to use and there's a time not. You know,
Speaker 1: if we've got wind blowing in off the left, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna hit the Bund because it doesn't have enough
Speaker 1: spin on it. You know, hold the line right, it's
Speaker 1: gonna fall off to the right. So so there's a
Speaker 1: time for that and then full swing. You know, if I,
Speaker 1: you know, want to, want to hit one out there
Speaker 1: kind of how we played Tory Tory Pines last year,
Speaker 1: if there's like a three cover or something like that. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll bump it up to mid mid nineties probably. So
Speaker 1: you said you're cruising speed kind of just every day
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand feet, take the seatbelt off, ball speeds
Speaker 1: kind of in the high one eighties. Just for everybody listening,
Speaker 1: I mean Dj and and when I worked with Brooks,
Speaker 1: kept going. I mean they kind of cruised right around
Speaker 1: in kind of that one eight, one eighty three range
Speaker 1: to wear that. So I mean you're, you know, miles
Speaker 1: your five to ten miles per hour faster than those
Speaker 1: guys are. Um, what are the areas of your game,
Speaker 1: you know, moving forward now that you've made this big
Speaker 1: jump to get to the you know, the biggest stage, Um,
Speaker 1: and play on the P G A tour. What are
Speaker 1: the areas of your game, Kyle? Are you going to
Speaker 1: try and feel like you can make some gains in,
Speaker 1: and use that phrase, just to get a little bit
Speaker 1: better at yeah, so, honestly, driving is one of those things.
Speaker 1: When I came out of college I was I was
Speaker 1: swinging harder, so I was said at about one thirty
Speaker 1: five six club head speed Um coming out of college,
Speaker 1: and and so I've we've toned it back right are everything,
Speaker 1: everything I do is to try to drive it a
Speaker 1: little bit straighter and get those strokes gain driving up,
Speaker 1: because there's been many tournaments out there where I've actually
Speaker 1: lost strokes driving because I'm, you know, I'm hitting it
Speaker 1: in the rough to a short sided pen or something
Speaker 1: like that. So for me, you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get better off the tea. That's that's kind of kind
Speaker 1: of been our status quo for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I think that's a it could be a huge advantage
Speaker 1: for me if I'm able to effectively use it um
Speaker 1: but until then, you know, I think for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, you know, hitting it far has been,
Speaker 1: you know, such a high ticket item and I think
Speaker 1: it's the most overrated asset and golf right, there's a
Speaker 1: few courses out there that really benefited, Tory Pines being
Speaker 1: one of them. Or if you take a course like
Speaker 1: an oak ing and you and you draw the sorry
Speaker 1: going wing foot, getting courses mixed up here. Um, you
Speaker 1: draw the fairways in too narrow to where everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: miss the fairway, then it just becomes a long drive contest, right,
Speaker 1: and so other other than those courses. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be able to win. I feel like
Speaker 1: I can Win Day weekend and wink out. And so
Speaker 1: for me to do that, I think we need to
Speaker 1: get a little better driving golf ball. You know, you
Speaker 1: mentioned distance. Everybody listening thinks that, okay, the way to
Speaker 1: get better is to hit the golf ball further. And
Speaker 1: we look at the best players in the world right now.
Speaker 1: Rory mcelroy hits the golf ball. Miles John Ram hits
Speaker 1: the golf ball. Miles Dj Brooks, when he was dominated,
Speaker 1: did that. BRYSON dominated a couple of years ago by
Speaker 1: hitting the golf ball a long way. Um, players are
Speaker 1: trying to hit the golf ball further, but at some point,
Speaker 1: like you said, you have to have. I always call
Speaker 1: it usable distance. It doesn't do you any good to
Speaker 1: have all of this distance. To me, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit like a race car driver. Um, you've got to
Speaker 1: get the car around the track without crashing. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter how fast you're driving it. If you're driving it
Speaker 1: too fast and you're crashing, it doesn't doesn't do you
Speaker 1: any good. Yeah, diminishing returns. You know that that cone
Speaker 1: at like one percent at three sixty yard land zone.
Speaker 1: It's like ninety yards, ninety yards wide, right and so like.
Speaker 1: If you show me a course or you can hit
Speaker 1: it in a ninety yard window, then I'll show then
Speaker 1: I'll show you two hundred balls being on a course,
Speaker 1: but until then I'm not gonna do it. It's just
Speaker 1: diminishing returns. And you know there's a there's a place
Speaker 1: for it, but uh, you know I'm I'm trying to
Speaker 1: hit it and chase and hit it again. You mentioned Um,
Speaker 1: Tory Pines shut seven under to qualify for the US
Speaker 1: Open in two thousand and twenty one. I saw you there. Um,
Speaker 1: I know you played some practice rounds with Gary Woodland. Um,
Speaker 1: you made the cut. What was that experience like? I
Speaker 1: mean to play in the US Open, but to play
Speaker 1: it on an iconic kind of then or they play
Speaker 1: a tour event there, Tiger Woods, just one there. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a great golf course. What did you learn that week?
Speaker 1: and was that week kind of looking back now, was
Speaker 1: that an opportunity for you to use that as okay,
Speaker 1: I made the cut in a in a in a major, Um,
Speaker 1: I can do this. I'm going to take this and
Speaker 1: and move forward with this. Yeah, you know, to be honest,
Speaker 1: we we kind of felt a little short of our
Speaker 1: goals that week. But what was the goal? Well, the
Speaker 1: goal is to do well enough where you you continue
Speaker 1: playing on the PGA tour, which probably would have taken
Speaker 1: the top ten, maybe fifteen and a major to continue
Speaker 1: to play. So so that was our goal and there's
Speaker 1: if there's a course to do it, it's that one, right.
Speaker 1: And so we got there, created a game plan. So
Speaker 1: there was a lot of bunkers to cover at about
Speaker 1: yards and you know, knew that we could. Knew that
Speaker 1: we could be in the mix if we execute a
Speaker 1: game plan well. So, if anything, coming off that week
Speaker 1: it was just, you know, a lot of reassurance. Hey,
Speaker 1: we can compete here, we can you know, continue to
Speaker 1: get better and refine the same process as we have
Speaker 1: and go about playing the same way and as long
Speaker 1: as we, you know, execute well, we can compete with
Speaker 1: these guys and I think you know, that's a huge reassurance. Right,
Speaker 1: the best players in the world are playing in the
Speaker 1: US Open. Obviously there's a bunch of qualifiers there too,
Speaker 1: so it's not, you know, the player's field or whatever,
Speaker 1: but it is. But it is a great field and
Speaker 1: you have all the best and you know, you see
Speaker 1: yourself competing with them, playing against them, and you know,
Speaker 1: if for me it's just, you know, helps build that
Speaker 1: confidence right. That I think you need to have. The
Speaker 1: Corn Ferry Um, I don't think the average golf fan
Speaker 1: has any comprehension as to day in, day out, weekend,
Speaker 1: week out, on the corn ferry tour how low you
Speaker 1: have to shoot. You shoot sixty eight on the corn
Speaker 1: ferry tour in the first round your ten back. I
Speaker 1: mean you shoot four under. Somebody everything. It seems like
Speaker 1: every single day on the corn ferry tour someone shoots
Speaker 1: a course record, someone shooting sixty two, someone, multiple guys
Speaker 1: are shooting sixty three. It is a it is a
Speaker 1: it is a sprint. It is not a marathon. Every
Speaker 1: single round on the corn ferry tour you feel like
Speaker 1: you have to go to my dad always says that
Speaker 1: anybody that comes off the corn ferry and and gets
Speaker 1: a PGA tour card, Um, they will learn have they
Speaker 1: will have learned how to shoot low. Um. What is
Speaker 1: that like as a player, knowing that okay, is probably
Speaker 1: not gonna get it this week? Yeah, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I missed. I missed probably four or five cuts this
Speaker 1: year on the number at like five, you know, four
Speaker 1: plus underpart right. So, Um, it is. You're exactly right.
Speaker 1: That is that is you know, knowing that if you don't,
Speaker 1: if you're not gonna get to twenty, Um, then you're
Speaker 1: gonna get you know, you're gonna get laughed. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna win there. There is definitely something behind that. That's
Speaker 1: not typically the style of golf I really enjoyed playing.
Speaker 1: I like the Hart are parts are good type golf courses, um,
Speaker 1: where it really becomes like a ball striking context, right.
Speaker 1: And and the reason the corn ferry, you know, corn
Speaker 1: ferry scores are so low. I'll call it what it is,
Speaker 1: is that you have courses that are you know, roughs
Speaker 1: not quite as high as a PGA tour. Greens aren't
Speaker 1: quite as firm. So it's not, you know, it's maybe
Speaker 1: not as penalizing to someone that either hits it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hitting a five four iron in or hitting it
Speaker 1: out of the rough. Right. So everyone has a lot
Speaker 1: of looks at Bertie's and and you yeah, you do
Speaker 1: need to learn how to shoot well and score well
Speaker 1: on the corn ferry tour. But but there's I think
Speaker 1: there's a mindset. You know, it's like you're playing a
Speaker 1: Monday qualified right, you go out and and if you
Speaker 1: shoot seven under, you have a chance. If you don't,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have a chance, you know. And sometimes
Speaker 1: you shoot seven under and you still don't have a chance, right.
Speaker 1: So so it's just, you know, going out and knowing
Speaker 1: you have to shoot low scores and doing it is just,
Speaker 1: like I said, just building confidence knowing that you can
Speaker 1: do it. So that big jump Um from the corn ferry.
Speaker 1: You know the golf courses, the set ups are going
Speaker 1: to be different moving into the season on the PGA tour.
Speaker 1: You know that. You know that the courses that you're
Speaker 1: going to play weekend, week out are going to be
Speaker 1: vastly different than what they are um on the corn ferry.
Speaker 1: What are you expecting? What are your expectations and and
Speaker 1: and tell me some of your goals for this upcoming
Speaker 1: season on the P G A tour. Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for, you know, playing a little bit, playing
Speaker 1: courses that are set up a little tougher or, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe your roughs up a little bit. A lot of
Speaker 1: overseaed on the PGA tour. I've been fortunate enough to play,
Speaker 1: I guess, five or six PG events now, um, kind
Speaker 1: of seeing the gamut from the US Open too, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess, Waste Management to a green brier kind of
Speaker 1: playing in different locations in the country and Um, so
Speaker 1: I know that the roughs, roughs typically up a little higher,
Speaker 1: fairways are probably a little, you know, a little narrower
Speaker 1: and greens typically are running a little quicker. So that's
Speaker 1: great for me. I think that makes it even better.
Speaker 1: You know, hitting spots, controlling your distances are key out
Speaker 1: there and I just want to go out, you know,
Speaker 1: refine my process, get a little bit better driving the
Speaker 1: ball and and see if we can, you know, see
Speaker 1: if we can't do some real damage. I think we've
Speaker 1: been you know, it's kind of been a long time
Speaker 1: goal to be here. We're here now and I want
Speaker 1: to compete against the best. I want to play trying
Speaker 1: to play the best golf I can. So you're on
Speaker 1: the PGA tour now. Um, you're going to be playing
Speaker 1: with some of the best players on the planet. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, who are the players that you are excited
Speaker 1: to be playing alongside of and who are some of
Speaker 1: the players that you look up to and that you
Speaker 1: now are going to have an opportunity to walk up
Speaker 1: on a practice range to all the great players and say,
Speaker 1: listen and Kyle, any chance that we could play a
Speaker 1: practice them together? Who are the players that you're looking
Speaker 1: forward to playing alongside of and and and trying to
Speaker 1: get information from as you embark on your PGA Tour career? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I always I always enjoy playing practic round with Gary Woodland.
Speaker 1: He's been very nice to me in the past and
Speaker 1: and been willing to play practice rounds with me. He's
Speaker 1: he's great. He plays a similar style game and so,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a great it's a great person for
Speaker 1: me to pick his brain on courses and see how
Speaker 1: he's kind of played in the past and he's willing
Speaker 1: to talk about it. Right. So I also really enjoyed
Speaker 1: playing with Zack Johnson. Every every time I you know,
Speaker 1: every tournament I go to, I try to play nine
Speaker 1: holes of Zack. We couldn't play different games, more different games,
Speaker 1: but he's just, you know, such a great guy on
Speaker 1: and off the course. How he goes about professional golf
Speaker 1: and playing on golf's biggest stage and playing on the
Speaker 1: PGA tour, and you know just how how he how
Speaker 1: he does it. I I kind of I really look
Speaker 1: up to so play with him and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: probably a lot of my buddies that are coming out
Speaker 1: from the corn ferry tour right our our Tuesday birdie
Speaker 1: game just just went. You know, we increased the dollar
Speaker 1: figure on those, but but I look forward to playing
Speaker 1: with those guys. You know, it's it is a different stage. Um,
Speaker 1: guys have played the same courses over and over again
Speaker 1: for years, Um, but it's still golfs eighteen holes. You've
Speaker 1: got to make a game plan executed. Everyone knows how
Speaker 1: to build a golf you know the course strategy. But
Speaker 1: I'll try to pick the brain of you know, Gary
Speaker 1: as much as as much as I can, and I
Speaker 1: know Dustin is not out there anymore, but I would
Speaker 1: have probably tried to tap him. He's been pretty quiet
Speaker 1: in the past. So Um, you know, I probably would
Speaker 1: have tried. I don't know if I you know, if
Speaker 1: I don't know I would have gotten through there. But
Speaker 1: I just look forward to getting out there and meeting
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys too. Are you excited, Um Kyle,
Speaker 1: about the opportunity to play some of these amazing golf
Speaker 1: courses that they play on the PGA tour that you've
Speaker 1: watched your entire life? You know there's some, you know, colonial,
Speaker 1: memorial Um, where they hold these these great tournaments. which
Speaker 1: courses are you really, really excited to get to and say, man,
Speaker 1: I'm getting off tune to play a PGA tour event
Speaker 1: on this golf course? Yeah, I grew outside of for worst,
Speaker 1: so colonial is, you know, the top of the list.
Speaker 1: We've got some work to do to get there. Memorial
Speaker 1: is also top of the list just for you know,
Speaker 1: being the memorial Um, you know, Jack Mr Nicholas Tournament
Speaker 1: and just, you know, being able to play play there
Speaker 1: would be would be incredible. Um, Houston Open, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to play in my hometown. Have never
Speaker 1: done it. You know, I haven't done it yet, but
Speaker 1: I just look forward to that. Look for I've never
Speaker 1: been out the pebble you know. Honestly, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: play every week that I can out here, Um, this fall.
Speaker 1: As you know, it is pretty important you go out
Speaker 1: and you try to, you know, do do well and
Speaker 1: reshuffle up up a little bit so you can get
Speaker 1: in some more tournaments. I'd love to play Tory. I
Speaker 1: mean right now I'm like a kidney candy store. You know,
Speaker 1: I just want to go and play them all and
Speaker 1: enjoy it. I will say that Honda beat me up
Speaker 1: last year, so it beats everybody up. I'm looking forward to, UH,
Speaker 1: going back and getting a little redemption on it and seeing,
Speaker 1: you don't see if we can't do some more damage
Speaker 1: this year. But but, you know, I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: all of it. I'm looking forward to, you know, enjoying
Speaker 1: these tournaments with my my family, my team. Um, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be awesome. So, from a goal standpoint,
Speaker 1: you know, if you and I were talking at this
Speaker 1: time next year, you know, at the start of the
Speaker 1: four season, Um, what would be a win for you
Speaker 1: this year? Um, what are the expectations? Are you somebody
Speaker 1: that sets realistic goals? Are you someone that sets unattainable
Speaker 1: goals to try? Because there's two ways to do it right.
Speaker 1: You can say, listen, I want to get to the
Speaker 1: top of Mount Everest and I'm just gonna start at
Speaker 1: the bottom and just keep climbing and I'm gonna Climb
Speaker 1: as hard as I can and if I get to
Speaker 1: the top, good, if I don't, well then I've given
Speaker 1: it my all. Or do you come from a different
Speaker 1: mindset and say, okay, I've got a bunch of different
Speaker 1: goals this year for the for the upcoming, you know,
Speaker 1: PGA tour season, and if, if you, if you have
Speaker 1: any of those? Would would you be willing to share
Speaker 1: any of those? Yeah, I typically, I typically hold hold
Speaker 1: my goals pretty pretty close, but I'm very much a
Speaker 1: guy that is like a one FT in front of
Speaker 1: the other. You know, I'm gonna IT'S A it's a
Speaker 1: process to get there, to get where I want to go.
Speaker 1: I set a goal and then I, you know, work
Speaker 1: those pillars back to that goal. Right, how are we
Speaker 1: going to get to that goal? And I really focus
Speaker 1: on the day to day how we're going to get
Speaker 1: there and then let that, you know, try to let
Speaker 1: that accomplish the end goal. But my end goal is
Speaker 1: to win. I'm not I'm thirty years old, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: we're getting to the PGA tour for the first time.
Speaker 1: I'm here to try to win golf tournaments against the
Speaker 1: best in the world and and that's that's my goal
Speaker 1: and what we need to do to get there. You know,
Speaker 1: I think we've identified some areas that we can improve
Speaker 1: on and, uh, you know, if we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: push as hard as we can. Lastly, Um, you're a
Speaker 1: Puma gaw you wear the volition collection. The amazing work
Speaker 1: that Dan Rudy and the folds of honor have done. Um,
Speaker 1: Gary Woodland is part of that as well. Um, that
Speaker 1: also makes you kind of feel like you're part of
Speaker 1: something as well, the work that Um folds of honor
Speaker 1: have done, the collaboration they've done with Puma. Um, when
Speaker 1: you wear that clothing. Um, you know, I'm a Puma
Speaker 1: guy as well. They send me volition stuff. I have
Speaker 1: no military background. I like the stuff. I'm I'm proud
Speaker 1: to wear it, but it must feel different for you
Speaker 1: to put on the folds of honor clothing from Puma,
Speaker 1: because you've actually I mean it's it has been your life. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm very fortunate to be able to wear where the
Speaker 1: Brand Puma and volition and together have been great. You know,
Speaker 1: they say dead. By definition, volition is your ability to
Speaker 1: choose and you know, choosing to build a team around you.
Speaker 1: That's very pro military. have been a part of the military.
Speaker 1: Supports the military. Is How we want to do it,
Speaker 1: you know, we want to build our brand. That's that,
Speaker 1: you know, coincides with our values and and that, you know,
Speaker 1: just having volition there and Puma backing as is an
Speaker 1: awesome opportunity for us and it gives back, you know,
Speaker 1: to families of lost or injured military members and support
Speaker 1: by supporting scholarships and you know, I think education is
Speaker 1: so important. Um, they provide so many great opportunities for
Speaker 1: people around the world and I just think, you know,
Speaker 1: folds of honor does a great job in folition, you know,
Speaker 1: in supporting folds of honors. Is An incredible brand you're making.
Speaker 1: You starting next week in Napa. I am Yes, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get on a flight here in a couple of
Speaker 1: hours to go to a rookie orientation. There you go,
Speaker 1: but real quick before we go, a couple of fun
Speaker 1: facts here. I, uh, I actually grew up my my
Speaker 1: first place I started taking lessons that was a Dick
Speaker 1: Harmon School of golf in Houston under with art scarborough.
Speaker 1: I don't know art. What Arts? One of the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I grew up there and then somewhere in the
Speaker 1: butch harmon archives at Rio Saco there's Kyle Westmoreland golf swing.
Speaker 1: I spent about a day out there. We're playing an
Speaker 1: a J G aven an anthem. That's where my dad lives. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was riding around in a off carton saw us
Speaker 1: and so we, uh, I saw three of us from Houston.
Speaker 1: Started talking to us for a couple of holes. Realized
Speaker 1: we went to Dick Harmon and invite us out for
Speaker 1: a whole day. So I spent the day with him
Speaker 1: and Nick Wattney and he took some of my money
Speaker 1: on the putting green at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: But but it was but it was great. So somewhere
Speaker 1: of those archives is a pretty raw golf swing. You know,
Speaker 1: you walk into my dad's for for people that have
Speaker 1: never been out there. You Walk into that his facility
Speaker 1: out in Vegas. I worked there at the beginning. It's
Speaker 1: like a museum. I mean it really is, with all
Speaker 1: of the memorabilia. You walk into that big hitting bay
Speaker 1: that he has and you look at all of those
Speaker 1: tiger woods, Major's flags and all of the stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: if that doesn't I mean I've talked to you mentioned it.
Speaker 1: Players that get to the opportunity to work with my dad, Um,
Speaker 1: that get out there and go through that, it is
Speaker 1: such a motivating thing because you're walking in and you're
Speaker 1: you're just like man, this is this is like, this
Speaker 1: is like a museum. I mean it's like there's so
Speaker 1: much stuff. I'll make sure that I um that. I'm
Speaker 1: mentioned that to him when I talked to him this week.
Speaker 1: Kyle Um, congratulations, you've you've you've had an amazing amount
Speaker 1: of success and I think everybody listening Um is going
Speaker 1: to be following you um this year on the PGA tour.
Speaker 1: Best of luck. Stick to your guns, trying not to
Speaker 1: make any huge drastic changes. I see so many guys,
Speaker 1: kyle go out there, UM, if they don't have success
Speaker 1: early they say screw it, I'm just gonna start changing everything.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna Change my coach, I'm gonna Change my caddie,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna Change my equipment. Um, if I give you
Speaker 1: one piece of advice is Um, you know, uh, we
Speaker 1: were in at a tournament and one of the girls
Speaker 1: that I was teaching on the ladies tour, Marina Alex
Speaker 1: he was leading going into the final round. Um, I
Speaker 1: think it was in the first turn of the LPGA
Speaker 1: this year. Um, she didn't win, but I was with
Speaker 1: Dj and I said we we I videoed. I said, DJ,
Speaker 1: Give Marina one piece of advice going you're in the
Speaker 1: last group. Give her a piece of advice. And, you know, typical,
Speaker 1: Dj said, just remember all the stuff you did to
Speaker 1: get you into the last group. Just keep doing that. So, Um,
Speaker 1: best of luck. We'll be watching and, uh, congratulations on
Speaker 1: all your success. Thank you. I really appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1: And Uh Yeah, Go Air Force army, there you go.
Speaker 1: Thanks all right. Thank you. So that was Kyle Westmoreland
Speaker 1: and really cool to talk to him and someone. As
Speaker 1: I said in the interview, I'm I'm really excited to watch,
Speaker 1: UM listen to to make it from the corn ferry
Speaker 1: to get your PGA Tour Card. That's always a steep curve. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's the show, it's you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: step up. Um, you're playing against, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world on, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest stages in the world when it comes
Speaker 1: to professional golf and I think it's a dream of
Speaker 1: of everyone's to play when they start out, when you're
Speaker 1: in college, to play on the PGA tour. and Um,
Speaker 1: I think kyle you know, his journey, how he's done
Speaker 1: it and I think his background. Um, I think he's
Speaker 1: going to be a success. Um. I think Um he
Speaker 1: has the type of game, he has, the distance he has,
Speaker 1: the length and Um, I think he has the background. Um,
Speaker 1: he's definitely not going to be out worked out there
Speaker 1: on tour. So really excited, glad he took the time
Speaker 1: to talk to us and excited to see, Um, how
Speaker 1: he does in the wrap around and how he does
Speaker 1: next year in three. So getting to questions, Um, obviously
Speaker 1: continue questions about live Um my thoughts on that and
Speaker 1: the whole PGA tour thing. But we've gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about, Um, the fact that the lift schedule
Speaker 1: right now is maybe not as kind of condensed. Um,
Speaker 1: there's less tournaments, Um, and there seems to be a gap,
Speaker 1: more of a gap than on the PGA tour right now.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are asking me about, Um,
Speaker 1: the practice schedules for the guys, I mean certainly the
Speaker 1: guys I'm working with. Um. Anybody that thinks that professional
Speaker 1: athletes and professional golfers are not going to practice, Um,
Speaker 1: I don't. I just don't get that. Um. I just
Speaker 1: I fundamentally don't get this argument that if you're getting paid,
Speaker 1: if you've got guaranteed money, that you're just going to
Speaker 1: start phoning it in. We don't see that in any
Speaker 1: other sport. Um, we didn't. We don't see it when
Speaker 1: Lebron signs a big new contract, when Russell Wilson signs
Speaker 1: a new contracts not like Russell Wilson just he signs
Speaker 1: a huge new contract with a big chunk of it guaranteed, Um,
Speaker 1: as a quarterback in the NFL for the Denver broncos.
Speaker 1: And what I mean? Russell Wilson's just gonna tell that
Speaker 1: entire organization. Hey, guys, I just I don't need to
Speaker 1: practice now. I don't need to look at film. I'll
Speaker 1: make it to the Games on myself and I need
Speaker 1: to travel with the team. I'm just gonna do my
Speaker 1: own thing and I'll just show up for games. So
Speaker 1: if you think that any of the guys that have
Speaker 1: going to live aren't practicing in in the off season
Speaker 1: or in between, Um tournaments, you're crazy. Um, certainly none
Speaker 1: of the guys that I'm working with. Um, I think
Speaker 1: DJ's practice schedule, if I'm honest, is kind of ramped up. Um,
Speaker 1: he's doing the same things that he's been doing. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it's harder two. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people look at players. You know there's four majors in
Speaker 1: the past for the for the live guys, that they
Speaker 1: would try and peak four. So even though they've got
Speaker 1: some time in between some of these tournaments. I mean DJ,
Speaker 1: he he gets a week off, but it's not like
Speaker 1: he's not going to practice. So his practice schedule is
Speaker 1: pretty much the same, um as I've seen it. If
Speaker 1: he's got a month off, okay, he'll take a week off,
Speaker 1: maybe two weeks off. But if guys on the PGA
Speaker 1: tour are going to take a month off, they're going
Speaker 1: to take a week off. Maybe two weeks off to
Speaker 1: spend time with their families, go on vacation and then
Speaker 1: come back to it. So I don't see that as
Speaker 1: a problem and, Um, I think we're going to continue
Speaker 1: to see great golf on all the tours. Um, see,
Speaker 1: what do we get? We uh, as a beginning Golfer,
Speaker 1: how many times should I get to the practice range? Listen,
Speaker 1: you get into the golf what you get out of it? So, Um,
Speaker 1: if you can get to the range, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people, if you get the opportunity to practice,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna play on the weekend, if you if
Speaker 1: you're gonna play on Saturday, you're gonna play on Sunday,
Speaker 1: if you could get to the golf course. Not Everybody
Speaker 1: is a is a tour player to where you you
Speaker 1: can just practice all the time. So if you could
Speaker 1: find some time to get to the range, whether it's
Speaker 1: to chip, whether it's to put, whether it's to work
Speaker 1: on your full swing, whether it's to work on all
Speaker 1: of it, Um, I think that would be a huge, huge,
Speaker 1: Um win. I think it would help you um a
Speaker 1: lot of times. Um, getting reps is just a good thing,
Speaker 1: getting your body moving. Um, so you're not going to
Speaker 1: the golf course called. If you don't have the availability
Speaker 1: to do that during the week, try and get to
Speaker 1: the range, you know, a couple of hours early, maybe
Speaker 1: hit some balls, maybe just chip and pot. But the
Speaker 1: last thing you want to do is just show up
Speaker 1: to a golf course having played no golf, having practiced
Speaker 1: no golf. Um. And you've got to practice, you've got
Speaker 1: to put time in, Um to what you're doing. Um,
Speaker 1: let's see which to Ur pro that you've taught has
Speaker 1: the most natural golfing ability. Um. I think DJ has
Speaker 1: got to be at the top of that list just
Speaker 1: from a sheer athlete standpoint. Um, the things that he
Speaker 1: can do in all the sports that I've seen him
Speaker 1: play is is pretty phenomenal and there isn't really much
Speaker 1: he can do or he can't do. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you gave him a surfboard, I guarantee you he can
Speaker 1: figure out how to surf in a in a fairly
Speaker 1: short period of time. So Um, I think that, Um, DJ,
Speaker 1: from a natural talent standpoint, would be probably at the
Speaker 1: top of that list for me for sure, out of
Speaker 1: all the players I've worked with. Um. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the guy's a freak athlete. He can do pretty much anything.
Speaker 1: Um Can you talk about the low point in the
Speaker 1: golf swing, how important it is and how it affects
Speaker 1: the golf swing? So when we're talking about the low point,
Speaker 1: it's something that we can measure now with launch monitors.
Speaker 1: It's where the bottom of the golf club but where
Speaker 1: the ARC is, where the ARC is bottoming out. So
Speaker 1: if you think about what the best players in the
Speaker 1: world do with their iron specifically, that low point is
Speaker 1: going to be in front of the Golf Ball, not
Speaker 1: behind the golf ball. So you're hitting the ball and
Speaker 1: then you're hitting the ground in front of the Golf Ball.
Speaker 1: If you ever have an opportunity to watch tour players
Speaker 1: at golf balls, the divots are in front of the ball.
Speaker 1: The divots are not behind the ball. So a lot
Speaker 1: of players, in an effort to try and get their
Speaker 1: irons into the air, they're going to have that low
Speaker 1: point bottom out behind the golf ball. So as the
Speaker 1: club is coming in, their weight shifts back. They're trying
Speaker 1: to hit up on the golf ball with an iron
Speaker 1: and they're gonna bottom out their arc behind the golf ball,
Speaker 1: and I think that's something that I see on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. If you are someone that that has that
Speaker 1: problem to where you're you're hitting at a lot of
Speaker 1: golf balls fat, you're hitting behind the ball, you're catching
Speaker 1: a lot of golf balls thin. That is going to
Speaker 1: show you that your low point is probably going to
Speaker 1: be behind the golf ball and the best players in
Speaker 1: the world, the best ball strikers in the world from
Speaker 1: an iron standpoint, that low point is going to be
Speaker 1: in unt of the Golf Ball. Um. I had a
Speaker 1: question about shaft lean Um. Excessive shaft lean is that
Speaker 1: something that you need to do to be a great
Speaker 1: ball striker? I mean, obviously you could get the shaft
Speaker 1: leaning too far forward an impact Um, but for the
Speaker 1: majority of people listening to this podcast, if the club head,
Speaker 1: if the if, when you think about where you are
Speaker 1: at impact right, if you think about where you want
Speaker 1: to be at impact, you're going to want to have
Speaker 1: the shaft leaning forward. You'RE gonna want to have your
Speaker 1: hands ahead of the Golf Ball, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: have that shaft leaning a little bit more forward. That's
Speaker 1: a very easy way to start to clean up contact.
Speaker 1: If you think about what you do when you're chipping
Speaker 1: and pitching. The first thing that you do if you're
Speaker 1: gonna hit a little bump and run pitch shot, you're
Speaker 1: gonna put the golf ball back in your stance, you're
Speaker 1: gonna open your stance a little, you're gonna put your
Speaker 1: hands a little bit ahead and you're gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and keep your weight and put the majority of your
Speaker 1: weight on your lead foot. If you ask yourself, I
Speaker 1: mean everybody gets told to do that, but sometimes it's
Speaker 1: important to ask yourself, okay, why am I being told
Speaker 1: to do that? Well, because the swing is so small
Speaker 1: and in a little pitch shot or a little chip
Speaker 1: shot you're not making a massive weight transfer. You're not
Speaker 1: turning behind the golf ball, you're not turning through the
Speaker 1: golf ball. So what you're actually doing by playing the
Speaker 1: golf ball a little bit further back, putting those hands forward,
Speaker 1: leaning that shaft a little bit forward and keeping that
Speaker 1: weight on that lead foot and then opening that stands
Speaker 1: a little, is you're basically trying to pre set your
Speaker 1: impact position. So one of the ways if you're struggling
Speaker 1: with quality of strikes, specifically with your irons, is go
Speaker 1: back and forth between hitting a chip shot and then
Speaker 1: hitting a full swing and ask yourself, okay, what do
Speaker 1: I feel different in this swing? What do I feel
Speaker 1: different in the chip shot where I have really good
Speaker 1: quality of strike, really good contact? And then what am
Speaker 1: I not feeling in my full swing? And again that's
Speaker 1: going back to that previous question below point, if you're
Speaker 1: hitting a chip shot, the low point is going to
Speaker 1: be in front of the Golf Ball, not behind the
Speaker 1: golf ball. And if you can go ahead, I mean
Speaker 1: you can always find, you know, swings on Youtube and
Speaker 1: go look at slow motion swings. They do a lot
Speaker 1: of this and all the broadcast where they show people
Speaker 1: at impact, the old Ben Hogan that moment of truth
Speaker 1: where impact is that shaft is going to be leaning forward,
Speaker 1: you're going to be catching the ball first and then
Speaker 1: the turf in front of you. And if you can
Speaker 1: get that feeling and get that concept, it's really, really
Speaker 1: going to help you with your iron game. It's going
Speaker 1: to help you with the quality of strike in your
Speaker 1: shots are going to be hit better. So I want
Speaker 1: to thank everyone for listening. If you haven't gone back
Speaker 1: and listen to old episodes, please check them out and,
Speaker 1: like I said last week, if you've got people that
Speaker 1: are interested in golf. Um Tell them about the podcast.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they'll they'll listen to people maybe they haven't heard before,
Speaker 1: and maybe they'll learn something that can help them with
Speaker 1: their golf. Son of a which comes to you every Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We will see everyone next week