Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Claude Harmon. I guess this week is one of the
Speaker 1: bright stars on the PGA Tour, Max Homa. He's a
Speaker 1: big fan favorite. I thought he had a really good year,
Speaker 1: got himself into contention at the Masters, but some significant
Speaker 1: changes made the decision to leave his swing instructor, Mark Blackburn,
Speaker 1: who I think is one of the best instructors in
Speaker 1: the game, changed all of his equipment, leaving Titleist and
Speaker 1: moving over to Cobra. So I got to sit down
Speaker 1: with Max, and it's a really good talk and I
Speaker 1: think everybody's going to enjoy listening to kind of the
Speaker 1: decision making process. Listen, anytime players make changes, you know,
Speaker 1: changing coaches, changing equipment, you know, there's loads of data
Speaker 1: points that say that is successful for some players and
Speaker 1: not for others. But I think it's a really good interview.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I'm a big Maxhoma fan. He's
Speaker 1: been on the pod before. I had him on a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, but I got to spend some
Speaker 1: time with him when he was at my place, the
Speaker 1: Floridian during the Cobra Puma photo shoot. So I think
Speaker 1: this is a good one. I think you guys are
Speaker 1: gonna like it. It's Max Homa on the Sun of
Speaker 1: Butch Podcast Max twenty twenty four season, twenty two events,
Speaker 1: eighteen cuts, three top tens, almost four million had a
Speaker 1: chance at Augusta. What great are we giving twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like a high d low CI I
Speaker 2: i'd grade at lower, but the Masters was I got
Speaker 2: a bit of a monkey off my back. You know,
Speaker 2: I had never really played worth a darn and in
Speaker 2: a major. I had one top ten prior to that,
Speaker 2: but was never in contention. I think I lost by
Speaker 2: twenty seven of Brian Harmon. So to be in the
Speaker 2: mix that, I guess I gotta give it some kind
Speaker 2: of grade. I learned a lot this year, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't have a lot of highlights. But you know
Speaker 2: they always say you get to learn a lot when
Speaker 2: you don't play well. I had a lot of weeks
Speaker 2: or I learned a lot.
Speaker 1: I think you're one of the players that you know obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, huge fan favorite. Everybody wants to see you
Speaker 1: do well. It was really cool this year at Augusta
Speaker 1: to see you kind of finally get in the mix,
Speaker 1: like really get in the mix. Like there's getting in
Speaker 1: the mix, but then there's like, okay, we're talking like five,
Speaker 1: six and seven on the back nine, I mean on
Speaker 1: the front nine on Sunday at a Gusta where like, okay,
Speaker 1: nobody knows it and everybody has been waiting for you
Speaker 1: to get in the mix in a major to have
Speaker 1: a legit chance. What was that experience like and was
Speaker 1: it different than what you thought? And is it something
Speaker 1: that maybe now that you've been there, you could maybe
Speaker 1: access more often because you've been in that situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I think golf is I think
Speaker 2: life in general, but golf for me is so unique
Speaker 2: because you can do things.
Speaker 3: At a high level. But I always say, you.
Speaker 2: Know, there's plenty of guys on tour revet one yet
Speaker 2: and the common thing to say is, oh, he's gonna
Speaker 2: win one. But for that person, you don't know what's
Speaker 2: inside you until you do win one, Like you have
Speaker 2: to get over that hump. And so I wasn't sure.
Speaker 2: Even though I have won golf tournaments and play well
Speaker 2: in the team events, you know, high pressure situations, I
Speaker 2: didn't know what being around the lead in a major
Speaker 2: would feel like.
Speaker 3: On a Saturday or a Sunday.
Speaker 2: And so I guess what I took from the Masters
Speaker 2: this year was I know I can win one. I
Speaker 2: know what I have, what's inside me to win when
Speaker 2: I still need to go prove I have the game
Speaker 2: to do it. But it was cool, you know, in
Speaker 2: that you know the pressure I played with Tiger Thursday Friday,
Speaker 2: that was a lot. I was final group on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and then you know, while my ball was in the
Speaker 2: air on off the twelve t, while I was flying
Speaker 2: towards the green, that was you know, I had done
Speaker 2: everything I needed to do. I love the shot, and
Speaker 2: while it's in the air, I thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 2: in a way romanticizing this a bit, but I was like, man,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have six holes around the lead here to
Speaker 2: finish off Augusta and I got a very bad bounce
Speaker 2: and jumped in the ivy and made double and kind
Speaker 2: of killed my chances. Looking the way Scotty finished around,
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure I was gonna catch him. But
Speaker 2: I just was very proud that I learned that the
Speaker 2: same stuff I feel like I've shown in regular tour
Speaker 2: events and the team events of just being able to
Speaker 2: you know, I guess have the moxie and the sack
Speaker 2: to do it. For lack of a better term. I
Speaker 2: had that again at the Masters, and I just wasn't
Speaker 2: prepared for all, like the media attention and the phone
Speaker 2: blowing up and just really having that. Was fortunately changed
Speaker 2: my phone like a month before because even with people
Speaker 2: not having it, I got a lot of tech. So
Speaker 2: that stuff is what I learned about it. So I
Speaker 2: think taking that going forward can be quite helpful. But
Speaker 2: I also, yeah, I look back on that and I
Speaker 2: wasted a lot of shots here and there and still
Speaker 2: had a chance on Sunday. So I think, like anything
Speaker 2: you riise, you don't need to be perfect to you know,
Speaker 2: kind of accomplish something great in this game.
Speaker 1: How much of getting in the hunt and having a
Speaker 1: chance to win a major was different than you thought?
Speaker 1: Because I think a lot of people think, Okay, my
Speaker 1: technique has to be good to get there. But I
Speaker 1: think what you're saying is maybe it wasn't so much
Speaker 1: about the technique, it's just when you get into those situations.
Speaker 1: I always say to players here, trying to win a
Speaker 1: major championship is like trying to climb Mount Everest and Sunday.
Speaker 1: If you're in one of the last couple of groups,
Speaker 1: it's the death zone on Everest, right, everybody's I'll be
Speaker 1: fine up there, I'll make good decisions. But when you
Speaker 1: get up there, things kind of change and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Did you notice a different feeling that you hadn't felt before,
Speaker 1: because obviously you've won tournaments before, You've won tournaments on
Speaker 1: big time golf courses too. That's one of the things
Speaker 1: I love about your game, Quail Hollow. Major championships are
Speaker 1: played there. You can't fake it around there. Riv obviously
Speaker 1: you being from California, you can't fake it around those
Speaker 1: are but back nine in the mix on Sunday in
Speaker 1: a major championship, but also the one that everybody wants
Speaker 1: to win. Augusta, Was it.
Speaker 4: Different than you thought it would be? And was it
Speaker 4: harder or.
Speaker 1: Easier than you thought it was going to be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, I mean, it's a great question.
Speaker 2: I would say, like the the harder than I thought
Speaker 2: it would be is the mornings again with just the
Speaker 2: attention and you know, we get a off at three o'clock.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was those are the longest. That was
Speaker 2: the grind Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of
Speaker 2: time kind of spent, you know, trying to distract myself.
Speaker 2: But also, you know, I journal a lot, and I'm
Speaker 2: writing a lot of notes in there just about like
Speaker 2: what I want to accomplish and what I'm proud of
Speaker 2: and things of that nature. But like I've always said
Speaker 2: about myself and I think a lot of guys, is
Speaker 2: when I get to the golf course and I get
Speaker 2: my hands finally on a golf club, I just feel
Speaker 2: like at home again. So I think that part was
Speaker 2: easier than I thought. It's nerve wracking, it scary, but
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll say, like the first tea at the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cups, the last scarier than pretty much anything else.
Speaker 2: So those types of things, like they still feel like
Speaker 2: home and they're fun. The mornings are not fun. They're
Speaker 2: not enjoyable. You want it to get to be twelve
Speaker 2: o'clock as fast you can. I was going to the
Speaker 2: course early to go work out, to just shake off
Speaker 2: some butterflies and get back. But as far as the
Speaker 2: decision making, when I was pretty proud. It was actually
Speaker 2: Saturday's round, it was still very, very windy, and the
Speaker 2: greens had gotten like absurdly fast. They were the fastest
Speaker 2: screens I've ever put on, and you know, we were
Speaker 2: supposed to get an easier day Saturday, so I think
Speaker 2: everyone's mindset was, Hey, we're going to get off and
Speaker 2: start making some birdies. And we had a pretty conservative
Speaker 2: outlook on how we're a strategy, on how we're going
Speaker 2: to play the place. I rely a lot on my
Speaker 2: caddy Joe to do that. And you know, I was
Speaker 2: really proud because Saturday, I hit the ball really well,
Speaker 2: couldn't get a putt to go, and I made seventeen
Speaker 2: pars in a bow, yet didn't make a birdie, and
Speaker 2: I don't think I had I think I was only
Speaker 2: two back going into Sunday. I was proud of the
Speaker 2: thirteenth hole, had an OKT shot and had a very
Speaker 2: difficult shot in. And I'm always the one who wants
Speaker 2: to go for something and Joe is always the one
Speaker 2: telling me, you know, you don't have that one. And
Speaker 2: he asked me on thirteen, He goes, is it time
Speaker 2: to go? And I just remember being very calm and
Speaker 2: I says, no, It's like not the time, Like we're
Speaker 2: not we're not playing ourselves out of a golf tourment
Speaker 2: by taking on a shot that I mean, they're hitting
Speaker 2: a seven wood or a three wood off a hanging
Speaker 2: lie to a green that's going to be a brick anyway.
Speaker 3: So I just was proud of that.
Speaker 2: There are some things maybe on Sunday wish maybe would
Speaker 2: have played a little more aggressive, but again I don't
Speaker 2: have a lot to look back on and think, man,
Speaker 2: we made poor decisions. So I was very proud of
Speaker 2: how we kind of just played like we do. And
Speaker 2: I think that's why I have been successful on Sundays
Speaker 2: in tour events, because I feel like I do a
Speaker 2: very good job of just being myself and playing how
Speaker 2: I would and letting, as you said, the death zone,
Speaker 2: letting everybody else, you know, miss a step. I just
Speaker 2: keep kind of plugging along. But then you do have
Speaker 2: to have a great game, and I mean you look
Speaker 2: at someone like Scotty, I mean end up beating us
Speaker 2: by a hundred. So to think I could have sat
Speaker 2: there and made up that many strokes, even taken a
Speaker 2: bad bounce out, I mean it would have been quite
Speaker 2: the task. So I do think, like I said, what
Speaker 2: I learned is I have like what's inside me to
Speaker 2: do it. You do need to prove it with the
Speaker 2: actual golf clubs too, so that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 3: But I was cool, happy with the.
Speaker 2: Experience, and I do think I have a lot to
Speaker 2: take towards, like the next time I'm in that kind
Speaker 2: of position.
Speaker 1: When you came out of cal and turn pro in fourteen,
Speaker 1: did you know that decisions that you were going to
Speaker 1: make like that on the back nine on Sunday even
Speaker 1: existed right now? Like you're in that situation at Augusta
Speaker 1: Nashville thirteen and is it time to go?
Speaker 4: Would you have made that.
Speaker 1: Decision coming out of college or have you learned now
Speaker 1: having been.
Speaker 4: On tour and been in.
Speaker 1: These situations and gotten yourself in the hunt having won,
Speaker 1: you know, six times? Is that different than the way
Speaker 1: you would have thought coming out of college.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I remember I got great advice from a great friend
Speaker 2: of mine right before I on my first event at
Speaker 2: Couil Hollow, and I basically was like Saturday night and
Speaker 2: I was kind of freaking out. I texted somebody, I
Speaker 2: was like, hey, what do you do? Like what is
Speaker 2: it about? And he just gave me great device and
Speaker 2: it kind of boils down to just be yourself and
Speaker 2: trust that you know you're gonna get yourself across the
Speaker 2: finish line. And that's taken me a long way. And
Speaker 2: so no, in twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, I don't I
Speaker 2: think I would have been trying to win a golf
Speaker 2: tournament too much and instead of just trusting our strategy,
Speaker 2: trusting Joe, trusting that I will hit a great golf
Speaker 2: shot or make a great putt at some point and
Speaker 2: that's going to be what does it instead of trying
Speaker 2: to be you know, I play with Bryson on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and Bryson obviously hits it nine miles and very high,
Speaker 2: and he can do things I can't do. And I
Speaker 2: do think a younger me would have been trying to
Speaker 2: keep up with what he is doing instead of looking
Speaker 2: at myself and saying, well, what am I very good
Speaker 2: at that? That's why I struggle with coming out. So
Speaker 2: you know, you learn a lot in this game, and
Speaker 2: I've been doing it a while now, so it would
Speaker 2: be a completely different situation that I had. I've been
Speaker 2: in that position as like a twenty two year old,
Speaker 2: you know, dumb ass kid pretty much.
Speaker 1: What were you like as a junior golfer, because I
Speaker 1: always think it's interesting to look at where players are
Speaker 1: now and everybody thinks, okay, yeah, you've just had this
Speaker 1: arc in this trajectory. Yeah, but when you were a
Speaker 1: junior golfer, when you were thirteen, fourteen years old, when
Speaker 1: you look back at what your game was like then,
Speaker 1: what were you really good at back in the day,
Speaker 1: when you were really young playing junior golf and high
Speaker 1: school golf, What were you not good at?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was always a good iron player. I was very
Speaker 3: small as a kid.
Speaker 2: So when we would play these you know, elite ish
Speaker 2: type southern California golf tournaments, there would be players like
Speaker 2: she Won Kim. He was a big old boy and
Speaker 2: he had it nine miles and I hit it absolutely
Speaker 2: nowhere and I was hitting four and alls. He's in
Speaker 2: pitching wedgeonto what ended up happening as I got very
Speaker 2: comfortable with a four iron. So back in junior golf,
Speaker 2: going in, you know, in through high school, I was
Speaker 2: always a good iron player. I drove the ball good enough.
Speaker 2: I was never a great putter, but my short game
Speaker 2: I could I could kind of make up for some
Speaker 2: things with it. I was a grinder, but yeah, play
Speaker 2: other sports. Yeah, I played everything up until I was
Speaker 2: about I remember the day we were just talking about
Speaker 2: this yesterday. Actually, I remember the day I went played
Speaker 2: like a tournament champions for the Tour to Tour Cup
Speaker 2: SCPGA Tour, the Southern California Junior Golf Tour, and it
Speaker 2: was my first time getting into it. And I think
Speaker 2: I was eleven ten or eleven and play at these
Speaker 2: two kids, who was it, Philip Chin and somebody else,
Speaker 2: and I remember they beat me by like fourteen and
Speaker 2: it was a hard golf course.
Speaker 3: I shot like eighty four and I was like.
Speaker 2: How often do you guys practice, because at the time
Speaker 2: I'm playing flag football and playing baseball and playing basketball
Speaker 2: and now golf on like maybe a Saturday, that was
Speaker 2: about it. And they're like, oh, we practice every day.
Speaker 2: And I remember I went into the car my mom
Speaker 2: drove me home, and I said, I need you to
Speaker 2: do me a favor and just drive me the golf
Speaker 2: course every day. And that was kind of the day.
Speaker 2: I remember treating this like a job, like it was
Speaker 2: seven days a week. As often as my mom could
Speaker 2: drop me off and pick me up. I was going
Speaker 2: to the golf course and stopped playing all the other
Speaker 2: sports and focused on one thing because I knew this
Speaker 2: is what I love the most, and it was also
Speaker 2: the best chance. I wasn't really going to make the
Speaker 2: league in basketball or football, so I was, I guess, uh,
Speaker 2: realistic enough to know that. So yeah, really turned it
Speaker 2: into like my passion and my job, and and uh,
Speaker 2: obviously it's been it's been cool to get to continue
Speaker 2: to do that for the last you.
Speaker 1: Know, you played college, you played college golf at Cal.
Speaker 1: That's a great school. You're playing, you know, Division one
Speaker 1: college golf. The level from junior golf. I think everybody that,
Speaker 1: all the juniors that I work with, they're trying to
Speaker 1: make that jump from being a high school golfer.
Speaker 4: To a junior golfer.
Speaker 1: What were you better at when you graduated from Cal
Speaker 1: than you were when you started?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a good one course management for sure.
Speaker 2: My roommate in college, Eric Mina, he was a couple
Speaker 2: years older than me. He had won pack tens. I
Speaker 2: like to joke I won Pac twelves, but he won
Speaker 2: pack tens. Uh. He had really taught me how to
Speaker 2: be like a pro and and think my way around
Speaker 2: a golf course and not have it, but turned it
Speaker 2: into something. He was the best at that, and he
Speaker 2: taught me a lot of that, and I didn't have
Speaker 2: that when I was a kid. It was like, if
Speaker 2: my swing didn't feel good, I was going to play bad.
Speaker 2: If I got a bad break, I was going to
Speaker 2: play bad and get into court. Horse management really improved there.
Speaker 2: A short game for sure. We had a great short
Speaker 2: game facility at CAL and all the guys that's just
Speaker 2: what we would do all day. The range blew like
Speaker 2: thirty miles an hour every single day off the right,
Speaker 2: so people didn't hit a lot of golf balls. So
Speaker 2: I think I left there with a better short game again,
Speaker 2: in a bit more grit and grind, but just the
Speaker 2: course management for sure, and growing up. I think for
Speaker 2: kids that are making the lead from high school to college,
Speaker 2: I think the hardest part your freshman year is time management.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to school, you got two full
Speaker 2: time jobs. You need to do well in school and
Speaker 2: you need to do well in golf, so it's just hard.
Speaker 2: You get kicked in the butt a lot by the
Speaker 2: lack of time. You do have to get great at golf,
Speaker 2: so I think you learn a lot about that too.
Speaker 2: You grow up very quickly.
Speaker 1: You're caddy Jo Grinder. I think you guys are one
Speaker 1: of the best teams out there. The role that he
Speaker 1: plays both on and off the golf course. Talk about
Speaker 1: the role that he plays on the golf course, and
Speaker 1: then talk about the role he plays off the golf course.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean this with no disrespect to any of
Speaker 2: their caddies. I'm friends with a lot of you guys.
Speaker 2: With Joseph, best caddy on the planet. He works his
Speaker 2: tail off. Uh. He is a phenomenal golf for himself.
Speaker 2: He has amazing feel. He's left handed, and I don't
Speaker 2: think people realise, like, yeah he did. He played professional golf.
Speaker 2: He played college golf at our junior college, then turn
Speaker 2: pro at College of the Kannada and turn pro, played
Speaker 2: on Canadian Tour for a little bit, then played the
Speaker 2: Carolinas Tour now and then ended up, you know, not
Speaker 2: playing anymore caddie for me, but being a lefty great golfer.
Speaker 2: I don't think people realize how hard it is for
Speaker 2: him to see what I do. Like a righty draw
Speaker 2: on a on a for a left either terminology.
Speaker 1: I mean, I play golf I can play golf both
Speaker 1: left and right handed, but sometimes because I teach so
Speaker 1: much right handed, someone comes in that's left handed, even
Speaker 1: though I play left handed. The terminology, yeah, I just say,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, just move it a little bit
Speaker 1: right to left. I'm like, no, no, sorry, just move
Speaker 1: a little bit more left.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, shapes are different. I never thought about that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he had. So he's a cutter of the ball like myself.
Speaker 2: So when we have it in off the right wing,
Speaker 2: that's a cutter's dream. I can fade it up against it.
Speaker 2: It's the easiest shot. And but for him, he must
Speaker 2: stand on that sea and feel uncomfortable, just innately. But him,
Speaker 2: you know, he just says such a great job, like, oh,
Speaker 2: this tea SHOT's perfect. If sometimes I'd be like, let's
Speaker 2: lay up, He'll be like, no, this is a perfect
Speaker 2: left right te vault or you know, cut up against
Speaker 2: the win t ball for you.
Speaker 3: So for him to have that on the golf course,
Speaker 3: it's amazing.
Speaker 2: His strategy, his way of keeping me calm as best
Speaker 2: he can is amazing. But off the golf course, I
Speaker 2: mean it's a lot deeper than the work thing. I've
Speaker 2: known Joe since I was six years old. He's one
Speaker 2: of my closest friends. I mean, we just had my
Speaker 2: son's second birthday party and it was all family and
Speaker 2: then Joe and his wife Mila, so like they are
Speaker 2: part of my family. And I've always told him, you know,
Speaker 2: this is this is friends first. You ever don't want
Speaker 2: to do this, It's okay. If you ever think I'm
Speaker 2: being a baby, you tell me. And he's done a
Speaker 2: lot of work. You know, we didn't have a great year,
Speaker 2: and it was it was fairly hard on me, but
Speaker 2: it makes it a lot easier doing it with him
Speaker 2: and him, you know, just saying kind things and hanging
Speaker 2: out even sometimes.
Speaker 3: Off the golf course, so it goes a really long way.
Speaker 2: I tell him all the time, I appreciate it if
Speaker 2: I am of him, but I hope, I hope he
Speaker 2: truly does know.
Speaker 1: That Dolin your game with Cobra's fastest and most fittable
Speaker 1: family of drivers using the new future Fit thirty three technology.
Speaker 1: You know, we say all the time that you know,
Speaker 1: you see players that get in the hunt. And there
Speaker 1: are players notoriously back in the day, the old school guys,
Speaker 1: the Killers, Raymond Floyd, Yeah, Curtis Lannie. There was always
Speaker 1: this phrase to where they're not scared, right, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then obviously we all know who the guys.
Speaker 4: Are that aren't.
Speaker 1: Scared to with, But in the caddy ranks they talk
Speaker 1: about that as well. There are caddies that when they
Speaker 1: get in the hunt. Stevie Williams was famous for that.
Speaker 1: Bones was famous that there are caddies that you know
Speaker 1: that when they get.
Speaker 4: In the hunt, they're not scared either.
Speaker 1: Joe comes across as a guy that is very calm
Speaker 1: on the golf course. So when when the craziness of
Speaker 1: competitive tour golf can get crazy, the calmness.
Speaker 4: Are there any.
Speaker 1: Stories you can tell where you look back and you say,
Speaker 1: he said the right thing at the right time that
Speaker 1: kind of clicked me to get me out of something,
Speaker 1: or to get me to go in a direction that
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he's got a million but to stick out.
Speaker 2: Am I allowed to swear on this of course? Okay,
Speaker 2: So my first ever professional start was at thefries dot
Speaker 2: Com now the one up in Napa. Yeah, and so
Speaker 2: all I needed was the top ten. I had no status.
Speaker 2: They just say it was my first event. I just
Speaker 2: finished Walker cup. So I go and I'm nervous in
Speaker 2: the whole week, the whole little crew is you know
Speaker 2: it was with was just top ten. We get to
Speaker 2: play next week in Vegas. So I ended up getting
Speaker 2: in the mix the top ten and I'm on eighteen.
Speaker 2: I need a part top ten and I am shaking,
Speaker 2: like I am so nervous and it's so silly, but
Speaker 2: I had never made a dollar before. I'm about to
Speaker 2: make a lot of dollars and I'm on this eighteenth teen.
Speaker 2: It's down the hill and there's hazard left and there's
Speaker 2: nothing good right, and I'm really nervous and I'm you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not talking very much. And Joe walked over and
Speaker 2: this is his first time ever caddying for me, and
Speaker 2: he walked over. Uh, he said, he said, you're good,
Speaker 2: and I said, I'm pretty nervous, Joe, and he goes,
Speaker 2: he goes, he was always a guy. You know, good rhythm,
Speaker 2: good rhythm, good rhythm, that's all you usually say. And
Speaker 2: he handed me the three and he goes, hit the
Speaker 2: fucking shit out of it. And I swear, it's the
Speaker 2: best that you could have said. I seed as hard
Speaker 2: as I could. I sent it down the fairway, but
Speaker 2: my favorite. I think this says the most about why
Speaker 2: I do think Joe in the mix is just the best.
Speaker 2: But at the Ryder Cup a year ago on eighteen,
Speaker 2: I got an unfortunate break on my second shot. We
Speaker 2: needed to get up and down to win our match
Speaker 2: to not lose the Ryder Cup, and I got this
Speaker 2: awful lie and I didn't know what to do, and
Speaker 2: my brain was on kind of maybe swing really hard
Speaker 2: and send it back up the faaraway and try to
Speaker 2: pitch up and make a par And he's so calmly
Speaker 2: and not only had the wherewith all the think of this,
Speaker 2: but how he said it was, Hey, we're gonna take
Speaker 2: it unplayable, you're gonna drop right here, you're gonna chip
Speaker 2: it up and you're gonna make the putt and we're
Speaker 2: gonna win the match. And the way he said it,
Speaker 2: I was like, that's a great plan. And again, just
Speaker 2: to be able to process that we were going to
Speaker 2: do that, I think it's harder than people think. And
Speaker 2: then second to just say it so matter of fact, I.
Speaker 4: Was ready for it that moment. Yeah, it's so huge.
Speaker 2: I didn't feel like a penalty drop. It just felt like, Okay,
Speaker 2: if I get up and down from right here, I
Speaker 2: win my match. And that's what it felt. And it
Speaker 2: turned it into this like I want. I was very
Speaker 2: frustrated with where my ball ended up. It felt like
Speaker 2: it should have been in a lot better spot and
Speaker 2: I dropped it, chipped it up, made the butt and
Speaker 2: it was just it was cool.
Speaker 3: So he does stuff like.
Speaker 2: That a lot.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the Ryder Cup. Every time the Ryder Cup happens,
Speaker 1: both on the euro side but on the American side,
Speaker 1: there will be someone that you know doesn't have a
Speaker 1: history that balls out.
Speaker 4: You did that.
Speaker 1: What was it about that week? Because you you said
Speaker 1: earlier the most pressure you've ever felt is that And
Speaker 1: the stands are getting bigger and bigger. I was there
Speaker 1: the crowds on you know, the on the first hole.
Speaker 2: You know the.
Speaker 1: Amount of people around that first hole in Rome, that
Speaker 1: atmosphere was electric. Does that make you when it's like that?
Speaker 1: And I think the Ryder Cup I remember in Paris
Speaker 1: was the first time they built that big giant stand
Speaker 1: and we were all standing there beforehand and Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: and his crew, Jay and the boys all came down
Speaker 1: and they were talking everybody and you know, high vivan
Speaker 1: and the noise they were singing, And I'll remember Michael said,
Speaker 1: so the first time I've been in a golf tournament
Speaker 1: where I feel like I'm in a sporting so that
Speaker 1: atmosphere on the first hole at at the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 1: it feels like not a golf of that, it feels
Speaker 1: like something different.
Speaker 4: Are you conscious of that?
Speaker 1: And does that heighten kind of everything to make you
Speaker 1: kind of go okay?
Speaker 4: Not only am I wearing the American.
Speaker 1: Flag on my chest and I've got a team, and
Speaker 1: I've got all these people, all the guys that didn't
Speaker 1: play there watching, does it make it just yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. And then if you get off to
Speaker 1: a good store, did you just ride a wave of
Speaker 1: good momentum and just was it just did it snowball
Speaker 1: or were you conscious of it all?
Speaker 2: No, at for sure snowballed. I mean I got out there,
Speaker 2: I was first very fortunate. I had great partners. I
Speaker 2: got to play with Windham and Brian and they both
Speaker 2: played great. We just had like fun and I just
Speaker 2: felt like I really enjoyed the environment and I really
Speaker 2: really do like playing away. I like making it's fun.
Speaker 2: I remember I got in the bus on Sunday. We
Speaker 2: obviously lost, But I got in the bus on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and I know I'm older now, I'm thirty three, about
Speaker 2: to be thirty four. And I told, I told, but
Speaker 2: nowadays that's you know, it's hard to keep making teams,
Speaker 2: you know, And I told my I looked at my
Speaker 2: wife when I got on the bus. I said, I
Speaker 2: have to somehow keep my workload up and stay feeling okay,
Speaker 2: because I said, I want to do this again away
Speaker 2: in four years. Like I'm super stoked have an opportunity
Speaker 2: at beth Page next year, and that will be, you know,
Speaker 2: a cool thing if I get to do it. But
Speaker 2: the away ones are something else. Obviously they've been very
Speaker 2: difficult in Ryder Cups, but getting getting the crowd to
Speaker 2: shut up is a very good feeling. And that getting
Speaker 2: those moments was cool. But it did snowball, and I
Speaker 2: was lucky. The captain's made me feel good about myself
Speaker 2: by giving me five chances. I got to play all
Speaker 2: five matches. We weren't supposed to do that, but you know,
Speaker 2: they saw I was playing well, and it did snowball.
Speaker 2: Just as the days went on, I felt more and
Speaker 2: more comfortable. My game felt better and better, and again
Speaker 2: it kind of goes to the to the masters. This
Speaker 2: year was when I did get in those moments and
Speaker 2: the club was in my hand, I felt I felt
Speaker 2: like me, and I think that was that was the
Speaker 2: most important part.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite things about the Ryder Cups that
Speaker 1: I've been lucky enough to be a part of are
Speaker 1: those late matches where both of the teams, Yeah, you've
Speaker 1: got all. You've got the Americans and the carts and
Speaker 1: the teams going down one side, You've got the Euros
Speaker 1: and there's always those matches, and you know, when you
Speaker 1: are away you do feel like that kind of siege mentality,
Speaker 1: and you make one and you turn back and all
Speaker 1: the teams are down.
Speaker 4: You know, normally it's like those iconic months. The sun's going.
Speaker 1: Down, it's getting colder, and you do something and the
Speaker 1: only roars aren't the big or because in Europe, I mean,
Speaker 1: they're wow there.
Speaker 4: And when you know, when Rory and Shane and those.
Speaker 1: Boys get going, I mean, it gets really really loud.
Speaker 1: But if you have an opportunity to make one on them,
Speaker 1: it just must feel so amazing to do that, and
Speaker 1: then to look back at the team and everybody's going crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, that just must be an amazing experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was nothing more fun. I know I got
Speaker 2: a bit contentious. But Saturday night at that last Ryder Cup,
Speaker 2: Pat Birdie's the last, we win the match one out
Speaker 2: there is a bit.
Speaker 4: Of it felt home. It really feels it felt like
Speaker 4: they're some hope.
Speaker 2: He gave us so much hope and we're all waving
Speaker 2: the hats and it's just us and I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: it got quiet out there, but we were screaming so
Speaker 2: loud you want to notice. And the camaraderie and and
Speaker 2: everybody getting I think, to band together.
Speaker 3: It's so rare in our sport.
Speaker 2: But everyone getting a band together and and and rally
Speaker 2: around each other and go crazy. I mean, there's truly
Speaker 2: nothing like it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask this question not to put you on
Speaker 1: the spot, but it's a question that I don't get
Speaker 1: to ask because my dad always told me the number
Speaker 1: one thing you need to know when you work for
Speaker 1: a tour player is the only certainty is you will
Speaker 1: get fired. You've made the decision to let Mark Blackburn go.
Speaker 4: And the reason why I ask, I.
Speaker 1: Know that's not an easy decision as a plan and
Speaker 1: as an instructor, I don't get to when I when
Speaker 1: I get let go by players, I never really get
Speaker 1: to ask them why. They'll tell you, hey, man, you
Speaker 1: know it's just you know, it's tough. But that decision
Speaker 1: and that process. Obviously, you and Mark had a really
Speaker 1: good run. I know you care about him as a
Speaker 1: person as well. I was just with them at the
Speaker 1: TPI conference a couple of weeks ago and we were
Speaker 1: talking about it, and you know, we spend more time
Speaker 1: with you guys and we spend with our families. Right,
Speaker 1: I've met more time around tour players than I've spent
Speaker 1: around my wife and my daughter. So that environment is
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize how intense that environment is.
Speaker 1: And I think the work that you guys put in
Speaker 1: was very intense. I mean I watched you guys grind
Speaker 1: and stuff the decision to do that. I know the
Speaker 1: type of person you are, I know how much you
Speaker 1: care about your team and the people on your team.
Speaker 1: That's not an easy decision to make. So when you
Speaker 1: do make that decision, or did make that decision, it
Speaker 1: was born out of what and in an effort to
Speaker 1: do what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a multitude of things. It's hard to do, I
Speaker 2: think because you are so appreciative where someone has taken you.
Speaker 2: I mean, he took me from a good player to
Speaker 2: a very good player. We want a bunch, had a
Speaker 2: lot of really high moments, and I really do care
Speaker 2: for him and think the world of him. Coach Younger
Speaker 2: in My Life, Les Johnson says something interesting. He's like,
Speaker 2: I can say the most perfect thing, but if you
Speaker 2: don't hear how I'm saying it, it is, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: And I I think basically we just had about an
Speaker 2: eleven month run of the same issue over and over again,
Speaker 2: and it felt like we were both kind of just
Speaker 2: throwing mud at the wall, and I felt like I
Speaker 2: wasn't helping and that I'd get an idea and that
Speaker 2: might step on his toes at times. So I don't
Speaker 2: think I was like I was kind of stunting the process.
Speaker 2: And I do believe if we were together forever we
Speaker 2: would figure it out, I mean eventually, but it felt
Speaker 2: like I just wasn't hearing it anymore.
Speaker 1: And I always say that, you know, when I got
Speaker 1: let by let go by Brooks and somebody said, you
Speaker 1: know why, and I said, our job, I think his
Speaker 1: instructors is we kind of have a.
Speaker 4: Clear idea of what, yeah, makes you good.
Speaker 1: And I always say this, we always get fired as
Speaker 1: instructors for the same reason we get hired. We come
Speaker 1: in and we tell you something someone hasn't or maybe
Speaker 1: we we have. We come up with a concept or
Speaker 1: a theory, and you think, Okay, I haven't heard that before.
Speaker 1: In our head, we're just going to keep telling you
Speaker 1: the same thing because it works. But eventually it's always.
Speaker 4: The same thing.
Speaker 1: You just get I think you as guys as players,
Speaker 1: which I understand it's tough for us on our side
Speaker 1: of the aisle versus you guys, but sometimes you're just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just don't I don't want to hear that anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's always frustrating from our side, from the coaching side,
Speaker 1: because we're like, yeah, but we know that's what made
Speaker 1: you a good player. Yeah, and I know that those
Speaker 1: decisions aren't taken lightly. Where do you want to try
Speaker 1: and go with your golf swing now? Because I liked
Speaker 1: the work that you guys did. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: you're one of the golf swings that when people ask
Speaker 1: me whose golf swings.
Speaker 4: I like you are always one of the three or four.
Speaker 1: Guys that I will say, because you know, when I
Speaker 1: think about golf swings, I look at style and function,
Speaker 1: and I think you have a really good combo of both,
Speaker 1: and you're someone if I'm waiting on the driving range,
Speaker 1: you're a guy that I will sit back and watch
Speaker 1: you hit golf balls because I like the movement and
Speaker 1: the way it looks. So in an effort now to
Speaker 1: try and go in a different direction, and an effort
Speaker 1: now to try.
Speaker 4: And get better. It took me a long time to
Speaker 4: realize that.
Speaker 1: You know, you do get hurt when you get let go,
Speaker 1: But my dad said, listen, they're just trying to get better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe they have to go in that direction. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the direction that you've been in with your golf swing
Speaker 1: and the direction that you're looking to go in now,
Speaker 1: is it a big change?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean everything you know, when you've been doing
Speaker 2: something a while, it's a big change. But I think,
Speaker 2: first and foremost, I want to take more ownership of
Speaker 2: what I do in my swing because I think what
Speaker 2: you just spoke on is interesting and very very accurate.
Speaker 2: You guys have amazing eyes and you see the big picture.
Speaker 1: But again they're hitting the shots and we can't get.
Speaker 2: And I get zoned in on a one thing, and
Speaker 2: so like there's a video I have from back in
Speaker 2: like January. I found that basically was the same problem
Speaker 2: I've had since whenever I've heard things, I've had, you know,
Speaker 2: times where I would go to work on something. Now
Speaker 2: in the last month, I'm like, oh, you know, that's
Speaker 2: kind of what Mark was getting at, but like I
Speaker 2: just didn't see it, and.
Speaker 3: So I kind of have the big picture. I can
Speaker 3: see it now.
Speaker 2: For me, it's just I've had that and I've had
Speaker 2: the same kind of running issue for my whole life.
Speaker 2: I would say everyone has their little idiosyncracies. But I
Speaker 2: struggle with some weight shift stuff and I tilt and
Speaker 2: my club gets stuck as it gets longer. So this
Speaker 2: year I still wedged it really really well. I think
Speaker 2: I was still like top tenish and like inside one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five yards, but as the club got longer,
Speaker 2: club gets more and more stuck. So getting to see
Speaker 2: and finally understand I guess now why that was happening.
Speaker 2: And again, like gu's what's so funny is like Joe
Speaker 2: and I were talking about it a month or so later,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, as we're talking about I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's exactly what Mark was saying. I just didn't Again,
Speaker 2: that's what's so hard is I didn't hear it the
Speaker 2: right way. And so yeah, it's just a lot of
Speaker 2: like I just need to get off the ball a
Speaker 2: little bit better so I have somewhere to more for
Speaker 2: my chest to go and so I don't have to
Speaker 2: hang back and kind of flip it. So I've never
Speaker 2: been a world class driver of the ball, but when
Speaker 2: I have been playing well in you know, twenty two
Speaker 2: and twenty three, I've driven the ball well enough and
Speaker 2: then relied on my iron. So just kind of getting
Speaker 2: back to having a bit more of a consistent delivery
Speaker 2: with the driver.
Speaker 3: But the other part of this.
Speaker 2: Is I'm not trying to be as good as I
Speaker 2: was in twenty two and three, Like I'm trying to
Speaker 2: be significantly better than that. So it's taking all of
Speaker 2: that that I've learned in that time and using it
Speaker 2: to get better than I was. But in the in
Speaker 2: the process, you're just kind of you just always e
Speaker 2: been and flowing man. You're just it's not like you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not just trying to get back like I don't
Speaker 2: think about it like, oh, I'm just trying to get
Speaker 2: better than I was today tomorrow and then just add
Speaker 2: that on up for hopefully the you know, next twenty
Speaker 2: or so years.
Speaker 1: You like the way your golf swing looks at some
Speaker 1: days because I asked that because I worked.
Speaker 4: I worked with Trevor and Woman and you know, kind
Speaker 4: of and I hated it.
Speaker 1: Trevor hated his golf swing, and Adam Scott and Tiger
Speaker 1: used to go, man the way Scotty sween is. And
Speaker 1: then in four, you know, I've got some video in
Speaker 1: four when Trevor was they were defending champions. Uh he
Speaker 1: and Rory Sabatine and they're defending champions the World Cup.
Speaker 1: We're in Seville and Trevor was hitting golf balls and
Speaker 1: he was just and I quit that week because I said.
Speaker 4: I just can't take it anymore. And he was like,
Speaker 4: my golf swing's terrible.
Speaker 1: And like four or five years ago when when I
Speaker 1: was still working with Trevor before you started working with Como,
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, man, you got any old swings you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, And I sent him the swing
Speaker 1: the day I quit, he was like, I give anything
Speaker 1: swing it like that. I'm like, bro, you fired. I
Speaker 1: quit that day because you said it was awful. So
Speaker 1: what do you like about your golf swing and what
Speaker 1: do you not like about your golf look wise?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny you say that.
Speaker 2: The the best I've ever hit in a golf turn
Speaker 2: is at Tory Pines. Uh, when I won and I
Speaker 2: was doing something in the golf so and I didn't
Speaker 2: like my arms kind of shifted out and I didn't
Speaker 2: like that. And uh about two months ago, three months ago,
Speaker 2: whenever I kind of left Mark, I went back and
Speaker 2: just like compile on my best you know, hitting performances
Speaker 2: from YouTube, and I'm looking at this swing. The best
Speaker 2: shot I ever here was this four iron on sixteen
Speaker 2: there and uh on, I guess it was Saturday in
Speaker 2: final round and I'm looking at this and I just like,
Speaker 2: I'd give anything to have that back. And then I'm
Speaker 2: thinking to myself, I hated that my arms move, So
Speaker 2: I actually do like that. What I like about my
Speaker 2: golf swing the most. My rhythm's very good. I think
Speaker 2: sometimes actually when I hate my swing and I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm nitpicking it. I'll put my phone and watch
Speaker 2: it from like this far away, because you kind of
Speaker 2: see more big picture less little things when you when
Speaker 2: you when.
Speaker 4: You're up close everything.
Speaker 2: When you zoom in and you slow mo, you see
Speaker 2: every little thing you do, uh, and it drives you nuts.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Rory and I have talked about this. He's like, I
Speaker 2: love that you do this in your swing, and he goes,
Speaker 2: I hate how I do a lot of things. But
Speaker 2: he made the point. He goes, I think you probably
Speaker 2: like some things I do in my swing. Like I
Speaker 2: like most of what you do in your swing man like,
Speaker 2: but we're all psycho so uh yeah. What I don't
Speaker 2: like in my swing again is just like I slide
Speaker 2: a lot, I tilt a lot.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Club just has to like have a lot of play
Speaker 2: at the bottom. It's why, Uh it just is gets
Speaker 2: some more inconsistent down there. But I do think that
Speaker 2: I have my we always said it. Rhythm is is
Speaker 2: the glue to a lot of golf swings. There's there's
Speaker 2: a lot of swings that have you know, Louis uses
Speaker 2: and has the probably the prettiest golf swing of all time.
Speaker 2: But if you slow it down, there's some things I
Speaker 2: would change. It's a little bit on the edge. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: five years yeah, another beautiful hell yeah. But watching it
Speaker 2: in real time is gorgeous, and that holds a lot
Speaker 2: of maybe not perfect things together. But there's I mean,
Speaker 2: there's probably one perfect golf swing of all time at
Speaker 2: Tiger in two thousand. I mean that's the closest thing
Speaker 2: you get to a robot. But everybody else has something
Speaker 2: going on that if if it was my swing, I
Speaker 2: could maybe get in there and say, oh, this isn't exactly.
Speaker 3: What I would do. Uh.
Speaker 2: So it's like it's just an impossible game. So I
Speaker 2: I'm trying again in this new like what I'm gonna
Speaker 2: call my next phase of golf life, I would I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot less picky and look at the
Speaker 2: things I do. Like I like when I cover the
Speaker 2: golf ball. I like when it looks like I'm turning
Speaker 2: through the shot.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And I like when my rhythm is nice and clean.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna I'm gonna focus more on that and
Speaker 2: not like that my thumb is forty degrees instead of
Speaker 2: forty three degrees. You know, I'm not going to freak
Speaker 2: out of all the little things.
Speaker 1: So what's a win for you in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: with not only the season, but with where you're trying
Speaker 1: to go with your golf swing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, more in the hunt in the majors. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: I for your goals. I've never really looked at it
Speaker 5: exactly like that. I mean, I would just like to
Speaker 5: get the control back of the ball. I've seen a
Speaker 5: lot of good improvements President's Cup and.
Speaker 3: Zozo I drove the ball a lot better.
Speaker 2: I think when I drive the ball, well, I've just
Speaker 2: always figured out the irons. Even when it doesn't feel good,
Speaker 2: I'll figure them out. So yeah, I mean I love,
Speaker 2: always love getting to the Tour Championship. I think that's
Speaker 2: a that that means you've had an elite season.
Speaker 1: Adam Scott used to tell me that in his mind,
Speaker 1: getting to the Tour Championship was a prerequisite.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you want to be thought of as one
Speaker 4: of the best players.
Speaker 2: Sitting home after the BMW and not making it just
Speaker 2: you just don't feel like you're a part of much
Speaker 2: anything elite. So that's a tough one.
Speaker 1: God, time you get to Eastlake, you kind of separate
Speaker 1: yourself from everybody else.
Speaker 2: The bigger sample size you've proven yourself for a year,
Speaker 2: I don't care how you did it. If you make
Speaker 2: it there, you've had a hell of a season. So
Speaker 2: doing that is always my goal. Getting in the high majors,
Speaker 2: of course, is a goal, but those things can be fickle,
Speaker 2: so I don't like to just have a hard stop
Speaker 2: on that. But of course, I mean be lying if
Speaker 2: I was sitting here and I didn't say I want
Speaker 2: to win a major, and I may. I want to
Speaker 2: win every golf tourn I play, so but I know
Speaker 2: that if I keep just checking off the boxes and
Speaker 2: getting back to having some control of the golf ball
Speaker 2: with the longer stuff, everything else is good. I was
Speaker 2: really pleased with this season. I got it really good
Speaker 2: at a lot of things I had not been good
Speaker 2: at because I was forced to. And I'm really looking
Speaker 2: forward to now that I'm hitting the ball a lot
Speaker 2: better kind of taking those things I have gotten better
Speaker 2: at and then using the stuff that I've always been
Speaker 2: pretty good at then combining them into hopefully a lot
Speaker 2: more success.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I love looking at your golf swing,
Speaker 1: but one of the things I love about your game
Speaker 1: is you win golf tournaments on big time tory riv
Speaker 1: Quail Hollow, What about really difficult hard golf course because
Speaker 1: there are guys that can win on golf courses like that,
Speaker 1: and then there are guys that feel much more comfortable Scottsdale. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty under those type of golf tournaments eight to six to.
Speaker 4: Maybe eleven are gonna win.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go to RIV and shoot twenty five under.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go to Tory and shoot you know
Speaker 1: you four rounds in the sixties.
Speaker 4: If you do, you're gonna win by a million.
Speaker 2: Yeah, waku did it at RIV when you're in one
Speaker 2: by about twelve.
Speaker 4: Quail Hollow, you won there twice.
Speaker 1: But those type of championship, big boy golf course. What
Speaker 1: do you like about that challenge?
Speaker 2: I do believe I have when my mine's in the
Speaker 2: right spot, I've got a lot of grit. I can,
Speaker 2: I can? I can? I can? You know, do eighteen
Speaker 2: rounds with a golf course when it's when it's hard.
Speaker 2: I like, especially when you do get in the mix,
Speaker 2: you know things are gonna go poorly at times. The
Speaker 2: golf course is gonna come up and bite you. So
Speaker 2: I do like that challenge. I like knowing that some
Speaker 2: people are going to get frustrated with it, so I
Speaker 2: get in my little bubble.
Speaker 3: But I think it really does.
Speaker 2: Stem stem down to I. I have typically had a
Speaker 2: pretty well rounded game. I don't think I stand out
Speaker 2: in one area over the course of a season too often.
Speaker 2: But in general, I think that you know, I chipped
Speaker 2: the ball well, I typically put it pretty well, iron
Speaker 2: it well. You know I'm driving in the fairway. Like
Speaker 2: I just feel like I can almost like lull hard
Speaker 2: golf courses to sleep at times because of just having
Speaker 2: kind of like an even like an even circle around
Speaker 2: the grid. But yeah, I don't know. I also just
Speaker 2: think I do think that part of it is just
Speaker 2: having what's inside you. And I've had an interesting career.
Speaker 2: My my path has absolutely not been linear, and I
Speaker 2: think maybe I just have some some some moxie or something.
Speaker 2: At least I'm going to keep telling myself that.
Speaker 1: You've made the decision to move to Cobra Golf, welcome
Speaker 1: to the fans.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: That process changing equipment, I mean, I think there's three
Speaker 1: things in in in your professional on the golf course
Speaker 1: game that are going to be big game changers when
Speaker 1: you make decision to change caddies. You make the decision
Speaker 1: to change coaches and then the decision to change equipment.
Speaker 1: Why Cobra, what do you like about it? How's the
Speaker 1: testing process been getting in all their new equipment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. I never thought i'd leave. I never
Speaker 2: thought i'd switch, But I know we did have a
Speaker 2: tough year. And Joe says something interesting. He said, hey,
Speaker 2: if we could learn one thing at the end of
Speaker 2: this year, because it was you know, we knew it
Speaker 2: was our contract year. He's like, we know, you know,
Speaker 2: the golf clubs don't always make the ball go straight
Speaker 2: like you make the ball go straight. So at least
Speaker 2: we learned that. So he said, you might as well
Speaker 2: at least go look and just see if there's something
Speaker 2: else you like. And I was never going to chase
Speaker 2: a dollar. I was never going to change something to
Speaker 2: give up even a half a tick of a stroke,
Speaker 2: because the thing that makes me the happiest is playing
Speaker 2: great golf. So but once I have my mindset on, like, hey,
Speaker 2: at least we'll go shop around and see what everybody's got.
Speaker 2: I haven't hit a different golf club in twenty years maybe,
Speaker 2: so it's like I was like, Okay, I'll go see
Speaker 2: at least like that basically got my foot in the
Speaker 2: door to think about, dream about going somewhere else. I
Speaker 2: will say three years ago, I always love you know,
Speaker 2: I love the culture of this company. I've gotten to
Speaker 2: know some people over the years. Ricky and Gary are
Speaker 2: good friends of mine, so getting to be around them
Speaker 2: a lot. I've always liked the look of their clubs,
Speaker 2: and I have never hit one. So I remember three
Speaker 2: years ago I told Joe. I was like, man, it'd
Speaker 2: be kind of cool to do the Cobra thing. At
Speaker 2: some point. I get to play my golf ball, like
Speaker 2: you know, just dream and messing around. So when we
Speaker 2: did have the opportunity to test these clubs, I was
Speaker 2: amazed immediately at the irons. I love irons. I love
Speaker 2: looking at them, I love hitting them. So when I
Speaker 2: hit their seven, I remember I was like, damn, this
Speaker 2: is this is really good and it felt really good.
Speaker 2: Numbers were great, and then we got further up the
Speaker 2: bag and I was like, man, I really like this
Speaker 2: four and five iron, Like this fits. And then we
Speaker 2: got to obviously the driver, and the driver's awesome. The
Speaker 2: sound of it is amazing, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I was like, man, maybe this.
Speaker 3: Like I really could do this.
Speaker 4: It looks cool.
Speaker 3: It looks cool, like when you set it down.
Speaker 1: I always say, you know, the way this new driver
Speaker 1: looks looks fast.
Speaker 4: I love the way you sleek.
Speaker 2: It looks it's very cool. So I was like, man,
Speaker 2: and then you start to think about it and you're like.
Speaker 2: The other thing Joe said was is you know he
Speaker 2: plays a lot at home and he buys new golf
Speaker 2: club every damn week, and he's like, hey, you never
Speaker 2: changed clubs. You don't get to make it exciting, like
Speaker 2: it's it's fun to get a new golf club.
Speaker 4: It's the testing process been fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it honestly has. I mean, I I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm not a gearhead. I know very little. Joe is
Speaker 2: much more on the like he knows the spin and
Speaker 2: all this stuff. And we've used obviously Showman quite a
Speaker 2: bit to help us, and that Before I actually get
Speaker 2: past that, I will say that that was a big
Speaker 2: part of what I was looking for. Is what I
Speaker 2: learned at Titleists with JJ and Arundill. Two people like
Speaker 2: that I just think are brilliant. I on the on
Speaker 2: this process. I was interviewing like fitters a lot, and
Speaker 2: I think they play such a massive role in what
Speaker 2: we do. Again, as someone who doesn't know loads about
Speaker 2: a golf club and how it works, you can it's
Speaker 2: just like coaching. If they're not seeing what you're feeling,
Speaker 2: or they're not able to translate what I I'm saying,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: They could build a.
Speaker 2: Golf club that's a beautiful golf club, but it's wrong
Speaker 2: for me. And so Ben did such a great job
Speaker 2: and yeah, I don't know. I again, I'm much more
Speaker 2: feel So I went to looking at you know, how
Speaker 2: they felt, what the windows they come out of. Does
Speaker 2: a shot that feels it's a little pole? Is it
Speaker 2: a little pole? I love when those matchups. So it
Speaker 2: has been fun because getting it. I mean even just
Speaker 2: this week. You know, I've still been testing quite a bit.
Speaker 2: I've got the irons figured out.
Speaker 1: But the driver you're looking at getting in ds adapt
Speaker 1: which bottle do you like?
Speaker 3: So we had I had left Scott still.
Speaker 2: I just got these clubs like five I mean, I've
Speaker 2: been hitting them, but I just got them at my
Speaker 2: house now for like five days. So I got here
Speaker 2: and the driver's been fine. The good wins have been phenomenal,
Speaker 2: but I've been missing the middle a lot so randomly.
Speaker 2: You know, We've been trying to test as much as
Speaker 2: we can in the downtime you have in these shoots,
Speaker 2: and I was over on doing the commercial thing. They
Speaker 2: had a nine degree head instead of my ten and
Speaker 2: a half, and I was actually hitting that one better
Speaker 2: then I had anticipated. I struggled with low loft and
Speaker 2: so I asked them today. They built me nine head,
Speaker 2: but tweaked the loft way up and that thing I've
Speaker 2: been hitting great. So I have the I have the
Speaker 2: nine head. I forget what's setting. There's thirty three of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the future. Yeah, how do you think that?
Speaker 1: There's a lot of movement in there. And I think
Speaker 1: that's really good for you as a player, both at
Speaker 1: the amateur level but at the elite level, because the
Speaker 1: amateur the lie the lie change, I think, yeah, that's massive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But for you guys at the level that you're at,
Speaker 1: I think this new hozzle is going to be almost
Speaker 1: allow the driver to be like a Formula one.
Speaker 3: Race for Harris.
Speaker 1: Let's just take a little tweak out, yeah, and make
Speaker 1: small incremental changes because there are so many different options.
Speaker 2: Exactly I think that's exactly right because I think like today,
Speaker 2: when we got the new or different head, the middle
Speaker 2: started to be hit a lot more often. I got
Speaker 2: it back up in the face that was a little
Speaker 2: less low on the face, so the ball was flying great.
Speaker 2: So I think the benefit is the head. We got
Speaker 2: the head and the heads figured out, but now you
Speaker 2: know little things. I was kind of leaning maybe a
Speaker 2: shade more on the toe today than the heel. So
Speaker 2: that's where I think all the options come in. That
Speaker 2: is such a benefit is I know I have the head. Now,
Speaker 2: we just have to find the setting that's dead nuts perfect.
Speaker 2: But if I had to go play with that thing
Speaker 2: I've got right now tomorrow, I'd be very very comfortable
Speaker 2: with it. So I think that's the uniqueness and the benefit.
Speaker 2: If you get a little off, as you know better
Speaker 2: than anybody, when we're a little bit off, it can
Speaker 2: look worse than it really is. But maybe we're just
Speaker 2: a little more steep than normal, or shafts a little
Speaker 2: bit lower than normal, or handle so it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: now we can just tweak it with the driver. We
Speaker 2: don't need to build a whole new thing and then
Speaker 2: try eight different times. We can taake the same driver
Speaker 2: and just make a little little adjustment, and you can
Speaker 2: look at the same thing you've been looking at. You
Speaker 2: know how it works, you know the shaft, you know
Speaker 2: all those things, and then just go right into golf
Speaker 2: mode because you know there's a lot of options to
Speaker 2: make you better really quickly. And I think that's a
Speaker 2: big thing, because building a new driver and trying to
Speaker 2: get used to that is tricky. When you could just
Speaker 2: tweak it with the hozzle, it's a whole different world
Speaker 2: than thirty three options. If I can figure out in
Speaker 2: thirty three that's a me problem.
Speaker 1: Iron Wise, the new three D printing that Kobe's doing,
Speaker 1: I think is going to be a game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, surely.
Speaker 1: I love the way that that limited with the three D. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love the way it looks. It's a combo of
Speaker 1: like a player's looking iron, but it's a little bit
Speaker 1: more forgiveness. What have you liked about the feel of that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was surprised.
Speaker 2: It is I don't know the exact word to use,
Speaker 2: but it feels almost like there's a bit more behind
Speaker 2: it with the metal, So it feels like the good
Speaker 2: ones are great. They feel like there's like a maybe
Speaker 2: a shade more hit on them. But what I was
Speaker 2: fascinated by is I caught one low on the face
Speaker 2: the first day. I hit him and I looked up
Speaker 2: and it flew just fine. And I looked over to
Speaker 2: Joe and Ben and I was like, would that fly?
Speaker 2: Because that should not have been a great shot, and
Speaker 2: they said it flew seven yards shorter than my normal,
Speaker 2: which is not a big you know, I was hitting
Speaker 2: like a big for a two and a half grooves
Speaker 2: low three. If I'm being honest, it was. It was
Speaker 2: great and again it and that's what it is. I
Speaker 2: just think that it's not just that necessarily. The sweet
Speaker 2: spotspaker to me feels like it's just more evenly placed
Speaker 2: and it's just more solid. There's more behind it, and
Speaker 2: so a little mishit turns out to be not so bad.
Speaker 2: And the good ones feel like extremely good. And I
Speaker 2: like how they look. I've been lucky. They they they
Speaker 2: three D printed me some that look exactly how I
Speaker 2: want them to be. I mean, they're the blades, but
Speaker 2: they they have the same top line I use. So
Speaker 2: they basically just built me an iron that I want.
Speaker 2: With the metal day and everything.
Speaker 4: I think that's going to be the game changer.
Speaker 1: You know, in five years time, the consumer there could
Speaker 1: be a world where the consumer says, listen, want my
Speaker 1: driver to or I want my iron to look like this,
Speaker 1: and make it look like this.
Speaker 4: Order it.
Speaker 2: It's like in a car, you know, I want this
Speaker 2: sense here. Yeah, so I think that it's it's it's
Speaker 2: going to be absolutely used the perfectly. Game changers is
Speaker 2: dead on.
Speaker 4: Your new dad.
Speaker 1: You're showing me some video before we started of your
Speaker 1: two year old son. What's that pro It has been
Speaker 1: like I'm on the other end of that spectrum.
Speaker 4: My daughter just graduated from college singrat. She's starting out.
Speaker 1: But as being a dad changed you at all, and
Speaker 1: has it been different or the same as you thought.
Speaker 2: No, it has changed me. I'm much more patient. But
Speaker 2: it has been a ten out of ten fun experience.
Speaker 2: There is some tough times, not gonna lie, but he's
Speaker 2: in a very fun age. But it's been interesting. I
Speaker 2: definitely get dad guilt being away from home. It is
Speaker 2: very very difficult, but I have and thankful for my
Speaker 2: wife for help me feel this way. But have been
Speaker 2: very motivated to do this long enough so he can
Speaker 2: see me, you know, with his own eyes and remember it,
Speaker 2: and also in that vein, I want him to very
Speaker 2: very badly. I want him to see that because his
Speaker 2: dad did it. If you work your ass off and
Speaker 2: you just chase something that you really love and you
Speaker 2: believe in, you can make it happen. So I'm probably
Speaker 2: more motivated even than before having a kid to show
Speaker 2: him those things. And it's been it's been very, very
Speaker 2: fun to watch him grow up and get to continue
Speaker 2: to take him to the coolest places in the world.
Speaker 2: And I mean just this year alone, I mean he
Speaker 2: was we were running around the Green at Mirfield and
Speaker 2: Clumber and Dublin and I'm just dying laughing, like you
Speaker 2: have no idea how lucky you are get out like
Speaker 2: I he gets to go everywhere and anywhere. But that's
Speaker 2: what That's the stuff me and his mom are gonna
Speaker 2: remember forever and we're gonna have to tell him about
Speaker 2: like cheesy parents in the future.
Speaker 4: Your Dodgers won the World Series.
Speaker 1: Probably my astros did not play Hell yeah, lifelong Dodger fan.
Speaker 4: Just did you party? Do you celebrate?
Speaker 2: Kind? Is my son's actually second birthday, So we just
Speaker 2: unwinded by going straight to bed. It was it was awesome.
Speaker 2: I you know, got some friends on a team. I
Speaker 2: love it so much. It was fun. We were watching
Speaker 2: the first two or three games in Japan, which was tough,
Speaker 2: nine oh eight start times, am teen off watching on
Speaker 2: the phone, so it was it was a blast. But
Speaker 2: it's so funny, you know, it's playing a sport and
Speaker 2: then being a fan of a sport. I'm so different,
Speaker 2: you know. I know the boys are trying their hardest.
Speaker 2: I know, you know they want it as badly as,
Speaker 2: you know, as they possibly can, because I do it.
Speaker 2: And when people are like, oh, I just wish you
Speaker 2: practice hard's like I practice as hard as I can.
Speaker 2: I want this as much as anybody could ever imagine.
Speaker 2: But for the to get to watch them actually do it,
Speaker 2: for them you could feel like the relief and the excitement.
Speaker 2: But for us as fans, man, I mean they they
Speaker 2: they give so much entertainment to us. We're so fortunate
Speaker 2: to have a team that's good year over year, and yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean it was. It was just one of those
Speaker 2: things of the twenty twenty one. I was going to
Speaker 2: count until they wanted, you know, one with the fans
Speaker 2: because it didn't feel like the excitement they didn't get
Speaker 2: the parade, they didn't get all these things, so this
Speaker 2: one feels extra special.
Speaker 4: Max.
Speaker 1: Great to talk to you. It's every time I talk
Speaker 1: to you. You've been on the pod before, so thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on. Yeah, it's so easy to see you
Speaker 1: are such a fan favorite. I think everybody's rooting for you,
Speaker 1: and I think I think this was this one as
Speaker 1: tough as I think you think this year was. I
Speaker 1: think it was a breakout year for you to finally
Speaker 1: realize that you're you're good enough to win a major.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is just get in contention. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: and I think we are going to see you in
Speaker 1: contention more often. So thanks for Thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me so really cool talk with
Speaker 1: Max Homa and listen, it's easy to see why the
Speaker 1: fans like him, right, He's a lot of fun to
Speaker 1: talk with. I kind of like his approach. I like
Speaker 1: kind of how he thinks about his game. And listen,
Speaker 1: golf is tough. Max is trying to get better, but
Speaker 1: he's made some decisions that you know, we're gonna see
Speaker 1: if they pan out. But I really like the fact
Speaker 1: that he's on the Cobra team now and yeah, let's
Speaker 1: see what he can do. I think everybody is waiting
Speaker 1: to see how Max performs in the majors. It's a
Speaker 1: Writer Cup year. He was a huge part of the
Speaker 1: Writer Cup in Rome. Probably one of the best American players.
Speaker 1: But like I said, I'm a fan and it's fun
Speaker 1: to watch Max anywhere he plays.
Speaker 4: I want to thank everyone for.
Speaker 1: Listening, rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 4: It's the Son of a Bunch podcast