Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher Podcast, Happy New Year,
Speaker 1: first part of the New Year, But everybody had a
Speaker 1: good holiday season starting off this year. This week's guest
Speaker 1: Lily Avo. I mean, what an amazing year she had
Speaker 1: on the LPGA Tour, Rolex Player of the Year, four wins,
Speaker 1: wins two majors, the Chevron, the Open Championship, and just
Speaker 1: gets to number one in the world. And this is
Speaker 1: one of the more dominant and impressive seasons that anyone
Speaker 1: has had on any tour anywhere. I mean, if this
Speaker 1: is I mean, if this is one of the guys
Speaker 1: on the PGA, I mean, if Rory McElroy wins four
Speaker 1: times in a year and wins two majors, Scottie Scheffler
Speaker 1: wins four times two majors, I mean, it is front
Speaker 1: page news. And if I'm honest, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the golf media really didn't pick up on, you know,
Speaker 1: how great Lily's year was. Maybe it's because all the
Speaker 1: other stuff that was going on, you know, with the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour and Live and who was going and stuff.
Speaker 1: But I got to sit down and talk to her
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago and just really really impressed
Speaker 1: with how she played this year and twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the sky's the limit. I mean
Speaker 1: the hardest majors to win, I mean the hardest major
Speaker 1: to win is Brooks kept always says is your first one.
Speaker 1: She's won two in one year. I've got to think
Speaker 1: she's going to get in the hunt in majors in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and having won two already. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit like playing with house money and she can
Speaker 1: free it up. So really really cool interview. Glad I
Speaker 1: got to sit down and talk to her. I think
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna like to hear what she has said. I
Speaker 1: think she's got an interesting journey. I mean, things didn't
Speaker 1: come easy for her, and she talks about that, and
Speaker 1: I think that's part of the struggle, is why she
Speaker 1: is having so much success now. So sit back and
Speaker 1: enjoy listening to Lilya Booth Lilya twenty twenty three. I
Speaker 1: think if Rory McElroy or Scotti Scheffler had the kind
Speaker 1: of year you've had in twenty twenty three, winning four times,
Speaker 1: winning two majors, I mean, they'd be erecting statues and
Speaker 1: they maybe Time Magazine's People of the year. It's been
Speaker 1: an amazing year. Can have you had a chance to
Speaker 1: process everything that's happened over the last twelve months, because
Speaker 1: this has got I mean, this is one of the
Speaker 1: best years we've seen in professional golf in a lot,
Speaker 1: really since the Tiger days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for saying that. I've not had a
Speaker 2: lot of time to kind of reflect on the season
Speaker 2: I've had. I think just being go, go go all
Speaker 2: the time and just playing one tournament at of time,
Speaker 2: I think I'm very just what's in front of me.
Speaker 2: I think that's how I tend to do so well occasionally.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just take it one shot out of time,
Speaker 2: just playing the golf course in front of me, playing
Speaker 2: that whole even just I was telling a pro partner today,
Speaker 2: she's a d one golfer. She's basically asking me for
Speaker 2: advice about not getting too far ahead of yourself, like
Speaker 2: thinking about the next soul. I also have that problem
Speaker 2: as well, and so I think once I got to college,
Speaker 2: I learned how to just kind of narrow it down.
Speaker 2: Narrow it down. Basically, there's eighteen matches between you and
Speaker 2: the golf course. So at eighteen holes each hols a match,
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and burdiye this hole. If I
Speaker 2: don't move on, try again the next hole, and just
Speaker 2: very just simple stuff like that really helps me. So
Speaker 2: I don't think about other players playing in my group,
Speaker 2: just me in this hole. How do I beat the hole.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting because obviously you make the jump
Speaker 1: from junior golf to college golf, from college golf to
Speaker 1: the Cemetri Tour Symetra to the LPGA Tour, and I
Speaker 1: think the stage gets bigger, the stakes maybe get bigger,
Speaker 1: but you're right, at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: just golf, right Yea's just regardless of where you're playing,
Speaker 1: whether you're playing a junior golf tournament or you're playing
Speaker 1: on the LPGA, the course might be longer, there might
Speaker 1: be more people out, but the object of the game
Speaker 1: is still the same. The rules of the game are
Speaker 1: still the same, and the goal of the game is
Speaker 1: still the same. What do you notice now you're two
Speaker 1: time major champion, you're a proven winner on the LPGA,
Speaker 1: but you're still very early in your career and it's
Speaker 1: not too long ago, you know, two three years ago,
Speaker 1: to where your status is kind of up in the air.
Speaker 1: What have you noticed, is the difference between amateur junior golf,
Speaker 1: college golf, SEMETRA and the LPGA. What is the difference?
Speaker 1: Because I think everybody that's trying to play is trying
Speaker 1: to crack the code, right What can they do at
Speaker 1: that next to get to that next level? What do
Speaker 1: you think it is.
Speaker 2: There's a lot that goes into a big difference. For me,
Speaker 2: I felt like I really grew as a person in
Speaker 2: the past couple of years. Just like amateur golf, you
Speaker 2: junior golf you have like your parents, booking your flights,
Speaker 2: doing all your tournament stuff. College same thing. I had
Speaker 2: a great college experience. I wouldn't be here without UCLA
Speaker 2: coach and Alicia did everything for us. It just had
Speaker 2: fun all the time. And then thought I was ready
Speaker 2: for the tour when I was a twenty nineteen rookie,
Speaker 2: was not made one cut, miss the rest of all
Speaker 2: the tournaments and just didn't have it. I felt so
Speaker 2: much pressure out there, even though I had achieved my
Speaker 2: dream of being on the LPGA, but it just didn't
Speaker 2: feel that way. It felt like every single shot was
Speaker 2: life or death. Put too much pressure on making money
Speaker 2: and trying to just come out of the gate really hot,
Speaker 2: but it just didn't happen that way.
Speaker 1: I was saying. I had Joe Scarbn on my podcast
Speaker 1: recently Caddy for Ricky Forever and now Caddy's for Tom Kim.
Speaker 1: But we were talking about Tom as a rookie, and
Speaker 1: it's a theme that I see because I've been on tour,
Speaker 1: you know, working on tour for twenty years. As a rookie,
Speaker 1: I think you can get lost. You can kind of
Speaker 1: all of a sudden. The manufacturers are there, you can
Speaker 1: change your equipment every single week. Try you're putting bad.
Speaker 1: There's fifty different putterns you can try. You're driving it bad.
Speaker 1: You can try driver chefts and change coaches, caddies, all
Speaker 1: of that. And I keep saying this, no one tells
Speaker 1: you how to be a professional athlete, professional golfer, and
Speaker 1: be a professional in the sport. They just throw you
Speaker 1: out there. If you're talented enough, you get on tour.
Speaker 1: There's no training. Okay, some of the tours do some
Speaker 1: media training and some kind of but it's it's not
Speaker 1: real and no one can really prepare you for what
Speaker 1: it's like to be a professional athlete.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I absolutely agree, there's really no perfect formula for that.
Speaker 2: You kind of have to figure that out for yourself.
Speaker 2: So twenty nineteen was a hard year for me. Lost
Speaker 2: my card, went back to the EPSOM Tour for two years,
Speaker 2: and just kind of had to find my way back.
Speaker 2: I had to find just kind of re emulate what
Speaker 2: I had in college, just constantly having fun, having a
Speaker 2: good team around me to handle all that stuff. So
Speaker 2: naturally I was going to figure out how to create
Speaker 2: my own team on tour, and slowly I did that
Speaker 2: and then started finding finalizing the final pieces into the team,
Speaker 2: and then now we're here.
Speaker 1: I think that is one thing that I've noticed that
Speaker 1: when you're in when when players are in college, there
Speaker 1: is an enormous amount of structure and a lot of
Speaker 1: times I'll work with college golfers when they're home, the
Speaker 1: coach makes them practice. They don't like when they practice,
Speaker 1: they don't like when what you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that they don't like, right, but that is
Speaker 1: all there and made for them. Once you turn pro,
Speaker 1: you have to find a course to play out, you
Speaker 1: have to find a place to practice. You've got to
Speaker 1: find a gym, You've got to plan your schedule. Whereas
Speaker 1: college and like you said, junior golf, all of that
Speaker 1: is basically done for you. And I have seen a
Speaker 1: lot of players kind of struggle for a couple of
Speaker 1: years that post college because they don't find their way,
Speaker 1: they don't find the right setup. Why do you think
Speaker 1: it took you a couple of years to find that.
Speaker 2: I think it's just maturity, growing and knowing what I like.
Speaker 2: I like being told when to practice, when to work out,
Speaker 2: and now I have people on my team that kind
Speaker 2: of just overall just look at my schedule and figure
Speaker 2: out what we're doing during the off weeks and all
Speaker 2: that stuff. I think it just makes my life easier
Speaker 2: that we have a routine and everybody has their certain
Speaker 2: tasks to make my life easier so that I can
Speaker 2: go out there and do what I do best.
Speaker 1: You mentioned going to UCLA, you're a first team All American,
Speaker 1: you won eight times. Do you feel that there's a
Speaker 1: difference in winning in college versus now winning majors and
Speaker 1: winning big tournaments on the LPGA. Did you notice a difference.
Speaker 2: Big difference. I think in college I was just having
Speaker 2: fun and then I happened to win. Out here, it's
Speaker 2: a grind, like you really have to not think too
Speaker 2: far ahead. My first win this year, and yeah, I
Speaker 2: shot eight under on the last day, and I didn't
Speaker 2: even know what I was shooting. I didn't look at any.
Speaker 1: Scoreboard or not a scoreboard watcher.
Speaker 2: I used to not be. But and then one day
Speaker 2: I decided I can look at it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lily, you start winning two majors, look.
Speaker 2: At the score It's okay. I just you want to.
Speaker 1: Look at scoreboards when you were in the hunt to
Speaker 1: win major championships. I get the hey, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to play today. Yeah, but if you're on the back
Speaker 1: nine on Sunday and you're in one of the last
Speaker 1: two groups, look at the scoreboard.
Speaker 2: I definitely looked at the open on sixteen. That's when
Speaker 2: I finally I knew I was there. I just didn't
Speaker 2: know how much way I have won.
Speaker 1: Six should sixty six?
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: But an again, that's amazing. You have no idea what
Speaker 1: you shot. I don't know how you're second major this
Speaker 1: year on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have no idea. I think I just made
Speaker 2: a switch one day and I said, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to let the score scoreboard control me. With the fear
Speaker 2: that I have for it. So I'm like, I'm just
Speaker 2: going to look, what.
Speaker 1: Was that Open Championship? Like, I mean, you start that Sunday,
Speaker 1: you're playing with Charlie Holl I mean, obviously Charlie being
Speaker 1: from the UK, huge fan favorite, You're kind of the underdog,
Speaker 1: You're kind of the the person that they're not rooting for,
Speaker 1: and you basically just light it up. Shoot a great round,
Speaker 1: win by a ton. But that experience to where you're
Speaker 1: on the golf course on Sunday trying to win, well,
Speaker 1: you was it something that you were conscious of, Lily,
Speaker 1: that you're in your head going, Okay, I've got a
Speaker 1: chance to win another major this year.
Speaker 2: I didn't think about it that way, but I knew
Speaker 2: that I was really excited to play in the final
Speaker 2: group with Charlie, with the crowd she had. I knew
Speaker 2: on Saturday she played behind me and I heard all
Speaker 2: the roaring and the cheers, and I turned to my caddy, Cole,
Speaker 2: and I said, I want to play with her tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I think it would be so fun. Like the crowd
Speaker 2: that she has going on, we don't see that a lot.
Speaker 2: She pulled a really big crowd in London, She's from there.
Speaker 2: So it was really cool to see she's super fun
Speaker 2: to play with. So I got my wish. I wanted
Speaker 2: to play with her, and a person on my team
Speaker 2: told me, don't be nervous that they're rooting for Charlie.
Speaker 2: They're not rooting against you. They're good fans too, And
Speaker 2: I think that kind of flipped my mindset, and I
Speaker 2: was super excited to play Sunday, super nervous, But I
Speaker 2: don't know, I just stuck to it. I didn't try
Speaker 2: to pay attention too much to what she was doing
Speaker 2: on the course. I was just trying to do my thing,
Speaker 2: make as many birdies as possible, even though in major
Speaker 2: tough conditions, and so, I mean, it was tough to
Speaker 2: not look at her eagle bunker shot on one of
Speaker 2: the crazy It was so good. I got goosebumps. And
Speaker 2: then I just kept doing my thing, just trying to
Speaker 2: play one shot at a time.
Speaker 1: I was listening to a podcast the other day and
Speaker 1: someone was saying that it's okay to take things professional,
Speaker 1: don't take them personal. It was like, if you're going
Speaker 1: to be a professional, if you're going to work in
Speaker 1: any sort of professional environment, things are going to happen
Speaker 1: to you that in your personal life you could take personally,
Speaker 1: but in the profession that you want to be in,
Speaker 1: it's not personal. It's just part of being a professional.
Speaker 1: So you know that going to the UK, you're trying
Speaker 1: to win a major, but someone in that group that
Speaker 1: you're playing with is from the UK. It's not a
Speaker 1: personal thing against you, it's professional. They're going to root
Speaker 1: for her because she is kind of the hometown favorite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes sense, and I was really excited for her.
Speaker 2: And like us, I always get excited when I go
Speaker 2: to either Scotland or England. I feel like they have
Speaker 2: true golf fans and they know what a good shot is.
Speaker 2: So I was just over the moon to be there.
Speaker 1: Honestly, when did it sink in that you were a
Speaker 1: two time major champion, Because I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas has one two majors. John Rahm is one
Speaker 1: two majors. You have one two majors. It's hard to
Speaker 1: think of yourself in that vein. But the majors, both
Speaker 1: on the men's side and the women's side, that is
Speaker 1: the benchmark, That is where careers are validated, right Brooks
Speaker 1: kept who I work with. Brooks has always held. He's
Speaker 1: always thought if you were a major, you were a
Speaker 1: great player. If you haven't won a major, no matter
Speaker 1: how many tournaments you've won, his mindset is always like,
Speaker 1: to me, it's always been about the greatest players in golf,
Speaker 1: both on the men's and the women's side, are the
Speaker 1: ones that win majors. Now that you're a two time
Speaker 1: major champion, has it sunk into what you've actually done,
Speaker 1: because it is an enormous accomplishment, and it's an enormous
Speaker 1: accomplishment in one year. I mean, we don't see that, right,
Speaker 1: We don't see Brooks has done it, Tiger's done it,
Speaker 1: but there are some great players that have never come
Speaker 1: close to winning two majors in a year. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: are a rarefied rarefied air. I mean, there are not
Speaker 1: a lot of people at this kind of height on
Speaker 1: the mountain that you're on, and I think sometimes when
Speaker 1: you're doing it, you don't realize it, right, It doesn't
Speaker 1: come across that way. But you are in a category
Speaker 1: now of people that are all time legends that have
Speaker 1: the same amount of major champions, both on the men's
Speaker 1: and the women's side.
Speaker 2: Did you do thank you for saying that I didn't
Speaker 2: really realize it until you mentioned it. I haven't thought
Speaker 2: about that I'm a two time major champion, because I
Speaker 2: think if you look at the majors in between, we
Speaker 2: got KPMG, US Open, and eavy On I didn't do
Speaker 2: so great. I was kind of sure you missed.
Speaker 1: The cut at the US Opening and went on a
Speaker 1: cut streak kind of in that US Open time where
Speaker 1: you'd missed four cuts in a row after winning a major. Again,
Speaker 1: that is an anomaly as well. Normally you win a
Speaker 1: major and you go okay, playing with house money now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna light it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't feel that way for me. I felt
Speaker 2: I feel pressure, felt a lot of pressure, and kind
Speaker 2: of just had an internal battle with myself just putting
Speaker 2: myself too high of a standard, and I was kind
Speaker 2: of being a perfectionist, getting really upset not pulling off
Speaker 2: every single shot I hit on the golf course and
Speaker 2: that was really tough for me. And then someone on
Speaker 2: my team on Wednesday at the Open just said, all
Speaker 2: we need to do is get in contention by this
Speaker 2: weekend and would be a good spot to win. And
Speaker 2: that's what we did. We just took it day by day,
Speaker 2: tried to hit the best shot from wherever we ended
Speaker 2: up and then just went from there.
Speaker 1: I've had Adam Scott on my podcast. Scott He's a
Speaker 1: good friend of mine. I've worked with him. But I
Speaker 1: remember in two thousand and one Adam was he was rookie.
Speaker 1: He was still playing on the European Tour, but because
Speaker 1: of his world ranking he was able to come off.
Speaker 1: He'd won one big turn. I think he had won
Speaker 1: a tournament in South Africa. Nothing really really crazy, and
Speaker 1: that is kind of a one the height of Tiger Mania,
Speaker 1: right when Tiger is at like full full Tiger Tiger Tiger.
Speaker 1: He played a practice round in Atlanta, and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget this, he said. Tiger said to Scutty, I've been
Speaker 1: watching you play, yeah, and Adam's like, he's watching me
Speaker 1: my tournaments on TV. It's unbelievable. Yeah, but he said,
Speaker 1: you just have to learn how to hang around more.
Speaker 1: And he said and Adam was like, well, what do
Speaker 1: you mean. He's like, well, you you're leading or one behind.
Speaker 1: After Friday, you shoot sixty six, sixty eight, you're in
Speaker 1: one of the last groups. And on lately on Saturday
Speaker 1: you've been shooting seventy two, seventy three, and then on Sunday,
Speaker 1: the only way you can win the golf tournament is
Speaker 1: to go out and shoot sixty three. So that's a
Speaker 1: tough ask. And he said, if you can find a
Speaker 1: way just to hang around and be one of those
Speaker 1: players on Sunday, there's probably gonna be you know, five
Speaker 1: to eight of them on the back nine. You kind
Speaker 1: of look at the leaderboard. He said, if you can
Speaker 1: just put yourself in position every week, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: weeks where you play great and lose and you don't
Speaker 1: really play that great win and somebody else messes it up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'll always remember this. Tiger Woods, at the height
Speaker 1: of his kind of power, said to Adam Scott, he said,
Speaker 1: can I be honest with you? He said, you know
Speaker 1: what's the most fun for me When I've got a
Speaker 1: one shot lead and I shoot one under and I
Speaker 1: let everybody else mess it up because they feel the pressure.
Speaker 1: He said, I take care of the par fives and
Speaker 1: I just go out and I just say, hey, I've
Speaker 1: done this before, I've been in this situation before. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let everybody else said, hasn't been in this situation
Speaker 1: before mess it up. So if you think about the
Speaker 1: Masters in twenty nineteen that Tiger won on Sunday, he
Speaker 1: made one birdy, he made one birdy on Sunday and aimed.
Speaker 1: There's a great picture that I sent to Brooks because
Speaker 1: Brooks rinstant in the water made double Frankie Molinari Rinston
Speaker 1: in the water made double Tony Fenaw Rinstant. I mean
Speaker 1: everybody pulled, they all kind of hit it in the water,
Speaker 1: and there was this great picture right behind Tiger. You know,
Speaker 1: the pins over on the right hand side where it
Speaker 1: always is, and he's starting the golf ball left of
Speaker 1: the green and cutting it back into the middle because
Speaker 1: he's hit that shot so many times. Yeah, he's not overawed,
Speaker 1: he's not freaked out by that situation. And Brooks couldn't
Speaker 1: handle it at that time. You know, the wind came up,
Speaker 1: but still you got to execute. So I think what
Speaker 1: you said there is really important that someone on your
Speaker 1: team said, hey, just put yourself in contention. And then
Speaker 1: I also read that after you missed those four cuts,
Speaker 1: your caddy Gole, said hey, let's just go out and
Speaker 1: have fun on the golf course. And I have talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of players, and when they do struggle,
Speaker 1: they talk about that conflict on the golf course where
Speaker 1: it's not fun. Yeah, and when you're a junior golfer,
Speaker 1: it's a blast. You can't wait to get to the
Speaker 1: golf course. You can't wait to play. College golf is fun.
Speaker 1: How do you What is that feeling like when you're
Speaker 1: on the course and it's not fun? What are you
Speaker 1: feeling as a player and as a person.
Speaker 2: I think just very tight overall. I feel like I'm
Speaker 2: not free to play golf the way I want.
Speaker 1: To try not to miss it as opposed to trying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just kind of defense golf. It's not fun. I'm
Speaker 2: not having a good time. It's just I'm seeing a shot,
Speaker 2: but it's not doing that. It's not starting online. And
Speaker 2: I think just for me, I play my best golf
Speaker 2: when I have fun first, and then it turns out well,
Speaker 2: you can't rely on Okay, I'm gonna have fun if
Speaker 2: I'm playing well, because that tends to not work.
Speaker 1: It's a moving target.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I mean I just try I have fun
Speaker 2: the best way I can, just very relax and seeing shots.
Speaker 2: And I remember saying this when I want Onnica a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago that it was just really fun
Speaker 2: to be out there. It was fun to even just
Speaker 2: small things like read the break and like have that
Speaker 2: putt go in the way you see it. Little stuff
Speaker 2: like that, seeing shots, creating shots, And that's my version
Speaker 2: of fun. I know it's very like golf nerdy, but
Speaker 2: that's just how it works.
Speaker 1: And uh, you won kind of the last tournament of
Speaker 1: the year on the on the regular, the regular, on
Speaker 1: the regular schedule, and I thought Texas Roadhouse, I mean
Speaker 1: talking through it. I mean, if your agent doesn't have
Speaker 1: a Texas Roadhouse logo on your sleep, I mean you
Speaker 1: said on Saturday night you played, you played good on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and they asked you you said, well, went to Texas
Speaker 1: Roadhouse for steak the night before. Where did that come from?
Speaker 2: Oh? I have this ongoing theory that if I eat
Speaker 2: steak the night before around I just play really well.
Speaker 2: I love that and it's shown true quite a bit.
Speaker 2: I did go to Texas Roadhouse again that Saturday night
Speaker 2: and then ended up winning the next day.
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's science right at this point that
Speaker 1: those are data points that you can kind of touch
Speaker 1: and field.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Texas Roadhouse got a lot of pr from that. Though.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the beginning. You started playing golf
Speaker 1: when you were seven. Do you remember what you liked
Speaker 1: about golf growing up? What was it that took you
Speaker 1: to golf? Did someone else take you to golf? I'm
Speaker 1: always interested in players kind of journeys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my older brother started golf with my dad,
Speaker 2: and my would just bring me just to watch and sit,
Speaker 2: and I think I was trying to be funny imitating
Speaker 2: my brother's golf swing. Mom gave me a club, and
Speaker 2: then now I'm better than him and I'm playing professionally. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's how it started. My brother ended up playing
Speaker 2: D one golf at UC Riverside, and then I went
Speaker 2: to UCLA and then yeah, and then had a good
Speaker 2: college career.
Speaker 1: What kind of junior golfer were you?
Speaker 2: My mom says I was really good, but I don't
Speaker 2: think I was that great. I think just I felt
Speaker 2: like people were winning left and right in junior golf
Speaker 2: and I just didn't have that. And then once I
Speaker 2: went to UCLA, I learned a lot from my teammates,
Speaker 2: from my coaches, and I think that's when I really
Speaker 2: fell in love with golf. I think learning how to win,
Speaker 2: learning how to even take notes on a yardage book,
Speaker 2: like what I need to write down during practice rounds,
Speaker 2: just having fun and then not being too hard on yourself.
Speaker 2: It was just like, hey, I'm with a bunch of
Speaker 2: my best friends at skill play and have a good time.
Speaker 1: So how do you crack the code from junior golf
Speaker 1: where you're not a prolific winner to going and playing
Speaker 1: at UCLA first team All America? But you win eight
Speaker 1: times in were there for four years?
Speaker 2: Three and a half?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you win eight times in three and a half years.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a lot of golf, and that is
Speaker 1: a again, that is maybe you don't realize it, but
Speaker 1: that is not normal, right, That is not a normal
Speaker 1: resume where people are just like, yeah, I mean I've
Speaker 1: got close to double digit wins in college. The people
Speaker 1: that do that are superstars, right, And so how what
Speaker 1: did you learn in college that maybe you didn't know
Speaker 1: in junior golf?
Speaker 2: Biggest thing for me in college was learning how to
Speaker 2: read the break. When I first got to UCLA, my
Speaker 2: assistant coach, Alicia, taught me how to read aim point
Speaker 2: point you. So from there, on. I just knew how
Speaker 2: to read rereads. I was kind of playing around figuring
Speaker 2: out calibrating my fingers and how far away I need
Speaker 2: to put my arm, and that just made it easy
Speaker 2: for me. I think I had problems reading the green
Speaker 2: when I was a junior golfer, and then I came
Speaker 2: to UCLA and learned how to do that. And then
Speaker 2: also just looking up to my older teammates had I
Speaker 2: followed Bronti Laws pretty close with her and just listening
Speaker 2: to and seeing what she would write down on her
Speaker 2: gyardage books. She said, write down everything you see out there,
Speaker 2: things that you might need, things you don't want to
Speaker 2: be at, where's a good place to miss it, and
Speaker 2: just little things like that. And I think in my
Speaker 2: mind and I figured out how to play the most
Speaker 2: simple golf. Okay, this is I know this is going
Speaker 2: to be kind of difficult to understand, I think, but
Speaker 2: my assistant coach made pin locations with two zero lines.
Speaker 2: There's a green one for uphill, a red one for downhill,
Speaker 2: and I would hit to those lines to have a
Speaker 2: straight putt, and it would just make my life easier. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's just downhill, straight putt.
Speaker 1: Hit it to the straight putt down the slope or
Speaker 1: hit it to the straight put up the slope. Those
Speaker 1: you better be a striker to do that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I would try to do that.
Speaker 2: If not, then we'll figure it out from there. But
Speaker 2: I remember actively trying to do that, and I think
Speaker 2: that helped me a lot, to be honest. And then
Speaker 2: you get out here and no more Green's book, no
Speaker 2: more of this, and I'm like, oh, shoot, I hope
Speaker 2: I'm still good at golf and can make birdies that way.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think that was a big just learning
Speaker 2: how to see the green Con tour, knowing where the
Speaker 2: zero lines are and then the ninety degrees is when
Speaker 2: it breaks the most. So just little stuff like that
Speaker 2: and just understanding putting.
Speaker 1: One of the things I think that ain point helps
Speaker 1: players with because Green reading, like you said, either you
Speaker 1: either have that skill or you don't. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the great things about a point is it
Speaker 1: has helped, you know. I look at the work that
Speaker 1: DJ and his brother AJ did on that run where
Speaker 1: DJ won the Masters and won the FedEx. AJ started
Speaker 1: doing a point and started reading all the putts for DJ,
Speaker 1: and it really really did help. But I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that am point helps professionals do is
Speaker 1: you go through the process, you go through the read,
Speaker 1: and if you miss it, you can almost let it
Speaker 1: go the fact that you missed it because you went
Speaker 1: through a process that you chose, and so you either
Speaker 1: have to let yourself off the hook immediately and go, Okay,
Speaker 1: it just didn't go in because I thought it was
Speaker 1: going to do this and I read it to do
Speaker 1: this and it didn't, And you can then go, Okay,
Speaker 1: are going to try and do that on the next hole. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Pecause I think if you're constantly in and out of
Speaker 1: it and you don't know what's going on, I think
Speaker 1: sticking with that process can somewhat help you let go
Speaker 1: of a failure.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I one hundred percent stand by my system. I
Speaker 2: think I've done it for years. I know it works,
Speaker 2: So when I miss a putt, I'm not too bent
Speaker 2: up about it. I know that, Okay, Like, there's only
Speaker 2: two things that can happen. You either make the plot
Speaker 2: or you miss it. It's not that deep. And I
Speaker 2: was telling my Caddie today, I was like, that's my
Speaker 2: mindset with putting. I think that's why it helps so much,
Speaker 2: because Hey, I did what I needed to do. I
Speaker 2: did my system. If it works, then it works, and
Speaker 2: if it doesn't, then you move on and you try again.
Speaker 1: If you were a player on the LPJ and got
Speaker 1: paired with you for the first time, what do you
Speaker 1: think you would think about your game and the way
Speaker 1: that you play? What would you if you had to
Speaker 1: describe your game? What do you do well? What are
Speaker 1: the attributes that you have? What are some of the
Speaker 1: idiosyncrasies that you have as a player.
Speaker 2: I think my strength is definitely putting. I think if
Speaker 2: I'm hitting it, driving it pretty well, and I get
Speaker 2: it on the green, I have a pretty good chance
Speaker 2: of making that berdie. I don't know why I have
Speaker 2: that feeling, but if I'm on a putting surface, I
Speaker 2: have a good feeling it's getting in. So I think
Speaker 2: just pretty simple, just going driver to Do.
Speaker 1: You like to work the golf ball? Do you like
Speaker 1: to hit it one direction?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I just like a push straw. If it's not
Speaker 2: a push straw, it's probably a mess, to be honest. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm very just simple. I like to see that right
Speaker 2: to left. I love playing with players that can bring
Speaker 2: it right to left, like I love playing with Charlie.
Speaker 2: I love playing with Lynn Grant. I just think that.
Speaker 1: You played with Rory McElroy. No, you really like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'll love that.
Speaker 1: You talk about the absolute blueprint, very high bomb nuke
Speaker 1: draw with the driver. Have you ever seen it up close?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I mean, if you ever, I mean, if you ever
Speaker 1: get a chance to watch Worry mclroy hit golf balls
Speaker 1: up close. By the time he gets the driver where
Speaker 1: he starts hitting drivers, you're just gonna be standing there
Speaker 1: just your mouth is just gonna be open because it
Speaker 1: just the way he drives the golf ball, and he's
Speaker 1: never off balance. He hits he's you know, he carries
Speaker 1: at three thirty in the air. They're high bomb neutraws right.
Speaker 1: He never looked. It's like I keep saying this, it's
Speaker 1: like he's a gymnast. He sticks the landing. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it just looks so natural.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks normal. Just nothing.
Speaker 1: What would your caddy, coll say you're like to work for?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: And what do you need and want from a caddy.
Speaker 2: That's a good question.
Speaker 1: Because you've said in college you like structure, you like
Speaker 1: someone to tell you what to do. So are you
Speaker 1: a player that wants the caddy to give you the
Speaker 1: yardage and go it's a seven iron, and you go, cool,
Speaker 1: it's a seven iron. Is there a collaboration? Do you
Speaker 1: want the back and forth or what kind of info
Speaker 1: and what interaction do you like?
Speaker 2: I kind of like to just be on auto pilot.
Speaker 2: He'll tell me the number. I say, oh, is it
Speaker 2: a soft six. He'll be like yeah, just let's say
Speaker 2: one seventy stock draw and then I'll be like okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: just right up the pin, maybe four yards, or we'll
Speaker 2: find a specific target. I'm very specific target oriented. It
Speaker 2: can't just be like right center the fairway. It has
Speaker 2: to be something.
Speaker 1: So are you picking out things on the horizon? Trees, grandstands,
Speaker 1: antennas as to where your.
Speaker 2: Trylist started, Yeah, it could be palm trees. He'll well,
Speaker 2: we'll do landing points because I have leeway of where
Speaker 2: I want to start my ball. So he'll tell me, okay,
Speaker 2: we want to land on the Grant Thornton logo or
Speaker 2: something else like that.
Speaker 1: So something behind the red that is a visual for you.
Speaker 1: So you can look at the flag and say, okay,
Speaker 1: I see the logo. Yeah, five yards right, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: where I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Try and land. Yeah, and then he could say, oh,
Speaker 2: it's a little off the left, so you want to
Speaker 2: land on the Grant Thornton logo, so maybe start a
Speaker 2: little left of that so that it could help with
Speaker 2: pushing the ball off the face and little stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I think I kind of just try and go wherever
Speaker 2: he tells me to go, unless I really need to
Speaker 2: voice of my opinion and I'm like, hey, I really
Speaker 2: don't think it's an eight year I think it's seven.
Speaker 2: Then we'll kind of just go from there.
Speaker 1: It's but much more of a soldier mentality. I know
Speaker 1: what to do. Just give me the information, tell me
Speaker 1: where we're going, and I'll go. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I kind of just take order, not take orders like that,
Speaker 2: but like pretty good. It just helps me because then
Speaker 2: I can just focus on hitting that shot instead of okay,
Speaker 2: like me going to go get that yardage and double
Speaker 2: checking if he's right. I know he's right, so then
Speaker 2: we don't have to go like there's no lack of
Speaker 2: confidence there.
Speaker 1: One of the generalizations that I noticed between the LPGA
Speaker 1: and the PGA tour is at times when I'm out
Speaker 1: on the LPG or I'm watching, it seems like the
Speaker 1: interaction between the player and the caddy there can be
Speaker 1: a lot of information going back and forth. And yes,
Speaker 1: there are players on the PGA tour that do that.
Speaker 1: Guys you know, Michael Greller and Jordan Spieth. I mean
Speaker 1: they're they're writing a novel sometimes on the shots. But
Speaker 1: a lot of the interaction between the guys and their
Speaker 1: caddies is it's not as much information. And I think
Speaker 1: at times it seems to me that at times the LPGA,
Speaker 1: the players maybe can get overloaded with too much information.
Speaker 1: So you're not reacting as an athlete, you're not reacting
Speaker 1: as a player. You're almost you've taken on so much
Speaker 1: information that you're like, oh gosh, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: hit a seven iron from a buck fifty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty particular. I want to know
Speaker 2: how far it is, how far it's playing with the wind,
Speaker 2: so I'll know like where the wind's coming from, how
Speaker 2: much it's affecting the ball, and then I'll want to
Speaker 2: know how far is it based on like how far
Speaker 2: is it to the front or how far is it
Speaker 2: to the back. If it's like closer to one side
Speaker 2: or the other or how much room I have. But
Speaker 2: once I kind of once I hear the number, I
Speaker 2: kind of know what I'm hitting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you a big practicer? What's your practice routine like?
Speaker 1: What are off weeks like for you? What are tournament
Speaker 1: weeks like? There are It runs the gamut right There
Speaker 1: are people that spend four or five six hours on
Speaker 1: the range. They want to be there, they need to
Speaker 1: be there. Their identity is in practicing. And then there
Speaker 1: are other players that are like you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna really practice much. I'm trying. If you had a
Speaker 1: choice between practicing and playing, which one are you choosing?
Speaker 2: Playing every single day? Now? Just kidding. I love playing practice.
Speaker 2: I'm not much of a practicer. I will maybe two
Speaker 2: three times a week during my off weeks. But I
Speaker 2: love playing. I love playing with friends, anyone that's back home,
Speaker 2: just people from my club. And yeah, I'm much more
Speaker 2: of a player even out here. I don't really go
Speaker 2: and find something on the range post round. I think
Speaker 2: I was telling another girl in my group today the
Speaker 2: four winds I've had. I've never went to a range
Speaker 2: of practice afterwards. I care more about just managing my
Speaker 2: body and how my body feels and just maintaining rest.
Speaker 1: And that is very much the Dustin Johnson, the DJ model. DJA.
Speaker 1: He doesn't hit a lot of golf balls after the round,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether he plays well, and even if he
Speaker 1: plays poorly. You know, I've said this a million times
Speaker 1: on the pod, but there are loads of times where
Speaker 1: I'm standing and scoring. He you know, DJ, with all
Speaker 1: of his firepower, all the par fives he can reach,
Speaker 1: he'll make a double on one of them, and he'll
Speaker 1: come in. He'll shoot you know, one two over and
Speaker 1: his brother will be shaking his head and I'll say, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to go hit balls? And he'll go nah,
Speaker 1: and really hit that bad today. And AJ's sitting there
Speaker 1: looking at me, going, bro, it was awful, but he
Speaker 1: just he's like, I'll figure it out tomorrow. I know
Speaker 1: what I need to do. I'll be fine. Brooks And
Speaker 1: I've said this a lot too. Brooks likes to go
Speaker 1: to the range, whether he shut sixty three or whether
Speaker 1: he shot seventy five. Yeah, the range, and half the
Speaker 1: time he just wants to go there and kind of
Speaker 1: talk download and go through the round. He needs that,
Speaker 1: he needs that kind of downtime to kind of go okay,
Speaker 1: and we know now to do that. But one of
Speaker 1: the and I've said this before a well, but I
Speaker 1: think it's something it's important for people to hear, like yourself.
Speaker 1: We were at the Tour Championship. Once Brooks had played
Speaker 1: pretty good, he hit a couple bad drives, he said,
Speaker 1: let's get the launchmonner out. We got the launchmoner out,
Speaker 1: and then we're starting to dissect everything, and Ricky said, hey,
Speaker 1: can we go home. You shot sixty six today and
Speaker 1: you're leading by whatever. Yeah, we can find stuff to
Speaker 1: work on if you want to work on it. But
Speaker 1: it's working pretty good. Let's go home and let's get
Speaker 1: off the range.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the opposite of me. I think I'm down
Speaker 2: more of DJ's path. Just if I play good, I'm
Speaker 2: not practicing. If I play bad, I need to forget
Speaker 2: my swing and then figure it out the next day.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I got into that mindset, but
Speaker 2: I think it just helps me because I'm not going
Speaker 2: to find anything on the range.
Speaker 1: I think, are you warming up on the range or
Speaker 1: you is the range warm up? In a tournament? Tournament
Speaker 1: day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. How important is your warm
Speaker 1: up to you? How important is it to your psyche
Speaker 1: as to what you've seen in the warm up going
Speaker 1: to the course.
Speaker 2: Usually, if I have a bad warm up, that's a
Speaker 2: good sign. I'll go play like the best golf I've
Speaker 2: ever played. For some reason, it tends to be like
Speaker 2: that all the time. So I think I don't take
Speaker 2: into heart a bad warm up too much because somehow
Speaker 2: it just turns out well. And then, yeah, I think
Speaker 2: it's just very simple for me.
Speaker 1: So how going into twenty twenty four do you manage
Speaker 1: the expectations that you have? Do you manage the expectations
Speaker 1: that your team has, and then obviously managing the expectations
Speaker 1: that the wider golf world has. I mean next year
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, you play good next year and win
Speaker 1: once and don't win a major and don't win four times,
Speaker 1: it's easy to see that as a down year based
Speaker 1: off of the year that you've had. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: saw this. I think Jordan Speith when he came out
Speaker 1: on tour. Jordan had a career year when two majors
Speaker 1: and he had a rear year in one year, and
Speaker 1: it's hard to sustain that. What are you looking to
Speaker 1: do next year, and how are you trying to in
Speaker 1: your own head say, Okay, how am I going to
Speaker 1: manage expectations?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So during the off season, I think my team
Speaker 2: will kind of reevaluate what needs to be better. I
Speaker 2: know there's a lot in my game that can be better.
Speaker 2: For some reason, I just feel like this is not
Speaker 2: the limit. Like I feel like I can be so
Speaker 2: much better short game wise, ball striking, off the tee, everything,
Speaker 2: And so I think usually during off season I write
Speaker 2: down a series of my goals and put it away
Speaker 2: and see by the end of the year, see if
Speaker 2: I've achieved it all. So I haven't looked at my
Speaker 2: goals that I wrote down for this past year.
Speaker 1: Were they to win two majors?
Speaker 2: I don't really so I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Were they to win four times?
Speaker 2: Maybe? I think after this event I'll relook at it
Speaker 2: and see if I did touch all of them. But
Speaker 2: I think I'll be pretty close to what I wrote down.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited to just sit down, think about what
Speaker 2: I want to do next year and see if I
Speaker 2: achieve it again.
Speaker 1: Lastly, I was looking you toured pro in nineteen, you
Speaker 1: played nine events, you made one cut, you made three thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred and thirty dollars this year. You won four times,
Speaker 1: two majors, and you made three point five million dollars
Speaker 1: in nineteen when you were at that stage of missing
Speaker 1: you know, basically all the cuts. We're not that far
Speaker 1: removed from that. I mean, if someone had told you, hey,
Speaker 1: I know it's tough right now, but in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: you're gonna win four times, win two majors, be Rolex
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. I heard from someone on your
Speaker 1: team that when you were junior golfer you always wore
Speaker 1: a white Rolex hat, and now you are the Rolex
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. I mean that's just crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to come full circle like this is kind of crazy.
Speaker 2: I think twenty nineteen, Lilia would never have thought that
Speaker 2: I'd be in this position. I think I've just had
Speaker 2: a phenomenal year, and I haven't had much time to
Speaker 2: think about it. Definitely during the off season, I will.
Speaker 2: I think just played so many tournaments in between, and
Speaker 2: it's been a busy season. But I'm very grateful to
Speaker 2: be here. I'm actually super grateful that the twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: season happened because I learned so much failure. Yeah, hot
Speaker 2: to fail, that's the best way to learn.
Speaker 1: And I think junior golfers, and I think you know
Speaker 1: this now, junior golfers are so afraid to fail. Even
Speaker 1: in college. If you're not winning, it's easy to go Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm no good, I'm no good. I'm going good. But
Speaker 1: the failure that you went through in nineteen to where
Speaker 1: you reach your dream, you get on the LPGA Tour
Speaker 1: for the first time, and then you just don't. You
Speaker 1: don't have it, you don't play good. It's easy to
Speaker 1: let that affect you. But I think what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: you say is without that, this year doesn't happen exactly.
Speaker 2: If I didn't hit rock bottom, I wouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to step back and see what I needed to change
Speaker 2: in order to be here. And then I slowly worked
Speaker 2: my way, learn new things, took things from other people
Speaker 2: that I saw, and then also tried to create a
Speaker 2: full team around me to help me with everything. And
Speaker 2: then that allowed me to just focus on golf. There's
Speaker 2: nothing I needed to add this year. I just needed
Speaker 2: to play golf, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: Well, if you haven't you said you hadn't thought about it.
Speaker 1: This is a hell of a year and you've got
Speaker 1: to be incredibly proud of yourself, and I think everybody
Speaker 1: is excited to see what you do in the future.
Speaker 1: My advice stay on the stake, stay all mistake.
Speaker 2: Okay, definitely stay wins. Yes, steak wins. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for having.
Speaker 1: I have a good off season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: So that was the world number one liliavou What a
Speaker 1: cool story, and like I said at the beginning, a huge,
Speaker 1: huge year, a breakout year, and a year I think
Speaker 1: could have gotten a little bit more following and had
Speaker 1: people talking about it because it is one of the breakout,
Speaker 1: standout career years that anyone's had. We haven't seen someone
Speaker 1: step up and win two majors. I mean, that just
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. So really really impressed with her as a player,
Speaker 1: Excited to see what she does in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and I am definitely a fan. I want to thank
Speaker 1: everyone for listening twenty twenty four. The pod is going
Speaker 1: to be bringing in some good guests, excited to bring
Speaker 1: some new stuff and just try and help everybody get
Speaker 1: better with their golf and enjoy their golf more. Son
Speaker 1: of a Butch comes to you every Wednesday. We will
Speaker 1: see you next week.