Speaker 1: Today's podcast is brought to you by B dratty our
Speaker 1: friends over at B dratty. It's cold well Knights is here. Well,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite B dratty item you got?
Speaker 2: I mean, how can you go wrong with the crew
Speaker 2: neck sweater. It's the best thing that they've gotten the shop.
Speaker 1: The sweatshirt. You like the sweatshirt?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, front pocket. I mean, you're lounging around watching
Speaker 2: coffee golf in the morning. You got Hawaii coming up,
Speaker 2: You're gonna be sitting around. You need something comfy, something
Speaker 2: warm looking out of the snow. It's good for all situations.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: People a lot of times look at me.
Speaker 4: I'm wearing that sweat They're like that is that kangaroo
Speaker 4: pouch on a crew neck sweatshirt?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh yeah. And it's like people get
Speaker 1: like jealous if you've got a kangaroo pouch and they
Speaker 1: don't have one.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, especially you got Violet here, she's running around.
Speaker 2: You could throw her right in there, carry around the
Speaker 2: golf course.
Speaker 4: Who knows, you know, the kangaroo pocket has no limits
Speaker 4: as to where where I'll go. There's snow on the
Speaker 4: ground here, so I don't think I've gone be going
Speaker 4: golf course anytime soon. You can get the crew neck
Speaker 4: on our website, the Fridagg dot com. We've got a
Speaker 4: few and some random sizes left, but otherwise you can
Speaker 4: go get that sweatshirt on bdradty dot com. Welcome back
Speaker 4: to another edition of the Fridagg Podcast. Today I am
Speaker 4: joined by Nick Hardy. Nick is a former All American
Speaker 4: from the University of Illinois. He was actually up on
Speaker 4: the podcast a couple of years ago, I think is
Speaker 4: episode nineteen or thereabouts. He was on with his teammate
Speaker 4: Dylan Meyer. So Nick is just got through the second
Speaker 4: stage of Q school. He's obviously a pretty high profile
Speaker 4: young player who will be playing on the Corn Ferry
Speaker 4: Tour next year, and a local from the Chicago area.
Speaker 4: So I've gotten to watch Nick play so many times
Speaker 4: grown up from when he was thirteen. It's been pretty
Speaker 4: cool to see a local kid really develop into one
Speaker 4: of the best young players UH in the game.
Speaker 1: So here's our podcast with Nick Hardy. I miss a green,
Speaker 1: for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball
Speaker 1: in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find
Speaker 1: my ball in.
Speaker 3: A frid Egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Friday,
Speaker 3: Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg, Bride egg.
Speaker 4: Lie.
Speaker 1: I'm about ready to run off the gump. What do
Speaker 1: you do in your downtime when you're not playing golf?
Speaker 3: Oh, man, I mean not much, Honestly. I like to
Speaker 3: I like to work out, you know, I just like
Speaker 3: to chill. Quite honestly. I like to chill because I
Speaker 3: spend spend a lot of time, you know, at golf,
Speaker 3: and just because I love it. I'm always practicing, I'm
Speaker 3: always playing. But you know, I like to work out
Speaker 3: and I like to chill. I like to I love
Speaker 3: fantasy football. I love the Bears, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: I love tough season. I set aside all my Sunday
Speaker 3: afternoons to watch football. But besides that, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm pretty pretty, you know, blanned.
Speaker 1: Besides that, going from college to professional golf where college
Speaker 1: you have a lot of built in distractions to golf.
Speaker 1: You know, professional golf golf all the time. What's been
Speaker 1: the toughest thing about that? Have you had troubles?
Speaker 3: Right, No, there's no doubt. I mean my senior year
Speaker 3: of college, I remember thinking like, okay, I'm going to
Speaker 3: be making this transition next year, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: have a lot more downtime than I do right now,
Speaker 3: you know, just based on having you know, teammates at
Speaker 3: hand and being able to you know, be competitive them
Speaker 3: with them. Day to day practice schedule, workout schedule, everything's
Speaker 3: planned for you, from class to studying. You know, everything's
Speaker 3: you have your own planned everything out for you, and
Speaker 3: you know the next year, I would have to really
Speaker 3: just make my own plan and be cautious that I'm
Speaker 3: not trying to overdo it too because knowing me, I'll
Speaker 3: probably want to overdo working on the game and just
Speaker 3: being there too much. But it's important to build you know,
Speaker 3: outside hobbies and have a routine day to day that
Speaker 3: you're comfortable with. You're making sure you're not kind of
Speaker 3: overdoing it. And I think I've found the happy medium.
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of really, honestly, it's been It's
Speaker 3: been nice because I just really have slowed myself down
Speaker 3: on a day to day basis. College you're kind of
Speaker 3: running from class to practice, to lunch to you know,
Speaker 3: you name it. You got something to do, and now
Speaker 3: I just kind of take my time. I notice that
Speaker 3: I'm moving a lot slower day to day, which is
Speaker 3: better for me. I notice I drive slower, I eat slower.
Speaker 3: I you know, I do everything a lot slower than
Speaker 3: I did in college. And I think that's a great
Speaker 3: That's honestly a much better way to live. But uh,
Speaker 3: I think that's really what I've noticed.
Speaker 1: Did it take time to figure out that you need
Speaker 1: to slow down?
Speaker 3: No, I guess it just sort of happened, you know,
Speaker 3: it just kind of it just kind of just went
Speaker 3: to float that way because I just had more time
Speaker 3: and I was able to fill gaps by just getting
Speaker 3: breakfast slowly every morning, or taking more time practicing over
Speaker 3: you know, still being you know, effective with practice, but
Speaker 3: having more time to do what I feel like I
Speaker 3: need to do.
Speaker 1: You go down to Scottsdale in the winter, do you
Speaker 1: do you stay with other guys playing or roommates or
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I stay with family friends. Actually, my caddie, Eric Marcus,
Speaker 3: his parents live live out there and they have a
Speaker 3: house in the DC Ranch Community. So I stayed with
Speaker 3: them last winter, and I plan on doing so a
Speaker 3: little bit this winter too. But I also have my
Speaker 3: grandpa in Tucson, who I stayed with for a couple
Speaker 3: of times. And then my my buddy's Charlie Dalllson's out there,
Speaker 3: so I will stay with him a couple of times too.
Speaker 3: But yeah, having family friends out there for now is
Speaker 3: great for me because it's you know, I like to
Speaker 3: be in Chicago and when it's nice and so it's
Speaker 3: doesn't really make sense. I'm on the road in the
Speaker 3: winter time when I want to be in Scots, so
Speaker 3: it doesn't really make sense for me to have my
Speaker 3: own place yet out there.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you're on the road all the time.
Speaker 3: Yes, hopefully I'm on the road all the time.
Speaker 1: But you want to be and that's true.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: The uh so you talked to when we talked last
Speaker 1: time when you were still in school you were a
Speaker 1: junior then and Illinois. You talked about how you work
Speaker 1: really well with structure. How have you gone about building
Speaker 1: structure now that you get to decide your structure?
Speaker 3: Right, It's nice, you know when you're When I was
Speaker 3: in college, especially having coach Small develop our own structure
Speaker 3: in terms of practice, that was really nice, and having
Speaker 3: you know, six or seven other guys being able to
Speaker 3: compete against every single day was really nice. And now
Speaker 3: now I start to realize how lucky I was to
Speaker 3: have that just fit out and plan for me, because
Speaker 3: you know, obviously I trusted Coach Small first and foremost
Speaker 3: with with my practice, but with structure in my whole life,
Speaker 3: because he really cared about us and we were doing
Speaker 3: I knew I was doing the right things, and I
Speaker 3: believed one hundred percent that I was doing the right
Speaker 3: things in practice that would make myself successful on the course.
Speaker 3: And now that you know I've spent four years at
Speaker 3: school and learning from coach and learning from my teammates,
Speaker 3: I kind of know how to practice to get things
Speaker 3: done and not just be there and just going through
Speaker 3: the motions. So I try to do things that we
Speaker 3: did at school in my structure practice and try to
Speaker 3: complete things in practice and try to feel like I'm
Speaker 3: getting things done in order to get that confidence, that
Speaker 3: self belief instead of just kind of being there hitting balls,
Speaker 3: going through the motions and whatnot. So having learned from
Speaker 3: Coach Mall and being structured in practice at school, I've
Speaker 3: been able to do things on my own, But not
Speaker 3: having those teammates from day to day is the biggest difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talk about the teammates. I think one of the
Speaker 1: interesting things with college golf is that it's this team environment,
Speaker 1: and I mean your guys's teams at Illinois, great players,
Speaker 1: I mean Charlie Danielson who we were talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: Thomas Deetree, Brian Campbell, Dylan Meyer, you know, guys that
Speaker 1: are playing on PGA Tour, European Tour, having a lot
Speaker 1: of success. What was it the practice environment?
Speaker 3: Like right, yeah, No, coach made the practice environment extremely competitive,
Speaker 3: Like every single day we were doing something to get
Speaker 3: our competitive juice is flowing, you know like that, And
Speaker 3: that's a great thing about our team though. Those guys
Speaker 3: you named, every single one of them was super super
Speaker 3: competitive and everyone hated losing in practice as much as
Speaker 3: they did you know, on the course and in real competition.
Speaker 3: So that having that every day was such a good environment.
Speaker 3: And you know, now it's for me, I have different
Speaker 3: guys that I do that with, but having those guys
Speaker 3: at that those types of players at your disposal every day,
Speaker 3: whether it be on the course or in that indoorpse
Speaker 3: or outdoor facility, we're doing something to keep keep competitive.
Speaker 1: So you've kind of like as you've moved into professional golf.
Speaker 1: You've got a group of guys now that you have
Speaker 1: similar competitiveness with when you're doing, when you're practicing, and
Speaker 1: when you're playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So at the Merrick Club where I practice, you know,
Speaker 3: and I've been you know, lucky to practice for eight
Speaker 3: years now. I practice with Patrick Flavin, a bunch Brian Orr,
Speaker 3: my old high school teammate. They're both you know, up
Speaker 3: and coming players who've just turned pro recently, and Patrick's
Speaker 3: had success this year in Latin America Tour. So I mean,
Speaker 3: we make each other better. We feed off each other,
Speaker 3: for sure. There's no doubt that over the years we've
Speaker 3: made each other better. And it's not we're not probably
Speaker 3: doing similar things you know that we're doing at school
Speaker 3: with Coach Small in terms of practicing competitively, but we're
Speaker 3: on the golf course just as competitive. We could play
Speaker 3: for a dollar and it'd be it'd be quiet out there.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we would not be talking to each other, just
Speaker 3: really competitive on the golf course. We don't want to
Speaker 3: lose to each other. So that's what makes you better.
Speaker 1: Though, What are your guys favorite games to play on
Speaker 1: the course.
Speaker 3: If we got a foursome, we're always playing Scotch games
Speaker 3: just too. On two. I'm sure many people were familiar
Speaker 3: with Scotch games, but we would we would mix up
Speaker 3: the teams randomly. We always played with Jim billd or two.
Speaker 3: They have pro Kepper Lakes And it's great playing at
Speaker 3: Kepper Lakes too, because that course is very hard. It
Speaker 3: can beat you up, especially the back nine. Uh yeah,
Speaker 3: and so I mean it playing that course too has
Speaker 3: made me better. So it's uh, it's quite a treat
Speaker 3: to be able to play there too.
Speaker 1: Last year, you you missed out on on getting through
Speaker 1: Q School stage two just by what the two shots one? Yeah,
Speaker 1: two shots two shots. And then you you didn't go
Speaker 1: to play either Canada or Latin America. You kind of
Speaker 1: did a lot of Mondays, some smaller events in Arizona.
Speaker 1: You got some exemptions. What was the decision did you
Speaker 1: think about doing Latin America or Canada? Is there a
Speaker 1: reason that you didn't do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course I did. I mean it was a
Speaker 3: very tough decision. And I don't regret anything of what
Speaker 3: I did the past year, and looking back on it,
Speaker 3: I mean, the year couldn't have gone better. I failed
Speaker 3: so many times. I mean I have three part of
Speaker 3: the last two holes at Q School second stage last
Speaker 3: year to miss by two. I missed the Cup. I
Speaker 3: wanted Tory Pines and the sponsor exception I had. I
Speaker 3: missed the Cup. I wanted Dominican Republic. I lost in
Speaker 3: a four for three playoff to get in the waste management.
Speaker 3: I missed a Cup. I wanted the US Open. I mean,
Speaker 3: just making the cut is not my standard I set
Speaker 3: for myself. But in order to have any success that
Speaker 3: you want to have, you got to play the weekend.
Speaker 3: And I mean, I couldn't be more thankful for those
Speaker 3: experiences now. I mean, I've learned so much from those
Speaker 3: experiences and I'll never forget the feelings I had after
Speaker 3: those tournaments. But it's just made me better. I know,
Speaker 3: I know it for a fact. And not deciding, you know,
Speaker 3: deciding not to go to Canada or Latin was a
Speaker 3: hard decision for me because I knew I probably should
Speaker 3: be playing events and getting those reps in. I didn't
Speaker 3: know at the time though, I would have maybe three
Speaker 3: three exemptions left, and I knew I was I would
Speaker 3: be a great Monday qualifier and I ended up qualifying
Speaker 3: for three webs and I had a sponsor exception in
Speaker 3: one of them, and I knew that that was probably
Speaker 3: a tough decision, and I knew many people wouldn't agree
Speaker 3: with me for it, and I didn't care. I mean,
Speaker 3: I didn't care what others thought about my decision. I
Speaker 3: knew that I would I would kind of make my
Speaker 3: own experiences and I would make my own opportunities as
Speaker 3: I went. And I ended up having some success. I
Speaker 3: mean I played in the US Open again, which is
Speaker 3: another great experience. I won an APT event All Pro Tour.
Speaker 3: I mean I finished third in another one. I mean
Speaker 3: I had some small moments of okay, I know, I
Speaker 3: know I'm on the right track, which gave me good feelings.
Speaker 1: But.
Speaker 3: Not playing. I probably didn't play in enough tournaments this year,
Speaker 3: even though I probably still played in eighteen to twenty.
Speaker 3: At least, you know that decision was really hard, But
Speaker 3: I don't regret any of it.
Speaker 1: Talk about golf, and I guess what you said. I
Speaker 1: agree with a certain extent with the UH. When you
Speaker 1: have near missus versus when everything's going good, like what
Speaker 1: you're learning right from near misses.
Speaker 3: You learn way more when you go don't get the
Speaker 3: things that you kind of desire for I feel like
Speaker 3: if I had actually made the cut in all those
Speaker 3: or barely squeaked in and played the weekend and whatever
Speaker 3: I did, whatever I did, I mean, I wouldn't have
Speaker 3: learned nearly as much as I did from just just
Speaker 3: getting cut in the throat for those like five or
Speaker 3: six heartbreaks. I mean, the standard I said for myself
Speaker 3: is not just to make the cut. Let me get
Speaker 3: this clear, but not playing the weekend, will you know,
Speaker 3: it's enough to not make you successful at all. So
Speaker 3: I just feel like, I mean, over and over again,
Speaker 3: I definitely felt, you know, some sort of heartbreak this year.
Speaker 3: But I mean it's it's probably why I had success
Speaker 3: last week at second stage, you know, and why it's
Speaker 3: why I decided to go back to the same site
Speaker 3: and try to do it all over again, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean those experiences I'll always look back to the
Speaker 3: rest of my career, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I think with life in general
Speaker 1: and golf in general, and when you miss, when you
Speaker 1: get it, it's like a teaching moment because then you
Speaker 1: get back, and especially with golf, like you're never in
Speaker 1: the same situation twice ever in golf I think that's
Speaker 1: probably why it's the coolest game in the world, right
Speaker 1: because you'll never hit the same shot ever again.
Speaker 3: It'll be completely new another time. But but the thing is,
Speaker 3: the things that you're feeling down this stretch are always
Speaker 3: the same everything. Like that's a great thing about golf
Speaker 3: is it's individual. So I mean, you may not have
Speaker 3: the same physical things over and over again, but your
Speaker 3: your mind and and your body and what you're feeling
Speaker 3: will always be the same. And that's that's like the
Speaker 3: tangible thing that you can always get better at is
Speaker 3: how you control yourself out there. And I feel like
Speaker 3: I am, in some ways am a slow learner and
Speaker 3: I've always been that way. Every single level I've I've
Speaker 3: kind of played at. It's taken me a little bit
Speaker 3: of time to feel like I okay, I'm I'm ready
Speaker 3: to really go now, you know, And I've i feel
Speaker 3: like I've always been that way, And that's a great
Speaker 3: thing about golf is like you just got to keep
Speaker 3: getting better at learning how to handle yourself in those moments.
Speaker 1: What particular aspect do you think has been the toughest
Speaker 1: for you to to learn, Like in the moment.
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's just being able to control myself. Like I
Speaker 3: am definitely more of a high strung competitive guy. And
Speaker 3: you know, Coach Small right when I got to school,
Speaker 3: he always talked about being able to like know what
Speaker 3: level you play at your best at and everyone's different. Everyone,
Speaker 3: like say you go a one to tenth scale on
Speaker 3: like emotion and just anxiety. I'm definitely a higher anxiety person,
Speaker 3: Like I am always probably riding at at eight. And
Speaker 3: you got guys maybe like Brian Campbell, for example, He's
Speaker 3: probably riding at a two. Like there are guys that
Speaker 3: are just different in terms of like being able to
Speaker 3: have to get themselves up for something or get themselves
Speaker 3: down for something. And if you're if you're always at
Speaker 3: a five, then then you're always probably lucky to be
Speaker 3: that way. But for me, I always need to calm
Speaker 3: myself down and and you know, find the right level
Speaker 3: for myself, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I it's interesting. I think that golf is so
Speaker 1: unique in this fact that like, if you're playing in
Speaker 1: the NBA finals, everybody's amped, right, But in golf, you
Speaker 1: have to play to your like personality, right, and it's
Speaker 1: you can't try and be somebody you aren't right. You
Speaker 1: can't look at you can't look at Brian Campbell and
Speaker 1: be like, well, I just need to be like him, No,
Speaker 1: because it would would not work for you.
Speaker 3: No, No, it wouldn't. And and that's the that's the
Speaker 3: crazy thing about it is you gotta be, you gotta
Speaker 3: you gotta know yourself, you gotta know and that's your
Speaker 3: trial and error, you know, just like anything.
Speaker 1: But and that's that's probably where when you have things
Speaker 1: not go your way, is when you learn more about
Speaker 1: yourself than when things go You're.
Speaker 3: Away for sure, for sure. I mean, when things are
Speaker 3: going well, anyone can go out there and find the
Speaker 3: right whatever. Because things are just going well, you're not
Speaker 3: really like thinking about those things. But when you're driving
Speaker 3: home from with a seven hour drive thinking about infestering
Speaker 3: in your mind about how you just misplayed two shots
Speaker 3: to miss the cup I want or one shot, you know,
Speaker 3: then that's when you're really learning, Like you got plenty
Speaker 3: of time to think about things when you fail, you know.
Speaker 1: It's those drives. A few years ago, I've I was
Speaker 1: playing a US mid am a qualifier and I was
Speaker 1: playing well, and I finished double double and I was
Speaker 1: in the middle fair way of both the whole and
Speaker 1: I miss missed qualifying by one or two and I
Speaker 1: was played in Indianapolis. I'm driving home and it was
Speaker 1: just it was a four hour drive and I don't
Speaker 1: remember anything from it because you know, you're just replaying
Speaker 1: and it's just amazing when you have moment tournament golf.
Speaker 1: The drive home from a tournament, it is like the
Speaker 1: craziest thing in the world because like you've left the world, yeah, essentially.
Speaker 3: And it's crazy because I mean, you you're just festering inside,
Speaker 3: but you're you know, you're kind of driving and you're
Speaker 3: just kind of in the zone. Your body, your your
Speaker 3: mind's just like like driving for you. But you're just
Speaker 3: festering about the things that you know maybe have gone wrong.
Speaker 3: But on the other side of things, like when things
Speaker 3: go well, like I've driven home three times making the
Speaker 3: US Open for six hour drive and that's the best,
Speaker 3: you know, best time in my life. One of those
Speaker 3: drives was with Charlie Danielson and we were the one
Speaker 3: of like two of the only four to qualify at
Speaker 3: Springfield out of eighty guys, and we were driving home
Speaker 3: and that was the best drive of our lives. I mean,
Speaker 3: like like it's just it can it can be. That's
Speaker 3: a great thing about golf, though, you know it can be.
Speaker 3: It's so high and low and I mean it's not
Speaker 3: like you know, like you said, it's not like football
Speaker 3: or basketball where you can just make things better by
Speaker 3: trying harder. You know, it's just you gotta it's the
Speaker 3: right temperament.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of times if you try try less,
Speaker 1: things turn exactly.
Speaker 3: That's totally with golf and especially with putting. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like like it's just like you gotta just let
Speaker 3: things happens. You know. You just gotta control what you
Speaker 3: can control only you know.
Speaker 1: That's it's so true because you get especially if you're
Speaker 1: playing like a scramble, people are like, oh, you gotta
Speaker 1: make this, don't and it's like you never make that pot. No,
Speaker 1: you can't try and make it. No, it's talk about it.
Speaker 1: Say you say you're over a big putt. You say
Speaker 1: it's a match play match and you need to make
Speaker 1: something like your mentality is the same for that pie
Speaker 1: as any other putt, right.
Speaker 3: For sure, I mean, And it just goes back to
Speaker 3: like relying on your your routine, you know, and totally
Speaker 3: just only controlling on on. You know what you can control,
Speaker 3: and then that's not what's in front of you. Realistically,
Speaker 3: everyone reads the putt, okay, I got the read, and
Speaker 3: everyone just obsesses with the read. But what I control,
Speaker 3: can control, is right in front of my eyes, right here,
Speaker 3: and this is me making a good stroke and hitting
Speaker 3: the golf ball as well as I can. And that's
Speaker 3: that's all I'm worried about when I hit a big
Speaker 3: putt is just I know, Okay, all I can control
Speaker 3: is what my eyes are looking at right at, you know,
Speaker 3: right a dimple on the golf b or whatever I'm
Speaker 3: looking at, and I can't control whatever else happens in
Speaker 3: front of me. I can predict what happens in front
Speaker 3: of me, but I can't control it.
Speaker 1: Once you have your read, it's you shut off that right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I mean a lot of people just you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's totally goes back to thinking too far in
Speaker 3: the future or too far in the past. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's what's what's in front of you. That read
Speaker 3: is the future. You know, what what is in the
Speaker 3: now is making the best stroke you can and whatever
Speaker 3: happens out in front of you is happens.
Speaker 1: So you played the your third US Open, you qualify,
Speaker 1: You made the cut at Chambers Bay, you played at Oakmont,
Speaker 1: and then you played this year in pebble the first
Speaker 1: two as an am. Did you feel any different playing
Speaker 1: in the US Open as a pro.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, my feelings that week were so different
Speaker 3: because I honestly felt like I was like, that was
Speaker 3: the week where I felt like, Okay, I'm I can
Speaker 3: compete against these guys, like I really believed it.
Speaker 1: And he got off to great starry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I looking back at that week and yeah,
Speaker 3: I was really frustrated again and missing the cup I won,
Speaker 3: and it was another just kind of a heartbreaker looking
Speaker 3: back at that week though, that was huge because it
Speaker 3: was honestly the first week where I felt like I
Speaker 3: could beat every single one of these guys. Like I
Speaker 3: came in really confident, I was hitting the ball as
Speaker 3: good as I've ever hit the ball, and I just
Speaker 3: had two doubles on the first round that killed me, Like,
Speaker 3: and there were mistakes that I don't normally make either.
Speaker 3: It was like it was just normally I take my
Speaker 3: own medicine and play patiently and all that, but I
Speaker 3: made I made a bad mistake on number nine out
Speaker 3: of the fairway bunker. I hit a five iron trying
Speaker 3: to go for the green when I probably should have
Speaker 3: just hit a layup in that fairway and just took it.
Speaker 3: Took a five, but even the layup into the nine
Speaker 3: fairway is not easy because you got the ocean on
Speaker 3: your right and just horrible rough on the left. So
Speaker 3: I took all of everything into account and I went
Speaker 3: for the green and I hit it in the hazard
Speaker 3: to the right, just barely in the in the prairie
Speaker 3: grass in front of the ocean, and ended up hacking
Speaker 3: out and making a double. And then I hit a
Speaker 3: great iron shot into ten that came up short and
Speaker 3: didn't get up and down. So I was backed even
Speaker 3: through ten holes after being three under through seven, and
Speaker 3: I just made another double bogie coming in, and I,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm looking at I think I was. I
Speaker 3: shot three over in the first round, I think, or
Speaker 3: two over, I can't remember, but uh yeah, I shot
Speaker 3: two over in the first round. And then I come back,
Speaker 3: you know, and I played in the morning on the
Speaker 3: first round, in the afternoon in the second round. Now
Speaker 3: I'm going to like the last tea time, and I'm
Speaker 3: finishing almost at dark and it was not easy. Like
Speaker 3: I played really solid in the second round and I
Speaker 3: had I was on the cut line with six holes ago,
Speaker 3: and I missed a short put on number four and
Speaker 3: I finished on nine, and I had a bunch of
Speaker 3: opportunities coming in for Birdie the last five holes, and
Speaker 3: I didn't get one to go. And I remember, I
Speaker 3: remember though, like after all the heartbreaks I had prior
Speaker 3: to that US Open and you know, everything I had
Speaker 3: three or four before that, I knew I was handing
Speaker 3: on myself really well. And I came away with that
Speaker 3: US Open thinking, well, I know I handled myself so
Speaker 3: well coming down the stretch in this one. It wasn't
Speaker 3: that I kind of hurt myself or cost myself by
Speaker 3: not handling myself the right way. And that was the
Speaker 3: most frustrating part of it, was I finally handled myself
Speaker 3: the right way I felt like, and it didn't it
Speaker 3: just didn't happen my way. And you know, walking away,
Speaker 3: you know, walking away from that week was just just
Speaker 3: grueling because I knew I handled myself the right way finally,
Speaker 3: instead of the ways before where I didn't maybe didn't
Speaker 3: control myself down the stretch the way I should have, or.
Speaker 1: You might have pushed too much when.
Speaker 3: Right right, or I tried too harder, or yeah, exactly
Speaker 3: this time, I knew I hindled myself the right way.
Speaker 3: It just didn't go my way. I didn't get in
Speaker 3: for the weekend, and that was so frustrating because I
Speaker 3: played so well that week and I remember probably could
Speaker 3: have I probably could have scored. I mean, the way
Speaker 3: I hit the ball and the way I played it,
Speaker 3: it could have been a really special first two days.
Speaker 3: It could I mean, it could have been, and everyone
Speaker 3: could say that, but I really believe I knew it.
Speaker 3: That's what's you know, stunk was deep down. I knew
Speaker 3: I could be like in the top ten after these
Speaker 3: first two rounds away I've hit the ball and the
Speaker 3: way I've played, and I remember, you know, I was
Speaker 3: just so so motivated right after that, and I got
Speaker 3: on a plane to Tulsa, Oklahoma to play in an
Speaker 3: All Pro Tour event, and it's like, Wow, You're going
Speaker 3: from the US Open to an All Pro Tour event.
Speaker 3: This is kind of crazy, this is reality, you know.
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a professional goal. I haven't done
Speaker 3: anything yet. I have not proven myself one bit, I've
Speaker 3: gone from the US Open to an all pro tour event.
Speaker 3: It's you know, this is this is reality. And I
Speaker 3: I actually went into that week and I I shot
Speaker 3: six under the first round and ten under the second round,
Speaker 3: and I that was just all semming from what I
Speaker 3: told you. That was the one I won the week
Speaker 3: after the US Open. I just I remember that that
Speaker 3: I was just telling myself the right things after the
Speaker 3: US Open, like okay, like you can't feel bad for
Speaker 3: yourself after that. I was telling myself like I knew
Speaker 3: I handled myself the right way, and I knew, I
Speaker 3: know I'm close, and I I remember that that was
Speaker 3: just all from self talk, and I knew I was
Speaker 3: really confident even after missing a cut.
Speaker 1: That's the thing with Gofflet Your score is not always
Speaker 1: doesn't always show right.
Speaker 3: It doesn't indicate what you're how you're playing sometimes, because
Speaker 3: that's the frustrating part. And that's what happened to me
Speaker 3: at the US Open, for sure. It just it just
Speaker 3: doesn't indicate. Like they always say there's no pictures on
Speaker 3: the scorecard, but really, in your mind, there's always pictures
Speaker 3: on the scorecard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you could go out and shoot seventy five
Speaker 1: and be like, god, I played really really good.
Speaker 3: Yeah it.
Speaker 1: And then you could play the next day and shoot
Speaker 1: seventy two and be like, I didn't play very good.
Speaker 3: Oh exactly. There's no doubt about it. And everyone go
Speaker 3: around telling everyone how they played after the round or whatever,
Speaker 3: and there's people who were Everyone's saying the same thing,
Speaker 3: usually like oh, I played so good, but I just
Speaker 3: couldn't get the putts to drop. And it's the same
Speaker 3: story for a lot of people, but yet no one cares.
Speaker 3: You just got to go out and get it done.
Speaker 3: And that's a great thing about professional golf is you
Speaker 3: got to keep proving it. You got you can't just
Speaker 3: This isn't the NBA where you can sign a four year,
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty million dollar contract and you're set
Speaker 3: for four years. You got to keep proving it every
Speaker 3: single weekend, every single day, and that's that's a great
Speaker 3: thing about it. And it's just a total result oriented business.
Speaker 1: To talk a little bit, you mentioned about the late
Speaker 1: tea time at Pebble. Obviously as a sectional coalth you
Speaker 1: get kind of the dumpy tea times as a sponsor.
Speaker 3: And that's you get and that's another day. That's another
Speaker 3: thing about it. The number one most popular question I've
Speaker 3: been asked when I say I played three years opens, Oh,
Speaker 3: who you've been paired with? Like it must be I'm like, you,
Speaker 3: you have no idea that.
Speaker 1: I followed you for a little event and you're you're
Speaker 1: playing partners weren't having their best days out there.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh, you must be played with some of
Speaker 3: the coolest like playing. I'm like, you have no idea
Speaker 3: who they are, Like, like, you know, I need to
Speaker 3: be I need to prove myself before I can get
Speaker 3: those nice seat times that everyone has.
Speaker 1: You know, how much tougher is it playing in those
Speaker 1: tea times. Then it's say even college where you are
Speaker 1: amateur stuff where you were, you know, nobody's ever going
Speaker 1: to say you get put in. They have like preferred pairings.
Speaker 1: But in amateur events you totally get preferred pairings. If
Speaker 1: you're a big, bigger player.
Speaker 3: Well, there are different experiences for me, Like at Oakmont,
Speaker 3: I had the best tea times I thought I had
Speaker 3: like the third time the first the first round and
Speaker 3: the perfect morning you know, like perfect greens everything, and
Speaker 3: then like the third time in the afternoon wave so
Speaker 3: it was perfect like that. I would I wouldn't want
Speaker 3: better two times in that and then in the chambers
Speaker 3: and uh oakma or in Chambers and pebble a the
Speaker 3: same tea times. I had the last tea time of
Speaker 3: the morning wave in the in the first round, and
Speaker 3: then the last tea time in the afternoon wave of
Speaker 3: the second round, the totem pole, the worst tea time Chambers.
Speaker 1: You're this you're what were you a freshman, right or
Speaker 1: so I was going to be a sophomore, gonna be
Speaker 1: so they didn't really know who you were, right, No,
Speaker 1: And then and then you made the cut, and then
Speaker 1: the next year you get a prime amateur t time
Speaker 1: and then you're at the bottom of the rung of pros.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, it's hilarious. But it's fair. It's I mean,
Speaker 3: it's fair. But I mean I knew what I was
Speaker 3: gonna get it, you know good. I knew the times
Speaker 3: I was gonna going into it. But that's the thing,
Speaker 3: like those those tea times suck. But I mean it's
Speaker 3: just way it is. Like you you go into the
Speaker 3: first round, Okay, I got a morning tea time, but
Speaker 3: I'm like nine o'clock or nine thirty and and then
Speaker 3: I got so much time, you know, because I'm like
Speaker 3: three o'clock the next day or two o'clock or whatever,
Speaker 3: and you're just like the waiting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what what is that day?
Speaker 3: Like, I mean, it's just okay, let's go work out,
Speaker 3: let's eat breakfast, let's go work out again. Let's I mean,
Speaker 3: it's just like I mean, I got tons of food
Speaker 3: waiting for me at the tent. I'm like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: I just it is eating and working out and stretching.
Speaker 3: That's what it is. And it's just like you trying to.
Speaker 1: Stay offes off On TV.
Speaker 3: I watch a little bit. I like to see how
Speaker 3: the courses reacting, but it's not going to react the
Speaker 3: same at five or six pm when I'm playing. So
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean it doesn't do me any good anyway,
Speaker 3: But like, uh, I mean, both Chambers and Pebble, I'm
Speaker 3: getting off the course and it's pitch black, you know,
Speaker 3: like I it's it's cold. At Pebble, it's it's I mean,
Speaker 3: the ball's not going anywhere at six pm at you know,
Speaker 3: on the ocean, it's it's completely different. But the greens
Speaker 3: are you know, Pebble's greens were amazing at and and
Speaker 3: you know, everyone says like they're not usually this good, ever,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, well, I mean, they can't get any
Speaker 3: better than this, And then you know, when you get
Speaker 3: to six pm, seven pm at night, they're they're totally
Speaker 3: beat up.
Speaker 1: And did you play or do any practice round stuff
Speaker 1: that late? Did you think about trying to do that?
Speaker 3: That would have been a smart idea, but I did.
Speaker 3: I didn't know. I mean, like honestly, having been my
Speaker 3: third US Open, I wanted to really just make sure
Speaker 3: I was fresh. And I remember my Chambers one. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: like first US Open, I'm gonna play all the practice
Speaker 3: runs I can. And I played with some cool players.
Speaker 3: I played with brooks Keopka. There, I played with Zach Johnson,
Speaker 3: I think Web Simpson. I played with some really cool
Speaker 3: players in the practice ns. But that was because I
Speaker 3: spent seventy two holes preparing for the tournament. And then
Speaker 3: I bade the cut and I remember after that Sunday,
Speaker 3: I couldn't move. I mean I even as a freshman
Speaker 3: or sophore when I was young, but I was so
Speaker 3: beat up, like and then I I you know, I
Speaker 3: learned the hard way with that. But like I just
Speaker 3: kind of at the at Pebble, I'm playing nine every
Speaker 3: day and I played with Charlie Danielson every day for
Speaker 3: four days straight, and I'm like, I'm just I don't
Speaker 3: I'm just totally focused on having the most energy I can.
Speaker 1: I think that's something that has changed, and especially professional
Speaker 1: golf in the last five years, is how much less
Speaker 1: practice round play happens that especially at major championships. And
Speaker 1: I think that's something that's the common golf fan doesn't understand,
Speaker 1: is how much seventy two holes right of competitive especially
Speaker 1: national championship level golf, takes out of you.
Speaker 3: No. It It really like people don't see, like, you know,
Speaker 3: the physical toll any tournament will take on you, even
Speaker 3: if you have a caddy, but still it is a
Speaker 3: physical toll. It really meant the mental the mental wears
Speaker 3: on the physical, sure, but but it's still I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's totally a factor and people don't see that.
Speaker 3: But it really is.
Speaker 1: Going from the US Open, the feeling of playing US
Speaker 1: Open versus.
Speaker 3: Q School, I mean, I would I mean, Q School's
Speaker 3: more stressful, for sure, but the first tea nerves it's
Speaker 3: that doesn't compare. I mean, I had never been more
Speaker 3: nervous in my life the first US Open first tuh,
Speaker 3: but just on the every shot told. I mean, the
Speaker 3: Q School like the grind of it. It's just it's
Speaker 3: it's more so the grind from you know, whole one
Speaker 3: to hold seventy two than it is for the US Open.
Speaker 3: You know, the the US Opens like exhilarating because you
Speaker 3: got tons of people watching, even my group, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm playing with Joe Shmo's next to me. It just
Speaker 3: made the US Open too. Uh, it's exhilarating because you
Speaker 3: got so many people out there and I, you know,
Speaker 3: I get all these IL chants and I and I chants,
Speaker 3: and it's just it fires you up, like you have
Speaker 3: that you have that extra support and it feels great
Speaker 3: out there. Like it's just exhilarating. But you know, the
Speaker 3: the Q School rind is different. There's nobody out there,
Speaker 3: you know, it's just you. Really, I mean I I
Speaker 3: carried my bag at both stages this year. I'm like,
Speaker 3: it's just me out there with a bunch of guys
Speaker 3: who are trying to try to do it.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't compare, would you say that you've got
Speaker 1: like the heightened nerves of the US Open, but then
Speaker 1: you get into it and you're just.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Once you get into it, it's like it's just,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the most fun times in your
Speaker 3: life on the course, just because there's so many people
Speaker 3: watching and it's the ultimate stage, you know, on the
Speaker 3: ultimate venues, and it's just it's it's really just it's
Speaker 3: it's fun. It's that's what it is. And after the
Speaker 3: first t or a first hole, it's like, Okay, the
Speaker 3: nerves start to go away and it's just fun.
Speaker 1: And then with Q School it's more of like just
Speaker 1: a looming it's.
Speaker 3: Anxiety, the anxiety like being able to having to control
Speaker 3: the anxiety the whole time. Is is from one to
Speaker 3: seventy two. That's the part of it that's different because
Speaker 3: at the US Open, even as a pro, like you look,
Speaker 3: it's a good paycheck if you you know, do well,
Speaker 3: but it's it's it's just exhilarating, exhilarating, like even in
Speaker 3: my third one, honestly, it's still it's just the most
Speaker 3: fun times in your life. And it will be that
Speaker 3: way and you know into my fifteenth one hopefully.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that'd be good up hopefully more than that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was the biggest shock turning pro? Like, what was
Speaker 1: one thing that surprised you when you turned pro that
Speaker 1: you didn't expect.
Speaker 3: It's hard to say, because I mean, honestly, I was
Speaker 3: lucky because I was so well prepared for it being
Speaker 3: in Illinois and you know, being around all those guys
Speaker 3: that went pro at Illinois before me and having those
Speaker 3: relationships with those guys. I mean, I wouldn't say I was, like,
Speaker 3: you know, surprised with one thing. Honestly, I just nothing,
Speaker 3: nothing equals to the like the excitement you get when
Speaker 3: you walk on the range with all those guys that
Speaker 3: you've been watching for your whole life. And I mean
Speaker 3: you can't. You can't mimic that. You you can, you can
Speaker 3: always drop in your mind how how things will go,
Speaker 3: and like be ready for that just because you you've
Speaker 3: been wanting it your whole life. But nothing mimics when
Speaker 3: you walk up on the range and there's tiger woods,
Speaker 3: you know, or nothing, even even other guys. It's just
Speaker 3: it's cool.
Speaker 1: I feel that way, and I'm just a medium member
Speaker 1: Tigers on the Range.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it, you know, it's just that's that's not
Speaker 3: something that you can be ready for.
Speaker 1: Honestly, you played tons of match play as an am,
Speaker 1: whether it be through USGA stuff, the Western other am events. College.
Speaker 1: Is there is there a match that you think about
Speaker 1: the most?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean my sophomore year, we should have won
Speaker 3: it at Oregon. I know it's like, oh, anyone can
Speaker 3: say we should have won, but we really should have
Speaker 3: won that year. It was like I I I think
Speaker 3: of I don't. I don't. I'm not a dweller of
Speaker 3: the past at all. Like I move on things fine,
Speaker 3: and you know I'm better for it, but I'm really Yeah,
Speaker 3: it stings that we never won a national championship when
Speaker 3: I was there and our team my sophomore year, I mean,
Speaker 3: I've got a poster of my room behind me, and
Speaker 3: it's like how many times we won. It's we won
Speaker 3: like ten of our thirteen events that year, nine of
Speaker 3: our thirteen events that year, and and then going in
Speaker 3: nothing will beat the vibe of that team that we had,
Speaker 3: like we we were so close knit. You know, it
Speaker 3: was me, Charlie Thomas, Dylan, and Eduardo Aprelli and then
Speaker 3: Alex Burge played a lot too, and nothing will beat.
Speaker 3: The vibe of our team that year. I mean, we
Speaker 3: we were so close knit, we were so good. I
Speaker 3: mean we had Coach small too. You know, that's that's
Speaker 3: pretty fun. But I mean going into Oregon, we were
Speaker 3: we were we no doubt in our minds, we were
Speaker 3: the best team. And we finished second in match play
Speaker 3: after not having our best stroke play. And I remember
Speaker 3: we were like eighth going into the final round of
Speaker 3: stroke play, but that that never felt like like oh
Speaker 3: crap to us. We never felt like, oh, we were
Speaker 3: gonna miss match play. We just kind of played a
Speaker 3: really solid final round and we ended up being one
Speaker 3: stroke out of Texas for winning stroke play, and we
Speaker 3: were the two seed and we played South Carolina and
Speaker 3: I remember the great thing about the South Carolina match
Speaker 3: was that, uh, they put up Matt ne Eesmith against
Speaker 3: or uh, coach put up Eduardo against Matt ne Eesmith
Speaker 3: and or one of the other way around or something,
Speaker 3: and Coach it was perfect because Coach was able to,
Speaker 3: like Edwardo was a freshman at the time, and Coach
Speaker 3: was able to like get Eduardo ready for this match
Speaker 3: because he's like, like they're talking about how you're the
Speaker 3: sacrificial lamb at Wardo like like, you're they they've already
Speaker 3: marked off a win for your match. And and it
Speaker 3: was great, no better feeling when Eduardo beat him on
Speaker 3: the eighteenth hole and we uh we ended up you know,
Speaker 3: we ended up taking care of business against them, But
Speaker 3: that that was that was such a fun feeling because
Speaker 3: Eduardo like felt, you know, so great and you should
Speaker 3: have and he beat their best player and Matt's now
Speaker 3: gone on to the PGA Tour. But uh, that was
Speaker 3: such a great feeling. And then it's just one drawback
Speaker 3: that I have about the NCAA match play is that
Speaker 3: you have to play two matches in one day. And
Speaker 3: that always bid us in the butt, honestly, Like we
Speaker 3: we we made final, the you know, final four three
Speaker 3: years in a row, and we end up losing in
Speaker 3: the final four three years in a row. And I mean,
Speaker 3: you can't make excuses looking back. I mean, I don't
Speaker 3: make excuses. But that's that's one thing that I wish
Speaker 3: was different, is that you spread out the matches one
Speaker 3: each day.
Speaker 1: You know, they'd make more money that way too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And and I mean it just makes complete more
Speaker 3: sense that way too, because I mean we talk about
Speaker 3: the physical and mental grind of the US Open. Nothing
Speaker 3: compares to the NCAA Championship Week.
Speaker 1: You know, is it the added Is it added because
Speaker 1: you've got your team?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got your team and it's emotional. But you
Speaker 3: got on the Thursday where the week starts. Practice round.
Speaker 3: You've got a seven and a half hour practice round.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So you show up to the NCAS and you got
Speaker 3: on Wednesday or Tuesday, and you got a practice round.
Speaker 3: You get one practice round on Thursday, and it is
Speaker 3: the slowest round of golf on your in your whole life.
Speaker 3: It is seven and a half hours, and you gotta
Speaker 3: study each hole. You gotta be you know, coach is
Speaker 3: just going crazy. It's a you know, a huge day.
Speaker 3: You got to learn every hole. You got a super
Speaker 3: Bowl Yeah, yeah, it's it's just a hectic day. And
Speaker 3: then you know, you you eat breakfast obviously, like nine,
Speaker 3: go out the course of ten. You're you're on the
Speaker 3: course till five for sure at least, and then you know,
Speaker 3: you get you got to get a quick dinner and
Speaker 3: you got you know, the first round the next day,
Speaker 3: and you got four rounds of stroke play. You have
Speaker 3: a cut after the third round, that's you know, no,
Speaker 3: no joke, top fifteen out of thirty, and then you
Speaker 3: got another cut, and then you got match play, and
Speaker 3: you got that first day of match play is two matches.
Speaker 3: So think about already the toll you've taken. You know,
Speaker 3: you already played four rounds, you already played a slow practice.
Speaker 3: You got a team that's obviously emotional wanting to win.
Speaker 3: Obviously everyone wants to win. But that that you get,
Speaker 3: you get to play your match, you win, and you
Speaker 3: have to go right back out, and that's just it's
Speaker 3: just a grind. It doesn't doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 3: And we never we never accomplished anything that day, which
Speaker 3: I mean obviously it's an excuse, but that just doesn't
Speaker 3: make sense to me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, you get to there. And it's
Speaker 1: the other thing about match play is it's just you
Speaker 1: see it every year with it. I mean last year
Speaker 1: they were talking about how Lucas Beureguard beating Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: was like the upset. It's like, I mean, we're talking
Speaker 1: about the fortieth rank player. It's like it's like Eduardo
Speaker 1: beating Matt and he said, like that that's gonna happen
Speaker 1: four times out of ten.
Speaker 3: I hate it too, my own horn. But when he
Speaker 3: lost to Lucas Beureguard, I'm like, he's gonna win the
Speaker 3: Masters like that, that's I mean Tiger. You know that
Speaker 3: festered with Tiger for that whole week and a half
Speaker 3: more than master, you know that. And and I'm like, like,
Speaker 3: he just missed a four footer, like that's not what
Speaker 3: he is. That put yeah me too like that. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I mean this guy, you saw how good
Speaker 3: he looked and in Austin that that week he hit
Speaker 3: the ball amazing, like, and he played really well against
Speaker 3: beer Guard too. He just made a couple of dumb
Speaker 3: mistakes and Tiger doesn't make normally, and that was that
Speaker 3: was quite something. And then yeah, when everyone's talking about, oh,
Speaker 3: like someone some random beat the beat Tiger, I'm like he,
Speaker 3: first of all, he's not random. He's probably won before
Speaker 3: many times in.
Speaker 1: The wgcsh right right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's like it's it's golf. It's just it drives
Speaker 3: me nuts.
Speaker 1: Every year. It's like, yeah, every year one of the
Speaker 1: big players goes down to some guy that's like fiftieth
Speaker 1: to sixty and it's like this is not enough. Set
Speaker 1: like this issically going to happen.
Speaker 3: It's probably that guy will probably beat the top seed
Speaker 3: forty six percent of the time.
Speaker 1: Exactly like the part. And that's a That's another great
Speaker 1: thing of what we talked about is the margin in
Speaker 1: golf so right, and.
Speaker 3: And that's that's crazy when you just compare it to
Speaker 3: it's like sister sport in tennis. It never happens in tennis.
Speaker 3: You never see you rarely see a fifty seed beat
Speaker 3: a three seed. Even it just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's really true. I think there's something because
Speaker 1: tennis has played a match in tennis in a weird way.
Speaker 1: Is more it's like a it's like a five game
Speaker 1: series in NBA versus like a set is like a game, right,
Speaker 1: you know, versus a round in golf.
Speaker 3: Is it's a sprint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it talk about US Open local versus u US
Speaker 1: Open sectional. I always think about this with qualifiers like
Speaker 1: eighteen hole versus thirty six hole qualifiers mindset or it's
Speaker 1: bit or Monday Monday, it's massive.
Speaker 3: I mean obviously I would much rather prefer a thirty
Speaker 3: six hole match, you know, thirty six hole qualifier, Like
Speaker 3: I mean, you you can play not as like aggressive
Speaker 3: you can it definitely will get a better player ten
Speaker 3: times out of ten. Then in just an eighteen home match,
Speaker 3: but I understand the logists of an eighteen hold match
Speaker 3: or eighteen old round already takes five and a half hours,
Speaker 3: you know, so you don't have the time usually, but
Speaker 3: it is it is definitely a big difference. Like in
Speaker 3: a Monday qualifier, you gotta, you know, get out and
Speaker 3: get off the good start no matter what, or you're
Speaker 3: going home. And then in a thirty six hole US
Speaker 3: Open qualifier you can play more patiently, you can can
Speaker 3: serve more energy, you can just play to your strengths
Speaker 3: more and it just will get the better player for sure.
Speaker 1: We're both from Illinois. We're not a professional golf hot bed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: per se, we got a lot. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of guys in your age group that are doing stuff.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if a lot of people know this.
Speaker 1: So State junior match flights called the chick Evans here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're thirteen, and you and Doug gam playing all high
Speaker 1: schoolers make the finals as eighth grader. Yeah, do you
Speaker 1: ever think back to how crazy, I mean, you guys
Speaker 1: played your first match against each other since then, and
Speaker 1: the at the East Like Cup a few years ago,
Speaker 1: but like talk about that, we I mean, and did
Speaker 1: you know Doug well before that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, Doug, I started playing IJG events when I
Speaker 3: was nine and nine and ten years old. I honestly
Speaker 3: want a lot of them. I didn't have like much
Speaker 3: competition at all, like honestly, I mean, I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to be cocky, but that's what that's what it was.
Speaker 3: And then and then eleven years old comes around, and
Speaker 3: you know, you got this new kid who's paired with
Speaker 3: me in the first term of the year and his
Speaker 3: name's Doug gimm And I'm like, oh, okay, like this
Speaker 3: is like this is a new player obviously, And I was,
Speaker 3: you know, a little surprised that he was paired with me,
Speaker 3: because honestly, the ijjus always paired with me with the
Speaker 3: same guys that were like supposed to be pretty good.
Speaker 3: And he was really good, Like he was really good.
Speaker 3: I don't think he played too well in the first
Speaker 3: event because, like I know, he and his dad say
Speaker 3: that his dad didn't let him play an event until
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know if he was able
Speaker 3: to hit range balls really well or I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I know Doug said he wasn't allowed to play
Speaker 3: in events until his dad led him, and finally he did.
Speaker 3: And I think I squeaked it out in the first
Speaker 3: event that we played with each other, and I think
Speaker 3: it was like glen View Park. But after that, I mean,
Speaker 3: Doug and I played a lot against each other eleven, twelve,
Speaker 3: and thirteen, and then when we were thirteen, we did
Speaker 3: the Chick Evans, obviously, and I remember I think Doug
Speaker 3: one won the stroke play and I was like third
Speaker 3: in this or fourth in the stroke play, and I
Speaker 3: think I was like the sixth seed and he was
Speaker 3: a one seed and we ended up both seeing each
Speaker 3: other in the finals, which was pretty cool, and that
Speaker 3: was really cool. And I still remember the match and
Speaker 3: I'm still kind of beat up about it because I
Speaker 3: was one up through fourteen, and on fifteen, I think
Speaker 3: I three putted to lose a hole, and then we
Speaker 3: tied sixteen, and then on seventeen Doug made a birdie
Speaker 3: to go one up, and then on eighteen I hit
Speaker 3: this drive. I don't know if anyone knows the eighteenth
Speaker 3: old steeplechase, but it's like a it's like a dog
Speaker 3: leg left par five. Then the second shot if you
Speaker 3: go for it's over water. But of course I was
Speaker 3: like four foot six at the time and Doug was,
Speaker 3: you know, probably taller than me. But I hit my
Speaker 3: drive right on like the side hill, and I had
Speaker 3: this baseball swing lie and I just completely missed it.
Speaker 3: I tried to lay up with like a six iron,
Speaker 3: I towed the crap out of it, and I ended
Speaker 3: up under these trees with the small trees on the
Speaker 3: left side. Like I remember, I had like one hundred
Speaker 3: and ninety yards out of the rough and Doug had
Speaker 3: laid up to like one hundred one hundred yards and
Speaker 3: I needed to make a birdie. And I mean, to
Speaker 3: this day this was probably one of my best shots
Speaker 3: I've ever hit my life. But I was under a
Speaker 3: tree one hundred ninety yards out out of the rough,
Speaker 3: and I was thirteen years old, and I had a
Speaker 3: five wood in hand, and I hit the best five
Speaker 3: wood of my life. I mean, I I had to
Speaker 3: like shorten my swing to make sure I don't hit
Speaker 3: these tree brand and I just hit this punch. I
Speaker 3: had hit it right in the side of the face.
Speaker 3: It was one of those knucklers that came out hot,
Speaker 3: no spin. But I landed this thing just over the water,
Speaker 3: probably in the rough, maybe in the fringe, and it
Speaker 3: lands really soft and kicks up to like three feet,
Speaker 3: and I was just like, that's the best shot I've
Speaker 3: ever hit. I remember my dad walking up to the
Speaker 3: left just like screaming, like like my dad was crazy,
Speaker 3: probably just going nuts. And Doug's dad was either cadding
Speaker 3: for him or standing there. And Doug ended up hitting
Speaker 3: this good wedge like twelve feet. He's got like a
Speaker 3: curl or like a like a three foot slider down
Speaker 3: the hill and he makes it like a twelve foot
Speaker 3: three foot break slider. And I was just like damn,
Speaker 3: Like that was quite a match, Like I mean, and
Speaker 3: then I was I ended up, you know, losing one
Speaker 3: down and they put up two down on the board.
Speaker 3: I'm like I lost one down, but I mean it
Speaker 3: was just I was like, yeah, this kid's this kid's
Speaker 3: for real. You know, you were a little but like
Speaker 3: when I saw let me say this, let me say this.
Speaker 3: When I saw Doug make that but last, you know,
Speaker 3: a couple of months ago to make his card, I'm
Speaker 3: like I've seen that like eight times already like like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I that's not it doesn't. It didn't surprise
Speaker 3: me one bit when I went in.
Speaker 1: That was honestly one of the coolest moments of the
Speaker 1: hold off here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, for sure, I mean it was. It
Speaker 3: was the heck of it. Up and down. I mean
Speaker 3: we played two big tens at Victoria, and that's no
Speaker 3: easy up and down. You got you got water right
Speaker 3: behind you. And it was like a twenty yard bugger
Speaker 3: shot and he had like a ball below his feet,
Speaker 3: and you know, he played a great like side spinner
Speaker 3: you know, coming in from the left that you know,
Speaker 3: chucked up to about what it was seven feet and
Speaker 3: drilled it. You know.
Speaker 1: It kind of like encapsulates prog golf, like right there,
Speaker 1: like this great player, he was way inside the line,
Speaker 1: a bad shot here and a bad shot there, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he's on the line and then
Speaker 1: he's got crazy. He's got to get really not an
Speaker 1: easy up and down to get his card, and it's like,
Speaker 1: are you gonna do it? Are you not going to
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, that's that's that's the great beauty of professional golf. Honestly,
Speaker 3: it's just there's no better way of being competitive, I guess,
Speaker 3: and the feelings you get being able to control it,
Speaker 3: learn how to control it. Just it's the best you were.
Speaker 1: You were a smaller kid growing up and then you
Speaker 1: hit this gross burt and yeah, I imagine your game
Speaker 1: change completely totally.
Speaker 3: I mean I was. I was not. I didn't probably
Speaker 3: break six feet until senior year of high school. Like
Speaker 3: I was. In my freshman year of high school, I
Speaker 3: remember I weighed one hundred and twenty pounds and I
Speaker 3: was like five foot three. And then by my junior year,
Speaker 3: I finally was growing and I was probably five ten.
Speaker 3: But I mean, I, I uh, I was so such
Speaker 3: a different player my I mean, I was like I
Speaker 3: was like Dylan Meyer. I was basically like Dylan Meyer.
Speaker 3: I had a hell of a short game and I
Speaker 3: hit these hybrids and woods to you know, three feet
Speaker 3: all the time. And then my game change obviously a lot.
Speaker 3: And once I grew, I kinda honestly, I started hitting
Speaker 3: it further and and my short game got kind of
Speaker 3: messed up, Like I didn't have the same like technique.
Speaker 3: My technique changed because I grew, I think, And.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's also because you were hitting you
Speaker 1: needed it.
Speaker 3: Last probably, And I was just always such a talented
Speaker 3: ball striker. I always knew kind of how to hit greens.
Speaker 3: I didn't I always I haven't always had like, honestly,
Speaker 3: the best swing. I've always had, you know, I've always
Speaker 3: been a little steep. I've always had, you know, not
Speaker 3: you know, not the best fundamentals, but I've always been
Speaker 3: able to know how to feel it around. And that's
Speaker 3: you know, that's the credit obviously I had. I've had
Speaker 3: the same swing coach Brett Paki since I was ten
Speaker 3: years old, and we've been together ever since. And that's
Speaker 3: a great thing about it is Brett and I have
Speaker 3: such a great dialogue and even through my Grossburt, you know,
Speaker 3: through everything we've we've been able to, you know, have
Speaker 3: you know, do really good job, I think, and he's
Speaker 3: done a great job with me. But yeah, my golf
Speaker 3: swing changed so much. My short game change and obviously
Speaker 3: not having to rely on it much probably changed it.
Speaker 3: But by the time I got to school freshman year,
Speaker 3: coach wanted to change all this stuff about Coach Mall
Speaker 3: wanted to change a lot of stuff about my short game.
Speaker 3: And you know, I played well my senior year of
Speaker 3: high school. I going into the freshman year of college,
Speaker 3: I made the final four of the Western m I
Speaker 3: I you know, made another USAM. I've been playing really
Speaker 3: well and my freshman year at college, I had a
Speaker 3: good year. But I was just totally overwhelmed with my
Speaker 3: short game. I mean I was just you know, having
Speaker 3: you know, obviously not having the best short game my
Speaker 3: senior year of high school. But I still like didn't
Speaker 3: overthink it. I just kind of went around there and
Speaker 3: just got the job done. And then, you know, I
Speaker 3: needed a better fundamental short game, but I needed to
Speaker 3: change things, obviously, but I was just totally overwhelmed. When
Speaker 3: I started working with coach Mall on it, I ended
Speaker 3: up getting pretty damn good at it, and right now,
Speaker 3: short game has never been better. And it's why I
Speaker 3: played really well last week and I leaned on it
Speaker 3: a lot last week.
Speaker 1: But I feel like when you're a kid, it's not
Speaker 1: fun to practice short game, but then like all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it becomes the most fun thing.
Speaker 3: To practice, exactly, no doubt about it. I Mean you
Speaker 3: kind of just don't care. When you're a kid. You
Speaker 3: kind of just do it and find a way to
Speaker 3: be good at it, you don't really think about the
Speaker 3: technique of it. But in order to have all the shots,
Speaker 3: you need to have good technique. And that's kind of
Speaker 3: what I learned for a couple of years there at Illinois.
Speaker 3: I mean, Coach Small did a great job teaching me
Speaker 3: how to do it like like, but like I I
Speaker 3: was pretty overwhelmed for a few years there.
Speaker 1: I actually think that the best feeling in golf is
Speaker 1: when you have an incredibly difficult the shot where you
Speaker 1: know you have to hit it right into a certain
Speaker 1: spot for it to just kind of trundle over a.
Speaker 3: Hill like on a pitch, and when you hit nip
Speaker 3: it definitely on tight lines like no better feeling. And
Speaker 3: I you know, I was never good at those, but
Speaker 3: like now I feel like I could go anywhere. And honestly,
Speaker 3: I I was never good at the tight lie like
Speaker 3: square face, but got to keep it up a little
Speaker 3: bit shots and that's what I've been proven on a lot.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've always been pretty good at just you know,
Speaker 3: the awkward ones, flop ones, bomps, the flops, all those,
Speaker 3: but the square face off, tight lies off a downhill lie,
Speaker 3: you know, those are those are when you get it
Speaker 3: good of those. It's a powerful feeling, you know, it's like.
Speaker 1: The most most fun. Yeah, when you hit those right,
Speaker 1: because then the ball dis reacts. It's just like you
Speaker 1: know how it's going to react, no doubt. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's cool. I short game is something that I used
Speaker 1: to hate and wasn't very good at right, and then
Speaker 1: like now like I don't play or play that much
Speaker 1: and try, I don't practice at all, but like short
Speaker 1: games where I have the most fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is fun. It's fun to practice. I mean
Speaker 3: I learned that at school too. Coach small short game
Speaker 3: is amazing and a lot of my teammates is were too,
Speaker 3: like d Trie and Charlie's their short games are unreal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So what's the thing you miss most about college
Speaker 1: amateur golf?
Speaker 3: College? For sure, miss my teammates and practicing with them
Speaker 3: day to day. Amateur golf, I mean the summer events.
Speaker 3: The slate of the summer events are so good, you know,
Speaker 3: like you can name every one of them. Every one
Speaker 3: of them is run amazingly by great people. And I
Speaker 3: played in most of them, and you know, those were
Speaker 3: a lot of fun, for sure.
Speaker 1: What's the thing you least miss about it.
Speaker 3: You know, I almost said slow golf, but it just
Speaker 3: gets slower.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 3: Honestly I like the flexibility of having creating my own
Speaker 3: schedule now, like with like how I want to do
Speaker 3: things every day to day. So I wouldn't say I missed.
Speaker 3: I least missed the structure part of it. But I
Speaker 3: definitely like being able to be flexible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the structure.
Speaker 3: Oh, definitely class though not having class in there is huge.
Speaker 1: I mean not having those walks across the quad in
Speaker 1: December and champagne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like that's that's that I don't miss for sure.
Speaker 1: I remember one hear I had this U. I had
Speaker 1: like the last final and I've I lived in the
Speaker 1: six pack as a fresh last final and the buses
Speaker 1: weren't running. It was like the last day. It was
Speaker 1: so late and it was like the coldest day of
Speaker 1: the year, and I was walking back and I just
Speaker 1: had a horrible final. I knew I bombed it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was walking and it was windy and I
Speaker 1: almost just gave up. I almost laid down.
Speaker 3: I know, I know that feeling.
Speaker 1: So the last two questions here, we'll get out on
Speaker 1: two fun ones and So what's the best shot you've
Speaker 1: ever hit? The one the best shot that you think about.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's hard. I don't really have one that I
Speaker 3: think about from time to time. I probably should, Honestly,
Speaker 3: I don't have one, but the one I just mentioned
Speaker 3: against Doug I obviously remember. Well, so I'll leave it
Speaker 3: on that one.
Speaker 1: Okay. What's the worst shot you've ever had?
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, I hit a pretty bad one a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks ago at uh at Illinois fundraiser. I coach
Speaker 3: had me get up in front of about two hundred
Speaker 3: people with who were there, and uh, it was cold morning.
Speaker 3: I hadn't quite warmed up yet, and he told me
Speaker 3: to get out the driver because he you know, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, at least yeah, so at least I
Speaker 3: could tee it up too, right, And then, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I tee this thing up and I just hit like
Speaker 3: a thirty yard duck hook, like straight in the ground,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, let me just I just went
Speaker 3: straight and teed up another one, and this one went
Speaker 3: like ninety yard duck hook, and then I teed up
Speaker 3: another one and finally I hit it one way down there.
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, I warmed up, you know,
Speaker 3: but man, I mean I wasn't embarrassed, but I'm just like, like,
Speaker 3: this is pretty dumb to hit a shot when you're
Speaker 3: not even warmed up yet.
Speaker 1: It's it's funny the worst shots that like they're almost
Speaker 1: so shocking that like you're not like you're just like, wow,
Speaker 1: that was really weird.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you just got to laugh them off, you know.
Speaker 1: It's a short memory. So well, good luck in final
Speaker 1: final stage. Hopefully you've got a bunch more fans to
Speaker 1: go with all the line. I faithful here, thank you,
Speaker 1: and and uh we'll be we'll be looking for you,
Speaker 1: and uh and next year on the corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir,