Speaker 1: For me, it was a complete no brainer. I had
Speaker 1: nowhere else to play that week of London. There was
Speaker 1: no g Pro Tour event, there was no Corn for
Speaker 1: You Tour event, there was no Monday qualifier. There was
Speaker 1: nowhere else for me to play, and it provided a
Speaker 1: great financial situation for me to be able to you know,
Speaker 1: fund my my golf for the next couple of years.
Speaker 1: I got thoughts in my head. Can't get John, nothing
Speaker 1: thing what I'm thinking about about thoughts in my head.
Speaker 1: I can't get them out. John, not to think what
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about. Welcome back to their Fire Drill podcast.
Speaker 1: This is Alan Schipnuk. I am joined by Ryan French
Speaker 1: at home in Michigan and we have our special guest
Speaker 1: to stay, Andy Ogletree, coming into hot from Alfreda, Georgia.
Speaker 1: Before we get to then, and let me just thank
Speaker 1: our sponsors who make this stuff possible. Of course, we
Speaker 1: have part points our favorite golf scoring app our friends
Speaker 1: at Dormy Workshop. They make beautiful Artisano leather goods. We
Speaker 1: sell them at the fire Pit Collective dot com in
Speaker 1: the in the fire Pitch Shop and the code is
Speaker 1: fire Drill. You get a nice discount. We always appreciate
Speaker 1: our our corporate sponsors to let us do cool things
Speaker 1: like this. So we want to welcome into Andy Ogletree
Speaker 1: of course US Open champ who's had a US Open
Speaker 1: taking upgrade man, my apologies. Yes, US amateur champ who
Speaker 1: has had a non traditional start to his professional career.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna talk about that and his um,
Speaker 1: his dalliance would live golf and where it all goes
Speaker 1: from here. So Andy, thank you for doing this. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you. Yeah, thanks for having me. Guys looking
Speaker 1: forward to it. So, so let's talk about the the
Speaker 1: US am A victory. You know, it's obviously a career highlight.
Speaker 1: It was it was just played recently and we were
Speaker 1: all tuned into a pretty epic match. It's a very
Speaker 1: exclusive fraternity. I mean, as the years go by and
Speaker 1: you look back on that victory, how much does it
Speaker 1: mean to you in reflection? Yeah, like you said, the
Speaker 1: years of have gone by, for sure. It's uh, it's
Speaker 1: kind of old news at this point, and when I
Speaker 1: think back, it seems like such a long time ago.
Speaker 1: So many things have happened since then. But obviously it's
Speaker 1: just special memories. Um, what a great week, and it's
Speaker 1: opened the door to a lot of opportunities for me.
Speaker 1: So I owe a lot of what I'm able to
Speaker 1: do now thanks to that week. And you know that
Speaker 1: week was That week was super cool. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to can't wait to talk about it. Remember it a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean, it does touch off this this
Speaker 1: unusual almost like internship. Right, you have to stay an
Speaker 1: amateur to cash in these great exemptions, and it creates
Speaker 1: a little bit of a limbo. Remember Bryson D. Shambo
Speaker 1: called it an internship when when he was the USA Champion,
Speaker 1: because for me, it locked me in for about another
Speaker 1: year and a half. Um Traditionally, when you win the
Speaker 1: us AM um, it looked like everything was gonna come
Speaker 1: into place, perfect, perfect for me. I won the us
Speaker 1: AM after my junior year of college. I had always stay,
Speaker 1: planned to stay four years and graduate from Georgia Tech UM.
Speaker 1: So I win the U s M after my junior year.
Speaker 1: Everything's great. I'm gonna play my senior year. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play the Walker Cup. All these dates are kind of
Speaker 1: lining up perfectly. I'll play the Masters in November, and
Speaker 1: then I'll play the um n C Double A championship
Speaker 1: in turn pro, and hopefully play seven events on the
Speaker 1: PGA tour UM that season. I kind of had all
Speaker 1: of that lined up for that summer, and then COVID happened.
Speaker 1: So I think it was March fourteen that the world
Speaker 1: kind of shut down. UM our senior season got canceled.
Speaker 1: They announced all spring sports and n C Double A
Speaker 1: will be canceled starting March fourteen. There's gonna be no championships,
Speaker 1: you know. All that stuff happened, so that happens. The
Speaker 1: Masters gets postponed in November. We don't really know when
Speaker 1: we're gonna play any tournaments. I have a couple of
Speaker 1: sponsor exemptions that I can still play UM as an amateur,
Speaker 1: obviously because their direct qualifications for winning the US am
Speaker 1: So those were the invitationals UM Colonial. I could have
Speaker 1: played bay Hill, UM I didn't play because of a
Speaker 1: college event, but I could have played bay Hill and
Speaker 1: then Hilton Head and Memorial. So I played all of
Speaker 1: those UM that summer. So that gave me something to
Speaker 1: play in which was great. And then I waited until
Speaker 1: November obviously to turn pro. And after the Masters, I
Speaker 1: mean that it's always a challenge for the U s
Speaker 1: am champ to kind of balance the business in life
Speaker 1: and the opportunities you're turning down. I mean, what did
Speaker 1: you give up by staying an amateur? I mean, did
Speaker 1: you have offers on the table to get turn professional
Speaker 1: right away? Yeah? I mean, obviously I could have turned
Speaker 1: profession on and played that summer. I probably just would
Speaker 1: have moved up my timeline. Um, I would more than
Speaker 1: likely going to get seven events on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: and um so I could have gone ahead and taken
Speaker 1: my seven events that summer, and you know, obviously three
Speaker 1: of those were I would have just played the same
Speaker 1: term as I played anyway, um being Colonial, Hilton Head,
Speaker 1: and Memorial. So I would have had those, and then
Speaker 1: I would have hopefully gotten four more sponsor invites throughout
Speaker 1: the summer. But I mean, when it all turned out,
Speaker 1: I basically didn't turn down much to wait until November.
Speaker 1: I just had to wait until November. Um, some some
Speaker 1: unfortunate events happened after November that you know, kind of
Speaker 1: set me back a little bit and made my route
Speaker 1: much more untraditional. Andy, Just to be clear, like if
Speaker 1: if the Masters was played at its normal time that year,
Speaker 1: you would have played the Masters and then turned pro
Speaker 1: and got seven exemptions as a pro right and then
Speaker 1: obviously like Flee, Yeah, so I would have played the
Speaker 1: Masters in April, I would have played the n C
Speaker 1: Double A Championship at the end of May, and then
Speaker 1: I would have turned pro early June and hopefully played
Speaker 1: seven events including the US Open, and I would have
Speaker 1: been able to play all those as a pro. Just
Speaker 1: for those listening, and then what that would have done
Speaker 1: to Andy's career is he plays those as a pro
Speaker 1: gett non member points. If he plays decent enough, at minimum,
Speaker 1: he's in the corn Ferry finals with the chance to
Speaker 1: get is PJ Tour card or at at worst be
Speaker 1: a full member of the corn Ferry Tour. So the
Speaker 1: timing of COVID and all of those things really obviously
Speaker 1: worked against And in this case, that wasn't just me. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that was a lot of players earning pro that year,
Speaker 1: and there was no Q school that following fall, so
Speaker 1: everybody was basically in a limbo state for a year
Speaker 1: and a half to two years. It was great for
Speaker 1: the guys that had their tour card already, and it
Speaker 1: was great for the guys who maybe played bad on
Speaker 1: tour and got an extra year, or maybe you know,
Speaker 1: got some guys got stuck on the corn Ferry Tour
Speaker 1: for two seasons that we're going to qualify for the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. So there was a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: got you know, dealt a bad hand from that that timeline,
Speaker 1: but my situation was definitely unfortunate. So so fast forward
Speaker 1: now that takes us all the way through the end
Speaker 1: of two thousand twenties. So you get into early and
Speaker 1: you don't have a ton of options, right, what what
Speaker 1: was your making in pro? The week after the Masters
Speaker 1: obviously another special week for me and finished in low Am,
Speaker 1: and that whole experience was so cool. Getting to play
Speaker 1: with Tiger and getting to be in Butler cabin at
Speaker 1: the end of the week and all the stuff that
Speaker 1: came with that was awesome. It was a great segue
Speaker 1: into me turning pro. Um. I kind of accomplished everything
Speaker 1: I wanted to do as an amateur, and then you know,
Speaker 1: everything was unfolding. I was so hopefully going to get
Speaker 1: my seven events on the PGA Tour. I hoped, and
Speaker 1: I had a lot lined up and I played in
Speaker 1: three before having hip surgery, so um, everything was kind
Speaker 1: of still in place. I hadn't lost much at that point.
Speaker 1: I was just basically delayed six months of my prolier
Speaker 1: process um from kind of when I thought I would
Speaker 1: be doing this this step in my career. It was
Speaker 1: basically six months after but played three events and then
Speaker 1: had to had to have hip surgery. So that was
Speaker 1: obviously detrimental. You know. I played those events hurt. I
Speaker 1: thought I could kind of tough it out. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I can, maybe I can at least
Speaker 1: play well in a couple events to get me enough
Speaker 1: points to get into corner pretty finals and then kind
Speaker 1: of go that route. But I wasn't able to get there,
Speaker 1: and I didn't play well in my events. I realized
Speaker 1: I couldn't compete against you know, some of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world when I wasn't feeling fully healthy.
Speaker 1: So I needed to get that figured out, and you know,
Speaker 1: I had to had to go have surgery. When did
Speaker 1: you sustain I don't. I don't really for a specific
Speaker 1: day or like a specific event that happened. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, that was that moment that tore my hip.
Speaker 1: But um, I had a torn laboram and a cam
Speaker 1: F A I impinchment, so basically extra bone girth around
Speaker 1: the hip socket and all the rotation on my left
Speaker 1: hip over time just tore my labram in half. And
Speaker 1: I was bowling on bawn and it was just I
Speaker 1: was having a hard time walking, much less turning hitting
Speaker 1: the golf ball. So I played. I started the year
Speaker 1: um out at Tory Pines. Played there, played okay, but
Speaker 1: missed the cut. Played batt on the south course and
Speaker 1: didn't take advantage of the north. And then the next
Speaker 1: week was a Monday qualifier in Scottsdale, so I went
Speaker 1: from Tory to Scottsdale. I was gonna play the Monday,
Speaker 1: and then I was in the next week at Pebble Beach.
Speaker 1: And that week in Scottsdale, I remember my hip just
Speaker 1: killing me. And I didn't Monday, but Alie Snydergean's and
Speaker 1: I stayed out in Scottsdale because it's a great place
Speaker 1: to practice. It's cold in Atlanta. We didn't want to
Speaker 1: come home, so stayed out there in practice all week
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, my hips just killing me.
Speaker 1: And then I get to Pebble Beach the next week
Speaker 1: and I was just I was smoked, not mean, my
Speaker 1: my hip was in such pain, and I kind of
Speaker 1: suffered through that week and then drove down to l A.
Speaker 1: I was gonna play Riviera the next week. I was
Speaker 1: in there, and so I get to Riviera and I
Speaker 1: had to withdraw on Monday. And I took like a
Speaker 1: month off before Punta Kana and gave it one lass,
Speaker 1: one last more right, and I just wasn't able to
Speaker 1: do it. So I called my surgeon walking off the
Speaker 1: eighteenth green, I said, schedule it, um, let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and must do the hip surgery. So um, in that
Speaker 1: month between Riviera and Punta Kana, I went and had
Speaker 1: imaging done and he told me, you know, I was
Speaker 1: gonna have to have the surgery within a few months.
Speaker 1: He just didn't know when it would be. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, you'll know when the time's right. So I
Speaker 1: called him after Punta con insist, I know the times right,
Speaker 1: let's do it that And I knew if I if
Speaker 1: I had the surgery, then then I could play Q
Speaker 1: School that that year, and that was kind of my hope,
Speaker 1: UM at least be able to play Q School and
Speaker 1: give myself hopefully guaranteed status. UM that was kind of
Speaker 1: the goal. A whole time. So that was the reason
Speaker 1: I want to have the hit surgery Andy, I mean
Speaker 1: take us back to just like trying to work through
Speaker 1: the you know, play through the pain, because I mean,
Speaker 1: I think a very few people kind of understand how
Speaker 1: fleeting in the politics and all the stuff that goes
Speaker 1: on with sponsors, exemptions, even if you're the U. S. M. Champ.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're out six months and it's like quickly
Speaker 1: for people forget who you are. So you're just like,
Speaker 1: I gotta take advantage of it. Yeah, that's very well said. Um,
Speaker 1: people forget very quickly. Golf very much a game of
Speaker 1: what can you do for me right now? And you
Speaker 1: know rightfully, so you want to take the take the
Speaker 1: players that are hot, and take the players that, um
Speaker 1: kind of have have done something recently so they're sponsoring
Speaker 1: vites are very hard to get, and fortunate for me,
Speaker 1: I was able. You know, it was soon enough after
Speaker 1: the low am with the Masters that people kind of
Speaker 1: were still remembering me and I was able to get
Speaker 1: all the sponsor invites starting out that year. But after
Speaker 1: hip surgery, UM, it was a little different. I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to get any sponsor invites and we'll get into
Speaker 1: some of that after after Q school and kind of,
Speaker 1: um what happened after that? But UM, yeah, this, the
Speaker 1: sponsor invites are very hard to get. I think they're
Speaker 1: hard to get on the corn Ferry Tour than even
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. And for reasons we don't. We don't
Speaker 1: have to. One day we'll tell that story. That's a
Speaker 1: different UH. There's there's a lot of polics that go
Speaker 1: involved in UH and and those sponsor invites on both tours.
Speaker 1: I think. So. Um, after hip surgery, I was feeling great.
Speaker 1: I had a great six months recovery and um, everything
Speaker 1: was looking good. Um, I was playing some good golf.
Speaker 1: I went and my first tournament back was a g
Speaker 1: Pro Tour event September, and uh, I was advanced to
Speaker 1: second stage. So I wanted to play a little bit
Speaker 1: of golf before I went to second stage of Q school.
Speaker 1: I went and played a g Pro Tour event. I
Speaker 1: won that. That was my first event back post hip surgery.
Speaker 1: Everything's great. Um, I got a sponsor invited to Sanderson Farms.
Speaker 1: It's near my hometown in Mississippi, and I've known the
Speaker 1: tournament director for a while. He gave me a spot,
Speaker 1: and which I was, you know, obviously super thankful for.
Speaker 1: I had two events to play before before Q School.
Speaker 1: I got into contention actually Sanderson Farms and had a
Speaker 1: bad Saturday. But I had a really good tournament and
Speaker 1: uh gave me a lot of confidence. Going into Q school,
Speaker 1: I was, I was ready to go. Um, all the
Speaker 1: all the hard work that I've done for six months
Speaker 1: was paying off and everything kind of. I go, so
Speaker 1: here we go to Q School. I get the second stage.
Speaker 1: I lose by one, but play great. I think I
Speaker 1: shot like eighteen nineteen under par. I don't remember it
Speaker 1: was in in Dothan, Alabama, but uh yeah, so accuse
Speaker 1: school went great. I get the final stage. I pulled
Speaker 1: a muscle in my elbow on Sunday. But right before
Speaker 1: the tournament starts, I play no practice rounds. I go
Speaker 1: get a Cortison shot the night before the first round,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I just I couldn't swing the golf club.
Speaker 1: Um somehow I wasn't able to make a lot of
Speaker 1: puts the first round and shoot a few under. But
Speaker 1: after that it started raining, got super cold, and Wendy
Speaker 1: um Savannah and I just I shot a million finished
Speaker 1: like a hundred at final stage, and I didn't really
Speaker 1: know how detrimental that could be for the rest of
Speaker 1: the year. So okay, so we're back in Q school.
Speaker 1: How how did you How did you hurt your elbow? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was it was super cold in Atlanta. Obviously
Speaker 1: in November, you never know what you're gonna get in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and it was really cold the week before. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to get some practice in, so I went to
Speaker 1: the indoor hitting bays at Golf Club of Georgia and
Speaker 1: there's like a little trench in the in the mat.
Speaker 1: But I hit it out there and it kind just
Speaker 1: called it just right. I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened, put it just right in the little trench
Speaker 1: and it kind of just caught my wedge and it
Speaker 1: snapped my elbow and it's it was so swollen, looked
Speaker 1: so gross. Um called my physical therapist that had done
Speaker 1: he had done my hip surgery rehab, and he was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you know, we've spent seven months getting
Speaker 1: you ready for Q school and then this freak accident happens.
Speaker 1: So he rushed me in. It was a Sunday. He
Speaker 1: rushed me into his clinic. He opened it up. It
Speaker 1: was like, you know, late in the afternoon. Um, he
Speaker 1: was actually at like his kids volleyball practice or something,
Speaker 1: and he was like he knew that when I called him.
Speaker 1: The tone of my voice I was, you know, I
Speaker 1: was in in some serious pain and hurting and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So he uh rushed me in did some dry need
Speaker 1: link to it? And then he's like, you don't need
Speaker 1: to go to final stage and I'm like, no, I'm
Speaker 1: going to final stage. You know, this is all I've
Speaker 1: worked for for the past seven months. And even you know,
Speaker 1: back before that it was you know, I had I
Speaker 1: missed Q school the year before because of COVID. So
Speaker 1: this was like a whole two year cycle leading up
Speaker 1: to this event. And you know, my elbows size of
Speaker 1: a balloon. So, um, I go down Monday morning just
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna go to Savannah. That was my original plans.
Speaker 1: I called Mac Barnhardt, my agent, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, Mac, this is what's going on. He called
Speaker 1: one of his doctor friends, Dr Topper, down in Sea Island. Um.
Speaker 1: Dr Talps got a practice in Brunswick, so he brought
Speaker 1: me in for imaging on Tuesday and then I think
Speaker 1: I got a Cortison shot on Wednesday to play the tournament,
Speaker 1: and I was icing the whole week. I got to
Speaker 1: walk the course obviously, but I couldn't hit any balls.
Speaker 1: Dr Talps like, you know, he was like, we've done
Speaker 1: all we can do. Go try and see what you
Speaker 1: can do on Thursday. But he was like, don't hit
Speaker 1: a ball until Thursday and make it any worse. So
Speaker 1: I literally really from Sunday to Thursday didn't hit a
Speaker 1: single golf shot. Um. I didn't know if I was
Speaker 1: gonna be able to play, but I knew I had
Speaker 1: to at least hit a shot off the first tea.
Speaker 1: If you hit a shot off the first tea at
Speaker 1: final stage, you technically finished. You can withdraw and finish
Speaker 1: last in the tournament, but at least you keep your
Speaker 1: conditional status. If you withdraw before the tournament starts, you
Speaker 1: don't even keep your conditional status. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I hit a shot off the first he end up
Speaker 1: shooting a shot. I think I shot like four or
Speaker 1: five when out of the first round, and we were like, okay,
Speaker 1: here we go, let's let's see what we can do.
Speaker 1: And then the second round, Um, I went to the
Speaker 1: other course and hit like three balls out of bounds,
Speaker 1: shot a million. So um, I mean yeah, just does
Speaker 1: your mind ever go to a dark place and you
Speaker 1: think about how your life had been different if it
Speaker 1: wasn't for that little goddamn trench in the map. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it really could. I would have been off
Speaker 1: and running. I was playing so well, um, coming back
Speaker 1: from surgery, and you know, I was in a good,
Speaker 1: good space mentally, everything was good and yeah, so that
Speaker 1: was super unfortunate. And as soon as the tournament ended,
Speaker 1: I knew I had to find a way to get
Speaker 1: into some tournaments. So I had to get sponsor invites
Speaker 1: um or I had to Monday qualify. So as soon
Speaker 1: as the tournament ended, I start emailing Bahamas. I started
Speaker 1: emailing um the South American events, I started emailing Louisian.
Speaker 1: I started emailing all these different places. The lead calm
Speaker 1: down in Florida. I can I've had hours and hours
Speaker 1: of conversations with all of these tournament directors, um tons
Speaker 1: of emails. I was told literally three days after the
Speaker 1: final stage that all of my all the spots in
Speaker 1: my category were already taken for the Bahamas. I don't
Speaker 1: know how that's possible. Um PGA Tour sponsor invites are
Speaker 1: given out, you know, two weeks ish before the event.
Speaker 1: But somehow my category was already already given for Lee Coom,
Speaker 1: already given for Bahamas, um for Bo Gatar. I think
Speaker 1: they were already given their's. They probably get them the
Speaker 1: local guys or I don't know what the deal was,
Speaker 1: but um, yeah it was. It was very interesting how
Speaker 1: that that whole system works. I was told, like I said,
Speaker 1: three days after um Corn Free Finals that all the
Speaker 1: spots were already given out, So maybe it's coincidence. Maybe Yeah,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the spots are being sold still, so
Speaker 1: that's just just my ti. Um, that's that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1: Andy first. I mean we can definitely touch on the
Speaker 1: on the exemptions too, but just kind of give people
Speaker 1: to give people a perspective of what finishing a Q
Speaker 1: school was. People think that like you get the final
Speaker 1: stage and you're like, oh, everything's goold and you basically
Speaker 1: have to finish in the top forty. Maybe if you
Speaker 1: missed by one shot, you're gonna get a lot of tournament,
Speaker 1: but we're Andy finished, basically you're gonna get into maybe
Speaker 1: five tournaments in a year, and they're gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: not that there's any but they're gonna be later in
Speaker 1: the season and all this kind of stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that was kind of my understanding. I thought
Speaker 1: I might get into a couple of events later in
Speaker 1: the year. I thought I might get into maybe bow
Speaker 1: Guitar Panama, because a lot of people don't travel to
Speaker 1: those places. UM. I thought I would get into the BMW,
Speaker 1: which was, you know, a large field because it's three courses.
Speaker 1: I thought I might get in a few of those events.
Speaker 1: So that was kind of my hope. But I never
Speaker 1: got into a single event. Um based off the reshuffle
Speaker 1: this year and how everyone wanted to play every event,
Speaker 1: I just never got into a tournament. So UM, I
Speaker 1: was traveling the Southeast and kind of all over playing
Speaker 1: all these Monday qualifiers. UM. I was playing a lot
Speaker 1: of many tour events in between. And the season got
Speaker 1: to the point where there was two events back to
Speaker 1: back in Louisiana and I had been talking to a
Speaker 1: tournament director in Louisiana. I'm not going to say his name.
Speaker 1: I had been talking to the tournament director for one
Speaker 1: of the events, and he told me you know. He
Speaker 1: was like, between you and me, you're gonna get into
Speaker 1: this tournament. We're gonna give you a sponsor invite. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, awesome. So there is an APT Tour
Speaker 1: event right before that event in Louisiana, and I was like, sweet,
Speaker 1: I'll go to this APT event. Um, this will be
Speaker 1: like a gear up for for this tournament and play
Speaker 1: that play the APT and then I get a call
Speaker 1: um during that event, I was at the movie theater
Speaker 1: with my my dad actually, and I remember walking outside
Speaker 1: and he was like, hey, the tournament committee pulled, pulled,
Speaker 1: pulled this sponsor invite from me. They decided to give
Speaker 1: it to Ryan Ruffles, And wow, that was just like
Speaker 1: the complete just that was the low point of this
Speaker 1: whole year because I had finally thought I was going
Speaker 1: to get a spot to play in a Corner Farry event.
Speaker 1: And if I was able to play in one event,
Speaker 1: that's what I keep telling the tournament directors. I just
Speaker 1: need one tournament. I don't need a bunch of tournaments.
Speaker 1: I don't need three or four. I need one event
Speaker 1: because if I can get in one, it's all up
Speaker 1: to me. After that point, I can play my way
Speaker 1: into the reshuffle. I can play my way into you know,
Speaker 1: full status on this tour, but please just give me
Speaker 1: an opportunity to play one event. I'm not playing well
Speaker 1: on the Monday qualifiers mentally, I'm not there. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not I'm not doing great in them,
Speaker 1: and every every week you gotta go shoot six seven,
Speaker 1: eight under part just to get through. So um, it
Speaker 1: wasn't wasn't doing that, wasn't playing well enough to get
Speaker 1: in on my own, and wasn't given an opportunity to play.
Speaker 1: So um, that was kind of the low point of
Speaker 1: the whole thing. I remember being just super devastated. I
Speaker 1: was supposed to play another APT Tour event and I
Speaker 1: called Mac and I'm like, you know, I'm going home.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm tired of being on the road. I'm
Speaker 1: tired of playing these mondays. I finally thought I was
Speaker 1: going to get an event and it got pulled from
Speaker 1: me last second. So um, this is just kind of
Speaker 1: the low point of this whole year. Um kind of
Speaker 1: stretched for me and I was sitting in a comfort
Speaker 1: suitets in Louisiana and my bed's broken and it's got
Speaker 1: old red carpet and it smells like cigarettes, and I'm
Speaker 1: just like, you know, this is not what I expected,
Speaker 1: you know, my pro career to look like at this point. Um.
Speaker 1: Not that there's anything wrong with the traditional route and
Speaker 1: grinding it out on Mondays and you know, doing that stuff,
Speaker 1: but it's just not where I saw myself being based
Speaker 1: off the opportunities that I've had, and UM, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously good golf could have taken care of a lot
Speaker 1: of that, but I didn't. I didn't do what I
Speaker 1: needed to do to get um full status. And whether
Speaker 1: that be because of injury or because of whatever, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I didn't. I didn't play
Speaker 1: well enough to give myself those opportunities. So, UM, that's
Speaker 1: something I'm gonna have to live with. But UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I tried, tried as hard as I can, and I
Speaker 1: remember calling Mac and I was saying, you know, I
Speaker 1: just need somewhere to play, Mac, Um, I need some
Speaker 1: type of start. I need some type of tournament to
Speaker 1: get ready for that that matters, A tournament that I
Speaker 1: can get out of bed for, a tournament that I'm
Speaker 1: excited to go practice, I'm excited to go play. At
Speaker 1: this point, I'm just like super frustrated with golf. I'm
Speaker 1: not getting into the Mondays, I'm not playing well, I'm
Speaker 1: not getting into the corn Ferry events, and I'm traveling
Speaker 1: all across the country playing these minutes were events trying
Speaker 1: to make ends meet. So um, it's just it's a tough,
Speaker 1: tough road and you know everyone has to go through
Speaker 1: tough times at some point. But that was pretty much
Speaker 1: rock bottom for me, and uh so Mac and I
Speaker 1: kind of went back to the drawing board. We were
Speaker 1: able to find the International Tour Series for the Asian
Speaker 1: Asian Tour and the they were happy to have me
Speaker 1: in the first event in Newcastle, so that was that
Speaker 1: was like the first glimpse of hope for me to
Speaker 1: be able to play in an event that mattered. And
Speaker 1: then I was approached for the first for the first
Speaker 1: Lift Golf Tour event in London. So yeah, that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I was at at that point. But let's
Speaker 1: just back up just a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 1: when when you when you hit rock bottom, that's you know,
Speaker 1: you're now kind of early spring of two thousand and
Speaker 1: twenty two. You've been a pro for two and a
Speaker 1: half years. How are you, how are you making ends meet? Like,
Speaker 1: what what is the financial situation at that point? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's not great because I turned pro um.
Speaker 1: Every equipment manufacturer says money is down because of COVID,
Speaker 1: So I don't get kind of the traditional USAM type
Speaker 1: of situation there financially is it's kind of traditionally. I've
Speaker 1: I've kind of heard what other guys have gotten, and
Speaker 1: you know, numbers were a little down because of COVID,
Speaker 1: which is you know, fine whatever, and uh, and then
Speaker 1: I have to take six months off due to hip surgery,
Speaker 1: and that rehab was super expensive. You know, I was
Speaker 1: seeing a really good physical therapist a couple of times
Speaker 1: a week. Um, I was spending two an hour on
Speaker 1: physical therapy and I did that for you know, six months.
Speaker 1: So definitely adds up very quickly. Um. I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to play any tournaments, so I wasn't able to get
Speaker 1: any equipment money. I wasn't able to get my bonuses
Speaker 1: based off of getting corn for your status are getting
Speaker 1: PGA tour status, I wasn't able to get any of that.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, I was definitely to a place I've
Speaker 1: been playing all these many tour events. Not playing well,
Speaker 1: I'm spending crazy amounts of money. Um. All of February
Speaker 1: I stayed in a hotel. Every night I played a tournament.
Speaker 1: I think I played nine times before March, ten times
Speaker 1: before March. Um this year, so I was, I was
Speaker 1: traveling the world. I went to Hawaii this year to
Speaker 1: play a Monday qualifier. On Monday, did into Sony. Um,
Speaker 1: I missed the cut by one, finished sixty six and
Speaker 1: an amateur made the cut, which is a whole another thing.
Speaker 1: But um, so I finished in sixty six and an
Speaker 1: amateur made the cut and I missed the cut. So
Speaker 1: uh in Hawaii that ship cost me ten thousand dollars probably. Um,
Speaker 1: you know I can. I can sit here and name
Speaker 1: name stuff that costs a lot of money all day
Speaker 1: in this profession. But yeah, basically I needed to need
Speaker 1: to play some corn forrer events. I needed to get
Speaker 1: into bigger events. I needed to get full status. Um,
Speaker 1: I was going to run out of money just simply
Speaker 1: put I I'm I'm all of my golf by myself.
Speaker 1: You know, my parents were fortunate enough to provide me
Speaker 1: an opportunity to go to college and get an education
Speaker 1: and and you know, play junior golf and do all
Speaker 1: these great things. And I'm super thankful for you know,
Speaker 1: for everything they've given me, but they're not gonna provide
Speaker 1: for you know, chasing these Monday qualifiers and fund my
Speaker 1: golf career, and uh, rightfully so, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a crazy expensive profession and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: some kids are are lucky enough to have endless amounts
Speaker 1: of money, but you know, I grew up in a
Speaker 1: small town in Mississippi, unincorporated community, and we just we
Speaker 1: didn't have that kind of money to to kind of
Speaker 1: fund that lifestyle of trying to play professional golf. Andy,
Speaker 1: I have to assume that that part of that once
Speaker 1: you're like kind of you finished poorly at final stage
Speaker 1: efortan injury, and you're playing many tours, and I've talked
Speaker 1: to like a lot of type guys that have gone
Speaker 1: through what you're going through, I assume that part of
Speaker 1: the struggle is is mentally is like this is not
Speaker 1: how this was supposed to go. Here, I am playing
Speaker 1: many tours like it's it's obviously golf related, but mentally
Speaker 1: it has to be a struggle like I wasn't supposed
Speaker 1: to be playing mondays, I'm not supposed to be playing
Speaker 1: many tours and that I assume just takes time to
Speaker 1: get over to be okay that you're playing g Pro
Speaker 1: events for sure. Yeah, and you know that's that was
Speaker 1: the conversation I had with Mac when I was in
Speaker 1: in Louisiana. I just said, you know, Mac, I'm not
Speaker 1: having fun playing golf. This is not what this is
Speaker 1: not what I want to be doing. You know, if
Speaker 1: if this is how golf is gonna be, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to take a step back and reevaluate everything and
Speaker 1: get to a place mentally that I can be happy
Speaker 1: with being at a g Pro Tour event. I can
Speaker 1: be happy with chasing a Monday. I can be happy
Speaker 1: doing these opportunities and look at it more as an
Speaker 1: opportunity and not you know, I'll pour me um and wherever,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever state I'm in playing a Monday. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a hundred percent mental. And if you
Speaker 1: can get to a place where you know you're you're
Speaker 1: happy to be there, and you're thankful for the opportunity
Speaker 1: and you're looking forward to it, and you know all
Speaker 1: these things, you can you can play some good golf
Speaker 1: and get on, you can turn your career around pretty quickly. Um.
Speaker 1: It only takes one good week in golf. And uh,
Speaker 1: I think you know, we've seen that over and over again.
Speaker 1: Cameron Young was exactly where I was in a hotel
Speaker 1: and you know wherever playing Monday qualifiers a year and
Speaker 1: a half ago. So it can happen really quickly. Um,
Speaker 1: is what we've we've learned from from guys like that.
Speaker 1: But I just I wasn't to that place yet. So
Speaker 1: when when you went over to the International Series events
Speaker 1: over in England, did did you, in the back of
Speaker 1: mind think it might be an audition for Live Golf.
Speaker 1: It's kind of an audition. I mean I knew that
Speaker 1: they were gonna have some spots in the first live event.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come from that first International series, so um.
Speaker 1: But when I when I left to go to the newcast,
Speaker 1: already knew that I was going to play um the
Speaker 1: next week in London. Okay cool? And so when that
Speaker 1: offer was presented to you for live I'm based on
Speaker 1: everything we've heard up to this point, it's obviously a
Speaker 1: no brainer. You need somewhere to play golf. I needed off.
Speaker 1: That's that's the bottom line, it wasn't about I mean,
Speaker 1: I know everyone said it's not about the money. The
Speaker 1: money is definitely great money for you, and you need
Speaker 1: to play. It's somewhere to play, and it provided great
Speaker 1: financial situation for me to be able to you know,
Speaker 1: fund my my golf for the next couple of years. So, um,
Speaker 1: for me, it was a complete no brainer. I had
Speaker 1: nowhere else to play the that week of London. There
Speaker 1: was no g Pro Tour event, there was no corn
Speaker 1: for Tour event, there was no Monday qualifier. Um, there
Speaker 1: was nowhere else for me to play. Literally, So you know,
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to play in a golf tournament
Speaker 1: and I took it. If that would have been an
Speaker 1: International Series in Singapore like I just did two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I would have gone. If it's the Colorado Open like
Speaker 1: I just did, I would have gone. You know, the
Speaker 1: week after the first live event, I went and played
Speaker 1: a g Pro Tour event. You know, I need to
Speaker 1: play golf. It's like, it's it's pretty simple. I didn't
Speaker 1: get in a single event on the corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker 1: I've never played a corn f Tour event, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I didn't have an opportunity to play, so
Speaker 1: I needed somewhere to play. Was there anyone in your
Speaker 1: in your orbit who cautioned against it because of discomfort
Speaker 1: where the money was coming from, or knowing that it
Speaker 1: was going to complicate your path back to the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour potentially? Um, definitely not an issue you about where
Speaker 1: the money was coming from. I think that was more
Speaker 1: so just the only defense um the tour had based
Speaker 1: off this other tour at the time. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it was for me, I just kind of did
Speaker 1: my own research and talked to the smartest people I know,
Speaker 1: and everyone said, Saudi Arabia is now out of the
Speaker 1: United States, and they supported me fully with whatever I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. So, um, you know, friends and family,
Speaker 1: I talked to them, consulted them, what do you think
Speaker 1: are you gonna think of me any differently? And no one.
Speaker 1: Everyone said, dude, go chase your dream, go play golf.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I went with. So UM,
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone around me had any uh, had
Speaker 1: any issues with the whole thing. And I don't think
Speaker 1: anyone thought that my route to the PGA Tour would
Speaker 1: be um any different because of this. No one really
Speaker 1: thought that I could be suspended, um, based off of
Speaker 1: the status that I had. I had a conditional status.
Speaker 1: I basically paid to get status. I paid to have
Speaker 1: the ability to be suspended. That's kind of where I
Speaker 1: was andy too to that point. You know, I've talked
Speaker 1: to a lot of players, obviously, I cover a lot
Speaker 1: of guys like yourself, and I think the majority of
Speaker 1: I talked to him about, you know, Chase or yourself
Speaker 1: or more envious They that you guys had the opportunity
Speaker 1: than than mad that you took it. Uh, what's kind
Speaker 1: of your What has been your feedback from players? Everywhere
Speaker 1: I go, players are like, my gosh, dude, They're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we would have loved to do the same thing. Um,
Speaker 1: everyone says. Everyone keeps asking me why I'm not in
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against the tour um. Everyone keeps asking me
Speaker 1: or keeps telling me, I have the best You've got
Speaker 1: the best case ever, like you, you didn't even have
Speaker 1: status and you guys suspended and blah blah blah. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I'm not a guy that likes controversy.
Speaker 1: I never have, I never will. I'm only I mean
Speaker 1: not only I'm suspended until December UM from PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: Corn for a Tour, PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latin America. Um.
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks that I'm suspended for life because I was
Speaker 1: put on the the same list that came out as
Speaker 1: everyone else. UM, you know, I don't. I don't really
Speaker 1: agree with how my name was was put out there
Speaker 1: with everyone else. UM, guys that chose I lived tour
Speaker 1: events over a PGA Tour event that were they were
Speaker 1: exempt into PGA Tour events, they were exempt into all
Speaker 1: these things. I had no exemptions. I had no tournament
Speaker 1: to play, UM I had. I was. I was chasing
Speaker 1: Monday qualifiers. So UM, I didn't like that I was
Speaker 1: grouped into this category of of guys that kind of
Speaker 1: rebelled against the tour or chose a different path. I
Speaker 1: didn't choose a path. I just chose to play in
Speaker 1: the golf turn of it. So, UM, you know I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't love how that was handled. But hopefully, hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll be able to have a conversation at some point.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be in a lawsuit against the
Speaker 1: tour as of now. I just I don't I don't
Speaker 1: want to go that route. Um, I've taken enough backlash
Speaker 1: from all the things from from playing the first live event. Um,
Speaker 1: I've had people send me hateful, hateful, hate, hateful things
Speaker 1: basically every day for months. I've gotten crazy amount of
Speaker 1: backlash just for playing in a a golf tournament. Um. And
Speaker 1: this is kind of all um comes from the tour
Speaker 1: and uh, the tours stance against live golf, so kind
Speaker 1: of where I'm at. Yeah, I mean that that's powerful. Um,
Speaker 1: But before you decided to play in live London, did
Speaker 1: you have communication with the Where did they did? I
Speaker 1: called called the corn for your Tour player relations and said, look, um,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna probably go play in this Asian Tour
Speaker 1: International Series in Newcastle and I kind of started with
Speaker 1: that and they were like, yeah, we'd be happy to
Speaker 1: give you a media rights rights release. UM, go ahead.
Speaker 1: They're like we'll send you the link, you just fill
Speaker 1: it out, you say what tournament you're gonna play, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna get approved. I was like, okay, cool. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm also thinking about playing the live event
Speaker 1: the next week. Um, can you tell me if I'm
Speaker 1: going to be suspended if I play that? Or can
Speaker 1: you tell me if I'm going to get approved for
Speaker 1: a media rights release, and they basically not. Basically they
Speaker 1: told me every media rights release is looked at in
Speaker 1: its own microscope. They said, every player situation is different,
Speaker 1: every tournament's different. You know, we're we're definitely threatened by
Speaker 1: this Lift Golf series, but we look at every single
Speaker 1: media rights release in its own um, in its own classification.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, you know that sounds kind
Speaker 1: of promising. Maybe maybe they'll tell me that I don't
Speaker 1: get a discount on Monday qualifiers anymore. Maybe they'll tell
Speaker 1: me something. I don't know. I didn't really know what
Speaker 1: the the suspension for me would look like. I figured
Speaker 1: there would be some type of consequence just because you can't.
Speaker 1: I understand, you can't reap benefits of both tours, but
Speaker 1: I wasn't really reaping a benefit. I was reaping a
Speaker 1: benefit on Monday qualifiers and TBC sugar offer membership, so um,
Speaker 1: that was that was all I was receiving from the
Speaker 1: corn Ferry Tour. So I thought, maybe that might be
Speaker 1: taken away, but you know, surely they'll let me keep
Speaker 1: playing Monday qualifiers or whatnot. Um. But anyway, after I
Speaker 1: teed off in Newcastle Are in London. I opened my
Speaker 1: phone and I had denied me Right's release for for
Speaker 1: lip Golf London after I had already teed off. So
Speaker 1: it was this is a crazy time. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know that's what they And I'm not trying to speak
Speaker 1: out against the PGA Tour at all. I want to
Speaker 1: get that clear. Um. Growing up the PGA Tours where
Speaker 1: I wanted to play. It's all I ever wanted to
Speaker 1: do was to be on the PGA Tour. And um,
Speaker 1: I would still love to play the PGA Tour. I
Speaker 1: would love to play the Live Tour, I would love
Speaker 1: to play anywhere. I just want to play golf. I
Speaker 1: love playing golf. UM, I love competition, I love you know.
Speaker 1: I just want to be one of the best players
Speaker 1: in the world. And that's all that I've want to do.
Speaker 1: So um everything I do from the time I wake
Speaker 1: up every single day is to try to get better
Speaker 1: at golf and see where, see where this game can
Speaker 1: take me. So um that's all that's all I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do. And UM, I hope the I hope, I
Speaker 1: hope we can have a conversation with the tour at
Speaker 1: some point and just you know, talk about my situation.
Speaker 1: I didn't appeal. I don't see a reason to appeal. Um.
Speaker 1: I think we just need to sit down and have
Speaker 1: a conversation and say, you know, I don't understand why
Speaker 1: I am suspended from a tour I never played on,
Speaker 1: and a tour that I paid to get status on.
Speaker 1: Because let's say I'm missed at second stage. Let's say
Speaker 1: I don't get the final stage, I have no status,
Speaker 1: and then I go play a Lift Golf Tour event
Speaker 1: and the corn Ferry Tour couldn't ban me, couldn't suspend me. Um.
Speaker 1: So let's say I don't get to final stage, don't
Speaker 1: finish the hundred, Okay, I have no status. I go
Speaker 1: play live the first event, and then I come back
Speaker 1: in Monday qualify, and when the first corn Ferry event,
Speaker 1: I'd be playing the Live Tour and playing the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour at the same time. That's how it work would work.
Speaker 1: So I basically, because I went to corn Ferry Q
Speaker 1: school and made it to final stage, I had the
Speaker 1: ability to be suspended from the Cornferry Tour. So it
Speaker 1: just that doesn't make sense to me. I wish that
Speaker 1: scenario that you just laid out had happened, that would
Speaker 1: have been so glorious that us literally could have happened
Speaker 1: if I didn't make it the final stage. So that
Speaker 1: that's a that's amazing. So when when you were invited
Speaker 1: to play agreed to play live London, was it was
Speaker 1: it just a one off? Was there any promise made
Speaker 1: going towards future live events and or the national series?
Speaker 1: What was the arrangement for you? Yeah, so I can
Speaker 1: play International series um or the rest of this year
Speaker 1: for sure and possibly next year as well. So um,
Speaker 1: that gave me guaranteed place to play this year, gave
Speaker 1: me some events to play. Um, you know, I got
Speaker 1: to play. I got to play the last two International
Speaker 1: series as well. I just got back from Asia, my
Speaker 1: first trip to Asia, which was awesome. UM. I went
Speaker 1: over and played in Singapore and then I went and
Speaker 1: played in j Ju Island, South Korea, so getting to
Speaker 1: play two events over there. UM I was treated great.
Speaker 1: The golf courses are awesome. I was able to they
Speaker 1: had physical therapist on site, which is definitely a plus
Speaker 1: for me. Um. International travel is is pretty tough. So
Speaker 1: UM I was able to have physical therapist on site,
Speaker 1: people working with me every day and I was able
Speaker 1: to play really well, finished fifteenth over there. Uh the
Speaker 1: second week, had a chance to win on Sunday, but
Speaker 1: I had a bad back nine. But just to be
Speaker 1: in contention again playing in a golf tournament, Um, playing
Speaker 1: in an an event that matters, a four day event
Speaker 1: and with world ranking points and a nice, nice purse
Speaker 1: was was awesome. So I'm looking forward to I have
Speaker 1: four more of those this year, so looking forward to those,
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, just try to keep keep getting in
Speaker 1: tournaments and seeing where I can play. Basically, have like
Speaker 1: a month and a half off right now because the
Speaker 1: next international series until the first week in November in Morocco.
Speaker 1: So um, I'm just trying to find somewhere to play
Speaker 1: right now. Andy, Is it is it hard to you know,
Speaker 1: kind of back to the mental side of of it.
Speaker 1: Is it hard to kind of black out the politics?
Speaker 1: You know, there's like you're trying to get back and
Speaker 1: have an opportunity at Q School, You're dealing with the suspension.
Speaker 1: Is it is it hard to kind of just go
Speaker 1: to South Korea or go to Singapore and just try
Speaker 1: to make it a normal tournament week or because of
Speaker 1: the stuff you've dealt with leading up to this stuff.
Speaker 1: Is he kind of learning to block this this ship out,
Speaker 1: you know, and just teat up to be able to
Speaker 1: go over there. It's almost refreshing because I never had
Speaker 1: a single interview. Um my phone was barely working. I
Speaker 1: was on the other side of the world. Everyone here's
Speaker 1: a sleep. I've deleted Twitter, I've deleted Instagram, I don't
Speaker 1: have I don't have access to all this stuff anymore. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I've kind of I've kind of learned to block that
Speaker 1: that politics and uh negativity out of the world. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of a blessing in disguise for me,
Speaker 1: is learning how to block things out and learning how
Speaker 1: to how to deal with adversity, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: my college coach of Georgia Tech always said, how do
Speaker 1: you need how do you eat an uh an elephant?
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know how do you eat
Speaker 1: an elephant? He's like one bite at a time. So uh,
Speaker 1: that's kind of that's kind of what we're doing right now.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to eat an elephant one bite at
Speaker 1: a time. We're trying to play some play some golf
Speaker 1: and get a little bit better each day. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think eventually all this talk about live golf we'll
Speaker 1: kind of subside, and uh, it'll just be another tour
Speaker 1: that people play on. And you know, that's just how
Speaker 1: it's gonna be. I think they're they're here to stay.
Speaker 1: They have unlimited, unlimited resources, unlimited funds, and uh, when
Speaker 1: you have unlimited resources and unlimited funds, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of easy to be successful. So, UM, we'll see, We'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. I think. Uh, I just I would
Speaker 1: love to play and play golf anywhere. Um, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep playing these international series for now and then do
Speaker 1: my time. I'm so to speak until my suspensions over
Speaker 1: from the corn Ferry Tour. You deleted social media because
Speaker 1: of the live backlash. Yeah, I mean every day that
Speaker 1: I opened my phone on Twitter, it was just crazy
Speaker 1: amounts of tags and comments. Um, just painful, painful things,
Speaker 1: and I just got tired of seeing it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: get that. Um, I don't think that casual golf and
Speaker 1: understands how important the International series and Asian Tour is
Speaker 1: to live golf. Um, it really be is going to
Speaker 1: become a feeder system. And they've been a little scarce
Speaker 1: in the details, but there's gonna be a way next
Speaker 1: year for players to play their way on to Live
Speaker 1: Golf through the International Series. Can you bring that to
Speaker 1: life a little bit for the listeners. Yeah, So basically
Speaker 1: the International Series. For the first live event, they had
Speaker 1: eight players from the Asian Tour that were basic leg
Speaker 1: taken from the Asian Tour to the Lift Golf, so
Speaker 1: they had a certain amount of International Series exemptions based
Speaker 1: off prior order of merit on the International Series, So
Speaker 1: I think there was like three guys from that, and
Speaker 1: then I think they took five guys from the first
Speaker 1: Internationals or the International Series Newcastle, so if you finished
Speaker 1: top five at Newcastle you were able to get in,
Speaker 1: and then the top three on the order of merit
Speaker 1: before that. So the second event in Portland, I think
Speaker 1: they took six, so they dropped that down to six,
Speaker 1: and then for Bedminster, I think they went down to
Speaker 1: three and that's where they're going to keep it at.
Speaker 1: So top three on the current order of merit um
Speaker 1: the rest of this season we'll get in to Live
Speaker 1: Golf event and then at the end of the year,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that those three players will be exempt
Speaker 1: on the live for the next year. I mean that
Speaker 1: becomes an important point because one of the criterias to
Speaker 1: get world ranking points is you have to be an
Speaker 1: open tour which you can play your way on and off.
Speaker 1: It can't just be all invitation. So that's how that's
Speaker 1: where this comes in from from the golf standpoint is, hey,
Speaker 1: you have the ability to play your way on. Now,
Speaker 1: it's not a huge number of spots, but it's also
Speaker 1: they're just small fields, so that that is what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those International series are pretty cool. Uh. This year, I
Speaker 1: think they're anywhere from one and a half to two
Speaker 1: million persons, and then next year they're anywhere from two
Speaker 1: to three million persons. And next year they're talking about
Speaker 1: they said between twelve and fifteen events. That's what they're
Speaker 1: gonna have next year on the International series. So that's
Speaker 1: you know, that's a lot of events. And uh, I
Speaker 1: think that's ah, that might be the biggest threat for
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour is the International Series and the Asian
Speaker 1: Tour because I mean, you look at I have a
Speaker 1: lot of friends playing up in Canada right now. I
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends that that play Latin America
Speaker 1: or corn very even and there's guys losing money playing
Speaker 1: good golf every week, and uh, that's definitely a problem
Speaker 1: for the PGA Tour. And I think, you know, we're
Speaker 1: seeing half a billion dollars being released to the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: but nothing's being released up to PJ Tour Canada or
Speaker 1: PGA Tour Latin America are the corner ferry tour. So
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna see some some guys say, you know,
Speaker 1: I can go make a living play in the Asian Tour.
Speaker 1: I can't make a living playing PJA Tour Canada. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do that. So, um, you know, the
Speaker 1: stars are on the PGA Tour are being protected right
Speaker 1: now and they're they're definitely being awarded great compensation. But
Speaker 1: the future starts the PGA Tour definitely, uh, definitely not
Speaker 1: reaping those benefits right now. What was what was the
Speaker 1: atmosphere like at this International Series event, if just competitively
Speaker 1: course set up, What did it feel like? You've played
Speaker 1: a lot of different events now in different circuits, but
Speaker 1: what would you compare it to really big golf courses,
Speaker 1: like championship golf courses. Um, which is great, That's what
Speaker 1: I love to see, Um, any any tour that I've
Speaker 1: played on, you want the course to set up hard,
Speaker 1: you want the pen set up hard. Do you want
Speaker 1: to set up like so to a tour event? Um?
Speaker 1: And they were definitely set up that way. They had
Speaker 1: some good spectators, came out, decent crowds, nothing crazy, but
Speaker 1: over there, the Asian Tour is a big deal. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's shown on TV all the time. They had
Speaker 1: pretty good media following. Um. Interview rooms and in the
Speaker 1: locker rooms were taking care of really nice. They had
Speaker 1: three physical therapists on site at at both events. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, really good facilities, driving range, chipping green, putting green. Uh,
Speaker 1: greens were good. Courses were long and hard, and the
Speaker 1: competition was pretty good. Scores scores were actually a lot
Speaker 1: lower than I thought they'd be both of both weeks.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's I think it's a
Speaker 1: great thing. And you know, unfortunately, the I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys have seen, but the PGA Tour just
Speaker 1: changed the world ranking points for Asian Tour. So that
Speaker 1: was that was kind of another another blow for for
Speaker 1: lift golf is these players thought that they could go
Speaker 1: play Asian Tour International Series and keep their world ranking up.
Speaker 1: Patrick Read was very outspoken about you know, kind of
Speaker 1: his his he was going to support that, and he
Speaker 1: went and played in Singapore for that reason. And as
Speaker 1: soon as Patrick Read played in Singapore, the world rankings
Speaker 1: became the same world ranking almost the same as PGA
Speaker 1: Tour Canada. And there was like, I don't even know
Speaker 1: how many top one fifty players in the world at
Speaker 1: this Asian Tour event, and there was, you know, the
Speaker 1: strength of field was a little bit different. And you've
Speaker 1: got the same amount of World ranking points for PGA
Speaker 1: Tour Canada now as you do Asian Tour. So that's
Speaker 1: just you know, I guess the PGA Tour on official
Speaker 1: World Golf rankings, So that's just how it's going to be. Well,
Speaker 1: they don't, but they have an influence on it for sure.
Speaker 1: And the World ranking is its own independent body. But
Speaker 1: Jamnahan sits on the board, and you know, so does
Speaker 1: so does the guys who run the RNA PD of America.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of the five Families of golf.
Speaker 1: So there's they have a lot of history and a
Speaker 1: lot of ancestuous relationships. So the tour theoretically is only
Speaker 1: one voice, but um, you know the obviously the old
Speaker 1: Guard has kind of rallied around each other. So it's, um,
Speaker 1: it's interesting scenario. Those world ranking points are gonna be
Speaker 1: super slim. You're not gonna be able to play your
Speaker 1: way into the top fifty in the world and play
Speaker 1: your way into majors and things like that. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be unfortunate for the Asian Tour. But the purses
Speaker 1: are going up, and I think you'll see the competition
Speaker 1: start going up to a lot of the lift players.
Speaker 1: In their contracts, they're gonna have to play a certain
Speaker 1: amount of various events. So um, you'll see those international
Speaker 1: series start becoming more and more prevalent. So Ryan, how
Speaker 1: I know you have to go and pick up your kids,
Speaker 1: but I keep Andy a little bit longer. But before
Speaker 1: you go, like just what does this mean to the
Speaker 1: new world order of golf? When you have in the
Speaker 1: National Series has a three million dollar pers Asian Tour
Speaker 1: has a five million dollar purs where where does this
Speaker 1: fit into the overall structure of competitive golf as people
Speaker 1: are trying to get to essentially the big leagues, which
Speaker 1: we can all agree is now the PG Tour and live. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, Andy touched on it and Andy, and
Speaker 1: Andy knows it, uh, you know better than I do,
Speaker 1: as he's a player. But just talking to all sorts
Speaker 1: of players, you can't make a living in the Latin
Speaker 1: American tour, you can't make it living in the Canadian tour,
Speaker 1: and those tours have basically killed many tours back in
Speaker 1: the United States. So the g Pro Tour is a
Speaker 1: very good tour, but you win ten thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: winning it. There's no Hooters Tour, there's no there's no
Speaker 1: real many tour in the United States that you can
Speaker 1: make a living outside of winning ten times in a
Speaker 1: year or five times in a year. So I mean,
Speaker 1: just like Andy, there's a thousand players that just want
Speaker 1: to make a living. And the International Series, I think
Speaker 1: you'll see a lot of people at European Q School.
Speaker 1: I think you'll see a lot of people at Asian
Speaker 1: Q School. They just want a place to play. That's it,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, And you know, I know Andy, it's
Speaker 1: it's impossible. In the social media world, I get a
Speaker 1: hundred comments and one bad one and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's the one I fixate on. For the most part,
Speaker 1: all the people I talked to, no one's mad. I know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've got plenty of messages saying differently. I
Speaker 1: just think overall, the support for players like Chase Keepka
Speaker 1: or Andy playing on live is far overwhelmingly supportive in
Speaker 1: the majority of what lived golf is. So I think
Speaker 1: the Asian Tour is going to change the game. You
Speaker 1: only see the comments that are bad, but I have
Speaker 1: had I have had a lot of support from players
Speaker 1: and people that really understand golf. Anyone, anyone who's been
Speaker 1: in my position before completely understands playing opportunities and somewhere
Speaker 1: to play golf. So um, I have to have to
Speaker 1: keep reminding myself that, for sure, Andy, I gotta get
Speaker 1: out of here and get my kids from the school bus. Uh.
Speaker 1: All the best, dude, and um and I look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing what your career does from here. So well,
Speaker 1: the best. Thanks for being on man. We don't need
Speaker 1: Ryan anyway, He's dead weight. Get out of here. Ryan,
Speaker 1: It's Graham. You know I love you. Go don't don't,
Speaker 1: Mr school bus. You gotta run along now, run along. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean, just to bring this to life a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm looking at the results from like from Singapore. Um,
Speaker 1: the event you played in a few weeks ago. I
Speaker 1: mean the winner took home two D seventy thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and that that person was one point five, so that
Speaker 1: that you know, if it was it's gonna go up
Speaker 1: a lot from there. That's real money. I mean I finished,
Speaker 1: I think I finished fifties six tip for fifty six
Speaker 1: in Singapore and made like we're is better than second
Speaker 1: place in a g PRO. I know, we keep talking
Speaker 1: about the g Pro Tour event. G PRO is awesome.
Speaker 1: I love I love that tour. It's it's a cool
Speaker 1: place to play. But I mean that's more money than
Speaker 1: a second place in the g PRO. I finished T
Speaker 1: fifteen with ten people the second week and made over
Speaker 1: eighteen thousand, which is you know, that's that's real money.
Speaker 1: I mean that's enough money to pay for travel and
Speaker 1: make a little bit of money. And if you can
Speaker 1: break break even, um playing on anywhere besides PGA Tour
Speaker 1: or or live golf, now, um, you're doing pretty good. There.
Speaker 1: There's been a little sense like, oh, you know, all
Speaker 1: all these like American pros, nice Southern boys like yourself
Speaker 1: aren't going to go play golf. In Asia. It's too
Speaker 1: far away, it's too different. Uh what what was your
Speaker 1: your inter personal experience and just being a being a
Speaker 1: you know, a stranger in our foreign land, Like, how
Speaker 1: did it feel to play golf over there? It was
Speaker 1: so cool? I mean, they really took care of us.
Speaker 1: They put us in Everyone stays in the same hotel. Um.
Speaker 1: There's shuttles every thirty minutes to the course, so you
Speaker 1: don't have to rent a car. You don't have to
Speaker 1: really worry about travel. Um. I land at the airport,
Speaker 1: had a driver picked me up and take me to
Speaker 1: the hotel. And other than that, I mean I had
Speaker 1: everything else was was pretty much catered for me. You
Speaker 1: have breakfast and lunch at My biggest thing is food.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't. I don't like some of those
Speaker 1: Asian cuisine. But I was able to. I was able
Speaker 1: to find food pretty easily. There was a breakfast buffet
Speaker 1: at the hotel that was pretty American, um, pretty traditional.
Speaker 1: They had an almost station. I could I could kind
Speaker 1: of go from there if I had an almost station,
Speaker 1: I'm good. But the food was fine. Well, lunch was
Speaker 1: at the course every day, huge buffet. You could kind
Speaker 1: of find some stuff that you could eat and then
Speaker 1: at dinner all the guys kind of hang out together
Speaker 1: because everyone stayed at the same hotel. There was guys
Speaker 1: like James Piett, Chase Chase, Kepka, Turk Pettitt, all these
Speaker 1: other Americans that I could travel with and go to
Speaker 1: dinner with. And uh so I don't think I eat
Speaker 1: by myself once for for two weeks, which is super fun.
Speaker 1: And getting to see different parts of the world, I
Speaker 1: think it's awesome. Um, I've been super fortunate to be
Speaker 1: able to, you know, chase a white ball around and
Speaker 1: and get to travel the world doing it. So Um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people where I live that where
Speaker 1: I grew up that never really venture out of Mississippi
Speaker 1: much less get to travel, get to travel the world
Speaker 1: and do all the cool things that I've been able
Speaker 1: to do. So I have to pinch myself a lot, um,
Speaker 1: just being able to do what I do, playing a
Speaker 1: game that I love, and uh, you know, it's it's awesome.
Speaker 1: So if if the center of gravity of the Gulf
Speaker 1: Universe goes east and the Asian Tour in their national
Speaker 1: series supplants the corn Ferry and Canada and Latin America,
Speaker 1: You don't think there'll be any hesitancy for a lot
Speaker 1: of Americans to start making those trips. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's gonna be so many events
Speaker 1: every year that you're gonna be able to go play
Speaker 1: three weeks in a row and then come home for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, and then three weeks in a row,
Speaker 1: come home for a couple of weeks, and the travel
Speaker 1: is not that bad if you can do it that way. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you're having to go play one event and then
Speaker 1: fly back across the country and play another one fly back,
Speaker 1: fly back, fly back, I mean that would be a nightmare.
Speaker 1: But um, when you can go play three in a row,
Speaker 1: I mean I was, I was pretty I'd say my
Speaker 1: jet lag went away after about two days, so you know,
Speaker 1: you can even for two in a row. It wasn't
Speaker 1: that bad. Obviously, I got travelers flu coming back, so uh,
Speaker 1: fortunately I've been I've been down bad for about four days.
Speaker 1: I lost about fifteen pounds. But it's a blessing and
Speaker 1: disguise that that now, that's that's a positive attitude right there,
Speaker 1: and hey, I'm working working on so you know, looking ahead,
Speaker 1: there's now that you have this looming. Um, maybe not
Speaker 1: a battle, but there's some intrigue with what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: with you in the PGA Tour in December. Do you
Speaker 1: have has there been any back channel communication? Like do
Speaker 1: you have any sense if if they're going to lift
Speaker 1: your suspension or they're going to extend it? Like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm I'm really curious. In my in my
Speaker 1: letter telling me that I was suspending until December, there
Speaker 1: was a statement that said basically, any further events or
Speaker 1: outspoken comments against the PGA Tour could result in further suspension.
Speaker 1: So um, that's that. I don't really I don't really
Speaker 1: know what that means. Um, that's what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: not outspoken against the tour at all. So um, I've
Speaker 1: always supported the PGA two. I loved watching the FedEx
Speaker 1: Cup yesterday. Uh I guess what two days ago now,
Speaker 1: and it was just you know, I love I love
Speaker 1: watching golf. I'm a fan of golf. I love playing often. Uh,
Speaker 1: golf is kind of always been my life and what
Speaker 1: I'll do. So let me speak on your behalf. Andy.
Speaker 1: That's fucked up. I mean like that to threaten you
Speaker 1: that way is ridiculous, Like, this is your life. I've
Speaker 1: definitely been threatened, So yeah, I mean, this is your life,
Speaker 1: this is your journey. Should be able to speak about
Speaker 1: it freely, and we appreciate your trust and coming on here.
Speaker 1: But I mean, that's that's chilling. It's like they're they're
Speaker 1: just you're the easiest target here. You don't have status.
Speaker 1: You're not a past champion, you're not a major championship winner,
Speaker 1: you're not a Hall of Famer, Like they're just trying
Speaker 1: to squash you and all this. It doesn't seem fair. Definitely,
Speaker 1: I've definitely been squashed and thrown into this category of Um,
Speaker 1: these outspoken guys are guys that have rebelled against the tour.
Speaker 1: But I'm not like that at all. So hopefully hopefully
Speaker 1: we can sit down at some point and have a
Speaker 1: conversation about it, like like man, yeah, um, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna play the remaining in our National series events. Um,
Speaker 1: the goal there would be to get uh full status
Speaker 1: on the Asian Tour and or play your way onto
Speaker 1: the Yeah, that would be the goal to play get
Speaker 1: full status on the Asian Tour for next year. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm an affiliate member right now, I think I probably
Speaker 1: need to make somewhere around a hundred thousand UM to
Speaker 1: guarantee myself full status for this year. And I'm at
Speaker 1: about twenty three thousand right now with four events to go, So, um,
Speaker 1: just a couple of good weeks and I should be
Speaker 1: able to lock that up and then. Um. But the
Speaker 1: Asian Tour International Series has a lot of sponsor invice.
Speaker 1: I think they get like thirty eight sponsor invites into
Speaker 1: every single event. So I've been fortunate enough to play
Speaker 1: on those, so um, you know, worst case, maybe get
Speaker 1: some of those and just keep playing on that. So
Speaker 1: let's do a little thought exercise here. You play really
Speaker 1: well in these international series events, Um, you have, you
Speaker 1: have great status in Asia heading into two thousand and
Speaker 1: twenty three. You flat upon a beach, you get wine
Speaker 1: and dine by Jay Monahan. They welcome you back into
Speaker 1: the old They say, okay, you can, you can, you
Speaker 1: can play well because of the situation here, will grant
Speaker 1: you full status on the corn Ferry Tours. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a makeup for what you've been through. But you
Speaker 1: have to renounce Asia International and live like there's a
Speaker 1: fork in the road here, it's us for them. Uh,
Speaker 1: which do you choose? I don't know. It's gonna be hard. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like I've been treated very very wrongly.
Speaker 1: And uh, I haven't had any direct communication with any
Speaker 1: anyone high up um on the PGA Tour. So if
Speaker 1: if I was able to to kind of have some
Speaker 1: conversations and and understand kind of where they were coming
Speaker 1: from and understand, um a little better the situation and
Speaker 1: kind of right some wrongs, then yeah, I might be
Speaker 1: able to might be able to go that route because
Speaker 1: I have always wanted to play the PGA Tour. That
Speaker 1: is you that that is what I've always wanted to do. So, um,
Speaker 1: I still would love to play the PGA Tour at
Speaker 1: some point in my career. Um, I want to play
Speaker 1: against the best players in the world. I want to
Speaker 1: I want to be one of the top players in
Speaker 1: the world. I don't think you can do that without
Speaker 1: without playing the PGA Tour or live so um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to figure that out. But I mean,
Speaker 1: and I know I'm putting you on the spot here,
Speaker 1: but I mean, in that hypothetical, I'm not gonna tick
Speaker 1: one right, No, No, I know I don't expect you to,
Speaker 1: but just to flesh it out. I mean, if they
Speaker 1: granted you full status in the corn Ferry, those purses
Speaker 1: are what six hun fifty thousand and seven hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars Asia's Asia's five million. I mean, at some point
Speaker 1: the dream of the tour is is you grew up
Speaker 1: with it and it's a wonderful place, but you're also
Speaker 1: I mean you're trying to it's a livelihood. You gotta
Speaker 1: pay the bills, and I mean, I mean that's gotta
Speaker 1: be a factor, right would be. It would be tough
Speaker 1: to to turn down the Asian Tour and the opportunities
Speaker 1: financially right now. Um, I think eventually there's gonna be
Speaker 1: something done about the corn Ferry Tour. It's just there's
Speaker 1: two big of a difference right now and international series
Speaker 1: Asian Tour events and corn Ferry. And I think that's
Speaker 1: probably the next step for the PGA Tour, but I
Speaker 1: can't speak for them. Um. I just see all this
Speaker 1: money being dished out to to the top players in
Speaker 1: the top the top twenty guys. I guess what pips
Speaker 1: now at million? I mean, gosh, you take, you can
Speaker 1: take fifteen million to give ten million to give to
Speaker 1: the corn Ferry Tour and double all the purses and uh,
Speaker 1: I think that would go a long way, just just
Speaker 1: for starters. But hey, nobody asked me, no, we we
Speaker 1: did who that's why we have you here. But I
Speaker 1: mean it is an interesting thing. I mean I was
Speaker 1: at the Tour Championship and talked a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I think the most vulnerable tour on the plan right
Speaker 1: now is the Champions Tour because, um, that money will
Speaker 1: be much better off to be redistributed, um corn Ferry,
Speaker 1: Latin America, Canada and and try and build this next
Speaker 1: generation of stars. If all the guys in there, you know,
Speaker 1: in an entire generation of potential Champions Tour players just
Speaker 1: went to live. Right, You're not gonna get all those
Speaker 1: guys in their forties now, You're not gonna get Phil
Speaker 1: Tigers done. Like, Um, the Champions Tour is looking more
Speaker 1: and more like it doesn't have a purpose. And as
Speaker 1: you said, the tours committed so much to its top players,
Speaker 1: which had had to do. But something's got to give,
Speaker 1: and it definitely just seems like kind of a response
Speaker 1: to live not they're not kind of out in front
Speaker 1: of it at all in my opinion. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just like I said, I'm trying not to say anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know against the tour um based off of my
Speaker 1: not wanting to get suspended further. But you do an
Speaker 1: excellent job of it. I commend your tree. You han't
Speaker 1: anything's going to get you in trouble. My tongue is time.
Speaker 1: More money needs to go to the developmental tours if
Speaker 1: they want to keep the future starts the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: coming to the PGA Tour. Yeah, that's great. A right
Speaker 1: before you let you go, let's just talk about the
Speaker 1: state of er golf game, because that's what's ultimately gonna
Speaker 1: determine your future here even more than um the whims
Speaker 1: of j Monahan, like how are you feeling and why
Speaker 1: are you optimistic going forward? I'm just getting better. My
Speaker 1: body is getting better. I've had a lot of back
Speaker 1: issues since hip surgery as kind of a compensation, UM,
Speaker 1: pretty common injuries. Just I've had a lot of q
Speaker 1: l um right q L tightness because my left hip
Speaker 1: after hip surgery, my left hip is like functioning super
Speaker 1: well and my right hip is still not great. So
Speaker 1: I get these imbalances and my left hip gets super
Speaker 1: high and then my right my whole right side of
Speaker 1: my back, UM just kind of get some strain. So
Speaker 1: I'm just having a lot of imbalance issues. So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to trying to sort through those things, and UM,
Speaker 1: it's definitely stuff that can be fixed. So I've been
Speaker 1: working on it for the past few months. It's gotten
Speaker 1: a lot better. So I'm seeing I'm seeing the progress
Speaker 1: in my body, which gives me a lot of optimism
Speaker 1: because i know if if my body is feeling well, um,
Speaker 1: i know how to fix my golf games. So UM,
Speaker 1: as long as as long as my body keeps feeling well,
Speaker 1: I'm super optimistic with everything. Where everything's going. Um, I
Speaker 1: finally have opportunities to play golf somewhere that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm able to get excited for and able to able
Speaker 1: to kind of get out of bed and work towards
Speaker 1: a goal. Um, guaranteed place to play is the bottom
Speaker 1: bottom line for me right now. And uh, you know
Speaker 1: that's why I'm optimistic. I'm I'm able to play these
Speaker 1: international tour series. I'm able to travel the world. You
Speaker 1: can see some cool places, and I'm able to able
Speaker 1: to make some money in the process. So, um, those
Speaker 1: are all all optimistic outlooks. And despite everything you've been through,
Speaker 1: because it's been it's been a very challenging road since
Speaker 1: the US Amateur victory, you still you still love the game,
Speaker 1: you still have the passion I do. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: I love it. Uh there's been times where I haven't
Speaker 1: loved it, and there's been times where you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't didn't really care to go practice. I was pretty
Speaker 1: down on myself and uh, frustrated with my golf game,
Speaker 1: frustrated with with how everything was going. But I've gotten
Speaker 1: past that, and I'm back to a place where all
Speaker 1: I want to do is is practice and see how
Speaker 1: get I can get at this game that I love.
Speaker 1: So here we go. I love it well that that's
Speaker 1: a great place to end right there. It's fascinating. You're
Speaker 1: just at the You're you're at this crossroads here of
Speaker 1: history and uh, somewhat unwittingly, but you're you're in the
Speaker 1: middle of it all. So it Edvan's watching and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people cheering for you, and I
Speaker 1: would I won't worry about the small number of naysayers
Speaker 1: out there because I think when people hear your story,
Speaker 1: they're gonna understand like it's really all you want is
Speaker 1: a place to play golf. So literally, well Andy, thank
Speaker 1: you for your time and your insight. Um, this is
Speaker 1: Alan Schipnuk. We're gonna bring this Fire Drill podcast to
Speaker 1: a close. Thanks for listening as always, and we will
Speaker 1: keep trying to make sense of this ever changing landscape
Speaker 1: of professional golf. It's never boring. UM, So that's it
Speaker 1: for now, Thank you. I've been big and I played
Speaker 1: the wind, made a fortune, win my ship game, and
Speaker 1: I ran the table and never thought I could fall.
Speaker 1: Then the winter time hit me like a cannon the
Speaker 1: ball and now I can't shake this losing the street.
Speaker 1: Every road I take is a dead end stream. I
Speaker 1: got thoughts in my head, can't you John? And not
Speaker 1: the thing what I'm thinking about about gown thoughts in
Speaker 1: my can get him out? And trying not to think
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about h