Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do, good do. They's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it, good do it. We asked the questions you
Speaker 1: always want to know, but no one ever asked. Let's
Speaker 1: cut to it. You ain't heard them about it? Then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all. I love
Speaker 1: that movie, the second one. I like the second one
Speaker 1: better than the first one. I just do. I know,
Speaker 1: I can't really tell you why. I don't like the
Speaker 1: one with Wesley Snips. I like the one with What's
Speaker 1: what's his name? Oh yeah, I didn't like. Yeah. Hey,
Speaker 1: we're back in the studio. Cut to its. Steve Man,
Speaker 1: how's it going, Bro's going good? You know, it's going
Speaker 1: real good. I'm I'm excited um for the day because
Speaker 1: we got a really cool guest. But then also, you know,
Speaker 1: just how the stars A line man was out playing
Speaker 1: golf the other day, right, So we're playing golf, and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty I wouldn't go on the tour and
Speaker 1: say I'm a pretty good golfer because I'm not. Um
Speaker 1: but I can if I hit the bar, if I
Speaker 1: get moving, yeah, if I if I get if I
Speaker 1: get my coat, if I get my driver on it
Speaker 1: and go, I can hit about two range. I just
Speaker 1: smack it, but I gotta slice. I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: rid of so bang. I hit that thing about it
Speaker 1: goes about to fifty. Of course I'm playing that. The
Speaker 1: eighteen and nine is real narrow. So they're they're playing
Speaker 1: right next to each other. Boom, So I veer right.
Speaker 1: I gotta slice veers right. So I'm probably a huney
Speaker 1: yards from the green. I'm just on the other hole.
Speaker 1: I'm on the ninth hole. I'll tell you when that happens.
Speaker 1: So I got a honey yards to the green, ninth
Speaker 1: on the ninth hole, on the right next to him.
Speaker 1: So I played with um. I don't like playing with
Speaker 1: the standard white ball because I struggle tom to find
Speaker 1: it this early morning. I don't care if his afternoon.
Speaker 1: I'm on the struggle bus. So I played. I played
Speaker 1: with a lot of different color balls, and so I
Speaker 1: played with a red one, which is red as my
Speaker 1: favorite color. So I'm playing it. Hit it so it's
Speaker 1: on the other one and playing with my boy Joe,
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, Joe said, I got you all right,
Speaker 1: So I'm going over park. I'm going over, and there
Speaker 1: as a gentleman on the ninth hole as well, but
Speaker 1: I'm on eight team, so I'm interfairing to his game.
Speaker 1: So I take my time and I make sure I
Speaker 1: can go after he hits. I'm looking for this red
Speaker 1: ball on this green, green fairway so it's not hard
Speaker 1: to miss, and I'm like, where's my ball? So I
Speaker 1: go over and then this guy's looking at me very
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm going, damn, he's gonna want to
Speaker 1: go do this whole like yeah. So I've had guys
Speaker 1: approached me. Hey man, you sign my golf ball whatever, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm going on there and I'm like oh and
Speaker 1: he so he as he's going, he goes, hey, did
Speaker 1: you hit a red ball? Yeah? Did you hit the
Speaker 1: red ball? Oh? No? No, So I'm like, okay. He
Speaker 1: was like, oh, is this your ball? Yeah? So he
Speaker 1: found it. No, he didn't find my ball. This song
Speaker 1: Ago takes my ball. Oh he stole it. He stolen
Speaker 1: He picked my ball up. He said, red ball. He
Speaker 1: looked up said no. He said, Lord, thank you for
Speaker 1: this red callaway ball. You're giving me that I have
Speaker 1: not hit that that I did not purchase, but I'll
Speaker 1: take it right, takes the ball, puts it in his bag.
Speaker 1: So when I approach him, I said, yeah, bro, you
Speaker 1: got my ball. He is now looking at me as
Speaker 1: if I'm going to beat him up, and I'm still
Speaker 1: probably about thirty yards away from So we're like having
Speaker 1: this loud talking this in conversation. He put his ball
Speaker 1: in his bag and he's staring at me pulling my
Speaker 1: ball out of his bag. So he's caught. He's caught
Speaker 1: still in my ball, red handed with the red ball. Yes,
Speaker 1: and so he goes, hey, did you hit the red ball?
Speaker 1: So my reply to it, what did you did you
Speaker 1: not play with the red ball? Well, here's what makes
Speaker 1: it even classier. Day and't half later, take my boys
Speaker 1: to play golf. They want to hit the driving range. Dad,
Speaker 1: you played without this the other day. Can you all right?
Speaker 1: Let's go pull up? So I got deuced six years old,
Speaker 1: I got Boston years old. Pull up, We part. I
Speaker 1: get out of my car. Guess who is putting his
Speaker 1: bag into his trump red ball thief? Yes, he looks
Speaker 1: at me, singers sticky fingers and I just giggle. He goes, hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing? I said, take any balls like me?
Speaker 1: He looked at me, got in his car and Doocey goes,
Speaker 1: is that the guy who took your balls? I said, yep,
Speaker 1: that is him. He goes, he better drive off. Soho,
Speaker 1: who's our guest? We've got Harold Varner. He's a p
Speaker 1: G A tour member since two thousand and sixteen. He's
Speaker 1: a native of Gaston in North Carolina. He went to
Speaker 1: college at East Carolina University and he's a member of
Speaker 1: Brand Jordan's Are you about to take a partner? Get
Speaker 1: ice up segments? So there are random questions. Of course,
Speaker 1: you have no idea what's coming up? Not one may
Speaker 1: or may not be follow ups, right, and so Smithie
Speaker 1: go ahead and give him the first one. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's start one off with an easy one. Um,
Speaker 1: longest flight you've ever taken? Fourteen hours through Australia. How
Speaker 1: was it? I slept for twelve hours, slept through all
Speaker 1: my food, everything? Okay, coach business, first class. I don't
Speaker 1: know what I was on. What is one item you
Speaker 1: refuse to share? Oh? My putter? I don't like anyone
Speaker 1: touching my gamer putter. That's my thing, Like, because I
Speaker 1: think people put bad omens and stuff. Let me superstitious.
Speaker 1: I'm not superstitious. I just if it's the one I'm
Speaker 1: putting with. Like, let me how many putters do you have? Probably? Like,
Speaker 1: but everyone comes and takes them, but they don't mess
Speaker 1: with them one playing with I'm pretty about Okay, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that later. Now, So here's a good one.
Speaker 1: Now you ready listening. I'm loud and cleary. Would you
Speaker 1: rather be a hobbit or an elf for two hours? Why?
Speaker 1: Because of the movie Elfie. I would love to run
Speaker 1: around the mall and be a freaking elf, especially a
Speaker 1: black health what's going on? That's a great answer. I
Speaker 1: like that, all right? What is what was in your
Speaker 1: high school locker? I don't know. I didn't my senior year.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to it. I'm about the year before.
Speaker 1: I mean you were in I forgot my uh my key,
Speaker 1: my little code combination. Yeah, so they can't and cut
Speaker 1: it off and I didn't get it on hold from
Speaker 1: any homework things. No, No, lockers in high school don't
Speaker 1: have chained locks like their generally attached to the locker war.
Speaker 1: So it's not a locker you're talking about. Well, I
Speaker 1: know you went to school in Gastonia, so that changes.
Speaker 1: You had to buy a five dollar lock and you
Speaker 1: had to code to it and you had to buy
Speaker 1: from Yeah, generally there are it's like combination, the little
Speaker 1: handle to lift it up. Yeah, no, I had like
Speaker 1: a no, but they had to use the cutters get
Speaker 1: them off. I just forgot my combination. I just I
Speaker 1: didn't I leave my books in my car. I didn't.
Speaker 1: School wasn't my thing. We'll just say because the easy
Speaker 1: answer you donna say easy to you. I hear it coming.
Speaker 1: He didn't had nothing books. I made it though, you did?
Speaker 1: You passed with a sixty two. Hey, I got that pass.
Speaker 1: That's all. Yeah, alright, so hey, appreciate you coming on
Speaker 1: to the show. Um, let's let's let's just get into
Speaker 1: it and really, you know, just tell us who Harold
Speaker 1: Larnery is. You know, what's your what was your upbringing? Like? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I um, I was born in Akron, Ohio. I
Speaker 1: lived there for six years, moved to gaston in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: and I just grew up there and then went to
Speaker 1: East Carolina. Obviously I had had an awesome upbringing. I
Speaker 1: had too awesome parents. Um I grew up playing at
Speaker 1: a local municipal course that it's still around. I think
Speaker 1: a couple of my friends are going to go play
Speaker 1: there today. So it's uh, just super well rounded, you know,
Speaker 1: just playing I couldn't play any other sports. I wasn't
Speaker 1: tall enough, it wasn't big enough. So golf became, you know,
Speaker 1: a place for me where I just I could get
Speaker 1: better and I knew I could play in college, so
Speaker 1: it was just kind of a no brainer in that aspect.
Speaker 1: And then I just obviously when you get to college
Speaker 1: and you start getting better, you're like, you're looking at
Speaker 1: the big picture. I want to play against the best
Speaker 1: in the world as many times as I can. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just a fast version. Um. I had a guy
Speaker 1: named Bruce Sutter gave me lessons when I turned sixteen,
Speaker 1: so that was my first real lesson. Um So he
Speaker 1: taught me, taught me how to be a professional at
Speaker 1: a early age, but also taught me how to swing
Speaker 1: the golf club. How do how does Harold operate when
Speaker 1: it comes to hitting the golf ball? Um So he's
Speaker 1: a great mentor to me. And then when I went
Speaker 1: to school. I had a coach named prest Fall who's
Speaker 1: now at NC State. Um, just awesome, guy. Let's go
Speaker 1: back though, you're talking about sixteen. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, you see all that stuff. But you
Speaker 1: you were introduced to golf. Yeah what age? Because you're
Speaker 1: twenty nine years old. So born in n Gastonia is
Speaker 1: roughly about twenty three twenty three minutes, so roughly I
Speaker 1: think it's about twenty something miles from the city of Charlotte.
Speaker 1: Was Charlotte. A lot of people think Charlotte is the
Speaker 1: capital of North Carolina, but Raleigh is, which is about
Speaker 1: two and a half three hours to and on how
Speaker 1: fast you're driving all that stuff. Charlotte is not a
Speaker 1: booming city in nineteen ninety. They don't even have a
Speaker 1: professional football team. They don't have a professional baseball team.
Speaker 1: It had to be pretty much a unique situation to
Speaker 1: see a young black man walking on a public golf
Speaker 1: course hungry to learn how to play golf. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: So my dad when we lived in Ohio, he um,
Speaker 1: he got me the Fisher Price clubs is like a blue,
Speaker 1: little plastic two thing and had the yellow clubs that
Speaker 1: went in and so start off of that when I
Speaker 1: was two, and then when I turned five, I got
Speaker 1: one real golf club. It was a six iron. It
Speaker 1: was cut down. Um, super cool, you know. I just
Speaker 1: I guess I don't really remember it, but I've seen
Speaker 1: pictures of just like always had a golf club, always
Speaker 1: just hitting in my grandparents yard they had They lived
Speaker 1: on about sixteen acres, so, um, I was always hitting
Speaker 1: balls over the garden, messing around. And then when we
Speaker 1: moved to Gastonia, Um, they had this local golf course
Speaker 1: called Guests Room and this one. And then my dad
Speaker 1: always played golf, so like I would either hang out
Speaker 1: with my dad go play with him after he played
Speaker 1: with his friends called the Parbusters who are in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: but they play, they play all around. Um, so that's
Speaker 1: how I really, you know, my dad just just tag
Speaker 1: along with my dad. So when I turned seven, they
Speaker 1: had this, Uh, I mean it was the coolest thing.
Speaker 1: This is how this is why all sports need to
Speaker 1: go towards is from June one until September one, Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday, for a hundred bucks, I could go to
Speaker 1: Guests Room and this one whenever as long as we
Speaker 1: were walking. Yeah, and they had a grill in there.
Speaker 1: So these old men that my dad played with would
Speaker 1: like leave me lunch money, or like my dad would
Speaker 1: give me lunch money, you know. So I just hung
Speaker 1: out of the golf course the whole time. And then
Speaker 1: when I turned turned nine, I played my first tournament
Speaker 1: they had, you know, I just played in a a group
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, you know whatever. So I
Speaker 1: got a full set of clubs, and so I got
Speaker 1: addicted to it without like my parents pushing me, you know.
Speaker 1: It was just like and there were other kids out there,
Speaker 1: so you had a place where you could always like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I know him from there, you know. And then you
Speaker 1: grow up though, because like some of the kids go
Speaker 1: on vacation and stuff, and I would like just go
Speaker 1: play golf, and these old men would I'd be on
Speaker 1: the punt green, but you want to play. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: hell yeah, I want to play. You know, let's go.
Speaker 1: So they would let me tag along, and so I
Speaker 1: just I was very spoiled and didn't even know it.
Speaker 1: Like any time that a man, grown man will take
Speaker 1: a kid for that long, for four hours, you're gonna
Speaker 1: learn something, You're gonna pick up something. And I didn't
Speaker 1: even know I was receiving that information, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's uh, I was super fortunate. Golf's not that accessible
Speaker 1: right now. I don't think any sport is, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, UM, So that's that's sort of the
Speaker 1: difference I think is accessibility and anything in life. If
Speaker 1: you want to do something, you need to be around
Speaker 1: the person that's either doing that or be able to
Speaker 1: go do it on your own time. And right now
Speaker 1: we don't. I mean, especially during COVID, we don't have
Speaker 1: We don't have that. That's really cool. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: mean we're struggling with that. Since you bring up the
Speaker 1: race thing, I think we're struggling with that just having
Speaker 1: parents in their lives, you know, or just someone in
Speaker 1: their lives that cares, you know. Um. The most recent
Speaker 1: thing I've seen is, um, I'm guessing everyone's seen The
Speaker 1: Last Dance, you know. Yeah, unbelievable. The coolest part for
Speaker 1: me wasn't I think it was episode eight where Gusts
Speaker 1: comes in there. You know, his dad had died, he's
Speaker 1: won five times, and m J is still looking for
Speaker 1: a mental still looking for someone to be in their lives.
Speaker 1: So I just kinda That's what stuck out to me
Speaker 1: is that if I was if I won five times,
Speaker 1: I would be that male fi, I'd be the male figure,
Speaker 1: I'd be the guy. But no, he's still searching, still
Speaker 1: wanting to be better, and still wanting to learn something
Speaker 1: from someone who's been through the you know, been through it,
Speaker 1: And uh, I think that's so cool. Like I still
Speaker 1: ask my dad questions. You know, there's there's that, there's
Speaker 1: that with m J. There was that whole but I
Speaker 1: won't even go back. You mentioned the Parbusters. Tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit more about that. I mean you not
Speaker 1: only did you have your dad, but you got this
Speaker 1: group of men and what were they African American as well,
Speaker 1: So you got this group with the they probably probably
Speaker 1: having them little nickel bets, a little dollar bets, brainies,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. What memories do you have of those,
Speaker 1: not even just from a golf perspective, but what are
Speaker 1: some of the things maybe some of those intangibles or
Speaker 1: some of those things they they instilled in you. Um,
Speaker 1: once again, they gave me play. They would go play,
Speaker 1: so like obviously I get a little bit older, I
Speaker 1: get a little bit better. They would carry me to
Speaker 1: wherever they were playing, so I I'd play for the Carbusters,
Speaker 1: you know, like in these team events, and I would
Speaker 1: be on their team and we play, and you know,
Speaker 1: they would they would get all lit up. And when
Speaker 1: I got old enough, when I got my permit, I
Speaker 1: drive him back home, you know, like where they've be
Speaker 1: in Greenville, South Carolina. You know, they drive me down.
Speaker 1: They'd be so early, i'd be sleep but on the
Speaker 1: way back, I would drive back, you know. And I
Speaker 1: didn't really think about it. But ten years later, I'm
Speaker 1: playing the Mini Tours. I'm driving ten hours to play
Speaker 1: a Monday qualifier or something. It was nothing. It was like, dude,
Speaker 1: I've done this, like you got You got taught by
Speaker 1: the old school folks. So with teaching you, yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to play this game, but you got to grind
Speaker 1: it through. You know, write day, I want the championship,
Speaker 1: but not this stuff, the little stuff. But to play
Speaker 1: in the regular season, no rest me. They don't want
Speaker 1: to play. And they were teaching you to get to
Speaker 1: the playoffs and to get to the championship, to get
Speaker 1: the winning parade. You gotta grind it through the regular season.
Speaker 1: You gotta play the good teams and the easy teams,
Speaker 1: but they're preparing you for that getting up early. Right.
Speaker 1: It was awesome, right, yeah, it was. So they're still rounds.
Speaker 1: They still the guys that that took that I hung
Speaker 1: out with. They're real old out so it kind of
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate sometimes when I like see them because they're
Speaker 1: like they're playing from so far up, you know, they're
Speaker 1: getting old. Like I mean, I know I'm getting old too,
Speaker 1: but like it's weird when like they used to play
Speaker 1: the same teas as me. You know, it's like now
Speaker 1: it's like we're gonna play two teas up. You know,
Speaker 1: the same thing with my dad, you know, he's like
Speaker 1: moving up tea boxes. So it's just, uh it's good.
Speaker 1: So I don't get to play with them much. But
Speaker 1: something I do every uh every year around Christmas, I
Speaker 1: take all my pro friends are like really good friends
Speaker 1: that play really good golf, and I get the Parbusters
Speaker 1: and one of my friends will play with the Parbusters
Speaker 1: and we do it every year and then we have
Speaker 1: like a little cook out at my parents house afterwards.
Speaker 1: It's just super appreciative of them. But like they the
Speaker 1: best part that like I see like real good athletes,
Speaker 1: like real sports like basketball and football. They don't want
Speaker 1: anything in return, you know, they never hey can you
Speaker 1: do this? Can you no? Like perfect example, when I
Speaker 1: come back for the Wells Farga, I don't. They don't
Speaker 1: ever ask for tickets. They're coming you and uh. I
Speaker 1: just hope that every kid has that opportunity to have
Speaker 1: someone that genuinely cares about their well being, you know.
Speaker 1: Um So, yeah, you were talking about my upbringing that
Speaker 1: I was When I mean spoiled, I mean it in
Speaker 1: a way that I was full because they always gave
Speaker 1: me an opportunity act just to be able to do
Speaker 1: what I wanted to play golf, Oh you want to
Speaker 1: play down here? Just roll with us, you know whatever
Speaker 1: that might be. Um So, yeah, the Powerbusters are still
Speaker 1: around and and the coolest thing is like if you
Speaker 1: were playing and some white guy wanted to play with us, no,
Speaker 1: come on, like everyone was welcome. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: that's just how I was brought. I used to hate
Speaker 1: it as a kid when my dad did it, but
Speaker 1: we'd go play and I just wanted to fly around
Speaker 1: there and he if if there were two people on
Speaker 1: the pudding green, my dad would inviute him every time
Speaker 1: he still does it to this day. And I when
Speaker 1: I he first started doing as a kid, I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: let's just play man, come on, and he's like no,
Speaker 1: So I'd meet the people and I still you know
Speaker 1: one guy that I met at the city, he's on
Speaker 1: we called the city or the Muni, but it's called
Speaker 1: the Top of Creek now, but we are. He's now
Speaker 1: on my board and my foundation. Yeah, and he's just
Speaker 1: a really good, really good friend. So it's, uh, it's
Speaker 1: crazy how it comes full circle when you get older. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's that's that's really who I am. That's like, I've
Speaker 1: been around older people a lot of my life and
Speaker 1: I just either ask questions or they put me in
Speaker 1: position to learn my own lesson. We have to take
Speaker 1: a break and the morning anything, we gotta pay some bills.
Speaker 1: You get check. I love cut to It and I
Speaker 1: love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media to Smithie
Speaker 1: where where at at? Cut to It? On Instagram, what
Speaker 1: about Twitter at cut to It? Facebook, cut to It
Speaker 1: feature in Steve Smith sing your what about online and
Speaker 1: you can follow us that cut to It podcast dot
Speaker 1: com where you can buy Merchant and you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all
Speaker 1: my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for. A brother, cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. Let's talk ball, the ball that you play,
Speaker 1: the sports as you play. My first question, Bro, I now,
Speaker 1: I see I was watching and I see all these
Speaker 1: guys with this big old black book in their back
Speaker 1: pocket and I and I believe that's the score card.
Speaker 1: And I play golf. I'm not very good, you know,
Speaker 1: But how did God do guys ever cheat on that
Speaker 1: score card? Because when nobody I mean, I know you're
Speaker 1: on camera, but they cut off to your lot? Right Man?
Speaker 1: Do people really cheat? And I'm not saying don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't tell them anybody, But I'm just talking about
Speaker 1: when I played golf with some of my folks right
Speaker 1: at all there's some gray areas. It's just no, that
Speaker 1: was a five, Bro, I counted seven. I drove there
Speaker 1: was a five. I think growing up there there was
Speaker 1: things like that. I think, like in the high school
Speaker 1: golf for people they just want to play so good,
Speaker 1: they wanted they're trying to get college scholarships. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just this number real quick. I just I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and tell you though, I never really pay
Speaker 1: attention to anyone else, So you're not looking at anybody
Speaker 1: else and keeping score on score card. No, that's what.
Speaker 1: But some people correct, I think that. I think your
Speaker 1: job if you're playing with someone is to protect the field.
Speaker 1: I protect myself. I'm focused on my never protected to field.
Speaker 1: On the PGA tour, I'm gonna go with a hard no. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: but like growing up, whatever it took, type things like
Speaker 1: your sheet. No, no, you know correct, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: coming back. Are there any unwritten rules that you have broken? Yeah,
Speaker 1: before I turned pro um, I'm name dropping. Only cares
Speaker 1: for the US Open in Rockville, Maryland. And behind every
Speaker 1: hole there's a three ft Like say, I'm putting this
Speaker 1: way towards you, but three ft behind the hole, you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to walk behind it. You're not supposed to
Speaker 1: walk in the line. No. No, Like if I'm putting
Speaker 1: towards you and the whole, this is the hole where
Speaker 1: you're standing in, there's three feet where you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to come in, Like I'm not supposed to come behind,
Speaker 1: which is stupid, Like if you make the putt, why
Speaker 1: you're worried about being behind it. So I didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about this, and I get pretty fired up, like
Speaker 1: just in general, because like you know, I'm firing under gas.
Speaker 1: We're about to get into the US open as an am.
Speaker 1: We don't ever worry about that. You're walking home long
Speaker 1: as you're not walking in his line straight. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you thought, yeah, so Frank, like lider, I walked through.
Speaker 1: I just walked through, not even thinking about it, and
Speaker 1: I kinda I go down to read my putt and
Speaker 1: he's like, he's like, don't ever walk there again, looked
Speaker 1: at me. I was like, instead of being nice, I
Speaker 1: should have just said, yes, sir, I understand that. No.
Speaker 1: I don't know that guy that North Carolina. Come on,
Speaker 1: look at me. What what you say? So I looked.
Speaker 1: I was been down reading my putt, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you stopped, turned around, looked him in his eye, and
Speaker 1: then you said I just looking. I was like, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: my bad. You want to say you take that somewhere else?
Speaker 1: Like because the only reason he said something because I
Speaker 1: was beating him. It's thirty six holes that day only
Speaker 1: had nine more holes left. Like you know, if I
Speaker 1: par in I get in the US Open, no, no
Speaker 1: question to him. Yeah I was on one. How old
Speaker 1: are you an? I'm twenty years old, right, yeah, and
Speaker 1: so then I make the putts. So if we pause,
Speaker 1: look at him again, huh did you say I did
Speaker 1: something wrong on the next home That's why, this is
Speaker 1: why I did not. That's why they don't let us
Speaker 1: play because see how you act, That's that's how you
Speaker 1: should respond. I don't care what color you are, and
Speaker 1: that's how you should respond. Because if I if I'm
Speaker 1: not disappointed that you were beating me, you you're not
Speaker 1: good enough. You you didn't excel your game to beat me.
Speaker 1: So I was. I was mad and I should have
Speaker 1: just made I made the putt. In golf, we don't
Speaker 1: there's no confrontation. It's very little. If it's conversation, it's
Speaker 1: like big news. So like golfers, So golfers like being married.
Speaker 1: A lot of passive aggressive stuff. Yeah, they would rather
Speaker 1: do this. They're mad at you, Hey man, you know,
Speaker 1: why did you do that? But they'll do this right here,
Speaker 1: they'll turn around. Yeah, that's how they operate. That's how
Speaker 1: it works. I'm telling me it's weird. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it's it is what it is. So the next
Speaker 1: old instead of just being a normal golfer and just
Speaker 1: playing my game, or you have to do it right
Speaker 1: next to the tea box, like right where he could
Speaker 1: see me. I don't play that you don't want Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't disrespect me like I didn't. If I would
Speaker 1: have known, if I had known the rule, then we got.
Speaker 1: Then we got like you've got a reason to be mad.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know. Man, I'm a kid. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to beat you, same thing he's trying to
Speaker 1: do to me. So talking about right now gets me
Speaker 1: fired up, just because whenever I get his age, I
Speaker 1: hope I have more respect for human than he had
Speaker 1: for me at that time, because that's gonna show like, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll you're a friend, gonna be friends?
Speaker 1: O ya. If y'all know, that's that's when you're doing
Speaker 1: the lowest of the low. You're gonna do everything in
Speaker 1: your power to make sure we're gonna be friends. I
Speaker 1: see him all the time. No, I ain't scared to
Speaker 1: talk to anybody, Like, if you got a problem, just
Speaker 1: tell me that he ain't gonna have a problem get
Speaker 1: your but you kind of you kind of alluded to
Speaker 1: it though we you know, somebody played football. What is
Speaker 1: the really what is the what is the locker room,
Speaker 1: if you will, of golf? You kind of told us
Speaker 1: kind of what some of those situations how they play out.
Speaker 1: But what what is like the locker room feel of
Speaker 1: golf amongst amongst the PGA tour athletes. Can I ask
Speaker 1: the question absolutely what is your thought on the locker room?
Speaker 1: And I have no idea. That's literally what we ask. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's just like it ain't like y'all locker room at all.
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, I played golf today, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: either shower, I stay out of the locker room. It
Speaker 1: ain't my it ain't my thing. Man. You don't go
Speaker 1: in there and like hang out. So you've been walking
Speaker 1: on the course for X amount of hours, so you
Speaker 1: just stank after that, you just go go home, go
Speaker 1: to my hotel and shower. I don't need to shower
Speaker 1: with anybody. I'm not saying shower. I'm just saying scrubbing yourself.
Speaker 1: Like I've walked the course, you smell like. But that's
Speaker 1: what worse. So I got to answer the locker room, yes,
Speaker 1: I'll try to bring you back, like I know. So
Speaker 1: it's very just like since COVID, whoever is in there
Speaker 1: has tested. So they came in there and they took
Speaker 1: all the caddies, all the caddies tables, you got it.
Speaker 1: They had to eat outside. They tried to do it
Speaker 1: to the players. So what they did is they made
Speaker 1: a little table next to all our lockers, and that's
Speaker 1: where you had to eat. You couldn't eat in the open.
Speaker 1: It was like something out of a movie. It was like,
Speaker 1: all right, man, can't get some food. You just go
Speaker 1: to your locker and you eat. So the locker room
Speaker 1: is very uh so you say professional, you said, you're
Speaker 1: just going to Your interactions with other golfers are mainly
Speaker 1: just surface level on the locker room to talk to anybody,
Speaker 1: all right, Like it ain't cool like that. It ain't.
Speaker 1: I don't think it is. I don't because I don't talk,
Speaker 1: and no one talks, like no one really talks because
Speaker 1: they're all and then their own thing. It's like having
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty teams every every week, a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: lllc's basically they're all independent contractor correct. So like they're
Speaker 1: going there and they're just like, hey man, how's it
Speaker 1: going alright? Good? How did you play? All right? Change
Speaker 1: his shoes? Guy watches him, he puts them there overnight,
Speaker 1: You come and get him the next day. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's weird, stuffy, it's weird. If you grew up in
Speaker 1: a place where you say hello to everyone, you socialize,
Speaker 1: how's your how's your life doing? Like, how are your kids?
Speaker 1: What are you about? But I will say the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour is a family whenever thing hits the fan, like
Speaker 1: camilovi Jak has just lost his uh, his daughter from
Speaker 1: brain cancer. So it's just kind of that's when it
Speaker 1: hits home, like it's uh, those guys will do perfect
Speaker 1: example VJ when Tucker when this guy's son, who's instructor,
Speaker 1: when his son almost died. VJ called him. He said,
Speaker 1: I'll get the plane wherever he is. I go get
Speaker 1: him where's it, wherever he needs to go. So like
Speaker 1: in that aspect, the PGA tours unbelievable. They would. I mean,
Speaker 1: just to think of out there, calm like, hey man,
Speaker 1: I'll take care of it, don't worry about it. That's
Speaker 1: I think that's really cool. But when you're on a
Speaker 1: good day, you just go in there. Your stuff is
Speaker 1: in there, like your golf balls, so you and your shoes.
Speaker 1: You know, that's about it. You talked about you have
Speaker 1: to drive yourself when the when when the Carbusters would
Speaker 1: you pick their pick you up early and when you
Speaker 1: got older you would drop them off or drive them.
Speaker 1: How this transportation transportation? Um, you know, living in living situations,
Speaker 1: you know, hotel, Airbnb, insures like all of those things. Yeah, alright, so, um,
Speaker 1: I'll probably spend thirty dollars and flying I don't I
Speaker 1: don't fly private that much. I might fly here, and
Speaker 1: they're just not there in my life yet. But we
Speaker 1: have an unbelievable retirement program. If you're you're fully invested
Speaker 1: after five years on tour, If you years within ten years,
Speaker 1: you're fully invested. So it's uh so my fully investment
Speaker 1: invested tournament was last week. So I got the email
Speaker 1: super you know, so you're talking about my story. So
Speaker 1: when I got on tour, I knew nothing about I
Speaker 1: knew about retirement, but how it really works, you know,
Speaker 1: like obviously you're gonna correct. So I and I also
Speaker 1: wanted to know how does a tour run? So I
Speaker 1: ended up signing up for the Player Advisory Council. I
Speaker 1: want to know what these board members talk about, because
Speaker 1: I knew down the road one day I was gonna
Speaker 1: have a foundation and what what is my board going
Speaker 1: to be about? Who's gonna be on my board and
Speaker 1: how I want to aligne that. So I got on
Speaker 1: there and I saw some of the questions. You know
Speaker 1: that we're on there, and it's there. My new there's
Speaker 1: this year I was on there. I wish I was
Speaker 1: not on there this year. Um. I really wish Jay
Speaker 1: Monahan would have taken a more dictatorship because there weren't
Speaker 1: that many options with the COVID. It was like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what needs to happen, we need to play,
Speaker 1: but they kept us on there. We probably had five
Speaker 1: calls during COVID. I mean they were all like hour
Speaker 1: and a half to two hours, and you know, I
Speaker 1: learned a lot. So I'm on this thing and then
Speaker 1: we start learning like why it is important to be
Speaker 1: fully invested, you know, like if you're not fully invested,
Speaker 1: you don't get you don't get the money, like because
Speaker 1: you see the money adding up, like you, but I
Speaker 1: didn't know you. You don't get it if you don't
Speaker 1: play five years. So like it's very uh, it's very
Speaker 1: eye opening. But it's uh, what's eye opening that you
Speaker 1: don't get the money? If I mean there's there's cases
Speaker 1: where players have needed one more event and didn't get
Speaker 1: you know, it's, uh, it's good and bad. I think
Speaker 1: it's a I think if you're good at golf, you're
Speaker 1: gonna play your five years period, you know, as simple
Speaker 1: as that. So it's not like you didn't have the
Speaker 1: chance to and they give you a window of Hey,
Speaker 1: if you lose your card after three years and then
Speaker 1: you come back in two years and play for three months,
Speaker 1: what's already in there? So it's a was a tough
Speaker 1: sport it is. It's just it can be lonely. I
Speaker 1: don't mind it. I was gonna ask you. You mentioned
Speaker 1: how almost transaction it was. Where do you find your
Speaker 1: camaraderie there? I just about two years ago, I just
Speaker 1: really looked myself in the mirror and I was like,
Speaker 1: what what do I want to do? Because like the
Speaker 1: goal has always been to get to the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: you know, like you know we're talking before this thing.
Speaker 1: I almost lost my job, Like I finished like one
Speaker 1: and the FedEx And it was just a huge wake
Speaker 1: up call because the year before my rookie year, I
Speaker 1: just came out there fine. You know, I had four
Speaker 1: top tens. It was easy. It was like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be here forever. Then the next year, almost lost my card,
Speaker 1: you know, and you you would understand when life really
Speaker 1: starts happening. My soon to be wife, she lost her
Speaker 1: brother that year. It was just kind of like a
Speaker 1: it was a weird year. I had my only professional
Speaker 1: win that year. Then I she lost her brother. You know,
Speaker 1: like you got you gotta keep playing, you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta find the way. So like it was, the world
Speaker 1: continues to rotate even though like you're going through. So
Speaker 1: it taught me a lot to like, it's a business.
Speaker 1: This is if you want to make it a business
Speaker 1: and you want to be good, you got to choose
Speaker 1: that like that that requires sacrifices. Like, man, I love
Speaker 1: having a good time. That's that's important to me, having
Speaker 1: a good time. But playing well will give you the
Speaker 1: opportunity to have a good time, like and finding that direction.
Speaker 1: So I just looked myself in the mirror and I
Speaker 1: was like, what what do I want to do? And
Speaker 1: I have two really good friends who I really just
Speaker 1: asked these questions to, like what do you think? And
Speaker 1: then it got to the point where I started dictating.
Speaker 1: You know, I could tell the different tone and how
Speaker 1: I Hey, this is what I want to do. Correct
Speaker 1: And I think you have to in golf. You can
Speaker 1: play good golf and get away with not choosing that,
Speaker 1: not deciding what you want. But it sounds like you
Speaker 1: can't because if you are not tightened up, and you
Speaker 1: don't because you you you said you came in as
Speaker 1: a rookie, I'll play here forever, but you're you're shooting
Speaker 1: be wife, fiance, your girl lost her brother. However, you
Speaker 1: still committed to getting up and putting on the golf
Speaker 1: shoes and putting the bag over your shoulder and practices it.
Speaker 1: But yet between everything that transpired and you actually going
Speaker 1: out there and putting it together, there was something obviously missing.
Speaker 1: There was a gap. Did you figure out what that
Speaker 1: gap is? Because I understand you can get distracted, but
Speaker 1: almost losing your card that means you didn't just lose
Speaker 1: one or two, you know, opportunities you I mean, what
Speaker 1: what's the whole season? Where you just kind of were
Speaker 1: like out of it. You're like, so, but you guys,
Speaker 1: what's the whole season? How many golf tournaments or how
Speaker 1: many matches golf tournaments? How many of the on the
Speaker 1: whole year? But so you know whether you're there's some
Speaker 1: that are on the same week, Like they'll have a
Speaker 1: w g C and then they'll have an opposite field
Speaker 1: event with less FedEx cut points, so like a major
Speaker 1: and a less major. Yeah, basically so they So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play anywhere from twenty five to thirty two events.
Speaker 1: So so five to thirty two events, forty eight count
Speaker 1: towards your card. No, only the ones you play count. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying opportunities and then you might not be
Speaker 1: qualified for some of them, so that takes some away.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm gonna play five to thirty two events.
Speaker 1: I know this, Maybe it sound harsh. So you shipped
Speaker 1: the bed about thirty two matches? Yeah, no, not thirty
Speaker 1: two because I won that year in Australia, but it
Speaker 1: didn't go towards How many beds did you ship enough
Speaker 1: enough to wear? I didn't. I couldn't on the last well,
Speaker 1: The reason I'm asking is because the I see it
Speaker 1: now that I'm done. You hear the Monday Morning Couch
Speaker 1: Potatoes talking about quarterback, you know, Monday Morning running back,
Speaker 1: the Monday Morning Linemen right talking about calling the local
Speaker 1: radio leaving comments and talking about everybody. And I imagine
Speaker 1: that you have the same avid fanatics fans doing the
Speaker 1: exact same thing watching Good Morning Golf for the Golf
Speaker 1: channel like I do. And sometimes and and I sit
Speaker 1: there and I go, I I love to play around
Speaker 1: the golf as the last guy on the tour, like
Speaker 1: if I played as bad as the last guy on
Speaker 1: the tour. But you know, I mean, people, how much
Speaker 1: money I'll take that bad shot? A tiger's awful day.
Speaker 1: I would give my left arm to have his birthday,
Speaker 1: to have his worst day ever. Pretty much. Yes. And
Speaker 1: because I'm just imagining all of what you exce, you know,
Speaker 1: you experience. It has to have it has to be
Speaker 1: a mental breakdown or a mental thing that you go
Speaker 1: through every single day. You got forty nine opportunities and
Speaker 1: pretty much twenty nine seven them you struggle through correct
Speaker 1: to keep your focus daily reminder of focus. Um, I
Speaker 1: took on a lot as well, like I wanted in
Speaker 1: Australia that December, so it gave me European Tour status,
Speaker 1: which was really good. Why is that important European stylish?
Speaker 1: So you could you could you could run the tables
Speaker 1: and make your world ranking go up if you play
Speaker 1: some of the European events and play over there to
Speaker 1: have hold on the pool. So you kind of like, yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to go play in the UK. Cool, all right?
Speaker 1: The world ranking is way better over there that way
Speaker 1: than it is in America. So I tried to I
Speaker 1: just tried to do it all. I'm damn I can
Speaker 1: do it, you know, That's what I'm thinking in my head.
Speaker 1: But like life comes at you fast, just when you
Speaker 1: think you can do anything, you gotta be you gotta
Speaker 1: stay true to the fundamentals and where you want to go,
Speaker 1: but you gotta make a choice. You got so all
Speaker 1: right that happened. And then once I started playing well,
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm gonna find a way to where
Speaker 1: I can do this all the time, Like I can
Speaker 1: I can manage to be like I'm gonna I'm coming
Speaker 1: here to win the tournament. Sometimes you just go through
Speaker 1: the motions. You're just like man I'm here this week,
Speaker 1: I'm playing. Okay, let's hope something good happened. You think
Speaker 1: Tiger goes up to a turn and I hope something
Speaker 1: good happens. I don't. I don't think so. But I'm
Speaker 1: not perfect, so you don't. But y'all perfect example, you
Speaker 1: gotta go past just being on the PGA Tour, Like, no, man,
Speaker 1: we were on the tour because that's where I wanted
Speaker 1: to go. But now you gotta shoot a little bit higher,
Speaker 1: you know, like, how do we how do we get
Speaker 1: on the schedule where like, oh, we're gonna play twenty
Speaker 1: events this year, we're gonna play all the majors, all
Speaker 1: the w g c's, and we're gonna have a chance
Speaker 1: to win them. And I started like, every about two
Speaker 1: or three months, I get in contention. I played in
Speaker 1: the last group of the p g A and I
Speaker 1: didn't play well, you know, like just just kept getting
Speaker 1: closer having chances to win. And then I will say, though,
Speaker 1: there is no greater feeling than having a chance to
Speaker 1: win a tournament. I unbelievable. What's that feeling when you're
Speaker 1: locked in? How does that feel when you're locked in?
Speaker 1: Is unbelievable? But doing it when everyone's watching, everyone's cheering.
Speaker 1: It's like, I just man that it's so much fun.
Speaker 1: I've caught passes in front of seventy thousand. You go
Speaker 1: to a golf tournament, somebody flicks a picture and the
Speaker 1: shutters working. I've seen golfers go bowl listed great question,
Speaker 1: it's terrible. How are you guys unable to focus to
Speaker 1: hit that ball? When I get you gotta catch it
Speaker 1: from the seventy thousand people know? How about you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta catch it? And you know, Luke kick Ley,
Speaker 1: it's about all you got. All you gotta worry about
Speaker 1: is a squirrel thinking your ball? Is it not? Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all can't get it? How y'all just can't perform? I
Speaker 1: will say. The only thing that gets me is when
Speaker 1: people walk behind the pen, like if I'm like a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards out, sometimes the volunteer will be
Speaker 1: put the hands. As long as you ain't for me,
Speaker 1: as long as you are not in front of the
Speaker 1: golf ball, that's a great yeah, because I mean the
Speaker 1: alternative you get bothered as long as you you're not
Speaker 1: where I think you might get hurt. I'm hitting, so
Speaker 1: I do think it's uh. Sometimes it's embarrassing because like
Speaker 1: pros will be like, oh, yeah, we play a sport,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, man, we play golf, like if
Speaker 1: we play the real sport, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a sport, not to the degree where like you have
Speaker 1: to be you gotta be mentally tough in a way
Speaker 1: where like, oh man, I can play eighteen holes, but
Speaker 1: it may come on, man, you gotta walk and you
Speaker 1: only got to be ready for to be thirty seconds
Speaker 1: and then you just walked in the next one. So
Speaker 1: how is your how do you believe your focus is
Speaker 1: on this? I just believe I'm better and everyone. So
Speaker 1: like when I get out there, I just like do
Speaker 1: what I do, Like I I legit. You almost like
Speaker 1: let go, like you all when I first got there,
Speaker 1: Oh I want to hold on. I want to have
Speaker 1: my card for no, I just let go, Like just
Speaker 1: do what you do, like be be Harold, Be the
Speaker 1: best Harald you can be, because if I'm doing that,
Speaker 1: it gives me the best chance to perform. And then
Speaker 1: once you start getting in contention, as you let go,
Speaker 1: you don't ever try to hold on it. So you
Speaker 1: have a lot of nerves starting off before you turn
Speaker 1: I first got in contention. Yeah, because you just want
Speaker 1: to do so freaking good. Especially when you start getting there,
Speaker 1: You're like, I can do this. I can play good
Speaker 1: even without my best stuff. So like you, you just
Speaker 1: work your way into it. You're like, by if I
Speaker 1: just can just keep working, get a little closer, and
Speaker 1: then by Sunday you're like this game on. You know,
Speaker 1: like last week there were no fans, but I felt
Speaker 1: I felt it on Sunday, just like, hey man, you
Speaker 1: gotta chance to do something that you haven't done before,
Speaker 1: and whatever that is, we're gonna We're gonna go for
Speaker 1: it instead of worry about like if I do this,
Speaker 1: this will happen. No, let's worry about the right now.
Speaker 1: Right now, I need to hit this fair away. So
Speaker 1: like having that discussion with you know, my two closest
Speaker 1: friends and myself, it made it easier to let go.
Speaker 1: Hey man, take a deep breath. You're here for a reason.
Speaker 1: I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather. Good,
Speaker 1: do it good, getting down to do it good. Hey Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us whereever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Tell us about your first interaction with
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods. Yeah, so the first one was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: I was in l A and alright, so my locker
Speaker 1: points this way, my locker points this way. So this
Speaker 1: is alphabetic, this is audio podcast. They can't see you.
Speaker 1: Oh well, are you looking at me? So I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to visually show you. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: that's that easy. Anyway. I didn't know man he was recording.
Speaker 1: I thought it was it's still photography. So we're Uh.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting at my locker and we I had
Speaker 1: heard that, you know, something about like hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I would loved it, you know, try to get you
Speaker 1: wearing Nike, you know, and obviously i'd wear something in
Speaker 1: the T up collection. And you know, I didn't didn't
Speaker 1: hear much of it after that, and I was already
Speaker 1: in Jordan gears. So we come. He's coming right towards
Speaker 1: me and my caddy and coming right and he could
Speaker 1: have been going to his locker no, he was going
Speaker 1: to because his lockers behind me, but my agent and
Speaker 1: my caddy just leave. I'm like, all right, So I
Speaker 1: wanted to. I wanted to play with him sometime that
Speaker 1: year because my first two years he was hurt, like
Speaker 1: he wasn't you know, I wasn't playing at all. So
Speaker 1: he comes and he's like, he's like, how long is
Speaker 1: that Jordan deal? You know, like just to ask me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, man, So I just told him,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. So whatever. A couple of days go
Speaker 1: by and I see him again as locker and he's
Speaker 1: like he's just super chill now. But like that's that
Speaker 1: was my first interaction, and it was I mean, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to say. I'm like, damn thog Hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing? You know, guics to meet you? So
Speaker 1: it was it was very interesting. But um, we've developed
Speaker 1: an awesome relationship since then. He I've practiced with him
Speaker 1: down and uh in Jupiter. You know, he's been so
Speaker 1: good to me. But the funny part when I asked
Speaker 1: him to play. We're at the Wales Fargo and he's
Speaker 1: coming by and I'm like, man, I'm tired of asking you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play, But like, let's do this. So when
Speaker 1: you play with Tiger, you're on his schedule, like when
Speaker 1: he wants it up, you're going when he's gonna you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be like, hey man, let's just go a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier. So you're saying you don't have that
Speaker 1: kind of pool. Just I got with the girl at two,
Speaker 1: so can we either go after that or before? So
Speaker 1: he uh, he's walking by and him like, let's play
Speaker 1: and he's like, all right, I'll send you a text
Speaker 1: and tomorrow night. I'm like, a dude, what I mean,
Speaker 1: it ain't that hard to because on the tour, like
Speaker 1: when there's no pro ams, because there's no problem at TVC.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, you go whever. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not like you gotta playing out what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: So he texted me, he's like, we're gonna play it
Speaker 1: this time on tim We're gonna play it this time
Speaker 1: on one on Wednesday, and I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll be here. So we show up and man, I
Speaker 1: just started picking his brain. I couldn't stop, Like that's
Speaker 1: that's like, that's why I wanted to get with him.
Speaker 1: But I also just he's the reason why I watched golf, Like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't. I didn't watch any golf after I've done
Speaker 1: playing the other day. I just he's changed the game.
Speaker 1: He made it to where it was, Oh, I want
Speaker 1: to watch golf because Tigers playing. So what is as
Speaker 1: a as a African American golfer? What was it about
Speaker 1: Tiger that made it interesting? I mean, you were part
Speaker 1: of you knew about golf, you were introduced at golf
Speaker 1: by your pops at two years old. However that it
Speaker 1: had to be something more than just or was it
Speaker 1: just for black guys playing golf? Okay? For me, it
Speaker 1: was just how good he was, Like, dude, when so
Speaker 1: I remember watching him in the two thousands when he
Speaker 1: won in nine seven, Like I never knew like Augusta
Speaker 1: didn't have any black members. I never knew anything about color,
Speaker 1: Like damn dog, damn the color. He He's hitting the
Speaker 1: best shots when it matters the most, He's beating people
Speaker 1: by fifteen and I'm watching it. I'm like, I mean,
Speaker 1: what is he going to do next? Type think it
Speaker 1: was his dominance, Yeah, dude, he I mean he's won
Speaker 1: eighty two times, you know, so it's just incredible. That
Speaker 1: was my thing but when I started talking to him
Speaker 1: and just getting to know him, that guy just wants
Speaker 1: he wants to be normal and he never will be
Speaker 1: able to get that. I mean, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: So it's just I've been super thankful that he lets
Speaker 1: me pick his brain. Like if I text him, he
Speaker 1: gets back to me. It's, uh, give us one thing
Speaker 1: that this is perfect. So like growing up, like I
Speaker 1: never played in front of a lot of people, like
Speaker 1: hardly ever, even on the corn Ferry tour like our
Speaker 1: our developmental tour to get to the PGA tour, you
Speaker 1: don't really play in front of a lot of people.
Speaker 1: So when you play with Tiger, I mean, this is zoo.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, there might be twenty people in your
Speaker 1: group and you're round a practice round. He told me that.
Speaker 1: I said, man, how do you focus with all these people?
Speaker 1: Because like when people show up watching me, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at everything, I'm checking out, I'm screening it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: who is it? What is it? Who? I don't know him?
Speaker 1: You know all the other stuff too. I said, how
Speaker 1: do you focus? And he said, it's like it's like
Speaker 1: reading a book with the TV on. Do you ever
Speaker 1: notice when you read with the TV on, like you
Speaker 1: can you can keep reading, but you kind of know
Speaker 1: what's happening with the TV. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like it's the same thing. So he all he
Speaker 1: just told me, he's like, just read your book. It
Speaker 1: was a great analogy because, like it showed, it makes
Speaker 1: me aware that he sees everything just because he ain't
Speaker 1: zoning in, he can hear it, he can see it.
Speaker 1: So it made me free up even more. Like I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, damn, I can look at whatever
Speaker 1: I want, but I know if I just relax and
Speaker 1: read my book, I'm gonna be back and where I
Speaker 1: need to be. How did that relationship with Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: come about? Yes, so guy named Fred Whitfield, who I'm
Speaker 1: sure everyone knows awesome. Yeah, he he's pretty I guess
Speaker 1: he's bored right now because he's been texting me every round,
Speaker 1: like you know, he usually texts every Sunday like good tournament,
Speaker 1: hanging there, your head up, you know, just so so encouraging.
Speaker 1: But he, I guess, I mean talked to m J
Speaker 1: and they wanted to start a golf line, and it just, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was fortunate enough to be the guy
Speaker 1: so it's pretty Uh, it's really awesome. Um So how
Speaker 1: do you get the notification that you were Jordan or
Speaker 1: the introduction order or just like what was your what
Speaker 1: was your interaction? What was your interaction? All right? Uh so,
Speaker 1: uh played in Greensboro, Fred. It came out and watched
Speaker 1: and it was the same year almost no I've played,
Speaker 1: and so this is how I met Fred. I played
Speaker 1: in the Hoopie Foundation event and he uh, I was
Speaker 1: a pro then, and he he didn't let any more
Speaker 1: pros play after that because we won with Rip Hamilton's
Speaker 1: and we didn't. I didn't play another one, but I
Speaker 1: came back and I spoke to the kids, you know,
Speaker 1: just you know, just helped him out whenever I could.
Speaker 1: But after that tournament, he uh he texted me. He said, Hey,
Speaker 1: the Boss is gonna text you tomorrow. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, cool that stay. I get off the plane
Speaker 1: and the text shows up and he's like, hey man,
Speaker 1: good playing. Uh I'd love to get you in the brand.
Speaker 1: And I was like, so you get a personal text
Speaker 1: from him, Jay? Correct? So continue after you got off
Speaker 1: your coach See that was in my coach at that
Speaker 1: was very classes coach. My show like I fly coach
Speaker 1: as much as I can. I'm not me brother, No,
Speaker 1: I mean I don't want to talk to you. COVID
Speaker 1: now you can. You can't see listeners, but his nose
Speaker 1: is way up in the air, super so freaking. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I have to. I didn't text him back
Speaker 1: because I went to because you didn't. So Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: texts you, congratulations, we want to go. We want you
Speaker 1: to go with Jordan Brand And your reply is, oh,
Speaker 1: I I went, I replied, just not right. Then, I replied,
Speaker 1: as soon as I got off the golf course, which
Speaker 1: was how many hours it had to be at least
Speaker 1: eight hours, So you left Michael Jordan's on rid so
Speaker 1: that is not high win. Then when I got to
Speaker 1: the golf course, and this is your story, but you're
Speaker 1: telling us coming out of this is exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: I got off the plane, I got to text, I
Speaker 1: got my bags, I went straight to the court. You
Speaker 1: didn't get the text. You looked at the text, You
Speaker 1: look at the text, put the phone back. This is
Speaker 1: all true. So this is audio. But I'm you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear my phone hitting. He's gonna yeah, I get back
Speaker 1: to that dude, when I see it, it is not
Speaker 1: something like that. Went more saw the text. This guy's
Speaker 1: coming at me. He's like, hey, when you want to
Speaker 1: get your curse, And I'm like, yeah, I need my
Speaker 1: cursey call. I just did. Man, I looked at your
Speaker 1: phone from that text until at the end of golf.
Speaker 1: I looked at it, but I didn't have time to reply.
Speaker 1: You didn't have went on for the go and when
Speaker 1: I'm on the golf course, you had other people to
Speaker 1: talk to more important, No, I had business to take
Speaker 1: care of my job. I was lost. You didn't hear
Speaker 1: that part of I'm out lost my tour play If
Speaker 1: you don't finish in the top one, you lose your card.
Speaker 1: So I finished one twenty three, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: damn man, I'm gonna keep going because in the playoffs
Speaker 1: they stacked the points up to where you can just
Speaker 1: you can just keep going. You can just roll your
Speaker 1: way all the way to east like, so I get
Speaker 1: I just get in the mode to wear if I
Speaker 1: play well this week, I'm gonna be able to go
Speaker 1: next week. So and what happened is I flew on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I flew on Tuesday and then on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we weren't allowed to practice, so you had a lot
Speaker 1: of phone time. Oh that, I replied, when I got done,
Speaker 1: I got my eighteen holes in because I've never seen
Speaker 1: the golf course. What was his response when you finally yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's pissed, but I just said, hey,
Speaker 1: m J, you know, man, that'd be awesome. I'd love
Speaker 1: to work that out. Um. And then about two days
Speaker 1: later it was done. And one thing I learned and
Speaker 1: whatever MJ wants and Jay gets, and I've been super
Speaker 1: fortunate to be one of the people that you know,
Speaker 1: benefit from. All right, Well, Harold, this next segment that
Speaker 1: we have is called the Deep Three, and basically, these
Speaker 1: are three questions that will ask you that just goes
Speaker 1: beyond your Jay's those nice Jordan clothes you have on,
Speaker 1: but really analyzes your life and gives a perspective of
Speaker 1: you outside of being a golfer. So, yes, that ask
Speaker 1: the first one, does Harold want to be known for
Speaker 1: an excellent black golfer or just to be known as
Speaker 1: a great golfer, great golfer without a doubt, that's what's
Speaker 1: going to give me the best chance to help the
Speaker 1: most people. Because if I go through life and the
Speaker 1: only thing I can say is I help black people,
Speaker 1: I mean, how sad does that sound? That means I
Speaker 1: limited my reach and I just don't want to ever
Speaker 1: be on that Peggy backing off that a little bit,
Speaker 1: what's it like when you go into a real room,
Speaker 1: whether it's that boardroom you talked about, or you go
Speaker 1: into that locker room and you're you're often the only
Speaker 1: person of color and you have to almost explain your blackness?
Speaker 1: What what is that like? Almost always having to explain
Speaker 1: and be and be that source of of blackness in
Speaker 1: a room. Um, it is. It's been difficult lately, but
Speaker 1: before I never thought about it. I go in that room,
Speaker 1: as Harold Varner, I have a chance to If you
Speaker 1: want to know about where I come from, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you. You know, whether that's race or whatever. Is
Speaker 1: like when you ask me why I grew up, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you, Like, that's just how it is. Um.
Speaker 1: But right now it's important too. It's important to America,
Speaker 1: but it's also important to black people to listen. You know,
Speaker 1: there's people that do want to help. I think there's
Speaker 1: more good than bad, and we're in a position right
Speaker 1: now to where we only focus on the bad. So
Speaker 1: when I do go on these rooms, yeah, I get
Speaker 1: to I get to tell my story because I'm black,
Speaker 1: But I also have an opportunity to get at a
Speaker 1: person of another nationality to be able to help us.
Speaker 1: You know, It's just just the way I grew up perspective, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think there's people that want to give opportunity
Speaker 1: I and I just don't know if I hand out
Speaker 1: just because we see something that is evil is the
Speaker 1: best way. Um, I don't. I don't think George Floyd
Speaker 1: is a way that we should just all today, we're
Speaker 1: gonna help somebody. If I choose to help someone just
Speaker 1: because I saw a videotape of evilness, that's then I
Speaker 1: wouldn't help anybody in the first place. Um. And I
Speaker 1: don't know too many people that can look at that
Speaker 1: video and be like, oh man, that was that that
Speaker 1: that wasn't that bad? I mean, you lost your mind.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to associate with that person. So when
Speaker 1: I go in there, I have an opportunity to honestoly
Speaker 1: share my story, but I have an opportunity to use
Speaker 1: these people as ways to get closer to where there's
Speaker 1: not a bridge. We don't need a bridge. Man, We're
Speaker 1: we're humans that want we want good. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't associate myself with too many people that want
Speaker 1: to see bad things happen. And now it's turned into
Speaker 1: a political battle. So we're fighting a lot of battles.
Speaker 1: But there's enough good in this world to make it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make it. We're gonna be all right. We're
Speaker 1: gonna see it through. As a golfer and as a man.
Speaker 1: Do you know your own blind spots? Yeah. I like
Speaker 1: showing off. I like being the man. I like talking smack,
Speaker 1: but those things don't always get me closer to being
Speaker 1: getting that win on the PGA tour. You know that
Speaker 1: that is my thing? Like who doesn't like being? Like
Speaker 1: you said earlier, everyone wants to be the best, but
Speaker 1: they don't want to do the little stuff. But I've
Speaker 1: been doing the little stuff so I can talk smack
Speaker 1: and say, hey man, it's more work, you know, especially
Speaker 1: when I'm tasting it. I'm getting to getting more of it.
Speaker 1: I uh, I enjoy it. Once again, it's my journey.
Speaker 1: And I had a conversation with however one the other day,
Speaker 1: who you know he's won everything. You know, he's won
Speaker 1: thirty some times on the Champions Stories, won a couple
Speaker 1: of majors. Um He said, Harold, do you look yourself
Speaker 1: in the mirror? And I was like, yeah, but lotional
Speaker 1: brush my teeth. See if I got a ZiT once
Speaker 1: or twice? You know, nothing crazy. He said, Tomorrow when
Speaker 1: you wake up, shower, do what you do. Said look
Speaker 1: yourself in the mirror and just looking right now. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was so eye opening because if you
Speaker 1: can look yourself and know that Harold can keep Harold
Speaker 1: accountable because when you're growing up, you have as a kid,
Speaker 1: you have humans that keep your accountable. You have a coach,
Speaker 1: you have something. But like when you get to where
Speaker 1: I am in life, it's only up to Harold. Like
Speaker 1: what does Harold want to do? Like you know, like
Speaker 1: what is that? And you don't know that if you're
Speaker 1: just bouncing around all the time, every once in a a while,
Speaker 1: you need to sit down and look yourself and like
Speaker 1: have a conversation with yourself. You know it might sound crazy,
Speaker 1: but it's been really good for me. Yeah. I love
Speaker 1: what you said. You gotta run your journey. I mean,
Speaker 1: each individual doesn't matter what color the skin you are,
Speaker 1: each individual person must run their journey um and then
Speaker 1: their journey they're gonna go through some ups and downs um,
Speaker 1: good and bad peaks and valleys, but no one can
Speaker 1: get you out of and no one is gonna save you.
Speaker 1: And just talking to him was really awesome because we
Speaker 1: got to shoot, shoot the breeze, chit chat tall, laugh,
Speaker 1: joke around. But also I got educated on some things.
Speaker 1: Him as the person, him is the golfer, Him is
Speaker 1: the man, him to be assumed a husband, and then
Speaker 1: him as a son, and what his what his father
Speaker 1: is still with him? And then those the par barbusters,
Speaker 1: the par busters, what they instilled in him, and understanding.
Speaker 1: I don't care how much technology uh is advanced. The
Speaker 1: old community. It takes a village or community to raise
Speaker 1: your child still here today. COVID no, COVID doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And he was raised by village and that just gets
Speaker 1: to reap the benefit the fruit, not fruits, the fruit
Speaker 1: of that labor. It's Harold Varner, a pretty dang fantastic
Speaker 1: golfer and a pretty cool man that happens to where
Speaker 1: the Jordan's and playing and playing golf, so it's cool. Herold.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. We appreciate um you guys tuning in
Speaker 1: to Cut to It and just know we all run
Speaker 1: our journey. We all run our journey. Cut to It
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production
Speaker 1: of Cut to It, LLC, Ball Tool Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect, and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co host Gerard
Speaker 1: little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media
Speaker 1: manager Peyton Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It
Speaker 1: is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production
Speaker 1: assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music
Speaker 1: by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You
Speaker 1: ain't heard them about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all