No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1100: NLU Personal Golf Spotlight - Cody

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Neil has returned from paternity leave to put Cody front and center for our latest installment of the Personal Golf Spotlight series. We get the latest on Cody’s game, his brief history of playing in Monday qualifiers, his favorite and least favorite golfers of all time, and his personal top ten favorite golf courses. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. I mean, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Oh, ladies and gentlemen, happy holidays.

The czar is back. He's back at his desk, Cody. Internet's running a little slow. New desk, new digs, coming off paternity leave, fired up to talk a little personal golf with Cody McBride. Cody, how are you today? Very good. This is not the trap fraud.

This is not the booth. Somehow we got the keys to the big show. And we're here. We did get the keys. Some of the boys are traveling, making some content. You know, I've loved doing these personal golf spotlights. I raised my hand. You and I, in my last time I played, well, I played last week, my last round of the year.

But last time I played before that was September in Montana with you. And that video just came out last week. So if you haven't checked that out, look that up on the YouTube channel. Cody and I exploring the flathead valley of Montana, just as I think I said in the video, an area of the country that's leading the field and strokes gained good memories and a place near and dear to your heart growing up, which is what we're going to talk about today,

how you got into the game, your personal golf journey, which you've got some interesting stuff that I don't know if the audience knows about, some semi-proactivity, some high-level play in the past, but let's level set for the people, give me your current handicap,

your current ball speed with the driver, and you're kind of maybe sum it up in two, three words, your personal feelings on your golf game as we round out 2025? Yeah, I think my current handicap as of this morning is a, I'm a 2.4 index. There's a lot there. Ball speed, driver. I originally on my notes, I wrote down 160. And I think that was being overly nice to myself.

I'm comfortable being like, I'm in the high 150s now, which is a big improvement. Shout out to the stack. I firmly believe that speed training does work because I've seen it firsthand. But I also know that I have devices and everything that I can get it into the low 160s. And I'm comfortable putting that on the record right here. So I'm sticking to it.

159 to 160. I'm okay with that number. So you preface that. What was the peak ball speed for you? And when did it go sideways? Or not sideways. When did it go down? I don't think I, I don't think I've, I've reached my peak yet.

I think I'm still climbing. See, I think this is, there's a lot that's going to come out in this episode. But I am very firmly in, I would say the lost generation of golf technology, where I grew up playing as a kid. And I remember playing with, with wooden woods. And when I first got, you know, my first metal driver was not until I was later into, middle school, early high school. And it's just one of those things where I was,

I was taught how to play golf to hit the golf ball in the center of the club face. It doesn't matter if it's your irons, if it's your driver. And most of the time, that was not swinging as hard as you can. You relied on consistency, you relied on hitting it into the fairway. So I naturally developed a very slow golf swing. And it took me a long time. I don't think all the way until I started. at no laying up to realize how slow my golf swing actually is and how slow my ball speed is.

And the light ball moment for me, because I was away from the game for a long time. And when I came back, there was a bunch of new technology with trackman and foresites and all that other stuff. I paid zero attention to any of those numbers growing up or even into when I was a young adult. And Salli, T.C. and I went to Korea. and we went to, it was my first time ever hitting golf balls in an indoor simulator and hitting balls with Solly and TC and TC had higher ball speed than I did, which TC is known to be kind of a poofer. And I was like, huh, that's, that's weird.

Maybe it's like the flight, you know, there's an 18 hour flight here. My back's a little tight. And then Solly going up and like effortlessly being like cruising in the mid-160, getting it up into the 170s a couple times. And Solly just being like, yeah, just like swing harder, swing faster. I'm like, I think I am. And my body just was not moving. So that is where the generation of this idea of I know that I am capable of putting on to adding speed.

And I knew that my body had limitations from injuries and everything that I've had in my past. but going to TPI and talking to Dr. Rose and coming up with a plan and I was adamant and I stuck to that plan and he was very, very quick to be like, yeah, man, it's been a joke in golf for a long time when Tiger brought it up. But like your left butt cheek like does not fire. Your glute doesn't fire at all. And what happens is that in your transition when you're shifting your weight from your right side to your left and then exploding using the ground,

exploding up when you go to explode there there's you know there's a chink missing there so your body's not doing anything there's no explosion and you just kind of it's a slow decel into the into the body so we fired that glue back up i've obviously transformed my my body a little bit and i let go the excuses and i've lost 50 pounds in five years hell which is you know a crazy number to think of but it's it's put me back doing physical stuff every single day part of that is not just running even though running turned into a lot more than i ever expected it to be but it's weight training and then when the stack came on board and they're like no truly just like go go swing it and you follow the methodology it it has worked for me so i went from in korea i remember we

have videos that was like i was at 149 150 ball speed and thinking that I was like swinging at 190. I thought I was Justin Thomas or Cam Young or somebody like that. Just absolutely cruising. And to where I'm now and continuing to do it, I think I've, you know, made very good

improvements, but I have not reached my peak, Neil. Good answer. All right. Well, give me your personal feelings on your game in 2025 at a 2.4 handicap and a 160 ball speed. How are you feeling about the game? Peaks and valleys.

Like everyone else, I played more golf this year, which I wanted to last year I did just didn't really end up playing a ton of golf. But what got me this year, I think, is just complete lack of consistency. But I've have a process. I'm trying to change some things in my swing, which opens me up. It makes me extremely vulnerable to having some bad rounds out there. And for me, when bad rounds start to pop up, they kind of come in streaks. and then all of a sudden out of nowhere you'll be like wow i found it and then you're just

kind of back on this this normal spread of just high 70s low 80s which i understand is is good you know i should be proud of those numbers i'm just i'm just not uh there's some you know we have some more video content that's getting ready to come out where i play really really good in day one of things and then day two i don't know what it is it's just you know it doesn't matter if it's something on video or a trip or something. I think it's just my body. I just get tired, which is tough because I can go run and just beat up miles

and be in the zone and not really think about it. But I'm not in very good golf shape. And I don't really know how to fix that outside of playing more. And that's just not possible right now. Yeah. All right. So you're 2.4. I mean, because some of your mindset is,

what was the lowest you've ever been? there's a scratch I was a plus for a bit yeah so that plays into it right you're like in your head you know it's like if you go if I went and played pickup basketball right now

my mind would still think like do these things and it's like brother you can't do those things anymore you ain't Euro stepping like you used to I think there's a lot of truth to that in golf where you get so down on yourself because you mentally think you should be at a certain level

so you know be kind of yourself i guess is my point what do you think has caused you other than just not playing like what obviously not practicing as much but like what do you do what did you do really well before that you've seen like you know disappear or doesn't show up quite as much like why what's what's the uh what's the reason for the backtracking other than i don't practice a ton give me something other than that uh yeah if i don't really play as much golf as I probably used to prior to kids. And if you're taking the lack of practice, because I'll say this, I, I'm a person who I would much rather go to a golf course and chip and put and hit balls on the range for

a little bit, but really spend a ton of time chipping and putting. I firmly believe that, like, your pitching and your chipping motion carries over so much into your long swing. If you figure out where the bottom's at, chipping and pitching especially like where I'm at now in Texas and when I was in North Carolina on tough grain like you're ball striking and your swing's going to be fine and you know

when you take that those two things away the lack of play the lack of practice you know there's not much there to fall back on I did play golf yesterday and this is a prime example of kind of where I'm at and the peaks in Valley so so yesterday I had the opportunity to go out and play wild spring dunes and it was you know i was one of the first people that got to go

out and play all 18 holes it's been close to just the first eight holes for preview play uh and slowly they're going to expand it for more people until they get to their late spring opening date and the resort and everything's going to be finally open but before that my last round of golf that i played was at the nit in the beginning of november i have not taken my golf clubs out of my club club travel bag uh since i returned from phoenix i haven't swung a club or anything and i shot 70 yesterday and that was without any goodies that was without you know anything you know i wasn't picking things up i had an eagle i hold out on a part four i had two other really good birdies i had two kind of dumb bogeys of just first time seeing a golf course and trying to be way too aggressive

and you know clean clean living pretty much and i was like wow this is incredible and you know the whole thing is yeah it's a complete honeymoon phase because if i went and played today or tomorrow or the next time i do play i know all these things are going to catch up to me but i think there is so much left that i have in the tank and i go back to i had the same feeling last at the beginning of january this year when tc ben and i went down to argentina with wolfey and you know it's winter and nobody's really practicing a ton you're not getting swings in and i was like who knows how we're going to play on this trip outside of tc because it's like his peak time of year and i knew tc was going to stunt all over all of us and i played

so good on that trip and i think the highlight is you know tc and wolfe we're playing a two-man game the whole trip but TC played so good at the jockey club and you know that carried over into the edit and everything and I we went through that edit process of the video so long that I totally forgot about the scores that I posted and played and I'm like damn like my highest round that I posted was a 74 I had like a bunch of 70s and 71 and then that's 74 I was like this is really good and then the next trip that you go on you're like back to the 80s and you're constantly sitting they're searching, like, what went wrong? Well, yeah, man, because, like, you just didn't practice.

So I have made a personal investment. And it's because where I live in Texas, it's a, it's quite a ways. I basically have to drive like 40 minutes in traffic to get to the nearest practice facility that in the summertime. You're hitting off turf, but I don't really care about that too much. But the short game, I love Texas Rangers short game facility because you can hit any shots you want. from slopes, from bunkers, great putting green. The people out there are so great. But it takes me a while to get out there.

And if I'm going to practice, like, it's an investment of time. So I bought a big old net and I bought a really high quality piece of hitting turf for my backyard. And it's already in the garage for the wintertime. And I'm investing in the time. And I'm just going to keep putting swings down and working on things that Corey and Al and Altus are helping me with. And I want to get better. And I've never been more motivated to get better than I am now, which I think is a great spot to find myself.

That's what I like to hear, inspiring stuff there. So I'll ask you the question I asked, Randy, do you think your best golf is ahead of you? 100%. 100% I do. God, I love that. Good. I do, you know what? I do too.

I'm on the record with that. That's exciting stuff. you have a bit more high-level golf in your past than I do. Give the people, tell us the story of the Latin American event you played in, right? Didn't you play like some semi-pro golf, like while you were in the army? Yeah.

So what happened is that I kind of had like a, I was gifted some time off in 2012. And I didn't really know what to do with my time outside of. I was just playing a ton of golf. And this was before kids. And, you know, I started to get kind of good again. And things were, things were building momentum. And one of my friends at the time, the PGA tour had just purchased this developmental

tour in South America that became PGA tour Latin America. But this was like year one. So a PGA tour owned it, but there wasn't like anything else going on. There was no money or really. invested in it at all the tour still had its old staff and things like that but me and my buddy were like hey we were gonna we wanted to go on a golf trip and it was the middle winter uh in north carolina and you can still play but it's like not you know really fun i like playing a dormant grass but like dormant bermudic is it's pretty much like water soaked all the way through you're just

taking way too big a divvits and it's not it's just not the best so they're like we we were craving sunshine and my buddy was like uh he tells me he's like hey i think we're you know we had never been to the dominican republic before let's go down uh there we can stay at you know hotel casino and and try to play some golf and he was in charge of booking the trip and when he went to the website to like book it because they had a golf course on site uh he couldn't get tea times for like two of the days that we're going to be there because they had a tournament on the books and you looked at it and he was like oh there have like some you know professional event that week and uh i'm like well why don't we go like the weekend prior you know and and that tournament won't be there and we

should be fine so that's what we continued to think we were going to do and i kept thinking about it and i was like you know looked at the the tournament to see what it was because you said professional you know golf and i'm super into it and i'm like what is this thing so it realized that It was the Latin America tour was going through Punta Kana and I didn't went to their website and it was like not a fancy PGA tour website by any means. And it literally was like at the very top, it was like sign up for the Monday qualifier. And they're like, it said a minimum of 12 spots available. And I was like a minimum of 12 spots.

How many people are going down to the DR to qualify for this? So I went and looked at the years prior Monday. Q scores. And there was like people who shot in the 80s that Monday queued for this, this tournament. I was like, oh, hell yeah, we're going to be here. Let's sign up for this. So that's what I did.

So I signed up for the Monday qualifier, went down, played like, you know, it's just like a straight up guy's trip, me and me and one of my buddies. So we're hanging out of the hard rock. No, he did not. He's not that good of a golfer. But he was, he caddied for me. So, you know, you're hanging out the hard rock and drinking way too many president days and playing golf and it's so funny because people who have stayed in a hard rock

hotel most of them have like hot tubs like in the main main room that you're sleeping in so it's like you know just your two clean beds and there's a hot tub in the middle of the room you're like what is this yari of course my lovely wife she was deployed at the time so i didn't really have you know anything at home that i had to be around for so we get there and we play the monday qualifier and they came up I think I was like on the 16th or 17th hole and they asked me they're like hey what are you at right now and I was like oh I'm like four over and they're like oh if you you know get in the house in the 70s you're going to qualify I was like sweet so we've you know finished the next couple holes and got in I think I signed for like a 76 or 77 they're

like congratulations you you're staying for the week do you have a accommodations. And I'm like, well, I think I'm just going to stay at the, you know, just stay our room at the hard rock. But my buddy had an actual real job. And at this point in time, he was out of the military living in Washington, D.C., working in the Beltway. So he flew home for Tuesday and Wednesday. He flew back Tuesday morning because he had an important meeting that afternoon. He had meetings on Wednesday and then flew back down Wednesday night for, you know, the tournament that started on Thursday. So he's going to stick it out with you as a caddy.

He was, yeah. And, you know, he's a very, very close friend. And he was very invested into the process and everything with me. And he flew down. And I think by that point in time, when he left, I realized like, oh, my goodness, like, I'm playing in a professional event. And, you know, you start seeing other people show up to around the resort and you're on the driving range.

You're like, damn, some of these guys are good. And then you go and look them up. And they're like, oh, yeah, this kid, you know, just graduated from. University of Texas and he's like third, you know, finished third at nationals last year and it's just waiting for Q school. And he's probably going to get like his corn fairy to a cart and stuff like that. And I'm like, who the fuck am I to keep playing in this event? And that's, you know, I started to get nervous.

And that's kind of how that whole event went. You know, I think I shot two rounds in the 80s, low 80s, and just kind of cashed it in, missed the cut and had a great time. and still have friends that I keep in contact with to this day who were grinding on PJ Tour Latin American and continued for a long time, way longer than they should have. But that story doesn't end there because I missed the cut.

They, you know, the people that I played with were like, yo, you're like, you know, you obviously are nervous, but like you're a lot better and you think you are. You know, the tour to the next week was going to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And they're like, just fly with us to San Juan and try to Monday qualify again. And Neil, I did it. And I flew to San Juan after hanging out that weekend in in DR playing golf across the rest of the island. But I flew on that Sunday to San Juan to play in the Monday qualifier.

And it was, they only had like three spots available. And I think I shot 75 again. And they're like, oh, you know, we had two people. We had two people under par. And like the rest of the 72s and 73s took the other spots. So that was kind of where the dream ended. And then quickly after that, I, you know, real life work came back into play.

But it was, it was fun while it was lasted. Well, I think for me, I always love that. I never got the full story there. But, you know, I mean, this is spotlight on you. But I found that people are like, hey, well, I'm down to a one handicap and it's the best I've ever been. And it's like, I'm not practicing anymore. I honestly think it's competitive reps would be the like true competitive reps,

like being around higher level players that I'm used to, you know, with these MGA events and like that, this is like an example of that on steroids of like, oh, I can play with these guys. Like you almost get a sense of, yeah, my score is four, five, six shots worse than them, but the ball flight doesn't look that different. And like the, you know, it's really a consistency problem. It's like, I can get there. It's just can I get there consistently, you know, can I hit the shots every time the way some of these guys do. And I almost feel like this story is like that on steroids. So I've always I've always love

that. And it's just fun to send your resume. Yeah, I've had a PGA tour sanctioned event. Like that's that's life resume stuff, brother. The funny thing about it is, you know, I what you're saying is very, very true. And everybody who wants to get better needs to play more competitive rounds because I think there's a lot of nerves and everything else that are tied into that. For me now, when I go play any of my competitive events that I do in Texas or any of the veteran stuff that I do, I don't really get nervous seeing or playing other people. I'm fine with that.

But for some reason, and maybe it's just my inclusion and where I'm at in No laying up, I find it phenomenal how at ease you guys are playing on camera, that you don't even think about the fact that there's a camera there anymore. because as I have, you know, worked primarily on the podcast and on the business side of it, I don't play a lot of golf on camera. So when my moment does show up, if you're playing bad, you're like, oh, my goodness,

like all you feel is like it right there. And I think that's something that I would like to get better at. And I think it's going to be a goal of mine for next year. So you're going to have to listen to Goals podcast to figure out. But I got something cooking to get over that kind of fear. I love it. No, you're, that's, it is interesting. I, and it's a question I get a lot of, like,

do you get nervous putting on camera? I, I, I really don't. Maybe it's because I've had so many blowups on camera that I'm just like, the monster under that bed is not that big, you know? It's like, oh, yeah, you got me. I played, I, I had a nine on number nine, like, oops. You know, it's just like, cool, man. Like, I, I can't, I can't control that.

Um, I think the, I get more, I guess the, the, I was thinking about, like, what is good golf to me? What does that entail? And this year, I'm starting to think it's more, can you show up? It's like the order of merit stuff. Like, when you sign up for these events, it's like, can you summon it on this specific day for this round versus like the holistic, like, in the past, it was, I want to be a plus handicap.

That's still true. But I almost get more joy out of like, I got a tournament two Mondays from now. I need to show up and shoot 73. like can you bring it when you got to have it is more of a sign of like success in golf a little bit for me now than it was just like oh I just want to get like my handicap down because those I don't know when you don't have a double bogey max or you're not playing match play when it's like there's no safety net there's just a real satisfaction when you go out and post a you know low mid 70s number it's like that that you earn that shit you know what I mean that's that's that's that's the

feeling i'm chasing a little bit um all right enough about me god i'm making it about me i stink cody let's let's i mean podcast presented by our friends of titleist and and footjoy i want to shout out the opry ski uh collection from footjoy i got this windbreaker on that's been fantastic good uh good holiday gift for a golfer in your life but let's see let's hear what's in the bag for you right now yes uh first my golf bag i'm currently utilizing the the the title and folds of honor collaboration i love it i love the titleist is invested in folds of honor it's a great organization and we're very fortunate that every year they do a new uh golf bag that that the proceeds go to the folds of honor and you know me those guys mean a ton to me and i think what dan

does is is incredible but top of the bag this is not going to surprise uh you guys but to a lot of people who are usually right in the GT2 to GT3 range. I actually play a GT4 driver. I got my normal Ventus black shaft in it, and I absolutely love it, love it, love it. From the moment that I was fit into it, I love that club. Favorite club in the golf bag is the driver.

And I'm going to be very, very sad when the new driver line that I'm sure is going to be better, but I've had, this golf club's taking me to a lot of places, which I love. GT2 3 wood 15 degree pretty versatile

nothing crazy there vent is black and then same thing hybrid wise let me check the number real quick rocking my old hybrid still TSR 2 love it

Scotty Cameron putter you're still a hybrid man not a you know I switched to the 7 wood this year what do you hybrid not a not a driving iron tell me about that No, I go with what the fitter straight up says. This is best. We're looking at numbers for for carry distances and everything else like that, trying to fill the gap, starting at the bottom of the golf bag all the way up to the top. And if you would have recommended Sevenwood, that would have been great, but we're very comfortable in hybrid. And I have no issues hitting it. I absolutely, I love the club. So I know a lot of people, the hybrid is too small for some. It flips around, but not for me. I absolutely love it.

And then irons, four iron, it's my first year that I went to the T250, which I've absolutely loved. I know most of you guys have it in neither the three or four. I got T150s throughout the rest of the way. And then, you know, my Voki wedges. I start out with the Voki replacement pitching wedge. So a 44 degree Voki wedge. I carry a 50, 54, and 58. And then my trusted, you know, I carry the Newport 2 plus, kind of the fatter of the Scotty

camera blade options because I've bounced between this and a mallet, you know, one of the phantoms, either the five or the five and a half. And I'm just, I just love this, love the putter. So I don't think it's ever really the clubs, you know, it's definitely not a, it's not the ammunition, brother. it's a person who's trying to accomplish it but great set up ammunition are you you're a pro v1 x guy pro v1 x i need it need the need the assist and spin uh it's so it's spin it's not height for me yeah and they kind of work hand in hand together right so yeah i need to i need more spin in order to get the ball out there further but i think you know i've i've messed around with the

one you know the regular pro v i messed around with the ball that you play and i just love how the x feels and i know people some people say that there's like a clicky feeling when you're hitting little short pitches or chips or anything else like that i actually enjoy that feeling and i i tend to absolutely spin the crap out of the ball uh already so i have no issues no no it's it's perfect for me i absolutely love it i've adjusted with the left dash i've adjusted to do the clickiness. We had a one of the highlights of the year. I don't think it made the video,

but might have to dig this footage. It did make the video. No, but not the actual shot. So, and I want to be clear on the record, you hit the wrong ball. Everyone's blaming me for that because, you know, that's, we have some stuff in the,

in the archive of me hitting the wrong ball. Cody played my ball. And then I didn't check and I had played his ball. And I hit a 48 degree. And I was like, oh my God, bad Santa ball. That's coming down the chimney. that might go in. Landed like three feet from the hole

and it zipped like 25 feet backwards at Whitefish Lake Golf Club. Was that like the eighth or ninth hole? And I was like, man, that's a lot of spin. You know, didn't think anything of it. We get up there and you're like, oh, hit the wrong ball. And I was like, whoa, that's like in the flesh,

like the left dash versus the ProV1X. And it's like when you're not playing for that kind of spin, just seeing, you know, and I was pretty fired up. I was like, man, I had a, my gut was right, I was like, I hit that exactly like 120, you know, like that was a 120 shot. And it was like, man, I just haven't had that zip in a long time. So to see the difference in how the ball reacts live like that, when you get like some anecdotal evidence of it, it's like, oh, that's great. Because for so long as a golfer, you know, I wasn't good enough to, you know, have that experiment happen, you know, where you're like, oh my God, I'm going to hit it like exactly how I wanted to hit it, what I think is 120 or whatever the number is.

for it to react differently is uh i don't know it's almost like for me graduating into like oh you're a pretty good golfer you saw how the ball reacted that's fun um but yeah but you when you're anticipating the spin but if you play the x then it's you know it's great so uh and then give me shout out one pair of golf shoes for me what do you what are you what are you rocking i love the carbon hyperflex every time we make a post about them or anything i think they're they're incredible feeling uh you know they're light but you have a ton of support and then really just the white on white look it's i love it and i'm coming from a long time premiere series guy and i still will rock them uh from time to time but i i love the hyperflex i think i you know i have i i have a

lot of pairs of them which is great because i feel i'm always afraid of like are these going to go away, but I got a couple extra purse stashed away. Love it. All right. Well, I want to get back. Early golf memories, you got into the game in Montana. I feel like we have a whole video about that. So I don't want to skip over that.

Let me ask you this about kind of growing up and getting into the game. When did you, when do you feel like you became a good golfer as a, like, you know, as a kid? When did, when would you be like, I am a golf? When did you say to yourself, I'm a golfer, not like, I'm going to go like try to play golf probably late middle school into early high school you know consistently beating people who are much older than you are um not just high school kids but you know adults and everything else like that but i grew up in such a small community and and i hope everybody goes and watches the video it's up on our youtube now it's the club that i the club the golf course that goes by country club but

it's not a country club by any means. It's just a golf course. Truly was amazing. And it catered so well to young kids in the community who didn't really have, you know, there's just not a lot of options in a super small town in northern Montana. And the golf course made it so welcoming to people who, you know, parents who wanted their kids to be active and involved and to just drop their kids off with like five bucks in their pocket and be able.

to spend all day there and you just had like you know these little groups of kids just roaming the golf course everywhere hitting golf balls and looking for frogs and chasing down geese and and you name it and like the adults there and the staff encouraged and welcomed it um so when i started outpacing the rest of them that's when i knew that that i was you know at least doing something right yeah you're you're excelling in your pond whether or not that's a big pond doesn't matter it's like all right well i'm you know a big fish here well when you when that's all you know like that's truly all you know and this is before way before social media or really even the internet you know you just the only golf that

you really watch was on tv and that was just on weekends and you know tiger mania and it it was just awesome i felt like all of you know i feel like the kids now are going through this but i remember remember in like the the mid to late 90s and tiger bursting onto the scene like golf kind of became cool and you started to see the people who were way more into football and basketball and everything try at least try golf and then you know that quickly they they went back to their normal sports but nowadays I think you see kids sticking around golf and it being much more of a thing but it was cool to experience that yeah uh all right well let's go there what favorite golfer of all time it's hard not to go tiger here just because of everything but i'm very much with randy

on this boat um is that i was a huge phil fan i thought the way that how charismatic he was with the crowd the crazy shots that he would pull off and the ones that he would attempt and not successfully do um like it really drew me in and it was so funny shout out to you and and the mock next but like, you know, early, you know, late 90s, early 2000s, Phil where he's chubby and wearing, you know, any, you name accounting firm, visor with a big Ford logo. Remember, he wore the Ford badge for so long? A black shirt, pinstripe pants. Yeah.

Exactly. You know, just just doing aspirational stuff and trying to do aspirational stuff, but just never really was there. You know, I've always related more with. the underdog and i think you know just growing up in montana and and being a sports fan in general you're always kind of put in that position just because there's no professional team there's you know we we pride ourselves on our college football you know i'm a huge university of montana grisly fan uh we're still in playoffs by the way and you know we're just always we're just

really not there you know and you'd watch all these big programs whether that's college or professional football, basketball, baseball, and you're just like, yeah, we're just like a ring lower than that. And it made you constantly root for the guy who was like, you know, just trying to take somebody else that's bigger than them down.

Yeah. All right, flip side, least favorite golfer of all time. Man. I don't know. Probably Mike Weir. Mike Weir always kind of weirded me out. Sure.

which again people are like what why Mike we're it's very there's uh where I was at there's such a heavy Canadian presence and influence that most of people that I grew up playing golf with and around were all Canadian kids they would come down from Alberta and when I grew up playing junior golf we were I was up traveling through Canada for junior events and things like that so Mike we were is huge man but he always kind gave me, I don't know, there's just something off about him. It wasn't because he's left-handed or like kind of small or anything.

It was just kind of, it seemed like he was like just the guy that was just kind of there. But I also, I remember when, you know, fuzzy just passed away and I remember the comments that he made, and I remember that, like, pissed me off so bad to be like,

dude, like, what are you doing? And, you know, I always, the old guard of things, when they start to act up no matter if it's golf or anything else

it just kind of always is like yeah okay it's like get out of here man like you guys are trying to hold on to something and change is coming and you got to kind of embrace it but I don't know Mike where Mike I didn't you know I never really against my breath

I did find his pre-shot routine unnerving you know the like the full club back rehearsal maybe because he is a lefty it's just like everything about it is like oh I don't like I don't love that. That's a good answer.

You know, it's a hard question. Yeah. Later in life, as my fandom grew, not as a kid so much, but like, I'm there with your brother

and like Zach Johnson. It's truly, if you just look at it, he has an incredible story of like growing up in a very remote place with not a lot of opportunities and going to a not very well-known golf school

and then grinding it out on many tours and making it into an incredible story. But like the dude just kind of sucks. And it's hard to get past that. And his shenanigans of, you know, his practice swings at the Masters and everything else like that. I've just always been very, very turned off by that. Yeah.

No, I know. It's like on paper you want to think like, oh, no, Zach Johnson, that's a great story. And it just doesn't, you know, it doesn't look good when you pull it off, when you pull it off a paper into real, life. Yeah, which I, you know, there's another person that's kind of similar to that, that,

you know, obviously has changed a lot, but that's Patrick Reed. Patrick went and, you know, Monday qualified like 13 times in a row, just doing crazy stuff after a very, you know, kind of crazy college career of, you know, moving universities at a time that that really didn't happen and, and the stories around that. For some bad, yeah, some of the wrong reasons. Yeah. But the stories around that and then coming out and like being so, you know, the self-belief, cockiness, whatever you want to call it, of him rolling up to drowl and being like, I'm one of the top five players in the world. Like I don't understand why people aren't talking about me.

I always was like, I kind of want somebody like that. But obviously another person who like just went way too far, you know, over the deep end on it. but well i said it to you when we were at the pga this year we watched read for five or six i'm like i miss pee he's just the greasy hands i felt that way at the masters too i watched him for nine holes i think i'm like god like he he plays you know he i don't know the brashness with what he plays the yeah the confidence is just like i miss him i miss pee absence makes the heart grow fonder yes it does all right uh moving forward what's like I don't want to, you know, take away from your goals, but let's do it now.

Like, what is the goal for next year? Like, what, give me, give me some golf goals. You're looking, maybe if you had one this year, what was the goal and how's it going to change going to the next year? Well, I said, I think one of my biggest goals this year was I wanted to get back below a one index, which I was for a little bit in the spring. I think when we did our mid-year, gin check-in, I was below one. like a 0.9. That didn't last. You know, just June, July, August, I put together some horrible

rounds. So I'd like to continue to lower my index consistently and have it remain there. And I know there's a lot of things that go into that, but I got a plan in place. I want to win something. I always put either the NLU Club championship, the NIT, something up there. And I put myself in position for both of them and just didn't have, you know, just didn't have it in me. I was just not prepared and didn't, didn't end up successfully executing there. But I did get a dub. So something that I didn't call out, our team, Team NLU went to the Roos Club championship. And I played so good that week and very, very proud of, of Solly, Casey, DJ and myself for how we performed against people who, you know, Solie and I were playing people that

have you know they're getting a lot of pops out there at sweetens and you can't make mistakes there so you got to hang up just pars and a lot of birdies to try to stay ahead and i was able to do that so very very proud of myself um and i'll probably roll that over to next year too want to win something got to compete better when we're on camera and you know get just get that index down and i'm going to sign up for some big i'm going to sign up for some some big boy qualifiers So just it's very, very hard when they're in, you know, that June-July schedule work-wise for us just creeps up. So you got to be ahead of it. And I'm going to dip my toe back into the Veterans Golf stuff because I think that, I don't know,

it's a community that means a ton to me and I want to get back out there. Good. I think people underestimate, doesn't matter what kind of dub it is. Getting a dub of any kind is, you know, does wonders for the psyche. You know, winning a Roos Club championship, just made up events, like winning a member guests. Like go, I encourage people to go out and chase a dub, big or small, regarding golf. Are this always a fun one?

I enjoy asking on these spotlights. If your golf game was a car, what kind of car would you be, Cody? I think I have some sort of like Volvo. Okay. It's built to, built to last. not be tipping out at incredible speeds, you know, we're not laying down quarter mile records or anything else like that. But, you know, it's sturdy. It's dependable and it's going to get you where you need to go. Pretty smooth, quiet ride. I think you, you know, you probably hold the

title of like the prettiest golf swing in NLU. I mean, it looks really good. It's, it's, you know, the best tempo for sure. I like that, a Volvo, just run for days. It's going to be safe. You know, you're not kind of not too squirrely i like it like it you know i get i get that comment a lot about the tempo of my golf swing but it does grow it goes back to how i was taught to play golf and i my passion for golf strictly comes from having incredible you know pGA professionals that have heavily influenced me throughout my life and growing up uh we moved towns and the But when we moved, our new neighbor just happened to be the head pro at Marias Valley and Joey Esh. And his wife was a teacher at our elementary school.

And he had such an impression on me that when we first moved that, I never, I didn't play golf at all. And I remember, uh, I was looking for like some, some summer money and pretty young at the time. And I went over to his house and asked him if he needed anybody. to cut his grass and he's like sure you can cut my grass and i was like it's going to cost you like you know 15 bucks uh it's kind of cost you per cut and he's like how about this how about i give you free golf and i was like yeah i don't even know what golf is and he's like we'll go talk to your mom and dad and and tell them hey you met the the pro and he would like to offer you free golf if you if you cut the grass and that's how i started and i he you know my temple comes from he

back in the day again old school teaching was your golf swing is off a metronome and we would be out there on a metronome and that's where the temple comes from and that's where my there's no speed coming down which I'm trying to fix now but that's how he got the swing to where it's at and when he got a a new job the next professional that came in was a little bit closer you know he was a younger guy but was very passionate about juniors and the junior program there. And he started to bring new technology that he had been exposed to at some clubs in Arizona. And it just continued to grow and grow over time to where I'll say that they were so much of an impression on me is that, you know, that's what I went to college for.

I was a PGM kid. And I wanted to be the golf pro. So it's just kind of interesting to see how the circle. comes back around i might get in well first off i love a good barter deal so shout out to the pro for uh for hitting a barter trading grass for uh for golf tips uh i might have to get the metronome out see if i can swing on on beat i like that um it's good stuff uh all right favorite round of the last 12 months jockey club tc wolfie and uh and our guy pip down in Argentina. Just an incredible spot. Somewhere that I never thought I'd have the opportunity to visit

a golf course that I've read so much about. I love the history of this game. That's one thing that makes it, you know, my love of the game is just all the old people that kind of were way before us that had the vision and created something that I still look at, you know, I go to new golf courses and, you know, like yesterday I was out there with our friend Jeff Marsh. and he has like drone from before wild spring dunes was cleared and you know he has doke out there like explaining where the green's going to be and I'm like how the hell do they see this man like it's just a map with contour lines and they know exactly where everything's going to go and I'm like I just I just see a bunch of trees like how do they envision it um and also how do they decide like when I see stuff and I'm like it's almost paralysis like well why did you put the green there like wouldn't it would have been cool what it would have been cool if you put it over to the right too like how do you make that decision you know you know it's like i could go anywhere so then you just don't you can't decide i know it's crazy but jockey club was it you know it's such a it's such a special spot that not a lot of people get to to ever see

and the fact that it's like completely it's been sitting there the same way since 1930 and like nobody's touched it which is a positive thing and a negative thing at the same time yeah we got All right. Let's let's get right to the main event. List your 10 favorite golf courses in the world, 10 to 1. You got to rank them. These aren't, it doesn't have to be the best golf. Everyone's kind of gone about this differently. But a fantastic exercise.

We need, we need your top 10, Cody. Okay. This is, this was surprisingly difficult for me, just like everyone else. And I'm going off of strictly golf courses that I have played because I've had the privilege of working and knowing up and going and seeing a lot of places, but usually through a video camera. I don't play a lot

of golf on tourist sauce and there's places that I've gone to and seen and can talk about that I just have never, you know, played at. I'll hit a put here or there or chip, but never. Number 10, I'm going to start out something that is most

recent to us. You know, I call it truly like the center of golf in northern that's whitefish lake uh i don't care if you give me the north course or the south course it's the center of gravity for everything that they have going on there and plot me down on either side of that property and i'd be a happy happy camper love it number nine i am going to go with something that kind of got me into you know not so much meeting you guys but brought me into the actual content fold and that's southern pines i love it i was a

a passion project of mine people i think forget they go and check out southern pines now that they're like oh yeah this is cool and they redid it i don't know why they redid it or what it looked like prior but we were so close to having southern pines be no more and a bunch of townhouses and people you know sales offers and bids that were made for that property and accepted and luckily we, through straight community support, we're able to fight back a lot of that. You know, we stood up, you know, we stood up foundations and charities to try to protect it

and to make sure that that wouldn't happen for it would still be a green space that's open to golf and everything else. So a true passion project is something that, that was probably the first thing that I actually got, you know, super into community organizing and things like that and to see it come through and have the Millers help us out as much as they did.

It was just, it's just incredible. And I'm very, very thankful to be at that spot in my life, to be able to be a part of something like that. Number eight, I am going to go with Lofiton Links. Okay. One of the few golf courses that I have played on Tourissau. Again, I don't play a lot. The fact that it exists, I think,

is truly incredible. The views, the turf, which is like, how are they keeping this going? It's truly, you know, we get back from places like this and we always say, oh, I can't wait to go back there. I want to take my kids there. I want to go hang out with the girls there. And just for them to begin awe, just like I was, because it was, it was, it was crazy, crazy, crazy. Yeah.

Good one. Seven is a place in North Carolina, fortunate to play quite a few times, Old Town Club. I say this because Old Town, a lot of people, you know, fashion it to be the little brother of Augusta National. It's, you know, one of the few times that I've gotten to experience Mr. Maxwell like that.

And it's just, it's an incredible piece of property. And it was one of the first times through my kind of journey of like, why is, why are you putting this here and why, you know, why is our golf course is routed and set up the way that they are? And I think that property, it's very easy to see how the routing came to be and based off of the land. And I still think the kind of reveal that you get once you cross back over the parking lot. And I can't remember if that's, what is that, three or four? And, like, walking down and you see it all open up to you, I was like, holy cow, man, this place is special. Well, I love the, yeah, the way they use the creek. I mean, it's one of the coolest routings in golf, I think.

And Somerset Hills up here in New Jersey is another one where those courses hold a similar spot in my brain where they're just so charming. Like, the word charming is what comes to mind. It's like, yeah, it's kind of just like a random part of the country that you wouldn't really expect there to be this, like, hop golf course in and it's like man i'd something about this like there's like nothing really jumps off the page actually just really like a creative use of of you know solid land but it just it just becomes so like if golf courses could have charisma i feel like both of those courses have a ton of it yeah uh completely agree there somewhere else that you're also familiar with is next on my list and that's a cow club i i think it uh you know where it sits at in the city the

fact of ease of access i still got to get back and play the 18th like when it's actually opened but yeah again another piece of property that i think they're extracting the maximum potential of it and it's just a really cool spot the bar everybody talks about the bar but also like the golf shop and how small and quaint it is and the rooms upstairs and everything that they kind of got going on there it's just it was just awesome and through the through line outside of all that stuff is the golf course and people there are very passionate about that golf course and taking care of it and i think that the the staff do such a great job of of defending what they have because it truly is a special place yeah good one uh next we're going to go to old faithful pioneers number two it

punches me in the mouth every single time. Very, very fortunate to live in Piners for, you know, like 15 years and play it a lot. And every single time, it never took it for granted. And to also be there to see the iteration of old Pinehurst, number two, into the town literally freaking out because, oh, my God, what are they doing? They're destroying the history and legacy of this place. And then, like, two years later, people being like, I can't believe it used to look like that. What were we thinking was just awesome. And it was the first kind of big restoration that I ever saw play out.

And it was just sweet, man. That course is so hard, but so good. And it just, I can play there every single day. And it would beat me up every single day. But I would happily accept all those wounds. Yeah. We're turning. We're going down the home.

stretch here. And this is the difficulty when my list, I only have what, do I have five spots or four spots left? But I have like seven golf courses listed here. And we're going to go on quite a run here. One of

the best rounds of golf, one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I ever had was since working and no laying up has been on the old course with Big Randy. And Randy and I were lucky to play the day after the AIG Women's Open. We played the same T-boxes, the same pins from that Sunday when, you know, when we saw Lydia win her AIG women's open and go out there on a beautiful day.

There's not a lot of wind. There's no, hardly any rain and just experience it was awesome. And I totally get it. And the crazy thing is that I had made two trips to St. Andrews prior to that and had never played golf. just went checked out all the historical sites and walked around all over the place and walked the old course and I finally got to play the old course after probably walking it like 20 times because you're making you know we're out there doing radio so you're doing double loops each day and and just seeing all of these different spots so I knew kind of what to expect but having the ball run and

get to experience it was so cool man um got you. Old course at four. That might be the highest it's been in our spotlight series. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's special. I get it. And if you're telling me, hey, do you want to go play the World Course tomorrow? Let's figure out flights.

I'd be like, yep. And I don't know that there's a lot of places that I would kind of drop to go do that. Yeah, but we got three more courses ahead of it. Interesting. Yeah, but these are like pinch me places. You know, it's things that I never expected, you know, expected. I would ever experience and I've just been very, very grateful to do it. Number three, this is very hard because they, you know,

this course sits on the same property line as as another course that's not on my list. But National Golf Links is coming in for number three at me. I didn't even put Shinnecock in my top 10 because it's just so hard for me. Maybe I played the wrong T's or something, but like it's not the best 10 courses. It's your favorite 10 courses. like it's it's cool and everything but like it was it was so hard that i truly just struggled to have fun just too hard as national i was like oh yeah man let's go yeah i know it's fun that a day at the museum is is fun good scores waiting for you out there yep and uh you know awesome people

and it seems like every single hole you move to the next one and they're just like building on top of each other and you're like man it can't get you better in this and it does and it does and it does and you're just like wow it's i i understand what that sounds like to a lot of people out there but um you know a lot of these places are a lot more obtainable than people think um you just got to try really really really hard this is difficult coming in uh this is going to be number two for me i enjoyed this with you and your brother uh that's cypress i don't think i'll ever played there again but uh one of the best mornings that i've ever had with an incredible host and uh it's something that i will never take for granted and if that's the only time i get to play that

course man i'm i'm just so thankful and grateful that it was with uh you two and and him because it it it kind of was peak peak yeah peak stuff there for me that gets me to number one i've i'm so fortunate to be at this place, you know, three or four times now, and it's Sandhills. I absolutely love it. I would move to Mullen in a heartbeat. I would move to Denver if you already let me, and I would drive out there. A lot of it is the hosts and friends that we've been able to meet and what they mean to me and my family and everything else like that that goes so far beyond golf or anything else. It's more about life. But when you boil it down, it's the best spot in golf. Ben's porch is by far my favorite spot in the world of golf. And I could sit out there

and eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or go out and catch a ton of shooting stars, enjoying some drinks with my friends and looking out at a golf course that you're like, wow, this is it, this is it. And it's just very, very, very special. I mean, tough list to argue with. We got a mix of some home cooking with the North Carolina stuff and then just kind of, you know, murderers row there at the end. You start to run uphill.

You run uphill quick here on this list. And I understand, and again, like just. extremely thankful and grateful to be able to even talk about these places, let alone ever experience them. All right. Last question for you, Cody. If you could ask the genie for one thing to help your golf game, what would it be moving forward?

I think it would be like a truly a men and black situation on three footers. Like, you know, Dr. Sosho and our putting lesson was like, yeah, like, their break doesn't matter on them. Just like hit aim it at the center of the cup and just hit it. And I'm like, yo, wish I could do that. That just is not possible. So can you tell me, like, give me some pointers on like, do we lean inside? Do you have a therapist I could call? For sure.

But truly, if I could have a men and black moment, I would do that. And I practice them so much. And for some reason, it's such a mental block. that I just hope that this is the worst of it. I truly do because if it does develop into like a yip or something like that because that's where we're borderline, I'm borderline yips right now, which is a scary spot to be in.

But again, we got a plan. We're going to move forward. We're going to try the plan. Yeah. All right. Well, keep us posted on how that goes. Or I'm sure maybe it'll show up on camera at some point the next 12 months.

all right good stuff thanks for joining me uh yeah thanks for hosting yeah it was awesome good to be back in the saddle