No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1203: Ross Steelman

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Ross Steelman is headed to the PGA Tour in 2027 and currently occupies the top spot on the Korn Ferry Tour points list after winning twice this year - with both wins coming in the last two months. He joins the pod to chat about his upbringing in Missouri and playing collegiately for his hometown Missouri Tigers before making the decision to transfer and finish his career at Georgia Tech. Ross also gives us some great insights on what it takes to compete on the KFT, plus some great stories from the not-so-glamorous side of professional golf, his various superstitions, and his take on what he’ll face next year as he makes the jump to the PGA Tour. Support our Sponsors: Footjoy Rhoback The Stack 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 today. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Sali here.

We have your new favorite golfer. We found him. Ross Steeleman interview coming up shortly, spent some time with DJ TC and I. I know DJ got to play a pro am with him a few weeks ago, raving about this guy, finally got a chance to sit down with him. He's coming to the,

the PGA tour next year. Number one on the Corn Ferry Tour list. We're going to get into all of that. He's going to be a very easy guy for you to root for when you hear this interview. I promise you that we appreciate his time. Also appreciate our friends at Footjoy as golfers. We're always checking the forecast before we get out there and play. You never know when you're going to hit with an unexpected shower.

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All right, let's get to know Ross Steelman. You're coming to the PGA tour next year. That one's been locked. What's that been like to be able to say that, like very confidently now? You've had it, you know, you've been in a good position for a while now, but we can confidently, confidently say you're going to be on the PGA tour next year. Yeah, it's been really cool.

For lack of better words, it's, you know, it's something I've wanted to do and dreamed of doing since I was a little kid. So to be able to not say like, oh, I'm pretty close or like, it's around the corner if I play well, it's like, no, man,

I'm going to the PGA tour next year. And it's such a cool feeling. It's really fun. What's it like to have to go out and shoot 64 every week? It seems like every time we look, I'm like, oh, Roth shot 64 again today. It's great. Yeah.

Yeah, he's just a couple back. Right. Yeah, like last week I shot 18 under and finished 38 or something. It's just absurd. But it's taken me a couple years to kind of figure out like my process of looking at a leaderboard and thinking like, oh, like 64 is T8 today. And it's just taken a little bit, but it's really kind of required me to matured. and get better at just being patient on a golf course

and realizing like, hey, if you don't birdie the first four, like you're going to be okay. Because that's what it feels like out there. Every week, if you tee off in the afternoon on Thursday, there's someone at nine or ten. And if you tee off early, it's like through five holes, someone's four under. And it's just, it can be really exhausting

if you're trying to keep up with that the whole time. And this year, I've just done a better job of, you know, piecing together like five. five under, six under, seven under rounds and stacking those across four days. And it ends up working out pretty well, usually. What's it feel like when you're not doing a good job of that? Are you pressing? Are you frustrated? Like, what's talking through kind of what it used to be?

Yeah. What did it used to be like? And what is kind of the difference now? Yeah. I mean, it used to be like I, I've always, like I was a good player in college. And then I come out and it's like, I feel like I'm playing about the same as I was in college. and just getting smoked, like weekend and week out, like getting killed. And so it was like I get frustrated, like I get mad. Like you're out, you're in, for Pornferry for us, we play places that are the hottest places on earth for whatever week we're there. Like we go to Omaha and July.

We went to Kansas City in August and it's just. Paul's jumping out of the Corps Ferry Tour. Just horrible. Yeah, Springfield, Illinois, the driving range is the hottest place I've ever been in my life. I thought I was going to pass out one morning before we were playing. And so it's like you combine that with the fact that you feel like you're just spinning your tires and you just want to break every club in your bag every third week out there if you're not playing well. And like going from that two seasons and last year to just kind of relaxing out there and just saying like,

hey man, like I'm playing golf. Like this is a pretty good day. Like regardless of what I'm shooting. is it's been a really good turnaround for me mentally to like be able to have fun and doing it even when it like even if I'm three under and the leaders are at 12. Like it's just been like a much more patient mindset for me. What's it like you you won it maybe the two most opposite golf courses on the entire schedule, which I think is a really cool feather in your cap. Just talk to us about that. I mean, Boise and Boise and TBC, Colorado, those are opposite ends of the spectrum.

Yeah, those are, those golf courses are not, not similar at all. Like, Colorado's, you'll have to check me on this, but it's like 8,000 yards. And there's a 775 yard par five. And it's a lot of like, a lot of the length is on the par fives. And so it's a lot of, if you can hit a driver really far and then hit a three wood really far like you can make up a lot of that distance but you know it it goes from that to hillcrest and boise which is like a little tight like kind of winding through residential neighborhood style country club and uh you know i just both of them i did a really good job of this year just kind of just

blasted driver and for as far as i hit it i hit it pretty straight too both weeks i was hitting my driver well i was putting my driver well and then both weeks I just got real hot with like my seven to four iron on par fives and started hitting them to you know 15 25 feet having good eagle looks and then hit some good ledges and you know it kind accumulates in pretty good scores if you were to win a third time would that get you like what is the all right so this late in the season post regular season what is the the battlefield promotion would that would that net you anything other than getting you into all the fall series events and earning immense respect of the at all you pocket it's the best thing anybody can do at golf um i think it i'm

pretty sure it just comes with the the immediate like insertion into the fall series stuff so like if i was to win in a couple weeks in nashville i'm pretty sure i'd get just in immediately into all the rest of the stuff in the fall do you have any any sponsors invites like with being number one on the points list. Are you planning to play? Any fall PJ Tour events this year? I don't have any lined up yet. I'm going to put the call. Put the word out. We're putting the word out right now. Give them a call. I'm going to spend a good chunk of next week, sending out some emails and hopefully making some phone calls to tournament directors of the last couple events once our season's done. Because, you know, I talked about this with my coach,

and it's like I'm playing really well right now. So I might as well try to get in them, like, regardless of whether I do or not. And yeah, any opportunity to play on the PGA tour is a good one because you never know what one week can do. I feel like Utah would be a very, very good fit for you. Yeah, I would love to play at Black Desert. I love playing at altitude because it just like there's, you have to, it does a really good job of making me like think about the shot that I'm hitting right then

because you have to calculate the percentage of how far it's going to fly. And it changes throughout the day. And, yeah, I kind of, sometimes I get, bored when I'm just hitting a number and just swinging a club and it kind of makes me focus in a little more. What's your just looking at it like your gap between you and Doc Redmond, you know, like you're one, he's two. How much is that top of mind? Because being, you know, finishing number one at the end of the corn fairy tour season gets you into more stuff and like you're kind of high on the hog is from a priority perspective. Yeah. So it like obviously,

like one of my main goals for the rest of the season is to finish number one on the points list. Like I, it, getting in guaranteed the players, the U.S. Open and the PGA, like that's a huge perk that comes with it as well as like just kind of, as you said,

like the priority and getting in everything. Like that'd be really big. But I'm not really like going out there thinking about it per se. Like I'm still just trying to go and shoot 64 and be T8 by the end of Thursday, most weeks. And it's just like, it's a cool thing that comes, it's a byproduct of good play at the end of the season. And with four events left, it's like if I can just go put my head down and play well for four weeks, like everything will kind of take care of itself. For the listeners sake, you are first on the list over 400 points gap. You have about 1873. Doc's got like 1442, something around that range of points over the course of the season. But I got a dog at Bull Bean yesterday. He's just sweet. hanging out here in town. I got a question for you on, on distance. You, for those that don't know, you hit it hard.

You hit it hard. Can I say, Solie, we played a pro M a couple weeks ago. And I think I said to you on like the third or fourth hole. I was like, man, you're like one of the longest guys, right? Because like if you're not, like, I don't know what we're doing. I'm curious how, was that always the case growing up? Like, was that always a thing?

And just kind of we've, we've seen a big, you know, revolution and strokes gained. and analytics and all this technology and blah, blah, and hitting it far. I'm just curious if we've been talking about this crop of guys that are coming and we've seen a lot come up to the tour that hit it hard. And was there a calculation to this on your part of saying, like, this is my best route into, you know, becoming one of the best players.

Was it just always the case for you? I'm curious how you've analyzed that. Yeah. So I, like, I'm 6'6. Like, I've always been tall and I've got long levers. And I've always hit it. Like, as a kid, like, I enjoyed. getting it further than everybody.

So I would like try to. And now it's gotten to the point where it's like, I was saying this, I'm hanging out with Joel Damon and Andrew Putnam this week in Seattle. And like Joel was asking me kind of the same thing last night. He's like, do you always hit it far? And I was like, you know, honestly I picked up about 15 to 20 yards kind of in the middle of last season just by switching to a longer driver shaft.

I was using one that was like 44 inches and switched to 45, 75 or something in that room. realm and I ended up starting to hit it 20 yards further and probably three fairways around straighter and so it was that was cool like objectively that was that was added to the list of things that are sick hitting it farther but um you know it just like I've always I don't analytically know I just I hit my driver this season me and Craig my caddy have made kind of a conscious effort to say to each other like, hey dude, like, driver goes straighter than anything else in my bag. So let's just hit it everywhere. And it's like at tournaments, like I'll hit driver on 95% of my T-balls on par fours now. It's like there. And obviously on cornferry, there's less of a like

detractor to hitting drivers on different holes. Like it's a lot of places that you just blast it and go find it. But I'm doing that in a way that I'm blasting it. and hitting it in the fairway still, which has been very nice to have wedges from fairways. I feel like the Michael Brennan school. School of driving. Like hit it really far straight. Hit it a long way, hit it straight, and then go try to hit wedges close from there. Can I ask about the 44 inch driver?

Because it sounds like there's some scar tissue in the past. Yeah. Well, it's like, well, it wasn't even scar. It wasn't even like, it wasn't even anything that. I struggled with. It was just like I had a fitter when I was a kid be like, hey, you're tall. You're going to hit it everywhere. So let's put you in a shorter shaft to get it going straight. And as I got older, like I played it through college, like played it my first couple of years as a pro and was like, sure, this is, this works because I've always done it. And it's like I never thought about it.

And so all of a sudden, I pulled one of my buddies out on a, on a range. Me and Pontus, both missed the cut in Chicago last year, pulled his driver out and just. just laced about five of them. And I was like, yeah, I'll take this one right here. Can we go, I feel like we kind of skip past some of this, but for people who are not super familiar with you, can you run us through your backstory a little bit? Where are you from?

Where'd you go to school? Some of the just kind of bio info here. Yeah, for sure. So I grew up in Columbia, Missouri, which is where the University of Missouri is. Grew up, learned how to play golf at a par three course and driving range just off the I-70. there outside of town. When I was like, when I was like eight, I was hitting balls on the driving range.

And the guy that owned the place is named Jake Poe. And he's like, he's my coach to this day. He came out and said to my parents like, hey, if he ever wants help, like, I'd be happy to help him. And so he kind of got me started, like told me how to hold the club, told me how to swing, all of that. And I ended up, I still work with it now, but it's like I kind of just got a little better, better. Like, I hit it. I was a terrible golfer as a kid until probably my junior year of high school. And so I went to the University of Missouri for two years, played there. After two seasons,

transferred and finished at Georgia Tech, graduated from Georgia Tech. And then after Tech, I got onto Corn Ferry through the PGA Tour U system and have been out here for the last three and a half seasons now. What is a terrible golfer mean? And how did that switch flip? Because somewhere you turned into a really good golfer what was the yeah you know i was i mean i was fine for missouri and then i'd i'd get to places that i wasn't familiar playing and just feel so out of place and shoot 80 like i did that i i remember distinctively my freshman year of college like our second event was at inverness in uh in teledo and i got there and i was like yeah i do not i i I don't have that. I don't have that. Yeah. And I shot like 86 in the final round. And I was like, yeah, this is horrible. And as I kind of got older, like, I broke my wrist twice my senior year of high school. So that wasn't cool. And then that like, once COVID happened, I kind of had enough time to sit down and let it like heal. Because college golf, you don't have time to, you're playing every day. Like you're working out every day. And it's just.

like very bad time for injuries to to heal and so got that healed up started playing better went out and the SEC was the only conference that was playing during COVID in that fall and uh you know I played really well in the first we played three or four events and I played really well in the first three of them and you know it was in seeing that we were basically playing SEC championships every week was like oh okay I can do this with these guys now and uh kind of from there just had a lot more self-confidence and self-belief into saying, like, oh, yeah, like, I can do this. College football season is here. Our closets are looking more and more like Robax website. Here's the thing about Robax Collegiate Game Day Collection. They're not just slapping a logo on a stock polo.

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west virginia head to rowback.com r-h-o-bac-kk-com use code n-l-u will get you 20% off your first order through the end of the week rowback dot com code nilu let's get back to ross can you take it like where on the scale let's say like the i mg academy is right here and like like magic mountain is on one of the scale where where does that where does that fall in the spectrum in terms of background of places, you know, that play as kids. Real quick, too, has it rebranded to Midway? Yes. Yes. Okay. It's, it's rebranded and I haven't been out there since they rebranded it, I don't think, but it was Perchie Creek is. Perchee Creek, okay. Yeah, it's, you go to IMG and you sprint the other direction as far as you can, and that's where, that's where Perchie was.

The greens were, I'm sitting in a little office that's probably about, I don't know, 12 feet by 12 feet right now. And that's about the size of every green out there. You know, there was probably 75 driving range mats. We'd hit out into this big floodplain. And every time it rained, the entire driving range would be underwater. And the next morning I'd go out and me and my coach and his dad would handpick the range. And so that's how I would get to hit free golf balls as I'd go pick them all up and then get compensated for that.

But they had a mini golf course that the greens probably stamped out at about a 37. They were so fast. It was like putting on glass. Like they had the little, it was like that astro turf that was just worn slick into the concrete. And it was so much fun. proper playing surface yeah exactly

they got go carts as well how's the go carts go carts yeah we would rip the go cards out there they had they had massive like they had a car out on the driving range at one point when I was a kid that we would hit balls at

um so it was just it was a blast like it I really like glean a lot of appreciation like to the game of golf and like when I show up at nice places now it's like

Yeah, this is really cool, but it's like I grew up at a par three course and driving range off the side of an interstate. So it's like that's kind of where I always like draw my roots back to in golf is having this like I like to think of it as a pretty grounded approach to everything just because it's like that's where I grew up playing and it's awesome. Ross you live in John's Creek, right? You live in I live in Midtown now. I don't I don't know why it says John's Creek on the PG. tour app. I might have put that in a couple years ago. There's a course out in Johns Creek, Duluth area called River Pines that Neil and yeah. I grew up. I drive by it a lot. Playing the par three course there and hitting range

balls and all that stuff. It was yeah. Yeah. Yeah, very similar. Do you do you practice when you're at home, do you practice down at Georgia Tech or do you go out to golf club of Georgia or what's your? Yeah. So I use the tech facility there in Midtown a lot. Like, it's, so cool. Coach Heppler while he was there, and now Coach Hibble, since he's taken over, are great about having alums that are playing professionally out. Like, they're very welcoming. And that was a big part of why I picked Georgia Tech was the, like, the pro base that is still there a lot.

So I practice at the tech facility in Midtown, and then I play at Druid Hills. Okay. And over and just off a Ponce there in Midtown. And it's been awesome. They let me join when I was moving back to Midtown last off season, and it's been fantastic. You know, it's always in super nice shape, really great putting greens and the membership's awesome. They love, there's a couple of us out there, and they just love having us and playing with us. It's really cool.

It feels like Atlanta's kind of an under, maybe underrated, underrepresented home base for pro golfers, at least just from like a travel perspective, right? And you can get anywhere wherever you need to go. Weather's better than people probably think. I don't know. Talk me through that a little bit. There's not a ton of you guys. No, there's not a ton of us.

And most of us played it at tech. A lot of guys that play kind of stay at like a bunch of my teammates, like Connor Howe, Ben Smith, like Nolan Norton. Like we all stayed in that area and are playing still. And, you know, it's so easy to travel out of. Like, I live 15 minutes from the airport. And so it's just super easy to be able to go and get anywhere on our schedule, especially Corn Ferry.

Like, we play in some remote locations. And so it's been awesome. Like, it's super cool. And there's some sneaky good golf, especially North. Like, TC knows all about it. Like, there's a, I love playing golf in Atlanta. Like, there's a lot of courses are really cool to pros. like they let us come play.

And it's really cool. I want to ask you a couple of aesthetic questions. First of all, the fingernails. I know we talked about this. Yeah. ProMTC's a big Caleb Williams guy. I don't know if this is going to turn him off. It just really made me laugh.

You were kind of in the middle of your fingernail journey, I feel like when we were out there. I just now noticing this and figured this out. Yeah. So, well, it started my girlfriend. got a new fingernail polish and we are a new color of it before

the tournament in Raleigh that we played this year and so I was testing to see the color of it before she committed to it full time and end up finishing second that week and so I just painted one fingernail finished second and like

fuck I can't stop now I gotta keep going and and so then a couple like keep playing and then a month and a half or so later, you know, we're talking about it. And she says to me, like, oh, it chips faster on my pointer finger than it does my pinky. I'm like, that just doesn't sound right. Like, something's going on here. So I started doing that one. And then I won, or I finished third in Chicago and then one and Boisey a couple weeks later. So I'm like, well, now I've got

two that are painted. And so that's the new superstition that I've got going. So it's like, it's working. So I'm going to keep doing it. Now I'm mixing up the colors a little bit. Yeah, It's just kind of fun being different. Yeah, once you stop shooting 64 every day, you could maybe reassess. Yeah, I'll stop painting. The swing weights seem to be working right now. Yeah, I think so. Going back through your results, just going back to the altitude thing,

you're truly like an altitude specialist. Like, you've played the Columbia event really well. You played well in Utah over here. You play well in Colorado every year. It's crazy. Yeah, I love it. There's something, and so Jake, my coach is adamant about this. He's like something about kids from Missouri playing in altitude in the mountains.

He's like, it just works. And I have no idea why, but man, I love it. It's just fun to tee it up and just rip it and the ball go forever. We need to get Chupiltec back on the calendar for you. Yeah, yeah, no kidding. What is that on the tour bio, the fun facts about you, it says something about drinking ginger ale the night before tournaments because of a Ben Hogan link.

Is that accurate? And take me, take me there. Well, it was funny. I was, I did a little thing on Golf Channel with Damon and Aman last week. And Aman asked me the same thing. And I was like that. So that was my, like, I had to drink ginger ale the night before I played competitively. Because I was convinced that it gave you better feel in your fingers.

And this year. It might be. Yeah. It entirely is, but this is the guy who's superstitiously painting his nails is exactly. Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's funny because Raleigh this year, it was the week that I started painting my fingernails that I was like, hey, I'm going to stop drinking ginger ale. Like, I'm going to stop doing it this week. And so I stopped that and started painting my nails.

So now it's just the superstition was flipped from one to another. So I swore by that. I did that from the time I was, I think my grandpa got me started on that. I think I was probably 14. So I did it every, I drank ginger ale the night before every round from the time I was 14 until June of this year. That's great. There's not a lot that can wow me on like nutritional facts when you read the side of a can, seeing a side of a can of ginger ale and seeing how much sugar in it for the first time was a true.

Whoa! I didn't even know that was possible. How is this legal? Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's like four loco. Yeah, a lot of sugar, a lot of sugar. How do you travel?

Are you like a food nut? Do you get out and kind of see a bunch of differences? I've just on that note, like, what's traveling week-to-week like for you? I eat Chipotle every meal that I'm not playing golf. So I eat it. If I'm at a tournament for six days, I eat it in six nights for dinner and probably three or four times for lunch. Same thing every time.

or you mix it up? What's the order? No, I go extra white rice. Brown is okay if they're out of white, but I go extra white rice, double carnitas, and extra fajita veggies. Okay.

That's good bouncing. Good protein. Sure. Yeah, exactly. Speaking of the protein craze, yeah, everybody's got to have all sorts of protein. He's always got some rest.

Do you want to talk about that? Ross, you're a coffee guy too? I am, yeah. I don't do it before I play. I was telling the guys last night we were hanging out, and Andrew was telling me how to use his coffee machine. And I was like, oh, no, I'm good in the morning. I just need loud music, and I'm good to go.

But yeah, we had a long break between the South America stuff and Savannah this year. And so I was, after like a week at home, I was bored out of my mind. And so I was like, I'm going to figure out how to make, like, espresso. And so I got like a, got an espresso maker have been. Which one did you get? Because I just got one too. I got a brevill, barista express. It's the same one I got.

It's awesome. It's, have you, have you taken it like, I took like six hours and made about 22 cups of coffee just to figure out how. The dialing in process can get very expensive. Yeah. It's a long, God, it's gone. Oh, wow. Yeah, exactly.

It's time to make a cup and it's gone. Yeah. Oh. Right. Yeah. It's like, oh, this is my second bag of beer. beans today and it is gone. Let's go back to the coffee shop. But, uh, but yeah, so I've gotten, I've gotten big into like making my own coffee and just kind of having that and enjoying it. So

that's been, that's been fun. Do you, do you frequent other like coffee shops out on the road as well? Like I know Curtis Luck is a big coffee guy. He's like Curtis and Max Rotloff and a few other guys. They would, you know, like there's a place in cow was that was Greenville. Greenville. Methontical. Mostautical coffee. Greenville or yeah. I feel like you go to some cool smaller cities for Corn Ferry Tour that have kind of a cool, you know, either university culture or a coffee culture. Yeah, I don't do, I don't do a very good job of like seeking out coffee while I'm on the road. A lot of times I'll

opt for a Baja blast from a Kroger if they've got one. But, you know, I, you know, I, yeah. Yeah, that's that's what everyone's. telling me and I'm rolling with it while I still can. But, you know, it's, I do a bad job of, like, going out and doing stuff when I'm on the road. Like, like, if I'm in town on Monday, like I'll be the, like, I'll play at 6 o'clock on Tuesday mornings just to get in, get done, get my work done before everybody else gets out there and then sleep for about four hours in the afternoon. But I love walking around, like just going and walking college campuses when we're in town at places, like Boise State's cool, because it's like,

It's got a really cool downtown and then you can go to the college and it's this really cool campus like kind of set down in the valley and you've got the mountains on one side and there's just a lot of like I and I've heard Randy talk about this before and there's just something something really cool about college campuses and I've always really like I grew up pretty much on one like my grandparents owned a bed and breakfast that they operated and my parents were like the managers of on the university of Missouri's campus so I would just like wander around campus as kid and my aunt and uncle were the volleyball coaches and so like college campuses are just I find him really cool to just walk around and see what see what's going on get you and Randy on a little big brothers big brothers program out there what's uh what's the loud music in the morning it changes um it's uh and speaking of superstition i kind of play the same like group of four or five songs on the way the golf course right now it's uh the main one is never going home by Coons. I don't know if you saw Erling Holland.

He posted that selfie after they beat someone in the World Cup. And it's this super catchy like EDM song. There's always a little bit of TI in there. It's an Atlanta rap. Just gets you really fired up to go chill out and make pars. A lot of times it's skill it in the morning on the way to the course just to really get the blood flowing. And, but then afterwards, it's got to cool it down after the round, especially if you're coming off hot after 18, get some iration, get some Grateful Dead, something to just kind of relax a little bit.

Sure. Sounds like the spectrum. Yeah, nowhere. I wanted to ask the other aesthetic question, I feel like we got to ask about the tattoos. I think when you get to the PJ tour, there's going to be a lot of, did you guys hear about the guy with the tattoos? Like, you're going to get a lot of that that's going to be coming. I'll just, I'll just warn you. Yeah.

But I found the story behind them super interesting, especially like the talk about kind of the, I know you have like the desert scene and the kind of forest scene, if you don't mind walking through some of that. Yeah, for sure. And so it's kind of like I told you in Chicago, it's kind of a working mural of a life story almost with different reminders to myself. Like other people would see it and be like, oh, that's cool. But it's like it has a little deeper meaning for me especially.

Like the desert on the inside of my forearm is kind of a, it's a. working reminder that, you know, obstacles in life can lead themselves to opportunity if you look at them the right way and kind of shift the perspective that you're looking from. And, you know, kind of in comparison with the, like, I've got the desert on one side of my forearm, like mountains, like pine forest, like rolling stream kind of on the other side. And it's just this working dichotomy of, you know, in life, there is good, there is bad. Like there's happiness. There's sadness. There's good times.

There's bad times. And one of them, you can't have one without the other. So don't wish away the bad stuff just because you want the good stuff. Like appreciate what's going on in your life and try to like see it from a more holistic perspective and just like be where you're at right now. And just remember that if something seems awesome right now, it's probably going to come crumbling back down at some point. And if something feels like it's at rock bottom, like there's something to work towards and there's something to look forward to. And that's just something that, you know, I try to remind myself

daily and just say like, hey, like, just keep everything in perspective, man. Like everything, like no matter what's going on, it's all going to be okay. Ross, were you just having grown up in Columbia, was it like, did you feel like you had to get away to, you know, kind of. You know, kind of of come into your own and stuff. Like, you know, like, talk to us about the transfer from, from Missouri to Georgia Tech. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up, like I said, essentially on campus at Missouri.

And that's the only place I ever wanted to go out of high school. Like I, as I committed when I was 15 or 16 or whatever. And at that point in my life, like, that's where I needed to be. Like, my first two years in college, like, I was not ready to go outside of Columbia. outside of Missou, like outside of the state. Like, I don't think I would have done very well because I just, part of it was getting out of my own house into, like, around my teammates and whatnot.

And part of it was just like, I needed that time to be in college to learn how to get a little bit better. Like, we, I learned so much from being around the senior on our team. My freshman year was Rory Franzen. He's the Scottish guy. He just won on the challenge tour, a couple or hotel planner a couple weeks ago and like he did such a good job of helping me like realize

that in like there were areas of golf that I was good at there were areas that I wasn't good at and it's like I just needed that time there at Mizzou to kind of mature enough to realize like hey like I'm good now but it's like I want to get to a different place to get a little better weather a little better schedule um be around guys that wanted to play professionally like a bunch of my teammates at Mizzou didn't have real aspirations of playing professionally. And I feel like as a college golfer, like if you have dreams of playing professionally, you need to be around people with those same dreams too. And so I feel like part of that was like coming into my own and becoming my own person

and saying like, hey, like my whole family has grown up in Columbia and has stayed in Columbia their whole lives. Like I love Columbia, Missouri, but it's like it's time for me to. branch out and go somewhere else and be in a program and in a place that's a little more conducive to a lifestyle of professional golf. Was Georgia Tech hard academically? Oh my God, yeah. What did you study? I think it's the most underrated academic school in the country. It was so hard. I but it was it was worth it too. Like it was our my coach coach Heppler was adamant. He's like, he's like, like, hey, like, if you come here, you're going to learn how to manage your time. And I came into it and was

like, yeah, sure, whatever. And then after about three weeks, I was like, oh, my God, he's right. Like, I need to manage my time a little bit here. But so I studied at Missouri, before I transferred, I was a mathematics major. And then after I transferred, I did a degree called history, technology, and society at Georgia Tech, which is their way of saying sociology. So very opposite ends of the spectrum. That's great. As somebody who started in mechanical engineering and wound up doing whatever the hell I'm doing now. Yeah, I can relate. I'm curious with, we talked a lot about, you know, what it takes to be successful in the corned fairy tour.

A lot of them being, you know, races from the jump, pin your ears back go. You've played in a few PJ tour events. Granted, if I'm scrolling through them, they are some of the, you can take it deep at these tournaments there as well. But you kind of, I would imagine you kind of know what you're getting into coming into the next level and how it is going to be different. What would you say sitting here right now late August, 26 that you'd say, like, man, when it's time, when it's go time come January of 2027, I know I got to be better at this to compete at this level. Is there anything that jumps out to you to say, like, here's what I got to get grinding on, get working on, because the test is just going to be a little bit different. I, you know, I'm good. No, I'm good.

I don't need to work on anything. I got it. I got this, man. I'd say the biggest thing for me is resisting the urge of saying, like, hey, I really need to improve on this. Like, because so many people, and that's what a lot of guys have told me, like, so many people, like, graduate on the tour the first year. They try to change a lot of stuff. And so my biggest, like, knowing myself, like, I love golf clubs and just, like, the allure of new stuff. And so just staying out of that and just being, you know, true to myself and running the same process that's working now.

Because it's like I'm not, you don't go from like, I've shot 20 under like I feel like the last five of the last six weeks or something. And it's like that inherently like yeah, the golf courses get a little harder. But it's like the process that I'm working with right now, it inherently works. And so I'd say my biggest challenge will be to stick to what works for me rather than trying to conform to what other people do. And that's what jumps at me first of things that it's like, hey, like, let's not try to change a bunch to like do this next year. It's like, hey, let's not change anything and see how that works. And then from there, kind of diagnose and assess and take. a look at like, hey, is there something I need to do differently?

What's your opinion been on, you know, obviously a bunch of changes going on just with the tour and how it's going to affect, you know, someone in your exact position. You're in kind of this like one of one sort of position, it feels like, where you're, you know, you're kind of in the right spot as all this stuff sort of shifting around. I was curious, just kind of of broad thoughts on, you know, things as they change. Yeah, I think, honestly, I think the tour's doing a ton of good stuff right now. Like, I Brian Rolap came to Omaha a couple weeks ago and kind of laid it all out and just told us what was going on.

And almost all the stuff he's saying, I'm thinking like, that makes sense. Like, yeah, that's a good idea. Like, that seems like we're thinking at it with the right cap on here. And it's like there's a lot of stuff like that. And it's like right now, there's 40 guys that are playing, like, this season that have played like four tour events in a row and then three corn fairy events in a row,

and then another three in a row, and it's like, what's going on here? It doesn't make any sense. None of us know how status works right now. So it's like if it's something that you can kind of consolidate into a very linear, like, this is where you're playing this year,

this is where you're playing this year. Inherently in my mind, it makes sense. And as far as like, and like the announcement that was out this week about match play, like, yeah, that's awesome. Like, let's get away from Atlanta in August. Like, nobody wants to be outside in Memphis and St. Louis. It's like, let's go places that are, like, cool and that are going to look good

and that are going to present well to the fans and sponsors. It's like, nobody wants to see Lucas Glover with swamp ass out there in Memphis. It's like, I don't want to be out in Atlanta in August, and I live there. Like, I don't want to be outside. And it's, it just seems like it's making a lot of sense. like a lot of things that they're rolling out in a row. It's like, Sally, it's like you said on Tuesday's pot. It's like, yeah, like, that makes sense. Like, it's a lot of things in a row that you're like, you think of. And it's like,

the tour announces it. And it's like, okay, sweet, cool. Let's do it. How would that have changed from a couple years ago? Like, let's say, you know, you've been in the corn Ferry tour a couple years. Like if, if Jay or anybody had come down and been like, hey, I'm coming to meet with the membership, what would they have been upset about or what would they have been like, we need to fix this immediately. I think there'd have been a lot more of the older guys at that player meeting that were very, that would have been more vocal about what's going on. Like, it's just, there's been so much go on and golf the last five years from the,

just absolutely, just complete fabricated inflation of purse sizes with Liv and, you know, going everything being just a. an arms race of how much money can we pour into this. How much money can we pour into this? It just got to a point where it's like, yeah, let's everybody kind of calm down here and just say like, it's going to be okay. If we, like, there's a couple changes to be made that's going to make things really cool for people. And it seems like they're kind of doing all the same stuff that like guys would have said a couple years ago. And it's like, well, yeah. If we do that, it's going to work pretty well.

I mean, it's got to be, you got to think you, hopefully you're hearing this around the Corn Fairy Tour right now. And let's let's say you're on a different track. I'm picturing you, your 2028 championship series, right? Let's get in that top 90 next year and go do that. But if it doesn't work out that well for you, like going to, and I've almost heard the Challenger series be called a glorified, I literally have where I call it a glorified corn fairy tour. I'm like, that's not a bad thing.

Like, it's a great opportunity for you. That's a better place for, like, you know, bad example, you, you're number one on the list. But like a lot of people just shortly far down that list, like, if that's where you end up shaking out, playing for $4 million purses and playing on the PGA tour, that's a great thing. Like, that's an awesome, awesome thing. And I think I will find that probably to be more interesting than following the corn fairy specifically week to week, where it does end up being a little bit of birdie fest at times. And like, look, what happens with the cornfairy tour is a separate question.

And I think there's still a ton of value. you to be had down there but like this there's a whole new class of players that i think is going to benefit greatly from this new series that it just i don't feel like that's been fully voiced yet right and i agree i think it's going to do a much better job of you know determining like the the skills required to move up and the skills that are lacking and you move down like corn Fern Ferry right now, like you can get like on the Birdie Fest weeks, like there can be a guy that gets hot and wins a couple like wins once in a year and then has another top finish that gets their PGA tour card that might not be. Name names. You know.

Name names. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Sally. And I can think of you. Well, and there's like, there's just. And this is what I've conveyed to them over the last couple years. And I feel like they've done a much better job this year of, you know, improving the agronomy and improving the conditions that we play in to make it more similar to PGA Tour style tests. And like obviously there's the weeks that 29, 30, 27 underwin.

But it's like there's been more this year that are in that range of 16 to 20. And that's kind of where you see a lot of PGA Tour tournaments won is in that range. and it just it just seems like it's doing a better job of testing the skills required to succeed on the PGA tour not just to like it used to be like you could like me and my coach have talked about this like there's there's a way to build a game like for the corn fairy tour and just go out and hit it it's like you're playing scramble golf and just hit it as far as you can like play five wedges and just try to get it around and like just bomb and gouge everywhere and it's It's like that like it is not going to work going forward. It's like you have to still possess the skills to like TC likes to say you got to pitch, not throw sometimes and you still have to play golf out there. And that's what I've done a better job at this year is actually like playing golf rather than just trying to go like bash my head in when I'm not making five birdies in a row.

Which I know the system's getting blown up and made this, but you seem to have you seem to be on this. and like I think like the way the points work like the volatility at the top of the FedEx Cup makes sense like people like winning you want to see some movement but like for a corn fairy tour I think it a smoother point system would make more sense because like I got like an eighth place finish on the corn fairy tour a consistent eighth place finishes on the corn fairy tour just means you're a good golfer like if you're around a lot but you're not getting a lot of points for that like that's not what's going to be what gets you up there and that one massive week first or second can really dictate something like that do you think a smoother point system at that level would make more sense in terms of identifying who should advance to the next level. Like the lack of volatility will be a bad thing at the highest level, but at a lower level, could that make more sense in your mind? But you won twice. Maybe you don't want to necessarily want that to be in case either.

I've never thought about it that way, but I mean, I guess it makes sense. It's like you're like the kind of age old saying out there is like you got to have the super peak weeks. Like if you finish 20th every week, like it's just not, you're not going to make it. And like you're like you can be really good and really consistent, but it's like you have to have those weeks where you where you peak very hard to be able to move up. And it's like it almost, it doesn't really reward super consistency unless you're consistently finishing top five. Yeah.

That's like you're your season last year is a perfect example of that. Like you finished 30 second. You had five top tens, but nothing better than that. fourth, right? So you're just in that middle ground. You're playing really good golf, but not extracting the maximum value out of those peak weeks. Exactly. Like I think I finished last year with the fifth or sixth scoring average on tour and just wasn't, like, I was close-ish to moving up, but wasn't like particularly real close because I didn't have one of those weeks where I finished second or first and got 500 or 300 points in one scoop.

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Thanks to the stack, the stack system.com slash NLU. Back to the pod. Toronto and I were talking about this the other day, kind of circling around what a couple of the things you said, Tully, but it's, I think we're moving to the situation where you,

when you have license to kind of blow it up and change it and reshape it, you can really build this thing that I think can be really cool. And maybe it's, maybe it's really cool to a smaller number of golf fans than are going to be excited about match play. and the championship track and all of that. But if you're a hardcore pro golf fan, all of a sudden you have this Challenger series

that you can create a million different on-ramps to, and you can really, like, figure out how to get the right guys from the Corn Ferry Tour onto that track, how to get the right guys from the DP World Tour, how to get the right guys from, I don't know, the Asian tour, college, from, yeah, all these different places. And then, yeah, if I was a 22-year-old pro, it might almost be frustrating because it feels like another step to get through,

but it's also probably a good filter in order to make sure you've got kind of the right, quote unquote, the right types of games coming through and the people who are going to sustain. So it's, yeah, long way of saying, I think there's a lot to be excited about. Ross, what a couple

questions for you. A, how how much has your life changed since you were named to the Fedora 5? It's been transcendence, you see? Like, it is, I've had, I've had so many people like, me and, one of my best friends, Feaser, like, we actively, like, we have plans to, we, he lives in New York,

I live in Atlanta. We have plans to actively, like, watch tourist sauce this fall and then FaceTime afterwards and discuss each episode. Like, so, so he texted me as soon as it came out on Monday morning. I was like, you're on the fedorify. I was like, hell yeah, this is fantastic. So, yeah, it's, you know, as I was starting to play well, kind of in the middle of the summer here, I'm like, we need a new, we need a new list coming out, so I might be able to have a chance to get on it. You're going to get on that Tommy Fleetwood, you know, mental pressure situation. You know, it's going to be overrun. Can't be thinking about T.Z as you're coming down the stretch.

Now, granted, I think there were 11 guys on that edition of the Fador 5. Chikara, Tommy Morrison. We might need a better, we might need a challenger track for the Fodora 5 as well. There was a corn fairy Instagram post. It tweet. putting Tommy Morrison and the Fedora 5 and they took it down and I wasn't on it either. And then second question for you on that note. You are above average on like you're better than average on all of the pace of play stuff.

Yeah. That the Corn and Ferry Tour publishes, which I think is awesome both that they're publishing and that you like. Sponsors exemption. That's right. That's right. It's not going to be coming up to the system. Yeah. Get them out there.

Approach play. You're you're like top 20 and approach. coach play kind of, you know, speed. Like, is that something that you've seen guys talking about, guys looking at, kind of naming names now of, hey, you are objectively slow or you're objectively Yeah, kind of. It's like, I mean, my whole philosophy is, guys, speed the fuck up. What are we doing?

Like, it doesn't take that long to hit a golf shot. And it's like, obviously, there's going to be circumstances where there's going to be, like, there's going to be a win switch and you're going to have to back off and change clubs. or there's going to be a put that means a lot that's really hard, but you've got to look at from a little bit further. But it's like, man, if you've got a pitching wedge to a center pin, like, hit the damn thing. Like, what are we doing?

And so just to see, like, the guys that, like, and it's, for us, it's kind of subjective to when the volunteer is hitting the button, signifying that it's our turn to play. But it's like, it's pretty accurate. Sample size is big enough. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, yeah, guys.

It's like if you're, like, if you're taking like eight seconds over to hit a approach shot, it's like, let's move it along. Like, what are we doing? Are you ever in the volunteer's ear? Like, don't start that clock yet. They're still putting up there. Do not start that clock yet. But yeah, it's like I've always, like, I move quickly, like through stuff.

Like, I'm not trying to go fast. Like, I think where I have slotted in, like, all the time slots is pretty good. Like, I don't want to be last and I don't want to be first. Like Dylan's first on everything. He plays so fast. It is like playing a two-sum, it went to a threesome if he's in your group. Like he is half a hole ahead the entire time.

So it's like I do everything quickly, but it's like, I've gotten to the point where it's like, hey man, if I'm standing over a seven iron and I'm taking more than 20 seconds to hit this, like there's going to be something terrible happen rather than good.

And so it's like, yeah, just publish all the times, like for everybody. Like call out the guys on tour because it doesn't get faster. It takes so long to play. It's terrible. I did want to ask you some corn fairy tour questions because you know,

you've been out there a couple years. You've gotten to know a lot of the different guys for people who don't follow the tour. All that closely, I wanted to ask you some more kind of superlative type of stuff. So outside of yourself, who's your favorite golf swing on the corn fairy tour right now? This is going to be funny because he doesn't like

his own golf swing a lot of the time. I really like the way Dylan Minetti swings it. it's just like it's super laggy like gets to the time and it's gotten less since we were kids but it's just it's super laggy super fun to watch you just like it like i said he gets up there and then five seconds all of a sudden he's just smacking the thing and it's just gone and it's uh i've always enjoyed watching him swing the club he was very fun to watch at the old course just like very old school looking player yeah just yeah just small guy but hits it hard and violent it's just it's a cool it's a cool move. It's a cool motion. It is. Best short game. Best short game. I'm going to say Davis Shore. I played with

him on Saturday in Boise. And if he missed a green and he's done it for years, like I've played with him a bunch. If he misses a green, like you feel like the chip's got a good chance of going in. And then if he hits a bad chip, he's a really good putter. And it's also probably gone in. David Shore sounds like a, like a, you know, alt country. Maybe that like Kenny Chesney beach, beach country. Could be like a festival too. We're going out of Danish Shore.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, add him to the lift. Yeah. Who's the most comfy pairing for you right now on the Corned Ferry Tour? If you get the text on who you're playing with tomorrow. I love playing and have played with him a bunch this year. Hunter Aikorn. He's, we've known each other for a long time.

He grew up in the UP and in Michigan. And he's got his girlfriend, Sarah Caddy's for him. And she's a really great, really great caddy. And they're a fun hanging out there. I've gotten to play with them a bunch this year. And I'm always excited when that text comes through. Marquette guy. Yeah.

Who's the most underrated game on the Corn Ferry Tour? Because I, you know, I will say like I don't watch a ton of it on TV. I kind of follow the leaderboard. I watch the points list. But what's not coming through the stats? that's a good question i was thinking about that this morning and i'm going to say i've played i've played with him i don't know if i played with him this year but i played with him a bunch last year i'm going to say will cannon he's a shorter guy he doesn't kill the ball but he works like just works

dogmatically out there every week and he is like anytime i'm on the putting green he's grinding on the putting his getting his feet dialed for aim point and he like he like When he's rolling the ball, like when he's rolling it, he makes more puts than I've ever seen anybody make. And he just gets so much out of his game for like the style with which he plays. And it's, it's very impressive watching Will out there and, and, you know, going through his weekly process of getting it all prepared and ready to go. That's a good one. It's five foot seven. You guys got to be a heck of a heck of a big and tall or big and small.

Exactly. Exactly. You and Randy, when you guys are walking through the college campuses, maybe swing it a bit between your arms. The, I threw this on my list as well. So for kind of, you know, these guys that we know are probably, probably headed to the PJ tour. I went down the next five on the points list after you.

Give me like a not personality wise, not look wise, just like game wise. Who do these players remind you of on the current PJ tour? Start with Doc Redmond. What's, what's his game like? I'm going to say, I'm going to say Russell Henley. He's just like when you play with Doc, he's just, he's hitting it in the right spots and he's hitting it like just over and over. It's like the drive's going on the right side of the fairway or he's missing in the right spot. He's hitting his irons into the proper side of greens.

And then once he's on the greens, he's probably making the putts that he's hitting. So that's been, I think that's pretty fitting for Doc there. That's great. Ian Holt, I don't know much about it all. Ian, I went through the PGA tour, I went through the list A to Z a couple times this morning, trying to figure out a comparison for Ian. And I think I'm going to go with Corey Connors just watching him. I could watch Ian hit balls on the driving range for hours.

Like his swings just really rhythmic, like super smooth. It's just a real fluid motion that, you know, you really, really like watching and hearing the ball come off of. It's both Kent State guys, too. Yeah, that played into my, played into my selection process. Part of the models. Yeah. Okay, Alistair Docherty is next. I'm going to say Victor Hovland.

And I was kind of trying, honestly, I was kind of trying to match guys' swings. And they don't, they don't swing it at all similarly. But in my head, it's the same swing. And it's not even close. But I was thinking about it. It was like, yeah, this works. and and yeah alster he hits it kind of very stereotypical of like a young kid coming up kid young guy coming up now it hits it a long way like hits his iron's good and like when he

putts well that week it is it's really really impressive stuff uh cole sherwood cam young no hesitation no hesitation stamp it they like me and sherwood have been really good friends since we were probably 15 years old. And he, I'm not going to say swings it robotically, because it's not robotic. Like there's, it's like an there's a artistic

like, it's made in the lab. Basically it sounds like. Yeah. And it's just so good. Like you it's kind of the same thing. It's like if you're going, if you're going to watch people on a driving range, you're going to end up standing behind Sherwood when he's

hitting shots because it's just, it's just every time. And it's just really, really pretty stuff to watch. That's great. These are getting me excited. Tommy Morrison's the last one. I've struggled on this one.

I don't know. It might be the thought. There's not a lot of guys that look like him out there. Yeah. No, there's not. Yeah. And I was trying to go through it. How tall was he?

Six, nine? Six nine, six, ten. Like, he makes me feel short when I'm standing next to him, which is not easy to do. Your bio says you're six, but you say you're 66, which like normally it's the opposite, right? Yeah, usually I, yeah, it's because when I was a kid, like if, if you tell someone in a store,

you're 66, they start putting me in 36 inching pants and those are a little too long. So I just kind of stuck on 6.5 for a while. But Tommy. Tommy needs to join your campus tour. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we could, yeah, me, Randy and Tommy. Start to look like Stanford out there. freshman out there yeah all trees it's the basketball team yeah for Tommy I

I don't really like I was trying to think of tall guys out there and it's like you know you got there's Sammy Valamaki he's a big dude but I don't think I don't think they really play very similarly I mean you know maybe like he doesn't swing it like Gary Woodland but Gary Woodland like they look kind of similar if you add eight inches to Gary So I don't, Tommy's kind of in a world of his own, honestly. Like I played with him last week and he is very, very good at golf. Like it just, it, it's, it's impressive stuff. It seems like, seems like there's some dudes coming from the corner tour,

which is a big, you know, like there's this whole cartel of capital D dudes. Amassing troops. A cabarer. Yeah, they're ready to, ready to store. Yeah, exactly. What's, uh, what's an event on the calendar for next year? that you're like, I'm so stoked to go play this one, like number one on the list of like,

I cannot wait to play blank tournament next year. There's a couple of them. I'd say, A, waste management, like, that's one that it's like, that looks like so much fun. And I love playing in front of an audience of people. Like, that's one of my favorite things about, like, moving up in golf is like being, like, we are performers at the end of the day.

and being able to perform and show like people what can happen and so that one waste management be really cool you know obviously like the if i finish one and get to play in the majors and the players like those are super high but the one that's always been near and dear to my heart was the john deer next year i was i was really fortunate to get a sponsor exemption into that my first year out on tour and you know growing up in the midwest that's always been kind of like that's Johnson says the fifth major and it's it's not the fifth major we say that as well but it's it's it's super cool like it's a super well-run event in tc like i remember you saying you went to it last year with your kids and it's just it's so much fun like when you're on when you're on property like it is amazing like it's so much fun um and so that one will be cool and then sallie you're gonna love this i can't wait to play at tory like i i love troy pines it is it's it's it's such a like For sure. It's great.

Like once you're, I am on TV, it's a little sleepy. But it's like when you're there, it's so much fun. Like it's so hard. And it's just a like big brawny ballpark to go just hit some drivers. I can't believe you seem to be incredibly familiar with our weird universe. But I can't believe this. We made it an hour without discussing here. My brother.

We're in the brotherhood together here. Par four. All right. He doesn't know it. Par four aces? Oh, yes. Yes. Alleged. I think people saw yours go in.

Right? Nobody saw solace go in. Yeah, mine has witnesses to say it went in the hall for sure. What's the story? What's the story there? So 15th hole in Chicago is like it's kind of a little turn the corner par four is 350-ish yards. And Sunday we're playing. and get up there and I just I lace one straight at the pen and I just hammer it and we it's going right at it but it's it's weird it's kind of a weird hole because there's a big slope on the right side of the green that kicks every ball that lands on it just dead left and it like

back right pen and we thought there's no way a ball could get close to the pen and so it's going right at it and there's a bunch of people standing up around the green and we hear this noise and it's like everybody goes uh Oh, and I'm like, what the hell just happened? And I look at someone, and someone in the crowds that was standing behind the tea goes, it went in. And I was like, yeah, there's no way it went in. And so I said to Craig, my caddy, I was like, did it go in?

He's like, I can't see it. And I was like, well, that's a good point. I can't either. But as we're walking up, the scoreboard has already changed. And I go from 19 to 22 on it. I was like, that seems like it went in here. And we're walking up. And as we get up there, everybody around the ground.

green is just like pumping their hands and just going crazy. And sure enough, I walk up and it's, it's in the, in the bottom of the hole. And just wild, just absolutely no expectation whatsoever. Just pick it up. And yeah, so that was pretty, another thing to add to the list of things that are sick. Exactly. Did you move up the board at all with that going from 19 to 22? You went backwards at 14.

Yeah, I did. Yeah, I went backwards about five spots. Yeah. Yeah, I think I moved up. I think I moved from like T6 to solo third and then puttered my way around the last three holes and one over to still finish solo third. So that was fun. So sick. It was pretty sweet.

Like you strike me as a golf, a golf tragic, a golf sicko. Like when you're not playing, like ramping up for a professional tournament or whatever, like are you taking golf trips or are you? you know just going and playing for fun i yes i play for like i'd play for fun seven days a week like if i'm not playing in an event like i i'm not i'm not real good about golf trips um because i don't know it i feel like it's hard to like figure it out but like i if i'm not playing an event like i'll play in practice every day like i just love it like and i told dj about this in Chicago, but it's like I just have this romantic view on golf clubs and like finding old stuff that works. And it's like my putters from 2007 that I got off at eBay. And it's like my,

my wood fairway shafts and my hybrids from eBay. Like it's all like there's just, I just really enjoy that like that search and that hunt for some old nostalgic golf club that is really cool. So yeah, sometimes it works out really well. And I start like my putter for instance. Like I got I got it in April this year off of eBay, started using it, and I've now hoarded five more of them. I just ordered another one a couple of weeks ago. So it's an old tailor-made Rasa, Daytona. It's one of the like solid milled ones. And I was using, you know, everybody in their mother is using a spider right now.

So this early this season, I was like, yeah, I should use a spider. Used it for a little while. Did not work for me. like great putter but not for me so i was like i just need a blade here i just need something that's just a solid piece of metal and yeah it's been great and i have seven of them now and i saw in your your your your bio like because this kind of reminded me of me and neil as well like i remember saving up and i i bought a titleless 975 f three wood the first year it came out and then neal neal saved up and he bought he had the 983 e when he should have had the k and it

It just devastated him that he was exacerbating the stuff that he said. That was like the fade bias. I was going to say, that'll never happen again. But it sounds like you had kind of a similar thing. Like you were like it was the same thing. I was pressure washing and dog sitting. It sounds like you were doing dog sitting back when you were going. Yeah, I was dog walking.

I walked, walk dogs in my neighborhood grown up. And when I was 14, I think I got my 13 or 14, I got my first new golf club. It was a titleless 9, 10, 7 would. And it was just like, I remember just saving up and saving up and being like, man, I really want this club and getting it. And it's like, this is so cool. Because it's like, both of my parents were teachers. So it's like I wasn't growing up at country clubs with new clubs every year.

Like I was scrounging around in big 50 gallon trash buckets of just wedges and irons and just looking for some that might ever work. And so, yeah, it was, there was. There's kind of that anticipation of like, oh, my God, this is a new golf club. This is so exciting. I don't mean to uncork another hour of conversation here, but how does that factor into, like, are you a golf swing nut or are you just like a, like, I would imagine if you grow up that way, you're kind of like, I just got to make it work.

I don't know, you know, is that. I'm curious if that's kind of carried through to, you know, high level success. Yeah. So like me and me and Jake, my coach, like we both kind of grew up in that same like mindset of like, hey, we're just going to make it work here. And it's like, my thing is like, I'll call him to complain like, oh, my, I'm not cutting it. And he's like, well, just swing across it a little more. And it's like, oh, well, I'm not drawing it very well.

He's like, I'll just hook it, man. Like, just figure it out. And that's like, and that's kind of the way that I've always played golf, like people, like, I had teammates in college that would ask me like, what are you thinking about when you're trying to hit a cut? And I'm like, I don't know, man. I just cut it. Like, that's kind of, exactly.

It's kind of it. Like, I have a track man, but it's like, I have. I have like three tiles that give me numbers, like every time. I have no idea what any of the rest of them mean. So what are you most focused on then? Can carry distance? Like that's about it, really. Like carry and spin.

And then that's kind of all I look at. Trying to be whole high pie out there. Yeah, exactly. All right. We'll get you out of here on this, put you on the spot with this one. But everybody's always got like a good, this is how not glamorous, you know, secondary levels of professional golf. travel story, bad hotel, rental car, bad rate, something.

What is what comes to mind of like a low point in the travels in some way that's not golf related? So I'd say just on the whole, like trying to do laundry at a Fairfield Inn in Omaha, Nebraska at like 8 a.m. on a Monday morning is just the bottom of the barrel as far as travel. travel goes. But then I had a, and I don't remember the, I don't remember the people's names, which is probably a good thing. But I had a host house set up in Omaha, my first year out. And I texted with the people, like, they were like, oh, yeah, like, come in. Your, your, rooms in the basement, whatever. Like, the front door will be unlocked. And I get there. It's one a.m. Like, I had just flown in from Salt Lake or whatever. Get in there. And, there's a like I get in, lay down, and all of a sudden there's a dog pawing on the door from the outside.

And the guy knocks on the door and is like, hey, do you mind if the dog sleeps in your room? This is usually his room. And I'm like, I'm like, what? I was like, no, preferably not tonight. And he's like, oh, okay, just so you know, the dog's probably going to bark then. So then the dog's barking for like two hours straight, just right outside my door. I don't know. I didn't open the door.

I packed my stuff up. I sent him a text the next morning. And I was out of the house at like six. And I was like, hey, I'm not feeling great. I'm going to go stay in a hotel the rest of the week. And I just never saw any of them just left. And so that was the most unique experience traveling. the barking dog outside of my door in a host house.

That's great. Fantastic. All right. We're going to let you out of there out of here on that one. Hopefully some tournament directors are listening to this one, and hopefully we see on the PGA tour some this fall. But best of luck with the Corn Ferry Tour finals. And yeah, we're looking forward to watching you next year out on the PGA tour.

But thanks for your time. Really appreciate it and great get to know you. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. This has been a blast. Cheers. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for

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