No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 829 - Austin Eckroat

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Coming off his first PGA Tour win and first Masters appearance, Austin Eckroat joins the pod to recap his trip to Augusta National, competing against Scottie Scheffler as a pro and during his junior career. We also cover his ascension up the rankings, playing into the Tour's signature events, managing his playing schedule and life on the road, and a ton more. fanduel.com/nlu  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club today. Better than most. Better than most expect anything different ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the no laying up podcast soli here got an interview coming shortly with austin ekroth winner of the cognizant classic this year just played his first masters uh played oklahoma state second year player out on the pga tour uh good to good to chat with him about his progression as a pro golfer getting in the signature events, playing his first Masters, what it's like to play Augusta, all kinds of really fun stuff from this one. Been looking forward to chat

with him for some time. We are of course proud to say season nine of Tora Sauce is presented by our longtime partners at Precision Pro Golf. New episodes premiere every Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern on the NoLayingUp YouTube channel. We traveled to Australia. We will have episode three out this coming week as we make our way back to Melbourne, play St. Andrew's Beach and Lonsdale links. You guys know about the variety of NoLayingUp designs

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greatest Precision Pro has to offer. And code NLU at PrecisionProGolf.com will get you $20 off your NX10 rangefinder. Support the brands that make content like Torasauce possible by going to PrecisionProGolf.com shopping for your next range, and once again, use code NLU to get $20 off. Without any further delay, here's Austin Eckrode. Austin Eckrode All right. I had not seen the little docuseries you've done for the PGA Tour called The Turn. It picks you up. Last fall, you're coming off a miscut at the Shriners, hop on a plane to Japan. You don't play great in Japan. You're not playing great at the time.

Could you have pictured just a few months later around that time that you'd be a PGA Tour winner and you'd be teed up in the Masters? Yeah, it was a wild turn of events for sure. Yeah, seriously, we did in the fall. It was kind of fun. You got used to a camera following you around or where you went.

It wasn't as fun whenever they were following me to the locker room on Friday afternoon after a miscut. But it was just a cool experience and you know, to look back and think that, you know, PJ Tour winner, like you said, competed in the Masters. It's just been a crazy run, you know, happened quick, but couldn't be happier. But it's interesting. A note I took away from that was, you know, we as fans, you know, we don't get to watch every golf shot, right? We, you know, you see the results and you know, you're trying to think who's coming next, what's going on. You look at it, you say, you see miss cut, you think he's playing

bad. He's playing poor. You walked off and you were like, honestly, a positive takeaway, like adjustments I've made in my golf swing are starting to pay off. Right. And then that would, that's kind of like a, I'm just kind of wondering in this learning phase and we, you know, we will zoom back up to when you went to PGA Tour event, but how do you use the PGA Tour starts as a learning phase, of learning this new style of golf, new competitive structure that you're playing in? Yeah, I mean, like you're saying,

like Coach Bratton, my college coach, used to always say, when you're playing well, you're never that far away from struggling a little bit. That means the same thing when you're struggling, you're never that far away. You know, on camera, it'll look pretty much the same, you know, the swing, everything's, everything's there. It's just, it's a, it's a funny game during that time period. The game is close. That's what I kept saying. You know, I'm close, you know, it's not, everybody always says that though. Everybody, you always hear that. Yeah, you do hear it, but it's so true because it's just,

you're, you know, you're on a thin line the whole time of playing good golf and playing poorly. And it's just the difference of feeling comfortable over the ball and stuff. But the swing is never too far away. Obviously, sometimes it is. But in that case, it wasn't. Adjusting from college to PGA Tour, I'm kind of wondering year by year, as you've worked your way up through status,

through the corn fairy tour and all of that, what do you, when you got out there and you had some starts as an amateur in tour events, if I remember right as well, as soon as you see what goes on there, how do you, do you go back to the lab and you say, all right, here's what needs to change, here's what needs to change.

Like, was there a wake up call of any kind, either from the competitive structure and the guys are going up against or golf courses that you're playing that you were like, okay, here's what I need to succeed going forward. Yeah, I mean, luckily, I had, you know, teammates that in college that went out and had immediate success. I kind of knew where my game stacked. At that point, if they would have came out and struggled, you know, when they turned

professional, I've been moved. I got some work to do. But, you know, I felt like I played the US Open in 2019 as a sophomore in college. You know, I played some practice rounds with Dustin Johnson. I played with Rory in a practice round. I had some incredible practice round experiences. And, you know, you don't really think of those two guys as great chippers. And to watch them chip around the green, I mean, they're not considered anywhere near the best chippers and they were incredible around the greens. I think that's something that I've gotten a lot better at. I struggled when I first came out with just the short game.

You don't realize how close those guys hit it from very difficult spots. The way they set up PGA Tour golf courses, you're going to leave yourself awkward chips all the time. And you know, you're watching on TV and they chip it to four feet. You don't think anything of it, but it's a lot harder to do than it looks like. Well, how much of that too is another thing we don't really see that well in stats is like missing in the right place, right? I mean, it seems like that, you know, pins are, pins find the corners on the PGA Tour, right? And has there been a learning curve at all in terms of just understanding your shot dispersion and where to miss? Right. Yeah. I think something that McAddy's done,

I've done a really good job over the last few years. We've kind of came up with a, you know, strategy that works for us where when we're walking a golf course, he comes up with a number, um, you know, so on a short sighted miss on the difficulty of the chip. Basically, what's the difficulty of the up and down from the short sighted miss because sometimes it's not that bad. And you can attack the flag even in a you know, if you're having a longer club man or anything, but you know, he's got a good

strategy to where he, you know, he has a, you know, it's not always right, you know, sometimes it's harder than, than he thought it was, but it's worked for us really well over the last year, it's kind of when we started doing it, you know, it's not always right. You know, sometimes it's harder than he thought it was, but it's worked for us really well over the last year. It's kind of when we started doing it, you know, I think it's kind of limited those, those just unforced errors that happen out there from the short side of misses. You know, I think everybody comes up with their own,

their own little method to that. Obviously improving the chipping helps that for sure. Well, it seems like too, there is something to having seen tour golf courses for a year, right? Coming back and just like, I'm sure there's still times you learn a lesson of like, gosh, I, I, I played a practice round. I wrote it down. I should have known not to be here, but now I'm here and I will never, I'll never make this mistake again.

Exactly. Yeah. And it's just the, also the familiarity of coming back to another place, you know, you know where player registration is when you get on site, you know where player dining is, you know where the locker room is. And it's just, you know, that first year it's kind of stressful. You know, it's just you don't know where you're going. You don't know where the putting green is when you get on property. So it's just the little things like that that you don't really think of when you're thinking

of being a rookie. But obviously you can look back on past experience too. This year, I said we're gonna get into it later, but the cognizant for a good example, I missed the cut last year and I hit it in all the wrong spots. So I knew exactly where not to go going this year. So it was, you know, just simple things like that. Looking back, you know, you try not to think about

all the poor shots you hit, but you know, we're not to go anymore. Well, that's why I found that that that rewatch interesting is it's a lot more weeks on tour like about docuseries you did are like that then people are going to know you a lot more from from watching the back nine of the cognizant. Well, it was a Monday finished. I hope people were still able to watch but I don't think so.

It made it challenging for us that that's working. Yes, they got to work work through the course of the week. But so you show up to cognitive week, you missed the cut the week before. Is it a golf course that, you know, should I, I don't know how analytic you are about stats and course fit and things like that should in your mind, should it fit your game? And, and did you walk off last year saying like, Oh, I should play well in this place and just didn't.

Yeah. I mean, when I think of my golf game, I don't really try to think of courses that suit it. You know, I feel like when you're playing while you're on play well, regardless of where it is, you know, looking at that golf course, it should suit my game pretty well. You have to drive it straight. You have to the irons pretty well. And you know, that's what I did all week. And but yeah, I love that golf course.

I remember I played a junior been out there I played I played a few times before and you know I really knew I liked the golf course I played so terrible the year before but it wasn't the golf course It was where the status of my game was at that point so it's just You know I try not to look into the analytics too much because I don't want to come in with a negative

Mindset going into the week. This course just does not suit my game. That's a good point. That's a really good point. I guess a long week like that, rolling into Monday, you're in contention the whole time, you're in the lead. Is that a good thing, that it's taking this long? Do you wake up Sunday thinking, all right, well,

or do you wake up Monday saying, all right, well, I thought Sunday was going to be the final day. Extra bonus that got some nerves out. I'm just curious if the length of that week is something you think maybe end up helping you. Yeah, I think I mean, obviously, it was difficult on everybody that was trying to win. So I think I handled it well. So that kind of, I guess could have been a benefit to me. It was it was tough, though. I mean, to sleep on a lead technically for two nights

in a row and I really felt it Monday evening whenever we finished up. I was beat. It's funny. Both times I've been in contention on tour, De'Vyra Nelson and the Cognizant. There was rain delays and I was dealing with all that stuff. Both times on the corn fair tour I was in contention, there was a rain delay in the final round. So it's like every time I've been in that situation I've had you know that experience to draw off I guess was you know having having rain having weather issues so it was a really cool experience and I'll take a Monday finish every time they go out you know that way

but so it sounds like you like soft golf courses right? All of your contention is is on in rain delays. Yeah, no joke. Well, there is something to as well, like so much of pro golf is like, dude, you got you got to pick up your clubs, you got to travel, you got to like do what's right in front of you. The golf course might not be a perfect fit for you. The weather might not be what you want.

The wind might not be what you want. The grass might not be what you want. You might not be on the right sleep schedule. You might not have the proper rest. But like, that's the part that the longer I cover this watching you guys go from spot to spot week to week, again, watching you go Shriners to Japan, land on Tuesday, jet lag. No, you got to tee it up Thursday, man. Like it's time. Everybody's doing

it. But like, it's time. You got to go do it. Me, if one little thing is wrong, if you know, if it's 58 degrees instead of 65, I'm in trouble. Like you guys just pick it up and you just go. That's what's been kind of fun. I think that was a hard part transitioning from college. You know, you just you know, an amateur golf and junior golf, college golf, you don't play that many consecutive weeks in a row versus whenever you're out here you play, you know, you'll get on a run of playing six,

seven tournaments in a row, especially as a rookie, you get kind of used to it. But it's not it's definitely not easy. I remember I was playing, you know, that rookie category, you're the last three times, two times out of your wave, I started to play well and you get you can move out of that, you know, category. And it was the week after the US Open, and we were flying all the way to Connecticut. So we travel in East. And I had the first tee time at 610. So it

felt like I teed off at like three 10 in the morning. You know, it was just like, I flew in Sunday night or I think Monday actually and had Tuesday, Wednesday prep. And then it felt like I had a three 10 tee time on, on Monday or on Thursday morning. So it's just, it's kind of funny how that stuff works out. But you know, you get used to it and obviously it's just part of the job.

How do you, you talked about learning some things about chipping. What did you, did you go change anything after that? Do you work with anyone in particular? Or like kind of what, how do you improve, you know, in your short game and do you feel like you've made strides in your short game? For sure.

And I think statistically it says I have, you know, I think I was that first year when I was playing on sponsor exemptions, if you look at the equivalent statistics, I was pretty far back there. It was never a strike issue. It wasn't an inconsistency with strikes or, I come solid. I just wouldn't hit them close. And I think it was just honestly putting in time.

There's not been a whole lot of fundamental changes I've made. A couple, but nothing dramatic and you wouldn't even, you couldn't tell the difference between 2020 and 2024 now on camera, but just the, I'm putting in time and learning the proper shots and controlling my spin better. Just the simple things that are what make all the difference when it comes to hitting it to four feet

rather than two feet. Let's see, hitting it two feet closer, you're making 99% of your plus versus 90. It's just, it's a huge difference. That was one of the biggest takeaways I had from reading Mark Brody's book was like, chip it close or it doesn't matter. It may sound obvious, but there's almost no point

in chipping it to 10 feet of something. Like, might as well chip to 25. Right? Like, yeah, over the course of time, you're not going to make very much that many more putts from 10 feet, compared to if you're chipping in inside five feet, like with the difference I can make. Yeah. Which again, come back to where you're missing too, because sometimes 10 feet is a great shot from around the green. Whereas chipping straight up the

hill, the year is going to be able to leave it in easier spots. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's just I mean, that comes down to core strategy, getting the proper prep in. You know, that's the hard part. You don't want to overdo the prep, you know, and then be worn out on Thursday. It's just, you got to find a good balance. And that's something that you know, I think year two, on the PGA Tour, you start to figure it out. And

I think that's why, you know, this season's just going a lot better than it was last season. Just, you know, the golf game's not much different. It's just understanding how to play on the PGA Tour. The most maddening thing too about it is the good golf comes from like really boring golf and like really safe shots into greens and not, it's so frustrating. It's not the way anybody wants to play it, but it's so true. It really is.

It is. I mean, you look at the way Scottie Shuffard plays golf, it's very, very simple, very, you know, he just hits the fairway, hits the green, makes a putt every once in a while and wins the tournament by five strokes. What's it like to compete against that guy? I've played against him for a long time. My freshman year of high school, or every year of high school, but my freshman year, we would go down to Dallas for our first two events.

So he was a senior my freshman year, and I finished second to him twice in a row, and those two events, and then play together for a year in college. Probably similar success. He's beaten me by a couple strokes, and I had Matt and Victor on my team, so I was probably finishing fourth at best. You know, he's always been fantastic. And then, I mean, he's hit a different stride over the last, you know, 12, 18 months. So that's what we've joked. Like we need to come up with like more creative ways to just

describe how good he is. And I'm struggling with it, but it's like, you just, you know, you ask any, any pro like yourself about it too. It's just kind of like, yeah, man, it's really hard to describe. It's really this next level though. I mean, he's gotten that appreciate almost. No people don't, people at your level almost don't want to admit it. I'm like, yeah, I don't know how we're going to beat that guy. Well, it's just crazy. I mean, I didn't think he was playing RBC just cause I'd seen the coverage and you know, Meredith was close to having a baby. And then I see Ted Scott on nine fairway. I'm playing my practice round.

He was just walking the golf course. I'm like, what the hell is he doing out here? I know. Yeah, no. And now we're playing for second sick. course. I'm like, what the hell is he doing out here? No! Yeah, no. Now we're playing for second. Sick. No, I'm just kidding. But he, it was funny that week too, because he got off to a slow start. I think he shot, you know, around par the first round and nowhere in the lead. And then next thing you know, four rounds later, he was just, you know, holding up another trophy.

But like we were talking about, he's doing it in a simple way. It's not like he's doing anything outrageous. He's not hitting it to a foot on every hole. He's just hitting the fairway, hitting the green, and making a putt every once in a while. That's how you play good golf. I say, can you glean anything from that? I mean, because he doesn't possess overly physical.

The way Tiger did it was just a way of like, dude, no, no one else has that. Right. The way Scottie, I don't get that impression that people feel that way about Sky. Can you glean anything even at your level from, from somebody that's outperforming everybody right now at a totally different pace? I kind of think that's what's so impressive. It's not like he's doing something that much better than everybody else. You know, he's not hitting it way longer than everybody. He's not, he's not hitting it way longer than everybody. He's not dominant in any one category. He's just very good at everything. He's just, he does everything right.

He doesn't make the mistakes that other guys are making. I mean, you're playing four rounds in a row. You're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna hit it in four spots and he's just not doing it. And it's just, it's so incredible. I mean, it's, you know, you look back on the week and it's just,

he's at 2,200, and the rest of the golf course was playing to 1,700. It's incredible. The one that blew my mind was over the past three, six, and 12 months, he is first in strokes gained off the tee, approach, and around the green. Over any period of time, in all three things that aren't putting, he's number one over any stretch of time. And now just. And now it's starting to putt good too.

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gamble or visit rg-help.com first online real money wager only $10 first first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days after receipt. Restriction supply, see terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Back to Austin Necro. I've heard guys say things like they're more nervous on a Friday near the cut line

than they are on the back nine when they're in contention. Now that you were in contention, you finished second at the Byron Nelson in 2023. You obviously won the Cognizant this year. Can you add any perspective into that? Because the color I hear is like yeah you're playing well obviously when you're in contention you don't get as nervous but kind of compare the nerves of what that's like because on tv sometimes it doesn't look like you guys are nervous. Yeah I've always thought Fridays afternoons are the most stressful day you know on professional golf. Saturday morning you wake up and it's like you know you get a nice relaxing round you know you can just go play golf especially that rookie year I'd say you know more so for me this year I've been a little bit more

relaxed on those Fridays just because you know how important those points are. You need to make that cut your first year. You need to, you know, when I've got a win under my belt, I think, you know, I'm able to take on more risk on Thursday, Friday. I can just try to go win golf tournaments now because I have, you know, status locked up. It's a lot easier to birdie your last hole to win a golf tournament, I think, than it is to birdie your last hole to make a cut because one, you're playing great if you're leading a golf tournament and your game's in a good spot versus where you know when you're fighting on that cut line something's off you know it's not the game's not perfect that week you know but it doesn't mean you can't have a good week but something doesn't feel great so it's I mean making a birdie in the

last hole cut is always always so difficult and it's just a you know it's just a stressful position to be in you know battling the cut line. I think a good example is last week, Chris Goddard and I played dessert classic together, made the cut on the number. I missed a little dinker on the ninth hole for us to fall to eight under. And then we ended up having a good weekend and finished 11th place. If you make the cut, you have a chance to have a good week. And it's just a Friday's are just stressful. I'll say, I see is there anything to remember Brooks having a quote way back in the day of like when I was like

Trying to make cuts. I was right around the cut line when I was trying to top 25 I was right around top 25 when I was trying to top 10 I was right around top 10 like is there an evolution at all for you of like I just heard you say like Fridays are the most stressful like Like to me, that sounds like Oh, gosh, I am thinking about the cut when I tee it up. Yeah, exactly. I mean, when you know your games in a good spot, you're going to the week trying to win, you know, and then but what's funny about professional golf too, it's I remember playing a I could

play the my cova the worldwide technologies event as a senior in high school, or senior in college, sorry, not high school. I was in like, 10th place on Thursday, but I was only two shots out of the cut line. It was like that golf course is super narrow. This was like one of my first experiences playing professional golf and that golf course is super narrow with if you miss it offline, it's lost ball, it's gone forever. It's like, man, I'm one bad swing away from not playing on Saturday. It's you know, but you got to figure out a way to not think about that stuff.

And like I said, I think this season having the win under my belt now, it's just I'm not as stressed out on Friday afternoons just because I'm gonna be okay if I miss the cut. It's just a different mindset, I think. How long, at what point are you thinking about all that comes with a PGA Tour win? And what is the number one thing? What's the, you go sign that car,

when you make the final putt, are you like, oh, I'm in the Masters, oh, two year exemption, oh, I'm in signature event. Like what is the thing that you're like, holy crap, this comes with a win, now let's go? I think the biggest thing is the job security. I have the rest of the season, two years after that, that was kind of the biggest thing,

especially just being young on the PGA Tour, it's just, there's no guarantees in this amount of work. And everybody says this, like you truly, people don't have the appreciation for a heart is just to keep your card every year. Like you're an injury away from all of a sudden being on medical, a couple months of bad swinging away from like wondering if you're an injury away from all of a sudden being on medical, a couple of months of bad swinging away from like wondering if you're going to

stay exempt. Like it's so freaking competitive for those spots. Yeah. So I was, I played golf with some of the veterans out here. I played with Lucas Glover and Stuart Sink and, and, uh, San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and Lucas Glover has played like, he's made like over 500 cuts on the PJ tour. It's like, he's been on tour for over 20 years. When I think of stuff like that, that's so impressive, you know, to have a career that's that long. Obviously he's won a few times and you know,

that's given him status, you know, guaranteed, but to maintain status for 20 years and competitive for that long, I mean, it's so, that's, you know, just as impressive as a lot of other things, I think that, you know, but it doesn't get a whole lot of recognition for sure. Last thing before we get to the Masters is, you mentioned some adjustments you made to your golf swing

like from, the numbers show out in terms of off the tee, you've gained, approach game, you've gained. What are the specific adjustments and kind of what's the process like of, I've got status yet at the same time, I wanna make some changes to my golf swing and try to compete better. How do you go about that?

Cause I'm fascinated with the tug and the, the pull of those relationships. Yeah. Um, when I first can't go on, you know, turning professional, you know, I was kind of a higher swing speed guy than I am now. I was probably at 119 club speed, you know, 178 ball speed in that range. If I pushed, could get 121.80 and then I just played so much I wasn't focusing a whole lot of my body. You know, I was just, you know, mainly focusing on golf And I just kept getting slower and slower and slower You know, I got to a point last season where you know I was swinging at 112 miles an hour with my driver and pushing barely 170 ball speed every once in a while

And that just makes the game so much harder You know, there was some errors in my swing, the body wasn't feeling great. And I think this season, you know, starting back to, you know, the end of last season, I really started putting a focus on my body and the speeds have been jumping back up slowly. I'm getting closer to where I was.

Obviously there's been some fundamental changes I've made, but nothing, nothing really that serious. It's just, you know, with my body feeling better, I'm able to, you know, get in the positions that I, you know, are able to create some power from. The driving stats have gone up. I think even last season with hitting slower swing speeds, I've always been a straight driver of the ball

and I was still a pretty good driver on tour. Struggled with the Irons a lot last season. To see that stat kind of coming back, that's always been my strongest point of my game. It's been, you know, ball striking and, you know, I think with that coming back, it's been a huge benefit to my game for sure. When you say take better care of your body, what's kind of the split there between, say, flexibility and strength, right? It's, I'm guessing it's not just doing curls in the gym. What's the relationship with how you've taken better care of your body, like translating to

swing speed? Yeah, I mean, one, I got back into the gym. So some more curls were being done. But not. That's not the main focus. Yeah, I think that's something that was great about college is we had such a structured program, you know, we had when we were on at home, we had you but you have to go there's no you know, we're required to go. And you turn professional and so it's all on your own, you know, and it's easy to start getting a little lazy when it comes to that stuff.

But yeah, a lot of flexibility work, a lot of strengthening with mobility, but then also just a lot of just your traditional lifting coming back, something I always did. And I think that, you know, the strength itself is a huge improvement for speed. And then also just the flexibility, I went and worked with Greg Rose at the TPI facility, and we did some evaluations, and just to see where my body had started to get really tight, I had no mobility in my thoracic spine, no mobility in my right ankle,

no mobility in my right hip, no mobility in my right shoulder. I had no mobility last season in the right side of my body, and we were able to kind of diagnose that and come up with a program to improve that and a month later I wanted the cognizant after seeing him. So it was pretty cool. I've got a team around me now and we've got a good program and it's funny.

So the recovery trailers and the workout trailers that on tour that we have and we have access to them and they're fantastic. The first time I ever used them was at the Byron Nelson last year and that was when I finished second. So I've been taking advantage of all the stuff we have now but when I first got out there I was not. I was just you know trying to figure out how to hit the golf ball further without doing anything about it. Well a few of our guys just did the TPI thing like a couple weeks ago and came back just raving about it. Four days later they of our guys just did the TPI thing like a couple weeks ago and came back waving about it four days later. Like my glutes are still sore and learned about all my

deficient everything you just described that laugh because it's like, Oh, yeah, wait till you get to your 37 man. There's a lot less hip mobility going on the side of the microphone. So I can relate to that at least a little bit. But gosh, that's that's incredible that the payoffs were that quick. And it's got to be good for endurance too. I mean, in terms of like just weariness from the road and energy to last all these weeks long.

Like, dude, I come home from covering one of your guys' events and I'm like a ghost the next week. I'm so exhausted. Like how you guys pick up and go and compete again the next week and then the next week is what remains. Have you learned much about that in terms of, all right, if I'm playing this many consecutive, I'm taking this day off, even if I'm in town for this event, I'm not going to do anything. Have you learned anything about that?

Yeah, mostly. Most of the time I take Monday off. You know, I get to an event unless I feel like I need to work on something. Maybe I'll go out and hit some putts. But, you know, for the most part, I take Monday off. It's you play, I just got off a run of four in a row and I mean, it beats you down. I think there was a stretch last season where I maybe did 10 in a row. And it's just, it's a, it's a beat down if you play that much golf. You know, you don't think golf is that much of a strenuous sport, but just the travel and the wake up time is something that I think is kind of not spoke about is, you know, one day routine off at one o'clock the next day, T off at 715.

And you know, you got that four o'clock wake up call and the day before you could sleep until 930 if you wanted to. And it's just the I think just the inconsistency and your sleep schedule and all that stuff. It just it wears you down a little bit. So I think like this week I'm taking off. It's just every now and then you got to, you got to take one off and it's, it's like, you're last year. Yeah, I know. I was talking to Lee Hodges about that. We were playing

together, forget where we were at, but he said, I was like, we were talking about the schedule. If I played this week, it'd been nine in a row. I'm splitting up a two, four week run right now. I was like, man, I really want to play Byron Nelson because I finished second there last year. He's like, let me give you some advice. Just because you played all there in the past does not mean you're going to play well there again. And I was like, no, what?

It's a good point. So he said, I've done that before. And when I'm three shots outside of the cut line on Friday afternoon, I was like, why the hell am I playing this week? That's the worst place you can be is kind of half in half out of and then playing out of like, oh man, I just wasted so much energy with this. But yeah, what, uh, so tell me about your first masters. You, you, uh, you know, again, you win in February, you make an, do you make an advanced

trip there? Had you been to Augusta and played it before? Like kind of kind of talking about your preparation process. And, uh, and I'm curious if you fell in the trap of playing too many practice rounds at your first masters, like a lot of people do. Yeah. So I, after I won, I think I had, I took off Houston and I went into Augusta national and played two practice rounds. That was my first time on property was that time. And, um, you know, it's an incredible place. It's, it truly is, you know, one of the most surreal feelings

when you walk on property. So when I got to the week of the Masters, I at least had the familiarity of being to a place I'd been to, kind of like, you know, the comfort level of, like I was talking about on year two on the PJ tour. I didn't wear myself out. I played nine, nine, and nine. I did good of going nine, nine, and nine,

because I had heard of guys, you know, a lot of people told me me don't overdo it. The energy is so high. Like there's so many fans out there and like you just, it looks like the most fun thing ever. You just want to play 36 if you could. It's interesting on like Monday you're there, they sell the same amount of tickets every day.

You know, it's just, it's like a tournament. And what's, I mean, on Monday, I'm used to, you know, if I had a terrible shot, you know, if I want to try out a new swing key for the week on the golf course, I feel comfortable doing it. If I hit the tree a hundred yards off the tee, that's all right. But there it feels like you got to hit good shots all week because there's people there watching and you know, it's just a different, it's so cool though. And I'm really, I mean, I played so bad just the whole week.

It wasn't like it was the golf course was too difficult for me. I just played terrible. And it was just a kind of psyched because it was such a cool experience. And I wanted to play well so bad. But I think that was part of the, there was a fundamental issue going into that week.

I was able to manage it in the lower stress moments, the anxiety of playing the Masters and I think just exposed that flaw that I had. And I was able to get some work done on Sunday when I left and I ended up playing really well at Hilton. Had the next week. It's a funny game and I feel like the whole week. Hilton had the next week. It's just, it's a funny game and you know, it's kind of, I feel like the whole week of the Masters kind of feels like you're playing the final round in the lead. You know, driving to the golf course,

I had that, you know, kind of not pit in my stomach, but you know, that little anxiety driving the golf course just because, you know, I'm playing the first round of Masters. I'm playing the, on Saturday at the Masters. It's just the, or not Saturday, I think it's play, but Friday at the Masters. It's just the, or not Saturday, I didn't get to play, but Friday at the Masters. You missed by one, you didn't play that bad. It felt like I missed by a hundred. I chipped it so good. I hit it terrible and putted it terrible,

but the chipping kind of gave me a chance. It looks like so much fun to play. I know you didn't play well, but it honestly looks like peak fun you could have in competitive golf it even not playing your best. Did you would you classify it as fun? Oh, yeah I had a great time and It's so interesting how you can it's unlike anything we play like you can Get yourself out of position, but then there's this mound over here somewhere way far away that you can kind of

Bring it in there and give yourself a chance. I mean, it's just, it's so different than our typical golf that we play. I'd heard about how much slope there is out there and how TV doesn't do that justice. So I came in with the mindset of that. So I wasn't so much surprised by that, but I was shocked when I got on the greens. I mean, they are, I've never seen that much slope on a green in my entire life and that's every hole. And then you get to hole 12 and it's dead flat. It's interesting how it's just, you know, you get on hole one, it's like, man, if I hit this beyond the hole

by 20 feet long right to the front left pin, that looks like it's right where you want to hit it. But now I've got a putt that I'm playing 12 feet outside right, break and straight downhill once it breaks. I mean, I think that's the most difficult part about that golf course is the, obviously people talk about how small the landing zones are because if you miss the landing zone and you're still on the green one,

you're still out of position. It's so cool. That's what, I, I've, you know, obviously watched a ton of Masters and I was fortunate this year. I won the lottery to get to play the course on the Monday afterward. And it was so like, I got to the Sunday pin was like the left side on the third green and I was way out of position off the tee, but like barely get one on onto the right side of the green. And I had this putt that I was like, I've never seen this before anywhere. Like, you know, like you've played greens that tilt from back to front.

You don't, I've never played one that tilted from right to left that hard and just had these elements of, you know, I don't know how to describe it other than like every hole you finished, you're almost like, ah, I want to do it again because I would know if I was 10 yards further left in this spot, I could hit it here and now I'm hitting back up the slope

and all of this. And it was like, even only playing it once was like, holy crap, this is what everyone talks about with like learning this golf course and seeing it in competition and like why the first timers don't win. Like all of it like came to fruition in just one round. This is exactly why.

And it felt fun too. It's like the best way of getting your ass kicked. Yeah, like I think Three Greens, so cool how that front left section, it's so hard right to left. You know, if you're right at the pen it's straight downhill. But then also that's a little turtle shell right there too. Like if you get it too far right, then it starts breaking away. I think you can, I think so crazy about that place and so cool is you can hit a putt that is three inches from being a tap in and you can just completely embarrass yourself if it goes on the other three on the other side because it'll start breaking the other way.

It's what I think is awesome too is like on a par fives, if you're out of position, you have to lay up like how the fairways are huge on the layup options, like 13 and 15, you've got a hundred yards, but you have to hit it into the small sliver to have a chance to go to the pin. You know, like on 15 to that, that, you know, that center pin, you try to lay it up as far left as you can get it as close to those grandstands on the left side. But the other time you're aiming 100 yards right at that to the right side of the fairway to get the angle into the left pins. It's such a cool place because it's kind of wide but it plays

so small. People go I already did a two hour podcast talking about my whole round but it was like the shot I spent the most time on was I was in the left trees on 15 and figuring out where to lay it up and I ended up playing I had that Sunday pin I played it down the left and left in this awesome spot I'm looking right up up it but then it was like all right if I overspin this it's coming back in the water and if I don't

get the spin I'm expecting it might go long onto that back for engine it's not coming back and that's death and it's just and then you're chipping it in the water exactly it's just like holy crap the layers upon layers of that place it uh but you can also see like guys like Tiger that have learned their way around it and know how to play the slopes and know like the back of their hand and know all four pin positions and know where to miss all four. You know, with just this, it's actually in your memory, you can totally see how you can just gain, you can be a horse for course for that place. For sure. Yeah, that's interesting. Like, we have the

same exact yardage book, the same guy makes our yards book every week, you know, so we get really comfortable with how our yards book layout is, you know, we got, takes me two seconds to get the number of the front of the grain into the hole and where the slope is, you know, every week on tour. And you get there and the Yard's Book is very minimal. There's not a whole lot of information on it. There's no slope, you know, there's no adjustment for anything. And, you know, you don't get lines off the tee, there's no run out lines.

It's just, you get this book with not much information. It's kind of your job to kind of, I think, keep the same book over the years and just make sure you have all the same information and get your run out lines and get past experience on that book because that book just doesn't have much. Well, and then it's also another layer of, you tell me, do you guys practice this stuff

or do you have this information? I'm like, all right, the shot into nine, off the down slope, it's also another layer of you tell me do you guys practice this stuff for do you have this information like all right the shot into nine off the downslope it's coming out of a different window is it going farther because it's going also going up they'll shot into two if it's launching lower is it going to carry farther is that gonna write all of this and hey if you're wrong by just a couple yards you're on the wrong tier of the green and toast like that's such an exact science. Someone asked me about, you know, when I went and played those two rounds before during the week at Houston was what was my like take on the golf course. And I thought there was probably four or five holes that were exactly what I thought they were. And then the rest of them were completely different than I thought. And hole nine was definitely one of them. It's shocking how much that green sits at like, you know,

this angle. It's not, it kind of just looks like you're hitting up, up this hill on TV, you know, that those bunkers are kind of left. No, you're, you're taking it over those bunkers off a cut downhill lie. The green that wants to take a draw, you know, it's just, it's, it's the perfect design. It's incredible. You guys were playing 40 mile an hour wins in it too. Yeah. It was just, yeah, I had a constant sandstorm on 18 and I was putting out, it was just blowing straight in my face. Everything up at that top spot, nine and 18

and then 10 and one tees was just like, holy crap. I know they did a great job on TV, like illustrating how much the wind was blowing, but even then people's hats were flying off. I mean, it was, I've never, Oh, I've never seen anything at a golf tournament. I've attended in person. I've never seen wind like that. It was insane. Yeah. We were talking about, I live in Oklahoma. We get wind. And I was telling Stone whenever we were playing the on Friday, I was like, I think if I was at home, I probably would have taken today off.

Like I think this is, this is borderline too much winds to where I wouldn't have, I've gotten gotten even play. So is it you know, with the win now you've played in a Masters I'm wondering what your do your goals change like for the rest of the year? Like do you have is there anything that's dangling that you're like, all right, if I get this, the rest of this year is going to be pretty good. I might have a guess as to what that might be. But what would that be?

I kind of got two things that I really, really want to do. I want to make Eastlake you know that's kind of and then. Which you're 30th right now for the listeners. Yeah I'm on the number. I'm the bubble guy right now. I think it'd be really cool to play with the residence cup obviously. I think that's I think and I think last Ryder Cup kind of maybe helped that case somehow you know taking a young guy that doesn't have a whole lot of experience you know the European team did that and they had a lot of success and I hope you Cup kind of maybe helped that case somehow, taking a young guy that doesn't have a whole lot of experience. The European team did that and they had a lot of success. And I hope, for my sake, I hope they kind of have the same mindset this season. And getting involved in those team events seems so fun.

What were your opinions on the signature events both before you were in them and now that you're in them, what's your opinion on them? Yeah, it's changed. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. I mean, I was kind of against them whenever I was on the outside, just because it seemed like if you were in them, how can you lose your card? How can you do any?

There's more points. There's more, you know, all that stuff. And now, obviously, when I'm in them, hey, I love them. They're great. But I was kind of always where I obviously points is more, you know, that stuff. And now obviously when I'm in them, Hey, Hey, I love them. They're great. But, you know, I was kind of always where, you know, I think obviously play for more money, that's fine. A big deal.

I was, I was just upset with how much, how many more points they got, you know, just for those events. But now that I've played in a couple, I mean, they're so competitive. There's, you know, it is the top 70 players in the world. I mean, they're like, I played pretty well. We were talking about it in Hilton head and I finished 17th, I think. I was like, man, I felt like I played kind of like I would have finished 17th in a full field event

with a full 156 person field. I still felt like that's kind of what I would have finished. You know, you're just playing against the best players in the world and it's, it's hard. Obviously not too hard for Scotty, but the hard. I was gonna say your case though, almost, it makes kind of my position on it feel a little stronger and they're like, hey, play good golf,

you can get in them, right? I mean, like it's almost every, the part that makes it hard is their sponsors exemptions, a few sponsors exemptions. Other than that, you'd say like, it's not a PIP, it's not a popularity contest. If you played great last year and you were in the top 50, you get all these events the next year. And you know, they've modeled it out. We'll see what played great last year, and you're in the top 50, you get you get all

these events the next year. And you know, they've modeled it out. We'll see what it ends up shaking out at is how many people fall out, how many get in, but it would be a problem if you guys like you that were had, you know, didn't have great weeks and play their way into them, we're not able to get up into them and compete in them. And if it was given out, what is it 15 spots every event for the guys who were playing well that season. That's a lot of spots.

Yeah. You know, you got the, is it the next 10 and then the swing five? Is that, I think that's how they, they phrased it. And you tell me, I'm confused on it all. That sounds right. I think that's how it is. I think there's, you know, there's 10 spots for the, you know, the next 10 guys on the FedEx Cup.

And then there's five guys from the most recent events, you know, so, you know, there's still a way into them and if you're playing well, you're going to get into them and it's a, but they're really fun and the events really, really are taking good care of the players. And I mean, it is the best players in the world. Again, this is all this stuff is new to you and you're kind of entering a very, a changing landscape here, but the equity that was just sold out to, to PGA tour players and kind of this dangle that's out there now to say like $100 million is going to go out annually to 20 guys

and, and the, the opportunities for future ownership of PGA tour enterprises. You're young. So if that stuff is, is, you know, maybe not, I don't want to say over your head, but not on your radar. Okay. I was gonna say, is it on your radar at all? Or you just like, dude, let me just play golf. We'll figure it out. I've been that way this whole time period really, just, you know, just play golf. It's over my head. I can understand it, but, you know, I just, I don't think it's, you know,

I don't want it to be my main focus, you know, going out there. I just, when I get to play, play well, that's kind of what we said whenever I had conditional status on the corn fair tour two seasons ago was, you know, if I get an opportunity to go play well and it's kind of always what we said whenever I had conditional status on the corn fair tour two seasons ago was you know if I get an opportunity to go play well and it's I've just kind of kept that same mindset. Obviously there's a lot of great things going on you know more money being being involved in the game and you know luckily I'm in the time where I'm gonna benefit that and the better I play the more whatever you know I'll gain more gain more. And that's, you know, just kind of keeping that same mindset though, you know, put my head down and play while it'll work out. Okay.

I always wondered this like of how old are you? 25? You're 25. 25. Yeah. Like if I'd have had a million bucks, million plus bucks hit my bank account at age 25, I'd have done some dumb stuff. I just, I just, I just would have what, what is it like to have, you know, so early on in your career, just like have financial success? Is it to change anything about your lifestyle? Have you, have you just, I'm just always curious how that works for young guys. Not really. I mean, that's probably a benefit that I was playing the next week. And the next week after that, it's where

I didn't, you know, as soon as I finished and when I won, I went straight to, I drove Monday evening to honor Palmer. And then, you know, I wasn't in the Wednesday pro-amp, so I had to play 18 holes on Tuesday to see the golf course. So it was, and it was just a beat down that week, that golf course is so hard. And then I went to the players' championship.

So it was like, never really had a moment for it to sink in. When I got home, we had the golf club I play at Oak Tree National had a party for me and it was like, it almost felt a little too late, you know, at that point, but it was still fun. But, you know, I just, I think the, you know, obviously it's great to play a sport and to have it be, you know, my income and be the way that, you know, support my family and stuff. It's cool and all, but I try not to focus on that aspect too much.

Yeah. No, that's probably the most certainly the right mindset. But what's something that surprised you about tour life? I want you to give me one on-course thing, one off-course thing of something that maybe you just didn't know about tour life. I'm kind of putting you on the spot with this, but I'm sure you can come up with something. On the golf course, I'd probably say, man, I have no idea, man. On the golf course, you kind of answered it earlier with the chipping, like some of the chipping stuff. Yeah. Yeah. If I was talking about just like the skill level of the guys and I'd say main thing is, you know,

how many different games are, you know, and a lot of guys, like, you know, when you're playing college golf, you think how many different games are yeah, you know, and a lot of guys like You know when you're playing college golf you think everybody on PJ tour just stripes You know absolute shit out of it and they just you know, a lot of guys don't and they're just good they just manage their way around the golf course and you know, they hit it good enough and they they chip it good enough and put it good enough and it's I'd say that's what I was more surprised about is just how many different levels of the game of golf there are and that we all shoot the same scores. Someone excels in this, someone excels in something else, and you know there's just so many different ways to do it. And then especially with distance too, there's guys hitting it so far and then there's guys that just aren't very long but they're really good with their long irons and they, it's just a, there's so many ways to play this game. Do you ever get tempted by other people's styles of like, gosh, I'm making this, he makes, he does this way more simple.

You know, I'm trying to flush everything here, but he's kind of slapping it around. Should I, I, I've heard of guys going through that in early years too, of like just almost imposter syndrome of others, other playing styles. Yeah, I was doing a Hilton head. I was hanging out with Lucas Glover and he said, we're all, we're all just a bunch of coffee cats. And it's so true. And I kind of showed with that last season where I kind of like to work the ball both

ways and hit it, you know, hit up, bring the flight up, bring the flight down, try to hit a shot every time. And then you'll see you'll play with a guy that just cuts it every single time, you know, only hits cuts. And I'm like, then I started thinking, man, am I going to be more consistent if I just start hitting one ball flight and then, you know, then I'll try it out and, you know, play well or play terrible. But then, you know, kind of go back to the idea that we all do it our own way. But I think Lucas Glover is exactly right. You know, we're all, we're all a bunch of copycats.

You know, you'll see some guy doing some drill on the putting green and next thing, you know, you'll see three guys doing it the next week because that guy played well. It's pretty funny. Trying to think of my off the golf course. Off the golf course thing that surprised me. I mean obviously the travel. I just have to go you know growing up you college golf you played every once in a while and like I was saying earlier amateur golf you play every once in a while and then you

play four weeks in a row and your job starts Monday. It's not like we start on Thursday when the golf course, when the tournament starts. So it's a full week event. Does your wife travel with you too? She goes to probably nine out of 10 or I mean she's there pretty much every week and she's on the tour wives board now. She's full in now. That's another just element too of just arranging travel for two people when you got to change a flight two people and go to a Monday finish everything like it is I know they got

people that'll help with those kind of things but that's the stuff that you know people don't don't really think about that often. Right. What kind of working backwards here we didn't really start with background we had so much recent stuff for you to cover but kind of give backwards here. We didn't really start with background. We had so much recent stuff for you to cover, but kind of give you give you an idea of how you end up Oklahoma State and kind of what your your junior career was like. And I know a lot of people, you know, know you from those famous Oklahoma State teams and who you played with on those teams, but kind of the path to getting there. And I'm curious kind of what that team environment was like to and contributed towards

your pro success. Right? Yeah, I mean, I grew up an Oklahoma State fan. Me and my dad used to go to pretty much every football game growing up and would go to the, you know, every time Oklahoma State hosted a regional or something like that, we'd go to the event. You know, I always wanted to play there. And, you know, I was fortunate enough

to be good enough to go and play. And then also to have great teams when I was there was just awesome. We had a really, really close team. Matt Wolf and I were best friends and still are now. And, uh, you know, Victor and I are really close. Zach Boescher and I play golf together pretty much every day on my own. Chris and sure I haven't stayed as much in touch with as I'd like, but he's in

Florida and I'm in Oklahoma. So Sam Stevens is now on the PJ tour. And, you know, we've got several guys on the corn trade tour right now trying to battle it out. And one of my teammates is now the assistant coach at Oklahoma State, we've just I've got him all over the place. And luckily, I've stayed in touch with most of them. But we're all trying to do our own thing. We're playing all across the world right now. And, you know, I've got guys on

the challenge tour, deeper world tour, you know, live golf, PGA tour. It's just a, that team was incredible and it was just such a fun experience to be around. I had two great golf coaches and for us to win the national championship in 2018 at home was one of the, you know, still probably the highlight of my golf career so far was just because it's such a cool environment when in, when with your boys and you know, just and at home with everybody watching it was so cool. Well, yeah, it's it's it's wild to just thinking, yeah, I was I'm curious. I was curious to ask, like, if you you're playing

with Matt and Victor in college, obviously, and seeing them like, are you know, you you beat them plenty of times and, but if you end up as the number, you know, kind of number three guy, I guess, behind those two, there's there's an element of them raising your level of playing competitive. You see this day in and day out, or at the same time, like, is it discouraging at all to see these freak talents right directly next to you the whole time? I'm wondering what that kind of relationship was

like. I think for me, I've always felt like I was just one step behind. Like I wasn't far, I was just one step behind. And I knew that once I made that jump, I could, you know, be doing what they're doing. And I think a big comfort to me too after my sophomore year when they both turned professional was their immediate success. If they would have gone out and struggled and they were clearly better than I was in college, I would have been, you know, I would have, like I think I mentioned it earlier,

but I would have been like, man, I got some serious work to do. But to see them go and have immediate success, and I knew my game was close to theirs, and I just needed to make a couple small steps, and I would have been there. And that was a huge comfort level for me, because I knew I could do what they were doing. But to see them have success was the comfort level, for sure. But as you were asking, the beat down

was getting annoying, for sure. I think my sophomore season, I think Victor won four times, Matt won six times, and I won once. And I won once and Victor wasn't playing that week. So, Matt finished second, so I did beat Matt. At that age, like that phase of golf development, are you learning things specifically from them? I know it's the PG Tours copycats. Like, I'm just kind of curious as to what, for me personally, like playing with good players is just totally transformed my game

over the course of like a two year period. I'm just like, when you watch three dudes just hit these stripes, you do, your instinct is just like, okay, I'm gonna go do that. Versus there is something to golf of playing down to your competition. And I'm just, I'm curious kind of what those, what some of those things you would have either learned or gleaned from them in those times.

Yeah. Hey, it was fun too, because I did it a different way. You know, two very unique golf swings. One, you know, they, they had, you know, Matt's big loop and hits it a mile. And then you got Victor, who was just, you know, very consistent and hit it. He hits it further now than he did then you know he's continued getting longer and longer. It's cool to see like what I was talking about earlier on the PJ Tour is you know there's two they had two completely different ways of doing it and we're doing it really well and then you know I did it a different way from them as well and you know but you learn a lot from playing with them

just yeah like you said you play up to your competition and you play down to that your competition it seems like you said, you play up to your competition and you play down to your competition. It seems like, you know, I've gotten in several match play scenarios where it turns into a pillow fight pretty quickly because we're both playing poorly. But you know, if you get in a match play situation, both guys are 600, you're just going crazy and winning

and making birdies. But I think every day going out, we play little matches. And you know, that was such a big benefit for me for sure. I've heard you be described as a very confident person but has no ego. I'm wondering what your relationship is with the mental side of golf, like a sport that will beat you down this hard. How do you stay confident and what your relationship is with confidence and how that leads and breeds to good play? Right. That's a cool, that was a cool explanation, or not explanation, but you know, describing feature that's a hmm. You know, I think with golf, I've got a pretty good mindset. I think I'm gonna get out on my shoulders. I've never really got been a guy who loses my mind out there or gets too up.

I'm never too high, never too low. And I think with the confidence level, I think, you know, I put in the time, you know, I practice, you know, I really feel like I put in the proper, you know, work ethic and preparation and I'm able to get out to the tournament and know that I've done the work now. It's just now I just gotta perform.

You know, I've always felt comfortable in the situation of being under pressure. I think that's whenever you lean back to that preparation and all that stuff and me just not ever losing my cool out there really keeps me in that same mindset. But I'm that way in every aspect of life too. I rarely ever, ever get mad. And I think that's kind of a benefit towards, you know,

my mental state all around, but you know, on the same side, I never get too up. So just really mellow out there, keep it calm. And I think it's cringey when guys throw fist pumps, unless they're running, you know, but stuff like that. So just different stuff. Tell me about Stone. You're caddy, you're, as I understand a long time, a long time best friend is also understand that

Stone is his real actual, actual name. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Stone So I've been best friends for probably upwards of 10 years now 12 years now. And it's funny how it worked out. We never planned on him caddying for me. You know, it's just he cat for me every once in a while and amateur events. And then I played my cova and then I brought up earlier in my senior year of college and asked if he wanted to caddying we finished 12th.

I was like, oh, maybe we should consider doing this. It's been a really fun journey. Golf's a lonely sport, especially if you don't have anybody out there with you. But my wife travels, like I said, nine out of 10 weeks and I got my best friend on the bag and my dad's my swing coach. So it's just a full blown. I think it's huge for me just with having people around me that I trust and that are supporting me 100%. And, you know, Stun and I have got a great relationship. He's might be y'all's biggest fan. There's an all in a podcast. Whenever we, I think we were at Pebble Beach

and we were, I think he saw you at Pebble Beach maybe in 2021 or 2022. Are you guys out there by chance? and we were, I think he saw you at Pebble Beach, maybe in 2021 or 2022. Are you guys out there by chance? I think it was Pebble. I was there last year. Yeah, I played 2023 and we were here, we were there this year.

Okay, I wasn't there in 2023. Maybe it was, it might've been a different term. I forget where it was, but he was nervous. He saw you guys and got nervous. He was gonna say something, couldn't do it. I was like, dude, you're around celebrities all day long. We play pro-ams. He was like, yeah, but I listen to those guys all the time.

So it was pretty funny. And so you guys are the only guys that I've ever made nervous. I don't know how that makes me feel. That makes me a little uncomfortable. But tell us about Sally, too. You guys are, as I understand, you've known each other for a very, very, very long time, reconnected later in life, is that right?

Yeah, so Sally and I- Later in life, you're 25. There is no later in life. Yeah, later in life. So we went to the same, it's like Mother's Day out, when we're under two years old. Our families were really close. We stayed in touch till we were nine or 10.

Stuff happens, they moved cities. and I went to public school, went to school in Edmond and, you know, our family just kind of grew apart. Nothing bad happened, just, you know, growing up. Sure. And we hadn't talked for 10 years or so. And we rekindled between sophomore and junior year of college and pretty quickly we kind of realized that you know this is going somewhere and like I said a blessing to have her with me the whole time just because the lonely journey and she's the best and

it's just been a really fun journey for us too. Fantastic I love it. Well we appreciate you spending your one off week with us you here as you get ramped up for four more and we are appreciative of our congratulations, I guess on all your success and keep it going. Man, this is it's exciting to watch. And at least we know not to not to follow any course history for you for anyone. I've always you've always been in my a lot of my picks as we've made over the years. I never know when you're gonna play well.

It's good to know. It's just all over. You don't know. I don't know either. That's what takeaway I'll have. But yeah, we make the joke a lot. I mean, they're going to have it or I'm not going to have it. And that's simple. That's a great way to play pro golf though. Like, yeah, it is a solo fifth and a miss cut is better than two T 45s. It really is. It is. It is. It's got to be. That's got to be a hard thing to learn. I would think of like,

mentally, it's a lot better to make a lot of cuts though. I'm sure you feel better about yourself. I'm sure. Yeah. But whenever you look back on the season, those, those fourth and fifths are the top tens are really all that matter. All right. We'll keep hoovering up those points in those signature events now that you're in them and, and we look forward to, we'll just get down the road. Really appreciate your time. Thanks so so much. Yeah, enjoyed it. Cheers. Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. is better than most better than most.

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