No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 151: Lydia Ko & Karen Stupples

Episode Date: June 28, 2018

From the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship outside of Chicago, we got a chance to sit down with one of the biggest stars in the game, Lydia Ko. We discuss her preparation for a major championship,... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 151: Lydia Ko & Karen Stupples appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is 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. Busy Podcast Week. This is our third one of the week, but we are out myself and Big Randy out here in Chicago for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

Randy, your first LPGA event of any kind, what are your first impressions? Terminism started yet. This is Wednesday that we're recording this, but what are your impressions? Well, first of all, it's thank you guys for letting me out of the kill house. Nice to see the sun every now and again. Yeah, great to be out here. This is one I've been looking forward to, as you said, never, I've never been to an LPGA event, so it was really excited to get out here and just, it's all a new experience for me. My first, I guess, initial impressions are impressive infrastructure. We are at, of course, Kemper Lakes. They have a small clubhouse and they utilize it for players and kind of guests and meals, But it's really not the focal point of anything this week.

Tons of man-made tents, portable structures. So real, real impressive operation going. It was fortunate enough got to tag along in the pro-AM yesterday and had a wonderful time. I think you'll hear from Karen, stuples later on, and obviously we got to play alongside Michelle. We very, very easy to talk to, very outgoing. It was just a real kind of pleasurable four and a half, five hours to spend with them, down the earth, approachable. It was a lot of fun. It's everything that, you know, we obviously,

Tron and DJ and I went up to the Kia Classic in March had a great experience with the LPGA and Big Randy Unfortunate didn't get to join for Germany but to do a back-to-back stretch of Euro, Tour and LPGA it's just all the helpful people you meet and kind of the people that helped to get these interviews happen and stuff, it's just wonderful structure and it is a treat to be here.

It's really impressive operation and it feels like a really big event and the girls are super excited about it. So we're excited and we got the chance to chat with Lydia Coe. We got 20 minutes with her. We have a bunch of other interviews we're doing this week. This is going to be the ones you hear this week. We spent about 20 minutes with her and then we also spent about almost 40 with Karen Stupples as a big Randy, who works for the golf channel as a retired professional golfer.

As soon as she, I didn't know a whole lot about her until, as soon as she walked up yesterday, I recognized her voice from watching LPGA coverage and her per work on another men's golf as well and stuff of the BBC. So you'll recognize her voice when you hear it and she has some stories, she was awesome. She was awesome.

She was not in a scheduled guest. We had such a great time with her. We were like, we are going to need you for the podcast immediately. So we're going to roll first into the Lydia interview, but first big Randy. Yeah, no, I was just going to mention golf channel coverage all week. That's right. So this will be coming out. I believe on Wednesday, you should be here in this, maybe Thursday morning.

But for sure, if you, you know, check it out on golf channel, they will have live coverage Thursday through Sunday. Yeah, they are blown out. They have a huge team here this week and we're excited to see the coverage. And excited to, I didn't get to see much actual tournament golf when we went out to the Kia. So excited to actually walk around, follow some shots, follow some girls for a lengthy period of time and really take the whole experience in. But it's been wonderful so far. It's been a busy week, but it's been a fun one looking forward to the championship. I was gonna say more to come with some videos too.

We've had fun off the course. So we got the lab. The editing bay is very busy. But real quick, before we do turn it over to Lydia Coe, we do have Lydia and I have something in common as well as my new best friend, Michelle. We all play the new graphing, infused Chrome Soft X ball from Calloway. It was pretty, it was actually, we had interchangeable golf balls that we could play during the program. So that was kind of cool. We did talk about which kind of ball she plays

and what she looks for in a golf ball and how she tries to balance spin and distance and what not. And it's clear that the Callaway Chromesoft ball has made an impact on her game. And Lydia does also play the same golf ball. So CallawayGolf.com for more information, CallawayGolf.com slash Chromesoft, the 2018 ball is the ball that changed the ball. It has softer feel with less spin off the T and more spin around the greens. I promise it's unlike anything you've experienced in a golf ball on tour and it's proven on all tours. Sergio is one with it this year. Phil is obviously

one with it this year. Aaron Wise is one with it. He keep going but you kind of get the picture. Without further ado, let's turn it over to Lydia Co. first and then we will be joined by Karen Supples. Alright, welcoming in here at the KPMG Women's PGA, Lydia Co. Lydia, you are a two-time major winner. I imagine you have a bit of a routine when it comes to showing up at a major now, but what is preparation like for a major? Is it any different than any other tournament? I don't think I'd take it any differently. In the first few years, I felt like, man, coming into a major week, this is a major, this is a major, oh my god, I have to play while it's a major.

But I'm trying to think of it less that way, and just don't take it any differently to any other event. And I think that just makes it a little easier, a little less stressful. So yeah, I'm trying to get used to the golf course, get used to the conditions. And obviously, especially at a tournament like this, where the course changes every year. You really want to get a good hang of it

before Thursday comes. Sure. You've accomplished obviously so much at such a young age. Did you ever have any ideas to what you were doing from a historical standpoint, or do you have that perspective now at any point? Not at all. I haven't even heard of it sunken yet.

I think it's always been a dream of mine to play on the LPGA, to hopefully be the number one ranked player. But I think all of those things kind of hit me a lot quicker than you could ever dream of. And obviously obviously I'm very fortunate in that aspect but you know this is such a cool position to be in and you know I'm just being on tour I'm in this is my 50 year on tour already I feel like I'm 30 but I'm still 21 it's just legal but you know the girls are great and I think that's why we are such a great time on tour.

You've accomplished so much obviously already. Talk to us about how does the goal setting process change? To me week to week I you know try and set goals. I go into that week you know what position I want to finish or you know if I've been struggling let's say in the short game aspect you know try and improve my short game stats More and being more consistent with the driver. I think I'd take you know small goals at a time And then in the offseason, you know make goals, so you know, I know what I want to practice and what I want to work on You know compared to the year before and now I think big goals for me, as in results,

I would love to be one of the few players to do the Korea Grand Slam. I think it's anybody's dream to be somebody to do a Grand Slam, whether that's in tennis or in golf or in any other sport, just to say that you've done the grand slam is you know Very few people can say that so that's you know big goal of mine And I think I felt that more you know after being so close to being a win this KPMG Event a couple years ago and the US women's open that year till so

When you get closer, I feel like there's a bit more pressure But it also gives you the confidence to say hey no you can't you know you can be in this kind of position and just being in the first you know Olympics in Beck and Rio I think the Tokyo Olympics is definitely on my mind. After the Rio I said man it's another four years until the next one but now it's like oh oh my goodness, there's only, and it just lets it tear here. So yeah, it just goes by fast.

But I think those are some of my big goals. And just to be able to represent your country on an international stage like that doesn't happen very often. So. I was going to say, you really seem to be and highly invested in the Olympics. Or was it like that in the build up to it or when you got there did you realize it was a bigger deal than it was or why is the Olympics so

important to you? Um, you know, in 2016, I know I wasn't really sure, oh my god what is the Olympics going to be like, is it going to be different to a major championship? Is it just going to be the same? Because a lot of the players you see are, you know, girls that I see on tour regularly. So, but, um, and even on the practice rounds, I didn't really feel like it was any different. But then on the first tee, I don't think I've ever

been that nervous in my life where I barely hit the clef phase, and it's off a tee with a driver. So, um, it did not go as soon as I had envisioned. But just to see the flag with you and just to be able to represent not only yourself and your team, but your country and everybody there is definitely a cool feeling. And for me, it was really cool that on the last day,

almost like 15 New Zealand Olympians came and watched me play and you know that doesn't happen either. So yeah I remember Eric Murray who won the gold medal. He decided to come with his gold medal to watch me play. So that was really really cool and you, he said he passed security and they were like, oh my, what is this? And he's like, oh, this is my gold medal here. So yeah, I enjoyed it. And it's great that I get to meet other Olympians

and kind of hear their stories. And I mean, it just shares what a diverse thing sport is in general. Gotta be careful when you're walking around with that that you don't get a reflection off the middle right in your face. But it's interesting to kind of, from your background, to see that you kind of have an identity with two countries, right? I mean, you were born in South Korea, you moved to New Zealand, not even really being able

to speak English. Do you remember, how old were you when you moved to New Zealand and what was that like to try to transition to that new life? I think I was like six or seven. Okay. And the only letters in the alphabet I knew was A, B, C, D. And I knew it as A, B, D, C. So that was, you know, there's my English for you. But, you know, I, you know, my golf coach,

first golf coach in New Zealand, you know, he was obviously a Kiwi, and then I went to a school with a lot of Kiwis. So I think that's how English came out to me. And when you're at that age, you pick it up a lot easier. But I feel very proud to be, have this South Korean background and it's also have grown up in New Zealand. And no matter if I play in Korea or New Zealand,

I've been getting a lot of support from everybody there. So I think it's a pretty cool culture to be a part of. What kind of an impact did Seyri... And we all know Seyri pocket an enormous impact on Korean golf, but for you personally, did that she have a big impact on you're wanting to become a golfer? Yeah.

My parents actually didn't play golf before I started. So no, I wasn't grown up into a golfing background, but. So I just need a phone call. Yeah, we're good. All right. Well, there we go. That was an interesting variable. We're in some random office here.

We don't know. We didn't know the phone was going to ring. Yeah, I don't think we should pick it up. Probably. We said, I would have been a good little twister. I have a Lydia answer. It was for Barbara, I think. I mean, one of us could pull Barbara off. Yeah, but I didn't grow up in a golfing background.

So it wasn't like, hey, you must play golf kind of thing. I think it was either golf or background. So you know, it wasn't like, hey, you know, you must play golf kind of thing. I think it was either golf or ballet. My parents were saying, and you know, with health unfexable I am, thank God it was not ballet. But no, Sarah, you know, she was really one of the first Korean on tour. And she really showed a path for, you know, not only Koreans, but a lot of players in Asia. And I think gave a lot of hope. And it's her 20th anniversary, winning the US Women's Open this year. I think she impacted a lot of lives.

And she gave hope to people in Korea. My mom was saying that it wasn't the best state that, you know, the whole of Korea was in. And I think she gave hope to people there of, you know, somebody to look up to. And somebody think she gave hope to people there of somebody to look up to, and somebody to be really excited to root for. So I'm lucky for me as able to play on tour her last couple years, her last few years on tour. And I've gotten to know her.

And she's like a big sister of mine. I went to the last off season. I went to near her hometown, and we had dinner together. And she's such a super sweet Person an amazing person to talk to and just hear her stories and what it was like for her, you know on tour Because it's a lot different there right now who were some of your good friends out on tour? Who do you hang out with off the course some Danielle Kang, you know, she's She's she she tells people that I'm not her friend,

but I'm her sister. So I'm like, thank God. At first I was like, oh, man, we're not friends. I was like, where's this going? But no, she's like a big sister in mind. I met her at the USM, and she for the first time, the second one that she won. So, you know, she's a super sweet and somebody I really look up to

She's just a strong and amazing athlete. So I love her and I love hanging out with the quarter sisters Who have been paired with a lot? So I said I've been getting the quarter sandwich. I got Nelly and then the week after I got Jess and then the week after I got Nelly So I think I'm bound to have you know both of them in one group. So sandwich. I got Nelly and then the week after I got Jess and then the week after I got Nelly. So I think I'm bound to have, you know, both of them in one group. So, yeah, you know, the girls are amazing. So it's endless. But I think those are a few. And I mean, Sioux, oh, who I've known since, you know, we were probably half a height right now and half our age. We played with her down in Australia actually. We were down there in November. Yeah. We played with her down in Australia actually.

We were down there in November. Yeah. It was super baked out day down in Australia. She was great. Yeah. This tour just seems like so much fun. I mean, we're kind of used to being on the PGA tour but just seeing how you guys all interact with each other

and just the whole culture just seems like it seems like so much fun. I'd be unimaginable for somebody at your age. I mean, you've been around in the public for a long time but you're still very young that it just helps to kind of have friends out there with you at all times. Yeah, I mean, when we're out there playing, you know, obviously we're competitors, and you know, we're playing against each other,

but at the same time, when somebody's had a great shot, you know, we'll say, hey, great shot, or, you know, congratulations. And I think that's the great, it's for Barbara. Actually. Actually. You know, we just, I think, love each other's company. You know, that's why sometimes we go and watch movies together, we'll go out to dinner and, you know,

I think that's great that, you know, obviously, at times... We're just gonna unplug the phone. This is a popular person. Yeah seriously, somebody must really need to be in touch with it. I don't even get three calls in here. Oh, sorry about that. You've obviously won this season on tour, so I definitely don't want to dwell too much on the struggles you've had in recent years, but I was curious as to whether or not,

obviously you got this amazing start and from some time in 2016 up until you won this season that your game did regress. Is there anything to do to look back at and kind of point as a turning point in any way in your game and on the flip side? Is there anything you've done to kind of reverse that to get yourself back on track this season? I think you know, obviously I made some big decisions, but looking back now, I don't regret any one of them. Even from those decisions, I've changed decisions this year. I feel like I was moving in the right direction.

Even last year, I was like, man, the season's done already by CME. It just goes by so fast. There's really no time for you to look back and worry about what could have happened, what I should have done. I always say no regrets made, but I feel like golf is such a confidence thing where you see everyone out here. The talent level is all pretty similar, but if you have a great week and you kind of gain that confidence, you kind of end up being on that momentum and keep playing well, and

I think that's what golf is really about. And I think winning in San Francisco earlier this year, that made me have top 10 the week after. So you just kind of end up being stuck on a good momentum rather than going down and having those ups and downs. But you know, it's a, I almost felt like I put so much pressure on myself because you know, I've been very lucky enough to do a few of those things, you know, early in my career that, you know, the expectations were so high that, you know, even though when you come second, I mean I came second I think

three times last year and that's good but it's like you just didn't do as good. So there were a lot of comparisons. But to me you really can't do anything about it and all you can do is look forward and try and do whatever you think is going to be the best free in the future in that moment. Is there anything I know a lot of people have made a big deal about the Cadi changes and whatnot, but it seems like on the LPGA tour it's not necessarily a common thing to have for a ton of people to have the same Cadi throughout. So is there anything that has been misrepresented in the media about any of the changes you've

made that you would want to clarify or anything in that regard. What's out there that's really not the most accurate? I think they said, Lydia had, I don't even know how many caddies I've had now, but my rookie year, I obviously hadn't been around the LPGA a lot before my rookie year, so I didn't really know what exactly I needed as a caddy because for a lot of my events, my mom caddy for me at the USM and Ziam, Australia and M. And I was just used to her or somebody that I knew.

So having a full-time caddy was definitely a new step for me. And I too was learning and I'm still learning what I want and what I don't want. So that itself is a learning process and the first year I actually had a lot in IS, Ciketti, hey, you know, is it okay if we work on a trial basis and I think rather than me saying, you know, hey, I fired that person after a few weeks, there's more that, you know, I learned, okay, maybe I need somebody that does this a bit more so I think that was kind of the trial process and I ended up being a huge deal but I mean it's done I know it is true I guess that I had you know whatever many caddies but the perspective on

that's a different than it's been so yeah but no it's I feel like no even now you know I I learn okay at these times Now I want my caddy to do this or help me with this Whether that's in practice or on the golf course and you know you get to learn more about yourself too During this process and within the people that you know you work with And I still feel like I'm young at heart and I still feel like I'm young at heart. I'm still young. I was gonna say you're just still young period.

Young on the festival and young at heart. Sometimes I don't feel young when I'm playing like five weeks in a row. But I'm not. I feel like I'm getting to learn more about myself. And I think learning is something that you never really stop doing. Yeah. I was gonna ask kind of speaking of of your age, I just you're in such a unique position

where you're kind of a veteran out on tour a little bit, but yet you are still so young. I was just curious, do you find yourself seeking out advice from older players, or maybe more so on the flip side? Are you kind of helping out new players onto the tour? How does, where do you find yourself in that balance? Yeah. I think any of the players, if you ask them a question about

technical side or just their experience, they're very open to say anything, say what they think. And I feel like I'm more in that position, even though, I mean, this is my fifth year on tour. But there's like Christie, she's been on tour longer than I've been alive. I know this. So it's just pretty cool what golf is

and that you can play for a really long time. And I'm sure players like Julie, let's say, she's met a lot of people in different generations. And she's a huge role model to people in the woman's game too. So I think I'm definitely the one that is asking, rather than the one that's asked. But yeah, people, because I've been around a longish time and I feel like hey, you know, Brooks only 20 and at that time I was 22 and I'm like, yeah, I am too.

But I know it's just I think I've been very lucky to come on tour at a younger age. And you know, just get to experiences, but I think that's the cool thing about golf is that there's really ages, the number and experience is kind of a whole different thing. I've heard in interviews you say that you are potentially interested in stop playing golf around the age of 30. Is that change at any point or why have you picked out that age or why is that that you don't pick yourself playing past the age of 30? When I'm having hard of weeks, I'm like, okay, 25. 30. When I'm having hard of weeks I'm like okay 25. But no it's I don't know how I thought of 30 but I thought 30 was a good age to you know stop playing competitive golf. I mean I started playing when I was five and you know pretty much up until that time until now I know my life has

really been circled around golf. So I thought that time would be good. And then for me, like, even after retirement, doesn't mean I'm not going to work or anything, as I might be in your guys' shoes one day. Do you not start a podcast? Do this. Don't eat any competition. At least you have, like, cool marks and all.

Who are we trying? But no, it's a, you know, I want to do things outside of that. You know, I really want to study a little bit more, you know, maybe along the lines of counselling so I can, you know, maybe help people. I think there's so many cool things I can do around golf whilst not playing golf. So, yeah, you know, I think, I don't know how I came up with that number, but I thought something around that would be good. And yeah, I know, know how I came up with that number, but I thought something around that would be good.

And yeah, I know, have a family who knows. I mean, that's way too early to talk about family right now, but I just thought that was a good number. And a lot of the ony-years, big sisters on tour, they're like, you know what, you probably get up to that age and go, oh man, I'm already 30. I still want to play. It's gonna happen. I was just saying, as someone on the other side of 30, when I was 20 or whatever, 30

seems so far away, but man, it comes quick. Yeah, that's what they said. They're like, okay, they said their goal was to play until they're 30. And then they're like, oh, I'm 31 now. You know, it just hits you really quick. So I, but I think I would never retire before knowing exactly what I want to do afterwards. I think that's a big key for me.

And there's no point in me, you know, saying, you know, drop the clubs and go, okay, and say, what do I do now? I want to be prepared, you know, for that moment. Makes sense. So, all right, well, Lydia, thank you so much for your time. Best of luck this week. I hope the weather is a little different than what we got today. for that moment. Makes sense. All right, well, Lydia, thank you so much for your time. Best of luck this week.

I hope the weather is a little different than what we got today. We'll let Barb get her office back. Yeah, it's fun. Barb, if you're listening, we're sorry. We're sorry for unplugging your film. We hope it was from the Nurgent. Yeah. But yeah, thank you so much for joining us in a major week.

I know it's not the easiest thing to do. So best of luck this week. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Lydia. All right, thank you to Lydia for the time. That was really fun. And as mentioned in the beginning, we have another interview here with Karen Stupples from the Golf Channel. Please stick around for this one.

I promise you'll enjoy it. It's an awesome insight from her. On her career, her story, which is her background is incredible. I promise that story is going to shock you a bit, as well as some things she's learned in her announcing career on the golf channel. So here is Karen Stuples. All right, welcoming in. I don't know if I technically would call you a pro-amp partner from yesterday considering you are a professional golfer. I mean, we tied for second in the net score yesterday. This is Karen Stuples we're talking with. Do we get disqualified because you're not an am? We were cheating with She was a she was a ringer for sure. I was and I will confess to

that that being said I really haven't played much golf and probably I play less golf than anybody of those amateurs that were playing in the field so technically I think I'm good. It didn't seem that way but you had you had some shots that were a little the rest was there but then you would show that your three would into the part three. Tell us that story What who well? You're closest to pin in who you be well Well, well all of a sudden we're playing and golf central show up on the scene to fill Michelle

Wee who was our partner and she was tremendous all day long So all of a sudden I feel like a little bit of pressure because these are people that I work with now I'm like, okay, I've got to show them that I can actually still play every once in a while So Michelle wee stands there just kind of eases a seven wood in now. I'm like, okay, I've got to show them that I can actually still play every once in a while. So Michelle Wistaz, they're just kind of eases a seven wood in. I'm like, I'm gonna have to muscle a three wood. Because that's how things are these days for me. So I whacked a three wood up there

and sure enough, I hit it to three feet, seven inches, but it was even better because I beat Jerry Foltz, who was in the group in front of us, who thought that he had hit a career 4-on-2. I think he said 6 feet. And then after that, my boss, Molly Solomon, who's in charge of golf channel, she hit one to about 5 feet. So I beat her too.

So I'm not sure if I'm in there good books or not. But I don't care. I'm like, one up. You're going to be rubbing that in their faces a little bit. Absolutely. I will say, too, I had the pleasure of walking with you guys and seeing everything. Karen started out playing from the pro-tees, the back-tees. I think you guys turned in maybe four under as a team and that competitive light switch kind

of came on in the back-9. She moved forward as she was allowed to do technically under the rules. I think she was certainly gone in for the program title. Yeah. But on that whole with the closest to Penn, she's like, I better play this from the back. She did play it back. Because I knew, I'm like, okay, this is closest to Penn, I've got to go back. But even then, moving up, it really didn't help.

Because the further I moved up, the more way would I go off the tee. So I'm like, okay, it's not helping anybody. So I think for most people listening by this point, they're recognizing your voice at least even if they, even if they may be not, we're familiar with what you do. So tell us, we'll get into your background a bit, but tell us what people would know you from these days. Primarily, I cover LPGA tournaments for Golf Channel. I'm either in the booth when Judy Rankin doesn't want to work. And then otherwise I'm on the ground as Jerry Fultz is back up and I have a great time doing it. I still get to

travel around and talk about golf and I love solving problems when it comes to golf. I love looking at people's swings, I love figuring out what makes them tick, why they were successful or why things didn't work out quite so well that week for them. It's just a big puzzle for me and that's what I find incredibly fun about it. You are yourself a major champion. You won the Open Championship in 2004, okay, at Sunning Dale. So you now are on this side of the other ropes we're here at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, obviously. You are now covering this as a major. What kind of perspective do you have now that you're removed from the game watching these competitors play a major that maybe you wish you had when you were playing

majors in your day? Well, this is a tremendous one and what KPMG and the PGA of America have done with this is they formed a tournament that really was on life support as the LPJ Championship. And I remember playing my first LPJ Championship at DuPont Country Club and then moved to Bulley Rock and then after that it really was on life support. It went to Locust Hill, Wegmans took it over, it went from a regular tournament at Locust Hill to a major and it was really struggling and I think that what this has done has made a really sort of, I would say, you're almost the best tournament in women's golf. And I think it's only four years in

and it's already starting to feel that way. All the players talk about how well things are run, how extremely good their services are, the food in the clubhouse, the condition of the course. Everything is really well organized. They love the fact that KPMG is supporting women in all manner of ways. o'r fwy'r ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch ymwch y supposed to play in your contract 20 events. If you can only play 10, they'll take half your money away. So for them to support Stacey through that is pretty huge. And just in general, I think players love being here.

And now, as I look on it, yes, I'd love to be playing in this event. It would be tremendous to be shown this kind of respect for your game. Do I miss playing? No, I don't miss it at all. I watch the grind. I see them every single step of the way. They're working hard, they're training, the practice hours. I'm in just looking at it now. Right now, I don't have to worry about slogging my way around that golf course because it's a bit of a slog out there. It's beautiful, but it's tough, and it's wet, and it's long, and the greens are treacherous, and I just need to talk about them now. It's a beautiful thing.

There's not much left of the golf course after I dug up most of it yesterday with my divots, but I just wish I'd save them all and take them home to do my yard with them. Well, it's interesting, you say that about KPMG, and kind of, you know, being here, we have much more experience being at PGA Torbans than we do LPGA events, but the infrastructure and the support around the event, I mean, we were blown away at the skills challenge on Monday, I mean, all the athletes they brought in for that, the fact that they're doing it for the kids

and they rented out soldier field for a day for this. I mean, those kind of things don't happen on the LPGA Torb for the most part. So, I mean, the purse this week is fantastic as well, so it is kind of cool to see how excited the players are for all the things you mentioned mean a lot to players and like the infrastructure around the tournament and the hospitality and the food and the location and the convenience really. Things that you do I think PGA tour pros can take for granted like getting a courtesy

car every week. That doesn't happen on the LPGA tour but they know when they come here they're going to get a courtesy car. So it's just nice to know that you're going to be taking care of and looked after. Definitely. So we kind of jumped into you being a major champion in what you do now, but I want to hear a bit of your background and how you got into professional golf. And there's a pretty excellent story that you told yesterday about how you ended up getting out there and playing professional full time. So it was crazy. Growing up as a little girl on the southeast coast of England, I had no idea what professional golf was all about.

I just knew that I loved to play golf. And the only professional tournaments I'd ever seen for women was the Women's British Open. That was the only thing that I knew was any of it was out there for me to play in. Can we get this on record? We have a Brit that called it the British Open. Yeah, I was going to correct it. For anybody to go open to. The whole term, no women's British Open, it's okay. Oh, that's true.

Yeah, the women's one is fine. If I'm talking about the open. We get a lot of grief from British listeners that we were actually steering into it now and we're calling it the UK British Open. They give us grief for calling the British Open, but sorry to interrupt, it couldn't be. No, no, no, and so I would watch that, but not really realizing what was out there, but my golf progress really, really quite quickly, I became very good early, played for England, and that essentially got me a scholarship to play in America. So I came out here to college, went through the college system. Where'd you go? I went to, well, my freshman year, I went to Arkansas State in Jonesboro.

But one of the provisions that I'd said to the coach was, I just don't want any snow. Well, it's snowed. So I'm like, okay, time to move on. So luckily they were great. They let me, they released me and I transferred, went to Florida State. So I became a seminal. Had a good time there. Had you ever been to the States before coming over for college?

Never been. Never traveled. My parents just put me on a plane at Heathrow and said, bye. I had. And it was a crazy thing. I came with my suitcase and my golf clubs. And that's all I had in the whole world. And I got dropped off at my dorm. There was nothing in my dorm. The bed had no sheets, no I had no towels. I had no nothing. And had no sheets, no, I had no towels, I had no nothing.

And I'm like, oh, I didn't think of this. You didn't have a car, probably, yeah. I had nothing. And luckily, one of the other girls who was playing on the golf team was going to join me. She came the next morning and she said, oh, she said, you don't have anything. Because I just slept on a bare mattress that night.

And she said, you really have nothing to do. I said, no, this is all I have. And she said, we need to get you to Walmart. So off we went, we went to Walmart and I don't know. That's a great first American experience to get Walmart. Yeah. I'm like, this is the greatest store ever. Especially in Arkansas too. Well, it's so much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Greatest store ever though, to me, that morning, because I finally had bed stuff and a towel. Yeah. And so then from college, did you go back, you went back to the care for that? I always knew that by the time I got to college, it opened my eyes to LPGA. I'm like, okay, this is where I want to be.

This is what I want to do. But I didn't know how to get here. My family really don't have a lot of money. Like at the time, my mom was pressing blouses in a factory. And my dad was directing traffic around the port of Dover. So my family doesn't have very much and the thought of being able to rely on them just wasn't there. Whatever I was going to do I was going to have to do for myself.

So I made the Curtis Cup team played on that, continued with my amateur career, but also at the same time I worked pretty much full-time at a golf course called Etching Hill doing bar work and wait just in. Whatever I could do to make ends in me and try and find time to practice a bit of golf along the way. As it turned out, one of my regular customers was coming in and eventually he asked me, his name was Keith Rawlings, and he said to me, why haven't you turned pro yet? I keep seeing your name in the paper. You keep winning these amateur events.

What's going on? I said, well, I'm working hard. I'm just trying to save the money to try. So I gave him a little rundown of the story of needing money to enter Q school and to travel to America to do all of this. He said, oh, he said that's interesting. So I cleaned the trays off and brought some dizzier out. And he said, my wife and I've been talking would like to give you the money to try. Mae'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r

gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r a chance, you work hard and we want to see you at least have a go at it. I was completely blown away, she said, come to our office in the morning with a budget and we'll go over it and see what we can do. So that night, after finishing it midnight, I'm scribbling my budget down, trying to get, I'm like, okay, cross the eyes, not the teeth, okay, don't look like an idiot, try and make this look like professional. I go into to their office

the next morning and he barely even looked at it and said that's fine, he said I'll give you it for three years because I don't want you to feel like you have any pressure the first time to make it. So off I went with his financial help and I got my card the first time and I've never looked back since and that was it without his help I could still be waiting tables Waiting to turn pro at etching hill because At three pounds an hour it doesn't get you very far. It's amazing Like I told that story yesterday. It just was like all right We have to have her on the podcast immediately. I mean, that's the butterfly effect in life

I mean, that's you're no better example of anything than that. I mean you you made a full career. Have you just retired? What in 2014? So you had a long career, I mean, especially in women's golf. I mean, careers don't seem to last as long as they do in men's golf. But I was curious. I mean, you know, you talked to a lot of girls out here and we talked to, you know, we're talked to Brittany Lince, who come today, who's 32, who has well passed the median age. I think out here on tour. For those listening at home, why does the median age or the LPGA tour trend so young compared to men's golf? Do you have any insight on that?

Well, I really think a lot of it is to do from a young age that the women mature physically a lot earlier than the guys, and almost to a certain extent mentally as well. And you don't need a huge amount of power to be successful on the LPGA tour. If you look at the recent World No. 1s, you look at Lydia Coe in B Park who's currently the World No. 1, they're not the longest players in the world. They're very average off the tee. So you don't need to develop physically to get the power, to play golf well enough, to be competitive on tour.

So what you're seeing is that they're very well coached, they come to this early, and here they are, they're ready to play golf, they're not scared, the youngsters aren't scared. And in many ways, I can see the advantages of it, because at some point, as a woman, you have to make a decision, do you want to have a family? Am I going to try and play when I have a family? Or can I get all my goal fit and then just do a Lorraine or a shower, retire and have a family? So all of these things you kind of think of but you don't think of, but that's definitely a part in sort of nature's way of progressing.

And one of my biggest beaves at the moment is the fact that the senior open, the senior women's open is coming up as the first year they've had it. They're starting at 50. In my mind, 50 is too old. And even the legend's tour is at 45 starting is too old. I think all of senior women's golf

should literally start at 40, because if you look at comparing like to like with the PGA tour, you've probably got about four players on the PGA tour that are competitive on the PGA tour at 50. And it's very much the same on the LPGA tour. You've probably got about four players over the age of 40 that are competitive. And that I think is where it needs to go, because by the time you have players, women players reaching 50, they've already quit playing for about 15 years, and

it's so hard to get going, if not 15 years, at least 10 years, and it's so hard to get back into it. So that's really my thing, but I think that it's just maturing so young and it being available and having role models that have already done it that they can see, oh well, if Lydia Coak can do it, then why can't I? So you told me yesterday, I hope you don't mind me kind of repeating this, but you said you're just coming out of your phase where you really hated golf, you know, kind of natural, you know, you'd retired and been away from the game and you know, just playing a little bit frustrating.

So I'm just curious, do you have any plans? Is that something that do you ever see yourself returning to play competitively? I think that I would like to play every once in a while, because not from a desire to compete, per say, but a desire to remind myself of the daily grind and how hard it is for the players that I talk about now. I think that they deserve that from me, because it's very easy for me to sit there in the 18th tower or on the course and pass judgment and comment on their performance. And that's what I'm paid to do. a'r ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdyn ymdynyn ymdyn remind myself of exactly what it takes to do what they do day and day out. Because when you don't do it, it's very easy to forget how hard it actually is playing professional golf.

And all the sacrifices that you make along the way to get to that point. So I think it's more from a learning perspective. I did play a tournament in 16. I played at Shoppriate in Atlantic City. And didn't make the cut. It's really good shots, hit some very bad shots. But to me, what I learned from that experience was how fine a line playing the difference between a 65 and a 72 is. You can be three feet off from 160 yards out. And you miss that little ridge in the green

and it comes trickling all the way back down and you end up off the front edge of the green. Then from the front edge of the green, you've got to have a chip up. If you miss your pitching landing area by six inches, you're, again, you're 20 feet past the hole and that's how bogus happened. You know, from 165 yards out, three feet of difference.

It's not very much. That's how precise you have to be to have a good score. And so that's really what I became very aware of that. That's what's keeping us from 65. That's all it is. Yeah, it's just a matter of feet. It's going to drop that down with three feet away from 65. It was a... At Medihil championship in San Francisco, the title were inches make all the difference. Yeah, I like that. We had a giggle about it at the time, but, you know. I was just going to quickly follow up.

Was it difficult at all in your new role as a commentator? Did it take some getting used to be a little bit critical players or were you at all apprehensive kind of stepping into that role? I think yes, there's no doubt about it and it takes a while for you to find your voice, to really understand that what you're saying has value or that is actually, it's not just correct to your own personal game, but it's correct to everybody's game because ultimately golf is golf. It doesn't matter whether you're tiger words, whether you're Lydia Coe,

you're still trying to get the ball in the hole in as few as shots as possible. So when I look at that, like, you know, as a player, if somebody had said, if I can go home at night and say, if somebody had said that about me, how would I have reacted? And would it be, was it a fair comment to make?

And if I can go home and say it was a fair comment, then that's totally fine. If I can leave any kind of emotional, if it's a player that I might not be that friendly with, I might not like that much, or if it's somebody that I really like, Mae'n gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r

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gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r gwaithio'r out on the back and feel like, okay, that was fine. And I've had a few confrontations. I've had a confrontation with a coach and one with a player about something that I've said. And I'm probably gonna get ready to have another one later this week. So I'm bracing myself for it. But there are times when there are things that I see. And it comes from a perspective of wanting

to help as much as anything. It's like I see talented players. I'm like, why? Why are things not going the way they should be going? And that's what you're paid to do, right, is to give your opinion on that. You're a perspective on it. You have all this experience in the game. If it's me or Randy here doing that analysis, that doesn't mean nearly as much.

But I imagine that the fine line between taking what you observe and determining what you think on it and also the difference between that and projecting onto it, be like, oh, it must be a mental thing versus, you know, from my perspective, I think she might be battling with this. I think that is kind of,

it's got to be a tough line to balance, I imagine. It is. It is. And it's, as I said, it's hard because you know that every week you're gonna see the same players and you're gonna be covering the same people. And again, I don't wanna hurt their golf games and I don't wanna cause conflict with them or their coaches or anybody else because I know as a player how important it is to have one universal voice in your head when you're standing over a golf shot, you don't need conflict o'r unrhyw i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i'r gwybod i' gwybod i'r gwybod i gwybod i gwybod i'r gwybod i'r g because I think that's important to get that one voice. You owe that to them at least. Yeah, exactly. There are times when coaches don't want to help you too.

And I find that immensely frustrating because ultimately I'm trying to help their players. I also want to sound informative and knowledgeable on TV, but I'm also trying to help their players by not asking them directly about it and then have that in their minds. Have you ever had any slipups on the air or any curse words? How do you avoid saying curse words on the air?

Well, I actually was on really good behaviour yesterday on the golf course too and I had to engage the same policy that I take when I'm going on air because typically if I'm just playing golf or if I'm living normal life, my language can be pretty ripe. I can throw F-bombs as good as I can throw golf clubs. You know, it's the two go hand in hand. And typically, if a golf club is thrown, so is an F-bom, and everything else. So I figure that if I get all my F's out

before I go on air, I do good. So if you're ever walking past the Pordatoiler, an LPGA event and here's FF, FD, FFF, FF, FF, that's me in there getting them all out. That would make me more likely to say that I think. I don't know how you do that. Well, I always had a theory with patients, too. My theory on patients is that every day you wake up with a certain allotment of patients and I used to call them tokens, you know, okay, I've got all these patient patients tokens. And how I choose to use them is what I do throughout the course of the day. When I play golf, they could go on the first toll. Patients tokens gone out

the window, done. I've spent them all on the first hole, but it made me more aware, it's like, okay, I need to be conscious of how I'm spending my patients' tokens throughout the course of a round of golf, and it enabled me to kind of stretch things out a bit. When I became a mother and you have a two-year-old, those patients' tokens went really quickly. What about when you miss shortputs? There's potentially water hazards nearby. Oh, yeah, that's so fun. Are there any incidents with that? Well, if you go to, there's a guy on Twitter called Ghost of Hogan. And if you go on his Twitter site, you'll be able to see him swimming around in a pond at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.

It's where they played a Portland classic Columbia Edgewater Country Club. And played golf with Jerry Foltz, myself, Paul, the assistant there, Ghost of Hogan, and the head pro Brian. And we had this match, and it was Brian and I against Paul and Jerry. So it's a very tight match, and we get through to the eighth hole on the tournament course, which is the 70th hole

that the members play. And so, and it was our 70th hole at night, it was dark. And I've hit a great shot in their par three, water had it on the right. And I am so, so fed up, because I've missed parts all day long. And this is a brand new pattern. She don't tell anybody. And, and I just couldn't help myself. I, I, I, Geri had made his part.

I missed my part. It was literally three feet. And I was so mad because I'd hit such a good shot, I'd been missing them all day, like I'm like, I did the classic golf pro move, throw the ball into the water, like, so I winged the ball into the water, and then, and then after that, I'm like, that's not enough, there has to be more, I'm like, what's more than that? Okay, putters gone too. So I literally double-handed it, winged it in the water, made a big splash, and there was a ton of f-bombs, and any other bad curse word that you could possibly imagine came out of my mouth. Meanwhile, they were rolling around on the floor, dying laugh in at me. But, yeah, so ghost, Paul, went swimming

for that putter. Couldn't find it, but I think it's like a scallop. I think it's one of those things that, you know, the lady of Columbia Ridgewater Lake will kind of raise it out of the water and reveal itself to some worthy player that will actually make putts with it because it didn't work for me. So that was that. Do you have a most embarrassing moment either announcing or walking a golf course? Yeah, I do.

What does I do? I have embarrassing moments all the time. Biggest one recently was at the president's cup. And I was following Charlie Hoffman and Jason Day in a singles match. And it was a fairly quiet day for me on the golf course. Shazza, on course commentator, it can be that way. Sometimes you might call three shots over the course

of a four hour shot. So I was out there just kind of rolling around, not really, I was paying attention, but knowing that they weren't gonna come to me. So I was kind of just enjoying my little walk a bit. And I saw Charlie hit a ball and it looked like it was going into the left bunker. So I'm like, okay, I'll just wander up.

And you kind of have a little hustle on, but not too much. And so I'm walking, walking, walking. And I know Charlie is just literally 10 steps right behind me So I'm like, okay, I've got to really kind of get out the way here because he's catching me pretty quick So I'm on ghost low and as I'm walking up I felt this Ball on my foot and I've made contact with his golf ball. I'm like shit I was so I was like, okay, let the grounds swallow me up because I literally I turned around and Charlie said

Oh, you just kicked my ball. I said yeah, luckily luckily I don't have a strong leg at only one of yards. But it was so bad, I was so embarrassed, but he was great about it, it was no big deal and we and I followed him a couple other times since and he's been totally cool but they just replaced it where it was and it's no big deal. So you should have told me, you had a terrible lie, actually gave you a favor, that helped a little bit. So there's actually a cool story from your British open win. You were telling me about, and just about going into the season, you didn't know much about Sunday and Dale, you weren't sure about your match up there. So you had someone there in your year that was telling you something different.

It's true. At the start of the year, I used to sit down with my golf coach, Chip Kalki, who was at the Marriott Golf Academy there in Orlando, and he's since moved on, but he was a tremendous coach, and we would sit down, start at a season, and work through the schedule to work out what tournaments I would play, where I would miss, how to maximize my performance, basically. So we were going through it, and he said to me, how do you feel about Sunnydale, which was where they played the British Open, and I'm like, well, I'm not really sure.

It's neither, I played it many times growing up. I'm like, yeah, it's neither in land, it's not really links, it's kind of a bit in between, I just a bit ho hum about it. And he said to me, he said, well, for some reason, he said, I think you're gonna have a great week there. I'm like, wow, and sure enough, came off with the win. I mean, I don't even know how or why he even thought that but he just had a feeling for

it. And you had an albatross? Started Eagle albatross in the final round. Five under par for the first two holes. It was the first two holes. Yeah. First two holes, final round. So that was going to be my question. What? Standing on the third tee. what was going through your mind? Well, I literally, you know, my caddy, who was my ex-husband at the time, we still got on great, that's no big deal. He was your ex-husband as he was caddy. Yeah, he was my husband at the time, he's now my ex, but he said to me, let's go shoot

59. I'm like, all right, I was in just one of those in my own little world. I mean, they talk about the zone. I mean, I literally was in my own little world, in my bubble. Nothing else was going on around me, but I really felt like I was going to make everything. So I stood on the next tee, hit a great shot, and then I hit a 52 degree wedge on the next hole. For all intents and purposes, I thought I was going to hole. It was right online, it just landed, it just a bit shorter the hole and then spun back to about 20 feet, but it looked like I'd made another one. I'm like, oh, made another one. Here we go.

And it was just one of those days where I kind of fell a bit flat in the middle, but just did, you know, kept well enough ahead of Rachel Heatherington who was chasing me at the time. And then I stood on the 15th tee and all of a sudden I had a way and I realised I could win the British Open. Up until that point I didn't even, it wasn't even in my mind about winning it. I'm like, oh my god I could win this, this is it. And I had a one shot lead at that point. All of a sudden I got really nervous. That's going to save it. I'm like, that's when the nerves kicked in. Prince Andrew shows up on the tee, the owner of the sponsor shows up on the tee,

the whole of the gallery is now following my group. I'm like, oh, this is really happening. And for some reason, like with all things that happen, with golf, good things, you can tell if it's meant to be for a player. And it was meant to be for me that week, because that whole, the 15th, I managed to scrape a seven wood around the green

on a par three, but I made a putt from about 30 feet that lipped in on the low side. Puts never lipping on the low side, but that one did. So now I've finished birdie, birdie, birdie, par one by five, and that was it. Would you say you married the speed in the line of that? There are, the speed were perfectly married. So give us that, you have kind of a list of cliches

of some kind of things you don't want to say on the air. What are some of those? I hate the ball rolling end over end because the ball's round. How can it roll? It doesn't have an end, it just rolls. So that's a little peep. I heard now that you've pointed some of these out yesterday. I heard like one of them on an interview and I'm like,

Oh, now I'm going to hear it everywhere. These are going to be like once you hear them, you can't unhear them. The glass breaking moment. Exactly. I'm not a big fan of the fairway metal lever. No. It's a word. It's a word. It's better than less than driver. She's going with less than driver here. That doesn't help us. It's better than less than driver. She's going with less than driver here. That doesn't help us. That's true.

And the only reason why you'd say that is because you're not right by the tee and you can't see if it's actually a hybrid or a three or a five or the caddy hasn't given you a signal. I'm like, I don't know what it is. It's something I'm going to have a guess. I got nothing to add apart from that it's not a driver. And then there's the other one that I don't look the marry in the speed and the line. It's like, well that's fairly obvious. And again it's sometimes that's the only thing that pops into your

head because it's so cliche that everybody wants to say it. You know it's just the only thing that is in there. And you know that something's got to come out So that's what you reach for Exactly left hand right hand side. Oh Like I don't get that either why people say down the right hand side or down the left hand side when you can just say She is down the right or it's down the left because everybody knows what it is that was the glass breaking moment Yeah, you're like oh yeah, that's right Just simple things.

I want to ask you, you know, the kind of the record breaking start there in the final round of the women's British open. I got to be a record that I would imagine. So it's going to be tough to beat that one. But you also, I'm curious if the record still stands. So you set the scoring record on the LPGA tour with a cumulative 258. Do you know, does that still stand? Yeah, it still stands. I think it's been done again, but it still stands. All right. How many under was that?

Well, it was a past 70. So I shot 66 66 63 you remember that off top your head like that Yeah, and the only reason I say that is because I can't add up so that's that's what I shot I'm not gonna even try and add that up. What's it like being in the in the zone? You know, it's one thing to do it over the course of a round But to kind of string four straight together. It's very it's very difficult You don't and you which is why you'll see players have a really great round and then have a not-so-great round. That's one of the reasons I think that that happens. You'll have it often on throughout the course of the tournament.

Some rounds, you'll have it the whole time. And the goal is to get it as often as you possibly can, but it's so difficult and so rare to find. People ask me about that final round. And there's a bit of it in the middle that I really can't remember anything about it, because there was no film of it. There was no TV coverage from some of those shots. And if I hadn't seen it, I can't really remember it

because I was so in my own little world, and so in just playing one shot at a time and doing that, that's another cliche thing. One shot at a time. But players say that a lot too. It's part of a thought process. If I hadn't seen it, I would never know what it was. That's that zone. But the process, the process leads to the zone. So the better you are with the process, the more likelihood you are of finding that.

It's still a loose. If an even for the best players in the world, they rarely find it. Yeah, I was going to say, if you knew how to get yourself into the zone, you could bottle that up and make a lot of money. I think it's a combination of confidence, as well as the process, and just enjoying the fact that the ball is doing exactly what you want it to do.

I think you get it. I mean, it's like your good play is going to breed the confidence, which is going to breed more good play, but you can't be confident if you're not to do. I think you get it. I mean, it's like you your good play is going to breed the confidence, which is going to breed more good play, but you can't be confident if you're not playing well. So it's exactly. I don't know what comes first. And that's that's the madness that you probably are we're talking about when it comes to the grind of this game and the struggle that's come with it. I mean, it's just I mean, Lydia Coe was number one in the world at the age of

19. And then two years later, it was like what's what seems to be going on here? It's it can happen to literally anyone. It can and I think Lydia, Lydia's change has been because she she wants to improve. She wants to get better. She knows that if she sits still there's going to be another talented player chasing her down and and and taking over that spot and you can never sit still with golf. You've always got to keep trying and keep moving forward and people always argue well if it's not broke don't fix it. Well that's easier to say than done when you know that there's potentially more within you to get out and I think that's what we saw with Lydia. The trouble with her is that

she did it all in one time. She did the clubs that she did the the caddy, she did the coach, she did everything all all in with a fell swoop. And then she looks a lot of weight as well on top of it. And all of those things take time to adjust to. Well, get you out of here on this. We hate making predictions, especially ahead of majors. And even on the LPGA tour, we would be even worse at it. Do you have it?

I'm sure you get this question a lot, but do you have a pick coming into this week? Oh, you know, it's funny. You know, picking for this week, having played the course now, we've had a lot of rain here, and it's playing long. And you've got to be accurate, too. I think having a good caddy is huge this week. I think the person who has a great caddy is going to work out well, because you've got to know how far the carriers are

over the bunker, you've got to know how far it then is to run through to the next one. The greens are awkward angles from the fairway. They diagonally slope towards the back of the green. In terms of, you've got to carry the middle of the green, is more than to carry the front and the back. You've got to know all those numbers. You've got to be-

Different quadrants all over them now. Distance control is of a premium. And you have to look at people who have form coming in because you can't find form in a major. You've got to have some kind of form coming in. And it's hard to escape your lexitonson who played well last week in Arkansas or area Dutanaghan also played well in Arkansas as you know, as the winner of the US Open as well,

plays well on really wet golf courses. US Open was soggy, Kings Meal, the other place that she won, also really soggy. And I think for her, she's a bit of an iffy driver of the golf ball. You rarely ever see her with a driver in the hand. And I think when the golf courses were, it almost feels like it's that much wider for her.

Like, she, because the fairways don't run out, it feels, I think she feels golf course is where, it almost feels like it's that much wider for her. Because the fairways don't run out, it feels, I think she feels like she can open up a bit more and have more freedom. So I think that's why you see her do well on those courses. Those two would probably be my favorites, but I wouldn't rule out a Jessica Corder or a Nelly Corder or someone like that, because their ball striking is just absolutely spot on.

And I watched Nelly Corder play a couple of weeks ago at Meyer and I don't think I've ever been more impressed with somebody's driving ever. So that's kind of, those would be my picks. I mean, you can never rule out and be parked. But I think this is a little too long for her of a golf course, especially being so, so, so wet. You heard it here, Bombers Paradise here. All right, Karen, thank you so much for your time and for being such an awesome pro-amp partner. No, well, I had a great tea.

It was a really fun day. And we didn't lay up once, so we did not. We did not. But sometimes to our detriment. No, never. No, never. Best of luck this week. Thanks so much for joining us and we'll be here

and you on the air. Sweet, thank you. Cheers. Thank you. Give it a big club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most.

Better than most.