No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 158: Julian Suri

Episode Date: August 6, 2018

*Julian Suri joins us to talk about his recent run on the European Tour, his path from Duke through the Florida mini-tours, through the Challenge Tour, and what will hopefully be the PGA Tour in... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 158: Julian Suri 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. Yeah! That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most! Alright guys, welcome back to the No-Lang Up Podcast. We are going to get to our interview here with Julian Surrey here in a little bit. I wanted to pop in and talk about a few things going on in the world of golf before we do that. We won't have a full wrap-up podcast from Firestone or doesn't

sound like we'll have a full preview for the PGA Championship as well. But I wanted to give shout out to JT for his thrilling win at Firestone, the last ever WGC Bridgestone event at Firestone. Not that upset to say goodbye to Firestone, although it's been a place we've had a lot of fun memories with Big Cat. There have been some good tournaments over the years I think. A change of scenery for these events is definitely a good thing. I don't think TBC Southwind is the answer. Actually I'm pretty positive that it's not the answer. We discuss a lot of these things on our live show, on Periscope, that's on Twitter.

You can go back and watch the replay of that DJ and Big Randy and I just chat it up about WGCs and everything like that. So if you're looking for that recap, go back into our Twitter feed and that replay is available for pretty much eternity, I think. So, Georgia Hall, shout out to her for winning the Rico Women's British Open. She is English and won in her home country of England there at Royal Latham and St. Anne's, which was awesome to watch. She was absolutely nail-shout. Final round 67 with kind of like a comfortable bogey on

the last. She played even better than that and just played absolutely lights out to win that and win a major championship. That was awesome to watch. The Barakuda hasn't quite wrapped yet as the time of this recording. So don't have a full update on that one. And we are pumped to roll into the last major championship. I don't know a full update on that one. And we are pumped to roll into the last major championship. I don't know a ton about Bel Rive.

I've been reading up from Andy over the Friday egg and he doesn't sound too thrilled. They're excited about it. I'm trying my best to go into this with an open mind and kind of soak up the last major of the year. It does something that's gonna be a Reese Jones special. It's gonna be long, it's gonna be narrow. They've got big greens and it should favor the bombers in the ball strikers the best.

Again, going in with an open mind, we're going to tackle it, we're going to come in pretty strong this week with live shows and hopefully a new formatted live show on Wednesday evening kind of previewing the event as well. So on that note, without much further ado, I want to give a shout out to our man, hashtag Chad at Callaway. He and his wife just welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. And as a special gift to them, I told them, listen, you don't even have to worry about sending me over anything today. I'm just going to do the ad all of my own,

and don't even worry about it. So you're welcome, Chad, for this. And I can pick the topic myself. And the topic I chose is I want to talk the X Forged Irons from Callaway. I put these in my bag back in April. I was hesitant to do it. I was playing the Apex pros before this, and I honestly love them that Chad sent me a set of them.

He's like, please just try them, please try them. I put them in my bag right before we went to Band-in-Dunes. I'm very happy with the decision. I'm honestly probably about a club longer with the X4's than I was with the Apex pros. They're about a degree lower in loft. And I've never really been one to seek major distance with irons, but the appeal of blasting three irons and having about nine irons or less in degrees is kind of transformed the way I've thought about this. The X4's irons are more forgiving than a blade, but they deliver plenty of feel. They're a bit offset and they've got a really thin look from the top.

I was always worried with irons that really launched the ball how well they get in and out of the turf, but I've had no such issue with these. They are damn sexy to look at from over top. So imagine that helps a bit with the confidence when you're standing over one. I'm still struggling a bit to adjust to some of the distances that I'm hitting these balls, especially into the wind. I feel like I need to club up and I end up flying greens with them. So still adjusting, but honestly, it couldn't be much more impressed with the X-Forge Zyren. So for more information on those, go to calabagolf.com. And let's get

into our interview here with Julian Surrey. If those that aren't that familiar with Julian, he is a American. He's 27 years old. He's playing on the European tour. He is one on the European tour. We talk a bit about his path from Duke University through the mini-tour scene in Florida to the challenge tour towards playing the European tour. And, well, we'll hopefully be the PGA tour next year. He is definitely a guy you want to get to know.

He's going to be a guy you're probably going to see on leaderboards next year. And I imagine he's just coming to the forefront of a lot of American golf fans. So he's a fun guy to root for. He's a bit of a trash talker. So I'm not going to pump him up anymore than that. You'll hear a bit of that as we go on me and Rain. You got a chance to play with him last week at Tim Aquana. And we sat down with him in the clubhouse for a podcast interview afterwards. So without further ado, enjoy that.

And hopefully we'll be in touch with you guys later this week during the PGA championship. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast here at Tim Aquana Country Club, home turf here with noted sandbagger, Julian Surrey. Let's just start it off. I want you to explain to the listeners the entire situation we had at Sawgrass Country Club last week. And then I'll tell the real version after that. But you know, I'm usually not used to playing with inferior players. So when I'm, when I'm, everyone else on the tour is better than you. Is that what you're saying?

Well, you know, substantially inferior. So when I, when I'm presented with the task of stroking somebody that I've won, I've never seen, but two also past PGA professional, it's a little bit challenging. And I assumed we were on the same deal from the front to back nine, and then I get labeled as a sandbag.

I feel like this has all been retroactively labeled. And I feel a little bit victimized. It's funny that you used that word. You were deciding after the holes were over if we got strokes on that hole. And you were only giving four strokes. You were playing as a plus three and you are the 60 second ranked player in the world.

I just taken three days off after five weeks on the road. I am the victim here. I've been. We won the money. We went out today and got you out here at Tim Aquana on the home turf and I got the proper amount of strokes and it still didn't matter for the record. But we hit the quan properly today. We did.

We did the quan. But all right, we're going to start this off. We want to get into your background. So let's just assume that anyone listening to this is not familiar with you at all. So walk us through your background, why you're in Jacksonville and why you're American playing the European tour. Yeah, so kind of, I'd probably say different than most. I was born in New York City, lived in just outside New York City until I was 10.

My parents lived in Manhattan, like I said, until I was 10. And then we moved down to Jacksonville. My dad got a new job partly, but also because I had shown pretty good potential in golf and Florida, it was kind of where you needed to be. So I've lived in the area just south of Jacksonville in St. Augustine since I was 10 years old and kind of progressed and then ended up going to Duke.

I finished that up in 2013 and was kind of struggling there for a couple years. I started to lose my swing at the end of my senior year at Duke and I'd never had a swing coach my whole life. I'd never had any sort of formal instruction and I'd done all right with some somewhat good results at college and I was an all-American once but when the good was good it was really good but when the bad was bad it really hit the fans. I was pretty stubborn to kind of see somebody.

So at the end of 2015, I thought my game was good enough to do the Q-school. So I did the European Q-school. My rationale for that was, you make it you make it to final stage of Q-School. Well, first before we do that, because I've tried to do a little notes preparing for this and whatnot, I couldn't find like record of, you said you turned pro in 2013,

I couldn't find what you were doing in that two-year span. So walk us through what was happening during that a few years back when you turned pro. So I turned pro on the fall of 2013, did the web.com Q school messed out on that Did the Asian tour Q school in January of 2014 in Thailand messed out on that So I come back. I'm just playing mini tours. I'm playing what was then swing thought

They've had a million different sponsors the hooters.. It was the old Hooters tour, NGA was playing pretty crappy, honestly. And it was just kind of, I was pretty stubborn to find help. And 14 was probably the worst year because there was no, I'd play golf at my home course, and I'd lose five, six golf balls around. And it wasn't fun. And I don't know why it took me so long to find somebody who would help. You know, it takes me a while to kind of trust people too and that's a pretty personal

part of who I am as my golf swing. So it took some time. I was playing a lot of moonlight tour. Those were like one day events in Orlando where you kind of, you pay a hundred bucks and you show up and the winner can get up to 500 bucks depending on the field size. And those will get 25, 30 guys. But you know, those are just kind of reps to get going and play West Florida tour, Monday qualifiers.

And yeah, it was kind of a grind. I wasn't pretty. Did you see success with the first swing coach that you visited with or what was that process like? Did you have to go through a number of them to find somebody that you worked well with? No, the first swing coach I've really had was the one that I'm currently with. Okay. Dan Carrer, I started working with him last year at the end or in April of 2017. So I up until then I'd seen progress and I was just kind of like kind of throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what stuck for those, you know, two years or whatever. So you kind of

fought your way out of it on your own. It's 2014, okay. To our extent. And I started to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and I was playing a little bit better. But during that time was there, was it for like were you very convinced that you wanted to continue on this path? Was there ever doubt that you wanted to play professional golf at any point? Yeah, I mean, there was always the love for the game, and that's what I always wanted to do, since I was a kid, six, seven years old. And so it's always what I wanted to do.

But in the back of my head, at times, sure, I was just like, you know, maybe I'm not cut out for this, you know, maybe I had this good junior career and solid college career and and this is my undoing and you know because of my stubbornness or whatever I'm not able to push through to the next level and you know You see guys that you grew up with in junior golf and you know and college golf or whatever and they're having success and You're like man, you know, what's the difference? And so, now, people are looking at you probably, the opposite side, one are in the same thing.

Yeah, I guess maybe. Well, I just find it interesting, because you noted there that in April of 2017, it's kind of when you started working with Dan, but you turned, or I guess the last March, you, I looked this up in your official World Golf Ranking page. You played in the Barclays Kenya Open, you finished T41 and you ended the week,

ranked 1,140 second in the world. And 16 months later, you're ranked 60 second in the world. So something happened in that period of time, because it's one thing to kind of come out of school and take maybe a year to break through, but you were probably four years removed from school like almost like a post-type sleeper breakout. So what the hell changed in that time period

to make that kind of leap? Post-type sleeper breakout, yeah, that's one way to put it. Yeah, I know, it was, yeah, I mean, it was right after I got back from Kenya, I had to take a hard look at my game because at the end of 2016, I missed my European tour card by one and so I played alright and for six rounds and the very next week I got my first European tour start in Australia. Played okay, came in 15th I think or 16 something like that and I was like okay, maybe I can

ready, I'm ready to kick some ass on the challenge tour next year and I start out on Kenya and it was just like I remember the last round I shot one under and I think I had nine or 10 wedge shots like inside 120, 130 yards and I was inside of 30 feet once and I shot one under so you look at the scorecard and you're like, okay, well it's not bad. He's not making triples and quads, but like I was like dude like come on There's there's so much more in the tank and so I went back I was home for the entire month of April and back here in Jacksonville and I started working with Dan like two days after I got back and

And just worked on some changes pretty much I had them a whole month to grind on it went Went to Orlando a few times, played some moon lights, played some Florida Pro Golf Tour, which is another mini tour. That's not glamorous. And you just, you got to kind of work on stuff for three days, four days, go test that out and competition, come back, get the feedback,

and go from there. And it was kind of like a four week process. And then finally, I went over to Portugal, the beginning of May last year. And those are a co-sanctioned event between the challenge in the European and I came in second. And then two weeks later I won a challenge event

and it kind of propelled the rest of my summer. So how did you, and then, yeah, later that summer, you win a European Tour event in Denmark. How did you, I think you were the first person to ever win a challenge tour event and a European Tour event in the same year. So how did think you were the first person to ever win a challenge tour event and a European Tour event in the same year. So how did you get into the field that week was it an exemption or did you kind of get a battlefield promotion from the challenge tour?

How that work? I think it was actually the first until yesterday or last week until Maccavoid 1 in Germany. But he, no, I got into Denmark just through my category. So I ended up missing the full card by one, but through the category, you still get into probably seven or eight European tour events, just it goes down the list. And there was a challenge tour event that week in Switzerland, which is like a no-cut event. It's called a Rolex trophy.

You get treated great. The winner gets a Rolex, which I still don't have. And I don't even wear watch. I just look at my phone. And so it was kind of a debate because it's only like a 40-man field in Switzerland. And I was like, which one should I play? Because obviously I want to shoot for the top, get my world ranking up as high as I can.

But or should I focus on finishing out the challenge to our season number one and going through that round. Finally, I, Deon Waiters always said, you got to bet on yourself and then double down. So I said, let's shoot for it. We played in Denmark and I was home for three weeks before that, so I had good prep time. Yeah, game fell really good and ended up winning that week so it's great. And now you're kind of battling the same kind of questions I think between the European

tour and the PGA tour because you're getting spot starts really on the PGA tour but what is that really building towards? So what is kind of your thought process for how you choose, I mean are you basically playing any PGA tour event you can get in at this point or how do you choose your balance between the two? Well right now I think this fall is going to be interesting because I have, you know, I've played all the Rolex series events in the European tour and quite a few other ones. But when, like I'm in the PGA next week and then I'll have the web finals after that, if I get my PGA tour card through those web finals, it's going to be kind of an interesting balancing act because obviously I'll be a PGA tour rookie, but I'll be in the three race to Dubai events at the end of the year, Turkey, Ned Bank and Dubai. And those are huge world

ranking points. Great fields, no cut. I can't skip those. It's tough to miss those. And, you know, limited field events, but at the same time, you know, I want to be based in the US and I'm an American and my whole life is here. So it's just kind of it going to be a kind of a balancing act a little bit. So with reflection, you know, you said when you were kind in the wilderness a little bit, you were wondering what the difference was. With some time to to reflect what would you say the difference was? You know, I think a lot of people, they put a lot of emphasis on as kids come out of college, they need to learn how to be a pro and then need to learn how to handle themselves and

be a without a team or a college coach, whatever. And I think that's great for them, but I think for me it was just a purely mechanical thing. It wasn't any, it's not like I was getting ahead of myself on the course or I was getting frustrated or impatient. I mean, a little bit maybe, but I'd say the big majority of my problems were coming from mechanical issues. And so I just needed someone, one that I could trust.

Because trust is, you know, to trust somebody, you hear stories about all the time out. Swing coaches can, you know can get in the way, especially shorter players. They try to get longer, and then they end up losing everything. And they start back to square one. It's a long process. So that was something I was pretty reluctant to go through.

But at the same time, I was pretty much at the bottom of a pretty deep well. So I had to do something. And it just took me a while to light the fire under my ass and do it. And then it seems like it was a little bit incremental. I mean, it wasn't necessarily like a sudden breakthrough. It was a little bit of a time-testing competition,

come back refined, testing competition. come back refined, you know, testing competition. Totally. Yeah, totally incremental. I mean, it's definitely not, and that's, for me, that's how I've always done it. You know, you start to, you see like a little bit of a breakthrough and then you're like, okay, well, I did that really well,

but maybe my, I wasn't as patient as I should have been. If I was as patient as I should have been, I probably would have run one that thing running away. Or, you know, just little things like that, or, you know, I needed to fix my practice, so my practice swing wasn't the way it should have been to get me feeling the right things to go to make that change on the course

on a tough tee shot or something like that. So you have these little things that you find, and then you kind of plug them back in at the next week. And so it's, yeah, very much trial and error. Randy's a bit in the wilderness right now. He's just trying to claw out of it. He's trying to claw out of it. Scratch a note, Tilbury.

Appreciate it. How many, how many do you have account? Do you have any countries have you been to? Last year I went to 17. This year I haven't looked at the tally yet, but last year was 17. How many passports have you been through? So I went through my normal sized one last year, so in December I got a 52-pageer, so I'm

working on that, but I think that'll be a little while before I go through that. I got to be honest before I was going through your page, I didn't know that there was a challenge to our event in Kenya. Just here you tell the story of like, yeah, I'm in Kenya and my wedge game is not dialed in, it's like, like professional golf world is insane. Yeah so I wrote it. I wrote it I believe. I wrote a hell of a place man.

Nairobi is what we had I went I was in Africa I had a Kenyan tour guy do. I was like what's Nairobi like is it nice? Is Nairobi? No. Yeah I mean it's it's it's an experience. It's I've never seen I was there for 10 days, and we stayed in the city and got shut all back and forth to the course. And didn't see one stop sign, didn't see one traffic light.

How do intersections work? You just go, you just kind of gun it. And whoever has the bigger pair wins out, you know, true gladiator battle, really. It's, are you not entertained? We were definitely entertained. What of all the places you've been between challenge tour European tour what is what's the place that you're you'd be fine not going back to? I Think once in Kenya's are I for me You know, I think the people are very nice and the culture is great and everything but it's just it's a lot

It's a lot different. It's probably something that you enjoyed experiencing and are fine not going back to it, but you're also not looking to go back to the challenge tour, I don't think, as well. It's not in the plan. So was it an easy decision for you for this fall to go forward with the web finals

versus staying out in the European tour? I mean, it sounds like, I guess, what is the main appeal for playing the European tour from your regard? And I know Brooks has had success going that route, Peter Uline as well. Was that kind of just a bit more cultured experience, I guess, playing the European tour,

than going out and trying to play the Web Tour? Partly, but I think more of it was, I saw how many, you know, like in my case, I ended up missing my Q school card in Europe by one. If I was in that exact same position in the web, the amount of world ranking points that I would have been exposed to are just so much more in Europe. And I have full challenge tour status. I know you've got a little smirk on your face.

You're going to go with your Norton conspiracy series. The amount of challenge to our events, I would, I would, I had full challenge to our status, all of those have 12 points. And then I would have gotten like I said, like I did in a Denmark, a seven or eight European tour events, which are all at least 24 points. And on the web, I think most of the events have 14 points available. But if I miss my web card, my full web status by one, I'm getting in those last minute. I can't set a schedule. I don't know. I'm doing Mondays. I'm in the, not where I want to be.

So, just the opportunity was a little bit, I felt like the ceiling was a little bit higher to kind of crash the party and I feel like I kind of did. Was it a realist to go for you this year to try to earn special temporary membership on the PGA tour? Yeah, it was. And I definitely didn't have the start that I wanted to. I had those three early starts, a Tory, Phoenix, and Pebble. And I had a little bit of an injury over Christmas and New Year's, where I was kind of sidelined

for about three weeks. And I only had about five days really to practice before Tori. And it was an ideal. I was definitely a little rusty. There was that on the line. There was also, just trying to get in the top 50 before the Masters, before the players, which for me is like a fifth major having grown up here in this area. So that, you know, all that was kind of on the line and I was pushing it. I was kind of playing a lot of events with not a whole

lot of preparation and and and so I remember in March after missing the cut in India, I was like, I just need to stay home and get my game together because this isn't any fun. I'm, you know, however many thousand miles from home and I'm shooting in over par and I don't really know what I'm doing.'m, you know, however many thousand miles from home and I'm shooting in over par and I don't really know what I'm doing. So, you know, I think in the future, instead of chasing those deadlines, I need to make sure that my game is up to the task

of performing. What is kind of your rule or a guideline for when you come home, like you're traveling for the European tour, if you have one week off, do you come home for that week or do you try to run three weeks in a row, be in home, how's that work? No, if I have one week off, I'll stay out there. It's just a lot.

I mean, you go five, six hours time change. You take as it is probably two days for me, if you really try at it to get adjusted, then it takes probably another day and a half or two once you go back. So that's four days that you're kind of like just laying around and... In limbo, yeah. Comato is pretty much.

So I then once you're that, like how much time do you actually have to practice, you lose time when you go back to Europe from here. So yeah, I mean, if it's more than one week, then I will come back. If it's two weeks, I'll totally come back. And that's what I've done in the past. I've spent off weeks and I have a buddy from college who lives in Slovenia, spent a week there last year, spent a week in Dubai last year practicing and... Reenlubiana? Lubiana, have you been?

I've been. Have you been a leg-bled? I have. Oh my God, one of the prettiest fights I've ever seen. Slovenia is like way under the radar. Eastern Europe is unbelievable, first of all. If you'd call that Eastern Europe to him, he'll slap you in the back. He says Central Europe, because it's closer to Italy. Yeah, he calls that Central, South Central.

I guess they do share a border there, I guess a little bit with Italy. But all of those countries, all the Yugoslav countries are just incredible. Awesome, so much history. I mean, the downtown Lodliana, like a little river that kind of goes through it and all the buildings, there's castles that light of goes through it and all the buildings, there's castles that light up at night. It's a pretty cool place. So that's some fun nights there.

Well, I don't wanna say Eastern Europe again, but everyone that always asks for advice on where to go in Europe, but Paris room, that's cool, but go to like Prague, go to Budapest, go to Croatia. Like that's where the real fun I think is. That's what I was always wondering if you take a week off in Europe, do you just go around

touring a little bit, or do you practice most of the time? The tour is not in Europe that much anyway, but how do you spend your time on the off-weeks? I was always curious. Yeah, those two off-weeks definitely come to mind. Slovenia, it was myself, Dylan Fratelli, and my buddy Tim Gornick, who went to Duke with me. Dylan had just won in Austria, so we had a good time right after that. Actually on the drive to Slovenia, he bought me like a... No, no, we went to McDonald's, that was the first meal.

And he's like, oh no, they don't take American Express. Julian, can you cover this? I'm like, dude, are you serious? They have to take American Express and Slovenia? I was like, first of all, this sounds like complete bullshit. But second of all, it's okay, I'll take care of it. And then, no, so we went out a couple nights and then, yeah, we were practicing, we were grinding for the most part. And we'd sightseeing a little bit.

They did a swim from the shores of Lake Blad to that little castle on the lake, which I'm not a strong swimmer. I'm not a strong swimmer, so I just kind of laid by the, I just did my thing, even out my tan lines, but yeah, that was, it was fun. I mean, went to the gym, you know, did normal stuff. I'd do it home. Dubai, definitely a lot of sightseeing because there's so much to see. I was there in October, so it was, that place is, it's not. It's so cool. I don't know if this is the appropriate time But I was just curious kind of rewinding back to your high school and and you know junior days How was you got to Duke and what that experience was like? You know playing the college game. Yeah, no, I mean, I think

Duke was you know probably the furthest in North. I was looking to go out of Jacksonville as far as schools. But the academic reputation was incredible. And once I got there on campus, it has a special feeling. Even now, I just watched this sort of documentary with Jay Williams called Best Shot. And he took these high school kids from New Jersey down to Duke and to a basketball game. And just seeing them walking around campus and then going to a basketball game and then eating in the student union and going to the McDonald's and everything.

It just brings back so many memories. It's just like a special place for me. And playing college golf was a great experience. You know, it was first time away from home. I think it's something that a lot of kids need, and I definitely needed that, grow up a little bit, do my own laundry, you know, learn how to pack a suitcase by myself and stuff like that.

But it was a great experience. We had a full nap, we played all over the country, kind of learned how to fly, how to manage, a little bit of jet lag, not quite European or all of Asian jet lag. No, I had a blast. I mean, a lot of my best friends come from those four years that I had there. What'd you study while you were at Duke?

I majored in history. The US history. I got a certificate in markets and management. It's like in between a major and a minor. Cool. There's this where you showed all your European friends, a Chappelle show. Yeah, I mean, I had to enlighten them. We had to, let's see, we had just Napoleon Dynamite was on the list. Chappelle show was on the list. You know, the reporter going

ghetto that was on the list. just a lot, a lot of YouTube. You got a bit triggered today. We're here with Clint here, the pro at Tim Aquana, and you hit a puddle on the putting green. You had this little red ball that's like a weighted ball that it's like to test your impact, your impact position and whatnot. You had a couple squirrely puts with the red ball. You got to that first green, and you were a bit triggered by the, the effect this had on you. You're gonna be all right for the PGA next week. Yeah, I think I'll be able to recover,

I think being on Ben Grass and knowing the feel of that will be just fine. Red balls. Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. Okay. So going back to your win in Denmark. So you should have fun around 64 to win that day, I think.

I was kind of curious as to how going to that final round, how much of it did it feel like you had a big expectation on yourself to win and how different did that day feel to like the French open this past year where you had a great chance to win as well. How do you, when you think back to those two days, what was similar and what was different? I think similarities between the two. I was both, both the time that I was chasing. I think similarities between the two. I was both the time that I was chasing. I was two back. I believe in Denmark going into Sunday. And I think in France, I was quite a few more back. I was like four-ish. So Denmark, I was like, I'm in the last group. I have

a lage. I'm playing well enough to win this thing. I'm just gonna give it everything I have. And, you know, I had some putting struggles early on and Thursday and Friday I had a bunch of three puts, like four, five, three puts in those two days. And I knew if I just kinda just played my game and kept hitting it as solid as I was, it was gonna fall my way. I just gotta keep putting pressure on him

and stay patient. I guess all, putting pressure on him and stay patient. I guess all, that's really similar to France too. France is just a freaking tough ass course. And guys are gonna make mistakes. And even though I knew I was four back, or whatever I was, I don't even know what I was. I think everyone was at least three back going into the final round.

I was at five undergoing into Sunday, and I don't even know who was leading. Would, maybe. Or Ken Holt. Ken Holt was winning. He must have been nine or 10. But I think I knew honestly that can be made up in two holes out there.

And so guys are going to make big numbers. Again, the day before I just had a bogey free two under, I believe, and I probably could have shot seven or eight lower. I just didn't make a putt outside of four feet. So I guess it was a little bit similar in those approaches, but I also knew I was, it was a comfortable pairing playing with JT on Sunday there, and you know, he's somebody that I've known for a long time since junior golf, college golf, all that.

So even though people might have thought, oh, you know, the crowds were this, or that, whatever. The crowds are great. I mean, I enjoyed it. You know, I think we both birdied, I think he bogeed one, but we both birdied two. We both hit it inside of three feet there. And from then on, I was like, you know, this is fun. You want to be with the top, I think it was two, number two in the world at the time.

Like, this is how you want to be in this environment and, you know, on a really difficult golf course to test all part of your game. It was just like, kind of spurred me on a little bit. It's got to, I mean, you got to wonder, you know, your future, you hopefully is on the PGA tour and kind of, it's got to be cool to see where you measure up, like, right? You're playing with one of the top players in the world and you beat them on that day. Yeah, no, it's fun. Actually, these last five weeks, I had a lot of cool experiences like that.

I played with the week before in Germany. I played with Tommy Fleetwood the last day and then I played with JT there. I played with Rory and Ireland the week later and then in Scottish I played with one of my, I missed the cup but the first two days I played with one of my childhood heroes or any else and that was like a little bit surreal. How great is that? I mean he told me the real airplane stories that won't go on there but two days play with one of my childhood heroes, Ernie L's, and that was like a little bit surreal. He's so great, is Ernie. I mean, he told me the real airplane stories that won't go on the air, but we're cutting the short digs, because we're going to tell them here some of those. No, but he was, I mean, just a great guy. And then at the British, you know, it was, oh, sorry, at the open on Sunday, played with

Lee Westwood, which is another guy I've watched since I was a kid. And so just kind of really cool experiences to play with guys, the first couple weeks that are really playing really well right now and they're primes and it's great for me to compare my games. But then the last two weeks to play with guys that I've grown up watching and it's just like who always seemed a little bit surreal to me.

Yeah, you got into the open with that runner-up finish in France. So what was it, this was your second major you played the open the year before. It was making the cut in a major, a big deal for you. I was making it to the weekend. Was that a celebrated thing on your end? It is when you shoot three over on Thursday. It was more the way I grinded it out on Friday because I knew I needed to play well Friday to make the cut and then especially having my dad there and I had a couple friends from Jacksonville who also came. I didn't want them to come

to watch two days, that sucks. So it was the way I grinded it out, I didn't make too many bogies and I ended up birding 18 at Carnegie News State knowing I was right there in the mix, either on the line or one end. There's a lot of things, as we all know, that can happen on the 18th at Carnegie News State. Some big numbers have been made. I'm aware of all that, obviously. For me to birdie it to hit it to four feet and make that pow is, I think, bigger than just making the cut, but it was how I performed under that sort of under-

Knowing you needed to do it kind of passes that test. What's it like to play the weekend of a major championship? How different is the buzz from what you're used to? It's awesome. It's incredible. It's something that I kind of wish I could do like every week. And then especially, I made a little bit of a run there, Sunday. I was playing really well.

I was 300 through 16 and had an unfortunate finish with a double in a bogey. But I think I got up close to the top 10 there. And you could definitely see some people sort of accumulate, and especially on those back nine holes. And I was still hitting good shots and that's what you want to test yourself under those sort of conditions and those sort of environment and it was just as it is I fell in love with car news see last time last year I played it at the Dunhill and it was totally different conditions but you can see how this is just

a major championship venue and it's just an overall great test. And you finish and you're depleted because it just exhausts every part of your game. And I feel like that's what a golf course should be. And with it playing firm and fast, there's so many more variables up in the air. So for me to kind of make that run and keep executing shots the way I did, I was pretty happy with where my game was at.

Because you really didn't have much any links golf experience before this pass, the way I did, I was pretty happy with where my game was at. You really didn't have any links golf experience before this past three, four week stretch, huh? Yeah, that Irish open was kind of eye-opening because I knew I was playing well from France. And there's so many holes. I hit a good tee shot and get a screwy bounce, goes in the rough, catch a flyer, go over the green, and all of a sudden I have a 12 footer for par when I feel like I didn't miss a shot. So that's how it is. You have to accept it. It's a different mindset.

It's a different approach to the game, and you kind of have to just go play and accept it. Kind of scooted past this, past the French open, but with the Ryder Cup going to the golf national, what's your on the ground report from what that course is like to play and how that will play for a Ryder Cup? I think it'll be a little different with match play. You might have guys trying to play a little bit more aggressively, but there's only a limit

to how aggressive you can play that place. So, they said it's going to be a very similar setup in terms of green speeds, in terms of rough, as it was a couple of ago, to the rider cup. But, you know, they're definitely angling to play for the European favor. I mean, they have the greens a little bit slower. They were running at about a 10 probably, and, you know, they had, they made it tighter for the kind of notion that the American guys like to bomb it, you know, all over the map and then find it. So, yeah, I think it's going to be a great venue. The place is built for spectating. There's in between all the holes, there's huge mounds and everything, a little bit like

memorial or TPC sawgrass. It's just built for crowds. And yeah, I think it'll be a great atmosphere as long as the weather holds up. There's a much of a buzz on the ground from fans or anything to feel like with the event coming there. Was it a topic of discussion during that week? Yeah, totally. Totally.

I mean, I think that was a major part. I mean, it definitely added to the intrigue of me wanting to play that because it's a long stretch leading up to the open. And obviously, I wasn't in the open yet, but four or five events in a row is a lot and a lot of guys would skip either one of them or you know, some sort of combination of them to make, to prep for the open. And you know, I kind of put that on my list as like one, I can't miss because it is a Ryder Cup course, it's going to get a great feel. This is where I want wanna test my game.

I know it's a tough course. A reward's really solid ball striking and this is where I wanna be. So. After that five week stretch, you're home here for two weeks. Is two weeks in a row off? Is that too long for you?

Do you start itching to get back out there? Or is did you need that kind of decompression time after that stretch? No, I definitely needed it sometime. Five weeks is a lot. I played pretty well, but I'd also had stuff I needed to work on. And so I could take two, three days off

and kind of rest a little bit. But then I'm ready to get back to, at the time Friday of last week hit, or Thursday of Friday, I was ready to get back to work. And then now, a couple days away from leaving for the PGA, and I'm ready to go compete. And I kind of undervalued the how much rest is how important that is, I think before last year. But you definitely need to mentally recharge your batteries and be ready to go, especially for a major because you can't be

pissing shots away. I'm just trying to take that personally that I'm gonna be I need to get out there and compete considering we're still sweating from going out there and playing today. I'm not I'm not being that close. You were hitting it. I have editing capabilities on this end so I can cut all that part out of the video. When you are at home, what's a typical practice day look like usually? Yeah, I mean, it's usually involved some sort of practice playing and gym. I'm pretty diligent with my trainer, Keith McCormick, here in Jacksonville, and it's definitely a good thing for me to keep my energy levels up and I just feel better. And then you know I'll work with my coach probably a couple of times a week, twice a week

usually when I'm home. And then yeah just practice at either Saga's Country Club or TPC and then try to play wherever I can if I can get a couple of games going. You seem like you are very in tune with kind of your thoughts. And I don't know. You come across as a very smart guy and haven't gone to Duke. It's apparent why. I'm just curious if you really go about setting goals for yourself

and what that, not necessarily if you don't want to go into what those goals are. But do you set goals for yourself, short, medium, long term kind of what that, not necessarily if you don't want to go into what those goals are, but do you set goals for yourself, short, medium, long-term goals, or is it more, hey, just put in the work and good things will happen? No, I definitely do set goals. I mean, at the beginning of last year, like you said, I was ranked at 1100 or whatever, but at the end of the year, I wanted to get at the top 100 in the world.

And I'd seen it done. I think Jordan Smith did it the year before and Brooks did it a couple years back. But they had done it after winning, I guess Jordan didn't, but after winning multiple times out there and just playing really consistently. And to me, that's the value. That's the hallmark of really good, great players, just consistency.

And that's where I wanted to be. So I was able to achieve that last year. This year I'd set higher goals and missing out on Augusta and the players was kind of a bummer for me. But there's still a lot large part of the year left and I just want to be consistent. Having one good week and then missing five cuts, or it doesn't, I want to be in the mix every week. I just want to try to win every week. And that's, so I definitely have concrete goals that I'm kind of striving towards and then all the other

awards and all that stuff kind of takes care of itself. Does consistency mean, you know, do you have, certainly maybe a make cut comes to mind, but is there a certain place you wanna finish or is consistency more in kind of your approach and how you feel like you're actually playing? It's more of a, I know the two are very tied together of course,

but you can't have one without the other, I think, I think, for example, a lot of it is a mentality thing that I'm able to grind out a certain round when things aren't going my way. Like the Friday at the open when I was kind of back against the wall, and you kind of feel like things, there's like a sort of a tipping point. You kind of feel like things can go one way or the other at a certain point. And it's kind of your decision on how you're going to have your attitude be from there on out. And that can dictate a lot of how your result. And for me to be able to buckle down there when it's my fifth

week in a row, you could have whatever things are going against me, things are going for me. A lot of that is just perspective. That's the sort of consistency I want to have every week. And that's I think what Tiger has every week and had, especially in his prime. And that's what I think all great competitors in any sport do. You look at Russell Westbrook. He goes out there every game.

He tries to just gives everything he has. That's the kind of consistency he's going to lose games. He's going to go 10 for 35, whatever. But he's going to keep giving it his all. That's the kind of sort of consistency I'm looking for. And you're going to miss cut. You're going to, obviously, it's not always going to pan out. You're going to three pot.

You're going to do these things. But as long as you're kind of mentally there for every part of it and you don't check out, that's all you can really ask for. It seems like part of that is learning when those, you know, in the moment, when those moments come, I would imagine. So just being able to identify, hey, this is kind of a tipping point, part of the round. I watch a lot of baseball. It kind of strikes me as the analogy. They say they're really good

pitchers. You know, they're never going to have their best stuff, but it's learning to compete and get results when you don't have your best stuff Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking about when you're going through that. Yeah Yeah, I'm a bunch of golf especially at your level is not about your good shots It's about how bad your bad shots are or like if you're if your average shot is really good Then you're gonna score well, but if your average shot is just not if your average shot is missing the green like you that's That's the cut line I think kind of in that world.

Is there anything, I mean, obviously, there's gonna be a lot of things that you wanna do better and whatnot, but is there anything specifically that stands out to you as, if I wanna compete on the PGA tour next year, I need to do this specific thing better. Is there one thing or anything that have you thought that far ahead?

You know, I mean, there's things I want to improve on, you know, quite a bit. I just go forward in general. I feel like my game is ready to compete at the PGA tour, but I think to kind of go to that next level, I practice a lot with VJ saying when we're both back home in Jacksonville and he's kind of giving me a lot of advice and on how to keep pushing forward with my game and my career and my ambitions. And I think for me, I'd like to be a little bit more

consistent putting. I think I could be much better, I think. And I think it's not really a mechanics thing. It's just more of a comfort thing. And it's going from grass to grass. It's a little bit different. But I think that's definitely something that I Because I feel like the rest of my game stacks up pretty well

Probably my wedges also coming in the greens. I could be a little bit more consistent He's more those red balls red balls, although I was throwing darts out there against you today Maybe I'm out the best and yeah, you're you gave some some I think mark them The another guy we play with today said you give a rider cup stare at me after rolling in a long birdie on 17, which I like made six on that hole. You beat me by three on the hole. You didn't beat the stare me down. I'm like a great white, the smell of blood,

you know, it just kind of keeps me. Oh God, I get deep in my ass today. You just mentioned VJ, I was curious if there are any other veterans kind of that have mentored you either on the Euro Tour or any guys that you lean towards on that side? Not, not probably not really. Who are some of your better friends on the European Tour?

Dylan Frittali, who I mentioned before, we're in pretty much the exact same position now. We're playing the PGA and then doing the web finals. We've got very similar world rankings. I've seen them in probably almost every event that I've played this year in the US or in Europe. Eric Van Ruyen, he's another really nice guy, so another South African guy went to college in the States and as an American wife. So we usually kind of hang out, have dinners, and spend quite a bit of time together. Getting back to Vijay, I was watching last night the Fiji Championship, Fiji International. He was hitting cross-handed wedges from about 80, 90 yards.

Really? Yeah, I was curious if he'd seen him working on that on the range at all. I'd seen him that, yeah. He's unbelievable. He's 55 years old and the way he works at it in practices is unlike any, I've never seen a 25 year old work like that. You see him hit the stuff. It's not like he's hitting it for the first time. He's worn out wedges, just hitting cross handed pitches and chips and I didn't realize he'd hit at 80, 90 yards. That's pretty far. But I mean,

he hits these things off downhill lies on grainy,ermuda over a bunker and nips him to, you know, inside of four feet. So it's the guys, you know, he's incredible. And I, you know, I have a lot of respect for, I feel like a movie could be made or a book could be made very easily about his life. And I don't think he's probably opened up enough for that to happen. But would he be a good podcast guest? Maybe he kicks your ass before. I don't know, like I'm in a better mood.

Yeah. All right, I'm going to end this with a, unless Randy has more questions after this, but this is a, it's a, it's a tough question and not something I've, I've ever asked somebody on the pot. I don't think before, but if you're to sketch it out now goal wise, what's a reasonable career comp, like a player that if you said, I'd have, if I'd have their career, I'd be very satisfied. Like when you, when you're all said and done, if I had so and so's career, I'd be, I'd

be satisfied. Man, right? I've never, I've never even thought about that. It's funny, because I think, you know, I see Duke basketball players all the time and I, you always compare them to all the time, and you always compare them to NBA players. I'll bring in Ingrams like Kevin Durant, or people were saying Kyrie is going to be like a Jason Kid, which Kyrie is filthy.

I think, wow, that's a tricky one. It's hard because you don't want to say like fill and people think you're an idiot or you don't want to say. Or wear those shirts, right. Yeah, so I think, you know, although he looks like Neo in the Matrix now, on that commercial, I think, you know,

honestly it's hard to compare, and I don't like to do that. I just want to get, you know, I heard, I think it was Kobe who said, you know, I just want to squeeze every, if my career is in orange, I just want to squeeze every bit of juice out of it that I can. And that's what I want to do. I want to put everything I have while I'm able to do it

into it and just get, feel like I didn't leave anything behind. And whether that's, you know, ditching toxic relationships oring toxic relationships or just trying new things or like I said, finally working with an instructor that I feel like I can trust, just things like that, I think I don't want that stuff to kind of get in the way of what I'm trying to do. That's a well-trained answer. That's much better than actually listing out a name. I wasn't trying to bait you, but I just think that's an interesting kind of question.

I got two rapid fire ones. Who's your favorite Duke basketball player? Man, I'm freaking, I love watching Kyrie, and I know he played there for like 30 seconds, but he's my favorite player to watch in the NBA right now. Okay, what's your favorite period of US history? This is going back into the memory banks. You know, I took a class on the 1960s. It was just the 1960s, and I thought it was fascinating. And, you know, I was genuinely interested.

I mean, I wrote my final paper about Arnold Palmer and his influence on golf and TV and sports in general. And, you know, I didn't get a good grade on it, because I think I went way off topic, but I think, or maybe I just can't write good. And well, the joy in the topic is the presidential election this year. No, but it was just so much going on.

I mean, you had JFK's assassination, you had Bobby Ketti running for president, you had the Vietnam war going on, all the Pentagon papers, the Nixon thing was kind of going, starting to come around. You had all the sort of the fight for women's equality, the racial tensions, MLK, the whole, him getting assassinated, you had a lot of LGBT movements.

I mean, there's just so much to cover. It was, it was honestly, I mean, all those issues, we only spent probably like two weeks on, you probably could have spent a class on any one of those issues. And I thought that was just so much, so much going on. And I feel like honestly, we're at a point in time now where a lot of those issues are resurfacing and, and we could be kind of seeing history sort of repeat itself in the next few years. Yeah. What was the last question I promise.

You have a lot of downtime traveling, I imagine, from here to Europe and back and whatnot. Are you a guy? Are you a Netflix guy? Do you like to read? How do you like to pass your time? I try to read, but that read is like a, it's like a, you know, who needs sleeping pills when you, sometimes when you have some of these books. I, no, I enjoy some Netflix.

I enjoy watching comedy stuff, funny stuff. I watch a lot of animated shows, animated movies, like Zootopia, I thought was hilarious. I've seen that like four times on planes. Rom Combs, I like crazy stupid love. I've seen like 15 times. I watch modern family has me cracking up all the time, curbian enthusiasm. Yeah, I got into game of thrones for a little bit, but I just kind of lost

interest. I don't know. I like to feel good when I watch something because golf can be a hard game to, especially when watching someone's games, one of your games. Oh my God. You know, it's a little pick me up is always good. I enjoy watching the fun. Oh, Veepe is one of the, I'm dying when I'm watching Veepe. It's so funny. Well, that's all I can. Well, do you have a go to, what's your favorite shapel skit of all time?

I got a gloss over one that I can't say, but I think, you know the it's hard to rank up there you could I could Eight different days. I might say eight different skits. Yeah, you know, I just I just watched on YouTube the trading spouses and When I forgot the guard. Yeah Tim Mark and You know when he's like, who'd up is with Renee Zell-Wedge? We watched the Mad Real with the broadcast kept talking

about all the guys staying in one house together at Carnegie News TV. And unless it's the Mad Real World recreated, we don't care about this house at all. And we watch that skit. Those things hold up just perfectly. There's nothing, there's nothing, like other than clothing that's like a time period

from that from those skits. It wasn't that long ago, but man, they still play really well today. Yeah, I mean, I find myself, you know, especially in the winter, you know, my elbows get ashy, and I call myself ashy, Larry sometimes. I'm gonna start a fire.

I'm rich bitch. We're ending it on that. That's how they end the episodes we're ending on that. So Julian, thank you for the time man, thanks for kicking my ass and we'll do it again soon. Good luck next week and say Lewis. Yeah thanks guys, appreciate it. Cheers. It's gonna be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most.

Better than most. Expect anything different. Expect anything different.