No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 164: Marc Leishman and Matty Kelly

Episode Date: September 6, 2018

Marc Leishman and his caddie Matty Kelly join us at the BMW Championship to talk about their relationship, the early stages of professional golf in the US, and some stories along the way. Marc talks... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 164: Marc Leishman and Matty Kelly appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Better than most! All right ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. We've been wanting to get these two together in the same room, miked up at the same time. Mark Leishman and his caddy Maddie Kelly here at the BMW Championship. What's it like to come back to a tournament? You have three PGA Tour wins. What's it like to come back to a tournament that you won the previous year? what's it like to come back to a tournament? You have three PGA Tour wins. What's it like to come back to a tournament that you won the previous year? What's it like defending? Yeah, I mean, it's awesome.

You know, any time you can defend anywhere, it's great. This is the first time I'll have defended on a golf course where I didn't win it the year before. That's right. So it's a different course. But I haven't defended any of my other PGA Tour wins. So hopefully that'll change my luck and we can defend this week on a new course.

What's the scouting report on the course this year? I remember it being really long, but it's not, didn't seem that long, and I guess it's really hot and I know they've made some changes, but it didn't seem that long, and it's way it's a lot drier than I thought it was going to be. So I don't think it's going to play that long, but severe greens, rust pretty thick, but they're generous fairways. I think pretty low scoring. I want to know, like, first, and I know, Maddie,

you've been on the podcast before. You told some stories back in the day. But I still kind of want to hear how your guys' relationship started and what the first memories you guys have of each other are. First memories ever? Sure, yeah. Padding? No, first memories ever.

First memories ever. I remember we used to be, we both, we lived near each other in Warnable and my first memories of Maddie has been down the practice fair at Warnable. We used to always go down there and there was a good little chipping green down there that normally played into the wind. Where is Warnable for people that don't know? Warnable is about three and a half hours drive south west of Melbourne. It's a southern coast of Australia. It's a very cold water, lots of sharks, lots of wind, working class town. So both of our dads were in trades and working class families. So we used to go to the golf course. We would practice mostly to see

who could get the most backspin usually on the green and the win. We did the same things kids. It's all that mattered was... I remember when my buddies played a precept extra spin and we all watched it backspin once on a part three we all had that ball in our bag the very next round It was like a wet noodle Always, all we cared about was be able to backspin it Yeah, when you got those knocking wedges That was good deal, I got a set of wedges

And I remember precept, I think it was a tour premium was it? It was the same as the Naki tour accuracy. Exactly the same golf ball But we used to get them and you'd find a big patch of divots and with the sand in them and you'd be just tearing the shreds out of these golf holes and I actually bought a Diamond face like one of those pure spin diamond face wedges You guys probably didn't see those infomercials. No, no You guys probably didn't see those infomercials. No, no.

It had sandpaper, basically, on the face. It was the illegal wedge, but they had the infomercial on the golf channel as a kid. The pure spend diamond-faced scoring wedge. Every kid wanted one. They were the worst golf clubs ever made. It had a crusted face, but yeah, you hit it five times, and it goes away, basically. But they sold a ton of those. The first five times were silly.

They were awesome. Made them on Leroy. He had the same one. He did like 10 yard chips on the pudding green. Actually right next to the clubhouse, and he could get them spinning backwards. Yeah, they were a lot of fun. I remember those. So were you guys competing against each other

in tournaments as kids, or how did you guys become mates? I wish we were. I wasn't good enough. Well, were you lining up in the same tournaments? Trying to. Yeah. And Mark was a couple of years older than me, so he was always... I still am. Yeah, he still is a couple of years older than me.

He was always... he was at steps ahead of me anyway, but and then with the age gap he was always... He would be in Melbourne playing city like Pennants and stuff like that, whereas I never... At the same time, never competed. I guess when Maddie started going to play Melbourne, that was when I started to go and play in a state or around the world. So I was always a, you know, year or two ahead of Maddie, but Maddie was a good player, really good player. We had some really good matches together. It was always good competition.

It's nice when you can be growing up with guys who can actually, who can play. There was quite a few guys at home that, what was the evidence of you that you were like much more talented than a lot of your peers? Did you need to go elsewhere to kind of get the right level of competition when you were a junior or when did you kind of realize how talented you were? When Maddie played well, you know, it was a good match. But yeah, I mean, you know, when you you cannot play your best and win, that's when you kind of realise that you have to go elsewhere.

Same, still goes where you have to go elsewhere. And then everybody nodding along listening to this again, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, it's the same, well, not your entire career, but until you get to, you know, the bigger tours, you know, when I was playing national amateur events, you know, when I was 21, again, not having to play that well and I thought to myself, well, that's the time where I need to take that next step and turn pro. So that's what I did.

I didn't want to turn pro too early and struggle. You know, we didn't have a lot of money and had to, I paid all my, you know, most of my own way and everything. So, didn't want to come out and run out of money. So, I wanted to make sure that when I turned pro, that I was good enough and was going to make money straight off, which I did, which I'm glad that I waited that long. Going back, you won the Warnable Club Championship as a 13 year old. Yeah.

And you played in the same group as your dad. Yeah, we, the club championships at home was four rounds of stroke play. So I remember being really windy that week, or two weeks that it was over. Even more windy than it typically is. It was a lot of armors. It's typically windy down there.

I remember I shot 77 in the last round. And that was like saying that you shot 62 carnoos to your signing. It was really that. It was blowing pretty good. How many back was your dad like were you guys tired going around? I'm glad we weren't. Because I might not have thought of his legit.

But he finished third. We just happened to play together in that last round. And yeah, a guy sort of choked coming down the stretch and I handed it to me, so it was a good way to win my first one with not really any pressure. And Maddie were you playing on that one? No, were you? No. I think my first one was I was like 14 or 15 so my put a band 16 or 17 So did you know was it always a goal to come play in the US? Yeah, it was I mean, you know when you when I was 13 You know you hope that you can just turn pro and do something as a as a golfer Whether it's a club pro or you know, I I lost both the club pros that were at one of them still there. So even that I thought would have been really cool to be able to do that.

But probably once I was about 16 that it became a goal to try and, you know, get onto a major tour and the world somewhere. Obviously your dream is to get onto this tour. It was lucky enough to play good at the right times and make it out here. And then, you know, I've been successful since I've been out here. So, yeah, I mean, you do have to pinch yourself occasionally. We get looked after very well. But I'm just, you know, I'm really glad that I had to do the hard yards and work and get, you know, I played on

the smaller tours, I played on the Korean tour and the web.com tour and all those smaller ones. So it might cheer appreciate how good this tour is. You're in your stripes, yeah. Yeah, we really don't have much to complain about it. We're pretty lucky. And one of the guys that we know that we won't name, but he was going from the PGA tour last year down to web finals and they didn't have a courtesy card. The first web finals of

days like, oh man, I got to get back on the PGA tour. No way. So they treat you a little nicer when you are the defending champ. Do you get like an upgrade in vehicle? You got an upgrade in vehicle? You got a vehicle period. Yeah, I got a vehicle this week. Do all the caddies get vehicles here? I think I do it for the last five years, like defending champion, previous five years get cars.

You have four more years of. Yeah, he's got to keep making it back. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it's a pretty good deal. I get the same treatment probably only different treatment I get is I'll probably get extra ticket if I need them. A little bit better parking spot too. So I'm lying on public parking spot up front.

Maddie gets a parking spot this week, which is pretty good. What are the events to Caddy's get vehicles at? I'm not sure, any. I think I remember the bar and Nelson used to give one to the winning Caddy, a Cadillac. Like to own? To own, yeah. Oh, sweet. Yeah, so that lasted a couple of years, and it's no longer.

But I don't think, I'm not that ono of this I think this is the only one. I was wondering why Maddie was raven putt back on the last year This is why I was like give me a car this way I'm free rental car Are you park next to Patrick Reed? No, next to Ricky actually. Ricky Phil. Yeah, the granny So yeah you guys ran away with the title last year at Conway. I don't even, like, far from it being over, I think a couple of putts left. The screw was off and the flag was removed from the flag stick

before even the final putt dropped. Wasn't that early though? I mean, it was pretty saucy, but it was an early preparation. It was impressive, but it looked very routine. Well, I'd like it to be retained. I don't know I didn't know that I didn't do it deliberately. That's for sure Mark rolled a nice one in the last two. So I guess yeah, I didn't do it deliberately

That's a good tradition of ours to whenever you you win a big match like you take the screw off and try it like you're taking the flag I legitimately thought you hold that shot on 17 that's Yeah, that was actually No, they're not The trophy and the car that shot on 17. That's easy. Yeah, that was a good shot actually. That would have been nice. The trophy and the car would have been very nice. But did this having been through that that ringer a couple times and won a couple times?

Does it make it any easier coming down the stretch when you're in contention of a tournament now? I guess it does. I mean, to be honest, that last round of the BMW last year was probably one of the hardest rounds I've ever played. I was leading going in the back-knife and Boston the week before and didn't finish off the way I wanted to. I ended up not sure what I shot in the back-knife, it was even a couple over, I can't remember, but Justin Thomas ended up running over the top of me and that was pretty disappointing. And then probably one of the only sleepless nights I've ever had

before a golf tournament was that Saturday night before the BMW last year. I had a five shot lead having blown a lead the week before. That was a bit of extra pressure and one of the most satisfying days of golf I've had for a lot of reasons. One because I got through what I needed to do and won the tournament, but we had my family was there. Was Devin Viby there? No, they were Bihill. They were Bihill. Yeah, but you know, to have your family there and be able to enjoy that. That was really cool. To win twice in a year or two. I mean that's... Yeah, thing. It's just fun to hear you say that, because watching it was kind of like, oh, yeah,

I mean, he's got that wrapped up. Like this looks actually pretty easy. It's like four or five shots. It seems like a lot, but when, yeah. I bet guaranteed a hammered in, feel like a lot. It certainly didn't feel like a lot to me. I'm sure it would have been even harder if you didn't know that with Tron and I had a bet on the final round

of the Dell technologies. And I had JT and he had you and the loser had to wear sketchers, sketchers to the BMW. So Tron had to wear sketchers last year for two days here at this event. Yeah, all right. So that would have been too much pressure

for you if you had known that. Yeah, now it's funny, the hardest round is sometimes the most satisfying. Yeah. I was just so much more determined just having gone through what I went through the week before. It was very disappointing.

Yes, everything happens for a reason. Yeah, and you stayed hot. You rolled right into the new season, but you and JT were in the CJ Cup, the playoff there. I want you to take us through that second shot into 18. What the talking was between you and Maddie, what you ultimately decided and how that played out. Yeah, so it's a pretty good spot to talk about it actually.

No way up. I hit a good tee shot down the last, I think I was, I can't remember if I was tied or one back, but when you hit it down there, if you hit it a little bit too far, there's some trees in the before the next fairway. It's a funky little hole. Yeah, so there's water short, left, right, everywhere. It's an elevated shot. And I think I had what, 260 yards straight. Yeah, the yard was kind of just cold and into the wind, which made the yardage.

Like it was only probably about 262.65, but which is normally no problem with the three wood. But it was cold and into the wind, made it a lot and the wind playing it You're elevated to yeah, oh, it was a strong wind and it's all you were texting us and tweeting about it He was like the only love The live feed went out from the golf channel so I was like legitimate the only one updating people What was going on in Korea like 30 people stayed up to watch it at two in the morning and everyone was so mad that the feet went out. Yeah, so it was, I had to hit a little cart

around the trees and the ball was a little bit above my feet, which is uncomfortable to shop to start with and having to get that much out of the three would in those conditions. It was touch and go. It was probably, yeah, it was very touchy. What did you want to hit? Well, I was thinking I was thinking about hitting driver

But then I thought I can't really do that because I mean I mean, it's like I mean, I look like an absolute idiot if I hit a bad shot with a driver So I said to Maddie's I wonder how we lay up over here. I said there's no chance I'm laying up Yes, no chance for laying up. We if we have to hit driver will hit it Yeah, but and then the win kind of went from maybe 25 miles now to 20. And I'm like, all right, I'm hitting it now. And I just nailed it.

Came right out of the middle. What, to 10 feet, I guess, 12 feet. And the most impressive part was you guys nailed the high five. Like you just nailed it. Like, caddies and players always mess up the high five. You guys just turn and just perfect high five. It was probably the best shot I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. On the, you know, the surface is really a major or anything like that, but

golf shots was probably the best I've ever seen. And that was the shot that kind of is, always reminds me of how great it is to go watch golf in person. Like on TV, you just can't get appreciation for how much wind was actually into you and the physical element of that shot and to hit it Yeah, normally Because he did to skirt that tree. I mean it must have missed that tree by less than a yard And we were talking about a decent cut around the tree So to get that much ever three would eat a lot straighter and just a tiny falling right you got that shot Tron 260 into the wind with the three wood. Oh, no, I have a driver

I stopped team the ball up. Oh my god my god I hit driver off the deck on a tee now remember does I mean the people on the left are safe well and I swear like it doesn't it doesn't spin as much and it stays straighter and I swear I almost hit my driver straighter off the ground that I do off a tee well do you remember the story from the third hole, run earlier around during the CJ Cup as well? The driver did it hit probably? What was the story exactly? I thought it was a ninth.

Well that happened on the ninth too. But the third you had driver off the deck, or like there was some kind of conversation on it, and you made the tail at Maddie. Yeah Maddie wanted you to lay up and you waved the no-ling up towel Adam And he tried for off the deck onto the good He did three or four times that week But every time I draw off the deck now, it's a little bit of a fear of mine

Because you were there, I was like, I was holding it up to you, but you weren't watching He was probably too too taken by JTNers This was earlier, they weren't paired yet I mean it's fun. I mean, no cut event, you're going for it. I mean, I've had a good year before. But I always go back to, like I always play my best golf when I'm just having fun, not thinking about the situation,

do what I would do. Obviously, there's certain situations where you've got to play a little bit smarter. But it's fun to drive off the deck. like I say I know I'm not going to miss it left so it's only I can aim and you know left edge of the green and it's only it's either going to be on the green or right of that. Folks summer might be coming to an end soon although it doesn't feel like it here in Philly but thanks to Travis Matthew, they are keeping

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At least last couple years have been just a break out for you. We heard Matty was his own podcast earlier this year, kind of give his estimation reason for why that is, but what would you say has been the biggest difference in your game in the last couple years? Biggest difference. I mean, driving, I think going to the KELOLAY driver's been unbelievable.

It's after Bay Hill last year, I said, it changed my game, which I really think it did. It's a lot easier game when you can be on the fairway and a little bit further up the fairway, hopefully. So that's been a huge difference. But I think also with everyone knows about it, but with what happened with Audrey, I don't care as much now about golf. It's obviously, it's what I do for living. I love what I do, but it's not life and death.

Just give you some perspective. Yeah, it's a lot easier to hit that hook shot on 15 of the masters around the tree. And, you know, if it comes off, awesome, which it did. Oh my God, that shot. If it doesn't come off, it's like, well, you know, they're not going to, so much I'm going to put a gun to your head and hopefully, and maybe Maddie might get it. I don't know, but no, it's just, it's fun.

And I've been having that perspective from what we went through with Audrey. That makes the game easier as well, because just knowing that, yes, I want to play great, but if we don if we don't we've put our kids to go home to and wives and we're both great lives off the course Yeah, which I think makes the game on the course easier. I can't imagine how many times you've relayed the story But for those that aren't familiar with what happened with your wife in 2015 I don't know if there is a a short inversion of what happened or what you guys went through But what are you referring to it happened with your wife? Yeah, so she She got toxic shocks in Rome, sepsis, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. I was down at the gas station for the masters and got a phone call to basically come home because your wife's got sepsis.

Did you know what that was? Didn't know how to Google it, and then I was sort of, you know, little worried. You know, you're Google things, and it's not a great idea to Google it, but that's sort of how I found out. Realised that it was pretty bad, there was a good chance that she wouldn't make it, and then I was home for a couple of days, she got put, well, she was in the ICU when I got home. About a day later we got told that she was more than likely going to die. And then we got very lucky with the doctors we had. They kind of did a hailmary, flipped her onto her stomach to drain the fluid out of her lungs

and with sepsis it's a blood poisoning. So once she blood turns toxic it goes through all your organs and basically shuts them all down. So her lungs were the most affected along with her heart. Her heart rate was 90 over 30 for a few days. But anyway we got told she was going to die. They did a hail marie and it worked. And then you know the recovery was tough for the first sort of couple of years but she's back to good now. So now we're doing, we've got a foundation, the beginning of foundation, which we're just trying to, we help families that have survived sepsis and the local children's hospital

as well, but a lot of it is awareness because sepsis is very treatable if you get it early. For every hour it goes untreated, your chance of dying goes up 8%. So if you leave it 12 hours, you're done. So that's what we're trying to do. Get awareness out there and we feel like we're making a difference, which is nice. And when you say that the doctors were saying it was not likely she was going to live, is it true that they give her a 5% chance of surviving? It was less than 5, but yeah, so when you have odds, so pneumonia is a spot of fluid on your lungs.

Ads is when your lungs are completely full of fluid. That alone is a 40% chance of dying and then every other organ that's involved on top of that adds 30 and she adds like four or five, I think it was four other organs which is 120% there plus your 40. She's done. But yeah, somehow, I think the reason she lived is she didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the kids when we had to put her into the coma or we, the doctors. She's kicking and screaming and wanting to say, you know, call the kids and they're like, no, we got to do it right now so she didn't get a chance to do that. I think if she had a got to make that phone call, she would have, she wouldn't be here now.

How long was she in a coma? She was only in the coma for about five days and then they, when they flipped her onto her stomach, she was the first or second case worldwide that they did that without paralyzing her. So they had to sedate her really heavily. So they took her two days to wake up from the coma. They took her off the sedation and she was still out for two more days. So yeah, she's very lucky, very lucky.

And like I say, it's good as come of it, which is important. When you're in a position to make a difference, I feel like it's good as come of it, which is important. When you're in a position to make a difference, I feel like it's important to do that. And I feel like we're doing it. I can't know how to transition back to golf after that. But that was that's later that year, if I had the timeline, right?

That was when you at the Open Championship in 2015, at the San Andreas, the Touring the playoffs for. So is that kind of adding the perspective, or what you just mentioned about how maybe you don't care as much about golf? Exactly. Is that kind of an immediate reaction to that? You think playing so well?

Yeah. I mean, looking back on that tournament now, I wish I had a care a bit more, that way. Because I mean, I'm leading the open. I'm leading the open Yeah, I know. I'm leading the... You know, leading the open with five holes to go and... On the old course. Yeah, and I wasn't really feeling anything.

I mean, I wasn't nervous, I wasn't... It was no... You know, I was happy when I hit a good shot and... A bit pissed when I didn't, but... I wasn't too worried about it. And looking back on it, I wish I had of cared a little more and felt those feelings a bit more would have learned a lot more from it, I feel like.

But Matty, did you pick up on any of that? Were you feeling the feelings? I was nervous. But I also found out my office pregnant at that weekend. It was a weird weekend because it honestly did just feel like another tournament, and he was just doing what he was supposed to do. That's kind of what we've gotten used to with Mark. Like he just does that kind of stuff. Shoot's 130 on the weekend at a major. And going back, did you, you talking about how you just

like being carefree on the golf course and having fun? Do you feel like it's your responsibility to keep him that way? Or do you feel like it's your responsibility to keep him that way? Or do you feel like it's your responsibility to kind of bring him back to reality? It's a hey we got to grind a little bit. He's very good at balancing the both of them Definitely it's my job to give him a kick up the ass who needs it But that's very rare and I mean we're going through a little bit of the moment where he's getting two down on himself

So it's like my job and then so that's's my job to keep talking and keep bringing back the fun. So we're trying to bring about the fun a little bit, which, and it's really actually we've played with TIGER a lot, which whenever you play with TIGER it focuses you in so much that you kind of forget about what you've done two weeks ago, whatever, and you just concentrate on the now, which I think this late in the season being this tight has really helped both of us, because they're both kind of spanned, but obviously he needs to be a lot sharper than me. What do you say to him when you need to give him a boost?

We just, he doesn't have to say much. No, he just, he really doesn't have to talk about me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a couple of words. Like, yeah, it's just not much at all. I don't know what the language is on this. Oh, it's explicit reader, to you and say whatever you want. So he would just call me a couple of words and I get the message.

It's nothing. I mean, we're such good friends that we could say anything to each other. And if it's, if we're either of us gets offended by it, we know that we don't. Like if Maddie says something to me and I get offended by it, which I wouldn't. I know that he doesn't mean it that way, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's kind of with the in-goal in mind. Exactly, that's not a problem. He said that, but I know he met it this way.

Yeah. It's good. And we're good as well, because I mean, we don't spend, we, certain weeks we do spend a decent amount of time together off the course, but at the, you know, the first few years on tour, we were pretty good at balancing that. If we were pretty good at balancing that. If we were spending too much time together, it would go over under the course and things

would change on the course. But we just knew we've got to backstop for it. Yeah. Also going back, and this is, I mean, Maddie's told it to me a few times. It's like my favorite story, but you had been over with Mark for what, a season and a half, or when you came over to Cady for him on the way. Oh, and I told him why at the time. Yeah, we were at, I think we were in Rochester, and I'd just run out of money. So, I guess

that's where you're going, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and Mark was paying me, like he was paying me like a full-time Cady that's been out here 10 years, and I was just caddy, and I didn't know what I was doing, but I didn't know what I was doing. So yeah, we had two weeks off, and I said, before the two weeks off, I'm like, hey, you kind of maxed out two credit cards here. It's time for me to go home and work again again and come out next week and win's by 11. I've been in second the next week and then we won 11-11. And then you were lucky in the year and then we got to start. I remember our first tournament on the tour was at Sony.

And I remember we finished, I think it was 12th. And we were both, as you should be, but we were both so excited. And we went down the beach and just, we were drunk. We were drunk. Well he made like a hundred grand. We was so much, both of us.

It was 90 something thousand dollars. I was a lot more than that. It's a lot more than that's credit card. And it was the funniest thing, because Maddie's like, have you ever seen anyone do this? And he told me what it was. And I'm like, no, he goes, I'm gonna do it. So he goes into the, goes into a 7-11 or a ABC store.

Goes in and buys half a gallon of milk, down to the whole thing. And then Paul is shoves his fingers down, he throws power spews, goes like, it goes, I woulda hit that wall, it goes, five yards. And this is only like, why can't you keep each, I think it was dark, it was dark,

but I am on the ground, just like, I've completely lost it. I'm just crying, laughing. And he still spew in over in the corner. And that was it. That's the, I remember the check. And I remember that about that week. Yeah.

But it was just like one of those things, you were so excited. Yeah. So that was our first week on tour. Was all done, huh? One thing I'll never, ever forget. So was that a lot of money to you at that time? Oh, yeah.

I mean, yeah. I mean, it still is. Yeah. Yeah. You know, growing up the way we did it, you know, you really appreciate the value of a dollar and that's one thing that I really want to ingrain into my kids. It's going to be hard to do, but that's what I want to do. My son Harvey, he's all about money and he's like, you know, he wants to know how much money I made and this and that. And last year after the BMW, he's like, how much money do you make today? I'm like $100.

I've got $100. So he thinks every time I win a golf tournament, I win a hundred bucks. There you go. So that's, I was telling, who's I telling that the other day? Oh, Brian Harmer. And he's like, man, I think I'm going to start doing that to my kids. But it's just good that, you know, if they knew how much money we made, you know, they'd

go to school and they just think that, I mean, it's just not how I want to bring out my kids. That is an impressive, I think I was like a 45 second transition from Maddie spewing milk at it, and it projects our way to life. It's a blessed teaching lessons to your kids about money. That's kind of a... Yeah, so that's pretty much my role on to our instead of just paying us. Yeah, but that was just a...

Like, you know, just, we were talking about money and you asked me, was that, you know, $90,000 lot of money and yes, it was and I still is. Yeah. Was there a moment along the way when you're like, man, like, next year, like, I got a real caddy. You're like, like, like, never. There was no, yeah. Say, Maddie, at the start, yeah, he didn't, you know, really know the proper caddy way, but I guess he knew

how to, he knew how to Cady for me. And he took ownership of it. And I feel like he's grown into... One of... Well, the world class Cady. One of if not the best Cady out there. No, I talked to Joe and Sam about it behind your back. And I'm like, tell me the deal I'm mad at.

And like, dude, he's like legitimately. He's gone from 0 to 60. He's exactly what I need. And it's great because he's earned the respect of everyone. He stuck by me when I've been playing bad. And it's nice to have your best mate out there with you to enjoy the success and go through the low times. Yeah, I've never really had another caddy come up to me and ask me to caddy for me because

they know that we're solid. It's like the LTA, exactly. And that's a big complement to Maddie, I feel it. For your player of your caliber, what makes a Cady a great Cady for you or what makes Maddie a great Cady? Well, obviously, the numbers and all that, that's very important. It's knowing when to talk and when to shut up.

But I think more importantly, it's the stuff between shots for me. There's a lot of downtime in golf. If you're thinking about your next shot, five minutes before you hit it, you're going to be so tired at the end of the week. I've had weeks where I've done that and I've been, you know, you're worn out by Friday afternoon. So just talking about stuff that's outside the ropes, whether it's just on the other side of the ropes or whether it's way outside the ropes, you know, at home or whatever, so you know what I'm talking about.

But it's, you know, it's just, I think that's more important. He knows how far I hit my clubs and he knows what shots I like to hit. So that's, you know, you don't want someone who's telling you what shot they would hit, you want them to be telling you what shot they think that you want to hit. It's kind of just a matching kind of a synergy of some sorts. I feel like it obviously not nearly even remotely at the same level. But like when I have a caddy that we're just like seeing putts differently, you end up kind of trying to see the line in between it

and you don't commit to something like that. I feel like it's really hard to match up vision wise. And that's funny. And like so obviously that's finished walking the course. And I don't see these shots that I would hit out there anymore. So every time Mark likes to hit a little, it's pretty straight now, but it's like tiny falling right fade. So every time I get up there and I just picture this little fade, it's nowhere near the shot I hit.

So Mark, I went out with him six months ago, eight months ago, and played, and I was blown away, he hits the shit out of the wall. He never plays, I can't drag him out to the golf course. It's too hard, Jack. Yeah, he bombs it. I mean, there's got to be something to just being always around golf, that either you don't want to play necessarily in your free time.

It started the idea of playing golf, because in the last three, I'd probably play three times, maybe two or three times. And, but the idea of playing more, it's coming around. I mean, we had a baby, she's two and a half now. So that, when we're on the road for 27 to 30 weeks a year, I want to try and be dead, but I'm home. So, you kind of get to the point where you kind of feel guilty taking four hours of your day away from her. And then, you know, you try and give your wife a break as well

to see how the aspect of it. So, we're gonna get Vivian and Freddie out there together. Yeah. Well, how much has being a dad kind of changed the way you view life on the road? Oh, it's totally different. Like, I went, my mark had kids three, I have his four years before me.

And it would always be like, I don't want to spend three weeks in the road a long time now. It's like, come on dude, suck it up. Now I can't go three weeks without the girls coming out either. They'll come out or go home for the Sunday night, Monday, fly out Tuesday morning deal. Yeah, it's changed a lot. There's no going out drinking with the boys. I mean there's beers and having fun, but there's totally different.

Yeah. There's no point to it anymore. A lot of danger in your home. Yeah, he still goes hard. And the presence of the family. Mark, last year, after you won, there's like the best little video of your son. He's like, wait for me, Mark Leishman. Mark Leishman. We say that we do that all the time.

What's your, what's it like, you see living Virginia Beach, is that right? What's your reasoning for living in Virginia Beach? And what's your home game like there? Do you play it out in your home? What's life like there? My reason for living there is my wife. She's from there. So you know we got to be away from our families, back home in Australia, her mum and dad, siblings. How'd you meet your wife? In a bar, actually, in Williamsburg, Virginia. Where were you doing there? I was there for a Monday qualifier on the web, well the nationwide tour at the time. So I think it was before the qualifier, I think it was like the Saturday night before. So we had some time to kill.

So we thought we'd better go out. It's a terrible bar. So we went up to her and thought, is this the best place to go? She's like, well, yeah, it is. She's all right. No worries. We'll, we'll, we'll, we had a drink and she ended up buying me shots. She still gives me shit about to this day. She's like, you let me buy you shots. Alright, no worries, we'll, we'll, so we had a drink and she ended up buying me shots

which she still gives me shit about to this day. She's like, you let me buy you shots. Again, I'm playing Monday qualifiers on the web tour, yeah. You buy me shots. Yeah, so we, you know, dated, oh, she went back to go back to Virginia Beach at night. She came back up a few days later for, we went on our first date and sort of hit it off after that. So yeah, it's a good spot. I don't play really any golf.

I'm a weeks off. I'll do a bit of chipping in the backyard. I was gonna ask you about your parting green. Yeah, yeah. What's it look? About 70 yard shots there. It's like the greens, probably like a fringe onto it. So it's just that shorter than a fairway,

but not as good as the green. Bermuda. It reacts like a green. Yeah, it's Bermuda. So I can get it pretty firm or soft, you know, however I want it. It's just fun. I can stripe it up with me.

I've got a Toro greensmower that I cut it with and get the stripes on it. It's a good workout. Build a sweat up. Good sun mate. You feel guilty for having a beer after it. What's the fastest you've gotten it? Like you have a stint mineral? Speedwise, nah, wouldn't be quick at all. You've got the indoor one as well. I've got a putting green upstairs in the room over at garage, taft gym, half-pudding green, so I stay in the pudding green end of it. No, I mean the green outside, I mean, not quick at all, might have got to eight, you know, when it was really.

So what do you do with your free time at home then? Free time, or your time, I don't know if it's free time at all of your kids. Yeah, a lot of time with the kids. Yeah, we've got with the foundation now, we've got a lot of obligations with that. I like supporting other charities, so I do a lot of charity days. But mostly just spending time with the kids.

They've just got into top golf. So we're taking the top golf every now and again, the boys and they'll go and whack some balls. I generally don't hit too many there, but there's other activities to do at top golf. And then a little daughter as well. So during the day she keeps me busy, I'd normally try and give Audrey a break when I'm home and she can go do what she needs to do and I'll look after Eva and I'll just love it. It's a great being at that. So we've heard about what the celebrations like when you make 90K when you're rookie

on tour. What's it like now when you win a tournament? Do you guys go out? Is it a big party after a win? What's it like last year? You had two last year, how'd that go? Yeah, last year. I had a party at my place after the BMW. After Bael, I drove home to Jacksonville. Behind me a bit, not. Just like how to beer and? Blasting music all pumped up, or like what's it now? It was very like, and then after Bael last year.

I remember you texting me earlier, you know, come downtown. Yeah, when we were down town, and we got to a bar, we had, I was with Joe, Ricky's Cady and we had two or three beers with dinner and it, it's just, you're so flat. Yeah. It's just like, you're so worn out and we also ended the season so it's a bit of that. But again, a couple more beers, nothing, there's no night clubs or anything like that involved. I wish we had a great story so we were there. It was really funny.

Oh, went out for dinner after Bay Hill with my agent. And then I wish I could show this to everyone listening. Is there a photo here? We filled it up. There's a quite a few photos. We can always include this in the show. Oh, the trophy. It fit seven cans of beer in it.

The BMW trophy. So that was a very good night. But yeah, I mean, my first win at the Travelers, I didn't really feel like I celebrated enough. I guess I thought I was going to have more wins sooner. Plus I played the following week. It was just, you know, wish I had a celebrated that more. So, after these ones, I made sure I celebrated them properly.

And, yeah, we did that. It's, you know, amazing good memories at the golf course and then with the parties as well. So, it's, you know, good to work hard, good to enjoy your success and then party hard as well. Well, along those lines, I'm kind of, I'm kind of curious to get your feedback on I feel like you know we we care a lot about who wins tournaments with the end of the broadcast as always folks on who wins. How different does like a T5 finish feel from like a T15 finish? Well I mean it depends how it happened really. Sometimes I mean I walked away from the golf course

The bar and Nelson this year. I was outright second and was not I won't say flat but I felt like I let that slip away a little bit and And then you know you can shoot 64 on Sunday and finished fourth and or tenth and be pumped with that. Yeah. So it's all depend. It depends on the last day. It depends on the last day, I guess.

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I always say to my wife, like if I do have a bad day, give me 10 minutes, not be fine. I guess there's a lot of guys that aren't like that, but I try and separate the golf and the off the course stuff. But yeah, I mean, at top five is a good week. When you get that text message off the tour that tells you how much money you've made, where you are on the FedEx Cup,

that's often to blow a bit if you've got a bad day. Yeah, totally. When we get those texts every Monday, it's like, what the? You play with Tiger 12 times this year. What do you talk to Tiger? What does Tiger like to talk about? Did he ask about the no-ling up towel he did, right? Yeah, he did.

Yeah, the towel, yeah. Yeah, I mean, all sorts of stuff. Yeah, I mean, legit ran out of stuff to talk. Yeah, it's just like, you know, it's lucky to do with any friends. You can't forget half the stuff you talk about because it's just. Everyone says he perks up when you just ask about his kids or talk about his kids. He loves that part. Yeah, I've talked about the kids.

Oh, I can't even look. Can't think. Yeah, it's protecting the code very well right now. No, there's nothing, there was no store, it looked as the code very well right now. It was just there's nothing there was no Store it lucked as no something out of the ordinary nothing. They would have all Signing you would talk to you might about yeah, yeah, it's a nickname for you. Narke. Are you Marce? Lacey? Lacey You got to get him into Ozzie rules football He's into rocker. Yeah, I think I think because Stevie was seven rugby that he'd probably watched a fair bit of it.

Mark, what's your biggest disappointment in the game? Biggest disappointment. Probably one of my biggest moments, but biggest disappointment is probably not winning the British Open in 15. You know I had pretty good opportunity there even after the first two rounds that I was nowhere to be seen and then really a weekend but I had opportunities, you know I had a pretty good opportunity on 18 with a wedge in my hand that I hit a not the greatest wedge shot in the world.

Hit a part on 17, that looked like it was going in and didn't and missed a short one on, I think it was 16. So, three opportunities in the last three holes of a major. Yeah, that's disappointing. I wouldn't say it's a disappointment. I would just say it was more disappointing than anything. Inconversely, what's the thing other than a major? What's the thing, like whether it be winning an Aussie open or

FedExCop or whatever, like what's the thing that you kind of hold above? Well, you like I see it nail on the head of major. It would be great to be a part of of winning president's cup team in that team environment. of major, it would be great to be a part of winning President's Cup team in that team environment. I feel like that would be that would be really really cool. I don't know if we want to get Maddie started on the set up and all that stuff. Yeah, I mean one of the bigger events in Australia as well. I mean there's a lot of things that I want to do. FedExCup's a massive one too. You know, they're changing the format next year,

which is going to open it up a lot to anyone or pretty much be able to win it. I would probably have to say, PresidentsCup, I think, I've been in three losing PresidentsCups and it's not that much fun. I feel like a winning one to have 11 other guys and well not 11 other guys, 30 other guys. That would be quite the night. You got the year to be.

Exactly. As an American fan, we're ready for your nationals to win one too. That'd be fine. Yeah, go ahead. How pumped are you? I mean, how often did you play Royal Melbourne? I used to caddy around there a lot. I probably caddyed around there more than I've played there.

But I probably played there 15 or 20 times. Great golf course. I really hope they get it firm for the tournament. I was going to say, is there any, it seems like there's, I've talked to Matti at length about this in the past, like it seems like the tour kind of sets it up, how they want, where, you know, we'll, we'll earn, you have a little bit more leeway to say, hey, this is how we're going to set it up. I think you should, I mean, I know that, that, that happened at Liberty National that you know

Captain there could pretty much set it up how he wanted to but I think they need to yeah get it really firm and really fast. Play it like it should be played. Kingston Heath last year or two years ago the World Cup didn't play like it should be played. Kingston Heath last year or two years ago, the World Cup didn't play like it should be played. It was very, very soft. For anyone who had played there before, it was a massive disadvantage. So, I think it just, it longs it just plays like Royal Melbourne. It doesn't play like a, you know, a course that's over here. This Fescue run up areas are so good.

Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, you can put it from, it's like the fringes are, I mean, most golf courses would love to have them as a grains. What's it like kind of playing sand belt courses in Australia and kind of seeing that in your childhood, coming over and playing the style of golf that's played in the United States? It's very different.

I would say the biggest difference is not the firmness of the greens or the speed of the greens. I would say the biggest difference is that they prune the trees in America, and they don't do that in Australia. So if you hit in the trees in America, you can generally get in and at worst chip it out in Australia if you hit the trees. Yeah, ifippin' out. In Australia, if you get the T-trees.

Yeah, if you get in the trees in Australia, if you don't get bitten by a snake, you'll lose your ball. Like it's brutal. And if you do find it, you're probably better off not finding it. Yeah. So you've got to be a lot more cautious off the tee.

It's just a completely different style. So one that I grew up playing, so I'm probably, well, I was a little more conservative at the start of my career, and you have to adapt. So that's one thing that you guys love to do when you come over for the president's carpe is hopefully need to adapt a little bit. Oh, it's bad. I remember I listened to Jeff Ogleville on the Friday podcast just say, after you know playing in Australia, and then coming over and seeing US courses like well that's not right like the strategies all wrong and all that do you get into anything with the strategic elements of the game or you just kind of hit it and yeah I think you can get to into that there for a little bit

you know I my coach is right into that Dennis he's and he's helped me a lot with with certain golf courses. You know, saying, you know, this is how this holds design to be played. You've been hit it over there and then you can hit it there and it gives you a good angle. But when it's soft, everything's thrown out the window. If you can fly a bunker, you should try and fly that bunker. Because if the greens are soft, you can hit it anywhere and it doesn't really matter. Unless the roughs look eye-ditches.

Strategy, when this goes out the window, if you even less it's fastened from it. With any golf course, really. Maddie, what's the most important lesson you've learned in cadiing so far? Probably, it's just learning when to and when to not say anything. It's just knowing you guy basically. Because if you can say all the right things but if the guy's not open to hearing it at the right, when you say it at the wrong time, it's pointless. That's probably the hardest thing and it's talking to someone who's fired up

is very, very hard to tell them to come down because if someone does it to me personally, I'll go the other way. I get more angry. So you've got to know, and I'm very hot when I play golf, so that's an other issue. So yeah, that's the hardest and most challenging part of the job for sure. It hasn't really been a learning lesson I don't think, maybe the husband he hasn't told me but yeah that's still to this day trying to still working on it basically. I feel like I'm pretty mature on the course but I'm sure it's occasionally it would feel like Maddie's almost like a bit of a babysitter

when things aren't going right for a couple of whole patches. It's almost like, all right, we've got to get this like back into line. How are we going to do it? Like if a kid's going off, it's like, how am I going to get everything to go? Well, the first hole of the time, it was 50-50. It was into the wind, so market, and we try to hit this hard eight iron, which caused to just spin and it got up in the air and it was never going anywhere else but the hazard and we make six. So, to the next T.I. set to myself, the most important 30 minutes of this golf tournament is the next

30 minutes. So we've just got hit the next three or four greens in a row. And if we can do that, he'll come down by then and end up hitting the next one to a foot and it was a tapping. So that helped, but didn't have to say anything, hit a groat shot the next shot, but that's when you start preparing yourself. If we miss this green, that's when you're going to say something. That's what I think about going, thankfully it was a long walk to it, like an 80-year-old walk to the next tee. So that's the sort of stuff. What's the meanest thing you've ever said to Matty during a round?

Oh. You could say whatever words you want to on this podcast, too. I think I'm normally pretty good. Maybe this is a question from Matty. Oh, you could say whatever words you want to on this podcast. I think I'm normally pretty good. Maybe this is a question from Maddie. Yeah, I mean, I call myself all sorts of guys. He's mad on him standing. Yeah, because I've always said to Maddie

that I have him cadding for me because it's a partnership, but I want his opinion. I don't want him to tell me what to do. I just want him to give me his opinion. And then at the end of the day, I still do what I want to do, unless he's standing for. I'll make the decision you have.

He has done a couple of times. But yeah, it's like I say, at the end of the day, I think it's my decision. And so I more get angry at myself. If I, because I feel like it's my mentor, Lara, if I hit a shot, I don't want to hit. Or whatever. Awesome.

Well, glad we finally got to do this. We'll let you guys get out of here. Appreciate you taking the time and all the stories. And especially the one of you spewing milk all over the beach. And Hawaii, that's one of the best ones I think we've ever heard. What was that called? What was that called? Just the Moulos.

Just thing, we didn't have a knife for it. Now it's the Maddie Kelly. Yeah. It's a Maddie Kelly. So all right, guys, thanks so much for coming on. This was a blast. That was it all. Appreciate it.

Give it a right club. Feed a right club today. Maddie, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.