No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 183: Adam Hadwin and Dylan Meyer

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

At the Callaway ad shoot, we got a chance to chat with Adam Hadwin and Dylan Meyer about a myriad of topics. Up first is Adam, where we discuss his 59, how he approached the... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 183: Adam Hadwin and Dylan Meyer appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to give you the right club. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. We have a bit of a different episode for you today. We got a chance to catch up with Adam Hadwin and Dylan Meyer at the Calaway ad shoot a couple weeks ago out in California. Got a little bit of time with both, about 20 minutes with each player. These are not intense interviews. We just kind of set up some microphones and just had some good chats with those guys.

Talked with Adam about his 59 and a bunch of other stuff about Canada and got to know Dylan Meyer, who is an up and coming professional player, just turned pro this past year. Finished 20th at the US Open as an amateur at Chinatown Cahill's this year, a standout at the University of Illinois. So this was a lot of fun. Be sure to stay tuned to both of those episodes and on the way in, it's not too late to go to CallawayGolf.com slash gift guide.

They've got a ton of good stuff on here. I was surprised, first of all, whoever designed this thing, we need to like, Callaway needs just like pay us in web services because this thing is beautiful. Take this, if you need any last minute gift ideas, take this and just send this We need to like, Cali needs to just like pay us in web services because this thing is beautiful. Take this, if you need any last minute gift ideas, take this and just send this link to whoever is getting you a gift. Rogue drivers are now 399 on there, they got vintage head coverage, like 25 bucks, they got always backpacks. CaliWayGolf.com slash gift guide, it is not too late, but get on it now as the holidays are coming up soon on a programming note This was our last full podcast of the year We're gonna have a couple highlight slash clip shows that will be coming out over the Christmas break

And then we're gonna roll right into the new year pick up where we left off Thanks to everyone for tuning into this one and for tuning in all year and we'll do kind of more of a year and wrap up on those Final couple podcasts rest of the way so thanks to Dylan and Adam for the time and up first is Mr. Adam Hadwin. What about before, you married fairly recently, right? Yeah, a couple years ago. So what, before that, I mean, you've been on tour for quite a while now.

So be my fifth year. So as a single guy on tour, and I don't mean that in like, going out and chasing women way, but as a single guy like traveling alone, what was that? He's trying to avoid that topic. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can see what he's really getting out there. Not at all.

I'm saying like traveling alone has to be just a weird feeling, I would think, and curious what that was. Yeah, I mean, it's completely different than, completely different than traveling with your wife and dog. That's for sure. I came through the Canadian tour and the web.com tour. You spend a lot of time with roommates and stuff like that on those tours. You always had somebody go dinner with. Usually, I had a group of guys that you travel with because nobody travels with families

out there. Actually. Speaking of your 59, I've been wanting you to tell the story on the podcast because we talked about it somewhere in Korea. So I want to kind of walk me through the round and again, we're going to get to the thought process you had when you got to the 18th hole that talk about like being in the zone, how you got into that zone, what, when you started thinking about it, all the stuff about the 59.

Yeah. Obviously. So it's 2017. 2017, crew, zone, what, when you started thinking about it, all the stuff about the 59. Yeah, obviously. Just the 2017. 2017 curve, well, they're third round. We're at La Quinta, and obviously it's a tournament where everybody goes low, 63, 64 is sort of nothing around that tournament. And I got off to a good, I ended up, I buried six on the row in the front

from number two through seven. Two through seven, thank you. Yeah, you got me. Two through seven, thank you. Yeah, you got me. Two through seven and it was, you know, you got a couple of par fives, you got irons in and stuff like that. So, you know, I potted one in with a hybrid during that, you know, made a couple of pots and,

but even being seven under three nine, you're like, okay, well, somebody else is five under three nine, you know, probably beside me or another golf course. So, okay, whatever, no big deal. And then I, I buried the par five, was that 11? I guess, buried par five 11 to get to eight. And again, still, you're still on the eight under at this point.

And then I, yeah, of course, only, yeah. Only, right? It's been there. But I'm sure that, and I'm sure fellow pro, two pro's can attest to this, you know, bunch of rounds. You get eight, nine, under through 12, 13, 14, and they never pen out. Yeah. You know, they kind of just go sour from there.

And so I birded part, the part three, 12, and I looked at my caddy and he said, okay, well, four more to go. And he go, and he looked right back at me and he goes, well, let's just focus on the next hole. I'm like, no, no, well, four more to go. And he looked right back at me and he goes, well, let's just focus on the next hole. I'm not like, I'm like, no, no, seriously, four more to go. Like, come on, I mean, might as well, all right? And I've had a bunch of rounds where he kind of joked

around about it, like, all right, we're playing well, ha ha, four more to go, whatever. And then, you know, you make a couple of boughgies and you're like, all right, well, that was long lived. But, you know, I made like a 20 footer on the par five, which, like, okay, this is kind of weird, but all right. The birdies before that though, were they like, hero puts or were you just gonna follow?

No, it was a little bit in between. You know, I made like a couple 20 footers and hit a couple of clothes and kind of a little mix of everything. So we go to, so I birdie 13, the other par 5s, and now I'm 10 under. The next hole is actually good par four. Fourteen is a good par four looking to one of their more challenging holes.

And I hit six and I'm like 25 feet, 30 feet or something. And that one goes in and I'm like, okay, this is getting a little weird now. Like those, you know, like I said, you get to eight under something and then you hit a couple to 20, 30 feet. You miss and the round kind of fizzles out. Well, those ones go in. I'm like, okay. This is part 72. Part 72.

So I've got to do some work still. Yeah. So I, and after every hole and after every birdie, I kind of just nudge my caddy a little bit higher, three more, you know, two more. And at this point, I think after I make those two birdies, he's kind of thinking like, this is getting a little strange, but yeah, two more. Good part three in the next 15 hit a good shot to like 12, 15 feet behind the hole. And it was like a slider left to right. And I can remember standing over the pot,

obviously knowing that I was 10 under, knowing that I had four holes left. And I'm like, do not three put this. This is the point in the round, where in previous times when you've played well, you would get too aggressive and you would three putt, and you would ruin your round. Do not three, like I don't even care if you make it, just don't three put it, get the speed right. And I think that kind of narrowed in the focus,

like just get the speed right, and I did, and it went in. So we got to... I'm gonna start telling myself not to three put it in. I'm gonna have to go all out of three put. I'm gonna have to go all out of three put. I'm four put, usually. So here's the difference though, right? I'm telling myself not to three put,

and then before I hit the put, I'm telling myself good speed, right? So you got to refocus that energy in. Sure. You know, so it's okay before, but you got to find something out. You got to go positive just before you hit. I kind of think maybe you might be a better putter than us, too.

That might help. That might help. I actually, one of my best shots today was on 16. I hit it in like 10, 12 feet. First of all, the camera show up, of course, too, right? So you could feel them coming. Of course. So I got like 12 feet to get to 13 under.

I just missed. Hit a good putt and break something, whatever. You didn't three putt? I didn't three putt. Exactly. Tapped in. So we got a 17. Come feet far.

So I need one more birdie in the last two holes. And I'm going to probably have mid-Irns in both of them. Ended up hitting a great shot in a 17. Probably pushed it a little bit, playing a little bit further left of the right pin, but hit it to like seven feet. And it was probably the most nervous I'd been all day, because seven feet is the length where you should make it. But it's just long enough where if you don't hit a perfect put,

it's not going in. And of course, the read was like left edge. So for a right hand, or you easily just nudge that a little, hit a little bit too hard all that stuff So it's shakeily went in to get to 13 and so Yeah, and I mean now I'm here stand on 18t with at 13 under and You it's crazy because you go from a mindset of okay okay, I got four more, three more, two more. Now I hit it.

And instead of thinking, well, let's just get one more. I'm thinking, don't screw up. Yeah. No one's ever shot 14 under an appiegeator. And do you know that? You're thinking that? No, I wasn't thinking that. Well, it's so funny, right?

Because you're on the, you know, like I said, back on 12, I'm like, okay, well, we got four more. And then we got three more. And then I hit it. And no longer was I was like, okay, well, we got four more. And then we got three more. And then I hit it. And no longer was I was like, it's like I was content with part at this point now, right? It's like, okay, I've got this number. I don't, I don't need to go lower than this.

I've already got it. Let's just protect it. So, you know, it's an iron off the tea anyway, which helps. So I hit it down the middle. It was not me if you replay the broadcast that dropped the F bomb on live TV. It was not me. People said it was me. I swear on my life. It was not me. I would never drop the F bomb hitting the middle of the fairway, especially when I'm 13 under at this point. But so I've got eight iron into the green,

maybe a little bit juiced up or something, kind of hit a little bit long. It stops just before the bunker, which makes the, you know, the green side shot way easier, chipped it to three feet. And here I am sitting at three feet. So, it was either cold salmon or partner, or my under partner,

cans like a 58 footer from the front of the green. You know, Cole who hadn't made a puddle a day makes like a 30 footer for birdie. And here I am sitting at three feet for 59 thinking like this hole has just shrunk. It's like nothing after watching these long pots go in. And I can remember sitting back behind the pud, like do not screw this up. Like,

the cameras have come out, you know, the crowd has come out. Like this potentially could be your only shot in your golfing history to shoot this number. Like do not screw this up. Wonderful. I just incredible. In an incredible. Get a good mind of my professional. So, but this is where I say you got a segment to being positive. So after I got that out of the way, I went into being like, okay, you've done this a thousand times, same routine, just get up there. Luckily I had chipped down to where it was like a straight in uphill, so I had room to pull or push it just a little bit.

But it went in and a lot of relief and stuff. So it was just one of those rounds where it didn't matter what I did. You know, like I said, those 20, 25 footers, 30 footers, it didn't matter. It went in. So. You ended up finishing second that week. How do you look back at that week compared to you won the Valspar two months later? How do you look back at the two of them?

Is it bittersweet, the 59? Because you didn't end up winning? Yeah, it's definitely bittersweet. How do you follow up a 59? Could you sleep after that? I mean, what's that like? Well, I mean, I was in a position where I had basically just gotten myself back into the tournament.

I think I entered Sunday with maybe a one shot lead. I think that's correct. Anyway, so we were back in the final group. And I had no time to really let what just happened sink in. I had to focus, I had to get, because I wanted win the tournament. So it really wasn't until I kind of had an off week, a few weeks later that that sunk in.

I think it was just so focused on, I didn't didn't want to be the guys shot 59 didn't win Yeah, and unfortunately I'm the guy that shot 59 didn't win. But that happens so frequently than you think Yeah, I mean what Justin did at Sony was impressive, you know to go on shoot 59 and then carry that through and win Sony that I mean that's incredible So I obviously wanted to go out and close it out. I just didn't play well enough, Hudson played well. And I made a couple pots and did some good things coming down the stretch to keep some pressure on. Just wasn't able to get it done. How would you compare coming down the stretch on the 59 coming down the stretch at Valspar? Pretty similar.

I honestly, I felt more comfortable coming down the stretch at Valspar having gone through that 59. Yeah. Um, I kind of knew what to expect. Was it still, was it still don't screw this up or was it? You know what, I actually didn't have any of that. I didn't actually didn't have any of that at Valspar. There was like this. That's so, that's so wild.

I know. And, and it's funny. It's awesome. It's awesome. It's, it's, it's funny. Um, it's so hard to describe, but I had this sense of calmness all week, and I know a lot of guys talk about that, like, oh, I felt really in control

and that sort of thing about my game, but I really did. I mean, I pumped it in the water on 16 with a two shot lead and lost it all, but I never felt out of control. It was like, well, I hadn't had a really horrible shot all week and got penalized. And unfortunately, it just happened in the worst possible time. But you know, I hit it in the water and I'm like, okay, well, what do I have to do to make

the lowest score possible here? And that's where my mind went to. And that's where the focus was. I mean, I certainly didn't expect to win on 18. You know, the way we were kind of both playing there and Patrick obviously played some really good golf that day. It was a bit of a shock to only have to make part to win on 18, but he got his win. Was it later that year or the following year at Vegas? So it was pretty crazy. I think Neal's got some Canada questions he wanted to ask you.

Let's go ahead and we're talking earlier. I lived outside Toronto two years and you're Canadian. Yes. From just outside Vancouver. Okay. So have a few questions about Canada for you. Great. Okay. I hope you've never had any people. Do you prefer bags or cartons of milk? I do cartons, but people do bag milk. There is a such thing as a bag milk and I do remember it as a kid, yes. Why? That's just why bag milk as a kid.

But why? The Schuster's were bag family? Well, yeah, we put it in this like dispenser in the fridge and it was just like, I don't know why they did it, but my brother and I have always. Ars was, Ars was, Ars was about the bag milk thing. Ars was just as simple as like this plastic jug that we, you know, cut the edge of the off.

Exactly. Yeah, you cut the edge off the bag milk and you poured out. That seems so unnecessary. Just have a carton. Maybe it's more eco-friendly. I don't know. Yeah. Whatever it is, it's disruptive.

And I think we can all agree on that. I like it. Have you ever had an interaction with the Mounties? No. No, no. I have never been in trouble with the law. OK. I was pulled over and caned a recently.

And it was a very cool, yeah. But it was like the most polite experience of my life. It was like, it sounds like a cliche. It sounds like a Canadian stereotype. But it was a very delightful stereotype. It was a lady cop. Did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, did you, so I said that because we had like, we had kind of like a good rapport going back and forth and we're both like, you get away with something. Like it was, I was high enough over there. I'm like, well, I'm not going to, like I'm going to get a ticket and I very much

should get a ticket. That's totally fine. Can't believe I was going. Well, so I was very nice. She was very nice. And at the end, I'm like, hey, you know, I, I don't suppose, you know, I could, I could possibly convince you that I thought this was Miles Brower instead of Kilometer Brower. And she's like, well, I can see your spedometers in my in-kilometer

So no, I don't I don't think that's gonna work It was like a I don't know there's no free no free ads on this podcast It was a midsize SUV. It was a BMW. Yeah, it was a BMW All right, skier snowboard. I actually never grew up doing either, but if I had to choose, I'd be bored. Okay. So out in Vancouver, what were the activities of choice outside of it? You know, we did get up on the lake.

I did a small amount of wakeboarding with some friends up in Kalona. Vancouver just kind of enjoy the, enjoy the outdoors. A lot of hiking, a lot of good hiking in Vancouver getting downtown I played a lot of sports growing up. Okay. I kept me busy play hockey. I never played hockey That was one sport I never got to play okay. I still to this day Like hold it against my parents hockey fan of course. Yeah, thank you for conucks. Canucks. Yep. Okay, so Conucks Flames

Oilers jets who wins this day like up. Well, of course I'm gonna say can I Okay, I mean I think that's like betting with my my heart My head always a good idea I'm not gonna I'm not gonna even mention another Canadian team winning but the canucks on this podcast keep the other teams out of your mouth Okay, so favorite hockey player of all time. Pebble, Burr. Okay. Yeah. Don't know. See, good, whoa.

In the trivia question. Russian, Russian rocket. Really? Yeah. He's like, yeah, yeah. Like 90, 94, canoxmate of run. They were game-seventing against the Rangers. They lost.

That was kind of his time. Rush or Neil Young? It's not my genre. Really? I hate to say it, but it's not. Arcade Fire or Alonus Morissette. What is your genre? I actually grew up in like as like an Eminem guy. I grown up DMX Eminem in high school. I did a lot of hardcore rap like that. I know you judging by the right response to the whole culture right now. Enough with the stereotypes about Knazir. Is that what you be on the range with?

I've moved into like kind of a mainstream EDM stuff. So a lot like Calvin Harris and not the hardcore beat, only beat type of EDM, but sort of the lyrical EDM stuff, the top 40 that everybody hates, that stuff, I like. Well, it sounds like Dylan's DJ out there. Yeah, exactly. You get caught with Dylan. Oh, there we go. I don't have to do it. Okay, and last, lightning round question, do you speak French? Umpliti. Okay. Do you know that national anthem in French? Not in French. Not I can I mean I've spent so much time in the US and the American American

I hate to say this to any Canadian listeners, but I would might struggle with Canadian anthem at this point I know it's I hate to admit it But I'm a fair man. I can take it but yeah, were you based in the safe Phoenix? reminds you home It's it's very similar time. It's what I tennis very similar to a Phoenix coyotes game And there were a ton. Oh, yeah of Canadians. It's incredible And they had Tim Hortons in the yes, they do Phoenix open is always now overrun by

Like TVs. Yeah, it's great. The line was like out the door. Oh, yeah, no, it's incredible Yeah, the I've been to a couple of Kanox games and you know Kanox will score half the arena stands up and then Kaya He's score the other half will stand up. So it's it's pretty crazy Well, well, well, I promise we'll get off the Canadian topics the last thing you just played in the World Cup of golf down in Melbourne last week Representing Canada at Metropolitan. What was that experience like? That was incredible. I was lucky enough to play two years ago as well

at Kingston Heath. So I know you guys have done some trips down there. It's a pretty special area for golf. There's still a chalk outline of Neil at Metropolitan. That's true. Behind the 18th grade night, I got dominated. Can you get stuck there for a little bit? Yeah, it was hot back and forth and just a lot of bunker shots

Did go well. Well the sand and you can make out how not how much you guys were in the bunkers a lot I don't think you can be anywhere else Yeah, the ball just goes on the green and then it's seriously saying but like all the bunkers have varying levels of sand And you have no idea. Yeah, it was incredible Is that how much of a true has? I mean, for you guys, that is a perfect challenge. Yeah, 100% and the way they, the, the, the race that they used were sort of a thicker rate than what we normally use on tour.

So I know you've heard like a lot of guys, I think Jack Nicholas has talked about this one of the more prominent people, but you know, bunkers are supposed to be hazards and the way we usually play them, they're sort of like perfect and easy to get out of. And you can spin it like crazy. And it certainly was not the case down at Metro last week. I mean, it was like, yeah, you had some thick lies. And then you had some lies that you were scared. You'd blade it out of there.

So you played it differently and it came out a certain, I mean, it was, and of course, every green is surrounded by them. So if you didn't hit that while you were not getting up and down very many times. How different is playing as like a two-some as a team? Is it more pressure? Is it different when you have that Canadian flag on your back or is it? It was your partner by the way. Nick Taylor. Yeah I took Nick that. So we grew up in the same city in Abyssford, same home golf course which is pretty crazy but it was great but it does add a little bit more pressure.

That alternate shot is just a ridiculous format. You miss one offline and you almost start, you just immediately start kicking yourself because you don't want to put your partner in a bad position. Do you say sorry? No, we say sorry. No, we were really good this week actually. We obviously played really well finished fourth. We were both on top of our game and any time I had a terrible shot, you know, he hit a nice recovery and I was able to make it a nice pot to kind of save us and vice versa.

So it worked out really well. I got a question about Melbourne. We a town known for coffee. Yes. Are you coffee guy? No, I'm not. No, unfortunately. Move it.

I wouldn't move. I stopped. Yeah, I mean, no, it would have been great if I, I've actually never really had a cup of coffee in my life. Was that, so you've been down there before because you were, you should check it out by the way. I just, yeah, I feel like, I feel like a little, I'm too late to the game at this point.

If I get started now, I'm just, yeah. If you made it this far, don't get caught right now. So what do you, on the road, a lot of free time? What do you do? What's your, you got a hobby? Well, my wife and I travel with our dog. What kind of dog? Yes, we got a, he's like, Kava Poochon.

I don't know the, no, I know. He's a huge designer, Breeton. Um, he's a, um, a semi, I'm pretty sure he's in bread, um, because he's a bit, uh, spacey. Yeah, that's a good word for it. Yeah. Does that mean the same in dog breeding? Yeah.

Yeah, oh, yes. Um, he a mo dog. Well, he, he, he, just, you know, he's recently started chasing shadows like his own shadow. So we're a little bit worried about him. That's where we think the Embraidery Commies ends. But he, no, he's a really great dog, Trevo. So that takes up a lot of our time. So the golf course is called.

He's 25 counts. Okay. Yeah, so we just take him on the plane, Brad. Brad. I love human names. Full name. Full name Bradford. Well, so, you know, he's Brad, but when he's in trouble. He's Brad for sure

But he he's great. So we just try and keep it as as similar to home as possible All right, well, we we're gonna head out and shoot some video stuff with you I think you know if you got the time and thanks for joining us. Sorry as a short one But we're glad we squeeze you in and best luck next year. My pleasure. Thank you. All right, now welcoming in, Dylan Meyer, aka DJ D funk. We need to hear the story behind that. You touched on a little bit earlier with other DJ here, but this has just been mystifying DJ Pi for a long time.

Yeah, I've been, as soon as I heard the nickname DJ D funk, I was like, we need to dig more into that. We need to find out what that guy's like. DJ Rhoaz. Correct. Which is what? Return on Adsp S. And DJ row, which is what return on ad spend. Return on ad spend. Right. Yeah.

Because I'm helping my clients to go over a cheap unprecedented results. But that's for another time. Go ahead. DJ D-Funk. How did the nickname come about? What's it mean? There was a lot of questions today. He's like, what the hell did I just get myself into?

So in high school, I worked with a guy, um, his name is Alex Wadman, who was a radio personality in Evansville, um, for a long time, and he was on the DJ scene for a while. So, a couple under 21 night clubs opened up, and, you know, I started going with him to a few of them, and, you know, one thing led to another, I started really enjoying music and loving music and yeah, I just started doing it there and then me and him have remained best friends for a long time and he gave me the name, the stage name,

however you want to call it, and it just stuck. So everyone either calls me DJ or funk or whatever they want to call me really. Any kind of mixture of those. So what's your what we share your stylists? Whatever they want to hear, man. It could be a walk of like a mix tape, let it roll or you just play a whole mix of. Are you a mashup specialist or more? No, I just know. I'm just like, no, not dubstep. And that stuff drives me insane. So we're getting closer to this. Yeah, it's more of like hip hop. Do we like? No, not dubstep. And that stuff drives me insane.

So we're getting closer this one, too. It's more of hip-hop itself. Stuff you'd hear under 21 club or at a college bar. You don't hear much EDM. So it would be like, you're kind of your top music that you'd play. OK. Anything original?

Any originals? Yeah. There's a few mashups. Yeah. Alex is made few mashups. Yeah. Alex is made, and then I've played through the time, and they've gotten some pretty good. Well, we're talking, maybe we're always looking to diversify pro-trag holdings.

Maybe we start a record label. We could possibly talk to you. We'd love to do a release. We'll run that through your team, but what do you think it offline? I think a record deal could be. What do you think of our audio setup here with with Mike's Jake? Yeah, don't touch that Mike that Mike could fall over at any moment. For the listeners that may not know much

about you, can you give us a background how you got into golf and what is your career has been like to date? Right. So I'm from Evansville, Indiana. And I grew up playing golf with my dad and my grandpa. They had a small league out at one of the public golf courses they played in on Thursday nights. And I just go out there with them after school and play golf ever since I was five. So it really started to pick up whenever I got to be 10 years old and started to kind of realize that, you know, baseball is not my thing. Um, and golf was a little bit better than the other sports.

And I got my first scholarship offer, my freshman year of high school. And that's kind of when it really just sealed the deal. And I said, this is what I have to do. I mean, I got my scholarship offer to a D1 program. So I'm going to go ahead and kind of venture down this road. And I chose Illinois to go there eventually and, you know, had a pretty good career there, undercoach small and, you know, learned how to be a professional then.

So I made it a little bit easier of a transition now and, you know, and after playing eight or nine events on the PGA tour, it's been nice to see how that learning experience was able to be able to be carried over to today and how I've played well in some events. What's that transition been like? I mean, what kind of status do you have? How are you getting into events? What's your plan for the next year? And everything going forward?

So this past summer, what I've been doing is going off of exemptions. I've hopefully done a couple Monday qualifiers but I didn't qualify. So just basically off of the exemptions I've played in. Um, you know, the travel has been one of the things that's been a little different. You know, that's one thing you weren't prepared for. I mean, college, you get a small sample of what it's like, but you get two or three days back in campus, fly out again. But this is just week to week to week to week to week.

Um, it's really, it's a seven day work week. I mean, a lot of people don't realize that. But I've just been embracing it, you know, seeing all different types of places, different golf courses and meeting new people. So this whole journey has been great. Great question. So when you were a freshman, you guys scholarship, was that to Illinois? No.

Where was it? To Ball State. Ball State. Yep. And then when did the Illinois one come through? That came through my late my junior year going into my like the summer before my senior year. Okay. So then I committed on that same phone call that coach offered me because there was no way anyone else was better than what I was getting. So when you're a freshman did you take like because I was one of this, like, as people get scholarships, younger and younger now,

do you take the ball state? You say verbally, like, yeah, hey, I'll go there. And then you kind of can just decommit, right? Right, you can do that. But there, there's a thing, there's like this unspoken rule of, it's like a gentleman's handshake.

If you verbally commit, you're going. Sure. You're going to sign that deal. And that's just kind of the thing that I thought about whenever me and my dad were talking is like, I don't want to verbally commit and lock myself in because I'm going to state in my word. If I'm saying I'm going somewhere, I'm going somewhere.

Sure. But I just kind of waited until the last minute. And luckily coach Small Cold right at that last minute. And I just made this decision to go there. Yeah. And then now, so you're a lot of travel, are you operating out of Evanston? Evan'sville.

Evan'sville, yeah. Evanston, you're talking about the other... Different vibe. Oh, there. You're talking about the sister school. God, his eyebrows just got raved. He was over here. He was over here.

He's talking about Chicago, I think. We can edit that out. We can edit that out. We need to keep that out. You need to own up to your mistakes here accountability. Is the ear of a barrel flyer. Do you find it hard to get to and from like do you fly to Chicago then out like is that add a lot to the travel do you think? Uh, so it's only like an hour flight to Chicago.

Hour flight to Atlanta. So it's not too bad. I mean, the flights are great. You can get out at like six or seven o'clock in the morning. Just not airports five minutes for my house. The TSA takes two minutes if that because it's a small airport. So it's really not a bad deal because then whenever I come back, I can just fly into home and be home in five minutes. So it's for me, it's been great. And then like majority of the tournaments in the Midwest,

I can drive to like Indianapolis, it's 2.5 hours, St. Louis is 2.5 hours, Nashville's 2.5, Chicago's six. So it's not like I'm way out of proportion with the schedule. Are you a Sky Miles guy? I am. I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. game stood in relation to the professionals, was that a big question mark for you and what were the nerves like? I didn't know where I stood against professionals because I obviously haven't played against professionals. So it was good to get a test because I played the John Deere classic. I was playing okay, I wasn't playing great so I was up to the challenge of seeing if I could compete at a high level with not having my A game going into the event and if I could compete at a high level with not having my A game going into the event

and if I could arise to the occasion and I didn't I fell short by a couple shots but it showed that because I played pretty awful I played pretty bad for the way I like to play and it showed I think I missed a couple like two or three shots and if I felt I played really bad and I missed the cut by only two or three that I could play this game for a living. So it gave me confidence moving on. And once I played in that, I was able to, like I said, gain the confidence to play well in my season in college, knowing that I could fit in at any point in time on the PGA tour web.com against the best in the world.

Was there debate about that? Because I mean, you had to get a stud college career obviously, but, you there debate on whether you wanted to to go pro or no, I need to stay four years. Yeah You know just being under coach small and the idea of leaving early just doesn't make sense Yeah, you know, he's he's been around the block so many times he understands how to play he still plays professionally And you know just to learn from him for four years and being with him every day and being with the team you know that come raterade everyone making you better because I had my teammate Nick Hardy with me for four years and you know I never want to get beat by him and so we always just kept pushing each other and once I if I would have left I wouldn't have had anyone challenging

me to get better and now that we've both, we're both in the same position of starting out. Now we want to keep one upping each other still in it. It's a, it's a great friendship that we have because when we get on the course, we're, we're button heads, but when we're off the course for best friends. What is it, you know, when you go out for your first few professional tournaments, one, what is your game like? Yeah. From what I understand, you're not a prototypical bomber style. Are you intimidated at all by how far guys sit on the tour?

You don't, don't even pay any attention to it at all. What's that transition been like? Um, you know, I play with Cameron champ in college. I mean, guys in college hit the ball. Yeah, that's very true. Well, it's just a matter of can they get in the hole? And they, some of them just can't, you know, their short game is kind of, kind of lack. And you know, it's just a matter of can they get in the hole? Some of them just can't. You know, their short game is kind of lack.

And that's where I made my jump. It's because I made my short game, my insurance policy, and it made it my strength. Because I don't hit it very far off the tee. So I don't really look at those guys and be intimidated by how far they hit it. Because I know I can hit my two hybrid better than I can hit a seven iron. So that's just the way I look at it. You proved that today against DJ. That's true. So I don't, I just have a bunch of confidence in myself.

And for me to be out there and to stay in my own bubble is the best way for me to be successful. What's it like, I mean, in the tour truck, when you're trying to get like two hybrids spent the way you want them of the tour guys, like, I don't know, I've never done a two hybrid for somebody. What's that like? So I haven't changed my hybrids since my sophomore year of college. So I have the same ones.

They're my faithful, I love them to death. I can't hit anything better. So I just always stick with those. So I haven't had any problems with that yet and then so you turned pro this year and right before the US open correct and You finished 20th. What was that week like? I mean was that was that were you kind of like oh this is gonna be easy the rest the rest if I got 20 the US open the rest This is gonna be easy. No After planting us open

I was mentally drained and going into the travelers that entire week, I was like, man, this is what professional golf is after playing a major. It's like, this is gonna be hard. It's gonna be really hard if I'm playing three or four weeks in a row. And then you hear stories of guys playing 13 weeks in a row. You're like, how in the world do you do that? Because I know after playing the US open and I needed a break and You know that was just one professional event, but now that I've kind of understood how to manage my time and

manage my energy I've been able to learn how I can keep myself You know playing at a high level for a long period of time Because that first tournament the US US Open, I was like, oh, I want to do this. I want to try that. I want to do this. And it just wears you down. You don't realize until you're done. What do you think? What do you think allowed you to play so well that week? I had zero expectations. I was in all of everything Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of,

you know, the big stands, the people coming out. And and once I played my prax round, you know, the big stands, the people coming out. And once I played my prax around, I played one with Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Steve Stricker. Like, okay, I knocked out all the big guys, either way. So if I get paired with one of them, I'm okay. I already know them. So it's like, so what's the worst thing that can happen now, you know?

So I just kind of took that as a positive and spun it my way. And you know, I just took one shot at a time and just soaked it all in. If I could hit a good shot and just kind of build momentum off of the last one, I'd end up doing fairly well. So being a shorter player on tour, what kind of setups do you look for? What kind of setups excite you as far as courses? Uh, ones where you have to plan out and you have to really use your mental capacity to do it. I mean, the courses that were, if you hit it so far, you have to hit a two iron off the tee where I'm hitting my driver. So we're in the same spot. Now we're going to see who to play. Yeah. Yeah. And I really enjoy that challenge of seeing where I stack up against

the best players in the world, best iron players, wedge players. So those kind of courses excite me, tree-lined golf courses, you know, the typical things you see in the Midwest. That's where I've thrived in my college career, I end in my professional career. I mean, if you can kind of go back and look, the harder to go, of course, the better I've been playing. And that's something I need to start learning how to play the easy golf courses and scoring on those. But I think that'll come with the time playing as a

professional. Yeah. You hear a lot of stories about guys that play for a long time professionally, don't hit the ball far, then they end up start chasing distance. How disciplined are you, would you say, and not getting caught up with how far you hit it and not being tempted to try to change anything for more distance.

Because anytime I've tried to change for more distance, I've sacrificed accuracy. And if I don't have accuracy, I'm not going to play very well because I don't hit it far enough. My swing speed's not fast enough to get it through rough. And you know, that's just one thing I have to keep learning. I've been successful by sticking to my game plan and how I play. And if I can hit it in the fairway, get on the green,

you know, just keep giving myself chances. And that's what I've been doing. I can Sanderson and even in Vegas. I mean, I just gave myself a lot of chances to, you know, make some birdies. And I had some pretty good rounds going in. That was cool, at least to see. I mean, Cameron champ won Sanderson,

but you were right there as well. The two completely different styles of golf was pretty interesting contrast to see. So what is your status going in next year? What's your schedule looking like? What are you going to be to where could people will see you next? So I'm playing in the final stage of Q school next week. And then I will be the first four of us of the web.com, but hopefully through the final stage that I get my status improved. So, you know, basically web.com next year, you know, and I'm playing in the Valspar.

I got an exemption to that from winning the college tournament down in Augusta. Speak of course for you, man. Yeah, I played it. Yeah, I played it. Yeah, I played it and I played it last year because I won tournament. Yeah junior year That's a good course Yeah, I really like that course is shame like there's no event No, I'm excited to get the opportunity to play there again and you know get have status somewhere and you know Get a full lineup of where I'm gonna be at I think if I give myself a full season on a tour, I'm going to be pretty successful and, you know,

carry confidence into, you know, the BGA tour the next season. What do you like to do off the course? Um, I like politics. Yeah. I love politics. It's a good time in our history for that. It is.

It's great. You're having a popcorn. Yeah. Yeah. Was that, you probably signed Major? having a popcorn. Yeah. Was that you probably signed major? Yeah, making that up. Yeah. Awesome. So what when you say you like politics, you just watch television or is it

you like reading? Is it what is it? Yeah. I mean, if I, I mean, I'll pull up any kind of news article or, you know, read I'm the weird kid that reads like the health reports and stuff and like San Francisco, about like, Cal, all that stuff came out last couple months. It was just the stuff from Congress. Just small things like that.

Just keep my time occupied away from golf. I mean, all the music's one of those things as well. I can just get my mind off of it and just kind of do that. But there's no real time to do any of it when you're in season. So this off season has been filled with filled with some fun stuff. Yeah, I met just sitting at airports. You're gonna get a lot of reading done over the next year. Yeah, that is true. Yeah, what is the most valuable lesson you feel like you've learned since you've

turned professional? I would say that hard work pays off. You know, Coach always preached about work now, play later. And he was always referring to work hard and in college, so you can just have fun and play later. And you know your game. And I took that in my last two years, my junior and senior year, and I'm carrying it over again now. Could I still need to really work hard

on some things that I really haven't nailed down yet and I feel like that's just so so valuable to me is just being able to work hard and staying hungry to be the best in the world and if I get satisfied I'm not very good. I mean who is you know you kind of just lay back in your chair and okay I can show up and I can do it. But if you keep working hard, then the results are going to show. What does work hard, work hard can mean a lot of different things, right? Because I think at a certain point, just banging 600 golf balls a day isn't productive. So for you, what does work hard mean?

I mean, just understanding my routine. How do I get better? What are the shots I need to work on? And it's gonna be more of quality over quantity. It's like for me recently, what I've been practicing on is 30 to 100 yards and 10 yard increments. And I've been putting out little cones to land it

and four yard wide, the separation. If I don't land it in there, then I don't get enough points. So I keep, everything is tangible to me. So if I gotta have a point system to know if I'm getting better at something, and I do it over the course of time, and you know what, it's just those things

that you're able to diagnose, what your problem is, where you need to get better at, and just kind of refine those things that you do well already And it's like I said it's quality over quantity. That's like the most that's like the best practice drill ever I've never thought of practice in that way. That's wonderful. Like a point system What is what's the most if at all the most star struck you've been at any moment so far since you've turned professional Crossing paths of Tiger Woods or has there been any of that at any point? Yeah, a basketball.

I was, uh, see, we're on the short game. It was Tiger, me and Speed. Like, oh, okay. Well, the best ball for the world right here next to me and then Tiger was right there. Um, so yeah, it was, that was the one time I was like, you've got to be kidding me. That's Tiger Woods. Like, he's real. I've never me. That's Tiger Woods like he's real I've never seen him in personal length and he's right there and you know, then so I'm at the US open

Talk to him for a minute and that was that was pretty cool that he was able to talk and Even it was just five minutes. Those are just great five minutes Is there anybody specifically you sought sought out for advice in any way? Did you been out there? Steve's trigger. Yeah, I mean, Illinois alum. Yeah. I've talked to him a little bit here and there through Coach Small, but you know, getting out at the US open and kind of asking his advice and at the John near classic of some things he kind of works

on to practice and it's been valuable, you know, just a small tidbit of how to get better as a professional. Alright Dylan, best of luck next week at QSchool and we hope to see you out there for the full schedule next year on the web.com term. We'll see you at the Valspar as well. So, best of luck. Thanks for the time. Cheers. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most.

How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different.