No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 185: 2018 Highlights (Part II)

Episode Date: December 22, 2018

In Part II of our highlights episode, we have the best stories from Bones, Joe Buck, Mike Whan, Danielle Kang, Lydia Ko, Jessica Korda, Maverick McNealy, Julian Suri, Curtis Strange, Paul Azinger, Mark Broadie, and... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 185: 2018 Highlights (Part II) appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lenga Podcast. Part two of our clips highlights from 2018. Hope you enjoyed part one. Thank you for tuning in.

Part one was our biggest names, funniest stories, biggest flashes, I guess you could say, for the year. But there's a lot of other good interviews we had this year and a lot more substance that we thought was worth sharing. And we've accumulated a lot of those here. Not every episode is represented throughout this. Some episodes I went back and listened to,

there are just a lot of clips that just don't really trim down to a nice short story or whatnot. So no offense to anyone that got cut out of the year in highlight show. A lot of different reasons why we included the clip she'll hear later this episode. We're going to start it with some more bone stories. We have Joe Buck, Gil Hans, Danielle Kang, Julian Surrey, Mike Wann, Jessica Corda, Lydia Co. It's just a whole variety of mix. And one final shout out again to our sponsor Callaway for all their

support this past year. You guys heard what I had to say about them on the previous episode, but this one I again emphasize how hard it is working in golf to find a partner like Callaway that is willing to let us do what we want to do, support us in more ways than you can count and truly make us better every single day. Like I said in part one, a lot of the things you're about to hear in this episode would not have ever happened if it wasn't for those guys and the support they've given us.

So again, a heartfelt thanks to those guys and to everyone that's listened throughout the year. We are excited to bring the heat again in 2019. But for now, let's start off with the Bones Augusta podcast and enjoy the rest of the highlights and everyone have a great holiday and new year and we'll see you in 2019. You know, he's a real student of the game and I'd like to think to to a large degree I am too. And I had noticed if you go back over the years of these great little masters movies that come out that we have all watched on the golf channel and elsewhere that show the recaps of the tournaments that

there were guys on a number of occasions that hit shots on 16 that they just absolutely pose over. And the ball comes down, you know, 25, 30 feet long. And they just seem shocked. And you know, and when that happens to seem shocked and and you know and when that happens to a tour player you know usually when they're they've hit something to five feet they kind of know it when the ball is in the air they have a feel for the yards they hit the shot they know how they hit it and when

something comes down there they're genuinely shocked well you got to kind of take note of that and I think it happened to Davis one year I think it had to do Val one year and it might even have happened to Ernie that very day. I don't know. And so Phil and I had talked about it and about how, you know, we were kind of developing this theory there on 16 that no matter what the situation when you get, you know, in the hunter, when you get that master's adrenaline, going, if you get between clubs, you go with the lesser club, and even if you're not between clubs,

it just plays a half club short, and it's a very unique piece of land, Chris, and I know you've been there, and when you're out there at the masters, whether you're in 40th place on Thursday, or whether or not you're leading on Sunday, there are thousands of people around that whole, and it's in something of a valley. There's several thousand people around that hole. And it's in something of a

valley. There's several thousand people left and behind the green and there's people right. And it's, I don't know what it is, but it's a very very low point in the course. And we started wondering if maybe, you know, what was going on here with the topography and the number of people maybe it was affecting the air in a sense that the ball was going to go go further And I'm not trying to sound like some kind of scientist here We're just trying to figure out why are guys hitting these shots that they pose over that are going long and So Phil doesn't birdie 15. He now is one back and he needs to make one more to tie Ernie who's ahead of us and We walked over to the to the 16th and Phil says, let's

plug it in, let's go with the theory. And I can't off the top of my head remember the yard, but it was probably something like 186, which is an absolute normal good in those days, seven iron. And he had eight. And so we said, you know what, let's just hit the hard eight and take our chances here. And he ripped an eight and we really didn't know at that point where it was coming down, but it came down 18 feet right under the hole, which is a great spot because you would literally, and I'm not exaggerating here,

you would rather have 18 feet short of the hole on 16 that Sunday pinned and have five feet behind it. It is anything behind that hole is the hardest, most maybe brutal putt in golf that I've ever seen. You can't make it and you'll see guys three putt from 10 feet there regularly. And so, you know, this ball came down 18 feet short, sure enough, it had gotten much further than we would have thought an eight iron would go. And he made it. And it was a cool moment because, you know, he's now tied fully in the master's.

I'm over there. You want to jump out of your skin, but you're trying to look as cool as you can. And he came over and he grabbed the putter end of the club, the club head into the putter, and it hit me really hard in the rear end with the putter grip and said, let's make one more. And it was a really hard in the rear end with the putter grip and said let's make one more. And it was a really cool moment of all my moments with Phil. It was probably kind of a top 10. So even though we didn't know at that point yet what the future held in terms of the next couple of holes for him to make that too for the theory to work and for him to say what he said.

He didn't say it. It was the crowd was going bananas. you had to yell it in my ear, but it was a cool moment. I guess what it was, Chris, was that you know normally you want, you know, fills a very technical guy and if he's got a question, certainly as a caddy, you're going to answer it. And people over the years have enjoyed, I think, conversations between player and caddy and maybe between Phil and I that have gone on for, you know, 10 or 15 seconds or whatever. The weird thing about this was it took place over a lengthy period of time because we were waiting so long for the green to clear. And so when we got up there and Phil, you know, had this, you know, 206 yards that he had to the whole, we were waiting and waiting for KJ Choi and whoever he was playing to leave the green.

And I think KJ was leading at that point. And so we got up there. I gave Phil the yardage. He had, when you go back and you look at it on TV, TV does know justice to how narrow the gap in the trees was. It looks fairly wide on television, but I can tell you that it was about as wide as the length of a dozen balls, a box of a dozen balls. So it was about that kind of width and it was a lot of pine straw and my biggest concern

was that Phil could fit it to the gap in a perfect world. It was that Phil would lose his footing and then hit one of the trees as a result. And so if the ball comes back and hits him or goes into the creek or goes into the gallery, whatever the case may be, excuse me, the patrons, you know, it's a bad, bad situation. But you know, to Phil's credit, he's thinking about making something happen and that's part of what makes him great. So I gave him the yardage. He tells me I'm going for it in two.

So, okay, I know that. Now, it's part of my job is any caddy's job is, sometimes when you talk to your player, they're 100% in and sometimes they're 80% in. And it's not hard to judge, but sometimes you may kind of go back a little bit just to kind of see where they're at. And so I said to Phil, hey, you know, the previous day on Saturday, he had made three straight, excuse me, two straight Eagles, almost three on 13, 14 and 15.

I just reminded him, you're the best wedge player in the game. If you lay this up, you're going to have a very routine up and down, you know, for four. And he said, I'm going. Okay. Askate said, now I know he's 100% and that's great. So now again, we're waiting for this green to clear. It seems like it's taking forever. And finally, KJ Choi puts, and he misses a six footer that we assume is for birdie, but it turns out was for par, I believe. And we hear this murmur in the crowd. I turn to the cameraman right behind us and say, what's up? He goes, I think, believe you said, KJ just made six.

You guys are now tied for the lead. So all I'm going to do now is fill a big scoreboard watcher. It's my job, I think, at this point to say to him, hey, just the fact that you're leading now, change the way you want to play this whole. And he looks at me and he says, listen, if I'm going to win this tournament today,

I'm going to have to hit a great shot under a lot of pressure. I'm going to do it right now. And that is like the ultimate, get the F out of the way to your caddy. You know what I mean? That is, I've got it. You like six iron, I like six iron, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to your caddy. I mean, that is, I've got it. You like six iron. I like six iron. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to do this thing. I've now said what I need to say and I get out of

there as quickly as I possibly can. And he hits, you know, the most famous shot of his career. So, it was, it was an incredible kind of, geez, it was probably three or four minutes that felt like half an hour. Up next are two clips from Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck. This is episode 146. Joe Buck is a much more lined broadcaster in a lot of sports and his transition into golf was a bumpy ride. I think he gets a bad rap that is pretty undeserved.

And I talked to him a bit about taking criticism, what that's been like, and found his answer very fascinating. So enjoy Joe Buck from episode 146. The criticism I think in this world is everybody kind of sits back and takes shots. But until you've been in there and done it, you don't know all that was going on behind the scenes. And I'm telling you, I'm really proud of that US Open

as much as anything I've ever done because it was such a major undertaking. We had more trucks than any Super Bowl I've ever covered. And we were trying to do a million things. And a lot of the things that we did that week have since been picked up by other networks. And I think in a small way improved other networks coverage but yeah it's hard it's hard to get criticized but that's why you make the money and make and you get to be

Mr. Big Shot and walk around and act like you're your Mr. Sports you have to be willing to take the criticism take in in the constructive parts of it and Listen to it and try to get better because of it and if if nobody cared that would be awful and people do care And that makes you work harder and get better and I think we've done both of those things. Yeah, though I think there was no other way to root for that first year to happen other than for it to go poorly like you said just all the all the elements that were going into it it was a perfect storm and it was it was just gonna There were gonna be growing pains no matter what I think we all expected that what I like the most is I think you guys went from being Not that that first year not going well to being I think a leader in the industry because you dusted yourselves off and you improved on

So many things from 2016. But I kind of wanted to discuss with you, I continue to be amazed with people's just disdain for your announcing. And I want to know how you're able to kind of take criticism that doesn't seem founded in anything other than like a blind hate for you versus criticism that is very pointed and things that you're actually like, oh, you know what, I actually can build off this. I can respond to something like this. Is there, is it clear to you kind of where that line is? Yeah, I, if I let that kind of stuff, like, like, more of the unfounded stuff or the you hate my team or disgeist sucks because his

dad was a broadcaster. Now he's doing it. I've been doing this for a long time now. And I've, I think, delivered for the network so much so that they continue to sign me. I don't think they're continuing to do my dad favors, who by the way, never worked at Fox. But I think a lot of it is founded in being the national broadcaster, being considered kind of still the young guy, although I'm not anymore. You know, I started doing the World Series when I was 27, and when you do baseball, for

as long as I've done it, and you do it from a national perspective instead of from a team side Eventually, you're gonna piss everybody off eventually Every fan base that watches baseball Or football for that matter when you're getting excited for both sides and and you're screaming in yelling for the Packers Just like you are for the Cowboys or you're screaming in yelling for the San Francisco Giants just like you are for the Cowboys or you're screaming in Yellen for the San Francisco Giants, just like you are for the St. Louis Cardinals. Every fan base eventually thinks, well why is he Yellen for that other team? He doesn't like my team. He sucks. Beyond that, I don't know. I don't know how to answer that other than to say, I work hard. I feel like I try to get out of the way of the event. I feel

like I, and in some people take that as ambivalence, and I take it or at least do it because I have such reverence for what I'm covering. I don't want to scream and yell over the top of all of it. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me broadcasts or tuning in to watch the game. And so I try to do my best to accent the high points and get out of the way and let you watch the game. And so whatever the online criticism is or whatever that might be to my face, people couldn't be nicer or more complimentary. For the people I work with or work for,

they know what I do. They know what I handle. They know the job that I try to turn in every week. And, you know, the fact that I've been employed at one network and have done the major sports there for as long as I have is kind of my antidote to any being upset about somebody online criticizing me. It just doesn't... Some of that stuff just can't enter into my head. Yeah, it seems like, I don't know if there was ever a moment for you where you kind of trigger for you, where you kind of steer into the skid and kind of embrace the haters

in some way. Did that... Was that a conscious thing for you to kind of feel that finally be like, look, I can't worry about any of this stuff anymore or were you always like that? No, I was not always like that. And I went from a young guy that was trying to not get exposed for being as young as I was, whether I was broadcasting to the Cardinals at 21 or I was doing World Series at 27 and trying to kind of, I don't know, guard against my insecurities. And, you know, I guess in some way steer into that.

At some point, you gotta just stop worrying about it and go do it. And in this day and age, it's harder now than it's ever been. Not for me, just in general, you know, with kind of the online social media world, you have to be tough, but there was a year there in 2011 when I had a paralyzed vocal cord and it was the reason why I wrote a book and I went through

a divorce and I thought my career was over and doctors were telling me that if my voice wasn't back in three months, that this was what I was going to be left with and I sounded like I was dying. Three months turned into four, turned into five, turned into nine and I sounded like I was dying. And, you know, three months turned into four, turned into five, turned into nine. And I thought, well, this is it. You know, I'm done. And then that year, in October, my voice kind of started to come back. And, you know, ridiculously, I won an Emmy. And easily the worst year that not only I have had, but any broadcasters ever had, because of one moment, a home run hit in a game six of a world series. But after that I thought you

know I've taken for granted for so long what I get to do and and I went from worrying about what I was going to say to worrying about how I was going to say it because I couldn't really yell and emote and get loud and I couldn't have fun and I couldn't joke because you couldn't hear me. And when you, I went into a depression and when I came out of that, I thought, screw it. I'm employed, I'm happy. Now I'm remarried, I've got twins,'ve got two girls that that love me and I adore them

and so what you know if somebody doesn't like me or somebody thinks I'm rooting against their team or somebody what you know it's all noise and I know what I do and I know how hard I work and I know how hard I try and if I continue to do that you know I will have been at Fox for 30 years here at some point and and that's a long run for anyone. And, and I must be doing something, right? Or I wouldn't still be there. Up next was episode 125 with Curtis Strange and Marco Mira. This was really cool.

Uh, this is the first ever, uh, I guess, senior tour or champions tour podcast we've done. And this is Curtis's story from the 1985 Masters. I wish we had video of this, because you could see the tears well up in Curtis' eyes as he tells this story. This is a great one to go back and listen to if you're feeling the itch.

Episode 125, this is Curtis Strange. I wanna get to 98 in a second, but you just mentioned the 85 Masters. First, you say you threw that away. The first question I have, can you tell the listeners what you shot the first round? I shot 80. I was playing really well. I already won twice that year. Yeah. I was playing well. And I only say that not to blow my skirt, wind up my skirt, but I expected to do well there. Smell man. Snowman. And you know what?

It's the way a gust is if you if you get behind the eight ball when you try to force the issue and then you get to where we're screw this you know I've had enough and I shot 80. The next day I come out I try but you know I've already I've got an airplane ticket in my back pocket I'm getting the hell out of there I've just had my second boy two week a week before so I had a reason to get the hell out of Dodge and go home. And so I go out, relaxed, I birded the second hole, and I ego the third, came on.

Now I might not make the cut, but let's have some pride and shoot a good score here. Because every round helps you for the next year or the next week. If I play good today, I might go play well for the next year or the next week. If I play good today I might go play well for the next month. That's my mentality. So then I've birdied four Game on Next thing I know I'm on the leaderboard

Next thing you know I'm getting damn nervous out there I shot 65 hell it should have been 63. I was pissed I was really pissed and so anyway Shot 68 the next day in windy conditions. And I'm too shot behind Rainbows Floyd. Really. And then I had a shot 32 on the front nine the next day. And this I missed a shot two and a half days. I never played golf like this in my life.

And I'm thinking when I went to the 10th tee, I knew, I knew it was still a lot of golf to be played. And I didn't play well and I lost. Congratulations, Bernhard. When I went to the 10th tee, I knew it was still a lot of golf to be played. I didn't play well and I lost. Congratulations, Bernhard. But I'm sorry. I had, I wanted the green jacket. But anyway, hey, you learned from that.

Right. When you birdied 12, I think you left, you had a three shot lead when you're playing 13. And kind of at a moment. And Bernhard was birdy and he was far enough ahead of me. So it was really changing quickly at that moment. Okay, ask me some more quickly Two shot lead so yeah, I think you're right. He birded 13. There's a two shot lead You're in the fairway on 13. Yeah, you decide to go for the green. Yeah, that's what you do. I drove it well I

Drove it too well. I wish I'd nicked it out to the right where I had to lay up But I drove it around the corner. I had forward. I'd rather have forward marked in a two iron off the side hill line. Absolutely. And I just hung it a little bit and it went in the creek. The really, really bad shot was the third shot out of the water. It was just a simple water shot.

I didn't hit hard enough. Mage six there. Do you want me to continue on? Oh, this is great. So anyway, so I, so now I'm, so now I'll think it's related to this. So now my catty and I gypsy who was an old, old character on tour. Okay guys, you know, we still got the lead.

We're all right, you know, talking each other. And so I part 14, which is not an easy part, and 15 I had drove it well. And I got up, which I had like a foreign layup, I mean, not layup, go for the green, like I had like a foreign layup, I mean not layup, go for the green, like I had like 190 or something and I flushed this thing and it didn't carry but two feet short came back in the water. Wow, I hit a good shot. I'll never forget the announcer who will go on name, said it sounded like you hit it a bit thin, bull. You know, right at it came up short. So I made six there. Okay, you know, we still never top lead a game on this play and hit part 16, 17 and bogate 18 because I had a birdie.

But you know what, it's just you never learn from when you win. You learn when you lose. And I flew home and Sarah and I sunk the four and a crowd, it was hard. That was a hard one because it was my really first big chance. And I had a newborn there, now Curtis Stranges, the Choker maybe or whatever. It was hard to overcome because I knew what other people were thinking about me. And I thought I was a bit of a hard ass and now I'm not. And Jack Nichols came up to me the next week and said, you'll be art. That had to mean something. Oh yeah, you kidding me. He said, you'll be art. We've all done it. And I can't tell you how much that meant to me. And the best

thing to do is get back in competition. Jesus, get back in as quick as you can and hopefully don't throw up on yourself the next time. All right, we're going to switch it up a little bit, much like the first several years of our existence. We have been a little too focused on the men's side. We're going to focus on the LPGA for a few of these clips. First up is LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Wann. This is episode 128.

I was blown away by the amount of feedback we got on this interview. I had people reaching out asking, hey, can I get part of this audio to use in this conference speech that I'm giving, et cetera? So enjoy Mike Juan talking about how he does his job, how he deals with sponsors. There's a lot you can learn from this episode. Again, it's 128 if you want to go back to it about how you can serve clients, if you work in client services, and a lot that you can apply in everyday life. So enjoy Mike Juan episode 128.

Most important thing I think that came to me, I remember saying to the board of the LPGA when they said, we'd like you to become the next commissioner, I actually said, are you sure? And they kind of chuckled and I said, no, I mean really, I didn't grow up at a league. I don't sell TV rights for a living. I didn't spend much time at professional sports events

other than the ones I've sponsored. And I said to him, you know, the only time I'm really going to be comfortable in this job is sitting across the desk from somebody who's about to ride a five million dollar check. Because I've been that guy my whole life. At Procter & Gamble, I sponsored every sport. When I was at Taylor Made at Wilson and then at Adidas, I've done, you know, NASCAR, baseball, football, virtually any sport, I've been the sponsor. So I've been that guy wrote the four-year check. And that's when I said that, one of the board members said, that's exactly why we need you. We have golf people.

We can set up golf courses. We understand pen placements and camera angles. We can teach you that. Yeah, what we don't have in our building is the culture of understanding what it feels like to be a sponsor. And the business, you know, to be blunt, doesn't go without sponsorship. So we need to build a mentality inside the building of what it feels like to be a check

writer, not a check receiver. We have a lot of check receivers. And I would tell you that I didn't know that to answer your question when you started. When I got to the LPG, I wasn't really sure what value I was going to add. You know, I didn't know if I could do this job or not. Pretty quickly on the job, I realized that we were a league, and I don't mean this in a bad way, acting like a league. All we talked about was what was important to us.

We never talked about the checkrider. In fact, a lot of our staff probably didn't even know who the checkrider was in certain events. So, I asked for 100 days when I started. 100 days of no decision making. Just let me listen and learn. You've only met me for a few minutes now, so you see, I don't stop talking now. So, I knew that if I didn't build 100 days of listening, I wouldn't take it. So I said, I'm not going to make any decisions.

I'm not going to lay out any strategies. I'm not going to make personnel changes for 100 days. And in that 100 days, it became incredibly apparent to me that we needed to change the culture to what I call role reversal. And we've been doing that now for nine years. And it just means before, if we're going to have a meeting about the key of classic,

the first 50% of the agenda has to be about Kia. The second 50% we can talk about whatever we want to, but we talk about Kia for the first half, because if we get Kia right, we'll be playing for a long time. If we just get the tournament right, we'll be searching for a new person to put in front of the word classic.

So it's, and it's, you know, you'll see it, if you spend time around here. You'll see people walking around with these cards that talk about Kia. I mean, players get educated about Kia. Next week they'll get educated about A&A. Last week they were educated on bank of hope. I want our athletes, our caddies, and our staff

to know what's important to the check writer, because it's different every week. So talk me through, let's say, like, I'm a potential sponsor. What do you, how do you pitch? What's your, what's your pitch? Like, what's, is that your role to, specifically to spell out sell the events to tournaments? So what I always tell people is, I mean,

literally just, I shouldn't tell the company, because I, sorry, I literally just had a conference call this morning with a company that we're talking to. And he said, I only got 15 minutes so go. That's exactly what he said. And I said, if we got 15 minutes, you go. And he said, what do you mean? I said, listen, my first meeting with you,

I'm not gonna sell you anything in the LPGA. You're not ready to buy it, and I don't even know what you need. So what I typically tell people, if I come visit you, the first meeting we're not going to talk about the LPGA, we're only going to talk about you. Tell me what's keeping you awake at night. What's missing in your business?

Tell me about your 20 biggest dealers, and what percent of the business they represent. And we spend a lot of time learning somebody else's business. And then I say, if I don't come back for a second visit, it's because I don't want to do it with any of the stuff that you're facing. If I come back, I promise I won't waste your time because what I'm going to bring you back will address the things we talked about today. So for me, if you're going to be, if you're going to be, my wife always says that we're in a partnership. And I guess she's right. So, but sponsorship, I think sometimes it's a bad word. It sounds like I sold you something.

You wrote a check and it deals over. Partnership means we're in this together. So if I'm going to create a partnership with key. So if I'm gonna create a partnership with Kiev, I'm gonna create a partnership with HSBC or Honda Thailand or Diamond Resorts, I gotta make sure I understand what's important to them and I gotta make sure when the tournaments over, what we delivered, what was important to them, not us, sometimes I get excited about TV numbers

or who won the event or how many people came through the gate. Some of our sponsors don't care about those things. They care about other things to toward their business. So when we do our recap, it's got to be built against their objectives, not ours. Most sports don't do that. As a former sponsor, most sports cashier check, and they do everything that's on the legal agreement. If you want to really be in the business long term, you got to do more than that. So what is, so take me through like what you in your experience, what a sponsor is mostly interested in.

Cause it's funny outside out, you know, like a men's professional golf and women's I always think about how much money they put up and I'm like, do they really, you know, does so and so sell that many cars and replace of their money? But talk about like what a sponsor gets out of

when they buy into a tournament. Well, I would say generally when you talk to sponsors of the LPJ, very different probably than the PGA tour or the NBA or NFL, most of our sponsors will put hospitality at the top of their list. If hospitality, like really get to spend time with your customers with our athletes at the top of your list, we win. If that's the most important reason you're going to get involved in a sports sponsorship,

I do that better than everybody else. And I'm not saying that to be boastful. It's just a fact. And you've, I assume, looked at your agenda. You've talked to other players, and you see that. This is an engaging group of young female athletes. They're fun, right? They're different. They're going to tee off the same tee box you are. You're going to hit the ball about as far as them. They're going to beat you by 30 strokes, but you're going to play a similar game, right? If you're 155 out and you've got a 7-iron,

I bet you she has a 7-iron. And you know, you're not, they're not going to be T-N-Off 40 yards behind you. And they're not going to be asking to please don't step in my line. It's not going to be a practice round for them. It's going to be, you know, you're not they're not gonna be TN off 40 yards behind you and they're not gonna be asking to please Don't step in my line. It's not gonna be a practice round for them. It's gonna be you know It's gonna be a fun day playing golf so it's more relatable It's just totally we go to the we go to the pro amp party tonight You know, you'll see 50 players in there hanging around go to a program of another in of another tour Go to go to the night before an NBA game and tell me how many athletes you saw in the room It's not it's not part of their DNA. It's it's who we are So when somebody

calls me and says the most important thing for me, Mike, is I want to get my hundred best somebody's together in some location and really spend time and get to know them. I'd say, well, then you call the right place. If somebody calls me and says we're trying to launch a new four-definition television that's about how many eyeballs we can get. I say, hey, call J, call Gadell. Those guys deliver more eyeballs than we do. I do pretty well globally, but if it's just about eyeballs in the US, they'll win. So I'd rather have you go spend time with them

because they're better at that. But if you want to talk about an experience on the golf course, I win. I mean, I'm the best at that. So generally what we sell is a great hospitality experience, not just on Pro AM day, but the entire week. And then we sell an opportunity to have a great hometown event. So for Kia, we're going to have a great South, you know, Southern California event, but

we're going to let the world eavesdrop. We're going to have 165 countries watch this event. We honestly had a blast catching up with the LPGA players this year. And first up is from episode 151, Lydia Co. Just asking her a bit about all she's been through in the last couple of years. And it was, it was really nice to hear from from her mouth directly how she's dealt with the trials and tribulations of the last several years. So Lydia Coe from episode 151. I think you know obviously I made some big decisions but you know looking back now I don't I don't regret any one of them

you know even from those decisions I've changed decisions this year. But I feel like I was moving in the right direction and even last year, I was like, man, the season's done already by CME. It just goes by so fast. There's really no time for you to look back and worry about, hey, what could have happened while I should have done. So yeah, I always say no regrets made. But, you know, I feel like golf is such a confidence thing where, you know, you see everyone out here.

The talent level is all pretty similar. But, you know, if you get, you know, if you have a great week and you kind of gain that confidence, you kind of end up being on that momentum and keep playing well. And I think that's what golf is really about. And I think winning in San Francisco earlier this year, that made me have, you know, top 10 the week after. So you just kind of end up being stuck on a good momentum rather than going down and having those ups and downs. But, you know, it's a, I almost felt like I put so much pressure on myself because I've been very lucky enough to do a few of those things

in my career that the expectations were so high. That even when you come second, I mean, I came second, I think three times last year. And that's good. But it's like, oh, you just didn't do as good. So there were a lot of comparisons. But to me, you really can't do anything about it. And all you can do is look forward and try

and do whatever you think is going to be the best free in the future in that moment. Is there anything I know a lot of people have made a big deal about the Cadi changes and whatnot. But it seems like on the LPGA tour it's not necessarily a common thing to have for a ton of people to have the same Cadi throughout. So is there anything that has been misrepresented in the media about any of the changes you've made that you would want to clarify or anything in that regard? What's out there that's really not the most accurate?

I think they said Lydia had, I don't even know how many caddies I've had now, but my rook year, I obviously hadn't been around the LPGA a lot before my rook year, so I didn't really know what exactly I needed as a caddy, because for a lot of my events, my mom cattyed for me at like the US Women's Am, Australia Am, and you know, I was just used to her where somebody that I knew. So, you know, having a full-time catty was definitely a new step for me,

and I too was learning, and I'm still learning what I want and what I don't want. So, that itself is a learning process, and you know, the first year, I actually had a lot in IAS, Ciketti, hey, you know, is it okay if we work on a trial basis? And I think rather than me saying, you know, hey, I fired that person after a few weeks, it was more that, you know, I learned, okay, maybe I need somebody that does this a bit more. So I think that was kind of the trial process and they ended up being a huge deal. But I mean it's done. I you know it is true. I

guess that I had you know whatever many caddies. But the perspective on that is different than it's been. So yeah but no it's I feel like you know even now you know I I learn okay at these times now I want my caddy to do this or help me with this whether that's in practice or on the golf course. And you get to learn more about yourself too during this process and the people that you work with. And I still feel like I'm young at heart.

I'm young at heart. I'm young at heart. I was gonna say, you're just still young period. Young on the passport and young at heart. Sometimes I don't feel young when I'm playing like five weeks in a row. But I'm not. I feel like getting to learn more about myself and I think learning is something that you never really stop doing.

Up next is Danielle Kang. This is episode 127. She's one of my favorite people in golf, just an absolute crazy ball of energy. And we talked a bit about what it's like to be a female in golf. And she addresses some of what she goes through online. Listening back to it, it's a cringe a little bit about how hard we laughed at what she told us. But she says this, you have to trust me that she tells this story with a smile and with laughter. And that she had planned on telling this story on the podcast and she does laugh about it but it gives you a little glimpse into what it's like to be a female and golf and what kind

of attention you get online. So this is Daniel Kang episode 127. Do you get a lot of like weird fans on social media or peep stalkers or anything like that? Yeah. Do people, a lot of people listen to this, right? Yeah. Okay, please stop sending me dick pics. Like, please stop because... Like, I honestly wanted to say that like I'm one point in an interview because I'm like,

okay guys, I don't know what people that Dave dealt with that they want to see it, but like I don't want to just be going on my day going through my T.M.s once like one of the miles. Just sliding the DMs. And like I was scrolling through you know and just clicking here and there like I read all the DMs like I do like most of them because thankfully like none of my fans are like haters like I love them all like and I'm hoping that I don't give them any reason to hate me. So, there aren't anything bad ever in there. Like, don't send me... Okay, it's not even the dick pic.

It's the videoing. Oh no. Dude, this is Instagram usually. I can show it to you. You don't have to do that. I believe you. I open it up and I... Another thing another thing is guys I put it in my group chats guys like I screenshot it and send it to people on blast. I put it all in my group chats and I send it to all my friends but then like and then you get like first of all you're gonna get blocked. Okay just don't do it

okay it's just even if you are that weird I don't need to know that you're that weird. You know what I mean? Like, let's just have a little bit of boundary. Like, let's, don't lose my respect to you. That is what I mean. And just, it's how many of the videos is like, it's kinda weird. It's kinda weird.

Like, have you ever had any instances where it's gotten kind of beyond social media? Yes, I have two restraining orders and I have gotten my hotel room broken into four times. Four times? Yeah. Same person? No, different. I'm very quiet about it in the screen.

There's no point of saying it to everyone, but since you asked. But it's not, I mean, I don't know. It's sometimes they get excited. I don't mean, I don't know, it's sometimes they get excited. I don't know, I don't know what it is. Well, thank you, you liked me so much to do that, but I like to be in peace. I gotta see you at the golf course. Up next, episode 152, this is Jessica and Nelly Corda

and it's Jessica describing the dramatic surgery she went through in the off season and all the things she went through in the off season and all the things she went through to address some migraines that she was having. So I would say enjoy, but this is a tough one to enjoy, but I think is a very, very telling story and one of the more shocking things I think we heard on the podcast this year. Episode 152, Jessica Corda. So I've been struggling with headaches in migraines for years now.

They said that when I was, when they took my braces off, I'd brace on for eight years to try and fix this problem and they never could. Basically only my back teeth touched. So your bottom jaw supposed to grow down and then kind of forward. Mine just kept growing down. So only my back teeth were touching and I couldn't, there was no traction in the front at all. So biting into things, I had to go to the side of everything. So a lot of pressure kind of created in the back. When we played US Open in 2015, we, I went to see a specialist and there was braces

that I could have, they would drill into the top of my jaw and, you know, try and move things around like I cannot have braces. Like, one thing that I cannot do is braces right now. So they built me this like puck that I basically had, which Nelly had seen it for the first time, I think last year and she was like, you should be so happy in a relationship because you were just wow. And I was like, you should be so happier in a relationship because you were just wow.

And I was like, thanks. She literally was laughing for like 15 minutes straight. I was like, I mean, it's not that funny. Yeah, because it's like, it's straight up hockey puck. Like, it's just, it was not pretty. And so that actually relaxed my jaw so much that it dropped back and I started snoring at night. And it also...

Where? Oh! Millie woke me up at the middle of the night and was like, Jess, you're snoring and I was like, no, I'm not. I can hear myself. She was like, you can't hear yourself. I couldn't fall asleep. I was like, I was debating on like throwing a pillow in her face and I was like, it was

so bad. So it actually also dropped back and left. So when I was talking or chewing or anything, I had to swing it back to center and then bring it back up, which made me work even harder. And it just tightened everything up even more. So I had terrible migraines. I was, I had headaches every single day.

I wouldn't sleep through the night properly. And I finally had enough in China where I had a migraine that literally cramped up half my face. I couldn't even like open my eye. I had to pull out the program and I literally just went back and slept and you know, tried to get rid of it that way. And the cramped lasted until the next weekend to see me

and I called my parents and I was like, I'm doing the surgery. Like we need to find a surgeon called the surgeon. And he was like, I can fit you in December 7th. So you knew what the surgery had to be at that point already. I thought that it was just going to be they're going to break my bottom jaw and just move it forward. I didn't realize. Just that. If you think about, so that actually wouldn't be as bad as what happened was they actually went in through my top lip and broke my top jaw into three. So your palate into three.

So I have a ton of screws from like my nostrils down. Which might be the first time I faint in a pan. And then they made small incisions on the sides of like bottom, where your bottom draws and they kind of like shaved off side because there's a nerve is running through the bone So they shaved off the side and kind of slid it forward and then put screws in there and Yeah, so the recovery was awful as it's been documented over and over again

Lots of blood lots of throwing up Didn't take in a calorie for three weeks. I was fed through a syringe. Couldn't even, my head, they had to break my nose on top of it because they couldn't get the breathing tube up. So usually it would go down your throat, but they're working in your mouth so as to go up your nose.

And this point where you regretting doing this, or did you go, it was gonna be like this? I didn't know it was gonna be this bad. If I would recommend anybody doing it is to have it done in a hospital and be in a hospital. I was outpatient. And so my mom had to take care of me and mind you, we were also in North Carolina. So we were nowhere near Florida. And then I had to fly five days later, go home.

And I kicked my doubt out of his bed because I had to be monitored. And so I slept in bed with mom. And you know, every couple hours hours she had to change my ice, give me my medication and all this stuff. And I had no idea what time. And it was so all of a sudden at four o'clock in the morning, I decided I'm going to take a shower. My mom got like no sleep.

I think Nelly took it really well. My brother couldn't even walk into the room. He was like terrified of my face. I mean, Jess didn't even feel her bottom lips, so she was drooling a lot. And I would just be eating dinner. I'm like, Jess, you're drooling everywhere. I'm like, sorry. I still don't feel, I would say 75%. I still don't have feeling. I have nerves that are tingling, which is a really good sign. So the nerves are recovering.

I just had my last couple of scans done. And the bones, everything looks really good. Just the left side isn't growing in as fast as the right side. So, and I can't feel most of the teeth. But it is improving. It's improved so much. It's improved so much. The original problem, though, is totally gone.

Now I just have, because also I'm doing in Visaline, because when you do this type of surgery your teeth shift. And so I also am in Visaline and moving my teeth, which is putting a lot of pressure just on like my jaw. Transitioning back to the men's side, episode 158. This is Julian Surrey, I am a sucker for redemption stories and golf. And Julian Surrey spent a lot of time on many tours and as transitioned it to being a top 100 player

in the world. And as much as he is a sandbagger on the course with me, really enjoyed hearing his perspective on the podcast. So episode 158, Julian Surrey. Kind of struggling there for a couple years. I started to lose my swing at the end of my senior year at Duke. And I'd never had a swing coach my whole life. I'd never had any sort of formal instruction.

And I'd done all right with some somewhat good results at college. And I was an all-American once. But when the good was good, it was really good. But when the bad was bad, it really hit the fans. And I was pretty stubborn to kind of see somebody. And so, at the end of 2015, I thought my game was good enough to do the Q-school. So I did the European Q-school. My rationale for that was, you make it you make it to final stage of Q school.

Well, first before we do that, I, because I've tried to do a little notes preparing for this and whatnot, I couldn't find like record of, you said, you turned pro in 2013, I couldn't find what you were doing in that two year span. So walk us through what was happening during that, that a few years back when you turned pro. So I turned pro on the fall of 2013, did the web.com Q-school messed out on that. Did the Asian tour Q-school in January of 2014 in Thailand messed out on that.

So I come back. I'm just playing mini tours. I'm playing what was then the swing thought. They've had a million different sponsors, the Hooters. It was the old Hooters tour. NGA was playing pretty crappy, honestly, and it was just kind of, I was pretty stubborn to find help,

and 14 was probably the worst year because there was no, I'd play golf at my home course, and I'd lose five, six golf balls around, and it wasn't fun, and I don't know why it took me so long to find somebody who would help. It takes me a while to kind of trust people too. And that's a pretty personal part of who I am as my golf swing. So it took some time.

I was playing a lot of Moonlight Tour. Those were like one day events in Orlando where you kind of, you pay 100 bucks and you show up. And the winner can get up to 500 bucks depending on the field size but And those will get 25 30 guys But you know those are just kind of reps to get going and play West Florida tour Monday qualifiers And yeah, it was it was kind of a grind. I wasn't pretty. Did you see success with the first swing coach that you visited with or

What was that process like did you have to go through a number of them to find somebody Did you see success with the first swing coach that you visited with or what was that process like? Did you have to go through a number of them to find somebody that you worked well with? No, the first swing coach I've really had was the one that I'm currently with. Okay. Dan Carrer, I started working with him last year at the end or in April of 2017. So up until then I'd seen progress and I was just kind of like kind of throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what stuck for those, you know, two years or whatever.

So you kind of fought your way out of it on your own in 2014, okay, to our extent. And I started to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and I was playing a little bit better. But during that time was there was it for like were you very convinced that you wanted to continue on this path was there very convinced that you wanted to continue on this path Was there ever doubt that you wanted to play professional golf at any point? Yeah, I mean there was always the love for the game and that's what I always wanted to do as since I was a kid six seven years old And so it's always what I wanted to do But in the back of my head at times sure I was just like, you know, maybe I'm not cut out for this

You know, I maybe I had this good junior career and solid college career. And this is my undoing. And because of my stubbornness or whatever, I'm not able to push through to the next level. And you see guys that you grew up with in junior golf and college golf or whatever, and they're having success. And you're like, man, what's the difference? And so now people are looking at you, probably. and college golf or whatever and they're having success and you're like, man, you know, what's the difference?

And so now people are looking at you probably the opposite side, one are in the same thing. Yeah. I guess. Well, I just find it just because you noted there that in April of 2017, it's kind of when you started working with Dan, but you turned per or I guess the last March, you put I looked this up on your official your official World Golf Ranking page. You played in the Barclays Kenya Open, you finished T41 and you ended the week,

ranked 1,140 second in the world. And 16 months later, you're ranked 62nd in the world. So something happened in that period of time, where I mean, it's one thing to kind of come out of school and maybe a year to break through, but you were probably four years removed from school, like almost like a post-type sleeper breakout. So, what the hell changed in that time period to make that kind of leap?

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

And I was like, okay, maybe I can ready. I'm ready to kick some ass on the challenge tour next year. And I started out in Kenya and it was just like, I remember the last round, I shot one under, and I think I had nine or 10 wedge shots, like inside 120, 130 yards, and I was inside of 30 feet once. And I shot one under, so you look at the scorecard,

you're like, okay, well, it's not bad, he's not making triples and quads, but like, I was like, dude, like, come on, there's so much more in the tank. And so I went back, I was home for the entire month of April, and back here in Jacksonville, and I started working with Dan like two days after I got back. And just worked on some changes, pretty much had the whole month to grind on it, went to Orlando a few times, played some moon lights, played some Florida pro golf tour, which is another mini tour. That's not glamorous. And you just, you got to kind of work on stuff for three days, four days, go test that out and competition, come back, get the feedback, and go from there. And it was kind of like a

four week process. And then finally, I went over to Portugal, the beginning of May last year. And those are a co-sanctioned event between the challenge in the European and I came in second. And then two weeks later I won a challenge event and it kind of propelled the rest of my summer. Up next episode 165 with Gill Hanz, just talking about designing golf courses for PGA Torplayers.

I know we've talked a lot about that on the podcast this year. And he has one guy who has attempted to make some changes to courses to challenge these guys. And it has not been that well received. So it was fun to talk to him about that episode 165, Gill Hance. We'll be great to have the guys have to shape shots. I mean, part of what we did at D'Arral

and the restoration of renovation of the Blue Monster was that we restored the angles that Dick Wilson had put in place where if you don't shape your ball, you're going to hit it through the fairway into a set of bunkers on the far side. So everything was angled and the guys went crazy because they're not used to doing that and they don't want to be told they have to do it. And I think that's part of the reaction to the fairway bunkers on number 12 was that, you know, since they were little kids, they're always told down the middle, hit it long, hit it straight, hit it long, hit it straight. Now, the sudden

somebody's put something really horrible and penal, which those bunkers were. They were tough. They weren't, guys weren't going to hit a five iron out of them and get on the green. They were going to have to, I think, I learned the phrase, chip out bunkers from some of the players that was I never heard that before, but you know what, it's a penalty and it's intended to be. So I think once you push the envelope in a certain way to have a reaction, you would expect a counter reaction, the fact that it was as much vitriol was a little bit surprising to me, but ultimately the players of the show,

not the golf course, not the golf course architect. And if the tour feels strongly enough that we've done something that inhibits their ability to put on a good performance, then you're going to pay the price. Up next, episode 141 with Paul Azinger. Paul is an expert at this point. Finally got the chance to sit down with him this year. And I'm also a sucker for Ryder Cup stories. So this is a little bit of a lengthier Ryder Cup story that spans two years that he played

in the Ryder Cup. I can listen to this guy talk about this event for eternity. So enjoy Paul Azinger episode 141. Well, it was Curtis and I. And we were playing Gordon Brand and I think Sam Torrance. And they beat us on the last hole. Gordon Brand hit his second shot on the top of the tent of the spectator tent, which is 20 yards offline, minimum, right of the right bunker.

Hits the top of the tent, goes forward, and then rolls like a son of a gun. Bounces comes off the tent and bounces down onto the green and he ended up beating us in the match one up Curtis and I lost one up. Ball's going out of my- I remember losing that match and then I got with chip back and we won and then we played Fowdo losing in one match and that was a revenge match for me. I remember telling chip on the first tee. I mean, there was like, follow, follow the flags are going and they came up. And I remember saying to Chip back,

it was pretty loud, I said, Chipper, I don't know about you, but I'd taken this match personal. And he was, I love it, singer me, too, singer. And we made 11 birdies. They made nine birdies. Wow. And we beat them two and one. Then I was really confident we went and and put up a guy. Yeah, I had luck. It's so lucky.

Writer cup because I drew their superstars. I could have drawn a bunch of guys you never heard of, but I kept drawing and it's just a blind draw. It's luck. I was going to say you went up against Sevy and the singles. That wasn't pre-arranged at all. None of it is. Yeah. It's just a luck fest. Who do you get? And, you know, our strategy was to look for their best players. And some respects, because they were better than us, and we knew it. But, uh, we get our hottest players out first or whatever. I was first match out because I was playing so well. And I plucked Sevy, which is the greatest gift ever to get Sevy. And then we battled right from the beginning. It's a famous match.

And, uh, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of controversy with that match. And you know, I'm vindicated by it because of anemic fee and the referee of the match is, you know, tell you what happened. Well, what did happen? Well, he accused me of taking a bad drop on 18. And I figured you'd probably get to that point. When I was like, Sammy, he told us where to drop it. I just kept that point to him in the hole and went backwards. Oh, okay. But we had stuff going on the whole match. I called him the King of Gamesmanship

and he said, the American teams 11 nice guys in Zinger. That was 91, right? Oh yeah, but still. The bleed over for me. A scuff ball incident for 89, is that right? Oh yeah. No, that was from 91. No, that was 89.

Yeah. And there's singles match. Well, see, I draw Sevy on Saturday night. And Curtis walks up to me and says, don't let him pull anything on you tomorrow. So my mindset shifts. So then we get to the first tee and Curtis goes off last. And I'm off first.

So there's a big gap between those tee times and he comes walking up to me on the first tee. Yeah, you're feeling good. Don't let him pull anything on you today. So back then, the golf balls were getting shredded on the first tee. Yeah, you feeling good. Don't let him pull anything on you today. So back then the golf balls were getting shredded by the square grooves. And we were both using square groove wedges. We hit irons off the second tee.

Three irons, both of us. Wedge into the green. He hit it about 12 feet. I hit it about four feet. And we get up there and he takes his ball and tosses it to his caddy Ian and says, I take his ball out of me and I was like Curtis popped in my head

My ball was shredded. I had hair. I used to use the pink wedge back then and it really wrecked the golf balls and you could Excuse me you could pick my golf ball up by the paint thread that was hanging from it and So I can't take it out of play though I could rub that paint thing off of there, but I can't take the ball out. So anyway, I just thought he's pulling something right there. And so I looked at his caddy, I asked, I said, I need to see that ball. And I looked at it and I walked over to Sevin. He was already lined up as he squatted down and he just looked up at being like that. And he said, I don't think he can take this ball out. I said, look at mine, it looks just as out. I said, look at mine.

It looks just as bad. It goes, you're appearing rules to these bodies. And no good. And I said, well, in the US, you're going to have to play it. I said, maybe we should ask the official. So Annie McVe came in. Great guy. I'm sorry, Savi.

You have to play this ball. Well, the crowd was into it now. And they were cheering me. The best thing about that too is when the crowd, well, actually, Sevy Line that put up from every direction. Oh, no, let me just say this. I looked at Sevy and I said, I'm sorry, my ball looks just as bad. And Sevy looked at me and he said, no, no, it's okay. If this is the way you want to play today, we can play this way. And I swear, bro, my hands are not shake when I play, but at that moment, I was starting to quiver.

He made the 12 footer. Of course he did. And then as the crowd noise died down, some British guy yelled out, what would you have done with the good balls, Seve? And I was thinking, man, I put my ball down, I was like this. I hit this putt that went in the hole and came right back at me and the crowd just yelled out. They cheered twice as loud when I missed. And it was really a rough match after that. We went at it.

I didn't think he was hitting it that good. Raymond Floyd comes up to me. I was two down after four. And the car he was all worried. And he said, you alright? I said, I'm great. I said, he's not hitting it that good. He's gonna give me a couple holes you watch. He duck hooked it right in a junk on five, gift. And so he gifted me a couple

and we just did battle right to the 18th hole and even my caddy was doing battle. It was just awesome. It was like welcome to the rider cup. And it became, you know, it's in our head, it's in their blood. So it's different for them. But my head flipped on Ryder Cup, I might,

this is it. Whoop, these boys. That's the way I thought. I mean, the passion that people talk about, I get that, I talk about the Ryder Cup on every podcast because the stories that come from it are better than anything comes from stroke play events. That's for sure.

There's a lot of stuff, man. It happens in those matches. You know, on 10, I hit it to the right of the green over there going for the green in 89. And when I got up, there's on some ladies plastic, whatever. And when I got, I had to drop closer, you kept going closer to the green. And when I stood up, before I dropped, I stood up and bumped into Sevey because I went to Nolright where your bottle was. And I mean, it was like that out

there. And he then he grabbed his ball and tried to place it all around and thank God it didn't stay anywhere and I had to set mine on a little tough to grass to get it to stay and he's like now you have a perfect life. And it was just like we went at it. But you know we were good friends before the Ryder Cup and I think we were just fine after everybody thinks we hated each other and all that. You know, Sevy taught me as much as anybody too.

He was great to go for it. Goal for rivalry is different than kind of a personal distance. The Ryder Cup is different. Yeah. There was a passion there. You know, we're both patriotic, I guess, in some respects and then we're very passionate and so the boils over to 91, the war by the shore, you and Chipback get paired against Sevy and Jose Maria. Yeah.

And was it the first match that the ball compression incident? Can you walk us through what happened there? See, I hate that it's remembered for ball compression incident, but that's what it's remembered for. And I got four of those golf balls, brand new sitting in my room that I found in my old Ryder cutback.

But, you know, they took a bad drop on number two that the official let them get away. Well, they broke the rule basically. They hit a ball that they couldn't tell when the hazard, then they played a provisional, which is for a loss ball. And then they went back and dropped like the ball, like they knew the ball went in the hazard, but they didn't know.

And it was controversial, but we won the whole. And then the fourth hole, Sevy hooked it in the junk and the official yells out, he says, five minutes is up and then literally within 10 seconds they found the ball and he let him play it. And I just was eight about that and chippers like, calm down, I said, no man, he can't do it. So that was how that match started. Okay, didn't know that.

Yes, and I actually requested another official. So we had another official command. We had two officials on that match. Then on 10T, they accused of using a wrong compression ball, which we did. And it was totally my fault. But it was a 90 compression title. It's versus 100 compression title. And we're on the first part five. Here's how it works. If the hundred compression title is goes off number one, the hundred compression title has to go first off every odd hole, the rest of the day. Okay. That's as simple as what it is. But that 90 compression ball, which was red. If it goes off number two,

it goes off every even hole, the rest of the day. Is that still that way you can alternate balls? I don't know what it was now. They've changed. They've done a bunch of changes. But I think it's a one ball rule now. I think so. I think so.

I do know what it is. Yeah. So my P brain was just figuring, well, if you hit my ball off the T, then I lay or lay up. No, if I hit your ball off the tee, if you hit my, no, no, here's what it was. If you hit my ball off the tee, you lay up, I get to hit my ball into the green.

That's what it was. And they caught that, and that's illegal. But they didn't call it. It was on seven. Eight, we played normal, nine, we played normal. So they tried to call us on it, I guess on 10 T and we were two Up or three up or something. It shook us up. I'm sorry. It was hard for me to remember exactly that's how understandable Yeah, this is Paul A. Zinger here completely confused. 27 years ago. What happened? But

Yeah, anyway It was it was ugly. I always wondered how they could tell how would they even know? I guess it was the color of the ball was different. That's just a logo. Just the finalist stamp and the number on the ball. How did they notice that? They heard us talking about it. Oh, okay. I was free and talk. We were talking about it. Like it was a great strat boy, aren't we smart? Right. But boy, we budget it because if you hit a black ball off the first T, it's got to be off every odd hole. And it just seemed kind of Triggered the flames a little bit for that entire right? Great. Yeah, that little bit of controversy made the Ryder Cup great

It made actually Americans really started to care about the Ryder Cup up next episode 135 with Mark Brody This one was a hard one to just select one clip for I do suggest this is a great episode to go back and listen to if you will are at all interested in understanding how stats work, how strokes gains work, how strokes gained works, and how you could even improve your game. And that's what this clip is. I asked him just what, how it is, what skill would amateurs need to improve on the most? And here's his answer. Mark Brody episode 135.

That the findings, the insights, the results were very consistent across a wide range of golfer groups. So if you take a look at the difference between a high handicap and a middle handicap or a low handicap or between average tour pros and the best tour pros, the same sorts of result hold, namely that about 65% of the scoring differences occur from shots outside 100 yards and about 35% from shots within 100 yards of the hole. And so, you know, 10 strokes, if you want to go from a typical 90 golfer to a typical 80 golfer, about 6 and a half of those 10 shots come from being better off the tee and outside 100 yards and about three and a half of those strokes come

from being better inside 100 yards, including putting. So, what's something that you've heard on television over the years, or especially after doing all your research you hear now and just cringe, is just something that's just flat out not true. Last and certainly not least, episode 177 with Maverick McNeely, I'm only including this last because it was just last month and somewhat recent. But in case anybody didn't catch that interview, Maverick is a 22-year-old professional golfer, just turned pro recently. And one of the more insightful guys I've spoken to in golf.

So, learned a lot from him actually this this year just talking with him and about his background and I think you'll enjoy this as well. Episode 177, Maverick Mignely. You know, it's really hard to play golf when you don't have everything outside the golf course in order. And you know, I just kind of, I was hitting it all over the planet. I couldn't control my golf ball. And I was in a pretty dark place.

You know, on and off the golf course was not a fun place for me to be. And I realized that I needed to continue. I needed to have a good reason for why I was doing this. I needed to have a really, really good reason that was under control and under my control and something that was you know, that should be in my control and I realized I was kind of operating and this is kind of what I said about a cleanse I was operating on a lot of things a lot of sources of self confidence and self assurance and feel good that were just bad, bad reasons, bad reasons for why I'm doing what I'm doing.

I had a lot of bad reasons for why I was playing golf. Like I'm making good contract money. This is what I'm committed to do. This is, I don't know what else I'd be doing. I don't know how to start over. I don't know just bad reasons for playing golf. And I realized I needed to come up with, I get myself two weeks, I said, if you don't come up with a really good reason for why you're playing golf, I'm the quip. And I thought about it. And I was talking

to one of my buddies about, you know, kind of all I had learned through this past month, month and a half of sucking. And that's when it hit me. I said, I know why I play golf, and I know why I love doing what I do. And it's because golf is really, really hard, and it puts you in some really uncomfortable places. And I realize that instead of running from those uncomfortable places and hiding from them, that's where the most of the learning happens. I feel like I've grown so much as a person and as a player because of all the struggles

I've golf has put me through because it's really hard. It messes with your head. It's just not easy. And I love the process of getting better and learning stuff about myself and trying to make myself better. And that's why I play golf is because it's forcing me to be better as a person and as a player. And so now, I think next year, starting this process over again, I'm excited to be uncomfortable. I'm excited to learn how I react in those different situations. And I have a poster over my

bed that says, what are you going to learn about yourself today? And I think it's a really powerful question. It's I Want to make it something good every day. I want I want to go to bed and say I learned that It could be something as as simple as I was walking down the street and I saw a piece of trash I picked it up and threw it away. I like what I learned about myself in that instance or it could be I was four down through with six to play against one of my buddies and I buried five of the last six and one one up. Like I learned that, you know, X, it's just, it's a powerful question and golf makes you learn a lot about yourself. So that's why I play and that's my reason

and that was really the start of things turning around for me. We got that is officially a wrap on 2018 if you made it this far you you must like this podcast so if I could ask that you go on to iTunes leave us a review in there that helps us a lot. I only ask once a year to do that so In exchange for the free podcast. Please do check that out. I'll give us a little boost in there that helps a lot and signing off for 2018 everyone enjoy the holiday enjoy the new year and we'll see you in 2019 cheers That's better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. I Expect anything different