No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 204: Steve Elkington

Episode Date: March 27, 2019

Steve Elkington swings by the Killhouse to tell some stories from his career on tour. Subjects include the Big Cat, how he came up with that nickname, Bubba Watson, Phil, Monty, the ’95 PGA, the... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 204: Steve Elkington appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. All right guys, we'll go. We're going to be the right club today.

Yeah. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most! All right guys welcome back to the podcast gonna get to our interview shortly here with Steve Elkington. I want to do a quick warning before we get going. We have the explicit iTunes rating. This one episode is extra explicit so please do not listen to this with children around. This one episode is extra explicit, so please do not listen to this with children around. We do try to foster an environment where our guests can come on and be themselves, and Steve Elkington most definitely got very comfortable and was himself on the podcast. Tells some incredible stories with quite a few bleeps in there if we were an edited

podcast. So we recorded this in the Kill House. He came by during players championship week. Please do enjoy the podcast. And we do thank Steve for the time. Cheers. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lang Up podcast. We are making a couple of dreams come true here today for for Big Randy and Uncle Tron. We have with us live in the Kille House Steve Alkington. Steve, thank you so much for joining us. Now, where is the kill house? What does that mean? It's a homage to Tiger and his His Navy SEAL training. Yeah, oh really? Yeah, or he be I think that he was training kill houses

I was down down in San Diego or SEAL Beach out there and they were going with you know firing blanks and everything and Train I didn't know target fired blanks. I thought he was full show. Yeah, he wants joke, I guess, once or twice jokingly, maybe he always did, referred to it as the kill house. So when we got the house, we were like, all right, we got to have the kill house. I got it.

My mom doesn't think very highly of that name. So she said, you know, you have to rechase the name, but. Sam was, we were on the range, yesterday we were Taga, got the visit with him for a while. Sam's huge tiger guy. So we got to talk a little bit yesterday. I've never heard you call him tiger. Big cat. I'm the guy. I'm the one. You are for sure. Where did that start?

Well, it's one of the cartoons we drew, you know, big cat cartoons. I think I got one back to like, like, oh,. It's the first big cat tune we drew at Secret Golf. And he's a big cat, man. That's what he is, right? But Sam got his picture with him yesterday. He was even hitting some parts with the red dot. He was over there. Could you ever imagine he'd be playing at this level

like three years ago? Which level? Are you at his year? Well, just being able to win the tour championship. And I guess just being able to swing a golf club. Yeah, we can't really, you can't really pencil that one in as the true, the true thing. You guys got just so excited about that.

But he beat 29 guys and 11 of them. Oh, come on, you're so excited. 11 of them already gave up before the last day. So he was what, he's played two guys on Sunday? Well, I would, getting there was actually even more impressive, I think, than winning the title. I don't agree with that either, because he's so good that, I mean, 31 guys can't beat him if he plays 20 times.

So, it was all right. He was getting there. Were you surprised at how long he was out with injuries back and forth? You know, you never get the full story from him, right? You never really know what happened to him. No one really knows what happened. Because you had a similar surgery to what he had.

I had a migratusectomy. Yeah. And it worked like charm. You know, I actually stood up off the operating table and my leg was perfect. I can feel everything. So I talked to him about that yesterday and he said he didn't have that success, and then eventually he got it in there, whatever. I think, I can't speak for him,

but I think he had a couple collapses above. I think that's ultimately what happened by my knowledge of what I was going through. He doesn't know, he swings not as good as it used to be. You know, he doesn't hit the fairway all the time either. So it's hard to get too excited, he doesn't hit the fairway all the time either. So it's hard to get too excited because he can't hit the fairway. You know, it's like someone like me, for example,

and I'm no comparison to him, but it's hard for me to miss a fairway. I mean, no, I'm serious. It's hard to miss. It's hard for me to miss a fairway. And, you know, we can't do anything else. I just can't do anything else. It's hard for you, too.

I hit probably 12 or 13 fairies around, and I struggled to break E.D. Which I don't know how it's possible. The Iron Game is shite. So anyway, he's always had a great Iron Game. Obviously, he hits down on the ball so hard that that's really optimal a great iron game. Obviously he hits down on the ball so hard that that's really optimal for hitting iron shots. But when you're hitting down on it, two, three, four, five degrees with some of the long iron,

like he does, which gives us the shot, he gives us shots that come into the greens that no one else has, the big high cut shots. And then you have to swing four degrees up on the drive. It's a long way from the iron, from down forward up. And I know I read somewhere that one of his coaches was trying to get him to be just zero, up or just zero. Yeah, just level coming in with the driver.

So someone like Rory, Macarroy, he's up four and from the inside four, I'm up four. So Greg Norman's up four. So all these great drivers were up and would able to get that ball to go out and just turn over or not so much turn over but flatten out and stay and stay and play. What Tiger you said his swing is not as good as it used to when was his swing the absolute best and for what reasons. There's all kind of theories on, you know, the thing that cracks me up about Tiger is all these coaches think they were so good for Tiger, you know, they got rid of all of them, you know, they all sucked in the

end, but he was going to 80 wins by himself, saying this way with Butcharmin and he left him because he couldn't do this, he was crossed the line and he went to handcain and he got too flat and you know, all this different things, he was still winning everything, but they all say it was their method that got him there. And he was going there anyway. One of the things you can't measure on someone like Tiger is you can't measure what's inside of him. You know, that guy has, talking about the kill house. That guy, you know, he's not even done killing you after he's killed you.

You know, he wanted to keep stomping on you and just bury you. And that's what was so intimidating about him, I think, to a lot of players. You know, when I got to play with him, luckily enough, I never thought of it that way when I played with the number one. I've played with so many of them. I used to think of it as a lucky break for me because one thing for sure was I was going to see the best player in action. That way I could really evaluate myself

where I am. That's one, that's number one, two. All the energy he brings to the force or to some or whatever it is. If you play well in that environment, if you're a player like me, growing, you know, come along, playing with Jack or whoever, if you play good in that environment,

the payoff that you get to keep that energy that you get from that can last you so long. Not only that is when you walk back in the locker room or to the kill house, if I walk back in here and I shot 68 playing with Tiger, now I'm the legend here, right? Right? You're like, oh, I can't play, I can't imagine if I'm 60 with Tiger. So there's some real residual things that these other young guys aren't thinking about. They're worried about if Tiger's looking at their swing about. They worried about if targets looking at this wing or they worried about if he thinks this this slacks look good or his white

pants has a stain on it whatever you know. How disappointing by the way is the fashion in golf right now. Well that's kind of TC's block right there. Yeah well Kerry your your fellow Aussie I think Curtis Luck is bringing bringing back some good fashion. Is he? He is he He is. He's found a Callowage, a pan, is providing him with his stuff, and it's fire. Was it? That's called fashion in your mind, you're best at it. Well, back in the day, all these guys

had all their clothes made. We, Rayman Floyd, took me to LA and we would go and see these custom designers. And we'd have all this stuff. Everything was made, you know. I remember we were looking, we were there one time in this Mexican joint and Raymond's getting these pants made without any pockets in the back, you know, he's telling this Mexican guy, hey man, I need a little tie to back here.

The girls need to see some more ass of mine back here. I'm like, when are we near that? Today, right? No. Guys out there wearing shorts. I mean, you can't tell the caddy from the player. A quick break to talk to you guys a bit about one of our favorite apparel brands, Travis Matthew. If you guys have seen any of our videos, you are obviously aware that we rock them on a near daily basis.

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to receive 20% off your order. Check out the latest styles with board shorts, jeans, button ups, outerwear belts, sock sandals, shoes, polos. Reminds me I need to get a new order in there as well. So thank you again to the Travis Matthew guys for setting this up. And let's get back to our podcast with Steve Elkinson. What was the first time you ever saw Tiger?

I think when he was an amateur playing in Riviera, when he got in as a sponsor exemption and that great line by Sandy Lyle, he was the number one player in the world or whatever at that point. The Tiger Woods was like 14 or 15, he was playing at Riviera and Sandy Lyle just went to Masters and they said, what do you think about Tiger Woods? And Sandy Lyle said, I've never played that course. That was one of the great parts. I'm not here to make it.

Yeah. So you've played a Riviera too then. Yeah, Riviera. Riviera is one of my spots. So I want to talk about the 95 PGA, but I want to know when you thought you won 17 times in the 90s alone. Yeah, it was pretty good.

Yeah, it was for the 90s. Yeah, I think it's pretty good. When was your game at the absolute peak? And why did it reach that peak at that time? It was probably right here in 97 was where it was the best best. The most complete week I have a play was here in 97. Can you boat race everybody?

Yeah, I went from wide to wide. And I just went to Rau. And Anapama called me after to Rao and said, I'm looking forward to seeing you next week at Bay Hill, Adi. And I said, yes you are, because I'd always skip Bay Hill because I couldn't play the course.

Because to me, it was like, no matter what I did, I was shooting 75, all the Bay Hill holes seemed like they had a dog leg. And I was either, I wasn't long enough to go over the dog leg. And I was two five back on over here. So I'd shoot 75. So I wandered around, went down there and shot 75, 75. Then I came here and one by seven.

So I had every shot in the bag here. I was leading first day. That was cool. Second day, still leading, third day still leading. And it was so much pressure by then, you know, it was, you know, like suffocating feel and just like, oh, just, just hurry up and get to the tea time, you know, two-thirty or whatever. And I remember I got to the course like two, two-fifteen, like ten minutes. I'd already practiced like in the kill room,

type situation, you know. And NBC guys are there and they say, hey, can we get it? Well, you know, we get it. I said, no, mate, I'm late. I'm late, you know, how could you be late for 2-30? So he like four shots and went to the tee. And I was playing with Scott Hoke. And I was a little jumpy, a little bit nervous, but he looked at me and he said,

you know, if I win this tournament today, I'll be exempt on the tour until I'm 50, 10-year exemption. And I looked at him and I said, this tournament has nothing to do with you. This is my tournament and I told him to airfile. Really? But at what it did for me, it snapped me back into reality. Competitive mindset. Oh yeah. And I use that.

I use, I just held onto that little nugget the whole day. And what's really, you know, you don't see this very often, but I'm going to tell you what happens. There's only one bigger ice kicking than you can give the field from wide to wide. And what is that? Come on, you guys, big golf guys. What's bigger than winning wide toof-wire? There's only one thing

God, you're in the last hole when you don't need to I did that Now it's shooting the low-round of the day Yeah, what was your lead going into Sunday? I think it was like three. No, come on I said Staggering thing to see on that though though is not only that you won by seven, but the fact that the guys that were T6, T7 were like 14, 15 shots back. Yeah, it was a bit of a mess. It was a bit of a mess.

I told Sam I took him over to 17. I said, by the time I got to 17, all these people, you know, before I get to 17, we're playing number nine, Gypsy Joe, Grilla was catting for me. Big heavy set guy swings his arm like this. You know, smoke cigarettes on the odd holes and hits the inhaler on the, on the even hole of his. So he, we're walking down number nine and he's right beside me and there's this guy out in the crowd going, come on, Elk, I need you to make a 10. You're killing my deal over here, you know?

And Gypsy goes over to the russ and Gypsy get out, get out. And he's already gone, you know, he's going over there. He says, hey pal, hey you, you in the pink shirt. Hey you, paly. He said, I see you're pretty excited over there. He said, I'm pretty excited over here. He said, how about we come up to the green

and see here's the most excited. So he said, I said, Gypsy, what are you doing? So anyway, by the time we got to 17, I get up to 17, you know, I still got to hit this shot and they're putting people taking trash. I mean, everyone's leaving. Like this is the whole shot. It's one of the tournament. It's not even, I'm like, this is awesome.

Are you still nervous on 17? Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. No of us being like, I'm really focused on awesome. You still nervous on 17. Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. No of us being like, I'm really focused on that shot. Yeah. Because honestly, if you think you hit one in, you might hit eight. You know, you could just do two sleeves.

And that's how you feel on the whole. Friends act later to almost two sleeves a couple years ago on a random Friday. Well, that's the thing about the players, even when somebody, it's different. I think now in March, when it's into the win, but even if somebody's got a six shot lead, like it could be one of the greatest collapses ever if you missed that green. Yeah, I told Sam today, I said, I don't think there's anyone lost the tournament. We'd like a two shot

lead coming in that hole, like made a seven six or seven and lost the tournament. I don't think that's happened. I know Sean O'Hare was in second and lit himself on fire and hit two balls in there and he caught himself about a million bucks. Machete's a rough, rough go of it. Yeah, back. He didn't even touch grass, did he? It just zoomed it right over the top, right? Yeah.

That's all that adrenaline I think. So yeah. But you agree that this tournament belongs in March? Oh, it's no doubt. Yeah. They're going to get, they're going to get pommel this week over there. It's already pretty vicious. Just playing long and long.

It's win coming over. Golf channels telling me on TV, there's no rough. And how about Phil Mickelson? He comes up here to play a practice round decide he's going to play. I mean, if you ever heard of that, what an asshole. And then he decides because there's not six inches of rough, he's going to play now.

But he can't, I mean, come on. I talked to come the guys out there, and I was like, oh, you just didn't get enough attention last week, you know. Is that your guy? Yeah. But what, okay, so what did you think about that? It's hard to defend.

I mean, not to excuse it, but I feel like he's done a number of things throughout his career that are just head scratchers. So I think he just chalk it up to maybe one of those. It's like performance hours, right? Yeah. I mean, where I don't have the perspective, though, is as a fellow competitor and, you know, the person who might be first alternate waiting by the phone do I need to, you know, I don't have that appreciation for it.

So from that standpoint, it's obviously not great, but you had the best nickname ever for Phil. Oh, he was hefty. Did you come up with that one too? Yeah. We'll talk to him about Phil. Well, I mean, what? No, he's so good for that game.

He does such a good doll for the tour, but, you know, I feel like that's the company line, maybe. No, but he's just such a nerd, you know. And he's just not so non-genuine. It's just amazing, you know. And now he's got this new love affair with a couple of the young guys. I think he's cool now, like he's grandpa or something, you know.

But none of us forget about Phil. I mean, Phil's been an ass always whole life. Do you see any similarities with, I think a guy who's taken a lot of heat for maybe being a centric and a little odd and how genuinely, he's not a centric. Okay, maybe he's never had an original thought. I don't think so.

I don't know how exciting. Well, where I'm going with this is, what do you think about Bryson? It's, it's, it's, it's. On that Bryson I think falls more on the category of a sort of a more mathematical thinker for sure. I don't think he's eccentric. I mean there's a lot of people that like science and math. I mean I like science and math too.

The centric is someone that rides a tricycle along here in a tuxedo. That's eccentric. These guys are pretty standard when you think about it. Have you had run-ins with Phil in the past? No, no, no. Phil's fine. He's a great player. He's been a great player for 30 years. I mean, he's an amazing player.

But just because you think that someone's weird or you don't like he's styred, ruptured the wrong way, doesn't... You doesn't have to be the end. Or I still have a lot of respect for that guy. He's a total hall of fame. He's a total pro. He just has some you know disingenuous moments and doesn't tell the full truth and like you did when he picked up the part and all this stuff it's just all bullshit most of it. I mean we see all that stuff, that's all

it's not a big deal. I mean Jack we always say well what would Jack do? Jack wouldn't do that. Would Jack do that? No. Okay. I believe, Jack, we always say, well, what would Jack do? Jack wouldn't do that. Would Jack do that? No. Okay. I believe it's Mr. Nicholas Randy. Yeah. Yeah. Randy's a big Mr. Guy. Oh, he is. Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Palmer, you know, all that. Mr. Hefty. And then when he went when he put that guy in jail was it was hefty 50 for a while did you Yeah, that one Mr. He's definitely Yeah, that one you look speaking of another Say polarizing figure

Baba Yeah, run into Baba. I know you said on Rome that you know you and Baba are straight now Well, he thinks he's with straight. I think so. You know, I think the line was was, yeah, yeah, but he's a highly uneducated fucking guy and he knows it. That was one of my favorite lines. It could be, you know, he probably is. He's got the tablets. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm on the tablet, so I've got anger issues. I can start that with what start that story over. And people have seen the highlight clip. You guys just love that story. Yeah, it's so good. It actually had nothing to do with me. Honestly, he just snapped. I mean, how many times have you seen him snap a lot?

Yeah. And we were playing this with, I was playing with a shigeki Mariamma and I were leading the tournament on the 10th hole. A course I designed for the, for the PGA tour with Pete Die. We're playing the 10th hole. of course I designed for the PGA Tour with Pete Dye. We're playing the 10th hole, we're both eight under. Bubba's not playing so hard, but he said this drive so far down the fairway. Now, Shageki, you know, I'm back here.

And all the camera crew, all there, there's a bunch of people there shooting our shots in there. So after we both hit, everybody moves, you know, 12 people move up the fairway. And he shouldn't have even been there yet. He should have been here. But he was already out of position. He was up there waiting. So everyone walked up and bullet my caddy had the bag on his shoulder and hunched it. Just chimp it yeah. And when he did, Bob was snapped and called us, you know, all kinds of shit. And so I fucking fucking veterans. Yeah, and when he did Baba snapped and called us, you know all kinds of shit and

And so I fucking fucking better in the man fucking better in the pastors and So I went up to him and he wouldn't even turn around. I said I'm gonna fucking talk to you When we get off the green on 18 and Roger Mopi's over there going I've never seen a thing like this. Bubba wants to mess all Everyone thinks I'm an asshole bad, but anyway, I'm not shaking He said I'm not sawing his card and when I walked into the scores tent There was security in there and they said to me elk Whatever you do

Don't punch him in the in the in the scores tent. It's okay. I'm not gonna do that So anyway, I let him up in his course, and I told him I was gonna kick his ass and he started crying and told me all this stuff. But, you know, to his credit, he did come back to me and say, you know what, I was wrong, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But the great story about that whole thing was, we're in the buy later,

means you get your Marriama and a bunch of guys, and we were all just having a few beers, and one of the two officials said, well, okay, well, you guys need to write this up. What happened? So, it's just okay. So, you know, Shigeki says, I write, I write up, I write letter.

So it's okay, you go off and write a letter and come back. And I'll read it. You say, you add it letter for me. I say, you add it for you, you go off and write a letter and come back. And I'll read it. You say you, you add it, let it for me. So you add it for you, mate, no worries. So he leaves for a while and we're having a couple of beers and Shukaky comes back in, you know, real Japanese, real fish or, you know, half-bow. Mr. Elkerton's son, I have a letter for you to read, you know.

It's okay, I got it. So he says, he's gonna, he's writing what happened. He says, it's, go something like. Me, Elkinsen, San, play, Tenth Hall at golf course, and we tied lead, hit ball. Baba wasn't hit fucking dry way up here. And Elkinsen, San, I hit ball, we moved,

and then Baba wasn't snapped, say, fuck you, cuck, sucker, motherfucker, cuck, cock sucka, motherfucker, cock sucka. And I said, I'm reading this letter. And I go, you're a super rider. This is well done. Really? I said, yeah, mate, this is, you don't have to do anything. There's no editing done here.

This is put this straightening envelope to the tour. This is perfect. That was the funny part about the story. What became of it after that was there. I don't know. I think you probably find something. You get to find or anything? Nothing. What I didn't do anything. Well, you threatened to kick his ass. Well, you needed it. He has read the day and kicked mine. So, so on that front, is there, how would you diagnose the way that the tour operates now with regard to like, like, for instance, slow play? Like, on have any like like there's no

there's no enforcement but but not only that there's no enforcement player to player either where like I feel like the veterans don't don't call anybody aside and say hey you you can't do that out here man you know that sort of thing. What happened when when I was on tour when Jack Nicholas was the best player in the world and all the young guys like me were coming along, the dynamic, the equilibrium of the tour, the heartbeat of the tour was set properly. And then when Target came along, it flipped.

Senior tour came along and now we had the youngest guy in the tour was the number one player and all the old guys became obsolete So the voices became all the young guys and that's the same problem they have right now They don't have anyone that has any age. I mean the stuff that I told Duffner the yesterday I said I don't know I cannot believe the bullshit these guys the tour let does to you guys out here I said back in the day Tom Watson would have stood up and said, you know what, good thinking, but when I'm doing that, sorry, we're doing it this way. What's an example of some? Well, you're some examples of some kind of thing. You can imagine. It could be something as silly as what they're doing

this week, which is no past tour players are loud on the range. I mean, that's, you know, all of us, we built the place. It's your turn. Yeah, we built it. You know, so they don't want any other X players on the range to walk around. I didn't even know that was a really supposed to have a special colored deal, but I went out there with Jason Duffner and I was working with him today and some of our players, Andrew Landry. So I didn't even know that was a deal, but Buddy Gardner came up to me and said, do you

know that you didn't have the yellow deal, that you have to ask for it to, you know, all this? And I'm like, that wouldn't happen back in the day. So look, if Jack wants to come out on the range and lead Trevino, if they want to come out, Raymond wants to say hi to me to see how my kids are, they're coming out, okay? Take your yellow fucking thing and go do some origami, you know what that reminds me of Tommy Smothers

and his yo-yo, that was bad. Take it. Yeah. That was bad. Take it all the way. Take it away. Take it yo-yo. Just shout out to Rome. We're Rome. Raining our big clones. So, you know, a lot of these stories we've heard before, but yeah. You're a big fill guy. I love that. He's always been a big fill guy. He left handed? No. His name's Phil though. He's really not Randy big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that.

He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that.

He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He's always been a big fan of that. He flies under the radar for a lot of our generations, because we really didn't see him play.

But he's not quite at that level of... You're hearing the stories about him, you know, like the Mr. Palmer, Mr. Nicholas stuff. But Raymond Floyd sounds like he's just an absolute freaking legend. Yeah, Raymond was great. I mean, he was an amazing player. He won all kind of tournaments.

He was just tough, you know. Big gambler. you know, used to own, used to own Titi bars before he got married. And so who don't like a guy like that? I mean, that's what he used to have. He had about a dozen Titi joints when he first came on tour. What's your best Raymond Floyd story? You know, I play with Raymond. I used to play with Raymond all the time. We won the shark shoot out together one year and got to know Raymond and Maria really well and all the kids and we were like maybe a month out from the Masters one year and he comes over to me on the range and he says what time do you want to play at Augusta? I said anytime and said, now I'm talking about what time do you want to tee off at a gusta this year?

And I go, Ray, what are you talking about? He goes, what time do you want to tee off on Thursday? Thursday? Don't they have like a draw? He goes, some of us get to pick who we want to play with. What time do you want to play with me? I said, what time do you want to play? Because I like to play at noon.

I said, well, I'm playing at noon with you. So about four years in a row, I play with Raymond at noon. At Augusta, it was kind of your own pick. Is that information? I don't think I've ever heard that as it past champions, it's a rule. Some do.

Some of them get that pick. Not everyone. Augusta has the greatest rules. They have the greatest rules that they can change any rules. It's so good. Sam over here is going to be a gust with me every year and they made a new rule that past champions, or major champion winners, used to be husband, wife, and kids.

Well, about four or five years ago, they took the kids away. It's just husband and wife and kids. Well about four or five years ago they took the kids away. It's just husband and wife. But because Sam goes all the time, the chairman gave Sam his badge and he's sister a badge. And that's even carried on to this year. They've given Mr. Ridley gave Sam and his sister a badge. So they just like, you don't get extra badges, but this guy gets them out of here. Or this guy gets to pick who's gonna tee off, and this guy doesn't.

That's what I like about Augusta. You had some success there in the early part of your career. How different is that golf course now? How different does it play now than it did in the 90s? It's just longer and hotter, and I don't think it's, you know, they've sort of tweaked it right and the last couple of years they've got it back, they've sort of took the criticism, maybe it was a little too, you know, subdued on Sunday, you know, and now they've sort of compromised, if you will. I think the mistake, if they ever made a mistake, which, well they didn't make enough, they didn't

make the teas long enough to where they only had one option if they're going to play it back at 11, it's way back. And then there's no other T. I would have liked to have seen just a longer piece of turf there. Right. You know, like 515 option and no 495 option. Yes. 515 or 515 or 460. Yeah. What was your favorite president's cup team that you ever played on? Well, I was easy.

The one that we won. The one that we won. Right. We, Greg Norman and I were partners down there. It was one of the great scenes for us because I don't think we lost. We won every match. And the most interesting match we had was Davis Loving Freddy couples, they'd won all these

World Cups together and we were paired with them. We were paired to play them on a Saturday afternoon in Australia with the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Australia there and every very good Australian that ever could fit into the grounds playing Freddie and I think we were 15, 16 under through 15 holes when we beat him three and two or something like that. It was amazing. It was one of the great matches and even Freddie and then come up and said, man, what a day. It was just one of those unreal days. How do you view the international team's chances this year going back to normal?

You know, it's so hard to think about the presence cup, you know, the Americans, whatever they do in the presence cups, they don't do in the rider cup. But the hardest thing for us is we don't even know how the guys on the team. Yeah. You know? There's different languages and yeah, I mean,

there's not like a common bond, not like a fair five. It's like, hey, Your name's Ben Ho. No, it's Ben. Who? No, no, what's your name? Ralph it. Oh, you know, you don't know Right? Yeah, do you know all those guys? I know. Yeah, so you guys know everything. I saw it. Yeah, so the name Sean Norris up in the top 12s in the standings and I I don't know I don't know Sean Norris. I don't need I did not either I'm not sure if this if this tournament needs to it something needs to change with it I think I'm rooting for internationalist actually to win at this time around where are they playing it? WorldMover. Oh awesome. Yeah, and they go to South African captain that makes sense for the tour that's perfect

What's your proudest moment? Of course Perfect. What's your proudest moment? Of course. Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. I did win the Australian Open in 1992 and my wife was there, my brother, family, my mom and dad, and my grandma was there who'd never saw me play. So that was cool. My coach, that was right in Sydney, the Lakes Golf Club,

where they just had it this year, great place. My friend Michael Clayton, we did that course. You know Clayton? Clayton from the front of the park, yeah. Here's the? Yeah, he's the best. He is the best. He swears more than anyone. Did he swear with you guys? I don't know if he did on the park.

Yeah, not on the park. As soon as we shut off the mics, oh I guess heavy. He's the best. All the worst, whatever. But anyway, that was good. You know, winning some national championships at the University of Houston was good. Billy Ray Brown and I were roommates.

We won three times there, four years. And, you know, all the things that I've done on the course have been great for me. You know, really fortunate to be able to do what I've done. But the tour, you know, is going to go on. You know, all these guys, they just don't realize, I think, that, hey, I did my deal. I've been out there 28 years, and I'm... Show goes on. Yeah.

Jackie Burke told me a long time ago that when that big gower is on 18, you make a long putt, and you walk off that green, that crowd opens up, and you walk through it, and all those people don't follow you up that hill, they turn back to see the guy coming from the fairway. Are you at all, I don't know if Bitter is the they turn back to see the guy coming from the fairway. Are you at all, I don't know if bidders the right word, but we were just looking back at your career record and seeing your crazy run like in 95 and your total earnings for that year and then seeing two top 10s maybe in 04 and you made more money in 04. Are you bitter that most of your success happened in the pre-tiger era? No. No, I kicked his ass here in 97. Yeah.

You know, for the person's got enormous though, that's kind of where the play is. No, but the bitterness that you're not seeing there, is Jack was in some of those tournaments there. That's true. He's the goat. Mm-hmm. Have you tried to beat him lately?

I've tried a lot. I can't really get a lot of access to to face him head to head No, I'm just saying have you tried playing Jack and this throw in Tom Watson. Oh, yeah, this throwing in Crenshaw Let's throw in Raymond. Let's throw in Trevino. Let's throw in No, I'm in more from just the purse standpoint of it sound like to you that was I've ever been No, I never played for the money right now. I mean I won $17 million or $15 million and Jack Nicholas won five. So, how can you be upset about the money? When I won 700 grand here or 680 here, it was more money than you could have stacked up in the

kill house. What do you think of the state of the tour right now? Some of the young guys, do you think Golf, PGA, Tour specifically is in a good place? I'm not sure. I think it's, I'm not sure yet, there's a lot of movement in a lot of things with the rules or very volatile right now that the players aren't happy.

It seems like the World the players aren't happy. It seems like the World Golf Championships don't work. You know, you've got a lot of good players. You've got some players that aren't quite sure what they're doing, like Rory who's so good and, you know, what's he trying to do? Is he trying to win five more mazes? I don't look like he is. You know, he's just sort of there. Is he gonna be out of play another 15 years? Can he do that? No answers. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what about Jason Day? Do you think he can play another 20 years? No. Based on his comments

probably not just because of injury or passion Both. I don't know. These guys just get comfortable, too. They don't have to They don't have to grind for another 20 years because there's like what's the upside rather? Well the upside is the same upside as everyone is that you're trying to chase something that's bigger than you right? Yeah like I always I still play golf now and I still try to be great my golf and you know think of it myself as a golfer and I'm always working on my game. I think Justin Thomas has the right attitude. I thought Speed did, but now Speed's getting bogged down with his swing and a few other things,

but I think Justin Thomas is on like a rocket ship. He's the most gifted player out there right now. What's your take on Speed? Like what do you think of Speed? I think with Speed. He's putting, there's always been, you know, a question that's just to always made everything. He's always had, you know, a question, it's just that he always made everything. He's always had all kind of issues look like, right?

Cross-handed, look at the whole, all kind of crazy stuff. But the thing that I, you know, he's got a terrible grip, right? He's got fingers hanging out everywhere and it looks funky. He's backswing position is pretty good to me, very orthodox, but he has this big left arm pull out on the way through, which tells me that he's afraid that thing's going to flip. Now that tells me that's coming from before somewhere, back here, so he's holding that thing. That's not what top players do. They can smash it as hard as they can across

that left hand over like every great player. So I don't know what he's doing in his swing. I'm not like concerned about it, but I think there's something big time to worry about with that left elbow is what I see. I don't think you can play a block action like that for a long time. How did you become so versed in the golf swing? Who did you learn it from? Or were you kind of always a studier of your own swing with video back before video?

Not really video. No, I didn't like video. I was like Peter Thompson, sat a great line. He said that he was never more disappointed when he saw his swing on camera. You know, I always wanted to change it when I looked out on the video.

And I was hit at great. So I didn't try not to look at it too much. But Alex Mercer taught me when I looked out on the video. And I was in it great. So I didn't try not to look at it too much. But Alex Mercer taught me when I was a kid. He's a great teacher still alive in Australia. He was a pro at Royal Sydney Golf Club, great coach. Still my coach really today. And then I was a, I started the golf machine

like Bryson through Ben Doyle for 10 years and I just did it out of boredom on the tour. And so I look at it like a diagnostic tool. I don't really preach the golf machine like some idiots do when they think they learn it. But I look at it, you know, like Bryson actually plays a pretty standard procedure. They would call it. He lines up with the shaft right on his shoulder plane. He cut all these clubs the same length so they all feel the same. And he sets up on the same

plane, not more of an elbow plane like we do. I just did it out of boredom and then so then I was, you know, I always watched all the good swings. I learnt empirically so I would watch, I could watch Wisecoff or Jack and it would reiterate to me that, yeah, that's what I want right there. And I would go copy that move a little bit. I think I did more empirical learning than I did so much by looking at the video. Going back to the tour, as far as it seems like there's a lot less characters

and a lot less personality out there. These days, there are things a little bit more. What about Bubba? He snapped and sterile. He snaps. When I think Bryson's like, I feel like we need more of Bubba's, right? I feel like Bry he's a bummer. He's a bummer. He snapped. He snapped. He snapped. When I think Bryson, I feel like more of Billy. I feel like more of us, right? I feel like Bryson's a great character.

I think he is. I think he has a certain, you know, he's not for me, but I do certainly, I get more entertainment out of listening to others talk about Bryson than what I think about Bryson. You know, there's appreciation for Bryson. He's obviously a smart guy and I think he plays well into the environment of like we saw him today. He's got like six guys out there. He's

got a camera down near the ball. The coolest thing he's got is you got one of those alignment pegs with it with a little piece of steel on it that he can just wipe his club off with a steel brush. I mean that's cutting air right there. You ever seen that? Just like this with a brush on it, so he hits a shot and comes over and goes, I'll clean it up. Yeah, clean it off. Good about eight guys there.

He's squirting the ball with a spritzer. That guy is my favorite, his dude guy. Dude guy, a spritzer guy. Yeah. He's got to get one of those 50 old spritzabattles just from way off. Psh. Psh.

That guy, that's what we need. Not, he's just pouring it on. Now we got to do the psh. What's your take on track, man? I think it's a usable piece of equipment. I've used it to hit the driver. I think it's the best piece of equipment for the driver. You know, I went on there one time to hit my hands,

and I went to the what the tour average was for Angle of Descent on the tour lines. And so I then tried to see what mine were and my one anyone near it. So it screwed me up, so I've got offered. I mean, who are the lines better than me? I mean, maybe they need a new model on the track, man. Maybe they're too down, mind a lot less.

Do you think guys and apologies if this is a... Nothing offense me. An ignorant question. Nothing offense me. Do you guys own and know their swing as much today as in your era or even going back? I mean, who would be, from guys you've seen out there currently playing, who could have competed 40, 50 years ago,

or even 20, 25 years ago? Well, Justin Thomas would be one, Baba, Baba's frigging crazy shots, crazy hands. He's got one of the most gifted games. I mean, that guy's like, Steph Curry. He's just weird, you know. It's like, you'll hit it. He's just wrapped in with some other weirdo

that's wrapped in with him, some cartoon character that's upside, you know what I mean. Imagine if that was Wyscoff with that move or something. They'd line up to watch that. Who in real life is the most different than in real life, they're way different than how they're portrayed either in media or on TV. Duffner. Duff's smart.

He's clever. He's engaging. He's super. But on the tour, you think he's some fat guy with a dip in that doesn't know anything about anything. He's smart of sell. I feel like he doesn't mind that though. I feel like he doesn't mind the people

think that about him. He doesn't care about anything. Yeah, which is great. Actually, he cares about everything but he doesn't care what you think about him. Not you, but yeah, I mean, we have a saying on the tour that if you don't know me, I don't care what you think of me, I couldn't care less, you don't even know me. So we'll get people

say, well what's that guy like? Is he a good guy? Well I don't know. I mean I don't know. Are you a good guy? How are you, are you, are you? You look like you're all right. You know what, I'm not a good guy. Why are you asking me if, that guy's a good guy I'm not a good guy. Yeah. Why are you asking me if that guy's a good guy? Is he a good guy? Yeah, who knows? Who cares? Who cares, yeah. All right.

My mom, my shout out to my mom. My mom always asks me, is he a good guy or is he, you know? So, Elk, you fall out with the Charles Barthly, I'm not a role model thing. Oh, no, I think I am. I am, for sure. I'm friendly, man, I think I am, I am for sure. I'm friendly man. I like to help kids.

I do everything. I would rather play golf than eat, to be honest with you. Which of the Aussie bunch do you most identify with? The guys on tour right now? I'd say Adam Scott would be, he would be the best Aussie player was. Leashman's one of my guys. He's on Cigarette Golf team and he's probably the most up and coming guy out there.

Leashman, I think he's as good a player as anyone. Good very little coverage, which is fine. I think we're Leash, you don't care. And it just plays good all the time you know leash. What's he what's your read on Jason Day? I spoke with Jason yesterday he's just you know you know he's been so young you know he's feels like he's got the like spotlight either it's been on him too much like he's been burnt by it or something where he's sort of falls into that category of if he doesn't everything's not

perfect you just can't play. I like him a lot. It's like oh my back or my hip. We'll just take eight Advil instead of four and go because I guarantee if I don't play I'm guaranteed zero. So I might as well play a little hurt. I might just luck it out and make five grand. Who knows? The players don't quite think that way in nowadays. If they didn't cut their fingernails, they can't play.

What do Australians for the most part, or you think of Greg Norman? Well, I'm really close to Greg. So I've been one of his oldest friends. I think I've been to all eight of his weddings. No the sharks, he's been a, you know, I think the way I don't know how you position the question but I think one of the things we learnt about the shark is he gave us all this image that there was more to golf if you wanted to do it. He was able to launch himself into different things. He was the first guy. He was before Oprah when she was into wine. You know, he's own wine label. He was into clothing. He was in the course design

That was he followed Jack and those guys. So he went and other things and I've always said this about him. He's like he's always showed us what's possible on the widening of your scope. He's kind of mean. He's really fun. He's been so generous to his friends. I mean he's been so good to our family. We go everywhere and we've been all over the world with him and hunted and fished and gone on his yachts and, you know, I'm really close to both his kids, great kids, you know, so he's great. His Instagram account, like his just is so cool. Yeah, it's gone into like some widow like a… It's like an Instagram model or something.

Yeah, it's like a middle-aged Instagram model. What are we doing here? Shirtless photos. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's having a midlife process. That's why I can't quite get past them. Yeah, it's too much for me. I think I blocked him on that. I think I did.

What he like, take a show off and there was some too well-caven sex over there. And he was trying to film it. And it was this whole idea of the horses were breeding or something. And he had like cream on his hand or something. Oh, what was that? What's your favorite Monty story?

Oh, Monty's a name. It took us, it took us, you know, this is a name. I've been trying to wait. It took us everything not to lead with this. I couldn't believe you guys hadn't gotten there. I'm like, 40, you know, get there. You knew this story. Monty's, you know, do you know that he went to Houston Baptist University?

No, I didn't even know that it's not he like misunderstood. Oh, yeah, Monty's the greatest. Yeah, he's just I mean we love him, but genuinely He's the greatest Monty is the greatest He's just he just gets himself in more trouble than you know. But you know, when I won the PGA course, he went, so he went, so we went, so we have history, right? He went to Houston Baptist University. I didn't even know that was a place or a thing.

And there's a guy named Tim Thielin, you know, he is. He's like the PGA club pro champion. He was on Monty's team. Some Monty was like the second best player on the team at the time. And I was at university using, we were winning everything and we were playing it. Monty was working the range at Lockham R golf club. And I said, what are you doing? What are you doing over here? Fat tits, what are you doing here? And he said, oh, he says, I'm going back to England next week. I'm going to apply for a job at IMG.

I said, well, why the fuck would you do that? It's the worst idea I've ever heard about. Well, you know, I can't really play. I'm not very good. And I said, well, let me tell you something, Marty, you're a fucking really good. Oh, really? You think I'm that good?

I said, I think it's what I think you should do. Mate, you should go back to England and you should try for the tourist school. And then if you don't get in that, then go work for Ahmjee. How's that for a fucking idea, Moti? Really, you think I could do that? I said yeah, I think you could. So he does and you know seven whatever he's won later, won all that. So when I beat him at the PGA in 95, as you could imagine, the next day for me was, you know, the next week was a lot of going on, right? But I, and this is well known that I stopped everything and wrote a letter to Monty and said

that, you know, I congratulated him on how good he played at the PGA because basically our stats were the same and I beat him by one putt to win a major and I know he wanted as much as I wanted Mon. I just wanted him to know that I was thinking about him on that day, this day, with I was winning and it could have easily have been him. So I wrote that to him. So we got to put that in the file. Okay. So then we went over to play the world match play and He we both get through two or three rounds now. I'm gonna play with Monty and the Sennies, right? and And the press over there was this it went worth. Yeah, it's the biggest stuffiest club

Talk about bunch of fucking racist those English people over there They don't even let you in, they wouldn't get in with that facial hair lad, that facial hair's got to go, you can't be in here like that. They wouldn't even let you in the clubhouse with trainers on, what the fuck's a trainer? Are you talking about tennis shoes? Oh, you can't come in here with those, okay, whatever. So, we're going play the semifinal match and it's a 36 hole match and the press is, it's a rematch of Velkinton vs. Monty of the PGA,

blah, blah, blah, blah, bullshit, all this bullshit. So, it's 36 holes. So, one day. So, we go out and I told my wife, I said, look, this fat son of a bitch is gonna be out for me today I'm gonna have to play my ass off to beat him And I think I shot about seven under in the morning to be one up on this guy I mean this guy can play he hits it so straight. I mean it's hard to beat so

We go into this big you know clubhouse and where the players only and they've got This huge buffet down the middle of the club, and Bonnets over there, this huge table looking out over the gardens and all the observatory, and he's got about four or five royal palace people there. And the captain from your field. And the captain from your field was there.

Is it draftyion here to you? Anyway, so out in the middle of the buffet is this custard castle. The clubhouse at, at, at, at, wait, wait, is a castle. It's a fucking castle. It's got all those little, you know little squares at the top, you know? And it's a castle.

It's fucking magnificent. It's unreal. So anyway, I'm sitting over there having like a cheese sandwich because I can't eat when I'm playing. I can't eat much. Can you? Don't worry. Don't hesitate.

You've never played a 36-Hole match with the rock. You're the rock people here.'s got the wrong people here. So anyway, so we're gonna go back out in like 30 minutes. So Monti gets up, he goes over to the table. He's already had lunch, by the way. Grab the dinner plate, goes over to this custard castle with his big fork. And he fucking takes out the whole ladies locker room.

He takes out the pro shop, the fucking upper deck on the back observatory and puts it all on the display. I couldn't fucking believe that he's just done. I said, he's gonna feed the whole table. He's gonna take 12 spoons over there and put this out in the middle. They just destroyed it.

Nope, nope. He sat at the end of the table. They just destroyed it. Nope, nope. He sat at the end of the table and he fucking ate it all. I turned to my wife and I said, honey, there's not a man alive. They can eat that much custard. They can beat me. It's how the afternoon goes. I rolled him like five and four.

He couldn't go when you have to do it. Oh, I think that's my favorite. I'm fascinated. I guess he drives from national park to national park. Like when he's on the road with the champion store, his hobby is to drive around and to go to US national parks. He loves it. Really?

That's true. What do they see there? Fucking bears. Kangaroos. Oh, yeah, it's Monty's great. So I was at San Antonio side story playing in the Champions Tour, which I hated. I didn't really like it. It didn't do nothing for me. Planting cards and fucking sure. I mean, it's terrible. Anyway, it's good for some. Anyway, I'm in San Antonio. I have to go out to my golf cart. I mean,

I'm in my golf cart. I'm going to go out to my golf cart. I mean, I'm in my golf cart. I'm going to go out to my car in the parking lot. And I see Monty. He's got the hatchback up on his car. And he's sitting there eating something. So I drove around this way, and I'm going to come back around so I can point right at him. And as I come around the corner, I see him doing something

with the, with his left hand So I just ease up real slow and I go how you doing Colin? Oh How you oh? And I just let my golf card ease down the hill just a little bit further so I can see what was behind him He had fucking four big Mac boxes back there I said there's no nourishment out on the course is there. There's no food on the course for us. He goes, oh I thought the same thing. You fucking ate four fucking Macs. Who can eat four big Macs? You tell me. Tell us about your

Dive a little bit deeper on that Champions Tour. It just wasn't for you. Oh, it's great for a lot of guys. You know, it's a great opportunity. Here's the thing about the Champions Tour. It is built for guys that want to, when they're finished with this tour, they don't have to go home and they don't have to take their retirement plan. They can go out there. They can extend their retirement plan I just didn't really and look guys like Bernard Langer awesome. I just don't have that much want as he does I still like to play do everything, but I can't do the travel man I spent almost all my life away from my family in Australia. I'm not doing it here. Can't do it. How do you split your time between... I just worked with

Singapore Australia. No once a year. Yeah. So you know I'd rather be around the house and work on some of the projects I'm doing at Secret Golf and all the stuff I got going which is great. I got 31 tour players that are on our platforms. It's great. So 2012 was your last tour? Last tour, yeah. I don't even know which was my last tour event. You know, a very sentimental guy. No, not like that at all.

No. Were you thinking, hey, this is the end and I want to try something new? Did you get an itch to kind of move on? Or was it just was it injury related What no none of that it was just the best way to leave if if you're not leaving or is I don't know if I'm leaving But I'm not here you don't you just don't talk about it. Just you just don't show up. Yeah I don't need to tell anybody I'm doing anything

You know all these guys make this announcement that they retired or or whatever I'm not doing that. It's not happening. 2010, was that the player, the PGA? I should have won the PGA when I was 48. I know, that was awesome. So take us to that week. Oh, mate, that was a great week. All right, play with Tiger on Saturday was one of the great, great things ever, you know, playing with Tiger on Saturday. It was one of the great, great things ever, playing with him on Saturday. We was a reindeer lay or something, and then we repaid.

And now I'm playing with Big Cat on Saturday, and I saw him on the range. I said, fuck, I got you. After all this, you're lucky enough to play with me. He goes, fuck you. So we play, and he's not playing. He's playing terrible. And I think I shoot 66

Tiger shoots like 74. I mean I fucking smoked the guys camp, you know That's kind of joke but We get to the 17th hole the real nasty green there, you know and the pins front right that day and I hit this really nice shot in Hit on this hump and disappeared over the hump and the pins front right that day and I hit this really nice shot in, hit on this hump and disappeared over the hump and the crowd went pretty, pretty loud and went over into the fringe, you know, 10 feet away and then he hits his shot, lands right on the hump, goes disappears and they go really wild. And we're walking up there and we're both going to repair our plug mark,

right on this little hump there, they're only inch apart at plug marks and his balls like this like inch away and mine's in 10 feet I go we're down We're bending over repairing the plug mark. He said you're the luckiest fucking guy I've ever seen my life I look at my my ball hit right here and so over there in the friends your ball hit it went by the hole He goes, yeah, I'm really lucky. So you beat me by eight shots today. I'm really fucking lucky But he He goes, yeah, I'm really lucky. He said, you beat me by eight shots today. I'm really fucking lucky. He says, but he, so when we were signing our cards, he's always signing stuff for Sam. And he said to me, he said, no one's going to beat you

in this tournament. You get to kick their ass tomorrow. So it was great. It gave me so much energy, giving me little goosebumps right there. I liked it. And I didn't get it, but I should have got it that next day.

I had a couple of bad breaks. Had you been playing a lot? Like had you been trending or was there something there? No, I was just, you just summing something. I just, I'm just good. You should've bad it. Just good. Just good.

I was on Sunday. Huh? Who'd you play with on Sunday there? I play with, uh, counter-remember. Counter-remember. Don't know. Was DJ in a bunker? with, uh, car remember. Car remember. Don't know. Was DJ in a bunker?

Yeah, oh yeah. I saw it. My wife and I were standing in the locker room. I go, this is going to be some bunker shot. I said that out loud in the locker room. I was big screened in the locker room. Honestly, I can't believe I can't remember what I played. I always remember what I played with.

You probably ought to find that. Anyway, what's Tiger? I mean, you sounds like you remember who had a play, but always remember who I play with. You probably ought to find that. Anyway. What's Tiger, I mean, you, something you'd Tiger had a good rapport, and like does he know that you gave him the big cat nickname and what's he like? Is he like, I don't know if he gave him, I don't know if he knows that.

He should, I should get some royalties for that, I mean. I gave also gave Shark Tiberon, Tiberon, that nickname, the Shark in Spanish. But, you know, the shock in Spanish. I remember when Tiger First came on tour, I remember a story, we were playing at Castle Pines together and hit the shot.

We were on the sixth hole going up a hill and we're both next to one another in the fairway. The second shot was up a hill, and the ball was going to spin a lot. And he hit the sandwich up there and the crowd goes crazy. But then he comes the ball back down off the green down in the bunker. And then I hit my shot and it skips up there and the crowd goes loud. It was close to the pin.

He goes, it looks back at me, he goes, what did you hit? I don't even know him really, You know, what did you hit?" And I said, I just hit a little chip nine on. He goes, I don't have that shot and walked off. So like a month later, somewhere, we're on tour and he's on the range. He goes, hey, hey, Elkington, come here. So I come over and I knew what he was doing. He had the nine on out and he was hitting these little soft shots up on this range. And he goes, watch this. And he hits a shot and I go, what am I looking at? What am I looking at? I know, but I'm not letting him know. That shot, is that it? No, it's not it. And I just walked off. You were going to give him one more shot. Yeah, so he used to, you know, he was a really poor bunker player when he first came out.

So he was really working on his bunker game. And, you know, the guy, all credit to him, he would go, he'd have a shot. He wanted to get a shot and he fixed everything. But he already had all, he already had all the stuff in there. I've got your final round playing partner at the 2010 PGA. Zach Johnson. Really? You were tied to Duff, Furik, and ZJ after round three.

Do you know the story that one, 71st Hall, where that pin was all the way back and that back? Did you guys see that? Where I knocked it over the back, went down over the wood? How good was that shot? That was unlucky. And Pete died when I walked off on 18. He looked at me and he said, if I could have made that greener foot longer for you, I would have done it. He said to me, Pete, yeah. What was your relationship with Pete died? I got what you're doing. This is after you've done the course with him in the

Orleans. Yeah. I knew him pretty well then, you know. How did you get matched up with him to do that course? It was a tour deal. Here's how sensible the tour is, right? So that we're going to do a building course in New Orleans. They picked me to do it with Pete Dye. They did a course in Houston. They took Reese Jones and took David Thompson from Louise to do that one.

That's the tour. I'll tell you a story on Pete Dye. We went down to one of the projects that the building and the course at TPC was the assignment that day was I was going to go in there early and I was going to look at the back nine and people was going to do the front nine. We were going to meet at lunchtime and converge notes and see what we had to do. My job was to keep the integrity of the shot pattern for tour players. Make sure it didn't get, you know, like, well that doesn't make any sense or I wasn't really

designing too much, although I can do it, but anyway. So we met and at lunchtime he said, well what do you think about the back? And I said, well there's one problem on number 17. He said, okay, let's go. So we walk out to 17, all these tour guys are out there with us, all the tour suits. And the part three, number 17, was a shot across water, and the green was set right to left, and the prevailing wind was from the right,

and there was a lake there. And the way they had the green, the way they had the green set, you just couldn't stop your ball in there. You said, what's the problem here? I said, can't hit from here. Ball won't stop. Providing wins here. It's not going to work. He goes, okay, let me look at this. So he walks down the fairway where the fairway was. It was just all dirt around the lake and he stood there for about 20 minutes and he came back to the tee and he goes, Mr. Elkinson is right, we have to move the lake and he stood there for about 20 minutes and he came back to the team. He goes, Mr. Elkinson is right, we have to move the lake.

So we said, so all the tour guys are like, what? We're going to move the lake. Move the lake guys, we're going to move the 25 yards over there. They moved the lake 25 yards. Yeah. So that was Pete. He was Pete. He was amazing.

What's, how radically different was Riviera playing in August for the PGA versus February for? It was probably a little easier. It was probably a little drier. The advantage I had at Riviera was there was off Kikuya Fairways. Kikuya Grass. And that's a real matte grass, real thick grass

for Australia. And we all learned to sweep the ball. We didn't really take divots when growing up as kids. We would sweep it off the top of the Caacuia. Guys had hell of a time at Caacuia. They hit it too high on the face and it goes nowhere. They stub it. Just all kind of issues with their chipping on Riviera. Just nightmare. But that's the only grass we hadn't in Australia. I'm from Waga Waga. It's it's all Kakuya. Try to say that. With Kakuya. Say that. I never heard it called Kakuya. Kakuya. Yeah, Kakuya.

We say Kakuya. Kakuya. Kakuya. Say WagaWaga, Kakuya. Anyway, so I always felt like I had an advantage there. And, you know, I had just almost won the British Open that year. I was in that, almost in that playoff with John Daly and then I spent like a week after the British Open. And I knew that I probably wouldn't win a major after I kind of choked at the Sinanjus event. Couldn't get my putter, couldn't get it to the hole on the back nine.

If you ever see that video, I had it all right there. I can't let it all, didn't work out for me. Is that the biggest regretted your career? That one? I would have hit it harder if I could have. Yeah. It just didn't, it wouldn't come off. But just like that, that tournament.

No, I should have won the British Open at Murafield. You know, two. You know, two, they, the British Open Committee kind of choked and put us into two twos and to play off instead of a foursome. And that guy's wouldn't tee off until we finished. And that was Le Vais, La Vais, Applebee and Ells. And then my friend, he was on the rails. He was ahead and then he came back and I was already in.

And if I could have played with him, man, I could have put some pressure on him, I reckon he would have folded like gone. I reckon the other two guys, I reckon they would have fainted. So I was wanting to have four, but they just said we're gonna play two twos. Multi said so. Multi dad said so. Multi dad said so. Multi to clear that we're gonna play two twos. Last couple, then we'll let you get out of here.

But what's your game like these days? How often do you play? Is it good? Yeah, I play all the time. Good. Yeah. I hit the ball, essentially pretty much the same. Sam will tell you that.

I like to hit a good. I like to, I always go practice my game about two, three hours and a morning, every morning. Every morning, well, go over there and make a game. Do you still love the game? Oh, god, yeah. Yeah. I die for golf. It was the most underrated player you ever played with. Underrated. Like a true player? Yeah. Or really anybody. I mean, I just think about that. Let's go

another question. I might come back to least favorite tour stop. At least favorite. You know, there's a few on that, but some of them are quirky in their way. They don't play some of the tourist ops. They used to be the BCO, but you've never been to New York. Yeah, it's pretty garbage. But have you ever been to the Tournament the used to having Boston, Boston's pretty gnarly too out in the country Yeah, BC up was pretty average in the car, but I went there for the cartoon guy the guy that did the BC tunes That was cool

Tour is the tour, you know after a while it all becomes a bit of a blur, you know Favorite horse stop. Well Pebble Beach. stop. Well, Pebble Beach. Yeah. Pebble Beach. Big suffer Tommy Smothers. Tommy Smothers. What a fucking jack off. What? He's up on the green.

See where that all came from. See, you get a chance here. The back story. So Tiger Woods is standing in the fairway on. What year is it? I don't know. It's like maybe it's before Tiger went to Buzucco. That might have been 98.

And it's after Wonder Masters. Full on Tigermania. And he's his drive on 18 over their level with tree. You know, the trees in the middle of fairway. And he's in the right rough there. Maybe in the first cut. Remember that old Tid to three wood PT 13? He had one of those, so we all had one, right? So, still shy. Still shy, just fucking nasty. And I'm in the score is 10,

scarning my card, because I was like two groups ahead. And I'm looking back and I'm thinking, dude is back there swinging his three wood, like he's gonna take a shot at this pin and He's just just making these soft practice wings waiting for this fucking jack off on the green who's doing walk the dog He's doing He's out on the green. He's doing this shit and everybody's not really looking at him They're looking back here because Big Cat's back there

just making practice wings, and now he's doing fucking this flying saucer, and through the, the snap the monkey, hump the monkey, whatever it is. And they're like, get off, get off the green. You idiot. Finally, they get him off, and Big Cat takes a swipe. I'm looking at him like he can't get there. It's too fire. It's cold, it's nasty and he fucking goes and this thing is in the air forever and that thing I don't know if you remember the

shod just just fucking goes splat right next to the flag, like eight feet left to the flag, two 90 in the air from the wet conditions. And it was just like, what was that? You know, that was a cat. And so then, so after that, well, so the whole party, well, so Clay Walker and I, the country singer, we

would go and do this big party every year for the volunteers. I would get up and do a deal like what I'm doing right here, tell stories, and he would do a country in Western, sing song deal. It was awesome. It's grown into the biggest thing ever. We bought Glenn Fry and there. We bought Hewie Lewis in there. We bought the guy with the trumpet. What's his name? No, with the sax. Kennedy G. Yeah, he was in there. But then one year we have this fucking clown Tommy Smothers. He comes in there and he's shit-faced. Who is Tommy Smothers? Yeah, yeah, you know that deal. He's the guy that's not that bad. Oh, he doesn't know. He doesn't know.

That's what I said. He had some little show. We had a show with his brother and they did yo-yo tricks. Anyway, so that's where that came from. So he gets up and he's telling crazy jokes, he's swearing and I can like, wasn't funny. They didn't want to hear from Tommy Smothers and they wanted to hear more from me and Clay and Huey Lewis and he

was getting a little chapped about the deal and you know. It's wait, sorry, I don't know the original story. He was out there doing yo-yo tricks on the green. That's what he's waiting for. He was all, yeah, yeah. That's where it started on, that was what he, and then that night we were doing a volunteer party and he was there. And I did enough of the fucking yo-yo deal.

Get off. But he thought he was a star, so he wanted to stay. We couldn't get him on. And there's as much kids there and everything. Oh, he's dropping half bombs. He's dropping the half bombs. Who is the guy you, I don't want to say hated the most on tour, but dislike the most. Dislike the most.

Give me an example. I don't know, maybe somebody like, I want to beat that guy so bad because he gets on my nerves. I don't know, maybe somebody like I want to beat that guy so bad because he gets on my nerves. I don't want to deal with this guy. Oh, there's plenty guys get on your nose, but you know, you're a pro. You got to deal with that. There's some guys who are hard to beat, you know, Phil Nicholson's guys. He's hard to beat, you know, Trevino. Try playing Trevino. Trevino's gonna put shit on you. And if these guys ever play with Trevino, he would chop them up. He'd walk, oh, he'd, Trevino would pass on the range and go, that's your deal. That's your deal. That's your deal. Oh yeah, he killed you. These guys,

when he talked the whole round too, he'll be talking. He's just getting your head. He say, you know, I hit that. So Trevino would say something like to be, get on a narrow hole and he's great. We love, love Lee, he's seen him at the father's son. And the fifth hole at Colonial round

the corner's highest driving home tour. He gets up there and he's a slide around there and he go over to him and Mitchell, he's caddy. Big fat guy. He's like, man, I can't believe how high this shot is. I've been working on that cut shot. I never hit this fairway. This fairway is a high shot on the tour to hit. I can't believe it. I've got it in the fairway. This is so good. This is impossible to fit this fairway. Well, you're waiting to hit, you know, that kind of move know that kind of move that kind of Speaking of caddies what's what's bullet up to bullets working down at Shul Creek in Alabama. I had Gypsy Joe I

Dave Rennick who's dead now he caddy for me when I won the PGA He've caddy for you know, he won a bunch of majors with Jose and Maria and he won with VGA and Dave Rennick and the cars, I had cars, Caddyn for me who leads the tour in sweating. You know, he sweats. I had to tell him to keep three club lengths away from me so it was a casual water because he has a beach tower

around his neck. You know, he sweats so much. So, you know, I like to have the characters on the bag. I think they should bring back smoking on the tour, you know, cigarettes out in the middle of the thing. I think they should bring back smoking on the tour, you know, cigarettes out in the middle of the thing. All four. I'm a big Spencer Levine guy. Oh yeah? I love Spencer. Yeah, he's great. He's got the attitude, but he's just not a good player. Yeah, that's part of the deal. That's coming to the end. It's things, but yes. Yeah, I like him.

I know him well. Yeah. One more question. Your son Sam is here. And how rewarding has that been for him to not only get into the game of golf, follow in your footsteps to Houston. And do you get more nervous with his play than you ever did with your own play? Well, I'd rather him play good than me play good. The tough thing, I go, I'll figure out what I want to work on with his swing. And I'll work on it for two hours on the reins. And he'll come out to practice with me and say, ah, I don't want to listen to day that. So, I'm just going to hit it myself.

And going back to Houston, I meant to ask it earlier, but how did you end up at Houston? I know they had an awesome golf program and that. But what was the transition from Waga Waga to Houston? Not good. Not good. I showed up there with a suitcase and said a club that was it. And I was in Houston in a really unique time. Clyde Drexler and Kimmelage Warn lived in our dorm and Carl Lewis, the fastest human.

And of course I got, I was a world junior champion in 1979. That's why I got recruited from Coach Wembs. And had you been to Houston before you showed up? Only to play that one event that I won in 1980, not in 1979. And I, Billy Ray Brown and I were recruited by no other schools. And turns out that we, those us two together couldn't happen now in this environment. But we finished up winning the three national championships together. Billy Ray and I, that was great. We used to let Clyde and the Kean come down our room and put out national championship rings on.

Let him hang. I had a timer on him. 10 minutes, let's go to come off. Get it off. Come on. Awesome. All right. Thanks so much for coming by, man.

We were going to do an hour. We did more than that. So appreciate it. All right, good. Thank you so much. It might be a two pot. No, two pot pots. That's good for a win so much. It might be a two pot. Two pot punks for one. Cheers, thanks.

Right up. Be 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. Better than most.