No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 233: Tim Herron and Jason Bohn

Episode Date: July 24, 2019

Tim Herron and Jason Bohn join to talk about PGA Tour life into their late 40's, their excitement for the Champions Tour, and their Tuesday games. Jason tells some incredible stories regarding his million dollar ace, telling the crowd at TPC Scottsdale to SUCK IT, and a ton more. Tim talks about his Lumpy nickname, playing with Tiger, how tour life has changed, and so much more. This is legitimately one of our favorite interviews of all time. Thanks so much to both guys for the time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No-Langup podcast, Solid Here. I'm here with my man T.C. Out here in Reno.

Yeah, we are the smallest big city in the world, I believe it's called. Littleest big city in the world. Yeah, I can't. I screwed that up like five times today already. We are at the Baracuda Championship this week, the center of the golf world this week, I think we can all agree. I mean, all eyes are on Reno. This is the most refreshed I've been going to a golf tournament. Maybe since the LPGA event, it's just,

it's the scenery's good. There's a nice breeze. It's nice to get out Jackson at this time of year. But this one's always been on our radar for, you know, it's always been kind of a curiosity for us, late season event. A lot of guys play it to get, kind of get their points standing in order before the windum, makes for pretty good watching as far as like,

oh yeah, everybody's like, oh FedEx Cup points this, like it actually matters. It's now the time of the year where we're actually looking at it. And it's not necessarily who's gonna be in the top 10. It's like, who's grinding for their cards cards and it almost always comes down on Sunday here for a couple guys that their livelihood is going to be decided this week, this weekend at the Barracuda.

So really refreshing to be out here. We just sat down with Jason Bone and Tim Lumpy Heron, absolutely exhilarating interview that we're about to share with you. Which we could have gone another three hours. my jason bone would have i think i think lumpy was getting ready to read it all i think a certain point is caddy was waiting for him but uh... there's no intros when we roll into this it's uh... we couldn't turn the mic so fast enough before they started absolutely going off so this one be i'm telling you this one go all the way to the end of this

this was an absolute thrill we've been uh... i had i've been wanting to have lumpy on for a while i had no idea idea Jason Bone was this good. They were both tremendous. I imagine we'll be doing another episode. There come guys, for sure. We have to do a whole series with these guys. So thank you for tuning in and without further delay, here's Jason Bone and lumpy. The first voice you'll hear and you'll hear him talk about it, we'll be Jason Bone. So here they go. Oh, well, I was just, it was, it was couple of weeks ago. Well, yeah, like, just, it was couple weeks earlier. Well, no wire, easily. Well, yeah, so my voice is real distinct and nasally

and loud. I'm always like, they call me, my nickname is like 20% because I'm like 20% louder than anybody else out here on the range or anywhere. I don't have to use any gain on the mic or any day right now. Yeah, exactly right. So I mean, I'm over in the Mediterranean on a cruise ship.

This is two weeks ago with my family, and we go down the, we're in the dining room, we're having breakfast and we in Barcelona, we're about to get off the ship and run out and do all the thing. And I'm sitting there, I'm talking about my family. I mean, we're small table, you know, and all of a sudden this young kid walks up.

Man, he's 19, 18, 19 years old, and he said, Mr. Bone, and I'm like, man, who would I know in said, uh, Mr. Bound, and I'm like, man, who would I know in Spain, Barcelona, on this cruise ship? And I'm looking at him, I can't, I kind of can recognize him, but I really can't. And it's Steve Flesch's son, Griffin. Okay. And his whole family was on the cruise, and he goes, I didn't know if it was you,

but I heard your voice from way over there. I just happened like lucky charms with my kids at breakfast. I mean, I wasn't like screaming or holding court or anything, but yeah. Did that know it was you just from your voice. It's a stink voice. It was very distinct, very nasally. How often do you guys get recognized wherever you go?

Huh, never. That's in all honesty. Well, Lums probably so different. I mean, look at him. Yeah, look at me. I'm an athlete. Well, yeah, he's recognizable. Yeah, exactly.

Very recognizable. But in all honesty, that's the best part about being a PGA tour pro other than being lumped. You know, because lump's pretty distinct. Other than recognizing. I can be in a lump, yeah, let's see. And but like, for a guy like me, am I, and the way that I've done in the last 15,

16 years of my career, nobody knows who the hell you are. And it's like, one of the very few sports that you can play, have a, you know, I have a good career, have fun, fun like do all this and you can walk in any grocery store any restaurant And nobody knows who the hell you are and it's actually a really nice luxury First of all we we've talked about this is who has the dream career in terms of like most money earned and Least recognizable person or the most you can go through your normal day everyday life and not be bothered in any way Jason Bowne right there. Yeah, so can go through your normal day, everyday life and not be bothered in any way. Jason Bown, right there, Jason. I looked at your career early,

I mean, best of all. Don't disagree. I'm on my shoes, my shoes say best ever. I'm like, on the side, because seriously, it's true. Like, I mean, lumps gotta be so different. You know, you're minnesota, right? You get wrecked, man, it's all the time. Don't be seen me enough, I go,

there's like a coffee store I go every day with my dog, Dunn Brothers. And now I'm just like, you know, like a picture on the wall, you know, they don't even, like, hey, how you doing? Lump, that's it. But four wins, tons of cash, like that, no, no, no. But I'm just saying, you know, when you live in your town, people, you know, if you're part of the town,

part of the society, then you're just part of it. Yeah. It's maybe like in golf communities, you get more recognized. But like if I'm at like a Viking game, no one knows who I am. I bet way more so I bet if they did like the KM that came down the Viking camp and they point on your face and my face and they were give away. That's when I go into the locker, I'm gonna give them advice.

Yeah. So you guys like like buds on tour, you guys. Yeah, we play almost every Tuesday. Yeah, I got him going now just to play nine holes for a bunch of cash. And now we just played nine. Well, at least this golf course, we played nine. What's the cash? What's the cash look like?

Oh, it's a little. It's not that we can bicker. Like and have fun and don't care. Like we always play this game called no bogey game, which one of our good buddies, Carl Peterson and then George, you know, we have a force in, we play all the time. And if you play 18 holes that get in a Bogey, everybody gives you 100 bucks. So it's not enough.

It's enough that 300 bucks you're gonna have a nice dinner and stuff, but it's also enough that we can talk a lot of shit. Like, it's, so nobody's feelings gets hurt. You know, you're coming down to 16, you haven't made a Bogey all day. And that's sort of playing super conservatively. Yeah, hell yeah So then we also have like a game and then the guy that's doing the no bogey He's lagging and he's playing probably the best and you're like come on try to make that pot

What are you doing more partners? But he ends up like lagging or I end up lagging depends on who's gone with the no bogey There's been one time where like three guys did it in one group. Yeah, I wasn't in that group Yeah, I don't do it very often It's pretty hard actually. It's actually really intense on the last few holes because yeah, it gets intense It kind of gets fun like turn and we talk like you know You just now talking their swing but like walking up the tee like man I mean I shoved this out of bounds last year right here man It was tough hard

You're throwing all the stuff at him trying get, but like the reality of it is, there's just a chance where if you're leading a golf term, and you got a part of last three holes, I mean, it's hard to do. And so we kinda, like, and the pins are always in the middle. That's pretty easy, but it's hard to do, because we're, you know, we talk a lot of smacked one on it. That's what I noticed when, you know,

you guys obviously play for a lot of money on the internments and whatnot, but if you, if I'm ever like gambling with a pro or whatnot, and if they're down $200, like if you miss a pot on the 18th green for a couple thousand dollars, it doesn't phase you as much as like actually having to pay out money seems to pay.

Yeah, well let's down our money yet. Yeah, exactly, you know? Not until it comes as a bank account on Monday, but when it's coming out of our pocket, man, it's, you know, we gotta play. I was part of Steve Weakcroft once, and was down 300 bucks. He's like, Oh, man, my wife is going to kill me on this. I'm like, Oh, I don't think my wife should kill me on that. But yeah, we don't play for enough that like we want to have fun. And

we want to play every week and we want to like harass each other. You know what I mean? Like that's, and there are some guys I think that play for some cash out here though. That would be kind of fun to get in those games. But how is the tour changed in that regard? Do you guys like are there still some pretty, pretty regular weekly games? Or is it? No, we just stick to our group. How is the tour changed over the years? Like since you guys were rookies in that regard, just with, well, we used to play. I when I played the I played when you finished her to hug and back, you know, you guys sold me that was pretty tense. I didn't intend to end with Phil. Myself, John Dilly was my partner and John Houston.

That's all I'm dating back. It had been the 90s. I feel like John, you still came up with this great idea. Why don't you just play him one again? Play like a thousand dollars a whole and one, you take a percent under that here and Dilly, because I'll take it all. I can go, well, I got to play for something. So we a percent under that here? And you're like, I'll take it all.

I can go, well, I got to play for something. So we did like two, I did, you know, 20% I did $200 a hole. Long story short, we're down. We're finally, we're down. We're about, he's down like total, we're down 10 grand. I'm putting around 17, I get to 17, everyone hits. He goes, oh, by the way, we doubled our nothing on last poll. So we get up there, the first guy to hit,

John Houston, next in the hole. No way. He lose like 16,000 and, oh yeah, Phil, that was great, whatever. Right. How long did it take? Is that cash? I was in the 90s.

So it's like, like 16,000, 20%. Right, so. That was 1939, 16,000, I wait 39. I think Daily delivered his money in like a brown bag. I feel like Houston would be a terrifying guy to play a money game. With his. Yeah, he won. Yeah.

Makes birdies and fill. We're pretty good team. Who's the scariest guy to play a money game with then? It might be Phil. Because you have to pay straight cash. Well, Phil's not afraid to lose. He'll play for anything. So he tries to kind of do what those,, I think what the like high roller guys do,

you know, you throw enough money, where you try to get the other opponent scared, where he's never scared. So. That's making me nervous talking about all that money. Yeah, what's it uncomfortable amount to play for? Like 10 bucks. Exactly.

Oh, I don't know. I mean, I think like that, like $1,000 whole would be super uncomfortable, because I mean, like, you know, like $1,000 whole would be super uncomfortable, because I mean, who wants to lose 15 grand to a guy on a con? I mean, I'm also trying to work a gusty, you know, I played it maybe twice before that. These guys have been playing it for 10 years, I'm playing with you guys to give me advice on where the pin is. And John Daly just playing as fast as he can so he can get to hooters. So, you know, I don't know.

Sorry, John. That's true. It's true. It's like, I'm saying it. Sorry, John. That's true. It's true. You guys got to say it's a hard time for you. Just say the same thing. Yeah, so it's kind of weird. Like if you're just going to do the money game, you're just going out to play for money,

but we're playing also to prepare for the tournament too. A lot of people use the money game to prepare for the tournament, to get more competitive. I'd rather hit chips and try to figure out how I'm going to play the golf course. But I probably played Montrosis. Got to be 18 to 20 Montrosis or whatever. Yeah. Or kudos.

What's special about this tournament? What do you guys like about this tournament? I don't like the hills in all that. It's different because we don't play many golf courses like this. You know, they're on the side of a mountain. That's, I mean, the scenery is just, I mean, it's awesome. As you see, it's beautiful. And the format is great for all the elevation changes.

Yeah, there's a lot of risk of reward here. You can start pounding it. You can, there's a lot of holes you could hit three wood off of that, you know, you might try to hit driver just to, you know, try to make birdies. And because of the format, it's a lot of holes you could hit three wood off of that, you know, you might try to hit driver just to, you know, try to make birdies and because of the format, it's a cool thing to not play stroke play. So you're so, you're certainly changes this week versus, I think you play a little bit more aggressively because you can pick up.

I mean, like, yeah, I mean, nobody wants to make a double. A lot of them. I'm playing at greens. You don't get, you know, a bowie is only one point and it's like, all right, let's go try to make a birdie. So you kind of forget more about the Bowie's at your makin' and. Yeah, you play aggressive to make birdies

because even par can still be, can produce a very positive number. I mean, I'm amazed more amateurs in recreational golf don't play stablefurt. Because so much of your day can be ruined with a triple on the second hole. And if the stablefurt gives you a reason to keep playing, you know, you make a couple of birdies

or net birdies, whatever level you guys play, what people want to play at, is so much more fun. It keeps you in it. Like, like, a nine doesn't ruin your day, basically. Exactly. That's why everything was so great when it was match play. Yeah. I mean, that's why the game was match play, basically, because, I mean, yeah, if you're playing

some gutter perch or ball with something, you make like a 14, it didn't matter. You got the next hole to win, and you're right back to even. We always play it on long, long buddy strips, where, you know, it's like six or seven days, and you can kinda, let's say you want a decompress for nine holes and just get your face, there's something you can do that, and then start scoring again tomorrow.

And so do you like add your scores up through the hole? We do a cool thing, we call it spill, where if you make a birdie, like your next hole is worth double, whatever it is. So more buries in a row you make. And more you can get really high, you can get up to like seven times multiple. So you're never out of it.

And we play with handicaps too. So, but you can give it back too. Yeah. Because there's a, let's see, make a double, that gets multiplied as well. The negative points get multiplied as well. Oh, that's cool.

You guys got a lot of action going. We try. That's great neat. Yeah, that's fun. We got, well, it's way get multiple. Oh, wow. Oh, that's cool. You guys got a lot of action going. We tried. We did. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's fun. Well, it's way too long to explain here. We picked up a game for some guys in Greenville called Wolf Hammer, where it's like, oh, yeah, we played that game.

But they have all this junk that will blow you. There's about 40 different junk dots. And it's I don't like to get too confused, though. You wouldn't like this game. Yeah, it's it's the problem with some of the different ways of playing. You could just the whole could be over and you not even have to play the whole like I mean you could be in the middle of the fairway double like Wolf a guy and then like he's like no I decline and is that right?

And then Bill Husson you're done and you've been Martin played a lot. Yeah. I can green. I can see that being real competitive like going at one another all the time. But like you could just be like no I'm so screwed here, I can't, you hit it two feet, I'm out. You can just bait people into going alone. Yeah, you can make birdie on your own ball, natural birdie,

and you know, some guy misses a fairway, misses the green, chips in, he's taking a hundred bucks off. Yeah. Well, speaking of shit talking, I don't remember the event, but I have to ask you about the televised moment. I was it that was it at TPC at Scottsdale when you did Suck it yeah, you gotta tell this story. All right, yeah, yeah, it was

So grass or Scottsdale. I mean Scottsdale. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, you would have been exiled from the tour if you did it at 16 So yeah, that's true. That it was It was a Sunday and I was great. I was playing with Jason Cocrack who is, you know, a big guy, 6'5 tall, like, just would send it.

And we're on 16 and he goes, we both hit up on the green and he's got this red and white shirt on with white pants and we walk up on the green. And these guys, I mean, it was pretty early in the morning, maybe noon or something. I mean, we were anywhere near the lead determined.

And this guy yells out, hey, co-crack, you look like a giant fucking candy cane. All right. And on 16, you got to admit, they're pretty witty. They're funny. They say some good stuff is pretty funny. And I looked at them and I play with them all day and I'm looking at them and I'm like, you do.

I lost that, I started dying, I was like, you do, you look like a giant candy cane, that's pretty witty. You gotta give it to that guy. So I kind of tip my hat to him or whatever. And then we're both about 20 feet from the hole and he steps over it and right in the middle of his puddings felt they yell, you suck, you can't make it. And it's okay, I mean, it's one hole, it's fine.

And we're in like 35th place, so it's not really gonna change it. And he rolls it down there and he missed, and I just got up over mine. I had just a few feet inside of them, and I'm like, you know, it's coming. And you just absolutely know, it's coming. As soon as you pull it back, they're gonna go,

you suck, you can't, so I pull it back. And they said, you suck, you can't make it. And I made it. And so I turned to him and I pointed at him and I said, why don't you suck on this? And I give him no crotch trot. And they loved it. They always crazy.

They ruptured and they roared. And I'm just sitting there going, man. That just cost five grand. You know, was that worth it? You know, that thing and that's conduct. I'm becoming a professional. And so he did was momentarily that hit me in. So we get down, we get done playing.

And as soon as I finished playing, my phone rings, PGA tour headquarters, I know it's Andy Pasiner, it's our guy who does all our five. Jason, hey, cause I guess this is right when golf channel came on the air, or whatever, you know what I'm saying. They got it. And he's like,

Hey, I just want to ask you on 16 what happened? And it happened to be Scottsdale that night. The Super Bowl was being played. And Seattle was in the Super Bowl. And he said, what was going on? And I said, guy yelled out of the crowd, who's going to win the Super Bowl? And I said, Marcia, and Lich, and I gave him, you know, because that's what Marcia does when he's touched now you know and he's like I what really happened

that's just really happened he told Paz you're just here so you don't get fined yeah I told him that he's like I that's pretty good you know and I was like nah then I told him kind of what happened he's like I didn't and so did you get fine I did not no no they were pretty cool he was out of tag himself. Well, I just keep tagging. He just keeps tagging, then you forget. I was also sitting on the policy board at that time

on the PGA tour, so that made a difference, baby. No, I don't know. I don't think that they're biased. Yeah, they're biased. For sure, yeah. Yeah, there's no doubt they're biased. I can't wait for you to phone call after this, because that's super perfect.

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The number one irons and golf. Let's get back to Jason bone and Tim Herron. Who Tim? Who's the first one that gave you the lumpy nickname? It was a pro in a pro shop I worked in when I was 15 years old. So bad. It since I was 15. It went away for a while.

And then I won in 96 my rookie year and it got out on a tour. So I was never lumpy in college, which was a nice little reprieve. But then we came lumpy 96. So this guy knew Dave Marr that I think it was announcing back in the day because you know anything about this kid from Minnesota we had known nothing about this kid just and I won wired a wire or whatever so they didn't talk about

something so he gave up the lumpy thing so that's kind of an old lumpy Dave Marr he still does a champion store right right? That's his son. Oh, that's his son that does a champion store. That's his son that does a champion store. So that was back in 39. When you were exactly, you're still holding down. I'm not that old man. I'm not for you.

And I'm golf a story and over here. Yeah. What, I mean, how much has golf, the PGA tour changed since you guys first started out on it today in 39? So, Longby, you're rookie. You were 96. Yeah. What was your rookie? Oh, three.

Oh, three. Okay. I remember Tom Kite, uh, given us all grief my rookie year about playing these Cal way war birds and all this stuff and that should be more traditionalist and play woods and then two years later, he's in the Cal way because everyone was hinted by him. So that's kind of like just stuff that have changed. There weren't camps, there was teachers out on the, in the majors, no one would travel with any teachers,

whatever, no one had a trainer until probably 2003 when trainers and camps and what you see is the money and then people fall the money and there's more people like doing podcasts and stuff like that. Yeah. Where everybody's trying to get a piece of the pie. Yeah, exactly. Was there a better time to enter professional golf

than 1996 in the history of the game? No, it was pretty good. But that one guy beat me, I was rookie the year. Oh, Tiger Woods, yeah. But it worked out okay. But I mean, we got a little piece of the pie. But it was like 2000s when the person,

the person he did. That's exactly when I came out. That's when the person's were at their problems. So my best year's from the 90s actually. Yeah, he's 45 years. And then it was like 25th of the world in the 90s. And you won three out of your first four years. Yeah.

Did the golf ball changing hurt you in that time? Because it's really, but 99 2000s when the golf ball really changed. Yeah, because my speed though he's been kind of about the same as it is so You just see a lot of people do it a lot different than And there's no like right or wrong and kind of back in the day There was kind of a right or wrong way to approach the game keep your feet on the ground You know what I mean? There's wasn't the there wasn't the real We don't have to jump at it, what about the speed? It was more about the timing, like try to get the club in the slot and that's how

you get the speed. That's changed. You've got this. Kind of. It's not the same anymore. Huh? I'm still back. It's about just good man. Just speed man. So how have you adapted? Jump at it. How have you adapted to that as your career's gone along? I've seen him jump. Look, I'll drink drinking pretty much. That's all I've got. Okay. Or I can change the game.

I have it. I mean, I don't know. I just, you just see kids coming out and they hit it farther and farther by. So in the 90s, I was the first two years. I was top five in driving distance. Now, I hit the first two years I was top five and driving just in Stom. I hit it the same as I did in 96 with an old like tail made burner. Now I got a do you just for a hundred circle certain

events on the schedule and just say, Hey, I got it. Now, I mean, back in the day, like Hilton had probably wasn't my type of golf course. Now it's my type of golf course now It's my type of golf course a colonial Recan I think your way around the golf course a little more Instead of just you know lined it We don't old guys don't say send it we say wind it We got to wind up like a top you know

That's George. Yeah, how old are you now 49 is that right? Yeah 49 are you how much you looking forward to Every five times walking up every hole there On the champions story they'll play this whole as long Like a seven ironing on this one. I'll have a wedge in next. Yeah, well what are ages like, we've been paying the dollar. I was just like, seven earning on this one. I love a wedge in next year. Well, what are ages like 45 through 49, like on the PG, you're 46, right? Yeah, that's tough. It's tough.

Yeah, it's hard. It's tough, it's, you know, it's better now, I'm closer, but man, at 45, it was tough. You just didn't know what to do. Like, should I go chase the web? What should I do? Should I chase the web? But now I do? Should I chase the web? But now I got, you know, I made it a good enough career.

I could be with my family. What do you know? So you're kind of he-hung. And, you know, you gotta be selfish at this game and put 100% and especially like we were saying, these kids are common, they're eager. Anna McGee told me one time man that web's tough because these kids wanna play.

And we've already played at the top level. Now you're going backwards. It's pretty tough to get up for it, you know? Playing out of the past champ's category the last, you know, how everybody does. Playing enough? How many starts would you get to last year? I think it got 20.

So if you, before the first reshuffle, if you have make a cut or have a pretty good week, kind of sets up your whole year where you can get in, like Georgia's had gotten in a few more than we have. Yeah, that's all changing next year because they're going to reduce all these opposite field events. They're now of their field size are one 32 and they're going to reduce them to 120. So those past champion guys are going to get in a lot less starts and so so that's all kind of change in which was and I think a terrible mistake. I just think it's bad. Like I understand if you don't want a guy who is so far down in the past champion category to play your event, that doesn't

add a lot of value. So I think instead of eliminating those spots, you just reallocate them. You say the go the term and say say you want five more sponsor picks. Here you go. You know, but because once you eliminate a spot, you'll never get it back on the PJ toys gone. Like they're not going to go and why is that? How does that work? Well, just what I mean, in all honesty, if we were to create a tour right now and do all

this and and do it, you wouldn't have 156 man fields, you know, it'd be optimum for everybody to have like the World Golf Championship, 78 guys. You're gonna have the top players play every week, you're gonna play less events, television's gonna be better. I mean, it's better on the officials, it's better on the staff, it's better on everybody, better on the tournament, fans.

I mean, it's just, the product will be better, but that wasn't the mission statement of the PJ Tour, you know, so it's to create playing opportunities for guys and financial opportunities for guys. And that's reducing it. Well, to say that's how a lot of the executive pay or at least some of the executive pay at the tour is determined, right? The number of playing opportunities.

Well, and the amount of money that is set per playing opportunity, I believe. So, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's based more on money than it is. Quality, not just quantity. Yeah, that's exactly right. So if we're next year, if the person will go up another 100 million, that's a benefit to the Pikachu, right? So adding events is better than adding spots

to an already existing fence. 100% God, that's right. You want to add an event in your background. You're on the packer. I've been on the packer. I've been on the packer. And then I served on the board for three years. I served a term on the board.

You have to serve on the pack for two sessions and before you can be voted in to serve on the board. So it was interesting though. It's really a cool process because as a player, you just show up. Yeah, perfect range balls. I mean, everything's just, I mean, it's unbelievable out here, like it's how well we're taking care of

from an opposite field event to a major. It doesn't matter, everything's perfect. And then, so to go behind the doors and kind of watch the scenes of how it really works out, it was really interesting to me from a business side. Like, I mean, it's hard. It's a really difficult business. I mean, we don't have that many top Fortune 500 companies that fit the mold to be a title sponsor of the PGA tour.

So we lose a sponsor. So I mean, think about it. You got whatever 40-some-on events and you got 40-some-on sponsors. You got to keep them all happy. I mean, you want to talk about being a head pro of a country club. It's a hard deal right there. I mean, everything's so strong, pretty tight as it is now. There's not a whole lot. I don't want to lose. Not a lot of opportunities out there that are just sitting and waiting, I think. And then you lose a sponsor or like a FedEx or somebody like that.

That's a major title player. Man, it's difficult. There's not many FedExes out there. How do you guys feel about kind of doing away with the key school route to the PGA tour? I didn't like it. I don't like it either. Well, that's our age so too. I'd rather yeah. I like the dream. I like the American dream is the Tommy two gloves. The guy's working in a factory comes out to Q school. Bustes got two gloves on there. Looks like he slept under a bridge for a month. I mean, and then shoot 60 in the Sunday to win a golf tournament. That's the story. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think that's so much better than seeing like a groomed young man

come out. Just perfect golf swing, technically sound, you know, just can't communicate because he's on his phone all the time. You know, like, I don't think that's much of a story. The Tommy two gloves is what golf really needs, you know. So tell the story. Can you give us the story? I'm sure you've told a million times on how you ended up becoming a professional golfer. Oh, yeah, that million dollar A. Like I still have a lot of money. You came out early 1992.

And yeah, so I turned pro. Well, you came out. Yeah, I think you did. Yeah. I had to. Yeah. What was your amateur career up to like, to definitely not really? I saw it doesn't am.

I was not that I was from Pennsylvania. No, no, man, I mean, I was Pennsylvania kid. Like, I didn't have anything. I had some scholarship offers in the Northeast to play some college golf, and I wanted to go in the South to play. And so I did a recruiting trip to Alabama. And the University of Alabama

at that time was the only team that would allow walk-ons. And so I was like, I'll take the chance. And the coach said, if you walk on, I'll give you a partial scholarship. And I was like, great. I didn't care. I just wanted to play golf and somewhere in the south because I wanted the weather. So I'd go down to Alabama.

I walk on and I've read my freshman year. Then the beginning of my sophomore year, they have this charity fundraiser, a home-one competition to restore a home that wasn't burned in the Civil War. It was a dollar ball, I had to hit it within six foot circle, it was down on the driving range, you could buy a million balls if you wanted. Every time you hit it within the six foot circle, it qualified it for the semi-final. I had ten bucks, which I actually borrowed. And I hit one ball in the six foot circle. And they did this over the course of a weekend every month. And at the end of the month, then they brought all the semi-finals qualifiers back

and they you would all hit. So if you had 10 shots, they measured the 12 closest. They were just trying to get the limit it down to 12. Well, the night before is Halloween. I'm 19 years old Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And let me tell you it, there's costume party on every street corner. And I think I visited every single one of them. I didn't get into about 4.30 that morning and had had a lot of Halloween punch. And I didn't make it to my bad.

It was on the living room. I passed out on the living room floor. And my roommate came in the next morning. He was like, hey, man, you got that whole one competition. You know, the semi-files and the thing or whatever. And I'm like, nobody's going to hit a home one. You know, I'm like, I'm so hungover. I just like, just leave me alone.

And so we wait a few minutes and then he kind of kicks me and is like, hey, you got to go. And I'm like, all right, the only reason why I'm going is to hear you shut up. So I get up, I drive out there to the University golf course. And there were about 150 Qualifying shots to be hit and they put everybody's name in the bag and they pulled my name third and I was like This is great if I had a shitty shot. I'm going right back to bed

Wait like three feet nine inches. So now I've got 147 shots I guess sit there and walk on a November 1st and a humid November 1st in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And I'll go out and I'm laying on the range and I'm just kind of fall asleep and my coach comes up and he is he can tell. I had had a rough one last night. He just starts kicking me and he's like, man, you're disgrace to the team. And you know, like, come on, like, you know, I was shot at him. I was just, you know, I was like, oh, I can't hear it. You know, the bells are ringing in your head.

You're just like the sucks. And so I was, I was a third close to shot in the file. And so there was one other teammate of mine who qualifies. His name was Greg Letson. And the coach was all proud because this guy was a nice groomed young man. And he put him in the cart and I stood on the back of the cart. And I'm hanging all of my clothes in my shoulder. And because we were, all this had been done on the driving range.

And now we're going to the actual hole to hit the shot. And he's trying to explain to us that if we win a prize of more than 500 hours that we could lose our eligibility and they had prizes for all 12 of us. So he's like, we got to make sure that, you know, this is NCAA rules. You know, screw it up and I'm over there. I'm reaching down leaning in the car. I'm like, man, I've turned pro today. You know, he's just like, you're such an idiot.

I mean, you can tell, it's just so disgusting. I get there since I was the third closer shot. They wouldn't let us use our own ball. They gave us a top flight tour at the time. And right now it's maybe one 32 in the afternoon. I'm just ready to go to bed. And I tossed the ball on the ground, I'll even tee it up. And I hit this little heel cut, nine iron.

And it's looking pretty good. I'm like, oh, this is gonna get pretty close. Two hops, wham. Hoops it, million bucks, throw my club up in the air. I start racing to the green. And I'm high stepping, and I'm just going nuts. And my body halfway to the green says, that's it. And it just gives out, I hit the turf.

I'm rolling up the hill, I'm trying to get up, I can't get up, I mean, it was off my thirst and dust all over me, and then... It was filmed too, I don't think. Yeah, it was filmed. It's on, yeah, they had to film it for the show. For the show, for the show. Wow, I asked probably on YouTube, yeah,

you probably see it on YouTube. We'll put that up with the, yeah, we'll have to find out. Yeah, I'm sure it is. I've seen it in like a million times. Yeah, but, uh, and so, but the, the, the, all right, to kind of continue the story. So anyhow, I'd like, um, at the end,

all the other guys had to hit two because if everybody makes all in one, everybody gets a million bucks. So I was kind of pulling for other guys, you know, the next guy just cold shanks it because I had taken like 15 minutes to run up there, give my ball like screaming. I mean, I, it was my first home one ever as a golfer. Oh, really? And so I'm my ball, like screaming. I mean, it was my first hole in one ever, as a golfer. And so I'm sitting there, I was, I think, as excited about the hole in one part is, I didn't, the million bucks didn't really hit me, like at that moment.

It was the hole in one, like, oh, shit, I made a hole in one, this is great. But my coach is standing there after the whole thing's over, we're in the pro-shopman. There's a sheriff there for the witness and all this stuff. And he's like, you know, if you sign this, you know, he's trying to explain to me. He's like, okay, you will lose your scholarship. You will not ever be able to put, I mean, he's right in the middle of a sentence. And I'm like, where is the fucking pen?

Where's the pen, I mean, I'm not a million dollars, man. It's a brilliant knowledge. Where's the pen? I got a sign this thing. And so I sign it and then, I mean, mean, I mean, I mean, I keep dragging this on. No, the great part about the story is after the fact of hitting the home one. So it's Tuscaloos, it's a Sunday night and it's a dry county until midnight. And so I'm just going nuts.

I'm running around, like I'm getting everybody, I'm like, hey, let's go the tower, whatever you can get out, get me the cash. We're going to go down, we're going to party like it's 1999. And it was actually 92. So we're futuristic. That's something that I can. So I round up 1100 hours from all my bodies.

And I have this IOU statement, I still have the statement that says who I own and how much. And I go down to this bar, it's called the brass monkey. And we start pounding on the door at 11.45 at night. And this bartender's just looking at me like, you know, and I guess it was the owner, I don't even know. And I pull out the cash and start waving it. Well, he comes shuffling over the door. And he's like, how can we help him? And I said, I had one hell of a day. Here's here's I gave him all of that 100 bucks. I said, just tell us when we're done. And there

are like seven of us or 10 of us went in there at the first time. And by 3 30 that morning, they'd opened up the rib shack next door. Everybody was in there. I mean, the place was going nuts. And the best part about the whole thing is they had it on ESPN. Sports center picked it up and Keith Uberman ran the thing. And so everybody were all in there and they're pool hall. I got two beers. I'm 19.

So I had to show a fake idea to get in. And I'm saying there and I got two beers in my hands. And I was like, shot up here, there's here it is. Everybody gets real quiet in this bar. There had to be 150 people in this bar. It was a tiny little bar. They said, they flash up 19 year old. And I'm like, oh, no.

Oh, no. I'm like, I'm gonna win a million dollars and go to jail the same day. I'm like, there's not gonna be many people that are gonna be able to do that. But it was great. The owner of the bar came out, put his arm around me and said, you don't say anything, I don't say anything,

and I'm paying your cab fare home. I'm like, done deal, baby. Seven a.m. that morning. I'm like, done deal, baby. Seven a.m. that morning, they kicked us out. It was great. It was so good fun. So then what do you do next? Do you get a check in the mail?

Oh, you had to tell him, I did it. You just hung one. Oh, yeah. I was a big young now story. It was pretty weird. The insurance company obviously comes to you. And the way it was initially set up was a 20 year newty. So I would have got 50,000 a year for 20 years.

And they came to me and they were like, all right, we're going to make you a lump sum buyout offer. And so I was like, all right, let's hear it. It was like $167,000. And I'm just sitting there and I'm like, I know I'm an Alabama. I know I'm 19. But I'm like, I might not be the smartest person in the world. But I know if I just stayed in school and kept the 50 gram for the next four years

I'm more than that. I'm like, you know, I just pay earned income on my taxes and I was like, you know We need to be somewhere around that between four and 500,000 for me to think that if I would stick it all way pay taxes on it Invested that'd be worth more and so I just ended up taking the 50 grand year for 20 years and every November first It would come and It would be in the mailbox and I would pull out the video and I would make my family sit on the couch And I'd pop in the video and I would play that video over and over and they were just like So the last one where you 2012 I don't even think we watched the video. I think it was such a disappointment.

Yeah, it was. But yeah, so I clicked it all 50 checks or all 20 checks for 50 grand. So it was pretty cool. It's like Bobby Bonilla Day. This is the one day, well, November 1st is Jason Bonda. Yeah.

Jason Bonda. Every day is a Jason Bonda. I gotta say that on the range. Oh, I'm like, boy, today's Jason Bond day. You better look out. So whatever comes up. So it's a process from there, you never played amateur golf again?

No, I never got to play amateur golf. I had just qualified to play for my first travel event for the university. And once I signed, once I found that patent, it was over. So you never played a college event. I never hit a college house. That's awesome. That's awesome. What did you start playing in, or were you? I a college. I never hit a college off And everyone what did you start playing in or I didn't I say in school

I got my degree because my parents had raised me properly to know that like you know the success rate of trying to make it on the PGA tours pretty much zero so and And I just I got a degree and then after I got my degree I moved to Orlando, Florida with my wife and Like start chasing the dream. But the best part about it for me personally in the way I'm wired is I could have probably never made it professionally. Just do the fact that I needed a sponsor, whether it be my parents, whether it been whoever, and I'm wired.

So if I were to played bad, which I did for many years, like I would have felt so bad. I would have quit so much earlier than, you know, did give it in a shot, but it was my own dollar. I didn't really care. I was like, this is great. It's a free bonus. This is a free opportunity. So I was able to kind of parlay it into a career,

which is kind of- You just kind of clutched the money when you were in college or did you just let it sit there? No, yeah, I just kind of stuck it away and did, you know. I mean, I did the things that needed to do. I mean, I had more keg parties than most guys. You know, I bought it away and did, you know, I mean, I did the things that need to do. I mean, I had more keg parties than most guys. You know, I bought the keg and, you know, I did a little bookieing on the side and did some things like that. But I mean, like, no, I didn't really leave the book out.

I love it yourself, man. I lived in this podcast. Yeah, that's what it is. I mean, that's years ago, man. That was back. Statue limitations. Yeah, that's right. So, wanted to ask you on the flip side of that from an amateur perspective,

you got to play in the Walker Cup in your home state. That's right. At Interlocking. How was that? Yeah, no, I mean, it was, it was sweet. I remember I came up the, the guy that hit it probably the best and I was pretty good friends with him was Alan Doyle. You're Alan Doyle from, you know, Alan. You want to be partners and he goes from the green Georgia. Yeah, he pretty a great Georgia.

He pretty much said, fuck you. I don't want to play out of the woods. I'm having Leonard. Why don't you have John Harris that hits in the woods like you and you guys can have fun in the woods all day. So John Harris, who is actually from Minnesota, is my partner. So I asked him to become partners and it worked out well. We won.

I think we only lost like one match for the whole walker cup or something. There's some rain out stuff But it was cool playing for your country as an amateur and you're playing with Quite a few you know college guys like Brian gay was on our team Todd Dempsey Brigadinho Well, it's Leonard Justin Leonard. So we've we had a good team. It was fun. There's a good time What was your first like memory you you coming in like right at the was a good time. What was your first memory, you coming in like right at the same time as Tiger?

What's your first memory of Tiger Woods? Aw, Milwaukee when he made the hole in one. And I go, man, they're just talking about his hole in one. And I'll eat it, it was make a hole in one. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And then, you know, his Tiger Woods, hello world. Yeah, so how about, like, I never got to ask,

like, how about, like, did you, like, I remember when Tiger was coming out and they were saying, all right, they're gonna pay him all this money and I was like, man, I remember when, I remember when he got his $40 million Nike deal for the one year, or maybe it was like a two year deal or something. I felt like the current strangers. I felt like the current strangers.

Like, I really felt like the current, I was like, really? I mean, I mean, it's this is not a Can't miss game. Yeah, I mean like it's pretty it's a hard game. No, obviously what he had done was phenomenal But like they kind of knew like that it was gonna be like that and that's in that's impressive to me Well, that's the current Curtis gets beat up for that interview But I mean like almost everyone I think at least to that point had gotten punched in the face at least a little bit when you come out of school Like nobody comes in and takes it by storm. Here's the deal. Yeah, there was no one ever.

There was guys that walked around like a Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicholas. They earned kind of their strut, I guess. And Tiger's saying it before it even happened. Did he believe it? I guess so. I mean, it's proven that he believed in that he could win. How many years he won? Now 85 events or something. No, no, he's 81. He's 81. He's 21. Yeah, 81. And it's just amazing. He believed in it.

And we always used to kind of talk. Linus back. Oh, yeah, he had a C game and beat us by like 15 this week, you know, whatever. Why is he even ranking his game? And then you'd see like his A game when he won Pebble. Now he doesn't even talk about it because now he he arrived, he's got 80 wins, you know. What he does when he puts it in the ground, he's gonna primarily beat everybody. What's the highlight of your career, would you say?

The highlight of my career, probably this afternoon, he won 50 bucks. Exactly. No, probably winning in 2006, colonial. Oh, yeah. Just because it was like, I think it was seven years, maybe longer than that, 12 years since I won. So I'm pretty much one in the 90s and then took a long time to win again. So how cool is that to be able to go back to the same event year after year?

Is it a past year? Now, that one, they're really cool. They gave me a sponsor exemption because they changed I don't even know they year they change it. Maybe like go three. So Bay Hill. I'm grandfathered in okay, where I can go back to great Bay Hill every year Colonial I have to ask for a sponsor exemption. So now I'll be 50 next year. I probably, that this was my last year at Colonial, but they've been great to me, and they make you feel like part of the family and the club and stuff like that.

So it's a cool place to go and get your name on the wall and some people. Some people. Some people. It would be really, because they do, they make you feel like a family, because they actually own that tournament. I mean, they're the only ones.

I mean, so that's pretty cool. Like the members are really proud of it. And they should be because it's a phenomenal. They got a, I think it's going to be a great set for them. Yeah. God, you guys are doing our work for us. Rob's a partner of ours. We didn't have to say. Yeah. Wow.

Let's say it again. Let's say it real. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a, uh, when you came out on tour who, like, I always get the sense that the Minnesota, the upper Midwest guys kind of stick together. Is that the case? Like was like, I hung out a lot with Tommy Tolls, Nolan Hanky early. Okay. And how did I know Tommy? I don't know. I met him in the airport or something, but

well, today hang out with him. I can't think of Tommy Tolls without thinking of this. Tommy Tolls massive sleeves that he was wearing at the time. Yeah. If he had the long sleeves and he always wore a swatch watch Swatch and then he is daddy Kenny McCluskey had a green and Finch him couldn't stand this guy. He had a green mohawk in Tommy Apple Harry They made he had purple hair one year and then Finch him came up and told him now you guys no more mohawk No more purple hair. Yeah. Just look normal.

But now it's like, Howard tennis shoes, huh? He doesn't like Howard tennis shoes for Caddy's. He hates that. Ooh. Benjamin, we had a big discussion. Yeah. I'm from the middle of this agreement.

I agree. We were just talking today. Remember when you couldn't wear shorts during practice round on the PGA tour for like ever? And then it changed. I'd still wake up in the morning going, oh yeah, I guess I can wear shirts. Sorry. Nobody even batted an eye at it when the rule changed.

I don't understand what the resistance was against that for so long. Was this something you thought you were like? I don't know. Yeah, I think, yeah, we all talked about it. And it's happened, and it was just a matter of them saying, okay, let's do it all along. I've been listening.

So that's a perfect example about what you've seen evolved in change in 25 years. Perfect example, Bob Tway used to, like we should do nine hole programs. Everyone's in a better mood. You're gonna get the pros only out there for three hours. You can hang in there for three hours and entertain amateurs, right?

And now they finally, after 25 years, they finally did it. But that's a long thing to take. As better as the champions to, they talk about 45. It's going to take another 10 years until it gets down to 45. That's inevitable. That'll change too. It'll change, but it'll take 10 years. It takes a long time to get things done.

Yeah. You can change one thing right now. What would you do? On the PGA tour? Yeah. That the championship tour is 45. That's something. Oh, second.

Exactly. Oh, wow. I don't know That's something. Oh, it's a second. Exactly. Oh, wow. I don't know. I think they do a hell of a job. I mean, it's difficult work. I can't imagine that. I think what we're gonna struggle with on the PGA tour, more so than is longevity.

Like, I think lump is a minority. I mean, for lump to come out and play from college, when I was amateur days, all the way, Tilly turns 50, Jerry Kelly, Steve's trickers, that's not happening anymore. There's not anymore. And I just, and they're not creating the opportunity anymore, like what we said earlier.

Yeah, I think that that's sad to be honest. I really do. I think because like, I mean, my kids right now are growing up with Ricky Fowler and Jordan Speast, right? And I would love for them to be able to follow them for the next 25 years and watch their career. And I just think there's too much money in the game, there's too much speed in the game, there's too many things that are going to make that very difficult to happen.

And I just, I think that's kind of sad to be honest, you know, like the money is awesome, but it's also going of, it's changed the product. So the product philosophy is changed too. I mean, I remember is about hitting the ball straight and accurate, like a Jim Fierrick, right? He had the perfect game and he had an unbelievable career. And he can still play well, but he's got a pay, you know, it's Hilton head TBC,

Klawnell, you look at the golf courses that, you, I mean, he won't even probably even go to the 3M up in Minneapolis. I mean, that's a farmer course. That's something that they could do a better job of as far as course. Well, they made a rule in the course setup where it's only three and a half inches thick

back in the late 90s, early 2000s. They had like, hey, rough. I mean, the rough was really thick. Guys were getting hurt. Yes. So, you know, they made it rule, PJ Tour events, three and a half inches, you know, top the rough. That way, guys aren't getting as hurt as they used to.

But the reality of it is, to be 100% honest, when you turn professional, okay. And this is a hard thing to say, but the integrity's out the window. You're done. You're an entertainer. There's no integrity in the game anymore. It's, you put on a show, which is televised to be sold,

and that's all you do. And so your job as a, as a tour professional, I mean, it's true. It's your job as a tour professional, is to go out there and put on one hell of a show, and they're doing it right now. The books kept because of the world, it's true. It's your job as a tour professional is to go out there and put on one hell of a show. And they're doing it right now. The books kept because of the world. It's fucking phenomenal.

This guy stands up there and hits it 340 and goes, I don't practice. The only time you see me play is real amount of TV. Like that's awesome. I mean, because nobody can relate to that. So that's what makes it so spectacular. That's why you can't wait to turn on the television to see what's book kept. Absolutely going to do today. You know, I mean, that's really cool.

See, that's where I'm up to that point. I was see what's book kept on doing today. That's really cool. Up to that point, I was an agreement, but I think where I would argue is I think the way things are trending, people don't have a great enough reason to tune in and watch, because everything's so very uniform and watching on TV is so commercialized. It is commercial. The flow of it is so, it's a struggle. It's a struggle for sit down and so to that point, it's an entertainment product.

It should be more entertaining in some way. They need to steer into that entertainment factor more in the way it's presented on television. It's 100%. 100% but that gets lost in translation when they want to show it to me. It should not be on cable television. I mean, it should not be on like CBSM.

You see, it should be 100% HBO. You let us call the shots, people are going to watch because we're going to say everything about like what it is. You know what I mean? Like I couldn't agree more. It's two commercialized. It's two like if you want to take a good nap, sometimes it's a great thing to turn on a little golf and lay back and because I mean, the way that it's described and the way it's going on, you're like, huh, man, it's great. And even with newer guys, and you see, some guys are gonna be fading out. I think CBS is gonna do some roll over.

I don't know exactly what's going on. But you'll see, even the newer guys sound like the older guys. Like they're kind of groomed to be, you know what I mean? They're not even like, I mean, I've listened to Colt Nose, I've not called, and he's a funny guy, but he's sounding like like the regular guy that's on there, you know? And he's an nasely guy.

That they can recognize. He's like, on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. That's what they're looking for. How do you guys feel about slow play? Do you think that's kind of a dead horse that people are beating on right now or is it legitimate issue out there and has it gotten more similar to yours?

It's always been slow, but it's always like, it's weird to even with the rules official, it's difficult because they're like, well, this is, your guys really, you guys gotta figure out we're just enforcing the rule. So it's always kind of like an argument that way. I don't know. Nobody thinks they're slow, right?

Well, nobody thinks they're slow and the golf courses are set up harder. So the shots are harder. You gotta take more time, or you could look really stupid. You could be chipping across the green into water, and then you're trying to figure out where to drop, and stuff.

No, you gotta think, sometimes you get in a predicament where you gotta think, all right, where's my best opportunity? You know, you gotta think, take some time to think. At least if you're slow like me, it takes a little down to the thing.

It's so close. It's so close now. It used to be not near as close even when I came out. I mean, like cuts are so tight. I mean, you know, there's like every cut you look at, it's going, they're pushing the max and guys that can make the cut. I mean, there's just so many, it's every half a shot. It's just so big now in the PGA tour.

That's why people are taking so much longer because everybody's so good and everybody's so close together and as far as the competition's concern. So going back, what's your career highlight other than the million dollars? That's right because I kicked it off. I don't know the brass monkey, but I had two beers in my hand. I'm the one who fears my hand and I got. No, honestly, my very first win was at the BC Open and Indicat, New York. And like I still get kind of choked up thinking about it because I had my first son three weeks earlier

and it was the first time he came out on the road with my wife and it was, I mean, I give my wife so much credit for this because she was like, okay, look, here's how the process works. You're up one night, I'm up one night. We're just going to rotate. I don't care where you stand. It does not matter. This is life.

This is not golf. This is your job. It's great. But this is life. This is how it's going to be. Like, we need to raise this child together. We both need sleep. We both need to, you know, have a, like, and it was, it worked.

I mean, and I won that very first week that they came out and I'm sitting up at three o'clock in the morning, feeding my son and knowing that I got to play the next morning. You know what I mean? Like it was, it was great. We just rotated and we did it equally and evenly. And I would think now I'd be like, no I'm not doing that, that's crazy.

I mean, I'm the, I got a, I got a, I got a play tomorrow. But like, believe it or not, I, like, I don't know whether she did that consciously or some, but it worked. Because I didn't think about any bit of golf. It was like, holy cow, you know what I mean? Like, I got to feed this guy, I get some rest. I mean, like, I was, you know, and so,

but that moment, like, when I made the pot and one, stand on the green with her and him was really cool. How long have you been grinding out on, you know, like, I was my radiant toward a year. Yeah, years. I couldn't even tell. So I started playing 95. That was 10 years. 10 years from the time that I really kind of started playing like professional golf

and then until I won on the PGA tour was. And how many times in that 10 years were you like, all right, this is, this is it. I'm going to hang it up if this doesn't happen. A couple years before that, I was hanging it up and you know, she was like, all right, I'm going to get you a plane ticket. You're going to go Monday, qualify for the at that time. It was, it wasn't man, but nationwide tour, I think it was. And so I went out in Monday, qualified in top 25

and just kept rolling and got my tour card. So, but I was in the interview process when I was doing that for job. So I was actually hanging it up and then top 25 then just kept rolling and it just kind of all worked this way out, but. This is better than anything you were interviewing for. I'm sure anyway.

So yeah, it worked out. I mean, yeah, it did work out. Actually, the place I was, I was going to be a golf professional at a golf course that I actually ended up building a house on. All right. So it was kind of cool thing, you know, and then, yeah, so ended up where you were going to be. Yeah, I was just a member of a bitch at the golf pro and said, I have to be that guy that got bitch at you. You shot 58. Yeah. Canadian tour. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Mom, cool. Mom about that. Yeah, did you play all 18? Yeah, yeah, that was pretty cool Actually, that was Mike weir's home golf course in Sarnia, Ontario and it was the week of September 11th And the weekend after September 11th because we were all stuck and it was a border town and we couldn't get across the border They closed the borders.

And so we were one of the few professional sports that actually played that weekend because they were like, we can't do anything. Nobody can leave. Nobody can come in. We might as well play. We'll just play. We're all here. The volunteers, everybody. And so yeah, that was on Sunday. And it was cool. I was nine under through seven. And so I had, I had, that's pretty good. All of them. I had two egos and the rest birdies. So I had five birdies and two egos,

and then I bogeyed number eight. Oh my god. And I bogeyed number nine and bogey number 10. I was like, oh man, something, that's pretty good. When you're nine under through seven, I mean, are you like, like, are a alarm bell's going bells going off or you just like, Hey, it's just keeping my key in my memories.

I didn't think about any thing. This is Canadian toy. You know, I didn't, it was a, it was a golf course. We were shooting some pretty low scores on them. I mean, it was getable and so I just kept thinking, Hey, I had started six back of the lead. I wasn't, you know, and then, you know, I made the turn. I mean, I was three ahead. then, you know, I, when I made the turn,

I mean, I was three ahead, you know, we, the guy, he was walking to the first team. I'm making the turn. My head got you three down, three down, because you know, it's a cage or we're playing very money. So we're just yelling on each other and, uh, and so we go to the baton on and the caddy who I had, caddy for me out on the PJ tour for a good 10 years. And we're on 18 and there's a par five. And I had a like a four wood, perfect number, like to hit into this par five. And I'm, I'm like, it's par 71. So I was 1300 at the time. And I'm like, what do you think? It's just four would write in the middle of the grain, right? Two puchos 57. I get, I mean, I'm thinking Heinz 57. I'm carrying Heinz 57 bag next week. I mean, I was seriously thinking about sponsorships.

I was like, man, 57, man, that's great. Like, there's, and he goes, it's, no, no, you lay it up. And I'm like, and he goes, if you pull the forward, I'm breaking it out over my knee. And so he handed me like a six iron, and there was a creek that was no wider than that table, two and a half feet wide, that was in front of the green, there was no other trouble.

Like it was almost impossible to hit it in that ditch. Like me to be a bad break. It would be really bad break, there would be in the ditch. And but his job and his goal was to win the golf term. And with that point, we were ahead of the golf term. And my job was to get sponsorships in $6.57. Yeah. So, but I laid up, made par,

and so I got into the story. I know, it's just kind of, we're gonna interview right here. Yeah, it's the other one. It's like, you're right, I probably have 57 tattooed on my forehead, and I, you know. Tim, I want to ask you, every year, one of the highlights of the spring

is when you post your scripting for the Masters, when did that start? And who did you roll it? It started in the bar. I'm not very good at like doing all the heat. My buddy does it, but like we sit down every year and all right, what are we wearing this hurricane on? I mean, have it fun.

How it started is Bob laid out his like white uniform like every day. Like he's gonna look like the milkman one day, the UPS man the next day. I'm like really now we're laying stuff out, showing, I don't even know what I'm gonna wear after I get out of the shower in the morning. Try to throw something together. I'm like, we can tell.

We can tell. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, whatever. I'm not drinking either. So anyways, we're gonna like, all right, let's poke fun at them. That's kind of how it started. Who, how much has that, on that beer drinking note, has, when you first came out on tour, is that seen?

Is there, I guess there's a dividing line of like guys that will go out and tie one on or, and guys that just absolutely won't, what's that seen look like? It used to start in the locker room. Really? And now it's only when, like, Lee West Club and Darren Clark come that you get to sit down

and drink a beer in the locker room anymore when they're playing. You're like, oh right, we get that beer afterwards because there's somebody in there sitting there. But yeah, it's going. It's not all M&S. You'll have a beer at, you'll have a cigar and beer after lunch.

And then he goes and brag. I was gonna say, yeah, I'm not going to practice after that. But that's what he does. Yeah. I was gonna say, yeah, I'm not gonna practice after that. But that's what he does. Yeah, I don't think there's, I think it's become so much money. You might as well do it after, right? So if you guys changed your way,

like you guys still, A little bit, I mean, I just tried, you know, Sundays or whatever. It's probably healthier too, you know? I'm still like the title of the year. I don't know, I like to get that fun. Yeah. But I think that I'd say that in all honesty,

we have way more fun and practice rounds and do things. We all, like, typically for years, the last few years, when our families aren't out together, we all dine together. We go out every meal. I mean, every night, it's, hey, 6.30, we're here, we're eating, yeah, we got the art card going, man, we do it early. 6.30. Wow, we're eating yeah, we got the art card gone man. We do it early

Wow, we try to get the discount point me. All he's got every toes up at 830 Yeah, I'm better I Want to start you know kind of looking at your guys careers and career earnings and everything I think just to ask it directly kind of what it's a travel Year look like expense wise and does it vary a lot from year to year? I mean how much money do you guys spend on travel flying hotels hotels? And I mean, do you look at it year over year? To be quite honest, I don't look at that much. I mean, I kind of know where I'm gonna stay. I'm not staying at the ritz or where anything like that. I like those hotels where you can just drive up.

I like to make sure my window can open. I don't know why at a hotel. I like to be on the bottom floor. A newly renovated residence in or spring hill. Yeah, it's all like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all like that. Exactly what we're looking for. Yeah, a little kitchenette. You gotta figure out your career in Marriott.

Those places are so much easier. Yeah. Then going into a lobby, like a ritz and, you know, I don't have ice, where do I go to the ice, you know, whatever. That's how it brings it to you. I know, but it's just easier. But that's what, I think you can look at like,

you're earnings at the end of the year, one, you guys get taxed very heavily, and then you guys have a ton of expenses with caddies and travel. Yeah. So it's, things are different, I would imagine, than it's not, like, that's not just, it's usually on how much you're making, you know,

the caddies the biggest expense when you think. Yeah, probably, yeah. Cause if you're playing an air-frame, a couple million bucks a year, you're, you're paying your caddy, I'd say you're? Yeah, probably. Yeah, because if you're playing a lot of money, a couple of million bucks a year, you're paying your caddy, I'd say you're paying 10% of what you're making when by the time you do a salary and then pay, so you're paying your caddy out of a couple of 100,000 and then you're pushing probably 100 grand

to travel for sure. And it just depends. I mean, like I know when you're playing well, you know, you might buy some hours privately to get yourself around a little bit and when you're not you know, especially getting out of here This place is hard. Yeah, when from Lexington, Tucky to It's not the easiest double you know, I was like three One at like three stops. Are the airlines?

I'm sure you guys are probably both Delta guys. Yeah, I'm diamond on Delta. I don't know. No, I don't. It's impossible to be diamond on Delta anymore. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah.

Are they pretty flexible with you guys as far as... No. Switching up or no. No, no, no, no. Change fees and all that stuff. What I've learned is you do anything like in advance, everything like changes out on the road. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, You can't believe how many tickets you buy on the way to the airport. Like you're in the car on your app buying a ticket and you're on the next one. It's gonna be 700 bucks to fly on. It's just an average.

It's cheaper than private, so you get always can't hang, you know. You built that cost into your head. Private's five grand an hour. Yeah. And I'll be honest, corporate or, you know, you know, what I wanna say, equipment, manufacturing money that you used to get paid to play, you know, stuff was a lot different than it is now. I mean, you used to, you used to make some pretty good money.

It's a trunk up a little bit. Yeah, and it's definitely tightened up, but you know, the companies aren't making money in golf anymore, so. So it's like equipment in a peril. They've both tightened up for it. It's like the top 30 or top 50 hens or making money and then everybody else is trying to pay

the top guys. That's why I would totally tell a young kid that's coming out, I top 30 or top 50, yeah, I was really getting money and then everybody else was trying to pay the top guys. That's why I would totally tell a young kid that's coming out, I'm like, all right, look, you gotta put the phone down. You gotta get yourself a personality and you gotta go out and attack some of these corporations. Carry a corporate bag, do some outings where you can make, I mean, some of these outings that you could get paid,

you could make $30,000, $40,000 in a day. Doing it, if you've got the proper name to do that. But you've got to be personable, you've got to be able to express yourself, tell great stories, have fun, because if you can give them a little bit of the locker room, experience, it goes so far. I mean, way more than that you're gonna make off a driver.

And I mean, it's a couple of days. Yeah. I mean, out of your own time. So awesome. Well, we took you guys for an hour and a half. Yeah, aren't you guys happy that I brought Jason? Yeah, I don't even have to talk. You guys don't have to talk.

You know what I'm talking? You know what I'm talking? Let's turn it on. I could have, yeah, I could have. I mean, I was gonna ask you about her. Turned with John. I was 63, huh? I was gonna ask you about the 99,

or the 99 US open. You were gonna have to. Yeah, I played with Tiger. You play a tiger that day. Yeah, Tiger got a chance to win. I had a chance maybe going back nine to win and paint sewer one. It was he he was behind us. Him and Phil were behind us. We were his second group. And I just remember Tiger in at 12 feet on 17 and three putting from 12 feet. I mean, one's last time Tiger's ever done that when he's in contention. I thought he was gonna make it.

It was all dewy, it was weird. Piner's was like, it was like in the summer, you know, while we're playing the US Open, but it was like cold. And the one thing I remember is pain Stewart actually designed and made the sleeveless right off the scissors. He cut off the sleeves off so he could swing better.

And that's how, you know, they had the sleeveless, yeah, the best, yeah, whatever. Rain jacket. So it isn't that the best. So like when you watch like the golf journey, watch the reruns of the 99 open, the 99-thousand-the-slip zone. You know, my question for you is,

how many of your listeners have been born before 99? Probably not many. Yeah, you guys are young. You got a young following nine. All right, I mean, so- Mostly 25 enough, I would say. All right. So 99, that's 20 years ago.

Yeah, that's 20 years ago. Crazy when you meet somebody that, you know, they were born after 9-11 or something like that. Yeah, we're in crazy hot. Yeah. Some of these amgs I've born in the 2000s and stuff. All right, well thanks, guys. Yeah, thank you for coming on. Oh my god, so you're gonna go for a ride. It's just a great ride. Yeah, let's the am's I born in the 2000s. All right. Well, thanks guys. Yeah, thank you for coming

When's the last time you paid for around a golf Oh, you get varying answers, you know, we've vassus to Last week last Monday. I had to go Monday qualify for the barbersole because I wasn't in and I had to pay to play. And you talked about being 45 years old. What it's like to be 45. So I'm playing in Vegas and I had to pay for a yard book, range balls and a cart fee. And that's where it hit like, all right, I'm not a PGA tour player much anymore.

So and that was to do a Monday qualifier. So you're like paying to play and like, yep, the perks aren't there anymore. As long as I get a few of those T's, I'll be fine. Maybe some of your T's. We've got kick ass T's. All right, best days out in the morning. Thank you guys. Feel free to check it out. I think he's really excited. I think he's really excited. I think he's really excited. I think he's really excited. I think he's really excited.

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