No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 378: Stephen Curry

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

Three time NBA Champion Stephen Curry joins to discuss playing in the Ellie Mae Classic, what it was like to tee it up with professionals, the success he had his first three rounds, the struggle in the last one, and his background in golf. He also discusses reviving the golf program at Howard, some hoops, similarities and differences between basketball and golf, Steve Kerr, and a lot more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang, a podcast, and especially fun episode for you today. Got a chance to chat via Zoom last week with Stefan Curry. He was visiting Callaway.

He is officially part of the Callaway family and those guys were nice enough to arrange some time for us to speak and talk some golf, talk some little bit of hoops, some of the similarities, the differences, what it's like to play in professional golf events when you are a MVP of a different professional sport, which I find fascinating. Stephens got a lot of stuff going on in the game of golf and a lot to talk about. So much that I actually forgot to ask him about his PGA Tour event that he's hosting next year. I'm not exactly sure why I'd heard rumors about it and kind of honestly forgot where that left off, but

there's enough enough here to unpack and I think you guys will really enjoy it. Of course, no laying up is brought to you by Precision Pro Golf as DJ showed this past weekend. Playing your best starts with hitting greens and regulations. If you want to play your best and Randy requested this get reinserted into the ad copy. Just like Big Randy did at Avaan Fields in Cincinnati, they need to play with confidence. Precision Pro Golf Range finders help golfers pick the right club, swing with confidence and hit more greens.

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So go to precisionprogolf.com where the Holloway discounts have arrived early. Add the NX9 slope rangefinder to your golf bag for $40 off, swing with confidence, hit more greens with precision pro. And without any further delay, let's get to our interview with Stefan Curry all right Stefan. Thanks so much for joining us I want to start right away with background before we came on starting recording you are already giving me a bunch Excuses about how you haven't been playing a lot So I have feeling I know how this is gonna go But I know I got to know some background. I think it is important how you got into golf how much you play growing up

How all of this started happening before we get into some of the events we've seen you play in. No doubt. Yeah, I got all the disclaimers and qualifiers from our game. I got those one-liners locked up, but I started playing back in, when I was about eight or nine, my dad, and he played 16 years in NBA. So it was kind of his summertime hobby. It was a normal kind of father, son type of situation. He'd take me out, I'd drive a golf car,

he'd cut down a little putter that I'd go hit with. And then I'd just started to get more and more passionate about it, trying to learn how to play. And by 10, 11, I was playing full rounds on my own, play a little high school golf for three years. And then from there, I just, I mean, I've been bit by the bug ever since. And it is one of the things I look forward

to doing the most when I'm outside of the court. And there's a lot of similarities to the on court, like basketball competition or whatever you used to experience in the league and how I kind of transitioned that to trying to take everybody's money on the course. So it's good. Well, I was gonna kind of transitioned that to trying to take everybody's money on the course. So, it's good. Well, I was going to kind of say this one for later, but I want to understand what the golf

culture is like during the NBA season, right? Because I mean, you know, your guys season kind of, you're typically goes into June for you guys, but, you know, it releases into summer and you can play golf in the summer. How often are you playing during the season? Are you traveling with clubs? Do you need like a certain time period on a road trip to be able to play on the road? Do you have a set course? You know, every city you go to, how's that work? All the above, I think the best way to explain it is, I guess our team, we earned a little

bit of more freedom over the last five, six, seven years to be able to kind of even manipulate the schedule on road trips a little bit to to bacon some golf windows. So we'll I think probably play like twice a month during the season, which is solid, mostly on the road. Our coach curves amazing at a night. You know, we might have an early practice the next morning, but if we have an off day, he'll give us a window to go play in the morning and then catch the plane to go to the next city. And then we have the warrior golf team. When we had our championship run, myself, Andre, Igodala, Clay Thompson, a play, we'd have some front office guys that would go out. So we had a crew whenever that window opened up, where's the group text was going, hey, what time we playing, where we going. So there's a golf culture for sure. And our team, and it's growing across the league.

I think every year, I find like, five, 10 guys that are either asking me about what clubs they should get, or where they should get lessons, or, hey, is your coach cool, would y'all bring in the clubs on the plane? Type stuff. So we get all those questions. It's growing by the year, and it's pretty awesome

to know how much other people are enjoying the game as much as I do. Because I think that was one thing that especially for golf fans that stuck out about the last dance is how off in Jordan was like as soon as something was over. It's like all right. No, no, we're going to go play golf. We're going to go play golf and it just seems to be like a thing that is continually growing. I see Andre Guadalaj on Twitter all the time. He's obviously, you know, a huge golf fan. But, you know, I got to be honest, I didn't really understand like the depth of your game until you played in the LA May classic in 2017. So what was, you know, you touched on high school golf, but have you had you played in any golf tournaments since high school before you took on that challenge?

Since high school, only term when we play as American century up in Lake Tahoe. I'm playing in that. I think Maybe five or six summers out of out of the eight before I play in the LA May and That one is a different experience because I think if I'm on my game. I should be like You know top eight favorites of win even though I haven't won it yet But when you get on the LA May classic on the web.com at winnowWethercore and Fairytale. Like, I'm a realist. I know how far my game is from a professional that earns money and is trying to carve out a career in this game, but I feel like I could hold my own.

So I had this kind of irrational confidence in that respect. But when I got to the first day, first I should say I did the practice round and all that really learning how they approach like the preparation for the week and I they I put so much stress on like the practice rounds like trying to shoot a score and they're like, yo, you're going to burn yourself out before. Yeah, that's not for Thursday Friday. That's not it. I learned that after like the first six holes I was mad. I made a bogey or something like, hey, you know, relax. Um, so it was, it was such a cool experience. And I played in five finals, been in playing in front of 19,000 fans and crazy, you know,

adrenaline rushes out in the court. There is absolutely nothing to, no way for me to really express how nervous I was on that first tee when they call my name. I damn there, I blacked out on the first tee shot. I just hoped I hit it and hoped it got in the air. It was really kind of an out of body experience. So, well, that's not your sport, you know? Like basketball is your sport, you go just, you know, you go play. This is not your thing and you know,

you're doing it front of ton of eyeballs. There's got to be that kind of feeling. Well, 100%. The other thing that I learned, which I don't think people appreciate watching these guys week after week after week is I was exhausted, like mentally and physically, and walking the course,

being in that mode for five hours straight, like pre-round, during the round, post-round. Like it's getting in golf shape, you know, there's athletes out there, but it's a different experience of staying, you know, there's athletes out there, but it's a different experience of staying, you know, locked in and engaged in all the different ways that they approach kind of being on top of the game. It's, it's, it's pretty awesome. Yeah, and they pick up and move on to the next state city, whatever it is, the very next week and usually, usually don't miss a

beat. Well, before I build you up too much, I got an issue at least a bit of a meh at Culpa. So, first I do want to say I was a huge, in huge support of you playing in the, in the LA, LA, because I appreciate that. It's great for the event. It's great for fans, great for golf, but not everyone, you know, some people have kind of bad attitudes towards that kind of thing.

I'm sure you heard at least some of that, but I also said before you teed it up, I was like, you're going to do us all in the golf media world a great favor, because you're going to be, help us highlight the difference between a scratch player and professional. And I said, if you're gonna do us all in the golf media world a great favor, because you're gonna be, help us highlight the difference between a scratch player and professional. And I said, if you broke 80, that'd be a great achievement. And I still believe that.

So you go out and shoot 74 and throw this huge curve ball. Now I got a back track and try to, everyone's like, see, the scratch player's not that far off. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Like this was a crazy, impressive achievement. So did you do better? You shot 74, 74 in 2017. Did you do better than you expected to honestly?

See, that's like the, the, the teaser question for every golfer is like, yeah, I did better leading up to it, but in the round, like, damn, I left seven shots out there. Yeah. If I could have, if I could have, you know, just played a little smarter, made a couple more puss, like I might have been, you know, teasing with the cut. So I definitely, definitely keeping it real.

I definitely played better than I thought. As one of those, I had, you know, two or three bad T shots that might have, you know, taken myself out of a, out of position or whatnot. But I found a way to just, you know, save Bogey and kept my morale up. And I knew in those moments, I was a huge victory or could go, I appreciate you not mentioning what happened in 2018 in the second round. So we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there.

I'm gonna talk to that. But yeah, it was amazing to play a solid 18 holes and then back it up the next day knowing I had set the bar really high in the conversation around my game, going into the tournament. All you're taking up somebody's spot is in that, which we all know it's not true in the case, but highlighting how hard it is to make it to the PJ tour and what these corn

fairy guys go through just to make it to that level. But then the golf world started going crazy and hyping me up and congratulating me and all that type of stuff. And I did the press conference afterwards. And Jack Nichols is talking about my game. Like, yo, this is absolutely insane. So to back it up the next day with another great round was awesome. And then shoot 71.

The next week. I beat one of the guys. Yeah. You beat Sam Ryder. I know. I had that too. That's my guy. You didn't want to name him by name, but I was willing to do so.

Well, it seemed like the post. His mom found me in the club after we were just shooting at him. So I still apologize, isn't it? Well, I talked to some of the Jacksonville guys that lived down here. As soon as they finished the round, they went to check the app to see,

like, I hope I at least beat him. I'm never gonna hear the innovative people. Yeah. But, so, like, you shoot 71 the next year and you mentioned, I was gonna mention the second round 86 because I think that kind of puts the other rounds into perspective, right? Because that 86, around like that is looming.

It's not far off. Like it's not out of the question for a scratch-ish player to go out there and do something like that. So the fact that you had three rounds in one bad round is still like, it makes me even appreciate the good rounds even more. I don't know if you had any of that perspective. I'm sure things are moving very quickly that last time out,

but it had to have helped that you had proved it in the three prior rounds. Oh, 100%. I'm glad it was the last one. So to your point, I could put it in keeping it in perspective. But, and that was one where, you know, you go through all type of Experiences out there in the course when it's just you and you got to figure it out on the fly if your swings not there It's the time it's off a couple of bad breaks whatever it was so you know, even I think on the third hole

I made a nine on my the second round of the second year and that hit me me in the whole spiral. And I was actually proud of myself that I made three birdies coming down the stretch over the last, you know, 15 holes, just to kind of keep mama riled up and make it fun. Because like you said, those rounds, they happen. You hate when it's in front of, you know, the golfing world, if you will. And at that point, shooting 71, I think I was three shots off the cut. And I was like, all right, this could be the year. Yeah, you were thinking about the cut. Your mindset changed. I can see that.

I can see that, but is there anything to, you know, kind of shooters mentality? And, you know, golf and basketball are obviously different, but there's some similarities as well. There's gotta be days when your shot's not there, but you can kind of try to shoot your way out of it. Golf doesn't quite work like that. No, I see you shaking your head.

It's, it's a little different just because like in, in the game, if I have a turnover, make a bad shot or whatever, I can affect how somebody else is playing with the defensive thing, if it's a mental thing, um, and try to even the playing field, even on my bad nights, I can kind of bring the opponent closer to me. And in the golf world, if you're not on, like, there's nothing you really you can do, you can press and try to go after every pin, it can make it worse, it can make it better, whatever the case is. But you got to go through that experience a bunch of different times and know how you respond and react in those moments and what it's going to take to get out of a little bit quicker, because it's going to happen. So I think in basketball,

especially how reactive it is and fast pace, it's easy to move on from a miss shot or a couple in a row versus in golf in my experience. Well, it seems like the professionals, both that you played with and anyone else that you interacted with, that we couldn't have been more supportive and what kind of experience was that like kind of a rallying around you as you were playing in it both years? Is that sound about right? Yeah, it was awesome. And I'm so appreciative of that response because I was outside of my element.

I was trying to obviously, you know, play well, compete, not embarrass myself, but also to your point, highlight, you know, one of my love for the game and what it takes to be a professional out there and and what the difference is. And, you know, I was out in the range, hitting there's pros coming up, you know, congratulating me on the great round that day or, you know, trying to get some side best going to try to keep me locked in or conversations on social media

and all that type of stuff. And people shot me out for how well I played. That meant a lot for sure. And that's part of why, you know, all the other stuff that I want to do in the game of golf to kind of share that with others in terms of how I got into the game at such a early age, like not saying everybody's going to be a professional player on the corn fairy tour, whatever, but just the world of golf in general, it's a really cool. Yeah,

I want to talk to you some on as well about some of the some of the things you're doing for the game of golf, but got a kind of weird, I'm not going to do a lot of basketball questions, but a weird crossover basketball golf question. I mean, we know golfers do track man, they do slow motion swing analysis, they do all these things. I don't know if you get involved in any of that as well in your golf game,

but is there any of that in basketball? Do you ever study like the scientific approach to your jump shot, the arc, the anything? Or do you ever watch your, you know, your shot on film and say something's not right? Is there any of that in basketball? And that might be a dumb question, but I'm curious. Nah, analytics is growing in every sport.

And every year there's some new technology, some new approach to analyzing the game and optimizing performance, right? So I mean, you see with D. Shambon and those guys who are really trying to stretch the limits of where they can take their game. And basketball is very similar. I don't think it's as widespread right now. Separate player experience versus like front office and GM and that type of vibe. But for me as a shooter, there's like one

machine that can tell you your shot arc and I use it from time to time where you can kind of dial in mechanics. There's not much like video work on how where I placed the ball and that type of office more of a feel thing and being able to work out the kinks with getting the gym and just getting shots up. But over the course of the season, there's a lot of data now that's being used on a daily basis in terms of what you know, we'll call it load management, but rest and being able to manage at full 82 game season and the travel and all that type of stuff with how much, you know, we exert ourselves on the court during our 48 minutes.

So the more information I think is good as long as it's applied the right way and it doesn't overwhelm, you know, the individual athlete to where they're thinking about anything but just putting them on the basket in a day. But there is a place for all of that in terms of getting better. Does it, do you do any of that with golf? Do you do track man? Do you do any, any video now? So know you're a cowboy today? Are you, are you getting dialed on equipment? Take me there. It, very sporadic. And I think part of it is because I just don't know what I'm doing. When I try to do it myself. And so I have a simulator. I use it just to, you know, get reps in. I really, that's the thing.

I need to learn how to practice and in general and golf. Like that's something that is kind of foreign to me on the approach of how you become methodical about, you know, getting better at the game. For me, getting better just means playing more. And that's not necessarily the case. And so I haven't really crossed out her all of like practice techniques. And it mean, well, well, no, we don't have a lot of time if you're plin trying to play golf like this kind of a trade off. But if I got 15 minutes, I go to the range like, what can I actually do to work on is kind of a trade-off, but if I got 15 minutes, I go to the range, like, what can I actually do to work on?

XYZ, I haven't really figured that out yet. What's your home game look like? How often you play in during the summer? Where do you play? Who do you play with? And kind of, if you, well, you can even drop, like, what's your low score at your home course as well? So the low score at home course, Cal Club,

out of San Francisco, I've got 66 twice games. We got pretty standard, just show up, and there's gonna be a game happen in some way, shape, or form. I play probably twice a week during the off season. Sometimes if I got a little freedom, I might be to sneak three in there, but it's part of the routine of one,

when I'm training and getting ready for the season, it's always great to get out and just get some kind of mental clarity and get away from basketball and golf is the way that I, you know, I do that. So it works that I'm actually pretty good and I get to play a good amount. A quick break here to check in with our friends at Elijah Craig. I'm going to be honest with you guys. In the copy, it says to say here last night, I mixed a great old-fashioned. I got to admit, I did not do this last night and there's a reason why I've been going maybe a bit too hard on the

Elijah Craig Master's Week. We were obviously not kidding. You saw it on the live show. We were drinking this on a nightly basis. I have learned how to make a great old-fashioned at home, which you can go just Google Elijah Craig Old-fashioned. It's got a lot of great information on how to make a great old fashioned at home, which you can go just Google Elijah Craig old fashioned It's got a lot of great information on how to make a great one The Elijah Craig small batch bourbon has rich flavor and full body. It's perfect for mixing this classic whiskey cocktail Just need a little bit of sugar to enhance the sweetness and some bitters to bring out the spice and I bet you didn't know the old fashioned dates back to the 1880s used to be considered a morning cocktail. You can garnish it with an orange swath or a branded cherry.

And again, for more information on how to master the old fashioned go to alijacreg.com and discover the greatness within. No laying up is brought to you by alijacreg Kentucky St. Berb and whiskey. Bart's Town Kentucky 47% alcohol by volume. Alijacreg reminds you to think wisely, drink wisely. Let's get back to Steph and Curry. Well, all right. I want to know, I think it's kind of a under reported story, and at least in the world of golf as to, you know, what you've done with the Howard Golf team. And I want to go back to the origin of that story. How it ended up, you know,

how you ended up reviving their golf program and why that really, you know know their story resonated with you. It happened kind of out of nowhere so about a year and a half ago I went to to Howard to do a screening for a documentary that we were we were launching called Emmanuel and we had a bunch of students come we did a panel afterwards talking about the tragedy that happened in Charleston, South Carolina back in 2016 and as part of the Howard University culture there's so many talents talking about the tragedy that happened in Charleston, South Carolina back in 2016. And as part of the Howard University culture, there's so many talented students there that have so many different passions. And after we did our panel, there's a, you know, a row of students down at the front of the stage. And I went to go, when you could go actually talk to people in person, I went to go say hi to everybody. And you know, somebody was interested in designing

shoes and somebody wanted to get into production and somebody had an idea for a new restaurant, you know, business. And I got to this guy named Otis Ferguson, the fourth who was passionate about the game of golf was kind of directing their club team that they had, but he had been trying to exhaust every effort to bring back, you know, the Division One program that they had, but he had been trying to exhaust every effort to bring back the Division I program that was decades removed from the program. So once he said, how are golf and he had this idea of what it would take to get it back, we'll start a turning about what that actually looked like and what it would take to get that support and get that off the ground and running. And about six months later, we had a plan.

I was making a significant contribution to the program and hopefully over the next six years, we'll be able to create an endowment that will, you know, create scholarships for both men and women to go play, you know, for the Howard Bison golf team. You know, we want to create a marquee program around golf. And we have an amazing co-slamperier who is taking the reins for this first season and Got a lot of talented golfers that are on the team and some of that are interested in and playing over the next you know a couple of years and The goal obviously we want to get some more Access to the game some

Hopefully some minority communities that I to the game, hopefully some minority communities that I know there's talent there, but they don't necessarily have the resources and the access. This is a creative pipeline. And a North Star, I'm like, I want to play for Howard Golf and do it in a different way, get some some tour professionals through the program, hopefully, but also just expose into the world of golf. Because I think a lot of people kind of get wrapped up and seen what the product on TV is and thinking about,

you know, what that wide range is. But the world of golf and the business of golf, there's so many opportunities in ways to get it, you know, create a meaningful career. It's just about, you know, that awareness and that access and people being able to lean in. So how are golf is a great start in that direction. So a couple of things on this whole story kind of,

I guess captivated me a little bit. One, I'm sure you get approached about things like this all the time. And you just mentioned that this specific screening, people are coming up to you saying this, this, and this, this kind of idea. And two, you play professional basketball and not golf. And three, as far as I can tell,

I don't know what your link to DC is or why Howard in particular. So you know, you kind of touched on some of the reasons there, but what was it necessarily, why did you feel the need to get involved and to help promote the game of golf in this way? The first two points are just again, my passion for golf and wanting to find a creative lane

that's authentic to me to grow the game and grow access to the game that can reach down to you know the next generation because I know how much Opportunity there is there and then Anytime that you can support an HBCU. I mean we has a lot of conversations about you know how impactful those universities are the amount of talent that comes out of those schools year after year, even after this summer and all the social climbing that we've been navigating. I think it's an opportunity, one, where golf, I don't think has that been able to really storytelling around and really create meaningful traction and energy, but

that's a total disservice to, you know, so many people. And so it all kind of checked a lot of boxes in terms of where I could really meaningfully make an impact. And I think the sky's a limit for what this can truly mean. Like I said, we want to eventually the North stars to get, you know, a men or women go for on the tour. But in the day, there's so many partners and people that want to lean in and grow in a game in a meaningful way that can provide resources, whether it's internships throughout the golf world and the business of golf that again create access and awareness, whether it's finding just, I think, authentic and clever ways of telling the stories around how awesome HBCUs are in general.

It's not just Howard, I'm starting with Howard, but there's so many other HBCUs that have amazing golf programs, or the potential to lean in and really invest in that. So for me, it was kind of divine intervention to your point around, there are a lot of opportunities that come get thrown out at you in a lot of different ways where you could really lean in from your time resource perspective, but this one checks so many different boxes that it makes sense.

Yeah, you kind of mentioned there, the goal of being, tour players would be an ultimate goal, but I think you touched on it there too as well that there's so many just benefits from the game of being, you know, tour players would be an ultimate goal, but I think you touched on it there too as well that there's so many just benefits from the game of golf, just being involved in the game of golf access to so many different people. That's why I always encourage, you know, young people, go caddy, like, you get out on the golf course,

you get to meet influential people, you got people that'll, you know, help connect you with jobs, like there's just so much, you know, power and opportunity around the game of golf that I'm glad to see. I guess, I've written article you said, I think there's work being done all around the country to make golf more affordable, more fun, more approachable. What else is out there that inspires you in that regard?

What do you see being done that you want to help implement in any way in the game of golf? It's getting younger and it's getting to a point where, I've been plenty of country clubs across the country. Thankfully, I was part of the benefit of being able to travel with amazing places and play golf and to your point around networking and really influential people that are ingrained in the game. I think there's so much interest in how we can change the culture of it, obviously respect tradition,

but change the culture of golf where it's just fun and it's less pretentious and less, you know, this ideal that's that nobody really has access to on a grand scale and the kind of elitist type of perspective. So for me, that is the mission. It's not going to happen overnight, but I think you can kind of feel a change. Even some of the guys that show up on tour that come from different backgrounds and creating more of a pipeline of to your point, like, you know, you've got five, six, seven year old kids that you don't have to go, you know, have a dad that's a membership at a certain club just to get a club in your hand and go play Creating safe places for those kids to get access and then follow through where we know how much golf teaches about ourselves and character and

Developing your personality and your ability to hang out with different types of people from different walks of life Like I could talk about it for days This is awesome to know that there's an opportunity and a change in the tide that respects tradition But also break makes it more accessible and young and fun. Yeah, I can tell from you know reading about Otis and your endeavor there that I was like all right we got to get up to Howard, we got to get up there and play with those guys make a video. No, that got me all hyped up. Like we got to make that happen.

I want to know too, on a different note, like who are some of the dudes in the NBA that you've you've seen kind of get caught super hard by the golf bug. Like I see Kent Bayes more is out there all the time on the golf course. He's, you know, he's all in on the game. And we mentioned Andre Guidala, but who are some of the other guys that might surprise us, you know, either super new to the game or kind of had some amateur game and starting to get better and better? No doubt Kyle Aurel was one and we played probably four years ago at all, start weekend in

New Orleans. I didn't know he played and I saw his game then and I saw him last summer in Tahoe and it was a night and day different and he was a guy that he's more of a bug in terms of road trips like trying to look at the schedule and be like, all right, we're in my golf days. I got home games, road games and golf days. So like, where is that off it? And you mentioned Kent, my brother actually, and when we. So like, where's that off it? And you mentioned Kent, my brother actually, and when we were going up, he never really, with me and my dad played 10 and 12 times, he probably played two or three, he never really got into it up until about three, four years ago. JR Smith is one that I don't know a lot of people know who

loves the game. He cleaned out that Pine Valley pro shot. Yeah. I, there's nothing left in that, in his size in that pro shot. That was an impressive effort. Uh, it's, uh, so those guys off top of my head are the ones that are kind of leading the NBA golf culture, if you will. And, um, but every year I've had three rookies already that asked me if I have an extra set of clubs. Where can I go get lessons in the bay? Where can I go play? And they're getting into a second only imagine that's going to continue to grow. I know the answer. I know at least one answer to this question.

And so it might be, it might have to give you two, you have to give me two courses. But like the number one course or maybe the top two courses because I think alphabetically and a course that we're going to see a lot this week is one of the places we've got to go travel and play that has been especially exciting for you. Yeah, I guess we can just mention that in third away. That's a separate game. Kings Barnes and Scotland is one of my favorite courses I've ever played. Just obviously being in Scotland and knowing the home of golf, but there's something unique about that place mixed with the history of, you know, St. Andrews

and Karnusty and Glenn Eagles and all that that's over there. King's Barnes is one of my absolute favorites. Outside of that, I would probably say, well, it's in our backyard, but it's Pebble Beach's our backyard, but it's Pebble Beach is it's like that. It's like that. It's like no shot of boring or every view that you have on the course, you kind of feel like you're in another world. So those two top of my list with the gust of for sure. What tell me about your trip to Scotland? Was it a specific golf trip that you were on? Where else did you play over there? Yeah, it took my dad for his 50th birthday about five or six years ago now. And so yeah, we did mostly the East Coast of Skyland right in the, so right in the air, it's San Angeles. We did all the all course, we did Cardooste, we did Glenn Eagles,

the Fairmont Hotel, that's right there. I think they just played a, maternal European tour at the Kittix. I think it was called one of those two courses. So we played that in Kings Barnes. And so that was, and you go in the summer, we went in June, and it was one of the wildest experiences you heard about how much daylight there is. And like, so we go play Glen Eagles and then come back to the hotel and play another round at that course. And then it'd be like 10 o'clock. And we still be out there grinding. So that was actually probably one of my first actual golf trips where we were out of the country. It was pretty awesome. What's it like for someone like you,

you know, to go around in Scotland? I mean, is it different? Do you get different reception? Do people recognize you nearly as much in a foreign country like Scotland as they would in the states? I'd have to go back now that we got three chips under our belt because that was right, like 2014, right before we won our first one. So I could kind of, you know, I'm six three. And I was like, I don't walk in a room and everybody's like, oh, who's that? So yeah, it was, it was dope. Like we're at, say, an engine's right on 18. We finished and we went over to one of Lil Puzz, literally across the street. We walked over there. Nobody bought this, walked in.

Little Scotch stays. It was crazy. So I don't know what it would be like now going back. But it's worth the effort if I can make it happen. Well, let's talk match 3.0. Yes. I don't know if you, I don't know if you did you beg your way into it. I mean, I know you were tweeting about, you know, you, you're in the second one.

You're like, I got to get in the next one. What happened after that? Where, where, where their talks already going on that this was going to happen. That was a, your way into it. Yeah. Sometimes you gotta be here, you know, market yourself a little bit. So I put that out there on Twitter right in the middle of the match. So there's probably right before, you know, Tom hit his, uh, he made a shot from the fairway. But, uh, I, from the, from the first when they did almost two years ago, uh, with, with

Tiger Phil was awesome. And then the way that they, uh, they put together awesome four and a half hours, whatever it was, with just mad fun, trash talking, good shots, terrible shots all the way and everything in between. What was looking forward to getting involved and having fun and competing. And this one's gonna be dope just because obviously there's, there's, Phil, there's me, there's Peyton and then way down at the way down there. It's Chuck. And so he's gonna have to, he's gonna embarrass himself for sure, but it's just gonna be marathon and rag on him all day. But I think part of it is seeing all type

of different levels of golf and kind of exposing us a little bit and then the ability to create an opportunity to give back to some of the things that we're passionate about in terms of, you know, contributing to HBCUs across country, not just Howard, Tuskees and other schools. You just, you know, again, having fun. That's what golf's all about.

Have you played much golf with Chuck? No, so he, when we played Lake Tahoe, he's, I've never, I've been in the same group because they would never do that to us. But I've seen, I've seen the hitch. I've tried to imitate it. I almost hurt myself in the promo trying to imitate, you know, the Chuck swing.

But you can hear him on the course no matter where you're at. And that's the best part about it. He always has fun, no matter if he's a 140 or whatever his best score is, it's probably close to that. Well, I've been getting worried that he's been practicing a lot. And he's not worried about his performance. Are you getting kind of similar track, like pre event trash talk coming from him already? I mean, what is he supposed to say? Are he supposed to say that's like whatever you're ever going to be like, I got a big mash coming. I mean, what is he supposed to say though? He's supposed to say that's like whatever you ever go. He's like, I got a big mash coming.

I really been getting my game right. And then the lights turn on. We'll see. We'll see. That's what I try to figure out is that hitch come from only when the lights go on or is it like that for every swing? Because I've seen some back in the day back when he was a real athlete and he could he could move it, man.

He could swing it. So I didn't know if that was a thing that's just like every time the camera goes on, that's what it looks like. Yeah, maybe being in quarantine, he's maybe he's exercising some of those demons away and he can get back to the more fluid chuck out there and not take Phil through the worst four and a half hours of his life, trying to save himself

from every bad position he puts in. I love that. That's perfect. It's very, like I could already, there's already people are kind of arguing over who has the advantage here. Do you have a relationship with Phil at all? I mean, I know Chuck's got to be, it's too easy to needle, Chuck on the course.

Are you going to be able to kind of throw it at Phil? 100%. We played in a program event at the Safeway, open, open Napa last year. That was the first time we got to play and obviously his reputation in terms of how nice he is. And he's got the trash talk vibes, so he's he'll be good for that. But we had so much fun just chopping it up during that round and fast forward to this is going to be more of the same. The cool part is I'm going to try to keep up with him.

I know he's just becoming off a master's week and and his gay is probably doubt in a sharp but I have again that irrational confidence. I'm gonna try to out drive him. I'm gonna try to stay you know keep up with him and try to test my game with the with the true pro that he is. So we'll see if he brings another green jacket back but it's gonna be awesome. Well, you kind of touched on it there, but I do want to highlight what the, I guess the purpose of this event is, and you know, you mentioned what it's kind of about, but I wonder if you could just kind of inform the listeners

as to, you know, what the fundraising is for, what the awareness message is for, as we go to kind of preview this event, and it got me all jacked up, so I'm curious if you, what's your take on it? No, no, I mean, having the chavens for change, kind of tag is kind of standing on the shoulders of my involvement with Howard.

And again, HBC is all across the country to have budding golf programs, but also amazing universities in general that again need their stories to live in a day in terms of how meaningful and impactful they are and their students lives and in the black and brown communities across our country. It's a huge opportunity to highlight them,

put them on stage, and again for us, we get to donate it, hopefully a lot of money to where it needs to be going. So excited about the fact that golf can create that impact and that opportunity. Hopefully have some fun on for the viewers that are watching, I know Vegas, Betts and all that type of stuff going on. It's going to be awesome and awesome day. Well, we kind of breeze past this, you know, playing a gust at first ball. I got a did you take it back to the tips or did you play member teams? I played, I played both. All right. How big is the difference? One. So it's, I don't know the exact yardage, but

I would say probably six or seven holes, you feel like you're playing an entirely different hole. So from one, two's not not that much of a difference. Three is not much of a difference. Four is a huge difference. Five is then you get the seven, uh, 10, 11 and I'm missing one on the back. Uh, 18. Those ones, you, if you're playing the members and you look back and look with it or the pro teas are, you're just in shock. But then once you get back there, all the sights and all the lines are different. It's gonna be awesome to watch these guys this week with how D-Shave mode is gonna try to play and some of the guys are gonna just try to bomb it everywhere

and figure it out after they get off the tee box. Like I'm excited to see it end, obviously in a different time of year to see how the course play. So it's gonna be dope. Did you post an official number there? And if you wanna to go ahead and use the no playing excuse you go ahead it was it was it was in the middle of the season We had just come off a back there. There you go. You know, we flew in the night before it didn't get much sleep Now I shot a 79 from the tip. So that's the damn that's the that's the number if I ever get the chance to go back

I got a beat but Yeah, so if I'm watching the leaderboard anybody shoots over 79. I'm basically saying yeah, I beat you that day, so it's all good How are the I'll spice you with the greens while you're there I mean I hear that you know the masters is a very different pace and the other week But I'm just kind of wondering what what's what some of the highlights of that day of those days were It was well birdie the first hole, and so that's partly, you almost just wanna walk off the course, but like they say, just let it rain,

and let's go grab them. Can't get any better than that. Have some cobbler. No, they said they're, they're, I mean, obviously, like you said, those conditions when they're in there, those four days, totally different, but it's hard to really talk about how amazing and immaculate that place is.

They say there's not a there's not a weed on the course and you know the Azaz, the pine news and all that type of stuff. But for anybody who you've never been there and you've watched the matches year after year after year, you know the course. Like it's like when I got to the first tee and I'm looking around, it's like I feel like I've been here a bunch of different times. But you get to see the undulation and all that type of change in elevation. It's once in a lifetime.

So I know all the patrons that have been down there and have been in attendance and seen that they can speak to it too. But it's such a unique place to have such a different air about it. Well, it's the one course I've been to that, you know, I look at from the tournament tease and I'm kind of like, yeah, you know, I don't know if I have it. I don't know. That doesn't look like appealing to me. I swear I can do that.

I can stay on the tease of Pebble and still know how hard it is. I can make it happen in some way, but those undulations around those greens and stuff, getting all the side hill lies, downhill lies, like, that's the part that gets me. I would, it would be chunk city. I just know we had our caddy and where he's pointing to show me the lines. I can only imagine if they're rolling like a 13-14 and you're above the hole and he's telling you I hit it an inch over here and it's gonna go over here and you're like all right all right got it got it cool. Well, we're I imagine we're a ways away from you know the

the end of your basketball career. But I do want to know what's your competitive golf plan, golf plan like for after basketball. I know I see John Smoltz popping up on like senior tour events, stuff like that. Are you going to switch over to like full-time competitive golf when basketball is done? It will be full-time but there's an appetite to, you know, figure out what's right. I know you got guys like Tony Romo who, you know, plays in a couple of PGA if there's some sponsor exemptions or has done some of the mid-AM tournament stuff like that. So I'm gonna figure out what's right for me in terms of staying involved in the game on the

business side and growing the game with also the competitive side because you know in eight, ten years, whatever I'm done, there's gonna be a lot left in the tank to see how high or how low I should say I could take it when basketball is not a part of it, but we'll figure that out down the road. Were you envious at all at all the golf being played inside the bubble in Orlando? What? Yes. As I have my brother was down there and I was talking to Andre Godada, I was talking to Kit.

And it seemed like every, if it wasn't practice, or obviously when the game started, like this too many pictures of the guys, just you know, a nice shorts t-shirts out there. You know, just bothered away. So, you know, that was one of the perks of, you know, three months in the bubble. The quick cook shout-out ride to the golf course

on your day off, not bad. What's the number one course on your bucket list that you haven't been to yet? Pine Valley has been, well, everybody I've talked to that, that's been there, and heard how amazing it is. I've never played there. So that's, that's probably up there. And I probably say whistling streets, watching the major play there. There's a PGA? The last one that was there? You're on the side of this freaking cliff and the sightlines and the narrow fairways and all that type of stuff.

That was probably one and two right there. I don't know how they get Lake Michigan to look like the Caribbean up there. I don't know. I swear, I used to live in Chicago, man. It doesn't look like that in Chicago, but up north, it looks like the Caribbean. I don't know how they do that. I don't know, I swear, I used to live in Chicago, man. It doesn't look like that in Chicago, but up north, it looks like the crit in. I don't know how they do that.

No, neither. Few more, I'll let you get out of here, but I do want to talk to the majority of time about golf, but I'm curious, you know, you touched on this with Bryson and Distance and Analytics, and we talked a little bit about that earlier, but I want to know, you know, as we've learned more and more about the advantage of distance and golf, more people are pursuing it.

Basketball has kind of gone through something similar with the evolution of the three-point shot and understanding the value of it now more and more. You look at shot charts and the mid-range game has gotten highly limited if not eliminated in the game. When you were, I guess, perfecting the art of the three-point shot, did you understand any of that kind of inherently how important it was to the game? Did you see this evolution coming in any way? I know a lot of people kind of credit you with, you know, starting this evolution.

But did you know this in advance? Or was it just, you know, I'm a shooter and I will see how the chips fall. It was more of the ladder to be honest. I think when I, my first, my first game, my rookie year, I think I was like four for 11 or something like that or seven for 11 or something. I was over one from three. I shot one three in my first game and I think, you know, that first year, really trying to find out what type of play I was and trying to develop all my skills. The three point was a priority in terms of what I worked on, but it didn't

really express itself in the game right away. But there was a moment probably my fourth year, I think, my fourth year in the league where you realize how much space was out there. And it was almost like the thought process of just trying to make the game as simple and as easy as possible. And that's where the range started to develop. And I actually started to create a perspective like this can benefit me if I can, you know, two, three, two feet behind the three point lines, a big difference. If I can shoot 40% from there, find, you know, good shots there. Then that could, uh, that's when the analytics

conversation around, you shoot, you know, nine shots and you're shooting nine threes and you're making three of them versus, you know, four or three, or four, two pointers out of nine. And numbers start to make a little bit of a difference. So that's always been kind of a natural progress. I didn't force it, but I always knew that for me, that was a big part of my game.

And it happened fast. After that fourth year, it was like, all right, let's see how far we can take this. It was never a time for you when you stop seeing guys in your face when you shoot. That was always the issue. I had on basketball court. I can stroke threes, but if there's a,

I can't shoot over somebody. I think you seem to have like one of the quickest triggers and you don't ever seem to see the person right in front of you when you go to shoot. Was there ever, was that always like that? Yeah, it was always like that. It's just a matter of how deep you're confident in taking those shots and extending the range.

But we always, we had a joke like there's a, it's not gonna make his inside, except the situation's not gonna make any sense. But we always used we had a joke, like there's a, it's not gonna make it as the inside, separate situation, it's not gonna make any sense. But we always used to say, like, I don't see nobody, like we used to say that all the time in the court for that same reason. I make sense. Yeah, when we were, you know, if it's training camp

and you're working on clothes out drills and guy gets it right up to you, that's what you wanted to prove. Like, this doesn't matter what you do, I can still knock this shot down. So, yeah, that's again, another point of irrational confidence. I love to kind of lean on. This is a, this question's pretty broad,

but I wanna know what kind of affects someone like Steve Kerr has had on you. He kind of fascinates me. You know, there's been some of those viral clips that have gone, you know, when you've not had your best night, he's in there kind of showing you a chart, say and look, you know, this is what you're doing for us, even when you're not making shots.

And that clip has gone kind of viral as like how you positively reinforce someone. What kind of influence is he, your career really took off once he got to Golden State and what can you speak to us to what kind of influence he's had? I mean, it's been amazing journey these last six years. But to answer that question, I have to start with Mark Jackson,

because he was the guy that when he came in, for me, and Clay gave us the keys to take our games to the next level. And when you have somebody that instills that confidence, when we had proven something, but not anywhere to the level we are now, he was the rocket ship that we leaned on. And he was the ultimate defender in terms of our talent and what we were able to do in the game. And so off of that, when Coach Kerr came in, it was, I was in the right frame of mind to accept that next level of direction on what it takes to actually like win at the highest level based on his experience with Phil Jackson and

Papa bitch and being around Mike and Tim Duncan and Tony Parker and all those guys. And so, you know, I was still a sponge at that point, but I had this base of confidence that Coach Jackson had given. And to your point around, you know, some of those clips and the way that he communicates and manages the full game. And some of those clips I was shooting like two for 12 at halftime or like, you know, only getting four shots, but finding other ways to impact the game to help make my teammates

better, but just to keep the flow of everything known that my time will come throughout those 40 minutes. At some point, that's been the most consistent thing with coaches. Sometimes I might not show up, but you're scoring 40. You might show up with you setting, you know, a back screen on somebody to get somebody else open or you making the right play. But the day he knows that when it's time to kind of try to take over, put the ball in the right guy's hands, he's able to do that and make those adjustments too.

So, obviously we've had success. I think every player that's played for him would say the same thing on how he communicates and manages expectations from the top down the guy 15 and it takes a unique skill set to be able to do that. Well Paul McGinley said something interesting on the podcast. He said, you know, because he wasn't one of the top top players in the game, he thought he had an interesting perspective on the game and knew how to get the most out of his players when he was a Ryder Cup captain. I think about that, you know, the top, the best players in the NBA are in all sports don't necessarily translate to being the best coaches, best

GMs, but a player like Steve who was for better for us a role player in the NBA. But do you think that that adds to his ability to see the game in any in a different way? The fact that he kind of had to, you know, it wasn't plus with the greatest physical abilities ever, but had a long sustained career in the NBA. Does that, do you see that kind of on display of his understanding and how he translates to coach? 100%. I think you can boil it down to two points.

One is appreciation for just being an NBA player and what that means and how hard it is to get to that level. He had to scratch and claw for any opportunity. He wasn't the most athletic. He wasn't the tallest, strongest guy, fastest guy, but he had a specific skill set and he always had the mindset of state rating. Everybody was talking about in the last dance documentary he made that huge shot against Utah and it's like he was always preparing for that moment not knowing if it was ever

going to come. Totally different experience than what Mike and Scotty went through. So the appreciation for just being the NBA level and like the hoopla around us from, you know, expectations and the stresses that, you know, proceed stresses that we deal with, but always not taking ourselves too seriously on that front. He, he, he, he lives that and he speaks on that so much. But also, again, his ability to be able to speak to those other role players that make such a difference in championship winning teams. If Mike walked in to a locker room, he could say it, you might believe him, but at the end of the day, you probably know, just give me the ball and

get the hell out of the way. For Steve, I actually live this and I know how important it is to be professional to show up every day, get your work in, stay ready, because you're going to have a huge impact on at some point in one game one through 82, but also in the playoffs, when they match up right, when, you know, it's your time and I pressure button, be ready to play. And, you know, he lived that experience. And so I think it's, it's more meaningful hearing it from him. And I think it's more believable in that sense, because he walked in those guys shoes. That's great perspective.

All right, this interview's going to come out next week. So the winner of the Masters is going to be published. So you're going to look either really smart or really dumb. When I ask for your official pick, you get one guy. You don't get to name everybody. Who's your pick to win this week? So my pick out, I've been going back and forth between DJ and Rory. I think this is Rory's year. It's 2020 like wild stuff's been happening all year. This is his year to break through. So it's

not as he can get rid of the April demons and when the match was November and that's his time. Let's just just boil it down to that. Rory and November at Augusta, he's a champ. I love it. I hope that's the case. Well, Steph, and thanks so much for the time. I know you got a busy day out there. I want to hear some details, some feedback on all your testing

that you're doing out there at the facility. I know you're going to get deep in the lab. Word up. Pumped to here. That's the luck in the match, man. Appreciate it, man. Thank you. Get a right club.

Be the right club today. Yes! That's better than most. How about it? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Expect anything different.

Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different.

Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Expect anything different. Better than most.